1993
Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar).
Events of 1993
January
- January 5 - $7.4 million USD stolen from Brinks Armored Car Depot in Rochester, New York. Fifth largest robbery in US history. Four men, Samuel Millar, Father Patrick Moloney, former Rochester Police officer Thomas O'Connor, and Charles McCormick, all of whom had ties to the Irish Republican Army, were accused.
- January 5 - M/V Braer, a Liberian oil tanker, runs aground off the Scottish island of Mainland, and begins spilling oil.
- January 6 - Douglas Hurd is the first high-ranking British official to visit Argentina since the Falklands War.
- January 7 - The Fourth Republic of Ghana is inaugurated, with Jerry Rawlings as president.
- January 11 - The Braer breaks up, causing a spill twice the size of that caused by the Exxon Valdez.
- 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 - IBM announces a $4.97 billion loss for 1992, the largest single-year corporate loss in United States history.
- 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 U.S.
- January 24 - In Turkey, thousands protest the murder of journalist Uğur Mumcu.
- January 25 - Mir Aimal Kasi fires a rifle and kills two employees outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
- January 25 - Social democrat Poul Nyrup Rasmussen succeeds conervative Poul Schlüter as Prime Minister of Denmark.
- January 26 - Václav Havel is elected President of the Czech Republic.
- January 31 - The Buffalo Bills become the first team to lose 3 consecutive Super Bowls as they are defeated by the Dallas Cowboys, 52-17, in Super Bowl XXVII.
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 two 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 Hao Pei-tsun as Premier of the Republic of China.
- February 10 - Mani Pulite scandal: 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 Cypriot presidential election.
- February 14 - Albert Zafy defeats Didier Ratsiraka in Malagasy presidential election.
- February 17 - A ferry sinks in Haiti, killing approximately 1,215 out of 1,500 passengers.
- February 22 - Two 11-year-old boys are charged with the murder of James Bulger,whose body was found on February 14.
- 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 be established on May 25 by Resolution 827.
- February 24 - Yukihiro Matsumoto starts working on the Ruby programming language.
- 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 five Davidians die in the raid and a 51-day standoff begins.
March
- March 4 - Authorities announce the capture of suspected World Trade Center bombing conspirator Mohammad Salameh.
- March 5 - A Macedonian Palair Flight 301, a F-100 on a flight to Zurich, crashes shortly after take-off from Skopje killing 83 of the 97 on board.
- March 9 - Rodney King testifies at the federal trial of four Los Angeles, California police officers accused of violating his 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 - 1993 Bombay bombings: Several bombs explode in Bombay, India, killing about 300 and injuring hundreds more.
- March 12 - 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.
- March 13-14 - The Great Blizzard of 1993 strikes the eastern U.S., bringing record snowfall and other severe weather all the way from Cuba to Québec; it is reported to have killed 184.
- March 13 - Australian federal election, 1993: The Australian Labor Party stays in power despite poor economic results.
- March 17 - The PKK announces a unilateral ceasefire.
- March 20 - Warrington bomb attacks: An IRA bomb explodes in Warrington Town Centre and kills two children, Jonathan Ball and Tim Parry.
- March 22 - The Intel Corporation ships the first Pentium chips
- March 24 - The Israeli Knesset elects Ezer Weizman as President of Israel.
- March 24 - South Africa officially abandons its nuclear weapons programme. President de Klerk announces that the country's six warheads had already been dismantled in 1990.
- March 27 - Jiang Zemin becomes President of the People's Republic of China.
- March 27 - Following a rash of integrist murders, Algeria breaks diplomatic relations with Iran, accusing the country of interfering in its interior affairs.
- March 27 - Mahamane Ousmane is elected president of Nigeria.
- March 28 - French legislative election, 1993: Gaullists win 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, California, with Unforgiven winning Best Picture.
April
- April - The Kuwaiti government claims to uncover an Iraqi assassination plot against former U.S. President George H.W. Bush shortly after his visit to Kuwait. Two Iraqi nationals confess to driving a car-bomb into Kuwait on behalf of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.[1]
- April 1 - The Vatican orders the moving of the Carmelite convent at Auschwitz.
- April 6 - A nuclear accident occurs at Tomsk 7 in Russia.
- April 8 - The Republic of Macedonia is admitted to the United Nations.
