1990 in the United States

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1990 in the United States
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Years:	1987 1988 1989 – 1990 – 1991 1992 1993
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Events from the year 1990 in the United States.

Incumbents

January 10 – Time Warner is formed from the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc.
January 13 – Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia.
January 18 – In 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, New York after a miscommunication between the flight crew and JFK Airport officials.
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 – Cold War: The first McDonald's in Moscow, Russia opens.

February 14: Pale Blue Dot

February 11 – James "Buster" Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson to win the World Heavyweight Boxing crown.
February 13 – Drexel Burnham Lambert files for bankruptcy protection, Chapter 11.
February 14 – The Pale Blue Dot picture was sent back from the Voyager 1 probe after completing its primary mission, it was about 6 billion km (3.7 billion miles) from Earth.
February 27 – Exxon Valdez oil spill: Exxon and its shipping company are indicted on five criminal counts.

March 1 – Steve Jackson Games is raided by the U.S. Secret Service, prompting the later formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
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 – 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 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 2012^[update]) have not been recovered.
March 25 – In New York City, a fire due to arson at an illegal social club called "Happy Land" kills 87.
March 26 – The 62nd Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California, with Driving Miss Daisy winning Best Picture.
March 27 – 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.

April 6 – Robert Mapplethorpe's "The Perfect Moment" show of nude and homosexual photographs opens at the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center, in spite of accusations of indecency by Citizens for Community Values.
April 7 – Iran Contra Affair: John Poindexter is found guilty of 5 charges for his part in the scandal; the convictions are later reversed on appeal.
April 9 – Sigma Lambda Gamma National Sorority, Inc. was established.
April 20 – STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched aboard Space Shuttle Discovery.
April 24 – The Space Shuttle Discovery places the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit.

May 22 – Microsoft releases Windows 3.0.
May 24 – The Edmonton Oilers defeat the Boston Bruins in the 1990 Stanley Cup Finals for their fifth Stanley Cup.

June 1 – Cold War: U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign the Chemical Weapons Accord to end chemical weapon production and begin destroying their respective stocks.
June 2 – The Lower Ohio Valley tornado outbreak spawns 88 confirmed tornadoes in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio, killing 12; 37 tornadoes occur 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 14 – 1990 NBA Finals: The Detroit Pistons defeat the Portland Trail Blazers.
June 26 – President George H. W. Bush reneges on his 1988 "no new taxes" campaign pledge in a statement accepting tax revenue increases as a necessity to reduce the budget deficit.^[1] This later becomes a factor in the 1992 presidential election.

July – The United States enters the early 1990s recession.
July 26 – U.S. President George H. W. Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act, designed to protect disabled Americans from discrimination.

August 2 – Gulf War: Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.
August 6 – Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to its invasion of Kuwait.
August 12 – "Sue", the best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex specimen ever found, is discovered in South Dakota.
August 19 – Leonard Bernstein conducts his final concert, ending with Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
August 28 – The Plainfield Tornado (F5 on the Fujita scale) strikes the towns of Plainfield, Crest Hill, and Joliet, Illinois, killing 29 people (the strongest tornado to date to strike the Chicago Metropolitan Area).

September 11 – Gulf War: President George H. W. Bush delivers a nationally televised speech in which he threatens the use of force to remove Iraqi soldiers from Kuwait.
September 12 – Cold War: The two German states and the Four Powers sign the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany in Moscow, paving the way for German reunification.
September 18 – The International Olympic Committee awards the 1996 Summer Olympics to Atlanta, Georgia.
September 29 – Washington National Cathedral is completed after 83 years of construction.
September 30 – The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible is published in the United States.

October 9 – Leonard Bernstein announces his retirement from conducting after 47 years. He dies five days later.^[2]
October 25 – Evander Holyfield defeats James "Buster" Douglas to become the heavyweight boxing champion.

November 5 – President George H. W. Bush signs the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, which includes tax increases despite his "no new taxes" pledge.
November 5 – Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the far-right Kach movement, is shot dead after a speech at a New York City hotel.
November 11 – Stormie Jones, the Texas girl who had been the world's first recipient of both a heart and a liver transplant in 1984, died at a Pittsburgh hospital, at age 13.
November 15 – STS-38: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on a classified military mission.
November 29 – Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council passes UN Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing military intervention in Iraq if that nation does not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by January 15, 1991.

December 11: John Gotti arrested

December 3 – At Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Northwest Airlines Flight 1482 (a McDonnell Douglas DC-9) collides with Northwest Airlines Flight 299 (a Boeing 727) on the runway, killing 8 passengers and 4 crewmembers on Flight 1482.
December 11 – American mob boss John Gotti is arrested.