Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades: 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s - 1990s - 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s
Years: 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 - 1996 - 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
International Year for the Eradication of Poverty
Events
- January 1 - Curacao gains limited self-government.
- January 5 - Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash[?] is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone.
- January 7 - One of the worst blizzards in American history hits eastern states killing more than 100.
- January 14 - Jorge Sampaio[?] is elected president of Portugal.
- January 20 - Yasser Arafat is elected president of the Palestinian Authority.
- January 24 - Polish Premier Jozef Oleksy[?] resigns amid charge he spied for Moscow.
- January 26 - Whitewater scandal: Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies before a grand jury.
- January 27 - Colonel Ibrahim Bare Mainassara[?] deposes the first democratically elected president of Niger Mahamane Ousmane[?] in a military coup.
- January 29 - President Jacques Chirac announces a "definitive end" to French nuclear testing.
- January 30 - Suspected leader of the Irish National Liberation Army Gino Gallagher[?] is killed while in line for his unemployment benefit.
- January 31 - An explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka killing at least 86 and injuring 1,400.
- February - Iraq disarmament crisis: Recently defected Iraqi weapons program leader and son-in-law to Saddam Hussein, Hussein Kamel[?], returns to Iraq. Within days of his return, he is murdered along with his brother, father, sister and her children. Kamel had forced Iraq to reveal portions of its illegal nuclear and chemical weapons programs.
- February 1 - Communications Decency Act is passed by the United States Congress.
- February 10 - Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov for the first time.
- February 17 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, world champion Garry Kasparov beats the "Deep Blue" supercomputer in a chess match.
- March - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi forces refuse UNSCOM inspection teams access to five sites designated for inspection. The teams enter the sites only after delays of up to 17 hours.
- March 11 - John Howard becomes the twenty-fifth Prime Minister of Australia.
- March 13 - The Dunblane Massacre.
- March 14 - American President Bill Clinton commits $100 million to an anti-terrorism agreement with Israel to track down and root out terrorists.
- March 20 - In Los Angeles, California, Erik and Lyle Menendez[?] are found guilty of first-degree murder for the shotgun killing of their parents.
- March 23 - The Republic of China on Taiwan holds its first direct elections for president. Lee Teng-hui is reelected.
- March 25 - An 81-day long standoff between antigovernment Freemen[?] in Jordan, Montana and federal officers begins.
- March 26 - The International Monetary Fund approves a $10.2 billion loan to Russia for economic reform.
- April 3 - Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his Montana cabin.
- May 11 - After taking-off from Miami, a fire started by improperly-handled oxygen canisters in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Flight 592[?] causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 on board.
- May 13 - Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kills 600.
- May 20 - Gay rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of homosexuals.
- May 23 - Swede Göran Kropp[?] reaches Mount Everest summit alone without oxygen after having bicycled there from Sweden.
- May 27 - First Chechnya War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechnyan rebels for the first time and negotiates a cease-fire in the war.
- May-June - Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM supervises the destruction of Al-Hakam, Iraq's main production facility of biological warfare agents.
- June - Iraq disarmament crisis: As Iraq continues to refuse inspectors access to a number of sites, the U.S. fails in its attempt to build support for military action against Iraq in the UN Security Council.
- June 27 - 19 people are killed when a truck bomb explodes outside a U.S. military barracks in Saudi Arabia.
- July - Iraq disarmament crisis: U.N. Inspector Ritter attempts to conduct surprise inspections on the Republican Guard facility at the airport, but is blocked by Iraqi officials.
- July 5 - Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult cell, is born.
- July 8 - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a hand-delivered document, "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Security the Realm," spelling out how Israel could abrogate the Oslo Accords, and pursue a permanent annexation of the West Bank and Gaza, among other policies. The paper had been prepared for him by Richard Perle, Donald Rumsfeld, Doug Feith[?], David Wurmser[?] and John Bolton[?].
- July 18 - Flight 800 from New York crashes, killing all passengers.
- July 18-21 - Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River in Quebec, in one of Canada's most costly natural disasters.
- July 27 - The Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics kills one and injures 111.
- August 31 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi forces launch an offensive into the northern No-Fly Zone and capture Arbil.
- October/November (sources vary) - Al-Jazeera, Arabic television news channel based in Qatar, starts broadcasting.
- November - Bill Clinton defeats Bob Dole in the U.S. presidential election.
- November - Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM inspectors uncover buried prohibited missile parts. Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM teams to remove remnants of missile engines for analysis outside of the country.
- September 27 - In Afghanistan, the Taliban capture capital city Kabul after driving out President Burhanuddin Rabbani and executing former leader Mohammad Najibullah.
- December 12 - Uday Hussein is seriously injured in an assassination attempt.
- December 26 - JonBenet Ramsey, a six-year-old beauty queen, was found murdered in her family's basement in Boulder, Colorado.
- December 27 - Taliban forces retake the strategic Bagram air base[?] which solidifies their buffer zone around Kabul.
- December 29 - Guatemala and leaders of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union[?] sign a peace accord that ends a 36 year a civil war.
- December 2 - U.S. President Bill Cliton signs Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments.
- December 30 - In the Indian state of Assam, a passenger train is bombed by Bodo separatists killing 26.
- December 30 - Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel.
Art, Culture & Fashion
Births
Deaths
- January 5 - Yahya Ayyash[?], terrorist
- January 8 - François Mitterrand, French politician and President of France.
- January 17 - Barbara Jordan[?], politician
- January 20 - Gerry Mulligan[?], musician
- January 28 - Jerry Seigel[?], cartoonist, creator of "Superman"
- February 3 - Audrey Meadows[?], actress
- February 6 - Guy Madison[?], actor
- February 11 - Amelia Rosselli[?], poet.
- February 11 - Bob Shaw, science fiction writer.
- February 11 - Cyril Poole[?], English cricket player.
- February 11 - Kebby Musokotwane[?], prime minister of Zambia (1985-1989).
- February 11 - Phil Regan[?], actor
- February 16 - Edmund G. Brown[?], Governor of California
- February 16 - Brownie McGhee, blues singer
- February 20 - Toru Takemitsu, composer
- February 25 - Hang S. Ngor[?], actor
- March 4 - Minnie Pearl[?], country music performer
- March 9 - George Burns, actor, singer
- March 10 - Ross Hunter[?], producer
- March 13 - Krzysztof Kieslowski, film director
- March 26 - David Packard[?], engineer
- April 6 - Greer Garson, actress
- April 22 - Erma Bombeck, humorist, writer
- April 26 - Stirling Silliphant[?], writer, producer
- May 20 - Jon Pertwee, actor
- May 31 - Paul Peter Piech, artist
- June 15 - Ella Fitzgerald, jazz singer
- July 30 - Claudette Colbert, actress
- August 13 - David Tudor, pianist and composer
- September 13 - Tupac Shakur, rapper,poet,actor
- November 30 - Tiny Tim, musician
- December 20 - Carl Sagan - US astronomer
- Thomas Kuhn, philosopher of science
- Willie Rushton, UK comedian and cartoonist
- Paul Rand, famous American graphic designer of corporate logos
Nobel Prizes