The Nineties in America - Salem Press 2009

1161 Pages·2009·11.97 MB·English

The Nineties
in America

The
Nineties
in America

Volume I
Abortion—Genetics Research

Editor
Milton Berman, Ph.D.
University of Rochester

Managing Editor
Tracy Irons-Georges

Salem Press, Inc.
Pasadena, California
Hackensack, New Jersey

Title page photo: Bill Clinton delivers his acceptance speech
at the 1992 Democratic National Convention. (AP/Wide World Photos)

Cover images (pictured clockwise, from top left): President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, 1993.
(AP/Wide World Photos); General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, 1991. (AP/Wide World Photos); Brandi
Chastain, Women’s World Cup Final, 1999. (AP/Wide World Photos); Keyboard. (©Kts/Dreamstime.com)

Copyright © 2009, by Salem Press, Inc.
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∞ The paper used in these volumes conforms to the American National Standard for Permanence of
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The nineties in America / editor, Milton Berman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 978-1-58765-500-5 (set : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-58765-501-2 (v. 1: alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-1-58765-502-9 (v. 2 : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-58765-503-6 (v. 3 : alk. paper)
1. United States—History—1969—Encyclopedias. 2. United States—Social conditions—1980—
Encyclopedias. 3. United States—Politics and government—1989-1993—Encyclopedias.
4. United States—Politics and government—1993-2001—Encyclopedias.
5. United States—Intellectual life—20th century—Encyclopedias. 6. Popular culture—United States—
History—20th century—Encyclopedias. 7. Nineteen nineties—Encyclopedias. I. Berman, Milton.
E839.N56 2009
973.92—dc22
2008049939

First Printing

printed in the united states of america

Editorial Director: Christina J. Moose
Managing Editor: Tracy Irons-Georges
Copy Editors: Timothy M. Tiernan, Rebecca Kuzins
Editorial Assistant: Dana Garey
Photo Editor: Cynthia Breslin Beres
Production Editor: Joyce I. Buchea

Acquisitions Editor: Mark Rehn
Research Supervisor: Jeffry Jensen
Research Assistant: Keli Trousdale
Graphics and Design: James Hutson
Layout: Frank Montano

I Table of Contents

Publisher’s Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Complete List of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . xvii

Abortion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Academy Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Africa and the United States. . . . . . . . . . . . 7
African Americans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Agassi, Andre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Agriculture in Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Agriculture in the United States . . . . . . . . . 15
AIDS epidemic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Air pollution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Airline industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Albee, Edward. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Albert, Marv. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Albright, Madeleine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Allen, Woody . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Ally McBeal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Alternative rock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Alvarez, Julia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Alzheimer’s disease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Amazon.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
America Online. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 . . . . . 35
AmeriCorps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Angelou, Maya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Angels in America. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Antidepressants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Apple Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Archaeology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Archer Daniels Midland scandal . . . . . . . . . 46
Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Armey, Dick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Armstrong, Lance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Arnett, Peter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Art movements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Asian Americans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Astronomy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Attention-deficit disorder . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Audiobooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Autism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Auto racing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Automobile industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Bailey, Donovan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Baker, James. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Baker v. Vermont . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Balanced Budget Act of 1997 . . . . . . . . . . 76
Ballet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Barkley, Charles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Barry, Dave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Barry, Marion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Baseball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Baseball realignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Baseball strike of 1994 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Basic Instinct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Basketball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Baywatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Beanie Babies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Beauty and the Beast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Beauty Myth, The. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Beavis and Butt-Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Bernardin, Joseph Cardinal . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Beverly Hills, 90210 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Bezos, Jeff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Biosphere 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Blair Witch Project, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Blended families. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Bloc Québécois . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Blogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Bobbitt mutilation case . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Bondar, Roberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Bono, Sonny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Book clubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Bosnia conflict. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Bowl Championship Series (BCS) . . . . . . . 114
Boxing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Boy bands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Broadway musicals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Brooks, Garth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Brown, Ron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Browning, Kurt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Buchanan, Pat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Buffett, Warren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Burning Man festivals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Bush, George H. W. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Business and the economy in Canada . . . . . 132
Business and the economy in the
United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Byrd murder case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

v

Cable television . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Cammermeyer, Margarethe. . . . . . . . . . . 141
Campaign finance scandal . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Campbell, Kim. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Canada and the British Commonwealth . . . . 145
Canada and the United States . . . . . . . . . 147
Cancer research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Carey, Mariah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Carjacking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Carpal tunnel syndrome . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Carrey, Jim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Casual Fridays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Cell phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Censorship. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
CGI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Charlottetown Accord. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Cheney, Dick. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Chicago heat wave of 1995 . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Chick lit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Child pornography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Children’s literature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Children’s television. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Children’s Television Act . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
China and the United States . . . . . . . . . . 175
Chopra, Deepak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Chrétien, Jean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Christian Coalition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Christo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Christopher, Warren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Cirque du Soleil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Civil Rights Act of 1991 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Classical music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Clean Air Act of 1990 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Clinton, Bill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Clinton, Hillary Rodham . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Clinton’s impeachment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Clinton’s scandals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Cloning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Clooney, George. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
CNN coverage of the Gulf War . . . . . . . . . 202
Cochran, Johnnie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Coen brothers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Coffeehouses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Cohen, William S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Cold War, end of. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Columbine massacre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Comedians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Comic strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Conservatism in U.S. politics . . . . . . . . . . 219

