21 Things That Turned 21 This Year - mental_floss - List Show (240)

Hi, I'm John Green. Welcome to my salon. This is Mental Floss on YouTube, and we'd like

to wish a very happy, belated birthday to the Backstreet Boys, who turned 21 years old

in April. BSB formed in 1993 and almost got signed by Mercury Records that year, but John Mellencamp

threatened to leave the label if they signed a boy band. Ah, the 90s, back when John Mellencamp's threats still counted for something

Anyway, that's the first of 21 things that turned 21 this year that we're going to

wish a happy birthday to today. The song It Was A Good Day by Ice Cube turned 21-2 in 2014

Fun fact, in 2012 stand-up comedian Donovan Strain examined the song's lyrics to find

out once and for all when Ice Cube's good day occurred. According to him, the only day where Yo

MTV Raps was on the air. It was a clear and smogless day

Leapers were commercially sold, the Lakers beat the Supersonics, and Ice Cube had no

events to attend was January 20, 1992, about a year before the song was released

Still Nigh the Science Guy first aired on PBS in 1993, and I'm sorry to report that

in the pilot he wore a regular tie instead of his trademark bow tie

He eventually decided to start wearing them because, in his words, the bow tie does not

slip into your soup, so it's very practical. Another show that first debuted in 1993, The X-Files

But Gillian Anderson almost didn't get to keep her job for the full nine seasons because she got pregnant at the beginning of season two and Fox executives wanted to replace her

But the show creator Chris Carter refused to let that happen Instead he wrote a storyline that involved Scully getting abducted by aliens to work around her pregnancy 1993 was a big year for late night talk shows too David Letterman moved from NBC to CBS He had been hosting Late Night after The Tonight Show but when he wasn offered Johnny Carson

old job, he moved to CBS and started The Late Show with David Letterman

The Jon Stewart Show also premiered on MTV that same year, and to bring things full circle

in 1995, Stewart would announce his show's cancellation on The Late Show with David Letterman

Jurassic Park's CGI dinosaurs were a really big deal in 1993. The movie won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects, plus New York Times critic Janet Maslin called

it a true movie milestone presenting awe and fear-inspiring sights never before seen on

the screen. Then she went on to bash the plot of the movie, but we're not going to talk about that because

Menophilus is a positive place. Speaking of technology, IMDB, the internet movie database, debuted in 1993

There wasn't much on the internet at that point, so IMDb was by far the best movie website

And it's still a totally helpful resource for when your mom is trying to tell you, you know, about that movie that starred that guy, the one with the beard

You mean Thor, Mom, and that guy's name is Chris Hemsworth. Also internet related, the White House got email in 1993

You could reach Bill Clinton at president at whitehouse.gov. The White House website didn't launch until 1994

Which means that I had a website before the White House did. Anyway, the first issue of Wired Magazine debuted in January 1993 at the Macworld conference

presumably to keep up with innovations like IMDB and Bill Clinton getting email

Twenty-one years ago, some hot CD-ROMs like Doom and Myst were released

Doom is usually credited for popularizing the first-person shooter genre, and Myst went

on to become the best-selling PC game. Not anymore, but it was for a long time

Another game that turned 21 in 2014 Magic the Gathering which was the first modern trading card game It influenced other games that became popular in the 90s like Yu and Pokemon My brother was a huge Magic player He played in Magic tournaments all over central Florida in the 90s

In 1993, a fast-food tragedy rocked the United States when more than 600 people became sick

after eating at Jack in the Box. Wait a second, in 1993, only 600 people got sick from eating at Jack in the Box

That seems like a victory. Anyway, they were all infected with E. coli bacteria from undercooked hamburger meat

Since then, the FDA has raised the recommended temperature for cooking hamburgers from 140

to 160 degrees. The only fast food tragedy we have here at MennoFloss is that our ice cream is made of plastic

Moving on to happier things, 1993 was the biggest year ever for comic book sales

The uncanny X-Men hit issue 300 and turned 30. Neil Gaiman was cranking out hits like the Sandman, and the first full Catwoman series debuted

Daughters to Work Day started in 1993. Now, it's known as Take Our Daughters and Sons

to Work Day. Beanie Babies also turned 21 this year. The original nine released in 1993 were Pinches

the Lobster, Splash the Whale, Flash the Dolphin, Patty the Platypus, Legs the Frog

Chocolate the Moose, Brownie the Bear, Squealer the Pig, and Spot the Dog. Each of which are

of course, now worth millions of dollars. No, no they aren't. Don't worry, Pinchers, we would never sell you

1993 was also a good year for books, especially ones that would later become movies, like

like Trainspotting, came out and became a hit film three years later. The Virgin Suicides and Girl Interrupted were also released, which were both made into movies

six years later. And Howard Stern's bestseller Private Parts was released in 1993, coinciding with his run

for governor of New York as a libertarian. He ended up withdrawing, but George Pataki, who won, signed the Howard Stern Bill, which

allowed only night construction on Long Island and New York City state roads In 1993 the California Milk Processor Board started its Got Milk ads The first one was a TV commercial directed by American hero Michael Bay

Later print ads went on to feature such 90s celebrities as Neve Campbell, Jonathan Taylor

Thomas and Hanson. Another beverage, Coke, started its Always Coca-Cola campaign the same year, introducing

the computer-animated polar bears that drink Coke. As opposed to actual polar bears, which of course are being decimated thanks to Coke's

gigantic carbon footprint. In their honor, we gave Mark's childhood bear cellophane a Coke full of marbles, but still

Also 21 years ago, Ryan Gosling, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera all

started appearing on the all-new Mickey Mouse Club. If you've never seen it, just picture a lot of kids wearing jean jackets and lip syncing

Basically like a 22-minute Milli Vanilli concert. And finally, I return to my salon to tell you that on June 7, 1993, the musician Prince

changed his name to a symbol. Happy 21st birthday, Prince's symbol! Huzzah

The press release said, It is an unpronounceable symbol whose meaning has not been identified

It's all about thinking in new ways, tuning in to a new frequency

Six weeks before adopting the new name, the artist formerly known as Prince announced

that he had retired, saying that he would stop recording new material, and then he released

two new albums in 1994, one in 1995, and two in 1996

Thanks for watching Men of Floss here on YouTube, which is made with the help of all of these nice people and of course with the help of Prince as well

As we say in my hometown, don't forget to be awesome