1995
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| Millennium: | 2nd millennium |
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| Centuries: | 19th century – 20th century – 21st century |
| Decades: | 1960s 1970s 1980s – 1990s – 2000s 2010s 2020s |
| Years: | 1992 1993 1994 – 1995 – 1996 1997 1998 |
| 1995 by topic: |
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| Gregorian calendar | 1995 MCMXCV |
| Ab urbe condita | 2748 |
| Armenian calendar | 1444 ԹՎ ՌՆԽԴ |
| Assyrian calendar | 6745 |
| Bahá'í calendar | 151–152 |
| Bengali calendar | 1402 |
| Berber calendar | 2945 |
| British Regnal year | 43 Eliz. 2 – 44 Eliz. 2 |
| Buddhist calendar | 2539 |
| Burmese calendar | 1357 |
| Byzantine calendar | 7503–7504 |
| Chinese calendar | 甲戌年十二月初一日 (4631/4691-12-1) — to — 乙亥年十一月初十日(4632/4692-11-10) |
| Coptic calendar | 1711–1712 |
| Ethiopian calendar | 1987–1988 |
| Hebrew calendar | 5755–5756 |
| Hindu calendars | |
| - Vikram Samvat | 2051–2052 |
| - Shaka Samvat | 1917–1918 |
| - Kali Yuga | 5096–5097 |
| Holocene calendar | 11995 |
| Igbo calendar | |
| - Ǹrí Ìgbò | 995–996 |
| Iranian calendar | 1373–1374 |
| Islamic calendar | 1415–1416 |
| Japanese calendar | Heisei 7 (平成7年) |
| Juche calendar | 84 |
| Julian calendar | Gregorian minus 13 days |
| Korean calendar | 4328 |
| Minguo calendar | ROC 84 民國84年 |
| Thai solar calendar | 2538 |
| Unix time | 788918400–820454399 |
1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year that started on a Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. The year 1995 was the 1995th year of Anno Domini, the 995th year of the 2nd millennium, the 95th year of the 20th century, and the 6th year of the 1990s.
Events
January
- January 1
- The World Trade Organization (WTO) is established to replace the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
- Austria, Finland & Sweden act to join the European Union.
- The Draupner wave in the North Sea in Norway is detected, confirming the existence of rogue waves.
- January 6– January 7 – A chemical fire occurs in an apartment complex in Manila, Philippines. Policemen led by watch commander Aida Fariscal and investigators find a bomb factory and a laptop computer and disks that contain plans for Project Bojinka, a mass-terrorist attack. The mastermind, Ramzi Yousef, is arrested one month later.
- January 9 – Valeri Polyakov completes 366 days in space while aboard the Mir space station, breaking a duration record.
- January 16
- January 17 – A magnitude 6.8 earthquake called the " Great Hanshin earthquake" occurs near Kobe, Japan, causing great property damage and killing 6,434 people.
- January 25 – Norwegian rocket incident: A rocket launched from the space exploration centre at Andøya, Norway is briefly interpreted by the Russians as an incoming attack.
- January 30 – John Howard becomes leader of the Liberal Party of Australia to challenge Paul Keating for the 1996 Federal Election and the position of Prime Minister of Australia.
- January 31 – U.S. President Bill Clinton invokes emergency powers, to extend a $20 billion loan to help Mexico avert financial collapse.
February
- February 1 – Lyricist/guitarist Richey Edwards of the Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers goes missing from a hotel in Bayswater, London on the eve of a planned tour of the United States. His car is found two weeks later at Severn View services in Aust.
- February 9 – STS-63: Dr. Bernard A. Harris, Jr. and Michael Foale became the first African American and Briton, respectively, to walk in space.
- February 13 – A United Nations tribunal on human rights violations in the Balkans charges 21 Bosnian Serb commanders with genocide and crimes against humanity.
- February 15
- February 17
- Colin Ferguson is convicted of six counts of murder for the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings and later receives a 25-year sentence for each of the six murders.
