This is a list of people and topics appearing on the cover of Time magazine in the 1990s. Time was first published in 1923. As Time became established as one of the United States' leading news magazines, an appearance on the cover of Time became an indicator of notability, fame or notoriety. Such features were accompanied by articles.
For other decades, see Lists of covers of Time magazine.
| Date | Names or topics |
|---|---|
| January 1 | Mikhail Gorbachev, Man of the Decade |
| January 8 | Rumania & Panama |
| January 15 | Antarctica |
| January 22 | Charles Stuart |
| January 29 | Joe Foss |
| February 5 | Nelson Mandela |
| February 12 | Military Spending |
| February 19 | Starting Over: Mikhail Gorbachev & Vladimir Lenin |
| February 26 | Michael Milken |
| March 5 | Gossip |
| March 12 | Soviet Union |
| March 19 | Pete & Christine Busalacchi |
| March 26 | Germany |
| April 2 | Richard Nixon |
| April 9 | America's Demographics |
| April 16 | Colossal Colliders |
| April 23 | Dan Quayle |
| April 30 | Vietnam: 15 Years Later |
| May 7 | Foul-Mouthed Pop Culture |
| May 14 | Andrei Sakharov |
| May 21 | John Sununu |
| May 28 | Emergency Rooms |
| June 4 | Mikhail Gorbachev |
| June 11 | Scott Turow |
| June 18 | Child Warriors: Tin Hle in Karen conflict |
| June 25 | The Spotted Owl |
| July 2 | Nelson Mandela |
| July 9 | Abortion's Questions |
| July 16 | The Next Generation |
| July 23 | The Palestinians |
| July 30 | Helmut Kohl |
| August 6 | David Souter |
| August 13 | Saddam Hussein |
| August 20 | Saddam Hussein & George H. W. Bush |
| August 27 | War in the Gulf? |
| September 3 | GI in Saudi Arabia |
| September 10 | Saddam Hussein |
| September 17 | New York City |
| September 24 | King Fahd |
| October 1 | David Lynch |
| October 8 | America's Children |
| October 15 | High Anxiety (Harold Lloyd in Safety Last!) |
| October 22 | Wynton Marsalis |
| October 29 | GM's Saturn |
| November 1 | Special Issue: Women |
| November 5 | Ronald Reagan |
| November 12 | Dick Cheney & Colin Powell |
| November 19 | U.S. Congress |
| November 26 | The Junk Mail Explosion |
| December 3 | Margaret Thatcher |
| December 10 | U.S. Soldier |
| December 17 | Too Little Rest |
| December 24 | Kuwait |
| December 31 | Bart Simpson |
| Date | Names or topics |
|---|---|
| January 7 | George H. W. Bush, Man of the Year |
| January 14 | Breast Cancer |
| January 21 | Saddam Hussein |
| January 28 | America Declares War |
| February 4 | Norman Schwarzkopf |
| February 11 | Saddam's Weird War (Battle of Khafji) |
| February 18 | Thomas Jenkins |
| February 25 | The End of the Gulf War in Sight |
| March 4 | Allied Troops Enter Kuwait |
| March 11 | Kuwait is Liberated |
| March 18 | The Troops Come Home |
| March 25 | Boris Yeltsin |
| April 1 | Why Cops Turn Violent |
| April 8 | The Simple Life |
| April 15 | Saddam's Postwar Victims |
| April 22 | Nancy Reagan |
| April 29 | Nuclear Power |
| May 6 | Scientology Exposed |
| May 13 | Kids of Crack Addicted Parents |
| May 20 | A Possible New Vice President for Bush: Dick Cheney, Nancy Kassebaum, Pete Wilson, Carroll A. Campbell Jr. & Colin Powell |
| May 27 | The Magic of Orlando |
| June 3 | Katie Koestner |
| June 10 | The Nature of Evil |
| June 17 | Marissa & Anissa Ayala |
