January 4
January 4
GM announces its electric car
On January 4, 1996, General Motors announces at the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show it will build an electric car, dubbed the EV1, to be launched in the fall of…
A Year In History: 1996
This Year in History:
1996
Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
January 6
January 6
Blizzard of 1996 begins
On January 6, 1996, snow begins falling in Washington, D.C., and up the Eastern seaboard, beginning a blizzard that kills 154 people and causes over $1 billion in damages before…
January 18
January 18
MLB owners approve interleague play
On January 18, 1996, Major League Baseball owners unanimously approve interleague play for the 1997 season. The owners’ vote, which called for each team to play 15 or 16 interleague games,…
January 20
January 20
Yasser Arafat elected leader of Palestine
Yasser Arafat is elected president of the Palestinian National Council with 88.1 percent of the popular vote, becoming the first democratically elected leader of the Palestinian people in history. Arafat,…
January 27
January 27
Monica Seles wins first Grand Slam title since being attacked
On January 27, 1996, Serbian‑born tennis player Monica Seles, the former No. 1 women’s player in the world, defeats Anke Huber of Germany to win the Australian Open. The win…
February 10
February 10
World chess champion Garry Kasparov loses game to computer
On February 10, 1996, after three hours, world chess champion Garry Kasparov loses the first game of a six‑game match against Deep Blue, an IBM computer capable of evaluating 200…
February 17
February 17
Chess champion Garry Kasparov defeats IBM’s Deep Blue
In the final game of a six‑game match, world chess champion Garry Kasparov triumphs over Deep Blue, IBM’s chess‑playing computer, and wins the match, 4‑2. However, Deep Blue goes on…
March 9
March 9
Comedian George Burns dies at age 100
On March 9, 1996, the legendary cigar‑chomping performer George Burns dies at his home in Beverly Hills, California, just weeks after celebrating his 100th birthday. Born Nathan Birnbaum in New…
March 24
March 24
Astronaut Shannon Lucid enters Mir space station
U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid transfers to the Russian space station Mir from the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis for a planned five‑month stay. Lucid was the first female U.S. astronaut to…
April 3
April 3
U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Ron Brown, killed in plane crash
Ronald H. Brown, the U.S. secretary of commerce, is killed along with 32 other Americans when their U.S. Air Force plane crashes into a mountain near Dubrovnik, Croatia. Brown was…
April 3
April 3
Unabomber arrested
At his small wilderness cabin near Lincoln, Montana, Theodore John Kaczynski is arrested by FBI agents and accused of being the Unabomber, the elusive terrorist blamed for 16 mail bombs…
April 14
April 14
Greg Norman blows six‑shot Masters lead in epic collapse
On April 14, 1996, third‑round leader Greg Norman loses a six‑shot lead in the final round of the Masters golf tournament and finishes second—one of the worst collapses in sports…
April 28
April 28
35 killed in Australia’s Port Arthur Massacre mass shooting
On April 28, 1996, 28‑year‑old Martin Bryant begins a killing spree that ends in the deaths of 35 men, women and children in the quiet town of Port Arthur in…
May 10
May 10
Eight climbers die on Mt. Everest
Eight climbers die on Mount Everest during a storm on May 10, 1996. It was the worst loss of life ever on the mountain on a single day. Author Jon…
May 20
May 20
Supreme Court defends rights of gays and lesbians in Romer v. Evans
In a victory for the gay and lesbian civil rights movement, the U.S. Supreme Court votes six to three to strike down an amendment to Colorado’s state constitution that would…
May 31
May 31
Benjamin Netanyahu elected prime minister of Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres is narrowly defeated in national elections by Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Peres, leader of the Labor Party, became prime minister in 1995 after Yitzhak…
June 25
June 25
Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia kills 19 U.S. airmen
On June 25, 1996, a tanker truck loaded with 25,000 pounds of explosives rips through the U.S. Air Force military housing complex Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 19…
July 5
July 5
Dolly the sheep becomes first successfully cloned mammal
On July 5, 1996, Dolly the sheep—the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell—is born at the Roslin Institute in Scotland. Originally code‑named “6LL3,” the cloned…
July 9
July 9
A family is brutally attacked on a walk in England
Dr. Lin Russell, her two daughters, Josie and Megan, and their dog, Lucy, are all brutally attacked by a man wielding a hammer on their way home to Nonington Village,…
July 17
July 17
TWA Flight 800 explodes over Long Island
Shortly after takeoff from New York’s Kennedy International Airport, a TWA Boeing 747 jetliner bound for Paris explodes over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 230 people aboard. Flight 800 had…
