1993
Appearance
1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003).
Events
January
- January 1 - Czechoslovakia divides. Establishment of independent Slovakia and Czech Republic.
- January 3 - In Moscow, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
- January 5 - Washington State executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the first legal hanging in America since 1965)
- January 9 – Jean-Claude Romand kills his family and tries to burn himself with his home in France
- January 11 - First edition of WWE Monday Night RAW appears on the USA Network
- January 15 - Salvatore Riina, the Mafia boss known as 'The Beast', is arrested in Sicily after three-decades as a fugitive
- January 18 - For the first time, Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is officially observed in all 50 American states.
- January 19
- IBM announces a $4.97 billion loss for 1992 which is the largest single-year corporate loss in United States history
- 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 No-Fly Zone. US 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 President of the United States of America
- January 25
- Catherine Callbeck becomes Premier of Prince Edward Island, becoming the first female Premier to be elected in Canada. (Rita Johnston was Canada's first female Premier but was not elected)
- Mir Aimal Kasi fires a rifle and kills two employees outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, USA
- January 26 - Václav Havel elected President of the Czech Republic
February
- February 8 - General Motors sues NBC after Dateline NBC allegedly rigged two crashes showing that some GM pickups can easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settles the lawsuit the following day.
- February 11
- Janet Reno is selected by President Clinton as US Attorney General.
- February 12 - 11 year old boys Robert Thompson and John Venables kill 2-year-old James Bulger in Liverpool.
- February 17 - Ferry in Haiti sinks - 285 survivors of maybe 1500 passengers
- February 23 - Gary Coleman wins a $1,280,000 lawsuit against his parents.
- February 26 - World Trade Center bombing: In New York City, a van bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center goes off, killing 6 and injuring over a thousand.
- February 28 - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest cult leader David Koresh on federal firearms violations. Four agents and five Davidians die in the raid and a 51-day standoff begins.
March
- March - First issue of Wired magazine.
- March 4 - Authorities announce the capture of suspected World Trade Center bombing conspirator Mohammad Salameh
- March 9 - Rodney King testifies at the federal trial of four Los Angeles, California police officers accused of violating King's civil rights when they beat him during an arrest
- March 11 - Janet Reno is confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn-in the next day becoming the first female Attorney General of the United States
- March 12 - Several bombs explode in Bombay, India killing about 300 and injuring hundreds more. See Bombay bombings (1993)
- March 12 - North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea says that it plans to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and refuses to allow inspectors access to nuclear sites
- March 13 - The Great Blizzard of 1993 strikes the eastern U.S., bringing record snowfall and other severe weather all the way from Cuba to Québec
- March 16 - The blizzard is reported to have killed 184, including many surprised and stranded people along the Appalachian Trail
- March 20 - IRA bomb explodes in Warrington Town Centre and kills two children; Jonathan Ball and Tim Parry
- March 27 - Jiang Zemin becomes President of the People's Republic of China.
- March 28 - Gaullists win legislative election in France and Édouard Balladur becomes prime minister of France.
- March 31 - A bug in a program written by Richard Depew sends an article to 200 newsgroups simultaneously. The term spamming is coined by Joel Furr to describe the incident.
April
- April - The Kuwaiti government claims to uncover an Iraqi assassination plot against former US President George H. W. Bush shortly after his visit to Kuwait. Two Iraqi nationals, caught with smuggled hashish and alcohol inside Kuwait, confess to driving a car-bomb into Kuwait on behalf of the Iraq Secret Service [1]
- April 6 - Russian nuclear accident at Tomsk 7
- April 6 - HMS Richmond launched for the Royal Navy
- April 7 - Attack submarine ex-Queenfish completes being recycled
- April 10 -ANC activist Chris Hani assassinated in South Africa
- April 22 - In Washington, DC, the Holocaust Memorial Museum is dedicated
- April 22 - Murder of Stephen Lawrence, London, UK
- April 23 - WHO declares tuberculosis a Global Emergency
- April 24 - Bishopsgate Bomb explodes in the City of London - 1 dead, 50 injured
- April 30 - The World Wide Web was born at CERN
May
- May 1 - Former prime minister of France Pierre Bérégovoy commits suicide
- May 1 - A Tamil Tigers suicide bomber assassinates President Ranasinghe Premadasa of Sri Lanka
- May 24 - Eritrean independence
- May 27 - A car bomb in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence - 5 dead - Mafia suspected
June
- June 6 - Mongolia holds its first direct presidential elections
- June 8 - Assassination of Rene Bousquet, the Vichy France police chief, at his Paris home
- June 9 – Los Angeles Police Department raids the home of Hollywood Madame Heidi Fleiss
- June 9 - Montreal Canadiens win their 24th Stanley Cup
- June 14? - Tansu Ciller becomes prime minister of Turkey
- June 18 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM weapons inspectors to install remote-controlled monitoring cameras at two missile engine test stands.
- June 22 - Japan's New Party Sakigake breaks away from the Liberal Democratic Party.
- June 23 - Lorena Bobbitt cuts off the penis of her husband John Wayne Bobbitt.
- July 23 - Candelaria massacre - police shoot number of street kids in Candelaria Church in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- June 8 - In Paris, Christian Didier breaks into the home of Rene Bousquet, banker and former Vichy France administrator and shoots him dead
- June 22 - Unabomber bomb injures Charles Epstein in Tiburon, California
- June 24 - Unabomber bomb injures computer scientist David Gelernter in Yale University
- June 25 - Kim Campbell becomes Canada's nineteenth and first female Prime Minister
- June 27 - US President Bill Clinton orders a cruise missile attack on Iraqi intelligence headquarters in the Al-Mansur District, 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 1 - Gian Luigi Ferry shoots 8 and injures 6 in "Pettit and Martin" law firm in San Francisco, then shoots himself
- July 5 - Iraq disarmament crisis: UN inspection teams leave Iraq. Iraq then agrees to UNSCOM demands and the inspection teams return
- July 12 - A magnitude 7.8 earthquake off Hokkaido, Japan launches a devastating tsunami, killing 202 on the small island of Okushiri, Hokkaido
- July 20 - White House deputy counsel Vincent W. Foster Jr commits suicide in Virginia
- July 23 - Candelaria Massacre ? Brazilian police officers kill 8 street kids in Rio de Janeiro
- July 29 - The Israeli Supreme Court acquits accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk of all charges and he is set free.
- July 31 - Windows NT 3.1 has been released with the support of NTFS file system.
August
- August 4 - A federal judge sentences LAPD officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 30 months in prison for violating motorist Rodney King's civil rights
- August 6 - Louis Freeh is confirmed by the United States Senate to be the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
- August 9 - King Albert II of Belgium is sworn into office nine days after the death of his brother, King Baudouin
- August 21 - NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Observer orbiter three days before the spacecraft is scheduled to enter orbit around Mars
September
- September 13 - PLO leader Yasir Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin shake hands in Washington D.C., after signing a peace accord.
- September 13 - Norwegian parliamentary election, 1993
- September 23 - The IOC selects Sydney, Australia to host the 2000 Summer Olympics.
- September 29 - An earthquake centred on Killari, Maharashtra, India kills nearly 10,000 people.
October
- October 3 - Large scale battle between US forces and local militia in Mogadishu, Somalia
- October 13 - Andreas Papandreou begins his second term as Prime Minister of Greece.
- October 25 - Jean Chrétien and his Liberal Party defeat the governing Progressive Conservative Party in the Canadian federal election.
- October - Internal Revenue Service of the United States granted full religious recognition and tax exemption to all Scientology Churches, missions and social betterment groups[2].
November
- November 1 - The Maastricht Treaty activates, formally establishing the European Union
- November 4 - Jean Chrétien becomes Canada's twentieth Prime Minister.
- November 9 - The Stari Most bridge, or Old Bridge of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, is destroyed by tank fire while fighting units of the Republika Srpska.
- November 18 - In South Africa, 21 political parties approve a new constitution.
- November 20 - Savings and Loan scandal: The United States Senate Ethics Committee issues a stern censure of California senator Alan Cranston for his "dealings" with savings-and-loan executive Charles Keating.
- November 24 - In the United Kingdom, 11-year olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables are convicted of the child murder of 2-year-old James Bulger of Liverpool (they were sentenced to "indefinite detention")
- November 28 - The Observer reveals a channel of communications has existed between the IRA and the British government, despite the government's persistent denials.
- November 30 - US President Bill Clinton signs the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (the Brady Bill) into law
December
- December 2 - Shuttle program: 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 is gunned down in Medellín when the police try to arrest him
- December 7 - Colin Ferguson opened fire with his Ruger 9mm pistol on a Long Island Railroad train, killing six and injuring 19. The event was dubbed "The Long Island Railroad Massacre."
- December 12 - Earthquake hits Flores, Indonesia - 2200 dead
- December 15 - Downing Street Declaration - United Kingdom commits itself to the search for an answer to the problems of Northern Ireland
- December 30 - Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations
Unknown Dates
- The second World Parliament of Religions is held in Chicago, Illinois
- US 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.
