1994 News and Interesting History Tidbits

Jewish settler kills 30
A Jewish settler kills 30 Palestinians at Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, West Bank in after opening fire as people gathered for Friday morning prayers.

Bomb Explodes on bus in Northern Israel
A Bomb Exploded on a crowded bus today in Northern Israel Killing 6 people and wounding 25 others a radical extremist Islamic Group HAMAS claimed responsibility

North American Free Trade Agreement
North American Free Trade Agreement ( NAFTA) for the countries of North America goes into effect, creating the largest trading bloc in the world Canada, the United States and Mexico

Somalia US Troops Withdraw
US troops finally withdraw from Somalia having entered to perform a limited peacekeeping operation " Restore Hope " during the civil war which had caused a major famine . They had been forced to leave when the warlord General Mohamed Farrah Aididhis militia attacked Pakistan and US Army troops.

Yasser Arafat Returns To Palestine
The PLO leader Yasser Arafat, has returned to Palestine after 27 years in exile.
The return of Yasser Arafat was part of the deal worked out at the Oslo Peace Accords signed in Washington in 1993.

Channel Tunnel Opens
The Channel Tunnel a 50.5-kilometre / 31.4 mile undersea rail tunnel under the English Channel is opened joining England to France for the first time by connecting Folkestone, Kent in England to Coquelles near Calais in northern France.

The first tunnelling commenced in France on June 1988 and in England on December 1988 and took 6 years to complete at an estimated cost of £4650 million .

Three services use the Channel Tunnel

Eurotunnel Shuttle – a roll-on roll-off shuttle service for road vehicles, for cars, coaches/caravans and freight lorries.
Eurostar – through rail services for passengers.
Through rail freight services.


The Eurostar service carrying passengers between London, Paris and Brussels is launched carrying passengers through the newly completed Channel Tunnel, the train reaches speeds of 186 MPH

Serbian Planes Shot Down by US Fighters
Four Serbian planes were shot down by U.S. fighter planes acting as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to enforce U.N. resolutions enacted to bring about an end to the bloody conflict in the former Yugoslavia. The planes that went down were used in a bombing mission in an area where no flying was allowed.

Ebola virus Zaire
The first cases of the Ebola Virus in the latest outbreak in Gabon, are identified which cause the death of 9 of those infected with the virus.


Further Ebola Virus outbreaks occur in

Gabon, in February 1995 (37 cases including 21 deaths)

Gabon, in July 1996 (60 cases including 45 deaths).

A Further Ebola Virus epidemic occurs in

Kikwit, the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1995 with 315 cases, 250 of which had fatal outcomes.


( Figures From World Health Organization )


The strain of Ebola which broke out in Zaire has one of the highest case fatality rates of any human pathogenic virus, roughly 90%.

Baseball Players Strike
Baseball players begin a 232-day strike which had begins on August 12, 1994, after a judge granted a preliminary injunction against club owners.

The strike led to the cancellation of 938 games overall, including the entire 1994 postseason and 1994 World Series.

Earthquake Japan
A huge 7.5 earthquake shook northern Japan and workmen tried feverishly to repair the wreckage. Two hundred and eighty-five aftershocks occurred and the quake originated in the Pacific Ocean 300 miles northeast of Tokyo.

Michael Jackson Marries
The king of pop and the daughter of the king of rock confirmed they were secretly married 11 weeks ago. Michael Jackson, 35, and Lisa Marie Presley, 26, announced in a statement

Russia Sends In Troops To Chechnya
Russian President Boris Yeltsin orders tanks and troops into the rebel region of Chechnya to restore constitutional order, the mostly Muslim region had declared independence from Moscow and had been having problems with rebels who it is believed were funded by Moscow. The war continued for nearly 2 years when Chechnya was given substantial autonomy but not full independence.

Nicole Brown Simpson Murder
Nicole Brown Simpson, O.J. Simpson's ex-wife, and her friend Ron Goldman are brutally stabbed to death outside Nicole's home in Brentwood, California. OJ Simpson was later tried for the murders and although the evidence against Simpson was extensive he was found not guilty.

Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan
The U.S. Figure Skating Association ( USFSA ) stripped Tonya Harding of her her 1994 national Figure Skating championship title and banned her from the organization for life for an attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan. The investigation by the USFSA decided Harding knew about the attack before it happened and displayed "a clear disregard for fairness, good sportsmanship and ethical behavior".

Abortion Clinics
A bill has been sent to President Clinton making it a Federal Crime to block access to an abortion clinic or to use force or threats against people using these facilities. This is in response to over 1000 acts of violence at these facilities in the last 20 years.

UK Lottery Introduced
The new UK lottery operated by Camelot has it's first lottery draw with an estimated jackpot of £7m . As part of the franchise awarded to Camelot to run the lottery a percentage of the money raised from ticket sales will help fund the arts, sports, charities, national heritage and millennium celebrations.

Nelson Mandela Elected President South Africa
South Africans vote in the country's first multiracial parliamentary elections.

Nelson Mandela of the ANC is voted by a landslide to be the next president of South Africa and head the new coalition government.

European Fighter Aircraft "Eurofighter"
The European Fighter Aircraft "Eurofighter" makes its inaugural test flight.

The joint venture plans for the Eurofighter were first conceived in 1983 and is a joint venture between British Aerospace Defence, Dasa in Germany, Alenia in Italy. Casa in Spain.

The aircraft which achieves Mach 2 with an expected speed of 1,370mph entered production in 2003 as the Eurofighter Typhoon with 137 so far sold and in use in Royal Air Force, Luftwaffe, Aeronautica Militare, Italiana, Ejército del Aire.

Additional orders from Austria and Saudi Arabia have followed

Two Shot At Abortion Clinics
Two women are shot dead and several others injured after a gunman opened fire at two abortion clinics in a suburb of Boston.

Kurt Cobain
Modern rock legend Kurt Cobain lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter for the rock band Nirvana commits suicide with a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head.

Estonia Sinking
852 people die when the Car and Passenger Ferry the Estonia sinks in the Baltic Sea

Brazil Win 1994 World Cup
Brazil Win the 1994 World Cup beating Italy 3-2 on penalty Shoot Outs after a 1-1 draw after extra time in the United States

Aldrich Ames Soviet Spy Charged
Former Central Intelligence Agency veteran Aldrich Ames and his wife, Rosario, are charged with selling national security secrets to the Soviet Union.

He later received a sentence of life imprisonment, and his wife received a 5-year prison sentence for conspiracy to commit espionage and tax evasion

Rwanda Blood Bath
When Rwanda’s president was killed in a plane crash the country was plunged into a blood bath and genocide. The Hutu majority slaughtered the Tutsis and a half a million people lay dead in the worst case of Genocide in 45 years. A missionary exclaimed, “There are no devils left in hell. They are all in Rwanda.”

Rolls Royce BMW Engines
Rolls-Royce, announces that its future cars would feature 12-cylinder motors manufactured by Germany's BMW.

Orange County Files For Bankruptcy Protection
Orange County, Calif. an affluent California community filed for bankruptcy protection due to investment losses of about $2 billion on its multi-billion-dollar investment fund.

Oil Found Under Windsor Castle
Studies have shown there could be up to £1bn of oil lying beneath the Windsor Castle, in Berkshire, and the Queen has given the go ahead for oil drilling to take place in the grounds of Windsor Castle

Los Angeles Earthquake
An earthquake which measured 6.6 on the Richter scale shook up the city of Los Angeles on this day. This natural disaster killed 54 people and caused billions of dollars in damage. This was one of the largest earthquakes to have taken place in the United States.

Norway Votes No To European Union
The Norwegian voters have voted in a referendum, to reject membership of the European Union

Achille Lauro On Fire
The Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro caught fire off Somalia with 3 people dead but most of the nearly 1,000 passengers and crew escaping in lifeboats.

Montana Fires 1994
In Montana in 1994 violent wildfires spread. These fires had burned up at least 286,000 acres. Fires have burned in subsequent years as well, as it is common in this area.

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