1992

1992 is a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar.

align="center" colspan=2 | Years:
1989 1990 1991 - 1992 - 1993 1994 1995

align="center" colspan=2 | Decades:
1960s 1970s 1980s - 1990s - 2000s 2010s 2020s

align="center" | Centuries:
19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Events

January

January - The Internet Society is formed.
January 1

Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Prez de Cullar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General
George H. W. Bush becomes the first President of the United States to address the Australian Parliament.

January 8 - Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina declare their own republic in protest at a decision by Bosnia's Croats and Muslims to seek EC recognition.
January 11 - Paul Simon is the first major artist to tour South Africa after the end of the cultural boycott.
January 12 - The second round of Algeria's general elections is cancelled when the first round is favorable to the Islamic Salvation Front.
January 13

Japan apologizes for forcing Korean women into sexual slavery during World War II.
Jeffrey Dahmer pleads guilty but insane to the murders of 15 young men and boys.

January 15 - The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ceases to exist. Slovenia and Croatia gain independence.
January 16 - El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign a pact in Mexico City that ends a 12 year civil war that claimed at least 75,000.
January 22

Rebel forces occupy Zaire's national radio station in Kinshasa and broadcast a demand for the government's resignation
Dr. Roberta Bondar becomes the first Canadian woman in space.

January 26 - Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia is going to stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons.
January 27 - Mike Tyson goes on trial charged with raping a 1991 Miss Black America contestant.

February

February 1 - Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal court declares Warren Anderson, ex-CEO of Union Carbide a fugitive under Indian law for failing to appear in the Bhopal Disaster case, and orders the Indian government to press for an extradition from United States
February 7 - Signing of the Maastricht treaty
February 10 - In Indianapolis, Indiana boxer Mike Tyson is convicted of raping a Miss Black America contestant named Desiree Washington
February 11 - F-16 jet crashes into a residential district of Hengelo, the Netherlands. No casualties are reported.
February 11 - Art band The KLF subvert the UK's Brit Awards
February 17 - A court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin sentences Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer to life in prison
February 18 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The Executive Chairman of UNSCOM details Iraq's refusal to abide by UN Security Council disarmament resolutions.
February 26 - Supreme Court of Ireland rules that a 14-year-old rape victim may get an abortion

March

March - Boxer Mike Tyson is given a 6 year sentence for raping an 18 year old Miss Black America contestant, Desiree Washington
March 1 - After a majority of Muslim and Croatian communities vote for Bosnian independence, Bosnian Serb snipers fire on civilians
March 1 - boxer Kostya Tszyu beats Darrell Hiles by a knockout in one round
March 6 - The 'Michelangelo' computer virus begins to affect computers
March 12 - Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the British Commonwealth
March 13 - In eastern Turkey, an earthquake registering 6.8 on the Richter scale kills over 500.
March 17 - 29 are killed and 242 injured when a suicide car-bomb goes off in the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires.
March 18 - Microsoft ships Windows 3.1
March 25 - Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returns to Earth a 10-month stay aboard the Mir space station

April

April - Bosnia and Herzegovina secedes from Yugoslavia.
April 2 - In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder of mob boss Paul Castellano and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison
April 6 - Robert Schumann (record-breaker) becomes the youngest person to visit the north pole
April 8 - Punch magazine publishes its final issue
April 9 - A Miami jury convicts former Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega of assisting Colombia's cocaine cartel
April 9 - United Kingdom general election - John Major unexpectedly re-elected.
April 10 - IRA bomb explodes in the Baltic Exchange in the City of London - 3 dead, 91 injured
April 14-October 15 - The trial of the Russian serial killer Andrew Chikatilo - he is sentenced to death
April 21 - Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia succeeds her father as Head of the Imperial Family of Russia and Titular Empress and Autocrat of all the Russias.
April 27 - Betty Boothroyd elected the first woman to be Speaker of the British House of Commons.
April 29 - In Los Angeles, California, the police officers that were accused of excessive force in their severe beating of Rodney King, were found "not guilty". The verdict resulted in several days of riots in L.A. and smaller riots around the country.

