1993 (MCMXCIII) was .

Events

January 
 January 1 – Czechoslovakia divides. Establishment of independent Slovakia and Czech Republic.
 January 3 – In Moscow, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
 January 5 –  Washington State executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the first legal hanging in America since 1965).
 January 9 – Jean-Claude Romand kills his family and tries to burn himself with his home in France.
January 15 – Salvatore Riina, the Mafia boss known as 'The Beast', is arrested in Sicily after three-decades as a fugitive
 January 18 – For the first time, Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is officially observed in all 50 United States states.
 January 19
 IBM announces a $4.97 billion loss for 1992 which is the largest single-year corporate loss in United States history.
 Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM inspectors to use its own aircraft to fly into Iraq, and begins military operations in the demilitarized zone between Iraq and Kuwait, and the northern No-fly Zone. US forces fire approximately 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Baghdad factories linked to Iraq's illegal nuclear weapons program. Iraq then informs UNSCOM that it will be able to resume its flights.
 January 20 – Bill Clinton succeeds George H. W. Bush as President of the United States of America.
 January 25
 Catherine Callbeck becomes Premier of Prince Edward Island, becoming the first woman to be elected a Premier (prime minister of a province) in Canada. (Rita Johnston was Canada's first female Premier)
 A gunman kills two employees outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
 January 26 – Václav Havel is elected President of the Czech Republic.

February 

 February 11 – Janet Reno is selected as Attorney General of the United States.
 February 17 – A ferry sinks in Haiti, killing about 1, 200 out of the 1, 500 passengers on board.
 February 24 – Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney resigns amidst political and economic turmoil.
 February 26 – World Trade Center Bombing: In New York City, a van parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center explodes, killing 6 people and injuring more than 1, 000.
 February 28 – Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, with a warrant to arrest leader David Koresh on federal firearms violations. Four agents and five Davidians die in the raid, and a 51-day standoff begins.

March 

 March 5 – Macedonian Palair Flight 301 crashes after take-off in Skopje, killing 83 out of the 97 people on board.
 March 12 – Several bombs explode in Bombay, India, killing 257 people.
 March 24 – The Israeli Knesset elects Ezer Weizmann as President of Israel.
 March 27 – Jiang Zemin becomes President of the People's Republic of China.

April 

 April 6 – A nuclear accident occurs at Tomsk 7 in Russia.
 April 8 – The Republic of Macedonia is admitted to the United Nations.
 April 16 – Bosnian War: Srebrenica falls.
 April 19 – A 51-day standoff at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ends with a fire that kills 76 people, including David Koresh.
 April 23 – Eritreans vote in favour of independence from Ethiopia.
 April 27 – All members of the Zambian national football team die in a plane crash near Libreville, Gabon.
 April 30 – Tennis star Monica Seles is stabbed in the back by an obsessed fan of rival Steffi Graf at a tournament in Hamburg, Germany.

May 

 May 1 – Former French Prime Minister Pierre Beregovoy commits suicide.
 May 9 – Juan Carlos Wasmosy becomes Paraguay's first democratically elected president in almost 40 years.
 May 24 – Eritrea gains independence from Ethiopia.
 May 28 – Eritrea and Monaco are admitted to the United Nations.

June 

 June 5 – 24 Pakistani UN peacekeeping troops are killed in Mogadishu, Somalia.
 June 25 – Kim Campbell becomes Canada's first female Prime Minister.

July 

 July 2 – An integrist mob sets fire to a hotel where The Satanic Verses translator Aziz Nesin resides, in Sivas, Turkey, killing 37 people.
 July 26 – Asiana Airlines Flight 733 crashes into Mt. Ungeo in Haenam, South Korea, killing 68 people.
 July 31 – King Baudouin I of Belgium dies aged 62.

August 

 August 9 – King Albert II of Belgium is officially sworn in.
 August 13 – Over 130 people die in the collapse of the Royal Plaza Hotel in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.

September 

 September 6 – The first reference to the Year 2000 problem is made.
 September 13 – Gro Harlem Brundtland is reelected as Prime Minister of Norway.
 September 13 – PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin sign a peace accord.
 September 23 – Sydney, Australia is awarded the 2000 Summer Olympics.
 September 24 – The Cambodian monarchy is restored, with Norodom Sihanouk as king.
 September 30 – An Earthquake centred in Killari, Maharashtra, India kills more than 10, 000 people.

October 

 October 2 – The Russian constitutional crisis of 1993 culminates with the Russian Military and security forces clearing the White House of Russia parliament building, squashing a mass uprising against President Boris Yeltsin.
 October 3 – A large scale battle erupts between US forces and local militia in Mogadishu, Somalia, killing 18 Americans and over 1000 Somalis.
 October 10 – The ferry Seohae capsizes off Pusan, South Korea, killing 292 people.
 October 21 – A coup in Burundi results in the death of President Melchior Ndadaye.
 October 25 – Jean Chretien of the Liberal Party is elected Prime Minister of Canada.
 October 31 – movie director Federico Fellini dies aged 73.

November 

 November 1 – The Maastricht Treaty takes effect formally establishing the EU.
 November 9 – Bosnian Croat forces destroy the Stari most, or Old Bridge in the town of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina by tank fire.
 November 22 – The NAFTA is passed.

December 

 December 2 – Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar is gunned down by police.
 December 20 – The first corrected images from the Hubble Space Telescope are taken.
 December 30 – Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations.
 December 30 – The Congress Party gains a parliamentary majority in India.
 December 31 – Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia dies aged 54.

Births 

January 26 – Cameron Bright, Canadian actor
February 7 – David Dorfman, American actor
February 19 - Victoria Justice, American singer and actress
February 26 – Taylor Dooley, American actress
March 4 - Bobbi Kristina Brown, American singer and television personality (d. 2015)
May 14 - Miranda Cosgrove, American actress and singer
May 18 – Jessica Watson, Australian sailor
June 26 – Ariana Grande, American singer 
July 26 – Taylor Momsen, American actress
July 28 – Cher Lloyd, English singer 
August 11 – Alyson Stoner, American actress and dancer
August 26 – Keke Palmer, American actress and dancer
September 1 – Ilona Mitrecey, French singer
October 2 – Tara Lynne Barr, American actress
December 8 – AnnaSophia Robb, American actress

Deaths

January – March 

 January 6 – Dizzy Gillespie, American musician (b. 1917)
 January 6 – Rudolf Nureyev, Russian dancer (b. 1938)
 January 20 – Audrey Hepburn, Belgian-born actress (b. 1929)
 January 24 – Thurgood Marshall, American jurist (b. 1908)
 February 6 – Arthur Ashe, American tennis player (b. 1943)
 February 24 – Bobby Moore, English footballer (b. 1941)
 March 3 – Albert Sabin, American biologist (b. 1906)
 March 20 – Polykarp Kusch, German-born physicist (b. 1911)
 March 31 – Brandon Lee, American actor (b. 1965)

April – June 

 April 8 – Marian Anderson, American contralto (b. 1897)
 April 19 – David Koresh, American cult leader (b. 1959)
 April 23 – Cesar Chavez, American labor union leader (b. 1927)
 May 1 – Pierre Beregovoy, French Prime Minister (b. 1925)
 June 5 – Conway Twitty, American musician (b. 1933)
 June 9 – Alexis Smith, Canadian actress (b. 1921)
 June 16 – Nicanor Zabaleta, Spanish harpist (b. 1907)
 June 19 – William Golding, British writer (b. 1911)
 June 22 – Pat Nixon, First Lady of the United States (b. 1912)
 June 30 – George 'Spanky' McFarland, American actor (b. 1928)

July – September 
 July 2 – Masuji Ibusi, Japanese writer (b. 1898)
 July 3 – Don Drysdale, American baseball player (b. 1936)
 July 31 – King Baudouin I of Belgium (b. 1930)
 August 21 – Ichiro Fujiyama, Japanese composer and singer (b. 1911)
 September 12 – Raymond Burr, Canadian actor (b. 1917)
 September 22 – Nina Berberova, Russian writer (b. 1901)
 September 27 – Jimmy Doolittle, American general (b. 1896)

