Timeline of McCain's Assassination 1992 (ScreenGems)

1992
October 8 - John McCain gets killed by a missile in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Bill Clinton was the one who caused this and was sentenced to 30 years in prison by the FBI. Bill Clinton is scheduled to be released from prison on October 8, 2022.

October 9 – A 13-kilogram (29-pound) meteorite lands in the driveway of the Knapp residence in Peekskill, New York, destroying the family's Chevrolet Malibu. It becomes known as the Peekskill Meteorite.

October 9 – The Chief of Naval Operations adopts the US Navy's core values: Honor, Courage and Commitment.

October 11 - The body of John McCain is laid to rest at a cemetery in Philadelphia.

October 12 – In the Dominican Republic, Pope John Paul II celebrates the 500th anniversary of the meeting of 2 cultures.

October 15 – In Russia, Andrei Chikatilo is found guilty of 52 murders.

October 17 – Yoshihiro Hattori, a 16-year-old Japanese exchange student, mistakes the address of a party and is shot dead after knocking on the wrong door in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The shooter, Rodney Peairs, is later acquitted, sparking outrage in Japan.

October 24 – The Toronto Blue Jays win the World Series in 6 games, becoming the first Canadian team to win.

October 25 – Lithuania holds a referendum on its first constitution after declaring independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

October 26 – In Canada, the Charlottetown Accord is defeated in a national referendum.

October 29 – The Food and Drug Administration approves Depo-Provera for use as a contraceptive in the United States.

October 31 – Pope John Paul II issues an apology, and lifts the edict of the Inquisition against Galileo Galilei.

November 11 – The Church of England votes to allow women to become priests.

November 18 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin, in a goodwill gesture to South Korea during a visit to Seoul to ratify a new treaty, released the 9 years concealed flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of KAL 007, shot down near Moneron Island by the Soviets on Sept. 1, 1983.

November 20 – In England, a fire breaks out in Windsor Castle, causing over £50 million worth of damage.

November 24 – In the People's Republic of China, a China Southern Airlines domestic flight crashes, killing all 141 people on-board.

November 24 – Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom describes this year as an Annus Horribilis (horrible year), due to various scandals damaging the image of the Royal Family, as well as the Windsor Castle fire.

November 25 – The Czechoslovakia Federal Assembly votes to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, starting on January 1, 1993.

November 30 – The trial of 14 South Vietnamese accused of murdering 24 North Vietnamese begins in Hong Kong (ends November 29, 1994).

December 3 – UN Security Council Resolution 794 is unanimously passed, approving a coalition of United Nations peacekeepers led by the United States to form UNITAF, tasked with ensuring humanitarian aid gets distributed and establishing peace in Somalia.

December 3 – The Greek oil tanker Aegean Sea, carrying 80,000 tonnes of crude oil, runs aground in a storm while on approach to La Coruña, Spain, and spills much of its cargo.

December 4 – U.S. military forces land in Somalia.

December 5 – Kent Conrad of North Dakota resigns his seat in the United States Senate and is sworn into the other seat from North Dakota, becoming the only U.S. Senator ever to have held 2 seats on the same day.

December 6 – Hindu extremists demolish the Babri Masjid (a 16th century mosque) in Ayodhya, India.

December 8 – The last blast is fired at the Falu Copper Mine in Falun, Sweden, after a millennium of continuous operation.

December 9 – Prince Charles and Princess Diana publicly announce their separation.

December 12 – An earthquake hits Flores, Indonesia, leaving 2,500 dead.

December 20 – The Folies Bergère music hall in Paris, France closes.

December 21 – A Dutch DC-10, flight Martinair MP 495, crashes at Faro Airport, killing 56 people.

December 22 – Archives of Terror discovered by Dr. Martín Almada detailing the fates of thousands of Latin Americans who had been secretly kidnapped, tortured, and killed by the security services of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay. This was known as Operation Condor.

December 29 – Brazil's president Fernando Collor de Mello is found guilty on charges that he stole more than $32 million from the government, preventing him from holding any elected office for 8 years.

1993

 * January 1 – Dissolution of Czechoslovakia: Slovakia and the Czech Republic separate in the so-called Velvet Divorce.
 * January 1 – The European Community eliminates trade barriers and creates a 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 – $7.4 million USD is stolen from Brinks Armored Car Depot in Rochester, New York in the 5th largest robbery in U.S. history. Four men, Samuel Millar, Father Patrick Moloney, former Rochester Police officer Thomas O'Connor, and Charles McCormick, all of whom have ties to the Provisional Irish Republican Army, are accused.
 * January 5 – M/V Braer, a Liberian oil tanker, runs aground off the Scottish island of Mainland, causing a massive oil spill.
 * January 6 – Douglas Hurd is the first high-ranking British official to visit Argentina since the Falklands War.
 * January 6–20 – The Bombay Riots take place in the city now known as Mumbai.
 * January 7 – The Fourth Republic of Ghana is inaugurated, with Jerry Rawlings as president.
 * 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 – Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) signed.
 * January 19 – IBM announces a $4.97 billion loss for 1992, the largest single-year corporate loss in United States history to date.
 * 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 – Bob Johnson succeeds George H.W. Bush as the 42nd President of the United States.
 * January 24 – In Turkey, thousands protest the murder of journalist Uğur Mumcu.
 * January 25 – Mir Aimal Kasi fires a rifle and kills 2 employees outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
 * January 25 – Social democrat Poul Nyrup Rasmussen succeeds conservative Poul Schlüter as Prime Minister of Denmark.
 * January 26 – Václav Havel is elected President of the Czech Republic.
 * January 31 – Super Bowl XXVII: The Buffalo Bills become the first team to lose 3 consecutive Super Bowls as they are defeated by the Dallas Cowboys, 52–17.

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 2 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 Hau Pei-tsun as Premier of the Republic of China.
 * February 10 – Mani Pulite scandal: Italian legislator 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 the Cypriot presidential election.
 * February 14 – Albert Zafy defeats Didier Ratsiraka in the Madagascar presidential election.
 * February 17 – A ferry sinks in Haiti, killing approximately 1,215 out of 1,500 passengers.
 * 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 is established on May 25 by Resolution 827.
 * 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 5 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 305, 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 4 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 257 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 13–15 – The Great Blizzard of 1993 strikes the eastern U.S., bringing record snowfall and other severe weather all the way from Cuba to Quebec; it reportedly kills 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 in Iraq.
 * March 20 – Warrington bomb attacks: An IRA bomb explodes in Warrington Town Centre and kills 2 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 6 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 Niger.
 * 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.
 * 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 9 – The rock band Nirvana plays a benefit concert for the Bosnian rape victims at San Francisco's Cow Palace
 * April 10 – African National Congress activist Chris Hani is assassinated in South Africa.
 * April 16 – Bosnian War: Srebrenica falls.
 * 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 19 – South Dakota governor George Mickelson and seven others are killed when a state-owned aircraft crashes in Iowa.
 * 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 – Tennis star Monica Seles is stabbed in the back by an obsessed fan of rival Steffi Graf at a tournament in Hamburg, Germany.

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 12 – John Cappiello, high school track athlete, is born
 * 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 – After Demirel becomes the president the acting prime minister of Turkey is Erdal İnönü of SHP for 40 days.
 * May 19 – International Civil Aviation Organization of U.N., based on Russian Federation handover of KAL 007's Black Box and Soviet military communications, reopens investigation of Soviet shootdown of KAL 007 near Moneron Island on Sept. 1, 1983.
 * May 24 – Eritrea gains independence from Ethiopia.
 * May 27 – A car bomb at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence kills 5; the Mafia is suspected.
 * May 28 – Eritrea and Monaco gain entry to the United Nations.

June

 * June 1 – Large protests erupt against Slobodan Milošević's regime in Belgrade; opposition leader Vuk Drašković and his wife Danica are arrested.
 * 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 – Minnesota v. Dickerson: The United States Supreme Court rules that the seizure of evidence during a pat-down search is unconstitutional.
 * 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 in Iraq.
 * 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 – A 7.5 earthquake hits Japan, killing 385 people.
 * June 20 – John Paxson's 3-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 – Tansu Çiller of DYP forms the new government of Turkey.
 * June 25 – Zoran Lilić succeeds 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 Bob Johnson 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 in Sivas, Turkey, 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 – The 19th G7 summit is held in Tokyo, Japan.
 * July 7 – Hurricane Calvin lands in Mexico. It is the second Pacific hurricane on record to land in Mexico in July, 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 Bob Johnson 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 Airlines Flight 733 crashes into Mt. Ungeo in Haenam, South Korea; 68 die.
 * 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 6 – According to Japanese government and TBS networks reports, torrential rain and mudslides kill 72 in Kagoshima, Japan.
 * 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 Øystein Aarseth, of Mayhem; he receives 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 30 – Russia completes removing its troops from Lithuania.

September

 * September 6 – Canadian software specialist Peter de Jager publishes in Computerworld U.S. weekly magazine an article Doomsday 2000, which is the first known reference to Y2K – the 2000 Year problem.
 * 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 – Russian troops withdraw 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 23 – The International Olympic Committee selects Sydney, Australia to host the 2000 Summer Olympics.
 * September 24 – The Cambodian monarchy is restored, with Norodom Sihanouk as king.
 * September 26 – The first mission in Biosphere 2 ends after 2 years.
 * September 26 – PoSAT-1 (the first Portuguese satellite) is launched on board French rocket Ariane 4.
 * 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

 * 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; 18 Americans and over 1,000 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 10 – 292 are killed when the South Korean ferry Seohae capsizes off Pusan, South Korea.
 * October 11–28 – The UNMIH is prevented from entering Haiti. On October 18, economic sanctions (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 results 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, which falls to an historic low of 2 seats.

November

 * November 1 – The Maastricht Treaty takes effect, formally establishing the European Union.
 * November 5 – The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the Railways Act, setting out the procedures for privatisation of British Rail.
 * 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 – Battle of Pooneryn: Over 400 Sri Lankan military are killed.
 * November 12 – London Convention: Marine dumping of radioactive waste is outlawed. Amy
 * November 18 – In a status referendum, Puerto Rico residents vote with a slim margin to maintain Commonwealth status.
 * November 17–22 – The North American Free Trade Agreement (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 crisis: 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 8 crew members and 115 of the 116 passengers are killed.
 * November 28 – The Observer reveals that a channel of communications has existed between the IRA and the British government, despite the government's persistent denials.
 * November 30 – Agreement establishing the Permanent Commission for East African Co-operation signed.

December

 * December 1 – A train crash at Tattenham Corner railway station lead to the introduction of the current drugs and alcohol policy for railways in the UK.
 * 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 – The September 6 merger 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 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 6 and injuring 19.
 * December 7 – The 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 items is Lunokhod 1 and its spacecraft Luna 17; they sell for $68,500.
 * December 12 – Péter Boross becomes Prime Minister of Hungary following the death of József Antall.
 * 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 – The Uruguay Round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) talks reach a successful conclusion after 7 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 – The United Nations General Assembly votes unanimously to appoint a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
 * December 20 – The first corrected images from the Hubble Telescope are taken.
 * December 22 – The interim South African constitution is approved by Parliament 237–45.
 * 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 4 years and removes the requirement for the president to be Roman Catholic.
 * December 30 – Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations.
 * December 30 – The Congress Party gains a parliamentary majority in India after the defection of 10 Janata Dal party lawmakers.

January

 * January 1 – The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is established.
 * January 1 – The Zapatista Army of National Liberation begins their war in Chiapas, Mexico.
 * January 6 – In Detroit, Michigan, Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the right leg by an assailant, under orders from figure skating rival Tonya Harding's ex-husband.
 * January 8 – Soyuz TM-18: Valeri Polyakov begins his 437.7 day orbit, 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 11 – The Superhighway Summit is held at UCLA's Royce Hall. It is the first conference to discuss the growing information superhighway and is presided over by U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
 * January 14 – U.S. President Bob Johnson 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 15 – The SS American Star breaks tow in the Atlantic Ocean and is beached at Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands a few days later.
 * January 17 – The 1994 Northridge earthquake, magnitude 6.7, hits the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles at 4:31 a.m., killing 72 and leaving 26,029 homeless.
 * January 19 – Record cold temperatures hit the eastern United States. The coldest temperature ever measured in Indiana state history, −36°F (−38°C), is recorded in New Whiteland, Indiana.
 * January 20 – In South Carolina, Shannon Faulkner becomes the first female cadet to attend The Citadel, but soon drops out.
 * January 21 – Lorena Bobbitt is found not guilty by reason of insanity on charges of mutilating her husband John.
 * January 25 – U.S. President Bob Johnson delivers his first State of the Union address, calling for health care reform, a ban on assault weapons, and welfare reform.
 * January 26 – A man fires 2 blank shots at Charles, Prince of Wales in Sydney, Australia.

February

 * February 1 – In Portland, Oregon, Tonya Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly pleads guilty for his role in attacking figure skater Nancy Kerrigan. He accepts a plea bargain, admitting to racketeering charges in exchange for testimony against Harding.
 * February 3 – William J. Perry is sworn in as the United States Secretary of Defense.
 * February 4 – The Federal Open Market Committee raises the Fed Funds target rate for the first time since May 1989. The rate is raised by 25 basis points to 3¼ percent.
 * February 5 – Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
 * 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 (and is recovered on May 7).
 * February 12 – February 27 – The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer.
 * February 22 – Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged with spying for the Soviet Union by the United States Department of Justice. Ames is later convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment; his wife receives 5 years in prison.
 * February 24 – In Gloucester, local police begins excavations at 25 Cromwell Street, the home of Fred West, suspects 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 27 – Australian Federal Sports & Environment Minister Ros Kelly resigns over "The Sports Rorts Affair", where it was alleged that she apportioned money for community sporting projects in a pork barreling fashion.
 * February 28 – United States F-16 pilots shoot down 4 Serbian fighter aircraft over Bosnia and Herzegovina for violation of the Operation Deny Flight and its no-fly zone.

March

 * March 1 – A lone terrorist kills Ari Halberstam during an attack on 14 Jewish students on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City.
 * March 1 – South Africa cedes Walvis Bay to Namibia.
 * March 1 – Mary Ellen Withrow begins her term of office as Treasurer of the United States, serving under President Bob Johnson.
 * March 6 – A referendum in Moldova results in the electorate voting against possible reunification with Romania.
 * March 7 – Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that parodies of an original work are generally covered by the doctrine of fair use.
 * March 12 – A photo by Marmaduke Wetherell, previously touted as 'proof' of the Loch Ness monster, is confirmed to be a hoax.
 * March 12 – The Church of England ordains its first female priests.
 * March 14 – Apple Computer, Inc. releases the first Macintosh computers to use the new PowerPC Microprocessors. This is considered to be a major leap in personal computer, as well as Macintosh history.
 * March 15 – U.S. troops are withdrawn from Somalia.
 * March 16 – In Portland, Oregon, Tonya Harding pleads guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for trying to cover-up an attack on figure skating rival Nancy Kerrigan. She is fined $100,000 and banned from the sport.
 * 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, California. Steven Spielberg's Holocaust drama, Schindler's List, wins 7 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director (Spielberg).
 * March 23 – Green Ramp disaster: Two military aircraft collide over Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina causing dozens of fatalities.
 * March 27 – TV tycoon Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing coalition wins the Italian general election.
 * March 27 – The biggest tornado outbreak in 1994 occurs in the southeastern United States; 1 tornado hits a Goshen United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Alabama, killing 22 people.
 * March 27 – The Eurofighter takes its first flight in Manching, Germany.
 * 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 (see Human evolution).

April

 * April 5 – Kurt Cobain, of the band Nirvana, died in his home in Seattle, the victim of what is officially ruled a suicide by a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head.
 * 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 8 – Michelangelo's Universal Judgement is reopened to the public after 10 years of restorations.
 * April 8 – Kurt Cobain, songwriter and frontman for the band Nirvana, is found dead at his Lake Washington home.
 * April 16 – Voters in Finland decide to join the European Union in a referendum.
 * April 20 – Paul Touvier is found guilty of ordering the execution of 7 Jews when he served in the Vichy France Milice.
 * 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 25 – The largest high school arson ever in the United States is started at Burnsville High School, in Burnsville, Minnesota, resulting in over 15 million dollars in damages. The same arsonist also goes on to set arsons at Edina High School and Minnetonka High School.
 * 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.
 * April 26 – 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 apartheid.
 * April 29 – Commodore International declares bankruptcy.
 * April 30 – Formula One driver Roland Ratzenberger is killed while qualifying for the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

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 3 – Japan signs the 200th treaty between itself and the African nation of Chad, making this day known as JapaTreaty 200.
 * May 5 – The Bishkek Protocol between Armenia and Azerbaijan was signed, effectively freezing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
 * May 6 – The Channel Tunnel, which took 15,000 workers over 7 years to complete, opens between England and France, enabling passengers to travel between the 2 countries in 35 minutes.
 * May 10 – Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first Black president.
 * May 10 – Illinois executes serial killer John Wayne Gacy by lethal injection for the murder of 33 young men and boys.
 * May 10 – An annular eclipse of the sun is visible across much of North America.
 * May 12 – Ice hockey becomes Canada's official winter sport.
 * May 12 – U.K. Labour Party leader John Smith, 55, dies of a heart attack. Deputy leader Margaret Beckett stands in until an election can be held. Smith is succeeded by Tony Blair, the 41-year-old Scottish-born Member of Parliament for Sedgefield in County Durham.
 * May 17 – Malawi holds its first multiparty elections.
 * May 21 – Italian former minister and Christian Democrat leader Giulio Andreotti is accused of Mafia allegiance by the court of Palermo.

June

 * June 6 – June 8 – Ceasefire negotiations for the Yugoslav War begin in Geneva; they agree to a 1-month cessation of hostilities (which does not last more than a few days).
 * June 12 – Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are murdered outside the Simpson home in Los Angeles, California. O.J. Simpson is later acquitted of the killings, but is held liable in a civil suit.
 * June 14 – Hacker Kevin Poulsen pleads guilty to 7 counts of mail fraud, wire and computer fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice.
 * 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 his white Ford Bronco. The low-speed chase ends at Simpson's Brentwood, Los Angeles, California mansion, where he surrenders.
 * June 23 – The International Olympic Committee celebrates their first centennial.
 * June 24 – U.S. Air Force pilot Bud Holland crashes a B-52 in Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington as a result of pilot error.
 * June 28 – Members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult release a sarin gas attack at Matsumoto, Japan, killing 7 and injuring 660.
 * June 30 – An Airbus A330 crashes during a test flight near Toulouse, France, where Airbus is based, killing the seven-person crew. The test was meant to simulate an engine failure at low speed with maximum angle of climb.

July

 * July 2 – Colombian footballer Andrés Escobar, 27, is shot dead in Medellín. His murder is commonly attributed as retaliation for the own goal Escobar scored in the 1994 FIFA World Cup against the United States.
 * July 6 – Fourteen firefighters die in the South Canyon wildfire on Storm King Mountain in Colorado. The event inspires the 1999 book Fire on the Mountain.
 * July 7 – 1994 civil war in Yemen: Aden is occupied by troops from North Yemen.
 * July 15 – July 21 – The planet Jupiter is hit by 21 large fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 over the course of 6 days.
 * July 17 – Brazil wins the 1994 FIFA World Cup, defeating Italy by 3–2 in penalties (full time 0–0).
 * July 18 – In Buenos Aires, a terrorist attack destroys a building housing several Jewish organizations, killing 85 and injuring many more (see AMIA Bombing).


 * July 19 Four 26-pound ceiling tiles fall from the roof of the Kingdome in Seattle, Washington, just hours before a scheduled Seattle Mariners game.
 * July 20 Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's Fragment Q1 hits Jupiter.
 * July 25 – Israel and Jordan sign the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace, which formally ends the state of war that has existed between the nations since 1948.

August

 * August – Wollemia nobilis, a "fossil tree", is discovered by bushwalker David Noble, only 150 km from the largest city in Australia.
 * August 1 – Fire destroys the Norwich Central Library in the United Kingdom, including most of its historical records.
 * August 1 – The University of London founds the School of Advanced Study, a group of postgraduate research institutes.
 * August 5 – 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 – The 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike is called, ending the 1994 MLB Season
 * August 12 – Woodstock '94 begins in Saugerties, New York. It is the 25-year anniversary of Woodstock in 1969.
 * August 18 – Irish mobster Martin Cahill assassinated in Dublin.
 * August 20 – In Honolulu, Hawaii, during a circus international performance, an elephant named Tyke crushes her trainer Allen Campbell to death before hundreds of horrified spectators, at the Neal Blaisdell Arena.
 * August 23 – Eugene Bullard is posthumously commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force, 33 years after his death, and 77 years to the day after his rejection for U.S. military service in 1917.
 * August 31 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army announces a "complete cessation of military operations."
 * August 31 – The Russian army leaves Estonia.

September

 * September 3 – Cold War: Russia and the People's Republic of China agree to de-target their nuclear weapons against each other.
 * September 4 – Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan opens. All international services are transferred from Itami to Kansai.
 * 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; there are no survivors.
 * September 13 – President Bob Johnson signs the Assault Weapons Ban, which bans the manufacture of new weapons with certain features for a period of 10 years.
 * September 16 – Danish tour guide Louise Jensen is abducted, raped and murdered by British soldiers.
 * September 17 – Heather Whitestone becomes the first hearing impaired contestant to win the Miss America entitlement. Whitestone becomes Miss America 1995.
 * September 19 – American troops stage a bloodless invasion of Haiti in order to restore the legitimate elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to power.


 * September 28 – The car ferry MS Estonia sinks in the Baltic Sea, killing 852.
 * September 28 – Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu, Mexican politician, is assassinated on orders of Raul 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 Vladimir Meciar wins the general election.
 * October 4 – In Switzerland, 23 members of the Order of the Solar Temple cult are found dead, a day after 25 of their fellow cultists are similarly discovered in Morin Heights, Quebec.
 * October 5 – UNESCO inaugurates World Teachers' Day to celebrate and commemorate the signing of the Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers on October 5, 1966.
 * October 8 – Iraq disarmament crisis: The President of the United Nations Security Council says that Iraq must withdraw its troops from the Kuwait border, and immediately cooperate with weapons inspectors.
 * October 12 – NASA loses radio contact with the Magellan spacecraft as the probe descends into the thick atmosphere of Venus (the spacecraft presumably burned up in the atmosphere either October 13 or October 14).
 * October 15 – After 3 years of U.S. exile, Haiti's president Aristide returns to his country.
 * October 15 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Following threats by the U.N. Security Council and the U.S., Iraq withdraws troops from its border with Kuwait.
 * October 29 – Francisco Martin Duran fires over 2 dozen shots at the White House; he is later convicted of trying to kill President Bob Johnson.
 * October 31 – An American Eagle ATR 72 crashes in Roselawn, Indiana, after circling in icy weather, killing 64 passengers.
 * October 31 – The Duke of Edinburgh attends a ceremony in Israel, where his late mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, is honoured as "Righteous among the Nations" for sheltering Jewish families from the Nazis in Athens, during World War II.

November

 * November 3 – A French magazine publishes photo of President François Mitterrand's secret daughter.
 * November 3 – The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 is enacted in the UK. The whole of Part V, which covers collective trespass and nuisance on land, includes sections against raves, including the "succession of repetitive beats" definition.
 * November 4 – San Francisco: The first conference devoted entirely to the subject of the commercial potential of the World Wide Web opens. Featured speakers include Marc Andreessen of Netscape, Mark Graham of Pandora Systems, and Ken McCarthy of E-Media.
 * November 4 – Sydney's third runway opens, ensuring protests about noise levels.
 * November 5 – A letter by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, announcing that he has Alzheimer's disease, is released.
 * November 5 – George Foreman wins the WBA and IBF World Heavyweight Championships by KO'ing Michael Moorer becoming the oldest heavyweight champion in history.
 * November 5 – Johan Heyns, an influential Afrikaner theologian and critic of apartheid, is assassinated.
 * November 6 – A flood in Piedmont, Italy, kills dozens of people.
 * 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 – 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.
 * November 13 – Voters in Sweden decide to join the European Union in a referendum.
 * November 13 – The first passengers travel through the Channel Tunnel.
 * November 13 – Michael Schumacher wins his first Formula One World Championship.
 * November 16 – A Federal judge issues a temporary restraining order, prohibiting the State of California from implementing Proposition 187, that would have denied most public services to illegal aliens.
 * November 20 – The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol.
 * November 28 – Voters in Norway decide not to join the European Union in a referendum.
 * November 30 – The National Football League announced that the Jacksonville Jaguars would become the league's the 30th franchise.

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 11 – Russian president Boris Yeltsin orders troops into Chechnya.
 * December 11 – A small bomb explodes on Philippine Airlines Flight 434, killing a Japanese businessman. The bombing was a field test done by Ramzi Yousef to test explosives that would have been used in Project Bojinka.
 * December 13 – The trial of former President Mengistu begins in Ethiopia.
 * December 13 – Fred West, 53, a builder living in Gloucester, 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 Rose West, 41, is charged with 10 murders. Police believe that the murders took place between 1967 and 1987, and suspect that they may have killed up to 30 people.
 * December 14 – A Learjet piloted by Richard Anderson and Brad Sexton misses an elementary school and crashes into an apartment complex in Fresno, California, killing both pilots and injuring several apartment residents.
 * December 14 – A runaway Santa Fe freight train rear ends a Union Pacific train at the bottom of Cajon Pass, California.
 * December 14 – British Home Secretary Michael Howard announces that Myra Hindley will serve a whole life tariff for the Moors Murders of the 1960s.
 * December 15 – The first version of web browser Netscape Navigator is released.
 * 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.
 * December 19 – The Whitewater scandal investigation begins in Washington, DC.
 * December 19 – Civil unions between homosexuals are legalized in Sweden.
 * December 21 – A homemade bomb explodes on the # 4 train on Fulton Street in New York City.
 * December 26 – French anti-terrorist police storm a hijacked jet at Marseille and kill 4 Islamist terrorists.
 * December 31 Phoenix Islands switches 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.

January

 * January 1 – The World Trade Organization (WTO) is established to replace the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
 * January 1 – Austria, Finland & Sweden act to join the European Union.
 * January 1 – The Draupner wave in the North Sea in Norway is detected, confirming the existence of freak waves.
 * January 2 – The most distant Galaxy yet discovered found by scientists using the Keck telescope in Hawaii (est. 15 billion light years away).
 * January 2 – Bus crashes in Luzon, Philippines, killing 29 people.
 * January 4 – The 104th United States Congress, the first controlled by Republicans in both houses since 1953 to 1955, convenes.
 * January 6–7 – A chemical fire occurs in an apartment complex in Manila, Philippines. Policemen led by watch commander Aida Fariscal and investigators find a bomb factory and a laptop computer and disks that contain plans for Project Bojinka, a mass-terrorist attack. The mastermind, Ramzi Yousef, is arrested 1 month later.
 * January 9 – Valeri Polyakov completes 366 days in space while aboard the Mir space station, breaking a duration record.
 * January 16 – An avalanche hits the village Súðavík in Iceland, killing 14 people.
 * January 17 – A magnitude 6.8 earthquake called the "Great Hanshin earthquake" occurs near Kobe, Japan, causing great property damage and killing 6,434 people.
 * January 25 – Norwegian rocket incident: A rocket launched from the space exploration centre at Andøya, Norway is briefly interpreted by the Russians as an incoming attack.
 * January 29 – Super Bowl XXIX: The San Francisco 49ers become the first National Football League franchise to win 5 Super Bowls, as they defeat the San Diego Chargers at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami, Florida.
 * January 30 – John Howard becomes leader of the Liberal Party of Australia to challenge Paul Keating for the 1996 Federal Election and the position of Prime Minister of Australia.
 * January 31 – U.S. President Bob Johnson invokes emergency powers, to extend a $20 billion loan to help Mexico avert financial collapse.

February

 * February 1 – Lyricist/guitarist Richey Edwards of the Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers goes missing from a hotel in Bayswater, London on the eve of a planned tour of the United States. His car is found 2 weeks later at Severn View services in Aust.
 * February 9 – STS-63: Dr. Bernard A. Harris, Jr. and Michael Foale became the first African American and Briton, respectively, to walk in space.
 * February 13 – A United Nations tribunal on human rights violations in the Balkans charges 21 Bosnian Serb commanders with genocide and crimes against humanity.
 * February 15 – Hacker Kevin Mitnick is arrested by the FBI and charged with breaking into some of the United States' most "secure" computer systems.
 * February 15 – Taiwan's deadliest fire, at a karaoke restaurant in Taichung, kills 64.
 * February 15 – In Dublin, a Republic of Ireland vs. England football match in Lansdowne Road is abandoned, due to violence and rioting.
 * February 17 – Colin Ferguson is convicted of 6 counts of murder for the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings and later receives a 200+ year sentence.
 * February 21 – Serkadji prison mutiny in Algeria: Four guards and 96 prisoners are killed in a day and a half.
 * February 21 – Ibrahim Ali, a 17-year-old Comorian living in France, is murdered by 3 far-right National Front activists.
 * February 21 – Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada, becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
 * February 23 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 30.28 to close at 4,003.33 – the Dow's first ever close above 4,000.
 * February 25 – Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) (Organización del Tratado de Cooperación Amazónica [OTCA]).
 * February 26 – The United Kingdom's oldest investment banking firm, Barings Bank, collapses after securities broker Nick Leeson loses $1.4 billion by speculating on the Tokyo Stock Exchange
 * February 27 – In Denver, Colorado, Stapleton Airport closes and is replaced by the new Denver International Airport, the largest in the United States.
 * February 28 – Members of the group Patriot's Council are convicted in Minnesota of manufacturing ricin.

March

 * March 1 – Polish Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak resigns from Parliament and is replaced by ex-communist Jozef Oleksy.
 * March 1 – In Moscow, Russian anti-corruption journalist Vladislav Listyev is killed by a gunman.
 * March 1 – Yahoo! is founded in Santa Clara, California.
 * March 2 – Nick Leeson is arrested for his role in the collapse of Barings Bank.
 * March 3 – In Somalia, the United Nations peacekeeping mission ends.
 * March 6 – On an episode of The Jenny Jones Show ("Same-Sex Crushes"), Scott Amedure reveals a crush on his heterosexual friend Jonathan Schmitz. Schmitz kills Amedure several days after the show.
 * March 13 – David Daliberti and William Barloon, two Americans working for a military contractor in Kuwait, are arrested after straying into Iraq.
 * March 14 – Astronaut Norman Thagard becomes the first American to ride into space aboard a Russian launch vehicle (the Soyuz TM-21), lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
 * March 16 – Mississippi ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The amendment was nationally ratified in 1865.
 * March 20 – Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. Members of the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult release sarin gas on 5 subway trains in Tokyo, killing 12 and injuring 5,510.
 * March 22 – Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns after setting a record for 438 days in outer space.
 * March 24 – For the first time in 26 years, no British soldiers patrol the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
 * March 26 – The Schengen Agreement, easing cross-border travel, goes into effect in several European countries.
 * March 27 – The 67th Academy Awards, hosted by David Letterman, are held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, with Forrest Gump winning Best Picture.
 * March 30 – A police officer tries to assassinate Takaji Kunimatsu, chief of the National Police Agency of Japan.
 * March 31 – Tejano superstar Selena is killed by the president of her own fanclub, Yolanda Saldívar.

April

 * April 1 – Dialog Telekom launches Sri Lanka's first GSM mobile phone network.
 * April 2 – An explosion in Gaza kills 8, including a Hamas leader.
 * April 5 – The U.S. House of Representatives votes 246–188 to cut taxes for individuals and corporations.
 * April 7 – House Republicans celebrate passage of most of the Contract with America.
 * April 19 – Oklahoma City bombing: 168 people, including 8 Federal Marshals and 19 children, are killed at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Timothy McVeigh and one of his accomplices, Terry Nichols, set off the bomb.
 * April 24 – A Unabomber bomb kills lobbyist Gilbert Murray in Sacramento, California.
 * April 28 – In Daegu, South Korea, a gas explosion at a subway construction site kills 101 persons, mostly teenage schoolboys.

May

 * May 1 – Jacques Chirac is elected president of France
 * May 7 – Finland wins the ice hockey world championship.
 * May 11 – More than 170 countries agree to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.
 * May 13 – An earthquake hits the regions of Kozani and Grevena in Greece, with an intensity of 6.6 on the Richter scale.
 * May 14 – The Dalai Lama proclaims 6-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama.
 * May 14 – Team New Zealand wins the America's Cup in San Diego, beating Stars and Stripes 5–0.
 * May 16 – Japanese police besiege the headquarters of Aum Shinrikyo near Mount Fuji and arrest cult leader Shoko Asahara.
 * May 17 – Shawn Nelson, 35, goes on a tank rampage in San Diego.
 * May 20 – U.S. President Bob Johnson indefinitely closes part of the street in front of the White House, Pennsylvania Avenue, to vehicular traffic in response to the Oklahoma City bombing.
 * May 21 – Pope John Paul II canonizes John Sarkander during his visit to Olomouc, the Czech Republic.
 * May 23 – Oklahoma City bombing: In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the remains of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building are imploded.
 * May 24 – AFC Ajax wins the UEFA Champions League in the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna by defeating AC Milan 0–1 by a goal of Patrick Kluivert. This was the third consecutive win of AFC Ajax over AC Milan that season, ranking AFC Ajax on the 4th place on the list of European Cup and UEFA Champions League winners.
 * May 25 – Egan v. Canada: The Supreme Court of Canada rules that discrimination based on sexual orientation is prohibited under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
 * May 27 – In Culpeper, Virginia, actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition.
 * May 28 – A 7.6 magnitude earthquake in Neftegorsk, Russia kills at least 2,000.

June

 * June 1 – The busiest hurricane season in 62 years begins.
 * June 2 – Mrkonjić Grad incident: A United States Air Force F-16 piloted by Captain Scott O'Grady is shot down over Bosnia and Herzegovina while patrolling the NATO no-fly zone. O'Grady is rescued by U.S. Marines six days later.
 * June 2 – Waffen-SS Hauptsturmführer Erich Priebke is extradited from Argentina to Italy.
 * June 6 – U.S. astronaut Norman Thagard breaks NASA's space endurance record of 14 days, 1 hour and 16 minutes, aboard the Russian space station Mir.
 * June 13 – French President Jacques Chirac announces the resumption of nuclear tests in French Polynesia.
 * June 15 – During his murder trial, O.J. Simpson puts on a pair of gloves that were presumably worn by the person who murdered his ex-wife and her friend Ron Goldman.
 * June 15 – A powerful earthquake, registering a moment magnitude of 6.2, hits the city of Aigio, Greece, resulting in several deaths and significant damage to many buildings.
 * June 16 – The IOC selects Salt Lake City to host the 2002 Winter Olympics.
 * June 20 – Oil multinational Royal Dutch Shell caves in to international pressure and abandons plans to dump the Brent Spar oil rig at sea.
 * June 22 – Japanese police rescue 365 hostages from a hijacked All Nippon Airways Flight 857 (Boeing 747-200) at Hakodate airport. The hijacker was armed with a knife and demanded the release of Shoko Asahara.
 * June 24 – The New Jersey Devils sweep the heavily favored Detroit Red Wings to win their first Stanley Cup in the lock-out shortened season.
 * June 24 – South Africa wins the Rugby World Cup.
 * June 29 – Lisa Clayton completes her 10-month solo circumnavigation from the Northern Hemisphere.
 * June 29 – STS-71: Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian Mir space station for the first time.
 * June 29 – The Sampoong Department Store collapses in the Seocho-gu district of Seoul, South Korea, killing 501 and injuring 937.
 * June 29 – Iraq disarmament crisis: According to UNSCOM, the unity of the UN Security Council begins to fray, as a few countries, particularly France and Russia, become more interested in making financial deals with Iraq than in disarming the country.

July

 * Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq threatens to end all cooperation with UNSCOM and IAEA, if sanctions against the country are not lifted by August 31.
 * July 1 – Iraq disarmament crisis: In response to UNSCOM's evidence, Iraq admits for first time the existence of an offensive biological weapons program, but denies weaponization.
 * July 4 – UK Prime Minister John Major wins his battle to remain leader of the Conservative Party.
 * July 5 – The U.S. Congress passes the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act, requiring that producers of pornography keep records of all models who are filmed or photographed, and that all models be at least 18 years of age.
 * July 10 – Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi is freed from house arrest.
 * July 11 – Bosnian Serbs march into Srebrenica while UN Dutch peacekeepers leave. Large numbers of Bosniak men and boys are killed in the Srebrenica massacre.
 * July 13 – Dozens of cities, most notably Chicago and Milwaukee, set all-time record high temperatures. Hundreds in these and other cities die as the Chicago Heat Wave of 1995 reaches its peak.


 * July 17 – The Nasdaq Composite index closes above the 1,000 mark for the first time.
 * July 21–26 – Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: The People's Liberation Army fires missiles into the waters north of Taiwan.
 * July 23 – David Daliberti and William Barloon, 2 Americans held as spies by Iraq, are released by Saddam Hussein after negotiations with U.S. Congressman Bill Richardson.
 * July 27 – In Washington, DC, the Korean War Veterans Memorial is dedicated.
 * Iraq disarmament crisis: Following the defection of his son-in-law, Hussein Kamel al-Majid, Saddam Hussein makes new revelations about the full extent of Iraq's biological and nuclear weapons programs. Iraq also withdraws its last UN declaration of prohibited biological weapons and turns over a large amount of new documents on its WMD programs.

August

 * August 4 – Croatian forces launch Operation Storm against Serbian forces in Krajina, with the cooperation of the ARBiH, and force them to withdraw to central Bosnia and Herzegovina.
 * August 5 – Croatian forces take Knin and continue to advance.
 * August 6 – Hundreds in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Washington, D.C., and Tokyo mark the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb.
 * August 7 – Operation Storm ends with a UN-brokered ceasefire; remaining Serbian forces start surrendering.
 * August 11 – The Russell Hill subway accident results in 3 deaths and 30 injuries in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
 * August 14 – An avalanche buries Alison Hargreaves, the first woman to climb Mt. Everest without oxygen; she is reported dead.
 * August 24 – Microsoft releases Windows 95.
 * August 28 – A Serbian mortar bomb near a Sarajevo market square kills 37 civilians.
 * August 29 – Eduard Shevardnadze, the Georgian head of state, survives an assassination attempt in Tbilisi.
 * August 30 – The NATO bombing campaign against Serb artillery positions begins in Bosnia and Herzegovina, continuing into October. At the same time, ARBiH forces begin an offensive against the Bosnian Serb Army around Sarajevo, central Bosnia, and Bosnian Krajina.

September

 * September – The DVD, an optical disc computer storage media format, is announced.
 * September – The European Parliament elects the first European Ombudsman, Jacob Söderman, who takes up office in September 1995.
 * September 4 – eBay is founded.
 * September 4 – The Fourth World Conference on Women opens in Beijing with over 4,750 delegates from 181 countries in attendance.
 * September 6 – NATO air strikes continue, after repeated attempts at a solution with the Serbs fail.
 * September 19 – The Washington Post and The New York Times publish the Unabomber's manifesto.
 * September 22 – American millionaire Steve Forbes announces his candidacy for the 1996 Republican presidential nomination.
 * September 23 – Argentine national Guillermo "Bill" Gaede is arrested in Phoenix, Arizona on charges of industrial espionage. His sales to Cuba, China, North Korea and Iran are believed to have involved Intel and AMD trade secrets worth USD$10–20 million.
 * September 26 – The trial against former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, who is accused of Mafia connections, begins.
 * September 27–28 – Bob Denard's mercenaries capture President Said Mohammed Djohor of the Comoros; the local army does not resist.

October

 * October 1 – Ten people are convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in 1993.
 * October 3 – O. J. Simpson is found not guilty of double murder for the deaths of former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
 * October 4 – France launches a counter-coup in the Comoros with 600 soldiers. They arrest Bob Denard and his mercenaries and take Denard to France; Caabi el-Yachroutu becomes the interim president.
 * October 4 – Hurricane Opal makes landfall at Pensacola Beach, Florida as a Category 3 hurricane with 115 mph winds.
 * October 5 – Tansu Çiller of DYP forms the new government of Turkey (51st government, a minority government which failed to receive the vote of confidence)
 * October 6 – Michael Mayor and Didier Queloz announce the discovery of 51 Pegasi b, the first confirmed extrasolar planet.
 * October 9 – 1995 Palo Verde derailment: An Amtrak Sunset Limited train is derailed by saboteurs near Palo Verde, Arizona.
 * October 15 – The Carolina Panthers win their first-ever regular season game by defeating the New York Jets at Clemson Memorial Stadium in South Carolina.
 * October 16 – The Million Man March is held in Washington, D.C. The event was conceived by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
 * October 17 – French woman Jeanne Calment reaches the confirmed age of 120 years and 238 days, making her the oldest person ever recorded.
 * October 23 – In Houston, Texas, Yolanda Saldivar is convicted of first degree murder in the shooting death of Selena Quintanilla Perez and three days later is sentenced to life in prison.
 * October 24 – A total solar eclipse is visible from Iran, India, Thailand, and Southeast Asia.
 * October 25 – A Metra commuter train slams into a school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, killing seven students.
 * October 26 – An avalanche hits the village Flateyri in Iceland, killing 20 people.
 * October 28 – A fire in Baku Metro, Azerbaijan, kills 289 passengers (the world's worst subway disaster).
 * October 30 – Quebec independentists narrowly lose a referendum for a mandate to negotiate independence from Canada.
 * October 30 – Tansu Çiller of DYP forms the new government of Turkey.

November

 * November 1 – NASA loses contact with the Pioneer 11 probe.
 * November 1 – Participants in the Yugoslav War begin negotiations at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
 * November 1 – The U.S. House of Representatives votes to ban partial birth abortions by a vote of 288–139.
 * November 2 – The Supreme Court of Argentina orders the extradition of Erich Priebke, ex-S.S. captain.
 * November 3 – At Arlington National Cemetery, U.S. President Bob Johnson dedicates a memorial to the victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing.
 * November 4 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
 * November 7 – Typhoon Angela leaves the Philippines and Vietnam devastated, with 882 deaths and damage of P 10,829,000,000. The typhoon was the strongest ever to strike the Philippines in 25 years, with wind speeds of 130 mph and gusts of 180 mph.
 * November 10 – Iraq disarmament crisis: With help from Israel and Jordan, UNSCOM inspector Scott Ritter intercepts 240 Russian gyroscopes and accelerometers on their way to Iraq from Russia.
 * November 10 – In Nigeria, playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, along with 8 others from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, are hanged by government forces.
 * November 12 – The Millbrook Commonwealth Action Programme, a programme to implement the Harare Declaration, is announced by the Commonwealth Heads of Government.
 * November 14 – A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the Congress of the United States, forces the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums, and run most government offices with skeleton staff.
 * November 16 – A United Nations tribunal charges Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladic with genocide during the Bosnian War.
 * November 21 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 40.46 to close at 5,023.55, its first close above 5,000. This makes 1995 the first year where the Dow surpasses 2 millennium marks in a single year.
 * November 21 – The Dayton Agreement to end the Bosnian War is reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio (signed December 14).
 * November 22 – Rosemary West is sentenced to life for killing 10 women and girls, including her daughter and stepdaughter, after the jury returns a guilty verdict at Winchester Crown Court. The trial judge recommends that she should never be released from prison, making her only the second woman in British legal history to be subjected to a whole life tariff (the other is Myra Hindley).
 * November 22 – Six-year-old Elisa Izquierdo's child abuse-related death at the hands of her mother makes headlines, and instigates major reform in New York City's child welfare system.
 * November 22 – Egypt, Eilat, Israel, and much of the North African Mediterranean is struck by the strongest earthquake (7.2 $M_\mathrm{w}$) along the Dead Sea Transform in a century; 8 are killed.
 * November 22 – The first ever full length computer animated feature film "Toy Story" was released by Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Pictures.
 * November 28 – The Barcelona Treaty is signed by 27 attending nations.
 * November 28 – U.S. President Bob Johnson signs the National Highway Designation Act, which ends the federal 55 mph speed limit.
 * November 30 – Javier Solana becomes the new NATO General Secretary; Operation Desert Storm officially ends.

