1993 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal government

• President: George H. W. Bush , Bill Clinton
• Vice President: Dan Quayle , Al Gore
• Chief Justice: William Rehnquist
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Tom Foley
• Senate Majority Leader: George J. Mitchell
• Congress: 102nd, 103rd

  Governors

Lieutenant governors

Events

January

• January 3 – In Moscow, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
• January 5
• *The state of Washington executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging.
• *$7,400,000 USD is stolen from Brinks Armored Car Depot in Rochester, New York in the fifth-largest robbery in U.S. history. Four men, Samuel Millar, Father Patrick Moloney, former Rochester Police officer Thomas O'Connor, and Charles McCormick, all of whom have ties to the Provisional Irish Republican Army, are accused.
• January 19
• *IBM announces a $4,970,000,000 loss for 1992, the largest single-year corporate loss in United States history to date.
• *Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM inspectors to use its own aircraft to fly into Iraq, and begins military operations in the demilitarized zone between Iraq and Kuwait, and the northern Iraqi no-fly zones. U.S. forces fire approximately forty Tomahawk cruise missiles at Baghdad factories linked to Iraq's illegal nuclear weapons program. Iraq then informs UNSCOM that it will be able to resume its flights.
• January 20 – Bill Clinton is sworn in as the 42nd President of the United States.
• January 25 – Mir Aimal Kasi fires a rifle and kills two employees outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
• January 31 – Super Bowl XXVII: The Buffalo Bills become the first team to lose three consecutive Super Bowls as they are defeated by the Dallas Cowboys, 52–17.

  February

• February 6 – Former tennis player Arthur Ashe, 49, dies of the AIDS virus in New York. Ashe was believed to have contracted the virus from a blood transfusion during a heart surgery ten years earlier.
• February 8 – General Motors Corporation sues NBC, after Dateline NBC allegedly rigged two crashes showing that some GM pickups can easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settles the lawsuit the following day.
• February 11 – Janet Reno is selected by President Clinton as Attorney General of the United States.
• February 26 – 1993 World Trade Center bombing: In New York City, a van bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center explodes, killing six and injuring over 1,000.
• February 28 – Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, with a warrant to arrest leader David Koresh on federal firearms violations. Four agents and five Davidians die in the raid and a 51-day standoff begins.

  March

• March 4 – Authorities announce the capture of suspected World Trade Center bombing conspirator Mohammad Salameh.
• March 9 – Rodney King testifies at the federal trial of four Los Angeles, California police officers accused of violating his civil rights when they beat him during an arrest.
• March 11 – Janet Reno is confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn in the next day, becoming the first female Attorney General of the United States.
• March 13–14 – The Great Blizzard of 1993 strikes the eastern United States, bringing record snowfall and other severe weather all the way from Cuba to Quebec; it reportedly kills 184.
• March 22 – The Intel Corporation ships the first Pentium chips.
• March 29 – The 65th Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California, with Unforgiven winning Best Picture.

  April

• April–October: The Great Flood of 1993: The Mississippi and Missouri Rivers flood large portions of the American Midwest.
• April – The Kuwaiti government claims to uncover an Iraqi assassination plot against former U.S. President George H. W. Bush shortly after his visit to Kuwait. Two Iraqi nationals confess to driving a car bomb into Kuwait on behalf of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.
• April 9 – The rock band Nirvana plays a benefit concert for rape victims in war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina at San Francisco's Cow Palace.
• April 19 – A 51-day stand-off at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ends with a fire that kills 76 people, including David Koresh.
• April 28 – An executive order requires the United States Air Force to allow women to fly war planes.

  May

• May 1 – An outbreak of a respiratory illness later identified as hantavirus pulmonary syndrome begins in the southwestern United States; 32 patients die by the end of the year.
• May 5 – The West Memphis Three are three men who – while teenagers – were tried and convicted, in 1994, of the May 5, 1993 murders of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. Damien Echols was sentenced to death, Jessie Misskelley, Jr. was sentenced to life imprisonment plus two 20-year sentences, and Jason Baldwin was sentenced to life imprisonment. During the trial, the prosecution asserted that the children were killed as part of a Satanic ritual.

