1992 Annual History Facts

1992 Annual History Facts

  • Politics: The Twenty-seventh Amendment to the US Constitution prevents members of Congress from granting themselves pay raises during the current session. The amendment was originally proposed by James Madison in 1789.
  • The Top Song was I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston
  • The Big Movies included Aladdin, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Batman Returns
  • In 1992, sales of CDs exceeded the total sales of cassette tapes.
  • Price of Tropicana Orange Juice, 64 oz in 1992: $1.99
    Curad bandages: $1.24/80
  • The World Population was ~ 5,391,000,000
  • 1992 was the last year that both the Winter and Summer Olympic Games shared the same year.
  • The ‘spinner’ hubcap was invented by James J.D. Gragg of Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1992.
  • And… A shipping container filled with 28,000 rubber ducks was lost in the Pacific Ocean. To this day, they’re still being found around the world.

World Series Champions

Toronto Blue Jays

Superbowl XXVI Champions

Washington Redskins

National Basketball Association Champions

Chicago Bulls

NHL Stanley Cup Champions

Pittsburgh Penguins

US Open Golf

Tom Kite

US Open Tennis (Men Ladies)

Stefan Edberg/Monica Seles

Wimbledon (Men/Women)

Andre Agassi/Steffi Graf

NCAA Football Champions

Alabama

NCAA Basketball Champions

Duke

Bowl Games

Orange Bowl: January 1, 1992 – Miami (Florida) over Nebraska
Rose Bowl: January 1, 1992 – Washington over Michigan
Sugar Bowl: January 1, 1992 – Notre Dame over Florida

Kentucky Derby

Lil E Tee

Westminster Kennel Best in Show Dog

Registry’s Lonesome Dove

Time Magazine’s Man of the Year

Bill Clinton

Miss America

Carolyn Sapp (Honolulu, HI)

Miss USA

Shannon Marketic (California)

Fashion Icons and Movie Stars

Christina Applegate, Candice Bergen, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Rebecca DeMornay, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Linda Evangelista, Angie Everhart, Robin Givens, Whitney Houston, Rachel Hunter, Kathy Ireland, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Elle Macpherson, Elisabeth Moss, Kate Moss, Tatjana Patitz, Paulina Porizkova, Markie Post, Princess Diana, Katey Sagal, Claudia Schiffer, Anna Nicole Smith, Brinke Stevens, Sharon Stone, Julie Strain, Niki Taylor, Heather Thomas, Christy Turlington

Marky Mark Wahlberg, Fabio

“The Quotes”

“You can’t handle the truth!”
– Jack Nicholson, in A Few Good Men

“There’s no crying in baseball!”
– Tom Hanks, in A League of Their Own

“Friends don’t let friends drive drunk.”
– US Dept. of Transportation

“It’s the economy, stupid.”
“I didn’t inhale.”
– Candidate for President Bill Clinton

“Giant sucking sound”
– Candidate for Presiden Ross Perot

“Made from the best stuff on Earth.”
-Snapple ad

“Can we all just get along?”
-Beating victim (from the LAPD) Rodney King, to help quell the riots in his name.

The Basketball Dream Team of the 1992 Olympics received death threats in Barcelona. Charles Barkley walked around the city alone despite the threats, and when asked where his bodyguards were, he held up his fists and answered, “This is my security.”

Mike Myers was shocked when clips from Wayne’s World were mixed with Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody video. “They’ve just whizzed on a Picasso!” The band responded, “Thank you for using our song.” This shocked Myers, “Thank you for even letting me touch the hem of your garments!”

“I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois, on the 12th of January 1992. My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you’d like to hear it I can sing it for you.”
-Hal 5000, in 2001: A Space Odyssey

1992 Pop Culture History

A shipping container filled with 28,000 rubber duckies was lost at sea. To this day, they’re still being found around the world.

Instead of engaging in a legal battle over using a slogan, Southwest Airlines CEO Herb Kelleher and CEO of South Carolina’s Stevens Aviation arm-wrestled for whose company would own it. Herwald won, and allowed both airlines to use the slogan – ‘Just Plane Smart.’

Winston Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech that first recognized the Cold War was delivered to Westminster College in Missouri in 1946. Mikhail Gorbachev gave a speech there in 1992, declaring the end of the Cold War.

