Important Historical Events of the year 1991, Year 1991 in History

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List of 1991 Major News Events in History, Most Important Historical Events in 1991

What happened in the year 1991?

Date	Event
January 2, 1991	Sharon Pratt Dixon becomes the first African American woman mayor of a major city and first woman Mayor of the District of Columbia.
January 5, 1991	Georgian forces enter Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, Georgia, opening the 1991–92 South Ossetia War.
January 5, 1991	Somali Civil War: The United States Embassy to Somalia in Mogadishu is evacuated by helicopter airlift days after the outbreak of violence in Mogadishu.
January 7, 1991	Roger Lafontant, former leader of the Tonton Macoute in Haiti under François Duvalier, attempts a coup d'état, which ends in his arrest.
January 9, 1991	Representatives from the United States and Iraq meet at the Geneva Peace Conference to try to find a peaceful resolution to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
January 12, 1991	Persian Gulf War: An act of the U.S. Congress authorizes the use of American military force to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.
January 13, 1991	Soviet Union troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, killing 14 people and wounding around 1,000 others.
January 15, 1991	The United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm.
January 15, 1991	Elizabeth II, in her capacity as Queen of Australia, signs letters patent allowing Australia to become the first Commonwealth realm to institute its own Victoria Cross in its honours system.
January 16, 1991	Coalition Forces go to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf War.
January 17, 1991	Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm begins early in the morning as aircraft strike positions across Iraq, it is also the first major combat sortie for the F-117. LCDR Scott Speicher's F/A-18C Hornet from VFA-81 is shot down by a Mig-25 and is the first American casualty of the War. Iraq fires eight Scud missiles into Israel in an unsuccessful bid to provoke Israeli retaliation.
January 17, 1991	Crown prince Harald V of Norway becomes King Harald V, following the death of his father, King Olav V.
January 19, 1991	Gulf War: Iraq fires a second Scud missile into Israel, causing 15 injuries.
January 20, 1991	Sudan's government imposes Islamic law nationwide, worsening the civil war between the country's Muslim north and Christian south.
January 26, 1991	Mohamed Siad Barre is removed from power in Somalia, ending centralized government, and is succeeded by Ali Mahdi.
January 29, 1991	Gulf War: The Battle of Khafji, the first major ground engagement of the war, as well as its deadliest, begins between Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
February 1, 1991	A runway collision between USAir Flight 1493 and SkyWest Flight 5569 at Los Angeles International Airport results in the deaths of 34 people, and injuries to 30 others.
February 7, 1991	Haiti's first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is sworn in.
February 7, 1991	The Troubles: The Provisional IRA launches a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street in London, the headquarters of the British government.
February 9, 1991	Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Voters in Lithuania vote for independence from the Soviet Union.
February 13, 1991	Gulf War: Two laser-guided "smart bombs" destroy the Amiriyah shelter in Baghdad. Allied forces said the bunker was being used as a military communications outpost, but over 400 Iraqi civilians inside were killed.
February 15, 1991	The Visegrád Group, establishing cooperation to move toward free-market systems, is signed by the leaders of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland.
February 16, 1991	Nicaraguan Contras leader Enrique Bermúdez is assassinated in Managua.
February 17, 1991	Ryan International Airlines Flight 590 crashes during takeoff from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, killing both pilots, the aircraft's only occupants.
February 18, 1991	The IRA explodes bombs in the early morning at Paddington station and Victoria station in London.
February 20, 1991	In the Albanian capital Tirana, a gigantic statue of Albania's long-time leader, Enver Hoxha, is brought down by mobs of angry protesters.
February 23, 1991	In Thailand, General Sunthorn Kongsompong leads a bloodless coup d'état, deposing Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan.
February 24, 1991	Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabian border and enter Iraq, thus beginning the ground phase of the war.
February 25, 1991	Disbandment of the Warsaw Pact at a meeting of its members in Budapest.
February 27, 1991	Gulf War: U.S. President George H. W. Bush announces that "Kuwait is liberated".
February 28, 1991	The first Gulf War ends.
March 1, 1991	Uprisings against Saddam Hussein begin in Iraq, leading to the death of more than 25,000 people mostly civilian.
March 2, 1991	Establishment of Kuwait Democratic Forum, center-left political organization in Kuwait.
March 2, 1991	Battle at Rumaila oil field brings an end to the 1991 Gulf War.
March 3, 1991	An amateur video captures the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers.
March 3, 1991	United Airlines Flight 585 crashes on its final approach to Colorado Springs killing everyone on board.
March 5, 1991	Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela Flight 108 crashes in Venezuela, killing 45.