- April 10 - African National Congress activist Chris Hani is assassinated in South Africa.
- April 16 - Bosnian War: Fall of Srebrenica.
- April 17 - Laurence Powell and Stacey Koon are found guilty in the second Rodney King trial.
- April 19- 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 22 - In Washington, DC, the Holocaust Memorial Museum is dedicated.
- April 22 - 18-year-old student Stephen Lawrence is stabbed to death in London, England; the attack is believed to have been racially motivated.
- April 23 - The World Health Organization declares tuberculosis a Global Emergency.
- April 23 - Eritreans vote overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a United Nations-monitored referendum.
- April 26 - Oscar Luigi Scalfaro appoints Carlo Azeglio Ciampi Prime Minister of Italy.
- April 27 - Yemeni parliamentary election, 1993: The General People's Congress wins a plurality of 121 seats.
- April 27 - All members of the Zambia national football team die in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon in route to Dakar, Senegal.
- April 28 - An executive order requires the United States Air Force to allow women to fly war planes.
- April 30 - The World Wide Web is born at CERN.
- April 30 - Tennis star Monica Seles is stabbed in the back by an obsessed fan of rival Steffi Graf at a tournament in Hamburg, Germany.
May
June
- 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 - United States Supreme Court rules on landmark case Minnesota v. Dickerson
- 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.
- June 9 - The Montreal Canadiens win their 24th Stanley Cup defeating the Los Angeles Kings in the Finals.
- June 14 - Tansu Çiller becomes the first female Prime Minister of Turkey.
- 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 - Japanese Earthquake: A 7.5 earthquake hits Japan, killing 385 people.
- June 20 - John Paxson's three-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 - Zoran Lilić succeeds to 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, 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 - 19th G7 summit in Tokyo, Japan.
- July 7 - Hurricane Calvin lands in Mexico. It is the second Pacific hurricane to land in Mexico in July in recorded history, 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 Air Flight 733 crashes into Mt. Ungeo in Haenam, South Korea killing 68.
- 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
September
- September 4 - The Essendon Football Club wins its 15th Australian Football League premiership over rivals Carlton Football Club.
- September 4 - Nigeria beats Ghana in the 1993 FIFA U-17 World Championship.
- September 13 - Norwegian parliamentary election, 1993: The Labour Party wins a plurality of the seats, and Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland retains office.
- September 13 - 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 (1993) crosses from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean through Central America and Mexico.
- September 17 - Removal of Russian troops from Poland.
- September 19 - Polish parliamentary election, 1993: A coalition of the Democratic Left Alliance and the Polish People's Party lead by Waldemar Pawlak comes into power.
- September 22 - Big Bayou Canot train disaster: A bridge collpases as the Sunset Limited crosses it, killing 47.
- September 24 - The Cambodian monarchy is restored, with Norodom Sihanouk as king.
- September 24 - 2000 Summer Olympics bids: The IOC selects Sydney, Australia to be the site of the 2000 Summer Olympics.
- September 26 - The first mission in Biosphere 2 ends after 2 years.
- September 27 - War in Abkhazia: Fall of Sukhumi; Eduard Shevardnadze accuses Russia of passive complicity.
- September 30 - An earthquake centered in Killari, Maharashtra, India kills over 10,000.
October
November
- November 9 - Bosnian Croat forces destroy the Stari most, or Old Bridge of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, by tank fire.
- November 11 - Microsoft releases Windows 3.11 for Workgroups to manufacturing.
- November 11 - Sri Lankan civil war: over 400 Sri Lankan military die in the Battle of Pooneryn.
- November 12 - London Convention: Marine dumping of radioactive waste is outlawed.
- November 18 - In a status referendum, Puerto Rico residents vote with a slim margin to maintain Commonwealth status.
- November 17-22 - NAFTA passes the legislative houses in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
- November 18 - In South Africa, 21 political parties approve a new constitution.
- November 18 - The first meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation opens in Seattle.
- 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 20 - An Avioimpex Yakovlev Yak-42D crashes into Mount Trojani near Ohrid, Macedonia. The aircraft was on a flight from Geneva, Switzerland to Skopje, but had been diverted to Ohrid due to poor weather conditions at the Skopje airport. All eight crew members and 115 of the 116 passengers are killed.
- 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.
