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This article is about the year. For other uses, see 1990 (disambiguation).

"MCMXC" redirects here; for the Enigma album, see MCMXC a.D..

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January 3 - The former leader of Panama, Manuel Noriega, surrenders to American forces.

January 4 - Over 300 people are killed in a train accident in Ghotki, Pakistan.

January 7 - The Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public due to safety concerns.

January 9 - Ugandan Lt. Gen. Bazilio Olara-Okello, who led a coup against Dr. Apolo Milton Obote's government, dies in Ormduruman Hospital in Khartoum, Sudan.

January 10 - Time Warner is formed from the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc.

January 11 - Three hundred thousand demonstrate in favor of Lithuanian independence.

January 13 - Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia.

January 15 - Thousands storm the Stasi headquarters in Berlin in an attempt to view their government records.

January 18 - Washington, DC, Mayor Marion Barry is arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting.

January 22 - Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. is convicted of releasing the 1988 Internet worm.

January 25 - Avianca Flight 52 crashes into Cove Neck, Long Island, after a miscommunication between the flight crew and JFK Airport officials.

January 25-January 26 - The Burns' Day storm rages over northwestern Europe, leaving 97 dead.

January 27 - The city of Tiraspol in the Moldavian SSR briefly declares independence.

January 28 - The San Francisco 49ers trounce the Denver Broncos, 55-10, in Super Bowl XXIV.

January 29 - The trial of the former skipper of the Exxon Valdez, Joseph Hazelwood, begins in Anchorage, Alaska. He is accused of negligence that resulted in America's worst oil spill to date.

January 31 - The first McDonald's in Moscow, USSR opens.

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February 2 - Apartheid: In South Africa, President F.W. de Klerk allows the African National Congress to legally function again and promises to free Nelson Mandela.

February 7 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly of power.

February 9 - Perrier issues a worldwide recall of its mineral water after traces of benzene are found in some bottles.

February 10 - South African President F.W. de Klerk announces that Nelson Mandela will be released the next day.

February 11 - James "Buster" Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson to win world heavyweight boxing crown.

February 11 - Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster Prison, near Cape Town, South Africa, after 26 years behind bars.

February 13 - German reunification: An agreement is reached for a two-stage plan to reunite Germany.

February 15 - The United Kingdom and Argentina restore diplomatic relations after 8 years. The UK had severed ties in response to Argentina's invasion of the Falkland Islands, a British Dependent Territory, in 1982.

February 26 - The Sandinistas are defeated in Nicaraguan elections.

February 26 - The USSR agrees to withdraw all 73,500 troops from Czechoslovakia by July, 1991.

February 27 - Exxon Valdez oil spill: Exxon and its shipping company are indicted on 5 criminal counts.

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March 1 - A fire at the Sheraton Hotel in Cairo, Egypt kills 16 people.

March 1 - Steve Jackson Games is raided by the U.S. Secret Service, prompting the later formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

March 1 - The Royal New Zealand Navy discontinues its daily rum ration.

March 6 - An SR-71 sets a U.S. transcontinental speed record of 1 hour 8 minutes 17 seconds, on what is publicized as its last official flight.

March 9 - Police seal off Brixton in South London after another night of protests against the poll tax.

March 9 - Dr. Antonia Novello is sworn in as Surgeon General of the United States, becoming the first female and Hispanic to serve in that position.

March 9 - Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Clyde Wells confirms he will rescind Newfoundland's approval of the Meech Lake Accord.

March 10 - Eighteen months after seizing power in a coup, Prosper Avril is ousted in Haiti.

March 11 - Lithuania declares independence from the Soviet Union.

March 11 - Patricio Aylwin is sworn-in as the first democratically-elected Chilean president since 1970.

March 15 - Iraq hangs British journalist Farzad Bazoft for spying. Daphne Parish, a British nurse, is sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment as an accomplice.

March 15 - Mikhail Gorbachev is elected as the first executive president of the Soviet Union.

March 15 - The Soviet Union announces that Lithuania's declaration of independence is invalid.

March 18 - Twelve paintings, collectively worth from $100 to $300 million, are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts by 2 thieves posing as police officers. This is the largest art theft in US history, and the paintings (as of 2006) have not been recovered.

March 18 - East Germany holds its first free elections.

March 20 - Ferdinand Marcos's widow, Imelda Marcos, goes on trial for bribery, embezzlement, and racketeering.

