Top 5 Events of 1991

1.  Military: Operation Desert Storm, or the Persian Gulf War, was caused by the invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi forces. The war was fought between the belligerent Iraqi forces against the UN coalition forces consisting of 34 nations including the US, Canada, and Saudi Arabia. The UN believed they had the right to invade Kuwait because if Iraq was successful in conquering Kuwait, they would be in total control of a major supply of the world’s oil. The operation was very successful for the UN; Iraqi forces were devastated after the war and their economy was ruined. Moreover, Palestinians in Kuwait were expelled from the country. However, there are debates whether the war was successful because the UN allowed the corrupt dictator Saddam Hussein to remain in power in Iraq after the war.

2.  Politics: In 1991 for the first time, Boris Yeltsin was elected the first president of the new formed Russia. He ran with the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republican party. Yeltsin vowed to move from the Socialist command economy to a Free Market economy. He also forced upon democratic changes in the USSR, such as banning the Socialist party. Yeltsin was responsible both for preventing a return to totalitarian Communism, and keeping a nationalist government in Russia in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War.

3.   Figure: Rodney King, a famous African American icon, was allegedly arrested and beat up by 5 LA white police officers. He ticked off the officers because he was under the influenced and was in a 100mph car chase with them. Moreover, when King was arrested, he resisted arrest and therefore because of the adrenaline of the officers and the amount of stress they had, the officers took that upon King. Even though many view this move as “racist” because 5 white men were beating up a black man, it is well deserved because Rodney King was under the influenced and resisted arrest.

4.   Film: A charming and warm romantic fantasy, Disney presented their animated tale Beauty and the Beast on November 13^th, 1991. Turned into a beast because of his selfishness, the “beast” must love and be loved back in order to regain his human form. The plot depicts his journey to find someone he can love and eventually finds a woman named Belle that helps him become human again by showing her love for him. Beauty and the Beast became the third highest-grossing film of 1991 and received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.

5.   Athletics: Magic Johnson, a renowned basketball player, retires in 1991 after finding out that he was positive for HIV. Johnson was honored as one of the players in the top 50 basketball players that ever lived and became part of the Hall of Fame in 2002. Before he retired, he played as the point guard for LA Lakers and led them to win the title 5 times and became the Most Valuable Player 3 times. After his retirement he has been an active participant to reduce HIV prevention, working as a business man, and commentating basketball for NBC.

Top 5 Events of 1990

1.  Political: Nelson Mandela is released from the South African prison after being held there for 27 years. He was a political leader and freedom fighter in South Africa in the mid and late 20^th century trying to end apartheid, which is a system of discrimination and segregation of a group of people because of their race, especially blacks in South Africa. Minority white population got the best jobs, housing and schools, while the majority black population were taught they were racially inferior. However, since only about 12.5% of the population supported apartheid and Mandela’s non-violent approaches to end apartheid was prominent in South Africa, the fall of Apartheid seemed inevitable and therefore soon ended in 1990.

2.  Music: Ice Ice Baby by Vanila Ice and You Can’t Touch This by MC Hammer. The hip-hop song You Can’t Touch This has sold more than 18 million copies so far. It gained many platinum awards by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). It soon created many pop culture phrases such as “Hammertime.” Written by Vanilla Ice and DJ Earthquake, Ice Ice Baby was the first hip-hop song to reach the top of the Billboard charts. Robert Van Winkle, aka Vanilla Ice, wrote this song when he was just 16, which Blender ranked 5^th on a list of the “50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs Ever.”

3. TV show: Law and Order: Known as one of the longest and most famous police and legal drama shows in US history, Law and Order debut in the fall of 1990 on NBC. In each episode, people are represented by two equally important groups: the police and the district attorneys. The police investigate the crime and the district attorneys prosecute the offenders. It was so prominent that the show was renewed 20 times before having a season finale of its 20^th season in 2010.

4. Film: Home Alone: This is probably everyone’s favorite and well-known light-hearted movie on those family nights. Starring Macaulay Culkin as the “innocent” 8 year old boy, when Culkin is left home by his own by his vacationing family just before Christmas, it is up to his wits and intelligence to defend the house from burglars. As of 2009, it is the highest grossing comedy of all time, grossing 476 billion dollars.

5. History: Berlin Crisis and the destruction of the wall: After the wall stood for 29 years separating Democratic West and Communist East. It was built by the former USSR to prevent the citizens of the east from escaping to the free west. After WWII, Germany was divided into for zones for each of the main powers of the Allies: France, Germany, Great Britain, and the USSR. The instability of the Communist East and the numerous protested led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the slow reunification of Germany. The Berlin Wall is considered one of the major symbols on the Cold War and the tensions between the US and USSR.