- November 28 - The Observer reveals a channel of communications has existed between the IRA and the British government, despite the government's persistent denials.
December
- 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 announced merger (September 6) 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 to 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 - 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 item is Lunokhod 1 and its spacecraft Luna 17; they sold for $68,500.
- 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 - Uruguay Round of GATT talks reach successful conclusion after seven 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 - United Nations General Assembly votes unanimously to appoint a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
- December 20 - Péter Boross becomes Prime Minister of Hungary following the death of József Antall.
- December 22 - The interim South Africa constitution is approved by parliament in a 237-45 vote.
- 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 four years and removes the requirement for the president to be Roman Catholic.
- December 30 - Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations.
- December 30 - Congress Party gains a parliamentary majority in India after the defection of ten Janata Dal party lawmakers.
Undated
Ongoing
Wars
- See also: List of wars 1990–2002
Other
Fictional
The following are references to year 1993 in fiction:
Births
January-June
- January 12 - Aika Mitsui, Japanese singer
- January 18 - Morgan York, American actress
- January 26 - Cameron Bright, Canadian actor
- January 30 - Christina Kirkman, American actress
- February 7 - David Dorfman, American actor
- February 9 - Parimarjan Negi, Chess prodigy from India
- February 12 - Jennifer Stone, American actress
- February 14 - Martín Galván, Mexican footballer
- February 18 - Victoria Justice, American actress
- February 20 - Oliver Smith, UK politician
- February 26 - Taylor Dooley, American actress
- March 4 - Yves Michel-Beneche, American actor
- March 17 - Julia Winter, Swedish actress
- March 21 - Bobby Preston, American actor
- March 28 - Naoki Takeshi, Japanese actor
- April 3 - Dakoda Dowd, American golfer
- April 14 - Vivien Cardone, American actress
- April 15 - Madeleine Martin, American television actress/voice actress
- April 16 - Mirai Nagasu, Japanese-American figure skater
- April 23 - Akrit Jaswal, child physician
- May 10 - Mirai Shida, Japanese actress
- May 13 - Alexander Montagu, Viscount Mandeville, British noble
- May 14 - Miranda Cosgrove, American actress
- May 20 - Caroline Zhang, American figure skater
- May 25 - The Dilley sextuplets
- June 7 - Jordan Fry, American actor
- June 15 - Kanna Arihara, Japanese singer
July-December
- July 26 - Taylor Momsen, American actress
- July 28 - Hannah Lochner, Canadian actress
- July 29 - Ang Ching Hui, Singaporean actress
- August 3 - Paula Riemann, German actress
- August 3 - Yurina Kumai, Japanese singer
- August 5 - Suzuka Ohgo, Japanese child actress
- August 11 - Alyson Stoner, American actress and dancer
- August 12 - Ewa Farna, Polish singer
- August 26 - Keke Palmer, American actress and singer
- September 1 - Ilona Mitrecey, French singer
- September 5 - Gage Golightly, American actress
- September 9 - Charlie Stewart, American actor
- September 23 - Zach Tyler Eisen, American voice actor
- October 2 - Tara Lynne Barr, American actress
- October 8 - Angus T. Jones, American actor
- October 28 - Elliot John Crosby, English tenpin bowler
- November 9 - Maya Ritter, Canadian actress
- November 15 - Saaya Irie, Japanese model, actress and singer
- December 6 - Elián González, Cuban refugee
- December 8 - AnnaSophia Robb, American actress
- December 10 - Rachel Trachtenburg, American musician
- December 15 - Matthew Koon, English stage actor
- December 22 - Aliana Lohan, American actress and singer
- December 22 - Mark Klein, American singer and member of The Boogie Kings
Deaths
January-June
- January 6 - Dizzy Gillespie, American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer (b. 1917)
- January 6 - Rudolf Nureyev, Russian dancer (b. 1938)
- January 20 - Kobo Abe, Japanese author (b. 1924)
- January 20 - Audrey Hepburn, Belgian actress (b. 1929)
- January 24 - Thurgood Marshall, American jurist, First African-American on the Supreme Court (b. 1908)
- January 26 - Robert Jacobsen Danish artist (b. 1912)
- January 27 - Jeanne Sauvé, Canadian Governor General (b. 1922)
- January 27 - André the Giant, French professional wrestler (b. 1946), real name: André René Roussimoff
- 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 -