  June

• June 5 – Minnesota v. Dickerson: The United States Supreme Court rules that the seizure of evidence during a pat-down search is constitutional.
• June 9 – The Montreal Canadiens win their 24th Stanley Cup, defeating the Los Angeles Kings in the Finals.
• June 20 – John Paxson's 3-point shot in Game 6 of the NBA Finals helps the Chicago Bulls secure a 99–98 win over the Phoenix Suns, and their third consecutive championship.
• June 24 – A Unabomber bomb injures computer scientist David Gelernter at Yale University.
• June 27 – U.S. President Bill Clinton orders a cruise missile attack on Iraqi intelligence headquarters in the Al-Mansur District of Baghdad, in response to the attempted assassination of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush during his visit to Kuwait in mid-April.

  July

• July 1 – Gian Ferri kills eight and injures six before committing suicide at a law firm in San Francisco, sparking new legislative actions for gun control.
• July 19 – U.S. President Bill Clinton announces his 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy regarding homosexuals serving in the American military.
• July 20 – White House deputy counsel Vince Foster commits suicide in Virginia.
• July 27 – Windows NT 3.1, the first version of Microsoft's line of Windows NT operating systems, is released to manufacturing.

  August

• August 1 – The Great Flood of 1993 comes to a peak.
• August 4 – A federal judge sentences LAPD officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 30 months in prison for violating motorist Rodney King's civil rights.
• August 10 – World Youth Day 1993 in Denver, Colorado.
• August 21 – NASA loses contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft.

  September

• September 4 – The second World Parliament of Religions is held in Chicago.
• September 6 – Canadian software specialist Peter de Jager publishes in an article titled "Doomsday 2000" in the U.S. weekly magazine Computerworld, which is the first known reference to Y2K – the Year 2000 problem.
• September 13 – PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin shake hands in Washington D.C., after signing a peace accord.

  October

• October 3 – A large scale battle erupts between U.S. forces and local militia in Mogadishu, Somalia; eighteen Americans and over 1,000 Somalis are killed.
• October 8 – David Miscavige announces the IRS has granted full tax exemption to the Church of Scientology International and affiliated churches and organizations, ending the Church's 40-year battle with the IRS and resulting in religious recognition in the United States.
• October 16 – U.S. President Bill Clinton sends six American warships to Haiti to enforce United Nations trade sanctions against their military-led regime.
• October 25 – Actor Vincent Price dies of lung cancer.
• October 27 – Wildfires begin in California which eventually destroy over and 700 homes.
• October 31 – Actor River Phoenix dies of drug-induced heart failure on the sidewalk outside the West Hollywood nightclub The Viper Room.

  November

• November 11 – Microsoft releases Windows 3.11 for Workgroups to manufacturing.
• November 18 – In a status referendum, Puerto Rico residents vote with a slim margin to maintain Commonwealth status.
• November 17–22 – The North American Free Trade Agreement passes the legislative houses in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
• November 18 – The first meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation opens in Seattle.
• November 20 – Savings and loan crisis: The United States Senate Ethics Committee issues a stern censure of California senator Alan Cranston for his dealings with savings-and-loan executive Charles Keating.
• November 30 – President Clinton signs the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act into law, requiring purchasers of handguns to pass a background check.

  December

• December – The unemployment rate falls to 6.5%, the lowest since January 1991.
• December 2 – STS-61: NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair an optical flaw in the Hubble Space Telescope.
• December 7 – Colin Ferguson opens fire with his Ruger 9 mm pistol on a Long Island Rail Road train, killing six and injuring 29.
• December 11 – A variety of Soviet space program paraphernalia are put to auction in Sotheby's New York, and sell for a total of US$6,800,000. One of the items is Lunokhod 1 and its spacecraft Luna 17; they sell for $68,500.

