Starostin's ( 1991 ) lexicostatistical research claimed that the proposed Altaic groups shared about 15 – 20 % of potential cognates within a 110-word Swadesh-Yakhontov list ( e. g. Turkic – Mongolic 20 %, Turkic – Tungusic 18 %, Turkic – Korean 17 %, Mongolic – Tungusic 22 %, Mongolic – Korean 16 %, Tungusic – Korean 21 %).

A mummified man, determined to be 5, 000 years old, was discovered on a glacier at the Austrian – Italian border in 1991.

* 1919 – Billy Vaughn, American musician and bandleader ( d. 1991 )

* 1991 – Magnus Paajarvi, Swedish hockey player

* 1991 – The European Community recognizes the independence of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

* 1991 – Moldova declares independence from the USSR.

* 1991 – Rikiya Otaka, Japanese actor

* 1991 – Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web.

* 1991 – Takako Doi, chair of the Social Democratic Party, becomes Japan's first female speaker of the House of Representatives.

* 1991 – Jiao Liuyang, Chinese swimmer

* 1902 – Zino Francescatti, French violinist ( d. 1991 )

* 1991 – Hansika Motwani, Indian actress

* 1991 – Candela Vetrano, Argentine actress and singer

* 1898 – Regis Toomey, American actor ( d. 1991 )

* 1912 – Salvador Luria, Italian-American microbiologist, Nobel Prize laureate ( d. 1991 )

* 1991 – Dave Days, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

* 1991 – Skyler Day, American actress

* 1991 – Evander Kane, Canadian ice hockey player

* Party of Labour of Albania, the sole legal political party in Albania during communist rule ( 1946 – 1991 )

* 1991 – The South African cricket team is readmitted into the International Cricket Council following the end of Apartheid.

** Nadine Gordimer, whose work was once suppressed because of its scatching criticism of Apartheid in South Africa, is awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature.

The Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967 was a law of the South African Apartheid regime until all except section 7 was repealed under the Internal Security and Intimidation Amendment Act 138 of 1991.

The reunion tour coincided with the re-release of Apartheid on CD and the first-time release of perhaps their best live performance, the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1991 ( Live à Montreux ) on CD, as well as a Best of 2-CD set, on which all tracks were entirely remastered.

In 1991, it gained its first South Australian team, Adelaide, which paid five million dollars to enter the AFL.

* 1991 – The Greek cruise ship sinks off the Wild Coast of South Africa.

* 1991 – A rare tropical storm develops in the South Atlantic Ocean near Angola ; the first to be documented by satellites.

* 1991 – Headman Shabalala, South African singer ( Ladysmith Black Mambazo ) ( b. 1945 )

* 1991 – CL, South Korean singer / rapper ( 2NE1 )

In 1990, de Klerk gave orders to end South Africa's nuclear weapons programme ; the process of nuclear disarmament was essentially completed in 1991.

Asian-owned firms dominated the sector, with twenty-one South Korean-owned companies in export processing zones located in the Río Sula valley in 1991.

* 1991 – Jang Min Chul, South Korean gamer

* 1991 – Hyorin, South Korean singer ( leader group SISTAR )

* 1991 – Goo Ha-ra, South Korean singer and actress ( Kara )

* Key ( singer ) ( born 1991 ), South Korean entertainer

* 1991 – Kamohelo Mokotjo, South African footballer

* Pole to Pole ( Travel 1991 ; Programme release 1992 ): travelling from the North Pole to the South Pole, following as closely as possible the 30 degree line of longitude, over as much land as possible, i. e., through Europe and Africa.

* The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America ( 1991 ) ISBN 978-0-394-26967-2 ( On the migration of millions of black people from the South to the North in the 1940s and 1950s )

* Exports-valued at US $ 25. 3 million ( 1991 ), mainly phosphates, main partners are New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, US ( 2000 )

* 1991 – South Ossetia declares independence from Georgia.

The particles were never observed to rise above 6 km and when combined with scavenging by clouds gave the smoke a short residency time in the atmosphere and localized its effects ; Professor Carl Sagan of the Turco, Toon, Ackerman, Pollack, Sagan ( TTAPS ) study hypothesized in January 1991 that enough smoke from the fires " might get so high as to disrupt agriculture in much of South Asia ...." Sagan later conceded in his book The Demon-Haunted World that this prediction did not turn out to be correct: " it was pitch black at noon and temperatures dropped 4 °– 6 ° C over the Persian Gulf, but not much smoke reached stratospheric altitudes and Asia was spared.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, South Korea and Russia established diplomatic ties in 1991.

Until 1991 telephone services were operated by the South African Postal Service.

Telkom was incorporated on 30 September 1991 as a public limited liability company registered under the South African Companies Act, 61 of 1973, as amended.

* 1991 – Key, South Korean singer, dancer, and actor ( Shinee )

* 1991 – Estonia, North Korea, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia join the United Nations.