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.

Thursday 14:

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

Monday 25:

Mir Amir Kansi kills two employees outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

Tuesday 26:

Václav Havel elected President of the Czech Republic.

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

Thursday 04:

Authorities announce the capture of suspected World Trade Center bombing conspirator Mohammad Salameh.

Saturday 13:

The Great Blizzard of 1993 strikes the eastern U.S., bringing record snowfall and other severe weather all the way from Cuba to Québec.

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.

Friday 23:

Eritreans vote overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia in a United Nations-monitored referendum.

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.

Friday 25:

Kim Campbell is chosen as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and becomes the first female Prime Minister of Canada.

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 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.

Saturday 21:

NASA loses contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft.

Friday 27:

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

Saturday 28:

Ong Teng Cheong elected president of Singapore

September 1993

Monday 13:

Norwegian parliamentary election, 1993.

Wednesday 15:

Liechtenstein Prince Hans-Adam II disbands parliament.

Tuesday 21:

Grunge rock band Nirvana releases its album In Utero.

Wednesday 22:

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

Friday 24:

Brøderbund releases the computer game Myst.

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.

Monday 18:

Andreas Papandreou begins his second term as Prime Minister of Greece.

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

Monday 01:

The Maastricht Treaty takes effect, formally establishing the European Union.

Tuesday 09:

Stari Most, the "old bridge" in Bosnian Mostar built in 1566, collapses after several days of bombing.

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.

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.

Friday 10:

Shareware version of Doom is released.

Thursday 30:

Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations.