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Historical Highlights

Following are American/World history highlights as well as Mason City Junior College/North Iowa Area Community College highlights by year. Click on a decade to navigate throughout the timetable.

Note: This information is intended to provide some highlights, not an exhaustive list, of important events over the past 80 years.

1910's 1920's 1930's 1940's 1950's 1960's 1970's 1980's 1990's

1916

1917

1918

1919

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1920

1921

1922

1923

1924

1925

1926

1927

1928

1929

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1930

  • Depression - 25% unemployment
  • Football team has three games, is undefeated
  • Biology offered for first time
  • Enrollment 170

1931

  • Empire State Building opens
  • Japan invades Manchuria
  • Debate Team wins first place in Iowa Intercollegiate Tournament
  • Basketball team's best season to date: 12-3
  • Enrollment 205

1932

  • FDR promises New Deal
  • Lindbergh baby kidnapped
  • First Student Council with majority (3-2) of women
  • Wig & Masque wins first place in State Play Productions Competition with "A Matter of Choice"
  • Second annual basketball prom with Tiny Little and his Tuxes for Teasers playing

1933

  • Frances Perkins first woman Cabinet member in American history
  • National Industrial Recovery Act
  • Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany
  • Prohibition is repealed
  • Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) forms
  • Gazooks hold Turkey Hop at the Surf Thanksgiving Evening featuring Clarence Craven's Golden Gate Band
  • Carl West and his band play for December Homecoming Celebration
  • George Shurey's orchestra plays for May dinner dance at Clear Lake Country Club

1934

  • Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) forms
  • German language classes added to curriculum
  • German and French clubs started
  • Trojans state champions in football
  • Tennis added to JC athletics
  • Enrollment drops to 164 from over 200 last year

1935

  • Social Security enacted
  • Benny Goodman organizes his band
  • Science Club forms
  • JC produces first operetta "The Mikado"
  • Tennis team undefeated

1936

  • Jesse Owens star performer in Berlin
  • Volkswagen invented
  • Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends & Influence People"
  • Engineers Club, Science Club, and International Club (for discussion of world affairs) form
  • College Y sponsors National Book Week
  • Football team wins third consecutive state championship
  • Enrollment 175

1937

  • Hindenburg blows up
  • DuPont patents a new thread, nylon
  • Walt Disney introduces animation with Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs
  • Record 48 courses offered in the fields of English, Languages, Science, Social Science, Mathematics, and Psychology
  • Martin Yoseloff produces his own musical "Let There by Music"
  • Collegiates Club forms to replace Gazooks
  • Wig & Masque play "Gloria Mundi" only one in state competition to receive superior rating
  • Chorus organized

1938

  • New hero "Superman" emerges
  • First minimum wage, 25 cents per hour
  • Basketball team wins state championship
  • Elementary Teachers Education course added
  • Wig & Masque puts on "After Wimpole Street"
  • Trojan Pep Band begins
  • Radio activities begin

1939

  • Wizard of Oz premieres
  • N.Y. World's Fair opens
  • Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath"
  • WWII begins as Germany invades Poland
  • High school room 107 becomes JC Lounge
  • Trojan football team becomes state champ
  • Golf introduced as extra curricular activity
  • Enrollment 263

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1940

  • Katharine Hepburn stars in the Philadelphia Story
  • Tennis team undefeated for third straight year
  • Civilian Pilot Training non-credit course added to curriculum; sponsored and financed by the Civilian Aeronautics Authority
  • Radio Club forms - "Junior College Interlude" regular Thursday night feature on KGLO Radio

1941

  • Pearl Harbor
  • Welle's Citizen Kane
  • Joe Louis wins 17th title defense
  • Manhatten Project to develop A Bomb begins
  • Basketball squad brings home state title in coach Clayton "Chick" Sutherland's final season before becoming freshman coach at Iowa State University

1942

  • Rosie the Riveter is a national symbol
  • JC girls' chorus organized
  • Many students entering armed services, enrollment declines

1943

  • George Washington Carver dies
  • Russians stop Germans at Stalingrad
  • Mark I computer developed
  • Dean Rugland is Field Director for American Red Cross in Europe
  • Luelda Carlton becomes acting Dean
  • Enrollment 46

