1996 History, Trivia and Fun Facts

• The weather: A cyclone formed over Lake Huron with tropical characteristics, nicknamed 'Hurricane Huron'. The storm had a maximum speed of 73 mph.
• The Top Song was Don't Speak by No Doubt
• The Big Movies included Independence Day, Twister and Mission Impossible
• Price of Keebler Chips Deluxe cookies, 16 oz: $1.59
  Duncan Hines cake mix, 18.25 oz: 96 cents
  Plymouth Voyager: $15,999.00
• The World Population was ~ 5,738,000,000
• US Life Expectancy: Males: 73.1 years, Females: 79.1 years
• Tickle Me Elmo was introduced.
• Homestar Runner is an animated Internet cartoon by Mike Chapman and Craig Zobel, created in 1996 and hit peak popularity in 2000.
• And... Tom Cruise was sailing in his yacht off the island of Capri and saw a sinking sailboat in flames. He immediately set sail toward the accident and pulled the five victims to safety.

The day before the 1996 US presidential election, the NYT Crossword contained the clue "Lead story in tomorrow's newspaper" -- the puzzle was built so that both electoral outcomes were correct answers, requiring 7 other clues to have dual responses.

Elton John charted a Top 40 single every single year from 1970 to 1997.

Charlie Sheen paid $6,537.50 to buy 2,615 tickets to a Major League Baseball game at Anaheim Stadium, hoping to catch a home run ball. Sheen and three of his friends sat alone, 20 rows up, but no home runs were hit that day.

Jim Carrey was the first actor to make $20,000,000 to star in a single film, The Cable Guy.

Philip Boit was the first Kenyan to participate in the Winter Olympics. Competing in the 10 KM classic cross-country race he came in last. The winner, Bjørn Dæhlie, waited for Boit to reach the finish line in order to hug him. The moment affected him so much Boit named his son after Dæhlie

The BBC applied to register the TARDIS as a trademark and were challenged by the Metropolitan Police. The courts found no evidence that any police force had ever registered the image as a trademark. The courts ruled in BBCs favor.

When the movie The Rock premiered on Alcatraz in 1996 a man windsurfed to the island wearing a wing-collar tuxedo shirt and bow tie, and then snuck into the celebrity party.

Mary Tyler Moore offered a restaurant $1,000 to sell her a 65 year-old lobster so she could return it to the wild. Rush Limbaugh then offered $2,000 to eat the lobster. The restaurant denied both offers and kept the lobster as a mascot.

A painting was stolen from the Museum of Bad Art. The museum offered a reward of six dollars and fifty cents for its return, and the purported thief demanded a $5,000 ransom. It was later returned with no ransom paid.

After the release of the 1996 film Scream, which involved an anonymous killer calling and murdering his victims, Caller ID usage tripled in the United States.

Binti Jua - a Gorilla who, in 1996, who tended to a three-year-old boy who had fallen into her enclosure and was knocked unconscious and bleeding. After she heard the keepers coming in, she gave up the child freely.

A man was flying a remote-controlled model plane in Dublin when the receiver died. The plane continued with no guidance for 5 miles, then ran out of fuel and glided to a stop on the runway of Dublin Airport.

During a blizzard in Allentown PA, the Orlando Magic, Marilyn Manson, and the cast of Sesame Street Live were all stranded in a hotel together

Muhammad Ali threw his 1960 Olympic Gold Medal into the Ohio River, following being refused service at a "whites-only" restaurant. He would be awarded with an honorary medal in 1996.

The Dana Carvey Show, which aired just 7 episodes, had a writing team that included Louis C.K., Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Bob Odenkirk, Charlie Kaufman, Robert Smigel, Dino Stamatopoulous and others.

Oprah started her famous book club.

Febreze fabric refesher began test-marketing in 1996. By 1998, it was sold nation-wide.

The copy of the Space Jam website is still up, and hasn't been updated since 1996.

Top Gun was the lowest priced VHS ever for a major movie when it was released ($27 when others were $30 to $100) because it had a Diet Pepsi commercial before the movie.

In 1996, Travelocity opened online. Early on, it was primarily travel agents who booked flights on American Airlines.

Animal Hero: Binti, a gorilla at the Brookfield Illinois Zoo, grabbed a 3 year-old who had fallen in the cage, protected him from the other apes, and delivered him to zoo personel at the gate.

Human Hero: 18 year old Keshia Thomas, while marching to protest a KKK rally in Michigan, protected a white man, who had an "SS" tattoo and and a confederate flag shirt, from the attacks of a crowd. She threw herself on him to deflect the mob's strikes, due to her belief that "nobody deserves to be hurt."

Human Hero: Wladimir Klitschko auctioned off his 1996 Olympic gold medal in March 2012 for charity. The buyer payed $1 million but immediatly returned it because he wanted it to stay in the family.

Actor Hero: Mark Harmon rescued two teenage boys from a car accident that occurred outside his home. He used a sledgehammer from his garage to break a window and pull the two out of the burning car.

Cost of a Superbowl ad in 1996: $1,085,000

The distinctive sound of the Martians speech in Mars Attacks was made by reversing the sound of a duck's quack. #ackack

(according to boxofficemojo)
1. Independence Day
2. Twister
3. Mission: Impossible
4. Jerry Maguire
5. Ransom
6. 101 Dalmations
7. The Rock
8. The Nutty Professor
9. The Birdcage
10. A Time To Kill

12 Monkeys, 101 Dalmations, A Time To Kill, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, The Birdcage, Broken Arrow, The English Patient, Eraser, Fargo, The First Wives Club, Happy Gilmore, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Independence Day, James and the Giant Peach, Jerry Maguire, Michael, Mission: Impossible, The Nutty Professor, Phenomenon, Ransom, The Rock, Scream, Space Jam, Star Trek: First Contact, Trainspotting, Twister