1993 History, Facts, and Trivia

Quick Facts from 1993

• World-Changing Event: Intel introduced the Pentium microprocessor, and the Mosaic web browser — the first graphical browser accessible to ordinary users — was released. The internet went from an academic and military tool to something anyone could navigate. The world had no idea what it had just been handed.
• Top Song: Dreamlover by Mariah Carey, which spent eight consecutive weeks at #1; Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You had held the top spot for 14 weeks to close out 1992 and open 1993
• Must-See Movies: Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Mrs. Doubtfire, The Fugitive, Sleepless in Seattle, and The Firm
• The Most Famous People in America: Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts
• Notable Books: The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield, The Giver by Lois Lowry, and The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller
• Sony Walkman: $29.98; Domino’s large pizza (two toppings): $9.99; gallon of gas: $1.07; average new home: $116,000
• Super Bowl ad (30 seconds): $850,000
• The Funny Guy: Jeff Foxworthy; The Other Funny Guy: Bill Hicks; The Funny Late Night Host: Jay Leno
• Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Rooster, associated with confidence, hard work, and a directness that occasionally makes everyone in the room uncomfortable
• The Conversation: Did you see Jurassic Park? And what do you think about Waco?

Top Ten Baby Names of 1993

Girls: Jessica, Ashley, Sarah, Samantha, Emily
Boys: Michael, Christopher, Matthew, Joshua, Tyler

Fashion Icons and Sex Symbols

Claudia Schiffer, Elle Macpherson

Hollywood Hunks and Leading Men

Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Redford

The Quotes

“I’m not a role model. Just because I dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids.” — Charles Barkley, Nike commercial

“Got Milk?” — California Milk Processor Board

“The truth is out there.” — The X-Files

Time Magazine’s Men of the Year

The Peacemakers, represented by Yasser Arafat, F.W. de Klerk, Nelson Mandela, and Yitzhak Rabin — all recognized for their roles in the Oslo Accords and the end of apartheid, two of the most consequential peace efforts of the century

Miss America and Miss USA

Miss America: Leanza Cornett, Jacksonville, FL
Miss USA: Kenya Moore, Michigan

We Lost in 1993

Audrey Hepburn, actress and UNICEF humanitarian ambassador, died January 20, 1993, near her home in Lausanne, Switzerland, at age 63, from colon cancer. She had won Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards — one of only a handful of EGOT achievers — and had spent her final years traveling for UNICEF to impoverished countries in Africa and Latin America.

River Phoenix, an actor whose performances in Stand by Me, Running on Empty, and My Own Private Idaho had established him as one of the most talented of his generation, died October 31, 1993, at age 23, of a drug overdose on the sidewalk outside the Viper Room nightclub in West Hollywood. His brother Joaquin called 911. The call was recorded and later broadcast.

Arthur Ashe, the only Black man to win Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, and the Australian Open, and one of the most respected figures in American sports, died February 6, 1993, at age 49, of pneumonia related to AIDS, which he had contracted from a blood transfusion during heart surgery. He had been a champion for civil rights and social justice throughout his career and continued advocating while ill.

Brandon Lee, actor and son of Bruce Lee, died March 31, 1993, at age 28, during the filming of The Crow in Wilmington, North Carolina. A fragment of a bullet lodged in the barrel of a prop gun was discharged when a live round was fired. He died during surgery eight hours later. The film was completed using existing footage and doubles and released in 1994 to strong reviews.

Born in 1993

Ariana Grande, Pete Davidson, Chance the Rapper, Jordan Spieth, Niall Horan, Meghan Trainor, and Olivia Rodrigo were all born in 1993 — a class that would eventually account for a significant share of the Billboard Hot 100 and the Grammy nominations lists.

America in 1993 — The Context

Bill Clinton was inaugurated as the 42nd President on January 20, 1993. He was 46 years old — the third-youngest president in American history — and the first Baby Boomer to hold the office. His election had been set to Fleetwood Mac’s Don’t Stop, which the band played at the inaugural celebration. The Republican coalition that had dominated presidential politics since 1980 had fractured, partly because of Ross Perot’s independent campaign.

