1991

1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January

• January 2 - Sharon Pratt Dixon is sworn in as mayor of Washington, DC becoming the first black woman to lead a city of that size and importance.
• January 4 - The United Nations Security Council votes unanimously to condemn Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
• January 10 - SA State Govt forced to bail out State Bank
• January 11 - The Soviets storm Vilnius to stop Lithuanian independence.
• January 12 - Gulf War: The U.S. Congress passes a resolution authorizing the use of military force to liberate Kuwait.
• January 13 - The Soviet Union troops assault the Vilnius TV tower in Lithuania and kill 14 unarmed civilians, many more are injured.
• January 14 - Three PLO guerilla chiefs assassinated in Tunis
• January 16
  • Operation Desert Storm begins
  • Gulf War: The air strikes against Iraq begin
• January 17 - Gulf War: Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles into Israel
• January 18 - Eastern Airlines shuts down after 62 years citing financial problems
• January 26 - The Somalian president Siad Barre flees his compound in Mogadishu
• January 29 - Siad Barre is succeeded by Ali Mahdi Muhammad.

February

• February 4 - The Baseball Hall of Fame votes to ban Pete Rose.
• February 5 - A Michigan court bars Dr Jack Kevorkian from assisting in suicides.
• February 7
  • Haiti's first democratically-elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is sworn in.
  • The IRA launches a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street during a cabinet meeting.
• February 9 - Voters in Lithuania vote for independence.
• February 11 - UNPO, the Unrepresented Nations & Peoples Organization, forms in the Hague, Netherlands.
• February 13 - Gulf War: Two laser-guided "smart bombs" destroy an underground bunker in Baghdad killing hundreds of Iraqis. Iraqi officials claim that the bunker was a bomb shelter but United States military intelligence identified it as a military facility.
• February 15 - The Visegrad Agreement, establishing cooperation to move toward free-market systems, is signed by the leaders of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland.
• February 16 - Gulf War: American and British war planes bomb the suburbs of Baghdad, injuring at least 11 civilians and killing three others.
• February 22 - Gulf War: Iraq accepts a Russian proposed cease fire agreement. The US rejects the agreement, but said that retreating Iraqi forces would not be attacked if they left Kuwait within 24 hours.
• February 23
  • Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabian border and enter Kuwait, thus starting the ground phase of the war.
  • Thailand: General Sunthorn Kongsompong leads a bloodless coup d'état, deposing Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan.
• February 25 - Gulf War: An Iraqi Scud missile hits an American military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia killing 28 US Marines.
• February 26 - Gulf War: On Baghdad radio, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein announces the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait. Iraqi soldiers set fire to Kuwaiti oil fields as they retreat.
• February 27 - Gulf War: Kuwait is liberated, and a ceasefire is declared, after 100 hours of ground fighting. Iraq accepts the terms of the ceasefire, which call for the country to disarm.

March

• March-April - Iraqi forces suppress rebellions in the southern and northern parts of the country, creating a humanitarian disaster on the borders of Turkey and Iran
• March 1
  • Ballistic Missile Submarine USS-Lafayette (now ex-Lafayette) starts to be deactivated
  • Ethan-Allen-class submarine USS-Sam Houston (now ex-Sam Houston SSBN-609) starts to be deactivated
  • Clayton Keith Yeutter finishes as the United States Secretary of Agriculture, under the George H. W. Bush administration
• March 3
  • An amateur video captures the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers.
  • Latvia and Estonia vote to become independent of the Soviet Union
• March 4 - Vermont celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
• March 9 - Massive demonstrations are held against Slobodan Milošević in Belgrade. Two people are killed and tanks are in the streets
• March 10 - Gulf War: Operation Phase Echo - 540,000 American troops begin to leave the Persian Gulf
• March 11 - A curfew is imposed on black townships in South Africa after fighting between rival political gangs killed 49.
• March 13 - The United States Department of Justice announces that Exxon has agreed to pay $1 billion for the clean-up of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.
• March 14 - After 16 years in prison for allegedly bombing a pub in an Irish Republican Army attack, the "Birmingham Six" are freed when a court determines that the police fabricated evidence
• March 15
  • Four Los Angeles, California police officers are indicted for the videotaped March 3, 1991 beating of motorist Rodney King during an arrest.
  • Germany formally regains complete independence after the four post-World War II occupying powers (France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union) relinquish all remaining rights.
• March 31
  • The Warsaw Pact comes to an end.
  • Albania has the first multi-party elections

