1990

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1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1990th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 990th year of the 2nd millennium, the 90th year of the 20th century, and the 1st year of the 1990s decade.

Events

January

• January 1 – The comedy television series Mr. Bean airs on ITV in the United Kingdom.
• January 2 – All My Children airs its 20th anniversary special. The characters Joe and Ruth Martin sit down with Erica Kane, her mother Mona, and Phoebe Wallingford as they go through scrapbook pictures which segue into memorable clips from the show's past twenty years.
• January 7 – The Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed due to safety concerns.
• January 15 – Thousands of people storm the Stasi headquarters in Berlin, to view government records.
• January 20 – Soviet forces kill civilians in Baku, Azerbaijan.
• January 21 – MTV's Unplugged premieres on cable television with musical guest, Squeeze.
• January 22 – The end of communism in Yugoslavia.
• January 25 – The Burns' Night storm kills 97 people in Northwestern Europe.
• January 31 – Moscow's first McDonald's restaurant opens.

March

• March 11 – Lithuania declares independence from the Soviet Union.
• March 11 – Patricio Aylwin takes office as President of Chile, ending the rule of Augusto Pinochet.
• March 15 – Mikhail Gorbachev is elected executive President of the Soviet Union.
• March 15 – The Soviet Union declares Lithuania's independence declaration as invalid.
• March 18 – East Germany holds its first free elections.
• March 18 – 12 paintings worth $100 million are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the biggest art theft in US history.
• March 21 – Namibia becomes independent after 75 years of South African rule.
• March 25 – Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee is arrested for allegedly exposing his backside during a performance in Augusta, Georgia

July

• July 2 – A stampede in Mecca kills 1,426 people.
• July 8 – West Germany wins the FIFA World Cup, beating Argentina 1-0 in the final.
• July 16 – A magnitude 7.7 earthquake kills more than 1,600 people in the Philippines.
• July 27 – Belarus declares its sovereignty.
• July 28 – Alberto Fujimori becomes President of Peru.

Births

January

• January 4 – Toni Kroos, German footballer
• January 7 – Liam Aiken, American actor
• January 7 – Elene Gedevanishvili, Georgian figure skater
• January 7 – Camryn Grimes, American actress
• January 7 – Gregor Schlierenzauer, Austrian ski jumper
• January 8 – Xu Xin, Chinese ping-pong player
• January 12 – Sergey Karjakin, Ukrainian-born chessmaster
• January 30 – Jake Thomas, American actor

April

• April 9 – Kristen Stewart, American actress
• April 10 – Alex Pettyfer, British actor
• April 15 – Emma Watson, British actress
• April 23 – Dev Patel, British actor

Deaths

January

• January 4 – Alberto Lleras Camargo, 20th President of Colombia (b. 1906)
• January 6 – Pavel Cherenkov, Russian physicist (b. 1904)
• January 9 – Bazilio Olara-Okello, Ugandan politician (b. 1929)
• January 14 – Mani Madhava Chakyar, Indian actor (b. 1899)
• January 19 – Herbert Wehner, German politician (b. 1906)
• January 20 – Barbara Stanwyck, American actress (b. 1907)
• January 20 – Naruhiko Higashikuni, 30th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1887)
• January 22 – Mariano Rumor, Italian politician (b. 1915)
• January 22 – Roman Vishniac, Russian-American photographer (b. 1897)
• January 24 – Araken Patusca, Brazilian football player (b. 1905)
• January 24 – Madge Bellamy, American actress (b. 1899)
• January 25 – Ava Gardner, American actress (b. 1922)
• January 26 – Lewis Mumford, American historian (b. 1895)

February

• February 7 – Jimmy van Heusen, American composer (b. 1913)
• February 8 – Del Shannon, American musician and singer (b. 1934)
• February 23 – James M. Gavin, American lieutenant general (b. 1907)
• February 23 – José Napoleón Duarte, President of El Salvador (b. 1925)
• February 24 – Alessandro Pertini, President of Italy (b. 1896)

March

• March 5 – Edmund Conen, German footballer (b. 1914)
• March 13 - Karl Münchinger, German conductor (b. 1915)
• March 15 – Farzad Bazoft, Iranian-British journalist (b. 1958)
• March 20 – Lev Yashin, Russian footballer (b. 1929)

April

• April 1 – Carlos Peucelle, Argentine footballer (b. 1908)
• April 2 – Aldo Fabrizi, Italian actor (b. 1905)
• April 3 – Sarah Vaughan, American jazz singer (b. 1924)
• April 8 – Ryan White, AIDS spokesperson (b. 1971)
• April 15 – Greta Garbo, Swedish actress (b. 1905)
• April 17 – Ralph Abernathy, American civil rights leader (b. 1926)
• April 20 – Horst Sindermann, East German politician (b. 1915)
• April 21 – Romain de Tirtoff, French art deco artist (b. 1892)

May

• May 10 – Walker Percy, American writer (b. 1916)
• May 12 – Andrei Kirilenko, Soviet politician (b. 1906)
• May 16 – Sammy Davis Jr., American actor, dancer and singer (b. 1925)
• May 16 – Jim Henson, American puppeteer and movie maker (b. 1936)
• May 22 – Rocky Graziano, American boxer (b. 1919)

June

• June 2 – Rex Harrison, British actor (b. 1908)
• June 3 – Stiv Bators, American singer (b. 1949)
• June 3 – Robert Noyce, American inventor (b. 1927)
• June 5 – Vasili Kuznetsov, Soviet politician (b. 1901)
• June 8 – José Figueres Ferrer, President of Costa Rica (b. 1906)
• June 16 – Eva Turner, British soprano (b. 1892)
• June 22 – Ilya Frank, Russian physicist (b. 1908)
• June 24 – Germán Suárez Flamerich, President of Venezuela (b. 1907)

