President Clinton signed into law the Family and Medical Leave Act, requiring employers to grant their employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for family or medical emergencies.
President Clinton signed into law the Motor Voter Registration Law, making it possible for people to register to vote at the same time that they obtained or renewed drivers' licenses and auto registrations.
President Clinton appoints Janet Reno as the first female Attorney General.
Middle Eastern terrorists exploded a bomb at the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in New York City. Five people were killed and more than 1,000 injured. The perpetrators were tried and convicted, receiving sentences up to life imprisonment.
President Clinton signed into law the Handgun Waiting Period Law (also known as the "Brady bill" in honor of Reagan press secretary, James Brady, who had been confined to a wheelchair after being seriously wounded in 1981 during an assassination attempt against President Reagan). The new law required a five-day waiting period for the purchase of a handgun, with provisions for reducing that period at such time as quick computer checks would allow gun dealers to determine that purchasers were not felons or mentally ill.
Seventy-two members of the Branch Davidian cult died when their compound near Waco, Texas burst into flames (April 19). The fire broke out while federal officials were forcing entry into the compound in an effort to carry out a court order. The cult leader, David Koresh, was accused of storing illegal firearms and mistreating cult members.
Heavy summer rains caused the Mississippi River to flood millions of acres of land along its banks. The flood killed several dozen people and caused billions of dollars of damage.
Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) signed an agreement in which the PLO promised to recognize Israel. Israel agreed to grant Palestinians limited self rule of Gaza and large sections of the West Bank.
The U.S. Senate ratified the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which called for an end to all trade barriers (tariffs) between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
President Clinton named Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the U.S. Supreme Court. She was a U.S. federal appeals judge who in the 1970s had won several key gender discrimination cases. She was quickly confirmed by the U.S. Senate, becoming the second woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.
The U.S. armed services announced that, for the first time, women would be allowed to participate in military combat.
Toni Morrison, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Beloved," became the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
OF
1993
February 26, 1993 - The World Trade Center is bombed by Islamic terrorists when a van parked below the North Tower of the structure explodes. Six people are killed and over one thousand are injured.
February 28, 1993 - The fifty-one day Waco standoff begins when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms attempt to arrest the Branch Davidian leader David Koresh on federal arms violations. Four agents and five members of the cult are killed in the raid. The siege would end on April 19 when a fire, started by the Davidians, killed seventy-five members of the group, including the leader.
June 27, 1993 - President Bill Clinton orders a cruise missile attack on the Iraqi intelligence headquarters in Baghdad, responding to the attempted assassination attempt cultivated by the Iraq Secret Service on former U.S. President George H.W. Bush during his visit to Kuwait two months before.
November 20, 1993 - The Senate Ethics Committee censures California Senator Alan Cranston for his participation with Charles Keating in the Savings and Loan scandal. The scandal had begun in the 1980s due to a wave of mismanagement, failed speculation, and fraud within the industry. By the end of this crisis, almost 800 savings and loans institutions responsible for real estate, automotive, personal and business loans in the United States had failed. It would eventually cost the U.S. government between $125-$150 billion to bail out the failed institutions.
November 30, 1993 - The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act is signed into law by President Bill Clinton.
A major earthquake struck just north of Los Angeles killing 51 people and causing $20 billion in damage.
Kurt Cobain, founder of grunge rock group Nirvana, committed suicide. This was a highly traumatic event for young people of his generation, comparable to the deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison in the 1970s.
Nelson Mandela became the first black to be elected president in South Africa's first interracial election. This was the culminating event in a long struggle by South African blacks to end apartheid which whites had imposed on them for many years. The election was also a victory for U.S. foreign policy, which had long demanded an end to racist policies in South Africa.
A former federal judge, Kenneth Starr, was selected to become the independent counsel (i.e., special prosecutor) investigating President and Mrs. Clinton's role in the Whitewater Development Corporation, an Arkansas land-development venture in the Ozarks.
North Korea barred U.N. inspectors from examining its nuclear reactors. After a tense year of negotiations, President Clinton's emissary, former President Jimmy Carter, persuaded the North Koreans to suspend their program to build a nuclear bomb.
For the first time in the history of major league baseball, the World Series was cancelled after a strike by the players resulted in the second half of the baseball season not being played.
Congress refused to enact Clinton's proposal for universal health insurance, a plan which would have extended health insurance to all Americans. Hopes for major health-care reform, at least during the first term of the Clinton presidency, were crushed.
The Violence against Women Act prescribed stronger protection for women who were victims of violent crime. It called for stronger penalties for rapists and other perpetrators as well as additional protections for their victims such as protection orders and better training for police and other crisis responders. This law has had a number of positive effects; in particular, there has been a sharp decrease in the rate of intimate partner violence against women.
After receiving authorization from the U.N., the U.S. prepared to invade Haiti in order to remove the military dictatorship of General Raul Cedras and restore the duly elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to power. Hours before the invasion force was scheduled to land, the dictator agreed to step down.
