History of the World (QC)

Since the independence of the former province of Quebec, many events in the world had been changed, in accordance to our timeline, after being influenced by the single event of the birth of the Republic of Quebec. If Quebec so did gain its independence, then many happenings throughout the world, day by day, would change slightly, and then gradually, would change greatly. Here is a list of those exact happenings.

The Progression of the Internet

Googol Inc., founded on November 14, 1998, is the world leading search engine with over $237 billion in market capitalization

Princess Diana

Princess Diana narrowly escaped her fate on the night of August 30, 1997. By some circumstance, her driver, Henri Paul, had decided he was intoxicated, and refused to drive Diana and her company to the apartment in Rue Arsène Houssaye. In order to avoid the paparazzi, Dodi Fayed decided to stay at the Hôtel Ritz, and arrange for a special escort. At 1:30 AM, their car arrived, Diana and Fayed where accompanied by Trevor Rees-Jones, a member of the Fayed family's personal protection team, who sat in the front passenger seat. they proceed down the Place de l’Alma underpass, where a white van cut them off, nearly sending them into the side wall. The driver, Joseph Courimer, managed to regain control over the vechile in time to prevent a head-on collision. The car was damaged on the side where Diana sat, after the car slid along the side of the wall. A black car behind them, carrying paparazzi photographers, hit the car on the rear, sending the car 30 feet from where it stop. Diana suffered a broken ankle, and two broken ribs. The driver was left unscratched, and Dodi Fayed suffered from a fractured femur and two broken fingers. Emergency services arrived and took Diana and Foyed from the vehicle, and they were driven to Hôpital des Invalides. She was treated for her injuries, yet had suffered mental and emotional damage. She receive numerous session of therapy, for her injuries and her mental state.

In March of 1998, she decided to leave Europe, and moved to New York City, where she made fewer public appearances. She had stopped seeing Fayed two months after the crash. During her time in New York, she would frequently spend time writing her autobiography and eating health foods, exercise regularly, and shop at Macy's once a week. Her sons, , Princes William and Harry, would visit her regularly once every month for three days. When the September 12 attacks of 2001 occurred in New York, she made her first public appearance for 15 months. She had decided to visit the survivours and the workers at the World Trade Center site, along with the Mayor of New York, Rudi Giannani, Irish musician Bono, and President Al Gore, whom Diana had supported in the 2000 presidential election.

Diana currently lives. Diana has inherited money of her own and collected more than £25 million, tax-free, from her two divorce settlements, but her lifestyle is expensive to maintain. She requires extensive security and travels by chauffeured limousine and private jet, to avoid certain journalists and paparazzi that follow her on scheduled flights. Her autobiography, Queen Of Hearts, is was published on May 2007.

2008 presidential elections

‹ 2004  2012 › ›
United States presidential election, 2008
November 4, 2008
Nominee		John McCain	Barack Obama
Party		Republican	Democratic
Home state		Arizona	Illinois
Running mate		Mitt Romney	Joe Biden
Electoral vote		324	214
States carried		28	23 + D.C.
Popular vote		63,160,257	59,611,506
Percentage		51.5%	48.5%
Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by McCain/Romney (28), Blue denotes Obama/Biden (23 + D.C.).
President before election George W. Bush Republican Elected President John McCain Republican

The 56th quadrennial United States presidential election was held on November 4, 2008. Outgoing Republican President George W. Bush's policies and actions and the American public's desire for change were key issues throughout the campaign. During the presidential election campaign, the major-party candidates ran on a platform of change and reform in Washington. Domestic policy and the economy eventually emerged as the main themes in the last few months of the election campaign after the onset of the 2008 economic crisis. The subsequent policies of the Bush Administration had made a negative impression on the American voting public (with less than %41 approval rating), and on those reasons, George W. Bush had decided to refuse to run for a second term on March 23, 2008. In the following months up to the final Republican primaries, the party went though rigorous attempts as to find a candidate for the upcoming election in November. John McCain was eventually selected.

