1990 (MCMXC) was .

Events

January 

 January 2 – All My Children airs its 20th anniversary special. The characters Joe and Ruth Martin sit down with Erica Kane, her mother Mona, and Phoebe Wallingford as they go through scrapbook pictures which segue into memorable clips from the show's past twenty years.
 January 7 – The Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed due to safety concerns.
 January 15 – Thousands of people storm the Stasi headquarters in Berlin, to view government records.
 January 20 – Soviet troops occupy Baku, Azerbaijan, under the state of emergency decree issued by Mikhail Gorbachev, and kill over 130 and wound over 700 protestors for national independence.
 January 21 – MTV's Unplugged premieres on cable television with musical guest, Squeeze.
 January 22 – The end of communism in Yugoslavia.
 January 25 – The Burns' Night storm kills 97 people in Northwestern Europe.
 January 31 – Moscow's first McDonald's restaurant opens.

February 
 February 8 – Songwriter Del Shannon dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
 February 11 – James "Buster" Douglas KOs Mike Tyson to win heavyweight boxing crown.
 February 11 – Nelson Mandela, a political prisoner for 27 years, is freed from Victor Verster prison outside Cape Town, South Africa.
 February 14 – 50,000 fans watch The Rolling Stones play the first of 10 concerts at Tokyo's Korakuen Dome, the beginning of the Stones' first ever tour of Japan.
 February 16 – Ike Turner is sentenced to 4 years in prison for possession of cocaine.
 February 17 – Aerosmith appears in the Saturday Night Live sketch Wayne's World, where they perform the Wayne's World theme song.
 February 26 – The Sandinistas are defeated in Nicaraguan elections.
 February 27 – In Time Magazine, Milli Vanilli "singer" Rob Pilatus states that their group is, "more talented than any Bob Dylan or Paul McCartney. Mick Jagger can't produce a sound. I'm the new Elvis."

March 

 March 11 – Lithuania declares independence from the Soviet Union.
 March 11 – Patricio Aylwin takes office as President of Chile, ending the rule of Augusto Pinochet.
 March 15 – Mikhail Gorbachev is elected executive President of the Soviet Union.
 March 15 – The Soviet Union declares Lithuania's independence declaration as invalid.
 March 18 – East Germany holds its first free elections.
 March 18 – 12 paintings worth $100 million are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the biggest art theft in US history.
 March 21 – Namibia becomes independent after 75 years of South African rule.
 March 25 – Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee is arrested for allegedly exposing his backside during a performance in Augusta, Georgia

April 
 April 6 – Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee suffers a mild concussion after falling off of scaffolding above his elevated drum kit during a performance in New Haven, CT.
 April 7 – Neil Young, Elton John, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Guns N' Roses and Jackson Browne perform at Farm Aid IV in Indiana. John dedicates "Candle in the Wind" to AIDS patient Ryan White during his performance. White died later that evening.
 April 25 – Jimi Hendrix's Fender Stratocaster that he used to perform his famous version of the "Star Spangled Banner" at Woodstock, is auctioned off in London for $295,000.
 April 25 – Violeta Chamorro is elected President of Nicaragua.
 April 30 – The long-lost pilot movie to I Love Lucy airs on CBS as a special.

May 
 May 4 – Latvia declares independence from the Soviet Union.
 May 8 – In Los Angeles, California, Tom Waits wins a $2.5 million lawsuit against Frito-Lay for unlawfully using a sound alike of Waits in its Doritos television commercials.
 May 22 – The Yemeni Arab Republic and People's Democratic Republic of Yemen unite to form the Republic of Yemen.
 May 26 – Gin Blossoms sign a contract with A&M Records.

June 
 June 12 – The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declares its sovereignty.
 June 21 – A 7.3 magnitude earthquake strikes Manjil, Iran, killing thousands of people.
 June 26 – US President George H. W. Bush goes back on his 'no new taxes' campaign promise.

July 

 July 2 – A stampede in Mecca kills 1,426 people.
 July 8 – West Germany wins the FIFA World Cup, beating Argentina 1-0 in the final.
 July 16 – A magnitude 7.7 earthquake kills more than 1,600 people in the Philippines.
 July 27 – Belarus declares its sovereignty.
 July 28 – Alberto Fujimori becomes President of Peru.

August 
 August 2 – Iraq invades Kuwait, leading to the 1991 Gulf War.
 August 23 – East Germany and West Germany announce their intention to reunite on October 3.

