date: July 7

text: July 7–8 – In tennis, Martina Navratilova of the United States wins the 1990 Wimbledon Championships – Women's singles and Stefan Edberg of Sweden wins the 1990 Wimbledon Championships – Men's singles.


date: July 8

section: Culture & Society

text: July 8 – 1990 FIFA World Cup final (Association football): West Germany defeats Argentina 1–0 to win the 1990 FIFA World Cup.

source_section: Events › July


date: July 10

text: July 10 – The UEFA lifts the five-year ban on English association football teams competing in Continental Europe after the Heysel Stadium disaster, although Liverpool F.C. will remain banned for a further three years.


date: September 18

text: September 18 – The International Olympic Committee awards the 1996 Summer Olympics to Atlanta.

source_section: Events › September


date: September 29

text: September 29 – The Tampere Hall, the largest concert and congress center in the Nordic countries, was inaugurated in Tampere, Finland.


date: October

text: The Messeturm skyscraper in Frankfurt is completed, making it the tallest building in Europe, a distinction it will carry until 1997, when it is surpassed by the Commerzbank Tower, also in Frankfurt.

source_section: Events › October


date: November 7

text: November 7 – The final military parade to mark the anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution takes place in the USSR.

source_section: Events › November


text: November 7 – Mary Robinson defeats odds-on favorite Brian Lenihan to become the first female President of Ireland.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Russian Garry Kasparov holds his title by winning the World Chess Championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.

source_section: Events › December


date: June 23

section: Deaths

text: June 23 – In Canada, the Meech Lake Accord of 1987 dies after the Manitoba and Newfoundland legislatures fail to approve it ahead of the deadline.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Commonwealth v. Twitchell: David and Ginger Twitchell are convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Massachusetts after the 1986 death of their 2-year-old son, who died from a bowel obstruction after the couple withheld medical treatment in keeping with their Christian Science beliefs.


date: August 15

text: August 15 – In Latvia, Viktor Tsoi, co-founder and lead singer of the Soviet rock band Kino, dies in a car accident on the Sloka–Talsi highway.

source_section: Events › August


date: November 12

text: November 12 – Akihito is enthroned as the 125th emperor of Japan following the death of his father on January 7, 1989.


date: December 13

text: December 13 – Murder charges against Dr. Jack Kevorkian are dismissed in Michigan, related to the April assisted-suicide death of an Alzheimer's patient, Janet Adkins. A state judge determined that Kevorkian only provided the means for Ms. Adkins to die. This is the first of numerous cases to be brought against Kevorkian over the next decade.


date: January 29

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: January 29 – In South Africa, Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress and Mangosuthu Buthelezi of the Inkatha Freedom Party agree to end violence between the two organizations.

source_section: Events › January


date: February 7

text: February 7 – 1991 Haitian coup d'état: Haiti's first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is sworn in. He is ousted on September 30 and later reinstated in 1994. In response to the coup and in an effort to encourage the coup leaders to restore democracy, the U.S. expands trade sanctions on Haiti to include all goods except food and medicine on October 29.

source_section: Events › February


date: February 15

text: February 15 – The Visegrád Group, establishing cooperation to move toward free-market systems, is established by the leaders of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland.


date: March 15

text: March 15 – Germany formally regains complete independence after the four post-World War II occupying powers (France, the U.K., the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.) relinquish all remaining rights to the country.

source_section: Events › March


date: March 26

text: March 26 – Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay sign the Treaty of Asunción, establishing Mercosur.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Georgia votes for independence from the Soviet Union while on April 9, the Supreme Council declares the independent Republic of Georgia.


date: May 16

text: May 16 – Elizabeth II becomes the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress during a 13-day royal visit in Washington, D.C.

source_section: Events › May


date: May 18

text: May 18 – Somaliland secedes from Somalia; its independence is not recognised by the international community.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Dissolution of Yugoslavia: In the Croatian independence referendum, voters in the Socialist Republic of Croatia vote to leave SFR Yugoslavia.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – The Indian general elections end; the Indian National Congress wins the most seats but fails to secure a majority. Six days later, Congress leader P. V. Narasimha Rao becomes Prime Minister of India.


text: July 4 – The Constituent Assembly of Colombia proclaims a new constitution, allowing the President of Colombia César Gaviria to lift the country's seven-year-long state of siege.


date: July 9

text: July 9 – End of Apartheid: The International Olympic Committee readmits South Africa to the Olympics. The following day, U.S. President Bush terminates 1986-enacted U.S. sanctions on South Africa.


date: September 4

text: September 4 – Sverdlovsk's name is restored to its pre-communist–era name Yekaterinburg. Two days later, Leningrad is renamed St. Petersburg.


date: September 8

text: September 8 – Dissolution of Yugoslavia: The Republic of Macedonia becomes independent, beginning a name dispute with Greece.


date: September 25

text: September 25 – Salvadoran Civil War: Representatives of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front reach an agreement with President of El Salvador Alfredo Cristiani, setting the stage for the end of the war.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – In the Bulgarian parliamentary election, the Union of Democratic Forces defeats the Bulgarian Socialist Party, leaving no remaining Communist governments in Eastern Europe.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – The leaders of the Baltic States—Arnold Rüütel of Estonia, Anatolijs Gorbunovs of Latvia, and the Vytautas Landsbergis of Lithuania—sign the OSCE Final Act in Helsinki, Finland.


text: October 15 – Clarence Thomas is confirmed as the new U.S. Supreme Court Justice following Thurgood Marshall's retirement.


date: October 18

text: October 18 – The Soviet Union restores its diplomatic relations with Israel, which have been suspended since the 1967 Six-Day War.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – In Paris, the Vietnam-backed government of the state of Cambodia signs an agreement with the Khmer Rouge to end the civil war and bring the Khmer Rouge into power despite its role in the Cambodian genocide. The deal ends the Cambodian–Vietnamese War and results in the creation of the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – China and Vietnam restore diplomatic relations after a 13-year rift which followed the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Ukrainians vote overwhelmingly for independence from the Soviet Union in a referendum.


date: December 12

text: December 12 – Ukraine becomes the first post-Soviet republic to decriminalize homosexuality.


text: December 12 – The government of Nigeria moves the capital from Lagos to Abuja.


date: January 5

section: Conflict & Security

text: January 5 – Georgian troops attack Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, starting the 1991–92 South Ossetia War.


date: January 9

text: January 9 – Gulf War: U.S. Secretary of State James Baker meets with Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz but fails to produce a plan for the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait.


date: January 12

text: January 12 – Gulf War: The 102nd U.S. Congress passes a resolution authorizing the use of military force to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait.


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Gulf War: The UN deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm.


date: January 16

text: January 16 – Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm begins with air strikes against Iraq.


date: February 18

text: February 18 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army explodes bombs in the early morning, at both Paddington station and Victoria station, in London.


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Gulf War: U.S. President Bush declares victory over Iraq and orders a cease-fire. U.S. troops begin to leave the Persian Gulf on March 10.


date: April 16

text: April 16–18 – General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev begins the first ever visit of a Soviet leader to Japan, but fails to resolve the two countries' dispute over ownership of the Kuril Islands.

source_section: Events › April


date: May 21

text: May 21 – Ethiopian Civil War: Mengistu Haile Mariam, president of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, flees Ethiopia to Zimbabwe, effectively bringing the Ethiopian Civil War to an end.


text: May 21 – At Sriperumbudur, India, a suicide bomber from LTTE attacks a political meeting, killing former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and at least 14 others.


date: May 24

text: May 24 – Following authorisation by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, Operation Solomon commences to airlift most of the remaining Beta Israel community from Ethiopia to Israel. The same day the Eritrean People's Liberation Front enters Asmara, the capital of Eritrea.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – Sri Lankan civil war: Sri Lankan Army soldiers kill 152 civilians in Kokkadichcholai.


date: June 20

text: June 20 – Harry Collinson, the planning officer for Derwentside District Council, is shot dead at Butsfield, County Durham, England, and the incident is caught on camera by a BBC regional news crew.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Comecon is dissolved in Moscow, Russia.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Singing Revolution: Soviet Special Purpose Police Unit forces (OMON) kill seven Lithuanian customs officials in Medininkai, the deadliest of the Soviet OMON assaults on Lithuanian border posts.


date: August 25

text: August 25 – Dissolution of Yugoslavia: Serbian forces begin an attack on the Croatian town of Vukovar.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – Lebanon hostage crisis: Maronite general Michel Aoun leaves Lebanon on a French warship into exile.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – Lebanon hostage crisis: Israel releases 51 Arab prisoners and the bodies of nine guerrillas, paving the way for the release of the last western hostages in Lebanon.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Dissolution of Yugoslavia: Forces of the Yugoslav People's Army surround Dubrovnik, beginning the Siege of Dubrovnik, which lasts until May 31, 1992.


date: October 7

text: October 7 – Dissolution of Yugoslavia: The Yugoslav Air Force bombs the office of Croatian President Franjo Tuđman, causing the Croatian Parliament to cut all remaining ties with Yugoslavia the following day.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – Iraq disarmament crisis: The UN Security Council passes Resolution 715, demanding that Iraq "accept unconditionally the inspectors and all other personnel designated by the Special Commission." Iraq rejects the resolution, calling it "unlawful".


date: November 18

text: November 18 – Dissolution of Yugoslavia: The forces of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Serb paramilitaries take the Croatian town of Vukovar after the 87-day Battle of Vukovar. They kill more than 260 Croatian prisoners of war.


