Wayne’s World. On Valentine’s day of 1992, the SNL sketch graduated to a feature film, and the world was forever grateful. The movie was such a success that it single-handedly made “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen really, really cool.

The first text message. 22-year-old Neil Papworth sent the first text on December 3rd over a cellular network. He said “Merry Christmas” to Vodafone GSM Network director Richard Jarvis… via Vodafone of course.

Barney & Friends. The Purple dinosaur hit the small screen on PBS on April 6th. It was initially imagined by Sheryl Leach, a Dallas elementary school teacher in need of toddler-appropriate programming for her kids.

Mall of America. The largest mall in the US opened its doors in Bloomington, Minnesota on August 11th. It covers 2.7 million square feet, has 400 stores, 14 movie theaters, seven restaurants, five dance clubs and 31,000 trees and shrubs.

Cartoon Network. On October 1st the first all-day channel devoted to cartoons first came on television. The channel was a decision made after TBS bought Hanna-Barbera and its catalog of shows, which consisted of about 1500 hours of animated content.

Wolfenstein 3D. The first-person shooter game debuted on May 5th, and was a massive hit. You played as Allied spy BJ Blazkowicz on a series of anti-Nazi missions during WWII. It’s considered the “grandfather of 3D shooters” and was quickly followed by Doom, which kickstarted the first-person shooter game explosion.

The Dream Team. The 1992 Summer Olympic Games were in Barcelona from July 25th to August 9th, and they’re best known to Americans for the first US men’s basketball team to include NBA players. The all-star lineup included Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Clyde Drexler, Scottie Pippen and Chris Mullin. They won all eight of their Barcelona games with an average lead of 44 points, bringing home the Gold Medal.

Dr. Dre’s The Chronic. Dr. Dre’s first solo album came out on December 15th. It was his first album outside of NWA and had a ton of cameos by Snoop Dogg, which helped start his career.

Super Mario Kart. The Mario Kart franchise premiered in Japan on August 27th and on September 1st in the US. The graphics were considered excellent and it went on to sell more than eight million cartridges.

The JPEG file format. Researchers began working on a computer file format in 1982 that would store photographic data. They wanted to compress images so that they would be easier to download and easy to store. The Joint Photographic Experts Group was formed in 1986 to get it going, and on September 18th of 1992 the first JPEG standard was published.

The nicotine patch. It was first available for prescription order in 1992 and became over-the-counter four years later.

The Muppet Christmas Carol. The Charles Dickens’ adaptation hit theaters on December 11th, and it was the first Muppet movie that Jim Henson didn’t make. He died on May 16th, 1990, so his son took the reigns on directing and Steve Whitmire played Kermit.

The Guns N’ Roses “November Rain” music video. Clocking in at just under 9 minutes, “November Rain” is one of Guns N’ Roses’s longest songs. Its epic music video has over 700 million views on YouTube. At the time it was made it had the highest budget in music video history with $1.5 million. So what does the whole thing mean? According to Slash, he had “no idea.”

The Bodyguard and its soundtrack. On November 25th audiences saw the film starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston in theaters. It was a giant box office hit, but what everyone remembers the most is probably Houston’s iconic cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.”

Jay Leno as a host on The Tonight Show. Johnny Carson ended his run on the NBC late-night show on May 22nd, and three days later Jay Leno was the new host. Billy Crystal was his first guest.

1992 was also a giant year for alternative and hip-hop bands, with bands such as Blink-182, Bush, Hanson, Less Than Jake, and Weezer (among others) all hitting the scene.