Republicans won a smashing victory in the mid-term congressional elections by capturing a majority in both the Senate and in the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. The centerpiece of the Republican House victory appeared to be the "Contract with America," a document that was mainly the work of House Whip Newt Gingrich, and consisted of 10 promises to the American people.
OF
1994
January 1, 1994 - The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect, creating a free trade zone between Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
June 12, 1994 - The bodies of Nicole Brown SImpson and Ronald Goldman are found outside her home in Los Angeles, California. Five days later, her husband, former football star O.J. Simpson is arrested for the crime, but is later acquitted on October 3, 1995. The Simpson case was one of the highest profile murder cases in the nation's history.
September 13, 1994 - President Bill Clinton signs the Assault Weapons Ban, which bars the use of these weapons for ten years.
September 14, 1994 - For the first time since 1904, the World Series of Major League Baseball is cancelled, this time due to a player's strike begun in August by the Major League Baseball Players Association.
October 8, 1994 - The President of the United Nations Security Council states that Iraq must withdraw its troops from the Kuwait border and cooperate with weapons inspectors. Iraq had threatened in September to withdraw their cooperation with UNSCOM inspectors, and began a deployment of Iraqi troops near the Kuwaiti border. A United States reaction to this development during the months of September and October included the deployment of its military force to Kuwait. On October 15, Iraq began to withdraw its troops from the Kuwait region.
November 8, 1994 - The Republican revolution concludes with the midterm elections when for the first time in forty years, the party gains control of both the Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.
The U.S. government announced that it would cease all nuclear testing.
Black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan called for a "Million Man March" of black men to Washington as a statement of assumption of personal responsibility. Declaring support for "the message," if not for "the messenger," many other black leaders joined in support of this action. Though falling short of a million participants, the march did attract large numbers of black men.
A bomb destroyed the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, including several children. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were arrested and charged with the crime. The media reported that McVeigh and Nichols might have committed the act in revenge for what they claimed to be the illegal assault by federal agents on the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas, exactly two years earlier. Nichols was sentenced to life in prison, while McVeigh was sentenced to death.
Leaders of the Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Serbs met near Dayton, Ohio and signed a U.S. sponsored agreement ending the civil war in Bosnia. The two sides agreed to divide Bosnia into two sections, one part to be ruled by Bosnian Serbs and the other to be governed by Bosnia Muslims and Bosnian Croats. The agreement called for the stationing of 6,000 peacekeeping troops, one-third of which would be provided by the U.S.
The so-called "trial of the century" ended when O.J. Simpson was found not guilty of the murders of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her acquaintance, Ron Goldman.
OF
1995
January 1, 1995 - The World Trade Organization (WTO) is created, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) formed from a series of post-war treaties on trade. The World Trade Organization is more highly structured than the previous GATT and counted seventy-six nations among its members in 1995.
January 31, 1995 - U.S. President Bill Clinton invokes emergency powers to extend a $20 billion loan to Mexico to avert a financial disaster that had begun on December 19, 1994 during a planned exchange rate correction between the Mexican peso and American dollar.
April 19, 1995 - Anarchists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols explode a bomb outside the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing one hundred and sixty-eight people in a domestic terrorism attack.
May 11, 1995 - One hundred and seventy nations decide to extend the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty indefinitely.
June 29, 1995 - For the first time, the Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian space station Mir.
July 27, 1995 - The Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C. is dedicated in ceremonies presided by President Bill Clinton and South Korean President Kim Yong-sam.
TWA Flight 800 exploded and crashed off of Long Island, New York, killing all 230 people on board. Despite early reports that it might have been an act of terrorism, a lengthy investigation indicated that the explosion was most likely caused by a mechanical defect within the plane.
"Gangsta rap" ("gangster rap"), a type of hip-hop music, became a controversial cultural phenomenon when its lyrics came under attack for their violent tone, celebration of outlaws and killing police officers, and hostility to women.
Pharmaceutical companies introduced a treatment for people afflicted with HIV which consisted of three or more drugs used in combination. Because HIV can mutate within the human body, it can become resistant to a single drug, making a combination necessary. The combination treatment has significantly reduced the mortality rate from HIV in industrialized countries where the treatment is affordable.
After initial hesitation, Clinton signed the historic Welfare Reform Act of 1996 which ended Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), a program that for 60 years had guaranteed federal money to families which were too poor to provide for their children. Instead, the new welfare law called on the federal government to give a certain amount of money to each state to help them run their own welfare program. To qualify for this federal money, states would have to require able-bodied welfare recipients to find work within 2 years. Welfare benefits are to be limited to a five-year lifetime maximum except in certain cases, such as severe medical disability. The law also limited welfare benefits to non-citizens, including legal aliens.
Clinton was reelected. The vote count was: B. Clinton (Dem) 45,628,667 p.v./379 e.v. R. Dole (Rep) 37,869,435 p.v./159 e.v. R. Perot (Reform) 7,874,283 p.v./ 0 e.v.
OF
1996
June 25, 1996 - The Khobar Towers bombing in Khobar, Saudi Arabia kills nineteen U.S. military personnel, destroying the majority of a six building apartment complex that was home to the 440th Fighter Wing. It was carried out by Islamic terrorists seeking removal of the U.S. presence in Saudi Arabia.
