US Congress gave George H. W. Bush the authority to declare war on Iraq.
Slovenian referendum on independence from Yugoslavia.
NASA's Galileo spacecraft made its first flyby of Earth.
Prime Minister of Britain, Margaret Thatcher, handed in her resignation to the Queen and stepped down after being prime minister for 11 years.
Apple Day started in Covent Garden, London.
South Ossetia declared its independence from Georgia.
Liechtenstein became the 160th member of the United Nations.
A Faucett Perú 727 airliner disappeared without a trace off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
An F5 max rating tornado smashed through Plainfield, Illinois, killing 29 people, injuring 353, and causing $165 million in damages.
Armenia declared its independence from the Soviet Union.
The largest dinosaur fossil is found.
After a 15-month-long journey from earth, NASA's Magellan went into orbit around Venus and began to map the planet.
The first American soldiers arrived in Saudi Arabia as part of the Gulf War.
Iraq invaded the Gulf state of Kuwait.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 is signed into law.
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic's Parliament declared sovereignty over Ukrainian territories.
Checkpoint Charlie is dismantled.
The state of Florida banned thong bikinis at some state parks.
Police checks on drunk drivers was declared constitutional by the US Supreme Court.
The WHO deletes homosexuality from its list of mental diseases.
The first pieces of the Berlin Wall were dismantled, starting at Brandenburg Gate.
Nicaragua elected its first-ever female President, Violeta Chamorro.
The Discovery Space Shuttle deployed the Hubble Space Telescope into low-Earth orbit.
NASA's Discovery Space Shuttle carried the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit.
The 'Twentieth Century Dinosaurs' exhibit opened at the Smithsonian Institution Museum of Natural History.
Jesse Owens posthumously receives the Congressional Gold Medal.
After seventy-five years of South African rule, Namibia finally gained its independence.
The first Women's World Championship Ice Hockey Tournament took place in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
East Germany holds its first and only free parliamentary elections.
$500 million worth of art was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, US.
Patricio Aylwin becomes Chile's first democratically elected president since the end of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship.
Lithuania becomes the first Soviet republic to declare its independence.
The New Zealand Navy ended its daily allowance of rum to their sailors.
Nelson Mandela was released from prison after being incarcerated for 27 years in South Africa.
The South African Apartheid system of racial segregation begins to disintegrate.
Japan launched its first lunar probe, Hiten, from the Uchinoura Space Center.
American tennis player John McEnroe became the first player to be expelled from the Australian Open.
China lifted martial law.
NASA's Columbia Space Shuttle launched from the Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-32.
The iconic Leaning Tower of Pisa leaned 'too far,' which resulted in its closure.
The show trial of Romanian Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu occurred.
Romanian President Nicolae Ceaușescu overthrown.
United States' invasion of Panama begins.
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George H. W. Bush declared an end to the Cold War.
The Discovery Space Shuttle was launched on the fifth Department of Defense shuttle mission.
This day marked the beginning of The Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia.
The Berlin Wall began to fall.
New York City elected its first African American Mayor, David Dinkins.
Loma Prieta earthquake rocks California.
'Uncle Sam' became the official nickname of the United States.