| June 24 | Geena Davis & Susan Sarandon |
| July 1 | Inside the Cocaine Business |
| July 8 | Who Are Americans? |
| July 15 | What's in a Label? |
| July 22 | The Colorado River |
| July 29 | The B.C.C.I. Scandal |
| August 5 | Saddam Hussein |
| August 12 | The American Character |
| August 19 | John McCarthy & Terry Anderson |
| August 26 | Science Under Siege |
| September 2 | Boris Yeltsin |
| September 9 | The Soviet Union in Chaos |
| September 16 | Lamar Alexander |
| September 23 | Vanishing Cultures (Highland tribesman from Papua New Guinea) |
| September 30 | Curing Infertility |
| October 7 | A New Nuclear Balance |
| October 14 | Jodie Foster |
| October 21 | Anita Hill & Clarence Thomas |
| October 28 | Oliver North |
| November 4 | New Age Medicine |
| November 11 | Privacy in America |
| November 18 | California's Dilemma |
| November 25 | The Health-Care Crisis |
| December 2 | Pearl Harbor Remembered |
| December 9 | One Nation, Under God |
| December 16 | Terry Anderson |
| December 23 | Mikhail Gorbachev |
| December 30 | Search for Virgin Mary |
| Date | Names or topics |
|---|---|
| January 6 | Ted Turner, Man of the Year |
| January 13 | The Recession |
| January 20 | Why Are Men and Women Different? |
| January 27 | Bill Clinton |
| February 3 | The Fraying of America |
| February 10 | Japan & America |
| February 17 | Vanishing Ozone |
| February 24 | Ronald Reagan & John Paul II |
| March 2 | Angry Voter |
| March 9 | Susan Faludi & Gloria Steinem |
| March 16 | Jay Leno |
| March 23 | Bill Clinton & Paul Tsongas |
| March 30 | Garth Brooks |
| April 6 | Vitamins |
| April 13 | High Cost of College |
| April 20 | Bill Clinton |
| April 27 | Pan Am 103 |
| May 4 | Roe v. Wade |
| May 11 | Los Angeles Riots |
| May 18 | Roger Keith Coleman |
| May 25 | Ross Perot |
| June 1 | World Conservation Summit |
| June 8 | The Balkans (Executed Croat in Vukovar) |
| June 15 | Sam Walton |
| June 22 | Allergies |
| June 29 | Ross Perot |
| July 6 | Pills for the Mind (Kevin Buchberger) |
| July 13 | World's Last Eden |
| July 20 | Bill Clinton & Al Gore |
| July 27 | Kim Zmeskal |
| August 3 | AIDS Epidemic |
| August 10 | Doomsday Plan |
| August 17 | The Balkans (Prisoners in a detention camp) |
| August 24 | George H. W. Bush |
| August 31 | Woody Allen |
| September 7 | Agony of Africa |
| September 14 | Hillary Clinton |
| September 21 | Candice Bergen |
| September 28 | The Economy |
| October 5 | Lying |
| October 12 | George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton & Ross Perot |
| October 15 | The New Millennium |
| October 19 | Bill Clinton & George H. W. Bush |
| October 26 | Ötzi the Stone Age Man |
| November 2 | Bill Clinton |
| November 9 | Can GM Survive? |
| November 16 | Bill Clinton |
| November 23 | God & Women |
| November 30 | Princess Diana |
| December 7 | Russia (Kolkhoz women photographed by Margaret Bourke-White) |
| December 14 | Somalia's Agony |
| December 21 | U.S. Enters Somalia |
| December 28 | Science & God |
| Date | Names or topics |
|---|---|
| January 4 | Bill Clinton, Man of the Year |
| January 11 | Problems of Megacities |
| January 18 | Rita Collins |
| January 25 | Bill Clinton |
| February 1 | Zoe Baird |
| February 8 | Cyberpunk |
