1990s

January 01 - David Dinkins is sworn in as New York City's first black mayor. 02 - World population passes five billion. In 1960 it was...

January 02 - Rebels in El Salvador shoot down an American Army helicopter and kill all three crew members. It is believed that two crew...

January 01 - Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic is renamed the Russian Federation and becomes...

January 01 - Czechoslovakia is peacefully divided into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in the so-called "Velvet Divorce". 01 - The European single market is created...

January 01 - The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) comes into effect. 01 - American actor Cesar Romero - famous as The Joker from the...

January 01 - Fred West, the Gloucestershire builder charged with 12 murders, commits suicide in his prison cell. Prison officers discover the 53-year-old's body hanging...

January 02 - US peacekeepers pour into Bosnia to keep the peace between Bosnian Serbs and Muslims, following the signing of the Dayton peace plan...

January 01 - American folk singer Townes Van Zandt dies aged 52. 09 - Yachtsman Tony Bullimore is found alive five days after his boat capsized in...

January 01 - A new law comes into effect in California, prohibiting people from smoking in bars and restaurants. 05 - Sonny Bono (of Sonny &...

January 01 - 11 European countries replace their national currencies with the newly created 'Euro', a single European currency. Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Belgium,...

The recession of 1990, after the boom of the 1980s, provided a rather inauspicious beginning to the new decade. By the end of the...