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| Konrad Zuse |
Konrad ZuseKonrad Zuse (June 22, 1910 – December 18, 1995) was a German engineer and computer pioneer. His greatest achievement was the completion of the first functional tape-stored-program-controlled computer, the Z3, in 1941. In 1998 the Z3 was proven to be Turing-complete.
The Z3 is sometimes claimed to be "first computer" as such, though this depends on complex and subtle definitional issues, as the machine was not truly general-purpose in the manner of later machines (see the article of history of computing for a thorough discussion). Zuse also designed a high-level programming language, the Plankalkül, allegedly in 1945, although this was a theoretical contribution, since the language was never actually implemented within his lifetime and did not directly influence early implemented languages.
In addition to his technical work, Zuse founded the first computer startup company in 1946. This company built the Z4, which became the first commercial computer, leased to ETH Zürich in 1950. Due to the circumstances of World War II, however, Zuse's work initially went largely unnoticed in the UK and the US; possibly his first documented influence on a US company was IBM's 1946 option on his patents. In the late 1960s, Zuse suggested the concept of a Calculating Space (a computation-based universe).
There is a replica of the Z3, as well as the Z4, in the Deutsches Museum in Munich.
The Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin in Berlin devotes a special exhibition to Konrad Zuse and his works. Shown are twelve of his machines, including the replicated Z1, original documents, including the Plankalkül, and several of Zuse's paintings.
Pre-WWII work and the Z1
Born in Berlin, Germany, Zuse graduated in civil engineering from the Technische Hochschule Berlin-Charlottenburg (today the Technische Universität Berlin or Technical University of Berlin) in 1935. During his engineering studies, Zuse had to perform many routine calculations by hand, which he found mind-numbingly boring. This experience led him to dream about performing calculations by machine.
He started work at the Henschel aircraft factory in Dessau, but only one year later he resigned from his job to build a programmable machine.
Working in his parents' apartment in 1938, his first attempt, called the Z1, was a binary electrically driven mechanical calculator with limited programmability, reading instructions from punched tape. The Z1 never worked well, though, due to the lack of sufficiently precise parts. The Z1 and its original blueprints were destroyed during World War II.
The WWII years; the Z2, Z3, and Z4
World War II made it impossible and undesirable for Zuse and contemporary German computer scientists to work with similar scientists in the UK and the USA, or even to stay in contact. In 1939, Zuse was called for military service but was able to convince the army to let him return to building his computers. In 1940, he gained support from the Aerodynamische Versuchsanstalt (AVA, Aerodynamic Research Institute), which used his work for the production of glide bombs. Zuse built the Z2, a revised version of his machine, from telephone relays. The same year, he started a company, Zuse Apparatebau (Zuse Apparatus Engineering), to manufacture his programmable machines.
Satisfied with the function of the basic Z2 machine, he built the Z3 and completed it in 1941. It was a binary calculator featuring programmability with loops but without conditional jumps, with memory and a calculation unit based on telephone relays. Despite the absence of conditional jumps as convenient instructions, the Z3 was a Turing complete computer (ignoring the fact that no physical computer can be truly Turing complete due to limited storage size). However, its Turing-completeness was never envisioned by Zuse (who had practical applications in mind) and only proven in 1998 (see History of computing hardware).
Zuse never received the official support that computer pioneers in Allied countries, such as Alan Turing, managed to get. The telephone relays used in his machines were largely collected from discarded stock.
Zuse's company, together with the Z3, was destroyed in 1945 by an Allied attack. Fortunately, the partially finished, relay-based Z4 had been moved to a safe place earlier. Zuse designed a high-level programming language, the Plankalkül, allegedly from 1941 to 1945, although he did not publish it until 1972. No compiler or interpreter was available for Plankalkül until a team from the Free University of Berlin implemented it in 2000, five years after Zuse died.
Zuse the entrepreneur
In 1946 Zuse founded world's first computer startup company: the Zuse-Ingenieurbüro Hopferau. Venture capital was raised through ETH Zürich and an IBM option on Zuse's patents.
Zuse founded another company, Zuse KG, in 1949. The Z4 was finished and delivered to the ETH Zürich, Switzerland in September, 1950. At that time, it was the only working computer in continental Europe, and the first computer in the world to be sold, beating the Ferranti Mark I by five months and the UNIVAC I by ten months. Other computers, all numbered with a leading Z, were built by Zuse and his company. Notable are the Z11, which was sold to the optics industry and to universities, and the Z22, the first computer with a memory based on magnetic storage.
By 1967, the Zuse KG had built a total of 251 computers. Due to financial problems, it was then sold to the Siemens AG company.
Calculating Space; Z1 resurrection
In 1967 Zuse also suggested that the universe itself is running on a grid of computers (digital physics); in 1969 he published the book Rechnender Raum (translated by MIT into English as Calculating Space, 1970).
Since the publication of Stephen Wolfram's book A New Kind of Science, this idea has attracted a lot of attention, since there is no compelling physical evidence against Zuse's thesis. Critics of Wolfram's work claim that the fundamental ideas are essentially due to Zuse.
Between 1987 and 1989, Zuse recreated the Z1, suffering a heart-attack midway through the project. The final result had 30,000 components, cost 800,000 DM, and required four individuals (including Zuse) to assemble it. Funding for this retrocomputing project was provided by Siemens and a consortium of around five companies.
Zuse received several awards for his work. After he retired, he focused on his hobby, painting. Zuse died December 18, 1995 in Hünfeld, Germany, near Fulda.