1944

  • Big four propose United Nations
  • G.I. Bill passed
  • D-Day (Normandy invasion)
  • Nine graduates - 8 women and 1 man
  • Honor roll: 580 in Services, 11 dead, 5 missing in action, 2 prisoners of war
  • Enrollment 35

1945

  • Hitler commits suicide
  • United Nations forms
  • Roosevelt dies, Truman assumes presidency
  • Gates of Nazi death camps open
  • Atomic bombs destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki; World War II ends
  • Ten graduates - 9 women and 1 man
  • 69 Freshmen, veterans account for 25% of total enrollment
  • Mariestelle Miller (Brown) editor of JC section of Masonian

1946

  • Nuremburg trials
  • 800,000 steel workers strike
  • Xerography invented
  • IBM introduces fast electronic calculator
  • Smoking said to cause cancer risk
  • Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech
  • Benjamin Spock - Baby & Child Care
  • 38 sophomores, 154 freshmen
  • JC has its own cheerleaders
  • Volney Hansen coaching football and basketball
  • Bucaneers Vocal Quartet forms
  • 20 graduates - 11 women and 9 men

1947

  • Half of 2.5 million college students are GIs
  • Taft-Hartley labor law passed
  • Jackie Robinson first black to play baseball
  • CIA established
  • C.H. Beem becomes Dean
  • First adult education credit classes added for teacher recertification
  • Future Teachers of America forms
  • JC Rhythm Club forms
  • Basketball team posts 13-7 record
  • First Spinsters Spring Dance (women ask men)
  • Married couples become common at MCJC

1948

  • Associated Press is 100 years old
  • Gandhi assassinated
  • Truman defeats Dewey
  • Network TV begins
  • Truman desegregates armed forces
  • Israel created by U.N.
  • New position of Director of JC goes to Harold J. Snyder
  • "The Billboard" published every two weeks by Collegiate Club
  • Non-credit adult education classes take off
  • JC Usherette group forms to usher at Community Concert and Little Theatre Nites
  • Well-rounded vocational and educational guidance program instituted
  • General education courses added for non-transfer students
  • First summer school for teachers held

1949

  • RCA introduces 45 rpm record
  • Allies organize NATO
  • Communists take over China - nationalists to Taiwan
  • Russia explodes its first A Bomb
  • Speech added as an activity
  • Art Department under Warren Ruby
  • Carlton Stewart hired to lead instrumental music
  • JC newspaper "Troy Tribune" begins
  • Top Notch Teachers (TNT) Club is local chapter of Iowa Future Teachers Association
  • First non-credit adult education night class held
  • Adult Education Council organized
  • Full program of night school classes scheduled

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1950

  • There are 2200 drive-ins
  • RCA makes 3-color TV picture tube
  • Korean War begins
  • McCarthyism vs. Communism in U.S.
  • Alvie M. Sarchett added as Director of Vocational & Adult Education
  • Losing students to armed forces in Korean Conflict
  • Drama Department stages "One Foot in Heaven" by Mason City's own Hartzell Spence

1951

  • U.S. presidency limited to two terms
  • MacArthur fired by Truman as Korean Commander
  • Volney Hansen basketball coach, second place in League at 13-4
  • Speech students, directed by John Fonkert, present KGLO Radio Program
  • Troy Tribune published every other Friday in Globe-Gazette
  • MCJC has served 5,000 students

1952

  • "Don't walk" signs introduced
  • Mechanical heart first used in a human
  • Albert Schweitzer wins Nobel Peace Prize
  • Truman signs Japanese peace treaty
  • U.S. dedicates world's first atomic sub
  • GM offers cars with air cooling
  • Eisenhower President, Nixon Vice President
  • "The Catcher in the Rye" novel released
  • Skyrocket airplane climbs to 13.7 miles
  • Average annual pay $1,436
  • College students of superior scholastic standing subject to draft deferment
  • Annual Fine Arts Christmas presentation "Dust of the Road"
  • Female athletes given a chance to compete against small town teams
  • MCJC on the Air! is weekly radio show
  • Alpha Honor Society forms, becoming first one in the state

