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Touchstone Pictures

Touchstone Pictures

Touchstone Pictures is a film division of The Walt Disney Company. Its releases are typically more adult than those under the Disney label, although some of its features, including Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) strayed to some extent onto Disney territory thanks to the inclusion of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and many other Disney and non-Disney characters in the former and the inclusion of the latter in the Kingdom Hearts series. The origins of Touchstone Pictures can be traced to the 1979 release of The Black Hole, a science fiction film that sparked controversy due to the fact that it was the first Disney film to receive a PG rating. Over the next few years, Disney experimented with more PG-rated fare, such as the 1981 film Condorman, 1982's Tron and 1983's Trenchcoat. The latter film attracted major criticism for including adult themes that were considered inappropriate for a Disney film. The controversy over Trenchcoat is generally considered the catalyst that sparked the creation of Touchstone Pictures. One title considered for the new company was "Hyperion Pictures," named after the location of the studio in the 1930s before the move to Burbank. Ironically, some critics complained that the creation of Touchstone in order to distribute more mature content which was itself inappropriate for Disney. Founded by Disney CEO Ron W. Miller in 1984, Touchstone's first release was Splash, a huge hit for the studio. The film included brief nudity on the part of star Daryl Hannah and adult language. The unit became a top source of income for Disney during the 1980s. Touchstone/Disney's first R-rated film, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, came in January of 1986 and was another smash. Ruthless People followed in April of 1986 and was also huge. One example of a recent release is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). Touchstone is still an active unit of the company today. The studio's sister company, Touchstone Television currently produces the smash hits Desperate Housewives and Lost, as well as Scrubs.

List of notable Touchstone features


- Splash (1984)
-
- Baby: Secret Of the Lost Legend (1985)
- Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986)
    -
- Ruthless People (1986)
    -
- Three Men and a Baby (1987)
-
- "Ernest" movies (1987 to 2000)
- (all)
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
-
- Three Men and a Little Lady (1990)
-
- Scenes from a Mall (1991)
    -
- 3 Ninjas (1992)
-
- Sister Act (1992)
- Life With Mikey (1993)
-
- The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
-
- Con Air (1997)
- Armageddon (1998)
- Enemy of the State (1998)
- Unbreakable (2000)
- Signs (2002)
  -
- Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)
  -
- The Life Aquatic (2004)
    -
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
-
- Flightplan (2005)
  -
- Rated PG
  - Rated PG-13
    - Rated R Category:Walt Disney Company subsidiaries Category:Hollywood movie studios

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 motion picture produced by Disney subsidiary Touchstone and Amblin Entertainment, that combines animation and live action. The film takes place in a fictionalized Los Angeles in 1947, where animated characters (derogatorily referred to as "Toons") are real beings who live and work alongside humans in the real world, most of them as actors in animated cartoons. At $70 million, it was one of the most expensive films ever at the time of its release, but it eventually brought in over $150 million during its original theatrical release. The film is notable for offering a unique chance to see many cartoon characters from different studios interacting in a single film and for being one of the last star turns for Mel Blanc and Mae Questel from animation's Golden Era.

Cast, crew, and studio

The live-action sequences were directed by Robert Zemeckis and mostly filmed at Borehamwood film studios in Hertfordshire, England. The animated sequences were directed by Richard Williams and produced at his London animation studio. The film stars Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Joanna Cassidy and the voice of Charles Fleischer. The screenplay was adapted by screenwriters Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman from the 1981 novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf, and the music was composed by perennial Zemeckis film composer Alan Silvestri and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. It was released by Buena Vista Distribution under its Touchstone Pictures division.

Plot

Touchstone Pictures The movie opens with a Baby Herman short subject. This introduces the film's title character, who plays the supporting comic foil to infant cartoon star (actually a midget) Baby Herman. Eventually, it is revealed that Marvin Acme, the owner of the Acme Company and of Toontown, has been murdered. All signs point to Roger Rabbit, a toon star at Maroon Cartoons, who had recently been shown evidence that Acme and Roger's wife, Jessica Rabbit, a sexy Toon femme fatale (uncredited speaking voice by Kathleen Turner, singing voice by Amy Irving), had been playing pattycake together (literally) -- this is tantamount to infidelity in the eyes of a Toon. The only person who can help clear Roger's name is Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins), a washed-up, alcoholic detective who hates Toons because his brother, Teddy, was murdered by a Toon during a routine criminal investigation in Toontown years before when a piano was dropped on his head. Eddie is reluctantly forced into helping when Roger hides in his apartment, and soon finds himself shielding Roger from Judge Doom of the Toontown District Superior Court (Christopher Lloyd) and his "Toon Patrol" henchmen, a group of weasels. Meanwhile, Doom's giant Cloverleaf Corporation, is plotting to buy out the interurban railway, the Pacific-Electric Red Car, and replace it with freeways (based on the General Motors streetcar conspiracy and the National City Lines). With Acme dead and no will having been found, Toontown is in danger of being bulldozed in order to make way for the freeway. Eddie and Roger must find the will of the late Marvin Acme, which purportedly gives ownership of Toontown to the toons. Judge Doom is also trying to find the will in order to dispose of it, so he can destroy Toontown and build his freeway, and make himself profit out of the deal. If any toons happen to get in his way, Judge Doom feels no qualms about subjecting them to the "dip": a mixture he concocted of acetone, benzene, and turpentine (essentially paint thinners), and the only sure way to kill a Toon. Eddie goes to the studios of Maroon Cartoons, Roger's employer, to help clear the rabbit's name. There he speaks to R.K. Maroon, who is shot during the confrontation. Thinking the shooter to be Jessica Rabbit, playing Roger as a patsy, Eddie chases the assassin all the way into Toontown, despite his trepidation after the death of his brother there years before. There Eddie discovers that the assassin was actually Judge Doom, who manages to kidnap Jessica, and later Roger so he can "dip" them. In the film's climax, set in the Acme Warehouse, Judge Doom spews "dip" from a huge machine and tries to eradicate Roger and his wife, Jessica. He reveals his plans to then use his "dip" vehicle to erase Toontown. To combat Doom's weasel henchmen, the normally hard-nosed Eddie plays a clown, (not completely out of sync with his character, as the audience has been shown a photo of him and his brother working for Ringling Brothers earlier in the film) causing the weasels to die of laughter (evidently another way to kill a Toon, but one that merely turns them to angels, possibly to come back again). During the final battle with Eddie, Judge Doom is revealed to be a Toon after a steam-roller flattens him, and he reinflates himself by using one of the air tanks, revealing his Toon features. To Eddie's horror, Doom then reveals himself to be not just any Toon, but the one who murdered Eddie's brother. Just when it seems that Judge Doom will get the upper hand, Eddie uses a scissor-spring-loaded punch-glove mallet to knock open the drain valve on the "dip" machine. Judge Doom is drenched with "dip" and melts away. The police soon arrive, and realize that Judge Doom was responsible for the murders of both Maroon, Acme, and Eddie Valiant's brother Teddy, though no one knows for sure who he was. Marvin Acme's will is found (Acme wrote it in "disappearing re-appearing ink" and Roger used the "blank" paper to write Jessica a love letter), and Toontown is handed over to the control of the Toons, who all cheer and sing a chorus of "Smile, Darn Ya, Smile."

