December 1994 in History

Events in History

Dec 1 Ernesto Zedillo innaugrated as president of Mexico

Event of Interest

Dec 1 Jim Bakker, American televangelist and convicted fraud is released from jail

Dec 2 Cruise liner Achille Lauro (Willem Ruys) sinks off the coast of Somalia
Dec 2 Jury finds Heidi Fleiss guilty of running a call girl ring
Dec 6 Maltese Falcon auctioned for $398,590
Dec 6 Orange County California files for bankruptcy
Dec 6 Warner Brothers announces a 5th TV network to begin on Jan 11, 1995
Dec 8 Fire in cinema in Karamay China, 310 killed
Dec 9 5m meteor 1994 XM1 passes within 100,000 km of Earth
Dec 9 US Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders resigns after comments about masturbation
Dec 10 European Campaign against Racism "All different, All equal" begins

Nobel Prize

Dec 10 Nobel Peace Prize presented to Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat

5th Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Rabin

Dec 11 Russian Federation forces attack city of Grozny, beginning the First Chechen War, in which the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria gains its independence from Russia
Dec 11 Russian troops enter Chechnya
Dec 13 American Eagle commuter plane crashes in NC, killing 15
Dec 14 Construction begins on the Three Gorges Dam, China
Dec 15 John Bruton becomes Ireland's premier
Dec 15 Liberia militia kills 48 inhabitants of Monrovia
Dec 15 Palau becomes a member of the UN
Dec 17 KLM's last DC-10 goes out of service
Dec 18 Socialist Party (ex-communist) wins Bulgaria parliamentary election
Dec 19 Rolls-Royce announces its future cars will feature V12 engine which will be produced by BMW
Dec 21 Bomb goes off on #4 train on Fulton Street NYC

Event of Interest

Dec 22 Italian government of Silvio Berlusconi resigns

Media Tycoon and Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi

Event of Interest

Dec 23 Fearing arrest by the FBI, Whitey Bulger flees Boston, and successfully hides from law enforcement for the next 16 years

Dec 24 Four Muslim fundamentalists capture Air France pilot in Algiers
Dec 26 French commandos terminate Air France hijacking in Marseille
Dec 29 B737-400 flies into a mountain at Edremit East Turkey, 54 killed
Dec 29 Bangladesh government of Zia resigns
Dec 29 Last Dutch electro-magnetic telephone exchange shuts down
Dec 31 1st snowless December in Baltimore Maryland
Dec 31 Anti Apartheid Group of Netherlands (AABN) disbands
Dec 31 This date is skipped altogether in Kiribati as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands change time zones from UTC-11 to UTC+13 and UTC-10 to UTC+14, respectively.

Birthdays in History

Dec 12 Otto Warmbier, American student detained in North Korea after stealing poster, born in Cincinnati, Ohio
Dec 16 Stephen Sutton, English cancer blogger (Stephen's Story), born in Burntwood (d. 2014)
Dec 29 Princess Kako of Akishino of Japan, born in Tokyo, Japan

Weddings in History

Dec 26 President Clinton's brother Roger Clinton (37) weds 8-mo pregnant Molly Nartin (25)
Dec 29 Billionaire J. Paul Getty Jr marries Victoria Holdsworth in Barbados

Deaths in History

Dec 2 Donald John Urquhart, English librarian, dies at 85
Dec 2 Norman Anderson, English lawyer, missionary and Arabist dies at 86
Dec 3 Elizabeth Glaser, American AIDS activist, wife of director Paul Michael Glaser, dies of AIDS at 47
Dec 3 Giorgi Chanturia, President of Georgia, assassinated
Dec 3 Said Mekbel, Algerian editor in chief (Le Matin), murdered at 57
Dec 4 Geoffery Rudolph Elton, historiographer, dies at 73
Dec 4 Jacob Kaplan, French Grand Rabbi (1955-81), dies at 99
Dec 4 Julio Ramon Ribeyro, Peruvian playwright, dies at 66
Dec 4 Robert Jesse Charleston, museum curator, dies at 78
Dec 4 Thomas Roy Garrett, museum curator, dies at 63
Dec 5 Günter Meisner, German actor (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Between Wars, Adolf Hitler, Quiller Memorandum), dies at 68
Dec 5 Harry Horner, Austro-Hungarian-born American stage and film designer (The Heiress), dies at 84
Dec 5 Richard Brian Waring Barton-Chapple, writer, dies at 69
Dec 5 Ronald Ridout, English school textbook author (English Today), dies at 78
Dec 6 AJ Bronkhorst, vicar/theologist (Reform The Netherlands), dies at 80
Dec 7 Edward Rell Madigan, American politician (US Secretary of Agriculture 91-93, Rep-R-IL, 1973-91), dies of cancer at 58

