A video captured the beating of motorist Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers. Four Los Angeles police officers were indicted on March 15, 1991, for this beating. John Leonard Orr, one of the most prolific serial arsonists of the 20th century, was arrested in California. USA boxer Mike Tyson was arrested and charged with the rape, three days earlier, of Miss Black America contestant Desiree Washington in Indianapolis, Indiana. An army colonel of the Atlácatl Battalion was found guilty of the 1989 murders of six Jesuits. 23 people were killed at a Luby’s restaurant in Killeen, Texas after George Hennard drove his truck through the establishment and began firing at diners. It became the deadliest mass shooting in USA history and wouldn’t be surpassed until the Virginia Tech shooting. In the Netherlands, thieves stole a lion from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. They were found in an abandoned car near the museum less than an hour later. The USA Department of Justice announced that Exxon had agreed to pay $1 billion for the clean-up of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. Alan Fiers agreed to plead guilty to two charges of lying to the USA Congress. Later, Judge Gerhard Gesell issued a ruling clearing Col. Oliver North of all charges. In New York City, a grand jury indicted Bank of Credit and Commerce International of the largest bank fraud in history, accusing the bank of defrauding depositors of $5 billion. American and British authorities announced indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103. Do you follow crime cases?
Celebrity deaths in 1991
Queen singer Freddie Mercury (1946-1991) died in London from AIDS induced pneumonia. In an unrelated incident, Kiss drummer Eric Carr (1950-1991) died from heart cancer. Robert Maxwell (1923-1991) was a British media proprietor, Member of Parliament (MP), suspected spy, and fraudster. Klaus Kinski (1926-1991) was a German actor, who appeared in more than 130 films. Yves Montand (1921-1991) was a French actor and singer. Michael Landon (1936-1991) was an American actor, writer, director, singer and producer. Dr. Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904-1991) was an American children’s author, political cartoonist, illustrator, poet, animator, and filmmaker, known as Dr. Seuss. Serge Gainsbourg (1928-1991) was a French musician, singer-songwriter, author, filmmaker and actor. Gene Tierney (1920-1991) was an American film and stage actress. Cassandra Harris (1948-1991) was an Australian actress. Bernie Winters (1930-1991) was an English comedian and the comic foil of the double act Mike and Bernie Winters. Lee Remick (1935-1991) was an American actress and singer. Jean Arthur (1900-1991) was an American film and theater actor whose career began in silent films. David Ruffin (1941–1991) was an American singer with the Temptations. Redd Foxx (1922–1991) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Miles Davis (1926–1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Steve Marriott (1947-1991) was an English musician and songwriter. Webb Pierce (1921-1991) was an American honky-tonk vocalist, songwriter and guitarist of the 1950s. Stephen Clark (1960-1991) was an English guitarist with Def Leppard. Diana Brewster (1931-1991) was an American TV actress. Tom Tryon (1926–1991) was an American actor and novelist. Nancy Kulp (1921-1991) was a TV actress. Johnny Thunders (1952–1991) was American guitarist and singer. Dottie West (1932-1991) was an American country music singer. Carol White (1943-1991) was an English actress. Vilma Bánky was a silent film actress (1901-1991). Oona Chaplin (1925-1991) was the wife of Sir Charles Chaplin. Natalie Schafer (1900-1991) was an American actress. Ken Curtis (1916–1991) was an American TV actor and singer. Joan Caulfield (1922-1991) was an American actress and former fashion model. James Franciscus (1934-1991) was an American actor. Heidi Brühl (1942–1991) was a German singer and actress. Fred MacMurray (1908–1991) was an American actor. Edwina Booth (1904-1991) was an actress. Coral Browne (1913-1991) was an Australian actress. Colleen Dewhurst (1924-1991) was a Canadian actress. Bert Convy (1933–1991) was an American actor, singer, game show panelist and host. Aldo Ray (1926-1991) was an American actor. Lilian Bond (1908–1991) was a British actress. Jean Rogers (1916-1991) was an actress. Brad Davis (1949–1991) was an American actor. Thalmus Rasulala (1939-1991) was an American actor. James Cleveland (1931-1991) was an American gospel singer, musician, and composer. Teddy Wilson (1943-1991) was an actor. John Russell (1921-1991) was an American actor. John McIntire (1907-1991) was an Actor. Tennessee Ernie Ford (1919-1991) was an American musician and television host. Stan Getz (1927-1991) was an American musician. Tony Richardson (1928-1991) was a British film director. Eleanor Audley (1905-1991) was an American actress. Walter Chiari (1924-1991) was an actor. Eva Le Gallienne (1899-1991) was a British actor. Viviane Romance (1912-1991) was a French actress. Mona Maris (1903-1991) was an Argentine actress. Gloria Holden (1903-1991) was an actress. Kevin Peter Hall (1955–1991) was an American actor. Eleanor Boardman (1898-1991) was an actress. Aline MacMahon (1899-1991) was an actress. Do you know anyone who died in 1991?
Man made disasters in 1991
In Sebokeng, South Africa, gunmen opened fire on mourners attending the funeral of an African National Congress leader, killing 45 people. At Sriperumbudur, India, a suicide bomber from LTTE attacked a political meeting, killing former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and at least 14 others. The Father’s Day Bank Massacre took place as four security guards were shot to death during a bank robbery at the United Bank Tower in Denver, Colorado. The person subsequently charged with the crime was acquitted, and the case remains unsolved. Forty people were taken hostage in Sacramento, California, as six gunmen and hostages were killed. The Provisional IRA launched a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street during a cabinet meeting. The IRA exploded bombs in the early morning, at both Paddington station and Victoria station, in London. After 16 years in prison for allegedly bombing an English public house in a Provisional IRA attack, the “Birmingham Six” were freed when a court determined that the police fabricated evidence. Sri Lankan Army soldiers killed 152 civilians in Kokkadichcholai. An Azerbaijani Mil Mi-8 helicopter carrying a 19-member peacekeeping mission team was shot down by Armenian military forces in the Khojavend District, Azerbaijan. Did you know that so many people got killed in 1991?
Disasters in 1991
USAir Flight 1493 collided with a Sky West Airlines Fairchild Metro Liner at Los Angeles International Airport, killing 34 people. USA Senator John Heinz and six other people were killed when a helicopter collided with their plane over Merion, Pennsylvania. Former USA Senator John Tower and 22 others were killed in an airplane crash in Brunswick, Georgia. Lauda Air Boeing 767 crashed near Bangkok, Thailand, killing all 223 people on board. Nigeria Airways Flight 2120, a Douglas DC-8 operated by Canadian airline Nolisair, caught fire and crashed soon after takeoff from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killing all 261 people on board. The Italian ferry Moby Prince collided with an oil tanker in dense fog off Livorno, Italy, resulting in 140 deaths with one survivor. A 6.4 Hindu Kush earthquake caused severe damage in northeast Afghanistan, leaving 848 dead and 200 injured. A 7.7 Limon earthquake struck Costa Rica and Panama with a maximum Mercalli intensity, causing between 47 and 87 deaths and up to 759 injuries. A tropical cyclone hit Bangladesh, killing an estimated 138,000 people. A series of 55 tornadoes broke out in the central USA, killing 21. The most notable tornado strikes were in Andover, Kansas. A 7.0 earthquake in Racha, Georgia, killed 270 people and left 100,000 others homeless. A 6.8 earthquake struck Uttarkashi, India, killing at least 768 people and destroying thousands of homes. In the Philippines, Mount Pinatubo erupted in the second largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century, with the final death toll exceeding 800. Mount Unzen in Japan erupted, killing 46 people as a result of pyroclastic flow. The cruise liner MTS Oceanos sank off the coast of South Africa, leading to the rescue of all 571 passengers on board. The Egyptian ferry Salem Express sank in the Red Sea, killing more than 450 people. A major collapse at the Emaswati Colliery in Swaziland trapped 26 miners 65 meters below the surface, but they were all rescued 30 hours later. Hurricane Bob hit North Carolina and New England, killing 17 people and causing $1.5 billion in damage. In Hamlet, North Carolina, a grease fire broke out at the Imperial Foods chicken processing plant, killing 25 people. A large suburban firestorm, centered in Oakland Hills, California, killed 25 people and injured 150 others. The 1991 Perfect Storm struck the northeastern USA coast and Atlantic Canada, causing over $200 million of damage and resulting in 12 direct fatalities. A Halloween blizzard hit the USA Upper Midwest, killing 22 people and causing $100 million in damage. Tropical Storm Thelma caused flash floods in the Philippine city of Ormoc, killing more than 4,900 people. What is the worst disaster that you remember from 1991?
