This Year in History:
1995
Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
The 104th Congress begins, becoming the first held entirely under Republican control since the Eisenhower era. The previous November, Newt Gingrich and his “Contract with America” gave the Republican Party…
Qubilah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, is arrested for conspiring to kill Louis Farrakhan. Shabazz believed that Farrakhan was responsible for the assassination of her father in 1965, and…
On January 13, 1995, America3, an all‑female sailing team, wins the first race of the America’s Cup defender trials, easily beating Team Dennis Conner by a little more than a…
On January 17, 1995, the Los Angeles Rams announce they are leaving Southern California after 49 years and moving to St. Louis. The team, which reportedly lost $6 million in…
On January 25, 1995, Russia’s early‑warning defense radar detects an unexpected missile launch near Norway, and Russian military command estimates the missile to be just minutes from impact on Moscow.…
NASA astronaut Bernard Harris becomes the first Black man to walk in space. His mission contributes to a burgeoning collaboration between the United States and Russia in space exploration. Bernard…
Several packages of deadly sarin gas are set off in the Tokyo subway system killing twelve people and injuring over 5,000 on March 20, 1995. Sarin gas was invented by…
Pop star Selena is murdered in Corpus Christi, Texas, shot dead by the president of her fan club. The tragic death prompts an immediate outpouring of grief from fans. Selena…
Just after 9 a.m. on April 19, 1995, a massive truck bomb explodes outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The blast collapsed the north face…
On June 29, 1995, the American space shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian space station Mir to form the largest man‑made satellite ever to orbit the Earth. This historic moment…
Two decades after the Fall of Saigon, President Bill Clinton establishes full diplomatic relations with Vietnam, citing Vietnamese cooperation in accounting for the 2,238 Americans still listed as missing in…
On July 18, 1995, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, a memoir by a little‑known law professor named Barack Obama, is published. Obama wrote the book…
On August 9, 1995, legendary Grateful Dead guitarist and cultural icon Jerry Garcia dies of a heart attack in a residential drug‑treatment facility in Forest Knolls, California. Like his band,…
Former New York Yankees star Mickey Mantle dies of liver cancer at the age of 63. While “The Mick” patrolled center field and batted clean‑up between 1951 and 1968, the…
On September 2, 1995, pop star Michael Jackson’s song “You Are Not Alone” reaches no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100—his 12th #1 hit. Jackson’s incredible run of chart‑topping hits began in…
On September 6, 1995, Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. plays in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking “Iron Horse” Lou Gehrig’s record for most consecutive games played. “The Iron Man”…
On September 12, 1995, in Vienna, Austria, the Harlem Globetrotters tip off the third game of an 11‑game exhibition series in Europe against a team of retired basketball stars led…
On September 19, 1995, a manifesto by the Unabomber, an anti‑technology terrorist, is published by The New York Times and Washington Post in the hope that someone will recognize the person…
On September 29, 1995, voting rights advocate Willie Velasquez is posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Velasquez and the organizations he founded are credited with dramatically increasing political awareness…
At the end of a sensational trial, former football star O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the brutal 1994 double murder of his estranged wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend,…
