1995

1995 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. It was the first year of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People (1995-2005): http://www.unesco.org/culture/indigenous/

Events

January

• January 1
  • Austria, Finland and Sweden enter the European Union
  • Fred West, accused of mass murder, hangs himself in Winson Green Prison, Birmingham
  • World Trade Organization is established to replace GATT
• January 2 - Former President of Somalia, Siyad Barre died. He had been ousted in 1991.
• January 6 to January 7 - A chemical fire occurs in an apartment complex in Manila, Philippines. Policemen led by watch commander Aida Fariscal and investigators find a bomb factory and a laptop computer and disks that contain plans for Project Bojinka, a mass-terrorist attack. The mastermind, Ramzi Yousef, is arrested one month later
• January 9 - Valeri Polyakov completes 366 days in space while aboard the Mir space station breaking a duration record
• January 17 - A magnitude 7.3 earthquake called "the Great Hanshin earthquake" occurs near Kōbe, Japan, causing great property damage and killing 6,433 people
• January 24 - The prosecution delivers its opening statement in the O. J. Simpson murder trial
• January 31 - United States President Bill Clinton invokes emergency powers to extend a $20 billion loan to help Mexico avert financial collapse.

February

• February 9 - Dr. Bernard A. Harris, Jr. makes history as the first African American astronaut to walk in space.
• February 13 - United Nations tribunal on human rights violation in the Balkans charges 21 Bosnian Serb commanders with genocide and crimes against humanity
• February 15 - Hacking: Kevin Mitnick is arrested by the FBI and charged him with breaking into some of the United States' most "secure" computers systems.
• February 17 - Colin Ferguson is convicted of six counts of murder for the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings and later receives a 200+ year sentence
• February 21 - Serkadji prison mutiny in Algeria; 4 guards and 96 prisoners killed in a day and a half.
• February 21 - Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon
• February 23 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 30.28 to close at 4,003.33 -- The Dow's first ever close above 4,000.
• February 26 - The United Kingdom's oldest investment banking firm, Barings Bank collapses after a securities broker Nick Leeson has lost $1.4 billion by speculating on the Tokyo Stock Exchange
• February 27 - In Denver, Colorado, the old Stapleton Airport closes: it is replaced by a new Denver International Airport, the largest airport in the United States.

March

• March 1 - Attack Submarine USS-Seahorse (now ex-Seahorse SSN-669) starts to be deactivated
• March 1 - Polish Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak resigns from parliament and is replaced by ex-communist Jozef Oleksy
• March 1 - Daniel Sleator announces his intentions to commercialize the Internet Chess Server (ICS) himself, renames it the Internet Chess Club, or ICC, and charges a yearly membership fee of $49 to howls of protest
• March 1 - Muntinlupa City, Philippines officially becomes a city.
• March 1 - In Moscow, Russian anti-corruption journalist Vladislav Listyev is killed by a gunman.
• March 2 - Nick Leeson is arrested for his role in the collapse of Barings Bank.
• March 3 - In Somalia, the United Nations peacekeeping mission ends.
• March 14 - Astronaut Norman Thagard becomes the first American to ride to space on-board a Russian launch vehicle.
• March 20 - Terrorist incident: Members of the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult release sarin gas on five separate railway trains in Tokyo, killing 12 and injuring hundreds.
• March 22 - Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns after setting a record for 438 days in space. Also, the Schengen treaty comes into force.
• March 24 - For the first time in twenty six years, no British soldiers patrol the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland.

April

• April 19 - Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma city was bombed. 168 people, including 8 Federal Marshals and 19 children, were killed.

May

• May 5 - AFC Ajax beat AC Milan 1-0 and win the Champions League.
• May 7 - Jacques Chirac elected president of France.
• May 11 - In New York City, more than 170 countries decide to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.
• May 14 - The Dalai Lama proclaims 6-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the eleventh reincarnation of the Panchen Lama.
• May 16 - Japanese police besieges the headquarters of Aum Shinrikyo near Mount Fuji and arrest cult leader Shoko Asahara.
• May 16 - Jacques Chirac assumes the presidency of France.
• May 23 - Oklahoma City bombing: In Oklahoma City the remains of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building are imploded.
• May 25 - Egan v. Canada - Supreme Court of Canada rules that sexual orientation is a prohibited grounds of discrimination under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
• May 27 - In Charlottesville, Virginia, actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition.
• May 28 - Neftegorsk, Russia is hit by a 7.6 magnitude earthquake killing at least 2000 people (2/3rd of the towns population).

