Timeline 1990 Undated Items
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1990 Magdalena
Abakanowicz (b.1930), Polish sculptor, made her work "Bronze Crowd."
(SFC, 10/26/96, p.B1)(www.abakanowicz.art.pl/)
1990 Jasper Johns painter
"Green Angel," encaustic and sand on canvas.
(SFC, 10/29/96, p.F1)
1990 Roy Lichtenstein created
his "Reflections on Senorita."
(WSJ, 8/27/98, p.A12)
1990 Robert Rauschenberg
created his piece "A Doodle."
(WSJ, 9/25/97, p.A20)
1990 The painting "Au Moulin de
la Galette" by Pierre August Renoir sold at auction for $78.1 mil.
(WSJ, 5/16/95, p. A-16)
1990 John Guare wrote his play
"Six Degrees of Separation."
(SFEC, 5/30/99, DB p.37)
1990 The book "The Plains of
Passion" by Jean Auel (b.1936) was the best-selling fiction work of
the year.
(WSJ, 5/24/99,
p.R4)(www.geocities.com/auelpage/auel.html)
1990 Artyom Borovik authored
“The Hidden War,” an account of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 7/5/08, p.W8)
1990 Robert Bly published "Iron
John," an examination of male cultural passage through myth.
(USAT, 6/28/96, p.6D)
1990 Bryan Burrough and John
Helyar authored “Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco,”
the story of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.’s $25 billion
takeover of Nabisco in 1988.
(WSJ, 1/20/07, p.P10)
1990 Ron Chernow wrote "The
House of Morgan, " a biography of the banker.
(WSJ, 8/8/97, p.A11)
1990 Kenneth C. Davis published
"Don't Know Much About History."
(SFEC, 1/10/99, BR p.9)
1990 Wayne Dynes edited "An
Encyclopedia of Homosexuality."
(SFC, 2/27/98, p.A3)
1990 Bret Easton Ellis (26)
authored his novel "American Psycho." It was about a wall street
trader who moonlights as a serial killer. In 2000 the film version
made its premier.
(SFC, 4/12/00, p.E1)
1990 Sir Vivian Fuchs published
his autobiography "A Time to Speak." Fuchs had led an expedition
across Antarctica in 1958.
(SFC, 11/13/99, p.A22)
1990 Maurice Graham (1917-2006)
authored “Tales of the Iron Road: My Life As King of the Hobos.”
(SFC, 11/22/06, p.B7)
1990 Col. David H. Hackworth
(1931-2005), Vietnam war veteran, authored “About Face: The Odyssey
of an American Warrior.”
(SFC, 5/7/05, p.B5)
1990 Dorothy Ray Healey
(1915-2006) and historian Maurice Isserman co-wrote “Dorothy Healey
Remembers: A Life in the American Communist Party.”
(SFC, 8/14/06, p.B8)
1990 Charles Kuralt (1934-1997)
wrote "A Life on the Road" and it became a No.1 nonfiction
bestseller.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.A5)
1990 Richard Milner,
anthropologist, authored "Encyclopedia of Evolution." Milner later
developed the one-man musical show: "Darwin: Live & in Concert."
(WSJ, 5/8/02, p.AD9)
1990 Ray Monk wrote his
biography of "Ludwig Wittgenstein."
(WSJ, 9/27/96, p.A16)
1990 Roger Morris wrote the
biography: "Richard Milhaus Nixon."
(SFEC, 2/23/97, BR p.3)
1990 Hallie Crawford Stillwell
(d.1997 at 99), a Big Bend Texas pioneer, wrote her autobiography. A
sequel was to be completed by her great niece.
(SFC, 8/21/97, p.C4)
1990 Adam Kufeld published "El
Salvador." He had made 8 trips to the country as a photographer
between 1985-1989.
(SFEM,11/16/97, p.28)
1990 James P. Womack and Daniel
T. Jones wrote "The Machine That Changed the World, a study of
Toyota Motor Corp.’s manufacturing methods."
(WSJ, 11/1/96, p.A11)
1990 "The Romance of the Three
Kingdoms," a 16th century fictional account of the wars of the three
rival kingdoms in China, was published in paperback.
(NH, 7/96, p.58)
1990 Charles Johnson wrote his
novel "Middle Passage," which won a National Book Award.
(SFEC, 4/19/98, BR p.1)
1990 Peter Matthiessen
published his novel "Killing Mr. Watson." It became the first of a
trilogy about a Florida homesteader, who murdered some 5 dozen
people over his lifetime.
(SFEC,12/797, p.B11)
1990 James Michener wrote his
novel "Pilgrimage" and "The Eagle and the Raven."
(SFC,10/17/97, p.A17)
1990 Julia Phillips (d.2001 at
57), movie producer, authored ""You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town
Again," an insider chronicle of Hollywood’s top echelons.
(SFC, 1/3/02, p.A16)
1990 Thomas Pynchon (b.1937)
wrote his novel "Vineland."
(SFEC, 4/27/97, BR
p.1)(www.pynchon.pomona.edu/bio/facts.html)
1990 John O’Brien (d.1994)
published his novel "Leaving Las Vegas." It was made into a 1995
film and was the semi-autobiographical account about an alcoholic
who goes to Las Vegas to drink himself to death.
(SFC, 8/20/98, p.B4)
1990 Ronald Reagan published
his memoir “An American Life.”
(SSFC, 6/6/04, A18)
1990 Astrophysicist Clifford
Stoll authored “The Cuckoo's Egg," a true account of the tracking of
a hacker who probed the US's most sensitive secrets, using keywords,
such as "thermonuclear war." Stoll's pursuit of a hacker trying to
access American computer networks led to the discovery of a West
German spy ring.
(www.amazon.com/Cuckoos-Egg-Clifford-Stoll/dp/0671726889)
1990 George Will, political
columnist, authored "Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball." He told of
how the game was played through extended portraits of manager Tony
La Russa, pitcher Orel Hershiser, hitter Tony Gwynn and fielder Cal
Ripken Jr.
(WSJ, 5/21/03, p.D10)
1990 Edward O. Wilson (b.1929)
published his Pulitzer prize book: "The Ants," written with Bert
Holldobler.
(WSJ, 3/30/98, p.A16)
1990 David Hare wrote his play
"Racing Demon." It was one of three panels about distressed English
institutions, i.e. religion, courts and politics. The other two
plays were "Murdering Judges" and "Absence of War."
(SFC, 10/23/96, p.E3)
1990 Seamus Heaney (b.1939),
Nobel Prize winning poet (1995), wrote the play "The Cure at Troy"
based on Sophocles’ play "Philoctetes."
(WSJ, 12/3/97,
p.A20)(www.ibiblio.org/ipa/poems/heaney/biography.php)
1990 The magazine "Encounter,"
edited by Melvin Lasky, closed.
