From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from
January 1990)
Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar).
From January 27, it was the year of the Horse in the Chinese Zodiac.
It is often considered the final year of the Cold War era; although others consider 1991 to be the last year.
- January 3 - Manuel Noriega, the former leader of Panama, surrenders to American forces.
- January 4 - Over 300 people are killed in a train accident in Ghotki, Pakistan.
- January 7 - The Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public due to safety concerns.
- January 9 - Ugandan Lt. Gen. Bazilio Olara-Okello, who led a coup against Dr. Apolo Milton Obote's government, dies in Ormduruman Hospital in Khartoum, Sudan.
- January 10 - Time Warner is formed from the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc.
- January 11 - In Lithuania, 300,000 demonstrate for independence.
- January 13 - Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia.
- January 15 - Thousands storm the Stasi headquarters in Berlin in an attempt to view their government records.
- January 18 - Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry is arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting.
- January 22 - Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. is convicted of releasing the Morris worm.
- January 25 - Avianca Flight 52 crashes into Cove Neck, Long Island, after a miscommunication between the flight crew and JFK Airport officials.
- January 25-January 26 - The Burns' Day storm kills 97 in northwestern Europe.
- January 27 - The city of Tiraspol in the Moldavian SSR briefly declares independence.
- January 28 - The San Francisco 49ers defend their NFL Championship, winning their 4th Super Bowl overall with a 55-10 thrashing of the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXIV at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.
- January 29 - The trial of Joseph Hazelwood, former skipper of the Exxon Valdez, begins in Anchorage, Alaska. He is accused of negligence that resulted in America's worst oil spill to date.
- January 31 - The first McDonald's in Moscow, Russia opens.
- February 2 - Apartheid: In South Africa, President F.W. de Klerk allows the African National Congress to legally function again and promises to free Nelson Mandela.
- February 5 - Manuel Fraga becomes the president of Galicia.
- February 7 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly of power.
- February 10 - South African President F.W. de Klerk announces that Nelson Mandela will be released the next day.
- February 11 - James "Buster" Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson to win the World Heavyweight Boxing crown.
- February 11 - Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster Prison, near Cape Town, South Africa, after 26 years behind bars.
- February 12 - Super Mario Bros. 3, the best selling non-bundled game in history is released for the NES, in North America
- February 13 - German reunification: An agreement is reached for a two-stage plan to reunite Germany.
- February 15 - The United Kingdom and Argentina restore diplomatic relations after 8 years. The UK had severed ties in response to Argentina's invasion of the Falkland Islands, a British Dependent Territory, in 1982.
- February 26 - The Sandinistas are defeated in the Nicaraguan elections.
- February 26 - The USSR agrees to withdraw all 73,500 troops from Czechoslovakia by July, 1991.
- February 27 - Exxon Valdez oil spill: Exxon and its shipping company are indicted on 5 criminal counts.
- March 1 - A fire at the Sheraton Hotel in Cairo, Egypt, kills 16 people.
- March 1 - Steve Jackson Games is raided by the U.S. Secret Service, prompting the later formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
- March 1 - The Royal New Zealand Navy discontinues its daily rum ration.
- March 6 - An SR-71 sets a U.S. transcontinental speed record of 1 hour 8 minutes 17 seconds, on what is publicized as its last official flight.
- March 9 - Police seal off Brixton in South London after another night of protests against the poll tax.
- March 9 - Antonia Novello is sworn in as Surgeon General of the United States, becoming the first female and Hispanic American to serve in that position.
- March 9 - Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Clyde Wells confirms he will rescind Newfoundland's approval of the Meech Lake Accord.
- March 10 - Eighteen months after seizing power in a coup, Prosper Avril is ousted in Haiti.
- March 11 - Lithuania declares independence from the Soviet Union.
- March 11 - Patricio Aylwin is sworn-in as the first democratically-elected Chilean president since 1970.
- March 15 - Iraq hangs British journalist Farzad Bazoft for spying. Daphne Parish, a British nurse, is sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment as an accomplice.
- March 15 - Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first executive president of the Soviet Union.
- March 15 - The Soviet Union announces that Lithuania's declaration of independence is invalid.
- March 18 - Twelve paintings, collectively worth from $100 to $300 million, are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts by 2 thieves posing as police officers. This is the largest art theft in US history, and the paintings (as of 2007) have not been recovered.
- March 18 - East Germany holds its first free elections.
- March 20 - Ferdinand Marcos's widow, Imelda Marcos, goes on trial for bribery, embezzlement, and racketeering.
- March 21 - After 75 years of South African rule, Namibia becomes independent.
- March 24 - Australian federal election, 1990: The government of Australian prime minister Bob Hawke is re-elected for a 4th term.
- March 25 - In New York City, a fire due to arson at an illegal social club called "Happy Land" kills 87.
- March 25 - Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie announced his intention to retire at the end of the year.
- March 27 - Propaganda: The United States begins broadcasting TV Martí to Cuba.
- March 28 - U.S. President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal.
- March 31 - "The Second Battle of Trafalgar": A massive anti-poll tax demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London, turns into a riot; 471 people are injured, and 341 arrested.
- June 1 - U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign a treaty to end chemical weapon production and begin destroying their respective stocks.
