February 22 – Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged with spying for the Soviet Union by the United States Department of Justice. Ames is later convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment; his wife receives five years in prison.
April 8 – Kurt Cobain, songwriter and frontman for the band Nirvana, is found dead at his Lake Washington home. It would be later be confirmed that Cobain had committed suicide three days prior.[9]
April 14 – The heads of the major tobacco industries testify before a House subcommittee where they infamously state that tobacco is not addictive.
April 16 – A gunman shoots many people during a robbery at a Popeyes restaurant. The gunman is arrested and executed in 2017. (1994 Popeyes shooting)
May 24 – In a critical House of Representatives special election in the state of Kentucky, Republican Ron Lewis flips a Democrat-controlled seat that had never held by the GOP in its history. The election result was viewed as an early sign of trouble for President Clinton and his party in the midterm elections.[12]
June 15 – Walt Disney Pictures' 32nd feature film, The Lion King, is released in theaters to critical acclaim, making $422,783,777 in the United States ($951,583,777 worldwide). It is the highest-grossing film of the year and the highest grossing traditionally-animated film of all time.
June 30–July 10 – Tropical Storm Alberto causes heavy flooding, intense winds and extensive problems directly over the Southeastern United States and the Caribbean Islands. Thirty two individuals are directly killed by the storm, and property damage is assessed at $1 billion (1994 USD).
July 19 – Four 26-pound ceiling tiles fall from the roof of the Kingdome in Seattle, Washington, just hours before a scheduled Seattle Mariners game.
Augustedit
August 3 – Stephen Breyer is sworn in as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court.
August 12 – Major League Baseball players go on strike. The strike eventually results in the cancellation of the World Series for the first time since 1904. The strike lasts until April 1995, making it the longest labor dispute in MLB history.
August 20 – In Honolulu, Hawaii, during a circus international performance, an elephant named Tyke crushes her trainer Allen Campbell to death before hundreds of horrified spectators at the Neal Blaisdell Arena.
August 23 – Eugene Bullard is posthumously commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force, 33 years after his death, and 77 years to the day after his rejection for U.S. military service in 1917.
President Bill Clinton signs the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which bans the manufacture of new firearms with certain features for a period of 10 years.
President Bill Clinton signs the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA). The Act provided $1.6 billion toward investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women, imposed automatic and mandatory restitution on those convicted, and allowed civil redress in cases prosecutors chose not to prosecute. The Act also established the Office on Violence Against Women within the Department of Justice.
September 19 – American troops stage a bloodless invasion of Haiti in order to restore the legitimate elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, to power.
September–October – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq threatens to stop cooperating with UNSCOM inspectors and begins to once again deploy troops near its border with Kuwait. In response, the U.S. begins to deploy troops to Kuwait.
Octoberedit
October 12
NASA loses radio contact with the Magellan spacecraft as the probe descends into the thick atmosphere of Venus (the spacecraft presumably burned up in the atmosphere either October 13 or October 14).
November 4 – The first conference devoted entirely to the subject of the commercial potential of the World Wide Web opens in San Francisco. Featured speakers include Marc Andreessen of Netscape, Mark Graham of Pandora Systems, and Ken McCarthy of E-Media.
A Learjet piloted by Richard Anderson and Brad Sexton misses an elementary school and crashes into an apartment complex in Fresno, California, killing both pilots and injuring several apartment residents.
The 1994 NBA Finals was won by the Houston Rockets. The Rockets defeated the New York Knicks in a hard-fought seven games series. Hakeem Olajuwon was named MVP of the Finals.
^"Milestones of the U.S. Archival Profession and the National Archives, 1800-2011". U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. 15 August 2016. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
^"Green Day's Dookie: 15 Years Later, Still A Genuine Punk Classic". MTV. 2009-05-13. Retrieved 2016-07-23.
^"William J. Perry". history.defense.gov. Retrieved 2022-10-15.
^"Ari Halberstam Memorial Site". Archived from the original on 5 July 2012. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
^"Woman Held in Perris Is Suspect in Series of Killings". Los Angeles Times. March 18, 1994.
^Garland, Max. "25 years ago, Federal Express Flight 705 was business as usual — until a hijacking attempt". The Commercial Appeal. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
^"Federal Express crew attacked aboard DC-10". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 2023-12-04.
^"On This Day 1994: Rock musician Kurt Cobain 'shoots himself'". BBC News. 8 April 1994. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
^"Our Lady of the Angels School Fire, Chicago December 1, 1958 - 2000 Essay Contest 3rd Place". Retrieved 14 October 2014.
^"Death of a First Lady; Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Dies of Cancer at 64". The New York Times.
^Edsall, Thomas B. (1994-05-25). "GOP GAINS HOUSE SEAT NATCHER HELD". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
^"Mass murderer killed in prison". The Independent. 29 November 1994. Archived from the original on 2022-05-01. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
^"Jeffrey Dahmer, Multiple Killer, Is Bludgeoned to Death in Prison". The New York Times. 29 November 1994. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
^"Inmate attacked with Dahmer dies from trauma | Jet | Find Articles at BNET". Archived from the original on 2010-09-07. Retrieved 2010-10-19.
^"Subway Bombing of 1994". Gothamist. Archived from the original on 24 December 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
^Kevin Poulsen (January 21, 2000). "The case of the kung fu 'phreak'". ZDNet. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
^Zenko, Micah (3 August 2010). Between Threats and War: U.S. Discrete Military Operations in the Post-Cold War World. Stanford University Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-8047-7190-0.
^"BlackBook Lowdown". BlackBook Media Corp. 2009-03-24. Retrieved 2010-03-30.