1993

**1993 in other calendars**
Gregorian calendar	1993; MCMXCIII
Ab urbe condita	2746
Armenian calendar	1442; ԹՎ ՌՆԽԲ
Bahá'í calendar	149 – 150
Bengali calendar	1400
Berber calendar	2943
Buddhist calendar	2537
Burmese calendar	1355
Byzantine calendar	7501 – 7502
Chinese calendar	壬申年十二月初九日; (4629/4689-12-9) — to — 癸酉年十一月十九日; (4630/4690-11-19)
Coptic calendar	1709 – 1710
Ethiopian calendar	1985 – 1986
Hebrew calendar	5753 – 5754
Hindu calendars
- Bikram Samwat	2049 – 2050
- Shaka Samvat	1915 – 1916
- Kali Yuga	5094 – 5095
Holocene calendar	11993
Iranian calendar	1371 – 1372
Islamic calendar	1413 – 1414
Japanese calendar	Heisei 5; (平成5年)
Korean calendar	4326
Thai solar calendar	2536
Unix time	725846400 – 757382399
	v • d • e

1993 by topic
	Subject: Archaeology – Architecture – Art – Aviation – Comics – Film – Home video – Literature (Poetry) – Meteorology – Music (Country, Metal) – Rail transport – Radio – Science – Spaceflight – Sports – Television – Video gaming
	Countries: Australia – Canada – People's Republic of China – Ecuador – France – Germany – India – Ireland – Israel – Italy – Japan – Luxembourg – Malaysia – Mexico – New Zealand – Norway – Pakistan – Philippines - Russia – Singapore – South Africa – UK – USA – Zimbabwe
	Leaders: Sovereign states – State leaders – Religious leaders – Law
	Categories: Births – Deaths – Works – Introductions – Establishments – Disestablishments – Awards
	v • d • e

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1960s 1970s 1980s – 1990s – 2000s 2010s 2020s
Years:	1990 1991 1992 – 1993 – 1994 1995 1996

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For a complete list, see Category:1993 births and Category:1993 deaths.

1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year that started on a Friday. In the Gregorian calendar, it was the 1993rd year in the Common Era, or of Anno Domini; the 993rd year of the 2nd millennium; the 93rd year of the 20th century; and the 4th of the 1990s.

Contents:
Events of 1993 - Jan. ^. Feb. ^. March ^. April - May ^. June ^. July ^. Aug. - Sept. ^. Oct. ^. Nov. ^. Dec. - Undated ^. Ongoing Births Deaths - Templeton Prize Nobel Prizes Ship events See also - Notes - External links

[edit] Events of 1993

[edit] January

January 1 – Dissolution of Czechoslovakia: Slovakia and the Czech Republic separate in the so-called Velvet Divorce.
January 1 – The European Community eliminates trade barriers and creates a European single market.
January 1 – EuroNews is launched in Europe.
January 1 – ITV companies GMTV, Carlton Television, Meridian Broadcasting and Westcountry Television start broadcasting, replacing TV-am, Thames Television, TVS and TSW respectively.
January 3 – In Moscow, Quade Mullenix and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
January 5 – The state of Washington executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the first legal hanging in America since 1965).

Bill Clinton inaugurated as President of the United States.

January 5 – $7.4 million USD is stolen from Brinks Armored Car Depot in Rochester, New York in the 5th largest robbery in U.S. history. Four men, Samuel Millar, Father Patrick Moloney, former Rochester Police officer Thomas O'Connor, and Charles McCormick, all of whom have ties to the Provisional Irish Republican Army, are accused.
January 5 – M/V Braer, a Liberian oil tanker, runs aground off the Scottish island of Mainland, 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 the city now known as Mumbai.
January 7 – The Fourth Republic of Ghana is inaugurated, with Jerry Rawlings as president.
January 14 – The Polish ferry M/S Jan Heweliusz sinks off the coast of Rügen in the Baltic Sea, killing 54 people.
January 15 – Salvatore Riina, the Mafia boss known as 'The Beast', is arrested in Palermo, Sicily after 23 years as a fugitive.
January 19 – Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) signed.
January 19 – IBM announces a $4.97 billion loss for 1992, the largest single-year corporate loss in United States history to date.
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. Iraq then informs UNSCOM that it will be able to resume its flights.
January 20 – Bill Clinton succeeds George H.W. Bush as the 42nd President of the United States.
January 24 – In Turkey, thousands protest the murder of journalist Uğur Mumcu.
January 25 – Mir Aimal Kasi fires a rifle and kills 2 employees outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
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.
January 31 – Super Bowl XXVII: The Buffalo Bills become the first team to lose 3 consecutive Super Bowls as they are defeated by the Dallas Cowboys, 52–17.

[edit] February

The aftermath of the World Trade Center bombing.

February 4 – Members of the right-wing Austrian FPÖ split to form the Liberal Forum in protest against the increasing nationalistic bent of the party.
February 5 – Belgium becomes a federal state rather than a kingdom.
February 8 – General Motors Corporation sues NBC, after Dateline NBC allegedly rigged 2 crashes showing that some GM pickups can easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settles the lawsuit the following day.
February 10 – Lien Chan is named by Lee Teng-Hui to succeed Hau Pei-tsun as Premier of the Republic of China.
February 10 – Mani Pulite scandal: Italian legislator Claudio Martelli resigns, followed by various politicians over the next 2 weeks.
February 11 – Janet Reno is selected by President Clinton as Attorney General of the United States.
February 14 – Glafkos Klerides defeats incumbent George Vasiliou in the Cypriot presidential election.
February 14 – Albert Zafy defeats Didier Ratsiraka in the Madagascar presidential election.
February 17 – A ferry sinks in Haiti, killing approximately 1,215 out of 1,500 passengers.
February 22 – UN 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 will is established on May 25 by Resolution 827.
February 24 – Prime Minister of Canada Brian Mulroney resigns amidst political and economic turmoil. Kim Campbell, his successor, becomes Canada's first female Prime Minister.
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 6 and injuring over 1,000.
February 28 – Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, with a warrant to arrest leader David Koresh on federal firearms violations. Four agents and 5 Davidians die in the raid and a 51-day standoff begins.

[edit] March

March 4 – Authorities announce the capture of suspected World Trade Center bombing conspirator Mohammad Salameh.
March 5 – A Macedonian Palair Flight 305, a F-100 on a flight to Zurich, crashes shortly after take-off from Skopje killing 83 of the 97 on board.
March 9 – Rodney King testifies at the federal trial of 4 Los Angeles, California police officers accused of violating his civil rights when they beat him during an arrest.
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.
March 12 – North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea announces that it plans to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and refuses to allow inspectors access to nuclear sites.
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.
March 13 – Australian federal election, 1993: The Australian Labor Party stays in power despite poor economic results.
March 17 – The PKK announces a unilateral ceasefire in Iraq.
March 20 – Warrington bomb attacks: An IRA bomb explodes in Warrington Town Centre and kills 2 children, Jonathan Ball and Tim Parry.
March 22 – The Intel Corporation ships the first P5 Pentium chips.
March 24 – The Israeli Knesset elects Ezer Weizman as President of Israel.
March 24 – South Africa officially abandons its nuclear weapons programme. President de Klerk announces that the country's 6 warheads had already been dismantled in 1990.
March 27 – Jiang Zemin becomes President of the People's Republic of China.
March 27 – Following a rash of integrist murders, Algeria breaks diplomatic relations with Iran, accusing the country of interfering in its interior affairs.
March 27 – Mahamane Ousmane is elected president of Niger.
March 28 – French legislative election, 1993: Gaullists win 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, California, with Unforgiven winning Best Picture.

