chunk_id
string | chunk
string |
|---|---|
1991_2
|
Section: March (2):
March 3
The first presidential election in the history of São Tomé and Príncipe is won by Miguel Trovoada.
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.
March 6 – Prime Minister of India Chandra Shekhar resigns following a dispute with former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, whose support had kept him in power.
March 9 – Massive demonstrations are held against Slobodan Milošević in Belgrade; two people are killed, and tanks are deployed in the streets.
March 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: In the Salvadoran legislative election, the Nationalist Republican Alliance wins 39 of the 48 seats in the legislative assembly.
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.
The Acid Rain Treaty of 1991 is signed between the American and Canadian governments.
March 14
Gulf War: Emir of Kuwait Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah returns to Kuwait after seven months of exile in Saudi Arabia.
The Troubles: After 16 years in prison for allegedly bombing a public house in a Provisional IRA attack, the "Birmingham Six" are freed when a court determines that the police fabricated evidence.
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.
The U.S. and Albania resume diplomatic relations for the first time since 1939.
March 17
Dissolution of the Soviet Union: In a national referendum, 77% of voters in the Soviet Union vote in favor of keeping the 15 Soviet republics together; six Union Republics effectively boycott the referendum.
In the Finnish parliamentary election, the Centre Party wins 55 of 200 seats in the parliament, ending 25 years of dominance by the Social Democratic Party of Finland.
March 23 – The Sierra Leone Civil War begins when the Revolutionary United Front attempts a coup against the Sierra Leone government.
March 24 – The Beninese presidential election, Benin's first presidential election since 1970, is won by Nicéphore Soglo.
March 26
In Mali, military officers led by Amadou Toumani Touré arrest President Moussa Traoré and suspend the constitution.
Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay sign the Treaty of Asunción, establishing Mercosur.
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.
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.
Subsections (0):
|
1991_3
|
Section: April (2):
April 2 – Government-imposed prices increase double or triple the cost of consumer goods in the Soviet Union.
April 3 – Iraq disarmament crisis: The UN Security Council passes Resolution 687, which calls for the destruction or removal of all of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons and a complete ban of ballistic missiles with a range greater than 150 km. It also calls for an end to Iraq's support for international terrorism; it is accepted by Iraq three days later.
April 4
U.S. Senator John Heinz and six other people are killed when a helicopter collides with their plane over Merion, Pennsylvania.
Forty people are taken hostage in Sacramento, California; six gunmen and hostages are killed.
April 5
Former U.S. Senator John Tower and 22 others are killed in an airplane crash in Brunswick, Georgia.
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.
April 9 – The first Soviet troops leave Poland.
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.
The Italian ferry Moby Prince collides with an oil tanker in dense fog off Livorno, Italy, resulting in 140 deaths with one survivor.
April 12 – The Warsaw Stock Exchange opens in Poland.
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.
April 15
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is inaugurated.
End of Apartheid: The European Economic Community lifts economic sanctions on South Africa.
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.
April 17 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 3,000 for the first time in history, at 3,004.46.
April 18 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq declares some of its chemical weapons and materials to the UN, as required by Resolution 687, and claims that it does not have a biological weapons program.
April 19 – George Carey is enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
April 22
A 7.7 Mw Limon earthquake strikes Costa Rica and Panama with a maximum Mercalli intensity, causing between 47 and 87 deaths and up to 759 injuries.
In Taiwan, the Temporary Provisions against the Communist Rebellion are abolished, having been in effect for 43 years.
April 23 – Prime Minister of Iceland Steingrímur Hermannsson resigns following an inconclusive parliamentary election; he is succeeded by Davíð Oddsson on April 30.
April 26
A series of 55 tornadoes break out in the central U.S., killing 21. The most notable tornado strikes Andover, Kansas.
Esko Aho at the age of 36 becomes the youngest-ever Prime Minister of Finland.
April 29
A tropical cyclone hits Bangladesh, killing an estimated 138,000 people.
A 7.0 Mw earthquake in Racha, Georgia, kills 270 people and leaves 100,000 others homeless.
April 29 – 30 – In Lesotho, a bloodless coup ousts military ruler Justin Lekhanya, with Chairman of the Military Council Elias Phisoana Ramaema replacing him two days later.
Subsections (0):
|
1991_4
|
Section: May (2):
May 1 – Angolan Civil War: The MPLA and UNITA agree to the Bicesse Accords, which are formally signed on May 31 in Lisbon.
May 6 – In the U.S., Time magazine publishes "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power," an article highly critical of the Scientology movement.
May 12 – Nepal holds its first multiparty legislative election since 1959.
May 15 – Édith Cresson becomes France's first female prime minister.
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.
May 18 – Somaliland secedes from Somalia; its independence is not recognised by the international community.
May 19 – Dissolution of Yugoslavia: In the Croatian independence referendum, voters in the Socialist Republic of Croatia vote to leave SFR Yugoslavia.
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.
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.
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.
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.
May 25 – The Surinamese general election is won by the military-backed New Front for Democracy and Development.
May 26 – Lauda Air Boeing 767 crashes near Bangkok, Thailand, killing all 223 people on board.
May 28 – Ethiopian Civil War: The forces of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front seize the capital Addis Ababa.
Subsections (0):
|
1991_5
|
Section: June (2):
June 3 – Mount Unzen in Japan erupts, killing 46 people as a result of pyroclastic flow.
June 4
Fatos Nano resigns as Prime Minister of Albania following a nationwide strike. President of Albania Ramiz Alia appoints Ylli Bufi as his successor.
A large solar flare triggers an unusually large aurora as far south as Pennsylvania.
June 5
President of Algeria Chadli Bendjedid declares a state of emergency as Prime Minister Mouloud Hamrouche resigns after 11 days of protests against the government; Hamrouche is replaced by Sid Ahmed Ghozali.
End of Apartheid: The South African Parliament votes to repeal laws banning Black ownership of land.
June 7 – Approximately 200,000 people attend a parade of 8,800 returning Persian Gulf War troops in Washington, D.C.
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.
June 12
Boris Yeltsin is elected President of the Russian SFSR; he officially begins his term on July 10.
Sri Lankan civil war: Sri Lankan Army soldiers kill 152 civilians in Kokkadichcholai.
The Party of Labour of Albania is dissolved and succeeded by the Socialist Party of Albania, marking the end of communist rule in Albania.
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.
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.
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 person subsequently charged with the crime was acquitted, and the case remains unsolved.
June 17
End of Apartheid: The South African parliament repeals the Population Registration Act, which has required racial classification of all South Africans at birth.
President of Turkey Turgut Özal appoints Mesut Yılmaz as Prime Minister following Yıldırım Akbulut's resignation. Yılmaz forms a new government on June 23, which lasts until November when it is replaced by the government of Süleyman Demirel.
June 20
In West Germany, the Bundestag votes to move the capital from Bonn to Berlin.
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.
June 23 – 28 – Iraq disarmament crisis: UN inspection teams attempt to intercept Iraqi vehicles carrying nuclear related equipment. Iraqi soldiers fire warning shots in the air to prevent inspectors from approaching the vehicles.
June 25 – Dissolution of Yugoslavia: Croatia and Slovenia declare their independence from Yugoslavia.
June 28 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Comecon is dissolved in Moscow, Russia.
Subsections (0):
|
1991_6
|
Section: July (2):
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.
The Warsaw Pact is officially dissolved in Prague, Czechoslovakia.
The world's first GSM telephone call is made in Finland.
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.
July 7 – Dissolution of Yugoslavia: The Brioni Agreement ends the Ten-Day War in Slovenia.
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.
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.
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.
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.
July 15 – Chemical Bank and Manufacturers Hanover Corporation amalgamate, becoming the largest bank merger in history.
July 16 – Soviet President Gorbachev arrives in London to ask for aid from the leaders of the G7.
July 18 – The governments of Mauritania and Senegal sign a treaty ending the Mauritania–Senegal Border War, which has been fought since April 1989.
July 22 – U.S. boxer Mike Tyson is arrested and charged with the rape, three days earlier, of Miss Black America contestant Desiree Washington in Indianapolis, Indiana.
July 24 – Finance Minister of India Manmohan Singh announces a new industrial policy, marking the start of economic liberalisation in India.
July 25 – British astronomers announce their discovery of what appears to be an extrasolar planet.
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.
July 31
U.S. President Bush and Soviet President Gorbachev sign START I in Moscow, Soviet Union.
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.
Subsections (0):
|
1991_7
|
Section: August (2):
August 1 – Israel agrees to participate in the Madrid Conference of 1991, which opens on October 30.
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.
August 6 – Tim Berners-Lee announces the World Wide Web project and software on the alt.hypertext newsgroup. The first website, "info.cern.ch", is created.
August 7 – Former Iranian prime minister Shapour Bakhtiar is assassinated in the Parisian suburb of Suresnes.
August 8 – The Warsaw radio mast, the tallest structure in the world at the time, collapses.
August 17 – The remains of the Prussian King Frederick the Great are re-interred in Potsdam, Germany.
August 17 – 20 – Hurricane Bob hits North Carolina and New England, killing 17 people and causing US$1.5 billion in damage.
August 19 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is put under house arrest while vacationing in Crimea during an attempted coup. Led by Vice President Gennady Yanayev and seven others, the coup collapses in less than 72 hours and is protested by over 100,000 people outside the parliament building. Gorbachev returns to Moscow three days later and arrests the coup leaders.
August 20 – Singing Revolution: Estonia declares independence from the Soviet Union, followed by Latvia the next day.
August 22 – Singing Revolution: Iceland becomes the first nation to recognize the independence of the Baltic states. It is followed by the U.S. on September 2 and the Soviet Union on September 6.
August 23 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Russia restores the white-blue-red tricolour as its national flag.
August 24 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Ukraine declares independence, followed by Belarus the next day, from the Soviet Union.
August 25
Dissolution of Yugoslavia: Serbian forces begin an attack on the Croatian town of Vukovar.
Linus Torvalds posts messages to the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.minix, regarding the new operating system kernel he has developed, called Linux.
Michael Schumacher, regarded as one of the greatest Formula One drivers in history, makes his Formula One debut at the Belgian Grand Prix.
August 29 – Lebanon Hostage Crisis: Maronite general Michel Aoun leaves Lebanon on a French warship into exile.
August 30 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Moldova declares independence from the Soviet Union, followed by Azerbaijan.
August 31 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan declare their independence; Tajikistan follows suit on September 9.
Subsections (0):
|
1991_8
|
Section: September (2):
September 3 – In Hamlet, North Carolina, a grease fire breaks out at the Imperial Foods chicken processing plant, killing 25 people.
September 4 – Sverdlovsk's name is restored to its pre-communist–era name Yekaterinburg. Two days later, Leningrad is renamed St. Petersburg.
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.
September 8 – Dissolution of Yugoslavia: The Republic of Macedonia becomes independent, beginning a name dispute with Greece.
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.
The Soviet Union announces plans to withdraw military and economic aid to Cuba.
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.
September 17 – North Korea, South Korea, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands, and Micronesia join the UN.
September 19 – Ötzi the Iceman is found in the Alps.
September 21 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Armenia declares independence from the Soviet Union. Nearly a month later on October 27, Turkmenistan declares its independence. Kazakhstan follows suit on December 16.
September 21 – 30 – Iraq disarmament crisis: IAEA inspectors discover files on Iraq's hidden nuclear weapons program. Iraqi officials refuse to let them leave with the documents, prompting a standoff that continues until the UN Security Council threatens enforcement actions on Iraq.
September 22 – The Huntington Library makes the Dead Sea Scrolls available to the public for the first time.
September 24 – Lebanon Hostage Crisis: Lebanese kidnappers release Jackie Mann after more than two years of captivity.
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.
September 27 – U.S. President George H. W. Bush announces unilateral reductions in short-range nuclear weapons and calls off 24-hour alerts for long-range bombers. The Soviet Union responds with similar unilateral reductions on October 5.
September 29 – Salvadoran Civil War: An army colonel of the Atlácatl Battalion is found guilty of the 1989 murders of six Jesuits.
Subsections (0):
|
1992_0
|
1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1992nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 992nd year of the 2nd millennium, the 92nd year of the 20th century, and the 3rd year of the 1990s decade.
|
1992_0
|
Section: January (2):
January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General.
January 6
The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is proclaimed by the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.
1991–92 Georgian coup d'état: President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia flees the country as a result of the military coup.
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.
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.
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.
January 15 – The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia begins to break up; Slovenia and Croatia gain independence and international recognition in some Western countries.
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.
January 19
In the Bulgarian presidential election, the first held by direct vote, Zhelyu Zhelev, leader of the Union of Democratic Forces, retains office.
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.
January 22 – Rebel forces occupy Zaire's national radio station in Kinshasa and broadcast a demand for the government's resignation.
January 24 – China and Israel establish diplomatic relations.
January 26
Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia will stop targeting cities of the United States and its allies with nuclear weapons. In return President George H. W. Bush announces that the United States and its allies will stop targeting Russia and the remaining communist states with nuclear weapons.
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.
January 27 – First Nagorno-Karabakh War: in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, fighting between Armenians and Azeris leaves at least 60 people dead.
January 30 – North Korea signs an accord with the International Atomic Energy Agency allowing for international inspections of North Korea's nuclear power plants.
