1993- You may have heard this story of a wife who chopped off her husband’s most cherished parts in a fit of rage. One summer night, Lorena Bobbitt got up for a drink of water and instead of going back to sleep, she brought a knife with her to the bedroom. As her husband slept, Lorena cut off his “babymaker” then took a drive to an open field where she threw it out of the window. After a long and tedious search, it was found and reattached to its owner.
1994- It took only three months for 20% of Rwanda’s population to become wiped out by a mass-killing. The death toll of the Rwandan Genocide is estimated to be between 500,000 to 1,000,000 people of the Tutsi ethnic group. Two different ethnic groups populated the vast majority of Rwanda and the competition for power came to a head as the majority Hutu people sought to take power from the minority Tutsis. Some Hutu people had to kill their Tutsis neighbors and friends to avoid being killed themselves. The bloodshed lasted for 100 days.
1995- Legal trouble started to heat up for O.J. Simpson when he got acquitted for the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend. A year before the trial ended, the two were found at Nicole’s condo and Simpson was immediately charged with the murders. A glove was found on the crime scene that was said to have his blood on it, along with the victims’ blood. Simpson was represented by Johnnie Cochran who helped gain the media’s attention with his famous phrase, “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” This is deemed as the most public criminal trial in history.
1996- Atlanta became the third American city to host Summer Olympic Games. It was chosen over Athens, Belgrade, Manchester, Melbourne, and Toronto as a chance to show how much the American South has changed since overcoming racial tensions from the Civil Rights movement and to show how the economy has grown. On July 27th, a security guard found a pipe bomb and informed the police, but one person died from the bombing, another man died of a heart attack and 111 people were injured.
1997- After 277 unsuccessful attempts, dreams of cloning living things became more real when a sheep was cloned from an adult cell of a live sheep. Dolly, named after Dolly Parton, was created with somatic cell nuclear transfer, a procedure that uses adult cells instead of embryonic ones. She gained a lot of media attention after her successful birth and she was even able to produce lambs of her own. Dolly developed arthritis, which caused her death at six-and-a-half years old.
1998- From a simple search engine to a powerful corporation, Google specializes in Internet-related services. It was founded in Menlo Park, California by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; PhD students at Stanford University. It started out as a privately owned company until it was offered to go public in 2004. Their mission statement is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
1999- On a spring day in Columbine, Colorado, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold stormed into Columbine High School and killed 13 people. The shooting was well thought out and implemented. During the shooting, there was a fire bomb that deterred firefighters from getting there and an additional 99 explosive devices. 24 students were injured and another 3 people were injured while trying to flee the school. To avoid apprehension, Eric and Dylan committed suicide.
2001- After the terrorist attacks that rocked America, the United States military forces invaded Afghanistan to find Osama bin Laden and capture him. He was accused of orchestrating the September 11 attacks. Bin Laden wouldn’t be captured until ten years later, but while the troops were there, they overthrew the Taliban government and interrupted the service of bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network. The War on Afghanistan was nicknamed Operation Enduring Freedom and is often referred to as the War on Terror.
2001- The way we currently share music and other files has been shaped by Napster, which started as a person-to-person file sharing service only to be brought down by copyright infringement. It focused mainly on sharing music and audio files in the MP3 format. Its 80 million users were able to download and share anything from unreleased songs, bootleg concert recordings, and more.
2002- This year marked the 50th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II rising to her throne. She inherited rule over seven countries after the death of her father, King George VI in 1956. It was called the Golden Jubilee since she already celebrated her 25th Silver Jubilee anniversary.
2003- Affirmative action became more pertinent to college students after the U.S. Supreme Court established its use in higher education. The amendment allowed colleges and universities to consider race as a positive factor when enrolling students. Some states have prohibited the use affirmative action in their respected institutions and there have been allegations about certain schools in the U.S. having a quota for minority acceptance.