(WSJ, 4/6/01, p.W19)
1990 The Ritz Theater on
Broadway was restored and renamed the Walter Kerr Theater.
(SFC, 10/10/96, p.C6)
1990 At the Academy Awards
"Driving Miss Daisy" won for best picture and Jessica Tandy won as
best actress for her role. Daniel Day-Lewis won for best actor in
the film "My Left Foot."
(SFC, 12/22/99, p.C8)
1990 Gross film revenues for
the year were $5,021 million with 1,188 million admissions and
average ticket price of $4.23.
(WSJ, 4/24/95, p.R-5)
1990 The Comedy TV Network was
formed with the merger of HBO’s Comedy Channel and MTV Network’s Ha!
It was soon renamed Comedy Central.
(SFC, 4/10/01, p.E1)
1990 The TV show Newhart ended
its run in May.
(SFEC, 4/19/98, DB p.38)
1990 The Children’s Television
Act forced networks to broadcast 3 hours of educational TV per week.
(NW, 11/11/02, p.57)
1990 The tone poem "The
Confession of Isobel Gowdie" was written by Scottish composer James
MacMillan. In 1996 his first full length opera, Ines de Castro,
premiered at the Edinburgh Int’l. Festival. It was based on a play
by dramatist John Clifford, who in turn drew on the baroque play by
Portuguese poet Antonio de Ferreira.
(WSJ, 8/28/96, p.A10)
1990 The English National Opera
premiered the 1976 2-act opera "Clarissa" by Robin Holloway. It was
based on a 1748 novel by Samuel Richardson.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, DB p.35)
1980 The grunge rock group
Alice in Chains produced their debut album "Facelift." One track was
titled "We Die Young." In 2002 Layne Staley (34), lead singer for
Alice in Chains, was found dead in Seattle with obvious signs of
drug use.
(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.A28)
1990 The rock group Metallica
(f.1981) recorded their album "Metallica" and sold more than 16
million copies worldwide.
(SFC, 7/7/96, DB
p.32)(www.metallica.com/timeline.asp)
1990 In Des Moines the 39-floor
SunAmerica Center was completed. The architects were Johnson Fein
and Pereira Assoc.
(WSJ, 1/3/97, p.B10)
1990 In Los Angeles the
44-story 801 Grand was completed. The architects were Helmuth, Obata
& Kassabaum.
(WSJ, 1/3/97, p.B10)
1990 In Yorba Linda, Ca., the
privately owned Nixon Library and Birthplace Center was opened. All
of Nixon’s original documents, however, were held by the National
Archives in Bethesda, Md. A 1997 proposal called for a payment of
$26 million and transfer of documents from the National Archives to
the Yorba Linda site.
(SFC, 4/5/97, p.A1,13)
1990 In Las Vegas the Excalibur
Casino was completed.
(WSJ, 1/21/97, p.A18)
1990 Pope John Paul II put
forth his encyclical "Redemptoris Missio," on Christian
evangelization and world religions.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.W13)
1990 Episcopal Bishop Walter
Righter of Iowa ordained Rev. Barry Stopfel, who publicly proclaimed
his long-term gay relationship with a lover. The Bishop was later
charged with heresy under a 1979 church resolution and then
acquitted.
(SFC, 5/16/96, p.A-11)
1990 The Joshi computer virus
began forcing users of infected machines to type "Happy Birthday
Joshi" to recapture control of their machines.
(Sp., 5/96, p.70)
1990 The George Gustav Heye
Center was conjoined with the Smithsonian.
(Wired, Dec., '95, p.117)
1990 Survivors International
was founded in Albany, California. It was dedicated to providing
medical and psychological treatment to survivors of torture.
(SFC, 7/7/96, Z1 p.5)
1990 Jack E. Counts Jr., an
Oklahoma City entrepreneur, founded Glamour Shots Licensing. The
business was based on the idea of photographing ordinary women in
dazzling garb and makeup.
(WSJ, 5/13/96, p.B-1)
1990 In Arkansas Heidi and
Scott Riddle established the nonprofit Riddle Elephant Breeding Farm
and Wild Life Sanctuary on 330 acres near Guy.
(SFC,11/17/97, p.A3)
1990 Kezar Stadium in San
Francisco’s Goldengate Park was reconstructed as a multisport
facility.
(SFC, 7/29/97, p.A8)
1990 Josie’s Cabaret and Juice
Joint, a gay comedy club, opened in the Castro district of San
Francisco. It was scheduled to close Jan 2, 1999.
(SFEC, 11/29/98, DB p.35)
1990 The 221-room Tuscan Inn at
San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf was constructed.
(SFC, 7/18/98, p.B1)
1990 Susan Claymon (d.2000 at
age 61) co-founded Breast Cancer Action in SF and helped organize
the first advocacy meetings in 1991.
(SFC, 1/21/00, p.D7)
1990 Richard and Rhoda Goldman,
SF philanthropists, founded the Goldman Prize to provide cash awards
for grass-roots environmentalist activity in 7 major geographic
regions.
(SFC, 4/14/97, p.A1)(www.goldmanprize.org/)(SFC,
4/22/02, p.A3)
1990 Doug Tompkins founded the
Foundation for Deep Ecology in SF after his wife eased him out of
the fashion firm, Esprit Corp.
(SFC, 7/15/02, p.E1)
1990 The National Lesbian &
Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) was founded by Leroy Aarons
(d.2004) and 6 other journalists in San Francisco.
(SFC, 9/4/10, p.E2)
1990 San Francisco Mayor Art
Agnos called for the embarcadero Freeway to be removed.
(SSFC, 10/17/04, p.A22)
1990 San Francisco’s South of
Market was rezoned in the hopes that private development would
infill the empty, deserted factories.
(SFC, 8/18/96, p.E6)
1990 San Francisco police
halted the Burning Man torching ceremony on Baker Beach. Larry
Harvey the founder of the event then hooked up with the SF Cacophony
Society, a gang of fun-loving provocateurs, and moved the fiery
scene to Black Rock Desert, Nv.
(SFC, 7/19/96, p.D1,12)
1990 The SF medical examiner’s
office was investigated by a Grand Jury on reports of illegal gifts.
(SFC, 8/17/96, p.A24)
1990 In San Francisco the Mount
Zion Medical Center merged with UCSF.
(SFC, 6/17/99, p.A10)
1990 A.W. Clausen, head of the
SF-based Bank of America, retired and was succeeded by Richard
Rosenberg. He proceeded to acquire banks in Oregon and Arizona.
(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B4)
1990 The Ritz-Carlton opened on
Stockton St., SF., in the former western headquarters of
Metropolitan Life Insurance.
(SFC, 9/10/98, p.B4)
1990 The Southern Pacific
Railroad spun off its oil and gas exploration business to form Santa
Fe Energy Resources in Houston. Its 1995 revenues were $442 mil.
