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Eris Free Net
EFnet or Eris Free network (also written EFNet) is a major IRC network, with over 100,000 users. It is the modern-day descendant of the original IRC network.
Initially, most IRC servers formed a single network, to which new servers could join without restriction, but this was soon abused by people who set up servers to sabotage other users, channels or servers. When, in August 1990, server eris.berkeley.edu remained the only one to allow anyone to connect servers, IRC server operator Greg Lindahl broke away to start EFnet. The resulting argument split the IRC community of admins into EFnet and A-net, but A-net soon vanished, leaving EFnet as the only IRC network.
Continuing problems with performance and abuse eventually led to the rise of another major IRC network, Undernet, which split off in October 1992.
In July 1996, disagreement on policy caused EFnet to break in two: the slightly larger European half (including Australia and Japan) formed IRCnet, while the American servers continued as EFnet. This was widely known as the [http://www.irc.org/history_docs/TheGreatSplit.html Great Split].
EFnet is probably the least "unified" IRC network, with large variations in server rules and policy between different servers. It has no central administration authority.
There are three major regions on EFnet which each have their own policy structure. They are EU, CA, and US.
IRC clients can connect to EFnet via irc.efnet.us or any number of other servers.
In July 2001 a service called [http://www.efnet.org/chanfix/ CHANFIX] (originally named JUPES) was created, which is designed to give back ops to channels which have lost ops or been taken over. In the case of having no ops CHANFIX will automatically join the channel and op people who fit the requirements.
For a takeover, a request must be made for a manual activation of CHANFIX. Once connected to EFnet, you can find an IRCop with the command /stats p
EFnet Servers
United States of America
- irc.efnet.us - USA Round Robin
- irc.blackened.com - Phoenix, AZ - [http://www.limelightnetworks.com/ Limelight Networks]
- irc.blessed.net - San Jose, CA - [http://www.blessed.net/ Blessed Networks]
- irc.choopa.net - New York, NY - [http://www.choopa.com/ Choopa LLC]
- irc.colosolutions.com - Orlando, FL - [http://www.colosolutions.com/ ColoSolutions]
- irc.desync.com - Tampa, FL - [http://www.candidhosting.com/ Candid Hosting]
- irc.easynews.com - Phoenix, AZ - [http://www.easynews.com/ EasyNews]
- irc.he.net - Fremont, CA - [http://www.he.net/ Hurricane Electric]
- ircd.lagged.org - Ashburn, VA - [http://www.nlayer.net/ nLayer]
- irc.mindspring.com - Atlanta, GA - [http://www.earthlink.com/ Earthlink, Inc]
- irc.mzima.net - Los Angeles, CA - [http://www.mzima.net/ Mzima Networks]
- irc.nac.net - New York, NY - [http://www.nac.net/ Net Access Corporation]
- irc.prison.net - Sunnyvale, CA - [http://www.glbx.net/ Global Crossings]
- irc.ptptech.com - Ashburn, VA - [http://www.pulltheplug.com/ Pull the Plug]
- irc.servercentral.net - Chicago, IL - [http://www.servercentral.net/ ServerCentral]
- irc.umich.edu - Ann Arbor, MI - [http://www.umich.edu/ University of Michigan]
- irc.umn.edu - Minneapolis, MN - [http://www.umn.edu/ University of Minnesota]
- irc.wh.verio.net - Reston, VA - [http://www.verio.com/ NTT/Verio]
- irc.vel.net - Los Angeles, CA - [http://www.vel.net/ Velocity Networks]
Canada
- irc.efnet.ca - CA Round Robin
- irc.arcti.ca - Calgary, Alberta - [http://www.shaw.ca/ Shaw Cable]
- irc.dks.ca - Toronto, Ontario - [http://www.dks.ca/ DKS]
- irc.igs.ca - Toronto, Ontario - [http://www.ott.igs.net/ IGS]
- irc.kagmir.ca - Vancouver, BC - [http://www.shawbigpipe.com/ Big Pipe, Inc]
Europe
- irc.eu.efnet.info - EU Round Robin
- efnet.cs.hut.fi - Helsinki, FI - [http://www.hut.fi/ Helsinki University of Technology]
- efnet.demon.co.uk - London, UK - [http://www.demon.net/ Demon Internet]
- efnet.port80.se - Stockholm, SE - [http://www.port80.se/ Port80]
- efnet.xs4all.nl - Amsterdam, NL - [http://www.xs4all.nl/ Xs4All Internet]
- irc.ac.za - Capetown, South Africa - [http://www.tenet.ac.za/ Tenet]
- irc.dataphone.se - Stockholm, SE - [http://www.dataphone.net/ Dataphone]
- irc.daxnet.no - Oslo, NO - [http://www.tele2.no/ Tele2 Norway]
- irc.dkom.at - Vienna, AT - [http://www.telekom.at/ TeleKom Austria]
- irc.du.se - Borlange, SE - [http://www.du.se/ Dalarnas University]
- irc.efnet.fr - Paris, Fr - [http://www.bsocom.com/ BSO Communications]
- irc.efnet.nl - Ede, NL - [http://www.bit.nl/ Business Internet Trends]
- irc.efnet.no - Oslo, NO - [http://www.banetele.com/ BaneTele AS]
- irc.efnet.pl - Warsaw, PL - [http://www.atm.com.pl/atman ATMAN]
- irc.homelien.no - Oslo, NO - [http://www.powertech.no/ Powertech]
- irc.inet.tele.dk - Aarhus, DK - [http://www.tdc.dk/ Tele Denmark]
- irc.inter.net.il - Tel Aviv, IL - [http://www.inter.net.il/ Internet Zahav]
- irc.pte.hu - Pècs, Hungary - [http://www.pte.hu/ University of Pècs]
Only a handful of servers on EFnet support IPv6. They are:
- irc.choopa.net
- irc.homelien.no
- efnet.ipv6.xs4all.nl
- irc.efnet.nl
- efnet.ipv6.port80.se
- irc.ptptech.com
- irc.ipv6.inter.net.il
External links
- [http://www.efnet.org/ EFnet IRC Network] — Official Website
- [http://www.efnet.org/?module=servers EFnet Server list]
- [http://map.efnet.org/ EFnet Network routing map]
- [http://chat.efnet.org/ EFnet Webchat portal]
- [http://forum.efnet.org/ EFnet Discussion forums]
Category:IRC networks
Internet Relay Chat:IRC redirects here. For other uses, see IRC (disambiguation). A list of Wikipedia's own IRC channels can be found here.
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of instant communication over the Internet. It is mainly designed for group (many-to-many) communication in discussion forums called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication.
IRC was created by Jarkko Oikarinen (nickname "WiZ") in late August 1988 to replace a program called MUT (MultiUser talk) on a BBS called OuluBox in Finland. Oikarinen found inspiration in Bitnet Relay Chat which operated on the Bitnet network.
