Dates by Year
Major Events
- Mar 12 The Church of England ordains its first 32 female priests at the Bristol Cathedral in Bristol, England[1]
- Apr 6 Plane carrying Rwandan PresidentJuvénal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira is shot down by surface-to-air missiles, abruptly ending peace negotiations and sparking theRwandan Genocide. Those responsible have never been identified.
- Apr 22 7,000 Tutsi are slaughtered by Hutus in the stadium at Kibuye, Rwanda
- May 10Nelson Mandela is sworn in as South Africa's first Black president
- Jun 29 US reopens Guantanamo Naval Base to process refugees
- Jul 5 Amazon.com is founded byJeff Bezos in Bellevue, Washington
- Aug 31 The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Sinn Féin) declares a ceasefire in Northern Ireland
- Nov 9 Darmstadtium, chemical element 110, is discovered at GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research near Darmstadt, Germany
- Nov 14 First public trains run through theChannel Tunnel, linking England and France under the English Channel
1994 in Film & TV
- May 12 "Pulp Fiction", directed byQuentin Tarantino and starringJohn Travolta,Uma Thurman andSamuel L. Jackson premieres at the Cannes Film Festival (Palme d'Or 1994)
- Sep 22 "Friends," a TV sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman and starringJennifer Aniston,Courteney Cox,Lisa Kudrow,Matt LeBlanc,Matthew Perry, andDavid Schwimmer, premieres on NBC
1994 in Music
- Jun 27 Aerosmith is the first major band to let fans download a full new track for free from the internet
- Aug 23 Jeff Buckley releases his album "Grace," featuring his cover ofLeonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"
- Nov 29Mary J. Blige releases "My Life," her second studio album (Billboard Music Award Top R&B Album 1995)
- Nov 30 First Beatles album in 25 years, "Live at the BBC," is released in Britain
- Dec 31 Largest free concert in the world occurs whenRod Stewart performs in front of four million people at Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil[1]
1994 in Sport
- Jan 30Kapil Dev takes 2/41 as India beats Sri Lanka by an innings and 95 runs in 2nd Cricket Test in Bengaluru; equals SirRichard Hadlee's world record of 431 Test wickets
- Mar 29 NFL coachJimmy Johnson quits the Dallas Cowboys
Did You Know?
Date skipped in Kiribati as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands change time zones from UTC-11 to UTC+13 and UTC-10 to UTC+14, respectively
More People Born in 1994
Fun Fact About 1994
A Pentium computer running Richard Lang's ChessGenius 2 program defeats world chess championGarry Kasparov
More 1994 Deaths
Famous Weddings in 1994
- Jan 1 Microsoft CEOBill Gates (38) marriesMelinda French (29)
- Jan 28 American actress Lorraine Bracco (39) weds American actorEdward James Olmos (46); divorce in 2002
- Feb 3 ActorJean-Claude van Damme (32) weds Darcy Lapier (28) in Bangkok
Famous Divorces in 1994
- Jan 14 Kathleen Kinmont files for divorce fromLorenzo Lamas
- Jan 29 ActorBill Murray (43) divorces Margaret Kelly after 13 years of marriage
- Mar 24 Robert F. Kennedy Jr. divorces Emily Black
More 1994 Weddings
Bill Clinton
Boris Yeltsin
François Mitterrand
Helmut Kohl
Jiang Zemin
John Major