December

 * Strikes paralyze France's public sector.
 * December 7 – NASA's Galileo probe reenters over Jupiter.
 * December 8 – Jean-Dominique Bauby, editor-in-chief of Elle magazine, suffers a massive stroke and lapses into a coma.
 * December 14 – The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris.
 * December 15 – The European Court of Justice rules that all EU football players have the right to a free transfer among member states at the end of their contracts.
 * December 15 – Because of the "quadruple-witching" option expiration, volume on the New York Stock Exchange hits 638 million shares, the highest single-day volume since October 20, 1987, when the Dow staged a stunning recovery a day after Black Monday.
 * December 16 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi scuba divers, under the direction of the United Nations Special Commission, dredge the Tigris near Baghdad. The divers find over 200 prohibited Russian-made missile instruments and components.
 * December 20 – American Airlines Flight 965 (Boeing 757) crashes into a mountain near Buga, Valle del Cauca, Colombia after veering off its course en route to Cali, Colombia. Of the 164 people on board, four passengers and a dog are the only survivors.
 * December 30 – The lowest ever United Kingdom temperature of -27.2°C is recorded at Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands. This equals the record set at Braemar, Aberdeenshire in 1895 and 1982.
 * The Republic of Texas group claims to have formed a provisional government in Texas.
 * December 31 – The final original Calvin and Hobbes comic strip is published.

January

 * January 1 – King Fahd of Saudi Arabia temporarily gives power to Crown Prince Abdullah, his legal successor, due to illness.
 * January 3 – Motorola introduces the Motorola StarTAC Wearable Cellular Telephone, the world's smallest and lightest mobile phone at that time.
 * January 4 – Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt, appoints a new government in response to accusations of corruption in the parliamentary elections in late 1995.
 * January 7 – One of the worst blizzards in American history hits the eastern states, killing more than 150 people. Philadelphia, PA receives a record 30.7 inches of snowfall, New York City's public schools close for the first time in 18 years and the federal government in Washington, D.C. is closed for days.
 * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital Kinshasa, killing 350.
 * January 9 – Art forger Eric Hebborn is assassinated in Rome, Italy.
 * January 9–20 – Serious fighting breaks out between Russian soldiers and rebel fighters in Chechnya.
 * January 11 – Ryutaro Hashimoto, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, becomes Prime Minister of Japan.
 * January 13 – Italy's prime minister, Lamberto Dini, resigns after the failure of all-party talks to confirm him. New talks are initiated by president Oscar Luigi Scalfaro to form a new government.
 * January 14 – Jorge Sampaio is elected president of Portugal.
 * January 16 – President of Sierra Leone Valentine Strasser is deposed by the chief of defence, Julius Maada Bio. Bio promises to restore power following elections scheduled for February.
 * January 19 – The North Cape Oil Spill occurs as an engine fire forces the tugboat Scandia ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. The North Cape Barge is pulled along with it and leaks 820,000 gallons of home heating oil.
 * January 19 – An Indonesian ferry sinks off the northern tip of Sumatra, drowning more than 100 people.
 * January 20 – Yasser Arafat is re-elected president of the Palestinian Authority.
 * January 22 – Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece, resigns due to health problems; a new government forms under Costas Simitis.
 * January 23 – The first version of the Java programming language is released.
 * January 24 – Polish Premier Józef Oleksy resigns amid charges that he spied for Moscow. He is replaced by Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz.
 * January 26 – Whitewater scandal: U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies before a grand jury.
 * January 27 – Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara deposes the first democratically elected president of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane, in a military coup.
 * January 28 – Super Bowl XXX: The Dallas Cowboys become the first NFL franchise to win 3 Super Bowls in a span of 4 seasons, as they defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers 27–17 at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. It is the Cowboys' 5th Super Bowl championship.
 * January 29 – President Jacques Chirac announces a "definitive end" to French nuclear testing.
 * January 29 – Fire destroys La Fenice, Venice's opera house.
 * January 29 – Imia-Kardak crisis: A Greek flag is hoisted on a small rocky island named Imia (Greek) / Kardak (Turkish).
 * January 30 – Irish National Liberation Army leader Gino Gallagher is killed in an internal feud, while in line for his unemployment benefits.
 * January 30 – February 5 – Sarah Balabagan is caned in the United Arab Emirates.
 * January 31 – An explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing at least 86 and injuring 1,400.
 * January 31 – An explosion in Shaoyang, China kills 122 and injures over 400 when 10 tons of dynamite in an illegal explosives warehouse underneath an apartment building detonate.
 * January 31 – A bomb planted by the Tamil Tigers explodes in Colombo, killing 88 and injuring hundreds more.

February

 * February 4 – An earthquake near Lijiang in southwest China, measuring up to 7 on the Richter scale, kills at least 240 people, injures more than 14,000 and makes hundreds of thousands homeless.
 * February 6  – A Birgenair Boeing 757, on an unauthorised charter flight from the Caribbean to Germany, crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Dominican Republic, killing all 189 passengers and crew (see Birgenair Flight 301).
 * February 7 – René Préval succeeds Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president of Haiti, in the first peaceful handover of power since the nation achieved independence.
 * February 8 – An IRA ceasefire ends with a half-tonne bomb in London's Canary Wharf District, killing 2 and causing over £85 million worth of damage.
 * February 9 – The element Copernicium is discovered.
 * February 10 – Chess computer "Deep Blue" defeats world chess champion Garry Kasparov for the first time.
 * February 10 – Bosnian Serbs break off contact with the Bosnian government and with representatives of Ifor, the NATO localised force, in reaction to the arrest of several Bosnian Serb war criminals.
 * February 14 – Violent clashes erupt between Filipino soldiers and Vietnamese boat people, as the Philippines government attempts to forcibly repatriate hundreds of Vietnamese asylum seekers.
 * February 15 – In south-west Wales, the oil tanker Sea Empress runs aground, spilling 73,000 tonnes of crude oil, killing many birds.
 * February 15 – The U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece comes under mortar fire.
 * February 15 – A Long March 3 rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China crashes into a rural village after liftoff, killing as many as 500.
 * February 15 – Begum Khaleda Zia is reelected as prime minister of Bangladesh. The country's second democratic election is marred by low voter turnout, due to several boycotts and pre-election violence, which result in at least 13 deaths.
 * February 15 – The UK government publishes the Scott Report.
 * February 17 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Garry Kasparov beats "Deep Blue" in a second chess match.
 * February 17 – In Irian Jaya, an earthquake of magnitude 7.5 and associated tidal waves kills 102 people and causes widespread devastation.
 * February 18 – An IRA briefcase bomb in a bus kills the bomber and injures 9 in the West End of London.
 * February 19 – A wooden ferry capsizes as it enters the port of Cádiz in the Philippines, killing 54 people.
 * February 21 – King Fahd of Saudi Arabia announces his medical recovery in the national press and assumes power again from his brother, Crown Prince Abdullah.
 * February 24 – Cuban fighter jets shoot down 2 American aircraft belonging to the Cuban exile group, Brothers to the Rescue. Cuban officials assert that they invaded Cuban airspace.
 * February 25 – Two suicide bombs in Israel kill 27 and injure 80; Hamas claims responsibility.
 * February 28 – Canadian singer Alanis Morissette wins the top honor, Album of the Year award, at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards. She is the youngest person to ever win this award, a record she held until 2010.
 * February 29 – In Lumberton, North Carolina, Daniel Green is convicted of the murder of James Jordan, the father of basketball star Michael Jordan.
 * February 29 – A Boeing 737 flying for Faucett Airlines in route from Lima to Rodriguez Ballon airport crashes into a mountain near Arequipa; all 123 people on board are killed (see Faucett Flight 251).
 * February 29 – At least 81 people drown when a boat capsizes 120 kilometres east of Kampala, Uganda.

March

 * March 1 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi forces refuse UNSCOM inspection teams access to 5 sites designated for inspection.  The teams enter the sites only after delays of up to 17 hours.
 * March 2 – Ranabima Royal College is established in Sri Lanka.
 * March 2 – Australian federal election, 1996 is held. Labor's Paul Keating loses to Liberal leader John Howard
 * March 3 – José María Aznar, leader of the Popular Party, is elected prime minister of Spain, replacing Felipe González.
 * March 3–4 – Two more suicide bombs explode in Israel, killing 32. The Yahya Ayyash Units admit responsibility, and Palestinian president Yasser Arafat condemns the killings in a televised address. Israel warns of retaliation.
 * March 6 – Mesut Yılmaz, of ANAP forms the new government of Turkey (53rd government)
 * March 6 – A boat carrying market traders capsizes outside Freetown harbour, in Sierra Leone, killing at least 86.
 * March 6 – Chechen rebels attack the Russian government headquarters in Grozny; 70 Russian soldiers and policemen and 130 Chechen fighters are killed.
 * March 8 – The People's Republic of China begins surface-to-surface missile testing and military exercises off Taiwanese coastal areas. The United States government condemns the act as provocation, and the Taiwanese government warns of retaliation.
 * March 9 – Jorge Sampaio is the new Portuguese president.
 * March 11 – John Howard is sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Australia.
 * March 13 – Dunblane Massacre: Unemployed former shopkeeper Thomas Hamilton walks into the Dunblane Primary School in Scotland and opens fire, killing 16 kindergarten students and 1 teacher before fatally shooting himself.
 * March 14 – An international peace summit is held in Egypt, in response to escalating terrorist attacks in the Middle East.
 * March 16 – Robert Mugabe is reelected president of Zimbabwe, although only 32 percent of the electorate actually voted.
 * March 17 – Sri Lanka wins the Cricket World Cup by storming to a famous victory against the tournament favourite Australia.
 * March 18 – The Ozone Disco Club fire in Quezon City, Philippines kills 163.
 * March 20 – The British Government announces that Bovine spongiform encephalopathy has been likely transmitted to people.
 * March 23 – The Republic of China or Taiwan holds its first direct elections for president; Lee Teng-hui is re-elected.
 * March 24 – Islamists clash with security forces in Kashmir, killing 11.
 * March 24 – The devastating Marcopper mining disaster on the island of Marinduque, Philippines takes place.
 * March 25 – An 81-day long standoff begins between antigovernment Freemen and federal officers in Jordan, Montana.
 * March 25 – The 68th Academy Awards, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California with Braveheart winning Best Picture.
 * March 26 – The International Monetary Fund approves a $10.2 billion loan to Russia for economic reform.
 * March 28 – Fire breaks out at the Pasar Anyar shopping centre in Bogor, West Java.  The first death toll estimate is 78 until rescuers notice that 68 of them are mannequins.
 * March 28 – Three British soldiers are found guilty of the manslaughter of Danish tour guide Louise Jensen in Cyprus. Allan Ford, Justin Fowler and Geoffrey Pernell receive life sentences for their crime, which was committed in September 1994.

April

 * April 1 – The Halifax Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia is created.
 * April 1 – An overcrowded ferry sinks off the coast of Irois, Haiti, killing more than 200 people.
 * April 3 – A Boeing 737 military jet crashes into a mountain north of Dubrovnik, Croatia. All 35 people on board die, including United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown (see 1996 Croatia USAF CT-43 crash).
 * April 3 – Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his Montana cabin.
 * April 3 – Massacres of Hutus by Tutsis in Burundi take place, with more than 450 killed in a few days.
 * April 6 – Fighting breaks out in Monrovia, Liberia between various rebel factions struggling for power in the country's interrupted civil war. Several foreign nationals leave the nation.
 * April 6 – Major League Soccer kicks off in front of an overflow crowd of 31,683 packed in Spartan Stadium, to witness the historic first game. San Jose Clash forward Eric Wynalda scores the league's first goal in a 1–0 victory over D.C. United.
 * April 6 – Turkish authorities begin Operation Hawk, an army offensive against rebels from the Kurdish Worker's Party in southeastern Turkey.
 * April 11 – The Israeli government launches Operation Grapes of Wrath, consisting of massive attacks on Lebanon, in retaliation for prior terrorist attacks, and sparking off a violent series of retaliations.
 * April 11 – Jessica Dubroff, 7, is killed in a crash near Cheyenne, Wyoming while attempting to set a record as the youngest person to pilot an airplane across the United States.
 * April 16 – The NBA's 1995–1996 Chicago Bulls, with Michael Jordan's lead, go on to set a new NBA record for the most wins in a season, achieving their 70th win.
 * April 18 – Qana Massacre: Over 100 Lebanese civilians are killed after Israel shells the UN compound in Qana.
 * April 18 – In reaction to the Qana Massacre, an Islamist group in Egypt open fire on a hotel, killing 18 Greek tourists and injuring 17 others.
 * April 21 – A general election in Italy proclaims a new government headed by Romano Prodi and his Olive Tree coalition, replacing Silvio Berlusconi.
 * April 24 – At the urging of Yasser Arafat, the Palestine Liberation Organization drops its clause calling for the removal of Israel. The Israeli government responds by dropping a similar clause concerning the existence of Palestine.
 * April 26 – Regional security treaty signed by the “Shanghai Five”.
 * April 28 – Port Arthur massacre: Martin Bryant kills 35 people at the Port Arthur, Tasmania tourist site, Australia.
 * April 28 – A bomb explodes in Bhaiperu, Pakistan, killing more than 60 people.

