January •
January 1 •
Czechoslovakia ceases to exist, as the
Czech Republic and
Slovakia separate in the
Dissolution of Czechoslovakia. • The
European Economic Community eliminates trade barriers and creates a European
single market. •
January 3 – In Moscow, Presidents
George H. W. Bush (United States) and
Boris Yeltsin (Russia) sign the
second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. •
January 5 • US$7.4 million is stolen from the
Brink's Armored Car Depot in
Rochester, New York, in the fifth largest robbery in U.S. history. • , a
Liberian-registered
oil tanker, runs aground off the Scottish island of
Mainland, Shetland, 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
Mumbai. •
January 7 – The
Fourth Republic of Ghana is inaugurated, with
Jerry Rawlings as president. •
January 8–
17 – The
Braer Storm of January 1993, the most intense
extratropical cyclone on record for the northern Atlantic Ocean, occurs. •
January 13 • The
Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is signed by President George H. W. Bush. •
Iraq disarmament crisis:
US, British and French aircraft attack Iraqi Surface to Air Missile sites in Southern Iraq. •
January 14 – The Polish ferry
sinks off the coast of
Rügen in the
Baltic Sea, killing 54 people. •
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 (→
January 1993 airstrikes on Iraq). Iraq then informs UNSCOM that it will be able to resume its flights. •
January 20 –
Bill Clinton and
Al Gore are
inaugurated as
US President and
Vice President. •
January 24 – In
Turkey, thousands protest against the murder of journalist
Uğur Mumcu. •
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 30 – The
Red Line (later known as the B Line) officially begins service in
Los Angeles, becoming the first underground
rapid transit line to open in almost 70 years.
February . •
February 4 – Members of the right-wing Austrian
Freedom Party of Austria split to form the
Liberal Forum in protest against the increasing nationalistic bent of the party. •
February 10 •
Lien Chan is named by
Lee Teng-hui to succeed
Hau Pei-tsun as
Premier of the Republic of China. •
Mani pulite scandal: Italian legislator
Claudio Martelli resigns, followed by various politicians over the next two weeks. •
February 12 –
Murder of James Bulger: Two-year-old James Bulger is abducted from
New Strand Shopping Centre by two ten-year-old boys Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, who later torture and murder him. •
February 14 •
Glafcos Clerides defeats incumbent
George Vasiliou in the Cypriot presidential election. •
Albert Zafy defeats
Didier Ratsiraka in the Madagascar presidential election. •
February 22 –
United Nations 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 is established on
May 25 by
Resolution 827. •
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 six people and injuring over one thousand.
March •
March 5 –
Macedonian Palair Flight 301, an
F-100 on a flight to
Zürich, crashes shortly after take-off from
Skopje, killing 83 of the 97 on board. •
March 8 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. The Moon appears to be 14% bigger and 30% brighter than the year's other full moons. The next time these two events coincided was in 2008. •
March 11 –
Janet Reno is confirmed by the
United States Senate and sworn in the next day, becoming the first female Attorney General of the United States. •
March 12 •
1993 Bombay bombings: Several bombs explode in
Bombay, India, killing 257 and injuring hundreds more. •
North Korea nuclear weapons program:
North Korea announces that it plans to withdraw from the
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and refuses to allow inspectors access to nuclear sites, beginning the
1993–94 North Korean Nuclear Crisis. •
March 13–
15 – The
1993 Storm of the Century strikes the eastern U.S., bringing record snowfall and other severe weather all the way from
Cuba to
Quebec; it reportedly kills 184 people. •
March 13 –
1993 Australian federal election:
Paul Keating's
Labor government is re-elected with an increased majority, defeating the
Liberal/
National Coalition led by
John Hewson. •
March 17 – The
Kurdistan Workers' Party announces a unilateral
ceasefire in
Iraq. •
March 24 • The Israeli
Knesset elects
Ezer Weizman as
President of Israel. • South Africa officially abandons its
nuclear weapons programme. President de Klerk announces that the country's six warheads had already been dismantled in
1989. •
March 27 •
Jiang Zemin becomes
President of the People's Republic of China. • Following a rash of
integrist murders (including those of foreigners),
Algeria breaks
diplomatic relations with Iran, accusing the country of interfering in its interior affairs. •
Mahamane Ousmane is elected president of
Niger. •
March 28 –
1993 French legislative election:
Rally for the Republic (Gaullist party) wins a majority and
Édouard Balladur becomes
Prime Minister. •
March 29 – The
65th Academy Awards, hosted by
Billy Crystal, are held at the
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in
Los Angeles, with
Unforgiven winning
Best Picture.
April • April–May –
1993 Four Corners hantavirus outbreak: Thirteen people are killed by
Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, mainly in the
Southwestern United States. • April–October –
Great Flood of 1993: The
Mississippi and
Missouri Rivers flood large portions of the American Midwest. •
April 8 – The
Republic of Macedonia is admitted to the
United Nations under a provisional reference "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia". •
April 11 – Four hundred fifty prisoners
rioted at the
Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in
Lucasville, Ohio, and continued to do so for ten days, citing grievances related to prison conditions, as well as the forced vaccination of
Nation of Islam prisoners (for
tuberculosis) against their religious beliefs. •
April 16 –
Bosnian War: the enclave of
Srebrenica is declared a UN-protected "safe area". Also members of the Jokeri unit of the
HVO entered the village of
Ahmići and killed 120 Muslim residents. •
April 19 –
Waco siege: A 51-day stand-off at the Branch Davidian compound near
Waco, Texas, ends with a fire that kills 76 people, including
David Koresh. •
April 20 – The
Council for National Academic Awards, the national degree-awarding authority in the United Kingdom, is officially dissolved. •
Backstreet Boys were formed in
Orlando,
Florida. •
April 21 – The Supreme Court in
La Paz,
Bolivia, sentences former dictator
Luis Garcia Meza to 30 years in jail without parole for murder, theft, fraud and violating the constitution. •
April 23 • The
World Health Organization declares
tuberculosis a global emergency. •
Eritreans vote overwhelmingly for independence from
Ethiopia in a
United Nations-monitored referendum, the
1993 Eritrean independence referendum. •
April 25 – In the
1993 Russian government referendum during the power struggle between President and Parliament a majority expresses confidence in President Yeltsin and his reform politics while rejecting early elections. •
April 26 –
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro appoints
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi Prime Minister of Italy. •
April 27 •
Eritrea: Eritrean independence is declared verified by the
United Nations. •
1993 Yemeni parliamentary election: The
General People's Congress of Yemen wins a
plurality of 121 seats. •
1993 Zambia national football team plane crash: All members of the
Zambia national football team die in a
plane crash off Libreville, Gabon en route to
Dakar,
Senegal. •
April 30 – Tennis player
Monica Seles – at this time the top-ranked player in women's tennis – is stabbed during a match at the
1993 Citizen Cup in
Hamburg,
Germany.
May •
May 1 –
Assassination of Ranasinghe Premadasa: During a
May Day rally,
President of Sri Lanka Ranasinghe Premadasa is assassinated by a
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam suicide bomber.
Prime Minister Dingiri Banda Wijetunga succeeds Premadasa as the 3rd executive president of
Sri Lanka. •
May 4 –
UNOSOM II assumes the
Somalian duties of the dissolved
UNITAF. •
May 9 –
Juan Carlos Wasmosy becomes the first democratically elected
President of Paraguay in nearly 40 years, after defeating
Domingo Laíno in the
1993 Paraguayan general election. •
May 15 –
Niamh Kavanagh wins the
Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland with
In Your Eyes. •
May 16 – The
Grand National Assembly of Turkey elects Prime Minister
Süleyman Demirel as
President of Turkey. After Demirel becomes president, the acting
Prime Minister of Turkey is
Erdal İnönü of
Social Democratic Populist Party for 40 days. •
May 19 –
SAM Colombia Flight 501, a
Boeing 727-46,
crashed during its approach to
José María Córdova International Airport, Colombia, killing all 132 occupants on board. •
May 24 –
Eritrea gains independence from
Ethiopia. •
May 25 – The
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is created in
The Hague. •
May 28 – Eritrea and
Monaco gain entry to the United Nations.
June •
June 1 • Large protests erupt against
Slobodan Milošević's regime in
Belgrade; opposition leader
Vuk Drašković and his wife Danica are arrested. •
President of Guatemala Jorge Serrano Elías is forced to flee the country after an attempted
self-coup. •
1993 Burundian presidential election: 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. •
Attack on Pakistani military in Somalia: twenty-four
Pakistani troops in the
United Nations forces are killed in
Mogadishu,
Somalia. •
June 6 • Following the
Revolutionary Nationalist Movement's
victory,
Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada becomes President of Bolivia. •
Mongolia holds its first direct
presidential elections,
Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat remains president. •
June 8 –
Kurdish–Turkish conflict: the
PKK-declared
ceasefire ends in
Iraq. •
June 11 –
Jurassic Park releases in cinemas in the United States. •
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 two missile engine test stands. •
KTTV launched
Good Day L.A. •
June 22 – Japan's
New Party Sakigake breaks away from the
Liberal Democratic Party. •
June 24 – UK mathematician
Andrew Wiles wins worldwide fame after presenting his proof of
Fermat's Last Theorem, a problem that had been unsolved for more than three centuries. •
June 25 •
Kim Campbell becomes the 19th, and first female,
Prime Minister of Canada. •
Tansu Çiller of
True Path Party forms the new government of
Turkey. •
Zoran Lilić succeeds
Dobrica Ćosić as
President of Yugoslavia. • The
litas is introduced as the new currency of
Lithuania. •
Jacques Attali resigns as President of the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. •
June 26–
28 –
Typhoon Koryn causes massive damage to 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 an Iraqi plot to assassinate former U.S. President
George H. W. Bush during his visit to Kuwait in mid-April. •
June 29 – The first
mobile phone call was made in
Greece, marking the launch of
mobile telephony services in the country by
Telestet (now NOVA).
July •
July 5 •
Iraq disarmament crisis: UN inspection teams leave Iraq. Iraq then agrees to
UNSCOM demands and the inspection teams return. • Electrochemist
Faiza Al-Kharafi is appointed rector (president) of
Kuwait University, the first woman to head a major university in the Middle East. •
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 8 –
Monsoonal floods in South Asia begin, going on to kill more than three thousand people over the next month. •
July 12 – The 7.7
Hokkaidō earthquake affects northern Japan with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (
Severe) and triggers a devastating
tsunami that kills 230 on the small island of
Okushiri, Hokkaido. •
July 18 –
1993 Japanese general election: The loss of majority of the Liberal Democratic Party results in a coalition taking power. •
July 25 – In a
terrorist attack members of the
Azanian People's Liberation Army open fire on a congregation inside
St James Church in
Kenilworth, Cape Town, killing eleven and injuring fifty. •
July 26 •
Miguel Indurain wins the
1993 Tour de France. •
Asiana Airlines Flight 733 crashes into Mt. Ungeo in
Haenam, South Korea; 68 are killed. •
July 29 – The
Israeli Supreme Court acquits accused
Nazi death camp guard
John Demjanjuk of all charges and he is set free. •
July 30 -
A wildfire on the
Greek island of
Ikaria kills 13.
August • August – The
European Exchange Rate Mechanism margin was expanded to 15% to accommodate
speculation against the
French franc and other currencies. •
August 5 – The discovery of the
Tel Dan Stele, the first archaeological confirmation of the existence of the
Davidic line, announced. •
August 9 – King
Albert II of Belgium is sworn into office nine days after the death of his brother, King
Baudouin I. •
August 13 – More than 130 die in the
collapse of Royal Plaza Hotel at
Nakhon Ratchasima in
Thailand's worst hotel disaster. •
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. • The first
Power Rangers series,
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (an adaptation of
Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger),
premieres in the United States. •
August 31 – Russia completes removing its troops from
Lithuania.
September •
September 13 •
1993 Norwegian parliamentary election: The Labour Party wins a plurality of the seats and Prime Minister
Gro Harlem Brundtland retains office. •
Oslo I Accord: Following initially secret talks from earlier in the year,
PLO leader
Yasser Arafat and
Israeli prime minister
Yitzhak Rabin shake hands in Washington, D.C. after signing a peace accord. •
September 15–
21 –
Hurricane Gert crosses from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean through Central America and Mexico. •
September 17 – Russian troops withdraw from Poland. •
September 19 –
1993 Polish parliamentary election: A coalition of the
Democratic Left Alliance and the
Polish People's Party led by
Waldemar Pawlak comes into power. •
September 22 –
Big Bayou Canot train disaster: A bridge collapses while the Amtrak
Sunset Limited is in the process of crossing it, killing 47 people. •
September 23 – The
International Olympic Committee selects
Sydney, Australia, to host the
2000 Summer Olympics. •
September 24 – The
Cambodian monarchy is restored, with
Norodom Sihanouk as king. •
September 25 – The
Nipah Dam incident: Indonesian security forces shoot and kill four protesters opposing the construction of a dam. •
September 26 • The first mission in
Biosphere 2 ends after two years. •
PoSAT-1 (the first Portuguese satellite) is launched on board French rocket
Ariane 4. •
September 27 –
War in Abkhazia:
Fall of Sukhumi –
Eduard Shevardnadze accuses Russia of passive complicity. •
September 30 –
Latur earthquake: A 6.2 earthquake occurs in the vicinity of
Maharashtra, India having a maximum
Mercalli intensity of VIII (
Severe), killing 9,748 and injuring 30,000.
October •
October 3–
4–
Battle of Mogadishu: The U.S. Army conducts
Operation Gothic Serpent in the city of
Mogadishu, Somalia, deploying Task Force Ranger. Two U.S. Army
UH-60 Blackhawks are shot down and the operation leaves over 1,000 Somalis dead and over 74 Americans wounded in action, 18 killed and 1 captured. •
October 4 – The
Russian constitutional crisis culminates with Russian military and security forces, using tanks and clearing the
White House of Russia Parliament building by force, quashing a mass uprising against President
Boris Yeltsin. •
October 5 – China performs a
nuclear test, ending a worldwide
de facto moratorium. •
October 9 – The South Korean ferry
Seohae capsizes off
Pusan, South Korea; 292 are killed. •
October 11–
28 – The
UNMIH is prevented from entering
Haiti by its military-led regime. On
October 18,
United Nations economic sanctions (abolished in August) are reinstated. U.S. President Bill Clinton sends 6 American warships to enforce them. •
October 13 •
1993 Greek legislative election:
Andreas Papandreou begins his second term as
Prime Minister of Greece. • The fifth summit of the
Francophonie opens in
Mauritius. • The
1993 Finisterre earthquakes in Papua New Guinea kill at least 60 due to landslides. •
October 19 –
Benazir Bhutto becomes the Prime Minister of Pakistan for the second time. •
October 21 – A coup in
Burundi results in the death of president
Melchior Ndadaye and sparks the
Burundi Civil War. •
October 23 – The
Toronto Blue Jays repeat as
World Series champions, becoming the first team to win back-to-back titles since the 1977–1978
New York Yankees. •
October 25 –
1993 Canadian federal election:
Jean Chrétien and his
Liberal Party defeat the governing
Progressive Conservative Party, which falls to a historic low of two seats. •
October 27–
31 – The Southland Firestorm, formed of more than fourteen separate fires in Southern California burning simultaneously, burns more than 700 homes and 160,000 acres. Two of these fire are the
Laguna Fire which burned more than 16,000 acres (6,500 hectares), destroyed hundreds of homes and caused $528 million in damage in
Orange County, California, and the
Kinneloa Fire in
Los Angeles County, California which caused a fatality.
