1990s

Nirvana's frenetic and sweaty performance at the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. on Oct. 2, 1991 occurred just a few weeks before they exploded into megastardom.

In May 1991, a police shooting in a predominantly Latino Mount Pleasant neighborhood ignited days of clashes, looting, and violence. The events exposed deep mistrust between residents and the Metropolitan Police, prompting a citywide curfew and a tense, citywide reckoning over policing, language, and a changing Washington.

The year was 1993. Spring had come to Washington and the cherry blossoms were blooming, but residents of Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights were on edge. For over a month, a gunman had been on the loose in their neighborhood, targeting pedestrians with a pump action shotgun. By the middle of April, the assailant – who was dubbed the “Shotgun Stalker” by local media outlets – had been linked to nine shootings, three of which were fatal.

In May of 1996, the Democratic National Committee invited Williams to D.C. to perform at a party fundraiser at the old Washington Convention Center. The event was scheduled for Wednesday, May 8, but Mork came to town a day early. After dinner with Vice President Gore, the comedian made his way over to the D.C. Improv on Connecticut Ave. where he surprised the audience -- and perhaps the previously scheduled acts -- with a late-night stand up routine. 

This year's FIFA World Cup has produced some exciting matches. But one of the most thrilling goals in World Cup history actually was scored at Washington's RFK Stadium back in 1994, when the U.S. hosted the global tournament for the first time ever. 

Nelson Mandela, who died December 5, 2013, was mourned worldwide as the leader who beat Apartheid and then worked to promote reconciliation and racial tolerance in South Africa. But just months after he was freed from a South African prison, Mandela created a sensation — and some tense, discomforting moments — when he visited the U.S. and met with then-President George H. W. Bush at the White House.

Velvet Underground singer and guitarist Lou Reed is best known as a lyrical chronicler of New York City's debached avant garde subculture of the 1960s. But Reed also could claim an intriguing distinction in the musical history of the nation's capital.  The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee once was called upon to provide musical entertainment at the White House, at the request of a visiting foreign head of state. 

In 1865, Lewis Powell was tried and hanged along with three other conspirators for their roles in the Lincoln assassination. That should have been the end of the story, but his skull would later surface in an undertaker's collections, the Army Medical Museum, and the Smithsonian before being claimed and finally buried in Florida in 1994.