1993

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Decades: 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s - 1990s - 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s

Years: 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 - 1993 - 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998

This is a common year starting on Friday.

Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003)

Events

January

January 1 - Czechoslovakia divides. Establishment of independent Slovakia and Czech Republic.
January 3 - In Moscow, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
January 5 - Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the first legal hanging in America since 1965).
January 18 - For the first time, Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is officially observed in all 50 United States states.
January 19 - IBM announces a $4.97 billion loss for 1992 which is the largest single-year corporate loss in United States history.
19 January - 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 No-Fly Zone. US 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 President of the United States of America.
January 25 - Catherine Callbeck becomes Premier of Prince Edward Island, becoming the first female Premier in Canada.
January 25 - A gunman kills two employees outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia
January 26 - Vaclav Havel elected President of the Czech Republic

February

February 8 - General Motors sues NBC after Dateline NBC allegedly rigged two crashes showing that some GM pickups can easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settled the lawsuit the next day.
February 11 - Irina Privalova runs a world indoor record over 60 meters.
11 February - Janet Reno is selected by President Clinton as US Attorney General.
February 12 - British toddler Jamie Bulger killed by two ten-year old boys.
February 26 - World Trade Center bombing: In New York City, a van bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center goes off, killing 6 and injuring over a thousand.
February 23 - Gary Coleman wins a $1,280,000 lawsuit against his parents.
February 28 - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest cult leader David Koresh on federal firearms violations. Four agents and six 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 9 -Rodney King testifies at the federal trial of four Los Angeles, California police officers accused of violating King's 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 - Several bombs explode in Bombay, India killing about 300 and injuring hundreds more.
12 March - North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea says that it plans to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and refuses to allow inspectors access to nuclear sites.
March 13 - The Great Blizzard of 1993 strikes the eastern U.S., bringing record snowfall and other severe weather all the way from Cuba to QuÃÂÃÂ©bec.
March 16 - The blizzard is reported to have killed 184, including many surprised and stranded along the Appalachian Trail.
March 22 - The Intel Corporation ships the first Pentium chips (80586) 64 bits-60 MHz-100+ MIPS.
March 27 - Jiang Zemin becomes President of the People's Republic of China.
March 28 - Gaullists win legislative election in France.
28 March - Balladur becomes prime minister of France.
March 31 - A bug in a program written by Richard Depew sends an article to 200 newsgroups simultaneously. The term spamming is coined by Joel Furr to describe the incident.

April-May

April - The Kuwaiti government claims to uncover an Iraqi assassination plot against former US President George H. W. Bush shortly after his visit to Kuwait. Two Iraqi nationals, caught with smuggled hashish and alcohol inside Kuwait, confess to driving a car-bomb into Kuwait on behalf of the Iraq Secret Service [1].
April 6 - Russian nuclear accident at Tomsk 7.
April 22 - In Washington, DC, the Holocaust Memorial Museum is dedicated.
April 22 - Murder of Stephen Lawrence, London, UK.
April 22 - Release of version 1.0 of the Mosaic web browser.
May 1 - Former prime minister of France Pierre BÃÂÃÂ©rÃÂÃÂ©govoy commits suicide.
May 24 - Eritrean independence.

June-July

June 18 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM weapons inspectors to install remote-controlled monitoring cameras at two missile engine test stands.
June 22 - Japan's New Party Sakigake breaks away from the Liberal Democratic Party.
June 25 - Kim Campbell becomes Canada's nineteenth Prime Minister.
June 27 - US President Bill Clinton orders a cruise missile attack on Iraqi intelligence headquarters in the Al-Mansur district, Baghdad, in response to the attempted assassination of former U.S. President George Bush during his visit to Kuwait in mid-April.
July 5 - Iraq disarmament crisis: UN inspection teams leave Iraq. Iraq then agrees to UNSCOM demands and the inspection teams return
July 29 - The Israeli Supreme Court acquits accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk of all charges and he is set free.

August-October

August 4 - A federal judge sentences LAPD officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 30 months in prison for violating motorist Rodney King's civil rights.
August 6 - Louis Freeh is confirmed by the United States Senate to be the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
August 9 - King Albert II of Belgium is sworn into office nine days after the death of his brother, King Baudouin.
September 13 - PLO leader Yasir Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin shake hands in Washington D.C., after signing a peace accord.
October 3 - Large scale battle between US forces and local militia in Mogadishu, Somalia
October 13 - Andreas Papandreou begins his second term as Prime Minister of Greece.

November-December

November 1 - The Maastricht Treaty activates, formally establishing the European Union.
November 4 - Jean ChrÃÂÃÂ©tien becomes Canada's twentieth Prime Minister.
November 18 - In South Africa, 21 political parties approve a new constitution.
November 20 - Savings and Loan scandal: 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 24 - In the United Kingdom, 11-year olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables are convicted of the child murder of 2-year-old James Bulger of Liverpool (they were sentenced to "indefinite detention").
November 30 - US President Bill Clinton signs the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (the Brady Bill) into law.
December 2 - Shuttle program: 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 is gunned down in MedellÃÂÃÂn.
December 30 - Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations.
The second World Parliament of Religions is held in Chicago
US President Bill Clinton sends 6 American warships to Haiti to enforce United Nations trade sanctions against the military-led regime in that country.
The Mississippi River and Missouri River flood large portions of the American Midwest.

Year in topic

1993 in film
- Schindler's List, directed by Steven Spielberg
- Jurassic Park
- The Fugitive starring Harrison Ford
- The Piano
- Philadelphia starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington
- Sleepless in Seattle starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan
1993 in literature
1993 in music
February 11 - Howard Stern's radio show begins transmitting to Rochester NY
1993 in sports
- January 31 - Super Bowl XXVII Dallas Cowboys (52) def. Buffalo Bills (17)
- March 5 - Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson is banned from international competition for life after testing positive for banned substances for the second time.
- April 1 - Defending NASCAR Winston Cup champion Alan Kulwicki is killed in a plane crash while on his way to a race in Bristol, Tennessee.
- April 30 - During a changeover at a tennis tournament in Hamburg, Germany, Monica Seles is stabbed in the back by a deranged fan of rival Steffi Graf. Seles would not play competitively for more than two years after the incident.
- June 7 - Croatian basketball star Drazen Petrovic, emerging as a superstar for the NBA's New Jersey Nets, is killed in an off-season auto accident in Germany.
- Michael Jordan retires from Basketball to play minor league baseball. (He would later return to basketball in 1994.)
1993 in television
- August 19 - The television sitcom, Cheers ends an 11-year run on NBC (the show debuted on September 30, 1982).
- The Late Show with David Letterman premieres on CBS
- Beavis and Butt-head begins airing on MTV.
1993 in video games and computing
- September 23 - Sonic the Hedgehog CD is released for the Sega Mega-CD in Japan.
- November 19 - Sonic CD is released for the Sega CD in North America.
- December 10 - Shareware version of Doom is released for the PC.

Births

Deaths

January-February

January 6 - Rudolf Nureyev, Russian ballet dancer
6 January - Dizzy Gillespie, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1917)
January 15 - Sammy Cahn, songwriter
January 20 - Audrey Hepburn, actress
January 22 - Abe Kobo, writer
January 23 - Thomas Dorsey, gospel music singer
January 24 - Thurgood Marshall, United States Supreme Court justice
February 5 - Joseph L. Mankiewicz, writer, producer, director
February 6 - Arthur Ashe, tennis star, social activist
6 February - Joseph Mankiewicz, director, producer, writer
February 11 - George A Stephen, inventor
11 February - Joy Garrett, actress
12 February - James Bulger, murdered British toddler
February 20 - Ferrucio Lamborghini, automobile manufacturer
February 24 - Bobby Moore, English footballer
February 27 - Lillian Gish, actress
February 28 - Ruby Keeler, actress, singer, dancer

March-October

March 8 - Billy Eckstine, jazz musician
March 17 - Helen Hayes, actress
March 24 - John Hersey, author
April 3 - Pinky Lee, children's television host
May 8 - Avram Davidson, science fiction writer
June 7 - Drazen Petrovic, basketball star, New Jersey Nets, considered by many Croatia's greatest player ever, Basketball Hall of Famer
June 15 - John Connally, Governor of Texas (b. 1917)
June 26 - William H. Riker, political scientist
June 29 - Hector Lavoe, salsa music singer
June 30 - George "Spanky" McFarland, actor
July 3 - Don Drysdale, major league baseball pitcher
July 13 - Davey Allison, NASCAR driver
July 28 - Reggie Lewis, basketball player, Boston Celtics
July 31 - Baudouin, king of Belgium
September 27 - Jimmy Doolittle American World War II General.
October 31 - Federico Fellini, Italian film director
October 31 - River Phoenix, actor

November-December

November 12 - H. R. Haldeman, central figure in the Watergate scandal
November 21 - Bill Bixby, television actor
November 25 - Anthony Burgess, author
December 2 - Pablo Escobar, drug lord
December 4 - Frank Zappa, American rock musician
December 31 - Zviad Gamsakhurdia, scientist and writer, first President of the Republic of Georgia
Oksana Kostina, Russian gymnast.

Nobel Prizes

Physics - Russell A. Hulse, Joseph H. Taylor Jr
Chemistry - Kary Mullis, Michael Smith
Medicine - Richard J. Roberts, Phillip A Sharp
Literature - Toni Morrison
Peace - Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk
Economics - Robert Fogel, Douglas North