- February 21
- Serkadji prison mutiny in Algeria: Four guards and 96 prisoners are killed in a day and a half.
- Ibrahim Ali, a 17-year-old Comorian living in France, is murdered by three far-right National Front activists.
- Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada, becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
- February 23 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 30.28 to close at 4,003.33 – the Dow's first ever close above 4,000.
- February 25 – Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) (Organización del Tratado de Cooperación Amazónica [OTCA]).
- February 26 – The United Kingdom's oldest investment banking firm, Barings Bank, collapses after securities broker Nick Leeson loses $1.4 billion by speculating on the Tokyo Stock Exchange
- February 27 – In Denver, Colorado, Stapleton Airport closes and is replaced by the new Denver International Airport, the largest in the United States.
- February 28 – Members of the group Patriot's Council are convicted in Minnesota of manufacturing ricin.
March
- March 1
- March 2 – Nick Leeson is arrested for his role in the collapse of Barings Bank.
- March 3 – In Somalia, the United Nations peacekeeping mission ends.
- March 5 – Ilija Dodić was born in Kruševac, Serbia, a famous Serbian producer and musician.
- March 6 – On an episode of The Jenny Jones Show ("Same-Sex Crushes"), Scott Amedure reveals a crush on his heterosexual friend Jonathan Schmitz. Schmitz kills Amedure several days after the show.
- March 12 – 1995 Gazi Quarter riots were occurred in Sultangazi (then Gaziosmanpaşa), Istanbul, Turkey. A few days later, the events were occurred in Ümraniye, Istanbul and Kızılay, Ankara also.
- March 13 – David Daliberti and William Barloon, two Americans working for a military contractor in Kuwait, are arrested after straying into Iraq.
- March 14 – Astronaut Norman Thagard becomes the first American to ride into space aboard a Russian launch vehicle (the Soyuz TM-21), lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
- March 16 – Mississippi ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The amendment was nationally ratified in 1865.
- March 20 – Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. Members of the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult release sarin gas on five subway trains in Tokyo, killing 13 and injuring 5,510.
- March 22 – Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns after setting a record for 438 days in outer space.
- March 24 – For the first time in 26 years, no British soldiers patrol the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
- March 26 – The Schengen Agreement, easing cross-border travel, goes into effect in several European countries.
- March 30 – A police officer tries to assassinate Takaji Kunimatsu, chief of the National Police Agency of Japan.
- March 31 – American Tejano pop singer Selena is murdered at a motel in Corpus Christi, Texas by her former employee, Yolanda Saldívar.
April
- April 1 – Dialog Telekom launches Sri Lanka's first GSM mobile phone network.
- April 2 – An explosion in Gaza kills 8, including a Hamas leader.
- April 5 – The U.S. House of Representatives votes 246–188 to cut taxes for individuals and corporations.
- April 7 – House Republicans celebrate passage of most of the Contract with America.
- April 19 – Oklahoma City bombing: 168 people, including 8 Federal Marshals and 19 children, are killed at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Timothy McVeigh and one of his accomplices, Terry Nichols, set off the bomb.
- April 24 – A Unabomber bomb kills lobbyist Gilbert Murray in Sacramento, California.
- April 28 – In Daegu, South Korea, a gas explosion at a subway construction site kills 101 people, mostly teenage schoolboys.
May
- May 1
- Jacques Chirac is elected president of France
- Croatian forces launch Operation Flash against rebel Serb forces in western Slavonia.
- May 7 – Finland wins the ice hockey world championship.
- May 11 – More than 170 countries agree to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.
- May 13 – An earthquake hits the regions of Kozani and Grevena in Greece, with an intensity of 6.6 on the Richter scale.
- May 14
- The Dalai Lama proclaims 6-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama.
- Team New Zealand wins the America's Cup in San Diego, beating Stars and Stripes 5–0.
