A sequence of satellite images depictingHurricane Andrew (from right to left) on August 23–25. The powerful Category 5 hurricane made landfall nearHomestead, Florida, becoming the costliest tropical cyclone on record at the time.
Mural of the peace agreement in a museumSan Salvador, depicting guerilla leader Schafik Handal leader of the FMLN and the president of El Salvador Alfredo Cristiani shaking hands, ending theSalvadoran Civil War
First confirmed detection ofexoplanets with announcement of the discovery of several terrestrial-mass planets orbiting the pulsarPSR B1257+12, by radio astronomersAleksander Wolszczan andDale Frail working in the United States.[6]
January 20 -Air Inter Flight 148, anAirbus A320-111, crashes in theVosges Mountains nearBarr, France, while circling to land atStrasbourg, France, killing 87 of the 96 people on board. Facing tough competition from French high-speedTGV trains,Air Inter had encouraged its pilots to fly at high speeds at low altitudes, and had not installedground proximity warning systems on its airliners because such systems generated too many nuisance alarms during high-speed, low-altitude flight.
January 22 – Rebel forces occupyZaire's national radio station inKinshasa and broadcast a demand for the government's resignation.[9]
Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia will stop targeting cities of the United States and its allies withnuclear weapons. In return PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush announces that the United States and its allies will stop targeting Russia and the remainingcommunist states with nuclear weapons.
InMauritania, security forces open fire on violent extremist opponents of President of MauritaniaMaaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, allegedly killing at least four people.
March 24 – TheTreaty on Open Skies is signed in Helsinki, Finland, to establish a program of unarmed surveillance flights over the 34 member states. It went into effect on January 1, 2002.[19]
Los Angeles riots: The acquittal of four police officers in theRodney King beating criminal trial triggers massive rioting in Los Angeles.[23] The riots will last for six days resulting in 63 deaths and over $1 billion in damages before order is restored by the military.
InSierra Leone, a group of young soldiers launch a military coup that sends presidentJoseph Saidu Momoh into exile inGuinea, and the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) is established with 25-year-old CaptainValentine Strasser as its chairman and Head of State of the country.[24]
Two German relief workers held since 1989, Thomas Kemptner and Heinrich Struebig, are handed over to the German authorities after their release; they are the last Western hostages in Lebanon.[34]
July 6–29 –Iraq disarmament crisis:Iraq refuses a U.N. inspection team access to the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture. UNSCOM claims that it has reliable information that the site contains archives related to illegal weapons activities. U.N. inspectors stage a 17-day "sit-in" outside of the building, but leave when their safety is threatened by Iraqi soldiers.
TheCabinet of Israel approves a freeze on newIsraeli settlement in the occupied territories, a move expected to reinvigorate the Middle East Peace Process.
July 26 –Iraq agrees to allow U.N. weapons inspectors to search the Iraqi Agricultural Ministry building in Baghdad. When inspectors arrive on July 28 and 29, they find nothing and voice suspicions that Iraqi records have been removed.
September 2 – The 7.7MwNicaragua earthquake affects the west coast of Nicaragua. With a Ms –Mw disparity of half a unit, thistsunami earthquake triggers a tsunami that causes most of the damage and casualties, with at least 116 killed. Average runup heights are 3–8 meters (9.8–26.2 ft).
Law enforcement officials in the United States,Colombia and Italy announce that they have arrested more than 165 people onmoney laundering charges related tococaine trafficking.
Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268 crashes into a mountain while on approach toTribhuvan International Airport inKathmandu, Nepal. All 167 occupants on board were killed.[40] The crash of PIA Flight 268 occurred just 2 months after Thai Airways International Flight 311 crashed into a mountain near Kathmandu under similar circumstances, killing all 113 occupants on board.
Israeli cargo planeEl Al Flight 1862 crashes into residential buildings in Amsterdam'sBijlmermeer, Netherlands, after taking off fromSchiphol Airport and losing two engines, killing all 4 people on board and 39 on the ground.[42]
October 21 – 150,000 coal miners march in London to protest government plans to close coal mines and reduce the number of miners.[45]
October 23 – Emperor of JapanAkihito begins the first imperial visit to China, telling a Beijing audience he feels deep sorrow for the suffering of the Chinese people during World War II.
November 8 – More than 350,000 people rally in Berlin to protest right-wing violence against immigrants; stones and eggs are thrown at President of GermanyRichard von Weizsäcker and Chancellor of GermanyHelmut Kohl.
December 1 –South Korea andSouth Africa reestablish diplomatic relations.South Korea previously had diplomatic relations with South Africa from 1961 to 1978, when they were severed by the former due to the latter's policy ofapartheid.
December 4 – US President Bush announces the deployment of American troops as part of the United Task Force (UNITAF). The UNITAF troops land at Mogadishu on 9 December.
December 22 – TheArchives of Terror are discovered byMartín Almada in Asunción, detailing the fates of thousands of Latin Americans who have been secretly kidnapped, tortured and killed by the security services of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay inOperation Condor.[53]
December 28 – ActressDaniella Perez is murdered inRio de Janeiro, after being stabbed 18 times with scissors by actor Guilherme de Pádua and his then-wife Paula Thomaz. The crime shockedBrazil, due to both the victim and the murderer being romantic partners in the telenovelaDe Corpo e Alma, which aired onTV Globo.[54]
^Tropical Cyclones in 1992(PDF).Hong Kong Observatory (Report). September 1994. p. 17. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on September 30, 2013. RetrievedMay 24, 2014.
^"Typhoon Plane Crashes".Evening Standard. November 16, 1992. p. 20. – via Lexis Nexis(subscription required)
.svg)
.jpg)