| February 15 | Chemistry of Love |
| February 22 | Bill Clinton as Uncle Sam |
| March 1 | Bill Clinton |
| March 8 | World Trade Center Bombing |
| March 15 | David Koresh & Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman |
| March 22 | Can Animals Think? |
| March 29 | Boris Yeltsin |
| April 5 | Boomers at Church |
| April 12 | Information Superhighway |
| April 19 | Los Angeles |
| April 26 | Dinosaurs |
| May 3 | David Koresh |
| May 10 | Hillary Clinton |
| May 24 | Kids, Sex & Values |
| May 31 | Dr. Jack Kevorkian |
| June 7 | Bill Clinton on the Decline |
| June 14 | RU 486: Birth Control |
| June 21 | Global Prostitution |
| June 28 | Fatherhood |
| July 5 | Striking at Terrorism |
| July 12 | Janet Reno |
| July 19 | The Adoption Quandary |
| July 26 | Floods in the Midwest |
| August 2 | Kids & Guns |
| August 9 | Maya Culture |
| August 16 | Overturning Reaganomics |
| August 23 | America the Violent |
| August 30 | David Letterman |
| September 6 | Boom Time in the Rockies |
| September 13 | Yitzhak Rabin & Yasser Arafat |
| September 20 | Clinton's Health Plan |
| September 27 | Video Games |
| October 4 | Muslim Militant Mahmud the Red |
| October 11 | How Life Began |
| October 18 | Michael Durant |
| October 25 | Eddie Vedder |
| November 1 | Howard Stern & Rush Limbaugh |
| November 8 | Cloning Humans |
| November 15 | Billy Graham |
| November 18 | The New Face of America |
| November 22 | A New Job Climate |
| November 29 | Is Freud Dead? |
| December 6 | Fidel Castro |
| December 13 | Bob Eaton, Alex Trotman & Jack Smith |
| December 20 | Enough Violence |
| December 27 | Angels |
| Date | Names or topics |
|---|---|
| January 3 | Yitzhak Rabin, Yasser Arafat, F.W. De Klerk & Nelson Mandela, Men of the Year |
| January 10 | Las Vegas |
| January 17 | Genetic Science: How Far Do We Go? |
| January 24 | Tonya Harding & Nancy Kerrigan |
| January 31 | California Earthquake |
| February 7 | Tough on Crime |
| February 14 | Gender Politics |
| February 21 | Tonya Harding & Nancy Kerrigan |
| February 28 | Louis Farrakhan |
| March 7 | Aldrich Ames |
| March 14 | Rewriting Evolution |
| March 21 | Hillary Rodham & Bill Clinton |
| March 28 | Endangered Tigers |
| April 4 | Bill Clinton & George Stephanopoulos |
| April 11 | Derivatives on Wall Street |
| April 18 | Battle Against Tobacco |
| April 25 | Fighting Cancer |
| May 2 | Richard Nixon |
| May 9 | Nelson Mandela |
| May 16 | War in Rwanda |
| May 23 | Comet Hits Jupiter |
| May 30 | Jacqueline Kennedy |
| June 6 | Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| June 13 | Kim Il Sung |
| June 20 | Welfare Reform |
| June 27 | O. J. Simpson |
| July 4 | Domestic-Abuse Victim 'Rita' |
| July 11 | Vladimir Zhirinovsky |
| July 18 | Attention Deficit Disorder |
| July 25 | The Internet |
| August 1 | Rwandan Refugees |
| August 8 | Hipper Than Thou |
| August 15 | Infidelity |
| August 22 | Baseball Strike |
| August 29 | Nuclear Terrorists |
| September 5 | Fidel Castro |
| September 12 | Killer Microbes |
| September 19 | Robert Sandifer |
| September 26 | U.S. Enters Haiti |
| October 3 | Jimmy Carter |
| October 10 | Bill T. Jones |
| October 17 | Sex in America |
| October 24 | Poverty in Boom Times |
| October 31 | New Hope for Public Schools |
