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1991 Fun Facts, Trivia and History |
Table of Contents Quick Facts from 1991: |
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Top Ten Baby Names of 1991:Ashley, Jessica, Brittany, Amanda, Samantha, Michael, Chris, Topher, Matthew, Joshua, Andrew |
Fashion Icons and Sex Symbols:Elle Macpherson |
Hollywood Hunks and Leading Men:Gérard Depardieu, Patrick Swayze |
“The 1991 Quotes:”“Hello Clarice” “I crap bigger than you.” “The few, the proud, the Marines.” “The quicker picker-upper” “Hasta La Vista Baby” |
Time Magazine’s Man of the Year:Ted Turner |
Miss America:Marjorie Vincent (Oak Park, IL) |
Miss USA:Kelli McCarty (Kansas) |
The Scandals:Kentucky Fried Chicken officially changed its name to KFC. Conspiracists claimed that it was because they weren’t selling actual chickens but some cloned, headless chicken bodies. So, the original name was supposedly shortened so it would no longer be “false advertising.” Paul ‘Pee-Wee’ Herman Reubens was caught in adult theater doing an inappropriate public act. Cannibal serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was captured. He had killed and sometimes eaten 17 people. |
| Tailhook Scandal: Marines getting rowdy and inappropriate with the female marines in Las Vegas. |
RIP:Senator John Heinz in an airplane/helicopter crash over Lower Merion Township, PA. Eddie Vedder wrote the song, Jeremy, because he thought it was important to give meaning to the actions of Jeremy Wade Delle, a high school student who shot himself in front of his English class in 1991. Redd Foxx died of an actual heart attack onset of The Royal Family in 1991; everyone thought it was all part of the fake heart attack act he was known for on Sanford & Son. |
The Friendship Paradox:A phenomenon that was first observed in 1991. On average, most people have fewer friends than their friends have. At the same time, they believe they have more friends than their friends have. |
World News:Soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev was in space when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Unable to return, he stayed in space for 10 months. He was supposed to do military service during that time, and there are reports that the army almost issued a desertion warrant until they realized he wasn’t on the planet. Women in Switzerland didn’t gain the right to vote in federal elections until 1971. They also couldn’t vote locally in the canton of Appenzell until 1991. The record for most passengers ever carried by a commercial airliner is 1,088, by an El Al Boeing 747 during Operation Solomon, which involved the evacuation of Ethiopian Jews from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and started on May 24, 1991. This figure includes two babies born on the flight. During the Soviet coup attempt of 1991, the Relcom network was used to spread the news about the event worldwide while the coup perpetrators were trying to suppress mass media activity through the KGB. Boris Yeltsin has credited them for defeating the Communists. |
Pop Culture Facts & History:The term “Carjacking” was coined by a Detroit crime reporter who wanted an easier way to report RAUDAA, which stood for Robbery, Armed, Unauthorized Driving Away of an Automobile. In 1991, America’s best-selling “car” was the Little Tikes Cozy Coupe, selling about 500,000 vehicles. A man found a first printing of the Declaration of Independence, inside the frame of a $4 painting he’d bought at a flea market. It was later sold at auction for $2.4 million. In a 1991 New York Supreme Court case. In Stambovsky v. Ackley (aka The Ghostbusters Ruling), the court ruled that a seller must disclose or inform the purchaser of a haunting of a property. The For Dummies book series started with DOS for Dummies in 1991. The creator overheard someone in a bookshop ask if “a book about DOS for dummies like me” existed. Since then, the series has grown to over 6,000 titles. In 1991, the first major online services provider, CompuServe, charged $5.00 an hour. SanDisk produced the first flash-based SSD in a 2.5-inch hard disk drive form factor for IBM with a 20 MB capacity priced at about $1000. The little plastic ball in cans of Guinness Beer won the Queen’s Award for Technological Advancement, beating the Internet and Email. 