April

• April 1 - The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times report that Selene Walters had verified her claim that then SAG President Ronald Reagan raped her in her home in 1952
• April 3 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The U.N. Security Council passes the Cease Fire Agreement, Resolution 687. The resolution called for the destruction or removal of all of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons, all stocks of agents and components, and all research, development, support and manufacturing facilities for ballistic missiles with a range greater than 150km and production facilities; and for an end to its support for international terrorism. Iraq accepts the terms of the resolution on April 6
• April 4 - Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania and six others are killed when a helicopter collided with their plane over Merion, Pennsylvania
• April 9 - Supreme Council of the Republic of Georgia declared the restoration of independence of Georgia
• April 14 - 20 paintings stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam but found 35 minutes later in an abandoned car
• April 17 - After approaching 3,000 in July 1990, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 3,000 for the first time ever, closing at 3,004.46.
• April 18 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq declares some of its chemical weapons and materials to the UN, as required by Resolution 687, and claims that it does not have biological weapons program.
• April 26 - Tornadoes break out in the central United States. The most notable tornado of the day was the one that hit in Andover, Kansas. The outbreak of nearly seventy tornadoes killed 17 people in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. The tornado that hit Andover was the only F5 of the year. (see The Andover, Kansas Tornado)
• April 29 - A tropical cyclone hits Bangladesh killing an estimated 138,000 people.

May

• May 15 - Edith Cresson becomes France's first female premier
• May 16 - HM Queen Elizabeth II gives a speech to the US Congress.
• May 19 - Willy T. Ribbs becomes the first African-American driver to qualify for the Indianapolis 500
• May 21 - In Madras, former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a terrorist bomb hidden in a bouquet of flowers
• May 26 - In Thailand, a Lauda Air Boeing 767 crashes near Bangkok killing all 223 people on-board

June

• June 6 - George and Barbara Loeb, members of the Church of the Creator, are arrested and charged with murder
• June 12 - Russians elect Boris Yeltsin as the president of their republic
• June 13 - A spectator is killed by lightning at the U.S. Open [1]
• June 17
  • Apartheid: The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act, which had required racial classification of all South Africans at birth
  • Exhumation of US President Zachary Taylor to discover whether or not his death was caused by arsenic poisoning, instead of acute gastrointestinal illness. No trace of arsenic is found.
• June 23 - Sonic the Hedgehog was created and released for the Sega Genesis
• June 23-June 28 - Iraq disarmament crisis: U.N. inspection teams attempt to intercept Iraqi vehicles carrying nuclear related equipment. Iraqi soldiers fire warning shots in the air to prevent inspectors from approaching the vehicles
• June 25 - Croatia and Slovenia declare their independence from Yugoslavia

July

• July 1 - The Warsaw Pact is officially dissolved.
• July 7 - The Brioni Agreement ends the ten day war in Slovenia
• July 9 - International Human Rights Federation cites human rights violations committed by police and military personnel during Oka crisis in Quebec.
• July 10 - Boris Yeltsin begins his 5-year term as the first elected president of Russia
• July 11 - Total Solar Eclipse.(Hawaii, Mexico, Central America, Colombia and Brazil).
• July 22 - Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is arrested after the remains of 11 men and boys are found in his Milwaukee, Wisconsin apartment.

August

• August 6 - Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the "World Wide Web."
• August 8 - Collapse of Warsaw radio mast, the tallest construction ever built
• August 17 - Strathfield Massacre (Sydney, Australia) - taxi driver Wade Frankum shoots seven people and injuring 6 others before turing the gun on himself.
• August 18 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is put under house arrest while vacationing in the Crimea. The putsch is led by eight high-ranking hard-liners, and will collapse in less than 72 hours.
• August 20 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: Estonia declares its independence from the Soviet Union and more than 100,000 people rally outside the Soviet Union's parliament building protesting the coup that deposed President Mikhail Gorbachev
• August 21 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: Latvia declares its independence from the Soviet Union
• August 24 - Ukraine declares independence from Soviet Union
• August 25 - Student Linus Torvalds post a messages to Usenet newsgroup comp.os.minix about the new operating system kernel he has been developing.
• August 29 - Maronite general Michel Aoun leaves Lebanon via a French ship into exile
• August 31 - Kyrgyzstan declares independence from the Soviet Union

September

• September 1 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: Uzbekistan declares its independence from the Soviet Union
• September 3 - In Hamlet, North Carolina, a grease fire breaks out at the Imperial Foods chicken processing plant, killing 25 people.
• September 5-September 7 - At the 35th Annual Tailhook Symposium, 83 women and 7 men are assaulted.
• September 6
  • The Soviet Union recognizes the independence of the Baltic States.
  • The name "Saint Petersburg" is restored to Russia's second-largest city, which had been renamed "Leningrad" in 1924.
• September 9 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: Tajikstan gains its independence from the Soviet Union.
• September 21 - September 30 - Iraq disarmament crisis: IAEA inspectors discover files on Iraq's hidden nuclear weapons program. Iraqi officials confiscate documents from UN weapons inspectors, and refuse to allow them to leave the site without turning over other documents. A four-day standoff ensues. Iraq permits the team to leave with the documents after a statement from the UN Security Council threatens enforcement actions.
• September 22 - The Dead Sea Scrolls are made available to the public for the first time, by the Huntington Library.
• September 30 - Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is removed from power.

October

• October 8 - The Croatian Parliament cuts all remaining ties with Yugoslavia
• October 11 - KGB is replaced by the SVR
• October 11 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The U.N. Security Council passes Resolution 715, which demands that Iraq "accept unconditionally the inspectors and all other personnel designated by the Special Commission". Iraq rejects the resolution, calling it "unlawful"
• October 12 - Askar Akayev, previously chosen President of Kyrgyzstan by republic's Supreme Soviet, is confirmed president in an uncontested poll
• October 14 - Bulgarians celebrate the end of the rule of the communist party
• October 15 - Following a bitter confirmation hearing that involved allegations of sexual misconduct, the United States Senate votes 52 to 48 to confirm Judge Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court of the United States
• October 16 - George Hennard guns down 24 people in Texas
• October 19 - 7.0 Richter Scale earthquake in Northern Italy - 2000 dead
• October 20 - Oakland Hills firestorm kills 25 and destroys 3469 homes and apartments
• October 27 - The first free parliamentary elections in Poland
• October 29 - The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid
• Winter - Centennial of Basketball

November

• November 7
  • Los Angeles Lakers point guard Magic Johnson announces that he has HIV, effectively ending his career in the NBA.
  • The last oil well was put out of fire in Kuwait.
• November 14
  • American and British authorities announce indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103
  • Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returns to Phnom Penh after 13 years of exile
• November 18 - Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon set Anglican Church envoys Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland free
• November 23 - Freddie Mercury, lead singer of the band Queen, issues a public statement confirming that he is stricken with AIDS. He would die of complications the next day.
• November 27 - The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopts UN Security Council Resolution 721, opening the way to the establishment of peacekeeping operations in Yugoslavia.

December

• December 1 - Cold War: Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union
• December 4
  • Journalist Terry Anderson is released after seven years' captivity as a hostage in Beirut (he was the last and longest-held American hostage in Lebanon).
  • Pan Am Airlines ends operations
• December 8 - Leaders of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine met and signed an agreement ending the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Nature Reserve in Belarus
• December 19 - Paul Keating replaces Bob Hawke as Australian prime minister
• December 25 - Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union
• December 26 - Supreme Soviet meets and formally dissolves the Soviet Union
• December 31 - Soviet Union officially ceases to exist

Undated events

• Carbon nanotubes discovered by Sumio Iijima
• The Marshall Islands are independent

Year in Topic

• 1991 in film
  • February 13 - The Silence of the Lambs
  • July 3 - Terminator 2: Judgment Day starring Arnold Schwarzenegger
• 1991 in literature
• 1991 in music
  • Curve (band) formed
  • Bad Religion - Against the Grain
  • Nirvana - Nevermind
  • Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
• 1991 in sports
• 1991 in television
• 1991 in video gaming and computing
  • February 26 - Tim Berners-Lee introduces the web browser.
  • June 23 - Sonic the Hedgehog is released for the SEGA Genesis in North America. The European Megadrive version would be released later that month.
  • July 26 - Sonic the Hedgehog is released for the SEGA Megadrive in Japan
  • September 1 - The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is released in North America.
  • October 23 - Sonic the Hedgehog Master System version is released in Brazil.
  • December 28 - Sonic the Hedgehog Game Gear version is released in Japan. The North American and European releases follow during the same month.
  • Software company Knowledge Adventure is founded by Bill Gross.