date: November 20

text: November 20 – An Azerbaijani Mil Mi-8 helicopter carrying a 19-member peacekeeping mission team is shot down by Armenian military forces in Khojavend District, Azerbaijan.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – Armed opposition groups launch a military coup against President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia.


date: September 19

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: September 19 – Ötzi the Iceman is found in the Alps.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – The Huntington Library makes the Dead Sea Scrolls available to the public for the first time.


date: March 30

section: Religion & Belief

text: March 30 – French woman and supercentenarian Jeanne Calment surpasses the final age achieved by Easter Wiggins (1874–1990) of 116 years, 36 days and becomes the oldest verified person in history.


date: April 19

text: April 19 – George Carey is enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union self-dissolves, being replaced by Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union and State Council of the Soviet Union.


date: November 2

text: November 2 – Bartholomew I is enthroned as Patriarch of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, thus becoming the new spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox worldwide.


date: April 2

section: Economy & Finance

text: April 2 – Economy of the Soviet Union: Government-imposed price increases double or triple the cost of consumer goods in the Soviet Union.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – The Warsaw Stock Exchange opens in Poland.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – End of Apartheid: The European Economic Community lifts economic sanctions on South Africa.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – Chemical Bank and Manufacturers Hanover Corporation amalgamate, becoming the largest bank merger in history.


date: July 24

text: July 24 – Finance Minister of India Manmohan Singh announces a new industrial policy, marking the start of economic liberalisation in India.


date: July 29

text: July 29 – In New York City, a grand jury indicts Bank of Credit and Commerce International of the largest bank fraud in history, accusing the bank of defrauding depositors of US$5 billion.


date: September 15

text: September 15 – In the Swedish general election, the Social Democrats suffer their worst election results in 60 years, leading to the resignation of Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Tom Foley announces the closure of the House Bank by the end of the year after revelations that House members have written numerous bad checks.


date: November 4

text: November 4–5 – End of Apartheid: The African National Congress leads a general strike, demanding representation in the government and an end to the value-added tax.


date: November 26

text: November 26 – Michael Jackson releases Dangerous, selling 5 million copies in the first week.


date: February 20

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: February 20 – Python, a programming language created by Guido van Rossum, Is released.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 3,000 for the first time in history, at 3,004.46.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The world's first GSM telephone call is made in Finland.


text: July 1 – In the U.S., telephone services go down in Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and San Francisco as a result of a software bug, affecting nearly 12 million customers.


date: August 6

text: August 6 – Tim Berners-Lee, an English computer scientist working at CERN, announces the World Wide Web project and software on the alt.hypertext newsgroup. The first website, "info.cern.ch", is created.


date: August 25

text: August 25 – Linus Torvalds posts messages to the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.minix, regarding the new operating system kernel he has developed, called Linux.


date: November 9

text: November 9 – The British JET fusion reactor generates 1.5 MW output power.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Skarnsund Bridge opens in Norway, becoming the world's longest cable-stayed bridge for two years with a span of 530 m ft.


date: February 6

section: Science & Discovery

text: February 6 – A Boeing KC-135E Stratotanker is involved in an accident over Saudi Arabia when two engines on the left wing detach from the aircraft. The pilots manage to execute an emergency landing saving all four crew members on board. The aircraft is later repaired and returned to service.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Space Shuttle Atlantis leaves an observatory in Earth's orbit to study gamma rays before returning on April 11. It is followed by Space Shuttle Discovery, which studies instruments related to the Strategic Defense Initiative from April 29 to May 6. Space Shuttle Columbia carries the Spacelab into orbit on June 5.


date: April 10

text: April 10 – A South Atlantic tropical cyclone develops in the Southern Hemisphere off the coast of Angola, the first of its kind to be documented by weather satellites.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – A large solar flare triggers an unusually large aurora as far south as Pennsylvania.


date: June 23

text: June 23 – Sonic the Hedgehog is released by Sega for the Sega Genesis to compete with Nintendo's Mario franchise.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – A solar eclipse of record totality occurs in the Northern hemisphere and is witnessed by hundreds of millions of people in Hawaii, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – The Oh-My-God particle, the highest energy cosmic ray ever recorded, is detected.


date: October 29

text: October 29 – NASA's Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid.


date: November 6

section: Health & Medicine

text: November 6 – The CPSU and its republic-level division, the Communist Party of the Russian SFSR, are banned in the Russian SFSR by presidential decree.


date: March 3

section: Crime & Justice

text: March 3 – A video captures the beating of motorist Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers. Four Los Angeles police officers are indicted on March 15 for the beating.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – The Troubles: After 16 years in prison for allegedly bombing an English public house in a Provisional IRA attack, the "Birmingham Six" are freed when a court determines that their conviction was unsafe and unsatisfactory.


date: June 16

text: June 16 – Father's Day bank massacre: Four security guards are shot to death during a bank robbery at the United Bank Tower in Denver, Colorado, United States. The former police officer subsequently charged with the crime is acquitted, and the case remains unsolved.


date: July 9

text: July 9 – Iran–Contra affair: Alan Fiers agrees to plead guilty to two charges of lying to the U.S. Congress. Later on September 16, D.C. Judge Gerhard Gesell issues a ruling clearing Col. Oliver North of all charges.


date: July 22

text: July 22 – U.S. boxer Mike Tyson is arrested and charged with the rape, three days earlier, of Desiree Washington, a Miss Black America contestant, in Indianapolis, Indiana.


date: September 24

text: September 24 – Lebanon hostage crisis: Lebanese kidnappers release Jackie Mann after more than two years of captivity.


date: September 29

text: September 29 – Salvadoran Civil War: An army colonel of the Atlácatl Battalion is found guilty of the 1989 murders of six Jesuits.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Luby's shooting: 23 people are killed at a Luby's restaurant in Killeen, Texas after George Hennard drives his truck through the establishment and begins firing at diners. It becomes the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history and wouldn't be surpassed until the Virginia Tech shooting.


date: October 21

text: October 21 – Lebanon hostage crisis: Jesse Turner, a mathematics professor who has been held hostage for more than four years, is released.


date: November 18

text: November 18 – Lebanon hostage crisis: Kidnappers in Lebanon set Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite and academic Thomas Sutherland free.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – John Leonard Orr, one of the most prolific serial arsonists of the 20th century, is arrested in California.


date: January 18

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: January 18 – Eastern Air Lines shuts down after 62 years of operations, citing financial problems. Later on December 4, Pan American World Airways ceases its operations.


date: February 1

text: February 1 – USAir Flight 1493 collides with a SkyWest Airlines Fairchild Metroliner at Los Angeles International Airport, killing 34 people.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – The U.S. Department of Justice announces that Exxon has agreed to pay $1 billion for the clean-up of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.


text: March 14 – Escondida in Chile's Atacama Desert –which is to become the world's most productive copper mine– is officially inaugurated.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – U.S. Senator John Heinz and six other people are killed when a helicopter collides with their plane over Merion, Pennsylvania.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Former U.S. Senator John Tower and 22 others are killed in an airplane crash in Brunswick, Georgia.


date: April 10

text: April 10 – The Italian ferry Moby Prince collides with an oil tanker in dense fog off Livorno, Italy, resulting in 140 deaths with one survivor.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Lauda Air Boeing 767 crashes near Bangkok, Thailand, killing all 223 people on board.


date: June 9

text: June 9 – A major collapse at the Emaswati Colliery in Swaziland traps 26 miners 65 meters below the surface; they are rescued 30 hours later.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – Nigeria Airways Flight 2120, a Douglas DC-8 operated by Canadian airline Nolisair, catches fire and crashes soon after takeoff from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killing all 261 people on board.


date: August 4

text: August 4 – The cruise liner MTS Oceanos sinks off the coast of South Africa, leading to the rescue of all 571 passengers on board by SAAF helicopters.


date: August 8

text: August 8 – The Warsaw radio mast, the tallest structure in the world at the time, collapses.


date: September 3

text: September 3 – In Hamlet, North Carolina, a grease fire breaks out at the Imperial Foods chicken processing plant, killing 25 people.


date: October 20

text: October 20 – A large suburban firestorm centered in Oakland Hills, California, kills 25 people and injures 150 others.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – American and British authorities announce indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103 over Britain in 1988.


text: December 4 – Pan Am is officially dissolved after 64 years of operation


date: December 15

text: December 15 – The Egyptian ferry sinks in the Red Sea, killing more than 450 people.


section: Climate & Environment

text: February 1 – A 6.4 Hindu Kush earthquake causes severe damage in northeast Afghanistan, leaving 848 dead and 200 injured.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – Albania holds its first multi-party elections since 1923. The socialist ruling Party of Labour of Albania won a landslide victory with 169 of the 250 seats in the parliament.


date: April 22

text: April 22 – A 7.7 Limon earthquake strikes Costa Rica and Panama with a maximum Mercalli intensity, causing between 47 and 87 deaths and up to 759 injuries.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – A series of 55 tornadoes break out in the central U.S., killing 21. The most notable tornado strikes Andover, Kansas.


date: April 29

text: April 29 – A 7.0 earthquake in Racha, Georgia, kills 270 people and leaves 100,000 others homeless.


text: April 29 – A tropical cyclone hits Bangladesh, killing an estimated 138,000 people.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – Mount Unzen in Japan erupts, killing 46 people as a result of pyroclastic flow.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – In the Philippines, Mount Pinatubo erupts in the second largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century; the final death toll exceeds 800. The eruption causes a global cooling of around 0.4 °C.


