Directory

1994 CE

Nelson Mandela is elected President of South Africa in the nation's first multiracial democratic elections; the 1994 FIFA World Cup is held in the United States and was won by Brazil; the 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; the Rwandan genocide unfolds over 100 days, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 800,000 Tutsi and Hutu; the First Chechen War begins as Russian forces invade Chechnya; the 1994 Northridge earthquake devastates Southern California, causing widespread destruction and killing dozens; Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks up and violently collides with Jupiter; the Zapatista uprising erupts in Chiapas, Mexico; and the Sony PlayStation is released in Japan.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • 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.source
  • February 9 – The Vance–Owen peace plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina is announced.source
  • March 27 – TV tycoon Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing coalition wins the Italian general election.source
  • April 2 – The National Convention of New Sudan of the SPLA/M opens in Chukudum.source
  • 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.source
  • May 5 – The Bishkek Protocol between Armenia and Azerbaijan is signed in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, effectively freezing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.source
  • May 10 – Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.source
  • June 15 – Israel and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations.source
  • June 19 – Ernesto Samper is elected President of Colombia.source
  • June 30 – The Liberal Democratic Party in Japan regains power after spending 11 months in opposition, in coalition with the Japan Socialist Party.source
  • July 18 – Rwandan Patriotic Front troops capture Gisenyi, forcing the interim government into Zaire and ending the Rwandan genocide.source
  • 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.source
  • October 1 – Palau gains independence from the United Nations Trusteeship Council.source
  • October 1 – In Slovakia, populist leader Vladimír Mečiar wins the general election.source
  • 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.source
  • November 13 – Voters in Sweden decide to join the European Union in a referendum.source
  • November 15 – 1994 Nepalese general election The CPN (UML) is elected with a minority government, becoming the first democratically elected Communist party in Asia.source
  • November 16 – United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea {1982) comes fully into effect on receiving 60 signatures.source
  • November 20 – The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol.source
  • November 28 – Voters in Norway decide not to join the European Union in a referendum.source
  • December 1 – Ernesto Zedillo takes office as President of Mexico.source
  • 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.source
  • December 3 – 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.source
  • December 19 – Civil unions between same-sex couples are legalized in Sweden.source

Conflict & Security

  • 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.source
  • February 6 – Markale massacres: a Bosnian Serb Army mortar shell kills 68 civilians and wounds about 200 in a Sarajevo marketplace.source
  • 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.source
  • March 20 – Italian journalist Ilaria Alpi and TV cameraman Miran Hrovatin are assassinated in Somalia.source
  • March 23 – Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio is assassinated at a campaign rally in Tijuana.source
  • March 28 – Shell House massacre: Inkatha Freedom Party and ANC supporters battle in central Johannesburg, South Africa.source
  • 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.source
  • April 7 – The Rwandan genocide begins in Kigali, Rwanda.source
  • April 21 – The Red Cross estimates that hundreds of thousands of Tutsi have been killed in Rwanda.source
  • 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).source
  • 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.source
  • July 4 – Rwandan Patriotic Front troops capture Kigali, a major breakthrough in the Rwandan Civil War.source
  • July 7 – 1994 civil war in Yemen: Aden is occupied by troops from North Yemen.source
  • July 12 – The Allied occupation of Berlin officially ends with a casing of the colors ceremony attended by U.S. president Bill Clinton.source
  • July 18 – AMIA bombing: In Buenos Aires, a terrorist attack destroys a building housing several Jewish organizations, killing 85 and injuring many more.source
  • 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.source
  • 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 2005source
  • August 31 – The Russian Army leaves Estonia and Latvia, ending the last traces of Eastern Europe's Soviet occupation.source
  • September 5 – New South Wales State MP for Cabramatta John Newman is shot outside his home, in Australia's first political assassination since 1977.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • September 28 – José Francisco Ruiz Massieu, Mexican politician, is assassinated on orders of Raúl Salinas de Gortari.source
  • November 5 – Influential Afrikaner theologian and critic of apartheid Johan Heyns is assassinated; the killers are never apprehended or identified.source
  • November 11 – 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.source

Religion & Belief

  • 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.source
  • March 12 – The Church of England ordains its first female priests.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • 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".source

Economy & Finance

  • January 1 – The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is established.source
  • July 5 – Jeff Bezos founds Amazon.source
  • 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.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • 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.source
  • March – China gets its first connection to the Internet.source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • c. August – Pizza Hut becomes the first restaurant to offer online food ordering, in California.source
  • September 16 – Britain lifts the broadcasting ban imposed on Sinn Féin and paramilitary groups from Northern Ireland.source
  • November 6 – Bražuolė bridge bombing in Lithuania damages a railway bridge but trains are stopped in time to avoid casualties.source
  • November 7 – WXYC, the student radio station of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, provides the world's first internet radio broadcast.source
  • November 14 – The first Eurostar train passengers travel through the Channel Tunnel.source
  • December 14 – Construction commences on the Three Gorges Dam, at Sandouping, China.source
  • 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.source

