January •
January 1 • The
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is established. • Beginning of the
Zapatista uprising in Mexico. •
January 8 –
Soyuz TM-18:
Valeri Polyakov begins his 437.7-day orbit of the
Earth, eventually setting the world record for days spent in orbit. •
January 11 – The Irish government announces the end of a 15-year broadcasting ban on the
Provisional Irish Republican Army and its political arm
Sinn Féin. •
January 14 – U.S. president
Bill Clinton and Russian president
Boris Yeltsin sign the
Kremlin accords, which stop the preprogrammed aiming of
nuclear missiles toward each country's targets, and also provide for the dismantling of the
nuclear arsenal in
Ukraine. •
January 17 – The 6.7
Northridge earthquake strikes the
Greater Los Angeles Area of the United States, with a maximum
Mercalli intensity of IX (
Violent), leaving 57 people dead and more than 8,700 injured.
February •
February 3 – In the aftermath of the
Chadian–Libyan conflict, the
International Court of Justice rules that the
Aouzou Strip belongs to the
Republic of Chad. •
February 6 –
Markale massacres: a
Bosnian Serb Army mortar shell kills 68 civilians and wounds about 200 in a Sarajevo marketplace. •
February 9 – The Vance–Owen
peace plan for
Bosnia and Herzegovina is announced. •
February 12 •
Edvard Munch's painting
The Scream is stolen in
Oslo (it is recovered on May 7). • The
1994 Winter Olympics begin in
Lillehammer. •
February 24 – In
Gloucester, England, local
police begin excavations at 25 Cromwell Street, the home of
Fred West, a suspect in multiple murders. On February 28, he and his wife are arrested. •
February 25 – Israeli
Kahanist Baruch Goldstein opens fire inside the
Cave of the Patriarchs in the
West Bank; he kills 29 Muslims before worshippers beat him to death. •
February 28 – Four United States
F-16s
shoot down four
Serbian
J-21s over
Bosnia and Herzegovina for violation of the
Operation Deny Flight and its
no-fly zone.
March • March – China gets its first connection to the
Internet. •
March 6 – A
referendum in
Moldova results in the electorate voting against possible reunification with
Romania. •
March 12 – The
Church of England ordains its first female priests. •
March 20 – Italian journalist
Ilaria Alpi and TV cameraman Miran Hrovatin are assassinated in
Somalia. •
March 21 – The
66th Academy Awards, hosted by
Whoopi Goldberg, are held at the
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in
Los Angeles.
Steven Spielberg's
Holocaust drama ''
Schindler's List'' wins seven Oscars including
Best Picture and
Best Director (Spielberg). •
March 23 •
Green Ramp disaster: two military aircraft collide over
Pope Air Force Base,
North Carolina, United States, causing 24 fatalities. •
Mexican presidential candidate
Luis Donaldo Colosio is assassinated at a campaign rally in
Tijuana. •
March 27 • TV tycoon
Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing coalition wins the
Italian general election. • The biggest
tornado outbreak in 1994 occurs in the
southeastern United States; one tornado kills 22 people at the Goshen United Methodist Church in
Piedmont, Alabama. •
March 28 –
Shell House massacre:
Inkatha Freedom Party and
ANC supporters battle in central
Johannesburg, South Africa. •
March 31 – The journal
Nature reports the finding in
Ethiopia of the first complete
Australopithecus afarensis skull.
April casts his vote in the
1994 South African general election •
April 2 – The
National Convention of New Sudan of the
SPLA/M opens in
Chukudum. •
April 5 –
Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of
Nirvana.
commits suicide at the
age of 27 at his home in
Seattle. His body was found three days later. •
April 6 –
Rwandan President
Juvénal Habyarimana and
Burundi President
Cyprien Ntaryamira die when a missile shoots down their jet near
Kigali,
Rwanda. This is taken as a pretext to begin the
Rwandan genocide. •
April 7 – The
Rwandan genocide begins in
Kigali,
Rwanda. •
April 16 – Voters in Finland decide to join the
European Union in a referendum. •
April 20 – South Africa adopts
a new national flag, replacing the "
Oranje, Blanje, Blou" flag adopted in 1928 that was used during
apartheid. •
April 21 – The
Red Cross estimates that hundreds of thousands of
Tutsi have been killed in
Rwanda. •
April 25 –
Sultan Azlan Muhibbudin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Yusuff Izzudin Shah Ghafarullahu-lahu ends his term as the 9th
Yang di-Pertuan Agong of
Malaysia. •
April 26 •
Tuanku Jaafar ibni Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman,
Yang di-Pertuan Besar of
Negeri Sembilan, becomes the 10th
Yang di-Pertuan Agong of
Malaysia. •
China Airlines Flight 140, an
Airbus A300, crashes while landing at
Nagoya, Japan, killing 264 people. •
April 27 – South Africa holds its
first fully multiracial elections, marking the final end of the last vestiges of
apartheid.
Nelson Mandela wins the elections and is sworn in as the first democratically elected president the following month.
May •
May 1 – Three-time
Formula One world champion
Ayrton Senna is killed in an accident during the
San Marino Grand Prix in
Imola, Italy. •
May 5 – The
Bishkek Protocol between
Armenia and
Azerbaijan is signed in
Bishkek,
Kyrgyzstan, effectively freezing the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. •
May 6 – The
Channel Tunnel, which took 15,000 workers more than seven years to complete, officially opens between England and France; it will enable passengers to travel by rail between the two countries in 35 minutes. •
May 10 –
Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black
president. •
May 17 –
Malawi holds its first multiparty elections. •
May 18 – The
Flavr Savr, a
genetically modified tomato, is deemed safe for consumption by the FDA, becoming the first commercially grown
genetically engineered food to be granted a license for human consumption. •
May 20 – After a funeral in Cluny Parish Church,
Edinburgh attended by 900 people and after which 3,000 people line the streets, UK Labour Party leader
John Smith is buried in a private family funeral on the island of
Iona, at the sacred burial ground of Reilig Odhráin, which contains the graves of several Scottish kings as well as monarchs of Ireland, Norway and France. •
May 22 –
Pope John Paul II issues the
Apostolic Letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis from the
Vatican, expounding the
Catholic Church's position requiring "the reservation of priestly ordination to men alone".
June •
June 1 – The
Republic of South Africa rejoins the
Commonwealth of Nations after its first democratic election; South Africa had departed the then-British Commonwealth in
1961. •
June 6–
8 –
Ceasefire negotiations for the
Yugoslav War begin in
Geneva; they agree to a one-month cessation of hostilities (which does not last more than a few days). •
June 15 –
Israel and the
Vatican establish full
diplomatic relations. •
June 17 • NFL star
O. J. Simpson and his friend
Al Cowlings flee from police in a white
Ford Bronco. The
low-speed chase ends at Simpson's
Los Angeles mansion, where he surrenders. • The
1994 FIFA World Cup starts in the
United States. •
June 19 –
Ernesto Samper is elected
President of Colombia. •
June 23 –
NASA's
Space Station Processing Facility, a new state-of-the-art manufacturing building for the
International Space Station, officially opens at
Kennedy Space Center. •
June 25 –
Cold War: the last Russian troops leave Germany. •
June 28 – Members of the
Aum Shinrikyo cult execute the first
sarin gas attack at
Matsumoto, Japan, killing eight and injuring 200. •
June 30 • The
Liberal Democratic Party in
Japan regains power after spending 11 months in opposition, in coalition with the
Japan Socialist Party. •
Tropical Storm Alberto forms, hitting parts of
Florida causing $1.03 billion in damage and 32 deaths.
July on
Jupiter's southern hemisphere. •
July 4 –
Rwandan Patriotic Front troops capture
Kigali, a major breakthrough in the
Rwandan Civil War. •
July 5 –
Jeff Bezos founds
Amazon. •
July 7 –
1994 civil war in Yemen:
Aden is occupied by troops from North
Yemen. •
July 8 –
North Korean President
Kim Il Sung dies, but
officially continues to hold office. •
July 12 – The
Allied occupation of Berlin officially ends with a casing of the colors ceremony attended by U.S. president
Bill Clinton. •
July 16–
22 – Fragments of
Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 impact the planet
Jupiter. •
July 17 – Brazil wins the
1994 FIFA World Cup, defeating Italy 3–2 in a penalty shootout in the
final (full-time 0–0). •
July 18 •
AMIA bombing: In
Buenos Aires, a
terrorist attack destroys a building housing several Jewish organizations, killing 85 and injuring many more. •
Rwandan Patriotic Front troops capture
Gisenyi, forcing the interim government into
Zaire and ending the
Rwandan genocide. •
July 25 –
Israel and
Jordan sign the Washington Declaration as a preliminary to signature on October 25 of the
Israel–Jordan peace treaty, which formally ends the state of war that has existed between the nations since 1948.
