1993
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The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START 2) initialed in the Kremlin's St. Vladimir Hall at Moscow by Presidents Bush and Yeltsin January 3 calls for mutual reductions of nuclear warheads to 1960s levels by 2003 (see 1992). Long-range arsenals are to be reduced to about one-third their current levels, and land-based, multiple-head warhead missiles are to be eliminated entirely. Yeltsin telephones President-elect Clinton January 4 and invites him to an early summit meeting.
United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali opens a Chemical Weapons Convention for signature at Paris January 13 (see Biological Weapons Convention, 1972; anthrax release, 1979; Pasechnik, 1989). Like the BWC, it supplements the 1925 Geneva Protocol, banning development, production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons and providing for their destruction. Article VI requires states party to the convention to allow a degree of verification of chemical industry facilities working with certain "dual-use" chemicals.
CIA director Robert M. Gates resigns January 20 and is succeeded February 5 by Tulsa-born lawyer R. James Woolsey, 51, who will head the agency until early 1995.
The Czech and Slovak republics become officially separate January 1 after 74 years as Czechoslovakia. Prague is capital of the Czech Republic, Bratislava of the Slovak.
Former French prime minister René Pleven dies at Paris January 13 at age 91.
Serbian aggression in Bosnia continues with violence on both sides despite UN efforts to halt the killings and provide humanitarian relief (see 1992). U.S. troops join UN peacekeeping forces in Macedonia in July to help prevent further spread of the conflict (see 1994).
The Russian People's Congress votes 623 to 252 March 11 to impose sharp curbs on the power of President Yeltsin. Communists and other hard-line opponents of Yeltsin's sweeping economic changes have gained control of the Supreme Soviet (Parliament), but Yeltsin shows his defiance March 20 by assuming virtually unlimited power and calling for an April 25 plebiscite. He wins approval in the plebiscite despite continued economic depression and growing social problems connected with inflation, joblessness, and crime. Yeltsin orders disbanding of the Supreme Soviet September 21, the Supreme Soviet tries to depose him, he receives support from world leaders and orders elections to be held in December; when his opponents defy him in an armed uprising he uses tanks and troops who remain loyal to him to crush the rebels, more than 60 are killed in street fighting October 3, tanks shell the Parliament building October 4, setting it afire in what amounts to a small civil war, and about 30 opposition leaders are arrested on orders from Yeltsin. Voters in the December 12 election approve a new constitution that increases presidential powers, but neo-fascist lawyer Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky, 47, leads the right-wing opposition to economic reform and his strength in the polls raises fears that ultra-nationalists may gain power.
Russia's president Boris Yeltsin and Georgia's president Eduard Shevardnadze conclude an agreement in May calling for a cease-fire in hostilities over Abkhazia (see 1992), but the cease-fire never takes effect, Abkhazians launch another large-scale attack on Sukumi in July, Moscow puts pressure on Georgia to reach a settlement, Georgia agrees to another cease-fire July 27 and withdraws her heavy artillery from Sukumi, Georgia is admitted to the Commonwealth of Independent States, but the government at Tbilisi is dissolved in August after failing three times to pass a draft budget, President Shevardnadze imposes a state of emergency in September, but he retracts it on condition that Parliament take a 3-month recess. Abkhazian forces recapture Sukhumi in late September after fierce fighting with Georgian troops, the Abkhazian leader calls in November for the deployment of United Nations observers along the frontier, a UN-sponsored peace accord signed December 1 guarantees Abkhazian autonomy within Georgia, and prisoner exchanges begin December 19.
Turkey's center-right True Path Party votes June 13 to choose Economic Minister Tansu Ciller, 47, as the successor to Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel, who has resigned in May to succeed the late president Turgut Ozal, who has died in office at Ankara April 17 at age 65 (see 1991). A Yale-educated economist, Ciller promises victory in the March 1994 elections and is considered a certainty to become the nation's first woman prime minister, but a crowd of 200,000 Islamic militants demonstrates against her at Ankara, and she draws criticism for waffling on Turkey's treatment of Kurds (see 1995).
Former Kazakhstan Communist Party first secretary Dinmukhamed A. Kunayev dies outside Alma-Ata August 22 at age 81, having been removed from power in 1986 after 22 years in office.
Poland's Democratic Left Alliance and Polish Peasants Party win in the national elections September 19 as Poles vote to restore former communists, stalling progress toward a full market economy.
Italy's continuing political scandal forces the resignations of key figures in industry and government amidst revelations of corruption, kickbacks, alleged vote-rigging, and assertions that former prime minister Giulio Andreotti and others in the Christian Democratic Party had Mafia connections (see crime, 1992). An April 18-19 referendum shows that 82.7 percent of Italians want electoral reforms that would eliminate small parties and bring more accountability.
Baudoin I, fifth king of the Belgians, dies of a heart attack July 31 at age 62 while vacationing in Spain. He has no direct heir and is succeeded after a 42-year reign by his 59-year-old brother, who will reign as Albert II.
Britain's Parliament ratifies the 1991 Maastricht Treaty in July despite an ongoing court challenge by opponents who charge that the agreement would require an illegal transfer of British sovereignty in matters of defense and foreign policy to the new European Union. The treaty takes effect November 1.
Israel's Supreme Court rules January 28 that the deportation of 415 Palestinians to Lebanon in mid-December was legitimate, but Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin yields to UN and U.S. pressure and announces February 1 that 100 of the deportees may return to their homes immediately and the rest within the year.
A 1,210-pound bomb packed in a van explodes at New York's World Trade Center February 26, killing six and starting a fire that sends black smoke through the 110-story twin towers, injuring more than 100, and forcing 100,000 to evacuate the premises. Mohammed A. Salameh, 25, is arrested at Jersey City March 4 and proves to be an illegal Jordanian immigrant follower of self-exiled Islamic fundamentalist Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, 55, who is wanted by Egypt for inciting anti-government riots in 1989. FBI agents make further arrests, and in June seize Arab terrorists accused of plotting to blow up the United Nations headquarters and New York's Holland and Lincoln tunnels. U.S. authorities arrest Rahman and imprison him 72 miles northwest of New York on suspicion of complicity in the World Trade Center bombing. Egyptian authorities request extradition of the blind, diabetic cleric; his Islamic supporters threaten retaliation if he is extradited.
India's prime minister P. V. Narasimha Rao works to revive the nation's economy as religious conflict divides her people; he resists advice from security experts that he move troops to the Pakistan border, but does not provide forceful leadership against religious bigotry. New Delhi officials charge that the terrorists were Muslims trained by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and that Bombay underworld crime boss Dawood Ibrahim carried out the attacks. A large truck bomb explodes in London's financial district April 24, killing one and injuring more than 40.
A suicidal Tamil militant straps explosives to his body at Colombo May 1 and kills Sri Lanka's president Ranasinghe Premadas, 68, along with 23 others (see 1988) Few people turn out for his funeral; although he has torn down slums in the heart of Colombo, mandated free lunches and uniforms for all schoolchildren, and begun an ambitious program to provide jobs for the rural poor in new garment factories, his 4-year rule has been dictatorial, he has been ruthless in treating political opponents, and human rights groups say the country (population 17 million) has had more abductions and disappearances per capita than any other in the world (see 1994).
Pakistan's Parliament reelects former prime minister Benazir Bhutto October 19 after her party wins the national elections.
Tomahawk cruise missiles from U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea hit Iraqi intelligence headquarters at Baghdad June 26 following revelations of an Iraqi-engineered plot to assassinate former president George Bush on a visit to Kuwait in mid-April.
Rockets fired by pro-Iranian Hezbollah (Party of God) guerrillas in southern Lebanon kill eight Israeli soldiers in early July (see 1992); Israeli planes and artillery retaliate beginning July 25 in the biggest effort since 1982, forcing hundreds of thousands of Lebanese to flee northward. But secret negotiations between Israeli and Palestine Liberation Organization officials have been going on since January under Norwegian auspices outside Oslo, and Israel's cabinet announces September 9 that it has agreed unanimously to recognize the PLO, grant limited self-rule to 770,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip plus 1 million more in the West Bank, beginning with the oasis of Jericho, and to withdraw its occupation forces from those areas in 6 months. The PLO renounces terrorism and recognizes Israel's right to live in peace and security under terms of an accord signed by Prime Minister Rabin and Yasir Arafat September 10. Both are more fearful of right-wing fundamentalists than of each other, and although they come to Washington, D.C., September 13 for a ceremonial signing of the peace agreement, extremists on both sides oppose the deal (see 1994).