IRC gained prominence when it was used to report on the Soviet coup attempt of 1991 throughout a media blackout. It was later used in a similar fashion by Kuwaitis during the Iraqi invasion.
Technical information
IRC is an open protocol that uses TCP and optionally SSL. An IRC server can connect to other IRC servers to expand the IRC network. Users access IRC networks by connecting a client to a server. There are many client and server implementations. Most IRC servers do not require users to log in, but a user will have to set a nickname before being connected .
IRC is a plaintext protocol,which means that it is fully possible (though quite inconvenient) to use IRC via a basic byte-stream client such as netcat or telnet. However, the protocol only uses a slightly modified version of ASCII, and does not originally provide any support for non-ASCII characters in text, with the result that many different, incompatible character encodings (such as ISO 8859-1 and UTF-8) are used.
Because most IRC implementations use an acyclic graph as their connection model, there is no redundancy, and outage of a server or a link can cause a netsplit.
Evolution
All client-to-server IRC protocols in use today are descended from the protocol implemented in the irc2.8 version of the IRC2server, and documented in RFC 1459. Since RFC 1459 was published, the new features in the irc2.10 implementation led to the publication of several revised protocol documents; RFC 2810, RFC 2811, RFC 2812 and RFC 2813, however these protocol changes have not been widely adopted among other implementations. IRC 2.10 is most widely used on the IRCnet network. The IRC protocol was extended by Microsoft in 1998 via its IRCX protocol that solves many of the traditional problems that legacy IRC networks faced, along with some features that most users felt were 'ahead of its time'. Although many specifications on the IRC protocol have been published, there is no official specification, as the protocol remains dynamic. Virtually no clients and very few servers rely strictly on the above RFCs as a reference.
While the client-to-server protocols are at least functionally similar, server-to-server protocols differ widely (TS5, P10, and ND/CD are several widely-used and incompatible server protocols), making it very difficult to "link" two separate implementations of the IRC server. Some "bridge" servers do exist, to allow linking of, for example, 2.10 servers to TS5 servers, but these are often accompanied with restrictions of which parts of each protocol may be used, and are not widely deployed.
In its first incarnations, IRC did not have many features that are taken for granted today, such as named channels and channel operators. Channels were numbered -- channel 4 and channel 57, for example -- and the channel topic described the kind of conversation that took place in the channel. One holdover of this is that joining channel 0 causes a client to leave all the channels it is presently on: "CHANNEL 0" being the original command to leave the current channel.
The first major change to IRC, in version 2.5, was to add named channels -- "+channels". "+channels" were later replaced with "#channels" in version 2.7, numeric channels were removed entirely and channel bans (mode +b) were implemented. irc2.8 added "&channels" (those that exist only on the current server, rather than the entire network) and "!channels" (those that are theoretically safe from suffering from the many ways that a user could exploit a channel by "riding a netsplit"), and is the baseline release from which nearly all current implementations are derived.
Significant releases based on 2.8 include:
- 2.8.21+CS, developed by Comstud
- 2.8+th, Taner's patchset, which later became
- 2.8/hybrid, originally developed by Jon Lusky (Rodder) and Diane Bruce (Dianora), later joined by a large development team.
- 2.9, 2.10, 2.11, ... continue the development of the original codebase, mainly for use on the IRCnet network. This development line produced the 4 IRC RFCs released after RFC 1459, which document this server protocol exclusively.
2.8.21+CS and 2.8/hybrid continue to be used on EFnet, with ircd-ratbox (an offshoot of 2.8/hybrid) as of 2004 being the most popular.
Undernet's IRC server, ircu, is one of the few servers not descended from irc2.8 that are based on the original ircd; it was forked from the irc2.7 codebase.
Many modern IRC servers have been coded from scratch, such as csircd (also from Comstud), ConferenceRoom, Microsoft Exchange Chat Service, and IRCPlus/IRCXPro.
Channels and Modes
The basic means of communication in an established IRC session is a channel. You can see all the channels in a server using the command /list [#string] [-min #] [-max #] that lists all currently available channels, optionally filtering for parameters (#string for the entire or part of the name, with wildcards, and #min / #max for number of users in the channel).
Users can join to channels (using the command /join #channelname) and then send messages to it, which are then relayed to all other users in the same channel. Channels which are available across an entire IRC network are prepended with a '#', while those local to a server use '&'. Other (non-standard) channel types include '+' channels—'modeless' channels without operators, and '!' channels, a form of timestamped channel on normally non-timestamped networks.
Both users and channels may have modes, which are some kind of attributes or switches. Modes are abbreviated by single letters so you can string them together concisely. An example for an user mode is 'i', which stands for invisible. (You cannot tell whether or not an invisible user is on a channel unless you join that channel or use the whois command on its nick.) A simple channel-mode example is 'm' (moderated), specifying that only 'voiced' users and channel operators are allowed to speak on the channel. This, along with 'k' (keyed - requires a password to join the channel) and 'i' (invite-only - requires an invitation from a channel operator) modes can be used to keep abuse out of the channel.
There are five types of channelmodes, four of which will accept an argument, type A accepting an argument to add/remove values from a list (such as 'b'), type B accepting an argument that is used when turning the mode 'on' and 'off' (such as 'k'), type C accepting an argument only when the mode is turned 'on' (such as 'l'), type D which accepts no arguments and is simply a boolean flag (such as 'm', 'n', and 't'), and type E (usually called 'class' or 'prefix' modes) that give/take a privilege from a user on a channel (such as 'o').
Type E modes (channel classes) specify which users on a channel have privileges, and what level of those privileges they have. Originally only 'channel operator' (mode 'o') and 'voice' (mode 'v') existed. Channel operator (usually abbreviated chanop or simply 'op') privileges allow a user to kick users, set modes, and change the topic if the channel is '+t'. Voice privileges allow a user to speak on a channel if it is moderated (mode 'm'). Additions to these classes are 'channel owner' (mode 'q') created by Microsoft in its IRCX implementation (and later used by UnrealIrcd); 'half-operator' (mode 'h') which is similar to a chanop, except they cannot set certain modes and can only kick normal users; 'protected' (mode 'a'); 'administrator' (mode 'a' or 'u'); and many more.
Each channel class has an associated prefix that is shown beside a user's nickname whenever associated with that channel. The most common prefixes are '@' for channel operator, '+' for voice, '%' for half-op, '.' or '~' for channel owner, '&' for protected user, '!' or '
- ' for administrator.
Unless the channel is moderated, the only effect of +v (voice) is the plus sign appearing beside the nick name. On many channels this is used to indicate seniority or regularity of use, or a kind of "trusted user" flag in case the channel does have to be moderated.
Most IRC networks feature a lot of extra modes not specified in any RFC document. This is a very simple feat for clients to adapt to since a list of all the valid user and channelmodes are sent to clients in the RPL_MYINFO reply upon logon. In addition, the list of channelmodes (and what type of arguments they accept), and the prefixes for class modes are specified in the protocol control reply (RPL_PROTOCTL or 005) sent from most IRC servers when a client connects. This message is used to tell clients what features the server supports, and what its limits are (for example, the maximum number of users you can have on your notify list, or the maximum length of your nickname).
There are also users whose privileges extend to whole servers or networks of servers; these are called IRC Operators. On some IRC implementations, IRC operators are also given channel operator status in every channel, although many people believe that administration of channels and administration of the network should be kept separate, and that IRC operator status does not confer the right to interfere with a particular channel's operation.
Because IRC connections are unencrypted and typically span long time periods, they are an attractive target for malicious hackers. Because of this, careful security policy is necessary to ensure that an IRC network is not susceptible to an attack such as an IRC takeover war. IRC networks also k-line or g-line users or networks that tend to have a harming effect.
IRC served as an early laboratory for many kinds of Internet attacks, such as using fake ICMP unreachable messages to break TCP-based IRC connections ("nuking") to annoy users or facilitate takeovers.
Abuse prevention: timestamping vs. nick/channel delay protocol
One of the most contentious technical issues surrounding IRC implementations, which survives to this day, is the merit of "Nick/Channel Delay" vs. "TimeStamp" protocols. Both methods exist to solve the problem of denial-of-service attacks, but take very different approaches.
The problem with the original IRC protocol as implemented was that when two servers split and rejoined, the two sides of the network would simply merge their channels. If a user could join on a "split" server, where a channel which existed on the other side of the network was empty, and gain operator status, they would become a channel operator of the "combined" channel after the netsplit ended; if a user took a nickname which existed on the other side of the network, the server would kill both users when rejoining.
This was often abused to "mass-kill" all users on a channel, thus creating "opless" channels: where no operators were present to deal with abuse. Apart from causing problems within IRC, this encouraged people to conduct denial of service attacks against IRC servers in order to cause netsplits, which they would then abuse.
Nick/channel delay
The nick/channel delay (abbreviated ND/CD) solution to this problem was very simple. After a user signed off and the nickname became available, or a channel ceased to exist because all its users left (as often happens during a netsplit), the server would not allow any user to use that nickname or join that channel, respectively, until a certain period of time (the delay) had passed. The idea behind this was that even if a netsplit occurred, it was useless to an abuser because they could not take the nickname or gain operator status on a channel, and thus no collision of a nickname or 'merging' of a channel could occur. To some extent, this inconvenienced legitimate users, who might be forced to briefly use a different name (appending an underscore was popular) after rejoining.
Timestamping
The alternative, the timestamp or TS protocol, took a different approach. Every nickname and channel on the network was assigned a timestamp -- the date and time when it was created. When a netsplit occurred, two users on each side were free to use the same nickname or channel, but when the two sides were joined, only one could survive. In the case of nicknames, the newer user, according to their TS, was killed; when a channel collided, the members (users on the channel) were merged, but the channel operators on the "losing" side of the split were de-opped.
TS is a much more complicated protocol than ND/CD, both in design and implementation, and despite having gone through several revisions, some implementations still have problems with "desyncs" (where two servers on the same network disagree about the current state of the network), and allowing too much leniency in what was allowed by the 'losing' side. Under the original TS protocols, for example, there was no protection against users setting bans or other modes in the losing channel which would then be merged when the split rejoined, even though the users who had set those modes were no longer opped. Some modern TS-based IRC servers have also incorporated some form of ND and/or CD in addition to timestamping in an attempt to further curb abuse.
There is not, and likely never will be, a consensus on timestamping vs. delay; however most networks today use the timestamping approach. It was part of the issues and disagreements which caused several servers to split away from EFnet and form the newer IRCnet (EFnet after the split moving to a TS protocol, and IRCnet using ND/CD), and supporters on both sides were known for heated arguments regarding the merits of their solution.
Networks and URLs
Today there are several thousand running IRC networks in the world. They run various implementations of IRC servers, and are administered by various groups of IRC Operators, but the protocol exposed to IRC users is very similar, and all IRC networks can be accessed by the same client software.
You can join to servers clicking in a irc://irc.server.net:port/channel web link.
The largest IRC networks have traditionally been grouped in The Big Four — a designation for networks that top the statistics. Currently this includes four networks regularly frequented by around or over one hundred thousand clients, namely:
- EFnet
- IRCnet
- QuakeNet
- Undernet
Other large networks include:
- Aitvaras
- Beirut_IRC
- DALnet (once held QuakeNet's seat, before a series of DDoS attacks)
- Enter The Game
- Freenode
- IRCHighway
- GameSurge
- LinkNet
- Rizon
- IRC-Hispano
- OFTC
- ShellsNet
Smaller networks are another great place for users to chat (especially gamers). These include:
- SGN IRC
- WorldGamers
For network statistics, rankings, and a list of smaller networks, see [http://irc.netsplit.de/networks/ netsplit.de] and [http://searchirc.com/networks Search IRC]. For other articles on IRC networks, see :Category:IRC networks.
Clients
:See list of IRC clients for more detail.
mIRC is widely believed to be the most popular IRC client on Windows based systems. However with the recent introduction of clients such as VortecIrc, IceChat, Besirc, JIrc, Kv-IRC, Trillian and X-Chat; mIRC is beginning to see some competition. Many people still use mIRC because there more scripts available for this client and they don't know any better. ircII is the canonical Unix IRC client, but its userbase has declined with the appearance of competing clients such as ircII-EPIC, BitchX, irssi, X-Chat, ScrollZ etc.
A framework designed to incorporate IRC into various other applications, such as games, is LibIRC, although it is still heavily under development.
For Mac OS X, the most widely-used client is Ircle. Other clients include [http://colloquy.info/ Colloquy]. It can also run most Unix-like command line and X11 IRC clients.
ChatZilla is the Mozilla IRC client.
Opera has a built-in IRC client.
Bots
There are also many automated clients, called bots. The first bot was written by Greg Lindahl and provided moderation for the game of Wumpus, but most modern bots are usually used to exercise operator privileges (controlling channels and acting quickly in case of abuse), to annoy other users (perhaps by spamming them with lots of messages), to answer repetitive user questions and provide help when channels are not attended, or serve as permanent points of contact for information exchange (an answering machine, file transfer, etc.). The most popular IRC bots today are Eggdrop and EnergyMech.
More recently, bots have been written using the mIRC client's built-in scripting language.
The modern IRC services are implemented via bots. They're often used in channel maintenance: banning users, keeping a list of operators, keeping the channel topic, etc.
