Chrnongraphy of events from 1 January 1990 to 31 December 1999
Page last
modified 21 January 2023
(+9999) = Day count from end of
World War Two in Europe. �Easter Sundays
derived from https://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/easter/easter_text2b.htm
For dates from 1 January 2000 click here
Jump to:-
1 January 2000,� Saturday (+19,961) In the UK it became illegal
for retailers to sell in anything but metric units.
====================================================================================
31 December 1999, Friday (+19,960) Boris Yeltsin resigned as President of Russia and was
replaced by Vladimir Putin. Putin, 47, was elected President on
26/3/2000.
30
December 1999, Thursday
(+19,959) Former Beatle member George Harrison was stabbed several times in
the chest by an intruder who broke into his house in Oxfordshire, England. He
survived and lived another 2 years before dying of ;lung cancer.
27
December 1999, Monday
(+19,958)
23
December 1999, Thursday
(+19,954) In Cote D�Ivoire, President Bedie was overthrown by the military,
and General Robert Guei took power.
22 December 1999,
Wednesday (+19,951) A Korean Air Boeing 747
cargo plane crashed shortly after taking off from London Stansted Airport.
20
December 1999, Monday (+19,949)
Macau was handed back to
China by Portugal.
15 December 1999, Wednesday (+19,944) Two weeks of heavy rain in
Venezuela led to catastrophic floods and mudslides, killing 30,000 and leaving
100,000 homeless.
12 December 1999, Sunday (+19,941) Joseph Heller, author, died.
11 December 1999,� Saturday
(+19,940) The Sistine Chapel, Vatican, reopened after 20 years restoration
work and cleaning.
10 December 1999, Friday (+19,939)
Franjo Tudjman, President of Croatia, died.
7 December 1999, Tuesday (+19,936)
3 December 1999, Friday (+19,932) NASA lost contact with the
probe Mars Polar Lander at it attempted to touch down at the south pole of
Mars.
2 December 1999,
Thursday (+19,931) The UK
government devolved power in Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland
Executive. Dublin withdrew its territorial claim to Northern Ireland.
1 December 1999, Wednesday (+19,930)
====================================================================================
30 November 1999, Tuesday (+19,929) In Seattle, a large-scale protest by the anti-globalisation
movement caught the authorities unaware and forced the cancellation on a WTO
meeting.
29 November 1999, Monday (+19,928)
The Northern Ireland power-sharing executive was set up.
28 November 1999, Sunday (+19,927) Russian forces began a three-day bombardment of Grozny,
Chechnya, killing some 500 people.
23 November 1999, Tuesday (+19,922)
22 November 1999, Monday (+19,921) (Space exploration) China launched a manned spacecraft.
21 November 1999, Sunday (+19,920) Quentin Crisp, actor, died.
17 November 1999, Wednesday (+19,916) The IRA promised to decommission its weapons.
14 November 1999, Sunday (+19,913) The UN Security Council voted
to impose sanctions on Afghanistan to force the ruling Taleban to hand over
Osama bin Laden.
12 November 1999, Friday (+19,911) A 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit
Duzce, north-west Turkey, killing 845 and injuring 4,948.
11 November 1999,
Thursday (+19,910)
752
hereditary peers lost their voting rights in the House of Lords. They had
formed a majority of the 1330 House. However 92 of the hereditaries had a stay
of execution, until reforms of the House of lords were completed.
6 November 1999,
Saturday (+19,905) The
Australians voted to keep the British queen as Head of State.
1 November 1999, Monday (+19,900) Walter Peyton, US footballer,
died.
===================================================================================
31 October 1999, Sunday (+19,899) EgyptAir flight 990 from New
York to Cairo crashed into the Atlantic Ocean 97 km south of Nantucket Island,
killing all 217 on board.
29 October 1999, Friday (+19,897) A cyclone hit Orissa, NE
India, killing over 9,600 people and making thousands more homeless.
27 October 1999, Wednesday (+19,895) Brothels were legalised in
The Netherlands.
12
October 1999, Tuesday
(+19,880) (1) According to the UN, the world population reached 6 billion.
(2) General Pervez Musharraf (born 1943) took control of
Pakistan in a military coup. Nawaz Sherif
was deposed.
10
October 1999, Sunday
(+19,878) The London
Eye was erected.
5
October 1999, Tuesday (+19,873) A serious rail crash at Ladbroke Grove, outside Paddington, London,
killed 31 people. Over 100 were injured. The 8.06 from Paddington to Great
Bedwyn, Wiltshire, was cut in half by the express from Cheltenham at 8.11 am.
The newly-privatised rail companies were criticised for not spending enough on
signalling.
====================================================================================
30/9/1999, Thursday (+10,868) Russian forces invaded Chechnya, to avenge their
humiliation of 1996. Putin gained popularity in Russia.
23/9/1999, Thursday (+10,861) NASA lost contact with its
Mars probe Climate Orbiter
21/9/1999, Tuesday (+19,859) Central Japan was hit by an
earthquake; 2,400 were killed.
20/9/1999, Monday (+19,858) Timor L�Este appealed for help from the
international community.
13/9/1999, Monday (+19,851) A bomb exploded in an
apartment building in Moscow. This was the second blast in the city in 2 weeks,
with a total of 200 killed. Chechen rebels were blamed.
9/9/1999, Thursday (+19,847) The Patten Report on
policing in Northern Ireland was published. It proposed measures to make the
police force less Protestant-dominated.
7/9/1999, Tuesday (+19,845)
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake hit Athens, killing 143 people and injuring over
2,000.
3/9/1999, Friday (+19,841) After an 18-month French judicial inquiry, paparazzi
press were cleared of responsibility for the car crash which killed Diana.
===================================================================================
30/8/1999, Monday (+19,837) In a referendum, East Timor voted for independence from
Indonesia. Pro-Indonesian militias then went o the rampage, with the connivance
of the Indonesian Army, until UNH peacekeepers arrived on 20/9/1999.
26/8/1999, Thursday (+19,833) Russia began the Second
Chechen War following the invasion of Dagestan.
19/8/1999, Thursday (+19,826)
In Belgrade, thousands of demonstrators demanded the resignation of President
Slobodan Milosevic.
17/8/1999. Tuesday (+19,824) 17,800 killed as an earthquake hit
the Turkish cities of Izmit and Istanbul. The quake measured 7.4 on the Richter
Scale.� 17,000 were killed and 44,000
injured.
15/8/1999, Sunday (+19,822) Sir Hugh Casson, artist, died.
12/8/1999, Thursday (+19,819) Local sheep farmers in Millau, S France, led by Mr. Jose
Bove, attacked and demolished a partly-built McDonalds restaurant. This
was in response to US restrictions on the import of Roquefort cheese, which was
itself in retaliation for European restrictions on imports of hormone-fed beef,
which affected US farmers. Roquefort production employed some 1,300 people in
the Millau area and annual sales to the US were 440 tonnes. The US imposed a
100% import duty on Roquefort, sending its price in Washington DC up from US$
30 to US$ 60 per kilo, and US sales of this cheese dwindled to zero.
11/8/1999, Wednesday (+19,818)
A total eclipse of the Sun was visible in south west England. However the
weather was cloudy.
10/8/1999, Tuesday (+19,817) A Pakistani plane intruding into
Indian airspace was shot down.
9/8/1999, Monday (+19,816) (1) Russian President Yeltsin again dismissed the Prime Minister
(Primakov), and Vladimir Putin became Prime Minister.
(2) Charles Kennedy,
39, was elected as new leader of the Liberal Democrats, succeeding Paddy
Ashdown.
8/8/1999, Sunday (+19,815)
�Who Wants to be a Millionaire� was first screened; contestants could win up to
US$1,000,000.
1/8/1999, Sunday (+19,808) In China the Yangtze River
burst its banks, making 5 million homeless.
=====================================================================================
22/7/1999, Thursday (+19,798) China cracked down on the Falun Gong religious
movement, which claimed to have 70 million followers.
20/7/1999, Tuesday (+19,796) The death of King Hassan II
of Morocco prompted widespread mourning across the Arab world.
16/7/1999, Friday (+19,792) John F Kennedy Jr.,
journalist and magazine publisher, died.
12/7/1999.
Monday (+19,788) The three
richest men in the world, Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Warren Buffett, were
collectively richer than the world�s poorest 43 nations.
11/7/1999, Sunday (+19,787) India recaptured the town of Kargil
from Pakistan, after two months of conflict.
7/7/1999, Wednesday (+19,783) In Tehran, university students demanded liberal
reforms. This led to rioting as Islamist vigilantes, the Ansar-e-Hezbollah,
attacked the campus, killing 8. Pro-democracy protestors marched in Tehran on
12/7/1999.
1/7/1999, Thursday (+19,777) Queen Elizabeth II opened the Scottish Assembly. The average UK house price was
�71,122.
=====================================================================================
29/6/1999, Tuesday (+19,775) In Turkey, Kurdish
separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan was sentenced to death.
26/6/1999.
Saturday (+19,772) There
were problems at the UK�s Passport Office, with queues for passports reaching a
record 530,000.
20/6/1999, Sunday (+19,766) Ethnic Albanians started to
return to Kosovo. They began their own ethnic cleansing against Serbians. A UN
peacekeeping force was sent to Kosovo.
18/6/1999, Friday (+19,764)
Anti-Globalisation
protests in many cities around the world, some of which became riots.
16/6/1999, Wednesday (+19,762)
Screaming Lord Sutch (born 1940), committed suicide.
12/6/1999, Saturday (+19,758) The UN and NATO peacekeeping force
KFOR entered Kosovo.
11/6/1999, Friday (+19,757) Serbia completed its
withdrawal from Kosovo.
10/6/1999, Thursday (+19,756) NATO suspended air strikes against the Serbs after
Slobodan Milosevic agreed to withdraw his forces from Kosovo.
9/6/1999, Wednesday
(+19,755) In the Kosovo War, Yugoslavia and NATO signed a peace treaty.
8/6/1999, Tuesday
(+19,754) Jonathan Aitken, former
British Government Minister, was jailed for perjury.
7/6/1999, Monday (+19,753) In the USA, the FBI placed Osama bin Laden on its �Ten
Most Wanted� list and offered a US$ 5 million reward for his capture.
5/6/1999, Saturday (+19,751) Mel Torme, singer and
musician, died.
3/6/1999, Thursday (+19,749) Yugoslav President
Milosevic agreed to evacuate Kosovo, in favour of ethnic Albanians.
2/6/1999, Wednesday
(+19,748) (1) Thabo Mbeki
became President of South Africa.
(2) After
decades of resisting external technological influences such as television, the
King of Bhutan allowed TV broadcasts in the Kingdom for the first time, to
coincide with his silver jubilee.
1/6/1999,
Tuesday (+19,747) Napster was
released, enabling users to share music files and changing forever the music
industry.
====================================================================================
27/5/1999, Thursday (+19,715)�
(1) In Israel, former Premier
Binyamin Netanyahu resigned as leader of the opposition Right-wing Likud Party,
and was replaced by Ariel Sharon.
(2) Nelson Mandela
retired as President of South Africa. He was replaced by Thabo Mbeki.
26/5/1999, Wednesday (+19,741) (1) The first Welsh Assembly for 600
years opened in Cardiff.
(2) Indian air force planes attacked Pakistani intruders in
Kashmir, sparking the Kargil War.
20/5/1999, Thursday (+19,735)
Bluetooth was announced.
17/5/1999, Monday (+19,732)
Ehud Barak was elected President of Israel.
13/5/1999, Thursday (+19,728) The World Trade Organisation, having
condemned the EU ban on imports of hormone-treated beef, had set a deadline of
this day for the EU to revoke the ban. This deadline was not met, see
12/8/1999.
12/5/1999, Wednesday (+19,727) Russian President Boris
Yeltsin dismissed Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, whose popularity had risen
as he stabilised the economy. The Russian Duma (Parliament) discussed
impeaching Yeltsin, but the witnesses they required failed to appear and the
motion was lost. Sergei Stepashin became the new Prime Minister but see
9/8/1999.
11/5/1999, Tuesday (+19,726)
9/5/1999, Sunday
(+19,724) Widespread protests in cities across China over the US accidental
bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia.
8/5/1999, Saturday (+19,723) British film star Dirk
Bogarde died, aged 78.
7/5/1999, Friday (+19,722)
In Yugoslavia, three Chinese Embassy workers were killed and twenty wounded
when a NATO aircraft mistakenly bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.
6/5/1999, Thursday
(+19,721) Elections to the new Welsh and Scottish Assemblies
were held. A large vote for the Nationalists in both countries
prevented Labour from gaining a majority, and coalition Governments were formed.
5/5/1999, Wednesday
(+19,720) Microsoft
released Windows 98 Second edition.
3/5/1999, Monday (+19,718) A
tornado in Oklahoma City registered the fastest winds so far recorded on Earth,
at 318 mph.
1/5/1999, Saturday (+19,716) Oliver Reed, actor, died.
=====================================================================================
30/4/1999, Friday (+19,715) (1) Cambodia
joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), bringing the total
number of members to ten.
(2) Another nail bomb exploded, (see 17/4/1999), in the Admiral
Duncan pub in Old Compton Street, Soho, London.�
A pregnant woman and two friends were killed, and seventy injured.� This was part of a hate campaign against gays
and ethnic minorities by David Copeland.
28/4/1999, Wednesday (-19,713) Alf Ramsey, footballer,
died (born 22 January 1920).
26/4/1999, Monday (+19,711) BBC TV presenter Jill Dando
was shot dead on the doorstep of her Fulham house in London. Barry George, a
loner obsessed with guns and celebrities, was convicted of the murder in 2001.
20/4/1999, Tuesday (+19,705)
US teenagers Eric Harris
and Dylan Klebold took two submachine guns to Columbine High School, for an
attack planned for Hitler�s birthday. 15 children were killed or injured before
the two killed themselves.
19/4/1999,
Monday (+19,704)
The
German Parliament returned to the new Reichstag buildings in Berlin.
17/4/1999, Saturday (+19,702)
A nail bomb exploded in a busy market in Brixton, south London.� See 30/4/1999.
14/4/1999, Wednesday (+19,699) Following the Indian test,
Pakistan also carried out a successful test of its ballistic missile.
12/4/1999, Monday (+19,697) Chancellor Gerhardt Schroder
became leader of the German Social democratic Party ()SDP)
11/4/1999, Sunday (+19,696) India carried out a successful
test of a ballistic missile.
9/4/1999, Friday (+19,694) The President of Niger,
Ibrahim Bare Mainassara, was assassinated by his own guards. His Guard Commander, Major Douad Malam Wanke, took
power.
6/4/1999, Tuesday (+19,691) The
UK Government scrapped PEPs (Personal Equity Plans) in favour of ISAs
(Individual Savings Accounts).
5/4/1999, Monday (+19,690)
Two Libyans suspected of
the bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie in 1988 were handed over to the
Scottish authorities for eventual trial in The Netherlands.� The UN suspended sanctions against Libya.
4/4/1999, Sunday
(+19,689) Easter Sunday.
1/4/1999, Thursday (+19,686)
(1) The UK introduced a National Minimum wage, of �3.60 an hour, or �3,00
for those aged 18-21.
(2) Nunavut, an Inuit homeland, part of the Northwest Territories, was
formed.
====================================================================================
26/3/1999, Friday (+19,680) The Melissa worm attacked the
Internet.
25/3/1999, Thursday (+19,679) (1) The European Union adopted the Common Agricultural Policy, at
a meeting in Berlin.
(2) A fire in the Mont Blanc road tunnel killed 39 people.� The tunnel was closed for nearly three years.
24/3/1999, Wednesday (+19,678) (1) NATO launched air strikes
against Yugoslavia.� This was the first attack by NATO on a
sovereign country. In Kosovo, there was escalating violence between
Serbs and ethnic Albanians, and President Slobodan Milosevic was accused of
ethnic cleansing, driving thousands of Albanians from their homes. NATO�s
Operation Allied Force was to curb Serbian military activities.
(2) Britain�s trade deficit was at an all-time high of �2.8
billion.
23/3/1999, Tuesday (+19,677)
22/3/1999, Monday (+19,676) Jack Kevorkian, pro-euthanasia
doctor, went on trial for murder in Pontiac, Michigan.� He was later convicted of second-degree
murder.
21/3/1999, Sunday (+19,675) Ernie |Wise, comedian, died.
20/3/1999, Saturday (+19,674) Serbs launched an offensive in Kosovo.
16/3/1999, Tuesday (+19,670) The 240-acre Bluewater Shopping
centre opened near Dartford, Kent; it was then Europe�s largest retail and
leisure centre. It stood on the site of the former Blue Circle chalk
quarry.
12/3/1999, Friday (+19,666)
Hungary, Poland, and the
Czech Republic joined NATO.
8/3/1999, Monday (+19,662) Monica
Lewisnky arrived in Britain for a book-signing tour, beginning at Harrods.
7/3/1999, Sunday (+19,661) Stanley Kubrick, film director,
died.
2/3/1999, Tuesday (+19,656) Dusty Springfield, singer,
died.
===================================================================================
24
February 1999, Wednesday
(+19,650) 38 died when two
avalanches hit the Alpine town of Galtuer in Western Austria.
18 February 1999,
Thursday (+19,644)
The UK
Government decided GM crops would not be grown commercially until field trials
proved they were harmless.
15 February 1999, Monday (+19,641) Turkish agents in Kenya
captured Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan and took him to Turkey to
stand trial. His supporters then planted bombs in Turkey, in 3/1999.
12
February 1999, Friday (+19,638)
(USA) President Clinton was acquitted at his impeachment trial.
10 February 1999, Wednesday (+19,637) Avalanches in the French
Alps killed 10 people.
9 February 1999, Tuesday (+19,635) The last Khmer Rouge troops in Cambodia
surrendered to Government forces.
8 February 1999, Monday (+19,634) Iris Murdoch, author, died.
7 February 1999, Sunday (+19,633) King Hussein of Jordan (born 1935)
died of cancer.� His son became King
Adbullah II of Jordan.
5
February 1999, Friday (+19,631)
The Russian economist Wassily Leontief, Nobel Prize winner, born 1906, died.
====================================================================================
28 January 1999, Thursday (+19,623) The Ford car company
announced it was buying the Volvo car company for US$ 6.45 billion.
25
January 1999, Monday (+19,620)
A magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit western California, killing over 1,000 people.
23 January 1999, Saturday (+19,618) In India, radical Hindus
killed US Christian missionaries Graham Stewart Baines and his two sons. The
act was blamed on the militant group bajrang Dal, who opposed the conversion of
Hindus to Christianity or Islam.
20
January 1999, Wednesday
(+19,615) China announced restrictions on Internet use, aimed especially
at Internet cafes.
18 January 1999, Monday (+19,613) Canaan Banana, former
President of Zimbabwe, was convicted in
absentia of sodomy and sentenced to 10 years prison. However he had already
fled the country.
15
January 1999, Friday
(+19,610) (Yugoslavia) Massacre at Racak,
Kosovo, during the Yugoslav civil war.
10 January 1999, Sunday (+19,605) Robert Mugabe arrested 32 soldiers
and accused them of plotting a coup, along with two journalists. There were
doubts over the validity of this legal process.
7 January 1999, Thursday (+19,602)
The impeachment trial of US President Bill Clinton began in Washington DC
6 January 1999, Wednesday (+19,601) Four days of border
fighting began between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
3
January 1999, Sunday
(+19,598) (Space exploration) The USA launched
the MPL probe, to investigate the surface of Mars.
1 January 1999, Friday (+19,596) The Euro currency was introduced. 11 countries adopted it.
====================================================================================
29 December 1998, Tuesday (+19,593) Khmer Rouge leaders
publically apologised for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians
during the 1970s.
18 December 1998, Friday (+19,582) In the US, the House of
Representatives voted to impeach President Clinton.
17 December 1998, Thursday (+19,581) General Motors completed a
new car factory in Shanghai, China.
16 December 1998, Wednesday (+19,580) Unscom withdrew weapons inspectors from Iraq after continued obstruction from
visiting various sites. Between 16 and 19 December, US and Britain bombed
Iraq� (Operation Desert Fox) to destroy
its nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programmes.
11
December 1998, Friday (+19,575) (Space exploration) The Mars Climate
Orbiter was launched from Cape Canaveral; the craft was later lost because one
team was using metric and another using imperial measurements.
====================================================================================
26
November 1998, Thursday
(+19,560) (1) Japan and China
signed a joint declaration of friendship and economic development.
(2) Tony Blair became the first UK Prime Minister to address the
Irish Parliament.
23
November 1998, Monday (+19,557) European Agriculture
Ministers met to lift the ban on UK beef exports that had followed the BSE
crisis.
20 November 1998, Friday (+19,554) (Space
exploration) The first launch of the components for the International
Space Station.
19 November 1998, Thursday (+19,553)
The US Senate began impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton over
the Monica Lewinsky affair.� President
Clinton was impeached on 19 December 1998.
3 November 1998, Tuesday (+19,537) Bob Kane, cartoonist,
creator of Batman, died.
1 November 1998, Sunday (+19,535) The
European Court of Human Rights was instituted.
====================================================================================
31 October 1998,
Saturday (+19,534)
Iraq ceased all co-operation with the UN Special Commission which was
set up to oversee the destruction of Iraq�s Weapons of Mass Destruction (Unscom).
29 October 1998, Thursday (+19,532) (Space exploration) John Glenn, US
astronaut, returned to space.
28 October 1998, Wednesday (+19,531) Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate
since 1984, died.
26 October 1998, Monday (+19,529) Peru and Ecuador signed a
treaty demarcating the ;last 48 miles of common border.
24 October 1998, Saturday (+19,527) (Space
exploration) The USA launched the Deep Space ion propulsion space
probe.
23 October 1998, Friday (+19,526) Dr Barnett Slepian was shot
dead outside his home by anti-abortionist activist James Charles Kopp.
20 October 1998, Tuesday (+19,523)
18 October 1998, Sunday (+19,521)
700 people died in a fire in southern Nigeria as they scavenged oil leaking
from a pipeline.
17 October 1998, Saturday (+19,520) US Airways placed a record-sized order for
276 Airbus A319s.
16 October 1998, Friday (+19,519) British police placed Augusto
Pinochet under house arrest during his medical treatment in Britain. Spain
wanted to charge him with crimes of murder and torture.
15 October 1998, Thursday (+19,518)
14 October 1998, Wednesday (+19,517)
Labour announced its intention to remove the 700 year old voting rights of the
hereditary peers in the House of Lords. Of the 1,165 members of the House of
Lords, 476 were committed Tories against 175 for Labour, Amongst the hereditary
peers, there were 304 for the Tories against 18 regular Labour supporters. In
1999 Labour announced a compromise whereby 91 hereditary peers could remain in
a �transition� House of Lords, whilst a Royal Commission decided its eventual
form.
13 October 1998, Tuesday (+19,516) Gunpei Yoko,� creator of Gameboy, died.
8 October 1998, Thursday (+19,511) Oslo�s new Gardermoen
Airport opened, replacing the smaller Fornebu Airport.
5
October 1998, Monday (+19,508) The US Congressional
Committee debated whether to impeach president Clinton overt the Monica
Lewinsky affair, over allegations he had abused power and tampered with
witnesses.
3 October 1998, Saturday (+19,506)Al Qaeda joined with local Somali
tribesmen in battle with US forces, and shot down two US helicopters, an
incident known as �Black Hawk Down�.
2 October 1998, Friday (+19,505) Gene Autry, singer, died.
=====================================================================================
29/9/1998, Tuesday (+19,502) (1) New Zealand scientists announced that the
Ozone Hole had grown to 28 million square km.
(2) The US
passed the Iraq Liberation Act, stating the US intention to remove Saddam Hussein
from power and replace his regime with a democratic government.
27/9/1998, Sunday (+19,500) In German Parliamentary
elections, the governing Centre-Right CDU/CSU-FDP coalition lost its overall
majority. Gerhardt Schroder became Chancellor at the head of a �red-green�
coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens.
26/9/1998, Saturday (+19,499) Betty Carter, singer, died.
24/9/1998, Thursday (+19,497) Tehran lifted the fatwa imposed on author Salman Rushdie
for his book The Satanic Verses.
21/9/1998, Monday (+19.494) President Clinton admitted on
TV that he had had sex with Monica Lewinsky. He had denied this in January
1998.
18/9/1998, Friday (+19.491) ICANN, the Internet naming company, was formed.
16/9/1998, Wednesday (+19,489) The Basque guerrilla group ETA announced a �total and indefinite
ceasefire� to take effect from 18/9/1998
11/9/1998, Friday (+19,484) In the US, the Starr Report
into the Monica Lewinsky affair concluded that President Clinton had committed
11 impeachable offences.
8/9/1998, Tuesday (+19,481) The splinter group Real IRA
announced a ceasefire, declaring a halt to its violence. However they continued
to meet and train.
7/9/1998, Monday (+19,480)
Google was founded.
6/9/1998, Sunday (+19,479) Akira Kurosawa, film director,
died.
2/9/1998, Wednesday (+19,475) Swissair flight 111, flying
from New York to Geneva, crashed into the Atlantic, killing all 229 on board.
=====================================================================================
31/8/1998, Monday (+10,473) (1) North Korea
test-fired a ballistic weapon over Japan as a show of strength. There were
fears that North Korea was covertly building nuclear weapons.
(2) As the Russian Rouble collapsed in value, Boris Yeltsin tried to
reinstate Viktor Chernomyrdin as Prime Minister. However the Russian Duma
(Parliament) blocked this.� Eventually
Yevgeny Primakov became Prime Minister.
22/8/1998, Saturday (+19,464) (Football)
Madjeski Stadium, home of Reading Football Club, opened. It was named after the
Club�s Chairman, John Madjeski.
21/8/1998, Friday (+19,463) In
South Africa, former President PW Botha was fined and given a suspended prison
sentence for contempt of court. He had refused to testify before the
Government�s truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was examining misdeeds
committed during the Apartheid era.
20/8/1998, Thursday (+19,462) The USA launched attacks against the Al Shifa
pharmaceuticals and chemical plant� in
Sudan and cruise missile attacks against Al Quaeda bases in Afghanistan in
retaliation for the 7/8/1998 embassy bombs.
17/8/1998,
Monday (+19,459)
President Bill Clinton gave evidence to a Grand
Jury about his affair with Monica Lewinsky. He admitted to �inappropriate physical contact�
with Monica Lewinsky and apologised for misleading people, including his wife.
15/8/1998, Saturday (+19,457)
The Real IRA detonated a
car bomb in Omagh, County Tyrone, killing 29 and injuring over 200.
13/8/1998, Thursday (+19,455)
UK authorities warned of a rat invasion, saying there were 750,000 rat-infested
homes in Britain.
7/8/1998. Friday (+19,449) (1) Osama Bin Laden�s Al-Qaeda
terrorists bombed the USA embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people,
and wounding over 4,000.
(2) The Yangtse River in China flooded, killing 12,000 people.
5/8/1998, Wednesday (+19,447)
Iraq suspended all
co-operation with UNSCOM officials.
