September 2, 1996

That fall of 1996, gas ran $1.23 a gallon and Clinton was in the White House — running for reelection against Republican Bob Dole, with fighting in Bosnia entering its second day in the worst violence since the 1995 peace agreement. On television, "ER" was the country's top-rated drama and John Grisham's "The Runaway Jury" was sitting at number one on the fiction bestseller list. The New York Yankees defeated the Atlanta Braves to win the World Series for the first time since 1978, and that same season UNSCOM inspectors uncovered buried prohibited missile parts in Iraq, triggering a standoff as Baghdad refused to allow removal of missile engine remnants for outside analysis.