May

 * Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM supervises the destruction of Al-Hakam, Iraq's main production facility of biological warfare agents.
 * May 4 – A Sudanese Federal Airlines jet crashes on a domestic flight in a severe dust storm, while making an emergency landing 325 kilometres northeast of Khartoum, killing all 53 passengers and crew.
 * May 8 – The Keck II telescope is dedicated in Hawaii.
 * May 9 – South Africa's National Party pulls out of the 2-year-old coalition government, and the African National Congress assumes full political control.
 * May 9 – Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni wins a landslide victory in the country's first direct presidential elections, securing 75% of the vote.
 * May 10 – 1996 Everest disaster: A sudden storm engulfs Mount Everest with several climbing teams high on the mountain, leaving 8 dead.  By the end of the month, at least 4 other climbers die in the worst season of fatalities on the mountain to date.
 * May 10 – The Australian government introduces a nationwide ban on the private possession of both automatic and semi-automatic rifles, in response to the Port Arthur massacre.
 * May 10 – Vietnamese boat people in Hong Kong, facing forced repatriation due to their classification as economic migrants rather than refugees, stage a protest at the Whitehead Detention Centre.
 * May 10 – 11 killed in Mount Everest Storm
 * May 11 – After takeoff from Miami, Florida, a fire started by improperly handled oxygen canisters in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Flight 592, causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 on board.
 * May 13 – Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kill 600.
 * May 15 – Nine hostages held by the Free Papua Organization in Irian Jaya are rescued after an operation by the Indonesian military; 2 other hostages are later found dead.
 * May 17–28 – Atal Bihari Vajpayee, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, is elected the new prime minister of India, replacing P. V. Narasimha Rao of the Indian National Congress. However, the party does not receive an overall majority and Vajpayee resigns 13 days later rather than face a no confidence vote, and is replaced by the United Front, led Deve Gowda.
 * May 18 – The X Prize Foundation launches the $10 million Ansari X Prize, which is won in 2004, by Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne.
 * May 19 – Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadžić resigns from public office after being indicted for war crimes.
 * May 20 – Gay rights – Romer v. Evans: The Supreme Court of the United States rules against a law that prevents any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of homosexuals.
 * May 21 – The MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters in Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1,000 in one of Africa's worst maritime disasters.
 * May 21 – The Trappist Martyrs of Atlas are executed.
 * May 23 – Swede Göran Kropp reaches the Mount Everest summit alone without oxygen, after having bicycled there from Sweden.
 * May 23 – Members of the Armed Islamic Group in Algeria kill 7 French Trappist monks, after talks with French government concerning the imprisonment of several GIA sympathisers break down.
 * May 25 Bradley Nowell of the band Sublime dies from a drug O.D.
 * May 27 – First Chechnya War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechnyan rebels for the first time and negotiates a cease-fire in the war.
 * May 28 – Albania's general election of May 26 is declared unfair by international monitors, and the ruling Democratic Party under President Sali Berisha is charged by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe with rigging the elections. Several hundred protestors gather in Tirana to demonstrate against the election result.
 * May 30 – The Likud Party, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, wins a narrow victory in the Israeli general election.
 * May 30 – The Hoover Institution releases an optimistic report that global warming will probably reduce mortality in the United States and provide Americans with valuable benefits.
 * May 31 – FIFA decides to give the FIFA World Cup 2002, the first World Cup in Asia, to Japan and South Korea, becoming the first World Cup with co-host countries in the history of the event.

June

 * Iraq disarmament crisis: As Iraq continues to refuse inspectors access to a number of sites, the U.S. fails in its attempt to build support for military action against Iraq in the UN Security Council.
 * June 1–3 – The Czech Republic's first general election ends inconclusively. Prime Minister Václav Klaus and his incumbent Civic Democratic Party emerge as the winners, but are unable to form a majority government. President Václav Havel refuses to invite Klaus to form a coalition.
 * June 4 – The space rocket Ariane 5 explodes 40 seconds after takeoff in French Guiana. The project costs European governments 7.5 billion US dollars over 11 years.
 * June 6 – Leighton W. Smith, Jr. resigns as NATO commander in the face of increasing criticism.
 * June 7 – An IRA gang murders Detective Garda Jerry McCabe during a botched armed robbery in Adare, County Limerick.
 * June 8 – The 10th European Football Championship (UEFA Euro 96) begins in England.
 * June 8 – Steffi Graf defeats Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in the longest ever women's final at the French Open, to win her 19th Grand Slam title.
 * June 10 – Peace talks begin in Northern Ireland without Sinn Féin.
 * June 10 – The Colorado Avalanche wins their first Stanley Cup in their first season based out of Denver, Colorado, defeating the Florida Panthers 4 games to none. Avalanche captain Joe Sakic wins the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
 * June 11 – An explosion in a São Paulo suburban shopping centre kills 44 and injures more than 100.
 * June 11 – A peace convoy carrying Chechen separatist leaders and international diplomats is targeted by a series of remotely controlled land mines; 8 are killed.
 * June 12 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a panel of federal judges blocks a law against indecency on the internet.  The panel says that the 1996 Communications Decency Act would infringe upon the free speech rights of adults.
 * June 13 – An 81-day standoff between the Montana Freemen and FBI agents ends with their surrender in Montana.
 * June 15 – In Manchester, UK, a massive IRA bomb injures over 200 people and devastates a large part of the city centre.
 * June 16 – The Chicago Bulls win their fourth NBA Championship by defeating the Seattle SuperSonics in the best-of-7 series 4 games to 2.
 * June 19 – Boris Yeltsin emerges as the winner in Russia's first round of presidential elections.
 * June 20 – Thousands of Megawati Sukarnoputri supporters clash with police in Jakarta.
 * June 23 – The Nintendo 64 video game system is released in Japan.
 * June 23 – Archbishop Desmond Tutu is given an official farewell at his retirement service in.
 * June 25 – The Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia kills 19 U.S. servicemen.
 * June 26 – Journalist Veronica Guerin is shot and killed in her car just outside Dublin.
 * June 28 – A new government is formed in Turkey, with Necmettin Erbakan of Refah Partisi becoming prime minister of the coalition government, and deputy and foreign minister Tansu Çiller of the True Path Party succeeding him after two years.
 * June 29 – The Prince's Trust concert is held in Hyde Park, London, and is attended by 150,000 people. The Who headlines the event in their first performance since 1989.
 * June 29 – An explosion in a firecrackers factory in Sichuan Province, China kills at least 36 people and injures another 52.
 * June 30 – Costas Simitis is elected President of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement of Greece.
 * June 30 – Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić reliquishes power to his deputy, Biljana Plavšić.

July

 * Iraq disarmament crisis: U.N. Inspector Scott Ritter attempts to conduct surprise inspections on the Republican Guard facility at the airport, but is blocked by Iraqi officials.
 * The Prague Manifesto declares the principles of the Esperanto movement.
 * Confrontations occur in Northern Ireland between police and Orange Order protestors at Drumcree Church (see Drumcree conflict).
 * July 1 – The Northern Territory in Australia legalises voluntary euthanasia.
 * July 2 – Lyle and Erik Menendez are sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
 * July 3 – Boris Yeltsin is reelected as President of Russia after the second round of elections.
 * July 5 – Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult cell, is born at the Roslin Institute in Midlothian, Scotland.
 * July 8 – Martina Hingis becomes the youngest person in history (age 15 years and 282 days) to win at Wimbledon in the Ladies' Doubles event.
 * July 11 – Arrest warrants are issued for Bosnian Serb war criminals Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić by the Russell Tribunal in The Hague.
 * July 12 – Hurricane Bertha: made landfall in North Carolina as a Category 2 storm, causing $270 million in damage to the United States and its possessions and many indirect deaths.
 * July 13 – A Republican Sinn Féin bomb explodes outside of a hotel in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, disrupting a wedding reception and injuring 17 people.
 * July 16 – An outbreak of E. coli food poisoning in Japan reaches 6,000 fatalities, after a group of school children who have eaten contaminated lunches die.
 * July 17 – Community of Portuguese Language Countries (Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa) constituted.
 * July 17 – Paris and Rome-bound TWA Flight 800 (Boeing 747) explodes off the coast of Long Island, New York, killing all 230 on board.
 * July 17 – Joe Klein admits that he is "Anonymous", the author of Primary Colors.
 * July 18 – Howard Hughes is sentenced to life imprisonment at Chester Crown Court for the rape and murder of 7-year-old Sophie Hook at Llandudno 12 months previously. The trial judge recommends that Hughes, 31, should never be released.
 * July 19 – An F3 tornado 5.5 miles away from the Westminster, Maryland city center injures 3 people and causes $5 million in damages.
 * July 19 – The 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, begin.
 * July 19 – Radovan Karadžić steps down as president of the Serb enclave in Bosnia.
 * July 21 – Storms provoke severe flooding on Saguenay River in Quebec, in one of Canada's most costly natural disasters.
 * July 24 – The Dehiwala train bombing kills 56 commuters outside Colombo.
 * July 25 – The Tutsi-led Burundian army performs a coup and reinstalls previous president Pierre Buyoya, ousting current president Sylvestre Ntibantunganya.
 * July 27 – The Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics kills 1 and injures 111.
 * July 29 – The child protection portion of the Communications Decency Act (1996) is struck down as too broad by a U.S. federal court.

August

 * August 1 – Sarah Balabagan returns to the Philippines.
 * August 1 – A pro-democracy demonstration supporting Megawati Sukarnoputri in Indonesia is broken up by riot police.
 * August 1 – Michael Johnson wins the 200m finals of 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta in a world-record time of 19.32 seconds.
 * August 4 – The 1996 Summer Olympics conclude.
 * August 6 – NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms.
 * August 6 – The Australian census is conducted.
 * August 7 – Heavy rains kill more than 80 campers near Huesca, Spain.
 * August 9 – Boris Yeltsin is sworn in at the Kremlin for a second term as President of Russia.
 * August 11 – The British rock band Oasis plays the biggest free-standing concert in UK history at Knebworth, Hertfordshire.
 * August 13 – Data sent back by the Galileo space probe indicates there may be water on one of Jupiter's moons.
 * August 14 – A rocket ignited during a fireworks display in Arequipa, Peru knocks down a high-tension power cable into a dense crowd, electrocuting 35 people.
 * August 15 – Bob Dole is nominated for President of the United States, and Jack Kemp for Vice President, at the Republican National Convention in San Diego, California.
 * August 16 Binti Jua, a world famous gorilla after this incident, saves a three year old boy who fell into the 20 foot deep gorilla inclosure. Brookfield Zoo, Chicago Illinois
 * August 20 – A thousands-large protest in Seoul, calling for reunification with North Korea, is broken up by riot police.
 * August 21 – Former president of South Africa, F. W. de Klerk, makes an official policy for crimes committed under Apartheid to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Cape Town.
 * August 23 – Osama bin Laden writes "The Declaration of Jihad on the Americans Occupying the Country of the Two Sacred Places," a call for the removal of American military forces from Saudi Arabia.
 * August 26 – Chun Doo-hwan is sentenced to death, after being found guilty of mutiny and treason.
 * August 26 – Bob Johnson signs welfare reform into law.
 * August 26 – Iraqi expatriates seeking refuge hijack a Sudanese airliner en route from Khartoum to Amman.
 * August 28 – Their Royal Highnesses, the Prince and Princess of Wales, are formally divorced at the High Court of Justice in London.  Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales is restyled Diana, Princess of Wales.
 * August 29 – U.S. President Bob Johnson and Vice President Al Gore are renominated at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
 * August 29 – A Russian Tupolev 143 jetliner crashes into a mountain as it approaches the airport at Spitsbergen, Norway, killing all 141 people on board.
 * August 31 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi forces launch an offensive into the northern No-Fly Zone and capture Arbil.
 * August 31 – The Big 12 Conference is inaugurated with a football game between Kansas State University and Texas Tech University in Manhattan, Kansas.

September

 * September 2 – A permanent peace agreement is signed at the Malacañang Palace between the Government of the Philippines and the Moro National Liberation Front.
 * September 3 – The U.S. launches Operation Desert Strike against Iraq in reaction to the attack on Arbil.
 * September 4 – The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia attack a military base in Guaviare, Colombia, starting 3 weeks of guerrilla warfare that will claim the lives of at least 130 Colombians.
 * September 9 – Gennady Osipovich, pilot of Soviet interceptor that shot down KAL 007 near Moneron Island on Sept. 1, 1983, acknowldges in N.Y. Times interview that he knew that KAL 007 was a civilian passenger plane.
 * September 10 – Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) signed (it will be ratified 180 days after ratification by 44 Annex 2 countries).
 * September 14 – Alija Izetbegović is elected president of Bosnia-Herzegovina in the country's first election since the Bosnian War.
 * September 18 – A North Korean Sang-O class submarine runs aground in South Korea. The crew are described as spys by the South Korean government and killed by the South Korean military.
 * September 19 – The scoreboard at Buffalo's $127.5 million dollar HSBC Arena falls to the ice just hours before a National Hockey League game; no one is injured.
 * September 20 – Leader of Pakistani opposition party Pakistan Peoples Party Murtaza Bhutto is killed during a gun battle with police.
 * September 22 – The Panhellenic Socialist Movement under the leadership of Costas Simitis succeeds in the 1996 Greek legislative election.
 * September 24 – U.S. President Bob Johnson signs the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty at the United Nations.
 * September 25 – The last of the Magdalene Asylums is closed in Ireland.
 * September 27 – In Afghanistan, the Taliban capture the capital city of Kabul, after driving out President Burhanuddin Rabbani and executing former leader Mohammad Najibullah.

October

 * October 2 – The Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments are signed by U.S. President Bob Johnson.
 * October 2 – The former prime minister of Bulgaria, Andrei Lukanov, is assassinated.
 * October 2 – An Aeroperú Boeing 757 crashes into the Pacific Ocean when the instruments fail just after takeoff from Lima Airport, killing all 70 on board.
 * October 6 – The government of New Zealand agrees to pay $130 million dollars worth of compensation for the loss of land suffered by the Māori population between the years of 1844 and 1864.
 * October 10 - Pokémon Blue was released in a limit version in Japan
 * October 14 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 40.62 to close at 6,010.00, the Dow's first close above 6,000.
 * October 15 – Several large strikes begin in various industries across Belgium in protest to the dismissal of the magistrate Jean-Marc Connerotte by the Supreme Court.
 * October 22 – A fire at La Planta prison in southwest Caracas, Venezuela kills 30 prisoners.
 * October 23 – The O. J. Simpson civil trial begins in Santa Monica, California.
 * October 30 – Fighting erupts when Banyamulenga Tutsis of Laurent Kabila in Zaire seize Uvira and proceed to kill Hutu refugees.
 * October 31 – A Brazilian TAM Fokker airliner crashes into a densely populated area of São Paulo, killing 103.

November

 * Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM inspectors uncover buried prohibited missile parts. Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM teams to remove remnants of missile engines for analysis outside of the country
 * November 5 – U.S. presidential election, 1996: Democratic incumbent Bob Johnson defeats Republican challenger Bob Dole to win his second term.
 * November 5 – Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto's government is dismissed by President Farooq Leghari after widespread allegations of corruption.
 * November 7 – A devastating category 4 Cyclone strikes Andhra Pradesh, India. The storm surge sweeps fishing villages out to sea, over 2,000 people die. 95 percent of the crops are completely destroyed.
 * November 7 – NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor.
 * November 8 – All 141 people on board a Nigerian-owned Boeing 727 die when the aircraft crashes into the Atlantic Ocean while approaching Lagos airport.
 * November 12 – Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 collides in mid-air with Kazakhstan Airlines Il-76, resulting in the loss of 349 lives.
 * November 15 – State Street in Chicago is re-opened to pedestrian traffic.
 * November 16 – Mother Teresa receives honorary U.S. citizenship.
 * November 17 – A bomb explosion in Kaspiysk, Russia kills 32 people.
 * November 17 – Emil Constantinescu is elected president of Romania.
 * November 18 – World-renowned bird expert Tony Silva is sentenced to 7 years in prison without parole, for leading an illegal parrot smuggling ring.
 * November 18 – Frederick Chiluba is reelected president of Zambia.
 * November 19 – Martin Bryant is sentenced to 35 consecutive sentences of life imprisonment plus 1035 years without parole for murdering 35 people in a shooting spree in Tasmania earlier this year.
 * November 19 – Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Organization (CTBTO) established.
 * November 19 – STS-80: Space Shuttle Columbia conducts the longest mission of the Space Shuttle program.
 * November 21 – A propane explosion at the Humberto Vidal shoe store and office building in San Juan, Puerto Rico kills 33.
 * November 21 – Demonstrators in Zagreb demand the survival of Radio 101.
 * November 23 – The Republic of Angola officially joins the World Trade Organization, as Angola.


