What Happened in February 1994

Historical Events

Gillooly Pleads Guilty

Feb 1 Jeff Gillooly pleads guilty for his part in attack on American Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan; plea bargain, confesses to racketeering in exchange for testimony implicating ex-wife Tonya Harding

  • Feb 1 Large meteorite falls near Kusaie, Pacific Ocean
  • Feb 1 South African cricket fast bowler Fanie de Villiers bravely survives 197 minutes for 30 on last day of 3rd Test against Australia in Adelaide; Proteas finally all out 129; Australia win by 191, draw series

Vietnam Trade Embargo Lifts

Feb 3 President Bill Clinton lifts US trade embargo against Vietnam

  • Feb 3 STS-60 (Discovery) launches into orbit
  • Feb 4 10th Soap Opera Digest Awards - Days of Our Lives wins
  • Feb 4 20 die in armed assault on mosque in Khartoum, Sudan
  • Feb 4 Merlene Ottey runs world record 50 m indoor (6.00 sec)
  • Feb 4 Russian team beats ladies world record 4x800 m indoor (8:18.71)
  • Feb 5 "Where On Earth Is Carmen San Diego," debuts on Fox TV
  • Feb 5 68 killed and 200 wounded after a mortar bomb is set off in Sarajevo

De La Beckwith Sentenced

Feb 5 Medgar Evers' murderer Byron De La Beckwith sentenced to life, in Jackson, Mississippi, 30 years after the crime

  • Feb 6 "Government Inspector" closes at Lyceum Theater NYC after 37 performances
  • Feb 6 Jose Maria Figueres elected President of Costa Rica
  • Feb 6 Martti Ahtisaari elected President of Finland
  • Feb 6 NFL Pro Bowl, Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, HI: NFC beats AFC, 17-3; MVP: Andre Rison, Atlanta Falcons, WR
  • Feb 7 American actor and singer Jim Nabors (Gomer Pyle, USMC) undergoes a liver transplant

Stern Stops Jumper

Feb 7 Howard Stern stops a would-be jumper on the George Washington Bridge

  • Feb 8 "Sátántangó", Hungarian film directed by Béla Tarr, starring Mihály Víg, Putyi Horváth, is released

Nicholson Attacks Car

Feb 8 Jack Nicholson uses a golf club to attack a car

Dev Test Wicket Record

Feb 8 Kapil Dev sets world record for Test Cricket wickets with 432

Tommy Lee Charged

Feb 8 Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee is charged with possession of a loaded firearm

  • Feb 10 44th Berlin International Film Festival: "In the Name of the Father" wins the Golden Bear
  • Feb 11 Lu Parker, (South Carolina), crowned 43rd Miss USA
  • Feb 11 Space shuttle STS-60 (Discovery 18), lands

The Scream

Feb 12 "The Scream" by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1893 pastel version) is stolen in Oslo

  • Feb 12 20th century premiere of 6 restored Haydn-sonatas in Boston
  • Feb 12 Inna Lassovskaya jumps world record 14.90m

Film & TV History

Feb 12 Model Anna Nicole Smith hospitalized for drug overdose

  • Feb 12 XVII Winter Olympic Games opens in Lillehammer, Norway

NBA All-Star Game

Feb 13 44th NBA All-Star Game, Target Centre, Minneapolis, MN: East beats West, 127-118; MVP: Scottie Pippen, Chicago Bulls, F

  • Feb 13 Inna Lassovskaya jumps world record 14.9m
  • Feb 13 Johann Olav Koss skates world record 5000m 6:34,96
  • Feb 13 Ship disaster near Ranong Thailand, kills 200

ESPY Awards

Feb 14 2nd ESPY Awards: Barry Bonds, Julie Krone win

  • Feb 15 Tom Barrasso becomes winningest US born goalie in NHL history, as the Pittsburgh Penguins win, 5-3 over visiting Winnipeg; passes record of 252 career wins set by Frank Brimsek
  • Feb 15 US asks Aristide to adopt a peace plan from Haiti
  • Feb 16 6.5 earthquake strikes South East Sumatra, kills 200
  • Feb 16 Johann Olav Koss skates world record 1500m (1:51.29)
  • Feb 16 Premier Alfonso Bustamente ends government in Peru

World Record

Feb 18 Dan Jansen skates world record 1000m (1:12.43)

  • Feb 18 Shreveport Pirates join Canadian Football League as 4th US-based team; fold 1995
  • Feb 20 3 Afghans take 70 Pakistani children hostage
  • Feb 20 36th Daytona 500: Sterling Marlin wins his first NASCAR race; Neil Bonnett and Rodney Orr killed in separate practice incidents
  • Feb 20 Johann Olav Koss skates world record 10 km (13:30.55)