Great events of 1991
An attempted coup by the Tonton Macoute, a paramilitary force under former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, was thwarted in Haiti. The first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was sworn in. He was ousted on September 30 and later reinstated in 1994. In response to the coup, the USA expanded trade sanctions on Haiti to include all goods except food and medicine. Yugoslavia dissolved in 1991 into Croatia, Slovenia, and Serbia with some serious battles. The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution opening the way for the establishment of peacekeeping operations in Yugoslavia. The Republic of Macedonia became independent, beginning a name dispute with Greece. The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) was formed in The Hague, the Netherlands. The Acid Rain Treaty of 1991 was signed between the American and Canadian governments. Édith Cresson became France’s first female prime minister. Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to address the USA Congress during a 13-day royal visit in Washington, D.C. Somaliland seceded from Somalia. The governments of Mauritania and Senegal signed a treaty ending the Mauritania–Senegal Border War, which had been fought since April 1989. USA President Bush and Soviet President Gorbachev signed START I in Moscow. Israel released 51 Arab prisoners and the bodies of nine guerrillas, paving the way for the release of the last western hostages in Lebanon. The Soviet Union announced plans to withdraw military and economic aid to Cuba. North Korea, South Korea, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands, and Micronesia joined the UN. Representatives of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front reached an agreement with the President of El Salvador, Alfredo Cristiani, setting the stage for the end of the war. USA President George Bush announced unilateral reductions in short-range nuclear weapons and called off 24-hour alerts for long-range bombers. The Soviet Union responded with similar unilateral reductions. Speaker of the USA House of Representatives Tom Foley announced the closure of the House Bank by the end of the year after revelations that House members misused it. Clarence Thomas was confirmed as the new USA Supreme Court Justice following Thurgood Marshall’s retirement. The Soviet Union restored its diplomatic relations with Israel, which had been suspended since the 1967 Six-Day War. China and Vietnam restored diplomatic relations after a 13-year rift which followed the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War. The North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NAC-C) met for the first time. The UN Security Council recommended Egypt’s deputy prime minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali to be the next Secretary-General of the UN. What do you think is the most important thing that happened in 1991?
The final end of the USSR in 1991
The official end of the USSR came in 1991. Various smaller countries dropped out of the Soviet Union so that the only country left was Russia. The Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia voted for independence in early 1991. Boris Yeltsin was elected President of the Russian SFSR in July. Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was put under house arrest while vacationing in Crimea during an attempted coup. Gorbachev returned to Moscow three days later, and arrested the coup leaders. The Russian KGB was replaced by the SVR, with the KGB officially ending operations on November 6. In August, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Belarus, and Armenia declared their independence. In October and December, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan followed suit. In September, Tajikistan became independent and Leningrad returned to its former name, St. Petersburg. The Congress of the People’s Deputies of the Soviet Union self-dissolved in December. In the Białowieża Forest Nature Reserve in Belarus, the leaders of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine signed an agreement officially ending the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States in its place. In December, Russian SFSR President Boris Yeltsin sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, declaring that Russia will be the succeeding country to the collapsing Soviet Union in the United Nations. Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union, from which most republics had already seceded, anticipating the dissolving of the 69-year-old state. The Russian SFSR officially renamed itself the Russian Federation. The Supreme Soviet met for the last time, formally dissolved the Soviet Union, and adjourned sine die, ending the Cold War. All remaining Soviet institutions eventually ceased operation on December 31, 1991. By the end of 1991, there no longer was a Soviet Union. There was Russia with some Commonwealth independent states. Was the dissolution of the Soviet Union a good idea?
