1994 History, Fun Facts and Trivia

• The Game Changer: Playstation released
• The Hobby: Beanie Babies Mania began. Many people ‘invested’ in them, and now have millions of Beanies carefully preserved in attics and closets.
• The Top Song was I’ll Make Love To You by Boyz II Men
• The Movies to Watch include Forrest Gump, The Lion King, Angels in the Outfield, Clear and Present Danger and The Crow
• The Most Famous Person in the World was probably Nelson Mandela
• Notable books include: Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
• Price of 10 oz Cheex-it crackers in 1994: $1.99
  Price of a daily newspaper: 25 cents
• The Funny Old Guys were: Carl Reiner & Mel Brooks
• The Funny Young Guy was: Martin Lawrence
  The Funny Movie Guy was: Jim Carrey
• The Conversation: The biggest Pop Culture Event was the “O.J. Simpson White Bronco Car Chase” televised live on nearly every network.
• The  Other Conversation: Was National Figure Skating Champ Tonya Harding responsible for the attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan?

The Scandals:
Tonya Harding (the antagonist) and Nancy Kerrigan (the protagonist) ice skating rivalry resulted in some friends of Tonya, including her husband Jeff Gillooly and associates Shawn Eckhardt and Shane Stant, attempting to bust Nancy’s kneecaps at the U.S. Figure Skating Championship.
She had to withdraw, but did well for herself with endorsements and winning the Silver Medal in the Olympics in 1994.

On June 17th, a white Ford Bronco belonging to Simpson’s friend, Al Cowlings, was watched by the entire nation since it was carrying a now fugitive, O.J. Simpson, who was “holding a gun to Al’s head”. A note from O.J., sounding like a suicide note, was read to police by his lawyer.

World News:
The University of Erfurt in Germany was founded in 1379 and closed in 1816. But it was re-established in 1994 following Germany’s reunification. It probably is both the oldest and youngest University in Germany.

According to his biography, Kim Jung-Il first picked up a golf club in 1994, at North Korea’s only golf course, and shot a 38-under par round that included no fewer than 11 holes in one. Satisfied with his performance, he reportedly immediately declared his retirement from the sport.

For one November week in 1994, Tim Allen had the #1 movie at the box office (The Santa Clause), The #1 rated TV show (Home Improvement), and the #1 NY Times bestselling book (Don’t Stand Too Close to a Naked Man).

The first series produced by Cartoon Network was Space Ghost Coast to Coast in 1994, to target an older audience.

The Beastie Boys coined the term “mullet” to refer to a hairstyle in 1994 in their song Mullet Head. No earlier use of the term “mullet” that refers to a hairstyle has been found.

The Wonderbra was invented.

Liam Neeson turned down the role of James Bond in Goldeneye in 1994 because he “has never been interested in starring in action movies”.

At the time of its release, True Lies was the most expensive film ever made, as the first film to have over a $100 million production budget.

Despite being a trained Broadway singer, Matthew Broderick only voiced the speaking role of adult Simba in 1994’s The Lion King. Simba’s singing voice was provided by Joseph Williams, the lead singer of Toto.

Voiced-over trailers hit their peak in 1994 when all top 10 box office movies featured one.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Hammer was purchased for $30,802,500 in 1994 by Bill Gates; 3 years later he released a digital version of the historic diary for all the world to see.

Pearl Jam canceled their 1994 summer tour after they found out Ticket Master was demanding a ‘service charge’ for fan’s tickets.

Country music star Alan Jackson was asked to use a pre-recorded version of his song Gone Country when performing live at the Country Music Awards. He protested by having his drummer perform with no drum sticks in his hand the whole performance.

Frank Sinatra’s acceptance speech for a Legend Award at the 1994 Grammys was cut short due to commercial breaks. In response, Billy Joel stopped halfway through his performance of The River of Dreams later on, simply looking at his watch and saying ‘valuable advertising time going by…’.

Lisa Loeb was the first artist ever to have a number one hit without being signed to a record label with the song Stay in 1994. She didn’t even have an album out when the song became a number one single.

Thrift Shop by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis was the first song since 1994 to reach No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart without the support of a major record label.

Kevin Briggs, a San Francisco Highway Patrol Officer and a veteran of the US Army, has talked approximately 200 people out of suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge since 1994.

Harley-Davidson filed a trademark application in 1994 for the sound produced by their motorcycles. After many objections and even litigation, they dropped all efforts in 2000.

Finding the proof for Fermat’s last theorem (x^n+ y^n = z^n) was considered as the most difficult math problem and was even listed in the Guinness book of world records. Andrew Wiles cracked it in 1994 and won $ 700,000. When n=2 this is the Pythagoras Theorem.

After Sports Illustrated published its “Bag It, Michael” cover story about his less-than-stellar baseball career in 1994, Michael Jordan cut off all official communication with the magazine.

NFL officials used to use a gunshot to signal the end of a quarter. In 1994 they switched to using a whistle.

The 1967 Velvet Underground album The Velvet Underground & Nico didn’t reach the UK charts until 1994 and peaked in 2013 after Velvet Underground singer Lou Reed died.

Procter & Gamble argued that Pringles were only 42% potato flour, with the rest mostly a slurry of wheat starch, corn and rice flour, and vegetable oil. They made this argument because according to Britain’s 1994 VAT Act, potato products were subject to a 17.5% tax.

From 1994-1999 George Foreman was paid about 40% of the profits on each Foreman grill sold, earning him $4.5M a month in payouts at its peak. In the period it’s estimated he received over $200M, more than he did as a boxer.

George Foreman first became the Heavyweight World Champion in 1973 by knocking out Joe Frazier. In 1994, at 45 years old, he regained the title. After 4 title defenses, he finally lost the title in 1997 just a few months short of his 49th birthday.

Cost of a Super Bowl ad in 1994: $900,000

1994 Billboard Number One Songs:
December 25, 1993  – January 2, 19941:
Hero – Mariah Carey

January 22 – February 11:
All For Love – Bryan Adams/Rod Stewart/Sting

February 12 – March 11:
Power of Love – Céline Dion

March 12 – April 15:
The Sign – Ace of Base

April 16 – May 20:
Bump N’ Grind – R. Kelly

May 21 – August 5:
I Swear – All-4-One

August 6 – August 26:
Stay (I Missed You) – Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories

August 27 – December 2:
I’ll Make Love To You – Boyz II Men

December 3, 1994 – January 13, 1995:
On Bended Knee – Boyz II Men