Created in conjunction with Angelina Valencia while working on RENT.
1990 • Flamboyant political figure and mayor of Washington D.C. Marion Barry is arrested for possession of crack cocaine in an F.B.I. sting set up in a D.C. hotel room. • South African freedom fighter and political leader Nelson Mandela is released from prison after being kept behind bars for 27 due to his tireless work to end apartheid. • East and West Germany end decades of political separation when they are finally reunified and Germany is once again a whole country. • Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the president of the Soviet Union, ushering in an era of change that would see the end of Communist Party rule. Gorbachev would go on to win the Nobel Peace Prize later that year. • The nation of Iraq invades Kuwait, setting off the events that will culminate in the first Gulf War. The United States is quick to respond, leading a U.N. coalition force into the region and defeating Iraq to end the occupation.
1991 • The United States enacts Operation Desert Storm, destroying the Iraqi army and ending the Gulf War in a few short weeks. • The first apartheid legislation is finally struck from the books in South Africa, marking the beginning of the end for racial segregation in that country. • The Warsaw Pact, the European Communist version of NATO, ceases to exist as all parties involved voluntarily withdraw from the treaty holding them together. • Boris Yeltsin is elected as president of Russia in the first ever public vote held in the formerly Soviet nation. • A video is released of driver Rodney King being beaten by L.A. police officers following a traffic stop, igniting a national controversy.
1992 • The European Union comes into being with the signing of the Maastricht Treat in the Netherlands, creating the Euro currency and triggering a major shift in internal border policies on the continent and in Great Britain. • The first widely-distributed version of the Windows operating system for PC, Windows 3.1, is released. • Extensive rioting occurs in Los Angeles as a result of a non-guilty verdict in the cases of the police officers videotaped beating Rodney King the year before. More than 50 people are killed and $1 billion in damage is done to businesses, homes and public property. • The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota opens for business, covering 4.2 million square feet and offering 20,000 parking spaces. • United Nations peacekeeping forces enter Somalia. A large number of American troops are included in the operation.
1993 • Russian president Boris Yeltsin and his American counterpart George H. Bush sign the START II nuclear weapons treaty, pledging to reduce the number of missiles held by both superpowers. • A car bomb is detonated in the parking garage of the World Trade Center, causing over 1,000 casualties. • A standoff between agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Branch Davidian religious sect lead by David Koresh occurs in Waco, Texas. The event would end with many deaths on both sides and the destruction of the group's compound. • The World Wide Web goes public. • The Battle of Mogadishu occurs in Somalia between members of the U.S. army and city militias. The death toll would surpass 500.
1994 • American and Russian nuclear missiles are for the first time no longer pointed at each other's countries, thanks to the signing of the Kremlin Accords. This marks the most significant thawing of Cold War relations in decades. • The Rwandan genocide begins in Africa. Close to 1 million people would be slaughtered in a 100 day period in one of the worst incidents of ethnic cleansing in the 20th century • OJ Simpson is arrested for the murder of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her male companion Ronald Goldman, sparking a media frenzy over the most controversial trial since the Rodney King beating. • The Provisional Irish Republican Army, a terrorist organization focused on Irish independence, announces a ceasefire that will last almost 2 years. • The North American Free Trade Agreement is passed by Canadian, America and Mexican governments, codifying the economic interactions of the three countries. Interestingly, it had bipartisan backing as it as negotiated by George H.W. Bush and implemented by Bill Clinton. It encouraged a massive increase in regional trade and investment across the borders, as the goal was to integrate Mexico with the wealthier Canada and American markets, but there have been some complaints that too many jobs have gone across the border. However, economists agree NAFTA has been a veritable boon to the North American economies due to the increase in regional trade and cross-border investment, but it is difficult to separate the effects of the agreement from other changes. Furthermore, it has been blamed for the wage stagnation and unemployment as people look for the lowest-cost production. In Mexico, NAFTA helped Mexican leaders liberalize trade, reduce debt, and stabilize inflation, but poverty levels still remain at the same level as 1994 and unemployment has risen, mainly due to US agriculture putting farmers out of business.
1995 (Hardbody Competition!) • The World Trade Organization comes into being, an event that would lead to protests and controversy around the world on the part of citizens concerned about the economic ramifications of streamlined global trade. • Kevin Mitnick, a notorious computer hacker, is finally captured by the FBI. • 168 people are murdered by domestic terrorists in Oklahoma City when a bomb destroys a significant portion of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. • The Million Man March reaches the Capitol Buildings in Washington, D.C. The March consisted of black men and was organized in order to address the concerns regarding national social problems and voter apathy. • Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel, is assassinated. Rabin had won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in reducing the violence in the Middle East the year before.
1996 • France makes it known that they will cease testing nuclear weapons. The country had been one of the few nuclear powers to ignore the test ban treat signed by many other nations in years past. • Gary Kasparov and IBM supercomputer Deep Blue face off for a series of chess matches that pit man against machine. Deep Blue became the first computer to win a chess game against a reigning world champion under regular time controls. However, Kasparov went on take the match, winning 4-2. During a rematch in 1997, an upgraded Deep Blue defeated Kasparov and won the six-game match. • The Unabomber mystery is finally solved after Theodore Kaczynski, a former university professor, is arrested by the FBI. This ends a series of letter bomb attacks that occurred over an almost 20 year period. • Bill Clinton is elected to a second term as president of the United States, defeating candidate Bob Dole. • Prince Charles and Princess Diana complete their divorce, ending a scandal-soaked era in British royalty but opening a new chapter in the press' vilification of the Princess.