References
- Zuse, Konrad (1993). The Computer – My Life. Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0387564535. (translated from the original German edition (1984): Der Computer – Mein Lebenswerk. Springer. ISBN 3-540-56292-3.)
See also
- Z1
- Z2
- Z3
- Z4
External links
- [http://www.epemag.com/zuse The Life and Work of Konrad Zuse] – By Prof. Horst Zuse (K. Zuse's son); an extensive and well written historical account
- [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Mathematicians/Zuse.html MacTutor biography]
- [http://www.zib.de/zuse/English_Version/index.html Konrad Zuse Internet Archive]
- [http://www.tu-berlin.de/ Technical University of Berlin]
- [http://www.fu-berlin.de/ Free University of Berlin]
- [http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Zuse.html Konrad Zuse]
- [http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/zuse.html Konrad Zuse, inventor of first working programmable computer]
- [http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/digitalphysics.html Zuse's thesis of digital physics and the computable universe]
- [http://www.dtmb.de/Aktuelles/Sonderausstellungen/Zuse_Ausstellung/index.html Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin]
- Computermuseum Kiel [http://www.museen-sh.de/ml/pi_485_0489AB_s2.html Z11]
- Computermuseum Kiel [http://www.museen-sh.de/ml/pi_485_0488ABCDEF_s2.html Z22]
- Computermuseum Kiel [http://www.museen-sh.de/ml/pi_485_0490ABCDEF_s2.html Z25]
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June 22
June 22 is the 173rd day of the year (174th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 192 days remaining.
Events
- 217 BC - Battle of Raphia: Ptolemy IV of Egypt defeats Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid kingdom
- 168 BC - Battle of Pydna: Romans under Lucius Aemilius Paullus defeat and capture Macedonian King Perseus, ending the Third Macedonian War
- 1593 - Battle of Sisak: Slovene - Croat troops defeat the Turks
- 1633 - The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo Galilei to recant his scientific view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe.
- 1825 - British Parliament abolishes feudalism and the seigneurial system in British North America.
- 1866 - Battle of Custoza: an Austrian army defeats the Italian army during the Austro-Prussian War.
- 1893 - The Royal Navy battleship HMS Camperdown accidentally rams the British Mediterranean Fleet flagship HMS Victoria which sinks taking 358 crew with her, including the fleet's commander, Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon.
- 1898 - Spanish-American War: United States Marines land in Cuba.
- 1911 - George V is crowned King of the United Kingdom, succeeding his father, Edward VII.
- 1937 - Camille Chautemps becomes Prime Minister of France
- 1940 - France forced to sign armistice with Nazi Germany.
- 1941 - Nazi Germany invades the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, one of the most dramatic turning points of World War II.
- 1941 - First Croatian anti-fascist armed unit (partisans) founded near Sisak, Croatia.
- 1941 - The Lithuanian 1941 independence begins
- 1944 - Opening day of the Soviet Union's Operation Bagration against Army Group Centre
- 1950 - The longship replica [http://web.telia.com/~u57013916/index.htm Ormen Friske], en route from Birka to Rotterdam, broke apart in the North Sea because of improper construction. All 15 crew members drowned.
- 1962 - An Air France Boeing 707 jet crashes in bad weather in Guadeloupe, West Indies killing 113
- 1963 - Pope Paul VI elected by College of Cardinals.
- 1976 - Canadian House of Commons abolishes capital punishment.
- 1978 - Charon, a satellite of the planet Pluto, is discovered.
- 1984 - William Schnoebelen and his wife Sharon are "saved" by a tract from Chick Publications. There is some debate over the reliability of this, however.
- 1986 - Argentine footballer Diego Maradona scored both the Hand of God goal and the Goal of the Century against England during the FIFA World Cup in Mexico City.
- 1986 - The All Jharkhand Students Union is founded, in order to fight for autonomy for tribal peoples in India.
- 1989 - Dublin City University and University of Limerick are established in Ireland.
- 1993 - Dr. Charles Epstein of Tiburon, California, USA is injured by a mail bomb sent by the Unabomber.
- 1996 - The Quake computer game is released.
- 2002 - An earthquake in western Iran measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale kills more than 261 people
- 2003 - The largest hailstone ever recorded falls from a thunderstorm in Aurora, Nebraska, USA.
- 2003 - Bill Clinton releases his memoirs, entitled My Life
Births
- 1680 - Ebenezer Erskine, Scottish religious dissenter (d. 1754)
- 1684 - Francesco Manfredini, Italian baroque composer (d. 1762)
- 1704 - John Taylor, English classical scholar (d. 1766)
- 1713 - Lord John Philip Sackville, English cricketer (d. 1765)
- 1757 - George Vancouver, British explorer (d. 1798)
- 1767 - Wilhelm von Humboldt, German philosopher and statesman (d. 1835)
- 1837 - Paul Morphy, American chess player (d. 1884)
- 1856 - H. Rider Haggard, English author (d. 1925)
- 1885 - Milan Vidmar, Slovenian engineer and chess player (d. 1962)
- 1887 - Julian Huxley, British biologist (d. 1975)
- 1897 - Norbert Elias, German sociologist (d. 1990)
- 1898 - Erich Maria Remarque, German writer (d. 1970)
- 1899 - Michał Kalecki, Polish economist
- 1903 - Carl Hubbell, baseball player (d. 1988)
- 1903 - John Dillinger, American bank robber (d. 1934)
- 1906 - Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American author and pilot (d. 2001)
- 1906 - Billy Wilder, Austrian-born director (d. 2002)
- 1910 - Peter Pears, English tenor (d. 1986)
- 1910 - Konrad Zuse, German engineer (d. 1995)
- 1920 - Paul Frees, American voice actor (d. 1986)
- 1921 - Joseph Papp, American director and producer (d. 1991)
- 1930 - Yuri Artyukhin, cosmonaut (d. 1998)
- 1930 - Charles Augustus Lindbergh III, son of Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, and murder victim (d. 1932)
- 1930 - John Joseph Scanlan, Irish-born Catholic prelate (d. 1997)
- 1933 - Dianne Feinstein, Mayor of San Francisco and U.S. Senator
- 1936 - Kris Kristofferson, American singer, songwriter, and actor
- 1936 - Hermeto Pascoal, Brazilian musician
- 1941 - Ed Bradley, American journalist
- 1943 - Brit Hume, American news anchor and commentator
- 1944 - Klaus Maria Brandauer, Austrian actor
- 1947 - David Lander, American actor and baseball scout
- 1948 - Todd Rundgren, American singer, songwriter, and record producer
- 1948 - Pete Maravich, American basketball player (d. 1988)
- 1949 - Meryl Streep, American actress
- 1949 - Lindsay Wagner, American actress
- 1949 - Alan Osmond, American singer
- 1952 - Graham Greene, Canadian actor
- 1953 - Cyndi Lauper, American singer
- 1954 - Freddie Prinze, American actor and comedian (d. 1977)
- 1958 - Bruce Campbell, American actor
- 1961 - Stephen Batchelor, British field hockey player
- 1964 - Dan Brown, American author
- 1964 - Dicky Barrett, American singer (Mighty Mighty Bosstones)
- 1966 - Michael Park, WRC co-pilot (d. 2005)
- 1968 - Zaw Moe Tun, Myanmar Programmer
- 1970 - Steven Page, Canadian singer (Barenaked Ladies)
- 1971 - Kurt Warner, American football player
- 1971 - Mary Lynn Rajskub, American actress
- 1973 - Carson Daly, American television personality
- 1978 - Champ Bailey, American football player
- 1978 - Dan Wheldon, American race car driver
Deaths
- 431 - Paulinus of Nola, Roman poet
- 1276 - Pope Innocent V
- 1429 - Ghiyath al-Kashi, Persian astronomer and mathematician (b. 1380)
- 1535 - John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester (executed)
- 1632 - James Whitelocke, English judge (b. 1570)
- 1634 - Johann Graf von Aldringen, Austrian soldier (b. 1588)
- 1699 - Josiah Child, English Governor of the East India Company (b. 1630)
- 1714 - Matthew Henry, English non-conformist minister (b. 1662)
- 1868 - Heber C. Kimball, American religious leader (b. 1801)
- 1905 - Francis Lubbock, Governor of Texas (b. 1815)
- 1928 - A. B. Frost, American illustrator (b. 1851)
- 1931 - Armand Fallières, French president (b. 1841)
- 1959 - Hermann Brill, German politician (b. 1895)
- 1965 - David O. Selznick, American film producer (b. 1902)
- 1969 - Judy Garland, American singer and actress (b. 1922)
- 1974 - Darius Milhaud, French composer (b. 1892)
- 1987 - Fred Astaire, American dancer and actor (b. 1899)
- 1988 - Dennis Day, American singer and actor (b. 1918)
- 1990 - Ilya Frank, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908)
- 1992 - Chuck Mitchell, American actor (b. 1927)
- 1993 - Pat Nixon, First Lady of the United States (b. 1912)
- 1995 - Al Hansen, American artist (b. 1927)
- 1997 - Gérard Pelletier, French journalist, politician, and diplomat (b. 1919)
- 2002 - Darryl Kile, baseball player (b. 1968)
- 2002 - Ann Landers, American columnist (b. 1918)
- 2004 - Mattie Stepanek, American poet (b. 1990)
- 2004 - Bob Bemer, computer scientist (b. 1920)
See also
- The 22 June song
External links
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/22 BBC: On This Day]
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June 21 - June 23 - May 22 - July 22 -- listing of all days
ko:6월 22일
ms:22 Jun
ja:6月22日
simple:June 22
th:22 มิถุนายน
December 18December 18 is the 352nd day of the year (353rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 13 days remaining.
Events
- 218 BC - Battle of the Trebia, Hannibal's first great victory over the Roman Republic.
- 1352 - Innocent VI is elected Pope.
- 1642 - Abel Tasman lands at Mohua Golden Bay becoming the first European in New Zealand.
- 1776 - North Carolina's Constitution is ratified.
- 1787 - New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the United States Constitution
- 1865 - Slavery is abolished in the United States, with the passing of the 13th Amendment
- 1894 - Women in South Australia become the first in Australia to gain the right to vote and to be elected to Parliament.
- 1912 - Piltdown Man is "discovered"
- 1916 - The Battle of Verdun ends in World War I
- 1926 - The Makropulos Affair, an opera by the Czech composer Leoš Janáček, premieres in Brno, the Czech Republic.
- 1958 - Niger becomes an autonomous state within the French Community on December 4, 1958, after the establishment of the Fifth French Republic. Following full independence on August 3, 1960, however, membership was allowed to lapse.
- 1961 - Indonesia invades New Guinea to annex western New Guinea, formerly known as Netherlands New Guinea.
- 1965 - Japan and South Korea begin formal relations
- 1966 - Saturn's moon Epimetheus is discovered by Richard L. Walker, and then lost for 12 years
- 1969 - Capital punishment is ended in the United Kingdom
- 1973 - The Soyuz 13 was launched.
- 1996 - "Ebonics" was declared a language or dialect by the outgoing school board of Oakland, California, whose vote was overturned by the incoming board.
- 1997 - HTML 4.0 is released by the World Wide Web Consortium
- 2001 - Fire damages a part of the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine--one of the world's largest houses of worship--in New York City.
- 2002 - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, the second film in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, opens in theaters.
- 2002 - California Governor Gray Davis announces that the state would face a record budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier; the budget issue was used to support his 2003 recall from office.
Births
- 1507 - Ouchi Yoshitaka, Japanese warlord (d. 1551)
- 1602 - Simonds d'Ewes, English antiquarian and politician (d. 1650)
- 1610 - Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange, French philologist (d. 1688)
- 1620 - Heinrich Roth, German Sanskrit scholar (d. 1668)
- 1626 - Queen Christina of Sweden (d. 1689)
- 1661 - Christopher Polhem, Swedish scientist and inventor (d. 1751)
- 1662 - James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry, Scottish politician (d. 1711)
- 1724 - Louise of Great Britain, queen of Frederick V of Denmark (d. 1751)
- 1725 - Johann Salomo Semler, German historian and Bible commentator (d. 1791)
- 1786 - Carl Maria von Weber, German composer (d. 1826)
- 1835 - Lyman Abbott, American author (d. 1922)
- 1847 - Augusta Holmès, French composer (d. 1903)
- 1856 - J.J. Thomson, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1940)
- 1863 - Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria (d. 1914)
- 1870 - Saki, British writer (d. 1916)
- 1873 - Francis Burton Harrison, American political figure (d. 1957)
- 1878 - Josef Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union (d. 1953)
- 1879 - Paul Klee, Swiss painter and graphic artist (d. 1940)
- 1886 - Ty Cobb, baseball player (d. 1961)
- 1888 - Robert Moses, American public works official (d. 1981)
- 1888 - Gladys Cooper, English actress (d. 1971)
- 1890 - Edwin Armstrong, American inventor (d. 1954)
- 1897 - Fletcher Henderson, American musician (d. 1952)
- 1904 - George Stevens, American director (d. 1975)
- 1912 - Benjamin O. Davis Jr., American general (d. 2002)
- 1913 - Alfred Bester, American author (d. 1987)
- 1913 - Willy Brandt, Chancellor of Germany, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1992)
- 1916 - Betty Grable, American actress (d. 1973)
- 1917 - Ossie Davis, American actor (d. 2005)
- 1927 - Ramsey Clark, U.S. Attorney General
- 1927 - Romeo LeBlanc, 25th Governor General of Canada
- 1928 - Józef Glemp, Polish cardinal
- 1934 - Boris Volynov, cosmonaut
- 1939 - Michael Moorcock, British author
- 1939 - Harold E. Varmus, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1943 - Keith Richards, British guitarist (the Rolling Stones)
- 1946 - Steven Spielberg, American film director
- 1946 - Steve Biko, South African anti-apartheid activist (d. 1977)
- 1948 - Bill Nelson, English musician and artist
- 1950 - Gillian Armstrong, Australian film director
- 1950 - Leonard Maltin, American film critic
- 1955 - Ray Liotta, American actor
- 1956 - Ron White, American comedian
- 1960 - Kazuhide Uekusa, Japanese economist
- 1961 - Brian Orser, Canadian figure skater
- 1963 - Karl Dorrell, American football coach
- 1963 - Brad Pitt, American actor
- 1964 - Steve Austin, American professional wrestler
- 1964 - Don Beebe, American football player
- 1970 - DMX, American rapper
- 1970 - Miles Marshall Lewis, American author
- 1970 - Cowboy Troy, American rapper
- 1971 - Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Spanish tennis player
- 1972 - DJ Lethal, American musician (Limp Bizkit)
- 1973 - Raymond Herrera, American drummer (Fear Factory)
- 1974 - Peter Boulware, American football player
- 1975 - Trish Stratus, Canadian professional wrestler
- 1975 - Masaki Sumitani, Japanese television performer
- 1976 - Koyuki, Japanese actress and model
- 1977 - Ryan Scott Ottney, American comic book writer
- 1978 - Katie Holmes, American actress
- 1980 - Christina Aguilera, American singer
- 1983 - Ryan Dowling, American musician (The Tipplin' Weigh)
- 1987 - Miki Ando, Japanese figure skater
Deaths
- 821 - Theodulf, Bishop of Orléans
- 1133 - Hildebert, French writer
- 1290 - King Magnus I of Sweden (b. 1240)
- 1442 - Pierre Cauchon, French Catholic bishop (b. 1371)
- 1495 - King Alphonso II of Naples (b. 1448)
- 1692 - Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff, German statesman (b. 1626)
- 1737 - Antonio Stradivari, Italian violin maker (b. 1644)
- 1787 - Francis William Drake, British admiral and Governor of Newfoundland (b. 1724)
- 1787 - Soame Jenyns, English writer (b. 1704)
- 1799 - Jean-Étienne Montucla, French mathematician (b. 1725)
- 1803 - Johann Gottfried Herder, German writer (b. 1744)
- 1843 - Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch, British Viceroy of India (b. 1748)
- 1848 - Bernard Bolzano, Czech mathematician and philosopher (b. 1781)
- 1869 - Louis Moreau Gottschalk, American composer and pianist (b. 1829)