The economy was recovering from the 1990-91 recession. The deficit was enormous. The culture wars — arguments about abortion, gay rights, multiculturalism, and political correctness — that would define American political discourse for the next 30 years were accelerating. The World Trade Center was bombed in February. The Branch Davidian siege in Waco ended in April in fire and death. The internet was quietly becoming accessible to ordinary citizens. The year had an unsettled quality — as if something enormous was ending and something equally enormous was beginning, and no one was quite sure which would arrive first.

The World Trade Center Bombing

On February 26, 1993, a van packed with over 1,200 pounds of explosives detonated in the underground parking garage of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The blast killed six people, injured over 1,000, and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands from the building. The attackers had intended to collapse the North Tower into the South Tower and had calculated the explosives would bring down both buildings. The structural design of the towers prevented this. The bombing was the work of Islamic extremists with connections to al-Qaeda. Six men were convicted. The trade center remained standing for eight more years.

The Waco Siege

On February 28, 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms raided the compound of the Branch Davidians, a religious sect led by David Koresh, outside Waco, Texas, following reports of illegal weapons stockpiling. Four ATF agents and six Branch Davidians were killed in the initial raid. A 51-day standoff followed, with the FBI surrounding the compound. On April 19, 1993, federal agents moved in with tanks and tear gas. Fires broke out inside the compound — the exact cause was disputed — and 76 people died, including Koresh and 25 children. The events at Waco became a central grievance for the anti-government militia movement that produced the Oklahoma City bombing two years later.

Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park, directed by Steven Spielberg and released June 11, 1993, was the highest-grossing film in history at the time, earning over $1 billion worldwide. Its computer-generated dinosaurs represented the most convincing and complex digital creatures ever put on screen and effectively replaced practical effects as Hollywood’s default for large-scale spectacle. The T-Rex attack scene became the defining sequence of 1990s cinema. Despite the title, most of the dinosaurs depicted were from the Cretaceous period, not the Jurassic.

The McDonald’s Super Size option began as a Jurassic Park cross-promotion called “Dino Size.” It was so successful that after the movie left theaters, the option remained under its new name. It was quietly discontinued in 2004.

Schindler’s List

Steven Spielberg directed Schindler’s List in black and white, on location in Kraków, Poland, and released it in December 1993. The film documented Oskar Schindler’s efforts to save over 1,200 Jewish workers from the Holocaust. It won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. When Spielberg screened the finished film for composer John Williams, Williams walked outside for several minutes before returning and saying the film needed a better composer than him. Spielberg replied: “I know, but they’re all dead.”

Spielberg submitted Schindler’s List to complete his bachelor’s degree at California State University, Long Beach, where he had been enrolled since 1968 and repeatedly dropped out to work. The film fulfilled the requirements of his advanced filmmaking course.

Pop Culture Facts and History

Michael Jackson gave his first television interview in 14 years to Oprah Winfrey on February 10, 1993, broadcast live from his Neverland Ranch. It was watched by approximately 90 million viewers in the United States, the fourth-largest audience in American television history at the time. Jackson discussed his childhood, his changing appearance, and denied rumors about his personal life. He also announced he was in a relationship with Brooke Shields.

The Super Bowl XXVII halftime show was performed by Michael Jackson, whose appearance completely transformed the event’s cultural standing. Before 1993, the Super Bowl halftime show had featured university marching bands and novelty acts. Jackson’s 12-minute performance — which he began by standing motionless for 90 seconds before the crowd lost its composure — was watched by an estimated 133 million people and permanently established the Super Bowl halftime show as the most-watched live entertainment event in American television. Every subsequent decision about halftime entertainment traces back to January 1993.

Nirvana performed their MTV Unplugged session on November 18, 1993, at Sony Music Studios in New York. The performance — featuring mostly cover songs and deep album cuts rather than hits, played by candlelight with lilies in the background — was released as an album after Kurt Cobain’s death in 1994 and became one of the most celebrated live recordings in rock history. Cobain was 26.

Prince changed his name on June 7, 1993, to an unpronounceable symbol combining the male and female signs — a response to a contract dispute with Warner Bros., which he said owned the name “Prince.” He began appearing in public with the word “SLAVE” written on his cheek. The press called him “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince” until he reclaimed the name in 2000 when his Warner Bros. contract expired.

