This November marks the 25th Anniversary of Cruzio Internet and we’re celebrating this landmark by thanking you — our incredible members, partners and friends — and remembering the ride we’ve all had so far.
To understand how we got to today, let’s take a closer look at the world as it was in 1989.
Here are 25 things about 25 Years ago…
1) Protests in Tianamen Square ended violently in China
2) George Bush Sr became President of the United States.
3) The Berlin Wall opened to the West.
4) A Fatwah was issued against Salman Rushdie — Iran put a $3M bounty on his head.
5) In Santa Cruz, we remember the Loma Prieta earthquake, a 6.9 shake that changed the landscape of our city in one day.
The earthquake killed 62 people, mostly in San Francisco due to the 880 Freeway collapse and multiple fires. 3 lives were lost in Santa Cruz, and thousands of homes and businesses were damaged in the disaster.
From Santa Cruz City data:
On 10/18/1989 at 00:04:15, a magnitude 7.1 (6.5 MB, 7.1 MS, 6.9 MW, 7.0 ML) earthquake occurred 13.5 miles away from the county center, causing 62 deaths (62 shaking deaths) and 3757 injuries, causing $1,305,032,704 total damage
Read more about the earthquake here.
6) The 14th Dalai Lama won the Nobel Peace Prize.
7) A postage stamp was $0.25, the average gallon of gas was only $0.97, and the average house price in Santa Cruz had just risen 26% to $255,209 (in 2014 it is $681,738)
8) Batman, starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson, was the highest grossing film of the year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeOHFwpOS-c
Also from 1989:
Say Anything
The Little Mermaid
Do the Right Thing
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
When Harry Met Sally
Born on the 4th of July
My Left Foot
Driving Miss Daisy
…and of course Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
9) Nintendo started selling the GameBoy
10) Johnny Depp was dating Winona Ryder
11) It was a great year for music.
Some popular songs of the year included:
Public Enemy: “Fight the Power”
Cowboy Junkies: “Misguided Angel”
Neneh Cherry “Buffalo Stance”
Madonna: “Like a Prayer”
Tom Petty: “Running Down a Dream”
Depeche Mode: “Personal Jesus”
Pixies, “Monkey gone to Heaven”
De La Soul, “Me, Myself and I”
…and all these great albums were released:
Disintegration, The Cure
Freedom, Neil Young
Doolitle, Pixies
Paul’s Boutique, Beastie Boys
The Stone Rose, The Stone Rose
Pretty Hate Machine, Nine Inch Nails
Earthquake Weather, Joe Strummer
3 Feet High and Rising, De La Soul
New York, Lou Reed
Spike, Elvis Costello
Bleach, Nirvana
12) Rain Man won The Academy Award for Best Picture.
13) Amy Poehler was in high school (front row)
and so was Jimmy Fallon
14) Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe died of AIDS, which was ravaging the country.
15) Crowd-surfing finally became an official word in the english language, well at least in the Oxford English Dictionary.
crowd-surfing, n.
The action of lying flat while being passed over the heads of members of the audience at a rock concert, typically after jumping into the audience from the stage. Cf. stage-diving n. at stage n. Additions.
16) The Seinfeld pilot made its debut, and despite only being in its first season, The Simpsons quickly became the number one show on TV.
17) The World Series was the Battle of the Bay, with the Oakland A’s up against the San Francisco Giants. Despite the Loma Prieta Earthquake in the middle of game 3, the A’s went on to beat the Giants in a four game sweep.
18) The San Francisco 49ers won the Superbowl in an epic game, beating the Bengals 20 to 16 on a clutch touchdown pass from Joe Montana to John Taylor with 34 seconds left on the clock.
19) This is how kids dressed:
20) Tim Berners-Lee made a presentation about an information network that would eventually become The Web.
21) Microsoft released the first version of the Office Suite.
22) Steve Jobs was named “Entrepreneur of the Decade”
23) Computers looked like this:
24) Cell phones looked like this:
Side note: You can’t use these anymore unfortunately, but don’t worry, you can still like them on Facebook
25) A young couple started a company. This company was, and still is, called Cruzio.
Looking back, it really does seem that 1989 was the beginning of an era of innovation, both around the world and here in Santa Cruz. We can’t wait to see what changes will come next.
This November, to celebrate the first 25 years of Cruzio and to spotlight technology in Santa Cruz County, we’re throwing a big party and you’re all invited. Over the next few months we’ll be sharing more stories from the past 25 years, so stay tuned. We’d love to hear your memories too!