- May 16 – Japanese police besiege the headquarters of Aum Shinrikyo near Mount Fuji and arrest cult leader Shoko Asahara.
- May 18 – Shawn Nelson, 35, goes on a tank rampage in San Diego.
- May 20 – U.S. President Bill Clinton indefinitely closes part of the street in front of the White House, Pennsylvania Avenue, to vehicular traffic in response to the Oklahoma City bombing.
- May 21 – Pope John Paul II canonizes John Sarkander during his visit to Olomouc, the Czech Republic.
- May 23 – Oklahoma City bombing: In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the remains of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building are imploded.
- May 24 – AFC Ajax wins the UEFA Champions League in the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna by defeating AC Milan 0–1 by a goal of Patrick Kluivert. This was the third consecutive win of AFC Ajax over AC Milan that season, ranking AFC Ajax on the 4th place on the list of European Cup and UEFA Champions League winners.
- May 25 – Egan v. Canada: The Supreme Court of Canada rules that discrimination based on sexual orientation is prohibited under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
- May 27 – In Culpeper, Virginia, actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition.
- May 28 – A 7.6 magnitude earthquake in Neftegorsk, Russia kills at least 2,000.
June
- June 1 – The busiest hurricane season in 62 years begins.
- June 2
- Mrkonjić Grad incident: A United States Air Force F-16 piloted by Captain Scott O'Grady is shot down over Bosnia and Herzegovina while patrolling the NATO no-fly zone. O'Grady is rescued by U.S. Marines six days later.
- Waffen-SS Hauptsturmführer Erich Priebke is extradited from Argentina to Italy.
- June 3 – Montreal Expos pitcher Pedro Martinez becomes the second major league baseball pitcher to pitch a "perfect game" leading into the 10th inning.
- June 6
- June 13 – French President Jacques Chirac announces the resumption of nuclear tests in French Polynesia.
- June 15 – A powerful earthquake, registering a moment magnitude of 6.2, hits the city of Aigio, Greece, resulting in several deaths and significant damage to many buildings.
- June 16 – The IOC selects Salt Lake City to host the 2002 Winter Olympics.
- June 20 – Oil multinational Royal Dutch Shell caves in to international pressure and abandons plans to dump the Brent Spar oil rig at sea.
- June 22 – Japanese police rescue 365 hostages from a hijacked All Nippon Airways Flight 857 (Boeing 747-200) at Hakodate airport. The hijacker was armed with a knife and demanded the release of Shoko Asahara.
- June 24
- The New Jersey Devils sweep the heavily favored Detroit Red Wings to win their first Stanley Cup in the lock-out shortened season.
- South Africa wins the Rugby World Cup.
- June 29
- Lisa Clayton completes her 10-month solo circumnavigation from the Northern Hemisphere.
- STS-71: Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian Mir space station for the first time.
- The Sampoong Department Store collapses in the Seocho-gu district of Seoul, South Korea, killing 501 and injuring 937.
- Iraq disarmament crisis: According to UNSCOM, the unity of the UN Security Council begins to fray, as a few countries, particularly France and Russia, become more interested in making financial deals with Iraq than in disarming the country.
July
- July – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq threatens to end all cooperation with UNSCOM and IAEA, if sanctions against the country are not lifted by August 31. Following the defection of his son-in-law, Hussein Kamel al-Majid, Saddam Hussein makes new revelations about the full extent of Iraq's biological and nuclear weapons programs. Iraq also withdraws its last UN declaration of prohibited biological weapons and turns over a large amount of new documents on its WMD programs.
- July 1 – Iraq disarmament crisis: In response to UNSCOM's evidence, Iraq admits for first time the existence of an offensive biological weapons program, but denies weaponization.
- July 4 – UK Prime Minister John Major wins his battle to remain leader of the Conservative Party.
- July 5 – The U.S. Congress passes the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act, requiring that producers of pornography keep records of all models who are filmed or photographed, and that all models be at least 18 years of age.
