In June 1990, with the No. 2 selection in the 1990 NBA Draft (highest in team history), the SuperSonics select guard Gary Payton from Oregon State. Payton finishes his career at Oregon State Universit...
On June 23, 1990, the downtown Seattle Waterfront Streetcar begins operating through Pioneer Square to a terminus at 5th Avenue and Jackson Street, across from the International District Station of th...
On June 23, 1990, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. This results in old-growth ti...
On July 20, 1990, Ted Turner's Goodwill Games open in Seattle. Conceived as an apolitical alternative to the Olympics, the games promise international goodwill through world-class competition. Some 2,...
On August 4, 1990, Pista sa Nayon, an annual Filipino American celebration featuring traditional food, arts, crafts, and entertainment, is held for the first time in Seattle at the Rainier Playfield, ...
On August 6, 1990, dedication ceremonies are held for the Seattle Peace Park. Quaker peace activist Floyd Schmoe (1895-2001) conceived the park as both a monument to world peace and a way to beautify ...
On August 23, 1990, a modified Boeing 747 replaces aging 707s as the official aircraft of America's presidents. Although Air Force One is used as the call sign for any aircraft carrying the president,...
On August 29, 1990, the King County Council adopts a controversial Sensitive Areas Ordinance that regulates and limits new development in or near wetlands, streams, and steep slopes. Originally propo...
On September 5, 1990, the San Juan County Board of County Commissioners approves Ordinance No. 142-1990, creating a land bank to conserve natural areas in the county, whose small land area is scattere...
On September 6, 1990, Federal District Court Judge William Dwyer (1929-2002) rules in the case of Cunningham v. Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle, 751 F.Supp. 885 (W.D. Wash. 1990) that the federat...
On September 15, 1990, Metro Transit buses begin regular service in the new downtown Seattle transit tunnel. The route is used by new "dual-mode" buses which switch from diesel to electric power upon ...
On September 28, 1990, the leaders of both houses of the state Legislature, Democratic House Speaker Joe King and Republican Senate Majority Leader Jeannette Hayner (1919-2010), sign a letter proposed...
On October 1, 1990, the University of Washington's Tacoma Campus begins classes for 176 students in the Perkins Building at 1103 A Street. The temporary location is designed to serve approximately 400...
On October 1, 1990, the University of Washington (UW) opens its Bothell Branch with 155 juniors and seniors. The location at the Canyon Park Business Center is temporary until construction of a perman...
On October 8, 1990, E. Donnall Thomas, M.D. (1920-2012) is named as a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine. The award honors the Bellevue resident for some 40 years of research on bone marrow tran...
On October 14, 1990, in Seattle's Nisei Veterans Hall, the United States government officially apologizes to five Japanese Americans, ages 100 and over, who had been unjustly incarcerated during the i...
On Monday, October 22, 1990, a fresh band composed of veteran Seattle rock musicians -- and a new singer named Eddie Vedder (b. 1964) recently recruited from California -- debuts at the Off Ramp Cafe ...
On November 6, 1990, Washington voters reject an initiative to limit growth. Republicans retain control of the state Senate and the Democratic majority in the House slips. Voters in five counties reso...
On November 16, 1990, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA - 25 U.S.C. §3001 et seq.) passes the 101st Congress. The law addresses the rights of lineal descen...
On November 16, 1990, playwright August Wilson (1945-2005) moves to Seattle. He is in the midst of composing his monumental, 10-play cycle chronicling African American life in the twentieth century, w...
On November 25, 1990, after a week of high winds and rain, the 50-year old Lacey V. Murrow Bridge (Lake Washington Floating Bridge) breaks apart and plunges into the mud beneath Lake Washington. Since...
On November 29, 1990, Seattle's pioneering hip-hop label, Nastymix Records, triumphantly hosts a party to celebrate its first five years of amazing success. In that brief period the company has emerge...
On December 17, 1990, winter storms cause more than $3 million damage to the vessels and ferry terminals operated by Washington State Ferries. This is the largest amount of storm damage endured by the...
On January 14, 1991, 2,500 anti-war protesters march in downtown Seattle against the Gulf War. Approximately two dozen persons are arrested for stopping traffic on the Interstate 5 freeway. Two days l...