Critical reaction

Although test screenings proved disastrous, Roger Rabbit opened to generally positive reviews on June 21 1988. Both Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert included the film on their lists of ten favorite films of 1988, with Ebert calling it "sheer, enchanted entertainment from the first frame to the last - a joyous, giddy, goofy celebration" [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19880622/REVIEWS/806220301/1023]. Rotten Tomatoes lists Who Framed Roger Rabbit as being #43 on its Best Of Rotten Tomatoes list [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/top/bestofrt_year.php] all-time list with 100% positive reviews. As the website was created in 1995, and would only have the option of searching past archives, it is not able to give an accurate contemporary depiction of the review success. While Who Framed Roger Rabbit is considered a modern film classic, the film has also had its share of criticism. Much of the criticism revolves around the inconsistent tone of the film: the juxtaposition of the zany cartoon characters and the rough film noir story they appear in. While a blend between the two was the intended result of the producers, some people feel that the tone of the film deviates too much to properly identify it as either a film for children or a film for adults. While sex and violence were very prominent in Golden Age animation, the more blatant and saturated usage of such elements in this film, particularly in the characters of Jessica Rabbit (sex) and Judge Doom (violence), make many American parents and viewers unaccostumed to seeing such elements in animation uncomfortable. The film's finale, during which its main characters are essentially tied to a rope waiting to be sprayed by a hose, was cited as being weak and unimaginative. The film's animation is also accused of using too much superfluous movement. Held cels are very rarely used in Roger Rabbit, and (for technical reasons due to camera moves) most of the animation is on "ones" (each frame is animated, as opposed to the cheaper, more familiar method of animating every other frame, i.e. "twos"). Even when characters are standing still, they continue to move (particularly Roger, whose ear movements were based upon ballet patterns), and some animators and animation artists have cited the extra movement as unnecessary and distracting. The movie won four Academy Awards: Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing, Best Effects, Visual Effects, Best Film Editing and a Special Award for Richard Williams for "animation direction and creation of the cartoon characters". The film received four further nominations: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography and Best Sound.

Significance

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is seen as a landmark film that sparked the most recent era in American animation. The field had become lackluster and worn-out during the 1970s and 1980s, to the point where even giants in the field such as The Walt Disney Company were considering giving up on major animated productions. This expensive film (production cost of $70 million - a staggering amount for the time) was a major risk for the company, but one that paid off handsomely. It inspired other studios to dive back into the field of animation; it also made animation acceptable with the moviegoing public. After Roger Rabbit, interest in the history of animation exploded, and such legends in the field as Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, and even Ralph Bakshi were seen in a new light and received credit and acclaim from audiences worldwide. Also interesting was despite being produced by Disney's Touchstone Pictures division (in association with Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment), Roger Rabbit also marked the first (and to date, only) time that characters from several animation studios (including Universal, MGM, Republic, Turner Entertainment, and Warner Bros.) appeared in one film. This allowed the first-ever meetings between Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse and between Daffy Duck and Donald Duck. Eventually, several additional animated shorts featuring Roger Rabbit, Jessica Rabbit, and Baby Herman would be released. These shorts were presented in front of various Touchstone/Disney features in an attempt to revive short subject animation as a part of the moviegoing experience. These shorts include Tummy Trouble released in front of Honey, I Shrunk The Kids (this was included on the original video release of the film), Roller Coaster Rabbit shown in front of Dick Tracy and Trail Mix-Up shown in front of A Far Off Place. They were all released on video in 1996 on a tape called The Best of Roger Rabbit, and in 2003 on a special edition DVD of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Tummy Trouble was produced at the main Walt Disney Feature Animation studio in Burbank, California; the other two shorts were produced at the satellite studio located at Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida.

