What happenened in my birth year 1995

In 1995, the year of your birth, the top selling movie was Toy Story. People buying the popcorn the cinema lobby had glazing eyes when looking at the poster.

In 1995, the world was a different place.

There was no Google yet. Or Tumblr, for that matter.

People were indeed watching movies in the cinema, and not downloading them online. Imagine the packed seats, the laughter, the excitement, the novelty.

Do you know who won the Oscars that year? The academy award for the best movie went to Braveheart. The Oscar for best foreign movie that year went to Antonia's Line. The top actor was Nicolas Cage for his role as Ben Sanderson in Leaving Las Vegas. The top actress was Susan Sarandon for her role as Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking. The best director? Mel Gibson for Braveheart.

In the year 1995, the time when you arrived on this planet, books were still popularly read on paper, not on digital devices. Trees were felled to get the word out. The number one US bestseller of the time was The Rainmaker by John Grisham. Oh, that's many years ago. Have you read that book? Have you heard of it? Look at the cover! 

In 1995... The World Trade Organization, WTO, is established to replace the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, GATT. The Draupner wave in the North Sea in Norway is detected, confirming the existence of freak waves. Valeri Polyakov completes 366 days in space while aboard the Mir space station, breaking a duration record. U.S. President Bill Clinton invokes emergency powers, to extend a $20 billion loan to help Mexico avert financial collapse Members of the group Patriot's Council are convicted in Minnesota of manufacturing ricin. The 67th Academy Awards take place in Los Angeles, hosted by David Letterman. Jacques Chirac is elected president of France. Japanese police besiege the headquarters of Aum Shinrikyo near Mount Fuji and arrest cult leader Shoko Asahara. South Africa wins the Rugby World Cup. Dozens of US cities, most notably Chicago and Milwaukee, set all-time record high temperatures. Microsoft releases Windows 95. O.J. Simpson is found not guilty of double murder for the deaths of former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. NASA loses contact with the Pioneer 11 probe. Hacker Kevin Mitnick is arrested by the FBI and charged with breaking into some of the United States' most "secure" computer systems. The final original Calvin and Hobbes comic strip is published. The US National Highway Designation Act ends the federal 55 mph speed limit. The video game of the day was Warcraft II.

That was the world you were born into. Since then, you and others have changed it.

The Nobel prize for Literature that year went to Seamus Heaney. The Nobel Peace prize went to Joseph Rotblat. The Nobel prize for physics went to Martin Lewis Perl from the United States for the discovery of the tau lepton and for pioneering experimental contributions to lepton physics. The sensation this created was big. But it didn't stop the planets from spinning, on and on, year by year. Years in which you would grow bigger, older, smarter, and, if you were lucky, sometimes wiser. Years in which you also lost some things. Possessions got misplaced. Memories faded. Friends parted ways. The best friends, you tried to hold on. This is what counts in life, isn't it?

The 1990s were indeed a special decade. The Nineties saw the beginnings of the World Wide Web, originating at CERN. Email becomes popular. The Soviet Union dissolved. Living standards in East Asia and Europe generally improved. The Cold War ends. Iraqi forces invade Kuwait. A UN coalition force led by the US was sent to the Persian Gulf, and aerial bombing of Iraq began. The Kosovo War took place. The Ethiopian Civil War ends. Dolly, a sheep, is cloned. The Global Positioning System GPS becomes fully operational. Genetically engineered crops are developed for commercial use. Intel develops the Pentium processor. The Java programming language is created. Microsoft released Windows 95. In Los Angeles, riots occur after the police brutality case involving Rodney King. Great Britain hands sovereignty of Hong Kong to China. East Timor breaks away from Indonesian control. US president Bill Clinton was involved in the Lewinsky scandal. Dogme 95 becomes an important artistic movement in European film. Teen soap Beverly Hills 90210 has its long run. Baywatch becomes the most watched show in history. On MTV, reality television makes its beginning. Nelson Mandela is elected president of South Africa. Germany was reunified. The prediction of computer bug Y2K spreads fear. 

 

Do you know what was on the cover of Life that year? 

6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... it's 1995. There's TV noise coming from the second floor. Someone turned up the volume way too high. The sun is burning from above. These were different times. The show playing on TV is NewsRadio. The sun goes down. Someone switches channels. There's In The House on now. That's the world you were born in.

Progress, year after year. Do you wonder where the world is heading towards?

1995 was the year
I came up for trial
I listened to his song
And watched the sun
Make the shadows long
...

That's from the song Tomb Of Liegia by Team Sleep.

In 1995, a new character entered the world of comic books: X-Man. Bang! Boom! But that's just fiction, right? In the real world, in 1995, Taylor Atelian was born. And Sterling Beaumon. Malin Reitan, too. And you, of course. Everyone an individual. Everyone special. Everyone taking a different path through life.
It's 2011.

The world is a different place. 

What path have you taken?