1996
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| Years: | 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 |
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1996.
1996 (MCMXCVI) is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty.
Events
January
- January 5 - Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone.
- January 7 - One of the worst blizzards in American history hits eastern states, killing more than 100.
- January 8 - Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital Kinshasa - 350 dead.
- January 9 - Assassination of Eric Hebborn, art forger, in Rome, Italy.
- January 14 - Jorge Sampaio is elected president of Portugal.
- January 20 - Yasser Arafat is re-elected president of the Palestinian Authority.
- January 22 - Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece resigns due to health problems. New government forms under Costas Simitis.
- January 24 - Polish Premier Jozef Oleksy resigns amid charge he spied for Moscow.
- January 26 - Whitewater scandal: Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies before a grand jury.
- US millionaire John Dupont shoots wrestler David Schultz
- January 27 - Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara deposes the first democratically elected president of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane, in a military coup.
- January 29
- President Jacques Chirac announces a "definitive end" to French nuclear testing.
- Fire destroys La Fenice, Venice's opera house.
- A Greek flag is hoisted above Kardac Rocks, initiating the Imia-Kardak crisis
- Duke Nukem 3D Shareware released to public
- January 30 - Leader of the Irish National Liberation Army Gino Gallagher is killed, in an internal feud, while in line for his unemployment benefit.
- January 30 - February 5 - Sarah Balabagan caned in the United Arab Emirates
- January 31 - An explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka killing at least 86 and injuring 1,400.
February
- February - Iraq disarmament crisis: Recently defected Iraqi weapons program leader and son-in-law to Saddam Hussein, Hussein Kamel, returns to Iraq. Within days of his return, he is murdered along with his brother, father, sister and her children. Kamel had forced Iraq to reveal portions of its illegal nuclear and chemical weapons programs.
- February 1 - Communications Decency Act is passed by the U.S. Congress.
- February 4 - Major snowstorm paralyzes Midwestern United States, Milwaukee, Wisconsin ties all-time low temperature at -26°F. (-32°C)
- February 8 - The Telecom Reform Act is signed into law by United States President Bill Clinton.
- February 9 - IRA ceasefire ends with 1 one-ton bomb in London's Canary Wharf District - 2 dead.
- February 10 - Chess computer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov for the first time.
- February 17 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, world chess champion Garry Kasparov beats the "Deep Blue" supercomputer in a chess match.
- February 18 - IRA briefcase bomb in a London bus kills the bomber and injures 9 in London West End.
- February 29 - Daniel Green convicted of murder of James R. Jordan, the father of basketball star Michael Jordan.
March
- March - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi forces refuse UNSCOM inspection teams access to five sites designated for inspection. The teams enter the sites only after delays of up to 17 hours.
- March 2 - John Howard is elected Prime Minister of Australia in a landslide election victory, over the Labor Party's Paul Keating.
- March 13 - The Dunblane Massacre.
- March 17 - Sri Lanka win the Cricket World Cup by storming to a famous victory against the tournament favourites Australia.
- March 19 - Sarajevo becomes a united city again when Bosnian authorities took control of the last district held by Serbs.
- March 20
- In Los Angeles, California, Lyle and Erik Menendez are found guilty of first-degree murder for the shotgun killing of their parents.
- The British Government announces that Bovine spongiform encephalopathy was likely to have been transmitted to people.
- March 23 - The Republic of China on Taiwan holds its first direct elections for president. Lee Teng-hui is reelected.
- March 25 - An 81-day long standoff between antigovernment Freemen in Jordan, Montana and federal officers begins.
- March 26 - The International Monetary Fund approves a $10.2 billion loan to Russia for 'economic reform'.
- March 28 - Fire breaks out at the Pasar Anyar shopping centre in Bogor, West Java. First estimated death toll is 78 until rescuers notice that 68 of them are mannequins
- March 30 - The Kennett government is re-elected in Victoria with a 30 seat majority.
April
- April 2 - US Mafioso John Gotti is found guilty of murder of Paul Castellano
- April 3 - Plane carrying US commerce secretary Ron Brown crashes near Dubrovnik, Croatia
- April 3
- Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his Montana cabin.
- The first EuroHowl is held in Aberystwyth, Wales.
- A Lunar eclipse occurred.
- April 10 - United States President Bill Clinton vetos a bill that would have banned partial-birth abortion.
- April 16 - The NBA's 1995-1996 Chicago Bulls, with Michael Jordan's lead, go on to set a new NBA record for most wins in a season, achieving their 70th win and later go on to win 72 games, lose only 10 of them, defeat Shaquille O'Neal and the Orlando Magic in the NBA Eastern Confrence Finals, and of course, win their fourth NBA Championship in six years.
- April 18 - Over 100 Lebanese civilians were killed after Israel shelled the UN compound in Qana. See Qana Massacre.
