1994
| Millennium: | 2nd millennium |
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Template:C20YearInTopicX 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 the Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations.
Events of 1994
January
- January 1 - 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 IRA 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 Vice President Al Gore.
- January 12 - President Clinton meets the Presidents of Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland.
- 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 61 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 - President 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.
- January 31 - German luxury car manufacturer BMW announces the purchase of Rover from British Aerospace
February
- February 1 - In Portland, Oregon, Tonya Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly pleads guilty for his role in attacking figure skater Nancy Kerrigan. He accepts a plea bargain, admitting to racketeering charges in exchange for testimony against Harding.
- February 3 - William J. Perry is sworn in as the United States Secretary of Defense.
- February 4 - The Federal Open Market Committee raises the Fed Funds target rate for the first time since May 1989. The rate is raised by 25 basis points to 3¼ percent [1].
- February 5 - Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
- February 6 - Markale massacres: A Bosnian Serb Army mortar shell kills 68 civilians and wounds about 200 in a Sarajevo marketplace.
- February 9 - The Vance-Owen Peace plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina is announced.
- February 12 - Edvard Munch's painting "The Scream" is stolen in Oslo (and is recovered on May 7).
- February 22 - Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged with spying for the Soviet Union by the United States Department of Justice. Ames will later be convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment and his wife will receive 5 years in prison.
- February 24 - In Gloucester, local police begins excavations at 25 Cromwell Street, the home of Fred West, suspected of multiple murders. On February 28, he and his wife are arrested.
- February 25 - Israeli Kahanist Baruch Goldstein opens fire inside the Cave of the Patriarchs in the West Bank. He kills 29 Muslims before worshippers beat him to death.
- February 27 - Australian Federal Sports & Environment Minister Ros Kelly resigns over "The Sports Rorts Affair", where it was alleged that she apportioned money for community sporting projects in a pork barreling fashion.
- February 28 - United States F-16 pilots shoot down 4 Serbian fighter aircraft over Bosnia-Herzegovina for violation of the Operation Deny Flight and its no-fly zone.
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 1 - The grunge rock band Nirvana plays its final show in Munich, Germany.
- 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 8 people hostage in the 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 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 21 - Film director Steven Spielberg's film Schindler's List wins 7 Oscars, including Best Picture, at the 66th Academy Awards.
- 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 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
- April 6 - Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundi President Cyprien Ntaryamira die when a missile shoots down their jet near Kigali, Rwanda. This is taken as a pretext to begin the Rwandan Genocide.
- April 7 - The Rwandan Genocide begins in Kigali, Rwanda.
- April 8 - Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Nirvana, is found dead in Seattle, Washington. He was last seen alive by family and friends 3 days prior, but was seen at various locations around Seattle by others. His death is believed to have been a suicide.
- April 16 - Voters in Finland decide to join the European Union in a referendum.
- April 20 - Paul Touvier is found guilty of ordering the execution of 7 Jews when he served in the Vichy France Milice.
- April 21 - The Red Cross estimates that hundreds of thousands of Tutsi have been killed in Rwanda.
- April 22 - Former United States President Richard Nixon dies in New York City.
- April 25 - End of term for Sultan Azlan Muhibbudin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Yusuff Izzudin Shah Ghafarullahu-lahu as 9th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
- April 25 - The largest high school arson ever in the United States is started at Burnsville High School, in Burnsville, Minnesota, resulting in over 15 million dollars in damages. The same arsonist also goes on to set arsons at: Edina High School and Minnetonka High School. [3]
- April 26 - Tuanku Jaafar ibni Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan, becomes the 10th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
- April 27 - South Africa holds its first fully multiracial elections.
- April 29 - Commodore International declares bankruptcy.
- April 30 - Austrian Formula One pilot Roland Ratzenberger is killed in an accident during the qualifying session for the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.
May
- May 1 - The famous Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna dies in accident during San Marino Grand Prix
- May 3 - The side-scrolling DOS game Jazz Jackrabbit is released by Epic Megagames.
- May 6 - The Channel Tunnel, which took 15,000 workers over 7 years to complete, opens between England and France. Passengers can now travel between the 2 countries in 35 minutes.
- May 10 - Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first Black president.
- May 10 - Illinois executes serial killer John Wayne Gacy by lethal injection for the murder of 33 young men and boys.
- May 10 - An annular eclipse of the sun is visible across much of North America.
- May 12 - Ice hockey becomes Canada's official winter sport.
- May 12 - Labour leader John Smith, 55, dies of a heart attack. Deputy leader Margaret Beckett stands in until an election can be held. Smith is succeeded by Tony Blair, the 41-year-old Scottish-born Member of Parliament for Sedgefield in County Durham.
- May 17 - Malawi holds its first multiparty elections.
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, which unfolds live on television, ends up at Simpson's mansion in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, where he then surrenders to police.
- June 17 - The 1994 FIFA World Cup begins in the United States.
- June 23 - The International Olympic Committee celebrates their first centennial.
- June 24 - The third highest-grossing animated film of all time, The Lion King, opens in US theatres.
July
- July 2 - Colombian footballer Andrés Escobar, 27, is shot dead in Bogotá. His murder is commonly attributed as retaliation for the own goal Escobar scored in the 1994 FIFA World Cup against the United States.
- July 6 - Fourteen firefighters die in the South Canyon wildfire on Storm King Mountain in Colorado. The event inspires the 1999 book Fire on the Mountain.
- July 7 - Aden is occupied by troops from North Yemen.
- July 15 - July 21 - The planet Jupiter is hit by 21 large fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 over the course of 6 days.
- July 17 - Brazil wins the 1994 FIFA World Cup. Defeats Italy 3-2 in penalties (Full time 0-0).
- July 18 - In Buenos Aires, a terrorist attack destroys a building housing several Jewish organizations, killing 85 and injuring many more (see AMIA Bombing).
- July 25 - Israel and Jordan sign the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace, which formally ends the state of war that has existed between the nations since 1948.
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 10 - The 1994 Bambino World Series (now called Cal Ripken World Series, division of Babe Ruth Inc.) come to Henderson, Kentucky on August 10th for the first time. 2 years work of volunteers and funds led up to this event. It was played at Henderson's Park field where it sat over 5,000 people in attendance.
- 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, a female elephant named Tyke goes mad and 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 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 14 - The documentary Hoop Dreams is released.
- 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
Halloween
November
- 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 is released that announces he has Alzheimer's disease.
- November 5 - George Foreman regains the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship by KO'ing Michael Moorer in the 10th round of their bout. Foreman becomes the oldest heavyweight champion in history 20 years after first losing the title to Muhammad Ali in the Rumble in the Jungle.
- November 5 - Johan Heyns, influential Afrikaner theologian and critic of Apartheid is assassinated.
- 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 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.
December
- 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 - 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 - 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. The decision was made in private by Mr Howard's predecessor David Waddington in 1990, but Hindley is only informed of the decision today after the House of Lords ruled that the Home Secretary must inform all life sentence prisoners of the minimum term that they should serve before parole can be considered. Hindley, 52, can appeal against the decision but now knows that she may well spend the rest of her life in prison.
- December 15 - The web browser Netscape Navigator 1.0 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 made legal in Sweden.
- December 26 - French anti-terrorist police storm a hijacked jet at Marseille and kill 4 Islamist terrorists.
- December 29 - Robert Schumann, aged 10, becomes the youngest person to visit the South Pole.
- December 31 was 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 became the earliest time zone in the world, one full day ahead of Hawaii.
Undated
- (none)
Ongoing
Fictional
The following are references to year 1994 in fiction:
- Thundarr the Barbarian (1980-1982): A large asteroid passes between Earth and the Moon, causing the Moon to split into two large fragments. The event also causes major upheavals in Earth's climate and geography, as well as severe alterations in tidal forces, due to the gravitational effects of both the asteroid and the shattered Moon. This catastrophe results in the disruption of modern human civilization. Two thousand years later, civilization will re-emerge in a semi-barbaric state, where magic has been rediscovered, but co-exists alongside remnants of technology from previous civilizations, as well as science advanced far beyond that of the 1990s.
