The 1990s Arts and Entertainment: Chronology

1990:     May 30 The sitcom Seinfeld, a show about "nothing," begins its highly successful eight-year run.

1990:     October 5 The Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati and its director, Dennis Barrie, are found not guilty of obscenity charges stemming from the exhibition of controversial photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe.

1990:     December The U.S. Congress requires that artists funded by the National Endowment for the Arts must return grant money if their works are judged obscene.

1991:      John Grisham's The Firm, his second novel, is published. Previously rejected by numerous publishers, the novel remains on the New York Times bestseller list for forty-seven weeks.

1991:     September 24 The Seattle grunge band Nirvana releases Nevermind. By January 11, 1992, a song from the album, "Smells Like Teen Spirit," has reached number one on the Billboard singles charts and has become an alternative rock anthem for Generation X.

1992:      Robert James Waller's The Bridges of Madison County is published and becomes a sensation, much to the dismay of literary critics.

1992:      Compact discs surpass cassette tapes as the preferred medium for recorded music.

1993:      Writer Toni Morrison is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming the first African American woman to receive the distinguished honor.

1993:      Director Steven Spielberg releases Schindler's List, a film about the Holocaust. Many critics proclaim it the best movie of the decade.

1994:     April 8 The body of Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain is discovered in his garage. Authorities determine he had died three days earlier of a self-inflicted shotgun wound.

1994:     June 17 O. J. Simpson is charged with the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Media helicopters televise Simpson's flight from the police in a white Ford Bronco along a Los Angeles freeway.

1994:     August 12 to 14 Woodstock '94 commemorates the twenty-fifth anniversary of the original weekend-long concert held near Woodstock, New York.

1995:     March Jonathan Schmitz shoots and kills Scott Amedure three days after the pair appeared on the Jenny Jones Show in an episode about secret admirers.

1995:     September 1 The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, designed by architect I. M. Pei, opens in Cleveland.

1996:     February 8 President Bill Clinton signs the Telecommunications Reform Act, which mandates that a V-Chip be installed in every new television set.

1996:     September Television talk-show host Oprah Winfrey announces the beginning of Oprah's Book Club. The first work chosen is The Deep End of the Ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard.

1996:     September 13 Rapper Tupac Shakur dies six days after having been shot while sitting in a car in traffic in Las Vegas, Nevada.

1997:     March 9 Rap star Notorious B.I.G. is killed in Los Angeles as he is leaving a music industry party. No one is ever arrested for the crime.

1997:     December 19 Titanic opens in American movie theaters. The most expensive movie ever made, it costs $300 million to produce and market, yet it eventually becomes the highest-grossing film in history.

1998:      Radio "shock jock" Howard Stern begins hosting a nightly television show on E! Entertainment Television. Critics call the raunchy show "the low point in television history."

1998:      Jennifer Lopez is paid $2 million for her role in the film Out of Sight, making her the highest-paid Latina actress in history.

1998:     June 25 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the National Endowment for the Arts could consider general standards of decency when making grants.

1999:     May 19 Stars War: Episode I—The Phantom Menace is released and breaks a string of box-office records. The movie grosses $102.7 million in five days.

1999:     July 14 The Blair Witch Project is released, becoming a cult-movie classic and grossing more than $140 million. Because the production cost of the movies was only thirty thousand dollars, it is the most profitable movie ever made.