1994

Events from the year 1994 in the United States.
==Incumbents==
===Federal Government===
* President: Bill Clinton (D-AR)
* Vice President: Al Gore (D–TN)
* Chief Justice: William Rehnquist (WI)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Tom Foley (D–WA)
* Senate Majority Leader: George J. Mitchell (D–ME)
* Congress: 103rd
==Events==
===January===
* January 1 – The National Archives at College Park opens.
* January 6 – In Detroit, Michigan, Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the right leg by an assailant, under orders from figure skating rival Tonya Harding's ex-husband.
* January 11 – The Superhighway Summit is held at UCLA's Royce Hall. It is the first conference to discuss the growing information superhighway and is presided over by U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
* January 14 – U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the Kremlin accords, which stop the preprogrammed aiming of nuclear missiles toward each country's targets, and also provide for the dismantling of the nuclear arsenal in Ukraine.
* January 17 – The 6.5–6.7 Mw Northridge earthquake shakes the Greater Los Angeles Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), leaving 57 people dead and more than 8,700 injured.
* January 19 – Record cold temperatures hit the eastern United States. The coldest temperature ever measured in Indiana state history, −36 °F (−38 °C), is recorded in New Whiteland, Indiana.
* January 20 – In South Carolina, Shannon Faulkner becomes the first female cadet to attend The Citadel, but soon drops out.
* January 25 – U.S. President Bill Clinton delivers his first State of the Union address, calling for health care reform, a ban on assault weapons, and welfare reform.
* January 30 – Super Bowl XXVIII: The Dallas Cowboys defeat the Buffalo Bills 30–13 at Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia.
===February===
* February 1 – In Portland, Oregon, Tonya Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly pleads guilty for his role in attacking figure skater Nancy Kerrigan. He accepts a plea bargain, admitting to racketeering charges in exchange for testimony against Harding.
* February 3 – William Perry is sworn in as the new Secretary of Defense, succeeding Les Aspin.
* February 22 – Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged with spying for the Soviet Union by the United States Department of Justice. Ames is later convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment; his wife receives five years in prison.
* February 28 – United States F-16 pilots shoot down four Serbian fighter aircraft over Bosnia and Herzegovina for violation of the Operation Deny Flight and its no-fly zone.
===March===
* March 1
** A lone terrorist kills Ari Halberstam during an attack on 14 Jewish students on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City.
** Mary Ellen Withrow begins her term as Treasurer of the United States, serving under President Bill Clinton.
* March 7 – Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that parodies of an original work are generally covered by the doctrine of fair use.
* March 15 – U.S. troops are withdrawn from Somalia.
* March 16 – In Portland, Oregon, Tonya Harding pleads guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for trying to cover-up an attack on figure skating rival Nancy Kerrigan. She is fined $100,000 and banned from the sport.
* March 17 – Serial killer Dana Sue Gray is arrested in California in connection with three murders and one attempted murder of elderly women.
* March 21 – The 66th Academy Awards, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, are held at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. Steven Spielberg's Holocaust drama, Schindler's List, wins seven Oscars out of 12 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. The telecast garners over 46.2 million viewers.
* March 23 – Green Ramp disaster: Two military aircraft collide over Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina, causing 24 fatalities and over 100 injuries.
* March 27 – The biggest tornado outbreak in 1994 occurs in the southeastern United States; one tornado hits a Goshen United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Alabama, killing 22 people.
===April===
* April 8 – Kurt Cobain, songwriter and frontman for the band Nirvana, is found dead at his Lake Washington home. It would be later be confirmed that Cobain had committed suicide three days prior.
* April 22 – Former President Richard Nixon dies in New York City at 81. He is buried at his presidential library on April 26, following a state funeral.
* April 25 – The largest high school arson ever in the United States is started at Burnsville High School, in Burnsville, Minnesota, resulting in over 15 million dollars in damages. The same arsonist also goes on to set fires at Edina High School and Minnetonka High School.
===May===
* May 10 – Illinois executes serial killer John Wayne Gacy by lethal injection for the murder of 33 young men and boys.
* May 19 – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, former First Lady of the United States, dies of cancer at the age of 64.
===June===
* June 12 – Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are murdered outside the Simpson home in Los Angeles. O. J. Simpson is later acquitted of the killings, but is held liable in a civil suit.
* June 14 – The New York Rangers defeat the Vancouver Canucks, 3–2, in Game 7 of the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals at Madison Square Garden to win their first championship in 54 years.
