Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar).
The year 1994 was designated as the "International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations.
Events of 1994
January
- January 1 - The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect.
- January 1 - Florida State University beat the University Of Nebraska in the Orange Bowl for the national championship
- January 1 - The Zapatista Army of National Liberation begins their war in Chiapas, Mexico.
- January 6 - In Detroit, Michigan, Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the right leg by an assailant under orders from figure skating rival Tonya Harding's ex-husband.
- January 8 - Soyuz TM-18: Valeri Polyakov begins his 437.7 day orbit, eventually setting the world record for days spent in orbit.
- January 11 - The Irish government announces the end of a 15-year broadcasting ban on the Provisional Irish Republican Army and its political arm Sinn Féin.
- January 11 - The Superhighway Summit is held at UCLA's Royce Hall. It was the first conference to discuss the growing information superhighway and was presided over by U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
- January 14 - U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the Kremlin Accords, which stop the preprogrammed aiming of nuclear missiles toward each country's targets, and also provide for the dismantling of the nuclear arsenal in Ukraine.
- January 15 - SS American Star breaks tow in the Atlantic Ocean and is beached at Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands a few days later.
- January 17 - The 1994 Northridge Earthquake, magnitude 6.7, hits the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles at 4:31 AM killing 72 and leaving 26,029 homeless.
- January 18 - The Cando event, a possible bolide impact in Cando, Spain. Witnesses claim to have seen a fireball in the sky lasting for almost one minute.
- January 19 - Record cold temperatures hit the eastern United States. The coldest temperature ever measured in Indiana state history, −36 °F (−38 °C), is recorded in New Whiteland, Indiana.
- January 20 - In South Carolina, Shannon Faulkner becomes the first female cadet to attend The Citadel, but soon drops out.
- January 21 - Lorena Bobbitt is found not guilty by reason of insanity on charges of mutilating her husband John.
- January 25 - U.S. President Bill Clinton delivers his first State of the Union address, calling for health care reform, a ban on assault weapons, and welfare reform.
- January 26 - A man fires 2 blank shots at Charles, Prince of Wales in Sydney, Australia.
- January 28 - The first trial of accused murderer Lyle Menendez ends in a mistrial. He and his brother Erik are later found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
- January 30 - In Super Bowl XXVIII, the Dallas Cowboys hand the Buffalo Bills their fourth consecutive Super Bowl loss, 30-13.
February
March
- March 1 - A lone terrorist kills Ari Halberstam during an attack on 14 Jewish students on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. [2]
- March 1 - South Africa cedes Walvis Bay to Namibia.
- March 1 - Mary Ellen Withrow begins her term of office as Treasurer of the United States, serving under President Bill Clinton.
- March 4 - Four terrorists are convicted for their roles in the World Trade Center bombing, which killed 6 and injured more than 1,000.
- March 5 - A gunman takes 9 people hostage in Salt Lake City Public Library Hostage Incident.
- March 6 - A referendum in Moldova results in the electorate voting against possible reunification with Romania.
- March 7 - Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that parodies of an original work are generally covered by the doctrine of fair use.
- March 12 - A photo by Marmaduke Wetherell, previously touted as 'proof' of the Loch Ness monster, is confirmed to be a hoax.
- March 12 - The Church of England ordains its first female priests.
- March 14 - Apple Computer, Inc. releases the first Macintosh computers to use the new PowerPC Microprocessors. This is considered to be a major leap in personal computer, as well as Macintosh history.
- March 15 - U.S. troops are withdrawn from Somalia.
- March 16 - In Portland, Oregon, Tonya Harding pleads guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for trying to cover-up an attack on figure skating rival Nancy Kerrigan. She is fined $100,000 and banned from the sport.
- March 20 - Italian journalist Ilaria Alpi and TV cameraman Miran Hrovatin are assassinated in Somalia.
- March 21 - The 66th Academy Awards, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. Steven Spielberg's Holocaust drama, Schindler's List wins seven Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director (Spielberg).
- March 23 - Two military aircraft collide over Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina causing dozens of fatalities known as the Green Ramp disaster
- March 27 - TV tycoon Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing coalition wins the Italian general election.
- March 27 - The biggest tornado outbreak in 1994 occurs in the southeastern United States. One tornado hits a United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Alabama, killing 22.
- March 27 - The Eurofighter takes its first flight in Manching, Germany.
- March 28 - Shell House Massacre: Inkatha Freedom Party and ANC supporters battle in central Johannesburg South Africa.
- March 31 - The journal Nature reports the finding in Ethiopia of the first complete Australopithecus afarensis skull (see Human evolution).
