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February 7, 1990 - The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party gives up its monopoly of power
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March 18, 1990 - The largest art theft in U.S. history occurs in Boston, Massachusetts, when two thieves posing as policemen abscomb twelve paintings worth an estimated $100-200 million from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
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April 24, 1990 - The Hubble Telescope is placed into orbit by the United States Space Shuttle Discovery. One month later, the telescope becomes operational.
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June 1, 1990 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush and his Soviet counterpart, Mikhail Gorbachev sign a treaty to eliminate chemical weapon production and begin the destruction of each nation's current inventory.
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August 2, 1990 - Iraq invades its neighbor, Kuwait, setting into motion the beginning of U.S. involvement in the Gulf War. Four days later, the United Nations begins a global trade embargo against Iraq.
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January 17, 1991 - Five days after the U.S. Congress passes a resolution authorizing the use of force to liberate Kuwait, Operation Desert Storm begins with air strikes against Iraq. Iraq responds by sending eight Scud missiles into Israel.
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May 5, 1992 - The 27th Amendment to the Constitution is passed two hundred and two years after its initial proposal. It bars the United States Congress from giving itself a midterm or retroactive pay raise
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August 17, 1992 - The Siege of Ruby Ridge is begun by United States Marshalls, lasting ten days. The incident would end with the acquittal of all, but one minor charge against the Weaver family and lead to admonishment of the handling of the incident by Federal authorities.
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February 26, 1993 - The World Trade Center is bombed by Islamic terrorists when a van parked below the North Tower of the structure explodes. Six people are killed and over one thousand are injured
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February 28, 1993 - The fifty-one day Waco standoff begins when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms attempt to arrest the Branch Dividian leader David Koresh on federal arms violations. Four agents and five members of the cult are killed in the raid. The siege would end on April 19 when a fire, started by the Davidians, killed seventy-five members of the group, including the leader.
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June 27, 1993 - President Bill Clinton orders a cruise missile attack on the Iraqi intelligence headquarters in Baghdad, responding to the attempted assassination attempt cultivated by the Iraq Secret Service on former U.S. President George H.W. Bush during his visit to Kuwait two months before.
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November 30, 1993 - The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act is signed into law by President Bill Clinton.
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January 1, 1994 - The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect, creating a free trade zone between Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
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April 19, 1995 - Anarchists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols explode a bomb outside the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing one hundred and sixty-eight people in a domestic terrorism attack
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June 29, 1995 - For the first time, the Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian space station Mir.
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July 5, 1996 - At the Roslin Institute in Scotland, Dolly, the sheep, becomes the first mamal to be cloned. This begins a rampant debate on the ethics of the procedure in animals and the viability and morality of cloning in human beings
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July 19, 1996 - The Summer Olympics Games are opened in Atlanta, Geogia by U.S. President Bill Clinton. The games are positively known for the achievements of American track and field athlete Michael Johnson, who won both the 200 and 400 meter races, setting a new World Record in the 200, and for the victory of the American women's gymnastics team. These games would be marred, however, by the Centennial Park bombing of Olympic tourists on July 27, which killed one person and injured one hundre
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February 9, 1997 - The Simpsons, a ribald cartoon about a family of misfits, becomes the longest running cartoon television series in history, surpassing the Flintstones
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July 8, 1997 - The NATO alliance expands into eastern Europe when it extends an invitation to the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to join the alliance in 1999
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October 29, 1997 - Iraq states that it will begin to shoot down U-2 surveillance planes used by United Nations UNSCOM inspectors attempting to mandate Saddam Hussein meet the provisions of surrender in the 1991 Gulf War
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February 23, 1998 - Osama bin Laden publishes his fatwa that announced a jihad against all Jews and Crusaders. This announcement would push forward the Islamic fundamentalist agenda toward terrorism against western interests.
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August 7, 1998 - Attacks on two United States embassies in Africa, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya kills two hundred and twenty-four and injures four thousand five hundred. The attacks are linked to Osama Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda organization. On August 13, the United States launches cruise missile strikes against Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in the Sudan.
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October 29, 1998 - John Glenn, thirty-six years after becoming the first American astronaut to orbit the earth, becomes the oldest astronaut in space at seventy-seven years old. His role on the Space Shuttle Discovery flight tests the effect of space travel on aging.
