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Americans with disabilities act
The Americans with disabilities act was a civil rights law, similar to the civil rights act in 1964, it disallowed any sort of discrimination against people with disabilities. It also included provisions that required employers to provide "reasonable accommodations" to employees with disabilities, and required that public areas be accessible to the disabled i.e. wheel chair ramps and others. The original bill was signed on July 26, 1990 by George Bush and it was later amended in 2008. -
Confirmation of Clarence Thomas to the US Supreme Court
Clarence Thomas was a politician generally thought to be George Bushes favorite in his pool of potential candidates for supreme court. In 1991 when Thurgood Marshall retired Bush nominated Thomas to fill his seat. Shortly after this Thomas was accused of sexually harassing a women who had repeatedly told him to stop, this led to a hard fought confirmation hearing, although in the end he was confirmed with 52-48 votes. -
Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Andrew was a class 5 hurricane that hit the Bahamas, Florida, and later Louisiana. By the time it landed in southern Florida wind speeds had reached 165 mph for periods as long as a minute, and stripped many homes in south Florida down to their foundations. In total Hurricane Andrew caused 27.3 billion dollars in damages making it the most costly hurricane to hit the US in the time period. -
Entrance of US Soldiers in Somalia / Blackhawk Down
In 1992 Somalia was facing a complete civil breakdown, and was split into many factions, this made sending humanitarian aid near impossible. The Unified Task Force (UNITAF), a US led task force for protecting humanitarian aid led, eventually intervened and on December 9th 1992 US forces landed. In 1993 United Nations Operation in Somalia II (UNOSOM II) took up the mantle, with many UNITAF troops becoming a part. UNOSOM was eventually able to force negotiation of a peace treaty. -
North American Free Trade Agreement
The North American Free Trade Agreement was the extension of an agreement between the US and Canada to eliminate all tariffs placed between them. On Jan 1, 1994 a new agreement, NAFTA brought Mexico into the deal as well. This agreement also included rules covering rules of origin, customs procedures, agriculture and sanitary measures, government procurement, investment, trade in services, protection of intellectual property rights, and dispute settlement procedures. -
Million Man March
The million man march was a large civil right march in Washington DC. It's purpose was to "convey to the world a vastly different picture of the Black male" as well as to work on solving various issues hurting their communities. On the same day there was also a larger "day of absence" where people participating would take the day off to either participate in the march, or to continue work on voter registration. Around 837K people were estimated to be there. -
Explosion of TWA Flight 800
Trans World Airlines Flight 800 (TWA 800) was a flight from America to Rome, with a stop in Paris. During the transatlantic portion the pilot reported "crazy" readings from some of his equipment, 2 minutes and 30 seconds later the plane exploded, landing in the ocean with no survivors. The explosion was most likely caused by a leak in the fuel tank being ignited by a short circuit. -
Murder of JonBenét Ramsey
JonBenét Ramsey was a 6 year old girl, who had been entered into several child beauty pageants. On December 25, 1996 a handwritten ransom note was found in the house, about 8 hours later her body was found in the basement. An autopsy report showed that she had been strangled. The police originally suspected the family but in 1998 new DNA evidence seemed to clear their name, the case still remains open. -
Beginning of NATO bombing in Yugoslavia
In Feb 1998 A rebel group in Kosovo started a revolution against Yugoslavia, which was in control at the time. Supposed ethic cleansing of Albanians, prompted worries from NATO that large amounts of refugees would destabilize the region. Worried about a veto from Russia and China NATO commenced bombing without a vote and it continued from March 24, 1999 to June 10, 1999, eventually ending in the Kumanovo Agreement between Yugoslavia and Kosovo. -
Year 2000 problem
The Year 2000 problem, or Y2K scare, was a predicted major bug that arised in the late 1990s about computers dates "rolling over to 2000". This was due to several reasons, most notably computers that calculated only the last 2 digits would display 1900 and to the fact, that 2000 was a leap year despite being divisible by 100 as it was also divisible by 400. This worry was so widespread that by 2000 most companies had already looked into and fixed the error, and it ended up being more of a scare.