March 21 - After 75 years of South African rule, Namibia becomes independent.

March 23 - Gerald Bull, a Canadian engineer who developed long-range artillery, is assassinated in Brussels.

March 24 - The government of Australian prime minister Bob Hawke is re-elected for a 4th term.

March 25 - In New York City, a fire due to arson at an illegal social club called "Happy Land" kills 87.

March 27 - Propaganda: The United States begins broadcasting TV Martí to Cuba.

March 28 - U.S. President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal.

March 31 - A massive anti-poll tax demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London, turns into a riot; 471 people are injured, and 341 arrested. The incident is subsequently known as "The Second Battle of Trafalgar."

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April 1 - The largest prison riot in Britain's history begins at Strangeways Prison in Manchester, and will continue for nearly four weeks, until April 25

April 6 - Robert Mapplethorpe's "The Perfect Moment" show of nude and homosexual photographs opens at the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center in spite of accusations of indecency by Citizens for Community Values.

April 7 - Iran Contra Affair: John Poindexter is found guilty of 5 charges for his part in the scandal; the convictions are later reversed on appeal.

April 7 - Scandinavian Star, a Bahamas-registered ferry, catches fire en route from Norway to Denmark, leaving 158 dead.

April 13 - The Soviet Union apologizes for the Katyn Massacre.

April 15 - Food poisoning kills 450 guests at an engagement party in Uttar Pradesh.

April 20 - STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched aboard Space Shuttle Discovery.

April 24 - The Space Shuttle Discovery places the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit.

April 24 - West and East Germany agree to merge currency and economies on July 1.

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May 2 - In London, England, a man brandishing a knife robs courier Nicholas Lane of bearer bonds worth £292 million (the largest mugging to date).

May 4 - Latvia declares independence from the Soviet Union.

May 15 - Portrait of Doctor Gachet by Vincent van Gogh is sold for a record $82.5 million.

May 16 - Entertainers Sammy Davis Jr. (in Beverly Hills) and Jim Henson (in New York City) both die on this day.

May 17 - The World Health Organization removes homosexuality from its list of diseases.

May 20 - The first post-Communist presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Romania.

May 22 - The leaders of the Yemen Arab Republic and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen announce the unification of their countries as the Republic of Yemen.

May 24 - The Edmonton Oilers defeat the Boston Bruins in the 1990 Stanley Cup Finals.

May 29 - Rhode Island celebrates its bicentennial statehood.

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June 1 - U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign a treaty to end chemical weapon production and begin destroying their respective stocks.

June 1 - Members of the IRA shoot and kill Major Michael Dillon-Lee and Private William Robert Davies of the British Army. Dillon-Lee is killed outside his home in Dortmund, Germany and Davies is killed at a railway station in Lichfield, England.

June 8 - The 1990 FIFA World Cup begins in Italy.

June 12 - The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declares its sovereignty.

June 14 - The Detroit Pistons defeat the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1990 NBA Finals.

June 15 - An IRA bomb detonates in Manchester, England, injuring hundreds. There are no fatalities.

June 20 - British Chancellor John Major proposes a new European currency which would circulate alongside existing national currencies.

June 22 - Underwater volcano Mount Didicas erupts in the Philippines.

June 26 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush breaks his 1988 'no new taxes' campaign pledge, accepting tax revenue increases as a necessity to reduce the budget deficit.

June 26 - In Phoenix, Arizona, the temperature reaches a all-time record high for the city of 122 degrees.

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July 2 - A stampede in a pedestrian tunnel leading to Mecca kills 1,426.

July 8 - At 12:34:56 p.m., the time and date by U.S. reckoning is 12:34:56 7/8/90.

July 8 - West Germany defeats Argentina 1-0 to win the 1990 FIFA World Cup.

July 15 - Tamil Tigers kill 168 Muslims in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

July 16 - An earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter Scale kills over 1600 in the Philippines.

July 25 - The Serbian Democratic Party declares the sovereignty of the Serbs in Croatia.

July 26 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act, designed to protect disabled Americans from discrimination.

July 27 - The parliament building and a government television house in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago are stormed by the Jamaat al Muslimeen in a coup d'état attempt which lasts 5 days. Approximately 26 to 30 people are killed and several wounded (including then Prime Minister, A.N.R. Robinson, who is shot in the leg).