Bouncer
A program that runs as a daemon on a server and functions as a persistent proxy is known as a bouncer. A bouncer's purpose is to maintain a connection to an IRC server, acting as a relay between it and the connecting client. Should the client lose network connectivity, the bouncer will archive all traffic for later delivery, allowing the user to resume his IRC session without externally perceptible disruption. Two of the most popular bouncers are [http://mind.riot.org/muh/ muh] and [http://www.psybnc.info/ psyBNC]. Muh is exclusively for single user connections, while psyBNC supports multiple users. Another feature-rich bouncer is [http://znc.sourceforge.net ZNC].
Modern IRC
IRC has changed much over its life on the Internet. New server software has added a multitude of new features.
- Services: Network-operated bots to facilitate registration of nicknames and channels, sending messages for offline users and network operator functions.
- Extra Modes: While the original IRC system used a set of standard user and channel modes, new servers add many new modes for such features as removing color codes from text, or obscuring a user's hostmask ("cloaking") to protect from denial of service attacks.
- Proxy Detection: Most modern servers support detection of users attempting to connect through an insecure (misconfigured or exploited) proxy, which can then be denied a connection. An example is the [http://www.blitzed.org/proxy Blitzed Open Proxy Monitor] or BOPM, used by several networks.
- Additional Commands: New commands can be such things as shorthand commands to issue commands to Services, to network operator only commands to manipulate a user's hostmask.
- Encryption: For the client-to-server leg of the connection SSL might be used (messages cease to be secure once they are relayed to other users on standard connections, but it makes eavesdropping on or wiretapping an individual's IRC sessions difficult). For client-to-client communication, SDCC (secure DCC) can be used.
- Ident: Provides identification to the IRC server.
- Connection Protocol: IRC can be connected to via IPv4, the current standard version of the Internet Protocol, or by IPv6, the next-generation version of the Protocol.
Forms of abuse
Like any network open to the public, people with malicious intent can often be found on IRC networks. These people commonly utilize the following tactics:
- Denial of service attacks and netsplit abuses, described above.
- Responding to requests for help with potentially harmful instructions, such as
:
- format C: /Y (reformats hard drive in Windows)
:
- rm -rf / (wipes a Unix/Linux system)
:
- Ctrl+Alt+Delete twice (forces a reboot in earlier versions of Windows)
:
- Alt+F4 (closes current program in Windows)
:
- Alt+Z (closes the current channel window in mIRC, a popular IRC client)
- Attempting to trick users into typing commands that will cause them to quit the server. For example: "Two friends are sitting in a garden: /exit and /quit. /exit walks away, who is left?"
- Advertising channels that end in ",0" (such as #0,0). Attempting to join will cause clients to part all channels. This is because a single /join request can join multiple channels separated by commas, and /join 0 is used as a shortcut for clients to part all channels.
File sharing
Using scripts like [http://www.sysreset.com Sysreset], [http://upp.monkey-pirate.com/ UPP] and [http://www.polaris-central.com Polaris] users can create file servers that allow them to share files with others. In addition to the normal pros and cons of file-sharing (see Copyright infringement of software), there are also groups that set up anime fansubbing networks, allowing American audiences to see anime that would normally be unavailable in English and outside of Japan.
Due to the large amount of people who use IRC solely for file sharing, some think of IRC as a form of P2P file sharing (along with the client mIRC). Conversely, many users try to defeat this view by persistently discouraging it or refusing to help with it. Technically, IRC is not for file sharing, although it does posess some advanced file transfer mechanisms which, most importantly, support resuming.
The creator of mIRC and other clients such as VortecIrc do not in any way support the piracy of electronic material. The file transfer mechanisms are used to share one's own materials. Many servers and channels will ban users sharing licensed materials.
However, IRC-based "DCC" transfers should not be considered to be P2P, as the download source is from one, single, individual; typically an "XDCC" bot or another user. While there is much legitimate material on IRC for download, there is also a strong background of "warez", the sharing of illegal or copyrighted material.
See also
- Bash.org
- qdb.us
- BBS
- Chat
- Chat room
- Depot channel
- Direct Client-to-Client
- Idle RPG - A role playing game for IRC
- Instant messaging
- IRC floods
- IRC Services
- By service:
- ChanServ
- NickServ
- MemoServ
- OperServ
- Services daemons:
- Anope
- Epona
- IRC commands
- IRCX
- Internet forum
- List of smiley codes
- List of IRC commands
- List of IRC clients
- Multicast - IRC is one of the few technologies equipped with a real one-to-many strategy.
- Online chat
- PalTalk
- Peer-to-peer
- Promising alternatives to IRC
- PSYC
- SILC (protocol)
- XDCC
- Shell Account
External links
- [http://www.mirc.com/mirclink.html Chat Links; From Web to IRC using irc://].
- [http://www.mirc.com/cmds.html Irc commands].
- [http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1459.html RFC 1459 - IRC Protocol].
- [http://www.irc.org IRC.org - Technical and Historical IRC6 information]
- [http://daniel.haxx.se/irchistory.html History of IRC summarized by Daniel Stenberg]
- [http://www.mirc.com/servers.html mIRC server list, most of the larger IRC networks]
- [http://irc.netsplit.de/ Andreas Gelhausen's extensive IRC statistics]
- [http://irc.alien.net.au/chanmodes.html List of channel modes that various IRC Daemons use]
- [http://www.irchelp.org Large archive of IRC-related documents, somewhat EFNet biased]
- [http://searchirc.com/whois/ cross network whois search] at [http://searchirc.com/ Search IRC, an IRC search engine]
- [http://www.efnet.org/ EFnet IRC] The Original IRC Network
- [http://www.ircimages.com/ Raw images spidered from IRC channels]
- [http://www.irc-news.com/ IRC News] From Various RSS Feeds
- [http://www.irc-junkie.org/ IRC Junkie - IRC news]
- [http://www.irchelp.org/ IRC Help - Learning the basics of IRC, including netiquette]
- [http://www.ircbeginner.com/ IRC beginner].
- [http://irc.alien.net.au/ An extensive list of different numerics and modes used by various IRC networks]
- [http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1459.html Technical Information about the IRC Protocol]
- [http://www.fredlwm.hpg.ig.com.br/documentation/IRC-mini-HOWTO/ Linux IRC mini-HOWTO]
- [http://www.reseaux-irc.com/ Reseaux-IRC.com - French non-profit IRC monitoring project]
- [http://www.xchat.org/ XCHAT.org - Popular client for
- nix and more recently, Windows.]
- [http://www.linuxirc.com/ LinuxIRC.com - Linux IRC]
-
ko:IRC
ms:IRC
ja:インターネット・リレー・チャット
simple:IRC
th:ไออาร์ซี
Undernet
The Undernet is one of the largest IRC networks. It was established in October 1992 as an experimental network running a modified version of the EFnet irc2.7 IRC server software, created in an attempt to make it less bandwidth consumptive and less chaotic, as netsplits and takeovers were starting to plague EFnet.
