Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South Africa, and the Baltic states declaring independence from the Soviet Union during Perestroika. Yugoslavia's communist regime collapses amidst increasing internal tensions and multiparty elections held within its constituent republics result in separatist governments being elected in most of the republics marking the beginning of the breakup of Yugoslavia. Also in this year began the crisis that would lead to the Gulf War in 1991 following the Iraq invasion and the largely internationally unrecognized annexation of Kuwait. This led to Operation Desert Shield being enacted with an international coalition of military forces being built up on the Kuwaiti-Saudi border with demands for Iraq to peacefully withdraw from Kuwait. Also in this year, Nelson Mandela was released from prison, and Margaret Thatcher resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after more than 11 years.
1990 was an important year in the Internet's early history. In late 1990, Tim Berners-Lee created the first web server and the foundation for the World Wide Web. Test operations began around December 20 and it was released outside CERN the following year. 1990 also saw the official decommissioning of the ARPANET, a forerunner of the Internet system and the introduction of the first content web search engine, Archie, on September 10.
September 14, 1990, saw the first case of successful somatic gene therapy on a patient.
Due to the early 1990s recession that began that year and uncertainty due to the collapse of the socialist governments in Eastern Europe, birth rates in many countries stopped rising or fell steeply in 1990. In most western countries the Echo Boom peaked in 1990; fertility rates declined thereafter.
Events January January 1 Poland becomes the first country in Eastern Europe to begin abolishing its state socialist controls. Glasgow begins its year as European Capital of Culture. The first Internet companies catering to commercial users, PSINet and EUnet begin selling Internet access to commercial customers in the United States and Netherlands respectively. The comedy television series of Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean first airs on ITV in the United Kingdom. January 2 – Ramiz Ali declares that the rejection of Communism will not be repeated in Albania, but that the changing European political climate will nevertheless require adjustments. January 3 – United States invasion of Panama: General Manuel Noriega is deposed as leader of Panama and surrenders to the American forces. January 10 – McDonnell Douglas MD-11 wide-body trijet airliner takes its first flight, in the US. January 11 – Singing Revolution: In the Lithuanian SSR, 300,000 demonstrate for independence. January 12–19 – Most of the remaining 50,000 Armenians are driven out of Baku in the Azerbaijan SSR during the Baku pogrom. January 13 – Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor in the US as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia. January 15 The National Assembly of Bulgaria votes to end one party rule by the Bulgarian Communist Party. Thousands storm the Stasi headquarters in East Berlin in an attempt to view their government records. Martin Luther King Day Crash: Telephone service in Atlanta, St. Louis and Detroit, including 9-1-1 service, goes down for nine hours, due to an AT&T software bug. January 18 McMartin preschool trial: Peggy McMartin Buckey and Raymond Buckey are acquitted of 52 charges related to alleged ritual abuse taking place at their daycare in Manhattan Beach, California. Marion Barry, Mayor of the District of Columbia, is caught on videotape smoking crack cocaine. January 20 Cold War: Black January – Soviet troops occupy Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, under the state of emergency decree issued by General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, and kill over 130 protesters who were demonstrating for independence. The Nakhichevan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic declares its independence from the USSR. Clashes break out between Indian troops and Muslim separatists in Kashmir. The government of Haiti declares a state of emergency, under which it suspends civil liberties, imposes censorship and arrests political opponents. The state of siege is lifted on January 29. January 22 – US graduate student Robert Tappan Morris is convicted of releasing the Morris worm onto the internet. January 23 – The 14th and final Extraordinary Congress of the Yugoslav Communist Party concludes after 3 days. Although Serb hardliners block substantial reforms, the Party signals its openness to multiparty elections. Slovene delegates, protesting the slow pace of reforms, walk out of the assembly. January 25 Avianca Flight 052 crashes into Cove Neck, New York after a miscommunication between the flight crew and JFK Airport officials, killing 73 people on board. Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto gives birth to a girl, becoming the first modern head of government to bear a child while in office. Pope John Paul II begins an eight-day tour of Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Burkina Faso and Chad. January 25–26 – The Burns' Day Storm kills 97 in northwestern Europe. January 27 – The city of Tiraspol in the Moldavian SSR briefly declares independence. January 28 – Four months after their exit from power, the Polish United Workers' Party votes to dissolve and reorganize as the Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland. January 29 – The trial of Joseph Hazelwood, former skipper of the Exxon Valdez, begins in Anchorage, Alaska. He is accused of negligence that resulted in America's second worst oil spill to date. January 31 Globalization – The first McDonald's in Moscow, Russian SFSR opens 8 months after construction began on May 3, 1989. 8 months later the first McDonald's in Mainland China is opened in Shenzhen. President of the United States George H. W. Bush gives his first State of the Union address and proposes that the U.S. and the Soviet Union make deep cuts to their military forces in Europe.