  Ongoing

• Iraqi no-fly zones

  Sport

• February 23 - Sacramento Gold Miners are established as the First American franchise in the Canadian Football League

Births

• January 3 – Kevin Ware, basketball player
• January 5 – De'Anthony Thomas, American football player
• January 8 – Brooke Greenberg, woman with rare slow-aging condition
• January 9 – Marcus Peters, American football player
• January 18 – Morgan York, actress
• January 19 – Zyon Cavalera drummer
• January 27 – Joe Landolina, inventor and entrepreneur
• January 30 - Paul Barrett, Dad, Hurdler and Quality Control Specialist
• February 7 – David Dorfman, actor
• February 12 – Jennifer Stone, actress
• February 14
• * Shane Harper, actor and singer
• * Alberto Rosende, actor
• February 18 – Unbridled's Song, thoroughbred horse, winner of Breeders' Cup Juvenile
• February 19
• * Patrick Johnson, actor
• * Victoria Justice, actress and singer
• February 27 – Jessica Korda, golfer
• March 3 – Nicole Gibbs, tennis player
• March 4
• * Jenna Boyd, actress
• * Abigail Mavity, actress
• March 7 – Alex Broadhurst, ice hockey player
• March 10 – Peniel Shin, rapper and dancer in
• March 29 - Joe Adler, actor
• April 10 – Sofia Carson, actress and singer
• April 12
• *Dorial Green-Beckham, American football player
• *Katelyn Pippy, actress
• April 14
• *Kent Jones, rapper
• *Graham Phillips, actor
• *Ellington Ratliff, singer and actor
• April 16 - Chance The Rapper, singer/songwriter
• May 10 - Halston Sage, actress
• May 13 – Debby Ryan, actress and singer
• May 14 – Miranda Cosgrove, actress and singer
• May 18 – Kyle, rapper
• May 20 – Caroline Zhang, figure skater
• May 19 – Daisy Mallory, country singer
• May 23
• * Andy Janovich, American football player
• * Stephon Tuitt, American football player
• June 14 – Sammy Watkins, American football player
• June 22 – Garrett Seay, GIS Analyst
• June 26 – Ariana Grande, actress and singer
• July 1 – Raini Rodriguez, actress and singer
• July 21 – Aaron Durley, American baseball player
• July 26
• * Elizabeth Gillies, actress and singer
• * Taylor Momsen, actress, musician, and model
• August 9 – Rydel Lynch, singer and actress
• August 11 – Alyson Stoner, actress, dancer, and singer
• August 26 – Keke Palmer, actress and singer
• August 28 – Mason Pages, Badass, Comedian, All around good guy.
• August 28 – Cody Frost, artist, tiger, hunk
• August 29 – Lucas Cruikshank, actor and YouTube personality
• September 13 - Niall Horan, singer
• October 6 – Molly Quinn, actress
• October 12 – Louis Okafor, cool guy
• October 22 – Josiah Jones, filmmaker
• October 22 - Omer Adam, Israeli singer
• October 29 - Sarah Buchanan, a cool cat
• November 17 - John F. Vasil, another cool guy
• November 27
• * Hannah Brandt, ice hockey player
• * Aubrey Peeples, actress and singer
• November 28
• * Shiann Darkangelo, ice hockey player
• * Bryshere Y. Gray, actor and rapper
• November 29
• * Stefon Diggs, American football player
• * David Lambert, actor
• November 30 – Kevon Seymour, American football player
• December 2 – Dylan McLaughlin, actor
• December 7 – Jasmine Villegas, singer
• December 8 – AnnaSophia Robb, actress
• December 18 – Byron Buxton, baseball player
• December 19 – Corey Snide, actor and dancer
• December 21 – Jinger Vuolo, author
• December 22
• * Ali Lohan, actress and model
• * Meghan Trainor, singer
• December 31 – Ryan Blaney, race car driver

