1996
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades: 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s - 1990s - 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s
Years: 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 - 1996 - 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
International Year for the Eradication of Poverty
Events
- January 1 - Curacao gains limited self-government
- 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 14 - Jorge Sampaio is elected president of Portugal.
- January 20 - Yasser Arafat is elected president of the Palestinian Authority.
- 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.
- January 27 - Colonel Ibrahim Bare Mainassara 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.
- January 30 - Suspected leader of the Irish National Liberation Army Gino Gallagher is killed while in line for his unemployment benefit.
- 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 1 - Communications Decency Act is passed by the United States Congress
- February 10 - Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov for the first time
- May 23 - Swede Göran Kropp reaches Mount Everest summit alone without oxygen after having bicycled there from Sweden.
- June 27 - 19 people are killed when a truck bomb explodes outside a U.S. military barracks in Saudi Arabia
- July 5 - Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult cell, is born.
- July 18 - Flight 800 from New York crashes, killing all passengers
- October/November (sources vary) - Al-Jazeera, Arabic television news channel based in Qatar, starts broadcasting
- November - Bill Clinton defeats Bob Dole in the U.S. presidential election
- September 27 - In Afghanistan, the Taliban capture capital city Kabul after driving out President Burhanuddin Rabbani and executing former leader Mohammad Najibullah.
- December 26 - JonBenet 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 2 - U.S. President Bill Cliton signs Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments
- 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.
- ID Software releases the first person shooter computer game Quake
- The O.J. Simpson trial begins
- Martina Hingis youngest person in history (age 16) to win at Wimbledon (Ladies Doubles event)
- Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, USA
- A bomb goes off at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia killing one person. The media and investigators almost immediately focus their attention on security guard Richard Jewell, but later clear him as a suspect.
- Web comic Sabrina Online first published.
Art, Culture & Fashion
- 1996 in film
- 1996 in literature
- 1996 in music
- 1996 in sports
- January 28 - Super Bowl XXX Dallas Cowboys (27) def. Pittsburgh Steelers (17)
- 1996 in television
- The O.J. Simpson civil trial begins
- Zenith introduces the first HDTV-compatible front projection TV in the U.S.. Broadcasters, TV & PC manufacturers set industry standards for digital HDTV.
- Over a billion households worldwide now own television sets.
Births
- July 5 - Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal
Deaths
- January 5 - Yahya Ayyash, terrorist
- January 8 - François Mitterrand, French politician and President of France.
- January 17 - Barbara Jordan, politician
- January 20 - Gerry Mulligan, musician
- January 28 - Jerry Seigel, cartoonist, creator of "Superman"
- February 3 - Audrey Meadows, actress
- February 6 - Guy Madison, actor
- February 11 -
- Amelia Rosselli, poet.
- Bob Shaw, science fiction writer.
- Cyril Poole, English cricket player.
- Kebby Musokotwane, prime minister of Zambia (1985-1989).
- Phil Regan, actor
- March 13 - Krzysztof Kieslowski, film director
- May 20 - Jon Pertwee, actor
- May 31 - Paul Peter Piech, artist
- June 15 - Ella Fitzgerald, jazz singer
- July 30 - Claudette Colbert, actress
- August 13 - David Tudor, pianist and composer
- September 13 - Tupac Shakur, rapper,poet,actor
- November 30 - Tiny Tim, musician
- December 20 - Carl Sagan - US astronomer
- Thomas Kuhn, philosopher of science
- Willie Rushton, UK comedian and cartoonist
- Physics - David M. Lee, - Douglas D. Osheroff, Robert C. Richardson
- Chemistry - Robert Curl, Sir Harold Kroto, Richard Smalley
- Medicine - Peter C Doherty, Rolf M Zinkernagel
- Literature - Wislawa Szymborska
- Peace - Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta
- Economics - James Mirrlees, William Vickrey