Timeline: 1993

Jan 1  Czechoslovakia divides into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, peacefully.

Jan 5 The Bush administration announces that Iraq has moved surface-to-air-missiles into the southern part of the country – the no-fly zone – that is patrolled by United States and allied warplanes.

Jan 7  In Ghana, Jerry Rawlings is inaugurated President, after having switched from military rule to winning an election described by international observers as free and fair.

Jan 13 An international arms control agreement is signed that prohibits the development, production, stockpiling and usse of chemical weapons. Almost all UN member states sign the agreement. It is to become effective 29 April 1997. Five states will not sign the treaty: Angola, North Korea, Egypt, South Sudan, and Syria.

Jan 14  A deadline issued by the United States to Iraq to remove anti-aircraft missiles has passed. And Iraq has announced that it will no longer allow weapons inspectors to be flown into Iraqi territory in United Nations aircraft. US, French and British aircraft bomb missile sites in southern Iraq.

Jan 19  Iraq decides to allow UN weapons inspectors to enter Iraq aboard UN aircraft.

Jan 20  William Jefferson Clinton becomes the 42nd President of the United States.

Jan 21  The Clinton administration announces that it will continue the Bush administration's policy of pre-empting attacks on American pilots in Iraq.

Jan 29  President Clinton announces his plan to lift the ban on gays in the military.

Feb 22  The UN Security Council passes Resolution 808, establishing an international tribunal to prosecute violations of international law in Yugoslavia.

Feb 26  Men connected to Osama bin Laden's network of activists drive a van heavily laden with a bomb into the parking area under the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. They walk away. The truck explodes. They planned to topple one tower onto the other amid a cloud of cyanide gas. It does not work, but six people die and 1,042 are injured. Firefighters learn that they have inadequate communications equipment.

Feb 28  US Cargo planes from Germany drop food, medicine and other supplies to besieged Muslim towns in eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Feb 28  In Texas, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid a compound with a warrant to arrest on firearms violations the inhabitants' leader, David Koresh – who claims to be the Final Prophet with a right to many wives as young as eleven. A firefight erupts. Four agents and 5 followers of Koresh die. The federal agents retreat. The FBI will take over and keep the compound surrounded while trying to talk the occupants into surrendering.

Mar 12  In the city of Bombay several bombs kill 257 and injure hundreds more. The motive will eventually be judged as revenge for Hindus destroying the Babri Masjid mosque in northern India. See December 6, 1992.

Mar 12  North Korea, still led by Kim Il-sung, refuses to allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) access to nuclear sites, and responding to IAEA instistance it announces its plan to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Apr 8  The Republic of Macedonia is admitted to the United Nations.

Apr 13  President Clinton reports that NATO air action including US airplanes are enforcing UN ban on unauthorized (Serbian) military flights over Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Apr 16  Niger's first democratically elected president takes office. With freedom of the press, several newspapers will come into existence.

Apr 19  Concluding 51 days of waiting for David Koresh to surrender, the FBI receives approval from Attorney General Janet Reno to move against his compound militarily. Fire erupts inside the compound, and gunshots are heard from within the compound. Koresh and 75 others die, including 21 children. Some cult members outside the compound expect Koresh to be resurrected in 1996.

Apr 30  The World Wide Web is developed at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, a little northwest of Geneva, Switzerland.

May 1  In Sri Lanka, a Tamil suicide bomber assassinates President Ranasinghe Premadasa.

May 24  After thirty years of war to free itself from attacks from Ethiopia, and after a UN sponsored referendum, Eritrea wins recognition of its independence.

May 28  The UN gains two new members: Eritrea and Monaco.

May 31  In Israel, openly homosexual men and women have begun serving in the military.

Jun 2  The FBI, CIA and others in the Department of Justice have concluded that during his visit to Kuwait back in mid-April the former president, George Bush, was likely the target of an assassination attempt that originated with the Iraqi government.

Jun 5  In Mogadishu, Somalia, 24 Pakistani members of the UN force are killed in a firefight with people who, it will be reported, are outraged over a rumor that UN troops were planning to occupy the radio station controlled by Gen. Mohammed Farah Aidid.

Jun 12-16  US and UN troops attack targets associated with General Aidid.

Jun 27  In response to evidence of the attempted assassination against the former president, George Bush, Bill Clinton orders a cruise missile attack on Iraqi intelligence headquarters in the Al-Mansur District of Baghdad.

Jul 2  In Turkey a mob calling for death to infidels sets fire to the hotel where Satanic Verses translator and author Aziz Nesin was attending a cultural festival. Nesin escapes but 37 others die.

Jul 10  In Burundi, a progressive intellectual, Melchior Ndadaye, has won 65 percent of the vote for the presidency – a vote, certified as free and fair by international observers. He is a Hutu, replacing what had been a Tutsi dominated government, in a country more than 75 percent Hutu but with a Tutsi dominated military. A coup against Ndadaye has failed and he takes power, becoming Burundi's first Hutu president and its first democratically elected president.

Jul 20  Deputy White House counsel Vince Foster is found dead with a 38 caliber pistol and the kind of damage to his head that results from a shot fired inside the mouth.

Jul 27  Microsoft begins manufacturing Windows NT operating systems.

Aug 8   Clinton signs into law an increase in income tax rate for the highest earners from 35 percent (set by Bush the Elder) to 39 percent. Taxes on corporations are set at 35 percent. The tax on transportation fuels is raised 4.3 cents per gallon. The bill is called the Deficit Reduction Act.

Aug 11  The Justice Department discloses the text of a note left in Vince Foster's briefcase, which reads: "I made mistakes from ignorance, inexperience and overwork ... I did not knowingly violate any law or standard of conduct ... I was not meant for the job or the spotlight of public life in Washington. Here ruining people is considered sport." Money is forthcoming from critics of the Clintons to investigate and publish whether Hillary Clinton is involved in Vince Foster's murder.

Aug 30  Russia withdraws the last of its troops from Lithuania.

Aug 31  The siege of Sarajevo by Serb forces continues. Amid the shelling and sniper fire, Susan Sontag is staging Waiting for Godot.

Sep 13  PLO and Israeli leaders have already worked out an agreement in Oslo, Norway. In Washington D.C., in the presence of President Clinton, PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, sign the Oslo Peace Accords and shake hands. Agreed to is the withdrawal of Israeli forces from parts of the Gaza Strip and West Bank and in those areas the right of Palestinians to self-government through the creation of a Palestinian Authority.

Sep 17  Russian troops leave Poland.

Sep19  In Poland discontent with market reforms and the increase in unemployment following the collapse of Communism gives Communists a boost in parliamentary elections. Political power is going to a coalition of left-wing parties that intends to slow the pace of privatization and economic reform.

Sep 22  In Moscow, President Yeltsin has reacted to parliament's move to repeal special powers it had given him. Involved is Yeltsin's support of shock therapy transition to a free enterprise economy – not altogether popular. Public opinion and democracy were opposed. Yeltsin yesterday ordered parliament disbanded and elections for a new legislative body in December. His order violates the Russian Constitution of 1978. Parliament moves to oust Yeltsin from power.

Sep 24  The Cambodian monarchy is restored, with Norodom Sihanouk as king.

Sep 28  President Yeltsin is surrounding parliament with hundreds of troops, concertina wire, water trucks, and mounted police.

Oct 2  Encouraged by the Oslo Accords, delegates from 43 nations promise the Palestinian Authority $2 billion in aid over the next five years. The US pledges $500 million. US Secretary of State Warren Christopher speaks of demonstrating the "tangible benefits of peace" and says "we must do so quickly if the advocates of peace are to be strengthened and the enemies of peace are to be isolated and discredited."

Oct 3  In Mogadishu, a battle between US forces and local militia kills 18 US Rangers and 500 Somalis. One of the dead US soldiers is seen on television being dragged through the streets.

Oct 4  President Clinton orders more than 200 troops, tanks, armored personnel carriers and gunships to Somalia.

Oct 4  Tens days of street fighting in Moscow ends with a reported 187 persons killed and 437 wounded. Yeltsin's illegal and anti-democratic power grab is portrayed as opposition to Communist revanchism. It will have the support of the Clinton administration.

Oct 5  A Palestinian driving a car packed with explosives attacks an Israeli commuter bus outside the Israeli Army headquarters in the West Bank.

Oct 5  In Moscow, military and security forces clear parliament by force, ending the effort to remove Yeltsin from power. Yeltsin bans leftist and nationalist parties and newspapers that had supported parliament.

Oct 6 In an address to the Russian nation, Yeltsin calls on regional councils that had opposed him to disband – the overwhelming majority of the regional councils.

Oct 6  Rejecting a plea from President Clinton, China has just exploded a nuclear weapon in its western desert. Clinton responds to the opinion that if other nations resume testing the US will need to also, and he orders preparations for a nuclear test in 1994.

Oct 8  President Clinton says he is doubling the size of the US ground forces in Somalia to lay a foundation for stability there. He promises to remove all forces within six months. He adds: "Let us demonstrate to the world, as generations of Americans have done before us, that when Americans take on a challenge, they do the job right."

Oct 12  The Central Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization ratifies the peace accord with Israel. Yasir Arafat is elected to be head of the Palestinian National Authority by a vote of 78 to 0, with 4 abstentions.

Oct 15  In the US Senate, Arizona's John McCain calsl for a "prompt and orderly" withdrawal from Somalia. It is supported by some Democrats and Republicans but defeated.

Oct 20  In Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto's political party has won a plurality in recent elections for seats in parliament. Today she became prime minister again, returning to the office from which she was banished in 1990.

Oct 21  A military coup in Burundi led by the Tutsi includes the murder of President Ndadaye. Another civil war between the Hutu and Tutsi begins.

Nov 7  President Clinton on Meet the Press says, “North Korea cannot be allowed to develop a nuclear bomb.”

Nov 11  In Sri Lanka, the on-again, off-again civil war since 1983 is on again with the Battle of Pooneryn, begun by Tamil guerrillas. They seek separation and independence.

Nov 14  In Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's candidate for president, Farooq Leghari, a member of her political party, the PPP, wins in the voting in the two houses of parliament. In three years he will dismiss Bhutto on charges of corruption.

Nov 17  President Clinton has been arguing for NAFTA, and the US House of Representatives passes NAFTA legislation.

Nov 28  The London Observer reveals a channel of communications exists between the IRA and the British government, despite government denials.

Dec 30  Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations.

to 1992 | to 1994

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