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Events from the year 1994 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government
Events
January
- January – The National Archives at College Park opens.[1]
- January 1 – The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is established.
- January 6 – In Detroit, Michigan, figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the right leg by an assailant, under orders from skating rival Tonya Harding's ex-husband.
- January 7 – The body of Sopha Wonggoun is found in a sleeping bag off a deserted road in California. The discovery would spark a 12-year manhunt for her husband, Saner Wonggoun.[2]
- January 11 – The Superhighway Summit is held at UCLA's Royce Hall. It is the first conference to discuss the growing information superhighway and is presided over by U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
- January 14 –U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the Kremlin accords, which stop the preprogrammed aiming of nuclear missiles toward each country's targets, and also provide for the dismantling of the nuclear arsenal in Ukraine.
- January 17 – The 6.5–6.7 Mw Northridge earthquake shakes the Greater Los Angeles Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), leaving 57 people dead and more than 8,700 injured.
- January 19 – Record cold temperatures hit the eastern United States. The coldest temperature ever measured in Indiana state history, −36 °F (−38 °C), is recorded in New Whiteland, Indiana.
- January 20 – In South Carolina, Shannon Faulkner becomes the first female cadet to attend The Citadel, but soon drops out.
- January 25 – U.S. President Bill Clinton delivers his second State of the Union address, calling for health care reform, a ban on assault weapons, and welfare reform.
- January 30 – Super Bowl XXVIII in football: The Dallas Cowboys hand the Buffalo Bills their fourth consecutive Super Bowl loss, 30–13.
February
March
- March 1
- March 7 – Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that parodies of an original work are generally covered by the doctrine of fair use.
- March 8 – Nine Inch Nails' second studio album, The Downward Spiral, is released to critical acclaim.
- March 15 – U.S. troops are withdrawn from Somalia.
- March 16 – In Portland, Oregon, Tonya Harding pleads guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for trying to cover-up an attack on figure skating rival Nancy Kerrigan. She is fined $100,000 and banned from the sport.
- March 17 – Serial killer Dana Sue Gray is arrested in California in connection with three murders and one attempted murder of elderly women.[6]
- March 21 – The 66th Academy Awards, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, are held at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. Steven Spielberg's Holocaust drama, Schindler's List, wins seven Oscars out of 12 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. The telecast garners over 46.2 million viewers.
- March 23 – Green Ramp disaster: Two military aircraft collide over Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina, causing 24 fatalities and over 100 injuries.
- March 27 – 1994 Palm Sunday tornado outbreak: The biggest tornado outbreak of the year occurs in the southeastern United States; one tornado hits a Goshen United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Alabama, killing 22 people.
April
- April 7 – A deadheading Federal Express flight engineer attempts to hijack and intentionally crash Federal Express Flight 705, a cargo flight from Memphis, Tennessee to San Jose, California.[7] The attempt is unsuccessful, resulting in severe injuries to the attempted hijacker and the 3 other pilots on board. The aircraft makes a successful emergency return landing in Memphis.[8]
- April 8 – Kurt Cobain, songwriter and frontman for the band Nirvana, is found dead at his Lake Washington home. It would be later be confirmed that Cobain had committed suicide three days prior.[9]
- April 14 – The heads of the major tobacco industries testify before a House subcommittee where they infamously state that tobacco is not addictive.
- April 16 – 1994 Popeyes shooting: Two robbers shoot and kill three employees at a Popeyes restaurant in Gadsden, Alabama. The gunman is arrested and executed in 2017.
- April 19 – Rapper Nas releases classic album Illmatic.
- April 22 – Former President Richard Nixon dies in New York City at 81. He is buried at his presidential library on April 26, following a state funeral.
- April 25 – The largest high school arson ever in the United States is started at Burnsville High School, in Burnsville, Minnesota, resulting in over 15 million dollars in damages. The same arsonist also goes on to set fires at Edina High School and Minnetonka High School.[10]
May
June
- June 12 – Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are murdered outside the Simpson home in Los Angeles. O. J. Simpson is later acquitted of the killings, but is held liable in a civil suit.
- June 14 – The New York Rangers defeat the Vancouver Canucks, 3–2, in Game 7 of the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals at Madison Square Garden to win their first championship in 54 years.
- June 15 – Walt Disney Pictures' 32nd feature film, The Lion King, is released in theaters to critical acclaim, making $422,783,777 in the United States ($951,583,777 worldwide). It is the highest-grossing film of the year and the highest grossing traditionally-animated film of all time.
- June 17
- June 18 – The USMNT debuted as a local against Switzerland at the Pontiac Silverdome, being the first game played in a stadium with a roof, the game ended tied 1-1.
