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The main goal was to take the de facto Panamanian dictator, Manuel Noriega, out of power. Noriega worked with the CIA at one point but now was wanted for racketeering and drug trafficking. Although the government used the arguments of safeguarding the lives of U.S. citizens, defending democracy and human rights, protecting the integrity of the Torrijos–Carter Treaties, many legal scholars condemned the invasion as a violation of international law. -
After a trial jury acquitted four officers of the Los Angeles Police Department for the usage of excessive force in the arrest and beating of Rodney King, unrest began in South Central Los Angeles. Widespread looting, assault, and arson occurred during the riots. In the end, 63 people had been killed, 2,383 had been injured, more than 12,000 had been arrested, over $1 billion in property damage. -
NAFTA resulted in the elimination or reduction of barriers to trade and investment between the three North American powers: the US, Canada, and Mexico. Although, while the agreement was being implemented, the effects regarding issues such as employment, environment, and economic growth have been the subject of disputes, most economic analyses indicated that it was beneficial to the economies and the average citizen -
O.J. Simpson was tried and acquitted on two counts of murder for the deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman. On June 13, 1994, Brown and Goldman were found stabbed to death outside her condominium in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Long story short, Simpson was acquitted and was found not guilty. -
Between 1978 and 1995, Ted Kaczynski killed three people and injured 23 people that he believed to be advancing modern technology and the destruction of the environment. Industrial Society and Its Future, his manifesto, appeared in The Washington Post in September 1995. Kaczynski's brother David recognized the prose style and reported his suspicions to the FBI. During trial, a plea bargain was reached under which he pleaded guilty and was given 8 life sentences without parole. -
This was the crash of a Boeing 747-100 that exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York, 12 minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport. All 230 people on board died in the crash, making it the third-deadliest aviation accident in U.S. history. The extensive, four-year report concluded that the most likely cause of the accident was an explosion of fuel vapors in the center fuel tank, the likely ignition source being a short circuit. -
This happened in Atlanta, Georgia during the Summer Olympics, carried out by a man named Eric Rudolph. The explosion killed one person and injured 111 others. Rudolph planted a green U.S. military backpack containing three pipe bombs filled with three-inch-long nails underneath a bench near the base of a concert sound tower. The nails caused most of the injuries. Rudolph was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for his crimes. -
Heaven's Gate was an American UFO religious cult based near San Diego, California. It was founded and led by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles. On March 26, 1997, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department discovered 39 members of the group in a house in Rancho Santa Fe who had participated in a mass suicide in order to reach an extraterrestrial spacecraft following Comet Hale–Bopp. -
NATO's intervention was prompted by Yugoslavia's bloodshed and ethnic cleansing of Albanians. The Yugoslavs mainly targeted Albanian civilians, with 8,676 killed or missing and 848,000 displaced. The NATO bombing killed about 1,000 members of Yugoslav security and about 528 civilians. It destroyed or damaged transportation routes, private businesses, government and military installations, and cultural monuments. The bombing was NATO's second major combat operation. -
Twelfth-grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 12 students and one teacher. Twenty-one people were injured by gunshots, and three other people were injured trying to escape. In addition, the attack involved homemade bombs, two of which were placed in the cafeteria, potent enough to kill if not seriously injure all people within the area, but they failed to detonate.