• January 1 - George H. W. Bush becomes the first President of the United States to address the Australian Parliament
• January 8 - President of the United States George H. W. Bush becomes ill on a visit in Japan and vomits on the Japanese Prime Minister Miyazawa Kiichi.
• January 11 - Paul Simon is the first major artist to tour South Africa after the end of the cultural boycott.
• January 13 - Japan apologizes for forcing Korean women into sexual slavery during World War II.
• January 15 - The Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia ceases to exist. Slovenia and Croatia gain independence
• January 16 - El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign a pact in Mexico City that ends a 12 year civil war that claimed at least 75,000.
• January 22 - Rebel forces occupy Zaire's national radio station in Kinshasa and broadcast a demand for the government's resignation.
• January 22 - Dr. Roberta Bondar becomes the first Canadian woman in space.
• January 26 - Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia is going to stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons.
• January 27 - Mike Tyson goes on trial charged with raping a 1991 Miss Black America Contest contestant.
• January - the Internet Society is formed.
• February 1 - Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal court declares Warren Anderson, ex-CEO of Union Carbide a fugitive under Indian law for failing to appear in the Bhopal Disaster case, and orders the Indian government to press for an extradition from United States.
• February 7 - signing of the Maastricht treaty
• February 10 - In Indianapolis, Indiana boxer Mike Tyson is convicted of raping a Miss Black American contestant named Desiree Washington.
• February 11 - F-16 jet crashes into a residential district of Hengelo, the Netherlands. No casualties are reported.
• February 11 - Art band The KLF subvert the UK's Brit Awards
• February 17 - A court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin sentences Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer to life in prison.
• February 18 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The Executive Chairman of UNSCOM details Iraq's refusal to abide by UN Security Council disarmament resolutions.
• March 1 - After a majority of Muslim and Croatian communities vote for Bosnian independence, Bosnian Serb snipers fire on civilians.
• March 6 - The 'Michelangelo' computer virus begins to affect computers.
• March 12 - Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the British Commonwealth.
• March 13 - In eastern Turkey, an earthquake registering 6.8 on the Richter scale kills over 500.
• March 17 - 29 are killed and 242 injured when a suicide car-bomb goes off in the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires.
• March 18 - Microsoft ships Windows 3.1
• March 25 - Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returns to Earth a 10-month stay aboard the Mir space station.
• April - Bosnia and Herzegovina secede from Yugoslavia.
• April 2 - In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison.
• April 29 - In Los Angeles, California, the police officers that were accused of excessive force in there severe beating of Rodney King, were found "not guilty". The verdict resulted in several days of riots in L.A. and smaller riots around the country.
• May 7 - Michigan ratifies a 203-year-old proposed amendment to the United States Constitution making the 27th Amendment law. This amendment bars the United States Congress from giving itself a midterm pay raise.
• May 15 - The Genoa Expo '92 World's Fair opens in Genoa, Italy
• May 16 - STS-49: Space Shuttle Endeavour lands safely after a successful maiden voyage.
• May 20 - Amy Fisher, the so-called "Long Island Lolita," is arrested for shooting Mary Jo Buttafuoco on the front porch of her Massapequa, New York home.
• July - Boxer Mike Tyson is given a 6 year sentence for raping an 18 year old Miss Black America contestant, Desiree Washington
• July 6-29 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq refuses a U.N. inspection team access to the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture. UNSCOM claimed that it had reliable information that the site contained archives related to illegal weapons activities. U.N. Inspectors stage a 17-day "sit-in" outside of the building, but leave when their safety is threatened by Iraqi soldiers.
• July 10 - In Miami, Florida, former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega is sentenced to 40 years in prison for drug and racketeering violations.
• July 20 - Vaclav Havel resigns as president of Czechoslovakia.
• July 22 - Near Medellin, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escapes from his luxury prison fearing extradiction to the United States.
• Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
• August 20 - Kristiansunds connection to the main land of Norway, Krifast, opens.
• September - Pound and Lira forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism
• October 4 - Plane crash in Amsterdam, Netherlands, known as the Bijlmerramp.
• October 15 - In Russia, Andrei Chikatilo is found guilty of 52 serial murders.
• October 26 - In Canada, the Charlottetown Accord is defeated in a national referendum.
• October 29 - The Food and Drug Administration approves Depo Provera for use as a contraceptive in the United States.
• November - Bill Clinton defeats George H. W. Bush and H. Ross Perot in the U.S. presidential election
• December 8 - Last blast fired in Falu Copper Mine in Sweden. The end of a millennium of continuous operation.
• November 5 - In Detroit, Michigan, black motorist Malice Green is beaten to death by policemen Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn during a struggle (the officers were later convicted and sentenced to prison).
• November 11 - The Church of England votes to allow women to become priests.
• November 20 - In England, a fire breaks out in the Private Chapel room of Windsor Castle, rages for 15 hours, and seriously damages the northwest side of the building (an investigation found that the fire was ignited after a spotlight came into contact with a curtain over an extended period).
• November 24 - In the People's Republic of China, a China Southern Airlines domestic flight crashes, killing all 141 people on-board.
• November 25 - The Czechoslovakia Federal Assembly votes to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia starting on January 1, 1993.
• December 3 - UN Security Council Resolution 794 is unanimously passed, approving a coalition of United Nations peacekeepers led by the United States to form UNITAF, tasked with ensuring humanitarian aid gets distributed and establishing peace in Somalia.
• December 3 - The Greek oil tanker Aegean Sea carrying 80,000 tonnes of crude oil runs aground in a storm while on approach to La Coruña, Spain, and spills much of its cargo.
• December 4 - US President George H. W. Bush orders 28,000 American troops to Somalia.
• Pope John Paul II issued an apology and lifted the edict of Inquisition against Galileo Galilei