- June 20 – Dean Mellberg kills four and injures 23 at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, Washington.
- June 22 – In the second match of the USMNT, they would face Colombia in Pasadena, California, and the Americans would win 2-1, breaking a 44-year streak of not winning a match in a World Cup.
- June 24 – 1994 Fairchild Air Force Base B-52 crash: U.S. Air Force pilot Bud Holland crashes a B-52 in Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington as a result of pilot error.
- June 26 – The USMNT lost their last group match against Romania 0-1, but qualified for the second round as one of the four best third-place teams.
- June 28–June 11 – Kellie Pickler and Aaron Tippin in a state in United States.
- June 30–July 10 – Tropical Storm Alberto causes heavy flooding, intense winds and extensive problems directly over the Southeastern United States and the Caribbean Islands. Thirty two individuals are directly killed by the storm, and property damage is assessed at $1 billion (1994 USD).
July
August
- August 3 – Stephen Breyer is sworn in as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court.
- August 12
- August 18 – Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants: a 12-person jury reaches its verdict to award Stella Liebeck $2,860,000 in compensatory and punitive damages, later reduced to $640,000, for burns she received from a spilled hot coffee. McDonald's and Liebeck will later settle out of court.
- August 20 – In Honolulu, Hawaii, during a circus international performance, an elephant named Tyke crushes her trainer Allen Campbell to death before hundreds of horrified spectators at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center. She then escapes the arena, and runs amok in the streets for half an hour, before police officers shoot her 86 times. She eventually collapses from her wounds and dies.
- August 23 – Eugene Bullard is posthumously commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force, 33 years after his death, and 77 years to the day after his rejection for U.S. military service in 1917.
- c. August – Pizza Hut becomes the first restaurant to offer online food ordering, in California.[13]
September
- September – Trudy McFall and Nancy Rase found "Homes for America" in Annapolis, Maryland.
- September 8 – USAir Flight 427, a Boeing 737 with 132 people on board, crashes on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport; there are no survivors.
- September 10 – The Magic School Bus debuts on PBS.
- September 12 – Frank Eugene Corder crashes a Cessna 150 into the South Lawn of the White House and is killed, the sole casualty.
- September 13
- President Bill Clinton signs the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which bans the manufacture of new firearms with certain features for a period of 10 years.
- President Bill Clinton signs the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA). The Act provided $1.6 billion toward investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women, imposed automatic and mandatory restitution on those convicted, and allowed civil redress in cases prosecutors chose not to prosecute. The Act also established the Office on Violence Against Women within the Department of Justice.
- September 14 – The World Series is cancelled for the first time in 90 years due to a strike by the MLB Players Association.
- September 17 – Heather Whitestone becomes the first hearing impaired contestant to win the Miss America entitlement. Whitestone becomes Miss America 1995.
- September 19 – American troops stage a bloodless invasion of Haiti in order to restore the legitimate elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to power.
- September 22 – The pilot episode of Friends airs on NBC.
- September 24 – The Marvel Action Hour, featuring animated adaptations of Iron Man and the Fantastic Four, debuts in syndication.
- September–October – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq threatens to stop cooperating with UNSCOM inspectors and begins to once again deploy troops near its border with Kuwait. In response, the U.S. begins to deploy troops to Kuwait.
October
November
- November 4 – The first conference devoted entirely to the subject of the commercial potential of the World Wide Web opens in San Francisco. Featured speakers include Marc Andreessen of Netscape, Mark Graham of Pandora Systems and Ken McCarthy of E-Media.
- November 5
- November 7 – WXYC, the student radio station of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, provides the world's first internet radio broadcast.
- November 8–21 – Hurricane Gordon strikes the Caribbean Islands and the Southeastern United States, causing 1,147 deaths (of which 1,122 are in Haiti) and US$514M in damage (estimated, 1994 dollars).
- November 8 – "Republican Revolution": Georgia Representative Newt Gingrich leads the Republican Party in taking control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in midterm congressional elections, the first time in 40 years the Republicans secure control of both houses of Congress. George W. Bush is elected Governor of Texas.
- November 16 – A federal judge issues a temporary restraining order prohibiting California from implementing Proposition 187, which would have denied most public services to illegal aliens.
- November 28 – At the Columbia Correctional Institution, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and murderer Jesse Anderson are attacked by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver. Dahmer dies on the way to the hospital and Anderson two days later.[14]
- November 30 – Rapper Tupac Shakur is shot five times and robbed after entering the lobby of Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan.