3/8/1998, Monday (+19,445) The Taleban took Mazar-e-Sharif,
the last city outside their control.
===================================================================================
31/7/1998, Friday (+19,442) Serbian forces now occupied the whole of Kosovo,
displacing some 100,000 ethnic Albanians.
30/7/1998, Thursday (+19,441)
The conviction of Derek Bentley fir the murder of a policeman in 1952 was
posthumously rescinded; Bentley was hanged in 1953.
23/7/1998, Thursday (+19,434) A team of scientists at the University of Hawaii, led by
Ryuzo Yanagimachi, announced they had produced three generations of cloned mice.
15/7/1998, Wednesday (+19,426) Orangemen were forcibly
removed from their positions in Northern Ireland, following a week long
standoff which ensued when they had tried to march down the predominantly
Catholic Garvahy Road, Portadown, on the Orange day Parades of 6/7/1998, This
event had triggered a week of violence across Northern Ireland.
7/7/1998, Tuesday (+19,418) German car manufacturer
Volkswagen AG agreed to pay compensation to those who were used as slave labour
during World War Two.
6/7/1998, Monday (+19,417)
The new airport at Chek Lai Kok, Hong Kong, opened.
1/7/1998, Wednesday (+19,412)
500g of streaky bacon cost �2.10� 500g of
beef cost �1.99.� 250g of cheddar cheese
cost �1.25.� 250g of butter cost
85p.� 500g of margarine cost 83p.� 1 kg old potatoes cost 77p.� 125g of loose tea cost 76p.�� 6 eggs cost 76p.� 1 kg granulated sugar cost 67p.� 800g sliced white bread cost 52p. The average UK house price was
�65,201.
==================================================================================
25/6/1998, Thursday (+19,406)
Microsoft released Windows
98 (first edition).
23/6/1998, Tuesday (+19,404) (Education,
Schools) In Britain, Labour Education and Employment Secretary David
Blunkett announced plans for a �75 million joint business and Government
initiative for 25 �education action zones�. Schools, in these zones of poor
educational performance, would experiment with longer teaching hours and more
use of IT.
22/6/1998, Monday (+19,403) Tony Blair praised the �758
million London Millennium Dome, erected on a former gasworks site, as a �symbol
of Britain�s creativity.
16/6/1998, Tuesday (+19,397) The Taleban closed down the last girl�s school
in the territory they controlled. This territory expanded in the next 2 months.
12/6/1998, Friday (+19,393) (Brazil) Transpetro, the largest oil and gas
pipeline transportation company in Brazil, was established.
11/6/1998, Thursday (+19,392)
The UN officially declared a famine in Ethiopia, as one million faced
starvation.
10/6/1998, Wednesday (+19,391) (Education, Schools) In Britain, the
Government started a programme to promote laptop use by schoolchildren, called
Anytime Anywhere Learning.
8/6/1998, Monday (+19,389) (1) Nigerian dictator General Abacha died suddenly.
(2) (Aviation) British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott announced plans
for the privatisation of Britain�s Air Traffic Control.
====================================================================================
30/5/1998, Saturday (+19,380)
(1) Pakistan conducted further nuclear tests.
(2) A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hit northern Afghanistan, killing
5,000 people.
28/5/1998,
Thursday (+19,378) Pakistan
test-exploded five nuclear devices in retaliation for India�s nuclear tests
earlier in the month.� The US, Japan, and
other nations imposed sanctions on Pakistan.
25/5/1998, Monday (+19,375)
Serbia launched a major offensive against the secessionist Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA), which then held some 40% of Kosovo.
24/5/1998, Sunday (+19,374) In the
first legislative elections in Hong Kong since China took control,
pro-democracy Parties took 60% of the vote.
23/5/1998, Saturday (+19,373)
Andreas Liebenberg, South African
military commander, died aged 60.
22/5/1998, Friday (+19,372) Voters approved the Good
Friday Agreement of 10/4/1998 by a majority of 71.12%, in Northern Ireland and
by 94.39% in the Republic of Ireland.
21/5/1998, Thursday (+19,371) President Suharto of
Indonesia resigned as the country�s economy worsened. He had ruled since 1967/ he was replaced by
Bacharuddin Habibie.
20/5/1998, Wednesday (+19,370) Jamie
Chadwick, English racing car driver, was born.
19/5/1998, Tuesday (+19,369) Uno
Sosuke, Japanese Prime Minister, died.
18/5/1998, Monday (+19,368) In
Britain, the New Labour Government announced that the new Minimum Wage would be
�3.60 per hour, coming into force in April 1999.
17/5/1998, Sunday (+19,367) In Israel, Binyamin Netanyahu lost Prime
Ministerial elections to the Labour Party under Ehud Barak.
16/5/1998, Saturday (+19,366)
Ariel Waller, Canadian child actress,
was born.
15/5/1998, Friday (+19,365) Frank Sinatra died.
14/5/1998, Thursday (+19,364)
The US sitcom Seinfeld was first broadcast.
13/5/1998, Wednesday (+19,363)
The US and Japan imposed economic sanctions on India because of its nuclear
test.
12/5/1998, Tuesday (+19,362) Hermann Lenz, German writer, died aged 75.
11/5/1998, Monday (+19,361)
India conducted a nuclear
test in the Rajasthan Desert, its first such test since 1974.� Pakistan, which already had nuclear weapons,
was angered.
10/5/1998, Sunday (+19,360) Members of Sinn Fein, political
wing of the IRA, voted to accept the Good
Friday peace agreement.
9/5/1998, Saturday (+19,359) Alice
Faye (Leppert), US actress died aged 83.
8/5/1998, Friday (+19,358) The US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the
Microsoft Corporation, claiming it had abused its monopoly power by tying its
Web browser, Internet Explorer, to its operating system, Windows.
7/5/1998, Thursday (+19,357)
Daimler-Benz and Chrysler merged.
6/5/1998, Wednesday (+19,356) Tensions
between Eritrea and Ethiopia escalated into a border war. The issue was
sovereignty over a small area around the border towns of Badame and Sheraro;
70,000 died in the conflict across both sides.
5/5/1998, Tuesday (+19,355) Syd
Lawrence, British bandleader (Syd Lawrence Orchestra), died aged 74.
4/5/1998, Monday (+19,354)
Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, received 4 life sentences.
3/5/1998, Sunday (+19,353) The EU confirmed that the new
Eurozone, or European Monetary Union, would start from 1 January 1999. 11
countries, all the EU members except Britain, Denmark, Sweden and Greece, would
be part of it.
2/5/1998, Saturday (+19,352)
Cambodian refugees entered Thailand as Government forces claimed to have almost
destroyed the Khmer Rouge.
1/5/1998, Friday (+19,351) The
former Rwandan Prime Minister, Jean Kambanda, pleaded guilty at The Hague to
six counts of genocide, at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
====================================================================================
30/4/1998, Thursday (+19,350) The US Senate voted to admit Hungary,
Poland and the Czech republic to NATO.
29/4/1998, Wednesday (+19,349)
Yugoslav Government foreign assets were frozen by the West.
27/4/1998, Monday (+19,347) Carlos Castaneda, writer,
died.
23/4/1998, Thursday (+19,343) James Earl Ray, assassin of
Martin Luther King, died.
20/4/1998, Monday (+19,340) In Germany, the Red Army Faction announced
that it was ceasing operations and winding up, as it no longer had a political
reason to exist.
19/4/1998, Sunday (+19,339) Octavio Paz, writer, died.
17/4/1998, Friday (+19,337) A satellite detected that a 200 square km piece of the
Larsen B ice shelf had broken off. Global Warming was blamed.
15/4/1998, Wednesday (+19,335) Pol Pot died, aged 70. He had
been dictator of Kampuchea (Cambodia), and murdered thousands of people.
12/4/1998, Sunday (+19,332) Easter Sunday.
11/4/1998, Saturday (+19,331) The worst floods for 50 years hit central
and southern England, killing 5 people and causing �500 million damage.
10/4/1998, Friday (+19,330)
The Good Friday
agreement was signed. Two years of negotiation produced an agreement on plans for a
Northern Ireland Assembly and cross-border co-operation with the Irish
Republic. A referendum for the proposals was scheduled for May 1998.
8/4/1998, Wednesday (+19,328)
6/4/1998, Monday (+19,326) Wendy O Williams, singer,
died.
5/4/1998, Sunday (+19,325) The longest suspension bridge
in the world to date opened in Japan, linking Honshu to Shikoku. The main span
was 1.25 miles 92.2 km) long. Construction cost US$ 3.6 billion and took ten
years.
2/4/1998, Thursday (+19,322) In Bordeaux, France,
Maurice Papon was convicted of complicity in Nazi crimes against humanity
committed under the Vichy regime., He was sentenced to 10 years prison.
===================================================================================
31/3/1998, Tuesday (+19,320) (1) The New Zealand Government introduced a Bill to
compensate the Maori Ngai Tahu people for land stolen from them in the 1800s.
(2) The RAF withdrew its nuclear bombs from service, leaving submarine-based
Trident missiles as the UK�s only nuclear deterrent.
(3) The UN Security
Council imposed an arms embargo on Yugoslavia to force President Milosevic to
negotiate a a peaceful settlement with the Kosovan Albanians.
27/3/1998, Friday (+19,316) Ferry Porsche, car
manufacturer, died.
25/3/1998, Wednesday (+19,314) (Earthquake) A magnitude 8.1 earthquake was
recorded in Antarctica, near Balleny Island. This was not attributable to fault
activity and may have been caused by glacial rebound.
23/3/1998, Monday (+19,312) (1) Russian President Boris Yeltsin dismissed his entire Cabinet. Prime
Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin was replaced by 35-year-old Sergei Kiriyenko.
(2) Sinn Fein was readmitted to Northern Ireland peace talks.
15/3/1998, Sunday (+19,304) Benjamin Spock, author and
paediatrician, died.
14/3/1998,
Saturday (+19,303) A
magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit south eastern Iran.
10/3/1998, Tuesday (+19,299) Former dictator of Chile, Augusto Pinochet,
stepped down as Chief of the Armed Forces and became Senator for life. On 16
October 1998, on a visit to London he was arrested when Spain wanted to charge
him, but he was released on grounds of ill-health on 18 February 2000.
6/3/1998, Friday (+19,295)
The South Crofty tin mine
closed, the last tin mine in Cornwall. The 800 metre deep mine had bee
operating since the 16th century and tin had been mined on Cornwall
for 3,000 years. In 1983 the tin industry in Cornwall had employed 20,000, but
the collapse in world tin prices had ruined the industry.
5/3/1998, Thursday (+19,294) The NASA Satellite Lunar
Prospector discovered ice beneath the lunar surface at the South Pole.
4/3/1998, Wednesday
(+19,293) (Britain) The Countryside March was held, as 250,000 people
marched through central London to protest at issues facing the UK countryside.
Points of protest included the ban on hunting with dogs and Government policies
on farming.
3/3/1998, Tuesday
(+19,292) Panggih Prio Sembodho, Indonesian footballer, was born.
2/3/1998, Monday (+19,291)
Data sent from the Galileo probe indicated that Jupiter�s Moon Europa
had an ocean of liquid water beneath a frozen crust of ice.
1/3/1998, Sunday (+19,290) (1) Serbia sent paramilitary forces into its southern province of Kosovo to
seek out ethnic Albanian guerrillas. Serb forces attacked Albanian villages,
killing men, women and children. On 2/3/1998 there was a 50,000-strong
anti-Serb demonstration in the Kosovan capital, Pristina.
(2) 250,000 pro-foxhunting demonstrators marched through the
centre of London.
====================================================================================
28 February 1998, Saturday (+19,289) Dermot Morgan, actor and
comedian, died.
26 February 1998, Thursday (+19,287) A jury rejected a lawsuit
by Texas cattle farmers that remarks on TV by Oprah Winfrey about Mad Cow
Disease had caused beef prices to plummet., costing them millions of Dollars.
24 February 1998, Tuesday (+19,285) Elton John, pop star, was
knighted.
23 February 1998, Monday (+19,284) Osama bin Laden issued a fatwa from Afghanistan calling
for Muslims to kill Americans anywhere, and to liberate Jerusalem from
Westerners.
17 February 1998, Tuesday (+19,278)
16 February 1998, Monday (+19,277) A China Airlines plane
crashed into a residential area near Chiang Kai Shek Airport, killing all 196
on board and 6 on the ground.
14 February 1998, Saturday (+19,275) In Northern Ireland, police
accused the IRA of two murders. The IRA�s political wing, Sinn Fein, was
suspended from peace talks.
13 February 1998, Friday (+19,274) (1) In Sierra Leone a Nigerian-led force of West African peacekeepers
overthrew the military government of Major Johnny Paul Koroma and reinstated
President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.
(2) In Australia, delegates at a Constitutional Convention in Canberra
voted 89 to 52 to replace The Queen as Head of State by a President chosen by a
bipartisan Parliamentary majority. They decided to have a Referendum in 1999 on
this change.
10
February 1998, Tuesday
(+19,271) Voters in
Maine repealed a gay rights law made in 1997, becoming the first US State to
abandon such a law.
8 February 1998, Sunday (+19,269) Women�s ice hockey was first
played at the Winter Olympics.
6 February 1998, Friday (+19,267) Carl Wilson, musician (The
Beach Boys), died.
4 February 1998, Wednesday (+19,265) A 6.1 magnitude earthquake hit north-east
Afghanistan, killing over 5,000 people.
3 February 1998, Tuesday (+19,264)
The FTSE 100 closed at a record high of 5612.8; the companies on the index were
valued at over UK� 1,000 billion for the first time ever.
=====================================================================================
29
January 1998, Thursday
(+19,259) (1) Tony Blair announced an inquiry into the �Bloody Sunday�
events in Londonderry on 30 January 1972.
(2) Shell announced that Brent Spar would be disposed of on
shore, and used as the foundations for a new ferry terminal.
27 January 1998, Tuesday (+19,257) (Military)
In response to w worldwide movement against landmines, the UK Government said
it would destroy its stocks of these weapons.
26 January 1998, Monday (+19,256) Shinichi Suzuki, Japanese
music teacher, died.
24 January 1998, Saturday (+19,254)
22 January 1998, Thursday (+19,252) Theodore Kaczynski,
Unabomber, pleaded guilty and was told he would serve life with no parole.
21 January 1998, Wednesday (+19,251)
US President Clinton
denied he had any sexual relationship with 24-year-old White House intern,
Monica Lewinsky. Rumours had circulated in the Press of an 18-month affair in
1995. There were allegations that Clinton had asked
Lewinsky to lie under oath and deny any affair with him.
19 January 1998, Monday (+19,249) Food riots broke out in Zimbabwe as the price of maize
meal rose by over 20%. Land confiscations and general mismanagement by Mugabe
had crippled the economy. Despite government repression, there was a General
Strike 3-4March 1998.
16 January 1998, Friday (+19,246) For safety reasons, Russia closed own over
200 small airlines that had started up since 1992. 315 airlines were pared down
to just 53.
15 January 1998, Thursday (+19,245) (Smoking, USA) Five
cigarette manufacturers agreed a settlement with the State of Texas for US$
7.25 billion in compensation for the treatment costs of tobacco-related
diseases. This was the largest payment in history. However this settlement was
dwarfed on 20 November 1998 by a settlement of US$206 billion by the 4 largest
US tobacco firms to agree claims by all US States.
12 January 1998, Monday (+19,242) 19 European nations agreed to
forbid human cloning after an announcement by Richard Seed that he would use
techniques from Dolly the Sheep to clone humans.
10
January 1998, Saturday (+19,240)
An earthquake in China killed 50 and injured 10,000.
8 January 1998, Thursday (+19,238) Scientists announced that the
expansion rate of the universe was increasing.
7 January 1998, Wednesday (+19,237) In Canada, the Minister of
Indian Affairs, Jane Stewart, officially apologised to indigenous Americans and
Inuit people for centuries of mistreatment and injustice.
6 January 1998, Tuesday (+19,236) (Space
exploration) The USA launched the Lunar Prospector space probe, to map
the lunar surface.
5 January 1998, Monday (+10,235) Kenya�s President, Daniel
Arap Moi, who had ruled since 1978, was sworn in for a further 5-year term.
3 January 1998, Saturday (+19,233)
1 January 1998, Thursday (+19,231) California banned
smoking in all its bars and restaurants.
=====================================================================================
31 December 1997, Wednesday (+19,230) The US retail chain
Wal-Mart announced its intention to expand into Europe, by acquiring the German
retailer Werkauf with its 21 supermarkets.
29
December 1997, Monday (+19,228) (1) Violence marred
elections in Kenya. President Arap Moi won a further term, in elections widely seen as
flawed.
(2) The Hong Kong
Government ordered a mass slaughterof its entire chicken population, to prevent
the spread of avian flu to humans. The virus had already caused severe illness
in 18 people, of whom 6 had died. 1.2 milliomn chockens were killed, as well as
large numbers of ducks, geese, quail and other poultry. Farmers and vendors
were compensated.
24 December 1997, Wednesday (+19,223) A violent storm began in
Britain, with 80 mph winds in southern England, killing 13 people. The storm
ended on 26 December 1997, but another storm on 3-4 January 1998 hit the UK,
with winds up to 100 mph, killing 2 people.
23 December 1997, Tuesday (+19,222)
Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal was
sentenced to life imprisonment, after being arrested in Sudan.
22 November 1997, Monday (+19,221)
Michael Hutchence, singer (INXS), died.
20 December 1997, Saturday (+19,219)
18 December 1997, Thursday (+19,217) Donald
Dewar, Secretary of State for Scotland, unveiled a Bill to give Scotland its
own Parliament.
17 December 1997, Wednesday (+19,216) In South Africa, Thabo Mbeki
became President of the Africa National Congress (ANC), However Nelson Mandela
remained as the national President.
16 December 1997, Tuesday (+19,215) On
Japanese TV, 20 minutes into an episode of the popular children�s� programme Pok�mon,
the screen exploded with a rapid succession of red and blue light, causing
nausea, blurred vision, and in some cases even epileptic fits and loss of
consciousness, 685 children were seriously affected; most quickly recovered
although 150 were admitted into hospital. The episode, entitled �Electric Soldier Porygon;�, was never
broadcast again anywhere in the world.
11 December 1997, Thursday (+19,210) At the Kyoto Climate Conference,
delegates agreed to reduce CO2 emissions by 5.2% of 1990 levels by 2012.
7 December 1997, Sunday (+19,206) Billy
Bremner, footballer, died (born 9 December 1942).
3 December 1997, Wednesday (+19,202) (Food)
UK Agriculture Secretary Jack Cunningham announced a ban on sales of beef on
the bone as a measure against BSE causing CJD in humans,
1 December 1997, Monday (+19,200)
Stephane Grappelli, violinist, died.
====================================================================================
28 November 1997, Friday (+19,197) In
India the Congress Party withdrew from the coalition, which then collapsed.
17 November 1997, Monday (+19,186) The terrorist group Jamaat al
Islamiyah massacred 58 foreign tourists and 4 Egyptians at Luxor.
9 November 1997, Sunday (+19,178) (Broadcasting)
BBC1 began broadcasting 24
hours a day, seven days a week. Previously TV had closed down at night.
8 November 1997, Saturday (+19,177) The main channel of China�s Yangtze River was blocked as construction
work continued on the Three Gorges Dam.
=====================================================================================
31 October 1998, Friday (+19,169)
29 October 1997, Wednesday (+19,167) Iraq banned UN weapons inspectors from its
territory.
21 October 1997, Tuesday (+19,159) Elton John�s �Candle in the Wind�, a tribute to Diana
Princess of Wales, sold 31.8 million copies, the best seller ever.
15 October 1997, Wednesday (+19,153) (1) Andy Green drove the land vehicle,
Thrust SSC,� at faster than sound, in the
Nevada Desert. He achieved 763.035 mph, and produced a sonic boom.
(2) The Cassini space probe was launched towards Saturn. It plunged into the planet�s
atmosphere to destruction on 15/9/2017.
13 October 1997, Monday (+19,151) Tony Blair shook hands with
Gerry Adams at Stormont Castle, the first meeting between a British Prime
Minister and a Sinn� Fein leader since
the signing of the Anglo-Irish treaty in 1921.
12 October 1997, Sunday (+19,150) John
Denver, singer, died.
9
October 1997, Thursday
(+19,147) Hurricane Pauline hit Acapulco, Mexico, killing 250 people.
2 October 1997, Thursday (+19,140) (1) (European Union) The treaty of Amsterdam was signed, further integrating the
European Union.
(2) (Food) UK scientists
Moira Bruce and (independently) John Collinge proved that new-variant brain
disease CJD in humans was the same as BSE in cows.
1 October 1997, Wednesday (+19,139) Fiji was readmitted to the
Commonwealth. It had been expelled in 1987 because of discriminatory
legislation against Indians.
====================================================================================
29/9/1997, Monday (+19,137) Roy Lichtenstein, artist,
died.
27/9/1997, Saturday (+19,135) The Pathfinder probe on Mars
ceased functioning, after 2 months on the planet�s surface.
25/9/1997, Thursday (+19,133) The British Thrust supersonic
car set a new world land speed record of 714.1 mph in Nevada.
19/9/1997, Friday (+19,127) An inter-city express collided
with a freight train at Southall, west London, killing 7 people.
18/9/1997, Thursday (+19,126) Wales voted in favour of
devolution and a National Assembly. The �yes� vote was much narrower than in
Scotland, with a majority of just 6,721 votes in favour.
17/9/1997, Wednesday (+19,125) Red Skelton, comedian,
died.
15/9/1997, Monday (+19,123)
12/9/1997, Friday (+19,120) Jiang Zemin was confirmed as
Chinese Communist party general secretary by the Party�s 15th
Congress. The liberalising policies started by the late Deng Xiaoping were to
continue.
11/9/1997, Thursday (+19,119)
Scotland voted in favour
of a devolved Assembly. In Scotland, 73.4% of those voting favoured a National
Assembly, and 63.5% favoured the Assembly having tax-raising powers.
9/9/1997, Tuesday (+19,117)
8/9/1997, Monday (+19,116) The
Boeing 777-300 was unveiled. It was 77 metres long, the longest aircraft to
date.
6/9/1997,
Saturday (+19,114) Funeral of Diana Princess of Wales in
Westminster Abbey.� It was watched on
television worldwide by over one billion people.
5/9/1997, Friday (+19,113) Mother Teresa died in Kolkata
(Calcutta), India, aged 87.
3/9/1997, Wednesday (+19,111) 300 troops were dispatched
from Moroni, the Comoros capital on Grande Comore, to put down the secession
movement on Anjouan. Rebels, helped by foreign mercenaries, put up fierce
resistance and the Government troops withdrew. France declined to intervene.,
the OAU sponsored peace talks. Later in 1997 the Comoros President appointed an
Anjouan as his Prime Minister.
===================================================================================
31/8/1997, Sunday (+19,108) Death
of Diana, Princess of Wales, born 1961, along with Dodi Al Fayed, born 1955, in a car �accident�
in a road tunnel in Paris. See 28/8/1996.
29/8/1997, Friday (+19,106) In London, work began on the
Millennium Dome.
27/8/1997, Wednesday (+19,104) Norway and Sweden admitted
that, between 1934 and 1967, they sterilised thousands of people deemed
�substandard�, including the disabled.
20/8/1997, Wednesday (+19,097) Guerrillas massacred 60
and kidnapped 15 women in the town of Souhane, Algeria. This resulted in a mass
abandonment of the town, reducing its population from 4,000 to 103.
15/8/1997, Friday (+19,092) Oklahoma bomber Timothy
McVeigh was sentenced to die by lethal injection. He had killed 168 people.
11/8/1997, Monday (+19,088) The UN relief force had now
left Albania.
2/8/1997, Saturday (+19,079) US writer William Burroughs
died.
1/8/1997, Friday (+19,078) Sbviatoslav Richter, Russian
pianist, died.
===================================================================================
30/7/1997, Wednesday (+19,076) Hamas suicide bombers killed
13 in Jerusalem. Peace talks were jeopardised as Israel took retributive action
against the Palestinian economy.
25/7/1997, Friday (+19,071) Ben Hogan, golfer, died.
23/7/1997, Wednesday (+19,069) (1) Slobodan Milosevic became president of �Yugoslavia� (by then consisting
of just Serbia and Montenegro).
(2) (Education,
University) The UK Government announced plans to start charging
university students �1,000.
19/7/1997, Saturday (+19,065) (1) The IRA announced a new ceasefire, the second in three
years. It said this was the �unequivocal restoration of the August 1994
ceasefire�, broken in February 1996.
(2) Charles Taylor was elected President of Liberia. He was backed by
Libya.
17/7/1997, Thursday (+19,063) The global Internet system
crashed for the first time.
15/7/1997, Tuesday (+19,061) Gianni Versace, clothes designer, was shot dead at the
age of 50. The chief suspect was Andrew Cunanan, a gay serial killer;
the FBI believed Versace was shot in revenge for infecting other men with HIV.
Cunanan was found dead on a houseboat at Miami Beach, having committed suicide
when the police arrived. However there were rumours of a mafia money-laundering
connection, and that Cunanan had been killed to hide the true killer�s
identity.
14/7/1997, Monday (+19,060) (1) In India KR Narayanan
was elected President. He was the first President to come from the
�untouchable� caste.
(2) In California a Bill was signed
allowing women to breast feed in public.
8/7/1997, Tuesday (+19,054)
NATO invited the Czech
Republic, Hungary, and Poland to join the alliance.
6/7/1999, Sunday (+19,052) Joaquin Rodrigo, composer,
died.
5/7/1997, Saturday (+19,051) A truce mediated by Gabon
ended the worst of the fighting in Congo-Brazzaville but sporadic conflict
continued.
4/7/1997, Friday (+19,050)
NASA�s Pathfinder probe landed on the surface of Mars.
3/7/1997, Thursday
(+19,049) Sir Gordon Downey�s report
into the �cash for questions� scandal in the found that two former Conservative
ministers, Neil Hamilton and Tim Smith, received payment from Mohammed el Fayed
in return for asking questions in the House of Commons.
2/7/1997, Wednesday
(+19,048) �(1) The British Medical Association announced that drugs derived
from cannabis were to be made legally available for cancer patients and others
suffering from debilitating diseases.
(2) Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer, gave Labour�s
first Budget speech for 18 years.
(3) (SE Asia) The Thai Baht abruptly fell 25% overnight,
as the East Asian Crisis got underway.
1/7/1997, Tuesday
(+19,047) (1) Hong Kong was handed back
to China.�
(2)
A pint of milk cost 35p.� A dozen large eggs cost �1.59.� A loaf of white sliced bread cost 52p.� A kg of minced beef cost �3.72.� A kg of potatoes cost 20p.� A kg of apples cost 51p.� A pint of beer cost �1.63.� 20 cigarettes cost �2.94. Road tax for a car
cost �145. The average UK house price was �58,403. A 6-bed house in Wimbledon
cost �775,000 (13.27 x average). 2 weeks in Lucerne cost �815. A ,man�s watch
cost �29.50. The Observer newspaper cost �1.00.
======================================================================================
28/6/1997, Saturday (+19,044)
26/6/1997, Thursday (+19,042) (1) In Ireland (see 6/6/1997), Bertie Ahern of
Fianna Fail formed a coalition with the Progressive Democrats, replacing John
Bruton as Taoiseach (Prime Minister).
(2) Harry Potter and the
Philosopher�s Stone was published. It rapidly gained popularity through
word of mouth, and enabled JK Rowling to break publishing records.
25/6/1997, Wednesday (+19,041)
Jacques Cousteau, French underwater explorer, died.
22/6/1997, Sunday (+19,038) Gerard Pelletier, Canadian
politician, died.
19/6/1997, Thursday (+19,035)
(1) Following the resignation of John Major as
Conservative leader, William Hague, 36, became its youngest leader since 1783.
(2) The fast food chain McDonalds won a partial victory in its McLibel case
against two environmental campaigners.�
The judge decided it was true that McDonalds targeted its advertising at
children, who then pestered their parents to visit McDonalds.
12/6/1997, Thursday (+19,028)
The new Globe Theatre, London, opened.
11/6/1997, Wednesday (+19,027) The UK Parliament voted for a
total ban on handguns.
6/6/1997, Friday (+19,022) In general elections in the
Republic of Ireland, no Party won a majority, see 26/6/1997. 2/6/1997, Monday (+19,018) (1) Alban Maginness of the SDLP became the first Catholic to be elected
Mayor of Belfast.
(2) Timothy McVeigh was convicted on 15 charges of murder and conspiracy
for his role in the 1995 terrorist bombing of the Alfred P Murragh building in
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.� On 13/6/1997 he
was sentenced to death.
(3) In Canada the governing Liberal Party of Prime Minister Jean Chretien
narrowly won general elections.
1/6/1997, Sunday (+19,017) The Socialist Party won French
elections starting a period of �cohabitation� (cooperation) between a Left-wing
Parliament and a Right-wing President. Socialist leader Lionel Jospin became
Prime Minister.
======================================================================================
29/5/1997, Thursday (+19,014) NATO and Ukraine signed an
agreement on mutual co-operation and security, similar to the one signed with
Russia on 27/5/1997.
27/5/1997, Tuesday (+19,012) NATO and Russia signed the
Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security.
25/5/1997, Sunday (+19,010) In Sierra Leone, the civilian
Government of Ahmed Kebbah was ousted in a coup. Major Johnny Paul Koroma
replaced him. Other African States warned they may use force to reinstate
civilian rule.
24/5/1997, Saturday (+19,009) McDonalds opened its forst
branch in Kiev, Ukraine.
23/5/1997, Friday (+19,008) (1) Russia and Belarus agreed a Union Charter, aimed at eventual union between
the two countries.
(2) In Iran, Hojjat al-Islam Seyyed Khatami was elected President. He
won a landslide victory gaining 22 million out of 30 million votes.
20/5/1997, Tuesday (+19,005) The British intelligence
agency MI5 first advertised to recruit trainee spies, in The Times and The Guardian.
16/5/1997, Friday (+19,001) In Zaire, the Mobutu regime collapsed. Rebel forces under Laurent Kabila had captured the
capital, Kinshasa. Mobutu fled the country, which was renamed as the Democratic
Republic of Congo.
12/5/1997, Monday (+18,997)
Russian President Boris Yeltsin
signed a peace treaty with President Aslan Maskhadov of Chechnya. Both sides
agreed to renounce the use of force, but Chechnya�s eventual status remained
unresolved.
10/5/1997, Saturday (+18,995) An earthquake near Ardekul, north
east Iran, killed over 2,400 people.
9/5/1997, Friday (+18,994) An Australian study suggested
that some mice, after prolonged exposure to cell phone radiation, showed an
increase in lymphoma cancer.
8/5/1997, Thursday (+18,993) Moldova signed a Peace
Memorandum with the breakaway Dneister Republic.
7/5/1997, Wednesday (+18,992) The International war
Crimes Tribunal in The Hague� convicted
Dusan Tadic, a Bosnian Serb reserve policeman, of war crimes committed during
the Bosnian War. This was the first such conviction since World War Two.
6/5/1997,
Tuesday (+18,991) Labour Chancellor Gordon Brown granted the Bank of England independence
in setting interest rates.
5/5/1997, Monday
(+18,990) (Space exploration) The
USA launched the Iridium satellites, for global communications.
4/5/1997, Sunday (+18,989) Having lost to world chess
champion Gary Kasparov in 1996, the computer Deep Blue was upgraded and this
day beat Kasparov.
3/5/1997, Saturday (+18,988)
(1) Tony Blair was
officially sworn in as Prime Minister. Tony�s father was the son of
music hall artists Charles Parsons and Gussie Bridson. He was illegitimate
however, so was adopted by a Glasgow shipyard worker, James Blair.
(2) The former Deputy Prime Minister, Michael Heseltine, was
admitted to hospital with chest pains days after the General Election. It was
announced that he would not be contesting the Conservative leadership.
1/5/1997, Thursday (+18,986) (1) New Labour
won the UK general election, defeating John Major�s Conservative Party.
Tony Blair, 43, became the youngest Prime Minister since 1812, with a majority
of 179. Labour won 410 seats against the Conservative�s 169. Labour won 44.4%
of the vote; the Conservatives got 31.4%. The Conservative administration had,
at 18 years, been the longest serving government of the 20th century.
(2) Tasmania became the last Australian State to decriminalise
homosexuality.
==========================================================================
25/4/1997, Friday (+18,980) The UN Security Council voted
4-1 against the new Israeli building in east Jerusalem (see 18/3/1997), but the
US vetoed the Resolution.
23/4/1997, Wednesday (+18,978) (Russia)
In Moscow, Chinese President Jiang Zemin met Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
They called for a pluralistic world order where no one nation was dominant.
22/4/1997, Tuesday (+18.977)
The siege of the Japanese Embassy in Peru by Tupac Amaru guerrillas was ended
violently by government troops. 14 guerrillas and one Japanese citizen were
killed; the remaining 71 hostages were rescued. The guerrillas wanted the
release of 440 of their comrades.
21/4/1997, Monday (+18,976) In Algeria, Islamists
massacred 93 at a farming community at Baouch Bouchelef-Khemisti.
20/4/1997, Sunday (+18,975) In India the minority 13-Party
United Front Government led by HD Deve Gowda fell when the Congress party
withdrew support. A new United Front government was formed with Congress party
backing under former Foreign Minister Kumar Gujral.
18/4/1997, Friday (+18,973)
15/4/1997, Tuesday (+18,970) A fire in a tent camp at the Haj in Mecca
killed 340 and injured over 1,500.
14/4/1997, Monday (+18,969) Former Nazi SS Captain Eric Priebke
was retried; on 22/7/1997 he was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
13/4/1997, Sunday (+18,968) (1) An Italian-led UN public order force arrived in Albania. It was to lay
the ground for elections in 6/1997.
(2) 21 year old Tiger Woods became the youngest ever winner of the US
Masters.
9/4/1997, Wednesday (+18,964) In Zaire, Tutsi rebel
forces under Laurent Kabila captiured the key town of Lubumbashi.
6/4/1997, Sunday (+18,961) In Algeria, Islamists massacred
52 people in the village of Thalit, near Algiers.
5/4/1997, Saturday (+18,960) Allen Ginsberg, poet, died.
1/4/1997, Tuesday (+18,956)
====================================================================================
31/3/1997, Monday (+18,955) The Pioneer space probe ended its
useful life 6 billion miles from Earth.
30/3/1997, Sunday (+18,954) Easter Sunday. In Britain, Channel Five was
launched.
28/3/1997, Friday (+18,952) Alarmed by a� flood of refugees out of Albania, the United
Nations authorised a 7,000 strong relief force to restore order in the country.
26/3/1997, Wednesday (+18,950)
Two IRA bombs exploded
near Wilmslow railway station, injuring no-one.
24/3/1997, Monday (+19,048) The Australian Federal
Government overturned the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act, allowing voluntary
euthanasia, which had been passed by the Northern Territory in 1996.
23/3/1997, Sunday (+19,047) Comet Hale-Bopp made its
closest approach to Earth, 196 million km away.
22/3/1997, Saturday (+18,946) Tara Lipinski, aged 14, became the youngest
ever world women�s figure skating champion.
18/3/1997, Tuesday (+18,942) Palestinians, already angry
at the slow pace of Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, were further enraged
when a new Jewish building project began in Arab east Jerusalem. See 25/4/1997.
11/3/1997, Tuesday (+18,935) Sir Paul McCartney,
musician, was knighted.
7/3/1997, Friday (+18,931) Albania
dissolved into chaos,
and military firearms depots were looted.
3/3/1997, Monday (+18,927) Camila Cabello, singer, was
born
====================================================================================
28 February 1997, Friday (+18,924) Major earthquake in NW Iran,
close to the Azerbaijan border.
27 February 1997, Thursday (+18,923) (1) In Britain a discredited and divided Tory party
lost its Parliamentary majority with a by-election defeat in Wirral. This was a
prelude to their defeat by New Labour in general elections on 1/5/1997.
(2) (Ireland, Women�s Rights) Divorce became legal in Ireland.
26 February 1997, Wednesday (+18,922)
25 February 1997, Tuesday (+18,921) Tiit Vahi, Prime Ministe4r
of Estonia, resigned following a corruption scandal, he was replaced by Mart
Siiman.
24 February 1997, Monday (+18,920)
The cloned sheep, Dolly, was presented to
the public. She had been cloned from
a single cell of her mother at the Royal Institute in Edinburgh. There was
moral panic about the possibility of cloning humans, but some saw it as a
useful way to create organs for transplant.
19
February 1997, Wednesday
(+18,915) The last of the Chinese revolutionaries, Deng Xiaoping, died
aged 92 (born 1904); weeks of mourning followed.
17 February 1997, Monday (+18,913) The Pakistan Muslim league
won general elections. Nawaz Sharif became prime Minister.
12 February 1997, Wednesday (+18,908) (Space
exploration) Japan launched the Haruka satellite, for radio astronomy
observations.
11 February 1997, Tuesday (+18,907) A week of rioting in the
southern Albanian towns of Fier and Vlore had ensued, following the collapse of
high-risk pyramid schemes into which many Albanians had invested. The
protestors believed that the Government of Sali Berisha was to blame for the
collapse.
10 February 1997, Monday (+18,906) State of Emergency was
declared in Albania as mass rioting broke out when a pyramid savings scheme
collapsed.
4 February 1997, Tuesday (+18,900) President Milosevic of
Serbia ordered his Government to recognise Opposition gains in the local
elections held 11/1996.
======================================================================================
30
January 1997, Thursday
(+18,895) An underground protest came to an end as the last protestor,
known as Swampy, emerged from a tunnel under the proposed A.30.
27 January 1997, Monday (+18,892) It was revealed that French
museums contained nearly 2,000 pieces of artwork looted by Nazis.
24 January 1997, Friday (+18,889) The Archers
celebrated its 12,000th episode. The Radio 4 series drew an average
of 4.5 million listeners each week.
23 January 1997, Thursday (+18,888) Following the discovery of
Nazi gold in Swiss banks, the Swiss Government established a fund to compensate
Holocaust victims.
22 January 1997, Wednesday (+18,887) Madeleine Albright became the
first female US Secretary of State after confirmation of her appointment by the
US Senate.
21 January 1997, Tuesday (+18,886) Colonel Tom Parker, manager
of Elvis Presley, died.
20 January 1997, Monday (+18,885) President Clinton began his second
term of office.
19 January 1997, Sunday (+18,884) Yasser Arafat returned to Hebron after an absence of over
30 years.� There were major celebrations
as the Israelis handed over the last Israeli-controlled West Bank city.
18 January 1997, Saturday (-18,883) Boerge Ousland of Norway made
the first solo unaided crossing of Antarctica.
15 January 1997, Wednesday (+18,880) A belated agreement for
the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the West bank city of Hebron was signed
by PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
However Arab-Israeli tensions remained high.
8 January 1997, Wednesday (+18,873) Melvin Calvin, US chemist
and Nobel prize winner, died.
3 January 1997, Friday (+18,868) The death toll in Europe�s big
freeze hit 220 as temperatures plunged to �10 C from Britain to central Russia.
2 January 1997, Thursday (+18,867) The US State of California extended its smoking ban to
bars and other drinking establishments.
1 January 1997, Wednesday (+18,866)
=====================================================================================
29
December 1996, Sunday
(+18,863) (Guatemala) The Guatemalan
Civil war ended after 36 years. The Government and the Guatemalan
National Revolutionary Union signed a peace deal.
27
December 1996, Friday (+18,861)
Taliban forces retook the important Bagram air base, consolidating their
territory around Kabul.
23 December 1996, Monday (+18,857) After significant intervention
by the UN, President Imomali Rakhmanov of Tajikistan (Russian backed) signed a
ceasefire agreement with the Tajik rebel leader Sayed Abdullah, Tajikistan had
been a key staging point in supplies for Russian troops fighting in
Afghanistan. However fighting continued.
20 December 1996, Friday (+18,854) Carl Sagan, astronomer, died.
17 December 1996, Tuesday (+18,851) (1) Kofi Annan from Ghana became the first Black African UN Secretary
General.
(2) Tupac Amaru, a Leftist guerrilla group whom Fujimori believed he had defeated,
resurfaced and took 400 hostages at a party at hosted by the� Japanese Ambassador. The siege was drawn-out
because Japan insisted on aiming for a negotiated settlement.
15
December 1996, Sunday
(+18,849) Boeing took over McDonnell-Douglas.
13 December 1996, Friday (+18,847) Kofi Anan became the 7th
Secretary General of the UN.
12 December 1996, Thursday (+18,846)
After Labour won the Barnsley East by election, the Conservatives no longer had
a majority in the House of Commons.
10 December 1996, Tuesday (+18,844) South Africa�s new
democratic and non-racial Constitution was signed into law by President
Mandela.
4 December 1996, Wednesday (+18,838) NASA launched the Pathfinder probe towards Mars.
3 December 1996, Tuesday (+18,837) Algerian Islamic
Fundamentalists exploded a bomb on the Paris Metro at Port Royal Station, at
6.05pm in the rush hour, killing 2 and injuring 50 others. Algerian
fundamentalists had carried out 7 attacks on the Paris Metro in 1995. They were
protesting at a referendum in Algeria, backing a crackdown on fundamentalist
political Parties.
1 December 1996, Sunday (+18,835)
====================================================================================
30 November 1996, Saturday (+18,834) In Sierra Leone, Government
and rebel forces signed a peace agreement, ending a 5-year civil war.
29 November 1996, Friday (+18,833) Drazen Erdemovic, Bosnian
Croat who had participated in the massacre of Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995,
was sentenced at The Hague to 10 years prison.
28 November 1996, Thursday (+18,832) Algerians endorsed a new
Constitution recognising the Islamic, Algerian and Berber cultures as the main
constituents of the Algerian nation. It also effectively banned political
Parties with an Islamic foundation, thereby igniting Fundamentalist anger.
23 November 1996, Saturday (+18,827) Ethiopian Airlines flight 9061
from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, Kenya, was hijacked by 3 Ethiopian men and ordered
to fly to Australia. It ran out of fuel and crashed into the Indian ocean off
the Comoros islands. 123 of the 175 on board died.
20 November 1996, Wednesday (+18,824) The Japanese toy company
Bandai released the Tamagotchi, a �virtual pet� comprising an LCD display in an
egg-shaped pendant attached to a key ring. The owner pressed various buttons to
satisfy its �needs� tpo be cleaned, played with, petted, fed etc. If not �cared
for�, the Tamagotchi could �die� prematurely.
18 November 1996,
Monday (+18,822) Serious fire
on Channel Tunnel train. The train was 12 miles inside the Tunnel, and the open
latticework of the lorry carriages may have had a blowtorch effect on the fire
which could have started before the train entered the Tunnel. Eight people
suffered smoke inhalation injuries and the Tunnel was closed for months.
17 November 1996, Sunday (+18,821) Protests in Belgrade after
President Slobodan Milosevic refused t recognise Opposition victories in
municipal elections.
15
November 1996, Friday (+18,819)
Mass migration as Hutu refugees returned to Rwanda.
7 November 1996, Thursday (+18,811) (Space
exploration) The USA launched the MGS (Mars Global Survey) space probe.
6 November 1996, Wednesday (+18,810)
A cyclone hit Andhra Pradesh, India, killing 2,000.
5 November 1996, Tuesday (+18,809) (1) Bill Clinton won the US
elections. He was re-elected for a second term, seeing off a challenge by the
Republican Bob Dole. Clinton was better at attracting the female than male
vote. However only 49% of the electorate bothered to vote at all, the lowest
turnout since 1924.
(2) The Pakistan President dismissed Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto after
she and her Government were accused of corruption and mismanagement.
=====================================================================================
24 October 1996, Thursday (+18,797) Rioting in Florida after a
Black youth, Tyron Lewis, was shot dead by police.
20 October 1996, Sunday (+18,793) Arnoldo Aleman Lacayo of the
Constitutional Liberal Party defeated Ortega and the Sandinistas, who also lost
the election of 2001.
16
October 1996, Wednesday
(+18,789) Proposals to ban most handguns in the UK, in the aftermath of
the Dunblane massacre.
=====================================================================================
26/9/1996, Thursday (+18,769)
(1) The Taleban captured Kabul. They drove out the former
President, Burhanuddin Rabbani and executed Mohammad Najibullah. See 3 November
1994.
(2) The first death under legalised euthanasia in Australia.
24/9/1996, Tuesday (+18,767) The USA and other nuclear
powers signed a treaty halting all testing of nuclear weapons, above or below
ground. The USA alone had conducted 1,030 such t4ests since 1945, creating
serious health hazards both locally and globally.
21/9/1996, Saturday (+18,764) The USA prohibited same-sex
marriages under the Defence of Marriage Act.
19/9/1996, Thursday (+18,762)
The US spacecraft Atlantis docked with the Russian space station Mir.
14/9/1996, Saturday (+18,757) In Bosnia-Hercegovina a
Muslim, President Izetbegovic, was elected as Chairman of the thre-man
collective Presidency. He was joined by a Bosnian Serb and a Bosnia Croat.
11 October 1996, Wednesday (+18,754) Ford Motor Company
purchased the naming rights to Detroit, Michigan�s indoor American Football
stadium, calling it Ford Field.
7/9/1996, Saturday (+18,750) 7In
Las Vegas, Nevada, US rapper Tupac Shakur was shot four times, allegedly by
a gang of rival rappers. He died 6 days later, aged 25, and his murderers were
never found.
3/9/1996, Tuesday
(+18,746) The US extended the southern Iraq no-fly-zone, established on
26/8/1992 south of 32 degrees, up to 33 degrees, just south of Baghdad.
2/9/1996, Monday (+18,745) President Ramos of the
Philippines signed a peace deal with the Moro national Liberation Front (MNLF),
a Muslim separatist group. This ended� a
26 year rebellion by the Moro people
of southern Philippines islands.
====================================================================================
31/8/1996, Saturday (+18,743) (1) Iraqi forces
launched a major offensive into the northern no-fly-zone and captured the city
of Erbil from the Kurds.
(2) Russia and Chechnya signed a peace accord, under which the separatist
Chechens agreed to put aside their demands for independence for 5 years.
29/8/1996, Thursday (+18,741) British forces began to leave Hong
Kong.
28/8/1996, Wednesday �(+18,740) (1) The Prince of Wales, Charles, and Princess, Diana Spencer, divorced. See 31/8/1997.
(2) Phyllis Pearce, who pioneered the modern London A-Z, died.
26/8/1996, Monday (+18,738) The
courts in Sweden heard their first ever case of dangerous handling of a
shopping trolley.
23/8/1996, Friday (+18.735) (Islam) Osama bin Laden issued a 30-page Fatwa
declaring war on the USA.
9/8/1996, Friday (+18,721) Boris Yeltsin became Russia�s
first democratically-elected head of State.
6/8/1996, Tuesday (+18,718) Separatist Chechens stormed
the capital Grozny and other towns in Chechnya.
1/8/1996, Thursday (+18,713) (1) (Food) The UK Central Veterinary Laboratory published findings that
Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis could be transmitted from mother cow to calf.
(2) In Somalia, General Muhammad Farrah Aidid, of the Hawiye Clan, died of
battle wounds.
=====================================================================================
30/7/1996, Tuesday (+18,711) Claudette Colbert, actress,
died.
29/7/1996, Monday (+18,710) England striker Alan Shearer
was transferred from Blackburn to Newcastle United for a record �15 million
transfer fee.
27/7/1996, Saturday (+18,708) A nail bomb exploded at the
Atlanta Olympics, killing two people and injuring over 100.
25/7/1996, Thursday (+18,706) A coup by the Burundian
Army deposed the moderate Hutu President, Sylvestre Ntibantunganya, who fled to
the UN Ambassador�s residence for safety. Pierre Buyoya was installed as
President in his place.
19/7/1996, Friday (+18,700)
Muhammad Ali lit the flame for the 26th Olympic Games in Atlanta,
Georgia, USA.
18/7/1996, Thursday (+18,699) A TWA jet exploded at New
York, killing all 230 people on board.
17/7/1996, Wednesday (+18,698) In France, convicted war
criminal Paul Touvier died in Fresnes Prison, of prostate cancer, see
17/3/1994.
14/7/1996, Sunday (+18,695) US racing car driver Jeff
Krosnoff was killed in a racing accident.
12/7/1996, Friday (+18,693) Saddam Hussein, Iraqi President, was
reported to have foiled a coup attempt by 50 military officers. There were mass executions following this
event.
11/7/1996, Thursday (+18,692) The War Crimes Tribunal in
The Hague issued arrest warrants for Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic
and Bosnian Serb military commander General Ratko Mladic.
9/7/1996, Tuesday (+18,690) Rioting in Northern Ireland
after the RUV blocked the route of a planned Orange March through a Nationalist
area of Portadown. Finally Sir Hugh Annesley, Chief Constable of the RUC,
decided to permit the March to proceed under RUC supervision. This decision
provoked further disturbances.
7/7/1996, Sunday (+18,688) The German town of Konstanz
elected a Green Mayor.
5/7/1996, Friday (+18,686)
Dolly the sheep became the
first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult stem cell. Lamb 6LL3 was
named after Dolly Parton. The animal died prematurely in February 2003.
3/7/1996, Wednesday (+18,684) UK PM John Major promised
that the Stone of Scone would be returned from Westminster to Scotland.
1/7/1996,
Monday (+18,682) (1) The Northern Territory in Australia legalised
voluntary euthanasia.
(2) The average wage in the UK was �18,307 per year. GPs got
�44,304, 242% of average. Teachers got �23,088, 126% of average. Train drivers
got �22,308, 122% of average. Factory workers got �14,612, 80% of average. The
average UK house price was �53,394.
=====================================================================================
30/6/1996, Sunday (+18,681) Bosnian Serb President Radovan
Karadzic resigned.
29/6/1996, Saturday (+18,680)
27/6/1996, Thursday (+18,678) In Northern Ireland,
journalist Veronica Guerin was murdered during her investigation into
drug-dealing.
26/6/1996, Wednesday (+18,677) Veronica Guerin, Irish
journalist, died.
25/6/1996, Tuesday (+18,676) Bin Laden�s Al Qaeda group bombed
the Khobar Towers HQ of the US Air Force in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. 19 Americans
died.
24/6/1996, Monday (+18,675)
23/6/1996, Sunday (+18,674) Andreas Papandreou, Greek statesman, born
1919, died.
22/6/1996, Saturday (+18,673) The Quake computer game was
released. It was both realistic and violent.
18/6/1996, Tuesday (+18,669) In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu formed a
Likud-dominated coalition government with some smaller religious Parties.
16/6/1996, Sunday (�18,667) In the
first round of Presidential voting in Russia, Boris Yeltsin soundly beat
Communist challenger Gennady Zyuganov into second place.
15/6/1996, Saturday (+18,666) A large IRA bomb destroyed
Manchester city centre. However
nobody was killed.
13/6/1996, Thursday (+18,664) Mercedes car designer
Friedrich Geiger died this day aged 88.
11/6/1996, Tuesday (+18,662) (1) A damning US Senate report on the Whitewater Affair accused Hillary
Clinton of complicity in a� fraudulent
land deal in Arkansas in the 1980s.
(2) Russian troops began to withdraw from Chechnya.
10/6/1996, Monday (+18,661) Talks on the future of Northern
Ireland opened at Stormont Castle; the Sinn Fein was excluded until the IRA
renewed its ceasefire.
8/6/1996, Saturday (+18,659) US
President Clinton established the 1.9 million acre Grand Staircase-Escalante
National Park in Utah.
6/6/1996, Thursday (+18,657) (Football)
British Premier League Clubs and BskyB and the BBC signed a �743 million deal
for four years� coverage of League matches.
5/6/1996, Wednesday
(+18,656) (Roads) The second Severn Road Crossing (Prince of Wales
Bridge) opened near Bristol.
4/6/1996, Tuesday (+18,655) The European Space Agency�s
�565 million Ariane 5 rocket exploded during liftoff.
1/6/1996, Saturday (+18,652)
=====================================================================================
31/5/1996, Friday (+18.651) Timothy :Leary, philosopher,
died.
29/5/1996, Wednesday (+18,649) Benjamin Netanyahu was elected Prime Minister of
Israel, narrowly defeating Shimon Peres of the Labour Party. Netanyahu was a
hard-line Right-winger of the Likud Party, who did not subscribe to Labour�s
land for peace policy. This imperilled the future of the peace process.
28/5/1996, Tuesday (+18,648) Jim and Susan McDougal,
former business associates of President Clinton, were found guilty� of fraud and conspiracy in the Whitewater
scandal, involving property deals in Arkansas.
27/5/1996, Monday (+18,647) Russian President Boris Yeltsin met
Chechnya rebels for the first time and negotiated a ceasefire.
20/5/1996, Monday (+18,640) The USA and Iraq signed an
agreement where the revenue from Iraqi oil sales could be exchanged for
humanitarian aid, known as the �Oil for Food program�.
17/5/1996, Friday (+18,637) Kevin Gilbert, singer and
composer, was born.
11/5/1996, Saturday (+18,631) Yoweri Kaguta Museveni won
the first free Presidential elections in Uganda.
8/5/1996, Wednesday (+18,628) South Africa approved a
new Constitution guaranteeing equal rights foir all races.
2/5/1996, Thursday (+18,622) In the UK, the
Conservative�s loss of popularity continued as they won just 28% of the vote at
local government elections.
=====================================================================================
29/4/1996, Monday (+18,619) In The Hague, Netherlands,
the War crimes Tribunal opened, to try cases relating to the war in former
Yugoslavia.
28/4/1996, Sunday (+18,618) Gunman Martin Bryant opened
fire at Port Arthur, a tourist area in Tasmania Australia, killing 35 and
wounding 37. He was sentenced to ;life without parole.
23/4/1996, Tuesday (+18,613) Filippo Florio, Italian
footballer, was born.
21/4/1996, Sunday (+18,611) Chechen separatist leader
Dzhokhar Dudayev was killed in a Russian rocket attack.
19/4/1996, Friday (+18,609) Erma Brombeck, writer, died.
18/4/1996, Thursday (+18,608) Israeli helicopters
attacked Qana refugee camp, Lebanon, an alleged Hezbollah base. This, and an
earlier attack (11/4/1996) Hezbollah bases in Beirut, Lebanon, was in
retaliation for Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel.
17/4/1996, Wednesday (+18,607) In Para, Brazilian troops
opened fire on a demonstration by the Landless Workers Movement. 23 people were
killed.
15/4/1996, Monday (+18,603) The USA returned some of its
bases to Japan and promised to enforce better discipline amongst its troops,
following a scandal in 1995 in which a child was raped.
11/4/1996, Thursday (+18,601)
A treaty establishing Africa as a nuclear-free zone was signed in Cairo.
7/4/1996, Sunday (+18,597) Easter
Sunday.
3/4/1996, Wednesday
(+18,593) Theodore Kaczynski, a former mathematics
professor, was arrested and charged with being the Unabomber. Overall he was
reckoned to have committed 16 bombings, killing 23. His motive was to persuade the world of the unsustainability of modern
technology as a threat to the planet.
2/4/1996, Tuesday (+18,592) Minnie Pearl, hillbilly
comedienne, died.
1/4/1996, Monday
(+18,591) (Food) In the UK Douglas Hogg,
Agriculture Minister, announced plans to cull all British cattle over 6 years
old, 4.6 million cows, to eradicate the threat from Bovine Spongiform
Encephalitis.
=====================================================================================
31/3/1996, Sunday (+18,560) (1) Boris Yeltsin announced a ceasefire in Chechnya and the imminent
withdrawal of Russian troops.
(2) (Crime) Crumlin Road Prison, Belfast, closed.
29/3/1996, Friday (+18,588)
27/3/1996, Wednesday (+18,586) (1) The European Commission
imposed a total ban on the export of UK beef, worldwide, in the wake of the
fatal CJD outbreak, linked to BSE or �mad cow� disease.
(2) A civil war in northern Mali between the Government and the Tuareg
ended.
26/3/1996, Tuesday (+18,585) The International Monetary Fund
approved a US$ 10.2 billion loan to Russia for economic reforms.
25/3/1996, Monday (+18,584) The UK Government admitted
there was a link between BSE (Mad Cow Disease) and CJD in humans.
22/3/1996, Friday (+18,581) The
War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague made its first indictment; three Muslims and a
Croat were charged with torture, rape, and murder of Serbs.
19/3/1996, Tuesday (+18,578)
Sarajevo was reunited when Bosniak authorities took control of the last
district occupied by Serbs.
16/3/1996, Saturday (+18,575) Dutch aircraft maker Fokker went bankrupt
after 77 years in business.
15/5/1996, Friday (+18,574) (Food) In the UK, home-produced beef was banned from
schools and hospitals as concerns rose over Bovine Spongiform Encelopathy.
14/3/1996, Thursday (+18,573)
13/3/1996, Wednesday (+18,572) The Dunblane Massacre in Scotland; 16 children and a teacher died;
a further 12 children were injured. The unstable misfit Thomas Hamilton, 43,
entered Dunblane Primary School and shot a teacher and 16 children in the gym,
injured another teacher and 5 children, then shot and killed himself. This began a debate in the UK and other
countries on banning handguns.
12/3/1996, Tuesday (-18,571) In Barcelona, Spain, the
World Health Authority launched a taskforce to tackle obesity worldwide.
10/3/1996, Sunday (+18,569)
9/3/1996, Saturday (+18,568) George Burns, actor, died.,
8/3/1996, Friday (+18,567) China conducted military
exercises in the Taiwan Strait, to intimidate Taiwanese voters in their
upcoming elections. In these elections the pro-independence candidate Lee
Teng-Hui won, but there was no subsequent formal declaration of independence.
7/3/1996,
Thursday (+18,566)
Genetically-modified sheep Megan and Morag were
introduced to the world.
6/3/1996, Wednesday (+18,565)
5/3/1996, Tuesday (+18,564) Further Hamas suicide
bombings killed 32 people in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv (see 25 February 1996). In
revenge for these attacks, Israel declared all-out war on Hamas. This put the
Peace Process in jeopardy.
4/3/1996, Monday (+18,563)
UN forces left Rwanda as the UN mandate ended.
2/3/1996, Saturday (+18,561) In
Australia the Labour Party finally lost an election, having won the previous
five contests, in 1983, 1984, 1987, 1990 and 1993.
====================================================================================
29 February 1996, Thursday (+18,559) (1) The siege of Sarajevo ended.
(2) Bailiffs
began evicting the Newbury by-pass protestors who had been protesting that the
route ran through environmentally-sensitive areas. Contractors had been due to
start work on 10 January 1996.
28 February 1996, Wednesday (+18,558) (1) Russia became a member of the Council of Europe.
(2) The Princess of
Wales, Diana, announced that she had agreed to divorce Prince Charles.
25 February 1996, Sunday (+18,555) In revenge for the killing of
Yahyah Ayyash (6 January 1996), Hamas suicide bombers killed 26 people in
Jerusalem and Ashkelon. See 3/3/1996.
20 February 1996, Tuesday (+18,550) Solomon Asch, psychologist,
died.
19 February 1996, Monday (+18,549) In Madrid, Spain, one million people
demonstrated against violence by the Basque separatist group ETA.
18 February 1996, Sunday (+18,548) The World Health Organisation sent
experts to Gabon where ten people had died of the Ebola virus.
17 February 1996, Saturday (+18,547) (Space
exploration) The USA launched the NEAR space probe, to rendezvous with
an asteroid.
15 February 1996, Thursday (+18,544) Hamas suicide bomber
attacks on Jerusalem and Ashkelon, killing 25. The Palestinians wished to
derail a Peace Agreement that would leave them with just a fraction of their
former lands.
13 February 1996, Tuesday (+18,543) A Maoist insurgency broke
out in rural areas of Nepal; weak central government.
12 February 1996, Monday (+18,542) Klein Stanley Eden Cristobal,
Trinidadian footballer, was born.
11 February 1996, Sunday (+18,541)
10 February 1996, Saturday (+18,540) The computer programme Deep Blue
beat Gary Kasparov at chess, the first victory by a computer over a human.
9 February 1996, Friday (+18,539) The IRA ended its ceasefire with a bomb in London�s Docklands. The bomb contained about half a ton of
explosive and was planted under the Docklands Light railway at South Quays,
exploding at 7.01 p.m. 2 people were killed and at least 100 injured. The
widespread damage to houses, shops, and offices amounted to over �100 million.
UK Prime Minister John Major said �there is now a dark shadow of doubt where
optimism had been�.
8 February 1996, Thursday (+18,538)
6 February 1996, Tuesday (+18,536)
A Dominican Alas Nacionales Boeing 757-225 crashed after take-off into the
Atlantic Ocean off the Dominican republic, killing 189 passengers.
5 February 1996, Monday (+18,535) The first privately-run trains for nearly 50 years ran on
British Railways. South West Trains and Great Western won the first franchises;
under the 1993 Railway Act. A third franchise, London Tilbury and
Southend, was cancelled amidst allegations of ticketing fraud. British Railways
had been nationalised on 1 January 1948.
3 February 1996, Saturday (+18,533)
2 February 1996, Friday (+18,532) Harry Billy Winks, English footballer, was
born.
1 February 1996, Thursday (+18,531) The US Government offered to help a UN
food assistance programme in famine-hit North Korea.
====================================================================================
31 January 1996, Wednesday (+18,530)
29 January 1996, Monday (+18,528) (Atomic, France) France bowed to international pressure and announced it had ended the current series of atomic tests at Mururoa Atoll in the south Pacific.
28 January 1996, Sunday (+18,527) Joseph Brodsky, Russian poet,
died.
25
January 1996, Thursday
(+18,524) In the UK, the results of
the first National School Tests sat in May 1995 showed that over 50% of
11-year-olds failed to reach expected standards in English and Maths.
24
January 1996, Wednesday
(+18,523) The report of the
international decommissioning agency for Northern Ireland under US Senator
George Mitchell dismissed British demands that the IRA hand over its weapons
before joining talks.
22 January 1996, Monday (+18,521) Near� Brcko,
Bosnia, a mass grave containing the bodies of some 3,000 Muslims and Croats
killed in �ethnic cleansing� by Bosnian Serbs in 1992 was discovered.
20
January 1996, Saturday (+18,519) Yasser Arafat was re-elected President of the PLO.
18
January 1996, Thursday
(+18,517) A service in Coventry Cathedral marking the centenary of the
motor car was disrupted by a naked woman claiming to be Lady Godiva protesting
about the thousands of deaths caused by motor vehicles.
9 January 1996, Tuesday (+18,508) Chechen insurgents seized 3,000
civilian hostages. They demanded the
withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya. Most of the hostages were released
the following day, and the rest were rescued by Russian forces on 24 January 1996.
8 January 1996,
Monday (+18,507) President Mitterrand,
(born 1916) died of cancer. He was President of France 1981-95.
6 January 1996, Saturday (+18,505) Palestinian bomb-maker Yahya
Ayyash was killed, allegedly by Israeli security forces, see 25 February 1996.
2
January 1996, Tuesday
(+18,501) UN troops entered Bosnia
on a peacekeeping mission.
1 January 1996, Monday (+18,500)
===================================================================================
25 December 1995, Monday (+18,493) Dean Martin, actor, died.
17 December 1995, Sunday (+18,485) Rene Preval was elected
President of Haiti.
15 December 1995, Friday (+18,483) In Northern Ireland, the Arms
Decommissioning Panel, headed by former US Senator George Mitchell, began work.
14 December 1995, Thursday (+18,482)
The Dayton Peace Accord
was signed in Paris, ending the Yugoslav conflict.
13 December 1995, Wednesday (+18,481) The death of a Black man
in police custody led to rioting in Brixton, London. This was 3rd riot in 15
years in the area ;linked to racial tensions.
12 December 1995, Tuesday (+18,480) Andrew Ollie, Australian
journalist, died.
10 December 1995, Sunday (+18,478)
8 December 1995, Friday (+18,476) Rock band The Grateful Dead
disbanded, 4 months after the death of their lead guitarist Jerry Garcia, 30
years after they formed.
7 December 1995, Thursday (+18,475) (1) A link was
revealed between BSE in cattle and CJD in humans.
(2) The space probe Galileo entered orbit around Jupiter, and
sent a probe into the planet�s atmosphere.
4
December 1995, Monday (+18,472)
NATO troops landed in the Balkans.
2
December 1995, Saturday (+18,470) (1) The USA
launched SOHO, a space probe to monitor solar activity.
(2) In Singapore, rogue trader Nick Leeson was sentenced to 6 �
years in prison. He had been extradited from Germany and pleaded guilty to
fraud and forgery.
=====================================================================================
30 November 1995, Thursday (+18,468) US President Bill Clinton
visited Northern Ireland.
28 November 1995, Tuesday (+18,466) Britain�s Turner Prize for
Contemporary Art, worth �20,000, was awarded to Damien Hurst for his four glass
tanks containing the divided carcass of a cow and its calf, entitled Mother and Child Divided.
27 November 1995, Monday (+18,465) (Ireland, Women�s Rights)
In Ireland, voters narrowly approved a limited no-fault provision for divorce,
for couples who had lived apart for four of the previous five years, by a
majority of 9,114 out of 1.63 million votes. There had been a constitutional
ban on divorce since 1937.
25
November 1995, Saturday (+18,463) A ceasefire was declared in the Republics of former
Yugoslavia, following a peace agreement signed at Dayton, Ohio. Bosnia would be
a united Republic comprising the Muslim-Croat areas and the Serb Republic,
unifying the city of Sarajevo. Individuals charged with war crimes were banned
from holding public office.
23 November 1995, Thursday (+18,461) French film director Louis Malle died.
22 November 1995, Wednesday (+18,460) (1) A
magnitude 7.2 quake hit Israel, Egypt, and was felt over much of the
Mediterranean and North Africa.
(2) Rosemary West, aged 41, was sentenced to life for killing 10
women and girls, including her daughter and stepdaughter. Lodgers at their
house at 25 Cromwell Street Gloucester had also been murdered. Rosemary�s
husband Fred West, 53, had hanged himself whilst in custody at Winson Green
prison, Birmingham, on 1 January 1995.
21 November 1995, Tuesday (+18,459) Jim Eanes, musician, died (born
6 December 1923).
20 November 1995, Monday (+18,458) Sergio Grinko, figure skater,
died.
19 November 1995, Sunday (+18,457)
17 November 1995, Friday (+18,455) (Space
exploration) The European Space Agency launched ISO, an Infared space
observatory.
16 November 1995,
Thursday (+18,454) The UN tribunal charged Radovan Karadic and Ratko
Mladic with genocide during the Bosnian War.
15 November 1995, Wednesday (+18,453) The Today newspaper ceased
publishing.
14
November 1995, Tuesday
(+18,452)
13 November 1995, Monday (+18,451) Seven died as a bomb exploded at a
US military base in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
12 November 1995, Sunday (+18,450)
The Northern Ireland Peace Process was faltering, with disagreement over
whether to begin all-party talks before the IRA had decommissioned its weapons.
All sides were keen to make progress before US President Bill Clinton visited
on 30 November 1995.
10
November 1995, Friday (+18,448)
(1) The Nigerian military government
hanged the dissident Ken Saro-Wiwa
and eight other activists. They had been protesting against the exploitation of
the Ogoni people and their lands by large oil companies. In particular, an oil
leak from an old pipeline in August 1995 had polluted Ogoni lands. Oil and gas had been discovered in the Niger
delta in 1957 and commercial exploitation began a year later. In 1995
oil accounted for 80% of Nigerian government earnings and 90% of foreign
exchange earnings.
(2) Iraqi disarmament crisis; the UN intercepted 240 Russian
gyroscopes and accelerometers en route from Russia to Iraq.
7
November 1995, Tuesday
(+18,445)
4 November 1995, Saturday (+18,442) Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli Labour Prime Minister, was
assassinated. Moments after attending a peace rally in the Square of the Kings,
he was killed by a 27 year old Jewish law student, Yigal Amir. Mr Rabin had
been the target of a hate campaign since he shook hands with Mr Yasser Arafat,
PLO leader, on the steps of the White House. Rabin�s successor, Shimon Peres,
promised to continue the peace process. The assassin, Yigal Amir,
was sentenced on 11/4/1996, to life imprisonment.
3 November 1995, Friday (+18,441) Queen Elizabeth II gave Royal
Assent to a law restoring land to the indigenous Tainui Maori people, New
Zealand.
2 November 1995, Thursday (+18,440) Canadian novelist Robertson
Davies died.
1 November 1995, Wednesday (+18,439) Participants in the Yugoslav War
began negotiations at the Wright�
-Patterson air force base, Ohio, USA.
===================================================================================
30
October 1995, Monday (+18,437)
Quebec separatists narrowly (by just 1%) lost a referendum
to regain independence from Canada.
22 October 1995, Sunday (+18,429) Kingsley Amis, British author,
died.
18
October 1995, Wednesday
(+18,425) DNV presented the results of their audit on Brent Spar; it did
not contain anything like 5,500 tons of crude oil.
16 October 1995, Monday (+18,423) The Million Man March was held in
Washington DC.�
It was conceived by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
15 October 1995,
Sunday (+18,422) The road bridge between Skye and the Scottish mainland
opened.
12 October 1995, Thursday (+18,419)
9 October 1995, Monday (+18,416)
Sir Alec Douglas Home, British Conservative Prime Minister 1963-4, died (born
2/7/1903).
8 October 1995, Sunday (+18,415) US President Bill Clinton
announced the start of a 60-day ceasefire in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
6
October 1995, Friday (+18,413)
Michael Mayor and Didier
Queloz announced the discovery of the first extra-solar planet, 51 Pegasi b.
3 October 1995, Tuesday (+18,410) Former American football
star OJ Simpson was acquitted of the murder of his wife
=====================================================================================
29/9/1995, Friday (+18,406) Former Barings Brothers
trader Nick Leeson agreed to return to Singapore to face trial for deception.
On 2 December 1995 he was sentenced to 6 � years in prison.
24/9/1995, Sunday (+18,401) Israel
and the PLO agree to extend self-rule to most of the West Bank.
11/9/1995, Monday (+18,388) After 9 months conflict, the
Mexican government and the Zapatista national Liberation Army (ENZL) agreed an
accord to settle some of the Zapatista�s grievances.
8/9/1995, Friday (+18,385) In Geneva, the framework for
a peace agreement in Bosnia Hercegovina was worked out between the warring
factions and Britain, France, Germany, Russia and the USA.
5/9/1995, Tuesday
(+18,382) (1) Greenpeace admitted their claim that Brent Spar contained 5,500
tonnes of crude oil was inaccurate and apologised to Shell.
(2) France exploded a 10-kiloton nuclear device under the Pacific atoll of
Mururoa. Anti-French riots broke out in Papeete, the capital of Tahiti,
necessitating French paratroopers to be sent in to maintain order. Australia
and New Zealand condemned the test, and there were fears of a worldwide boycott
of French exports.
4/9/1995, Monday (+18,381) The alleged rape of a
12-year-old girl in Japan by three US servicemen caused widespread resentment
against the US military presence in Japan.
2/9/1995, Saturday (+18,379) The Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame and Museum opened in Cleveland, Ohio.
======================================================================================
31/8/1995, Thursday (+18,377)
The London Meteorological Office announced that August 1995 had been the
hottest month since 1659.
30/8/1995, Wednesday (+18,376)
UN forces attacked key Serb
positions in Bosnia.� The NATO
campaign continued into October.
29/8/1995, Tuesday (+18,375)
28/8/1995, Monday (+18,374)
Serbian mortar bomb near Sarajevo market killed 37 civilians.
27/8/1995, Sunday (+18,373) The
International Rugby Football Board, the Governing Body of Rugby Union, voted
unanimously to end the game�s amateur status.
24/8/1995, Thursday (+18,370)
Microsoft launched Windows 5. It replaced Windows 3.x.
18/8/1995, Friday (+18,364)
The largest traditional stone-built Hindu temple in the world outside India
opened in Neasden, N W London.
13/8/1995, Sunday (+18,359) Mickey Mantle, baseball player, died.
10/8/1995, Thursday (+18,356)
Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were indicted on 11 charges relating to the
Oklahoma bombing.
9/8/1995, Wednesday (+18,355)
Croat forces had now overrun the Serb-held areas of Croatia; Krajina and West
Slavonia. 150,000 Croatian Serbs had fled to Serbia and Serb-held areas of
Bosnia-Hercegovina. Croatian forces also held off a Serb attack on the �safe
haven� of Bihac, in eastern Bosnia.
8/8/1995, Tuesday (+18,354)
6/8/1995, Sunday (+18,352) British licensing
laws were relaxed to allow pubs to open from 12 noon on Sundays onwards.
5/8/1995, Saturday (+18,351)
Croatian forces captured the town of Knin.
4/8/1995, Friday (+18,350)
Croatians launched Operation Storm, against Serbian forces in Krajina,
compelling them to retreat to Bosnia.
======================================================================================
29/7/1995, Saturday (+18,344)
26/7/1995, Wednesday (+18,341) Keanu Neal, US football linebacker,
was born.
25/7/1995, Tuesday (+18,340) A
bomb exploded on a train at the St Michel Metro station in Paris, killing seven
people.
21/7/1995, Friday (+18,336)
18/7/1995, Tuesday (+18.,333)
The oldest known musical instrument, a bear bone with 4 holes made along it,
dated to 45,000 years ago, was discovered in the Indrijca River Valley,
Slovenia.
17/7/1995, Monday (+18,332) Argentinean car driver Juan Manuel
Fangio died aged 84.
15/7/1995, Saturday (+18,330) Amazon sold its first book.
12/7/1995, Wednesday (+18,327) Shell
commissioned an independent Norwegian consultancy, Det Norske Veritas, to
conduct an audit of the materials contained in the Brent Spar, to check
Greanpeace�s allegations.
11/7/1995, Tuesday (+18,326) (1) Bosnian Serbs marched into Srebrenica as Dutch UN peacekeepers left.
Later; large numbers of Bosniak men and boys were massacred.
(2) US resumed full diplomatic relations with Vietnam.
10/7/1995, Monday (+18,325) Burmese Nobel Peace prize
winner, Aung San Kyi, was released, from six years house arrest. Amnesty
International reported that the Human Rights situation in Burma remained
�desperate�.
9/7/1995, Sunday (+19,324) In
Portadown, Northern Ireland, the first of what would become an annual series of
stand-offs between Protestant Orange marchers and local residents began when
RUC officers prevented the marchers from taking their traditional route along
the Garvaghy Road. The marchers refused to disperse or take an alternative
route, eventually an uneasy compromise was reached as the marchers were allowed
to walk silently along the road.
8/7/1995, Saturday (+18,323)
Volcanic eruption began on the island of Montserrat.
7/7/1995, Friday (+18,322) Norway
granted permission to moor the Brent Spar in Erfjord whilst options for its
disposal were considered.
4/7/1995, Tuesday
(+18,319) John Major won the battle to lead the Conservative Party, beating John Redwood
by 218 votes to 89.
1/7/1995, Saturday (+18,316)� The average UK house price was �51,245.
====================================================================================
30/6/1995, Friday (+18,315) (1) Military accord to end fighting in Chechnya.
(2) Eleven states called for a moratorium on sea disposal
of decommissioned offshore installations; the motion was opposed by Britain and
Norway.
29/6/1995, Thursday (+18,314)
The space shuttle Columbia docked for the first time with the Russian Mir
space station.
26/6/1995, Monday (+18,311)
25/6/1995, Sunday (+18,310) Ernest Walton, winner of the Nobel Physics
Prize in 1951 for his work in subatomic physics, died.
23/6/1995, Friday (+18,308)
Jonas Salk, medical researcher, died.
22/6/1995, Thursday (+18,307)
John Major, UK Conservative Prime Minister, resigned I order to trigger a
leadership contest, in a� bid to bolster
his authority over his divided Party. He went on to defeat right-wing
Eurosceptic John Redwood, but his Party remained divided.
20/6/1995, Tuesday (+18,305) Shell Oil Company caved in to
international pressure and agreed not to dump the Brent Spar oil platform in
the Atlantic.
15/6/1995, Thursday (+18,300) German
Chancellor Helmut Kohl protested to the British Prime Minister John Major at
the G7 Summit about the planned sinking of the Brent Spar.
14/6/1995, Wednesday (+18,299) A
week of protests across Germany began against Shell petrol stations; protestors
threatened to firebomb 200 Shell filling stations. 50 were actually damaged,
two fire-bombed, and one raked with bullets.
11/6/1995, Sunday
(+18,296) Shell began to tow the Brent Spar out to the disposal site.
9/6/1995, Friday (+18,294) Russia and Ukraine
agreed to divide the former Soviet Black Sea Fleet.
7/6/1995, Wednesday (+18,292) Australian prime
Minister Paul Keating declared his aim that Australia should be a Republic by
the year 2001.
5/6/1995, Monday (+18,290) Bose-Einstein condensate was created.
3/6/1995, Saturday (+18,288) UN rapid intervention force sent to Bosnia.
=====================================================================================
30/5/1995, Tuesday (+18,284) Edward Drake, footballer, died (born
16/8/1912).
28/5/1995, Sunday (+18,282) Neftegorsk, Russia, was hit by a 7.6
magnitude earthquake that killed 2,000 people, 2/3 of the town�s population.
26/5/1995, Friday (+18,280)
25/5/1995, Thursday (+18,279)
Serbian forces attacked the safe haven of Tuzla, killing 67 civilians. On
16/5/1995 the Serbs had resumed shelling Sarajevo, after a major anti-Serb
offensive by Bosnians.
24/5/1995, Wednesday (+18,278) (1)
Harold Wilson, British Prime Minister 1964-70 and 1974-76, born 11/3/1916,
died.
(2) All Tuareg groups had now signed a peace deal with
the Niger Government, and an amnesty was granted with imprisoned Tuaregs being
released.
21/5/1995, Sunday (+18,275) Les Aspin, US Secretary of Defense, died.
18/5/1995, Thursday (+18,272) Elizabeth Montgomery, actress, died.
16/5/1995, Tuesday (+18,270) (1) Jacques Chirac became President
of France.
(2) Japanese police besieged the headquarters of the Aum
Shrnrinko cult near Mount Fuji, and arrested the leader Shoko Asuhara.
(3) An Ebola outbreak in Zaire had now killed 77. The
disease kills victims so fast they have little time to pass it on, so does not
cause major pandemics.
14/5/1995, Sunday (+18,268) Carlos
Menem was elected as President of Argentina.
13/5/1995, Saturday (+18,267)
A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hit the Greek Macedonian city of Kozani; nobody was
injured.
12/5/1995, Friday (+18,266)
Giorgio Belladonna, bridge champion, died.
11/5/1995, Thursday (+18,265)
In New York City, 170 nations agreed to extend the nuclear non-proliferation
treaty indefinitely, without conditions.
10/5/1995, Wednesday (+18,264) The British Government held
the first Ministerial talks with Sinn Fein since 1972.
9/5/1995, Tuesday (+18,263) The
German Ministry of the Environment protested about the plans to sink the Brent
Spar.
7/5/1995, Sunday (+18,261) (1) UK
betting shops opened on Sundays for the first time.
(2) Jacques Chirac was elected President of France.
He
defeated the Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin. Alain Juppe became Prime
Minister of France.
5/5/1995, Friday (+18,259) (1)
The Conservative Party did badly in local
council elections, losing control in 62 councils in England and Wales,
retaining control in just 8, whilst Labour gained 42 to control a total of 155,
and the Liberal Democrats gained 14 to control a total of 44. The
Conservatives had also done badly in the Scottish local council elections of
6/4/1995, failing to gain a single one of 29 unitary authorities there. Prime Minister John Major faced a challenge
to his leadership.
(2) The UK Government granted a disposal licence to Shell
to sink the Brent Spar.
4/5/1995, Thursday (+18,258)
Louis Krasner, violinist, died.
3/5/1995, Wednesday (+18,257) (Mathematics)
Fermat�s Last Theorem was finally proved in generality, for all values
of n. It was proposed by Pierre de Fermat (ca. 1607 � 1665) in 1637, that an
+ bn = cn had no solution for any value of n greater than
2.
1/5/1995, Monday (+18,255)
=====================================================================================
30/4/1995, Sunday
(+18,254) Greenpeace asserted that Bremt Spar still contained
5,500 tonnes of crude eoil.
29/4/1995, Saturday (+18,253) Tony Blair got the
Labour Party to drop Clause 4, which had called for common ownership of the
means of production, distribution and exchange. In a modernising move, away
from Socialism, the change to a commitment to work for a just society, dynamic
economy, and healthy environment was backed by 65.23% of votes.
