1991

Years :	1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994
Years:	1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994
Decades:	1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
Centuries:	19th century · 20th century · 21st century

1991 by topic:
Arts
Architecture - Art - Film - Literature - Music - Television
Science and technology
Archaeology - Aviation - Meteorology - Rail transport - Radio - Science
By country
Australia - Canada - India - Ireland - Mexico - South Africa
Other topics
Awards - Sport - Law - State leaders - Religious leaders Video gaming
Birth and death categories
Births - Deaths

1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January

January 2 - Sharon Pratt Dixon is sworn in as mayor of Washington, DC becoming the first black woman to lead a city of that size and importance.
January 4 - The United Nations Security Council votes unanimously to condemn Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
January 10 - SA State Govt forced to bail out State Bank.
January 11 - The Soviets storm Vilnius to stop Lithuanian independence.
January 12 - Gulf War: The U.S. Congress passes a resolution authorizing the use of military force to liberate Kuwait.
January 13 - The Soviet Union troops assault the Vilnius TV tower in Lithuania and kill 14 unarmed civilians, many more are injured.
January 13 - Soccer stampede and fight at Johannesburg, South Africa - 42 dead.
January 14 - Three PLO guerilla chiefs assassinated in Tunis.
January 16 - US serial killer Aileen Wuornos confesses to the murders of six men.
January 17 - Operation Desert Storm begins.
January 17 - Gulf War: The air strikes against Iraq begin.
January 17 - Gulf War: Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles into Israel.
January 17 - Harald V becomes King of Norway on the death of his father, Olav V.
January 18 - Eastern Airlines shuts down after 62 years citing financial problems.
January 26 - The Somalian president Siad Barre flees his compound in Mogadishu.
January 29 - Siad Barre is succeeded by Ali Mahdi Muhammad.

February

The Highway of Death, US military decimates the Iraqi Army as it retreats from Kuwait.

February 4 - The Baseball Hall of Fame votes to bar Pete Rose.
February 5 - A Michigan court bars Dr Jack Kevorkian from assisting in suicides.
February 7 - Haiti's first democratically-elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is sworn in.
February 7 - The IRA launches a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street during a cabinet meeting.
February 9 - Voters in Lithuania vote for independence.
February 11 - UNPO, the Unrepresented Nations & Peoples Organization, forms in the Hague, Netherlands.
February 13 - Gulf War: Two laser-guided "smart bombs" destroy an underground bunker in Baghdad killing hundreds of Iraqis. Iraqi officials claim that the bunker was a bomb shelter but United States military intelligence identified it as a military facility.
February 15 - The Visegrad Agreement, establishing cooperation to move toward free-market systems, is signed by the leaders of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland.
February 16 - Gulf War: American and British war planes bomb the suburbs of Baghdad, injuring at least 11 civilians and killing three others.
February 18 - The IRA explodes bombs in the early morning at both Paddington station and Victoria station in London.
February 22 - Gulf War: Iraq accepts a Russian proposed cease fire agreement. The US rejects the agreement, but said that retreating Iraqi forces would not be attacked if they left Kuwait within 24 hours.
February 23 - Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabian border and enter Kuwait, thus starting the ground phase of the war.
February 23 - Thailand: General Sunthorn Kongsompong leads a bloodless coup d'état, deposing Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan.
February 25 - Gulf War: Part of an Iraqi Scud missile hits an American military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia killing 29 and injuring 99 US Soldiers. It is the single, most devastating attack on U.S. forces during that war.
February 26 - Gulf War: On Baghdad radio, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein announces the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait. Iraqi soldiers set fire to Kuwaiti oil fields as they retreat.
February 27 - Gulf War: Kuwait is liberated, and a ceasefire is declared, after 100 hours of ground fighting. Iraq accepts the terms of the ceasefire, which call for the country to disarm.

March

March-April - Iraqi forces suppress rebellions in the southern and northern parts of the country, creating a humanitarian disaster on the borders of Turkey and Iran
March 1 - Ballistic Missile Submarine USS-ex-Sam Houston SSBN-609 starts to be deactivated
March 1 - Clayton Keith Yeutter finishes as the United States Secretary of Agriculture, under the George H. W. Bush administration
March 3 - An amateur video captures the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers.
March 3 - Latvia and Estonia vote to become independent of the Soviet Union
March 4 - Vermont celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
March 4 - Most primitive form of World Wide Web is put online.
March 9 - Massive demonstrations are held against Slobodan Milošević in Belgrade. Two people are killed and tanks are in the streets
March 10 - Gulf War: Operation Phase Echo - 540,000 American troops begin to leave the Persian Gulf
March 11 - A curfew is imposed on black townships in South Africa after fighting between rival political gangs killed 49.
March 13 - The United States Department of Justice announces that Exxon has agreed to pay $1 billion for the clean-up of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.
March 14 - After 16 years in prison for allegedly bombing a pub in an Irish Republican Army attack, the "Birmingham Six" are freed when a court determines that the police fabricated evidence.
March 15 - Four Los Angeles, California police officers are indicted for the videotaped March 3, 1991 beating of motorist Rodney King during an arrest.
March 15 - Germany formally regains complete independence after the four post-World War II occupying powers (France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union) relinquish all remaining rights.
March 31 - Albania has the first multi-party elections

April

April 1 - The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times report that Selene Walters had verified her claim that then SAG President Ronald Reagan raped her in her home in 1952
April 3 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The U.N. Security Council passes the Cease Fire Agreement, Resolution 687. The resolution called for the destruction or removal of all of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons, all stocks of agents and components, and all research, development, support and manufacturing facilities for ballistic missiles with a range greater than 150km and production facilities; and for an end to its support for international terrorism. Iraq accepts the terms of the resolution on April 6
April 4 - Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania and six others are killed when a helicopter collided with their plane over Merion, Pennsylvania
April 9 - Supreme Council of the Republic of Georgia declared the restoration of independence of Georgia
April 10 - A rare tropical storm develops in the Southern Hemisphere off the coast of Angola; the first of its kind to be documented by satellites.
April 14 - In the Netherlands, thieves steal 20 paintings worth $500 million from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Less than an hour later they are found in an abandoned car near the museum
April 17 - After approaching 3,000 in July 1990, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 3,000 for the first time ever, closing at 3,004.46.
April 17 - First Performance of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" at the OK Hotel in Seattle, Washington the song that marked the beginning of a new movement in music called Grunge. It managed to turn a crowd calmly seated at tables into a moshpit.
April 18 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq declares some of its chemical weapons and materials to the UN, as required by Resolution 687, and claims that it does not have biological weapons program.
April 26 - Seventy tornadoes break out in the central United States, killing 17. The most notable tornado of the day struck Andover, Kansas. (see Andover, Kansas Tornado Outbreak)
April 29 - A tropical cyclone hits Bangladesh killing an estimated 138,000 people.

May

May 15 - Édith Cresson becomes France's first female premier
May 16 - HM Queen Elizabeth II gives a speech to the US Congress.
May 26 - In Thailand, a Lauda Air Boeing 767 crashes near Bangkok killing all 223 people on-board

June

June 12 - Boris Yeltsin is elected president of Russia, the largest and most populous of the fifteen Soviet republics.
June 13 - A spectator is killed by lightning at the U.S. Open [1]
June 15 - Pinatubo climactic eruption, one of the most destructive volcanic event of the century shook the Phillipines
June 17 - Apartheid: The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act, which had required racial classification of all South Africans at birth
June 17 - Exhumation of US President Zachary Taylor to discover whether or not his death was caused by arsenic poisoning, instead of acute gastrointestinal illness. No trace of arsenic is found.
June 23-June 28 - Iraq disarmament crisis: U.N. inspection teams attempt to intercept Iraqi vehicles carrying nuclear related equipment. Iraqi soldiers fire warning shots in the air to prevent inspectors from approaching the vehicles
June 25 - Croatia and Slovenia declare their independence from Yugoslavia

July

July 1 - The Warsaw Pact is officially dissolved at a meeting in Prague.
July 7 - The Brioni Agreement ends the ten day war in Slovenia
July 10 - Boris Yeltsin begins his 5-year term as the first elected president of Russia
July 11 - Total Solar Eclipse.(Hawaii, Mexico, Central America, Colombia and Brazil).
July 22 - Mike Tyson is arrested and charged with raping Desiree Washington three days earlier.
July 22 - Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is arrested after the remains of 11 men and boys are found in his Milwaukee, Wisconsin apartment.

