1993 was designated as: International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its calendar advanced 24 hours to the Eastern Hemisphere side of the International Date Line, skipping August 21, 1993. Events January January 1 Czechoslovakia ceases to exist, as the Czech Republic and Slovakia separate in the Dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The European Economic Community eliminates trade barriers and creates a European single market. January 3 – In Moscow, Presidents George H. W. Bush (United States) and Boris Yeltsin (Russia) sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. January 5 US$7.4 million is stolen from the Brink's Armored Car Depot in Rochester, New York, in the fifth largest robbery in U.S. history. , a Liberian-registered oil tanker, runs aground off the Scottish island of Mainland, Shetland, causing a massive oil spill. January 6 Douglas Hurd is the first high-ranking British official to visit Argentina since the Falklands War. January 6–20 – The Bombay riots take place in Mumbai. January 7 – The Fourth Republic of Ghana is inaugurated, with Jerry Rawlings as president. January 8–17 – The Braer Storm of January 1993, the most intense extratropical cyclone on record for the northern Atlantic Ocean, occurs. January 13 The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is signed. Iraq disarmament crisis: US, British and French aircraft attack Iraqi Surface to Air Missile sites in Southern Iraq. January 14 – The Polish ferry sinks off the coast of Rügen in the Baltic Sea, killing 54 people. January 19 – 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 Iraqi no-fly zones. U.S. forces fire approximately 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Baghdad factories linked to Iraq's illegal nuclear weapons program (→ January 1993 airstrikes on Iraq). Iraq then informs UNSCOM that it will be able to resume its flights. January 20 – Bill Clinton is sworn in as the 42nd President of the United States. January 24 – In Turkey, thousands protest against the murder of journalist Uğur Mumcu. January 25 – Social Democrat Poul Nyrup Rasmussen succeeds Conservative Poul Schlüter as Prime Minister of Denmark. January 26 – Václav Havel is elected President of the Czech Republic. February February 4 – Members of the right-wing Austrian Freedom