1998 (
MCMXCVIIIRoman numerals are a numeral system of ancient Rome based on letters of the alphabet, which are combined to signify the sum of their values. The first ten Roman numerals are:...
) was a
common year starting on ThursdayThis is the calendar for any common year starting on Thursday . Examples: Gregorian years 1789, 1998 & 2009 or Julian year 1915 . This is the only common year with three occurrences of Friday the 13th....
(link will display full 1998
Gregorian calendarThe Gregorian calendar is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was first proposed by the Calabrian doctor Aloysius Lilius, and decreed by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, on 24 February 1582 by the papal bull Inter gravissimas...
).
The year 1998 was designated:
International Year of the Ocean by
UNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945...
.
January
- January 1 – Smoking is banned in all California
California is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
bars and restaurants.
- January 2 – Russia
Russia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
begins to circulate new rubleThe ruble or rouble is the currency of the Russian Federation and the two partially recognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It is Fiat money. Formerly, the ruble was also the currency of the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire prior to their breakups...
s to stem inflationIn economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.When the price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation is also an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a loss of real...
and promote confidence.
- January 2 – A gunman shoots Antario Teodoro Filho, Brazilian politician and radio presenter, during a broadcast.
- January 4 – Wilaya of Relizane massacres of 4 January 1998
The Wilaya of Relizane massacres of 4 January, 1998 took place in three remote villages around Oued Rhiou about 150 miles west of Algiers, during the Algerian conflict of the 1990s...
in AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country on the Mediterranean sea, the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area.It is bordered by Tunisia in...
: Over 170 are killed in 3 remote villages.
- January 4 – January 10 – A massive
The North American ice storm of 1998 was a massive ice storm that struck a relatively narrow swath of land from eastern Ontario to southern Quebec to Nova Scotia in Canada, and bordering areas from northern New York to central Maine in the United States, in January 1998...
winter stormA winter storm is an event in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are forms that only occur at cold temperatures, such as snow or sleet, or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice to form...
, partly caused by El Niño, strikes New EnglandNew England is a region of the United States. It is located at the northeastern corner of the US, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and the state of New York, consisting of the modern U.S...
, southern OntarioOntario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ontario is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and 5 U.S...
, QuebecQuebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking identity and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, and New BrunswickNew Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only constitutionally bilingual province in the confederation. The provincial capital is Fredericton...
, resulting in widespread power failures, severe damage to forests, and numerous deaths.
- January 6 – The Lunar Prospector
The Lunar Prospector mission was the third selected by NASA for full development and construction as part of the Discovery Program. At a cost of $62.8 million, the 19-month mission was designed for a low polar orbit investigation of the Moon, including mapping of surface composition and possible...
spacecraft is launched into orbit around the MoonThe Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is , about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The common centre of mass of the system is located at about —a quarter the Earth's...
, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently shadowed craters near the Moon's poles.
- January 8 – Ramzi Yousef
Ramzi Ahmed Yousef or Ramzi Mohammed Yousef , birth name possibly Abdul Basit Mahmoud Abdul Karim and also known by dozens of aliases, was born in Kuwait and is of Pakistani descent. He was one of the planners of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing...
is sentenced to life in prison for planning the first World Trade Center bombing.
- January 8 – Cosmologists announce that the universe
The Universe comprises everything that physically exists, the entirety of space and time, all forms of matter and energy, and the physical laws and constants that govern them...
's expansion rateThe metric expansion of space is the averaged increase of metric distance between distant objects in the universe with time. It is an intrinsic expansion—that is, it is defined by the relative separation of parts of the universe and not by motion "outward" into preexisting space...
is increasing.
- January 11 – Over 100 people are killed in the Sidi-Hamed massacre
The Sidi-Hamed massacre took place on the night of January 11, 1998 , in the town of Sidi-Hamed , 30 km south of Algiers...
in AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country on the Mediterranean sea, the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area.It is bordered by Tunisia in...
.
- January 12 – Nineteen Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an nations agree to forbid human cloningHuman cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human , human cell, or human tissue. The ethics of cloning is an extremely controversial issue...
.
- January 14 – Researchers in Dallas, Texas
Dallas , with a population of 1,279,910, is the third-largest city in Texas and the 8th-largest in the United States. The city is the main economic center of the 12-county Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area that according to the March 2009 U.S. Census Bureau release, had a population of...
present findings about an enzymeEnzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called substrates, and the enzyme converts them into different molecules, called the products. Almost all processes in a biological cell need enzymes to occur at...
that slows aging and cell death (apoptosisApoptosis is the process of programmed cell death that may occur in multicellular organisms. Programmed cell death involves a series of biochemical events leading to a characteristic cell morphology and death; in more specific terms, a series of biochemical events that lead to a variety of...
).
- January 16 – NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
announces that John GlennJohn Herschel Glenn Jr. is a retired United States Marine Corps pilot, a former astronaut and United States Senator who was the first American and third person to orbit the Earth. Glenn was a Marine Corps fighter pilot before joining NASA's Mercury program, NASA's original astronaut group. He...
will return to space when the Space Shuttle DiscoverySpace Shuttle Discovery is one of the three currently operational orbiters in the Space Shuttle fleet of NASA, the space agency of the United States. When first flown in 1984, Discovery became the third operational orbiter, and is now the oldest orbiter in service...
blasts off in October.
- January 17 – Paula Jones
Paula Corbin Jones is a former Arkansas state employee who sued President Bill Clinton for sexual harassment. Eventually, the court dismissed the lawsuit, before trial, on the grounds that Jones failed to demonstrate any damages...
accuses U.S. President Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
of sexual harassmentSexual harassment is intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. In some contexts or circumstances, sexual harassment may be illegal. It includes a range of behavior from seemingly mild transgressions and...
.
- January 20 – Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia and the world's youngest republic. It is bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
ese police intercept a shipment of 272 human SkullsThe skull is a bony structure found in the head of many animals. The skull supports the structures of the face and protects the head against injury....
in KathmanduKathmandu is the capital and the largest metropolitan city of Nepal. The city is situated in Kathmandu Valley, which also contains two other cities - Lalitpur and Bhaktapur. Nepali is the common language of the city, though many speak Newari as it is the center of the Newar people and culture....
.
- January 22 – Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski
Theodore John Kaczynski , also known as the Unabomber , is an American mathematician, social critic, and murderer who carried out a campaign of mail bombings, as well as a described anarcho-primitivist.He was born in Chicago, Illinois, where, as an intellectual child prodigy, he excelled...
pleads guilty, and accepts a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
- January 25 – Super Bowl XXXII
Super Bowl XXXII was an American football game played on January 25, 1998 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California to decide the National Football League champion following the 1997 regular season...
: The Denver BroncosThe Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently a member of the American Football Conference Western Division in the National Football League . The Broncos began play in 1960 as a charter member of the American Football League and joined...
become the first AFCThe American Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . The other is the National Football Conference . This conference, along with the NFC, contains 16 teams...
team in 14 yearsSuper Bowl XVIII was an American football game that was played on January 22, 1984 at Tampa Stadium in Tampa, Florida to decide the National Football League champion following the 1983 regular season. The American Football Conference champion Los Angeles Raiders defeated the National Football...
to win the Super BowlThe Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League, the premier association of professional American football. In most years, the Super Bowl is the most-watched American television broadcast. Many popular singers and musicians have performed during the event’s pre-game and...
, as they defeat the Green Bay PackersThe Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League and are the third-oldest franchise in the NFL.The Packers are the last vestige of "small town...
, 31–24.
- January 25 – The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suicide attack Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka , officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka , is an island country in South Asia, located about off the southern coast of India...
's Temple of the ToothSri Dalada Maligawa or The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is a Buddhist temple in the city of Kandy, Sri Lanka. It is located in the royal palace complex which houses the Relic of the tooth of Buddha. Since ancient times, the relic has played an important role in local politics because it is...
, killing 8 people, injuring 25 others.
- January 26 – Lewinsky scandal
The Lewinsky scandal was a political sex scandal emerging from a sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The news of this extra-marital affair and the resulting investigation eventually led to the impeachment of...
: On American television, President Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
denies he had "sexual relations" with former White HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it was built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the late Georgian style and has been the residence of every...
intern Monica LewinskyMonica Samille Lewinsky is an American woman with whom then-United States President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an "improper relationship" while Lewinsky worked at the White House in 1995 and 1996...
.
- January 26 – Compaq
Compaq Computer Corporation was an American personal computer company founded in 1982, and is now a brand name of Hewlett-Packard.The company was formed by Rod Canion, Jim Harris and Bill Murto — former Texas Instruments senior managers...
buys Digital Equipment CorporationDigital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering American company in the computer industry. It is often referred to within the computing industry as DEC...