- 1936 - Andrija Mohorovičić, Croatian seismologist (b. 1857)
- 1971 - Bobby Jones, American golfer (b. 1902)
- 1974 - Harry Hooper, baseball player (b. 1887)
- 1980 - Alexei Kosygin, Premier of the USSR (b. 1904)
- 1982 - Hans-Ulrich Rudel, German World War II pilot (b. 1916)
- 1990 - Paul Tortelier, French musician (b. 1914)
- 1991 - George Abecassis, English race car driver (b. 1913)
- 1992 - Mark Goodson, American game show producer (b. 1915)
- 1993 - Sam Wanamaker, American actor (b. 1919)
- 1994 - Roger Apéry, French mathematician (b. 1916)
- 1995 - Konrad Zuse, German engineer and computing pioneer (b. 1910)
- 1997 - Chris Farley, American actor and comedian (b. 1964)
- 1998 - Lev Demin, cosmonaut (b. 1926)
- 1999 - Robert Bresson, French film director (b. 1907)
- 2000 - Kirsty MacColl, British musician (b. 1959)
- 2001 - Gilbert Bécaud, French singer (b. 1927)
- 2002 - Ray Hnatyshyn, Governor-General of Canada (b. 1934)
- 2004 - Anthony Sampson, British journalist and biographer (b. 1926)
Holidays and observances
- Feast of Epona (during Saturnalia) - Roman Empire
- Republic Day in Niger (1958)
- International Migrants Day
External links
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/18 BBC: On This Day]
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December 17 - December 19 - November 18 - January 18 -- listing of all days
ko:12월 18일
ja:12月18日
th:18 ธันวาคม
1995
1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. It was the first year of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People (1995-2005): http://www.unesco.org/culture/indigenous/
Events
January
- January 1 - Austria, Finland and Sweden enter the European Union
- January 1 - Fred West, accused of mass murder, hangs himself in Winson Green Prison, Birmingham
- January 1 - World Trade Organization is established to replace GATT
- January 2 - Former President of Somalia, Siyad Barre died. He had been ousted in 1991.
- January 6-January 7 - A chemical fire occurs in an apartment complex in Manila, Philippines. Policemen led by watch commander Aida Fariscal and investigators find a bomb factory and a laptop computer and disks that contain plans for Project Bojinka, a mass-terrorist attack. The mastermind, Ramzi Yousef, is arrested one month later
- January 9 - Valeri Polyakov completes 366 days in space while aboard the Mir space station breaking a duration record
- January 17 - A magnitude 7.3 earthquake called "the Great Hanshin earthquake" occurs near Kōbe, Japan, causing great property damage and killing 6,433 people
- January 24 - The prosecution delivers its opening statement in the O. J. Simpson murder trial
- January 25 - The Norwegian Rocket Incident - A rocket launched from the space exploration centre at Andøya, Norway to study the Northern Lights, is mistaken by the Russians as a nuclear attack and the russian missile command is put into combat mode before realizing the misunderstanding.
- January 31 - United States President Bill Clinton invokes emergency powers to extend a $20 trillion loan to help Mexico avert financial collapse.
February
- February 9 - Dr. Bernard A. Harris, Jr. makes history as the first African American astronaut to walk in space.
- February 13 - United Nations tribunal on human rights violation in the Balkans charges 21 Bosnian Serb commanders with genocide and crimes against humanity
- February 15 - Hacking: Kevin Mitnick is arrested by the FBI and charged with breaking into some of the United States' most "secure" computers systems.
- February 17 - Colin Ferguson is convicted of six counts of murder for the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings and later receives a 200+ year sentence
- February 21 - Serkadji prison mutiny in Algeria; 4 guards and 96 prisoners killed in a day and a half.
- 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 23 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 30.28 to close at 4,003.33 -- The Dow's first ever close above 4,000.
- February 26 - The United Kingdom's oldest investment banking firm, Barings Bank collapses after a securities broker Nick Leeson has lost $1.4 billion by speculating on the Tokyo Stock Exchange
- February 27 - In Denver, Colorado, the old Stapleton Airport closes: it is replaced by a new Denver International Airport, the largest airport in the United States.
- February 28 - Members of the Group Patriot's Council are convicted in Minnesota for manufacturing ricin
March
- March 1 - Attack Submarine USS-Seahorse (now ex-Seahorse SSN-669) starts to be deactivated
- March 1 - Polish Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak resigns from parliament and is replaced by ex-communist Jozef Oleksy
- March 1 - Daniel Sleator announces his intentions to commercialize the Internet Chess Server (ICS) himself, renames it the Internet Chess Club, or ICC, and charges a yearly membership fee of $49 to howls of protest
- March 1 - Muntinlupa City, Philippines officially becomes a city.
- March 1 - In Moscow, Russian anti-corruption journalist Vladislav Listyev is killed by a gunman.
- March 2 - Nick Leeson is arrested for his role in the collapse of Barings Bank.
- March 3 - In Somalia, the United Nations peacekeeping mission ends.
- March 6 - Adrianus Jacobs, chairman of Internationale Nederlanden Groep NV announces that his company would buy bankrupt Barings PLC bank for a nominal prize
- March 14 - Astronaut Norman Thagard becomes the first American to ride to space on-board a Russian launch vehicle.
- March 20 - Terrorist incident: Members of the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult release sarin gas on five separate railway trains in Tokyo, killing 12 and injuring hundreds.
- March 22 - Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns after setting a record for 438 days in space. Also, the Schengen treaty comes into force.
- March 24 - For the first time in twenty six years, no British soldiers patrol the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
- March 30 - Police officer tries to assassinate Takaji Kunimatsu, chief of the National Police Agency of Japan
- March 31 - The president of Selena fan club, Yolanda Aldivar, kills the star in Corpus Christi, Texas
April
Corpus Christi, Texas
- April 19 - Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma city was bombed. 168 people, including 8 Federal Marshals and 19 children, were killed. Timothy McVeigh and one of his accomplices, Terry Nichols set off the bomb.
- April 24 - Unabomber bomb kills lobbyist Gilbert Murray in Sacramento, California
May
- May 7 - Jacques Chirac elected president of France.
- May 11 - In New York City, more than 170 countries decide to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.
- May 14 - The Dalai Lama proclaims 6-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the eleventh reincarnation of the Panchen Lama.
- May 16 - Japanese police besieges the headquarters of Aum Shinrikyo near Mount Fuji and arrest cult leader Shoko Asahara.
- May 16 - Jacques Chirac assumes the presidency of France.
- May 23 - Oklahoma City bombing: In Oklahoma City, the remains of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building are imploded.
- May 24 - AFC Ajax beat AC Milan 1-0 to win the Champions League.
- May 25 - Egan v. Canada - Supreme Court of Canada rules that sexual orientation is a prohibited grounds of discrimination under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
- May 27 - In Charlottesville, Virginia, actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition, ending his career.
- May 28 - Neftegorsk, Russia is hit by a 7.6 magnitude earthquake killing at least 2000 people (2/3rd of the towns population).
June
- June 1 - The busiest hurricane season in 62 years begins. (see 1995 Atlantic hurricane season).
-
- EarthBound is released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in the U.S.
- June 2 - United States Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady's F-16 is shot down over Bosnia while patrolling the NATO no-fly zone. O'Grady survives on bugs and grass until he is rescued.
- June 2 - SS captain Erich Priebke extradited from Argentina to Italy
- June 5 - Bose-Einstein condensate created.
- June 6 - U.S. astronuat Norman Thagard broke NASA's space endurance record of 14 days, one hour and 16 minutes, aboard the Russian space station Mir.
- June 8 - Downed U.S. Air Force pilot Captain Scott O'Grady is rescued by U.S. Marines in Bosnia.
- June 13 - French president Jacques Chirac announces the resumption of nuclear tests in French Polynesia.
- June 15 - While on trial for murder, O.J. Simpson put on a pair of gloves that were found soaked with blood at the murder scene. The gloves appear not to fit.
- June 20 - Oil multinational Shell caves in to international pressure and abandons plans to dump the Brent Spar oil rig at sea.
- June 22 - Japanese police rescues 365 hostages from a hijacked Nippon Airlines 747 at Hakodae airport. The hijacker was armed by a knife and demanded release of Shoko Asahara
- June 24 - The New Jersey Devils sweep the Detroit Red Wings in 4 games in the 1995 Stanley Cup Finals.
- June 29 - Lisa Clayton completes her 10-month solo circumnavigation from the northern hemisphere.
- June 29 - The Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian Mir space station for the first time.
- June 29 - The Sampoong Department Store collapses in the Seocho-gu district of Seoul, South Korea, killing 501 and injuring 937.
- Summer - Iraq disarmament crisis: According to UNSCOM, the unity of the UN Security Council begins to fray, as a few countries, particularly France and Russia, are starting to become increasingly more interested in making financial deals with Iraq than disarming the country.
July
Iraq
- Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq threatens to end all cooperation with UNSCOM and IAEA, if sanctions against the country are not lifted by Thursday, August 31, 1995
- Midwestern United States heat wave: An unprecedented heat wave strikes the Midwestern United States for most of the month. Temperatures exceed 104°F (40°C) in the afternoon in numerous cities for 5 straight days. At least 3000 people die, 750 in Chicago, Illinois alone.
- 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 - The UK Prime Minister, John Major, has won his battle to remain leader of the Conservative Party.
- July 8 - Volcanic eruption begins in the island of Montserrat
- July 11 - Bosnian Serbs march into Srebrenica while UN Dutch peacekeepers leave. Large numbers of Bosniak men and boys are killed in the Srebrenica massacre.
- July 13 - Dozens of cities, most notably Chicago, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, set all-time record high temperatures. Hundreds in these and other cities die as the July 1995 heat wave reaches its peak.
- July 17 - The Nasdaq Composite index closes above the 1,000 mark for the first time.
- July 18 - Fabio Casartelli, an Italian cyclist, dies in a crash during the Tour de France.
- July 21 - to July 26 - Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: The People's Liberation Army fires missiles into the waters north of Taiwan.
- July 27 - In Washington, DC, the Korean War Veterans Memorial is dedicated
- July 28 - Network Solutions announces a new policy to help companies protect their trademarks on the Internet.
- Iraq disarmament crisis: Following the defection of his son-in-law, Hussein Kamel al Majid, minister of industry and military industrialisation, Saddam Hussein makes new revelations about the full extent of Iraq's biological and nuclear weapons programs. Iraq also withdraws its last UN declaration of prohibited biological weapons and turns over a large amount of new documents on its WMD programs.