John McCain (right) and Mitt Romney (left), shortly after their Victory Speech in Arizona, when election results were announced

Republican John McCain, the senior United States Senator from Arizona defeated Democrat Barack Obama, then junior United States Senator from Illinois. Nine states changed allegiance from the 2004 election. Each had voted for the Republican nominee in 2004 and contributed to McCain's sizable Electoral College victory. The selected electors from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia voted for President and Vice President of the United States on December 2, 2008. Those votes were tallied before a joint session of Congress on January 7, 2009. McCain received 324 electoral votes, and Obama 214.

There were several unique aspects of the 2008 election. The election was the first in which an African American had run for President, and the first time a Roman Catholic had run for Vice President (Joe Biden, then-U.S. Senator from Delaware). It was also the first time two sitting senators ran against each other. The 2008 election was the first in 56 years in which neither an incumbent president nor a vice president ran — Bush had refused to run for a second term, and Vice President Dick Cheney chose not to seek the presidency. Additionally, it was the first election in which both major party candidates were born outside of the lower 48 states. Voter turnout for the 2008 election was the highest in at least 40 years.

News footage of McCain's victory

Media reports McCain victory

Year by Year

October

• October 1 – Ten people are convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in 1993.
• October 3 – O. J. Simpson is found not guilty of double murder for the deaths of former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
• October 4 – France launches a counter-coup in the Comoros with 600 soldiers. They arrest Bob Denard and his mercenaries and take Denard to France; Caabi el-Yachroutu becomes the interim president.
• October 4 – Hurricane Opal makes landfall at Pensacola Beach, Florida as a Category 3 hurricane with 115 mph winds.
• October 5 – Tansu Çiller of DYP forms the new government of Turkey (51st government, a minority government which failed to receive the vote of confidence)
• October 6 – Michael Mayor and Didier Queloz announce the discovery of 51 Pegasi b, the first confirmed extrasolar planet.
• October 9 – 1995 Palo Verde derailment: An Amtrak Sunset Limited train is derailed by saboteurs near Palo Verde, Arizona.
• October 15 – The Carolina Panthers win their first-ever regular season game by defeating the New York Jets at Clemson Memorial Stadium in South Carolina.
• October 16 – The Million Man March is held in Washington, D.C. The event was conceived by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
• October 17 – French woman Jeanne Calment reaches the confirmed age of 120 years and 238 days, making her the oldest person ever recorded.
• October 23 – In Houston, Texas, Yolanda Saldivar is convicted of first degree murder in the shooting death of Selena Quintanilla Perez and three days later is sentenced to life in prison.
• October 24 – A total solar eclipse is visible from Iran, India, Thailand, and Southeast Asia.
• October 25 – A Metra commuter train slams into a school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, killing seven students.
• October 26 – An avalanche hits the village Flateyri in Iceland, killing 20 people.
• October 28 – A fire in Baku Metro, Azerbaijan, kills 289 passengers (the world's worst subway disaster).
• October 30 – Quebec independentists narrowly wins a referendum for a mandate to negotiate independence from Canada.
• October 30 – Tansu Çiller of DYP forms the new government of Turkey.

November

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• November 1 – NASA loses contact with the Pioneer 11 probe.
• November 2 – Participants in the Yugoslav War begin negotiations at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
• November 2 – The U.S. House of Representatives votes to ban partial birth abortions by a vote of 287–140.
• November 3 – The Supreme Court of Argentina orders the extradition of Erich Priebke, ex-S.S. captain.
• November 3 – At Arlington National Cemetery, U.S. President Bill Clinton dedicates a memorial to the victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing.
• November 4 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is nearly assassinated at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
• November 7 – Typhoon Angela leaves the Philippines and Vietnam devastated, with 897 deaths and damage of P 10,990,000,000. The typhoon was the strongest ever to strike the Philippines in 25 years, with wind speeds of 135 mph and gusts of 180 mph.
• November 10 – Iraq disarmament crisis: With help from Israel and Jordan, UNSCOM inspector Scott Ritter intercepts 240 Russian gyroscopes and accelerometers on their way to Iraq from Russia.
• November 12 – In Nigeria, playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, along with 8 others from the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, are hanged by government forces.
• November 12 – The Millbrook Commonwealth Action Programme, a programme to implement the Harare Declaration, is announced by the Commonwealth Heads of Government.
• November 14 – A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the Congress of the United States, forces the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums, and run most government offices with skeleton staff.
• November 16 – A United Nations tribunal charges Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladic with genocide during the Bosnian War.
• November 21 – The Dayton Agreement to end the Bosnian War is reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio (signed December 14).
• November 22 – Six-year-old Elisa Izquierdo's child abuse-related death at the hands of her mother makes headlines, and instigates major reform in New York City's child welfare system.
• November 22 – Egypt, Eilat, Israel, and much of the North African Mediterranean is struck by the strongest earthquake (7.2 $M_\mathrm{w}$) along the Dead Sea Transform in a century; 8 are killed.

• November 23 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 56.78 to close at 5,014.67, its first close above 5,000. This makes 1995 the first year where the Dow surpasses 2 millennium marks in a single year.
• November 24 – Rosemary West is sentenced to life for killing 10 women and girls, including her daughter and stepdaughter, after the jury returns a guilty verdict at Winchester Crown Court. The trial judge recommends that she should never be released from prison, making her only the second woman in British legal history to be subjected to a whole life tariff (the other is Myra Hindley).
• November 25 – The first ever full length computer animated feature film "Toy Story" was released by Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Pictures.
• November 27 – The Barcelona Treaty is signed by 27 attending nations.
• November 29 – U.S. President Bill Clinton signs the National Highway Designation Act, which ends the federal 55 mph speed limit.

December

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• Strikes paralyze France's public sector.
• December 1 – Javier Solana becomes the new NATO General Secretary; Operation Desert Storm officially ends.
• December 7 – NASA's Galileo probe reenters over Jupiter.
• December 15 – The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris.
• December 15 – The European Court of Justice rules that all EU football players have the right to a free transfer among member states at the end of their contracts.
• December 17 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi scuba divers, under the direction of the United Nations Special Commission, dredge the Tigris near Baghdad. The divers find over 200 prohibited Russian-made missile instruments and components.
• December 20 – Because of the "quadruple-witching" option expiration, volume on the New York Stock Exchange hits 641 million shares, the highest single-day volume since October 20, 1987, when the Dow staged a stunning recovery a day after Black Monday.
• December 31 – The lowest ever United Kingdom temperature of -27.9°C is recorded at Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands. This equals the record set at Braemar,Aberdeenshire in 1895 and 1982.
• December 31 – The Republic of Texas group claims to have formed a provisional government in Texas. The group wins support in Austin, after a massive petition. Many claim that the recent independence of Quebec has inspired secessionist aroung North America.
• December 31 – The final original Calvin and Hobbes comic strip is published.

1996

January

• January 1 – U.S. president Bill Clinton creates the Quebec-American border patrol unit.
• January 2 – King Fahd of Saudi Arabia temporarily gives power to Crown Prince Abdullah, his legal successor, due to illness.
• January 4 – Motorola introduces the Motorola StarTAC Wearable Cellular Telephone, the world's smallest and lightest mobile phone at that time.
• January 4 – Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt, appoints a new government in response to accusations of corruption in the parliamentary elections in late 1995.
• January 7 – One of the worst blizzards in American history hits the eastern states, killing more than 150 people. Philadelphia, PA receives a record 31.2 inches of snowfall, New York City's public schools close for the first time in 18 years and the federal government in Washington, D.C. is closed for days.
• January 9 – A F-16 crashes in an air show near Las Vegas, Nevada, killing 45 people.
• January 10–20 – Serious fighting breaks out between Russian soldiers and rebel fighters in Chechnya.
• January 11 – Ryutaro Hashimoto, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, becomes Prime Minister of Japan.
• January 13 – Italy's prime minister, Lamberto Dini, resigns after the failure of all-party talks to confirm him. New talks are initiated by president Oscar Luigi Scalfaro to form a new government.
• January 14 – Jorge Sampaio is elected president of Portugal.
• January 17 – President of Sierra Leone Valentine Strasser is deposed by the chief of defence, Julius Maada Bio. Bio promises to restore power following elections scheduled for February.
• 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 840,000 gallons of home heating oil.
• January 20 – Yasser Arafat is re-elected president of the Palestinian Authority.