date: August 17

text: August 17–20 – Hurricane Bob hits North Carolina and New England, killing 17 people and causing US$1.5 billion in damage.


text: October 20 – A 6.8 M w earthquake strikes Uttarkashi, India, killing at least 768 people and destroying thousands of homes.


date: October 28

text: October 28–November 4 – The 1991 Perfect Storm strikes the northeastern U.S. coast and Atlantic Canada, causing over US$200 million of damage and resulting in 12 direct fatalities.


date: October 31

text: October 31–November 3 – The Halloween blizzard hits the U.S. Upper Midwest, killing 22 people and causing US$100 million in damage.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Tropical Storm Thelma causes flash floods in the Philippine city of Ormoc, killing more than 4,900 people.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) is formed in The Hague, Netherlands.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – In the Netherlands, thieves steal 20 paintings worth $500 million from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam; they are found in an abandoned car near the museum less than an hour later.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – In the U.S., Time magazine publishes "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power," an article highly critical of the Scientology movement.


date: August 11

text: August 11 – Nickelodeon introduces its series of Nicktoons, with Doug, Rugrats and The Ren & Stimpy Show set three air premieres.


text: August 17 – The remains of the Prussian King Frederick the Great are re-interred in Potsdam, Germany.


date: August 25

text: August 25 – Michael Schumacher, regarded as one of the greatest Formula One drivers in history, makes his Formula One debut at the Belgian Grand Prix.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – Home Improvement premieres on ABC.


date: October 3

text: October 3–November 2 – The 1991 Rugby World Cup takes place in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and France and is won by Australia who beat England in the final.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – The first report on carbon nanotubes is published by Sumio Iijima in Nature.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returns to Phnom Penh after 13 years of exile.


date: December 16

text: December 16 – The UN General Assembly adopts UN General Assembly Resolution 46/86, repealing a previous resolution adopted in 1975 which had ruled that Zionism is a form of racism.


date: January 17

text: January 17 – Harald V becomes king of Norway after the death of his father, Olav V.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Acting Prime Minister of South Korea Ro Jai-bong resigns in the wake of rioting following the beating to death of a student by police on April 26. He is succeeded by Chung Won-shik two days later.


date: October 6

text: October 6 – President Gorbachev condemns antisemitism in the Soviet Union in a statement read on the 50th anniversary of the Babi Yar massacres, which saw the death of 35,000 Jews in Ukraine during WWII.


date: November 24

text: November 24 – Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury dies in London from AIDS induced pneumonia. In an unrelated incident, Kiss drummer Eric Carr dies from heart cancer.


date: January 6

text: January 6 – The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is proclaimed by the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.


date: January 9

text: January 9 – Bosnian Serbs declare their own republic within Bosnia and Herzegovina, in protest at the decision by Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats to seek recognition by the European Communities.


date: January 16

text: January 16 – El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City, ending the 12-year Salvadoran Civil War that claimed at least 75,000 lives.


date: February 3

text: February 3 – South African State President F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela, African National Congress leader, are jointly awarded the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.


date: February 7

text: February 7 – The Maastricht Treaty is signed, founding the European Union.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – The Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina (without the presence of Serb political delegates) proclaims independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.


date: April 6

text: April 6 – The Republic of Ilirida is proclaimed by Albanian Macedonian activists in Struga, Republic of Macedonia.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – The United States recognizes the independence of Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The European Communities also recognizes Bosnia and Herzegovina.


date: April 9

text: April 9 – In the United Kingdom general election the Conservative Party led by Prime Minister of the United Kingdom John Major narrowly retains power.


date: April 27

text: April 27 – Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman elected Speaker of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Falun Gong is introduced by Li Hongzhi in China.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – The Collective Security Treaty Organization is established by six post-Soviet states belonging to the Commonwealth of Independent States (effective April 20, 1994).


date: June 2

text: June 2 – In a national referendum Denmark rejects the Maastricht Treaty by a narrow margin.


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Ireland votes for the Eleventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland to accept the Maastricht Treaty with a popular vote of over 69%.


date: June 23

text: June 23 – The Israeli legislative election is won by the Israeli Labor Party under the leadership of Yitzhak Rabin, ousting a Likud government.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – The Slovak National Council declares Slovakia an independent country, signaling the breakup of Czechoslovakia.


date: July 19

text: July 19 – The Cabinet of Israel approves a freeze on new Israeli settlement in the occupied territories, a move expected to reinvigorate the Middle East Peace Process.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – China and South Korea establish diplomatic relations.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – The government of Mozambique signs the Rome General Peace Accords with leaders of RENAMO, ending the 16-year-old Mozambican Civil War.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – Lithuania holds a referendum on its first constitution after declaring independence from the Soviet Union in 1990.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein threatens to dissolve the Landtag of Liechtenstein and dismiss the government over disagreements regarding a referendum on Liechtenstein's accession to the European Economic Area.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – In the 1992 United States presidential election, Democratic Arkansas governor Bill Clinton defeats Republican president George H. W. Bush and Independent Ross Perot.


date: December 18

text: December 18 – The South Korean presidential election is won by Kim Young-sam, the first non-military candidate elected since 1961.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – In Yugoslavia, President of Serbia Slobodan Milošević defeats Milan Panić in the Serbian presidential election.


date: January 6

text: January 6 – 1991–92 Georgian coup d'état: President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia flees the country as a result of the military coup.


date: January 26

text: January 26 – In Mauritania, security forces open fire on violent extremist opponents of President of Mauritania Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, allegedly killing at least four people.


date: January 27

text: January 27 – First Nagorno-Karabakh War: in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, fighting between Armenians and Azeris leaves at least 60 people dead.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – In Venezuela, Hugo Chávez leads an unsuccessful coup attempt against President of Venezuela Carlos Andrés Pérez.


date: February 9

text: February 9 – Algerian Civil War: The government of Algeria declares a state of emergency and begins a crackdown on the Islamic Salvation Front.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – Ukraine and four other nations in the Commonwealth of Independent States reject Russia's proposal to maintain unified armed forces. Ukraine, Moldova and Azerbaijan announce they will go ahead with plans to create their own military forces.


date: February 18

text: February 18 – Iraq disarmament crisis: The Executive Chairman of UNSCOM details Iraq's refusal to abide by UN Security Council disarmament resolutions.


date: February 21

text: February 21 – The United Nations Security Council approves Resolution 743 to send a UNPROFOR peacekeeping force to Yugoslavia.


date: February 25

text: February 25–26 – 613 Azerbaijani civilians are massacred in Khojaly.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – The first victims of the Bosnian War are a Serb bridegroom's father and an Orthodox priest in a Sarajevo shooting. In the Bosnian independence referendum, held from February 29 to March 1 and boycotted by Bosnian Serbs, the majority of the Bosniak and Bosnian Croat communities have voted for Bosnia-Herzegovina's independence.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – In Dubăsari, Moldova, escalating tensions turn into open hostilities and the beginning of the Transnistria War.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Bosnian War: Serb troops, following a mass rebellion of Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina against the Bosnian declaration of independence from Yugoslavia, besiege the city of Sarajevo.


date: April 10

text: April 10 – First Nagorno-Karabakh War: Maraga massacre – At least 43 Armenian civilians are killed as their village of Maraga, Azerbaijan, is captured and destroyed by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces.


date: April 16

text: April 16 – President of Afghanistan Mohammad Najibullah is ousted and detained by Muslim rebels moving towards Kabul, setting the stage for the civil war in Afghanistan (1992–96).


date: April 29

text: April 29 – Los Angeles riots: The acquittal of four policemen in the Rodney King beating criminal trial triggers massive rioting in Los Angeles. The riots will last for six days resulting in 63 deaths and over $1 billion in damages before order is restored by the military.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Armand Césari Stadium disaster in Bastia on Corsica: 18 people are killed and 2,300 are injured when one of the terraces collapses before a football match between SC Bastia and Olympique de Marseille.


date: May 16

text: May 16–17 – Bosnian War: U.N. peacekeepers withdraw from Sarajevo.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – Protests begin in Bangkok, Thailand, against the government of General Suchinda Kraprayoon, sparking a bloody crackdown.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – Concordia University massacre: Valery Fabrikant murders four colleagues and seriously wounds another in a shooting at Concordia University, in Montreal, Quebec.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – In Rostock, Germany, tens of thousands rally to protest neo-Nazi attacks on refugees and immigrants begun on August 22.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – In Ciskei, members of the Ciskei Defence Force loyal to dictator Oupa Gqozo open fire into a crowd of anti-Gqozo protestors organized by the African National Congress, killing at least 28 people and wounding nearly 200.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – A riot breaks out in the Carandiru Penitentiary in São Paulo, Brazil, resulting in the Carandiru massacre.


date: November 8

text: November 8 – More than 350,000 people rally in Berlin to protest right-wing violence against immigrants; stones and eggs are thrown at President of Germany Richard von Weizsäcker and Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – UN Security Council Resolution 794 is unanimously passed, approving a coalition of United Nations peacekeepers led by the United States to form UNITAF, tasked with ensuring that humanitarian aid gets distributed and establishing peace in Somalia.


date: January 19

text: January 19 – Paramount Leader of China Deng Xiaoping speaks in Shenzhen during his southern tour, a move that would return China on its right-wing march towards free market economics.


date: February 28

text: February 28 – Ownership of the port town of Walvis Bay is transferred from South Africa to Namibia.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – The Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act of Singapore comes into force.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – After performing a song protesting against alleged Catholic Church child sexual abuse, Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O'Connor rips up a photograph of Pope John Paul II on the US television programme Saturday Night Live, causing huge controversy.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – The Catechism of the Catholic Church is promulgated by Pope John Paul II with his apostolic constitution, Fidei depositum.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – In the Dominican Republic, Pope John Paul II celebrates the 500th anniversary of the meeting of two cultures.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Pope John Paul II issues an apology and lifts the 1633 edict of the Inquisition against Galileo Galilei.


date: November 11

text: November 11 – The Church of England votes to allow women to become priests.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – Lithuania introduces a new temporary currency, the talonas.


date: June 20

text: June 20 – Estonia adopts the kroon as currency, becoming the first former Soviet Republic to replace the Soviet rouble.


date: June 25

text: June 25 – The Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) is founded.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – Canada, Mexico and the United States announce that a deal has been reached on the North American Free Trade Agreement; this will be formally signed on December 17.


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Black Wednesday: The pound sterling and the Italian lira are forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.


date: April 6

text: April 6 – Windows 3.1 is released to manufacturers by Microsoft.


date: April 30

text: April 30 – Brčko bridge massacre: around 100 Croat and Bosniak civilians are blown up while crossing the bridge across the Sava in Brčko, Bosnia and Herzegovina.


date: January 9

text: January 9 – First confirmed detection of exoplanets with announcement of the discovery of several terrestrial-mass planets orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12, by radio astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail working in the United States.


date: March 22

text: March 22 – STS-45: Space Shuttle Atlantis takes off from Cape Canaveral carrying instruments designed to study global warming.


date: May 7

text: May 7 – STS-49: Space Shuttle Endeavour makes its maiden flight, as a replacement for Space Shuttle Challenger.


date: May 9

text: May 9 – The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is adopted in New York.


date: June 3

text: June 3–14 – The Earth Summit is held in Rio de Janeiro.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – The Giotto spacecraft flies past Comet 26P/Grigg–Skjellerup, gathering measurements about the comet.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Iraq agrees to allow UN weapons inspectors to search the Iraqi Agricultural Ministry building in Baghdad. When inspectors arrive on July 28 and 29, they find nothing and voice suspicions that Iraqi records have been removed.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, held at Wembley Stadium, London, is televised live to over one billion people and raises millions of dollars for AIDS research.


date: July 16

text: July 16 – At the 1992 Democratic National Convention, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton accepts his party's presidential nomination on behalf of the "forgotten middle class".


date: October 23

text: October 23 – Emperor of Japan Akihito begins the first imperial visit to China, telling a Beijing audience he feels deep sorrow for the suffering of the Chinese people during World War II.


date: April 9

text: April 9 – A jury in Miami, Florida, convicts former Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega of assisting Colombia's cocaine cartel.


text: May 7 – In the Sydney River McDonald's murders in Nova Scotia, Canada, three McDonald's employees are killed and a fourth is left permanently disabled during a botched robbery.


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Capaci bombing: A Mafia bomb on the autostrada in Sicily kills five people, including Italian anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone.


text: July 10 – In Miami, former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega is sentenced to 40 years in prison for participating in the illegal drug trade and racketeering.


date: July 19

text: July 19 – Via D'Amelio bombing: A car bomb placed by the Sicilian Mafia (with the collaboration of Italian intelligence) kills judge Paolo Borsellino and five members of his police escort.


date: July 22

text: July 22 – Near Medellín, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escapes from his luxury prison, fearing extradition to the United States.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – In Beijing, police arrest Shen Tong for his role in organizing the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – In Peru, police arrest Abimael Guzmán, the leader of the Shining Path guerilla movement, who has evaded capture for 12 years.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Law enforcement officials in the United States, Colombia and Italy announce that they have arrested more than 165 people on money laundering charges related to cocaine trafficking.


date: October 7

text: October 7 – In Peru, Shining Path leader Abimael Guzmán is convicted of treason and sentenced to life in prison.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – The Archives of Terror are discovered by Martín Almada in Asunción, detailing the fates of thousands of Latin Americans who have been secretly kidnapped, tortured and killed by the security services of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay in Operation Condor.


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Actress Daniella Perez is murdered in Rio de Janeiro, after being stabbed 18 times with scissors by actor Guilherme de Pádua and his then-wife Paula Thomaz. The crime shocked Brazil, due to both the victim and the murderer being romantic partners in the telenovela De Corpo e Alma, which aired on TV Globo.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – 1992 European Community Monitor Mission helicopter downing: A Yugoslav Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 attacks two Italian Army Agusta-Bell AB-206L LongRanger helicopters carrying observers from the European Community Monitor Mission. One crashes, killing five people on board. The other helicopter crash-lands, but its occupants survive.


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Air Inter Flight 148, an Airbus A320-111, crashes in the Vosges Mountains near Barr, France, while circling to land at Strasbourg, France, killing 87 of the 96 people on board. Facing tough competition from French high-speed TGV trains, Air Inter had encouraged its pilots to fly at high speeds at low altitudes, and had not installed ground proximity warning systems on its airliners because such systems generated too many nuisance alarms during high-speed, low-altitude flight.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – The International Atomic Energy Agency orders Iraq to destroy an industrial complex at Al Atheer that is being used to manufacture nuclear weapons.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – The Shot (Duke–Kentucky): In what Sports Illustrated deemed the greatest college basketball game of all time, Christian Laettner sinks an overtime buzzer-beater to advance Duke to their fifth straight Final Four.


date: April 22

text: April 22 – Fuel leaking into a sewer causes a series of explosions in Guadalajara, Mexico; 215 are killed, 1,500 injured.


date: May 9

text: May 9 – The Westray Mine in Plymouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, explodes, killing all 26 miners working the night shift.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – China General Aviation Flight 7552 bound for Xiamen crashes soon after taking off from Nanjing Dajiaochang Airport, killing 108 of the 116 people on board.


text: July 31 – Thai Airways International Flight 311, an Airbus A310-300, crashes into a mountain north of Kathmandu, Nepal killing all 113 people on board.


text: September 28 – Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268 crashes into a mountain while on approach to Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal. All 167 occupants on board were killed. The crash of PIA Flight 268 occurred just 2 months after Thai Airways International Flight 311 crashed into a mountain near Kathmandu under similar circumstances, killing all 113 occupants on board.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Israeli cargo plane El Al Flight 1862 crashes into residential buildings in Amsterdam's Bijlmermeer, Netherlands, after taking off from Schiphol Airport and losing two engines, killing all 4 people on board and 39 on the ground.


date: October 21

text: October 21 – 150,000 coal miners march in London to protest government plans to close coal mines and reduce the number of miners.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – In poor conditions caused by Cyclone Forrest, Vietnam Airlines Flight 474 crashes near Nha Trang, killing 30.


date: November 18

text: November 18 – Russian president Boris Yeltsin releases the flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of Korean Air Flight 007, which was shot down by the Soviets in 1983.


date: November 24

text: November 24 – In China, China Southern Airlines Flight 3943, a China Southern Airlines domestic flight, crashes, killing all 141 people on board.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – Demolition of Babri Masjid: Extremist Hindu activists in India demolish Babri Masjid – a 16th-century mosque in Ayodhya which has been used as a temple since 1949 – leading to widespread communal violence, including the Bombay riots, in all killing over 1,500 people.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – The 6.7 Erzincan earthquake affects eastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing 498–652 and injuring around 2,000.


date: March 22

text: March 22 – In French regional elections, the conservative Rally for the Republic and the centre-right Union for French Democracy win in a landslide, capturing 20 of 22 metropolitan regional presidencies.


date: April 13

text: April 13 – The 5.3 Roermond earthquake affects the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong).


date: June 8

text: June 8 – The first World Oceans Day is celebrated, coinciding with the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.


date: July 6

text: July 6–29 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses a UN inspection team access to the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture. UNSCOM claims that it has reliable information that the site contains archives related to illegal weapons activities. UN inspectors stage a 17-day "sit-in" outside of the building, but leave when their safety is threatened by Iraqi soldiers.


date: August 24

text: 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.


date: September 2

text: September 2 – The 7.7 Nicaragua earthquake affects the west coast of Nicaragua. With a – disparity of half a unit, this tsunami earthquake triggers a tsunami that causes most of the damage and casualties, with at least 116 killed. Average runup heights are 3 - 8.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – The 5.8 Cairo earthquake affects the city with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), leaving 545 dead and 6,512 injured.


date: November 13

text: November 13 – A report by the World Meteorological Organization reports an unprecedented level of ozone depletion in both the Arctic and Antarctic.


date: December 12

text: December 12 – The 7.8 Flores earthquake affects the Lesser Sunda Islands in Indonesia with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe) leaving at least 2,500 dead. A destructive tsunami with wave heights of 25 m follows.


date: February 6

text: February 6 – The Ruby Jubilee of Elizabeth II commemorates 40 years since the accession of Elizabeth II as Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms.


date: February 8

text: February 8 – The opening ceremony for the 1992 Winter Olympics is held in Albertville, France.


date: March 18

text: March 18 – White South Africans vote in favour of political reforms which will end the apartheid regime and create a power-sharing multi-racial government.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – Sweden wins the Ice Hockey World Championships in Czechoslovakia defeating Finland, 5–2, in the final game in Prague.


date: June 10

text: June 10–26 – Sweden hosts the UEFA Euro 1992 football tournament, which is won by Denmark.


date: June 26

text: June 26 – Denmark beats Germany 2–0 in the final to win the 1992 UEFA European Football Championship at Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden.


date: July 25

text: July 25–August 9 – The 1992 Summer Olympics are held in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.


date: October 19

text: October 19 – The Chinese Communist Party promotes several market-oriented reformers to the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, signaling a defeat for hard-line ideologues.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – The death of Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia results in a succession dispute between Nicholas Romanov, Prince of Russia and Vladimir's daughter Maria for the leadership of the Imperial Family of Russia.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Czechoslovakia ceases to exist, as the Czech Republic and Slovakia separate in the Dissolution of Czechoslovakia.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – The Fourth Republic of Ghana is inaugurated, with Jerry Rawlings as president.


