Top News Stories from 1995

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World Events

World Statistics

Population: 4.378 billion

population by decade

Nobel Peace Prize: Joseph Rotblat and Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs (UK)

More World Statistics...

US rescues Mexico's economy with $20-billion aid program (Feb. 21).
Russian space station Mir greets first Americans (March 14). US shuttle docks with station (June 27).
Nerve gas attack in Tokyo subway kills eight and injures thousands. The Aum Shinrikyo ("Supreme Truth") cult is to blame (March 20). Background: International Terrorism
Death toll 2,000 in Rwanda massacre (April 22).
Fighting escalates in Bosnia and Croatia (May 1). Warring parties agree on cease-fire (Oct. 5); sign peace treaty (Dec. 14).
France explodes nuclear device in Pacific; wide protests ensue (Sept. 5). Background: nuclear weapons
Israelis and Palestinians agree on transferring West Bank to Arabs (Sept. 24). Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin slain by Jewish extremist at peace rally (Nov. 4).

U.S. Events

U.S. Statistics

President: William J. Clinton

Vice President: Albert Gore, Jr.

Population: 262,764,948

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 52.8

Property Crime Rate (per 1,000) 45.9

More U.S. Statistics...

Criminal trial of O. J. Simpson opens in California (Jan. 24).
Scores killed as terrorist's car bomb blows up block-long Oklahoma City federal building (April 19); Timothy McVeigh, 27, arrested as suspect (April 21); authorities seek second suspect, link right-wing paramilitary groups to bombing (April 22).
Los Angeles jury finds O. J. Simpson not guilty of murder charges (Oct. 3).
Pope John Paul II visits US on whirlwind tour (Oct. 4-8).
Million Man March draws hundreds of thousands of black men to capital (Oct. 16).

Economics

US GDP (1998 dollars): $7,269.60 billion

Federal spending: $1519.13 billion

Federal debt $4921.0 billion

Median Household Income(current dollars): $34,076 billion

Consumer Price Index: $152.4

Unemployment: 5.6%

Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.32 (as of 1/1/95)

More Economics...

Sports

Sports Links

Pro Football Summary

Pro Basketball Summary

Pro Baseball Summary

Super Bowl

San Francisco d. San Diego

World Series

Atlanta Braves d. Cleveland (4-2)

NBA Championship

Houston d. Orlando

Stanley Cup

New Jersey d. Detroit

Wimbledon

Women: Steffi Graf d. A.S. Vicario (4-6 6-1 7-5)
Men: Pete Sampras d. B. Becker (6-7 6-2 6-4 6-2)

Kentucky Derby Champion

Thunder Gulch

NCAA Basketball Championship

UCLA d. Arkansas

NCAA Football Champions

Nebraska (12-0-0)

Entertainment

Entertainment Awards

Pulitzer Prizes

Fiction: The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields

Music: Stringmusic, Morton Gould

Drama: The Young Man from Atlanta, Horton Foote

Academy Award, Best Picture: Forrest Gump, Wendy Finerman, Steve Tisch and Steve Starkey, producers (Paramount)

Nobel Prize for Literature: Seamus Heaney (Ireland)

Record of the Year: "All I Wanna Do," Sheryl Crow

Album of the Year: MTV Unplugged, Tony Bennett (Columbia)

Song of the Year: "Streets of Philadelphia" (Theme from Philadelphia), Bruce Springsteen, songwriter

Miss America: Heather Whitestone (AL)

More Entertainment Awards...

Events

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum opens in Cleveland. Renowned architect I. M. Pei designed the ultra-modern, 150,000 square-foot building.
Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia dies.
An estimated 150 million people watch as the not guilty verdict is read in the O. J. Simpson verdict.
The Metropolitan Opera installs screens on audience seats that display captions, to attract a wider audience.

Movies

Babe, Braveheart, Leaving Las Vegas, The Usual Suspects, Dead Man Walking

Books

Pat Barker, The Ghost Road
Richard Ford, Independence Day

Science

Nobel Prizes in Science

Chemistry: F. Sherwood Rowland, Mario Molina (both US), and Paul Crutzen (Netherlands), for their pioneering work in explaining the chemical processes that deplete the earth's ozone shield

Physics: Martin L. Perl and Frederick Reines (both US), for their discoveries of "two of nature's most remarkable subatomic particles"—the tau and the neutrino

Physiology or Medicine: Edward B. Lewis, Eric F. Wieschaus (both US), and Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (Germany), for studies of the fruit fly that will help explain congenital malformations in humans

More Nobel Prizes in 1998...

First solo transpacific balloon flight. Steve Fossett made a flight of more than 5,430 mi. from Seoul, South Korea, to Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada, in a helium-filled balloon. Also set record for distance (Feb. 18–21, 1995). Background: Famous Firsts in Aviation
Drs. Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell (UK) create the world's first cloned sheep, Megan and Morag, from embryo cells. Background: Cloning Milestones