Births

• April 4 - Jamie Spears, actress
• May 3 - Narita Brian, Japanese champion racehorse (d. 1998)
• June 27 - Madylin Sweeten, actress
• July 7 - Devon Alan, actor
• October 19 - Christopher Gerse, actor

Deaths

January-February

• January 5 - Vasko Popa, Yugoslav poet
• January 8 - Steve Clark, Rock guitarist for Def Leppard (b.1960)
• January 11 - Carl David Anderson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
• January 17 - King Olav V of Norway
• January 18 - Leo Hurwitz, documentary film producer
• January 29 - Yasushi Inoue, historian
• January 30 - John Bardeen, American physicist, two-time Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908
• January 30 - John McIntire, actor
• February 5 - Dean Jagger, actor
• February 6 - Danny Thomas, singer, comedian, and actor
• February 11 - Oscar Nitzchke, German architect
• February 14 - John McCone, director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
• February 21 - Margot Fonteyn, ballet dancer
• February 24 - George Gobel, comedian
• February 24 - John Daly, journalist and game show host
• February 28 - Derek Smith, swimmer

March-May

• March 2 - Serge Gainsbourg, singer
• March 3 - Arthur Murray, American dancer and dance instructor
• March 14 - Doc Pomus, composer
• March 14 - Howard Ashman, lyricist
• March 29 - Lee Atwater, American Presidential advisor
• April 1 - Martha Graham, American dancer and choreographer
• April 3 - Graham Greene, writer
• April 3 - Charles Goren, bridge player, writer, columnist (b. 1901)
• April 4 - Max Frisch, Swiss writer (b. 1911)
• April 4 - H. John Heinz III, U.S. Senator (plane crash)
• April 4 - Forrest Towns, American runner
• April 10 - Natalie Schafer, actress
• April 26 - Carmine Coppola, composer, conductor
• April 26 - William Andrew Paton, accountant and economist
• April 28 - Ken Curtis, actor
• May 8 - Jean Langlais, French composer and organist (b. 1907)
• May 8 - Rudolf Serkin, Austrian pianist (b. 1903)
• May 21 - Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (b. 1944)
• May 21 - Thenmuli Rajaratnam, suicide bomber.
• May 22 - Derrick Henry Lehmer, mathematician
• May 24 - Wilhelm Kempff, German conductor (b. 1895)
• May 27 - Leopold Nowak, musicologist

July-December

• July 1 - Michael Landon, American actor (b. 1936)
• July 4 - Victor Chang, Australian doctor, pioneer in heart transplantation (murdered) (b. 1936)
• July 15 - Bert Convy, American game show host, actor, and singer (brain tumor) (b. 1933)
• July 16 - Robert Motherwell, American abstract expressionist painter (b. 1915)
• July 18 - André Cools, Belgian politician (assassinated) (b. 1927)
• August 5 - Paul Brown, American football coach (b. 1908)
• August 8 - James Irwin, astronaut (b. 1930)
• August 13 - James Roosevelt, American businessman, politician, son of Franklin D. Roosevelt (b. 1907)
• August 14 - Richard A. Snelling, Governor of Vermont (b. 1927)
• August 30 - Jean Tinguely, Swiss painter and sculptor (b. 1925)
• September 3 - Frank Capra, Italian-born American movie director (b. 1897)
• September 17 - Zino Francescatti, French violinist (b. 1902)
• September 24 - Dr. Seuss, American children's author (b. 1904)
• September 26 - Miles Davis, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1926)
• October 24 - Gene Roddenberry, TV producer, creator of Star Trek (b. 1921)
• November 24
  • Freddie Mercury, singer (Queen) (b. 1946)
  • Eric Carr, drummer (Kiss)
• December 15 - Vasily Zaitsev, Soviet sniper, World War II hero (b. 1915)
• December 16 - Horatio Luro, Argentine-born racehorse trainer (b. 1901)
• December 18 - George Abecassis, English Formula One driver (b. 1913)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Pierre-Gilles de Gennes
• Chemistry - Richard R. Ernst
• Medicine - Erwin Neher, Bert Sakmann
• Literature - Nadine Gordimer
• Peace - Aung San Suu Kyi

Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

• Ronald Coase

Templeton Prize

• The Rt. Hon. Lord Jakobovits

Alternative

• Edward Goldsmith, Narmada Bachao Andolan, Bengt & Marie-Thérèse Danielsson and senator Jeton Anjain and the people of Rongelap and MST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais sem Terra) and CPT (Commissao Pastoral da Terra)