August

The Statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the KGB is torn down in Moscow, signalling the Collapse of the Soviet Union.

August 6 - Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the "World Wide Web."
August 7 - Assassination of Shapour Bakhtiar, former prime minister of Iran
August 8 - Collapse of Warsaw radio mast, the tallest construction ever built
August 17 - Strathfield Massacre (Sydney, Australia) - taxi driver Wade Frankum shoots seven people and injuring 6 others before turning the gun on himself.
August 18 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is put under house arrest while vacationing in the Crimea. The putsch is led by eight high-ranking hard-liners, and will collapse in less than 72 hours.
August 20 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: Estonia declares its independence from the Soviet Union and more than 100,000 people rally outside the Soviet Union's parliament building protesting the coup that deposed President Mikhail Gorbachev
August 21 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: Latvia declares its independence from the Soviet Union
August 24 - Ukraine declares independence from Soviet Union
August 25 - Student Linus Torvalds post a messages to Usenet newsgroup comp.os.minix about the new operating system kernel he has been developing.
August 29 - Maronite general Michel Aoun leaves Lebanon via a French ship into exile
August 31 - Kyrgyzstan declares independence from the Soviet Union
August 31 - Uzbekistan declares independence from the Soviet Union

September

September 2 - The United States recognizes the independence of the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
September 3 - In Hamlet, North Carolina, a grease fire breaks out at the Imperial Foods chicken processing plant, killing 25 people.
September 5 - Fall of Communism in the USSR.
September 5-September 7 - At the 35th Annual Tailhook Symposium, 83 women and 7 men are assaulted.
September 6 - The Soviet Union recognizes the independence of the Baltic States.
September 6 - The name "Saint Petersburg" is restored to Russia's second-largest city, which had been renamed "Leningrad" in 1924.
September 8 - Republic of Macedonia becomes independent.
September 15 - The C-17 Globemaster III flys for the first time. The C-17 is regarded by many in the industry as the best, safest and most capable aircraft in the history of aviation.
September 21 - Armenia declares independence from the Soviet Union
September 21-September 30 - Iraq disarmament crisis: IAEA inspectors discover files on Iraq's hidden nuclear weapons program. Iraqi officials confiscate documents from UN weapons inspectors, and refuse to allow them to leave the site without turning over other documents. A four-day standoff ensues. Iraq permits the team to leave with the documents after a statement from the UN Security Council threatens enforcement actions.
September 22 - The Dead Sea Scrolls are made available to the public for the first time, by the Huntington Library.
September 24 - The release of Nirvana's Nevermind signified the start of the Grunge era that would dominate the music scene up to the mid-90's.
September 30 - Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is removed from power.

October

October 2 - Arkansas Governor William J. Clinton announces he will seek the 1992 Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States.
October 8 - The Croatian Parliament cuts all remaining ties with Yugoslavia
October 11 - KGB is replaced by the SVR
October 11 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The U.N. Security Council passes Resolution 715, which demands that Iraq "accept unconditionally the inspectors and all other personnel designated by the Special Commission". Iraq rejects the resolution, calling it "unlawful"
October 12 - Askar Akayev, previously chosen President of Kyrgyzstan by republic's Supreme Soviet, is confirmed president in an uncontested poll
October 14 - Bulgarians celebrate the end of the rule of the communist party
October 15 - Following a bitter confirmation hearing that involved allegations of sexual misconduct, the United States Senate votes 52 to 48 to confirm Judge Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court of the United States
October 16 - George Hennard guns down 24 people in Texas
October 19 - 7.0 Richter Scale earthquake in Northern Italy - 2000 dead
October 20 - Oakland Hills firestorm kills 25 and destroys 3469 homes and apartments
October 27 - The first free parliamentary elections in Poland
October 29 - The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid
Winter - Centennial of Basketball