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Bill Clinton and Al Gore are inaugurated as US President and Vice President.


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Social Democrat Poul Nyrup Rasmussen succeeds Conservative Poul Schlüter as Prime Minister of Denmark.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – Members of the right-wing Austrian Freedom Party of Austria split to form the Liberal Forum in protest against the increasing nationalistic bent of the party.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – 1993 Australian federal election: Paul Keating's Labor government is re-elected with an increased majority, defeating the Liberal/National Coalition led by John Hewson.


date: March 27

text: March 27 – Following a rash of integrist murders (including those of foreigners), Algeria breaks diplomatic relations with Iran, accusing the country of interfering in its interior affairs.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – 1993 French legislative election: Rally for the Republic (Gaullist party) wins a majority and Édouard Balladur becomes Prime Minister.


date: April 8

text: April 8 – The Republic of Macedonia is admitted to the United Nations under a provisional reference "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia".


date: June 1

text: June 1 – In an effort to minimize political chaos in post-Communist Poland, Lech Walesa signs a reform bill requiring political parties to receive at least 5% of the vote to qualify for seats in the Sejm.


date: June 5

text: June 5 – The National Assembly of Venezuela designates Ramón José Velásquez as successor of suspended President Carlos Andrés Pérez.


date: June 25

text: June 25 – Kim Campbell becomes the 19th, and first female, Prime Minister of Canada.


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Oslo I Accord: Following initially secret talks from earlier in the year, PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin shake hands in Washington, D.C. after signing a peace accord.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – 1993 Polish parliamentary election: A coalition of the Democratic Left Alliance and the Polish People's Party led by Waldemar Pawlak comes into power.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – 1993 Canadian federal election: Jean Chrétien and his Liberal Party defeat the governing Progressive Conservative Party, which falls to a historic low of two seats.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – The Maastricht Treaty takes effect, formally establishing the European Union.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Jean Chrétien becomes the 20th Prime Minister of Canada.


date: December 5

text: December 5 – Rafael Caldera Rodríguez is elected President of Venezuela for the second time, succeeding interim president Ramón José Velásquez.


text: December 5 – Omar Bongo is re-elected as President of Gabon in the country's first multiparty elections.


date: December 13

text: December 13 – Former Prime Minister of Canada Kim Campbell resigns as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party and is succeeded as leader by Jean Charest.


text: December 13 – The Majilis of Kazakhstan approves the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and agrees to dismantle the more than 100 missiles left on its territory by the fall of the USSR.


date: December 17

text: December 17 – Brazil's Supreme Court rules that former President Fernando Collor de Mello may not hold elected office again until 2000 due to political corruption.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Representatives of Israel and the Holy See sign the Fundamental Agreement Between the Holy See and the State of Israel, preparing for the establishment of diplomatic relations.


text: December 30 – Argentina passes a measure allowing President Carlos Menem and all future presidents to run for a second consecutive term. It also shortens presidential terms to four years and removes the requirement for the president to be Roman Catholic.


date: January 6

text: January 6 – January 6–20 – The Bombay riots take place in Mumbai.


text: January 6 – Douglas Hurd is the first high-ranking British official to visit Argentina since the Falklands War.


date: January 13

text: January 13 – Iraq disarmament crisis: US, British and French aircraft attack Iraqi Surface to Air Missile sites in Southern Iraq.


date: January 19

text: January 19 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM inspectors to use its own aircraft to fly into Iraq and begins military operations in the demilitarized zone between Iraq and Kuwait, and the northern Iraqi no-fly zones. U.S. forces fire approximately 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Baghdad factories linked to Iraq's illegal nuclear weapons program (→ January 1993 airstrikes on Iraq). Iraq then informs UNSCOM that it will be able to resume its flights.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Abortion in Poland: Lech Walesa signs into law one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in Eastern Europe, banning abortion for any reason other than rape, incest, genetic deformity, or if the mother's life is in danger. Polish women seeking elective abortions must hereafter travel to the Czech Republic.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – The Kurdistan Workers' Party announces a unilateral ceasefire in Iraq.


date: April 16

text: April 16 – Bosnian War: the enclave of Srebrenica is declared a UN-protected "safe area". Also members of the Jokeri unit of the HVO entered the village of Ahmići and killed 120 Muslim residents.


date: April 19

text: April 19 – Waco siege: A 51-day stand-off at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ends with a fire that kills 76 people, including David Koresh.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – Assassination of Ranasinghe Premadasa: During a May Day rally, President of Sri Lanka Ranasinghe Premadasa is assassinated by a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam suicide bomber. Prime Minister Dingiri Banda Wijetunga succeeds Premadasa as the 3rd executive president of Sri Lanka.


date: May 4

text: May 4 – UNOSOM II assumes the Somalian duties of the dissolved UNITAF.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Albanian President Sali Berisha urges the United States and NATO to take action to prevent Serbian ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – President of Guatemala Jorge Serrano Elías is forced to flee the country after an attempted self-coup.


date: June 5

text: June 5 – Attack on Pakistani military in Somalia: twenty-four Pakistani troops in the United Nations forces are killed in Mogadishu, Somalia.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – Kurdish–Turkish conflict: the PKK-declared ceasefire ends in Iraq.


date: June 18

text: June 18 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM weapons inspectors to install remote-controlled monitoring cameras at two missile engine test stands.


date: June 27

text: June 27 – U.S. President Bill Clinton orders a cruise missile attack on Iraqi intelligence headquarters in the Al-Mansur District of Baghdad, in response to an Iraqi plot to assassinate former U.S. President George H. W. Bush during his visit to Kuwait in mid-April.


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Iraq disarmament crisis: UN inspection teams leave Iraq. Iraq then agrees to UNSCOM demands and the inspection teams return.


date: July 25

text: July 25 – In a terrorist attack members of the Azanian People's Liberation Army open fire on a congregation inside St James Church in Kenilworth, Cape Town, killing eleven and injuring fifty.


date: September 27

text: September 27 – War in Abkhazia: Fall of Sukhumi – Eduard Shevardnadze accuses Russia of passive complicity.


date: October 3

text: 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.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – The Russian constitutional crisis culminates with Russian military and security forces, using tanks and clearing the White House of Russia Parliament building by force, quashing a mass uprising against President Boris Yeltsin.


date: October 11

text: October 11–28 – The UNMIH is prevented from entering Haiti by its military-led regime. On October 18, United Nations economic sanctions (abolished in August) are reinstated. U.S. President Bill Clinton sends 6 American warships to enforce them.


date: November 17

text: November 17 – In Nigeria, General Sani Abacha ousts the government of Ernest Shonekan in a military coup.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – The Observer reveals that a channel of communications has existed between the Provisional Irish Republican Army and the British government, despite the government's persistent denials.


date: April

text: Backstreet Boys were formed in Orlando, Florida.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Miguel Indurain wins the 1993 Tour de France.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – The fifth summit of the Francophonie opens in Mauritius.


text: November 17 – The first meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit opens in Seattle.


text: Pope John Paul II makes an official visit to Albania, accompanied by Mother Teresa. He counsels Albanian Catholics against supporting nationalist violence in Kosovo.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – The European Economic Community eliminates trade barriers and creates a European single market.


date: March 12

text: March 12 – North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea announces that it plans to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and refuses to allow inspectors access to nuclear sites, beginning the 1993–94 North Korean Nuclear Crisis.


date: March 24

text: March 24 – South Africa officially abandons its nuclear weapons programme. President de Klerk announces that the country's six warheads had already been dismantled in 1989.


date: June 25

text: June 25 – The litas is introduced as the new currency of Lithuania.


text: June 25 – Jacques Attali resigns as President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.


date: August

text: August – The European Exchange Rate Mechanism margin was expanded to 15% to accommodate speculation against the French franc and other currencies.


text: November 17–22 – The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) passes the legislative houses in the United States, Canada and Mexico.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – U.S. President Bill Clinton signs into law the North American Free Trade Agreement.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – The Uruguay Round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) talks reach a successful conclusion after seven years.


date: January 11

text: January 11 – WWE introduce their television program, Monday Night Raw.


date: January 30

text: January 30 – The Red Line (later known as the B Line) officially begins service in Los Angeles, becoming the first underground rapid transit line to open in almost 70 years.


date: June 29

text: June 29 – The first mobile phone call was made in Greece, marking the launch of mobile telephony services in the country by Telestet (now NOVA).


date: September 25

text: September 25 – The Nipah Dam incident: Indonesian security forces shoot and kill four protesters opposing the construction of a dam.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the Railways Act 1993, setting out the procedures for privatisation of British Rail.


