| 1984–1994 | UK [television] | Spitting Image, a programme satirizing contemporary politics using puppets created by Peter Fluck and Roger Law, is shown on British television. |
| 1987–1993 | UK [television] | French and Saunders, a comic sketch series starring comedians Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, is shown on British television. |
| 1988–1994 | USA [ecology] | The amount of chlorofluorocarbons released into the air in the USA is reduced by 52%. |
| 1991 | USA [clothing and fashion] | Women's fashions in the USA include longer hemlines for skirts, often reaching to mid-calf. |
| 1991 | England [fiction] | The English writer Angela Carter publishes her last novel Wise Children. |
| 1991 | Nigeria [fiction] | The Nigerian writer Ben Okri publishes his novel The Famished Road, which wins the Booker Prize. |
| 1991 | Middle East [Gulf War (1990–91)] | The Gulf War is the first war in which laser weapons are used extensively. |
| 1991 | USA [health and medicine] | US pathologist Jack Kervorkian, known as ‘Dr Death’, publishes Prescription: Medicide: The Goodness of Planned Death, a book advocating physician-assisted suicide. |
| 1991 | Italy [anthropology] | The body of a man, complete with clothing, bow, arrows, a copper axe, and other implements, is found preserved in a glacier in the Italian Alps. Known as the ‘iceman’, he is estimated to be 5,300 years old. The discovery leads to a reappraisal of the boundary between the Bronze and the Stone Age. |
| 1991 | UK [literature and language] | Andrew Morton writes Diana: Her True Story, a biography of the Princess of Wales, with the collaboration of her friends. |
| 1991 | USA, Netherlands [media and communication] | The Dutch electronics company Philips launches the Compact Disc Interactive (CD-I) in the USA, a multimedia technology that is viewed using a special player on a television set. |
| 1991 | Japan, USA [music] | The Japanese electronics company Sony launches the Mini Disk in Japan and the USA. It holds 74 minutes of music and is 6.4 cm/2.5 in in diameter. |
| 1991 | USA [plays] | The play Lost in Yonkers, by the US dramatist Neil Simon, is first performed in New York City. It wins him the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. |
| 1991 | USA [popular music] | The US rock group Nirvana releases the album Nevermind; it marks the advent of grunge music, much of it coming from Seattle, Washington. |
| 1991 | UK [popular music] | Following the death from AIDS of the British rock group Queen's lead singer Freddie Mercury, the single ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is re-released and goes to number one in the UK charts for the second time. |
| 1991 | USA, UK [popular music] | The resurgence in use of the hallucinogenic drug LSD in the UK and the USA is accompanied by the development of ambient techno music. |
| 1991 | world [statistics and demography] | The world population is 5.5 billion, compared with 3.63 billion in 1970. |
| 1991 | USA [statistics and demography] | Studies reveal that one in four babies in the USA is born out of wedlock. |
| 1991 | USA [statistics and demography] | A study in the USA reveals that women hold 45% of all government jobs, but just 31% of upper-level positions in government agencies. |
| 1991 | USA [statistics and demography] | The US Census Bureau reports that from 1984 to 1988 the income of the richest 20% grew by 14% but that nationwide the median income dropped from $37,012 to $35,752. |
| 1991 | UK [work and unemployment] | In the grip of the longest recession since the 1930s, unemployment in Britain stands at 2.5 million and house repossessions at 80,000 for the year. |
| 16 January 1991 | USA, Kuwait, Iraq [Gulf War (1990–91)] | A US-led coalition commences air offensive ‘Operation Desert Storm’ to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation, beginning the Gulf War. |
| 25 January 1991 | USA [statistics and demography] | US federal health officials announce that 100,777 people have died from AIDS since the discovery of the disease in 1981. |
| 27 February 1991 | Kuwait, Iraq [Gulf War (1990–91)] | Coalition forces enter the capital Kuwait City and declare Kuwait liberated from the Iraqis. |
| 3 March 1991 | Iraq, USA, UK [Gulf War (1990–91)] | An armistice is signed by leaders of the international coalition and the Iraqi army, ending the Gulf War (in force from 11 April). |
