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Signing of the Americans With Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities Act became law in 1990. The ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public. The purpose of the law is to make sure that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else. ADA is divided into five titles that relate to different areas of public life. -
Confirmation of Clarence Thomas to the US Supreme Court
President George H. W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court of the United States to replace Thurgood Marshall, who had announced his retirement.The nomination proceedings were contentious from the start, over the issue of abortion, and many women's groups and civil rights groups opposed Thomas on the basis of his conservative political views.The U.S. Senate votes 52 to 48 to confirm Thomas to the Supreme Court. Marshall was the first African American to sit on the Supreme Court. -
Magic Johnson’s HIV Announcement
On November 7, 1991, basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson stuns the world by announcing his sudden retirement from the Los Angeles Lakers, after testing positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. At the time, many Americans viewed AIDS as a gay white man’s disease. Johnson (1959- ), who is African American and heterosexual, was one of the first sports stars to go public about his HIV-positive status. -
Arrest and Trial of Jeffery Dahmer
Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer admitted to slaying 17 young men and boys between 1978 and his arrest in 1991. His horrific crimes, which involved attempted lobotomies to create "living zombies," sex with corpses, dismembering his victims, and cannibalizing parts of their bodies, made him a notorious figure. Dahmer was sentenced to 16 consecutive life terms — more than 900 years — but being infamous meant his time behind bars would never be that of an average prisoner. -
Entrance of US Soldiers in Somalia / Blackhawk Down
In October 1993, elite American troops launched a disastrous raid in the Somali capital Mogadishu. Their aim was to capture key allies of the powerful Somali warlord. But US forces met fierce resistance from Aideed's militia. Two US Black Hawk helicopters were shot down. In the ensuing battle, hundreds of Somalis were estimated to have died.18 Americans and two UN soldiers were killed. The perceived failure of the Somali mission made the US wary of intervening in African crises. -
Signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) established a free-trade zone in North America; it was signed in 1992 by Canada, Mexico, and the United States and took effect on Jan. 1, 1994. NAFTA immediately lifted tariffs on the majority of goods produced by the signatory nations. It also calls for the gradual elimination, over a period of 15 years, of most remaining barriers to cross-border investment and to the movement of goods and services among the three countries. -
Verdict in the O.J. Simpson Trial
At the end of a sensational trial, former football star O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the brutal 1994 double murder of his estranged wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. In the epic 252-day trial, Simpson’s “dream team” of lawyers employed creative and controversial methods to convince jurors that Simpson’s guilt had not been proved “beyond a reasonable doubt,” thus surmounting what the prosecution called a “mountain of evidence” implicating him as the murderer. -
Beginning of NATO bombing in Yugoslavia
The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia was the military operation against the Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The air strikes lasted from March 24, 1999 to June 10, 1999. The bombings continued until an agreement was reached that led to the withdrawal of Yugoslav armed forces from Kosovo, and the establishment of the United Nations in Kosovo. The official NATO operation name was Operation Allied Force. The bombing killed 1,000 members of the Yugoslav security forces and 528 civilians. -
Columbine Shooting
The Columbine shooting on April 20, 1999 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, occurred when two teens went on a shooting spree, killing 13 people and wounding more than 20 others, before turning their guns on themselves and committing suicide. The Columbine shooting was, at the time, the worst high school shooting in U.S. history and prompted a national debate on gun control and school safety. -
Y2K Scare
Y2K bug, also called Year 2000 bug or Millennium Bug, a problem in the coding of computerized systems that was projected to create havoc in computers and computer networks around the world at the beginning of the year 2000. After more than a year of international alarm, feverish preparations, and programming corrections, few major failures occurred in the transition from December 31, 1999, to January 1, 2000.
