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Event of '96
I WAS BORN!! You're welcome, world. -
Period: to
My Lifespan
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The beginning of an era
Pokemon was officially released this year. This was only the beginning of one of the most successful series of video games of all time. -
A New System
The Nintendo 64 was released this year, instantly rising in popularity. This was only the beginning of nintendo's in-home gaming systems. -
Movies Released
Movies like Jingle All The Way, Matilda and 101 Dalmations were released this year, paving the way for animation, comedy and a new form of CG real-life animation. -
Start Your Engines!
The first ever Mario Kart was released! This marks the beginning of another game series that stretched well into the new millenium. It was also a pioneer for multiple-player games! -
One Step for Equality
Ellen DeGeneres outs herself. She becomes the first openly gay woman to have her own sitcom, thus sending the world one step further into equality regardless of sexuality. -
GTA
The first ever Grand Theft Auto was released in this year, and even today it is one of the most popular video games. The series may not have as big of a name as Pokemon, but it technically has far more sales per year. GTA is one of the most controversial games of all time becaues it sparked on the controversy of violence in video games. -
To Sink or Swim
Big movies released this year were Men in Black, a star-struck show about how government officials help aliens work there way into peaceful human life. Another was Titanc, a heartbreaking tale that everyone (unless they live under a rock) has heard of even today! -
Scandal!
Scandal erupted in the white house this year, and for the first time in United States history, a president is impeached! House impeaches President Clinton along party lines on two charges, perjury and obstruction of justice. -
Life At War
Saving Private Ryan was released in 1998. This graphic but critically acclaimed film stirred up as much adoradion as it did controversy. It was a real heart breaker and eye opener in society! -
Banjo What?
The game Banjo-Kazooie was released this year, providing millions of people with entertainment and millions of investors millions of dollars. Nintendo also released a popular game, one you might have heard of, Mario Party! -
Get Down to Business
TO DEFEAT THE HUNS! Mulan was released in 1998. This film helped press on the feminist movement, for it was one of the first Disney films to portray a completely independant heroin who saves the day. This movie gave out a clear message: No more damsels in destress! Take your life into your own hands! -
A New Record!
For the first time in Pacman history, someone got a perfect score of 3,333,360! Other big game releases that year were Donkey Kong for N64. This was a big deal in the gaming world because gamers demanded an updated version of the already popular game! Nintendo is all about pleasing the fans (and raking in large profits)! The first ever Rollercoaster Tycoon was released! The game has been purchased and sold from company to company but remains a favorite (especially now on Facebook!) -
An Epic Year
What a great year for movies! Epic movies that have huge fandoms even today were released in '99. To name a few: Starwars Episode I, The Matrix, Fight Club, The Sixth Sense, The Mummy, Toy Story 2, and Tarzan! -
Feelin' Fine
It's the end of the world!! The world goes into a panic in anticipation of Y2K! To put it simply, the world awaits the consequences of the Y2K bug, with more drastic millennial theorists warning of Armageddon. Lock your bunkers, it's going to be a long night. -
The Most Popular Console Ever
Nintendo sells its 100 millionth Game Boy handheld console. This is a record breaking number! Nintendo is now the biggest game company in history. In other news, the creator of the popular online website popcap.com is created! PopCap games is founded and starts working on their new softwear! -
A Breakthrough!
The human genome was deciphered by dedicated biologists in 2000! This incredible discovery was expected to revolutionize the practice of medicine, and boy did it! -
Get a Life!
From the makers of SimsCity comes The Sims! The second in a long line of Sims games begins a legacy! Players can act as God in a new way, creating new lives with new families! As if kids weren't already separated from their parents enough. Is this the beginning of a generational devide? You decide! -
Get to Know the Family
Movies like Meet the Parents and How the Grinch Stole Christmas brought families together for lots of laughs this holiday season! Many actors got a kick start to their careers with these blockbuster films! And let's not forget the first ever X-Men, stunning audiences with it's action! -
They're Still Alive
The games Runescape and Bejeweled were released this year. Sound familiar? They should be! These games have been updated and updated and updated and still operate under the same name with the same premise and are still two of the most popular online games of all time! It shows how dedicated some gamers can be to the classics! -
New Consoles
Two new consoles were released in this year! In March, Nintendo released its next contender in hopes to update their previous handheld! They releaed the still-popular now-classic Gameboy Advanced. In November of the same year, Microsoft introduced the Xbox. This was the first major competitor of Nintendo's systems, and quickly the Xbox with its sleek desigin and high speed grew in popularity. -
The First!
2001 marked the year for movies that started a series. This year saw Monsters Inc (Monsters University came out this year!), Lord of the Rings (you can buy the box set now), Shrek (the sequels weren't near as popular, of course), Fast and the Furious (which one are they on now? Twelve?), and of course, a fan favorite, Harry Potter. -
9/11
This is the day that everyone remembers. Terrorists attack United States. Hijackers ram jetliners into twin towers of New York City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A fourth hijacked plane crashes 80 mi outside of Pittsburgh (Sept. 11). Toll of dead and injured in thousands. Within days, Islamic militant Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda terrorist network are identified as the parties behind the attacks. -
Big Bucks!
The market research company NPD estimated that video game hardware, software, and accessories sold about US$10.3 billion in 2002. This was a 10% increase over the 2001 figure.
The dominant handheld system in 2002 was Nintendo's Game Boy Advance.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for PS2 - #1 game of 2002 -
Attack of the Sequels
2002 was a big year for sequels. To name a few, Lord of the Rings 2, Harry Potter 2, StarWars Ep 2, and the long awaited, much anticipated Men in Black 2. -
Bad Names
President Bush's first State of the Union address vows to expand the fight on terrorism and labels Iran, Iraq, and North Korea "an axis of evil." He was given so much criticism of this statement that the mocking didn't end with political cartoons. Even now, there are still comedy tours under the name 'axis of evil'. -
SP!
February 14 — Nintendo releases the Game Boy Advance SP, an enhanced version of its popular Game Boy Advance handheld game console.
Computer games continue to lose ground to console video games with a US sales drop of 14% in 2003. -
Finding Emo
I mean Nemo! Finding Nemo was released in this year, as well as other wildly popular films like Pirates of the Caribbean, Bruce Almighty, and Elf, because sometimes you just need to sing out your problems. -
Sing Your Heart Out
In its second season, American Idol proved to be as popular as low-carb diets. Although Ruben Studdard was crowned America’s second Idol, runner-up Clay Aiken went on to win the hearts of pop fans. -
Nintendo Strikes Again
Nintendo officially announces its "Revolution" (later named Wii) console.
Nintendo released the Nintendo DS on November 21 in the United States
sales of portable software titles exceeded $1 billion for the first time -
Gay Rights
Gay marriages begin in Massachusetts, the first state in the country to legalize such unions. This stirs up all kinds of controversy, as well as spreading the love! -
Have a laugh!
2004 was a funny year for movies! With belly busting hits like Anchorman and Mean Girls paired with sentimental and family friendly comedies like The Incredibles, there was something for everyone in the theaters this year! -
Video Game Drama
After the release of the Xbox 360 and World of Warcraft, the controversies over Video Games really started to stir. Studies began to see of video games were really making society dumber and more violent. Even now these studies are controversial and inconclusive. -
Movies Released!
2005 stunned adults and children everywhere with action packed, hilarious, comic book, classic story, 3-D movies everywhere. Here are a few memorable ones: Batman Begins
Madagascar
Pride and Prejudice
Sharkboy and Lavagirl
Chicken Little
Fantastic 4 -
Religion Vs Public Schools
Federal Judge John Jones says that it is unconstitutional for a school district in Pennsylvania to mention intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in biology classes, saying it "is a religious view, a mere relabeling of creationism and not a scientific theory." He harshly criticized members of the Dover, Pa., school board for their "breathtaking inanity" in attempting to include intelligent design in the curriculum. -
Gaming Fitness
To fight of controversy against the cons of gaming, Public schools in West Virginia will add Dance Dance Revolution by Konami to their curriculum, in an effort to combat obesity.
Nintendo also releases the Wii, bringing a new type of interactivity to the gaming world.
New Super Mario Bros. made $1.5 mil -
Vroom Vroom
Popular movies this year included Cars, Happy Feet and Superman Returns. These films were known to touch the hearts of their viewers while still maintaining the manliness of not being a chick flick. -
Diets Debunked!
A $415 million, eight-year federal study finds that a low-fat diet does not decrease the risk of heart disease, cancer, or stroke. Many in the medical community call the results stunning. -
Boy are they popular
September 25: Halo 3 is released and grosses US$170 million in a 24-hour period, a record for the highest grossing opening day in video game history.
Nintendo DS is the most popular game system, making $8.50 mil -
Blockbusters
Lots of movies made their fame in 2007. It seems almost every genre had their time to shine. A noticeable shift here in the movies can be seen as more controversial topics are addressed, like teenage pregnancies. -
Go Women!
