1994 - Definition and Overview

1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family.

Events

January

• January 1 - North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect
• January 6 - Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the right leg by an assailant under orders from figure skating rival Tonya Harding.
• January 10 - Lorena Bobbitt goes on trial for severing the penis of her husband John (Manassas, Virginia).
• January 11 - Irish government announces the end of a 20-year broadcasting ban on the IRA and its political arm Sinn Fein
• January 14 - President of the United States William Jefferson Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the Kremlin accords which stop the preprogrammed aiming of nuclear missiles to targets and also provide for the dismantling of the nuclear arsenal in Ukraine.
• January 17 - 1994 Northridge Earthquake, magnitude 6.7, hits the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles at 4:31 am.
• 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 temporary insanity for severing the penis of her husband John.
• January 26 - A man fires two blank shots at Charles, Prince of Wales in Sydney, Australia.
• January 28 - The first trial of accused murderer Lyle Menendez ends in a mistrial. He and his brother Erik are later found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
• January 31 - German luxury car manufacturer BMW announces the purchase of Rover from British Aerospace

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 was sworn in as the 19th Secretary of Defense of United States
• February 5 - Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers
• February 6 - Serb mortar shell kills 68 and wounds about 200 in a Sarajevo marketplace
• February 9 - Peace plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina announced (so called Vance-Owen peace plan)
• February 12 - Edvard Munch's painting, "The Scream," is stolen in Oslo. It is recovered on May 7
• February 22 - Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged with spying for the Soviet Union by the United States Department of Justice. Ames would later be convicted to life imprisonment and his wife would receive a 5-years in prison
• February 24 - In Gloucester, local police begins excavations at 25 Cromwell Street the home of Frederick West suspected of multiple murder. On February 28, he and his wife are arrested
• February 25 - Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein opens fire inside the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank. He kills 29 Muslims before worshipers beat him to death
• February 28 - US warplanes shoot down four Serb aircraft over Bosnia

March

• March 1 - South Africa cedes Walvis Bay to Namibia
• March 1 - Mary Ellen Withrow begins term of office as Treasurer of the United States, serving under President Bill Clinton
• March 4 - Four terrorists are convicted for their roles in the World Trade Center bombing which killed six and injured more than a thousand
• March 7 - The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music 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.
• Saturday, March 12, 1994 - The Church of England ordains its first female priests
• 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 23 - "Shock jock" Howard Stern formally announces his candidacy for the New York governorship under the Libertarian Party ticket.
• March 24 - At an election rally in Tijuana, Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio is assassinated. Mario Aburto Martinez is arrested for the crime and confesses on the same day.
• March 27 - A tornado outbreak occurs in Southeastern United States. One tornado hits the United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Alabama killing 22. This outbreak is the biggest tornado event of 1994.
• March 28 - In South Africa, Zulus and African National Congress supporters battle in central Johannesburg killing 18
• March 31 - The journal Nature reports the finding in Ethiopia of the first complete Australopithecus afarensis skull (see Human evolution).

April

• April 6 - Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and president of Burundi 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 - Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Nirvana, is found dead in Seattle, Washington. He had committed suicide three days earlier.
• April 20 - Paul Touvier is found guilty of ordering the execution of 7 Jews when he was serving in the Vichy France Milice
• April 21 - Red Cross estimates that hundreds of thousands of Tutsi have been killed in Rwanda
• April 22 - Former President Richard Nixon dies.
• April 25 - End of term for Sultan Azlan Muhibbudin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Yusuff Izzudin Shah Ghafarullahu-lahu as 9th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
• 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 - South Africa holds its first fully multiracial elections.
• April 30 - Formula One Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger dies at the age of 32 in a high-speed, single-car crash in the practise session for the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, Italy

May

• May 1 - Formula One Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna dies at the age of 34 in a high-speed, single-car crash in the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, Italy
• May 6 - The Channel Tunnel, which took 15,000 workers over seven years to complete, opens between England and France. Travelers can now travel between the two countries in 35 minutes.
• May 9 - 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 31- Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have dinner at the Granita restaurant in Islington and make a deal on who will become the leader of the Labour Party, and ultimately, the next Prime Minister.

June

• June - Iraq disarmament crisis: UN weapons inspectors Ritter and Smidovitch learn, through Israeli intelligence reports, that Qusay Hussein, Saddam Hussein's son, is the key player in efforts by the Iraqi government to hide the country's alleged illegal weapons
• June 8 - Pierce Brosnan tells in a press conference that he was going to be the 5th James Bond
• June 12 - Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are murdered outside her 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 seven counts of mail fraud, wire and computer fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice.
• June 14 - The New York Rangers def the Vancouver Canucks 4 games to 3 in the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals.
• June 15 - As of 2004 the third highest grossing animated film of all-time, The Lion King, opens in theatres nationwide.
• June 15 - Israel and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations
• June 17 - NFL star OJ Simpson and his friend Al Cowlings flee from police in his white Ford Bronco. The low speed chase, which unfolds live on television, ends up at Simpson's mansion in Brentwood, California, where he then surrendered to police.

