- January 8
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 140.58 points (6.85 percent) to close at 1,911.31 in a mini-crash. [1] [82]
- January 13
- Chiang Ching-kuo, President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) (1978-88), dies at age 81 (born 1910). Vice-President Lee Teng-hui becomes president. [1] [82]
- January 15
- In Jerusalem, Israeli police and Palestinian protestors clash at the Dome of the Rock; several police and at least 70 Palestinians are injured. [1] [82]
- Disney generally releases the live-action feature film Good Morning, Vietnam to theaters. The film cost US$14 million to make. (It becomes Disney's second blockbuster movie. North American theater gross receipts: US$123.9 million.) [6]
- January 17
- Leslie Manigay elected President of Haiti. [1]
- January 18
- Airliner crashes in southwest China, killing all 108 on board. [1]
- January 21
- US accepts immigration of 30,000 US-Vietnamese children. [1]
- January 22
- In Tennant Creek, Australia, magnitude 6.3, 6.4, and 6.6 earthquakes occur. Felt over two-thirds of Australia. [53]
- January 23
- Experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completes first nonstop, round-the-world flight without refueling. [1]
- January 25
- Ramsewak Shankar sworn in as President of Suriname. [1]
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- Vice President George H.W. Bush and Dan Rather clash on CBS Evening News as Rather attempts to question Bush about his role in the Iran-Contra affair. [1]
- January 26
- Phantom of the Opera opens at Majestic Theater in New York City, New York for 4,000+ performances. [1]
- Australia's 200th anniversary-parade of tall ships in Sydney Harbor. [1]
- January 28
- Canada's Supreme Court declares anti-abortion law unconstitutional. [1]
- January 29
- Spectrum Holobyte introduces the Tetris computer game in the US. This is the first entertainment software imported to the US from the Soviet Union. The game was written by Vagim Gerasimov and Alexi Paszitnov at the Computer Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow. [4]
- Talks break down between Sandinistas and Contras. [1]
- United Airlines Boeing 747SP circles world in 36 hours 54 minutes 15 seconds. [1]
- January 31
- Barge sinks near Anacortes, Washington, USA, spills 70,000 gallons of oil. [1]
- February 3
- The Democrat-controlled United States House of Representatives rejects President Ronald Reagan's request for $36.25 million to support the Nicaraguan Contras. [82]
- February 5
- Panamanian General Manuel Noriega indicted by US grand jury on drug charges. [1]
- February 6
- USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk. [1]
- February 10
- In Japan, Enix releases the Dragon Quest III video game for the Famicom. (About 3.4 million copies are sold.) [9]
- Rocky Malebane-Metsing coup in Bophuthatswana fails. [1]
- February 13
- European Community plans removal of inner boundaries on January 1, 1992. [1]
- February 14
- Alfredo Stroessner re-elected President of Paraguay. [1]
- February 16
- First documented combat action by US military advisors in El Salvador. [1]
- February 17
- US Lieutenant Colonel William Higgins, serving with a United Nations group monitoring a truce in southern Lebanon, is kidnapped by Lebanese terrorists. [1] [82]
- February 20
- 500 die in heavy rains in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. [1]
- Peter Kalikow purchases New York Post from Rupert Murdoch for US$37.6 million. [1]
- February 21
- During a live TV broadcast, televangelist Jimmy Swaggart confesses to an unspecified sin, then announces he would be leaving his ministry for an unspecified length of time. [1] [82]
- February 24
- South African apartheid regime bans the United Democratic Front. [1]
- February 25
- South Korea adopts constitution. [1]
- February 27
- Gulfstream G-IV jet goes around the world 36:08:34. [1]
- February 28
- Anti-Armenian pogrom in Azerbaijan, 30 killed. [1]
- February 29
- A German document implicates Kurt Waldheim in W.W. II deportations. [1] [82]
- March 1
- In Trebbin, German Democratic Republic, a greenhouse is struck by a meteorite. [521]
- Iraq says it launched 16 missiles into Tehran, Iran. [1]
- Pontiac announces the end of the Fiero automobile. [1]
- March 2
- Dutch Liberal Party merges with SDP. [1]
- March 6
- In the Gulf of Alaska, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake occurs. [53]
- March 7
- Operation Flavius: British Special Air Services fatally shoot three unarmed Irish Republican Army members in Gibraltar. [82]
- March 10
- Avalanche at Swiss ski resort "Klosters" nearly kills Prince Charles. [1]
- March 11
- Utrecht conservatory destroyed by fire. [1]
- British pound note ceases to be legal tender, replaced by one-pound coin. [605.22] [794.42]
- March 15
- Dmitri F Polyakov, Russian Secretary-General/top spy for US, executed. [1]
- NASA reports accelerated breakdown of ozone layer by chlorofluorocarbons. [1]
- March 16
- Federal grand jury indicts Marine Lieutenant Colonel Oliver L. North and Navy Vice Admiral John M. Poindexter in Iran-Contra affair on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States. [1] [82]
- North-Ireland Protestant fires on Catholic funeral, three killed. [1]
- US sends 3000 soldiers to Nicaragua's neighbor Honduras. [1]
- The Halabja poison gas attack is carried out by Iraqi government forces. [82]
- March 17
- A Colombian Boeing 727 jetliner, Avianca Flight 410, crashes into the side of the mountains near the Venezuelan border killing 143. [82]
- The Nadew Command, an Ethiopian army corps in Eritrea, is attacked on three sides by military units of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) in the opening action of the Battle of Afabet. [82]
- Iran says Iraq uses poison gas. [1]
- Apple Computer files a copyright infringement suit against Microsoft, claiming copyright infringement by Windows 2.0 of graphical display technology used in the Macintosh. (A judge rules against Apple, but the case drags on for seven years, ending when the Supreme Court refuses to hear the case.) [4]
- March 19
- British Army Corporals Woods and Howes are lynched in Belfast, North Ireland. [1] [82]
- March 24
- An Israeli court sentences Mordechai Vanunu to 18 years in prison for disclosing Israel's nuclear program to The Sunday Times. [82]
- March 25
- The Candle Demonstration in Bratislava, Slovakia is the first mass demonstration of the 1980s against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. [82]
- March 29
- US Congress discontinues aid to Nicaraguan contras. [1]
- African National Congress representative Dulcie September is assassinated in Paris. [82]
- March 31
- Last East Limburg coal mine closes in Gent, Belgium. [1]
- Pulitzer prize awarded to Toni Morrison for Beloved. [1]
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