File:Yasser-arafat-1999.jpg

Yasser Arafat

• January 25 – The first version of the Java programming language is released.
• January 26 – Polish Premier Józef Oleksy resigns amid charges that he spied for Moscow. He is replaced by Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz.
• January 27 – Whitewater scandal: U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies before a grand jury.
• January 27 – Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara deposes the first democratically elected president of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane, in a military coup.
• 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 25–10 at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. It is the Cowboys' 5th Super Bowl championship.
• January 30 – President Jacques Chirac announces a "postponed action" to French nuclear testing. Critics argue that Quebec's recent indepenence from Canada has inspired Chirac to delay nuclear testing based on his new aspects on French nationalism.
• January 31 – Imia-Kardak crisis: A Greek flag is hoisted on a small rocky island named Imia (Greek) / Kardak (Turkish).
• January 31 – February 5 – Sarah Balabagan is caned in the United Arab Emirates.
• January 31 – An explosion in Shaoyang, China kills 234 and injures over 1,000 when 10 tons of dynamite in an illegal explosives warehouse underneath an apartment building detonate.
• January 31 – A bomb planted by the Tamil Tigers explodes in Colombo, killing 92 and injuring hundreds more.

February

• February 1 – An explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing at least 104 and injuring 1,900.
• February 2 – Irish National Liberation Army leader Gino Gallagher is killed in fatal shooting on a Dublin street by an unknown assilant.
• February 4 – An earthquake near Lijiang in southwest China, measuring up to 7 on the Richter scale, kills at least 245 people, injures more than 15,000 and makes hundreds of thousands homeless.
• February 7 – René Préval succeeds Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president of Haiti, in the first peaceful handover of power since the nation achieved independence.
• February 8 – A Birgenair Boeing 757, on an unauthorised charter flight from the Caribbean to Germany, crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Dominican Republic, killing all 204 passengers and crew.
• February 8 – An IRA ceasefire ends with a half-tonne bomb in London's Canary Wharf District, killing 3 and causing over £85 million worth of damage.
• February 10 – Chess computer "Deep Blue" defeats world chess champion Garry Kasparov for the first time.
• February 10 – Bosnian Serbs break off contact with the Bosnian government and with representatives of Ifor, the NATO localised force, in reaction to the arrest of several Bosnian Serb war criminals.
• February 14 – Violent clashes erupt between Filipino soldiers and Vietnamese boat people, as the Philippines government attempts to forcibly repatriate hundreds of Vietnamese asylum seekers.
• February 15 – In south-west Wales, the oil tanker Sea Empress runs aground, spilling 73,000 tonnes of crude oil, killing many birds.
• February 15 – The U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece comes under mortar fire.
• February 15 – A Long March 3 rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China crashes into a rural village after liftoff, killing as many as 500.^{[citation needed]}
• February 15 – Begum Khaleda Zia is reelected as prime minister of Bangladesh. The country's second democratic election is marred by low voter turnout, due to several boycotts and pre-election violence, which result in at least 13 deaths.
• February 15 – The UK government publishes the Scott Report.
• February 17 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Garry Kasparov beats "Deep Blue" in a second chess match.

File:Intelsat708.jpg

Feb.15: Long March rocket, with Intelsat 708 satellite, veers upon launch (images from Cox Commission report for U.S. Congress).