- July 10 – Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi is freed from house arrest.
- July 11 –
- Bosnian Serbs march into Srebrenica while UN Dutch peacekeepers leave. Large numbers of Bosniak men and boys are killed in the Srebrenica massacre.
- President of the United States Bill Clinton announces formalization of United States-Vietnam relations.
- July 17 – The Nasdaq Composite index closes above the 1,000 mark for the first time.
- July 18 – A series of huge eruptions by the Soufrière Hills volcano sends lava flows and ash falls across a wide area of southern Montserrat.
- July 21– July 26 – Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: The People's Liberation Army fires missiles into the waters north of Taiwan.
- July 23 – David Daliberti and William Barloon, two Americans held as spies by Iraq, are released by Saddam Hussein after negotiations with U.S. Congressman Bill Richardson.
August
- August 2 – The first cold front of the White Earthquake strikes Chile, during the rest of August several communities becomes isolated due to heavy snowfall and livestock is decimated.
- August 3 – An Il-76TD piloted by a Russian crew was forced down by Taliban fighter plane.
- August 4 – Croatian forces launch Operation Storm against Serbian forces in Krajina, with the cooperation of the ARBiH, and force them to withdraw to central Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- August 5 – Croatian forces take Knin and continue to advance.
- August 6 – Hundreds in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Washington, D.C., and Tokyo mark the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb.
- August 7 – Operation Storm ends with a UN-brokered ceasefire; remaining Serbian forces start surrendering.
- August 11 – The Russell Hill subway accident results in three deaths and thirty injuries in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
- August 14 – An avalanche buries Alison Hargreaves, the first woman to climb Mt. Everest without oxygen; she is reported dead.
- August 16 – Bermudans reject independence in a referendum.
- August 24 – Microsoft releases Windows 95
- August 28 – A Serbian mortar bomb near a Sarajevo market square kills 38 civilians.
- August 29 – Eduard Shevardnadze, the Georgian head of state, survives an assassination attempt in Tbilisi.
- August 30 – The NATO bombing campaign against Serb artillery positions begins in Bosnia and Herzegovina, continuing into October. At the same time, ARBiH forces begin an offensive against the Bosnian Serb Army around Sarajevo, central Bosnia, and Bosnian Krajina.
September
- September
- The DVD, an optical disc computer storage media format, is announced.
- The European Parliament elects the first European Ombudsman, Jacob Söderman, who takes up office in September 1995.
- September 4
- eBay is founded.
- The Fourth World Conference on Women opens in Beijing with over 4,750 delegates from 181 countries in attendance.
- September 6 – NATO air strikes continue, after repeated attempts at a solution with the Serbs fail.
- September 19 – The Washington Post and The New York Times publish the Unabomber's manifesto.
- September 22 – American millionaire Steve Forbes announces his candidacy for the 1996 Republican presidential nomination.
- September 23 – Argentine national Guillermo "Bill" Gaede is arrested in Phoenix, Arizona on charges of industrial espionage. His sales to Cuba, China, North Korea and Iran are believed to have involved Intel and AMD trade secrets worth US$10–20 million.
- September 26 – The trial against former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, who is accused of Mafia connections, begins.
- September 27– September 28 – Bob Denard's mercenaries capture President Said Mohammed Djohor of the Comoros; the local army does not resist.
October
- October 3 – O. J. Simpson is found not guilty of double murder for the deaths of former wife Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
- October 4
- France launches a counter- coup in the Comoros with 600 soldiers. They arrest Bob Denard and his mercenaries and take Denard to France; Caabi el-Yachroutu becomes the interim president.
- Hurricane Opal makes landfall at Pensacola Beach, Florida as a Category 3 hurricane with 115 mph (185 km/h) winds.
- October 5 – Tansu Çiller of DYP forms the new government of Turkey (51st government, a minority government which failed to receive the vote of confidence)
- October 6 – Michael Mayor and Didier Queloz announce the discovery of 51 Pegasi b, the first confirmed extrasolar planet orbiting an ordinary main-sequence star.
