* 1996 – Saddam Hussein's troops seized Irbil after the Kurdish Masoud Barzani appealed for help to defeat his Kurdish rival PUK.

On September 21, 1996, barely three years after the " Don't Ask, Don't Tell " imbroglio, and further straining relations with the LGBT community, Clinton signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act ( DOMA ), which defines marriage as the legal union of one man and one woman.

However, progress in EU-Belarus relations stalled in 1996 after serious setbacks to the development of democracy, and the Drazdy conflict.

Similarly, the USAID phased out a long-standing bilateral partnership with Botswana in 1996, after successful programs emphasizing education, training, entrepreneurship, environmental management, and reproductive health.

The Baltimore Ravens are officially a quasi-expansion franchise, having originated in 1996 with the Cleveland Browns relocation controversy after Art Modell, then owner of the Cleveland Browns, announced his intention to relocate the team to Baltimore.

Modell's team was named the " Baltimore Ravens " after a fan contest and began play in the 1996 season.

Not long after, in 1996, Karmal died from liver cancer.

In 1996, the year after the film was released, the annual three-day " Braveheart Conference " at Stirling Castle attracted fans of Braveheart, increasing the conference's attendance to 167, 000 from 66, 000 in the previous year.

Many of the Yakoma soldiers who left the country after the mutinies in 1996 – 1997 have now returned and must also be reintegrated into the army.

In the Czech Republic, anyone who spent more than six months in the UK or France between the years 1980 and 1996 or received transfusion in the UK after the year 1980 is not allowed to donate blood.

After the Panthers ' success in 1996, Capers led the Panthers through two disappointing seasons: a 7 – 9 season in 1997, and a 4 – 12 season in 1998 which resulted in Capers being fired after four seasons with the team.

Sagan taught a course on critical thinking at Cornell University until he died in 1996 from pneumonia, a few months after finding that he was in remission of myelodysplastic syndrome.

Atkins continued performing in the 1990s, but his health declined after being diagnosed again with cancer in 1996.

The first clash occurred in 1996 after a nearly two-months stand-off.

Star receiver Michael Irvin was suspended by the league for the first five games of 1996 following a drug-related arrest ; he came back after the Cowboys started the season 2-3 ; they finished 10-6 and won the NFC East title, but were eliminated in the divisional round of the playoffs 26-17 by the second-year Carolina Panthers.

The rivalry cooled with the decline of the Cowboys after 1996.

The phrase " Doom clone | Doom clone " was initially popular to describe the style of gameplay in Doom-like games, but after 1996 was gradually replaced by " first-person shooter " By 1998 the phrase " first-person shooter " had firmly superseded " Doom clone "

This facility became more vital after the closure of the Indian Ocean Station in 1996.

In 1996, a man who had been seen in Dublin wearing her photograph around his neck, stabbed himself after being ejected from her parents ' pub in Gweedore, County Donegal.

* 1996 – At the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China, a Long March 3 rocket, carrying an Intelsat 708, crashes into a rural village after liftoff, killing many people.

Relations deteriorated after the Taliban took power in 1996.

Nineteen-year-old Fauziya Kasinga, a member of the Tchamba-Kunsuntu tribe of Togo, was granted asylum in 1996 after leaving an arranged marriage to escape FGM, setting a precedent in U. S. immigration law because FGM was for the first time accepted as a form of persecution.

Unlike Alan Jackson, who refused to return to the UK after being treated in a similar manner by the press, Brooks returned in 1996 for more sold-out concerts, although this time his media appearances were mostly restricted to country radio and interviews with magazines.

The Haitian Ministry of Economy and Finance designed the Haiti economic reforms of 1996 to rebuild the economy of Haiti after significant downturns suffered in the previous years.

Prior to the implementation of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Act 1996 enacted by the British Parliament, Hong Kong represented its interests abroad through the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices ( HKETOs ) and via a special office in the British Embassies or High Commissions, but the latter has ceased after the sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred to the PRC and became a special administrative region ( SAR ) of the PRC in 1997.

The arctic fox is classed as a " prohibited new organism " under New Zealand's Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996 preventing it from being imported into the country.

In both 1996 and 2003, the Panthers were responsible for eliminating the Cowboys in the playoffs which led to the local nickname for the Panthers being the " Cowboy killers ".

Several enumerations have occurred since then, with the most recent two being carried out by Statistics South Africa in 1996 and 2001.

In 1996, Destry Rides Again was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being " culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant ".

For instance, in the 55 Cancri system the first planet – 55 Cancri b – was discovered in 1996 ; two additional farther planets were simultaneously discovered in 2002 with the nearest to the star being named 55 Cancri c and the other 55 Cancri d ; a fourth planet was claimed ( its existence was later disputed ) in 2004 and named 55 Cancri e despite lying closer to the star than 55 Cancri b ; and the most recently discovered planet, in 2007, was named 55 Cancri f despite lying between 55 Cancri c and 55 Cancri d. As of April 2012 the highest letter in use is " j ", for the unconfirmed planet HD 10180 j ( HD 10180 h is the confirmed planet with the highest letter ).

It is believed to be a potential cause of an abnormally high number of brain tumors ( 70 since 1996 ) around the town of Cameron, Missouri, which is currently being investigated by the EPA.

England have never won the UEFA European Football Championship – their best performance being a semi final appearance at the 1968 and 1996 Championships.

In fact, the root mean square ( rms ) errors are much better than these upper bounds, being only O ( ε √ log N ) for Cooley – Tukey and O ( ε √ N ) for the naïve DFT ( Schatzman, 1996 ).

He played a serial killer in Copycat in 1995, before being cast as jet fighter pilot in the 1996 blockbuster Independence Day.

Between 1996 and 1998, there was a period of political flux with the government being formed first by the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP ) followed by a left-leaning United Front coalition.

* 1996 – Ted Kaczynski, suspected of being the Unabomber, is indicted on ten criminal counts.

When Kemp became Dole's running mate in 1996, they appeared on the cover of the August 19, 1996 issue of Time magazine, but the pair barely edged out a story on the reported discovery of extraterrestrial life on Mars, which was so close to being the cover story that Time inset it on the cover and wrote about how difficult the decision was.

" After being released from court, he converted to Hinduism in 1996 to become engaged to a daughter of an Indian tea merchant.

From 1996 through 1998, the Saints returned to gold numbers on both the white and black jerseys, but complaints about the numbers on the white jerseys being too difficult to read forced the numbers on the white jerseys to be changed to black in 1999.

By 1996, genre acts such as Reel Big Fish and Less Than Jake were being signed to major labels.

Indeed, in 1996, cryptographer Bruce Schneier characterized an early version as being " the closest you're likely to get to military-grade encryption.

All Cynomys species are classed as a " prohibited new organism " under New Zealand's Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996, preventing it from being imported into the country.

As of 24 January 2011, seven former premiers are alive, the oldest being Tony Rundle ( 1996 – 98, born 1939 ).

While it was being repaired, Rickenbacker's UK distributor Rose Morris gave Lennon a model 1996 ( the export version of a 325, available exclusively in a red finish and with an F-hole ).

Despite his having died at the age of 32, Richard is often depicted as being considerably older: Basil Rathbone, in the Tower of London, and Peter Cook were both 46 when they played him, Laurence Olivier was 47 ( in his 1955 film ), Vincent Price was 51, Ian McKellen was 56 as was Pacino in his 1996 film ( although Pacino was 39 when he played him on Broadway in 1979, and Olivier was 37 when he played him on stage in 1944 ).