| November 7 | Newt Gingrich |
| November 14 | Susan Smith |
| November 21 | The G.O.P. Storms Washington |
| November 28 | William Shatner & Patrick Stewart |
| December 5 | 50 Leaders for America's Future |
| December 12 | The Dangers of Overbreeding Dogs |
| December 19 | Newt Gingrich as Uncle Scrooge |
| December 26 | John Paul II, Man of the Year |
| Date | Names or topics |
|---|---|
| January 9 | Newt Gingrich |
| January 16 | Girth of a Nation |
| January 23 | Rush Limbaugh |
| January 30 | Earthquake in Japan |
| February 6 | Johnnie Cochran, O. J. Simpson, and Robert Shapiro |
| February 13 | Stone Age Paintings |
| February 20 | Fidel Castro |
| February 27 | Strengthening Marriages |
| March 1 | Cyberspace |
| March 6 | When Did the Universe Begin? |
| March 13 | Nicholas Leeson |
| March 20 | Social Security |
| March 27 | David Geffen, Steven Spielberg & Jeffrey Katzenberg |
| April 3 | Shoko Asahara |
| April 10 | The Resurrection by Noël Coypel (commons) |
| April 17 | Claudia Schiffer |
| April 24 | Vietnam |
| May 1 | Timothy McVeigh |
| May 8 | Right-Wing Zealots |
| May 15 | Ralph Reed |
| May 22 | The Budget Revolution |
| May 29 | Ramesses II |
| June 5 | Bill Gates |
| June 12 | Pop Culture & Values |
| June 19 | Scott O'Grady |
| June 26 | Estrogen |
| July 3 | Cyber Porn |
| July 10 | Colin Powell |
| July 17 | Inside the Brain |
| July 24 | Legacy of Waco |
| July 31 | Bob Dole |
| August 7 | Cultural Funding |
| August 14 | Mysteries of the Deep |
| August 21 | Cyber War |
| August 28 | Automat by Edward Hopper |
| September 4 | The Rape of Siberia |
| September 11 | NATO Bombs The Serbs |
| September 18 | Colin Powell |
| September 25 | Michael Crichton |
| October 2 | Emotional Intelligence |
| October 9 | O. J. Simpson |
| October 16 | O. J. Simpson Verdict |
| October 23 | Dick Carver |
| October 30 | Urban Blacks |
| November 6 | Pat Buchanan |
| November 13 | Yitzhak Rabin |
| November 20 | Bob Dole |
| November 27 | Andrew F. Hawley |
| December 4 | Big Bang |
| December 11 | Elisa Izquierdo |
| December 18 | Is the Bible Fact or Fiction? |
| December 25 | Newt Gingrich, Man of the Year |
| Date | Names or topics |
|---|---|
| January 8 | Fat-Free Fat |
| January 15 | William Bratton, New York City's Top Cop |
| January 22 | What Your Doctor Can't Tell You |
| January 29 | Steve Forbes |
| February 5 | Is Anybody Out There? |
| February 12 | Magic Johnson |
| February 19 | Marc Andreessen |
| February 26 | Pat Buchanan, Lamar Alexander & Bob Dole |
| March 4 | George Galatis, Nuclear Whistleblower |
| March 11 | Princess Diana |
| March 18 | Hillary Clinton |
| March 25 | Can Machines Think? |
| April 1 | Norman Schwarzkopf |
| April 8 | Search for Jesus |
| April 15 | Ted Kaczynski |
| April 22 | Jessica Dubroff |
| April 29 | Back to Segregation |
| May 6 | John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy & Caroline Kennedy |
| May 13 | Billy & Franklin Graham |
| May 20 | Twisters |
| May 27 | Special Report: Russia |
| June 3 | Who Speaks for Kids? |
| June 10 | Benjamin Netanyahu |
| June 17 | America's 25 Most Influential People |
| June 24 | Faith & Healing |
| June 28 | Summer Olympics 1996 |
| July 1 | Hillary Clinton & Elizabeth Dole |
| July 8 | Aliens Have Landed |