August on August 23 •
August 5 –
Maleconazo: Groups of protesters spread from
Havana,
Cuba's Castillo de la Punta ("Point Castle"), creating the first protests against
Fidel Castro's government since 1959. •
August 12 –
Woodstock '94 begins in
Saugerties, New York, United States, marking the 25-year anniversary of
Woodstock in 1969. •
August 18 •
1994 Mascara earthquake: a 5.8 earthquake leaves 171 dead in
Algeria. • ''
Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants'': a 12-person jury reaches its verdict to award Stella Liebeck $2,860,000 in
compensatory and
punitive damages, later reduced to $640,000, for burns she received from a spilled hot coffee. McDonald's and Liebeck will later settle out of court. •
August 20 –
Tyke, a female
African bush elephant, injures her groomer and kills her trainer at the
Neal S. Blaisdell Center in
Honolulu,
Hawaii. She then escapes the arena, and runs amok in the streets for half an hour, before police officers shoot her 86 times. She eventually collapses from her wounds and dies. •
August 31 •
The Troubles: The
Provisional Irish Republican Army announces a "complete cessation of
military operations" as part of the
Northern Ireland peace process. This will temporarily end in 1996 with the
Docklands bombing in England before a definite ceasefire in 1997. In 1998, the
Good Friday Agreement is signed and the IRA decommissions its weapons in 2005 • The
Russian Army leaves
Estonia and
Latvia, ending the last traces of Eastern Europe's
Soviet occupation. • c. August –
Pizza Hut becomes the first restaurant to offer
online food ordering, in California.
September •
September 3 –
Cold War: Russia and the China agree to de-target their
nuclear weapons against each other. •
September 5 –
New South Wales State MP for Cabramatta
John Newman is shot outside his home, in Australia's first political assassination since 1977. •
September 8 –
USAir Flight 427, a
Boeing 737 with 132 people on board, crashes on approach to
Pittsburgh International Airport killing all on board. •
September 13 – President
Bill Clinton signs the
Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which bans the manufacture of new firearms with certain features for a period of 10 years. •
September 14 –
The 1994 World Series in baseball is officially cancelled due to the ongoing
work stoppage. It is the first time a World Series will not be played since
1904. •
September 16 •
Danish tour guide Louise Jensen is abducted, raped and murdered by three British soldiers in Cyprus. • Britain lifts the
broadcasting ban imposed on
Sinn Féin and paramilitary groups from Northern Ireland. •
September 19 –
Operation Uphold Democracy: U.S. troops stage a bloodless invasion of
Haiti to restore the legitimately elected leader,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to power. •
September 28 • The
car ferry MS Estonia sinks in the
Baltic Sea, killing 852 people. •
José Francisco Ruiz Massieu, Mexican politician, is assassinated on orders of
Raúl Salinas de Gortari. • September–October –
Iraq disarmament crisis:
Iraq threatens to stop cooperating with
UNSCOM inspectors and begins to once again deploy troops near its border with
Kuwait. In response, the U.S. begins to deploy troops to
Kuwait.
October •
October 1 • In
Slovakia, populist leader
Vladimír Mečiar wins the
general election. •
Palau gains independence from the
United Nations Trusteeship Council. •
October 5 – The day after five members of the
Order of the Solar Temple were found dead in
Morin-Heights, Quebec, Canada, Swiss police find 48 members of the cult dead, in what was found to be a
mass murder-suicide. •
October 15 • After three years of U.S. exile,
Haiti's president
Aristide returns to his country. •
Iraq disarmament crisis: following threats by the U.N. Security Council and the U.S., Iraq withdraws troops from its border with Kuwait. •
October 16 –
Robbery on the Bank of the Republic: In the Colombian city of Valledupar, a branch of the Colombian central bank Banco de la Republica (Bank of the Republic) is robbed of COP$24,075 million of non emitted bills (some US$33 million); this comes to be known as "El Robo del Siglo" (the bank heist of the century).
