Transient guests are we

1981:
December 28 - The first American test-tube baby, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, is born

1982:
January 8 - AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions -- The Baby Bells
March 10 - Syzygy: all 9 planets align on the same side of the Sun.
March 26 - A ground breaking ceremony for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is held in Washington, DC
June 2- First bomb later attributed to Unabomber injures professor Diogenes Angelokos in the University of Berkeley in California
July 9 - A Boeing 727 carrying Pan Am Flight 759 crashes in Kenner, Louisiana killing all 146 on board and eight on the ground
September 29 to October 1 - The Tylenol scare is sparked after seven people in the Chicago, Illinois area die after ingesting capsules laced with potassium cyanide
November 13 - The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington D.C. after a march to its site by thousands of Vietnam War veterans.
December 2 - At the University of Utah, 61-year-old retired dentist Barney Clark becomes the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart (he lived for 112 days with the device)
December 26 - Time Magazine's Man of the Year was for the first time given to a non-human, a computer.

1983:
January 2 - The musical Annie is performed for the last time after 2,377 shows (Uris Theatre on Broadway, New York City).
January 8 - Riot in the Sing Sing prison
March 8 - President Ronald Reagan calls the Soviet Union an "evil empire."
March 23 - Strategic Defense Initiative: President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles. The media dub this plan "Star Wars."
April 7 - During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first space shuttle spacewalk (duration: 4 hours, 10 minutes).
June 13 - Pioneer 10 becomes the first manmade object to leave the solar system.
June 18 - Sally Ride becomes first American woman in space on the Space Shuttle Challenger.
July 25 - Metallica released their debut album Kill 'Em All.
September 25-26 - Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a worldwide nuclear war.
September 27 - The GNU project was announced publicly on the net.unix-wizards and net.usoft newsgroups.
October 25 - United States invades Grenada.
November 2 - Martin Luther King Day: At the White House Rose Garden, President Ronald Reagan signs a bill creating a federal holiday on the third Monday of every January to honor American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
November 26 - Brinks Mat robbery: In London, 6,800 gold bars worth nearly UK£26 million are taken from the Brinks Mat vault at Heathrow Airport. Only a fraction of the gold was ever recovered, and only two men were convicted of the crime.

1984:
January 10 - The United States and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations.
January 23 - Pop star Michael Jackson's scalp is seriously burned by pyrotechnics during filming of a Pepsi commercial.
January 24 - The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale.
April 12 - Palestinian gunmen take Israeli bus number 300 hostage. Israeli special forces storm the bus freeing the hostages (1 hostage, 2 hijackers killed). 2 other hijackers were captured and then killed in secret service interrogations, causing a major scandal and secret service upheaval

1985:
March 4 - The Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for AIDS, used since then for screening all blood donations in the United States.
March 11 - Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and de facto leader of the Soviet Union.
June 14 - TWA Flight 847 is hijacked by Hezbollah.
June 23 - A Boeing 747 carrying Air India Flight 182 blows up 31,000 feet (9,500 m) above the Atlantic Ocean, south of Ireland, killing all 329 aboard.
July 10 - After a storm of controversy surrounding a change in its cola's formula (see New Coke), Coca-Cola re-introduces the old formula as "Coca-Cola Classic".
August 22 - 55 people killed at in the Manchester air disaster at Manchester International Airport when a British Airtours Boeing 737 burst into flames after the pilot aborts the takeoff.
August 31 - Richard Ramirez arrested for the "Night Stalker" murders.
September 1 - A joint American-French expedition locates the wreck of the RMS Titanic.
November 19 - Cold War: In Geneva, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time.
November 23 - Gunmen hijack EgyptAir Flight 648 while en route from Athens to Cairo (when the plane lands in Malta, Egyptian commandos storm the hijacked jetliner but 60 people die in the raid).
December 16 - In New York City, Mafia bosses Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti are shot dead while exiting Sparks Steak House, making hit organizer John Gotti the leader of the powerful Gambino organized crime family.

1986:
January 24 - Voyager 2 space probe makes first encounter with Uranus
January 28 - Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates 73 seconds after launch, killing its crew of six astronauts and a schoolteacher.
February 19 - The Soviet Union launches the Mir space station
April 26 - In Ukraine, one of the reactors at the Chornobyl (Chernobyl) nuclear plant explodes creating the world's worst nuclear disaster. 31 are killed directly by the incident, many thousands more were exposed to significant amounts of radioactive material, vast territories in Ukraine and Belarus rendered uninhabitable.
May 25 - Hands Across America
September 5 - Pan Am Flight 73 with 358 people on board is hijacked at Karachi International Airport
November 3 - Iran-Contra Affair: The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reports that the United States has been selling weapons to Iran in secret in order to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.
December 23 - Voyager, completes the first nonstop circumnavigation of the earth by air without refueling in 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds

1987:
February 12 - Unabomber bomb explodes in Salt Lake City, Utah
February 23 - Supernova 1987a is observed, the first "naked-eye" supernova since 1604.
May 11 - The first heart-lung transplant takes place (Baltimore, Maryland)
May 28 - 19-year-old West German pilot Mathias Rust evades Soviet air defense and lands a private plane on Red Square in Moscow. He is immediately detained and will later be released on Wednesday, August 3, 1988.
Wednesday-Friday, October 14-October 16 - The US is caught up in a drama that unfolds on television as a young child, Jessica McClure, falls down a well and is later rescued.
December 8 - The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C. by US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

1988:
February 21 - On his own televangelism program being taped in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jimmy Swaggart confesses that he is guilty of an unspecified sin and will be temporarily leaving the pulpit. The "unspecified sin" was an affair with a prostitute.
May 16 - A report by the [[Surgeon General] C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
November 15 - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: An independent State of Palestine is proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council meeting in Algiers, by a vote of 253 to 46
November 18 - War on Drugs: US President Ronald Reagan signs a bill into law providing the death penalty for murderous drug traffickers
November 22 - In Palmdale, California, the first prototype B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is revealed
December 21 - Pan Am flight 103 is blown up by Libyan terrorists over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 on board and 11 on the ground.

1989:
January 24 - Serial killer Ted Bundy is executed in Florida's electric chair
February 14 - The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System is placed into orbit
March 4 - Time, Inc. and Warner Communications announce plans for a merger, forming Time Warner
March 14 - Gun control: President George H. W. Bush bans the importation of assault rifles into the United States
March 23 - Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announce cold fusion at the University of Utah
March 24 - Exxon Valdez oil spill: In Alaska's Prince William Sound the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels (11 million gallons) of oil after running aground
March 27 - The first free elections for the Soviet parliament go against the Communist Party.
May 30 - Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: The 10 m (33 ft) high "Goddess of Democracy" statue is unveiled in Tiananmen Square by student demonstrators
June 14 - Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor is arrested in Beverly Hills, California after slapping a motorcycle police officer.
July 19 - A Douglas DC-10 carrying United Airlines flight 232 crashes in Sioux City, Iowa killing 112 but due to extraordinary efforts by the pilot and his crew, 184 on board survive
July 26 - A federal grand jury indicts Cornell University student Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. for releasing a computer virus, making him the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
August 20 - In Beverly Hills, California, Lyle and Erik Menendez shoot their wealthy parents to death in their family's den.
November 9 - Cold War: Communist-controlled East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall, allowing its citizens to freely travel to West Germany for the first time in decades (the next day celebrating Germans began to tear the wall down).
December 3 - Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta, US President George Herbert Walker Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev release statements indicating that the cold war between their nations may be coming to an end (some commentators from both nations exaggerated the wording and independently declared the Cold War over).

1990:
February 7 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly of power
March 1 - Steve Jackson Games is raided by the U.S. Secret Service, prompting the later formation of the EFF.
April 24 - The Space Shuttle Discovery places the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit.It becomes operational May 20
June 1 - U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign a treaty to end chemical weapon production and start destroying each of their nation's stockpiles
July 12 - Square Co., Ltd. releases Final Fantasy in North America.
August 2 - Gulf War: Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.
October 8 - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: In Jerusalem, Israeli police kill 17 Palestinians and wound over 100 near the Dome of the Rock mosque on the Temple Mount
November 12 - Tim Berners-Lee publishes a more formal proposal for the World Wide Web.
November 13 - The first known web page is written.
December 1 - Channel Tunnel workers from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 meters beneath the English Channel seabed, establishing the first ground connection between the United Kingdom and the mainland of Europe since the last ice age
December 3 - At Detroit Metropolitan Airport, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 carrying Northwest Airlines Flight 1482 collides with a Boeing 727 carrying Northwest Airlines Flight 299 on the runway, killing 8 passengers and 4 crewmembers aboard flight 1482

1991:
January 16 - Operation Desert Storm begins
February 5 - A Michigan court bars Dr Jack Kevorkian from assisting in suicides.
February 27 - Gulf War: Kuwait is liberated, and a ceasefire is declared, after 100 hours of ground fighting. Iraq accepts the terms of the ceasefire, which call for the country to disarm.
March 3 - An amateur video captures the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers.
March 15 - Four Los Angeles, California police officers are indicted for the videotaped March 3, 1991 beating of motorist Rodney King during an arrest.
April 26 - Tornadoes break out in the central United States. The most notable tornado of the day was the one that hit in Andover, Kansas. The outbreak of nearly seventy tornadoes killed 17 people in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. The tornado that hit Andover was the only F5 of the year
June 23 - Sonic the Hedgehog was created and released for the Sega Genesis
July 22 - Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is arrested after the remains of 11 men and boys are found in his Milwaukee, Wisconsin apartment.
August 6 - Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the "World Wide Web."
August 25 - Student Linus Torvalds post a messages to Usenet newsgroup comp.os.minix about the new operating system kernel he has been developing.
September 21 - September 30 - Iraq disarmament crisis: IAEA inspectors discover files on Iraq's hidden nuclear weapons program. Iraqi officials confiscate documents from UN weapons inspectors, and refuse to allow them to leave the site without turning over other documents. A four-day standoff ensues. Iraq permits the team to leave with the documents after a statement from the UN Security Council threatens enforcement actions.
September 22 - The Dead Sea Scrolls are made available to the public for the first time, by the Huntington Library.
December 31 - Soviet Union officially ceases to exist

