WORLD HISTORY · 1996 日本語
Events of 1996Heisei 8 (Japan) · Year of the Rat
What happened in 1996?
In 1996, Hashimoto Ryutaro became prime minister, and Japan held its first general election under a mixed system of single-seat districts and proportional representation. At the end of the year, the hostage crisis at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Peru began.
- Hashimoto Ryutaro cabinet takes officeAsia
- Rockfall at Hokkaido's Toyohama TunnelAsia
- Lee Teng-hui wins Taiwan's first direct presidential voteAsia
- Dolly, first sheep cloned from adult cell, bornEurope
- Atlanta Olympics openNorth America
- UN adopts Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban TreatyWorld
- First election under mixed district-proportional systemAsia
- Hostage crisis at Japanese ambassador's residence in PeruAsia
Tap an event to jump to it in the timeline below.
1996 at a glance
| Japanese era | Heisei 8 |
|---|---|
| Chinese zodiac | Year of the Rat |
| Age of people born in 1996 | Turn 30 in 2026 |
| Previous / next year | 1995 (Heisei 7) ／ 1997 (Heisei 9) |
| Events | 111 |
| AP World History | Unit 9 (Globalization) |
| AP U.S. History | Period 9 |
Famous people born in 1996
Our birthday pages list 463 people born in 1996. Here are some of them.
- ZendayaBorn September 1 · turns 30 this year · American actress and singer known for Euphoria, the Spider-Man films, Dune, and…
- Takakeishō MitsunobuBorn August 5 · turns 30 this year
- Jaafar JacksonBorn July 25 · turns 30 this year
- Sara TakanashiBorn October 8 · turns 30 this year
- Tom HollandBorn June 1 · turns 30 this year
- RodriBorn June 22 · turns 30 this year
- Kumi SasakiBorn January 22 · turns 30 this year
- Sophie CunninghamBorn August 16 · turns 30 this year
- Florence PughBorn January 3 · turns 30 this year
- Jacob BatalonBorn October 9 · turns 30 this year
- Anya Taylor-JoyBorn April 16 · turns 30 this year
- Skyler GisondoBorn July 22 · turns 30 this year
Show 28 more
- Hailee SteinfeldBorn December 11 · turns 30 this year
- Sophie TurnerBorn February 21 · turns 30 this year
- Andreas PereiraBorn January 1 · turns 30 this year
- Mahmoud DahoudBorn January 1 · turns 30 this year
- Mathias JensenBorn January 1 · turns 30 this year
- Jonah BoldenBorn January 2 · turns 30 this year
- Léo OrtizBorn January 3 · turns 30 this year
- Jackson HastingsBorn January 4 · turns 30 this year
- Jasmine PaoliniBorn January 4 · turns 30 this year
- Marcus IngvartsenBorn January 4 · turns 30 this year
- Michael DicksonBorn January 4 · turns 30 this year
- James Fisher-HarrisBorn January 5 · turns 30 this year
- Nicolás TripichioBorn January 5 · turns 30 this year
- Tyler UlisBorn January 5 · turns 30 this year
- Courtney EatonBorn January 6 · turns 30 this year
- Alex NedeljkovicBorn January 7 · turns 30 this year
- Vítek VaněčekBorn January 9 · turns 30 this year
- Ahmed SayedBorn January 10 · turns 30 this year
- Budda BakerBorn January 10 · turns 30 this year
- Dylan EdwardsBorn January 10 · turns 30 this year
- Matthew DuftyBorn January 10 · turns 30 this year
- Leroy SanéBorn January 11 · turns 30 this year
- Ella HendersonBorn January 12 · turns 30 this year
- Deebo SamuelBorn January 15 · turns 30 this year
- Dove CameronBorn January 15 · turns 30 this year
- JennieBorn January 16 · turns 30 this year
- Zhou QiBorn January 16 · turns 30 this year
- Allonzo TrierBorn January 17 · turns 30 this year
Events of 1996 (timeline · 111)
Tip: the PC view is best for studying
On a computer, each region has its own vertical line, so you can follow the flow of events and see what was happening in different parts of the world at the same time.
An Antonov An-32 cargo aircraft crashes into a crowded market in Kinshasa, Zaire, killing up to 223 people on the ground; two of six crew members are also killed.
First Chechen War: Chechen separatists launch a raid against the helicopter airfield and later a civilian hospital in the city of Kizlyar in the neighboring Dagestan, which turns into a massive hostage crisis involving thousands of civilians.
Space Shuttle program: STS-72 launches from the Kennedy Space Center marking the start of the 74th Space Shuttle mission and the 10th flight of Endeavour.
The barge North Cape oil spill occurs as an engine fire forces the tugboat Scandia ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island.
In a military coup, Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara deposes the first democratically elected president of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane.
President Jacques Chirac announces a "definitive end" to French nuclear weapons testing.
An explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in Colombo, killing at least 86 people and injuring 1,400.
Willamette Valley Flood: Floods in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, United States, causes over US$500 million in property damage throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Birgenair Flight 301 crashed off the coast of the Dominican Republic, killing all 189 people on board. This is the deadliest aviation accident involving a Boeing 757.
The Provisional Irish Republican Army declares the end to its 18-month ceasefire and explodes a large bomb in London's Canary Wharf, killing two people.
The Nepalese Civil War is initiated in the Kingdom of Nepal by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre).
At the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China, a Long March 3B rocket carrying Intelsat 708 veers off course and crashes into a rural village after liftoff, killing somewhere between six and 100 people.
Then-Prime Minister of Canada Jean Chrétien applies a chokehold to protester Bill Clennett, an incident later named the Shawinigan Handshake.
A Chicago-bound Amtrak train, the Capitol Limited, collides with a MARC commuter train bound for Washington, D.C., killing 11 people.
In Philadelphia, world champion Garry Kasparov beats the Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match.
The 8.2 Mw Biak earthquake shakes the Papua province of eastern Indonesia with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). A large tsunami followed, leaving 166 people dead or missing and 423 injured.
NASA's Discovery Program begins as the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft lifts off on the first mission ever to orbit and land on an asteroid, 433 Eros.
Two civilian airplanes operated by the Miami-based group Brothers to the Rescue are shot down in international waters by the Cuban Air Force.
Faucett Perú Flight 251 crashes in the Andes; all 123 passengers and crew are killed.
A derailed train in Weyauwega, Wisconsin (USA) causes the emergency evacuation of 2,300 people for 16 days.
The Dunblane massacre leads to the death of sixteen primary school children and one teacher in Dunblane, Scotland.
The European Union's Veterinarian Committee bans the export of British beef and its by-products as a result of mad cow disease (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy).
Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski is captured at his Montana cabin in the United States.
A United States Air Force Boeing T-43 crashes near Dubrovnik Airport in Croatia, killing 35, including Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown.
Comet Hyakutake is imaged by the USA Asteroid Orbiter Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous.
Two women and four children are killed after an Israeli helicopter fires rockets at an ambulance in Mansouri, Lebanon.
The Israeli military commits the Qana massacre in a deliberate shelling of a United Nations compound near the village of Qana in southern Lebanon, killing 106 Lebanese civilians who were taking shelter there and wounding over 100 more.
Four people are killed and 75 are injured in a train accident in Jokela, Finland.
In the United States, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is passed into law.
Whitewater controversy: President Bill Clinton gives a 41⁄2 hour videotaped testimony for the defense.
Port Arthur massacre, Tasmania: A gunman, Martin Bryant, opens fire at the Broad Arrow Cafe in Port Arthur, Tasmania, killing 35 people and wounding 23 others.
The body of former CIA director William Colby is found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he disappeared.
After the aircraft's departure from Miami, a fire started by improperly handled chemical oxygen generators in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Airlines Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 on board.
Civil rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of gays and lesbians.
The ferry MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1,000.
The seven Trappist monks of Tibhirine who were abducted on March 27 are killed under uncertain circumstances.
The Burmese military regime jails 71 supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi in a bid to block a pro-democracy meeting.
First Chechen War: Russian president Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechen rebels for the first time and negotiates a cease-fire.
U.S. President Bill Clinton's former business partners in the Whitewater land deal, Jim McDougal and Susan McDougal, and the Governor of Arkansas, Jim Guy Tucker, are convicted of fraud.
The first flight of Ariane 5 explodes after roughly 37 seconds. It was a Cluster mission.
Garuda Indonesia flight 865 crashes during takeoff from Fukuoka Airport, killing three people and injuring 170.
The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonates a powerful truck bomb in the middle of Manchester, England, devastating the city centre and injuring 200 people.
Space Shuttle Columbia launches on STS-78 to conduct life science and microgravity research aboard the Spacelab module.
British Prime Minister John Major announced the Stone of Scone would be returned to Scotland.
A McDonnell Douglas MD-88 operating as Delta Air Lines Flight 1288 experiences a turbine engine failure during takeoff from Pensacola International Airport, killing two and injuring five of the 147 people on board.
A Belgian Air Force C-130 Hercules carrying the Royal Netherlands Army marching band crashes on landing at Eindhoven Airport.
TWA Flight 800: Off the coast of Long Island, New York, a Paris-bound TWA Boeing 747 explodes, killing all 230 on board.
Battle of Mullaitivu: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam capture the Sri Lanka Army's base, killing over 1,200 soldiers.
Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River, beginning one of Quebec's costliest natural disasters ever.
In Atlanta, United States, a pipe bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Summer Olympics.
