Events from the year 1996 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government President: Bill Clinton (D–Arkansas) Vice President: Al Gore (D–Tennessee) Chief Justice: William Rehnquist (Virginia) Speaker of the House of Representatives: Newt Gingrich (R–Georgia) Senate Majority Leader: Bob Dole (R–Kansas) (until June 12) Trent Lott (R–Mississippi) (starting June 12) Congress: 104th
State governments Governors and lieutenant governors Governors
Lieutenant governors
Events
January
January 2 – Philadelphia police officer Lauretha Vaird is shot and later pronounced dead during a botched armed bank robbery by rapper Cool C. She becomes Philadelphia's first female police officer killed in the line of duty. January 7 – One of the worst blizzards in American history hits the eastern states, killing more than 150 people. Philadelphia receives a record 30 inches of snowfall and New York City's public schools close for the first time in 18 years. The federal government in Washington, D.C. is closed for several days, extending the time federal employees are out of the office from the 1996 federal government shutdown. January 19 – The North Cape oil spill occurs as an engine fire forces the tugboat Scandia ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. The North Cape barge is pulled along with it and leaks 820,000 gallons of home heating oil. January 23 – State of the Union Address. January 26 Whitewater scandal: U.S. First Lady Hillary Clinton testifies before a grand jury. Millionaire philanthropist John Eleuthère du Pont shoots dead his protégé, Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz, at Foxcatcher Farm. January 28 – Super Bowl XXX: The Dallas Cowboys become the first NFL franchise to win 3 Super Bowls in a span of 4 seasons, as they defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers 27–17 at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. It is the Cowboys' fifth Super Bowl championship.
February February 1 – Sundance Channel debuts. February 2 – Frontier Middle School shooting: A gunman kills his algebra teacher and two other students in Moses Lake, Washington. February 6 – 1996 Honolulu hostage crisis: A gunman takes hostages at his former place of employment in Honolulu, Hawaii. February 15 – The U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece comes under mortar fire. February 16 – 1996 Maryland train collision: A Chicago-bound Amtrak train, the Capitol Limited, collides with a MARC commuter train bound for Washington, D.C., killing 11 people. February 17 – In Philadelphia, Garry Kasparov beats "Deep Blue" in a second chess match. February 24 – Cuban fighter jets shoot down two American aircraft belonging to the Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Cuban officials assert that they invaded Cuban airspace. February 29 – In Lumberton, North Carolina, Daniel Green is convicted of the murder of James Jordan, the father of basketball star Michael Jordan.
March March 4 – DISH Network, a Direct Broadcast Satellite service, begins as a service of EchoStar. March 8 – The People's Republic of China begins surface-to-surface missile testing and military exercises off Taiwanese coastal areas. The United States government condemns the act as provocation, and the Taiwanese government warns of retaliation. March 10 – In Mesquite, Nevada, motorcycle stunt rider Butch Laswell is killed in front of a crowd of spectators, after a motorcycle stunt goes horribly wrong. March 16 – LPGA Tour golfer Muffin Spencer-Devlin comes out as gay in the pages of Sports Illustrated magazine. She was the first LPGA player to come out. March 19 – In Los Angeles, Lyle and Erik Menendez are found guilty of first-degree murder for the shotgun killing of their parents. March 25 An 81-day-long standoff begins between anti-government Freemen and federal officers in Jordan, Montana. The 68th Academy Awards, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, are held at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, with Mel Gibson's Braveheart winning five awards out of ten nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. The telecast garners over 44.8 million viewers. March 30 – After being convicted of the murder of Colleen Slemmer in Tennessee, 20-year-old Christa Pike becomes the youngest woman to be sentenced to death in the United States during the post-Furman period. March 31 – The World Wrestling Federation holds WrestleMania XII from the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim in Anaheim, California, United States.
April
April 3 A Boeing 737 military jet crashes into a mountain north of Dubrovnik, Croatia. All 35 people on board die, including United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown (see 1996 Croatia USAF CT-43 crash). Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his Montana cabin. April 6 – Major League Soccer begins its inaugural season with a match between the San Jose Clash and D.C. United in San Jose, California. It is the first top-level men's soccer league in the United States since the collapse of the North American Soccer League in 1984. April 9 – President Bill Clinton signs the Line Item Veto Act of 1996, granting the U.S. president line-item veto power. Just over two years later, in the case of Clinton v. City of New York, 524 U.S. 417 (1998), the Supreme Court of the United States would rule that the law is unconstitutional. April 11 – Jessica Dubroff, 7, is killed in a plane crash in Cheyenne, Wyoming while attempting to set a record as the youngest person to pilot an airplane across the United States. April 16 – The NBA's 1995–1996 Chicago Bulls, with Michael Jordan's lead, go on to set a new NBA record for the most wins in a season, achieving their 70th win. April 24 – President Bill Clinton signs the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 into law. April 29 – The Broadway hit musical Rent opens at the Nederlander Theatre.
May May 8 – The Keck II telescope is dedicated in Hawaii. May 10 – Twister is released in theaters to commercial success, becoming the highest-grossing movie in the history of Warner Bros. May 11 – After takeoff from Miami, Florida, a fire started by improperly handled oxygen canisters in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Flight 592, causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 on board. May 20 – Gay rights – Romer v. Evans: The Supreme Court of the United States rules against a law that prevents any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of homosexuals. May 30 – The Hoover Institution releases an optimistic report that global warming will probably reduce mortality in the United States and provide Americans with valuable benefits.
June
June – Iraq disarmament crisis: As Iraq continues to refuse inspectors access to a number of sites, the U.S. fails in its attempt to build support for military action against Iraq in the UN Security Council. June 10 – The Colorado Avalanche wins their first Stanley Cup in their first season based out of Denver, Colorado, defeating the Florida Panthers 4 games to none. Avalanche captain Joe Sakic wins the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. June 12 – In Philadelphia, a panel of federal judges blocks a law against indecency on the internet. The panel says that the 1996 Communications Decency Act would infringe upon the free speech rights of adults. June 13 – An 81-day standoff between the Montana Freemen and FBI agents ends with their surrender in Montana. June 16 – The Chicago Bulls win their fourth NBA Championship by defeating the Seattle SuperSonics in the best-of-7 series 4 games to 2. June 20 – The last fourth-generation Chevrolet Corvette rolls off the assembly line at the GM Assembly Plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky. June 21 – Walt Disney Pictures' 34th feature film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, considered to be one of the studio's darkest animated films, is released to positive reviews and commercial success. June 25 – The Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia kills 19 U.S. servicemen and one Saudi local. June 28 – Universal Pictures releases The Nutty Professor, a remake of a 1963 film of the same name, in theaters. The film is a commercial and box office success, ranking as the 8th highest-grossing movie of the year.
July July 12 – Hurricane Bertha makes landfall in North Carolina as a Category 2 storm, causing $270 million in damage to the United States and its possessions and many indirect deaths. July 17 – Paris and Rome-bound TWA Flight 800 (Boeing 747) explodes off the coast of Long Island, New York, killing all 230 on board. July 19 – The 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta begin. July 27 – The Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics kills 2 and injures 111. July 29 – The child protection portion of the Communications Decency Act (1996) is struck down as "too broad" by a U.S. federal court.
August August – The unemployment rate drops to 5.1%, the lowest since March 1989, which saw the lowest rate of the previous business cycle. August 1 – Michael Johnson wins the 200m finals of 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta in a world-record time of 19.32 seconds. August 6 – NASA announces that the Allan Hills 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, may contain evidence of primitive life-forms; further tests are inconclusive. August 15 – Bob Dole is nominated for President of the United States, and Jack Kemp for vice president, at the Republican National Convention in San Diego, California. August 16 – Binti Jua, a gorilla, saves a three-year-old boy who fell into the 20 foot (6.1 m) deep gorilla enclosure at Brookfield Zoo, Chicago. August 18 – The World Wrestling Federation holds its SummerSlam event from the Gund Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. August 19 – The invasive species Asian long-horned beetle is found in New York.Asian Longhorned Beetle, Chronology 1996-1999, USDA, Retrieved 01-16-10 August 21 – President Bill Clinton signs the War Crimes Act of 1996 into law. August 22 – President Clinton signs the landmark Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act into law. August 23 – Osama bin Laden writes "The Declaration of War on the Americans Occupying the Country of the Two Sacred Places," a call for the removal of American military forces from Saudi Arabia. August 24 – Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington found the Valve Corporation. August 26 During the 1996 Democratic National Convention, Chicago Seven activist David Dellinger, antiwar activist Bradford Lyttle, and nine others are arrested by the Federal Protective Service while protesting in a demonstration at the Kluczynski Federal Building in downtown Chicago. August 29 Tiger Woods makes his professional PGA Tour debut at the Greater Milwaukee Open, four days after winning his third consecutive U.S. Amateur Championship. U.S. President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore are re-nominated at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. August 31 – The Big 12 Conference is inaugurated with a football game between Kansas State University and Texas Tech University in Manhattan, Kansas.
September
September 3 Iraq disarmament crisis: As Iraq continues to refuse inspectors access to a number of sites, the U.S. fails in its attempt to build support for military action against Iraq in the UN Security Council.Whitney, Craig R.From Allies, U.S. Hears Mild Applause or Silence,(September 4, 1996) New York Times The U.S. launches Operation Desert Strike against Iraq in reaction to the attack on Arbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. September 4 - The 1996 MTV Video Music Awards is held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The show was hosted by Dennis Miller and the most nominated artist of the year was The Smashing Pumpkins.