1995 Explained

1995 was designated as:

United Nations Year for Tolerance
World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War

This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government no longer providing public funding, marking the beginning of the Information Age.^[1] ^[2] America Online and Prodigy offered access to the World Wide Web system for the first time this year, releasing browsers that made it easily accessible to the general public.^[3]

Events

January

January 1
- The World Trade Organization (WTO) is established to replace the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
- Austria, Finland and Sweden join the European Union.
January 9 – Valeri Polyakov completes 366 days in space while aboard then Mir space station, breaking a duration record.^[4]
January 10–15 – The World Youth Day 1995 festival is held in Manila, Philippines, culminating in 5 million people gathering for John Paul II's concluding mass in Quirino Grandstand.
January 17 – The 6.9 Great Hanshin earthquake strikes the southern Hyōgo Prefecture of Japan with a maximum Shindo of 7, leaving 5,502–6,434 people dead, and 251,301–310,000 displaced.
January 25 – Norwegian rocket incident: A rocket launched from the space exploration centre at Andøya, Norway, is briefly interpreted by the Russians as an incoming attack.
January 31 – Mexican peso crisis: U.S. President Bill Clinton invokes emergency powers to extend a $20 billion loan to help Mexico avert financial collapse.

February

February 13 - Twenty-one Bosnian Serb commanders are charged with genocide and crimes against humanity in the United Nations' International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, a tribunal on human rights violations during the Wars in the Balkans.^[5]
February 21 - Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada, becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
February 25 - The Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) (Organización del Tratado de Cooperación Amazónica [OTCA]) is formed.
February 26 - The United Kingdom's oldest investment banking firm, Barings Bank, collapses after securities broker Nick Leeson loses $1.4 billion by speculating on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

March

March 1
- Julio María Sanguinetti is sworn in as President of Uruguay for his second term.
- Polish Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak resigns from Parliament and is replaced by ex-communist Józef Oleksy.
March 3 - United Nations Operation in Somalia II, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Somalia, ends.
March 14 - Astronaut Norman Thagard becomes the first American to ride into space aboard a Russian launch vehicle (the Soyuz TM-21), lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
March 20 - Members of the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo carry out the Tokyo subway sarin attack, killing 14 people and leading to over a thousand injured. The attack remains the deadliest terrorist incident in Japanese history.
March 22 - Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns after setting a record for 438 days in outer space.
March 26 - The Schengen Agreement, easing cross-border travel, goes into effect in several European countries.
March 31 - TAROM Flight 371 from Bucharest to Brussels crashes shortly after takeoff killing all 60 people on board.

April

April 7 - First Chechen War: Samashki massacre - Russian paramilitary troops begin a massacre of at least 250 civilians in Samashki, Chechnya.
April 19 - Oklahoma City bombing: 168 people, including eight federal Marshals and 19 children, are killed at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and 680 are wounded by a bomb set off by Timothy McVeigh.
April 30 - The United States government stops funding the NSFNET, making the Internet a wholly privatized system.^[6]

May

May 7 - Jacques Chirac is elected president of France.
May 10 - The Vaal Reefs mining disaster at Vaal Reefs gold mine in Orkney, South Africa. A runaway locomotive falls into a lift shaft onto an ascending cage and causes it to plunge to the bottom of the deep shaft, killing 104.^[7] ^[8]
May 11 - More than 170 countries agree to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.
May 13 - The 6.6 Western Macedonia earthquake strikes northwestern Greece with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), injuring 25 and causing $450 million in damage.
May 14 - The Dalai Lama proclaims 6-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, but 3 days later the boy is detained by Chinese authorities and not seen again.^[9]
May 16 - Following the Tokyo subway sarin attack two months earlier, Japanese police besiege the headquarters of Aum Shinrikyo near Mount Fuji and arrest cult leader Shoko Asahara. Further police operations result in over two hundred arrests and thirteen members of the cult, including Asahara, are sentenced to death.
May 24 - AFC Ajax wins the UEFA Champions League at the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna by defeating A.C. Milan 1–0.
May 28 - The 7.0 Neftegorsk earthquake strikes northern Sakhalin Island in Russia with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), leaving 1,967 people dead and 750 injured.

