75:20

1990............Nelson Mandela, South Africa's antiapartheid movement leader, is freed after being imprisoned for more than 27 years for his political beliefs............The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service adds the northern spotted owl to the threatened-species list, igniting a controversy between environmentalists dedicated to protecting the species and loggers dependent on the timber of old-growth forests where the owls build their nests............Tennis start Martina Navratilova wins her ninth Wimbledon singles title, besting Helen Mills Moody's record of eight............President George Bush deploys thousands of U.S. troops and weapons to Saudi Arabia in Operation Desert Shield, a response to the invasion of oil-rich Kuwait by Saddam Hussein's Iraqi forces............The FDA approves Norplant, an implant of six slim rods providing five years of birth control — the first new birth-control method since the introduction of the Pill in the mid-1960s............New on TV in 1990: Seinfeld; Beverly Hills 90210; America's Funniest Home Videos; Northern Exposure; Wings; The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air; Twin Peaks; Law & Order; In Living Color............New products: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; Terra Chips; Gillette Sensor razor; Nantucket Nectars............New in print in 1990: Scott Turow's The Burden of Proof; Larry McMurtry's Buffalo Girls; Entertainment Weekly magazine............The 1990 Academy Awards: best picture — Dances with Wolves; best actor — Jeremy Irons for Reversal of Fortune; best actress — Kathy Bates for Misery....................................1991............Operation Desert Storm, a combined air and ground assault on Iraqi forces in Kuwait involving 500,000 international troops, begins, ending 100 hours later with the defeat of Iraqi forces............In Los Angeles, Rodney King, a 25-year-old unarmed black motorist, is severely beaten by police officers; a bystander videotapes the beating and the officers are indicted............Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Philippines, raining ash 23 feet deep on the island of Luzon in one of the largest volcanic eruptions of the century............Police arrest Jeffrey Dahmer in Milwaukee and charge him with killing 15 young men and boys when they find human skulls, heads and other body parts in his apartment............Track athlete Mike Powell leaps an incredible 29 feet 4 inches at the World Track and Field Championships, beating Bob Beamon's 23-year long-jump record............Seventy-four years of Communist rule ends in Russia when a Communist coup attempt fails and President Gorbachev suspends the Communist Party............Anita Hill, law professor at the University of Oklahoma, charges that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas sexually harassed her while they were colleagues in the '80s. Despite the charges, the Senate votes 52 to 48 to confirm Thomas as a Surpreme Court justice............Los Angeles Lakers start Earvin "Magic" Johnson announces that the has the virus that causes AIDS and will retire immediately from basketball............The World Wide Web, used by researchers to exchange information and messages, is invented by British scientist Tim Berners-Lee............New on TV in 1991: Home Improvement; Herman's Head; Homefront; I'll Fly Away; The Commish............New products in 1991: McDonald's McLean low-fat hamburger; Robitussin cough drops............New in print in 1991: Whitney Otto's How to Make an American Quilt; Josephine Hart's Damage; Amy Tan's The Kitchen God's Wife............The 1991 Academy Awards: best pictuer — The Silence of the Lambs; best actor — Anthony Hopkins for The Silence of the Lambs; best actress — Jodie Foster for The Silence of the Lambs....................................1992............New York Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder, extortion and obstruction of justice and is sentenced to life in prison without parole............Riots break out in South Central Los Angeles, resulting in the deaths of more than 50 people and more than $1 billion worth of property damage, after a California jury acquits the L.A. policemen involved in the 1991 beating of Rodney King............Hurricane Andrew hits Florida south of Miami, killing 30 people and causing $20 billion worth of damage, before moving on to devastate areas of Louisiana............Bill Clinton and Al Gore are elected president and vice president............A U.S.-led military intervention, sanctioned by the UN Security Council, arrives in Somalia, where famine has killed 300,000 people and the nation is falling into anarchy............New on TV in 1992: Melrose Place; Jerry Springer; Love and War; Mad About You; Picket Fences; Martin............New products in 1992: Dodge Viper; Chicken Tonight; nicotine patches............New in print in 1992: Robert James Waller's The Bridges of Madison County; Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses; John Gray's Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus; Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina; Rush Limbaugh's The Way Things Ought to Be............The 1992 Academy Awards: best picture — Unforgiven; best actor — Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman; best actress — Emma Thompson for Howard's End....................................1993............Beginning a scandal "Nannygate," Zoe Baird, President Clinton's attorney general designate apologizes for employing two undocumented immigrants for household help and for neglecting to pay Social Security taxes on their salaries, then becomes the first U.S. cabinet nominee in 120 years to withdraw from consideration............A van loaded with explosives, allegedly planted by Muslim fundamentalists, explodes in the parking garage under New York's World Trade Center, killing six and injuring more than a thousand............After a 51-day standoff at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, FBI assault vehicles pump tear gas into the fortress and hours later the building goes up in smoke. More than 80 people, including the group's leader, 34-year-old David Koresh, died............Lorena Bobbit, 24, of Manasas, Virginia, cuts off her husband John's penis with a kitchen knife in retaliation for years of alleged abuse and forced sex............Two-year-old Baby Jessica is returned to her biological parents, Dan and Cara Schmidt, after a two-year legal battle between the Schmidts and Jan and Roberta DeBoer, who had been in the process of adopting the child when the Schmidts decided they wanted their daughter back............Several months after the tragic murder of his father, basketball star Michael Jordan announces that he will retire from basketball, explaining that it holds no more challenges for him............Jurassic Park, directed by Steven Spielberg, becomes the highest-grossing movie of all time when it makes $712 million in ticket sales worldwide............Writer Toni Morrison, author of six novels, including Beloved, becomes the first African-American woman to receive the Nobel Prize in literature............Dr. Jack Kevorkian participates in his 19th assisted suicide and is imprisoned for violating Michigan's law against such practices............Congress passes the Brady Bill, named for former press secretary James Brady, which requires a waiting period of up to five days for purchase of handguns............The North American Free Trade Agreement, which will phase out all tariffs and other trade barriers between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico over a 14-year period, is signed into law by President Clinton............Sixty-nine percent of Americans say they believe in angels, according to a Time/CNN poll............New on TV in 1993: The X-Files; Frasier; Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman; NYPD Blue; Grace Under Fire; Dave's World; Diagnosis Murder; The Nanny; Homicide............New products in 1993: Beanie Babies; Scotch-Brite Never Rust Wool Soap Pads; Pentium processor............New in print in 1993: E. Annie Proulx's The Shipping News; William J. Bennett's The Book of Virtues; Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone; John Grisham's The Client............The 1993 Academy Awards: best picture — Schindler's List; best actor — Tom Hanks for Philadelphia; best actress — Holly Hunter for The Piano....................................1994............U.S. figure skater Nancy Kerrigan, after finishing a practice session in Detroit, Michigan, is clubbed on the knee, an attacked planned by associates of Tonya Harding, Kerrigan's top competitor for the U.S. national figure skating title............The trials of brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez, accused of murdering their parents in order to inherit their $14 million estate, are both declared mistrials when juries are unable to reach verdicts............American speed skater Bonnie Blair wins two gold medals at the Winter Olympics on Lillehammer, Norway, bringing her career total to five, the most gold medals of any American female athlete. In the most watched event, Ukrainian Oksana Baiul wins the gold medal for figure skating, while Nancy Kerrigan wins the silver............An early-morning earthquake register 6.7 on the Richter scale rocks Los Angeles, collapsing buildings and freeways, killing 61 people, and causing more than $20 billion in damage............Kurt Cobain, lead singer of the influential rock band Nirvana, dies of a self-inflicted gunshot would at age 27............Former president Richard Nixon, 81, the only U.S. president in history to resign from office, suffers a stroke in Park Ridge, New Jersey, and dies a few days later............Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state employee, accuses President Bill Clinton of sexually harassing her in a hotel room in 1991, when he was governor of Arkansas, and files suit against him for $700,000 and a public apology............Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, widow of President John F. Kennedy, succumbs to cancer at age 64 and is buried next to her first husband in Arlington National Cemetery............After leading Los Angeles police on a 90-minute chase in his Ford Bronco, an event televised around the world, O.J. Simpson is arrested for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman............In Union, South Carolina, Susan Smith claims her two children, ages three years and 14 months, were kidnapped during a carjacking, but later admits she murdered the children herself............For the first time in 90 years, there is no World Series because major-league baseball players are on strike; the dispute with the owners primarily revolves around the imposition of overall team salary caps............New on TV in 1994: Friends; ER; Ellen; Party of Five; Chicago Hope; Touched by an Angel............New products: the Wonderbra; Netscape Navigator; Fruitopia beverages............New in print in 1994: John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil; Ursula Hegi's Stones from the River; James Redfield's Celestine Prophecy; David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars............The 1994 Academy Awards: best picture — Forrest Gump; best actor — Tom Hanks for Forrest Gump; best actress — Jessica Lange for Blue Sky....................................1995............For the first time in 40 years, the Republican Party has the majority in both the House and the Senate............Basketball superstar Michael Jordan announces he will come out of retirement and return to play for the NBA's Chicago Bulls............Shannon Faulkner is the first woman admitted into the cadet corps of the Citadel in South Carolina but leaves, along with 35 male classmates, during the first week of infamously harsh training............A bomb explodes outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 169 people, including 19 young children, and injuring 614 others, while causing $500 million in damage............Cal Ripken Jr., shortstop for the Baltimore Orioles, breaks the long-standing record of 2,130 consecutive games set by Lou Gerig in 1939. He will go on for a total of 2,632 consecutive games before choosing not to play on September 20, 1998.............Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated by an Israeli law student at a peace rally in Tel Aviv's main square............O.J. Simpson is found not guilty of the brutal murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, ending a controversial televised trial that captivated and aggravated a nation............New on TV in 1995: Caroline in the City; The Single Guy; The Drew Carey Show; NewsRadio............New Products in 1995: BMW's Z3; blue M&Ms; Pepcid; over-the-counter Tagamet; Java programming language; Windows 95............New in print in 1995: Mary Karr's The Liar's Club; Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider's The Rules............The 1995 Academy Awards: best picture — Braveheart; best actor — Nicolas Cage for Leaving Las Vegas; best actress — Susan Sarandon for Dead Man Walking....................................1996............Unabomber suspect Ted Kaczynski is arrested by FBI agents in Lincoln, Montana and is charged with killing three people and wounding 23 others with bombs he sent through the mail over an 18-year period............TWA Flight 800, bound for Paris, explodes over Long Island and plunges into the Atlantic, killing all 230 people aboard............A pipe bomb explodes at the Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta during the Summer Olympic Games, killing one person and injuring 111 others............Olympian Kerri Strug seals the gold medal for the American women's gymnastics team in Atlanta after a memorable vault in which she held her landing dispite an injured ankle; Michael Johnson wins two golds and sprints to the world record in the 200 meters............Prince Charles and Princess Diana divorce, ending their troubled 15-year marriage............For the first time since 1964, a Democratic president is reelected for a second term and President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore remain in the White House for four more years............President Clinton names Madeleine Albright secretary of state, succeeding Warren Christopher and making her the first woman to hold that position in the history of the United States............John and Patsy Ramsey's home in Boulder, Colorado, becomes a murder scene when their six-year-old daughter, child beauty pageant start JonBenet, is found murdered in the basement after her parents report her missing............New on TV in 1996: Suddenly Susan; Spin City; The Rosie O'Donnell Show............New products in 1996: Tickle Me Elmo; McDonald's Arch Deluxe Hamburger; Palm Pilot; Starbuck's Frappuccino............New in print in 1996: Hillary Clinton's It Takes a Village; Frank McCourt's Angelas Ashes; Sapphire's Push ............The 1996 Academy Awards: best picture — The English Patient; best — Geoffry Rush for Shine; best actress — Frances McDormand for Fargo....................................1997............The Hale-Bopp comet, bright enough to be visible to the naked eye swings past the sun at close to 100,000 miles per hour for the first time in 4,200 years............Dolly, a sheep created from the cells of an adult sheep, is introduced by researchers at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is the first cloned mammal............Twenty-one-year-old Tiger Woods wins the Masters Tournament by a record 12 strokes to become the youngest Masters champion and the first African-American to win any of the four major professional tournaments............Actress Ellen DeGeneres comes out in real life and as her character on the sitcom Ellen, becoming the first openly gay lead character on a network television series............Timothy McVeigh, a US Army veteran with antigovernment beliefs, is convicted