South Korean president Kim Young Sam, now 65, takes office February 25 and begins work immediately to clean up the corruption that has characterized previous regimes. The nation's first democratically elected president, he grants amnesty to 41,000 prisoners who include labor activists and pro-democracy demonstrators, expunges the criminal records of those arrested in 1980 pro-democracy demonstrations in Kwangju, orders thousands of government officials to disclose their assets, and orders South Koreans to use their real names in all financial transactions (it has heretofore been legal to use fictitious names, and that has enabled political and business leaders to conceal an estimated $15 billion from tax collectors). Before he is finished, Kim will have had 10 Navy and Air Force generals dismissed from service (they are suspected of having purchased promotions) and two former defense ministers arrested for taking bribes, but critics will complain that he has not been rigorous enough in probing defense contracts awarded during previous administrations or in examining his own campaign financing (see 1996).
Japanese police arrest former Liberal Democratic Party vice president Shin Kanemaru, now 78, March 6 on tax-evasion charges in the nation's biggest political scandal since the arrest of former prime minister Kakuei Tanaka in 1976. Raids on the power broker's home and offices turn up hundreds of pounds of gold bars plus roughly $50 million in cash and securities. Prime Minister Kiichi Myazawa's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is defeated in the June 18 elections and loses power for the first time in 38 years; populist Morihiro Hosokawa, 55, is elected August 6 to head a new coalition government (see 1994).
Cambodia has free elections in May under the aegis of the United Nations Transitional Authority (Untac) (see 1991); 90 percent of eligible voters come to the polls despite threats from Khmer Rouge militants, who boycott the elections, a new government takes power in June, the constitution is revised in September to restore the monarchy, and Prince Norodom Sihanouk, now 70, becomes king September 24. His son Prince Norodom Ranariddh is first prime minister, and Heng Samrin, who led the government installed by Vietnam, second prime minister (see 1994).
Eritrea gains independence as a new nation May 24 (see 1962; 1998).
The Zimbabwe government announces in May that it will expropriate 70 large commercial farms, most of them white owned, for distribution to black peasants as part of a Land Acquisition Act passed by the parliament in March of last year. Whites make up only about 1 percent of Zimbabwe's population but own about one-third of all farmland. President Robert Mugabe threatens August 20 to expel white landowners who object to the expropriation of their property.
Somali guerrillas ambush and kill 24 Pakistani UN troops June 5 as last year's humanitarian aid mission becomes a political disaster. More killings follow, strongman Gen. Mohammed Farah Aidid, 57, rejects a UN plan for power sharing in the country, the UN offers a $25,000 reward for Adid's capture, and President Clinton sends 400 Army Rangers from Fort Benning, Ga., to Mogadishu beginning August 26 to protect the area from looters, snipers, and Gen. Aidid's militia, but Milwaukee-born U.S. secretary of defense Les Aspin, 54, balks at sending in tanks. U.S. gunships kill at least 80 Somalis October 2 when they fire into a crowd, Aidid's men shoot down a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter with a rocket-launched grenade October 3, killing three G.I.s., and the 15-hour firefight that ensues is the worst since the Vietnam War. Somali militiamen kill 18 Rangers and wound more than 75 as the Americans (part of a United Nations force) try to capture the clan leader. One Malaysian peace-keeper is killed, as are dozens of Somalis. Chief Warrant Officer Michael Durant, 32, is captured and shown on a videotape being interrogated, a few other Americans are missing in action and presumed to have been captured. A multinational UN group led by Malaysians and Pakistanis extricates the Americans early in the morning of October 4, sustaining casualties (18 dead, 75 wounded), at least 500 Somali are killed and 1,000 wounded, President Aidid says in a radio address October 4 that increasing the UN force would "worsen the situation," urges Somalis to help defend the country against U.S. "colonialism," and refuses to participate in peace talks. President Clinton sends in more troops to augment the 4,500-man force that supports 28,500 UN peacekeepers, but he then withdraws the Rangers and vows to pull out of Somalia by March 31, 1994. The United States spends billions of dollars each year on military preparedness, but the incident in Somalia leaves many at the Pentagon reluctant to risk U.S. forces in any engagement (see Rwanda, 1994).
Nigerians oust Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, now 52, in free elections June 12 but Gen. Babangida annuls the election results, refuses to step down, closes a radio station, and suppresses several newspapers, including one owned by Social Democratic Party leader Moshood Abiola, the apparent election winner. Gen. Babangida turns over power August 26 to an interim government headed by Harvard-educated businessman Ernest Shonekan, 57; Abiola, who left the country August 3, vows to form a new government, and the threat of civil war impels tens of thousands to seek refuge in their tribal homelands.
Burundi's first elected president (and the first president from the Hutu tribe) is assassinated October 21 along with some members of his cabinet as Tutsi troops storm the presidential palace in a coup attempt (see 1962). Ethnic clashes follow the death of the 40-year-old president Melchior Ndadaye, anarchy reigns, and some 800,000 people flee to neighboring Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zaire, where thousands die of disease and malnutrition in refugee camps while more thousands die in fighting between the Hutu and Tutsi (see 1994).
Angola's civil war kills 1,000 people per day by autumn as Jonas Savimbi's forces prevent government forces from supplying most of the country with food and medical supplies (see 1992). Land mines kill and maim tens of thousands.
The Ivory Coast's first president Félix Houphouët-Boigny dies December 7 at age 88 (95 by some accounts) after a 33-year administration in which his nation's per-capita income has increased from $90 to $900. He has used the force of his personality to keep rival tribes from fighting during his years in office but that peace will unravel in the wake of his death.
Mexico's president Carlos Salinas de Gortari attends a private dinner February 23 that has been held to solicit millions of dollars in political contributions from about 25 of the country's most affluent people to the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The solicitations are legal, but disclosure of Salinas's presence by the Mexico City financial daily El Economista February 26, and reports that the prominent businessmen who attended pledged an average of $25 million each, raise doubts about the president's professed commitment to open, competitive elections and raises a furor (Grupo Televíso president Emilio Azcarraga Milmo has reportedly pledged $70 million). Members of the National Action Party (PAN) walk out of electoral-reform talks with federal officials March 4, Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) leader Sen. Porfirio Munoz Ledo declares March 8 that Salinas "doesn't have the slightest intention of carrying out real political changes," Salinas proposes March 9 that a cap be placed on individual contributions to the PRI, and PRI president Genaro Borrego that day announces that the PRI will hereafter accept contributions only from individuals and "social organizations," not from businesses, religious groups, or foreign agencies, and will institute a ceiling of 1 million pesos ($325,000) on contributions.
Paraguay holds the first free elections in her history May 9 (see constitution, 1992). Juan Carlos Wasmosy, 54, wins the presidency, succeeding Gen. Andrés Rodríguez, who has held office since 1989; one of the country's richest businessmen, Wasmosy is a cotton exporter, cattle rancher, and construction magnate who was trained as a civil engineer and whose fortune began with construction contracts for the Itaipu Dam that was completed in 1982. Wasmosy is the nation's first civilian president since 1954, but Paraguay's ruling Colorado Party depends on military strongman Gen. Lino Oviedo for support.
Venezuela's President Perez gives up his office in May to defend himself in impeachment proceedings that have arisen from charges of corruption. The Venezuelan Congress elects Ramon Velazquez to serve as interim president, but he comes in fourth in the December popular election; former president Rafael Caldera will be declared the winner early next year.
Belize's opposition United Democratic Party unseats the ruling People's United Party June 30 by a razor-thin margin in an election that brings out 63 percent of registered voters and returns former prime minister Manuel Esquivel to power (see 1989). Britain has announced May 13 that she would withdraw the troops that have been in Belize since independence in 1981, Prime Minister Price has been unable to persuade London to keep the troops in place, he has negotiated a resolution to the 130-year-old boundary dispute with Guatemala, and although Guatemala has reaffirmed her 1991 agreement to recognize Belize as an independent nation that assurance may have come too late to save Price. The new Esquivel government announces July 19 that it has asked Guatemala to review the pact made by the Price administration in hopes that Guatemala will renounce her claims on Belizean territory: "Too many concessions were made by the previous government in order to reach a speedy conclusion of the matter," says Esquivel, and he insists that no territorial agreement can be valid without approval by a referendum of Belize's electorate.