Subsections (0):
|
1992_1
|
Section: February (2):
February 1 – President of the United States George H. W. Bush meets with President of Russia Boris Yeltsin at Camp David, where they formally declare that the Cold War is over.
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.
February 4 – In Venezuela, Hugo Chávez leads an unsuccessful coup attempt against President of Venezuela Carlos Andrés Pérez.
February 6 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms celebrates her Ruby Jubilee, marking 40 years since her accession to the thrones of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
February 7 – The Maastricht Treaty is signed, founding the European Union.
February 8 – The opening ceremony for the 1992 Winter Olympics is held in Albertville, France.
February 9 – Algerian Civil War: The government of Algeria declares a state of emergency and begins a crackdown on the Islamic Salvation Front.
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.
February 16 – In Lebanon, Israeli helicopter gunships assassinate Abbas al-Musawi, the leader of Hezbollah, and his son, in retaliation for a February 14 raid that killed three Israeli soldiers.
February 18 – Iraq disarmament crisis: The Executive Chairman of UNSCOM details Iraq's refusal to abide by UN Security Council disarmament resolutions.
February 21 – The United Nations Security Council approves Resolution 743 to send a UNPROFOR peacekeeping force to Yugoslavia.
February 25–26 – 613 Azerbaijani civilians are massacred in Khojaly.
February 26 – The Supreme Court of Ireland rules that a 14-year-old rape victim may travel to the United Kingdom to have an abortion.
February 28 – Ownership of the port town of Walvis Bay is transferred from South Africa to Namibia.
Subsections (0):
|
1992_2
|
Section: March (2):
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.
March 2 – In Dubăsari, Moldova, escalating tensions turn into open hostilities and the beginning of the Transnistria War.
March 4 – The Supreme Court of Algeria bans the Islamic Salvation Front, which is poised to win control of the Parliament of Algeria in runoff elections.
March 12 – Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
March 13 – The 6.7 Mw Erzincan earthquake affects eastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing 498–652 and injuring around 2,000.
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.
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.
STS-45: Space Shuttle Atlantis takes off from Cape Canaveral carrying instruments designed to study global warming.
March 24 – The Treaty on Open Skies is signed in Helsinki, Finland, to establish a program of unarmed surveillance flights over the 34 member states. It went into effect on January 1, 2002.
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.
March 31 – The Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act of Singapore comes into force.
Subsections (0):
|
1992_3
|
Section: April (2):
April 5
The Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina (without the presence of Serb political delegates) proclaims independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
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.
President of Peru Alberto Fujimori issues Decree Law 25418, dissolving the Congress of the Republic of Peru, imposing censorship and having opposition politicians arrested, setting off the 1992 Peruvian constitutional crisis.
April 6 – The Republic of Ilirida is proclaimed by Albanian Macedonian activists in Struga, Republic of Macedonia.
April 7 – The United States recognizes the independence of Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The European Communities also recognizes Bosnia and Herzegovina.
April 9
A jury in Miami, USA, convicts former Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega of assisting Colombia's cocaine cartel.
In the United Kingdom general election the Conservative Party led by Prime Minister of the United Kingdom John Major narrowly retains power.
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.
A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb explodes at the Baltic Exchange in the City of London; three are killed, 91 injured.
April 13 – The 5.3 Mw Roermond earthquake affects the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong).
April 15 – The National Assembly of Vietnam adopts the 1992 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
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).
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.
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.
April 22 – Fuel leaking into a sewer causes a series of explosions in Guadalajara, Mexico; 215 are killed, 1,500 injured.
April 27 – Betty Boothroyd becomes the first woman elected Speaker of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.
April 28 – The two remaining constituent republics of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia – Serbia and Montenegro – form a new state, named the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (which in 2003 becomes Serbia and Montenegro), bringing to an end the official state union of Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Montenegrins, Bosniaks and Macedonians that has existed since 1918 (with the exception of an occupation period during World War II).
April 29
Los Angeles riots: The acquittal of four police officers 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.
In Sierra Leone, a group of young soldiers launch a military coup that sends president Joseph Saidu Momoh into exile in Guinea, and the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) is established with 25-year-old Captain Valentine Strasser as its chairman and Head of State of the country.
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.
Subsections (0):
|
1992_4
|
Section: May (2):
May 1 – Lithuania introduces a new temporary currency, the talonas.
May 5
Russian leaders in Crimea declare their separation from Ukraine as a new republic. They withdraw the secession on May 10.
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.
May 7
STS-49: Space Shuttle Endeavour makes its maiden flight, as a replacement for Space Shuttle Challenger.
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.
May 9
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is adopted in New York.
The Westray Mine in Plymouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, explodes, killing all 26 miners working the night shift.
May 10 – Sweden wins the Ice Hockey World Championships in Czechoslovakia defeating Finland, 5–2, in the final game in Prague.
May 13 – Falun Gong is introduced by Li Hongzhi in China.
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).
May 16–17 – Bosnian War: U.N. peacekeepers withdraw from Sarajevo.
May 17 – Protests begin in Bangkok, Thailand, against the government of General Suchinda Kraprayoon, sparking a bloody crackdown.
May 23 – Capaci bombing: A Mafia bomb on the autostrada in Sicily kills five people, including Italian anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone.
May 24
In Thailand, Suchinda Kraprayoon agrees to resign.
Parliamentary election held in Burkina Faso, for the first time since 1978.
May 30 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 757 imposes economic sanctions on Yugoslavia in an effort to end its attacks on Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Subsections (0):
|
1992_5
|
Section: June (2):
June 2 – In a national referendum Denmark rejects the Maastricht Treaty by a narrow margin.
June 3–14 – The Earth Summit is held in Rio de Janeiro.
June 8 – The first World Oceans Day is celebrated, coinciding with the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
June 10–26 – Sweden hosts the UEFA Euro 1992 football tournament, which is won by Denmark.
June 16 – A "Joint Understanding" agreement on arms reduction is signed by U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin (this is later codified in START II).
June 17
Two German relief workers held since 1989, Thomas Kemptner and Heinrich Struebig, are handed over to the German authorities after their release; they are the last Western hostages in Lebanon.
Violence breaks out between the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party in Boipatong, South Africa, leaving 46 dead.
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%.
June 20
Estonia adopts the kroon as currency, becoming the first former Soviet Republic to replace the Soviet rouble.
In Paraguay the National Constituent Assembly approves the new Constitution of Paraguay.
June 21 – Nelson Mandela announces that the African National Congress will halt negotiations with the government of South Africa following the Boipatong massacre of June 17.
June 23 – The Israeli legislative election is won by the Israeli Labor Party under the leadership of Yitzhak Rabin, ousting a Likud government.
June 25 – The Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) is founded.
June 26 – Denmark beats Germany 2–0 in the final to win the 1992 UEFA European Football Championship at Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden.
June 28 – Estonia holds a referendum on its constitution, which will come into effect on July 3.
Subsections (0):
|
1992_6
|
Section: July (2):
July 6–8 – The 18th G7 summit is held in Munich.
July 6–29 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses a U.N. 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. U.N. inspectors stage a 17-day "sit-in" outside of the building, but leave when their safety is threatened by Iraqi soldiers.
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.
The Giotto spacecraft flies past Comet 26P/Grigg–Skjellerup, gathering measurements about the comet.
July 13 – Yitzhak Rabin becomes prime minister of Israel.
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".
July 17 – The Slovak National Council declares Slovakia an independent country, signaling the breakup of Czechoslovakia.
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.
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.
July 20 – Václav Havel resigns as president of Czechoslovakia.
July 21 – Transnistria War ends with a ceasefire.
July 22 – Near Medellín, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escapes from his luxury prison, fearing extradition to the United States.
July 23 – Abkhazia declares independence from Georgia.
July 25–August 9 – The 1992 Summer Olympics are held in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
July 26 – Iraq agrees to allow U.N. 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.
July 31
Georgia becomes the 179th member of the United Nations after seceding from the Soviet Union the previous year.
Thai Airways International Flight 311, an Airbus A310-300, crashes into a mountain north of Kathmandu, Nepal killing all 113 people on board.
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.
Subsections (0):
|
1992_7
|
Section: August (2):
August 3–4 – Millions of black South Africans participate in a general strike called by the African National Congress to protest the lack of progress in negotiations with the government of State President of South Africa F. W. de Klerk.
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.
August 18 – Prime Minister of the United Kingdom John Major announces the creation of Iraqi no-fly zones (→ Operation Southern Watch).
August 24
Concordia University massacre: Valery Fabrikant murders four colleagues and seriously wounds another in a shooting at Concordia University, in Montreal, Quebec.
China and South Korea establish diplomatic relations.
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.
August 29 – In Rostock, Germany, tens of thousands rally to protest neo-Nazi attacks on refugees and immigrants begun on August 22.
Subsections (0):
|
1992_8
|
Section: September (2):
September 1 – In Beijing, police arrest Shen Tong for his role in organizing the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
September 2 – The 7.7 Mw Nicaragua earthquake affects the west coast of Nicaragua. With a Ms –Mw 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 meters (9.8–26.2 ft).
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.
President of Tajikistan Rahmon Nabiyev is forced to resign following weeks of clan and religious warfare that have left nearly 2,000 people dead.
September 12 – In Peru, police arrest Abimael Guzmán, the leader of the Shining Path guerilla movement, who has evaded capture for 12 years.
September 16 – Black Wednesday: The pound sterling and the Italian lira are forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.
September 20 – French voters narrowly approve the Maastricht Treaty in the French Maastricht Treaty referendum.
September 21 – Mexico establishes diplomatic relations with Vatican City, ending a break that has lasted over 130 years.
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.
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.
September 29 – The Chamber of Deputies of Brazil votes to impeach President of Brazil Fernando Collor, the country's first democratically elected leader in 29 years. Vice President Itamar Franco becomes acting president.
Subsections (0):
|
1992_9
|
Section: October (2):
October 1 – Cartoon Network, a 24/7 children's television channel, is launched in the United States.
October 2 – A riot breaks out in the Carandiru Penitentiary in São Paulo, Brazil, resulting in the Carandiru massacre.
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.
October 4
The government of Mozambique signs the Rome General Peace Accords with leaders of RENAMO, ending the 16-year-old Mozambican Civil War.
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.
October 6 – Lennart Meri becomes the first President of Estonia after regaining independence. The Estonian Government in Exile resigns on the next day.
October 7 – In Peru, Shining Path leader Abimael Guzmán is convicted of treason and sentenced to life in prison.
October 11 – The Catechism of the Catholic Church is promulgated by Pope John Paul II with his apostolic constitution, Fidei depositum.
October 12
In the Dominican Republic, Pope John Paul II celebrates the 500th anniversary of the meeting of two cultures.
The 5.8 mb Cairo earthquake affects the city with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), leaving 545 dead and 6,512 injured.
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.
October 20 – The last Yugoslav Army troops leave Croatia.
October 21 – 150,000 coal miners march in London to protest government plans to close coal mines and reduce the number of miners.
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.
October 25 – Lithuania holds a referendum on its first constitution after declaring independence from the Soviet Union in 1990.
October 26 – In a national referendum, voters in Canada reject the Charlottetown Accord.
October 31 – Pope John Paul II issues an apology and lifts the 1633 edict of the Inquisition against Galileo Galilei.
Subsections (0):
|
1992_10
|
Section: November (2):
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.
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.
November 11 – The Church of England votes to allow women to become priests.
November 13
The government of Peru announces it has arrested a small group of army officers who were plotting the assassination of President Alberto Fujimori.
A report by the World Meteorological Organization reports an unprecedented level of ozone depletion in both the Arctic and Antarctic.
November 14 – In poor conditions caused by Cyclone Forrest, Vietnam Airlines Flight 474 crashes near Nha Trang, killing 30.
November 15 – The Lithuanian parliamentary election sees the Communists of the Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania, led by Algirdas Brazauskas, return to power.
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.
November 24 – In China, China Southern Airlines Flight 3943, a China Southern Airlines domestic flight, crashes, killing all 141 people on board.
November 25
The Czechoslovakia Federal Assembly votes to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, starting on January 1, 1993.
In a national referendum related to abortion, voters in Ireland reject the proposed Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 1992 but approve the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland and the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland.
November 27 – The government of Venezuela puts down a coup attempt by a group of Air Force officers who have bombed the presidential palace.
Subsections (0):
|
1992_11
|
Section: December (2):
December 1 – South Korea and South Africa reestablish diplomatic relations. South Korea previously had diplomatic relations with South Africa from 1961 to 1978, when they were severed by the former due to the latter's policy of apartheid.
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.
December 4 – US President Bush announces the deployment of American troops as part of the United Task Force (UNITAF). The UNITAF troops land at Mogadishu on 9 December.
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.
December 12 – The 7.8 Mw 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 (82 ft) follows.
December 16 – The Czech National Council adopts the Constitution of the Czech Republic.
December 18 – The South Korean presidential election is won by Kim Young-sam, the first non-military candidate elected since 1961.
December 21 – President of Serbia Slobodan Milošević defeats Milan Panić in the Serbian presidential election.
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.
Subsections (0):
|
1993_0
|
1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1993rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 993rd year of the 2nd millennium, the 93rd year of the 20th century, and the 4th year of the 1990s decade.
|
1993_0
|
Section: January (2):
January 1
Czechoslovakia ceases to exist, as the Czech Republic and Slovakia separate in the Dissolution of Czechoslovakia.
The European Economic Community eliminates trade barriers and creates a European single market.
January 3 – In Moscow, Presidents George H. W. Bush (United States) and Boris Yeltsin (Russia) sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
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.
MV Braer, a Liberian-registered oil tanker, runs aground off the Scottish island of Mainland, Shetland, causing a massive oil spill.
January 6
Douglas Hurd is the first high-ranking British official to visit Argentina since the Falklands War.
January 6–20 – The Bombay riots take place in Mumbai.
January 7 – The Fourth Republic of Ghana is inaugurated, with Jerry Rawlings as president.
January 8–17 – The Braer Storm of January 1993, the most intense extratropical cyclone on record for the northern Atlantic Ocean, occurs.
January 13
The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is signed.
Iraq disarmament crisis: US, British and French aircraft attack Iraqi Surface to Air Missile sites in Southern Iraq.
January 14 – The Polish ferry MS Jan Heweliusz sinks off the coast of Rügen in the Baltic Sea, killing 54 people.
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.
January 20 – Bill Clinton is sworn in as the 42nd President of the United States.
January 24 – In Turkey, thousands protest against the murder of journalist Uğur Mumcu.
January 25 – Social Democrat Poul Nyrup Rasmussen succeeds Conservative Poul Schlüter as Prime Minister of Denmark.
January 26 – Václav Havel is elected President of the Czech Republic.
Subsections (0):
|
1993_1
|
Section: February (2):
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.
February 10
Lien Chan is named by Lee Teng-hui to succeed Hau Pei-tsun as Premier of the Republic of China.
Mani pulite scandal: Italian legislator Claudio Martelli resigns, followed by various politicians over the next two weeks.
February 14
Glafcos Clerides defeats incumbent George Vasiliou in the Cypriot presidential election.
Albert Zafy defeats Didier Ratsiraka in the Madagascar presidential election.
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.
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.
Subsections (0):
|
1993_2
|
Section: March (2):
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.
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.
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.
March 12
1993 Bombay bombings: Several bombs explode in Bombay, India, killing 257 and injuring hundreds more.
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.
March 13–15 – The Great Blizzard of 1993 strikes the eastern U.S., bringing record snowfall and other severe weather all the way from Cuba to Quebec; it reportedly kills 184 people.
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.
March 17 – The Kurdistan Workers' Party announces a unilateral ceasefire in Iraq.
March 24
The Israeli Knesset elects Ezer Weizman as President of Israel.
South Africa officially abandons its nuclear weapons programme. President de Klerk announces that the country's six warheads had already been dismantled in 1989.
March 27
Jiang Zemin becomes President of the People's Republic of China.
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.
Mahamane Ousmane is elected president of Niger.
March 28 – 1993 French legislative election: Rally for the Republic (Gaullist party) wins a majority and Édouard Balladur becomes Prime Minister.
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.
Subsections (0):
|
1993_3
|
Section: April (2):
April–May – 1993 Four Corners hantavirus outbreak: Thirteen people are killed by Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, mainly in the Southwestern United States.
April–October – Great Flood of 1993: The Mississippi and Missouri Rivers flood large portions of the American Midwest.
April 8 – The Republic of Macedonia is admitted to the United Nations.
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.
April 16 – Bosnian War: the enclave of Srebrenica is declared a UN-protected "safe area".
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.
April 20 – The Council for National Academic Awards, the national degree-awarding authority in the United Kingdom, is officially dissolved.
Backstreet Boys were formed in Orlando, Florida.
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.
April 23
The World Health Organization declares tuberculosis a global emergency.
Eritreans vote overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a United Nations-monitored referendum, the 1993 Eritrean independence referendum.
April 26 – Oscar Luigi Scalfaro appoints Carlo Azeglio Ciampi Prime Minister of Italy.
April 27
Eritrea: Eritrean independence is declared verified by the United Nations.
1993 Yemeni parliamentary election: The General People's Congress of Yemen wins a plurality of 121 seats.
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.
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.
Subsections (0):
|
1993_4
|
Section: May (2):
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.
May 4 – UNOSOM II assumes the Somalian duties of the dissolved UNITAF.
May 9 – Juan Carlos Wasmosy becomes the first democratically elected President of Paraguay in nearly 40 years, after defeating Domingo Laíno in the 1993 Paraguayan general election.
May 15 – Niamh Kavanagh wins the Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland with In Your Eyes.
May 16 – The Grand National Assembly of Turkey elects Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel as President of Turkey. After Demirel becomes president, the acting Prime Minister of Turkey is Erdal İnönü of Social Democratic Populist Party for 40 days.
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 onboard.
May 24 – Eritrea gains independence from Ethiopia.
May 25 – The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is created in The Hague.
May 28 – Eritrea and Monaco gain entry to the United Nations.
Subsections (0):
|
1993_5
|
Section: June (2):
June 1
Large protests erupt against Slobodan Milošević's regime in Belgrade; opposition leader Vuk Drašković and his wife Danica are arrested.
President of Guatemala Jorge Serrano Elías is forced to flee the country after an attempted self-coup.
1993 Burundian presidential election: The first multiparty elections in Burundi since the country's independence lead to the election of Melchior Ndadaye, leader of the Front for Democracy in Burundi. The next day's legislative election sees his party win with an overwhelming majority.
June 5
The National Assembly of Venezuela designates Ramón José Velásquez as successor of suspended President Carlos Andrés Pérez.
Attack on Pakistani military in Somalia: twenty-four Pakistani troops in the United Nations forces are killed in Mogadishu, Somalia.
June 6
Following the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement's victory, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada becomes President of Bolivia.
Mongolia holds its first direct presidential elections, Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat remains president.
June 8 – Kurdish–Turkish conflict: the PKK-declared ceasefire ends in Iraq.
June 11 – Jurassic Park releases in cinemas in the United States.
June 14 – Multipartyists win a referendum on the future of the one-party system in Malawi.
June 18
Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM weapons inspectors to install remote-controlled monitoring cameras at two missile engine test stands.
KTTV launched Good Day L.A.
June 22 – Japan's New Party Sakigake breaks away from the Liberal Democratic Party.
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.
June 25
Kim Campbell becomes the 19th, and first female, Prime Minister of Canada.
Tansu Çiller of True Path Party forms the new government of Turkey.
Zoran Lilić succeeds Dobrica Ćosić as President of Yugoslavia.
The litas is introduced as the new currency of Lithuania.
Jacques Attali resigns as President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
June 26–28 – Typhoon Koryn causes massive damage to the Philippines, China and Macau.
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.
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).
Subsections (0):
|
1993_6
|
Section: July (2):
July 5
Iraq disarmament crisis: UN inspection teams leave Iraq. Iraq then agrees to UNSCOM demands and the inspection teams return.
Electrochemist Faiza Al-Kharafi is appointed rector (president) of Kuwait University, the first woman to head a major university in the Middle East.
July 7–9 – The 19th G7 summit is held in Tokyo, Japan.
July 8 – Monsoonal floods in South Asia begin, going on to kill more than three thousand people over the next month.
July 7 – Hurricane Calvin lands in Mexico. It is the second Pacific hurricane on record to land in Mexico in July and kills 34.
July 12 – The 7.7 Mw 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.
July 19 – 1993 Japanese general election: The loss of majority of the Liberal Democratic Party results in a coalition taking power.
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.
July 26
Miguel Indurain wins the 1993 Tour de France.
Asiana Airlines Flight 733 crashes into Mt. Ungeo in Haenam, South Korea; 68 are killed.
July 29 – The Israeli Supreme Court acquits accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk of all charges and he is set free.
Subsections (0):
|
1993_7
|
Section: August (2):
August – The European Exchange Rate Mechanism margin was expanded to 15% to accommodate speculation against the French franc and other currencies.
August 5 – The discovery of the Tel Dan Stele, the first archaeological confirmation of the existence of the Davidic line, is announced.
August 9 – King Albert II of Belgium is sworn into office nine days after the death of his brother, King Baudouin I.
August 13 – More than 130 die in the collapse of Royal Plaza Hotel at Nakhon Ratchasima in Thailand's worst hotel disaster.
August 21 – NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Observer orbiter 3 days before the spacecraft is scheduled to enter orbit around Mars.
August 28
Ong Teng Cheong becomes the first President of Singapore elected by the population.
The first Power Rangers series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (an adaptation of Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger), premieres in the United States.
August 31 – Russia completes removing its troops from Lithuania.
Subsections (0):
|
1993_8
|
Section: September (2):
September 13
1993 Norwegian parliamentary election: The Labour Party wins a plurality of the seats and Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland retains office.
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.
September 15–21 – Hurricane Gert crosses from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean through Central America and Mexico.
September 17 – Russian troops withdraw from Poland.
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.
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.
September 23 – The International Olympic Committee selects Sydney, Australia, to host the 2000 Summer Olympics.
September 24 – The Cambodian monarchy is restored, with Norodom Sihanouk as king.
September 26
The first mission in Biosphere 2 ends after two years.
PoSAT-1 (the first Portuguese satellite) is launched on board French rocket Ariane 4.
September 27 – War in Abkhazia: Fall of Sukhumi – Eduard Shevardnadze accuses Russia of passive complicity.
September 30 – Latur earthquake: A 6.2 Mw earthquake occurs in the vicinity of Maharashtra, India having a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing 9,748 and injuring 30,000.
Subsections (0):
|
1993_9
|
Section: October (2):
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 Somalians dead and over 74 Americans wounded in action, 18 killed and 1 captured.
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.
October 5 – China performs a nuclear test, ending a worldwide de facto moratorium.
October 9 – The South Korean ferry Seohae capsizes off Pusan, South Korea; 292 are killed.
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.
October 13
1993 Greek legislative election: Andreas Papandreou begins his second term as Prime Minister of Greece.
The fifth summit of the Francophonie opens in Mauritius.
The 1993 Finisterre earthquakes in Papua New Guinea kill at least 60 due to landslides.
October 19 – Benazir Bhutto becomes the Prime Minister of Pakistan for the second time.
October 21 – A coup in Burundi results in the death of president Melchior Ndadaye and sparks the Burundi Civil War.
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.
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.
Subsections (0):
|
1993_10
|
Section: November (2):
November 1 – The Maastricht Treaty takes effect, formally establishing the European Union.
November 4 – Jean Chrétien becomes the 20th Prime Minister of Canada.
November 5 – The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the Railways Act 1993, setting out the procedures for privatisation of British Rail.
November 9 – Bosnian Croat forces destroy the Stari Most, or Old Bridge of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, by tank fire.
November 12 – London Convention: Marine dumping of radioactive waste is outlawed.
November 14 – In a status referendum, residents of Puerto Rico vote by a slim margin to maintain Commonwealth status.
November 17–22 – The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) passes the legislative houses in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
November 17
In Nigeria, General Sani Abacha ousts the government of Ernest Shonekan in a military coup.
The first meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit opens in Seattle.
November 20 – An Avioimpex Yakovlev Yak-42D crashes into Mount Trojani near Ohrid, Macedonia. All 8 crew members and 115 of the 116 passengers are killed.
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.
November 30
An agreement establishing the Permanent Tripartite Commission for East African Co-operation is signed.
U.S. President Bill Clinton signs the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.
Subsections (0):
|
1993_11
|
Section: December (2):
December 2
STS-61: NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair an optical flaw in the Hubble Space Telescope.
Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar is gunned down by police.
December 5
Omar Bongo is re-elected as President of Gabon in the country's first multiparty elections.
Rafael Caldera Rodríguez is elected President of Venezuela for the second time, succeeding interim president Ramón José Velásquez.
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.
The 32-member Transitional Executive Committee holds its first meeting in Cape Town, marking the first meeting of an official government body in South Africa with Black members.
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.
December 8 – U.S. President Bill Clinton signs into law the North American Free Trade Agreement.
December 10 – id Software releases the first-person shooter game Doom.
December 11
One of the three blocks of the Highland Towers near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia collapses, killing 48.
1993 Chilean presidential election: Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle is elected with 58% of the vote.
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.
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.
December 15 – The Uruguay Round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) talks reach a successful conclusion after seven years.
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.
December 20
The United Nations General Assembly votes to appoint a U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The first corrected images from the Hubble Space Telescope are taken.
December 21
The Hungarian Parliament elects Péter Boross Prime Minister of Hungary following the death of József Antall on December 12.
Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki's VeggieTales is first released.
December 30
The Congress Party gains a parliamentary majority in India after the defection of 10 Janata Dal party lawmakers.
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.
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.
Subsections (0):
|
1994_0
|
1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1994th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 994th year of the 2nd millennium, the 94th year of the 20th century, and the 5th year of the 1990s decade. The year 1994 was designated as the "International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations.
|
1994_0
|
Section: January (2):
January 1
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is established.
Beginning of the Zapatista uprising in Mexico.
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.
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.
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.
January 17 – The 6.7 Mw 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.
Subsections (0):
|
1994_1
|
Section: February (2):
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.
February 5 – Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
February 6 – Markale massacres: a Bosnian Serb Army mortar shell kills 68 civilians and wounds about 200 in a Sarajevo marketplace.
February 9 – The Vance–Owen peace plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina is announced.
February 12
Edvard Munch's painting The Scream is stolen in Oslo (it is recovered on May 7).
The 1994 Winter Olympics begin in Lillehammer.
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.
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.
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.