The first Got Milk? advertisement ran in California in October 1993, directed by Michael Bay. It depicted a history enthusiast who, in the middle of answering the question of who shot Alexander Hamilton, runs out of milk while eating a peanut butter sandwich and cannot speak clearly enough to win the radio prize. The campaign ran for 20 years. The answer he was trying to give about Aaron Burr was correct.

Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List were both directed by Steven Spielberg and released in the same calendar year. This is the only instance in film history of a single director releasing both the highest-grossing film of the year and a Best Picture Oscar winner.

The X-Files premiered on Fox on September 10, 1993. FBI agents Mulder and Scully investigated paranormal phenomena and government conspiracies across nine seasons. The show defined a significant strand of 1990s culture — skeptical of institutions, open to the possibility that the government was hiding something important, and convinced that the truth, whatever it was, was out there somewhere.

Beavis and Butt-Head premiered on MTV on March 8, 1993, and became the network’s highest-rated series. Mike Judge’s two heavy-metal-obsessed teenagers commented on music videos and stumbled through suburban America, destroying everything they touched. The show was blamed by critics for a range of social pathologies, apparently never having met a teenage boy.

The Mosaic web browser was released in January 1993, making the World Wide Web accessible to ordinary users through a graphical interface for the first time. Before Mosaic, navigating the internet required command-line text input. After Mosaic, anyone could click on a link. The internet was no longer a tool for specialists. Within two years, Mosaic’s team had founded Netscape, and the commercial internet had begun.

Michael Jordan retired from basketball on October 6, 1993, at age 30, having won three consecutive NBA championships and a third consecutive Finals MVP award. He cited the murder of his father that summer — James Jordan was shot during a roadside robbery as a factor in the decision. He announced he would pursue a career in professional baseball. He returned to basketball in March 1995.

Monica Seles was stabbed in the back by a deranged fan of Steffi Graf during a match in Hamburg, Germany, on April 30, 1993. The attacker, Günter Parche, drove a 9-inch boning knife into her back while she sat in her chair between games. He was motivated by a desire to see Graf reclaim the world number-one ranking. Seles survived but did not return to professional tennis for two and a half years, and never quite regained her pre-attack dominance.

Jim Abbott, born without a right hand, pitched a no-hitter for the New York Yankees against the Cleveland Indians on September 4, 1993, at Yankee Stadium. Abbott had developed a technique for switching his glove from his left arm stump to his left hand immediately after releasing each pitch so he could field. The no-hitter is among the most celebrated individual performances in baseball history.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was confirmed to the Supreme Court on August 3, 1993, by a vote of 96-3, becoming the second woman to serve on the Court after Sandra Day O’Connor. She was 60 years old. She went on to serve for 27 years and became one of the most culturally prominent Supreme Court justices in American history,  a pop culture icon in ways Supreme Court justices had never been before.

The Barbie Liberation Organization, an activist art group, switched the voice boxes of approximately 300 Talking Barbie dolls and G.I. Joe dolls in stores across the United States in 1993. Barbies said things like “Eat lead, Cobra!” while G.I. Joes said, “Math class is tough!” The switcheroo was discovered by Christmas morning recipients in at least 43 states.

Reggae singer Snow’s single Informer reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1993. Snow was in jail in Toronto at the time on assault charges. He learned the song had gone to number one when a fellow inmate, who had been released, heard it on the radio and called to tell him. It spent seven weeks at #1.

Israel Kamakawiwoʻole’s 1993 album Facing Future became the best-selling album by a Hawaiian artist in history. His medley of Somewhere Over the Rainbow and What a Wonderful World — recorded in a single take in a session he booked at 3:00 a.m. because the studio was only available then — has been licensed for hundreds of films, television shows, and commercials and remains one of the most immediately recognizable recordings in American popular culture.

Beanie Babies launched at the January 1993 Chicago World Toy Fair, initially with nine designs including Legs the Frog, Squealer the Pig, and Chocolate the Moose. They sold modestly in 1993. They would eventually become one of the most intense consumer collecting manias in American history, peaking in 1998 when people purchased them as investments and carefully preserved them in display cases. The investment thesis largely failed.

The word “McJob” was coined around 1991 and became common enough by 1993 that social critics were using it regularly to describe low-wage service sector employment. It was added to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary in 2003. McDonald’s objected both times.

Women were forbidden from wearing pants in the U.S. Congress until 1993. Senators Carol Moseley Braun and Barbara Mikulski wore pants to the Senate floor in 1993, effectively ending the informal prohibition. The same year, California became the first state represented in the Senate by two women, with Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer — a distinction the state has maintained since.

Earring Magic Ken was released by Mattel in 1993, featuring a redesigned Ken doll with a lavender shirt, mesh top, and earrings. The doll was embraced enthusiastically by gay men as an inadvertent icon and became the best-selling Ken model in Mattel’s history. Mattel discontinued it.

In a 1993 study, shelter dogs were found to be most relaxed when listening to classical music, largely indifferent to pop music, and noticeably more agitated when exposed to heavy metal. The study’s methodology was straightforward. The findings have been cited in animal shelter design ever since.

Cosmonaut Aleksandr Serebrov played Tetris on a Game Boy while aboard the Mir Space Station in 1993, making it the first video game played in space. The Game Boy is now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution.

Wendy’s founder, Dave Thomas, received his GED in 1993 after dropping out of high school in his teens to work full-time. He was 61 years old. He said he obtained the diploma partly because he worried his success as a dropout might discourage young people from finishing school.

Production began on Toy Story on January 19, 1993, at Pixar Animation Studios. The film was not released until November 1995. The production essentially involved inventing the workflows, rendering techniques, and character animation approaches from scratch.

In the Harry Potter universe, the date of the train ride to Hogwarts, as described in Prisoner of Azkaban, is September 1, 1993. There was indeed a full moon on the preceding night, August 31, 1993 — which explains why Professor Lupin spent the journey asleep. J.K. Rowling confirmed this was intentional.

Oasis received their first recording contract offer in 1993 after a performance in Glasgow, Scotland, attended by Creation Records co-founder Alan McGee. The band had been together about a year. Their first album arrived in 1994.

A 1993 PC Magazine article included the claim that approximately eight spiders crawl into your mouth every year while you sleep. The article’s author later confirmed the statistic was entirely fabricated for illustrative purposes. It has since been reprinted, republished, and cited as fact thousands of times.

Ted Danson appeared in blackface and delivered racially charged material at Whoopi Goldberg’s Friar’s Club roast in October 1993. Goldberg had approved the act. The audience reaction was sharply divided. The incident dominated celebrity news for weeks. Danson and Goldberg’s relationship ended shortly after.

The Pepsi Philippines bottle cap contest in 1993 offered one million pesos to the holder of the winning number, 349. Through a printing error, Pepsi produced approximately 800,000 winning caps. Riots, lawsuits, and deaths followed as Pepsi refused to honor all winning claims. The company eventually offered a settlement payment of $19 per cap. Many holders refused. The case produced litigation for years.

The Scandals

Vince McMahon, owner of the WWF, was charged with distributing anabolic steroids to wrestlers. He was acquitted in 1994. The trial revealed considerable detail about steroid use in professional wrestling.

The Creedence Clearwater Revival record label sued John Fogerty for copyright infringement, claiming his 1985 song The Old Man Down the Road sounded similar to CCR’s Run Through the Jungle. Fogerty had written Run Through the Jungle. The judge ruled that an artist cannot plagiarize himself. The case established an important precedent for songwriter rights.

Nobel Prize Winners

Physics — Russell A. Hulse and Joseph H. Taylor Jr. for the discovery of a new type of pulsar, which provided indirect evidence for the existence of gravitational waves
Chemistry — Kary B. Mullis and Michael Smith; Mullis for the invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method, which became fundamental to modern biology, medicine, and forensics; Smith for contributions to site-directed mutagenesis
Medicine — Richard J. Roberts and Phillip A. Sharp for their independent discovery of split genes, the revelation that genes in higher organisms are not continuous but interrupted by non-coding sequences Literature — Toni Morrison, American novelist, for novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, giving life to an essential aspect of American reality; the first Black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature
Peace — Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk,  for their work to peacefully end apartheid and lay the foundations for a new democratic South Africa Economics — Robert W. Fogel and Douglass C. North — for having renewed research in economic history by applying economic theory and quantitative methods

Broadway in 1993

Kiss of the Spider Woman opened May 3, 1993, at the Broadhurst Theatre, and won the Tony Award for Best Musical. Chita Rivera won Best Actress in a Musical.