| July 15 | Boris Yeltsin |
| July 22 | Prince William |
| July 29 | TWA Flight 800 |
| August 5 | Centennial Olympic Park bombing |
| August 12 | Michael Johnson |
| August 19 | Bob Dole & Jack Kemp |
| August 26 | Christopher Reeve |
| September 2 | Dick Morris & Bill Clinton |
| September 9 | Dick Morris & Eileen McGann |
| September 16 | Bill Gates |
| September 23 | Diet Pill |
| September 30 | Ned Johnson |
| October 7 | Diane Keaton, Bette Midler & Goldie Hawn |
| October 14 | Working Mom Lori Lucas |
| October 21 | News Wars |
| October 28 | Genesis Rediscovered |
| November 4 | Bob Dole & Bill Clinton |
| November 11 | Suspect Political Donations |
| November 18 | Bill Clinton |
| November 25 | Forever Young |
| December 2 | O. J. Simpson |
| December 9 | Pot & Parenthood |
| December 16 | Jesus Online |
| December 23 | Best of '96 |
| December 30 | Dr. David Ho, Man of the Year |
| Date | Names or topics |
|---|---|
| January 13 | Bill Gates |
| January 20 | Where the Jobs Are? |
| January 27 | Bill Cosby |
| February 3 | How a Child's Brain Develops |
| February 10 | The Return of Star Wars |
| February 17 | O. J. Simpson |
| February 24 | Echoes of the Holocaust |
| March 3 | Deng Xiaoping |
| March 10 | Dolly, Cloned Sheep |
| March 17 | College Tuition |
| March 24 | Does Heaven Exist? |
| March 31 | FAA Blunders |
| April 7 | Marshall Applewhite |
| April 14 | Ellen DeGeneres |
| April 21 | America's 25 Most Influential People |
| April 28 | What's Wrong With the FBI? |
| May 5 | How We Get Addicted |
| May 12 | Dr. Andrew Weil |
| May 19 | Steven Spielberg |
| May 21 | American Visions |
| May 26 | What's Cool This Summer? |
| June 2 | Kelly Finn |
| June 9 | Generation X Reconsidered |
| June 16 | Timothy McVeigh |
| June 23 | Roswell Files |
| June 30 | Tobacco Settlement |
| July 7 | America: The Inside Story |
| July 14 | Pathfinder Lands on Mars |
| July 21 | Jewel and the New Women of Rock |
| July 28 | Gianni Versace & Andrew Cunanan |
| August 4 | Mormon Tabernacle |
| August 11 | Sharks |
| August 18 | Steve Jobs |
| August 25 | Death of Privacy |
| September 1 | George Soros |
| September 8 | Princess Diana |
| September 15 | Princess Diana |
| September 22 | Steve Case |
| September 29 | How Mood Drugs Work...& Fail |
| October 1 | Heroes of Medicine |
| October 6 | The Promise Keepers |
| October 13 | Brad Pitt |
| October 20 | Hillary Clinton |
| October 27 | What Makes a Good School? |
| November 3 | Michael Foale |
| November 10 | Alan Greenspan |
| November 17 | John F. Kennedy |
| November 24 | Bill Clinton & Saddam Hussein |
| December 1 | Kenny & Bobbi McCaughey |
| December 8 | Small Towns |
| December 15 | Al Gore |
| December 22 | Princess Diana |
| December 29 | Andrew Grove, Man of the Year |
| Date | Names or topics |
|---|---|
| January 12 | Jerry Seinfeld |
| January 19 | Toni Morrison |
| January 26 | Fidel Castro & John Paul II |
| February 2 | Monica Lewinsky & Bill Clinton |
| February 9 | Kenneth Starr |
| February 16 | Bill Clinton |
| February 23 | The Flu Hunters |
| March 2 | Bill Clinton |
| March 9 | Time's 75th anniversary |
| March 16 | John Travolta |
| March 23 | Paula Jones |
| March 30 | Africa Rising |
| April 6 | Armed & Dangerous |
