1990s: Pass into the new millennium

The Cold War ended. The Soviet Union broke apart in 1991, closing more than four decades of standoff between it and the United States. With no rival superpower left, America stood alone at the top, and the political map of Europe was redrawn almost overnight.

The World Wide Web reached the public. Built in the late 1980s, it opened in the early 1990s. It spread into homes across the decade, turning the internet from a niche tool for researchers into an everyday way to communicate, shop, and share information.

Grunge and hip-hop defined the sound. Grunge emerged from the Pacific Northwest early on and pushed guitar-driven alternative rock into the mainstream. At the same time, hip-hop kept expanding until it rivaled rock as the decade's most influential popular music, carried by cable television and the spreading internet.

Not entirely. The decade is recalled as calm and prosperous because the Cold War had ended and Western economies grew, but it also held the Gulf War and the genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia. That peaceful reputation is largely a view from the wealthy world.