1990 Hibble telescope ls launched
Events
- The Congo Wars began in the 1990s.
- The Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991)
- The Yugoslav Wars (1991–1995) followed the breakup of Yugoslavia, beginning on 25 June 1991, after the republics of Croatia and Slovenia declared independence from Yugoslavia.
- The Kosovo War (1998–1999)
- The Troubles in Northern Ireland (1998) involved 30 years of conflict that ended on 10 April 1998, when the Good Friday Agreement was signed.
- Gulf War oil spill: Resulting from actions taken during the Gulf War in 1991 by the Iraq military, the oil spill caused considerable damage to wildlife in the Persian Gulf, especially in areas surrounding Kuwait and Iraq.
- 28 September 1994: The car ferry MS Estonia sinks in the Baltic Sea, killing 852 people.
- 4 October 1992: El Al Flight 1862, a Boeing 747 cargo airplane heading to Tel Aviv, suffered physical engine separation of both right-wing engines (#3 and #4) just after taking off from Schiphol and crashed into an apartment building in the Bijlmer neighbourhood of Amsterdam while attempting to return to the airport. A total of 43 people were killed, including the plane’s crew of three and a “non-revenue passenger.” Several others were injured.
- Portable CD players, introduced during the late 1980s, became very popular and profoundly impacted the music industry and youth culture during the 1990s.
- The development of web browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer makes surfing the World Wide Web easier and more user-friendly.
- In the United Kingdom, the first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep was confirmed by the Roslin Institute, and was reported by global media on 26 February 1997. Dolly would trigger a raging controversy on cloning, and bioethical concerns regarding possible human cloning continue to this day.
- Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990 and revolutionized astronomy. Unfortunately, a flaw in its main mirror caused it to produce fuzzy, distorted images. This was corrected by a Space Shuttle repair mission in 1993.
- The Global Positioning System (GPS) becomes fully operational.
- Construction started in 1998 on the International Space Station.
Literature
- 1990 in literature –
John McGahern’s Amongst Women;
W. G. Sebald’s Vertigo;
Raphael Patai’s The Hebrew Goddess;
Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens;
Robert Jordan’s The Eye of the World;
Maeve Binchy’s Circle of Friends;
Brian Friel’s play Dancing at Lughnasa first performed.
Death of Roald Dahl, Dodie Smith, Malcolm Forbes, Alberto Moravia, Walker Percy, Anya Seton, Patrick White - 1991 in literature –
José Saramago’s O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo (The Gospel According to Jesus Christ);
Norman Rush’s Mating;
Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho;
Josephine Hart’s Damage;
Rohinton Mistry’s Such a Long Journey;
P. J. O’Rourke’s Parliament of Whores;
Henning Mankell’s Mördare utan ansikte (Faceless Killers – first in the Wallander series);
Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander;
Koji Suzuki’s Ring;
Ken Follett’s Night Over Water;
Agatha Christie’s Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories.
Death of Graham Greene, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Elisaveta Bagriana, Jerzy Kosiński, Angus Wilson, Frank Yerby - 1992 in literature –
Harry Mulisch’s De Ontdekking van de Hemel (The Discovery of Heaven);
Salman Rushdie’s Imaginary Homelands;
Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient;
Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses;
Jim Cartwright’s play The Rise and Fall of Little Voice;
Michael Connelly’s The Black Echo;
Barry Unsworth’s Sacred Hunger;
Dean Koontz’s Hideaway; R. L. Stine’s Goosebumps.
Death of Alex Haley, Angela Carter, George MacBeth, Isaac Asimov, Iceberg Slim, Richard Yates, Audre Lorde - 1993 in literature –
Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting;
E. Annie Proulx’ The Shipping News;
Sebastian Faulks’s Birdsong;
Richard Paul Evans’s The Christmas Box;
Ken Follett’s A Dangerous Fortune.
Death of Kobo Abe, Anthony Burgess, William Golding, William L. Shirer - 1994 in literature –
Herta Müller’s Herztier (The Land of Green Plums);
Carol Shields’s The Stone Diaries;
Terry Goodkind’s Wizard’s First Rule;
Antonio Tabucchi’s Pereira Maintains.
Death of Elias Canetti, James Clavell, Ralph Ellison, Eugène Ionesco - 1995 in literature –
James Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy;
José Saramago’s Ensaio sobre a cegueira (Blindness);
Haruki Murakami’s Nejimaki-dori kuronikuru (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle);
Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials;
Samuel R. Delany’s Hogg;
Dean Koontz’s Intensity;
Ken Follett’s A Place Called Freedom;
Bernard Cornwell’s The Winter King.
Death of Gerald Durrell, Kingsley Amis, Olga Ivinskaya (mistress of Boris Pasternak), Patricia Highsmith, Stephen Spender, Toni Cade Bambara - 1996 in literature –
Inaugural International Dublin Literary Award and Orange Prize for Fiction awarded;
David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest;
Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes;
George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire;
Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club;
Tim Lahaye, Jerry B. Jenkins’s Left Behind;
Ken Follett’s The Third Twin.
Death of Erma Bombeck, Joseph Brodsky, Marguerite Duras, Timothy Leary, Carl Sagan - 1997 in literature –
J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter;
Don DeLillo’s Underworld;
Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things;
Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain;
Patrick Marber’s play Closer first performed;
Agatha Christie’s While the Light Lasts and Other Stories and The Harlequin Tea Set.
Death of Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, James Dickey, James A. Michener, P. H. Newby, Kathy Acker - 1998 in literature –
Orhan Pamuk’s Benim Adim Kirmizi (My Name Is Red);
Michael Cunningham’s The Hours;
Julian Barnes’s England, England;
Alice McDermott’s Charming Billy;
Ian McEwan’s Amsterdam;
Beryl Bainbridge’s Master Georgie;
Michel Houellebecq’s Les Particules élémentaires (Atomised);
Michael Connelly’s Blood Work;
Bret Easton Ellis’s Glamorama;
Louis Sachar’s Holes;
Diana Wynne Jones’ Dark Lord of Derkholm;
Ken Follett’s The Hammer of Eden.
Death of Carlos Castaneda, Octavio Paz, Lawrence Sanders, Benjamin Spock, Dorothy West, Grace Paley, Ted Hughes, Rumer Godden - 1999 in literature –
J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace;
Joanne Harris’s Chocolat;
Ha Jin’s Waiting;
Colm Tóibín’s The Blackwater Lightship;
Julia Donaldson’s The Gruffalo;
Neil Gaiman’s Stardust;
Steven Erikson’s Gardens of the Moon.
Death of Iris Murdoch, Sarah Kane, Joseph Heller, Mario Puzo, John F. Kennedy Jr.