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| James Bulger |
James Bulger: For the American wanted by the FBI for murder, see James J. Bulger.
James J. Bulger
James Bulger (March 16, 1990 – February 12, 1993) was a toddler who was abducted and murdered by two ten-year-old boys born in 1982, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, on Merseyside, in the United Kingdom. The murder of a child by two other children caused an immense public outpouring of shock, outrage, and grief, particularly in Liverpool and surrounding towns. The trial judge ordered that the two boys should be detained for "very, very many years to come". Shortly after the trial, Lord Taylor of Gosforth, the Lord Chief Justice, ordered that the two boys should serve a minimum of 10 years behind bars—which would make them eligible for release in 2003. But the popular press and certain sections of the public felt that the sentence was too lenient, and the editors of The Sun handed a petition bearing 300,000 signatures to Home Secretary Michael Howard in a bid to increase the time spent in custody. In 1995, the two boys' minimum period to be served was increased to 15 years, a ruling which meant they would not be considered for release until 2008, by which time they would both be 26 years old.
In 1997, however, the Court of Appeal ruled that Michael Howard's decision to set a 15-year tariff was unlawful, and the Home Secretary lost his power to set minimum terms for life sentence prisoners under the age of 18 years (in 2002 the position of Home Secretary lost its power to set minimum terms for life sentences entirely).
Thompson and Venables were released on a life licence in June 2001 after serving eight years of their life sentence (reduced for good behaviour), when a parole hearing concluded that public safety would not be threatened by their rehabilitation into society. An injunction was imposed shortly after the trial preventing the publication of details about the boys for fear of reprisals by members of the public. The injunction remained in force following their release so that details of their new identities and locations could not be published.
Bulger's mother, Denise Bulger, was given £7,500 criminal compensation from the government. The trauma of Bulger's death led to the collapse of his parents' marriage. Ralph and Denise Bulger have both since re-married to other respective spouses.
The murder
Jon Venables and Robert Thompson had skipped school on February 12, 1993. That day, in Bootle Strand Shopping Centre, they attempted to walk off with a young child. They had succeeded in luring a two-year-old boy away from his mother, and were in the process of taking him out of the shopping centre when she noticed him missing, ran outside and called him back. For this they were later charged with attempted abduction; however, the charge was dropped when the jury failed to reach a verdict.
abduction
That same afternoon, James Bulger (often called Jamie Bulger in press reports) from nearby Kirkby went on a shopping trip with his mother, Denise. Whilst distracted in a butcher's shop, Mrs Bulger (now Denise Fergus) allowed Bulger to stand outside in the main concourse of the shopping centre. Within a few minutes, the two boys had taken Bulger by the hand and led him out of the precinct. This moment was captured on a CCTV camera at 15:39.
The youngsters took Bulger on a 2½ mile (4 km) walk. At one point they led him to a canal, where Bulger sustained some injuries to his head and face after apparently being dropped to the ground. Later on in their journey, a witness reported seeing Bulger being kicked in the ribs by one of the boys to encourage him along.
During the entire walk, the two boys and Bulger were seen by 38 people, some of whom noticed an injury to the infant's head and later recalled that he seemed distressed. Others reported that Bulger appeared happy and was seen laughing, the boys seemingly alternating between hurting and distracting him. A few members of the public challenged the two older boys, but they claimed they were looking after their younger brother, or that he was lost and that they were taking him to the police station, and were allowed to continue on their way. They eventually led Bulger to a section of railway line near Walton.
From the facts disclosed at trial, it would seem that at this location the boys initially kicked and punched Bulger and then left him by the railway path. However, Bulger began crying and so they returned. When they did so they threw stones at him, causing him to fall over. One of the boys threw blue paint over him and he was left on the railway tracks. It was later suggested that the boys, fearing they would get in trouble for taking the child, had attempted to cover up what they had done by leaving him there. The body of Bulger was later found severed by a train.
As the circumstances surrounding the death became clear, tabloid newspapers compared the killers with Myra Hindley and Saddam Hussein. They denounced the people who had seen Bulger but not realised the trouble he was in as the "Liverpool 38" (see: Kitty Genovese, Bystander effect). Within days, the Liverpool Echo had published 1,086 death notices for Bulger. The railside embankment upon which Bulger's body had been discovered was flooded with hundreds of bunches of flowers: One of these floral tributes was laid by Thompson. Within days, he and Venables were arrested after an investigation led by one of Merseyside Police's most senior detectives, Detective Superintendent Albert Kirby.
Forensics tests confirmed that both boys had the same blue paint on their clothing as was found on Bulger's body. Both had blood on their shoes; blood on Venables' shoe was matched to Bulger's through DNA tests.
The trial
DNA
In the initial aftermath of their arrest, the boys were referred to simply as "Child A" (Thompson) and "Child B" (Venables). However, the widely publicised nature of the murder, and public reaction to it, together with the difficulty of controlling information distributed on the Internet, meant that their names became known. Public shock at the murder was compounded by the release of mug shots taken during initial questioning by police. The pictures showed a pair of frightened children, and many found it hard to believe such a crime had been perpetrated by two people so young.
Five hundred angry protesters gathered at South Sefton Magistrates Court during the boys' initial court appearances. The accused's parents were moved to different parts of the country and had to assume new identities following a series of death threats.
The full trial took place at Preston Crown Court. The trial was conducted as an adult trial would have been, with the accused sitting in the dock away from their parents and with the judge and court officials dressed in full legal regalia. Each boy sat in full view of the court on raised chairs (so they could see out of the dock designed for adults) accompanied by two social workers. Although they were separated from their parents, they were within touching distance of them on days that their families attended the trial. News stories frequently reported on the demeanour of the defendants, since they were in full view of reporters. (These aspects of the trial were later criticised by the European Court of Human Rights who ruled that they had not received a fair trial.)
