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Challenger Disaster
Challenger launched on a cold January morning. Carrying the first teacher to go into space, children watching from their classrooms across the United State witnessed the Challenger breaking apart 73 seconds after launch. For many children, it was the first time they witnessed a national disaster live, leaving educators to explain what had happened. -
Black Monday
The stock market collapsed. The Dow plunged 22.6%, the biggest one-day percentage loss in history, giving it the nickname Black Monday. Even bigger than the 1929 stock market crash before the Great Depression. -
Americans with Disabilities Act is Signed
The first inclusive civil rights law addressing the needs of individuals with disabilities. ADA prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in areas such as employment, transportation, public accommodations, communications, and access to state and local government programs and services. -
Microsoft Office 3.0
Microsoft offered it’s desktop applications as a bundle called The Microsoft Office. In 1990, they released a version for Windows (Word, Excel, & PowerPoint). These products increased the productivity of organizations and allowed multiple users to work on projects together. Since then, we have seen numerous versions of the application. With each new version, a profound effect felt within organizations and the work environment. -
The Internet
Tim Berners-Lee publishes the code for the World Wide Web on the Internet, likely the major influencer of the last 40 years. The internet had been used by the government and private sector, but in 1991 it becomes public, forever changing the way we communicate at work, school, and home. -
FMLA
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 granted employees temporary medical leave to care for family. Allows individuals the ability to take unpaid leave for up to 12 weeks for pregnancy, the birth, adoption, or placement of a child, personal illness or caring for a sick family member, or family military leave, without fear of losing employment. Most recently, it ensured same-sex partners the ability to care for their spouse, in all 50 states. -
The White Bronco
Over 95 million people tuned in to watch O.J. Simpson ride around California's highways in his white Bronco. Five days before, his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman were murdered and Simpson became a suspect. The trial sparks controversy with the defense arguing racist cops planted evidence. The issue of race and the ability to have a fair trail became water-cooler conversation and are still controversial as new movies are released detailing the chase and trial. -
Amazon.com
In 1994, Amazon launched as a website that sold books. Founder Jeff Bezos had an idea for its growth and 25 years later, buyers can find just about anything they want on Amazon (Hartmans, 2020). Amazon provides easy access to hundreds of millions of products at low cost and fast shipping for customers and businesses. Retail stores have been impacted as Amazon steals their customers, leaving empty shopping malls across America. -
HIPAA - The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
President Bill Clinton signs the legislation into law. One of the key aims of the legislation was to improve the portability health insurance coverage – Ensuring employees retained health insurance coverage when between jobs. HIPAA was designed to improve the effectiveness of the health care system by promoting the use of electronic data, provide safeguards to protect the privacy of health information by limiting access, use, and disclosure of protected health information. -
Google
Stanford grads filed paperwork with the state of California to officially create Google Inc, hoping to turn their ideas about searching the World Wide Web into a profitable company. Their goal, to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful, with the Google search engine. It not only does this but also provides products used by people world-wide, from YouTube to Google Search. Changing the way we look for answers, we google it. -
Columbine Shooting
The Columbine shooting occurred on April 20, 1999, in Littleton, Colorado. Dylan Klebold, 17, and Eric Harris, 18, killed twelve students and one teacher before ending their own lives in the school library (Columbine High School shootings fast facts, n.d.). The Columbine shootings rank as one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history. It is also one of the deadliest episodes of school violence. -
Y2K
The Y2K bug was anticipated to cause problems when the date reached 1-1-2000. Computer programmers fearing computers might not interpret 00 as 2000 but as 1900, leaving society and business vulnerable and unable to conduct business. Many countries spent millions of dollars to combat a problem that never occurred. -
September 11, 2001
The nation mourned and the market felt the aftermath when America was attacked by terrorists using U.S. planes on September 11, 2001. Almost every sector of the economy took a hit. Gas and oil prices soared as fears emerged that oil imports from the Middle East would come to an end. Air travel declined significantly. The insurance industry was hit with 9/11-related claims estimated at some $40 billion. -
Facebook
What started as a social networking platform for college students to connect, quickly grows as a businesses to advertise services and products, and opportunities for public relations purposes. Social media allows employees to "Facebook stalk" potential employees. Later, Facebook is accused of allowing disinformation and Russia influence the 2016 Presidential election. -
Virginia Tech Shooting
Twenty-seven students and five faculty members were killed and 23 wounded at Virginia Tech University. The shooting at VT transformed college public safety departments and opened everyone’s eyes to the importance of emergency preparedness. Call for changes to occur at the state and national level began immediately for school safety and evaluation of emergency response standards and requirements. -
The iPhone
The Apple iPhone was introduced by Steve Jobs in 2007. Although majority of individuals owned a cell phone, the iPhone changed the function of a cell phone. Previously, the cell phone was used for making phone calls and texting but now you could use your phone to email, search the internet, pay bills and shop all from the palm of your hand. -
The Great Recession
Labeled the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, it threatened the collapse of large financial institutions. As a result, unemployment rates skyrocketed, housing prices and stock portfolios plummeted, and the lives of millions were disrupted (Kalleberg & Wachter, 2017). -
Affordable Care Act
ACA realigned the health-care system for long-term changes in health-care quality, practice, and transparency, ensuring health care coverage for all Americans, reducing barriers to services, and limits health care spending. Under this amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers are required to provide break time and a clean, secure place for nursing mothers to express milk, a victory for nursing mothers. -
Women in Combat
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced the lifting of the exclusion of women in ground combat. Women had already found themselves in action in Iraq and Afghanistan, but women would now have the opportunity to have the title of combat soldier. -
Supreme Court Overturns the Defense of Marriage Act
The Supreme Court ruled the federal Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional. This decision granted that legally married same-sex couples are now entitled to the same federal benefits as married opposite-sex couples, permitting organizations the ability to offer partner benefits to employees. -
Women's March
Hundreds of thousands of people crowded the U.S. capital for the Women’s March on Washington the day after President Trump takes office. His victory over the first female presidential nominee made many take to the streets, disappointed and offended by his past treatment of and statements regarding women, as well as his rhetoric during the campaign. Trump dismissively called it locker room talk and disputed accusers’ claims of previous sexual misconduct during his campaign. -
#MeToo and #TimesUp
The movements brought gender-based violence into the public dialogue. #MeToo and #TimesUp characterized a critical shift in how gender-based violence is reported and responded, making it a public health issue.
