


An IRA ceasefire ends with the Docklands bombing in London's Canary Wharf District, killing two people and causing over £85,000,000 worth of damage.Given the placeholder name "ununbium", the element is not named until 2010. The element copernicium is created by fusing a 208Pb nucleus with a 70Zn nucleus, forming 278Cn.February 7 – René Préval succeeds Jean-Bertrand Aristide as President of Haiti in the first peaceful handover of power since the nation achieved independence 192 years earlier, in 1804.February 6 – Birgenair Flight 301, on a charter flight from the Caribbean to Germany, crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Dominican Republic, killing all 189 passengers and crew.February 3 – The 6.6 M w earthquake near Lijiang in South-west China kills up to 322 people, injures 17,000, and leaves 300,000 homeless.An amateur astronomer from southern Japan discovers Comet Hyakutake it will pass very close to the Earth in March.Colombo Central Bank bombing: an explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing at least 86 people and injuring 1,400.January 27 – Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara deposes the first democratically elected President of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane, in a military coup.He is replaced by Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz. January 24 – Polish Premier Józef Oleksy resigns amid charges that he spied for Moscow.January 22 – Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece, resigns due to health problems a new government forms under Costas Simitis.

January 21 – France undertakes its last nuclear weapons test.January 20 – Yasser Arafat is re-elected president of the Palestinian Authority.An Indonesian ferry sinks off the northern tip of Sumatra, drowning more than 100 people.The North Cape Barge is pulled along with it and leaks 820,000 gallons of home heating oil. The North Cape oil spill occurs as an engine fire forces the tugboat Scandia ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island.January 18 – Michael Jackson files for divorce from Lisa Marie Presley.Bio promises to restore power following elections scheduled for February. January 16 – President of Sierra Leone Valentine Strasser is deposed by the chief of defence, Julius Maada Bio.January 14 – Jorge Sampaio is elected President of Portugal.New talks are initiated by President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro to form a new government. January 13 – Italy's Prime Minister, Lamberto Dini, resigns after the failure of all-party talks to confirm him.January 11 – Ryutaro Hashimoto, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, becomes Prime Minister of Japan.January 9– 20 – Serious fighting breaks out between Russian soldiers and rebel fighters in Chechnya.January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa, killing 300 people.Establishments and disestablishments categoriesġ996 in various calendars Gregorian calendar
