Rich vs. Poor Health
The following timeline was created to help illustrate how potential and/or cumulative influence and/or events can impact [for good or for bad] upon individual human health. In some places, bold type highlights were added for quick summary review. [E.M.]
1980
1980s- Nanotechnology? / U.S. Military - "The American Defense Department will spend $201 million on scientific research in the year 2003. Spending is growing: $180 million were spent on the research in 2002, $123 billion in 2001, and $70 million in 2000. Cliff Lau, deputy undersecretary of defense said that nanotechnology [atomic technology] could exert the biggest influence on defense technology since the time when gunpowder was invented.
"The USA started conducting its first research in the field in the beginning of the 1980s. Currently, nanotechnologies are used in the American navy, in particular for the production of long-lasting protective clothing for safety. The sum that will be spent on nanotechnology by the American administration in 2003 totals $570 million, which is almost $60 million more than 2001. [....]" [Based on: Pravada, May 27th, 2002]1980 - President Saddam Hussein / Iraq - "In 1980, Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq."
1980 - Saddam Hussein / Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - August 5th, 1980: "On August 5, 1980, as tensions mounted on the Iran-Iraq border, Saudi rulers welcomed Saddam to Riyadh for the first state visit ever by an Iraqi president to Saudi Arabia. During meetings at the kingdom’s ornate palaces, the Saudis feted Saddam whose formidable Soviet-supplied army was viewed as a bulwark against Iran. Saudi leaders also say they urged Saddam to take the fight to Iran’s fundamentalist regime, advice that they say included a 'green light' for the invasion from President Carter. Less than two months after Saddam’s trip, with Carter still frustrated by his inability to win release of the 52 Americans imprisoned in Iran, Saddam invaded Iran on Sept. 22, 1980. The war would rage for eight years and kill an estimated one million people." [Link: 1]
1980 - War / Iran & Iraq - September 20th, 1980: "The Iran-Iraq War begins with an Iraqi invasion of western Iran over a long-standing dispute over the Shatt-al-Arab waterway between Iraq and Iran. It is believed that between 1980-1988 Iraq used chemical weapons and worked on biological weapons." [Link: 1]
1980 - U.S. Backing / Saddam Hussain - "As the Afghan war intensified, a more conventional and equally bloody conflict was raging between Iran and Iraq. Saddam Hussain's aggression was enthusiastically backed by the USA, but Washington was not unduly dismayed when the Israeli air force attacked and destroyed Iraq's nuclear plant at Osirak."
1980 - Ronald Reagan & George H.W. Bush - November 4th, 1980: "In November Republicans Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush win the presidential election, defeating Democrats Jimmy Carter and Walter F. Mondale."
1980 - U.S. Aid / Mujahedin - "The 1980 US presidential election was won by Ronald Reagan, at 69 the oldest man ever to win that office, and arguably the most rightwing. The Reagan Revolution, as it was called, was Thatcherism with, as it were, a knob on. Even in the last months of Jimmy Carter's ill-starred presidency, US policy lurched sharply to the right. America led a Western boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics in protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and started massive shipments of arms and cash to the Mujahedin, the assorted bands of brigands fighting the Russian occupiers."
*Trivia: "The Afghan war against Soviet forces was a multi-billion dollar operation - largely paid for by CIA and the Saudi ruling class. U.S. contributions exploded, from $30 million in 1980 to over $600 million per year after 1987. 65,000 tons of U.S.-made weapons and ammunition a year were entering the war by 1987- including the high-profile Stingers used against Soviet helicopters. By the end of the 1980s, Mudjahadeen commanders were openly meeting with U.S. congressional leaders and with Ronald Reagan himself - they were part of a global network of such CIA-organized cutthroats that included the contras of Central America and UNITA in southern Africa. The U.S. media shamelessly called all these forces 'freedom fighters.' " [Link: 1]
*Trivia: "Authorities are launching a new push [2005] to collect U.S.-made Stinger missles that had been distributed to Afghans fighting Soviet troops in the 1980s, an Afghan official said Sunday [01/30/05]. The goal is to keep the weapons from terrorists and governments, he said. The Afghan intelligence service is offering to buy the anti-aircraft missles for an undisclosed sum, continuing a CIA program to recover the weapons." [From News Services, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, p. A9, 01/31/05]
*Trivia: "Alfred McCoy, a leading researcher into the global drug trade, writes that within two years of the CIA intervention in Afghanistan, 'the Pakistan-Afghanistan borderlands became the world's top heroin producer, supplying 60 percent of U.S. demand.' Cheap heroin flooded Pakistan, where the number of addicts went from near zero in 1979 to over 1 million by 1985. Charles Cogan, a CIA director of the Afghan operation, later said: 'Our main mission was to do as much damage as possible to the Soviets. We didn't really have the resources or the time to devote to an investigation of the drug trade...I don't think that we need to apologize for this. Every situation has its fallout.' " [Link: 1]
1980 - Sagebrush Rebellion - "Around 1980, Coors and Co. spearheaded the Sagebrush Rebellion, a coalition of industrial heavyweights and right-wing ideologues that set out to turn their think-tank policies into political power. When candidate Ronald Reagan declared, 'I am a Sagebrush rebel,' the big polluters were elated. Reagan's victory gave the Heritage Foundation and the MSLF a national arena for their radical agenda. Heritage became known as Reagan's 'shadow government,' and its 2,000-page manifesto, Mandate for Change, became the blueprint for his administration." [Robert F. Kennedt Jr., Crimes Against Nature, p. 25]
1980 - Voyager 1 Flyby / Saturn - November 12th, 1980: "The U.S. spacecraft Voyager 1 [launched September 1977] sends back its first pictures of Saturn." [Link: 1]
1980 - Satellite Launch / Intelsat V - December 6th, 1980: "The first of the powerful Intelsat V communications satellites, with 12,000 volt circuits, is launched on 6-December." [Link: 1]
1980 - Fatality / John Lennon - December 8th, 1980: "Former Beatle John Lennon [b. 1940] is shot and killed in New York City by Mark David Chapman."
1980 - 1st U.S. Space Shuttle / Columbia - December 29th, 1980: "The first operational orbiter Columbia is rolled out to the launch pad on 29 December, looking to a launch in the following spring." [Link: 1]
1980 - CNN - "Ted Turner [b. 1938] starts Cable News Network [CNN]. CNN Headline news began in 1982."
1980 - Status / U.S. National Debt - "The national debt was slightly less than $1 trillion in 1980; in 1995 it was $5 trillion." [Based on: article by Juri Lina, The Barnes Review, September/October 2004, p. 11]
1980 - Trivia / Genetic Patents - "The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Diamond v. Chakrabarty that microbes created by genetic engineering can be patented."
1980 - Status / U.S. Computers - "Reportedly, there are a million computers in the United States at this time."
*Trivia: "The National Safety Council (NSC) estimates that 315 million computers will be junked in 2004, up from 20 million in 1998. In 1998 (the last year this was monitored), only 11 percent of the PCs that were thrown out were recycled. Unfortunately, old PCs tossed into landfills contain dangerous chemicals and metals that can leak toxins into the environment - a good reason to recycle your machine when you buy a new one." [Based on: Leo Laporte's 2005 Technology Almanac, p. 3]
1981
1981 - End / Iran Hostage Crisis - "On January 6, 1981, after 444 days in captivity and one failed rescue attempt, the hostages were set free. It was Jimmy Carter's last day as U.S. President. After their release, the role that Canadians played in rescuing the six Americans, was revealed to the world. The role that Canada played in the hostage taking, changed its perception of being a neutral country, to being an active participant." [Links: 1]
1981 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan - January 20th, 1981: "The 40th American President, [Republican], begins his term. On the day of Reagan's presidential inauguration, Iran finally freed its 52 U.S. hostages [held hostage for 444 days] after the U.S. freed $8 billion in frozen Iranian assets. Ronald Reagan inherited 10% inflation 20% interest rates."
*Trivia: "George Herbert Walker Bush becomes the 43rd U.S. vice-president; Reagan immediately announces a simultaneous tax cut and massive military buildup, a program that comes to be known as Reaganomics."
*Trivia: "President Reagan initiated a policy of cutbacks of funds for Indian social programs. Over forty percent of funds were cut."
1981 - Radioactive Coolant Leak / Tennessee - February 11th, 1981: "8 workers were contaminated when 100,000 gallons of radioactive coolant fluid leaked into containment building of TVA's Sequoyah 1 plant in Tennessee." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 210]
1981 - U.S. Paranoia / El Salvador - February 19th, 1981: "The U.S. State Department called El Salvador a 'textbook case' of a Communist plot."
1981 - Disclosure / U.S. Biological Weapons Tests [1966], Texas - March 18th, 1981: "The U.S. disclosed that there were biological weapons tested in Texas in 1966."
1981 - Damaged U.S. Embassy / San Salvador - March 25th, 1981: "The U.S. Embassy in San Salvador was damaged when gunmen attack, firing rocket propelled grenades and machine guns."
1981 - Assassination Attempt / Ronald Reagan - March 30th, 1981: "David Hinckley shot and wounded President Ronald Reagan outside a Washington, D.C., hotel. Press Sec. James Brady took a bullet as did Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy and a District of Columbia police officer."1981 - Decline / U.S. Stock Market - April, 1981: "The US stock market began a 16 month decline of 23%."
1981 - Launched / 1st U.S. Space Shuttle [Columbia] - April 12, 1981: "John Young and Robert Crippen flew Columbia into orbit on 12-April on the space shuttle's maiden mission (STS- 1). It lasted for 36 orbits, 54 hours, launched from the Kennedy Space Center, it returned to the Edwards Air Force Base in California, on 14-April." [Link: 1]
1981 - Introduced / IBM Computer - April 24th, 1981: "The IBM Personal Computer was introduced. It used software from a corporation called Microsoft."
1981 - Radiation Exposure / Tsuruga, Japan - April 25th, 1981: "Some 100 workers were exposed to radiation during repairs of a nuclear plant Tsuruga, Japan." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 210]
1981 - Assassination Attempt / Pope John Paul II - May 13th, 1981: "John Paul II was shot twice and seriously wounded in St. Peter's Square by Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Agca. The Pope survived the attack on his life."
1981 - Identification / AIDS - June 5th, 1981: "The Federal Centers for Disease Control published the first report that identified AIDS. Within 10 years the disease killed 110,000 Americans."
1981 - Israeli Destruction / Iraq Power Plant - June 7th, 1981: "Israeli F-16 fighter-bombers destroyed a nuclear power plant in Iraq at Osirak, Iraq, before it went into operation, a facility the Israelis charged could have been used to make nuclear weapons."
1981 - Royal Wedding / England - July 29th, 1981: "Crowds packed London streets and millions watched worldwide on television as Charles, 32, and Diana, 20, exchanged vows at St. Paul's Cathedral." [Link: 1]
1981 - Debut / MTV - August 1st, 1981: "The rock music video channel MTV made its debut."