July

• July 6 - Ryoko Ishida, Japanese school student (b. 1974 or 1975)
• July 15 – Margaret Lockwood, British actress (b. 1916)
• July 18 – Yun Posun, South Korean President (b. 1897)
• July 22 – Manuel Puig, Argentine writer (b. 1932)
• July 29 – Bruno Kreisky, Austrian chancellor (b. 1911)

August

• August 9 – Joe Mercer, English footballer (b. 1914)
• August 15 – Viktor Tsoi, Soviet singer (b. 1962)
• August 17 – Pearl Bailey, American singer and actress (b. 1918)
• August 27 – Stevie Ray Vaughan, American Blues guitarist (b. 1954)

September

• September 1 – Geir Hallgrimsson, Icelandic politician (b. 1925)
• September 6 – Gyula Bereznai, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1921)
• September 6 – Tom Fogerty, American musician (b. 1941)
• September 7 – Ahti Karjalainen, Prime Minister of Finland (b. 1923)
• September 9 – Samuel Doe, President of Liberia (b. 1951)
• September 21 – Xu Xiangqian, Chinese Communist military commander (b. 1901)
• September 26 – Alberto Moravia, Italian novelist (b. 1907)
• September 30 – Patrick White, Australian writer (b. 1912)

October

• October 3 – Stefano Casiraghi, husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco (b. 1960)
• October 13 – Le Duc Tho, Vietnamese politician (b. 1911)
• October 14 – Leonard Bernstein, American composer and conductor (b. 1918)
• October 27 – Xavier Cugat, Catalan-born bandleader (b. 1900)

November

• November 3 – Mary Martin, American actress (b. 1913)
• November 11 – Yiannis Ritsos, Greek poet (b. 1909)
• November 13 – Don Chaffey, British movie director (b. 1917)
• November 17 – Robert Hofstadter, American physicist (b. 1915)
• November 23 – Roald Dahl, British writer (b. 1916)

December

• December 2 – Aaron Copland, American composer (b. 1900)
• December 6 – Tunku Abdul Rahman, Prime Minister of Malaysia (b. 1913)
• December 7 – Joan Bennett, American actress (b. 1910)
• December 14 – Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss writer (b. 1921)
• December 16 – Jackie Mitoo, Jamaican musician (b. 1948)
• December 31 – Vasili Lazarev, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1928)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Jerome Isaac Friedman, Henry Way Kendall, Richard Edward Taylor
• Chemistry – Elias James Corey
• Physiology or Medicine – Joseph E. Murray, E. Donnell Thomas
• Literature – Octavio Paz
• Nobel Peace Prize – Mikhail Gorbachev
• Economics – Harry Markowitz, Merton Miller, William Sharpe

New books

• The Bourne Ultimatum – Robert Ludlum
• The Burden of Proof – Scott Turow
• The Cardinal Virtues – Andrew Greeley
• Clear and Present Danger – Tom Clancy
• Devices and Desires – P. D. James
• Eric – Terry Pratchett
• Four Past Midnight – Stephen King
• Get Shorty – Elmore Leonard
• A Graveyard for Lunatics – Ray Bradbury
• Heads – Greg Bear
• Harvest – Belva Plain
• Homecoming – John Bradshaw
• An Inconvenient Woman – Dominic Dunne
• Joy – Marsha Hunt
• Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton
• Last Chance to See – Douglas Adams & Mark Cawardine
• Liberty and Power – Harry L. Watson
• Message From Nam – Danielle Steel
• Moving Pictures – Terry Pratchett
• Pilgrimage – James A. Michener
• Queen of Angels – Greg Bear
• September – Rosamund Pilcher
• The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Version – Stephen King
• A Tenured Professor – John Kenneth Galbraith
• The Things They Carried – Tim O'Brien
• Use of Weapons – Iain M. Banks
• Vineland – Thomas Pynchon

Movies released

• Bird on a Wire
• Dances with Wolves
• Dick Tracy
• Die Hard 2
• Days of Thunder
• Edward Scissorhands
• Flatliners
• Marked for Death
• Ghost
• Goodfellas
• Hard to Kill
• Home Alone
• King of New York
• Kindergarten Cop
• Lionheart
• Pretty Woman
• Rocky V
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• The Hunt for Red October
• Total Recall
• Tremors
• Wild at Heart

Hit songs

• "Ball and Chain" – Social Distortion
• "Blaze of Glory" – Jon Bon Jovi
• "Blue Sky Mine" – Midnight Oil
• "Close to You" – Maxi Priest
• "Epic" – Faith No More
• "Escapade" – Janet Jackson
• "Friends In Low Places" – Garth Brooks
• "I Go To Extremes" – Billy Joel
• "I Wish It Would Rain Down" – Phil Collins
• "Ice Ice Baby" – Vanilla Ice
• "It Must Have Been Love" – Roxette
• "Janie's Got A Gun" – Aerosmith
• "Nothing Compares 2 U" – Sinéad O'Connor
• "Only on the Radio" – The Osborn Sisters (only single)
• "Opposites Attract" – Paula Abdul
• "Step by Step" – New Kids on the Block
• "Three Strange Days" – School of Fish (debut single)
• "The Thunder Rolls" – Garth Brooks
• "U Can't Touch This" – M.C. Hammer
• "Unbelievable" – EMF (debut single)
• "Vision of Love" – Mariah Carey
• "Vogue" – Madonna

Other websites

Media related to 1990 at Wikimedia Commons