September 
 September 9 – Liberian President Samuel Doe is executed.
 September 11 – After a decade of performing in the Francophone world, Céline Dion makes her formal English-language debut when she releases her album Unison.
 September 18 – The 1996 Summer Olympics are awarded to Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
 September 29 – Washington National Cathedral is completed.

October 
 October 3 – Germany is officially reunited.
 October 14 – Leonard Bernstein dies aged 72.

November 
 November 1 – Mary Robinson is elected President of Ireland, taking office on December 3.
 November 12 – Akihito is officially enthroned as Emperor of Japan.
 November 14 – Germany and Poland sign a treaty confirming their border on the Oder-Neisse Line.
 November 22 – Margaret Thatcher announces her intention to resign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
 November 23 – Bad Religion releases Against the Grain, their first album released in the 90s. To date, the album remains the last to feature the "classic" line-up. It also features one of their signature songs, "21st Century (Digital Boy)", which would be re-recorded on their 1994 album Stranger Than Fiction.
 November 27 – "Vocal" group Milli Vanilli admits lip-synching hits such as "Girl You Know It's True." They later have their Grammy award revoked.
 November 28 – John Major becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

December 
 December 1 – The Smashing Pumpkins begin recording Gish, which will be a blockbuster album in 1991.
 December 1 – Channel Tunnel workers from the UK and France meet 40 metres beneath the English Channel seabed.
 December 13 – Genesis'88 stage weekly Acid House night in legally acquired warehouse in Stratford London under the banner imagine.
 December 16 – Jean-Bertrand Aristide is elected President of Haiti.
 December 22 – The Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia become independent, after their trusteeship terminates.
 December 22 – Lech Wałęsa sworn in as President of Poland.
 December 25 – The first successful trial run of the system that would become the World Wide Web, is carried out.
 December 31 – Garry Kasparov wins the World Chess Championship against Anatoly Karpov.

Other Events 
 Chris Farley and Adam Sandler join Saturday Night Live.
 The poorly received Cop Rock preimieres on television, TV's first (and last) musical police drama.
 Legislation is signed into United States law requiring close captioning decoders in all large color TVs manufactured after July 1, 1993.

Births 

 January 4 – Toni Kroos, German footballer
 January 7 – Liam Aiken, American actor
 January 7 – Elene Gedevanishvili, Georgian figure skater
 January 7 – Camryn Grimes, American actress
 January 7 – Gregor Schlierenzauer, Austrian ski jumper
 January 8 – Xu Xin, Chinese ping-pong player
 January 12 – Sergey Karjakin, Ukrainian-born chessmaster
 January 30 – Jake Thomas, American actor
 February 1 – Laura Marling, English singer-songwriter
 February 3 – Sean Kingston, American singer
 February 11 – Q'Orianka Kilcher, German-born actress
 February 13 – Erdini Qoigyijabu, eleventh Panchen Lama
 February 23 – Christian Copelin, American actor
 February 28 – Anna Muzychuk, Ukrainian chess player
 March 7 – Abigail and Brittany Hensel, American conjoined twins
 March 8 – Petra Kvitova, Czech tennis player
 March 23 – Princess Eugenie of York
 March 24 – Keisha Castle-Hughes, Australian-born actress
 March 27 – Kimbra, New Zealand singer-songwriter
 April 9 – Kristen Stewart, American actress
 April 10 – Alex Pettyfer, British actor
 April 15 – Emma Watson, British actress
 April 23 – Dev Patel, British actor
 May 1 – Caitlin Stasey, Australian actress
 May 2 – Kay Panabaker, American actress
 May 16 – Thomas Sangster, English actor
 May 27 – Chris Colfer, American actor
 June 2 – Brittany Curran, American actress
 June 11 – Christophe Lemaitre, French runner
 June 13 – Aaron Johnson, British actor
 June 17 – Jordan Henderson, English footballer
 June 20 – Ding Ning, Chinese table tennis player
 July 1 – Emil Wennström, Swedish musician (Guitar)
 July 11 – Caroline Wozniacki, Danish tennis player
 July 19 – Aron Palmarsson, Icelandic handball player
 July 24 – Daveigh Chase, American actress
 July 27 – Indiana Evans, Australian actress
 July 27 – Nick Hogan, American television personality
 July 28 – Soulja Boy, American rapper
 August 12 – Mario Balotelli, Italian footballer
 August 15 – Jennifer Lawrence, American actress
 August 17 – Rachel Hurd-Wood, English actress
 August 21 – Jared Staal, Canadian ice hockey player
 August 26 – Lil' Chris, English singer
 August 27 – Taylor Mitchell, Canadian singer (d. 2009)
 August 28 – Bojan Krkic, Serbian-Spanish footballer
 August 29 – Patrick van Aanholt, Dutch footballer
 September 5 – Kim Yu-Na, South Korean figure skater
 September 18 – Lewis Holtby, German footballer
 September 20 – John Tavares, Canadian ice hockey player
 September 25 – Mao Asada, Japanese figure skater
 September 28 – Kirsten Prout, Canadian actress
 September 29 – Doug Brochu, American actor and comedian
 October 16 – Yohanna, Icelandic singer
 October 18 – Carly Schroeder, American actress
 October 21 – Ricky Rubio, Spanish basketball player
 October 22 – Jonathan Lipnicki, American actor
 October 29
 Amarna Miller, former Spanish porn actress, vlogger & YouTuber
 Eric Saade, Swedish singer
 October 31 – J.I.D, American hip-hop rapper
 November 7 – Marisa Siketa, Australian actress
 November 7 – David de Gea, Spanish footballer
 November 26 – Chipmunk, English rapper
 November 26 – Danny Welbeck, English footballer
 November 27 – Shane Haboucha, American actor
 November 30 – Magnus Carlsen, Norwegian chess player
 December 10 – Shoya Tomizawa, Japanese motorcycle racer (d. 2010)
 December 17 – Ashley Edner, American actress
 December 20 – Joanna Noelle Levesque, American singer
 December 23 – Anna Maria Perez de Tagle, American actress
 December 26 – Aaron Ramsey, Welsh footballer
 December 28 – David Archuleta, American singer
 December 31 – Patrick Chan, Canadian figure skater
 December 31 – Zhao Jing, Chinese swimmer