Trivia


- The plot of the film is derived from the infamous General Motors streetcar conspiracy, in which General Motors, Standard Oil and Firestone Tires formed the National City Lines holding company that bought out and deliberately destroyed the Los Angeles Red Car trolley system in the 1940s and 1950s. In the film, the real-life role of NCL is filled by the fictional "Cloverleaf Industries," owned solely by Judge Doom.
- The R.K. Maroon cartoons in which Roger appears are billed as Baby Herman and Roger Rabbit cartoons (or simply referred to as Baby Herman cartoons). Although Roger is arguably the focal point of each cartoon, he does not receive star billing. Many 1930s/1940s cartoon series featured a comic secondary character in support of a cute main character, often resulting in the secondary character outshadowing the first (for example, Mickey Mouse and his co-stars Donald Duck and Goofy, Gandy Goose and Sourpuss, Andy Panda and Woody Woodpecker, Tweety and Sylvester, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck, etc.) Daffy Duck
- Several Easter eggs were hidden into the film by its animators. Tape-based analog video such as VHS did not reveal these, but better image quality delivering technologies such as the laserdisc were said to reveal amongst others the phone number of Disney CEO Michael Eisner. Also, when Bennie the Cab wrecks at night and Eddie and Jessica roll out, there are two separate frames, within two seconds of each other, showing a blurry shot of her private area (near her crotch). Disney recalled the laserdisc and issued another disc, later claiming that it was an incorrectly painted cel. Oddly, they also stated that the cel in question could be seen on the new disc and on the VHS version, promting many to raise the question "if it's on the VHS version too, why was only the laserdisc recalled, and if the new discs were reissued with the same flawed cel, why did they go through the trouble in the first place?". The best way to see this on VHS is with a 4 head VCR or a 6 head VCR as these have a much clearer pause function than a 2 head VCR with no interference such as noise bars and loss of colour whilst paused.
- A brief scene consisting of the toon Baby Herman giving a sexual gesture to a female (human) extra on the set of the opening cartoon was edited out of the first DVD edition of the movie, though it can be found on editions of the VHS,laserdisc and Vista Series DVD issues.
- Much of the cinematography and several scenes of the film are an homage to Roman Polanski's Chinatown.
- The film's credits run for nearly ten minutes. At the time of its release, Roger Rabbit held the record for having the longest end credits sequence in cinema history.
- The lack of question mark in the title is allegedly due to a superstition that films with a question mark in the title do badly at the box office.
- A contract was signed between Disney and Warner stating that Bugs and Mickey would each receive exactly the same amount of screen time. This is why the script had Bugs, Mickey, and Eddie altogether in one scene falling from a skyscraper; in this scene, the mouse and the rabbit speak the same exact number of words of dialogue, as per the contract.
- As many as 100 separate pieces of film were optically combined to incorporate the animated and live-action elements. The animated characters themselves were hand-drawn without computer animation; analogue optical effects were used for adding shadows and lighting to the toons to give them a more "realistic," three-dimensional appearance.
- Gary Wolf, author of the original novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, corresponded with many fans of the film through written letters and the Internet, compiling an exhaustive listing of the many hidden "easter eggs" in the film and in the later Roger Rabbit short films. He has provided copies of this list to anyone who requests it. Wolf also sued Disney in 2001 for unpaid earnings related to the film.
- In the scene where Judge Doom comes to the cafe looking for Roger, Angelo speaks up when he hears that there is a reward saying: "Yeah, I've seen a rabbit" turns around and addresses thin air: "Say hello, Harvey." Many think this is a reference to the James Stewart movie Harvey and perceive it as an error, because the movie came out in 1950 and Roger Rabbit takes place in 1947. However the stage version of Harvey came out in 1944, to which, logically, Angelo must be referring, although whether the writers intended this is unclear.
- A slightly earlier draft of the screenplay revealed Judge Doom to also be the hunter who mortally shot Bambi's mother, thus providing more insight into his sadistic, cruel, and calloused nature towards his fellow 'toons'. However, Disney allegedly nixed the idea, most likely believing the idea to be overkill and not wanting to scare younger audiences with the character more than necessary for the emotional purpose of the movie. This idea was later incorporated into Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and suggested that Gaston (the villain) was the one who shot Bambi's mother. To this date it has not been revealed who Judge Doom really was, but there has been plenty of fan specuation about the possibilities.
- The road to be built through Toon Town is described as running "from here to Pasadena". Possible roads include the Pasadena Freeway running from downtown Los Angeles (completed in 1940 it would be an anachronism), or California State Route 134, running from near Burbank, CA.
- Many film buffs label Jessica Rabbit a "Frankenstein of Film Goddesses": with a Lauren Bacall-ish speaking voice (courtesy of an uncredited Kathleen Turner), Betty Grable's legs, Marilyn Monroe's torso and buttocks, Jayne Mansfield's breasts, Veronica Lake's hair, Marlene Dietrich's eyes, and a Judy Garland-like singing voice (provided by Amy Irving).
- This is the first Disney movie to be shown on Time Warner's Cartoon Network. However, when it was shown, it was edited for time.
- In 1991, the Disney Imagineers began to develop a new land for the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California, completely based on the Toontown of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. Mickey's Toontown opened to rapturous applause in 1993 and spawned a Mickey's Toontown Fair land at the Magic Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Florida and a Toontown (without the Mickey's prefix) at Tokyo Disneyland in Japan. The Californian and Japanese Toontowns feature a ride based on Roger Rabbit's adventures, and a Jolly Trolley attraction, as well as Mickey Mouse's, Minnie Mouse's and Goofy's 'houses', which are also featured at the Florida Toontown.

Other films combining live action with animation

Audiences were amazed by the ground-breaking special effects used in Who Framed Roger Rabbit to create a "realistic" portrayal of the interaction of animated characters and live actors. While the film did this with more advanced technology than previous films, the combination of animation and live action had been practised since the beginnings of animated cartoons, often to very good effect. See Live-action/animated film.

Errors


- Despite the film being set in 1947, the model sheets used for many of the characters in it, especially the Warner Bros. stars, who were on paid license from Warner Bros., were typically older ones that were not actually in use at the time (Bugs Bunny, noticeably, used an early sheet that was phased out of use at Warner Bros./Leon Schlesinger Pictures in 1943). Also, several characters who weren't created by 1947 were included at the behest of the film crew; for example, the Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote appear because they are Robert Zemeckis' favorite cartoon characters. The appearance of post-1947 Toons can be explained by the idea that (in the universe of the film), Toons are sentient beings who exist independent of humans and that certain Toons were around but hadn't started working in films yet. Besides, as Peter Seaman said, the aim was "entertainment, not animation history."

Cartoon characters that make cameo appearances


- Disney
  - Mickey Mouse
  - Minnie Mouse
  - Donald Duck
  - Daisy Duck
  - Goofy
  - Pluto
  - Black Pete
  - Horace Horsecollar
  - Clarabelle Cow
  - Clara Cluck
  - Peter Pig
  - Hummingbirds from Disney's Song of the South
  - Dumbo
  - Crows from Disney's Dumbo
  - Broomsticks from Disney's Fantasia
  - Dancing hippo from Disney's Fantasia
  - Jose Carioca from Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros
  - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
  - Bambi
  - Bill, the lizard with a ladder from Alice in Wonderland
-
  - The Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs
  - Maleficent's goons from Sleeping Beauty
-
  - Mr. Toad from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
  - The penguins from Disney's Mary Poppins
-
  - Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket
  - Tinkerbell
-
- Warner Bros.
  - Bugs Bunny
  - Daffy Duck
  - Porky Pig
  - The Road Runner
-
  - Wile E. Coyote
-
  - Yosemite Sam
  - Speedy Gonzales
-
  - Tweety
  - Sylvester the Cat
  - Foghorn Leghorn
  - Marvin the Martian
-
- MGM
  - Droopy Dog
- Paramount/Max Fleischer
  - Betty Boop
  - Koko the Clown
- Walter Lantz
  - Woody Woodpecker (
- ) Denotes anachronisms; these characters (or, in the cases of characters such as Tinkerbell, the animated versions of them that appear in the film) were created after 1947.

External links


- [http://video.movies.go.com/products/2439803.html Disney's official site for this film]
-
- [http://www.filmsite.org/whof.html Filmsite.org - Who Framed Roger Rabbit]
- [http://www.davesrailpix.com/pe/perr.htm Dave Mewhinney's Pacific Electric Photos - Roger Rabbit Collection]

References


- "Behind the Ears: The True Story of Roger Rabbit". (2003). Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Vista Series [DVD]. Burbank: Buena Vista Home Video.
- Gray, Milton (1991). Cartoon Animation: Introduction to a Career. Lion's Den Publications. ISBN 096-284445-4. Category:Walt Disney Company motion picture Category:1988 films Category:Disney animated films Category:Films based on novels Category:Films directed by Robert Zemeckis

1988

1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January


- January 1 - The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America comes into existence, creating the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States.
- January 2 - Georgia celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
- January 9 - Connecticut celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
- January 26 - Australia celebrates its bicentennial day.

February


- February 3 - The United States House of Representatives rejects President Ronald Reagan's request for $36.25 million to support Nicaraguan Contras.
- February 6 - Massachusetts celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
- February 11 - Anthony M. Kennedy is appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States.
- February 13 - The 1988 Winter Olympics open in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
- February 17 - US Lieutenant Colonel William R. Higgins, serving with a United Nations group monitoring a truce in southern Lebanon is kidnapped (captors later kill him)
- February 21 - On his own televangelism program being taped in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jimmy Swaggart confesses that he is guilty of an unspecified sin and will be temporarily leaving the pulpit. The "unspecified sin" was an affair with a prostitute.
- February 24 - The Supreme Court of the United States sides with Hustler magazine by overturning a lower court decision to award Jerry Falwell $200,000 for defamation (see Hustler Magazine v. Falwell)
- February 26 - Australia's Bicentennial year - discovered 200 years ago today
- February 28 - The 1988 Winter Olympics close.
- February 29 - Nazi document implicates Kurt Waldheim in WWII deportations

March


- March 1 - Anthony M. Frank is appointed United States Postmaster General
- March 7 - Operation Flavius - The SAS shoot dead three unarmed Irish Republican Army members in Gibraltar.
- March 8 - Two United States Army helicopters collide in Fort Campbell, Kentucky killing 17 servicemen
- March 9 - Students at Gallaudet University go on strike for the selection of a Deaf university president
- March 16 - The Halabja poison gas attack was carried out by Iraqi government forces.
- March 16 - Iran-Contra Affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
- March 19 - British army Corporals Woods and Howes are killed by the IRA in the so-called "Corporals killings".
- March 24 - Israeli court sentences Mordechai Vanunu to 18 years in prison for disclosing Israel's nuclear program to The Sunday Times
- March 29 - Assassination of Dulcie September in Paris

April

Paris
- April 4 - Governor Evan Mecham of Arizona is convicted in his impeachment trial and removed from office.
- April 10 - The Great Seto Bridge opened to traffic in Japan
- April 12 - Former pop singer Sonny Bono is elected mayor of Palm Springs, California
- April 14 - In Geneva Agreement, Soviet Union commits itself to withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan
- April 14 - USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) strikes a mine in the Persian Gulf while deployed on Operation Earnest Will
- April 16 - Israeli commandos kill PLO's Khalil Wazir (Abu Jihad) in Tunisia
- April 18 - U.S. Navy forces retaliate for the Roberts mining with Operation Praying Mantis, a day of strikes against Iranian oil platforms and naval vessels
- April 25 - In Israel John Demjanuk is sentenced to death for war crimes committed in World War II. He was accused of being a notorious guard at the Treblinka extermination camp known as "Ivan the Terrible" by survivors. Conviction overturned by Israeli Supreme Court.
- April 28 - Maryland celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
- April 28 - Aloha Flight 243 loses in flight several yards of its upper fuselage; extraordinarily, the craft lands with only one fatality.
- April 30 - World Expo '88 opens in Brisbane Queensland Australia. The exhibition runs for 6 months hosting pavilions from over
70 countries and thrusts the sleepy city of Brisbane into the international spotlight.