March 15, 1991	Cold War: The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany comes into effect, granting full sovereignty to the Federal Republic of Germany.
March 23, 1991	The Revolutionary United Front, with support from the special forces of Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia, invades Sierra Leone in an attempt to overthrow Joseph Saidu Momoh, sparking the 11-year Sierra Leone Civil War.
March 26, 1991	Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay sign the Treaty of Asunción, establishing Mercosur, the South Common Market.
March 31, 1991	Georgian independence referendum: Nearly 99 percent of the voters support the country's independence from the Soviet Union.
April 2, 1991	Rita Johnston becomes the first female Premier of a Canadian province when she succeeds William Vander Zalm (who had resigned) as Premier of British Columbia.
April 4, 1991	Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania and six others are killed when a helicopter collides with their airplane over an elementary school in Merion, Pennsylvania.
April 4, 1991	Forty-one people are taken hostage inside a Good Guys! Electronics store in Sacramento, California. 3 of the hostage takers and 3 hostages are killed
April 5, 1991	An ASA EMB 120 crashes in Brunswick, Georgia, killing all 23 aboard including Sen. John Tower and astronaut Sonny Carter.
April 9, 1991	Georgia declares independence from the Soviet Union.
April 10, 1991	Italian ferry MS Moby Prince collides with an oil tanker in dense fog off Livorno, Italy, killing 140.
April 10, 1991	A rare tropical storm develops in the South Atlantic Ocean near Angola; the first to be documented by satellites.
April 14, 1991	The Republic of Georgia introduces the post of President following its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.
April 26, 1991	Fifty-five tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before the outbreak's end, Andover, Kansas, would record the year's only F5 tornado.
April 29, 1991	A cyclone strikes the Chittagong district of southeastern Bangladesh with winds of around 155 miles per hour (249 km/h), killing at least 138,000 people and leaving as many as ten million homeless.
April 29, 1991	The 7.0 Mw  Racha earthquake affects Georgia with a maximum MSK intensity of IX (Destructive), killing 270 people.
May 5, 1991	A riot breaks out in the Mt. Pleasant section of Washington, D.C. after police shoot a Salvadoran man.
May 7, 1991	A fire and explosion occurs at a fireworks factory at Sungai Buloh, Malaysia, killing 26.
May 15, 1991	Édith Cresson becomes France's first female Prime Minister.
May 16, 1991	Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addresses a joint session of the United States Congress. She is the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.
May 18, 1991	Northern Somalia declares independence from the rest of Somalia as the Republic of Somaliland.
May 19, 1991	Croatians vote for independence in a referendum.
May 21, 1991	Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.
May 21, 1991	Mengistu Haile Mariam, president of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, flees Ethiopia, effectively bringing the Ethiopian Civil War to an end.
May 24, 1991	Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
May 26, 1991	Zviad Gamsakhurdia becomes the first elected President of the Republic of Georgia in the post-Soviet era.
May 26, 1991	Lauda Air Flight 004 breaks apart in mid-air and crashes in the Phu Toei National Park in the Suphan Buri Province of Thailand, killing all 223 people on board.
May 28, 1991	The capital city of Addis Ababa falls to the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, ending both the Derg regime in Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Civil War.
May 31, 1991	Bicesse Accords in Angola lay out a transition to multi-party democracy under the supervision of the United Nations' UNAVEM II peacekeeping mission.
June 3, 1991	Mount Unzen erupts in Kyūshū, Japan, killing 43 people, all of them either researchers or journalists.
June 7, 1991	Mount Pinatubo erupts, generating an ash column 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) high.
June 10, 1991	Eleven-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard is kidnapped in South Lake Tahoe, California; she would remain a captive until 2009.
June 12, 1991	Russians first democratically elected Boris Yeltsin as the President of Russia.
June 12, 1991	Kokkadichcholai massacre: The Sri Lankan Army massacres 152 minority Tamil civilians in the village of Kokkadichcholai near the eastern province town of Batticaloa.
June 15, 1991	In the Philippines, Mount Pinatubo erupts in the second largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century, killing over 800 people.
June 17, 1991	Apartheid: The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act which required racial classification of all South Africans at birth.
June 19, 1991	The last Soviet army units in Hungary are withdrawn.
June 20, 1991	The German Bundestag votes to move seat of government from the former West German capital of Bonn to the present capital of Berlin.
June 23, 1991	Sonic the Hedgehog is released in North America on the Sega Genesis platform, beginning the popular video game franchise.
June 25, 1991	The breakup of Yugoslavia begins when Slovenia and Croatia declare their independence from Yugoslavia.
June 26, 1991	Yugoslav Wars: The Yugoslav People's Army begins the Ten-Day War in Slovenia.
June 27, 1991	Two days after it had declared independence, Slovenia is invaded by Yugoslav troops, tanks, and aircraft, starting the Ten-Day War.
July 1, 1991	Cold War: The Warsaw Pact is officially dissolved at a meeting in Prague.
July 7, 1991	Yugoslav Wars: The Brioni Agreement ends the ten-day independence war in Slovenia against the rest of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
July 10, 1991	The South African cricket team is readmitted into the International Cricket Council following the end of Apartheid.
July 10, 1991	Boris Yeltsin takes office as the first elected President of Russia.
July 10, 1991	A Beechcraft Model 99 crashes near Birmingham Municipal Airport (now Birmingham–Shuttlesworth International Airport) in Birmingham, Alabama, killing 13 of the 15 people on board.
July 11, 1991	Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 crashes in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia killing all 261 passengers and crew on board.
July 31, 1991	The United States and Soviet Union both sign the START I Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the first to reduce (with verification) both countries' stockpiles.
August 6, 1991	Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW makes its first appearance as a publicly available service on the Internet.
August 6, 1991	Takako Doi, chair of the Social Democratic Party, becomes Japan's first female speaker of the House of Representatives.
August 8, 1991	The Warsaw radio mast, then the tallest construction ever built, collapses.
August 9, 1991	The Italian prosecuting magistrate Antonino Scopelliti is murdered by the 'Ndrangheta on behalf of the Sicilian Mafia while preparing the government's case in the final appeal of the Maxi Trial.
August 16, 1991	Indian Airlines Flight 257, a Boeing 737-200, crashes during approach to Imphal Airport, killing all 69 people on board.
August 17, 1991	Strathfield massacre: In Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, taxi driver Wade Frankum shoots seven people and injures six others before turning the gun on himself.
August 19, 1991	Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The August Coup begins when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest while on holiday in the town of Foros, Ukraine.
August 19, 1991	Crown Heights riot begins.
August 20, 1991	Dissolution of the Soviet Union, August Coup: More than 100,000 people rally outside the Soviet Union's parliament building protesting the coup aiming to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev.
August 20, 1991	Estonia, occupied by and incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940, issues a decision on the re-establishment of independence on the basis of legal continuity of its pre-occupation statehood.
August 21, 1991	Latvia declares renewal of its full independence after its occupation by the Soviet Union since 1940.
August 21, 1991	Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses.
August 22, 1991	Iceland is the first nation in the world to recognize the independence of the Baltic states.
August 23, 1991	The World Wide Web is opened to the public.
August 24, 1991	Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
August 24, 1991	Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.
August 25, 1991	Belarus gains its independence from the Soviet Union.
August 25, 1991	The Battle of Vukovar begins. An 87-day siege of Vukovar by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), supported by various Serb paramilitary forces, between August and November 1991 (during the Croatian War of Independence).
August 25, 1991	Linus Torvalds announces the first version of what will become Linux.
August 27, 1991	The European Community recognizes the independence of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
August 27, 1991	Moldova declares independence from the USSR.
August 29, 1991	Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party.
August 29, 1991	Libero Grassi, an Italian businessman from Palermo, is killed by the Sicilian Mafia after taking a solitary stand against their extortion demands.
August 30, 1991	Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Azerbaijan declares independence from Soviet Union.
August 31, 1991	Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
September 5, 1991	The current international treaty defending indigenous peoples, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, comes into force.
September 6, 1991	The Soviet Union recognizes the independence of the Baltic states Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
September 6, 1991	The Russian parliament approves the name change of Leningrad back to Saint Petersburg. The change is effective October 1.
September 9, 1991	Tajikistan declares independence from the Soviet Union.
September 11, 1991	Continental Express Flight 2574 crashes in Colorado County, Texas, near Eagle Lake, killing 11 passengers and three crew.
September 17, 1991	Estonia, North Korea, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia join the United Nations.
September 17, 1991	The first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) is released to the Internet.
September 19, 1991	Ötzi the Iceman is discovered in the Alps on the border between Italy and Austria.
September 21, 1991	Armenia gains independence from the Soviet Union.
September 22, 1991	The Dead Sea Scrolls are made available to the public for the first time.
September 29, 1991	A Haitian coup d'état occurs.
October 1, 1991	Croatian War of Independence: The Siege of Dubrovnik begins.
October 3, 1991	Nadine Gordimer is announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
October 4, 1991	The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty is opened for signature.
October 5, 1991	An Indonesian Air Force C-130 crash kills 135 people.
October 7, 1991	Croatian War of Independence: Bombing of Banski dvori in Zagreb, Croatia.
October 8, 1991	Upon the expiration of the Brioni Agreement, Croatia and Slovenia sever all official relations with Yugoslavia.
October 11, 1991	Prof. Anita Hill delivers her televised testimony concerning sexual harassment during the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination.
October 14, 1991	Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
October 15, 1991	The "Oh-My-God particle", an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray measured at 40,000,000 times that of the highest energy protons produced in a particle accelerator, is observed at the University of Utah HiRes observatory in Dugway Proving Ground, Utah.
October 15, 1991	The leaders of the Baltic States, Arnold Rüütel of Estonia, Anatolijs Gorbunovs of Latvia and Vytautas Landsbergis of Lithuania, signed the OSCE Final Act in Helsinki, Finland.
October 16, 1991	George Hennard runs amok in Killeen, Texas, killing 23 and wounding 20.
October 17, 1991	1991 Rudrapur bombings by Sikh separatists, who explode two bombs, during a Ramlila Hindu celebration in Rudrapur, Uttarakhand, killing 41 people.[13][14]
October 18, 1991	The Supreme Council of Azerbaijan adopts a declaration of independence from the Soviet Union.
October 20, 1991	A 6.8 Mw earthquake strikes the Uttarkashi region of India, killing more than 1,000 people.
October 20, 1991	A massive firestorm breaks out in the hills of Oakland and Berkeley, California killing 25 people and destroying more than 3,000 homes, apartments and condominiums.
October 23, 1991	Signing of the Paris Peace Accords which ends the Cambodian–Vietnamese War.
October 26, 1991	Three months after the end of the Ten-Day War, the last soldier of the Yugoslav People's Army leaves the territory of the Republic of Slovenia.
October 27, 1991	Turkmenistan achieves independence from the Soviet Union.
October 29, 1991	The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid.
October 30, 1991	The Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The Madrid Conference commences in an effort to revive peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine.
November 1, 1991	President of the Chechen Republic Dzhokhar Dudayev declares sovereignty of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria from the Russian Federation.
November 5, 1991	Tropical Storm Thelma causes flash floods in the Philippine city of Ormoc, killing more than 4,900 people.
November 7, 1991	Magic Johnson announces that he is HIV-positive and retires from the NBA.
November 12, 1991	Santa Cruz massacre: The Indonesian Army open fire on a crowd of student protesters in Dili, East Timor.
November 13, 1991	The Republic of Karelia, an autonomous republic of Russia, is formed from the former Karelian ASSR.
November 14, 1991	American and British authorities announce indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103.
November 14, 1991	Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returns to Phnom Penh after thirteen years in exile.
November 18, 1991	Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon release Anglican Church envoys Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland.
November 18, 1991	After an 87-day siege, the Croatian city of Vukovar capitulates to the besieging Yugoslav People's Army and allied Serb paramilitary forces.
November 18, 1991	The autonomous Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia, which would in 1993 become a republic, was established in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
November 20, 1991	An Azerbaijani MI-8 helicopter carrying 19 peacekeeping mission team with officials and journalists from Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan is shot down by Armenian military forces in Khojavend District of Azerbaijan.
November 23, 1991	Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury announces in a statement that he is HIV-positive. He dies the following day.
November 26, 1991	National Assembly of Azerbaijan abolishes the autonomous status of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast of Azerbaijan and renames several cities back to their original names.
November 28, 1991	South Ossetia declares independence from Georgia.
December 1, 1991	Cold War: Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union.
December 2, 1991	Canada and Poland become the first nations to recognize the independence of Ukraine from the Soviet Union.
December 4, 1991	Terry A. Anderson is released after seven years in captivity as a hostage in Beirut; he is the last and longest-held American hostage in Lebanon.
December 4, 1991	Pan American World Airways ceases its operations after 64 years.
December 5, 1991	Leonid Kravchuk is elected the first president of Ukraine.
December 6, 1991	Yugoslav Wars: In Croatia, forces of the Serb-dominated Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) heaviest bombardment of Dubrovnik during a siege of seven months.
December 8, 1991	The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine sign an agreement dissolving the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States.
December 19, 1991	Joe Cole, American roadie and author, is killed in an armed robbery
December 20, 1991	A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina.
December 25, 1991	Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as President of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day). Ukraine's referendum is finalized and Ukraine officially leaves the Soviet Union.
December 26, 1991	The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and formally dissolves the Soviet Union, ending the Cold War.
December 27, 1991	Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 751 crashes in Gottröra in the Norrtälje Municipality in Sweden, injuring 25.
December 31, 1991	All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date, five days after the Soviet Union is officially dissolved.