Deaths

January – March 

 January 6 – Pavel Cherenkov, Russian physicist (b. 1904)
 January 9 – Bazilio Olara-Okello, Ugandan politician (b. 1929)
 January 19 – Herbert Wehner, German politician (b. 1906)
 January 20 – Barbara Stanwyck, American actress (b. 1907)
 January 22 – Mariano Rumor, Italian politician (b. 1915)
 January 22 – Roman Vishniac, Russian-American photographer (b. 1897)
 January 25 – Ava Gardner, American actress (b. 1922)
 February 7 – Jimmy van Heusen, American composer (b. 1913)
 February 8 – Del Shannon, American musician and singer (b. 1934)
 February 24 – Sandro Pertini, Italian President (b. 1896)
 March 5 – Edmund Conen, German footballer (b. 1914)
 March 15 – Farzad Bazoft, Iranian-British journalist (b. 1958)
 March 20 – Lev Yashin, Russian footballer (b. 1929)

April – June 

 April 1 – Carlos Peucelle, Argentine footballer (b. 1908)
 April 15 – Greta Garbo, Swedish actress (b. 1905)
 April 17 – Ralph Abernathy, American civil rights leader (b. 1926)
 April 20 – Horst Sindermann, East German politician (b. 1915)
 April 21 – Romain de Tirtoff, French art deco artist (b. 1892)
 May 10 – Walker Percy, American writer (b. 1916)
 May 12 – Andrei Kirilenko, Soviet politician (b. 1906)
 May 16 – Sammy Davis Jr., American actor, dancer and singer (b. 1925)
 May 16 – Jim Henson, American puppeteer and movie maker (b. 1936)
 May 22 – Rocky Graziano, American boxer (b. 1919)
 June 2 – Rex Harrison, British actor (b. 1908)
 June 3 – Stiv Bators, American singer (b. 1949)
 June 5 – Vasili Kuznetsov, Soviet politician (b. 1901)
 June 8 – José Figueres Ferrer, President of Costa Rica (b. 1906)
 June 16 – Eva Turner, British soprano (b. 1892)
 June 22 – Ilya Frank, Russian physicist (b. 1908)

July – September 

 July 7 – Bill Cullen, American game show host (b. 1920)
 July 15 – Margaret Lockwood, British actress (b. 1916)
 July 18 – Yun Poson, South Korean President (b. 1897)
 July 18 – Johnny Wayne, Canadian comedian (b. 1918)
 July 22 – Manuel Puig, Argentine writer (b. 1932)
 July 29 – Bruno Kreisky, Austrian chancellor (b. 1911)
 August 9 – Joe Mercer, English footballer (b. 1914, also on August 9)
 August 17 – Pearl Bailey, American singer and actress (b. 1918)
 August 27 – Stevie Ray Vaughan, American Blues guitarist (b. 1954)
 September 1 – Geir Hallgrimsson, Icelandic politician (b. 1925)
 September 6 – Tom Fogerty, American musician (b. 1941)
 September 7 – Ahti Karjalainen, Finnish politician (b. 1923)
 September 9 – Samuel Doe, Liberian military officer and President (b. 1951)
 September 21 – Xu Xiangqian, Chinese Communist military commander (b. 1901)
 September 26 – Alberto Moravia, Italian novelist (b. 1907)
 September 30 – Patrick White, Australian writer (b. 1912)