May


- May 15 - Soviet war in Afghanistan: After more than eight years of fighting, the Red Army begins its withdraw from Afghanistan.
- May 16 - A report by the Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.
- May 16 - California v. Greenwood: In a 6-2 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States rules that police officers do not need a search warrant to search through discarded garbage.
- May 23 - South Carolina celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
- May 24 - Section 28 (outlawing promotion of homosexuality in schools) is passed as law by Parliament in the United Kingdom.

June


- June 6 - Queen Elizabeth strips jockey Lester Piggott of his OBE
- June 11 - The name of the General Public License (GPL) is mentioned first time.
- June 21 - New Hampshire celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
- June 25 - Virginia celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
- June 25 - The Netherlands defeat the Soviet Union 2-0 to win Euro 88.
- June 28 - Four workers asphyxiated at a metal-plating plant in Auburn, Indiana, in the worst confined-space industrial accident in US history. A fifth victim dies two days later.
- June 29 - United States Supreme Court upholds the law allowing special prosecutor to investigate suspected crimes by executive branch officials.
- June 30 - Roman Catholic Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrated four bishops at Ecône for his apostolate along with Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer without a Papal mandate.

July


- July 1 - Bologna, Italy: Quartetto Cetra's last concert after over forty years' musical career.
- July 3 - Iran Air Flight 655 shot down by missiles launched from the USS Vincennes ship
- July 6 - The Piper Alpha drilling platform in the North Sea is destroyed by explosions and fires killing 165 oil workers and 2 rescue mariners.
- July 26 - New York celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
- July 30¨- Antonio Gomes dos Santos stands motionless in a Lisbon, Portugal shopping center for 15 hours, 2 minutes and 55 seconds

August


- August 6–7 - "Police riot" in New York City's Tompkins Square Park
- August 8 - Thousands of protestors in Burma (Myanmar) killed during demonstrations against the government.
- August 9 - Wayne Gretzky is traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings in one of the most controversial transactions in hockey history.
- August 17 - Pakistan President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and US Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane crash.
- August 19 - Ceasefire begins in the Iran-Iraq war
- August 20 - Iran-Iraq war finished, costing an estimated 1 million lives
- August 26 - Merhan Karimi Nasseri ends up stuck in the Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris
- August 28 - A fire destroys part of Chiado quarter, in Lisbon's historical center.

September

Lisbon.]]
- September 1- Acacia pycnantha proclamed Australia's national floral emblem
- September 3- Federal referendums on 4-year terms, recognition of local Government and other issues is defeated in Australia
- September 5 - With US$2 billion in federal aid, the Robert M. Bass Group agrees to buy the United States's largest thrift, American Savings and Loan Association
- September 12 - Hurricane Gilbert devastated Jamaica, it turns towards Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula two days later causing an estimated $5 billion in damage.
- September 17 - Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea open
- September 22 - Ocean Odyssey drilling rig suffers a blowout and fire in the North Sea. (See also July 6)
- September 29 - NASA resumes space shuttle flights, grounded after the Challenger disaster

October


- October 5 - Thousands riots in Algiers, Algeria against the government of National Liberation Front - by October 10 army has killed and tortured about 500 people in crushing the riots
- October 5 - Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is defeated in a national plebiscite that sought to renew his mandate.
- October 11 - Women are allowed to study at Magdalene College, Cambridge, for the first time. Male students wear black armbands and the porter flies a black flag
- October 12 - two officers of the Victoria Police are gunned down executional style in the Walsh Street police shootings in Australia
- October 19 - United Kingdom bans broadcast interviews with IRA members. BBC gets around this by using actors' voices.
- October 28 - Abortion: 48 hours after announcing it was abandoning RU-486, French manufacturer Roussel Uclaf states that it would resume distribution of the drug, bowing to pressure from the government of France
- October 30 - Philip Morris buys Kraft Foods for US$13.1 billion.
- October 30 - Expo '88 in Brisbane Australia draws to a close after a 6 month spectacular.

November


- November 8 - U.S. presidential election, 1988: George Herbert Walker Bush is elected over Michael Dukakis.
- November 11 - In Sacramento, California, police find a body buried in the lawn of 60-year-old boardinghouse landlady Dorothea Puente (seven bodies were eventually found and Puente was convicted of three murders and sentenced to life in prison)
- November 15 - In the Soviet Union, the uncrewed Shuttle Buran is launched by an Energia rocket on her maiden orbital spaceflight (this was the first and last space flight for the shuttle)
- November 15 - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: An independent State of Palestine is proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council meeting in Algiers, by a vote of 253 to 46
- November 16 - The Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR declares that Estonia is "sovereign" but stops short of declaring independence
- November 16 - In the first open election in more than a decade, voters in Pakistan choose populist candidate Benazir Bhutto to be Prime Minister
- November 17 - The Netherlands becomes the second country to get connected to the Internet
- November 18 - War on Drugs: US President Ronald Reagan signs a bill into law providing the death penalty for murderous drug traffickers
- November 21 - Canadian Federal Election: Brian Mulroney and the Progressive Conservative Party win a second majority government
- November 22 - In Palmdale, California, the first prototype B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is revealed
- November 30 - Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. buys RJR Nabisco for US$25.07 billion.