The boys, who offered no evidence in their defence, were found guilty and were sentenced to imprisonment at a young offenders institution at "Her Majesty's Pleasure"—a British legal term meaning an indefinite period, reviewed by the Government from time to time that is particularly used as a substitute for life sentencing for minors. The trial judge Justice Morland set their minimum period of incarceration to eight years. This was increased on appeal by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Taylor of Gosforth, to ten years and later by the Home Secretary, Michael Howard, to fifteen years on the grounds that he was "acting in the public interest". This decision was widely criticised as Howard appeared to be trying to make a political gain from his role in the judicial process: it was overturned in 1997 by the Law Lords. In October 2000, Lord Chief Justice Harry Woolf reduced their minimum sentence by two years for their behaviour in detention, effectively restoring the original trial judge's eight-year term.
Proposed causes
Social and family background?
In court, details of Thompson's and Venables' backgrounds were not admitted. Thompson was one of the youngest of seven boys. His mother, a lone parent, was an alcoholic. His father, who left home when Thompson was five, was also a heavy drinker who beat and sexually abused his wife and children. Despite his quiet and friendly manner, Thompson came from a home in which it was normal practise for the older children to violently attack the younger ones, and he was invariably on the receiving end.
Venables' parents were also separated. His brother and sister had educational problems and attended special needs schools, whilst his mother suffered psychiatric problems. Following his parents' separation, Venables became isolated and attention-seeking. At school he would regularly bang his head on walls or slash himself with scissors. No effort was made to find the cause of his obvious distress.
Other media commentators blamed the behaviour of Venables and Thompson on their families, or on their social situation, living in one of the most deprived areas of the UK. The Liverpool Echo described the city at the time of the murder as "a wounded city... The region's economy was on its knees, and unemployment was soaring". A 2001 OFSTED report on Liverpool's schools said that "the city of Liverpool has the highest degree of deprivation in the country".
Following the murder, the boys' mothers— Susan Venables and Ann Thompson—were repeatedly attacked in the street and vilified in the press.
Thompson's father had abandoned his wife and children five years previously, one week before the family home was burned down in a fire. Ann Thompson was a heavy drinker, who found it difficult to control her seven children. Notes (obtained by author Blake Morrison) from an NSPCC case conference on the family described it as "appalling". The children "bit, hammered, battered, tortured each other". Incidents in the report include Philip (the third child) threatening his older brother Ian with a knife. Ian asked to be taken into foster care, and when he was returned to his family, he attempted suicide with an overdose of painkillers. Both Ann and Philip had also attempted suicide in the past.
Venables's family was less chaotic; although his parents were also separated, they lived near to each other, and he lived at his father's house two days a week. Both his older brother and his younger sister had learning disabilities which were severe enough to make it necessary that they attend special schools (for children too disabled to be taught in the mainstream system). Jon himself was hyperactive and had attempted to throttle another boy in a fight at school. The police had been called to Susan Venables's house in 1987, when she left her children (then aged 3, 5 and 7) alone in the house for 3 hours. Case notes from that incident describe Susan's "severe depressive problem" and suicidal tendencies.
Video violence?
One of the aspects of the case that gained much media attention was whether Venables and Thompson had been watching violent films in the days and months prior to the murder, and whether or not those movies had contributed to making the pair act in the way they did. The judge mentioned that one of their fathers possessed a large collection of violent videos, and that they probably had access to them whilst playing truant from school. As James' death was similar to the death in the film, and the father of one of the boys had been known to hire this film the week before the murder, The Sun newspaper explicitly named Child's Play 3 as a movie they had seen and printed a full front-page picture of the menacing Chucky, the child-killing doll of that horror series. However, no evidence that the boys had watched such movies was formally presented to the jury, but the case gave rise to a national debate about the acceptability of violent media. Although no films were subsequently banned by the British Board of Film Classification, several video rental chains voluntarily stopped stocking Child's Play 3 and other titles listed by The Sun.
In early 1994, Liberal Democrat David AltonMP, a long-time campaigner against violent movies, commissioned Professor Elizabeth Newson to report on Video Violence and the Protection of Children, as part of his case for an amendment to the forthcoming Criminal Justice Bill. Her report, which consisted primarily of a review of similar studies from around the world, stated that there was a strong link between video violence and real world violence, and that although correlation does not necessarily imply causation, she believed there was causation in this case. [http://www.melonfarmers.co.uk/newson.htm]
The report's method came under fierce criticism from those opposed to Alton's amendment (see e.g., J. McGuigan, Culture and the Public Sphere and David Gauntlett).
Professor Henry Jenkins of MIT has responded to similar political scapegoating in several interviews and articles, e.g.: When politicians ... target video game violence, perhaps it is to distract attention from the material conditions which give rise to a culture of domestic violence, the economic policies which make it harder for most of us to own our homes, and the development practices which pave over the old grasslands and forests. [http://web.mit.edu/21fms/www/faculty/henry3/pub/complete.html]
Multiple causes?
Another report on children and video violence was published in 1998; it was commissioned by the Home Office in 1995 in response to fears raised by Bulger's murder. The authors, Dr Kevin Browne and Amanda Pennell of the University of Birmingham, emphasised the link between a violent home background and offending:
Our research cannot prove whether video violence causes crime. But it does highlight the importance of family background and the offender's own personality and thoughts in determining the effects of film violence.
The research points to a pathway from having a violent home background, to being an offender, to be being more likely to prefer violent films and violent actors. Distorted perceptions about violent behaviour, poor empathy for others and low moral development all enhance the adoption of violent behaviour and violent film preferences. [http://www.newsrelease-archive.net/coi/depts/GHO/coi6459d.ok]
Appeal and release
In 1999, lawyers acting for Venables and Thompson appealed to the European Court of Human Rights on the grounds that the boys' trial had not been impartial, since they were too young to be able to follow the proceedings and understand the workings of an adult court. They also claimed that Howard's intervention led to a "charged atmosphere", making a fair trial impossible. The Court found in the boys' favour.
