Top National Stories ‘96 - The Year In Review

1. TWA explosion

The sad, lingering saga of TWA’s Flight 800 was overwhelmingly voted the year’s top story. The jet mysteriously exploded moments after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport on July 17, killing all 230 people on board.

The images were heart-wrenching; Sixteen members of a high school French Club from Montoursville, Pa., wiped out on their first trip to France; Charred bodies and fuselage scattered over the Atlantic, dredged up with sickening slowness over the next several months; 15 empty coffins for the bodies that couldn’t be found.

2. U.S. election

Bill Clinton sailed into a second term after an expensive - and many said uninspiring - presidential campaign. From the start, the Democratic President’s lead in the polls was luxurious. He easily - if only temporarily - deflected questions about ethics, Asian money and Whitewater.

Republican challenger Bob Dole fumbled and stumbled and berated the media for his problems, including his inability to sell a 15 percent tax cut.

3. Olympic bomb

He was hailed as a hero, hounded as a suspect, and finally cleared by the FBI. Richard Jewell said he was “just doing his job” when he spotted a suspicious satchel in Centennial Olympic Park and notified police. The July 27 explosion killed Alice Hawthorne of Albany, Ga., and injured more than 100 others; it stained the already besieged games, and further diminished Americans’ sense of security.

It also changed Jewell’s life forever. For nearly three months, every detail of the 33-year-old security guard’s past was aired in the press, until the FBI announced he was not a suspect. The bomber has yet to be found.

4. Unabomber arrest

5. Everglades crash

“We’re on fire. We’re on fire,” a voice cried from the cabin, moments before ValuJet Flight 592 plunged into the Everglades on May 11, killing all 110 people aboard. Recovery proved gruesome and grueling. Divers wore special protective suits as they searched in waist-high swamp muck and razor-sharp sawgrass, while sharpshooters tried to protect them from alligators. The fire that caused the crash was eventually blamed on improperly boxed oxygen canisters and the quirky little airline with the happy face logo and the super cheap rates was grounded for 15 weeks. One result: a continuing investigation into the safety record of discount airlines and the ability of the Federal Aviation Administration to monitor them.

6. Welfare ends

Acknowledging that the new law was “seriously flawed,” President Clinton signed it anyway, ending welfare as we know it.

At its heart, the legislation dismantled Aid to Families With Dependent Children, a 6-decade-old program that guaranteed the nation’s needy a federal safety net. Now they must rely on their states for help. The law comes with strict new rules, including a lifetime limit of five years, stringent work requirements, and cuts in food stamps and aid to immigrants and disabled children.

7. Centennial games

A bomb explodes, buses break down, and a feisty little gymnast flips on an injured ankle and wins the nation’s heart. The 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta will be remembered for the bombing, for rampant commercialism, for transportation problems and “warm and fuzzy” television images designed to appeal to women. And for sports heroes: Muhammad Ali lighting the flame, Kerri Strug being carried to the podium to collect her gold medal, Carl Lewis winning his ninth gold medal, Michael Johnson triumphing on gold-shod feet.

8. Government shuts down

Thousands of federal workers began the year with partial paychecks or no pay at all, while tourists at the Capitol could view only the outside of darkened museums and monuments. Republicans blamed Clinton for the partial government shutdown - the second in as many months - because he vetoed several spending bills that would have financed federal agencies for the year. Democrats blamed Republicans for insisting on unacceptable spending cuts. The stopand-go government chugged on until April, ending with a $159 billion budget compromise for which both parties claimed victory.

9. The boom continues

The stock market soared, the deficit was down and unemployment neared a seven-year low. The economy is undoubtedly healthy - too healthy, some think. Witness the nervous reaction to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s December speech cautioning against “irrational exuberance” in financial markets, which sent stock markets tumbling from Tokyo to New York.

10. Big blizzard

A monster storm paralyzed the Northeast and Midwest, breaking all kinds of records and capping a never-ending winter. At least 50 deaths were blamed on the blizzard. Nine months later a bumper crop of births was blamed on the same thing.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by the Associated Press in a poll of newspaper editors