December

RJR Nabisco
- December 2 - Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of an Islam-dominated state.
- December 2 - Cyclone in Bangladesh leaves 5 million homeless - thousands dead
- December 7 - In Armenia an earthquake 6.9 on the Richter scale killed nearly 25,000, injured 15,000 and left 400,000 persons homeless.
- December 12 - The Clapham Junction rail crash kills 35 and injures 132.
- December 19 - The Consumer Product Safety Commission bans the sale of lawn darts following the deaths of three children.
- December 20 - The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
- December 21 - Pan Am flight 103 is blown up by Libyan terrorists over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 on board and 11 on the ground.
- December 22 - Assassination of Brazilian union and environmental activist Chico Mendes.

Environmental change


- Zebra mussels found in the Great lakes

Unknown dates


- Dave Barry won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary.
- Singer Fish leaves the band Marillion to pursue a solo career.
- Mickey Sadoff elected president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Births


- January 17 - Nikki Reed, American actress
- February 4 - Carly Patterson, American gymnast
- February 7 - Ai Kago, Japanese singer
- February 8 - Ryan Pinkston, American actor
- February 18 - Rihanna, Barbadian R&B singer
- February 27 - JD Natasha, Latin music artist
- March 25 - Erik Knudsen, Canadian actor
- March 27 - Brenda Song, American actress
- March 28 - Lacey Turner, English actress
- April 10 - Haley Joel Osment, American actor
- May 2 - Brooke Hogan, American singer
- June 1 - Nami Tamaki, Japanese singer
- June 7 - Michael Cera, Canadian actor
- June 27 - Kate Ziegler, American swimmer
- August 8 - Princess Beatrice of York
- August 23 - Niki Leinso, Croatian singer and songwriter
- August 24 - Rupert Grint, English actor
- August 27 - Alexa Vega, American actress
- August 31 - Megan McCauley, American singer
- September 24 - Kyle Sullivan, American actor
- September 26 - Marina Kuroki, Japanese actress
- October 5 - Bobby Edner, American actor
- October 23 - Caleigh Peters, American singer
- November 15 - Zena Grey, American actress
- November 21 - Jamie Mahoney, American actor and rapper
- November 28 - Scarlett Pomers, American actress
- December 7 - Emily Browning, Australian actress

Deaths


- January 2 - Edmund Brisco Ford, British geneticist (b. 1901)
- January 5 - Pete Maravich, American basketball player (b. 1947)
- January 7 - Trevor Howard, British actor (b. 1913)
- January 11 - Pappy Boyington, American pilot (b. 1912)
- January 13 - Chiang Ching-kuo, President of the Republic of China (b. 1910)
- January 14 - Georgi Malenkov, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party (b. 1902)
- January 15 - Seán MacBride, Irish Republican Army leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1904)
- January 16 - Ballard Berkeley, British actor (b. 1904)
- January 20 - Philippe de Rothschild, French vineyard owner (b. 1902)
- January 22 - Parker Fennelly, American comedian and actor (b. 1891)
- February 1 - Heather O'Rourke, American actress (b. 1975)
- February 15 - Richard Feynman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
- February 19 - René Char, French poet (b. 1907)
- February 19 - André Frédéric Cournand, French-born physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1895)
- March 1 - Joe Besser, American actor and comedian (b. 1907)
- March 5 - Alberto Olmedo, Argentine comedian and actor (b. 1933)
- March 7 - Divine, American actor (b. 1945)
- March 8 - Henryk Szeryng, Polish-born violinist (b. 1918)
- March 9 - Kurt Georg Kiesinger, third Chancellor of Germany (b. 1904)
- March 10 - Andy Gibb, Australian singer (Bee Gees) (b. 1958)
- March 31 - William McMahon, twentieth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1908)
- April 3 - Milt Caniff, American cartoonist (b. 1907)
- April 15 - Kenneth Williams, English actor and raconteur (b. 1926)
- April 23 - Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1904)
- April 26 - James McCracken, American tenor (b. 1926)
- May 3 - Lev Semenovich Pontryagin, Russian mathematician (b. 1908)
- May 8 - Robert A. Heinlein, American science fiction author (b. 1907)
- May 11 - Kim Philby, British spy (b. 1912)
- May 12 - Chet Baker, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1929)
- May 16 - Charles Keeping, British illustrator (b. 1924)
- May 18 - Daws Butler, voice actor (b. 1916)
- May 21 - Sammy Davis, Sr., American dancer (b. 1900)
- May 25 - Ernst Ruska, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
- June 25 - Hillel Slovak, Israeli-born guitarist (Red Hot Chili Peppers) (b. 1962)
- July 8 - Ray Barbuti, American athlete (b. 1905)
- July 27 - Frank Zamboni, American inventor (b. 1901)
- August 8 - Ramon Valdez, Mexican actor (b. 1923)
- August 11 - Anne Ramsey, American actress (b. 1929)
- August 17 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., American lawyer and politician (b. 1914)
- August 17 - Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, leader of Pakistan (b. 1924)
- August 27 - William Sargant, British psychiatrist (b. 1907)
- September 1 - Luis Alvarez, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
- September 5 - Gert Fröbe, German actor (b. 1913)
- September 28 - Charles Addams, American cartoonist (b. 1912)
- October 1 - Sacheverell Sitwell, English writer (b. 1897)
- October 15 - Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, English composer and pianist (b. 1892)
- October 19 - Son House, American musician (b. 1902)
- October 22 - Henry Armstrong, American boxer (b. 1912)
- October 31 - John Houseman, Romanian-born actor and producer (b. 1902)
- November 9 - John N. Mitchell, U.S. Attorney General and convicted Watergate criminal (b. 1913)
- November 13 - Antal Dorati, Hungarian conductor (b. 1906)
- November 19 - Christina Onassis, American shipping magnate (b. 1950)
- December 2 - Tata Giacobetti, Italian singer and lyricist (Quartetto Cetra) (b. 1922)
- December 6 - Roy Orbison, American singer (b. 1936)
- December 21 - Nikolaas Tinbergen, Dutch ornithologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1907)