Land holdings were spun off to form Catellus, the San Francisco real
estate development company which owns about 855,000 acres, mostly in
Ca., including the 313-acre Mission Bay in SF.
(SFC, 7/8/96, p.D1)
1990 Danielle Steele, SF-based
fiction writer, paid between $5-6 million for the 15,000-sq.-foot
Spreckels estate.
(SFC, 11/20/98, p.A21)
1990 Danny Phat Vong, a leader
of the SF Chinatown youth gang Wah Ching, was slain. A month later a
retaliatory attack outside the Purple Onion in North Beach wounded 6
and killed a member of the Wo Hop To triad, a Hong Kong based crime
syndicate. The clash occurred as Peter Chong, the Wo Hop To’s leader
in California, tried to build a unified syndicate out of disparate
Northern California gang organizations.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.A10)(SFC, 4/27/98, p.A20)
1990 The Atlanta-based
International Time Capsule Society was established at Oglethorpe
Univ. to promote the study of time capsules. It held a time capsule
from 1940 called the "Crypt of Civilization" that was scheduled to
be opened in 8113. www.oglethorpe.edu/itcs.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.D4)
1990 In Wisconsin the first
Weedstock Festival, a pro-marijuana event, was held.
(SFC, 5/27/97, p.A12)
1990 Bill McCartney, Univ. of
Colorado football coach, founded Promise Keepers, an all-male,
all-Christian organization to bring men to God, to make them better
husbands and fathers, and to further racial reconciliation. The
first meeting in Boulder gathered 72 men. Its first rally in 1991
attracted 4,200 participants and by 1996 had a $115 million annual
budget. In 1997 the book "Who Are the Promise Keepers" by Ken
Abraham was published.
(SFC, 9/26/96, p.A21)(SFC, 8/11/97, p.D5)(SFC,
10/3/97, p.B7)
1990 The new Comiskey Park
ballfield opened in Chicago.
(SFEC, 3/16/97, p.B9)
1990 The Negro Leagues Baseball
Museum opened in Kansas City.
(SFEC, 4/12/98, p.T4)
1990 Bob Pereyra founded RAIL,
Roadracers Association for International Luge, and gave Street Luge
a boost.
(WSJ, 9/30/97,
p.A20)(www.hickoksports.com/history/streetluge.shtml)
1990 The Pritzker Int’l. Prize
for Architecture was awarded to Aldo Rossi (d.1997) of Italy. He had
designed the World Theater in Venice and the Museum of Maastricht in
the Netherlands.
(SFC, 9/5/97, p.A24)
1990 The World Food Prize was
endowed by Iowa businessman John Ruan in honor of Norman Borlaug,
father of the "Green Revolution."
(SFC, 10/15/97, p.A15)
1990 The United Nations
Association awarded Sally Lilienthal the Eleanor Roosevelt
Humanitarian Award.
(SFEC, 9/29/96, Z1 p.3)
1990 The Nobel Prize for
economics was awarded to Merton M. Miller (d.2000) of the Univ. of
Chicago for his work in the theory of financial economics. William
F. Sharpe of Stanford Univ. and Harry Markowitz were also winners.
Harry Markowitz won the Nobel Prize for his 1952 theory behind
portfolio diversification.
(WSJ, 10/11/95, p. A-1)(WSJ, 4/25/96,
p.A-18)(WSJ, 10/21/96, p.A18)(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A2)(SFC, 6/5/00,
p.A17)
1990 Octavio Paz of Mexico won
the Nobel Prize in literature.
(SFC, 4/20/98, p.A17)
1990 Richard Taylor of Stanford
won the Nobel Prize in Physics. He shared the prize with Prof. Henry
W. Kendall (d.1999 at 72) for experimental work that led to proof of
the existence of quarks.
(SFC, 10/10/96, p.A1)(SFC, 2/17/99, p.C3)
1990 The European Union created
the Aristeion (Greek for "the best") Prizes for literature.
(SFC, 9/24/96, p.E3)
1990 Lawrence G. Lawler (d.1997
at 56) was awarded the President’s Award for Outstanding Service to
the US. He was an FBI agent and helped create the National Crime
Information Center, a computer system that linked law enforcement
agencies.
(SFC, 3/26/97, p.C3)
1990 An int’l. agreement set
limits on human harvesting of krill at 9 million tons a year. By
1997, the krill population were markedly depleted and new limits
were considered.
(SFC, 6/26/97, p.A3)
1990 US Pres. Bush signed a law
granting Filipino fighters of WW II US citizenship.
(SFEC,12/14/97, Z1 p.1,4)
1990 The US military budget was
about $350 billion a year. That's about $1400 per every man, woman
and child, or $5600 per 4 person family.
(NOHY, 3/1990, p.230)
1990 US CIA and military
strategist were sent to Colombia to enhance the efficiency and
effectiveness of the local military intelligence.
(SFC, 1/5/98, p.A14)
1990 The US House of
Representatives voted to cut aid to El Salvador by 50%.
(WSJ, 1/10/05, p.A10)
1990 The US government returned
the island of Kaho’olawe off Maui to the state of Hawaii. It had
been used for some 50 years as a bombing range.
(SFEC, 4/6/97, p.T5)
1990 The Financial Action Task
Force, a 26 nation organization to fight money laundering was
established.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.F3)
1990 The Goals 2000 educational
standards program was set up to ensure the production of US high
school graduates capable of competing with the Japanese.
(SFEC,12/28/97, BR p.8)
1990 Pres. Bush imposed
sanctions against Pakistan under the 1986 Pressler Amendment when he
was unable to certify that Pakistan did not have a nuclear bomb.
This stopped the sale of 28 F-16 airplanes to Pakistan for which
$658 million was already paid to General Dynamics. Pakistan had
ordered and paid for 71 F-16 fighter bombers. $157 million was
returned. In 1998 New Zealand agreed to lease the planes for about
$105 million and the money to be paid to Pakistan.
(SFC, 5/9/97, p.E2)(SFC, 5/29/98, p.A15)(SFC,
12/3/98, p.A18)
1990 A US law was passed that
would require sanctions on certain countries engaged in missile
trade.
(WSJ, 6/12/96, p.A4)
1990 The US Congress passed a
law that required airlines to reduce the number of noisy airplanes.
The noisiest Stage 2 planes were to be eliminated entirely by 2000.
Stage 2 planes were replaced by quieter Stage 3 models.
(SFEC, 12/20/98, p.A36)
1990 The US Immigration Act of
this year allowed up to 10,000 foreign citizens to gain an
"employment creation" visa if they would put up $1 million in a job
creating enterprise. Immigrant Investor Program, also know as EB-5,
was set up to lure foreigners by giving them the right to live and
work in the US if they created jobs.
(SFC,12/26/97, p.A8)(Econ, 12/3/11,
p.40)(http://www.americanlaw.com/investor.html)
1990 The US government enacted
the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
(SFC, 9/3/98, p.A10)(Arch, 11/04, p.4)
1990 The US passed a luxury tax
that hurt many companies and whole industries (e.g. yacht-building).
