istoryworld
All Events
The Human Genome Project, planned within the US Department of Energy from 1984, is officially launched with a target completion date of 2005
New North Stand opens at Twickenham rugby ground.
Christa Wolf's Was Bleibt ("What Remains"), written in 1979 but only published after the fall of the Berlin Wall, follows her heroine through a single day of being spied on by the Stasi
The Gulf War begins when Iraq fails to meet the UN deadline for withdrawal from Kuwait
Expelled from his own country, Saudi Arabia, Osama bin Laden moves to Sudan where he continues to develop al-Qaeda
With all Iraqi troops expelled from Kuwait by Allied tanks, President Bush declares a ceasefire in the Gulf War
A Tuareg uprising in Mali results in some 120,000 refugees fleeing the country
The incumbent president, Mathieu Kérékou, loses in Benin's first democratic election
Rajiv Gandhi is killed near Chennai, during an election campaign, by a suicide bomber on behalf of Tamil militants
As Ethiopian and Eritrean rebels approach Addis Ababa, the leader of the Dergue, Mengistu, flees the country
The rebel Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), led by Meles Zenawi, takes control in Ethiopia
Another cease-fire in Angola's bitter civil war brings another brief period of peace
Former Communist Boris Yeltsin is elected leader of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic
Alan Bennett's play The Madness of George III is performed at the National Theatre in London
The break-up of Yugoslavia begins with a joint declaration of independence by two of its regions, Slovenia and Croatia
The US rock group Nirvana become the leading performers of grunge
Carl Lewis beats his own previous 100-metre world record, winning gold at the World Championships in Tokyo
Morocco and the Polisario end hostilities on the understanding that there will be a referendum in the Western Sahara
Canadian poet and novelist Michael Ondaatje publishes The English Patient
Tim Berners-Lee, using CERN computers, puts online the first website at http://info.cern.ch
Hutu youth militias, known as the Interahamwe, are formed in Rwanda to spearhead attacks on Tutsis
Boris Yeltsin foils a hard-line Communist coup against Mikhail Gorbachev, on holiday at the time in the Crimea
US sculptor Jeff Koons marries one of his favourite subjects, Italian porn star La Cicciolina
Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins star in the film The Silence of the Lambs
Macedonia follows the example of Slovenia and Croatia in proclaiming its independence from Yugoslavia
