Home > 1990's: Overview > World Events: Selected Occurrences Outside the United States

World Events: Selected Occurrences Outside the United States

1990

  • The world population is 5.3 billion.
  • The Cambridge Social History of Britain 1750-1950, edited by F. M. L. Thompson, is published.
  • Antonia Susan Byatt's novel Possession is published.
  • Ian McEwan's novel The Innocent is published.
  • Damian Hirst sculpts My Way.
  • Brian Ferneyhough composes String Quartet No. 4.
  • Xavier Roller's film Journey of Hope premieres.
  • Alexander Solzhenitsyn receives the Russia State Literature Prize for The Gulag Archipelago (1974-1978).
  • Canadian scientists discover fossils of the oldest known multicellular animals, dating from six hundred million years ago.
  • Pope John Paul II consecrates the largest cathedral in the world in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast.
1 Jan.
Vaclav Havel, playwright and former dissident and prisoner of conscience, is sworn in as president of Czechoslovakia. After Slovakia secedes from the union, he remains president of the Czech Republic.
3 Jan.
Panamanian president Manuel Noriega surrenders to American authorities and is extradited to the United States to face charges of drug smuggling.
24 Jan.
Japan launches the first probe sent to the Moon since 1976. In March the probe places a small satellite in lunar orbit.
2 Feb.
President F. W. de Klerk of South Africa ends the thirty-year ban on the African National Congress (ANC).
7 Feb.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union votes to end the Party's monopoly on political power.
11 Feb.
Nelson Mandela is released after serving twenty-seven years in prison in South Africa.
21 Feb.
The Republic of Namibia becomes an independent, sovereign state.
25 Feb.
A U.S.-backed coalition under Violeta Chamorro wins the elections in Nicaragua, defeating Daniel Ortega's Sandinista government.
26 Feb.
The Soviet Union agrees to a phased withdrawal of its troops from Czechoslovakia, to be completed in sixteen months.
11 Mar.
Lithuania declares its independence from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.).
11 Mar.
Soviet troops begin to withdraw from Hungary.
15 Mar.
Mikhail Gorbachev is sworn in as the first executive president of the U.S.S.R.
24 Mar.
In the Australian general elections, the ruling Labour Party is returned to office for a fourth time.
31 Mar.
After the police disperse an antipoll tax demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London, riots and looting occur in the West End.
1 Apr.
One thousand inmates riot in Strangeways Prison, Manchester, Britain. Later in the month, specially trained police officers storm the facilities.
1 Apr.
Robert Mugabe wins the presidential elections in Zimbabwe.
13 Apr.
The Soviet government admits responsibility and expresses regret for the 1940 massacre of Polish army officers in the Katyn Forest near Moscow.
1 May
Protesters jeer Mikhail Gorbachev at the May Day parade in Red Square, Moscow.
3 May
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) agrees to grant full membership to Germany after its reunification.
4 May
Latvia declares itself an independent, sovereign state; Estonia follows suit four days later.
15 May
As a result of concern over "mad-cow disease" (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE), schools and hospitals in the United Kingdom ban home-produced beef.
20 May
In the first free elections in Romania since 1937, the National Salvation Front wins a majority of the votes, and Ion Iliescu is elected president.
22 May
North and South Yemen merge to form the Yemen Republic.
29 May
Boris Yeltsin is elected president of the Russian Federation.
12 June
The Russian Federation declares itself a sovereign state.
12 June
The fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front wins a majority of votes in the Algerian local elections.
20 June
Uzbekistan declares itself an independent, sovereign state.
22 June
The Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Newfoundland refuse to ratify the Meech Lake Accord recognizing Quebec as a "distinct society."
1 July
East Germany agrees to cede sovereignty over economic, monetary, and social polity to the West German government.
8 July
Indian military forces seize control of Kashmir following separatist violence.
12 July
Boris Yeltsin and other reformers in the U.S.S.R. renounce their Communist Party membership.
16 July
The Ukrainian Parliament votes for sovereignty.
Aug.
Iraqi forces invade Kuwait and the Emir flees to Saudi Arabia.
6 Aug.
The United Nations (U.N.) Security Council imposes sanctions (including an oil embargo) against Iraq.
7 Aug.
President George Bush begins to send American troops to Saudi Arabia to prevent an Iraqi invasion.
9 Aug.
Iraq officially announces the annexation of Kuwait.
31 Aug.
East and West Germany sign a reunification treaty.
12 Sept.
The Soviet Union agrees to set 1994 as the date of withdrawal of its troops from East Germany.
2 Oct.
The German Democratic Republic ceases to exist at midnight, and East and West Germany unite as the Federal Republic of Germany.
27 Oct.
The Labour Party of New Zealand loses the elections to the National Party led by James Bolgar.
27 Oct.
The European Community (EC) Summit opens in Rome to discuss economic and monetary union by 1994. With the exception of Britain, all the members agree to achieve a single currency by the year 2000.
28 Oct.
Elections in Georgia, U.S.S.R., result in a victory for non-Communist parties, which call for independence and a market economy.
7 Nov.
Mary Robinson becomes the first woman president of the Republic of Ireland.
20 Nov.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher fails to secure the margin needed to win reelection as leader of the British Conservative Party.
25 Nov.
Lebanese and Syrian troops assume policing responsibilities from Christian militiamen in East Beirut.
26 Nov.
After thirty-one years as prime minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew resigns.
27 Nov.
John Major wins enough ballots to become leader of the British Conservative Party; the next day Thatcher resigns and Major becomes prime minister.
9 Dec.
In the Polish presidential election, Lech Walesa achieves a landslide victory.
9 Dec.
Slobodan Milošović of the Serbian Socialist Party is elected president of Serbia in the first free elections in fifty years.
16 Dec.
Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide wins the first presidential election in Haiti.
23 Dec.
More than 90 percent of the voters in Slovenia endorse independence from Yugoslavia.

1991

  • Architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown complete their work on the Sainsbury Wing, National Gallery, London.
  • Michael Dummett's The Logical Basis of Metaphysics is published.
  • Angela Carter's novel Wise Children is published.
  • Ben Okri's novel The Famished Road is published.
  • Jung Chang's novel Wild Swans is published.
  • Harrison Birtwistle's opera Sir Gawain and the Green Knight premieres.
  • Alan Bennett's play The Madness of George ///premieres.
  • Krzysztof Kieślowski's film The Double Life of Veronique premieres.
  • Gabriele Salvatores' film Mediterraneo premieres.
  • Researchers announce the discovery of a gene responsible for mental retardation.
  • The preserved remains of a man from approximately 3,300 B.C.E. is discovered in the Italian Alps.
16 Jan.
A U.S.-led coalition begins an air offensive (Operation Desert Storm) to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation.
18 Jan.
Iraq launches Scud missiles at targets m Israel.
24 Feb.
Coalition troops in the Persian Gulf launch a ground offensive against Iraqi forces; three days later Kuwait City is liberated.
1 Mar.
Popular revolts begin in Basra and other Shi'ite cities of Iraq; most are crushed by government troops before the end of the month.
14 Mar.
The "Birmingham Six" are released after a British appeals court finds their 1974 conviction for the Irish Republican Army (IRA) pub bombings to be "unsatisfactory."
27 Mar.
The United States begins to withdraw its medium-range missiles from Europe.
31 Mar.
The military structure of the Warsaw Pact is dissolved.
9 Apr.
The Georgian parliament votes to assert independence from the Soviet Union.
30 Apr.
Kurdish refugees in Iraq begin to move into Western-protected havens.
15 May
Edith Cresson becomes the first woman prime minister of France.
18 May
Chemist Helen Sharman is the first Briton to go into space, as a participant in a Soviet space mission.
21 May
A Tamil extremist assassinates former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
31 May
President Dos Santos and Jonas Savimbi, leader of União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA), sign a peace agreement in Lisbon, Portugal, ending the Angolan civil war.
June
The Land Acts, Group Areas Act, and 1950 Population Registration Act are rescinded, thus destroying the legal framework for apartheid in South Africa.
25 June
The republics of Croatia and Slovenia declare their independence from Yugoslavia.
July
The discovery of massive fraud and involvement in organized crime, arms dealing, and the drug trade leads to the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International.
1 July
The Warsaw Pact is formally dissolved.
31 July
President George Bush and President Mikhail Gorbachev sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) to reduce arsenals of long-range nuclear weapons by one-third.
8 Aug.
The British journalist John McCarthy is released after 1,943 days of captivity in Lebanon.
19 Aug.
Gennady Yanayev leads Communist hardliners in a coup against President Gorbachev, who is placed under house arrest in the Crimea. Military rule is imposed in many U.S.S.R. cities.
20 Aug.
Estonia declares its independence from the Soviet Union, followed by Latvia the next day.
21 Aug.
The coup in the U.S.S.R. collapses following widespread resistance led by Boris Yeltsin.
24 Aug.
Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Five days later the Parliament suspends the Communist Party and seizes its assets.
27 Aug.
Serbian forces take the Croatian city of Vukovar after an eighty-six-day siege.
30 Aug.
Azerbaijan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
6 Sept.
The Soviet Union officially recognizes the independence of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.
8 Sept.
Macedonia votes to declare independence from Yugoslavia.
22 Sept.
Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
25 Sept.
The eleven-year civil war in El Salvador ends with the signing of a peace accord.
19 Oct.
Albanian legislators declare Kosovo independent from Yugoslavia.
24 Nov.
The Green Party and Flemish extremists make considerable gains in the Belgian elections.
5 Dec.
The business empire of Robert Maxwell collapses with huge debts and rumors of misappropriated pension funds.
8 Dec.
The leaders of Russia, Belarus, and the Ukraine agree to form the Common-wealth of Independent States (CIS); eight of the nine other republics join on 21 December.
9-10 Dec.
At a summit in Maastricht, Holland, European Community leaders agree on a closer economic and political union (the Maastricht Treaty or the Treaty on European Union).
20 Dec.
Ante Markovic resigns as the prime minister of Yugoslavia.
25 Dec.
Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union, and the U.S.S.R. officially ceases to exist.

1992

  • J. K. Galbraith's The Culture of Contentment is published.
  • The first volume of The Letters of Samuel Johnson, edited by Bruce Redford, is published.
  • Michael Ondaatje's novel The English Patient is published.
  • Ana Teresa Torres' novel Dona Ines vs. Oblivion is published.
  • Damian Hirst sculpts The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living.
  • Regis Wargnier's film Indochine premieres.
  • Fernando Trueba's film Belle Epoque premieres.
  • The Lloyds insurance market in London announces losses of £2 billion.
  • Despite a ruling by a court of appeals, ten Australian women are ordained to the Anglican priesthood.
1 Jan.
Boutros Boutros-Ghali becomes U.N. Secretary-General.
15 Jan.
The EC recognizes Croatia and Slovenia as independent republics.
6 Feb.
Barbara Mills becomes the first woman Director of Public Prosecutions in England and Wales.
13 Feb.
The Swedish government announces an end to its policy of neutrality.
1 Mar.
Although Bosnian Serbs boycott the proceedings, a referendum in Bosnia-Herzegovina decides in favor of becoming an independent, sovereign state.
2 Mar.
Militant Serbs, Croats, and Muslims clash in Sarajevo.
5 Mar.
The Council of Baltic Sea States is established to foster economic development and strengthen links with the EC.
19 Mar.
Buckingham Palace announces the separation of the Duke and Duchess of York, who were married in 1986.
6 Apr.
The Lombard League, the Greens, and the anti-Mafia La Rete Party win substantial victories in the Italian general elections.
7 Apr.
The EC officially recognizes the independence of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
8 Apr.
Serb and federal (Yugoslav) army forces begin to bombard Sarajevo.
9 Apr.
A British general election returns the Conservatives for a fourth term.
27 Apr.
Betty Boothroyd is elected the first woman speaker of the British House of Commons.
2 June
A Danish referendum votes against ratifying the Maastricht Treaty signed by EC leaders the previous December.
3-14 June
Delegates from 178 countries attend the U.N.-sponsored Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
18 June
The Republic of Ireland endorses the Maastricht Treaty.
3 Aug.
The ANC begins a massive protest campaign in South Africa.
13 Aug.
The U.N. condemns the Serbs' "ethnic cleansing" (forced removal) program.
22-26 Aug.
In Rostock, Germany, antiforeigner riots occur at a reception center for refugees.
16 Sept.
British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Norman Lamont, increases the base rate of the pound to forestall speculative selling on the stock market.
20 Sept.
The French people vote narrowly in favor of the Maastricht Treaty.
12 Oct.
Demonstrations occur in many Latin American countries in protest of the five-hundredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus's discovery of America.
13 Oct.
Despite a huge public outcry, the British government announces that coal production will cease at thirty-one of the country's fifty coal mines.
26 Oct.
Canadians, in a referendum, reject the Charlottetown agreement which would grant concessions to French-speaking Quebec.
31 Oct.
The Vatican formally rehabilitates the astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei, who was condemned by the Inquisition in 1633 for advocating heliocentricity.
11 Nov.
The Church of England General Synod approves women's being ordained to the priesthood.
16 Nov.
The Goldstone Commission in South Africa exposes a state-operated campaign to discredit the ANC.
6 Dec.
Hindu extremists destroy the sixteenth-century mosque at Ayodhya, and 1,200 Indians are killed in the resulting violence.
9 Dec.
Operation Restore Hope begins with the arrival of U.S. troops in Mogadishu, Somalia, to supervise the delivery of international food aid.
16 Dec.
The Czech National Council adopts a constitution that will come into effect on 1 January 1993.
29 Dec.
Brazilian President Fernando Collor de Mello resigns one day before he is found guilty of corruption and official misconduct; he is banned from public office for eight years.

1993

  • Margaret Thatcher's The Downing Street Years is published.
  • Sculptor Rachel Whiteread receives the Turner Prize for House, the plaster cast of the inside of a house in the East End of London.
  • Isabel Allende's novel The Infinite Plain is published.
  • Roddy Doyle's novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha is published.
  • Dacia Maraini's novel The Silent Duchess is published.
  • Harold Pinters play Moonlight premieres.
  • British mathematician Andrew Wiles solves "Fermat's Last Theorem," a mathematical problem first posed by the Frenchman Pierre de Fermat in the seventeenth century.
  • Russian authorities announce that they possess the Schliemann Gold, objects found by Heinrich Schliemann at the ancient city of Troy in 1873 and which disappeared from Berlin at the end of World War II.
  • Samples of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from the Duke of Edinburgh and other relatives of the Romanov royal family prove that recently discovered remains are indeed those of Czar Nicholas II and his family, who were executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918.
1 Jan.
The single market of the EC comes into force.
1 Jan.
The Czech and Slovak republics become separate sovereign countries.
10 Feb.
A corruption scandal rocks the Italian government and leads to a series of resignations.
11 Feb.
Both Queen Elizabeth II of Britain and the Prince of Wales volunteer to pay income tax and capital gains tax on their private incomes.
22 Feb.
The U.N. Security Council creates a tribunal relating to war crimes in the former Yugoslavia; it is the first such tribunal since the Nuremberg trials of 1945-1946.
25 Feb.
In Cuba the first direct elections to the national assembly occur, with an official turnout of 99.6 percent.
12 Mar.
In an emergency session, the Russian Congress votes to restrict the powers of Boris Yeltsin and rejects his proposed constitutional amendments.
12 Mar.
North Korea withdraws from the Treaty on Nuclear Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
16 Mar.
The British government imposes a value-added tax on domestic fuel.
27 Mar.
Jiang Zemin becomes state president of China.
29 Mar.
Edouard Balladur becomes the prime minister of France, and the Socialist Party loses many seats in the national legislature.
4 May
The Scott inquiry begins to examine the involvement of the British government in the export of arms to Iraq.
6 May
The U.N. Security Council declares "safe areas" in Sarajevo, Tuzla, Zepa, Goradze, Bihac, and Srebrenica in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
18 May
Denmark approves the Maastricht Treaty.
29 May
A Neo-Nazi arson attack in Solingen, Germany, results in the death of five Turkish women.
30 May
Bosnian Serb forces attack Goradze and Srebrenica.
13 June
Kim Campbell of the Progressive Conservative Party becomes the first woman prime minister of Canada.
23 June
International sanctions are imposed on Haiti.
18 July
The Liberal Democrats, in power since 1955, lose the Japanese general elections.
22 July
In Britain the House of Commons votes to reject the Maastricht Treaty; the next day it is approved by a vote of confidence proposed by Prime Minister John Major.
2 Aug.
The European Exchange Rate Mechanism collapses, and currencies are allowed to fluctuate within 15 percent of the central rates.
6 Aug.
Buckingham Palace in London is opened to the general public.
13 Sept.
Yassir Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Yitzhak Rabin of Israel sign a peace accord in Washington, D.C. Under the agreement, the Israelis pledge to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
21 Sept.
Boris Yeltsin suspends the Russian parliament and calls for elections, but the Supreme Soviet ignores his order and swears in Alexandr Rutskoi as president.
27 Sept.
Troops seal off the White House in Moscow, the seat of the Russian parliament.
3 Oct.
U.S. Special Forces, on a mission to capture two Habr Gidr clan leaders, followers of the warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid, are ambushed in Mogadishu, Somalia. Eighteen American soldiers are killed and dozens more wounded. Somali losses amount to approximately five hundred dead and one thousand wounded.
4 Oct.
The rebels holding out in the Moscow parliament building surrender; a state of emergency remains in effect until 18 October.
5 Oct.
The Papal encyclical Veritatis splendor (The Splendour of Truth), affirming Catholic moral teachings, is published.
25 Oct.
In the Canadian general elections, the Liberal Party wins a decisive victory. Ten days later Jean Chrétien is sworn in as prime minister.
1 Nov.
The Maastricht Treaty comes into force, and the European Community becomes the European Union (EU).
12 Dec.
Liberal Democrats, led by nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, win a large share of seats in the Russian legislature. Meanwhile, voters approve Yeltsin's constitution.
18 Nov.
South Africa adopts a new constitution allowing majority rule.
14 Dec.
The British prime minister issues the guidelines for peace talks on Northern Ireland.
15 Dec.
John Major and Albert Reynolds, the prime ministers of Britain and the Republic of Ireland, respectively, make the Downing Street Declaration, stating the basis for a peace agreement in Northern Ireland.
15 Dec.
In Geneva, Switzerland, 117 nations sign the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Final Act.

1994

  • The world population is 5.5 billion.
  • V. S. Naipaul's novel A Way in the World is published.
  • Barbara Trapido's novel Juggling is published.
  • Peter Maxwell Davies composes Symphony No. 5.
  • Nikita Mikhalkov's film Burnt by the Sun premieres.
  • The cleaning of Michelangelo's paintings in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican is completed.
1 Jan.
The Zapatista National Liberation Army leads a revolt in the state of Chiapas, Mexico.
1 Jan.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Mexico, and Canada comes into effect.
1 Jan.
The European Economic Area is established in preparation for economic and monetary union in Europe.
30 Jan.
Peter Leko becomes the youngest grand master in the history of chess.
31 Jan.
Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Féin, the political wing of the IRA, is granted a visa to visit the United States.
18 Mar.
Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia sign an accord to create a federation of Bosnian Muslims and Croats.
12 Mar.
The first women priests in the Church of England are ordained at Bristol Cathedral.
24 Mar.
The factions in Somalia sign a peace agreement, and U.S. troops withdraw the next day.
26-27 Mar.
The Freedom Alliance wins parliamentary elections in Italy.
Apr.
The presidents of Rwanda and Burundi are killed in an airplane crash; a massive wave of noting occurs and hundreds are killed in the Rwandan capital of Kigali.
26-29 Apr.
The ANC wins an overwhelming victory in the first nonracial general election in South African history.
6 May
The Channel Tunnel between Britain and France is officially opened.
10 May
Nelson Mandela is sworn in as president of South Africa.
12 May
John Smith, the leader of the British Labour Party, dies; he is replaced by Tony Blair on 21 July
13 May
The Palestinian National Authority assumes control of the Jericho area of the occupied West Bank after Israeli military forces withdraw. Five days later Israeli troops withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
27 May
The writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn returns to Russia after twenty years in exile.
1 June
South Africa rejoins the British Commonwealth.
5 June
Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter visits North Korea to help diffuse a crisis over nuclear inspections.
1 July
Yassir Arafat, chairman of the PLO, enters Gaza for the first time in twenty-five years; on the 5th he visits Jericho.
2 July
Colombian soccer player Andrés Escobar is killed in Medellin. Escobar had inadvertently scored a goal against his own team in the game that eliminated Colombia from the World Cup.
8 July
Kim Il Sung, leader of North Korea, dies at the age of eighty-two.
9 July
The Chinese government announces that the legislative council in Hong Kong will be terminated once China resumes control of the city in 1997.
12 July
The high court in Germany approves the use of German armed forces outside the NATO area in collective security operations.
15 July
Jacques Santer, prime minister of Luxembourg, is chosen as president of the European Commission of the EU.
16-22 July
Fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collide with the planet Jupiter.
18 July
The Rwandan Patriotic Front claims a victory in the Rwandan civil war and Pasteur Bizimungu assumes the presidency. Later in the month over two million Rwandans are reported to have fled the country. International relief efforts airlift foodstuffs and medical supplies to the refugee camps on the borders.
25 July
In a ceremony in Washington, D.C., King Hussein of Jordan and Yitzhak Rabin, prime minister of Israel, sign a joint declaration formally ending the conflict between their countries.
31 July
The U.N. Security Council authorizes "all necessary means" to remove the military regime in Haiti.
1 Aug.
A U.N. commission is established to investigate human rights violations in Rwanda.
14 Aug.
The infamous terrorist "Carlos the Jackal" is apprehended in Khartoum, Sudan.
31 Aug.
The IRA announces a complete cessation of violence in Northern Ireland.
19 Sept.
American troops invade Haiti; seven days later the U.S. government lifts the sanctions imposed on the island country.
28 Sept.
An estimated nine hundred people die when the car ferry Estonia sinks in the Baltic Sea off Finland.
30 Sept.
After landing at Shannon airport, Russian president Boris Yeltsin refuses to leave his plane and meet with the Irish prime minister.
15 Oct.
President Aristide returns to Haiti after a three-year exile.
22 Nov.
An investigation begins after Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is accused of bribery. He resigns one month later.
25-26 Nov.
Opposition forces launch an unsuccessful attack on the Chechen capital of Grozny.
28 Nov.
Norway rejects EU membership.
11 Dec.
Russian troops invade the breakaway republic of Chechnya.
15 Dec.
John Bruton of Fine Gael forms a new coalition and becomes prime minister of the Republic of Ireland.
17 Dec.
The presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay sign a pact creating the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), the second-largest customs union in the world.
31 Dec.
Russian troops attack Grozny.