The European Court case led to the new Lord Chief Justice, Lord Justice Woolf, reviewing the minimum sentence imposed. In October 2000, he recommended the tariff be reduced from ten to eight years, adding that young offenders' institutions were a "corrosive atmosphere" for the juveniles.
In June 2001, after a six-month review of the case, the Parole Board ruled the boys were no longer a threat to public safety and were thus eligible for release now that the minimum tariff had expired. The Home Secretary, David Blunkett, approved the decision, and they were both released that summer. They will live out their lives on a "life licence", which allows for their immediate re-incarceration if they break the terms of their release, that is if they are seen to be a danger to the public.
An estimated total of £4 million was spent in helping Thompson and Venables rebuild their lives on release from custody.
The Manchester Evening News provoked controversy by naming the secure institutions in which the pair were housed, and this was in possible breach of the injunction against press publicity which had been renewed early in 2001. In December of that year, the paper was found guilty of contempt of court and fined £30,000 and ordered to pay costs of £120,000.
The injunction against the press reporting on the boys' whereabouts applies only in England and Wales, and newspapers in Scotland or other countries can legally publish such information. With easy cross-border communications due to the internet, many expected their identities and whereabouts to quickly become public knowledge. Indeed, in June 2001, Venables's mother was quoted by the News of the World as saying that she expected her son to be "dead within four weeks" of release. Her lawyers lodged a formal complaint with the Press Complaints Commission saying that Mrs Venables had said no such thing. By that time, however, the phrase had been widely re-reported. As of 2004, no publication of their new identities or vigilante action has come to pass. Despite this, Bulger's mother, Denise, told how in 2004 she received an anonymous tip-off that helped her locate Thompson. She said she saw him but was "paralysed with hatred", and did not communicate with him in any way.
Similar events
- Mary Bell
References
- The Guardian (1993-2002) [http://www.guardian.co.uk/bulger/archive/0,3332,195312,00.html Special Report: The James Bulger Case], retrieved 23 April 2005.
- BBC News (24 June 2001) [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1405142.stm Bulger killers 'face danger'], retrieved 23 April 2005.
- BBC News (22 June 2001) [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1402798.stm Bulger statement in full], retrieved 23 April 2005.
- Laurence Lee, Unknown date, [http://www.bigissueinthenorth.com/Magazine/bulger.html The hardest case], retrieved 23 April 2005.
Video violence
- [http://www.theory.org.uk/david/effects.htm 'Ten things wrong with the media effects model' article by David Gauntlett]
- [http://www.videostandards.org.uk/video_violence.htm The British Video Standards Commission's articles on video violence]
- [http://www.bbfc.co.uk/__802568b8005a70f7.nsf/0/5591cbf22b4235888025691c00334758 Response from the British Board of Film Classification to the 1998 Home Office study]
Bulger, James
Bulger, James
Bulger, James
Bulger, James
Bulger, James
James J. Bulger
James Joseph "Whitey" Bulger (born on September 3, 1929 in South Boston, Massachusetts) is a fugitive wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for racketeering ("RICO"), murder, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit extortion, narcotics distribution, conspiracy to commit money laundering, extortion and money laundering. The FBI says that Bulger, along with fellow mobster Stephen Flemmi, was a leader of the Winter Hill Gang, an organized crime group operating in the Boston area.
Bulger was an FBI informant and used that position to eliminate competition and consolidate his own control of organized crime in Boston.
After being warned by now-imprisoned FBI agent, John Connolly, that he was about to be indicted, Bulger, along with his girlfriend, Catherine Greig, fled prosecution. He is on the FBI Ten Most Wanted list and a reward for USD$ 1,000,000 is being offered for information leading to his capture.
The last confirmed sighting of Bulger was in London in 2002, though in late July, 2005, the FBI sent agents to Uruguay to investigate a lead.
Bulger is the older brother (by 5 years) of William M. "Billy" Bulger, former President of the Massachusetts State Senate and head of the University of Massachusetts system from 1996 to 2003.
Description
- Hair: White/Silver
- Eyes: Blue
- Height: 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
- Complexion: Light
- Weight: 150 to 160 lb (68 to 73 kg)
- Sex: Male
- Build: Medium
Known Medications
Bulger was last known to be using Athenolol, a heart medication in 50 milligram doses.
Weapons
Bulger is said to carry a knife on him at all times.
Aliases
- Thomas F. Baxter - a name Bulger created in 1971.
- Mark Shapeton
- Jummy Bulger
- Tom Harris
- Tom Marshall
- Whitey Bulger
Notable Possessions
Republic of Ireland passport in his own name
Crimes
The FBI currently wants to apprehend Bulger on the following charges:
- Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations ("RICO")
- Murder (18 Counts)
- Conspiracy to Commit Murder
- Extortion
- Conspiracy to Commit Extortion
- Money laundering
- Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering
- Distribution of Narcotics
External links
- [http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/topten/fugitives/bulger.htm Bulger on FBI's Ten Most Wanted list]
- [http://www.boston.com/news/packages/whitey/ Boston Globe articles and current news]
- [http://www.aim.org/publications/aim_report/2003/7.html more on FBI connections to mob]
- [http://www.wrko.com/article.asp?id=50489 Whitey Watch, audio, video, photos, text]
Bulger, James J.
Bulger, James J.
Bulger, James J.
Bulger, James J.
1990
:This article is about the year. For other uses, see 1990 (disambiguation).
:"MCMXC" redirects here; for the Enigma album, see MCMXC a.D..
1990 (MCMXC) is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar.
Events
January
- January 3 - Former leader of Panama Manuel Noriega surrenders to American forces.
- January 7 - The Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public due to safety concerns.
- January 9 - Lt Gen Bazilio Olara Okello, the man who led the coup against Dr Apolo Milton Obote's government, dies in Ormduruman Hospital in Khartoum, Sudan.
- January 10 - Time Warner is formed from the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc.
- January 11 - Massive (200,000) demonstration in favor of Lithuanian independence.
- January 13 - Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia.
- January 15 - Thousands storm the Stasi HQ in Berlin in an attempt to view their records.
- January 18 - Former McMartin preschool operators Raymond Buckey and his mother Peggy McMartin Buckey are acquitted in a Los Angeles, California court of 52 child molestation charges.
- January 18 - Washington, DC, Mayor Marion Barry is arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting.
- January 22 - Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. is convicted of releasing the 1988 Internet worm.
- January 25 - Avianca Flight 52 crashed into Cove Neck, Long Island, after a miscommunication between the flight crew and JFK airport officials.
- January 25 - The Berlin Wall starts to come down.
- January 25-January 26 - Burns' Day storm rages over northwestern Europe - 97 dead
- January 27 - City of Tiraspol in the Moldavian SSR declares brief independence
- January 29 - The trial of the former skipper of the Exxon Valdez, Joseph Hazelwood, begins in Anchorage, Alaska. He is accused of negligence that resulted in America's worst oil spill.
- January 31 - The first McDonald's opens in Moscow, USSR.
February
USSR
- February 2 - Apartheid: In South Africa President F.W. de Klerk allows the African National Congress to legally function again and promises to set Nelson Mandela free.
- February 7 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly of power
- February 10 - South African President F.W. de Klerk announces that Nelson Mandela would be released the next day.
- February 11 - James "Buster" Douglas KOs Mike Tyson to win world heavyweight boxing crown.
- February 11 - Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster prison, near Cape Town, South Africa
- February 13 - German reunification: An agreement is reached for a two-stage plan to reunite Germany
- February 15 - The United Kingdom and Argentina restore diplomatic links after 8 years. The UK had broken off links in response to Argentina's invasion of the Falkland Islands, a British Dependent Territory
- February 26 - The Sandinistas are defeated in Nicaraguan elections.
- February 26 - The USSR agrees to withdraw all 73500 troops from Czechoslovakia by July, 1991.
- February 27 - Exxon Valdez oil spill: Exxon and its shipping company are indicted on five criminal counts.
March
- March 1 - A fire at the Sheraton Hotel in Cairo kills 16.
- March 1 - Steve Jackson Games is raided by the U.S. Secret Service, prompting the later formation of the EFF.
- March 1 - Royal New Zealand Navy discontinues the daily rum ration
- March 4 - Afrisecal movement/ Afrisecaism introduced as an intellectual school of thought to the Literary collective of Jos by Francis Okechukwu Ohanyido on his birthday as part of the "Afriquest initiative".
- March 6 - An SR-71 sets a US transcontinental speed record of 1 hour 8 minutes 17 seconds, on what is publicized as its last official flight.
- March 9 - Police seals off Brixton South London after another night of protests against the poll tax
- March 9 - Dr. Antonia Novello is sworn in as Surgeon General of the United States, becoming the first female and Hispanic to serve in that position
- March 9 - Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Clyde Wells confirms he will rescind Newfoundland's approval of the Meech Lake Accord, effectively killing the Accord
- March 10 - 18 months after seizing power in a coup, Prosper Avril is ousted in Haiti
- March 11 - Lithuania declares independence from the Soviet Union
- March 11 - Patricio Aylwin is sworn-in as the first democratically-elected Chilean president since 1970
- March 15 - Gulf War: Iraqis hang British journalist Farzad Bazoft for spying. Daphne Parish, a British nurse, is sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment as an accomplice
- March 15 - Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first executive president of the Soviet Union
- March 15 - The Soviet Union announces that Lithuania's declaration of independence is invalid
- March 18 - 12 paintings, collectively worth $100 million, are stolen by two thieves posing as police officers from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. This is the largest art theft in US history and the paintings (as of 2005) have not been recovered
- March 18 - East Germany holds first free elections since 1932
- March 18 - Thieves loot Isabella Steward Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, stealing paintings and treasures worth estimated $200 million (not recovered as of 2005)
- March 20 - Ferdinand Marcos's widow, Imelda Marcos, goes on trial for bribery, embezzlement, and racketeering
- March 21 - After 75 years of South African rule Namibia becomes independent
- March 21 - A massive poll tax demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London turns into a riot. 417 people injured, 341 arrested
- March 23 - Gerald Bull assassinated in Brussels
- March 24 - The government of Australian prime minister Bob Hawke is re-elected for a 4th term.
- March 25 - In New York City, a fire due to arson at an illegal social club called "Happy Land" kills 87
- March 27 - Propaganda: The United States begins broadcasting TV Martí to Cuba
- March 27 - Namibia becomes a state independent of South Africa
- March 28 - President George H. W. Bush presents Jesse Owens with the Congressional Gold Medal.
- March 31 - London anti-Poll Tax Riots in Trafalgar Square. Incident subsequently known as "The Second Battle of Trafalgar"
April
- April 7 - Iran Contra Affair: John Poindexter is found guilty of five charges for his part in the scandal but the convictions were later reversed after an appeal
- April 7 - Scandinavian Star, a Bahamas-registered ferry, catches fire en route from Norway to Denmark - 158 dead
- April 13 - The Soviet Union apologizes for the Katyn Massacre
- April 15 - Food poisoning kills 450 guests of an engagement party in Uttar Pradesh
- April 24 - The Space Shuttle Discovery places the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit.It becomes operational May 20
- April 24 - West and East Germany agree to merge currency and economies on July 1
May
- May 2 - In London, England, man brandishing a knife robs courier Nicholas Lane of bearer bonds worth £292 million - the largest mugging to date.
