REVIEW 20TH CENTURY: 1985-1999

From left to right:

Live Aid
Appalled by television reports on famine in Ethiopia, Irish rock star Bob Geldof organized simultaneous live concerts in London and Philadelphia  in July 1985 to raise money for the starving. The worldÕs top bands lent their support and the Live Aid concerts, watched on television by 1.5 billion people in 160 countries, raised $60 million for African famine relief

In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev became the youngest leader of the Soviet Union and embarked upon a radical series of political, economic, and social reform, promising ÒperestroikaÓ (restructuring) and ÒglasnostÓ (openness). He established good relations with the West and agreed two major arms limitation treaties. These and his sanctioning of the end of the Communist monopoly in Eastern Europe effectively ended the Cold War and in 1990 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
But perestroika failed to deliver significant improvement in the Soviet economy, and the USSR began to disintegrate. In 1991 he survived a hardline coup thanks primarily to the resistance of Russian president Boris Yeltsin, but was forced to accelerate the pace of change. By the end of the year the Soviet Union ceased to exist and Gorbachev resigned

A new era in space travel began with the launch in 1981 of the first reusable spacecraft, the space shuttle Columbia. Launched into space by two solid fuel booster rockets, which were jettisoned after take-off for recovery and re-use, the shuttle returned to land like a conventional aircraft. Five shuttles carried out more than 50 successful missions before tragedy struck in January 1986 when Challenger exploded on take-off, killing seven astronauts including the first non-NASA Òcitizen in spaceÓ, schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. The shuttle programme was halted for more than two years while design problems were corrected  

Remarkable British physicist Stephen Hawking shot to fame with his book A Brief History of Time, which seeks to explain what happened in the first few moments after the Universe was created. Hawking proposes that there is no beginning and no end to time, after his studies of EinsteinÕs theory of relativity found it did not explain concepts such as black holes or the Big Bang. Severely disabled since his student days by motor neurone disease, Hawking communicates via a computer and carries out all the complex mathematics in his head, making his achievement all the more remarkable

Amid scenes of wild jubilation, thousands of East Germans flooded across the Berlin Wall after the beleaguered East German government opened its borders following a mass exodus by its citizens via Hungary and Czechoslovakia to the West. As Communist regimes across Eastern Europe collapsed, East and West Berliners alike partied on top of the hated wall before smashing and breaking up the structure where so many had died trying to escape to freedom

After an attritional eight-year war against Iran, Iraqi president Saddam Hussein invaded neighbouring Kuwait in August 1990. When he refused to withdraw his troops, a 32-nation coalition under the leadership of U.S. General Norman Schwarzkopf launched Operation Desert Storm in January 1991. Although the brief war ended in a decisive victory for the allied forces, Saddam remained in power, brutally suppressing internal Shiite and Kurdish revolts. Despite accepting UN peace terms, Saddam has repeatedly sought to renege on these. In 1993, and again in 1998, the U.S., France and Britain launched air and cruise missile strikes after IraqÕs repeated failure to comply with UN weapons inspections

The Gulf War, the most technically advanced the world had yet seen, was watched by millions as the conflict unfolded live on television. Aircraft such as the U.S. F-117 Stealth fighter, practically undetectable by radar, bombed strategic targets in central Baghdad with state of the art Òsmart bombsÓ

After serving 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela was released in 1990 as South AfricaÕs whites-only government committed itself to end the era of apartheid. Casting his vote for the first time in South AfricaÕs first all-race elections, Mandela became the nationÕs first black president in 1994. Held in high esteem the world over, Mandela guided his country through a largely peaceful transition period before retiring in 1999, though a soaring crime rate and violence between rival tribal factions threaten to make life more difficult for his successors

Whether in Bosnia, Kosovo or Chechnya, the plight of refugees driven from their homes and horror stories regarding their fate have headlined news bulletins during the 1990s. While much of Eastern Europe embraced the collapse of Communism and looked towards a future with the West, the break-up of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union plunged former neighbours into a series of bloody wars and created a legacy of bitterness that will endure for years  

The world was stunned when Diana, Princess of Wales and her companion Dodi Fayed were killed in a high speed car crash in Paris in August 1997 as their Mercedes attempted to escape the chasing paparazzi. A lengthy enquiry judged the crash to have been an accident after chauffeur Henri Paul was found to have high levels of alcohol and anti-depressants in his blood. Mourners left more than a million bouquets of flowers outside Princess DianaÕs London home, and much of the world came to a standstill for her funeral in Westminster Abbey, which was watched by an estimated 2.5 billion television viewers

Computer technology continued to develop at breakneck speed, with faster processors powering ever more sophisticated machines. Portable ÒlaptopsÓ enabled users to work on board a train or aircraft, while more and more people now work from home, cutting out that journey to the office altogether. After several years in the doldrums, Apple restored its fortunes with the trendy, brightly-coloured iMac and iBook, banishing, temporarily at least, the standard grey box to the past

In 1997, scientists at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland, reported successfully producing the first clone of an adult mammal. Dolly the sheep was created from a single cell from an adult sheepÕs udder. The benefits of cloning permit improvements in conventional animal breeding, and the production of drugs to treat conditions such as cystic fibrosis, for example, but DollyÕs arrival raised once more the alarming possibility of cloning humans

Sporty, Baby, Posh, Scary and Ginger, collectively known as The Spice Girls, shot to superstardom in 1996 with ÒWannabeÓ and soon topped the charts worldwide. Loudly proclaiming their ÒGirl PowerÓ message, they pinched Prince CharlesÕ bottom and cuddled Nelson Mandela as each successive release went to number one and fortunes piled up. Fans were devastated when Geri Halliwell left to pursue a solo career, but remained loyal. Despite high-profile marriages and motherhood, and increasingly disparate solo careers as the new millennium dawns, the Spice Girls are still together

When former teacher Anne Wood created the Teletubbies, she little realised that by 1999, her company, Ragdoll Productions, would boast a turnover of £20 million a year. The Teletubbies TV series, which acquired a cult following among students as well its intended audience of preschoolers, has been sold to 80 countries and translated into 21 languages. Not that the puppets have been safe from controversy. In the United States the Reverend Jerry Falwell outed Tinky Winky, deducing that because he is purple, carries a handbag and has a triangle on his head he must be gay, and as such, morally damaging to children. Itsy Bitsy Entertainment, which licenses the Teletubbies in the U.S., responded robustly, denying any sexual innuendo. ÒItÕs a childrenÕs show, folks. To out a Teletubby in a preschool show is kind of sad on his part.Ó

The century ends with harassed parents yet again rushing to toy stores to snap up this yearÕs latest must-have toy, the wildly popular Pokemon and all associated spin-offs. The craze began in Japan when Pokemon Ð or Òpocket monsterÓ Ð was launched as a Nintendo video game which then evolved into a trading card phenomenon and a TV series. Pokemon: The First Movie, released in the U.S. in November 1999, broke box office records, taking more than $50 million in its first five days 

Seeing out the century as incumbent in the White House is one William Jefferson Clinton. At the end of 1998 his chances of doing so looked less than certain, following impeachment in the House of Representatives on two counts of perjury and obstruction of justice over his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. But with the U.S. economy at its strongest for years, and vote-winning foreign policy successes in Iraq and Kosovo, the come-back kid came up smiling. A rocky road seems in prospect however, with Bill reportedly unwilling to play ÒFirst LadyÓ to wife HillaryÕs political ambitions when he leaves office  

Set up in the U.S. in 1969 primarily to link military computers, the
internet has evolved into a crucial tool for business and recreation. A universal information database had been dreamt of since the late 1940s, where not only would data be accessible to people around the world, but would also Òeasily link to other pieces of information, so that only the most important data would be quickly found by a userÓ. This became a reality in 1989 when Tim Berners-Lee devised the World Wide Web. By 1996, over 40 million people were connected to the internet and, as 1999 comes to an end, e-commerce is booming. As for the 21st century, within a very few years new protocols will let computers, handheld devices, mobile phones, TVs and other household appliances talk to each other. Soon the refrigerator in your networked home will automatically re-order food you have consumed and car keys will e-mail you to tell you where you left themÉ