The remains of a prehistoric man are discovered near Kennewick, Washington. Such remains will be known as the Kennewick Man.
The child protection portion of the Communications Decency Act is struck down by a U.S. federal court as too broad.
NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms.
The killing of Tassos Isaac by Turkish nationalists of the Grey Wolves in the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus.
Greek Cypriot refugee Solomos Solomou is shot and killed by a Turkish security officer while trying to climb a flagpole in order to remove a Turkish flag from its mast in the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus.
Chicago Seven defendant David Dellinger, antiwar activist Bradford Lyttle, Civil Rights Movement historian Randy Kryn, and eight others are arrested by the Federal Protective Service while protesting in a demonstration at the Kluczynski Federal Building in downtown Chicago during that year's Democratic National Convention.
Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801, a Tupolev Tu-154, crashes into a mountain on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen, killing all 141 aboard.
Saddam Hussein's troops seize Irbil after the Kurdish Masoud Barzani appealed for help to defeat his Kurdish rival PUK.
Hurricane Fran makes landfall near Cape Fear, North Carolina as a Category 3 storm with 115 mph sustained winds. Fran caused over $3 billion in damage and killed 27 people.
Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-79 to dock with the Russian space station Mir.
Representatives of 71 nations sign the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty at the United Nations.
The Battle of Kabul ends in a Taliban victory; an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is established.
The Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments are signed by U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Aeroperú Flight 603 crashes into the ocean near Peru, killing all 70 people on board.
New Zealand holds its first general election under the new mixed-member proportional representation system, which led to Jim Bolger's National Party forming a coalition government with Winston Peters's New Zealand First.
Eighty-four football fans die and 180 are injured in a massive crush at a match in Guatemala City.
TAM Transportes Aéreos Regionais Flight 402 crashes in São Paulo, Brazil, killing 99 people.
Abdullah Çatlı, the leader of the Turkish ultranationalist organization Grey Wolves, dies in the Susurluk car crash, leading to the resignation of Interior Minister Mehmet Ağar (a leader of the True Path Party).
Pakistani President Farooq Leghari dismisses the government of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and dissolves the National Assembly.
ADC Airlines Flight 086 crashes into the Lagos Lagoon in Epe, Lagos State, Nigeria, killing all 144 people on board.
A Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 and a Kazakh Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane collide in mid-air near New Delhi, killing 349 in the deadliest mid-air collision to date.
As part of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) project, Joel Armengaud discovers the project's first Mersenne prime number, 2 1398269 − 1 {\displaystyle 2^{1398269}-1} , a number with 420,921 digits.
A fire occurs on a train traveling through the Channel Tunnel from France to England causing several injuries and damaging approximately 500 metres (1,600 ft) of tunnel.
Space Shuttle program: Columbia is launched on STS-80, which would become the longest mission in the program at 17 days. On this mission, astronaut Story Musgrave becomes the only astronaut to fly on all five space shuttles.
A Beechcraft 1900 and a Beechcraft King Air collide at Quincy Regional Airport in Quincy, Illinois, killing 14.
A fire breaks out in an office building in Hong Kong, killing 41 people and injuring 81.
Humberto Vidal explosion: Thirty-three people die when a Humberto Vidal shoe shop in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico explodes.
Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 is hijacked, then crashes into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 125.
Journalists Fernando Balderas Sánchez and Yolanda Figueroa and their three children are murdered in a case that initially prompted speculation about links to organized crime, corruption, or their journalistic work.
Gwen Jacob is acquitted of committing an indecent act, giving women the right to be topless in Ontario, Canada.
Airborne Express Flight 827 crashes in Narrows, Virginia, killing all six people on board.
A Learjet 35 crashes into Smarts Mountain near Dorchester, New Hampshire, killing both pilots on board.
The body of American child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey was found in her family's Boulder, Colorado, home. Her murder remains unsolved.
Taliban forces retake the strategic Bagram Airfield which solidifies their buffer zone around Kabul, Afghanistan.
Guatemala and leaders of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity sign a peace accord ending a 36-year civil war.
Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel.
Source: Wikipedia date pages ("January 1" … "December 31") / CC BY-SA 4.0. Regions are assigned by the site editors.
FAQ
What year was 1996 in the Japanese calendar?
1996 was Heisei 8 in the Japanese era system.
What Chinese zodiac animal is 1996?
1996 is the Year of the Rat.
How old is someone born in 1996?
They turn 30 on their birthday in 2026.
What happened in 1996?
In 1996, Hashimoto Ryutaro became prime minister, and Japan held its first general election under a mixed system of single-seat districts and proportional representation. At the end of the year, the hostage crisis at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Peru began.
Dates and events are based on Wikipedia and other references. Summaries and regions are written by the site editors.