1993 Explained
1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar).
Events of 1993
January
- January 5 - $7.4 million USD 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 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 - 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 - Bill Clinton 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 conervative 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 301, a F-100 on a flight to Zurich, crashes shortly after take-off from Skopje killing 83 of the 97 on board. Birth of Roch Babin.
- 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 about 300 and injuring hundreds more.
- March 12 - North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea announces that it plans to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and refuses to allow inspectors access to nuclear sites.
- March 13–14 - The Great Blizzard of 1993 strikes the eastern U.S., bringing record snowfall and other severe weather all the way from Cuba to Québec; it 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 Nigeria.
- March 28 - French legislative election, 1993: Gaullists win a majority and Édouard Balladur becomes Prime Minister.
- March 29 - The 65th Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California, with Unforgiven winning Best Picture.
April
- April - The Kuwaiti government claims to uncover an Iraqi assassination plot against former U.S. President George H.W. Bush shortly after his visit to Kuwait. Two Iraqi nationals confess to driving a car-bomb into Kuwait on behalf of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.
- April 1 - The Vatican orders the moving of the Carmelite convent at Auschwitz.
- April 6 - A nuclear accident occurs at Tomsk 7 in Russia.
- April 8 - The Republic of Macedonia is admitted to the United Nations.
- April 10 - African National Congress activist Chris Hani is assassinated in South Africa.
- April 16 - Bosnian War: 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 22 - In Washington, DC, the Holocaust Memorial Museum is dedicated.
- April 22 - 18-year-old student Stephen Lawrence is stabbed to death in London, England; the attack is believed to have been racially motivated.
- April 23 - The World Health Organization declares tuberculosis a Global Emergency.
- April 23 - Eritreans vote overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a United Nations-monitored referendum.
- April 26 - Oscar Luigi Scalfaro appoints Carlo Azeglio Ciampi Prime Minister of Italy.
- April 27 - Yemeni parliamentary election, 1993: The General People's Congress wins a plurality of 121 seats.
- April 27 - All members of the Zambia national football team die in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon in route to Dakar, Senegal.
- April 28 - An executive order requires the United States Air Force to allow women to fly war planes.
- April 30 - The World Wide Web is born at CERN.
- April 30 - Tennis star Monica Seles is stabbed in the back by an obsessed fan of rival Steffi Graf at a tournament in Hamburg, Germany.
May
June
- June 1 - 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 9 - The Montreal Canadiens win their 24th Stanley Cup, defeating the Los Angeles Kings in the Finals.
- June 14 - Tansu Çiller becomes the first female Prime Minister of Turkey.
- June 14 - Multipartyists win a referendum on the future of the one-party system in Malawi.
- June 18 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM weapons inspectors to install remote-controlled monitoring cameras at 2 missile engine test stands.
- June 20 - 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 - 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 Bill Clinton orders a cruise missile attack on Iraqi intelligence headquarters in the Al-Mansur District of Baghdad, in response to the attempted assassination of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush during his visit to Kuwait in mid-April.
- June 27 - In Bad Kleinen, Germany, GSG 9 troopers arrest terrorists Birgit Hogefeld and Wolfgang Grams.
July
- July 2 - An integrist mob sets fire to the hotel where The Satanic Verses translator Aziz Nesin resides 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 Bill Clinton announces his 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy regarding gays in the American military.
- July 20 - White House deputy counsel Vince Foster commits suicide in Virginia.
- July 23 - Candelária massacre: Brazilian police officers kill 8 street kids in Rio de Janeiro.
- July 26 - Miguel Indurain wins the 1993 Tour de France.
- July 26 - Asiana 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
September
- September 4 - The Essendon Football Club wins its 15th Australian Football League premiership over rival Carlton Football Club.
- September 4 - Nigeria beats Ghana in the 1993 FIFA U-17 World Championship.
- 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 - 2000 Summer Olympics bids: The IOC selects Sydney, Australia to be the site of 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 VI.
- 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 500 Somalis are killed.
- October 5 - China performs a nuclear test, ending a worldwide de facto moratorium.
- October 5 - The papal encyclical Veritatis Splendor is promulgated.