A plebiscite in Puerto Rico shows that 46.3 percent of the people favor statehood, up from 39 percent in 1967, but only 4.4 percent favor independence.
Opponents of Haiti's deposed president Jean-Bertrand Aristide murder scores of his supporters (see 1991), the UN imposes an embargo, Gen. Cédras agrees in July at Governor's Island in New York Harbor to step down October 30 and let President Aristide resume power in exchange for amnesty and $35 million, but Cédras's thugs and local police block the troopship U.S.S. Harlan County from landing U.S. and 25 Canadian technicians at Port au Prince, Haiti's justice minister is murdered, and a new UN embargo begins October 19. Gen. Cédras continues to defy efforts to restore President Aristide despite dwindling fuel supplies (see 1994).
President Clinton withdraws his nomination of Zoë Baird for attorney general January 22 following her admission that she broke the law by hiring undocumented Peruvian immigrants for domestic help and not paying their Social Security taxes. Thousands of U.S. women employ illegal immigrants for childcare positions, and filing the required tax returns for such help is so complex that many simply ignore the law. Florida state prosecutor Janet Reno, 54, is confirmed March 13; the facts that she is unmarried and has no children stir up resentments that married women with children are at a disadvantage in the professional and business worlds.
Canada's ruling Progressive Conservative Party votes June 13 to make Defense Minister Kim Campbell, 46, the nation's first woman prime minister, succeeding Brian Mulroney, now 53, who has announced his resignation February 24 after nearly 9 years in office. Canadian voters oust the Conservative Party in elections October 25 as recession continues; Liberal Party leader Jean Chrétien, 59, becomes prime minister.
Former Texas governor and U.S. secretary of the treasury John Connally Jr. dies of complications from pulmonary fibrosis at Houston June 15 at age 76. Since he was riding in the car with President Kennedy at Dallas in November 1963 and sustained a gunshot sound, assassination researchers ask that bullet fragments be removed from Connally's body, but no such procedure is performed; Gen. James H. Doolittle, U.S. Army Air Force (ret.), dies at Pebble Beach, Calif., September 27 at age 96; former secretary of state Dean Rusk of congestive heart failure at his Athens, Ga., home December 20 at age 85.
Former U.S. Supreme Court justice and longtime civil rights activist Thurgood Marshall dies of heart failure at Bethesda, Md., January 24 at age 84.
A federal district judge at Los Angeles rules January 28 that the Pentagon's 11-year-old ban on homosexuals is unconstitutional and permanently enjoins the military from discharging or denying enlistment to gay men or women "in the absence of sexual conduct which interferes with the military mission." President Clinton has campaigned on a promise to reverse the ban and announces January 29 that such discharges are suspended and that recruits will no longer be asked questions about their sexual orientation, but he yields to pressure and authorizes the Pentagon to continue its ban for 6 months pending an executive order, to be drafted by the Defense Department, that would lift the ban. One of the largest civil rights demonstrations ever held at Washington brings out close to 1 million gay men and lesbians April 25.
A report by the Pentagon's inspector general released April 23 finds that 49 civilian women, 22 servicewomen, six female government employees, six wives, and six servicemen were victims of sexual abuse at the navy's 1991 Tailhook convention and recommends that at least 140 officers be referred to the services for possible disciplinary action on charges of assault, indecent exposure, conduct unbecoming an officer, or lying to investigators. The I.G. report also recommends civilian review of cases involving 30 Navy officers above the rank of captain, or flag officers; two Marine Corps general officers; and three Navy Reserve flag officers who attended the convention. The Pentagon announces April 27 that Defense Secretary Les Aspin will order the military to drop most of its restrictions on women in aerial and naval combat, permitting them to fly as fighter and bomber pilots and to serve on many warships.
Brooklyn, N.Y.-born Washington, D.C., circuit judge Ruth Ginsburg (née Bader), 60, wins confirmation August 3 as the second woman U.S. Supreme Court justice, succeeding Byron White, who has resigned. Her appointment by President Clinton June 14 has cheered many women, who note that Ginsburg argued six women's rights cases before the Court from 1973 to 1976 and won five of them. She was obliged to work as a legal secretary after getting her degree from Columbia Law School because law firms were not hiring women associates.
The Senate Ethics Committee investigates allegations of sexual harassment against Sen. Packwood (see 1992). It winds up deciding not to take any action, enraging many Washington State voters (see 1995).
The U.S. Supreme Court rules unanimously November 9 in Harris v. Forklift Systems Inc. that plaintiffs in sexual harassment cases need not show that they have sustained severe psychological damage or job impairment. Justice O'Connor's ruling states that federal law against harassment applies when "the [workplace] environment would reasonably be perceived, and is perceived, as hostile or abusive."
The Pentagon issues rules December 22 that permit lesbians and gay men to serve in the military so long as they do not engage in homosexual acts and remain mum about their sexual orientation ("Don't ask, don't tell"), but base and unit commanders will subvert the policy and by 1998 the number of homosexuals being forced out of the military will be 67 percent higher than it is now.
South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani, 50, is murdered April 10 at Johannesburg after a career of opposition to apartheid that has made him a hero to blacks. Police arrest Januzu Jakub Waluz, 40, a Polish-born South African with links to the Afrikaner Resistance Movement, a militant white nationalist group; Clive Derby-Lewis, a leader of the pro-apartheid Conservative Party, is later arrested, and the killing of Hani brings new waves of violence in the racially troubled nation. Former African National Congress president Oliver Tambo dies at Johannesburg April 24 at age 75.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum opens April 23 at 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place in Washington, D.C., with free admission to exhibits that include films and artifacts relating to the Nazi genocide of the 1930s and '40s.
Neo-Nazi German right-wing extremists attack foreign workers and their families, notably Turks at Mölln and Solingen but also asylum-seekers from Poland, Yugoslavia, and elsewhere, in a surge of xenophobic violence that brings decent Germans to the streets in protest marches. Germany has nearly 1.7 millon Turks, "skin-heads" were held responsible for more than 2,280 racial attacks last year, and Ankara demands something more than apologies.
A Berlin court finds former East German secret police (Stasi) chief Erich Mielke guilty October 26 of having murdered two police officers who were ambushed in 1931 during street fights in the Weimar Republic. Now 85, Mielke fled to the Soviet Union after the so-called Buelowplatz murders and documents from Russia have been used to incriminate him in his 20-month trial. He has allegedly been responsible for giving border guards orders to shoot more than 300 East Germans attempting to flee the country. Judge Theodor Seide sentences Mielke to 6 years' imprisonment, saying that he will "go down in history as one of the most fearsome dictators and police ministers of the 20th century."
Machete-wielding Brazilian gold miners massacre as many as 75 Yanomani men, women, and children in late August, producing international protests.
Astronaut Donald K. "Deke" Slayton dies at League City, Texas, June 13 at age 69, but other U.S. astronauts capture the Hubble Space Telescope from December 4 to 10 and repair its optics (see 1990). The mission is a complete success, surprising even the most optimistic scientists at NASA.
The European Community permits free movement of goods across national borders beginning January 1, but passport controls for travelers remain in effect.
A Family and Medical Leave bill signed by President Clinton February 5 requires employers to permit unpaid leave and not discharge workers who must take time off for such reasons as attending sick family members, but the law applies only to companies with 50 employees or more (most larger companies already have such plans), and it falls far short of legislation in Europe (even Greece, a poor country, provides 15 weeks' paid maternity leave, and a mother is guaranteed her job for a year after giving birth). Critics of the new U.S. law say that while it is well intentioned its effect actually hurts women, thousands of whom are laid off in the weeks before the measure takes effect August 5 as employers rely on part-time or contract workers to keep their full-time staffs below the threshold level of 50.
A fire at a Bangkok doll factory May 10 kills more than 200 Thai workers, most of them young women. Their bodies are found piled up against locked doors or beneath stairways that collapsed as they tried to escape; more than 400 are injured, many seriously, by leaping from high windows. Guards say they were ordered to lock the doors to prevent thefts and keep workers from sneaking out. Although the tragedy is compared to New York's Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911, most factories in third-world countries are no safer than the Bangkok doll factory and working conditions for many female employees remain horrendous.