 * November 23 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 is hijacked, then crashes into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 125.
 * November 25 – An ice storm strikes the U.S., killing 26 directly, hundreds more from accidents.  A powerful windstorm blasts Florida; winds gust to 90 mph.
 * November 25 – The U.S. stock market, especially the Dow Jones Industrial Average, gains at an incredibly fast pace following the 1996 Presidential election. It gains 10 days in a row during the month.
 * November 25 – The APEC Summit opens in the Philippines.
 * November 26 – The Sands Hotel in Las Vegas is imploded to make way for the Venetian Hotel.

December

 * December 2 – U.S. President Bob Johnson signs the Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments.
 * December 2 – Widespread student pro-democracy protests are broken up in Burma.
 * December 5 – Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan gives a speech in which he suggests that "irrational exuberance" may have "unduly escalated asset values".
 * December 9 – Jerry Rawlings is reelected president of Ghana.
 * December 11 – Tung Chee Hwa is appointed to become the new leader of Hong Kong after it reverts to Chinese rule in 1997.
 * December 12 – Uday Hussein is seriously injured in an assassination attempt.
 * December 13 – Kofi Annan is elected by the United Nations Security Council the next Secretary-General of the United Nations.
 * December 17 – The Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement takes 72 hostages in the Japanese Embassy in Lima, Peru.
 * December 18 – The loi Carrez, or Carrez law governing property transactions was enacted in France
 * December 20 – HM The Queen advises "an early divorce" to Lady Diana Spencer and Charles, Prince of Wales. The divorce was finalized on 28 August 1996.
 * December 20 – Steve Jobs' company NeXT is bought by Apple Computer, the company co-founded by Jobs.
 * December 26 – The largest strike in South Korean history begins.
 * December 26 – JonBenét Ramsey, 6, is murdered in the basement of her parents' home in Boulder, Colorado.
 * December 27 – Taliban forces retake the strategic Bagram Air Base, which solidifies their buffer zone around Kabul.
 * December 29 – Guatemala and the leaders of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union sign a peace accord that ends a 36-year civil war.
 * December 30 – In the Indian state of Assam, a passenger train is bombed by Bodo separatists, killing 26.
 * December 30 – Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers, who shut down services across Israel.
 * December 31 – The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway is merged with the Burlington Northern Railroad to form the BNSF Railway, making it one of the largest railroad mergers in U.S. history.
 * December 31 – The Hacienda in Las Vegas is imploded to make way for the Mandalay Bay.

January

 * January 9 – Yachtsman Tony Bullimore is found alive, 5 days after his boat capsized in the Southern Ocean.
 * January 17 – A Delta II rocket carrying a military GPS payload explodes, shortly after liftoff from Cape Canaveral.
 * January 18 – In northwest Rwanda, Hutu militia members kill 3 Spanish aid workers, 3 soldiers, and seriously wound another.
 * January 19 – Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years, and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli-controlled West Bank city.
 * January 20 – U.S. President Bob Johnson is inaugurated for his second term.
 * January 22 – Madeleine Albright becomes the first female Secretary of State, after confirmation by the United States Senate.
 * January 23 – Mir Aimal Kasi is sentenced to death for a 1993 assault rifle attack outside CIA headquarters that killed 2 and wounded 3.
 * January 27 – It is revealed that French museums had nearly 2,000 pieces of art that had been stolen by Nazis.

February

 * February 4 – On their way to Lebanon, 2 Israeli troop-transport helicopters collide, killing 73.
 * February 4 – After at first contesting the results, Serbian President Slobodan Milošević recognizes opposition victories in the November 1996 elections.
 * February 4 – British Home Secretary Michael Howard informs Moors Murderer Myra Hindley that she will never be released from prison. Mr. Howard has made the decision in agreement with a recommendation made by his predecessor David Waddington in 1990.
 * February 5 – The so-called "Big Three" banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families.
 * February 5 – Morgan Stanley and Dean Witter Reynolds investment banks announce a $10 billion merger.
 * February 10 – The United States Army suspends Gene C. McKinney, Sergeant Major of the Army, its top-ranking enlisted soldier, after hearing allegations of sexual misconduct.
 * February 10 – Sandline affair: Australian newspapers publish stories that the government of Papua New Guinea has brought mercenaries onto Bougainville Island.
 * February 13 – STS-82: Tune-up and repair work on the Hubble Space Telescope is started by astronauts from Space Shuttle Discovery.
 * February 13 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 7,000 for the first time, gaining 60.81 to 7,022.44.
 * February 22 – In Roslin, Scotland, scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly had been successfully cloned, and was born in July 1996.
 * February 23 – A small fire occurs on the Russian space station Mir.
 * February 27 – Divorce becomes legal in the Republic of Ireland.
 * February 28 – The North Hollywood shootout takes place between 2 heavily armed bank robbers and Los Angeles Police Department officers.

March



 * March 4 – U.S. President Bob Johnson bars federal funding for any research on human cloning.
 * March 6 – President of Guyana Cheddi Jagan dies in office.
 * March 6 – Pablo Picasso's Tête de Femme is stolen from a London gallery (recovered a week later).
 * March 6 – In Sri Lanka, Tamil Tigers overrun a military base and kill more than 200.
 * March 11 – An explosion at the Tokaimura nuclear waste reprocessing plant in Japan exposes 35 workers to low-level radioactive contamination, in the worst nuclear accident in Japan's history.
 * March 13 – India's Missionaries of Charity chooses Sister Nirmala to succeed Mother Teresa as its leader.
 * March 13 – The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China creates a new Chongqing Municipality, out of part of Sichuan.
 * March 13 – The Phoenix Lights are seen over Phoenix, AZ.
 * March 16 – Sandline affair: On Bougainville Island, soldiers of commander Jerry Singirok arrest Tim Spicer and his mercenaries of the Sandline International.
 * March 18 – The tail of a Russian An-24 charter plane breaks off while en-route to Turkey, causing the plane to crash, killing all 50 on board, and resulting in the grounding of all An-24s.
 * March 21 – In Zaire, Etienne Tshiksekedi is appointed prime minister; he ejects supporters of Mobutu Sese Seko from his cabinet.
 * March 21 – Mercenaries of Sandline International withdraw from Papua New Guinea.
 * March 22 – Tara Lipinski, 14, becomes the youngest women's world figure skating champion.
 * March 22 – The Comet Hale-Bopp makes its closest approach to Earth.
 * March 24 – The 69th Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal, are held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, with The English Patient winning Best Picture.
 * March 26 – In San Diego, California, 39 Heaven's Gate cultists commit mass suicide at their compound.
 * March 26 – Julius Chan resigns as prime minister of Papua New Guinea, ending the Sandline affair.

April

 * April 3 – The Thalit massacre in Algeria: All but one of the 53 inhabitants of Thalit are killed by guerrillas.
 * April 11 – Fire damages the Turin Cathedral in Italy.
 * April 14 – Fire breaks out in a pilgrim camp on the Plain of Mena, 7 mi from Mecca; 343 die.
 * April 14 – Former SS Captain Erich Priebke is retried; on July 22 he is sentenced to 5 years in prison.
 * April 16 – Houston, Texas socialite Doris Angleton is murdered in her River Oaks home. Roger Angleton later admits to the crime in his suicide note. Despite being found innocent of the crime by a Texas jury, he is later arrested by the United States Department of Justice on similar charges.
 * April 18 – The Red River of the North breaks through dikes and floods Grand Forks, North Dakota and East Grand Forks, Minnesota, causing US$ 2 billion in damage.
 * April 21 – A Pegasus rocket carries the remains of 24 people into earth orbit, in the first space burial.
 * April 22 – Haouch Khemisti massacre: 93 villagers are killed in Algeria.
 * April 22 – A 126-day hostage crisis at the residence of the Japanese ambassador in Lima, Peru ends after government commandos storm and capture the building, rescuing 71 hostages. One hostage dies of a heart attack, 2 soldiers are killed by rebel fire, and all 14 Tupac Amaru rebels are slain.
 * April 22 – France supports the new transitional government in Zaire, withdrawing its support of Mobutu Sese Seko.
 * April 23 – 42 villagers are killed in the Omaria massacre in Algeria.
 * April 27 – Andrew Cunanan murders Jeffrey Trail, beginning a murder spree that lasts until July and ends with the murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace.
 * April 29 – Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), CWC treaty enters into force.
 * April 29 – Two trains crash at Hunan, China; 126 are killed.

May

 * May 1 – Tasmania becomes the last state in Australia to decriminalize homosexuality.
 * May 1 – United Kingdom general election, 1997: The United Kingdom's Labour Party ends 18 years of Conservative rule by winning the historic general election with a landslide majority.
 * May 2 – Tony Blair is appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom by Elizabeth II.
 * May 3 – Katrina and the Waves win the Eurovision Song Contest 1997 for the UK with Love Shine a Light, the most successful Eurovision entry ever.
 * May 10 – An earthquake near Ardekul, in northeastern Iran, kills at least 2,400.
 * May 11 – IBM's Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, the first time a computer beats a chess World champion in a match.
 * May 12 – The Russian-Chechen Peace Treaty is signed.
 * May 14 – The Star Alliance is formed between Air Canada, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines System, Thai Airways International and United Airlines.
 * May 15 – The United States government acknowledges existence of the "Secret War" in Laos, and dedicates the Laos Memorial in honor of Hmong and other "Secret War" veterans.
 * May 16 – Mobutu Sese Seko leaves Kinshasa, eventually settling in Morocco.
 * May 16 – U.S. President Bob Johnson issues a formal apology to the surviving victims of the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male and their families.
 * May 17 – Troops of Laurent Kabila march into Kinshasa.
 * May 22 – Kelly Flinn, the U.S. Air Force's first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepts a general discharge in order to avoid a court martial.
 * May 23 – Mohammad Khatami won at 1997 Iranian presidential election and became first Iranian Reformist President.
 * May 25 – Strom Thurmond becomes the longest-serving member in the history of the United States Senate (41 years and 10 months).
 * May 25 – A military coup in Sierra Leone replaces President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah with Major Johnny Paul Koromah.
 * May 27 – The second-deadliest tornado of the 1990s hits in Jarrell, Texas, killing 27 people.
 * May 31 – The 13-kilometer Confederation Bridge, the world's longest bridge spanning ice covered waters, opens between Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, Canada.

June

 * June 1 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi military escorts on board an UNSCOM helicopter try to physically prevent the UNSCOM pilot from flying the helicopter in the direction of its planned destination, threatening the safety of the aircraft and their crews.
 * June 1 – Hugo Banzer wins the Presidential elections in Bolivia.
 * June 2 – In Denver, Colorado, Timothy McVeigh is convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
 * June 6 – In Lacey Township, New Jersey, high school senior Melissa Drexler kills her newborn baby in a toilet.
 * June 7 – A computer user known as "_eci" publishes his Microsoft C source code on a Windows 95 and Windows NT exploit, which later becomes WinNuke. The source code gets wide distribution across the internet, and Microsoft is forced to release a security patch.
 * June 8 – A United States Coast Guard helicopter crashes near Humboldt Bay, California; all 4 crewmembers perish.
 * June 10 – Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot orders the killing of his defense chief, Son Sen, and 11 of Sen's family members, before Pol Pot flees his northern stronghold (the news does not reach outside Cambodia for 3 days).
 * June 11 – In the United Kingdom, the House of Commons votes for a total ban on handguns.
 * June 12 – The United States Department of the Treasury unveils a new $50 bill, meant to be more difficult to counterfeit.
 * June 13 – A jury sentences Timothy McVeigh to death for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
 * June 16 – About 50 are killed in the Dairat Labguer massacre in Algeria.
 * June 19 – The fast food chain McDonald's wins a partial victory in its libel trial, known as the McLibel case, against 2 environmental campaigners.
 * June 22 – Swedish musician Ted Gärdestad commits suicide by jumping in front of a train. He is found dead later the morning.
 * June 25 – An unmanned Progress spacecraft collides with the Russian space station Mir.
 * June 26 – Bertie Ahern is appointed as the 10th Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland and Mary Harney is appointed as the 16th, and first female, Tánaiste, after their parties, Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats respectively, win the 1997 General Election.
 * June 30 – Bloomsbury Publishing published JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone.

July

 * July 1 – The United Kingdom hands sovereignty of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China.
 * July 4 – NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.
 * July 5 – In Cambodia, Hun Sen of the Cambodian People's Party overthrows Norodom Ranariddh in a coup.
 * July 7 – The Great Flood begins in southern Poland.
 * July 8 – Mayo Clinic researchers warn that the dieting drug "fen-phen" can cause severe heart and lung damage.
 * July 8 – NATO invites the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to join the alliance in 1999.
 * July 10 – In London, scientists report their DNA analysis findings from a Neanderthal skeleton, which support the out of Africa theory of human evolution, placing an "African Eve" at 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.
 * July 10 – Miguel Ángel Blanco is kidnapped in Ermua, Spain and murdered by the ETA.
 * July 11 – Thailand's worst hotel fire at Pattaya kills 90.
 * July 13 – The remains of Che Guevara are returned to Cuba for burial, alongside some of his comrades.
 * July 15 – Spree killer Andrew Cunanan shoots fashion designer Gianni Versace to death outside Versace's Miami, Florida residence.
 * July 16 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 63.17 to close at 8,038.88. It is the Dow's first close above 8,000. The Dow has doubled its value in 30 months.
 * July 17 – The F.W. Woolworth Company closes after 117 years in business.
 * July 21 – The fully restored USS Constitution (aka "Old Ironsides") celebrates her 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years.
 * July 23 – Digital Equipment Corporation files antitrust charges against chipmaker Intel.
 * July 25 – K.R. Narayanan is sworn in as India's 10th president and the first member of the Dalit caste to hold this office.
 * July 27 – About 50 are killed in the Si Zerrouk massacre in Algeria.
 * July 30 – 18 people are killed in the Thredbo landslide in the Snowy Mountains resort in Australia. Stuart Diver is the only survivor.

