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Period: to
1988-2000
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January 6, 1989 Growth and unemployment
January 6, 1989 - Economic reports on the previous year from the Labor Department indicate a growth rate of 3.8%, the largest in four years and an unemployment rate of 5.3%, a low of fourteen years. -
Hubble Telescope 1990
April 24, 1990 - The Hubble Telescope is placed into orbit by the United States Space Shuttle Discovery. One month later, the telescope becomes operational. Hubble telescope cost: 1.5 billion $ -
NAFTA 1994
January 1, 1994 - The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect, creating a free trade zone between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. -
World Trade Organization 1995
January 1, 1995 - The World Trade Organization (WTO) is created, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) formed from a series of post-war treaties on trade. The World Trade Organization is more highly structured than the previous GATT and counted seventy-six nations among its members in 1995. -
$20 billion loan to Mexico
January 31, 1995 - U.S. President Bill Clinton invokes emergency powers to extend a $20 billion loan to Mexico to avert a financial disaster that had begun on December 19, 1994 during a planned exchange rate correction between the Mexican peso and American dollar. -
U.S versus Microsoft
May 18, 1998 - The United States Department of Justice and twenty states file the anti-trust case, U.S. versus Microsoft. On November 5, 1999, a preliminary ruling stated that Microsoft had monopoly power. -
Embassies attacked in Africa
August 7, 1998 - Attacks on two United States embassies in Africa, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya kills two hundred and twenty-four and injures four thousand five hundred. The attacks are linked to Osama Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda organization. On August 13, the United States launches cruise missile strikes against Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in the Sudan. -
Microsoft ruling
April 3, 2000 - The ruling in the case of the United States versus Microsoft states that the company did violate anti-trust laws by diminishing the capability of its rivals to compete.