- September 19
- American troops stage a bloodless invasion of Haiti in order to restore the legitimate elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to power. [30]
- September 27
- The Compact of Free Association between the USA and Palau becomes effective. [1005.46]
- September 28
- (near midnight) In a storm on the Baltic Sea, the bow door of the ferry Estonia is torn off and the ship sinks. 137 survive, 852 die. The death of 551 Swedes is the largest single loss of Swedish life in modern history. [7] [30] [720.84]
- October 1
- The name of Euro Disneyland is officially changed to Disneyland Paris. [6]
- October 2
- Panamanian registered tanker Cercal strikes a rock on its way into Leixoes harbor, in the northern city of Oporto, Portugal, spilling about 2.3 million litres of crude into the sea. [522]
- October 4
- In the Kuril Islands, a magnitude 8.3 earthquake occurs. At least ten people killed or missing and extensive damage on Iturup; at least 340 people injured and extensive damage occurred along the east coast of Hokkaido, Japan. Felt in the Tokyo area, Japan. Tsunami wave heights up to 3.46m. [53]
- 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 dead in Morin Heights, Quebec. [30]
- UNESCO inaugurates World Teachers' Day to celebrate and commemorate the signing of the Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers on October 5, 1966. [30]
- October 8
- 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. [30]
- October 10
- Russia devalues the ruble. [552.48]
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- October 14
- Mosaic Communications makes available the first 0.9 beta test version of the Mosaic Navigator Web browser software as a file download on the Internet. Versions are available for Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, and X Window environments. The software is free for personal use, or US$99 for commercial use. [4]
- October 15
- After three years of U.S. exile, Haiti's president Aristide returns to his country. [30]
- Following threats by the U.N. Security Council and the U.S., Iraq withdraws troops from its border with Kuwait. [30]
- October 16
- The Federal Republic of Germany holds parliamentary elections. The CDU/CSU gets 41.4 percent of the vote, the SPD 36.4 percent, the FDP 6.9 percent, the Green Party 7.3 percent. The CDU/CSU-FDP coalition continues. Helmut Kohl (CDU) continues as chancellor. [37]
- October 17
- The Huahai Number Two tanker spills oil off Qinhuangdao in Hebei province, China, polluting 1km of beaches and reefs at Dongshan. [522]
- October 26
- Walt Disney Home Video releases the animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on videotape in the USA. (50 million copies are sold worldwide.) [6]
- October 29
- Francisco Martin Duran fires over two dozen shots at the White House; he is later convicted of trying to kill President Bill Clinton. [30]
- October 31
- An American Eagle ATR-72 plane crashes in Roselawn, Indiana, after circling in icy weather, killing 64 passengers. [30]
- 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 Germans in Athens, Greece, during World War II. [30]
- November 4
- In San Francisco, California, 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. [30]
- November 5
- Johan Heyns, influential Afrikaner theologian and critic of Apartheid, is assassinated. [30]
- November 7
- WXYC, the student radio station of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, provides the world's first Internet radio broadcast. [5]
- Apple Computer, Motorola, and IBM announce that they will create a computer platform to run all major operating systems, except the Intel x86-based Microsoft Windows 3.1 and successors. To be included are the Mac OS, OS/2, AIX, Solaris, Windows NT, and Netware. [4]
- November 9
- The chemical element Darmstadtium is discovered. [5]
- November 11
- Bill Gates pays US$30.8 million at auction in New York for Leonardo da Vinci's notebook, the Leicester Codex. The price paid is a record for a manuscript. [129]
- November 13
- The first passengers travel through the Channel Tunnel between England and France. [30]
- A country-wide referendum is held to decide if Sweden should join the European Union. 52.2 percent vote yes, 46.9 percent vote no. [7] [30]
- November 14
- In Mindoro, Philippine Islands, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake occurs. At least 78 people killed and 225 injured on Luzon and Mindoro. A local tsunami contributed to extensive damage in the Calapan and Puerto Galera areas. More than 797 houses destroyed and 3,288 damaged on Mindoro. [53]
