First Olympic medal at the Barcelona Olympics

Despite it being its first participation in the Olympic Summer Games in Barcelona, the Croatian basketball team won the silver medal in the finals against the American "dream team", considered the best team in history, thus bringing Croatia its first Olympic medal. The team, starring Dražen Petrović and Toni Kukoč, even managed to briefly outscore the team of Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson. In this clash of the titans, Petrović, with 24 points, scored two more than his legendary American rival, "Air Jordan".

1993

January

Photo: UN / M. Grafman

More than 660,000 displaced Croats and refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina

The occupation by Serbian forces of more than a quarter of Croatian territory and, from 1992, two thirds of neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, from which Bosniaks and Croats fled ethnic cleansing and war, caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. Thousands more were imprisoned and tortured in camps. In early 1993, there were 261,000 internally displaced persons in Croatia and 403,000 refugees from neighbouring Bosnia. This was a heavy burden for Croatia and its 4.5 million inhabitants, with one refugee per seven inhabitants.