• February 17 – In Irian Jaya, an earthquake of magnitude 7.5 and associated tidal waves kills 102 people and causes widespread devastation.
• February 18 – Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece, resigns due to health problems; a new government forms under Costas Simitis.
• February 18 – An IRA briefcase bomb in a bus kills the bomber and injures 9 in the West End of London.
• February 19 – A wooden ferry capsizes as it enters the port of Cádiz in the Philippines, killing 54 people.
• February 21 – King Fahd of Saudi Arabia announces his medical recovery in the national press and assumes power again from his brother, Crown Prince Abdullah.
• February 24 – Cuban fighter jets shoot down 2 American aircraft belonging to the Cuban exile group, Brothers to the Rescue. Cuban officials assert that they invaded Cuban airspace.
• February 25 – Two suicide bombs in Israel kill 27 and injure 80; Hamas claims responsibility.
• February 28 – Canadian singer Alanis Morissette wins the top honor, Album of the Year award, at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards. She is the youngest person to ever win this award, a record she held until 2010.
• February 29 – In Lumberton, North Carolina, Daniel Green is convicted of the murder of James Jordan, the father of basketball star Michael Jordan.
• February 29 – A Boeing 737 flying for Faucett Airlines in route from Lima to Rodriguez Balloon airport crashes into a mountain near Arequipa; all 123 people on board are killed (see Faucett Flight 251).
• February 29 – At least 81 people drown when a boat capsizes 120 km east of Kampala, Uganda.

March

• March 1 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi forces refuse UNSCOM inspection teams access to five sites designated for inspection. The teams enter the sites only after delays of up to 17 hours.
• March 2 – Ranabima Royal College is established in Sri Lanka.
• March 2 – Australian federal election, 1996 is held. Labor's Paul Keating loses to Liberal leader John Howard
• March 3 – José María Aznar, leader of the Popular Party, is elected prime minister of Spain, replacing Felipe González.
• March 3–4 – Two more suicide bombs explode in Israel, killing 32. The Yahya Ayyash Units admit responsibility, and Palestinian president Yasser Arafat condemns the killings in a televised address. Israel warns of retaliation.
• March 6 – Mesut Yılmaz, of ANAP forms the new government of Turkey (53rd government)
• March 6 – A boat carrying market traders capsizes outside Freetown harbour, in Sierra Leone, killing at least 86.
• March 6 – Chechen rebels attack the Russian government headquarters in Grozny; 70 Russian soldiers and policemen and 130 Chechen fighters are killed.
• 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 9 – Jorge Sampaio is the new Portuguese president.
• March 11 – John Howard is sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Australia.
• March 13 – The element Copernicium is discovered.
• March 14 – An international peace summit is held in Egypt, in response to escalating terrorist attacks in the Middle East.
• March 16 – Robert Mugabe is reelected president of Zimbabwe, although only 32 percent of the electorate actually voted.
• March 17 – Sri Lanka wins the Cricket World Cup by storming to a famous victory against the tournament favourite Australia.
• March 18 – The Ozone Disco Club fire in Quezon City, Philippines kills 163.
• March 19 – In Los Angeles, California, Lyle and Erik Menendez are found guilty of first-degree murder for the shotgun killing of their parents.
• March 20 – The British Government announces that Bovine spongiform encephalopathy has been likely transmitted to people.
• March 23 – The Republic of China or Taiwan holds its first direct elections for president; Lee Teng-hui is re-elected.
• March 24 – Islamists clash with security forces in Kashmir, killing 11.
• March 24 – The devastating Marcopper mining disaster on the island of Marinduque, Philippines takes place.
• March 25 – An 81-day long standoff begins between antigovernment Freemen and federal officers in Jordan, Montana.
• March 25 – The 68th Academy Awards, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California with Braveheart winning Best Picture.
• March 26 – The International Monetary Fund approves a $10.2 billion loan to Russia for economic reform.
• March 28 – Fire breaks out at the Pasar Anyar shopping centre in Bogor, West Java. The first death toll estimate is 78 until rescuers notice that 68 of them are mannequins.
• March 28 – Three British soldiers are found guilty of the manslaughter of Danish tour guide Louise Jensen in Cyprus. Allan Ford, Justin Fowler and Geoffrey Pernell receive life sentences for their crime, which was committed in September 1994.