- October 9 – 1995 Palo Verde derailment: An Amtrak Sunset Limited train is derailed by saboteurs near Palo Verde, Arizona.
- October 15 – The Carolina Panthers win their first-ever regular season game by defeating the New York Jets at Clemson Memorial Stadium in South Carolina.
- October 16 – The Million Man March is held in Washington, D.C. The event was conceived by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
- October 17 – French woman Jeanne Calment reaches the confirmed age of 120 years and 238 days, making her the oldest person ever recorded.
- October 23 – In Houston, Texas, Yolanda Saldívar is convicted of first degree murder in the shooting death of Selena Quintanilla Perez and three days later is sentenced to life in prison.
- October 24 – A total solar eclipse is visible from Iran, India, Thailand, and Southeast Asia.
- October 25 – A Metra commuter train slams into a school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, killing seven students.
- October 26 – An avalanche hits the village Flateyri in Iceland, killing 20 people.
- October 28 – A fire in Baku Metro, Azerbaijan, kills 289 passengers (the world's worst subway disaster).
- October 30
November
- November 1
- NASA loses contact with the Pioneer 11 probe.
- Participants in the Yugoslav War begin negotiations at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
- The U.S. House of Representatives votes to ban partial birth abortions by a vote of 288–139.
- November 2 – The Supreme Court of Argentina orders the extradition of Erich Priebke, ex-S.S. captain.
- November 3 – At Arlington National Cemetery, U.S. President Bill Clinton dedicates a memorial to the victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing.
- November 4 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
- November 7 – Typhoon Angela leaves the Philippines and Vietnam devastated, with 882 deaths and damage of P 10,829,000,000. The typhoon was the strongest ever to strike the Philippines in 25 years, with wind speeds of 130 mph (210 km/h) and gusts of 180 mph (290 km/h).
- November 10
- Iraq disarmament crisis: With help from Israel and Jordan, UNSCOM inspector Scott Ritter intercepts 240 Russian gyroscopes and accelerometers on their way to Iraq from Russia.
- In Nigeria, playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, along with eight others from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, are hanged by government forces.
- November 12 – The Millbrook Commonwealth Action Programme, a programme to implement the Harare Declaration, is announced by the Commonwealth Heads of Government.
- November 14 – A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the Congress of the United States, forces the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums, and run most government offices with skeleton staff.
- November 16 – A United Nations tribunal charges Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladic with genocide during the Bosnian War.
- November 21
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 40.46 to close at 5,023.55, its first close above 5,000. This makes 1995 the first year where the Dow surpasses two millennium marks in a single year.
- The Dayton Agreement to end the Bosnian War is reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio (signed December 14).
- November 22
- Rosemary West is sentenced to life for killing 10 women and girls, including her daughter and stepdaughter, after the jury returns a guilty verdict at Winchester Crown Court. The trial judge recommends that she should never be released from prison, making her only the second woman in British legal history to be subjected to a whole life tariff (the other is Myra Hindley).
- Six-year-old Elisa Izquierdo's child abuse-related death at the hands of her mother makes headlines, and instigates major reform in New York City's child welfare system.
- Egypt, Eilat, Israel, and much of the North African Mediterranean is struck by the strongest earthquake (7.2
) along the Dead Sea Transform in a century; eight are killed. - The first ever full length computer animated feature film "Toy Story" was released by Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Pictures.
- November 28
- The Barcelona Treaty is signed by 27 attending nations.
- U.S. President Bill Clinton signs the National Highway Designation Act, which ends the federal 55 mph (89 km/h) speed limit.
- November 30 – Javier Solana becomes the new NATO General Secretary; Operation Desert Storm officially ends.
December
- December 3 – Strikes paralyze France's public sector.
- December 7 – NASA's Galileo probe enters Jupiter's atmosphere.