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Bosnian Croat forces destroy the Stari Most, or Old Bridge of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, by tank fire.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. The Moon appears to be 14% bigger and 30% brighter than the year's other full moons. The next time these two events coincided was in 2008.


date: June 11

text: June 11 – Jurassic Park releases in cinemas in the United States.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – UK mathematician Andrew Wiles wins worldwide fame after presenting his proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, a problem that had been unsolved for more than three centuries.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – The discovery of the Tel Dan Stele, the first archaeological confirmation of the existence of the Davidic line, announced.


date: August 21

text: August 21 – NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Observer orbiter 3 days before the spacecraft is scheduled to enter orbit around Mars.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – The last Russian military personnel leave Poland.


date: September 26

text: September 26 – The first mission in Biosphere 2 ends after two years.


text: September 26 – PoSAT-1 (the first Portuguese satellite) is launched on board French rocket Ariane 4.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – China performs a nuclear test, ending a worldwide de facto moratorium.


date: November 12

text: November 12 – London Convention: Marine dumping of radioactive waste is outlawed.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – STS-61: NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair an optical flaw in the Hubble Space Telescope.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – The first corrected images from the Hubble Space Telescope are taken.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki's VeggieTales is first released.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – Mani pulite scandal: Italian legislator Claudio Martelli resigns, followed by various politicians over the next two weeks.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – Four hundred fifty prisoners rioted at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, and continued to do so for ten days, citing grievances related to prison conditions, as well as the forced vaccination of Nation of Islam prisoners (for tuberculosis) against their religious beliefs.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Hungary passes a law banning the public display of Fascist and Communist symbols.


date: April 23

text: April 23 – The World Health Organization declares tuberculosis a global emergency.


date: April

text: April–May – 1993 Four Corners hantavirus outbreak: Thirteen people are killed by Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, mainly in the Southwestern United States.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – US$7.4 million is stolen from the Brink's Armored Car Depot in Rochester, New York, in the fifth largest robbery in U.S. history.


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Hungarian politician Istvan Csurka, of the Hungarian Democratic Forum, calls on the nation to rally against an alleged anti-Hungarian conspiracy led by Jews, liberals, Communists, and Westerners.


date: January 24

text: January 24 – In Turkey, thousands protest against the murder of journalist Uğur Mumcu.


date: February 12

text: February 12 – Murder of James Bulger: Two-year-old James Bulger is abducted from New Strand Shopping Centre by two ten-year-old boys Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, who later torture and murder him.


date: February 22

text: February 22 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 808 is voted on, deciding that "an international tribunal shall be established" to prosecute violations of international law in Yugoslavia. The tribunal is established on May 25 by Resolution 827.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – Janet Reno is confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn in the next day, becoming the first female Attorney General of the United States.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – The Supreme Court in La Paz, Bolivia, sentences former dictator Luis Garcia Meza to 30 years in jail without parole for murder, theft, fraud and violating the constitution.


date: April 30

text: April 30 – Tennis player Monica Seles – at this time the top-ranked player in women's tennis – is stabbed during a match at the 1993 Citizen Cup in Hamburg, Germany.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Large protests erupt against Slobodan Milošević's regime in Belgrade; opposition leader Vuk Drašković and his wife Danica are arrested.


date: July 29

text: July 29 – The Israeli Supreme Court acquits accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk of all charges and he is set free.


date: November 30

text: November 30 – U.S. President Bill Clinton signs the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar is gunned down by police.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – In Garden City, New York, six people are murdered and 19 injured in the Long Island Rail Road massacre, a racially motivated mass shooting perpetrated by Colin Ferguson, a black Jamaican immigrant.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – id Software releases the first-person shooter game Doom.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – The Polish ferry sinks off the coast of Rügen in the Baltic Sea, killing 54 people.


date: February 26

text: 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.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Macedonian Palair Flight 301, an F-100 on a flight to Zürich, crashes shortly after take-off from Skopje, killing 83 of the 97 on board.


date: March 12

text: March 12 – 1993 Bombay bombings: Several bombs explode in Bombay, India, killing 257 and injuring hundreds more.


date: April 27

text: April 27 – 1993 Zambia national football team plane crash: All members of the Zambia national football team die in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon en route to Dakar, Senegal.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – SAM Colombia Flight 501, a Boeing 727-46, crashed during its approach to José María Córdova International Airport, Colombia, killing all 132 occupants on board.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Asiana Airlines Flight 733 crashes into Mt. Ungeo in Haenam, South Korea; 68 are killed.


date: August 13

text: August 13 – More than 130 die in the collapse of Royal Plaza Hotel at Nakhon Ratchasima in Thailand's worst hotel disaster.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Big Bayou Canot train disaster: A bridge collapses while the Amtrak Sunset Limited is in the process of crossing it, killing 47 people.


date: October 9

text: October 9 – The South Korean ferry Seohae capsizes off Pusan, South Korea; 292 are killed.


date: October 27

text: October 27–31 – The Southland Firestorm, formed of more than fourteen separate fires in Southern California burning simultaneously, burns more than 700 homes and 160,000 acres. Two of these fire are the Laguna Fire which burned more than 16,000 acres (6,500 hectares), destroyed hundreds of homes and caused $528 million in damage in Orange County, California, and the Kinneloa Fire in Los Angeles County, California which caused a fatality.


date: November 20

text: November 20 – An Avioimpex Yakovlev Yak-42D crashes into Mount Trojani near Ohrid, North Macedonia. All 8 crew members and 115 of the 116 passengers are killed.


date: December 11

text: December 11 – One of the three blocks of the Highland Towers near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia collapses, killing 48.


date: January 8

text: January 8–17 – The Braer Storm of January 1993, the most intense extratropical cyclone on record for the northern Atlantic Ocean, occurs.


date: March 13

text: March 13–15 – The 1993 Storm of the Century strikes the eastern U.S., bringing record snowfall and other severe weather all the way from Cuba to Quebec; it reportedly kills 184 people.


date: April

text: April–October – Great Flood of 1993: The Mississippi and Missouri Rivers flood large portions of the American Midwest.


date: June 26

text: June 26–28 – Typhoon Koryn causes massive damage to the Philippines, China and Macau.


date: July 7

text: July 7–9 – The 19th G7 summit is held in Tokyo, Japan.


text: July 7 – Hurricane Calvin lands in Mexico. It is the second Pacific hurricane on record to land in Mexico in July and kills 34.


date: July 8

text: July 8 – Monsoonal floods in South Asia begin, going on to kill more than three thousand people over the next month.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – The 7.7 Hokkaidō earthquake affects northern Japan with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe) and triggers a devastating tsunami that kills 230 on the small island of Okushiri, Hokkaido.


date: July 30

text: July 30 – A wildfire on the Greek island of Ikaria kills 13.


date: September 15

text: September 15–21 – Hurricane Gert crosses from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean through Central America and Mexico.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – Latur earthquake: A 6.2 earthquake occurs in the vicinity of Maharashtra, India having a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing 9,748 and injuring 30,000.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – The 1993 Finisterre earthquakes in Papua New Guinea kill at least 60 due to landslides.


date: March 29

text: March 29 – The 65th Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, with Unforgiven winning Best Picture.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – The Council for National Academic Awards, the national degree-awarding authority in the United Kingdom, is officially dissolved.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Niamh Kavanagh wins the Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland with In Your Eyes.


date: June 22

text: June 22 – Japan's New Party Sakigake breaks away from the Liberal Democratic Party.


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Electrochemist Faiza Al-Kharafi is appointed rector (president) of Kuwait University, the first woman to head a major university in the Middle East.


date: August 25

text: August 25 – Boris Yeltsin, on an official state visit to Poland, lays a wreath at the Katyn memorial.


date: August 28

text: August 28 – The first Power Rangers series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (an adaptation of Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger), premieres in the United States.


date: September 23

text: September 23 – The International Olympic Committee selects Sydney, Australia, to host the 2000 Summer Olympics.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – The Toronto Blue Jays repeat as World Series champions, becoming the first team to win back-to-back titles since the 1977–1978 New York Yankees.


date: August 9

text: August 9 – King Albert II of Belgium is sworn into office nine days after the death of his brother, King Baudouin I.


date: October 21

text: October 21 – A coup in Burundi results in the death of president Melchior Ndadaye and sparks the Burundi Civil War.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – President of Ivory Coast Félix Houphouët-Boigny dies at 88, the oldest African head of state. He is succeeded four days later by Henri Konan Bédié.


date: December 21

text: December 21 – The Hungarian Parliament elects Péter Boross Prime Minister of Hungary following the death of József Antall on December 12.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – U.S. president Bill Clinton and Russian president Boris Yeltsin sign the Kremlin accords, which stop the preprogrammed aiming of nuclear missiles toward each country's targets, and also provide for the dismantling of the nuclear arsenal in Ukraine.


date: February 9

text: February 9 – The Vance–Owen peace plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina is announced.


date: March 27

text: March 27 – TV tycoon Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing coalition wins the Italian general election.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – The National Convention of New Sudan of the SPLA/M opens in Chukudum.


date: April 27

text: 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.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – The Bishkek Protocol between Armenia and Azerbaijan is signed in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, effectively freezing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Israel and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – Ernesto Samper is elected President of Colombia.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – The Liberal Democratic Party in Japan regains power after spending 11 months in opposition, in coalition with the Japan Socialist Party.


date: July 18

text: July 18 – Rwandan Patriotic Front troops capture Gisenyi, forcing the interim government into Zaire and ending the Rwandan genocide.


