The enormous bang that began 1991 - the rout of Saddam Hussein's Iraq by a U.S.-led international force - was the year's top news story, according to an Associated Press poll of news editors and broadcast news directors.
And the whimper that ended 1991 - the swift collapse of the empire of cards that was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - was runner-up.The Senate confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was third, followed by the release of American hostages in Lebanon, the recession and the end of the Cold War, according to the 153 news executives who voted.
The rest, in order, were AIDS, the arrest of an unemployed Milwaukee factory worker in the mutilation deaths of 17 young men, the Middle East peace talks, and the videotaped beating of a motorist by Los Angeles police.
What was 1991's front page? Five domestic stories, five international stories; one lightning war, two peace initiatives; freedom for Soviet republics and for the prisoners of Islamic extremists; gore and dimly lit mayhem and sexual harassment; a relentless disease and a sputtering economy.From the top:1. The buildup that followed Saddam's invasion of Kuwait was the top story of 1990; the subsequent "Mother of All Battles" was the headline story of 1991.
On Jan. 17, a day after the United Nations deadline for Iraq's withdrawal from Kuwait, the United States and its allies unleashed more than five weeks of thundering air strikes. On Feb. 24, the ground war began.
Fears that U.S. forces would be trapped in the desert sands, choked by poison gas, were never realized. Instead, America's superior troops and firepower unleashed a punishing offensive that ended Feb. 27 with Saddam's army in tatters. The toll: 148 American lives, upward of 100,000 Iraqis.
There were yellow-ribbon-festooned victory parades for the returning heroes, but there was unease. Nearly a quarter of American combat deaths were caused by friendly fire. Saddam remained in power, Kurdish refugees in terror, and the full extent of Iraq's remaining nuclear capability in doubt.2.On Jan. 1, 1991, the Soviet Union was a troubled colossus, beset by economic and ethnic problems but still a superpower. On Jan. 1, 1992, the Soviet Union will not exist.
In the blink of a historic eye, the 74-year Soviet experiment was swept away by the gang that couldn't putsch straight - a conspiracy of hardliners who took Mikhail Gorbachev prisoner Aug. 19 while he was on vacation in the Crimea.
They failed to take into consideration Boris Yeltsin, who rallied the Russian people. When the coup failed, and Gorbachev returned to Moscow on Aug. 21, everything had changed - Yeltsin, not Gorbachev, was the central power.
Gorbachev resigned as head of the Communist Party three days later and urged that it be disbanded, but nothing could stem the tide. First the Baltic states became independent, and then the remaining 12 republics. Eleven of them joined in a Commonwealth of Independent States; Russia and Yeltsin were in the lead - Gorbachev was discarded.3.Clarence Thomas' nomination to replace Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court was seen as a political masterstroke - it would be hard for the Democratic Congress to reject a black nominee, no matter how conservative.
And Thomas was indeed on the brink of confirmation when Anita Hill, a University of Oklahoma law professor, came forward to accuse him of sexual harassment a decade ago, when she worked for Thomas.
The hearings into Hill's allegations turned the nation into a mega-discussion group, riveted by discussions of sex and power, right and wrong.
Whom to believe? Thomas, according to the polls. And the Senate sent him to the bench by a vote of 52 to 48.4.For 2,455 days, Terry Anderson was held prisoner in Lebanon, never knowing when or whether his captors would release him. But then, the end of two conflicts - the Cold War and the gulf war - turned the Middle East upside down, and everyone wanted to be on good terms with the United States.
Jesse Turner. The Anglican envoy, Terry Waite. Thomas Sutherland. Joseph Cicippio. Alann Steen. One by one, the kidnappers released their captives.
And finally, on Dec. 4, Anderson - chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press - enjoyed sunlight.
"It's been so long," he said.5.There were no silver linings to the economic clouds that hovered over 1991 - they had long since been converted to currency to bail out savings and loans, or to finance leveraged buyouts in the go-go 1980s.
In November, unemployment stood at 6.8 percent, not counting the thousands who had dropped out of the job market from discouragement. IBM, General Motors and other industrial titans announced heretofore unimaginable layoffs. The deficit was pegged at nearly $400 billion. The Federal Reserve dropped its discount rate to levels not seen since 1964.
Economists debated whether the recession still raged, pundits debated whether it was actually a depression, politicians just debated - and Bush, accused of doing nothing, watched as his popularity plummeted.6.On March 31, the Warsaw Pact - the former Soviet bloc - dissolved its military arm. On July 31, Bush and Gorbachev signed a pact reducing long-range nuclear weapons. On Sept. 27, Bush unilaterally eliminated other nuclear weapons; eight days later, Gorbachev announced his own cutbacks. By year's end, Russia wanted to join NATO.
If you are 45 years old or younger, 1991 held the first moments you've ever experienced without a Cold War.7.The AIDS epidemic turned 10 this year; nearly 200,000 Americans suffered from the disease, and 8 million people were infected worldwide.
But two victims put the disease on the front page: basketball star Magic Johnson, who retired when he learned he was infected, and Kimberly Bergalis, who died at age 23 after contracting the disease from her dentist.
Her illness galvanized many to call for mandatory AIDS testing of health professionals; his illness convinced others than no one was safe.8.It took a while to count up the carnage in Jeffrey Dahmer's Milwaukee apartment. There were 11 bodies, but they had been chopped up. There were four heads in the refrigerator and freezer plus seven acid-washed skulls.
In all, Dahmer admitted killing 17 males over 13 years. He told police he had sex with four corpses, and he saved the heart of one "to eat later."9.After four major wars over 43 years, Israel and the Arabs bent to U.S. pressure. They sat down to settle matters. They didn't.
The first round of talks, in Madrid, was notable because of the inclusion of Palestinians. When the second round, in Washington, broke up, no one asserted anything had been accomplished. Talks were to resume there on Jan. 7.10.George Holliday was nominated for no Emmy, but he is responsible for the most gripping piece of videotape of 1991.
It was Holliday, an amateur photographer, who videotaped a group of Los Angeles police officer assaulting Rodney King, 25. They said he had led them on a 100-mph chase, and had attacked them; he denied it, and the tape - shown again and again and again nationwide - seemed to back him up.
Ultimately, four officers were indicted in the attack on King. And Daryl Gates, the Los Angeles chief of police, said he would step down in 1992.
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(Chart)
1991 Top 10 stories
As selected by U.S. newspaper editors and broadcast news directors polled by The Associated Press.
1. Gulf War
2. Disintegrating Soviet Union
3. Clarence Thomas
4. Hostages released
5. Recession
6. Cold War ends
7. AIDS
8. Body parts killing
9. Middle East peace talks
10. Taped beatings
AP/Martha P. Hernandez