1990

Events

January

• January 3 - Former leader of Panama Manuel Noriega surrenders to American forces.
• January 7 - The Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public due to safety concerns.
• January 9 - Lt Gen Bazilio Olara Okello The man who led the coup aginst 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 - Massive (200,000) demonstration in favor of Lithuanian 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 HQ in Berlin in an attempt to view their records
• January 18:
  • Former preschool operators Raymond Buckey and his mother Peggy McMartin Buckey are acquitted in a Los Angeles, California court of 52 child molestation charges.
  • Washington, DC, Mayor Marion Barry is arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting.
• January 22 - Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. is convicted of releasing the 1988 Internet worm.
• January 25 - Avianca Flight 52 crashed into Cove Neck, Long Island, after a miscommunication between the flight crew and JFK airport officials.
• January 25 - The Berlin Wall starts to come down
• January 29 - The trial of the former skipper of the Exxon Valdez, Joseph Hazelwood, begins in Anchorage, Alaska. He is accused of negligence that resulted in America's worst oil spill.
• January 31 - The first McDonald's opens in Moscow, Russia.

February

• February 2 - Apartheid: In South Africa President F.W. de Klerk allows the African National Congress to legally function again and promises to set Nelson Mandela free.
• 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 would be released the next day.
• February 11 - James "Buster" Douglas KOs Mike Tyson to win world heavyweight boxing crown.
• February 11 - Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster prison, near Cape Town, South Africa
• February 12 - Super Mario Bros. 3 is released on the Nintendo Entertainment System console and sold over 6 million copies worldwide. It is known as the best selling video game in history.
• 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 links after 8 years. The UK had broken off links in response to Argentina's invasion of the Falkland Islands, a British Dependent Territory
• February 26 - The Sandinistas are defeated in Nicaraguan elections
• February 27 - Exxon Valdez oil spill: Exxon and its shipping company are indicted on five criminal counts.

March

• March 1 - A fire at the Sheraton Hotel in Cairo kills 16.
• March 1 - Steve Jackson Games is raided by the U.S. Secret Service, prompting the later formation of the EFF.
• March 1 - Royal New Zealand Navy discontinues the daily rum ration
• March 9 - Police seals off Brixton South London after another night of protests against the poll tax
• March 9 - Dr. Antonia Novello is sworn in as Surgeon General of the United States, becoming the first female and Hispanic 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, effectively killing the Accord
• March 10 - 18 months after seizing power in a coup, Prosper Avril is ousted in Haiti
• March 11 - Lithuania becomes independent from the Soviet Union
• March 11 - Patricio Aylwin is sworn-in as the first democratically-elected Chilean president since 1973
• March 15 - Gulf War: Iraqis hang 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 - 12 paintings, collectively worth $100 million, are stolen by two thieves posing as police officers from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. This is the largest art theft in US history and the paintings (as of 2003) have not been recovered
• March 18 - East Germany holds first free elections since 1932
• 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 21 - A massive poll tax demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London turns into a riot. 417 people injured, 341 arrested
• March 25 - In New York City, a fire at an illegal social club called "Happy Land" kills 87
• March 27 - Propaganda: The United States begins broadcasting TV Marti to Cuba
• March 27 - Namibia becomes a state independent of South Africa
• March 28 - President George H. W. Bush presents Jesse Owens with the Congressional Gold Medal.

April-July

• April 7 - Iran Contra Affair: John Poindexter is found guilty of five charges for his part in the scandal but the convictions were later reversed after an appeal
• April 7 - Scandinavian Star, a Bahamas-registered ferry, catches fire enroute from Norway to Denmark - 158 dead
• April 12 - Christian Bernard, F.R.C., becomes Imperator of AMORC
• April 13 - Soviet Union apologizes for the Katyn Massacre
• April 24 - The Space Shuttle Discovery places the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit.It becomes operational May 20
• April 24 - West and East Germany agree to merge currency and economies on July 1
• May 15 - Portrait of Doctor Gachet by Vincent van Gogh is sold for a record $82.5 million.
• 1990 Stanley Cup Finals start Edmonton Oilers vs. Boston Bruins
• May 19 - British agriculture Minister John Gummer feeds a hamburger to his 5-year-old daughter to counter rumours about the spread of Mad cow disease and its transmission to humans
• May 20 - The first post- Communist presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Romania
• May 22 - Yemen is unified
• May 22 - Windows 3.0 is released by Microsoft
• May 25 - 1990 Stanley Cup Finals end Edmonton Oilers def Boston Bruins 4 games to 1
• Tuesday, May 29, 1990 - Rhode Island celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
• June 1 - U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign a treaty to end chemical weapon production and start destroying each of their nation's stockpiles
• June 12 - The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declares its sovereignty (see Russia Day)
• June 22 - Underwater volcano Mount Didicas erupts in the Philippines
• July 2 - Stampede in a pedestrian tunnel leading to the Mecca - 1426 pilgrims dead
• July 8 - At 12:34:56 PM the time and date by US reckoning was 12:34:56 7/8/90.
• July 15 - Tamil Tigers kill 168 Muslims in Colombo, Sri Lanka
• July 16 - In the Philippines, an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter Scale kills over 1600
• July 27 - The parliament building and a government tevelision house in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago were stormed by the Jamaat al Muslimeen in a Coup d'état attempt which lasted five days. Approximately 26 to 30 people where killed and several wounded (including then Prime Minister, A.N.R. Robinson, who was shot in the leg).
• July 28 - Alberto Fujimori becomes president of Peru
• July 30 - IRA car bomb kills British MP Ian Gow

August-September

• August 2 - Gulf War: Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.
• August 3 - The highest temperature ever recorded in UK - 37.1 °C at Cheltenham in Gloucestershire
• August 6 - Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
• August 7 - At 12:34:56 PM the time and date by British reckoning was 12:34:56 7/8/90.
• September 12 - 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 re-unification.

October

• October 3 - German re-unification, East Germany became part of Germany
• October 5 - After one hundred and fifty years, ten months and two 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. Founded in 1840 as The Port Phillip Herald, it is merged with its morning tabloid sister paper The Sun News-Pictorial and the first issue of the new Herald Sun, described by owner Rupert Murdoch as "The world's first 24-hour newspaper", with morning and afternoon editions, is published on the 8th.
• 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 15 - Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to lessen Cold War tensions and open up his nation
• October 27 - New Zealand general election returns National with record number of seats - 67; Labour 29, NewLabour 1.

November

• November 1 - Mary Robinson defeats odds-on favourite Brian Lenihan to become the first woman President of Ireland.
• 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 - Gulf War: The U.N. Security Council passes resolution 678, giving Iraq until Tuesday, January 15, 1991 to withdrawal its forces from Kuwait
• November 12 - Crown Prince Akihito becomes the 125th Japanese monarch and takes the title Emperor Akihito of Japan
• November 12 - Tim Berners-Lee publishes a more formal proposal for the World Wide Web. [1] (http://www.w3.org/Proposal)
• November 13 - The first known web page is written.
• November 14 - Germany and Poland sign a treaty confirming the border at the Oder-Neisse line.
• November 15 - Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis launches with flight STS-38.
• November 18 - Andrei Tjikatilo is arrested on suspicion of serial murder and rape
• November 21 - The Super Famicom is released in Japan
• November 22 - Margaret Thatcher resigns as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• November 25 - Lech Walesa and Stanislaw Tyminski win the 1st round of first presidential elections in Poland, see: December 9
• November 27 - The UK Conservative Party chooses John Major to succeed Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• November 29 - Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council passes UN Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing military intervention in Iraq if that nation did not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by Tuesday, January 15, 1991.

December

• December 1 - Channel Tunnel workers from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 meters beneath the English Channel seabed, establishing the first ground connection between the United Kingdom and the mainland of Europe since the last ice age
• December 2 - A coalition led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl wins the first free all-German elections since 1932
• December 3 - At Detroit Metropolitan Airport, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 carrying Northwest Airlines Flight 1482 collides with a Boeing 727 carrying Northwest Airlines Flight 299 on the runway, killing 8 passengers and 4 crewmembers aboard flight 1482
• December 3 - Mary Robinson is elected the first female President of Ireland.
• December 6 - Saddam Hussein releases the Western hostages
• December 9 - Slobodan Milosevic becomes President of Serbia
• December 9 - Lech Walesa wins the 2nd round of Poland's first presidential election
• December 16 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide is elected president of Haiti, ending three decades of military rule.
• December 31 - Russian Garry Kasparov holds his title by winning the World Chess Championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Jerome Isaac Friedman, Henry Way Kendall, and Richard Edward Taylor
• Chemistry - Elias James Corey
• Medicine - Joseph E. Murray, E. Donnall Thomas
• Literature - Octavio Paz
• Peace - Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev

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

• Harry Markowitz, Merton Miller, William Sharpe

Right Livelihood Award

• Alice Tepper Marlin, Bernard Lédéa Ouedraogo, Felicia Langer and ATCC (Asociación de Trabajadores Campesinos del Carare)

Births

• January 7 - Liam Aiken, child actor
• January 30 - Jake Thomas, actor (Lizzie McGuire)
• February 13 - Erdini Qoigyijabu, eleventh reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, according to the Chinese government
• February 28 - Anna Muzychuk, Ukrainian chess playe
• March 16 - James Bulger, toddler murdered in Merseyside, United Kingdom (d. 1993)
• March 24 - Keisha Castle-Hughes, actress
• March 28 - Daniel Shanks, Norwegian weightlifter
• April 15 - Emma Watson, actres (Harry Potter series)
• April 25 - Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, eleventh reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, according to the Government of Tibet in Exile
• May 16 - Thomas Sangster, actor
• July 17 - Mattie Stepanek, young poet (d. 2004)
• July 24 - Daveigh Chase, actress
• August 6 - JonBenét Ramsey
• October 18 - Carly Schroeder, actress (Lizzie McGuire)
• October 19 - Janet Leon, pop singer (PLAY)
• October 22 - Jonathan Lipnicki, child actor
• November 30 - Magnus Carlsen, Norwegian chess player
• December 20 - JoJo (born Joanna Noelle Levesque), pop singer
• December 24 - Joshua Bryant, went missing in 2001 (presumed dead)

Deaths

• September 26 - Alberto Moravia, Italian novelist (b. 1907)

Uncertain dates

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 Ceausescu and the the Communist regime, and those for the new regime.