- June 1 - Members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army shoot and kill Major Michael Dillon-Lee and Private William Robert Davies of the British Army. Dillon-Lee is killed outside his home in Dortmund, Germany and Davies is killed at a railway station in Lichfield, England.
- June 2 - The Lower Ohio Valley tornado outbreak spawns 88 confirmed tornadoes in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio, killing 9. 37 tornadoes occurred in Indiana, eclipsing the previous record of 21 during the Super Outbreak of April 1974.
- June 7 - Universal Studios Florida opens to the public
- June 8 - The 1990 FIFA World Cup begins in Italy.
- June 12 - The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declares its sovereignty.
- An earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter Scale kills thousands in the Iranian city of Manjil
- June 14 - The Detroit Pistons defeat the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1990 NBA Finals.
- June 22 - Underwater volcano Mount Didicas erupts in the Philippines.
- June 24 - Kathleen Young and Irene Templeton are ordained as priests in St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast, becoming the first Anglican women priests in the United Kingdom.
- June 26 - U.S. President Bush breaks his 1988 'no new taxes' campaign pledge, accepting tax revenue increases as a necessity to reduce the budget deficit.
- June 26 - In Phoenix, Arizona, the temperature reaches an all-time record high of 122 degrees for the city.
- July 2 - A stampede in a pedestrian tunnel leading to Mecca kills 1,426.
- July 8 - West Germany defeats Argentina 1-0 to win the 1990 FIFA World Cup.
- July 15 - Tamil Tigers kill 168 Muslims in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
- July 16 - An earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter Scale kills over 1,600 in the Philippines.
- July 25 - George Carey, Bishop of Bath and Wells, is named as the new Archbishop of Canterbury.
- July 25 - The Serbian Democratic Party declares the sovereignty of the Serbs in Croatia.
- July 26 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act, designed to protect disabled Americans from discrimination.
- July 27 - The parliament building and a government television house in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago are stormed by the Jamaat al Muslimeen in a coup d'état attempt which lasts 5 days. Approximately 26 to 30 people are killed and several wounded (including then Prime Minister, A.N.R. Robinson, who is shot in the leg).
- July 27 - Belarus declares its sovereignty, a key step toward independence from the USSR.
- July 28 - Alberto Fujimori becomes president of Peru.
- July 30 - A Provisional Irish Republican Army car bomb kills British M.P. Ian Gow, a staunch unionist.
- October 3 - East Germany and West Germany reunify into a single Germany.
- October 5 - After 150 years, 10 months and 2 days (Friday, January 3, 1840 - Friday, October 5, 1990), The Herald broadsheet newspaper in Melbourne, Australia is published for the last time as a separate newspaper.
- October 8 - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: In Jerusalem, Israeli police kill 17 Palestinians and wound over 100 near the Dome of the Rock mosque on the Temple Mount
- October 9 - Leonard Bernstein announces his retirement from conducting. Unbeknownst to anyone other than himself and his doctors, he is fatally ill.
- October 13 - Lebanese Civil War: Syrian military forces invade and occupy Mount Lebanon, ousting General Michel Aoun's government. This effectively consolidates Syria's 14 year occupation of Lebanese soil.
- October 14 - Leonard Bernstein dies of a heart attack at his home in New York City. He is 72 years old.
- October 15 - Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to lessen Cold War tensions and reform his nation.
- October 20 - The Cincinnati Reds defeat the Oakland Athletics to win the 1990 World Series.
- October 21 - First Apple Day set up by Common Ground in London
- October 25 - Evander Holyfield defeats James 'Buster' Douglas for the Heavyweight Boxing crown.
- October 27 - The Supreme Soviet of Kyrgyzstan chooses Askar Akayev as the republic's first president.
- October 27 - The New Zealand general election 1990 returns the New Zealand National Party with record number of 67 seats.
- For a brief while in early 1990, Romania had a civil war in the aftermath of the Romanian Revolution of 1989, the opposition was for Nicolae Ceauşescu and the Communist regime, and those for the new regime.
- New Revised Standard Version of the Bible is published in the United States.
- Metropolitan Aleksy of Leningrad elected Russian Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia.
- Channel 7 + 10 networks go into receivership (Australia).
- Homosexual acts between consenting adults are decriminalized in Queensland.
The following are references to year 1990 in fiction:
- When the Stephen King novel The Stand was re-issued as a "Complete and Uncut Edition", the setting of the story was changed from 1980 to 1990.
| World population |
|
1990 |
1985 |
1995 |
 World |
5,263,593,000 |
4,830,979,000 |
 432,614,000 |
5,674,380,000 |
410,787,000 |
 Africa |
622,443,000 |
541,814,000 |
80,629,000 |
707,462,000 |
85,019,000 |
 Asia |
3,167,807,000 |
2,887,552,000 |
280,255,000 |
3,430,052,000 |
262,245,000 |
 Europe |
721,582,000 |
706,009,000 |
15,573,000 |
727,405,000 |
5,823,000 |
 Latin-America |
441,525,000 |
401,469,000 |
40,056,000 |
481,099,000 |
39,574,000 |
 Northern America |
283,549,000 |
269,456,000 |
14,093,000 |
299,438,000 |
|
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
World
432,614,000
Africa
Asia
Europe
Latin-America
Northern America