Subsections (0):
|
1994_2
|
Section: March (2):
March – The People's Republic of China gets its first connection to the Internet.
March 6 – A referendum in Moldova results in the electorate voting against possible reunification with Romania.
March 12
A photo by Marmaduke Wetherell, previously touted as "proof" of the Loch Ness Monster, is confirmed to be a hoax.
The Church of England ordains its first female priests.
March 14
Apple Computer, Inc. releases the Power Macintosh, the first Macintosh computers to use the new PowerPC microprocessors.
The Linux kernel version 1.0.0 is released after over two years of development.
March 15 – U.S. troops are withdrawn from Somalia.
March 20 – Italian journalist Ilaria Alpi and TV cameraman Miran Hrovatin are assassinated in Somalia.
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).
March 23
Green Ramp disaster: two military aircraft collide over Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina causing 24 fatalities.
Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio is assassinated at a campaign rally in Tijuana.
March 27
TV tycoon Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing coalition wins the Italian general election.
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.
March 28 – Shell House massacre: Inkatha Freedom Party and ANC supporters battle in central Johannesburg, South Africa.
March 31 – The journal Nature reports the finding in Ethiopia of the first complete Australopithecus afarensis skull.
Subsections (0):
|
1994_3
|
Section: April (2):
April 2 – The National Convention of New Sudan of the SPLA/M opens in Chukudum.
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.
April 7 – The Rwandan genocide begins in Kigali, Rwanda.
April 16 – Voters in Finland decide to join the European Union in a referendum.
April 20 – South Africa adopts a new national flag, replacing the "Oranje, Blanje, Blou" flag adopted in 1928 that was used during apartheid.
April 21 – The Red Cross estimates that hundreds of thousands of Tutsi have been killed in Rwanda.
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.
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.
China Airlines Flight 140, an Airbus A300, crashes while landing at Nagoya, Japan, killing 264 people.
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.
Subsections (0):
|
1994_4
|
Section: May (2):
May 1 – Three-time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna is killed in an accident during the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, Italy.
May 5 – The Bishkek Protocol between Armenia and Azerbaijan is signed in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, effectively freezing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
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.
May 10 – Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.
May 17 – Malawi holds its first multiparty elections.
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.
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.
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".
Subsections (0):
|
1994_5
|
Section: June (2):
June 1 – The Republic of South Africa rejoins the Commonwealth of Nations after its first democratic election; South Africa had departed the then-British Commonwealth in 1961.
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).
June 15 – Israel and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations.
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.
The 1994 FIFA World Cup starts in the United States.
June 19 – Ernesto Samper is elected President of Colombia.
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.
June 25 – Cold War: the last Russian troops leave Germany.
June 28 – Members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult execute the first sarin gas attack at Matsumoto, Japan, killing eight and injuring 200.
June 30
The Liberal Democratic Party in Japan regains power after spending 11 months in opposition, in coalition with the Japan Socialist Party.
Tropical Storm Alberto forms, hitting parts of Florida causing $1.03 billion in damage and 32 deaths.
Subsections (0):
|
1994_6
|
Section: July (2):
July 4 – Rwandan Patriotic Front troops capture Kigali, a major breakthrough in the Rwandan Civil War.
July 5 – Jeff Bezos founds Amazon.
July 7 – 1994 civil war in Yemen: Aden is occupied by troops from North Yemen.
July 8 – North Korean President Kim Il Sung dies, but officially continues to hold office.
July 12 – The Allied occupation of Berlin ends with a casing of the colors ceremony attended by U.S. President Bill Clinton.
July 16–22 – Fragments of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 impact the planet Jupiter.
July 17 – Brazil wins the 1994 FIFA World Cup, defeating Italy 3–2 in a penalty shootout in the final (full-time 0–0).
July 18
AMIA bombing: In Buenos Aires, a terrorist attack destroys a building housing several Jewish organizations, killing 85 and injuring many more.
Rwandan Patriotic Front troops capture Gisenyi, forcing the interim government into Zaire and ending the Rwandan genocide.
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.
Subsections (0):
|
1994_7
|
Section: August (2):
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.
August 12 – Woodstock '94 begins in Saugerties, New York, United States, marking the 25-year anniversary of Woodstock in 1969.
August 18
1994 Mascara earthquake: a 5.8 earthquake leaves 171 dead in Algeria.
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.
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.
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
The Russian Army leaves Estonia and Latvia, ending the last traces of Eastern Europe's Soviet occupation.
c. August – Pizza Hut becomes the first restaurant to offer online food ordering, in California.
Subsections (0):
|
1994_8
|
Section: September (2):
September 3 – Cold War: Russia and the People's Republic of China agree to de-target their nuclear weapons against each other.
September 5 – New South Wales State MP for Cabramatta John Newman is shot outside his home, in Australia's first political assassination since 1977.
September 8 – USAir Flight 427, a Boeing 737 with 132 people on board, crashes on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport killing all on board.
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.
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.
September 16
Danish tour guide Louise Jensen is abducted, raped and murdered by three British soldiers in Cyprus.
Britain lifts the broadcasting ban imposed on Sinn Féin and paramilitary groups from Northern Ireland.
September 17 – Heather Whitestone is crowned the first deaf Miss America when she is crowned Miss America 1995.
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.
September 28
The car ferry MS Estonia sinks in the Baltic Sea, killing 852 people.
José Francisco Ruiz Massieu, Mexican politician, is assassinated on orders of Raúl Salinas de Gortari.
September–October – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq threatens to stop cooperating with UNSCOM inspectors and begins to once again deploy troops near its border with Kuwait. In response, the U.S. begins to deploy troops to Kuwait.
Subsections (0):
|
1994_9
|
Section: October (2):
October 1
In Slovakia, populist leader Vladimír Mečiar wins the general election.
Palau gains independence from the United Nations Trusteeship Council.
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.
October 15
After three years of U.S. exile, Haiti's president Aristide returns to his country.
Iraq disarmament crisis: following threats by the U.N. Security Council and the U.S., Iraq withdraws troops from its border with Kuwait.
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).
Subsections (0):
|
1994_10
|
Section: November (2):
November 5
A letter by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, announcing that he has Alzheimer's disease, is released.
American boxer George Foreman wins the WBA and IBF World Heavyweight Championships by KO'ing Michael Moorer becoming the oldest heavyweight champion in history.
Influential Afrikaner theologian and critic of apartheid Johan Heyns is assassinated; the killers are never apprehended or identified.
November 6
A flood in Piedmont, Italy, kills dozens of people.
Bražuolė bridge bombing in Lithuania damages a railway bridge but trains are stopped in time to avoid casualties.
November 7 – WXYC, the student radio station of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, provides the world's first internet radio broadcast.
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.
Hurricane Gordon hits Central America, Jamaica, Cuba, the Bahamas, Haiti and the Southeastern United States, causing $594 million in damages and 1,152 fatalities.
November 11
Duy Tan University, Vietnam's University, is established.
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.
November 13 – Voters in Sweden decide to join the European Union in a referendum.
November 14 – The first Eurostar train passengers travel through the Channel Tunnel.
November 15
1994 Nepalese general election The CPN (UML) is elected with a minority government, becoming the first democratically elected Communist party in Asia.
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 (28 ft) high.
November 20 – The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol.
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.
November 28 – Voters in Norway decide not to join the European Union in a referendum.
Subsections (0):
|
1994_11
|
Section: December (2):
December 1 – Ernesto Zedillo takes office as President of Mexico.
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.
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.
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.
December 11 – Russian president Boris Yeltsin orders troops into Chechnya.
December 13
The trial of former President Mengistu begins in Ethiopia.
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.
December 14 – Construction commences on the Three Gorges Dam, at Sandouping, China.
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.
Civil unions between same-sex couples are legalized in Sweden.
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.
Subsections (0):
|
1995_0
|
1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1995th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 995th year of the 2nd millennium, the 95th year of the 20th century, and the 6th year of the 1990s decade.
|
1995_0
|
Section: January (2):
January 1
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is established to replace the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
Austria, Finland and Sweden join the European Union.
January 9 – Valeri Polyakov completes 366 days in space while aboard then Mir space station, breaking a duration record.
January 10–15 – The World Youth Day 1995 festival is held in Manila, Philippines, culminating in 5 million people gathering for John Paul II's concluding mass in Quirino Grandstand.
January 17 – The 6.9 Great Hanshin earthquake strikes the southern Hyōgo Prefecture of Japan with a maximum Shindo of 7, leaving 5,502–6,434 people dead, and 251,301–310,000 displaced.
January 25 – Norwegian rocket incident: A rocket launched from the space exploration centre at Andøya, Norway, is briefly interpreted by the Russians as an incoming attack.
January 31 – Mexican peso crisis: U.S. President Bill Clinton invokes emergency powers to extend a $20 billion loan to help Mexico avert financial collapse.
Subsections (0):
|
1995_1
|
Section: February (2):
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.
February 21 – Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada, becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
February 25 – The Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) (Organización del Tratado de Cooperación Amazónica [OTCA]) is formed.
February 26 – The United Kingdom's oldest investment banking firm, Barings Bank, collapses after securities broker Nick Leeson loses $1.4 billion by speculating on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Subsections (0):
|
1995_2
|
Section: March (2):
March 1
Julio María Sanguinetti is sworn in as President of Uruguay for his second term.
Polish Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak resigns from Parliament and is replaced by ex-communist Józef Oleksy.
March 3 – United Nations Operation in Somalia II, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Somalia, ends.
March 14 – Astronaut Norman Thagard becomes the first American to ride into space aboard a Russian launch vehicle (the Soyuz TM-21), lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
March 20 – Members of the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo carry out the Tokyo subway sarin attack, killing 14 people and leading to over a thousand injured. The attack remains the deadliest terrorist incident in Japanese history.
March 22 – Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns after setting a record for 438 days in outer space.
March 26 – The Schengen Agreement, easing cross-border travel, goes into effect in several European countries.
March 31 – TAROM Flight 371 from Bucharest to Brussels crashes shortly after takeoff killing all 60 people on board.
Subsections (0):
|
1995_3
|
Section: April (2):
April 7 – First Chechen War: Samashki massacre – Russian paramilitary troops begin a massacre of at least 250 civilians in Samashki, Chechnya.
April 19 – Oklahoma City bombing: 168 people, including eight federal Marshals and 19 children, are killed at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and 680 are wounded by a bomb set off by Timothy McVeigh.
April 30 – The United States government stops funding the NSFNET, making the Internet a wholly privatized system.
Subsections (0):
|
1995_4
|
Section: May (2):
May 7 – Jacques Chirac is elected president of France.
May 10 – The Vaal Reefs mining disaster at Vaal Reefs gold mine in Orkney, South Africa. A runaway locomotive falls into a lift shaft onto an ascending cage and causes it to plunge 1,500 feet (460 m) to the bottom of the 6,900 feet (2,100 m) deep shaft, killing 104.
May 11 – More than 170 countries agree to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.
May 13 – The 6.6 Mw Western Macedonia earthquake strikes northwestern Greece with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), injuring 25 and causing $450 million in damage.
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.
May 16 – Following the Tokyo subway sarin attack two months earlier, Japanese police besiege the headquarters of Aum Shinrikyo near Mount Fuji and arrest cult leader Shoko Asahara. Further police operations result in over two hundred arrests and thirteen members of the cult, including Asahara, are sentenced to death.
May 24 – AFC Ajax wins the UEFA Champions League at the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna by defeating A.C. Milan 1–0.
May 28 – The 7.0 Mw Neftegorsk earthquake strikes northern Sakhalin Island in Russia with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), leaving 1,967 people dead and 750 injured.
Subsections (0):
|
1995_5
|
Section: June (2):
June 2
Mrkonjić Grad incident: 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.
Waffen-SS Hauptsturmführer Erich Priebke is extradited from Argentina to Italy.
June 6
U.S. astronaut Norman Thagard breaks NASA's space endurance record of 14 days, 1 hour and 16 minutes, aboard the Russian space station Mir.
The Constitutional Court of South Africa abolishes capital punishment in South Africa in the case of S v Makwanyane and Another.
June 13 – French President Jacques Chirac announces the resumption of nuclear tests in French Polynesia.
June 16 – The IOC selects Salt Lake City to host the 2002 Winter Olympics.
June 22 – Japanese police rescue 365 hostages from a hijacked All Nippon Airways Flight 857 (Boeing 747-200) at Hakodate airport. The hijacker was armed with a knife and demanded the release of Shoko Asahara.
June 24 – South Africa wins the Rugby World Cup.
June 29
English yachtswoman Lisa Clayton completes her 10-month solo circumnavigation from the Northern Hemisphere.
STS-71: Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian Mir space station for the first time.
Sampoong Department Store collapse in the Seocho-gu district of Seoul, South Korea, kills 502 and injures 937.
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.
Subsections (0):
|
1995_6
|
Section: July (2):
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.
July 1 – Iraq disarmament crisis: In response to UNSCOM's evidence, Iraq admits for first time the existence of an offensive biological weapons program, but denies weaponization.
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.
July 9 – Sri Lankan Civil War: 125 civilians are killed in Navaly as result of bombing by the Sri Lanka Air Force.
July 10
Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi is freed from house arrest.
42 CFR 84 is enacted, the NIOSH air filtration ratings update, and the N95 respirator becomes a standard.
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.
President Clinton announces the restoration of United States–Vietnam relations twenty years after the Vietnam War.
