41. George H. W. BUSH, Sr. was a one term Republican who served from 1989 – 1993. He is often referred to as “Bush 41,” “Bush the Elder,” or “George Bush, Sr.” to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who was the 43rd president. During his presidency, Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act. In China in June, 1989, the massacre in Tienanmen Square occurred. In 1992, riots broke out in Los Angeles after a video showed Rodney King, an African American, being beaten by white police officers. 55 people died in these riots, and over 2,000 people were injured. Later, King famously said, “Can’t we all just get along?”
Before becoming president, Bush enlisted in the US Navy on his 18th birthday in order to serve during WWII; he became the youngest aviator in the US Navy at the time. After the war he was a businessman, US Representative, ambassador, Director of the CIA, and vice president.
Persian Gulf War (or Gulf War, First Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm, or Kuwait War) was fought to help Kuwait after Iraq invaded and annexed that country. President Bush assembled an international coalition (cooperative group) of 34 nations to fight Saddam Hussein’s (the leader of Iraq) army. There was a fierce, five-week long air campaign followed by a ground assault which lasted just 100 hours before a ceasefire was announced. After pushing the Iraqis out of Kuwait, Bush made the controversial decision not to continue on and overthrow Hussein.
End of the Cold War and the Soviet Union! The Berlin Wall was knocked down in 1989, uniting the city. A year later all of East and West Germany re-united. In 1991 the USSR broke apart into 15 post-Soviet states. Bush signed two START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) treaties, first with the USSR and then with Russia; these treaties greatly reduced the number of nuclear weapons.
Amendment 27 was ratified. It states that any Congressional pay raises must be delayed until after the next election.
Raised taxes after saying during his campaign, “Read my lips: no new taxes!” Bush reneged (went back) on his campaign promise and signed a tax increase in order to deal with rising deficits. After this, a recession, rising unemployment, and continuing budget deficits, Bush did not win re-election.
Launch of the World Wide Web (www.) and the first web browser made the Internet mainstream. Although there were precursors during the 1980’s, Tim Berners – Lee, an English engineer, is credited with inventing the World Wide Web in 1989 and developing both the first web server, and the first web browser, called WorldWideWeb (no spaces) in 1990. In 1993 Marc Andreessen developed the web browser NCSA Mosaic (later Netscape) which was particularly easy to use and install and is often credited with sparking the internet boom of the 1990’s.
After being president, Bush dedicated his presidential library and was active, often alongside Bill Clinton, in various humanitarian activities. He died in November, 2018, at 94 years old. With George W. Bush’s victory, Bush, Sr. and his son became the second father–son combination to serve as president, following John Adams and John Quincy Adams. (All from Wikipedia)