Births
- August 16 - Cameron Monaghan, American actor
- December 6 - Elián González, Cuban refugee
Deaths
January
- January 6 - Dizzy Gillespie, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1917)
- January 6 - Rudolf Nureyev, Russian ballet dancer (b. 1938)
- January 15 - Sammy Cahn, American songwriter (b. 1913)
- January 17 - Albert Hourani, English historian (b. 1915)
- January 20 - Audrey Hepburn, Belgian actress (b. 1929)
- January 21 - Charlie Gehringer, baseball player (b. 1903)
- January 22 - Abe Kobo, Japanese writer (b. 1924)
- January 23 - Thomas Dorsey, American singer (b. 1905)
- January 24 - Thurgood Marshall, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1908)
- January 26 - Jeanne Sauvé, Governor-General of Canada (b. 1922)
- January 27 - André the Giant, French professional wrestler and actor (b. 1946)
February
- February 5 - Joseph L. Mankiewicz, writer, producer, director
- February 5 - Tip Tipping, American actor and stuntman (parachuting accident) (b. 1958)
- February 6 - Arthur Ashe, tennis star and activist
- February 18 - Jacqueline Hill, British actress (b. 1929)
- February 20 - Ferruccio Lamborghini, automobile manufacturer
- February 24 - Bobby Moore, English footballer
- February 27 - Lillian Gish, actress
- February 28 - Ruby Keeler, actress, singer, and dancer
March
- March 8 - Billy Eckstine, American jazz musician
- March 11 - Adolph "Dino Bravo" Bresciano, Canadian professional wrestler
- March 17 - Helen Hayes, American actress
- March 20 - Polykarp Kusch, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
- March 24 - John Hersey, American author
- March 31 - Brandon Lee, American actor
April
- April 1 - Alan Kulwicki, American race car driver (b. 1954)
- April 3 - Pinky Lee, children's television host
- April 8 - Marian Anderson, American contralto (b. 1897)
- April 13 - Wallace Stegner, American writer (car accident) (b. 1909)
May
- May 1 - Pierre Bérégovoy, Prime Minister of France
- May 8 - Avram Davidson, writer
- May 27 - Werner Stocker, German actor (b. 1955)
- May 12 - Otto Frank, Anne Frank's Father
June
- June 7 - Drazen Petrovic, basketball player (b. 1964)
- June 9 - Alexis Smith, Canadian actress (b. 1921)
- June 13 - Deke Slayton, astronaut (b. 1924)
- June 15 - John Connally, Governor of Texas (b. 1917)
- June 19 - William Golding, English writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
- June 24 - Archie Williams, American athlete
- June 26 - William H. Riker, political scientist
- June 28 - Boris Christoff, Bulgarian opera singer (b. 1914)
- June 29 - Héctor Lavoe, Puerto Rican singer (b. 1946)
- June 30 - George "Spanky" McFarland, actor
July
- July 3 - Don Drysdale, baseball player
- July 13 - Davey Allison, American race car driver
- July 28 - Reggie Lewis, American basketball player
- July 31 - King Baudouin I of Belgium
August
- August 6 - Tex Hughson, Major League Baseball player (b. 1916)
- August 10 - Øystein Aarseth, musician
September
- September 9 - Helen O'Connell, Big-band singer (b. 1920)
- September 11 - Erich Leinsdorf, Austrian conductor (b. 1912)
- September 22 - Maurice Abravanel, Greek-born Swiss conductor (b. 1903)
- September 27 - Jimmy Doolittle American World War II general
October
- October 11 - Jess Thomas, American tenor (b. 1927)
- October 12 - Tofik Bakhramov, Russian footballer
- October 25 - Vincent Price, actor
- October 31 - Federico Fellini, Italian film director
- October 31 - River Phoenix, actor
November
- November 1 – Severo Ochoa, Spanish–American biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
- November 6 – Michael Vernon, Australian consumer activist (b.1932)
- November 12 – H. R. Haldeman, US central figure in the Watergate scandal
- November 20 – Eve van Grafhorst, famous Australian AIDS victim (b. 1982)
- November 21 – Bill Bixby, television actor
- November 25 – Anthony Burgess, author
December
- December 1 - Ray Gillen, American singer (b. 1961)
- December 2 - Pablo Escobar, Colombian drug lord
- December 4 - Frank Zappa, American guitarist and composer
- December 7 - Wolfgang Paul, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1913)
- December 13 - Vanessa Duriès, French novelist
- December 31 - Zviad Gamsakhurdia, first President of Georgia
- Physics - Russell Alan Hulse, Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr.
- Chemistry - Kary Mullis, Michael Smith
- Medicine - Richard J. Roberts, Philip Allen Sharp
- Literature - Toni Morrison
- Peace - Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk
- Arna Mer-Khamis / Care and Learning, ORAP (The Organisation of Rural Associations for Progress) / Sithembiso Nyoni, Vandana Shiva, Mary and Carrie Dann