(WSJ, 4/8/96, p.A-16)
1990 The US Congress mandated
that oil companies put air-cleaning chemicals into gasoline to
reduce carbon monoxide and smog in the largest urban centers.
(SFC, 9/15/97, p.A1)
1990 The US Congress passed the
Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act of 1990
(CWPPRA).
(NH, 2/05, p.46)
1990 The US Justice Department
sued the Virginia Military Institute to allow young women entry into
the 1300-man institute. In 1996 the Supreme court upheld the suit.
(WSJ, 6/27/96, p.B7)
1990 Prof. Theodore Sarbin
(1911-2005) of UC Berkeley co-wrote the report “Gays in Uniform: The
Pentagon’s Secret Reports.” The report prompted Pres. Clinton’s
policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
(SFC, 9/3/05, p.B4)
1990 The Mississippi
Legislature passed the Mississippi Gaming Control Act allowing
casinos in counties along the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast.
(SFC, 9/6/05, p.A8)
1990 New Jersey enacted a gun
control law that listed 37 models by name and covered others that
were substantially identical. The US Supreme Court in 2001 refused
to hear a challenge.
(SFC, 11/27/01, p.A3)
1990 Michael Milken, chief of
the Los Angeles brokerage house Drexel Burnham Lambert, Inc., was
convicted on six felony counts connected to stock market
fraud. At the time he was making $500 million per year and in the
80's helped finance a $4 billion casino boom in Las Vegas. A
chronicle of insider trading on Wall Street is in James B. Steward's
"Den of Thieves." Milken served 2 years in prison. He agreed to pay
$600 million in fines and restitution.
(RNR, 7/19/95, p.9-10)(WSJ, 9/5/96, p.C1)(WSJ,
1/11/99, p.R42)
1990 Smoking was banned on US
domestic flights 6 hours or less.
(WSJ, 1/27/04, p.D12)
1990 In Washington DC the Rev.
George A. Stallings Jr. and his breakaway African-American Catholic
Congregation, which encouraged the ordination of women and the use
of birth control and abortion, were excommunicated for breaking ties
with the Vatican.
(AP, 5/5/06)
1990 In the US the ratio of
executive pay to that of the average worker rose to 107 to 1.
(Econ, 11/26/05, p.75)
1990 Some 610 hedge funds in
the US controlled about $39 billion in assets. By 2000 the number of
hedge funds increased to 3,873 with $490 billion in assets.
Estimates in 2006 counted over 9,000 funds with $1.3 trillion in
assets.
(Econ, 11/18/06, p.75)
1990 Leon Black founded Apollo
Management LP, a private equity firm. In 2007 it was valued at
around $15 billion.
(WSJ, 4/7/07, p.B1)
1990 Harold "RED" Poling became
Ford’s chairman and CEO.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1990 Ford launched the
Explorer, which soon became the best-selling SUV in America. Sales
peaked in 2000 at 445,000 units.
(WSJ, 12/22/08, p.B2)
1990 Joan Kroc (d.2003 at 75),
widow of Ray Kroc (founder of McDonald's Corp.), sold the San Diego
Padres to a group led by LA TV producer Tom Werner.
(SFC, 10/13/03, p.A19)
1990 McDonald’s switched to
vegetable oil and added beef flavoring to improve the
cholesterol-producing profile of its french fries.
(SFC, 9/4/02, p.A14)
1990 McDonnell Douglas Corp.
introduced the MD-11 jumbo jet.
(WSJ, 9/19/00, p.A1)
1990 The Uniroyal Goodrich Tire
Co. was acquired by Groupe Michelin of France.
(WSJ, 5/28/96, R45)
1990 MGM Studios was sold to
Giancarlo Parretti, Italian financier, for $1.3 billion with
financing by the French Credit Lyonnais bank. In 1996 he lost
control on claims of mismanagement and loan default and was
convicted on charges of perjury and evidence tampering.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A3)
1990 Proctor & Gamble
bought the Hawaiian Punch beverage business from Del Monte for $150
million.
(SFC, 3/1/97, p.B1)
1990 Time Warner bought Sunset
Magazine from Lane Publishing, co-owned by publisher and
conservationist Melvin B. Lane (1922-2007). His father had bought
Sunset, a tourist-oriented travel magazine, in 1928.
(SFC, 8/2/07, p.B5)
1990 Fore Systems Inc. of
Warrendale, Pa. introduced the first ATM (asynchronous transfer
mode) hardware for computer networks. It allowed data to be
transferred at 2.5 billion bits per second. It was already being
adopted by the phone companies and cable-TV operators. It was
founded by 4 teachers and researchers and went public in 1994.
(WSJ,11/14/94, p.R27)(WSJ, 5/14/97, p.A1)
1990 The World Wide Web server
prototype was built. The Archie file transfer protocol was
developed. A semi-crawler search engine was built.
(SFC, 2/2/08, p.C1)
1990 Col Needham of Bristol,
England, founded IMDb, an Internet Movie Database, and sold it to
Amazon.com in 1998.
(SFC, 2/8/02, p.D18)
1990 Joseph Volpe took over as
head of the NYC Metropolitan Opera. He had come to the Met in 1963
as a carpenter and high school graduate. In 2006 he authored “The
Toughest Show On Earth: My Rise and Reign At the Metropolitan
Opera.”
(WSJ, 5/5/06, p.W8)
1990 Wells Fargo completed 4
acquisitions: Valley National Bank of Glendale, Central Pacific
Corp. of Bakersfield, Torrey Pines Group of Solana Beach, and
Citizens Holding in Orange County. An agreement was also reached to
purchase 130 branches of Great American Bank.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A10)
1990 Toy company FAO Schwartz
sold out to Dutch Company Koninklijke Bijenkorf Beheer.
(WSJ, 11/21/03, p.B1)
1990 The NTT (New Technology
Telescope) in Chile, the pride of the European astronomical
community was inaugurated. Its mirrors span 3.5 meters and is the
first telescope built with active or computer assisted optics.
(NG, p.25-26,an, 94)
1990 Thomas Campana Jr.,
Chicago-area engineer, created a system to send e-mails between
computers and wireless devices. He founded a company called NTP that
filed suit in 2001 against Research In Motion (RIM), maker of the
BlackBerry wireless device.
(SFC, 12/1/05, p.C8)
1990 Prof. David Patterson
began writing about IRAM, intelligent random access memory, the
possibility of including memory into the design of microprocessors.
He originated the concept of RISC, reduced instruction set
computing.
(WSJ, 8/28/98, p.B1)
1990 A digital method for
transmitting TV pictures was invented.
(WSJ, 4/10/00, p.B2)
1990 At the Mayo Clinic a lung
transplant program was begun.