1953

  • Salk polio vaccine used successfully
  • Elizabeth II crowned
  • First woman breaks sound barrier
  • Mount Everest conquered
  • Move to suburbs from cities
  • Pregnancy induced with frozen sperm at University of Iowa
  • Stalin dies
  • Armistice ends Korean War
  • Speech Department reactivates Debate Team
  • Spring picnic held at McIntosh Woods
  • 2,106 enrolled in credit and non-credit classes

1954

  • 98% of population hooked up to electric power
  • Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe marry
  • Price cut on first color TV to $1,110
  • Brown vs. Topeka - Supreme Court orders school integration
  • Roger Bannister breaks 4-minute mile
  • Boeing 707 debutes
  • GM produces 50 millionth car
  • Disneyland opens
  • Ernest Hemingway wins Nobel Prize for literature
  • Basketball team finishes second at state tournament
  • TNT Club becomes Phi Theta Alpha

1955

  • Warsaw Pact signed
  • First McDonald's opens in Chicago
  • AFL & CIO merge
  • Chuck Berry cuts "Maybellene"
  • The Mickey Mouse Club premiers
  • Rosa Parks protests bus segregation laws/Martin Luther King is prominent
  • "Troyannum" yearbook introduced
  • College moves to remodeled Memorial University Building on Roosevelt campus
  • Circle K, an affiliate of Kiwanis, is a new organization
  • First year graduation exercises separate from the high school

1956

  • My Fair Lady musical debutes
  • Blacks boycott buses in Alabama; bus lines integrated
  • Elvis Presley, 21, appears on Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town show
  • Drag racing is big
  • Suez Canal War ends
  • Interstate highway construction begins
  • 200 students canvas Mason City to raise over $1,000 for Crippled Children's Drive
  • Student Council urges students to get polio shots
  • Student trophy case added
  • Lutheran Student Association started

1957

  • Pat Boone a hit
  • Civil Rights Commission legislation
  • Soviet Union launches Sputnik
  • Dr. Seuss's "The Cat in the Hat" published
  • Mrs. Juanita Romig directs "Blythe Spirit"
  • Football team wins North Central Trophy with 4-1 record
  • Zeke Hoagland coaches basketball team to 15-3 record
  • Radio show Wednesdays over KRIB
  • HiFi Club starts
  • Delta Psi Omega reactivates

1958

  • Elvis Presley begins service in Army
  • U.S. launches Explorer I satellite
  • Thalidomide linked to 7000 birth defects
  • Mrs. Signe Johnson directs "Smoky Mountain American Folk Opera"
  • Of the 158 students in top half of MCHS '58 graduating class, 102 are attending MCJC

1959

  • Alaska and Hawaii join U.S.
  • Buddy Holly, Big Bopper and Richie Valens give final performance at The Surf
  • Fidel Castro's forces conquer Cuba
  • Two monkies survive American space trip
  • Charleton Heston stars in "Ben Hur"
  • "Sound of Music" opens on Broadway
  • American College Testing Program begins
  • New football coach Art Lundblad posts 5-1-1 record
  • Department of Education directs that Area Technical School be established as a division of the College
  • Electronics Program initiated
  • Intervarsity Club established
  • Student loans available
  • Credit enrollment breaks 500 mark

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1960

  • Black sit-ins integrate lunch counters
  • Doctors introduce artificial kidney
  • Bye Bye Birdie on Broadway
  • First weather lab launched into space
  • Arnold Palmer wins the Masters
  • U-2 spy plane breaks up Big Four Summit
  • Hitchcock releases "Psycho"
  • American Blacks star at Rome Olympics - 34 golds
  • Kennedy and Nixon meet in first TV debate
  • Clark Gable dies
  • Birth control pill made available
  • Golf team reactivated
  • Lyle Johnson baseball coach
  • Paul Behm is band director
  • Business education major area for curriculum development
  • 1000 books added to college library
  • Engineering Club is active with tours of North Iowa engineering firms
  • Tuition $90 residents; $110 non-residents
  • 4,000 enrolled in credit and non-credit classes
  • Six states and four nations represented in freshman class

1961

  • John F. Kennedy becomes youngest President of U.S.
  • M14 in use
  • Oral contraceptives go on sale in U.S.
  • Disney's new hit "101 Dalmations"
  • Soviet Union puts first man in space - Yuri Gagarin
  • Bay of Pigs
  • First American in space - Alan Shepard
  • Ty Cobb dies
  • Communist Wall divides Berlin
  • Chubby Checker is doin' the twist
  • Kennedy sends troops to Vietnam
  • Sabin oral Polio vaccine available to all students
  • Chorus puts on "Trial by Jury"
  • Mechanical Design Program added

1962

  • John Glenn is first American to orbit Earth
  • Cuban missile crisis
  • Signifer Commites, MCJC's newest service club, organized
  • Practial Nursing Program begins

1963

  • Kennedy assassinated
  • Alcatraz no longer a prison
  • James Bond debutes in "Dr. No"
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. "I have a dream..."
  • Circle K opens used book store as coop
  • Chess Club begins
  • Photography class added, taught by Hjalmer Peterson
  • Football team undefeated

1964

  • Beatles invade America
  • Ford introduces Mustang
  • LBJ signs Civil Rights Act
  • Vietnam War begins
  • Bill Eddings, Director of Adult Education, announces 1,445 enrolled spring semester in 63 classes
  • MCJC expansion program hires consultant to advise School Board on building needs
  • Pre-Med Club has active year with 10 members

1965

  • Winston Churchill dies
  • Two Gemini spacecraft rendezvous in space
  • Assassination of Malcolm X
  • Medicare is added to Social Security
  • Iowa's 61st General Assembly enacts legislation permitting the development of a statewide system of two-year postsecondary educational institutions, identified as "merged area schools"
  • Automotive Technology and Air Conditioning & Refrigeration programs added
  • 1/4 student body donates blood in first "bleed-in" for soldiers wounded in Vietnam
  • Medical Secretaries Club organizes
  • Enrollment 1385 credit students

1966

  • Jack Nicklaus first to win two consecutive Masters
  • Twiggy popularizes the miniskirt
  • Walt Disney dies
  • Betty Friedon organizes NOW for women
  • Mason City Junior College becomes North Iowa Area Community College
  • College moves back into remodeled old high school building
  • William F. Berner becomes NIACC's first Superintendent
  • Student Senate sponsors the New Christy Minstrels, Father Tom Vaughn, and the Animals
  • Agriculture added to curriculum
  • Karate Club and Circle A Club form
  • Enrollment over 1700 credit students

1967

  • Elvis and Priscilla marry
  • Thurgood Marshall first black Supreme Court Justice
  • First heart transplant
  • First microwave oven
  • Mickey Mantle hits 500th home run
  • Associate Degree Nursing Program added
  • Comm Skills instructor Roshikumar Pandya introduces students to the sitar; Mitch Ryder, The Association, and the Serendipity Singers perform
  • Governor Harold Hughes visits campus

1968

  • Martin Luther King, Jr. killed
  • Bobby Kennedy assassinated
  • First astronauts orbit moon
  • Nixon elected President
  • Mickey Mouse turns 40
  • NIACC Foundation and NIACC Dormitories, Inc. formed
  • Student newspaper "The Observer" ("Logos") created

1969

  • U.S. lands on the moon
  • Anti-war activists seize college campuses
  • Woodstock festival
  • First flight of Concorde
  • First live color TV pictures of earth from space
  • OK House created

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1970

  • First celebration of Earth Day
  • Students killed at Kent State during Vietnam War demonstration
  • Dr. David Pierce becomes Superintendent of NIACC
  • NIACC moves to its new home - a 300-acre site on the east edge of Mason City
  • McAllister Hall and Building B (Careers Building) - first two permanent buildings - occupied
  • NIACC student war toll: 12

1971

  • Disney World opens
  • First ride on the moon in moon rover
  • Environmental Protection Agency established
  • All classes move to temporary buildings A-G on the new campus, pulling together an operation scattered over 14 locations in Mason City; nearly 5000 attend Open House
  • Full-fledged intramural program begins
  • Nurses produce third annual variety show
  • Voter registration permitted on campus by City Council
  • Jesus Christ, Superstar presented on campus; Mac Davis, The Carpenters perform

1972

  • Last issue of Life Magazine
  • Swimmer Mark Spitz wins 7 gold medals at Olympics
  • Watergate break in
  • NIACC Dormitories constructed
  • Ray Stevens, The James Gang, Rick Nelson, AREO Speedwagon perform
  • Medical Assistant Program begins

1973

  • Vietnam War ceases
  • Roe vs. Wade legalizes abortion
  • Watergate investigation shatters Nixon administration
  • Gas prices soar as energy crisis begins
  • Athletic booster club, Big Blue, organized
  • NIACC wrestling team wins national title
  • Women's basketball team forms
  • Male-female ratio is 1.25 to 1 (850 men/603 women)

1974

  • Hank Aaron hits 715th homer, besting Ruth
  • Nixon quits, Ford becomes President
  • Patty Hearst kidnapped
  • Bjorn Borg, 18, becomes youngest French Open winner
  • Streaking is latest fad on college campuses
  • Enrollment breaks 2000 mark
  • Meredith Willson becomes National Fund Raising Chairman (figurehead) for North Iowa Community Auditorium

1975

  • Box office smash "Jaws" terrifies movie audiences
  • Pet rocks debut
  • South Vietnam falls to Communists
  • NIACC locates Community Education Center in Charles City
  • Veteran enrollment peaks at 549
  • Women's basketball team national runner-up
  • Women's softball team forms
  • Drama Department presents "The Curious Savage"
  • Parking lots paved

1976

  • Nation celebrates 200th birthday
  • Gymnast Nadia Comaneci scores 3 perfect 10s at Olympics
  • Jimmy Carter elected President
  • Vocal Music Department presents first annual "Quodlibet"
  • "Hort of Sorts" Horticulture Club springs up
  • Last season for wrestlers

1977

  • Roots miniseries airs
  • "Star Wars" released
  • Elvis Presley, "The King," dies
  • U.S. population reaches 216 million
  • Clifford H. Beem Center for Learning opens
  • Day care becomes available on campus
  • Dance-a-thon raises money for American Lung Association

1978

  • First test tube baby born in London
  • First transatlantic balloon crossing
  • Jim Jones followers commit mass suicide in Guyana
  • Gym becomes Student Center
  • Humanities and Communications divisions combine
  • Older Women's Club (Older Wiser Learners) forms
  • Cooperative Education begins

1979

  • Pope pays first visit to U.S.
  • Russia invades Afghanistan
  • American hostages taken by Iran
  • Three Mile Island nuclear accident
  • U.S. restores diplomatic relations with China
  • North Iowa Community Auditorium opens its doors
  • Science Annex added to McAllister Hall
  • Women's basketball team goes to nationals
  • Spring play is "Matchmaker"

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1980

  • U.S. Olympics Hockey team brings home the gold
  • Reagan becomes 40th President
  • Former Beatle John Lennon killed
  • Mount St. Helens erupts
  • Original Activity Center completed
  • Women's volleyball team forms
  • Annual Valentine's dinner begins at dorms
  • Weight room opens
  • Ski Club active

1981

  • The royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana
  • Sandra Day O'Connor becomes first female Supreme Court Justice
  • 52 American hostages in Iran freed
  • Dr. David Buettner becomes Superintendent (President)
  • Scuba Club forms
  • Theatre Department stages "Stalin Allee"

1982

  • Tylenol taken off the market
  • Vietnam War Memorial dedicated
  • Pacman is popular video game
  • Barney Clark receives first artificial heart
  • Administration Building is complete
  • Drill team forms
  • Doc Severinsen and band XEBRON peform in Auditorium
  • National Student Nursing Assoc (Nursing Club) has local chapter

1983

  • First American woman Sally Ride's in space
  • Chicago elects first Black mayor
  • 241 marines killed in Beirut by terrorists
  • MTV sparks change in music industry
  • AIDS awareness grows
  • Fine Arts addition completed
  • Kaleidoscope Players forms
  • VAX computer system installed
  • Plus-minus grading system adopted

