Important Historical Events of the year 1996, Year 1996 in History
List of 1996 Major News Events in History, Most Important Historical Events in 1996
What happened in the year 1996?
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| January 8, 1996 | An Antonov An-32 cargo aircraft crashes into a crowded market in Kinshasa, Zaire, killing up to 223 people on the ground; two of six crew members are also killed. |
| January 9, 1996 | First Chechen War: Chechen separatists launch a raid against the helicopter airfield and later a civilian hospital in the city of Kizlyar in the neighboring Dagestan, which turns into a massive hostage crisis involving thousands of civilians. |
| January 17, 1996 | The Czech Republic applies for membership in the European Union. |
| January 19, 1996 | The barge North Cape oil spill occurs as an engine fire forces the tugboat Scandia ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. |
| January 25, 1996 | Billy Bailey becomes the last person to be hanged in the United States. |
| January 27, 1996 | In a military coup, Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara deposes the first democratically elected president of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane. |
| January 27, 1996 | Germany first observes the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. |
| January 29, 1996 | President Jacques Chirac announces a "definitive end" to French nuclear weapons testing. |
| January 31, 1996 | An explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in Colombo, killing at least 86 people and injuring 1,400. |
| February 1, 1996 | The Communications Decency Act is passed by the U.S. Congress. |
| February 6, 1996 | Willamette Valley Flood: Floods in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, United States, causes over US$500 million in property damage throughout the Pacific Northwest. |
| February 6, 1996 | Birgenair Flight 301 crashed off the coast of the Dominican Republic, killing all 189 people on board. This is the deadliest aviation accident involving a Boeing 757. |
| February 8, 1996 | The U.S. Congress passes the Communications Decency Act. |
| February 9, 1996 | The Provisional Irish Republican Army declares the end to its 18-month ceasefire and explodes a large bomb in London's Canary Wharf, killing two people. |
| February 9, 1996 | Copernicium is discovered, by Sigurd Hofmann, Victor Ninov et al. |
| February 10, 1996 | IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov in chess for the first time. |
| February 13, 1996 | The Nepalese Civil War is initiated in the Kingdom of Nepal by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre). |
| February 15, 1996 | At the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China, a Long March 3B rocket, carrying an Intelsat 708, veers off course and crashes into a rural village after liftoff, killing somewhere between 6 and 100 people. |
| February 15, 1996 | The Embassy of the United States, Athens, is attacked by an antitank rocket, launched by the Revolutionary Organization 17 November. |
| February 16, 1996 | A Chicago-bound Amtrak train, the Capitol Limited, collides with a MARC commuter train bound for Washington, D.C., killing 11 people. |
| February 17, 1996 | In Philadelphia, world champion Garry Kasparov beats the Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match. |
| February 17, 1996 | NASA's Discovery Program begins as the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft lifts off on the first mission ever to orbit and land on an asteroid, 433 Eros. |
| February 17, 1996 | The 8.2 Mw Biak earthquake shakes the Papua province of eastern Indonesia with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). A large tsunami followed, leaving one-hundred sixty-six people dead or missing and 423 injured. |
| February 24, 1996 | Two civilian airplanes operated by the Miami-based group Brothers to the Rescue are shot down in international waters by the Cuban Air Force. |
| February 29, 1996 | Faucett Flight 251 crashes in the Andes; all 123 passengers and crew are killed. |
| February 29, 1996 | The Siege of Sarajevo officially ends. |
| March 4, 1996 | A derailed train in Weyauwega, Wisconsin (USA) causes the emergency evacuation of 2,300 people for 16 days. |
| March 13, 1996 | The Dunblane massacre leads to the death of sixteen primary school children and one teacher in Dunblane, Scotland. |
| March 18, 1996 | A nightclub fire in Quezon City, Philippines kills 162 people. |
| March 23, 1996 | Taiwan holds its first direct elections and chooses Lee Teng-hui as President. |
| March 25, 1996 | The European Union's Veterinarian Committee bans the export of British beef and its by-products as a result of mad cow disease (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy). |
| April 3, 1996 | Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is captured at his Montana cabin in the United States. |