2004- What was supposed to be an engaging performance turned into a nightmare for the FCC. Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake were rocking the crowd during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show to Timberlake’s “Rock Your Body”. When he tried ending with, “I’m gonna have you naked by the end of this song,”, and reached for Jackson’s costume, her right breast was exposed, tastefully adorned with nipple jewelry. The term ‘wardrobe malfunction’ was coined and now, all live TV performances have a 5-second delay to prevent similar slipups.
2005- Hurricane Katrina killed almost 2,000 people in its wake. Katrina struck parts of Florida, Mississippi, Cuba, and Louisiana The levees that were in place failed miserably, causing heavy flooding to 80% of New Orleans. Many people were evacuated, but due to the heavy floods, most were trapped or sought shelter in the Superdome. There was controversy over the delayed response efforts to New Orleans’ flooding and looting problems, which caused President Bush to be accused of racism.
2006- Who knew hashtags would begin to take over the world and how we communicate? At one point, it was reserved to represent numbers, but since the creation of Twitter, hashtags are a normal part of social media. In San Francisco, four guys put their heads together and created the social networking site with the intention of microblogging, or ‘tweeting’, thoughts at 140 characters or less. Eventually, it became one of the top ten most visited websites in the world.
2007- A new revolution of technology arrived with the releases of the Apple iPhone and Amazon Kindle. The iPhone changed the cell phone industry by becoming the first fully-functional touch screen smart phone. Since then, the iPhone has seen seven generations worth of model revisions Amazon also released its first generation e-book reader called the Kindle. It started off simply as a simple e-reader but has evolved to include more tablet functionality.
2008- History was made when America received its first African-American President-elect during the 2008 Presidential election. Barack Obama, a Senator from Illinois, would become the 44th President of the United States after beating his opponent, John McCain. During his presidency, he has provided an economic stimulus plan for the recession, initiated Obamacare, and repealed the controversial “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” doctrine of the Armed Forces.
2009- On October 1st, paleontologists treated the world to a project they had been working on for 15 years. The complete skeleton of Ardipithecus ramidus, the oldest human ancestor fossil found to date was unveiled. Nicknamed “Ardi”, the skeleton is that of a 110lb, 4.4 million year old, small-brained female.
2010- The Gulf of Mexico became engulfed in approximately 210 million gallons of crude oil starting in April of 2010. An explosion occurred upon the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, causing an oil leak. There were 126 people on board during the explosion; 11 of them have not been found since then. The oil leaked into the Gulf for 87 days straight, making it the biggest accidental oil spill in history. The spill affected animal habitats, fishing and tourism. There have been reports of people still suffering from health problems developed because of the spill.
2011- When celebrities do something that can ruin their image, usually they make a public apology speech or go into hiding. After being dismissed from his hit TV show, “Two and a Half Men” for derogatory comments towards the shows’ creator, Charlie Sheen began his highly publicized meltdown. His nonsensical comments made for an entertaining show to say the least. From, “Winning!” to being a “total bitchin’ rock star from Mars”, Sheen was somehow able to rejoin the normal world and still have a job. He really is winning.
2012- Colorado and Washington became the first two states to legalize marijuana after it became illegal in 1937. The Colorado Amendment 64 and the Washington Initiative 502 were passed by voters making recreational use of the drug. Users are now able to grow their own plants and even give a certain amount of it away as a gift.
2013- Some people view Edward Snowden as a hero while others may think of him as a traitor. Nonetheless, nothing stopped the former CIA and NSA employee from leaking classified documents to the media. The documents contained information about a global surveillance program that is run by the NSA and its partners. The person who leaked the Pentagon Papers remarked that Snowden’s leak was even bigger. Initially, the U.S. government was thought to have acted unconstitutionally, but upon further review, the operation has been deemed legal and Snowden is viewed as a fugitive. He’s currently living in Russia and is charged with espionage and theft of government property.
Photo snapped from video.
