1990 History, Facts, and Trivia

Quick Facts from 1990

• World-Changing Event: On November 12, 1990, Tim Berners-Lee submitted his formal proposal for the World Wide Web at CERN, outlining the HTTP protocol and the HTML language. On December 20, the world’s first website went live at info.cern.ch. The internet as we know it was born. Nobody was paying attention.
• Top Song: Because I Love You (The Postman Song) by Stevie B
• Must-See Movies: Home Alone, Ghost, Edward Scissorhands, Dick Tracy, and Dances with Wolves
• Most Famous American: Madonna
• Notable Books: Four Past Midnight by Stephen King, Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss, and The Plains of Passage by Jean M. Auel
• Minimum Wage: $3.80 per hour; Tandy Computer 1000RL with color monitor: $799.00; Nintendo Game Boy: $89.97
• The Funny Guy: Billy Crystal
• The Funny Lady: Paula Poundstone
• The Long Break-Up: When Simon and Garfunkel were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Art Garfunkel thanked Paul Simon for enriching his life. Paul said: “Arthur and I agree about almost nothing. But it’s true; I have enriched his life quite a bit.” They sang three songs and left the stage.
• Fun Fact: Solitaire was originally included in early computer programs not for entertainment but to teach users how to click and drag a mouse. It worked.
• Super Bowl XXIV ad cost: $700,000 for 30 seconds

Top Ten Baby Names of 1990

Girls: Jessica, Ashley, Brittany, Amanda, Samantha, Sarah, Stephanie, Jennifer, Elizabeth, Melissa
Boys: Michael, Christopher, Matthew, Joshua, Daniel, David, Andrew, James, Justin, Robert

Fashion Icons and Sex Symbols

Elle Macpherson

Hollywood Hunks and Leading Men

Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise, Richard Gere, Michael Hutchence, Patrick Swayze, Sean Connery

The Quotes

“I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up.” — Mrs. Fletcher, LifeCall medical alert commercial, 1990 — one of the most parodied ad lines in television history

“I do not like broccoli. I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid, and my mother made me eat it. And I’m the President of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli.” — President George H.W. Bush, 1990

Time Magazine Person of the Year

George H.W. Bush

Miss America and Miss USA

Miss America: Debbye Turner, Columbia, MO Miss USA: Carole Gist, Michigan — the first Black woman to win the Miss USA title

We Lost in 1990

Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, died May 16, age 53, from organ failure caused by streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. He had been ill for only a few days. His death shocked the world and left Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, and an entire generation of children without their most important creative voice.
Stevie Ray Vaughan, guitarist, died August 27, age 35, in a helicopter crash in Wisconsin following a concert. He had recently achieved sobriety after years of drug and alcohol struggle and was at the peak of his powers.
Sammy Davis Jr., entertainer, died May 16, age 64, from throat cancer. He and Jim Henson died on the same day.
Rex Harrison, actor (My Fair Lady),  died June 2, age 82
Jill Ireland, actress,  died May 18, age 54
Sarah Vaughan, jazz singer — died April 3, age 66
Rocky Graziano, boxer, died May 22, age 71
Irene Dunne, actress, died September 4, age 91
Paulette Goddard, actress (The Great Dictator), died April 23, age 78
Leonard Bernstein, composer and conductor, died on October 14, aged 72, just five days after retiring from conducting

The Scandals

Milli Vanilli, the pop duo of Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan, was stripped of their Grammy Award for Best New Artist after it was confirmed they had not sung a single note on their debut album. The vocals were performed by studio singers hired by producer Frank Farian. Their two Grammys were the first ever revoked. Pilatus later died of a drug overdose in 1998 at age 32.

Chuck Berry was sued by multiple women who claimed he had secretly installed video cameras in the women’s restrooms at two of his St. Louis restaurants. He settled out of court.

New England Patriots players sexually harassed Boston Herald reporter Lisa Olson during a locker room interview on September 17, 1990. The NFL fined the team and several players. The case became a landmark in the debate over press access and workplace harassment.

The End of the Cold War

The reunification of Germany on October 3, 1990, marked the symbolic end of the Cold War. East and West Germany had been divided since 1945, separated first by military occupation zones and then by the Berlin Wall, built in 1961. The communist East German government collapsed in late 1989; the Wall fell on November 9, 1989. By October 3, 1990, the five East German states had officially joined the Federal Republic of Germany. Helmut Kohl became the first Chancellor of reunified Germany.

The Doomsday Clock moved to 10 minutes to midnight in 1990, reflecting the dramatic easing of nuclear tensions as the Cold War ended.

The Persian Gulf War Begins

On August 2, 1990, Iraqi forces under Saddam Hussein invaded and annexed Kuwait. The UN Security Council condemned the invasion and imposed sanctions. A coalition of 35 countries, led by the United States, began deploying forces to Saudi Arabia under Operation Desert Shield in August. The ground war, Operation Desert Storm, would begin in January 1991 and last 100 hours. In 1990, the world held its breath and watched.

Nelson Mandela Released

Nelson Mandela walked free from Victor Verster Prison on February 11, 1990, after 27 years of imprisonment. He had been arrested in 1962 and convicted of sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the South African government under apartheid. He served most of his sentence on Robben Island. International pressure, including UN resolutions and economic sanctions against South Africa, ultimately compelled President F.W. de Klerk to announce his release. Mandela went on to become South Africa’s first democratically elected president in 1994. He was 71 when he walked out of prison. He said he left his bitterness inside.

Pop Culture Facts and History

The World Wide Web was proposed by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN on November 12, 1990. His formal document outlined HTTP (the protocol for transmitting data) and HTML (the language for creating web pages). His boss at CERN wrote “Vague but exciting” on the cover sheet and returned it. The first website went live on December 20. Within three years, there were over 600 websites. Within ten, over 17 million.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston was robbed on March 18 by two thieves posing as police officers who bluffed their way in at 1:24 a.m. and tied up the security guards. They stole 13 works in 81 minutes, including Vermeer’s The Concert, three Rembrandts, a Manet, and five Degas drawings, valued at approximately $500 million. They have never been recovered. The empty frames still hang on the museum walls as a reminder, and a standing offer of $10 million remains open for information that leads to their return.

The Hubble Space Telescope was deployed from Space Shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990. It almost immediately produced blurry images because its primary mirror had been ground to the wrong shape, off by just 2.2 micrometers. A corrective optics package was installed by astronauts in 1993. After the fix, it began producing images that transformed humanity’s understanding of the universe.

Home Alone was released on November 16, 1990, with a production budget of $18 million. It earned $476 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1990. Macaulay Culkin became the most famous child actor in the world overnight. John Hughes wrote the script in nine days.

Twin Peaks, created by David Lynch and Mark Frost, premiered on ABC on April 8, 1990. The question “Who killed Laura Palmer?” consumed American pop culture for two seasons. Nothing quite like it had been on network television before. It still hasn’t been fully explained.

Vanilla Ice released “Ice Ice Baby” in 1990, becoming the first hip-hop single to top the Billboard Hot 100. The bass line sampled “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie without permission or credit. Queen and Bowie’s publishers eventually settled with Vanilla Ice for an undisclosed amount. The video is still on YouTube if you need it.

The Simpsons premiered as a full half-hour series on Fox on December 17, 1989, and hit its stride in 1990. By the end of 1990, it was the highest-rated show on Fox and a genuine cultural phenomenon. Bart Simpson T-shirts were banned in some schools.

Smoking was banned on all domestic U.S. airline flights in 1990; the first such ban applied to flights under six hours, extended to all flights. The first bar-smoking ban in the U.S. was passed in San Luis Obispo, California.

Washington D.C.’s National Cathedral was completed on September 29, 1990, 83 years after construction began on September 29, 1907. It is the sixth-largest cathedral in the world.

The first Saturn automobile, a red 1991 model-year SL2, rolled off the assembly line on July 30, 1990. Saturn had been conceived as a separate company within General Motors specifically to compete with Japanese imports.

The first McDonald’s in Moscow opened on January 31, 1990, at Pushkin Square, with lines stretching around the block. 30,000 people visited on opening day; it was the largest McDonald’s in the world at the time.

