December 20, 1990

By the winter of 1990, Bush was in the White House and the federal minimum wage stood at $3.80/hr — and Iraq announced it would free Soviet hostages held since the Gulf crisis began, a signal that international tensions were shifting even as American daily life continued at its usual pace. On television, "Roseanne" was the top-rated show in the country, and at the box office "Born on the Fourth of July" was drawing crowds to theaters nationwide. The Detroit Pistons had claimed the NBA Championship that year by defeating the Portland Trail Blazers, and in December, Garry Kasparov defended his World Chess Championship title against Anatoly Karpov in a match that marked the first time the championship had been contested entirely between players from the same country.