(SFC, 7/5/96, PM, p.5)
1990 GHB, gamma hydroxy
butyrate, began to be reported as a cause of illnesses. The paint
thinner gamma butyl lactone was being mixed with water and alcohol
that when ingested metabolized to GHB, later called "liquid ecstasy"
or "blue nitro."
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.A16)
1990 The Human Genome Project
began and planned to sequence all human DNA by 2005. The database
did not just store sequences, but linked them with citations to
enable new discoveries. James Watson served as its 1st head. His
opposition to gene patents helped force him from the position in
1992.
(Wired, 8/96, p.198)(SFEM, 7/30/00, p.10)
1990 The Cosmic Background
Explorer satellite (COBE) proved that cosmic radiation formed a
perfect "blackbody" spectrum, which was expected if the universe was
once jammed into a very dense state.
(WSJ, 6/28/01, p.A1)
1990 A school voucher program
was begun in Milwaukee. Low income families of several thousand
students used state-funded vouchers to send their children to
private schools. Results were being disputed in 1996.
(WSJ, 8/16/96, p.A6)(WSJ, 10/11/96, p.A1)
1990 Wendy Kopp founded Teach
for America, a non-profit organization that invited graduates from
top universities to spend the 1st 2 years of their careers teaching
children from low-income families.
(www.fastcompany.com/social/2007/profiles/profile38.html)(Econ,
8/1/09, p.49)
1990 The US population was
about 250 million people.
(NOHY, 3/1990, p.222)
1990 A study by the US National
Academy of Sciences indicated that shrimp fishing was responsible
for the death of some 50,000 sea turtles in US waters each year.
(SFC, 7/10/96, p.A2)
1990 The US Oil Pollution Act
(OPA) was passed. It required new tankers sailing through US waters
to have double hulls and that old tankers be fitted with double
hulls by 2015. It capped liability for economic damages at $75
million.
(SFC, 5/27/96, p.A11,15)(Econ, 5/22/10, p.68)
1990 A study by the US EPA
found that leaf-blowers were responsible for about 5% of the
nation’s harmful airborne pollutants.
(SFC, 8/5/05, p.B1)
1990 A US law allowed a
dolphin-safe label for cans of tuna not netted with dolphins. A 1997
amendment allowed the label for tuna harvested with encircling nets
if observers witnessed no dolphins harmed.
(SFEC, 4/23/00, p.C14)
1990 About 50 million tons of
artificial nitrogen fertilizers were being used on a global scale.
(NOHY, Weiner, 3/90, p.51)
1990 The Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its 1st report on global
warming. Its 3rd report in 2001 noted that global temperatures could
rise 2.5 to 10.4 degrees during the 21st century.
(NH, 4/1/04, p.61)
1990 John C. Sawhill (d.2000 at
63) took over as head of the Nature Conservancy. By 200 he raised
the membership from 519,000 to 1.1 million.
(SFC, 5/24/00, p.A28)
1990 Specific details on the
stockpile at the Oregon Umatilla Munitions depot was classified
until the early 1990s.
(SFEC, 4/27/97, p.A18)
1990 A World Bank estimate
reckoned that 46% of the developing world’s population fell below
the accepted poverty line of $1.25 a day at purchasing-power parity.
By 2005 the rate had fallen to 27%.
(Econ, 9/25/10, p.34)
1990 The shrinking Aral Sea
between Kazakstan and Uzbekistan split in two with a patch of desert
in between.
(SFC, 11/30/98, p.A11)
1990 A 50-foot female T. rex,
65 million years old, was discovered on a Cheyenne River Reservation
in South Dakota by Sue Hendrickson. The government seized the
skeleton in 1992 and in 1997 it was put up for auction by Sotheby’s
on behalf of Maurice Williams, a Sioux Indian and owner of the ranch
where it was found. The proceeds will be held in trust by the
government. Backers of the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History
paid $8.36 million.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A13)(SFC,12/897, p.A3)
1990 The Pistol Star, located
between the Earth and center of the Milky Way, was first seen with
infrared equipment in 1990. It was measured to be 25,000 light-years
away with a radius of 93-140 million miles. It was estimated to have
formed 1-3 million years ago and shed much of its mass in violent
eruptions estimated to have occurred about 6,000 years ago.
(USAT, 10/8/97, p.3A)
1990 The Zodiac serial killer
began to strike in New York City.
(SFC, 6/20/96, p.C12)
1990 In Virginia Thomas H.
Beavers raped and suffocated a 61-year-old widow. He was executed in
Greensville in 1997 by lethal injection.
(SFC,12/15/97, p.B1)
1990 American innkeeper Michael
Devine was murdered in Guatemala. Allegations have been made that
Guatemalan colonel, Julio Roberto Alpirez on CIA payroll, was
involved. A review in 1996 showed that Alpirez was on the CIA
payroll from 1988-1992 and that he was involved in the cover-up of
the murder of Devine and had participated in the interrogation and
likely torture of Efraim Bamaca, a captured Guatemalan guerrilla
married to an American lawyer.
(SFC, 5/4/96, p.A-6)(SFC, 5/7/96, p.A-10)
1990 In Gainesville, Fla.,
Danny Rolling murdered 5 college students. He became known as the
Gainesville slasher and later collaborated with Sondra London, who
wrote his confessions, and sold his art and autographs. The money
earned was seized in 1997 when a Florida judge issued a ruling based
on a state law that barred convicted felons from profiting from
their stories, artwork and autographs.
(SFC, 1/2/98, p.A11)
1990 Rainaldo Arenas (b.1943),
gay writer, took his own life in the US after suffering from AIDS.
He left Cuba during the 1980 Mariel boatlift. His books included
"Before Night Falls" (1993) and "The Color of Summer" the 4th of 5
called the "Pentagonia" a "secret history of Cuba." In 2000 the film
version of Before Night Falls was directed by Julian Schnabel.
(SFEC, 7/30/00, BR p.4)(SSFC, 12/17/00, DB p.49)
1990 Joan Brown, painter, died.
She taught at UC Berkeley from 1974-1990.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, DB p.31)
1990 Former showgirl Paulette
Goddard, born Marion Levy in 1911, died. She left $20 million to
NYU, a fortune from 4 previous marriages to Edgar James, lumber
company owner, Charlie Chaplin, author, Burgess Meredith, actor, and
Erich Marie Remarque, author.
(SFEM, 12/15/96, Par p.4)
1990 Armand Hammer (b.1898),
American businessman, died. The 1996 book: "Dossier: The Secret
History of Armand Hammer" by Edward Jay Epstein revealed that Armand
was a Soviet agent for much of his life.
(WSJ, 10/3/96, p.A12)
1990 Keith Haring (b.1958),
artist, died. He began as a graffiti scrawler.
(WSJ, 5/26/00, p.W14)
1990 Jay Lovestone, former US
Communist who turned anti-Communist, died at age 90. In 1999 Ted
Morgan published the Lovestone biography: "A Covert Life."
