In 1997, the world was a different place.
There was no Google yet.
In 1997, the year of your birth, the top selling movie was Titanic. People buying the popcorn in the cinema lobby had glazing eyes when looking at the poster.
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 Titanic. The Oscar for best foreign movie that year went to Character. The top actor was Jack Nicholson for his role as It Gets in As Good. The top actress was Helen Hunt for her role as It Gets in As Good. The best director? James Cameron for Titanic.
In the year 1997, 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 Runaway Jury by John Grisham. Oh, that's many years ago. Have you read that book? Have you heard of it? Look at the cover!
In 1997... A Delta II rocket carrying a military GPS payload explodes, shortly after liftoff from Cape Canaveral. U.S. President Bill Clinton is inaugurated for his second term. Madeleine Albright becomes the first female US Secretary of State. Pablo Picasso's Tête de Femme is stolen from a London gallery, and recovered a week later. Tara Lipinski, 14, becomes the youngest women's world figure skating champion. Julius Chan resigns as prime minister of Papua New Guinea, ending the Sandline affair. Tasmania becomes the last state in Australia to decriminalize homosexuality. Tony Blair is appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom by Elizabeth II. IBM's Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, the first time a computer beats a chess World champion in a match. A military coup in Sierra Leone replaces President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah with Major Johnny Paul Koromah. Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot orders the killing of his defense chief, Son Sen, and 11 of Sen's family members, before Pol Pot flees his northern stronghold. The United States Department of the Treasury unveils a new $50 bill, meant to be more difficult to counterfeit. The remains of Che Guevara are returned to Cuba for burial, alongside some of his comrades. A computer user known as " eci" publishes his Microsoft C source code on a Windows 95 and Windows NT exploit, which later becomes WinNuke. The video game of the day was Dungeon Keeper.
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 Dario Fo. The Nobel Peace prize went to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Jody Williams. The Nobel prize for physics went to Steven Chu, William Daniel Phillips and Claude Cohen-Tannoudji from the United States and France for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light. 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 1997. 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 Sunset Beach . The sun goes down. Someone switches channels. There's Just Shoot Me on now. That's the world you were born in.
Progress, year after year. Do you wonder where the world is heading towards? Do you know what was invented in the year you were born? The Non-mechanical MP3 Digital Audio Player. The Plasma Television.
Southern Minnesota in the year of 1997
There was a great natural light in the sky
And people ran in fear
And I was so concerned with the welfare
Of the woman standing nearest to me
That I didn't notice when it shone on both of us
Then disappeared
...
That's from the song 1997 by Mason Jennings.
In 1997, a new character entered the world of comic books: Zauriel. Bang! Boom! But that's just fiction, right? In the real world, in 1997, Princess Aisha of Jordan was born. And Chloe Moretz. Isabelle Fuhrman, 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?
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Originally Posted by suki wingy
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