October – December 

 October 3 – Stefano Casiraghi, husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco (b. 1960)
 October 13 – Le Duc Tho, Vietnamese politician (b. 1911)
 October 14 – Leonard Bernstein, American composer and conductor (b. 1918)
 October 27 – Xavier Cugat, Catalan-born bandleader (b. 1900)
 November 3 – Mary Martin, American actress (b. 1913)
 November 11 – Yiannis Ritsos, Greek poet (b. 1909)
 November 13 – Don Chaffey, British movie director (b. 1917)
 November 17 – Robert Hofstadter, American physicist (b. 1915)
 November 23 – Roald Dahl, British writer (b. 1916)
 December 2 – Aaron Copland, American composer (b. 1900)
 December 6 – Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysian Prime Minister (b. 1913)
 December 7 – Joan Bennett, American actress (b. 1910)
 December 14 – Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss writer (b. 1921)
 December 16 – Jackie Mitoo, Jamaican musician (b. 1948)
 December 28 – Kiel Martin, American actor (b. 1944)
 December 31 – Vasili Lazarev, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1928)

Nobel Prizes 

 Physics – Jerome Isaac Friedman, Henry Way Kendall, Richard Edward Taylor
 Chemistry – Elias James Corey
 Physiology or Medicine – Joseph E. Murray, E. Donnell Thomas
 Literature – Octavio Paz
 Nobel Peace Prize – Mikhail Gorbachev
 Economics – Harry Markowitz, Merton Miller, William Sharpe

New books 
 The Bourne Ultimatum – Robert Ludlum
 The Burden of Proof – Scott Turow
 The Cardinal Virtues – Andrew Greeley
 Clear and Present Danger – Tom Clancy
 Devices and Desires – P. D. James
 Eric – Terry Pratchett
 Four Past Midnight – Stephen King
 Get Shorty – Elmore Leonard
 A Graveyard for Lunatics – Ray Bradbury
 Heads – Greg Bear
 Harvest – Belva Plain
 Homecoming – John Bradshaw
 An Inconvenient Woman – Dominic Dunne
 Joy – Marsha Hunt
 Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton
 Last Chance to See – Douglas Adams & Mark Cawardine
 Liberty and Power – Harry L. Watson
 Message From Nam – Danielle Steel
 Moving Pictures – Terry Pratchett
 Pilgrimage – James A. Michener
 Queen of Angels – Greg Bear
 September – Rosamund Pilcher
 The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Version – Stephen King
 A Tenured Professor – John Kenneth Galbraith
 The Things They Carried – Tim O'Brien
 Use of Weapons – Iain M. Banks
 Vineland – Thomas Pynchon

Movies released 
 Bird on a Wire
 Dances with Wolves
 Dick Tracy
 Die Hard 2
 Days of Thunder
 Edward Scissorhands
 Flatliners
 Marked for Death
 Ghost
 Goodfellas
 Hard to Kill
 Home Alone
 King of New York
 Kindergarten Cop
 Lionheart
 Pretty Woman
 Rocky V
 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
 The Hunt for Red October
 Total Recall
 Tremors
 Wild at Heart

Hit songs 
 "Ball and Chain" – Social Distortion
 "Blaze of Glory" – Jon Bon Jovi
 "Blue Sky Mine" – Midnight Oil
 "Close to You" – Maxi Priest
 "Epic" – Faith No More
 "Escapade" – Janet Jackson
 "Friends In Low Places" – Garth Brooks
 "I Go To Extremes" – Billy Joel
 "I Wish It Would Rain Down" – Phil Collins
 "Ice Ice Baby" – Vanilla Ice
 "It Must Have Been Love" – Roxette
 "Janie's Got A Gun" – Aerosmith
 "Nothing Compares 2 U" – Sinéad O'Connor
 "Opposites Attract" – Paula Abdul
 "Step by Step" – New Kids on the Block
 "Three Strange Days" – School of Fish (debut single)
 "The Thunder Rolls" – Garth Brooks
 "U Can't Touch This" – M.C. Hammer
 "Unbelievable" – EMF (debut single)
 "Vision of Love" – Mariah Carey
 "Vogue" – Madonna