* June 15 – Walt Disney Pictures' 32nd feature film, The Lion King, is released in theaters to critical acclaim, making $422,783,777 in the United States ($951,583,777 worldwide). It is the highest-grossing film of the year and the highest grossing traditionally-animated film of all time.
* June 17
** NFL star O. J. Simpson and his friend Al Cowlings flee from police in his white Ford Bronco. The low-speed chase ends at Simpson's Brentwood, Los Angeles, California mansion, where he surrenders.
** The 1994 FIFA World Cup begins in the United States.
* June 20 – Dean Mellberg kills four and injures 23 at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, Washington.
* June 22 – The Houston Rockets defeat the New York Knicks at The Summit in Texas in Game 7 of the 1993–94 NBA season, to win their first NBA Championship.
* June 24 – 1994 Fairchild Air Force Base B-52 crash: U.S. Air Force pilot Bud Holland crashes a B-52 in Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington as a result of pilot error.
* June 30 – Tropical Storm Alberto causes heavy flooding, intense winds and extensive problems directly over the Southeastern United States and the Caribbean Islands. 32 individuals are directly killed by the storm, and property damage is assessed at $1 billion (1994 USD).
===July===
* July 5 – Amazon is founded by Jeff Bezos.
* July 6 – Fourteen firefighters die in the South Canyon wildfire on Storm King Mountain in Colorado. The event inspires the 1999 book Fire on the Mountain.
* July 19 – Four 26-pound ceiling tiles fall from the roof of the Kingdome in Seattle, Washington, just hours before a scheduled Seattle Mariners game.
===August===
* August 3 – Stephen Breyer is sworn in as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court.
* August 12 – Woodstock '94 begins in Saugerties, New York, celebrating the 25-year anniversary of the 1969 Woodstock festival.
* August 20 – In Honolulu, Hawaii, during a circus international performance, an elephant named Tyke crushes her trainer Allen Campbell to death before hundreds of horrified spectators at the Neal Blaisdell Arena.
* August 23 – Eugene Bullard is posthumously commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force, 33 years after his death, and 77 years to the day after his rejection for U.S. military service in 1917.
===September===
* September 1 – Trudy McFall and Nancy Rase found "Homes for America" in Annapolis, Maryland.
* September 8 – USAir Flight 427, a Boeing 737 with 132 people on board, crashes on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport; there are no survivors.
* September 10 – The Magic School Bus debuts on PBS.
* September 12 – Frank Eugene Corder crashes a Cessna 150 into the South Lawn of the White House; he is killed, and is the sole casualty.
* September 13
** President Bill Clinton signs the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which bans the manufacture of new firearms with certain features for a period of 10 years.
** President Bill Clinton signs the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA). The Act provided $1.6 billion toward investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women, imposed automatic and mandatory restitution on those convicted, and allowed civil redress in cases prosecutors chose not to prosecute. The Act also established the Office on Violence Against Women within the Department of Justice.
* September 14 – The World Series is cancelled for the first time in 90 years due to a strike by the MLB Players Association.
* September 15 – Hurricane Gert crosses from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean through Central America and Mexico.
* September 17 – Heather Whitestone becomes the first hearing impaired contestant to win the Miss America entitlement. Whitestone becomes Miss America 1995.
* September 19 – American troops stage a bloodless invasion of Haiti in order to restore the legitimate elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to power.
* September 22 – The pilot episode of Friends airs on NBC.
* September 24 – The Marvel Action Hour, featuring animated adaptations of Iron Man and the Fantastic Four, debuts in syndication.
* September 30 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq threatens to stop cooperating with UNSCOM inspectors and begins to once again deploy troops near its border with Kuwait. In response, the U.S. begins to deploy troops to Kuwait.
===October===
* October 12
** NASA loses radio contact with the Magellan spacecraft as the probe descends into the thick atmosphere of Venus (the spacecraft presumably burned up in the atmosphere either October 13 or October 14).
** Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen found DreamWorks Animation.
* October 15
** Iraq disarmament crisis: Following threats by the U.N. Security Council and the U.S., Iraq withdraws troops from its border with Kuwait.
** After three years of U.S. exile, Haiti's president Aristide returns to his country.
* October 29 – Francisco Martin Duran fires over 2 dozen shots at the White House; he is later convicted of trying to kill President Bill Clinton.
* October 31 – An American Eagle ATR 72 crashes in Roselawn, Indiana, after circling in icy weather, killing 64 passengers.
===November===
* November 4 – The first conference devoted entirely to the subject of the commercial potential of the World Wide Web opens in San Francisco. Featured speakers include Marc Andreessen of Netscape, Mark Graham of Pandora Systems, and Ken McCarthy of E-Media.
* November 5 – Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan announces that he has Alzheimer's disease.
* November 7 – WXYC, the student radio station of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, provides the world's first internet radio broadcast.
* November 8
** Hurricane Gordon strikes the Caribbean Islands and the Southeastern United States, causing 1,147 deaths (of which 1,122 are in Haiti) and US$514M in damage (estimated, 1994 dollars).
** Republican Revolution: Georgia Representative Newt Gingrich leads the Republican Party in taking control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in midterm congressional elections, the first time in 40 years the Republicans secure control of both houses of Congress. George W. Bush is elected Governor of Texas.
* November 11 – The Santa Clause, directed by John Pasquin, is released in theatres.
* November 16 – A federal judge issues a temporary restraining order prohibiting California from implementing Proposition 187, which would have denied most public services to illegal aliens.
* November 28 – At the Columbia Correctional Institution, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and murderer Jesse Anderson are attacked by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver. Dahmer dies on the way to the hospital and Anderson dies two days later.
* November 30
** The National Football League announces that the Jacksonville Jaguars will become the league's 30th franchise.
** Rapper Tupac Shakur is shot five times and robbed after entering the lobby of Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan.
===December===
* December 1 – Home & Garden Television debuts.
* December 2 – The unemployment rate drops to 5.5%, the lowest since the start of the early 1990s recession in July 1990.
* December 3 – The first PlayStation is released.
* December 14
** A Learjet piloted by Richard Anderson and Brad Sexton misses an elementary school and crashes into an apartment complex in Fresno, California, killing both pilots and injuring several apartment residents.
** A runaway Santa Fe freight train rear ends a Union Pacific train at the bottom of Cajon Pass, California.
* December 19
** A planned exchange rate correction of the Mexican Peso to the U.S. Dollar creates a massive financial meltdown in Mexico, unleashing the 'Tequila Effect' on global financial markets. This prompts a US$50 billion 'bailout' by the Clinton Administration.
** The Whitewater scandal investigation begins in Washington, D.C.
* December 21 – A homemade bomb explodes on the #4 train on Fulton Street in New York City.
* December 27 – After experiencing a hacker attack by Kevin Mitnick, computer security expert Tsutomu Shimomura started to receive prank calls that popularized the trope "My kung fu is stronger than yours".
==Sport==
* June 14 – The New York Rangers win their fourth (and first since 1940) Stanley Cup by defeating the Vancouver Canucks 4 games to 2. The deciding Game 7 was played at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Corpus Christi, Texas' Brian Leetch becomes the first American to be awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy.
* June 23 – The 1994 NBA Finals was won by the Houston Rockets. The Rockets defeated the New York Knicks in a hard-fought seven games series. Hakeem Olajuwon was named MVP of the Finals.
* July 6 – The Canadian Football League establish the Las Vegas Posse, Shreveport Pirates, and Baltimore Stallions.
* November 27 – The BC Lions win their third Grey Cup by defeating the Baltimore Stallions 26–23 in the 82nd Grey Cup played at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia. New Iberia, Louisiana's Karl Anthony is awarded the game's Most Valuable Player.
==Memoriam==
===January===
* January 1 – Cesar Romero, actor (aged 86; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
* January 3 – Frank Belknap Long, writer (aged 92; New York City, NY, USA)
* January 5 – Tip O'Neill, politician (aged 81; Boston, MA, USA)
* January 8 – Pat Buttram, actor (aged 78; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* January 9 – Johnny Temple, baseball player and sportscaster (aged 66; Anderson, SC, USA)
* January 12 – Samuel Bronston, film producer and director (aged 85; Sacramento, CA, USA)
* January 14 – Esther Ralston, actress (aged 91; Ventura, CA, USA)
* January 15 – Harry Nilsson, musician (aged 52; Agoura Hills, CA, USA)
* January 17 – Helen Stephens, athlete (aged 75; St. Louis, MO, USA)
* January 22
** Frances Gifford, actress (aged 73; Pasadena, CA, USA)
** Telly Savalas, actor (aged 72; Universal City, CA, USA)
* January 25 – Stephen Cole Kleene, mathematician (aged 85; Madison, WI, USA)