[edit] April

April – The Kuwaiti government claims to uncover an Iraqi assassination plot against former U.S. President George H.W. Bush shortly after his visit to Kuwait. Two Iraqi nationals confess to driving a car-bomb into Kuwait on behalf of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.^[1]
April 1 – The Vatican orders the moving of the Carmelite convent at Auschwitz.
April 6 – A nuclear accident occurs at Tomsk 7 in Russia.
April 8 – The Republic of Macedonia is admitted to the United Nations.
April 10 – African National Congress activist Chris Hani is assassinated in South Africa.
April 16 – Bosnian War: Srebrenica falls.
April 17 – Laurence Powell and Stacey Koon are found guilty in the second Rodney King trial.
April 19 – 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 19 – South Dakota governor George Mickelson and seven others are killed when a state-owned aircraft crashes in Iowa.
April 22 – In Washington, DC, the Holocaust Memorial Museum is dedicated.
April 22 – 18-year-old student Stephen Lawrence is stabbed to death in London, England; the attack is believed to have been racially motivated.
April 23 – The World Health Organization declares tuberculosis a Global Emergency.
April 23 – Eritreans vote overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a United Nations-monitored referendum.
April 26 – Oscar Luigi Scalfaro appoints Carlo Azeglio Ciampi Prime Minister of Italy.
April 27 – Yemeni parliamentary election, 1993: The General People's Congress wins a plurality of 121 seats.
April 27 – All members of the Zambia national football team die in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon in route to Dakar, Senegal.
April 28 – An executive order requires the United States Air Force to allow women to fly war planes.
April 30 – Tennis star Monica Seles is stabbed in the back by an obsessed fan of rival Steffi Graf at a tournament in Hamburg, Germany.

[edit] May

May 1 – Pierre Bérégovoy, former prime minister of France, commits suicide.
May 1 – A Tamil Tigers suicide bomber assassinates President Ranasinghe Premadasa 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.
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.
May 16 – After Demirel becomes the president the acting prime minister of Turkey is Erdal İnönü of SHP for 40 days.
May 24 – Eritrea gains independence from Ethiopia.
May 27 – A car bomb at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence kills 5; the Mafia is suspected.
May 28 – Eritrea and Monaco gain entry to the United Nations.

[edit] June

June 1 – Large protests erupt against Slobodan Milošević's regime in Belgrade; opposition leader Vuk Drašković and his wife Danica are arrested.
June 1 – President of Guatemala Jorge Serrano Elías is forced to flee the country after an attempted self-coup.
June 1 – Burundian presidential election, 1993: 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.
June 5 – 24 Pakistani troops in the UN forces are killed in Mogadishu, Somalia.
June 6 – Following the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement's victory, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada becomes president of Bolivia.
June 6 – Mongolia holds its first direct presidential elections.
June 8 – The PKK-declared ceasefire ends in Iraq.
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 2 missile engine test stands.
June 20 – A 7.5 earthquake hits Japan, killing 385 people.
June 20 – John Paxson's 3-point shot in Game 6 of the NBA Finals helps the Chicago Bulls secure a 99–98 win over the Phoenix Suns, and their third consecutive championship.
June 22 – Japan's New Party Sakigake breaks away from the Liberal Democratic Party.
June 23 – In Manassas, Virginia, Lorena Bobbitt cuts off the penis of her husband John Wayne Bobbitt.
June 24 – A Unabomber bomb injures computer scientist David Gelernter at Yale University.
June 24 – Andrew Wiles wins worldwide fame after presenting his solution for Fermat's Last Theorem, a problem that has been unsolved for more than 3 centuries.
June 25 – Kim Campbell becomes the 19th, and first female, Prime Minister of Canada.
June 25 – Tansu Çiller of DYP forms the new government of Turkey.
June 25 – Zoran Lilić succeeds Dobrica Ćosić as President of Yugoslavia.
June 25 – The litas is introduced in Lithuania.
June 25 – Jacques Attali resigns as President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
June 26–28 – Typhoon Koryn causes important damages in 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 the attempted assassination of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush during his visit to Kuwait in mid-April.
June 27 – In Bad Kleinen, Germany, GSG 9 troopers arrest terrorists Birgit Hogefeld and Wolfgang Grams.

[edit] July

July 2 – An integrist mob sets fire to the hotel where The Satanic Verses translator Aziz Nesin resides in Sivas, Turkey, killing 37.
July 5 – Iraq disarmament crisis: UN inspection teams leave Iraq. Iraq then agrees to UNSCOM demands and the inspection teams return.
July 7–9 – The 19th G7 summit is held in Tokyo, Japan.
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 – A magnitude 7.8 earthquake off Hokkaidō, Japan launches a devastating tsunami that kills 202 on the small island of Okushiri, Hokkaido.
July 16–17 – In Estonia, the majority Russian cities of Narva and Sillamäe organize illegal referendums on "territorial autonomy" to protest new citizenship laws.
July 19 – Japanese general election, 1993: The loss of majority of the Liberal Democratic Party results in a coalition taking power.
July 19 – U.S. President Bill Clinton announces his 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy regarding gays in the American military.
July 20 – White House deputy counsel Vince Foster commits suicide in Virginia.
July 23 – Candelária massacre: Brazilian police officers kill 8 street kids in Rio de Janeiro.
July 26 – Miguel Indurain wins the 1993 Tour de France.
July 26 – Asiana Airlines Flight 733 crashes into Mt. Ungeo in Haenam, South Korea; 68 die.
July 27 – Windows NT 3.1, the first version of Microsoft's line of Windows NT operating systems, is released to manufacturing.
July 29 – The Israeli Supreme Court acquits accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk of all charges and he is set free.

[edit] August

August 4 – A federal judge sentences Los Angeles Police Department officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 30 months in prison for violating motorist Rodney King's civil rights.
August 4 – The Japanese government issues the Kono Statement, acknowledging the comfort women's deportation.
August 5 – The discovery of the Tel Dan Stele, the first archaeological confirmation of the existence of the Davidic line, is announced.
August 6 – According to Japanese government and TBS networks reports, torrential rain and mudslides kill 72 in Kagoshima, Japan.
August 9 – King Albert II of Belgium is sworn into office 9 days after the death of his brother, King Baudouin I.
August 13 – Over 130 die in the collapse of Royal Plaza Hotel at Nakhon Ratchasima in Thailand's worst hotel disaster.
August 17 – For the first time, the public is allowed inside Buckingham Palace.
August 19 – In Norway, Varg Vikernes is arrested and charged with the murder of Euronymous, of Mayhem; he receives a 21-year sentence for this and other crimes.
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.
August 30 – Russia completes removing its troops from Lithuania.

[edit] September

PLO leader Yasir Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, with US President, Bill Clinton.

September 6 – Canadian software specialist Peter de Jager publishes in Computerworld U.S. weekly magazine an article Doomsday 2000, which is the first known reference to Y2K – the 2000 Year problem.
September 13 – Norwegian parliamentary election, 1993: The Labour Party wins a plurality of the seats, and Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland retains office.
September 13 – 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 (1993) crosses from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean through Central America and Mexico.
September 17 – Russian troops withdraw from Poland.
September 19 – Polish parliamentary election, 1993: A coalition of the Democratic Left Alliance and the Polish People's Party lead by Waldemar Pawlak comes into power.
September 22 – Big Bayou Canot train disaster: A bridge collapses as the Sunset Limited crosses it, killing 47.
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 2 years.
September 26 – 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 – An earthquake centered in Killari, Maharashtra, India kills over 10,000.

[edit] October

October 2–5 – The Russian constitutional crisis of 1993 culminates with Russian military and security forces clearing the White House of Russia Parliament building by force, squashing a mass uprising against President Boris Yeltsin.
October 3 – A large scale battle erupts between U.S. forces and local militia in Mogadishu, Somalia; 18 Americans and over 1,000 Somalis are killed.
October 5 – China performs a nuclear test, ending a worldwide de facto moratorium.
October 5 – The papal encyclical Veritatis Splendor is promulgated.
October 8 – David Miscavige announces the IRS has granted full tax exemption to the Church of Scientology International and affiliated churches and organizations, ending the Church's 40-year battle with the IRS and resulting in religious recognition in the United States.
October 10 – 292 are killed when the South Korean ferry Seohae capsizes off Pusan, South Korea.
October 11–28 – The UNMIH is prevented from entering Haiti. On October 18, economic sanctions (abolished in August) are reinstated.
October 13 – Greek legislative election, 1993: Andreas Papandreou begins his second term as Prime Minister of Greece.
October 13 – The fifth summit of the Francophonie opens in Mauritius.
October 19 – Benazir Bhutto becomes the first elected woman to lead a post-colonial Muslim state, in Pakistan.
October 21 – A coup in Burundi results in the death of president Melchior Ndadaye and sparks the Burundi Civil War.
October 25 – Canadian federal election, 1993: Jean Chrétien and his Liberal Party defeat the governing Progressive Conservative Party, which falls to an historic low of 2 seats.
October 30 – Greysteel massacre: Three members of the UDA, a loyalist paramilitary group, attacked a crowded bar in Greysteel, Northern Ireland with firearms, killing eight civilians and wounding thirteen. The bar was targeted because it was in an Irish nationalist and Catholic area.

[edit] November

November 1 – The Maastricht Treaty takes effect, formally establishing the European Union.
November 5 – The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the Railways Act, 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 11 – Microsoft releases Windows 3.11 for Workgroups to manufacturing.
November 11 – Sri Lankan civil war – Battle of Pooneryn: Over 400 Sri Lankan military are killed.
November 12 – London Convention: Marine dumping of radioactive waste is outlawed.
November 18 – In a status referendum, Puerto Rico residents vote with 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 18 – In South Africa, 21 political parties approve a new constitution.
November 18 – The first meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation opens in Seattle.
November 20 – Savings and loan crisis: The United States Senate Ethics Committee issues a stern censure of California senator Alan Cranston for his dealings with savings-and-loan executive Charles Keating.
November 20 – An Avioimpex Yakovlev Yak-42D crashes into Mount Trojani near Ohrid, Macedonia. The aircraft was on a flight from Geneva, Switzerland to Skopje, but had been diverted to Ohrid due to poor weather conditions at the Skopje airport. 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 IRA and the British government, despite the government's persistent denials.
November 30 – Agreement establishing the Permanent Commission for East African Co-operation signed.

[edit] December

December 1 – A train crash at Tattenham Corner railway station lead to the introduction of the current drugs and alcohol policy for railways in the UK.
December 2 – STS-61: NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair an optical flaw in the Hubble Space Telescope.
December 2 – The September 6 merger between Renault and Volvo fails; Volvo CEO Pehr G. Gyllenhammar resigns.
December 5 – Rafael Caldera Rodríguez is elected President of Venezuela for the second time, succeeding interim president Ramón José Velásquez.
December 7 – Colin Ferguson opens fire with his Ruger 9 mm pistol on a Long Island Rail Road train, killing 6 and injuring 19.
December 7 – 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.
December 7 – President of Côte d'Ivoire Félix Houphouët-Boigny dies at 83, the oldest African head of state. He is succeeded 3 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 Doom, a seminal first-person shooter that uses advanced 3D graphics for computer games.
December 11 – Chilean presidential election, 1993: Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle is elected with 58% of the vote.
December 11 – A variety of Soviet space program paraphernalia are put to auction in Sotheby's New York, and sell for a total of US$6.8M. One of the items is Lunokhod 1 and its spacecraft Luna 17; they sell for $68,500.
December 12 – Péter Boross becomes Prime Minister of Hungary following the death of József Antall.
December 13 – Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell resigns as head of the Conservative Party, to be succeeded by Jean Charest.
December 13 – The Majilis of Kazakhstan approves the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and agrees to dismantle the more than 100 missiles left on its territory by the fall of the USSR.
December 15 – Downing Street Declaration: The United Kingdom commits itself to the search for an answer to the problems of Northern Ireland.
December 15 – The Uruguay Round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) talks reach a successful conclusion after 7 years.
December 16 – 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 18 – Omar Bongo is re-elected as President of Gabon in the country's first multiparty elections.
December 20 – The United Nations General Assembly votes unanimously to appoint a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
December 20 – The first corrected images from the Hubble Telescope are taken.
December 22 – The interim South African constitution is approved by Parliament 237–45.
December 29 – Argentina passes a measure allowing President Carlos Saul Menem and all future presidents to run for a second term. It also shortens presidential terms to 4 years and removes the requirement for the president to be Roman Catholic.
December 30 – Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations.
December 30 – The Congress Party gains a parliamentary majority in India after the defection of 10 Janata Dal party lawmakers.

[edit] Undated

The second World Parliament of Religions is held in Chicago.
U.S. President Bill Clinton sends 6 American warships to Haiti, to enforce United Nations trade sanctions against the military-led regime in that country.
The Mississippi and Missouri Rivers flood large portions of the American Midwest.
Severe floods hit South Asia, killing over 4,000 people in Bangladesh, India and Nepal.
The European Exchange Rate Mechanism is put in crisis, mainly from speculation against the French Franc.
Over a dozen people are killed by the new Hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome, mainly in the Southwestern United States.
Wildfires in California destroy over 16,000 acres (65 km²) and 700 homes.
Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time becomes the longest running book on the bestseller list of The Sunday Times ever.
The Oslo Accords negotiations begin.
Many foreigners are murdered by rebel groups in Algeria.
The Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform succeeds in having the Irish sodomy law reformed.

[edit] Ongoing

[edit] Wars

[edit] Births

[edit] January–June

January 4 – Scott Redding, English Grand Prix motorcycle racer
January 9 – Ashley Argota, American actress
January 12 – Aika Mitsui, Japanese singer
January 18 – Morgan York, American actress
January 26 – Cameron Bright, Canadian actor
February 7 – David Dorfman, American actor
February 9 – Parimarjan Negi, Chess prodigy from India
February 12 – Jennifer Stone, American actress
February 16 – Mike Weinberg, American actor
February 17 – Marc Márquez, Spanish Grand Prix motorcycle racer
February 19 – Victoria Justice, American actress
February 23 – Kasumi Ishikawa, Japanese table tennis player
February 26 – Taylor Dooley, American actress
March 17 – Julia Winter, English actress
April 15 – Madeleine Martin, American television actress/voice actress
April 16 – Mirai Nagasu, Japanese-American figure skater
May 9 – Ryosuke Yamada, Japanese Singer/Actor
May 10 – Mirai Shida, Japanese actress
May 13 – Debby Ryan, American actress
May 14 – Miranda Cosgrove, American actress
May 20 – Caroline Zhang, American figure skater
June 7 – Jordan Fry, American actor
June 15 – Kanna Arihara, Japanese singer

[edit] July–December

July 26 – Taylor Momsen, American actress
August 3 – Yurina Kumai, Japanese singer
August 5 – Suzuka Ohgo, Japanese child actress
August 11 – Alyson Stoner, American actress and dancer
August 12 – Ewa Farna, Polish singer
August 17 – Sarah Sjöström, Swedish swimmer
August 26 – Keke Palmer, American actress and singer
September 1 – Ilona Mitrecey, French singer
October 8 – Angus T. Jones, American actor
November 30 – Yuri Chinen, Japanese singer and actor
December 6 – Elián González, Cuban refugee
December 8 – AnnaSophia Robb, American actress
December 22 – Aliana Lohan, American actress and singer