June

• June 1 - The busiest hurricane season in 62 years begins. (see 1995 Atlantic hurricane season).
• June 2 - United States Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady's F-16 is shot down over Bosnia while patrolling the NATO no-fly zone. O'Grady survives on bugs and grass until he is rescued.
• June 5 - Bose-Einstein condensate created.
• June 8 - Downed U.S. Air Force pilot Captain Scott O'Grady is rescued by U.S. Marines in Bosnia.
• June 13 - French president Jacques Chirac announces the resumption of nuclear tests in French Polynesia.
• June 15 - While on trial for murder, O.J. Simpson put on a pair of gloves that were found soaked with blood at the murder scene. The gloves appear not to fit.
• June 20 - Oil multinational Shell caves in to international pressure and abandons plans to dump the Brent Spar oil rig at sea.
• June 24 - The New Jersey Devils sweep the Detroit Red Wings in 4 games in the 1995 Stanley Cup Finals.
• June 29 - Lisa Clayton completes her 10-month solo circumnavigation from the northern hemisphere.
• June 29 - The Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian Mir space station for the first time.
• June 29 - The Sampoong Department Store collapses in the Seocho-gu district of Seoul, South Korea, killing 501 and injuring 937.
• Summer - Iraq disarmament crisis: According to UNSCOM, the unity of the UN Security Council begins to fray, as a few countries, particularly France and Russia, are starting to become increasingly more interested in making financial deals with Iraq than disarming the country.

July

• Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq threatens to end all cooperation with UNSCOM and IAEA, if sanctions against the country are not lifted by Thursday, August 31, 1995
• Midwestern United States heat wave: An unprecedented heat wave strikes the Midwestern United States for most of the month. Temperatures exceed 104°F (40°C) in the afternoon in numerous cities for 5 straight days. At least 3000 people die, 750 in Chicago alone.
• July 1 - Iraq disarmament crisis: In response to UNSCOM's evidence, Iraq admits for first time the existence of an offensive biological weapons program, but denies weaponization.
• July 4 - The UK Prime Minister, John Major, has won his battle to remain leader of the Conservative Party.
• July 8 - Volcanic eruption begins in the island of Montserrat
• July 11 - Bosnian Serbs march into Srebrenica and force UN Dutch peacekeepers to leave. Large numbers of Bosniak males are killed in the Srebrenica massacre.
• July 17 - The Nasdaq stock index closes above the 1,000 mark for the first time.
• July 17 - Dozens of citites, most notably Chicago, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, set all-time record high temperatures. Hundreds in these and other cities die as the July 1995 heat wave reaches its peak.
• July 21 to July 26 - Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: The People's Liberation Army fires missiles into the waters north of Taiwan.
• July 27 - In Washington, DC, the Korean War Veterans Memorial is dedicated
• July 28 - Network Solutions announces a new policy to help companies protect their trademarks on the Internet.
• Iraq disarmament crisis: Following the defection of his son-in-law, Hussein Kamel al Majid, minister of industry and military industrialisation, Saddam Hussein makes new revelations about the full extent of Iraq's biological and nuclear weapons programs. Iraq also withdraws its last UN declaration of prohibited biological weapons and turns over a large amount of new documents on its WMD programs.

August-September

• August 4 - Croatians launch Operation Storm against Serbian forces in Krajina and force them to withdraw to Bosnia
• August 5 - Croatian forces take Knin and continue to advance
• August 7 - Operation Storm over, UN-brokered ceasefire, remaining Serbian forces start a surrender
• August 14 - Avalanche buries Alison Hargreaves, the first woman to climb Mt. Everest without oxygen - reported dead August 18.
• August 24 - Microsoft releases Windows 95.
• August 30 - NATO bombing campaign against Serb artillery positions begins in Bosnia - continues into October
• September 4 - The Fourth World Conference on Women opens in Beijing with over 4,750 delegates from 181 countries in attendance.
• September 6 - With the jury absent, Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman invokes his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in the murder trial of O. J. Simpson
• September 6 - NATO air strikes continue after repeated attempts at a solution with the Serbs fail
• September 26 - Trial against former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, accused of Mafia connections, begins.

