Explore 5067 historical events from 1990–1999.
Zviad Konstantines dze Gamsakhurdia was a Georgian politician, human rights activist, dissident, professor of English language studies and American literature at Tbilisi State Univ…
Zviad Gamsakhurdia becomes the first elected President of the Republic of Georgia in the post-Soviet era
Mount Unzen is an active stratovolcano of several overlapping small, volcanic cones, near the city of Shimabara, Nagasaki on the island of Kyushu, Japan's southernmost main island…
Mount Unzen erupts in Kyūshū, Japan, killing 43 people, all of them either researchers or journalists
The Southern Group of Forces (YUGV) was a Soviet Armed Forces formation formed twice following the Second World War, most notably around the time of the Hungarian Revolution of 195…
The last Soviet army units in Hungary are withdrawn
Radiolinja was a Finnish GSM operator founded on September 19, 1988. On March 27, 1991, the world's first GSM phone call was made on Radiolinja's network. The network was opened fo…
The Finnish operator Radiolinja is launched as the world's first GSM network.
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU…
Boris Yeltsin takes office as the first elected President of Russia.
Antonino Scopelliti was an Italian prosecuting magistrate, murdered by the 'Ndrangheta on behalf of the Sicilian Mafia.
The Italian prosecuting magistrate Antonino Scopelliti is murdered by the 'Ndrangheta on behalf of the Sicilian Mafia…
The World Wide Web is a global interconnected information system that enables content sharing over the Internet. It facilitates access to documents and other web resources accordin…
The World Wide Web is opened to the public.
Linus Benedict Torvalds is a Finnish and American software engineer who is the creator and lead developer of the Linux kernel since 1991. He also created the distributed version co…
Linus Torvalds announces the first version of what will become Linux.
The Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (SSUSSR) was the highest organ of state authority of the Soviet Union from 1936 to 1991. Based on the principle of uni…
Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party.
The Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 is an International Labour Organization Convention, also known as ILO Convention 169, or C169. It is the major binding internatio…
The current international treaty defending indigenous peoples, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, comes…
Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the we…
Armenia gains independence from the Soviet Union.
From April 26 to 27, 1991, multiple supercells across Oklahoma and Kansas led to a regional tornado outbreak. Forced by a potent trough and focused along a dryline, these distinct …
Fifty-five tornadoes break out in the central United States
Space Shuttle Discovery is a retired American Space Shuttle orbiter. The spaceplane was one of the orbiters from NASA's Space Shuttle program and the third of five fully operationa…
Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-39, the first unclassified shuttle mission for the United States Department of D
The 1991 Bangladesh cyclone was a catastrophic tropical cyclone that was one of the deadliest tropical cyclones in recorded history, and one of the most powerful cyclones in the In…
A cyclone strikes the Chittagong district of southeastern Bangladesh with winds of around 155 miles per hour (249 km/h),
The Angolan Civil War was a civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war began immediately after Angola became independent from Portu…
Angolan Civil War: The MPLA and UNITA agree to the Bicesse Accords, which are formally signed on May 31 in Lisbon
The 1991 Haitian coup d'état resulted in the overthrow of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the democratically-elected president of Haiti, by a contingent of the Haitian military led by Gene…
A Haitian coup d'état occurs.
Nadine Gordimer was a South African writer and political activist. She received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, recognised as a writer "who through her magnificent epic writ…
Nadine Gordimer is announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, also known as the Madrid Protocol, is a complementary legal instrument to the Antarctic Treaty signed in Madrid on…
The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty is opened for signature.
The Bright Sparklers fireworks disaster occurred on 7 May 1991 at 3:45 pm MST in Sungai Buloh, Selangor, Malaysia. A massive explosion at the Bright Sparklers fireworks factory cau…
A fire and explosion occurs at a fireworks factory at Sungai Buloh, Malaysia, killing 26
Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. Stretching across the Horn of Africa, it borders Ethiopia to the west, Djibou…
Northern Somalia declares independence from the rest of Somalia as the Republic of Somaliland
Elizabeth II was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during her lif…
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom addresses a joint session of the United States Congress
Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the no…
Croatians vote for independence in a referendum
The prime minister of India is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen Council of Ministers, despite the…
Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras
On 5 October 1991, an Indonesian Air Force Lockheed C-130H-30 Hercules crashed shortly after takeoff from Jakarta-Halim Perdana Kusuma Airport due to an engine fire. It killed all …
An Indonesian Air Force C-130 crash kills 135 people.