February February/March – 100,000 Kashmiri Pandits leave their homeland in Jammu and Kashmir's Valley after being targeted by Islamist extremists. February – Smoking is banned on all cross-country flights in the United States. February 2 – Apartheid: F. W. de Klerk announces the unbanning of the African National Congress and promises to release Nelson Mandela. February 5 – The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. excommunicates George Augustus Stallings for starting the controversial Imani Temple congregation. February 7 The Communist Party of the Soviet Union votes to end its monopoly of power, clearing the way for multiparty elections. In the Tajik SSR, the Dushanbe riots break out against the settlement of Armenian refugees there. February 9 – The ADtranz low floor tram, the world's first completely low-floor tram, is introduced in Bremen. February 10 Las Cruces bowling alley massacre: 2 people walk into the 10 Pin Alley in Las Cruces, New Mexico (known at this time as the Las Cruces Bowl) and shoot seven people, four of whom are killed. The case is never solved. As the German chancellor Helmut Kohl is on a state visit in Moscow, Mikhail Gorbachev assures him that the Germans have the right to choose reunification. While the question of the membership of a reunited Germany in the existing military alliances is still unresolved, this is seen as a major breakthrough. February 11 Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster Prison, near Cape Town, South Africa, after 27 years behind bars. Buster Douglas, a 42-1 underdog, knocks out Mike Tyson in the 10th round to win the heavyweight boxing title. February 12 – Representatives of NATO and the Warsaw Pact meet in Ottawa for an "Open Skies" conference. The conference results in agreements about superpower troop levels in Europe and on German reunification. February 13 German reunification: An agreement is reached for a two-stage plan to reunite Germany. US investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert files for bankruptcy protection, Chapter 11. February 14 The Pale Blue Dot photograph of Earth is sent back from the Voyager 1 probe after completing its primary mission, from around 5.6 billion kilometers (3.5 billion miles) away. Indian Airlines Flight 605, an Airbus A320-231 registered as VT-EPN, crashes shortly before landing at Bangalore, killing 92 out of the 146 occupants on board. 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. In Cartagena, Colombia, a summit is held between President of the United States George H. W. Bush, President of Bolivia Jaime Paz Zamora, President of Colombia Virgilio Barco Vargas, and President of Peru Alan García. The leaders pledge additional cooperation in fighting international drug trafficking. February 21 – Spain grants Protestantism and Judaism legal equality with the Roman Catholic Church. February 25 – The Sandinistas are defeated in the Nicaraguan elections, with Violeta Chamorro elected as the new president of Nicaragua (the first elected woman president in the Americas), replacing Daniel Ortega. February 26 – The Soviet Union 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. February 28 President of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega announces a cease-fire with the U.S.-backed contras. Final day of the rum ration in the Royal New Zealand Navy, the last in any of the world's navies.
March March 1 A fire at the Sheraton Hotel in Cairo, Egypt, kills 16 people. Steve Jackson Games is raided by the U.S. Secret Service, prompting the later formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Luis Alberto Lacalle, a grandson of the late politician and diplomat Luis Alberto de Herrera, is sworn in as President of Uruguay. March 3 – The International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition, a group of six explorers from six nations, completes the first dog sled crossing of Antarctica. March 8 – The Nintendo World Championships are held within the Fair Park's Automobile Building, kickstarting an almost year long gaming competition across 29 American cities. March 9 Police seal off Brixton in South London after another night of protests against the poll tax. Newfoundland Premier Clyde Wells confirms he will rescind Newfoundland's approval of the Meech Lake Accord. March 10 – Prosper Avril is ousted in a coup in Haiti, eighteen months after seizing power. March 11 Singing Revolution: The Lithuanian SSR declares independence from the Soviet Union with the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania. Augusto Pinochet hands over power to the elected president Patricio Aylwin, marking the beginning of the Chilean transition to democracy after 17 years of the military dictatorship of Chile. March 11–13 – The March 1990 Central United States tornado outbreak produces 64 tornadoes across six US states, including four violent F4/F5 tornadoes. The outbreak leaves 2 dead, 89 injured, and causes over $500 million in damages. March 12 – Cold War: Soviet soldiers begin leaving Hungary under terms of an agreement to withdraw all Soviet troops by June 1. March 13 – The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union approves changes to the Constitution of the Soviet Union to create a strong U.S.-style presidency. Mikhail Gorbachev is elected to a five-year term as the first-ever President of the Soviet Union on March 15. March 15