October

• October 1 - 10 people are found guilty for bombing the World Trade Center in 1993
• October 4 - O. J. Simpson is found not guilty of double murder for the deaths of former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. (He would be found liable in a second civil trial in 1996)
• October 9 - An Amtrak Sunset Limited train is derailed by saboteurs near Palo Verde, Arizona.
• October 16 - The Million Man March is held in Washington D.C.. The event was conceived by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
• October 21 - Shannon Hoon, lead singer of Blind Melon, dies of a cocaine overdose while on tour.
• October 25 - A Metra commuter train slammed into a school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, killing seven students.
• October 30 - Quebec separatists narrowly lose a referendum for a mandate to negotiate independence from Canada

November

• November 1 - Participants of the Yugoslavian war begin negotiations in Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, USA
• November 2 - Supreme Court of Argentina orders extradition of Erich Priebke, ex-SS captain
• November 3 - At Arlington National Cemetery, US President Bill Clinton dedicates a memorial to the victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing
• November 4 - After attending a peace rally in Tel Aviv's Kings of Israel Square, Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin is mortally wounded by a right-wing Israeli gunman. (He later died on the operating table at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv)
• November 10 - Iraq disarmament crisis: With help from Israel and Jordan, UN inspector Ritter intercepts 240 Russian gyroscopes and accelerometers on their way to Iraq from Russia
• November 10 - In Nigeria, playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa along with eight others from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop) are hanged by government forces
• November 14 - A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress forces the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums and run most government offices with skeleton staff
• November 16 - UN tribunal charges Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic with genocide
• November 17 - Public Radio International's radio program This American Life broadcasts its first episode, "New Beginnings"
• November 21 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 40.46 to close at 5,023.55, its first close above 5,000. This makes the 1995 the first year where the Dow surpasses two millennium marks in a single year. It would do it again in 1997 and 1999.
• November 22 - Rosemary West is sentenced for life of killing 10 women and girls, including her daughter and stepdaughter
• November 22 - Eilat, Israel, Egypt, and much of the North African Mediterranean is struck by the strongest earthquake in Israel's history - 7.2 mw. Curiously, within a week there is attempted historical revisionism downwards to 6.2 with Gulf of Aqaba architects and engineers holding the bag for alleged 'shoddy construction'. A 6.2 mw earthquake is only 1/100th the magnitude of a 7.2 quake.

• November 28 - Barcelona Treaty signed by 27 attending nations
• November 28 - US President Bill Clinton signs a highway bill that ends the federal 55 mph speed limit.
• November 30 - Javier Solana is made new NATO general secretary

December

• December 14 - The Dayton Peace Agreement signed in Paris.
• December 15
  • The European Court of Justice rules that all EU football players have the right to a free transfer between European Union member states at the end of their contracts (see Bosman ruling)
  • Because of "quadruple-witching" option expiration, volume on the New York Stock Exchange hits 638 million shares, the highest single-day volume since October 20, 1987 when the Dow staged a stunning recovery a day after Black Monday.
• December 16 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi scuba divers, under the direction of UNSCOM, dredge the Tigris River near Baghdad. The divers find over 200 prohibited Russian made missile instruments and components.
• December 31 - The publication of the last new Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip.
• Republic of Texas (group) claim to form a provisional government in Texas.

Unknown dates

• The oldest flute, made by Neanderthal, was found by dr. Ivan Turk in the cave Divje babe I in Slovenia. See: prehistoric music.
• The Ebola virus kills 244 Africans in Kikwit, Zaire in Central Africa.
• Creed (band) formed.
• Audi A4 automobile goes on sale as a 1996 model.

Year in topic

• 1995 in film
• 1995 in literature
• 1995 in music
  • March 1 - R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry leaves the stage during a Switzerland concert after suffering a brain aneurysm, which requires immediate surgery
  • May 9 - Jamiroquai releases their second album, The Return of the Space Cowboy.
  • September 2 - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opens in Cleveland, Ohio
  • October 31 - Oingo Boingo performs their farewell show at the Universal Amphitheater in Universal City, California.
• 1995 in sports
  • October 28 - The Atlanta Braves win the World Series, defeating the Cleveland Indians four games to two.
• 1995 in television
• 1995 in video gaming and computing
  • May 23 - The Java programming language was announced to the world.
  • August 14 - Microsoft releases the Windows 95 operating system.
  • Sony releases the PlayStation in North America and Europe.
  • December 28 - CompuServe sets a precedent by blocking access to sex-oriented newsgroups after being pressured by German prosecutors.

