What happened in 1996

World3

• Jan 22Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece, resigns due to health problems; a new government is formed under Costas Simitis.
• Jul 17The Community of Portuguese Language Countries (Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa) is constituted.
• Nov 19Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) established.

Japan1

• FebPokémon Red and GreenReleased for the Game Boy on February 27. Trading Pokémon over a link cable spread among children, and with the anime and the cards it went out to the world.

North America16

• Mar 25The 68th Academy Awards, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles with Braveheart winning Best Picture.
• Apr 3A Boeing 737 military jet crashes into a mountain north of Dubrovnik, Croatia. All 35 people on board are killed, including United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown.
• May 10The Internet Archive is founded.
• May 11After takeoff from Miami, a fire started by improperly handled oxygen canisters in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 people on board.
• Jul 12Hurricane Bertha: made landfall in North Carolina as a Category 2 storm, causing $270 million in damage ($ in present-day terms) to the United States and its possessions and many indirect deaths.
• Jul 17Paris- and Rome-bound TWA Flight 800 (Boeing 747) explodes off the coast of Long Island, New York, killing all 230 people on board.
• Jul 19The 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, begin.
• Jul 27The Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in the United States kills one person and injures 111.
• Aug 4The 1996 Summer Olympics conclude.
• Sep 5Hurricane Fran makes landfall near Cape Fear, North Carolina as a Category 3 storm with sustained winds. Fran caused over $3 billion in damages ($ in present-day terms) and killed 27 people, mainly in North Carolina. The name "Fran" was retired due to the extensive damage.
• Sep 10Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) signed (it will be ratified 180 days after ratification by 44 Annex 2 countries).
• Sep 24U.S. president Bill Clinton signs the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty at the United Nations.
• Nov 51996 United States presidential election: Incumbent Democratic President Bill Clinton defeats his Republican challenger, Bob Dole and Reform Party candidate Ross Perot.
• Nov 7NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor.
• Nov 19STS-80: Space Shuttle Columbia conducts the longest mission of the Space Shuttle program.

1 more in the app

Europe9

• Feb 9An IRA ceasefire ends with the Docklands bombing in London's Canary Wharf District, killing two people and causing over £85,000,000 worth of damage.
• Feb 10Bosnian Serbs break off contact with the Bosnian government and with representatives of IFOR, the NATO localised force, in reaction to the arrest of several Bosnian Serb war criminals.
• Mar 13Dunblane massacre: Unemployed former shopkeeper Thomas Hamilton walks into the Dunblane Primary School in Scotland and opens fire, killing sixteen infant school pupils and one teacher before committing suicide.
• Jun 4The space rocket Ariane 5 explodes forty seconds in its maiden flight, after takeoff in French Guiana. The project costs European governments $7,500,000,000 over eleven years.
• Jun 8England hosts the UEFA Euro 1996 football tournament, which is won by Germany.
• Jun 15In Manchester, UK, an IRA bomb injures over 200 people and devastates a large part of the city centre.
• Jun 28The Constitution of Ukraine is signed into law.
• Jul 1German orthography reform of 1996 agreed internationally.
• Dec 25At least 283 migrants drown in the sinking of F174 near Capo Passero (Sicily).

USSR / Russia3

• Jul 3Boris Yeltsin is re-elected as President of Russia after the second round of elections.
• Aug 29A Russian Tupolev Tu-154 jetliner crashes into a mountain as it approaches the airport at Spitsbergen, Norway, killing all 141 people on board.
• Nov 17A bomb explodes in Kaspiysk, Russia, killing 32 people.

Asia7

• Jan 31Colombo Central Bank bombing: an explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing at least 86 people and injuring 1,400.
• Mar 8Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: China begins surface-to-surface missile testing and military exercises off Taiwanese coastal areas. The United States government condemns the act as provocation, and the Taiwanese government warns of retaliation.
• Mar 18The Ozone Disco Club fire in Quezon City, Philippines, kills 163 people.
• Mar 24The Marcopper mining disaster on the island of Marinduque, Philippines takes place.
• May 101996 Everest disaster: A sudden storm engulfs Mount Everest with several climbing teams high on the mountain, leaving eight people dead. By the end of the month, at least four other climbers die in the worst season of fatalities on the mountain to date.
• Sep 20Leader of Pakistani opposition party Pakistan Peoples Party Murtaza Bhutto is killed during a gunfight with police.
• Nov 20The 1996 Garley Building fire occurred in Hong Kong, resulting in 41 deaths and 81 injuries.

Middle East6

• Apr 11The Israeli government launches Operation Grapes of Wrath, consisting of massive attacks on Lebanon, in retaliation for "terrorist attacks", and sparking off a violent series of retaliations.
• Apr 18Qana massacre: Over 100 Lebanese civilians are killed after Israel shells the United Nations compound in Qana.
• Sep 3The United States launches Operation Desert Strike against Iraq in reaction to the attack on Arbil.
• Sep 27In Afghanistan, the Taliban capture the capital city of Kabul, after driving out President Burhanuddin Rabbani and executing former leader Mohammad Najibullah.
• Nov 12Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 collides in mid-air with Kazakhstan Airlines Il-76 in New Delhi, India, resulting in the loss of 349 lives.
• Dec 27Taliban forces retake the strategic Bagram Air Base, solidifying their buffer zone around Kabul, Afghanistan.

Latin America6

• Feb 6Birgenair Flight 301, on a charter flight from the Caribbean to Germany, crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Dominican Republic, killing all 189 passengers and crew.
• Feb 24Cuban fighter jets shoot down two American aircraft belonging to the Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Cuban officials assert that they invaded Cuban airspace.
• Feb 29Faucett Perú Flight 251 en route from Lima to Rodriguez Ballon airport crashes into a mountain near Arequipa; all 123 people on board are killed.
• Oct 2Aeroperú Flight 603 crashes into the Pacific Ocean when the instruments fail just after takeoff from Lima Airport, killing all 70 people on board.
• Oct 31TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 402 crashes into a densely populated area of São Paulo, killing all 96 people on board.
• Dec 17The Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement takes 72 hostages in the Japanese Embassy in Lima, Peru.

Africa7

• Jan 8A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa, killing around 300 people.
• May 21Seven Trappist monks from the monastery of Thibirine are killed by members of the Armed Islamic Group in Algeria after talks with French government concerning the imprisonment of several GIA sympathisers break down.
• Jul 25The Tutsi-led Burundian army performs a coup and reinstalls previous president Pierre Buyoya, ousting current president Sylvestre Ntibantunganya.
• Aug 21[Former State President of South Africa, F. W. de Klerk, makes an official apology for crimes committed under Apartheid to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Cape Town.
• Nov 8All 144 people on board a Nigerian-owned Boeing 727 die after the aircraft crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while approaching Lagos airport.
• Nov 23The Republic of Angola officially joins the World Trade Organization as Angola.
• Nov 23Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 is hijacked, then crashes into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 125.

Oceania2

• Apr 28Port Arthur massacre (Australia): Martin Bryant kills 35 people at the Port Arthur tourist site in Tasmania.
• May 10The Australian government introduces a nationwide ban on the private possession of both automatic and semi-automatic rifles, in response to the Port Arthur massacre.