References are numbered in [brackets], which are listed here . A number after the dot gives the page in the source.

Last updated: 2019 June 14.

1991

May 1

May 2

• Pope John Paul II's encyclical on Centesimus annus

May 7

May 12

May 14

• 42 die in a train collision in Japan. [1]

May 15

• Édith Cresson becomes France's first female premier. [1] [41]

May 16

May 17

May 18

May 20

May 21

• Ethiopia's Marxist president Mengistu Haile Mariam resigns. [1] [41]

May 22

May 23

• Last Cuban troops leave Angola. [1]

May 24

May 25

May 26

May 28

• Ethiopian rebels seize Addis Ababa. [1]
• Liberian-registered supertanker ABT Summer

May 31

June 1

June 3

June 9

June 11

• On the cruise yacht New Yorker , dubbed the "DOS Boat", in New York City harbor, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer unveil MS-DOS 5.0. It adds a full-screen editor, undelete and unformat utilities, and task swapping. GW-BASIC is replaced with Qbasic , based on Microsoft's QuickBASIC . ( One million copies are sold in six weeks.

June 12

June 15

June 17

June 20

June 22

June 23

June 25

June 28

July 1

July 3

• TriStar releases the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day to theaters. ( Total world gross ticket sales: $520 million (1st for 1991).

July 4

July 7

July 10

July 11

July 15

July 18

July 22

July 24

July 27

• TV Guide

July 29

August 3

August 7

• The World Wide Web debuts as a publicly available service on the Internet. [5] [41]
• Court rules Manuel Noriega may access some secret US documents. [1]

August 8

• Shite Muslims release British hostage John McCarthy. [1]

August 11

August 17

• In Sydney, Australia, taxi driver Wade Frankum shoots seven people and injures six others before turning the gun on himself. [41]

August 19

August 20

• The Supreme Council of the Republic of Estonia declares restoration of independence. [10] [41] [810.123]

August 21

• Latvia declares independence from the Soviet Union. [41] (August 20 [10])
• Estonia declares independence. [1132.288]
• Communist coup is crushed in USSR in two days. [1]

August 22

August 23

August 24

• Gorbachev resigns as head of USSR Communist Party. [1]

August 25

• Student Linus Torvalds posts messages to a Usenet newsgroup comp.os.minix about the new operating system kernel he has been developing (Linux). [41]

August 27

• Moldova declares independence from the Soviet Union. [5] [41] [1131.96]

August 28

• The first email message is sent from space to Earth, sent by the crew of space shuttle STS-43 Atlantis

August 29

August 30

August 31

• In Noblesville, Indiana, USA a meteorite falls harmlessly to the ground. [521]

September 2

September 5

September 6

• The Soviet Union's new ruling council recognizes independence of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. [1] [10] [41]

September 8

September 13

September 15

September 17

• North and South Korea join the United Nations. [1]
• Estonia, North Korea, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia join the United Nations. [5]

September 19

September 21

• Armenia declares independence from the Soviet Union. [1] [41]

September 22

September 26

September 30

• Haitian President Jean-Bertand Aristide is ousted. [1] [41]

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