Skip to content
Back Then

Your time capsule is ready

In your 36 years you’ve been around for…

  • 9 Prime Ministers
  • 2 monarchs
  • 9 World Cups
  • +2.9 billion people on Earth

1990

The world you arrived into

1990

Margaret Thatcher resigned

After eleven years in power, the Prime Minister stood down on 22 November 1990.

1990

Italia ’90 and Gazza’s tears

England reached the World Cup semi-final and lost on penalties; a nation discovered it loved football again.

1990

What people were listening to

Now playing in 1990

  • Madonna vogued

    "Vogue" topped charts in spring 1990, one of the year’s defining singles.

  • Sinéad O’Connor’s "Nothing Compares 2 U"

    The Prince-written ballad spent weeks at number one at the start of 1990.

1990

At the cinema and on television

movies

Home Alone

Kevin was left behind in November 1990 and became the biggest family film of the decade.

movies

Ghost

The pottery scene arrived in cinemas in 1990 and won Whoopi Goldberg an Oscar.

1990

Technology looked very different

  1. The first website went online

    In December 1990, Tim Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web served its first page at CERN. Almost nobody noticed.

When these arrived

You were only…

  • 4 The PlayStation 1994
  • 8 Google was founded 1998
  • 11 Wikipedia launched 2001
  • 14 Facebook was founded 2004
  • 15 YouTube was founded 2005
  • 17 The iPhone 2007

A gentle reality check

Things that are younger than you

  • 1991 The first website went online
  • 1991 Sonic the Hedgehog
  • 1992 The first text message
  • 1994 The Channel Tunnel opened
  • 1994 The PlayStation
  • 1995 eBay was founded
  • 1995 Toy Story, the first fully computer-animated film
  • 1996 Dolly the sheep was cloned
See all 28 things younger than you →

1990 vs today

A few things have changed since you arrived

A few things 1990 Today
  • Everyone on Earth about 5.3 billion about 8.2 billion

Indicative sample data — being verified and expanded.

See the full Then vs Now →

Pick the version you want to share

My year

Know someone born in 1990? Send them their year — or see every way to explore 1990.

Keep exploring