1995

Events in 1995 68

• 1890 – 1995 Rose Kennedy (1890-1995) Died 22 January 1995, aged 104 Rose Kennedy was the matriarch of the Kennedy family and mother of President John F. Kennedy, Senators Robert and Ted Kennedy, and their siblings. She outlived four of her nine children, including three who died violently. She was widely known for her longevity and her role in one of America's most prominent political families.
• 1898 – 1995 Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995) Died 24 August 1995, aged 96 Alfred Eisenstaedt was a German-American photojournalist for Life magazine best known for his photograph of a sailor kissing a woman in Times Square on V-J Day. Over a career spanning decades, he photographed numerous political and cultural figures. His work helped define the golden age of American photojournalism.
• 1909 – 1995 Burl Ives (1909-1995) Died 14 April 1995, aged 85 Burl Ives was an American actor and folk singer known for his rendition of Frosty the Snowman and for his Academy Award-winning role in The Big Country. He also played Big Daddy in the film adaptation of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. His deep voice made him one of the most recognizable performers of mid-20th-century America.
• 1911 – 1995 Butterfly McQueen (1911-1995) American actress, Prissy in Gone with the Wind, who left Hollywood rather than keep playing maids.
• 1911 – 1995 Juan Manuel Fangio El Maestro Won five World Championships in the 1950s with four different teams (Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Mercedes, Ferrari).
• 1911 – 1995 Ginger Rogers (1911-1995) Died 25 April 1995, aged 83 Ginger Rogers was an American actress and dancer best remembered for her ten films with Fred Astaire, including Top Hat and Swing Time. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Kitty Foyle in 1941. Her partnership with Astaire remains one of the most celebrated in Hollywood history.
• 1914 – 1995 Jonas Salk (1914-1995) Died 23 June 1995, aged 80 Jonas Salk was an American virologist who developed the first effective vaccine against poliomyelitis, first tested successfully in 1955. His vaccine dramatically reduced polio cases worldwide and he refused to patent it, saying it belonged to the people. He later founded the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California.
• 1916 – 1995 Harold Wilson (1916-1995) Died 24 May 1995, aged 79 Harold Wilson served twice as British prime minister, from 1964 to 1970 and again from 1974 to 1976, leading the Labour Party through periods of economic strain and social change. His governments introduced major social reforms and held Britain's first referendum on membership of the European Community. He resigned unexpectedly in 1976, citing a wish to retire while still in good health.
• 1917 – 1995 Dean Martin (1917-1995) Died 25 December 1995, aged 78 Dean Martin was an American singer and actor, a member of the Rat Pack alongside Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr., and a fixture of Las Vegas entertainment. He had a long comedy partnership with Jerry Lewis before pursuing a solo career in film and music. His relaxed crooning style produced enduring hits such as That's Amore.
• 1918 – 1995 Ida Lupino (1918-1995) English-American actress and pioneering director, one of the few women directing in 1950s Hollywood.
• 1918 – 1995 Howard Cosell (1918-1995) Died 23 April 1995, aged 77 Howard Cosell was an American sportscaster known for his brash, opinionated style and his long association with ABC's Monday Night Football. He was closely linked to Muhammad Ali, whom he interviewed frequently during Ali's career. Cosell's commentary changed the tone of American sports broadcasting.
• 1921 – 1995 Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) Died 4 February 1995, aged 74 Patricia Highsmith was an American novelist best known for psychological thrillers including Strangers on a Train and the Ripley series. Alfred Hitchcock's 1951 film adaptation of Strangers on a Train brought her early fame. She spent much of her later life in Europe and remained a prolific writer until her death.
• 1921 – 1995 Lana Turner (1921-1995) American actress, one of MGM's biggest stars, known for The Postman Always Rings Twice and Imitation of Life.
• 1921 – 1995 W.F. Hermans Novelist, essayist, geographer, 1921-1995 Willem Frederik Hermans (1921-1995) — one of the three great Dutch postwar writers, alongside Harry Mulisch and Gerard Reve. Novelist, essayist, geographer and polemicist. Author of The Darkroom of Damocles (1958), Beyond Sleep (1966) and An Untouched House (1952). His work is defined by epistemological nihilism: the conviction that certainty is impossible and that human existence is fundamentally without meaning or redemption.
• 1922 – 1995 Kingsley Amis (1922-1995) Died 22 October 1995, aged 73 Kingsley Amis was a British novelist and poet best known for his comic novel Lucky Jim, a landmark of postwar English fiction. He wrote more than twenty novels and won the Booker Prize in 1986 for The Old Devils. His son Martin Amis also became a prominent novelist.
• 1925 – 1995 Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) Died 4 November 1995, aged 70 Gilles Deleuze was a French philosopher whose work, including collaborations with Felix Guattari such as Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus, became highly influential in continental philosophy and critical theory. He wrote extensively on subjects ranging from cinema to Spinoza. He took his own life after years of severe respiratory illness.
• 1931 – 1995 Mickey Mantle (1931-1995) Died 13 August 1995, aged 63 Mickey Mantle was a New York Yankees outfielder widely regarded as one of the greatest switch hitters and power hitters in baseball history. He won three American League MVP awards and helped the Yankees to seven World Series titles. His later years were marked by public advocacy for organ donation and alcoholism treatment after a liver transplant.
• 1932 – 1995 Louis Malle (1932-1995) Died 23 November 1995, aged 63 Louis Malle was a French film director known for a wide-ranging body of work including Au Revoir les Enfants, My Dinner with Andre, and Atlantic City. He worked across French and American cinema and was married to actress Candice Bergen. He received numerous international awards over a four-decade career.
• 1933 – 1995 Elizabeth Montgomery (1933-1995) Died 18 December 1995, aged 62 Elizabeth Montgomery was an American actress best known for starring as the witch Samantha Stephens in the television sitcom Bewitched. The show ran for eight seasons in the 1960s and remained a staple of television syndication for decades afterward. She continued acting in television films throughout her career.
• 1933 – 1995 Ronnie Kray (1933-1995) Died 17 March 1995, aged 61 Ronnie Kray, along with his twin brother Reggie, led the Kray twins, one of the most notorious organized crime gangs in London's East End during the 1950s and 1960s. He was convicted of murder in 1969 and spent the rest of his life in prison or Broadmoor psychiatric hospital. The Krays became enduring figures in British popular culture.
• 1937 – 1995 Peter Cook (1937-1995) Died 9 January 1995, aged 57 Peter Cook was a British comedian and writer, best known for his partnership with Dudley Moore in the double act Pete and Dud. He was a central figure in the British satire boom of the 1960s, including the founding of the magazine Private Eye. His deadpan style influenced generations of British comedians.
• 1938 – 1995 Wolfman Jack (1938-1995) Died 1 July 1995, aged 57 Wolfman Jack, born Robert Smith, was an American disc jockey famous for his gravelly voice and his broadcasts on powerful border-blaster radio stations heard across North America. He gained wider fame through his appearance in the 1973 film American Graffiti. His persona became a fixture of American radio and pop culture.
• 1942 – 1995 Jerry Garcia (1942-1995) Died 9 August 1995, aged 53 Jerry Garcia was the lead guitarist and a founding member of the Grateful Dead, one of the most influential bands of the American counterculture. His improvisational style and the band's extensive touring built a devoted fan following known as Deadheads. His death effectively ended the Grateful Dead as a touring band.
• 1964 – 1995 Eazy-E (1964-1995) Died 26 March 1995, aged 30 Eazy-E, born Eric Wright, was a rapper and a founding member of the influential gangsta rap group N.W.A. He also ran Ruthless Records, which launched the careers of Dr. Dre and Ice Cube. He died of complications from AIDS shortly after publicly disclosing his diagnosis.
• 1965 – 1995 Grateful Dead American rock band San Francisco band led by Jerry Garcia — the great improvising live band, followed from show to show by the Deadheads.
• 1971 – 1995 Selena (1971-1995) Died 31 March 1995, aged 23 Selena Quintanilla-Perez, known simply as Selena, was a Tejano singer whose crossover success made her one of the most popular Latin artists in the United States. She was shot and killed by Yolanda Saldivar, the former manager of her fan club and boutiques. Her death prompted an outpouring of grief and inspired a hit biographical film.
• 1977 – 1995 Dire Straits Mark Knopfler's band — London 1977 to 1995 Dire Straits were a British rock band formed in London in 1977 by Mark Knopfler, his brother David Knopfler, John Illsley and Pick Withers. Their timeless guitar-driven sound sold over 100 million records worldwide. Brothers in Arms (1985) was one of the best-selling albums of the 20th century.
• 1991 – 1995 Yugoslav Wars Balkans conflict & breakup The breakup of Yugoslavia led to brutal wars in the 1990s, including ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and the Srebrenica massacre.
• 1994 – 1995 First exoplanets discovered Planets around other stars — we are not alone in the galaxy In 1992, Aleksander Wolszczan discovered the first confirmed exoplanets around a pulsar. In 1995, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz of Geneva discovered 51 Pegasi b — the first planet found around a Sun-like star. The discovery transformed astronomy; over 5,500 exoplanets are now confirmed. The search for Earth-like planets in habitable zones has become one of science's central quests.
• 1995 Amazon founded Amazon founded Amazon opened for orders in July 1995, a year after Jeff Bezos incorporated it in a Seattle garage, selling books because they were numerous, standardised and easy to ship. It ran at a loss for years while building scale. Books were the beachhead for general retail and later for cloud computing.
• 1995 – present Black Eyed Peas The Party Starters Defined the mid-2000s club sound with hits like "I Gotta Feeling" and "Where Is the Love?".
• 1995 – 2024 Michaela DePrince (1995-2024) Died 10 September 2024, aged 29 Sierra Leonean-born American ballerina who overcame the loss of both parents in civil war to dance at the highest level.
• 1995 – present Pink The Acrobat Known for her rebellious pop-rock style and high-flying aerial performances.
• 1995 Schengen Area opens Free movement in Europe The Schengen Agreement came into force in 1995, abolishing passport controls between participating nations and enabling free movement.
• 1995 – 2014 The question of sexuality -- 16 years of denial The question of Thorpe's sexuality follows him from his mid-teens, when journalists begin asking directly. He is, he later explains, genuinely uncertain about his own sexuality as a teenager -- too young to know the answer -- and defaults to the socially safe denial. The denial then calcifies: by the time he knows the truth, the lie is so public and so repeated (including in the 2012 autobiography) that correcting it feels like confirming that he has been dishonest about everything. He describes the experience of having been asked about his sexuality at 16 by a reporter as formative: "I was 16. I was just a kid." The years of enforced concealment are inseparable from the depression that runs through the same period.
• 1995 World Trade Organization established New body succeeds GATT to govern global trade The World Trade Organization formally came into being, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade as the main body overseeing international trade rules. Based in Geneva, it was given stronger powers to settle trade disputes between member states. It quickly became a central, and often contested, institution of globalization.
• 1995 Star Trek: Voyager — Season 1 The third live-action Trek series, following the crew of the USS Voyager stranded 70,000 light years from home in the Delta Quadrant. Kate Mulgrew plays Captain Kathryn Janeway — the first female captain to lead a Star Trek series. Runs for 7 seasons until 2001. Created as the flagship series for the new UPN network.
• 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake Magnitude 6.9 quake devastates Kobe, Japan A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck the Kobe region of Japan, killing more than 6,000 people and destroying tens of thousands of buildings. It was the deadliest earthquake to hit Japan since 1923 and exposed weaknesses in the country's disaster preparedness. Reconstruction of Kobe took years.
• 1995 – present Mathieu van der Poel MVDP Multi-discipline superstar; World Champion in both Road and Cyclocross.
• 1995 – present Nikola Jokic Basketball player, horse owner, b. 1995 Nikola Jokic (b. 1995, Sombor, Serbia) — three-time NBA MVP, the greatest passing center in basketball history, and the man who led the Denver Nuggets to their first NBA championship in 2023. A second-round pick turned franchise cornerstone, Jokic plays basketball like a chess grandmaster — and would rather be at the horse track.
• 1995 – present Nikola Jokic The Joker 3-time MVP and champion; widely considered the best passing center in history.
• 1995 Barings Bank collapses Rogue trader Nick Leeson's losses sink Britain's oldest merchant bank Barings Bank, one of Britain's oldest merchant banks, collapsed after unauthorized derivatives trading by Singapore-based trader Nick Leeson racked up losses of about 827 million pounds. The bank was sold to ING for a nominal sum. The scandal became a byword for inadequate risk controls in financial institutions.
• 1995 Iditarod 1995 Winner: Doug Swingley — 9 days 2h Doug Swingley of Montana became the first non-Alaskan to win the Iditarod and set a new course record of under 9 days.
• 1995 Michael Jordan returns to the NBA Basketball star ends brief retirement to rejoin the Chicago Bulls Michael Jordan announced his return to professional basketball with the Chicago Bulls, ending a retirement of a year and a half during which he had played minor league baseball. His comeback re-energized the NBA and set up the Bulls' second run of championships. He announced the comeback with the words I'm back.
• 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack Aum Shinrikyo cult releases nerve gas on commuters Members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult released sarin gas on five Tokyo subway trains during morning rush hour, killing 13 people and injuring thousands. The attack triggered a nationwide manhunt and a reassessment of Japan's domestic security. Cult leader Shoko Asahara was later arrested and eventually executed.
• 1995 1995 World Snooker Championship Hendry Title 5 Winner: Stephen Hendry; Runner-up: Nigel Bond. Score: 18–9.
• 1995 Oklahoma bombing 168 killed On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb destroyed the federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 in the deadliest domestic terror attack in US history.
• 1995 Java programming language released Sun Microsystems debuts a "write once, run anywhere" language Sun Microsystems publicly released the Java programming language, designed to let programs run unchanged on any device with a Java virtual machine. It quickly became one of the most widely used languages for enterprise and web software. Java's design influenced later languages and underpinned much of the early web's interactive content.
• 1995 Batman Forever #2 film of 1995 — $337m worldwide Directed by Joel Schumacher, starring Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey.
• 1995 Budennovsk hostage crisis Chechen fighters seize a Russian hospital Chechen separatist fighters led by Shamil Basayev seized a hospital in the Russian town of Budennovsk, taking over a thousand hostages during the First Chechen War. A botched Russian assault killed many hostages before a negotiated end to the siege. The crisis embarrassed the Russian government and briefly halted its military offensive in Chechnya.
• 1995 South Africa wins Rugby World Cup Springboks triumph as Mandela dons the number six jersey South Africa's Springboks defeated New Zealand in the final of the Rugby World Cup, hosted in the country a year after the end of apartheid. President Nelson Mandela presented the trophy wearing a Springbok jersey, an image widely seen as a symbol of national reconciliation. The tournament is credited with helping unite a divided country.
• 1995 Space Shuttle docks with Mir First US-Russian space station linkup since the Cold War The Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with the Russian space station Mir, the first time a US spacecraft had linked up with a Russian one since the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission. The mission marked the start of sustained cooperation between the two countries' space programs. It paved the way for the later construction of the International Space Station.
• 1995 Srebrenica massacre Bosnian Serb forces kill thousands of Muslim men and boys Bosnian Serb forces under General Ratko Mladic overran the UN-declared safe area of Srebrenica and systematically killed more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys. It was the worst atrocity in Europe since the Second World War and was later ruled a genocide by international courts. The massacre discredited UN peacekeeping efforts in Bosnia.
• 1995 Fifth World Championship gold -- Gothenburg 1995 Bubka wins his fifth consecutive world title at the 1995 IAAF World Championships in Gothenburg -- one more than anyone has ever won in a single event. At 31, he is competing at the absolute peak of the event's history and winning it. The Gothenburg performance is the penultimate chapter of the most sustained championship dominance in athletics history.
• 1995 Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia dies End of the band Garcia dies in a rehab clinic — the band retires the name.
• 1995 Netscape goes public Browser company's IPO ignites the dot-com boom Netscape Communications, maker of the popular Netscape Navigator web browser, held an initial public offering that saw its share price more than double on the first day of trading. The IPO is widely credited with igniting investor enthusiasm for internet companies that fueled the dot-com boom. Netscape itself would be eclipsed by Microsoft's Internet Explorer within a few years.
• 1995 Windows 95 launched Microsoft releases operating system with Start menu Microsoft released Windows 95, a major overhaul of its operating system that introduced the Start menu and taskbar familiar to PC users for decades afterward. The launch was accompanied by an unprecedented marketing campaign, including a Rolling Stones song licensed for its ads. It became one of the best-selling software products in history.
• 1995 eBay founded Online auction site launches from a home computer Programmer Pierre Omidyar launched an online auction website, originally called AuctionWeb, from his home in California. It grew into eBay, one of the first major e-commerce platforms and a pioneer of consumer-to-consumer online trading. Its early success helped fuel investor interest in the internet economy.
• 1995 France resumes nuclear testing at Moruroa Tests provoke international protests France, under President Jacques Chirac, resumed underground nuclear weapons testing at Moruroa Atoll in French Polynesia after a three-year moratorium. The decision provoked international protests, including from Greenpeace and Pacific governments, and diplomatic friction with New Zealand and Australia. France ended the test series and signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty the following year.
• 1995 Unabomber's manifesto published Newspapers print "Industrial Society and Its Future" at bomber's demand The Washington Post and New York Times published "Industrial Society and Its Future," a manifesto by the then-unidentified Unabomber, after he threatened further attacks unless it was printed. The publication led to the manifesto's author, Theodore Kaczynski, being identified by his brother and arrested the following year. The case had spanned nearly two decades of mail bombings.
• 1995 O.J. Simpson acquitted of murder Jury clears former football star in televised trial A Los Angeles jury acquitted former football star O.J. Simpson of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, after a trial watched by millions on television. The verdict exposed deep divisions in American public opinion along racial lines. Simpson was later found liable for the deaths in a civil trial.
• 1995 Quebec independence referendum Sovereignty narrowly rejected by voters Quebecers voted narrowly against seceding from Canada, with the 'No' side winning by less than one percentage point. The extremely close result intensified debate over Quebec's constitutional status and national unity in Canada. It remains the closest of Quebec's two sovereignty referendums.
• 1995 Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin Israeli prime minister shot by right-wing extremist Yitzhak Rabin was shot by Yigal Amir, a far-right extremist opposed to the Oslo peace process, after a peace rally in Tel Aviv. He died from his wounds shortly afterward. The killing shook the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and Israeli politics for years.
• 1995 Ken Saro-Wiwa executed in Nigeria Environmental activist hanged after disputed trial Nigerian writer and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, along with eight other Ogoni activists, was hanged after a trial widely condemned as unfair by human rights groups. He had campaigned against environmental damage from oil extraction in the Niger Delta. The executions triggered Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth.
• 1995 GoldenEye — Pierce Brosnan After a six-year hiatus caused by legal disputes and studio changes, Bond returns with Pierce Brosnan — widely considered the most perfectly cast actor in the role. The Cold War is over; the franchise must reinvent itself. GoldenEye does so spectacularly, with a tense opening, a brilliant villain in Sean Bean, and Judi Dench making her debut as M. Budget: $60 million. Box office: $356.4 million.
• 1995 Dayton Peace Accords initialed Agreement ends the Bosnian War Leaders of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia initialed a peace agreement at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, ending three and a half years of war in Bosnia. The accords were formally signed in Paris the following month. They established the political structure of postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina that remains largely in place today.
• 1995 Toy Story #1 film of 1995 — $373m worldwide Directed by John Lasseter at Pixar. The first fully computer-animated feature film. Woody and Buzz Lightyear compete for a child's affection.
• 1995 – 1998 The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is established Chaired by Desmond Tutu Amnesty in exchange for the full truth. Around 7,000 people applied and most were refused.