Good morning.

By September 1991, the future was arriving — just not all at once.

Movies still came home on VHS tapes. Music lived on cassettes and increasingly on CDs. The television was still something the household gathered around, while a new generation of video-game hardware was beginning to reach American stores.

There was no smartphone in your pocket. No streaming menu waiting on the screen.

But the world outside the family room was changing quickly.

In the Soviet Union, an old political order was coming apart almost in real time.

We'll get there in a moment.

First, let's see what September 5 has left behind.

1774 — The First Continental Congress convened. Delegates from 12 of Britain's 13 American colonies gathered at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia to coordinate a response to British policies. Independence was not yet their declared goal — but the colonies were beginning to act together.

1882 — The first Labor Day celebration was held in New York City. Thousands of workers marched through Manhattan in an event organized by the city's labor movement. More than a decade before Labor Day became a federal holiday, it began as a public demonstration of organized labor's growing strength.

1905 — The Treaty of Portsmouth was signed. The agreement formally ended the Russo-Japanese War after negotiations in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. President Theodore Roosevelt had helped bring the two sides together and mediate the peace.

1957 — Jack Kerouac's On the Road was published. The novel followed Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty across an America of highways, jazz, restless friendships and constant movement. It became one of the defining books associated with the Beat Generation.

1977 — Voyager 1 launched. NASA sent the spacecraft into space from Cape Canaveral on a mission to explore the outer solar system. Its journey would eventually carry it farther from Earth than any other human-made object.

1997 — Mother Teresa died. The Catholic nun and missionary, known worldwide for her work with the poor through the Missionaries of Charity, died in Kolkata, India, at age 87.

September 5 is also informally celebrated as National Cheese Pizza Day.

Like plenty of food holidays, its origins are difficult to pin down, and it isn't an official observance.

But on a Saturday, cheese pizza doesn't need much of an argument.

Now let's rewind to a Thursday in 1991.

Home still felt mostly analog.

You might rent a VHS tape for the weekend, buy music on cassette or CD, leave a message on someone's answering machine and sit down to watch whatever happened to be on television that night.

But the electronics around the house were changing.

A new generation of Nintendo hardware was beginning to reach American stores, promising more elaborate games and another reason to negotiate for control of the family television.

Physical media was everywhere.

So were cords, cartridges, tapes and plastic cases.

It was a world that still looked familiar from the decade before — but some of the habits and technology of the 1990s were beginning to settle into place.

And outside the living room, something much larger was happening.

On September 5, 1991, the Soviet Congress of People's Deputies approved a sweeping political transition.

The failed coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was only weeks in the past. Republics across the Soviet Union were asserting greater independence, and the authority of the old central government was rapidly weakening.

Now the Congress itself was giving way to a new interim political structure.

The Soviet Union had not formally ended.

That would come later.

But on this Thursday in September, the system that had governed one of the world's two superpowers was visibly being dismantled.

For anyone watching the news that night, history wasn't waiting for the end of the year.

It was happening in real time.

Two months after arriving in theaters, Terminator 2: Judgment Day was still drawing American moviegoers.

Arnold Schwarzenegger had returned as the Terminator — but this time the machine that once hunted Sarah Connor was protecting her son, John, from a more advanced threat.

The movie mixed science fiction, action and groundbreaking visual effects on a scale built for the big screen.

And by early September, audiences clearly weren't finished with it.

On September 5, Terminator 2 was still sitting at the top of the domestic daily box-office rankings.

Not bad for a movie that had been playing since July.

The biggest song on the Billboard Hot 100 was:

Bryan Adams — “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You.”

By the chart dated September 7, the power ballad was still firmly at No. 1.

It had become one of those songs that seemed almost impossible to escape — on the radio, in the car, at home.

Just below the top, the chart was already offering hints of another direction.

Boyz II Men's “Motownphilly” was climbing near the top.

One song was dominating the moment.

Another was helping point toward what the decade would sound like next.

Less than a week earlier, at the World Championships in Tokyo, Mike Powell had produced one of track and field's unforgettable performances.

His long jump:

8.95 meters.

It broke the world record set by Bob Beamon in 1968 — a mark that had stood for nearly 23 years.

Powell did it in an extraordinary competition against Carl Lewis, who finished second.

By September 5, the championship was over.

But the number was brand new.

8.95.

For track fans in 1991, one of the sport's most famous records had just fallen.

By 1991, the television landscape looked a little different from the three-network world of earlier Rewinds.

ABC, CBS and NBC were still the giants.

But FOX was now an increasingly visible part of prime time.

Local affiliates could still delay, preempt or substitute programs, so exactly what appeared on your television depended partly on where you lived.

But on Thursday, September 5, the major-network schedule looked like this:

ABC — Father Dowling Mysteries opened prime time, followed by American Detective and Primetime Live.

CBS — Top Cops led into The Trials of Rosie O'Neill, followed by Verdict.

NBC — The Cosby Show and A Different World opened the evening, followed by Cheers, Wings and L.A. Law.

And then there was the newer network:

FOX — The Simpsons at 8:00, Parker Lewis Can't Lose at 8:30 and Beverly Hills, 90210 at 9:00.

That FOX lineup says something about television in 1991.

The network was younger than its three established rivals, and shows like The Simpsons and Beverly Hills, 90210 were helping give it an identity of its own.

If you could binge one show from this 1991 lineup this weekend, which would you choose?

If you visited Disneyland in 1991, some familiar television characters had moved beyond the TV screen.

That year, Disneyland was running Disney Afternoon Avenue, a temporary Fantasyland promotion inspired by the animated shows airing in the syndicated Disney Afternoon television block.

The area around “it's a small world” received a playful television-inspired makeover, bringing the world of weekday cartoons into the park itself.

It was a distinctly 1991 idea:

characters you might watch after school becoming part of a Disneyland visit.

The promotion ran through much of 1991, so on September 5, Disney Afternoon Avenue was still part of the park experience.

Saturday morning can make sleeping much later than usual pretty tempting.

But one of the simplest habits for supporting healthy sleep is consistency.

Going to bed and getting up at roughly the same times each day helps keep your sleep schedule regular.

That doesn't mean every day has to run like a stopwatch.

It simply means that a regular sleep schedule is one basic habit that can support better sleep.

A few basics can help:

Keep your bedtime reasonably consistent.

Try to wake up around the same time each day.

Give yourself a calm wind-down before bed.

And make your bedroom as quiet and comfortable as you reasonably can.

Good sleep doesn't require a complicated formula.

Sometimes, consistency is a useful place to start.

Take the free health assessment →

Health Snap provides general wellness information, not individualized medical advice.

You're sharing your date with composers, comedians, actors and musicians.

🎂 John Cage — 1912 — Experimental composer known for works including 4′33″

🎂 Bob Newhart — 1929 — Comedian and television star of The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart

🎂 Raquel Welch — 1940 — Actress known for Fantastic Voyage and One Million Years B.C.

🎂 Freddie Mercury — 1946 — Singer, songwriter and legendary frontman of Queen

🎂 Michael Keaton — 1951 — Actor known for Mr. Mom, Beetlejuice and Batman

🎂 Rose McGowan — 1973 — Actress known for Scream and Charmed

Is September 5 your birthday?

Tell us — we'd love to hear from you.

And if someone you know was born today, send them this issue and show them what was happening on their day.

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