ACTUAL HOPE FOR PEACE

20 years ago, in this exact date, a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan was signed. Bill Clinton was the moderator as the treaty was signed between Jordan's King Hussein and Israel's Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin. The event took place in the Arava valley of Israel

THE GLORY DAYS OF INFOMERCIALS

"Stop The Insanity!" Remember her? Back in the early to mid nineties, Susan Powter was the fitness celebrity guru. She even had her own talk show in 1994. At this time, infomercials (as they were called) had their big heyday. It turned Susan into a recognizable star. Remember, this is right before the internet changed the world. Back then, we would watch television, even late in the night. 

BRAIN GIVES BREATH

In 1992 the Laryngeal Mask Airway (LMA) was approved for sale in the United States. Created earlier in the 1980's by Dr. Brain (I am not making this up, that is his real name), the LMA device provided a direct seal of the oropharynx to the trachea. Thus, not every patient needed to have an endotracheal intubation for a surgical procedure needing general anesthesia. It has also been used in placing emergency airways.  This device has revolutionized anesthesia practice and some have stated that it is the most important invention in Anesthesia in the past 25 years.

A FILM MIRRORS LIFE

In early 1995, a film called "Outbreak" starring Dustin Hoffman, Donald Sutherland, Morgan Freeman, Rene Russo, Patrick Dempsey, Kevin Spacey, and Cuba Gooding Jr. was about an Ebola-like virus called Motaba that crossed continents from Africa to the states. The film also dealt with the government conspiracy and action regarding the massive medical epidemic that this virus incurred. Any of this sound familiar?

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT EXPANDS

Arrested Development is a southern hip hop band that had a string of hits in the early nineties. Founded by band member, known as Speech, this band focused on singing about African self determination and pride in a movement best known as Afrocentric. The band preached love and spirituality in their music and this was in contrast to the themes of the  popular gangster rap at that time. Their first album "3 years, 5 months, and 2 days in the life of"...was critically acclaimed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyDjRd0Tjss

ONE IS ALL YOU NEED, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU HAVE NONE!

So there are now recent rumblings that Los Angeles may get an NFL franchise. Well, as some remember, in the early nineties, until 1995, there were double the number of NFL teams in LA of its current goal of one

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BAYWATCH BECOMES SYNONYMOUS WITH BABEWATCH

Starting in the early nineties, the show "Baywatch" became a hit. Interestingly, the show was cancelled after its first year of running in 1989. However, the show's star, David Hasselhoff, convinced producers to run the show in syndication again and it came back with a vengeance starting in 1991. The show was more known for its skinny clad lifeguard ladies wearing their red bikinis. In fact, the show starts with the famous slow motion running of the female lifeguards in its intro. Pamela Anderson, who played C.J on the show, became the show's notable star. More is to come for Pamela in this blog regarding her influence in the early nineties.

ZIPS WERE UP AND THEN CAME DOWN

In late 1994, lomega introduced the Zip drive. This was intended to replace the 3.5 inch floppy disc as the Zip disk would store about 100 Megabytes of memory. For a short time, this floppy became huge. However, it was soon out seeded by devices that could hold more memory, such as the rewritable CD, the rewritable DVD, and USB Flashdrives. 

PORN IN SPACE

In  the early nineties, in the initial days of cyberspace, many were worried about the 3 P's that this massive computer networking could involve. These included:

Pornography: Yes, the fundamentalists were afraid of the Net making a place that was unsafe and
uncensored.

Privacy: Computer hackers were abound as they are now, and people's privacy was an issue, as it is now.

Public Advertising: Initially the Net was not suppose to be for commerce. Well, that soon changed and it   changed quickly!

This figure is from an article in Time magazine at that time.

BARNEY GOES PUBLIC

Barney and Friends, a PBS children television show, was a runway hit when it first aired in 1992. The show is about an anthropromorphic yet cheerful and optimistic Tyrannosaurus Rex. The show was so successful that it was produced till 2009. 

TECHNO MAKES A NICHE

In the Early Nineties, techno music had a share of success in the mainstream American music industry. It originally emerged in the mid to late eighties in Detroit, Michigan. Soon some local radio stations were dedicated to playing all techno and soon the phenomena of raves came about. Bands like 2Unlimited and Technotronic found major success.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvTm_BhZdOE