The 1990s
Cassette tapes, pixel sprites, and the sound of a modem connecting.
West and East show different things - switch to see the other childhood.
What happened in the 1990s
The Persian Gulf War begins
After Iraq invades Kuwait, an international conflict begins with far-reaching consequences.
The Soviet Union collapses
The end of the Soviet Union closes the Cold War and opens a new geopolitical era.
Text messaging enters everyday life
Early SMS messages help launch a new culture of short-form digital communication.
The World Wide Web goes mainstream
Web browsers make the internet far more accessible to ordinary users.
The 1990s catalogue
Games, films, animation and hardware, drawn from Wikidata.
Games
Films
Handle it in 3D
Objects from this decade, hand-built in Three.js.
Tamagotchi
The digital pet that made a generation obsessive about feeding schedules. Rotate and zoom to see it up close.
Portable CD Player
The pocket player that made a whole album portable and turned skip protection into a selling point. Click the lid to open it, then press the middle button to spin the disc.
This week
Release anniversaries from this decade, in the next seven days.