Pretty Woman, directed by Garry Marshall and starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, became a cultural phenomenon in 1990. Roberts was paid $300,000 for the role; she had been the studio’s fourth choice. The film grossed $463 million worldwide.

The first Pizza Hut opened in the Soviet Union on September 10, 1990; the first in China opened the following day. Global fast food had officially arrived behind what had been the Iron Curtain.

Garry Kasparov retained the World Chess Championship by defeating Anatoly Karpov in 1990, their fourth match since 1984. The two Soviet grandmasters had been the dominant force in world chess for a decade.

President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26, 1990, prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, transportation, public accommodations, and telecommunications. It was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since 1964.

Douglas Wilder was inaugurated as Governor of Virginia on January 13, 1990, becoming the first elected African American governor in U.S. history.

The Miracle Mop, a self-wringing mop, was invented by Joy Mangano in 1990. She later sold it herself on QVC and became one of the most successful home shopping entrepreneurs in history. Her story was dramatized in the 2015 film Joy.

Portrait of Dr. Gachet by Vincent van Gogh was sold at Christie’s New York on May 15, 1990, for $82.5 million, setting a new world record for a painting sold at auction. The buyer was Japanese businessman Ryoei Saito, who controversially stated he wanted to be cremated with it.

Paleontologist Sue Hendrickson discovered one of the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeletons ever found near Faith, South Dakota, in August 1990. The skeleton, named “Sue” in her honor, was later sold at auction in 1997 for $8.36 million to the Field Museum in Chicago.

West Germany won the FIFA World Cup in Italy on July 8, 1990, defeating Argentina 1-0 in a tense, low-quality final. It was the third World Cup for West Germany; it would be their last, as the country reunified less than three months later.

The World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its International Classification of Diseases on May 17, 1990, ending its formal designation as a mental disorder. The date is now observed internationally as International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) ivory ban took effect in 1990, prohibiting international commercial trade in elephant ivory after African elephant populations had declined from 1.3 million in 1979 to 600,000 by 1989.

Nickelodeon Studios opened at Universal Studios Orlando on June 7, 1990. It was the first working TV studio where children could watch shows being made.

The Habit

The cool people were watching Twin Peaks on ABC; everybody else was watching Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone. The cool people were wearing parachute pants, just like MC Hammer. Can’t touch that.

Christmas Gifts and First Appearances of 1990

Batman action figures, Bob Mackie Barbie, Madeline Ragdoll, Tribond Game, Power Drencher water gun, Taboo

Nobel Prize Winners

Physics — Jerome I. Friedman, Henry W. Kendall, and Richard E. Taylor (for pioneering investigations into quark structure)
Chemistry — Elias James Corey (for the theory and methodology of organic synthesis)
Medicine — Joseph E. Murray and E. Donnall Thomas (for discoveries in organ and cell transplantation)
Literature — Octavio Paz
Peace — Mikhail Gorbachev (for his role in ending the Cold War)
Economics — Harry M. Markowitz, Merton H. Miller, and William F. Sharpe

Popular and Best-Selling Books of 1990

The Bad Place — Dean Koontz
The Black Book — Orhan Pamuk
The Bourne Ultimatum — Robert Ludlum
The Buddha of Suburbia — Hanif Kureishi
The Burden of Proof — Scott Turow
Daddy — Danielle Steel
Devices and Desires — P.D. James
Four Past Midnight — Stephen King
L.A. Confidential — James Ellroy
Memories of Midnight — Sidney Sheldon
Oh, the Places You’ll Go! — Dr. Seuss
The Plains of Passage — Jean M. Auel
September — Rosamunde Pilcher
The Stand — Stephen King (complete, uncut edition)
Thanos Quest — Jim Starlin and Ron Lim
The Things They Carried — Tim O’Brien
The Very Quiet Cricket — Eric Carle
The Wheels on the Bus — Paul O. Zelinsky

Broadway in 1990

City of Angels opened on December 11, 1989, and ran through 1990, winning six Tony Awards, including Best Musical. 
The Grapes of Wrath won the Tony for Best Play.
Frank Sinatra performed a series of sold-out concerts at Radio City Music Hall in 1990 that became the talk of New York.

