1996

• International Year for the Eradication of Poverty

  Events

January

• 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 around 300 people.
• January 9–20 - Serious fighting breaks out between Russian soldiers and rebel fighters in Chechnya.
• January 11 - Ryutaro Hashimoto, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, becomes Prime Minister of Japan.
• January 13 - Italy's prime minister, Lamberto Dini, resigns after the failure of all-party talks to confirm him. New talks are initiated by President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro to form a new government.
• January 14 - Jorge Sampaio is elected President of Portugal.
• January 16 - President of Sierra Leone Valentine Strasser is deposed by the chief of defence, Julius Maada Bio. Bio promises to restore power following elections scheduled for February.
• January 19
• * The North Cape oil spill occurs as an engine fire forces the tugboat Scandia ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. The North Cape Barge is pulled along with it and leaks 820,000 gallons of home heating oil.
• * An Indonesian ferry sinks off the northern tip of Sumatra, drowning more than 100 people.
• January 20 - Yasser Arafat is re-elected president of the Palestinian Authority.
• January 21 - France undertakes its last nuclear weapons test.
• January 22 - Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece, resigns due to health problems; a new government forms under Costas Simitis.
• January 24 - Polish premier Józef Oleksy resigns amid accusations that he spied for Moscow. He is replaced by Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz.
• January 27 - Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara deposes the first democratically elected President of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane, in a military coup.
• January 31
• * 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.
• * An amateur astronomer from southern Japan discovers Comet Hyakutake; it will pass very close to the Earth in March.

  February

• February 3 - The 6.6 earthquake near Lijiang in South-west China kills up to 322 people, injures 17,000, and leaves 300,000 homeless.
• 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 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 9
• * The element copernicium is created by fusing a ²⁰⁸Pb nucleus with a ⁷⁰Zn nucleus, forming ²⁷⁸Cn. Given the placeholder name "ununbium", the element is not named until 2010.
• * 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.
• * Disney formally finalizes its $19 billion acquisition of the ABC parent, Capital Cities/ABC Inc.
• 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.
• 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 15
• * The American Embassy in Athens, Greece, comes under mortar fire.
• * Begum Khaleda Zia is re-elected as Prime Minister of Bangladesh. 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.
• * The UK government publishes the Scott Report.
• February 17 - The 8.2 Biak earthquake strikes the Papua province of eastern Indonesia with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII. A large tsunami followed, leaving 166 people dead or missing and 423 injured.
• February 24 - Cuban fighter jets shoot down two American aircraft belonging to the Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Cuban officials assert that they invaded Cuban airspace.
• February 25 - Two suicide bombs in Israel kill 25 and injure 80; Hamas claims responsibility.
• February 27 - The first Pokémon game releases in Japan. It would later be an international hit.
• February 29
• * Faucett Perú Flight 251 en route from Lima to Rodriguez Ballon airport crashes into a mountain near Arequipa; all 123 people on board are killed.
• * At least 81 people drown when a boat capsizes 120 kilometres east of Kampala, Uganda.
• * The Bosnian government declares the end of the Siege of Sarajevo.
• February:
• * The Cuban government recognises the Concilio Cubano pro-democracy group.

  March

• March 1 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi forces refuse UNSCOM inspection teams access to five sites designated for inspection. The teams enter the sites only after delays of up to seventeen hours.
• March 2 - 1996 Australian federal election: The Liberal/National Coalition led by John Howard defeats the Labor government led by Prime Minister Paul Keating. Howard was sworn in on March 11.
• March 3 - José María Aznar, leader of the Popular Party, is elected as Prime Minister of Spain, replacing Felipe González.
• March 3–4 - Two suicide bombs explode in Israel, killing 32 people. The Yahya Ayyash Units admit responsibility, and Palestinian president Yasser Arafat condemns the killings in a televised address. Israel warns of retaliation.
• March 6
• * Mesut Yılmaz of ANAP forms the new government of Turkey.
• * A boat carrying market traders capsizes outside Freetown harbour in Sierra Leone, killing at least 86 people.
• * Chechen rebels attack the Russian government headquarters in Grozny; 70 Russian soldiers and policemen and 130 Chechen fighters are killed.
• March 8 - Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: China begins surface-to-surface missile testing and military exercises off Taiwanese coastal areas. The United States government condemns the act as provocation, and the Taiwanese government warns of retaliation.
• March 9 - Jorge Sampaio becomes the new Portuguese president.
• March 13 - Dunblane massacre: Unemployed former shopkeeper Thomas Hamilton walks into the Dunblane Primary School in Scotland and opens fire, killing sixteen infant school pupils and one teacher before committing suicide.
• March 14 - An international peace summit is held in Egypt in response to escalating terrorist attacks in the Middle East.
• March 15 - Fokker, a major manufacturer of small size aircraft, goes bankrupt in Netherlands.
• March 16 - Robert Mugabe is re-elected as President of Zimbabwe, although only 32% of the electorate actually voted.
• March 17 - Sri Lanka wins the Cricket World Cup by beating Australia in the final.
• March 18 - The Ozone Disco Club fire in Quezon City, Philippines, kills 163 people.
• March 22 - Sweden's Finance Minister Göran Persson becomes the new Prime Minister of Sweden.
• March 23 - Taiwan holds its first direct elections for president; Lee Teng-hui is re-elected.
• March 24 - The Marcopper mining disaster on the island of Marinduque, Philippines takes place.
• March 25 - The 68th Academy Awards, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles with Braveheart winning Best Picture.
• March 26 - The International Monetary Fund approves a $10.2 billion loan to Russia for economic reform.

  April

• April 1 - The Halifax Regional Municipality encompassing the City of Halifax, the City of Dartmouth, the Town of Bedford, and the Municipality of the County of Halifax is formed in Nova Scotia, Canada.
• April 3
• * A Boeing 737 military jet crashes into a mountain north of Dubrovnik, Croatia. All 35 people on board are killed, including United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown.
• * Burundian Civil War: massacres of Hutus by Tutsis in Burundi take place with more than 450 killed within a few days.
• April 6
• * First Liberian Civil War: fighting breaks out in Monrovia, Liberia, between various rebel factions struggling for power in the country's interrupted civil war. Several foreign nationals leave the nation.
• * Turkish authorities begin Operation Hawk, a military offensive against rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party in south-east Turkey.
• April 9 - In a common statement, the European Union officially recognises the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
• April 11 - The Israeli government launches Operation Grapes of Wrath, consisting of massive attacks on Lebanon, in retaliation for "terrorist attacks", and sparking off a violent series of retaliations.
• April 18 - Qana massacre: Over 100 Lebanese civilians are killed after Israel shells the United Nations compound in Qana.
• April 21 - A general election in Italy proclaims a new center-left government headed by Romano Prodi, replacing Silvio Berlusconi.
• April 24 - At the urging of Yasser Arafat, the Palestine Liberation Organization drops its clause in Palestinian National Covenant calling for the removal of Israel. The Israeli government responds by dropping a similar clause concerning the existence of Palestine.
• April 26 - Shanghai Five group, predecessor of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, is created with the signing of the Treaty on Deepening Military Trust in Border Regions in Shanghai by the heads of states of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.
• April 28
• * Port Arthur massacre : Martin Bryant kills 35 people at the Port Arthur tourist site in Tasmania.
• * Bhai Pheru bus bombing: A bomb explodes in Bhai Pheru, Punjab, Pakistan, killing more than 60 people.