- April 28 - Martin Bryant kills 35 people as part of the Port Arthur Massacre, at the Port Arthur tourist site, Tasmania, Australia.
- April 29 - Official opening of Rent (musical) on Broadway.
May
- May 10 - A sudden storm engulfs Mount Everest with several climbing teams high on the mountain, leaving 8 dead. By the end of the month, at least four other climbers die in the worst season of fatalities on the mountain to date.
- May 11 - After taking-off from Miami, a fire started by improperly-handled oxygen canisters in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 on board.
- May 13 - Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kills 600.
- May 20 - Gay rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of homosexuals.
- May 23 - Swede Göran Kropp reaches Mount Everest summit alone without oxygen after having bicycled there from Sweden.
- May 27 - First Chechnya War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechnyan rebels for the first time and negotiates a cease-fire in the war.
- May 27 - Doctor Who makes its return to British television for the first time since 1989. Paul McGann starred in the US made movie which pitted the Doctor against Eric Roberts' Master.
- May 31 - id Software releases the first person shooter computer game Quake. FIFA decided to give the Football World Cup 2002 the first World Cup in Asia to Japan and South Korea becoming the first World Cup with co- host countries in the history of the event.
- May-June - Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM supervises the destruction of Al-Hakam, Iraq's main production facility of biological warfare agents.
- May - The Onion launches its satirical news publication on the Internet.
June
- June - Iraq disarmament crisis: As Iraq continues to refuse inspectors access to a number of sites, the U.S. fails in its attempt to build support for military action against Iraq in the UN Security Council.
- June 1 - Tennessee celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
- June 10 - Peace talks begin in Northern Ireland without Sinn Féin
- June 12 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a panel of federal judges blocks a law against indecency on the internet. The panel says that the 1996 Communications Decency Act would infringe upon the free speech rights of adults.
- June 13 - An 81-day standoff between the Freemen and FBI agents ends with their surrender in Montana.
- June 15- A large bomb explosion devastates Manchester City Centre in England.
- June 25 - 19 U.S. servicemen are killed at Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia.
- June 30 - Costas Simitis is elected President of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement of Greece.
- June 30 - Germany beat the Czech Republic 2-1 with a Golden goal to win Euro 96.
July
- July - Iraq disarmament crisis: U.N. Inspector Ritter attempts to conduct surprise inspections on the Republican Guard facility at the airport, but is blocked by Iraqi officials.
- July - Prague Manifesto - declared principles of the Esperanto movement.
- July 1 - The Northern Territory in Australia legalises voluntary euthanasia.
- July 5 - Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult cell, is born. It will prematurely die in February 2003.
- July 8 - Martina Hingis youngest person in history (age 15 years and 282 days) to win at Wimbledon (Ladies Doubles event).
- July 8 - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu purportedly receives a hand-delivered document, "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Security the Realm," spelling out how Israel could abrogate the Oslo Accords, and pursue a permanent annexation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, among other policies. The paper had been prepared for him by Richard Perle, Donald Rumsfeld, Doug Feith, David Wurmser and John R. Bolton.
- July 17 - Off the coast of Long Island, New York, a Paris-bound Boeing 747 carrying TWA flight 800 explodes killing all 230 on board.
- July 18 - 21 - Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River in Quebec, in one of Canada's most costly natural disasters.
- July 19 - The 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, is opened by US president Bill Clinton.
- July 27 - The Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics kills one and injures 111.
- July 29 - The child protection portion of the Communications Decency Act (1996) is struck down as too broad by a US federal court.
- July 31 - MIL-STD-1750A was declared inactive for use in new designs.
August
The Detroit of India and port city Madras is renamed Chennai.
- August 1 - Sarah Balabagan returns to the Philippines
- August 4 - The closing ceremony of the 1996 Summer Olympics takes place.
- August 6 - NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms
- August 6 - Australian census
- August 6 - The Ramones play their last show ever at Lollapalooza.
- August 7 - Heavy rains kill more than 80 campers near Huesca, Spain
- August 13 - Data sent back by the Galileo space probe indicated there may be water on one of Jupiter's moons
- August 28 - Their Royal Highnesses, the Prince and Princess of Wales, are formally divorced at the High Court of Justice in London. Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales is restyled, Diana, Princess of Wales.
- August 31 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi forces launch an offensive into the northern No-Fly Zone and capture Arbil.
September
- September 2 - A permanent peace agreement was signed at the Malacañang Palace between the Government of the Philippines and the Moro National Liberation Front.
- September 4 - War on Drugs: Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) attack a military base in Guaviare, Colombia starting three weeks of guerrilla warfare that will claim the lives of at least 130 Colombians.
- September 7 - Rapper Tupac Shakur shot in Las Vegas, Nevada following Mike Tyson bout. He would succumb 6 nights later on September 13.