- May 15 - Portrait of Doctor Gachet by Vincent van Gogh is sold for a record $82.5 million.
- May 19 - British agriculture Minister John Gummer feeds a hamburger to his 5-year-old daughter to counter rumours about the spread of Mad cow disease and its transmission to humans
- May 20 - The first post- Communist presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Romania
- May 22 - The leaders of the Yemen Arab Republic and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen announce the unification of their countries as the Republic of Yemen.
- May 29 - Rhode Island celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
June
- June 1 - U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign a treaty to end chemical weapon production and to start destroying each of their nation's stockpiles
- June 12 - The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declares its sovereignty (see Russia Day)
- June 20 - British Chancellor John Major proposes a new European currency which would circulate alongside existing national currencies.
- June 22 - Underwater volcano Mount Didicas erupts in the Philippines
July
- July 2 - Stampede in a pedestrian tunnel leading to Mecca - 1426 pilgrims dead
- July 8 - At 12:34:56 PM the time and date by US reckoning was 12:34:56 7/8/90.
- July 8 - West Germany defeats Argentina 1-0 to win the Football World Cup 1990
- July 12 - Square Co., Ltd. releases Final Fantasy in North America.
- July 15 - Tamil Tigers kill 168 Muslims in Colombo, Sri Lanka
- July 16 - In the Philippines, an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter Scale kills over 1600
- July 25 - The Serbian Democratic Party declares sovereignty of the Serbs in Croatia
- July 27 - The parliament building and a government television house in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago are stormed by the Jamaat al Muslimeen in a Coup d'état attempt which lasts five days. Approximately 26 to 30 people are killed and several wounded (including then Prime Minister, A.N.R. Robinson, who was shot in the leg).
- July 27 - Belarus declares its sovereignty; a key step toward independence from the USSR.
- July 28 - Alberto Fujimori becomes president of Peru
- July 30 - IRA car bomb kills British MP Ian Gow, a staunch unionist.
August
- August 2 - Gulf War: Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.
- August 3 - The highest temperature recorded in the UK until 2003 - 37.1°C (98.8°F) at Cheltenham in Gloucestershire
- August 6 - Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
- August 7 - John Cain Resigns as VIC premier over a series of financial scandals and is replaced by Joan Kirner (10th)
- August 7 - At 12:34:56 (both AM and PM) the time and date by British reckoning was 12:34:56 7/8/90 i.e. 1234567890.
- August 19 - Leonard Bernstein conducts his final concert, ending with Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
- August 27 - Blues musician Stevie Ray Vaughan dies in a helicopter crash along with 4 others following a concert near East Troy, Wisconsin.
September
- September 2 - Transnistria declares its independence from the Moldavian SSR; however, the declaration is not recognized by any government.
- September 11 - President George H. W. Bush delivers a nationally televised speech in which he threatens the use of force to remove Iraqi soldiers from Kuwait, which Iraq had recently invaded.
- September 12 - The two German states and the Four Powers sign the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany in Moscow, paving the way for German re-unification.
October
- October 3 - German re-unification, East Germany becomes part of the Federal Republic of Germany.
- October 5 - After one hundred and fifty years, ten months and two days (Friday, January 3, 1840 - Friday, October 5, 1990), The Herald broadsheet newspaper in Melbourne, Australia is published for the last time as a separate newspaper. Founded in 1840 as The Port Phillip Herald, it is merged with its morning tabloid sister paper The Sun News-Pictorial and the first issue of the new Herald Sun, described by owner Rupert Murdoch as "The world's first 24-hour newspaper", with morning and afternoon editions, is published on the 8th
- October 8 - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: In Jerusalem, Israeli police kill 17 Palestinians and wound over 100 near the Dome of the Rock mosque on the Temple Mount
- October 13 - Lebanese Civil War: Syrian military forces invade and occupy Mount Lebanon, ousting General Michel Aoun's government. This effectively consolidates Syria's 14 year occupation of Lebanese soil.
- October 15 - Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to lessen Cold War tensions and reform his nation.
- October 27 - Supreme Soviet of Kyrgyzstan choses Askar Akayev as republic's first president
- October 27 - New Zealand general election returns National with record number of seats - 67; Labour 29, NewLabour 1
November
- November 1 - Mary Robinson defeats odds-on favourite Brian Lenihan to become the first woman President of Ireland.
- November 1 - The Australian domestic avation market is deregulated.
- November 5 - Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the far-right Kach movement, is shot dead after a speech at a New York City hotel and Reynir Ver Jónsson borned.
- November 8 - Mary Robinson becomes the first female president of the Republic of Ireland.
- November 11 - Gulf War: The U.N. Security Council passes Resolution 678, giving Iraq until Tuesday, January 15, 1991 to withdraw its forces from Kuwait
- November 12 - Crown Prince Akihito becomes the 125th Japanese monarch and takes the title Emperor Akihito of Japan
- November 12 - Tim Berners-Lee publishes a more formal proposal for the World Wide Web. [http://www.w3.org/Proposal]
- November 13 - The first known web page is written.
- November 14 - Germany and Poland sign a treaty confirming the border at the Oder-Neisse line.
- November 15 - Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis launches with flight STS-38.
- November 18 - Andrei Tjikatilo is arrested on suspicion of serial murder and rape
- November 21 - The Super Famicom (aka Super Nintendo) is released in Japan
- November 22 - Margaret Thatcher resigns as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- November 25 - Lech Wałęsa and Stanisław Tymiński win the 1st round of first presidential elections in Poland, see: December 9
- November 27 - The UK Conservative Party chooses John Major to succeed Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
- November 29 - Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council passes UN Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing military intervention in Iraq if that nation did not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by Tuesday, January 15, 1991.
- November 29 - Treasurer Paul Keating announces that Australia is experiencing an economic recession.
