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Top Song(s)
• Ace of Base - The Sign
• All-4-One - I Swear
• Bruce Springsteen - Streets of Philadelphia
• Mariah Carey - Without You
• Boyz II Men - I'll Make Love to You
Top Film(s)
• The Shawshank Redemption
• Pulp Fiction
• Forrest Gump
• The Professional
• The Lion King
Best Selling Book(s)
• One for the Money - Janet Evanovich
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - John Berendt
• Soul Music - Terry Pratchett
• Lord of Chaos - Robert Jordan
• The Alienist - Caleb Carr
Famous Deaths
• January 1 - Arthur Porritt, New Zealand athlete and 11th governor-general of New Zealand
• February 2 – Marija Gimbutas, Lithuanian-American archeologist
• February 14 – Christopher Lasch, American historian, moralist and social critic
• March 3 - Mauritius van Haegendoren, Flemish historian and senator
• April 3 - Jerome Lejeune, French geneticist (discovered chromosome responsible for Downs Syndrome)
• May 12 - Roy J. Plunkett, American chemist and inventor of Teflon
• May 19 - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, American socialite, conservationist and First Lady of the United States
• July 4 - Tawfik Ziad, Palestinian communist/Israeli MP/mayor of Nazareth
• Aug 13 Manfred Worner, German general and Secretary-General of NATO (1988-94)
• September 22 - Edward Shackleton, English explorer, geographer and Labour Party politician
Medical/Science/Technology
• The Australopithecus skeleton "Little Foot" is identified in South Africa.
• Revealing of the first photo of Pluto and its moon Charon taken from the Hubble Space Telescope.
• NASA loses radio contact with the Magellan spacecraft.
• The Flavr Savr, a genetically modified tomato, is deemed safe for consumption by the FDA.
• First public demonstration of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
• The Dingiso or tree-kangaroo of Western New Guinea is first seen by scientists.
• Gilbert's potoroo is rediscovered in Australia having been thought extinct.
• Flora of China begins publication.
• The first gene linked to Alzheimer's disease is discovered. No new linked genes would be found until 2009.
• The Western Hemisphere is declared free of polio.
Political
• January 14 – U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the Kremlin accords.
• January 25 – U.S. President Bill Clinton delivers his first State of the Union address.
• February 3 – William J. Perry is sworn in as the new Secretary of Defense, succeeding Les Aspin.
• March 7 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that parodies of an original work are covered by the doctrine of fair use.
• April 22 – Former President Richard Nixon dies in New York City at 81.
• May 19 – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, former First Lady of the United States, dies in New York City at the age of 64.
• August 3 – Stephen Breyer is sworn in as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court.
• September 13 - President Bill Clinton signs the Federal Assault Weapons Ban.
• September 13 - President Bill Clinton signs the Violence Against Women Act of 1994.
• November 5 - Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan releases an announcement that he has Alzheimer's disease.
National
• January 11 – The Superhighway Summit is held at UCLA's Royce Hall.
• February 22 – Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged with spying for the Soviet Union by the U.S. Department of Justice.
• March 23 – Two military aircraft collide over Pope Air Force Base, NC, causing 24 fatalities, over 100 injuries.
• April 16 – Two robbers shoot and kill three employees at a Popeyes restaurant in Gadsden, Alabama.
• June 20 – Dean Mellberg kills four and injures 23 at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, Washington.
• July 5 – Amazon is founded by Jeff Bezos.
• September 12 – Frank Eugene Corder crashes a Cessna 150 into the South Lawn of the White House and is killed.
• October 31 – An American Eagle ATR 72 crashes in Roselawn, Indiana, after circling in icy weather, killing 64 passengers.
• November 16 – A federal judge issues a temporary restraining order prohibiting CA from implementing Proposition 187.
• December 21 – A homemade bomb explodes on the #4 train on Fulton Street in New York City.
Worldwide
• January 1 - Beginning of the Zapatista uprising in Mexico.
• February 6 – A Bosnian Serb Army mortar shell kills 68 and wounds about 200 in a Sarajevo marketplace.
• March 12 - The Church of England ordains its first female priests.
• April 7 – The Rwandan genocide begins in Kigali, Rwanda.
• May 6 – The Channel Tunnel, after more than 7 years, officially opens between England and France.
• June 15 – Israel and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations.
• July 8 – North Korean President Kim Il Sung dies, but officially continues to hold office.
• September 3 – Russia and China agree to de-target their nuclear weapons against each other.
• October 1 - Palau gains independence from the United Nations Trusteeship Council.
• November 6 - A flood in Piedmont, Italy, kills dozens of people.