100 Fun Facts About 1990's

Dolly the sheep was cloned in 1996 at the Roslin Institute in which country?

Dolly was cloned at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh, Scotland. Born on 5 July 1996, her existence was announced on 22 February 1997, and she went on to have six lambs.

Which medical drama created by Michael Crichton, set in a fictional Chicago hospital, premiered on NBC in 1994?

ER premiered on NBC on September 19, 1994, became a staple of the network's 'Must See TV' lineup and ran 331 episodes over 15 seasons.

Which console reached Japan in June 1996 and North America that September, a separate coprocessor handling its 3D graphics and sound?

The Nintendo 64, named for its 64-bit NEC CPU, paired that processor with the Reality Coprocessor for graphics and sound; it launched in Japan on 23 June 1996 and in North America on 29 September 1996.

What egg-shaped virtual pet became a global sensation after Bandai released it in Japan in 1996?

Bandai launched the Tamagotchi in Japan on 23 November 1996; the keychain-sized digital pet had to be fed, cleaned and played with, and tens of millions were sold worldwide within two years.

In which year was 'Wannabe', a girl-group debut that hit number one in 37 countries, released?

'Wannabe' was released in the UK on 8 July 1996 and spent seven weeks at number one; the Spice Girls' debut album Spice followed in November 1996.

What iconic 1991 grunge album from a Seattle band features 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'?

'Nevermind' by Nirvana was a monumental release in 1991, widely credited for bringing grunge music to a mainstream audience and profoundly influencing the decade's sound.

Which film about genetically engineered dinosaurs was the highest-grossing movie of 1993?

Jurassic Park grossed over $900 million in its 1993 run, overtaking Spielberg's own E.T. as the highest-grossing film ever, a record it held until Titanic in 1997.

Which 'Girl Power' British group debuted with 'Wannabe', a number one in 37 countries?

The Spice Girls — Scary, Sporty, Baby, Ginger and Posh — debuted with 'Wannabe' in July 1996 and became the best-selling girl group of all time, with over 85 million records sold.

Which director helmed the critically acclaimed 1994 drama 'The Shawshank Redemption'?

Frank Darabont wrote and directed 'The Shawshank Redemption,' which, despite a modest box office performance, went on to become one of the most beloved and highly-rated films of all time.

Which 1997 sci-fi film stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as agents monitoring aliens on Earth?

Men in Black, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, cast Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith as Agents K and J policing aliens living secretly on Earth; it grossed about $589 million in 1997.

Which R&B trio released 'Creep' and 'Waterfalls' from its 1994 album CrazySexyCool?

TLC — T-Boz, Left Eye and Chilli — released CrazySexyCool on LaFace Records in November 1994; 'Creep' and 'Waterfalls' both reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

Which 1996 alien-invasion film was the year's highest-grossing movie, beating both Twister and Mission: Impossible?

Independence Day grossed about $817 million worldwide in 1996, the year's biggest hit and then second only to Jurassic Park on the all-time list, ahead of Twister and Mission: Impossible.

Which Seattle grunge band released its debut album 'Ten' in 1991?

Pearl Jam's debut album 'Ten,' released in 1991, was a commercial success that helped solidify the grunge sound and established them as one of the most important bands of the era.

Destiny's Child's self-titled debut, led by 'No, No, No', came out in which year?

The album arrived on February 17, 1998, after the single had already broken through.

The Human Genome Project, launched in 1990, was led by which US body?

The National Institutes of Health, through its genome institute under James Watson and then Francis Collins, coordinated the US effort with the Department of Energy; the sequence was declared complete in April 2003.

Which was the first Soviet republic to declare independence, in March 1990?

Lithuania's Supreme Council proclaimed the restoration of independence on 11 March 1990, the first Soviet republic to do so; Estonia had declared sovereignty, not independence, in November 1988, and Kazakhstan was the last to leave in December 1991.

Which 8 December 1991 agreement by Russia, Belarus and Ukraine declared the USSR dead?

