• General Manuel Noriega surrenders in Panama (Jan. 3).
• Yugoslav Communists end 45-year monopoly of power (Jan. 22).
• Communist Party relinquish sole power in Soviet government (Feb. 7). Background: Dissolution of the USSR
• South Africa frees Nelson Mandela, imprisoned 27½ years (Feb. 11).
• US-Soviet summit reaches accord on armaments (June 1).
• Western Alliance ends Cold War and proposes joint action with Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (July 6).
• Iraqi troops invade Kuwait, setting off the Persian Gulf War (Aug. 2 et seq.). Background: The Persian Gulf War
• East and West Germany reunited (Aug. 31 et seq.).
• Margaret Thatcher resigns as British Prime Minister (Nov. 22); John Major succeeds her (Nov. 28).
• Lech Walesa wins Poland's runoff Presidential election (Dec. 9).

1992 World Events

• Four officers acquitted in Los Angeles beating of Rodney King; violence erupts in Los Angeles (April 29 et seq.).
• Caspar W. Weinberger indicted in Iran-Contra affair (June 16).
• US Supreme Court reaffirms right to abortion (June 29).
• Democratic convention nominates Bill Clinton and Al Gore (July 1).
• Court clears Exxon Valdez skipper (July 10). Background: Oil Spills
• Four police officers indicted in Rodney King beating (Aug. 5).
• Republicans renominate Bush and Quayle (Aug. 20).
• Senate ratifies second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (Oct. 1).
• Bill Clinton elected President, Al Gore Vice President; Democrats keep control of Congress (Nov. 3).
• Bush pardons former Reagan Administration officials involved in Iran-Contra affair (Dec. 24).

• Compact discs surpass cassette tapes as the preferred medium for recorded music.
• There are 900 million television sets in use around the world; 201 million are in the United States.
• Woody Allen and Mia Farrow engage in a very public and nasty custody battle over their three children. Allen's affair with Farrow's adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn, sparked the feud.
• Johnny Carson hosts The Tonight Show for the last time. He had ruled late-night television for 20 years.

• Unforgiven, The Crying Game, Howards End, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Player

• Robert Olen Butler, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
• Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient
• Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger

• A text-based Web browser is made available to the public (Jan.); within a few years, millions of people become regular users of the World Wide Web. Background: Computers and Internet
• 172 nations various address issues of environmental protection and sustainable development at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Some sign binding agreements to minimize global climate change and preserve biodiversity. Background: Environment & Nature

• Alex Haley
• Anthony Perkins
• Isaac Asimov
• Willie Dixon
• Lawrence Welk

 1993 World Events

• Vaclav Havel elected Czech President (Jan. 26).
• British House of Commons approves European unity pact (May 20). Maastricht Treaty takes effect, creating European Union (Nov. 1).
• Twenty-two UN troops killed in Somalia (June 5).
• Israeli-Palestinian accord reached (Aug. 28).
• PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin shake hands in Washington D.C., after signing a peace accord. (September 13)
• Yeltsin's forces crush revolt in Russian Parliament (Oct. 4 et seq.).
• China breaks nuclear test moratorium (Oct. 5).
• South Africa adopts majority rule constitution (Nov. 18).

• Clinton agrees to compromise on military's ban on homosexuals (Jan. 29).

• World Trade Center bombing: In New York City, a van bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center explodes, killing 6 and injuring over 1,000. (Feb 26)

• Federal agents besiege Texas Branch Davidian religious cult after six are killed in raid (March 1 et seq.). Fire kills 72 as cult standoff in Texas ends with federal assault (April 19).
• In Washington, DC, the Holocaust Memorial Museum is dedicated. (Apr 22)
• The World Wide Web is born at CERN. (Apr 30)
• Five arrested, sixth sought in bombing of World Trade Center in New York (March 29).
• Two police officers convicted in Los Angeles on civil rights charges in Rodney King beating (April 17); sentenced Aug. 4.
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg appointed to Supreme Court (June 14).

• The Mississippi and Missouri Rivers flood large portions of the American Midwest. (Spring/Summer)

• US agents blamed in Waco, Tex., siege (Oct. 1).
• House of Representatives approves North American Free Trade Agreement (Nov. 17); Senate follows (Nov. 21).
• Clinton signs Brady bill regulating firearms purchases (Nov. 30).

• A 13-year-old Los Angeles boy accuses Michael Jackson of fondling him. Jackson vehemently denies the charge. The two parties reach an out-of-court settlement.
• River Phoenix dies of a drug overdose on Halloween. He was 23.
• Lost in Yonkers is edited on an Avid Media Composer system, the first non-linear editing system to allow viewing at film's required "real-time"-viewing rate of 24 frames per second. By converting film into digital bits, film can now be cut on a computer.

• Schindler's List, The Piano, Philadelphia, Six Degrees of Separation, In the Name of the Father

• Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha
• E. Annie Proulx, The Shipping News

• Don Ameche
• Anthony Burgess
• Federico Fellini
• Frank Zappa
• Arthur Ashe
• Dizzy Gillespie
• William Golding
• Audrey Hepburn
• Cesar Chavez