October – December 

 October 12 – Leon Ames, American actor (b. 1903)
 October 12 – Tofik Bakhramov, Soviet linesman (b. 1926)
 October 21 – Melchior Ndadaye, President of Burundi (b. 1953)
 October 25 – Vincent Price, American actor (b. 1911)
 October 31 – Federico Fellini, Italian movie director (b. 1920)
 October 31 – River Phoenix, Musician and American actor (b. 1970)
 November 1 – Severo Ochoa, Spanish-born biochemist (b. 1905)
 November 22 – Anthony Burgess, British writer (b. 1917)
 December 2 – Pablo Escobar, Colombian drug lord (shot) (b. 1949)
 December 4 – Frank Zappa, American musician (b. 1940)
 December 6 – Don Ameche, American actor (b. 1908)
 December 7 – Felix Houphouet-Boigny, President of Ivory Coast (b. 1905)
 December 7 – Wolfgang Paul, German physicist (b. 1913)
 December 14 – Myrna Loy, American actress (b. 1905)
 December 16 – Kakuei Tanaka, Japanese Prime Minister (b. 1918)
 December 18 – Sam Wanamaker, American actor (b. 1919)
 December 28 – William L. Shirer, American journalist and historian (b. 1904)
 December 31 – Zviad Gamsakhurdia, President of Georgia (b. 1939)

Nobel Prizes
Physics – Russell Alan Hulse, Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr.
Chemistry – Kary Mullis, Michael Smith
Medicine – Richard J. Roberts, Philip Allen Sharp
Literature – Toni Morrison
Peace – Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk
Economics Robert Fogel, Douglas North

Movies released 
 Alive
 Cool Runnings
 Cliffhanger
 Demolition Man
 Free Willy
 The Fugituve
 Groundhog Day
 Joshua Tree
 Jurassic Park
 Mrs. Doubtfire
 Nightmare Before Christmas
 Philadelphia
 The Piano
 Sailor Moon R: The Movie
 Schindler's List
 Short Cuts
 Sleepless in Seattle
 The Three Musketeers

Hit songs
"Ain't Nothing But a G Thang" – Snoop Doggy Dogg / Dr Dre
"Award Tour" – A Tribe Called Quest
"Bombtrack" – Rage Against the Machine
"Both Sides Of The Story" – Phil Collins
"Bullet In The Head" – Rage Against the Machine
"Creep" – Radiohead
"Cryin'" – Aerosmith
"Deeper And Deeper" – Madonna
"Human Behavior" – Björk
"Heart Shaped Box" – Nirvana
"Hey Jealousy" – Gin Blossoms
"I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" – Meat Loaf
"I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" – The Proclaimers
"It Was a Good Day" – Ice Cube
"Man On The Moon" – R.E.M.
"On the Sea" – Vertical Horizon
"Passin' Me By" – The Pharcyde
"Pets" – Porno for Pyros
"Plush" – Stone Temple Pilots
"Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" Digable Planets
"Return of the Crazy One" Digital Underground
"Rooster" – Alice in Chains
"Sober" – Tool
"Standing Outside The Fire" – Garth Brooks
"Two Princes" – The Spin Doctors
"The World Around Me" – King's X

New books
Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years – Sue Townsend
Band of Brothers – Stephen Ambrose
Barnyard Dance – Sandra Boynton
Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays – Stephen Hawking
The Christmas Box – Richard Paul Evans
The Client – John Grisham
Complicity – Iain Banks
The Emigrants – W.G. Sebald
The Giver – Lois Lowry
Honour Among Thieves – Jeffrey Archer
The Hope – Herman Wouk
In the Eye of the Sun – Ahdaf Soueif
Lasher – Anne Rice
Like Water for Chocolate – Laura Esquivel
Losing Eddie – Deborah Joy Corey
Men at Arms – Terry Pratchett
Moving Mars – Greg Bear
The Night Manager – John le Carré
Nightmares and Dreamscapes – Stephen King
Ottoline Morrell: Life on the Grand Scale – Miranda Seymour
Pleading Guilty – Scott Turow
Le Rocher de Tanios – Amin Maalouf
The Scorpio Illusion – Robert Ludlum
Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree – Tariq Ali
Slow Waltz at Cedar Bend – Robert James Waller
Too Big To Fail – Walter Stewart
Trainspotting – Irvine Welsh
The Traitor and the Jew: Anti-Semitism and the Delirium of Extremist Right-Wing Nationalism in French Canada from 1929-1939 (Antisémitisme et nationalisme d'extrême-droite dans la province de Québec 1929-1939) – Esther Delisle
Vanished – Danielle Steel
Visiting Mrs. Nabokov and Other Excursions – Martin Amis
The Wicca Spellbook – Gerina Dunwich
Without Remorse – Tom Clancy