Undernet was formed at a time when many small IRC networks were being started and subsequently disappearing; however, it managed to grow into one of the largest and oldest IRC networks despite some initial in-fighting and setbacks. It is notable as being the first network to utilise timestamping in the IRC server protocol as a means to curb abuse.
Perhaps as a backlash against its "breakway" from EFnet, during the mid 1990s Undernet managed to develop a reputation — which its members vehemently state was undeserved — as a haven for online criminals, pedophiles, and child molestors. For a period in 1994, Undernet was wracked by an ongoing series of flame wars and slanderous attacks by members of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church. Undernet survived this period relatively intact, however, and its popularity continues to the present day.
Undernet is one of the largest realtime chat networks in the world, with approximately 45 servers connecting over 35 countries and serving more than 1 000 000 people weekly. The userbase spans all ages, nationalities and interests, providing a tremendous variety of channels, with many staff and volunteers to help out new users.
Undernet provides several support channels for those new to IRC and Undernet, for example #beginner and #newbies.
IRC clients can connect to Undernet via continental aliases such as us.undernet.org or eu.undernet.org, or any of a number of other servers.
External links
- [http://www.undernet.org/ Undernet Homepage]
- [http://cservice.undernet.org/ Undernet Channel Service]
- [http://coder-com.undernet.org/ Undernet Coder Committee]
- [http://routing-com.undernet.org/ Undernet Routing Committee]
- [http://dmsetup.org/ Free Malware Assistance]
- [http://help.undernet.org/ General IRC Help]
Category:IRC networks
1992
1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday.
Events
January
- January 1 - Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General
- January 1 - George H. W. Bush becomes the first President of the United States to address the Australian Parliament.
- January 8 - Bosnian Serbs declare their own republic within Bosnia-Herzegovina in protest to the decision by Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats to seek EC recognition.
- January 8 - George H. W. Bush falls violently ill in the presence of the Prime Minister of Japan.
- January 11 - Paul Simon is the first major artist to tour South Africa after the end of the cultural boycott.
- January 12 - The second round of Algeria's general elections is cancelled when the first round is favorable to the Islamic Salvation Front.
- January 13 - Japan apologizes for forcing Korean women into sexual slavery during World War II.
- January 13 - Jeffrey Dahmer pleads guilty but insane to the murders of 15 young men and boys.
- January 15 - The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ceases to exist. Slovenia and Croatia gain independence.
- January 16 - El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign a pact in Mexico City that ends a 12 year civil war that claimed at least 75,000.
- January 22 - Rebel forces occupy Zaire's national radio station in Kinshasa and broadcast a demand for the government's resignation
- January 22 - STS-42: Dr. Roberta Bondar becomes the first Canadian woman in space.
- January 26 - Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia is going to stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons.
February
- February 1 - Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal court declares Warren Anderson, ex-CEO of Union Carbide a fugitive under Indian law for failing to appear in the Bhopal Disaster case, and orders the Indian government to press for an extradition from United States
- February 7 - Signing of the Maastricht treaty, which founded the European Union.
- February 10 - In Indianapolis, Indiana boxer Mike Tyson is convicted of raping a Miss Black America contestant named Desiree Washington
- February 11 - F-16 jet crashes into a residential district of Hengelo, the Netherlands. No casualties are reported.
- February 17 - A court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin sentences Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer to life in prison
- February 18 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The Executive Chairman of UNSCOM details Iraq's refusal to abide by UN Security Council disarmament resolutions.
- February 20 - The English FA Premier League was officially formed
- February 21 - United Nations Security Council approves Resolution 743 and decides to send UNPROFOR peacekeeping force to Yugoslavia
- February 26 - Supreme Court of Ireland rules that a 14-year-old rape victim may travel to England to get an abortion
March
- March - Boxer Mike Tyson is given a 6 year sentence for raping an 18 year old Miss Black America contestant, Desiree Washington
- March 1 - After a majority of the Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat communities vote for Bosnian independence, Serb snipers fire on civilians
- March 12 - Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the British Commonwealth
- March 12 - 13 are killed and several injured when a tram-car crashes into a crowd of people at the tram-station at Vasaplatsen in Gothenburg, Sweden.
- March 13 - In eastern Turkey, an earthquake registering 6.8 on the Richter scale kills over 500.
- March 17 - 29 are killed and 242 injured when a suicide car-bomb goes off in the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires.
- March 25 - Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returns to Earth after a 10-month stay aboard the Mir space station
April
- April - Bosnia and Herzegovina secedes from Yugoslavia.
- April 2 - In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder of mob boss Paul Castellano and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison
- April 6 - Robert Schumann (record-breaker) becomes the youngest person to visit the north pole
- April 6 - Serbian troops begin to bombard Sarajevo
- April 8 - Punch magazine publishes its final issue
- April 9 - A Miami jury convicts former Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega of assisting Colombia's cocaine cartel
- April 9 - United Kingdom general election - John Major unexpectedly re-elected.
- April 10 - IRA bomb explodes in the Baltic Exchange in the City of London - 3 dead, 91 injured
- April 13 - Flooding in downtown Chicago, Illinois
- April 13 - Roermond in the Netherlands is rocked by an earthquake along the Peel Fault.
- April 14-October 15 - The trial of the Russian serial killer Andrew Chikatilo - he is sentenced to death
- April 21 - Maria Vladimirovna of Russia succeeds her father as Head of the Imperial Family of Russia and Titular Empress and Autocrat of all the Russias.
- April 22 - Fuel that has leaked into sewer explodes in Guadalajara, Mexico - 215 dead, 1500 injured
- April 27 - Betty Boothroyd elected the first woman to be Speaker of the British House of Commons.
- April 29 - In Los Angeles, California, the police officers that were accused of excessive force in their severe beating of Rodney King, were found "not guilty". The verdict resulted in several days of riots in L.A. and smaller riots around the country.
May
- May 5 - Alabama ratifies a 202-year-old proposed amendment to the United States Constitution making the 27th Amendment law. This amendment bars the U.S. Congress from giving itself a midterm or retroactive pay raise
- May 5 - Russian leaders in Crimea declare their separation from Ukraine as a new republic. They withdraw the secession on May 10
- May 10 - Team of Sweden wins the Ice Hockey World Championships in Prague
- May 15 - The Genoa Expo '92 World's Fair opens in Genoa, Italy
- May 16 - STS-49: Space Shuttle Endeavour lands safely after a successful maiden voyage
- May 19 - Amy Fisher shoots at Mary Jo Buttafuoco
- May 23 - Mafia bomb kills Italian anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone
- May 26 - Charles Geschke, President of Adobe Systems is kidnapped from his company car park. Kidnappers demand ransom for $650,000 - they are later apprehended
June
- June 1 - Terrorist Carlos (the Jackal) is sentenced to life imprisonment
- June 1 - Kentucky celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
- June 1 - The Pittsburgh Penguins sweep the Chicago Blackhawks in 4 games in the 1992 Stanley Cup Finals.
