What happened in 1990

World3

• Jan 25The Burns' Day Storm kills 97 in northwestern Europe.
• Sep 30The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible is officially introduced.
• Nov 5Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the far-right Kach movement, is shot dead after a speech at a New York City hotel.

Japan3

• Nov 12Akihito is enthroned as the 125th emperor of Japan following the death of his father on January 7, 1989.
• NovSuper Famicom releasedReleased on November 21. Lines formed at stores before the release day, and the first shipments sold out at once.
• DecAkiyama Toyohiro becomes the first Japanese in spaceA reporter for the TV network TBS, he flew on the Soviet Soyuz to the Mir space station. His first words in the live broadcast from space were “Is this live?”

North America16

• Jan 10McDonnell Douglas MD-11 wide-body trijet airliner takes its first flight, in the US.
• Jan 25Avianca Flight 052 crashes into Cove Neck, New York after a miscommunication between the flight crew and JFK Airport officials, killing 73 people on board.
• Jan 29The trial of Joseph Hazelwood, former skipper of the Exxon Valdez, begins in Anchorage, Alaska. He is accused of negligence that resulted in America's second worst oil spill to date.
• Feb 14The Pale Blue Dot photograph of Earth is sent back from the Voyager 1 probe after completing its primary mission, from around 5.6 billion kilometers (3.5 billion miles) away.
• Feb 27Exxon Valdez oil spill: Exxon and its shipping company are indicted on 5 criminal counts.
• Mar 1Steve Jackson Games is raided by the U.S. Secret Service, prompting the later formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
• Mar 18Twelve paintings and a Shang dynasty vase, collectively worth $100 to $300 million, are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts by two thieves posing as police officers.
• Mar 26The 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.
• Mar 27The United States begins broadcasting Radio y Televisión Martí to Cuba.
• Apr 1The 1990 United States census begins. There are 248,709,873 residents in the U.S.
• AprHubble Space TelescopeA telescope placed in Earth orbit by the Space Shuttle. At first a flaw in its mirror made its pictures blurry, and astronauts fixed it in orbit in 1993.
• Jul 26U.S. President George H. W. Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act, designed to protect disabled Americans from discrimination.
• Sep 11Gulf War: U.S. President George H. W. Bush delivers a nationally televised speech in which he threatens the use of force to remove Iraqi soldiers from Kuwait.
• Nov 15STS-38: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on a classified U.S. military mission.
• Dec 31990 Wayne County Airport runway collision: 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 crew members.

1 more in the app

Europe34

• Jan 1The comedy television series of Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean first airs on ITV in the United Kingdom.
• Jan 23The 14th and final Extraordinary Congress of the Yugoslav Communist Party concludes after 3 days. Although Serb hardliners block substantial reforms, the Party signals its openness to multiparty elections. Slovene delegates, protesting the slow pace of reforms, walk out of the assembly.
• Feb 12Representatives of NATO and the Warsaw Pact meet in Ottawa for an "Open Skies" conference. The conference results in agreements about superpower troop levels in Europe and on German reunification.
• Feb 13German reunification: An agreement is reached for a two-stage plan to reunite Germany.
• Mar 15Singing Revolution: The Soviet Union announces that Lithuania's declaration of independence is invalid.
• Apr 12Lothar de Maizière becomes prime minister of East Germany, heading a grand coalition that favors German reunification.
• May 13The Dinamo–Red Star riot takes place at Stadion Maksimir in Zagreb, Croatia between the Bad Blue Boys (fans of GNK Dinamo Zagreb) and the Delije (fans of Red Star Belgrade).
• May 18German reunification: East Germany and West Germany sign a treaty to merge their economic and social systems, effective July 1.
• May 29European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is founded.
• Jul 1German reunification: East Germany and West Germany merge their economies, the West German Deutsche Mark becoming the official currency of the East also. The Inner German border (constructed 1945) also ceases to function.
• Jul 6President of Bulgaria Petar Mladenov resigns over accusations that he ordered tanks to disperse anti-government protests in December 1989.
• Jul 25The Serb Democratic Party (Croatia) declares the sovereignty of the Serbs in Croatia.
• Oct 3Cold War: East Germany and West Germany reunify into a single Germany.
• OctThe Messeturm skyscraper in Frankfurt is completed, making it the tallest building in Europe, a distinction it will carry until 1997, when it is surpassed by the Commerzbank Tower, also in Frankfurt.
• Dec 22The first constitution of Croatia is adopted.