The Belovezh Accords, signed at Viskuli in Belarus by Yeltsin, Kravchuk and Shushkevich on 8 December 1991, declared the USSR dissolved and created the Commonwealth of Independent States, enlarged by the Alma-Ata Protocol on 21 December.

The 1991 Gulf War ceasefire talks were held at which Iraqi airfield?

Ceasefire terms were dictated at Safwan airfield in southern Iraq on 3 March 1991, where General Norman Schwarzkopf met Iraqi commanders days after the ground war ended.

How long did the coalition's aerial and naval bombardment of Iraq last before the ground assault of February 1991?

The air war ran from 17 January to the ground assault of 24 February 1991 — about five weeks (38 days) — during which Iraq fired Scud missiles at Israel and Saudi Arabia without splitting the coalition.

What flaw compromised the Hubble Space Telescope after its 1990 launch?

Hubble's 2.4-metre main mirror had been ground to the wrong shape, giving spherical aberration that blurred its images; astronauts on the STS-61 servicing mission fitted corrective optics (COSTAR) in December 1993.

In which year did CERN place the World Wide Web software in the public domain?

On 30 April 1993 CERN released the World Wide Web software into the public domain, free for anyone to use; Tim Berners-Lee had first announced the project outside CERN in August 1991.

The cell used to clone Dolly the sheep was taken from which part of the donor's body?

Dolly was cloned from a mammary gland cell of an adult ewe — hence the name, a nod to Dolly Parton; the Finn-Dorset lamb was born on 5 July 1996 and lived to six.

Where is Dolly's preserved body exhibited?

Dolly's preserved body has been displayed at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh since 2003, the year she was euthanised at six with a progressive lung disease.

The creators of Bandai's egg-shaped virtual pet won which tongue-in-cheek award in 1997?

Tamagotchi creators Akihiro Yokoi and Aki Maita received the 1997 Ig Nobel Prize for Economics 'for diverting millions of person-hours of work into the husbandry of virtual pets'.

Which 1993 Nirvana album was recorded with producer Steve Albini?

In Utero, released in September 1993, was recorded in two weeks with Steve Albini at Pachyderm Studio in Minnesota; it was Nirvana's last studio album before Kurt Cobain's death in April 1994.

Nirvana released its debut album Bleach in 1989 on which independent label?

Bleach came out on Seattle's Sub Pop label in June 1989, recorded for a reported $606; Nirvana moved to DGC for Nevermind in 1991 and entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.

What was the production budget of James Cameron's Titanic, then the most expensive film ever made?

Titanic cost about $200 million to produce, the most expensive film made to that point; Fox brought in Paramount to share the cost, and the film grossed $1.8 billion in its original run.

Titanic's modern-day scenes were shot aboard which Russian research vessel?

The Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, mother ship of the Mir submersibles, carried Cameron to the wreck in 1995 and then played itself in the film's present-day scenes.

Friends was developed under which working title?

Friends was first pitched in 1993 as Insomnia Cafe; it was then called Six of One and Friends Like Us before NBC settled on Friends for its September 1994 premiere.

How many episodes of Seinfeld aired across its nine seasons?

Seinfeld aired 180 episodes on NBC between July 1989 and May 1998 across nine seasons, finishing in Nielsen's top two every season from 1994 to 1998.

Which Seinfeld episode introduced the December 23rd holiday of Festivus?

Festivus debuted in 'The Strike', aired on 18 December 1997; Frank Costanza's aluminium pole, Feats of Strength and Airing of Grievances have outlived the show.

Peter de Jager's 1993 Computerworld article that raised the Y2K alarm carried what title?

'Doomsday 2000', published in Computerworld in September 1993, warned that two-digit year fields would fail at the century's end and made Peter de Jager the best-known Y2K alarm-raiser.

The name 'euro' was officially adopted in December 1995 at a European Council meeting in which city?

The Madrid European Council of 15–16 December 1995 chose the name 'euro'; it became an accounting currency on 1 January 1999 and cash arrived on 1 January 2002.

