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Copyright © 2015 Bert N. Langford (Images may be subject to copyright. Please send feedback)​
This Web Page Covers the 1990s as the years 1990 through 1999​.
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Culture: 

The 1990s was characterized by the rise of multiculturalism and alternative media, which continued into the 2000s. Movements such as grunge, the rave scene and hip hop spread around the world to young people during the decade, aided by then-new technology such as cable television and the World Wide Web.

A combination of factors, including the continued mass mobilization of capital markets through neo-liberalism, the thawing of the decades-long Cold War, the beginning of the widespread proliferation of new media such as the Internet from the middle of the decade and later, increasing skepticism towards government, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union led to a realignment and re-consolidation of economic and political power across the world and within countries.

The dot-com bubble of 1997–2000 brought wealth to some entrepreneurs before its crash between 2000 and 2001.

New ethnic conflicts emerged in Africa, the Balkans, and the Caucasus, the former two which led to the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides, respectively. Signs of any resolution of tensions between Israel and the Arab world remained elusive despite the progress of the Oslo Accords, though The Troubles in Northern Ireland came to a standstill in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement after 30 years of violence.

The most prominent natural disasters of the decade include,
  • Hurricane Andrew striking South Florida in August 1992,
  • the crippling super storm of March 1993 along the Eastern Seaboard,
  • the devastating 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles,
  • the Great Hanshin earthquake in Kobe, Japan in January 1995,
  • the Blizzard of 1996 in the eastern U.S.,
  • the US drought of 1999,
  • the deadly Hurricane Mitch which struck Central America in October 1998,
  • and the destructive Oklahoma tornado outbreak in May 1999.
Gulf War oil spill – Resulting from actions taken during the Gulf War in 1991 by the Iraq military, the oil spill caused considerable damage to wildlife in the Persian Gulf especially in areas surrounding Kuwait and Iraq.


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Television:

TV shows, mostly sitcoms, were popular with the American audience. Series include such shows as the following,
Sitcoms that defined the humor of the 1990s were,
In early 1993, one of the last westerns ever to air on television was Walker, Texas Ranger, a crime drama which also starred Chuck Norris as the title character. Lasting for 9 seasons, the show tackled a wide variety of subjects, and was one of the few shows ever to perform karate.

1993 also saw its debut of the medical-mystery drama, Diagnosis Murder, a comeback vehicle for Dick Van Dyke, who guest-starred on an episode of its sequel, Jake and The Fatman, where the show got off to a rocky start, and became one of television's long-running mysteries, that lasted until its cancellation in 2001.

Medical dramas started to come into television in the ’90s. One show stood out as a critical and ratings success for NBC. In 1994, ER, which starred Anthony Edwards and George Clooney, was a domestic and international success, lasting until 2009 and spawning series such as Grey's Anatomy (2005–present). It made NBC the most watched channel in the USA. This show launched the career of George Clooney.

Beverly Hills, 90210 ran on Fox from 1990 to 2000.

The decade also established the teen soap genre paving the way for Dawson's Creek, Felicity, and other shows airing in later years. The show was then remade and renamed simply 90210 and premiered in 2008.

Melrose Place, a popular TV show that dominated throughout the ’90s as well.

Baywatch, a popular TV show that dominated throughout the ’90s, became the most watched TV show in history and influenced pop culture: Click Here For YouTube Video from Baywatch featuring Pamela Anderson





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Movies:

The first full-length Computer-Generated-Imaging (CGI) movie, Pixar's Toy Story (1995), is released, revolutionizing animated films.

Titanic (1997) becomes a cultural phenomenon throughout the world, and eventually becomes the highest grossing film of all time, grossing over $1.8 billion worldwide. It would hold this record for over a decade until 2010 when director James Cameron had another one of his films take the title, that being Avatar (2009).

The films produced by the Walt Disney Animation Studios became popular once more when the studio returned to making traditionally animated musical family classics such as Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and The Lion King (1994).

This era was known as the Disney Renaissance.

Best Picture Academy Award winners:
The 25 highest-grossing films of the decade are (in order from highest to lowest grossing):
Oscar Winners for Best Actor Include:

1990: Jeremy Irons (Reversal of Fortune)
1991: Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs)
1992: Al Pacino (Scent of a Woman)  
1993: Tom Hanks (Philadelphia)
1994: Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump)
1995: Nicholas Cage (Leaving Las Vegas)
1996: Geoffrey Rush (Shine)
1997: Jack Nicholson (As Good As It Gets)
1998: Roberto Benigni (Life is Beautiful)
1999: Kevin Spacey (American Beauty)

Oscar Winners for Best Actress Include:

1990: Kathy Bates (Misery)
1991: Jodie Foster (The Silence of the Lambs)
1992: Emma Thompson (Howards End)
1993: Holly Hunter (The Piano)
1994: Jessica Lange (Blue Sky)
1995: Susan Sarandon (Dead Man Walking)
1996: Frances McDormand (Fargo)
1997: Helen Hunt (As Good as it Gets)
1998: Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love)
1999: Hilary Swank (Boys Don't Cry)




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Music:

In this decade, people were introduced to grunge, gangsta rap, R&B, teen pop; euro-dance, electronic dance music, the renewed popularity of punk rock mainly because of the band Green Day (which would also help create a new genre pop punk) and for being the decade that alternative rock became mainstream: click here to hear their 15 greatest hits:

The band U2 was one of the most popular 1990s bands, their groundbreaking tours: click to see concert coverage for:  Zoo TV and PopMart: Both tours were the top selling tours of 1992 and 1997.

Glam metal dies out through its own accord in the music mainstream by 1991.