| April 3, 1996 | A United States Air Force Boeing T-43 crashes near Dubrovnik Airport in Croatia, killing 35, including Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown. |
| April 4, 1996 | Comet Hyakutake is imaged by the USA Asteroid Orbiter Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous. |
| April 13, 1996 | Two women and four children are killed after Israeli helicopter fired rockets at an ambulance in Mansouri, Lebanon. |
| April 16, 1996 | Israel strikes a civilian house in Nabatieh Fawka, Lebanon, killing nine people, including seven children. |
| April 24, 1996 | In the United States, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is passed into law. |
| April 28, 1996 | Whitewater controversy: President Bill Clinton gives a 4.mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}1⁄2 hour |
| April 28, 1996 | Port Arthur massacre, Tasmania: A gunman, Martin Bryant, opens fire at the Broad Arrow Cafe in Port Arthur, Tasmania, killing 35 people and wounding 23 others. |
| May 6, 1996 | The body of former CIA director William Colby is found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he disappeared. |
| May 10, 1996 | A blizzard strikes Mount Everest, killing eight climbers by the next day. |
| May 11, 1996 | After the aircraft's departure from Miami, a fire started by improperly handled chemical oxygen generators in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Airlines Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 on board. |
| May 13, 1996 | Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kill 600 people. |
| May 19, 1996 | Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on mission STS-77. |
| May 20, 1996 | Civil rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of gays and lesbians. |
| May 21, 1996 | The ferry MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1,000. |
| May 22, 1996 | The Burmese military regime jails 71 supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi in a bid to block a pro-democracy meeting. |
| May 27, 1996 | First Chechen War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechnyan rebels for the first time and negotiates a cease-fire. |
| May 28, 1996 | U.S. President Bill Clinton's former business partners in the Whitewater land deal, Jim McDougal and Susan McDougal, and the Governor of Arkansas, Jim Guy Tucker, are convicted of fraud. |
| June 4, 1996 | The first flight of Ariane 5 explodes after roughly 37 seconds. It was a Cluster mission. |
| June 10, 1996 | Peace talks begin in Northern Ireland without the participation of Sinn Féin. |
| June 13, 1996 | The Montana Freemen surrender after an 81-day standoff with FBI agents. |
| June 13, 1996 | Garuda Indonesia flight 865 crashes during takeoff from Fukuoka Airport, killing three people and injuring 170. |
| June 15, 1996 | The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonates a powerful truck bomb in the middle of Manchester, England, devastating the city centre and injuring 200 people. |
| June 25, 1996 | The Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia kills 19 U.S. servicemen. |
| July 3, 1996 | British Prime Minister John Major announced the Stone of Scone would be returned to Scotland. |
| July 5, 1996 | Dolly the sheep becomes the first mammal cloned from an adult cell. |
| July 6, 1996 | A McDonnell Douglas MD-88 operating as Delta Air Lines Flight 1288 experiences a turbine engine failure during takeoff from Pensacola International Airport, killing two and injuring five of the 147 people on board. |
| July 15, 1996 | A Belgian Air Force C-130 Hercules carrying the Royal Netherlands Army marching band crashes on landing at Eindhoven Airport. |
| July 17, 1996 | TWA Flight 800: Off the coast of Long Island, New York, a Paris-bound TWA Boeing 747 explodes, killing all 230 on board. |
| July 18, 1996 | Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River, beginning one of Quebec's costliest natural disasters ever. |
| July 18, 1996 | Battle of Mullaitivu: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam capture the Sri Lanka Army's base, killing over 1,200 soldiers. |
| July 25, 1996 | In a military coup in Burundi, Pierre Buyoya deposes Sylvestre Ntibantunganya. |
| July 27, 1996 | In Atlanta, United States, a pipe bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Summer Olympics. |
| July 28, 1996 | The remains of a prehistoric man are discovered near Kennewick, Washington. Such remains will be known as the Kennewick Man. |
| July 29, 1996 | The child protection portion of the Communications Decency Act is struck down by a U.S. federal court as too broad. |
| August 6, 1996 | The Ramones played their farewell concert at The Palace, Los Angeles, CA. |
| August 6, 1996 | NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms. |
| August 14, 1996 | Greek Cypriot refugee Solomos Solomou is shot and killed by a Turkish security officer while trying to climb a flagpole in order to remove a Turkish flag from its mast in the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus. |
| August 28, 1996 | Chicago Seven defendant David Dellinger, antiwar activist Bradford Lyttle, Civil Rights Movement historian Randy Kryn, and eight others are arrested by the Federal Protective Service while protesting in a demonstration at the Kluczynski Federal Building in downtown Chicago during that year's Democratic National Convention. |
| August 29, 1996 | Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801, a Tupolev Tu-154, crashes into a mountain on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen, killing all 141 aboard. |
| August 31, 1996 | Saddam Hussein's troops seized Irbil after the Kurdish Masoud Barzani appealed for help to defeat his Kurdish rival PUK. |
| September 5, 1996 | Hurricane Fran makes landfall near Cape Fear, North Carolina as a Category 3 storm with 115 mph sustained winds. Fran caused over $3 billion in damage and killed 27 people. |
| September 21, 1996 | The Defense of Marriage Act is passed by the United States Congress. |
| September 24, 1996 | Representatives of 71 nations sign the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty at the United Nations. |
| September 27, 1996 | The Battle of Kabul ends in a Taliban victory; an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is established. |
| September 27, 1996 | Confusion on a tanker ship results in the Julie N. oil spill in Portland, Maine. |
| October 2, 1996 | Aeroperú Flight 603 crashes into the ocean near Peru, killing all 70 people on board. |
| October 2, 1996 | The Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments are signed by U.S. President Bill Clinton. |
| October 7, 1996 | Fox News Channel begins broadcasting. |
| October 12, 1996 | New Zealand holds its first general election under the new mixed-member proportional representation system, which led to Jim Bolger's National Party forming a coalition government with Winston Peters's New Zealand First. |
| October 16, 1996 | Eighty-four football fans die and 180 are injured in a massive crush at a match in Guatemala City. |
| October 31, 1996 | TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 402 crashes in São Paulo, Brazil, killing 99 people. |
| November 3, 1996 | Abdullah Çatlı, the leader of the Turkish ultranationalist organization Grey Wolves, dies in the Susurluk car crash, leading to the resignation of Interior Minister Mehmet Ağar (a leader of the True Path Party). |
| November 5, 1996 | Pakistani President Farooq Leghari dismisses the government of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and dissolves the National Assembly. |
| November 5, 1996 | Bill Clinton is reelected President of the United States. |
| November 7, 1996 | NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor. |
| November 7, 1996 | ADC Airlines Flight 086 crashes on approach to Murtala Muhammed International Airport, in Lagos, Nigeria, killing all 144 people on board. |
| November 12, 1996 | A Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 and a Kazakh Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane collide in mid-air near New Delhi, killing 349 in the deadliest mid-air collision to date. |
| November 18, 1996 | A fire occurs on a train traveling through the Channel Tunnel from France to England causing several injuries and damaging approximately 500 metres (1,600 ft) of tunnel. |
| November 19, 1996 | A Beechcraft 1900 and a Beechcraft King Air collide at Quincy Regional Airport in Quincy, Illinois, killing 14. |
| November 20, 1996 | A fire breaks out in an office building in Hong Kong, killing 41 people and injuring 81. |
| November 21, 1996 | Humberto Vidal explosion: Thirty-three people die when a Humberto Vidal shoe shop in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico explodes. |
| November 23, 1996 | Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 is hijacked, then crashes into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 125. |
| December 9, 1996 | Gwen Jacob is acquitted of committing an indecent act, giving women the right to be topless in Ontario, Canada. |
| December 10, 1996 | The new Constitution of South Africa is promulgated by Nelson Mandela. |
| December 22, 1996 | Airborne Express Flight 827 crashes near Narrows, Virginia, killing all six people on board. |
| December 24, 1996 | A Learjet 35 crashes into Smarts Mountain near Dorchester, New Hampshire, killing both pilots on board. |
| December 27, 1996 | Taliban forces retake the strategic Bagram Airfield which solidifies their buffer zone around Kabul, Afghanistan. |
| December 29, 1996 | Guatemala and leaders of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity sign a peace accord ending a 36-year civil war. |
| December 30, 1996 | Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel. |