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Israel and Jordan sign the Washington Declaration as a preliminary to signature on October 25 of the Israel–Jordan peace treaty, which formally ends the state of war that has existed between the nations since 1948.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Palau gains independence from the United Nations Trusteeship Council.


text: October 1 – In Slovakia, populist leader Vladimír Mečiar wins the general election.


date: November 8

text: November 8 – "Republican Revolution": Georgia Representative Newt Gingrich leads the United States Republican Party in taking control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in midterm congressional elections, the first time in 40 years the Republicans secure control of both houses of Congress. George W. Bush is elected Governor of Texas.


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Voters in Sweden decide to join the European Union in a referendum.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – 1994 Nepalese general election The CPN (UML) is elected with a minority government, becoming the first democratically elected Communist party in Asia.


date: November 16

text: November 16 – United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea {1982) comes fully into effect on receiving 60 signatures.


date: November 20

text: November 20 – The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Voters in Norway decide not to join the European Union in a referendum.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – Ernesto Zedillo takes office as President of Mexico.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – The Australian government agrees to pay reparations to indigenous Australians who were displaced during the nuclear tests at Maralinga in the 1950s and 1960s.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – Taiwan holds its first full local elections: James Soong is elected as the first and only directly elected Governor of Taiwan; Chen Shui-bian becomes the first direct elected Mayor of Taipei; Wu Den-yih becomes the first directly elected Mayor of Kaohsiung.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Civil unions between same-sex couples are legalized in Sweden.


date: February 3

text: February 3 – In the aftermath of the Chadian–Libyan conflict, the International Court of Justice rules that the Aouzou Strip belongs to the Republic of Chad.


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Markale massacres: a Bosnian Serb Army mortar shell kills 68 civilians and wounds about 200 in a Sarajevo marketplace.


date: February 28

text: February 28 – Four United States F-16s shoot down four Serbian J-21s over Bosnia and Herzegovina for violation of the Operation Deny Flight and its no-fly zone.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – Italian journalist Ilaria Alpi and TV cameraman Miran Hrovatin are assassinated in Somalia.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio is assassinated at a campaign rally in Tijuana.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Shell House massacre: Inkatha Freedom Party and ANC supporters battle in central Johannesburg, South Africa.


date: April 6

text: April 6 – Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundi President Cyprien Ntaryamira die when a missile shoots down their jet near Kigali, Rwanda. This is taken as a pretext to begin the Rwandan genocide.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – The Rwandan genocide begins in Kigali, Rwanda.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – The Red Cross estimates that hundreds of thousands of Tutsi have been killed in Rwanda.


date: June 6

text: June 6–8 – Ceasefire negotiations for the Yugoslav War begin in Geneva; they agree to a one-month cessation of hostilities (which does not last more than a few days).


date: June 17

text: June 17 – NFL star O. J. Simpson and his friend Al Cowlings flee from police in a white Ford Bronco. The low-speed chase ends at Simpson's Los Angeles mansion, where he surrenders.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Rwandan Patriotic Front troops capture Kigali, a major breakthrough in the Rwandan Civil War.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – 1994 civil war in Yemen: Aden is occupied by troops from North Yemen.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – The Allied occupation of Berlin officially ends with a casing of the colors ceremony attended by U.S. president Bill Clinton.


date: July 18

text: July 18 – AMIA bombing: In Buenos Aires, a terrorist attack destroys a building housing several Jewish organizations, killing 85 and injuring many more.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Maleconazo: Groups of protesters spread from Havana, Cuba's Castillo de la Punta ("Point Castle"), creating the first protests against Fidel Castro's government since 1959.


date: August 31

text: August 31 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army announces a "complete cessation of military operations" as part of the Northern Ireland peace process. This will temporarily end in 1996 with the Docklands bombing in England before a definite ceasefire in 1997. In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement is signed and the IRA decommissions its weapons in 2005


text: August 31 – The Russian Army leaves Estonia and Latvia, ending the last traces of Eastern Europe's Soviet occupation.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – New South Wales State MP for Cabramatta John Newman is shot outside his home, in Australia's first political assassination since 1977.


date: September 13

text: September 13 – President Bill Clinton signs the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which bans the manufacture of new firearms with certain features for a period of 10 years.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Operation Uphold Democracy: U.S. troops stage a bloodless invasion of Haiti to restore the legitimately elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to power.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – José Francisco Ruiz Massieu, Mexican politician, is assassinated on orders of Raúl Salinas de Gortari.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Influential Afrikaner theologian and critic of apartheid Johan Heyns is assassinated; the killers are never apprehended or identified.


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Iraq formally rescinds its claims over Kuwait, which it has claimed as a province since 1990 and had administered under military occupation until 1991 when it was ejected by an international coalition during the Persian Gulf War.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – Israeli Kahanist Baruch Goldstein opens fire inside the Cave of the Patriarchs in the West Bank; he kills 29 Muslims before worshippers beat him to death.


date: March 12

text: March 12 – The Church of England ordains its first female priests.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Sultan Azlan Muhibbudin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Yusuff Izzudin Shah Ghafarullahu-lahu ends his term as the 9th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – Tuanku Jaafar ibni Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan, becomes the 10th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Pope John Paul II issues the Apostolic Letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis from the Vatican, expounding the Catholic Church's position requiring "the reservation of priestly ordination to men alone".


date: January 1

text: January 1 – The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is established.


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Jeff Bezos founds Amazon.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – A planned exchange rate correction of the Mexican peso to the US dollar, becomes a massive financial meltdown in Mexico, unleashing the 'Tequila' effect on global financial markets. This prompts a US$50 billion "bailout" by the Clinton administration.


date: January 11

text: January 11 – The Irish government announces the end of a 15-year broadcasting ban on the Provisional Irish Republican Army and its political arm Sinn Féin.


date: March

text: March – China gets its first connection to the Internet.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – The Channel Tunnel, which took 15,000 workers more than seven years to complete, officially opens between England and France; it will enable passengers to travel by rail between the two countries in 35 minutes.


date: June 23

text: June 23 – NASA's Space Station Processing Facility, a new state-of-the-art manufacturing building for the International Space Station, officially opens at Kennedy Space Center.


date: August

text: c. August – Pizza Hut becomes the first restaurant to offer online food ordering, in California.


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Britain lifts the broadcasting ban imposed on Sinn Féin and paramilitary groups from Northern Ireland.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – Bražuolė bridge bombing in Lithuania damages a railway bridge but trains are stopped in time to avoid casualties.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – WXYC, the student radio station of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, provides the world's first internet radio broadcast.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – The first Eurostar train passengers travel through the Channel Tunnel.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Construction commences on the Three Gorges Dam, at Sandouping, China.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – This date is skipped by the Phoenix Islands to switch from the UTC−11 time zone to UTC+13, and by the Line Islands to switch from UTC−10 to UTC+14. The latter becomes the earliest time zone in the world, one full day ahead of Hawaii.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – Soyuz TM-18: Valeri Polyakov begins his 437.7-day orbit of the Earth, eventually setting the world record for days spent in orbit.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – The journal Nature reports the finding in Ethiopia of the first complete Australopithecus afarensis skull.


date: July 16

text: July 16–22 – Fragments of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 impact the planet Jupiter.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – Sony releases the PlayStation video game system in Japan; it will sell over 100 million units worldwide by the time it is discontinued in 2006.


date: March 27

text: March 27 – The biggest tornado outbreak in 1994 occurs in the southeastern United States; one tornado kills 22 people at the Goshen United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Alabama.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – The Flavr Savr, a genetically modified tomato, is deemed safe for consumption by the FDA, becoming the first commercially grown genetically engineered food to be granted a license for human consumption.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – Members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult execute the first sarin gas attack at Matsumoto, Japan, killing eight and injuring 200.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – A letter by former U.S. president Ronald Reagan, announcing that he has Alzheimer's disease, is released.


date: February 12

text: February 12 – Edvard Munch's painting The Scream is stolen in Oslo (it is recovered on May 7).


date: February 24

text: February 24 – In Gloucester, England, local police begin excavations at 25 Cromwell Street, the home of Fred West, a suspect in multiple murders. On February 28, he and his wife are arrested.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of Nirvana. commits suicide at the age of 27 at his home in Seattle. His body was found three days later.


date: August 18

text: August 18 – Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants: a 12-person jury reaches its verdict to award Stella Liebeck $2,860,000 in compensatory and punitive damages, later reduced to $640,000, for burns she received from a spilled hot coffee. McDonald's and Liebeck will later settle out of court.