- June 8 - The first World Ocean Day celebrated, coinciding with the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
- June 12 - Medical doctor Pravin Thakkar is sentenced for 16 years for aborting fetuses of two of his former lovers without their permission
- June 15 - During a spelling bee at a Trenton, New Jersey elementary school, U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle corrects a student's spelling of the word potato by indicating it should have an e at the end.
- June 17 - A 'Joint Understanding' agreement on arms reduction is signed by U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin (this would be later codified in START II). [http://www.fas.org/nuke/control/start2/]
- June 22 - Two skeletons excavated in Yekaterinburg are identified as Czar Nicholas II and his tsarina
- June 23 - Mafia boss John Gotti is sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and racketeering on April 2 [http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/mob_bosses/gotti/don_24.html?sect=15]
- June 26 - Denmark beat Germany 2-0 to win Euro 92 at Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden.
- June 29 - Bodyguard assassinates president Mohammed Boudigh of Algeria
July
- July 6-29 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses a U.N. inspection team access to the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture. UNSCOM claimed that it had reliable information that the site contained archives related to illegal weapons activities. U.N. Inspectors stage a 17-day "sit-in" outside of the building, but leave when their safety is threatened by Iraqi soldiers
- July 10 - In Miami, Florida, former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega is sentenced to 40 years in prison for drug and racketeering violations
- July 13 - Britain's former executioner Albert Pierrepoint dies
- July 20 - Václav Havel resigns as president of Czechoslovakia
- July 22 - Near Medellín, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escapes from his luxury prison fearing extradiction to the United States.
- July 25 - Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
August
- August 7 - Buckingham Palace opened to the public for the first time
- August 10 - The UK government bans Ulster Defence Association, a loyalist paramilitary organisation that had been legal for twenty years.
- August 17 - US Marshalls start Siege of Ruby Ridge
- August 18 - Wang Laboratories files for bankruptcy
- August 20 - Kristiansunds connection to the main land of Norway, Krifast, opens.
- August 24 - Hurricane Andrew hits South Florida.
- August 28 - Hurricane Andrew dissipates over the Tennessee valley when it merges with a storm system. Twenty-three were killed.
September
- September 11 - Hurricane Iniki hits the Hawaiian Islands, Kauai and Oahu
- September 16 - Pound Sterling and Italian Lira forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (Black Wednesday)
- September 23 - A large IRA bomb destroys the forensic laboratories in Belfast
- September 24 - The Kentucky Supreme Court in Kentucky v. Wasson holds that laws criminalizing same-sex sodomy are unconstitutional, and accurately predicts that other states and the nation will eventually rule the same way.
October
- October 1 - Pittsburgh International Airport's new facility is opened in Findlay Township, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania The new terminal's were built as an expansion for US Air and an upgrade from the older Pittsburgh International Airport facility.
- October 2 - Riot in the Carandiru prison system in São Paulo, Brazil, which leads up to the events known as the Carandiru Massacre.
- October 4 - Plane crash in Amsterdam, Netherlands, known as the Bijlmerramp.
- October 7 - In Turkey, the farmer Tevfik Esenç, the last fluent speaker of the Ubykh language, dies.
- October 9 - A 13-kilogram (29-pound) meteorite landed in the driveway of the Knapp residence in Peekskill, New York destroying the family's 1980 Chevrolet Malibu.
- October 15 - In Russia, Andrei Chikatilo is found guilty of 52 serial murders.
- October 17 - Yoshihiro Hattori, a 16-year-old Japanese exchange student mistakes from an address to a party, and is shot after knocking on the wrong door in Louisiana, United States. The shooter, Rodney Peairs, is acquitted by Jury causing an outrage in Japan.
- October 24 - Toronto Blue Jays win World Series in 6 games. Marking the first Canadian team to win.
- October 26 - In Canada, the Charlottetown Accord is defeated in a national referendum.
- October 29 - The Food and Drug Administration approves Depo Provera for use as a contraceptive in the United States.
November
- November 3 - Bill Clinton defeats George H. W. Bush and H. Ross Perot in the U.S. presidential election
- November 5 - In Detroit, Michigan, black motorist Malice Green is beaten to death by policemen Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn during a struggle (the officers were later convicted and sentenced to prison)
- November 11 - The Church of England votes to allow women to become priests.
- November 20 - In England, a fire breaks out in the Private Chapel room of Windsor Castle, rages for 15 hours, and seriously damages the northwest side of the building (an investigation found that the fire was ignited after a spotlight came into contact with a curtain over an extended period).
- November 24 - In the People's Republic of China, a China Southern Airlines domestic flight crashes, killing all 141 people on-board
- November 24 - Queen Elizabeth II describes this year as an Annus Horribilis (horrible year) due to various scandals damaging the image of the Royal Family
- November 25 - The Czechoslovakia Federal Assembly votes to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia starting on January 1, 1993
- November 30 - A murder trial of 14 South Vietnamese accused of murder of 24 North Vietnamese begins in Hong Kong (ends November 29, 1994)
December
- December 3 - UN Security Council Resolution 794 is unanimously passed, approving a coalition of United Nations peacekeepers led by the United States to form UNITAF, tasked with ensuring humanitarian aid gets distributed and establishing peace in Somalia.
- December 3 - The Greek oil tanker Aegean Sea carrying 80,000 tonnes of crude oil runs aground in a storm while on approach to La Coruña, Spain, and spills much of its cargo
- December 4 - US military forces invade Somalia.
- December 5 - Kent Conrad of North Dakota resigns his seat in the United States Senate and is sworn into the other seat from North Dakota, becoming the only US Senator ever to have held two seats on the same day.
- December 6 - Hindu activists destroy the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, India, triggering religious violence around the country.
- December 8 - Last blast fired in Falu Copper Mine in Sweden. The end of a millennium of continuous operation.
- December 20 - The Folies Bergere music hall in Paris, France closes.
- December 29 - Brazil's president Fernando Collor de Mello resigns, following charges that he stole more than $32 million from the government and impeachment precedings.
Unknown Dates
- The Council for National Academic Awards, UK is wound up.
- Pope John Paul II issues an apology and lifts the edict of Inquisition against Galileo Galilei
- The largest shopping mall in the US, Minnesota's Mall of America is constructed spanning 78 acres (316,000 m²)
- Carsington Reservoir opened in England after nearly 20 years planning and construction.
- Image Comics is founded by a number of former Marvel artists, seeking to create a company where creators were given exclusive ownership of their creations.
Fictional Events
- January 12 HAL 9000 is purported to become operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois.
- The events of the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? take place.