Contract with America . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Copyright legislation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Country music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Crime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Crown Heights riot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Cruise, Tom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Culture wars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Dahmer, Jeffrey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Damon, Matt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Dances with Wolves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Dayton Accords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Dead Sea scrolls publication . . . . . . . . . . 242
Death Row Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Defense budget cuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 . . . . . . . . 246
DeGeneres, Ellen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Demographics of Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Demographics of the United States . . . . . . 250
Depo-Provera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Devers, Gail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Diallo shooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Digital audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Digital cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Digital divide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Dinkins, David . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Dole, Bob . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
Domestic partnerships . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Don’t ask, don’t tell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Dot-coms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Downsizing and restructuring . . . . . . . . . 270
Dream Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Drive-by shootings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Drudge, Matt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Drug advertising. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Drug use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Dubroff, Jessica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Duke, David . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
DVDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Earth Day 1990 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Earth in the Balance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Ecstasy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Educate America Act of 1994 . . . . . . . . . . 284
Education in Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Education in the United States . . . . . . . . . 287
Egan v. Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
EgyptAir Flight 990 crash . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Elder abuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Elders, Joycelyn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

vi

The Nineties in America

Elections in Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Elections in the United States, midterm . . . . 297
Elections in the United States, 1992 . . . . . . 299
Elections in the United States, 1996 . . . . . . 302
Electric car. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Electronic music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
E-mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Employment in Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Employment in the United States . . . . . . . 312
ER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Etheridge, Melissa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Europe and North America. . . . . . . . . . . 316

Fabio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Fads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Faludi, Susan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Falwell, Jerry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 . . . . . 323
Farrakhan, Louis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Fashions and clothing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Feng shui. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Fen-phen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
Ferguson, Colin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Fermat’s last theorem solution . . . . . . . . . 330
Film in Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Film in the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Fleiss, Heidi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Flinn, Kelly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Food trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Football . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Forbes, Steve. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Foreign policy of Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Foreign policy of the United States. . . . . . . 346
Forrest Gump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Frasier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Gardner Museum art theft . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Gates, Bill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Gehry, Frank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
General Motors strike of 1998 . . . . . . . . . 357
Generation Y. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Genetic engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Genetically modified foods . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Genetics research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

vii

Table of Contents

I Publisher’s Note

The Gulf War, dot-coms, impeachment, grunge,
Y2K—the 1990’s were a time of both optimism and
conflict, hope and worry. The decade began with a
seemingly victorious war, fell into recession, bounced
back with a strong bull market, and ended in politi-
cal bitterness and scandal. The Nineties in America ex-
amines the iconic personalities and moments of this
important decade. With articles about films, books,
political leaders, events, fads, and technology, the
encyclopedia serves as a valuable source of reliable
information and keen insights for today’s students.

Contents of the Encyclopedia
This illustrated three-
volume encyclopedia is a companion set to The Sixties
in America (1999), The Fifties in America (2005), The
Seventies in America (2006), and The Eighties in America
(2008). It covers events, movements, people, and
trends in popular culture, literature, art, sports, sci-
ence, technology, economics, and politics in both
the United States and Canada.
The Nineties in America features long overviews and
short entries discussing people, books, films, televi-
sion series, musical groups, and other important
topics representative of that era. Every entry focuses
on the topic or person during the 1990’s—for this
work, defined as January, 1, 1990, through Decem-
ber 31, 1999—in order to explore what made the de-
cade unique. Topics that span several decades often
provide some background and information on sub-
sequent events to help place the 1990’s in perspec-
tive.
The Nineties in America contains 630 essays, in al-
phabetical order, ranging from one to six pages in
length. Written with the needs of students and gen-
eral readers in mind, the essays present clear discus-
sions of their topics, explaining terms and refer-
ences that may be unfamiliar. Entries fall into the
following general categories:

• African Americans
• art and architecture
• Asian Americans
• business
• Canada
• court cases and the law
• crime and punishment
• disasters

• economics
• education
• environmental issues
• film
• health and medicine
• international relations
• journalism
• Latinos
• legislation
• literature
• military and war
• music
• Native Americans
• people
• politics and government
• popular culture
• religion and spirituality
• science and technology
• sexuality
• social issues
• sports
• television
• terrorism
• theater and dance
• transportation
• women’s issues

The encyclopedic format allows readers to take
either a broad view or a narrow one. For example, in
addition to the essay on Bill Clinton, The Nineties in
America offers related entries on Clinton’s impeach-
ment, the Lewinsky scandal, the Starr Report, and
the Whitewater investigation. Likewise, in addition
to a profile on conservatism in U.S. politics during
the decade are entries on the Republican Revolu-
tion, the Contract with America, and such pivotal fig-
ures as Newt Gingrich.
The Nineties in America contains more than three
hundred evocative photographs of people and
events. In addition, fifty sidebars—lists, tables,
graphs, excerpts from speeches—highlight interest-
ing facts and trends from the decade.

Essay Organization
Every essay begins with a clear,
concise title followed by a brief description called
Identification (for people, organizations, and works,
such as books or films); Definition (for objects, con-

ix