1990

**1990 in other calendars**
Gregorian calendar	1990; MCMXC
Ab urbe condita	2743
Armenian calendar	1439; ԹՎ ՌՆԼԹ
Bahá'í calendar	146 – 147
Bengali calendar	1397
Berber calendar	2940
British Regnal year	38 Eliz. 2 – 39 Eliz. 2
Buddhist calendar	2534
Burmese calendar	1352
Byzantine calendar	7498 – 7499
Chinese calendar	己巳年十二月初五日; (4626/4686-12-5) — to — 庚午年十一月十五日; (4627/4687-11-15)
Coptic calendar	1706 – 1707
Ethiopian calendar	1982 – 1983
Hebrew calendar	5750 – 5751
Hindu calendars
- Bikram Samwat	2046 – 2047
- Shaka Samvat	1912 – 1913
- Kali Yuga	5091 – 5092
Holocene calendar	11990
Iranian calendar	1368 – 1369
Islamic calendar	1410 – 1411
Japanese calendar	Heisei 2; (平成2年)
Korean calendar	4323
Thai solar calendar	2533
Unix time	631152000 – 662687999
	v · d · e

	1990 by topic:
	Subject
	Archaeology – Architecture – Art – Aviation – Awards – Comics – Film – Home video – Literature (Poetry) – Meteorology – Music (Country, Metal) – Rail transport – Radio – Science – Spaceflight – Sports – Television – Video gaming
	By country
	Australia – Canada – People's Republic of China – Ecuador – France – Germany – Greece – India – Ireland – Israel – Italy – Japan – Luxembourg – Malaysia – Mexico – New Zealand – Norway – Pakistan – Philippines – Singapore – South Africa– Soviet Union – UK – USA – Zimbabwe
	Leaders
	Sovereign states – State leaders – Religious leaders – Law
	Birth and death categories
	Births – Deaths
	Establishments and disestablishments categories
	Establishments – Disestablishments
	Works and introductions categories
	Works – Introductions
	v · d · e

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1960s 1970s 1980s – 1990s – 2000s 2010s 2020s
Years:	1987 1988 1989 – 1990 – 1991 1992 1993

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This article is about the year 1990. For the number, see 1990 (number). For other uses, see 1990 (disambiguation).

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 1990

1990 (MCMXC) was a common year that started on a Monday. In the Gregorian calendar, it was the 1990th year of the Common Era, or of Anno Domini; the 990th year of the 2nd millennium; the 90th year of the 20th century; and the 1st year of the 1990s. It is often considered the final year of the Cold War era.

[edit] Events

[edit] January

January 7: The Pisa tower closed.

January 4 – Two trains collide in Sangi, Pakistan, killing between 200 and 300 people and injuring an estimated 700 others.
January 7 – The Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public because of safety concerns.
January 9 – Ugandan Lt. Gen. Bazilio Olara-Okello, who led a coup against Dr. Apolo Milton Obote's government, dies in Ormduruman Hospital in Khartoum, Sudan.
January 10 – Time Warner is formed from the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc.
January 11 – Cold War: In Lithuania, 300,000 demonstrate for independence.
January 15 – Thousands storm the Stasi headquarters in Berlin in an attempt to view their government records.
January 20 – Cold War: Soviet troops occupy Baku, Azerbaijan, under the state of emergency decree issued by Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev and kill over 130 and wound over 700 protesters for national independence.^[1]^[2]
January 22 – Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. is convicted of releasing the Morris worm.
January 25 – Avianca Flight 52 crashes into Cove Neck, Long Island, after a miscommunication between the flight crew and JFK Airport officials, killing 73 persons on board.
January 25–January 26 – The Burns' Day storm kills 97 in northwestern Europe.

Jan. 28 – Super Bowl XXIV.

January 27 – The city of Tiraspol in the Moldavian SSR briefly declares independence.
January 29 – The trial of Joseph Hazelwood, former skipper of the Exxon Valdez, begins in Anchorage, Alaska. He is accused of negligence that resulted in America's second worst oil spill to date.
January 31 – The first McDonald's in Moscow, Russia opens.

January 29: Trial relating to Exxon Valdez.