| 31 March 1991 | USSR [political events] | The military structure of the Warsaw Pact (formed in 1955 between the USSR and East European communist states) is formally dissolved. |
| 1 April 1991 | USA [births and deaths] | Martha Graham, US choreographer of modern dance, dies in New York City (96). |
| 3 April 1991 | England, Switzerland [births and deaths] | Graham Greene, English novelist, dies in Vevey, Switzerland (86). |
| 4 April 1991 | USA [ecology] | The US Environmental Protection Agency announces ozone layer depletion at twice the speed previously predicted. |
| 9 April 1991 | Georgia, USSR [political events] | The Soviet republic of Georgia votes for independence from the USSR. |
| 15 May 1991 | France [political events] | The socialist politician Edith Cresson becomes the first woman prime minister of France, following the resignation of Michel Rocard. |
| 18 May - 26 May 1991 | England [space exploration] | English chemist Helen Sharman becomes the first Briton to go into space, as a participant in a Soviet space mission launched in Soyuz TM-12. She spends six days with Soviet cosmonauts aboard the Mir space station. |
| June 1991 | Philippines [natural disasters] | Mount Pinatubo on Luzon, in the Philippines, erupts in the third-largest eruption this century. Clouds of ash are sent 20 km/12 mi into the atmosphere along with the greatest volume of sulphur dioxide ever measured. Timely warnings lead to the evacuation of 56,000 people and there are only a few deaths. |
| 5 June 1991 | South Africa [political events] | South Africa ends discriminatory land legislation, dismantling the legal framework of apartheid. |
| 25 June 1991 | Croatia, Slovenia, Yugoslavia [Balkan conflicts (c. 1991–2000)] | The republics of Croatia and Slovenia declare independence from Yugoslavia. |
| 1 July 1991 | USA [legislation] | A law passed by Congress extending the employment rights of mentally ill Americans goes into effect. Among other provisions, employers cannot ask job applicants if they have a history of mental illness. |
| 8 July 1991 | Slovenia, Yugoslavia [political events] | Slovenia's independence is recognized by the federal government of Yugoslavia. |
| 31 July 1991 | USA, USSR [treaties] | The US president George Bush and the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) to reduce their arsenals of long-range nuclear weapons by a third. |
| 19 August 1991 | USSR [political events] | Reactionary communists led by Gennady Yanayev stage a coup against the Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, who is placed under house arrest in the Crimea; radio and television stations are shut down and military rule imposed in many cities. |
| 20 August 1991 | Estonia, USSR [political events] | The Soviet republic of Estonia declares its independence from the USSR. |
| 21 August 1991 | USSR [political events] | The coup in the USSR against President Mikhail Gorbachev fails; Gorbachev returns to Moscow the following day. |
| 21 August 1991 | Latvia, USSR [political events] | The Soviet republic of Latvia declares its independence from the USSR. |
| 3 September 1991 | Italy, USA [births and deaths] | Frank Capra, Italian-born US film director who directed It's a Wonderful Life and Mr Smith Goes to Washington, dies in La Quinta, California (94). |
| 22 September 1991 | Armenia, USSR [political events] | The Soviet republic of Armenia declares its independence from the USSR. |
| 24 September 1991 | USA [births and deaths] | Dr Seuss (pseudonym of Theodore Seuss Geisel), US writer of children's books, dies in La Jolla, California (87). |
| 24 October 1991 | USA [births and deaths] | Gene Roddenberry, US writer and film and television producer who created Star Trek, dies in Santa Monica, California (70). |
| 8 December 1991 | USSR [political events] | The leaders of the Soviet republics of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine agree to the formation of a Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to replace the USSR. |
| 9 December - 10 December 1991 | Europe, Netherlands, UK [treaties] | A summit of European Community heads of government in Maastricht, the Netherlands, agrees the Maastricht Treaty on closer economic and political union (Britain obtains the right to abstain from social legislation and a single currency). |
| 25 December 1991 | USSR [political events] | Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the USSR, which officially ceased to exist on 9 December. |
