Fun Facts

1996 In the UK Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales get divorced and Mad Cow Disease hits Britain ( BSE ) causing the mass slaughter of Herds of Cows and new laws to stop beef being sold on the bone. A severe Meningitas Epidemic occurs in West Africa. In technology DVD’s are Launched in Japan and the number of users on the Internet exceed 10 million This is also the year eBay and Ask Jeeves is started and the first ever cloning of a mammal Dolly the sheep.

Cost of Living 1996

How Much things cost in 1996

  • Yearly Inflation Rate USA 2.93%
  • Year End Close Dow Jones Industrial Average 6448
  • Interest Rates Year End Federal Reserve 8.25%
  • Average Cost of new house $118,200.00
  • Average Income per year $36,300.00
  • Average Monthly Rent $554.00
  • Cost of a Gallon of Gas $1.22
  • US Postage Stamp 32 cents
  • Average Cost of New Car $16,300.00
  • Loaf of Bread $1.15

What Events Happened in 1996

In Utah

Here are the top 10 stories as voted by Deseret News city desk editors:

  1. Monument: President Clinton announced creation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument at a September press conference in Arizona, to the chagrin of many southern Utahns, some of whom burned the president in effigy. Environmentalists hailed the decision but promised to fight for more wilderness designation.
  2. Gay-lesbian clubs: The state gained national exposure as the Legislature banned gay clubs from schools following action by the Salt Lake School Board banning extracurricular clubs. Students at Salt Lake area high schools walked out in protest. A Senate caucus held a secret meeting to discuss the issue. The ACLU charged the meeting was illegal.
  3. Gifts: Salt Lake Mayor Deedee Corradini was dogged by controversy surrounding her acceptance of $201,000 in gifts from big-name donors. It was later learned she solicited the gifts while she had $360,000 in a retirement account.
  4. Transportation: Overcrowded highways along the Wasatch Front forced the governor and Legislature to address raising taxes to pay for a controversial fast-track rebuilding of I-15 in northern Utah in time for the 2002 Winter Olympics. In the meantime, Congress approved funding for Salt Lake County’s proposed light-rail system.
  5. Incinerator: The Army’s Tooele County incinerator began destroying a large stock pile of chemical weapons in August. A former manager questioned safety at the facility in a memo released in November.
  6. Sparring: Salt Lake County Attorney Doug Short and the County Commission engaged in months of bickering, accusations, verbal sparring and court battles.
  7. Micron: Micron mothballed its Utah County plant, then under construction, in February. A weak memory chip market may forever delay the plant’s opening.
  8. Execution: Jon Albert Taylor was executed by firing squad on Jan. 20 while human-rights groups protested the execution. Legislators mulled removing the firing s quad as an execution method.
  9. Election: In November elections, Rep. Bill Orton lost in the 3rd Congressional District to Chris Cannon, while Republican Merrill Cook finally won an election. Mike Leavitt retained the governorship by a record margin while Attorney General Jan Graham was the only Democrat elected to statewide office. Bob Dole took Utah in the presidential election.
  10. Greene: The curtain closed on the Enid Greene and Joe Waldholtz saga with Joe in jail and divorced. Enid is out of Congress with no indictment.

Throughout the World

  • Militant Taliban Forces Capture Kabul and declare Fundamentalist Islamic State of Afghanistan
  • Osama Bin Laden is expelled from Sudan and moves to Afghanistan
  • France halts Nuclear testing in Pacific
  • Divers discover the ancient port of Alexandria
  • US eases sanctions against Cuba
  • Major snowstorm paralyzes Midwestern United States
  • The Dunblane Massacre Hamilton opened fire on a class of 5-6 year olds, killing or wounding every person present bar one pupil. Fifteen children and a teacher (Mrs Gwen Mayor) died at the scene.
  • Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kills 600.
  • Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales get divorced
  • Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan questions whether the stock market is overvalued
  • UN Experts and Iraq Officials dismantle a Biological Weapons Factory in Iraq
  • Mad Cow Disease hits Britain ( Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy or BSE )
  • Category 4 Cyclone strikes India. The storm surge sweeps fishing villages out to sea, over 2,000 persons die.
  • The U.S. stock markets, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average, gains at an incredibly fast pace and ends the year over the 6,000 mark
  • Jumbo Jet bursts into flames shortly after takeoff and crashes into the ocean off Long Island
  • Meningitas Epidemic in West Africa
  • Overloaded ferry sinks in Sumatra, Indonesia,
  • 38 Million Acres of Rain Forest are destroyed annually by timber cutting
  • Bombing on Paris Subway kills 2 and injures 128
  • The IRA plants a bomb that explodes in the Docklands area of London
  • The IRA explodes bomb Arndale shopping centre in Manchester
  • A bomb loaded with high explosives is detonated at a U.S. military housing complex in Saudi Arabia
  • 30 Black churches in Mississippi are burned to the ground the previous 18 months
  • The Williamette Valley Flood, sweeps through the Pacific Northwest
  • Gunman “Martin Bryant” shoot and kills 35 in the tourist town of Port Arthur, Tasmania.
  • Israel carries out air strikes on Hezbollah targets in Beirut as part of “Operation Grapes of Wrath”
  • The Summer Olympics are held in Atlanta Georgia, United States
  • Nail Bomb Exploded in Centennial Olympic Park, Atlanta
  • Gunmen kill 17 Greek Tourists outside the Europa Hotel in Cairo
  • Peruvian guerrillas take hundreds of people hostage at the official residence of Japan’s ambassador to Peru in Lima.
  • The supertanker, the Sea Empress, runs aground on the welsh coast, spilling 70,000 tons of crude oil

Popular Culture 1996

Popular Films

  • Independence Day
  • Twister
  • Mission: Impossible
  • Jerry Maguire
  • 101 Dalmatians
  • The Rock
  • The Nutty Professor
  • The Birdcage
  • A Time to Kill
  • The English Patient
  • Star Trek: First Contact

Popular Musicians

  • Mariah Carey
  • Eric Clapton
  • Blur
  • Dalida
  • Jamiroquai
  • Snoop Doggy Dogg
  • Oasis
  • Madonna
  • Metallica
  • Gravity Kills
  • Rage Against the Machine
  • 2Pac
  • The Wallflowers
  • Sheryl Crow
  • Red Hot Chili Peppers
  • The Smashing Pumpkins
  • Marilyn Manson
  • Alanis Morissette
  • Lenny Kravitz
  • Foo Fighters

Technology 1996

  • DVDs Launched in Japan
  • In 12 months number of Internet host computers goes from 1 million to 10 million
  • Windows NT 4.0 released by Microsoft
  • Internet Explorer 3 web browser released
  • eBay started the online auction and shopping website, where people buy and sell goods and services worldwide.
  • The first version of the Java programming language is released.
  • Duke Nukem 3D Shareware released to public
  • Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be successfully cloned
  • Ask Jeeves formed
  • Global Warming shows a record high
  • IBM’s Deep Blue defeats Chess Champion Gary Kasparov for the first time
  • MSNBC ( 24hr News Channel ) a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC is launched
  • Ozone layer over the Arctic continues to be depleted
  • American Pathfinder launched on its 310 million mile mission to Mars
  • The Worlds Largest Container Vessel The Regina Maersk begins operation