May

May 5 - Alabama ratifies a 202-year-old proposed amendment to the United States Constitution making the 27th Amendment law. This amendment bars the U.S. Congress from giving itself a midterm or retroactive pay raise
May 15 - The Genoa Expo '92 World's Fair opens in Genoa, Italy
May 16 - STS-49: Space Shuttle Endeavour lands safely after a successful maiden voyage
May 20 - Amy Fisher, the so-called "Long Island Lolita," is arrested for shooting Mary Jo Buttafuoco on the front porch of her Massapequa, New York home
May 22 - Johnny Carson hosts The Tonight Show for the last time
May 23 - Mafia bomb kills Italian anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone
May 26 - Charles Geschke, President of Adobe Systems is kidnapped from his company car park. Kidnappers demand ransom for $650,000 - they are later apprehended

June

June 1 - Carlos the Jackal is sentenced to life imprisonment
June 1 - Kentucky celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
June 1 - The Pittsburgh Penguins sweep the Chicago Blackhawks in 4 games in the 1992 Stanley Cup Finals.
June 15 - During a spelling bee at a Trenton, New Jersey elementary school, U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle corrects a student's spelling of the word potato by indicating it should have an e at the end.
June 17 - A 'Joint Understanding' agreement on arms reduction is signed by U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin (this would be later codified in START II). http://www.fas.org/nuke/control/start2/
June 22 - Two skeletons excavated in Yekaterinburg are identified as Czar Nicholas II and his tsarina
June 23 - Mafia boss John Gotti is sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and racketeering on April 2 http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/mob_bosses/gotti/don_24.html?sect=15

July

July 6-29 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses a U.N. inspection team access to the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture. UNSCOM claimed that it had reliable information that the site contained archives related to illegal weapons activities. U.N. Inspectors stage a 17-day "sit-in" outside of the building, but leave when their safety is threatened by Iraqi soldiers
July 10 - In Miami, Florida, former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega is sentenced to 40 years in prison for drug and racketeering violations
July 13 - Britain's former executioner Albert Pierrepoint dies
July 20 - Vclav Havel resigns as president of Czechoslovakia
July 22 - Near Medelln, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escapes from his luxury prison fearing extradiction to the United States.
July 25 - Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

August

August 7 - Buckingham Palace opened to the public for the first time
August 10 - The UK government bans Ulster Defence Association
August 17 - US Marshalls start Siege of Ruby Ridge
August 18 - Wang Laboratories files for bankruptcy
August 20 - Kristiansunds connection to the main land of Norway, Krifast, opens.
August 23 - Hurricane Andrew hits South Florida.
August 28 - Hurricane Andrew dissapates over the Tennessee valley when it merges with a storm system. Twenty-three were killed.

September

September 16 - Pound Sterling and Italian Lira forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (Black Wednesday)
September 23 - A large IRA bomb destroys the forensic laboratories in Belfast

October

October 2 - Riot in the Carandiru prison system in So Paulo, Brazil, which leads up to the events known as the Carandiru Massacre.
(October 3) Victorian state election Jeff Kennett replaces Joan kirner as Victorian premier
October 4 - Plane crash in Amsterdam, Netherlands, known as the Bijlmerramp.
October 9 - A 13 kilogram meteorite landed in the driveway of the Knapp residence in Peekskill, New York destroying the family's 1980 Chevrolet Malibu.
October 15 - In Russia, Andrei Chikatilo is found guilty of 52 serial murders.
October 26 - In Canada, the Charlottetown Accord is defeated in a national referendum.
October 29 - The Food and Drug Administration approves Depo Provera for use as a contraceptive in the United States.
Zee TV, the first Hindi satellite channel is launched.
October 31 – BBC TV airs Ghostwatch.