- c. November – Online service America Online purchases Booklink as a browser to offer its users a gateway to the World Wide Web for the first time. This marks the beginning of easy accessibility of the Web to the average person in the U.S.[15] In 1996, AOL replaces Booklink with a browser based on Internet Explorer, allegedly in exchange for inclusion of AOL in Windows.[16]
December
Ongoing
Sport
Births
January
February
March
April
- April 3 – Dylann Roof, white supremacist and mass murderer
- April 12 – Saoirse Ronan, American-born Irish actress
- April 14 – Skyler Samuels, actress
- April 15 – Jacquees, singer/songwriter
- April 16
- April 18 – Aminé, rapper
- April 20 – Alexander Massialas, Olympic fencer
- April 24 – Jordan Fisher, singer, dancer, and actor
- April 25 – Maggie Rogers, singer/songwriter and record producer
- April 27
- April 29 – Nash Carter, wrestler
May
June
- June 3 – Anne Winters, actress
- June 6 – QTCinderella, twitch streamer and YouTuber
- June 8 – Liv Morgan, pro wrestler
- June 14 – Lauren LaVera, actress
- June 15 – Lee Kiefer, Olympic fencer
- June 16 – Caitlyn Taylor Love, actress
- June 17
- June 18 – Takeoff, rapper (d. 2022)
- June 20 – Leonard Williams, football player
- June 22 – Adam Johnson, ice hockey player (d. 2023)
- June 24
- June 29 – Camila Mendes, actress
- June 30 – Josh Rojas, baseball player
July
August
- August 2
- August 3 – Todd Gurley, football player
- August 4 – Bobby Shmurda, rapper/songwriter
- August 8 – Lauv, singer/songwriter
- August 9
- August 10 – Jack Haven, actor
- August 11 – Alejandro Aranda, singer
- August 12 – Bex Taylor-Klaus, actress
- August 16 – Tippy Dos Santos, actress and singer
- August 17
- August 18 – Madelaine Petsch, actress and YouTuber
- August 20 – Jonathon Lillis, freestyle skier
- August 21
- August 22 – Israel Broussard, actor
- August 24
- August 26 – Alex Collins, football player (d. 2023)
- August 27 – Ellar Coltrane, actor
September
October
November
December
- December 2 – Aaron Jones, football player
- December 3
- December 7
- December 8 – Trevor Daniel, football player
- December 9 – Zach Veach, race car driver
- December 11 – Gabriel Basso, actor
- December 12 – Otto Warmbier, college student who was detained in North Korea (d. 2017)
- December 16 – Christopher Bell, race car driver
- December 17 – Nat Wolff, actor[22]
- December 19 – Gibi ASMR, youtuber and ASMR artist
- December 20
- December 22 – Calvin Tankman, wrestler
- December 23 – Tajae Sharpe, football player
- December 24
- December 26
- December 30 – Isaac Powell, actor and singer
Deaths
January
- January 1 – Cesar Romero, American actor (born 1907)
- January 3 – Frank Belknap Long, American writer (born 1901)
- January 5 – Tip O'Neill, American politician (born 1912)
- January 8 – Pat Buttram, American actor (born 1915)
- January 9 – Johnny Temple, American baseball player and sportscaster (born 1927)
- January 12 – Samuel Bronston, American film producer and director (born 1908)
- January 14 – Esther Ralston, American actress (born 1902)
- January 15 – Harry Nilsson, American musician (born 1941)
- January 17 – Helen Stephens, American athlete (born 1918)
- January 22
- January 25 – Stephen Cole Kleene, American mathematician (born 1909)
- January 27 – Claude Akins, American actor (born 1926)
- January 28 – Hal Smith, American actor (born 1916)
- January 29 – Nick Cravat, American actor and acrobat (born 1912)
February
- February 1 – Olan Soule, American actor (b. 1909)
- February 2 – Marija Gimbutas, Lithuanian-American archeologist (b. 1921)
- February 3 – Walter Havighurst, American critic, novelist, literary and social historian (b. 1901)
- February 6
- February 9
- February 11
- February 12 – Donald Judd, American artist (b. 1928)
- February 14 – Christopher Lasch, American historian, moralist and social critic (b. 1932)
- February 17 – Randy Shilts, journalist and author (b. 1951)
- February 22 – Papa John Creach, blues violinist
- February 24 – Dinah Shore, American actress and singer (b. 1917)[25]
- February 25
- February 26 – Bill Hicks, American comedian (b. 1961)
March
April
May
June
- June 1 – Frances Heflin, actress (b. 1923)
- June 4 – Stephen McNally, American actor (b. 1911)
- June 5 – Ish Kabibble, comedian and cornet player
- June 6 – Barry Sullivan, American actor (b. 1912)
- June 8 – Dorothy Shoemaker McDiarmid, legislator from Virginia (b. 1906)
- June 10
- June 12
- June 13 – K. T. Stevens, American actress (b. 1919)
- June 14 – Henry Mancini, American composer and arranger (b. 1924)
- June 16 – Kristen Pfaff, American bassist (b. 1967)
- June 20 – Jay Miner, American computer pioneer (b. 1932)
- June 21 – William Wilson Morgan, American astronomer and astrophysicist (b. 1906)
- June 23 – Marv Throneberry, American baseball player (b. 1933)
July
August
September
October
November
- November 1 – Noah Beery Jr., American actor (b. 1913)
- November 4 – Sam Francis, American painter (b. 1923)
- November 8 – Michael O' Donoghue, American writer and performer (b. 1940)
- November 10 – Carmen McRae, American jazz singer (b. 1922)
- November 11 – Pedro Zamora, Cuban-American educator and TV personality (b. 1972)
- November 12 – Wilma Rudolph, American athlete (b. 1940)
- November 13 – John Bailey, actor/screenwriter (b. 1947)
- November 14 – Tom Villard, American actor (b. 1953)
- November 18 – Cab Calloway, American jazz singer and bandleader (b. 1907)
- November 21 – Willem Jacob Luyten, Dutch-American astronomer (b. 1899)
- November 28
- November 30 – Lionel Stander, American actor (b. 1908)
December
See also
References
- ^ "Milestones of the U.S. Archival Profession and the National Archives, 1800-2011". U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. 15 August 2016. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
- ^ "Ex-Air Force fugitive sentenced for killing wife". NBC News. 2008-07-31. Retrieved 2025-05-03.
- ^ "Green Day's Dookie: 15 Years Later, Still A Genuine Punk Classic". MTV. 2009-05-13. Archived from the original on June 7, 2014. Retrieved 2016-07-23.
- ^ "Leslie Aspin". history.defense.gov. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
- ^ "Ari Halberstam Memorial Site". Archived from the original on 5 July 2012. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
- ^ "Woman Held in Perris Is Suspect in Series of Killings". Los Angeles Times. March 18, 1994.
- ^ Garland, Max. "25 years ago, Federal Express Flight 705 was business as usual — until a hijacking attempt". The Commercial Appeal. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
- ^ "Federal Express crew attacked aboard DC-10". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
- ^ "On This Day 1994: Rock musician Kurt Cobain 'shoots himself'". BBC News. 8 April 1994. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
- ^ "Our Lady of the Angels School Fire, Chicago December 1, 1958 - 2000 Essay Contest 3rd Place". Retrieved 14 October 2014.
- ^ "Death of a First Lady; Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Dies of Cancer at 64". The New York Times.
- ^ Edsall, Thomas B. (1994-05-25). "GOP GAINS HOUSE SEAT NATCHER HELD". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
- ^ "Pizza Hut Tells Twitter It Made The First Online Sale In 1994". HuffPost. 2013-09-09. Archived from the original on 2019-11-05. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
- ^ "Mass murderer killed in prison". The Independent. 29 November 1994. Archived from the original on 2022-05-01. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
- ^ Lewis, Peter (1994-11-10). "America Online Buys 2 Internet Companies". New York Times.
- ^ Hu, Jim (2002-01-02). "AOL exec details choosing IE". CNET.
- ^ "Subway Bombing of 1994". Gothamist. Archived from the original on 24 December 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
- ^ Kevin Poulsen (January 21, 2000). "The case of the kung fu 'phreak'". ZDNet. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
- ^ Zenko, Micah (3 August 2010). Between Threats and War: U.S. Discrete Military Operations in the Post-Cold War World. Stanford University Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-8047-7190-0.
- ^ "Makenzie Jade Vega Norfolk (@makenzievega) • Instagram photos and videos". www.instagram.com. Retrieved 2019-06-27.
- ^ "Alexandra Raisman". Team USA. Archived from the original on March 21, 2015. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
- ^ "Nat Wolff Biography". TV Guide. Archived from the original on March 9, 2014. Retrieved March 9, 2014.
- ^ Flint, Peter B. (February 7, 1994). "Joseph Cotten, 88, Is Dead; Actor on Stage and in Films". The New York Times. Retrieved May 7, 2010.
- ^ Harris M. Lentz (1994). Obituaries in the Performing Arts. McFarland & Company. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-7864-0254-0.
- ^ Harris M. Lentz (1994). Obituaries in the Performing Arts. McFarland & Company. p. 160. ISBN 978-0-7864-0254-0.
External links
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