Nobel Prizes


- Physics - Leon M. Lederman, Melvin Schwartz, Jack Steinberger
- Chemistry - Johann Deisenhofer, Robert Huber, Hartmut Michel
- Medicine - Sir James W. Black, Gertrude B. Elion, George H. Hitchings
- Literature - Naguib Mahfouz
- Peace - The United Nations Peace-Keeping Forces.
- The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel - Maurice Allais

Templeton Prize


- Dr. Inamullah Khan

Right Livelihood Award


- International Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims / Dr. Inge Kemp Genefke
- José Lutzenberger
- John F. Charlewood Turner
- Sahabat Alam Malaysia / Mohamed Idris, Harrison Ngau, the Penan people.

Fictional references


- The 2001 movie Donnie Darko is set in October 1988 Category:1988 als:1988 ko:1988년 ja:1988年 simple:1988 th:พ.ศ. 2531

1993

1993 (MCMXCIII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003).

Events

January

Wikipedia:Categorization#Year categories.]]
- January 1 - Czechoslovakia divides. Establishment of independent Slovakia and Czech Republic.
- January 3 - In Moscow, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
- January 5 - Washington State executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the first legal hanging in America since 1965)
- January 9 – Jean-Claude Romand kills his family and tries to burn himself with his home in France
- January 11 - First edition of WWF Monday Night RAW appears on the USA Network
- January 15 - Salvatore Riina, the Mafia boss known as 'The Beast', is arrested in Sicily after three-decades as a fugitive
- January 18 - For the first time, Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is officially observed in all 50 American states.
- January 19
  - IBM announces a $4.97 billion loss for 1992 which is the largest single-year corporate loss in United States history
  - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM inspectors to use its own aircraft to fly into Iraq, and begins military operations in the demilitarized zone between Iraq and Kuwait, and the northern No-Fly Zone. US forces fire approximately 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Baghdad factories linked to Iraq's illegal nuclear weapons program. Iraq then informs UNSCOM that it will be able to resume its flights
- January 20 - Bill Clinton succeeds George H. W. Bush as President of the United States of America
- January 25
  - Catherine Callbeck becomes Premier of Prince Edward Island, becoming the first female Premier to be elected in Canada. (Rita Johnston was Canada's first female Premier but was not elected)
  - Mir Aimal Kasi fires a rifle and kills two employees outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, USA
- January 26 - Václav Havel elected President of the Czech Republic

February


- February 8 - General Motors sues NBC after Dateline NBC allegedly rigged two crashes showing that some GM pickups can easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settles the lawsuit the following day.
- February 11
  - Janet Reno is selected by President Clinton as US Attorney General.
- February 12 - 11-year-old boys Robert Thompson and John Venables kill 2-year-old James Bulger in Liverpool.
- February 17 - Ferry in Haiti sinks - 285 survivors of maybe 1500 passengers
- February 23 - Gary Coleman wins a $1,280,000 lawsuit against his parents.
- February 26 - World Trade Center bombing: In New York City, a van bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center goes off, killing 6 and injuring over a thousand.
- February 28 - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest cult leader David Koresh on federal firearms violations. Four agents and five Davidians die in the raid and a 51-day standoff begins.

March


- March - First issue of Wired magazine.
- March 4 - Authorities announce the capture of suspected World Trade Center bombing conspirator Mohammad Salameh
- March 9 - Rodney King testifies at the federal trial of four Los Angeles, California police officers accused of violating King's civil rights when they beat him during an arrest
- March 11 - Janet Reno is confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn-in the next day becoming the first female Attorney General of the United States
- March 12 - Several bombs explode in Bombay, India killing about 300 and injuring hundreds more. See Bombay bombings (1993)
- March 12 - North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea says that it plans to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and refuses to allow inspectors access to nuclear sites
- March 13 - The Great Blizzard of 1993 strikes the eastern U.S., bringing record snowfall and other severe weather all the way from Cuba to Québec
- March 16 - The blizzard is reported to have killed 184, including many surprised and stranded people along the Appalachian Trail
- March 20 - Warrington bomb attacks: IRA bomb explodes in Warrington Town Centre and kills two children, Johnathan Ball and Tim Parry
- March 27 - Jiang Zemin becomes President of the People's Republic of China.
- March 28 - Gaullists win legislative election in France and Édouard Balladur becomes prime minister of France.
- March 31 - A bug in a program written by Richard Depew sends an article to 200 newsgroups simultaneously. The term spamming is coined by Joel Furr to describe the incident.

