Mental Floss

9 Memorable Images from the '90s

By David K. Israel

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Finally, today we move into the ‘90s. If you missed previous posts this week, the ‘60s can be found here, the ‘70s here, and the ‘80s down yonder. For me, the ‘90s were pretty exciting times--college, my first job in the Big Apple, The New York Times switching over from black and white photos on the cover to color, watching real estate prices skyrocket, buying my first personal computer and first cellphone, and, of course, the biggest deal for a guy who now makes his living online, the launch of the World Wide Web. Below are 9 images that sum up the decade for me. How about you all? What memories do you have that I missed? Hope you enjoyed this little visual trip down memory lane! I sure did reliving it as I was writing these posts.

1. April, 1990

After many delays, on April 24, 1990, the Hubble telescope finally launched into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, changing the face of astronomy forever.

2. January, 1991

Operation Desert Storm, a UN-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait began on January 17th, 1991.

3. December, 1991

On December 25, 1991, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formally dissolved.

4. August, 1991

On 6 August 1991, CERN, a pan European organization for particle research, publicized the new World Wide Web project. All Al Gore jokes aside, it’s, of course, impossible to nail down the exact birth date of the Web or the Internet, but it certainly took as all by storm in the early ‘90s!

5. September, 1993

Israeli PM, Yitzhak Rabin, U.S. Presiden Bill Clinton, and Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat shook hands at the Oslo Accords signing ceremony on 13 September 1993.

6. August, 1997

On August 31st, 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales was killed in a tragic car accident in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris, France.

7. January, 1998

President Bill Clinton was caught in a media-frenzied scandal involving inappropriate relations with a White House intern Monica Lewinsky, first announced on January 21st, 1998.

8. May, 1998

Seinfeld’s 9-season run ended with a 75-minute, final episode on May 14, 1998.

9. December, 1999

Y2K, thankfully, didn’t amount to much of anything outside a lot of stress and anxiety on December 31st, 1999.