1990s

High-income countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and Western Europe experienced steady economic growth for much of the decade during the Great Moderation.

This surge in demand spurred developers to seek solutions to reduce the time and cost of laying new fiber, in order to meet the growing needs of the public.

[62] The team began working on a dual-stage optical amplifier that enabled dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM), which allowed large amounts of data to be transmitted across the nation.

In 1992, chairman Lee Iacocca retired, and the company began a remarkable revival, introducing the new LH platform and "Cab-Forward" styling, along with a highly successful redesign of the full-sized Dodge Ram in 1994.

From 1995, the UNFCCC held annual summits on climate change, leading to the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in December 1997, a binding agreement signed by several developed countries.

[90] In 1996, (Anderson, et al. v. Pacific Gas & Electric, file BCV 00300) alleged contamination of drinking water with hexavalent chromium and the case was settled for (US) $333 million, a new record for a direct-action lawsuit.

Marketing campaigns aimed at young adults in wealthy English-Speaking Countries were informed by unscientific theories about selling to so-called Generation X and Baby boomers.

Films of this era include Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Lion King, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, and Mulan.

[122] Grunge became popular in the early 1990s due to the success of Nirvana's Nevermind, Pearl Jam's Ten, Alice in Chains' Dirt, Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger and Stone Temple Pilots' Core.

[124] Other successful alternative acts included Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., Nickelback, Creed, Radiohead, Gin Blossoms, Soul Asylum, Third Eye Blind, Faith No More, the Smashing Pumpkins, Live, Everclear, Bush, Screaming Trees and Ween.

Dr. Dre's 1992 album The Chronic provided a template for modern gangsta rap, and gave rise to other emerging artists of the genre, including Snoop Dogg.

[128][129] 1994 became a breakthrough year for punk rock in California, with the success of bands like Bad Religion, Social Distortion, Blink-182, Green Day, the Offspring, Rancid and similar groups following.

Popular artists included Moby, Fatboy Slim, Björk, Aphex Twin, Orbital, the Orb, the Chemical Brothers, Basement Jaxx, Todd Terry, 808 State, Primal Scream, the Shamen, the KLF and the Prodigy.

The rise of industrial music, somewhat a fusion of synthpop and heavy metal, rose to worldwide popularity with bands like Godflesh, Nine Inch Nails, Rammstein, Ministry and Marilyn Manson.

[133] Other artists that experienced success during this time included Clint Black, Sammy Kershaw, Aaron Tippin, Travis Tritt, Suzy Bogguss, Alan Jackson, Lorrie Morgan and the newly formed duo of Brooks & Dunn.

Female artists such as Reba McEntire, Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Deana Carter, LeAnn Rimes and Mary Chapin Carpenter all released platinum-selling albums in the 1990s.

Female pop icons Spice Girls took the world by storm since 1994, becoming the most commercially successful British group since the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin.

[138] Many musicians from Canada, such as Celine Dion, Maestro Fresh Wes, Snow, Barenaked Ladies, Shania Twain, Len, Sarah McLachlan, and Alanis Morissette became known worldwide.

In Japan, the J-pop genre emerged as part of the more general Heisei Power cultural movement, with B'z, Mr. Children, Southern All Stars, Yumi Matsutoya, Dreams Come True, Glay, Zard, Hikaru Utada, Namie Amuro, SMAP, Chage and Aska, L'Arc-en-Ciel, Masaharu Fukuyama, Globe, Tube, Kome Kome Club, Maki Ohguro, Tatsuro Yamashita, TRF, Speed, Wands, and Field of View became more popular for Japanese youth audiences during the Lost Decades.

The Tibetan Freedom Concert, organized by Beastie Boys and the Milarepa Fund, brought 120,000 people together in the interest of increased human rights and autonomy for Tibet from China.

The music video (directed by Jonas Åkerlund) featured a first-person POV of someone going clubbing, indulging in drugs and alcohol, getting into fist fights, abusing women and picking up a prostitute.

Series such as Roseanne, Coach, Empty Nest, Mr. Belvedere, 227, Cheers, The Cosby Show, Growing Pains, Night Court, The Hogan Family, Murphy Brown, Full House, The Wonder Years, A Different World, Amen, ALF, Perfect Strangers, Married... with Children, Family Matters, Charles in Charge, Saved by the Bell, My Two Dads, Major Dad, Newhart, Dear John, Designing Women, The Golden Girls, Who's the Boss?, Head of the Class, and Seinfeld, which premiered in the eighties, and Frasier, a spin-off of the 1980s hit Cheers were viewed throughout the 1990s.

In 1994, ER, which originally starred Anthony Edwards, Noah Wyle and George Clooney, was instantly a domestic and international success, lasting until 2009 and spawning similar series to compete against it, such as the more soap opera-esque Grey's Anatomy (2005–present), and the short lived Medicine Ball (1995).

Reality television was not an entirely new concept (An American Family aired on PBS in 1973) but proliferated for Generation X audiences with titles such as Judge Judy, Eco-Challenge, and Cops.