Former Union of Mineworkers president Lord (Joe) Gormley dies at his home in Wigan, England, May 27 at age 75. He was created a life peer in 1982.
Germany's Bonn government announces August 11 that it will begin cutting unemployment and welfare benefits. About 9 percent of the workforce is unemployed, and unemployment benefits are cut by 3 percentage points to 55 or 53 percent of the recipient's last pay, depending on whether he or she has dependents. Costs of rebuilding East Germany, which exceed $60 billion per year, have put severe financial pressure on the reunited nation.
Russia borders on hyperinflation as she tries to adjust to the new economic order imposed by President Yeltsin (see 1992). Having inherited an empty treasury from the former Soviet Union, the government is desperate for money to pay retiree pensions, teacher and physician salaries, and other bills; in return for large instant loans, it offers banks controlling interests in key industrial enterprises, and when the state defaults on the loans next year the banks will take over ownership of the companies (see energy [Yukos], 1996).
IBM announces in January that it lost $4.6 billion last year, the largest operating loss of any company in history. Competitors have taken away the popular personal computer market, leaving Big Blue dominant only in larger, costlier computers that are in less demand. Thomas J. Watson Jr. suffers a stroke and dies at Greenwich, Conn., December 31 at age 79, having moved his company into the new world of computers and PCs.
The Revenue Reconciliation Act signed into law by President Clinton August 10 seeks to reduce by $496 billion the growth in the federal deficit (which has ballooned since 1981) in the fiscal years 1994 through 1998, less than half of it through modest tax increases. Republicans have blasted the measure's tax increases for the most affluent taxpayers, and six Democrats have voted against it, Vice President Albert A. (Arnold) "Al" Gore Jr., 45, cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate at 3 o'clock in the morning June 25, the House gave its approval by a 218-to-216 vote August 5, and Gore cast a second tie-breaking vote August 6. Tax revenues produced by a booming economy in the next 7 years will enable the administration not only to reduce the growth of the staggering budget deficit but actually to produce a substantial surplus while at the same time reducing the number of government employees.
The report "From Red Tape to Results: Creating a Government that Works Better and Costs Less" unveiled by President Clinton and Vice President Gore September 7 has some 800 recommendations that would improve performance and save $108 billion in 5 years. Responding to criticisms of "big government," Gore has headed a National Performance Review to "reinvent government," soliciting suggestions from thousands of federal employees for ways to increase productivity, improve overall efficiency by eliminating or consolidating programs, and improve technology with a vie to serving consumers better.
A Central American Free Trade Zone is established under agreements signed by Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador (but not by Costa Rica). The Central American Common Market created in 1960 began to fall apart in 1969, when Honduras and El Salvador broke off commercial and diplomatic relations in the so-called "soccer war," Honduras imposed tariffs on the other members beginning early in 1971, Guatemala imposed restrictions in 1983, and the new agreements pledge the members to reduce their tariffs on intra-regional trade over a period of several years.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signed into law by President Clinton December 8 provides for a phasing out of all intraregional tariffs and other trade barriers by Canada, Mexico, and the United States over a 14-year period. The Bush administration negotiated the agreement, labor unions have opposed it, Ross Perot has preyed upon fears that U.S. jobs will be lost, protectionists and some environmentalists have fought it, but Clinton has pulled out all stops to win support, mostly from Republicans, and Congress has voted its approval 234 to 200 November 17.
Median U.S. household incomes, adjusted for inflation, fall to $31,241, down from $33,585 in 1989, as technological changes, lack of training, Federal Reserve Board policies designed to fight inflation, and competition from lower-paid (but well-educated) workers in foreign countries combine to put pressure on middle-class wage-earners' ability to maintain earning power even with two members of the family employed.
Statistician-quality control expert W. Edwards Deming dies of cancer at Washington, D.C., December 20 at age 93. Little known in his own country, his name is revered in Japan, where Deming Prizes continue to be awarded each year as they have been since 1951.
Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at a record high of 3794.33 December 29 and closes December 31 at 3654.09, up from its 1992 year-end close of 3301.11. The Nasdaq closes at a record 787.42 October 15 and closes December 31 at 477.13, up 16.3 percent for the year.
Sears Roebuck announces January 25 that it will discontinue its 97-year-old general merchandise catalogue and close 113 "unprofitable" stores, moves that will eliminate 50,000 jobs. Sears catalogues once offered everything from groceries to houses to tombstones; they went out to 14 million Americans in 1992 and catalogue sales totaled $3.3 billion, but the operation has been losing money (see Lands' End, 2002).
Costco Wholesale Corp. is created late in the year by a merger of San Diego's 17-year-old Price Co. and Seattle's 10-year-old Costco Inc. By the end of the decade the membership warehouse club will be operating 331 no-frills, self-serve warehouses in 28 states and seven countries, with 80,000 employees worldwide, offering a limited selection of nationally branded and selected private label merchandise in a wide range of categories, all at very low prices.
The 10 Commonwealth of Independent States join with Azerbaijan and Georgia March 2 to form an OPEC-style cartel to revive the Russian Federation's declining petroleum industry. Azerbaijan and Turkey agree March 9 to build a $1.4 billion, 665-mile pipeline from the Baku oilfields to Western markets via Iran and an existing pipeline (now closed) between Ceyhan and Mosul, in Iraq. Russia and the World Bank complete negotiations for a $500 million loan to improve Western Siberian oil fields.
The petroleum giant Yukos founded by a decree of the Russian government April 15 combines the Yuganskneftegas oil producer in western Siberia with the KuibyshevnefteOrgSintez refining and petrochemical company outside Samara on the Volga River. Many of its state-owned entities are inefficient, overstaffed, and unprofitable (see privatization, 1996).
The new Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act signed into law by President Clinton August 10 raises gasoline taxes, but Americans continue to pay far less for gasoline than Asians or Europeans.
The Miami-bound Amtrak Sunset Limited from Los Angeles hurtles off a 12-foot-high trestle September 22, plunges into Alabama's Big Bayou Canot north of Mobile at 70 miles per hour, and catches fire, killing 47, including many of the train's 189 sleeping passengers and several of its 17 crew members. A barge loaded with cement and coal has broken loose from a tow and collided with the trestle, weakening it just before the accident.
Amtrak bans smoking on most of its trains.
The first bus to be powered by a fuel cell goes into service (see energy, 1959), but fuel-cell technology remains in its infancy (see Daimler Benz, Toyota, 1997).
Intel introduces the 3.1 million-transistor Pentium microchip, which runs about four times faster than Intel's 1.18 million-transistor 486, which was two to five times faster than its 32-bit, 275,000-transistor 386. The Pentium chip increases the speed of computers beyond anything yet known (see 1995).
Motorola ships its RISC (Reduced Instruction Set) PowerPC chip to give Intel lively competition.
Microsoft launches Windows NT, an operating system designed primarily for business uses. The Federal Trade Commission finds itself deadlocked in July over the question of whether to file a formal complaint against Microsoft on charges of monopolizing the market for personal computer operating systems (see 1988). The Department of Justice and some European antitrust investigators begin independent inquiries (see 1994).
Finnish computer programmer Linus Torvalds, 25, at the University of Helsinki launches the Linux (Linn-ux) operating system free on the Internet. Unable as an undergraduate to afford the Unix operating system that is popular in academic and commercial circles (it cost several thousand dollars), Torvalds invented a skeletal code of his own. Stanford University-trained electrical engineer Larry M. (Mark) Augustin, 31, puts up a Web page in November, finds partners, and cofounds VA Linux to promote the new "open-source" system. Torvalds has no connection to the new company, which establishes a light-hearted news site (see IBM, 2000).
Apple Computer introduces the hand-held Newton computer.
Virginia-born medical geneticist Francis S. (Sellers) Collins, 43, is named director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, the National Institute of Health's part of the Human Genome Project (see 1992). He and his colleagues at the University of North Carolina have discovered the genes responsible for cystic fibrosis, Huntington's disease, and neurofibromatosis, his new position requires him to coordinate NIH scientists' research programs with those proceeding at Baylor College of Medicine at Houston, Washington University at St. Louis, the Whitehead Institute at Cambridge, Mass., and elsewhere, while coordinating policy with the London-based Wellcome Trust, which finances one-third of the project (see 1995).