- December 8
- Jean-Dominique Bauby, editor-in-chief of Elle magazine, suffers a massive stroke and lapses into a coma.
- 6-year-old Gyaincain Norbu is enthroned as the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama at Tashilhunpo Monastery.
- December 14 – The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris.
- December 15
- The European Court of Justice rules that all EU football players have the right to a free transfer among member states at the end of their contracts.
- Because of the "quadruple-witching" option expiration, volume on the New York Stock Exchange hits 638 million shares, the highest single-day volume since October 20, 1987, when the Dow staged a stunning recovery a day after Black Monday.
- December 16 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi scuba divers, under the direction of the United Nations Special Commission, dredge the Tigris near Baghdad. The divers find over 200 prohibited Russian-made missile instruments and components.
- December 20
- American Airlines Flight 965 ( Boeing 757) crashes into a mountain near Buga, Valle del Cauca, Colombia after veering off its course en route to Cali, Colombia. Of the 164 people on board, four passengers and a dog are the only survivors.
- HM The Queen advises "an early divorce" to Lady Diana Spencer and Charles, Prince of Wales. The divorce was finalized on 28 August 1996.
- December 30
- The lowest ever United Kingdom temperature of −27.2 °C (−17.0 °F) is recorded at Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands. This equals the record set at Braemar, Aberdeenshire in 1895 and 1982.
- The Republic of Texas group claims to have formed a provisional government in Texas.
- December 31 – The final original Calvin and Hobbes comic strip is published.
Date unknown
- Sudden oak death, the tree disease caused by the plant pathogen Phytophthora ramorum, is first observed, in California.
World population
| World population | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 1990 | 2000 | |||||
 World |
5,674,380,000 | 5,263,593,000 |  410,787,000 |
6,070,581,000 | 396,201,000 |
||
 Africa |
707,462,000 | 622,443,000 | 85,019,000 |
795,671,000 | 88,209,000 |
||
 Asia |
3,430,052,000 | 3,167,807,000 | 262,245,000 |
3,679,737,000 | 249,685,000 |
||
 Europe |
825,405,000 | 721,582,000 | 5,823,000 |
830,986,000 | 5,581,000 |
||
|
481,099,000 | 441,525,000 | 39,574,000 |
520,229,000 | 39,130,000 |
||
|
299,438,000 | 283,549,000 | 15,889,000 |
315,915,000 | 16,477,000 |
||
 Oceania |
28,924,000 | 26,687,000 | 2,237,000 |
31,043,000 | 2,119,000 |
||
Deaths
January
- January 1
- Fred West, English serial killer (b. 1941)
- Eugene Wigner, Hungarian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
- January 2
- Siad Barre, Military dictator of Somalia (b. 1919)
- Nancy Kelly, American actress (b. 1921)
- January 4 – Sol Tax, American anthropologist (b. 1907)
- January 7
- January 9 – Peter Cook, English comedian and writer (b. 1937)
- January 11 , Onat Kutlar, Turkish writer, poet, screenplay writer, founder of Turkish Sinematek (b. 1936)
- January 18
- Adolf Butenandt, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
- Ron Luciano, American baseball umpire (b. 1937)
- January 22
- January 30 – Gerald Durrell, British naturalist, zookeeper, author, and television presenter (b. 1925)
- January 31 – George Abbott, American writer, director, and producer (b. 1887)
February
- February 2
- Fred Perry, English tennis champion (b. 1909)
- Donald Pleasence, English actor (b. 1919)
- February 4 – Patricia Highsmith, American author (b. 1921)
- February 5 – Doug McClure, American actor (b. 1935)
- February 6 – James Merrill, American poet (b. 1926)
- February 8 – Rachel Thomas, Welsh actress (b. 1905)
- February 9 – David Wayne, American actor (b. 1914)
- February 12
- February 14 – U Nu, Burmese politician (b. 1907)
- February 19
- February 22 – Ed Flanders, American actor (b. 1934)
- February 23
- February 24
- February 26 – Jack Clayton, British film director (b. 1921)
March
- March 1 – Vladislav Listyev, Russian journalist (b. 1956).