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Danish tour guide Louise Jensen is abducted, raped and murdered by three British soldiers in Cyprus.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – The day after five members of the Order of the Solar Temple were found dead in Morin-Heights, Quebec, Canada, Swiss police find 48 members of the cult dead, in what was found to be a mass murder-suicide.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Robbery on the Bank of the Republic: In the Colombian city of Valledupar, a branch of the Colombian central bank Banco de la Republica (Bank of the Republic) is robbed of COP$24,075 million of non emitted bills (some US$33 million); this comes to be known as "El Robo del Siglo" (the bank heist of the century).


date: December 13

text: December 13 – The trial of former president Mengistu begins in Ethiopia.


text: December 13 – Fred West, 53, a builder living in Gloucester, England, is remanded in custody, charged with murdering 12 people (including two of his own daughters) whose bodies are mostly found buried at his house in Cromwell Street. His wife Rosemary West, 41, is charged with 10 murders.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Green Ramp disaster: two military aircraft collide over Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina, United States, causing 24 fatalities.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – China Airlines Flight 140, an Airbus A300, crashes while landing at Nagoya, Japan, killing 264 people.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – Three-time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna is killed in an accident during the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, Italy.


date: September 8

text: September 8 – USAir Flight 427, a Boeing 737 with 132 people on board, crashes on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport killing all on board.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – The car ferry MS Estonia sinks in the Baltic Sea, killing 852 people.


date: November 27

text: November 27 – A Fuxin Yiyuan dance hall catches fire in Liaoning Province, China, killing 233 persons, with another 71 rescued, according to a confirmed Chinese government official report.


date: January 17

text: January 17 – The 6.7 Northridge earthquake strikes the Greater Los Angeles Area of the United States, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), leaving 57 people dead and more than 8,700 injured.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – Tropical Storm Alberto forms, hitting parts of Florida causing $1.03 billion in damage and 32 deaths.


text: August 18 – 1994 Mascara earthquake: a 5.8 earthquake leaves 171 dead in Algeria.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – A flood in Piedmont, Italy, kills dozens of people.


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Hurricane Gordon hits Central America, Jamaica, Cuba, the Bahamas, Haiti and the Southeastern United States, causing $594 million in damages and 1,152 fatalities.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – 1994 Mindoro earthquake A 7.1 earthquake hits the central Philippine island of Mindoro, killing 78 people, injuring 430 and triggering a tsunami up to 8.5 m ft high.


date: February 12

text: February 12 – The 1994 Winter Olympics begin in Lillehammer.


date: March 21

text: March 21 – The 66th Academy Awards, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. Steven Spielberg's Holocaust drama Schindler's List wins seven Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director (Spielberg).


date: April 20

text: April 20 – South Africa adopts a new national flag, replacing the "Oranje, Blanje, Blou" flag adopted in 1928 that was used during apartheid.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – After a funeral in Cluny Parish Church, Edinburgh attended by 900 people and after which 3,000 people line the streets, UK Labour Party leader John Smith is buried in a private family funeral on the island of Iona, at the sacred burial ground of Reilig Odhráin, which contains the graves of several Scottish kings as well as monarchs of Ireland, Norway and France.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – The 1994 FIFA World Cup starts in the United States.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – Brazil wins the 1994 FIFA World Cup, defeating Italy 3–2 in a penalty shootout in the final (full-time 0–0).


date: August 12

text: August 12 – Woodstock '94 begins in Saugerties, New York, United States, marking the 25-year anniversary of Woodstock in 1969.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – The 1994 World Series in baseball is officially cancelled due to the ongoing work stoppage. It is the first time a World Series will not be played since 1904.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – American boxer George Foreman wins the WBA and IBF World Heavyweight Championships by KO'ing Michael Moorer becoming the oldest heavyweight champion in history.


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Duy Tan University, Vietnam's University, is established.


date: January 14

section: Births

text: January 14 – Kai, South Korean singer

source_section: Births › January


date: January 18

text: January 18 – Jiyoung, South Korean singer and actress


date: February 4

text: February 4 – Alexia Putellas, Spanish footballer

source_section: Births › February


date: February 14

text: February 14 – Petchmorakot Petchyindee Academy, Thai Muay Thai kickboxer and former ONE Featherweight Muay Thai World Champion


date: February 25

text: February 25 – Eugenie Bouchard, Canadian tennis player


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Justin Bieber, Canadian singer

source_section: Births › March


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Joel Embiid, Cameroonian basketball player


date: March 29

text: March 29 – Sulli, South Korean singer, songwriter, actress and model (d. 2019)


date: May 1

text: May 1 – Khamzat Chimaev, Russian born-Swedish mixed martial artist and professional wrestler

source_section: Births › May


date: May 21

text: May 21 – Tom Daley, British diver


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Shohei Ohtani, Japanese baseball player

source_section: Births › July


date: September 29

text: September 29 – Halsey, American singer

source_section: Births › September


date: December 6

text: December 6 – Giannis Antetokounmpo, Greek basketball player

source_section: Births › December


date: December 7

text: December 7 – Yuzuru Hanyu, Japanese figure skater


date: July 8

text: July 8 – North Korean President Kim Il Sung dies, but officially continues to hold office.

source_section: Events › July


date: August 20

text: August 20 – Tyke, a female African bush elephant, injures her groomer and kills her trainer at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. She then escapes the arena, and runs amok in the streets for half an hour, before police officers shoot her 86 times. She eventually collapses from her wounds and dies.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Austria, Finland and Sweden join the European Union.


text: February 25 – The Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) (Organización del Tratado de Cooperación Amazónica [OTCA]) is formed.


text: March 1 – Julio María Sanguinetti is sworn in as President of Uruguay for his second term.


text: March 1 – Polish Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak resigns from Parliament and is replaced by ex-communist Józef Oleksy.


date: May 7

text: May 7 – Jacques Chirac is elected president of France.


date: May 11

text: May 11 – More than 170 countries agree to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – The Dalai Lama proclaims 6-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, but 3 days later the boy is detained by Chinese authorities and not seen again.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – English football team Everton win the FA Cup, beating reigning champions Manchester United with a score of 1 – 0. A goal at 30 minutes by Paul Rideout secured the win for Everton their first major trophy in 8 years and also constituted their last title ever since.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Prime Minister of the United Kingdom John Major is re-elected as leader of the Conservative Party, ending an internal challenge to his position.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – President Clinton announces the restoration of United States–Vietnam relations twenty years after the Vietnam War.


date: September

text: September – The European Parliament elects the first European Ombudsman, Jacob Söderman, who takes up office this month.

source_section: Events › September


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Tansu Çiller of DYP forms the new government of Turkey (51st government), a minority government which lasts for less than a month.

source_section: Events › October


date: October 30

text: October 30 – Tansu Çiller of DYP forms the new government (52nd government) of Turkey.


text: October 30 – Quebec independentists narrowly lose a referendum for a mandate to negotiate independence from Canada.


date: November 21

text: November 21 – The Dayton Agreement to end the Bosnian War is reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, United States (signed December 14).

source_section: Events › November


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Twenty-seven nations sign the Barcelona Treaty, creating the Union for the Mediterranean.


date: November

text: November – The Indian government officially renames the city of Bombay, restoring the name Mumbai.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris, officially ending the Bosnian War.

source_section: Events › December


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Twenty-one Bosnian Serb commanders are charged with genocide and crimes against humanity in the United Nations' International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, a tribunal on human rights violations during the Wars in the Balkans.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – United Nations Operation in Somalia II, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Somalia, ends.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – First Chechen War: Samashki massacre – Russian paramilitary troops begin a massacre of at least 250 civilians in Samashki, Chechnya.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – 1995 San Diego tank rampage: In San Diego, Shawn Nelson steals an M60A3 tank from a local California Army National Guard armory and goes on a rampage for 25 minutes, damaging over $149,201 of property. The rampage ended when San Diego police forced the hatch open and fatally shot him.


date: May 24

text: May 24 – AFC Ajax wins the UEFA Champions League at the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna by defeating A.C. Milan 1–0.


date: June 2

text: June 2 – A United States Air Force F-16 piloted by Captain Scott O'Grady is shot down over Bosnia and Herzegovina while patrolling the NATO no-fly zone. O'Grady is rescued by U.S. Marines six days later.

source_section: Events › June


date: June 29

text: June 29 – Iraq disarmament crisis: According to UNSCOM, the unity of the U.N. Security Council begins to fray as a few countries, particularly France and Russia, become more interested in making financial deals with Iraq than in disarming the country.


date: July 9

text: July 9 – Sri Lankan Civil War: 125 civilians are killed in Navaly as result of bombing by the Sri Lanka Air Force.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi is freed from house arrest.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – Srebrenica massacre: Units of the Army of Republika Srpska, under the command of General Ratko Mladić, enter Srebrenica with little resistance from Dutch peacekeepers of the United Nations Protection Force, going on to kill thousands of Bosniak men and boys and rape many women.


date: July 21

text: July 21–26 – Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: The Chinese People's Liberation Army fires missiles into the waters north of Taiwan.


date: July

text: July – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq threatens to end all cooperation with UNSCOM and IAEA if sanctions against the country are not lifted by August 31. Following the defection of his son-in-law, Hussein Kamel al-Majid, Saddam Hussein makes new revelations about the full extent of Iraq's biological and nuclear weapons programs. Iraq also withdraws its last U.N. declaration of prohibited biological weapons and turns over a large amount of new documents on its WMD programs.


date: August 4

text: August 4 – Croatian forces, with the cooperation of the ARBiH, launch Operation Storm against rebel forces of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, which subsequently ceases to exist as a political entity.

source_section: Events › August


date: August 29

text: August 29 – Eduard Shevardnadze, the Georgian head of state, survives an assassination attempt in Tbilisi.


date: August 30

text: August 30 – Operation Deliberate Force, the NATO bombing campaign against Bosnian Serb artillery positions, begins in Bosnia and Herzegovina, continuing into September. At the same time, ARBiH forces begin an offensive against the Bosnian Serb Army around Sarajevo, central Bosnia and Bosnian Krajina.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – The Washington Post and The New York Times publish the Unabomber Manifesto