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1995-1996 Triangulation
In 1995 and 1996, President Clinton worked hard to take some of the focus away from the Republicans by adopting tougher stances on conservative social issues and supporting parts of the Reagan-era push to reduce Great Society programs. To respond to conservative concerns about social issues, Clinton introduced a few moderate policies himself, but very importantly, he often went along with what conservatives were already trying to do (Kruse and Zelizer, 217-218). -
1995 Oklahoma City Bombing
On the morning of April 19, 1995, a truck packed with 4,800 pounds of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil exploded outside the north side of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The blast killed 168 people and left about 850 others very injured. According to the governor's office, the bombing left 30 children without their parents, 219 children with only one parent, 462 individuals without their homes, and about 7,000 people who could not go back to work (Linenthal). -
1999: Columbine, Colorado School Shooting
This was the beginning of a new era of school shootings. There was a Colorado school shooting in 1999 that took place in Columbine, Colorado, just outside of Denver. Two high school students kill twelve students as well as a teacher and marking the beginning of a new wave of school shootings that range all the way from K-12 and higher education. -
Y2K Crisis
The Y2K Crisis signified the end of an era as the 2000s hit. There was a fear that the software in the computers was not prepared for that transition, and they ran some examples, and the systems ended up imploding. The servers being used by a bank are going to get wiped, and banking records are going to disappear. -
2000 Presidental Election
This was the election between George Bush and Al Gore. It was an extremely close election, and it is so close because it boils down to one state which is Florida. There is a 537 vote total difference between the two candidates. A lot of votes are thrown out and these votes shift the balance of the election away from Gore to Bush. George Bush is elected president, and he loses the popular vote, and if all the ballots were lost in FL, he would not have been president.