1992:
January 16 - El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign a pact in Mexico City that ends a 12 year civil war that claimed at least 75,000.
February 17 - A court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin sentences Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer to life in prison
March 25 - Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returns to Earth a 10-month stay aboard the Mir space station
April 29 - In Los Angeles, California, the police officers that were accused of excessive force in their severe beating of Rodney King, were found "not guilty". The verdict resulted in several days of riots in L.A. and smaller riots around the country.
June 22 - Two skeletons excavated in Yekaterinburg are identified as Czar Nicholas II and his tsarina
August 17 - US Marshalls start Siege of Ruby Ridge
August 24 - Hurricane Andrew hits South Florida.
October 9 - A 13-kilogram (29-pound) meteorite landed in the driveway of the Knapp residence in Peekskill, New York destroying the family's 1980 Chevrolet Malibu.

1993:
February 26 - World Trade Center bombing: In New York City, a van bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center goes off, killing 6 and injuring over a thousand.
February 28 - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest cult leader David Koresh on federal firearms violations. Four agents and five Davidians die in the raid and a 51-day standoff begins.
March 13-16 - The Great Blizzard of 1993 strikes the eastern U.S., bringing record snowfall and other severe weather all the way from Cuba to Québec. The blizzard is reported to have killed 184, including many surprised and stranded people along the Appalachian Trail
March 31 - A bug in a program written by Richard Depew sends an article to 200 newsgroups simultaneously. The term spamming is coined by Joel Furr to describe the incident.
April 22 - In Washington, DC, the Holocaust Memorial Museum is dedicated
April 23 - WHO declares tuberculosis a Global Emergency
April 30 - The World Wide Web was born at CERN
June 23 - Lorena Bobbitt cuts off the penis of her husband John Wayne Bobbitt.
August 21 - NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Observer orbiter three days before the spacecraft is scheduled to enter orbit around Mars
November 30 - US President Bill Clinton signs the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (the Brady Bill) into law

1994:
January 6 - Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the right leg by an assailant under orders from figure skating rival Tonya Harding.
January 17 - 1994 Northridge Earthquake, magnitude 6.7, hits the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles at 4:31 am.
March 7 - The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music that parodies of an original work are generally covered by the doctrine of fair use.
March 31 - The journal Nature reports the finding in Ethiopia of the first complete Australopithecus afarensis skull (see Human evolution).
April 8 - Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Nirvana, is found dead in Seattle, Washington. He had committed suicide three days earlier.
May 6 - The Channel Tunnel, which took 15,000 workers over seven years to complete, opens between England and France. Passengers can now travel between the two countries in 35 minutes.
May 10 - Illinois executes serial killer John Wayne Gacy by lethal injection for the murder of 33 young men and boys
June 12 - Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman are murdered outside her home in Los Angeles, California. O. J. Simpson is later acquitted of the killings, but is held liable in a civil suit.
June 14 - Hacker Kevin Poulsen pleads guilty to seven counts of mail fraud, wire and computer fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice.
June 15 - As of 2004 the third highest grossing animated film of all-time, The Lion King, opens in theatres nationwide.
June 17 - NFL star OJ Simpson and his friend Al Cowlings flee from police in his white Ford Bronco. The low speed chase, which unfolds live on television, ends up at Simpson's mansion in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, where he then surrendered to police.
July - The planet Jupiter is hit by 21 large fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 over the course of 6 days.
September 8 - A Boeing 737 carrying USAir Flight 427 with 132 people on board, crashes on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport. There are no survivors
September 13 - President Bill Clinton signs the Assault Weapons Ban, which bans the use of these weapons for a period of 10 years.
October 26 - Jordan and Israel sign a peace treaty.
November 5 - A letter by former US President Ronald Reagan is released that announces he has Alzheimer's disease
November 8 - Georgia Representative Newt Gingrich leads the United States Republican Party in taking control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in midterm congressional elections, the first time in 40 years the Republicans secured control of both houses of U.S. Congress.
November 30 - Famous hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur survives five bullets in an apparent robbery attempt outside a New York music studio.