July 27 - Belarus declares its sovereignty, a key step toward independence from the USSR.

July 28 - Alberto Fujimori becomes president of Peru.

July 30 - An IRA car bomb kills British M.P. Ian Gow, a staunch unionist.

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August 2 - Gulf War: Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to the Gulf War.

August 6 - Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

August 7 - At 12:34:56 (both a.m. and p.m.) the time and date by British reckoning is 12:34:56 7/8/90.

August 19 - Leonard Bernstein conducts his final concert, ending with Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

August 24 - Northern Ireland writer Brian Keenan is released from Lebanon after being held hostage for nearly five years.

August 27 - Blues musician Stevie Ray Vaughan dies in a helicopter crash along with 4 others following a concert near East Troy, Wisconsin.

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September - The sculpture Good Defeats Evil by sculptor Zurab Tsereteli is erected outside the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

September 2 - Transnistria declares its independence from the Moldavian SSR; however, the declaration is not recognized by any government.

September 9 - Liberian Civil War: Liberian president Samuel Doe is captured by rebel leader Prince Johnson and killed in a filmed execution.

September 11 - Gulf War: President George H. W. Bush delivers a nationally televised speech in which he threatens the use of force to remove Iraqi soldiers from Kuwait.

September 12 - The two German states and the Four Powers sign the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany in Moscow, paving the way for German re-unification.

September 18 - In Tokyo, Japan, the IOC chooses Atlanta, Georgia to host the 1996 Summer Olympics.

September 19 - The IRA tries to assassinate Air Chief Marshal Sir Peter Terry at his home near Stafford, England. Hit by at least 9 bullets, the former Governor of Gibraltar survives.

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October 3 - East Germany and West Germany reunify into a single Germany.

October 5 - After 150 years, 10 months and 2 days (Friday, January 3, 1840 - Friday, October 5, 1990), The Herald broadsheet newspaper in Melbourne, Australia is published for the last time as a separate newspaper.

October 8 - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: In Jerusalem, Israeli police kill 17 Palestinians and wound over 100 near the Dome of the Rock mosque on the Temple Mount.

October 13 - Lebanese Civil War: Syrian military forces invade and occupy Mount Lebanon, ousting General Michel Aoun's government. This effectively consolidates Syria's 14 year occupation of Lebanese soil.

October 15 - Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to lessen Cold War tensions and reform his nation.

October 20 - The Cincinnati Reds defeat the Oakland Athletics to win the 1990 World Series.

October 25 - Evander Holyfield defeats James 'Buster' Douglas for the Heavyweight Boxing crown.

October 27 - The Supreme Soviet of Kyrgyzstan chooses Askar Akayev as the republic's first president.

October 27 - The New Zealand general election returns the National with record number of 67 seats.

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November 1 - Mary Robinson defeats odds-on favourite Brian Lenihan to become the first female President of Ireland.

November 5 - Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the far-right Kach movement, is shot dead after a speech at a New York City hotel.

November 12 - Akihito is enthroned as the 125th emperor of Japan.

November 12 - Tim Berners-Lee publishes a more formal proposal for the World Wide Web. *

November 13 - The first known web page is written.

November 14 - Germany and Poland sign a treaty confirming the border at the Oder-Neisse line.

November 15 - STS-38: Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on a classified military mission.

November 21 - The Super Famicom (aka Super Nintendo) is released in Japan.

November 22 - Margaret Thatcher announces she will not contest the second ballot of the leadership election for the Conservative Party.

November 25 - Lech Wałęsa and Stanisław Tymiński win the first round of the first presidential elections in Poland.

November 27 - John Major wins the second ballot of the Conservative Party leadership election and his two rivals, Michael Heseltine and Douglas Hurd, concede defeat.

November 28 - Margaret Thatcher resigns as Prime Minister of the U.K. John Major succeeds her as Party Leader and is appointed Prime Minister by Queen Elizabeth II.

November 29 - Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council passes UN Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing military intervention in Iraq if that nation does not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by Tuesday, January 15, 1991.

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December 1 - Establishing the first ground connection between the United Kingdom and the mainland of Europe since the last Ice Age, Channel Tunnel workers from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 meters beneath the English Channel seabed.

December 2 - A coalition led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl wins the first free all-German elections since 1932.

