All Events
Loyal troops storm the parliament in Moscow, ending a putsch against President Yeltsin
The separatist Bloc Québecois becomes (until losing seats in the next election) the official Opposition in the Canadian parliament
Chen Kaige directs Farewell My Concubine, depicting the devastating effect of the Cultural Revolution on some performers of Peking opera
Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their partnership in South Africa
UK and Irish premiers John Major and Albert Reynolds sign the Downing Street Declaration, a strategy for peace in Nothern Ireland
Media magnate Silvio Berlusconi founds Forza Italia as a new centre-right political party in Italy
New East Stand opens at Twickenham rugby ground.
Mayan Indians in Chiapas rebel in an armed uprising against the Mexican government
The Hutu government in Rwanda preaches genocide against Tutsis
Mullah Mohammed Omar, in Kandahar, forms a group devoted to fundamentalist Islam and calls it Taliban (meaning students of the Qur'an)
Former prime minister Bettino Craxi leaves Italy to escape a gaol sentence for corruption
Sylvio Berlusconi's new party, Forza Italia, wins enough votes for him to head a coalition as prime minister
US and European troops are withdrawn from the UN force in turbulent Somalia
The Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana, dies when his plane is shot down
Cyprian Ntayamira, the second Hutu president of Burundi, dies in the crash of the president of Rwanda's plane
The assassination of Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana sparks the outbreak of genocide
As many as 800,000 people die, most of them slashed to death with machetes, in three months of genocide in Rwanda
Tom Hanks stars in Forrest Gump, based on a novel by Winston Groom
A new constitution in South Africa guarantees equal rights to all citizens
South Africa's first non-racial election is won by the ANC with 63% of the vote
Nelson Mandela is sworn in as the first president of the new democratic South Africa
Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna dies when the steering column of his car shears during the San Marino Grand Prix
Hastings Banda, president since independence in 1964, is defeated in Malawi's first multiparty elections
Israel recognizes the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the representative body of the Palestinian people
The New Zealand government pays compensation to the Waikato tribe in the first of several settlements for land illegally seized