A large tsunami followed, leaving 166 people dead or missing and 423 injured.

February 17 – The 8.2 M w Biak earthquake strikes the Papua province of eastern Indonesia with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII ( Severe).

The UK government publishes the Scott Report.įeb.15: Long March rocket, with Intelsat 708 satellite, veers upon launch (images from Cox Commission report for U.S.

The country's second democratic election is marred by low voter turnout, due to several boycotts and pre-election violence, which has resulted in at least thirteen deaths.

Begum Khaleda Zia is re-elected as Prime Minister of Bangladesh.

The American Embassy in Athens, Greece, comes under mortar fire.

February 14 – Violent clashes erupt between Filipino soldiers and Vietnamese boat people, as the Filipino government attempts to forcibly repatriate hundreds of Vietnamese asylum seekers.

February 10 – Bosnian Serbs break off contact with the Bosnian government and with representatives of Ifor, the NATO localised force, in reaction to the arrest of several Bosnian Serb war criminals.

2 New Jersey Transit trains collide in the 1996 Secaucus train collision, killing 3.

Disney formally finalizes its $19 billion acquisition of the ABC parent, Capital Cities/ABC Inc.

An IRA ceasefire ends with the Docklands bombing in London's Canary Wharf District, killing two people and causing over £85,000,000 worth of damage.

Given the placeholder name 'ununbium', the element is not named until 2010.

The element copernicium is created by fusing a 208Pb nucleus with a 70Zn nucleus, forming 278Cn.

February 7 – René Préval succeeds Jean-Bertrand Aristide as President of Haiti in the first peaceful handover of power since the nation achieved independence 192 years earlier, in 1804.

February 6 – Birgenair Flight 301, on a charter flight from the Caribbean to Germany, crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Dominican Republic, killing all 189 passengers and crew.February 3 – The 6.6 M w earthquake near Lijiang in South-west China kills up to 322 people, injures 17,000, and leaves 300,000 homeless.An amateur astronomer from southern Japan discovers Comet Hyakutake it will pass very close to the Earth in March.Colombo Central Bank bombing: an explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing at least 86 people and injuring 1,400.January 27 – Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara deposes the first democratically elected President of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane, in a military coup.He is replaced by Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz. January 24 – Polish Premier Józef Oleksy resigns amid charges that he spied for Moscow.January 22 – Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece, resigns due to health problems a new government forms under Costas Simitis.January 21 – France undertakes its last nuclear weapons test.January 20 – Yasser Arafat is re-elected president of the Palestinian Authority.An Indonesian ferry sinks off the northern tip of Sumatra, drowning more than 100 people.The North Cape Barge is pulled along with it and leaks 820,000 gallons of home heating oil. The North Cape oil spill occurs as an engine fire forces the tugboat Scandia ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island.

January 18 – Michael Jackson files for divorce from Lisa Marie Presley.Bio promises to restore power following elections scheduled for February. January 16 – President of Sierra Leone Valentine Strasser is deposed by the chief of defence, Julius Maada Bio.January 14 – Jorge Sampaio is elected President of Portugal.New talks are initiated by President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro to form a new government.

January 13 – Italy's Prime Minister, Lamberto Dini, resigns after the failure of all-party talks to confirm him.January 11 – Ryutaro Hashimoto, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, becomes Prime Minister of Japan.January 9– 20 – Serious fighting breaks out between Russian soldiers and rebel fighters in Chechnya.January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa, killing 300 people.Establishments and disestablishments categoriesġ996 in various calendars Gregorian calendar

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