25/4/1995, Tuesday (+18,249) Ginger Rogers, US actress, died.
20/4/1995, Thursday (+18,244) Robert
Wyatt,� cricketer, died (born 2/5/1901).
19/4/1995, Wednesday (+18,243)
A car bomb in Oklahoma
City killed 168 including 12 children. The bomb hidden in a truck contained
4,000 lb of explosive and blew up in front of the Alfred P Murrah Federal
Building, where the Federal ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) was
housed, and also a children�s nursery. Timothy McVeigh was later convicted of
the bombing.
18/4/1995, Tuesday (+18,242) Artuto Frondizi, President of
Argentina, died.
16/4/1995, Sunday (+18,240) Easter Sunday.
14/4/1995, Friday (+18,238) (1) British
troops prepared to leave Northern Ireland.
(2) The UN allowed Iraq to resume partial exports of its
oil to pay for essential food and medicine. Iraq did not implement this until
December 1996.
4/4/1995, Tuesday (+18,228) In Burundi, Tutsi soldiers massacred 400
Hutu women and children (see 9/3/1995).
1/4/1995, Saturday (+18,225) Daewoo began selling cars in the UK.
=====================================================================================
30/3/1995,
Thursday (+18,223) Tony Lock, cricketer, died.
28/3/1995, Tuesday (+18,221) Serbians took UN
peacekeepers hostage, to deter further NATO airstrikes.
26/3/1995, Sunday (+18,219) In Europe, the Schengen
Convention came into force, allowing free movement between countries,
24/3/1995, Friday (+18,217) The
House of Representatives, USA, passed welfare reforms denying state benefits to
immigrants, unmarried mothers, and those who refused to work.
23 February 1995, Thursday (+18,216)
The Taiwanese Parliament approved compensation payments to� relatives of indigenous Taiwanese massacred
by �Kuomintang troops after they
evacuated from mainland China in February 1947.
22/3/1995, Wednesday (+18,215) (Space exploration) Valeri Polyakov
returned to earth from the longest stay in space by a human, 437 days, 18
hours.
20/3/1995. Monday (+18,213) (1) A ceasefire in Bosnia-Hercegovina, from 31
December 1994, broke down. Bosnian troops attacked Serb positions.
(2) Nerve gas
was released on the Tokyo Subway by the Ayum Shrinkyo religious cult.� Five separate trains were affected; 12 died
and 5,500 were injured.
17/3/1995, Friday (+18,210)
Ronnie Kray died.
16/3/1995, Thursday (+18,209) (Ireland) US President Bill Clinton met with Sinn
Fein leader Gerry Adams at the White House.
15/3/1995, Wednesday (+18,208) (1) (Aviation) Jet
plane manufacturers Lockheed and Martin merged to become the Lockheed Martin
Corporation.
(2) (Sport) Harlow greyhound racing stadium,
Essex, UK, opened.
12/3/1995, Sunday (+18,205)
9/3/1995, Thursday (+18,202)
Hutu leader Ernest Kabushemeye was assassinated in Burundi. There were
immediate reports of genocide and a refugee crisis, amidst fears of a repeat of
the violence in 1994 in Rwanda. See 4/4/1995.
8/3/1995, Wednesday (+18,201)
UK Government agreed to direct meetings between ministers and Sinn Fein
before an IRA arms surrender.
6/3/1995, Monday (+18,199) Russia announced it had gained control of
the Chechen capital Grozny.
3/3/1995,
Friday (+18,196) The UN peacekeeping
mission in Somalia ended.
2/3/1995, Thursday (+18,195) Financial dealer Nick Leeson was
arrested at Frankfurt Airport after a week-long manhunt. The derivatives
trader, working for Barings Bank, see 26 February 1995, had bet on the Japanese
futures market, and assumed that the Nikkei would rise; it fell, especially
after the Kobe earthquake. Barings lost �860 million. Later in December 1995,
after apparently striking a deal with the Singapore authorities, Leeson was
sentenced to six and a half years.
====================================================================================
28 February 1995,
Tuesday (+18,193) Denver
International Airport opened. 23 miles from Denver city centre, it covered 53
square miles, cost US$ 4.9 billion, and replaced the 65-year-old Stapleton
Airport.
26 February 1995,
Sunday (+18,191) The 200 year old Barings Bank went
into receivership. One of its brokers, Nick Leeson, had lost US$1.4 billion
speculating on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. See 2/3/1995.
23 February 1995, Thursday
(+18,188) James Herriot, writer, died.
22 February 1995,
Wednesday (+18,187)
British Prime Minister
John Major and Irish Prime Minister John Bruton agreed a framework for
all-party talks on a political settlement for Northern Ireland. A �North-South
body� would be set up to harmonise agreed areas, Northern Ireland would have an
elected devolved Parliament, and the South would amend its constitution to drop
territorial claims to the North. Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, was happy
that the �ethos of the agreement was for one Ireland�. The Unionists were less
pleased, saying �Northern Ireland has been given an eviction notice from the
UK�.
17
February 1995, Friday
(+18,182) Peru and Ecuador settled their border dispute (see 26 January 1995).
8
February 1995, Wednesday (+18,173)
Russian workers staged a 24-hour strike, over unpaid wages.
4 February 1995,
Saturday (+18,169) Godfrey Brown, runner, died (born 21
February 1915).
3 February 1995, Friday
(+18,168) Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins became the first female space
shuttle pilot, as Discovery took off from Cape Kennedy, Florida,
2 February 1995,
Thursday (+18,167) Frederick Perry, tennis
champion, died (born 18/5/1909).
1 February 1995,
Wednesday (+18,166) Major floods hit
northern Europe during January and February. The Netherlands and Germany were worst
hit.
====================================================================================
31
January 1995, Tuesday
(+18,165)
30 January 1995, Monday
(+18,164) Gerald Durrell, naturalist, died.
29 January 1995,
Sunday (+18,163) Richard Burnell, champion rower, died (born
26/7/1917).
26
January 1995, Thursday
(+18,160) (1) Baring Brothers, Britain�s
oldest merchant bank, went into receivership after one of its futures traders,
Nick Leeson, racked up losses of over �800 million.
(2) Heavy
fighting began along the Peru-Ecuador border.
24
January 1995, Tuesday
(+18,158) The trial of former US football star OJ Simpson, for the murder
of his wife, began.
22 January 1995,
Sunday (+18,156) 22 Israelis died in Tel Aviv in a
suicide bombing by Palestinians.
19 January 1995,
Thursday (+18,153) Russian troops seized the
Presidential palace in Grozny, Chechnya.
18 January 1995, Wednesday,
(+18,152) In France, a large cave system with many prehistoric paintings
was discovered near Vallon Pont d�Arc.
17 January 1995,
Tuesday (+18,151) (Earthquake, Japan)
5.46 am, local time, earthquake in
Kobe, southern Japan, killed 6,433, and injured 27,000. The quake
measured 7.2 on the Richter Scale and made 300,000 homeless. Cost of damage was
estimated at �63 billion. It was the worst quake to hit Japan since Tokyo,
1923.
15 January 1995,
Sunday (+18,149) The British Army ended daylight patrols in Belfast, after
25 years.
9
January 1995, Monday
(+18,143) Peter Cook, writer, was born.
7 January 1995,
Saturday (+18,141) Harry Golombek, chess player, died (born
1/3/1911).
6 January 1995, Friday
(+18,140) South African Communist leader Joe Slovo died.
4
January 1995, Wednesday
(+18,138)
2 January 1995,
Monday (+18,136) Graham Sharpe, champion
figure skater, died (born 19 December 1917).
1 January 1995,
Sunday (+18,135)
(1)
Austria, Finland, and Sweden joined the European Union.
(2)
(International)
The World Trade
Organisation was created to replace GATT.
(3)
Fred West, accused of mass murder, hanged himself inside Winson Green prison,
Birmingham.
(4) Mercosur,
comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, came into existence.
=====================================================================================
31 December 1994,
Saturday (+18,134) (1) A
four-month ceasefire was agreed by the combatants in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
(2) Britain
began using the Trident nuclear deterrent on its submarines.
(3) Russian
forces attacked the Chechen capital Grozny.
30
December 1994, Friday
(+18,133)
28 December 1994, Wednesday
(+18,131) James Woolsey, director of the CIA, resigned after allegations
that the organisation was vulnerable to double agents.
27 December 1994,
Tuesday (+18,130) Peter May, cricketer, died (born
31 December 1929).
26 December 1994,
Monday (+16,129) Djibouti signed a peace agreement with FRUD (Front for the Restoration
of Unity and Democracy). FRUD was an Afar guerrilla group.
25 December 1994,
Sunday (+18,128) Protests by indigenous villagers of Papua
against mine pollution (see 1936) were met with military attacks, killing three
protestors,
24 December 1994, Saturday
(+18,127) British playwright John Osborne died.
22
December 1994, Thursday
(+18,125) Silvio Berlusconi resigned after allegations of busoiness
corruption.
19 December 1994, Monday (+18,122) (1) A financial
meltdown began in Mexico, unleashing the �Tequila Crisis� on world
markets.� The Clinton administration
bailed out Mexico with US$50,000 billion.
(2)
Civil unions between homosexuals were made legal in Sweden.
17 December 1994,
Saturday (+18,120)
Eurotunnel announced that the fare for the Channel Tunnel was to be �49 day
return for a car.
16 December 1994, Friday
(+18,119) Mary Durack, poet, died.
15 December 1994,
Thursday (+18,118) (1) In Ireland, Fine Gael formad a coalition
Government with the Labour Party. John Bruton became Taoiseach (Prime
Minister).
(2)
The Web browser Netscape 1.0 was launched.
14 December 1994, Wednesday
(+18,117) In Australia the Wollemi pine, a relic from the age of the
dinosaurs, was discovered growing in the Blue Mountains.
11 December 1994,
Sunday (+18,114) Boris Yeltsin ordered troops into Chechnya.
9 December 1994,
Friday (+18,112)
The first official talks between the British Government and Sinn Fein for 22
years began.
8 December 1994,
Thursday (+18,111) (USA, International) US President Clinton
signed for the USA to agree to the Uruguay Round of the GATT trade
liberalisation agreement, This replaced GATT by the WTO in 1995.
6
December 1994, Tuesday
(+18,109)
3 December 1994, Saturday
(+18,106) Elizabeth Glaser, campaigner on AIDS, died.
2 December 1994,
Friday (+18,105) The Australian
Government agreed to pay compensation to indigenous Australians who were
displaced during the nuclear tests at Maralinga in the 1950s and 60s.
1
December 1994, Thursday
(+18,104)
====================================================================================
29 November 1994,
Tuesday (+18,102) Russian aircraft bombed the Chechen capital,
Grozny.
28 November 1994,
Monday (+18,103) Norwegians, in a referendum,
rejected membership of the EU, for a second time.
23 November 1994,
Wednesday (+18,096) The Taliban captured
Kandahar, Afghanistan. See 26/9/1996.
21 November 1994, Monday
(+18,094) NATO launched airstrikes against Serb forces near Bihac.
20 November 1994, Sunday (+18,093)
The Angolan Government and UNITA signed the Lusaka Protocol.
19 November 1994, Saturday (+18,092) First
National Lottery draw in the UK. Seven people shared the UK� 15.8 million
jackpot prize. 25 million people bought tickets, over half the adult
population, raising UK� 45 million, half of which went on �good causes�.
18 November 1994, Friday (+18,091) Cab
Calloway, band leader, died.
17 November 1994, Thursday (+18,090) Ireland�s
coalition Government fell apart when Labour broke with Fianna Fail over the
issue of extradition of a paedophile priest. Albert Reynolds resigned as
Taoiseach.
13
November 1994, Sunday (+18,086) (1) In a
referendum, Swedish voters chose to join the European Union.
(2) The first passengers travelled through the Channel
Tunnel.
8
November 1994, Tuesday (+18,081) The
Republicans gained control of the US Congress.
1 November 1994, Tuesday (+18,074) Sydney Dernley, Britain�s
last surviving executioner, died aged 73.
=====================================================================================
31 October 1994, Monday (+18,073) The Duke of Edinburgh became
the first member of the British Royal Family to visit Israel.
26
October 1994, Wednesday (+18,068)
Israel and Jordan signed a symbolic peace treaty, ending 46 years of war, at a
ceremony attended by US President Clinton.
22 October 1994, Saturday (+18,064) In the
USA, the Rhinoceros and Tiger Act came into force. It was intended to assist
the preservation of these animals in countries where their habitat is.
21 October 1994, Friday (+18,063)
North Korea agreed to international inspection of its nuclear facilities in
return for political and economic benefits.
20 October 1994, Thursday (+18,062)
Burt Lancaster, US film actor, died.
17
October 1994, Monday (+18,059) Augustus
Risman, rugby player, died (born 21/3/1911).
15 October 1994, Saturday (+18,057)
The UN demanded that Iraq withdrew military units positioned near the border with
Kuwait. Iraq complied.
14 October 1994, Friday (+18,056) The
Nobel Peace prize was awarded jointly to Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, and
Yasser Arafat.
13 October 1994, Thursday (+18,055) Ulster�s three main Loyalist
terrorist groups announced a ceasefire.
12 October 1994, Wednesday (+18,054) The
Magellan mission to Venus ended when radio contact with the probe was lost and
the spacecraft burnt up in the atmosphere of the planet.
9
October 1994, Sunday (+18,051) The main
Tuareg opposition organisation, the Co-ordination of Armed Resistance (CRA)
signed a peace deal with the Niger Government.
7
October 1994, Friday (+18,049)
Neils Kaj Jerne, immunologist.
5
October 1994, Wednesday (+18,047) Fifty members of the Solar
Temple cult were found dead in Switzerland.
3
October 1994, Monday (+18,045) Fernando
Henrique Cardoso was elected President of Brazil.
=====================================================================================
28/9/1994,
Wednesday (+18,040)
The car ferry Estonia sank off Uto
Island in the Baltic during a heavy storm on its way to Sweden. Waves 10 metres
high had ripped off the bow doors used for loading vehicles; only 140 of the
1,047 passengers and crew survived, the worst ferry disaster in Europe since
World War Two. There were similarities to the Herald of Free Enterprise
disaster on 7/4/1987. Ferry operators had been slow
to follow recommendations for watertight bulkhead doors on
the car deck.
22/9/1994, Thursday (+18,034) The US TV show Friends premiered. It ran until 2004,
when its 6 main actors wanted to pursue movie roles; the final episode in 2004
was viewed by over 52 million in the USA.
19/9/1994, Monday (+18,031) (1) US troops went to Haiti to overthrow the
military junta led by Raoul Cedras. Former President Jean Bertrand Aristide
returned after a three-year exile on 15 October 1994, but was ousted in 2004.
(2) The medical drama ER
premiered on US TV.� Its main star was
George Clooney, playing Dr Doug Ross.
13/9/1994, Tuesday (+18,025) The
unmanned Ulysses probe passed the Sun�s south pole, revealing much information
about our star.
12/9/1994, Monday (+18,024) In
Canada the Parti Quebecois won an overall majority in the State legislature.
11/9/1994, Sunday (+18,023) Jessica
Tandy, actress, died.
10/9/1994, Saturday (+19,022)
9/9/1994, Friday (+18,021) US President
Clinton, faced with an influx of 20,000 Cubans, renegotiated with Fidel Castro
the return of travel restrictions on Cubans wishing to emigrate to the USA (see
11/8/1992).
8/9/1994, Thursday (+18,020) The last British forces left
Berlin.
7/9/1994, Wednesday
(+18,019) The American flag was
lowered over the US HQ in Berlin, formally ending American presence on the city
after almost 50 years.
3/9/1994, Saturday (+18,015) The USSR and China agreed to stop
targeting nuclear missiles at each other.
=====================================================================================
31/8/1994, Wednesday (+18,012) IRA announced a ceasefire in Northern Ireland. The British were
concerned about the omission of the word �permanent� from the ceasefire
declaration.
29/8/1994, Monday (+18,010) In
Britain, large shops were allowed to open legally for the first time on a
Sunday.
28/8/1994, Sunday (+18,009) Tokyo
hosted Japan�s first gay pride parade.
26/8/1994, Friday (+18,007) In Britain, a man aged 62 received the
world�s frist battery-powered heart,
21/8/1994, Sunday (+18,002) In Bosnia-Hercegovina, Serbian forces
captured the Muslim-dominated city of Bihac.
14/8/1994, Sunday (+17,995) Carlos the Jackal was arrested in
Sudan.
11/8/1994, Thursday (+17,992) Fidel Castro of Cuba lifted restrictions
on emigration, prompting a surge of 20,000 Cubans leaving for the USA. However
see 9/9/1994.
5/8/1994, Friday (+17,986) NATO air strike on Bosnian Serb positions near Sarajevo.
====================================================================================
25/7/1994, Monday (+17,975) Israel and Jordan signed a peace
treaty, formally ending a state of war between them that had existed since
1948.
21/7/1994, Thursday (+17,971) Tony Blair was elected leader
of the UK Labour Party. At age 41 he was the youngest leader ever. John
Prescott was elected Deputy Leader.
20/7/1994, Wednesday (+17,970) South Africa was readmitted
to the Commonwealth, after 33 years of exclusion.
18/7/1994, Monday (+17,968) Fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy were
observed by the Hubble telescope crashing into Jupiter.
9/7/1994, Saturday (+17,959) China
announced its intention to abolish Hong Kong�s Legislative Council once it took
back the territory from the UK in 1997.
8/7/1994, Friday (+17,958) North
Korean President Kim Il Sung (born 1912) died. His son Kim Jong Il succeeded
him after a power struggle.
7/7/1994, Thursday
(+17,957) Troops from North Yemen
occupied Aden.
6/7/1994, Wednesday (+17,956)
5/7/1994, Tuesday (+17,955) Yasser Arafat became the
first President of the Palestinian Authority, which had been created under the
Cairo Agreement of 1994.
4/7/1994, Monday (+17,954) Kigali
fell to the Rwandan Patriotic Front. After the Rwandan President was killed in
an air crash (see 6/4/1994) violence occurred against the Tutsi minority. Half
a million died and 1.5 million refugees were created.
3/7/1994, Sunday (+17,953)
2/7/1994, Saturday (+17,952) Andres
Escobar, Colombian footballer, whose own-goal in the USA eliminated his country
form the World Cup, was shot on his return to Medellin.
1/7/1994, Friday (+17,951) (1) PLO leader Yasser Arafat returned to Gaza to
lead the new Palestinian Authority. it was the first time he had been in
Palestine for 25 years.
(2) 1 kg old potatoes cost 40.5p. The average UK house price was �51,634.� A second class return rail fare London to
Glasgow cost �69.00
=====================================================================================
22/6/1994, Wednesday (+17,942) Russia joined NATO�s �partnership
for peace.
17/6/1994, Friday (+17,937) A car driven by former football star OJ
Simpson was chased by helicopters through Los Angeles. Simpson was later
charged with murder.
15/6/1994, Wednesday (+17,935) Israel and The Vatican
established full diplomatic relations.
12/6/1994, Sunday (+17,932) In
European Parliamentary elections, the Tories won only 18 seats to Labour�s 62.
7/6/1994, Tuesday (+17,927) SW Colombia was hit by an earthquake that
set off an avalanche. 1,000 died and many more were left homeless.
=====================================================================================
29/5/1994, Sunday (+17,918) Erich Honecker, leader of East
Germany, (born 1912) died.
27/5/1994, Friday (+17,916) Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to
Russia.
25/5/1994, Wednesday (+17,914)
The UN Security Council lifted a ban on weapons exports from South Africa,
ending the last of its Apartheid-era sanctions.
24/5/1994, Tuesday (+17,913) 4
men convicted of bombing the New York Trade centre were each sentenced to 240
years in prison.
22/5/1994, Sunday (+17,911)
20/5/1994, Friday (+17,909)
William Kitchen, speedway champion, died.
19/5/1994, Thursday (+17,908)
After 5 year�s development by biotech company Calgene,� the US Food and Drug Administration approved
the first genetically modified tomato.
16/5/1994, Monday (+17,905)
13/5/1994, Friday (+17,902)
Israel began to withdraw its forces from Jericho and the Gaza Strip, in
accordance with the Israeli-Palestinian agreement of 13/9/1993.
12/5/1994, Thursday (+17,901)
In the UK, Labour party leader John Smith died suddenly of a heart attack, aged 55. On 17/7/1994 Tony
Blair was elected leader of the Labour Party.
10/5/1994, Tuesday (+17,899) Nelson Mandela was
sworn in as the first Black president of South Africa (see 2/5/1994). Nelson Mandela voted
for the first time in his life on elections held between 26 and 29 April and
his Africa National Congress Party won an overwhelming 62.6% of the vote. The
National Party won 20.4%.
8/5/1994, Sunday (+17,897) George Peppard, actor, died.
7/5/1994, Saturday (+17,896)
Clement Greenberg, art critic, died.
6/5/1994, Friday (+17,895) The Channel Tunnel was opened
by Queen Elizabeth II and President Mitterand.� 50 kilometres long, it had taken� 15,000 workers 7 years to complete and cost
UK� 10 billion. Construction of the Tunnel was started in November 1987, and
workers met in the middle three years later. An earlier Channel Tunnel proposal
in 1907 had been withdrawn after the British military feared it would be used
for invasion.
5/5/1994, Thursday (+17,894) In
Yemen, after preliminary skirmishes, fulol scale hostilities began between
President Abdullah Saleh, representing conservative northern interests, and
Vice President Ali Saleh al Beidh, representing the Marxist south. The conflict
was mostly a power struggle between these two men, whereas most Yemenis
welcomed the unification of the country. However Saudi Arabia began supporting
President Saleh, whereas al Beidh allied with Iraq.
3/5/1994, Tuesday (+17,892)
2/5/1994, Monday (+17,891) South African President F W de Klerk conceded defeat to Nelson Mandela
in the country�s first truly democratic elections, see 10/5/1994.
1/5/1994, Sunday (+17,890) Formula
One driver Ayrton Senna (born 1960) died in a crash in Italy.
=====================================================================================
28/4/1994, Thursday (+17,887) CIA double agent Aldrich Ames was jailed
for life after pleading guilty to selling secrets to the USSR, later to Russia.
26/4/1994, Tuesday (+17,885) First multiracial elections in
South Africa. See 10/5/1994.
22/4/1994, Friday (+17,881)
Richard Nixon, 37th US President, (born 1913) died.
21/4/1994, Thursday (+17,880)
The Red Cross estimated that 100,000 had died in the Rwandan Genocide.
20/4/1994, Wednesday (+17,879)
In France, Paul Touvier was found guilty of ordering the massacre of 17 Jews
whilst serving in the Vichy France Milice.
18/4/1994, Monday (+17,877)
17/4/1994, Sunday (+17,876) Despite
NATO action, Gorazde fell to the Serbs. Allegations of massacres by Serb forces
followed.
16/4/1994, Saturday (+17,875)
In a referendum in Finland, voters decided to join the European Union.
15/4/1994, Friday (+17,874) John
Curry, figure skater, died (born 9/9/1949).
10/4/1994, Sunday (+17,869)
NATO air strikes against the Serbs around
Gorazde. This was in accordance with earlier warnings to Serbia over
its attacks on UN �safe havens� in March 1994.
6/4/1994, Wednesday (+17,865)
An air crash killed
the Presidents of both Rwanda (President Juvenal Habyarimana) and Burundi
(President Cyprien Ntaryamira). The Rwandan Patriotic Front was suspected but
so were Hutu extremists opposed to the Arusha Agreement. See 5 October 1993 and
4/7/1994. On 7/4/1994 the Hutu militia, known as the Interhamwe, began
organising the killing of many Tutsis.
5/4/1994, Tuesday (+17,864) US
rock star Kurt Cobain, frontman of Nirvana, shot himself aged 27.
3/4/1994, Sunday (+17,862) Easter Sunday.
=====================================================================================
31/3/1994, Thursday (+17,859) In Bosnia, Serb artillery
bpmbarded the UN �safe havens� of Gorazde and Srebrenica. See 10/4/1994.
28/3/1994,
Monday (+17,856) (Italy) Silvio Berlusconi became Prime
Minister of Italy He led a short-lived Rightist government.
There were concerns over possible conflicts of interest between Berlusconi�s
political responsibilities and his widespread business� interests.
25/3/1994, Friday (+17,853) US forces withdrew from Somalia,
24/3/1994, Thursday (+17,852) Allegations made in US Congress that President
Clinton and his wife behaved improperly in dealings with the Whitewater
Development Corporation. Later on this was to prove electorally damaging to
President Clinton.
23/3/1994, Wednesday (+17,851)
22/3/1994, Tuesday (+17,850) Talks between North and South Korea, aimed
at averting nuclear capability by the North, broke down and a full military
alert was set up in the South. The crisis was defused when former US President
Jimmy Carter visited Pyongyang on 15/6/1994.
19/3/1994, Saturday (+17,847)
17/3/1994, Thursday (+17,845) In France the trial of Paul Touvier, head
of the Vichy militia during World War Two, began. In April 1994 he was
sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in prison on 17/7/1996.
16/3/1994, Wednesday (+17,844) Terms were agreed for Norway to join the
European Union, subject to a Norwegian referendum.
15/3/1994, Tuesday (+17,843)
13/3/1994, Sunday (+17,841) (Yugoslavia) In
former Yugoslavia, Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Muslims formed an anti-Serb
alliance.
12/3/1994, Saturday (+17,840)
The Church of England ordained its first women priests. 32 were ordained.
11/3/1994, Friday (+17,839) Riots
in South African Black Homeland of Bophutatswana.
9/3/1994, Wednesday (+17,837)
The IRA launched a mortar attack at London Heathrow Airport.
6/3/1994, Sunday (+17,834) A referendum in Moldova showed the
electorate opposed to possible unification with Romania.
4/3/1994, Friday (+17,832) John Candy, comedian, died.
1/3/1994, Tuesday (+17,829)
South Africa ceded Walvis Bay to Namibia.
=====================================================================================
28 February 1994, Monday (+17,828) Four
Serbian planes shot down by US F-16 pilots over Bosnia, for violating the
US-imposed no-fly zone there.
27
February 1994, Sunday (+17,827)
26 February 1994, Saturday (+17,826) Russia announced an amnesty
for political p0risoners, including those�
involved in the 1991 coup that brought down the Soviet Union.
25 February 1994, Friday (+17,825) Kahanist
Baruch Goldstein opened fire in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, killing
29 Muslims, before worshippers overpowered him and beat him to death.
24 February 1994, Thursday (+17,824)
Police in Gloucester began excavating the property of Frederick West at 25
Cromwell Street.� He and his wife were
arrested on 28 February 1994.
23 February 1994, Wednesday (+17,823)
Dakota Fanning, actress, was born.
21
February 1994, Monday (+17,821) In Britain, Parliament voted
to lower the age of consent for homosexuals from 21 to 18.
19
February 1994, Saturday (+17,819)
English film director Derek Jarman died.
13
February 1994, Sunday (+17,813) Liverpool
FC signed record �4m shirt sponsorship deal with Danish brewers Carlsberg.
