A lot has happened in the world since 1986:
- DNA was first used to convict criminals (1987).
- Pan Am flight 103 was bombed over Lockerbie, Scotland (1988).
- The Berlin Wall fell (1989).
- Lech Walesa became President of Poland, Nelson Mandela was freed, and Iraq invaded Kuwait (1990).
- The Soviet Union collapsed (1991).
- Riots in Los Angeles followed the Rodney King verdict (1992).
- The World Trade Center was bombed—the first time (1993).
- The Channel Tunnel linked Britain and Europe (1994).
- The Oklahoma City federal building was bombed (1995).
- Mad Cow disease hit Britain (1996).
- A sheep was cloned (1997).
- President Clinton was impeached (1998).
- Throughout much of the European Community, the Euro became the new currency (1999).
- Every personal computer in the world did not crash due to the dreaded “Y2K bug” (2000).
What do these events have in common besides happening since 1986? Public school students will not learn about them from half of the books in Colorado school libraries. Why? Because those books have copyright dates of 1986 or earlier. (In other words, 1986 is the median for average copyright year.) The average copyright date for school library books is 1987.
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