1996

1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (dominical letter GF) of the Gregorian calendar, the 1996th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 996th year of the 2nd millennium, the 96th year of the 20th century, and the 7th year of the 1990s decade.

1996 was designated as:

Events

January

Marilyn Manson

Brian Hugh Warner (born January 5, 1969), known professionally as Marilyn Manson, is an American musician, songwriter, actor, painter, multimedia artist, and former music journalist. He is known for his controversial stage personality and image as the lead singer of the band Marilyn Manson, which he co-founded with Daisy Berkowitz and of which he remains the only constant member. His stage name was formed by juxtaposing the names of two American cultural icons, namely actress Marilyn Monroe and murderer Charles Manson.

He is best known for his band's records released in the 1990s, most notably Antichrist Superstar and Mechanical Animals, which along with his public image earned him a reputation in the mainstream media as a controversial figure and an allegedly negative influence on young people. In the U.S. alone, three of the band's albums have been awarded platinum and three more went gold, and the band has had eight releases debut in the top ten, including two number-one albums. Manson has been ranked number 44 in the Top 100 Heavy Metal Vocalists by Hit Parader, and has been nominated for four Grammy Awards.

Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider, styled as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider between 2001 and 2007, is a media franchise that originated with an action-adventure video game series created by British gaming company Core Design. Formally owned by Eidos Interactive, then by Square Enix after their acquisition of Eidos in 2009, the franchise focuses on the archaeologist-adventurer Lara Croft, who travels the globe searching for lost artifacts and infiltrating dangerous tombs and ruins. The character was created by a team at Core Design that included Toby Gard. The gameplay generally focuses around action-adventure exploration of environments, solving puzzles, navigating hostile environments filled with traps, and fighting numerous enemies.

Development on the original game began in 1993. Its success prompted Core Design to develop a new game annually for the next four years, which put a strain on staff. The sixth game, The Angel of Darkness, faced difficulties during development and was considered a failure at release. This prompted Eidos to switch development duties to Crystal Dynamics, which has been the series' primary developer since then. Other developers have contributed either to spin-off titles within the series or ports of mainline titles.