Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud.

Nelson Mandela, Inaugural Celebration Address, May 10, 1994.


The big thing is to make this country, along with every other country in the world with a few exceptions, quit discriminating against people just because they're gay. You don't have to agree with it, but they have a constitutional right to be gay.

Former Arizona senator Barry Goldwater (of all people), interview with the Washington Post, July 28, 1994.


In the year AD 1994...

  • South Africa holds its first fully multi-racial elections, marking a final end to apartheid. Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as the nation's first black president.
  • The 1994 Northridge Earthquake strikes Los Angeles at 4:31 am on January 17, killing 72 and leaving 26,000 homeless.
  • The US military invades Haiti, restoring President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power.
  • Under the leadership of Georgia congressman Newt Gingrich and his "Contract with America," Republicans win sweeping victories in the 1994 Midterm Elections, taking control of both houses of the US Congress for the first time in 40 years.
  • Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman are found murdered outside the home of American football legend O.J. Simpson. Simpson flees, setting off a 4-hour low-speed car chase that is broadcast live on national television. Simpson will be acquitted of the murders in a sensational trial the following year, but will later be found liable in a 1997 civil trial.
  • The Chunnel opens, linking England and France under the English Channel by high-speed rail.
  • A strike by the players' union wipes out the final two months of the Major League Baseball season and the World Series, and will last into part of the 1995 season as well.
  • The Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding figure skating rivalry takes a brutal turn on the eve of the 1994 Winter Olympics when an assailant hired by Harding's ex-husband clubs Kerrigan on the right knee after a training session. The video of Kerrigan clutching her knee and crying "Why, why, why?" is shown worldwide. Kerrigan withdraws from the US National Championships, but is awarded a spot on the Olympic team anyway and recovers to skate the best performance of her life and win the silver medal at Lillehammer.
  • George Foreman, aged 45, wins the WBA and IBF World Heavyweight Championships by knocking out Michael Moorer (19 years Forman's junior), becoming the oldest heavyweight champion in history.

These people were born in 1994:

These people died in 1994:

These films appeared in 1994:

These television shows debuted in 1994:


1993 - 1994 - 1995

20th century

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