January

January 1
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is established.
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation begins their war in Chiapas,
Mexico.
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 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 17 – The 6.7 Mw Northridge earthquake strikes the Greater Los Angeles
Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), leaving 57 people dead and
more than 8,700 injured.
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 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 – Student David Kang fires two blank shots from a starting pistol at
Prince Charles in Sydney, Australia.[1][2][importance?]

February

February 3 – In the aftermath of the Chadian–Libyan conflict, the International

Court of Justice rules that the Aouzou Strip belongs to the Republic of Chad.
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 (it is recovered on
May 7).
The 1994 Winter Olympics begin in Lillehammer.
February 24 – In Gloucester, local police begin excavations at 25 Cromwell
Street, the home of Fred West, a suspect in 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 28
Four United States F-16s shoot down four Serbian J-21s over Bosnia and
Herzegovina for violation of the Operation Deny Flight and its no-fly zone.
At midnight Walvis Bay is officially handed over to Namibia by South
Africa.

March

March – The People's Republic of China gets its first connection to the
Internet.[3]
March 6 – A referendum in Moldova results in the electorate voting against
possible reunification with Romania.
March 12
 A photo by Marmaduke Wetherell, previously touted as "proof" of the Loch
Ness Monster, is confirmed to be a hoax.
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.
March 15 – U.S. troops are withdrawn from Somalia.
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. Steven Spielberg's Holocaust drama,
Schindler's List, wins seven Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director
(Spielberg).
March 23
Green Ramp disaster: two military aircraft collide over Pope Air Force
Base, North Carolina causing 24 fatalities.
Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio is assassinated at a
campaign rally in Tijuana.
March 27
TV tycoon Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing coalition wins the Italian general
election.
The biggest tornado outbreak in 1994 occurs in the southeastern United
States; one tornado kills 22 people at the Goshen United Methodist Church in
Piedmont, Alabama.
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.

April
Nelson Mandela casts his vote in the 1994 South African general election

April 2 – The National Convention of New Sudan of the SPLA/M opens in Chukudum.
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 16 – Voters in Finland decide to join the European Union in a referendum.
April 20 – South Africa adopts a new national flag, replacing the "Oranje,
Blanje, Blou" flag that was used during apartheid.
April 21 – The Red Cross estimates that hundreds of thousands of Tutsi have
been killed in Rwanda.
April 25 – Sultan Azlan Muhibbudin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Yusuff Izzudin
Shah Ghafarullahu-lahu ends his term as the 9th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
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.
China Airlines Flight 140, an Airbus A300, crashes while landing at Nagoya,
Japan, killing 264 people.
April 27 – South Africa holds its first fully multiracial elections, marking
the final end of the last vestiges of apartheid. Nelson Mandela wins the elections
and is sworn in as the first democratic president the following month.

May

May 1 – Three-time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna is killed in an

accident during the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, Italy.
May 5 – The Bishkek Protocol between Armenia and Azerbaijan is signed in
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; effectively freezing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
May 6 – The Channel Tunnel, which took 15,000 workers more than seven years to
complete, opens between England and France, enabling passengers to travel between
the two countries in 35 minutes.
May 10
Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president.
May 17 – Malawi holds its first multiparty elections.
May 20 – After a funeral in Cluny Parish Church, Edinburgh attended by 900
people and after which 3,000 people lined the streets, John Smith is buried in a
private family funeral on the island of Iona, at the sacred burial ground of Reilig
Odhráin, which contains the graves of several Scottish kings as well as monarchs of
Ireland, Norway and France.[4]
May 22 – Pope John Paul II issues the Apostolic Letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis
from the Vatican, expounding the Catholic Church's position requiring "the
reservation of priestly ordination to men alone".

June

June 1 – The Republic of South Africa rejoins the Commonwealth after the first
democratic election. South Africa left the then British Commonwealth in 1961.
June 6–8 – Ceasefire negotiations for the Yugoslav War begin in Geneva; they
agree to a one-month cessation of hostilities (which does not last more than a few
days).
June 12 – Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman are murdered outside the
Simpson home in Los Angeles. O. J. Simpson is later acquitted of the killings, but
is held liable in a civil suit.
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
mansion, where he surrenders.
The 1994 FIFA World Cup starts in the United States.
June 23 – The International Olympic Committee celebrates its first centennial.
June 25 – Cold War: the last Russian troops leave Germany.
June 26 – Microsoft announces it will no longer sell or support the MS-DOS
operating system separately from Microsoft Windows. This had been its mainstay
since 1980.[importance?]
June 28 – Members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult execute the first sarin gas attack
at Matsumoto, Japan, killing eight and injuring 200.
June 30 – An Airbus A330 crashes during a test flight near Toulouse, France,
where Airbus is based, killing the seven-person crew. The test was meant to
simulate an engine failure at low speed with maximum angle of climb.
June 30
The Liberal Democratic Party in Japan regained power after spent 11 months
of opposition, with the coalition with Japanese Socialist Party.
Tropical Storm Alberto forms, hitting parts of Florida causing $1.03
billion in damage and 32 deaths.