19 more in the app

USSR / Russia9

• Feb 7In the Tajik SSR, the Dushanbe riots break out against the settlement of Armenian refugees there.
• Mar 13The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union approves changes to the Constitution of the Soviet Union to create a strong U.S.-style presidency. Mikhail Gorbachev is elected to a five-year term as the first-ever President of the Soviet Union on March 15.
• Jun 12Cold War: The Congress of People's Deputies of Russia formally declares its sovereignty.
• Jun 19The Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic holds its inaugural conference in Moscow.
• Aug 1RELCOM is created in the Soviet Union by combining several computer networks. Later in August, the Soviet Union got its first connection to the Internet.
• Aug 15In Latvia, Viktor Tsoi, co-founder and lead singer of the Soviet rock band Kino, dies in a car accident on the Sloka–Talsi highway.
• Sep 12Cold 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.
• Oct 17A major financial service of Russia, VTB Bank is founded in Russia SSR, former part of Soviet Union, as predecessor name was Vneshtorg Bank.
• Dec 25Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov is commissioned.

Asia14

• Jan 12Most of the remaining 50,000 Armenians are driven out of Baku in the Azerbaijan SSR during the Baku pogrom.
• Jan 20Cold War: Black January – Soviet troops occupy Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, under the state of emergency decree issued by General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, and kill over 130 protesters who were demonstrating for independence. The Nakhichevan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic declares its independence from the USSR.
• Feb 14Indian Airlines Flight 605, an Airbus A320-231 registered as VT-EPN, crashes shortly before landing at Bangalore, killing 92 out of the 146 occupants on board.
• May 21In Kashmir, Indian security forces open fire on mourners carrying the body of Mohammad Farooq Shah who had been assassinated earlier. At least 47 people are killed.
• May 22Cold War: The leaders of the Yemen Arab Republic and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen announce the unification of their countries as the Republic of Yemen.
• Jun 11Sri Lankan Civil War: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam massacre over 600 unarmed police officers in the Eastern Province.
• Jul 161990 Luzon earthquake: An earthquake measuring kills more than 2,400 in the Philippines.
• Aug 2Gulf War: Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.
• Aug 6Gulf War: With United Nations Security Council Resolution 661 the United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to its invasion of Kuwait.
• Aug 24Indonesian commercial television network SCTV was established as the nation's third television station after RCTI, and also debuted as local television channel in Surabaya. During its earlier days, SCTV was the rival for RCTI, the first commercial television network. SCTV began broadcasting nationwide from Jakarta by January 29, 1991.
• Sep 9Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Army soldiers massacre 184 civilians in Batticaloa.
• Oct 2According to The Civil Aviation of China, two commercial planes collide on the runway at the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Guangdong, China. The total death toll is 128; 53 people were wounded, 97 were rescued.
• Nov 9A new constitution comes into effect in the Kingdom of Nepal, establishing multiparty democracy and constitutional monarchy; this is the culmination of the 1990 People's Movement.
• Nov 29Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council passes UN Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing military intervention in Iraq if that state does not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by Tuesday, January 15, 1991.

Middle East2

• Jun 21The 7.4 Manjil–Rudbar earthquake affects northern Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), killing 35,000–50,000, and injuring 60,000–105,000.
• Jul 21990 Mecca tunnel tragedy: A stampede in a pedestrian tunnel leading to Mecca kills 1,426.

Latin America2

• Jan 3United States invasion of Panama: General Manuel Noriega is deposed as leader of Panama and surrenders to the American forces.
• May 27In the Colombian presidential election, César Gaviria is elected President of Colombia; he takes office on August 7.

Africa6

• Mar 21After 75 years of South African rule since World War I, Namibia becomes independent.
• Jun 12In the Algerian local elections, Algeria's first multiparty election since 1962, the Islamic Salvation Front wins control of more than half of municipalities and 32 of Algeria's 48 provinces.
• Aug 21The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone send peacekeepers to intervene in the First Liberian Civil War.
• Sep 9First Liberian Civil War: Liberian president Samuel Doe is captured by rebel leader Prince Johnson and killed in a filmed execution.
• Oct 1The rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front invades Rwanda from Uganda, marking the start of the Rwandan Civil War.
• Dec 1President of Chad Hissène Habré is deposed by the Patriotic Salvation Movement and replaced as president by its leader Idriss Déby.

Oceania1

• Nov 13In New Zealand, David Gray kills 13 people in what will become known as the Aramoana massacre.