Event of Interest

Feb 20 Pope John Paul II demands juristic discrimination of homosexuals

  • Feb 23 Indians owner Richard Jacobs announces he will pay $10 million to name baseball field (Jacobs Field) at Gateway (becomes official 3/23)
  • Feb 24 Scoreboard is unveiled at new Cleveland Indians' park (Jacobs Field)
  • Feb 25 Israeli extremist Baruch Goldstein massacres at least 55 Palestinians at Hebron Ibrahimi Mosque, with an assault style rifle

Baseball Hall of Fame

Feb 25 New York Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto is elected to Baseball Hall of Fame

  • Feb 25 Peruvian Yak-40 crashes into mountain near Tingo Maria, kills 31
  • Feb 26 St Louis Blues beat Ottawa Senators 11-1
  • Feb 27 Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas' percussion revue "Stomp" opens at the Orpheum Theatre, NYC; runs for 11,475 performances
  • Feb 27 Maronite church near Beirut bombed, 10 killed
  • Feb 27 XVII Winter Olympic Games close in Lillehammer, Norway
  • Feb 28 Brady Law, imposing a wait-period to buy a hand gun in the USA, comes into effect
1994 History

Famous Birthdays

Harry Styles (30 years old)

Feb 1 British pop singer (One Direction - "What Makes You Beautiful"; solo - "Sign of the Times"), born in Redditch, England

  • Feb 1 Julia Garner, American Actress (Ozark), born in New York City
  • Feb 3 Tallulah Belle Willis, American 3rd daughter of actors Bruce Willis & Demi Moore
  • Feb 4 Alexia Putellas, Spanish soccer midfielder (FIFA Ballon d'Or Féminin 2021, 22; FC Barcelona Femení), born in Mollet del Vallès, Spain

Charlie Heaton (30 years old)

Feb 6 English actor (Jonathan Byers-Stranger Things; The New Mutants), born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England

  • Feb 8 (Nicole) "Nikki" Yanofsky, Canadian jazz-pop singer ("I Believe"), born in Montreal, Quebec.
  • Feb 10 Makenzie Vega, American actress, born in Los Angeles, California
  • Feb 11 Dominic Janes, American actor, born in Tucson, Arizona
  • Feb 13 Memphis Depay, Dutch football player ( Atlético Madrid), born in Moordrecht, Netherlands
  • Feb 14 Becky Hill, English singer (Remember), born in Bewdley, England
  • Feb 14 Paul Butcher, American actor, born in Los Angeles, California

Ava Max (30 years old)

Feb 16 American singer-songwriter (Sweet But Psycho), born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

  • Feb 18 J-Hope [Jung Ho-seok] South Korean rapper (BTS), born in Gwangju, South Korea,
  • Feb 20 Brigid Kosgei, Kenyan athlete (marathon world record 2019; Chicago Marathon 2018-9, London Marathon 2019), born in Kenya

Dakota Fanning (30 years old)

Feb 23 American actress (I Am Sam, Man of Fire), born in Conyers, Georgia

  • Feb 23 Little Simz [Simbiatu Ajikawo], English rapper and actress (Sometimes I might be Introvert), born in London, England
  • Feb 24 Jessica Pegula, American tennis player, born in Boca Raton, Florida
  • Feb 25 Eugenie Bouchard, Canadian tennis player (Wimbledon 2014 runner-up), born in Montreal, Quebec
  • Feb 26 Ahmet Çalık, Turkish soccer centre-back (8 caps; Gençlerbirliği, Galatasaray, Konyaspor), born in Ankara, Turkey (d. 2022)
  • Feb 26 Creason Carbo Moss, daughter of American actor Ronn Moss
  • Feb 27 Hou Yifan, Chinese chess player, born in Xinghua, China
  • Feb 28 Jake Bugg [Kennedy], British blues-rock singer-songwriter, and musician, born in Nottingham, England
Born in 1994

Famous Weddings

Jean-Claude Van Damme

Feb 3 Actor Jean-Claude van Damme (32) weds Darcy Lapier (28) in Bangkok

Jerry Garcia

Feb 14 Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia (51) weds Deborah Koons (40) in Tiburon, California

  • Feb 18 Actor Joe Pantoliano (41) weds model Nancy Sheppard (31)
  • Feb 26 Swedish actor Dolph Lundgren (34) weds Anette Qviberg (25) at Church of St. Eleanore, Stockholm; divorce in 2011