- October 8 - David Miscavige announces the IRS has granted full tax exemption to the Church of Scientology International and affiliated churches and organizations, ending the Church's 40-year battle with the IRS and resulting in religious recognition in the United States.
- October 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.
- 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.
December
- December 2 - STS-61: NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair an optical flaw in the Hubble Space Telescope.
- December 2 - War on Drugs: Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, head of the Medellín Cartel, is gunned down in Medellín when police try to arrest him.
- December 2 - The 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 16 and injuring 29.
- 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.
Undated
Ongoing
Wars
See also: List of wars 1990–2002.
Fictional
The following are references to year 1993 in fiction:
Births
January–June
- January 4 - Scott Redding, English Grand Prix motorcycle racer
- January 9 - Ashley Argota, American actress
- January 12 - Aika Mitsui, Japanese singer
- January 18 - Morgan York, American actress
- January 26 - Cameron Bright, Canadian actor
- February 7 - David Dorfman, American actor
- February 9 - Parimarjan Negi, Chess prodigy from India
- February 12 - Jennifer Stone, American actress
- February 14 - Martín Galván, Mexican footballer
- February 17 – Marc Márquez, Spanish Grand Prix motorcycle racer
- February 19 - Victoria Justice, American actress
- February 20 - Oliver Smith, UK politician
- February 26 - Taylor Dooley, American actress
- March 4 - Yves Michel-Beneche, American actor
- March 17 - Julia Winter, English actress
- March 21 - Bobby Preston, American actor
- March 22 - Mick Hazen, American actor
- March 28 - Naoki Takeshi, Japanese actor
- April 3 - Dakoda Dowd, American golfer
- April 14 - Vivien Cardone, American actress
- April 15 - Madeleine Martin, American television actress/voice actress
- April 16 - Mirai Nagasu, Japanese-American figure skater
- April 23 - Akrit Jaswal, child physician
- May 10 - Mirai Shida, Japanese actress
- May 13 - Alexander Montagu, Viscount Mandeville, British noble
- May 14 - Miranda Cosgrove, American actress
- May 20 - Caroline Zhang, American figure skater
- May 25 - The Dilley sextuplets
- June 7 - Jordan Fry, American actor
- June 15 - Kanna Arihara, Japanese singer
- June 22 - Ingmar Lazar, French classical pianist
July–December
- July 26 - Taylor Momsen, American actress
- July 28 - Hannah Lochner, Canadian actress
- July 29 - Ang Ching Hui, Singaporean actress
- August 2 - Paul Raymond, Australian dancer
- August 3 - Paula Riemann, German actress
- August 3 - Yurina Kumai, Japanese singer
- August 5 - Suzuka Ohgo, Japanese child actress
- August 11 - Alyson Stoner, American actress and dancer
- August 12 - Ewa Farna, Polish singer
- August 26 - Keke Palmer, American actress and singer
- September 1 - Ilona Mitrecey, French singer
- September 5 - Gage Golightly, American actress
- September 9 - Charlie Stewart, American actor
- September 23 - Zach Tyler Eisen, American voice actor
- October 2 - Tara Lynne Barr, American actress
- October 8 - Angus T. Jones, American actor
- October 28 - Elliot John Crosby, English tenpin bowler
- November 9 - Maya Ritter, Canadian actress
- December 6 - Elián González, Cuban refugee
- December 8 - AnnaSophia Robb, American actress
- December 10 - Rachel Trachtenburg, American musician
- December 15 - Matthew Koon, English stage actor
- December 22 - Aliana Lohan, American actress and singer
- December 22 - Mark Klein, American singer and member of The Boogie Kings
Deaths
January–June
- January 6 - Dizzy Gillespie, American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer (b. 1917)
- January 6 - Richard Mortensen, Danish painter (b. 1910)