1981 - Unveiled / IBM Computer - August 12th, 1981: "IBM unveils its first personal computer [PC]; it sold for $2665, had a black and white monitor and 64KB of RAM; Microsoft purchases the QDOS [Quick and Dirty Operating System] from Tim Patterson's Seattle Computer Products and manages to license it to IBM as MS-DOS."
1981 - Voyager 1 Flyby / Saturn - "On 25-August Voyager 1 made its closest approach, 63,000 miles (IO 1,000 km), to Saturn."
*Trivia: "In 1981, both Voyagers, I & 2, flew by Saturn."1981 - CIA Program / Contra Rebel Group - September, 1981: "The CIA was informed that a major Contra rebel group planned to sell drugs in the US to pay its bills. At the same time the Reagan administration was approving a covert CIA program to finance anti-Sandinista exile organization attempts to overthrow the Nicaraguan government."
*Trivia: "Oscar Danilo Blandon was recruited by Norwin Meneses to sell cocaine in California in order to raise money for the Nicaraguan Contras."
1981 - U.S. Paramilitary Operations / Nicaragua - "In 1981, U.S. President Ronald Reagan gave the CIA permission to begin paramilitary operations against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Robert Suazo Cordova of the centrist Liberal Party of Honduras [PLH] becomes the first democratically-elected president of Honduras in more than a century." [Link: 1]
1981 - 1st Female U.S. Justice - September 25th, 1981: "Sandra Day O'Connor was sworn in as the first female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court."
1981 - Removal / James Watt & Co. - "By October 1981, 1.1 million Americans had signed a petition demanding Watt's [secretary of the Department of the Interior] removal. After being forced out of office, he was indicted on 25 felony counts of perjury, unlawful concealment, and obstruction of justice. Gorsuch [Anne Gorsuch] and 23 of her cronies were forced to resign following a congressional investigation of sweetheart deals with polluters, including Coors. Her first deputy, Rita LaVelle, was jailed for perjury and obstruction of justice." [Robert F. Kennedt Jr., Crimes Against Nature, p. 26]
1981 - Assassination / Anwar Sadat - October 6th, 1981: "Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was killed by an assassin at the parade ground of Nasser City by Islamic fundamentalists during a ceremony commemorating the Egyptian crossing of the Suez Canal during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Although authorities were warned of a death plot hours earlier, the information did not get to the president in time. He was succeeded by Vice President Hosni Mubarak. The events are described in a book by Fouad Allam: 'The Brotherhood and I'." [Link: 1]1981 - Unabomber / Theodore Kaczynski - October 8th, 1981: "An explosive device at the University of Utah was defused. It was later attributed to the Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski."
1981 - Harold Klemp / The 973rd Living ECK Master - October, 1981: "Although Gross [Darwin Gross, the 972nd Living ECK Master] was selected [1971] by the board of Eckankar as well as Twitchell's widow [Gail Atkinson], he brought controversy to Eckankar because many followers felt he was an unworthy successor to the former ECK Master [Paul Twitchell, the 971st Living ECK Master, 1965-1971]. Ultimately, Gross lost all of the powers and responsibilities associated with the title of Living ECK Master and was succeeded by Harold Klemp, the 973rd and present [2006] Living ECK Master. Gross and Eckankar became involved with a number of lawsuits disputing Gross's use of copyrighted Eckankar terminology." [See link:
1981 - Spying / U.S.A. - December 4th, 1981: "President Reagan broadened the power of the CIA by allowing spying in the U.S."
1981 - Predicted / U.S. Deficit - December 7th, 1981: "The Reagan Administration predicted a record deficit in 1982 of $109 billion."
1981 - Civilian Fatalities / El Salvador - December 10th, 1981: "Hundreds of people were killed in the El Salvadoran village of El Mozote by an elite US-trained army battalion. Eleven years later under a UN sponsored Truth Commission, the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team found 143 skeletons, 131 of which belonged to children under 12. The bullet cartridges showed manufacture in Lake city, Missouri."
1981 - Israeli Annexation / Golan Heights - December 14th, 1981: "Israel annexed the Golan Heights, seized from Syria in 1967. The parliament approved the annexation of the Golan Heights with legislation in one day."
1981 - 1st American Test-Tube Baby - December 28th, 1981: "Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American test-tube baby, was born in Norfolk, Va."
1981 - Civil War / Somalia - "In 1981, northern Somalia rebelled against dictator Mohammed Siad Barre. A national civil war followed. During the war an estimated 40,000 people were killed and about 400,000 refugees fled to Ethiopia."
1981 - Guatemala Crackdown - "In Guatemala 100,000 Maya villagers were killed in a government crackdown on a left-wing insurgency."
1981 - Kosovo Albanian Uprising - "In 1981, Yugoslavia Serbs cracked down on an ethnic Albanian uprising in Kosovo and left 80 people dead. Massive demonstrations occurred in Kosova. Demonstrators demanded that Kosova become a republic in Yugoslavia. Yugoslav police and army presence was increased in Kosova."
1981 - Ayatollah Khomeini / Iran - "In Iran the Ayatollah Khomeini began the celebration of 'Jerusalem Day' on the last day of Ramadan as an annual denunciation of Israeli control of the holy city."
1981 - Established / Gulf Corporation - "Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman established the Gulf Cooperation Council to strengthen economic and cultural ties with security at the top of the agenda."
1981 - Japanese Bailout / U.S. Economy - "Japan bailed out the US economy by loading up on 30-year government bonds."
1981 - Defense Minister Ariel Sharon / Israel - "In Israel Ariel Sharon was appointed defense minister in the Begin government."
1981 - Trivia / Ozone Depletion - "Scientists of the British Antarctic Survey first noticed a depletion of the ozone in the earth's atmosphere over the South Pole."
1981 - Trivia / U.S. Opium Imports - "The US Drug Enforcement Administration [DEA] instituted the 80/20 rule for opium/poppy imports. 80% of the US need for opium was set to be imported from India and Turkey. Turkish farmers provided poppy heads while Indian farmers produced gum opium."
1981 - FDA Approval / Aspartame, U.S.A. - "The FDA approved the use of aspartame, an artificial sweetener."
1982
1982 - U.S Aid / Iraq - "Through the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, as first one side and then the other gained the upper hand, the Reagan administration was officially neutral but behind the scenes tilted from one side to the other. When Iran appeared to be winning in 1982, Reagan and his advisers made a fateful decision to secretly supply Saddam’s military, including permitting shipments of dual-use technology that Iraq then used to build chemical and biological weapons. Tactical military assistance also was provided, including satellite photos of the battlefield. While congressional inquiries and press accounts have sketched out some of these facts over the years, the current Bush administration continues to plead ignorance or question the reliability of the stories. Last September [2002], for example, Newsweek reported that the Reagan administration in the 1980s had allowed sales to Iraq of computer databases that Saddam could use to track political opponents and shipments of 'bacteria/fungi/protozoa' that could help produce anthrax and other biological weapons. [Based on: Newsweek issue dated Sept. 23, 2002]" [Link 1]
1982 - U.S. Aid / Saddam Hussein - "Teicher, who served on Reagan’s National Security Council staff, traced the U.S. tilt to Iraq to a turning point in the war in 1982 when Iran gained the offensive and fears swept through the U.S. government that Iran’s army might slice through Iraq to the oil fields of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. 'In June 1982, President Reagan decided that the United States could not afford to allow Iraq to lose the war to Iran,' Teicher wrote in his affidavit. Teicher said he helped draft a secret national security decision directive that Reagan signed to authorize covert U.S. assistance to Saddam Hussein’s military. 'The NSDD, including even its identifying number, is classified,' Teicher wrote in 1995. The effort to arm the Iraqis was 'spearheaded' by CIA Director William Casey and involved his deputy, Robert Gates, according to Teicher’s affidavit. 'The CIA, including both CIA Director Casey and Deputy Director Gates, knew of, approved of, and assisted in the sale of non-U.S. origin military weapons, ammunition and vehicles to Iraq,' Teicher wrote." [Link 1]
1982 - CIA-Backed Muslim Military Training - "Ahmed Rashid, author of Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, estimates that after 1982 more than 100,000 Muslims from dozens of countries received political or military training in the CIA-backed camps of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"According to Ahmed Rashid, Osama bin Laden helped build the Khost tunnel complex, a major arms storage depot, training facility and medical center built with CIA funds. Nearby, Bin Laden established a military camp for about 9,000 followers of Wahabbism, the Islamic creed promoted by the Saudi monarchy and Afghanistan's dominant Pashtun nationality. This Khost camp became the headquarters for al-Qaida [which means 'military base'] and in 1998 was a target of Bill Clinton's cruise missile attack on Afghanistan." [Link: 1]1982 - Defeated / U.S. Equal Rights Amendment - June 30th, 1982: "The Equal Rights Amendment was defeated after a 10-year struggle, when the deadline for ratification expired June 30." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 553]
1982 - Israeli Invasion / Lebanon - "In mid 1982 Israeli forces invaded Lebanon, rapidly advancing on Beirut, driving Palestinian guerrillas north, and establishing a permanent occupation zone in the south. Palestinian civilians left in Beirut were massacred by the fascist Christian militias. The USA belatedly intervened, sending a small detachment of Marines as part of a multinational force to restore some kind of order in the Lebanese capital." [Links: 1]
*Trivia: "Israel invades. President-elect Bashir Gemayel, head of Israeli-allied Christian militia, is killed in bombing. Israeli-allied Lebanese militias kill hundreds of Palestinians in refugee camps." [Based on: A.P., 02/15/05]
*Trivia: "Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon: ... born to Russian immigrant parents in the farming community of Kfar Malal, north of Tel Aviv. During a 29-year military career that spawned four wars, he gained a reputation as a daring but maverick officer. As defense minister, he oversaw the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. He resigned in 1983 after an Israeli commission found him indirectly responsible for an Israeli-allied Lebanese militia's massacre of hundreds of Palestinian refugees at the Sabra and Chatilla camps." [St. Louis post-Dispatch, p. A8, 02/09/05]
*Trivia: "In a videotape made public just days before the U.S. presidential election in 2004, Osama bin-Laden talked about when he first started to hate the United States. He referred to the year 1982, when the United States allowed Israel to invade Lebanon." [E.M.]
1982 - Created / Hezbollah - "Hezbollah, also spelled Hizballah, means 'party of God'. It is a Shiite Muslim organization headquartered in Lebanon whose goal is a fundamentalist Islamic state there and beyond, and the obliteration of Israel. It was created in 1982 after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon."
