1992
Maastricht Treaty signed
In a small Dutch city on the Belgian border, European leaders signed a treaty creating the European Union and committing their countries to a single currency within a decade. The word Union replaced the old economic Community. A political project of unprecedented ambition, half a continent voluntarily pooling sovereignty, was under way.
Los Angeles riots
When four white police officers were acquitted of beating Black motorist Rodney King despite a videotape seen around the world, south-central Los Angeles erupted in six days of arson, looting, and street violence. Sixty-three died. The city burned on television. A Korean grocer on a roof with a rifle became an iconic image of the week.
Earth Summit in Rio
One hundred seventy-two governments gathered at the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, producing conventions on climate change, biodiversity, and forests amid enormous international media attention. It was the largest diplomatic meeting ever assembled. Environmentalism had fully entered global politics, and the phrase sustainable development entered the lexicon. The follow-through would prove harder than the meeting.
Siege of Sarajevo begins
Bosnian Serb gunners took up positions in the hills around Sarajevo and began shelling the multi-ethnic city below. The siege would last almost four years, the longest in modern warfare. Snipers shot women in bread lines. An estimated eleven thousand Sarajevans died. The phrase never again, engraved after 1945, had worn off Europe's memory.
Black Wednesday
George Soros and other speculators attacked the British pound, forcing the UK out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in a single day. Soros personally made a billion dollars. The Conservative government's economic credibility collapsed, and the Major government never really recovered. Global currency markets had shown they could overpower national treasuries.