Nobel physicist Polykarp Kusch dies at Dallas March 20 at age 81; nuclear physicist Bruno Pontecorvo at Dubna, Russia, September 25 at age 80; Nobel molecular biologist Severo Ochoa of pneumonia at Madrid November 1 at age 88.
French researchers announce December 15 that they have completed a roughly accurate map of the human genome, a first step toward more detailed and accurate genetic blueprints of the 100,000 genes within human cells. Scientists from several nations have been working at the Paris genetics laboratory Centre d'Etude du Polymorphismie Humain (CEPH) in collaboration with the Human Genome Project. They have cut apart chromosomes that were split into thousands of segments, duplicated them in a yeast culture, catalogued them, looked for places where the regrown duplicates would overlap, and thereby found a way to put the pieces back together and form whole chromosomes; their findings are reported in Nature December 16.
The FDA begins January 5 to evaluate the safety of breast implants containing saline (see 1992). Author Betty Rollin has dismissed alarms about such implants ("If they break, it's only water") and said that plastic surgeons resist using them only because they are more difficult to insert, but others have questioned their safety.
Secondhand smoke causes lung cancer that kills an estimated 3,000 nonsmokers per year, the Environmental Protection Agency announces January 7 (EPA administrator William K. Reilly says 434,000 Americans die from diseases caused, or aggravated, by smoking, including 140,000 lung cancer victims). Based on a 4-year report which the tobacco industry challenges as inconclusive, the EPA statement calls second-hand smoke a Class A carcinogen and blames indirect smoking for increasing the severity of symptoms in 200,000 to 1 million child asthmatics and causing 150,000 to 300,000 cases of respiratory infections (e.g., bronchitis, pneumonia), in infants under 18 months of age (see 1994).
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton receives an office in the West Wing of the White House and the president appoints her January 25 to head a commission charged with creating a health plan for the nation in fulfillment of his 1992 campaign promise. Given the most influential position a U.S. president's wife has ever had, she bans smoking in the White House February 1, but little or no opprobrium attaches to smoking in most parts of the world (see health plan, 1994).
President Clinton appoints the head of the Arkansas Health Department to the post of U.S. Surgeon General. Joycelyn Elders, MD, 58, has crusaded for the reduction of teenage pregnancy, saying that a poor adolescent with a baby is "captive to a slavery the Thirteenth Amendment did not anticipate." Abortion opponents and religious evangelicals have attacked her, saying that her school-based sex education clinics promote abortion.
President Clinton lashes out at the pharmaceutical drug industry February 12, charging drug makers with pursuing "profits at the expense of our children." Comparing prices of the same drugs in America and abroad, he says, "Our prices are shocking. The pharmaceutical industry is spending $1 billion more each year on advertising and lobbying than it does on developing new and better drugs. Meanwhile, its profits are rising at four times the rate of the average Fortune 500 company."
A paper by Austrian researchers published in a February issue of New England Journal of Medicine supports the theory advanced in 1983 by Australian gastroenterologist Barry J. Marshall, now 41, relating Helicobacter pylori infection to gastritis and recurrent duodenal ulcer. Antibiotics can wipe out the infection, cure ulcers, and generally prevent their recurrence, say the Austrians. Marshall says antibiotic treatment can cure ulcers at a total cost of $650, whereas it costs $1,200 per year for a standard regimen of Glaxo's Zantac (rinitidine), now the world's leading prescription drug.
Poliomyelitis vaccine inventor Albert B. Sabin dies of congestive heart failure at Washington, D.C., March 3 at age 86; surgeon and medical researcher Denis Burkitt in England March 23 at age 82.
The Centers for Disease Control at Atlanta receives reports beginning in May of a mysterious disease outbreak in New Mexico: flu-like symptoms quickly escalate into adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The first death has occurred in March; by June 9 the disease has claimed 14 lives, the victims have died from lack of oxygen; most were young, healthy, and lived within or adjacent to the 25,000-square-mile Navajo reservation in New Mexico and northern Arizona, federal. State officials say in early June that they believe a deadly virus in rodent urine and fecal droppings is responsible. Heavy rains have kept the ground relatively soft, food supplies for field mice, prairie dogs, and other rodents have been plentiful, their populations have increased, and their excretions evidently release the Hantaan virus that is common in China and Korea. Health officials begin trapping rodents in an effort to make positive identification of the virus, but as of June 24 the disease has killed at least 19 people, and the death toll continues to climb. Public health officials note that increased jet-air travel has made it easy for viruses to spread from one part of the world to another.
A U.S. health-cost study released in May finds that more than 16 percent of hysterectomies performed at health maintenance organizations are inappropriate and an additional 25 percent are of questionable benefit. This finding challenges the view that HMOs contain costs by limiting unnecessary care.
The World Health Organization declares a global tuberculosis emergency in April; the WHO says November 15 that TB threatens to kill 30 million people in the next 10 years and could become incurable if efforts are not increased to control the disease. Populations in developing countries are most at risk, and drug-resistant strains are multiplying in those countries, but even in the United States some 15 million people are infected, says the WHO.
The Branch Davidian fundamentalist religious cult led by "prophet" David Koresh (Vernon Howell), 33, in a spinoff from the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, stockpiles an arsenal in its Mount Carmel compound outside Waco, Texas, and comes under scrutiny of the Treasury Department's Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Unit after reports of child abuse. Four ATF officers are killed February 28, Koresh is wounded and at least two of his followers killed, a 51-day standoff ensues between the Branch Davidians and law-enforcement officers, the FBI takes over and moves in with tear gas April 19 (see Ruby Ridge, 1992). Members of the cult set fire to their compound, killing more than 80, including 24 children. FBI agents will deny having fired pyrotechnic devices at any part of the compound, it will turn out that they lied, and a 1999 Time magazine poll will show that 61 percent of Americans believe that the agents started the fire and were responsible for the deaths (but see 2000; Oklahoma City, 1995).
Bomb explosions at Bombay (Mumbai) and Calcutta March 12 to 19 kill 317, injure more than 1,100, and create severe property damage in India's largest wave of criminal violence ever as Hindu nationalists wrangle with Muslims (see 1992): the 13 bombs in Bombay's financial district kill 232, and police initially blame "Tiger" (Ibrahim Abdul Razaq Memon), a reputed drug dealer who has fled to Dubai, but many believe Muslims have planted the bombs to retaliate for violence against them in January. Police file formal charges March 15 against a 26-year-old Hindu (Mangesh Pawar) and a 30-year-old Muslim (Piloo Khan); enlightened Hindus who act to protect Muslims are themselves targets of violence, which is encouraged by the 40,000 activists of the Maharashtra state party Shiv Sena.
Roman Catholic religious orders decline in number worldwide as fewer young women opt for chastity, celibacy, and devotion. U.S. convents dwindle in size and some close down as the number of American nuns in all orders combined falls to 94,000, down from 178,000 in 1968.
A History of God by English author Karen Armstrong, 48, is based on the idea that the deity is a product of creative human imagination. A former nun who has become an honorary member of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists, Armstrong teaches at London's Leo Baeck College for the Study of Judaism.
Church of Scientology officials sign a 76-page agreement with the Internal Revenue Service October 1 after 25 years of refusal by the IRS to grant Scientology the blanket tax exemption accorded traditional religious faiths (see 1968). The organization's leader David Miscavige tells 10,000 cheering members at Los Angeles October 8 that the exemptions have been granted and, "The war is over." The IRS announces the exemptions for about 150 Scientology entities October 13 at Washington, D.C., having contended up to now that Scientology was operated as a for-profit business ("auditing" sessions can cost thousands of dollars per hour); Scientologists have retaliated by filing 1,200 lawsuits, singling out individual IRS officials as well as the federal government; details of the controversial agreement will remain secret until December 1997, but it requires payment of $12.5 million by the end of 1997 (plus penalties totaling as much as $50 million if money is spent repeatedly for noncharitable purposes) but wipes out as much as $1 billion in back-tax liabilities, allows Scientologists tax deductions for auditing-session costs, and will save the organization tens of millions of dollars in future taxes while facilitating its efforts to gain acceptance worldwide.
Former New York Marble Collegiate Church pastor Norman Vincent Peale suffers a stroke and dies at Pawling, N.Y., December 24 at age 95.