* January 27 – Claude Akins, actor (aged 67; Altadena, CA, USA)
* January 28 – Hal Smith, actor (aged 77; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
* January 29 – Nick Cravat, actor and acrobat (aged 82; Woodland Hills, CA, USA)
===February===
* February 1 – Olan Soule, actor (aged 84; Corona, CA, USA)
* February 2 – Marija Gimbutas, Lithuanian-American archeologist (aged 73; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* February 6
** Joseph Cotten, actor (aged 88; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
** Jack Kirby, comic book artist (aged 76; Thousand Oaks, CA, USA)
* February 9
** Howard Martin Temin, geneticist (aged 59; Madison, WI, USA)
** Bud Wilkinson, football player, coach and broadcaster (aged 77; St. Louis, MO, USA)
* February 11
** Sorrell Booke, actor (aged 64; Sherman Oaks, CA, USA)
** William Conrad, actor (aged 73; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* February 12 – Donald Judd, artist (aged 65; New York City, NY, USA)
* February 14 – Christopher Lasch, historian, moralist, and social critic (aged 61; Pittsford, NY, USA)
* February 24 – Dinah Shore, actress and singer (aged 77; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* February 25
** Baruch Goldstein, American-Israeli physician, religious extremist, and mass murderer (aged 37; Hebron, Palestine)
** Jersey Joe Walcott, boxer (aged 80; Camden, NJ, USA)
* February 26 – Bill Hicks, comedian (aged 32; Little Rock, AR, USA)
===March===
* March 2 – Anita Morris, actress, singer, and dancer (aged 50; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* March 4 – John Candy, Canadian comedian and actor (aged 43; Durango, Mexico)
* March 9 – Charles Bukowski, writer (aged 73; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* March 13 – Danny Barker, musician (aged 85; New Orleans, LA, USA)
* March 17 – Ellsworth Vines, tennis player (aged 82; La Quinta, CA, USA)
* March 21
** Macdonald Carey, actor (aged 81; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
** Lili Damita, French-American actress and singer (aged 89; Palm Beach, FL, USA)
* Dack Rambo, actor (aged 52; Delano, CA, USA)
* March 22
** Dan Hartman, musician (aged 43; Westport, CT, USA)
** Walter Lantz, cartoonist (aged 94; Burbank, CA, USA)
* March 28 – Ira Murchison, athlete (aged 61; Harvey, IL, USA)
===April===
* April 2 – Betty Furness, actress, author, and consumer advocate (aged 78; New York City, NY, USA)
* April 5 – Kurt Cobain, singer and songwriter (aged 27; Seattle, WA, USA)
* April 6 – Sheck Exley, cave diver (aged 45; El Zacatón, Mexico)
* April 16 – Ralph Ellison, writer (aged 81; New York City, NY, USA)
* April 17 – Roger Wolcott Sperry, neurobiologist (aged 80; Pasadena, CA, USA)
* April 22 – Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States from 1969 to 1974, 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 (aged 81; New York City, NY, USA)
* April 29 – Russell Kirk, political philosopher (aged 75; Mecosta, MI, USA)
* April 30 – Richard Scarry, author (aged 74; Gstaad, Switzerland)
===May===
* May 5 – Joe Layton, director and choreographer (aged 63; Key West, FL, USA)
* May 7 – Clement Greenberg, art critic (aged 85; New York City, NY, USA)
* May 8 – George Peppard, actor (aged 65; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* May 10 – John Wayne Gacy, serial killer (aged 52; Crest Hill, IL, USA)
* May 12
** Erik Erikson, Danish-American developmental psychologist (aged 91; Harwich, MA, USA)
** Roy J. Plunkett, chemist (aged 83; Corpus Christi, TX, USA)
* May 14 – W. Graham Claytor Jr., businessman and naval officer (aged 82; Bradenton, FL, USA)
* May 15
** Royal Dano, actor (aged 71; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
** Gilbert Roland, actor (aged 88; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* May 19
** Henry Morgan, comedian (aged 79; New York City, NY, USA)
** Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, First Lady of the United States as wife of John F. Kennedy, socialite. and conservationist (aged 64; New York City, NY, USA)
* May 26 – Sonny Sharrock, jazz musician (aged 53; Ossining, NY, USA)
* May 28 – Julius Boros, golfer (aged 74; Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA)
* May 30 – Ezra Taft Benson, religious leader (aged 94; Salt Lake City, UT, USA)
===June===
* June 1 – Frances Heflin, actress (aged 73; New York City, NY, USA)
* June 4 – Stephen McNally, actor (aged 82; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* June 6 – Barry Sullivan, actor (aged 81; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* June 8 – Dorothy Shoemaker McDiarmid, legislator from Virginia (aged 87; Fairfax, VA, USA)
* June 10