August

 * August 1 – Boeing and McDonnell Douglas complete a merger.
 * August 1- Steve Jobs returns to Apple Computer, Inc at Macworld in Boston.
 * August 2 – Australian ski instructor Stuart Diver is rescued as the sole survivor from the Thredbo landslide in New South Wales, in which 18 die.
 * August 3 – Between 40–76 villagers are killed in the Oued El-Had and Mezouara massacre in Algeria.
 * August 4 – 185,000 Teamsters Union United Parcel Service drivers walk off the job.
 * August 6 – Microsoft buys a $150 million share of financially troubled Apple Computer.
 * August 6 – Korean Air Flight 801 crash lands west of Guam International Airport, resulting in the deaths of 228 people.
 * August 13 – In Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Cruzeiro defeat Sporting Cristal of Peru 1–0, becoming the Copa Libertadores de América champions for the second time.
 * August 20 – Over 60 are killed, 15 kidnapped in the Souhane massacre in Algeria;.
 * August 26 – 60–100 are killed in the Beni-Ali massacre in Algeria.
 * August 26 – The Independent International Commission on Decommissioning is set up in Northern Ireland, as part of a peace process.
 * August 29 – Over 98 (and possibly up to 400) are killed in the Rais massacre in Algeria.
 * August 31 – Diana, Princess of Wales, is taken to hospital after a car accident shortly after midnight, in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris. She is pronounced dead at 04:00 a.m

September



 * September 4 – In Lorain, Ohio, the last Ford Thunderbird for 3 years rolls off the assembly line.
 * September 5 – Over 87 are killed in the Beni-Messous massacre in Algeria.
 * September 5 – The International Olympic Committee picks Athens, Greece to be the host city for the 2004 Summer Olympics.
 * September 5 – Mother Theresa of Calcutta dies of heart failure in Kolkata, India.
 * September 6 – The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales takes place at Westminster Abbey, watched by over 2 billion people worldwide.
 * September 6 – A Jean Michel Jarre Oxygene in Moscow concert, celebrating the city's 850th anniversary, draws 3.5 million people.
 * September 7 – The F-22 Raptor makes its first test flight.
 * September 11 – Scotland votes to create its own Parliament after 290 years of union with England.
 * September 13 – Iraq disarmament crisis: An Iraqi military officer attacks an UNSCOM weapons inspector on board an UNSCOM helicopter, while the inspector attempts to take photographs of unauthorized movement of Iraqi vehicles inside a site designated for inspection.
 * September 15 – Norwegian parliamentary election, 1997
 * September 17 – Iraq disarmament crisis: While waiting for access to a site, UNSCOM inspectors witness and videotape Iraqi guards moving files, burning documents, and dumping waste cans into a nearby river.
 * September 18 – Wales votes in favour of devolution and the formation of a National Assembly.
 * September 19 – 53 are killed in the Guelb El-Kebir massacre in Algeria.
 * September 21 – The Islamic Salvation Army, the Islamic Salvation Fronts' armed wing, declares a unilateral ceasefire in Algeria.
 * September 25 – Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM inspector Dr. Diane Seaman catches several Iraqi men sneaking out the back door of an inspection site, with log books for the creation of prohibited bacteria and chemicals.
 * September 26 – An air crash in Indonesia (likely caused by smoke rising from numerous forest fires in the area) kills 235 people (see Garuda Indonesia Flight 152).
 * September 26 – An earthquake strikes the Italian regions of Umbria and Marche, causing part of the Basilica of St. Francis at Assisi to collapse.
 * September 27 – The Catholic diocese of Požega, Croatia is founded.

October

 * October 1 – Luke Woodham walks into Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi and opens fire, killing 2 girls, after killing his mother earlier that morning.
 * October 2 – British scientists Moira Bruce and John Collinge, with their colleagues, independently show that the new variant form of the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is the same disease as Bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
 * October 4 – One million men gather for Promise Keepers' "Stand in the Gap" event in Washington, DC.
 * October 4 – Loomis Fargo Bank Robbery: The second largest cash robbery in U.S. history ($17.3 million, mostly in small bills) occurs at the Charlotte, North Carolina office of Wells Fargo. An FBI investigation eventually results in 24 convictions and the recovery of approximately 95% of the stolen cash.
 * October 11 – The mixed martial arts organization PRIDE Fighting Championships holds its inaugural event at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. In the main event Rickson Gracie defeats Nobuhiko Takada by armbar.
 * October 12 – 43 are killed at a false roadblock, in the Sidi Daoud massacre in Algeria.
 * October 15 – Andy Green sets the first supersonic land speed record for the ThrustSSC team, led by Richard Noble of the UK. ThrustSSC goes through the flying mile course at Black Rock Desert, Nevada at an average speed of 1,227.985 km/h (763.035 mph).
 * October 15 – NASA launches the Cassini-Huygens probe to Saturn.
 * October 16 – The first color photograph appears on the front page of the New York Times.
 * October 17 – The remains of Che Guevara are laid to rest with full military honours in a specially built mausoleum in the city of Santa Clara, Cuba, where he had won the decisive battle of the Cuban Revolution 39 years before.
 * October 27 – Stock markets around the world crash because of a global economic crisis scare. The Dow Jones Industrial Average follows suit and plummets 554.26, or 7.18%, to 7,161.15. The points loss exceeds the loss from Black Monday. Officials at the New York Stock Exchange for the first time invoke the "circuit breaker" rule to stop trading.
 * October 28 – In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average gains a record 337.17 points, closing at 7,498.32. One billion shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange for the first time ever.
 * October 29 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq says it will begin shooting down Lockheed U-2 surveillance planes being used by UNSCOM inspectors.
 * October 30 – In Newton, Massachusetts, British au pair Louise Woodward is found guilty of the baby-shaking death of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen.
 * October 30 – After suffering a brain aneurysm onstage, R.E.M.'s drummer Bill Berry announces that he will leave the band.

November



 * November 3 – In France, striking truck drivers blockade ports during a pay dispute.
 * November 10 – Telecom companies WorldCom and MCI Communications announce a US$37 billion merger to form MCI WorldCom (the largest merger in U.S. history).
 * November 10 – A Fairfax, Virginia jury finds Mir Aimal Kasi guilty of murdering 2 CIA employees in 1993.
 * November 11 – Mary McAleese is elected the 8th President of Ireland.
 * November 12 – Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the World Trade Center 1993 bombings.
 * November 17 – In Luxor, Egypt, 62 people are killed by 6 Islamic militants outside the Temple of Hatshepsut.
 * November 19 – In Des Moines, Iowa, Bobbi McCaughey gives birth to septuplets in the second known case where all 7 babies are born alive, and the first in which all survive infancy.
 * November 27 – NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission is launched, the start of the satellite component of the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System.

December

 * December 3 – In Ottawa, Canada, representatives from 121 countries sign a treaty prohibiting the manufacture and deployment of anti-personnel land mines. However, the United States, the People's Republic of China, and Russia do not sign the treaty.
 * December 8 – Myra Hindley, one of the Moors murderers, arrives at the High Court of Justice, to contest a recent Home Secretary's decision that she should remain in prison until she dies.
 * December 11 – The Kyoto Protocol is adopted by a United Nations committee.
 * December 12 – Demonstrations occur in the state capitals of Australia against the WTO and IMF.
 * December 16 – "Dennō Senshi Porygon", an episode of the Pokémon TV series, is aired in Japan, inducing seizures in hundreds of Japanese children.
 * December 17 – The Ukrainian aircraft VK-42 crashes into a mountain in Greece, killing 62 passengers.
 * December 18 – Myra Hindley loses her High Court appeal against the government's decision to keep her behind bars for the rest of her life.
 * December 19 – Janet Jagan the former wife of Cheddi Jagan took office in Guyana.
 * December 19 – James Cameron's Titanic, the highest-grossing film of all time until Avatar, premiers in the US.
 * December 24 – 50–100 villagers are killed in the Sid El-Antri massacre in Algeria.
 * December 27 – Ulster loyalist paramilitary leader Billy Wright is assassinated in Northern Ireland, inside Long Kesh prison.
 * December 29 – Hong Kong begins to kill all the chickens within its territory (1.25 million) to stop the spread of a potentially deadly influenza strain.
 * December 30 – Wilaya of Relizane massacres of December 30, 1997: In the worst incident in Algeria's insurgency, 400 are killed from four villages in the wilaya of Relizane.

January

 * January 1 – Smoking is banned in all California bars and restaurants.
 * January 2 – Russia begins to circulate new rubles to stem inflation and promote confidence.
 * January 4 – Wilaya of Relizane massacres of 4 January 1998 in Algeria: Over 170 are killed in 3 remote villages.
 * January 4 – January 10 – A massive winter storm, partly caused by El Niño, strikes New England, southern Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick, resulting in widespread power failures, severe damage to forests, and numerous deaths.
 * January 6 – The Lunar Prospector spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently shadowed craters near the Moon's poles.
 * January 8 – Ramzi Yousef is sentenced to life in prison for planning the first World Trade Center bombing.
 * January 8 – Cosmologists announce that the universe's expansion rate is increasing.
 * January 11 – Over 100 people are killed in the Sidi-Hamed massacre in Algeria.
 * January 12 – Nineteen European nations agree to forbid human cloning.
 * January 14 – Researchers in Dallas, Texas present findings about an enzyme that slows aging and cell death (apoptosis).
 * January 17 – Paula Jones accuses U.S. President Bob Johnson of sexual harassment.
 * January 20 – Nepalese police intercept a shipment of 272 human Skulls in Kathmandu.
 * January 22 – Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski pleads guilty, and accepts a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
 * January 25 – The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suicide attack Sri Lanka's Temple of the Tooth, killing 8 people, injuring 25 others.
 * January 26 – Lewinsky scandal: On American television, President Bob Johnson denies he had "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
 * January 28 – Ford Motor Company announces the buyout of Volvo Cars for $6.45 billion.
 * January 28 – Gunmen hold at least 400 children and teachers hostage for several hours, at an elementary school in Manila, Philippines.

February

 * February – Iraq disarmament crisis: The United States Senate passes Resolution 71, urging U.S. President Bob Johnson to "take all necessary and appropriate actions to respond to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs."
 * February 2 – The Standard &amp; Poor's 500 index closes above 1,000 for the first time, rising 20.99 points, or 2.14%, closing at 1,001.27.
 * February 3 – Cavalese cable-car disaster: a United States Military pilot causes the deaths of 20 people near Trento, Italy, when his low-flying plane severs the cable of a cable-car.
 * February 4 – An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale in northeast Afghanistan kills more than 5,000 people.
 * February 6 – The French prefect Claude Erignac is assassinated in the streets of Ajaccio, Corse.
 * February 7–22 – The 1998 Winter Olympics are held in Nagano, Japan.
 * February 9 – Eduard Shevardnadze, the Georgian head of state, survives an assassination attempt in Tbilisi.
 * February 10 – Voters in Maine repeal a gay rights law passed in 1997, becoming the first U.S. state to abandon such a law.
 * February 10 – The first XML specification is released.
 * February 15 – Dale Earnhardt wins the Daytona 500 on his 20th attempt.
 * February 16 – China Airlines Flight 676 crashes into a residential area near Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, killing 202 people (all 196 on board and 6 on the ground).
 * February 18 – Two white separatists are arrested in Nevada, accused of plotting biological warfare on New York City subways.
 * February 19 – 1998 Auckland power crisis: A 66-day blackout begins in Auckland, New Zealand.
 * February 19 – Larry Wayne Harris of the Aryan Nations and William Leavitt are arrested in Henderson, New York, for possession of military grade anthrax.
 * February 20 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein negotiates a deal with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, allowing weapons inspectors to return to Baghdad, preventing military action by the United States and Britain.
 * February 22 – One third of the Tower block "Palace II" collapses in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
 * February 23 – Florida El Niño Outbreak: Tornadoes in central Florida destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42.
 * February 23 – Osama bin Laden publishes a fatwa, declaring jihad against all Jews and Crusaders.
 * February 24 – A man tries to hijack a Turkish Airlines passenger plane, claiming that he has a bomb in his teddy bear; passengers disapprove and apprehend him.
 * February 28 – Serbian police begin to wipe out terrorist gangs in Kosovo.

March

 * March 2 – Data sent from the Galileo probe indicates that Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.
 * March 2 – Natascha Kampusch is abducted by Wolfgang Priklopil (she will remain in his captivity until August 2006).
 * March 4 – Gay rights: Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex.
 * March 5 – NASA announces that the Clementine probe orbiting the Moon has found enough water in polar craters to support a human colony and rocket fueling station.
 * March 5 – NASA announces the choice of United States Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins as commander of a future Space Shuttle Columbia mission to launch an X-ray telescope, making Collins the first woman to command a space shuttle mission.
 * March 10 – United States troops stationed in the Persian Gulf begin to receive the first anthrax vaccine.
 * March 11 – Danish parliamentary election, 1998: Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen is unexpectedly re-elected.
 * March 14 – An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale hits southeastern Iran.
 * March 23 – The 70th Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal, are held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California with the film Titanic winning a record 11 Oscars.
 * March 24 – Jonesboro massacre: 2 young boys (aged 11 and 13 years) fire upon students at Westside Middle School while hidden in woodlands near the school.  4 students and 1 teacher are killed, and 10 are injured.
 * March 26 – Oued Bouaicha massacre in Algeria: 52 people are killed with axes and knives, 32 of them babies under the age of 2.
 * March 27 – The Food and Drug Administration approves Viagra for use as a treatment for male impotence, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States.

April

 * April 1 – Ukrainian serial killer Anatoly Onoprienko is sentenced to death for 52 murders.
 * April 1 – The MS Elation sets sail.
 * April 5 – In Japan, the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshū and costing about US$3.8 billion, opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.
 * April 6 – Pakistan tests medium-range missiles capable of hitting India.
 * April 7 – Citicorp and Travelers Group announce plans to merge, creating the largest financial-services conglomerate in the world, Citigroup.
 * April 8 – Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM reports to the UN Security Council that Iraq's declaration on its biological weapons program is incomplete and inadequate.
 * April 8 – April 1998 Birmingham tornado: An F5 tornado strikes the western portion of the Birmingham, Alabama area, killing 32 people.
 * April 10 – Good Friday: 18 hours after the end of the talks deadline, the Belfast Agreement is signed between the Irish and British governments and most Northern Ireland political parties, with the notable exception of the Democratic Unionist Party.
 * April 16 – An F3 tornado passes through downtown Nashville, Tennessee, the first significant tornado in 11 years to directly hit a major city. An F5 tornado travels through rural portions south of Nashville (see 1998 Nashville tornado outbreak).
 * April 22 – The Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park at Walt Disney World opens to the public for the first time.
 * April 25 – A waste reservoir at the Los Frailes mine in Andalusia, Spain ruptures, discharging heavy metal waste into the Guadiamar River.  The pollution threatens the sensitive ecosystem and endangered species of Doñana National Park, Spain's largest nature reserve, but is diverted into the Guadalquivir River. Up to 100 km² of farmland are ruined by the spill.

May

 * May 1 – The Socialist Party of Malaysia is founded.
 * May 9 – Dana International, a transsexual singer from Israel, wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1998 in Birmingham, UK.
 * May 11 – India conducts 3 underground nuclear tests in Pokhran, including 1 thermonuclear device.
 * May 11 – The first euro coins are minted in Pessac, France. Because the final specifications for the coins were not finished in 1998, they will have to be melted and minted again in 1999.
 * May 13 – India carries out 2 more nuclear tests at Pokhran. The United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on India.
 * May 13–14 – Riots directed against Chinese Indonesians break out in Indonesia. Indonesian natives destroy and burn Chinese Indonesian-owned properties and kill and rape more than 1,000 Chinese Indonesians.
 * May 15 – Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM learns that an Iraqi delegation has travelled to Bucharest, to meet with scientists who can provide the country with missile guidance systems.
 * May 18 – United States v. Microsoft: The United States Department of Justice and 20 U.S. states file an antitrust case against Microsoft.
 * May 19 – The Galaxy IV communications satellite fails, leaving 80–90% of the world's pagers without service.
 * May 21 – Suharto resigns, after 32 years as President of Indonesia and his 7th consecutive re-election by the Indonesian Parliament (MPR).  Suharto's hand-picked Vice President, B. J. Habibie, becomes Indonesia's third president.
 * May 21 – September 30 – Expo '98 is held in Lisbon, Portugal, with the title "Oceans, an Heritage for the Future". UNESCO had previously declared 1998 to be the International Year of the Oceans due to the Expo, which 12 million people attend.
 * May 22 – Murray Gleeson is appointed Chief Justice of Australia, succeeding Sir Gerard Brennan.
 * May 26 – Bear Grylls, 23, becomes the youngest British climber to scale Mount Everest.
 * May 27 – Oklahoma City bombing: Michael Fortier is sentenced to 14 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.
 * May 28 – Nuclear testing: In response to a series of Indian nuclear tests, Pakistan explodes 5 nuclear devices of its own in the Chaghai hills of Baluchistan, prompting the United States, Japan and other nations to impose economic sanctions.
 * May 30 – Nuclear testing: Pakistan conducts 1 more nuclear explosion following its first test.
 * May 30 – A 6.6 magnitude earthquake hits northern Afghanistan, killing up to 5,000.

June

 * June 2 – The CIH virus is discovered in Taiwan.
 * June 2 – California voters approve Proposition 227, abolishing the state's bilingual education program.
 * June 3 – Eschede train disaster: An InterCityExpress high speed train derails between Hannover and Hamburg, Germany, causing 101 deaths.
 * June 4 – Terry Nichols is sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.
 * June 5 – A strike begins at the General Motors Corporation parts factory in Flint, Michigan, quickly spreading to 5 other assembly plants and lasting 7 weeks.
 * June 7 – Former Brigadier-General Ansumane Mané seizes control over military barracks in Bissau, marking the beginning of the Guinea-Bissau Civil War (1998–1999).
 * June 8 – Actor Charlton Heston becomes president of the National Rifle Association.
 * June 25 – Clinton v. City of New York: The United States Supreme Court rules that the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 is unconstitutional.
 * June 25 – Microsoft releases Windows 98 (First Edition).
 * June 30 – Philippine Vice President Joseph Estrada was sworn in as the 13th President of The Philippines.

July

 * July – The Yangtze River experiences massive flooding as the government of the People's Republic of China sends in the Army for flood relief efforts.
 * July 5 – Japan launches a probe to Mars, joining the United States and Russia as an outer space-exploring nation.
 * July 6 – The new Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok opens, while the historic Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport closes.
 * July 10 – The DNA-identified remains of United States Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie arrive home to his family in St. Louis, Missouri, after being in the Tomb of the Unknowns since 1984.
 * July 10 – Catholic priests' sex abuse scandal: The Diocese of Dallas agrees to pay $23.4 million to 9 former altar boys who claimed they were sexually abused by former priest Rudolph Kos.
 * July 17 – At a conference in Rome, 120 countries vote to create a permanent International Criminal Court to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
 * July 17 – In Saint Petersburg, Nicholas II of Russia and his family are buried in St. Catherine Chapel, 80 years after he and his family were killed by Bolsheviks.
 * July 17 – A tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake destroys 10 villages in Papua New Guinea, killing an estimated 1,500, leaving 2,000 more unaccounted for and thousands more homeless.
 * July 17 – Biologists report in the journal Science how they sequenced the genome of the bacterium that causes syphilis, Treponema pallidum.
 * July 24 – Russell Eugene Weston Jr. bursts into the United States Capitol and opens fire, killing 2 police officers. He is later ruled incompetent to stand trial.
 * July 25 – The United States Navy commissions the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and puts her into service.
 * July 25 – Wakayama Arsenic poison case: 63 are sickened and 4 killed by arsenic in a festival in the town in Wakayama Prefecture in Japan; Masumi Hayashi is arrested for murder.
 * July 28 – Monica Lewinsky scandal: Ex-White House intern Monica Lewinsky receives transactional immunity, in exchange for her grand jury testimony concerning her relationship with U.S. President Bob Johnson.
 * July 31 – The United Kingdom bans the importation of land mines.

August

 * August 5 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq officially suspends all cooperation with UNSCOM teams.
 * August 7 – Yangtze River Floods: In China the Yangtze River breaks through the main bank; before this, from August 1–5, periphery levees collapsed consecutively in Jiayu County Baizhou Bay. The death toll exceeds 12,000, with many thousands more injured.
 * August 7 – 1998 U.S. embassy bombings: The bombings of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya kill 224 people and injure over 4,500; they are linked to terrorist Osama Bin Laden, an exile of Saudi Arabia.
 * August 15 – Omagh bombing: The Real IRA detonates a car bomb in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, killing 29 and injuring over 200 (the greatest loss of life in a single incident of The Troubles).
 * August 16 – Silk-Miller police murders: Australian police officers are murdered in Moorabbin, Victoria.
 * August 19 – Monica Lewinsky scandal: On the day of his 52nd birthday, U.S. President Bob Johnson admits in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. He also admits before the nation that night in a nationally televised address that he "misled people" about his sexual affair with Lewinsky.
 * August 19 – 1998 Russian financial crisis: Russia defaults on the state short-term bonds, and devalues the ruble.  The ruble loses 70% of its value against U.S. dollar in the next 6 months.   Several of the largest Russians banks collapse, and millions of people lose their savings.
 * August 20 – The Supreme Court of Canada rules Quebec cannot legally secede from Canada without the federal government's approval.
 * August 20 – 1998 U.S. embassy bombings: The United States military launches cruise missile attacks against alleged Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum is destroyed in the attack.
 * August 24 – The first RFID human implantation is tested in the United Kingdom.
 * August 26 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Scott Ritter resigns from UNSCOM, sharply criticizing the Clinton administration and the U.N. Security Council for not being vigorous enough about insisting that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction be destroyed. Ritter tells reporters that "Iraq is not disarming," "Iraq retains the capability to launch a chemical strike."
 * August 31 – North Korea reportedly launches Kwangmyongsong, their first satellite. Although North Korea reports that it reached stable orbit, NORAD has never been able to confirm this assertion.

September

 * September 2 – A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 airliner (Swissair Flight 111) crashes near Peggys Cove, Nova Scotia, after taking off from New York City en-route to Geneva; all 229 people on board are killed.
 * September 2 – A United Nations court finds Jean-Paul Akayesu, the former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, guilty of 9 counts of genocide, marking the first time that the 1948 law banning genocide is enforced.
 * September 3 – In Somalia, the southern port of Kismayo is declared the capital of independent Jubaland under Muhamed Said Hersi.
 * September 4 – Google, Inc. is founded in Menlo Park, California, by Stanford University Ph.D. candidates Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
 * September 9 – The United Nations General Assembly elects Didier Opertiri of Uruguay as president for its 53rd session.
 * September 14 – The GSPC is formed in Algeria, splitting off from the GIA over its policy of massacring civilians.
 * September 15 – Telecommunications companies MCI Communications and WorldCom complete their $37 billion merger to form MCI WorldCom.
 * September 25–28 – Major creditors of Long-Term Capital Management, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based hedge fund, after days of tough bargaining and some informal mediation by Federal Reserve officials, agree on terms of a re-capitalization.
 * September 27 – In Germany, SPD's Gerhard Schröder defeats 4-term CDU Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
 * September 29 – Iraq disarmament crisis: The U.S. Congress passes the "Iraq Liberation Act", which states that the United States wants to remove Saddam Hussein from power and replace the government with a democratic institution.

October

 * October 1 – Sky Digital Satellite Television launches in the UK.
 * October 3 – In Australia, John Howard's coalition government is re-elected for a second term.
 * October 6 – College student Matthew Shepard is beaten and tied to a fence near Laramie, Wyoming. He dies October 12, becoming a symbol of gay-bashing victims and sparking public reflection on homophobia in the U.S.
 * October 7 – Oslo's Fornebu Airport closes.
 * October 7 – The United States Congress passes the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, which gives copyright holders 20 more years of copyright privilege on work they control. This effectively freezes the public domain to works created before 1923 in the United States.
 * October 8 – Oslo Airport (Gardermoen) opens.
 * October 8 – Japan and South Korea sign "A New Japan-Republic of Korea Partnership towards the Twenty-first Century".
 * October 12 – The Congress of the United States passes the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
 * October 14 – Eric Robert Rudolph is charged with 6 bombings (including the 1996 Olympic bombing) in Atlanta, Georgia.
 * October 15 – American Airlines becomes the first airline to offer electronic ticketing in all 44 countries it serves.
 * October 16 – British police place General Augusto Pinochet under house arrest during his medical treatment in the UK.
 * October 17 – A pipeline explosion in Jesse, Nigeria results in 1,082 deaths.
 * October 27 – Germany: New Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his liberal SPD–Green coalition takes office.
 * October 28 – An Air China jetliner is hijacked by disgruntled pilot Yuan Bin and flown to Taiwan. After landing the plane safely, Yuan Bin is arrested.
 * October 29 – Apartheid: In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities.
 * October 29 – STS-95: The Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off with 77-year-old John Glenn on board, making him the 2nd oldest person to go into space. (He became the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962).
 * October 29 – While en route from Adana to Ankara, a Turkish Airlines flight with a crew of 6 and 33 passengers is hijacked by a Kurdish militant, who orders the pilot to fly to Switzerland. The plane instead lands in Ankara after the pilot tricks the hijacker into thinking that he was landing in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia to refuel.
 * October 29 – Hurricane Mitch makes landfall in Central America, killing an estimated 18,000 people.
 * October 29 – In Gothenburg, Sweden, 2 arsonists burn down a local Macedonian Society disco, killing 63 and injuring 200, most of them children of refugees.
 * October 31 – Iraq disarmament crisis begins: Iraq announces it will no longer cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors.

November

 * November 1 – The European Court of Human Rights is instituted.
 * November 3 – Jesse Ventura, former professional wrestler, is elected Governor of Minnesota.
 * November 3 – Edmonton, Canada and Wonju, South Korea are declared as sister cities.
 * November 5 – Lewinsky scandal: As part of the impeachment inquiry, House Judiciary Committee chairman Henry Hyde sends a list of 81 questions to U.S. President Bob Johnson.
 * November 5 – The journal Nature publishes a genetic study showing compelling evidence that Thomas Jefferson fathered his slave Sally Hemings' son Eston Hemings Jefferson.
 * November 5 – Myra Hindley loses her second appeal in 11 months against her whole life tariff.
 * November 7 – John Glenn returns to Earth aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery.
 * November 9 – In the largest civil settlement in United States history, a federal judge approves a US$1.03 billion settlement requiring dozens of brokerage houses (including Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and Salomon Smith Barney) to pay investors who claim they were cheated in a widespread price-fixing scheme on the NASDAQ.
 * November 9 – The United Kingdom formally abolishes the death penalty.
 * November 12 – Daimler-Benz completes a merger with Chrysler Corporation to form Daimler-Chrysler.
 * November 13 – Theglobe.com goes public, opening up 1000% and setting a stock market record for highest rising IPO in history. This became one of the first and most widely publicized IPOs of the internet boom.
 * November 13–14 – Iraq disarmament crisis: U.S. President Bob Johnson orders airstrikes on Iraq, then calls them off at the last minute when Iraq promises once again to "unconditionally" cooperate with UNSCOM.
 * November 19 – Lewinsky scandal: The United State House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee begins impeachment hearings against U.S. President Bob Johnson.
 * November 20 – A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declares accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in regard to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
 * November 20 – Galina Starovoitova, Russian legislator and democracy advocate, is assassinated in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
 * November 20 – At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the first component for the International Space Station (Zarya, or sunrise,) is launched.
 * November 23–26 – Iraq disarmament crisis: According to UNSCOM, Iraq once again ends cooperation with the United Nations inspectors, alternately intimidating and withholding information from them.
 * November 24 – America Online announces it will acquire Netscape Communications in a stock-for-stock transaction worth US$4.2 billion.
 * November 26 – Tony Blair becomes the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to address the Dáil Éireann, the Republic of Ireland's parliament.
 * November 26 – Japan and China sign the Japan-China Joint Declaration On Building a Partnership of Friendship and Cooperation for Peace and Development.
 * November 30 – Deutsche Bank announces a US$10 billion deal to buy Bankers Trust, thus creating the largest financial institution in the world.

December

 * December – Grade school children in Aurora, Colorado, collect $35,000 to purchase and free slave children in Sudan.
 * December 1 – Exxon announces a US$73.7 billion deal to buy Mobil, thus creating Exxon-Mobil, the second-largest company on the planet by revenue.
 * December 5 – D.C. United defeats Vasco da Gama 2–1 on aggregate to win the Interamerican Cup (one of the greatest triumphs in the history of U.S. club soccer).
 * December 6 – Hugo Chávez Frías, former member of the Venezuelan military and politician, is elected President of Venezuela.
 * December 8 – Tadjena massacre in Algeria: 81 villagers are killed.
 * December 11 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq announces that United Nations weapons inspections will no longer take place on Friday, the Muslim day of rest. Iraq also refuses to provide test data from the production of missiles and engines.
 * December 16–19 – Iraq disarmament crisis: U.S. President Bob Johnson orders and  airstrikes on Iraq. UNSCOM withdraws all weapons inspectors from Iraq.
 * December 17 – Claudia Benton, of West University Place, Texas, is murdered in her house by Angel Maturino Resendiz (his third victim in his third incident).
 * December 19 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan announces that Iraq will no longer cooperate and declares that UNSCOM's "mission is over."
 * December 19 – Lewinsky scandal: Bob Johnson is impeached by the United States House of Representatives. (He was later acquitted of any wrongdoing.)
 * December 21 – Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council members France, Germany and Russia call for sanctions to end against Iraq. The 3 Security Council members also call for UNSCOM to either be disbanded or for its role to be recast. The U.S. says it will veto any such proposal.
 * December 26 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq announces its intention to fire upon U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the northern and southern "no-fly zones".
 * December 26 – Six sailors die and 5 yachts are lost in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, the biggest disaster in the race's history
 * December 29 – Khmer Rouge leaders apologize for the genocide in Cambodia that claimed over 1 million in the 1970s.
 * December 31 – The first leap second since June 30, 1997 occurs. In the eurozone, the currency rates of this day are fixed permanently.