The UV index was invented by three Environment Canada scientists in 1992, making Canada the first country to measure the strength of UV rays. The World Health Organization (WHO) adopted the index in 1994, making it a global standard.

A team of game developers used a white puffball as a placeholder graphic while they designed their game’s protagonist. They grew fond of the puffball and decided to keep him rather than replace him with a real character. He became the iconic character Kirby.

Michigan had a bottle return rate greater than 100%, likely due to their (higher than average) 10-cent bottle deposit encouraging people from other states to return bottles in Michigan.

Paul Lynck (Great Britain) did 124 push-ups with one finger.

The first text message was sent by Neil Papworth and said, “Merry Christmas.”- it had to be typed from a PC as phones didn’t allow text entry.

Star Trek TNG, Episode S05E117, “The Outcast,” featured a plea for equal rights and treatment of LGBT people, along with the statement, “They were born how they are.”

A white guy from Canada is in the Guinness Book of World Records twice for having the best-selling reggae single in US history and the highest charting reggae single in history. #informer by #snow

Guns N’ Roses performed their hit song November Rain in Bogotá, Colombia. When they started to play it, a soft rain fell over the city and stopped right after they finished the song.

Hurricane Andrew hit Florida, destroying a facility housing Burmese pythons, and releasing them into the wild; there are now thousands of the non-native snakes.

Mortal Kombat was the first game to get a “Mature” Rating by ESRB(Entertainment Software Rating Board). It was the game directly responsible for the creation of the ESRB.

Nirvana was adamantly told not to play the song Rape Me at the 1992 MTV Music Awards. Nevertheless, at the start of the performance, Cobain started playing the chords to Rape Me as MTV producers watched in horror. He then switched back to Lithium, as scheduled.

The 27th Amendment, which forbids the United States Congress from raising their pay during their term, was proposed by James Madison in 1789 and wasn’t ratified until 1992.

Michael Jordan was the ambassador of Nike, but Reebok sponsored his team, so his uniform had a Reebok patch on the right shoulder. Jordan carried an American flag on his right shoulder to completely hide the Reebok logo, proclaiming, “The American flag cannot deface anything.”

In 1992, McDonald’s sold a burger called the “McJordan” that included all of Michael Jordan’s favorite toppings, one of which was BBQ sauce. In 2012, an unopened gallon of 20-year-old McJordan BBQ sauce sold on eBay for $9,995

The US Supreme Court ruled that forcibly abducting a suspect from a foreign country so he can stand trial in the United States is constitutional.

Cable’s Nickelodeon buried a time capsule in 1992 with stuff like a Game Boy, Reebok Pump shoes, Twinkies, Home Alone on VHS, and Gak. It will be opened in 2042.

The 1992 Olympic Basketball “Dream Team” did not call a single time-out the entire Olympic tournament.

After the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert was announced in 1992, all 72,000 tickets sold out in three hours, even though no performers were announced besides the remaining members of Queen.

A banner appeared in the lobby of MIT at the end of the year that read “GAME OVER INSERT 94260 QUARTERS TO CONTINUE,” as the tuition at the time was $23,565.

The hippest company founded in 1992 was probably Tony Hawk and Per Welinder’s Birdhouse Skateboards.

The highest-scoring college basketball game in NCAA history occurred in 1992 and Troy State defeated DeVry University 258-141.

MTV introduced The Real World reality TV show. Before this, the network was known for running music videos, believe it or not.

Upper Deck put baseball players with “porn-star-sounding” names at numbers ending in 69. (Dick Schofield at #269, Heathcliff Slocumb at #569, and Dickie Thon at #769.)

Cost of a Superbowl ad in 1992: $850,000.

Between 1951 and 1992, there were 928 announced nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site. Of those, 828 were underground.

The top-selling pinball machine of all time is The Addams Family made in 1992 by Bally.

RIP, Scandals, Sad and Odd News

Woody Allen (age 56) left his long-term partner, Mia Farrow, after she discovered his secret affair with her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn (age 21).

Marisa Tomai won the Best Supporting Actress Award for her performance in My Cousin Vinnie.

Singer Sinead O’Connor, best known as a bald singer and for her hit Nothing Compares 2 U, tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live, declaring ‘Fight the real enemy.’  In 1997, in an interview with the Italian newspaper Vita, the sometimes lapsing Catholic had asked the Holy Father to forgive her. No word if he made such a declaration, but forgiving was included in the Pope’s job description, so we assume he did.

