1994 - What happened in 1994 ?

January 1994

Saturday 01:

The North American Free Trade Agreement comes into effect.

Thursday 06:

Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the right leg by an assailant under orders from figure skating rival Tonya Harding.

Saturday 08:

Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov on Soyuz TM-18 leaves for Mir. He will stay on the space station till March 22, 1995 for a record 437 days in space.

Wednesday 26:

A man fires two blank shots at Charles, Prince of Wales in Sydney, Australia.

Sunday 30:

The Dallas Cowboys win their fourth Super Bowl title, 30-13 over the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVIII.

February 1994

Tuesday 01:

In Portland, Oregon Tonya Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly pleads guilty for his role in attacking figure skater Nancy Kerrigan.

Saturday 05:

Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.

Wednesday 09:

Peace plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina announced (so called Vance-Owen peace plan).

Saturday 12:

1994 Winter Olympics open in Lillehammer, Norway.

Tuesday 22:

Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged by the United States Department of Justice with spying for the Soviet Union.

March 1994

Friday 04:

Four terrorists are convicted for their roles in the World Trade Center bombing which killed six and injured more than a thousand.

Wednesday 16:

Tonya Harding pleads guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for trying to cover-up an attack on figure skating rival Nancy Kerrigan.

Sunday 27:

One of the biggest tornado outbreaks in recent memory hits the Southeastern United States. One tornado slams into a church in Piedmont, Alabama during Palm Sunday services killing 20 and injuring 90.

Monday 28:

In South Africa, Zulus and African National Congress supporters battle in central Johannesburg, resulting in 18 deaths.

Thursday 31:

The journal Nature reports the finding in Ethiopia of the first complete Australopithecus afarensis skull (see Human evolution).

April 1994

Wednesday 06:

The Rwandan Genocide begins when the aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira is shot down by extremists.

Thursday 07:

Massacres of Tutsis begin in Kigali, Rwanda.

Sunday 24:

The world's largest lollipop weighing 3,011 pounds (1,366 kg) is made in Denmark

Tuesday 26:

A China Airlines Airbus A-300-600R crashes at Nagoya Airport, Japan killing 264.

Wednesday 27:

South African general election, 1994: The first democratic general election in South Africa, in which black citizens vote.

May 1994

Sunday 01:

Formula One driver Ayrton Senna is killed during the San Marino Grand Prix.

Wednesday 04:

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord regarding Palestinian autonomy granting self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.

Thursday 05:

American Michael P. Fay is caned in Singapore as punishment for spray-painting two cars.

Friday 06:

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and French President François Mitterrand inaugurate the opening of the Channel Tunnel – a tunnel under the English Channel linking England and France for the first time since the end of the Great Ice Age.

Tuesday 10:

An annular eclipse of the sun is visible across much of North America.

June 1994

Sunday 12:

German districts Röbel and Waren are merged to form Müritz

Tuesday 14:

The New York Rangers win the Stanley Cup over the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 in Game 7, breaking a 54-year drought.

Wednesday 15:

Israel and Vatican City establish full diplomatic relations.

Thursday 16:

A Chinese operated Northwest Airlines Tupolev TU-154 crashes 10 minutes after takeoff killing 160

Friday 17:

Following a televised highway chase and a failed attempt at suicide, O. J. Simpson is arrested for the murders of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

July 1994

Sunday 03:

Romania eliminates Argentina 3-2 in the World Cup.

Tuesday 05:

The United States announced it would refuse further unrestricted immigration from Haiti.

Saturday 16:

1994 - The civil war in Rwanda comes to an end.

Thursday 21:

Tony Blair is declared the winner of the leadership election of the British Labour Party, paving the way to him becoming Prime Minister in 1997.

Monday 25:

Israel and Jordan sign the Washington Declaration which formally ends the state of war that has existed between the nations since 1948.

August 1994

Monday 01:

Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley confirm rumors that they had married eleven weeks earlier.

Tuesday 02:

Popular Japanese television and movie actor Beat Takeshi is seriously injured in a motorcycle accident.

Sunday 14:

Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, the terrorist known as "Carlos the Jackal", is captured.

Wednesday 24:

Initial accord between Israel and the PLO about partial self-rule of the Palestinians on the West Bank.

Sunday 28:

First Japanese gay pride march.

September 1994

Monday 12:

Frank Eugene Corder crashes a Cessna 150 into the White House's south lawn, striking the West wing and killing himself.

Tuesday 13:

Ulysses probe passes the Sun's south pole.

Thursday 15:

Muslim fundamentalists kidnap & behead 16 people in Algeria.

Thursday 22:

Friends premieres on NBC.

Wednesday 28:

The car ferry MS Estonia sinks in Baltic Sea, killing 852 people.

October 1994

Wednesday 12:

NASA loses radio contact with the Magellan spacecraft as the probe descends into the thick atmosphere of Venus (the spacecraft presumably burned up in the atmosphere either October 13 or October 14)

Wednesday 19:

New Zealand's Goodnight Kiwi says good night for the last time.

Friday 21:

North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea and the United States sign an agreement that requires North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program and agree to inspections.

Wednesday 26:

Announcement of Andrew Wiles correct proof of Fermat's last theorem.

Monday 31:

An American Eagle ATR-72 crashes in Roselawn, Indiana, after circling in icy weather, killing 64 passengers.

November 1994

Tuesday 01:

The Chijon Family is sentenced to death in South Korea for murdering and eating five people.

Thursday 03:

Red Hat Linux 1.0 is released.

Saturday 05:

Forty-five year old George Foreman becomes boxing's oldest heavyweight champion when he knocks out Michael Moorer.

Tuesday 08:

For the first time in 40 years the United States Republican Party takes control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in midterm congressional elections.

Wednesday 30:

Hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur is robbed of $40,000 in jewelry and survives being shot five times in a New York music studio. He believes he was set up by The Notorious B.I.G. and Puff Daddy.

December 1994

Thursday 08:

US President Bill Clinton signs a bill enacting United States participation in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

Sunday 11:

A small bomb explodes on Philippine Airlines Flight 434, killing a Japanese businessman.

Thursday 15:

Palau becomes a member of the UN.