February 24th to April 6th Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm).

June 5th South African Parliament repeals apartheid laws

July 1st Warsaw Pact dissolved

July 10th Boris Yeltsin elected President of Russia

August 6th The World Wide Web is launched to the public

October 5th Linus Torvalds releases first version of the Linux operating system kernel

November 18th Anglican envoy Terry Waite and U.S. Prof. Thomas M. Sutherland freed.

November 23rd Freddie Mercury told the world that he had AIDS. He died peacefully at home the following day.

December 21st Representatives of 11 former Soviet Republics met in Alma Ata and signed the founding "Declaration of the Commonwealth of Independent States" – a loose confederation of the former Republics.

Four days later, Gorbachev announced his resignation and the Soviet Union ceased to exist.

The inflation rate hit 9% in 1991.

The average income was £19,000.

Petrol cost 39.5 pence per litre or about £1.80 per gallon.

A large white sliced loaf cost about 54 pence.

A pint of milk cost 32 pence.

A pint of beer cost around £1.37

The average house price stood at £73,000.

Norman Lamont increased VAT from 15% to 17.5%

The Bank of England Interest rate hit 13.375% on 13th Feb.

Stars by Simply Red was a top selling album along with The Immaculate Collection by Madonna.

In December Queen had 10 albums in the UK Top 100. They also had Bohemian Rhapsody /These Are The Days Of Our Lives, released as a double A-sided single to raise funds for the Terence Higgins Trust. It entered the UK chart at No. 1, where it stayed for five weeks, raising over £1,000,000 for the charity.

Chart hits included Iron Maiden - Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter, The Clash - Should I Stay Or Should I Go, Jason Donovan - Any Dream Will Do, Bryan Adams - (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, Michael Jackson - Black Or White and George Michael & Elton John - Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me.

Others in the charts included Chesney Hawkes - The One And Only, Rod Stewart - Rhythm Of My Heart, Cher - The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss), Guns 'N' Roses - You Could Be Mine, Right Said Fred - I'm Too Sexy, Monty Python - Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life and Diana Ross - When You Tell Me That You Love Me.

The requirement for all rear seat passengers to wear seat belts where fitted was introduced.

In October the Dartford (Queen Elizabeth) Bridge opened. It took three years to build and cost £86 Million.

BMW show a battery powered E1 concept car that never went into production. Citroen introduced the Citela, an urban concept car, with a range of 130 miles and a top speed of 70 mph.. Both of these vehicles were inspired by the sudden increase in fuel costs following the Gulf war.

Volkswagen begins its new joint venture with Skoda.

In the 1990/91 football season Arsenal won the old Division One Championship with 83 points. They had two points deducted for failing to control their players. Liverpool finish second with 76 points and Crystal Palace are third with 69 points. Manchester United finish in sixth place with just 59 points. They had one point deducted for failing to control their players.

Arsenal won 24 games, drew 13 and lost only 1 game all season. They scored 74 goals that season and conceded only 18. Liverpool scored 77 goals but conceded 40.

Relegated to Division Two were Luton town with 37 points, Sunderland with 34 points and Derby County with 24 points.

West Ham United, Middlesbrough, Newcastle United, Blackburn Rovers, West Bromwich Albion and Hull City were all playing in Division 2. West Bromwich and Hull were relegated.

Bolton Wanderers, Wigan Athletic, Stoke City and Fulham were all playing in Division Three.

Torquay United playing in Division Four finished 7th and in the third play-off place. Proving that the highest team seldom wins a play-off they beat Burnley 2-1 on aggregate. They then played Blackpool, the top finishing play-off team, in the final at Wembley and drew 2-2 but won 5-4 on penalties.

Sheffield Wednesday beat Manchester United 1-0 in the League Cup Final.

Tottenham Hotspurs beat Nottingham Forest 2-1 in the F.A. Cup Final.

PETER SCHMEICHEL signed for Manchester United from Brondby for £550,000. To put this deal into perspective the World Record transfer fee at that time was £8 million that Juventus paid Fiorentina for Roberto Baggio in 1990. So Alex Ferguson was probably correct to call Schmeichel's transfer “the bargain of the century”

This was also the year that saw the first £5 million pound English player when David Platt went from Aston Villa to AS Bari.