  Deaths

January

• January 1
• * Eddie Arning, American farming community
• * Jean Mayer, French-born American scientist
• January 3 – Johnny Most, American sportscaster
• January 6 – Dizzy Gillespie, American musician, bandleader, singer and composer
• January 10
• * Diana Adams, American ballet dancer
• * Luther Gulick, expert on public administration
• January 15 – Sammy Cahn, American lyricist
• January 16 – Glenn Corbett, American actor
• January 19 – Reginald Lewis, American businessman
• January 20 – Audrey Hepburn, Belgian-born British actress
• January 21 – Charlie Gehringer, American baseball player
• January 23
• * Thomas A. Dorsey, American musician
• * Keith Laumer, American science fiction author
• January 24 – Thurgood Marshall, American jurist, First African-American on the Supreme Court

  February

• February 5 – Joseph L. Mankiewicz, American screenwriter and producer
• February 6 – Arthur Ashe, American tennis player
• February 7 – Buddy Pepper, American songwriter and accompanist
• February 9 – Kate Wilkinson, American stage and television actress
• February 11
• * Joy Garrett, American actor and vocalist
• * Robert W. Holley, American biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• February 18 – Kerry Von Erich, American professional wrestler
• February 23 – Phillip Terry, American actor
• February 25 – Eddie Constantine, American-born French actor and singer
• February 26 – Beaumont Newhall, American curator
• February 27 – Lillian Gish, American actress
• February 28 – Ruby Keeler, American actress

  March

• March 1 – Terry Frost, American actor
• March 3 – Albert Sabin, American biologist, developer of the oral polio vaccine
• March 4 – Izaak Kolthoff, American chemist
• March 7
• * Duane Carter, American racing driver
• * Whitey Kachan, American basketball player
• * Eleanor Sanger, American television producer
• * Jim Spavital, footballer
• * Earl Wrightson, American singer and actor
• March 8
• * Don Barksdale, American basketball player
• * Billy Eckstine, American musician
• March 9 – Max August Zorn, German-born mathematician
• March 16 – Ralph Fults America outlaw
• March 17 – Helen Hayes, American actress
• March 20
• * Polykarp Kusch, German-born American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• * Paul László, Hungarian-born architect
• March 22 – Steve Olin, American baseball player
• March 23 – Tim Crews, American baseball player
• March 24 – John Hersey, American writer and journalist
• March 26 – Louis Falco, American dancer and choreographer
• March 27 – Elizabeth Holloway Marston, American psychologist
• March 30 – Richard Diebenkorn, American painter
• March 31
• * Brandon Lee, American actor and martial artist, son of Bruce Lee
• * Mitchell Parish, American lyricist

  April

• April 1 – Alan Kulwicki, U.S. race car driver
• April 3
• * Peter J. De Muth, American politician
• * Pinky Lee, American comedian
• April 8 – Marian Anderson, American singer
• April 13 – Wallace Stegner, American writer
• April 19 – David Koresh, American spiritualist, leader of the Branch Davidian religious cult
• April 23 – Cesar Chavez, Mexican American civil rights activist
• April 26 – Julia Davis, American educator
• April 28 – Jim Valvano, American basketball player

  May

• May 5 – Irving Howe, American literary and social critic
• May 7 – Mary Philbin, American actress
• May 8
• * Avram Davidson, American writer
• * Alwin Nikolais, American choreographer
• May 14 – William Randolph Hearst, Jr., American businessman
• May 26 – Catherine Caradja, Romanian aristocrat and philanthropist
• May 30 – Sun Ra, American jazz musician

  June

• June 2 – Johnny Mize, American baseball player
• June 5 – Conway Twitty, American musician
• June 6 – James Bridges, American screenwriter and director
• June 8 – Nolan Bailey Harmon, bishop of The Methodist Church and the United Methodist Church
• June 9 – Alexis Smith, Canadian-born American actress and singer
• June 10
• * Arleen Auger, American soprano singer
• * Milward L. Simpson, American politician
• June 13 – Deke Slayton, American astronaut
• June 15 – John Connally, American politician
• June 19 – Szymon Goldberg, Polish-born violinist
• June 22 – Pat Nixon, wife of Richard Nixon, First Lady of the United States, Second Lady of the United States
• June 24 – Archie Williams, American Olympic athlete
• June 26 – Roy Campanella, American baseball player
• June 28 – GG Allin, American musician
• June 30 – Spanky McFarland, American actor