and sentenced to death for the 1995 bombing of a federal building Oklahoma City.............NASA's spacecraft Pathfinder lands on Mars and deploys a small roving vehicle, Sojourner, that analyzes the planet's geology, climate, and atmosphere while taking photographs that show the planet's terrain in unprecedented detail............Thirty-six-year-old Diana, Princess of Wales, is killed in a car accident in Paris along with her beau, Dodi al-Fayed, and the driver of the car............New on TV in 1997: South Park; King of the Hill; Veronica's Closet............New Products in 1997: V-chip; digital cameras; DVD players; Tamagochti toys............New in Print in 1997: Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain; John Grisham's The Partner; John Krakauer's Into Thin Air; Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm; Arthur S. Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha............The 1997 Academy Awards: best picture – Titanic; best actor – Jack Nicholson for As Good as it Gets; best actress – Helen Hunt for As Good as it Gets....................................1998............At the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, a 15-year-old Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest person ever to win the gold medal for figure skating............In Jonesboro, Arkansas, two boys, ages 11 and 13, kill four schoolgirls and one teacher outside their middle school during a false fire alarm............Seinfeld, NBC's popular sitcom, airs it's last episode, which is watched by an estimated 76 million people............Baseball players Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa break Roger Maris's 1961 record of 61 home runs in a single season when they slam 70 and 66 homers, respectively............Seventy-seven-year-old senator John Glenn, who in 1962 became the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the earth, returns to space aboard the space shuttle Discovery to participate in experiments about how space travel affects older people.............Hurricane Mitch devastates Central America with eight days of rain and 180-mile-per-hour winds that cause massive mudslides, killing 10,000 in one of the deadliest Atlantic storms in 200 years............New on TV in 1998: Felicity; The Hughleys; That '70s Show; Charmed; Sport's Night............New products in 1998: Viagra; Volkswagen's New Beetle; Apple's iMac............New in print in 1998: Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation; Michael Jordan's For the Love of the Game............The 1998 Academy Awards: best picture – Shakespeare in Love; best actor – Roberto Benigni for Life Is Beautiful; best actress – Gwyneth Paltrow for Shakespeare in Love....................................1999............President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the Senate in his impeachment trial on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in his effort to hide sexual indiscretions with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky............Hockey's "Great One," Wayne Gretzky, retires, ending an incredible 21-year professional hocky career that included 10 scoring titles, four championships, and nine MVP awards............At Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, two armed students lay siege to the school, killing 12 students and one teacher and wounding 23 others before taking their own lives in one of the most tragic school shootings in history............After 78 days of airstrikes by NATO forces, Yugoslavian president Slobadan Milosevic surrenders and agrees to withdraw his troops from Kosovo.............The U.S. women's soccer team wins the World Cup championship when, after two scoreless overtimes, Brandi Chastain fires the winning penalty kick past China's goalie............John F. Kennedy, Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and his sister-in-law Lauren Bessette, are killed when a private plane Kennedy is piloting crashes into the ocean off the coast of Martha's Vineyard............American cyclist Lance Armstrong wins the 2,287-mile Tour de France less than two years after battling testicular cancer............Turkey is hit by one of the century's worst earthquakes, registering 7.4 on the Richter scale and killing up to 17,000 people............New on TV in 1999: The PJs; The West Wing; Once and Again; Lawn & Order: Special Victims Unit............New products in 1999: Apple's iBook; Tilex Fresh Shower............New in print in 1999: Thomas Harris's Hannibal; Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible; Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie............The 1999 Academy Awards: best picture – American Beauty; best actor – Kevin Spacey, for American Beauty; best actress – Hilary Swank, for Boys Don't Cry....................................

Join us for an anniversary celebration of 75 years of theatre and 20 years of Dance in the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

Check out the full Calendar of Anniversary Events.

Find out what you never knew about the Department since the move to Rarig Center by reading our History.

And then reconnect with old friends in the 75:20 Blog.

For those whose experiences spanned the decades, visit the 1970s section or visit the 1980s section to set the mood for remembering your years in Theatre and Dance.