In 1996, the world was a different place.
There was no Google yet.
In 1996, the year of your birth, the top selling movie was Independence Day. People buying the popcorn in the cinema lobby had glazing eyes when looking at the poster.
People were indeed watching movies in the cinema, and not downloading them online. Imagine the packed seats, the laughter, the excitement, the novelty.
Do you know who won the Oscars that year? The academy award for the best movie went to The English Patient. The Oscar for best foreign movie that year went to Kolya. The top actor was Geoffrey Rush for his role as David Helfgott in Shine. The top actress was Frances McDormand for her role as Marge Olmstead-Gunderson in Fargo. The best director? Anthony Minghella for The English Patient.
In the year 1996, the time when you arrived on this planet, books were still popularly read on paper, not on digital devices. Trees were felled to get the word out. The number one US bestseller of the time was The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. Oh, that's many years ago. Have you read that book? Have you heard of it? Look at the cover!
In 1996... King Fahd of Saudi Arabia temporarily gives power to Crown Prince Abdullah, his legal successor, due to illness. Motorola introduces the Motorola StarTAC Wearable Cellular Telephone, the world's smallest and lightest mobile phone at that time. Art forger Eric Hebborn is assassinated in Rome, Italy. Serious fighting breaks out between Russian soldiers and rebel fighters in Chechnya. President Jacques Chirac announces a "definitive end" to French nuclear testing. Violent clashes erupt between Filipino soldiers and Vietnamese boat people, as the Philippines government attempts to forcibly repatriate hundreds of Vietnamese asylum seekers. John Howard is sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Australia. Turkish authorities begin Operation Hawk, an army offensive against rebels from the Kurdish Worker's Party in southeastern Turkey. The X Prize Foundation launches the $10 million Ansari X Prize, to be granted to the first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. In Romer v. Evans, the Supreme Court of the United States rules against a law that prevents any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of homosexuals. The Hoover Institution releases an optimistic report that global warming will probably reduce mortality in the United States and provide Americans with valuable benefits. The Nintendo 64 video game system is released in Japan. Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult cell, is born at the Roslin Institute in Midlothian, Scotland. The video game of the day was Quake.
That was the world you were born into. Since then, you and others have changed it.
The Nobel prize for Literature that year went to Wislawa Szymborska. The Nobel Peace prize went to Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and José Ramos-Horta. The Nobel prize for physics went to David Morris Lee, Douglas D. Osheroff and Robert Coleman Richardson from the United States for their discovery of superfluidity in helium-3. The sensation this created was big. But it didn't stop the planets from spinning, on and on, year by year. Years in which you would grow bigger, older, smarter, and, if you were lucky, sometimes wiser. Years in which you also lost some things. Possessions got misplaced. Memories faded. Friends parted ways. The best friends, you tried to hold on. This is what counts in life, isn't it?
The 1990s were indeed a special decade. The Nineties saw the beginnings of the World Wide Web, originating at CERN. Email becomes popular. The Soviet Union dissolved. Living standards in East Asia and Europe generally improved. The Cold War ends. Iraqi forces invade Kuwait. A UN coalition force led by the US was sent to the Persian Gulf, and aerial bombing of Iraq began. The Kosovo War took place. The Ethiopian Civil War ends. Dolly, a sheep, is cloned. The Global Positioning System GPS becomes fully operational. Genetically engineered crops are developed for commercial use. Intel develops the Pentium processor. The Java programming language is created. Microsoft released Windows 95. In Los Angeles, riots occur after the police brutality case involving Rodney King. Great Britain hands sovereignty of Hong Kong to China. East Timor breaks away from Indonesian control. US president Bill Clinton was involved in the Lewinsky scandal. Dogme 95 becomes an important artistic movement in European film. Teen soap Beverly Hills 90210 has its long run. Baywatch becomes the most watched show in history. On MTV, reality television makes its beginning. Nelson Mandela is elected president of South Africa. Germany was reunified. The prediction of computer bug Y2K spreads fear.
Do you know what was on the cover of Life that year?
6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... it's 1996. There's TV noise coming from the second floor. Someone turned up the volume way too high. The sun is burning from above. These were different times. The show playing on TV is The Daily Show. The sun goes down. Someone switches channels. There's The Jamie Foxx Show on now. That's the world you were born in.
Progress, year after year. Do you wonder where the world is heading towards? Do you know what was invented in the year you were born? Force Feedback.
At your heels
Don't you feel
Like a trip
Back to 96?
...
That's from the song The Forces Of Radio by Project 86.
In 1996, a new character entered the world of comic books: Delilah. Bang! Boom! But that's just fiction, right? In the real world, in 1996, Emma Bolger was born. And Ella Cruz. Kylee Russell, too. And you, of course. Everyone an individual. Everyone special. Everyone taking a different path through life.
It's 2010.
The world is a different place.
What path have you taken?