[edit] February

February 2 – Apartheid: In South Africa, President F.W. de Klerk allows the African National Congress to legally function again and promises to free Nelson Mandela.
February 5 – Manuel Fraga becomes the president of Galicia, Spain.
February 10 – South African President F.W. de Klerk announces that Nelson Mandela will be released the next day.
February 11 – Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster Prison, near Cape Town, South Africa, after 27 years behind bars.
February 13
- German reunification: An agreement is reached for a two-stage plan to reunite Germany.
- Drexel Burnham Lambert files for bankruptcy protection, Chapter 11.
February 14 – The Pale Blue Dot picture was sent back from the Voyager 1 probe after completing its primary mission. It was around 3.5 billion miles away from earth.
February 15 – The United Kingdom and Argentina restore diplomatic relations after 8 years. The UK had severed ties in response to Argentina's invasion of the Falkland Islands, a British Dependent Territory, in 1982.
February 26
- The Sandinistas are defeated in the Nicaraguan elections.
- The USSR agrees to withdraw all 73,500 troops from Czechoslovakia by July, 1991.
February 27 – Exxon Valdez oil spill: Exxon and its shipping company are indicted on 5 criminal counts.

[edit] March

March 1
- A fire at the Sheraton Hotel in Cairo, Egypt, kills 16 people.
- Steve Jackson Games is raided by the U.S. Secret Service, prompting the later formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
- The Royal New Zealand Navy discontinues its daily rum ration.
March 6 – An SR-71 sets a U.S. transcontinental speed record of 1 hour 8 minutes 17 seconds, on what is publicized as its last official flight.
March 9
- Police seal off Brixton in South London after another night of protests against the poll tax.
- Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Clyde Wells confirms he will rescind Newfoundland's approval of the Meech Lake Accord.
March 10 – Eighteen months after seizing power in a coup, Prosper Avril is ousted in Haiti.
March 11
- Cold War: Lithuania declares independence from the Soviet Union with the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania.
- Patricio Aylwin is sworn in as the first democratically elected Chilean president since 1970.
March 15
- Iraq hangs British journalist Farzad Bazoft for spying. Daphne Parish, a British nurse, is sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment as an accomplice.
- Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first executive president of the Soviet Union.
- Cold War: The Soviet Union announces that Lithuania's declaration of independence is invalid.
March 18
- Twelve paintings, collectively worth $100 to $300 million, are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts by 2 thieves posing as police officers. This is the largest art theft in US history, and the paintings (as of 2011^[update]) have not been recovered.
- Cold War: East Germany holds its first free elections.
March 20 – Ferdinand Marcos's widow, Imelda Marcos, goes on trial for bribery, embezzlement, and racketeering.
March 21 – After 75 years of South African rule, Namibia becomes independent.
March 25
- In New York City, a fire due to arson at an illegal social club called "Happy Land" kills 87.
- Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie announces his intention to retire at the end of the year.
March 26 – The 62nd Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California, with Driving Miss Daisy winning Best Picture.
March 27 – The United States begins broadcasting TV Martí to Cuba.
March 28 – U.S. President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal.
March 31 – "The Second Battle of Trafalgar": A massive anti-poll tax demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London, turns into a riot; 471 people are injured, and 341 arrested.

[edit] April

April 1
- Strangeways Prison riot: The longest prison riot in Britain's history begins at Strangeways Prison in Manchester, and continues for 3 weeks and 3 days, until April 25.
- The Ultimate Warrior defeats Hulk Hogan to win the WWF Championship in a Title for Title, winner takes all match at WrestleMania VI in front of nearly 68,000 at the SkyDome in Toronto, Ontario
April 6 – Robert Mapplethorpe's "The Perfect Moment" show of nude and homoerotic photographs opens at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, in spite of accusations of indecency by Citizens for Community Values.
April 7 – Iran Contra Affair: John Poindexter is found guilty of 5 charges for his part in the scandal; the convictions are later reversed on appeal.
April 8 – Scandinavian Star, a Bahamas-registered ferry, catches fire en route from Norway to Denmark, leaving 158 dead.
April 13 – Cold War: The Soviet Union apologizes for the Katyn Massacre.
April 15 – Food poisoning kills 450 guests at an engagement party in Uttar Pradesh.
April 24
- STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched aboard Space Shuttle Discovery.^[3]
- The Space Shuttle Discovery places the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit.
- Cold War: West Germany and East Germany agree to merge currency and economies on July 1.
April 25 – Violeta Chamorro is elected President of Nicaragua.

[edit] May

May 1 – The former Philippine Episcopal Church (supervised by the Episcopal Church of the United States of America) is granted full autonomy and raised to the states of an Autocephalous Anglican Province and renamed the Episcopal Church of the Philippines.
May 2 – In London, a man brandishing a knife robs a courier of bearer bonds worth £292 million (the largest mugging to date).
May 4 – Cold War: Latvia declares independence from the Soviet Union.
May 8 – Cold War: Estonia restores the formal name of the country, the Republic of Estonia, as well as the state emblems (the coat of arms, the flag and the anthem).
May 15 – Portrait of Doctor Gachet by Vincent van Gogh is sold for a record $82.5 million.
May 17 – The World Health Organization removes homosexuality from its list of diseases.
May 20 – Cold War: The first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Romania.
May 22
- Cold War: The leaders of the Yemen Arab Republic and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen announce the unification of their countries as the Republic of Yemen.
- Microsoft releases Windows 3.0.
May 29 – European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) founded.