| April 13 | Time 100: Leaders & Revolutionaries |
| April 20 | The Shroud of Turin |
| April 27 | The Future of Money |
| May 4 | Viagra: The Potency Pill |
| May 11 | Where Are My Girls? |
| May 18 | Cancer |
| May 25 | Frank Sinatra |
| June 1 | Jim Carrey |
| June 8 | Time 100: Artists & Entertainers |
| June 15 | Kids & Sex |
| June 22 | Michael Jordan |
| June 29 | Is Feminism Dead? |
| July 6 | The Gun In America, 1998 |
| July 13 | Health Insurance |
| July 20 | Online Shopping |
| July 27 | Ken Griffey Jr. & Mark McGwire |
| August 3 | E. Coli |
| August 10 | Monica Lewinsky & Bill Clinton |
| August 17 | John Glenn |
| August 24 | Bill Clinton |
| August 31 | The Clintons |
| September 7 | Boris Yeltsin & Bill Clinton |
| September 14 | Is this Boom Over? |
| September 21 | The Starr Report |
| September 28 | White House Scandal |
| October 5 | Oprah Winfrey |
| October 12 | A Week in the Life of an L.A. Hospital |
| October 19 | How to Make Your Kid a Better Student |
| October 26 | The War Over Gays |
| November 2 | Tom Wolfe |
| November 9 | Corporate Welfare |
| November 16 | Newt Gingrich |
| November 23 | Herbal Medicine |
| November 30 | Ritalin |
| December 7 | Time 100: Builders & Titans |
| December 14 | Moses |
| December 21 | Bill Clinton |
| December 28 | Kenneth Starr & Bill Clinton, Men of the Year |
| Date | Names or topics |
|---|---|
| January 11 | The Future of Medicine |
| January 18 | End of the World |
| January 25 | Too Much Homework |
| February 1 | Bill Clinton |
| February 8 | Lauryn Hill |
| February 15 | Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin & Lawrence Summers |
| February 22 | The Clinton/Lewinsky Scandal |
| March 1 | Abdullah Öcalan |
| March 8 | The Truth About Women's Bodies |
| March 15 | Monica Lewinsky |
| March 22 | Bill Gates |
| March 29 | Time 100: Scientists & Thinkers |
| April 5 | Slobodan Milosevic |
| April 12 | War in Kosovo |
| April 19 | Genealogy |
| April 26 | Star Wars |
| May 3 | Columbine Murders |
| May 10 | Growing Up Online |
| May 17 | Madeleine Albright |
| May 24 | Ricky Martin |
| May 31 | How to Spot a Troubled Kid |
| June 7 | The Next Cold War |
| June 14 | Time 100: Heroes & Icons |
| June 21 | George W. Bush |
| June 28 | Kosovo: The Awful Truth |
| July 5 | Nicole Kidman & Tom Cruise |
| July 12 | Sports-Crazed Kids |
| July 19 | Women's Soccer |
| July 26 | John F. Kennedy Jr. |
| August 2 | John F. Kennedy Jr. |
| August 9 | The Atlanta Massacre |
| August 16 | The Blair Witch Project |
| August 23 | How Man Evolved |
| August 30 | Taking Care of Our Parents |
| September 6 | Why We Take Risks? |
| September 13 | The I.Q. Gene |
| September 20 | Harry Potter |
| September 27 | The New Silicon Valley |
| October 4 | Bill Bradley |
| October 11 | Laser Eye Surgery |
| October 18 | Steve Jobs |
| October 25 | Aftermath of Columbine |
| November 1 | Low-Carb Diets |
| November 8 | Beyond 2000 |
| November 15 | Bill Gates |
| November 22 | Pokémon |
| November 29 | Simple New Year's Eve |
| December 6 | Jesus at 2000 |
| December 13 | John McCain |
| December 20 | Columbine Tapes (Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold) |
| December 27 | Jeff Bezos, Person of the Year |
| December 31 | Albert Einstein, Person of the Century |