A Cubana de Aviación Antonov An-24 crashes into the Caribbean off southeast Cuba killing 44 people.
July 21–26 – Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: The Chinese People's Liberation Army fires missiles into the waters north of Taiwan.
Subsections (0):
|
1995_7
|
Section: August (2):
August – The International Rugby Football Board declares that rugby union players may be professional.
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.
August 7 – The Chilean government declares a state of emergency in the southern half of the country in response to an event of intense cold, wind, rain and snowfall known as the White Earthquake.
August 14 – Nepali Prime Minister Man Mohan Adhikari along with seven other high-ranking officials survives a helicopter crash.
August 29 – Eduard Shevardnadze, the Georgian head of state, survives an assassination attempt in Tbilisi.
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.
Subsections (0):
|
1995_8
|
Section: September (2):
September – The European Parliament elects the first European Ombudsman, Jacob Söderman, who takes up office this month.
September 4–15 – The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing with over 4,750 delegates from 181 countries in attendance.
September 19 – The Washington Post and The New York Times publish the Unabomber manifesto
September 26 – The trial against former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, who is accused of Mafia connections, begins.
September 27–28 – Bob Denard's mercenaries capture President Said Mohamed Djohar of the Comoros; the local army does not resist.
Subsections (0):
|
1995_9
|
Section: October (2):
October 3 – Murder trial of O. J. Simpson: Former American football star O. J. Simpson is found not guilty of double murder in a criminal trial for the deaths of former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
October 5 – Tansu Çiller of DYP forms the new government of Turkey (51st government), a minority government which lasts for less than a month.
October 6 – Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz announce the discovery of 51 Pegasi b, the first confirmed extrasolar planet orbiting an ordinary main-sequence star.
October 9 – 1995 Palo Verde, Arizona, derailment An Amtrak Sunset Limited train derails through sabotage at a trestle near Palo Verde, Arizona, United States, resulting in one death.
October 16 – The Million Man March is held in Washington, D.C. The event was conceived by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
October 24 – A total solar eclipse is visible from Iran, India, Thailand and Southeast Asia.
October 26 – An avalanche hits the village Flateyri in Iceland, killing 20 people, the second of two deadly avalanches to occur in Iceland during this calendar year.
October 28 – A fire in Baku Metro, Azerbaijan, kills 289 passengers, becoming the world's worst subway disaster.
October 30
Quebec independentists narrowly lose a referendum for a mandate to negotiate independence from Canada.
Tansu Çiller of DYP forms the new government (52nd government) of Turkey.
Subsections (0):
|
1995_10
|
Section: November (2):
November – The Indian government officially renames the city of Bombay, restoring the name Mumbai.
November 1
The last signal is received from NASA's Pioneer 11 spacecraft.
Participants in the Yugoslav Wars begin negotiations at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
November 2 – The Supreme Court of Argentina orders the extradition of ex-S.S. captain Erich Priebke.
November 4 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
November 7 – Typhoon Angela leaves the Philippines and Vietnam devastated, with 882 deaths and US$315 million in damage. The typhoon is the strongest to strike the Philippines in 25 years, with wind speeds of 130 mph (210 km/h) and gusts of 180 mph (290 km/h).
November 12 – The Millbrook Commonwealth Action Programme, a programme to implement the Harare Declaration, is announced by the Commonwealth Heads of Government.
November 16 – A United Nations tribunal charges Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić with genocide during the Bosnian War.
November 20 – A car bomb explosion outside the Egyptian Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan destroys the façade of the building, killing at least 13 people and wounding dozens more.
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).
November 22 – The 7.3 Mw Gulf of Aqaba earthquake shakes the Sinai Peninsula and Saudi Arabia region with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing eight and injuring 30, and generating a non-destructive tsunami.
November 28 – Twenty-seven nations sign the Barcelona Treaty, creating the Union for the Mediterranean.
November 30 – Operation Desert Storm officially ends.
Subsections (0):
|
1995_11
|
Section: December (2):
December 3 – Strikes paralyze France's public sector.
December 6 – The United States Food and Drug Administration approves Saquinavir, the first protease inhibitor to treat HIV/AIDS. Within 2 years of its approval, annual deaths from AIDS in the United States fall from over 50,000 to approximately 18,000.
December 7 – NASA's Galileo Probe enters Jupiter's atmosphere.
December 8 – Five-year-old Gyaincain Norbu is enthroned as the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama at Tashilhunpo Monastery.
December 14 – The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris, officially ending the Bosnian War.
December 16 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi scuba divers, under the direction of the United Nations Special Commission, dredge the Tigris near Baghdad. The divers find over 200 prohibited Russian-made missile instruments and components.
December 20
American Airlines Flight 965 (Boeing 757) crashes into a mountain near Buga, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, killing 160 of the 164 on board.
NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia.
December 23 – Dabwali fire accident: The Rajiv Marriage Palace catches fire in Haryana, India, killing 442 persons.
December 30 – The lowest ever United Kingdom temperature of −27.2 °C (−17.0 °F) is recorded at Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands. This equals the record set at Braemar, Aberdeenshire in 1895 and 1982.
Subsections (0):
|
1996_0
|
1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1996th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 996th year of the 2nd millennium, the 96th year of the 20th century, and the 7th year of the 1990s decade.
|
1996_0
|
Section: January (2):
January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa, killing around 300 people.
January 9–20 – Serious fighting breaks out between Russian soldiers and rebel fighters in Chechnya.
January 11 – Ryutaro Hashimoto, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, becomes Prime Minister of Japan.
January 13 – Italy's Prime Minister, Lamberto Dini, resigns after the failure of all-party talks to confirm him. New talks are initiated by President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro to form a new government.
January 14 – Jorge Sampaio is elected President of Portugal.
January 16 – President of Sierra Leone Valentine Strasser is deposed by the chief of defence, Julius Maada Bio. Bio promises to restore power following elections scheduled for February.
January 19
The North Cape oil spill occurs as an engine fire forces the tugboat Scandia ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. The North Cape Barge is pulled along with it and leaks 820,000 gallons of home heating oil.
An Indonesian ferry sinks off the northern tip of Sumatra, drowning more than 100 people.
January 20 – Yasser Arafat is re-elected president of the Palestinian Authority.
January 21 – France undertakes its last nuclear weapons test.
January 22 – Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece, resigns due to health problems; a new government forms under Costas Simitis.
January 24 – Polish Premier Józef Oleksy resigns amid accusations that he spied for Moscow. He is replaced by Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz.
January 27 – Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara deposes the first democratically elected President of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane, in a military coup.
January 31
Colombo Central Bank bombing: an explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing at least 86 people and injuring 1,400.
An amateur astronomer from southern Japan discovers Comet Hyakutake; it will pass very close to the Earth in March.
Subsections (0):
|
1996_1
|
Section: February (2):
February 3 – The 6.6 Mw earthquake near Lijiang in South-west China kills up to 322 people, injures 17,000, and leaves 300,000 homeless.
February 6 – Birgenair Flight 301, on a charter flight from the Caribbean to Germany, crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Dominican Republic, killing all 189 passengers and crew.
February 7 – René Préval succeeds Jean-Bertrand Aristide as President of Haiti in the first peaceful handover of power since the nation achieved independence 192 years earlier, in 1804.
February 9
The element copernicium is created by fusing a 208Pb nucleus with a 70Zn nucleus, forming 278Cn. Given the placeholder name "ununbium", the element is not named until 2010.
An IRA ceasefire ends with the Docklands bombing in London's Canary Wharf District, killing two people and causing over £85,000,000 worth of damage.
Disney formally finalizes its $19 billion acquisition of the ABC parent, Capital Cities/ABC Inc.
February 10 – Bosnian Serbs break off contact with the Bosnian government and with representatives of Ifor, the NATO localised force, in reaction to the arrest of several Bosnian Serb war criminals.
February 14 – Violent clashes erupt between Filipino soldiers and Vietnamese boat people, as the Filipino government attempts to forcibly repatriate hundreds of Vietnamese asylum seekers.
February 15
The American Embassy in Athens, Greece, comes under mortar fire.
Begum Khaleda Zia is re-elected as Prime Minister of Bangladesh. The country's second democratic election is marred by low voter turnout, due to several boycotts and pre-election violence, which has resulted in at least thirteen deaths.
The UK government publishes the Scott Report.
February 17 – The 8.2 Mw Biak earthquake strikes the Papua province of eastern Indonesia with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). A large tsunami followed, leaving 166 people dead or missing and 423 injured.
February 24 – Cuban fighter jets shoot down two American aircraft belonging to the Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Cuban officials assert that they invaded Cuban airspace.
February 25 – Two suicide bombs in Israel kill 25 and injure 80; Hamas claims responsibility.
February 29
Faucett Perú Flight 251 en route from Lima to Rodriguez Ballon airport crashes into a mountain near Arequipa; all 123 people on board are killed.
At least 81 people drown when a boat capsizes 120 kilometres east of Kampala, Uganda.
The Bosnian government declares the end of the Siege of Sarajevo.
February:
The Cuban government recognises the Concilio Cubano pro-democracy group.
Subsections (0):
|
1996_2
|
Section: March (2):
March 1 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi forces refuse UNSCOM inspection teams access to five sites designated for inspection. The teams enter the sites only after delays of up to seventeen hours.
March 2 – 1996 Australian federal election: The Liberal/National Coalition led by John Howard defeats the Labor government led by Prime Minister Paul Keating. Howard was sworn in on March 11.
March 3 – José María Aznar, leader of the Popular Party, is elected as Prime Minister of Spain, replacing Felipe González.
March 3–4 – Two suicide bombs explode in Israel, killing 32 people. The Yahya Ayyash Units admit responsibility, and Palestinian president Yasser Arafat condemns the killings in a televised address. Israel warns of retaliation.
March 6
Mesut Yılmaz of ANAP forms the new government of Turkey (53rd government).
A boat carrying market traders capsizes outside Freetown harbour in Sierra Leone, killing at least 86 people.
Chechen rebels attack the Russian government headquarters in Grozny; 70 Russian soldiers and policemen and 130 Chechen fighters are killed.
March 8 – Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: China begins surface-to-surface missile testing and military exercises off Taiwanese coastal areas. The United States government condemns the act as provocation, and the Taiwanese government warns of retaliation.
March 9 – Jorge Sampaio becomes the new Portuguese president.
March 13 – Dunblane massacre: Unemployed former shopkeeper Thomas Hamilton walks into the Dunblane Primary School in Scotland and opens fire, killing sixteen infant school pupils and one teacher before committing suicide.
March 14 – An international peace summit is held in Egypt in response to escalating terrorist attacks in the Middle East.
March 15 – Fokker, a major manufacturer of small size aircraft, goes bankrupt in Netherlands.
March 16 – Robert Mugabe is re-elected as President of Zimbabwe, although only 32% of the electorate actually voted.
March 17 – Sri Lanka wins the Cricket World Cup by beating Australia in the final.
March 18 – The Ozone Disco Club fire in Quezon City, Philippines, kills 163 people.
March 22 – Sweden's Finance Minister Göran Persson becomes the new Prime Minister of Sweden.
March 23 – Taiwan (Republic of China) holds its first direct elections for president; Lee Teng-hui is re-elected.
March 24 – The Marcopper mining disaster on the island of Marinduque, Philippines takes place.
March 25 – The 68th Academy Awards, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles with Braveheart winning Best Picture.
March 26 – The International Monetary Fund approves a $10.2 billion loan to Russia for economic reform.
Subsections (0):
|
1996_3
|
Section: April (2):
April 1 – The Halifax Regional Municipality encompassing the City of Halifax, the City of Dartmouth, the Town of Bedford, and the Municipality of the County of Halifax is formed in Nova Scotia, Canada.
April 3
A Boeing 737 military jet crashes into a mountain north of Dubrovnik, Croatia. All 35 people on board are killed, including United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown.
Burundian Civil War: massacres of Hutus by Tutsis in Burundi take place with more than 450 killed within a few days.
April 6
First Liberian Civil War: fighting breaks out in Monrovia, Liberia, between various rebel factions struggling for power in the country's interrupted civil war. Several foreign nationals leave the nation.
Turkish authorities begin operation Hawk, a military offensive against rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party in south-east Turkey.
April 9 – In a common statement, the European Union officially recognises the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
April 11 – The Israeli government launches Operation Grapes of Wrath, consisting of massive attacks on Lebanon, in retaliation for "terrorist attacks", and sparking off a violent series of retaliations.
April 18 – Qana massacre: Over 100 Lebanese civilians are killed after Israel shells the United Nations compound in Qana. In reaction, an Islamist group in Egypt opens fire on a hotel, killing eighteen Greek tourists and injuring seventeen others.
April 21 – A general election in Italy proclaims a new center-left government headed by Romano Prodi, replacing Silvio Berlusconi.
April 24 – At the urging of Yasser Arafat, the Palestine Liberation Organization drops its clause in Palestinian National Covenant calling for the removal of Israel (→ Legitimacy of the State of Israel). The Israeli government responds by dropping a similar clause concerning the existence of Palestine.
April 26 – Shanghai Five group, predecessor of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, is created with the signing of the Treaty on Deepening Military Trust in Border Regions in Shanghai by the heads of states of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.
April 28
Port Arthur massacre (Australia): Martin Bryant kills 35 people at the Port Arthur tourist site in Tasmania.