- The character Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop is born in 1994
- The Blair Witch Project (1999): Three student filmmakers disappear in the woods near the town of Burkittsville, Maryland in October whilst filming a documentary named The Blair Witch Project. A year later, their footage is recovered.
Births
January - June
- January 21 - Marny Kennedy, Australian actress
- February 5 - Saki Nakajima, Japanese singer
- February 10 - Makenzie Vega, American actress
- February 14 - Paul Butcher Jr., American actor
- February 14 - Allie Grant, American actress
- February 23 - Dakota Fanning, American actress
- March 12 - Tanveer K. Atwal, American actress
- March 13 - Louis Spencer, Viscount Althorp
- March 14 - Frankie Ryan Manriquez, American actor
- March 16 - Sierra McClain, American actress and singer
- March 30 - Cecilia Zhang, Canadian kidnapping victim (d. 2003)
- March 31 - Caden Waidyatilleka, American actor
- April 4 - Risako Sugaya, Japanese singer
- April 11 - Dakota Blue Richards, English actress
- April 12 - Moises Arias, American actor
- April 12 - Airi Suzuki, Japanese singer
- April 14 - Skyler Samuels, American actress
- April 16 - Liliana Mumy, American actress
- May 4 - Alexander Gould, American actor
- May 4 - Pauline Ducruet, Monaco heir
- May 12 - Drew Mikuska, American actor
- May 24 - Cayden Boyd, American actor
- June 11 - Ivana Baquero, Spanish actress
- June 17 - Jiordan Anna Tolli, Australian actress
- June 28 - Sophia Lorentzen, British heiress
- June 28 - Prince Hussein bin Al Abdullah II, prince of Jordan
- June 28 - Madeline Duggan, English actress
July - December
- July 6 - Camilla and Rebecca Rosso, English twin actresses
- July 9 - Akiane Kramarik, American poet and painter
- July 13 - Ridge Canipe, American actor
- July 27 - Princess Mafalda-Ceceilia of Bulgaria
- August 9 - Forrest Landis, American actor
- August 25 - Jetseta Gage, American kidnapping victim (d. 2005)
- August 25 - Josh Flitter, American actor
- August 28 - Jessie Flower, American actress
- September 1 - Bianca Ryan, American singer
- September 17 - Taylor Ware, American singer and yodeler
- September 19 - Alexander Nathan Etel, British actor
- September 22 - Danielle Van Dam, American murder victim (d. 2002)
- September 25 - Jansen Panettiere, American actor
- October 9 - Jodelle Ferland, Canadian actress
- November 11 - Connor Price, Canadian actor
- November 17 - Raquel Castro, American actress
- December 3 - Jake T. Austin, American actor
- December 15 - Flora Ogilvy, British heiress
- December 15 - Toby Linz, American actor
- December 15 - Emma Lockhart, American actress
Deaths
January-February
- January 1 - Arthur Espie Porritt, New Zealand politician and athlete (b. 1900)
- January 1 - Cesar Romero, Cuban-American actor (b. 1907)
- January 5 - Thomas P. 'Tip' O'Neill, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (b. 1912)
- January 5 - Elmar Lipping, Estonian statesman and soldier (b. 1906)
- January 5 - Brian Johnston, British cricket commentator (b. 1912)
- January 8 - Pat Buttram, American actor sidekick (b. 1915)
- January 9 - Johnny Temple, baseball player (b. 1927)
- January 15 - Harry Nilsson, American musician (b. 1941)
- January 17 - Helen Stephens, American runner (b. 1918)
- January 20 - Matt Busby, Scottish football manager (Manchester United) (b. 1909)
- January 22 - Telly Savalas, American actor (b. 1924)
- January 23 - Brian Redhead, British journalist and broadcaster (b. 1929)
- January 25 - Stephen Cole Kleene, American mathematician (b. 1909)
- January 27 - Claude Akins, American actor (b. 1914)
- January 28 - Hal Smith, American character actor and voice-over artist {b. 1916)
- January 30 - Pierre Boulle, French author (b. 1912)
- February 1 - Olan Soule, Character actor (b. 1909)
- February 6 - Jack Kirby, American comic book writer and illustrator (b. 1917)
- February 7 - Witold Lutosławski, Polish composer (b. 1913)
- February 9 - Howard Martin Temin, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1934)
- February 11 - Sorrell Booke, American actor (b. 1930)
- February 11 - William Conrad, American actor (b. 1920)
- February 11 - Neil Bonnett, American race car driver (b. 1946)
- February 14 - Andrei Chikatilo, Russian serial killer (executed) (b. 1936)
- February 17 - Randy Shilts, American author and activist (b. 1951)
- February 22 - Papa John Creech, American fiddler (b. 1917)
- February 24 - Jean Sablon, French singer (b. 1906)
- February 24 - Dinah Shore, American actress and singer (b. 1916)
- February 25 - Baruch Goldstein, American-born mass murderer (b. 1956)
- February 25 - Jersey Joe Walcott, American boxer (b. 1914)
- February 26 - Bill Hicks, American comedian (b. 1961)
March-April
- March 4 - John Candy, Canadian comedian and actor (b. 1950)
- March 6 - Ray Arcel, American boxing trainer, was active from the 1920s through the 1980s (b. 1899)
- March 9 - Charles Bukowski, American writer (b. 1920)
- March 21 - MacDonald Carey, American actor (b. 1913)
- March 22 - Walter Lantz, American cartoonist (b. 1899)
- March 23 - Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexican politician (b. 1950)
- March 25 - Max Petitpierre, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1899)
- March 28 - Eugène Ionesco, Romanian-born playwright (b. 1909)
- March 29 - Bill Travers, English actor and co-founder of the Born Free Foundation (b. 1922)
- April 1 - Léon Degrelle, Belgian Nazi (b. 1906)
- April 2 - Betty Furness, American actress, author, and consumer advocate (b. 1916)
- ca. April 5 - Kurt Cobain, American musician (Nirvana) (b. 1967)
- April 6 - Juvénal Habyarimana, President of Rwanda (b. 1937)
- April 6 - Cyprien Ntaryamira, President of Burundi (b. 1956)
- April 7 - Albert Guðmundsson, Icelandic footballer and politician (b. 1923)
- April 7 - Golo Mann, German historian (b. 1909)
- April 10 - Sam B. Hall, American politician (b. 1924)
- April 15 - John Curry, British ice skater (b. 1949)
- April 16 - Ralph Ellison, American writer (b. 1914)
- April 17 - Roger Wolcott Sperry, American neurobiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1913)
- April 22 - Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States (b. 1913)
- April 30 - Roland Ratzenberger, Austrian Formula One driver (b. 1960)
May-June
- Unknown date - Francis Bell, Australian actor (b. 1944)
- May 1 - Ayrton Senna, Brazilian Formula One driver (b. 1960)
- May 7- Clement Greenberg, American art critic (b. 1909)
- May 8 - George Peppard, American actor (b. 1928)
- May 10 - John Wayne Gacy, American serial killer (executed) (b. 1942)
- May 12 - John Smith, Scottish politician (b. 1938)
- May 15 - Gilbert Roland, Mexican-born actor (b. 1905)
- May 19 - Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, First Lady of the United States (b. 1929)
- May 20 - Lauren Wilson, Canadian figure skater (b. 1987)
- May 21 - Johan Hendrik Weidner, Belgian World War II resistance fighter (b. 1912)
- May 29 - Erich Honecker, leader of East Germany (b. 1912)
- June 9 - Jan Tinbergen, Dutch economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
- June 12 - Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe (b. 1902)
- June 12 - Nicole Brown Simpson, ex-wife of O.J. Simpson (b. 1959)
- June 12 - Ronald Goldman, friend of Nicole Brown Simpson (b. 1968)
- June 14 - Henry Mancini, American composer and arranger (b. 1924)
- June 15 - Kristen Pfaff, American bassist (Hole) (b. 1967)
- June 20 - Jay Miner, American computer pioneer (b. 1932)
