1993

fr: 1993de: 1993es: 1993it: 1993
Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday.

Events of 1993 :

January :

  • January 1 - The European Community eliminates trade barriers and creates an European single market.
  • January 1 - EuroNews is launched in Europe.
  • January 1 - ITV companies GMTV, Carlton Television, Meridian Broadcasting and Westcountry Television start broadcasting, replacing TV-am, Thames Television, TVS and TSW respectively.
  • January 3 - In Moscow, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
  • January 5 - The state of Washington executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the first legal hanging in America since 1965).
    • 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 United States of America.
    • January 24 - In Turkey, thousands of people protest the murder of journalist Uur 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. Michael Jackson performs at the halftime show.

    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 succeeds Hao Pei-tsun as Premier of the Republic of China.
    • February 10 - Mani Pulite scandal: Claudio Martelli resigns, followed by various politician 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 23 - Actor Gary Coleman wins a $1,280,000 lawsuit against his parents.
    • February 24 - Yukihiro Matsumoto starts working on the Ruby programming language.
    • February 24 - Premier of Canada Brian Mulroney resigns amidst political and economic turmoil.
    • February 26 - World Trade Center bombing: In New York City, a van bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center goes off, 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 WTC 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 people on board.
    • March 6 - Whitney Houston's single "I Will Always Love You" posts its 14th week at number one, becoming the longest running number one single of all time.
    • March 9 - Beavis and Butt-Head debuts on MTV.
    • 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 an 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 unexpectedly elected president of Nigeria.
    • March 28 - French legislative election, 1993: Gaullists win a majority and Édouard Balladur becomes Prime Minister.

    April :

    May :

    • May 1 - Pierre Bérégovoy, former prime minister of France, commits suicide.
    • May 1 - A Tamil Tigers suicide bomber assassinates President Ranasinghe Premadasa 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.
    • May 10 - Kader Toy Factory Fire: The world's worst factory fire occurs in Bangkok, Thailand, killing 188 and injuring over 500.
    • 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.
    • May 16 - Marseille defeats A.C. Milan in the UEFA Champions League Final.
    • May 24 - Eritrea gains independence from Ethiopia.
    • May 28 - Eritrea and Monaco gain entry to the United Nations.
    • May 27 - A car bomb at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence kills five; the Mafia is suspected.

    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 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.
    • June 11 - Jurassic Park, which now ranks 12th all-time among highest grossing films in Box Office history, debuted into theaters.
    • 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 Lili succeeds to Dobrica osi 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 people.
    • 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 people.
    • July 12 - A magnitude 7.8 earthquake off Hokkaid, 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 :

    • August 4 - A federal judge sentences Los Angeles Police Department officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 30 months in prison for violating motorist Rodney King's civil rights.
    • August 4 - The Japanese government issues the Kono statement acknowledging the comfort women's deportation.
    • August 5 - The discovery of the Tel Dan Stele, the first archaeological confirmation of the existence of the Davidic line, is announced.
    • August 9 - King Albert II of Belgium is sworn into office 9 days after the death of his brother, King Baudouin I.
    • August 13 - Over 130 die in the collapse of Royal Plaza Hotel at Nakhon Ratchasima in Thailand's worst hotel disaster.
    • August 17 - For the first time, the public is allowed inside Buckingham Palace.
    • August 19 - In Norway, Varg Vikernes is arrested and charged with the murder of Řystein Aarseth, of Mayhem. He would a receive a 21 year sentence for this and other crimes.
    • 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.
    • August 28 - Mighty Morphin Power Rangers premieres in the United States on FOX.
    • August 30 - The Late Show with David Letterman premieres on CBS.
    • August 30 - Russia completes removing its troops from Lithuania.

    September :

    October :

    • October 2-5 - The Russian constitutional crisis of 1993 culminates with Russian military and security forces clearing the White House of Russia Parliament building by force, squashing a mass uprising against President Boris Yeltsin.
    • October 3 - A large scale battle erupts between U.S. forces and local militia in Mogadishu, Somalia; 19 Americans and 500 Somalis are killed.
    • October 5 - China performs a nuclear test, ending a worldwide de facto moratorium.
    • October 5 - The papal encyclical Veritatis Splendor is promulgated.
    • October 8 - David Miscavige announces the IRS has granted full tax exemption to the Church of Scientology International and affiliated churches and organizations ending the Church's 40-year battle with the IRS and resulting in religious recognition in the United States.
    • October 11-28 - Troubles brew in Haiti as the UNMIH is prevented from entering the country. On October 18, economic sanction (abolished in August) are reinstated.
    • October 13 - Greek legislative election, 1993: Andreas Papandreou begins his second term as Prime Minister of Greece.
    • October 13 - The fifth summit of the Francophonie opens in Mauritius
    • October 19 - Benazir Bhutto becomes the first elected woman to lead a post-colonial Muslim state, in Pakistan.
    • October 21 - A coup in Burundi result in the death of president Melchior Ndadaye and sparks the Burundi Civil War.
    • October 25 - Canadian federal election, 1993: Jean Chrétien and his Liberal Party defeat the governing Progressive Conservative Party.

    November :

    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 day 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 totall 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 :

    Other :

    Fictional :

    The following are references to year 1993 in fiction:
    • The film Beautiful People is set in this year.
    • The film Club le Monde is set in this year.
    • The film Eight Below is set in this year due to that being the last year that sled dogs were allowed to work in Antarctica.

    Births :

    January-June :

    July-December :

    Deaths :

    January-June :

    July-December :

    Ship events :

    • List of ship launches in 1993
    • List of ship commissionings in 1993
    • List of ship decommissionings in 1993

    Nobel prizes :

    Templeton Prize :

    See also :

    Notes :