April

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• April 1 – The Halifax Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia is created.
• April 1 – An overcrowded ferry sinks off the coast of Irois, Haiti, killing more than 200 people.
• 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).
• April 3 – Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is arrested at his Montana cabin.
• April 3 – Massacres of Hutus by Tutsis in Burundi take place, with more than 450 killed in a few days.
• April 6 – Fighting breaks out in Monrovia, Liberia between various rebel factions struggling for power in the country's interrupted civil war. Several foreign nationals leave the nation.
• April 6 – Major League Soccer kicks off in front of an overflow crowd of 31,683 packed in Spartan Stadium, to witness the historic first game. San Jose Clash forward Eric Wynalda scores the league's first goal in a 1–0 victory over D.C. United.
• April 6 – Turkish authorities begin Operation Hawk, an army offensive against rebels from the Kurdish Worker's Party in southeastern Turkey.
• April 11 – The Israeli government launches Operation Grapes of Wrath, consisting of massive attacks on Lebanon, in retaliation for prior terrorist attacks, and sparking off a violent series of retaliations.
• April 11 – Jessica Dubroff, 7, is killed in a crash near 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 18 – Qana Massacre: Over 100 Lebanese civilians are killed after Israel shells the UN compound in Qana.
• April 18 – In reaction to the Qana Massacre, an Islamist group in Egypt open fire on a hotel, killing 18 Greek tourists and injuring 17 others.
• April 21 – A general election in Italy proclaims a new government headed by Romano Prodi and his Olive Tree coalition, replacing Silvio Berlusconi.
• April 24 – At the urging of Yasser Arafat, the Palestine Liberation Organization drops its clause calling for the removal of Israel. The Israeli government responds by dropping a similar clause concerning the existence of Palestine.
• April 26 – Regional security treaty signed by the “Shanghai Five”.
• April 28 – Port Arthur massacre: Martin Bryant kills 35 people at the Port Arthur, Tasmania tourist site, Australia.
• April 28 – A bomb explodes in Bhaiperu, Pakistan, killing more than 60 people.