1995:
February 15 - Hacking: Kevin Mitnick is arrested by the FBI and charged him with breaking into some of the United States' most "secure" computers systems.
March 20 - Terrorist incident: Members of the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult release sarin gas on five separate railway trains in Tokyo, killing 12 and injuring hundreds.
April 19 - Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma city was bombed. 168 people, including 8 Federal Marshals and 19 children, were killed.
May 27 - In Charlottesville, Virginia, actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition.
June 15 - While on trial for murder, O.J. Simpson put on a pair of gloves that were found soaked with blood at the murder scene. The gloves appear not to fit.
June 29 - The Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian Mir space station for the first time.
June 29 - The Sampoong Department Store collapses in the Seocho-gu district of Seoul, South Korea, killing 501 and injuring 937.
July 17 - The Nasdaq Composite index closes above the 1,000 mark for the first time.
July 21 to July 26 - Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: The People's Liberation Army fires missiles into the waters north of Taiwan.
August 24 - Microsoft releases Windows 95.
October 3 - O. J. Simpson is found not guilty of double murder for the deaths of former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. (He would be found liable in a second civil trial in 1996)
October 16 - The Million Man March is held in Washington D.C.. The event was conceived by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
November 14 - A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress forces the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums and run most government offices with skeleton staff
November 21 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 40.46 to close at 5,023.55, its first close above 5,000. This makes the 1995 the first year where the Dow surpasses two millennium marks in a single year. It would do it again in 1997 and 1999.
November 28 - US President Bill Clinton signs a highway bill that ends the federal 55 mph speed limit.

1996:
January 7 - One of the worst blizzards in American history hits eastern states, killing more than 100.
January 20 - Yasser Arafat is elected president of the Palestinian Authority.
February 4 - Major snowstorm paralyzes Midwestern United States, Milwaukee, Wisconsin ties all-time low temperature at -26°F. (-32°C)
February 10 - Chess computer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov for the first time.
March 13 - The Dunblane Massacre, The Dunblane massacre occurred at the primary school in the small town of Dunblane in central Scotland. On Wednesday, 13 March 1996, unemployed former shopkeeper Thomas Hamilton, walked in to the school armed with two pistols, two revolvers and 743 cartridges and opened fire.
March 20 - In Los Angeles, California, Lyle and Erik Menendez are found guilty of first-degree murder for the shotgun killing of their parents.
April 3 - Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his Montana cabin.
April 10 - United States President Bill Clinton vetos a bill that would have banned partial-birth abortion.
May - The Onion launches its satirical news publication on the Internet.
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 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 31 - id Software releases the first person shooter computer game Quake.
June 12 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a panel of federal judges blocks a law against indecency on the internet. The panel says that the 1996 Communications Decency Act would infringe upon the free speech rights of adults.
July 5 - Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult cell, is born. It will prematurely die in February 2003.
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 27 - The Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics kills one and injures 111.
August 6 - NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms
September 7 - Rapper Tupac Shakur shot in Las Vegas, Nevada following Mike Tyson bout. He would succumb 6 nights later on September 13.
October 2 - The Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments are signed by U.S. President Bill Clinton.
December 26 - JonBenét Ramsey, a six-year-old beauty queen, was found murdered in her family's basement in Boulder, Colorado.

1997:
February 4 - O. J. Simpson is found in civil court to be liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Simpson is ordered to pay $35,000,000 in damages to the families of the two victims
February 9 - The Simpsons surpasses The Flintstones as the longest-running prime-time animated series.
February 23 - A large fire occurred in the Russian Space station, Mir.
March 4 - United States President Bill Clinton bars federal funding for any research on human cloning.
March 26 - Thirty-nine bodies found in Heaven's Gate cult suicide.
May 11 - IBM's Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, the first time a computer beat a chess World champion in a match.
June 2 - Timothy McVeigh is convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
June 7 - A computer user known as "_eci" published his Microsoft C source code on a Windows 95 and Windows NT exploit, which would later become WinNuke. The source code gets wide distribution across the internet, and Microsoft is forced to release a security patch.
July 4 - NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.
July 10 - In London, scientists report their DNA analysis findings from a Neandertal skeleton which support the out of Africa theory of human evolution placing an "African Eve" at 100,000 to 200,000 years ago
August 6 - Microsoft buys a $150 million share of financially troubled Apple Computer.
August 13- The animated American TV series South Park is aired.
August 31 - Diana, Princess of Wales is taken to a hospital after a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris. She is pronounced dead at 4:00 the next morning.