December
- December 1 - Channel Tunnel workers from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 meters beneath the English Channel seabed, establishing the first ground connection between the United Kingdom and the mainland of Europe since the last ice age
- December 1 - The Los Angeles, California radio station KROQ opens their first annual Acoustic Christmas live concert.
- December 2 - A coalition led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl wins the first free all-German elections since 1932
- December 3 - At Detroit Metropolitan Airport, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 carrying Northwest Airlines Flight 1482 collides with a Boeing 727 carrying Northwest Airlines Flight 299 on the runway, killing 8 passengers and 4 crewmembers aboard flight 1482
- December 3 - Mary Robinson is elected the first female President of Ireland.
- December 6 - Saddam Hussein releases the Western hostages
- December 9 - Slobodan Milošević becomes President of Serbia
- December 9 - Lech Wałęsa wins the 2nd round of Poland's first presidential election
- December 16 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide is elected president of Haiti, ending three decades of military rule.
- December 31 - Russian Garry Kasparov holds his title by winning the World Chess Championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.
Births
- January 7 - Liam Aiken, American actor
- January 30 - Jake Thomas, American actor
- February 11 - Q'Orianka Kilcher, German-born actress
- February 13 - Erdini Qoigyijabu, eleventh Panchen Lama
- February 23 - Christian Copelin, American actor
- February 28 - Anna Muzychuk, Ukrainian chess player
- March 8 - Abigail and Brittany Hensel, American conjoined twins
- March 23 - Princess Eugenie of York
- March 24 - Keisha Castle-Hughes, Australian-born actress
- April 9 - Kristen Stewart, American actress
- April 10 - Alex Pettyfer, British actor
- April 15 - Emma Watson, British actress
- May 1 - Caitlin Stasey, Australian actress
- May 2 - Kay Panabaker, American actress
- May 16 - Thomas Sangster, English actor
- July 24 - Daveigh Chase, American actress
- August 6 - JonBenét Ramsey, American beauty queen and murder victim (d. 1996)
- October 18 - Carly Schroeder, American actress
- October 22 - Jonathan Lipnicki, American actor
- November 7 - Marisa Siketa, Australian actress
- November 27 - Shane Haboucha, American actor
- November 30 - Magnus Carlsen, Norwegian chess player
- December 17 - Ashley Edner, American actress
- December 20 - Joanna Noelle Levesque, American singer/Actress
Deaths
- January 2 - Alan Hale Jr., American actor (b. 1918)
- January 4 - Doc Edgerton, American electrical engineering (b. 1903)
- January 6 - Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
- January 9 - Spud Chandler, baseball player (b. 1907)
- March 13 - Karl Münchinger, German conductor (b. 1915)
- March 20 - Lev Yashin, Russian footballer (b.1929)
- April 15 - Greta Garbo, Swedish actress (b.1905)
- April 17 - Ralph Abernathy, American civil rights leader (b. 1926)
- May 16 - Sammy Davis Jr., American actor, dancer, and singer (b. 1925)
- May 16 - Jim Henson, American puppeteer (b. 1936)
- June 3 - Stiv Bators, American singer (The Dead Boys) (b. 1949)
- June 22 - Ilya Frank, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908)
- July 7 - Bill Cullen, American game show host (b. 1920)
- July 18 - Yun Po Sun, President of South Korea (b. 1897)
- July 22 - Manuel Puig, Argentinian writer (b. 1932)
- August 17 - Pearl Bailey, American singer and actress (b. 1918)
- August 27 - Stevie Ray Vaughan, American guitarist (b. 1954)
- September 16 - Len Hutton, English cricketer (b. 1916)
- September 26 - Alberto Moravia, Italian novelist (b. 1907)
- September 30 - Patrick White, Australian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1912)
- October 13 - Le Duc Tho, Vietnamese general and politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1911)
- October 14 - Leonard Bernstein, American composer and conductor (b. 1918)
- November 17 - Robert Hofstadter, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1915)
- November 23 - Roald Dahl, English writer (b. 1916)
- December 2 - Aaron Copland, American composer (b. 1900)
- December 14 - Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss writer (b. 1921)
- December 16 - Douglas Campbell, American World War I flying ace (b. 1896)
Nobel Prizes
- Physics - Jerome Isaac Friedman, Henry Way Kendall, and Richard Edward Taylor
- Chemistry - Elias James Corey
- Physiology or Medicine - Joseph E. Murray, E. Donnall Thomas
- Literature - Octavio Paz
- Peace - Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, Derek Gooley
- Harry Markowitz, Merton Miller, William Sharpe
- Vladimir Drinfeld, Vaughan Frederick Randal Jones, Shigefumi Mori, Edward Witten
- Baba Amte (Joint Award)
- L. Charles Birch (Joint Award)
- Alice Tepper Marlin, Bernard Lédéa Ouedraogo, Felicia Langer and ATCC (Asociación de Trabajadores Campesinos del Carare)
Uncertain dates
For a brief while in early 1990, Romania had a civil war in the aftermath of the Romanian Revolution of 1989, the opposition was for Nicolae Ceauşescu and the Communist regime, and those for the new regime.
- New Revised Standard Version of the Bible is published in the United States.
- Metropolitan Aleksy of Leningrad elected Russian Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia.
- First Anglican female priests in the United Kingdom are ordained at St. Anne's Cathedral, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
- Robert Runcie announces resignation as Archbishop of Canterbury. George Carey succeeds him.
- Channel 7 + 10 networks go into receivership (Aus)
- Homosexual Acts between Consenting adults decriminalized in Queensland
- Beginnings of Trance music
- General continuation of 1980s-style pop culture as large events in 1991 and 1992 such as the Grunge movement start the Nineties pop cultural era
-
als:1990
ko:1990년
ja:1990年
simple:1990
th:พ.ศ. 2533
1993
1993 (MCMXCIII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003).