August
- Chrono Trigger is released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
- August 4 - Croatians launch Operation Storm against Serbian forces in Krajina and force them to withdraw to Bosnia
- August 5 - Croatian forces take Knin and continue to advance
- August 6 - Hundreds in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Washington, and Tokyo mark the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb.
- August 7 - Operation Storm over, UN-brokered ceasefire, remaining Serbian forces start a surrender
- August 9 - Netscape launches IPO. http://www.fortune.com/fortune/print/0,15935,1081456,00.html
- August 14 - Avalanche buries Alison Hargreaves, the first woman to climb Mt. Everest without oxygen - reported dead
- August 17 - 50th Indonesia Independence.
- August 24 - Microsoft releases Windows 95.
- August 28 - Serbian Mortar bomb near Sarajevo market square kills 37 civilians
- August 30 - NATO bombing campaign against Serb artillery positions begins in Bosnia - continues into October
September
- September - DVD, optical disc storage media format, is announced.
- September 2 - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opens in Cleveland, Ohio
- September 4 - The Fourth World Conference on Women opens in Beijing with over 4,750 delegates from 181 countries in attendance.
- September 6 - With the jury absent, Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman invokes his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in the murder trial of O. J. Simpson
- September 6 - NATO air strikes continue after repeated attempts at a solution with the Serbs fail
- September 26 - Trial against former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, accused of Mafia connections, begins.
- September 27-September 28 - night - Bob Denard's mercenaries capture president Said Mohammed Djohor of the Comoros. Local army does not resist
October
- October 1 - 10 people are found guilty for bombing the World Trade Center in 1993
- October 3 - O. J. Simpson is found not guilty of double murder for the deaths of former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. (He would be found liable in a second civil trial in 1996)
- October 4 - France launches a counter-coup in the Comoros with 600 soldiers. They arrest Bob Denard and his mercenaries and take Denard to France. Caabi el-Yachroutu becomes new interim president
- October 9 - An Amtrak Sunset Limited train is derailed by saboteurs near Palo Verde, Arizona.
- October 12 - black motorist Johnny Gammage dies of asphxyation after being stopped by police in the nearly all-white Pittsburgh suburb of Brentwood
- October 16 - The Million Man March is held in Washington D.C.. The event was conceived by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
- October 21 - Shannon Hoon, lead singer of Blind Melon, dies of a cocaine overdose while on tour.
- October 25 - A Metra commuter train slammed into a school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, killing seven students.
- October 30 - Quebec separatists narrowly lose a referendum for a mandate to negotiate independence from Canada
November
- November 1 - Participants of the Yugoslav War begin negotiations in Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, USA
- November 1 - the House voted to ban "partial birth" abortions by a vote of 288-139.
- November 2 - Supreme Court of Argentina orders extradition of Erich Priebke, ex-SS captain
- November 3 - At Arlington National Cemetery, US President Bill Clinton dedicates a memorial to the victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing
- November 4 - After attending a peace rally in Tel Aviv's Kings of Israel Square, Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin is mortally wounded by a right-wing Israeli gunman. (He later died on the operating table at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv)
- November 10 - Iraq disarmament crisis: With help from Israel and Jordan, UN inspector Ritter intercepts 240 Russian gyroscopes and accelerometers on their way to Iraq from Russia
- November 10 - In Nigeria, playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa along with eight others from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop) are hanged by government forces
- November 14 - A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress forces the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums and run most government offices with skeleton staff
- November 16 - UN tribunal charges Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić with genocide during the Bosnian War
- November 17 - Public Radio International's radio program This American Life broadcasts its first episode, "New Beginnings"
- November 21 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 40.46 to close at 5,023.55, its first close above 5,000. This makes the 1995 the first year where the Dow surpasses two millennium marks in a single year. It would do it again in 1997 and 1999.
- November 21 - Peace agreement about Bosnia
- November 22 - Rosemary West is sentenced for life of killing 10 women and girls, including her daughter and stepdaughter
- November 22 - Eilat, Israel, Egypt, and much of the North African Mediterranean is struck by the strongest earthquake in Israel's history - 7.2 mw. Curiously, within a week there is attempted historical revisionism downwards to 6.2 with Gulf of Aqaba architects and engineers holding the bag for alleged 'shoddy construction'. A 6.2 mw earthquake is only 1/100th the magnitude of a 7.2 quake.
- November 28 - Barcelona Treaty signed by 27 attending nations
- November 28 - US President Bill Clinton signs a highway bill that ends the federal 55 mph speed limit.
- November 30 - Javier Solana is made new NATO general secretary
December
- December 14 - The Dayton Peace Agreement signed in Paris.
- December 15 - The European Court of Justice rules that all EU football players have the right to a free transfer between European Union member states at the end of their contracts (see Bosman ruling)
- December 15 - Because of "quadruple-witching" option expiration, volume on the New York Stock Exchange hits 638 million shares, the highest single-day volume since October 20, 1987 when the Dow staged a stunning recovery a day after Black Monday.
- December 16 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi scuba divers, under the direction of UNSCOM, dredge the Tigris River near Baghdad. The divers find over 200 prohibited Russian made missile instruments and components.
- December 30 - The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C was recorded at Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands. This equalled the record set at Braemar, Aberdeenshire in 1895 and 1982.
- December 31 - The publication of the last new Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip.
