The 'Portrait of Dr. Gachet' by Vincent van Gogh was sold for $82.5 million in three minutes.
Latvia declared its independence from the Soviet Union.
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.
Mikhail Gorbachev was elected as the Soviet Union's first President.
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 Zodiac Killer shot his first victim Mario Orosco.
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.
The rings of Neptune were discovered.
A solar flare from the sun created a geomagnetic storm, which caused Toronto's stock market to halt.
The Space Shuttle Colombia launched from the Kennedy Space Center for a secret military mission.
The Stealth Bomber makes its debut.
Burning the US flag was deemed legal.
A Surinam Airways jet crashes on landing in Paramaribo.
Poland holds the first free elections after World War II.
Up to 800 civilians and 12 soldiers died during a student protest for democracy at Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China.
Mike Tyson received his second speeding ticket while drag racing his Lamborghini in Albany, New York.
NASA's Atlantis Space Shuttle ferried the Magellan space probe into orbit.
The Iron Curtain begins to crumble as Hungary dismantles its border fence.
The deadliest tornado in history kills about 1300 people.
A small group of students initiates pro-democracy protest on Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
The Hillsborough disaster occurred.
The Soviet K-278 Komsomolets nuclear submarine caught fire and sank off the coast of Norway.
New York Times Newspaper officially declared that the Cold War was over.
