Things are the way they were in 1996. Well, almost.
Now that Jon Bennet Ramsey, who was murdered in December 1996, is back in the news ten years later as if the interveneing years never happened, maybe the media circus will bring back the memories of that time. Here's what Wikipedia tells us happened in late 1996 and 1997.
1996
- April 10 - U. S. President Bill Clinton vetoes a bill that would have banned partial-birth abortion.
- May 20 - The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of homosexuals.
- June 12 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a panel of federal judges blocks a law against indecency on the internet.
- November 25 - The U.S. stock markets, especially the Dow Jones Industrial Average, gains at an incredibly fast pace following the 1996 Presidential elections. It gains 10 days in a row during the month.
- General Motors EV1 launched. The EV1 is the first electric car to go into mass production.
1997
- January 19 - Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years, and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli-controlled West Bank city.
- January 20 - Bill Clinton starts his second term as President of the United States.
- February 4 - After at first contesting the results, Serbian President Slobodan Miloević recognizes opposition victories in the November 1996 elections.
- May 1 - The UK's Labour Party ends 18 years of Conservative rule in the 1997 UK general election. Tony Blair is appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- May 12 - The Russian-Chechen Peace Treaty signed.
- May 16 - US President Bill Clinton issues a formal apology to the surviving victims of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and their families, 25 years after the 40 year "study" was exposed by reporter Jean Heller.
- June 30 - The first book in the award winning Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling is published.
- July 16 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 63.17 to close at 8,038.88. It is the Dow's first close above 8,000. The Dow has doubled its value in 30 months.
- November 10 - A jury in Fairfax, Virginia finds Mir Aimal Kasi guilty of the murder of two CIA employees in 1993.
- November 12 - Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
- December ?? The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger
- The Toyota Prius comes to showrooms, only in Japan. The Prius was the first hybrid vehicle to go into full production. The Prius would come to US showrooms in 2000.
A few years later
Onion (which started its online presence in 1996) noted:
"For years, I tirelessly preached the message that Clinton must be stopped," conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh said. "And yet, in 1996, the American public failed to heed my urgent warnings, re-electing Clinton despite the fact that the nation was prosperous and at peace under his regime. But now, thank God, that's all done with. Once again, we will enjoy mounting debt, jingoism, nuclear paranoia, mass deficit, and a massive military build-up."