- September 11 - Aubrey Berryhill and Ashton Cayado won the Nobel prize.
- September 19 - The 127.5 Million dollar scoreboard at Buffalo's HSBC Arena falls to the ice just hours before a NHL hockey game, no one was injured.
- September 22 - The Panhellenic Socialist Movement under the leadership of Costas Simitis succeeds in the Greek legislative election, 1996.
- September 13 - Tupac Shakur is pronounced dead in hospital after being shot.
- September 25 - The last of the Magdalen Asylums was closed in Ireland.
- September 25 - Nicu Ceauşescu dies from cirrhosis of the liver in a Viennese hospital. He was the younger son of Nicolae Ceauşescu.
- September 27 - In Afghanistan, the Taliban capture capital city Kabul after driving out President Burhanuddin Rabbani and executing former leader Mohammad Najibullah.
October
- October 2 - The Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments are signed by U.S. President Bill Clinton.
- October 2 - Assassination of the former prime minister of Bulgaria, Andrei Lukanov
- October 14 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 40.62 to close at 6,010.00 -- The Dow's first close above 6,000.
- October 23 - Opening statements in the O.J. Simpson civil trial begin.
- October 25 - The Disney Movie "The Santa Claus" starring Tim Allen is released on video
- October 30 - Fighting erupts when Banyamulenga Tutsis of Laurent Kabila in Zaire seize Uvira and proceed to kill Hutu refugees
November
- November - Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM inspectors uncover buried prohibited missile parts. Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM teams to remove remnants of missile engines for analysis outside of the country
- November 5 - U.S. presidential election, 1996: Democrat incumbent Bill Clinton defeats Republican challenger Bob Dole to win his second term.
- November 7 - NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor.
- November 15 - Alger Hiss, former U.S. State Department official
- November 16 - Mother Teresa receives honorary US citizenship.
- November 18 - World-renowned bird expert Tony Silva is sentenced to seven years in prison without parole for leading an illegal parrot smuggling ring.
- November 19 - U.S President Bill Clinton makes a visit to Australia in which he addresses both Houses of Parliament
- November 21 - A propane explosion at the Humberto Vidal shoe store and office building in San Juan, Puerto Rico kills 33.
- November 23 - The Republic of Angola officially joins the World Trade Organization, as Angola.
- November 25 - The U.S. stock markets, especially the Dow Jones Industrial Average, gains at an incredibly fast pace following the 1996 Presidential elections. It gains 10 days in a row during the month (a feat that hasn't been touched as of June 2005), and burned through five century marks:
- 6,100 on November 6
- 6,200 the next day
- 6,300 on November 14
- 6,400 on November 20
- 6,500 today
December
- December 2 - US President Bill Clinton signs Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments.
- December 5 - Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan gives a speech in which he suggests that "irrational exuberance" may have "unduly escalated asset values".
- December 12 - Uday Hussein is seriously injured in an assassination attempt.
- December 17 - Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement takes 72 hostages in Japanese Embassy in Lima, Peru
- December 26 - JonBenét Ramsey, a six-year-old beauty queen, was found murdered in her family's basement in Boulder, Colorado.
- December 27 - Taliban forces retake the strategic Bagram air base which solidifies their buffer zone around Kabul.
- December 29 - Guatemala and leaders of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union sign a peace accord that ends a 36 year a civil war
- December 30 - In the Indian state of Assam, a passenger train is bombed by Bodo separatists killing 26.
- December 30 - Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel.
Environmental change
- The invasive species Asian long-horned beetle is found in New York
Unknown date
- Ask Jeeves formed.
- General Motors EV1 launched. The EV1 is the first electric car to go into mass production.