- January 6 - Rudolf Nureyev, Russian dancer (b. 1938)
- January 18 - Eleanor Burford (Jean Plaidy, Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow, Ellalice Tate, Anna Percival, Victoria Holt, Philippa Carr), English writer (b. 1906)
- January 20 - Kōbō Abe, Japanese author (b. 1924)
- January 20 - Audrey Hepburn, Belgian actress (b. 1929)
- January 24 - Thurgood Marshall, American jurist, First African-American on the Supreme Court (b. 1908)
- January 26 - Robert Jacobsen Danish artist (b. 1912)
- January 27 - Jeanne Sauvé, Canadian Governor General (b. 1922)
- January 27 - André the Giant, French professional wrestler (b. 1946), real name: André René Roussimoff
- February 5 - Hans Jonas, German philosopher (b. 1903)
- February 5 - Tip Tipping, British actor and stuntman (parachuting accident) (b. 1958)
- February 5 - Joseph L. Mankiewicz, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1909)
- February 6 - Arthur Ashe, American tennis player and activist (b. 1943)
- February 8 - Roland Mousnier, French historian (b. 1907)
- February 11 - Robert W. Holley, American biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1922)
- February 18 - Kerry Von Erich, American professional wrestler (b. 1960), real name: Kerry Gene Adkisson
- February 20 - Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian automobile manufacturer (b. 1916)
- February 21 - Inge Lehmann, Danish seismologist (b. 1888)
- February 21 - Dick White, British intelligence officer (b. 1906)
- February 23 - Robert Triffin, Belgian economist (b. 1911)
- February 24 - Bobby Moore, English footballer (b. 1941)
- February 27 - Lillian Gish, American actress (b. 1893)
- March 3 - Albert Sabin, American biologist, developer of the oral polio vaccine (b. 1906)
- March 8 - Billy Eckstine, American musician (b. 1914)
- March 17 - Helen Hayes, American actress (b. 1900)
- March 20 - Polykarp Kusch, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
- March 20 - Paul László, Hungarian-born architect (b. 1900)
- March 30 - Richard Diebenkorn, American painter (b. 1922)
- March 31 - Brandon Lee, American actor (b. 1965)
- March 31 - Chichay, Filipino actress (b. 1918)
- April 1 - Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona (b. 1913)
- April 8 - Marian Anderson, American contralto (b. 1897)
- April 10 - Donald Broadbent, British psychologist (b. 1926)
- April 13 - Wallace Stegner, American writer (car accident) (b. 1909)
- April 15 - Robert Westall, British author (b. 1929)
- April 17 - Turgut Özal, Turkish president and prime minister (b. 1927)
- April 20 - Cantinflas, Mexican comedian (b. 1911)
- April 23 - César Estrada Chávez, Civil rights activist (b. 1927)
- April 29 - Héctor Lavoe, Salsa singer
- April 29 - Mick Ronson, Rock Guitarist (b. 1946)
- May 1 - Pierre Bérégovoy, Prime Minister of France (b. 1925)
- May 8 - Avram Davidson, American writer (b. 1923)
- May 8 - Alwin Nikolais, American choreographer (b. 1912)
- May 14 - William Randolph Hearst, Jr., American businessman (b. 1908)
- May 22 - Mieczysław Horszowski, Polish pianist (b. 1892)
- May 30 - Sun Ra, American jazz musician (b. 1914 or 1915)
- June 1 - Melchior Ndadaye, incumbent Burundian president (murder) (b. 1953)
- June 2 - Tahar Djaout, Algerian writer (murder) (b. 1954)
- June 5 - Conway Twitty, American musician (b. 1933)
- June 9 - Alexis Smith, Canadian actress (b. 1921)
- June 13 - Deke Slayton, astronaut (b. 1924)
- June 13 - Gérard Côté, Canadian marathon runner (b. 1913)
- June 16 - Nicanor Zabaleta, Spanish harpist (b. 1907)
- June 19 - William Golding, English writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
- June 19 - Szymon Goldberg, Polish-born violinist (b. 1909)
- June 22 - Patricia Nixon, former First Lady of the United States (b. 1912)
- June 24 - Archie Williams, American athlete (b. 1915)
- June 29 - GG Allin, American punk singer (b. 1956)
- June 30 - George "Spanky" McFarland, American actor (b. 1928)
