~Flashback 1996~

Economics

US GDP (1998 dollars): $7,661.60 billion
Federal spending: $1572.41 billion
Federal debt: $5207.3 billion
Median Household Income
(current dollars): $35,492
Consumer Price Index: 156.9
Unemployment: 5.4%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.32

U.S. Events

F.B.I. arrests suspected Unabomber (April 3).

Valujet crashes in Everglades; all 110 aboard killed (May 11).

747 airliner crashes in Atlantic off Long Island, N.Y.; all 230 aboard perish (July 17).

US budget crisis in fourth month (Jan 3).

Entertainment

Jazz great Ella Fitzgerald dies.

Gangsta rapper Tupac Shakur is shot four times in a drive-by shooting. He dies six days later at age 25.

Movies

• The English Patient, Fargo, Jerry Maguire, The People vs. Larry Flynt, Shine, Sling Blade

What were YOU doing in 1996?