- March 3 – Howard W. Hunter, American Mormon leader (b. 1907)
- March 5 – Vivian Stanshall, English comedian, writer, artist, broadcaster, and musician (b. 1943)
- March 7 – Georges J. F. Köhler, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1946)
- March 8 – Ingo Schwichtenberg, German drummer (b. 1965)
- March 12 – Juanin Clay, American actress (b. 1949)
- March 13
- March 14 – William Alfred Fowler, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
- March 16 – Albert Hackett, American dramatist and screenwriter (b. 1900)
- March 17
- March 18 – Robin Jacques, English illustrator (b. 1920)
- March 19
- March 20
- March 22 – Peter Woods, British journalist, reporter and newsreader (b. 1930)
- March 23 – Davie Cooper, Scottish footballer (b. 1956)
- March 26 – Eazy-E, American rapper and record producer (b. 1963)
- March 27 – Maurizio Gucci, Italian businessman (b. 1948)
- March 28 – Hugh O'Connor, American actor the son of Carroll O'Connor (b. 1962)
- March 29
- March 31 – Selena Quintanilla Perez, Mexican American singer (b. 1971)
April
- April 2
- April 4
- April 10 – Morarji Desai, Indian politician (b. 1896)
- April 14 – Burl Ives, American singer (b. 1909)
- April 15 – Harry Shoulberg, American painter and serigrapher (b. 1903)
- April 16 – Cy Endfield, American screenwriter (b. 1914)
- April 18 – Arturo Frondizi, President of Argentina (b. 1908)
- April 20 – Milovan Đilas, Yugoslavian Marxist (b. 1911)
- April 23 – Howard Cosell, American sportscaster (b. 1918)
- April 24 – Art Fleming, American actor and game show host (b. 1924)
- April 25
May
- May 2 – Michael Hordern, English actor (b. 1911)
- May 5
- May 6 – Noel Brotherston, Irish footballer (b. 1956)
- May 8 – Teresa Teng, Taiwanese singer (b. 1953)
- May 9 – Marguerite Jones, Canadian professional baseball player (b. 1917)
- May 12 – Arthur Lubin, American film director (b. 1898)
- May 14 – Christian B. Anfinsen, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1916)
- May 15
- May 18
- May 24 – Harold Wilson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1916)
- May 25 – Jack Allen, English actor (b. 1907)
- May 26 – Friz Freleng, American animator (b. 1906)
- May 27 – Severn Darden, American actor (b. 1929)
- May 28 – Irfan Ljubijankic, Bosnian diplomat (b. 1952)
- May 30 – Ted Drake, English footballer (b. 1912)
June
- June 3 – Frank Waters, American Writer (b. 1902)
- June 7 – Hsuan Hua, Chinese Buddhist master (b. 1918)
- June 12 – Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Italian pianist (b. 1920)
- June 14 – Roger Zelazny, American writer of fantasy (b. 1937)
- June 15 – Charles Bennett, English screenwriter (b. 1899)
- June 20 – Emil Cioran, Romanian philosopher and essayist (b. 1911)
- June 23 – Jonas Salk, American medical researcher (b. 1914)
- June 25
- Warren E. Burger, Chief Justice of the United States (b. 1907)
- Ernest Walton, Irish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
- June 29 – Lana Turner, American actress (b. 1921)
- June 30
July
- July 1 – Wolfman Jack, American disc jockey (b. 1938)
- July 3 – Pancho Gonzales, American tennis champion (b. 1928)
- July 4
- July 5 – Takeo Fukuda, Japanese politician (b. 1905)
- July 16
- July 17
- July 18 – Fabio Casartelli, Italian cyclist (b. 1970)
- July 19 – Tomas Mendez, Mexican Composer (b. 1921)
- July 19 – Genevieve Tobin, American actress (b. 1899)
- July 24
- July 25 – Charlie Rich, American singer (b. 1932)
- July 27 – Miklós Rózsa, Hungarian composer (b. 1907)
