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January 3rd |
An Aeroflot passenger aircraft crashed after takeoff from Irkhutsk, Russia, resulting in the death of 126 people. |
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January 6th |
Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the leg by an assailant in Detroit. This clubbing escalated into an international scandal when it was revealed that the attack was orchestrated by the ex-husband of Kerrigan's rival, Tonya Harding. |
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January 8th |
The Russian spacecraft, Soyuz TM-18, was launched, heading for the Mir space station. It was carrying cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov who remained on the space station for a record 437 days (in space). |
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January 14th |
United States president, Bill Clinton, and Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, signed the Kremlin accords. Under the terms of the Kremlin accords the United States and Russia stopped the pre-programmed aiming of nuclear missiles at each other. |
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January 14th |
In Britain, the Duchess of Kent, became the first member of the Royal Family to convert to Catholicism in more than 300 years. |
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January 22nd |
American actor, Telly Savalas, died at the age of 72. His most famous role was that of the detective Kojak in the television series by the same name. |
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March 6th |
Greek actress and politician, Melina Mercouri, died at the age of 83. She was one of the most successful Greek actresses and a popular politician of the 20th century. |
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March 12th |
The first female priest was ordained by the Church of England. |
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April 4th |
Mosaic Communications Corporation was founded, later renamed to Netscape Communications Corporation. |
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April 5th |
Pop musician, Kurt Cobain, is found dead at his Lake Washington home. |
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April 7th |
The Tutsi massacres of Rwanda began. The massacres lasted approximately 2 months and resulted in the killing of almost 1 million people. |
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April 22nd |
American politician, Richard Nixon, died at the age of 81. He was the 37th President of the United States, who resigned in the face of imminent impeachment related to the Watergate hotel scandal. |
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April 26th |
The first multiracial elections took place in South Africa. Nelson Mandela, leader of the ANC political party, was elected as the country's first black President. |
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April 26th |
A China Airlines passenger jet crashed at Nagoya airport in Japan. All 264 passengers died in the crash. |
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May 6th |
The Channel Tunnel was inaugurated. It is the tunnel under the English Channel linking England and France. |
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May 9th |
Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first black president. |
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May 23th |
The sci-fi TV series 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' aired its final episode in the USA. It was the most financially successful TV series in the history of syndication. |
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May 29th |
German politician, Erich Honecker, died at the age of 82. He was the leader of communist East Germany from 1971 until 1989. After the re-unification of Germany he fled to the Soviet Union but was later extradited by the new Russian government and faced charges for high treason and the murder of 192 Germans who were killed while trying to escape East Germany during the cold war. |
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May 31st |
The United States declared that its long-range nuclear missiles were no longer aimed at targets in the former Soviet Union. |
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June 14th |
American composer, Henry Mancini, died at the age of 70. He was pone of the most celebrated composers of cinema and television music of the 20th century. |
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June 15th |
Greek composer, Manos Hadjidakis, died at the age of 70. He is widely considered as one of the greatest composers of traditional Greek music. |
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June 15th |
Full diplomatic relations were established between Israel and the Vatican. |
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June 17th |
The 1994 FIFA World Cup began in the USA with the game between USA and Switzerland which ended with a score of 1-1. |
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July 16th |
The civil war in Rwanda ended. While it lasted slightly less than three months more than 500,000 people were massacred in one of the most violent ethnic related civil wars in recent history. |
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July 18th |
A bomb explosion in Buenos Aires killed 85 people. The target of the bombing was a building housing several Jewish organizations. |
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July 21st |
British politician, Tony Blair, was declared the winner of the leadership election of the British Labour Party. |
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July 25th |
Israel and Jordan signed the Washington Declaration which formally ended the state of war that had existed between the two nations since 1948. |
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August 11th |
British actor, Peter Cushing, died at the age 80. He became famous worldwide after his continuous participation in the British made horror films of the late 1950's, 1960's and 1970's which earned worldwide success. He was a very close friend, of his oftentimes co-star, Christopher Lee. |
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August 14th |
Venezuelan terrorist, Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, the notorious leftist terrorist known as 'Carlos the Jackal', was captured in Sudan. He was the most notorious terrorist of the cold war era. |
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August 26th |
The first battery operated heart was implanted inside a male patient in Britain. The man, however, died from kidney failure nine months after the operation. |
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September 3rd |
Russia and China mutually agreed to stop targeting their nuclear weapons against each other. The ideology split between the two countries had lasted since the mid 1950's. |
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September 8th |
A US Air passenger plane crashed while on approach to Pittsburgh international airport. All 132 people on board died in the crash. |
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September 11th |
American actress, Jessica Tandy, died at the age of 88. Her career while successful throughout her life saw a great resurgence after 1982. She won the academy award for best actress for her role in the hit movie, Driving Miss Daisy. |
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September 28th |
A car ferry, the MS Estonia, sank in the Baltic Sea, resulting in the death of 852 people. The ferry was on route from Tallinn, Estonia to Stockholm, Sweden. The accident occurred when the bow visor of the ship broke and brought the car ramp down with it as it fell, allowing water fill the car deck which destabilized the ship and lead to the eventual sinking. |
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October 20th |
American actor, Burt Lancaster, died at the age of 80. He was one of the most celebrated actors of the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's. |
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October 21st |
North Korea and the United States signed an agreement under whose terms, North Korea was required to stop its nuclear weapons program and agree to inspections. The deal never actually go into effect and the tensions between North Korea and the rest of the world continue to this day (2006). |
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October 26th |
Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty. The two countries had been in a state of war since 1948. |
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October 31st |
An American passenger plane crashed in Roselawn, Indiana, resulting in the death of all 68 on board. |
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November 5th |
American boxer, George Foreman, became the world's oldest heavyweight champion at the age of 45 after knocking out Michael Moorer. |
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November 13th |
Sweden voted to join the European Union in a referendum. |
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November 20th |
The Angolan civil was ends when the government and the UNITA rebels signed an agreement in Zambia, effectively ending a 19 year old blood civil war. The war, however, would reignite a year later to finally end in 2002, after more than 500,000 people had died in it. |
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November 28th |
Norway voted not to enter the European Union. |
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November 30th |
A fire broke out aboard the cruise ship, Achille Lauro, while on the Indian Ocean forcing all passengers to abandon ship. The ship sank 2 days later. This particular cruise ship had gained worldwide notoriety when in 1985 Palestinian terrorists hijacked the liner and murdered an American passenger. |
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December 15th |
The first Netscape web browser, the Netscape Navigator 1.0, was released. Netscape was the dominant player in the web browser market of the 1990's. |