June

June 2
- Mrkonjić Grad incident: A United States Air Force F-16 piloted by Captain Scott O'Grady is shot down over Bosnia and Herzegovina while patrolling the NATO no-fly zone. O'Grady is rescued by U.S. Marines six days later.
- Waffen-SS Hauptsturmführer Erich Priebke is extradited from Argentina to Italy.
June 6
- U.S. astronaut Norman Thagard breaks NASA's space endurance record of 14 days, 1 hour and 16 minutes, aboard the Russian space station Mir.
- The Constitutional Court of South Africa abolishes capital punishment in South Africa in the case of S v Makwanyane and Another.
June 13 - French President Jacques Chirac announces the resumption of nuclear tests in French Polynesia.
June 16 - The IOC selects Salt Lake City to host the 2002 Winter Olympics.
June 22 - Japanese police rescue 365 hostages from a hijacked All Nippon Airways Flight 857 (Boeing 747-200) at Hakodate airport. The hijacker was armed with a knife and demanded the release of Shoko Asahara.
June 24 - South Africa wins the Rugby World Cup.
June 29
- English yachtswoman Lisa Clayton completes her 10-month solo circumnavigation from the Northern Hemisphere.
- STS-71: Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian Mir space station for the first time.
- Sampoong Department Store collapse in the Seocho-gu district of Seoul, South Korea, kills 502 and injures 937.
- Iraq disarmament crisis: According to UNSCOM, the unity of the U.N. Security Council begins to fray as a few countries, particularly France and Russia, become more interested in making financial deals with Iraq than in disarming the country.

July

July - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq threatens to end all cooperation with UNSCOM and IAEA if sanctions against the country are not lifted by August 31. Following the defection of his son-in-law, Hussein Kamel al-Majid, Saddam Hussein makes new revelations about the full extent of Iraq's biological and nuclear weapons programs. Iraq also withdraws its last U.N. declaration of prohibited biological weapons and turns over a large amount of new documents on its WMD programs.
July 1 - Iraq disarmament crisis: In response to UNSCOM's evidence, Iraq admits for first time the existence of an offensive biological weapons program, but denies weaponization.
July 4 - Prime Minister of the United Kingdom John Major is re-elected as leader of the Conservative Party, ending an internal challenge to his position.
July 9 - Sri Lankan Civil War: 125 civilians are killed in Navaly as result of bombing by the Sri Lanka Air Force.
July 10
- Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi is freed from house arrest.
- 42 CFR 84 is enacted, the NIOSH air filtration ratings update, and the N95 respirator becomes a standard.
  - July 11 Srebrenica massacre: Units of the Army of Republika Srpska, under the command of General Ratko Mladić, enter Srebrenica with little resistance from Dutch peacekeepers of the United Nations Protection Force, going on to kill thousands of Bosniak men and boys and rape many women.
- President Clinton announces the restoration of United States–Vietnam relations twenty years after the Vietnam War.
- A Cubana de Aviación Antonov An-24 crashes into the Caribbean off southeast Cuba killing 44 people.

July 21 - 26 - Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: The Chinese People's Liberation Army fires missiles into the waters north of Taiwan.

August

August - The International Rugby Football Board declares that rugby union players may be professional.^[10] ^[11]
August 4 - Croatian forces, with the cooperation of the ARBiH, launch Operation Storm against rebel forces of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, which subsequently ceases to exist as a political entity.
August 7 - The Chilean government declares a state of emergency in the southern half of the country in response to an event of intense cold, wind, rain and snowfall known as the White Earthquake.^[12]
August 14 - Nepali Prime Minister Man Mohan Adhikari along with seven other high-ranking officials survives a helicopter crash.^[13]
August 29 - Eduard Shevardnadze, the Georgian head of state, survives an assassination attempt in Tbilisi.
August 30 - Operation Deliberate Force, the NATO bombing campaign against Bosnian Serb artillery positions, begins in Bosnia and Herzegovina, continuing into September. At the same time, ARBiH forces begin an offensive against the Bosnian Serb Army around Sarajevo, central Bosnia and Bosnian Krajina.

September

September - The European Parliament elects the first European Ombudsman, Jacob Söderman, who takes up office this month.
September 4–15 - The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing with over 4,750 delegates from 181 countries in attendance.
September 19 - The Washington Post and The New York Times publish the Unabomber manifesto
September 26 - The trial against former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, who is accused of Mafia connections, begins.
September 27 - 28 - Bob Denard's mercenaries capture President Said Mohamed Djohar of the Comoros; the local army does not resist.