November

November 3 - Bill Clinton defeats George H. W. Bush and H. Ross Perot in the U.S. presidential election
November 5 - In Detroit, Michigan, black motorist Malice Green is beaten to death by policemen Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn during a struggle (the officers were later convicted and sentenced to prison)
November 11 - The Church of England votes to allow women to become priests.
November 20 - In England, a fire breaks out in the Private Chapel room of Windsor Castle, rages for 15 hours, and seriously damages the northwest side of the building (an investigation found that the fire was ignited after a spotlight came into contact with a curtain over an extended period).
November 24 - In the People's Republic of China, a China Southern Airlines domestic flight crashes, killing all 141 people on-board
November 24 - Queen Elizabeth II describes this year as an Annus Horribilis (horrible year) due to various scandals damaging the image of the Royal Family
November 25 - The Czechoslovakia Federal Assembly votes to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia starting on January 1, 1993
November 30 - A murder trial of 14 South Vietnamese accused of murder of 24 North Vietnamese begins in Hong Kong (ends November 29 1994)

December

December 3 - UN Security Council Resolution 794 is unanimously passed, approving a coalition of United Nations peacekeepers led by the United States to form UNITAF, tasked with ensuring humanitarian aid gets distributed and establishing peace in Somalia.
December 3 - The Greek oil tanker Aegean Sea carrying 80,000 tonnes of crude oil runs aground in a storm while on approach to La Corua, Spain, and spills much of its cargo
December 4 - US military forces invade Somalia.
December 5 - Kent Conrad of North Dakota resigns his seat in the United States Senate and is sworn into the other seat from North Dakota, becoming the only US Senator ever to have held two seats on the same day.
December 6 - Hindu activists destroy the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, India, triggering religious violence around the country.
December 8 - Last blast fired in Falu Copper Mine in Sweden. The end of a millennium of continuous operation.
December 20 - The Folies Bergere music hall in Paris, France closes.
December 29 - Brazil's president Fernando Collor de Mello resigns, following charges that he stole more than $32 million from the government and impeachment precedings.

unknown dates

The Council for National Academic Awards, UK is wound up.
Pope John Paul II issues an apology and lifts the edict of Inquisition against Galileo Galilei
The largest shopping mall in the US, Minnesota's Mall of America is constructed spanning 78 acres (316,000 m²)
Carsington Reservoir opened in England after nearly 20 years planning and construction.

Year in topic

1992 in art
1992 in film

March 13 - My Cousin Vinny starring Joe Pesci, Marisa Tomei, Ralph Macchio, and Fred Gwynne
May 15 - Lethal Weapon 3 starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, and Joe Pesci
May 22 - Alien3 starring Sigourney Weaver
May 22 - Far and Away starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman
June 5 - Patriot Games starring Harrison Ford
October 2 - Hero starring Dustin Hoffman
November 20 - Home Alone 2: Lost In New York starring Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, and Daniel Stern
December 11 - A Few Good Men starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Demi Moore
Unforgiven starring Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Harris. Eastwood also directed.
Scent of a Woman

1992 in literature
1992 in music

Dr. Dre's The Chronic is widely considered the first G funk LP, as well as a memorable West Coast gangsta rap album

1992 in sports

January 26 - Super Bowl XXVI Washington Redskins (37) def. Buffalo Bills (24)
February 11 - Michael Johnson runs an indoor world record over 400 meters.
June- The Chicago Bulls defeat the Portland Trail Blazers 4 games to 2 to claim their second consecutive NBA basketball world title.
October 24 - The Toronto Blue Jays become the first non-US team to win the World Series.

1992 in television

April 30 - After a seven year run the last episode of The Cosby Show airs.
June 3 - Presidential Candidate Bill Clinton appears on The Arsenio Hall Show. Clinton even plays the saxophone with the live band.
Growing Pains actress Tracey Gold loses a massive amount of weight due to anorexia nervosa and is placed in hospital care. As a result, she is written out of most of the final episodes.
After 30 years on the air, Johnny Carson announces his retirement. David Letterman, who had been promised The Tonight Show upon Carson's retirement years earlier leaves NBC for CBS when the network gives the show to frequent guest host Jay Leno.
Barney & Friends, a children's educational television show starring a giant purple dinosaur, premieres.