1994

1994 (MCMXCIV) was .

Births 

January 21 – Laura Robson, British tennis player
February 14 – Paul Butcher, American actor
February 14 – Allie Grant, American actress
February 23 – Dakota Fanning, American actress
February 27 – Hou Yifan, Chinese chess player
March 1 – Justin Bieber, Canadian singer
March 5 – Aislinn Paul, Canadian actress
March 8 – Dylan Tombides, Australian footballer (d. 2014)
March 12 – Christina Grimmie, American singer-songwriter
March 13 – Mohammad Siraj, Indian cricketer
March 30 – Jetro Willems, Dutch footballer
April 11 – Dakota Blue Richards, British actress
April 12 – Saoirse Ronan, Irish actress
May 21 – Tom Daley, British diver
July 16 – Mark Indelicato, American actor
July 31 – Lil Uzi Vert, American rapper
September 1 – Bianca Ryan, American singer
October 9 – Jodelle Ferland, Canadian actress
November 17 – Raquel Castro, American singer and actress
December 6 – Giannis Antetokounmpo, Greek basketball player
December 8 – Raheem Sterling, English footballer
December 14 – Kuldeep Yadav, Indian cricketer

Deaths

January 

 January 1 – Cesar Romero, Cuban-American actor (b. 1907)
 January 2 – Dixy Lee Ray, American politician and Governor of Washington (b. 1917)
 January 5 – Tip O'Neill, American politician (b. 1912)
 January 15 – Harry Nilsson, American musician (b. 1941)
 January 17 – Chung Il-Kwon, Prime Minister of South Korea (b. 1917)
 January 20 – Matt Busby, Scottish football manager (b. 1909)
 January 22 – Telly Savalas, American actor (b. 1922)
 January 27 – Claude Akins, American actor (b. 1926)
 January 28 – Hal Smith, American actor (b. 1916)

February 

 February 6 – Joseph Cotten, American actor (b. 1905)
 February 9 – Howard Martin Temin, American geneticist (b. 1934)
 February 11 – Sorrell Booke, American actor (b. 1930)
 February 11 – William Conrad, American actor (b. 1920)
 February 14 – Andrei Chikatilo, Russian serial killer (b. 1936)
 February 24 – Dinah Shore, American actress and singer (b. 1916)
February 26 – Bill Hicks, American comedian (b. 1961)

March 

 March 2 – Anita Morris, American actress and singer (b. 1943)
 March 4 – John Candy, Canadian comedian and actor (b. 1950)
 March 6 – Melina Mercouri, Greek singer, actress and politician (b. 1920)
 March 13 – Danny Barker, American jazz musician (b. 1909)
 March 17 – Mai Zetterling, Swedish actress and director (b. 1925)
 March 23 – Giulietta Masina, Italian actress (b. 1921)

April 
 

 April 1 – Robert Doisneau, French photographer (b. 1912)
 April 5 – Kurt Cobain, American musician (Nirvana) (b. 1967)
 April 6 – Juvénal Habyarimana, President of Rwanda (b. 1937)
 April 6 – Cyprien Ntaryamira, President of Burundi (b. 1956)
 April 15 – John Curry, British ice skater (b. 1949)
 April 16 – Ralph Ellison, American writer (b. 1934)
 April 18 – Ruggero Orlando, Italian author (b. 1907)
 April 22 – Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States (b. 1913)
 April 30 – Roland Ratzenberger, Austrian race car driver (b. 1960)

May 

 May 1 – Ayrton Senna, Brazilian race car driver (b. 1960)
 May 8 – George Peppard, American actor (b. 1928)
 May 10 – John Wayne Gacy, American serial killer (executed) (b. 1942)
 May 12 – John Smith, British politician (b. 1938)
 May 19 – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, First Lady of the United States (b. 1929)
 May 29 – Erich Honecker, East German leader (b. 1912)

June 
 June 2 – Henry Mancini, American composer (b. 1924)
 June 5 - Mario Recordón, Chilean architect (b. 1922)
 June 9 – Jan Tinbergen, Dutch economist (b. 1903)
 June 12 – Nicole Brown Simpson, American murder victim (b. 1959)
 June 29 – Kurt Eichhorn, German conductor (b. 1908)
 June 29 – Jack Unterweger, Austrian murderer (b. 1950)

July  

 July 2 – Andres Escobar, Colombian footballer (b. 1967)
 July 2 – Maung Maung, President of Burma (b. 1925)
 July 7 – Cameron Mitchell, American actor (b. 1918)
 July 8 – Kim Il-sung, President of North Korea (b. 1912)
 July 16 – Julian Schwinger, American physicist (b. 1918)
 July 29 – Dorothy Hodgkin, British chemist (b. 1910)