1995

  • Salman Rushdie's novel The Moor's Last Sigh is published.
  • Umberto Eco's novel The Island of the Day Before is published.
  • The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov is published.
  • David Hare's play Racing Demon premieres.
  • Marken Gorris's film Antonia's Line premieres.
1 Jan.
Sweden, Finland, and Austria join the EU, bringing its total membership to fifteen.
1 Jan.
The World Trade Organization (WTO), the successor to GATT, comes into existence with eighty-one member countries.
11 Jan.
Pope John Paul II begins an eleven-day tour of Asia and Australia. An estimated four million people attend his open-air mass in Manila on the 15th.
15 Jan.
In Northern Ireland troops end daytime patrols in Belfast in response to the ceasefire.
17 Jan.
In Kobe, Japan, more than five thousand people are killed in an earthquake.
19 Jan.
Russian troops take the presidential palace in Grozny.
31 Jan.
Severe flooding affects large areas of northern Europe, and in the Netherlands alone two hundred thousand people evacuate their homes.
26 Feb.
The oldest merchant bank in Britain, Baring's, collapses following £600 million in losses.
28 Feb.
U.S. and Italian marines begin to evacuate 1,500 U.N. troops from Somalia after warring factions refuse to abide to a ceasefire.
10 Mar.
Kostas Stephanopoulos is sworn in as president of Greece.
19 Mar.
The Social Democratic Party wins in the Finnish general elections.
20 Mar.
Terrorists release the nerve gas sarin in a Tokyo subway, killing twelve and injuring five thousand.
27 Mar.
South African president Nelson Mandela dismisses his estranged wife, Winnie, from government service.
28 Mar.
The U.N. World Climate Conference opens in Berlin with delegates from more than 130 nations in attendance.
4 Apr.
Approximately four hundred Hutu women and children are reported dead following a massacre by Burundi soldiers and Tutsi gunmen.
16 Apr.
Spain and Canada resolve their dispute over fishing rights off the coast of Newfoundland.
22 Apr.
The Tutsi-led Rwanda Patriotic Army kills two thousand Hutu refugees at a camp in southern Rwanda.
1 May
A four-month ceasefire sponsored by the U.N. ends in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and heavy fighting occurs in Croatia.
10 May
In Zaire, health officials report that an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus has claimed many lives.
15 May
Aum Shinrikyo cult leader Shoko Asahara is arrested in connection with the March gas attack in Tokyo.
16 May
Serb artillery begins to bombard Sarajevo again after a year's respite.
19 May
The government coalition in Thailand, led by Chuan Leekpai, resigns over a land reform scandal.
21 May
Jean-Luc Dehaene retains control of the Belgian government following the general elections.
25 May
NATO warplanes bomb Bosnian Serb targets after the Serbs refuse to relinquish control of their heavy weapons to peacekeeping forces. The next day the Bosnian Serbs seize U.N. soldiers as hostages.
30-31 May
In the first royal visit since 1911, the Prince of Wales tours the Republic of Ireland.
2 June
The Bosnian Serbs start to release their U.N. hostages; by the 18th, all have been freed.
15 June
An earthquake in Egion, Greece, kills at least twenty-two people and leaves thousands homeless.
19 June
Chechen gunmen release Russian hostages, in anticipation of resuming negotiations with Moscow to end the six-month conflict in Chechnya.
26 June
In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.
29 June
Approximately five hundred people die when a department store collapses in Seoul, South Korea.
9 July
French naval commandos storm Rainbow Warrior II, flagship of the environmental group Greenpeace, near Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific, where France planned nuclear testing.
11 July
The Bosnian Serbs overrun the U.N. safe area of Srebrenica.
25 July
The U.N. safe area of Zepa falls to the Bosnian Serbs. Meanwhile, a war crimes tribunal at The Hague indicts Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic for crimes against humanity.
26 July
The U.S. Senate votes to lift the arms embargo against Bosnia.
3 Aug.
In an effort to end the twelve-year civil war in Sri Lanka, sweeping constitutional changes are announced, giving the Tamils regional self-rule.
Aug.
Croat troops expel rebellious Serbs from the Croatian enclave of Krajina.
10 Aug.
The U.N. Security Council receives a special report detailing the massacre of 2,700 Bosnian Muslim men and boys, following the fall of Srebrenica in July.
15 Aug.
On the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II, the Japanese prime minister offers a "heartfelt apology" for the suffering that his country caused.
24 Aug.
In China, U.S. human rights activist Harry Wu is sentenced to fifteen years in jail for spying but is deported, instead, to the United States.
30 Aug.
NATO planes and U.N. artillery begin to bomb Serb military positions in retaliation for attacks on Sarajevo.
1 Sept.
Warring factions in Liberia sign a peace agreement to end the six-year civil war.
4 Sept.
More than five thousand delegates attend the fourth U.N. World Conference on Women in Beijing.
5 Sept.
Amid widespread international protest, France carries out an underground nuclear test at Mururoa Atoll.
28 Sept.
Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yāsir Arafat sign an accord in Washington, D.C., transferring control of much of the West Bank to Palestinian control.
12 Oct.
A sixty-day ceasefire takes effect in Bosnia.
21 Oct.
In New York, leaders of more than 140 countries gather to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the U.N.
25 Oct.
Israeli troops commence an evacuation from the West Bank towns, to be completed in six months. This event marks the beginning of the end of nearly thirty years of Israeli military rule.
30 Oct.
In a Quebec referendum, voters narrowly reject independence from Canada.
4 Nov.
A Jewish extremist assassinates Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
5 Nov.
In a landslide victory, Eduard Shevardnadze is returned as president of the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
19 Nov.
Socialist Aleksander Kwasniewski wins the Polish presidential election.
21 Nov.
In Dayton, Ohio, warring parties sign an agreement to end the four-year-old conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina. A NATO ground force will be deployed to implement the agreement.
24 Nov.
French public workers begin a series of strikes to protest the government's planned welfare reforms. The three weeks of unrest are the worst disruption to transport and public services in France since 1968.
2 Dec.
Nick Leeson is imprisoned in Singapore for six years after pleading guilty to fraud charges relating to the collapse of Barings Bank in February.
14 Dec.
At a ceremony in Paris the presidents of Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia formally sign a peace accord, ending a conflict which had claimed an estimated two hundred thousand lives and left three million homeless.
15-16 Dec.
At an EU summit in Madrid, European leaders agree to name the proposed single currency the "euro."
20 Dec.
In Bosnia sixty thousand NATO peacekeeping troops begin Operation Joint Endeavor.
20 Dec.
Thousands are reported dead after two months of fighting around Kabul, Afghanistan, as radical Islamic Taleban militia seek to overthrow the government.