- June 29 - Kurt Eichhorn, German conductor (b. 1908)
July-August
- July 8 - Dick Sargent, American actor (b. 1930)
- July 8 - Kim Il-sung, President of North Korea (b. 1912)
- July 11 - Gary Kildall, American computer inventor (b. 1942)
- July 14 - César Tovar, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (b. 1940)
- July 29 - Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
- August 7 - Larry Martyn, comedy actor (b. 1934)
- August 13 - Elias Canetti, Bulgarian-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
- August 18 - Richard Laurence Millington Synge, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1914)
- August 19 - Linus Pauling, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Peace (b. 1901)
September-October
- September 6 - Nicky Hopkins, British musician (b. 1944)
- September 11 - Jessica Tandy, English actress (b. 1909)
- September 12 - Boris Yegorov, cosmonaut (b. 1937)
- September 15 - Moana Pozzi, Italian porn actress (b. 1961)
- September 17 - Karl Popper, Austrian and British philosopher (b. 1902)
- September 20 - Abioseh Nicol, Sierra Leonean diplomat, UN official and author (b. 1924)
- September 30 - Andre Michael Lwoff, French microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1902)
- October 3 - Tim Asch, Anthropologist, photographer and ethnographic filmmaker
- October 3 - Dub Taylor, American actor (b. 1907)
- October 7 - Niels Kaj Jerne, English immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1911)
- October 14 - Emil Gilels, Russian pianist (b. 1916)
- October 19 - Martha Raye, American actress (b. 1916)
- October 20 - Burt Lancaster, American actor (b. 1913)
- October 21 - Benoît Régent, French actor (b. 1953)
- October 24 - Raul Julia, Puerto Rican actor (b. 1940)
November-December
- November 5 - Johan Heyns, Afrikaner theologian and critic of Apartheid assassinated (b. 1928)
- November 10 - Carmen McRae, American jazz singer (b. 1920)
- November 12 - Wilma Rudolph, American athlete (b. 1940)
- November 13 - Motoo Kimura, Japanese geneticist (b. 1924)
- November 14 - Tom Villard, American actor (b. 1953)
- November 16 - Doris Speed, English actress (b. 1899)
- November 16 - Dino Valente, American musician (b. 1943)
- November 20 - John Lucarotti, TV writer (b. 1926)
- November 22 - Charles Upham, New Zealand soldier, double Victoria Cross winner (b. 1908)
- November 23 - Art Barr, American professional wrestler (b. 1966)
- November 28 - Jeffrey Dahmer, American serial killer (murdered in prison) (b. 1960)
- November 28 - Buster Edwards, Great train robber (suicide) (b. 1932)
- December 8 - Antonio Carlos Jobim, Brazilian composer (b. 1927)
- December 10 - Alexander Wilson, Canadian and Notre Dame athlete (b. 1905)
- December 11 - Philip Phillips, American archaeologist (b. 1900)
- December 11 - Carl Marzani, American political documentary filmmaker, author, editor and publisher (b. 1912)
- December 12 - Stuart Roosa, astronaut (b. 1933)
- December 23 - Sebastian Shaw, English actor (b. 1905)
- December 24 - John Boswell, American historian (b. 1947)
- December 27 - Fanny Craddock, British TV chef and restaurant critic (b. 1909)
Nobel prizes
- Physics - Bertram N. Brockhouse, Clifford Glenwood Shull
- Chemistry - George Andrew Olah
- Medicine - Alfred G. Gilman, Martin Rodbell
- Literature - Kenzaburo Oe
- Peace - Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin
- Economics - Reinhard Selten, John Forbes Nash, John Harsanyi
Templeton Prize
Fields Medal
Right Livelihood Award
- Astrid Lindgren, SERVOL (Service Volunteered for All), H. Sudarshan / VGKK (Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra), Ken Saro-Wiwa / MOSOP (Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People)