Science & Discovery

  • 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.source
  • March 31 – The journal Nature reports the finding in Ethiopia of the first complete Australopithecus afarensis skull.source
  • July 16–22 – Fragments of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 impact the planet Jupiter.source
  • 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.source

Health & Medicine

  • March 27 – 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.source
  • 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.source
  • June 28 – Members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult execute the first sarin gas attack at Matsumoto, Japan, killing eight and injuring 200.source
  • November 5 – A letter by former U.S. president Ronald Reagan, announcing that he has Alzheimer's disease, is released.source

Crime & Justice

  • February 12 – Edvard Munch's painting The Scream is stolen in Oslo (it is recovered on May 7).source
  • 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.source
  • 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.source
  • August 18 – 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.source
  • September 16 – Danish tour guide Louise Jensen is abducted, raped and murdered by three British soldiers in Cyprus.source
  • 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.source
  • 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).source
  • December 13 – The trial of former president Mengistu begins in Ethiopia.source
  • December 13 – 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.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • March 23 – Green Ramp disaster: two military aircraft collide over Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina, United States, causing 24 fatalities.source
  • April 26 – China Airlines Flight 140, an Airbus A300, crashes while landing at Nagoya, Japan, killing 264 people.source
  • May 1 – Three-time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna is killed in an accident during the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, Italy.source
  • September 8 – USAir Flight 427, a Boeing 737 with 132 people on board, crashes on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport killing all on board.source
  • September 28 – The car ferry MS Estonia sinks in the Baltic Sea, killing 852 people.source
  • 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.source

Climate & Environment

  • 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.source
  • June 30 – Tropical Storm Alberto forms, hitting parts of Florida causing $1.03 billion in damage and 32 deaths.source
  • August 18 – 1994 Mascara earthquake: a 5.8 earthquake leaves 171 dead in Algeria.source
  • November 6 – A flood in Piedmont, Italy, kills dozens of people.source
  • November 8 – Hurricane Gordon hits Central America, Jamaica, Cuba, the Bahamas, Haiti and the Southeastern United States, causing $594 million in damages and 1,152 fatalities.source
  • November 15 – 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 8.5 m ft high.source

Culture & Society

  • February 12 – The 1994 Winter Olympics begin in Lillehammer.source
  • 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).source
  • April 20 – South Africa adopts a new national flag, replacing the "Oranje, Blanje, Blou" flag adopted in 1928 that was used during apartheid.source
  • 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.source
  • June 17 – The 1994 FIFA World Cup starts in the United States.source
  • July 17 – Brazil wins the 1994 FIFA World Cup, defeating Italy 3–2 in a penalty shootout in the final (full-time 0–0).source
  • August 12 – Woodstock '94 begins in Saugerties, New York, United States, marking the 25-year anniversary of Woodstock in 1969.source
  • 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.source
  • November 5 – American boxer George Foreman wins the WBA and IBF World Heavyweight Championships by KO'ing Michael Moorer becoming the oldest heavyweight champion in history.source
  • November 11 – Duy Tan University, Vietnam's University, is established.source

Births

  • January 14 – Kai, South Korean singersource
  • January 18 – Jiyoung, South Korean singer and actresssource
  • February 4 – Alexia Putellas, Spanish footballersource
  • February 14 – Petchmorakot Petchyindee Academy, Thai Muay Thai kickboxer and former ONE Featherweight Muay Thai World Championsource
  • February 25 – Eugenie Bouchard, Canadian tennis playersource
  • March 1 – Justin Bieber, Canadian singersource
  • March 16 – Joel Embiid, Cameroonian basketball playersource
  • March 29 – Sulli, South Korean singer, songwriter, actress and model (d. 2019)source
  • May 1 – Khamzat Chimaev, Russian born-Swedish mixed martial artist and professional wrestlersource
  • May 21 – Tom Daley, British diversource
  • July 5 – Shohei Ohtani, Japanese baseball playersource
  • September 29 – Halsey, American singersource
  • December 6 – Giannis Antetokounmpo, Greek basketball playersource
  • December 7 – Yuzuru Hanyu, Japanese figure skatersource

Deaths

  • July 8 – North Korean President Kim Il Sung dies, but officially continues to hold office.source
  • 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.source