Information for the Year 1991

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  • Cease-fire ends Persian Gulf War (April 3); UN forces are victorious.
  • Europeans end sanctions on South Africa (April 15). South African Parliament repeals apartheid laws (June 5).
  • France agrees to sign 1968 treaty banning spread of atomic weapons (June 3).
  • China accepts nuclear nonproliferation treaty (Aug. 10).
  • Bush-Gorbachev summit negotiates strategic arms reduction treaty (July 31).
  • Communist Government of Albania resigns (June 4).
  • Warsaw Pact dissolved (July 1).
  • Boris Yeltsin becomes first freely elected president of Russian Republic (July 10). Yeltsin's stock increases when he takes a prominent role in suppressing an anti-Gorbachev coup by communist hardliners (Aug. 18-22).
  • Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia win independence from USSR (Aug. 25);
  • Haitian troops seize president in uprising (Sept. 30). US suspends assistance to Haiti (Oct. 1).
  • US indicts two Libyans in 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland (Nov. 15).
  • Soviet Union breaks up after President Gorbachev's resignation; constituent republics form Commonwealth of Independent States (Dec. 25).
  • Population:  5.359 billion
  • Nobel Peace Prize:  Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma)
  • US Supreme Court limits death row appeals (April 16).
  • William H. Webster retires as Director of CIA; Robert H. Gates succeeds him (May 14).
  • Senate, 52-48, confirms Judge Clarence Thomas for US Supreme Court after stormy hearings (Oct. 15).
  • President:  George Bush
  • Vice President:  J. Danforth Quayle
  • Population:  252,127,402
  • Life expectancy:  75.5 years
  • US GDP (1998 dollars):   $5,916.70 billion
  • Federal spending:  $1323.63 billion
  • Federal debt:  $3598.5 billion
  • Median Household Income(current dollars):$30,126
  • Consumer Price Index:   136.2
  • Unemployment:  6.8%
  • Cost of a first-class stamp:  $0.25 ($0.29 as of 2/3/91)
  • Super Bowl  New York Giants defeated Buffalo Bills (SCORE 20-19)
  • World Series of Baseball  Minnesota defeated Atlanta Braves
  • National Basketball Association Championship  Chicago defeated LA Lakers
  • National Hockey League Stanley Cup  Pittsburgh Penguins defeated Minnesota Northstars
  • Women Wimbledon Tennis  Steffi Graf defeated G. Sabatini (6-4 3-6 8-6)
  • Men Wimbledon Tennis  Michael Stich defeated Boris Becker (6-4 7-6 6-4)
  • Kentucky Derby Horse Race Champion   Strike the Gold
  • National College Athletic Association Basketball Championship  Duke defeated Kansas (SCORE 72-65)
  • National College Athletic Association Football Champions  Miami-FL (RECORD 12-0-0) and Washington (RECORD 12-0-0)
  • The grunge movement, which is characterized by distorted guitars, dispirited vocals and lots of flannel
  • Academy Award, Best Picture:  Dances With Wolves
  • Grammy Award - Record of the Year   Another Day in Paradise by Phil Collins
  • Emmy Award - Best Television Comedy  Cheers - NBC
  • Miss America:  Marjorie Judith Vincent (Illinois)
  • Gopher, the first user-friendly internet interface, is created at the University of Minnesota and named after the school mascot. Gopher becomes the most popular interface for several years.
  • In Japan's worst nuclear accident to date, a leak of radioactive water causes a nuclear plant 220 miles west of Tokyo to release about 8% of the plant's annual radioactive emissions in a single day (Feb. 9).
  • First transpacific hot-air balloon flight. Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand flew about 6,700 mi. from Miyakonyo, Japan, to 150 mi. west of Yellowknife, Canada (Jan. 15–17)

 

All of the Information on this site is from Fact Monster