The British Lingua English language coaching school founded at Patna, Bihar, by Brahmin entrepreneur Birbal Jha, 21, helps Hindi men who want to enter the army or police force, Muslim women who want civil service jobs, housewives who want to understand English-language television programs, and other Indians who simply want to improve their social status (see communications, 1950). Within a decade there will be an estimated 150 such centers at Patna alone, and hundreds more elsewhere in India (see communications [AOL], 2003).
President Clinton outlines a plan March 1 at Rutgers University that would establish an Americorps, allowing students to earn their college tuition by filling community-service jobs.
The Chicago Board of Education announces June 25 that it has selected New York's deputy school chancellor Argie K. Johnson, 54, as general superintendent of its school system, the sixth person to have that job in 13 years. The decentralized Chicago district has been called the worst in the nation, but Johnson says she believes in the reforms underway and wants to be a part of them.
Enrollment in U.S. women's colleges reaches a 14-year high, partly out of concern that women at coeducational schools may be treated differently from men, partly because women fear sexual harassment.
Philanthropist Walter H. Annenberg announces that he is giving $120 million to the University of Pennsylvania, $120 million to the University of Southern California, and $25 million to Harvard. Annenberg announces December 17 that he is giving $500 million to help reform public schools.
Fox Broadcasting is created January 20. Created by media magnate Rupert Murdoch and former Twentieth Century-Fox CEO Barry Diller, it becomes the first new national U.S. television network since the 1950s.
The Mexican government sells its television channels to private owners, they form TV Azteca, but government regulation of the industry will be lax, and by the end of the century TV Azteca's market share will be only 10 percent while in peak time periods Televísa will have nearly 98 percent. The family of the late Emilio Azcárraga Vidauretta will own 62 percent of Televísa, which will not only be the Spanish-speaking world's largest television producer but will also produce more programming than ABC, CBS, NBC, Columbia, Disney, King World, Universal, and Warner combined.
Pocket-size telephones become commonplace in cities worldwide. U.S. telephone and media companies work to structure multi-billion-dollar megadeals with a view to creating a huge information superhighway offering on-demand video, telephone calls on cable, and TV programming on phone lines.
Excite is founded February 28 at Redwood City, Calif., where five computer hackers and Stanford political science majors meet at Rosita's Taqueria and devise plans for a pioneer Internet search engine. They will sell the idea to America OnLine (AOL) (see 1995; Yahoo!, 1994).
Researchers at the University of Illinois National Center for Computing Applications (NCSA) post a new user-friendly point-and-click software program on the Internet in April and make it available for "browsing" the Web, which up to now has been accessible only through crude, text-only interfaces (see Berners-Lee, 1991). Cedar Rapids, Iowa-born undergraduate Marc Andreesen, 21, took a programming job with the NCSA last year at $6.85 per hour hour, saw potential in an easy-to-use Internet browser, teamed up with university software programmer Eric Bina, 30, and in 6 weeks produced the first graphical user interface (GUI) Web browser. Andreesen and Bina work with some NCSA colleagues to build a fully-functioning browser with pictures and sound as well as text, offer it free over the Internet, meet with Tim Berners-Lee, and annoy him by suggesting that the Web be renamed Mosaic. Within a year more than 2 million copies of the program will be downloaded and 6 months later it will have 75 percent of the market with 600,000 new users signing on each month (see Netscape, 1994).
The New York Times acquires the Boston Globe October 1 for $1.1 billion.
Nonfiction: At the Highest Levels: The Inside Story of the End of the Cold War by Michael R. Beschloss and Strobe Talbott; Out of Control: Global Turmoil on the Eve of the Twenty-First Century by Zbigniew Brzezinski, who says the United Nations should play a larger role in world affairs. The United States must curb the proliferation of sex and violence in her mass media, he says, provide universal health care, improve education, and increase taxation of the rich to narrow the growing gap between America and her global partners; Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq by U.S. journalist Alan Friedman; How Are We to Live? by philosopher Peter Singer; The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion by Stephen L. Carter; The Morning After: Sex, Fear, and Feminism on Campus by Princeton graduate student Katie Roiphe, 25, who says mass hysteria has exaggerated and even invented male sexual assault. She takes issue with crusades against pornography; Sexual Violence: Our War Against Rape by New York prosecutor Linda A. Fairstein, 46, who disputes the radical feminist view that rape has nothing to do with sexuality; Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years by Mount Vernon, N.Y., retirees Sarah Louise "Sadie" Delany, 104, and Annie Elizabeth "Bessie" Delany, 102, whose father was born into slavery but whose white grandfather told them, "Don't ever be afraid to look somebody in the eye. You're just as good as anybody." Bessie earned her DDS from Columbia University in 1923 and started a dental practice in Harlem, becoming the second licensed black female dentist; Sadie earned a master's degree in education at Columbia in 1925 and became the first black home economics teacher in a New York City high school.
Economist-author Eliot Janeway dies at his native New York February 8 at age 80; political scientist C. Northcote Parkinson near his home at Canterbury March 9 at age 83; author-film critic Penelope Gilliatt at her London home May 9 at age 61; travel writer Freya Stark at Asola, Italy, May 9 at age 100; journalist-author Harrison E. Salisbury near Providence, R.I., July 5 at age 84; social historian and political activist E. P. Thompson at Upper Wick, Worcester, August 28 at age 69; man of letters Sir Peter Courtney Quennell at London October 27 at age 88; feminist author Jill Tweedie of motor neurone disease at Holloway November 12 at age 59; journalist-author William L. Shirer of heart disease at Boston December 28 at age 89.
Fiction: The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx; The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields; The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood; The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien by Oscar Hijuelos; Death in the Andes (Lituma en los Andes) by Mario Vargas Llosa; Operation Shylock: A Confession by Philip Roth; Streets of Laredo by Larry McMurtry; A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines; The Green Knight by Iris Murdoch; Cleopatra's Sister by Penelope Lively; The Infinite Plan by Isabel Allende; The Client by John Grisham; Everywhere that Mary Went by Philadelphia-born lawyer-turned-novelist Lisa Scottoline, 37, who writes in the present tense (as does John Grisham) and whose protagonist is the corporate lawyer Mary DiNunzio; Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King; Along Came a Spider by Newburgh, N.Y.-born J. Walter Thompson chairman and novelist James (B.) Patterson, 46, introduces the black Washington, D.C., police psychologist Alex Cross; The Night Manager by John le Carré.
Novelist Juan Benet Goita dies at his native Madrid January 5 at age 65; novelist-playwright Kobo Abe at his native Tokyo January 22 at age 68; Eleanor Hibbert in her 80s January 18 on a cruise ship between Athens and Port Said (she has written more than 200 novels under the names Philippa Carr, Victoria Holt, and Jean Plaidy); John Hersey dies of cancer at his Key West, Fla., home March 24 at age 78; Wallace Stegner at Santa Fe, N.M., April 13 at age 84 of injuries sustained in a car accident March 28; Leslie Charteris at Windsor, Berkshire, April 15 at age 85; Sir William Golding of a heart attack at his home near Truro, Cornwall, June 19 at age 81; Masuji Ibuse at Tokyo July 10 at age 95; novelist-editor Peter De Vries of pneumonia at Norwalk, Conn., September 28 at age 83; Anthony Burgess of cancer at London November 22 at age 76.
Poetry: Firefall by Mona Van Duyn; Small Congregations by Thylias Moss.
An Islamic fundamentalist group calls for the execution of Bengladashi poet and political activist Sufia Kamal, 82, who has denounced fundamentalist treatment of women. Her compatriot Taslima Nareen has fled the country for fear of reprisals, but Kamal opts for quiet resistance.
Juvenile: Ship by David A. Macaulay; I Want to Be by poet Thylias Moss with illustrations by Jerry Pinkney; Stellaluna by St. Paul, Minn.-born author-illustrator Janell Cannon, 35; The Name of the Game Was Murder by Joan Lowery Gibson; The Giver by Honolulu-born author-photographer Lois Lowry, 56; Goosebumps by R. L. Stine.
Writer-illustrator William Pène du Bois dies of a stroke at Nice, France, February 5 at age 76.
President Clinton names actress Jane Alexander, now 53, to chair the National Endowment for the Arts. Announcing the appointment in August, he says, "The endowment's mission of fostering and preserving our nation's cultural heritage is too important to remain mired in the problems of the past. [Alexander] will be a tireless and articulate spokesperson for the value of bringing art into the lives of all Americans."
