1990

"MCMXC" redirects here; for the Enigma album, see MCMXC a.D..

1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. From January 27, it was the year of the Metal Horse in the Chinese Zodiac.

It is often considered the final year of the Cold War era.

Events

January

• January 3 - The former leader of Panama, Manuel Noriega, surrenders to American forces.
• January 4 - Over 300 people are killed in a train accident in Ghotki, Pakistan.
• January 7 - The Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public due to 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 - In Lithuania, 300,000 demonstrate for independence.
• January 13 - Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia.
• January 15 - Thousands storm the Stasi headquarters in Berlin in an attempt to view their government records.
• January 18 - Washington, DC, Mayor Marion Barry is arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting.
• 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.
• January 25-January 26 - The Burns' Day storm kills 97 in northwestern Europe.
• January 27 - The city of Tiraspol in the Moldavian SSR briefly declares independence.
• January 28 - The San Francisco 49ers trounce the Denver Broncos, 55-10, in Super Bowl XXIV.
• 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 worst oil spill to date.
• January 31 - The first McDonald's in Moscow, USSR opens.

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 7 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly of power.
• February 10 - South African President F.W. de Klerk announces that Nelson Mandela will be released the next day.
• February 11
  • James "Buster" Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson to win the World Heavyweight Boxing crown.
  • Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster Prison, near Cape Town, South Africa, after 26 years behind bars.
• February 13 - German reunification: An agreement is reached for a two-stage plan to reunite Germany.
• 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.

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.
  • Antonia Novello is sworn in as Surgeon General of the United States, becoming the first female and Hispanic American to serve in that position.
  • 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 - Lithuania declares independence from the Soviet Union.
• March 11 - 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.
  • The Soviet Union announces that Lithuania's declaration of independence is invalid.
• March 18
  • Twelve paintings, collectively worth from $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 2007) have not been recovered.
  • 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 23 - Gerald Bull, a Canadian engineer who developed long-range artillery, is assassinated in Brussels.
• March 24 - Australian legislative election, 1990: The government of Australian prime minister Bob Hawke is re-elected for a 4th term.
• 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 announced his intention to retire at the end of the year.
• March 27 - Propaganda: 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.

April

• April 1 - The largest prison riot in Britain's history begins at Strangeways Prison in Manchester, and will continue for nearly four weeks, until April 25
• April 6 - Robert Mapplethorpe's "The Perfect Moment" show of nude and homosexual photographs opens at the Cincinnati Contemporary Art 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.
  • Scandinavian Star, a Bahamas-registered ferry, catches fire en route from Norway to Denmark, leaving 158 dead.
• April 13 - The Soviet Union apologizes for the Katyn Massacre.
• April 15 - Food poisoning kills 450 guests at an engagement party in Uttar Pradesh.
• April 20 - STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched aboard Space Shuttle Discovery.
• April 24
  • The Space Shuttle Discovery places the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit.
  • West Germany and East Germany agree to merge currency and economies on July 1.
• April 25
  • Violeta Chamorro was elected President of Nicaragua making her the 1st woman President in Latin America.

May

• May 2 - In London, England, a man brandishing a knife robs courier Nicholas Lane of bearer bonds worth £292 million (the largest mugging to date).
• May 4 - Latvia declares independence from the Soviet Union.
• May 5 - The 35th Eurovision Song Contest takes place in Zagreb, Yugoslavia.
• 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 - The first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Romania.
• May 22 - 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.
• May 24 - The Edmonton Oilers defeat the Boston Bruins in the 1990 Stanley Cup Finals for their fifth Stanley Cup.
• May 29 - Rhode Island celebrates its bicentennial statehood.

June

• June 1
  • 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 8 - The 1990 FIFA World Cup begins in Italy.
• June 12 - The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declares its sovereignty.
• June 14 - The Detroit Pistons defeat the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1990 NBA Finals.
• 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 Anglican women priests in the United Kingdom.
• June 26
  • U.S. President Bush breaks his 1988 'no new taxes' campaign pledge, accepting tax revenue increases as a necessity to reduce the budget deficit.
  • In Phoenix, Arizona, the temperature reaches an all-time record high of 122 degrees for the city.

July