- November 15
- Helmut Kohl is re-elected German Chancellor by the Bundestag with a vote of 338-333. [37]
- November 17
- Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds resigns. [1]
- November 19
- First National Lottery draw in England. Ticket sales estimated at 45 million pounds. [1] [565.270] [830.17]
- November 20
- The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol. [30]
- November 22
- Sega introduces the Saturn video game system in Japan. It features two 28.6 MHz 32-bit Hitachi SH7064 RISC processors, two video display processors, Hitachi SH7034 processor controlling the double-speed CD-ROM drive, Tamaha FH1 digital signal processor, Motorola 68EC000 sound processor, QSound surround sound, 2 MB main memory, 1.5 MB video memory, 24-bit color in 640x224 resolution, memory cartridge slot, expansion slot. Price is 44800 yen (about US$450). (Sales in the first two days: 250,000.) [9]
- November 26
- The first Beatles record ever to be played on radio ("Love Me Do", played by Radio Luxembourg in 1963) sells for CDN$23,000 at an auction in London, England, a world record price for a commercially produced record. [457]
- November 29
- Russian aircraft bomb Chechen capital of Grozny. [1]
- December 1
- Ernesto Zedillo innaugrated as President of México. [1]
- December 2
- Passenger liner Achille Lauro (former Willem Ruys) sinks off the coast of Somalia. [1]
- The Australian government agrees to pay reparations to indigenous Australians who were displaced during the nuclear tests at Maralinga in the 1950s and 1960s. [30]
- December 3
- Giorgi Chanturia, President of Georgia, is assassinated. [1]
- Sony introduces the PlayStation video game system in Japan. It features a 33 MHz 32-bit MIPS R3000A processor, with special audio and graphics functions integrated, geometry coprocessor, 2 MB RAM, 1 MB video RAM. Graphics resolution is 640x480 in 24-bit color. Price is 39800 yen, about US$399. (100,000 systems sell in the first two days.) [9]
- December 6
- Maltese Falcon auctioned for US$398,590. [1]
- December 8
- Fire in cinema in Karamay, China, 310 killed. [1]
- December 9
- 13m diameter asteroid 1994XM1 passes within 100,000km of Earth. [1] [526.213]
- Kim II Sung, President of North Korea (1945-94), dies at age 82. [1]
- December 10
- European Campaign against racism "All different, All equal" begins. [1]
- Nobel Prize awarded to Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Yasser Arafat. [1]
- December 11
- Boris Yeltsin orders troops into Chechnya. [30]
- Russian troops pull inside Tsjetsjenië. [1]
- 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. [30]
- 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 ten murders. Police believe that the murders took place between 1967 and 1987, and suspect that the couple may have killed up to 30 people. [30]
- December 15
- The web browser Netscape Navigator 1.0 is released. [30]
- John Bruton becomes Ireland's premier. [1]
- Liberia militia kills 48 inhabitants of Monrovia. [1]
- December 18
- Socialist Party (ex-communist) wins Bulgaria parliamentary election. [1]
- 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.) [30]
- Civil unions between homosexuals are made legal in Sweden. [30]
- December 22
- Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi resigns. [1]
- December 24
- Four Muslim fundamentalists capture Air France pilot in Algiers. [1]
- December 26
- French anti-terrorist police storm a hijacked Air France jet at Marseille and kill four Islamist terrorists. [1] [30]
- December 28
- Off the east coast of Honshu, Japan, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurs. Two people killed, more than 200 injured and damage in the Hachinohe area. Felt as far away as Tokyo. [53]
- December 29
- B737-400 flies into a mountain at Edremit East Turkey, 54 killed. [1]
- Bangladesh government of Zia resigns. [1]
- Last Dutch electro-magnetic telephone exchange shuts down. [1]
- December 31
- Anti-Apartheid Group of Netherlands (AABN) disbands. [1]
- The work of the Treuhand Organization is finished and the organization is terminated. The Treuhand oversaw the privatization of property in German Democratic Republic. The organization had privatized 14,500 businesses. [37]
- This day 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. [5] [30]
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