Best Film Oscar Winner

Driving Miss Daisy, directed by Bruce Beresford and starring Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman, won Best Picture at the 1990 Academy Awards, presented for the 1989 film year. Jessica Tandy became the oldest Best Actress winner in history at age 80.

The Bomb

Movie: The Bonfire of the Vanities, directed by Brian De Palma; a production so troubled it spawned a book, The Devil’s Candy by Julie Salamon, about what went wrong.
TV: Cop Rock was Steven Bochco’s musical police drama, in which officers spontaneously burst into song during crime scenes. It lasted 11 episodes.

1990 Entries to the National Film Registry

All About Eve (1950)
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Dodsworth (1936)
Duck Soup (1933)
Fantasia (1940)
The Freshman (1925)
The Godfather (1972)
The Great Train Robbery (1903)
Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976)
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Killer of Sheep (1977)
Love Me Tonight (1932)
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
Ninotchka (1939)
Primary (1960)
Raging Bull (1980)
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Red River (1948)
The River (1938)
Sullivan’s Travels (1941)
Top Hat (1935)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

Top Movies of 1990

1. Home Alone
2. Ghost
3. Dances with Wolves
4. Pretty Woman
5. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
6. The Hunt for Red October
7. Total Recall
8. Die Hard 2: Die Harder
9. Dick Tracy
10. Kindergarten Cop

Most Popular TV Shows of 1990

1. Cheers (NBC)
2. 60 Minutes (CBS)
3. Roseanne (ABC)
4. A Different World (NBC)
5. The Cosby Show (NBC)
6. Murphy Brown (CBS)
7. Empty Nest (NBC)
8. America’s Funniest Home Videos (ABC)
9. The Golden Girls (NBC)
10. Designing Women (CBS)

1990 Billboard Number One Songs

December 23, 1989 – January 13, 1990: Another Day in Paradise — Phil Collins
January 20 – February 9: How Am I Supposed to Live Without You — Michael Bolton
February 10 – March 2: Opposites Attract — Paula Abdul with The Wild Pair
March 3 – March 23: Escapade — Janet Jackson
March 24 – April 6: Black Velvet — Alannah Myles
April 7 – April 13: Love Will Lead You Back — Taylor Dayne
April 14 – April 20: I’ll Be Your Everything — Tommy Page
April 21 – May 18: Nothing Compares 2 U — Sinéad O’Connor
May 19 – June 8: Vogue — Madonna
June 9 – June 15: Hold On — Wilson Phillips
June 16 – June 29: It Must Have Been Love — Roxette
June 30 – July 20: Step by Step — New Kids on the Block
July 21 – August 3: She Ain’t Worth It — Glenn Medeiros featuring Bobby Brown
August 4 – August 31: Vision of Love — Mariah Carey
September 1 – September 7: If Wishes Came True — Sweet Sensation
September 8 – September 14: Blaze of Glory — Jon Bon Jovi
September 15 – September 28: Release Me — Wilson Phillips
September 29 – October 5: (I Can’t Live Without Your) Love and Affection — Nelson
October 6 – October 12: Close to You — Maxi Priest
October 13 – October 19: Praying for Time — George Michael
October 20 – October 26: I Don’t Have the Heart — James Ingram
October 27 – November 2: Black Cat — Janet Jackson
November 3 – November 9: Ice Ice Baby — Vanilla Ice
November 10 – November 30: Love Takes Time — Mariah Carey
December 1 – December 7: I’m Your Baby Tonight — Whitney Houston
December 8, 1990 – January 4, 1991: Because I Love You (The Postman Song) — Stevie B

Mariah Carey scored two #1 hits in 1990 with Vision of Love and Love Takes Time, both from her debut album. Wilson Phillips also landed two separate #1 hits. Nothing Compares 2 U by Sinéad O’Connor, with its stark black-and-white video of O’Connor crying, became one of the most iconic music videos of the era.