1998:
January 1998 - A massive ice storm, caused by El Niño, strikes New England, southern Ontario and Quebec, resulting in widespread power failures, severe damage to forests, and a number of deaths.
January 8 - Cosmologists announce that the expansion rate of the universe is increasing.
January 12 - 19 European nations agree to forbid human cloning.
January 14 - Researchers in Dallas, Texas present findings about an enzyme that slows aging and cell death (apoptosis).
January 22 - Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski pleads guilty and accepts a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
January 26 - Lewinsky scandal: On American television, Bill Clinton denies he had "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
January 29 - In Birmingham, Alabama a bomb explodes at an abortion clinic killing one and severely wounding another. Serial bomber Eric Rudolph is suspected as the culprit.
February 10 - A college dropout becomes the first person to be convicted of a hate crime committed in cyberspace.
March 24 - In Jonesboro, Arkansas, two young boys (aged 11 and 13 years) fire upon students at Westside Middle School while hidden in woodlands near the school. Four students and one teacher are killed and 10 injured
May 7 - Apple Computer unveils the iMac.
July 10 - Catholic priests' sex abuse scandal: The Diocese of Dallas agrees to pay $23.4 million to nine former altar boys who claimed they were sexually abused by former priest Rudolph Kos
July 24 - Russel Eugene Weston Jr. bursts into the United States Capitol and opens fire killing two police officers. He is later ruled to be incompetent to stand trial
September 7 - Google Inc. is founded.
September 8 - St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Mark McGwire breaks baseball's single season homerun record, formerly held by Roger Maris. McGwire hits #62 at Busch Stadium in the fourth inning off of Chicago Cubs pitcher Steve Trachsel.
September 29 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The U.S. Congress passes the "Iraq Liberation Act", which states that the United States wants to remove Saddam Hussein from power and replace the government with a democratic institution.
October 6 - Matthew Shepard, a Wyoming college student, is found tied to a fence, the victim of a gay-bashing. He dies on Monday, October 12, becoming a symbol of victims of gay-bashing and sparking public reflection on homophobia.
October 7 - United States Congress passes, the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, which gives copyright holders 20 more years of copyright privilege on work which they control the copyright. This effectively freezes the public domain to works created before 1923 in the United States.
October 12 - U.S. Congress passes Digital Millennium Copyright Act
October 14 - Eric Robert Rudolph is charged with 6 bombings including the 1996 Olympic bombing in Atlanta, Georgia
October 29 - Space Shuttle Discovery blasts-off with 77-year old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space. He became the first American to orbit Earth on Tuesday, February 20, 1962.
October 29 - In Freehold Borough, New Jersey, Melissa Drexler pleads guilty to aggravated manslaughter for killing her baby moments after delivering him in the bathroom at her senior prom, and is sentenced to 15 years imprisonment
November 3 - Former professional wrestler, Jesse Ventura is elected Governor of Minnesota.
November 5 - The journal Nature publishes a genetic study showing compelling evidence that Thomas Jefferson fathered his slave Sally Hemings' son Eston Hemings Jefferson
November 19 - Lewinsky scandal: The United State House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee begins impeachment hearings against US President Bill Clinton.
November 24 - America Online announces it will acquire Netscape Communications in a stock-for-stock transaction worth US$4.2 billion.
December 1 - Exxon announces a US$73.7 billion deal to buy Mobil, thus creating Exxon-Mobil, the largest company on the planet.

1999:
February 11 - Pluto, a planet with an irregular orbit, changes from the eighth to ninth planet furthest from the Sun. It had been the eighth furthest since 1979, and will become again in 2231.
February 12 - President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial
February 16 - In Jasper, Texas, testimony begins in the trial of John William King who is accused of dragging African American James Byrd Jr. to death in an apparent hate crime. King was later convicted and sentenced to the death penalty.
March 26 - The Melissa worm attacks the Internet.
March 26 - A jury in Michigan finds Dr. Jack Kevorkian guilty of second-degree murder for administering a lethal injection to a terminally ill man (the incident was videotaped and aired on September 17, 1998 edition of 60 Minutes)
March 29 - For the first time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 10000 mark at 10006.78.
April 20 - Two Littleton, Colorado teenagers named Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold open fire on their teachers and fellow students. The teenagers killed 12 students and 1 teacher, and then killed themselves. See Columbine High School massacre.
May 3 - A F5 tornado slams in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma killing 38 people. This was the strongest tornado ever.
October 31 - Roman Catholic Church and Lutheran Church leaders sign the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, ending a centuries-old doctrinal dispute over the nature of faith and salvation.

