In the Past Twenty Years...

An Abridged Version
By Andrew Schnorr

-The following men have been President of the United States of America:

Ronald Reagan
George H.W. Bush
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush

-George H.W. Bush presided over a successful offensive against Iraq during the first Gulf War, driving Iraqi soldiers out of the neighboring nation of Kuwait.

-Bill Clinton was the second president in US History to be impeached for a scandal involving secretary Monica Lewinsky. He was acquitted, and many commented that it was just a partisan scam.

-During the Clinton Administration, the United States Experienced it's first Budget Surplus since 1969. Since the arrival of the second Bush Administration, the deficit has increased substantially.

-Additionally, the United States National Debt has increased from $2 trillion (which it took 196 year to accumulate) to $9 trillion (that's an additional $7 trillion in 20 years).

-The Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union fell, and Communism as a primary opponent of the US fell, putting an end to the Cold War which had lasted for 44 years.

-"Terrorism" has become the new "Communism."

-The World Trade Center in New York City was hit by two airplanes on September 11th, 2001. Additionally, a plane hit the US Pentagon, and another crashed in a field. This was the single most devastating terrorist attack on United States soil, and prompted George W. Bush to engage in the ongoing "War on Terrorism".

-Two wars have sprung from the War on Terror; one against Afghanistan and one against Iraq, both of which were suspecting of aiding terrorist group Al-Queda and their leader, Osama bin Laden. In both cases, the previous, totalitarian regimes (the Taliban in Afghanistan, and Saddam Hussein in Iraq) were disposed and killed or executed for war crimes. American-appointed governments were set up in both nations. Violent military conflicts continue in both areas.

-Osama bin Laden is still considered at large.

-The Space Shuttle Columbia exploded upon reentry into the atmosphere, due to a small piece of foam damaging one of the wings. This was most devastating space disaster since the Challenger disaster, and causes people to value the worth of the Space Program.

-On December 26, 2004, a lethal tsunami hit the Indian Ocean, killing over 300,000 people, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history.

-The intensity of hurricanes in the Altlantic Ocean has increased, resulting in costlier and deadlier hurricanes, beginning (most prominently) with Hurricane Andrew. The deadliest and costliest of these hurricanes was Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which caused $81 billion in damages and killed over 1,800 people.

-The use of Chlorofluorocarbons, which had shown to create holes in the ozone layer, was internationally banned and phased out. The depredation of the ozone layer has since decreased substantially. This is considered one of the greatest achievements in universal cooperation.

-Global warming has come to the forefront of environmental attention, particularly due to the work of former US Vice President Al Gore. Hotly debated in the past, most credible scientists now accept the existence of global warming, which threatens to melt the polar ice caps and flood a portion of the world (in addition to have severe effects on the weather). What has not been established, though, is how the problem should be dealt with.

-China has become a international superpower, and has become almost fully capitalist (while still claiming to be a communist nation).

-Pope John Paul II, in power for 26 years, dies after years of suffering Parkinson's Disease. His successor, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, is chosen, and takes the name "Pope Benedict XVI".

-The world population hit 5 billion on July 11, 1987. It has since increased to 6.6 billion.

-The Internet has completely changed the face of the earth (not literally). What began as a place for MIT students to discuss whether Captain Kirk or Captain Picard is better (which is foolish, because nobody can match Picard) grew in the early 90s at a rate of over 100% a year. Currently, over a sixth of the worldwide population uses the Internet. There are more web pages in existence than the number of people who have ever lived. It has completely changed the structure of shopping, dating, communicating, school, crime, and leisure. For better or for worse, we may only know in time.

-Computers have become a common sight in every household. Of course, when they began, their specs (and price) were as follows:
They've since become much more powerful, and much cheaper.

-Computer graphics have changed the ways that movies are made. Stunt doubles are being replaced by Computer Graphic Images (CGI). Traditional cartooning has also been replaced with CGI cartoons, popularized by Pixar studios. My childhood dies a little.