Angels in America: Millennium Approaches opened May 4, 1993, at the Walter Kerr Theatre. Tony Kushner’s landmark two-part play about the AIDS crisis in Reagan-era America won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play. Its scope, ambition, and emotional intensity produced one of the most celebrated Broadway runs of the decade.

Best Film Oscar Winner

Unforgiven, directed by Clint Eastwood, won Best Picture at the 65th Academy Awards on March 29, 1993, presented for the 1992 film year. Eastwood won Best Director. The film was a Western that dismantled Western mythology — about violence, justice, and the cost of both — with the precision of someone who had spent 30 years making Westerns and decided to say what he actually thought about them.

1993 Entries to the National Film Registry

An American in Paris (1951)
Badlands (1973)
The Black Pirate (1926)
Blade Runner (1982)
Cat People (1942)
The Cheat (1915)
Chulas Fronteras (1976)
Eaux d’artifice (1953)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
His Girl Friday (1940)
It Happened One Night (1934)
Lassie Come Home (1943)
Magical Maestro (1952)
March of Time: Inside Nazi Germany (1938)
A Night at the Opera (1935)
Nothing But a Man (1964)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Point of Order (1964)
Shadows (1959)
Shane (1953)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Touch of Evil (1958)
Where Are My Children? (1916)
The Wind (1928)
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

Top Movies of 1993

1. Jurassic Park
2. Mrs. Doubtfire
3. The Fugitive
4. The Firm
5. Sleepless in Seattle
6. Indecent Proposal
7. In the Line of Fire
8. The Pelican Brief
9. Schindler’s List
10. Cliffhanger

Most Popular TV Shows of 1993

1. 60 Minutes (CBS)
2. Home Improvement (ABC)
3. Seinfeld (NBC)
4. Roseanne (ABC)
5. Grace Under Fire (ABC)
6. Coach (ABC)
7. Frasier (NBC)
8. Murphy Brown (CBS)
9. Murder, She Wrote (CBS)
10. Thunder Alley (ABC)

The X-Files premiered in September 1993 and did not yet appear in the top 10, but quickly developed the cult following that made it one of the defining shows of the decade. Frasier also premiered in September 1993 and immediately landed in the top 10 — the rare spin-off that exceeded its source material. David Letterman moved from NBC to CBS and launched The Late Show in August 1993, ending his 11-year run at Late Night.

1993 Billboard Number One Songs

November 29, 1992 – March 5, 1993: I Will Always Love You — Whitney Houston
March 6 – March 12: A Whole New World (Aladdin’s Theme) — Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle
March 13 – April 30: Informer — Snow
May 1 – May 14: Freak Me — Silk
May 15 – July 9: That’s the Way Love Goes — Janet Jackson
July 10 – July 23: Weak — SWV
July 24 – September 11: I Can’t Help Falling in Love — UB40
September 11 – November 5: Dreamlover — Mariah Carey
November 6 – December 10: I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That) — Meat Loaf
December 11 – December 24: Again — Janet Jackson
December 25, 1993 – January 21, 1994: Hero — Mariah Carey

Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You held #1 for 14 weeks across 1992-93, the longest #1 run by a female artist at that point. UB40’s version of Can’t Help Falling in Love spent seven weeks at #1 — the same song had peaked at #2 for Elvis in 1961. Mariah Carey closed the year with Hero and opened 1994 with it still running, continuing her remarkable run of chart dominance that made her the defining pop voice of the mid-1990s.

Biggest Pop Artists of 1993

Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, UB40, Meat Loaf, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, SWV, Silk, Snow, Peabo Bryson, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Toni Braxton, R. Kelly, Ace of Base, 4 Non Blondes, Spin Doctors

Popular and Best-Selling Books of 1993

The Bridges of Madison County — Robert James Waller
The Celestine Prophecy — James Redfield
The Client — John Grisham
Dolores Claiborne — Stephen King
The Giver — Lois Lowry
Like Water for Chocolate — Laura Esquivel
The Shipping News — E. Annie Proulx
The Virgin Suicides — Jeffrey Eugenides
Without Remorse — Tom Clancy

The Giver by Lois Lowry won the Newbery Medal in 1994 for the 1993 book and became one of the most widely assigned — and frequently challenged — novels in American middle school education. Its quiet dystopia, in which a society has eliminated pain, conflict, and memory, resonated with generations of young readers.

