1996

• 1996 in aviation
• 1996 in film
• 1996 in literature
• 1996 in music
• 1996 in science
• 1996 in sports
• 1996 in television
• 1996 in Canada

• January 1 - Curacao gains limited self-government.
• January 5 - Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone.
• January 7 - One of the worst blizzards in American history hits eastern states killing more than 100.
• January 14 - Jorge Sampaio is elected president of Portugal.
• January 20 - Yasser Arafat is elected president of the Palestinian Authority.
• January 22 - Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece resigns due to health problems. New government formed under Costas Simitis.
• January 24 - Polish Premier Jozef Oleksy resigns amid charge he spied for Moscow.
• January 26 - Whitewater scandal: Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies before a grand jury.
• January 27 - Colonel Ibrahim Bare Mainassara deposes the first democratically elected president of Niger Mahamane Ousmane in a military coup.
• January 29 - President Jacques Chirac announces a "definitive end" to French nuclear testing.
• January 30 - Suspected leader of the Irish National Liberation Army Gino Gallagher is killed while in line for his unemployment benefit.
• January 31 - An explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka killing at least 86 and injuring 1,400.
• February - Iraq disarmament crisis: Recently defected Iraqi weapons program leader and son-in-law to Saddam Hussein, Hussein Kamel, returns to Iraq. Within days of his return, he is murdered along with his brother, father, sister and her children. Kamel had forced Iraq to reveal portions of its illegal nuclear and chemical weapons programs.
• February 1 - Communications Decency Act is passed by the United States Congress.
• February 8 - The Telecom Reform Act is signed into law by United States President Bill Clinton
• February 10 - Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov for the first time.
• February 17 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, world champion Garry Kasparov beats the "Deep Blue" supercomputer in a chess match.
• March - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi forces refuse UNSCOM inspection teams access to five sites designated for inspection. The teams enter the sites only after delays of up to 17 hours.
• March 11 - John Howard becomes the twenty-fifth Prime Minister of Australia.
• March 13 - The Dunblane Massacre.
• March 14 - American President Bill Clinton commits $100 million to an anti-terrorism agreement with Israel to track down and root out terrorists.
• March 20 - In Los Angeles, California, Erik and Lyle Menendez are found guilty of first-degree murder for the shotgun killing of their parents.
• March 23 - The Republic of China on Taiwan holds its first direct elections for president. Lee Teng-hui is reelected.
• March 25 - An 81-day long standoff between antigovernment Freemen in Jordan, Montana and federal officers begins.
• March 26 - The International Monetary Fund approves a $10.2 billion loan to Russia for economic reform.
• April 3 - Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his Montana cabin.
• April 6 - An overflow crowd of 31,683 at Spartan Stadium witnessed the historic first game for Major League Soccer. San Jose Clash forward Eric Wynalda scored the league's first goal in a 1-0 victory over D. C. United.
• April 18 - Over 100 Lebanese civilians were killed after Israel shelled the UN compound in Qana. See Qana Massacre.
• May 11 - After taking-off from Miami, a fire started by improperly-handled oxygen canisters in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 on board.
• May 13 - Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kills 600.
• May 20 - Gay rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of homosexuals.
• May 23 - Swede Göran Kropp reaches Mount Everest summit alone without oxygen after having bicycled there from Sweden.
• May 27 - First Chechnya War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechnyan rebels for the first time and negotiates a cease-fire in the war.
• May-June - Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM supervises the destruction of Al-Hakam, Iraq's main production facility of biological warfare agents.
• June - Iraq disarmament crisis: As Iraq continues to refuse inspectors access to a number of sites, the U.S. fails in its attempt to build support for military action against Iraq in the UN Security Council.
• June 6 - The sons of Darlie Routier, Damon and Devon are stabbed to death in their Rowlett, Texas home. Their mother would later be convicted of the murder.
• June 15- A large bomb explosion devastates Manchester City Centre.
• June 25 - 19 U.S. servicemen are killed at Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia.
• June 30 - Costas Simitis is elected President of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement of Greece.
• July - Iraq disarmament crisis: U.N. Inspector Ritter attempts to conduct surprise inspections on the Republican Guard facility at the airport, but is blocked by Iraqi officials.
• July 5 - Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult cell, is born.
• July 8 - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a hand-delivered document, "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Security the Realm," spelling out how Israel could abrogate the Oslo Accords, and pursue a permanent annexation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, among other policies. The paper had been prepared for him by Richard Perle, Donald Rumsfeld, Doug Feith, David Wurmser and John Bolton.
• July 17 - Off the coast of Long Island, New York, a Paris-bound Boeing 747 carrying TWA flight 800 explodes killing all 230 on board.
• July 18 - 21 - Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River in Quebec, in one of Canada's most costly natural disasters.
• July 27 - The Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics kills one and injures 111.
• July 29 - The child protection portion of the Communications Decency Act (1996) is struck down as too broad by a US federal court.
• July 31 - MIL-STD-1750A was declared inactive for use in new designs.
• August 6 - NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms.
• August 28 Their Royal Highnesses, the Prince and Princess of Wales, are formally divorced at the High Court in London. Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales is restyled, Diana, Princess of Wales.
• August 31 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi forces launch an offensive into the northern No-Fly Zone and capture Arbil.
• September 4 - War on Drugs: Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) attack a military base in Guaviare, Colombia starting three weeks of guerrilla warfare that will claim the lives of at least 130 Colombians.
• September 7 - In Las Vegas, Nevada, actor and recording artist Tupac Shakur is shot several times after attending a boxing match.
• September 22 - The Panhellenic Socialist Movement under the leadership of Costas Simitis succeeds in the Greek legislative election, 1996.
• September 25 - The last of the Magdalen Asylums was closed in Ireland.
• September 27 - In Afghanistan, the Taliban capture capital city Kabul after driving out President Burhanuddin Rabbani and executing former leader Mohammad Najibullah.
• October 2 - The Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments are signed by U.S. President Bill Clinton.
• October 31 - Ireland's first Irish language television channel, TG4 (formerly Teilifís na Gaeilge) begins broadcasting.
• October/November (sources vary) - Al-Jazeera, Arabic television news channel based in Qatar, starts broadcasting.
• November - Bill Clinton defeats Bob Dole in the U.S. presidential election.
• November - Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM inspectors uncover buried prohibited missile parts. Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM teams to remove remnants of missile engines for analysis outside of the country.
• November 5 - U.S. presidential election, 1996: Democrat incumbent Bill Clinton defeats Republican challenger Bob Dole to win his second term.
• November 7 - NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor.
• November 16 - Mother Teresa receives honorary US citizenship.
• November 18 - World-renowned bird expert Tony Silva is sentenced to seven years in prison without parole for leading an illegal parrot smuggling ring.
• December 2 - US President Bill Clinton signs Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments.
• December 5 - Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan gives a speech in which he suggests that "irrational exuberance" may have "unduly escalated asset values".
• December 12 - Uday Hussein is seriously injured in an assassination attempt.
• December 26 - JonBenét Ramsey, a six-year-old beauty queen, was found murdered in her family's basement in Boulder, Colorado.
• December 27 - Taliban forces retake the strategic Bagram air base which solidifies their buffer zone around Kabul.
• December 29 - Guatemala and leaders of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union sign a peace accord that ends a 36 year a civil war.
• December 30 - In the Indian state of Assam, a passenger train is bombed by Bodo separatists killing 26.
• December 30 - Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel.