Painter Richard Diebenkorn dies of respiratory failure at Berkeley, Calif., March 30 at age 70. A 2-month Whitney Museum exhibit entitled "The Subject of Rape" opens at New York June 23 with text and graphic displays.
Sculpture: Intersection II (hot-rolled steel) by Richard Serra.
Photographs: Workers: An Archaeology of the Industrial Age by photojournalist Sebastião Salgado, whose portrait of the working class wins the Arles International Festival award for best photography book of the year and whose retrospective exhibition In Human Effort is mounted at Tokyo's National Museum of Modern Art.
Theater: The Sisters Rosensweig by Wendy Wasserstein 3/18 at New York's Ethel Barrymore Theater, with Jane Alexander, Madeline Kahn, Robert Klein, 556 perfs.; The Madness of George III by Alan Bennett 4/1 at London's Lyttleton National Theatre, with Nigel Hawthorne; Arcadia by Tom Stoppard 4/13 at London's Lyttleton National Theatre, with Felicity Kendal, Harriet Walter, Rufus Sewell, Bill Nighy; The Treatment by British playwright Martin (Andrew) Crimp, 36, 4/15 at London's Royal Court Theatre; Lion in the Streets by Montreal-born playwright Judith (Clare Francesca) Thompson, 38, 4/19 at London's Hampstead Theatre; Playboy of the West Indies by Trinidadian playwright Mustapha Matura 5/9 at New York's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater; A Perfect Ganesh by Terrence McNally 6/27 at New York's Manhattan Theater Club, with Frances Sternhagen, Zoë Caldwell; Wonderful Tennessee by Brian Friel 6/30 at Dublin's Abbey Theatre, with Donal McCann; Beautiful Thing by English playwright Jonathan Harvey, 55, 7/28 at London's Bush Theatre.
Playwright-TV series writer Sumner Arthur Long dies of cancer at Los Angeles January 6 at age 71; actress Joyce Carey at London February 28 at age 94; Helen Hayes at Nyack, N.Y., March 17 at age 92; Kate Reid of cancer at Stratford, Ont., March 27 at age 62; Eugenia Leontovich at New York April 2 at age 93; playwright Maxine Wood of congestive heart failure at Oakland, Calif., April 7 at age 87; actress Gusti Huber at Mount Kisco, N.Y., July 12 at age 78; former circus magnate Henry Ringling North outside Geneva, Switzerland, October 2 at age 83; actor Cyril Cusack at his London home October 7 at age 82; actor River Phoenix at Los Angeles October 31 at age 23 after suffering a seizure outside a nightclub; actress Janet Margolin of ovarian cancer at Los Angeles December 17 at age 50; Sam Wanamaker of cancer at London December 18 at age 74 (he has led a drive to rebuild London's Globe Theater; see 1996).
Television: Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman 1/2 on CBS with Jane Seymour as Dr. Mike Quinn (to 5/16/1998); Homicide: Life on the Street 1/31 on NBC with Richard Belzer (as disgraced former police officer Mike Kellerman), Yaphet Kotto, Ned Beatty in a show created by Paul Altamasio based on a non-fiction book by David Simon about Baltimore crime (to 8/1999); The Nanny 4/3 on CBS with Queens, N.Y., actress-writer Fran Drescher, 36, as a door-to-door cosmetics saleswoman who becomes governess for New York widower Maxfield Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy) (to 6/1999); Walker, Texas Ranger 4/21 on CBS with Oklahoma-born karate expert Chuck (originally Carlos Ray) Norris, now 53, Clarence Gilyard, Sheree J. Wilson (to 5/19/2001); Peak Practice on BBC with Amanda Burton and Kevin Whately in a medical drama set in Derbyshire in the heart of England's Peak District (to 12/13/2001); Beavis and Butt-Head (animated) 5/17 on MTV with all voice overs by creator-writer Mike Judge (to 11/28/1997); The X-Files 9/10 on Fox with David Duchovny, 32, Gillian Anderson, 24, as FBI agents investigating occult and paranormal incidents (the series has been created by Chris Carter, 35) (to 5/9/2002); Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman 9/12 on ABC with Dean Cain, 27, as Clark Kent, Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane (to 6/14/1997); Frasier 9/16 on NBC with former Cheers player Kelsey Grammer as Seattle radio psychiatrist Frasier Crane, David Hyde Pierce as his psychiatrist brother Niles (to 5/13/2004); Dave's World 9/20 on CBS with Harry Anderson as Miami Herald columnist Dave Barry, DeLane Matthews as his wife, Beth (to 5/1998); Grace under Fire 9/29 on ABC with stand-up comic Brett Butler, 35, as a Southern wife with three children who leaves a disastrous marriage to become a single working mother (to 2/17/1998); Diagnosis Murder 10/29 on CBS with Dick Van Dyke as crime-solving medic Mark Sloan, MD, his son Barry Van Dyke as police inspector Steve Sloan (to 5/11/2001).
Actor Fred Gwynne dies of pancreatic cancer at Tarrytown, Md., July 2 at age 66; Raymond Burr of renal cancer at his home outside Healdsburg, Calif., September 12 at age 76; former TV personality Garry Moore of throat cancer at Hilton Head, S.C., November 29 at age 78.
Films: Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List with Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Embeth Davidtz. Also: Maggie Greenwald's The Ballad of Little Jo with Suzy Amis as Josephine Monaghan; Claude Sautet's Un Coeur en Hiver with Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Héart, André Dussolier; Chen Kaige's Farewell, My Concubine (Bawang bieji) with Gong Li, Leslie Cheung (the Chinese government has permitted a censored version to be exhibited for 2 weeks at Shanghai but bans it in July after a single showing at Beijing, citing homosexual conduct as the reason); Andrew Davis's The Fugitive with Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Fort Bragg, N.C.-born actress Julianne Moore (originally Julie Anne Smith), 32; Ronald Maxwell's Gettysburg with Tom Berenger, Jeff Daniels, Martin Sheen; Wolfgang Petersen's In the Line of Fire with Clint Eastwood, Burbank, Calif.-born ex-model Rene Russo, 39; Jim Sheridan's In the Name of the Father with Daniel Day-Lewis, Neil Postelthwaite; Wayne Wang's The Joy Luck Club with Tsai Chin, Tamlyn Tomita; Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park with Sam Neill, Laura Dern, fake dinosaurs; Steven Soderberg's King of the Hill with Jesse Bradford, Jeroen Krabbe, Lisa Eichhorn; Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado about Nothing with Emma Thompson, Branagh, Denzel Washington, Michael Keaton; Jane Campion's The Piano with Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel; James Ivory's The Remains of the Day with Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson; Richard Attenborough's Shadowlands with Debra Winger, Anthony Hopkins; Takeshi Kitano's Sonatine with Kitano; Ross McElwee's Time Indefinite with McElwee, Marilyn Levine; Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet with Winston Chao, May Chin; Brian Gibson's What's Love Got to Do with It? with Angela Basset as singer Tina Turner, Laurence Fishburne.
Audrey Hepburn dies of colon cancer at Tolocherraz, Switzerland, January 20 at age 63; director-screenwriter-producer Joseph Mankiewicz of heart failure at Mount Kisco, N.Y., February 5 at age 83; Lillian Gish of heart failure at Nyack, N.Y., February 28 at age 99; Cantinflas of lung cancer at his Mexico City home April 20 at age 81; Ann Todd at London May 6 at age 82 following a stroke; director James Bridges of kidney failure at Los Angeles June 6 at age 57; actress Alexis Smith of cancer at Los Angeles June 9 at age 72; former "Our Gang" child star George R. P. "Spanky" McFarland of cardiac arrest at Grapevine, Texas, outside Dallas June 30 at age 64; director Federico Fellini of cardio-respiratory failure after a heart attack at Rome October 31 at age 73; Don Ameche of prostate cancer at Scottsdale, Ariz., December 6 at age 85; Myrna Loy while undergoing surgery for cancer at New York December 14 at age 88; Moses Gunn of asthma complications at his Guilford, Conn., home December 17 at age 64; Don De Fore of a heart attack at Los Angeles December 22 at age 80; director Alexander Mackendrick of pneumonia at Los Angeles December 22 at age 81; Jeff Morrow at Canoga Park, Calif., December 26 at age 86.
