The 1990s (pronounced "nineteen-nineties"; shortened to "the '90s") was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on 1 January 1990, and ended on 31 December 1999.
In the absence of world communism, which collapsed in the first two years of the decade, the 1990s was politically defined by a movement towards the right-wing, including increase in support for far-right parties in Europe[1] as well as the advent of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party[2] and cuts in social spending in the United States,[3] Canada,[4] New Zealand,[5] and the UK.[6] The United States also saw a massive revival in the use of the death penalty in the 1990s, which reversed in the early 21st century.[7] During the 1990s the character of the European Union and Euro were formed and codified in treaties.
A combination of factors, including the continued mass mobilization of capital markets through neo-liberalism, the thawing of the decades-long Cold War, the beginning of the widespread proliferation of new media such as the Internet from the middle of the decade onwards, increasing skepticism towards government, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union led to a realignment and reconsolidation of economic and political power across the world and within countries. The dot-com bubble of 1997–2000 brought wealth to some entrepreneurs before its crash between 2000 and 2001.
The 1990s saw extreme advances in technology, with the World Wide Web, the first gene therapy trial, and the first designer babies[8] all emerging in 1990 and being improved and built upon throughout the decade.
Ecuadorian and Peruvian military outposts in the Cenepa valley, January 1995
The Cenepa War or Fourth Ecuadorian-Peruvian War (26 January – 28 February 1995), also known as the Alto Cenepa War, was a brief and localized military conflict between Ecuador and Peru, fought over control of an area in Peruvian territory (i.e. in the eastern side of the Cordillera del Cóndor, Province of Condorcanqui, Región Amazonas, Republic of Perú) near the border between the two countries. The two nations had signed a border treaty following the Ecuadorian–Peruvian War of 1941, but Ecuador later disagreed with the treaty as it applied to the Cenepa and Paquisha areas, and in 1960 it declared the treaty null and void. Most of the fighting took place around the headwaters of the Cenepa River.
Mediation efforts of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and the United States paved the way for the opening of diplomatic conversations that ultimately led to the signing of a definitive peace agreement (the Brasilia Presidential Act) on 26 October 1998. The peace agreement saw some of the territory being leased to Ecuador for a time. It was followed by the formal demarcation of the border on 13 May 1999 and the end of the multinational MOMEP (Military Observer Mission for Ecuador and Peru) troop deployment on 17 June 1999, which effectively put an end to one of the longest territorial disputes in the Western Hemisphere. (Full article...)
... that despite plans to restore the Sam H. Harris Theatre in the 1990s, it became an entrance to a wax museum?
... that just four days before his death in 2004, David B. McCall received a presidential pardon from George W. Bush for fraud charges dating from the 1990s?
... that Cliff Christl, who became the Green Bay Packers team historian in 2014, estimated that he had recorded more than 250 oral histories with past players and coaches since the 1990s?
Image 49Rwandan genocide: Genocide victims in Murambi Technical School. Estimates put the death toll of the Rwandan genocide as high as 800,000 people. (from 1990s)
Image 50Mobile phones gained massive popularity worldwide during the decade. (from 1990s)
Image 52The federal building that was bombed in the Oklahoma City bombing two days after the bombing, viewed from across the adjacent parking lot. (from 1990s)
Image 91The catsuit became a trend in the late 1990s. Normally made of latex, PVC, or spandex, it was often worn with high-heeled boots. (from 1990s in fashion)
Image 94The compact disc reached its peak in popularity in the 1990s, and not once did another audio format surpass the CD in music sales from 1991 throughout the remainder of the decade. By 2000, the CD accounted for 92.3% of the entire market share in regard to music sales. (from 1990s)
Image 117Go-go boots became fashionable again in 1995. They were worn by women of the hip-hop, alternative, and dance subcultures. (from 1990s in fashion)
Image 118The 1999 İzmit earthquake, which occurred in northwestern Turkey, killed 17,217 and injured 43,959. (from 1990s)
Williamson, who was struggling to get his projects off the ground, was inspired by reports of a series of murders by the Gainesville Ripper as he wrote a screenplay that satirized the clichés of the slasher genre popularized in films such as Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980), and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Developed under the title Scary Movie, Williamson's script became the subject of an intense bidding war from multiple studios before Miramax Films purchased the rights. Craven, despite turning down the opportunity multiple times, agreed to direct the film after he had read the script as he was determined to re-establish himself after several career setbacks. The involvement of Barrymore and Cox helped secure more support from the studio. Principal photography took place from April to June 1996 in California on a budget of $15 million. Craven trimmed down the violence in the film after being involved in a tense conflict with the Motion Picture Association of America over the desired R-rating. (Full article...)
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Zero Patience is a 1993 Canadian musical film written and directed by John Greyson. The film examines and refutes the urban legend of the alleged introduction of HIV to North America by a single individual, Gaëtan Dugas. Dugas, better known as Patient Zero, was the target of blame in the popular imagination in the 1980's in large measure because of Randy Shilts's American television film docudrama, And the Band Played On (1987), a history of the early days of the AIDS epidemic. Zero Patience tells its story against the backdrop of a romance between a time-displaced Sir Richard Francis Burton and the ghost of "Zero" (the character is not identified by Dugas' name).
Cameron's inspiration for the film came from his fascination with shipwrecks. He felt a love story interspersed with the human loss would be essential to convey the emotional impact of the disaster. Production began on September 1, 1995, when Cameron shot footage of the Titanic wreck. The modern scenes on the research vesselwere shot on board the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, which Cameron had used as a base when filming the wreck. Scale models, computer-generated imagery and a reconstruction of the Titanic built at Baja Studios were used to recreate the sinking. The film was co-financed by Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox; Paramount handled distribution in the United States and Canada while 20th Century Fox released the film internationally. Titanic was the most expensive film ever made at the time, with a production budget of $200 million. Filming took place from July 1996 to March 1997. (Full article...)
