The News of 1994.

January:

• American figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is attacked by an assailant hired by Tonya Harding’s ex-husband during the US Figure Skating Championships
• The Irish Government announces the end of a 15-year broadcasting ban on the Provisional IRA and its political arm Sinn Féin
• US President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the Kremlin accords, stopping the preprogrammed aiming of nuclear missiles toward each country’s targets and provides dismantling of the nuclear arsenal in Ukraine
• Student David Kang fires two blank shots from a starting pistol at Prince Charles in protest at the treatment of Cambodian asylum seekers held in detention centres in Australia
• Sir Matt Busby dies aged 84

February:

• Edvard Munch’s The Scream is stolen in Oslo, though is later recovered in May
• The 1994 Winter Olympics takes place in Lillehammer. Russia win the most gold medals, 11, while Norway claim the most medals overall, 26
• Police begin excavations at the home of Fred West, investigating the disappearance of his daughter Heather, last seen alive in 1987 at the age of 16. Two days later, West is charged with her murder and that of the Shirley Robinson, an 18 year old woman last seen alive in 1978
• Israeli extremist Baruch Goldstein kills 29 Muslims inside the Cave of the Patriarchs in the West Bank before worshippers beat him to death
• British Coal confirms the closure of four more pits costing 3000 jobs
• Conservative MP, Stephen Milligan, is found dead at his home in Chiswick, police describe the death as “suspicious”. Forensic tests later reveal he died of asphyxiation and death was probably the result of an auto-erotic sex practice

March:

• The Church of England ordains its first female priests
• At the 66th Academy Awards, Schindler’s List wins seven Oscars including Best Picture as well as a first statuette for Steven Spielberg for Best Director
• Italian journalist Ilaria Alpi and TV cameraman Miran Hrovatin are assassinated in Somalia
• Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio is assassinated at a campaign rally in Tijuana
• Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing coalition wins the Italian general election
• The IRA launch three successive mortar strikes in Heathrow Airport
• Europe’s first inverted roller coaster, Nemesis, opens at Alton Towers
• Police confirm they have found eight bodies buried at the home of Fred West

April:

• Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundi President Cyprien Ntaryamira die when a missile shoots down their jet near Kigali, Rwada. This precipitates the Rwandan genocide in Kigali, which within weeks is estimated to have killed hundreds of thousands of Tutsi in Rwanda
• Finland vote to join the European Union in a referendum
• South Africa adopts a new national flag to replace the flag used during apartheid
• South Africa holds its first fully multicultural elections, marking the end of the last vestiges of apartheid. Nelson Mandela wins the election and is sworn in as the first democratically elected president the following month
• Human remains found at Kempley, Gloucestershire, believed to be that of Catherine Costello, Fred West’s first wife, last seen alive in 1971. Rose West is later charged with three of the murders her husband stands accused of
• Kurt Cobain is found dead at his home in Seattle at the age of 27, police conclude he died from a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head

May:

• Ayrton Senna is killed in an accident during the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, Italy
• The Channel Tunnel opens after seven years of construction
• John Smith, leader of the Labour Party, dies of a heart attack
• Police find human remains buried at Fred and Rose West’s former home, the body is believed to be that of the former’s daughter, Charmaine, last seen alive at the age of 8 in 1971
• The Camelot Group consortium wins the contract to run the UK’s first National Lottery

June:

• The Republic of South Africa rejoins the Commonwealth, having left in 1961
• Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman are murdered outside the Simpson home in Los Angeles. OJ Simpson and friend Al Cowlings flee from police in his white Ford Bronco, before Simpson surrenders at his LA mansion
• The 1994 FIFA World Cup begins in the United States. Brazil become champions beating Italy 3-2 on penalties after the game ended 0-0 after extra time at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California
• Pierce Brosnan is announced as the fifth actor to play James Bond
• Further investigation into the Gloucester mass murder case reveals the remains of Anne McFall, last seen in 1967 at the age of 18 and pregnant with West’s child, in a field at Much Marcle near Gloucester
• Fred West is charged with a total of eleven murders believed to have been committed between 1967 and 1987, while Rose West is charged with nine murders believed to have been committed between 1970 and 1987

July

• Colombian footballer Andrés Escobar is shot dead in Medellin, it is believed to be in retaliation for the own goal he scored in the World Cup against the USA
• Jeff Bezos founds Amazon
• North Korean President Kim Il-sung dies but officially continues to hold office
• The Allied occupation of Berlin ends
• In Buenos Aires, a terrorist attack on a building housing several Jewish organisations kills 85 and injures many more
• Rwandan Patriotic Front troops capture Gisenyi, ending the Rwandan genocide
• Fred West is further charged with the murder of Anne McFall
• The Queen opens the SIS Building, the new headquarters of MI6 on the banks of the River Thames
• Tony Blair wins the Labour Party leadership election ahead of John Prescott and Margaret Beckett

August:

• The Provisional IRA announce a complete cessation of military operations
• Activists gather round Havana’s Castillo de la Punta, marking the first protests against Fidel Castro’s government since 1959
• Fifteen-year-old Richard Everitt is stabbed to death in London by a gang of British Bangladeshis in a racially motivated attack
• The Sunday Trading Act 1994 comes into full effect permitting retailers to trade on Sundays, though restricting opening hours for larger stores to a maximum of six hours

September:

• New South Wales State MP, John Newman, is shot outside his home in Australia’s first political assassination since 1977
• US President Bill Clinton signs the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, banning the manufacture of firearms with certain features for ten years
• Danish tour guide, Louise Jensen, is abducted, raped and murdered by three British soldiers in Ayia Napa, Cyprus
• Mexican politician, Ruiz Massieu, is assassinated on the orders of Raúl Salinas de Gortari, the elder brother of Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari
• Lidl opens its first ten stores in Britain

October:

• In Switzerland, 23 members of the Order of the Solar Temple cult are found dead, a day after 25 fellow cultists are discovered in Morin-Heights, Quebec
• Cash-for-questions: The Guardian reports Conservative MPs Neil Hamilton and Tim Smith took bribes from Harrods chief Mohamed Al-Fayed to ask questions in the House of Commons

November:

• Former US President Ronald Reagan announces he has Alzheimer’s disease
• Influential Afrikaner theologian and apartheid critic Johan Heyns is assassinated, the killers are never apprehended or identified
• The US Republican Party gain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate for the first time in 40 years
• Sweden votes to join the European Union in a referendum, while a similar vote in Norway ends with voters deciding against joining
• The Daily Telegraph becomes the first national newspaper in Britain to launch an online edition, with approximately 600,000 people in Britain now having access to the internet at home
• The first UK National Lottery takes place

December:

• Sony releases the PlayStation in Japan
• The British government and Sinn Féin meet for the first time in more than 70 years

Other:

• Due to the popularity of Four Weddings and a Funeral, featured song “Love is All Around” by Wet Wet Wet is the best-selling single of the year
• With worldwide earnings of $763 million, Disney’s The Lion King is the highest grossing film of the year