January
3rd	Manuel Noriega, the former leader of Panama, surrenders to American forces.
7th	The Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public due to safety concerns.
10th	Time Warner is formed from the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc.
13th	Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia.
15th	Thousands storm the Stasi headquarters in Berlin in an attempt to view their government records.
20th	Soviet troops occupied Baku, Azerbaijan, under the state of emergency decree issued by Gorbachev and killed over 130 and wounded over 700 protesters for national independence.
20th	Actress, Barbara Stanwyck dies
22nd	Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. is convicted of releasing the Morris worm.
25th	Actress, Ava Gardner dies
27th	The city of Tiraspol in the Moldavian SSR briefly declares independence.
31st	The first McDonald's in Moscow, Russia opens.

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February
2nd	In South Africa, President F.W. de Klerk allows the African National Congress to legally function again and promises to free Nelson Mandela.
7th	The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly of power.
8th	American musician and singer, Del Shannon dies
11th	James "Buster" Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson to win the World Heavyweight Boxing crown.
11th	Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster Prison, near Cape Town, South Africa, after 27 years behind bars.
13th	An agreement is reached for a two-stage plan to reunite Germany.
15th	The United Kingdom and Argentina restore diplomatic relations after 8 years. The UK had severed ties in response to Argentina's invasion of the Falkland Islands, a British Dependent Territory, in 1982.
26th	The Sandinistas are defeated in the Nicaraguan elections.
27th	The USSR agrees to withdraw all 73,500 troops from Czechoslovakia by July, 1991.

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March
1st	Steve Jackson Games is raided by the U.S. Secret Service, prompting the later formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
1st	The Royal New Zealand Navy discontinues its daily rum ration.
9th	Police seal off Brixton in South London after another night of protests against the poll tax.
11th	Lithuania declares independence from the Soviet Union with the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania.
11th	Patricio Aylwin is sworn-in as the first democratically-elected Chilean president since 1970.
15th	Iraq hangs British journalist Farzad Bazoft for spying. Daphne Parish, a British nurse, is sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment as an accomplice.
15th	Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first executive president of the Soviet Union.
15th	The Soviet Union announces that Lithuania's declaration of independence is invalid.
18th	East Germany holds its first free elections.
20th	Ferdinand Marcos's widow, Imelda Marcos, goes on trial for bribery, embezzlement, and racketeering.
21st	After 75 years of South African rule, Namibia becomes independent.
23rd	Princess Eugenie of York is born
24th	Australian federal election, 1990: The government of Australian prime minister Bob Hawke is re-elected for a 4th term.
26th	The 62nd Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California, with Driving Miss Daisy winning Best Picture.
28th	U.S. President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal.
31st	A massive anti-poll tax demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London, turns into a riot; 471 people are injured, and 341 arrested.

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April
1st	The longest prison riot in Britain's history begins at Strangeways Prison in Manchester, and continued for three weeks and three days, until April 25
8th	Scandinavian Star, a Bahamas-registered ferry, catches fire en route from Norway to Denmark, leaving 158 dead.
13th	The Soviet Union apologizes for the Katyn Massacre.
15th	Film star actress Greta Garbo dies
20th	The Hubble Space Telescope is launched aboard Space Shuttle Discovery.
20th	The Space Shuttle Discovery places the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit.
24th	West Germany and East Germany agree to merge currency and economies on July 1.
25th	Violeta Chamorro was elected President of Nicaragua making her the first woman President in Latin America.

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May
2nd	In London, a man brandishing a knife robs courier Nicholas Lane of bearer bonds worth £292 million (the largest mugging to date).
4th	Latvia declares independence from the Soviet Union.
5th	The 35th Eurovision Song Contest takes place in Zagreb, Yugoslavia.
10th	Manchester United won The FA cup
15th	Portrait of Doctor Gachet by Vincent van Gogh is sold for a record $82.5 million.
16th	American actor, dancer, and singer, Sammy Davis Jr. dies (b. 1925)
16th	American puppeteer and creator of The Muppets, Jim Henson dies (b. 1936)
17th	The World Health Organization removes homosexuality from its list of diseases.
20th	The first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Romania.
22nd	Microsoft releases Windows 3.0.