[edit] June

June 1
- Cold War: U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign a treaty to end chemical weapon production and begin destroying their respective stocks.
- Members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army shoot and kill Major Michael Dillon-Lee and Private William Robert Davies of the British Army. Dillon-Lee is killed outside his home in Dortmund, Germany and Davies is killed at a railway station in Lichfield, England.
June 2
- The Lower Ohio Valley tornado outbreak spawns 88 confirmed tornadoes in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio, killing 12; 37 tornadoes occur in Indiana, eclipsing the previous record of 21 during the Super Outbreak of April 1974.
- Namibia recognizes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
June 7 – Metropolitan Alexy of Leningrad is elected Russian Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia.
June 8 – The 1990 FIFA World Cup begins in Italy.
June 12 – Cold War: The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declares its sovereignty.
June 13 – June 1990 Mineriad: Fighting breaks out in Romania in the aftermath of the Romanian Revolution of 1989, between the supporters of Nicolae Ceauşescu and the Communist regime, and those of the new regime.
June 21 – An earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter Scale kills thousands in the Iranian city of Manjil.^[4]
June 22 – Underwater volcano Mount Didicas erupts in the Philippines.
June 24 – Kathleen Young and Irene Templeton are ordained as priests in St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast, becoming the first female Anglican priests in the United Kingdom.

[edit] July

July 2 – A stampede in a pedestrian tunnel leading to Mecca kills 1,426.
July 6 – Somali president Siad Barre's bodyguards massacre antigovernment demonstrators during a soccer match; 65 people are killed, more than 300 seriously injured.
July 8 – West Germany defeats Argentina 1–0 to win the 1990 FIFA World Cup.
July 11 – Terrorist act in Azerbaijan. Armenian terrorists blow up passenger bus moving from Kelbecer to Tartar. 14 people are killed, 35 were wounded.^[5]
July 15 – Tamil Tigers kill 168 Muslims in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
July 16 – An earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter Scale kills more than 1,600 in the Philippines.
July 25
- George Carey, Bishop of Bath and Wells, is named as the new Archbishop of Canterbury.
- The Serbian Democratic Party declares the sovereignty of the Serbs in Croatia.
July 26 – U.S. President George H. W. Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act, designed to protect disabled Americans from discrimination.
July 27
- The parliament building and a government television house in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago are stormed by the Jamaat al Muslimeen in a coup d'état attempt which lasts 5 days. Approximately 26 to 30 people are killed and several wounded (including then Prime Minister, A. N. R. Robinson, who is shot in the leg).
- Cold War: Belarus declares its sovereignty, a key step toward independence from the USSR.
July 28 – Albert Fujimori becomes president of Peru.
July 30 – A Provisional Irish Republican Army car bomb kills former British politician and former Member of Parliament Ian Gow outside his home in England.

[edit] August

August 2 – Gulf War: Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.
August 6 – Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to its invasion of Kuwait.
August 10 – A passenger bus, moving by the route "Tbilisi-Agdam" is blown up, 20 people died and 30 were injured. Organizers of the crime, Armenians A. Avanesian and M. Tatevosian, were brought to criminal trial.^[5]
August 12 – "Sue", the best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex specimen ever found, is discovered near Faith, South Dakota.
August 19 – Leonard Bernstein conducts his final concert, ending with Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
August 23 – East Germany and West Germany announce they will unite on October 3.^[6]
August 24 – Northern Ireland writer Brian Keenan is released from Lebanon after being held hostage for nearly 5 years.
August 28 – The Plainfield Tornado (F5 on the Fujita scale) strikes the towns of Plainfield, Crest Hill, and Joliet, Illinois, killing 29 people (the strongest tornado to date to strike the Chicago Metropolitan Area).
August 30 – Collapse of the Soviet Union: Azerbaijan declares independence from Soviet Union.

[edit] September

September 2 – Cold War: Transnistria declares its independence from the Moldavian SSR; however, the declaration is not recognized by any government.
September 9 – First Liberian Civil War: Liberian president Samuel Doe is captured by rebel leader Prince Johnson and killed in a filmed execution.
September 11 – Gulf War: President George H. W. Bush delivers a nationally televised speech in which he threatens the use of force to remove Iraqi soldiers from Kuwait.
September 12
- Cold War: The two German states and the Four Powers sign the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany in Moscow, paving the way for German reunification.
- A judge in Australia orders the arrest of media tycoon Christopher Skase, former owner of the Seven Network, after he fails to give evidence in a liquidator's examination of failed shipbuilding company Lloyds Ships Holdings, an associate of Skase's Qintex Australia Ltd.^[7]
September 18 – The International Olympic Committee awards the 1996 Summer Olympics to Atlanta, United States.
September 19 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army tries to assassinate Air Chief Marshal Sir Peter Terry at his home near Stafford, England. Hit by at least 9 bullets, the former Governor of Gibraltar survives.
September 29 – Washington, D.C.'s National Cathedral is finished.