Grunge becomes popular in 1991 because of the success of Nirvana's Nevermind, Pearl Jam's Ten and Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger. Hear Nirvana perform from their album @  "Nevermind: Best Live Performances"

Pop punk also becomes popular with such artists as Green Day, Blink-182, Weezer, Social Distortion, The Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX and Rancid.

Other successful alternative acts included,
In the 1990s, country music became a worldwide phenomenon thanks to Billy Ray Cyrus, Shania Twain, and Garth Brooks. (YouTube Video of Shania Twain singing "Man! I Feel Like A Woman!" (Live) 

Other artists that experienced success during this time included,
The Dixie Chicks became one of the most popular country bands in the 1990s and early 2000s. Their 1998 debut album Wide Open Spaces went on to become certified 12x platinum (See YouTube Video from Wide Open Spaces) while their 1999 album Fly went on to become 10x platinum.






Economy: 

Many countries, institutions, companies, and organizations were prosperous during the 1990s. High-income countries such as the United States, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and those in Western Europe experienced steady economic growth for much of the decade.

The decade is seen as a time of great prosperity in the United States under the Presidency of Bill Clinton, largely due to the unexpected advent of the Internet and the explosion of technology industries that came with it. The U.S. economy experiences its longest period of peace time economic expansion during the decade beginning in 1991.

Personal incomes doubled from the recession in 1990, and there was higher productivity overall. After the 1996 Welfare Reform Act there was a reduction of poverty, and the Wall Street stock exchange stayed over the 10,500 mark from 1999 to 2001.




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Technology:

The 1990s were a revolutionary decade for digital technology. Between 1990 and 1997, individual personal computer ownership in the US rose from 15 to 35%.

Cell phones of the early-1990s and earlier ones were very large, lacked extra features, and were used by only a few percent of the population of even the wealthiest nations.

Only a few million people used online services in 1990, and the World Wide Web had only just been invented. The first web browser went online in 1993 and by 2001, more than 50% of some Western countries had Internet access, and more than 25% had cell phone access.

On August 6, 1992, CERN, a pan European organization for particle research, publicized the new World Wide Web project. Although the basic applications and guidelines that make the Internet possible had existed for almost two decades, the network did not gain a public face until the 1990s.

Y2K spread fear throughout the United States and eventually the world in the last half of the decade, particularly in 1999, about possible massive computer malfunctions on January 1, 2000. As a result, many people stocked up on supplies for fear of a worldwide disaster. After significant effort to upgrade systems on the part of software engineers, no failures occurred when the clocks rolled over into 2000.

Businesses start to build E-commerce websites; E-commerce-only companies such as Amazon.com, eBay, AOL, and Yahoo! grow rapidly.


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Political Climate:

German reunification – Germany reunified on 3 October 1990 as a result of the fall of the Berlin Wall and after integrating the economic structure and provincial governments, focused on modernization of the former communist East. People who were brought up in a socialist culture became integrated with those living in capitalist western Germany.

The restructuring of the Soviet Union destabilizes, as nationalist and separatist demagogues gain popularity. Boris Yeltsin, then chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Russia, resigns from the Communist Party and becomes the opposition leader against Mikhail Gorbachev. The Communist Party looses its status as the governing force of the country and is banned after a coup attempt by Communist hardliners attempted to revert the effects of Gorbachev's policies.

Yeltsin's counter-revolution is victorious on 25 December 1991 with the resignation of Gorbachev from presidency and the dissolution of the USSR. Yeltsin became president of the successor Russian Federation and presided over a period of political unrest, economic crisis, and social anarchy. On 31 December 1999, Yeltsin resigned leaving Vladimir Putin as acting president.

The release of African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela from jail in February 1990 after thirty years of imprisonment for opposing apartheid and white-minority rule in South Africa. This would resolve with the end of Apartheid in South Africa in 1994, marking the end of the original Civil Rights era of the 20th century.



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Military Engagements:

The Gulf War code-named Operation Desert Shield (2 August 1990 – 17 January 1991) for operations leading to the buildup of troops and defense of Saudi Arabia and Operation Desert Storm (17 January 1991 – 28 February 1991) in its combat phase, was a war waged by coalition forces from 34 nations led by the United States against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.

U.S. President George H. W. Bush deployed U.S. forces into Saudi Arabia and urged other countries to send their own forces to the scene. An array of nations joined the Coalition, the largest military alliance since World War II. The great majority of the Coalition's military forces were from the U.S., with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and Egypt as leading contributors, in that order.

Saudi Arabia paid around US$36 billion of the US$60 billion cost. The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991, continuing for five weeks. This was followed by a ground assault on 24 February. This was a decisive victory for the Coalition forces, who drove the Iraqi military from Kuwait and advanced into Iraqi territory.

The Cold War split the temporary wartime alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the USSR and the US as two superpowers with profound economic and political differences: the former being a single-party Marxist–Leninist state operating planned economy and controlled press while professing state atheism and owning exclusively the right to establish and govern communities, and the latter being a capitalist state with generally free elections and press, which also granted freedom of religion and freedom of association to its citizens. 

In the mid-1980s, the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the liberalizing reforms of perestroika ("reorganization", 1987) and glasnost ("openness", c. 1985) and ended Soviet involvement in Afghanistan.  The Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself lost control and was banned following an abortive coup attempt in August 1991. This in turn led to the formal dissolution of the USSR in December 1991 and the collapse of Communist regimes in other countries such as Mongolia, Cambodia and South Yemen.

The United States remained as the world's only superpower.

Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno was military dictator of Panama from 1983 to 1989. In the 1989 invasion of Panama by the United States he was removed from power, captured, detained as a prisoner of war, and flown to the United States. Noriega was tried on eight counts of drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering in April 1992. In addition, he threatened to cease allowing U.S. Vessels through the Canal.
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