The Habits

Playing Magic: The Gathering; wearing Doc Martens; watching Seinfeld and arguing about whether it was funnier than Frasier; listening to grunge and pretending not to care about Top 40 while also knowing all the words to Dreamlover; and arguing about whether the government killed everyone at Waco.

Sports Champions of 1993

World Series: Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2; Joe Carter hit a three-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth of Game 6 to end the Series — only the second walk-off World Series-ending home run in history, after Bill Mazeroski in 1960
Super Bowl XXVII: Dallas Cowboys defeated the Buffalo Bills 52-17 on January 31, 1993; the Bills’ third consecutive Super Bowl loss, a record that stood alone and then was joined by their fourth the following year
NBA Champions: Chicago Bulls defeated the Phoenix Suns 4-2; Michael Jordan’s third consecutive championship; he retired five months later
Stanley Cup: Montreal Canadiens defeated the Los Angeles Kings 4-1; their 24th Stanley Cup, still the most in NHL history
U.S. Open Golf: Lee Janzen
U.S. Open Tennis: Men/Women: Pete Sampras / Steffi Graf
Wimbledon: Men/Women: Pete Sampras / Steffi Graf
NCAA Football Champions: Florida State
NCAA Basketball Champions: North Carolina
Kentucky Derby: Sea Hero

Sports Highlight: Joe Carter’s World Series walk-off home run on October 23, 1993, remains one of the most replayed moments in baseball history — a three-run shot in the ninth inning of Game 6 that ended the Series. Jim Abbott’s no-hitter on September 4 was one of the most moving individual performances in the sport. Michael Jordan won his third consecutive championship and retired. Monica Seles was stabbed mid-match, and her career was permanently affected by the attack and recovery. It was an eventful year to be watching sports.

FAQs: 1993 History, Facts, and Trivia

Q: What was the World Trade Center bombing of 1993? A: On February 26, 1993, a van bomb detonated in the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center’s North Tower, killing six people and injuring over 1,000. The attackers had intended to collapse both towers, but the structural design prevented it. Six perpetrators were convicted.

Q: What happened at Waco in 1993?
A: A 51-day standoff between federal agents and the Branch Davidian religious sect led by David Koresh ended on April 19, 1993, when FBI agents moved in with tanks and tear gas. Fires broke out inside the compound, and 76 people died, including 25 children. The cause of the fires was disputed. The event became a central grievance for the American anti-government militia movement.

Q: How did Michael Jackson change the Super Bowl halftime show in 1993?
A: His 12-minute performance at Super Bowl XXVII on January 31, 1993, was watched by an estimated 133 million people and permanently transformed the halftime show from a novelty act into the most-watched live entertainment event in American television. Every halftime show booking since traces back to Jackson’s 1993 performance.

Q: Why did Michael Jordan retire in 1993?
A: Jordan announced his retirement on October 6, 1993, having won three consecutive NBA championships, citing a desire to pursue professional baseball and citing the murder of his father, James Jordan, that summer. He returned to basketball in March 1995.

Q: What was the first Got Milk? advertisement? A: An Aaron Burr-themed commercial that aired in California in October 1993, directed by Michael Bay. A history enthusiast eating a peanut butter sandwich runs out of milk just as he is about to answer a radio quiz question about who shot Alexander Hamilton. He wins the prize but cannot speak clearly enough for the operator to understand him.

Q: What did Toni Morrison win in 1993?
A: The Nobel Prize in Literature — the first Black woman to receive the award. Morrison was recognized for novels characterized by “visionary force and poetic import” that brought to life an essential aspect of American reality.

Q: What was Snow’s Informer chart run notable for?
A: Snow was in jail on assault charges in Toronto when Informer went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1993. He learned the news when a fellow inmate who had been released heard the song on the radio and called to tell him. It spent seven weeks at the top.

Q: What was Jim Abbott’s no-hitter notable for?
A: Abbott was born without a right hand and pitched for the New York Yankees using a technique of switching his glove from his left arm stump to his left hand after each pitch. He threw a no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians on September 4, 1993, at Yankee Stadium — one of the most celebrated individual performances in baseball history.