• Hurricane Andrew hits Florida, killing 14 and leaving 250,000 people homeless.
• Brazil's president resigns, following charges that he stole more than $32 million from the government and impeachment precedings.
• The largest shopping mall in the US, Minnesota's Mall of America is constructed spanning 78 acres.
• Crime boss John Gotti is found guilty on 13 counts, including racketeering and murder
• Queen Elizabeth II describes this year as an Annus Horribilis (horrible year) due to various scandals damaging the image of the Royal Family.

Year in topic

• 1992 in art
• 1992 in film
  • A Few Good Men starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Demi Moore
  • Unforgiven starring Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Harris. Eastwood also directed.
  • Scent of a Woman
• 1992 in literature
• 1992 in music
  • Dr. Dre's The Chronic is widely considered the first G funk LP, as well as a memorable West Coast gangsta rap album
• 1992 in sports
  • January 26 - Super Bowl XXVI Washington Redskins (37) def. Buffalo Bills (24)
  • February 11 - Michael Johnson runs an indoor world record over 400 meters.
  • June- The Chicago Bulls defeat the Portland Trail Blazers 4 games to 2 to claim their second consecutive NBA basketball world title.
• October 24 - The Toronto Blue Jays become the first non-US team to win the World Series
• 1992 in television
  • April 30 - After a seven year run the last episode of The Cosby Show airs.
  • June 3 - Presidential Candidate Bill Clinton appears on The Arsenio Hall Show. Clinton even plays the saxophone with the live band.
  • After 30 years on the air, Johnny Carson announces his retirement. David Letterman, who had been promised The Tonight Show upon Carson's retirement years earlier leaves NBC for CBS when the network gives the show to frequent guest host Jay Leno.
  • Barney & Friends, a children's educational television show starring a giant purple dinosaur, premieres.
• 1993 in video games and computing
  • November 21 - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is released for the Sega Megadrive in Japan.
  • November 24 - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is released for the Sega Genesis in North America.

Births

• January 3 - Dame Judith Anderson, actress
• January 23 - Freddie Bartholomew, actor
• January 26 - José Ferrer, actor
• January 29 - Willie Dixon, composer, musician
• January 31 - Willie Dixon, blues musician
• February 2 - Bert Parks, game show host, Miss America host
• February 10 - Alex Haley, author
• February 11 - Ray Danton, US actor/director.
• February 20 - Dick York, actor
• March 2 - Sandy Dennis, actress
• March 8 - Red Callender, composer
• March 9 - Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel
• March 29 - Paul Henreid, actor
• April 6 - Isaac Asimov, author
• April 6 - Molly Picon, actress
• April 18 - Benny Hill, comedian, actor
• April 23 - Satyajit Ray, Indian filmmaker
• April 27 - Olivier Messiaen, composer
• May 6 - Marlene Dietrich, actress
• May 12 - Robert Reed, actor
• May 17 - Lawrence Welk, musician
• May 23 - Giovanni Falcone, judge
• July 15 - Hammer DeRoburt, founding president of Nauru (*1922)
• August 5 - Jeff Porcaro, American Drummer extrordinaire
• August 12 - John Cage, American composer
• August - Mark Heard, American singer
• December 18 - Mark Goodson, game show producer
• December - Pierre Culliford, a.k.a. "Peyo". Belgian Creator of Smurfs

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Georges Charpak
• Chemistry - Rudolph A Marcus
• Medicine - Edmond H Fischer, Edwin G Krebs
• Literature - Derek Walcott
• Peace - Rigoberta Menchu Tum
• Economics - Gary Becker