Events from the year 1991 in the United States.
Incumbents Federal government President: George H. W. Bush (R-Texas) Vice President: Dan Quayle (R-Indiana) Chief Justice: William Rehnquist (Virginia) Speaker of the House of Representatives: Tom Foley (D-Washington) Senate Majority Leader: George J. Mitchell (D-Maine) Congress: 101st (until January 3), 102nd (starting January 3)
State governments Governors and lieutenant governors Governors
Lieutenant governors
Events January
January 2 – Sharon Pratt Dixon is sworn in as mayor of the District of Columbia, becoming the first African-American woman to be mayor of a major U.S. city. January 3 –– The television sitcom series Blossom premieres on NBC. January 7 – United States Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney cancels the $57,000,000,000 order for the McDonnell Douglas A-12 Avenger II. January 8 – Pan American World Airways files for bankruptcy protection. January 9 – United States Secretary of State James Baker meets with Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz, but fails to produce a plan for Iraq to withdraw its troops from Kuwait. January 12 – Gulf War: The Congress of the United States passes a resolution authorizing the use of military force to liberate Kuwait. January 16 – U.S. serial killer Aileen Wuornos confesses to the murders of six men. January 17 – Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm begins with airstrikes against Iraq. January 18 – Eastern Air Lines ceases operations after flying for two years under bankruptcy protection. January 25 – President George H. W. Bush names Rep. Edward Rell Madigan as United States Secretary of Agriculture, replacing Clayton Keith Yeutter, who had been elected Chairman of the Republican National Committee. January 26 – In Washington, D.C., tens of thousands of people rally against the Persian Gulf War. January 27 – Super Bowl XXV in football: The New York Giants defeat the Buffalo Bills 20–19 at Tampa Stadium in Tampa, Florida. January 29 George H. W. Bush delivers his second State of the Union Address. The first attempt to cure cancer by gene therapy takes place at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.
February
February – The early 1990s recession ends. February 1 – A USAir Boeing 737-300, Flight 1493 collides with a SkyWest Airlines Fairchild Metroliner, Flight 5569 at Los Angeles International Airport, killing 34 people. February 5 – A Michigan court bars Dr. Jack Kevorkian from assisting in suicides. February 7 – Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabian border and enter Kuwait, thus starting the ground phase of the war. February 9 – The Adventures of Pete & Pete debuts on Nickelodeon. February 13 – Gulf War: Two laser-guided bombs destroy an underground bunker in Baghdad, killing 314 Iraqis including 130 children. United States military intelligence claims the structure was transmitting military signals but Iraqi officials identify it as a bomb shelter. February 22 – Gulf War: Iraq accepts a Russian-proposed cease fire agreement. The U.S. rejects the agreement, but says that retreating Iraqi forces will not be attacked if they leave Kuwait within 24 hours. February 23 – The One Meridian Plaza fire in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania kills three firefighters and destroys eight floors of the building. February 25 – Gulf War: Part of an Iraqi Scud missile hits an American military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 29 and injuring 99 U.S. soldiers. It is the single most devastating attack on U.S. forces during the war. February 26 – Gulf War: On Baghdad radio, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein announces the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait. Iraqi soldiers set fire to Kuwaiti oil fields as they retreat. February 27 – Gulf War (1990–1991) ends: U.S. President George H. W. Bush announces that "Kuwait is liberated". February 28 – Impostor James Hogue is exposed at Princeton University.
March March 1 – Clayton Keith Yeutter leaves his position as the United States Secretary of Agriculture. March 3 An amateur video captures the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles, California police officers. United Airlines Flight 585 crashes in Colorado Springs, Colorado, killing all 25 people on board. March 10 – Gulf War: Operation Phase Echo – 540,000 American troops begin to leave the Persian Gulf. March 13 The United States Department of Justice announces that Exxon has agreed to pay $1,000,000,000 for the clean-up of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. The Air Quality Agreement ("Acid Rain Treaty of 1991") is signed between the Federal government and Canada. March 15 Four Los Angeles, California police officers are indicted for the videotaped March 3 beating of motorist Rodney King during an arrest. Germany formally regains complete independence after the four post-World War II occupying powers (France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union) relinquish all remaining rights. The U.S. and Albania resume diplomatic relations for the first time since 1939. March 18 – Get the Picture debuts on Nickelodeon. March 24 – The World Wrestling Federation holds WrestleMania VII at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California. March 25 – The 63rd Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal, are held at Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Kevin Costner's Dances With Wolves wins seven awards out of 12 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. The telecast garners nearly 43 million viewers. March 30 – Northern Michigan University wins the NCAA Division I title in hockey, 8–7 in the third overtime against Boston University.
April April 4 Merion air disaster: Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania and six others are killed when a helicopter collides with their plane over Merion, Pennsylvania. William Kennedy Smith, a nephew of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, is identified as a suspect in an alleged Palm Beach, Florida sexual assault. 1991 Sacramento hostage crisis: Four gunmen take 41 people hostage at a Good Guys! electronics store in Sacramento, California. Three hostages, as well as three of the four hostage-takers, are killed. April 5 Former Senator John Tower and 22 others are killed in an airplane crash in Brunswick, Georgia. Space Shuttle Atlantis leaves an observatory in Earth's orbit to study gamma rays before returning on April 11. It is followed by Space Shuttle Discovery, which studies instruments related to the Strategic Defense Initiative from April 29 to May 6. April 17 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 3,000 for the first time ever, at 3,004.46. April 26 – Seventy tornadoes break out in the central United States, killing 17 people. The most notable tornado of the day strikes Andover, Kansas.
May May 3 – Wisconsin butter fire in Madison. May 5 – 1991 Washington, D.C. riot: A riot breaks out in the Mount Pleasant section of Washington, D.C. after police shoot a Salvadorean man. May 6 – Time magazine publishes "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power", an article highly critical of the Scientology organization. May 16 – Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first British monarch to address the United States Congress, during a 13-day royal visit in Washington, D.C. May 25 – The Pittsburgh Penguins defeat the Minnesota North Stars 8–0 in Game 6 to win their first Stanley Cup in the ice hockey franchise history.
June June 4 – A large solar flare triggers an unusually large aurora as far south as Pennsylvania. June 5 – STS-40: Space Shuttle Columbia carries the Spacelab Life Sciences 1 module into orbit. June 7 – National Victory Celebration: Approximately 200,000 people attend a parade of 8,800 returning Persian Gulf War troops in Washington, D.C. June 10 – As she goes home from school, 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard is kidnapped in Meyers, California. She will not be found for 18 years.In 2009 in the United States June 12 – The Chicago Bulls win their first NBA championship by defeating the Los Angeles Lakers. June 13 – A spectator is killed by lightning at the U.S. Open (golf) at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Minnesota. June 16 – Father's Day bank massacre: Four security guards are shot to death during a bank robbery at the United Bank Tower in Denver, Colorado. The former police officer subsequently charged with the crime is acquitted, and the case remains unsolved. June 17 – 12th U.S. President Zachary Taylor, who died 141 years earlier in 1850, is exhumed to discover whether or not his death was caused by arsenic poisoning, instead of acute gastrointestinal illness; no trace of arsenic is found. June 23 – Sonic the Hedgehog is released in the United States. Nearly one million copies are sold here by Christmas, and nearly 2 million copies worldwide by the end of the year. June 27 – Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African American appointed to the court, announces his retirement from the Supreme Court due to declining health. In his retirement press conference on the following day, he expressed his view that race should not be the basis in selecting his successor. June 28 – The 5.6 Sierra Madre earthquake shook the Greater Los Angeles Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong), causing two deaths, 27–40 injuries, and $33.5–40 million in losses.
July
July 1 President George H. W. Bush nominates Clarence Thomas as the replacement for Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall; he will be the second African American appointed. Telephone services go down in Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and San Francisco as a result of a software bug, affecting nearly 12 million customers. July 4 – Salute Your Shorts debuts on Nickelodeon. July 7 – The United States men's national soccer team win the first ever CONCACAF Gold Cup against Honduras in the Final on penalties. July 9 – Iran–Contra affair: Alan Fiers agrees to plead guilty to two charges of lying to the U.S. Congress. On September 16, D.C. Judge Gerhard Gesell issues a ruling clearing Col. Oliver North of all charges. July 11 – A solar eclipse of record totality occurs, seen first in Hawaii. It then enters Mexico with the path directly crossing Cabo San Lucas and Mexico City, where it is seen by 20,000,000 inhabitants, and finally ends in Colombia in South America. July 22 Boxer Mike Tyson is arrested and charged with raping Desiree Washington, a Miss Black America contestant, three days earlier, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is arrested after the remains of eleven men and boys are found in his Milwaukee, Wisconsin apartment. Police soon find out that he is involved in six more murders. July 29 – In New York City, a grand jury indicts Bank of Credit and Commerce International of the largest bank fraud in history, accusing it of defrauding depositors of US$5 billion. July 31 – The United States and the Soviet Union sign the START I treaty in Moscow limiting strategic nuclear weapons.
August August 11 – Nickelodeon introduces its series of Nicktoons, with Doug, Rugrats and The Ren & Stimpy Show the first three to air. August 19 – Hurricane Bob hits the Northeastern United States. August 23 – The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is first released in the United States. August 26 – The World Wrestling Federation holds its SummerSlam event AT Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. August 31 – What Would You Do? debuts on Nickelodeon.
September September 2 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The United States recognizes the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. September 3 – In Hamlet, North Carolina, a grease fire breaks out at the Imperial Foods chicken processing plant, killing 25 people. September 8–12 – Tailhook scandal: At the 35th Annual Tailhook Symposium in Las Vegas, 83 women and seven men are assaulted by U.S. Navy and Marine aviation officers. September 11 Continental Express Flight 2574 crashes in Texas "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana is released.