.
- January 27 – U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving within the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she served as First Lady of...
appears on The Today Show, calling the attacks against her husband part of a "vast right-wing conspiracy."
- January 28 – Ford Motor Company
The Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands, Ford also owns Volvo Cars of Sweden, and a small stake...
announces the buyout of Volvo CarsVolvo Cars, or Volvo Personvagnar AB, is a Swedish automobile manufacturer founded in 1927 in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden, and currently owned by Ford Motor Company....
for $6.45 billion.
- January 28 – Gunmen hold at least 400 children and teachers hostage for several hours, at an elementary school in Manila
The City of Manila , or simply Manila or Maynila, is the capital of the Philippines and one of the 17 cities and municipalities that make up Metro Manila. It is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay, on the western portion of the National Capital Region, in the western side of Luzon...
, PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
.
- January 29 – In Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in the state of Alabama in the United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County and includes part of Shelby County. According to a 2007 estimate, the city had a population of 229,800 The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, as of the 2008 census estimates,...
, a bomb explodes at an abortion clinic, killing 1 and severely wounding another. Serial bomber Eric Rudolph is the prime suspect.
February
- February – Iraq disarmament crisis
The issue of Iraq's disarmament reached a crisis in 2002-2003, when U.S. President George W. Bush demanded a complete end to what he alleged was Iraqi production of weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq comply with UN Resolutions requiring UN inspectors unfettered access to areas those...
: The United States SenateThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate and the House are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution . Each U.S state is represented by two senators,...
passes Resolution 71, urging U.S. President Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
to "take all necessary and appropriate actions to respond to the threat posed by IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs."
- February 2 – The Standard & Poor's 500
The S&P 500 is a market free float-weighted index published since 1957 of the prices of 500 large-cap common stocks actively traded in the United States...
index closes above 1,000 for the first time, rising 20.99 points, or 2.14%, closing at 1,001.27.
- February 3 – Cavalese cable-car disaster
The Cavalese cable car disaster of 1998 , occurred on 3 February 1998 near the Italian town of Cavalese, a ski resort located in the Dolomites, some 40 km north-east of Trento. The disaster, which led to the death of 20 people, occurred when a U.S...
: a United States Military pilot causes the deaths of 20 people near TrentoTrento is an Italian city located in the Adige River valley in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol...
, ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, when his low-flying plane severs the cable of a cable-car.
- February 3 – Karla Faye Tucker
Karla Faye Tucker was convicted of murder in Texas in 1984 and put to death in 1998. She was the first woman to be executed in the United States since 1984, and the first in Texas since 1863...
is executed in TexasTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
, becoming the first woman executed in the United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
since 1984 and the first to be executed in TexasTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
since the American Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
.
- February 4 – An earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes are recorded with a seismometer, also known as a seismograph...
measuring 6.1 on the Richter scaleThe Richter magnitude scale, also known as the local magnitude scale, assigns a single number to quantify the amount of seismic energy released by an earthquake. It is a base-10 logarithmic scale obtained by calculating the logarithm of the combined horizontal amplitude of the largest displacement...
in northeast AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
kills more than 5,000 people.
- February 6 – Washington National Airport is renamed Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is a public airport located three miles south of the central business district of Washington, D.C., in Arlington County, Virginia, United States. It is the nearest commercial airport to Washington, D.C. Originally named Washington National Airport, the...
.
- February 6 – The French
France , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
prefectPrefect is a magisterial title of varying definition....
Claude ErignacClaude Érignac was born on the October 15 1937 in Mende, Lozère.In 1996 he went to Ajaccio in Corsica to take office as the Prefect of Corse-du-Sud. He was assassinated at 9:15 p.m. on february 6 1998. A Corsican nationalist militant Yvan Colonna was suspected of the killing, and was arrested in...
is assassinated in the streets of AjaccioAjaccio , is a commune in France. It is the capital of the region of Corsica and the prefecture of the department of Corse-du-Sud....
, CorseCorse may refer to:*Corse, the French name for Corsica, the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea*Corse , a European surname of multiple origins *Corse, a Shakespearean word for Corpse...
.