April


- April - The Kuwaiti government claims to uncover an Iraqi assassination plot against former US President George H. W. Bush shortly after his visit to Kuwait. Two Iraqi nationals, caught with smuggled hashish and alcohol inside Kuwait, confess to driving a car-bomb into Kuwait on behalf of the Iraq Secret Service [http://www.newyorker.com/archive/content/?020930fr_archive02]
- April 6 - Russian nuclear accident at Tomsk 7
- April 6 - HMS Richmond launched for the Royal Navy
- April 7 - Attack submarine ex-Queenfish completes being recycled
- April 10 -ANC activist Chris Hani assassinated in South Africa
- April 22 - In Washington, DC, the Holocaust Memorial Museum is dedicated
- April 22 - Murder of Stephen Lawrence, London, UK
- April 23 - WHO declares tuberculosis a Global Emergency
- April 24 - Bishopsgate Bomb explodes in the City of London - 1 dead, 50 injured
- April 30 - The World Wide Web was born at CERN

May


- May 1 - Former prime minister of France Pierre Bérégovoy commits suicide
- May 1 - A Tamil Tigers suicide bomber assassinates President Ranasinghe Premadasa of Sri Lanka
- May 24 - Eritrean independence
- May 27 - A car bomb in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence - 5 dead - Mafia suspected

June


- June 6 - Mongolia holds its first direct presidential elections
- June 8 - Assassination of Rene Bousquet, the Vichy France police chief, at his Paris home
- June 9 – Los Angeles Police Department raids the home of Hollywood Madame Heidi Fleiss
- June 9 - Montreal Canadiens win their 24th Stanley Cup
- June 14? - Tansu Ciller becomes prime minister of Turkey
- June 18 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses to allow UNSCOM weapons inspectors to install remote-controlled monitoring cameras at two missile engine test stands.
- June 22 - Japan's New Party Sakigake breaks away from the Liberal Democratic Party.
- June 23 - Lorena Bobbitt cuts off the penis of her husband John Wayne Bobbitt.
- July 23 - Candelaria massacre - police shoot number of street kids in Candelaria Church in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- June 8 - In Paris, Christian Didier breaks into the home of Rene Bousquet, banker and former Vichy France administrator and shoots him dead
- June 22 - Unabomber bomb injures Charles Epstein in Tiburon, California
- June 24 - Unabomber bomb injures computer scientist David Gelernter in Yale University
- June 25 - Kim Campbell becomes Canada's nineteenth and first female Prime Minister
- June 27 - US President Bill Clinton orders a cruise missile attack on Iraqi intelligence headquarters in the Al-Mansur District, Baghdad, in response to the attempted assassination of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush during his visit to Kuwait in mid-April
- June 27 - In Bad Kleinen, Germany, GSG-9 troopers arrest terrorists Birgit Hogefeld and Wolfgang Grams

July


- July 1 - Gian Luigi Ferry shoots 8 and injures 6 in "Pettit and Martin" law firm in San Francisco, then shoots himself
- July 5 - Iraq disarmament crisis: UN inspection teams leave Iraq. Iraq then agrees to UNSCOM demands and the inspection teams return
- July 12 - A magnitude 7.8 earthquake off Hokkaido, Japan launches a devastating tsunami, killing 202 on the small island of Okushiri, Hokkaido
- July 20 - White House deputy counsel Vincent W. Foster Jr commits suicide in Virginia
- July 23 - Candelaria Massacre ? Brazilian police officers kill 8 street kids in Rio de Janeiro
- July 29 - The Israeli Supreme Court acquits accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk of all charges and he is set free.
- July 31 - Windows NT 3.1 has been released with the support of NTFS file system.

August


- August 4 - A federal judge sentences LAPD officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 30 months in prison for violating motorist Rodney King's civil rights
- August 6 - Louis Freeh is confirmed by the United States Senate to be the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
- August 9 - King Albert II of Belgium is sworn into office nine days after the death of his brother, King Baudouin
- August 21 - NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Observer orbiter three days before the spacecraft is scheduled to enter orbit around Mars

September

Mars and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, with US President, Bill Clinton.]]
- September 13 - PLO leader Yasir Arafat and Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin shake hands in Washington D.C., after signing a peace accord.
- September 13 - Norwegian parliamentary election, 1993
- September 23 - The IOC selects Sydney, Australia to host the 2000 Summer Olympics.
- September 29 - An earthquake centred on Killari, Maharashtra, India kills nearly 10,000 people.

October


- Polly Klaas is kidnapped at knifepoint from her home in Petaluma, California. She was later strangled by Richard Allen Davis
- October 3 - Large scale battle between US forces and local militia in Mogadishu, Somalia
- October 13 - Andreas Papandreou begins his second term as Prime Minister of Greece.
- October 25 - Jean Chrétien and his Liberal Party defeat the governing Progressive Conservative Party in the Canadian federal election.
- October - Internal Revenue Service of the United States granted full religious recognition and tax exemption to all Scientology Churches, missions and social betterment groups[http://www.religioustolerance.org/scientol1.htm].

November


- November 1 - The Maastricht Treaty activates, formally establishing the European Union
- November 4 - Jean Chrétien becomes Canada's twentieth Prime Minister.
- November 9 - The Stari Most, or Old Bridge of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, is destroyed by tank fire in the fights between Bosnian Croat and Bosnian Muslim forces.
- November 18 - In South Africa, 21 political parties approve a new constitution.
- November 20 - Savings and Loan scandal: The United States Senate Ethics Committee issues a stern censure of California senator Alan Cranston for his "dealings" with savings-and-loan executive Charles Keating.
- November 24 - In the United Kingdom, 11-year-olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables are convicted of the child murder of 2-year-old James Bulger of Liverpool (they were sentenced to "indefinite detention")
- November 28 - The Observer reveals a channel of communications has existed between the IRA and the British government, despite the government's persistent denials.
- November 30 - US President Bill Clinton signs the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (the Brady Bill) into law

December


- December 2 - Shuttle program: STS-61 - NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair an optical flaw in the Hubble Space Telescope.
- December 2 - War on Drugs: Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar is gunned down in Medellín when the police try to arrest him
- December 7 - Colin Ferguson opened fire with his Ruger 9mm pistol on a Long Island Railroad train, killing six and injuring 19. The event was dubbed "The Long Island Railroad Massacre."
- December 12 - Earthquake hits Flores, Indonesia - 2200 dead
- December 15 - Downing Street Declaration - United Kingdom commits itself to the search for an answer to the problems of Northern Ireland<