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The 1990s

2,489 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 20th century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

1990 CE305 entries

  • May 18 – German reunification: East Germany and West Germany sign a treaty to merge their economic and social systems, effective July 1.
  • 8 July – 1990 FIFA World Cup Final (Association football): Argentina lose 1–0 to West Germany in the final of the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Rome, Italy.
  • August 6 – Gulf War: With United Nations Security Council Resolution 661 the United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to its invasion of Kuwait.

1991 CE250 entries

  • January 16 – Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm begins with air strikes against Iraq.
  • May 19 – Dissolution of Yugoslavia: In the Croatian independence referendum, voters in the Socialist Republic of Croatia vote to leave SFR Yugoslavia.
  • August 19 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is put under house arrest while vacationing in Crimea during an attempted coup. Led by Vice President Gennady Yanayev and seven others, the coup collapses in less than 72 hours and is protested by over 100,000 people outside the parliament building. Gorbachev returns to Moscow three days later and arrests the coup leaders.

1992 CE237 entries

  • April 29–May 4 – In Simi Valley, California, a jury acquits four LAPD police officers accused of excessive force in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King, causing the 1992 Los Angeles riots and leading to 53 deaths and $1 billion in damage.
  • July 25–August 9 – The 1992 Summer Olympics are held in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
  • August 24–28 – Hurricane Andrew hits south Florida and Louisiana and dissipates over the Tennessee valley when it merges with a storm system; 23 are killed.

1993 CE252 entries

  • February 26 – World Trade Center bombing: In New York City, a van bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center explodes, killing six people and injuring over one thousand.
  • 20 August – The first agreement in the Oslo Accords is signed in Oslo, between by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres for Israel, Mahmoud Abbas for the Palestine Liberation Organization and Secretary of State Warren Christopher for the United States.
  • October 3–4– Battle of Mogadishu: The U.S. Army conducts Operation Gothic Serpent in the city of Mogadishu, Somalia, deploying Task Force Ranger. Two U.S. Army UH-60 Blackhawks are shot down and the operation leaves over 1,000 Somalis dead and over 74 Americans wounded in action, 18 killed and 1 captured.

1994 CE238 entries

  • February – Australia takes its first Winter Olympic medal when the Australian short track speed skating team wins bronze in the 5000m relay at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.
  • April 27 – South Africa holds its first fully multiracial elections, marking the final end of the last vestiges of apartheid. Nelson Mandela wins the elections and is sworn in as the first democratically elected president the following month.
  • June 17 – The 1994 FIFA World Cup starts in the United States.

1995 CE232 entries

  • April 19 – Oklahoma City bombing: 168 people, including eight federal Marshals and 19 children, are killed at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and 680 are wounded by a bomb set off by Timothy McVeigh.
  • October 3 – Murder trial of O. J. Simpson: Former American football star O. J. Simpson is found not guilty of double murder in a criminal trial for the deaths of former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
  • November 4 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

1996 CE253 entries

  • April 24 – At the urging of Yasser Arafat, the Palestine Liberation Organization drops its clause in Palestinian National Covenant calling for the removal of Israel (→ Legitimacy of the State of Israel). The Israeli government responds by dropping a similar clause concerning the existence of Palestine.
  • July 5 – Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult cell, is born at the Roslin Institute in Midlothian, Scotland, UK.
  • August 15 – Bob Dole is nominated for President of the United States, and Jack Kemp for vice president, at the Republican National Convention in San Diego, California.

1997 CE232 entries

  • January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis.
  • March 7 – In Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers overrun a military base and kill over 100 Sri Lankan troops.
  • July 8 – NATO invites the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to join the alliance in 1999.

1998 CE243 entries

  • June 10–July 12 – The 1998 FIFA World Cup in France: France beats Brazil 3–0 in the FIFA World Cup Final.
  • August 7 – 1998 U.S. embassy bombings: the bombings of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, kill 224 people and injure over 4,500; they are linked to terrorist Osama bin Laden, an exile of Saudi Arabia.
  • December 19 – Lewinsky scandal: President Bill Clinton is impeached by the United States House of Representatives. (He was later acquitted.)

1999 CE247 entries

  • January 1: Fernando Henrique Cardoso begins his second term as president of Brazil.
  • April 20 – Columbine High School massacre: Two Littleton, Colorado teenagers open fire on their teachers and classmates, killing 12 students and one teacher, and then themselves. It would be the deadliest shooting at a high school in U.S. history at the time. The shooting sparks debate on school bullying, gun control and violence in the media.
  • October – The government distributes to all households a booklet concerning the Year 2000 problem, What everyone should know about the Millennium Bug.