November •
November 1 – The
Maastricht Treaty takes effect, formally establishing the
European Union. •
November 4 –
Jean Chrétien becomes the 20th
Prime Minister of Canada. •
November 5 – The
Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the
Railways Act 1993, setting out the procedures for
privatisation of British Rail. •
November 9 –
Bosnian Croat forces destroy the
Stari Most, or Old Bridge of
Mostar,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, by tank fire. •
November 12 –
London Convention: Marine dumping of
radioactive waste is outlawed. •
November 14 – In
a status referendum, residents of
Puerto Rico vote by a slim margin to maintain
Commonwealth status. •
November 17–
22 – The
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) passes the legislative houses in the United States, Canada and Mexico. • November 17 • In Nigeria, General
Sani Abacha ousts the government of
Ernest Shonekan in a military coup. • The first meeting of the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit opens in
Seattle. •
November 20 – An Avioimpex
Yakovlev Yak-42D crashes into Mount Trojani near
Ohrid,
North Macedonia. All 8 crew members and 115 of the 116 passengers are killed. •
November 28 –
The Observer reveals that a channel of communications has existed between the
Provisional Irish Republican Army and the British government, despite the government's persistent denials. •
November 30 • An agreement establishing the Permanent Tripartite Commission for East African Co-operation is signed. • U.S. President
Bill Clinton signs the
Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.
December •
December 2 •
STS-61:
NASA launches the Space Shuttle
Endeavour on a mission to repair an optical flaw in the
Hubble Space Telescope. •
Colombian drug lord
Pablo Escobar is gunned down by police. •
December 5 •
Omar Bongo is re-elected as
President of Gabon in the country's first multiparty elections. •
Rafael Caldera Rodríguez is elected President of Venezuela for the second time, succeeding interim president
Ramón José Velásquez. •
December 7 • In
Garden City, New York, six people are murdered and 19 injured in the
Long Island Rail Road massacre, a racially motivated mass shooting perpetrated by Colin Ferguson, a black Jamaican immigrant. • 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. •
President of Ivory Coast Félix Houphouët-Boigny dies at 88, the oldest African head of state. He is succeeded four days later by
Henri Konan Bédié. •
December 8 – U.S. President
Bill Clinton signs into law the
North American Free Trade Agreement. •
December 10 –
id Software releases the first-person shooter game
Doom. •
December 11 • One of the three blocks of the Highland Towers near
Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia collapses, killing 48. •
1993 Chilean presidential election:
Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle is elected with 58% of the vote. •
December 13 • Former
Prime Minister of Canada Kim Campbell resigns as leader of the
Progressive Conservative Party and is succeeded as leader by
Jean Charest. • 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 – The
Uruguay Round of
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) talks reach a successful conclusion after seven years. •
December 17 –
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 20 • The
United Nations General Assembly votes to appoint a
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. • The first corrected images from the
Hubble Space Telescope are taken. •
December 21 • The
Hungarian Parliament elects
Péter Boross Prime Minister of Hungary following the death of
József Antall on December 12. • Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki's
VeggieTales is first released. •
December 30 • The
Congress Party gains a parliamentary majority in India after the defection of 10
Janata Dal party lawmakers. • Representatives of
Israel and the
Holy See sign the
Fundamental Agreement Between the Holy See and the State of Israel, preparing for the establishment of
diplomatic relations. •
Argentina passes a measure allowing President
Carlos Menem and all future presidents to run for a second consecutive term. It also shortens presidential terms to four years and removes the requirement for the president to be
Roman Catholic. == Births and deaths ==