Famous Deaths

  • Feb 1 Fouad Fram al-Boustani, Lebanese historian (Rawaeaa), dies at 88
  • Feb 1 John Littlejohn [Funchess], American electric blues slide guitarist ("So-Called Friends"), dies of renal failure at 62
  • Feb 1 Olan Soule, American character radio and screen actor (The First Nighter Program; Captain Midnight; Dragnet; Arnie), dies of lung cancer at 84
  • Feb 2 John Littlejohn, American blues guitarist and singer, dies at 62
  • Feb 2 Stephen Barclay, American actor (Pride of the Plains), dies at 75
  • Feb 2 Willie Mae "Mother" Smith (née Ford), American gospel singer, evangelist, and folk artist, dies at 89
  • Feb 2 Zilner Randolph, American jazz trumpeter, arranger, and music educator, dies at 95
  • Feb 4 Han Jansen, Dutch painter, dies at 62
  • Feb 4 Harold Schneider, US producer (5 Easy Pieces, War Games), dies at 55
  • Feb 4 Jan Veldkamp, Dutch geophysicist and director (KNMI), dies at 84
  • Feb 4 Justinus Darmojuwono, Indonesian archbishop/cardinal, dies at 79

Ben Enwonwu (1917-1994)

Feb 5 Nigerian painter (Portrait of Tutu), dies at 76

  • Feb 5 Fred de Bruyne, Flemish cyclist/gang leader (Paris-Nice), dies at 63
  • Feb 5 Hermann Abs, German banker to Adolf Hitler & Konrad Adenauer and director of Deutsche Bank (1938-45), dies at 92
  • Feb 5 Kenneth "Buddy" Scott, American blues guitarist/Singer, dies at 59
  • Feb 6 Gwendoline "Gwen" Watford, British actress (Present Laughter, Cleopatra, Taste the Blood of Dracula), dies from cancer at 66
  • Feb 6 Ignace Strasfogel, Polish-American pianist, conductor, composer, dies at 84

Jack Kirby (1917-1994)

Feb 6 American cartoonist (X-Men; Spider-Man; Hulk; Captain America), dies at 76

  • Feb 6 Joseph Cotten, American actor (Citizen Kane, The Third Man, Airport 77, Hearse), dies from pneumonia at 88
  • Feb 6 Norman Del Mar, British conductor and writer (Conducting Brahms), dies at 74
  • Feb 7 Luc Peire, Belgian painter and graphic artist, dies at 77
  • Feb 7 Richard Bissell, US under director of CIA (Pig's Bay), dies at 84
  • Feb 7 Witold Lutosławski, Polish pianist, composer, and conductor (Musique funèbre; Trois poèmes d'Henri Michaux), dies of cancer at 81
  • Feb 8 Jacob Firet, Dutch theologist (Agogic Moment), dies at 70
  • Feb 8 Ken Hall, Australian director and producer (Kokoda front line), dies at 92
  • Feb 8 Raymond Scott, American composer (Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm), dies at 85
  • Feb 9 Arnold Smith, British 1st Secretary-General of Commonwealth (1965-75), dies at 79
  • Feb 9 Bud Wilkinson, American college football coach (Oklahoma), dies at 77
  • Feb 9 Howard Martin Temin, American geneticist (Nobel Prize, 1975), dies at 59
  • Feb 9 Jarmila Novotná, Czech-American soprano (Metropolitan Opera, 1940-56), and actress (The Search), dies at 86
  • Feb 9 Louis Kaufman, American violinist and conductor (Gone With The Wind), dies at 88
  • Feb 11 Antonio Martin, Spanish cyclist, dies in cycling accident at 23
  • Feb 11 Neil Bonnett, American race car driver, dies at 47
  • Feb 11 Sorrell Booke, American actor (Boss Hogg in Dukes of Hazard), dies of colorectal cancer at 64
  • Feb 11 Vincent Wigglesworth, British entomologist (Metamorphosis hormones), dies at 94
  • Feb 11 William Conrad [John Cann], American actor (The Killers, Bullwinkle Show, Cannon), dies of a heart attack at 73
  • Feb 12 Donald Judd, American minimalist sculptor and artist, dies of cancer at 65
  • Feb 12 Ray Dandridge, American Baseball HOF third baseman (3 × NgL All-Star 1935, 37, 44; American Association MVP 1950 Minneapolis Millers), dies at 80
  • Feb 12 Sue Rodriguez, Canadian assisted suicide advocate, dies at 43
  • Feb 13 Michael Lindsay, British-Australian scholar (aided communists against Japanese occupation in China), dies at 84
  • Feb 13 Theo Bitter, Dutch painter and set designer, dies at 79
  • Feb 14 Andrei Chikatilo, Soviet-Russian serial killer who murdered at least 52 women and children between 1978 and 1990, executed by a single gunshot at 57
  • Feb 14 Christopher Lasch, American historian and author (The Culture of Narcissism), dies of metastatic cancer at 61
  • Feb 14 Gary "BB" Coleman, American blues singer, guitarist and producer, dies at 47
  • Feb 15 Andrei Tsjikatilo [Rostov Ripper], Russian mass murdered, executed
  • Feb 15 George "Tiger" Haynes, American jazz guitarist (The Three Flames), and stage and screen actor (The Wiz; In the Heat of the Night), dies at 79
  • Feb 15 Maria Britneva, Russian actress (A Room with a View, Maurice), dies of heart failure 72
  • Feb 17 Gretchen Fraser, American slalom skier (Olympic gold 1948, 1st American Olympic skiing gold), dies at 75
  • Feb 17 Randy Shilts, American journalist (& the band played on), dies of AIDs at 41
  • Feb 18 Peter Caddy, British caterer (co-founder of the Findhorn Community, dies at 76
  • Feb 19 Derek Jarman, English filmmaker (The Tempest), artist and gay rights activist, dies of AIDS at 52
  • Feb 19 Fausto Bara, Mexican-American actor (The Renegades - "Gaucho"), dies of AIDS at 42
  • Feb 19 Georges Watin, Algerian-French officer (OAS), dies at 71
  • Feb 19 Gordon Sparling, Canadian pioneering filmmaker (Canadian Cameo series - Canada's first major films with sound), dies at 93 [1]
  • Feb 19 Renske Vellinga, Dutch speed-skater, dies in auto-accident at 19
  • Feb 19 Vittorio Rieti, Jewish Italian-American composer, dies at 96
  • Feb 20 Derek Jarman, English director (Last of England), dies at 52
  • Feb 20 Manuel F "Garincha" dos Santos, soccer player (Brazil), dies at 49
  • Feb 20 Willi Schmidt, German director (Eli), dies at 84
  • Feb 22 "Papa" John Creach, American blues violinist (Hot Tuna, Jefferson Airplane), dies of heart failure at 76
  • Feb 23 Stuart Berger, doctor (Immune Power Diet), dies from obesity at 40

Dinah Shore (1917-1994)

Feb 24 American singer (See the USA in a Chevrolet), actress and TV personality (Dinah Shore Show; Nabisco DS Championship), dies of ovarian cancer at 76

  • Feb 24 Donald Phillips, pianist and composer, dies at 80
  • Feb 24 Eduard Pavlovich Kugno, Russian cosmonaut, dies at 58
  • Feb 24 Jean Sablon, French pop singer-songwriter, dies at 87
  • Feb 24 Lores Bonney, Australian aviator, 1st female solo flight Australia to UK, dies at 96
  • Feb 25 Baruch Goldstein, American-Israli physician and mass murderer (at least 55 dead in shooting at Hebron Ibrahimi Mosque), lynched at 42
  • Feb 25 Hugh Tayfield, cricketer (170 wickets for South Africa in 37 Tests), dies

Jersey Joe Walcott (1914-1994)

Feb 25 American boxer (NYSAC, NBA, The Ring heavyweight titles 1951-52), county sheriff, and state athletic commissioner, dies at 80

  • Feb 25 Wladyslaw Sila-Nowicki, Polish lawyer and adviser to Solidarity labor union, dies of heart disease at 80
  • Feb 25 Yann Piat [née Marie], French politician (National Assembly, 1986-94 - FN/PR), assassinated at 44
  • Feb 26 Avery Fisher, US audio manufacturer (1st hi-fi), dies at 87
  • Feb 26 Bill Hicks, American stand-up comedian and social critic, dies of pancreatic cancer at 32
  • Feb 26 Leopold "Hans" Kohr, Austrian social philosopher, dies at 84
  • Feb 27 "Hans" Leopold Kohr, Austrian social philosopher and economist, dies at 84
  • Feb 27 Harold Acton, English-Italian historian and art collector, dies at 84
  • Feb 27 Karl I Pelgrom, Dutch sculptor, dies at 66
  • Feb 27 Laurence Craigie, American aviator (1st US jet pilot), dies at 92
  • Feb 27 Roosevelt Holts, American blues singer and guitarist, dies at 89
  • Feb 28 (Elbert) "Skippy" Williams, American jazz tenor saxophonist and musical arranger, dies at 77
  • Feb 28 Aisin Giorro Pu Chieh, brother of Last Emperor of China, dies at 86
  • Feb 28 Buster Holmes, American chef and New Orleans restaurateur, dies at 88
  • Feb 28 G. O. Sayles, English historian, dies at 92
  • Feb 28 Leopoldina Poldi Feichtegger Gerhard, dies at 90
  • Feb 28 Pu Yi, brother of last Chinese emperor, Pu Yi, dies at 87