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Graduation 2006

The world back them

By ELISABETH DYER, RICK GERSHMAN, JONATHAN MILTON and ALEXANDRA ZAYAS
Published May 19, 2006

CLASS OF 2006: Thousands of Tampa teenagers will graduate from high school over the next few weeks. The vast majority began this trek in kindergarten in 1993-94. Here's a look at what the world, and Tampa, was like then.

Box office bonanzas

Jurassic Park

Mrs. Doubtfire

The Fugitive

The Firm

Sleepless in Seattle

WWW no longer just stood for the Wicked Witch of the West

The World Wide Web makes it into the White House when government officials receive their first e-mails. The Oval Office's first Web page goes online and includes e-mail addresses for President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and first lady Hillary Clinton.

Spreading the Net

Having launched in January 1993, America Online exceeds 500,000 members by the end of the year.

Domestic violence

The popular arcade game Mortal Kombat hits stores, allowing kids everywhere to maim and kill in spectacular fashion from their own living rooms.

Yahooey!

Web portal Yahoo! starts up in a Stanford University campus trailer when two electrical engineering students design it to keep track of their Internet favorites.

Mackin' movie music

Also ruling the airwaves

Dreamlover by Mariah Carey

Whoomp! There It Is by Tag Team

Cryin' by Aerosmith

That's the Way Love Goes by Janet Jackson

I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) by Meat Loaf

School Daze

As the class of 2005-06 begins kindergarten, the cast of Saved by the Bell begins college at California University after its Bayside High graduation. A new class enters Bayside that fall.

Lordy, Zords

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers becomes a hit kids show by mixing cheesy footage of costumed martial artists from Japan with cheesy plots featuring American actors. The story line: Five teens transform into warriors and protect the world using robots called "Zords."

The comedy craze

Bucco Bruce and the Big Sombrero

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers play home games - mostly losing ones - at Tampa Stadium, nicknamed the Big Sombrero. Later renamed Houlihan's Stadium, it was demolished as Raymond James Stadium opened next door for the Bucs' 1998 season.

Big owie

Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed in the leg by an assailant under orders from rival Tonya Harding's ex-husband on Jan. 6, 1994.

Short-lived life, long-lived fame

Seminal grunge band Nirvana plays its final show on March 1, 1994, in Munich. On April 8, 1994, band leader Kurt Cobain's body is discovered dead in his Seattle home of an apparent suicide.

School, by the numbers

Number of Hillsborough County students who showed up for school in 1993: about 121,100

Number of students who showed up on the first day of school this past year: 169,547

Number of local school buses in 1993: 950

Number of local school buses this year: 1,170

Number of teachers in 1993: 8,400

Number of teachers this year: about 15,000

Starting salary for a teacher with a bachelor's degree in 1993: $22,500

Starting salary today: $32,005

Cost of high school lunch in 1993: $1.55

Cost of high school lunch today: $2.25

Magnetic attraction

The first elementary magnet school opens in 1993 at Lee Elementary. The focus: technology.

U.S. vs. Sami Al-Arian

In 1993, Al-Arian is named the University of South Florida's best engineering professor. It's also the year the FBI begins tapping his phone calls and faxes. In May 2006, Al-Arian is sentenced to 57 months in prison after pleading guilty to a conspiracy charge.

See and be seen for teens

In 1993, Old Hyde Park Village

Today, WestShore Plaza

[Last modified May 18, 2006, 11:48:26]