** Mary Maxwell Gates, businesswoman (aged 64; Seattle, WA, USA)
** Edward Kienholz, artist and sculptor (aged 66; Hope, ID, USA)
* June 12
** Ron Goldman, model, waiter (aged 25; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
** Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Hasidic rabbinical leader (aged 92; Manhattan, NY, USA)
** Nicole Brown Simpson, German-American actress, waitress, wife of O. J. Simpson murder victim (aged 35; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* June 13 – K. T. Stevens, actress (aged 74; Brentwood, CA, USA)
* June 14 – Henry Mancini, composer and arranger (aged 70; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* June 16 – Kristen Pfaff, bassist (aged 27; Seattle, WA, USA)
* June 20 – Jay Miner, computer pioneer (aged 62; Mountain View, CA, USA)
* June 21 – William Wilson Morgan, astronomer and astrophysicist (aged 88; Williams Bay, WI, USA)
* June 23 – Marv Throneberry, baseball player (aged 60; Fisherville, TN, USA)
===July===
* July 7
** Anita Garvin, actress (aged 88; Woodland Hills, CA, USA)
** Cameron Mitchell, actor (aged 75; Pacific Palisades, CA, USA)
* July 8 – Dick Sargent, actor (aged 64; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* July 11 – Gary Kildall, computer inventor (aged 52; Monterey, CA, USA)
* July 16 – Julian Schwinger, physicist (aged 76; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
===August===
* August 16 – John Doucette, actor (aged 73; Banning, CA, USA)
* August 17 – Jack Sharkey, boxer (aged 91; Beverly, MA, USA)
* August 19 – Linus Pauling, chemist (aged 93; Big Sur, CA, USA)
* August 21 – Danitra Vance, comedian and actress (aged 40; Markham, IL, USA)
===September===
* September 7 – Dennis Morgan, actor and singer (aged 85; Fresno, CA, USA)
* September 9 – Patrick O'Neal, actor (aged 66; Manhattan, NY, USA)
* September 11 – Jessica Tandy, English-born actress (aged 85; Easton, CT, USA)
* September 12 – Tom Ewell, actor (aged 85; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* September 15 – Mark Stevens, actor (aged 77; Majores, Spain)
* September 16 – Jack Dodson, actor (aged 63; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* September 17
** John Delafose, accordion player (aged 55; Opelousas, LA, USA)
** Vitas Gerulaitis, tennis player (aged 40; Southampton, NY, USA)
* September 20 – Jule Styne, English-born songwriter (aged 88; Manhattan, NY, USA)
* September 23 – Robert Bloch, writer (aged 77; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
===October===
* October 2 – Harriet Nelson, actress (aged 85; Laguna Beach, CA, USA)
* October 3 – Dub Taylor, actor (aged 87; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* October 19 – Martha Raye, and comedian (aged 78; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* October 20 – Burt Lancaster, actor (aged 80; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* October 23 – Robert Lansing, actor (aged 66; New York City, NY, USA)
* October 24 – Raúl Juliá, Puerto Rican-American actor and singer (aged 54; Manhasset, NY, USA)
* October 25 – Mildred Natwick, actress (aged 89; New York City, NY, USA)
===November===
* November 1 – Noah Beery Jr., actor (aged 81; Tehachapi, CA, USA)
* November 2 – Peter Taylor, novelist, short story writer, and playwright (aged 77; Charlottesville, VA, USA)
* November 4 – Sam Francis, painter (aged 71; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
* November 10 – Carmen McRae, jazz singer (aged 74; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* November 12 – Wilma Rudolph, athlete (aged 54; Brentwood, TN, USA)
* November 13 – John Bailey, actor and screenwriter (aged 47; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* November 14 – Tom Villard, actor (aged 40; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* November 18 – Cab Calloway, jazz singer and bandleader (aged 86; Hockessin, DE, USA)
* November 21 – Willem Jacob Luyten, Dutch-American astronomer (aged 95; Minneapolis, MN, USA)
* November 28 – Jeffrey Dahmer, serial killer (aged 34; Portage, WI, USA)
* November 29 – George Bell Timmerman Jr., 105th Governor of South Carolina (aged 82; Batesburg-Leesville, SC, USA)
* November 30 – Lionel Stander, actor (aged 86; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
===December===
* December 12 – Stuart Roosa, astronaut (aged 61; Falls Church, VA, USA)
* December 18 – Lilia Skala, Austrian-born actress (aged 98; Bay Shore, NY, USA)
* December 20 – Dean Rusk, diplomat, 54th Secretary of State (aged 85; Athens, GA, USA)
* December 24 – John Boswell, historian (aged 47; New Haven, CT, USA)
* December 31 – Woody Strode, athlete and actor (aged 80; Glendora, CA, USA)
==External links==
* 1994 in the United States
Category:United States History: Volume 22