Events
January
Wikipedia:Categorization#Year categories.]]
- January 1 - Czechoslovakia divides. Establishment of independent Slovakia and Czech Republic.
- January 3 - In Moscow, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
- January 5 - Washington State executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the first legal hanging in America since 1965)
- January 9 – Jean-Claude Romand kills his family and tries to burn himself with his home in France
- January 11 - First edition of WWF Monday Night RAW appears on the USA Network
- January 15 - Salvatore Riina, the Mafia boss known as 'The Beast', is arrested in Sicily after three-decades as a fugitive
- January 18 - For the first time, Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is officially observed in all 50 American states.
- January 19
- IBM announces a $4.97 billion loss for 1992 which is the largest single-year corporate loss in United States history
- Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM inspectors to use its own aircraft to fly into Iraq, and begins military operations in the demilitarized zone between Iraq and Kuwait, and the northern No-Fly Zone. US forces fire approximately 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Baghdad factories linked to Iraq's illegal nuclear weapons program. Iraq then informs UNSCOM that it will be able to resume its flights
- January 20 - Bill Clinton succeeds George H. W. Bush as President of the United States of America
- January 25
- Catherine Callbeck becomes Premier of Prince Edward Island, becoming the first female Premier to be elected in Canada. (Rita Johnston was Canada's first female Premier but was not elected)
- Mir Aimal Kasi fires a rifle and kills two employees outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, USA
- January 26 - Václav Havel elected President of the Czech Republic
February
- February 8 - General Motors sues NBC after Dateline NBC allegedly rigged two crashes showing that some GM pickups can easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settles the lawsuit the following day.
- February 11
- Janet Reno is selected by President Clinton as US Attorney General.
- February 12 - 11-year-old boys Robert Thompson and John Venables kill 2-year-old James Bulger in Liverpool.
- February 17 - Ferry in Haiti sinks - 285 survivors of maybe 1500 passengers
- February 23 - Gary Coleman wins a $1,280,000 lawsuit against his parents.
- February 26 - World Trade Center bombing: In New York City, a van bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center goes off, killing 6 and injuring over a thousand.
- February 28 - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest cult leader David Koresh on federal firearms violations. Four agents and five Davidians die in the raid and a 51-day standoff begins.
March
- March - First issue of Wired magazine.
- March 4 - Authorities announce the capture of suspected World Trade Center bombing conspirator Mohammad Salameh
- March 9 - Rodney King testifies at the federal trial of four Los Angeles, California police officers accused of violating King's civil rights when they beat him during an arrest
- March 11 - Janet Reno is confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn-in the next day becoming the first female Attorney General of the United States
- March 12 - Several bombs explode in Bombay, India killing about 300 and injuring hundreds more. See Bombay bombings (1993)
- March 12 - North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea says that it plans to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and refuses to allow inspectors access to nuclear sites
- March 13 - The Great Blizzard of 1993 strikes the eastern U.S., bringing record snowfall and other severe weather all the way from Cuba to Québec
- March 16 - The blizzard is reported to have killed 184, including many surprised and stranded people along the Appalachian Trail
- March 20 - Warrington bomb attacks: IRA bomb explodes in Warrington Town Centre and kills two children, Johnathan Ball and Tim Parry
- March 27 - Jiang Zemin becomes President of the People's Republic of China.
- March 28 - Gaullists win legislative election in France and Édouard Balladur becomes prime minister of France.
- March 31 - A bug in a program written by Richard Depew sends an article to 200 newsgroups simultaneously. The term spamming is coined by Joel Furr to describe the incident.
April
- April - The Kuwaiti government claims to uncover an Iraqi assassination plot against former US President George H. W. Bush shortly after his visit to Kuwait. Two Iraqi nationals, caught with smuggled hashish and alcohol inside Kuwait, confess to driving a car-bomb into Kuwait on behalf of the Iraq Secret Service [http://www.newyorker.com/archive/content/?020930fr_archive02]
- April 6 - Russian nuclear accident at Tomsk 7
- April 6 - HMS Richmond launched for the Royal Navy
- April 7 - Attack submarine ex-Queenfish completes being recycled
- April 10 -ANC activist Chris Hani assassinated in South Africa
- April 22 - In Washington, DC, the Holocaust Memorial Museum is dedicated
- April 22 - Murder of Stephen Lawrence, London, UK
- April 23 - WHO declares tuberculosis a Global Emergency
- April 24 - Bishopsgate Bomb explodes in the City of London - 1 dead, 50 injured
- April 30 - The World Wide Web was born at CERN
May
- May 1 - Former prime minister of France Pierre Bérégovoy commits suicide
- May 1 - A Tamil Tigers suicide bomber assassinates President Ranasinghe Premadasa of Sri Lanka
- May 24 - Eritrean independence
- May 27 - A car bomb in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence - 5 dead - Mafia suspected
June
- June 6 - Mongolia holds its first direct presidential elections
- June 8 - Assassination of Rene Bousquet, the Vichy France police chief, at his Paris home
- June 9 – Los Angeles Police Department raids the home of Hollywood Madame Heidi Fleiss
- June 9 - Montreal Canadiens win their 24th Stanley Cup
- June 14? - Tansu Ciller becomes prime minister of Turkey
- June 18 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM weapons inspectors to install remote-controlled monitoring cameras at two missile engine test stands.
- June 22 - Japan's New Party Sakigake breaks away from the Liberal Democratic Party.
- June 23 - Lorena Bobbitt cuts off the penis of her husband John Wayne Bobbitt.
- July 23 - Candelaria massacre - police shoot number of street kids in Candelaria Church in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- June 8 - In Paris, Christian Didier breaks into the home of Rene Bousquet, banker and former Vichy France administrator and shoots him dead
- June 22 - Unabomber bomb injures Charles Epstein in Tiburon, California
- June 24 - Unabomber bomb injures computer scientist David Gelernter in Yale University
- June 25 - Kim Campbell becomes Canada's nineteenth and first female Prime Minister
- June 27 - US President Bill Clinton orders a cruise missile attack on Iraqi intelligence headquarters in the Al-Mansur District, Baghdad, in response to the attempted assassination of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush during his visit to Kuwait in mid-April
- June 27 - In Bad Kleinen, Germany, GSG-9 troopers arrest terrorists Birgit Hogefeld and Wolfgang Grams
July
- July 1 - Gian Luigi Ferry shoots 8 and injures 6 in "Pettit and Martin" law firm in San Francisco, then shoots himself
- July 5 - Iraq disarmament crisis: UN inspection teams leave Iraq. Iraq then agrees to UNSCOM demands and the inspection teams return
- July 12 - A magnitude 7.8 earthquake off Hokkaido, Japan launches a devastating tsunami, killing 202 on the small island of Okushiri, Hokkaido
- July 20 - White House deputy counsel Vincent W. Foster Jr commits suicide in Virginia
- July 23 - Candelaria Massacre ? Brazilian police officers kill 8 street kids in Rio de Janeiro
- July 29 - The Israeli Supreme Court acquits accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk of all charges and he is set free.
- July 31 - Windows NT 3.1 has been released with the support of NTFS file system.
August
- August 4 - A federal judge sentences LAPD officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 30 months in prison for violating motorist Rodney King's civil rights
- August 6 - Louis Freeh is confirmed by the United States Senate to be the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
- August 9 - King Albert II of Belgium is sworn into office nine days after the death of his brother, King Baudouin
- August 21 - NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Observer orbiter three days before the spacecraft is scheduled to enter orbit around Mars
September
Mars and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, with US President, Bill Clinton.]]
- September 13 - PLO leader Yasir Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin shake hands in Washington D.C., after signing a peace accord.
- September 13 - Norwegian parliamentary election, 1993
- September 23 - The IOC selects Sydney, Australia to host the 2000 Summer Olympics.
- September 29 - An earthquake centred on Killari, Maharashtra, India kills nearly 10,000 people.
October
- Polly Klaas is kidnapped at knifepoint from her home in Petaluma, California. She was later strangled by Richard Allen Davis
- October 3 - Large scale battle between US forces and local militia in Mogadishu, Somalia
- October 13 - Andreas Papandreou begins his second term as Prime Minister of Greece.
- October 25 - Jean Chrétien and his Liberal Party defeat the governing Progressive Conservative Party in the Canadian federal election.
- October - Internal Revenue Service of the United States granted full religious recognition and tax exemption to all Scientology Churches, missions and social betterment groups[http://www.religioustolerance.org/scientol1.htm].
November
- November 1 - The Maastricht Treaty activates, formally establishing the European Union
- November 4 - Jean Chrétien becomes Canada's twentieth Prime Minister.
- November 9 - The Stari Most, or Old Bridge of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, is destroyed by tank fire in the fights between Bosnian Croat and Bosnian Muslim forces.
- November 18 - In South Africa, 21 political parties approve a new constitution.
- November 20 - Savings and Loan scandal: The United States Senate Ethics Committee issues a stern censure of California senator Alan Cranston for his "dealings" with savings-and-loan executive Charles Keating.
- November 24 - In the United Kingdom, 11-year-olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables are convicted of the child murder of 2-year-old James Bulger of Liverpool (they were sentenced to "indefinite detention")
- November 28 - The Observer reveals a channel of communications has existed between the IRA and the British government, despite the government's persistent denials.
- November 30 - US President Bill Clinton signs the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (the Brady Bill) into law
December
- December 2 - Shuttle program: STS-61 - NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair an optical flaw in the Hubble Space Telescope.
- December 2 - War on Drugs: Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar is gunned down in Medellín when the police try to arrest him
- December 7 - Colin Ferguson opened fire with his Ruger 9mm pistol on a Long Island Railroad train, killing six and injuring 19. The event was dubbed "The Long Island Railroad Massacre."
- December 12 - Earthquake hits Flores, Indonesia - 2200 dead
- December 15 - Downing Street Declaration - United Kingdom commits itself to the search for an answer to the problems of Northern Ireland
- December 30 - Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations
Unknown dates
- The second World Parliament of Religions is held in Chicago, Illinois
- US President Bill Clinton sends 6 American warships to Haiti to enforce United Nations trade sanctions against the military-led regime in that country
- The Mississippi and Missouri Rivers flood large portions of the American Midwest.
- The Late Show with David Letterman premieres on CBS.
- Dominos Pizza Abolishes the 30-minute gaurantee on Pizza Delivery
Births
- March 17 - Julia Winter, Swedish actress
- April 3 - Dakoda Dowd, American golfer
- August 16 - Cameron Monaghan, American actor
- December 6 - Elián González, Cuban refugee
- December 8 - AnnaSophia Robb, American actress
Deaths
February
- February 5 - Joseph L. Mankiewicz, American writer, producer, and director (b. 1909)
- February 5 - Tip Tipping, American actor and stuntman (parachuting accident) (b. 1958)
- February 6 - Arthur Ashe, American tennis player and activist (b. 1943)
- February 11 - Robert W. Holley, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1922)
- February 18 - Jacqueline Hill, British actress (b. 1929)
- February 20 - Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian automobile manufacturer (b. 1916)
- February 24 - Bobby Moore, English footballer (b. 1941)
- February 27 - Lillian Gish, American actress (b. 1893)
- February 28 - Ruby Keeler, Canadian actress, singer, and dancer (b. 1910)
March
- March 8 - Billy Eckstine, American musician (b. 1914)
- March 11 - Adolph "Dino Bravo" Bresciano, Italian-born professional wrestler (b. 1949)
- March 17 - Helen Hayes, American actress (b. 1900)
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