After months of build-up and publicity (and not very many cable systems signing up to carry it), USA Network’s genre-specific offshoot Sci-Fi Channel launches on American cable TV. Its early schedule is comprised entirely of reruns of such series as Doctor Who, Dark Shadows, and several series from Gerry Anderson’s Century 21 Productions, as well as genre movies. In the years to come, Sci-Fi Channel begins originating its own programming (primarily by entering co-production deals with the makers of Canadian-made and other foreign-made genre series). A protest from a small but vocal number of industry figures and science fiction writers, all of whom object to the “derisive” term “sci-fi,” fails to convince the network’s Florida-based founders to change its name to “SF Network.”
Silva Screen Records releases 
The eighth episode of George Lucas’ historical adventure series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles airs on ABC, starring Sean Patrick Flanery. Jason Flemyng (Primeval, Pennyworth) guest stars.
The week-long national syndication window opens for 
The week-long national syndication window opens for 
Continuum publishes 
CBS airs the 11th episode of Barney Cohen and James Parriott’s supernatural crime series Forever Knight, starring Geraint Wyn-Davies, Catherine Disher, Nigel Bennett, and John Kapelos. Rachel Luttrell (Stargate Atlantis) guest stars.
NBC airs the 76th episode of Donald Bellisario’s science fiction series Quantum Leap, starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. Brooke Shields guest stars.
Peter Gabriel releases the solo album 
Virgin Records releases 
The week-long national syndication window opens for 
Warner Bros. Records releases 
The Pioneer Venus Orbiter, launched into orbit around Venus in 1978 and now the only surviving component of the Pioneer Venus mission, enters the cloudy planet’s dense, toxic atmosphere and disintegrates, its fuel supply too exhausted to keep it in orbit any longer. Originally intended to orbit Venus for only a year, Pioneer Venus has survived, fully functional, for nearly 14 years in Venusian orbit, continuing to study the planet and taking readings not only Venus but such objects as Halley’s Comet.
The week-long national syndication window opens for the second episode of the fantasy series Highlander, starring Adrian Paul (War Of The Worlds), Alexandra Vandernoort, and Stan Kirsch, and based on the mythology created in the 1986 movie of the same name.
Alternative Software releases the 
The week-long national syndication window opens for 
The week-long national syndication window opens for 
The ninth Doctor Who New Adventures novel, “
The week-long national syndication window opens for 
The posthumous 
GNP Crescendo releases a CD of music from the original 
GNP Crescendo Records releases 
Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off on the shuttle program’s 51st flight, a ten-day mission to launch Laser Geodynamic Satellite II and the cargo-bay-mounted U.S. Microgravity Payload experiment package. Aboard Columbia for her 13th flight are Commander James Wetherbee, Pilot Michael Baker, mission specialists Charles Veach, William Shepherd and Tamara Jernigan, and payload specialist Steven MacLean.
The week-long national syndication window opens for the fourth episode of the fantasy series Highlander, starring Adrian Paul (War Of The Worlds), Alexandra Vandernoort, and Stan Kirsch, and based on the mythology created in the 1986 movie of the same name.