Bhai Pheru bus bombing: A bomb explodes in Bhai Pheru, Punjab, Pakistan, killing more than 60 people.
Subsections (0):
|
1996_4
|
Section: May (2):
May – Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM supervises the destruction of Al-Hakam, Iraq's main production facility of biological warfare agents.
May 9
South Africa's National Party pulls out of the coalition government formed two years earlier, and the African National Congress assumes full political control.
Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni wins a landslide victory in the country's first direct presidential elections, securing 75% of the vote.
May 10
1996 Everest disaster: A sudden storm engulfs Mount Everest with several climbing teams high on the mountain, leaving eight people dead. By the end of the month, at least four other climbers die in the worst season of fatalities on the mountain to date.
The Australian government introduces a nationwide ban on the private possession of both automatic and semi-automatic rifles, in response to the Port Arthur massacre.
May 11 – After takeoff from Miami, a fire started by improperly handled oxygen canisters in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 people on board.
May 13 – Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kill 600 people.
May 17–28 – Atal Bihari Vajpayee, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, is elected as Prime Minister of India, replacing P. V. Narasimha Rao of the Indian National Congress. However, the party does not receive an overall majority and Vajpayee resigns thirteen days later rather than face a no confidence vote and is replaced by the United Front leader, Deve Gowda.
May 18 – The X Prize Foundation launches the $10,000,000 Ansari X Prize.
May 21
The MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters in Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1,000 people in one of Africa's worst maritime disasters.
Seven Trappist monks from the monastery of Thibirine are killed by members of the Armed Islamic Group in Algeria after talks with French government concerning the imprisonment of several GIA sympathisers break down.
May 27 – First Chechnya War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechnyan rebels for the first time and negotiates a ceasefire for the dispute.
May 28 – Albania's general election of May 26 is declared unfair by international monitors, and the ruling Democratic Party under President Muhannad Ibrahim is charged by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe with rigging the elections. Several hundred protestors gather in Tirana to demonstrate against the election result.
May 30 – The Likud Party, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, wins a narrow victory in the Israeli general election.
Subsections (0):
|
1996_5
|
Section: June (2):
June – Iraq disarmament crisis: As Iraq continues to refuse inspectors access to a number of sites, the United States fails in its attempt to build support for military action against Iraq in the UN Security Council.
June 1–3 – The Czech Republic's first general election ends inconclusively. Prime Minister Václav Klaus and his incumbent Civic Democratic Party emerge as the winners, but are unable to form a majority government. President Václav Havel refuses to invite Klaus to form a coalition.
June 4 – The space rocket Ariane 5 explodes forty seconds in its maiden flight, after takeoff in French Guiana. The project costs European governments $7,500,000,000 over eleven years.
June 6 – Leighton W. Smith, Jr. resigns as NATO commander in the face of increasing criticism.
June 8–30 – England hosts the UEFA Euro 1996 football tournament, which is won by Germany.
June 11
An explosion in a São Paulo suburban shopping centre kills 44 people and injures more than 100.
A peace convoy carrying Chechen separatist leaders and international diplomats is targeted by a series of remotely controlled land mines; eight people are killed.
June 15 – In Manchester, UK, an IRA bomb injures over 200 people and devastates a large part of the city centre.
June 28
A new government is formed in Turkey, with Necmettin Erbakan of Refah Partisi becoming Prime Minister of the coalition government, and Deputy/Foreign Minister Tansu Çiller of the True Path Party succeeding him after two years.
The Constitution of Ukraine is signed into law.
June 29
The Prince's Trust concert is held in Hyde Park, London, and is attended by 150,000 people. The Who headlines the event in their first performance since 1989.
An explosion in a firecrackers factory in Sichuan Province, China kills at least 52 people and injures 83 others.
June 30
Costas Simitis is elected president of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement of Greece.
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić relinquishes power to his deputy, Biljana Plavšić.
Subsections (0):
|
1996_6
|
Section: July (2):
July
Iraq disarmament crisis: U.N. Inspector Scott Ritter attempts to conduct surprise inspections on the Republican Guard facility at the airport but is blocked by Iraqi officials.
The Indian government officially renames the city of Madras, restoring the name Chennai.
July 1
The Northern Territory in Australia legalises voluntary euthanasia.
German orthography reform of 1996 agreed internationally.
July 3 – Boris Yeltsin is re-elected as President of Russia after the second round of elections.
July 5 – Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult cell, is born at the Roslin Institute in Midlothian, Scotland, UK.
July 11 – Arrest warrants are issued for Bosnian Serb war criminals Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić by the Russell Tribunal in The Hague.
July 12 – Hurricane Bertha: made landfall in North Carolina as a Category 2 storm, causing $270 million in damage ($525 million in present-day terms) to the United States and its possessions and many indirect deaths.
July 16 – An outbreak of E. coli food poisoning in Japan results in 6,000 children being ill, including two deaths, after a group of school children eat contaminated lunches.
July 17
The Community of Portuguese Language Countries (Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa) is constituted.
Paris- and Rome-bound TWA Flight 800 (Boeing 747) explodes off the coast of Long Island, New York, killing all 230 people on board.
July 19
The 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, United States, begin.
Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadžić resigns from public office in Republika Srpska after being indicted for war crimes.
July 21 – The Saguenay Flood, one of Canada's most costly natural disasters, is caused by flooding on the Saguenay River in Quebec.
July 22 – The first Gethsemani Encounter takes place at the abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani. This event, hosted by the DIMMID, is the first intermonastic dialogue between Buddhist and Christian monks and is attended by the Dalai Lama and Bishop Joseph John Gerry.
July 24 – The Dehiwala train bombing kills 56 commuters outside Colombo.
July 25 – The Tutsi-led Burundian army performs a coup and reinstalls previous president Pierre Buyoya, ousting current president Sylvestre Ntibantunganya.
July 27 – The Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in the United States kills one person and injures 111.
Subsections (0):
|
1996_7
|
Section: August (2):
August
The first three-parent baby is conceived in New Jersey through mitochondrial donation.
The invasive species Asian long-horned beetle is found in New York City.
August 1
Sarah Balabagan returns to the Philippines.
A pro-democracy demonstration supporting Megawati Sukarnoputri in Indonesia is broken up by riot police.
August 4 – The 1996 Summer Olympics conclude.
August 6 – NASA announces that the Allan Hills 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, may contain evidence of primitive lifeforms; further tests are inconclusive.
August 7 – Heavy rains kill more than 80 campers near Huesca, Spain.
August 9 – Boris Yeltsin is sworn in at the Kremlin for a second term as President of Russia.
August 13 – Data sent back by the Galileo space probe indicates there may be water on one of Jupiter's moons.
August 14 – A rocket ignited during a fireworks display in Arequipa, Peru knocks down a high-tension power cable into a dense crowd, electrocuting 35 people.
August 15 – Bob Dole is nominated for President of the United States, and Jack Kemp for vice president, at the Republican National Convention in San Diego, California.
August 16 – Brookfield Zoo, Chicago. After a 3-year-old boy falls into the 20-foot (6.1 m) deep gorilla enclosure, Binti Jua, a female lowland gorilla sits with the injured boy until his rescue.
August 21
Former State President of South Africa, F. W. de Klerk, makes an official apology for crimes committed under Apartheid to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Cape Town.
In the UK, Queen Elizabeth II issues letters patent on divorced former wives of British princes, taking away from the ex-wives the attribute and style of Royal Highness. With that Sarah, Duchess of York as well as Diana, Princess of Wales legally cease to be Royals, but they remain as non-royal Duchess and Princess.
August 23 – Osama bin Laden writes "The Declaration of Jihad on the Americans Occupying the Country of the Two Sacred Places," a call for the removal of American military forces from Saudi Arabia.
August 26 – David Dellinger, Bradford Lyttle, and nine others are arrested by the Federal Protective Service while protesting in a demonstration at the Kluczynski Federal Building in downtown Chicago during that year's Democratic National Convention.
August 28 – Their Royal Highnesses, the Prince and Princess of Wales, are formally divorced at the High Court of Justice in London. Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales is restyled Diana, Princess of Wales, due to the Queen's letters patent issued a week earlier.
August 29
U.S. President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore are re-nominated at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
A Russian Tupolev 154 jetliner crashes into a mountain as it approaches the airport at Spitsbergen, Norway, killing all 141 people on board.
August 31 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi forces launch an offensive into the northern No-Fly Zone and capture Arbil.
Subsections (0):
|
1996_8
|
Section: September (2):
September 2 – A permanent peace agreement is signed at Malacañang Palace between the Government of the Philippines and the Moro National Liberation Front.
September 3 – The United States launches Operation Desert Strike against Iraq in reaction to the attack on Arbil.
September 4 – The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia attack a military base in Guaviare, Colombia, starting three weeks of guerrilla warfare that will claim the lives of at least 130 Colombians.
September 5 – Hurricane Fran makes landfall near Cape Fear, North Carolina as a Category 3 storm with 115 mph (185 km/h) sustained winds. Fran caused over $3 billion in damages ($5.83 billion in present-day terms) and killed 27 people, mainly in North Carolina. The name "Fran" was retired due to the extensive damage.
September 10 – Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) signed (it will be ratified 180 days after ratification by 44 Annex 2 countries).
September 13 – Alija Izetbegović is elected President of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the country's first election since the Bosnian War.
September 20 – Leader of Pakistani opposition party Pakistan Peoples Party Murtaza Bhutto is killed during a gunfight with police.
September 22 – The Panhellenic Socialist Movement under the leadership of Costas Simitis succeeds in the 1996 Greek legislative election.
September 24 – U.S. President Bill Clinton signs the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty at the United Nations.
September 27 – In Afghanistan, the Taliban capture the capital city of Kabul, after driving out President Burhanuddin Rabbani and executing former leader Mohammad Najibullah.
Subsections (0):
|
1996_9
|
Section: October (2):
October 2 – Aeroperú Flight 603 crashes into the Pacific Ocean when the instruments fail just after takeoff from Lima Airport, killing all 70 people on board.
October 6 – The government of New Zealand agrees to pay $130 million worth of compensation for the loss of land suffered by the Māori population between the years of 1844 and 1864.
October 22 – A fire at La Planta prison in southwest Caracas, Venezuela, kills thirty prisoners.
October 31 – TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 402 crashes into a densely populated area of São Paulo, killing all 96 people on board.
Subsections (0):
|
1996_10
|
Section: November (2):
November – Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM inspectors uncover buried prohibited missile parts. Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM teams to remove remnants of missile engines for analysis outside of the country.
November 5 – 1996 United States presidential election: Incumbent Democratic President Bill Clinton defeats his Republican challenger, Bob Dole and Reform Party candidate Ross Perot.
November 7
A category 4 cyclone strikes Andhra Pradesh, India, killing at least 1,000 people.
NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor.
November 8 – All 144 people on board a Nigerian-owned Boeing 727 die after the aircraft crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while approaching Lagos airport.
November 12 – Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 collides in mid-air with Kazakhstan Airlines Il-76 in New Delhi, India, resulting in the loss of 349 lives.
November 17
A bomb explodes in Kaspiysk, Russia, killing 32 people.
Emil Constantinescu is elected as President of Romania.
November 18 – Frederick Chiluba is re-elected as President of Zambia.
November 19
Martin Bryant is sentenced to 35 consecutive sentences of life imprisonment plus 1,035 years without parole for murdering 35 people in a shooting spree in Tasmania earlier this year.
Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Organization (CTBTO) established.
STS-80: Space Shuttle Columbia conducts the longest mission of the Space Shuttle program.
November 20 – The 1996 Garley Building fire occurred in Hong Kong, resulting in 41 deaths and 81 injuries.
November 21 – A propane explosion at the Humberto Vidal shoe store and office building in San Juan, Puerto Rico kills 33 people.
November 23
The Republic of Angola officially joins the World Trade Organization as Angola.
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 is hijacked, then crashes into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 125.
November 25 – An ice storm strikes the U.S. killing 26 directly and hundreds more from accidents. A powerful windstorm blasts Florida with winds gusts up to 90 mph.
Subsections (0):
|
1996_11
|
Section: December (2):
December 9 – Jerry Rawlings is re-elected as President of Ghana.
December 11 – Tung Chee-hwa is appointed to become the new leader of Hong Kong after it reverts to Chinese rule on July 1, 1997, at the end of a 99-year lease to the United Kingdom.
December 13 – Ghanaian diplomat Kofi Annan is elected by the United Nations Security Council the next Secretary-General of the United Nations.
December 17 – The Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement takes 72 hostages in the Japanese Embassy in Lima, Peru.
December 25 – At least 283 migrants drown in the sinking of F174 near Capo Passero (Sicily).
December 27 – Taliban forces retake the strategic Bagram Air Base, solidifying their buffer zone around Kabul, Afghanistan.
December 29 – Guatemala and the leaders of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity sign a peace accord that ends the 36-year Guatemalan Civil War.
December 30 – In the Indian state of Assam, a passenger train is bombed by Bodo separatists, killing 26.
Subsections (0):
|
1997_0
|
1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1997th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 997th year of the 2nd millennium, the 97th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year of the 1990s decade.
|
1997_0
|
Section: January (2):
January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States.
January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis.
January 16 – Murder of Ennis Cosby: Near Interstate 405 (California) on a Los Angeles freeway, Bill Cosby's son Ennis is shot in the head by 18-year-old Mikhail Markhasev in a failed robbery attempt.