2000:
April 3 - United States v. Microsoft: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors.
April 22 - In a predawn raid, federal agents seize six-year old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami, Florida and fly him to his Cuban father in Washington, DC ending one of the most publicized custody battles in US history.
May 3 - A rare conjunction occurs on the New Moon including all seven of the traditional celestial bodies known from ancient times up until 1781 with the discovery of Uranus. The May 2000 conjunction consisted of: the Sun and Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
July 25 - A Concorde carrying Air France Flight 4590 crashes just after takeoff from Paris killing all 109 aboard and 5 on the ground.
November 7 - U.S. presidential election, 2000: Republican challenger George W. Bush defeats Democrat Vice President Al Gore, but the final outcome is not known for over a month because of disputed votes in Florida.
November 7 - Criminal gang raids the Millennium Dome to steal The Millennium Star diamond but police surveillance catches them in the act

2001:
January 1 - A black monolith measuring approximately nine feet tall appears in Seattle's Magnuson Park, placed by an anonymous artist in reference to the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
March 23 - Russian space stations Mir re-enters the atmosphere near Nadi, Fiji, and falls into the Pacific Ocean
March 24 - Apple Computer's Mac OS X v10.0 is released.
May 1 - Police declare the disappearance of Chandra Levy. Her remains were discovered a year later.
May 19 - One child policy: Sun Zhonghua is put to death by the People's Republic of China government officials because she refused to be sterilized.
June 5-June 9 - Houston, Texas is devastated by flooding when Tropical Storm Allison dumps 36 inches (900 mm) of rain on the city. Particularly hard hit are the downtown area and the Texas Medical Center, which lost years of research and data and thousands of lab animals. Twenty-two people die; damage exceeds five billion American dollars.
June 5 - Senator Jim Jeffords leaves the Republican party, an act which changes control of the United States Senate from the Republican party to the Democratic party
June 20 - Andrea Yates drowns her children in a bathtub and confesses to her crime. She would get life in prison for it.
July 2 - World's first self-contained artificial heart implanted in Robert Tools.
July 16 - The FBI arrests Dmitry Sklyarov at a convention in Las Vegas for violating a provision of the DMCA.
August 6 - : George W. Bush is informed in his President's Daily Brief that Osama bin Laden is determined to strike targets within the United States and that the FBI believed activity consistent with preparations for hijacking US airplanes was underway.
August 9 - US President George W. Bush announces his support for federal funding of limited research on embryonic stem cells.
September 4 - Google Inc. is awarded a patent, number 6,285,999, for the PageRank search algorithm used in the Google search engine
September 6 - United States v. Microsoft: The United States Justice Department announces that it was no longer seeking to break-up software maker Microsoft and will instead seek a lesser antitrust penalty
September 11 - Around 3,000 killed in the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
September 18 - The 2001 anthrax attacks commence as anthrax letters are mailed from Princeton, New Jersey to ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, the New York Post, and the National Enquirer.
October 7 - The American attack on Afghanistan begins. The United Kingdom participates.
October 23 - Apple Computer releases the now famous iPod.
October 25 - Microsoft releases Windows XP
November 12 - In New York City, American Airlines Flight 587 crashes minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 on-board
December 2 - Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection five days after Dynegy canceled a US$8.4 billion buyout bid. At the time this was the largest bankruptcy in the history of the United States.

2002:
January 1 - Introduction of euro banknotes and coins in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, and Portugal.
February 19 - NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of using its thermal emission imaging system.
March 19 - US Attack on Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda ends (started on March 1) after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters with 11 allied troop fatalities
April 2 - Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where Palestinians are holding around 200 hostages. A siege ensues.
April 9- Funeral of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother takes place in Westminster Abbey, London.
May 9 - The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem comes to an end when the Palestinians inside agreed to have 13 suspected militants among them deported to several different countries. The standoff started April 2.
May 12 - Former President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro becoming the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro's 1959 revolution.
July 15 - So-called "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh pleads guilty to supplying aid to the enemy and for the possession of explosives during the commission of a felony. Lindh agrees to serve 10 years in prison for each of the charges
July 21 - Telecommunications giant WorldCom files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the largest such filing in United States history
October 2 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The U.S. Congress passes a joint resolution which explicitly authorizes the President to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate.
October 16 - Iraq disarmament crisis: George W. Bush signs the Iraq war resolution.
October 24 - The Beltway snipers are arrested.
November 5 - U.S. Elections: The Republican Party maintains control of the House of Representatives and regains control of the Senate.
November 8 - Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council Resolution 1441 – The United Nations Security Council unanimously approves a resolution on Iraq, forcing Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences".
November 25 - US President George W. Bush signs the Homeland Security Act into law, establishing the Department of Homeland Security in the largest US government reorganization since the creation of the Department of Defense in 1947 (the Senate passed the bill 90-9 on November 19).

