Taylor Bowman's Life History

  • Bush Sr. and Yeltsin proclaim a formal end to the Cold War

  • US forces leave Philippines, ending nearly a century of American military presence

  • Born in Pasedina, CA

  • North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signed

  • Two police officers convicted in Los Angeles on civil rights charges in Rodney King beating

  • Israeli-Palestinian accord reached

  • First Birthday

  • Clinton signs Brady bill regulating firearms purchases

  • March - Moved to Arizona

  • Thousands dead in Rwanda massacre

  • South Africa holds first interracial national election; Nelson Mandela elected President.

  • Israel signs accord with Palestinians

  • O. J. Simpson arrested in killings of wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and friend, Ronald Goldman

  • Second Birthday

  • Scores killed as terrorist's car bomb blows up block-long Oklahoma City federal building

  • Microsoft releases Windows 95.

    When Windows 95 came out, my mom finally talked my dad into getting out first home computer. Now, when mom would pick me up from school and take me home, still having work to do, I would sit by her and watch my mom type of this shiny new machine. I was instantly enchanted by it. I remember being very curious about it and try to feed it a cookie though the floppy slot because it had been working so hard. This was first generation on the machinery I would come to love now.
  • Los Angeles jury finds O. J. Simpson not guilty of murder charges

  • Million Man March draws hundreds of thousands of black men to capital

  • Third Birthday

  • Motorola introduces the Motorola StarTAC Wearable Cellular Telephone, the world's smallest and lightest mobile phone at that time.

    The first cell phone my mom ever got was this one, a Motorola. Apparently, I was fasinated my this device too, just like the computer. My mom tells me that I used to call my dad at work all the time and talk to him. I even tried to take it apart once. What was even better was that my mom helped my figure out what was going on in that tiny device. Through this one cellphone, my mom started my 'taking things apart' phase, which I never got quite out of.
  • Kyle is born.

  • The Nintendo 64 video game system is released in Japan.

    The Nintendo 64 system was the first the more sophisicated games, surpassing Tetris and Pong by eons. the Nintendo would also lay the groundwork for many of today's more popular gaming systems, like the Gameboy Advance and the Nintendo DS. In fact, Nintendo still leads the way in gaming tech. Once the Nintendo handheld systems came out, my brother and I would spend hours together playing with them. Videogames actually helped bring my brother and myself closer together.
  • Mother Teresa receives honorary U.S. citizenship.

  • Fourth Birthday

  • FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested and charged with spying for Russia for 15 years.

  • The British House of Commons votes for a total ban on handguns.

  • The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales takes place at Westminster Abbey, watched by over 2 billion people worldwide.

  • An earthquake strikes the Italian regions of Umbria and Marche, causing part of the Basilica of St. Francis at Assisi to collapse.

  • Fifth Birthday

  • Smoking is banned in all California bars and restaurants.

  • Paula Jones accuses U.S. President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment.

  • The Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park at Walt Disney World opens to the public for the first time.

  • Started Elementary School

  • Sixth Birthday

  • Euro is established.

  • Bowman Family Reunion

  • Apple Computer releases the first iBook, the first Laptop designed specifically for average consumers.

  • NASA loses one of its probes, the Mars Climate Orbiter.

  • Seventh Birthday

  • Israel and Syria hold inconclusive peace talks.

  • A preliminary draft of genomes, as part of the Human Genome Project, is finished.

  • This is the final date during which there is no human presence in space; on October 31, Soyuz TM-31 launches, carrying the first resident crew to the International Space Station. The ISS has been continuously crewed since.

  • Eighth Birthday

  • The world's first self-contained artificial heart is implanted in Robert Tools.

  • Twin Towers fall in NYC

    When the Twin Towers fell, it was like the entire world froze for a moment. We, who were watching the news from our TVs at home, just could not believe what had happened. Our lives suddenly changed in that hour; we finally became more aware of the impending danger around us, and became a more cautious people. The actuall effects of this horrible disaster wouldn't affect me immediately, but over the passing months and even years, it would help form my unbridled passion for crushing terrorism.
  • U.S. President George W. Bush signs the USA PATRIOT Act into law.

  • Nineth Birthday

  • The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and freezes the assets of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda, and the Taliban.

  • Israeli forces besiege the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, when militants take shelter there.

  • The Mars Odyssey finds signs of large water ice deposits on the planet Mars.

  • Tenth Birthday

  • The last signal is received from NASA's Pioneer 10 spacecraft, some 7.5 billion miles from Earth.

  • Uday and Qusay Hussein, sons of Saddam Hussein, are killed by the U.S. military in Iraq, after being tipped off by an informant.

  • The Spitzer Space Telescope is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

  • Eleventh Birthday

  • U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA) wins the Iowa Democratic caucus. Vermont Governor Howard Dean's concession speech ends with a lively but controversial scream.

    This was the first election I got really involved in. It sparked my interest in debating different sides of politics, making me a few friends and a few enemies as well.
  • The largest expansion to date of the European Union takes place, extending the Union by 10 member-states: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Malta and Cyprus.

  • Mount St. Helens becomes active again.

  • Twelfth Birthday

  • The Internet site YouTube goes online.

  • The Kyoto Protocol goes into effect, without the support of the United States and Australia.

  • The 2005 Sumatran earthquake strikes off Sumatra, 3 months after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. At a magnitude of 8.7 it is the second largest earthquake since 1965.

  • Started Middle School

  • Thirteenth Birthday

  • A resolution to end the 2006 Lebanon War is unanimously accepted by the United Nations Security Council.

  • The last American MASH is decommissioned.

  • Fourteenth Birthday

  • Space Shuttle Mission STS-116: Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center on the first night launch since the 2003 loss of Columbia.

  • Model United Nations trip to NYC

  • A total lunar eclipse occurs.

  • Thirty-two people are killed in the Virginia Tech massacre on the premises of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia.

  • The final book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is released and sells over 11 million copies in the first 24 hours, becoming the fastest selling book in history.

  • Started High School

  • Fifteenth Birthday

  • Iran opens its first space center and launches a rocket into space.

  • An exploding star halfway across the visible universe becomes the farthest known object ever visible to the naked eye.

  • After three decades as the Chairman of Microsoft Corporation, Bill Gates steps down from daily duties to concentrate on philanthropy.

  • Sixteenth Birthday

  • Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th, and first African American, President of the United States.

  • UNESCO launches The World Digital Library.

  • The death of American entertainer Michael Jackson

  • Philmont 10-day/70+mile hike, NM