  July

• July 2
• * Fred Gwynne, American actor and comedian
• * Elizabeth M. Ramsey, American research physician
• July 3
• * Don Drysdale, American baseball player
• * Joe DeRita, American comedian
• July 4 – Anne Shirley, American actress
• July 7
• * William McElwee Miller, American missionary to Persia and author
• * Mia Zapata, American punk musician
• July 12 – James Peck, American civil rights activist
• July 13 – Davey Allison, American stock car driver
• July 15 – David Brian, American actor
• July 24 – Abram L. Sachar, American historian and educator
• July 25
• * Nan Grey, American actress
• * Cecilia Parker, American actress
• July 26 – Matthew Ridgway, American army general
• July 27 – Reggie Lewis, American basketball player
• July 30
• * William Guglielmo Niederland, German-born American psychoanalyst
• * Bob Wright, American baseball player
• July 31 – Paul B. Henry, American politician

  August

• August 1 – Claire Du Brey, American actress
• August 3 – Theodore A. Parker III, American ornithologist
• August 7 – Christopher Gillis, American dancer and choreographer
• August 10 – Irene Sharaff, American costume designer
• August 16 – Stewart Granger, Anglo-American actor
• August 26 − Roy Raymond, American entrepreneur
• August 30 – Richard Jordan, American actor

  September

• September 2 – Eric Berry, British actor
• September 3 – Wesley Englehorn, American football player
• September 4 – Hervé Villechaize, French-born actor
• September 9 – Helen O'Connell, American singer
• September 12
• * Raymond Burr, Canadian-American actor
• * Charles Lamont, Russian-born film director
• September 13 – Steve Jordan, American jazz guitarist
• September 22
• * Maurice Abravanel, Greek-born American conductor
• * Regina Fryxell, American composer
• September 27 – Jimmy Doolittle, American aviation pioneer and World War II United States Army Air Forces general
• September 28 – Alexander A. Drabik, American soldier
• September 29 – Gordon Douglas, American film director

  October

• October 5 – Agnes de Mille, American dancer and choreographer
• October 12 – Leon Ames, American actor '
• October 13 – Ruth Gilbert, American actress
• October 17 – Criss Oliva, American metal guitarist
• October 21 – James Leo Herlihy, American novelist and playwright
• October 25 – Vincent Price, American actor
• October 26 – Harold Rome, American composer
• October 31 – River Phoenix, American actor, musician and activist

  November

• November 1 – Severo Ochoa, Spanish-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• November 6 – Ralph Randles Stewart, American botanist
• November 12
• * Bill Dickey, American baseball player
• * H. R. Haldeman, 4th White House Chief of Staff
• * Anna Sten, Ukrainian-born American actress
• November 13 – Rufus R. Jones, American wrestler
• November 15 – Evelyn Venable, American actress
• November 20 – Emile Ardolino, American film director
• November 21 – Bill Bixby, American actor
• November 28 – Garry Moore, American television host and comedian

  December

• December 4 – Frank Zappa, American guitarist and composer
• December 6 – Don Ameche, American actor
• December 14 – Myrna Loy, American actress
• December 16
• * Charles Willard Moore, American architect
• * Moses Gunn, American actor
• December 17 – Janet Margolin, American actress
• December 18 – Sam Wanamaker, American film director and actor
• December 19 – Michael Clarke, American musician
• December 20 – W. Edwards Deming, American engineer, professor, author, lecturer, and management consultant
• December 22
• * Don DeFore, American actor
• * Alexander Mackendrick, British-American film director
• December 23 – James Ellison, American actor
• December 24 – Norman Vincent Peale, American preacher and writer
• December 28
• * William L. Shirer, American journalist and historian
• * Howard Caine, American actor
• December 31
• * Brandon Teena, American murder victim
• * Thomas Watson Jr., American businessman, political figure, and philanthropist