April
May
June
- June 6 - June 8 – Ceasefire negotiations for the Yugoslav War begin in Geneva; they agree to a 1-month cessation of hostilities (which does not last more than a few days).
- June 12 - Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are murdered outside the Simpson home in Los Angeles, California. O.J. Simpson is later acquitted of the killings, but is held liable in a civil suit.
- June 14 - Hacker Kevin Poulsen pleads guilty to 7 counts of mail fraud, wire and computer fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice.
- June 14 - The New York Rangers defeat the Vancouver Canucks at Madison Square Garden in New York in Game 7 of the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals to win their first Stanley Cup Championship in 54 years and ending the Curse of 1940.
- June 15 - Israel and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations.
- June 17 - NFL star O.J. Simpson and his friend Al Cowlings flee from police in his white Ford Bronco. The low-speed chase ends at Simpson's Brentwood, Los Angeles, California mansion, where he surrenders.
- June 17 - The 1994 FIFA World Cup begins in the United States.
- June 22 - The Houston Rockets defeat the New York Knicks at The Summit in Texas in Game 7 of the 1994 NBA Finals to win their first NBA Championship
- June 23 - The International Olympic Committee celebrates their first centennial.
- June 24 - U.S. Air Force pilot Bud Holland crashes a B-52 in Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington as a result of pilot error.
- June 28 - Members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult release sarin gas attack at Matsumoto, Japan, 7 persons killed, 660 injured.
July
Brown spots mark impact sites of the Shoemaker-Levy Comet on Jupiter's southern hemisphere.
August
- August - Wollemia nobilis, a "fossil tree" is discovered by bushwalker David Noble only 150 km from the largest city in Australia.
- August 1 - Fire destroys Norwich Central Library in the United Kingdom, including most of its historical records.
- August 1 - The University of London founds the School of Advanced Study, a group of postgraduate research institutes.
- August 5 - Groups of protesters spread from Havana, Cuba's Castillo de la Punta ("Point Castle"), creating the first protests against Fidel Castro's government since 1959.
- August 12 - Woodstock '94 begins in Saugerties, New York. It is the 25 year anniversary of Woodstock in 1969.
- August 12 - Major League Baseball players go on strike, eventually causing the cancellation of the World Series.
- August 20 - In Honolulu, Hawaii, during a circus international performance, an elephant named Tyke crushes her trainer Allen Campbell to death before hundreds of horrified spectators, at the Neal Blaisdell Arena.
- August 23 - Eugene Bullard was posthumously commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force, 33 years after his death, and 77 years to the day after his rejection for U.S. military service in 1917.
- August 31 - The Provisional Irish Republican Army announces a "complete cessation of military operations."
- August 31 - Russian army leaves Estonia.
September
- September 3 - Cold War: Russia and the People's Republic of China agree to de-target their nuclear weapons against each other.
- September 4 - Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan opens. All international services are transferred from Itami to Kansai.
- September 5 - New South Wales State MP for Cabramatta John Newman is shot outside his home in Australia's first political assassination since 1977.
- September 8 - USAir Flight 427, a Boeing 737 with 132 people on board, crashes on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport; there are no survivors.
- September 13 - President Bill Clinton signs the Assault Weapons Ban, which bans the manufacture of new weapons with certain features for a period of 10 years.
- September 16 - Danish tour guide Louise Jensen is abducted, raped and murdered by British soldiers.
- September 19 - American troops stage a bloodless invasion of Haiti in order to restore the legitimate elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to power.
- September 22 - The long-running American sitcom Friends premieres on NBC, eventually becoming part of NBC's Must See TV comedy blocks on Thursdays.
- September 28 - The car ferry MS Estonia sinks in the Baltic Sea, killing 852.
- September 28 - Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu, Mexican politician, is assassinated on the orders of the president's brother.
- September–October - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq threatens to stop cooperating with UNSCOM inspectors and begins to once again deploy troops near its border with Kuwait. In response, the U.S. begins to deploy troops to Kuwait.
- Religious radio personality Harold Camping once predicted that September 1994 would see the second coming of Jesus Christ.
October
- October 1 - In Slovakia, populist leader Vladimir Meciar wins the general election.
- October 5 - In Switzerland, 23 members of the Order of the Solar Temple cult are found dead, a day after 25 of their fellow cultists are similarly discovered in Morin Heights, Quebec.
- October 5 - UNESCO inaugurates World Teachers' Day to celebrate and commemorate the signing of the Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers on October 5, 1966.
- October 8 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The President of the UN Security Council says that Iraq must withdraw its troops from the Kuwait border and immediately cooperate with weapons inspectors.