The ending of apartheid in South Africa
In South Africa, Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress was released from jail in February, 1991. The talks between Mandela and Mangosuthu Buthelezi of the Inkatha Freedom Party agreed to end violence between the two. The South African Parliament voted to repeal laws banning Black ownership of land. The European Economic Community lifted its economic sanctions on South Africa. The South African parliament repealed the Population Registration Act, which had required racial classification of all South Africans at birth. The International Olympic Committee readmitted South Africa to the Olympics. The following day, USA President Bush terminated the 1986-enacted USA sanctions on South Africa. The African National Congress led a general strike, demanding representation in the government and an end to the value-added tax. The apartheid system in South Africa was ended through a series of bilateral and multi-party negotiations between 1990 and 1993. The negotiations culminated in the passage of a new interim Constitution in 1993, a precursor to the Constitution of 1996. The process accelerated in 1990, when the government of F. W. de Klerk took a number of unilateral steps towards reform, including releasing Nelson Mandela from prison and unbanning the ANC and other political organizations. In 1990–91, bilateral “talks about talks” between the ANC and the government established the pre-conditions for substantive negotiations, codified in the Groote Schuur Minutes and Pretoria Minutes. The first multi-party agreement on the desirability of a negotiated settlement was the 1991 National Peace Accord, consolidated later that year by the establishment of the multi-party Convention for a Democratic South Africa. Apartheid was a system of racial discrimination and segregation by the South African government. It was formalized in 1948, forming a framework for political and economic dominance by the white population and severely restricting the political rights of the black majority. Between 1960 and 1990, the African National Congress and other mainly black opposition political organizations were banned. However, increasing local and international pressure on the government, as well as the realization that apartheid could neither be maintained by force forever nor overthrown by the opposition without considerable suffering, eventually led both sides to the negotiating table. The Tripartite Accord, which brought an end to the South African Border War in neighboring Angola and Namibia, created a window of opportunity to create the enabling conditions for a negotiated settlement. The Pretoria Minutes was followed in February 1991 by the D. F. Malan Accord. Finally, there was the National Peace Accord in September 1991 and the 1994 South African general election. In 1995, the government passed legislation mandating the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a restorative justice tribunal which over the next three years investigated human rights violations under apartheid. The final Constitution was negotiated by the Constitutional Assembly, working from principles contained in the interim Constitution, and was provisionally adopted in May 1996. Do you remember anything about apartheid?
Joy left for college in the fall of 1991
It was a bittersweet moment when my only daughter Joy went off to college. Margaret and I would be empty nesters for the next thirty some years. She still was our daughter, but we shared her with the world. That day we loaded up the car and its roof. We were off to Champaign, a couple of hours south on I-57. We were not worried since Joy would be rooming with her good friend Katie Fote. They were worried about their friend Peggy Lanigan, who was rooming with Korey Marocki, who they thought was a middle eastern Arab. However, she was from downstate Illinois, Taylorville, near Springfield. We helped Joy and Katie set up their dorm room. It was a lovely day. However, there was that time when it came to say good-bye. This good-bye was more symbolic than real. The separation was for a couple of months. If things went bad, we could always take her home. She was among friends, what could go wrong? I think it was harder on Margaret, my wife. Joy was her daughter, and now we were saying goodbye. The next time we might see her would be November for Thanksgiving. Even I felt a tinge of sadness as we got in the car, waved goodbye and set out for I-57. I still remember the Orientation that they had for the students and their parents. One parent wanted to know if they would enforce no alcohol drinking. The advisor said no, and this parent got very angry. It would be up to his child to decide whether to use alcohol or not. That struck me that she would be more independent that I thought. Anyway, we got home. We thought that all was well. Then a few days later, we got a phone call from Joy and she was crying. I asked what was wrong. She did not get into the sorority that she wanted. Instead, she got another sorority Alpha Delta Pi, ADP. I never realized that this sorority stuff was so serious. We calmed her and said give this group a chance, since they actually want you. It turned out to be a great experience, as she has become an ADP for life. She really enjoyed her time there more than she expected. Life has a way of giving us something we were not expecting. Anyway, that was her first crisis of college life. After that, it was smooth sailing that first semester. Do you remember your first semester at college?
