stepped out of the shadow of the Soviet Union. The threat of nuclear war seemed to be over at last. However, it would be replaced with the nationalist, ethnic, and religious conflicts of the post-Cold War world.
AUGUST 1991 World Wide Web Opens to the Public Physicists working in Switzerland helped create the internet as we know it. Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist working in Geneva, envisioned a way for multiple scientists to share data simultaneously, without needing to switch between different computers. He called his project the World Wide Web. Berners-Lee created several components to make this web work. The Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is used to convey information, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) provides an address to distinguish web sites from one another, and the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTP) connects sites and retrieves data. The first public version of his web browser debuted in 1991. The text-based program was improved with the release of a point-and-click interface called Mosaic in 1993. In 1994, Netscape Navigator became the first popular public web browser. The internet has since become an essential part of modern life, a thriving virtual space for information exchange and inter-personal interaction. SEE FIGURE 75
APRIL–MAY 1992 Los Angeles Uprising
In April 1992, a jury acquitted four White Los Angeles police officers of the beating of Black motorist Rodney King. Video footage of the officers kicking King and beating him with nightsticks aired on television news shows across the nation. For many, the acquittal was another example of the long history of police discrimination and brutality executed against people of color without repercussions. In frustration, protestors flooded the streets of Los Angeles. They threw bricks at passing cars and set fire to buildings. When the unrest ended six days later, the city was left reeling from nearly a billion dollars of property damage. Thousands of people had been arrested, and sixty-three people were killed. The Los Angeles Uprising was one of the largest civil disruptions in American history. The protest underscored deeply felt injustices in the face of systemic discrimination, especially economic inequity and unequal treatment by the justice system. NOVEMBER 1993 Establishment of the European Union Formed by the signing of the Maastricht Treaty on November 1, 1993, the European Union (EU) contains twenty-seven member states. Many European nations worked closely together in the aftermath of World War II to ensure economic and social recovery. Various treaties and agreements preceded the 1993 policy, but the Maastricht Treaty provided the EU with its name and with a single market. The single market allows the free movement of people, goods, services, and money between the member states. They share a single currency (the euro) and common citizenship. Throughout the decade, additional countries joined the EU as it navigated the post-Cold War world, including political upheaval in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. This political
Figure 75. Floppy disc containing installation software for Netscape Navigator, circa 1994. Image courtesy of Kevin van Haaren, Wikimedia Commons .
DECEMBER 1991 Dissolution of the Soviet Union
Following President Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms in the 1980s, a group of conservative Communist Party leaders tried to seize control of the Soviet Union’s government in 1991. Although it was unsuccessful, this attempted coup weakened Gorbachev’s authority and support. Belarus, Moldova, and a series of other Baltic states formally left the Soviet Union. Eventually, fifteen countries became independent states. On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev resigned as president. A new system of government was established in Russia, marking a relatively quiet end to the decades-long Cold War. The thawing of tensions dramatically shifted the geopolitical landscape of Europe. Many international conflicts in the following decades arose as nations
and economic program strives to strengthen democracy and provide security and stability. In 2012, the EU earned the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to promote reconciliation and protect human dignity across the region.
Figure 76. Damaged roadway in the aftermath of the Northridge earthquake, 1994. Image courtesy of FEMA News Photo, National Archives.
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