(WSJ, 5/19/99, p.A20)
1990 Lewis Mumford (1895-1990),
writer, died. He wrote over 30 books and a column for the New Yorker
that ran 63 years. He wrote in an angry allusive style and played
the role of prophet. His work included "The Culture of Cities."
(Wired, 8/96, p.168)(WSJ, 12/9/98, p.A20)
1990 Michael Oakeshott
(b.1901), London School of Economics prof. of political science,
died. In 2004 Paul Franco authored “Michael Oakeshott: An
Introduction.” Oakeshott’s books included “On Human Conduct” (1975).
(Econ, 12/4/04, p.84)
1990 A.J.P. Taylor, English
historian, died. His book:: "From the Boer War to the Cold War:
Essays on twentieth Century Europe," was published in 1995 and
Reviewed by Max Boot.
(WSJ, 10/30/95, p.A-16)
1990 The Europe and North
Africa group formed. It gathered leaders from North Africa —
Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania and Libya — with leaders from
France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Malta.
(AP, 12/6/03)
1990 Bangladesh authorities
were warned that arsenic was seeping from the subsoil into the water
supply through the cheap surface wells. The adjoining Indian
Province of West Bengal first noticed the problem. The wells were
dug by UNICEF in an effort to provide clean water.
(SFC, 7/30/97, p.A8)(WSJ, 6/24/05, p.W9)
1990 In Belize legislation was
drafted to privatize the ship-registry industry and the registration
of off-shore companies. The draft was made by lawyers of Mr.
Ashcroft’s BHI Corp., the largest company in Belize.
(WSJ, 9/19/96, p.A14)
1990 In Bosnia the Serb
Democratic Party was founded by Radovan Karadzic.
(SFC, 12/25/98, p.B8)
1990 In Brazil Maria das Gracas
Marcal, a 2nd generation scavenger, helped found the Street
Scavengers Association. It grew to become a model organization of
uniformed scavengers that collected 15% of the total waste of
downtown Belo Horizonte.
(SFC,11/17/97, p.A14)
1990 In Brazil Wagner Conhedo,
a trucking operator, obtained a $7 mil loan from Paulo Cesar Farias,
campaign finance chief of then Pres. Collor, to purchase the Vasp SA
airline. Orestes Quercia, governor of the state that privatized
Vasp, made agreements with Conhedo to ease a towering debt burden
that later cost the state millions of dollars when Conhedo fell
behind in payments.
(WSJ, 7/1/96, p.A6)
1990 In Brazil Chico Mendes,
environmental activist and a leader of Amazon rubber tappers in the
state of Acre, was murdered. Darli Alves da Silva and his son,
Darci, were convicted in the murder case.
(SFC, 7/2/96, p.A12)
1990 Hugh Loebner agreed with
The Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies to underwrite a contest
designed to implement the Turing Test. Dr. Loebner pledged a Grand
Prize of $100,000 and a Gold Medal for the first computer whose
responses were indistinguishable from a human's. Robert Epstein
co-founded the prize with Hugh Loebner. The first competition was
held in November, 1991.
(http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/loebner-prize.html)(Econ, 5/7/11,
p.92)
1990 ARM Holdings PLC, a
multinational semiconductor and software company, was founded. It is
headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom. The acronym ARM, first
used in 1983, originally stood for "Acorn RISC Machine." However,
when the company was incorporated in 1990, the acronym was changed
to stand for "Advanced RISC Machines" in the company name "Advanced
RISC Machines Holdings." Then, at the time of the IPO in 1998, the
company name was changed to "ARM Holdings"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_Holdings)
1990 In Cameroon multi-party
politics was allowed for the first time.
(Econ, 3/1/08, p.50)
1990 The Canadian Parliament
began tracking attendance.
(SFC, 3/25/98, p.C14)
1990 The first exchange traded
fund (ETF), an open ended mutual fund, was created by the Toronto
Stock Exchange.
(Econ, 4/21/07, p.83)(http://tinyurl.com/38dajn)
1990 China promulgated the
Basic Law, a mini-constitution for post-1997 Hong Kong.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A8)
1990 Shanghai, China, became an
autonomous municipality. Shanghai Center, a joint venture city
within a city, opened.
(Hem., 2/97, p.72)(SFCM, 3/20/05, p.28)
1990 The Chinese census counted
1,133,680,000 people.
(SFC, 10/14/00, p.A12)
1990 China consumed 2.4 million
barrels of oil per day leaving 400,000 barrels per day of domestic
production for export. By 2008 consumption rose to over 7 million
barrels per day with about half of that coming from imports.
(Econ, 3/15/08, SR p.8)
1990 The super bull Rombi was
lent by a German cattle institute to Bosnia and got stuck there
throughout the war, but survived.
(WSJ, 3/20/96, p.A-1)
1990 In Chile Gen’l. Pinochet
sent troops into the streets of Santiago as a warning to drop an
official investigation into his son’s business dealings.
(SFC, 12/9/96, p.A18)
1990 In Chile General Augusto
Pinochet gave up power after 16 years of rule. Patricio Aylwin was
elected president.
(SFC, 8/23/96, p.A20)(WSJ, 12/1/95, p.A-15)
1990 In Colombia an army
offensive routed the FARC from its rear-guard retreat in Uribe, but
the rebels regrouped and grew to 15,000 fighters.
(SFC, 1/8/99, p.A13)
1990 In Czechoslovakia Radomil
Hill, distiller, began brewing absinthe and selling it to bars in
Prague and elsewhere.
(WSJ, 12/24/96, p.A1)
1990 In Eritrea Massawa was
liberated from Ethiopian forces.
(SFC, 6/11/97, p.C2)
1990 The files of Stasi,
the East German state security police, were opened to the public.
The East German state security police had attempted to destroy all
records but shredding machines overheated and much evidence was torn
up by hand. A publicly funded project was begun to reconstruct the
shredded evidence.
(WSJ, 12/27/96, p.A6)(WSJ, 2/4/97, p.A14)
1990 In Greece conservatives
returned to power and elected Constantine Karamanlis to the 5-year
post of president.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.B4)
1990 In Haiti the first
democratic elections were held and won by Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a
left-leaning former Catholic priest.
(SFC, 3/9/99, p.A12)
1990 In Honduras some 2,000
members of 7 leftist clandestine organizations accepted and amnesty.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, p.A22)
1990 In India Prime Minister
V.P. Singh announced that the government would set aside 27% of
public sector jobs for the backward castes. This caused riots by the
upper castes and the toppling of his government.
(WSJ, 5/10/96, p.A-4)
1990 India enacted its Armed
Forces Special Powers Act which made civilian courts powerless to
initiate criminal prosecutions against security forces in disturbed
areas without federal permission.
(SSFC, 12/2/07, p.A24)
1990 The Bargi Dam along
India’s Narmada River was completed. Many uprooted families moved to
the slums of Jabalpur.
(SFC, 1/17/02, p.A9)
1990 In Iran the Fertility
Regulation Council was established.
(SFC, 5/15/98, p.D2)
1990 In Iraq Gen’l. Omar
al-Hazza was executed after becoming increasingly critical of Saddam
Hussein.
(SFC, 1/31/97, p.A13)
1990 It was reported in 1998
that evidence was found that Iraq put VX nerve gas into missile
warheads prior to the Gulf War.
(SFC, 6/23/98, p.A10)
1990 Iraq produced large
amounts of biological agents for weapons. In late 1990 Iraqi
scientists tested ricin as a biological weapon in an artillery
shell.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, p.A18)(WSJ, 7/18/03, p.A1)
1990 In Israel Victor
Ostrovsky, a former agent of Mossad, published a book about the
security agency.
(SFC, 2/25/98, p.A8)
1990 Israelis began investing
in Romania and by 2006 had put in as much as $2 billion, much of it
routed through 3rd countries in order to take advantage of tax
deals.
(WSJ, 10/4/06, p.A1)
1990 In Italy the Leaning Tower
of Pisa was closed off to tourists for fear of its falling over. The
tilt was reduced by 16 inches over the next 11 years and re-opening
was scheduled in 2001.
(WSJ, 2/16/99, p.A1)(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A11)
1990 Shintaro Ishihara
(b.1932), a member of Japan’s House of Representatives, authored
“The Japan That Can Say No,” in which he outlines what Japan must do
in order to be the mainspring of the new world order.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shintaro_Ishihara)
1990 The film "Dreams" was
directed by Akira Kurosawa.
(SFC, 9/7/98, p.A21)
1990 Japan raised its interest
rates and ordered banks to curtail property lending. This resulted
in a major crash in land values. Speculation in domestic real
estate, stocks, overpriced overseas investments, and foreign
pressure to force the value of the yen upward causes a collapse of
the "bubble economy."
(WSJ, 11/30/95, p.A-1)(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 217)
1990 Chiyo Uno (1897-1996) was
awarded a title by the emperor and named a "person of cultural
merit." Her best know book was "Ohan" (1957).
(SFC, 6/11/96,
p.A21)(http://asian-literature.suite101.com/article.cfm/uno_chiyo)
1990 The Sakura Bank was
created from the merger of Mitsui Bank and Taiyo Kobe Bank.
(WSJ, 10/15/99, p.A10)
1990 Fusako Sano (9)
disappeared while walking home in Sanjo in Niigita Prefecture. In
2000 she was found held hostage at the home of Nobuyuki Sato (37),
35 miles away from where she was kidnapped.
(SFC, 4/11/00, p.A12)
1990 In Lebanon Al-Manar was
founded to give voice to Hezbollah the Shiites. In 1997 Al-Manar
Television received a broadcasting license from the Lebanese
government. In 2004 the US designated it as a terrorist entity.
(WSJ, 7/28/06, p.A1)
1990 In Lesotho King Moshoeshoe
II was forced into exile after a series of 3 military coups ousted
him from the throne. His son Letsie assumed the throne.
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.14A)
1990 In Madagascar the Malagasy
government agreed to an environmental action plan that called for
the creation of national parks and protected areas.
(SFC, 6/23/96, Z1 p.5)
1990 Melchizedek was founded as
a Pacific island nation by Tzemech Ben David Netzer Koren of
Belmont, Ca.
(SFC, 12/18/98, p.D2)
1990 Mexico created a National
Human Rights Commission.
(Econ, 2/16/08, p.44)
1990 Mexican physician Humberto
Alvarez Machain was abducted by operatives of the US government. He
had been indicted in LA for involvement in the 1985 kidnapping and
murder of US drug agent Enrique Camarena. Machain was later
acquitted. In 2001 a US federal appeals court ruled that the
abduction violated an int’l. human rights law.
(SFC, 9/13/01, p.C2)
1990 In Mexico Telefonos de
Mexico (Telmex) was privatized.
(WSJ, 8/7/96, p.A10)
1990 Compartamos was
established in Mexico as a non-profit group to make small,
uncollateralized business loans to the poor (microcredit).
(Econ, 3/17/07, p.84)
1990 Manuel Moreno Rivas
(b.1909), founder of Sinaloa’s El Debate newspaper, sold it.
(www.mexidata.info/id312.html)
1990 Mexican businessman Carlos
Hank Rhon won a concession for an independent cellular license in
western Mexico. He paid $10 million for the right with BellSouth of
Atlanta as a partner.
(WSJ, 11/1/96, p.A6)
1990 In Mexico the Laguna Verde
nuclear power plant near Xalapa in Veracruz state opened under
popular protests. By 1997-1998 issues of corruption, mismanagement
and disregard for safety regulations plagued the plant.
(SFC, 1/12/98, p.A10)
1990 In Mongolia demonstrations
against Russian rule began. The Mongolian Communist soon voted to
dissolve itself.
(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.29)
1990 Elbegdorj Tsahkia became
the first democratic Prime Minister of Mongolia.
(www.intellectualconservative.com/article3341.html)
1990 Sam Nujoma became
president of Namibia.
(Econ, 11/20/04, p.50)
1990 In Nepal a parliamentary
democracy with 205 seats was adopted to replace the absolute
monarchy. A popular revolt led to the institution of a
constitutional monarchy.
(WSJ, 5/3/99, p.A1)(SFC, 5/13/99, p.C2)(WSJ,
6/5/01, p.A26)
1990 In Nicaragua Arnoldo
Aleman became mayor of Managua.
(SFC, 10/15/96, p.A1,12)
1990 Foreign development aid in
Niger was $270 million for the year.
(WSJ, 5/10/02, p.A5)
1990 Nigeria founded a drug
agency and was soon in scandal as the top people were found to be
involved in trafficking.
(Econ, 12/8/07, p.56)
1990 In Nigeria 109 children
died after taking paracetamol laced with a compound similar to
diethylene glycol and also used in engine coolants.
(AFP, 3/31/09)
1990 In Pakistan some 70 tons
of hashish was transported across the country by camel and loaded
onto 2 freighters. 28 tons were loaded onto the freighter Saratoga
Success, which collided with another ship and after 2 typhoons ended
up beached in the Philippines. The freighter Lucky Star left
Pakistan in 1991 with the other 48 tons and stopped to pick up the
28 tons on the Saratoga. The final destination was Vancouver, BC,
but US federal agents intercepted the $250 million shipment.
(SFC, 4/19/97, p.C1)
1990 In Papua New Guinea
businessmen and politicians journeyed into the Hunstein Forest to
collect the "x’s" of clansmen on a deal to sell their forest for
royalty payments. The government in Port Moresby, the capital, has
since suspended the deal.
(SFC, 5/29/96, p.A8)
1990 Vladimiro Montesinos
became the head of Peru’s intelligence services.
(SFE, 9/17/96, p.A11)
1990 In Peru 49 members of the
MRTA, including their leader Victor Polay, escaped from the Canto
Grande prison near Lima.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B4)
1990 In Peru the MRTA
assassinated a former defense minister.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B4)
1990 The killing and selling of
dolphins became illegal in Peru, and the market went underground.
(PacDis, Winter/’96, p.36)
1990 In Peru the inflation rate
hit 7,500%.
(Econ, 8/28/10, p.66)
1990 By this year the Republic
of Congo was totally bankrupt. The French oil company Elf Aquitaine
dominated oil production. The country was Africa’s 4th largest
producer of crude oil.
(SFC,10/17/97, p.D8)
1990 Norwegian church groups
brought the government of Guatemala and rebels together for peace
talks in Oslo.
(SFC, 12/5/96, p.C1)
1990 Francis Ona declared
independence and himself president of what he called Meekamuii.
Papua New Guinea tightened its blockade.
(SFC, 12/29/01, p.A9)
1990 In Papua New Guinea
soldiers withdrew from Bougainville following a ceasefire with the
Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA).
(Econ, 2/9/08, p.48)
1990 The killing and selling of
dolphins became illegal in Peru, and the market went underground.
(PacDis, Winter/’96, p.36)
1990 Pinto da Costa lost the
presidency of Sao Tome and Principe after introducing reforms,
including multi-party democracy that saw the election as president
of Miguel Trovoada.
(AFP, 9/3/11)
1990 Gorbachev struggled to
hold the USSR together.
(TMC, 1994, p.1990)
1990 The Soviets pulled out of
the Hradcany air force base north of Prague, Czechoslovakia, and
left behind some 6,500 tons of jet fuel soaked into nearly 15 acres
of foul-smelling land.
(WSJ, 4/5/96, p.B-3A)(Econ, 5/31/08, SR p.11)
1990 In Russia the Moscow Union
of Lesbians and Gays was founded.
(SFC, 6/23/96, BR, p.6)
1990 Mahele Lieko Bokoungo led
Zairian soldiers to back up the Hutu regime of Pres. Juvenal
Habyarimana of Rwanda.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B5)
1990 The Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam evicted some 75,000 Muslims from northern Sri Lanka and
most fled to Puttalam. Muslims comprised some 8% of Sri Lanka’s 20
million people. In the east the rebels slaughtered up to 1,000
Muslims.
(Econ, 10/13/07, p.45)
1990 Islamist leader Hassan
al-Turabi invited Osma bin Laden to Sudan and provided him with a
safe haven from 1991 to 1996, when the Al-Qaeda chief was eventually
expelled under mounting international pressure on Khartoum.
(AFP, 4/23/06)
1990 Sweden adopted legislation
that lowered the blood alcohol limit for all drivers to .02%. The US
standard was .08%.
(AP, 12/22/09)
1990 In Switzerland legislation
was passed to punish bankers who knowingly accepted money that came
from a crime.
(WSJ, 7/3/96, p.A8)
1990 In Uganda Joseph Kony, a
faith healer, revived the Holy Spirit Movement and led his LRA
rebels in northern Uganda from training camps in southern Sudan.
(SFC, 3/5/96, p.A9)
1990 The Vatican issued a new
church law that required Catholic dioceses around the world to
support the Holy See.
(SFEM, 1/19/96, p.10)
1990-1991 Cheers was the top ranking network show
on television with a ranking of 21.6%.
(WSJ, 4/24/95, p.R-5)
1990-1991 The was an economic recession in the US
that was precipitated by tax hikes.
(WSJ, 7/31/96, p.A15)(WSJ, 5/11/99, p.A22)
1990-1991 Cuba was producing 90 million cigars
annually.
(SFC, 7/13/96, p.A9)
1990-1991 The Nung from Vietnam made their way to
Hong Kong as boat people.
(SFC, 6/18/97, p.A10)
1990-1992 In the US 834 banks failed during this
period.
(WSJ, 7/14/08, p.A1)
1990-1992 A study by the Univ. of Michigan showed
96% of fifth graders in Japan had higher test scores in math than
their American counterparts. Students of Taiwan in the 11th grade
outscored American students by 86% and Japanese students scored 92%
higher than the American average.
(LSA, Spring 1995, p.27)
1990-1992 In Israel Ariel Sharon served as the
housing minister and presided over the settlement drive in the West
Bank and the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A8)
1990-1993 In Kenya’s "Goldenberg affair” millions
of dollars were paid for non-existent exports of gold and diamonds.
Some $600 million was secreted abroad and into the bank accounts of
numerous ministers and their friends. A firm called Goldenberg
International manipulated export compensation. A commission of
inquiry from 2003-2005 presented its report to Pres. Kibaki in 2006.
(www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32215)(Econ,
6/9/07, p.50)
1990-2009 In Kenya the forests shrank during this
period by a at least 60%.
(Econ, 8/29/09, p.22)
1990-1993 Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana,
an ethnic Hutu, requested French troops to help block an ethnic
Tutsi exile force that was penetrating the country from Uganda.
French troops were present over the next 3 1/2 years.
(WSJ, 1/24/97, p.A14)
1990-1994 In Honduras Rafael Callejas served as
president.
(SFC,11/26/97, p.C5)
1990-1996 In Nicaragua Sergio Palacios Cruz, aka
Charro, took up arms again citing threats from the Sandinistas as
well as unfilled government promises. He led a group of about 300
men in the area around Wanawas and is viewed by some as a protector
and by others as a bandit and robber.
(SFC, 5/27/96, p.A6,7)
1990-1998 In Honduras death squads had killed 701
people over this period.
(SFC, 1/15/98, p.A12)
1990-1998 In South Africa in the Northern Province
some 577 killings were committed related to witchcraft.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.D3)
1990-1999 In 2003 Joseph E. Stiglitz authored "The
Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World's Most Prosperous
Decade."
(SSFC, 12/21/03, p.M5)
1990-1999 Pres. George Bush declared the 90s as
"The Decade of the Brain."
(SFEC, 2/9/97, Par p.20)
1990-2000 This was a period of economic stagnation
in Japan and later called "the lost decade." It resulted in the
opening of the Japanese economy to foreigners. In 2006 a trio of
economists authored a paper “Zombie lending and depressed
re-structuring in Japan,” which examined how subsidies to weak firms
prolonged Japan’s period of deflation.
(WSJ, 12/28/00, p.A1)(Econ, 4/8/06, p.62)
1990-2004 A 14-year civil war began in Liberia.
1.2 million people were forced flee their homes. 700,000 sought
shelter in Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and other West
African countries. 14 years of fighting left some 250,000 people
dead.
(SFC, 10/4/99, p.A12)(Econ, 12/16/06, p.48)
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