1982 - National Debt / Germany - "The current interest system makes it possible for those that already have money to get even richer, while those in need find it increasingly hard to make ends meet. From 1968 to 1982 the national income of West Germany increased by 300 percent, while the interest on the national debt increased by 1,160 percent. In 1982 that interest amounted to 29 billion DM. When interest is abolished, inflation vanishes. Kennedy [Margrit Kennedy] stressed in her book [Interest and Inflation Free Money (1988)] that the income tax must also be abolished. The government will have to be satisfied with a very low VAT; otherwise the gray economy will grow. As of now interest rates go up when there is not enough money available." [Based on: article by Juri Lina, The Barnes Review, September/October 2004, p. 14]
*Trivia: "The European Community during the years 1982-88 lost up to 735,000 jobs due to the debt crisis, while the United States lost 1.8 million jobs during the same period." [Based on: article by Juri Lina, The Barnes Review, September/October 2004, p. 14]
1982? - Minamata Poisoning Case / Japan - "Japan's top court ordered the government Friday [10/15/04] to pay $703,000 in damages to victims of the Minamata Bay mercury poisining. The ruling came 22 years after the case was filed over an industrial pollution disaster that killed more than 1,700 people and caused mothers to give birth to deformed babies.
"The Minamata poisoning incident was Japan's worst case of industrial pollution. Since the 1950's, hundreds of people have contracted Minamata disease - a neurological disorder caused by mercury poisoning - from eating tainted fish. The disease was first discovered in the 1950s and named for Minamata Bay in southern Japan, where a company dumped tons of mercury compounds.
"The court said the government and Kumamoto prefecture (state) failed to stop chemical manufacturer Chisso Corp. from dumping tons of mercury compounds into Minamata Bay beginning in the 1930s." [News Services, 10/16/04]1983
1983 - U.S. Plans / Strategic Defense Initiative [Star Wars] - March 23rd, 1983: "President Ronald Reagan announces plans for the Strategic Defense Initiative, a space-based missle defense system against nuclear attack, later dubbed Star Wars." [Based on: N.G.M., August 2005, p. 107]
1983 - Pioneer 10 / Beyond Neptune - June 13th, 1983: "On 13-June Pioneer 10 becomes the first probe to venture into interstellar space when it crossed the orbit of the outermost planet, Neptune." [Link: 1]
1983 - Suicide Bombers / Lebanon - October 23rd, 1983: "In October [10/23/83] 1983 suicide bombers attacked the US and French encampments. A total of 275 soldiers died. The Lebanon was left to its beastly civil war." [Links: 1]
*Trivia: "[....] ... separate Shiite car bombings target Marines and French paratroopers, killing 241 Americans and 58 French." [Based on A.P. research, 02/15/05]
1983 - Operational / Space Shuttle Columbia - November, 1983: "Columbia becomes operational on STS-5, lifting off in November. It carries a record four-man crew, Vance Brand, Robert Overmyer, Joseph Allen and William Lenoir. They launched two communication satellites." [Link: 1]
1983 - U.S. Space Lab - November 11th, 1983: "Space shuttle Columbia carried the Spacelab into space on 11 November 1983."
1983 - 1st Space Lab Flight - November 28th, 1983: "The first flight of Space-lab on the shuttle begins on 28-November. The space shuttle is Columbia, with a crew of six conducted over 70 experiments on a 10-day flight. Among them is a German scientist, the first non-American to fly in the US space program. The other crew members are John Young, Brewster Shaw, Robert Parker, Owen Garriott and Byron Lichtenberg." [Link: 1]
1984
1984 - Forgery Ring / Bible-Era Artifacts - "Four Israeli antiquities collectors and dealers were indicted Wedneday [12/29/04] in Jerusalem on charges they ran a sophisticated forgery ring that spanned the globe and produced a treasure-trove of fake Bible-era artifacts - some of which were hailed as major archaeological finds. [....] Investigators warned [Dec. 2004] that collectors and museums around the world could be in the possession of fakes, and scholars urged museums to re-examine items of suspicious origin. The forgery ring has been operating for more than 20 years, said Shuka Dorfman, head of the Israel Antiquities Authority." [News Services, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, p. A12, 12/30/04]
1984 - Agent Orange Settlement - May 7th, 1984: "On May 7, American Vietnam war veterans reached an out-of-court settlement with 7 chemical companies in a class-action suit over the herbicide Agent Orange." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 554]
1984 - Fatal Gas Leak / Union Carbide Plant, Bhopal India - December 3rd, 1984: "[...] About 40 tons of poisonous gas leaked from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in the central Indian city of Bhopal on Dec. 3, 1984. Union crabide claims that 3,800 people were killed, while Indian officials say up to 15,000 may have died and that as many as 555,000 others have become ill or had babies born with defects since then. Many people died over the years due to gas-related illnesses, like lung cancer, kidney failure and liver disease. [....] The U.S. chemical company Union Carbide Corp., which was bought by Michigan-based Dow Chemical Company in 2001, paid $470 million in compensation under a settlement with India's government in 1989. But only part of that amount has reached the victims. [....] 'Lethal chemicals are still lying around at the plant, some in the open. Every time it rains these poisonous chemicals are leaked into the soil, affecting groundwater resources of the area,' Bee [Rashida Bee] said. [....] Union Carbide, in a statement sent to The Associated Press, said it spent more than $2 million to clean up the plant from 1985 to 1994, when it sold its stake in Union Carbide India Ltd. (UCIL) and the local company was renamed as Eveready Industries. The company also says state studies indicated in 1998 that the groundwater around the plant was free of toxins and that any water contamination was due to improper drainage and other pollution, not Union Carbide chemicals." [A.P., 12/03/04]
1984 - Trivia / "Live Aid" Concerts - "In 1984, Musicians raised millions of pounds for famine aid in Africa with spectacular simultaneous Live Aid concerts in London and Philadelphia."
1984 - Fatality / Indira Gandhi, India - "Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister, headed India from 1947 until his death in 1964. He was followed later by his daughter, Indira Gandhi, whose often iron-fisted rule defined two decades of Indian life. Indira was murdered by her own bodyguards in 1984, and her son, Rajiv Gandhi, an airline pilot, reluctantly stepped up. Riding a wave of sympathy, he easily won the next election. But he lost the prime minister's post in 1989 and was assassinated two years later while campaigning." [A.P., 05/14/04]
1984 - Desecrated / Golden Temple - "The Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest place in Sikhdom, was horribly desecrated when Indian troops stormed it and fought a pitched battle against separatist militants. Operation Blue Star cost Prime Minister Indira Gandhi her life less than five months later, when she was gunned down by her own Sikh bodyguards. In the modern dynastic tradition of Indian politics, Indira's utterly inexperienced son Raj iv Gandhi took over as Prime Minister. Tragedy visited India on an even larger scale in December 1984 when a cloud of deadly methyl isocyanate gas drifted over Bhopal, killing at least 3,000. The after-effects have since pushed the death toll to nearer 10,000. The accident has been blamed by the plant operator, Union Carbide, on a disgruntled employee, and by most Indians on exploitative Western capitalism. Either way, few of the survivors have yet seen any compensation."
1985
1985 - Economy / USSR - "Astonishingly, by the mid-1980s the USSR had overtaken Britain and most other capitalist economies, with the exception of the USA. At least in absolute terms, the USSR occupied the first position in many key fields of production, for example, in the production of steel, iron, coal, oil, gas, cement, tractors, cotton, and many steel tools. In the mid-1980s the Massachusetts Cambridge Engineering Research Association described the Soviet natural gas industry - which doubled production in less than ten years - as a 'spectacular success story'. [Financial Times, 14/11/85.] Even in the field of computers, where Russia in the 1970s was said to be ten years behind the West, the gap had been narrowed to a point where Western experts admitted it was only about 2-3 years. The most spectacular proof of the superiority of a planned economy, where it was run well, was the Soviet space programme. Since 1957 Russia had led the 'space race'. While the Americans landed on the moon, the Russians were building a space station that would take them to the far reaches of the solar system. As a byproduct, the Soviet Union was selling the cheap and reliable Proton rockets on world markets at a price some £10 million less than the European Ariane space project." [Link: 1]
1985 - Israeli Nuclear Arsenal? - "Mordechai Vanunu provided the best look at the Israeli nuclear arsenal in 1985, complete with photographs. A technician from Dimona who lost his job, Vanunu secretly took photographs, migrated to Australia and published some of his material in The London Sunday Times. He was subsequently kidnapped by Israeli agents and imprisoned. His data showed a sophisticated nuclear program, with over 200 bombs, with boosted devices, neutron bombs, F-16 deliverable warheads, and Jericho warheads. He revealed for the first time the underground plutonium separation facility where Israel was producing 40 kilograms annually, several times more than previous estimates. Photographs showed sophisticated designs which scientific experts say enabled the Israelis to build bombs with as little as 4 kilograms of plutonium. In the words of one American source, 'The Israelis can do anything we or the Soviets can do.' " [John Tiffany, A.F.P., March 2004]
*Trivia: "Vanunu, who was released seven months ago [04/21/04] after completing an 18-year prison sentence for treason, was arrested [11/11/04] on suspician of revealing classified information, police said. [....] Vanunu was convicted in 1988 of divulging information and pictures of the Dimona reactor." [A.P., 11/12/04]
1985 - Recording / "We Are the World" - "Entertainment highlights in the week of Jan. 23-29: The African famine relief benefit song 'We Are the World' was recorded in Los Angeles after the American Music Awards ceremony." [A.P.]
1985 - "Live Aid" Broadcast - July 13th, 1985: " 'Live Aid,' a rock concert broadcast around the world July 13, raised $70 mil for starving peoples of Africa." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 554]
1985 - No Win Situation / Nuclear War - November 1985: "At their first summit conference in Geneva, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Gorbachev signal a new era in arms control, agreeing that a nuclear war 'cannot be won and must never be fought.' " [Based on: N.G.M., August 2005, p. 112]
1985 - Fatality / Rick Nelson - December, 1985: "Entertainment highlights during the week of Dec. 26-Jan 1: Singer Rick Nelson was killed when his chartered plane crashed in Texas." [A.P., 12/27/04]
1985 - Trivia / U.S. Health Insurance - "The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, COBRA, guarantees that, for up to 18 months, workers who leave their jobs can continue to buy coverage as part of their former employer's group plan." [Source: Institute of Medicine, 10/04/04]
1985 - 1st Comet Probe - First probe to reach a comet (USA)." [Link: 1]
1986
1986 - 1st Diagnosed / Mad Cow Disease - "Mad cow, first diagnosed in 1986 in the United Kingdom, is thought to have resulted from the feeding of meat and bone meal containing infected sheep parts to cattle. The outbreak probably was then made worse by 'amplification' - feeding meat-and-bone meal made from those cattle to young calves. [....]" [Based on: St. Petersburg Times, 03/12/01]
1986 - Established / NCSA - January 15th, 1986: "On this date [January 15th] in 1986, the national Science Foundation (NSF) established the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The NCSA works with research centers nationwide to build cyberinfrastructure, tools, and applications for grid computing." [Leo Laporte's 2005 Technology Almanac, p. 17]
1986 - 1st Uranus Probe - January 24, 1986: "First probe to reach Uranus (USA)."
1986 - Challenger Disaster / U.S.A. - January 28th, 1986: "The space shuttle Challenger soared into the sky and then disintegrated spectacularly after just 73 seconds. The shocking moment of destruction, when seven lives were atomised, provided one of the decade's most awesome images."
