The Year 1996 From The People History

1996 In the UK Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales get divorced and Mad Cow Disease hits Britain ( BSE ) causing the mass slaughter of Herds of Cows and new laws to stop beef being sold on the bone. A severe Meningitas Epidemic occurs in West Africa. In technology DVD's are Launched in Japan and the number of users on the Internet exceed 10 million This is also the year Ebay and Ask Jeeves is started and the first ever cloning of a mammal Dolly the sheep.

Events 1996

• Militant Taliban Forces Capture Kabul and declare Fundamentalist Islamic State of Afghanistan

• Osama Bin Laden is expelled from Sudan and moves to Afghanistan

• France halts Nuclear testing in Pacific

• Divers discover the ancient port of Alexandria

• US eases sanctions against Cuba

• Major snowstorm paralyzes Midwestern United States

• The 13th March Dunblane Massacre Thomas Hamilton opened fire on a class of 5-6 year olds, killing or wounding every person present bar one pupil. Fifteen children and a teacher (Mrs Gwen Mayor) died at the scene.

• Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kills 600.

• Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales get divorced

• Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan questions whether the stock market is overvalued

• UN Experts and Iraq Officials dismantle a Biological Weapons Factory in Iraq

• Mad Cow Disease hits Britain ( Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or BSE )

• Category 4 Cyclone strikes India. The storm surge sweeps fishing villages out to sea, over 2,000 persons die.

• The U.S. stock markets, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average, gains at an incredibly fast pace and ends the year over the 6,000 mark

• Jumbo Jet bursts into flames shortly after takeoff and crashes into the ocean off Long Island

• Meningitas Epidemic in West Africa

• Overloaded ferry sinks in Sumatra, Indonesia,

• 38 Million Acres of Rain Forest are destroyed annually by timber cutting

• Hurricane Dolly ( 1996 ) crashes into shanty town of Tampica, Mexico

• Bombing on Paris Subway kills 2 and injures 128

• The IRA plants a bomb that explodes in the Docklands area of London

• The IRA explodes bomb Arndale shopping centre in Manchester.

• A bomb loaded with high explosives is detonated at a U.S. military housing complex in Saudi Arabia

• 30 Black churches in Mississippi are burned to the ground the previous 18 months

• The Williamette Valley Flood, sweeps through the Pacific Northwest

• Gunman "Martin Bryant" shoot and kills 35 in the tourist town of Port Arthur, Tasmania on April 28th

• Israel carries out air strikes on Hezbollah targets in Beirut as part of "Operation Grapes of Wrath"

• The Summer Olympics are held in Atlanta United States

• Nail Bomb Exploded in Centennial Olympic Park, Atlanta

• Kofi Annan is elected to be the United Nations seventh secretary-general

• Gunmen kill 17 Greek Tourists outside the Europa Hotel in Cairo

• Peruvian guerrillas take hundreds of people hostage at the official residence of Japan's ambassador to Peru in Lima.

• The supertanker, the Sea Empress, runs aground on the welsh coast, spilling 70,000 tons of crude oil

Technology

• DVD's Launched in Japan



• In 12 months number of Internet host computers goes from 1 million to 10 million



• Windows NT 4.0 released by Microsoft



• Internet Explorer 3 web browser released



• Ebay started the online auction and shopping website, where people buy and sell goods and services worldwide.



• The first version of the Java programming language is released.



• Duke Nukem 3D Shareware released to public



• Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be successfully cloned



• Ask Jeeves formed.



• Global Warming shows a record high



• IBM's Deep Blue defeats Chess Champion Gary Kasparov for the first time



• MSNBC ( 24hr News Channel ) a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC is launched



• Ozone layer over the Arctic continues to be depleted



• American Pathfinder launched on its 310 million mile mission to Mars



• The Worlds Largest Container Vessel The Regina Maersk begins operation

Popular Culture 1996

Check out our Television Programmes From The 90s whenever possible we have included a trailer to jog your memory. Series trailers and more information are found on the decade they started.

Popular Musicians

• Spice Girls First Number 1 "Wannabe"
• Mariah Carey
• Eric Clapton
• Blur
• Dalida
• Jamiroquai
• Snoop Doggy Dogg
• Oasis
• Madonna
• Metallica
• Gravity Kills
• Rage Against the Machine
• 2Pac
• The Wallflowers
• Sheryl Crow
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• The Smashing Pumpkins
• Marilyn Manson
• Alanis Morissette
• Lenny Kravitz
• Foo Fighters
Now check out our newly updated 1990's music page 90's Music



Popular Films

• Independence Day
• Twister
• Mission: Impossible
• Jerry Maguire
• 101 Dalmatians
• The Rock
• The Nutty Professor
• The Birdcage
• A Time to Kill
• The English Patient
• Star Trek: First Contact

Major World Political Leaders 1996

Australia Prime Minister Paul Keating Till 11 March
Australia Prime Minister John Howard From 11 March

Brazil President Fernando Henrique Cardoso

Canada Prime Minister Jean Chrétien

China Chairman of the People's Republic of China Jiang Zemin

France President Jacques Chirac

Germany Chancellor Helmut Kohl

India Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao Till 16 May
India Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee From 16 May
India Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee Till 1 June
India Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda From 1 June

Italy Prime Minister Lamberto Dini Till 17 May
Italy Prime Minister Romano Prodi From 17 May

Japan Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama Till 11 January
Japan Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto From 11 January

Mexico President Ernesto Zedillo

Russia / Soviet Union
General Secretary of the CPSU Boris Yeltsin

South Africa State President Nelson Mandela

United States President Bill Clinton

United Kingdom Prime Minister John Major

Political Elections 1996

United States Presidential Election 1996 Bill Clinton (Democratic) Defeats Bob Dole (Republican) and Ross Perot (Reform)


The Information above is taken from our new page that gives world leaders from 1920 to current.
WorldLeaders