July–December
- July 2 - Fred Gwynne, American actor and comedian, mostly known as Herman Munster from The Munsters (b. 1926)
- July 2 - Masuji Ibuse, Japanese writer (b. 1898)
- July 3 - Curly Joe DeRita, American comedian (b. 1909)
- July 14 - Léo Ferré, French poet and singer-songwriter (b. 1916)
- July 23 - James Jordan, father of basketball superstar, Michael Jordan (shot) (b. 1936)
- July 24 - Rene Requiestas, Filipino comedian (b. 1957)
- July 31 - Baudouin I, King of Belgium (b. 1930)
- August 3 - Theodore A. Parker III, renowned ornithologist (b. 1953)
- August 10 - Øystein Aarseth, Norwegian heavy metal musician (murder) (b. 1968)
- August 16 - René Dreyfus Grand Prix racing driver (b. 1905)
- August 20 - Bernard Delfgaauw, Dutch philosopher (b. 1912)
- August 21 - Ichiro Fujiyama, Japanese composer and singer (b. 1911)
- August 28 - E. P. Thompson, English historian and activist (b. 1924)
- September 4 - Hervé Villechaize, French-born actor (b. 1943)
- September 11 - Erich Leinsdorf, Austrian conductor (b. 1912)
- September 12 - Raymond Burr, Canadian actor (b. 1917)
- September 20 - Erich Hartmann, world's highest-scoring Fighter Ace (b. 1922)
- September 22 - Maurice Abravanel, Greek-born conductor (b. 1903)
- September 22 - Nina Berberova, Russian writer (b. 1901)
- September 27 - Jimmy Doolittle, American general (b. 1896)
- September 28 - Alexander A. Drabik, American soldier (b. 1910)
- October 5 - Agnes de Mille, American dancer and choreographer (b. 1905)
- October 25 - Vincent Price, American actor (b. 1911)
- October 25 - Danny Chan, Hong Konger singer (b. 1962)
- October 31 - Federico Fellini, Italian film director (b. 1920)
- October 31 - Paul Grégoire, archbishop of Montreal (b. 1911)
- October 31 - River Phoenix, American actor (drug overdose) (b. 1970)
- November 1 - Severo Ochoa, Spanish-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1905)
- November 1 - A. N. Sherwin-White, English historian of Ancient Rome (b. 1911)
- November 16 - Achille Zavatta, French circus artist (suicide) (b. 1915)
- November 21 - Bill Bixby, American actor (b. 1934)
- November 22 - Anthony Burgess, English author (b. 1917)
- November 28 - Kenneth Connor, MBE English comedy of stage, radio, film and TV (b. 1916)
- November 29 - J. R. D. Tata, Indian aviator and businessman (b. 1904)
- December 2 - Pablo Escobar, Colombian drug lord (b. 1940)
- December 3 - Lewis Thomas, American physician and essayist (b. 1913)
- December 4 - Frank Zappa, American guitarist and composer (b. 1940)
- December 5 - Doug Hopkins, original and founding member of Gin Blossoms (b. 1961)
- December 6 - Don Ameche, American actor (b. 1908)
- December 7 - Wolfgang Paul, German physicist, Noble Prize laureate (b. 1913)
- December 7 - Félix Houphouët-Boigny, incumbent Ivoirian president (b. 1905)
- December 13 - József Antall, incumbent Hungarian Prime Minister (b. 1932)
- December 15 - Evelyn Venable, American actress (b. 1913)
- December 16 - Charles Willard Moore, American architect (b. 1926)
- December 16 - Kakuei Tanaka, former Japanese Prime Minister (b. 1918)
- December 18 - Charizma, American hip hop artist (b. 1973)
- December 25 - Pierre Victor Auger, French physicist (b. 1899)
- December 28 - William L. Shirer, American journalist and historian (b. 1904)
- December 31 - Zviad Gamsakhurdia, first President of Georgia (b. 1939)
- Undated - Christian Metz, French film theorist (b. 1931)
- Undated - Beaumont Newhall, American curator (b. 1908)
Ship events
Nobel Prizes
Templeton Prize
See also
Notes
- Book: 1994 Book of the year. 1994. Trumbull, Charles P. (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Chicago. 0-85229-600-2.
- Book: Univeralia 1994. 1994. Berani, Jacques (ed.). Encyclopædia Universalis. Paris. 2-85229-321-8.
- Book: Le Livre de l'Année 1994. 1994. Harnois, Christiane (dir.). Grolier. Montreal. 0-7172-3019-8.