-Disney Released the following (traditional), cartoons, ushering in what was known as the "Second Disney Golden Age":

The Little Mermaid
The Rescuers Down Under
Beauty and the Beast
Aladdin
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Lion King
Pocahontas
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Hercules
Mulan
Tarzan

-Animation in general has a renaissance in the early 90s, with such television hits as:

DuckTales
Darkwing Duck
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
Gargoyles
Animaniacs
Tiny Toons Adventures
Pinky & the Brain
Batman: The Animated Series
X-Men: The Animated Series

-Once computers started getting used to a greater extent, cartoons started sucking.

-An American Tale: Fivel Goes West is released. It seems to be the only one people remember.

-Trilogies become really, really popular:

The Lord of the Rings
The Matrix
Pirates of the Caribbean
X-Men
Spiderman
Meet the Parents
The Mighty Ducks
Mission: Impossible
Blade
Ocean's Eleven
And a bunch of others...

-The television show The Simpsons, having gained notoriety on The Tracy Ulman Show since 1987, was released for broadcast television in 1989. It has continued since, becoming the longest-running American sitcom in TV history.

-There have been two major recessions, once in the early 90s and again in the early 2000s. This second recession is known as the "Dot-Com" burst, as it was primarily due to the rapid purchase and subsequent devaluation of stock in Internet companies.

-Bill Nye the Science Guy makes kids love science.

-Magic: The Gathering, the original trading card game, is released in 1993, and is currently still the most widely-played TCG, with over 6 million active players worldwide and over 9000 unique cards. The most valuable card, Black Lotus, is currently worth$1,340.

-We endured through the following fads:

Slap Bracelets
The Noid
Pogs (Which I still consider the greatest fad we've ever had)
Tomagotchi
Yo-Yos
Power Rangers
Magic Eye Puzzles
Where's Waldo?
Tickle Me Elmo
Furby
Goosebumps
Mentos, the Freshmaker
Creepy Crawlers/Easy Bake Oven
Steve Urkel
The Hamster Dance
Y2K Whining
Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon Cards
And last but not least...the Macarena.

-The following movies won the Oscar for "Best Picture of the Year" (one of which happens to be my favorite movie ever):

The Last Emperor
Rain Man
Driving Miss Daisy
Dances With Wolves
The Silence of the Lambs
Unforgiven
Schindler's List
Forrest Gump
Braveheart
The English Patient
Titanic
Shakespeare in Love
American Beauty
Gladiator
A Beautiful Mind
Chicago
The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King
Million Dollar Baby
Crash
The Departed

-Following the immense success of the Nintendo Entertainment System, video games had a surge in popularity, and have become one of the fastest growing (and most lucrative) entertainment mediums. The following gaming systems (both consoles and handheld) have been released. Some have been...more popular than others:

TurboGrafx-16
Mega Drive/Genesis
Neo Geo
SNES
Philips CD-i
3DO
Amiga CD32
Jaguar
Saturn
PlayStation
Nintendo 64
Dreamcast
PlayStation 2
GameCube
Xbox
Xbox 360
PlayStation 3
Wii
Game & Watch
Game Boy (Pocket | Light)
Game Boy Color
Game Boy Advance (SP | Micro)
Nintendo DS (Lite)
WonderSwan
WonderSwan Color
SwanCrystal
GP32
GP2X
XGP
XGP Mini
XGP Kids
Neo Geo Pocket
Neo Geo Pocket Color
Game Gear
Nomad
Mega Jet
PocketStation
PlayStation Portable
Atari Lynx
Gamate
Watara Supervision
Mega Duck
Game.com
Gizmondo
N-Gage
TurboExpress
Pepper Pad
GameKing
iRiver G10
Ez MINI
OQO Model 2

-Countless people have died.

-Countless more have been born.

...All that, and I still haven't been able to get a girlfriend.



Well, here's to twenty years; through the good, through the bad, and through everything in between. And here's to the next twenty...let's see where we go. ^_^