Births
For more 1992 births see :Category:1992 births
- January 10 - Eric & Brandon Billings, Twin American actors
- January 19 - Logan Lerman, American actor
- January 21 - Logan O'Brien, American actor
- February 14 - Freddie Highmore, British actor
- March 15 - Sosie Bacon, American actress
- March 21 - Bobby Preston, American actor
- April 15 - Richard Sandrak, American bodybuilder and actor
- May 18 - Spencer Breslin, American actor
- June 7 - Jordan Fry, American Actor
- June 12 - Ryan Malgarini, American actor
- June 14 - Daryl Sabara, American voice actor
- July 13 - Dylan Patton, American actor and model
- August 4 - Dylan and Cole Sprouse, Twin child actors
- September 19 - Gavin Fink, American actor
- October 9 - Tyler James Williams, American actor
- October 15 - Vincent Martella, American actor
- October 30 - Tequan Richmond, American actor
- November 25 - Zack Shada, American actor
- November 30 - Dylan Smith, American actor
- December 23 - Spencer Daniels, American actor
Deaths
January-April
- January 3 - Dame Judith Anderson, Australian actress (b. 1897)
- January 9 - Bill Naughton, British playwright (b. 1910)
- January 23 - Freddie Bartholomew, Irish actor (b. 1924)
- January 26 - José Ferrer, Puerto Rican actor (b. 1912)
- January 27 - Allan Jones, American actor and singer (b. 1908)
- January 29 - Willie Dixon, American composer and musician (b. 1915)
- February 2 - Bert Parks, American game show host (b. 1914)
- February 4 - Lisa Fonssagrives, Swedish model (b. 1911)
- February 10 - Alex Haley, American author (b. 1921)
- February 12 - Bep van Klaveren, Dutch boxer (b. 1907)
- February 20 - Dick York, American actor (b. 1928)
- March 2 - Sandy Dennis, American actress (b. 1939)
- March 9 - Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1913)
- March 23 - Friedrich Hayek, Austrian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
- March 29 - Paul Henreid, Austrian-born actor (b. 1908)
- April 5 - Molly Picon, American actress (b. 1898)
- April 6 - Isaac Asimov, Russian-born author (b. 1920)
- April 8 - Daniel Bovet, Swiss-born pharmacologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1907)
- April 18 - Benny Hill, British comedian and actor
- April 21 - Grand Duke Vladimir Cyrillovitch of Russia (b. 1917)
- April 23 - Satyajit Ray, Indian filmmaker (b. 1921)
- April 27 - Olivier Messiaen, French composer (b. 1908)
- April 28 - Francis Bacon, Irish-born painter (b. 1909)
May-December
- May 6 - Marlene Dietrich, German actress (b. 1901)
- May 12 - Robert Reed, American actor (b. 1932
- May 17 - Lawrence Welk, American musician (b. 1903)
- May 22 - Tony Accardo, American gangster (b. 1906)
- May 23 - Giovanni Falcone, Italian judge (b. 1939)
- June 22 - Chuck Mitchell, American actor (b. 1927)
- July 15 - Hammer DeRoburt, first President of Nauru (b. 1922)
- August 5 - Jeff Porcaro, American musician (b. 1954)
- August 12 - John Cage, American composer (b. 1912)
- August - Mark Heard, American singer (b. 1951)
- September 2 - Barbara McClintock, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1902)
- October 7 - Tevfik Esenç, last known speaker of Ubykh (b. 1904)
- October 8 - Willy Brandt, Chancellor of Germany, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1913)
- October 17 - Yoshihiro Hattori, Japanese exchange student (b. 1975)
- October 19 - Arthur Wint, Jamaican runner (b. 1920)
- October 25 - Roger Miller, American singer (b. 1936)
- October 27 - David Bohm, American-born physicist, philosopher, and neuropsychologist (b. 1917)
- November 22 - Sterling Holloway, American actor (b. 1905)
- December 18 - Mark Goodson, American game show producer (b. 1915)
- December 21 - Nathan Milstein, Ukrainian-born violinist (b. 1903)
- December 22 - Albert King, American musician (b. 1930)
Unknown date
- E. Harold Munn, American activist (b. 1903)
Nobel Prizes
- Physics - Georges Charpak
- Chemistry - Rudolph A. Marcus
- Medicine - Edmond H. Fischer, Edwin G. Krebs
- Literature - Derek Walcott
- Peace - Rigoberta Menchu Tum
- Gary Becker
- Kyung-Chik Han
- Finnish Village Action Movement, Gonoshasthaya Kendra / Zafrullah Chowdhury, Helen Mack, John Gofman and Alla Yaroshinskaya
-
als:1992
ko:1992년
ms:1992
ja:1992年
simple:1992
th:พ.ศ. 2535
1996
1996 (MCMXCVI) is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty.
Events
January
- January 5 - Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone.
- January 7 - One of the worst blizzards in American history hits eastern states, killing more than 100.
- January 8 - Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital Kinshasa - 350 dead.
- January 9 - Assassination of Eric Hebborn, art forger, in Rome, Italy.
- January 14 - Jorge Sampaio is elected president of Portugal.
- January 20 - Yasser Arafat is re-elected president of the Palestinian Authority.
- January 22 - Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece resigns due to health problems. New government forms under Costas Simitis.
- January 24 - Polish Premier Jozef Oleksy resigns amid charge he spied for Moscow.
- January 26 - Whitewater scandal: Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies before a grand jury.
- US millionaire John Dupont shoots wrestler David Schultz
- January 27 - Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara deposes the first democratically elected president of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane, in a military coup.
- January 29
- President Jacques Chirac announces a "definitive end" to French nuclear testing.
- Fire destroys La Fenice, Venice's opera house.
- A Greek flag is hoisted above Kardac Rocks, initiating the Imia-Kardak crisis
- Duke Nukem 3D Shareware released to public
- January 30 - Leader of the Irish National Liberation Army Gino Gallagher is killed, in an internal feud, while in line for his unemployment benefit.
- January 30 - February 5 - Sarah Balabagan caned in the United Arab Emirates
- January 31 - An explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka killing at least 86 and injuring 1,400.
February
- February - Iraq disarmament crisis: Recently defected Iraqi weapons program leader and son-in-law to Saddam Hussein, Hussein Kamel, returns to Iraq. Within days of his return, he is murdered along with his brother, father, sister and her children. Kamel had forced Iraq to reveal portions of its illegal nuclear and chemical weapons programs.
- February 1 - Communications Decency Act is passed by the U.S. Congress.
- February 4 - Major snowstorm paralyzes Midwestern United States, Milwaukee, Wisconsin ties all-time low temperature at -26°F. (-32°C)
- February 8 - The Telecom Reform Act is signed into law by United States President Bill Clinton.
- February 9 - IRA ceasefire ends with 1 one-ton bomb in London's Canary Wharf District - 2 dead.
- February 10 - Chess computer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov for the first time.