November

November 4 - Ronald Reagan opened his presidential library in Simi Valley.
November 5 - Body of publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell is found floating in the sea - he had fallen off his yacht
November 7 - Los Angeles Lakers point guard Magic Johnson announces that he has HIV, effectively ending his career in the NBA.
November 7 - The last oil well was put out of fire in Kuwait.
November 7 - First report on Carbon nanotubes is published by Sumio Iijima in the journal Nature
November 14 - American and British authorities announce indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103
November 14 - Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returns to Phnom Penh after 13 years of exile
November 18 - Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon set Anglican Church envoys Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland free
November 18 - Serb troops take Vukovar after siege of 87 days
November 23 - Freddie Mercury, lead singer of the band Queen, issues a public statement confirming that he is stricken with AIDS. The next day he dies of complications.
November 27 - The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopts UN Security Council Resolution, opening the way to the establishment of peacekeeping operations in Yugoslavia.
November 29 - Federal Yugoslavian Army begins to withdraw from Zagreb

December

December 1 - Cold War: Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union
December 4 - Journalist Terry Anderson is released after seven years' captivity as a hostage in Beirut (he was the last and longest-held American hostage in Lebanon).
December 4 - Pan American World Airways ends operations.
December 8 - Leaders of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine met and signed an agreement ending the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Nature Reserve in Belarus
December 8 - Referendum on the constitution of Romania accepted as valid
December 12 - Russian SFSR ceases to be a part of the Soviet Union
December 15 - Egyptian ferry Salem Express sinks in the Red Sea killing more than 450
December 19 - Paul Keating replaces Bob Hawke as Australian prime minister
December 25 - Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union
December 26 - Supreme Soviet meets and formally dissolves the Soviet Union
December 31 - Soviet Union officially ceases to exist

Undated events

University of South Australia founded.
Impostor James Hogue exposed in Princeton University
Milo Kirk elected president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Births

January

January 15 - Rubab Raza, Pakistan swimmer
January 19 - Erin Sanders, American actress
January 21 - Paige and Ryanne Kettner, American actresses
January 21 - Brittany Tiplady, Canadian actr

February

February 16 - Princess Alexandra of Luxembourg, British noble
February 17 - Bonnie Wright, English actress
February 18 - Malese Jow, American actress

March

March 8 - Devon Werkheiser, American actor
March 23 - George William Carnegie, British noble
March 28 - Amy Bruckner, American actress

April

April 6 - Christina Ritter, American actress
April 10 - Sergiusz Zymelka, Polish actor
April 20 - Thomas Curtis, American actor
April 27 - Rebecca Ryan, British actress

May

May 17 - Daniel Curtis Lee, American actor
May 21 - Sara Ramos, American actress
May 25 - Julianna Rose Mauriello, American stage actress
May 28 - Kristen Alderson, American actress

June

June 4 - Jordan Hinson, American actress
June 18 - Willa Holland, American model
June 27 - Madylin Sweeten, American actress

July

July 5 - Jason Dolley, American actor
July 6 - Victoire Thivisol, French actress
July 7 - Devon Alan, American actor
July 12 - Erik Per Sullivan, American actor
July 14 - Lewis McGibbon, British actor

August

August 28 - Kyle Massey, American actor
August 30 - Lauren Hartley, British actress

September

September 4 - Carter Jenkins, American actor
September 5 - Skandar Keynes, British actor
September 21 - Zoe Weizenbaum, American actress

October

October 7 - Zahra Clayborne, Canadian figure skater
October 19 - Christopher Gerse, American actor

November

November 6 - Camila Finn, Brazilian model

December

December 9 - Prince Joachim, Archduke of Austria-Este, British Prince
December 13 - Jay Greenberg, American music composer

For musicians born in 1991, see 1991 in music.

Deaths

January-February

January 5 - Vasko Popa, Yugoslavian poet (b. 1922)
January 8 - Steve Clark, English guitarist (Def Leppard) (b.1960)
January 11 - Carl David Anderson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
January 17 - King Olav V of Norway (b. 1903)
January 29 - Yasushi Inoue, Japanese historian (b. 1907)
January 30 - John Bardeen, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908
January 30 - John McIntire, American actor (b. 1907)
February 5 - Dean Jagger, American actor (b. 1903)
February 6 - Salvador Luria, Italian-born biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1912)
February 6 - Danny Thomas, American singer, comedian, and actor (b. 1914)
February 21 - John S. Cooper, a U.S. Republican senator
February 14 - John McCone, American Central Intelligence Agency director (b. 1902)
February 21 - Margot Fonteyn, English ballet dancer (b. 1919)
February 24 - John Charles Daly, South African-born journalist and game show host (b. 1914)
February 24 - George Gobel, American comedian (b. 1919)

March-May

March 2 - Serge Gainsbourg, French singer (b. 1928)
March 3 - Arthur Murray, American dancer and dance instructor (b. 1895)
March 12 - Ragnar Granit, Finnish neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1900)
March 14 - Howard Ashman, American lyricist (b. 1950)
March 14 - Doc Pomus, American composer (b. 1925)
March 29 - Lee Atwater, American Presidential advisor (b. 1951)
April 1 - Martha Graham, American dancer and choreographer (b. 1894)
April 3 - Charles Goren, American bridge player, writer, and columnist (b. 1901)
April 3 - Graham Greene, English writer (b. 1904)
April 4 - Max Frisch, Swiss writer (b. 1911)
April 4 - H. John Heinz III, U.S. Senator (plane crash) (b. 1938)
April 4 - Forrest Towns, American runner (b. 1914)
April 8 - Per "Dead" Yngve Ohlin, Vocalist for Mayhem/Morbid (suicide) (b. 1969)
April 10 - Natalie Schafer, American actress (b. 1900)
April 26 - Carmine Coppola, American composer and conductor (b. 1910)
April 28 - Ken Curtis, American actor (b. 1916)
May 8 - Jean Langlais, French composer and organist (b. 1907)
May 8 - Rudolf Serkin, Austrian pianist (b. 1903)
May 14 - Jiang Qing, Chinese radical revolutionary (b. 1914)
May 15 - Andreas Floer, German mathematician (b. 1956)
May 21 - Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (b. 1944)
May 22 - Derrick Henry Lehmer, American mathematician (b. 1905)
May 24 - Wilhelm Kempff, German pianist (b. 1895)
May 27 - Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist (b. 1904)

June-December

June 9 - Claudio Arrau, Chilean-born pianist (b. 1903)
June 14 - Peggy Ashcroft, British actress (b. 1907)
June 15 - Arthur Lewis, British economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1915)
July 1 - Michael Landon, American actor (b. 1936)
July 4 - Victor Chang, Australian physician (murdered) (b. 1936)
July 15 - Bert Convy, American game show host, actor, and singer (brain tumor) (b. 1933)
July 16 - Robert Motherwell, American painter (b. 1915)
July 18 - André Cools, Belgian politician (assassinated) (b. 1927)
July 24 - Isaac Bashevis Singer, Polish-born Yiddish writer, Nobel Prize laureate
August 1 - Chris Short, American baseball pitcher (b. 1937)
August 5 - Paul Brown, American football coach (b. 1908)
August 8 - James Irwin, astronaut (b. 1930)
August 11 - J.D. McDuffie, American race car driver (b. 1938)
August 13 - James Roosevelt, American businessman and politician (b. 1907)
August 14 - Richard A. Snelling, Governor of Vermont (b. 1927)
August 30 - Jean Tinguely, Swiss painter and sculptor (b. 1925)
September 2 - Alfonso García Robles, Mexican diplomat and politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1911)
September 3 - Frank Capra, Italian-born film director (b. 1897)
September 7 - Edwin McMillan, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1907)
September 17 - Zino Francescatti, French violinist (b. 1902)
September 24 - Dr. Seuss, American children's author (b. 1904)
September 28 - Miles Davis, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1926)
October 24 - Gene Roddenberry, American television producer and the creator of Star Trek (b. 1921)
November 24 - Eric Carr, American drummer (Kiss) (b. 1950)
November 24 - Freddie Mercury, Zanzibar-born singer (Queen) (b. 1946)
December 1 - George Joseph Stigler, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
December 6 - Richard Stone, British economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1913)
December 10 - Greta Kempton, American artist (b. 1901)
December 15 - Vasily Zaitsev, Russian World War II hero (b. 1915)
December 16 - Horatio Luro, Argentine-born racehorse trainer (b. 1901)
December 18 - George Abecassis, English race car driver (b. 1913)

Nobel Prizes

Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

Ronald Coase

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