- Republic of Texas (group) claim to form a provisional government in Texas.
Unknown dates
- The oldest flute, made by Neanderthal, was found by Dr. Ivan Turk in the cave Divje babe I in Slovenia. See: prehistoric music.
- The Ebola virus kills 244 Africans in Kikwit, Zaire in Central Africa.
- Creed (band) formed.
- Audi A4 automobile goes on sale as a 1996 model.
- Katherine Prescott elected president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Births
- May 12 - Jean Carlos Chera, Brazilian football prodigy
- May 12 - Sawyer Sweeten, American actor
- May 12 - Sullivan Sweeten, American actor
Deaths
January-February
- January 1 - Fred West, English serial killer (suicide) (b. 1941)
- January 1 - Eugene Wigner, Hungarian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
- January 7 - Murray Rothbard, American economist (b. 1926)
- January 9 - Peter Cook, English comedian and writer (b. 1937)
- January 18 - Adolf Butenandt, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
- January 18 - Ron Luciano, baseball umpire (b. 1937)
- January 22 - Rose Kennedy, American philanthropist (b. 1890)
- January 30 - Gerald Durrell British naturalist, zookeeper, author, and television presenter (b. 1925)
- January 31 - George Abbott, American writer, director, and producer (b. 1887)
- February 2 - Fred Perry, English tennis player (b. 1909)
- February 2 - Donald Pleasence, English actor (b. 1919)
- February 4 - Patricia Highsmith, American author (b. 1921)
- February 12 - Robert Bolt, English writer (b. 1924)
- February 22 - Melvin Franklin, American singer (b. 1942)
- February 23 - James Herriot, English veterinarian and author (b. 1916)
March-June
- March 3 - Howard W. Hunter, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1907)
- March 5 - Vivian Stanshall, English comedian, writer, artist, broadcaster, and musician (b. 1943)
- March 7 - Georges J.F. Kohler, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1946)
- March 12 - Juanin Clay, American actress (b. 1949)
- March 13 - Leon Day, baseball player (b. 1916)
- March 13 - Odette Sansom, French World War II heroine (b. 1912)
- March 14 - William Alfred Fowler, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
- March 26 - Eazy-E, American musician and record producer (b. 1964)
- March 27 - Maurizio Gucci, Italian businessman (murdered) (b. 1948)
- March 29 - Tony Lock, English cricketer (b. 1929)
- March 31 - Selena Quintanilla Perez, Mexican singer (b. 1971)
- April 2 - Harvey Penick, American golfer (b. 1904)
- April 10 - Morarji Desai, Indian politician (b. 1896)
- April 14 - Burl Ives American singer (b. 1909)
- April 23 - Howard Cosell, American sportscaster (b. 1918)
- April 25 - Ginger Rogers, American actress and dancer (b. 1911)
- May 5 - Mikhail Botvinnik, Russian chess player (b. 1911)
- May 8 - Teresa Teng, Taiwanese singer (b. 1953)
- May 14 - Christian B. Anfinsen, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1916)
- May 15 - Eric Porter, English actor (b. 1928)
- May 18 - Elisha Cook Jr., American actor (b. 1903)
- May 18 - Alexander Godunov, Russian-born ballet dancer and actor (b. 1949)
- May 18 - Elizabeth Montgomery, American actress (b. 1933)
- May 26 - Friz Freleng, American animator (b. 1905)
- May 30 - Ted Drake, English footballer (b. 1912)
- June 12 - Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Italian pianist (b. 1920)
- June 20 - Emil Cioran, Romanian philosopher and essayist (b. 1911)
- June 26 - Ernest Walton, Irish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
- June 30 - Georgi Beregovoi, cosmonaut (b. 1921)
July-December
- July 4 - Eva Gabor, Hungarian actress (b. 1919)
- July 5 - Takeo Fukuda, Japanese politician (b. 1905)
- July 17 - Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentine race car driver (b. 1911)
- July 24 - George Rodger, British photojournalist (b. 1908)
- August 3 - Edward Whittemore, American author and Central Intelligence agent (b. 1933)
- August 7 - Brigid Brophy, English author (b. 1929)
- August 9 - Jerry Garcia, American guitarist (Grateful Dead) (b. 1942)
- August 13 - Mickey Mantle, baseball player (b. 1931)
- August 19 - Pierre Schaeffer, French composer (b. 1910)
- August 21 - Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Indian-born astrophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
- August 29 - Michael Ende, German author (The Neverending Story) (b. 1929)
- August 30 - Sterling Morrison, American guitarist (The Velvet Underground) (b. 1942)
- September 13 - Tupac Shakur, American rapper and actor
- September 15 - Gunnar Nordahl, Swedish footballer (b. 1921)
- September 20 - Eileen Chang, Chinese writer (b. 1920)
- October 21 - Jesús Blasco, Spanish comic book author (b. 1919)
- October 26 - Gorni Kramer, Italian bandleader and songwriter
- November 4 - Gilles Deleuze, French philosopher (b. 1925)
- November 4 - Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (assassinated) (b. 1922)
- November 21 - Noel Jones, British diplomat (b. 1940)
- December 2 - Robertson Davies, Canadian novelist (b. 1913)
- December 10 - Darren "Buffy, the Human Beatbox" Robinson, American rapper (The Fat Boys) (b. 1967)
- December 22 - James Meade, English economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1907)
- December 25 - Dean Martin, American actor (b. 1917)
- December 30 - Doris Grau, American actress (b. 1924
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