North Carolina Governor
James Hunt with Smart
Start children.
Diversity Creates Market Opportunities
As networking advances create a new global economy, IBM's commitment to diversity create new business opportunities and becomes, in itself, a strategy for success in the changing marketplace.
1990
With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, people with disabilities have comprehensive civil rights protection for the first time.
Ellen Ochoa, an electrical engineer, becomes America's first Hispanic woman astronaut.
1991
U.S. bombs Iraq and enters Gulf War.
Local wars and "ethnic cleansing" destabilize much of southeastern Europe throughout the 1990s.
1992
Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Cheyenne tribe member, wins U.S. Senate seat from Colorado after previous service in the House.
1993
Congress passes the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Roberta Achtenberg, an Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, becomes the first openly gay appointee to high federal office.
Toni Morrison, an African American woman, wins the Nobel Prize in literature.
Congressional Charter leads to opening of Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C.
Official apology is made to Americans of Japanese descent who were placed in internment camps in the 1940s.
1994
South Africa's first all-race elections are held. Nelson Mandela is elected president.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) unites Canada, Mexico and the United States in one of the world's largest free trade (duty - free) zones.
1995
First International Symposium on Women with Disabilities is held in Beijing, China, in conjunction with the Fourth World Conference on Women.
1997
China reacquires the free port of Hong Kong (population 6.6 million) from Great Britain at the termination of a 99-year lease.
1998
Combined purchasing power of African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans and Americans with disabilities surpasses $1 trillion.
The first person to orbit Earth (in 1961), 77 - year - old John Glenn, astronaut - turned - senator - turned - astronaut, becomes the oldest person to journey into outer space.
1999
World population reaches 6 billion.
Fifty-four percent of America's households now have at least one personal computer, up from 29 percent in 1995.
More than 800 million Web pages are posted, up from 320 million in 1997.
Only 6 percent of the 58 million Americans using the Internet are Black.