Written by Tadashi
Modified & Updated: 23 Sep 2023
Reviewed by Jessica Corbett
The 1990s made up the last decade of the 20th century. This naturally made it a historical transition, to the modern age of our 21st century. Learn more about how the world changed at that time with this list of the highlights of the ’90s.
- The ’90s marked the last decade of the second millennium of the Common Era (CE) calendar.
- According to the United Nations (UN), the world’s population grew by 1.6 billion people, or 30%, during the 1990s.
- Worldwide economic growth varied between 1.5% from 1990 to 1994 and 2.5% from 1995 to 1999.
- The ’90s set a world record for a decade’s worth of damage from natural disasters, at $608 billion.
- The USA, in particular, saw the worst flooding in its history since the 19th century.
- The Unification of Yemen finally took place in 1990.
- The World Wide Web opened for public use in 1991.
- Japan formally apologized for forcing Korean women into prostitution during WWII in 1992.
- The UN designated the year 1993 as the International Year for Indigenous People.
- Russia and the USA agreed in the 1994 Kremlin Accords to stop preprogramming nuclear missiles at each other.
- The Internet became completely privatized in 1995.
- France conducted its last nuclear weapons test in 1996.
- US President Bill Clinton banned federal funding for cloning research and development in 1997.
- Europe later joined the ban on cloning research and development in 1998.
- A worldwide ban against the use of landmines began in 1999.
- Multiculturalism became a global phenomenon in the ’90s.
- The ’90s saw personal computer ownership in the USA alone rise from 15% to 35%.
- Vehicle designs in the ’90s adopted a rounded and streamlined appearance.
- World leaders began to take a serious interest in the environment in the ’90s.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) removed homosexuality from the list of recognized diseases and disorders in the ’90s.
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