1984

  • Mary Lou Retton becomes first American woman to get Olympic gold medal in any gymnastics event
  • Carl Lewis sets Olympic record in 200-meter
  • PG-13 rating added
  • Baboon's heart implanted in Baby Fae
  • Reagan and Bush win
  • Michael Jackson's Thriller album released
  • Buena Vista College-Mason City Center finds a home at NIACC
  • Theatre Department presents "The Beverly Hillbillies"

1985

  • Statue of Liberty restored
  • Coca-Cola introduces "New Coke"
  • CDs introduced
  • VCRs are new
  • Divers discover Titanic wreck
  • Fine Arts brick mural completed
  • Displaced Homemaker program begins

1986

  • Space shuttle Challenger explodes, killing seven
  • U.S. celebrates Statue of Liberty's 100th birthday
  • Vocational modernization begins
  • Automated Systems Technology Program added
  • First volleyball team to nationals
  • Circle K reactivates

1987

  • Stock Market crash - biggest 1-day decline in history
  • Hampton Community Education Center joins Center 1
  • NIACC partners with Mercy Hospital to form Regional Health Education Center
  • Credit enrollment breaks 2500 mark

1988

  • Supreme Court votes against private club membership restrictions
  • Law passed to compensate descendents of Japanese-Americans
  • Developmental Education Division forms
  • Lake Mills Community Education Center opens
  • Charles City Community Education Center moves to permanent building
  • Helen Reddy and Nylons peform in Auditorium

1989

  • Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska
  • Blast on Battleship Iowa kills 42
  • Movement for democracy by Chinese students put down
  • Hurricane Hugo devastates South Carolina
  • Berlin Wall falls
  • U.S. invasion of Panama; Noriega captured
  • United DC10 flight 262 crash lands at Sioux City Gateway Airport
  • Auditorium lobby becomes art gallery
  • The Crickets perform in Auditorium

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1990

  • Communism ends in Yugoslavia
  • Nelson Mandela freed in South Africa
  • Supreme Court allows flag burning
  • Iraq invades Kuwait
  • East & West Germany unite
  • Muse-Norris Conference Center dedicated
  • Student Activity Center revamped
  • BACCHUS Club forms
  • Student Senate organizes Thanksgiving dinner for 1133rd families
  • New Building Trades Program starts
  • First NIACC team at Black History Showdown
  • Nursing Program expands
  • New Ag Club organizes

1991

  • Desert Storm/Persian Gulf War
  • Soviet Union dissolves
  • Student apartments added to NIACC Dormitories
  • Commons/dining area of dormitories remodeled, new computer center added
  • NIACC forms largest consortium in state to transform education
  • Official Alumni Association forms
  • Courses offered via telecommunications
  • Japanese offered
  • Common Ground Committee presents first annual Global Awareness Series
  • Extended 3-week summer session added
  • Football team goes to RC Cola Bowl for second consecutive year
  • Credit enrollment breaks 3000 mark

1992

  • L.A. riots
  • Bush/Clinton Election
  • Hurricane Andrew devastates Florida and Louisiana, Hurricane Iniki devastates Hawaiian island
  • Garner Area Community Education Center opens
  • Automatic doors installed in campus buildings
  • NIACC becomes tobacco-free
  • New parquet gymnasium floor laid
  • First "Pathways to Success" Student Leadership awards luncheon held
  • NIACC No-Till Farming Demonstration Center forms
  • Medical Laboratory Technician and Financial Management/Insurance programs added
  • Multicultural Student Union forms
  • Theatre Club reactivates
  • Continuing Education records 72,000 enrollments in 4,669 courses
  • Credit enrollment breaks another record with 3,074 students
  • NIACC celebrates 75th Anniversary

1993

  • William Jefferson Clinton inaugurated
  • North American Free Trade Agreement signed
  • Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization exchange letters of recognition
  • American forces on humanitarian mission to Somalia struggle to leave
  • World Trade Center bombed
  • Iowa damaged by severe flooding
  • Iowa Communications Network created
  • College receives full 10-year reaccreditation by North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (College accredited since 1919)
  • NIACC hosts first annual state Tech Prep Conference in Des Moines
  • First annual Automotive Careers Night held
  • Women's basketball team places sixth at nationals
  • 43 charter members inducted into Alpha Psi Beta chapter of Phi Theta Kappa international honor society
  • Over 200 students receive assistance through Student Support Services Project
  • A record 820 degrees awarded at graduation