November •
November 5 • A letter by former U.S. president
Ronald Reagan, announcing that he has
Alzheimer's disease, is released. • American boxer
George Foreman wins the
WBA and
IBF World Heavyweight Championships by
KO'ing
Michael Moorer becoming the oldest
heavyweight champion in history. • Influential
Afrikaner theologian and critic of
apartheid Johan Heyns is assassinated; the killers are never apprehended or identified. •
November 6 • A flood in
Piedmont, Italy, kills dozens of people. •
Bražuolė bridge bombing in
Lithuania damages a railway bridge but trains are stopped in time to avoid casualties. •
November 7 –
WXYC, the student radio station of the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, provides the world's first
internet radio broadcast. •
November 8 • "
Republican Revolution":
Georgia Representative
Newt Gingrich leads the
United States Republican Party in taking control of both the
House of Representatives and the
Senate in
midterm congressional elections, the first time in 40 years the Republicans secure control of both houses of
Congress.
George W. Bush is elected
Governor of Texas. •
Hurricane Gordon hits
Central America,
Jamaica,
Cuba, the
Bahamas,
Haiti and the
Southeastern United States, causing $594 million in damages and 1,152 fatalities. •
November 11 •
Duy Tan University, Vietnam's University, is established. •
Iraq formally rescinds its claims over
Kuwait, which it has claimed as a province since 1990 and had administered under military occupation until 1991 when it was ejected by an international coalition during the
Persian Gulf War. •
November 13 – Voters in Sweden decide to join the
European Union in a
referendum. •
November 14 – The first
Eurostar train passengers travel through the
Channel Tunnel. •
November 15 •
1994 Nepalese general election The
CPN (UML) is elected with a minority government, becoming the first democratically elected
Communist party in Asia. •
1994 Mindoro earthquake A 7.1 earthquake hits the central
Philippine island of
Mindoro, killing 78 people, injuring 430 and triggering a tsunami up to high. •
November 20 – The
Angolan government and
UNITA rebels sign the
Lusaka Protocol. •
November 27 – A Fuxin Yiyuan dance hall catches fire in
Liaoning Province, China, killing 233 persons, with another 71 rescued, according to a confirmed
Chinese government official report. •
November 28 – Voters in Norway decide not to join the
European Union in a
referendum.
December •
December 1 –
Ernesto Zedillo takes office as
President of Mexico. •
December 2 – The Australian government agrees to pay reparations to
indigenous Australians who were displaced during the
nuclear tests at
Maralinga in the 1950s and 1960s. •
December 3 • Sony releases the
PlayStation video game system in Japan; it will sell over 100 million units worldwide by the time it is discontinued in 2006. • Taiwan holds its first full local elections:
James Soong is elected as the first and only directly elected
Governor of Taiwan;
Chen Shui-bian becomes the first direct elected
Mayor of Taipei;
Wu Den-yih becomes the first directly elected
Mayor of Kaohsiung. •
December 11 – Russian president
Boris Yeltsin orders troops into
Chechnya. •
December 13 • The trial of former president
Mengistu begins in
Ethiopia. •
Fred West, 53, a builder living in
Gloucester, England, is remanded in custody, charged with murdering 12 people (including two of his own daughters) whose bodies are mostly found buried at his house in Cromwell Street. His wife
Rosemary West, 41, is charged with 10 murders. •
December 14 – Construction commences on the
Three Gorges Dam, at
Sandouping, China. •
December 19 • A planned
exchange rate correction of the
Mexican peso to the US dollar, becomes a massive financial meltdown in Mexico, unleashing the 'Tequila' effect on global
financial markets. This prompts a US$50 billion "bailout" by the
Clinton administration. •
Civil unions between same-sex couples are legalized in Sweden. •
December 31 – This date is skipped by the
Phoenix Islands to switch from the
UTC−11 time zone to
UTC+13, and by the
Line Islands to switch from
UTC−10 to
UTC+14. The latter becomes the earliest time zone in the world, one full day ahead of Hawaii. ==Births==