[edit] October

October 3 – Cold War: East Germany and West Germany reunify into a single Germany.
October 8 – Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: In Jerusalem, Israeli police kill 17 Palestinians and wound over 100 near the Dome of the Rock mosque on the Temple Mount.
October 13 – Lebanese Civil War: Syrian military forces invade and occupy Mount Lebanon, ousting General Michel Aoun's government. This effectively consolidates Syria's 14 year occupation of Lebanese soil.
October 14 – Leonard Bernstein dies of a heart attack at his home in New York City. He is 72 years old.
October 15 – Cold War: Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to lessen Cold War tensions and reform his nation.
October 17 – The Internet Movie Database is launched by Col Needham, giving internet users the opportunity to search for film information online.^[8]
October 27 – Cold War: The Supreme Soviet of Kyrgyzstan chooses Askar Akayev as the republic's first president.

[edit] November

Margaret Thatcher, the UK's only female Prime Minister, resigns after 11 years.

November 1 – Mary Robinson defeats odds-on favourite Brian Lenihan to become the first female President of Ireland.
November 5 – Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the far-right Kach movement, is shot dead after a speech at a New York City hotel.
November 12
- Akihito is enthroned as the 125th emperor of Japan.
- Tim Berners-Lee publishes a more formal proposal for the World Wide Web.^[9]
November 14 – Germany and Poland sign a treaty confirming the border at the Oder-Neisse line.
November 15 – STS-38: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on a classified military mission.
November 21 – Charter of Paris for a New Europe signed.
November 22 – Margaret Thatcher announces she will not contest the second ballot of the leadership election for the Conservative Party (UK).
November 25 – Lech Wałęsa and Stanisław Tymiński win the first round of the first presidential elections in Poland.
November 29 – Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council passes UN Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing military intervention in Iraq if that nation does not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by Tuesday, January 15, 1991.

[edit] December

December 1 – Establishing the first land connection between the United Kingdom and the mainland of Europe for around 8,000 years, Channel Tunnel workers from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 metres beneath the English Channel seabed.
December 3
- At Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Northwest Airlines Flight 1482 (a McDonnell Douglas DC-9) collides with Northwest Airlines Flight 299 (a Boeing 727) on the runway, killing 8 passengers and 4 crewmembers on Flight 1482.
- Mary Robinson begins her term as President of Ireland, becoming the first female to hold this office.
December 6
- Saddam Hussein releases the Western hostages.
- President Hossain Mohammad Ershad of Bangladesh is forced to resign following massive protests.
December 9
- Slobodan Milošević becomes President of Serbia.
- Lech Wałęsa wins the 2nd round of Poland's first presidential election.
December 16 – Jean-Bertrand Aristide is elected president of Haiti, ending 3 decades of military rule.
December 22
- The first constitution of the Republic of Croatia is adopted.
- The Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia become independent, after the termination of their trusteeship.
December 25 – Tim Berners-Lee creates the first webpage on the first web server.
December 31 – Russian Garry Kasparov holds his title by winning the World Chess Championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.

[edit] Date unknown

The last adornments in handwriting are de-standardized, to keep up with the Information Age.^[10]
Homosexual acts between consenting adults are decriminalized in Queensland.

[edit] World population

World population
	1990	1985	1995
World	5,263,593,000	4,830,979,000	432,614,000	+8.95 %	5,674,380,000	410,787,000	+7.80 %
Africa	622,443,000	541,718,000	80,629,000	+14.88 %	707,462,000	85,019,000	+13.66 %
Asia	3,167,807,000	2,887,552,000	280,255,000	+9.71 %	3,430,052,000	262,245,000	+8.28 %
Europe	721,582,000	706,009,000	15,573,000	+2.21 %	727,405,000	5,823,000	+0.81 %
Latin America	441,525,000	401,469,000	40,056,000	+9.98 %	481,099,000	39,574,000	+8.96 %
North America	283,549,000	269,456,000	14,093,000	+5.23 %	299,438,000	15,889,000	+5.60 %
Oceania	26,687,000	24,678,000	2,009,000	+8.14 %	28,924,000	2,237,000	+8.38 %