The euro replaced what at a ratio of 1:1 in January 1999?

The European Currency Unit (ECU), the basket unit used since 1979, was converted to the euro at 1:1 on 1 January 1999; physical notes and coins arrived three years later.

Which was the only major Northern Ireland party to oppose the Good Friday Agreement of 1998?

Ian Paisley's DUP campaigned for a No vote against the Good Friday Agreement; voters on both sides of the border approved it in referendums on 22 May 1998, 71% in favour in Northern Ireland.

In South Africa's first universal-suffrage election in April 1994, what share of the vote did the ANC win?

The ANC took about 62% (62.6%) of the vote in the 27 April 1994 election, short of the two-thirds needed to write the constitution alone; the National Party won 20%.

The Rwandan genocide was ignited by the assassination of which president on 6 April 1994?

Juvénal Habyarimana's plane was shot down over Kigali on 6 April 1994, also killing Burundi's president Cyprien Ntaryamira; the killings that followed ran for about 100 days.

Roughly how many people watched the live TV coverage of the O. J. Simpson Bronco chase in June 1994?

An estimated 95 million Americans watched the slow-speed chase on 17 June 1994; NBC interrupted Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Knicks and Rockets to carry it.

How long did the O. J. Simpson criminal trial run before his acquittal on October 3, 1995?

Eight months, from January 24 to October 3, 1995; Robert Shapiro initially led the 'Dream Team' before Johnnie Cochran took over.

Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin met as students at which university?

Page and Brin met at Stanford in 1995 as computer-science graduate students; their research project BackRub became Google, incorporated in 1998, with an IPO in 2004.

East Germany's Peaceful Revolution saw the Berlin Wall fall on which date?

The Wall opened on the night of 9 November 1989 after East Berlin spokesman Günter Schabowski mistakenly announced at a press conference that travel restrictions were lifted 'immediately'.

At the 1997 handover, China pledged to keep Hong Kong's "one country, two systems" for how many years?

The 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law promised Hong Kong's capitalist system would stay unchanged for 50 years, to 2047; the 1 July 1997 handover ended 156 years of British rule.

The Channel Tunnel, opened in 1994, links Folkestone with which town in northern France?

The tunnel's French terminal is at Coquelles, just outside Calais; opened on 6 May 1994, its 37.9 km undersea section was the longest of any tunnel in the world.

Which familiar desktop interface element did Windows 95 introduce?

The Start menu arrived with the taskbar, Windows Explorer and filenames longer than eight characters when Windows 95 hit retail on 24 August 1995.

Which 1995 film was the first entirely computer-animated feature?

Pixar's debut feature set an opening-weekend record and finished 1995 as the year's second highest-grossing film.

Where did IBM's Deep Blue defeat world champion Garry Kasparov in their 1997 rematch?

The May 1997 rematch was played at the Equitable Center in New York, where Deep Blue won 3½–2½; Kasparov had taken the first match 4–2 in Philadelphia in February 1996.

What was the name of the rover that Mars Pathfinder set down on the Red Planet on 4 July 1997?

Sojourner, named for abolitionist Sojourner Truth, weighed about 10.6 kg and was the first wheeled rover to operate on another planet, covering roughly 100 metres over 83 sols.

Which businessman created Beanie Babies, the pellet-stuffed collectibles of the late 1990s?

Ty Warner launched Beanie Babies through his Ty Inc. in 1993; deliberate 'retirements' of designs turned them into a speculative craze that made Warner a billionaire by 1999.

What is the language a brand-new Furby speaks before gradually switching to English?

A new Furby speaks only Furbish — words like 'dah' and 'kah' — and gradually mixes in English; Tiger Electronics sold 1.8 million of the owl-like robots in 1998 and 14 million more in 1999.

Which publisher first released Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in June 1997?

Bloomsbury published Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on 26 June 1997 with a first print run of only 500 copies; Scholastic issued the US edition in 1998 as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Nelson Mandela walked free on 11 February 1990 from which prison?

