- May 10
- Two US Marine helicopters collide during joint US and British war games. [1]
- A sudden storm engulfs Mount Everest with several climbing teams high on the mountain, leaving eight dead. (By the end of the month, at least four other climbers die in the worst season of fatalities on the mountain to date.) [28]
- May 11
- After takeoff from Miami, Florida, a fire started by improperly-handled oxygen canisters in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 on board. [1] [28]
- May 13
- Severe thunderstorms and a tornado in Bangladesh kill 600. [28]
- May 17
- Alicia Machado, 18, of Venezuela crowned 45th Miss Universe. [1]
- May 21
- The MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters in Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1,000 in one of Africa's worst maritime disasters. [28]
- The Trappist Martyrs of Atlas are executed. [28]
- Auctions by Bowers and Merena sells the Louis Eliasberg US 1913 Liberty Head nickel for US$1.485 million, a record for a single coin at auction. [486.64] [495.36] [525.78]
- May 23
- Swede Göran Kropp reaches the Mount Everest summit alone without oxygen, after having bicycled to the base from Sweden. [28]
- May 25
- Jennifer Maria Holsten, 18, crowned Miss Filipino-American. [1]
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- May 27
- Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechnyan rebels for the first time and negotiates a cease-fire in the war. [28]
- May 31
- Mark Van Thillo and Abigail Alling, former biospherian win $100,000 lawsuit against Biospheric Development for Space Biospheres Ventures. [1]
- June 7
- An Irish Republican Army gang murders Detective Garda Jerry McCabe during a botched armed robbery in Adare, County Limerick. [28]
- June 10
- Peace talks begin in Northern Ireland without Sinn Féin. [28]
- In the Andreanof Islands, Alaska, magnitude 7.9 and 7.3 earthquakes occurs. [53]
- June 12
- In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a panel of federal judges blocks a law against indecency on the internet. The panel says that the 1996 Communications Decency Act would infringe upon the free speech rights of adults. [28]
- June 15
- In Manchester, United Kingdom, a massive Irish Republican Army bomb injures over 200 people and devastates a large part of the city centre. [28]
- June 23
- In Japan, Nintendo ships the Nintendo 64 video game system. Price is 25,000 yen. It features 64-bit 93.75 MHz MIPS R4000 Series RISC main processor, 64-bit 62.5 MHz graphics and sound coprocessor, 4.5 MB of RAM, 32-bit color at 640x480 resolution, four control ports. (500,000 units sell in the first week.) [9]
- June 25
- The Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia kills 19 U.S. servicemen and injures 400. [28] [836.60]
- June 26
- Journalist Veronica Guerin is shot and killed in her car just outside Dublin, Ireland. [28]
- June 29
- The Prince's Trust concert is held in Hyde Park, London, and is attended by 150,000 people. Rock group The Who headlines the event in their first performance since 1989. [28]
- June 30
- Costas Simitis is elected President of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement of Greece. [28]
- July 1
- The Northern Territory in Australia legalises voluntary euthanasia. [28]
- July 3
- Fox releases the film Independence Day to theaters. (Total world gross ticket sales: $817 million (1st for 1996).) [939]
- July 5
- Dolly the sheep (code-named "6ll3") is born at the Roslin Institute in Scotland, the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell. [28] [129]
- July 15
- In France, a magnitude 4.3 earthquake occurs. [53]
- July 17
- Paris-bound TWA Flight 800 (Boeing 747) explodes off the coast of Long Island, New York, killing all 230 on board. [28]
- July 21
- Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River in Quebec, in one of Canada's most costly natural disasters. [28]
- August 6
- NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms. [28]
- August 7
- Heavy rains kill more than 80 campers near Huesca, Spain. [28]
- August 11
- The British rock band Oasis plays the biggest free-standing concert in United Kingdom history at Knebworth, Hertfordshire. [28]
- August 13
- Data sent back by the Galileo space probe indicates there may be water on one of Jupiter's moons. [28]
- August 23
- Osama bin Laden allegedly writes "The Declaration of Jihad on the Americans Occupying the Country of the Two Sacred Places," his first open call for war. [28]
- August 24
- Microsoft releases Windows NT 4.0, with graphical user interface similar to that of Windows 95. The software comprises 16.5 million lines of code. Code-name during development was Cairo. [4]
- August 28
- Their Royal Highnesses, the Prince and Princess of Wales, are formally divorced at the High Court of Justice in London. Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales is restyled Diana, Princess of Wales. [28]
- August 31
- Iraqi forces launch an offensive into the northern No-Fly Zone and capture Arbil. [28]
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