17473 Freddiemercury is an asteroid discovered in 1991, named in memory of Freddie Mercury. The Sims’ game designer, Will Wright, was inspired to create a “virtual dollhouse” after losing his home during the Oakland firestorm of 1991 and rebuilding his life. The Lenin Was a Mushroom Hoax: a spoof interview on Soviet TV that purported that Vladimir Lenin ate so many magic mushrooms that he became one himself. Because it was presented so thoughtfully, many thousands of Soviet people believed the interview was genuine. The character of Wilson in Home Improvement was based on Time Allen’s childhood memories of being too short to look over his fence to see his neighbors. PBS produced the kid’s game show Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? in 1991 after a National Geographic survey showed 1/4 of Americans couldn’t find the USSR or the Pacific Ocean on a world map Silence Of The Lambs won the big five Oscars – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Writing. Charlie Sheen got so convinced of a death scene in the second film of The Flower of Flesh and Blood series that he contacted the FBI, suggesting that it was a snuff film. It wasn’t. Angela Lansbury (Mrs. Potts) from Beauty and the Beast sang Tale as Old as Time in a single take after being initially against it because she thought her “aging singing voice” wasn’t suited for the song. At Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch, Liz Taylor married hubby # 7, Larry Fortensky. They met in a rehab center. In 1990, the high school dropout rate in Sevierville, Dolly Parton’s hometown, was over 30%. In 1991, she launched The Buddy Program, offering 7th and 8th graders $500 if they graduated. The dropout rate for those classes dropped to 6% and has generally retained that average. The Beastie Boys have sold 20 million records in the United States, making them the biggest-selling rap group since Billboard began recording sales in 1991. Rolling Stone Magazine originally gave Nirvana’s Nevermind album a 3-star rating in 1991. They now give it five stars and rank it as the 17th greatest album of all time. “Teen Spirit” was a real deodorant – one of Kurt Cobain’s friends spray-painted “Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit” on his wall because Kurt’s then-girlfriend wore Teen Spirit, which led to the title of the 1991 Nirvana hit song. The FDA approved Nicoderm CQ’s nicotine patch. The Calloway Golf Company’s ‘Big Bertha’ club was introduced. The club revolutionized how the game of golf would be played. Cost of a Super Bowl ad in 1991: $800,000 |
Doomsday Clock:17 minutes to midnight, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. |
Unsung Hero of 1991:Tim Berners-Lee came up with the idea of making ‘links’ on his computer, then others, creating “The Information Mine” (TIM) later renamed the “World Wide Web”. He renounced patent rights because it “would have scuppered the whole thing. It never would have taken off.” |
The Habit:The cool kids were listening to Nirvana’s Nevermind album. |
1st Appearances & 1991’s Most Popular Christmas Gifts, Toys and Presents:Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys and action figures, Rollerblade Barbie, Super Soaker water gun, K’Nex, Myst |
Popular and Best-selling Books From 1991:A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley |
Broadway Show:Miss Saigon (Musical) Opened on April 11, 1991, and closed on January 28, 2001 |
Best Film Oscar Winner:Dances with Wolves (presented in 1991) |
1991 Entries to The National Film Registry:2001: A Space Odyssey (released in 1968) |
The Big Movies: (according to boxofficemojo)1. Terminator 2: Judgement Day |
1991 Most Popular TV Shows:1. 60 Minutes (CBS) |
1991 Billboard Number One Songs:December 8, 1990 – January 4, 1991: January 5 – January 18: January 19 January 25: January 26 – February 8: February 9 – February 22: February 23 – March 8: March 9 – March 23: March 23 – March 29: March 30 – April 12: April 13 – April 19: April 20 – April 26: April 27 – May 10: May 11 – May 17: May 18 – May 24: May 25 – June 7: June 8 – June 14: June 15 – July 19: July 20 – July 26: July 27 – September 23: September 14 – September 20: September 21 – October 4: October 5 – October 11: October 12 – November 1: November 2 – November 8: November 9 – November 22: November 23 – November 29: November 30 – December 6: December 7, 1991- January 24, 1992: |
Sports:World Series Champions: Minnesota Twins |
More 1991 Facts and History Resources:Most Popular Baby Names (BabyCenter.com) |