August 

 August 4 – Giovanni Spadolini, President of Italy (b. 1925)
 August 10 – Marie Dollinger, German field athlete (b. 1910)
 August 11 – Peter Cushing, British actor (b. 1913)
 August 14 – Elias Canetti, Bulgarian writer (b. 1905)
 August 18 – Richard Laurence Millington Synge, British chemist (b. 1914)
 August 19 – Linus Pauling, American scientist (b. 1901)
 August 30 - Alfonso Oiterong, President of Palau (b. 1924)
 August 30 - Lindsay Anderson, British director (b. 1923)

September 

 September 7 – Dennis Morgan, American actor (b. 1908)
 September 10 – Max Morlock, German footballer (b. 1924)
 September 11 – Jessica Tandy, British actress (b. 1909)
 September 12 – Boris Yegorov, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1937)
 September 17 – Vitas Gerulaitis, American tennis player (b. 1954)
 September 17 – Karl Popper, Austrian philosopher (b. 1902)
 September 20 – Abioseh Nicol, Sierra Leonian diplomat (b. 1924)
 September 22 – Leonard Feather, British jazz pianist composer (b. 1914)
 September 26 – Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia (b. 1907)

October 

 October 2 – Harriet Nelson, American actress (b. 1909)
 October 3 – Heinz Rühmann, German actor (b. 1920)
 October 7 – Niels Kaj Jerne, Danish immunologist (b. 1911)
 October 19 – Martha Raye, American actress and comedian (b. 1916)
 October 20 – Burt Lancaster, American actor (b. 1913)
 October 24 – Raul Julia, Puerto Rican-American actor and singer (b. 1940)
 October 25 – Mildred Natwick, American actress (b. 1905)

November 

 November 4 – Sam Francis, American painter (b. 1923)
 November 11 – Pedro Zamora, American AIDS activist (b. 1972)
 November 11 – John A. Volpe, 2nd United States Secretary of Transportation (b. 1908)
 November 12 – Wilma Rudolph, American athlete (b. 1940)
 November 13 – Motoo Kimura, Japanese geneticist (b. 1924)
 November 18 – Cab Calloway, American jazz singer and bandleader (b. 1908)
 November 28 – Jeffrey Dahmer, American serial killer (b. 1960)

December 

 December 12 – Stuart Roosa, American astronaut (b. 1933)
 December 20 – Dean Rusk, 54th United States Secretary of State (b. 1909)
 December 25 – Zail Singh, President of India (b. 1916)
 December 27 – Fanny Craddock, British cookery writer and television presenter (b. 1909)
 December 31 – Bruno Pezzey, Austrian footballer (b. 1955)

Events 

 January 1 – North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) goes into effect
 January 6 – Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the right leg by an assailant under orders from figure skating rival Tonya Harding.
 January 11 – Irish government announces the end of a 15-year broadcasting ban on the IRA and its political arm Sinn Féin
 January 14 – U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the Kremlin accords which stop the preprogrammed aiming of nuclear missiles to targets and also provide for the dismantling of the nuclear arsenal in Ukraine.
 January 17 – 1994 Northridge Earthquake, magnitude 6.7, hits the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles at 4:31 am.
 January 20 – In South Carolina, Shannon Faulkner becomes the first female cadet to attend The Citadel but soon drops out.
 January 26 – A man fires two blank shots at Charles, Prince of Wales in Sydney, Australia.
 January 28 – The first trial of accused murderer Lyle Menendez ends in a mistrial. He and his brother Erik are later found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
 January 31 – German luxury car manufacturer BMW announces the purchase of Rover from British Aerospace
February 6 — American pop rock band Maroon 5 formed (as Kara'a Flowers)
 April 7 – The Rwandan Genocide begins.
 April 8 – Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Nirvana, is found dead in Seattle, Washington. He had committed suicide three days earlier.
 April 19 – The Offspring releases their third album, Smash, which would be one of the band's top selling albums sold in the entire world. It contains their best known hit singles, "Come Out and Play (Keep 'Em Separated)" and "Self Esteem".
 April 27 – South Africa holds its first multiracial elections after the end of Apartheid.
 April 30 – Racing driver Roland Ratzenberger is killed in a crash during practice for the San Marino Grand Prix.
 May 1 – Racing driver Ayrton Senna is killed in a crash at the San Marino Grand Prix.
 May 6 – The Channel Tunnel, linking the United Kingdom and France, is opened.
 May 10 – Nelson Mandela becomes President of South Africa.
 June 12 – Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are found dead. O.J. Simpson is found not guilty of their murders the following year.
 July 3 – A replica Mona Lisa is smashed on the floor of the Louvre by an English tourist, prompting international outcry.
 mid-July – Jupiter is hit by fragments from the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9.
 August 12 – Woodstock '94 happens.
 August 31 – The Russian army leaves Estonia.
 September 28 – The Car Ferry Estonia sinks in the Baltic Sea.
 October 1 – Palau becomes an independent state in association with the USA.
 October 14 – A popular Quentin Tarantino movie Pulp Fiction was released in theaters, starring Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel and Bruce Willis.
 November 5 – President Ronald Reagan announces that he has Alzheimer's disease in order to raise public awareness of the disease.
 November 13 – Swedish voters support entry into the EU.
 November 28 – Norwegian voters reject membership of the EU.
 December 1 – Ernesto Zedillo becomes President of Mexico.
 December 26 – French anti-terrorist police storm a jet plane in Marseille, freeing all the hostages and killing 4 terrorists.
 December 31 – This date is skipped in parts of Kiribati, as the International Date Line is shifted to the east of the Phoenix Islands and the Line Islands, in order to integrate the whole country.

Nobel Prizes 
 Physics – Bertram N. Brockhouse, Clifford Glenwood Shull
 Chemistry – George Andrew Olah
 Medicine – Alfred G. Gilman, Martin Rodbell
 Literature – Kenzaburo Oe
 Nobel Peace Prize – Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin
 Economics – Reinhard Selten, John Forbes Nash, John Harsanyi

Movies released 
 Dumb and Dumber
 Disclosure
 Forrest Gump Junior Ed Wood The Lion King
 Pulp Fiction
 The Mask
 True Lies
 The Specialist
 The Seventh Brother
 The Shawshank Redemption
 Speed
 Reality Bites

Video games 
 Donkey Kong Country
 EarthBound (Japanese)
 Kirby's Dream Course (Japanese)
 Kirby's Avalanche
 Kirby's Dream Land 2
 Wario Blast
 Wario Woods

New books 
Accident  –  Danielle Steel
The Celestine Prophecy  –  James Redfield
The Chamber  –  John Grisham
Creatures of the Kingdom –  James A. Michener
Dark Rivers of the Heart – Dean R. Koontz
Daughter of Damascus – Shiham Turjuman
Dead Right – David Frum
The Debt of Honor  –  Tom Clancy
Disclosure  –  Michael Crichton
The Ghosts of Sleath – James Herbert
The Gift  –  Danielle Steel
How Late It Was, How Late – James Kelman
The Ice Storm – Rick Moody
The Informers – Bret Easton Ellis
In Search of CHURCHILL – Martin Gilbert
Interesting Times – Terry Pratchett
In the Lake of the Woods – Tim O'Brien
Insomnia  –  Stephen King
Just Like That – Lily Brett
Life After God – Douglas Coupland
Nothing Lasts Forever –  Sidney Sheldon
Point de côté  –  Judith Godrèche
Politically Correct Bedtime Stories – James Finn Garner
Recessional  –  James A. Michener
Songs of Earth and Power – Greg Bear
Soul Music – Terry Pratchett
The Stone Diaries – Carol Shields
Troubling a Star – Madeleine L'Engle
La Virevolte – Nancy Huston
The Wind in the Wheat, by Reed Arvin
Wings  –  Danielle Steel

Hit songs 
"90's Girl" – BlackGirl
"All For Love" – Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart & Sting
"All I Wanna Do" – Sheryl Crow
"All That She Wants" – Ace of Base
"Always" – Erasure
"Another Night" – Real McCoy
"Any Time, Any Place" – Janet Jackson
"Backwater" – Meat Puppets
"Big Empty" – Stone Temple Pilots
"Black Hole Sun" – Soundgarden
"Come Out and Play" – The Offspring
"Closer" – Nine Inch Nails
"Cut Your Hair" – Pavement
"Don't Turn Around" – Ace of Base
"Everyday" – Phil Collins
"Found Out About You" – Gin Blossoms
"Gin & Juice" – Snoop Doggy Dogg
"I Alone" – Live
"I Stay Away" – Alice in Chains
"Longview" – Green Day
"Loser" – Beck
"Love Is All Around" – Wet, Wet, Wet
"Love is Strong" – Rolling Stones
"Mary Jane's Last Dance" – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
"Mr. Jones" – Counting Crows
"Sabotage" – Beastie Boys
"Seether" – Veruca Salt
"She Don't Use Jelly" – The Flaming Lips
"The Most Beautiful Girl In The World" – Prince
"The Sign" – Ace of Base
"Until I Fall Away" – Gin Blossoms
"Waterfalls" – TLC
"Without You" – Mariah Carey
"You Want This" – Janet Jackson