May

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• Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM supervises the destruction of Al-Hakam, Iraq's main production facility of biological warfare agents.
• May 4 – A Sudanese Federal Airlines jet crashes on a domestic flight in a severe dust storm, while making an emergency landing 325 km northeast of Khartoum, killing all 53 passengers and crew.
• May 8 – The Keck II telescope is dedicated in Hawaii.
• May 9 – South Africa's National Party pulls out of the 2-year-old coalition government, and the African National Congress assumes full political control.
• May 9 – Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni wins a landslide victory in the country's first direct presidential elections, securing 75% of the vote.
• May 10 – 1996 Everest disaster: A sudden storm engulfs Mount Everest with several climbing teams high on the mountain, leaving 8 dead. By the end of the month, at least 4 other climbers die in the worst season of fatalities on the mountain to date.
• May 10 – The Australian government introduces a nationwide ban on the private possession of both automatic and semi-automatic rifles, in response to the Port Arthur massacre.
• May 10 – Vietnamese boat people in Hong Kong, facing forced repatriation due to their classification as economic migrants rather than refugees, stage a protest at the Whitehead Detention Centre.
• May 10 – 11 killed in Mount Everest Storm
• 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 13 – Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kill 600.
• May 15 – Nine hostages held by the Free Papua Organization in Irian Jaya are rescued after an operation by the Indonesian military; 2 other hostages are later found dead.
• May 17–28 – Atal Bihari Vajpayee, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, is elected the new prime minister of India, replacing P. V. Narasimha Rao of the Indian National Congress. However, the party does not receive an overall majority and Vajpayee resigns 13 days later rather than face a no confidence vote, and is replaced by the United Front, led Deve Gowda.
• May 18 – The X Prize Foundation launches the $10 million Ansari X Prize, which is won in 2004, by Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne.
• May 19 – Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadžić resigns from public office after being indicted for war crimes.
• 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 21 – The MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters in Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1,000 in one of Africa's worst maritime disasters.
• May 21 – The Trappist Martyrs of Atlas are executed.
• May 23 – Swede Göran Kropp reaches the Mount Everest summit alone without oxygen, after having bicycled there from Sweden.
• May 23 – Members of the Armed Islamic Group in Algeria kill 7 French Trappist monks, after talks with French government concerning the imprisonment of several GIA sympathisers break down.
• May 25 Bradley Nowell of the band Sublime dies from a drug O.D.
• May 27 – First Chechnya War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechnyan rebels for the first time and negotiates a ceasefire in the war.
• May 28 – Albania's general election of May 26 is declared unfair by international monitors, and the ruling Democratic Party under President Sali Berisha is charged by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe with rigging the elections. Several hundred protestors gather in Tirana to demonstrate against the election result.
• May 30 – The Likud Party, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, wins a narrow victory in the Israeli general election.
• 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.
• May 31 – FIFA decides to give the FIFA World Cup 2002, the first World Cup in Asia, to Japan and South Korea, becoming the first World Cup with co-host countries in the history of the event.

June

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• 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 1–3 – The Czech Republic's first general election ends inconclusively. Prime Minister Václav Klaus and his incumbent Civic Democratic Party emerge as the winners, but are unable to form a majority government. President Václav Havel refuses to invite Klaus to form a coalition.
• June 4 – The space rocket Ariane 5 explodes 40 seconds after takeoff in French Guiana. The project costs European governments 7.5 billion US dollars over 11 years.
• June 6 – Leighton W. Smith, Jr. resigns as NATO commander in the face of increasing criticism.
• June 7 – An IRA gang murders Detective Garda Jerry McCabe during a botched armed robbery in Adare, County Limerick.
• June 8 – The 10th European Football Championship (UEFA Euro 96) begins in England.
• June 8 – Steffi Graf defeats Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in the longest ever women's final at the French Open, to win her 19th Grand Slam title.
• June 10 – Peace talks begin in Northern Ireland without Sinn Féin.
• 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 11 – An explosion in a São Paulo suburban shopping centre kills 44 and injures more than 100.
• June 11 – A peace convoy carrying Chechen separatist leaders and international diplomats is targeted by a series of remotely controlled land mines; 8 are killed.
• June 12 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 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 15 – In Manchester, UK, a massive IRA bomb injures over 200 people and devastates a large part of the city centre.
• 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 19 – Boris Yeltsin emerges as the winner in Russia's first round of presidential elections.
• June 20 – Thousands of Megawati Sukarnoputri supporters clash with police in Jakarta.
• June 23 – The Nintendo 64 video game system is released in Japan.
• June 23 – Archbishop Desmond Tutu is given an official farewell at his retirement service in .
• June 25 – The Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia kills 19 U.S. servicemen.
• June 26 – Journalist Veronica Guerin is shot and killed in her car just outside Dublin.
• June 28 – A new government is formed in Turkey, with Necmettin Erbakan of Refah Partisi becoming prime minister of the coalition government, and deputy and foreign minister Tansu Çiller of the True Path Party succeeding him after two years.
• June 29 – The Prince's Trust concert is held in Hyde Park, London, and is attended by 150,000 people. The Who headlines the event in their first performance since 1989.
• June 29 – An explosion in a firecrackers factory in Sichuan Province, China kills at least 36 people and injures another 52.
• June 30 – Costas Simitis is elected President of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement of Greece.
• June 30 – Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić reliquishes power to his deputy, Biljana Plavšić.