January 2 – Philadelphia police officer Lauretha Vaird is shot and later pronounced dead during a botched armed bank robbery by rapper Cool C. She becomes Philadelphia's first female police officer killed in the line of duty.
January 7 – One of the worst blizzards in American history hits the eastern states, killing more than 150 people. Philadelphia receives a record 30 inches of snowfall and New York City's public schools close for the first time in 18 years. The federal government in Washington, D.C. is closed for several days, extending the time federal employees are out of the office from the 1996 federal government shutdown.
January 19 – The North Cape oil spill occurs as an engine fire forces the tugboat Scandia ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. The North Cape barge is pulled along with it and leaks 820,000 gallons of home heating oil.
February 24 – Cuban fighter jets shoot down two American aircraft belonging to the Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue. Cuban officials assert that they invaded Cuban airspace.
March 10 – In Mesquite, Nevada, motorcycle stunt rider Butch Laswell is killed in front of a crowd of spectators, after a motorcycle stunt goes horribly wrong.
March 30 – After being convicted of the murder of Colleen Slemmer in Tennessee, 20-year-old Christa Pike becomes the youngest woman to be sentenced to death in the United States during the post-Furman period.[2][3]
April 11 – Jessica Dubroff, 7, is killed in a plane crash in Cheyenne, Wyoming while attempting to set a record as the youngest person to pilot an airplane across the United States.
April 16 – The NBA's 1995–1996 Chicago Bulls, with Michael Jordan's lead, go on to set a new NBA record for the most wins in a season, achieving their 70th win.
May 30 – The Hoover Institution releases an optimistic report that global warming will probably reduce mortality in the United States and provide Americans with valuable benefits.[4]
June – Iraq disarmament crisis: As Iraq continues to refuse inspectors access to a number of sites, the U.S. fails in its attempt to build support for military action against Iraq in the UN Security Council.
June 21 – Walt Disney Pictures' 34th feature film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, considered to be one of the studio's darkest animated films, is released to positive reviews and commercial success.
July 12 – Hurricane Bertha makes landfall in North Carolina as a Category 2 storm, causing $270 million in damage to the United States and its possessions and many indirect deaths.
August 6 – NASA announces that the Allan Hills 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, may contain evidence of primitive life-forms; further tests are inconclusive.
August 23 – Osama bin Laden writes "The Declaration of Jihad on the Americans Occupying the Country of the Two Sacred Places," a call for the removal of American military forces from Saudi Arabia.
President Bill Clinton signs PRWORA welfare reform into law.
August 29
Tiger Woods makes his professional PGA Tour debut at the Greater Milwaukee Open, four days after winning his third consecutive U.S. Amateur Championship.
Iraq disarmament crisis: As Iraq continues to refuse inspectors access to a number of sites, the U.S. fails in its attempt to build support for military action against Iraq in the UN Security Council.[7]
September 5 – Hurricane Fran makes landfall near Cape Fear, North Carolina as a Category 3 storm with sustained winds of 115 mph, just weeks prior to the landfall of Hurricane Bertha near the same location. It caused $3.2 billion in damages and claimed a total of 27 lives.
An ice storm strikes the U.S., killing 26 directly and hundreds more from accidents. A powerful windstorm blasts Florida; winds gust to 90 miles per hour (140 km/h).
The U.S. stock market, especially the Dow Jones Industrial Average, gains at an incredibly fast pace following the 1996 Presidential election. It gains 10 days in a row during the month.
December 25 (probable date) – Death of JonBenét Ramsey: A six-year-old beauty queen is beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colorado; her body is found the following day.
Laurel Mountain (Oregon) receives 204.04 inches (5,182.6 mm) of rainfall equivalent during the year, the most ever recorded for a calendar year in the contiguous United States.[9]
^Smallwood, Bill (March 16, 1947). "Delightful Side". Los Angeles Sentinel. p. 17. ProQuest562108876. Billye [sic] Yarbo and Nat Cole both birthday on the 17th.
^1940 United States Federal Census Year: 1940; Census Place: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California; Roll: m-t0627-00416; Page: 12A; Enumeration District: 60-362
Media related to 1996 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons