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.[2]
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."[4]
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.[14]
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.[16]
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.[25]
On or about this date,[32] 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.[33]
Helmut Zilk, the
Mayor of Vienna, was severely injured and lost two fingers when he opened a letter bomb at his home.[25][44] 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.[25] The series of letter bombings would prove to have been perpetrated by far-right extremist
Franz Fuchs.[44]
STS-61: Astronauts Musgrave and Hoffman began the mission's third extravehicular activity at 10:34 p.m. EST.[7]
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. As of 2019[update] the murders would remain unsolved.[49]
The Troubles: 38-year-old Catholic civilian Robert McClay was shot and killed by the Ulster Freedom Fighters at his home in
Ballyhackamore, Belfast, Northern Ireland.[15]
STS-61: Astronauts Musgrave and Hoffman began the mission's fifth and final extravehicular activity at 10:30 p.m. EST. The EVA would conclude at 5:51 a.m. EST on December 9.[7]
In
Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, neo-Nazis Michael Peters and Lars Christiansen were convicted of the murders of the three Turkish people killed in the
1992 Mölln arson attack. For the
firebombing that killed 51-year-old Bahide Arslan, 10-year-old Yeliz Arslan and 14-year-old Ayse Yilmaz, Peters was sentenced to life in prison and Christiansen to 10 years. These were the maximum possible sentences, since Christiansen was 19 at the time of the murders and was tried as a juvenile.[70]
A knife-wielding man hijacked
Air France Flight 2306 between Paris and
Nice shortly before arriving at Nice. Despite demands to be flown to Tripoli, the aircraft landed as intended at
Nice Côte d'Azur Airport, where all 123 passengers and six crew members onboard were released unharmed.[87]
Scottish soldiers Paul Callaghan and David Reid of the British Army's
5th Airborne Brigade were last seen alive this morning as they began an off-duty climbing weekend in
Glen Coe, during which they would be swept away by an
avalanche on
Stob Coire nan Beith. After an extensive and dangerous search and rescue effort, their bodies would be found at the bottom of Summit Gully on December 14.[88][89]
In the Atlantic Ocean, the 30-foot (9.1 m) boat on which 63-year-old Herbert Clarity and 47-year-old Anthony Suraleigh were sailing from New York to
Bermuda capsized in a sudden storm with 35-foot (11 m) waves and 70-mile-per-hour (110 km/h) winds. The two men rode out the storm in a
life raft for 11 hours before a Japanese freighter headed for Ireland rescued them. Clarity and Suraleigh would fly back to New York from Ireland on December 23.[99]
In
Howard County, Maryland, 23-year-old David Mark Kohl was crushed to death by his brother's house when it slipped and fell on him while being raised on jacks to install a foundation underneath.[100]
The Troubles:
Protestants Andrew Beacom, 46, and Ernest Smith, 49, both members of the
Royal Ulster Constabulary, were shot and killed by the Irish Republican Army while sitting in an RUC civilian-type car in
Fivemiletown, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.[15]
Ned Barry, 88, New Zealand rugby union player and police officer[111]
December 13, 1993 (Monday)
60 people died and 8 were injured in a fire at a textile factory in
Fuzhou, China.[112]
Space Shuttle Endeavour landed at
Kennedy Space Center at 12:26 a.m. EST, completing the successful STS-61 mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.[7]
The Troubles: 26-year-old Protestant civilian Noel Cardwell was found dead, shot by the Ulster Freedom Fighters, in an unoccupied flat in
Shankill, Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was rumored to have been an
informer.[15]
19-year-old Nathan Dunlap, a former employee of an
Aurora, ColoradoChuck E. Cheese,
shot and killed four people at the restaurant and wounded a fifth.[123] Dunlap would be sentenced to death in 1996.[124] His sentence would be commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole when Colorado abolished the death penalty in 2020.[125]
In
Chelsea, Michigan, science teacher Stephen Leith returned to
Chelsea High School with a handgun after a meeting to discuss a grievance he had filed over a reprimand for inappropriate remarks about a female student. He shot and killed
Superintendent Joseph Piasecki and wounded
Principal Ron Mead and teacher Phil Jones. Leith would subsequently be convicted of
first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.[143]
In the Denver, Colorado area, eight shopping malls closed their
Santa displays after receiving death threats directed at
Santa Claus by mail and fax machine. By the following day, Santa would be greeting children at over a dozen police and fire stations in the area.[211]
Debbie Tucker Loveless and John Harvey Miller, who had both been serving life prison sentences, were released on bond after their convictions for the alleged murder of Loveless' 4-year-old daughter in
January 1989 were overturned the previous week. The
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the convictions due to the couple having ineffective counsel and the failure of the prosecution to turn over medical records to the defense. Loveless and Miller maintained that the child died as a result of a dog attack and that their first attorney ignored evidence supporting their explanation.[228][229] Prosecutors would dismiss the charges against Loveless and Miller on May 2, 1994.[229]
National Football League quarterback
Troy Aikman agreed to an eight-year, $50 million contract with the
Dallas Cowboys, making him the richest player in NFL history up to that time.[230]
Five shoppers were killed and 48 others wounded in a grenade explosion at a market in
Misamis Occidental, Philippines.[244]
During a family Christmas Eve supper in
Montauban, France, a table exploded, piercing a man's neck artery with a shard of glass and causing him to bleed to death.[245]
A 59-year-old woman identified by the press as "Jennifer F." gave birth to twins at a hospital in London, occasioning controversy and comment across Europe.[253]
Grenade attacks occurred at the Roman Catholic
Davao Cathedral and at a
Muslim mosque in
Davao City, Philippines. At least six people were killed and more than 130 wounded in the first incident, while there were no casualties in the second one.[244]
Actress
Marlene Dietrich's grave in
Berlin, Germany, was desecrated and covered with feces the day before what would have been her 92nd birthday.[262]
Israeli soldiers in
southern Lebanon, mistaking a United Nations patrol for a guerrilla group, killed one Norwegian soldier and wounded another.[264]
Career criminal Roger Hoan Brady shot and killed Officer Martin L. Ganz of the
Manhattan Beach, California Police Department during a traffic stop. Ganz's 12-year-old nephew, who was on a
ride-along with him, was unharmed.[265][266][267]
In New York state, four out of six
parcel bombs sent to family members of Brenda Lazore, the ex-girlfriend of Michael Stevens, exploded, killing five people. Lazore's mother, stepfather and sister, a coworker of her stepfather and a friend of her sister were all killed; her uncle was injured. Two other bombs sent to family members were intercepted by police. Stevens and his friend Earl Figley would be charged in the bombings on December 29.[274]
The Troubles: The Irish Republican Army released a New Year's message making no mention of a
ceasefire, indicating uncertainty about the Downing Street Declaration issued on December 15.[288]
9-year-old Joey Jacobs of Chester Township, Ohio,[a] lost both ears while holding off a
Rottweiler attacking two younger children. The dog had run over a buried-wire fence produced by
Invisible Fence Inc. to attack them.[290][291]
The Troubles in Crossmaglen: 23-year-old British Army soldier Daniel Blinco was shot and killed by an Irish Republican Army sniper during an Army foot patrol in
Crossmaglen, County Armagh, Northern Ireland.[15]
Argentina passed a measure allowing President
Carlos Menem and all future presidents to run for a second consecutive term. It also shortened presidential terms to four years and removed the requirement for the president to be Roman Catholic.[299]
In
Pampa, Texas, Twila Busby was strangled and bludgeoned to death and her two adult sons, Randy Busby and Elwin Caler, were stabbed to death. Busby's live-in boyfriend,
Hank Skinner, would be convicted of the murders in 1995 and sentenced to death.[304]
^"Former fascist organizer dies". Capital Gay. December 1988., cited in
"Nicky Crane | Searchlight case study"(PDF). Political Extremism & Radicalism: Far-Right and Left Political Groups in US, Europe and Australia.
Gale. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
^"Abidin Dino". Biyografi.info (in Turkish). Tüm Hakları Saklıdır. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
^Tritsch, Shane; Mogharei, Phoebe (20 August 2019) [First published in August 1994 as "'I Have a Buddy Dying'"].
"The Night Jeff Alm Died". Chicago.
Archived from the original on 20 August 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
^Kirkup, James (28 December 1993).
"Obituary: Guy des Cars". People. The Independent. Retrieved 3 November 2021. This source gives des Cars' date of death as December 20, 1993.
^"Guy des Cars, 82, Dies; Popular French Writer". The New York Times. Reuters. 22 December 1993. p. B8. Retrieved 3 November 2021. This source gives des Cars' date of death as December 22, 1993.
^"Dietrich's grave desecrated". The Straits Times. 28 December 1993. p. 9. Retrieved 21 October 2021 – via NewspaperSG, Government of Singapore.
^"Chiefs 2017 Squad". The Official Website of the Chiefs - Investec Super Rugby. 2017. Archived from
the original on 6 August 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
^"「Seventeen」卒業の新川優愛、モデル・女優としての活動を振り返る<プロフィール・略歴>" [Yuai Shinkawa, graduating from "Seventeen", looks back on her work as a model and actress <profile and biography>]. Model Press (in Japanese). Netnative Inc. 1 May 2015. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
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.[2]
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."[4]
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.[14]
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.[16]
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.[25]
On or about this date,[32] 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.[33]
Helmut Zilk, the
Mayor of Vienna, was severely injured and lost two fingers when he opened a letter bomb at his home.[25][44] 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.[25] The series of letter bombings would prove to have been perpetrated by far-right extremist
Franz Fuchs.[44]
STS-61: Astronauts Musgrave and Hoffman began the mission's third extravehicular activity at 10:34 p.m. EST.[7]
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. As of 2019[update] the murders would remain unsolved.[49]
The Troubles: 38-year-old Catholic civilian Robert McClay was shot and killed by the Ulster Freedom Fighters at his home in
Ballyhackamore, Belfast, Northern Ireland.[15]
STS-61: Astronauts Musgrave and Hoffman began the mission's fifth and final extravehicular activity at 10:30 p.m. EST. The EVA would conclude at 5:51 a.m. EST on December 9.[7]
In
Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, neo-Nazis Michael Peters and Lars Christiansen were convicted of the murders of the three Turkish people killed in the
1992 Mölln arson attack. For the
firebombing that killed 51-year-old Bahide Arslan, 10-year-old Yeliz Arslan and 14-year-old Ayse Yilmaz, Peters was sentenced to life in prison and Christiansen to 10 years. These were the maximum possible sentences, since Christiansen was 19 at the time of the murders and was tried as a juvenile.[70]
A knife-wielding man hijacked
Air France Flight 2306 between Paris and
Nice shortly before arriving at Nice. Despite demands to be flown to Tripoli, the aircraft landed as intended at
Nice Côte d'Azur Airport, where all 123 passengers and six crew members onboard were released unharmed.[87]
Scottish soldiers Paul Callaghan and David Reid of the British Army's
5th Airborne Brigade were last seen alive this morning as they began an off-duty climbing weekend in
Glen Coe, during which they would be swept away by an
avalanche on
Stob Coire nan Beith. After an extensive and dangerous search and rescue effort, their bodies would be found at the bottom of Summit Gully on December 14.[88][89]
In the Atlantic Ocean, the 30-foot (9.1 m) boat on which 63-year-old Herbert Clarity and 47-year-old Anthony Suraleigh were sailing from New York to
Bermuda capsized in a sudden storm with 35-foot (11 m) waves and 70-mile-per-hour (110 km/h) winds. The two men rode out the storm in a
life raft for 11 hours before a Japanese freighter headed for Ireland rescued them. Clarity and Suraleigh would fly back to New York from Ireland on December 23.[99]
In
Howard County, Maryland, 23-year-old David Mark Kohl was crushed to death by his brother's house when it slipped and fell on him while being raised on jacks to install a foundation underneath.[100]
The Troubles:
Protestants Andrew Beacom, 46, and Ernest Smith, 49, both members of the
Royal Ulster Constabulary, were shot and killed by the Irish Republican Army while sitting in an RUC civilian-type car in
Fivemiletown, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.[15]
Ned Barry, 88, New Zealand rugby union player and police officer[111]
December 13, 1993 (Monday)
60 people died and 8 were injured in a fire at a textile factory in
Fuzhou, China.[112]
Space Shuttle Endeavour landed at
Kennedy Space Center at 12:26 a.m. EST, completing the successful STS-61 mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.[7]
The Troubles: 26-year-old Protestant civilian Noel Cardwell was found dead, shot by the Ulster Freedom Fighters, in an unoccupied flat in
Shankill, Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was rumored to have been an
informer.[15]
19-year-old Nathan Dunlap, a former employee of an
Aurora, ColoradoChuck E. Cheese,
shot and killed four people at the restaurant and wounded a fifth.[123] Dunlap would be sentenced to death in 1996.[124] His sentence would be commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole when Colorado abolished the death penalty in 2020.[125]
In
Chelsea, Michigan, science teacher Stephen Leith returned to
Chelsea High School with a handgun after a meeting to discuss a grievance he had filed over a reprimand for inappropriate remarks about a female student. He shot and killed
Superintendent Joseph Piasecki and wounded
Principal Ron Mead and teacher Phil Jones. Leith would subsequently be convicted of
first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.[143]
In the Denver, Colorado area, eight shopping malls closed their
Santa displays after receiving death threats directed at
Santa Claus by mail and fax machine. By the following day, Santa would be greeting children at over a dozen police and fire stations in the area.[211]
Debbie Tucker Loveless and John Harvey Miller, who had both been serving life prison sentences, were released on bond after their convictions for the alleged murder of Loveless' 4-year-old daughter in
January 1989 were overturned the previous week. The
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the convictions due to the couple having ineffective counsel and the failure of the prosecution to turn over medical records to the defense. Loveless and Miller maintained that the child died as a result of a dog attack and that their first attorney ignored evidence supporting their explanation.[228][229] Prosecutors would dismiss the charges against Loveless and Miller on May 2, 1994.[229]
National Football League quarterback
Troy Aikman agreed to an eight-year, $50 million contract with the
Dallas Cowboys, making him the richest player in NFL history up to that time.[230]
Five shoppers were killed and 48 others wounded in a grenade explosion at a market in
Misamis Occidental, Philippines.[244]
During a family Christmas Eve supper in
Montauban, France, a table exploded, piercing a man's neck artery with a shard of glass and causing him to bleed to death.[245]
A 59-year-old woman identified by the press as "Jennifer F." gave birth to twins at a hospital in London, occasioning controversy and comment across Europe.[253]
Grenade attacks occurred at the Roman Catholic
Davao Cathedral and at a
Muslim mosque in
Davao City, Philippines. At least six people were killed and more than 130 wounded in the first incident, while there were no casualties in the second one.[244]
Actress
Marlene Dietrich's grave in
Berlin, Germany, was desecrated and covered with feces the day before what would have been her 92nd birthday.[262]
Israeli soldiers in
southern Lebanon, mistaking a United Nations patrol for a guerrilla group, killed one Norwegian soldier and wounded another.[264]
Career criminal Roger Hoan Brady shot and killed Officer Martin L. Ganz of the
Manhattan Beach, California Police Department during a traffic stop. Ganz's 12-year-old nephew, who was on a
ride-along with him, was unharmed.[265][266][267]
In New York state, four out of six
parcel bombs sent to family members of Brenda Lazore, the ex-girlfriend of Michael Stevens, exploded, killing five people. Lazore's mother, stepfather and sister, a coworker of her stepfather and a friend of her sister were all killed; her uncle was injured. Two other bombs sent to family members were intercepted by police. Stevens and his friend Earl Figley would be charged in the bombings on December 29.[274]
The Troubles: The Irish Republican Army released a New Year's message making no mention of a
ceasefire, indicating uncertainty about the Downing Street Declaration issued on December 15.[288]
9-year-old Joey Jacobs of Chester Township, Ohio,[a] lost both ears while holding off a
Rottweiler attacking two younger children. The dog had run over a buried-wire fence produced by
Invisible Fence Inc. to attack them.[290][291]
The Troubles in Crossmaglen: 23-year-old British Army soldier Daniel Blinco was shot and killed by an Irish Republican Army sniper during an Army foot patrol in
Crossmaglen, County Armagh, Northern Ireland.[15]
Argentina passed a measure allowing President
Carlos Menem and all future presidents to run for a second consecutive term. It also shortened presidential terms to four years and removed the requirement for the president to be Roman Catholic.[299]
In
Pampa, Texas, Twila Busby was strangled and bludgeoned to death and her two adult sons, Randy Busby and Elwin Caler, were stabbed to death. Busby's live-in boyfriend,
Hank Skinner, would be convicted of the murders in 1995 and sentenced to death.[304]
^"Former fascist organizer dies". Capital Gay. December 1988., cited in
"Nicky Crane | Searchlight case study"(PDF). Political Extremism & Radicalism: Far-Right and Left Political Groups in US, Europe and Australia.
Gale. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
^"Abidin Dino". Biyografi.info (in Turkish). Tüm Hakları Saklıdır. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
^Tritsch, Shane; Mogharei, Phoebe (20 August 2019) [First published in August 1994 as "'I Have a Buddy Dying'"].
"The Night Jeff Alm Died". Chicago.
Archived from the original on 20 August 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
^Kirkup, James (28 December 1993).
"Obituary: Guy des Cars". People. The Independent. Retrieved 3 November 2021. This source gives des Cars' date of death as December 20, 1993.
^"Guy des Cars, 82, Dies; Popular French Writer". The New York Times. Reuters. 22 December 1993. p. B8. Retrieved 3 November 2021. This source gives des Cars' date of death as December 22, 1993.
^"Dietrich's grave desecrated". The Straits Times. 28 December 1993. p. 9. Retrieved 21 October 2021 – via NewspaperSG, Government of Singapore.
^"Chiefs 2017 Squad". The Official Website of the Chiefs - Investec Super Rugby. 2017. Archived from
the original on 6 August 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
^"「Seventeen」卒業の新川優愛、モデル・女優としての活動を振り返る<プロフィール・略歴>" [Yuai Shinkawa, graduating from "Seventeen", looks back on her work as a model and actress <profile and biography>]. Model Press (in Japanese). Netnative Inc. 1 May 2015. Retrieved 19 October 2021.