1996

  • After Rain, a collection of stories by William Trevor, is published.
  • Patrick O'Brian's novel The Yellow Admiral is published.
  • Mario Vargas Llosa's novel Death in the Andes is published.
  • Kobo Abe's novel Kangaroo Notebook is published.
  • Jan Sveraks film Kolya premieres.
15 Jan.
Russian troops storm the village of Pervomaiskoye, where Chechen rebels had held more than one hundred hostages for a week.
16 Jan.
Captain Julius Maado Bio stages a military coup and seizes control of the government in Sierra Leone.
21 Jan.
PLO chairman Yassir Arafat is elected the first president of Palestine in history.
29 Jan.
The two-hundred-year-old La Fenice opera house in Venice is destroyed by fire.
31 Jan.
Tamil Tiger terrorists detonate a truck bomb in central Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing 55 and wounding 1,500.
7 Feb.
One hundred and eighty-nine people die when a Boeing 757 crashes off the coast of the Dominican Republic.
9 Feb.
An IRA bomb kills two in London, signaling an end to the seventeen-month ceasefire.
24 Feb.
Cuba shoots down two unarmed Cessna planes flown by Cuban-Americans, with the loss of four lives. The U.S. government protests this act as a blatant violation of international law.
25 Feb.
Two suicide bombers of Hamas, an Islamic extremist movement, kill twenty-five Israelis in Jerusalem and Ashkelon. Thirty-four more die in further attacks on 3 and 4 March.
8 Mar.
China test fires three M9 ballistic missiles into the sea off Taiwan, and the U.S. responds by sending two aircraft carriers into the area.
25 Mar.
The EU imposes a worldwide ban on exports of British beef out of concern over possible transmission to humans of BSE in the form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
31 Mar.
President Yeltsin announces a ceasefire and partial withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya.
2 Apr.
Britain proposes the slaughter of 4.6 million cattle in an attempt to end the spread of BSE.
6 Apr.
Government troops in Liberia launch an assault on rebel leader General Roosevelt Johnsons compound.
11 Apr.
In their first attack on the city in fourteen years, Israeli gunships fire rockets into the southern suburbs of Beirut in retaliation for Hizbullah attacks on northern Israel.
21 May
Six hundred people die when an overloaded Tanzanian ferry sinks on Lake Victoria.
29 May
The right-wing Likud Party wins the general elections in Israel, and Binyamin Netanyahu becomes prime minister on 18 June.
4 June
The Ariane 5, an European Space Agency rocket, explodes on liftoff in French Guiana.
9 June
King Bhumibol of Thailand, the longest-serving monarch in the world, celebrates his fifty years on the throne by granting amnesty to 26,000 prisoners.
15 June
An IRA bomb, one of the largest devices ever exploded in Britain, injures about 220 people in Manchester.
18 June
President Yeltsin of Russia dismisses Defense Minister General Pavel Grachev and other hardliners.
21-23 June
The Arab League meets to discuss the election of a right-wing government in Israel.
25 June
Nineteen U.S. servicemen are killed in a terrorist bombing near Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The previously unknown Islamic group Hizbullah-Gulf claims responsibility.
10 July
One thousand British troops are sent to Northern Ireland in response to renewed violence.
19 July
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, indicted for war crimes, resigns as president of the Bosnian Serb Republic and head of the ruling Serb Democratic Party.
20 July
Hutu rebels kill three hundred Tutsis in Burundi.
4 July
A bomb explodes on a crowded commuter train in Colombo, Sri Lanka; 70 people are killed and 450 injured.
25 July
In a military coup in Burundi, Tutsi opposition leader Pierre Buyoya is installed as head of state.
25 July
Israeli prime minister Netanyahu offers to withdraw troops from southern Lebanon if Syria promises to disarm Hizbullah.
21 Aug.
Former president F. W. de Klerk publicly apologizes for the suffering caused by five decades of apartheid in South Africa.
26 Aug.
In South Korea, former President Chun Doo Hwan is sentenced to death and former President Roh Tae Woo receives twenty-two years in jail for their roles in the 1979 military coup; their sentences are later reduced.
28 Aug.
In the United Kingdom, a high court grants a divorce to the Prince and Princess of Wales, ending their fifteen-year marriage.
29 Aug.
Russian government officials and Chechen rebel leaders sign a peace treaty, thus ending the nearly two years of fighting which resulted in ninety thousand deaths. A decision on the sovereignty of Chechnya is delayed until 2001.
4 Sept.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PLO leader Yāsir Arafat hold peace talks for the first time in the Gaza Strip.
5 Sept.
Turkish war planes attack suspected rebel Turkish Kurd bases in northern Iraq.
26 Sept.
Israel declares a state of emergency after the worst fighting in thirty years occurs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
27 Sept.
Rebel Taleban militia overrun Kabul, depose the government, and impose strict Islamic law in Afghanistan.
17 Oct.
President Boris Yeltsin of Russia dismisses security chief Aleksandr Lebed amid allegations that he was plotting a revolt.
23 Oct.
Hutu refugees begin to flee from Zaire to escape the escalating fighting between the army and Tutsi tribesmen.
11 Nov.
Near Delhi, India, a Saudi Arabian Boeing 747 and Kazakh Airways Ilyushin-76 collide in midair, and 350 people are killed.
18-29 Nov.
French truck drivers blockade roads across France until the government accedes to their demands for higher wages and shorter hours.
28 Nov.
General Ratko Mladic, indicted by a war crimes tribunal, resigns as commander of the Bosnian Serb Army.
11 Dec.
The shipping tycoon Tung Cheehwa is named to be the chief executive of Hong Kong after China reclaims the city from Britain in 1997.
13 Dec.
Delegates at the EU summit in Dublin revise the Maastricht Treaty; new banknotes of euro currency in denominations of five, ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred, two hundred, and five hundred euros are unveiled.
17 Dec.
President Mobutu Sese Seko, who had been receiving cancer treatment in Europe, returns to Zaire in order to quell the insurgency.
17 Dec.
Leftist guerrillas of the Tupac Amarú Revolutionary Movement, demanding the release of their jailed comrades, seize nearly five hundred guests at the Japanese embassy in Lima, Peru.
26 Dec.
Five thousand riot police break up a massive antigovernment demonstration in Belgrade, Serbia.
27 Dec.
The Chinese and Russians sign bilateral agreements in Moscow, reducing military forces along the Sino-Russian border.
29 Dec.
The last Russian troops leave Chechnya.
29 Dec.
At a ceremony in Guatemala City, the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) Movement and the government sign a peace agreement ending thirty-six years of civil war.

1997

  • J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is published in Britain, It comes to the United States in 1998 as Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone.
  • Peter Ackroyd's novel Milton in America is published.
  • Amos Oz's novel Panther in the Basement is published.
  • Francisco Goldman's novel The Ordinary Seaman is published.
  • Romans-fleuves, a book of poetry by Pierre Nepveu, is published,
  • Roberto Benigni's film La Vita e Bella premieres.
  • Scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland report that they have cloned a sheep named Dolly.
1 Jan.
As Israeli troops prepare to withdraw from the West Bank town of Hebron, a lone Israeli gunman injures six Arabs.
1 Jan.
Kofi Annan of Ghana becomes the seventh Secretary-General of the U.N., replacing Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
5 Jan.
More than one hundred thousand people protest against the government in Belgrade, Serbia. A larger demonstration with four hundred thousand occurs on 13 January.
15 Jan.
Israeli and Palestinian cabinets approve a new peace arrangement concerning Hebron, in which 80 percent of the West Bank town will be turned over to Palestinian control.
4 Feb.
Seventy-three Israeli servicemen are killed when two helicopters crash near the border of southern Lebanon.
5 Feb.
The Swiss government approves the establishment of bank funds to compensate Holocaust victims and their heirs.
12 Feb.
An Iranian-sponsored foundation increases the bounty for killing Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses (1989), to $2.5 million.
19 Feb.
Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping dies at the age of ninety-two.
2 Mar.
Albanian leaders declare a state of emergency as antigovernment protests increase.
6 Mar.
The Polish shipyard Gdansk, the birthplace of the Solidarity Movement, closes with the loss of 3,800 jobs.
11 Mar.
Russian president Boris Yeltsin dismisses most of his cabinet.
13 Mar.
A Jordanian soldier shoots and kills seven Israeli schoolgirls at the Hill of Peace in the Jordan Valley.
19 Mar.
Italy declares a state of emergency because of an influx of ten thousand Albanian refugees.
30 Mar.
Dozens are injured in riots in the West Bank following the Israeli decision to build 32,000 Jewish homes in east Jerusalem.
22 Apr.
Peruvian commandos storm the residence of the Japanese ambassador in Lima and rescue the remaining seventy-one hostages held by leftist guerrillas for the past 126 days. All the terrorists are killed in the assault.
2 May
After a landslide victory by the Labour Party on the previous day, Tony Blair is appointed the youngest prime minister in Britain since 1812 (he is only forty-three years old).
7 May
A U.S. government special report accuses Switzerland of accepting gold looted by the Nazis from occupied countries during World War II.
10 May
An earthquake in Iran, near the Afghan border, results in the death of 1,600 people.
17 May
After thirty-two years in power, President Mobutu of Zaire flees to Morocco. Rebel leader Laurent Kabila proclaims himself head of state and renames the country the Democratic Republic of Congo.
23 May
Prime Minister Tony Blair announces that Britain will accede to the EU Social Chapter.
30 May
Four hundred Westerners evacuate from Sierra Leone as fighting intensifies between rebel forces and Nigerian-backed government troops.
23-27 June
Eighty-five heads of state attend Earth Summit II at the United Nations in New York to discuss environmental issues.
30 June
At midnight the city of Hong Kong returns to Chinese sovereignty after 156 years as a British colony.
6 July
A coup topples from power Cambodian prime minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh.
8 July
NATO invites Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic to join the alliance in time for its fiftieth anniversary in 1999.
10 July
In Bosnia, British soldiers shoot an indicted war criminal and arrest another.
15 July
The Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic is elected unopposed as president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for a four-year term.
16 July
President Jacques Santer of the EU Commission presents a plan for an expanded twenty-one-member EU to include five former communist states and Cyprus.
20 July
The IRA announces the restoration of the 1994 ceasefire broken last February.
25 July
A Khmer Rouge people's tribunal sentences guerrilla leader Pol Pot to life imprisonment for his 1970s government policies that led to the death of two million Cambodians.
5 Aug.
A Korean Air Boeing 747 crashes on the U.S. protectorate of Guam with the loss of 220 lives.
31 Aug.
Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a car crash in Paris. An estimated two billion television viewers worldwide watch her funeral in London on 6 September.
13 Sept.
The state funeral in Calcutta of Mother Teresa (who died on 5 September) is attended by dignitaries from around the world.
25 Sept.
Briton Andy Green sets a new world land-speed record of 714 mph when he drives the jet-powered car Thrust SSC across the Nevada desert. On 17 October he becomes the first person to break the sound barrier on land, reaching a speed of 764.18 mph.
26 Sept.
In Italy an earthquake kills eleven people, leaves thousands homeless, and seriously damages the thirteenth-century Basilica of St. Francis.
1 Oct.
In Israel the ailing Shaikh Ahmad Yasin, founder of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas, is released from jail in order to secure the freedom of Israeli agents arrested in Jordan.
8 Oct.
Kim Jong Il, son of the late Kim Il Sung, becomes the general secretary of the ruling Workers' Party in North Korea.
9 Oct.
Four hundred Mexicans die when hurricane Pauline strikes the Pacific resort of Acapulco.
13 Oct.
Tony Blair meets with Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, becoming the first British prime minister to meet with an IRA leader in seventy-six years.
22 Oct.
President Nelson Mandela of South Africa travels to Tripoli to mediate in Libya's dispute with the U.S. and British governments over extradition of two men suspected of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
8 Nov.
Chinese leaders attend the completion of the damming of the River Yangtse, one of the largest hydroelectric projects in the world. The dam created a four-hundred-mile-long mile long lake and resulted in the displacement of 1.2 million people.
9 Nov.
Russian and Chinese officials sign a declaration defining their joint 2,800-mile disputed border.
24 Nov.
Yamaichi Securities collapses with losses of 3.2 billion yen, the biggest financial failure in Japan since 1945.
4 Dec.
At a U.N. conference in Ottawa, Canada, delegates from 125 nations sign an agreement banning the use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of antipersonnel landmines. The United States, China, and Russia refuse to sign the convention.
10 Dec.
At the U.N. Conference on Climate Control in Kyoto, Japan, representatives of industrial nations pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the early twenty-first century in an effort to slow global warming.
11 Dec.
In a ceremony at Portsmouth, England, the royal yacht Britannica is decommissioned after forty-five years of service.
22 Dec.
Paramilitary gunmen kill forty-five peasants in southern Mexico.
30 Dec.
Islamic militants massacre 412 people in the Algerian province of Relizan.

1998

  • Mario Vargas Llosa's novel The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto is published.
  • Do rit Rabinyan's novel Persian Brides is published.
  • Ying Chen's novel Ingratitude is published.
  • Seamus Heaney's Opened Ground: Selected Poems 1966-1996 is published.
5 Jan.
Amnesty International reports that more than eighty thousand people had died as a result of fighting in Algeria since 1992.
25 Jan.
Tamil Tigers bomb Sri Lanka a holiest shrine, the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, killing eleven.
28 Jan.
Twenty-six people are sentenced to death in India for their involvement in the 1991 assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.
3 Feb.
A U.S. military aircraft accidentally cuts a wire supporting a cable car at an Italian ski resort; twenty people are killed.
4 Feb.
Four thousand people are reported killed after an earthquake strikes northern Afghanistan.
13 Feb.
In Australia a constitutional convention votes in favor of holding a referendum on ending links with the British Commonwealth.
16 Feb.
A Taiwanese A-300 Airbus crashes on approach to Taipei and 260 people are killed.
23 Feb.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Iraqi leaders reach an agreement to give U.N. weapons inspectors unrestricted access to all sites in Iraq.
25 Feb.
Kim Dae Jung is inaugurated as president of South Korea.
1 Mar.
In the United Kingdom, the "Countryside Alliance" arranges a march on London by 250,000 people to highlight the perceived government threat to the traditional rural way of life.
2 Mar.
Serb riot police disperse a demonstration of fifty thousand Albanians seeking autonomy in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo.
25 Mar.
The European Commission declares that eleven states would join the monetary union and that it would start to issue the euro single currency in January 1999.
1 Apr.
The Israeli security cabinet votes to withdraw troops from southern Lebanon.
2 Apr.
Former French cabinet minister Maurice Papon receives a ten-year jail sentence for his role in deporting Jews to Nazi concentration camps in World War II.
15 Apr.
Pol Pot, the former Khmer Rouge dictator of Cambodia, dies.
24 Apr.
Twenty-two men and women are publicly executed in Rwanda for their part in the 1994 massacres.
27 Apr.
Serb police and the Yugoslav army pour into the province of Kosovo to suppress the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army.
11 May
Despite Western threats of international sanctions, India conducts three underground nuclear weapons tests in the Rajasthan desert.
14 May
Israeli security forces shoot and kill eight Palestinians during attacks on isolated Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.
21 May
Following nationwide protests, General Suharto resigns as President of Indonesia after thirty-two years in power.
22 May
Referendums in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland produce votes in favor of the multiparty peace accord signed on 10 April, the so-called Good Friday Agreement.
30 May
Three thousand people die following the second earthquake to strike remote northern Afghanistan.
12 June
World stock markets slump in response to news that Japan is officially in recession.
12 June
Queen Margrethe of Denmark opens the four-mile-long Storebaelt Bridge, linking eastern and western Denmark. It is the second-longest suspension bridge in the world.
15 June
NATO aircraft stage Operation Falcon through Albania and Macedonia as a warning to Serbia to stop its oppression of Kosovo.
16 June
The World Bank warns that Asia is on the brink of a deep recession.
16 June
After a cyclone hits northern India, 1,300 are dead and 10,000 reported missing.
2 July
The largest terminal in the world opens at the Chek Lap Kok Airport in Hong Kong.
10 July
Six hundred people are reported dead in severe flooding in the Chinese province of Sichuan.
17 July
A massive tidal wave hits the northwestern coast of Papua New Guinea, killing three thousand people.
17 July
A state funeral is held in St. Petersburg, Russia, for the internment of the remains of Czar Nicholas II, his family, and servants, who were executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918.
3 Aug.
Serbian security forces burn Albanian towns in Kosovo. An estimated 180,000 people have been displaced since the conflict started in March.
5 Aug.
The Iraqi parliament calls for an end to the oil embargo and an immediate freeze on the activities of U.N. weapons inspectors.
7 Aug.
A car bomb explodes outside the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. At least 240 are killed and 5,000 injured. Another terrorist bomb kills 10 at the U.S. embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
11 Aug.
In the biggest industrial merger in history, British Petroleum announces the takeover of U.S. oil company Amoco.
12 Aug.
King Hussein of Jordan, in an American hospital for cancer treatment, delegates domestic powers to his brother, Crown Prince Hasan.
13 Aug.
Swiss banks agree to pay £767 million ($1.25 billion) to victims of the Holocaust, whose assets had been plundered by the Nazis.
15 Aug.
An IRA car bomb kills twenty-eight and injures two hundred in Omagh, County Tyrone in Northern Ireland.
20 Aug.
The United States launches cruise missiles on suspected terrorist bases in Afghanistan and on a chemical weapons facility in Sudan in retaliation for the 7 August attacks on its embassies in East Africa.
24 Aug.
The British and American governments offer to hold a trial in the Netherlands for the two Libyans accused of bombing a Pan Am airplane over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988; however, the men must be tried under Scottish law,
4 Sept.
An U.N. International Criminal Tribunal sentences former Rwandan Prime minister Jean Kambanda to life in jail for genocide.
14 Sept.
More than fifty thousand Albanians have fled Kosovo in the past week.
24 Sept.
The British and Iranian governments come to an agreement over the safety of author Salman Rushdie, who has been under a threat of death since 1989.
18 Oct.
Former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet is arrested at a London hospital. A Spanish judge had requested his extradition for human rights violations during his tenure in office (1973-1990).
26 Oct.
Ecuador and Peru sign a treaty ending their one-hundred-year-old border dispute.
30 Oct.
Hurricane Mitch causes flash flooding and mudslides in Central America; ten thousand people are reported dead in Honduras and Nicaragua.
15 Nov.
The United States calls off cruise missile attacks against Iraq when, at the last minute, the latter agrees to let the U.N. continue weapons inspections.
24 Nov.
The Yassir Arafat International Airport opens in the Gaza Strip.
25 Nov.
A special panel in the British House of Lords votes in favor of extraditing Ugarte Pinochet.
26 Nov.
A Tokyo court refuses to compensate former British prisoners of war for Japanese mistreatment during World War II.
28 Nov.
Israeli forces bombard Hizballuh positions in southern Lebanon following the death of seven Israeli soldiers in an ambush.
9 Dec.
Ruth Dreifuss is elected the first woman president of Switzerland.
16-20 Dec.
U.S. and British forces conduct Operation Desert Fox, a series of massive bombing raids against Iraq following that country's continued refusal to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors.
17 Dec.
A high court in Britain rescinds the 25 November ruling enabling extradition of Pinochet because of a judge's links to Amnesty International.

1999

  • Patrick O'Brian's novel Blue at the Mizzen is published.
  • Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's novel November 1916 is published.
  • Pedro Almodovar's film All About My Mother premieres.
  • One-half of the planet's population is under the age of twenty-five years, with 95 percent of the growth occurring in the Third World.
  • As the year 2000 approaches, the nations of the world prepare for the potential computer problems of Y2K.
Jan.
North and South Korea hold talks on a peace settlement.
Jan.
The European Union issues the first euro.
25 Jan.
At least 1,170 people die in Colombia following an earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale.
7 Feb.
King Hussein of Jordan dies of cancer after a forty-six-year reign; he is succeeded by his son, King Abdullah.
9 Feb.
The trial of three former government ministers begins in Paris, France. The officials are charged with manslaughter for delaying HIV-testing of the national blood supply, which led to HIV infections for hundreds of people.
Mar.
Government and rebel forces clash in the northern region of Chad.
Mar.
The Czech Republic ratifies the invitation to join NATO.
Mar.
Iraq accuses the United States of spying and continues to confront Allied forces in the "no-fly zones."
Mar.
The Icelandic legislature calls for a resumption of whaling.
1 Mar.
The international treaty banning land mines goes into effect. All signers of the treaty must destroy their stockpiles of mines within four years and clear all mines on their territory within ten years.
21 Mar.
Swiss psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard and British pilot Brian Jones become the first men to successfully fly around the world in a balloon. Their balloon, Breitling Orbiter 3, lands in the Egyptian desert after a journey of 25,362 miles in twenty-one days.
24 Mar.
NATO begins Operation Allied Force, a massive bombing campaign against Yugoslav targets in order to protect the Albanian majority in the province of Kosovo.
Apr.
Both India and Pakistan conduct ballistic missile tests.
Apr.
Bosnian indictments are passed against Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.
1 Apr.
Canada designates a 770,000-square-mile area as the Arctic Territory, or Nunavut. The region is one-fifth the size of Canada's total land mass but has only 25,000 inhabitants, most of whom are Inuit.
17 Apr.
The first in a series of mail bombings occurs in London. Three people are killed before the perpetrator is apprehended.
May
India launches air strikes against the bases of Pakistani-backed guerrillas in Kashmir.
May
The Belgian government outlaws the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang.
May
France confirms that nuclear tests had damaged the coral beds of French Polynesia.
May
Archaeologists discover a Mayan city in a dense forest on the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico.
8 May
China calls for an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council, following the U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade,
17 May
Ehud Barak, a decorated soldier, is elected Israeli prime minister and replaces Benjamin Netanyahu, who had been accused of corruption and delaying the Middle East peace process.
28 May
The annual conference of the International Whaling Commission ends at St. George's, Grenada; the thirteen-year-old ban on commercial whaling remains in effect.
29 May
A civilian government under President Olusegun Obasanjo assumes power in Nigeria.
June
Russian officials decide to abandon the Mir space station.
June
Indian and Pakistani ground forces clash in Kashmir.
10 June
NATO suspends its air raids as Serb forces begin to withdraw from Kosovo.
20 June
Serb forces complete their withdrawal from Kosovo, and NATO announces the conclusion of Operation Allied Force.
24 June
In Brussels, Belgium, Red Cross officials state that the preceding year's natural disasters were the most devastating on record and predict that catastrophes would become more widespread as the climate changes.
29 June
Israeli lawyers announce the application process for Holocaust survivors to receive compensation from two Swiss banks.
23 July
King Hassan II of Morocco dies at the age of seventy; he is succeeded by his son, Crown Prince Sidi Mohamed.
27 July
The United States places a trade ban on Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the ruling Taliban militia launches major attacks against opposition forces loyal to ousted President Burhanuddin Rabbani.
12 Aug.
A North Korean government official states that his country reserves the right to test a new long-range missile capable of reaching U.S. territory. This announcement follows a naval confrontation with South Korean vessels in which thirty North Korean sailors were killed.
17 Aug.
Turkey is hit by its worst natural disaster in sixty years. A devastating earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale kills approximately 17,000 people.
Sept.
In a U.N.-sponsored referendum, East Timor votes to be independent from Indonesia, and violence ensues as pro-Indonesian forces protest the decision.
Sept.
Russia decides to resume whaling operations.
21 Sept.
The island of Taiwan suffers from a massive earthquake that measures 7.6 on the Richter scale. More than two thousand people die and twelve thousand buildings are destroyed.
21 Sept.
Anthropologists declare that a woman's skull found in Brazil is the oldest human fossil in the Americas. The skull, first discovered in 1975, is approximately 11,500 years old.
Oct.
Scientists in Siberia exhume an intact mammoth.
2 Oct.
For the second time in a decade, Russia launches a ground offensive against the breakaway republic of Chechnya.
4 Oct.
Palestinian and Israeli negotiators agree on opening a "safe passage" route linking the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
12 Oct.
The world population reaches six billion people.
27 Oct.
Gunmen storm the Armenian parliament, killing Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkisian and several others.
29 Oct.
A cyclone strikes the east coast of India, killing approximately 10,000 people and leaving 2.5 million homeless.
29 Oct.
An EU panel declares British beef to be safe for human consumption, rejecting the French argument to continue an exportation ban because of fears of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob, or "mad cow" disease.
Nov.
Most hereditary peers are stripped of their right to sit and vote in the House of Lords, the unelected upper chamber of the British Parliament.
Nov.
Hong Kong officials approve the construction of a Disney theme park.
17 Nov.
Scientists report that the Arctic Ocean's ice cap has shrunk more dramatically than previously believed. The cap is 4.3 feet thinner than the last time measurements were taken in 1976.
21 Nov.
China announces the launch of a space vehicle capable of carrying astronauts.
2 Dec.
Britain hands over power in Northern Ireland to a twelve-member cabinet of Protestants and Catholics.
3 Dec.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting ends in Seattle, Washington, following a week of violent protests by environmentalists and anarchists.
17 Dec.
Flooding in Venezuela causes mudslides that eventually kill an estimated ten thousand people.
17 Dec.
Germany establishes a fund of $5.2 billion in order to compensate slave laborers and other victims of the Third Reich.
19 Dec.
China takes back possession of Macau after 442 years of Portuguese rule.
24 Dec.
Kashmiri separatists hijack an Indian Airlines jet.
31 Dec.
After eighty-five years of control, the United States officially relinquishes the Panama Canal to the country of Panama.
31 Dec.
Boris Yeltsin resigns and is replaced by Vladimir Putin as president of Russia.