This Year in History:
1993
Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
On January 3, 1993, backup quarterback Frank Reich leads the Buffalo Bills to a 41‑38 overtime victory over the Houston Oilers in an American Football Conference (AFC) wild card playoff…
On January 19, 1993, production begins on Toy Story, the first full‑length feature film created by the pioneering Pixar Animation Studios. Originally a branch of the filmmaker George Lucas’s visual…
On January 19, 1993, the band Fleetwood Mac reunites to perform at the recently elected U.S. President Bill Clinton’s first inaugural gala. Fleetwood Mac had faced much intra‑band squabbling since…
One of America’s most beloved actresses, Audrey Hepburn, dies on January 20, 1993, near her home in Lausanne, Switzerland. The 63‑year‑old Hepburn had undergone surgery for colon cancer the previous…
On January 25, 1993, American Chad Rowan becomes the first non‑Japanese sumo wrestler to become a “yokozuna,” the sport’s highest rank. Rowan, a 23‑year‑old Hawaii native who stands 6‑foot‑8 and weighs…
On February 6, 1993, tennis champion Arthur Ashe, the only African American man to win Wimbledon and the U.S. and Australian Opens, dies of complications from AIDS, at age 49…
At 12:18 p.m., a terrorist bomb explodes in a parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City, leaving a massive, multi‑story crater and causing the collapse of…
At Mount Carmel in Waco, Texas, agents of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) launch a raid against the Branch Davidian compound as part of…
On March 8, 1993, the Music Television Network (MTV) airs the first episode of the animated series Beavis and Butt‑Head, which will go on to become the network’s highest‑rated series…
Dr. David Gunn is shot and killed during an anti‑abortion protest at the Pensacola Women’s Medical Services clinic. Dr. Gunn performed abortions at several clinics in Florida and Alabama and…
On April 1, 1993, race car driver and owner Alan Kulwicki, who won the 1992 National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) Winston Cup championship by one of the…
On April 8, 1993, the space shuttle Discovery lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center. On board is astronaut Ellen Ochoa, soon to become the first Hispanic woman in space.…
At Mount Carmel in Waco, Texas, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) launches a tear‑gas assault on the Branch Davidian compound, ending a tense 51‑day standoff between the federal government…
As a nearly month‑long police investigation draws to a close, North Carolina District Attorney Jerry Spivey announces on April 27, 1993 that the death of 28‑year‑old Brandon Lee on March…
Top women’s tennis player Monica Seles is stabbed by a deranged German man during a match in Hamburg. The assailant, a fan of German tennis star Steffi Graf, apparently hoped…
On April 30, 1993, four years after publishing a proposal for “an idea of linked information systems,” computer scientist Tim Berners‑Lee released the source code for the world’s first web…
On June 24, 1993, Yale University computer science professor David Gelernter is seriously injured while opening his mail when a padded envelope explodes in his hands. The attack just came…
In Ottawa, Kim Campbell is sworn in as Canada’s 19th prime minister, becoming the first woman to hold the country’s highest office. Born in Port Alberni, British Columbia, in 1947,…
In retaliation for an Iraqi plot to assassinate former U.S. President George H.W. Bush during his April visit to Kuwait, President Bill Clinton orders U.S. warships to fire Tomahawk cruise…
British forensic scientists announce that they have positively identified the remains of Russia’s last czar, Nicholas II; his wife, Czarina Alexandra; and three of their daughters. The scientists used mitochondria…
