1993

history

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

Events of 1993

January

 ,

inaugurated as President of the United States.]]
  • January 5 – $7.4 million USD is stolen from Brinks Armored Car Depot in Rochester, New York in the 5th largest robbery in U.S. history. Four men, Samuel Millar, Father Patrick Moloney, former Rochester Police officer Thomas O'Connor, and Charles McCormick, all of whom have ties to the Provisional Irish Republican Army, are accused.
  • January 5 – M/V Braer, a Liberian oil tanker, runs aground off the Scottish island of Mainland, causing a massive oil spill.
  • January 6 – Douglas Hurd is the first high-ranking British official to visit Argentina since the Falklands War.
  • January 6–20 – The Bombay Riots take place in the city now known as Mumbai.
  • January 7 – The Fourth Republic of Ghana is inaugurated, with Jerry Rawlings as president.
  • January 14 – The Polish ferry M/S Jan Heweliusz sinks off the coast of Rügen in the Baltic Sea, killing 54 people.
  • January 15 – Salvatore Riina, the Mafia boss known as 'The Beast', is arrested in Palermo, Sicily after 23 years as a fugitive.
  • January 19 – Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) signed.
  • January 19 – IBM announces a $4.97 billion loss for 1992, the largest single-year corporate loss in United States history to date.
  • January 19 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM inspectors to use its own aircraft to fly into Iraq, and begins military operations in the demilitarized zone between Iraq and Kuwait, and the northern Iraqi no-fly zones. U.S. forces fire approximately 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Baghdad factories linked to Iraq's illegal nuclear weapons program. Iraq then informs UNSCOM that it will be able to resume its flights.
  • January 20 – Bill Clinton succeeds George H.W. Bush as the 42nd President of the United States.
  • January 24 – In Turkey, thousands protest the murder of journalist Uğur Mumcu.
  • January 25 – Mir Aimal Kasi fires a rifle and kills 2 employees outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
  • January 25 – Social democrat Poul Nyrup Rasmussen succeeds conservative Poul Schlüter as Prime Minister of Denmark.
  • January 26 – Václav Havel is elected President of the Czech Republic.
  • January 31 – Super Bowl XXVII: The Buffalo Bills become the first team to lose 3 consecutive Super Bowls as they are defeated by the Dallas Cowboys, 52–17.

February

.]]

  • February 4 – Members of the right-wing Austrian FPÖ split to form the Liberal Forum in protest against the increasing nationalistic bent of the party.
  • February 5 – Belgium becomes a federal state rather than a kingdom.
  • February 8 – General Motors Corporation sues NBC, after Dateline NBC allegedly rigged 2 crashes showing that some GM pickups can easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settles the lawsuit the following day.
  • February 10 – Lien Chan is named by Lee Teng-Hui to succeed Hau Pei-tsun as Premier of the Republic of China.
  • February 10 – Mani Pulite scandal: Italian legislator Claudio Martelli resigns, followed by various politicians over the next 2 weeks.
  • February 11 – Janet Reno is selected by President Clinton as Attorney General of the United States.
  • February 14 – Glafkos Klerides defeats incumbent George Vasiliou in the Cypriot presidential election.
  • February 14 – Albert Zafy defeats Didier Ratsiraka in the Madagascar presidential election.
  • February 17 – A ferry sinks in Haiti, killing approximately 1,215 out of 1,500 passengers.
  • February 22 – UN Security Council Resolution 808 is voted on, deciding that "an international tribunal shall be established" to prosecute violations of international law in Yugoslavia. The tribunal will is established on May 25 by Resolution 827.
  • February 24 – Prime Minister of Canada Brian Mulroney resigns amidst political and economic turmoil. Kim Campbell, his successor, becomes Canada's first female Prime Minister.
  • February 26 – World Trade Center bombing: In New York City, a van bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center explodes, killing 6 and injuring over 1,000.
  • February 28 – Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, with a warrant to arrest leader David Koresh on federal firearms violations. Four agents and 5 Davidians die in the raid and a 51-day standoff begins.

March

April

,

May

,

June

,

  • June 1 – Large protests erupt against Slobodan Milošević's regime in Belgrade; opposition leader Vuk Drašković and his wife Danica are arrested.
  • June 1 – President of Guatemala Jorge Serrano Elías is forced to flee the country after an attempted self-coup.
  • June 1 – Burundian presidential election, 1993: The first multiparty elections in Burundi since the country's independence lead to the election of Melchior Ndadaye, leader of the Front for Democracy in Burundi. The next day's legislative election sees his party win with an overwhelming majority.
  • June 5 – The National Assembly of Venezuela designates Ramón José Velásquez as successor of suspended President Carlos Andrés Pérez.
  • June 5 – 24 Pakistani troops in the UN forces are killed in Mogadishu, Somalia.
  • June 5 – Minnesota v. Dickerson: The United States Supreme Court rules that the seizure of evidence during a pat-down search is unconstitutional.
  • June 6 – Following the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement's victory, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada becomes president of Bolivia.
  • June 6 – Mongolia holds its first direct presidential elections.
  • June 8 – In Paris, Christian Didier breaks into the home of René Bousquet, banker and former Vichy France administrator, and shoots him dead.
  • June 8 – The PKK-declared ceasefire ends in Iraq.
  • June 9 – The Montreal Canadiens win their 24th Stanley Cup, defeating the Los Angeles Kings in the Finals.
  • June 14 – Multipartyists win a referendum on the future of the one-party system in Malawi.
  • June 18 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM weapons inspectors to install remote-controlled monitoring cameras at 2 missile engine test stands.
  • June 20 – A 7.5 earthquake hits Japan, killing 385 people.
  • June 20 – John Paxson's 3-point shot in Game 6 of the NBA Finals helps the Chicago Bulls secure a 99–98 win over the Phoenix Suns, and their third consecutive championship.
  • June 22 – Japan's New Party Sakigake breaks away from the Liberal Democratic Party.
  • June 23 – In Manassas, Virginia, Lorena Bobbitt cuts off the penis of her husband John Wayne Bobbitt.
  • June 24 – A Unabomber bomb injures computer scientist David Gelernter at Yale University.
  • June 24 – Andrew Wiles wins worldwide fame after presenting his solution for Fermat's Last Theorem, a problem that has been unsolved for more than 3 centuries.
  • June 25 – Kim Campbell becomes the 19th, and first female, Prime Minister of Canada.
  • June 25 – Tansu Çiller of DYP forms the new government of Turkey.
  • June 25 – Zoran Lilić succeeds Dobrica Ćosić as President of Yugoslavia.
  • June 25 – The litas is introduced in Lithuania.
  • June 25 – Jacques Attali resigns as President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
  • June 26–28 – Typhoon Koryn causes important damages in the Philippines, China and Macau.
  • June 27 – U.S. President Bill Clinton orders a cruise missile attack on Iraqi intelligence headquarters in the Al-Mansur District of Baghdad, in response to the attempted assassination of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush during his visit to Kuwait in mid-April.
  • June 27 – In Bad Kleinen, Germany, GSG 9 troopers arrest terrorists Birgit Hogefeld and Wolfgang Grams.

July

  • July 2 – An integrist mob sets fire to the hotel where The Satanic Verses translator Aziz Nesin resides in Sivas, Turkey, killing 37.
  • July 5 – Iraq disarmament crisis: UN inspection teams leave Iraq. Iraq then agrees to UNSCOM demands and the inspection teams return.
  • July 7–9 – The 19th G7 summit is held in Tokyo, Japan.
  • July 7 – Hurricane Calvin lands in Mexico. It is the second Pacific hurricane on record to land in Mexico in July, and kills 34.
  • July 12 – A magnitude 7.8 earthquake off Hokkaidō, Japan launches a devastating tsunami that kills 202 on the small island of Okushiri, Hokkaido.
  • July 16–17 – In Estonia, the majority Russian cities of Narva and Sillamäe organize illegal referendums on "territorial autonomy" to protest new citizenship laws.
  • July 19 – Japanese general election, 1993: The loss of majority of the Liberal Democratic Party results in a coalition taking power.
  • July 19 – U.S. President Bill Clinton announces his 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy regarding gays in the American military.
  • July 20 – White House deputy counsel Vince Foster commits suicide in Virginia.
  • July 23 – Candelária massacre: Brazilian police officers kill 8 street kids in Rio de Janeiro.
  • July 26 – Miguel Indurain wins the 1993 Tour de France.
  • July 26 – Asiana Airlines Flight 733 crashes into Mt. Ungeo in Haenam, South Korea; 68 die.
  • July 27 – Windows NT 3.1, the first version of Microsoft's line of Windows NT operating systems, is released to manufacturing.
  • July 29 – The Israeli Supreme Court acquits accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk of all charges and he is set free.