1986 - Chernobyl Disaster / USSR - April 26th, 1986: "Disaster struck the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Belarus in April 1986. There was no nuclear explosion, as is commonly supposed; water was superheated when the plant went out of control, and a jet of steam punched through the steel and cement casing, spreading radioactivity far and wide. More than 30 died on the spot; the ultimate cost of the calamity may never be accurately known."
Trivia: "In all, 7 million people in the former Soviet republics of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine are believed to have suffered physical or psychological injuries from the catastrophe on April 26, 1986, when reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded and caught fire. An area probably half the size of Colorado was contaminated, forcing the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of people and ruining some of Europe's most fertile farmland. Ukraine shuttered Chernobyl's last working reactor in December 2000." [News Services, April 2004]
1986 - Tensions / Iran & Iraq - "Subsequent to a trip by George H.W. Bush, Saddam Hussein intensified his air campaign against Iran. The Iraqi air force bombed civilian centers in Tehran and other Iranian centers."
1986 - U.S. Relations / Iran & Iraq - "Waas and Unger described the motive for the Reagan administration’s tactical advice as a kind of diplomatic billiard shot. By getting Iraq to expand use of its air force, the Iranians would be more desperate for U.S.-made HAWK anti-aircraft missile parts, giving Washington more leverage with the Iranians. Iran’s need to protect their cities from Iraqi air attacks gave impetus to the Reagan administration’s arms-for-hostage scheme, which later [November 1986] became known as the Iran-contra affair. [See The New Yorker, Nov. 2, 1992.]." [Source Document 1]
1986 - U.S. Relations / Iran & Iraq - "Another key player in Reagan’s Iraq tilt was then-Vice President George H.W. Bush, according to Teicher’s affidavit. 'In 1986, President Reagan sent a secret message to Saddam Hussein telling him that Iraq should step up its air war and bombing of Iran,' Teicher wrote. 'This message was delivered by Vice President Bush who communicated it to Egyptian President Mubarak, who in turn passed the message to Saddam Hussein. 'Similar strategic operational military advice was passed to Saddam Hussein through various meetings with European and Middle Eastern heads of state. I authored Bush’s talking points for the 1986 meeting with Mubarak and personally attended numerous meetings with European and Middle East heads of state where the strategic operational advice was communicated.' Teicher’s affidavit represented a major break in the historical mystery of U.S. aid to Iraq. But it complicated a criminal arms-trafficking case that Clinton’s Justice Department was prosecuting against Teledyne Industries and a salesman named Ed Johnson. They had allegedly sold explosive pellets to Chilean arms manufacturer Carlos Cardoen, who used them to manufacture cluster bombs for Iraq." [Data Source Document 1]
1986 - Iran-Contra Scandal - November: "Press reports in early Nov. broke first news of the Iran-contra Scandal, involving secret U.S. sale of arms to Iran." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 554]
1986 - 1st Confirmed / Mad Cow Disease - November 1986: "BSE, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, is first confirmed in the U.K." [Based on: St. Petersburg Times, 03/12/01]
1986 - Deployment / U.S. Peacekeeper Missles - December 1986: "U.S. deploys Peacekeeper ICBMs, eachwith with ten nuclear warheads ... to counter Soviet SS-18s." [Based on: N.G.M., August 2005, p. 112]
1986 - Khost Tunnel Complex / Pakistan - "In 1986 Osama bin-Laden helped build the Khost tunnel complex, which the CIA was funding as a major arms-storage depot, training facility, and medical center for the Mujaheddin deep under the mountains of Pakistan."
*Trivia: "The USA helped recruit, train and equipt thousands of killer Mujaheddin in the Anti-Soviet war." [Source Video: "The Great Deception"]
1987
1987 - U.S. Weapons Exports / Afghanistan - "The Afghan war against Soviet forces was a multi-billion dollar operation - largely paid for by CIA and the Saudi ruling class. U.S. contributions exploded, from $30 million in 1980 to over $600 million per year after 1987. 65,000 tons of U.S.-made weapons and ammunition a year were entering the war by 1987- including the high-profile Stingers used against Soviet helicopters." [Link: 1]
1987 - Trillion-Dollar Budget / U.S.A. - January 5th, 1987: "Pres. Reagan produced the nation's first trillion-dollar budget, Jan. 5." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 554]
1987 - Record Close / Dow Jones - January 8th, 1987: "Dow Jones closed above 2,000 for the first time, Jan. 8." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 554]
1987 - Examples of Genocide / Iraq - 1987-1988: "100,000 Kurds killed." [Based on: Reuters, World Almanac and KRT - St. Louis Post-Dispatch, p. A12, 06/26/05]
*Trivia: "On April 16, 1987, a chemical raid on the Balisan valley killed dozens of civilians; in its wake, "some seventy men were taken away in buses and, like the Barzanis, never seen again."
[Based on: http://www.gendercide.org/case_anfal.html]
1987 - Iran-Contra Hearings / U.S.A. - "Public hearings by Senate and House committees investigating the Iran-contra affair were held May-Aug. Lt. Col. Oliver North said he had believed all his activities were authorized by his superiors. Pres. Reagan, Aug. 12, denied knowing of a diversion of funds to the contras." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 554]
1987 - "Harmonic Convergence" - "August 16th, 1987 was a date many of us will never forget. On that day, perhaps for the first time ever, millions of people from around the world focused their hearts and prayers during an event called the 'Harmonic Convergence.' Jose Arguelles, an eminent interpreter of the Mayan Calendar, led the call for prayer and planetary shift which was predicted in the ancient Mayan texts." [By James Twyman, Pathfinder Magazine - May/June 2004]
*Trivia: "The end of the ninth hell cycle on August 16-17, 1987 corresponds to what has become known as the Harmonic Convergence Global Meditation. The Harmonic Convergence signaled the final twenty-five year countdown to 2012."
1987 - Wall Street Crash - October 19th, 1987: "Wall Street crashed, Oct. 19, with the Dow Jones plummeting a record 508 points to 1738, ending a bull market that began in mid-1982." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 554]
1987 - Missle Pact / USA & USSR - December 8th, 1987: "Pres. Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Dec. 8, signed a pact [Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty] to dismantle all 1,752 U.S and 859 Soviet missles with a 300-to 3,400-mi. range." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 554] - [Brackets text added by E.M.]
1987 - Intifada Uprisings / West Bank & Gaza Strip - December 8th, 1987: "Unholy mayhem came to the Holy Land in late 1987, with the outbreak of the Intifada, the popular and chaotic uprising of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territories both under military occupation by Israel." [Links: 1]
1987 - Founded / Hamas - December 14th, 1987: "Hamas is an acronym for the Arab words for Islamic Resistance Movement; the word itself means 'zeal'. It was founded in 1987 at the time of the Palestinian uprising, the intifada, in Gaza and the West Bank." [Link: 1]
1987 - Time Machines? - "Russian investigator of anomalous phenomena, philosopher and author of numerous books Gennady Belimov published his article under the headline 'Time Machine: First Speed On' in the newspaper On the Verge of Impossible. He described unique experiments conducted by a group of enthusiasts led by Vadim Chernobrov, the man who began creation of time machines, devices with electromagnetic pumping in 1987." [Olga Zharina, 03/01/2004, Pravada]
1987 - Status / Dead Sea Scrolls - "In 1987, Vermes convened a London conference on the 40th anniversary of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls & called for immediate publication of all photographs without transcription, commentary or editorial notes."
1987 - Permanent Occupation / Space Station MIR - "First permanently-occupied space station, Space Station MIR (USSR)." [Link: 1]
1988
1988 - Economic Disposition / Iraq - "The devastation from the Iran-Iraq war, which finally ended in 1988, also set the stage for the Gulf War of 1990-91. The eight-year war had crippled the Iraqi economy and left Saddam’s government deeply in debt. Having been egged on by the oil-rich sheikdoms to blunt the revolutionary zeal of Iran, Saddam felt betrayed when Kuwait wouldn’t write off Iraq’s debts and rejected a $10 billion loan. Beyond that, Saddam was furious with Kuwait for driving down world oil prices by overproducing and for slant-drilling into Iraqi oil fields. Many Iraqis also considered Kuwait, historically, a part of Iraq. Before attacking Kuwait, however, Saddam consulted George H.W. Bush’s administration. First, the U.S. State Department informed Saddam that Washington had 'no special defense or security commitments to Kuwait.' Then, U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie told Saddam, 'we have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait. As Foreign Policy magazine observed, 'the United States may not have intended to give Iraq a green light, but that is effectively what it did.' [Foreign Policy, Jan.-Feb. 2003]" [Source Document 1]
1988 - Examples of Genocide / Iraq - March 16th, 1988: "On April 16, 1987, a chemical raid on the Balisan valley killed dozens of civilians; in its wake, 'some seventy men were taken away in buses and, like the Barzanis, never seen again. The surviving women and children were dumped on the plain outside Erbil and left to fend for themselves.' (Jonathan C. Randal, After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness?, p. 230.) Less than a year later, on March 16, 1988, a far more concentrated chemical attack was launched on the town of Halabji, near the Iranian border, which had briefly been held by a combined force of Kurdish rebels and Iranian troops. Thousands of civilians died, and with the town still under Iranian occupation after the raid, journalists and photographers were able to reach the scene. "Their photographs, mainly of women, children, and elderly people huddled inertly in the streets or lying on their backs with mouths agape, circulated widely, demonstrating eloquently that the great mass of the dead had been Kurdish civilian noncombatants." (Iraq's Crime of Genocide, p. 72.) Although it took place during the Anfal campaign, however, the attack on Halabji is not normally considered part of that campaign."
[Based on: http://www.gendercide.org/case_anfal.html]
1988 - Addictive Cigarettes / U.S.A. - May 16th, 1988: "In a report issued May 16, Surgeon Gen. C. Everett Koop declared that cigarettes were addictive." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 554]
1988 - Bibliotheca Alexandrina - "On June 26, 1988, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt laid the foundation stone for the Bibliotheca Alexandrina on a site of about 35,200 square meters, located adjacent to the main campus of the University of Alexandria overlooking the waterfront of the eastern port, between two streets parallel to the shore: the 'Corniche,' El-Gaish Avenue, and Port Said Street. In 1990, at a meeting in Aswan, Arab leaders competed to make the largest cash contribution. Sheik Zaid bin Sultan of the United Arab Emirates offered $20 million, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein put up $21 million and Saudi Arabia contributed $23 million. Saddam Hussein's check cleared only days before the beginning of the Gulf War." [Links: 1, 2]
1988 - Sagebrush Rebels / "Wise Use" - "The indictments and resignations [see: October 1981] put a temporary damper on the Sagebrush Rebels, but they quickly regrouped. During an August 1988 conference at the Nugget Hotel in Reno, Nevada, they adopted a new moniker, 'Wise Use,' cynically chosen to imply a thoughtful approach to the environment. As Wise Use founder and timber industry flack Ron Arnold put it, 'Our goal is to destroy, to eradicate the environmental movement. We want you to be able to exploit the environment for private gain, absolutely.' " [Robert F. Kennedt Jr., Crimes Against Nature, pp. 26-27]
*Trivia: "From the start, the Wise Use movement was closely linked to a handful of powerful, authoritarian, right-wing Christian leaders. For instance, the convicted tax felon Reverand Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church, which owns the right-wing Washington Times, underwrote the costs of the Reno conference and provided seed money for dozens of Wise Use groups. Ron Arnold is head of the Washington State chapter of the American Freedom Coalition, the political arm of the Unification Church." [Robert F. Kennedt Jr., Crimes Against Nature, p. 28]
1988 - Explosion / Pan Am Flight 103, Lockerbie, Scotland - December 21st, 1988: "Pan Am Flight 103 exploded and crashed into the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, Dec. 21, killing all 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 554]
1988 - Conviction / Mordechai Vanunu - "Vanunu was convicted in 1988 of divulging information and pictures of the Dimona reactor." [A.P., 11/12/04]
1988 - Transatlantic Fiber Optic Cable - "First transatlantic optical fiber cable is laid; it can carry 37,800 voice channels."
