1991 in history
Here are some light-hearted facts about 1991, designed to serve as a prep sheet for a radio feature on 1991.
I created this page because when I needed some notes to create a few talking points about 1991 in Ireland I couldn't find any suitable sources, so I thought I'd share what I did find. It applies to 1991 in Britain too.
You can also look at years other than 1991:
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1991
Freddie Mercury died. He went public with his illness just hours before his death. Bohemian Rhapsody was reissued to raise money for charity.
Wearing a seat belt became mandatory for all passengers in a car in the UK.
Britain's controversial poll tax was scrapped.
The internet was made available to unrestricted commercial use and the number of computers on the 'net reached one million. The first website went online this year (until then the computers just communicated with each other).
Mobile phones and wireless devices were banned from planes.
Stansted Airport was reopened, having been totally rebuilt to become London's third official airport. Bizarrely, just before it opened, a small airport near Luton realised that nobody could stop them changing their name to London Luton Airport, knocking their big new rival into fourth place.
Dublin was officially inaugurated as the year's European Capital of Culture.
1991 Launches
- Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was released and saw Bryan Adams's (Everything I Do) I Do It for You go to #1 in the charts for 16 weeks.
Nirvana's Never Mind album (with the baby in the swimming pool) was released.
Sonic the Hedgehog and Lemmings were the must-have video games.
The arcade game Street Fighter II: The World Warrior was launched, and was a huge success.
The mobile connection 2G (also called GSM) was launched. It allowed the creation of Multimedia Messages (MMS: text messages with pictures). We are now (at the time of writing) on to 6G!
Stansted Airport became the third official London airport, but not before Luton Airport had already renamed itself to get there first.
1991 in Film
Terminator 2: Judgment Day was the biggest film of the year, where Arnold Schwarzenegger gave us "hasta la vista".
Other big films include Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Silence of the Lambs, City Slickers, Sleeping with the Enemy, The Addams Family, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, Backdraft and Beauty and the Beast.
The Commitments was released.
Disney's Beauty and the Beast was the first animated movie to be nominated in the best picture category at the Oscars.
1991 in TV
Big TV shows of the year (not premiers): London's Burning, Wogan, Only Fools and Horses, You've Been Framed!, Blind Date and Roseanne.
Comedy series Bottom, starring Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, debuted.
Noel's House Party (with Mr Blobby) and Home Improvement started.
Children's TV series Brum debuts, about an artificially intelligent, self-driving car.
Darling Buds of May and Dennis Norden's Laughter File were shown for the first time.
While these facts about 1991 have been checked against third-party sources (and have been used on air before!), they are provided in good faith to inspire your research and no guarantee is made about their accuracy or their uniqueness. You can use the facts however you wish: most people just take a couple of points they remember and talk around then.
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