December 3 - At Detroit Metropolitan Airport, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 carrying Northwest Airlines Flight 1482 collides with a Boeing 727 carrying Northwest Airlines Flight 299 on the runway, killing 8 passengers and 4 crewmembers on Flight 1482.

December 3 - Mary Robinson is elected the first female president of the Republic of Ireland.

December 6 - Saddam Hussein releases the Western hostages.

December 6 - President Hossain Mohammad Ershad of Bangladesh is forced to resign following massive protests.

December 9 - Slobodan Milošević becomes President of Serbia.

December 9 - Lech Wałęsa wins the 2nd round of Poland's first presidential election.

December 11 - John Gotti is arrested.

December 16 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide is elected president of Haiti, ending 3 decades of military rule.

December 19 - Footballer Tony Adams, the captain of Arsenal and an England international defender, is sentenced to 4 months in prison and banned from driving for 2 years after being found guilty of drink-driving in connection with an accident in Southend-on-Sea on 6 May this year.

December 31 - Russian Garry Kasparov holds his title by winning the World Chess Championship match against his countryman Anatoly Karpov.

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January 7 - Liam Aiken, American actor

January 7 - Camryn Grimes, American actress

January 12 - Sergey Karjakin, Ukrainian chess player

January 30 - Jake Thomas, American actor

February 11 - Q'Orianka Kilcher, German-born actress

February 13 - Erdini Qoigyijabu, eleventh Panchen Lama

February 14 - Emily Mae Young, American child actress

February 23 - Christian Copelin, American actor

February 28 - Anna Muzychuk, Ukrainian chess player

March 1 - James Lomas, British stage actor

March 4 - Andrea Bowen, American actress

March 8 - Abigail and Brittany Hensel, American conjoined twins

March 23 - Princess Eugenie of York

March 24 - Keisha Castle-Hughes, Australian-born actress

April 15 - Emma Watson, English actress

May 1 - Caitlin Stasey, Australian actress

May 2 - Kay Panabaker, American actress

May 15 - Gerald Santos, Filipino actor and singer

May 16 - Thomas Sangster, English actor

May 30 - Matías Nocedal, Argentine basketball player

June 26 - Ryan Ward, American actor

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July 24 - Daveigh Chase, American actress

August 6 - JonBenét Ramsey, American beauty queen and murder victim (d. 1996)

August 17 - Rachel Hurd-Wood, British actress

October 5 - Myles Jeffrey, American actor

October 18 - Carly Schroeder, American actress

October 21 - Ricky Rubio, Spanish basketball player

October 22 - Jonathan Lipnicki, American actor

November 7 - Marisa Siketa, Australian actress

November 27 - Shane Haboucha, American actor

November 29 - Blake and Dylan Tuomy-Wilhoit, twin American actors

November 30 - Magnus Carlsen, Norwegian chess player

December 16 - Harold Eytan, Anonymous

December 17 - Ashley Edner, American actress

December 20 - Joanna Noelle Levesque, American singer/actress

December 22 - Jean-Baptiste Maunier, French actor

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January 2 - Alan Hale Jr., American actor (b. 1921)

January 4 - Doc Edgerton, American electrical engineering (b. 1903)

January 6 - Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)

January 9 - Spud Chandler, baseball player (b. 1907)

January 20 - Barbara Stanwyck, American actress (b. 1905)

January 22 - Roman Vishniac, Russian-American photographer (b. 1897)

January 23 - Allen Collins, one of the founding members of Lynyrd Skynyrd (b. 1952)

January 25 - Ava Gardner, American actress (b. 1922)

January 26 - Lewis Mumford, American historian of science (b. 1895)

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February 7 - Jimmy Van Heusen, American composer (b. 1913)

February 8 - Del Shannon, American musician and singer (b. 1934)

February 19 - Michael Powell, British director (b. 1905)

February 16 - Keith Haring, American Pop-artist (b. 1954)

February 24 - Malcolm Forbes, publisher of Forbes magazine (b. 1919)

February 27 - Nahum Norbert Glatzer, Jewish-American scholar (b. 1903)

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March 13 - Karl Münchinger, German conductor (b. 1915)

March 13 - Bruno Bettelheim, American child psychologist (b. 1903

March 17 - Ric Grech, British rock bassist (Family, Blind Faith, Traffic) (b. 1946)