- February 17 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, world chess champion Garry Kasparov beats the "Deep Blue" supercomputer in a chess match.
- February 18 - IRA briefcase bomb in London bus kills the bomber and injures 9 in London West End.
- February 29 - Daniel Green convicted of murder of James R. Jordan, the father of basketball star Michael Jordan.
March
Michael Jordan.]]
- March - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi forces refuse UNSCOM inspection teams access to five sites designated for inspection. The teams enter the sites only after delays of up to 17 hours.
- March 2 - John Howard is elected Prime Minister of Australia in a landslide election victory, over the Labor Party's Paul Keating.
- March 13 - The Dunblane Massacre.
- March 17 - Sri Lanka win the Cricket World Cup by storming to a famous victory against the tournament favourites Australia.
- March 19 - Sarajevo becomes a united city again when Bosnian authorities took control of the last district held by Serbs.
- March 20
- In Los Angeles, California, Lyle and Erik Menendez are found guilty of first-degree murder for the shotgun killing of their parents.
- The British Government announces that Bovine spongiform encephalopathy was likely to have been transmitted to people.
- March 23 - The Republic of China on Taiwan holds its first direct elections for president. Lee Teng-hui is reelected.
- March 25 - An 81-day long standoff between antigovernment Freemen in Jordan, Montana and federal officers begins.
- March 26 - The International Monetary Fund approves a $10.2 billion loan to Russia for 'economic reform'.
- March 28 - Fire breaks out at the Pasar Anyar shopping centre in Bogor, West Java. First estimated death toll is 78 until rescuers notice that 68 of them are mannequins
- March 30 - The Kennett government is re-elected in Victoria with a 30 seat majority.
April
- April 2 - US Mafioso John Gotti is found guilty of murder of Paul Castellano
- April 3 - Plane carrying US commerce secretary Ron Brown crashes near Dubrovnik, Croatia
- April 3
- Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his Montana cabin.
- The first EuroHowl is held in Aberystwyth, Wales.
- A Lunar eclipse occurred.
- April 10 - United States President Bill Clinton vetos a bill that would have banned partial-birth abortion.
- April 18 - Over 100 Lebanese civilians were killed after Israel shelled the UN compound in Qana. See Qana Massacre.
- April 28 - Martin Bryant kills 35 people as part of the Port Arthur Massacre, at the Port Arthur tourist site, Tasmania, Australia.
- April 29 - Official opening of Rent (musical) on Broadway.
May
- May 10 - A sudden storm engulfs Mount Everest with several climbing teams high on the mountain, leaving 8 dead. By the end of the month, at least four other climbers die in the worst season of fatalities on the mountain to date.
- May 11 - After taking-off from Miami, a fire started by improperly-handled oxygen canisters in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 on board.
- May 13 - Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kills 600.
- May 20 - Gay rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of homosexuals.
- May 23 - Swede Göran Kropp reaches Mount Everest summit alone without oxygen after having bicycled there from Sweden.
- May 27 - First Chechnya War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechnyan rebels for the first time and negotiates a cease-fire in the war.
- May 27 - Doctor Who makes its return to British television for the first time since 1989. Paul McGann starred in the US made movie which pitted the Doctor against Eric Roberts' Master.
- May 31 - id Software releases the first person shooter computer game Quake.
- May-June - Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM supervises the destruction of Al-Hakam, Iraq's main production facility of biological warfare agents.
- May - The Onion launches its satirical news publication on the Internet.
June
- June - Iraq disarmament crisis: As Iraq continues to refuse inspectors access to a number of sites, the U.S. fails in its attempt to build support for military action against Iraq in the UN Security Council.
- June 1 - Tennessee celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
- June 10 - Peace talks begin in Northern Ireland without Sinn Féin
- June 12 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a panel of federal judges blocks a law against indecency on the internet. The panel says that the 1996 Communications Decency Act would infringe upon the free speech rights of adults.
- June 13 - An 81-day standoff between the Freemen and FBI agents ends with their surrender in Montana.
- June 15- A large bomb explosion devastates Manchester City Centre in England.
- June 25 - 19 U.S. servicemen are killed at Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia.
- June 30 - Costas Simitis is elected President of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement of Greece.
- June 30 - Germany beat the Czech Republic 2-1 with a Golden goal to win Euro 96.
July
Euro 96
- July - Iraq disarmament crisis: U.N. Inspector Ritter attempts to conduct surprise inspections on the Republican Guard facility at the airport, but is blocked by Iraqi officials.
- July 1 - The Northern Territory in Australia legalises voluntary euthanasia.
- July 5 - Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult cell, is born. It will prematurely die in February 2003.
- July 8 - Martina Hingis youngest person in history (age 15 years and 282 days) to win at Wimbledon (Ladies Doubles event).
- July 8 - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu purportedly receives a hand-delivered document, "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Security the Realm," spelling out how Israel could abrogate the Oslo Accords, and pursue a permanent annexation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, among other policies. The paper had been prepared for him by Richard Perle, Donald Rumsfeld, Doug Feith, David Wurmser and John R. Bolton.
- July 17 - Off the coast of Long Island, New York, a Paris-bound Boeing 747 carrying TWA flight 800 explodes killing all 230 on board.
- July 18 - 21 - Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River in Quebec, in one of Canada's most costly natural disasters.
- July 19 - The 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, is opened by US president Bill Clinton.
- July 27 - The Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics kills one and injures 111.
- July 29 - The child protection portion of the Communications Decency Act (1996) is struck down as too broad by a US federal court.
- July 31 - MIL-STD-1750A was declared inactive for use in new designs.
August
The Detroit of India and port city Madras is renamed Chennai.
- August 1 - Sarah Balabagan returns to the Philippines
- August 4 - The closing ceremony of the 1996 Summer Olympics takes place.
- August 6 - NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms
- August 6 - Australian census
- August 6 - The Ramones play their last show ever at Lollapalooza.
- August 13 - Data sent back by the Galileo space probe indicated there may be water on one of Jupiter's moons
- August 28 - Their Royal Highnesses, the Prince and Princess of Wales, are formally divorced at the High Court in London. Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales is restyled, Diana, Princess of Wales.
- August 31 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi forces launch an offensive into the northern No-Fly Zone and capture Arbil.
September
- September 4 - War on Drugs: Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) attack a military base in Guaviare, Colombia starting three weeks of guerrilla warfare that will claim the lives of at least 130 Colombians.
- September 7 - Rapper Tupac Shakur shot in Las Vegas, Nevada following Mike Tyson bout. He would succumb 6 nights later on September 13.
- September 11 - Aubrey Berryhill and Ashton Cayado won the Nobel prize.
- September 22 - The Panhellenic Socialist Movement under the leadership of Costas Simitis succeeds in the Greek legislative election, 1996.
- September 25 - The last of the Magdalen Asylums was closed in | | |
