1991 - What happened in 1991 ?

January 1991

Thursday 03:

Hockey Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky scores his 700th goal.

Wednesday 09:

The Soviets storm Vilnius to stop Lithuanian independence.

Sunday 13:

Soviet military troops attacked Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius.

Wednesday 16:

US serial killer Aileen Wuornos confesses to the murders of six men.

Sunday 27:

Super Bowl XXV: The New York Giants defeat the Buffalo Bills, 20-19.

February 1991

Wednesday 13:

Gulf War: Two laser-guided "smart bombs" destroy an underground bunker in Baghdad killing hundreds of Iraqis civilians.

Saturday 16:

Gulf War: U.S. and U.K. war planes bomb the suburbs of Baghdad, injuring at least 11 civilians and killing three others.

Saturday 23:

Thailand: General Sunthorn Kongsompong leads a bloodless coup d'état, deposing Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan.

Monday 25:

Gulf War: An Iraqi Scud missile hits an American military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia killing 28 US Marines.

Tuesday 26:

Gulf War: On Baghdad Radio Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein announces the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait.

March 1991

Saturday 09:

Massive demonstrations are held against Slobodan Milo?evi? in Belgrade. Two people are killed and tanks are in the streets.

Sunday 10:

540,000 American troops begin to leave the Persian Gulf.

Wednesday 13:

The United States Justice Department announces that Exxon has agreed to pay $1 billion for the clean-up of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.

Friday 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.

Sunday 31:

The Warsaw Pact comes to an end.

April 1991

Thursday 04:

Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania and six others are killed when a helicopter collides with their plane over Merion, Pennsylvania.

Friday 05:

ASA Embraer EMB 120 crashes in Brunswick, Georgia, United States, killing all 23 aboard.

Wednesday 24:

Freddie Stowers is awarded the posthumous Medal of Honor for which he had been recommended in 1918.

Friday 26:

Seventy tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before its end, Andover, Kansas would record the year's only F5 tornado (see The Andover, Kansas Tornado).

Tuesday 30:

A tropical cyclone hits Bangladesh killing an estimated 138,000 people.

May 1991

Friday 03:

The last episode of the soap opera Dallas airs.

Wednesday 15:

Edith Cresson becomes France's first female prime minister.

Friday 24:

Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

Sunday 26:

Lauda Air Flight 004 explodes over rural Thailand, killing 223.

Tuesday 28:

The capital city of Addis Ababa, falls to the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, ending both the Derg regime in Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Civil War.

June 1991

Monday 03:

At Hankuk University in Seoul, South Korea, students throw eggs at South Korean prime minister Chung Won Shik.

Sunday 09:

The congress of the Italian party Proletarian Democracy decides to merge with the Communist Refoundation Party.

Wednesday 12:

Russians elect Boris Yeltsin as the president of their republic.

Monday 17:

Apartheid: The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act, which had required all racial classification of all South Africans at birth.

Thursday 27:

Slovenia, which declared independent two days previously, is invaded by Yugoslavia troops, tanks, and aircraft.

July 1991

Monday 01:

The Warsaw Pact is officially dissolved.

Tuesday 09:

South Africa is reintroduced into the Olympic movement after 30 years of exclusion.

Wednesday 10:

Boris Yeltsin begins his 5-year term as the first elected President of Russia.

Thursday 11:

Total solar eclipse in Hawaii.

Friday 26:

Sonic the Hedgehog is released for the Sega Megadrive in Japan.

August 1991

Sunday 04:

1991 The Greek cruise ship Oceanos sinks off the coast of South Africa.

Saturday 17:

Wade Frankum starts his killing spree in Strathfield, Australia, an event that was later dubbed the Strathfield Massacre.

Saturday 24:

Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.

Thursday 29:

Supreme Soviet suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party.

Saturday 31:

Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

September 1991

Monday 02:

The United States recognizes the independence of the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Thursday 19:

Ötzi the Iceman is discovered by a couple of German tourists.

Sunday 22:

The Dead Sea Scrolls are made available to the public for the first time, by the Huntington Library.

Thursday 26:

Biosphere 2 opens.

Monday 30:

President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti is forced from office.

October 1991

Friday 04:

The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty was opened for signature.

Wednesday 16:

George Hennard runs amok in Killeen, Texas, killing 23 and wounding 19 in Luby's Cafeteria.

Saturday 26:

Lori Keevil-Matthews is killed after a 485-pound umbrella slams her against a boulder in a Christo art installation.

Sunday 27:

Turkmenistan achieved independence from the Soviet Union.

Wednesday 30:

The Madrid Conference for Middle East peace talks opens.

November 1991

Sunday 03:

Fifteen people are killed in the Barrios Altos massacre in Lima, Peru.

Thursday 07:

Basketball player Magic Johnson announces he has tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS, and that he is retiring.

Monday 18:

After the 3-month siege, the Croatian city of Vukovar is invaded by Serbians

Saturday 23:

Queen frontman Freddie Mercury publicly announces that he has AIDS. Freddie dies peacefully the next day.

Wednesday 27:

The United Nations Security Council adopts UN Security Council Resolution 721, leading the way to the establishment of peacekeeping operations in Yugoslavia.

December 1991

Monday 02:

The first version of QuickTime was released.

Sunday 08:

First post-Communist Romanian Constitution is adopted in a referendum.

Monday 16:

United Nations reverses its 1975 resolution that Zionism is racism by a vote of 111-25, with 13 abstentions

Thursday 26:

Supreme Soviet meets and formally dissolves the USSR

Tuesday 31:

1991 - The Soviet Union officially dissolves.