Joy graduated from High School in 1991
The big event of 1991 was the graduation of our daughter Joy from Marian Catholic High School. They wanted the graduation outside, so that we were in the football stadium. Then it started to rain. They had to move everything inside, so that slowed it down. Finally, we were inside and seated in the gym. The graduation went on without any other problems. Joy had her golden honor ribbon, as they sang the Rod Stewart song, “Forever Young.” Upon reflection, I thought that it was a great choice. I even thought that it was a good idea, to try to stay forever young, not think old. For the graduating seniors, it also was a reminder to remember their ideals. I looked to see who some of the notable classmates of Joy were. Colin Egglesfield became a professional actor, best known for playing Joshua Madden on the soap opera “All My Children.” Rodney Harrison, a former NFL defensive back who played for the San Diego Chargers and New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVIII and XXXIX, is now a Sunday night NBC TV football commentator. Brian Timpone has become a conservative businessman and former CBS television journalist turned Internet news entrepreneur. John Hollecek, from the previous year of 1990, was a former NFL linebacker who played eight seasons for the Buffalo Bills, San Diego Chargers, and Atlanta Falcons and many years as the Head High School football coach at Loyola Academy. It was a great day, graduation day. Everyone was full of dreams for the future. We had a small gathering in our back yard with the family friends who also had a graduate that day. The end of high school meant leaving your local community to engage in the world of higher education with different results. Joy was a seventeen-year-old high school graduate. She worked part time at a Lincoln Mall store. She had a lot of freedom, since there were no more band practices. I told her she should look for a job. Later that day, she had a job as a dental assistant that lasted all summer. I could not believe it. She seemed like she could do whatever she wanted to do. Do you remember your child’s graduation?
The University of Illinois at Champaign
The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, is a public land-grant research university that was established in 1867, as the founding campus and flagship institution of the University of Illinois System. With over 59,000 students, the University of Illinois is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the USA. The university contains 16 schools and colleges and offers more than 150 undergraduate and over 100 graduate programs of study. The university has 651 buildings on 6,370 acres and its annual operating budget is over $2 billion. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign also operates a research park, home to innovation centers for over 90 start-up companies and multinational corporations. The U of I is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified among “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity.” The campus library system possesses the fourth-largest university library in the USA by holdings. This university also hosts the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. The alumni, faculty members, or researchers of the university include 24 Nobel laureates, 27 Pulitzer Prize winners, 2 Fields medalists, and 2 Turing Award winners. Illinois athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are collectively known as the Fighting Illini. They are members of the Big Ten Conference and have won the second-most conference titles. Illinois Fighting Illini football won the Rose Bowl Game in 1947, 1952, 1964 and a total of five national championships. Illinois athletes have won 29 medals in Olympic events. The University of Illinois, was originally named “Illinois Industrial University”, one of the 37 universities created under the first Morrill Land-Grant Act, which provided public land for the creation of agricultural and industrial colleges, and universities across the USA. Among several cities, Urbana was selected in 1867 as the site for the new school. From the beginning, President John Milton Gregory’s desire to establish an institution firmly grounded in the liberal arts tradition was at odds with many state residents and lawmakers who wanted the university to offer classes based solely around “industrial education.” The university opened for classes on March 2, 1868, and had two faculty members and 77 students. The library, which opened with the school in 1868, started with 1,039 volumes. In 1885, the Illinois Industrial University officially changed its name to the “University of Illinois”, reflecting its agricultural, mechanical, and liberal arts curriculum. After World War II, the university experienced rapid growth. The enrollment doubled and the academic standing improved. By 1967, the University of Illinois system consisted of a main campus in Champaign-Urbana and two Chicago campuses, Chicago Circle (UICC) and Medical Center (UIMC), and people began using “Urbana-Champaign” or the reverse to refer to the main campus specifically. The university name officially changed to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by 1977. As of 2024, 87% of students graduate within 8 years of entering, compared to the national median of 58% for all 4-year universities nationwide. The U of I tied for 15th among public universities, with its undergraduate engineering program tied for 6th in the USA. Internationally, Illinois engineering was ranked 13th in the world in 2016. The makeup of the students is White 39%, Asian 22%, Hispanic 14%, Foreign national 14%, and Black 6%, with the largest foreign groups being Chinese. Have you ever been to the U of I campus in Champaign?