August

,

  • August 4 – A federal judge sentences Los Angeles Police Department officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 30 months in prison for violating motorist Rodney King's civil rights.
  • August 4 – The Japanese government issues the Kono Statement, acknowledging the comfort women's deportation.
  • August 5 – The discovery of the Tel Dan Stele, the first archaeological confirmation of the existence of the Davidic line, is announced.
  • August 6 – According to Japanese government and TBS networks reports, torrential rain and mudslides kill 72 in Kagoshima, Japan.
  • August 9 – King Albert II of Belgium is sworn into office 9 days after the death of his brother, King Baudouin I.
  • August 13 – Over 130 die in the collapse of Royal Plaza Hotel at Nakhon Ratchasima in Thailand's worst hotel disaster.
  • August 17 – For the first time, the public is allowed inside Buckingham Palace.
  • August 19 – In Norway, Varg Vikernes is arrested and charged with the murder of Øystein Aarseth, of Mayhem; he receives a 21-year sentence for this and other crimes.
  • August 21 – NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Observer orbiter 3 days before the spacecraft is scheduled to enter orbit around Mars.
  • August 28 – Ong Teng Cheong becomes the first President of Singapore elected by the population.
  • August 30 – Russia completes removing its troops from Lithuania.

September

,

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

October

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

November

December

,

  • December 1 – A train crash at Tattenham Corner railway station lead to the introduction of the current drugs and alcohol policy for railways in the UK.
  • December 2 – STS-61: NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair an optical flaw in the Hubble Space Telescope.
  • December 2 – War on Drugs: Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, head of the Medellín Cartel, is gunned down in Medellín when police try to arrest him.
  • December 2 – The September 6 merger between Renault and Volvo fails; Volvo CEO Pehr G. Gyllenhammar resigns.
  • December 5 – Rafael Caldera Rodríguez is elected President of Venezuela for the second time, succeeding interim president Ramón José Velásquez.
  • December 7 – Colin Ferguson opens fire with his Ruger 9 mm pistol on a Long Island Rail Road train, killing 16 and injuring 29.
  • December 7 – The 32-member Transitional Executive Committee holds its first meeting in Cape Town, marking the first meeting of an official government body in South Africa with Black members.
  • December 7 – President of Côte d'Ivoire Félix Houphouët-Boigny dies at 83, the oldest African head of state. He is succeeded 3 days later by Henri Konan Bédié.
  • December 10 – id Software releases Doom, a seminal first-person shooter that uses advanced 3D graphics for computer games.
  • December 11 – Chilean presidential election, 1993: Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle is elected with 58% of the vote.
  • December 11 – A variety of Soviet space program paraphernalia are put to auction in Sotheby's New York, and sell for a total of US$6.8M. One of the items is Lunokhod 1 and its spacecraft Luna 17; they sell for $68,500.
  • December 12 – Péter Boross becomes Prime Minister of Hungary following the death of József Antall.
  • December 13 – Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell resigns as head of the Conservative Party, to be succeeded by Jean Charest.
  • December 13 – The Majilis of Kazakhstan approves the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and agrees to dismantle the more than 100 missiles left on its territory by the fall of the USSR.
  • December 15 – Downing Street Declaration: The United Kingdom commits itself to the search for an answer to the problems of Northern Ireland.
  • December 15 – The Uruguay Round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) talks reach a successful conclusion after 7 years.
  • December 16 – Brazil's Supreme Court rules that former President Fernando Collor de Mello may not hold elected office again until 2000 due to political corruption.
  • December 18 – Omar Bongo is re-elected as President of Gabon in the country's first multiparty elections.
  • December 20 – The United Nations General Assembly votes unanimously to appoint a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
  • December 20 – The first corrected images from the Hubble Telescope are taken.
  • December 22 – The interim South African constitution is approved by Parliament 237–45.
  • December 29 – Argentina passes a measure allowing President Carlos Saul Menem and all future presidents to run for a second term. It also shortens presidential terms to 4 years and removes the requirement for the president to be Roman Catholic.
  • December 30 – Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations.
  • December 30 – The Congress Party gains a parliamentary majority in India after the defection of 10 Janata Dal party lawmakers.

Undated

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

Ongoing

Wars

Births

January–June

 ,

July–December

,

Deaths

January–March

 , ]]

  • January 6 – Dizzy Gillespie, American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer (b. 1917)
  • January 6 – Richard Mortensen, Danish painter (b. 1910)
  • January 6 – Rudolf Nureyev, Russian dancer (b. 1938)
  • January 15 – Sammy Cahn, American lyricist (b. 1913)
  • January 16 – Glenn Corbett, American actor (b. 1930)
  • January 18 – Eleanor Burford (Jean Plaidy, Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow, Ellalice Tate, Anna Percival, Victoria Holt, Philippa Carr), English writer (b. 1906)
  • January 20 – Kōbō Abe, Japanese author (b. 1924)
  • January 20 – Audrey Hepburn, Belgian born British-Dutch actress (b. 1929)
  • January 21 – Charlie Gehringer, American baseball player (b. 1903)
  • January 24 – Gustav Ernesaks, Estonian composer and a choir conductor (b. 1908)
  • January 24 – Thurgood Marshall, American jurist, First African-American on the Supreme Court (b. 1908)
  • January 26 – Robert Jacobsen Danish artist (b. 1912)
  • January 26 – Jeanne Sauvé, Canadian Governor General (b. 1922)
  • January 27 – André the Giant, French professional wrestler (b. 1946)
  • February 5 – Hans Jonas, German philosopher (b. 1903)
  • February 5 – Tip Tipping, British actor and stuntman (parachuting accident) (b. 1958)
  • February 5 – Joseph L. Mankiewicz, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1909)
  • February 6 – Arthur Ashe, American tennis player and activist (b. 1943)
  • February 8 – Roland Mousnier, French historian (b. 1907)
  • February 9 – Kate Wilkinson, American stage and television actress (b. 1916)
  • February 11 – Robert W. Holley, American biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1922)
  • February 18 – Kerry Von Erich, American professional wrestler (b. 1960)
  • February 20 – Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian automobile manufacturer (b. 1916)
  • February 21 – Inge Lehmann, Danish seismologist (b. 1888)
  • February 21 – Dick White, British intelligence officer (b. 1906)
  • February 23 – Phillip Terry, American actor (b. 1909)
  • February 23 – Robert Triffin, Belgian economist (b. 1911)
  • February 24 – Bobby Moore, English footballer (b. 1941)
  • February 25 – Eddie Constantine, American-born French singer and actor (b. 1917)
  • February 26 – Beaumont Newhall, American curator (b. 1908)
  • February 27 – Lillian Gish, American actress (b. 1893)
  • February 28 – Ruby Keeler, American actress (b. 1909)
  • March 3 – Albert Sabin, American biologist, developer of the oral polio vaccine (b. 1906)
  • March 5 – Cyril Collard, French filmmaker (b. 1957)
  • March 8 – Billy Eckstine, American musician (b. 1914)
  • March 11 – Dino Bravo, Italan-Canadian pro wrestler (b. 1949)
  • March 16 – Ralph Fults, last of America's depression-era outlaws. (b. 1910)
  • March 17 – Helen Hayes, American actress (b. 1900)
  • March 20 – Polykarp Kusch, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
  • March 20 – Paul László, Hungarian-born architect (b. 1900)
  • March 24 – John Hersey, American writer and journalist (b. 1914)
  • March 27 – Kate Reid, Canadian actress (b. 1930)
  • March 30 – Richard Diebenkorn, American painter (b. 1922)
  • March 31 – Brandon Lee, American actor (b. 1965)
  • March 31 – Mitchell Parish, American lyricist (b. 1900)

April–June

, ]]

]]

]]

July–September

, ]]

]]

October-December

, ]]

]]

]]

Ship events

Nobel Prizes

Templeton Prize

  • Charles Colson

See also

Notes

External links

home | This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. See full license termsIt uses material from the Wikipedia article "1993 ". | compliance | March 20th 2010