1993 - What happened in 1993 ?

January 1993

Friday 01:

A single market within the European Community is introduced.

Saturday 02:

Leaders of the three warring factions in Bosnia meet to discuss peace plans.

Tuesday 05:

Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the first legal hanging in America since 1965).

Thursday 14:

David Letterman announces he is moving his television talk show from NBC to CBS.

Tuesday 19:

IBM announces a $4.97 billion loss for 1992 which is the largest single-year corporate loss in United States history.

February 1993

Thursday 04:

First public alpha version, 0.2 of Doom released.

Monday 08:

General Motors sues NBC after Dateline NBC allegedly rigged two crashes showing that some GM pickups can easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settled the lawsuit the next day.

Tuesday 23:

Gary Coleman wins a $1,280,000 lawsuit against his parents.

Friday 26:

World Trade Center bombing: In New York City, a truck bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center goes off, killing 6 and injuring over a thousand. The buildings would be destroyed in a subsequent attack on September 11, 2001.

Sunday 28:

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest cult leader David Koresh. Four BATF agents and five Davidians die in the initial raid, starting a 51-day standoff.

March 1993

Tuesday 09:

Rodney King testifies at the federal trial of four Los Angeles, California police officers accused of violating King's civil rights when they beat him during an arrest.

Saturday 20:

1993 – A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb explodes in Warrington, northwest England, killing two children.

Monday 22:

The Intel Corporation ships the first Pentium chips (80586), featuring a 60 MHz clock speed, 100+ MIPS, and a 64 bit data path.

Saturday 27:

Mahamane Ousmane becomes President of Niger.

Wednesday 31:

Actor Brandon Lee is accidentally killed during the filming of The Crow.

April 1993

Monday 05:

The Child Support Act 1991, administered by the Child Support Agency, comes into effect in the United Kingdom.

Tuesday 13:

Baseball: Lee Smith passes Jeff Reardon for first on the all-time saves list with his 358th save in a 9-7 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers

Monday 19:

The 50-day siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die.

Thursday 22:

1993 - The web browser Mosaic version 1.0 is released.

Friday 30:

During a changeover at a tennis tournament in Hamburg, Germany, Monica Seles is stabbed in the back by a deranged fan of rival Steffi Graf. Seles would not play competitively for more than two years after the incident.

May 1993

Thursday 20:

The television sitcom, Cheers ends an 11-year run on NBC.

Monday 24:

Microsoft unveils Windows NT.

June 1993

Sunday 06:

Mongolia holds its first direct presidential elections.

Monday 07:

Prince changes his name to a symbol and comes to be referred to as "The Artist formerly known as Prince".

Monday 14:

A weeklong product tampering scare, later proven to be a hoax, occurs as customers throughout the USA discover syringes in unopened cans of Diet Pepsi Cola.

Tuesday 22:

Dr. Charles Epstein of Tiburon, California, USA is injured by a mail bomb sent by the Unabomber.

Thursday 24:

Yale computer science professor Dr. David Gelernter loses the sight in one eye, the hearing in one ear, and part of his right hand after receiving a mailbomb from the Unabomber.

July 1993

Saturday 03:

Steffi Graf wins Wimbledon.

Sunday 04:

The Argentine national football team defeats mexico to win the Copa América 1993 in Guayaquil.

Monday 12:

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake off the shore of Hokkaido, Japan launches a devastating tsunami, killing 202 on the small island of Okushiri.

Thursday 29:

The Israeli Supreme Court acquits accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk of all charges and he is set free.

August 1993

Monday 09:

King Albert II of Belgium is sworn into office nine days after the death of his brother, King Baudouin.

Monday 16:

The Debian GNU/Linux distribution is founded by Ian Murdock.

Friday 20:

After rounds of secret negotiations in Norway, the Oslo Peace Accords were signed, followed by a public ceremony in Washington, D.C. the next month.

Friday 27:

The Rainbow Bridge, connecting Tokyo's Shibaura and the island of Odaiba, is completed.

Monday 30:

The Late Show with David Letterman debuts on CBS.

September 1993

Wednesday 15:

Liechtenstein Prince Hans-Adam II disbands parliament.

Wednesday 22:

A Transair Georgian Airlines Tu-154 is shot down by a missile in Sukhumi, Georgia.

Thursday 23:

Sonic the Hedgehog CD is released for the Sega Mega-CD in Japan.

Friday 24:

Brøderbund releases the computer game Myst.

Thursday 30:

An earthquake hits India's Latur and Osmanabad district of Marathwada (Aurangabad division) in Maharashtra state leaving tens of thousands of people dead and many more homeless.

October 1993

Sunday 03:

Battle of Mogadishu: In an attempt to capture officials of warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid's organization in Mogadishu, Somalia, 18 US Army Rangers and about 2000 Somalis are killed.

Monday 04:

Russian constitutional crisis of 1993: Russian President Boris Yeltsin orders tanks to storm the Russian parliament building.

Wednesday 06:

Michael Jordan makes his first retirement from the NBA.

Monday 25:

Jean Chrétien becomes prime minister of Canada with a massive majority for his Liberal Party in a general election in which the governing Progressive Conservatives lost 149 of 151 seats in the parliament.

Wednesday 27:

Fires in five counties in southern California destroy more than 500 homes and cause an estimate $1 billion of damage within a week.

November 1993

Thursday 04:

A China Airlines Boeing 747 overran Runway 13 at Hong Kong's Kai Tak International Airport while landing during a typhoon. The wind was gusting to gale force at the time. It touched down more than 2/3 down the runway and was unable to stop before the runway ran out and the plane crashed into the sea. 22 people were injured.

Sunday 14:

Michael Jackson enters a drug rehabilitation program to treat an addiction to painkillers.

Thursday 18:

In South Africa, 21 political parties approve a new constitution.

Saturday 20:

Savings and Loan scandal: The United States Senate Ethics Committee issues a stern censure of California senator Alan Cranston for his "dealings" with savings-and-loan executive Charles Keating.

Tuesday 30:

U.S. President Bill Clinton signs the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (the Brady Bill) into law.

December 1993

Thursday 02:

NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

Saturday 04:

A truce is concluded between the government of Angola and UNITA rebels.

Wednesday 08:

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is signed into law by US President Bill Clinton.

Wednesday 29:

Construction of the Tian Tan Buddha, the world's tallest outdoor bronze statue of the seated Buddha, was completed.

Thursday 30:

Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations.