As one part of the African continent started to amend the wrongs of the past, another plunged into long term horror and despair while in the United States, an unremarkable D-List celebrity quickly became one of the most infamous people in Western civilization…

1994 was also the year where:

– Redcliffe Dolphins win all three senior competition grades

– Redcliffe City Council acquires the 44 ha. Nathan Road Wetlands site to preserve as an ecological and educational reserve

– Bushfires rip through coastal NSW, destroying over 300 homes and leaving 4 people dead

– Federal Sports Minister Ros Kelly is forced to resign over the “sports rorts affair”. Kelly had been unable to explain how Federal sporting grants had been given to marginal seats that were held by Labor at the time

– John Hewson is deposed by Alexander Downer as Federal Leader of the Opposition

– Former West Australian Premier Brian Burke is sentenced to 8 months jail on travel expense rorts

– The Government pays reparations to Aboriginals who were displaced during nuclear tests in the outback in 50’s and 60’s

– The first political assassination in Australia since 1977 occurs when NSW State MP John Newman is gunned down outside his home by a political opponent

– A plane carrying the Government leadership of Rwanda crashes killing all on board. Violence erupts between the major ethnic groups that had long battled for power, the Tutsi’s and Hutu’s. The violence rapidly escalated, resulting in the organised slaughter of 800,000 Tutsi

– Nelson Mandela is elected President after South Africa’s first interracial elections are held

– Both the IRA and Ulster Protestants declare a cease fire in the long running conflict over North Ireland

– B Grade celebrity and former professional footballer O.J. Simpson is arrested for murdering his wife and her friend after a nationally televised car chase, watched by 95 million viewers

– Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain commits suicide at the age of 27

– Mark Coyne scores the most amazing try in the history of Rugby League when he crosses in the corner in the dying seconds of the year’s first State of Origin game. It comes to be known universally as “the miracle try” and is acknowledged far and wide as one of the greatest moments in the history of the world

– Blue Heelers premiers on Channel 7

Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, Quiz Show, The Lion King and Australian classics Muriel’s Wedding and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert are released

Deaths: John Candy (4 March), Richard Milhous Nixon (22 April), Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (19 May), Burt Lancaster (20 October)