1989
1989 - Astronomic Configuration - "A Stellium, includes three or more planets conjunct each other within close succession. 1989 saw a stellium involving Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and stelliums of this kind are more common. A stellium represents a tremendous ending and new beginning, a concurrence of three or more cycles. The past is lost, and a journey into a wide-open future follows. The next conjunction comes in over 13 centuries' time in 3,370."
1989 - Soviet Union Leaves Afghanistan - February 15th, 1989: "The Soviet Union announced that the last of its troops had left Afghanistan, after more than nine years of military intervention."
1989 - Launched / World Wide Web - March, 1989: "The first versions of HTML that launched the Web appeared. Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web."
*Trivia "Tim Berners-Lee, who received a $1.2 million cash prize Tuesday [06/15/04] for creating the World Wide Web, says he would never have succeeded if he had charged money for his inventions. [....] Berners-Lee is originally from Britain and was knighted last December. He has mostly avoided both the fame and the fortune won by many of his Internet colleagues. Despite his prize he remained modest about his achievements. [....] Berners-Lee first proposed the Web in 1989 while developing ways to control computers remotely at CERN, the European nuclear research lab near Geneva. He never got the project finally approved but his boss suggested he quietly tinker with it anyway. He fleshed out the core communication protocols needed for transmitting Web pages: the HTTP, or hypertext transfer protocol, and the so-called markup language used to create them, HTML. By Christmas day 1990, he finished the first browser, called simply WorldWideWeB.' Although his inventions have undergone rapid changes since then, the underlying technology is precisely the same. His recent project - which experts say is potentially as revolutionary as the World Wide Web itself - is called the Semantic Web. The project is an attempt to standardize how information is stord on the Internet and to organize automatically the junge of data found today on the Net into a 'web' of concepts. By attaching meaning to data behind the scenes, computers can do a better job of searching for information." [Based on: Mans Hulden, A.P., 06/16/2004]
1989 - Conflict / Beirut Lebanon - March 8th, 1989: "In Lebanon, daily artillery barrages between Christian and Syrian forces and their militia allies began in Beirut; at least 930 people were killed before a cease-fire took hold the following September."
1989 - U.S. Secretary of Defense / Dick Cheney - March 17th, 1989: "The Senate unanimously confirmed Wyoming Congressman Dick Cheney to be secretary of defense, following the failed nomination of former Sen. John Tower."
1989 - Oil Spill / Exxon Valdez, Alaska - March 24th, 1989: "Good Friday, The nation's worst oil spill occurred as the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran into Bligh Reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound and began leaking 11 million gallons of crude."
*Trivia: "ExxonMobil Corp. has paid $3.2 billion [as of March 2004] for cleanup and fees in the 1989 oil spill in Valdez, Alaska. A federal judge has ordered the company to pay an additional $7 billion in punitive damages and interest." [A.P., 03/25/04]
1989 - 1st Free Elections / Soviet Union - March 26th, 1989: "The first free elections took place in the Soviet Union. Boris Yeltsin was elected [to Congress of People's Deputies]. Voters in the Soviet Union filled 1,500 of more than 2,000 seats in the new Congress of People's Deputies, beginning embarrassing defeats for the Communist Party."
1989 - Fatality / Hu Yaobang, China - April 15th, 1989: "In China thousands of students in Shanghai and Beijing took to the streets to mourn the death of Hu Yaobang; the protests culminated in the Tiananmen Square massacre."
1989 - Protests / China - April 21st, 1989: "Tens of thousands of people crowded into Beijing's Tiananmen Square ['Heaven's Gate']. Cheering students waved banners demanding greater political freedoms." [Link: 1]
1989 - Student Protest / Tiananmen Square, China - April 27th, 1989: "In China more than 150,000 students and workers calling for democracy marched, cheered and sang as they took over Tiananmen Square in central Beijing."
1989 - Conviction / Oliver North - May 4th, 1989: "Fired White House aide Oliver North was convicted of shredding documents and two other crimes and acquitted of nine other charges stemming from the Iran-Contra affair. The three convictions were later [1991] overturned on appeal."
1989 - "President" Slobodan Milosevic / Serbia - May 8th, 1989: "Yugoslavia was made up of six republics. Milosevic became president of Serbia, alarming non-Serb Yugoslavians, who feared Serb domination." [Based on: Reuters, World Almanac and KRT - St. Louis Post-Dispatch, p. A13, 06/26/05]
*Links: http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Yugoslavia.html
http://www.un.org/icty/indictment/english/mil-2ai011029e.htm1989 - Protestors / Tiananmen Square, China - May 18th, 1989: "In China a million protestors filled Tiananmen Square."
1989 - Gov't. Crackdown / Tiananmen Square, China - June 2-4th, 1989: "In China hundreds - possibly thousands - of people died as Chinese army troops stormed Beijing to crush the pro-democracy movement. A surge in imports and loose money supplied fuel for a potent mix of corruption and double-digit inflation. Hundreds of thousands of discontented Chinese took to the streets of Beijing, demanding more reform - but the military crushed the protests in the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Zhao Ziyang was ousted. The West and Japan cut off aid. Bao Tong was the only Communist Party official arrested in the Tianamen Square uprising. He was released with ill-health in 1996. Han Dongfang, leader of China's first independent trade union spent 22 months behind bars for his role in the pro-democracy uprising. Ren Wanding was also again jailed for giving speeches in the pro-democracy protests."
1989 - Fatality / Ayatollah Khomeini - June 3rd, 1989: "Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, died. He held the office of supreme leader."
1989 - Ozone Treaty - July 1st, 1989: "The Montreal Protocol, which was an international treaty dealing with ozone-destroying pollutants, went into effect. The treaty sought to cut in half production of chemicals posing the greatest risk to ozone."
1989 - Disposition / Oliver North - July 5th, 1989: "Former National Security Council aide Oliver North received a $150,000 fine and a suspended prison term for his part in Iran-Contra. The convictions were later overturned. "
1989 - Test Flight / U.S. Stealth Bomber - July 17th, 1989: "The controversial B-2 Stealth bomber underwent its first test flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California, two days after a technical problem forced a postponement."
1989 - Multiple Opposition - "A Multiple Opposition includes two or more conjuncting planets opposed by one or more planets in the opposite sign. A recent historic example arose in 1989, when Saturn and Neptune conjuncting in Capricorn were opposed by Jupiter [beginning in August] and Chiron conjuncting in Cancer. These are uncommon, though crucial. They have a climactic quality of breakthrough or starting-over, of catharsis and rapid advance. Things reach critical mass, and past and future are contrasted wildly."
1989 - Drug War / Colombia - August 24th, 1989: "Colombian drug lords declared 'total war' on the government."
1989 - Time Experiments? / Russia - "A tragedy occurred on August 30, 1989: an extremely strong explosion sounded at the Institute's branch office on the Anjou islands. The explosion destroyed not only the experimental module of 780 tons but also the archipelago itself that covered the area of 2 square kilometers. According to one of the versions of the tragedy, the module with three experimenters collided with a large object, probably an asteroid, in the parallel world or heading toward the parallel world.
"Having lost its propulsion system, the module probably remained in the parallel world. The last record made in the framework of the experiment and kept at the Institute archives says: 'We are dying but keep on conducting the experiment. It is very dark here; we see all objects become double, our hands and legs are transparent, we can see veins and bones through the skin. The oxygen supply will be enough for 43 hours, the life support system is seriously damaged. Our best regards to the families and friends!' Then the transmission suddenly stopped." [Olga Zharina, 03/01/2004, Pravada]1989 - U.S. Aid / Colombia - September 3rd, 1989: "The United States began shipping a $65 million package of military aircraft and weapons to help Colombia's war against drug lords."
1989 - Last Titan 3 Rocket - September 4th, 1989: "The Air Force launched its last Titan 3 rocket, which reportedly carried a reconnaissance satellite. Since 1964, the Titan 3 had sent more than 200 satellites into space."1989 - Exodus / East Germany - September 10th, 1989: "Hungary gave permission for thousands of East German refugees and visitors to emigrate to West Germany. The exodus of East German refugees from Hungary to West Germany began, by way of Austria."
1989 - Ground Broken / Temple of ECK, MN - September 11th, 1989: "Ground is broken for the Temple of ECK in Chanhassen Minnesota." [E.M.] [See: http://www.eckankar.org/Temple/]*Trivia: "The Temple of ECK is a center from which the message of the Light and Sound of God will reach many seekers. Behind the stone, mortar, wood, and glass of the ECK Temple is one purpose: to give the ECK teachings to all who want them." [Based on: Sri Harold Klemp]
1989 - East German Emigration - September 30th, 1989: "Thousands of East Germans who had sought refuge in West German embassies in Czechoslovakia and Poland began emigrating under an accord between Soviet bloc and NATO nations."
1989 - Resolve to Dismantle / Nuclear Bombs, South Africa - September 1989: "South Africa resolves to dismantle its six nuclear bombs." [Based on: N.G.M., August 2005, p. 112]
1989 - Homosexual Marriages / Denmark - October 1st, 1989: "In Copenhagen, Denmark, 11 homosexual couples were married. It was the first time any country allowed such marriages."
1989 - Protest / East Germany - October 2nd, 1989: "Nearly 10,000 people marched through Leipzig, East Germany, demanding legalization of opposition groups and adoption of democratic reforms in the country's largest protest since 1953."
1989 - Point Loss / Dow Jones - October 13th, 1989: "The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 190 points, triggering memories of the 1987 crash."
1989 - Photovoltaic Cell - "Scientists at the High Technology Center of Boeing develop a stacked photovoltaic cell that converts 37 percent of solar radiation into electricity. The cell consists of two types of PV materials mounted on top of each other. The upper cell consists of gallium arsenide and captures the energy of blue light, while the second cell is made of gallium antimonide, converting red light into electricity. Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories develop a single PV cell containing silicon that converts 20.3 Percent of radiation in electricity."