July 5, 1996 - At the Roslin Institute in Scotland, Dolly, the sheep, becomes the first mammal to be cloned. This begins a rampant debate on the ethics of the procedure in animals and the viability and morality of cloning in human beings.
July 19, 1996 - The Summer Olympics Games are opened in Atlanta, Geogia by U.S. President Bill Clinton. The games are positively known for the achievements of American track and field athlete Michael Johnson, who won both the 200 and 400 meter races, setting a new World Record in the 200, and for the victory of the American women's gymnastics team. These games would be marred, however, by the Centennial Park bombing of Olympic tourists on July 27, which killed one person and injured one hundred and eleven.
November 5, 1996 - President William J. Clinton defeats Republican Presidential candidate Bob Dole, as well as the second run of businessman Ross Perot. Clinton gained 49.2% of the popular vote, and increased his total in the Electoral College to 379. Dole gained 40.7% of the popular tally and 159 in the Electoral College. Perot's influence on this race was marginal compared to 1992, receiving only 8.4% of the vote in 1996.
December 5, 1996 - A speech by the Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan suggests that irrational exuberance may be causing the extraordinary runup of stock prices.
President Clinton named Madeleine Albright, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., to be secretary of state. She became the first woman to hold this position in the Cabinet.
A verdict was reached in the civil law suit brought against O.J. Simpson by the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. The families sued O.J. Simpson for the wrongful deaths of Nicole and Ron. Based on new evidence which had not been available in the 1995 criminal case, the civil jury found Simpson to be at fault and ordered him to pay millions of dollars in damages.
A Senate committee began an investigation of campaign fund-raising in the 1996 election. One allegation was that illegal contributions from China had found their way into the Democratic Party's coffers. Counter-allegations were made by Democrats regarding Republican fundraising practices.
The first cloning of a mammal took place when Scottish researchers using cells from an adult sheep produced a cloned sheep named "Dolly."
Timothy McVeigh was found guilty of first-degree murder in the 1996 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building that killed 168 people. He was sentenced to death for his crime.
The Senate began an investigation of the Internal Revenue Service, hearing from a number of individuals who charged that agency with abusing its power in the pursuit of tax revenues.
OF
1997
February 9, 1997 - The Simpsons, a ribald cartoon about a family of misfits, becomes the longest running prime-time cartoon television series in history, surpassing the Flintstones.
March 4, 1997 - Federal funding for any research into human cloning is barred by President Bill Clinton.
May 25, 1997 - Strom Thurmond becomes the longest serving member of the United States Senate at forty-one years and ten months.
July 8, 1997 - The NATO alliance expands into eastern Europe when it extends an invitation to the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to join the alliance in 1999.
October 29, 1997 - Iraq states that it will begin to shoot down U-2 surveillance planes used by United Nations UNSCOM inspectors attempting to mandate Saddam Hussein meet the provisions of surrender in the 1991 Gulf War.
January 26, 1998 - The Monica Lewinsky scandal begins when U.S. President Bill Clinton denies his relationship with the White House intern in a televised interview. This denial, and other denials to a grand jury investigation, would lead to the impeachment of the president.
February 23, 1998 - Osama bin Laden publishes his fatwa that announced a jihad against all Jews and Crusaders. This announcement would push forward the Islamic fundamentalist agenda toward terrorism against western interests.
May 18, 1998 - The United States Department of Justice and twenty states file the anti-trust case, U.S. versus Microsoft. On November 5, 1999, a preliminary ruling stated that Microsoft had monopoly power.
August 7, 1998 - Attacks on two United States embassies in Africa, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya kills two hundred and twenty-four and injures four thousand five hundred. The attacks are linked to Osama Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda organization. On August 13, the United States launches cruise missile strikes against Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in the Sudan.
September 29, 1998 - The United States Congress passes legislation, the Iraq Liberation Act, that states the U.S. wants to remove Saddam Hussein from power and replace it with a democracy.
October 29, 1998 - John Glenn, thirty-six years after becoming the first American astronaut to orbit the earth, becomes the oldest astronaut in space at seventy-seven years old. His role on the Space Shuttle Discovery flight tests the effect of space travel on aging.
January 1, 1999 - The Euro currency is introduced as a competitive tool to stem the power of the dollar and maximize the economic power of the European Union nations.
February 12, 1999 - President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the U.S. Senate in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The Senate trial, which began January 7 and needed a 2/3 majority to convict, ended with a 55-45 not guilty vote on the charge of perjury and 50-50 vote on the charge of obstruction of justice.
March 29, 1999 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 10,000 for the first time.
May 3, 1999 - A series of tornadoes strikes Oklahoma, including an F5 category storm that slams Oklahoma City, killing thirty-eight. The fastest wind speed ever recorded on earth is measured by scientists at 509 km (318 mph) during this tornado.
November 30, 1999 - The first major mobilization of the anti-globalization movement occurs in Seattle, Washington, during the days before the 1999 World Trade Organization meetings. The protests and rioting caused the cancellation of the WTO opening ceremonies.
