 H&M's Industrial Division installs 130,000 linear feet of piping to carry
steam and utilities as well as petroleum products at Mobil Oil Corporation's
new blending plant in Paulsboro, New Jersey… H&M temporarily diverts a
stream during construction of a pipeline project. The diversion was
necessary to preserve a tiny organism in the environmentally sensitive area
of Whistler's Hollow, in Pennsylvania… Henkels & McCoy helps to rescue the
city of Rochester, N.Y. after a freak ice storm damages 70 percent of that
town's power lines. The restoration work takes two weeks to complete,
repairing broken poles and downed lines…H&M acquires Lewis H. Worrad
Corporation and expands into new territories within New York, Connecticut,
New Jersey, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah… Henkels & McCoy's Potomac office
begins the task of designing a state-of-the-art security system for the
Library of Congress in Washington, DC… Henkels & McCoy's Industrial
Department of the Engineering Division oversees the completion of a
two-story addition designed by H&M for Star Enterprises in Delaware City,
Delaware… H&M's York Division completes a 27-mile fiber optic telephone line
installation for US Sprint; close to half of the job was executed using
H&M's patented Railroad Mounted Cable Plow, originally designed in the 1960s
and updated several times… H&M fields 100 crews in anticipation of landfall
is prepared to deal with Hurricane Bob, as it barrels up the eastern
seaboard and slams into Long Island and New England, leaving over a million
customers without power...Richard (Dick) Gibbons, H&M's VP for
Marketing, retires after 34 years with the firm. Dick started in 1959 as
chief electrical engineer, became chief engineer in 1960 and between
1963-1967 Dick ran a subsidiary engineering company. He founded the
Industrial Division, which opened new vistas for Henkels & McCoy with
companies such as Boeing and Owings-Corning…
 January 16 – February 27
Months prior to the onset of hostilities, US President George H.W. Bush will
warn Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
that "a line has been drawn in the sand" and demands that Iraqi forces
completely withdraw from illegally occupied Kuwait. When Iraq fails to comply, a large troop
build-up occurs, comprised of fighting units from the US and other UN or
NATO member
countries in a broad based consensus. This phase, protecting Saudi Arabia and other
immediate areas, is known as
Operation Desert Shield. When troop strength is sufficient the order is
given and the Allies eventually go on the offensive with
Operation Desert Storm. They will quickly repulse Iraqi troops along all fronts. Iraq
suffers an es timated 20,000 killed and over 60,000 wounded. Additionally,
over 63,000 Iraqi troops surrender to Allied forces. Kuwait is liberated. In
order to prevent a power vacuum, and at the request of other Arab states,
notably Saudi Arabia, the Allies do not march on Baghdad to finish the job,
but allow Saddam Hussein to retain control over that country. Not
surprisingly, Saddam hails the outcome as a "victory" for Iraq. The US does
encourage Iraqi dissidents to attempt an overthrow of the government, which
fails. In addition, Kurds in the northern part of the country are attacked
by Iraqi forces and the US imposes "no fly zones" over both the northern and
southern portions of the country in an effort to dissuade Saddam's air
forces from attacking dissidents in both areas. The US also imposes strict
trade sanctions against Iraq.
January 15-17
First transpacific hot-air balloon flight. Richard Branson and Per
Lindstrand fly about 6,700 miles from Miyakonyo, Japan, to 150 miles west of
Yellowknife, Canada.
April 3
Cease-fire ends Persian Gulf War. UN forces are victorious.
April 15
Europeans end sanctions on South Africa.
April 16
US Supreme Court limits death row appeals.
June 5
South African Parliament repeals apartheid laws.
June 3
France agrees to sign 1968 treaty banning spread of atomic weapons.
August 10
China accepts nuclear nonproliferation treaty.
July 31
Bush-Gorbachev summit negotiates strategic arms reduction treaty (START).
 June 4
Communist Government of Albania resigns.
July 1
The Warsaw Pact of "East Bloc" nations is dissolved.
July 10
Boris Yeltsin (left) becomes first freely elected president of the Russian Republic
Yeltsin's stock increases when he takes a prominent role in suppressing an
anti-Gorbachev coup by communist hardliners in mid-August.
August 25
Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia win independence from USSR and are recognized
by the US in September.
 September 30
Haitian troops seize president in uprising.
October 1
US suspends assistance to Haiti.
October 6
Professor Anita Hill accuses Supreme Court Justice nominee Judge Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment
while she worked under him as a young clerk.
Hill's testimony is eventually discredited and Thomas is confirmed on October 15.
Photo: A Time magazine cover of the period.
November 15
US indicts two Libyans in 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie,
Scotland.
December 25
Merry Christmas! Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the USSR,
signifying the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The former Soviet
republics (including Russia) become independent states.
ALSO IN 1991:
Anders Olsson transmits solitary waves through an optical fiber with a data
rate of 32 billion bits per second.
The FDA approves the use of Bristol-Meyers' ddI (didanosine) in the
treatment of AIDS... Gopher, the first user-friendly internet interface, is created at the
University of Minnesota and named after the school mascot. Gopher becomes
the most popular interface for several years... The first cholera epidemic in a century sickens 100,000 and kills more
than 700 in South America...
Fox Broadcasting is the first network to permit condom advertising on
television.
In Sports
In the Super Bowl, the NY Giants squeak past the Buffalo Bills
(20-19)... In the 1991 World Series, the Minnesota twins defeat Ted Turner’s
Atlanta Braves (4-3)... In the NBA Championship, the Chicago Bulls stampede
the LA Lakers (4-1)... For the Stanley Cup, the Pittsburgh Penguins defeat
the Minnesota North Stars (4-2)... At Wimbledon: Women: Steffi Graf d. G.
Sabatini (6-4 3-6 8-6); Men: Michael Stich d. B. Becker (6-4 7-6 6-4)...
Strike the Gold takes the roses at the Kentucky Derby... NCAA Football
Championship is a tie between Miami-FL (AP) (12-0-0) and Washington (USA,
FW, NFF) (12-0-0)
What's on TV
Murphy Brown, the wise-cracking hard-boiled, sitcom tv reporter
rules the airwaves and draws the ire of Veep Dan Quayle. Home
Improvement, Evening Shade, Northern Exposure, Wings are all in the top
20, and yet another new sitcom for the ever popular Bill Cosby debuts, this
time around Cos is a forcibly retired airline employee adjusting to his new
status in The Cosby Show .
 That's Show Biz
Seattle band Nirvana releases the song "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
and launches the grunge movement... Movies: The Silence of the Lambs,
Beauty and the Beast, JFK, Thelma & Louise (right), a buddy film
with a twist-- this time it's two women on the lam.
Deaths
We say goodbye to:
Miles Davis, pioneering jazz trumpeter
Theodore Seuss Geisel, children’s book author (Dr. Seuss)
Frank Capra, film maker (It's a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington)
Graham Greene, author (Our Man in Havana)
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