1990 United States Census

Total U.S. Population: 248,709,873

New York, NY — 7,322,564
Los Angeles, CA — 3,485,398
Chicago, IL — 2,783,726
Houston, TX — 1,630,553
Philadelphia, PA — 1,585,577
San Diego, CA — 1,110,549
Detroit, MI — 1,027,974
Dallas, TX — 1,006,877
Phoenix, AZ — 983,403
San Antonio, TX — 935,933

Sports Champions of 1990

World Series: Cincinnati Reds
Super Bowl XXIV: San Francisco 49ers (defeated Denver Broncos 55-10, the most lopsided Super Bowl to that point)
NBA Champions: Detroit Pistons
Stanley Cup: Edmonton Oilers
U.S. Open Golf: Hale Irwin (at age 45, the oldest U.S. Open champion in history)
U.S. Open Tennis — Men: Pete Sampras | Women: Gabriela Sabatini
Wimbledon — Men: Stefan Edberg | Women: Martina Navratilova
NCAA Football: Colorado and Georgia Tech (shared)
NCAA Basketball: UNLV
Kentucky Derby: Unbridled
FIFA World Cup: West Germany

Sports Highlight: Pete Sampras won his first U.S. Open at age 19 in 1990, defeating Andre Agassi, Ivan Lendl, and John McEnroe in succession. It launched one of the greatest tennis careers in history. Hale Irwin won the U.S. Open at age 45 as a qualifier, becoming the oldest major champion in golf history.

FAQs: 1990 History, Facts, and Trivia

Q: What was the world-changing technology event of 1990?
A: Tim Berners-Lee formally proposed the World Wide Web at CERN on November 12, 1990. The world’s first website went live on December 20. His boss at CERN returned his proposal with the note “Vague but exciting.” It was the beginning of the internet as the public knows it now.

Q: What was the biggest movie of 1990?
A: Home Alone, starring Macaulay Culkin, was the top-grossing film of 1990, earning $476 million worldwide on an $18 million budget. John Hughes wrote the script in nine days.

Q: What was the #1 song of 1990?
A: Because I Love You (The Postman Song) by Stevie B ended 1990 at #1. Nothing Compares 2 U by Sinéad O’Connor was arguably the most culturally significant song of the year.

Q: What happened to Milli Vanilli in 1990?
A: The pop duo was stripped of their Grammy Award for Best New Artist after it was confirmed they had not sung a single note on their album. Producer Frank Farian had used studio singers for all vocals. Their Grammy was the first ever revoked.

Q: When was Nelson Mandela released from prison?
A: February 11, 1990, after 27 years of imprisonment. He had been convicted of sabotage and conspiracy to overthrow the South African government in 1964 and held primarily on Robben Island. He became South Africa’s first democratically elected president in 1994.

Q: What was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990?
A: On March 18, two thieves posing as police officers stole 13 artworks valued at approximately $500 million, including works by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Manet, and Degas. It remains the largest art theft in history. None of the works has been recovered. The empty frames still hang in the museum.

Q: What happened to the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990?
A: It was launched on April 24, 1990, and almost immediately discovered to have a defective primary mirror ground to the wrong shape. Initial images were blurry. A repair mission in 1993 installed corrective optics, after which Hubble began producing the extraordinary images that redefined astronomy.

Q: What major civil rights law did Bush sign in 1990?
A: The Americans with Disabilities Act, signed July 26, 1990, prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, public accommodations, transportation, and telecommunications. It was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since 1964.

Q: What ended when Germany reunified in 1990?
A: The Cold War’s defining symbol, the division of Germany into East and West, ended on October 3, 1990. The Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989; reunification followed less than a year later.

Q: Who won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize?
A: Mikhail Gorbachev, for his role in ending the Cold War through his policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring), and for his refusal to send Soviet troops to prevent the collapse of communist governments in Eastern Europe.

More 1990 History and Trivia Resources

Most Popular Baby Names (BabyCenter.com)
Popular and Notable Books (popculture.us)
Broadway Shows that Opened in 1990X
1990 Calendar, courtesy of Time and Date.com
1990 Facts For Kids
Fact Monster
The Gulf War 1990s, Infoplease.com World History
Millennial Generation (1981-1996)
1990 in Movies (according to IMDB)
1990 Top Movies (according to BoxOfficeMojo)
The People’s History
Retrowaste Vintage Culture
80s and 90s Classic NES Games (1985-1994)
1990 US Census Fast Facts
Wikipedia 1990
Breakup of Yugoslavia 1990-1992