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Selected article
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Selected 1990s articles list
Portal:1990s/Selected article/1 Tickle Me Elmo is a children's toy from Tyco Preschool, a division of Tyco Toys, based on the character Elmo from the children's television show, Sesame Street. When squeezed, Elmo would chortle. When squeezed three times in a row, Elmo would begin to shake and laugh hysterically.
The toy was introduced in the United States in 1996, quickly becoming a fad. Some parents literally fought other parents in stores to purchase one for Christmas. The dolls' short supply due to the unexpected demand lead stores to increase their price drastically. Newspaper classifieds sold the plush toy for hundreds of U.S. dollars. People reported that the toy, originally sold at US $28.99, fetched as much as $1500. (Full article...)
Portal:1990s/Selected article/2 The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people in the small East African nation of Rwanda. Over the course of approximately 100 days (from the assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira on April 6) through mid-July, over 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate. Estimates of the death toll have ranged between 500,000 and 1,000,000, or as much as 20% of the country's total population. It was the culmination of longstanding ethnic competition and tensions between the minority Tutsi, who had controlled power for centuries, and the majority Hutu peoples, who had come to power in the rebellion of 1959–62 and overthrown the Tutsi monarchy. (Full article...)
Portal:1990s/Selected article/3 The Oklahoma City bombing was a terrorist bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. It would remain the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil until the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Oklahoma blast claimed 168 lives, including 19 children under the age of 6, The blast destroyed or damaged 324 buildings within a sixteen-block radius, destroyed or burned 86 cars, and shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings. The bomb was estimated to have caused at least $652 million worth of damage. Extensive rescue efforts were undertaken by local, state, federal, and worldwide agencies in the wake of the bombing, and substantial donations were received from across the country. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) activated eleven of its Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces, consisting of 665 rescue workers who assisted in rescue and recovery operations. (Full article...)
Portal:1990s/Selected article/4 Romeo + Juliet is a 1996 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy of the same name. It was directed by Baz Luhrmann and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the leading roles.
The film is an abridged modernization of Shakespeare's play. While it retains the original Shakespearean dialogue, the Montagues and the Capulets are represented as warring business empires and swords are replaced by guns (manufactured by 'Sword'). (Full article...)
Portal:1990s/Selected article/5 The Battle of Mogadishu (also referred to as the Battle of the Black Sea or, for Somalis, the Day of the Rangers (Somali: Maalintii Rangers)) was part of Operation Gothic Serpent and was fought on October 3 and 4, 1993, in Mogadishu, Somalia, between forces of the United States, supported by UNOSOM II, and Somali militia fighters loyal to the self-proclaimed president-to-be Mohamed Farrah Aidid who had support from armed civilian fighters. The battle is referred to as the First Battle of Mogadishu to distinguish it from the Second Battle of Mogadishu in 2006. (Full article...)
Portal:1990s/Selected article/6 Super Mario 64 (スーパーマリオ64, Sūpā Mario Rokujūyon) is a platform game, published by Nintendo and developed by its EAD division, for the Nintendo 64. Along with Pilotwings 64, it was one of the launch titles for the console. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, and later in North America, Europe, and Australia. Super Mario 64 has sold over eleven million copies. An enhanced remake called Super Mario 64 DS was released for the Nintendo DS in 2004. (Full article...)
Portal:1990s/Selected article/7 The 1998 United States embassy bombings were a series of attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998, in which hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous truck bomb explosions at the United States embassies in the East African capitals of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. The date of the bombings marked the eighth anniversary of the arrival of American forces in Saudi Arabia. The attacks were linked to local members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, brought Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri to the attention of the American public for the first time, and resulted in the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation placing bin Laden on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed would be credited for being the mastermind behind the bombings. (Full article...)
Portal:1990s/Selected article/8 American Beauty is a 1999 American drama film directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan Ball. Kevin Spacey stars as office worker Lester Burnham, who has a midlife crisis when he becomes infatuated with his teenage daughter's best friend, Angela (Mena Suvari). Annette Bening co-stars as Lester's materialistic wife, Carolyn, and Thora Birch plays their insecure daughter, Jane; Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper and Allison Janney also feature. The film has been described by academics as a satire of American middle class notions of beauty and personal satisfaction; analysis has focused on the film's explorations of romantic and paternal love, sexuality, beauty, materialism, alienation, self-liberation and redemption. (Full article...)
Portal:1990s/Selected article/9 USAir Flight 405 was a regularly scheduled domestic passenger flight between LaGuardia Airport in New York City, and Cleveland, Ohio. On March 22, 1992, a USAir Fokker F28, registration N485US, flying the route, crashed in poor weather in a partially inverted position in Flushing Bay, New York, shortly after liftoff from LaGuardia. The undercarriage lifted off from the runway; however, the airplane failed to gain lift, flying only several meters above the ground. The aircraft then veered off the runway and hit multiple obstructions before coming to rest in Flushing Bay, just beyond end of the runway. Of the 51 people on board, 27 were killed in the accident, including the captain and one of the cabin crew members. (Full article...)
Portal:1990s/Selected article/10 The Big Lebowski is a 1998 comedy film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Jeff Bridges stars as Jeff Lebowski, an unemployed Los Angeles slacker and avid bowler, who is referred to (and also refers to himself) as "The Dude". After a case of mistaken identity, The Dude is introduced to a millionaire also named Jeffrey Lebowski. When the millionaire Lebowski's trophy wife is later kidnapped by nihilists, he commissions The Dude to deliver the ransom to secure release. The plan goes awry when The Dude's friend Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) schemes to keep the full ransom. Steve Buscemi, Philip Seymour Hoffman, David Huddleston, Julianne Moore, Tara Reid, and John Turturro co-star in the film, which is narrated by a cowboy known only as "Stranger," played by Sam Elliott. (Full article...)
Portal:1990s/Selected article/11 The Cenepa War (January 26 – February 28, 1995), also known as the Alto Cenepa War, was a brief and localized military conflict between Ecuador and Peru, fought over control of an area in Peruvian territory (i.e. in the eastern side of the Cordillera del Cóndor, Province of Condorcanqui, Región Amazonas, Republic of Perú) near the border between the two countries. Mediation efforts of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and the United States paved the way for the opening of diplomatic conversations that ultimately led to the signing of a definitive peace agreement (the Brasilia Presidential Act) on 26 October 1998. The peace agreement was followed by the formal demarcation of the border on 13 May 1999 and the end of the multi-national MOMEP (Military Observer Mission for Ecuador and Peru) troop deployment on 17 June 1999 which effectively put an end to one of the longest territorial disputes in the Western Hemisphere. It is, as of 2017, the most recent military conflict in the Americas between countries contesting sovereignty over territory. (Full article...)