Irish author Brian Friel's play Dancing at Lughnasa has its premiere at the Abbey Theatre

Tim Berners-Lee, working at CERN in Geneva, publishes the first formal proposal for the World Wide Web

Solidarnośc leader Lech Walesa wins Poland's first free presidential election

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

Tim Berners-Lee, using CERN computers, puts online the first website at http://info.cern.ch

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

Macedonia follows the example of Slovenia and Croatia in proclaiming its independence from Yugoslavia

Regeneration is the first volume of English author Pat Barker's trilogy of novels set during World War I

A man found frozen high in the Alps turns out to be a neolithic hunter from about 5000 years ago

The parliament in Bosnia-Herzegovina votes to secede from the crumbling Yugoslavia

The Soviet region of Chechnya proclaims its independence from the USSR, calling itself the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria

Three Soviet republics (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus) declare independence, leading to the formal disbanding of the USSR

A treaty signed in the Netherlands town of Maastricht establishes the European Union and prepares for the introduction of the euro

Eight more Soviet Socialist republics vote to join the three founder members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the defunct USSR, handing power to Boris Yeltsin as president of the new Russian republic

Fighting intensifies between Serbs and Croats, Christians and Muslims, for territory within Bosnia-Herzegovina

Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic encourages ethnic cleansing by paramilitaries in Bosnia

Slobodan Milosevic is elected president of Yugoslavia (by now only Serbia and Montenegro)

Eric Clapton's album Unplugged includes 'Tears in Heaven', mourning the death of his four-year-old son

Betty Boothroyd, a Labour MP, becomes the first woman Speaker of Britain's House of Commons

English poet Thom Gunn's The Man with Night Sweats deals openly with AIDS

Albanians in Kosovo proclaim independence, prompting increased Serb oppression