July-September

• July - The planet Jupiter is pelted by 21 large fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 over the course of 6 days
• July 7 - Aden is occupied by troops from North Yemen.
• July 17 - Brazil defeats Italy to win the Football World Cup 1994
• July 18 - In Buenos Aires, an explosion destroys a building housing several Jewish organizations killing 96 and injuring many more
• July 25 - Israel and Jordan sign the Washington Declaration which formally ends the state of war that has existed between the nations since 1948.
• August - 'Wollemia nobilis', a "fossil tree" discovered by bushwalker David Noble only 150 km from the largest city in Australia.
• September 3 - Cold War: Russia and the People's Republic of China agree to de-target their nuclear weapons against each other
• September 8 - A Boeing 737 carrying USAir Flight 427 with 132 people on board, crashes on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport. There are no survivors
• September 13 - President Bill Clinton signs the Assault Weapons Ban, which bans the use of these weapons for a period of 10 years.
• September 28 - The car ferry MS Estonia sinks in Baltic Sea, killing 852.
• 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 5 - UNESCO inaugurated 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: President of the UN 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 three years of exile in the US, Haiti's president Aristide returned 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 26 - Jordan and Israel sign a peace treaty
• October 29 - Francisco Martin Duran fires over two dozen shots at the White House (Duran was later convicted of trying to kill US President Bill Clinton)
• October 31 - An American Eagle ATR-72 crashes in Roselawn, Indiana, after circling in icy weather, killing 64 passengers.
• October 31 - HRH The Duke of Edinburgh attends a ceremony in Israel where his late mother, HSH 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 - Red Hat Linux 1.0 is released
• November 5 - A letter by former US President Ronald Reagan is released that announces he has Alzheimer's disease
• 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 secured control of both houses of U.S. Congress.
• 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 16 - Federal judge issues a temporary restraining order that prohibits 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 in Zambia, ending 19 years of civil war (in 1995 localized fighting resumed).
• November 25 - Sony founder Akio Morita announces he will be stepping down as CEO of the floundering company
• November 28 - In Portage, Wisconsin, convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is clubbed to death in by a deranged inmate in the Columbia Correctional Institute gymnasium
• November 28 - Voters in Norway reject European Union membership
• November 29 - Two-year murder trial of 14 south Vietnamese accused of murder of 24 north Vietnamese ends in Hong Kong - all defendants are acquitted
• November 30 - Famous hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur survives five bullets in an apparent robbery attempt outside a New York music studio.

December

• December 1 - New YorkLone Lebanese Terrorist kills Ari Halberstam on an attack on 14 Jewish Students on the Brooklyn Bridge
• December 2 - Australian government agrees to pay reparations to aborigines that were displaced during the nuclear tests in 1950s and 1960s
• December 11 - Boris Yeltsin orders troops into Chechnya.
• Sunday, December 11, 1994 - 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, a terrorist attack plan that would be exposed after an apartment fire.
• 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 will prompt a USD 50 billion 'bailout' by the US (Bill Clinton's) administration.
  • The Whitewater Scandal investigation begins.
  • Civil union between homosexuals are made legal in Sweden.
• December 26 - French anti-terrorist police storms a hijacked jet at Marseille and kill 4 Islamist terrorists
• December 29 - Robert Schumann becomes the youngest person to visit the south pole.

Year in topic

• 1994 in film
  • October 3 - George Lucas begins writing the three Star Wars prequels.
  • Forrest Gump starring Tom Hanks, is released on Wednesday, July 6, 1994.
  • Pulp Fiction starring Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, John Travolta and Uma Thurman
  • Four Weddings and a Funeral
  • Quiz Show
  • The Shawshank Redemption
• 1994 in literature
• 1994 in music
  • March 8 - Industrial group Nine Inch Nails release their seminal album The Downward Spiral.
  • June 11 - The Los Angeles radio station KROQ opens the second annual of their live concert Weenie Roast with The Afghan Whigs, Beck, Candlebox, Counting Crows, Frente!, Green Day, James, The Offspring, Oingo Boingo, Pavement, The Pretenders, Rollins Band and the Violent Femmes.
• 1994 in sports
  • January - One month before the Winter Olympic Games, ice skater Nancy Kerrigan is attacked by fellow skater Tonya Harding's boyfriend. The man clubbed Kerrigan in the knee. Kerrigan and Harding both competed in the Olympics, but Harding stumbled through her routine. She was later banned from the professional skating world for her connection to the attack.
  • June 14 - After 54 years of futility, the New York Rangers defeat the Vancouver Canucks in the seventh game of the Stanley Cup Finals. It would be the highest rated Stanley Cup game in NHL history to date.
• 1994 in television
  • January - Green Day premieres "Longview" on MTV.
  • March 31 - Madonna appears on The Late Show with David Letterman making headlines for her foul mouthed, profanity laced interview. Robin Williams later described the segment as a "battle of wits with an unarmed woman."
  • June 17 - OJ Simpson flees from police in a white Ford Bronco live on television. He later surrenders to police at his mansion in Brentwood, California.
  • September 10 - The first episode of the Magic School Bus cartoon series is released
  • Friends premieres on NBC.