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June
1st	U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign a treaty to end chemical weapon production and begin destroying their respective stocks.
1st	Members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army shoot and kill Major Michael Dillon-Lee and Private William Robert Davies of the British Army. Dillon-Lee is killed outside his home in Dortmund, Germany and Davies is killed at a railway station in Lichfield, England.
2nd	Actor, Rex Harrison dies (b. 1908)
7th	Universal Studios Florida opens to the public.
8th	The football World Cup finals begin in Italy
12th	The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declares its sovereignty.
21st	An earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter Scale kills thousands in the Iranian city of Manjil
22nd	Underwater volcano Mount Didicas erupts in the Philippines.
24th	Kathleen Young and Irene Templeton are ordained as priests in St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast, becoming the first Anglican women priests in the United Kingdom.

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July
2nd	A stampede in a pedestrian tunnel leading to Mecca kills 1,426.
6th	Somali president Siad Barre's bodyguards massacre antigovernment demonstrators during a soccer match. 65 people are killed, and over 300 are seriously injured.
7th	In Rome, at the evening of the 1990 FIFA World Cup soccer the Three Tenors sing together for the first time. The event is broadcast live on television and watched worldwide by millions of people. Highlight is Luciano Pavarotti's performance of "Nessun Dorma" from Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot.
8th	West Germany win the football World Cup in Italy, beating Argentina 1 - 0 in the final.
16th	An earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter Scale kills over 1,600 in the Philippines.
25th	The Serbian Democratic Party declares the sovereignty of the Serbs in Croatia.
27th	Belarus declares its sovereignty, a key step toward independence from the USSR.
28th	Amerian rap star and musician, Soulja Boy is born
30th	A Provisional Irish Republican Army car bomb kills British M.P. Ian Gow, a staunch unionist.

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August
2nd	Iraq invades Kuwait, starting the conflict that would escalate to become the first gulf war
6th	The United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to its invasion of Kuwait.
19th	Leonard Bernstein conducts his final concert, ending with Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
23rd	East Germany and West Germany announce they will unite on October 3.
24th	Northern Irish writer Brian Keenan is released from Lebanon after being held hostage for nearly 5 years.
27th	Legendary guitarist, Stevie Ray Vaughan is killed in a helicopter crash

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September
9th	Liberian president Samuel Doe is captured by rebel leader Prince Johnson and killed in a filmed execution.
11th	President George H. W. Bush delivers a nationally televised speech in which he threatens the use of force to remove Iraqi soldiers from Kuwait.
12th	The two German states and the Four Powers sign the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany in Moscow, paving the way for German re-unification.
16th	England cricketer, Len Hutton dies
19th	The Provisional IRA tries to assassinate Air Chief Marshal Sir Peter Terry at his home near Stafford, England. Hit by at least 9 bullets, the former Governor of Gibraltar survives.

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October
3rd	East Germany and West Germany reunify into a single Germany.
9th	Leonard Bernstein announces his retirement from conducting. Unbeknownst to anyone other than himself and his doctors, he is fatally ill.
13th	Syrian military forces invade and occupy Mount Lebanon, ousting General Michel Aoun's government. This effectively consolidates Syria's 14 year occupation of Lebanese soil.
14th	Leonard Bernstein dies of a heart attack at his home in New York City. He is 72 years old.
25th	Evander Holyfield defeats James 'Buster' Douglas for the Heavyweight Boxing crown.

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November
1st	Mary Robinson defeats odds-on favourite Brian Lenihan to become the first female President of Ireland.
12th	Akihito is enthroned as the 125th emperor of Japan.
12th	Tim Berners-Lee publishes a more formal proposal for the World Wide Web.
13th	The first known World Wide Web page is written.
14th	Germany and Poland sign a treaty confirming the border at the Oder-Neisse line.
22nd	Margaret Thatcher announces she will not contest the second ballot of the leadership election for the Conservative Party.
23rd	Novelist and children's author, Roald Dahl dies
27th	John Major wins the second ballot of the Conservative Party leadership election and his two rivals, Michael Heseltine and Douglas Hurd, concede defeat.
28th	Margaret Thatcher resigns as Prime Minister of the UK; John Major succeeds her as Party Leader and is appointed Prime Minister by Queen Elizabeth II.
29th	The United Nations Security Council passes UN Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing military intervention in Iraq if that nation does not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by Tuesday, January 15, 1991.

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December
1st	Establishing the first ground connection between the United Kingdom and the mainland of Europe since the last Ice Age, Channel Tunnel workers from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 metres beneath the English Channel seabed.
2nd	A coalition led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl wins the first free all-German elections since 1932.
6th	Saddam Hussein releases the Western hostages.
9th	Slobodan Milošević becomes President of Serbia.
11th	John Gotti is arrested.
16th	Jean-Bertrand Aristide is elected president of Haiti, ending 3 decades of military rule.
31st	Russian Garry Kasparov holds his title by winning the World Chess Championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.