1989 - Open Border / Germany & Czechoslovakia - November 1st, 1989: "East Germany reopened its border with Czechoslovakia, prompting tens of thousands of refugees to flee to the West."
1989 - Pro-Democracy Rally / East Germany - November 4th, 1989: "Up to a million East Germans filled the streets of East Berlin for a pro-democracy rally."
1989 - Open Border / East & West Germany - November 9th, 1989: "The Border separating Western from Eastern Germany was effectively opened. The following days were most unusual for the whole of Germany - considering the usual German ways, one could almost speak of anarchy: Shops stayed open as long as they wanted [the usual, mandatory closing time was 6:30pm in 1989], a GDR passport served as a free ticket for public transport, and in general there were more exceptions than rules in those days. Of course, Berlin was in the focal point of these changes. The Fall of the Berlin Wall, which will always be used as a symbol for the end of the Cold War, made the 'West' available in the middle of the 'East', resulting in widespread chaos. Later - much later - normality took hold again. Later, the bickering started, and later, there was talk of a 'wall in the heads'.'But during the November of 1989, almost everyone was overwhelmed by happiness - a national and emotional exception."1989 - Failing Integrity / Berlin Wall - November 10th, 1989: "Workers began punching a hole in the Berlin Wall, a day after East Germany abolished its border restrictions."
1989 - Expansion / IBM & Microsoft - November 13th, 1989: "IBM and Microsoft expanded their partnership and agreed to develop software for MS-DOS, MS OS/2, and MS LAN."
1989 - Protests / Prague, Czechoslovakia - November 20th, 1989: "More than 200,000 people rallied peacefully in Prague, Czechoslovakia, demanding democratic reforms and the ouster of Communist Party leader Milos Jakes."
1989 - Alexander Dubcek / Czechoslovakia - November 25th, 1989: "More than 500,000 demonstrators gathered in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where they scoffed at a Communist Party shakeup and cheered Alexander Dubcek, the reformer ousted in 1968."
1989 - "Velvet Revolution" / Czechoslovakia - November 29th, 1989: "The Czechs ended the Communist party's 40-year monopoly on power. The revolution in Czechoslovakia was called the 'Velvet Revolution' because of the little violence."
1989 - "Operation Just Cause" / Panama - December 20th, 1989: "The United States launched Operation Just Cause, sending troops into Panama to topple the government of General Manuel Noriega. Guillermo Endara replaced Noriega. [see Dec 19] The US invasion of Panama began and ended Feb 13, 1990. It cost $182 million and left 23 US casualties with 320 wounded."
1989 - Revolt / Romania - December 22nd, 1989: "In Romania there was a revolt and miners riots. Romania's hard-line Communist ruler, Nicolae Ceausescu, was toppled in a popular uprising. Ion Ileascu and other top Communist functionaries of Ceausescu seized control. Ileascu ruled until November 1996."
1989 - Executions / Romania - December 25th, 1989: "Ousted Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were executed following a popular uprising."1989 - Chairman Alexander Dubcek / Czechoslovakia - December 28th, 1989: "Alexander Dubcek, former Czechoslovak Communist leader deposed in 1968 in a Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion, was named chairman of the country's parliament."
1989 - Civil War / Somali - "Somaliland fought a civil war [1989-1991] with the regime of Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre."
1989 - Occupation / Kosovo - "In 1989, the Milosevic regime in Yugoslavia made constitutional changes to consolidate power over the provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina. Kosovo, whose 1.9 million people are 90% Albanian, lost its autonomy and was placed under Serbian rule. The constitution passed without the approval of the parliament of Kosova. The Serbs fired most Albanians and closed many enterprises. Muslim unrest followed and Kosovo was occupied. 90% of the population of Kosovo was made up of some 2.2 million ethnic Albanians."
1989 - Muslim Insurgency / Kashmir, India - "Jammu and Kashmir is the formal name of India's portion of Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority state in this predominantly Hindu country. Islamic militants have waged a bloody insurgency since 1989 for independence of the Himalayan territory or its merger with Pakistan. More than 65,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict." [A.P., 06/29/04]
1989 - Debut / AOL - "America Online [AOL] made its debut."
1989 - COBE Satellite - "A satellite name COBE [Cosmic Background Explorer] was launched. It carried extremely sensitive microwave detectors that were being used to detect the cosmic background radiation from the Big Bang."
1989 - Solar Flares & CMEs - "... in 1989, when a fierce CME [coronal mass ejection] struck the Earth, it blew out HydroQuebec's power grid, leaving almost seven million people without electricity, and a multimillion-dollar damage bill." [N.G.M., July 2004, p. 15]
1989 - Trivia / Air Bags, U.S.A. - "Chrysler was the first car maker to install air bags in all vehicles."
1989 - Arms Exports / China to U.S.A. - "It is estimated that Chinese military companies exported more than 3 million guns [1989-1993] to the US."
1989 - Dismantled / 1st U.S. Nuclear Power Plant - "The Shippingport Atomic Power Station is decommissioned after 32 years of operations and its still radioactive main reactor is taken from Penn. to Hanford Military Reservation in Wash. This is the first US nuclear power plant to be dismantled."
1989 - Construction / U.S. Seawolf Submarines - "General Dynamics began building the Seawolf nuclear submarines. Each one cost about $2.1 billion."
1990
1990 - 1st McDonalds / Moscow - January 31, 1990: "McDonald's Corporation opened its first fast-food restaurant in Moscow."
1990 - NDMA - "The Proprietary Association of America was formed in 1881 as the Association of Manufacturers and Dealers in Proprietary Articles. The Proprietary Association subsequently changed its name to the Nonprescription Drug Manufacturers Association in 1990, and then in 1999 to the Consumer Health Care Products Association in 1999." [Link: 1]
1990 - Political Disposition / Bulgaria - February 3rd, 1990: "The parliament of Bulgaria elected economist Andrei Lukanov to replace a hard-line Communist as premier. Lukanov became the prime minister after rising to the number 2 spot of the Communist hierarchy under Zhivkov. He oversaw the party's formal break with Stalinism and victory in the first free elections."
1990 - Protests / Moscow - February 4th, 1990: "Cheering protesters thronged Moscow streets to demand that the Communists surrender their stranglehold on power."
1990 - Oil Spill / California - February 7th, 1990: "An 811-foot tanker, the American Trader, spilled hundreds of thousands of gallons of Alaskan crude oil off the coast of Huntington Beach, California."
1990 - Benzene Contamination? / U.S. Mineral Water - February 9th, 1990: "Perrier Group of America Inc. announced it was voluntarily recalling its inventory of mineral water in the United States after tests showed the presence of benzene in a small number of bottles."
1990 - Release / Nelson Mandela - February 11th, 1990: "Nelson Mandela, leader of the African National Congress, was released after spending 27 years behind prison walls. Mandela was released by President F.W. DeKlerk, as the first step in the creation of a multi-racial democracy."1990 - Legal Disposition / Ronald Reagan - February 22nd, 1990: "Former President Reagan's videotaped testimony for the trial of former national security adviser John Poindexter was released in Washington; in his deposition, Reagan said he never had 'any inkling' his aides were secretly arming the Nicaraguan Contras."
1990 - Independence / Lithuania - March 11th, 1990: "The Lithuanian parliament voted to break away from the Soviet Union and restore its independence. The Supreme Council promulgated the historic document: 'On the Re-establishment of the Independent State of Lithuania.' Validity of the 1938 Constitution was briefly reinstated and the provisional Fundamental Law was adopted."
1990 - President Mikhail Gorbachev / Russia - March 14th, 1990: "The Soviet Congress elected Mikhail S. Gorbachev president of the Soviet Congress, a day after creating the post."1990 - Free Elections / Latvia - "March 19th, 1990: Latvia's political opposition claimed victory in the republic's first free elections in 50 years, and reformers also claimed victories in crucial runoffs held in Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine."
1990 - U.S. Nuclear Technology? / Iraq - March 28th, 1990: "British customs officials announced they had foiled an attempt to supply Iraq with 40 American-made devices for triggering nuclear weapons, following an 18-month investigation by U.S. and British authorities."
1990s - Devalued / Swedish Crown - "In the beginning of the 1990s the bankers Salomon Brothers, which had provided the Swedish government with huge loans, demanded that the Swedish crown be devalued. The government complied." [Juri Lina, The Barnes Review, September/October 2004, p. 14]
1990 - Convicted? / John Poindexter - April 7th, 1990: "Former national security adviser John M. Poindexter was convicted of five counts at his Iran-Contra trial. However, a federal appeals court later reversed the convictions."
1990 - Deployment / Hubble Telescope - April 25th, 1990: "The Hubble Space Telescope was deployed from the space shuttle 'Discovery'." [Link: 1]
1990 - Independence Coalition / Slovenia - April, 1990: "A pro-independence coalition won in Slovenia."
1990 - Political Disposition / Baltic States - May 12, 1990: "The presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania forged a united front by reviving a 1934 political alliance in hopes of enhancing their drive for independence from the Soviet Union."
1990 - Free Elections / Romania - May 20th, 1990: "Romania's ruling National Salvation Front scored victories in the country's first free elections in more than 50 years."
1990 - Arab League Summit / Iraq - May 28th, 1990: "Iraqi President Saddam Hussein opened a two-day Arab League summit in Baghdad with a keynote address in which he said if Israel were to deploy nuclear or chemical weapons against Arabs, Iraq would respond with 'weapons of mass destruction'."1990 - President Boris Yeltsin / Russia - May 29th, 1990: "Boris N. Yeltsin was elected president of the Russian republic in the third round of balloting by the Russian parliament. This gave him a base from which to attack Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev."
1990 - Independence / Kosovo - July, 1990: "In Albania young people demonstrated against the regime in Tirana, 5,000 citizens sought refuge in foreign embassies. Albanian delegates of the parliament of Kosova declared the independence of Kosova from Serbia. Subsequently Serbia abolished the parliament and government of Kosova, closed down the only Albanian daily, and took over the state-owned television and radio."
1990 - Resignation / Boris Yeltsin - July 12th, 1990: "Russian republic president Boris N. Yeltsin shocked the 28th congress of the Soviet Communist Party by announcing he was resigning his party membership."
1990 - Protests / Moscow - July 15th, 1990: "Tens of thousands of people marched in Moscow to protest the Communist Party's control of the government, the army and the KGB."
1990 - Convictions Set Aside / Oliver North - July 20th, 1990: "A federal appeals court set aside Oliver North's Iran-Contra convictions, reversing one outright."
1990 - Foreign Relations / Iraq & Kuwait - July 24th, 1990: "Iraq, accusing Kuwait of conspiring to harm its economy through oil overproduction, massed tens of thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks along the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border."1990 - Georgian Sovereignty - August, 1990: "South Ossetia, a region of north central Georgia with a population of about 100,000, declared itself sovereign. Ethnic Ossetians speak a language similar to Persian."