Hollywood musical: Agnieszka Holland's The Secret Garden with Kate Maberly, Heydon Prowse, Maggie Smith, music by Zbigniew Preisner.
Stage musicals: The Who's Tommy 4/23 at New York's St. James Theater, with Michael Cerveris, Buddy Smith, Paul Kandel, music by Peter Townshend, who has recycled songs from a 1969 rock opera by The Who, 899 perfs.; Kiss of the Spider Woman 5/3 at New York's Broadhurst Theater, with Brent Carver, Anthony Crivello, Chita Rivera, now 60, who sings and dances despite a recent auto accident in which one leg was smashed, music and lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb, 904 perfs.; Sunset Boulevard 7/12 at London's Adelphi Theatre, with Kevin Anderson, Patti LuPone, Betty Schaefer, music by Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber, book and lyrics by Christopher Hampton and Don Black.
Ruby Keeler dies of cancer at her Palm Springs, Calif., home February 28 at age 82.
Guitarist-composer Carlos Montoya dies at Wainscott, L.I., March 3 at age 89; conductor Erich Leinsdorf at Zürich September 11 at age 81; electronic music pioneer Leon Theremin (Lev Sergeyevich Termen) at Moscow November 3 at age 97.
Ballet star Rudolf Nureyev dies at Paris January 6 at age 54 of complications resulting from AIDS; choreographer Agnes de Mille dies of a stroke in her Greenwich Village, New York, apartment October 7 at age 88, having written, "The truest expression of a people is in its dances and its music. Bodies never lie."
Popular songs: "If You Asked Me To" and The Colour of My Love (CD) by Canadian pop singer Celine Dion, 24, who spoke only French until age 19; "Loser" by the 23-year-old Los Angeles-born songwriter-instrumentalist Beck (originally Beck Campell, he has adopted his mother's maiden name Hansen but records under his first name); the dance number "Macarena" by the Spanish guitarists Los Del Rio (Antonio Romero and Rafael Ruiz) released in April will be remixed by the Miami group Bayside Boys; In Utero (CD) by the Seattle trio Nirvana (singer-guitarist Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic, drummer Dave Grohl); Zooropa (CD) by U2 includes the singles "Numb" and "The First Time"; Toni Braxton (CD) by Maryland-born rhythm and blues vocalist-songwriter Toni Braxton, 25, includes "Another Sad Love Song"; "That's the Way Love Goes" by Janet Jackson, James Harris 3rd, Terry Lewis; Tuesday Night Music Club (CD) by Missouri-born vocalist Sheryl Crow, 31; River of Dreams (CD) by Billy Joel; Siamese Dream (CD) by the rock group Smashing Pumpkins (singer-guitarist-songwriter William Patrick "Billy" Corgan, Jr., 26; drummer James Joseph "Jimmy" Chamberlin, 29; bassist D'Arcy [Elizabeth] Wretzky, 25; James [Yoshinobu] Iha, 25; keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin, 31); Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (CD) by Sarah McLachlan; Music Box and Merry Christmas (CDs) by Long Island-born singer-songwriter Mariah Carey, 23, whose previous albums Mariah, Emotions, and Unplugged have sold in the millions and earned a fortune (she marries 43-year-old Sony Corp. record producer Tommy Mottola but the marriage will end in March 1998); Mi Tierra (CD) by Cuban-born rock singer Gloria Estefan, 35, who has been a star of the Miami Sound Machine; Doggystyle (CD) by Long Beach, Calif.,-born rap artist Snoop Doggy Dogg (Calvin Broadus), 20.
Cuban singer Albita (Rodriguez), 30, and her band defect, cross from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, into El Paso in the spring, arrive at Miami, and begin a new career, reinvigorating the local musical scene.
The London-based music company PolyGram agrees August 3 to buy Motown Record Co. for $301 million (PolyGram is controlled by the Dutch electronics giant Philips).
Dizzy Gillespie dies of pancreatic cancer at Englewood, N.J., January 6 at age 75; gospel music creator Thomas A. Dorsey of Alzheimer's disease at his Chicago home January 23 at age 93, having written about 1,000 gospel songs; gospel singer Willie Mae Ford "Mother" Smith dies of heart failure at St. Louis February 2 at age 89; jazz pianist Art Hodes at Harvey, Ill., March 4 at age 88; lyricist Mitchell Paris at New York March 31 following a stroke at age 92; jazz guitarist Joe Pass (Joseph Anthony Jacobi Passalaqua) of liver cancer at Los Angeles May 23 at age 65; salsa singer Hector Lavoe of cardiac arrest at New York June 29 at age 46; zydeco (Cajun rhythm and blues) accordionist Rockin' Dopsie (Alton Rubin Sr.) after a heart attack at Opelousas, La., August 26 at age 61; singer Helen O'Connell of cancer at San Diego September 9 at age 73; jazz trumpeter and bandleader Erskine Hawkins of heart failure at Willingboro, N.J., November 11 at age 79; blues guitarist Albert Collins of lung cancer at Las Vegas November 24 at age 61.
Dallas beats Buffalo 52 to 17 at Pasadena January 31 in Super Bowl XXVII.
Britain's Grand National Handicap Steeplechase at Aintree April 3 is cancelled after two false starts. About 30 animal-rights demonstrators have rushed onto the course just before the first start, an official waving a red flag to abort the second start is taken for a demonstrator, and the general confusion convinces many that the nation's aristocratic class is inept.
Jockey Julie Krone, 29, rides Colonial Affair to victory in the Belmont Stakes June 5, becoming the first woman to win any horserace in America's Triple Crown of turf classics. Three other female jockeys—Patti Cooksey, Diane Crump, and Andrea Seefeldt—have failed in three Kentucky Derby races and one Preakness, and no woman has ever before ridden in the grueling 1½-mile Belmont. It is Krone's third Belmont attempt (she has also ridden in a Kentucky Derby); she won her first race in February 1981 and by the time she retires in 1999 she will have won 3,549.
Chicago Bulls guard Michael Jordan leads his team to its third consecutive NBA title June 20, defeating the Phoenix Suns 99 to 98 in the sixth game of the finals. Jordan announces his retirement from basketball October 6, he will play minor-league baseball next year, the Bulls will retire his No. 23 jersey November 1, 1994, but Jordan will return (see 1995).
Tennis great Arthur Ashe dies of AIDS-related pneumonia at New York February 6 at age 49.
The Women's Tennis Council announces that it will not renew its sponsorship with Philip Morris after the expiration of its agreement next year and will seek a different sponsor for what has been called the Virginia Slims championships. Health groups announce that they will continue to demonstrate at every Virginia Slims event until the contracts expire.
Pete Sampras wins in men's singles at Wimbledon and Flushing Meadow, Steffi Graf in women's singles (Monica Seles has been stabbed in mid-match April 30 by a fanatical Graf supporter at Hamburg).
The Florida Marlins (Miami) and Colorado Rockies (Denver) play their first seasons. Both are National League extension teams.
Major League Baseball suspends Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott for the season following complaints that she has made bigoted remarks about players (see 1984).
The Toronto Blue Jays win the World Series, beating the Philadelphia Phillies 4 games to 2.
Former St. Louis Cardinals, New York Giants, and New York Yankees infielder Johnny Mize dies at his native Demorest, Ga., June 2 at age 80; former Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale of a heart attack at Montreal July 3 at age 56; former Yankee pitcher Allie Reynolds of complications from lymphoma and diabetes at Oklahoma City December 27 at age 79.
Evander Holyfield regains his heavyweight boxing title November 6, winning a 12-round decision over Riddick Bowe at Las Vegas.
Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito, 33, is married at Tokyo June 9 to Harvard- and Oxford-educated commoner Masako Owada, 29, a former Foreign Ministry star who until January was involved in shuttle diplomacy with Washington on such issues as semiconductor trade talks and Japan's refusal to accept foreign lawyers. The couple arrives by train at Ise June 25 and makes a ceremonial report of their marriage the following day to the sun goddess Amaterasu.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports in July that there has been a sharp increase in the number of women who become mothers without marrying, especially among educated professionals. Nearly one-fourth of the nation's unmarried women become mothers, an increase of 60 percent over 1982. Among white women who have attended college, the number has nearly doubled; among women with professional or