Cartoon Network would create shows like Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, Ed, Edd n Eddy, Johnny Bravo, and Courage the Cowardly Dog.

It featured well-produced, well-written, visual, and story content that came to showcase animation's potential for emotional and intellectual depth and integrity on par with live action media to its viewers.

Anime shows such as Sailor Moon, Digimon, Pokémon, Tenchi Muyo!, Berserk, Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Gundam Wing, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ranma ½, Yu Yu Hakusho, Slayers, Rurouni Kenshin, Initial D, Gunsmith Cats, Slam Dunk, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, Outlaw Star, to anime movies such as Akira, Vampire Hunter D, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Castle in the Sky, The Castle of Cagliostro, and imports by various distributors such as Viz, AnimEigo, Central Park Media, A.D.

The 1990s saw the rise of diverse musical trends, identifiable through the decade's top-selling pop songs and the continued prominence of established genres such as gangsta rap, grunge, industrial rock, and deep house.

Alternative hip hop gained visibility at the start of the decade, while the public's interest in independent music surged as a counter to commercial radio payola.

Some of the notable artists and bands of the 1990s include AC/DC, Ace of Base, Alanis Morissette, Alice in Chains, Backstreet Boys, Beck, Blur, Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Daft Punk, Depeche Mode, Destiny's Child, Eminem, Foo Fighters, Green Day, Lauryn Hill, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Nirvana, Oasis, Pearl Jam, Sound Garden, Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, Spice Girls, The Smashing Pumpkins, Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G., U2, Nas, and Wu-Tang Clan.

Hubble Space Telescope Gulf War Oslo Accords Internet Dissolution of the Soviet Union Dolly the sheep Death of Diana, Princess of Wales Rwandan genocide Second Congo War
From top left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope orbits the Earth after it was launched in 1990; American jets fly over burning oil fields in the 1991 Gulf War ; the Oslo Accords on 13 September 1993; the World Wide Web gains massive popularity worldwide ; Boris Yeltsin greets crowds after the failed August Coup , which leads to the dissolution 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 died in a 1997 car crash , and was mourned by millions; hundreds of thousands of Tutsi people are killed in the Rwandan genocide of 1994
Flag map of the world from 1992
Executive council building burns in Sarajevo after being hit by Bosnian Serb artillery in the Bosnian War .
Rwandan genocide : Bones of genocide victims in Murambi Technical School. Estimates put the death toll of the Rwandan genocide as high as 800,000 people.
The federal building that was bombed in the Oklahoma City bombing two days after the bombing, viewed from across the adjacent parking lot.
Nelson Mandela voting in 1994, after thirty years of imprisonment.
During the late 1990s, a move was made to remove American president Bill Clinton from power following the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal . This impeachment attempt did not succeed, and Clinton continued to serve as president until the end of his term in January 2001.
The 1999 İzmit earthquake , which occurred in northwestern Turkey, killed 17,217 and injured 43,959.
Hurricane Georges downed trees in Key West along the old houseboat row on South Roosevelt Blvd.
The crash site of El Al Flight 1862 in 1992.
Miniature model from MS Estonia
The Nasdaq Composite displaying the dot-com bubble , which ballooned between 1997 and 2000. The bubble peaked on Friday, 10 March 2000.
US, Canadian, and Mexican dignitaries initialing the draft North American Free Trade Agreement in October 1992
The Dow Jones Index of the 1990s
Boris Yeltsin and Bill Clinton share a laugh in October 1995.
The compact disc reached its peak in popularity in the 1990s, and not once did another audio format surpass the CD in music sales from 1991 throughout the remainder of the decade. By 2000, the CD accounted for 92.3% of the entire market share in regard to music sales. [ 44 ]
The logo created by The President's Council on the Year 2000 Conversion , for use on Y2K.gov
Eurostar logo 1994–2011
Dolly the sheep is the first mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell .
President Bill Clinton speaks on " Don't ask, don't tell " on 19 July 1993, which was the United States policy regarding homosexuals in the military implemented from 1994 to 2011.
First Lady Hillary Clinton addresses the United Nations Women's Conference on 5 September 1995, in which she gave her famous " Women's rights are human rights " speech.
An "I Believe Anita Hill " button pin in support of her sexual harassment allegations against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas . Hill testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee arguing against the confirmation of Thomas.
Women's rights demonstration in Paris, November 1995
The highest-grossing film of the decade was James Cameron 's Titanic (1997), which remains one of the highest-grossing films of all time . [ 95 ]
Blink-182 performing in 1995, whose 1999 album Enema of The State became a pivotal moment for contemporary pop punk
Seinfeld , which premiered on NBC in 1989, became a commercial success and cultural phenomenon by 1993.
Friends , which premiered on NBC in 1994 became one of the most popular sitcoms of all time. From left, clockwise: Lisa Kudrow , Jennifer Aniston , Courteney Cox , Matthew Perry , Matt LeBlanc , and David Schwimmer , the six main actors of Friends.
Michael Jordan , the most popular NBA player of the 1990s.