December 1993

December 1, 1993 (Wednesday)

• In a barracks room at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, California, United States Navy Ensign George P. Smith shot and killed Lt. j.g. Alton Grizzard, a former Navy Midshipmen quarterback, and Ensign Kerryn O'Neill, then shot and killed himself.
• In the desert near the border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, Yemeni kidnappers freed American diplomat Haynes Mahoney after abducting him on November 25. Mahoney's captors negotiated with the Yemeni government for his release, making no demands of the U.S. government.
• On World AIDS Day, the World Health Organization announced that 14 million people worldwide were now infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
• A 19-year-old member of AIDS activist organization ACT-UP, who identified himself as "Luke Sissyfag", heckled U.S. President Bill Clinton during his World AIDS Day speech at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C., shouting, "You are doing nothing. You are sitting on your hands."
• United States Secretary of the Navy John Howard Dalton announced that the Navy would assign hundreds of female sailors to aircraft carriers in 1994.
• NASA postponed the scheduled launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour for the STS-61 mission until the following day due to weather.
• Northwest Airlink Flight 5719 crashed in fog and drizzle during final approach to Chisholm-Hibbing Airport in Hibbing, Minnesota, killing all 18 people aboard.
• Born: Reena Pärnat, Estonian Olympic archer; in Pärnu, Estonia
• Died:
• *Lynette Davies, 45, Welsh actress, suicide by drowning
• *Ray Gillen, American rock singer-songwriter, 32 or 34, AIDS-related illness
• *Sir Ivor Hele, CBE, 81, Australian war artist and portraitist

  December 2, 1993 (Thursday)

• NASA launched the Space Shuttle Endeavour on the STS-61 mission, the first Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, at 4:26 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
• French car maker Renault and Swedish car maker Volvo canceled a planned merger that would have created the world's sixth-largest automotive manufacturer after executives at Volvo forced a withdrawal over concerns about the direction of the future merged company.
• 23-year-old British Army soldier Paul Garrett was shot and killed by an Irish Republican Army sniper during an Army foot patrol in Keady, County Armagh, Northern Ireland.
• Detective James Edward O'Brien of the Oxnard, California Police Department was shot and killed while pursuing the suspect in a mass shooting at an unemployment office.
• Born:
• *Kevin Fischnaller, Italian Olympic luger; in Brixen, South Tyrol, Italy
• *Haruka Ishida, Japanese actress and television personality; in Saitama Prefecture, Japan
• *Jak Roberto, Filipino actor, model and singer; in Nagcarlan, Laguna, Philippines
• *Kostas Stafylidis, Greek footballer; in Thessaloniki, Greece
• Died:
• *Harry Julius Emeléus CBE, FRS, 90, British inorganic chemist
• *Pablo Escobar, 44, Colombian drug lord, shot by Colombian National Police in Medellín, Colombia

  December 3, 1993 (Friday)

• The crew of Space Shuttle Endeavour sighted the Hubble Space Telescope and began the process of orbital rendezvous.
• Law enforcement authorities seized of heroin in Pae, Thailand.
• The 1993 Davis Cup men's tennis final between Germany and Australia began at the Messe Düsseldorf Exhibition Hall in Düsseldorf, Germany.
• In Hartberg and Vienna, Austria, Roman Catholic priest August Janisch and journalist Silvana Meixner were injured when they opened letter bombs addressed to them. These would prove to be the first of a series of letter bombings targeted at advocates for ethnic minorities and immigrants in Austria.
• The 1993 National Finals Rodeo began at the Thomas and Mack Arena in Paradise, Nevada. It would conclude on December 12.
• Born:
• *Marques Brownlee, American YouTuber and professional ultimate frisbee player; in Maplewood, New Jersey
• *Clare Cryan, Irish diver
• Died:
• *Witold Majchrzycki, 84, Polish Olympic boxer
• *Lea Mek, 18, member of the Asian Boyz street gang, murdered in gang shooting
• *Lewis Thomas, 80, American physician, author and educator, Waldenstrom's disease

  December 4, 1993 (Saturday)

• Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier captured the Hubble Space Telescope with Space Shuttle Endeavours remote manipulator arm and berthed it in the shuttle's payload bay at 4:26 a.m. EST. At 10:46 p.m. EST, American astronauts Story Musgrave and Jeffrey A. Hoffman began the mission's first extravehicular activity, which would be the second-longest spacewalk up to that point in NASA's history.
• In Austria, a letter bomb sent to Helmut Schüller, president of the humanitarian organization Caritas Internationalis, was detected before being opened.
• On or about this date, police officer L.C. Underwood kidnapped and murdered Victor Gunnarsson, a former suspect in the 1986 assassination of Olof Palme, in North Carolina, perceiving Gunnarsson as a romantic rival for his former fiancée, Kay Weden. Three days later Weden's mother, Catherine Miller, would also be murdered; Underwood would be accused of that killing as well, but would never be tried for it.
• In the 1993 SEC Championship Game, played at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama, the Florida Gators defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide by a score of 28–13.
• American serial killer Richard Allen Davis provided investigators with information that allowed them to find the body of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, whom Davis had murdered on October 1.
• Born: Taco van der Hoorn, Dutch cyclist; in Rotterdam, Netherlands
• Died:'
• *Margaret Landon, 90, American Presbyterian missionary and writer
• *Hugh Moore,, 64, City of London Police commander, heart failure two weeks after violent struggle with suspect
• *Roy Vernon, 56, Welsh international footballer, cancer
• *Frank Zappa, 52, American guitarist and composer, prostate cancer

  December 5, 1993 (Sunday)

• American astronauts Kathryn C. Thornton and Thomas Akers conducted the STS-61 mission's second extravehicular activity overnight.
• The 1993 World Women's Handball Championship concluded in Norway; Germany defeated Denmark in the final.
• The 1993 Davis Cup final concluded in Düsseldorf, Germany, with Germany defeating Australia 4:1.
• Omar Bongo was re-elected as President of Gabon in the country's first multiparty elections.
• Helmut Zilk, the Mayor of Vienna, was severely injured and lost two fingers when he opened a letter bomb at his home. On the same day, two other letter bombs in Austria, one sent to the leader of a community of Slovenes and the other to Austrian Green Party politician Madeleine Petrovic, were discovered and neutralized before being opened. The series of letter bombings would prove to have been perpetrated by far-right extremist Franz Fuchs.
• Catholic civilians John Todd, 31, and Brian Duffy, 15, were shot and killed by the Ulster Freedom Fighters while sitting in a car outside a taxi depot in Ligoniel, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
• Rafael Caldera was elected President of Venezuela for the second time, succeeding interim president Ramón José Velásquez.
• Born: Ross Barkley, English footballer; in Liverpool, England
• Died:
• *Doug Hopkins, 32, American musician and songwriter, suicide by gunshot
• *Rita Macedo, 68, Mexican actress, suicide by gunshot

  December 6, 1993 (Monday)

• Astronauts Musgrave and Hoffman began the STS-61 mission's third extravehicular activity at 10:34 p.m. EST.
• Between 10:00 p.m. on December 6 and 1:00 a.m. on December 7, 46-year-old Lynn Marie Stansfield and 43-year-old Dale Gene Wolf were shot to death in a house in Penn Township, Perry County, Pennsylvania. Firefighters discovered their bodies after responding to a fire at the house; it is believed the fire was set to destroy evidence. the murders would remain unsolved.
• Born:
• *Jasprit Bumrah, Indian cricketer; in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
• *Pedro Mendes, Portuguese footballer; in Barreiro, Portugal
• *Tautau Moga, Samoa international rugby league footballer; in Ipswich, Queensland, Australia
• *Miljan Rovcanin, Serbian professional boxer; in Bar, Republic of Montenegro, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
• Died:
• *Don Ameche, 85, American actor, prostate cancer
• *Alexandre Trauner, 87, Hungarian set designer

  December 7, 1993 (Tuesday)

• Astronauts Thornton and Akers began the STS-61 mission's fourth extravehicular activity at 10:13 p.m. EST. They replaced Hubble's High Speed Photometer with the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement, the device that would correct for the spherical aberration of Hubble's primary mirror.
• The Transitional Executive Committee, a government-in-waiting including members of the African National Congress and the National Party, was established in South Africa.
• 38-year-old Catholic civilian Robert McClay was shot and killed by the Ulster Freedom Fighters at his home in Ballyhackamore, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
• In Garden City, New York, six people were murdered and 19 injured in the 1993 Long Island Rail Road shooting, a racially motivated mass shooting perpetrated by Colin Ferguson, a black Jamaican immigrant.
• Richard Allen Davis was charged with the kidnapping and murder of Polly Klaas.
• Born:
• *Jasmine V, American singer; in San Jose, California
• *Rahama Sadau, Nigerian actress and filmmaker; in Kaduna, Nigeria
• *Kiyou Shimizu, Japanese Olympic karateka; in Osaka, Japan
• Died:
• *Nicky Crane, 35, English neo-Nazi activist, AIDS-related bronchopneumonia
• *Abidin Dino, 80, Turkish artist and painter
• *Félix Houphouët-Boigny, 88, 1st President of Ivory Coast, the oldest African head of state, prostate cancer
• *Wolfgang Paul, 80, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate