1995 in the United States

Federal Government

President: Bill Clinton (D-Arkansas)

Vice President: Al Gore (D-Tennessee)

Chief Justice: William Rehnquist (Wisconsin)

Speaker of the House of Representatives: Tom Foley (D-Washington) (until January 3), Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia) (starting January 4)

Senate Majority Leader: George J. Mitchell (D-Maine) (until January 3), Bob Dole (R-Kansas) (starting January 3)

Congress: 103rd (until January 3), 104th (starting January 3)

January

January 4 – The 104th United States Congress, the first controlled by Republicans in both houses since 1953 to 1955, convenes.

January 11 – Robert Rubin is sworn in as the new Secretary of Treasury, succeeding Lloyd Bentsen.

January 29 – Super Bowl XXIX: The San Francisco 49ers become the first National Football League franchise to win five Super Bowls, as they defeat the San Diego Chargers at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami, Florida.

January 31 – U.S. President Bill Clinton invokes emergency powers to extend a $20 billion loan to help Mexico avert financial collapse.

February

February 9 – STS-63: Dr. Bernard A. Harris, Jr. and Michael Foale become the first African American and Briton, respectively, to walk in space.

February 15 – Hacker Kevin Mitnick is arrested by the FBI and charged with breaking into some of the United States' most secure computer systems.

February 17 – Colin Ferguson is convicted of six counts of murder for the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shooting and later receives a 200+ year sentence.

February 23 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 30.28 to close at 4,003.33 — the Dow's first ever close above 4,000.

February 27 – In Denver, Colorado, Stapleton Airport closes and is replaced by the new Denver International Airport, the largest in the United States.

February 28 – Members of the group Patriot's Council are convicted in Minnesota under the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989 for manufacturing ricin.

March

March 1 – Yahoo! is founded in Santa Clara, California.

March 13 – David Daliberti and William Barloon, two Americans working for a military contractor in Kuwait, are arrested after straying into Iraq.

March 14 – Astronaut Norman Thagard becomes the first American to ride into space aboard a Russian launch vehicle (the Soyuz TM-21), lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

March 16 – Mississippi ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The amendment was nationally ratified in 1865.

March 27 – The 67th Academy Awards, hosted by David Letterman, are held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, with Forrest Gump winning Best Picture.

March 31 – Singer-songwriter Selena Quintanilla-Pérez (known simply as Selena) is murdered in Corpus Christi, Texas by the president of her fan club, Yolanda Saldívar.

April

April 5 – The U.S. House of Representatives votes 246–188 to cut taxes for individuals and corporations.

April 7 – House Republicans celebrate passage of most of the Contract with America.

April 19 – Oklahoma City bombing: 168 people, including 8 Federal Marshals and 19 children, are killed at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Timothy McVeigh and one of his accomplices, Terry Nichols, set off the bomb.

April 24 – A Unabomber bomb kills lobbyist Gilbert Murray in Sacramento, California.

May

May 14 – Team New Zealand wins the America's Cup in San Diego, beating Stars and Stripes 5 – 0.

May 17 – Shawn Nelson, 35, goes on a tank rampage in San Diego.

May 20 – U.S. President Bill Clinton indefinitely closes part of Pennsylvania Avenue, in front of the White House, to vehicular traffic in response to the Oklahoma City bombing.

May 23 – Oklahoma City bombing: In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the remains of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building are imploded.

May 27 – In Culpeper, Virginia, actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition.

June

June 2 – Mrkonjić Grad incident: A United States Air Force F-16 piloted by Captain Scott O'Grady is shot down over Bosnia and Herzegovina while patrolling the NATO no-fly zone. O'Grady is rescued by U.S. Marines six days later.

June 6 – U.S. astronaut Norman Thagard breaks NASA's space endurance record of 14 days, 1 hour and 16 minutes, aboard the Russian space station Mir.

June 15 – During his murder trial, O. J. Simpson puts on a pair of gloves that were presumably worn by the person who murdered his ex-wife and her friend Ron Goldman. Defense attorney Johnnie Cochran quips, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit." The gloves appear too tight on Simpson's hands.

June 24 – The New Jersey Devils sweep the heavily favored Detroit Red Wings to win their first Stanley Cup in the lock-out shortened season.

June 29 – STS-71: Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian Mir space station for the first time.

July

July – Midwestern United States heat wave: An unprecedented heat wave strikes the Midwestern United States for most of the month. Temperatures peak at 106 °F (41 °C), and remain above 94 °F (34 °C) in the afternoon for five straight days. At least 739 people die in Chicago alone.

July 5 – The U.S. Congress passes the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act, requiring that producers of pornography keep records of all models who are filmed or photographed, and that all models be at least 18 years of age.

July 13 – Dozens of cities, most notably Chicago and Milwaukee, set all-time record high temperatures. Hundreds in these and other cities die as the Chicago Heat Wave of 1995 reaches its peak.

July 23 – David Daliberti and William Barloon, two Americans held as spies by Iraq, are released by Saddam Hussein after negotiations with U.S. Congressman Bill Richardson.

July 27 – In Washington, DC, the Korean War Veterans Memorial is dedicated.

August

August 6 – Hundreds in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Washington, D.C., and Tokyo mark the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb.

August 24 – Microsoft releases Windows 95.

September

September 6 – Cal Ripken, Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles breaks the all time consecutive games played record in Major League Baseball.

September 19 – The Washington Post and The New York Times publish the Unabomber's manifesto.

September 22 – American millionaire Steve Forbes announces his candidacy for the 1996 Republican presidential nomination.

September 23 – Argentine national Guillermo "Bill" Gaede is arrested in Phoenix, Arizona on charges of industrial espionage. His sales to Cuba, China, North Korea and Iran are believed to have involved Intel and AMD trade secrets worth US$10–20 million.

October

October 1 – Ten people are convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

October 3 – O.J. Simpson is found not guilty of double murder for the deaths of former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

October 4 – Hurricane Opal makes landfall at Pensacola Beach, Florida as a Category 3 hurricane with 115 miles per hour (185 km/h) winds.

October 9 – 1995 Palo Verde derailment: An Amtrak Sunset Limited train is derailed by saboteurs near Palo Verde, Arizona.

October 15 – The Carolina Panthers win their first-ever regular season game by defeating the New York Jets at Clemson Memorial Stadium in South Carolina.

October 16 – The Million Man March is held in Washington, D.C.. The event was conceived by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

October 25 – A Metra commuter train slams into a school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, killing seven students.

November

November 1 – NASA loses contact with the Pioneer 11 probe.

November 1 – Participants in the Yugoslav War begin negotiations at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.

November 1 – The U.S. House of Representatives passes the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 1995, outlawing intact dilation and extraction abortions. President Bill Clinton vetoes the bill in 1996.

November 3 – At Arlington National Cemetery, U.S. President Bill Clinton dedicates a memorial to the victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing.

November 14–19 – Federal government shutdown: A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in Congress, forces the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums, and run most government offices with skeleton staff.

November 21 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 40.46 to close at 5,023.55, its first close above 5,000. This makes 1995 the first year where the Dow surpasses two millennium marks in a single year.

November 21 – The Dayton Agreement to end the Bosnian War is reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio (signed December 14).

November 22 – Six-year-old Elisa Izquierdo's child abuse-related death at the hands of her mother makes headlines, and instigates major reform in New York City's child welfare system.

November 22 – The first ever full length computer animated feature film Toy Story was released by Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Pictures.

November 28 – U.S. President Bill Clinton signs the National Highway System Designation Act of 1995, which ends the federal 55 mph speed limit.

December

December 7 – NASA's Galileo probe reenters over Jupiter.

December 13 – The Republic of Texas group claims to have formed a provisional government in Texas.

December 14 – The presidents of Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia sign a peace treaty in Paris, ending a three and a half year war.

December 15 – Because of the "quadruple-witching" option expiration, volume on the New York Stock Exchange hits 638 million shares, the highest single-day volume since October 20, 1987, when the Dow staged a stunning recovery a day after Black Monday.

December 16–January 6 (1996) – The federal government has another shutdown as the budget disagreement continues.

December 31 – The final original Calvin and Hobbes comic strip is published.

Ongoing

Iraqi no-fly zones (1991–2003)

Operation Uphold Democracy (1994–1995)

Dot-com bubble (c. 1995–c. 2000)

Deaths

January 2 – Nancy Kelly, actress (born 1921)

January 4 – Sol Tax, anthropologist (born 1907)

January 7 – Murray Rothbard, economist (born 1926)

February 9 – David Wayne, actor (born 1914)

February 18 – Bob Stinson, rock guitarist (The Replacements and Static Taxi) (born 1959)

March 28 – Hugh O'Connor, actor son of Carroll O'Connor (born 1962)

March 31 – Selena (Quintanilla Perez), singer-songwriter (born 1971)

April 2 – Harvey Penick, golfer and coach (born 1904)

April 5 – Baby K (born 1992)

April 25 – Ginger Rogers, dancer and screen entertainer (born 1911)

May 18 – Elizabeth Montgomery, screen actress (born 1933)

June 14 – Roger Zelazny, fantasy and science fiction writer (born 1937)

June 23 – Jonas Salk, medical researcher (born 1914)

June 25 – Warren E. Burger, 15th Chief Justice of the U.S. (born 1907)

June 29 – Lana Turner, film actress (born 1921)

July 1 – Wolfman Jack, disc jockey (born 1938)

July 4 – Bob Ross, painter, art instructor, and television host (born 1942)

August 3 – Ida Lupino, film actress and director (born 1918 in the United Kingdom)

August 9 – Jerry Garcia, rock guitarist (Grateful Dead) (born 1942)

August 11 – Alonzo Church, mathematician (born 1903)

September 29 – Madalyn Murray O'Hair, atheist activist (born 1919)

November 17 – Marguerite Young, novelist, poet and biographer (born 1908)

November 22 – Margaret St. Clair, science fiction writer (born 1911)

December 25 – Dean Martin, popular singer and entertainer (born 1917)