There were a lot of big things that happened in 1995, apparently. The biggest thing is that I was born (ha)! Jokes aside, here’s a list of the biggest things that happened during that year:
There were dozens of other news stories that were notable during this time period, but I don’t think any of them had any impact on my childhood or my life to this point – at least from what I can remember.
Up until the Trump presidency, we have had a relatively good relationship with Mexico. I can only imagine that it was spurred off of acts such as Bill Clinton’s approval of a bailout for Mexico.
Yahoo! was one of the pioneers of the internet search engine era, right up there with big players like Google. They helped revolutionize how people use the internet and allowed for instant access to an ever-abundant wealth of information that wasn’t previously as accessible. This happened during the time that no one thought the internet would take off, and that it wouldn’t be useful or that it was just a fad, so something as useful as Yahoo!’s search engine was proof that it was something that could be extremely useful.
Until I researched events in 1995, I wasn’t even aware of the Oklahoma City Bombing. That’s surprising considering the number of people that died during the tragic incident. I’m sure this had ripple effects for the next several years around terrorism prevention efforts.
I don’t know much about the OJ Simpson trial, but I do know that it was a big deal. I’m not sure how it could’ve affected my childhood.
Microsoft releasing Windows 95 was a turning point in consumer computing. Apple had a monopoly on the consumer computing market with their user-friendly GUI, and Microsoft immediately became a huge player with their release of Windows 95. It’s predecessor, Windows 3.1, had a 16-bit operating system and didn’t have a GUI like we’re used to today. Windows 95 had a 32-bit operating system designed for multitasking and a GUI that rivaled Apple’s systems in usability. This was the foundation for Microsoft to become the technology giant that they are today. The entire world uses their systems, and without the release of Windows 95 they may have never became a competitor.
Toy Story was a BIG deal. Not only is it a great movie, but it showed just what could be done with full-length animated films. Now there are a huge number of animated films that top box office charts quite often. Some of the best movies I’ve ever seen are animated films. Big names like The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Beauty and the Beast (and all of the other Disney princess movies), and more are fantastic movies. If Toy Story had never been as successful as it was, the animated film industry may have not been as big as it is now.
There are quite a lot of influential events that happened during my birth year, especially for computing and technology. I’d like to think that they had a pretty big hand in me ending up where I am now.