World Events
Population: 5.682 billion
Nobel Peace Prize: Joseph Rotblat and Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs (UK)
US rescues Mexico's economy with $20-billion aid program (Feb. 21).
Russian space station Mir greets first Americans (March 14). US shuttle docks with station (June 27).
Nerve gas attack in Tokyo subway kills eight and injures thousands. The Aum Shinrikyo ("Supreme Truth") cult is to blame (March 20). Background: International Terrorism.
Death toll 2,000 in Rwanda massacre (April 22).
Fighting escalates in Bosnia and Croatia (May 1). Warring parties agree on cease-fire (Oct. 5); sign peace treaty (Dec. 14).
France explodes nuclear device in Pacific; wide protests ensue (Sept. 5). Background: nuclear weapons.
Israelis and Palestinians agree on transferring West Bank to Arabs (Sept. 24). Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin slain by Jewish extremist at peace rally (Nov. 4).
U.S. Events
President: William J. Clinton
Vice President: Albert Gore, Jr
Population: 262,764,948
Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 52.8
Property Crime Rate (per 1,000): 45.9
Economics
US GDP (1998 dollars): $7,269.60 billion
Federal spending: $1519.13 billion
Federal debt: $4921.0 billion
Median Household Income
(current dollars): $34,076
Consumer Price Index: 152.4
Unemployment: 5.6%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.32 (as of 1/1/95)
Criminal trial of O. J. Simpson opens in California (Jan. 24).
Scores killed as terrorist's car bomb blows up block-long Oklahoma City federal building (April 19); Timothy McVeigh, 27, arrested as suspect (April 21); authorities seek second suspect, link right-wing paramilitary groups to bombing (April 22).
Los Angeles jury finds O. J. Simpson not guilty of murder charges (Oct. 3).
Pope John Paul II visits US on whirlwind tour (Oct. 4-8).
Million Man March draws hundreds of thousands of black men to capital (Oct. 16).
Sports
Super Bowl
San Francisco d. San Diego (49-26)
Halftime show: Patti Labelle, Indiana Jones & Marion Ravenwood, Teddy Pendergrass, Tony Bennett, Arturo Sandoval, and Miami Sound Machine (producer: Disney)
World Series
Atlanta Braves d. Cleveland (4-2)
NBA Championship
Houston d. Orlando (4-0)
Stanley Cup
New Jersey d. Detroit (4-0)
Wimbledon
Women: Steffi Graf d. A.S. Vicario (4-6 6-1 7-5)
Men: Pete Sampras d. B. Becker (6-7 6-2 6-4 6-2)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Thunder Gulch
NCAA Basketball Championship
UCLA d. Arkansas (89-78)
NCAA Football Champions
Nebraska (12-0-0)
Entertainment
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields
Music: Stringmusic, Morton Gould
Drama: The Young Man from Atlanta, Horton Foote
Oscars awarded in 1995
Academy Award, Best Picture: Forrest Gump, Wendy Finerman, Steve Tisch and Steve Starkey, producers (Paramount)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Seamus Heaney (Ireland)
Grammy Awards
Record of the Year: All I Wanna Do - Sheryl Crow
Album of the Year: MTV Unplugged - Tony Bennett (Columbia)
Song of the Year: Streets of Philadelphia (Theme from Philadelphia) - Bruce Springsteen
Miss America: Heather Whitestone (AL)
Events
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum opens in Cleveland. Renowned architect I. M. Pei designed the ultra-modern, 150,000 square-foot building.
Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia dies.
An estimated 150 million people watch as the not guilty verdict is read in the O. J. Simpson verdict.
The Metropolitan Opera installs screens on audience seats that display captions, to attract a wider audience.
Movies
Babe, Braveheart, Leaving Las Vegas, The Usual Suspects, Dead Man Walking
Books
Pat Barker, The Ghost Road
Richard Ford, Independence Day
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry: F. Sherwood Rowland, Mario Molina (both US), and Paul Crutzen (Netherlands), for their pioneering work in explaining the chemical processes that deplete the earth's ozone shield.
Physics: Martin L. Perl and Frederick Reines (both US), for their discoveries of "two of nature's most remarkable subatomic particles"—the tau and the neutrino.
Physiology or Medicine: Edward B. Lewis, Eric F. Wieschaus (both US), and Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (Germany), for studies of the fruit fly that will help explain congenital malformations in humans.
First solo transpacific balloon flight. Steve Fossett made a flight of more than 5,430 mi. from Seoul, South Korea, to Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada, in a helium-filled balloon. Also set record for distance (Feb. 18–21, 1995). Background: Famous Firsts in Aviation
Drs. Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell (UK) create the world's first cloned sheep, Megan and Morag, from embryo cells. Background: Cloning Milestones
Deaths
Howard Cosell
Jerry Garcia
Rose Kennedy
Howard Koch
Mickey Mantle
Ginger Rogers
Terry Southern
Selena Quintanilla