Timeline December 1991

Events in December 1991 9

• 1985 – 1991 Director of the MIT Center for Cancer Research Served as director of the MIT Center for Cancer Research, succeeding Nobel laureate Salvador Luria. Under his leadership, the centre expanded its research into the molecular mechanisms of cancer.
• 1985 – 1991 Gorbachev in power Glasnost, Perestroika and the collapse of the USSR — 1985 to 1991 Gorbachev became Soviet leader on March 11, 1985 and resigned on December 25, 1991, the day the Soviet Union was dissolved. His reforms of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) inadvertently unleashed forces that ended the Cold War and dissolved the USSR.
• 1986 – 1991 Living in Europe Left Japan for Italy and Greece, running marathons and writing in solitude. Completed Dance Dance Dance and South of the Border, West of the Sun abroad. He began running seriously during this period, eventually completing over 30 marathons and an ultramarathon.
• 1988 – 1991 Mayor and Party Secretary of Shanghai Named Mayor of Shanghai in 1988, then Party Secretary in 1989, succeeding Jiang Zemin. Opened Shanghai to foreign investment and improved the city's economy, earning the attention of paramount leader Deng Xiaoping.
• 1991 1991: Ayrton Senna McLaren Senna won his third and final title. He was killed at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest racing drivers of all time.
• 1991 Grammy Win Won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album for I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got.
• 1991 European Council Agrees Maastricht Treaty Blueprint for the European Union and single currency European Community leaders meeting in Maastricht, the Netherlands, agreed the terms of a treaty establishing the European Union and setting a path toward a single currency. The treaty was formally signed the following February. It represented the deepest step yet toward European political and economic integration.
• 1991 Soviet Union dissolved Gorbachev resigns — December 25, 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as President of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991, and the Soviet flag was lowered over the Kremlin for the last time. The USSR was formally dissolved and replaced by 15 independent states. It was the end of a 69-year experiment in communism.
• 1991 USSR dissolves Cold War ends On December 25, 1991, the Soviet Union formally dissolved into 15 independent states, ending the Cold War and changing the global order.