January 17 – A Delta II rocket carrying a military GPS payload explodes, shortly after liftoff from Cape Canaveral.
January 18 – In northwest Rwanda, Hutu militia members kill 6 Spanish aid workers and three soldiers, and seriously wound another.
January 19 – Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years, and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli-controlled West Bank city. (→ Hebron Agreement)
January 20 – Bill Clinton is sworn in for a second term as President of the United States.
January 23 – Madeleine Albright becomes the first female Secretary of State of the United States, after confirmation by the United States Senate.
January 26 – VJTI changes its name from Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute to Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute in Mumbai.
Subsections (0):
|
1997_1
|
Section: February (2):
February 4
On their way to Lebanon, two Israeli troop-transport helicopters collide, killing all 73 on board.
After at first contesting the results, Serbian President Slobodan Milošević recognizes opposition victories in the November 1996 elections.
A magnitude 6.5 earthquake strikes North Khorasan province, Iran, killing 88 people and injuring 1,948.
February 10 – Sandline affair: Australian newspapers publish stories that the government of Papua New Guinea has brought mercenaries onto Bougainville Island.
February 13 – STS-82: Tune-up and repair work on the Hubble Space Telescope is started by astronauts from the Space Shuttle Discovery.
February 28 – North Hollywood shootout: Two robbers, wearing kevlar body armor, and armed with illegally modified Type 56 S rifles with high-capacity magazines and other weapons, injure 20 police officers and civilians in a gun battle. The incident sparks debate on the appropriate firepower for United States patrol officers to have available in similar situations in the future.
Subsections (0):
|
1997_2
|
Section: March (2):
March 4 – U.S. President Bill Clinton bans federal funding for any research on human cloning.
March 7 – In Sri Lanka, the Tamil Tigers overrun a military base and kill over 100 Sri Lankan troops.
March 9 – American rapper The Notorious B.I.G. is murdered in Los Angeles.
March 13
India's Missionaries of Charity chooses Sister Nirmala, to succeed Mother Teresa as its leader.
The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China creates a new Chongqing Municipality, out of part of Sichuan.
March 16 – Sandline affair: On Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea, soldiers of commander Jerry Singirok arrest Tim Spicer and his mercenaries of the Sandline International.
March 18 – The tail of a Russian An-24 charter plane breaks off while en route to Turkey, causing the plane to crash, killing all 50 on board, and resulting in the grounding of all An-24s.
March 21 – In Zaire, Étienne Tshisekedi is appointed prime minister; he ejects supporters of Mobutu Sese Seko from his cabinet.
March 22 – The Comet Hale–Bopp makes its closest approach to Earth.
March 24 – The 69th Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal, are held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, with The English Patient winning Best Picture. During the event, the DVD format is launched in the United States.
March 24–26 – In San Diego, 39 Heaven's Gate cultists commit mass suicide at their compound.
March 26 – Julius Chan resigns as prime minister of Papua New Guinea, effectively ending the Sandline affair.
Subsections (0):
|
1997_3
|
Section: April (2):
April 3 – The Thalit massacre in Algeria: all but 1 of the 53 inhabitants of Thalit are killed by guerrillas.
April 14
Fire breaks out in a pilgrim camp on the Plain of Mena, 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) from Mecca; 343 die.
Former SS Captain Erich Priebke is retried; on July 22 he is sentenced to fifteen years in prison.
April 18 – The Red River of the North breaks through dikes and floods Grand Forks, North Dakota, and East Grand Forks, Minnesota, causing US$2 billion in damage.
April 21 – A Pegasus rocket carries the remains of 24 people into earth orbit, in the first space burial by Celestis company.
April 22
Haouch Khemisti massacre: 93 villagers are killed in Algeria.
A 126-day hostage crisis at the residence of the Japanese ambassador in Lima, Peru.
April 23 – 42 villagers are killed in the Omaria massacre in Algeria.
April 29
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), CWC treaty enters into force.
Two trains crash at Hunan, China; 126 are killed.
Subsections (0):
|
1997_4
|
Section: May (2):
May 1 – Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, as the Labour Party wins the 1997 United Kingdom general election and returns to government for the first time in 18 years.
May 3 – Katrina and the Waves win the Eurovision Song Contest 1997 for the United Kingdom with "Love Shine a Light".
May 9 – The first genetically modified three-parent baby is born.
May 10 – The 7.3 Mw Qayen earthquake strikes eastern Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). At least 1,567 were killed and 2,300 were injured.
May 11 – IBM's Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, the first time a computer beats a chess World champion in a match.
May 12
The Russia–Chechnya Peace Treaty is signed.
An F1-rated tornado strikes downtown Miami, causing $525,000 in damages. Pictures and videos of this tornado made news headlines around the world.
May 15 – The United States government acknowledges existence of the "Secret War" in Laos (1953–1975) during the Vietnam War, and dedicates the Laos Memorial in honor of Hmong and other "Secret War" veterans.
May 16
First Congo War ends when president Mobutu Sese Seko is exiled from Zaire.
U.S. President Bill Clinton issues a formal apology to the surviving victims of the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male and their families.
May 17 – Troops of Laurent Kabila march into Kinshasa.
May 21 – Radiohead release OK Computer
May 23
Mohammad Khatami wins the 1997 Iranian presidential election and becomes the first Iranian Reformist president.
A riot in Banjarmasin, Indonesia breaks out, causing at least 137 deaths.
May 25 – A military coup in Sierra Leone replaces President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah with Major Johnny Paul Koroma.
May 27 – The second-deadliest tornado of the 1990s hits in Jarrell, Texas, killing 27 people.
May 31 – The 13-kilometer Confederation Bridge, the world's longest bridge spanning ice-covered waters, opens between Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, Canada.
Subsections (0):
|
1997_5
|
Section: June (2):
June 1
Socialist Party-led Centre-left coalition won the second-round in 1997 French legislative elections, began with the third Cohabitation (1997–2002).
Hugo Banzer wins the Presidential elections in Bolivia.
June 2 – In Denver, Colorado, Timothy McVeigh is convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
June 10 – Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot orders the killing of his defense chief, Son Sen, and 11 of Sen's family members, before Pol Pot flees his northern stronghold.
June 11 – In the United Kingdom, the House of Commons votes for a total ban on handguns.
June 13 – A jury sentences Timothy McVeigh to death for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
June 16 – About 50 people are killed in the Daïat Labguer (M'sila) massacre in Algeria.
June 21 – The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) plays its first game at The Great Western Forum in Los Angeles.
June 25
A massive eruption of the Soufrière Hills volcano on the island of Montserrat leads to evacuation and eventual abandonment of the capital, Plymouth.
An uncrewed spacecraft Progress M-34 collides with the Russian space station Mir.
June 26 – Bertie Ahern is appointed as the 10th Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland and Mary Harney is appointed as the 16th, and first female, Tánaiste, after their parties, Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats respectively, win the 1997 General Election.
Subsections (0):
|
1997_6
|
Section: July (2):
July – The 1997 Central European flood occurs across Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic.
July 1 – The United Kingdom hands sovereignty of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China.
July 2 – The Bank of Thailand floats the baht, triggering the Asian financial crisis.
July 4 – NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.
July 5
In Cambodia, Hun Sen of the Cambodian People's Party overthrows Norodom Ranariddh in a coup.
The Egyptian Islamic Group announces a cessation-of-violence initiative.
July 8 – NATO invites the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to join the alliance in 1999.
July 10 – In London, scientists report their DNA analysis findings from a Neanderthal skeleton, which support the out of Africa theory of human evolution, placing an "African Eve" at 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.
July 11 – Royal Jomtien Resort Hotel fire at Pattaya, Thailand's worst hotel fire, kills 90.
July 13 – The remains of Che Guevara are returned to Cuba for burial, alongside some of his comrades. Guevara and his comrades were executed on October 9 1967 in Bolivia.
July 15 – Spree killer Andrew Cunanan shoots fashion designer Gianni Versace dead outside Versace's Miami Beach residence.
July 17 – The F. W. Woolworth Company closes after 117 years in business.
July 25 – K. R. Narayanan is sworn in as India's 10th president and the first member of the Dalit caste to hold this office.
July 27 – About 50 are killed in the Si Zerrouk massacre in Algeria.
July 30 – 18 people are killed in the Thredbo landslide in the Snowy Mountains resort in Australia.
Subsections (0):
|
1997_7
|
Section: August (2):
August 3 – Between 40 and 76 villagers are killed in the Oued El-Had and Mezouara massacre in Algeria.
August 3–11 – Two of the three islands of the Union of the Comoros – Anjouan and Mohéli – attempt to revert to colonial rule by France. The plan fails when the French government of President Jacques Chirac refuses to recolonize them, resulting in the two islands being reintegrated into the Comoros over the next two years.
August 4 – Jeanne Calment, the verified oldest person to have ever lived, dies at 122 years and 164 days.
August 6 – Korean Air Flight 801 crash lands west of Guam International Airport, resulting in the deaths of 228 people.
August 13 – Trey Parker and Matt Stone's animated television comedy series, South Park, started broadcasting with the first episode, Cartman Gets an Anal Probe, on Comedy Central.
August 20 – More than 60 are killed, 15 kidnapped in the Souhane massacre in Algeria.
August 26
60–100 are killed in the Beni Ali massacre in Algeria.
The Independent International Commission on Decommissioning is set up in Northern Ireland, as part of a peace process.
August 29
Over 98 (and possibly up to 400) are killed in the Rais massacre in Algeria.
Netflix, Inc. is founded as a DVD-by-mail rental service.
August 31 – Death of Diana, Princess of Wales: Diana, Princess of Wales, is taken to a hospital after a car accident shortly after midnight, in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris. She is pronounced dead at 4:00 am.
Subsections (0):
|
1997_8
|
Section: September (2):
September 1 – Dublin Regulation on treatment of applications for right of asylum under European Union law first comes into force.
September 5
Over 87 are killed in the Beni Messous massacre in Algeria.
The International Olympic Committee picks Athens, Greece, to be the host city for the 2004 Summer Olympics.
September 6 – The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, takes place at Westminster Abbey, London, UK, watched by over two billion people worldwide.
September 11 – Scotland votes in favour of a devolved Parliament, forming the Scottish Parliament less than two years later
September 15 – The Norwegian parliamentary election is held in Norway.
September 18
Al-Qaeda carries out a terrorist attack in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Wales votes in favour of devolution and the formation of a National Assembly for Wales.
September 20 – 53 people are killed in the Guelb El-Kebir massacre in Algeria.
September 21
The Islamic Salvation Army, the Islamic Salvation Fronts' armed wing, declares a unilateral ceasefire in Algeria.
St. Olaf's Church, a stone church from the 16th century in Tyrvää, Finland, is burnt down.
September 26
Garuda Indonesia Flight 152 crashes while on approach to Medan, North Sumatra, during the 1997 Southeast Asian haze, killing all 234 people on board. This becomes the deadliest aviation accident in Indonesian history.
An earthquake strikes the Italian regions of Umbria and Marche, causing part of the Basilica of St. Francis at Assisi to collapse.
Subsections (0):
|
1997_9
|
Section: October (2):
October 1 – Luke Woodham walks into Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi and opens fire, killing two girls, after killing his mother earlier that morning.
October 2 – British scientists Moira Bruce and John Collinge, with their colleagues, independently show that the new variant form of the Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease is the same disease as Bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
October 3 – The President of Paraguay, Juan Carlos Wasmosy, orders the arrest of political opponent Lino Oviedo.
October 10 – Uruguay's worst air disaster occurs when Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 2553 crashes near Nuevo Berlín, killing all 74 on board.
October 12 – Sidi Daoud massacre: 43 are killed at a false roadblock in Algeria.
October 15
Andy Green sets the first supersonic land speed record for the ThrustSSC team, led by Richard Noble of the UK. ThrustSSC goes through the flying mile course at Black Rock Desert, Nevada at an average speed of 1,227.985 km/h (763.035 mph).
NASA launches the Cassini–Huygens probe to Saturn.
October 16 – The first color photograph appears on the front page of The New York Times.
October 17 – The remains of Che Guevara are laid to rest with full military honours in a specially built mausoleum in the city of Santa Clara, Cuba, where he had won the decisive battle of the Cuban Revolution 39 years before.
October 22 – Danish escaped criminal Steen Christensen robs the Hotel Palace in Helsinki, Finland, killing two police officers while evading capture.
October 29 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq says it will begin shooting down Lockheed U-2 surveillance planes being used by UNSCOM inspectors.
Subsections (0):
|
1997_10
|
Section: November (2):
November 2 – Severe Tropical Storm Linda devastates southern Vietnam and Thailand, killing 3,275 people.
November 11 – Telecom companies WorldCom and MCI Communications announce a US$37 billion merger to form MCI WorldCom, the largest merger in U.S. history.
November 12 – Mary McAleese is elected the eighth President of Ireland in succession to Mary Robinson, the first time in the world that one woman has succeeded another as elected head of state.
November 13 – Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
November 17 – In Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by 6 Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut.
November 19 – In Des Moines, Iowa, Bobbi McCaughey gives birth to septuplets in the second known case where all seven babies are born alive, and the first in which all survive infancy.
November 27 – NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission is launched, the start of the satellite component of the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System.
Subsections (0):
|
1997_11
|
Section: December (2):
December 1 – In the Indian state of Bihar, Ranvir Sena attacks the CPI(ML) Party Unity stronghold Lakshmanpur-Bathe, killing 63 lower caste people.
December 3 – In Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, representatives from 121 countries sign a treaty prohibiting the manufacture and deployment of anti-personnel land mines. However, the United States, the People's Republic of China, Russia, South Korea and 32 other nations do not sign and/or ratify the treaty.
December 10 – The capital of Kazakhstan is moved from Almaty to Astana.
December 11 – The Kyoto Protocol is adopted by a United Nations committee.
December 16 – In Japan, over 700 children suffer epileptic attacks after watching an episode of the Pokémon anime.
December 19
Janet Jagan (widow of Cheddi Jagan) takes office in Guyana.
SilkAir Flight 185 crashes into the Musi River, near Palembang in Indonesia, killing 104.
December 21 – Brazil beats Australia 6–0 in the Confederations Cup final.
December 24 – 50–100 villagers are killed in the Sid El-Antri massacre in Algeria.
December 27 – Ulster loyalist paramilitary leader Billy Wright is assassinated in Northern Ireland, inside Long Kesh prison.
December 29 – Hong Kong begins to kill all the chickens within its territory (1.25 million) to stop the spread of a potentially deadly Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 strain.
December 30 – Wilaya of Relizane massacres of December 30, 1997: In the worst incident in Algeria's insurgency, 400 people from four villages in the wilaya of Relizane are killed.
Subsections (0):
|
1998_0
|
1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1998th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 998th year of the 2nd millennium, the 98th year of the 20th century, and the 9th year of the 1990s decade.
|
1998_0
|
Section: January (2):
January 6 – The Lunar Prospector spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently shadowed craters near the Moon's poles.
January 11 – Over 100 people are killed in the Sidi-Hamed massacre in Algeria.
January 12 – Nineteen European nations agree to forbid human cloning.
January 17 – The Drudge Report breaks the story about U.S. President Bill Clinton's alleged affair with Monica Lewinsky, which will lead to the House of Representatives' impeachment of him.
Subsections (0):
|
1998_1
|
Section: February (2):
February 3 – Cavalese cable car disaster: A United States military pilot causes the deaths of 20 people near Trento, Italy, when his low-flying EA-6B Prowler severs the cable of a cable-car.
February 4 – The 5.9 Mw Afghanistan earthquake shakes the Takhar Province with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). With up to 4,000 killed, and 818 injured, damage is considered extreme.
February 7–22 – The 1998 Winter Olympics are held in Nagano, Japan.
February 20 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein negotiates a deal with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, allowing weapons inspectors to return to Baghdad, preventing military action by the United States and Britain.
February 28
A massacre in Likoshane, FR Yugoslavia starts the Kosovo War.
A study led by Andrew Wakefield is published in The Lancet suggesting an alleged link between MMR vaccine and autism. Now known to be full of data manipulation, the study was instantly controversial and fueled the nascent anti-vaccination movement. Although subsequent large epidemiological research found no link between vaccines and autism, the study contributed – in the following years and decades – to a sharp drop in vaccination rates and the resurgence of measles in several countries. The study, fully retracted in 2010, was later characterised as "perhaps the most damaging medical hoax of the 20th Century".
Subsections (0):
|
1998_2
|
Section: March (2):
March 2 – Data sent from the Galileo probe indicates that Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.
March 5 – NASA announces that the Clementine probe orbiting the Moon has found enough water in polar craters to support a human colony and rocket fueling station.
March 11 – 1998 Danish general election: Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen is re-elected.
March 13 – The High-Z Supernova Search Team becomes the first team to publish evidence that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate.
March 23 – The 70th Academy Awards ceremony, hosted for the 6th time by Billy Crystal, is held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. Titanic wins 11 Oscars including Best Picture.
March 24 – Westside Middle School shooting: Five people are killed in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
March 26 – Oued Bouaicha massacre in Algeria: 52 people are killed with axes and knives; 32 of the killed are babies under the age of two.
Subsections (0):
|
1998_3
|
Section: April (2):
April 5 – In Japan, the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshū and costing about US$3.6 billion, opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.
April 10 – Good Friday Agreement: An hour after the end of the talks deadline, the Belfast Agreement is signed between the Irish and British governments and most Northern Ireland political parties, with the notable exception of the Democratic Unionist Party. This would mostly put an end to the conflict known as The Troubles.
April 20 – The alleged date the German Red Army Faction (created 1970) is dissolved.
April 23 – The Yugoslav Army ambushes a group of Kosovo Liberation Army fighters attempting to smuggle weapons from Albania into Kosovo, killing 19.
Subsections (0):
|
1998_4
|
Section: May (2):
May 6 – A large Eritrean mechanized force entered Badme in Tigray Region, Ethiopia, resulting in Eritrean–Ethiopian War
May 11
Pokhran-II (Operation Shakti): India conducts three underground nuclear tests in Pokhran, including one thermonuclear device.
The first euro coins are minted in Pessac, France. Because the final specifications for the coins were not finished in 1998, they will have to be melted and minted again in 1999.
May 13–14 – Riots directed against Chinese Indonesians break out in Indonesia, killing around 1,000 people. Maria Catarina Sumarsih held Prabowo Subianto responsibilities for involved in a series of human rights abuses during the riot.
May 15 –The Windows 98 operating system is released to manufacturing.
May 19
The Galaxy IV communications satellite fails, leaving 80–90% of the US's pagers without service.
The wreck of the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, sunk during the Battle of Midway in 1942, is found near Midway Atoll by a team led by former US Navy officer Robert D. Ballard.
May 21 – Suharto (elected 1967) resigns after 31 years as President of Indonesia, effectively ending the New Order period. It is his 7th consecutive re-election by the Indonesian Parliament (MPR). Suharto's hand-picked Vice President, B. J. Habibie, becomes Indonesia's third president.
May 28 – Nuclear testing: In response to a series of Indian nuclear tests, Pakistan explodes five nuclear devices of its own in the Chagai hills of Baluchistan, codenamed Chagai-I, prompting the United States, Japan and other nations to impose economic sanctions. Pakistan celebrates Youm-e-Takbir annually.
May 30
A 6.5 magnitude earthquake hits northern Afghanistan, killing up to 5,000.
A second nuclear test, codenamed Chagai-II, is conducted and supervised by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC).
Subsections (0):
|
1998_5
|
Section: June (2):
June 1 – European Central Bank established, replacing the European Monetary Institute.
June 3 – Eschede train disaster: an Intercity-Express high-speed train derails between Hanover and Hamburg, Germany, causing 101 deaths.
June 7 – Former Brigadier-General Ansumane Mané seizes control over military barracks in Bissau, marking the beginning of the Guinea-Bissau Civil War (1998–99).
June 10–July 12 – The 1998 FIFA World Cup in France: France beats Brazil 3–0 in the FIFA World Cup Final.
June 10 – The Organisation of African Unity passes a resolution which states that its members will no longer comply with punitive sanctions applied by the UN Security Council against Libya.
June 27 – Kuala Lumpur International Airport officially opens, becoming the new international gateway into Malaysia.
June 30 – Philippine Vice President Joseph Estrada is sworn in as the 13th President of the Philippines.
Subsections (0):
|
1998_6
|
Section: July (2):
July 5 – Japan launches the probe Nozomi to Mars, joining the United States and Russia as an outer space-exploring nation.
July 17
Rome Statute: at a conference in Rome, 120 countries vote to create a permanent International Criminal Court to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
In Saint Petersburg, Nicholas II of Russia and his family are buried in St. Catherine Chapel, 80 years after he and his family were killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918.
The 7.0 Mw Papua New Guinea earthquake shakes the region near Aitape with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). This submarine earthquake triggered a landslide that caused a destructive tsunami, leaving more than 2,100 dead and thousands injured.
July 21–September 5 – The 1998 Sydney water crisis involved the suspected contamination by the microscopic pathogens cryptosporidium and giardia of the water supply system of Greater Metropolitan Sydney.
July 24 – Russell Eugene Weston Jr. enters the United States Capitol Building and opens fire, killing two members of the United States Capitol Police, Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson.
Subsections (0):
|
1998_7
|
Section: August (2):
August 1 – Puntland State leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998 and the capital city is the city of Garoowe in the Nugal region.
August 4 – The Second Congo War begins; 5.4 million people die before it ends in 2003, making it the bloodiest war, to date, since World War II.
August 7
Yangtze River Floods: in China the Yangtze river breaks through the main bank; before this, from August 1–5, peripheral levees collapsed consecutively in Jiayu County Baizhou Bay. The death toll exceeds 12,000, with many thousands more injured.
1998 U.S. embassy bombings: the bombings of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, kill 224 people and injure over 4,500; they are linked to terrorist Osama bin Laden, an exile of Saudi Arabia.
August 15 – The Troubles: The Omagh bombing is carried out in Northern Ireland by the Real Irish Republican Army. Shortly after these events, the group would call a ceasefire in response, signaling an end to the 30+ year conflict.
August 17 – Russia's government devalues the ruble, defaulted on domestic debt, and declared a moratorium on repayment of foreign debt. This marks the beginning of 1998 Russian financial crisis.
Subsections (0):
|
1998_8
|
Section: September (2):
September 2
A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 airliner (Swissair Flight 111) crashes near Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, after taking off from New York City en route to Geneva; all 229 people on board are killed.
A United Nations court finds Jean-Paul Akayesu, the former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, guilty of nine counts of genocide, marking the first time that the 1948 law banning genocide is enforced.
September 4 – Google, Inc. is founded in Menlo Park, California, by Stanford University PhD candidates Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
September 5 – The Government of North Korea adopts a military dictatorship on its 50th anniversary. Constitution is amended, Kim Il Sung is enshrined as the eternal President.
September 10 – At midnight, a shooting occurs aboard an Akula-class nuclear-powered attack submarine of the Russian Navy docked in the northern Russian port city of Severomorsk.
September 12 – The Cuban Five intelligence agents are arrested in Miami, and later convicted of espionage. The agents claim they were not spying against the United States Government but against the Cuban exile community in Miami.
September 24 – Iranian President Mohammad Khatami retracts a fatwa against Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie that was in force since 1989 stating that the Iranian government will "neither support nor hinder assassination operations on Rushdie".
Subsections (0):
|
1998_9
|
Section: October (2):
October 1 – Europol is established when the Europol Convention signed by all of its member states comes into force.
October 3 – 1998 Australian federal election: John Howard's Liberal/National Coalition government is re-elected with a substantially reduced majority, defeating the Labor Party led by Kim Beazley.
October 10 – Indictment and arrest of Augusto Pinochet: General Augusto Pinochet, Chilean dictator from 1973 to 1990, is indicted for human rights violations he committed in Chile by Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzón. 6 days later British police place him under house arrest during his medical treatment in the UK. This is a leading case in the law of universal jurisdiction.
October 17 – 1998 Jesse pipeline explosion: An oil pipeline explosion in Jesse, Nigeria results in 1,082 deaths.
October 29 – Hurricane Mitch makes landfall in Central America, killing an estimated 11,000 people.
Subsections (0):
|
1998_10
|
Section: November (2):
November 8 – Valve Corporation releases their first-person shooter video game Half-Life to critical acclaim. The game would be deemed one of the most influential titles of its genre, and one of the greatest video games of all time.
November 17 – Voyager 1 overtakes Pioneer 10 as the most distant man-made object from the Solar System, at a distance of 69.419 AU (1.03849×1010 km).
November 20 – A Russian Proton rocket is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying the first segment of the International Space Station, the 21-ton Zarya Module.
November 24 – A declassified report by Swiss International Olympic Committee official Marc Hodler reveals that bribes had been used to bring the 2002 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City during bidding process in 1995. The IOC, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, the United States Olympic Committee and the United States Department of Justice immediately launch an investigation into the scandal.
Subsections (0):
|
1998_11
|
Section: December (2):
December 1 – Ireland formally relinquishes its territorial claim over Northern Ireland and recognizes the United Kingdom's sovereignty there.
December 4 – The Space Shuttle Endeavour launches the first U.S.-built component to the International Space Station, the 25,600 pounds (11,600 kg) Unity module on STS-88. It docks with Zarya two days later.
December 6 – Hugo Chávez, politician and former officer of the Venezuelan army, is elected President of Venezuela.
December 14 – The Yugoslav Army ambushes a column of 140 Kosovo Liberation Army militants attempting to smuggle arms from Albania into Kosovo, killing 36.
December 16 – Iraq disarmament crisis: U.S. President Bill Clinton orders airstrikes on Iraq. UNSCOM withdraws all weapons inspectors from Iraq.
December 19 – The U.S. House of Representatives forwards articles of impeachment against President Clinton to the Senate, making him the second president to be impeached in U.S. history.
December 29 – The Khmer Rouge's leaders apologize for the post-Vietnam War genocide in Cambodia that killed more than one million people in the 1970s.
December 31
The first leap second since June 30, 1997, occurs.
In the Eurozone, the currency rates of this day are fixed permanently.
Subsections (0):
|
1999_0
|
1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1999th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 999th year of the 2nd millennium, the 99th year of the 20th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1990s decade.
|
1999_0
|
Section: January (2):
January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers.
January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launched by NASA.
January 25 – The 6.2 Mw Colombia earthquake hits western Colombia, killing at least 1,900 people.
Subsections (0):
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.