Long Island Lolita Amy Fisher shot the wife of her lover, Joey Buttafuocco (pronounced Butt-a-foo-co), Mary Jo Buttafuocco, in the face. Mary Jo survived and later divorced her husband.

The aircraft carrier Saratoga accidentally launched live missiles during a joint US/Turkish exercise, killing several Turkish naval officers.

A youth group descended into the French Bruniquel Cave with steel brushes to remove graffiti and partially removed 15,000-year-old bison cave paintings.

The Catholic Church didn’t pardon Galileo until 1992, when Pope John Paul II admitted Galileo was right, 349 years after the condemnation.

President George H.W. Bush vomited on Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa during a state dinner.

Booty-shaking dancing entered the mainstream with Sir Mixx-a-Lot’s Baby Got Back

Princess Diana and Prince Charles separated and divorced shortly after his affair with long-time love Camilla Parker Bowels was revealed.

Comedian Automobile Death: Sam Kinison (drunk driver hit his car)

Firsts and the Biggest Christmas Gifts

NEC’s TurboDuo, Troll dolls, Super Soaker 100

Femme Fatales Magazine (1992-2008)

The Habits

Reading The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller

Reading Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King

1992/93 Biggest Television Shows

(according to Nielsen TV Research)
1. 60 Minutes (CBS)
2. Roseanne (ABC)
3. Home Improvement (ABC)
4. Murphy Brown (CBS)
5. Murder, She Wrote (CBS)
6. Coach (ABC)
7. Monday Night Football (ABC)
8. CBS Sunday Night Movie (CBS)
9. Cheers (NBC)
10. Full House (ABC)

Popular Music Artists

The Biggest Pop Artists of 1992 include
Bobby Brown, Boyz II Men, Ce Ce Peniston, Celine Dion, Color Me Badd, Elton John, En Vogue, Genesis, Gerald Levert, Guns N’Roses, Hammer, Jodeci, Kris Kross, Luther Vandross, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Michael Bolton, Michael Jackson, Mr. Big, Prince, R. Kelly, Ralph Tresvant, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Shabba Ranks, Shanice, Tevin Campbell, TLC, U2, Vanessa Williams, Whitney Houston

(Data is compiled from charts including Billboard’s Pop, Rock, Airplay, R&B/Dance, and Singles Charts. The Hot 100 is the primary chart used for this list.)

Number One Hits of 1992

December 7, 1991 – January 24, 1992: Michael Jackson – Black Or White

January 25, 1992 – January 31, 1992: Color Me Badd – All 4 Love

February 1, 1992 – February 7, 1992: George Michael & Elton John – Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me

February 8, 1992 – February 28, 1992: Right Said Fred – I’m Too Sexy

February 29, 1992 – March 20, 1992: Mr. Big – To Be With You

March 21, 1992 – April 24, 1992: Vanessa Williams – Save the Best for Last

April 25, 1992 – June 19, 1992: Kris Kross – Jump

June 20, 1992 – July 3, 1992: Mariah Carey – I’ll Be There

July 4, 1992 – August 7, 1992: Sir Mix-A-Lot – Baby Got Back

August 8, 1992 – August 14, 1992: Madonna – This Used To Be My Playground

August 15, 1992 – November 13, 1992: Boyz II Men – End Of The Road

November 14, 1992 – November 27, 1992: The Heights – How Do You Talk To An Angel

November 28, 1992 – March 5, 1993: Whitney Houston – I Will Always Love You

Popular Movies

(according to boxofficemojo)
1. Aladdin
2. Home Alone 2: Lost In New York
3. Batman Returns
4. Lethal Weapon 3
5. A Few Good Men
6. Sister Act
7. The Bodyguard
8. Wayne’s World
9. Basic Instinct
10. A League Of Their Own

A Few Good Men, A League of Their Own, Aladdin, Alien 3, Basic Instinct, Batman Returns, The Bodyguard, Boomerang, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Crying Game, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, The Last of the Mohicans, The Last Starfighter, Lethal Weapon 3, Patriot Games, Reservoir Dogs, Scent of a Woman, Sister Act, Under Siege, Unforgiven, Wayne’s World, White Men Can’t Jump

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