• id Software releases the first person shooter computer game Quake.
• The O. J. Simpson trial begins.
• Martina Hingis youngest person in history (age 16) to win at Wimbledon (Ladies Doubles event).
• Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
• A bomb goes off at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia killing one person. The media and investigators almost immediately focus their attention on security guard Richard Jewell, but later clear him as a suspect.
• Web comic Sabrina Online first published.
• Ask Jeeves formed

• 1996 in film
  • The English Patient
  • Fargo
• 1996 in literature
• 1996 in music
• 1996 in science
• 1996 in sports
  • January 28 - Super Bowl XXX Dallas Cowboys (27) def. Pittsburgh Steelers (17)
• 1996 in television
  • The O. J. Simpson civil trial begins
  • Zenith introduces the first HDTV-compatible front projection TV in the U.S.. Broadcasters, TV & PC manufacturers set industry standards for digital HDTV.
  • Over a billion households worldwide now own television sets.

• July 5 - Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal

• January 5 - Yahya Ayyash, terrorist
• January 8 - François Mitterrand, French politician and President of France.
• January 17 - Amber Hagerman, kidnapping, murder victim (b. 1986)
• January 17 - Barbara Jordan, politician
• January 20 - Gerry Mulligan, musician
• January 28 - Jerry Seigel, cartoonist, creator of "Superman"
• February 3 - Audrey Meadows, actress
• February 6 - Guy Madison, actor
• February 11 - Amelia Rosselli, poet.
• February 11 - Bob Shaw, science fiction writer.
• February 11 - Cyril Poole, English cricket player.
• February 11 - Kebby Musokotwane, prime minister of Zambia (1985-1989).
• February 11 - Phil Regan, actor
• February 16 - Edmund G. Brown, Governor of California
• February 16 - Brownie McGhee, blues singer
• February 20 - Toru Takemitsu, composer
• February 25 - Haing S. Ngor, actor
• March 4 - Minnie Pearl, country music performer
• March 9 - George Burns, actor, singer
• March 10 - Ross Hunter, producer
• March 13 - Krzysztof Kieslowski, film director
• March 17 - René Clément, French film director
• March 26 - David Packard, engineer
• April 6 - Greer Garson, actress
• April 22 - Erma Bombeck, humorist, writer
• April 26 - Stirling Silliphant, writer, producer
• May 5 - Salli Terri, mezzo soprano
• May 20 - Jon Pertwee, actor
• May 31 - Paul Peter Piech, artist
• June 2 - Ray Combs, game show host, comedian
• June 6 - Damon Routier, son of Darlie Routier
• June 6 - Devon Routier, son of Darlie Routier
• June 15 - Ella Fitzgerald, jazz singer
• June 19 - G. David Schine, investigator and businessman
• June 23 - Andreas Papandreou, Greek politician.
• July 28 - Roger Tory Peterson, naturalist, artist, educator
• July 30 - Claudette Colbert, actress
• August 13 - David Tudor, pianist and composer
• September 13 - Tupac Shakur, rapper, poet, actor
• November 30 - Tiny Tim, musician
• December 11 - Willie Rushton, UK comedian, satirist, actor and cartoonist
• December 20 - Carl Sagan - US astronomer

• Thomas Kuhn, philosopher of science
• Paul Rand, famous American graphic designer of corporate logos

• Physics - David M. Lee, Douglas D. Osheroff, Robert C. Richardson
• Chemistry - Robert Curl, Sir Harold Kroto, Richard Smalley
• Medicine - Peter C Doherty, Rolf M Zinkernagel
• Literature - Wislawa Szymborska
• Peace - Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta
• Economics - James Mirrlees, William Vickrey