1994

  • Republican Party captures the House of Representatives for the first time in
    40 years
  • Olympic-hopeful figure skater Nancy Kerrigan attacked by rival's ex-husband
  • Los Angeles earthquake kills 51
  • CIA operative Aldrich Ames arrested for spying
  • South Africa holds its first ever bi-racial elections
  • Rwandan political struggles results in tens of thousands dead
  • Labor-management impasse cancels World Series
  • Outdoor classroom added featuring engraved bricks
  • National study finds NIACC student academic growth matches that at nation's leading universities
  • Counselor Academy forms

1995

  • OJ Simpson found not guilty of murder in the latest trial of the century
  • US loans $20 billion to Mexico to stabilize its domestic economy
  • Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City truck-bombed
  • Religious terrorists launch nerve gas attack in Japanese subway
  • Cease fire in Bosnia brings hope for peace in ex-Yugoslavia
  • Men’s Basketball team wins national championship
  • Physical Therapist Assistant program begins
  • Barbara Bush highlights NIACC Leadership Series
  • NIACC initiates "Articulation 2000" featuring joint admission with transfer schools
  • Michelle McKeag becomes first Tech Prep graduate
  • NIACC FIRST promotional campaign becomes popular

1996

  • Theodore Kaczynski, suspected Unabomber, arrested
  • TransWorld Airlines flight 800, New York to Paris, explodes, killing all aboard
  • Atlanta Summer Olympics marred by terrorist bombing
  • US troops to Bosnia-Herzagovina to assume humanitarian and peacekeeping role
  • Shannon Lucid ends 188-day stay on Mir space station--longest flight ever by a female
  • President Bill Clinton wins re-election
  • President Clinton visits the campus on February 10th
  • Plant Fund Levy easily passes with 76% approval
  • Automotive Tech Prep Hub opens in Clear Lake
  • Apollo 13's Captain James Lovell lands at NIACC
  • NIACC joins alternative high school arena when the North Iowa Alternative High School opens in Thompson in the fall
  • Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz featured speaker at North Iowa Business Expo
  • College hosts first annual North Iowa Technology Fair
  • Community Education Center opens at Osage Public Library
  • Campus phone prefix changes from 421 to 422 and new toll-free number (1-888-GO NIACC) created
  • David & Phyllis Murphy provide impetus for Murphy Manufacturing Technology Center
  • NIACC becomes entrepreneurial resource with gift from John & Mary Pappajohn
  • Workforce Development Center creates "one-stop shopping"
  • NIACC's initial web site developed

1997

  • Floods devastate Grand Forks, ND and East Grand Forks, MN
  • Hong Kong returned to China
  • The first mammal cloned is Dolly, a Scottish sheep
  • Sojourner explores Mars up close
  • Mir space station suffers a series of problems which threaten the combined space programs of the US and USSR
  • Timothy McVeigh found guilty of Oklahoma City bombing
  • The McCaughey babies, the only living septuplets, are born in Des Moines, IA
  • Murphy Manufacturing Technology Center doors open
  • First class graduates from FastTrac entrepreneurial training programs through John Pappajohn Business & Entrepreneurial Center
  • Over 10,000 people come to campus for the NASA Space Station Exhibit
  • May Term added
  • New Horizons Alternative High School opens in Garner
  • Medical Transcription Option added
  • 99% of Career Program graduates are employed; 96% in training-related jobs
  • Over 300 area high school students get a head start on college through shared Tech Prep programs and Postsecondary Enrollment Options courses

1998

  • El Nino creates havoc around the world
  • NIACC celebrates 80th Anniversary
  • Health services available to students at OK House
  • Beatlemania appears as part of the NIACC Performing Arts Series
  • Information Systems Technology Program added (fall)
  • Mechanical Design Technology Hub opens in Forest City (fall)
  • Murphy Center Grand Opening

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