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.
November, year by year
- Margaret Thatcher resigns after eleven years in Downing Street
- Freddie Mercury dies a day after confirming his illness
- Bill Clinton is elected president
- The Maastricht Treaty takes effect and the European Union exists
- Sega launches the Saturn in Japan, weeks before its rival
- Toy Story opens as the first fully computer-animated feature
- ICQ launches and puts instant messaging on the desktop
- Iraq expels UN weapons inspectors and a standoff begins
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is released
- Protests shut down the WTO summit in Seattle
The 1990s catalogue
Games, films, animation and hardware, drawn from Wikidata.
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, rebuilt from photos of a real 1997 one (turn your sound on). Pull the battery tab on its side, press C to accept the clock, and the egg hatches five minutes later. A picks an icon, B uses it, C cancels. It follows the original's rules in real time and goes on living while you are away, so come back to it. The creatures are the museum's own. On a computer, press the A, B and C keys; A and C together switch the sound off, or start a new egg after a death. The hole on the back resets it.
Brick Game 9999 in 1
The handheld Tetris sold from every market stall and kiosk in the 90s, and the first game console many kids in the former USSR ever owned. It never had 9999 games - the number counts every speed and level of a dozen or so. This black E-9999 is rebuilt from a scan and photos of real ones, and it plays three of them (turn your sound on). It switches on as you pick it up. DOWN changes the game - A is Tetris, B the race, C the snake - LEFT sets the level and RIGHT the speed, and S/P (start/pause) plays. In Tetris, ROTATE turns the piece, DOWN drops it fast, and on the select screen ROTATE changes which way pieces turn. In the race, LEFT and RIGHT change lanes and holding ROTATE speeds up; the snake follows the four direction keys. SOUND steps from loud to silent, S/P pauses, and switching it off mid-game keeps your game for later. On a computer, use the arrow keys, Space to rotate, Enter to start or pause, S for sound, R for reset and O for on/off.
This week
Release anniversaries from this decade, in the next seven days.