Births

• February 23 - Dakota Fanning, actress
• April 3 - Christopher, Jr., son of actor Chris Lemmon (Jack Lemmon's son)
• May 4 - Alexander Gould, voice-over of Finding Nemo

Deaths

January

• January 1 - Arthur Espie Porritt, New Zealand politician and athlete
• January 5 - Thomas P. 'Tip' O'Neill, Speaker of the House
• January 9 - Johnny Temple, Major League Baseball second baseman (b. 1927)
• January 15 - Harry Nilsson, musician
• January 17 - Helen Stephens, American sprinter
• January 22 - Telly Savalas, actor
• January 23 - Brian Redhead, journalist and broadcaster
• January 25 - Stephen Cole Kleene, American mathematician
• January 27 - Claude Akins, actor
• January 30 - Pierre Boulle, author

February-April

• February 6 - Jack Kirby, comic book writer
• February 6 - Joseph Cotten, actor
• February 11 - Antonio Martin, Spanish cyclist
• February 11 - Sorrell Brooke, actor
• February 11 - William Conrad, actor
• February 11 - Neil Bonnett, NASCAR driver (b. 1946)
• February 14 - Andrei Chikatilo, Russian serial killer (executed)
• February 17 - Randy Shilts, author, AIDS activist
• February 22 - Papa John Creech, musician
• February 24 - Dinah Shore, actress, singer
• February 24 - Jean Sablon, French singer
• February 25 - Jersey Joe Walcott, world champion boxer
• February 26 - Bill Hicks
• March 4 - John Candy, comedian and actor
• March 22 - Walter Lantz, cartoonist ("Woody Woodpecker")
• March 28 - Eugene Ionesco, playwright
• April 2 - Betty Furness, author
• April 5 - Kurt Cobain (suicide) lead singer of the rock band Nirvana
• April 10 - Sam B. Hall, American politician (b. 1924)
• April 22 - Richard Nixon, former President of the United States
• April 30 - Roland Ratzenberger, Formula One driver

May-October

• May 1 - Ayrton Senna, Formula One three times world champion
• May 7- Clement Greenberg, art critic
• May 8 - George Peppard, actor
• May 10 - John Wayne Gacy, serial killer (executed)
• May 12 - John Smith leader of British Labour Party.
• May 15 - Gilbert Roland, actor
• May 19 - Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, First Lady of the United States
• May 21 - Johan Hendrik Weidner, Belgian born hero of WW II
• May 29 - Erich Honecker, former leader of East Germany, while in exile in Chile
• June 29 - Kurt Eichhorn, conductor
• July 8 - Kim Il Sung, North Korea's leader
• July 11 - Gary Kildall, computer programmer (b. 1942)
• July 14 - César Tovar, Major League Baseball player (b. 1940)
• August 17 - Elias Canetti, buried next to James Joyce
• September 11 - Jessica Tandy, actress
• September 12 - Boris Yegorov, cosmonaut
• September 15 - Alain Berdarin, owner of "Le Crazy Horse Saloon" - Paris
• October 14 - Emil Gilels, Ukrainian pianist (b. 1916)
• October 20 - Burt Lancaster, American actor
• October 21 - Benoît Régent, French film actor

November-December

• November 12 - Wilma Rudolph, American athlete
• November 13 - Motoo Kimura, population geneticist
• November 16 - Doris Speed, soap opera actress
• November 28 - Jeffrey Dahmer, serial killer
• December 12 - Stuart Roosa, Apollo Astronaut
• December 23 - Sebastian Shaw, actor (b. 1905)
• December 24 - John Boswell, historian

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Bertram N. Brockhouse, Clifford Glenwood Shull
• Chemistry - George Andrew Olah
• Medicine - Alfred G. Gilman, Martin Rodbell
• Literature - Kenzaburo Oe
• Peace - Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres (Israel) and Yitzhak Rabin

Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

• Reinhard Selten, John Forbes Nash, John Harsanyi

Right Livelihood Award

• Astrid Lindgren, SERVOL (Service Volunteered for All), Dr. H. Sudarshan / VGKK (Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra) and Ken Saro-Wiwa / MOSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People)