Also Within This Year in History:
1992
After a devastating Windsor Castle fire and assorted family crises, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II called 1992 her “annus horribilis,” or horrible year. The police beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles sparked one of the worst riots in U.S. history, while exploding sewers in Mexico killed hundreds. On the brighter side, South Africa ended apartheid, the U.S. and Russia declared the Cold War over, Mae Jemison became the first Black woman in space and a big purple dinosaur named Barney hit TV, singing about love, kindness and cleaning up.
One of the most widely ridiculed and memorable gaffes in the history of the United States Presidency occurred in Japan on the evening of January 8, 1992, when President George…
On January 23, 1992, President George H.W. Bush hosts a White House reception for the U.S. women’s soccer team in honor of their recent World Cup win. On this occasion,…
On January 27, 1992, a judge in the murder trial of porn producer Jim Mitchell allows the first‑ever use of video re‑creation of the crime. Jim Mitchell shot his brother…
After suffering through centuries of bloody conflict, the nations of Western Europe finally unite in the spirit of economic cooperation with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty of European Union.…
After stunning the world three months earlier with the news he had contracted the HIV virus and was immediately retiring from the Los Angeles Lakers, basketball great Magic Johnson returns…
Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, accused of raping 18‑year‑old beauty‑pageant contestant Desiree Washington, is found guilty by an Indiana jury. The following month, Tyson was given a 10‑year prison…
On February 19, 1992, 24‑year‑old recent film school graduate John Singleton becomes the youngest and first Black film director nominated for an Academy Award for his movie, Boyz n the…
On March 17, 1992, white South Africans vote overwhelmingly in a referendum to end minority rule, by a margin of 68.7 percent to 31.2 percent. Thus ends the turbulent period…
A jury in New York finds mobster John Gotti, nicknamed the Teflon Don for his ability to elude conviction, guilty on 13 counts, including murder and racketeering. In the wake…
A march and rally in support of reproductive justice for women draws several hundred thousand people to demonstrations in Washington, D.C. One of the largest protest marches on the nation’s…
Dozens of sewer explosions in Guadalajara, Mexico, kill more than 200 people and damage 1,000 buildings on April 22, 1992. The series of explosions was caused by a gas leak,…
In Los Angeles, California, four Los Angeles police officers that had been caught beating an unarmed African American motorist in an amateur video are acquitted of any wrongdoing in the…
The World War II monument opens, the concentration camp, Dachau is liberated, New Orleans falls to the Union army in the Civil War, and the first international space flight is…
Exxon executive Sidney Reso dies in a storage vault in New Jersey. Four days earlier, he was abducted from the driveway of his Morris Township, New Jersey, home. Reso was…
In an event steeped in symbolism, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev reviews the Cold War in a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri—the site of Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain”…
Amy Fisher, the so‑called “Long Island Lolita,” is arrested for shooting Mary Jo Buttafuoco on the front porch of her Massapequa, New York, home. Fisher, only 17 at the time…
On June 23, 1992, Mafia boss John Gotti, who was nicknamed the “Teflon Don” after escaping unscathed from several trials during the 1980s, is sentenced to life in prison after…
Two of the strongest earthquakes ever to hit California strike the desert area east of Los Angeles on June 28, 1992. Although the state sits upon the immense San Andreas…
Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking breaks British publishing records on July 2, 1992 when his book A Brief History of Time remains on the nonfiction bestseller list for three and a…
The Alaska court of appeals overturns the conviction of Joseph Hazelwood, the former captain of the oil tanker Exxon Valdez. Hazelwood, who was found guilty of negligence for his role…
