As 1996 was rolling in, US election fever was coming more and more. Local and state parties were giddy at their shot to get involved and make their name known, especially since the playing field has been leveled enough to where they stand a fighting chance. The primaries are surprisingly quiet and pundits are speculating a likely Republican victory for the first time in almost two decades. That said, much of this comes also from how the Republican Party is very different from the days of Ford and Reagan back in the 1970s. Many note that the beliefs and positions of the frontrunner for the primary, Arlen Specter, have become more or less the norm for Republican candidates and also for the voters, which many believe explains his chance of victory. However, the Americans were not the only one abuzz with election fever. After months of public pressure, arm twisting and making deals, the NDP government would finally be able to pass the first piece of major legislation since the Constitution Act of 1982, the Fair Elections Act of 1996, which would see Canada replace the "First-past-the-post" system with the "single transferable vote" system, now being implemented on both the provincial and the federal level. This was an exhaustive effort given the groundwork needed on the provinces and the like, but the desire for for fair and balanced voting to best represent the people caught attention along with the NDP's growing popularity, especially in the West as geothermal energy was becoming more and more profitable at a faster rate. This along with encouragement of investment was getting attention as Manitoba and Saskatchewan was looking for outside investments, especially in the growing tech boom to be able to help. Many also believe the United Kingdom will also change their system of such, likely influencing many nations formerly in the English sphere of influence to consider such.
Meanwhile, parts of Asia would be experiencing some rather devastating earthquakes. The first would be the Lijiang Earthquake over in southwestern China, resulting in over 300 dead, thousands injured and even many more homeless. [1] As the PRC government would work to rebuild the region and even get some outside help, many have also begun noting the gradual changes over to China regarding democratization. The government had been passing acts that have been permitting elections over on the local level with Ziyang hoping to push it more to the regional level and let the people decide, especially with the eight legal minority parties rising up in further prominence in focusing on the local level, especially the Chinese Peasants' and Workers' Democratic Party and the China Democratic League. Months later would be the Irian Jaya earthquake. [1] Here though, the damage would be seen through the resulting tsunami, though with less casualities and damages than the earthquake in China, though this did not stop from aid coming in to help out during these times. In more uplifting news from the region, a
n amateur astronomer from southern Japan discovers
Comet Hyakutake, which gathered plenty of attention for passing very close to Earth over in this March and named after the astronomer himself.
Pop culture would also get some fascinating news as the renowned "King of Pop" Micheal Jackson would appear over in the major limelight after years of relative quiet. Prior to this, the most would hear of him would be the fascinating news that he actually worked on the soundtrack for
Sonic 3 along with
Sonic & Knuckles, having noted he was a fan of the series. This would help gather some more attention in the music for video games and get some others interested in it. This along with his short marriage with However, the news would be his public appearance would be heralded with the release the double album
HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I. [2] The reason would be the revelation of Micheal Jackson announcing he did have vitiligo along with a type of lupos, having struggled with it for more than a decade. However, thanks to a treatment inspried by the work of a scientific paper from 1992, he felt more comfortable in being open with the public. [3] He noted all the support, thanking everyone and noting that while he would be not as active on stage and the like, he would still be making music to help people and wound be announcing a limited run tour in his new poject in
Dangerous. Other fascinating pop culture news would involve Disney once more as they would finish the acquisition of ABC's parent company in Capital Cities/ABC Inc. [1] While it was concerned on the merger, it would still go forward with it. Interestingly enough, there was also rumors of Turner Broadcasting potentially merging with Time Warner though these remained unknown, especially the details, given Turner's growing focus on growing the company over in the city of Atlanta.
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[1]- Information and phrasing from here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996
[2]- Information and phrasing from here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson
[3]- Information and phrasing from here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitiligo