Charles and Diana, the Prince and Princess of Wales, announce that they have agreed to separate

Czechoslovakia divides peacefully into the Czech and Slovak Republics

English novelist Sebastian Faulks publishes Birdsong, set partly in the trenches of World War I

US architect Ieoh Ming Pei completes his underground extension of the Louvre, surmounted by a glass pyramid

Vikram Seth publishes his novel A Suitable Boy, a family saga in post-independence India

Eduardo Paolozzi's vast bronze sculpture The Wealth of Nations is installed at South Kyle, near Edinburgh

Scottish author Irvine Welsh publishes his first novel, Trainspotting

Irish author Roddy Doyle publishes a novel that wins the Booker Prize, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

The Oslo Accords, brokered by the Norwegian government between the PLO and Israel, are seen as a breakthrough in the Middle East crisis

Rachel Whiteread's Untitled (House) is a concrete cast of the interior of a house in London's East End

Loyal troops storm the parliament in Moscow, ending a putsch against President Yeltsin

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

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

Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna dies when the steering column of his car shears during the San Marino Grand Prix

France's President Mitterrand and the British queen Elizabeth II together open the tunnel under the English Channel

In his apostolic letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis John Paul II forbids even any discussion of the ordination of women

Trinidadian cricketer Brian Lara sets a new world record, scoring 501 not out when playing for Warwickshire against Durham

Louis de Bernières publishes Captain Corelli's Mandolin, a love story set in Italian-occupied Cephalonia

Tony Blair wins the leadership of the Labour party, and sets about establishing what he calls New Labour

The IRA declares a cease-fire in Northern Ireland, a gesture followed a month later by Protestant paramilitaries

Divorce is legalized in the republic of Ireland

After 18 years in the USA, living in Vermont, Alexander Solzhenitsyn returns to post-Communist Russia

Art, a play by French-born Iranian playwright Yasmina Reza, has its premiere in Berlin