The Internet Society is chartered, and 1,000,000 host computers are connected in a network. The term "surfing the net" is coined by Jean Polly as an increasing number of people begin exploring the online world.

About one-third of all American businesses are owned by women, 4% by African Americans, and 5% by Hispanics.

A French court convicts three officials of allowing HIV-infected blood to be used in transfusions.

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, created in 1918, collapses as Europe officially recognizes the republics of Croatia and Slovenia.

Government officials and rebel leaders sign a pact in Mexico City that ends El Salvador's civil war.

New York City mob king John Gotti is convicted of five murders after years of eluding arrest.

A Miami court convicts Manuel Noriega, former leader of Panama, on drug and racketeering charges.

Euro Disney opens in Marne-La-Vallee, France, to the dismay of French intellectuals lamenting the spread of American popular culture.

Beijing, China opens its first McDonald's.

Riots erupt in Los Angeles after local policemen are acquitted of beating Rodney King the previous year in a videotaped incident.

The International UFO Museum opens in Roswell, New Mexico.

After a reign of terrorism in Peru, Shining Path is checked by the arrest of leader Abimael Guzman.

The man from Hope, Bill Clinton, Governor of Arkansas, is elected president of the United States.

The Church of England allows women to be ordained priests.

U.S. forces leave the Subic Bay Naval Station in the Philippines.

Signed by Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., the North American Free Trade Agreement establishes the world's largest trading bloc.

American forces enter Somalia to ensure proper food distribution to those starving from the civil war.

In book publishing, Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses and Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres both debut.

In India, thousands of Hindu extremists destroy a mosque, igniting two months of Hindu-Muslim rioting that claims thousands of lives.

In music, Eric Clapton's Unplugged is released. The album will win the Grammy for Best Album of 1992.