January 3 - Teenage gang members who had been found guilty of murdering a Utah tourist in New York City are each sentenced to the maximum term of twenty-five years in prison.
January 6 - The federal government seizes control of one of the largest banks in the United States fearing a run on deposits at the Bank of New England Corporation.
January 9 - A special committee of the Major League Baseball authorities officially bans all time hit leader Pete Rose from being elected into the Hall of Fame.
January 12 - The House and Senate authorize President Bush to use force to expel Iraq from Kuwait.
January 15 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the United States may deport convicted I.R.A. killer Thomas Doherty to the United Kingdom for sentencing.
January 15 - The United States and allies officially go towar against the nation of Iraq.
January 16 - Astronomers report the discovery of two extremely large and hot stars by the Hubble Space Telescope.
January 17 - A Missouri judge rules that a father has the right to end his comatose daughter's treatment even if that means she will die.
January 22 - The U.S. Postal Service approves a four cent increase on postage stamps bring the price to twenty-nine cents.
January 25 - The state of Utah enacts the toughest anti-abortion law in the nation.
January 27 - U.S. planes bomb Kuwaiti oil refineries in an attempt to quell the flow of oil into the Persian Gulf.
January 28 - American football legend Red Grange, "The Galloping Ghost," dies at the age of seventy-eight.
January 31 - Trans World Airlines (T.W.A.) declares bankruptcy. The airline, which is facing over $1 billion in debts, continues to fly however.
February 1 - In a move to spur the economy, the Federal Reserve sharply reduces interest rates.
February 1 - A U.S. Air Boeing 737 jet collides with a small commuter aircraft on a runway at Los Angeles International Airport killing thirty-four passengers.
February 4 - FBI agent Richard Miller is sentenced to twenty years in prison for spying. He is the only active agent ever convicted of espionage.
February 5 - A Michigan court officially bars Dr. Jack Kevorkian from assisting the terminally ill who wish to commit suicide.
February 12 - A U.S. Appeals court judge rules that the sentencing judge used an improper emphasis on religion when sentencing televangelist Jim Bakker to forty-five years in prison.
February 13 - Homosexual and unmarried heterosexual partners begin registering under new law at San Francisco City Hall.
February 20 - Preston Robert Tisch, President of the Lowes Corporation agrees to purchase half of the New York Giants football team for a reported price of fifty million dollars.
February 24 - Three fire fighters are killed in a fire which destroyed a 38 story building in downtown Philadelphia next door to City Hall.
February 27 - President Bush suspends military operations in the Gulf War, with an overwhelming victory.
February 28 - An automobile crash in Miami kills Ramon A. Navarro who was being paid by the government as the star witness against Manuel Noriega.
March 3 - Television audiences are shocked by the airing of a home video of several Los Angeles Police Officers beating motorist Rodney King with billy clubs.
March 11 - Walter H. Annenberg bequeaths his art collection worth one billion dollars to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
March 12 - Exxon Corporation is ordered to pay $1.1 Billion settlement including civil and criminal damages as a result of the Valdez oil spill.
March 14 - A twenty week strike which had crippled the New York Daily News is finally ended when British publisher Robert Maxwell agrees to buy the paper and settle disputes with the Union.
March 16 - Seven country musicians who are members of Reba McIntire's band along with a road manager and two pilots are killed when their chartered plane crashes in the California mountains.
March 20 - The Supreme Court Rules unanimously that employers cannot exclude women from jobs in which exposure to toxic chemicals could potentially cause damage to a developing fetus.
March 21 - Twenty-seven men are lost at sea when two U.S. Navy anti-submarine planes collide over Pacific Ocean near San Diego, California.
March 22 - Federal, state, and local law enforcement officers raid fraternities at the University of Virginia seizing bags of drugs and arresting eleven students.
March 22 - The state of Rhode Island reacts to a banking crisis by closing forty-five banks until they arrange Federal insurance for deposits.
March 26 - The Supreme Court rules that use of a coerced statement during a trial does not automatically void a conviction.
March 29 - Former President Ronald Reagan reverses his position by coming out in favor of seven day waiting periods for purchases of handguns.
March 30 - Heavy rain storms rage across the southeastern United States killing at least twenty-three.
March 31 - The Supreme Court expands the ban on the use of racial criteria in jury selection.
April 3 - United States Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania, the pickle and ketchup magnate, is killed along with six others in a plane crash.
April 5 - Former United States Senator John Tower of Texas is killed along with twenty-two others in a plane crash in Georgia.
April 16 - Congress halts a one day railroad strike by appointing a three person panel to hear the differences of the railroads and the workers.
April 18 - The Dalai Lama, exiled spiritual leader of the nation of Tibet addresses the United States Congress.
April 23 - After five years of competition among several companies the U.S. Air Force selects a Lockheed Corporation design for the new F-22 radar-evading fighter plane.
April 26 - More than seventy tornadoes blow across seven midwestern states killing at least twenty people and leaving over 1,000 homeless.
May 1 - A cease-fire ends a civil war in Angola as the government and the United States supported rebels agree to hold democratic elections in 1992.
May 3 - The Exxon Corporation and the state of Alaska withdraw from a $1.1 billion settlement resulting from the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
May 4 - President George Bush is treated for an erratic heart beat which struck him while he was jogging at Camp David. It is later determined that he did not suffer a heart attack.
May 9 - William Kennedy Smith, nephew of late President John F. Kennedy and current United States Senator Edward M. Kennedy, is accused of raping a Florida woman. He is later acquitted in a highly publicized trial.
May 12 - A new cancer drug is unveiled which can only be found in the bark of a rare tree of the Pacific Northwest.
May 16 - Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first British Monarch to address Congress.
May 20 - General Norman Schwarzkopf is granted honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II of England.
May 28 - The Supreme Court rules that the conviction on perjury charges given to former National Security Council aide Oliver North should be reviewed.
May 30 - The Supreme Court rules that police officers with a warrant to search a car may search bags and packages within the car whether or not they have a cause to do so.
June 5 - Elizabeth L. Carl is ordained as the first openly lesbian priest in the Episcopal Church.
June 10 - Thousands of people participate in a ticker tape parade in New York City celebrating the American victory in the Persian Gulf War.
June 10 - After several years of debate, the National League committee announce that Miami and Denver have been selected as sites for Major League Baseball expansion franchises.
June 15 - Scientist reveal discovery that hemoglobin, a key oxygen-carrying part of human blood is created by pigs.
June 17 - Zachary Taylor's body is exhumed to determine if he had been poisoned during his Presidential term; it is found that he was not poisoned.
June 19 - The state legislator of Louisiana enacts the strictest anti-abortion law in the United States which outlaws all abortions except in a few special circumstances.
June 21 - The Supreme Court rules in support of some state's ban on nude dancing in nightclubs.
June 27 - Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American ever to serve on the United States Supreme Court, resigns after twenty-four years as a one of the most liberal voices on the panel.
July 1 - President George Bush announces that he has selected conservative appeals court judge Clarence Thomas to replace Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court.
July 9 - The Los Angeles Police Department is charged with the use of excessive force in numerous situations.
July 15 - The Commerce Secretary of the United States officially overrides the recommendation of the director of the U.S. Census Bureau and refuses to revise the findings of the 1990 census which the bureau says failed to count over five million Americans.
July 22 - Police arrest serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in Milwaukee after discovering skulls, heads and other body parts in his apartment.
July 23 - The United States Senate votes to curb trade with the communist nation of China in order to force the release of some political prisoners.
July 30 - Two ships collide off the coast of Olympic National Park in Washing State causing a huge oil slick which threatens local fish and wildlife populations.
July 31 - The United States Senate votes in a large majority to overturn a forty-three year old law banning women from flying combat aircraft.
August 9 - Hundreds of people storm an abortion clinic in Kansas in protest to new law prohibiting the blocking of access to clinics by pro-life demonstrators.
August 13 - Prominent Washington figure Clark Clifford resigns as chairman of First American Bankshares Inc. in the wake of the BCCI scandal.
August 19 - A hurricane cuts off electrical power to millions of homes from North Carolina to Maine. Two people are killed.
August 30 - Federal agents stage a raid on the Federal Correctional Institution in Talladega, Alabama releasing twelve hostages and seizing 121 inmates who had rioted in effort to avoid being deported to Cuba.
September 2 - President George Bush give full diplomatic recognition to the newly liberated former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
September 3 - Twenty-five people are killed and forty people are injured in a blaze at a North Carolina chicken-processing plant. Some of the injured workers claim that the fire exits had been blocked.
September 4 - Computer hackers devise a program to decipher the tightly held secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
September 6 - Clair E. George, once the third highest ranking official in the Central Intelligence Agency, is accused of perjury and obstruction of investigations relating to the Iran-Contra affair.
September 13 - Six people are arrested for the murders of nine members of a Phoenix, Arizona Buddhist temple.
September 16 - A federal judge overturns a previous conviction and drops all charges against former National Security Council Aide Oliver North.
September 26 - President George Bush announces that the United States will abandon all of its short-range nuclear weapons on land and sea in Europe and Asia.
October 1 - The United States cuts off economic aide to the nation of Haiti and refuses to recognize the new government which was established after a military coup removed democratically elected President Aristide.
October 2 - The United States and the Philippines agree to a three plan for the withdrawal of all American military troops by 1994.
October 3 - Speaker of the House of Representatives Thomas Foley of Washington State announces that the house bank will be closed down in the wake of a scandal which revealed the bank was covering house members' bad checks with taxpayer money.
October 4 - The United States becomes one of twenty-four nations to sign a treaty banning the exploration of oil resources in Antarctica for at least fifty years.
October 5 - The U.S. Congress agrees to a plan to construct a new $220 million dollar embassy in Moscow to replace the one which was built by Russian crews and was completely wire-tapped. The old building will be used for non-classified business.
October 6 - University of Oklahoma law professor Anita F. Hill accuses Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of having sexually harassed her while she worked as his personal assistant. The majority of the U.S. Senate finds the charges groundless and he is later confirmed to the court.
October 8 - The food and drug administration approves a drug known as dideoxyinosine for treatment of
patients with AIDS. It is the second drug approved for this purpose.
November 7 - Magic Johnson, professional basketball player, retires from the Los Angeles Lakers after testing positive for the HIV virus.
December 7 - President Bush leads the observance of the fiftieth anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii that brought the U.S. into World War II.
