lar Web browser software, is released. (Apr. 30)
CERN, the European research organization
where Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide
Web, announces that the World Wide Web will be
free to all users. (Jun. 24) Andrew Wiles presents
his solution to Fermat’s last theorem, a problem
that has baffled mathematicians for more than
three hundred years. (Jul. 27) Manufacturing be-
gins on Windows NT 3.1, the first version of
Microsoft’s Windows NT operating system.
Environment and health:(Jan. 5) A Liberian oil
tanker runs aground off the Scottish island of
Mainland, resulting in a massive oil spill. (Jan. 11)
The Liberian tanker breaks up, causing an oil
spill twice the size of the spill caused by theExxon
Valdez. (Apr. 23) The World Health Organization
declares tuberculosis a global emergency.
Art and literature:(May 4)Angels in America: Millen-
nium Approaches, the first part of Tony Kushner’s
drama about the impact of AIDS, opens on
Broadway. The play will later receive four Tony
Awards, including one for Best Play of 1993, a Pu-
litzer Prize, and the New York Drama Critics’ Cir-
cle Award for Best Play. (Oct.) African American
author Toni Morrison is awarded the Nobel Prize
in Literature.
Popular culture:(Mar. 6) Whitney Houston’s single
“I Will Always Love You” is number one on the rec-
ord charts for its fourteenth consecutive week—
the longest-running number one single of all
time. (Mar. 8)Beavis and Butt-head, an animated
program about two teens, premieres on MTV.
(May 20) The final episode of the popular situa-
tion comedyCheersairs on NBC. (Jun. 11)Jurassic
Park, a film directed by Steven Spielberg, opens;
it will eventually become the twelfth-highest-
grossing film in American box-office history.
Sports:(Jan. 31) The Buffalo Bills become the first
team to lose three consecutive Super Bowls when
they are defeated by the Dallas Cowboys 52-17 in
Super Bowl XXVII. The Bills will lose yet again in
- (Jun. 9) The Montreal Canadiens hockey
team wins its twenty-fourth Stanley Cup.
Crime:(Feb. 26) A van with a bomb in it, parked be-
low New York City’s World Trade Center, ex-
plodes, killing six people and injuring more than
one thousand. (Feb. 28) Agents from the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms raid the
Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, with
a warrant to arrest leader David Koresh on federal
firearms violations. The raid results in a fifty-one-
day standoff that ends on April 19, when Koresh
and seventy-six others are killed in a fire. (Apr. 17)
Los Angeles police officers Laurence Powell and
Stacey Koon are found guilty of violating Rodney
King’s civil rights. On August 4, the two are sen-
tenced to thirty months in prison. (Dec. 2) The
“war on drugs” scores a victory when Colombian
drug lord Pablo Escobar, head of the Medellín
cartel, is gunned down in Medellín when police
try to arrest him.1994
International events: (Apr. 7) The Rwandan geno-
cide begins in Kigali, Rwanda, in which more
than 800,000 Tutsis will be slaughtered by the ri-
val Hutus. (Apr. 27) The first fully multiracial
elections are held in South Africa. (May 10) Nel-
son Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa’s first
black president. (Aug. 31) The Provisional Irish
Republican Army (IRA) announces a “complete
cessation of military operations.” (Oct. 15) Hai-
tian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide returns to
power after a three-year exile in the United States.
Government and politics:(Jan. 25) In his first state
of the union address, President Bill Clinton calls
for health care reform, a ban on assault weapons,
and welfare reform. (Sept. 13) President Clinton
signs the Assault Weapons Ban, prohibiting for
ten years the sale of semiautomatic assault weap-
ons that are manufactured after the bill is en-
acted. (Nov. 8) Representative Newt Gingrich
leads the Republican Party in taking control of
both the House of Representatives and the Sen-
ate in midterm congressional elections, the first
time in forty years that the Republicans obtain
control of both houses of Congress. (Nov. 8)
George W. Bush is elected governor of Texas.
(Dec. 19) The Securities and Exchange Commis-
sion begins investigating the so-called Whitewater
scandal, involving allegations of misconduct in a
real estate transaction involving President Clin-
ton; his wife, Hillary; and two of their associates.
Military and war:(Jan. 1) The Zapatista Army of Na-
tional Liberation declares war against the Mexi-
can government. (Feb. 28) American pilots shoot
down four Serbian fighter aircraft flying over
Bosnia and Herzegovina that are violating the
Bosnian no-fly zone. (Mar. 15) The United States
withdraws its troops from Somalia. (Jul. 25) Israel1032 Time Line The Nineties in America