Timeline December 1994

Events in December 1994 15

• 1914 – 1994 Woody Strode (1914-1994) American football player and actor, one of the players who reintegrated the NFL, later a John Ford regular.
• 1994 1994: Michael Schumacher Benetton German Schumacher won the first of his seven titles in a season marred by the death of Ayrton Senna and a controversial collision with Damon Hill at the final race in Adelaide.
• 1994 Exile to California Left Iran for the United States, settling in California as a political refugee. She would never return to her homeland. Received the Lillian Hellman-Dashiell Hammett Award for writers persecuted for their work.
• 1994 Knighted Knighted for services to football, becoming Sir Bobby Charlton. Later served as a director of Manchester United and as an ambassador for English football.
• 1994 Stones from the River Published Stones from the River, the novel that would define her career. Set in Burgdorf during the Nazi era, it told the story of Trudi Montag, a dwarf and keeper of secrets who witnesses her town's complicity in the horrors of the Third Reich. It became a bestseller and an Oprah's Book Club selection.
• 1994 Switched to Neuroscience Made the audacious decision to leave immunology entirely and pivot to neuroscience, studying the molecular and cellular basis of memory. Many colleagues were astonished that a Nobel laureate would abandon his winning field.
• 1994 Universal Mother Released Universal Mother, an album exploring electronic-based meditations on motherhood and identity.
• 1994 Yellow Pumpkin on Naoshima A giant yellow pumpkin sculpture covered in black polka dots was installed on a pier on Naoshima Island in Japan's Inland Sea. The 2.5-metre-wide fibreglass work became one of the most photographed artworks in Japan and an icon of Kusama's pumpkin obsession.
• 1994 PlayStation — Sony enters gaming The original PlayStation launches in Japan on 3 December 1994, developed by Ken Kutaragi — an engineer who had worked on the sound chip for Nintendo's Super Famicom. Sony enters the video game market after a failed collaboration with Nintendo on a CD-ROM add-on for the SNES. Nintendo abandons the project; Sony decides to launch its own console. The PlayStation's 32-bit processor, CD-ROM format and developer-friendly architecture attract third-party game developers away from Nintendo's cartridge-based N64. Sony sells 7 million PlayStations in its first year.
• 1994 Sony PlayStation launches Console debuts in Japan, reshaping video games Sony released the original PlayStation console in Japan, entering a market long dominated by Nintendo and Sega. It went on to sell over 100 million units worldwide and established Sony as a dominant force in gaming.
• 1994 – present Giannis Antetokounmpo The Greek Freak 2-time MVP who led the Milwaukee Bucks to the 2021 NBA championship.
• 1994 First Chechen War begins Russian forces invade breakaway republic Russian troops entered Chechnya to suppress its declared independence, beginning the First Chechen War. The conflict devastated Grozny and killed tens of thousands before a 1996 ceasefire.
• 1994 – 1995 Final concert -- the decline Sinatra performs his final concert at the Fukuoka Dome in Japan on 19 December 1994 -- though his actual final public performance is at a Palm Springs golf tournament in February 1995. His voice is dramatically diminished; he requires lyric prompters; his physical frailty is visible. The contrast with the man who filled Madison Square Garden in 1943 is painful. Sinatra, who has always been brutally self-aware about his vocal instrument, knows better than anyone what has been lost. He withdraws from public performance and spends his final years at home in Beverly Hills.
• 1994 Gillian Armstrong's Little Women Winona Ryder as Jo Winona Ryder plays Jo, with Susan Sarandon as Marmee, Claire Danes as Beth and Christian Bale as Laurie. Ryder is nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress.
• 1994 Woody Strode dies in Glendora Woody Strode dies aged 80.