- July 29 – Philippe De Lacy, American actor (b. 1917)
August
- August 1 – Esther Muir, American actress (b. 1903)
- August 3
- August 4 – J. Howard Marshall, American billionaire (b. 1905)
- August 7 – Brigid Brophy, English author (b. 1929)
- August 9 – Jerry Garcia, American guitarist (b. 1942)
- August 11 – Phil Harris, American actor (b. 1904)
- August 12 – Felipe Tromp, 1st Governor of Aruba (b. 1917)
- August 13 – Mickey Mantle, baseball player (b. 1931)
- August 15 – John Cameron Swayze, American journalist (b. 1906)
- August 17 – Howard Koch, American screenwriter (b. 1901)
- August 19 – Pierre Schaeffer, French composer (b. 1910)
- August 21 – Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Indian-born astrophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
- August 22 – Johnny Carey, Irish football player and manager. (b. 1919)
- August 24
- August 29
- August 30
September
- September 7– Russell Johnson, cartoonist (b. 1893)
- September 12 – Jeremy Brett, English actor (b. 1933)
- September 15
- September 17 – Grady Sutton, American actor (b. 1906)
- September 19 – Orville Redenbacher, American entrepreneur and businessman (b. 1907)
- September 20 – Eileen Chang, Chinese writer (b. 1920)
- September 25
- September 29 – Madalyn Murray O'Hair, atheist activist (b. 1919)
October
- October 1 – Margaret Gorman, First Miss America winner (b. 1905)
- October 5 – Linda Gary, American voice actress (b. 1944)
- October 9 – Alec Douglas-Home, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1903)
- October 21
- October 22
- October 25
- October 26
- October 29 – Terry Southern, American screenwriter (b. 1924)
November
- November 4
- Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1922)
- Gilles Deleuze, French philosopher (b. 1925)
- Paul Eddington, English actor (b. 1927)
- November 6 – Aneta Corsaut, American actress (b. 1933)
- November 7 – Ann Dunham, American anthropologist and mother of Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States (b. 1942)
- November 12 – Robert Stephens, British actor (b. 1931)
- November 13 – Ralph Blane, American composer (b. 1914)
- November 20 – Sergei Grinkov, Russian figure skater (b. 1967)
- November 21 – Noel Jones, British diplomat (b. 1940)
- November 22 – Elisa Izquierdo, American murder victim (b. 1989)
- November 23 – Louis Malle, French film director (b. 1932)
- November 24 – Jeffrey Lynn, American actor (b. 1909)
- November 30 – Stretch, American rapper and record producer (b. 1972)
December
- December 2
- December 3 – Jimmy Jewel, English actor (b. 1909)
- December 7 – Kathleen Harrison, British actress (b. 1892)
- December 9 – Vivian Blaine, American actress (b. 1921)
- December 10 – Darren Robinson, American rapper and actor (b. 1967)
- December 16 – Johnny Moss, American poker player (b. 1907)
- December 18 – Konrad Zuse, German engineer (b. 1910)
- December 20 – Madge Sinclair, Jamaican-American actress (b. 1938)
- December 22
- December 23 – Patric Knowles, English actor (b. 1911)
- December 25
- December 28 – Virginius Dabney, American teacher, writer, journalist and editor (b. 1901)
- December 30
Nobel Prizes
- Physics – Martin L. Perl, Frederick Reines
- Chemistry – Paul J. Crutzen, Mario J. Molina, F. Sherwood Rowland
- Medicine – Edward B. Lewis, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Eric F. Wieschaus
- Literature – Seamus Heaney
- Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel – Robert Lucas, Jr.
- Peace – Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
