Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Mariah Carey were playing on Walkmans across America.
Bob Saget was providing laughs to American homes on both America’s Funniest Home Videos and Full House where he played clean-freak Danny Tanner.
At the 64th Academy Awards, The Silence of the Lambs beat out Beauty and Beast, the first animated film up for best picture.
People were avidly reading Dean Koontz, Michael Crichton and John Grisham for spy thrillers and suspense, but The Bridges of Madison County won the hearts of readers.
A saxophone-playing Bill Clinton became Time magazine’s Man of the Year, and was elected to be the 42nd president of the U.S.
The Washington Redskins defeated the Buffalo Bills during Super Bowl XXVI, while Gloria Estefan got sports fan on their feet during the halftime show.
The Chicago Bulls—who reigned supreme throughout the 1990s, thanks to Michael Jordan—won the NBA championship.
Future tennis power couple Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi won their respective titles at Wimbledon…love, match!
“Unforgettable,” the innovative duet with the late Nat King Cole and his daughter Natalie, won not only Record of the Year but Album of the Year and Song of the Year at the 34th Annual Grammy Awards.
In the U.S., the average income per year was roughly $30K; the average cost of a new house was $122,500; a gallon of gas cost $1.05; and a new car was $16,950.
Hurricane Andrew slammed South Florida, costing $23.5B in damage.
Smoking or non? The first nicotine patch was introduced to help curb cigarette usage.
Long Island Lolita (Amy Fisher) shot her lover Joey Buttafuocco’s wife Mary Jo, spurring a lifetime of Lifetime-channel movies.
Hollywood had some harsh words for movie-goers with the now often repeated phrases, “You can’t handle the truth” from Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men and “There’s no crying in baseball” from Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own.
Troll dolls and the Super Soaker 100 were popular amongst kids, while their teenage counterparts devoured Matlock—NOT! They really consumed MTV’s The Real World.
Did you pick one of these for your kids? Ashley and Michael dominated the baby name lists.
Grunge and graffiti, the nature of Zen and irreverence in Anime influenced Pantone’s “nuanced ’90s” color palette.
British royals Princess Diana and Prince Charles separated, as did celebrity couple Woody Allen and Mia Farrow.
The age of the supermodel was upon us: Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Elle Macpherson, Kate Moss, Claudia Schiffer and Christy Turlington all walked the runway for mega bucks.
There goes Johnny: King of late-night Carson hosted The Tonight Show for his last time.
Nick Nolte was People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive (?!?!?!?).
The Golden Girls retired, thanking TV viewers for being their friend for seven seasons.
