Born in 1996

If you were born in 1996, you arrived in the year Bill Clinton was re-elected saying "the era of big government is over" while welfare reform passed with liberal Democrats gritting their teeth. The economy was genuinely booming—unemployment under five percent, the deficit shrinking, the stock market climbing in a way that made everyone feel clever. The Olympics came to Atlanta in July and were briefly magnificent before a pipe bomb in Centennial Olympic Park killed two people and injured a hundred and eleven, security footage everywhere and everyone nervous.

The TWA Flight 800 explosion off Long Island in July—and the subsequent investigation dragging on for months—contributed to a summer of ambient anxiety. *Jerry Maguire* and *Independence Day* and *Fargo* were at the theater. Tupac Shakur was shot and killed in Las Vegas in September.

The Macarena was played at every party, every bar, every wedding, and nobody will ever be able to explain why. The Spice Girls arrived from England with "Wannabe" and their girl power brand and teenage girls bought every piece of merchandise available. The Tamagotchi arrived from Japan and ten million Americans were keeping digital pets alive.

The TV show ER was the most watched show in America. The internet had found its popular footing—AOL was mailing CDs to every mailbox in the country, and the "You've Got Mail" chime was becoming the sound of modern life.