January 1991 in History

Events in History

Jan 1 Iraq rejects peace proposal from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak

Jan 2 University of Colorado, Boulder, coached by Bill McCartney wins its first Associated Press National Championship of College Football poll
Jan 3 8 Iraqi embassy officials are expelled from the UK
Jan 3 Israel reopens consulate in USSR after 23 years
Jan 4 AT&T workers in Newark accidentally snap a cable
Jan 4 Iraq agrees to send Aziz to Geneva to meet Baker on Jan 9th
Jan 4 Jan Krzystof Bielecki becomes premier of Poland
Jan 5 Edwin Jongejans of Netherlands wins 1-metre springboard diving title
Jan 6 Jorge Serrano Elias elected President of Guatemala
Jan 6 Qian Hong swims female world record 50m butterfly (27.30 sec)
Jan 7 "Nia Peeples Party Machine" premieres on TV

Jan 7 Saddam Hussein prepares his troops for what he says will be a long violent war against the US

Jan 12 US Congress gives George H. W. Bush authority to wage war against Iraq

Jan 13 12th ACE Cable Awards: Weather Channel wins the Golden CableACE for the coverage of the hurricane "Hugo"

Jan 13 President Mário Soares of Portugal re-elected

Jan 13 Soviet troops continue attack on Vilnius, capital of Lithuania; 13 people killed and 140 injured as
Jan 13 UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar meets with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
Jan 14 Jorge Serrano Elias sworn in as President of Guatemala
Jan 14 Valentin Pavlov become new premier of USSR

Jan 15 Elizabeth II signs letters patent that allows Australia to institute its own Victoria Cross, the first Commonwealth realm to do so

Jan 15 UN's deadline for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait (they don't)
Jan 17 Harald V becomes King of Norway on the death of his father, Olav V
Jan 17 Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles on Israel
Jan 17 Operation Desert Storm begins, with US-led coalition forces bombing Iraq, during the Gulf War
Jan 18 Eastern Air Lines goes out of business after 62 years, citing financial problems.
Jan 18 Iraq launches SCUD missiles against Israel

Jan 18 US acknowledges CIA and US Army paid Manuel Noriega $320,000 over his career

Jan 19 Eastern Airlines shuts down operations
Jan 19 Iraq files SCUD missiles at Tel Aviv and other cities in Israel during the Gulf War
Jan 20 13th UCP Telethon
Jan 20 Sudan's government imposes Islamic law nationwide, worsening the civil war between the country's Muslim north and Christian south.
Jan 20 US Patriot missiles begins shooting down Iraqi missiles
Jan 22 Cholera epidemic begins in Peru with first known sufferer, 300,000 people infected over the next 12 months

Jan 22 Kuwaiti oil facilities are destroyed by Iraqi forces

Jan 23 Bagogwe Massacre of Tutsi in and around Ruhengeri, Northern Rwanda
Jan 23 World's largest oil spill, caused by embattled Iraqi forces in Kuwait
Jan 25 Manuel Noriega is given access to assets frozen by US government
Jan 26 Alfaro Vive guerrilla group of Ecuador gives arms to Catholic church
Jan 26 NY Lotto pays $90 million to nine winners (#s are 5-15-30-35-46-50)
Jan 27 Dutch Pacifist Socialistic Party disbands
Jan 27 Nadine Strossen is 1st female president of the ACLU
Jan 28 Dictator Siad Barre flees Somalia ending 22 year rule

Jan 29 Nelson Mandela and Mangosuthu Buthelezi meet after 28 years

Jan 29 The Battle of Khafji begins, the first major ground engagement of the Gulf War
Jan 30 Iraqi troops gain control of Al Khafji inside the Saudi Arabian border
Jan 31 Robert Gibson flies record 27,040 feet altitude

Jan 29 Hugh Grosvenor, Earl Grosvenor, Son of the Duke of Westminster, born in Westminster, London

Jan 11 American physicist (1936 Nobel Prize for physics), dies at 85

Jan 12 Vasco Pratolini, Italian writer (Le Ragazze di San Frediano), dies at 77
Jan 14 Gordon Bryant, Australian politician (b. 1914)
Jan 14 Sallah Kharaf [Abu Iyad], co-founder (Al-Fatah), assassinated
Jan 17 Olav V, King of Norway (1957-91), dies at 87
Jan 18 Hamilton Fish III, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York), dies at 102
Jan 19 Marcel Chaput, French Canadian politician, dies at 72
Jan 22 Robert Choquette, French Canadian novelist, poet and diplomat, dies at 85
Jan 23 Northrop Frye, Canadian writer and critic (b. 1912)
Jan 24 Jack Schaefer, American author (Shane), dies at 83
Jan 24 John M. Kelly, Irish politician and academic (b. 1931)
Jan 26 Johnny van Doorn, Dutch writer/poet, dies at 46
Jan 29 Yasushi Inoue, Japanese writer (The Bullfight), dies at 83
Jan 30 Clifton C. Edom, American photojournalism educator (b. 1907)