California Democrat Nancy Pelosi becomes the first woman speaker of the House and will preside over the 100th Congress. -
Yes Wii Did
The Wii made waves this year! It became the best selling console of all time, and not surprisingly, wii fit is the second most popular game world wide. It was second only to Grand Theft Auto IV. -
Heartfelt
Another good year for movies, 2008 made billions. Touching movies like WALL-E and 27 Dresses were released this year. Funny movies like Kung Fu Panda were released. Action films like The Dark Knight and Iron Man were released. And, of course, movies where people are split between team-super fan and team-hate, like Twilight, were released. -
SWINE FLU
The H1N1 virus, named the Swine Flu, is deemed a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. This is the first such designation since the Hong Kong flu in 1967-1968. -
Thanks, Obama
President Obama was elected, marking the first time in US history that an african american man has been president. -
End of an Era
Ensemble Studios, the creators of the Age of Empires series, was shut down after about 15 years of service. The Age of Empires series still lives on, clung to by a dedicated fanbase. Other fanbases were created however for all sorts of people, from Minecraft to Angry Birds, gaming companies prove that there really is a game out there for everyone. -
Balloons and Batman
From laughter to tears, 2009 brought all kinds of great films. There were films that ‘still had a better love story than Twilight’ like Up, action packed films like Star Trek and Taken, and hilarious (yet a bit controversial) films like The Hangover. -
Connect... Kinect?
A new interactive game console was released to compete with the Wii. The Xbox Kinect was released, where a sensor actually detects movements far more accurately than the wii remotes. This device is tremendously popular, but the Wii still wins out, likely because of its more reasonable price. -
Horror and happiness
2010 was a great year for two genres, horror and comedy. Movies like Despicable Me, How to Train Your Dragon, and Tangled were wildly popular among adults and children alike. Horror lovers certainly enjoyed films like Inception, Shutter Island, Insidious and Black Swan this year as well. -
Thank You, BP.
BP Oil Spill—Up to 260 million gallons of crude oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico over the course of three months when the Deepwater Horizon oil platform operated by British Petroleum exploded in April, killing 11 workers, and solidifying the accident as the worst oil spill in history. Countless marine life have perished and immeasurable ecosystems destroyed, a 22-mile-long plume has been discovered lurking below the ocean’s surface, and the feasibility of offshore drilling contrasted to its po -
In 3-D!
Nintendo released its 3DS, the first ever hand held 3-D console, with no need of glasses or additional devices. It worked by combining the images of two cameras on each end of the device. Meanwhile, The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, one of the best-selling videogame franchises of all-time, celebrated its 20th anniversary. -
Goodbye
Osama bin Laden killed (May 2) — Osama bin Laden, the world’s most-wanted terrorist for nearly a decade, was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs inside a private residential compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Within hours of the 54-year-old’s death, his body was buried at sea. Bin Laden was the founder of al Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks. -
Are you an appliance?
Everybody loves a hero! In 2011 we saw two great Marvel comics, Thor and Captain America. These films were wildly popular in the box office, but not quite as popular as one of the most quotable movies of the modern age, Bridesmaids. While this film was seen as vulgar by many, it marked the beginning of a new (and critically acclaimed age) of a culturally accepted crude humor. -
Slow year
2012 wasn’t as busy in gaming as other years. The number of games released certainly surpassed that of other years, but no record breakers. The popular Street Figheter franchise completed 25 years, and the new Playstation Vita was released. -
Ever in Your Favor
Popular movies this year included superhero classics, a movie based on a popular and critically acclaimed novel, as well as movies featuring strong female heroes. These movies were The Avengers, Perks of Being a Wallflower, Brave and, of course, one of the most popular movies of the new millenium, The Hunger Games. -
You know what they say about curiosity
The Mars Curiosity rover lands successfully on the Red Planet after seven minutes of terror. The most successful NASA mission in decades. -
If it ain't broke,
Fix it anyways. 2013 was a year of rebooting old favorites. A few of this year’s reboots were Assassin’s Creed, BioShock, Call of Duty, Supermario, and, of course, Pokemon. Of course Pokemon’s new versions have angered many of the ‘classic’ fans because of how far it has come since its release in 1996. -
Classic and New
From classics like the Great Gatsby, comics like the new spin on superman, The Man of Steel, and a new play on the ever growing trend of the zombie apocalypse, World War Z, 2013 was all in all a very successful year in the world of films. -
A LOT happened!
The Snowden scandal (and a missing red panda), a new pope, the government shutdown, the boston bombing and more! 2013 was a year of tragedy, transition and triumph, and certainly a time for growth in America and around the world.