Births

• May 12 - Jean Carlos Chera, Brazilian football prodigy
• May 12 - Sawyer Sweeten, actor
• May 12 - Sullivan Sweeten, actor

Deaths

January-February

• January 1 - Fred West, English serial killer (suicide) (b. 1941)
• January 1 - Eugene Wigner, Hungarian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• January 7 - Murray Rothbard, American economist (b. 1926)
• January 9 - Peter Cook, English comedian, satirist and writer (b. 1937)
• January 18 - Adolf Butenandt, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
• January 18 - Ron Luciano, baseball umpire (b. 1937)
• January 22 - Rose Kennedy, American philanthropist (b. 1890)
• January 30 - Gerald Durrell British naturalist, zookeeper, author, and television presenter (b. 1925)
• January 31 - George Abbott, American writer, director, and producer (b. 1887)
• February 2 - Donald Pleasence, English actor (b. 1919)
• February 2 - Fred Perry, English tennis player (b. 1909)
• February 4 - Patricia Highsmith, American author (b. 1921)
• February 12 - Robert Bolt, English writer (b. 1924)
• February 21 - Calder Willingham, American screenwriter (b. 1922)
• February 22 - Melvin Franklin, American singer (b. 1942)

March-June

• March 3 - Howard W. Hunter, American religious leader, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1907)
• March 5 - Vivian Stanshall, English comedian, writer, artist, broadcaster and musician (b. 1943)
• March 12 - Juanin Clay, American actress (b. 1949)
• March 13 - Leon Day, American baseball (b. 1916)
• March 13 - Odette Sansom, Special Operations Executive agent (b. 1912)
• March 14 - William Alfred Fowler, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
• March 26 - Eazy-E, American musician and record producer (b. 1964)
• March 27 - Maurizio Gucci, Italian businessman and murder victim (b. 1948)
• March 31 - Selena Quintanilla Perez, Mexican singer (b. 1971)
• April 2 - Harvey Penick, American golfer (b. 1904)
• April 14 - Burl Ives American singer (b. 1909)
• April 23 - Howard Cosell, American sportscaster (b. 1918)
• April 25 - Ginger Rogers, American actress and dancer (b. 1911)
• May 5 - Mikhail Botvinnik, Russian chess player (b. 1911)
• May 6 - Maria Pia de Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Braganca, duchess of Bragança (b. 1907)
• May 15 - Eric Porter, English actor (b. 1928)
• May 18 - Elisha Cook Jr., American actor (b. 1903)
• May 18 - Alexander Godunov, Russian-born ballet dancer and actor (b. 1949)
• May 18 - Elizabeth Montgomery, American actress (b. 1933)
• May 26 - Friz Freleng, American animator (b. 1905)
• May 30 - Ted Drake, English footballer (b. 1912)
• June 12 - Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Italian pianist (b. 1920)
• June 20 - Emil Cioran, Romanian philosopher and essayist (b. 1911)
• June 26 - Ernest Walton, Irish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
• June 30 - Georgi Beregovoi, cosmonaut (b. 1921)

July-December

• July 4 - Eva Gabor, Hungarian actress (b. 1919)
• July 17 - Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentine race car driver (b. 1911)
• August 3 - Edward Whittemore, American author and CIA agent (b. 1933)
• August 5 - Reva Unsicker, the senile piano/vocal instructor seen in the John Daker video. (b. 1915)
• August 7 - Brigid Brophy, English author (b. 1929)
• August 9 - Jerry Garcia, American guitarist (Grateful Dead) (b. 1942)
• August 13 - Mickey Mantle, baseball player (b. 1931)
• August 19 - Pierre Schaeffer, French composer (b. 1910)
• August 21 - Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Indian-American astrophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
• August 30 - Sterling Morrison, American guitarist (The Velvet Underground) (b. 1942)
• September 15 - Gunnar Nordahl, Swedish footballer (b. 1921)
• October 21 - Jesús Blasco, Spanish comic book author (b. 1919)
• October 26 - Gorni Kramer, Italian bandleader and songwriter
• November 4 - Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel (assasinated) (b. 1922)
• Gilles Deleuze, French Philosopher (b. 1925)
• November 21 - Noel Jones, British diplomat (b. 1940)
• December 2 - Robertson Davies, Canadian novelist (b. 1913)
• December 25 - Dean Martin, American actor (b. 1917)
• December 30 - Doris Grau, American actress (b. 1924

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Martin L. Perl, Frederick Reines
• Chemistry - Paul J. Crutzen, Mario J. Molina, F. Sherwood Rowland
• Medicine - Edward B. Lewis, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Eric Wieschaus
• Literature - Seamus Heaney

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

• Robert Lucas Jr

Templeton Prize

• Professor Paul Davies

Right Livelihood Award

• András Biró / Hungarian Foundation for Self-Reliance, The Serb Civic Council (SCC), Carmel Budiardjo / TAPOL and Sulak Sivaraksa