March 17 - Capucine (born Germaine Lefebvre), French actress (b. 1933)

March 19 - Andrew Wood, American musician (b. 1966)

March 20 - Lev Yashin, Russian footballer (b. 1929)

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April 3 - Sarah Vaughan, American jazz vocalist (b. 1924)

April 8 - Ryan White, AIDS activist (b. 1971)

April 15 - Greta Garbo, Swedish actress (b.1905)

April 17 - Ralph Abernathy, American civil rights leader (b. 1926)

April 21 - Romain de Tirtoff (pseudonym Erté), French Art Deco artist (b. 1892)

April 23 - Paulette Goddard, American actress (b. 1910)

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May 8 - Tomás Cardinal Ó Fiaich, Northern Irish clergyman (b. 1923)

May 16 - Sammy Davis Jr., American actor, dancer, and singer (b. 1925)

May 16 - Jim Henson, American puppeteer (Sesame Street) (b. 1936)

May 18 - Jill Ireland, English actress (b. 1936)

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June 2 - Rex Harrison, English Actor

June 3 - Stiv Bators, American singer (The Dead Boys) (b. 1949)

June 16 - Dame Eva Turner, British soprano (b. 1892)

June 22 - Ilya Frank, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908)

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July 7 - Bill Cullen, American game show host (b. 1920)

July 15 - Margaret Lockwood, English actress (b. 1916)

July 18 - Yun Po Sun, President of South Korea (b. 1897)

July 18 - Johnny Wayne, of the Canadian comic duo Wayne and Shuster (b. 1918)

July 18 - Yves Chaland, French cartoonist (b. 1957)

July 22 - Manuel Puig, Argentinian writer (b. 1932)

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August 9 - Joe Mercer, English footballer (b. 1914)

August 12 - Dorothy Mackaill, British-born American actress (b. 1903)

August 17 - Pearl Bailey, American singer and actress (b. 1918)

August 18 - B. F. Skinner, American psychologist (b. 1904)

August 27 - Stevie Ray Vaughan, American guitarist (b. 1954)

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September 7 - A. J. P. Taylor, English historian (b. 1906)

September 16 - Len Hutton, English cricketer (b. 1916)

September 26 - Alberto Moravia, Italian novelist (b. 1907)

September 30 - Patrick White, Australian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1912)

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October 5 - Peter Taylor, English footballer and manager (b. 1928)

October 13 - Le Duc Tho, Vietnamese general and politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1911)

October 14 - Leonard Bernstein, American composer and conductor (b. 1918)

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November 5 - Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of Kach movement

November 17 - Robert Hofstadter, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1915)

November 23 - Roald Dahl, English writer (b. 1916)

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December 2 - Aaron Copland, American composer (b. 1900)

December 6 - Pavlos Sidiropoulos, Greek rock singer/songwriter (b. 1948)

December 7 - Joan Bennett, American actress (b. 1910)

December 14 - Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss writer (b. 1921)

December 16 - Douglas Campbell, American World War I flying ace (b. 1896)

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Physics - Jerome Isaac Friedman, Henry Way Kendall, and Richard Edward Taylor

Chemistry - Elias James Corey

Physiology or Medicine - Joseph E. Murray, E. Donnall Thomas

Literature - Octavio Paz

Peace - Mikhail Gorbachev

Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel - Harry Markowitz, Merton Miller, William Sharpe

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Vladimir Drinfeld, Vaughan Frederick Randal Jones, Shigefumi Mori, Edward Witten

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Baba Amte (Joint Award)

L. Charles Birch (Joint Award)

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Alice Tepper Marlin, Bernard Lédéa Ouedraogo, Felicia Langer and ATCC (Asociación de Trabajadores Campesinos del Carare)

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List of ship launches in 1990

List of ship decommissionings in 1990

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New Revised Standard Version of the Bible is published in the United States.

Metropolitan Aleksy of Leningrad elected Russian Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia.

First Anglican female priests in the United Kingdom are ordained at St. Anne's Cathedral, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Robert Runcie announces resignation as Archbishop of Canterbury. George Carey succeeded him.

Channel 7 + 10 networks go into receivership (Australia)

Homosexual Acts between Consenting adults decriminalized in Queensland

General continuation of 1980s-style pop culture as large events in 1991 and 1992 such as the Grunge movement start the Nineties pop cultural era

TV Series "Mama's Family" ends