1990 - Incubator-Baby Deaths? / Kuwait - "The 15-year-old Kuwaiti Ambassador's teenager daughter in a televised appearance publicly declared a number of Iraqi-sponsored incubator baby deaths in Kuwait." [Source Video: The Great Deception]
1990 - Iraqi Invasion / Kuwait - August 2nd, 1990: "Iraq invaded Kuwait, seizing control of the oil-rich emirate. The day came to be known in Kuwait as 'Black Thursday'. 330 Kuwaitis died during the occupation and war. Sadam Hussein, leader of Iraq, took over Kuwait. G. Bush led an inter-national coalition for sanctions and a demand for withdrawal."
1990 - Operation Desert Shield - August 7th, 1990: "President Bush ordered U.S. troops and warplanes to Saudi Arabia to guard the oil-rich desert kingdom against a possible invasion by Iraq. The US Persian Gulf War began. It ended Feb 28, 1991. It cost $8.1 billion and left 383 US casualties with 458 wounded."*Trivia: "The U.S. government's Energy Information Administration projects [from 2004] that in 20 years, the Persian Gulf will supply between one-half and two-thirds of the oil on the world market - the same percentage as before the 1973 embargo. Fifty years later, in other words, the Middle East will have regained all its old power over oil - and the U.S. government knows it. Whether or not Washington's war in Iraq was directly motivated by oil, American planners clearly hoped it would lay the groundwork for a stable, democratic Middle East - which, among other benefits, would in Washington's view put the world's oil supply in more trustworthy hands." [National Geographic Magazine, p. 108, June 2004]
*Trivia: "Osama bin Laden, before the Persian Gulf war, offered his services to the Saudi Arabian king to fight Saddam Hussein with 100,000 men in order to keep the Americans off Arabian soil but was turned down." [St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, 09/23/04, by Eva Adams, Union Mo.]
*Trivia: - "A total of 320 tons [290,300 kilograms] of DU [depleted uranium] projectiles were fired by the U.S. during the Gulf War:" [Link: 1]
*Trivia: There are two ways to determine if the use of a particular weapon in military operations is illegal. The easiest way is if the weapon is used in violation of a treaty that forbids its use and the State using it is a party to that treaty. If there is no treaty on a specific weapon, then one must determine if the use of that weapon would violate existing rules and principles of binding humanitarian (armed conflict) law. Under these rules (the "weapons test") – derived from The Hague Conventions, the Geneva Conventions, and all other sources of military law – a weapon may be banned if: (1) it has harmful effects outside the legal field of battle (the "geography" test); (2) it has harmful effects after the war is over (the "time" test); (3) its use is unduly inhuman or causes undue suffering (the "humaneness" test); or (4) it has a harmful effect on the environment (the "environment" test). The first two tests arise from the requirement that weapons may not be indiscriminate. Because there is no specific weapon treaty forbidding the use of depleted uranium, the illegality of DU must be shown by the second method.
Weaponry containing depleted uranium (DU) fails all four tests. [....]
[Based on: article by by Karen Parker, J.D. September 30, 2003 @
http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2003/Leuren-Moret-ICT13dec03.htm - bottom of page]1990 - Negotiations / Saddam Hussein - August 12th, 1990: "Iraqi President Saddam Hussein sought to tie any withdrawal of his troops from Kuwait to an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip."
1990 - Negotiations / Saddam Hussein - August 19th, 1990: "Iraqi President Saddam Hussein offered to free all foreigners detained in Iraq and Kuwait provided the United States promise to withdraw its forces from Saudi Arabia and guarantee that an international economic embargo would be lifted."
1990 - Foreign Relations / Iraq & Kuwait - August 28th, 1990: "Iraq declared occupied Kuwait the 19th province of Iraq, renamed Kuwait City Kadhima, and created a new district named after President Saddam Hussein. A puppet regime under Alaa Hussein was set up. Alaa Hussein was convicted of treason in 2000 and sentenced to death. Saddam Hussein, saying he sympathized with his foreign captives, pledged to free detained women and children."
1990 - Foreign Relations / Iran & Iraq - September 10th, 1990: "Iran agreed to resume full diplomatic ties with onetime enemy Iraq."
1990 - Formal End / WW II - September 11th, 1990: "The four victorious allies of World War 2 and the two Germanys formally ended World War II, signing a treaty that cleared the way for a united Germany on October 3rd."1990 - Hostile Threats / Iraq - September 23rd, 1990: "Iraq threatened to destroy Middle East oil fields and attack Israel if other nations tried to force it from Kuwait."
1990 - Reunification / Germany - October 3rd, 1990: "West Germany and East Germany ended 45 years of postwar division, declaring the creation of a new unified country. The Berlin Wall came down."
1990 - Public Unrest / Czechoslovakia - October 11th, 1990: "About 60-thousand people rallied in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in support of a government proposal to seize all Communist Party property without compensation."
1990 - Syrian Troops / Lebanon - October, 1990: "Syrian troops entered Beirut, to [ostensibly] help end the 15-year Lebanese civil war."
1990 - Civil War End / Lebanon - October 13th, 1990: "The Syrian airforce attacks the Presidential Palace at B'abda and Awn takes refuge in the French embassy. This date is regarded as the end of the civil war."1990 - Official Opening / Temple of ECK, MN - October 22nd, 1990: "Official 'opening' of the Temple of ECK in Chanhassen Minnesota." [E.M.] [See: http://www.eckankar.org/Temple/]
*Trivia: "The Temple of ECK is a center from which the message of the Light and Sound of God will reach many seekers. Behind the stone, mortar, wood, and glass of the ECK Temple is one purpose: to give the ECK teachings to all who want them." [Based on: Sri Harold Klemp]
1990 - Budget Bill / U.S.A. - November 5th, 1990: "Pres. Bush signed Nov. 5, a bill to reduce budget deficits $500 bil over 5 years, by spending curbs and tax hikes." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 555]
1990 - US Troop Deployments / Persian Gulf - November 8th, 1990: "President Bush ordered a new round of troop deployments in the Persian Gulf, adding up to 150-thousand soldiers to the multinational force facing off against Iraq."
1990 - Disposition / Judaism - November 9th, 1990: "Israeli newspaper HaAretz publishes interview in which Strugnell characterized Judaism as 'a horrible religion' & lamented the survival of Jews as a group." [Link 1]
1990 - Trivia / U.S. Clean Air Act - December 15th, 1990: "Pres. Bush Nov. 15 signed into law a strengthened version of the 1970 Clean Air Act." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 555]
1990 - Politics / Hungary - November 26th, 1990: "Hungary held a national referendum in which voters decided that the country's next president would be chosen by parliament, following free elections."
1990 - Private Religious Practice / Albania - November, 1990: "In Albania private religious practice began to be allowed."
1990 - President Milosevic / Serbia - December, 1990: "In Serbia Milosevic won the presidency and his Socialist [formerly Communist] Party captured 194 of 250 parliamentary seats."
1990 - Slovenian Secession / Yugoslavia - December 23rd, 1990: "Slovenians voted overwhelmingly in favor of their republic's secession from Yugoslavia."
1990 - Trivia / US Census - "December 26th, 1990: "The US government reported that its 1990 census had counted a total 249 million, 632,692 people."
1990 - Democratic Party / Bosnia - "In Bosnia the Serb Democratic Party was founded by Radovan Karadzic."
1990 - U.S. Sanctions / Pakistan - "President Bush imposed sanctions against Pakistan under the 1986 Pressler Amendment when he was unable to certify that Pakistan did not have a nuclear bomb. This stopped the sale of 28 F-16 airplanes to Pakistan for which $658 million was already paid to General Dynamics. Pakistan had ordered and paid for 71 F-16 fighter bombers. $157 million was returned. In 1998 New Zealand agreed to lease the planes for about $105 million and the money to be paid to Pakistan."
1990 - Trivia / Asian Students, U.S.A. - "A study [1990-1992] by the University of Michigan showed 96% of fifth graders in Japan had higher test scores in math than their American counterparts. Students of Taiwan in the 11th grade outscored American students by 86% and Japanese students scored 92% higher than the American average."
*Trivia: "The US census counted over 1.6 million Chinese Americans with 40% of them in California."
1990 - U.S. Military Buildup / Kuwait - "540,000 American troops assembled to drive Iraqi forces from Kuwait."
1990 - Controversy / Sinead O'Conner - "Sinead O'Conner banned the national anthem from her show in New Jersey. In turn, the singer was banned from any future performances at the Garden State Arts Center." [S.L.P.D.]
1990 - Trivia / U.S. Military Budget - "The US military budget was about $350 billion a year. That's about $1,400 per every man, woman and child, or $5,600 per 4 person family."
1990 - Political Demonstrations / Mongolia - "In Mongolia demonstrations against Russian rule began. The Mongolian Communist soon voted to dissolve itself."
1990 - Trivia / Climate Control - "A leading expert on climate disputed on Tuesday [12/14/04] the U.S. government contention that cutbacks in carbon dioxide emissions are not yet warranted to check global warming. 'The science says you've got to reduce emissions,' Rajendra K. Pachauri said in an interview midway through the two-week international climate conference. [....] The 10 warmest years globally, since records were first kept in the 19th century, have all occured since 1990, the top three since 1998. Specialists here [International Climate Conference] this week [December 2004] will issue a report saying 2004 ranks as the fourth-warmest or fifth-warmest year recorded. [....]" [A.P., 12/15/04]
1990 - Gasoline Chemicals / U.S.A. - "Congress mandated that oil companies put air-cleaning chemicals into gasoline to reduce carbon monoxide and smog in the largest urban centers."
1990 - Artificial Nitrogen Fertilizers / Worldwide - "In 1990, about 50 million tons of artificial nitrogen fertilizers were being used on a global scale."
1990 - Depression-Causing Antidepressants? - "Top Food and Drug Administration officials said publicly for the first time Monday [09/13/04] that scientific trials of frequently prescribed antidepressants [Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Luvox, Celexa, Lexapro, Effexor, Wellbutrin, Serzone, and Remeron] have powerfully demonstrated that children that took the medications faced an increased risk of suicide. [....] Concerns about a possible link between the drugs and suicide were raised in the media and by some psychiatrists in 1990." [Based on: Elizabeth Shogren, Los Angeles Times, 09/14/04]
1990 - Digital TV - "A digital method for transmitting TV pictures was invented."
1990 - Human Genome Project - "The Human Genome Project began and planned to sequence all human DNA by 2005. The database did not just store sequences, but linked them with citations to enable new discoveries. James Watson served as its 1st head. His opposition to gene patents helped force him from the position in 1992."
1990 - First Browser / "WorldWideWeb" - "Berners-Lee first proposed the Web in 1989 while developing ways to control computers remotely at CERN, the European nuclear research lab near Geneva. He never got the project finally approved but his boss suggested he quietly tinker with it anyway. He fleshed out the core communication protocols needed for transmitting Web pages: the HTTP, or hypertext transfer protocol, and the so-called markup language used to create them, HTML. By Christmas day 1990, he finished the first browser, called simply WorldWideWeB.' [by Mans Hulden, A.P., 06/16/04]
1991
1991 - Operation Desert Storm - January 17th, 1991: "In January 1991, Operation Desert Shield became Operation Desert Storm, as the allies - meaning, essentially, America and Britain - battered Iraq with hi-tech bombs and missiles. The mad, irrelevant doctrine of air superiority did not do a scrap of harm to Saddam's regime, nor did it dislodge him from Kuwait. But when the alliance finally summoned up the courage to launch a land attack, the Iraqi army ran for its life. Thousands of its soldiers were slaughtered in the sand. Inside Iraq, there were mass uprisings against the hated dictator. The allies took fright and called off the chase, for fear that the oil-rich region would be reduced to chaos. The Republican Guard crushed the rebellion, and once more Iraq was safe for Saddam to brutalise."
*Trivia: "Of the 580,000 troops who served in the 6-week 1991 Gulf War, 11,000 are now dead, and by the year 2000, 325,000 were on permanent medical disability frome multiple causes.
"Of 251 Mississippi veterans in a study group who had normal babies before, 67 percent have now had babies born with birth defects. Some researchers, both here and abroad, believe that the 320 tons of depleted uranium weapons (DU) that were dropped on Iraq and a huge saran depot that we destroyed with fallout on 100,000 of our troops, could be responsible for their horrendous statistics. Over 1500 tons of DU have been used in our latest Iraq [2003] invasion. [....] Much of Iraq's air, soil, and water is saturated with tiny cancer-causing uranium particles that when inhaled, can lead to an early death. One recent study reported that 8 out of a 20-person unit that returned from Iraq in 2003 showed classic symptoms of DU exposure.
"The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that before the Gulf War, Iraq had one of the best health systems in the entire Middle East Region. They now report that in the year 2000, Iraq had a total of 195,374 new cases of cancer and 126,677 deaths."*Links: http://www.veteransforpeace.org
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/MOR407A.html
http://www.life.com/Life/essay/gulfwar/gulf02.html1991 - Depleted Uranium Weapons / Iraq - "[....] The 1991 introduction of depleted uranium weapons in Iraq, the radioactive trash from the 'nuclear project', broke a 46 year taboo. These radioactive weapons, the 'Trojan Horse of Nuclear War', continued to be used over the past decade and are still being used today [2005]. [....]"
[Based on: http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2003/Leuren-Moret-ICT13dec03.htm]
1991 - Trivia / Gulf War End - February 27th, 1991: "The Gulf War ends."
*Trivia: "Kuwait spent $128 million to remove two million landmines after the Gulf War." [Link: 1]
*Trivia: "On the 'Highway of Death,' 11 miles north of the Kuwait border, a collection of tanks, armored personnel carriers and other military vehicles are rusting in the desert. They also are radiating nuclear energy. In 1991, the United States and its Persian Gulf War allies blasted the vehicles with armor-piercing shells made of depleted uranium - the first time such weapons had been used in warfare - as the Iraqis retreated from Kuwait. The devastating results gave the highway its name." [Link: 1]
*Trivia: "Researchers have found that veterans of the 1991 Gulf War are more likely to suffer from chronic symptoms, including memory and thinking problems, debilitating fatigue, severe muscle and joint pain, depression and rashes. But the cause has proved elusive. Theories include stress, bacterial infection, chemical or biological weapons, pollutants from burning oil fields, depleted-uranium munitions, and vaccinations for anthrax and other potential biological weapons." [News Services, 07/20/2004]
*Trivia: "Veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War exposed to pollution from oil well fires, exhausts and other sources may face an increased risk of lung cancer, a government advisory group reported Monday [12/20/04]. [....]" [News Services]
1991 - Significant Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) - March 24th, 1991: "[....] On March 24, 1991 a significant CME traveling at 5 times the speed of the solar wind struck the magnetosphere. The data from space probe Ulysses suggested the boundary was within 4 RE of the Earth's center, and that the impact also created a second shock wave inside the cavity, spreading throughout the magnetosphere.
"The research spacecraft CRRES, operated by the US Air Force was at that instant deep inside the radiation belt, at a distance of 2.55 RE. The first thing CRRES saw was a torrent of highly energetic protons and electrons. The protons had energies above 20 Mev, twenty million electron volts, some 20,000 times the energy of the average proton in the solar wind. The passage of the shock also left Earth with a new long-lived belt of high-energy protons [....]. [Based on: article @: http://presys.com/~ekklesia/cme.htm]1991 - Trivia / Rioactive Waste, Columbia River, U.S.A. - March 28th, 1991: "[....] According to the EPA (The New York Times, March 28, 1991), the engineers who built the nuclear weapons in the 1950's dumped over 127 million gallons of highly radioactive waste containing Iodine-129, into the ground just a few miles from the Columbia River, the 4th largest river system in the U.S., which flows into the Pacific Ocean. [....]"
[Based on: http://www.rense.com/general39/another.htm]
1991 - Record Close? / D.J.I.A. - April 17th, 1991: "An 8-month recession shows signs of having ended in Mar. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 3000 for the first time, Apr. 17." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 555]
1991 - Independence / Slovenia - June 25th, 1991: "Slovenia [Independence: 06/25/1991] and Macedonia [Independence: 09/18/1991] broke away from Yugoslavia. Milosevic sent tanks into Slovenia. He withdrew them after the European Union mediated a truce." [Based on: Reuters, World Almanac and KRT - St. Louis Post-Dispatch, p. A13, 06/26/05] - [Brackets data added by E.M.]
*Links: http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Yugoslavia.html
http://www.un.org/icty/indictment/english/mil-2ai011029e.htm1991 - Independence / Croatia - June 25th, 1991: "In Croatia, Milosevic backed Serbs in a fight against Croats who wanted independence. 10,000 people were killed. A U.N. patrolled cease-fire ended the war. Croatia gained its independence." [Based on: Reuters, World Almanac and KRT - St. Louis Post-Dispatch, p. A13, 06/26/05] - [Brackets data added by E.M.]
*Links: http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Yugoslavia.html
http://www.un.org/icty/indictment/english/mil-2ai011029e.htm1991 - Dissolution / Warsaw Pact - July 1st, 1991: "With European communism in tatters, the Warsaw pact dissolves." [Sources: NATO, The Associated Press, the World Book, the Encyclopedia Britannica]
1991 - Signed / START I Treaty - July 31st, 1991: "President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Gorbachev sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START 1), calling for the removal of about half their strategic nuclear warheads." [Based on: N.G.M., August 2005, p. 112]
1991 - Independence / Macedonia - September 18th, 1991: "Slovenia [Independence: 06/25/1991] and Macedonia [Independence: 09/18/1991] broke away from Yugoslavia. Milosevic sent tanks into Slovenia. He withdrew them after the European Union mediated a truce." [Based on: Reuters, World Almanac and KRT - St. Louis Post-Dispatch, p. A13, 06/26/05] - [Brackets data added by E.M.]
*Links: http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Yugoslavia.html
http://www.un.org/icty/indictment/english/mil-2ai011029e.htm1991 - Ordered Closed / U.S. House Bank - October 3rd, 1991: "U.S. House bank ordered closed Oct. 3 after revelations that house members had written 8,331 bad checks." [Based on: The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2005, p. 555]
1991 - Independence? / Kosovo - October 19th, 1991: "Kosovo declares its independence from Yugoslavia (Republic of Kosovo [Albanian: Kosovoa), not recognized."
1991 - Access / Dead Sea Scrolls - October 22nd, 1991: "Israeli department of Antiquities announces that it will grant access to official photos of the scrolls to scholars who agree not to publish their findings." [Link: 1]
1991 - Publication / Dead Sea Scrolls - November 20th, 1991: "Shanks publishes Eisenman's photos in A Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls, co-edited by James M. Robinson." [Link 1]
1991 - Fatality / Freddie Mercury - November 24th, 1991: "Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen, died of Aids."
1991 - Public Access / Dead Sea Scrolls - November 25th, 1991: "At annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Kansas City Mo., scroll project director, E. Tov, announces lifting of all publication restrictions, allowing any scholar to examine the official scroll photos & publish whatever was discovered. - SBL passes resolution affirming the right of all scholars to have access to facsimile reproductions of all ancient manuscripts without any publication restrictions."
1991 - "Commonwealth of Independant States" - "On December 21 representatives of 11 former Soviet Republics met in Alma Ata and signed the founding 'Declaration of the Commonwealth of Independant States' - a loose confederation of the former Republics. Four days later, Gorbachev announced his resignation and the Soviet Union ceased to exist."
1991 - Dissolution / Soviet Union - December 25th, 1991: "The Soviet Union ceases to exist." [Sources: NATO, The Associated Press, the World Book, the Encyclopedia Britannica]
1991 - Trivia / Muslim Republics - "In December 1991, the USSR collapsed. This changed all kinds of alignments on a world scale. Thousands of war-hardened Islamist fighters were spreading out from Afghanistan throughout the Muslim world. Some 4,000 of them settled in the Saudi cities of Mecca and Medina alone. Chossudovsky writes: 'The CIA continued to support the Islamic 'jihad' out of Pakistan. New undercover initiatives were set in motion in Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Balkans. Pakistan's military and intelligence apparatus essentially 'served as a catalyst for the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of six new Muslim republics in Central Asia.' At the same time, these Islamist veterans of the Afghan war also came into intense conflict with pro-U.S. governments - and with larger U.S. interests - over the Persian Gulf war. A key turning point was when the U.S. brought 540,000 troops into the Persian Gulf in 1991 to attack Iraq's armed forces." [Link: 1]1991 - Publication / Dead Sea Scrolls - "In December 1991, a two-volume edition of scroll photographs was published. This facsimile edition was issued by the Biblical Archaeology Society, an American group headed by Hershel Shanks."
1991 - Weapons Programs? / Iraq - "The United nations ordered Iraq to stop its biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons programs. When the United Nations sent in a special commission to inspect the progress of the order, Iraq caused continuous interruptions and obstacles."
Trivia: "Contradicting the main argument for a war that has cost more than 1,000 American lives, the top U.S. arms inspector [Charles Duelfer] said Wednesday [10/06/04] he found no evidence that Iraq produced weapons of mass destruction after 1991. [....] Contrary to prewar statements by President George W. Bush [2003], Saddam did not have chemical and biological stockpiles when the war began and his nuclear capabilities were deteriorating, not advancing, Duelfar said." [Based on: Ken Guggenheim, A.P., 10/07/04]
1991 - Rebel War / Sierra Leone - "Survivors this week [July 2004] and last have started telling their accounts of one of Africa's most heartless wars: a 1991-2002 campaign by rebels who killed, raped, kidnapped and hacked to pieces hundreds of thousands of civilians in hopes of terrorizing Sierra Leone into ceding control of its government and diamond fields." [A.P., 07/22/04]
1991 - Independence / Chechnya - "In 1991, Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev declared region's independence." [A.P.]
1991 - Military Dictatorship / Haiti - "During Haiti's military dictatorship from