-
February 7, 1990 -
The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party gives up its monopoly of power, continuing the trend, since the beginning of the Berlin Wall coming down, that the Cold War was about to end. The ending of the Cold War was completed, in many ways, by the strong policies of U.S. President Ronald Reagan toward the Soviet block. Six days later, a plan to reunite Germany was announced. -
March 18, 1990 -
The largest art theft in U.S. history occurs in Boston, Massachusetts, when two thieves posing as policemen abscond twelve paintings worth an estimated $100-200 million from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. -
January 12, 1991 -
U.S. Congress passes a resolution authorizing the use of force to liberate Kuwait. Operation Desert Storm begins four days later with air strikes against Iraq. Iraq responds by sending eight Scud missiles into Israel. -
October 3, 1991 -
The governor of Arkansas, William Jefferson Clinton, announces his intention to seek the 1992 Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States. -
July 29, 1991 -
Bank of Credit and Commerce International is indicted in New York for the largest bank fraud in history. -
May 7, 1992 -
The 27th Amendment to the Constitution is passed two hundred and two years after its initial proposal. It bars the United States Congress from giving itself a midterm or retroactive pay raise. This amendment had been originally proposed by James Madison in 1789, as part of twelve amendments, of which ten would become the original Bill of Rights on December 15, 1791. -
February 26, 1993 -
The World Trade Center is bombed by Islamic terrorists when a van parked below the North Tower of the structure explodes. Six people are killed and over one thousand are injured. -
June 27, 1993 -
President Bill Clinton orders a cruise missile attack on the Iraqi intelligence headquarters in Baghdad, responding to the attempted assassination attempt cultivated by the Iraq Secret Service on former U.S. President George H.W. Bush during his visit to Kuwait two months before. -
November 5, 1996 -
President William J. Clinton defeats Republican Presidential candidate Bob Dole, as well as the second run of businessman Ross Perot. Clinton gained 49.2% of the popular vote, and increased his total in the Electoral College to 379. Dole gained 40.7% of the popular tally and 159 in the Electoral College. Perot's influence on this race was marginal compared to 1992, receiving only 8.4% of the vote in 1996 -
October 29, 1998 -
John Glenn, thirty-six years after becoming the first American astronaut to orbit the earth, becomes the oldest astronaut in space at seventy-seven years old. His role on the Space Shuttle Discovery flight tests the effect of space travel on aging.