July
Brown spots mark impact sites of the Shoemaker–Levy Comet on Jupiter's southern
hemisphere.

July 2 – Colombian footballer Andrés Escobar, 27, is shot dead in Medellín. His
murder is commonly attributed as retaliation for the own goal Escobar scored in the
1994 FIFA World Cup against the United States soccer team.
July 4 – Rwandan Patriotic Front troops capture Kigali, a major breakthrough in
the Rwandan Civil War.
July 5 – Jeff Bezos founds Amazon.
July 7 – 1994 civil war in Yemen: Aden is occupied by troops from North Yemen.
July 8 – North Korean President Kim Il-sung dies, but officially continues to
hold office.
 July 12 – The Allied occupation of Berlin ends with a casing of the colors
ceremony attended by U.S. President Bill Clinton.
July 16–22 – Fragments of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 impact the planet Jupiter.
July 17 – Brazil wins the 1994 FIFA World Cup, defeating Italy 3–2 in a penalty
shootout in the final (full-time 0–0).
July 18
AMIA bombing: In Buenos Aires, a terrorist attack destroys a building
housing several Jewish organizations, killing 85 and injuring many more.
Rwandan Patriotic Front troops capture Gisenyi, forcing the interim
government into Zaire and ending the Rwandan genocide.
July 25 – Israel and Jordan sign the Washington Declaration as a preliminary to
signature on October 25 of the Israel–Jordan peace treaty, which formally ends the
state of war that has existed between the nations since 1948.

August

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.
All Major League Baseball players go on strike, beginning the longest work
stoppage in the sport's history.
August 31
The Provisional Irish Republican Army announces a "complete cessation of
military operations".
The Russian army leaves Estonia and Latvia, ending the last traces of
Eastern Europe's Soviet occupation.[5]

September

September 3 – Cold War: Russia and the People's Republic of China agree to de-
target their nuclear weapons against each other.
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 killing all on board.
September 13 – President Bill Clinton signs the Federal Assault Weapons Ban,
which bans the manufacture of new firearms with certain features for a period of 10
years.
September 14 – The 1994 World Series is officially cancelled due to the ongoing
work stoppage. It is the first time a World Series will not be played since 1904.
September 16
Danish tour guide Louise Jensen is abducted, raped and murdered by three
British soldiers in Cyprus.[6]
Britain lifts the broadcasting ban imposed on Sinn Féin and paramilitary
groups from Northern Ireland.
September 19 – American troops stage a bloodless invasion of Haiti to restore
the legitimate elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to power.
September 28
The car ferry MS Estonia sinks in the Baltic Sea, killing 852 people.
José Francisco Ruiz Massieu, Mexican politician, is assassinated on orders
of Raúl Salinas de Gortari.
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.

October
 October 1
In Slovakia, populist leader Vladimír Mečiar wins the general election.
Palau gains independence from the United Nations Trusteeship Council.
October 4 – 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 8 – Iraq disarmament crisis: The President of the United Nations
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 three years of U.S. exile, Haiti's president Aristide returns to his
country.
Iraq disarmament crisis: following threats by the U.N. Security Council and
the U.S., Iraq withdraws troops from its border with Kuwait.

November

November 5
A letter by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, announcing that he has
Alzheimer's disease, is released.
George Foreman wins the WBA and IBF World Heavyweight Championships by
KO'ing Michael Moorer becoming the oldest heavyweight champion in history.
Johan Heyns, an influential Afrikaner theologian and critic of apartheid,
is assassinated.
November 6
A flood in Piedmont, Italy, kills dozens of people.
Bražuolė bridge bombing in Lithuania damages a railway bridge but trains
are stopped in time to avoid casualties.
November 7 – WXYC, the student radio station of the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, provides 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 secure
control of both houses of Congress. George W. Bush is elected Governor of Texas.
Hurricane Gordon hits Central America, Jamaica, Cuba, the Bahamas, Haiti
and the Southeastern United States, causing $594 million in damages and 1,152
fatalities.
November 13
Voters in Sweden decide to join the European Union in a referendum.
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.
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 3 – Taiwan held the first full local elections; James Soong elected as
the first and only direct elected Governor of Taiwan, Chen Shui-bian became the
first direct elected Mayor of Taipei, Wu Den-yih became the first directed Mayor of
Kaohsiung.
December 11 – Russian president Boris Yeltsin orders troops into Chechnya.
December 13
The trial of former President Mengistu begins in Ethiopia.
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
are mostly found buried at his house in Cromwell Street. His wife Rose West, 41, is
charged with 10 murders.
December 14 – Construction commences on the Three Gorges Dam, at Sandouping,
China.
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 prompts a US$50 billion "bailout" by the Clinton
Administration.
Civil unions between same-sex couples are legalized in Sweden.
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.

Date unknown

Pyroclastic flows – clouds of scalding gas, pumice, and ash – rapidly descend
an erupting Mount Merapi volcano in central Java, causing sixty deaths.
Online service America Online offers gateway to World Wide Web for the first
time. This marked the beginning of easy accessibility of the Web to the average
American.
The population of Nigeria exceeds 100 million, making the republic the first
African nation to have a population above 100 million.