- October 12 - NASA loses radio contact with the Magellan spacecraft as the probe descends into the thick atmosphere of Venus (the spacecraft presumably burned up in the atmosphere either October 13 or October 14).
- October 15 - After 3 years of U.S. exile, Haiti's president Aristide returns to his country.
- October 15 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Following threats by the U.N. Security Council and the U.S., Iraq withdraws troops from its border with Kuwait.
- October 29 - Francisco Martin Duran fires over 2 dozen shots at the White House; he is later convicted of trying to kill President Bill Clinton.
- October 31 - An American Eagle ATR-72 crashes in Roselawn, Indiana, after circling in icy weather, killing 64 passengers.
- October 31 - The Duke of Edinburgh attends a ceremony in Israel, where his late mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, is honoured as "Righteous among the Nations" for sheltering Jewish families from the Nazis in Athens, during World War II
November
- November 3 - A French magazine publishes photo of President François Mitterand's secret daughter.
- November 4 - San Francisco: The first conference devoted entirely to the subject of the commercial potential of the World Wide Web opens. Featured speakers include Marc Andreessen of Netscape, Mark Graham of Pandora Systems, and Ken McCarthy of E-Media.
- November 4 - Sydney's third runway opens, ensuring protests about noise levels.
- November 5 - A letter by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, announcing that he has Alzheimer's disease, is released.
- November 5 - George Foreman wins the WBA and IBF World Heavyweight Championships by KO'ing Michael Moorer becoming the oldest heavyweight champion in history.
- November 5 - Johan Heyns, an influential Afrikaner theologian and critic of Apartheid, is assassinated.
- November 6 - A flood in Piedmont, Italy, kills dozens of people.
- November 7 - WXYC, the student radio station of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, provided the world's first internet radio broadcast.
- November 8 - Georgia Representative Newt Gingrich leads the United States Republican Party in taking control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in midterm congressional elections, the first time in 40 years the Republicans secured control of both houses of U.S. Congress. George W. Bush is elected Governor of Texas.
- November 13 - Voters in Sweden decide to join the European Union in a referendum.
- November 13 - The first passengers travel through the Channel Tunnel.
- November 13 - Michael Schumacher wins his first Formula 1 World Championship.
- November 16 - A Federal judge issues a temporary restraining order, prohibiting the State of California from implementing Proposition 187, that would have denied most public services to illegal aliens.
- November 20 - The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol.
- November 28 - Voters in Norway decide not to join the European Union in a referendum.
December
- December 1 - Ernesto Zedillo takes office as President of Mexico.
- December 2 - The Australian government agrees to pay reparations to indigenous Australians who were displaced during the nuclear tests at Maralinga in the 1950s and 1960s.
- December 11 - Russian president Boris Yeltsin orders troops into Chechnya.
- December 11 - A small bomb explodes on Philippine Airlines Flight 434, killing a Japanese businessman. The bombing was a field test done by Ramzi Yousef to test explosives that would have been used in Project Bojinka.
- December 13 - Trial against former President Menghistu begins in Ethiopia.
- December 13 - Fred West, 53, a builder living in Gloucester, is remanded in custody, charged with murdering 12 people (including two of his own daughters) whose bodies were mostly found buried at his house in Cromwell Street. His wife Rose West, 41, is charged with 10 murders. Police believe that the murders took place between 1967 and 1987, and suspect that they may have killed up to 30 people.
- December 14 - A Learjet piloted by Richard Anderson and Brad Sexton misses an elementary school and crashes into an apartment complex in Fresno, California, killing both pilots and injuring several apartment residents.
- December 14 - British Home Secretary Michael Howard announces that Myra Hindley is to serve a whole life tariff for the Moors Murders of the 1960s.
- December 15 - The first version of web browser Netscape Navigator is released.
- December 19 - A planned exchange rate correction of the Mexican Peso to the US Dollar, becomes a massive financial meltdown in Mexico, unleashing the 'Tequila' effect on global financial markets. This will prompt a US$ 50 billion 'bailout' by the Clinton administration.
- December 19 - The Whitewater scandal investigation begins in Washington, DC.
- December 19 - Civil unions between homosexuals are legalized in Sweden.
- December 21 - A homemade bomb explodes on the # 4 train on Fulton Street in New York City.
- December 26 - French anti-terrorist police storm a hijacked jet at Marseille and kill 4 Islamist terrorists.
- December 31 is skipped by the Phoenix Islands to switch from the UTC−11 time zone to UTC+13, and by the Line Islands to switch from UTC−10 to UTC+14. The latter becomes the earliest time zone in the world, one full day ahead of Hawaii.
Undated
Ongoing
Fictional
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