1991 - What happened in 1991 ?

January 1991

Thursday 03:

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

Tuesday 15:

The United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm.

Thursday 17:

Harald V becomes King of Norway on the death of his father, Olav V.

Sunday 20:

Sudan's government imposes Islamic law nationwide, worsening the civil war between the country's Muslim north and Christian south.

Sunday 27:

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

February 1991

Monday 04:

The Baseball Hall of Fame votes to ban Pete Rose.

Tuesday 05:

A Michigan court bars Dr. Jack Kevorkian from assisting in suicides.

Thursday 07:

Haiti's first democratically-elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is sworn in.

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.

March 1991

Sunday 03:

An amateur video captures the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers.

Sunday 10:

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

Monday 11:

A curfew is imposed on black townships in South Africa after fighting between rival political gangs kills 49.

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.

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.

Tuesday 09:

Georgia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

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.

Sunday 19:

Willy T. Ribbs becomes the first African-American driver to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.

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.

Tuesday 04:

Britain's Conservative government announces that some British regiments would disappear or be merged into others – the largest armed forces cuts in almost twenty years.

Monday 10:

In what was dubbed "The Mother of All Parades," New York City hosts a parade welcoming back troops from Operation Desert Storm.

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

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.

Monday 22:

Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is arrested after the remains of 11 men and boys are found in his Milwaukee apartment.

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.

Tuesday 27:

Moldova declares independence from the USSR.

Thursday 29:

Supreme Soviet suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party.

Saturday 31:

Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

September 1991

Sunday 01:

Uzbekistan declares independence from the Soviet Union

Monday 02:

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

Friday 06:

The name Saint Petersburg is restored to Russia's second largest city, which had been renamed Leningrad in 1924.

Friday 13:

A concrete beam weighing 55 tons fell in the Olympic Stadium, Montreal, Canada.

Monday 16:

The trial of Panamanian "strongman" Manuel Noriega begins in the United States.

October 1991

Friday 04:

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

Friday 25:

Rock band Steely Dan reunites

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.

Tuesday 29:

The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid.

November 1991

Saturday 02:

Jermaine Jackson's single "Word to the Badd!", which attacks his brother Michael, is leaked to radio station KPWR in Los Angeles.

Sunday 03:

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

Friday 08:

Sonny Bono is elected to the U.S. Congress; at the same time, Marion Barry is reelected mayor of Washington, D.C..

Thursday 14:

A fired United States Postal Service employee goes on a shooting rampage, killing four and wounding five, before committing suicide.

Monday 18:

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

December 1991

Sunday 01:

Cold War: Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union.

Monday 02:

The first version of QuickTime was released.

Sunday 08:

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

Thursday 26:

Supreme Soviet meets and formally dissolves the USSR

Saturday 28:

Sonic the Hedgehog Game Gear version is released in Japan.