Births
- January 1 - Mary Gibbs, American actress
- February 9 - Jimmy Bennett, American actor
- February 17 - Sasha Pieterse, South African actress
- April 25 - Allisyn Ashley Arm, American actress
- July 5 - Dolly the sheep, first cloned mammal (d. 2003)
- August 7 - Tessa Allen, American actress
- September 16 - Abigail Breslin, American actress
- November 3 - Aria Wallace, American actor
- December 20 - Sloane Momsen, American actress
Deaths
January-February
- January 2 - Karl Targownik, Hungarian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor (b. 1915)
- January 5 - Yahya Ayyash, Palestinian terrorist (b. 1966)
- January 8 - François Mitterrand, President of France (b. 1916)
- January 15 - Paramount Chief Moshoeshoe II of Lesotho (b. 1938)
- January 17 - Barbara Jordan, American politician (b. 1936)
- January 18 - Leonor Fini, Argentine artist (b. 1908)
- January 20 - Gerry Mulligan, American musician (b. 1927)
- January 28 - Joseph Brodsky, Russian-born poet, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1940)
- January 28 - Jerry Siegel, American cartoonist (b. 1914)
- February 2 - Gene Kelly, American actor (b. 1912)
- February 3 - Audrey Meadows, American actress (b. 1926)
- February 6 - Guy Madison, American actor (b. 1922)
- February 7 - Boris Alexandrovich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer (b. 1925)
- February 11 - Kebby Musokotwane, Prime Minister of Zambia (b. 1946)
- February 11 - Cyril Poole, English cricketer (b. 1921)
- February 11 - Phil Regan, American actor (b. 1906)
- February 11 - Amelia Rosselli, Italian poet (b. 1930)
- February 11 - Bob Shaw, British writer (b. 1931)
- February 16 - Edmund G. Brown, Governor of California (b. 1905)
- February 16 - Brownie McGhee, American musician (b. 1915)
- February 20 - Tōru Takemitsu, Japanese composer (b. 1930)
- February 21 - Morton Gould, American musician and composer (b. 1913)
- February 25 - Haing S. Ngor, Cambodian actor (murdered) (b. 1940)
- February 26 - Moisei Vainberg, Polish composer (b. 1919)
March-June
- March 3 - Marguerite Duras, French author and director (b. 1914)
- March 4 - Minnie Pearl, American comedienne (b. 1912)
- March 9 - George Burns, American actor and singer (b. 1896)
- March 13 - Krzysztof Kieślowski, Polish film director (b. 1941)
- March 16 - Charlie Barnett, American actors (b. 1954)
- March 17 - René Clément, French film director (b. 1913)
- March 17 - Terry Stafford, American singer and songwriter (b. 1941)
- March 18 - Odysseas Elytis, Greek writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
- March 26 - David Packard, American engineer (b. 1912)
- April 3 - Carl Stokes, American politician (b. 1927)
- April 4 - Barney Ewell, American athlete (b. 1918)
- April 4 - Larry LaPrise, American songwriter (b. 1912)
- April 6 - Greer Garson, English actress (b. 1904)
- April 20 - Christopher Robin Milne, English author and bookseller (b. 1920)
- April 21 - General Dzhokhar Dudaev, Chechen President (b. 1944)
- April 22 - Erma Bombeck, American humorist and writer (b. 1927)
- April 26 - Stirling Silliphant, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1918)
- May 5 - Salli Terri, Canadian mezzo-soprano (b. 1922)
- May 15 - Charles B. Fulton, American judge (b. 1910)
- May 17 - Kevin Gilbert, American musician, composer, and record producer (b. 1966)
- May 20 - Jon Pertwee, British actor (b. 1919)
- May 24 - Jacob Druckman, American composer (b. 1928)
- May 24 - Joseph Mitchell, American writer (b. 1908)
- May 25 - Brad Nowell, American musician (b. 1968)
- May 31 - Paul Peter Piech, American artist (b. 1920)
- June 2 - Ray Combs, American game show host and comedian (suicide) (b. 1956)
- June 2 - Leon Garfield, English children's author (b. 1921)
- June 6 - George Davis Snell, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1903)
- June 15 - Ella Fitzgerald, American singer (b. 1917)
- June 17 - Thomas Kuhn, American philosopher of science (b. 1922)
- June 19 - G. David Schine, American businessman (b. 1927)
- June 23 - Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1919)
July-December
- July 1 - William T. Cahill, America politician (b. 1912)
- July 10 - Alan Blakley, British musician (Tremeloes) (b. 1942)
- July 15- Dana Hill, American actress (b. 1964)
- July 20 - Frantisek Planicka, Czech footballer (b. 1904)
- July 28 - Roger Tory Peterson, American naturalist and artist (b. 1908)
- July 30 - Claudette Colbert, French actress (b. 1903)
- August 1 - Tadeus Reichstein, Polish-born chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1897)
- August 8 - Nevill Francis Mott, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
- August 11 - Rafael Kubelik, Czech-born conductor (b. 1914)
- August 13 - David Tudor, American pianist and composer (b. 1926)
- September 1 - Vagn Holmboe, Danish composer (b. 1909)
- September 13 - Tupac Shakur, American rapper, poet, and actor (b. 1971)
- October 4 - Silvio Piola, Italian footballer (b. 1913)
- October 16 - Eric Malpass, English novelist (b. 1910)
- October 16 - Jason Bernard, American actor (b. 1938)
- November 21 - Abdus Salam, Pakistani physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1926)
- November 26 - Mark Lenard, American actor (b. 1924)
- November 26 - Paul Rand, American graphic designer (b. 1914)
- November 30 - Tiny Tim, American musician (b. 1932)
- December 6 - Pete Rozelle, American commissioner of the National Football League (b. 1926)
- December 11 - Willie Rushton, English comedian, satirist, actor, and cartoonist (b, 1937)
- December 16 - Quentin Bell, English biographer and art historian (b. 1910)
- December 20 - Carl Sagan, American astronomer (b. 1934)