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Year '1991' ('MCMXCI') was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the 1991 Gregorian calendar).
The year 1991 is also significant because it was a palindrome year: the number is the same read forwards or backwards. The next palindrome year was 2002.
The year 1991 is designated in the Chinese calendar the Year of the Sheep (Ram or Goat).

Contents

Events of 1991

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Undated

Ongoing

Births

January-April

May - August

September - December

Deaths

January - June

July - December

Ship events

Nobel prizes

See also

Notes

External links

Table of contents

Events of 1991

January

★ January 1 - The Colorado Buffaloes claim college football's national championship with a 10-9 win over Notre Dame in the 1991 Orange Bowl. Controversy reigns as Colorado wins the AP poll, but Georgia Tech, the nation's only unbeaten team (with one tie), edges Colorado to win the UPI national championship by one point.

★ January 4 - The United Nations Security Council votes unanimously to condemn Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.

★ January 9 - A major collapse of ground traps 26 miners 65m below the surface at the Emaswati Colliery in Swaziland. The 26 men have access to a safe refuge chamber, and are all rescued by a drill hole 30 hours after the rescue unit is first alerted.

★ January 11 - Soviet forces storm Vilnius to stop Lithuanian independence.

★ January 12 - Gulf War: The Congress of the United States passes a resolution authorizing the use of military force to liberate Kuwait.

★ January 13

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★ Soviet troops assault the Vilnius TV tower in Lithuania and kill 14 unarmed civilians; many more are injured.

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★ A fight and stampede at a pre-season exhibition match between South African football teams Chiefs and Pirates in the town of Orkney near Johannesburg, South Africa leaves 42 dead.

★ January 14 - Three PLO guerilla chiefs are assassinated in Tunis.

★ January 15 - The United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm.

★ January 16

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★ U.S. serial killer Aileen Wuornos confesses to the murders of six men.

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★ Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm begins with air strikes against Iraq.

★ January 17

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★ Gulf War: Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles into Israel.

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★ Harald V of Norway becomes King on the death of his father, Olav V.

★ January 18 - Eastern Air Lines shuts down after 62 years, citing financial problems.

★ January 19 - The Party of the Alliance of Youth, Workers and Farmers of Angola is founded in Luanda, Angola.

★ January 25 - The dynasty of the San Francisco 49ers comes to an end as the New York Giants defeat the 49ers, 15-13, in San Francisco. The Giants win despite not scoring a touchdown, prevailing on five field goals by Matt Bahr.

★ January 26 - Somalia President Siad Barre flees his compound in Mogadishu.

★ January 27 - The New York Giants defeat the Buffalo Bills 20-19 in Super Bowl XXV at Tampa Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

★ January 29 - Siad Barre is succeeded by Ali Mahdi Muhammad in Somalia.

February

★ February 1 - A USAir Boeing 737-300, Flight 1493 collides with a Skywest Fairchild Metroliner, Flight 5569 at Los Angeles International Airport killing 34.

★ February 5 - A Michigan court bars Dr. Jack Kevorkian from assisting in suicides.

★ February 7

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★ Haiti's first democratically-elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is sworn in.

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★ The Provisional Irish Republican Army launches a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street during a cabinet meeting.

★ February 9 - Voters in Lithuania support independence.

★ February 11 - UNPO, the Unrepresented Nations & Peoples Organization, forms in the Hague, Netherlands.

★ February 13 - Gulf War: Two laser-guided "smart bombs" destroy an underground bunker in Baghdad, killing hundreds of Iraqis. United States military intelligence claimed it was a military facility but Iraqi officials identified it as a bomb shelter.

★ February 15 - The Visegrad Agreement, establishing cooperation to move toward free-market systems, is signed by the leaders of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland.

★ February 18 - The Provisional Irish Republican Army explodes bombs in the early morning at both Paddington station and Victoria station in London.

★ February 22 - Gulf War: Iraq accepts a Russian-proposed cease fire agreement. The U.S. rejects the agreement, but said that retreating Iraqi forces would not be attacked if they left Kuwait within 24 hours.

★ February 23

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★ The One Meridian Plaza fire kills three firefighters and destroys 8 floors of the building.

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★ Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabian border and enter Kuwait, thus starting the ground phase of the war.

★ February 23 - In Thailand, General Sunthorn Kongsompong deposes Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan in a bloodless coup d'état.

★ February 25 - Gulf War: Part of an Iraqi Scud missile hits an American military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia killing 29 and injuring 99 U.S. soldiers. It is the single, most devastating attack on U.S. forces during that war.

★ February 26 - Gulf War: On Baghdad radio, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein announces the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait. Iraqi soldiers set fire to Kuwaiti oil fields as they retreat.

March

★ March-April - Iraqi forces suppress rebellions