2003:
January 15 - The United States Supreme Court hands down its decision in Eldred v. Ashcroft allowing the extension of copyright terms in the U.S.
January 24 - The new United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.
February 1 - The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates over Texas upon reentry, killing all seven astronauts onboard.
February 15 - Global protests against war on Iraq - more than ten million people protest in over 600 cities worldwide, the largest war protest to take place before the war occurred.
February 26 - An American businessman is admitted to the Vietnam France Hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam. WHO doctor Carlo Urbani reports the unusual highly contagious disease to WHO. Both the businessman and Carlo Urbani die of SARS in March.
March 17 - Iraq disarmament crisis: U.S. President George W. Bush gives an ultimatum: Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his sons must either leave Iraq, or face military action at a time of the U.S.'s choosing
March 22 - The United States and the United Kingdom begin their shock and awe campaign with a massive air strike on military targets in Baghdad.
April 9 - U.S. forces seize control of Baghdad, apparently ending the regime of Saddam Hussein.
April 14 - Human Genome Project successfully completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to 99.99% accuracy.
May 1 - George W. Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, in a Lockheed S-3 Viking, where he gave a speech announcing end of major combat in the Iraq war.
May 26 - A draft of the proposed European constitution is unveiled.
June 4 - Martha Stewart and her broker are indicted for using privileged investment information and then obstructing a federal investigation. Stewart also resigned as chairperson and chief executive officer of Martha Stewart Living.
July 14 - U.S. columnist Robert Novak publishes the name of Valerie Plame, blowing her cover as a CIA operative. CIA leak scandal begins.
August 11 - NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.
October 7 - 2003 California recall: Voters recall Governor Gray Davis from office and elect Arnold Schwarzenegger to succeed him.
October 24 - Concorde makes its last commercial flight, bringing the era of airliner supersonic travel to a close, at least for the time being.
November 12 - Occupation of Iraq: In Nasiriya, Iraq, at least 23 people, among them the first Italian casualties of the 2003 Iraq war are killed in a suicide bomb attack on an Italian police base.
November 20 - Michael Jackson is arrested by police on charges of child molestation, a charge that can carry an 8 year jail term.
December 13 - Saddam Hussein, former President of Iraq, is captured in Tikrit by the U.S. 4th Infantry Division.

2004:
January 4 -NASA's MER-A (Spirit) lands on Mars.
January 24 - NASA's MER-B (Opportunity) lands on Mars.
February 3 - The CIA admits that there was no imminent threat from weapons of mass destruction before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
February 12 - Same sex marriage in the United States: The City and County of San Francisco begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples as an act of civil disobedience.
February 25- Ash Wednesday. Also, the religious docudrama, The Passion of the Christ was released.
February 29 - The film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King directed by Peter Jackson wins 11 Academy Awards in every category it was nominated.
March 12 - Following the terrorist attacks in Madrid on March 11, millions of protesters take to the streets of Spanish cities against terrorism.
March 15 - A trio of astronomers announce they have discovered a large trans-Neptunian object, the largest object found in the solar system since Pluto was discovered in 1930. Initially designated 2003 VB12, it was named 90377 Sedna in late September.
March 31 - Four American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed and their bodies mutilated after being ambushed in Fallujah, Iraq.
April 17 - Israeli helicopters fire missiles at a convoy of vehicles in the Gaza Strip, killing the Gaza leader of Hamas, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi.
April 28 - Abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is revealed on the television show 60 Minutes II.
May 19 - Jeremy Sivits pleads guilty in a court-martial in connection with alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
June 1 - 12-year-old Satomi Mitarai, a Japanese schoolgirl attending Okubo Elementary School in Sasebo, Japan is murdered. Her killer, an 11-year-old classmate identified by Japanese authorities as "Girl A", becomes the basis for the Nevada-tan Internet meme.
June 5 - Former President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, dies at age 93.
June 6 - The 60th anniversary of D-Day is remembered by world leaders.
June 21 - SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately-funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.
June 28 - The U.S.-led coalition occupying Iraq transfers sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government.
June 30 - The preliminary hearings begin in Iraq in the trial of former president Saddam Hussein, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
August 24 - Two airliners in Russia, carrying a total of 89 passengers, crash within minutes of each other after flying out of Domodedovo International Airport, leaving no survivors. Authorities suspect suicide attacks by rebels from Chechnya to be the cause of the crashes.
September 8 - In the "Rathergate" affair, the first Internet posts appear pointing out that documents claimed by CBS News to be typewritten memos from the early 1970's appear instead to have been produced using modern word processing systems.
September 29 - First Ansari X-Prize flight of SpaceShipOne.
October 8 - Kenneth Bigley, the British hostage held by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an Iraqi insurgent, is killed after a failed escape attempt.
October 29 - A videotape of Osama Bin Laden speaking airs on Arabic TV, in which he threatens terrorist attacks on the USA, and taunts the president, George W. Bush, over the September 11 Terrorist attacks.
November 2 - U.S. presidential election: President George W. Bush defeats Senator John Kerry. Republicans make gains in the House and Senate.
November 7 - U.S. forces launch a major assault on the Iraqi town of Fallujah, in an effort to rid the area of insurgents before the Iraqi elections in January
November 12 - Jury finds Scott Peterson guilty of murder of his wife Laci and unborn son, Connor
November 13 - After six days of intense battles, Iraqi town of Fallujah fully occupied by U.S. forces.
November 14 - American Secretary of State, Colin Powell submits his resignation. He was replaced by Condoleezza Rice after her confirmation from the United States Congress.
November 16 - NASA's hypersonic jet ScramJet breaks a record by reaching a velocity of about 7,000 mph in an unmanned experimental flight. It obtained a speed of Mach 9.6, almost 10 times the speed of sound.
November 21 - Final round of presidential election in Ukraine. Official winner: Viktor Yanukovych. International election observers express severe criticism, and large crowds gather in a protest rally in Kiev. 12 days later, the Supreme Court annuls the result, and a new poll is scheduled.
December 11 - Tests show that Ukrainian opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned with a large dose of dioxin.
December 26 - The strongest earthquake in 40 years originates from the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Sumatra island in Indonesia, measuring 9.3 on the Richter Scale and creating tsunami tidal waves that sweep across much of the coastlines of Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. At least 290,000 people from South Asia to as far as Somalia in Africa are confirmed to be dead.
December 26 - The re-run of the second round of the Ukrainian presidential election takes place. Opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko is declared the victor.

2005:
January 3 - Assassination of the Governor of Baghdad, Ali Al-Haidri.
January 9 - Mahmoud Abbas is elected to succeed Yasser Arafat as Palestinian Authority president in the Palestinian election.
January 25 - A stampede during a religious pilgrimage in India kills at least 215, mostly women and small children.
January 26 - A helicopter crash in eastern Iraq kills 31 United States soldiers.
January 30 - The first Parliamentary elections in Iraq since the overthrow of the Ba'ath Party government led by Saddam Hussein take place.
January 30 - A Royal Air Force C-130 Hercules transport plane crashes in Iraq, killing 10 British servicemen. Iraqi insurgents release a video claiming to have shot the aircraft down using a missile.
February 10 - North Korea announces that it possesses nuclear weapons as a protection against the hostility it feels from the United States.
February 16 - The Kyoto Protocol comes into effect, without the support of the United States and Australia.
February 19 - Suicide bombers kill more than 30 people in Iraq as Shia Muslims mark Ashura, their holiest day.
March 1 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules the death penalty unconstitutional for juveniles who committed their crimes under age 18.
March 23 - The United States' 11th Circuit Court of Appeals' 2-1 decision refuses to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube.
March 24 - After eight months of jail in Tokyo, former chess champion, Bobby Fischer, arrives in Iceland after full citizenship and an Icelandic passport was granted to him.
April 1 - Newsanchor Peter Jennings hosts what will turn out to be his final World News Tonight telecast.
April 2 - Pope John Paul II dies.
April 9 - Tens of thousands of demonstrators, many of them supporters of Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, marched through Baghdad denouncing the U.S. occupation of Iraq, two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, and rallied in the square where his statue was toppled in 2003.
April 19 - Joseph Ratzinger elected Pope Benedict XVI on the second day of the Papal conclave.
May 10 - A live hand grenade lands about 100 feet (30 m) from United States President George W. Bush while he is giving a speech to a crowd in Tbilisi, Georgia, but malfunctions and does not detonate.
May 31 - W. Mark Felt is confirmed to be Deep Throat.
June 13 - Singer Michael Jackson acquitted of all charges of harming children
June 17 - A 6.7 aftershock,which followed a 5.3 earthquake the previous day, hits California making it the fourth earthquake since June 12 in California
July 19 - President Bush nominates Appeals Court Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. to the United States Supreme Court, following the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor.
July 21 - A terrorist attack on London, similar to the July 7 attacks, includes 4 attempted bomb attacks on 3 Underground trains and a London bus. The bombs failed to explode properly, and only one injury was reported.
July 22 - A Brazilian electrician, Jean Charles de Menezes, is shot dead at a London underground station by police who mistake him for a suicide bomber.
July 26 - Launch for Space Shuttle Discovery return to flight mission STS-114. This is the first Space Shuttle flight in nearly two and a half years since the breakup of Columbia on its return from mission STS-107.
July 28 The Provisional IRA issues a statement formally ordering an end to the armed campaign it has pursued since 1969 and ordering all its units to dump their arms.
August 2 - Air France Flight 358 bursts into flames after overshooting the runway at Toronto Pearson International Airport, all aboard survive.
August 7 - ABC's acclaimed newsanchor, Peter Jennings, dies at age 67 of lung cancer.
August 17 - The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of the Israel unilateral disengagement plan, starts.
August 18 - Dennis Rader is sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences for the BTK serial killings.
August 29 - Thousands of people are killed, and severe damage is caused along the U.S. Gulf Coast, as Hurricane Katrina strikes the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coastal areas.
August 31 - A crowd crush on the Al-Aaimmah bridge in Baghdad kills several hundred civilians
September 1 - Oil prices rise sharply following the economic effects of Hurricane Katrina.


It's long, I'm warning you. And it took me about 3 hours to put together.
Amazing how many things happen in the world in just 24 years.