Dec 8 Israel Aaron Maisels, South African lawyer and communal leader, dies at 89
Dec 9 Max Bill, Swiss painter, sculptor, and politician, dies at 85
Dec 10 Keith Joseph, British MP (C), dies
Dec 10 Ruth Evelyn Mansfield, English anaesthetist, dies at 92
Dec 11 Carl Marzani, Italian-born American leftwing political activist, publisher and documentarian, dies at 81
Dec 11 Philip Phillips, American archaeologist (Mississippian culture), dies at 94
Dec 11 Stanislav Maczek, Polish general, tank commander and war hero (WWII Battle of Falaise, Normandy invasion), dies at 102
Dec 11 Stanislaw Maczek, Polish-British general-major (WWII), dies at 102
Dec 11 Yao Yilin, Vice Prime Minister of China (1979-88), dies at 77
Dec 12 Donna J. Stone, American poet, dies of heart failure at 61
Dec 12 Herman Felderhof, Dutch radio-announcer (NRU/NOS Radio), dies at 83
Dec 12 John Edward Colwell Hearne, Jamaican writer and educator, dies at 68
Dec 12 Stuart Allen Roosa, American naval officer and astronaut (Apollo 14), dies of pancreatitis at 46
Dec 13 Antoine Pinay, French politician (Prime Minister of France 1952, Minister of Foreign Affairs), dies at 102
Dec 13 Glenn M. Anderson, American politician (Rep-D-CA, 1969-93), dies at 81
Dec 13 Herman W. "Fritz" Liebert, American rare books scholar and librarian (Yale University), dies at 83
Dec 14 Catherine Filene Shouse, American philanthropist (Wolf Trap Institute), dies at 98
Dec 14 Orval Faubus, American politician (Governor of Arkansas, 1955–67), dies at 84
Dec 15 Henry Phelps Brown, British historian and economist, dies at 88
Dec 16 Mary Durack, Australian author and historian (Kings in Grass Castles and Keep Him My Country), dies at 81

Dec 18 Peter Hebblethwaite, English editor-in-chief (The Month), dies at 64
Dec 18 Roger Apéry, Greek-French mathematician (b. 1916)
Dec 20 Dean Rusk, US Secretary of State (1961-69), dies at 85
Dec 20 J C "Jody" Bateman, fiddler, dies at 75
Dec 23 Didier Rocher, son of French cosmetic maker Yves Rocher, dies at 41
Dec 24 John Eastburn Boswell, medievalist, dies at 47
Dec 24 John Keith Wright, English Asst Sect of State (1971-84), dies at 66
Dec 24 John Osborne, English playwright (Entertainer, Look Back in Anger, Luther, dies at 65
Dec 25 Pierre Dreyfus, French director of Renault (1955-75), dies at 87
Dec 25 Zail Singh, Indian politician, (7th President of India 1982-87), dies of injuries from a motor accident at 78
Dec 26 Asta Elstak, Surinamese-Dutch welfare worker, dies at 74
Dec 26 Johannes J "Joop" Klant, Neth/South African economist/author, dies
Dec 26 Karl Schiller, German economist and politician (Minister of Economics), dies at 83
Dec 27 Fanny Cradock, English TV chef and food critic, dies at 85
Dec 27 Hans Berghuis, author/poet (Kleitabletten), dies at 70
Dec 27 J. B. L. Reyes, Filipino jurist (b. 1902)
Dec 27 Sadi de Gorter, Dutch author/diplomat (Abscess), dies at 82
Dec 28 Julian Rochfort Belfrage, English theatre agent, dies at 60
Dec 30 Lloyd James Austin, Australian linguist and literary scholar, dies at 79
Dec 31 BAM "Bob" Schreiner, airline owner (S Aviation Group), dies at 79
Dec 31 Harri Webb, Welsh poet and nationalist, dies at 74
Dec 31 Leigh Bowery, Australian performance artist and designer, dies of AIDS at 33