October

October 3 - Murder trial of O. J. Simpson: Former American football star O. J. Simpson is found not guilty of double murder in a criminal trial for the deaths of former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
October 5 - Tansu Çiller of DYP forms the new government of Turkey (51st government), a minority government which lasts for less than a month.
October 6 - Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz announce the discovery of 51 Pegasi b, the first confirmed extrasolar planet orbiting an ordinary main-sequence star.
October 9 - 1995 Palo Verde, Arizona, derailment An Amtrak Sunset Limited train derails through sabotage at a trestle near Palo Verde, Arizona, United States, resulting in one death.^[14]
October 16 - The Million Man March is held in Washington, D.C. The event was conceived by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
October 24 - A total solar eclipse is visible from Iran, India, Thailand and Southeast Asia.^[15]
October 26 - An avalanche hits the village Flateyri in Iceland, killing 20 people, the second of two deadly avalanches to occur in Iceland during this calendar year.
October 28 - A fire in Baku Metro, Azerbaijan, kills 289 passengers, becoming the world's worst subway disaster.
October 30
- Quebec independentists narrowly lose a referendum for a mandate to negotiate independence from Canada.
- Tansu Çiller of DYP forms the new government (52nd government) of Turkey.

November

November - The Indian government officially renames the city of Bombay, restoring the name Mumbai.
November 1
- The last signal is received from NASA's Pioneer 11 spacecraft.
- Participants in the Yugoslav Wars begin negotiations at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
November 2 - The Supreme Court of Argentina orders the extradition of ex-S.S. captain Erich Priebke.
November 4 - Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
November 7 - Typhoon Angela leaves the Philippines and Vietnam devastated, with 882 deaths and US$315 million in damage. The typhoon is the strongest to strike the Philippines in 25 years, with wind speeds of 130mi/h and gusts of 180mi/h.
November 12 - The Millbrook Commonwealth Action Programme, a programme to implement the Harare Declaration, is announced by the Commonwealth Heads of Government.
November 16 - A United Nations tribunal charges Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić with genocide during the Bosnian War.
November 20 - A car bomb explosion outside the Egyptian Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan destroys the façade of the building, killing at least 13 people and wounding dozens more.^[16]
November 21 - The Dayton Agreement to end the Bosnian War is reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, United States (signed December 14).
November 22 - The 7.3 Gulf of Aqaba earthquake shakes the Sinai Peninsula and Saudi Arabia region with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing eight and injuring 30, and generating a non-destructive tsunami.
November 28 - Twenty-seven nations sign the Barcelona Treaty, creating the Union for the Mediterranean.
November 30 - Operation Desert Storm officially ends.

December

December 3 - Strikes paralyze France's public sector.
December 6 - The United States Food and Drug Administration approves Saquinavir, the first protease inhibitor to treat HIV/AIDS. Within 2 years of its approval, annual deaths from AIDS in the United States fall from over 50,000 to approximately 18,000.^[17]
December 7 - NASA's Galileo Probe enters Jupiter's atmosphere.
December 8 - Five-year-old Gyaincain Norbu is enthroned as the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama at Tashilhunpo Monastery.
December 14 - The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris, officially ending the Bosnian War.
December 16 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi scuba divers, under the direction of the United Nations Special Commission, dredge the Tigris near Baghdad. The divers find over 200 prohibited Russian-made missile instruments and components.
December 20
- American Airlines Flight 965 (Boeing 757) crashes into a mountain near Buga, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, killing 160 of the 164 on board.
- NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia.
December 23 - Dabwali fire accident: The Rajiv Marriage Palace catches fire in Haryana, India, killing 442 persons.^[18]
December 30 - The lowest ever United Kingdom temperature of -27.2°C is recorded at Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands. This equals the record set at Braemar, Aberdeenshire in 1895 and 1982.

Date unknown

Sudden oak death, the tree disease caused by the plant pathogen Phytophthora ramorum, is first observed, in California, United States.^[19]
The first SampTA conference for mathematicians, engineers and applied scientists is held in Riga, Latvia.^[20]

World population

1995

1990

2000

World

5,674,380,000

5,263,593,000

410,787,000

6,070,581,000

396,201,000

Africa

707,462,000

622,443,000

85,019,000

795,671,000

88,209,000

Asia

3,430,052,000

3,167,807,000

262,245,000

3,679,737,000

249,685,000

Europe

725,405,000

721,582,000

5,823,000

730,986,000

5,581,000

	Latin America & Caribbean

481,099,000

441,525,000

39,574,000

520,229,000

39,130,000

	Northern America

299,438,000

283,549,000

15,889,000

315,915,000

16,477,000

Oceania

28,924,000

26,687,000

2,237,000

31,043,000

2,119,000

Births