1990s

The 1990s (often referred to as the 90s) was the decade that began on January 1, 1990 and ended on December 31, 1999. It is distinct from the decade known as the 200th decade which began on January 1, 1991 and ended on December 31, 2000.

From left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope orbits the Earth after it was launched in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; The signing of the Oslo Accords on 13 September 1993; The World Wide Web becomes more popular worldwide; Boris Yeltsin and followers stand on a tank against the August Coup, which leads to the end of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991; Dolly the sheep is the first mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell; The funeral procession of Diana, Princess of Wales, who dies in 1997 from a car crash in Paris, and is mourned by millions; Hundreds of thousands of Tutsi people are killed in the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1960s 1970s 1980s – 1990s – 2000s 2010s 2020s
Years:	1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
Categories:	Births – Deaths – Architecture Establishments – Disestablishments

This decade saw the fall of the Soviet Union, which ended the Cold War.

For most of the decade, Bill Clinton was president of the United States, Mahathir Mohamad was Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Further developments in computer technology continued. The World Wide Web became popular throughout the world.

In sports, West Germany, Brazil, and France won the FIFA World Cup. The Cincinnati Reds, Minnesota Twins, Toronto Blue Jays, Atlanta Braves, New York Yankees, and Florida Marlins won the World Series.

Events

• 1990 - 1991 – Gulf War
• 1990 – German reunification
• 1991 – The end of the Cold War.
• 1991 – Breakup of Yugoslavia was followed by Yugoslav wars.
• 1991 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union
• 1991 – Rosuvastatin was patented. It was approved for medical use in the United States twelve years later.
• 1991 – Wawasan 2020 (Vision 2020) was introduced by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
• 1992 – The Maastricht Treaty established the European Union.
• 1993 – Dissolution of Czechoslovakia.
• 1994 – Genocide in Rwanda
• 1994 – End of Apartheid in South Africa.
• 1997 – Handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China.

People

• Pope John Paul II, Pope in the 1990s (the last full decade he would serve as Pope until his death in 2005)
• Andre Agassi, American tennis player
• Pete Sampras, American tennis player
• Michael Schumacher, German formula 1 driver
• Backstreet Boys, American boy band
• Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysian Prime Minister from 1981 to 2003
• Slobodan Milošević, President of Serbia from 1989 to 2000
• Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990
• John Major, British Prime Minister from 1990 to 1997
• Tony Blair, British Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007
• George H. W. Bush, President of the United States until 1993
• Bill Clinton President of the United States from 1993–2001
• François Mitterrand, President of France from 1981 to 1995
• Jacques Chirac, President of France from 1995 to 2007
• Jiang Zemin, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1989 to 2002
• Alberto Fujimori President of Peru 1990–2000
• Fidel Castro, leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008
• Elizabeth II, British queen since 1952
• Madonna, singer-songwriter
• The Prodigy, electronic dance group
• Britney Spears, American singer
• Spice Girls, music group
• Mariah Carey, singer
• Celine Dion, singer
• Whitney Houston, singer
• Mel Gibson, actor
• Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the USSR 1985–1991
• Boris Yeltsin, President of Russia from 1991 to 1999
• Michael Jordan, American basketball player
• Tom Hanks, American actor
• Nicole Kidman, actress
• Sandra Bullock, American actress
• Tom Cruise, American actor
• Robin Williams, American actor and comedian
• Jim Carrey, Canadian-American actor and comedian
• George Clooney, American actor
• Brad Pitt, American actor
• Eddie Murphy, American actor and comedian
• Arnold Schwarzenegger, American actor
• Oprah Winfrey, American talk show host
• Ellen DeGeneres, American talk show host
• Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq 1979–2003
• Helmut Kohl, German chancellor until 1998
• Nelson Mandela, President of South Africa 1994–1999
• Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa 1999–2008
• Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli Prime Minister
• Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011
• Muammar al-Gaddafi, Libyan dictator from 1969 to 2011
• Nirvana, rock band
• Steven Seagal, American actor
• Julia Roberts, American actor/actress
• Gerhard Schröder, German Chancellor from 1998 to 2005
• Lech Wałęsa, President of Poland from 1990 to 1995
• Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader
• Kim Il-Sung, dictator of North Korea from 1948 to 1994
• Kim Jong-il, dictator of North Korea from 1994 to 2011
• Tupac Shakur, American rapper
• Diana, Princess of Wales
• Gianni Versace, fashion designer
• Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft
• Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple

Other websites

Source for some items:

• https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ Archived 2013-05-10 at the Wayback Machine
• http://m-w.com/