Following the release of Return of the Jedi (1983), talks of a follow-up were proposed, but Lucas was unmotivated to return to the franchise. During the hiatus, the backstories he created for the characters, particularly Anakin's, sparked interest in him to develop a prequel trilogy during the 1990s. After he determined that computer-generated imagery (CGI) had advanced to the level he wanted for the prequel trilogy's visual effects, Lucas began writing The Phantom Menace in 1993, and production began in 1994. Filming started in June 1997—at locations at Leavesden Film Studios and the Tunisian desert—and ended in September. The film marked Lucas's first directorial effort after a 22-year hiatus following the original Star Wars[a] in 1977. (Full article...)
Beauty and the Beast focuses on the relationship between the Beast, a prince who is magically transformed into a monster and his servants into household objects as punishment for his arrogance and cruelty, and Belle, a young woman whom he imprisons in his castle in exchange for her father's freedom. To break the curse, the Beast must learn to love Belle and earn her love in return before the last petal from an enchanted rose falls, or else he will remain a monster forever. The film stars Paige O'Hara and Robby Benson as the voices of Belle and the Beast, respectively, as well as the ensemble voices of Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers, Jesse Corti, Rex Everhart, and Angela Lansbury. (Full article...)
Mulan was the first of three features produced primarily at the Disney animation studio at Disney-MGM Studios (now Disney's Hollywood Studios) in Bay Lake, Florida. Development for the film began in 1994, when a number of artistic supervisors were sent to China to receive artistic and cultural inspiration. (Full article...)
Taking place in a world where toys come to life when humans are not present, the plot of Toy Story focuses on the relationship between an old-fashioned pullstring cowboy doll named Woody and a modern space cadet action figure, Buzz Lightyear, as Woody develops jealousy towards Buzz when he becomes their owner Andy's favorite toy. (Full article...)
Myrick and Sánchez conceived of a fictional legend of the Blair Witch in 1993. They developed a 35-page screenplay with the dialogue to be improvised. A casting call advertisement on Backstage magazine was prepared by the directors; Donahue, Williams and Leonard were cast. The film entered production in October 1997, with the principal photography taking place in Maryland for eight days. About 20 hours of footage was shot, which was edited down to 82 minutes. Shot on an original budget of $35,000–60,000, the film had a final cost of $200,000–750,000 after post-production edits. (Full article...)
The Messenger portrays the story of Joan of Arc, the French war heroine and religious martyr of the Hundred Years War. It begins with young Joan as she witnesses the atrocities of the English against her family, and she has visions that inspire her to lead the French in battle against the occupying English. Her success in routing the English allows Charles VII to take the throne. Eventually, Joan is captured by the English, tried and executed for heresy. (Full article...)
Burton had no interest in making a sequel to the successful Batman, believing that he was creatively restricted by the expectations of Warner Bros. He agreed to return in exchange for significant creative control, including replacing original writer Sam Hamm with Daniel Waters and hiring many of his previous creative collaborators. Waters' script focused more on characterization than on overarching plot, and Wesley Strick was hired to complete an uncredited re-write which (among other elements) provided a master plan for the Penguin. Filming was done from September 1991 to February 1992, on a $50–80million budget, on sets and sound stages at Warner Bros. Studios and the Universal Studios Lot in California. Special effects primarily involved practical applications and makeup, with some animatronics and computer-generated imagery. (Full article...)
The film's development began in 1994 as a musical with the involvement of the Who's Pete Townshend, though the project took root once Bird signed on as director and hired McCanlies to write the screenplay in 1996. The film was animated using traditional animation, with computer-generated imagery used to animate the Iron Giant and other effects. The understaffed crew of the film completed it with half of the time and budget of other animated features. Michael Kamen composed the film's score, which was performed by the Czech Philharmonic. (Full article...)
Set in 1938 Los Angeles, California, The Rocketeer tells the story of stunt pilot Cliff Secord, who discovers a hidden rocket pack that he thereafter uses to fly without the need of an aircraft. His heroic deeds soon attract the attention of Howard Hughes and the FBI, who are hunting for the missing rocket pack, as well as the Nazi operatives who stole it from Hughes. (Full article...)
The film was conceived by Feldman in 1987, and was originally pitched as a film treatment in the style of a police procedural, entitled The Message. When The Message failed to attract the studios, Feldman re-wrote it as a spec script, which ultimately led to the making of the film. The extraterrestrial aspect of Sil's character was created by H. R. Giger, who was also responsible for the beings from the Alien franchise. The effects combined practical models designed by Giger collaborator Steve Johnson and XFX, with computer-generated imagery done by Richard Edlund's Boss Film Studios. Giger felt that the film and the character were too similar to Alien, so he pushed for script changes. (Full article...)
The Terminator was considered a significant success, enhancing Schwarzenegger's and Cameron's careers, but work on a sequel stalled because of animosity between the pair and Hemdale Film Corporation, which partially owned the film's rights. In 1990, Schwarzenegger and Cameron persuaded Carolco Pictures to purchase the rights from The Terminator producer Gale Anne Hurd and Hemdale, which was financially struggling. A release date was set for the following year, leaving Cameron and Wisher seven weeks to write the script. Principal photography began from October 1990 to March 1991, taking place in and around Los Angeles on an estimated $94–102million budget, making it the most expensive film made at the time. The advanced visual effects by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), which include the first use of a computer-generated main character in a blockbuster film, resulted in a schedule overrun. Theatrical prints were not delivered to theaters until the night before the picture's release on July 3, 1991. (Full article...)
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