9
February 1994, Wednesday (+17,809)
The Vance-Owen peace plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina was announced.
6 February 1994, Sunday (+17,806) Joseph
Cotton, author, died.
5 February 1994, Saturday (+17,805) 70
killed and 200 injured in a Serb mortar attack on Sarajevo marketplace.
3 February 1994, Thursday
(+17,803) US President Clinton lifted
trade sanctions against Vietnam; In December 1992 President Bush had allowed US
companies to open offices in Vietnam but the embargo meant they could not yet
trade there.
=====================================================================================
31
January 1994, Monday (+17,800)
German car manufacturer BMW announced the purchase of Rover from British
Aerospace for US$ 800 million.
26
January 1994, In Australia, David Kang fired 2 blank shots at Prince
Charles as he was handing out Australia Day awards in Sydney. He said he was
highlighting the plight of the Cambodian boat people. Sentenced to 500 hours
community service, Kang later became a barrister specialising in criminal and
medical law.
22 January 1994, Saturday (+17,791) Telly Savalas, actor, died.
21 January 1994, Friday (+17,790) In the USA Lorena Bobbitt was cleared on
grounds of temporary insanity of malicious wounding after cutting off her
husband�s penis.
20 January 1994, Thursday (+17,789) Sir Matthew Busby, footballer, died (born
26/5/1909).
19 January 1994, Wednesday (+17,788)
Jane Brown, headmistress of a school in Hackney, London, barred pupils from
seeing Romeo and Juliet because it was �too heterosexual�.
18 January 1994, Tuesday (+17,787) Arthur Altman, songwriter, died aged 83.
17 January 1994, Monday (+17,786) A magnitude 6.7 earthquake hit
Northridge in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles.
16 January 1994, Sunday (+17,785) Canadian rock musician Bryan Adams performed
in front of 2,500 people in Ho Chi Minh City. He was the first Western
entertainer to perform in Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War, 1975.
15 January 1994, Saturday (+17,784) In a Virginia, USA, Court, Lorena Bobbitt
said she could not remember the moment she cut off her husband�s penis, after
an alleged rape by him; she leaded temporary insanity. The member was
successfully reattached by surgeons.
14 January 1994, Friday (+17,783) US President Clinton and Soviet President
Boris Yeltsin signed the |Kremlin Accords. Treaties aimed ending the
preprogrammed targetimng of nuclear missiles.
13 January 1994, Thursday (+17,782) In London, Westminster Council faced
criticism for gerrymandering election boundaries 1987-89. The Conservative
Government was tarnished by association.
12 January 1994, Wednesday (+17,781) Samuel Bronston, film producer died aged
85.
11 January 1994, Tuesday (+17,780) The Irish government ended a
15-year old broadcasting ban on the IRA and its political arm, Sinn Fein.
10 January 1994, Monday (+17,779)
UK Prime Minister John Major started his �Back to basics� campaign, calling for
a return to old-fashioned family values.
8
January 1994, Saturday (+17,777)
Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov left for the Mir Space Station. He remained
there until 22/3/1985, a record 437 days in space.
6
January 1994, Thursday (+17,775) US
figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was injured on her right leg in an attack ordered
by her rival Tonya Harding.
1 January 1994, Saturday (+17,770) (1) The North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into force.
(2) In Mexico�s Chiapas State, near the Guatemalan
border, campesinos, mostly indigenous peoples, rebelled. They named themselves
Zapatistas, after Emilio Zapatista, a hero of the 1910 Revolution. They seized
control of some large estates and turned them into communal farms. Chiapas was
the poorest State in Mexico. 26.4% of its people were of Mayan origin (average
for Mexico was 7.5%). The State had large areas unserved by electricity,
despite containing dams that generated it for other areas of Mexico, A third of
the people in Chiapas did not speak Spanish, and nearly 60% of Chiapas workers
earned under US$3.33 an hour in 1990, the National Minimum Wage for Mexico at
that time. 19% of the labour force were unwaged, working on subsistence
agriculture. The main cash crop, coffee, had fallen in price considerably. 1
January 1994 was the day NAFTA came into effect, and the Zapatistas described
NAFTA as the �death certificate� for Mexico, unable to compete with US and
Canadian enterprises. The army was deployed to counter the rebellion;
casualties were low by past Mexican standards, with some 150-400 killed.
Eventually Salinas entered negotiations with the rebels.
=====================================================================================
30
December 1993, Thursday (+17,768)
Israel and The Vatican recognised each other.
28 December 1993, Tuesday (+17,766) The Russian government announced that nearly
50% of the economy had been privatised.
27 December 1993, Monday (+17,765) In
Cairo, Muslim militants opened fire on a tourist bus, wounding 16, including 8
Australians.
26 December 1993, Sunday (+17,764) Belgian
racing car driver Andre Pilette died, aged 75.
25 December 1993, Saturday (+17,763) Death
of US (Russian-born, 8 February 1940) chess champion, Boris Kogan.
24
December 1993, Friday (+17,762)
22 December 1993, Wednesday (+17,760) Indigenous Australian Rights were
strengthened by the Mative Title legislation, passed this day with effect from
1 January 1994.
21 December 1993, Tuesday (+17,759) Guy des Cars, French novelist died (born
1911)
20 December 1993, Monday (+17,758) Charles Smirke, champion jockey, died (born
23/9/1906).
19 December 1993, Sunday (+17,757) Several people were inured in an IRA
bomb blast in Londonderry.
18 December 1993, Saturday (+17,756) The first corrected images from the Hubble
Telescope were taken.
17 December 1993, Friday (+17,755) Warring parties in Bosnia agreed to
a ceasefire from the 23rd December to the 3rd January.
However despite the ceasefire, on 25 December 1993, Serb gunmen fired over
1,300 rounds into Sarajevo, killing 6 civilians.
16 December 1993, Thursday (+17,754) Ratu Penaia Ganilau, President of Fiji
(1987-93), died aged 75.
15 December 1993, Wednesday (+17,753) (1) (UK,
Ireland)
The Downing Street Declaration; the
UK committed itself to finding a solution to the problem of Northern Ireland.
Prime Ministers John Major of the UK and John Reynolds of Ireland discussed the
possibility of a future united Ireland.
(2) (International) Completion of the GATT
Uruguay Round (began 1986 in Punta del Este, Uruguay). 117 countries signed the
economic liberalisation agreement in Marrakesh, Morocco.
14 December 1993, Tuesday (+17,752) (1) The Russian elections produced a move to the
Right. Around 50% voted for Conservative-Nationalist parties with Vladimir
Zhirinovsky (Liberal Democrat) emerging as overall leader. Yeltsin remained
President of Russia. The Baltic States feared revenge from Zhirinovsky for
their precipitating the collapse of the old USSR.
(2) Yasser Arafat, PLO leader, made his first official visit to
Britain.
13 December 1993, Monday (+17,751) A fire in textile factory in Fuzjou China, killed
60.
12 December 1993, Sunday (+17,750)
An earthquake hit Flores, Indonesia, killing
2,200.
11 December 1993, Saturday (+17,749) Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, leader of the
Coalition for Democracy, was elected President of Chile.
10 December 1993, Friday (+17,748)
(1) The Hubble
telescope was successfully repaired in space by Shuttle astronauts. Its
mirror had been slightly misshapen, blurring its vision of deep space. The
Shuttle landed safely on 13 December 1993.
(2) Builders of the Channel Tunnel officially handed over
the keys to the operators, Eurotunnel.
9 December 1993, Thursday (+17,747) Foreigners began leaving Algeria
after death threats by Islamic militants.
8 December 1993, Wednesday (+17,746) The House of Commons voted to allow large British shops to open
for six hours on Sundays. High Street shops now prepared for a price war
with the supermarkets.
7 December 1993, Tuesday (+17,745)
Felix Houphouet Boigny, President of Cote d�Ivoire, died.
5
December 1993, Sunday (+17,743)
4 December 1993, Saturday (+17,742) Frank
Zappa, US rock musician, died.
3 December 1993, Friday (+17,741) Diana Princess of Wales
announced her retirement from public life.
2 December 1993, Thursday (+17,740)
(1) The Space Shuttle Endeavour was launched on a
mission to repair flaws in the Hubble Space Telescope.
(2) A planned merger between Renault of France and Volvo
of Sweden fell through.
1 December 1993, Wednesday (+17,739)
Georgian and Abkhaz representatives met in Geneva to sign an accord to end
their conflict.
======================================================================================
28
November 1993, Sunday (+17,736) The
Observer revealed that the UK Government had a secret channel of communication
with the IRA despite UK denials.
25 November 1993, Thursday (+17,733)
English author and composer Anthony Burgess died, aged 76.
24 November 1993, Wednesday (+17,732)
Two 11 year old boys, John Venables and Robert Thompson, were found guilty
of the murder of 2-year-old James Bulger in Liverpool. Judge Michael Moreland
suggested watching violent video films had contributed to the boy�s
actions.� They were sentenced to
�indefinite detention�.
23 November 1993, Tuesday (+17,731) US
President Bill Clinton apologised to the indigenous Hawaiians for the overthrow
of the Kingdom of Hawaii in the 19th century.
21
November 1993, Monday (+17,729) Bill
Bixby, actor and director, died.
20
November 1993, Saturday (+17,728)
18 November 1993, Thursday (+17,726)
�The Georgian President extended the
country�s state of emergency indefinitely.
17 November 1993, Wednesday (+17,725)
The US Congress voted for NAFTA.
15
November 1993, Monday (+17,723)
12 November 1993, Friday (+17,720) Britain
refused to join a worldwide ban on dumping nuclear waste at sea.
11 November 1993, Thursday (+17,719)
The USA imposed new sanctions on Libya for refusing to handover two
suspects wanted for the Lockerbie bombing of a Pan Am plane.
10 November 1993, Wednesday (+17,718)
Euro Disney announced losses of US$ 900 million after its first year of business.
Europe-wide recession, high interest rates, and high unemployment were blamed
by management for the losses. The 10,000 staff fear further job cuts on top of
the 950 already dismissed, but must keep smiling to welcome the visitors (both
of them).
9 November 1993, Tuesday (+17,717) (1) The UN said the number of refugees worldwide
rose from 2.5 million in 1973 to 19.7 million today.
(2) The historic 16th century Mostar Bridge
was demolished by a barrage of shells from Croat forces fighting Muslims.
8 November 1993, Monday (+17,716) In
Stockholm, Sweden, thieves cut through the roof of the Museum of Modern Art and
stole artworks, some by Picasso and Braque. The value of the uninsured
paintings was estimated at US$ 60 million.
5
November 1993, Friday (+17,713)
4
November 1993, Thursday (+17,712) A
forest fire in the Santa Monica Mountains near Los Angeles was finally brought
under control. It had begun pon 2 November 1993, killed 3, and destroyed 400
homes. Arsonists had lit many fires in the area..
1 November 1993, Monday (+17,709) The European Union (formerly EC)
came into existence as the Maastricht Treaty came into effect for its 12 members.
=====================================================================================
31 October 1993, Sunday (+17,708) River
Phoenix, US actor, died.
28
October 1993, Thursday (+17,705)
25 October 1993, Monday (+17,702) In
Canada the Liberal Party won a decisive victory in the general election. The
Progressive Conservative Party, which had been in office since 1984, retained
only 2 seats. The Bloc Quebecois became the second-largest Party.
24 October 1993, Sunday (+17,701) Jo Grimond, UK Liberal Party
leader, died.
23 October 1993, Saturday (+17,700) An IRA bomb in Belfast killed
9.
22 October 1993, Friday (+17,699) Innes
Ireland, motor racing champion, died (born 12/6/1930).
21 October 1993, Thursday (+17,698)
Gary
Kasparov defeated Nigel Short in the chess championships.
20 October 1993, Wednesday (+17,697)
Pakistan elected Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007) as Prime Minister.
19 October 1993, Tuesday (+17,696) The UK Post Office began
selling self-adhesive stamps that didn�t need licking.
18 October 1993, Monday (+17,695) As
part of UK defence cuts, the privatisation of Devonport and Rosyth naval
dockyards was announced.
15
October 1993, Friday (+17,692) Nelson
Mandela and President F W De Klerk shared the Nobel Peace Prize.
12
October 1993, Tuesday (+17,689) The
1 millionth Toyota Camry was manufactured.
5 October 1993, Tuesday (+17,682) The
UN created a body to oversee the Arusha agreement, see 4/8/1993 and 6/4/1994.
4 October 1993, Monday (+17,681) Russian
rebels surrendered at Moscow �White House�. Troops loyal to President Yeltsin
opened fire on rebels in the White House who wanted a return to old-style
Communism. 146 people died in the�
conflict; Yeltsin pardoned the ringleaders.
3 October 1993, Sunday (+17,680)
US troops fought large-scale land battles with local militiamen in Mogadishu,
Somalia.
2 October 1993, Saturday (+17,679) Tara Lynne
Barr, US actress, was born.
1 October 1993, Friday (+17,678)
Buckingham Palace closed after being open to
the public for 8 weeks. 400,000 people visited, raising some �2.2 million.
====================================================================================
30/9/1993, Thursday (+17,677)
Earthquake in southwest India killed 10,000.
29/9/1993, Wednesday (+17,676) Alfred
Ellaby, rugby player, died (born 24 November 1902).
28/9/1993, Tuesday (+17,675) Abkhaz
rebels took the Georgian Black Sea port and resort city of Sukhumi. Georgian
President Eduard Sheverdnadze accused Moscow of helping the rebels.
27/9/1993, Monday (+17,674) (Georgia) Abkhaz
separatists, backed by Russia, captured the Georgian city of Sukhumi, which
they had been besieging.
24/9/1993, Friday (+17,671) (1) The
USA and Commonwealth lifted trade sanctions against South Africa.
(2) In the Philippines, Imelda Marcos was jailed for 18
years for corruption.
22/9/1993, Wednesday (+17,669)
The Albanian national football team were banned from swapping shirts with
their opponents, because the authorities couldn�t afford replacements.
21/9/1993, Tuesday (+17,668) (1) (Russia) In
Russia, President Yeltsin suspended the Constitution and scrapped Parliament.
(2) (Cambodia) Cambodian elections were won by
the Royalist, Funcinpec. Sihanouk became King.
(3) US Grunge band Nirvana released their third and final
album In Utero. It topped the charts
around the world and sold over 6 million copies
15/9/1993, Wednesday (+17,662) The USA, Britain, and other
Western countries agreed to sanctions on Jonas Savimbi�s UNITA forces fighting
the Angolan government.
13/9/1993, Monday (+17,660) Israel and the PLO signed a
peace accord in Washington. Shimon Peres, the Israeli Foreign Minister, shook hands with Mahmoud
Abbas, the PLO deputy chief, and Palestinian self-rule was promised. Then the
PLO leader, Yassser Arafat, held out his hand to the Israeli PM, Yitzhak Rabin.
After a slight hesitation and a nudge from the US President, Bill Clinton, the
two shook hands. On 14/9/1993 Israel and Jordan signed an agreement to
negotiate a peace treaty.
9/9/1993, Thursday (+17,656) Israel and the PLO recognised each
other�s right to exist, a major step forward in the peace process.
1/9/1993, Wednesday (+17,648) In the UK, British Sky Broadcasting
began transmissions.
=====================================================================================
30/8/1993, Monday (+17,646)
The Israeli Government approved the granting of self-rule to Palestinians
living on the West Bank and in Jericho. The PLO signed this plan on 9/9/1993.
28/8/1993, Saturday (+17,644) William Stafford, writer, died.
23/8/1993, Monday (+17,639)
US Police� raided singer Michael
Jackson�s home after a 13-year old boy made allegations of child abuse.
21/8/1993, Saturday (+17,637) Millie
Bright, footballer, was born.
20/8/1993, Friday (+17,636) Israel and the PLO signed the
Oslo Peace Accord.
18/8/1993, Wednesday (+17,634)
16/8/1993, Monday (+17,632) South
Africa agreed to return Walvis Bay, its last colonial possession, to Namibia.
15/8/1993, Sunday (+17,631) Massacre
of members of the Yanomami tribe in Brazil by gold and tin miners.
14/8/1993, Saturday (+17,630)
Armenia launched a big offensive inside
Azerbaijan near the Iranian border. Azerbaijan was also contending with another
separatist movement, also near the Iranian border, at Lenkoran.
13/8/1993, Friday (+17,629) Firebombs
planted by the IRA in Bournemouth caused damage but no injuries.
7/8/1993, Saturday (+17,623) Buckingham Palace, London,
opened to the public for the first time ever. 4,314 visited on the first day,
paying an �8 entrance fee.
4/8/1993, Wednesday (+17,620) The President of Rwanda�s
Hutu-dominated government, Juvenal Habyarima, signed the Arusha Peace Agreement
with the opposition Rwandan Patriotic Front, whose mainly Tutsi forces were
closing in on the capital, Kigali. A ceasefire was agreed and plans made for
power-sharing. 2,500 UN troops were pledged to oversee� the implementation of the agreement. But on
4/8/1993 Kigali�s Radio television Libre des Milles Collines began broadcasting
Hutu-supremacist, anti-Tutsi, propaganda. See 5 October 1993.
2/8/1993, Monday (+17,618) The
UK ratified the Maastricht Treaty.
1/8/1993, Sunday (+17,617) Major
flooding hit the Midwest Mississippi area of the USA.
====================================================================================
31/7/1993, Saturday (+17,616) King Baudouin I of Belgium
died.
25/7/1993, Sunday (+17,610) Israeli air strikes on pro-Iranian
Hizbullah positions in southern Lebanon.
23/7/1993, Friday (+17,608) Megan Taylor, figure skating champion, died.
19/7/1993, Monday (+17,604) A
poll in the UK showed only 37% of Britons believed Prince Charles was fit to be
King.
18/71993, Sunday
(+17,603) In Japan the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lost power after a
38-year rule. Corruption scandals were a major factor in this defeat. Morihiro
Hosokawa, leader of the Japan New Party, formed a coalition that dod not
include the LDP/
16/7/1993, Friday (+17,601) St Louis, Missouri, flooded as the
Mississippi broke its banks.
13/7/1993, Tuesday (+17,598) (1) Rolls Royce opened its first showroom in
Russia.
(2) Tajik rebels, helped by Afghani guerrillas from
across the border in Afghanistan, attacked Russian troops in Tajikistan who
were there to prop up the local government clinging to power against Muslim
fundamentalists.
12/7/1993, Monday (+17,597) A
magnitude 7.8 earthquake off Hokkaido caused a major tsunami to hit Okushuri
island, killing 202 people.
10/7/1993, Saturday (+17,595)
6/7/1993, Tuesday
(+17,591) Georgia steeped up resistance
to Abkhazian rebels, who were seeking their own Muslim state, around the Black
Sea resort of Sukhumi.
5/7/1993, Monday (+17,590) Following the breakup of the
Soviet Union, major cuts were announced to Britain�s Royal Navy.
4/7/1993, Sunday (+17,589)
2/7/1993, Friday (+17,587) In
Turkey, 40 died in an arson attack on a hotel by Islamist terrorists protesting
against Salman Rushdie�s book The Satanic
Verses.
1/7/1993, Thursday
(+17,586) The average UK house price
was �51,211.
=====================================================================================
29/6/1993, Tuesday (+17,584)
27/6/1993, Sunday (+17,582) US forces launched cruise missile
attack on Baghdad Intelligence HQ in retaliation for an attempted assassination
of US President George Bush in April 1993.
26/6/1993, Saturday (+17,581) Jack Bittner, entertainer, died.
25/6/1993, Friday (+17,580) Kim Campbell (born 1947) became Canada�s
first female Prime Minister (Progressive Conservative Party). In October 1993
her Party were defeated in an election by the Liberal Party, led by Jean
Chretien, and in December 1993 Campbell resigned as Party leader.
24/6/1993, Thursday (+17,579) (1) Israel announced plans to build a US$ 13
million fence around the Occupied Territories.
(2) Ireland legalised gay sex with an equal age of consent
as for homosexuals, 17.
23/6/1993. Wednesday (+17,578) The US lowered the Stars and
Stripes for the last time at the Tempelhof airbase in Berlin after 48 years of
military service there.
22/6/1993, Tuesday (+17,577) Hannah Troy, fashion designer, died.
21/6/1993, Monday (+17,576) (1) In Britain, government Minister Michael
Heseltine suffered a heart attack.
(2) Basque
separatists set off a car bomb in Madrid, killing 5 senior military officers in
a minibus. Two others were also killed, and 24 injured.
20/6/1993, Sunday (+17,575) Benjamin Mascolo, singer, was born
19/6/1993, Saturday (+17,574) The US recognised the Government in Angola.
18/6/1993, Friday (+17,573) In a second referendum, Denmark narrowly
approved the Maastricht Treaty.
17/6/1993, Thursday (+17,572) In Somalia, UN ground troops along with US helicopters launched a
dawn raid on the HQ of General Mohammed Farrah Aidid, in retaliation for an
attack that left 24 Pakistani peacekeepers dead 12 days earlier. Aidid escaped
capture or death.
16/6/1993, Wednesday (+17,571) Lindsay Hassett, Australian cricketer,
died.
15/6/1993, Tuesday (+17,570)
The last Russian troops left Cuba.
14/6/1993, Monday (+17,569) Tansu Ciller became Turkey�s first woman
president.
13/6/1993, Sunday (+17,568) Serb shells hit a hospital in the
Muslim town of Gorazde, killing 50 people.
12/6/1993, Saturday (+17,567) Sarah Peralta, US author, died.
11/6/1993, Friday (+17,566) Ali Akbar Rafsanjani was re-elected for a
second term as President of Iran.
10/6/1993, Thursday (+17,565) Scott McLaughlin, racing driver, was
born.
9/6/1993, Wednesday (+17,564) In Britain, Norman Lamont made a bitter
attack on John Major in the Commons.
6/6/1993, Sunday (+17,561) In Liberia, 270 civilians were
massacred when rebel forces of the Patriotic National Front attacked a rubber
plantation near Monrovia.
3/6/1993, Thursday
(+17,558) (1) Holbeck
Hall, Scarborough�s only 4-star hotel, began to collapse into the sea,
with its extensive gardens. The collapse took several days.
(2) Prime Minister John Major�s ratings were also falling fast. His
popularity rating fell to 21%, the lowest for ant PM since polling began in the
UK in the 1930s.
==========================================================================
30/5/1993, Sunday (+17,554) Neo-Nazi skinheads attacked and set
fire to a hostel housing Turkish migrant workers in the German steel town of
Solingen. This was the worst of several such attacks on migrant workers. The
German government responded with a crackdown on Neo-Nazis and more controls on
immigration.
28/5/1993, Friday (+17,552) Charles Barnett, cricketer, died.
27/5/1993, Thursday (+17,551)
Norman Lamont resigned as UK Chancellor; Kenneth Clarke replaced him.
26/5/1993, Wednesday (+17,550)
US First :Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton made a speech denouncing price gougers
and profiteering in medicine.
25/5/1993, Tuesday (+17,549)
24/5/1993, Monday (+17,548) (Ethiopia-Eritrea) Eritrea became
independent. from Ethiopia, after 32 years of war between them. In
1961, to gain Ethiopia as an ally against the Soviets, Western powers had
insisted on a federation of Ethiopia with Eritrea, although Eritrea was
supposed to retain its own government, Shortly afterwards, Ethiopian Emperor
Haile Selassie annexed Eritrea as a mere province. However in 1974 Haile
Selassie was deposed and the country became pro-Soviet. In 1991,with Soviet
support ended, Eritrean rebels were making headway and they managed to capture
the Eritrean capital, Asmara, in 5/1991. A referendum on independence in
Eritrea produced a majority of 99.81% in favour.
23/5/1993, Sunday (+17,547) Eseosa
Mandy Aigbogun, Swiss footballer, was born.
20/5/1993, Thursday (+17,544) In the USA, an estimated 93 million
people watched the final episode of Cheers
on NBC.
18/5/1993,Tuesday (+17,542) The Danes voted yes to the
Maastricht Treaty.
13/5/1993, Thursday (+17,537) The USA decided to discontinue the
Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI), also known as �Star Wars�.
10/5/1993, Monday (+17,534) An explosion at a doll factory
in Bangkok, Thailand killed 187.
9/5/1993, Sunday (+17,533) Freya
Stark, author, died.
8/5/1993, Saturday (+17,532)
6/5/1993, Thursday (+17,530) In
Britain, the Conservatives did badly in elections. In a by-election, they lost
Newbury on a 29% swing to the Liberals. They also did badly in county council
elections the same day.
5/5/1993, Wednesday (+17,529)
Asil Nadir, Chairman of Polly Peck, jumped bail and fled to Cyprus.
3/5/1993, Monday (+17,527)
1/5/1993, Saturday (+17,525)
President Ranasinghe Premadasa of Sri Lanka was assassinated by a suicide
bomber.
================================================================================
30/4/1993, Friday (+17,524) CERN
posted the source code for the Internet for free, for anyone to use.
29/4/1993, Thursday (+17,523)
Queen Elizabeth II announced she would open Buckingham Palace to tourists. The
�8 entrance fee was to raise money for the rebuilding of Windsor Castle,
damaged by fire in 1992.
27/4/1993, Tuesday (+17,521) The Ethiopian province of Eritrea
voted overwhelmingly for independence.
25/4/1993, Sunday (+17,519) Pope
John Paul II made the first Papal visit to Albania, until then the world�s only
officially atheist state.
24/4/1993, Saturday (+17,518) IRA bomb exploded at Bishopsgate in the City
of London. The bomb was hidden in a truck close to the Nat West Tower and left a crater of 14
square yards. One person was killed and 44 injured, and one million square feet
of office space made un-useable. Insurance claims were estimated at �1 billion.
23/4/1993, Friday (+17,517) The
World Health Organisation declared tuberculosis a global emergency, saying TB
could kill 30 million people by 2003.
22/4/1993, Thursday (+17,516) A Black teenager, Stephen
Lawrence, 18, was stabbed to death in Eltham, south east London, in a racist
attack.
20/4/1993, Tuesday
(+17,514)
19/4/1993, Monday (+17,513)
The siege at Waco, Texas, ended after 51 days. On 28 February 1993 the Branch Davidian sect, led by David Koresh, was
visited by US Federal Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms personnel to arrest Koresh
for suspected firearms offences. Sect members opened fire, killing four Federal
Agents and injuring a dozen more. US government troops and armoured cars
surrounded the sect�s ranch. On 19 April the wooden compound was set alight by
cult members as troops fired tear gas into the buildings. 86 people, including
David Koresh and 17 children, died.
18/4/1993, Sunday (+17,512) The
Muslim town of Srebrenica surrendered to Serb forces.
17/4/1993, Saturday (+17,511) Two
Los Angeles policemen were convicted of beating up Rodney King.
15/4/1993, Thursday (+17,509)
11/4/1993, Sunday (+17,505) Easter Sunday.
10/4/1993, Saturday (+17,504) Iran said income from tourism rose
by 50% over the past year.
9/4/1993, Friday (+17,503) Wouter Perquin, Dutch MP (KVP), died aged
74.
8/4/1993, Thursday (+17,502) Marian Anderson, US musician, died.
7/4/1993, Wednesday (+17,501) The former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia joined the United Nations.
6/4/1993, Tuesday (+17,500)
Queen Elizabeth became liable for Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax.
5/4/1993, Monday (+17,499) Republican Guards killed 64 in Chad.
4/4/1993, Sunday (+17,498) Armenian forces now occupied a tenth of Azerbaijan. Armenia laid claim to the enclave of Nagorny-Karabakh and was occupying
territory separating the enclave from Armenia.
3/4/1993, Saturday (+17,497) Animal
Rights activists disrupted the Grand National at Aintree, Liverpool.
2/4/1993, Friday (+17,496) 1st test flight of Fokker 70.
1/4/1993, Thursday (+17,495)�
(1) Britain agreed to send aircraft to
enforce the no-fly zone over Bosnia.
(2) A survey showed a record 69% of Australians wanted
their country to become a Republic.
=================================================================================
30/3/1993, Tuesday (+17,493)
29/3/1993, Monday (+17,492) Two Hoover executives were fired by the
American parent company Maytag after the free-flights fiasco. The deal
whereby any Hoover purchase over �100 entitled the customer to a flight worth
�400 was vastly over-subscribed and cost Hoover over �20 million.
28/3/1993, Sunday (+17,491) Type II
supernova detected in M81.
27/3/1993, Saturday (+17,490) Ziang
Zemin became President of the People�s Republic of China.
25/3/1993, Thursday (+17,488)
23/3/1993, Tuesday (+17,486) The
UN stated that record low levels of
ozone had been registered over
large areas of the Western Hemisphere.
22/3/1993, Monday (+17,485) (1) South Africa officially abandoned its nuclear
weapons programme. President de Klerk announced that the country's 6 warheads
had already been dismantled in 1990.
(2) Intel introduced the Pentium 80586 processor.
21/3/1993, Sunday (+17,484) Pope
John Paul II declared Duns Scotus a saint.
20/3/1993, Saturday (+17,483)
An IRA bomb
exploded in Warrington, killing a child.
A second child died of his injuries later. On 28/3/1993 thousands joined a
peace rally in Dublin.
19/3/1993, Friday (+17,482) UN
relief convoy reached Srebrenica, Yugoslavia.
18/3/1993, Thursday (+17,481) Kenneth
E Boulding, US economist and activist, died (born 1910).
17/3/1993, Wednesday (+17,480) In Britain, protests over
Budget plans to impose VAT on domestic fuel, initially at 8%, and at 17.5% from
1995.
16/3/1993, Tuesday (+17,479) A
patent was granted for �repositionable pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet
material�, or Post-It Notes.
14/3/1993, Sunday (+17,477) Severe storms along the east coast of the USA
killed 66 people.
12/3/1993, Friday (+17,475) 257 people were killing in a
bombing in Mumbai, India.
11/3/1993, Thursday (+17,474)
North threatened
to withdraw from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, but did not in fact
leave.
10/3/1993, Wednesday
(-17,473) Dr David Gunn, gynaecologist, was murdered by an anti-abortion
campaigner.
9/3/1993, Tuesday
(+17,472)
7/3/1993, Sunday (+17,470) Vin�cius de Freitas Ribeiro, Brazilian
footballer, was born.
6/3/1993, Saturday (+17,469) Ning Zetao, champion Chinese swimmer was
born in Zhengzhou.
5/3/1993, Friday (+17,468) Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was banned
from the sport for life after failing a drugs test. In 1988 he had been banned
for 2 years after using steroids at the Olympics.
4/3/1993, Thursday (+17,467) In Britain, a reform of the Honours
System was announced, to give greater reward for merit.
3/3/1993, Wednesday (+17,466) (1) Rolls Royce announced plans to open a showroom
in China.
(2) Tony Bland, in a vegetative state since becoming a
victim of the Hillsborough soccer disaster on 15/4/1989, was allowed to die by
doctors.
2/3/1993, Tuesday (+17,465) Paul Zimmerman, US screenwriter, died
(born 3/7/1938).
1/3/1993, Monday (+17,464) Funeral of two-year-old James Bulger, abducted from Bootle
shopping centre on 12 February 1993 and later murdered by two youths on a
Liverpool railway line; his body was found by the tracks on 16 February 1993.
Two boys aged ten from Walton, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, were charged
with the murder on 20 February 1993. The case provoked a moral panic about
social breakdown in society and �loss of values�.
====================================================================================
28 February 1993, Sunday (+17,463) In Cairo, a caf� used by foreigners
was bombed by Muslim extremists. 4 were killed and 16 injured. Americans,
Swedes, and Germans were amongst the injured.
27 February 1993, Saturday (+17,462) Alphonse Areola, footballer, was born.
26 February 1993, Friday (+17,461) Bomb exploded beneath World Trade Centre, New York. Six were
killed and hundreds injured when a bomb exploded� in an underground car park, planted by Muslim
fundamentalists.
25 February 1993, Thursday (+17,460) The USA announced it was to drop
food and medicine to Muslims besieged by Serbs in Bosnia.
24 February 1993, Wednesday (+17,459) Brian Mulroney resigned as Canadian
Prime Minister.
23 February 1993, Tuesday (+17,458) Jae Curtis, guitarist, was born/
22 February 1993, Monday (+17,457) The UN Security Council voted to establish
a War Crimes tribunal, to try cases arising from the Yugoslav civil war.
21 February 1993, Sunday (+17,456) A poll revealed that nearly 50% of
Britons would emigrate if they could, the highest since 1948.
20 February 1993, Saturday (+17,455) Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian
auto-designer (Lamborghini), died aged 76
19 February 1993, Friday (+17,454) UK Prime Minister John Major rejected the
idea of a posthumous pardon for First World War soldiers executed for cowardice
or desertion on the grounds that it would be �rewriting history�.
18 February 1993, Thursday (+17,453) In the UK, Prime Minister John Major faced anger in Parliament after UK
unemployment rose to 3,062,065 in January, the highest since April 1987.
17 February 1993, Wednesday (+17,452) Heavy fighting in Lebanon between
Israeli forces and pro-Iranian guerrillas.
16 February 1993, Tuesday
(+17,451)
14 February 1993, Sunday (+17,449)
Iran again called on Britain to hand over
Salman Rushdie, sentenced to death by Ayatollah Khomeini on 14 February 1989
for his book The Satanic Verses.
13 February 1993, Saturday (+17,448) A second three-day meeting
between the PLO and Israel in Oslo, Norway, concluded with a draft Declaration
of Principles. See 23 January 1993 and 20/8/1993.
12 February 1993, Friday (+17,447) James Bulger, two year old
toddler, was abducted and murdered by two youths in Liverpool, see 1/3/1993.
11 February 1993, Thursday (+17,446)
Buckingham Palace announced the Queen would pay income tax in April.
10 February 1993, Wednesday (+17,445)
The Pope, John Paul II, called for an end to the persecution of Christians
in Sudan.
9
February 1993, Tuesday (+17,444)
7 February 1993, Sunday (+17,442) Algeria
announced that the state of emergency imposed a year ago because of Islamic
fundamentalism would continue indefinitely.
6 February 1993, Saturday (+17,441) Joseph
Mankiewicz, film producer, died.
5
February 1993, Friday (+17,440)
3 February 1993, Wednesday (+17,438)
Statistics showed French women had the highest life expectancy in Europe at
81.1 years, 8 years more than French men.
2 February 1993, Tuesday (+17,437) US
tennis player Arthur Ashe died of AIDS.
1 February 1993, Monday (+17,436) (1) The EC began formal talks on admitting Austria,
Sweden, and Finland by 1995.
(2) The Cambodian government began an offensive against
Khmer Rouge rebels in western and north-central Cambodia.
=====================================================================================
31
January 1993, Sunday (+17,435)
29 January 1993, Friday (+17,433) The US Census Bureau announced that
the number of women in managerial jobs had risen 95% between 1980 and 1990, to
6.2 million.
28 January 1993, Thursday (+17,432) The IRA bombed Harrods for the
third time in 20 years. Four people were injured. The bomb, one pound� of Semtex, was in a litter bin, one of
several removed on the advice of the police but reinstated by Kensington and
Chelsea Council because of the litter problem left by shoppers at a Harrods
sale. The last IRA attack on Harrods had been in 1984, killing six people.
27 January 1993, Wednesday (+17,431)
A DC-3 crashed in Kinshasa, killing 12.
26 January 1993, Tuesday (+17,430) Vaclav Havel became the first
president of the new Czech Republic. He was a centre-right candidate, opposed
by Communists and the extreme-right Republican Party.
25 January 1993, Monday (+17,429)
President Mubarak of Egypt vowed to end
Muslim fundamentalism.
24 January 1993, Sunday (+17,428) In
Poland the ferry boat John Heweliusz sank, with 52 killed.
23 January 1993, Saturday (+17,427)
A three-day secret meeting between representatives of the PLO and Israel
concluded in Oslo, Norway. See 13 February 1993.
22 January 1993, Friday (-17,426) The UK government announced plans for privatising British Rail.
Passenger services were to be franchised out to up to 40 different operators,
who would hold the franchises for 5 years of more. There was Labour, and some
Tory, opposition, and investors were wary of large losses in the rail industry.
21 January 1993, Thursday (+17,425)
Abe Kobo, Japanese writer, died (born 7/3/1924).
20 January 1993, Wednesday (+17,424) (1) Bill Clinton sworn in as the 42nd
US President. Prayers were said by the Reverend Billy Graham. The Iraqi
official media advised former President Bush to commit suicide.
(2) Jonas Savimbi�s UNITA rebels took the important
Angolan oil refining town of Sayo.
19 January 1993, Tuesday (+17,423) The space shuttle Endeavour
landed after a 6-day mission.
18 January 1993, Monday (+17,422) Eleanor Hibbert, English writer, died (born
1/9/1906).
17 January 1993, Sunday (+17,421) Bookmakers cut the odds of the UK
monarchy being abolished before the year 2000 from 100-1 to 50-1.
16 January 1993, Saturday (+17,420) Florence Desmond, English actress, died
(born 31/5/1905).
15 January 1993, Friday (+17,419) The situation in Somalia continued
tense despite a ceasefire brokered and enforced by US troops.
14 January 1993, Thursday (+17,418) (1)
Despite calls for his arrest on manslaughter charges, the former East German leader, Eric Honecker, 80
years old and with terminal liver cancer, was allowed to depart for
Chile because of his failing health.
(2) The UK aircraft carrier Ark Royal set sail for
the Adriatic as part of British reinforcements for peacekeeping troops in Bosnia.
Also today the first British soldier was killed, shot by a sniper, in Bosnia,
whilst escorting an ambulance.
(3) Ramiro de Leon Carpio was sworn in as President of
Guatemala.
13 January 1993, Wednesday
(+17,417) Official statistics from Canada
showed that Chinese was the country�s third most common language, after English
and French.
12 January 1993, Tuesday (+17,416) (1)
London�s first refuge for battered
husbands opened.
(2) The Burmese military junta said it would hold
opposition leader and Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi indefinitely.
11 January 1993, Monday (+17,415) Richard Branson won a legal victory
after British Airways apologised for a �dirty tricks� campaign against Virgin
Atlantic Airways.
10 January 1993, Sunday (+17,414) Press reports emerged that Princess
Diana, already separated from her husband Prince Charles, wanted to divorce
him.
9 January 1993, Saturday (+17,413) Sir Paul Hasluck, Governor General of
Australia died (born 1/4/1905).
8 January 1993, Friday (+17,412) President Saddam Hussein of Iraq continued to defy calls by
Britain, France, The USA, and Russia to move surface-to-air missiles away from
the air exclusion zone in southern Iraq.�
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz was defiant; however the missiles
were in fact soon moved, to a location unknown to the Allies due to poor
weather.
7 January 1993, Thursday (+17,411) (1) The
British Foreign Secretary, Douglas Hurd,
became the first Cabinet Minister to visit Argentina since the Falklands War of
1982. He met Argentine President Carlos Menem, and the still disputed question
of ownership of the Falkland Islands was avoided. Oil exploration and fishing
issues were discussed,
(2) Ford unveiled its new family car, the Mondeo.
(3) In the USA, the Environmental Protection Agency
released the results of a 4-year study proving that second-hand cigarette smoke
was killing 3,000 non-smokers a year through lung cancer, as well as causing
asthma attacks and respiratory infections in babies.
6 January 1993, Wednesday (+17,410) President Alberto Fujimori restored
constitutional government in Peru.
5 January 1993, Tuesday (+17,409)
The oil tanker MV Braer ran aground off
Shetland after losing power in a storm, and began leaking all her cargo of 84,700
tons of crude oil. However fears that the Shetland Islands would be polluted
for years to come were allayed as the storm waves dispersed the oil.
4 January 1993, Monday (+17,408) (1)
Muslim fundamentalists killed two Coptic Christians in Egypt.
(2) P & O European Ferries announced the closure of its passenger
services between Dover and Boulogne after 170 years.
3 January 1993, Sunday (+17,407) President Bush of the USA and Yeltsin
of the USSR signed the START II (Strategic Arms Reduction Talks) Treaty.
2 January 1993, Saturday (+17,406) Alden Richards, TV actor, was born.
1 January
1993, Friday (+17,405)� (1) The European Single Market came into operation. Apart from the UK,
Ireland, Denmark, and Greece, passports would not be needed at frontiers within
the EU. British shoppers began to take advantage of more much relaxed limits on
the amount of alcohol and tobacco they could bring back from France.
(2) Czechoslovakia
split into the Czech and Slovak Republics, in a �velvet divorce�.
======================================================================================
31 December 1992, Thursday (+17,404) The Queen described 1992 as an �annus horibilis�, one of the worst
years for the UK monarchy since the abdication crisis of 1936. The Duke and
Duchess of York had separated, Princess Anne had divorced, the Prince of Wales
had reportedly attempted suicide through marital difficulties, and then
separated from Diana, and Windsor Castle had suffered a major fire,
on 20 November 1992. There was extensive damage to rooms, artwork, furniture,
and other effects. There was public condemnation when it emerged the
restoration cost would be met from the public purse. Six days after the fire
the Prime Minister John Major announced that the Queen was reconsidering the
scope of the Civil List and might end her exemption from income tax.
30 December 1992, Wednesday (+17,403) All Soviet troops have left
Mongolia.
25
December 1992, Friday (+17,398)
20 December 1992, Sunday (+17,393) (1)
The Folies Bergere, Paris music hall which opened in 1869, closed down.
(2) Slobodan Milosevic, widely seen as the instigator of
Serb �ethnic cleansing� in Croatia and Bosnia, was re-elected as President of
Serbia.
19 December 1992, Saturday (+17,392) (Taiwan) The first democratic General Elections
in Taiwan (see 1986). The incumbent Kuomintang won, with 53% of the vote, but
the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) made significant inroads. See 2000.
18
December 1992, Friday (+17,391)
16 December 1992, Wednesday (+17,389) (1)
Israel ordered the deportation of 415 Palestinians to Lebanon. The intifada, or
Palestinian uprising, was now in its sixth year. However Lebanon refused to
accept the deportees and they remained stranded in a no-mans-land between
Lebanon and the barbed wire border of Israel�s self-declared security zone.
(2) The IRA disrupted Christmas shopping with two bombs
in Oxford Street. Four people were injured.
15 December 1992, Tuesday
(+17,388) El Salvador�s 12-year civil
war, which had killed 75,000, officially ended.
14 December 1992, Monday (+17,387) In Algeria, Muslim extremists
ambushed and killed five policemen.
13 December 1992, Sunday (+17,386) KC Irving, Canadian industrialist, died (born
14/3/1899).
12 December 1992, Saturday (+17,385) An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the
Richter scale hit just offshore from Flores Island, Indonesia. At least 1,500
were killed as 80% of the buildings in the island�s capital, Maumere, were
destroyed.
11 December 1992, Friday (+17,384) An Edinburgh Summit of EC heads of State
discussed Denmark�s� rejection of the Maastricht Treaty.
10 December 1992, Thursday (+17,383) Melissa Roxburgh, Canadian actress, was
born.
9 December 1992, Wednesday (+17,382) The UK Prime Minister announced �to the House of Commons that Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer were to separate.
8 December 1992, Tuesday (+17,381) Yui Yokoyama, Japanese actress, was born.
7 December 1992, Monday (+17,380) (1) Three
Israeli soldiers were shot by Islamic militants on the Gaza Strip.
(2) Religious riots swept India after Hindu fanatics
destroyed the Babri Masjid mosque.
6 December 1992, Sunday (+17,379) (India) Riots followed a Hindu attack on the Ayodha Mosque, India.
This mosque was built by the first Moghul Emperor Babur in the early 16th
century; Hindus contended that it was built on top of a Hindu temple marking
the birthplace of the Hindu god, Rama. India appeared to be abandoning its
secular legacy in favour of a militant Hinduism.
5 December 1992, Saturday (+17,378)
Hilary Tindall, English actress (born 14/8/1938) died.
4 December 1992, Friday (+17,377) US troops landed in Somalia. Rival
warlord�s factions were causing chaos on Somali capital Mogadishu and hundreds
of thousands were starving in the countryside. The US sent 28,000 troops to
help relief efforts, codenamed �Restore Hope�.
3 December 1992, Thursday (+17,376) (1) The
IRA set off two bombs in Manchester.
(2) The oil tanker Aegean Sea ran aground near La Coruna,
Spain, making an oil slick 20 kilometres long.
2 December 1992, Wednesday (+17,375) The Prime Minister of Greece,
Constantine Mitsotakis, dismissed his entire Cabinet after dissent over
austerity measures broke out.
1 December 1992, Tuesday (+17,374) Two C-141B Starlifters collided in Montana
and crashed, 13 died.
======================================================================================
30 November 1992, Monday (+17,373)
SWAPO won a landslide victory in elections in Namibia.
28
November 1992, Saturday (+17,371)
27 November 1992, Friday (+17,370) (Universities) Bournemouth University
was inaugurated.
26 November 1992, Thursday (+17,369) In
Britain, the Queen announced she would pay income tax on her private income.
25 November 1992, Wednesday (+17,368)
(1) The Czechoslovak National Assembly voted
for the country to split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, on 1 January
1993.
(2) Norway began an application to join the EU.
20
November 1992, Friday (+17,363) A
fire broke out in the private chapel at Windsor Castle. The fire burned for 15
hours, causing major damage.� The cause
was a spotlight left in contact with a curtain.
18 November 1992, Wednesday (+17,361)
In Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto was put under house arrest after police broke up a
political demonstration.
17 November 1992, Tuesday (+17,360) In
France, cave paintings were discovered at Cosquer that were estimated to date
from 25,000 BC.
16 November 1992, Monday (+17,359)
A brain-dead woman had been artificially
kept alive to allow her foetus to be born; however she miscarried and the life
support was turned off.
13
November 1992, Friday (+17.356)
12 November 1992, Thursday (+17,355) In
northern Canada, a referendum amongst the Inuit people produced a majority for
a semi-autonomous territory to be called Nunavut.
11 November 1992, Wednesday (+17,354)
(Christian) The UK General Synod voted for ordination of women. Several
hundred male clergy left the Church in protest and even in 2000 there were some
1,000 Church of England congregations that were refusing to accept female
priests. The first female priests were ordained in 1994 and by 2001 around 20%
of the Church of England clergy was female. Some saw this as progressive, others
as blasphemous.
10 November 1992, Tuesday
(+17,353) In the UK, an inquiry into the Matrix-Churchill affair was
announced.
9 November 1992, Monday (+17,352)
3 November 1992, Tuesday (+17,346) Bill Clinton, 46 year old
Governor of Arkansas, was elected 42nd US President, winning decisively over the
incumbent, Republican President George Bush. Clinton got 43.7 million votes,
Bush got 38.2 million and the independent Ross Perot got 19.2 million.
2 November 1992, Monday (+17,345) Iran increased the reward for
killing Salman Rushdie.
1 November 1992, Sunday (+17,344) Reece Brown, English footballer, was born.
======================================================================================
31 October 1992, Saturday (+17,343) The Vatican admitted that Galileo was right when he said the Earth
revolved around the Sun.
30 October 1992, Friday (+17,342) A Middle East peace conference began in
Madrid, Spain.
29 October 1992, Thursday (+17,341) The Muslim town of Jajce fell to
the Serbs.
28 October 1992, Wednesday (+17,340) The American Galileo spacecraft made a
close approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first space probe to visit an
asteroid.
27 October 1992, Tuesday (+17,339) Turkey sent tanks into northern
Iraq as a security measure against Kurdish separatist guerrillas.
26 October 1992, Monday (+17,338) In a referendum,, Canadians rejected the
Charlotte-town reform which would have granted concessions to French-speaking
Quebec.
25 October 1992, Sunday (+17,337) Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
confirmed that Israel did not intend to withdraw from the Golan Heights.
20
October 1992, Tuesday (+17,332)
18 October 1992, Sunday (+17,330) More violence on the West Bank, as a
Palestinian killed an Israeli woman and injured nine other Israelis.
17 October 1992, Saturday (+17,329) Hermann Johannes, Indonesian politician and
independence fighter against the Dutch, died.
16 October 1992, Friday (+17, 328) Shirley Booth, actress, died.
15 October 1992, Thursday (+17,327) Vincent Martella, US actor, was born in
Rochester, New York
14 October 1992, Wednesday (+17,326) (Poland, Russia) The Russian KGB handed over documents to
Poland�s Lech Walesa revealing that the Russians killed Polish officers in 1940
in the Katyn Forest Massacre. The Kremlin had previously insisted it was the
Germans who had done this.
13 October 1992, Tuesday (+17,325) British Coal announced 31 pit
closures and the loss of 31,000 jobs.
12 October 1992, Monday (+17,324) Earthquake hit Cairo. It was 5.9 on
the Richter scale, with an epicentre 19 miles from Cairo, tremors were felt in
Jerusalem 250 miles away. There was panic as at least 160 buildings collapsed
and many were trampled to death in the ensuing chaos. Fortunately the Aswan Dam
was not breached.
11 October 1992, Sunday (+17,323) In
Cameroon�s first multi-party elections, President Biya won a slim majority.
10 October 1992, Saturday (+17,322) Tens of thousands rallied in Washington, D.
C., calling on the government to dedicate more funding to combating HIV/AIDS.
9 October 1992, Friday (+17,321) Two IRA bombs exploded in London, to
coincide with the Conservative Party Conference.
8 October 1992, Thursday (+17,320)
Willy Brandt, Chancellor of West Germany, died.
7 October 1992, Wednesday (+17,319) In Peru, the Shining Path leader Abimael
Guzman was convicted of treason and sentenced to life in prison.
6 October 1992, Tuesday (+17,318) A truce in the 16-year-old civil war in Angola looked fragile
after UNITA disputed election results giving the MPLA government, under
President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos a 51% to 39% lead over Jonas Savimbi.
5 October 1992, Monday (+17,317) In Guyana, general elections produced a
narrow victory for the People�s Progressive Party, ending the 28-year rule of
the People�s National Congress.
4 October 1992, Sunday (+17,316)
(1) An
Israeli El Al cargo plane crashed into a block of flats in Amsterdam shortly
after take-off, killing 75 people.
(2) Chissano signed the Rome Peace Agreement with Renamo.
This ended the Mozambique conflict.
3 October 1992, Saturday (+17,315) Matthew Little, actor, was born.
2 October 1992, Friday (+17,314) In the USA, IBM announced it was to
lay off 40,000 workers, 25% of its workforce.
1 October 1992, Thursday (+17,313) Pittsburgh�s new International Airport
opened.
====================================================================================
30/9/1992, Wednesday (+17,312) (1) Britain
introduced a new and lighter 10p coin.
(2) In Angola�s first democratically-held elections, Jose
Eduardo dos Santos defeated Jonas Savimbi.
29/9/1992, Tuesday (+17,311) (1) Racism
was on the rise in Germany. 28% of Germans aged between 16 and 24 had racist
views, compared with 15% in 1990.
(2) �Pope John Paul
II visited Ireland for a 3-day visit. 1.2 million people, a third of the
population, attended his Mass in Phoenix Park, Dublin.
27/9/1993, Sunday (+17,309)
24/9/1992, Thursday (+17,306)
The National Heritage Minister David Mellor resigned after a sex scandal.
23/9/1992, Wednesday (+17,305) Abimael
Guzman Reynoso Shining Path leader, was arrested in Peru after 12 years as a
wanted man..
20/9/1992, Sunday (+17,302) The Maastricht issue split the
EC, with France voting narrowly for it but Denmark voting narrowly
against it. The idea was to further integrate Europe. British politics was also
split with �Euro-sceptics� on the Conservative back benches harassing John
Major, Prime Minister.
16/9/1992, Wednesday (+17,298) �Black Wednesday�
as Britain was forced out of the ERM by currency speculators betting on a fall
in the pound.� The Italian
Lira was also ejected.� George Soros,
financier, had �sold short� more than UK� 5 billion in the currency markets.
12/9/1992, Saturday (+17,294) A
Los Angeles traffic warden ticketed a Cadillac without noticing that the driver
inside was dead. He had been shot in the back of the head 13 hours earlier.
11/9/1992, Friday (+17,293)
Hurricane Iniki devastated Hawaii, with winds up to 145 mph (235 kph). It
killed 6 people and caused US$ 2 billion damage.
10/9/1992, Thursday (+17,292)
8/9/1992, Tuesday (+17,,290)
The Japanese Cabinet approved sending peacekeeping troops to Cambodia. This was
the first overseas deployment of Japanese forces since 1945.
7/9/1992, Monday (+17,289) The
first hanging in over 20 years took place in Afghanistan, with around 3,000 spectators.
5/9/1992, Saturday (+17,287) Pop star Prince became the highest paid
performer to date when he signed a US$ 100 million contract with Warner Bros.
3/9/1992, Thursday (+17,285) (Georgia) After
Georgian forces had pulled out of the Gagra region, following an agreed
ceasefire, Abkhaz forces under Shamil Basayev began an ethnic cleansing of the
local Georgian population, killing 30,000 Georgians and causing many others to
flee.
======================================================================================
31/8/1992, Monday (+17,282) The UN announced that 2,000 people were
dying every day in Somalia, as the state of anarchy that had followed the
overthrow of Mohammed barre made aid distribution impossible.
27/8/1992, Thursday (+17,278) The US established a �no-fly� zone
over southern Iraq, south of latitude 32 degrees.
24/8/1992, Monday (+17,275) Florida suffered major damage., as
Hurricane Andrew hit.
19/8/1992, Wednesday
(+17,270) Right
wing rioting began in Rostock, Germany.
Hundreds of right wing youths, throwing paving stones and firebombs, attacked
an immigrant hostel, cheered on by local people, in the poor Lichtenhagen area
of the city. Thousands of police were drafted in to restore order, which had
broken down when many Romanian refuges, unable to secure a place in the hostel,
had camped outside it. The asylum seekers were evacuated but fighting between
police and youths continued for days and spread to other German cities. Germany
had seen both a rise in asylum seekers and increased unemployment in the east
since reunification, as eastern industries were exposed to competition from the
more efficient west.
18/8/1992, Tuesday (+17,269) (Georgia) After
five days of fighting, Georgian forces took control of the separatist Abkhazian
capital, Sukhumi.
17/8/1992, Monday (+17,268)
15/8/1992, Saturday(+17,266) The new
Premier League, of elite English football clubs, was launched.
14/8/1992, Friday (+17,265)
After
Abkhaz Separatists wanting to secede from Georgia had attacked Georgian
Government buildings in 6/1992, this day the Georgian police and National Guard
entered the Abkhaz capital, Sukhumi, to restore authority. Georgian forces were
bolstered by prisoners who had been offered freedom if they fought the Abkhaz.
13/8/1992, Thursday (+17,264) Jan
Elburg, poet, died.
12/8/1992, Wednesday (+17,263)
US composer John Cage died, aged 79.
11/8/1992, Tuesday (+17,262) The
biggest shopping mall in the USA opened in Minnesota. It had over 300 stores,
covering 4.2 million square feet.
10/8/1992, Monday (+17,.261) (Space exploration) The European Space
Agency launched Topex/Poseidon, a geodetic mapping satellite.
9/8/1992, Sunday (+17,260) The Barcelona Olympic Games closed.
3/8/1992, (1) Monday (+17,254) Reports from Bosnia told of
Nazi-style concentration camps and ethnic cleansing.
(2) The US began forces manoeuvres in Kuwait, as a
warning to Iraq.
=====================================================================================
31/7/1992, Friday (+17,251) The 25th Olympic Games
were held in Barcelona. Black market tickets to the Olympics had been selling
for $1,500.
29/7/1992, Wednesday (+17,249)
Herr Honecker, former leader of East Germany, was forced to leave the Chilean
Embassy in Moscow where he had taken refuge, to face manslaughter charges over
the deaths of people trying to escape over the Berlin Wall to West Germany.
28/7/1992, Tuesday (+17,248) Afghanistan
banned women, even wearing veils, from being seen on TV.
27/7/1992, Monday (+17,247) Max
Dupain, photographer, died.
23/7/1992, Thursday (+17,243) The UK saw riots in Bristol, Carlisle, Blackburn, Burnley, and Huddersfield.
62 youths were arrested.
20/7/1992, Monday (+17,240) Vaclav Havel resigned as President
of Czechoslovakia. This was after a proclamation of sovereignty by Slovakia,
which was to split the country in two.
18/7/1992, Saturday (+17,238) John
Smith elected leader of the British Labour Party.
17/7/1992, Friday (+17,237) Following
the June elections, Slovakian MPs voted for independence.
15/7/1992, Wednesday (+17,235) British MPs gave themselves a 40%
rise on their expenses.
13/7/1992, Monday (+17,233)
Britain�s former executioner, Albert
Pierrepoint, died.
10/7/1992, Friday (+17,230) Ex-President Noriega of Nicaragua,
forcibly brought into the USA, was sentenced to 40 years on drugs charges.
9/7/1992, Thursday (+17,229)
(1) Chris
Patten, last British Governor of Hong Kong, took office; the colony was to be
handed back to China in 1997.
(2) El Dorado
was first broadcast on BBC1.
8/7/1992, Wednesday (+17,228)
Thomas Klestil became President of Austria
7/7/1992, Tuesday (+17,227) Iraq again obstructed UNSCOM
weapons inspectors, refusing them access to the
Ministry of Agriculture, where there may have been details of Iraq�s chemical
weapons programme.
6/7/1992, Monday (+17,226) French lorry drivers blockaded
roads, causing chaos.
5/7/1992, Sunday (+17,225) UN forces arrived in the Somali capital,
Mogadishu, to help with food distribution.
4/7/1992, Saturday (+17,224) Joe Newman, US Jazz trumpeter, died (born
1922).
3/7/1992, Friday (+17,223) Crystal Dunn, US soccer player, was born.
2/7/1992, Thursday (+17,222) Ali Kafi became the new President of
Algeria.
1/7/1992, Wednesday (+17,221) The average UK house price
was �51,815.
=====================================================================================
30/6/1992, Tuesday (+17,220) Fidel
Ramos became President of the Philippines.
29/6/1992, Monday (+17,219) The
73 year old President of Algeria, Mohammed Boudiaf, was assassinated whilst
making a speech at a political rally.
28/6/1992, Sunday (+17,218) California had its strongest
earthquake for 40 years. Measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale, the epicentre was
in a sparsely-populated area of the Mojave Desert, 100 miles from Los Angeles,
and the only casualty was a child killed by a falling chimney.
27/6/1992, Saturday (+17,217) Allan Jones, US actor, died aged
84.
26/6/1992, Friday (+17,216) Joel Campbell, footballer, was
born.
25/6/1992, Thursday (+17,215) William E Harris, entertainer, died.
24/6/1992, Wednesday (+17,214) The family of US woman Rose Cipollone,
who died of lung cancer after 42 years of smoking, succeeded in a lawsuit
against the cigarette companies.
23/6/1992, Tuesday (+17,213) In South Africa the ANC withdrew from
constitutional talks in protest at the Boipatong violence.
22/6/1992, Monday (+17,212) Reginald Harris, cycling champion, died.
21/6/1992, Sunday (+17,211) Max Schneider, actor, was born.
20/6/1992, Saturday (+17,210) Police fired on Black residents in
Boipatong.
19/6/1992, Friday (+17,209) Kathleen Godfree, tennis player, died (born
7/5/1896).
18/6/1992, Thursday (+17,208) 39 people were killed in South Africa in
the Boipatong Massacre, which was allegedly by Inkatha supporters.
17/6/1992, Wednesday (+17,207) Ryan Allsop, English footballer, was
born.
16/6/1992, Tuesday (+17,206) In the Philippines, Cory Aquino was
defeated in elections by General Fidel Ramos.
11/6/1992, Thursday (+17,201) The last survivor of the Titanic disaster,
Marjorie Robb, died in Boston, USA, aged 103.
7/6/1992, Sunday (+17,197) NASCAR
stock car racing co-founder Bill France Sr. died aged 82.
6/6/1992, Saturday (+17,196) In
Czechoslovak elections, Parties favouring independence did well in Slovakia whereas
Parties favouring continued federation prevailed in Chechia.
5/6/1992, Friday (+17,195)
3/6/1992, Wednesday (+17,193)
(1) The Earth Summit began in Rio de
Janeiro. Delegates agreed to protect biodiversity and combat global
warming. This led to the UN Framework Convention oin Climate Change, which came
into force in 1994. This Framework called for developed countries to reduce CO2
emissions to 1990, and provided for technological assistance to developing
countries. These measures were strengthened by the Kyoto Protocol, 1997.� The USA, however, refused to sign the
agreement on biodiversity, seeing it as a threat to its economic growth.
(2) Australia overturned its terra nullius policy, which
had stated that the land was empty before European setlters arrived. This move
opened the way to Indigenous land claims and compensation.
2/6/1992, Tuesday
(+17,192) Denmark, in a referendum, rejected the Maastricht Treaty.
1/6/1992, Monday (+17,191) Terrorist
Carlos the Jackal was sentenced to life imprisonment in France.
======================================================================================
30/5/1992, Saturday (+17,189) The UN agreed wide-ranging sanctions
against what was left of Yugoslavia as the Belgrade �Serbian government
suppressed other races and attempted to establish a �greater Serbia� by force.
When in January 1992 the EC recognised Croatian and Slovenian independence, a
third of Croatia was occupied by Serb forces. A new phrase entered the language
� �ethnic cleansing�, as Bosnian Muslims and other non-Serbs were forcibly
expelled from villages overrun by Serb forces. Images of concentration camps
reminded people, of the horrors of World War Two as pictures of skeletal
Bosnian detainees behind barbed wire reached the West. By mid-July 1992 the
Bosnian capital Sarajevo had been under siege for over 100 days, shelled by
Serb gunners in the hills above the city, and snipers roamed freely in the
streets. Civilian casualties were appalling, and by the end of September 1992
relief efforts stalled. Winter loomed, and with it the spectre of mass
starvation in the heart of Europe.
28/5/1992, Thursday (+17,187) The US prison population reached a
record high of 823,414. One in three was being held for a drugs-related
offence.
25/5/1992, Monday (+17,184) Oscar Salfaro was elected President of
Italy.
23/5/1992, Saturday (+17,182) In Italy, Judge Giovanni
Falcone, the principal anti-Mafia investigator, was killed by a massive car
bomb.
22/5/1992, Friday (+17,181)
Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia joined the United Nations
17/5/1992. Sunday (+17,176) The Black May disturbances in Thailand.
Pro-democracy protests began against authoritarian rule. New elections were
promised for September 1992.
11/5/1992, Monday (+17,170) Carlos Herrera, inventor of the Margarita cocktail,
died.
9/5/1992, Saturday (+17,168) William Nevett, horse racing champion, died
(born 26/3/1906).
6/5/1992, Wednesday (+17,165)
Marlene Dietrich, German actress, died in Paris aged 90. She was born on 27
December 1901 in Berlin, and left Germany for the USA in 1930. Her role in the
film The Blue Angel brought her to
fame. She became a US citizen in 1937, rejecting attempts by Hitler to bring
her talents back to Germany. She played a major role in entertaining the
wartime Allied troops. In 1960, on only her second post-war visit to Germany,
she encountered hostility from pro-Nazi sympathisers. She subsequently remained
hostile to the ideas of returning to Germany again, until the fall of the
Berlin Wall in 1989, and chose the city as her final resting place.
5/5/1992, Tuesday (+17,164)
Jean Claude Pascal, actor, died.
1/5/1992, Friday (+17,160)
====================================================================================
30/4/1992, Thursday
(+17,159) In April and May, Los Angeles saw the worst rioting in the US
for more than 25 years. The racial unrest began after 4 policemen were
acquitted of assaulting a Black motorist, Rodney King, despite TV footage
showing him being kicked and beaten. The trial had been held in a white area of
town and the jury did not include a single Black person. In the riots, over 50
were killed, 4,000 injured, and four days of looting and arson saw 12,000
arrests and over US$ 1 billion of damage. 10,000 troops and National guardsmen
had to be drafted in to restore order. There were also smaller riots in other
US cities such as Atlanta and Las Vegas.
29/4/1992, Wednesday (+17,158) (1) The
autocratic Siaka Stevens regime in Sierra Leone was overthrown, by a group led
by Captain Valentine Strasser.
(2) New interim Government formed in Afghanistan,
supposedly uniting several resistance fighter groups. However infighting
continued, rendering the government ineffective.
28/4/1992, Tuesday (+17,157) The French composer Olivier Messiaen died
aged 83. Also this day the English painter Francis Bacon died in Madrid, aged
82.
27/4/1992, Monday (+17,156) Betty Boothroyd became the first
woman Speaker in the House of Commons.
26/4/1992, Sunday (+17,155) Worshippers celebrated Easter at the
Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow for the first time in 74 years.
25/4/1992, Saturday (+17,154) Kabul, Afghanistan, fell to Mujaheddin
forces.
24/4/1992, Friday (+17,153) Sean Rademaker, US actor, was born
in Washington, DC.
23/4/1992, Thursday (+17,152) Scientists in the USA announced the
discovery of �ripples� in the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation of the
universe. This helped account for the present-day uneven distribution of matter
in the Universe.
22/4/1992, Wednesday (+17,151)
Gas leaked into sewers in Guadalajara, Mexico, then exploded, killing 230.
21/4/1992, Tuesday (+17,150) Vladimir Romanov, the Pretender to the
Russian throne, died aged 74.
20/4/1992, Monday (+17,149)
The comedian Benny Hill died.
19/4/1992, Sunday (+17,148) Easter Sunday.
18/4/1992, Saturday (+17,147) Misa Eguchi, Japanese tennis
player, was born.
17/4/1992, Friday (+17,146) Hank Penny, country music singer, died aged
73 of heart failure
16/4/1992, Thursday (+17,145) President Najibullah of Afghanistan was
overthrown. Mujaheddin rebels closed in on Kabul.
15/4/1992, Wednesday (+17,144) UN sanctions imposed on Libya
(authorised by the UN, 31/3/1992) came into effect. These were because of
Libya�s refusal to hand over two men suspected of the Lockerbie bombing.
14/4/1992, Tuesday (+17,143) In Florida, an 11-year old boy successfully
�divorced� his parents in court.
13/4/1992, Monday (+17,142) (1) An
earthquake rocked Roermond in The Netherlands, along the Peel fault.
(2) Neil Kinnock resigned as leader of the UK Labour
Party, following the Conservative victory of 9/4/1992.
12/4/1992, Sunday (+17,141) Euro-Disney opened just east of Paris. The $4 billion, 4,800 acre,
complex could accommodate up to 60,000 visitors a day. It had 6 hotels with a
total of 5,200 rooms, and a total of 14,000 staff, or �cast members�. On
4/6/1992 Euro-Disney reported that it had received 1.5 million visitors, or
30,000 per day.
11/4/1992, Saturday (17,140)
Eve Merriam, US poet, died (born 19/7/1916).
10/4/1992, Friday (+17,139) A massive IRA bomb exploded at 9.25 p.m. in the City of London. The 100 lb
device killed 3 and injured 91.� It blew
out every window in the Commercial Union Tower, and many more windows in other
office blocks. Another IRA bomb went off at Staples Corner on the North
Circular, causing no injuries, but closing the flyover for some months.
9/4/1992, Thursday
(+17,138) The Conservatives under John
Major won the UK General Election.
This prompted Neil Kinnock�s resignation as Labour Party leader.
8/4/1992, Wednesday (+17,137) Punch magazine published its last issue.
7/4/1992, Tuesday (+17,136) The EC and USA recognised Bosnia-Hercegovina�s independence.
6/4/1992, Monday (+17,135) (1)
Serbian troops began the siege of Sarajevo, after Serbs in Bosnia objected to
Bosniaks and Croats seeking independence of Bosnia-Herzegovina from Serbia.
(2) Isaac Asimov,
science fiction writer, born 2 January 1920, died.
5/4/1992, Sunday (+17,134) (1) Germany�s
extreme right gained in elections, over the issue of immigrants from eastern
Europe.
(2) Samuel Moore Walton, born 29/3/1918, founder of
Wal-Mart, died.
2/4/1992, French Prime Minister
Edith Cresson resigned, and was replaced by
====================================================================================
30/3/1992, Monday (+17,128)
28/3/1992, Saturday (+17,126) The Government of Finland began an application
to join the European Union.
27/3/1992, Friday (+17,125) Martin Engelman, Dutch artist, died.
26/3/1992, Thursday (+17,124) Mike Tyson was sentenced to 10
years in jail after being found guilty of rape.
25/3/1992, Wednesday (+17,123) (1) United Newspapers announced the closure of Punch magazine, after 150 years of
publication.
(2) Barbara Harmer, 39, became the first woman pilot of
Concorde.
24/3/1992, Tuesday (+17,122)
Jeremy
Rosado, US singer, was born.
23/3/1992, Monday (+17,121) Freidrich Hayek, economist,
born 8/5/1899, died.
22/3/1992, Sunday (+17,120) The developers of Canary Wharf, London
Docklands, Olympia and York, were on the verge on bankruptcy. The UK recession,
and poor transport links to Docklands, meant 40% of its offices stood empty.
21/3/1992, Saturday (+17,119) The US Census Bureau officially estimated
the world population to be 5.4 billion, of whom 1.2 billion were Chinese. It
projected a world population of over 8 billion by 2020.
20/3/1992, Friday (+17,118) Avonne Taylor, actress, died.
19/3/1992, Thursday (+17,117) It was announced that the Duke and
Duchess of York were to separate.
18/3/1992, Wednesday (+17,116) Anthony Barr, footballer, was born.
17/3/1992, Tuesday (+17,115) (1) A
suicide bomber with a 200lb bomb destroyed the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility, saying the attack was in revenge for the
killing of Sheikh Abbas Mussawi in an Israeli helicopter ambush last month. 29
were killed and 242 injured.
(2) South African Whites voted for constitutional change.
16/3/1992, Monday (+17,114) The Nikkei had a bad day, dropping
over 3% in one day to below 20,000. It closed at 19,837, compared to nearly
40,000 three years previously. In January 2002 it fell below 10,000.
15/3/1992, Sunday (+17,113) Jack Washburn, actor, died aged 62.
14/3/1992, Saturday (+17,112) The Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Jaber al Ahmed
al Sabah, returned home.
13/3/1992, Friday (+17,111)
(1) A major quake in
eastern Turkey, 6.8 on the Richter scale, killed an estimated 1,000 people.
(2) In Rwanda,
fighting broke out between the Hutus, who held power, and the Tutsis.
12/3/1992, Thursday (+17,110) Mauritius
broke its links with the British Crown and became fully independent.
9/3/1992, Monday (+17,107) Menachem Begin, Israeli politician, died.
6/3/1992, Friday (+17,104) British Telecom announced 25,000 job
cuts, over 10% of the workforce.
5/3/1992, Thursday (+17,103) In Belgium, Christian Democrat Jean-Luc
Dehaene agreed to form a coalition government after a three-month political
crisis.
4/3/1992, Wednesday (+17,102) The Supreme Court of Algeria declared
the Islamic Salvation Front illegal. It was poised to win control of the
Parliament of Algeria in runoff elections.
3/3/1992, Tuesday (+17,101) Russian troops began withdrawing from Lithuania.
2/3/1992, Monday (+17,100) Violent clashes in Sarajevo between Serbs,
Croats and Muslims.
1/3/1992, Sunday (+17,099) A referendum in Bosnia-Hercegovina, boycotted
by Serbs, produced a majority in favour of independence from Yugoslavia.
======================================================================================
29 February 1992, Saturday (+17,098) Ruth Pitter, English poet (born 7 November 1897)
died.
28 February 1992, Friday (+17,097) Baghdad was still obstructing UN
weapons inspectors teams, until sanctions are relaxed.
27 February 1992, Thursday (+17,096) Marinus Ruppert, Dutch Trade Unionist,
died aged 80.
26 February 1992, Wednesday (+17,095) The Supreme Court of Ireland
ruled that a 14-year-old rape victim could visit the UK to get an abortion.
25 February 1992, Tuesday (+17,094) Riots in Albania over food shortages.
24 February 1992, Monday (+17,093) Kay Loring, actress, died.
23 February 1992, Sunday (+17,092) A ceasefire was agreed in Somalia.
22 February 1992, Saturday (+17,091) The Pope visited Goree Island, near Dakar,
Senegal, to commemorate the �forgotten holocaust� of the estimated 15 million
slaves who passed through this way on route to slavery in the Americas.
21 February 1992, Friday (+17,090) The UN Security Council approved
Resolution 743 and decided to send peacekeeping troops to Yugoslavia.
18
February 1992, Tuesday (+17,087)
15 February 1992, Saturday (+17,084) US composer William Schuman
died, aged 81.
14 February 1992, Friday (+17,083)
Michael Heseltine promised that the UK would phase out CFCs, which were
destroying the ozone layer. Earlier on 11 February 1992 President Bush had made
a similar commitment.
13 February 1992, Thursday (+17,082)
Carl Bildt announced the end of Sweden�s policy of neutrality.
12 February 1992, Wednesday (+17,081) (Mongolia) Mongolia adopted a new
Constitution, cementing new human rights and freedoms. The new Constitution
also created a single legislative chamber, the Great State Khural (GSKh).
10
February 1992, Monday (+17,079)
7 February 1992, Friday (+17,076) The Maastricht Treaty was
signed, founding the European Union.
6 February 1992, Thursday (+17,075) The Basque separatist group ETA set off a bomb in the centre of
Madrid.
5 February 1992, Wednesday (+17,074) Laura Liddell, English actress died
aged 83.
4 February 1992, Tuesday (+17,073) Venezuelan Lieutenant-Colonel Hugo
Chavez, originating from a poor background, founded the Revolutionary
Bolivarian Movement (MRB). Named after Venezuela�s independence hero, Simon
Bolivar, the MRB sought to overthrow the Venezuelan Government. On this day
MRB-affiliated Army units entered Caracas and attempted a coup. However at the
end of a day the coup had failed and Chavez was in prison. Nevertheless, the
coup attempt made Chavez a folk hero amongst the poor and he went on to win the
Presidential election of 1998.
3 February 1992, Monday (+17,072)
The discovery of the lost city of Ubar, dated around 2000 BC, in the Arabian
desert on the Omar-Yemen border, was announced.
2 February 1992, Sunday (+17,071) Serbia accepted the UN Peace Plan. This
provided for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of the Yugoslav Federal Army from
Croatia, and the deployment of 10,000 UN peacekeeping troops in Krajina and
eastern and western Slavonia, whilst a permanent political arragment could be
worked out.
1 February 1992. Saturday (+17,070) UN Secretary General Javier Perez de
Cuellar brokered a peace deal in El Salvador.
======================================================================================
31 January 1992, Friday (+17,069) Boris Yeltsin, leader of Russia,
made a speech at the UN calling for America and Russia to develop a joint �star
wars� shield against missiles from rogue nations.
30 January 1992, Thursday (+17,068) In Ireland, Charles Haughey, Prime
Minister, resigned over allegations of phone tapping. On 6 February 1992
Charles Reynolds became Prime Minister.
29 January 1992, Wednesday (+17,067) US President Bush announced a US$50
package of defence cuts, as part of the peace dividend�.
26 January 1992, Sunday
(+17,064) The EU lifted sanctions against South Africa.
24 January 1992, Friday
(+17,062) South African President FW de Klerk announced plans for
power-sharing with the Africa National Congress (ANC).
22 January 1992, Wednesday
(+17,060) Roberta Bondar became the first Canadian woman in space, also the
first neurologist. She spent 8 days on the International Space Station,
orbiting the Earth 129 times.
19 January 1992, Sunday (+17,057) Zhelyu
Zhelev was elected President of Bulgaria.
18 January 1992, Saturday (+17,056) (1) (China) Chinese leader Deng Xiao Ping stated that
China should continue to focus on improving its economy, even at the �cost of
embracing certain capitalistic models and ideas�. This was a marked reversal of
the ideas of Chairman Mao.
(2) Faced with
a new outbreak of terrorism, the UK government decided to send more troops to
Northern Ireland.
17 January 1992, Friday (+17,055) IBM
announced its biggest ever loss, US$ 564 million,
15
January 1992, Wednesday (+17,053)
As the old Yugoslavia broke up, the EC recognised Slovenian and Croatian
independence.
13 January 1992, Monday (+17,051) The
Speaker of the Russian Duma (Parliament) called on Boris Yeltsin to resign,
after his free-market policies in Russia had sparked massive price rises.� However on 24 January 1992 Yeltsin managed to
get austerity measures passed by the Duma, cooling the inflation.
12 January 1992, Sunday (+17,050) Russia
and Ukraine agreed to divide the Black Sea fleet.
11 January 1992, Saturday (+17,049) The
Algerian Army, alarmed by the electoral victory of the Islamists (see 26
December 1991), mounted a military coup, forcing Benjedid to resign.
8
January 1992, Wednesday (+17,046)
Bosnian Serbs declared their own Republic within Bosnia and Hercegovina in
protest at Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats decision to seek recognition from the EC.
6
January 1992, Monday (+17,044)
Dizzy Gillespie, jazz trumpeter, died.
3 January 1992, Friday (+17,041)
Civil war continued in Somalia.
2 January 1992, Thursday (+17,040)
Figures from the UK showed that the richest 1% of the population owned 18%
of the marketable wealth, whilst the poorest 60% owned 6%.
1 January 1992, Wednesday (+17,039) Butros Butros Ghali, a 69-year-old
Egyptian, became the 6th General Secretary of the United Nations.
====================================================================================
30
December 1991, Monday (+17,037)
26 December 1991, Thursday (+17,033) (Algeria) The Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) easily
won Algerian elections.
25 December 1991, Wednesday (+17,032) Above the Kremlin, Moscow,
the old Soviet flag was lowered and the new Russian flag was raised.
24
December 1991, Tuesday (+17,031)
20 December 1991, Friday (+17,027) President
Boris Yeltsin said he wanted Russia to join NATO.
19 December 1991, Thursday (+17,028) Paul Keating challenged Australian Labour
Party Prime Minister Bob Hawke for Party leadership. Keating subsequently won
the contest.
18 December 1991, Wednesday (+17,025)
The World Bank, the European Commission and the Group of Seven leading
industrial nations granted Brazil US$ 250 million for conservation work in the
Amazon rainforest. $ 100 million of that sum was for scientific research; the
rest was for the establishment of national parks, tribal reserves, and promoting
non-destructive use of Amazon Forest, such as rubber tapping and brazil-nut
harvesting.
17 December 1991, Tuesday (+17,024)
Joseph Robert Smallwood, Canadian politician who took Newfoundland into the
Canadian Federation in 1949 and became its first Prime Minister, died just
before his 91st birthday.
16 December 1991, Monday (+17,023) (1) Kazakhstan became independent from the
former USSR.
(2) An IRA bomb
exploded near Clapham Junction station, SW London.
(3) In London, Stella Rimington became the first female to
head MI5, and the first director-general to be publically named.
15 December 1991, Sunday (+17,022) (1) Wildlife investigators uncovered an illegal plot
to sell 15,000 elephant tusks for �6 million, in defiance of the international
ban on the ivory trade. The 83 tons of ivory had been bought from the
Government of Burundi by 2 South African businessmen, to sell in the Far East.
80% of Africa�s elephants had been slaughtered for their tusks in the previous
10 years.
(2) More than
470 drowned when a ferry carrying returning Egyptian pilgrims and overseas
workers sank in the Red Sea.
(3) F W de Klerk was under pressure at it emerged that
the South African Government had given money and other assistance to the Zulu
Inkatha organisation, an arch-enemy of the ANC, and had organised for Inkatha
members to travel to Israel for military training.
14 December 1991, Saturday (+17,021) The
industry lobby in Europe blocked a carbon dioxide tax.
13 December 1991, Friday (+17,020) The UN ended a ban on sporting, scientific
and academic links with South Africa.
12 December 1991, Thursday (+17,019)
The Russian Parliament voted to replace the USSR with a looser confederation to
be known as the CIS or Confederation of Independent States.
11 December 1991, Wednesday (+17,018) Artur Lundkvist, Swedish writer (born
3/3/1906) died.
10 December 1991, Tuesday (+17,017)
The marriage rate in England and Wales was less than half what it was 20 years
ago, as nearly a third of couples in their 20s chose to cohabit, not marry. At
least 10% of marriages ended in divorce within 5 years.
9 December 1991, Monday (+17,016)
�420 million was found to be missing from pension funds controlled by the late
Robert Maxwell, who died on 5 November 1991.
8 December 1991, Sunday (+17,015) The leaders of the republics of Russia, Byelorussia (Belarus), and Ukraine formed a commonwealth of independent states (CIS), after the dissolution of the USS