Mandela walked out of Victor Verster Prison near Paarl on 11 February 1990, holding Winnie's hand before live TV cameras; he had been moved there from Pollsmoor in December 1988 after treatment for tuberculosis.

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) was bundled with which console, becoming its best-selling game?

Sega replaced Altered Beast with Sonic the Hedgehog as the Sega Genesis pack-in game in 1991; the bundle pushed Sonic past 15 million copies and made the 16-bit race with Nintendo's Super NES a real contest.

Sony's original PlayStation first went on sale in Japan in which month?

The PlayStation went on sale in Japan on 3 December 1994 at ¥39,800, eleven days after the Sega Saturn; North America followed in September 1995.

Which top prize did Pulp Fiction win at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival?

Pulp Fiction took the Palme d'Or at Cannes in May 1994 from a jury chaired by Clint Eastwood; the win built publicity before the film's October release grossed over $200 million.

How many Academy Awards did Forrest Gump win, including Best Picture and Best Actor?

Forrest Gump won six Oscars at the March 1995 ceremony: Best Picture, Best Actor for Tom Hanks, Best Director for Robert Zemeckis, Adapted Screenplay, Visual Effects and Film Editing.

Which film ended The Lion King's reign as the highest-grossing animated movie?

Finding Nemo's $864 million in 2003 overtook The Lion King's $763 million original run, ending a nine-year reign as the highest-grossing animated film.

Which Spanish duo recorded 'Macarena', a 14-week US number one in 1996?

Los del Río, Antonio Romero and Rafael Ruiz from Seville, first recorded 'Macarena' for their 1993 album A mí me gusta; the Bayside Boys remix topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 14 weeks in 1996.

In the August 1995 'Battle of Britpop', Blur's 'Country House' outsold which Oasis single?

'Roll with It' sold 216,000 copies to 274,000 for 'Country House' in the week both were released on 14 August 1995, giving Blur the number one; Oasis's 'Some Might Say' had already topped the chart in May.

Which label released Britney Spears' debut single '...Baby One More Time' in September 1998?

Half of her debut album was recorded at Cheiron Studios in Stockholm, and the single topped charts in more than 20 countries.

Under what name did Jeff Bezos found Amazon in July 1994?

Bezos incorporated the company as Cadabra, Inc. in July 1994, but the name sounded too much like 'cadaver'; he renamed it Amazon and registered amazon.com on 1 November 1994 from his garage in Bellevue, Washington.

Pierre Omidyar launched eBay in September 1995 under what original name?

Omidyar's AuctionWeb went live on 3 September 1995 as a hobby site; its first sale was a broken laser pointer for $14.83, and the site was renamed eBay in 1997.

Linus Torvalds was a student at which university when he started the Linux kernel in 1991?

Torvalds was a computer-science student at the University of Helsinki when he posted to comp.os.minix in August 1991 that his kernel was 'just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu'.

The 1994 Pentium FDIV bug was discovered by Thomas Nicely, a professor of what subject?

Thomas Nicely, a mathematics professor at Lynchburg College in Virginia, found the flaw in October 1994 while computing reciprocals of primes; Intel offered to replace every affected chip that December.

The 1995 accord ending the Bosnian War was negotiated at which site in Dayton, Ohio?

Talks ran at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base outside Dayton from 1 November 1995; the Dayton Agreement was initialed there on 21 November and signed in Paris on 14 December.

How many member states signed the Maastricht Treaty on 7 February 1992?

All twelve members of the European Community — from the original six to Spain and Portugal — signed at Maastricht on 7 February 1992; the treaty took effect on 1 November 1993 and created the European Union.

On which two grounds did the House impeach Bill Clinton in December 1998?

Perjury and obstruction of justice passed the House 228-206 and 221-212 on December 19, 1998; the Senate acquitted him in February 1999, neither article close to the 67 votes needed.

The April 1999 Columbine High School shooting took place in which US state?

Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado was attacked on 20 April 1999 by two seniors who killed 12 students and a teacher; propane bombs they had planted in the cafeteria failed to go off.

Who lit the Olympic flame at the opening of the Atlanta 1996 Games?

Muhammad Ali, his hands shaking from Parkinson's, lit the cauldron at the 19 July 1996 opening ceremony; during the Games he received a replacement for his lost 1960 Rome gold medal at the Georgia Dome.

By how many strokes did Tiger Woods win his first major, the 1997 Masters?

Woods finished 18 under, 12 strokes clear of Tom Kite — a Masters record margin — after opening with a four-over 40 on his first nine holes; at 21 he was the youngest champion.

Mike Tyson was disqualified in June 1997 for biting which opponent's ear?

Tyson bit both of Evander Holyfield's ears in the third round of their 28 June 1997 rematch in Las Vegas and was disqualified; Nevada revoked his licence, restoring it in October 1998.

Who scored two headed goals from corners in the 1998 World Cup final against Brazil?

Zinedine Zidane headed in two corners, in the 27th and 45th minutes, at the Stade de France on 12 July 1998; Emmanuel Petit added a third in injury time for a 3–0 win.

Which country handed Macau to China at midnight on 20 December 1999?

Portuguese rights to the territory had been made perpetual by the 1887 Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peking.

A magnitude 6.9 earthquake on 17 January 1995 devastated which Japanese port city?

The Great Hanshin earthquake struck Kobe at 5:46 am on 17 January 1995 from a hypocentre beneath Awaji Island; it killed 6,434 people, about 4,600 of them in Kobe itself.

Which cult carried out the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway on 20 March 1995?

Aum Shinrikyo, founded in 1984 as a yoga group by Shoko Asahara (born Chizuo Matsumoto), released sarin on five Tokyo subway trains on 20 March 1995, killing more than a dozen people; Asahara was executed in 2018.

In which year did the FDA approve sildenafil, sold as Viagra, for erectile dysfunction?

It was the first oral treatment approved for the condition in the US, and the drug had been patented only two years earlier.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone's South Park debuted in August 1997 on which channel?

South Park premiered on Comedy Central on 13 August 1997 with 'Cartman Gets an Anal Probe'; within months it had become the cable channel's highest-rated show.

Who played the sceptical FBI agent Dr. Dana Scully when The X-Files began in 1993?

Gillian Anderson played Dana Scully, the medical doctor assigned to assess Mulder's paranormal cases; the series premiered on Fox on 10 September 1993 and won her an Emmy in 1997.

Roughly how much did The Blair Witch Project (1999) gross worldwide?

The Blair Witch Project grossed about $249 million worldwide on an original shooting budget of roughly $60,000, making it one of the most profitable independent films ever.

Shawn Fanning co-founded Napster, the file-sharing service that launched on 1 June 1999, with which partner?

Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning's Napster launched on 1 June 1999 and ran just over two years before shutting down in July 2001.

What was Yahoo! called when its two Stanford founders created it in January 1994?

The directory began in January 1994 as Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web and was renamed Yahoo! in April 1994, a backronym for 'Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle'.

The Oslo I Accord was signed at a public ceremony on 13 September 1993 in which city?

After secret talks hosted in Norway by the Fafo institute were completed on 20 August 1993, the accord was signed on the White House lawn in Washington, with Rabin and Arafat shaking hands before Clinton.

Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in November 1995 after a rally in which city?

Rabin was shot by law student Yigal Amir on 4 November 1995 as he left a peace rally at Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv, since renamed Rabin Square; Amir opposed the Oslo Accords.

Which comet, torn apart by Jupiter's gravity in 1992, hit the planet in July 1994 in the first such collision ever observed?

Shoemaker–Levy 9 had been captured by Jupiter's gravity and broke apart in July 1992, two years before its fragments struck in the first directly observed collision of Solar System objects.

Which studio developed the 1993 first-person shooter Doom for MS-DOS?

id Software, founded in 1991 by John Carmack, John Romero, Tom Hall and Adrian Carmack, released Doom as shareware on 10 December 1993, following Commander Keen and Wolfenstein 3D.

Which toy company's preschool division produced the 1996 craze Tickle Me Elmo?

Tyco Preschool launched Tickle Me Elmo in 1996; it retailed for $28.99 but shortages saw examples resold for as much as $1,500 by the end of that Christmas season. Mattel bought Tyco in 1997.

Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill (1995) was released on which record label?

Maverick, the label Madonna co-founded, released Jagged Little Pill on 13 June 1995 after many labels had passed; the album won four Grammys in 1996 including Album of the Year.

Tupac Shakur was fatally shot in September 1996 after attending a Mike Tyson fight at which hotel?

Tupac watched Tyson beat Bruce Seldon at the MGM Grand on 7 September 1996; after a brawl in the hotel lobby he was hit in a drive-by on East Flamingo Road and died six days later.

Whitney Houston's 1992 hit 'I Will Always Love You' was written and first recorded by whom?

Dolly Parton wrote 'I Will Always Love You' as a farewell to Porter Wagoner and took it to number one on the country chart in 1974; Houston's Bodyguard version topped the Hot 100 for 14 weeks.

The August 1991 coup by Communist hardliners tried to seize power from which Soviet leader?

The plotters held Mikhail Gorbachev at his dacha in Foros, Crimea, from 18 August 1991 but failed to arrest Boris Yeltsin, who rallied resistance from the Russian White House; the putsch collapsed within three days.

The peaceful split of Czechoslovakia on 1 January 1993 is known by what nickname?

The 'Velvet Divorce' echoes the bloodless Velvet Revolution of November 1989; the Czech Republic and Slovakia separated by parliamentary agreement, without a referendum, on 1 January 1993.

On which date did East and West Germany formally reunite as one state?

Germany reunited on 3 October 1990, the date kept as the Day of German Unity; the East German Volkskammer had voted on 23 August 1990 to accede to the Federal Republic under Article 23 of the Basic Law.

What share of the vote did the 'No' side win in Quebec's 1995 sovereignty referendum?

The 'No' side won 50.58% to 49.42% on 30 October 1995, a margin of just 54,288 votes on a record 93.52% turnout.

Nunavut was split from which Canadian jurisdiction on 1 April 1999?

Nunavut was split from the eastern Northwest Territories on 1 April 1999 under the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, giving its Inuit majority self-government over about a fifth of Canada's land area.

The Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases was adopted in which year?

The Kyoto Protocol was adopted on 11 December 1997, adding binding emissions limits to the 1992 Rio framework convention; it did not enter into force until 16 February 2005.

The ferry MS Estonia sank with 852 lives lost in September 1994 in which sea?

The Estonia went down in the Baltic Sea on 28 September 1994 while crossing from Tallinn to Stockholm, after her bow visor tore off in a storm; 852 of the 989 people aboard died.

FBI agents arrested the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, in April 1996 at his cabin in which state?

Kaczynski was arrested on 3 April 1996 at the plywood cabin near Lincoln, Montana, where he had lived since 1971 without electricity or running water; his brother David had tipped off the FBI.

The 1997 Heaven's Gate mass suicide of 39 members was timed to the approach of which comet?

Marshall Applewhite's followers believed a spacecraft trailed comet Hale–Bopp, then near its brightest; the 39 bodies were found in a rented mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, San Diego County, on 26 March 1997.

The 1992 Los Angeles riots began after four officers were acquitted of beating which man?

The four LAPD officers filmed beating Rodney King in March 1991 were acquitted on 29 April 1992; the unrest that followed in South Central killed more than 50 people before order was restored in early May.

Disneyland Paris opened on 12 April 1992 under what name?

It opened as Euro Disney Resort (the park itself was Euro Disneyland) and was renamed Disneyland Paris in October 1994, partly to escape the bad publicity and losses of its early years.

Who hosted the UK version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? from its 1998 launch?

Chris Tarrant hosted the ITV original from its 4 September 1998 launch until 2014; the format was devised by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight, who had created promotional games for Tarrant's Capital FM breakfast show.