| |
|
1990 |
| January 3rd |
 |
Manuel
Noriega, the former leader of Panama, surrendered under extreme
pressure to American forces. |
|
| January 15th |
|
Thousands
of German protesters stormed the Stasi (East German Secret Police)
HQ in Berlin to view their records. |
|
| January 25th |
|
In
Germany the official process of dismantling the Berlin Wall
began. |
|
| January 31st |
|
The
American fast food giant McDonalds opened its first restaurant
in Moscow, Russia. |
|
| February
2nd |
|
In
South Africa President F.W. de Klerk allowed the African National
Congress to legally operate again and announced he promises
to set Nelson Mandela free. |
|
| February
7th |
|
In
Moscow the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agreed
to give up its monopoly of power. The act triggered the beginning
of the collapse of the Soviet Union. |
|
| February
10th |
|
South
African President F.W. de Klerk fulfilled his promise and announced
that Nelson Mandela would be released the following day. |
|
| February
11th |
|
Nelson
Mandela was released from Victor Verster prison in South Africa,
on the order of South African President FW de Klerk. Mandela
served 27 years in prison. |
|
| February
13 |
|
An
agreement is reached for a two-stage plan for German reunification,
between the east and west, divided since the end of WWII. |
|
| February
15th |
|
Diplomatic
links were restored between the governments of the United Kingdom
and Argentina. The UK had broken off links in response to Argentina's
invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982. |
|
| February
26th |
|
Moscow
agreed to withdraw all Soviet troops from Czechoslovakia by
July, 1991. |
|
| February
26th |
|
Democratic
elections were held in Nicaragua, and the Sandinistas were defeated. |
|
| March 9th |
|
Police
sealed off the London borough of Brixton in South London after
another night of protests against the much hated 'Poll Tax'. |
|
| March 11th |
|
Lithuania
declared independence from the Soviet Union. |
|
| March 15th |
|
British
journalist Farzad Bazoft was hanged by the Iraqis for spying.
The British nurse Daphne Parish was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment
suspected to be Bazoft's accomplice. |
|
| March 15th |
|
Mikhail
Sergeyevich Gorbachev was elected as the first executive president
of the Soviet Union. |
|
| March 15th |
|
The
Soviet Union announced that Lithuania's declaration of independence
was invalid. |
|
| March 18th |
|
East
Germany held its first free elections since 1932. |
|
| March 20th |
|
The
infamous Imelda Marcos, Ferdinand Marcos's widow, went on trial
for bribery, embezzlement and racketeering. |
|
| March 21st |
|
In
London a massive demonstration in Trafalgar Square, against
the hated 'Poll Tax', turns into a riot. 417 people injured,
341 arrested |
|
| March 27th |
|
Namibia
became an independent state for the first time in 75 years of
being under South African rule. |
|
| March 28th |
|
President
George H. W. Bush Snr. presented the hero of the 1936 Berlin
Olympic games Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal. |
|
| March 31st |
|
Riots
erupted in Trafalgar Square, London. 100,000 people gathered
to demonstrate against the 'Poll Tax', the demonstrators clashed
with the police in violent pitch battles. 339 protestors were
arrested. |
|
| April 7th |
|
In
the United States, John Poindexter was found guilty of five
charges for his part in the Iran Contra Affair. The convictions
were later reversed after an appeal. |
|
| April 24th |
|
NASA's
Space Shuttle 'Discovery' placed the Hubble Space Telescope
into orbit on mission STS-31. The Hubble Space Telescope became
operational on May 20th. |
|
| April 24th |
|
West
and East Germany agreed to merge its currency and economies
as of July 1st. |
|
| May 19th |
|
British
agriculture Minister John Gummer fed a hamburger to his 5-year-old
daughter in front of the world's media, to stop rumours about
tMad cow disease (CJD) and the risk of transmission to humans. |
|
| May 20th |
|
The
first post-communist presidential and parliamentary elections
were held in Romania. |
|
| June 1st |
|
U.S.
President George H. W. Bush Snr. and Soviet Union leader Mikhail
Gorbachev signed a treaty to end chemical weapon production.
The treaty also agreed to reduce their existing deadly stockpiles. |
|
| June 12th |
|
The
parliament of the Russian Federation formally declared its sovereignty. |
|
| July 2nd |
|
A
tragic disaster in Mecca, as a stampede in a pedestrian tunnel
killed 1,426 muslims on their way to pay homage. |
|
| July 25th |
|
The
Serbian Democratic Party declared sovereignty of the Serbs in
Croatia. |
|
| July 27th |
|
Belarus
declared its sovereignty, a major step in breaking away and
toward total independence from the Soviet Union. |
|
| August 2nd |
|
Iraq
invaded Kuwait. The world was outraged and prepared for a military
conflict with a build up of troops in Saudi Arabia. |
|
| August 6th |
|
The
United Nations Security Council ordered a global trade embargo
against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. |
|
| August. |
|
NASA
probe Magellan went into orbit around Venus, its mission was
to map the surface of the planet using radar. |
|
| August. |
|
The
ban on the ANC (African National Congress), which had been in
place since 1960, was lifted in South Africa, and the ANC HQ
was moved from Zambia to Johannesburg. The ANC's military wing,
Umkhonto we Sizwe, also suspended its armed struggle. |
|
| September
11th |
|
President
George H. W. Bush Snr. delivered a national televised speech
and threatened the use of force to remove Iraqi soldiers from
Kuwait. |
|
| September
12th |
|
The
Allies that had divided Germany at the end of WWII (Britain,
USA, Russia and France), and both East and West Germany, signed
the 'Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany'
in Moscow, which cemented the final politcial points for the
German re-unification. |
|
| October 3rd |
|
East
and West Germany were unified. The German re-unification meant
that East Germany became part of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Germany was divided into zones by the Allies at the end of World
War II after the defeat of the Nazis. The divided Germany was
the front line in the cold war between the East and the West. |
|
| October 8th |
|
The
Israeli police killed 17 Palestinians and wounded over 100 in
a clash at the Dome of the Rock mosque, on the Temple Mount
in Jerusalem. |
|
| October 13th |
|
Syrian
military forces invaded and occupied Mount Lebanon, removing
General Michel Aoun's government. This invasion cemented Syria's
14 year occupation of Lebanon. |
|
| October 15th |
|
Mikhail
Sergeyevich Gorbachev, the newly elected President of
the Soviet Union, received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo,
Norway. |
|
|
| November
1st |
|
Mary
Robinson defeated Brian Lenihan in the Irish Presidential elections,
and became the first woman President of Ireland. |
|
| November
8th |
|
Mary
Robinson officially became President of the Republic of Ireland. |
|
| November
12th |
|
Tim
Berners-Lee published a formal proposal for the World Wide Web. |
|
| November
13th |
|
In
the United States, the first known web page was written. |
|
| November
15th |
|
The
Space Shuttle 'Atlantis' launched with mission flight STS-38. |
|
| November
20th |
|
Margaret
Thatcher was challenged for the leadership of the party. While
at a conference in Paris the 1st ballot results proved she was
four votes short of winning the challenge, which forced a 2nd
ballot. |
|
| November
22nd |
|
Margaret
Thatcher failed to find support for the 2nd ballot and so resigned
as the Conservative leader and British Prime Minister. John
Major became the new party leader, and Britain's new Prime Minister. |
|
| November
27th |
|
The
UK Conservative Party chose John Major to succeed Margaret Thatcher
as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. |
|
| November
29th |
|
The
members of U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 678, which
gave Iraq until Tuesday January 15th 1991 to withdraw its forces
from Kuwait. The vote on the resolution was 12 to 2. Cuba and
Yemen voted against the resolution and China abstained. |
|
| December
1st |
|
British
and French workers met and linked up for the first time, 40
meters beneath the English Channel seabed, in the construction
of the Channel Tunnel, which will link Britain with mainland
Europe. |
|
| December
2nd |
|
A
coalition led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl won the first free all-German
elections since 1932. |
|
| December
9th |
|
Lech
Walesa, the electrician from the Gdañsk shipyard who
became leader of the Solidarity (Solidarnosc) trade union, became
President of Poland. He remained President until 1995. |
|
| December
6th |
|
Iraq
leader Saddam Hussein released the Western hostages he used
as 'Human Shields' in fear of Allied attacks. |
|
| December
31st |
|
Soviet
cosmonaut Vasili Lazarev died aged 62. Lazarev served
as second back-up to Boris Yegorov for the Voskhod
1 mission on the 12th October 1964. |
|
| |
|
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