- February 7 – Roger Nicholas Angleton commits suicide in a prison cell in Houston, Texas
Texas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
by cutting himself with razor blades. He admits to murdering socialite Doris AngletonDoris Angleton was a Texas socialite and murder victim. Doris Angleton's husband, Robert Angleton, had been accused of planning the crime...
in her River Oaks home in his suicide note.
- February 7–22 – The 1998 Winter Olympics
The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVIII Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1998 in Nagano, Japan. These Games marked the return of the Winter Olympics to Japan since the 1972 Winter Olympics, when the games were held in Sapporo...
are held in Nagano, Japan.
- February 9 – Eduard Shevardnadze
Eduard Shevardnadze served as the President of Georgia from 1995 until he resigned on 23 November 2003 as a consequence of the bloodless Rose Revolution...
, the GeorgianGeorgia Georgia Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Situated at the juncture of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the east by Azerbaijan...
head of stateHead of state is the generic term for the individual or collective office that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state...
, survives an assassination attempt in TbilisiTbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form Tp'ilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...
.
- February 10 – A college
College is a term most often used today to denote degree awarding tertiary educational institution. More broadly, it can be the name of any group of colleagues, for example, an electoral college, a College of Arms or the College of Cardinals...
dropout becomes the first person to be convicted of a hate crimeHate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, or political affiliation."Hate crime"...
committed in cyberspaceCyberspace is the global domain of electromagnetics as accessed and exploited through electronic technology and the modulation of electromagnetic energy to achieve a wide range of communication and control system capabilities...
.
- February 10 – Voters in Maine
The State of Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordering the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, New Hampshire to the southwest, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is the northernmost portion of...
repeal a gay rights law passed in 1997, becoming the first U.S. stateA U.S. state is any one of 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government . Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile...
to abandon such a law.
- February 10 – The first XML
XML is a set of rules for encoding documents electronically. It is defined in the produced by the W3C and several other related specifications; all are fee-free open standards....
specification is released.
- February 12 – The presidential line-item veto
In government, the line-item veto is the power of an executive to nullify or cancel specific provisions of a bill, usually budget appropriations, without vetoing the entire legislative package...
is declared unconstitutional by a United States federal judge.
- February 14 – United States authorities announce that Eric Rudolph is a suspect in an Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States of America. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its...
abortionAn abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo. An abortion can occur spontaneously due to complications during pregnancy or can be induced, in humans and other species...
clinic bombing.
- February 15 – Dale Earnhardt
Dale Earnhardt, Sr. was an American race car driver, best known for his career driving stock cars in NASCAR's top division. Earnhardt had four children, Kerry, Kelley Earnhardt Elledge, Dale Jr., and Taylor Earnhardt...
wins the Daytona 500The Daytona 500 is a -long NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race held annually at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is one of four restrictor plate races on the Cup schedule. Matt Kenseth is the defending champion of the race....
on his 20th attempt.
- February 16 – China Airlines Flight 676
China Airlines Flight 676 crashed into a road and residential area near Taoyuan County's Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, Taiwan on the night of February 16, 1998....
crashes into a residential area near Chiang Kai-shek International AirportTaiwan Taoyuan International Airport is an international airport located in Dayuan Township, Taoyuan County, Taiwan. It is one of three Taiwanese airports with regular international flights, and is by far the busiest international air entry point amongst them. It is the home base for China...
, killing 202 people (all 196 on board and 6 on the ground).
- February 18 – Two white separatists are arrested in Nevada
Nevada is a state located in the western region of the United States. The capital is Carson City and the largest city is Las Vegas. The state's nickname is Silver State, due to the large number of silver deposits that were discovered and mined there...
, accused of plotting biological warfareBiological warfare , also known as germ warfare, is the use of pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, other disease-causing biological agents, or the toxins produced by them as biological weapons ....
on New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
subwayA rapid transit, metro, subway, underground, or elevated railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with high capacity and frequency, and which is grade separated from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically either in underground tunnels or elevated above street level...
s.
- February 19 – 1998 Auckland power crisis
The 1998 Auckland power crisis was a five-week-long power outage.Almost all of downtown Auckland in New Zealand was supplied electricity by Mercury Energy via four power cables, two of them 40-year-old oil-filled cables that were past their replacement date. One of the cables failed on 20 January,...
: A 66-day blackout begins in AucklandThe Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with a population approaching 1.4 million residents, percent of the country's population. Demographic trends indicate that it will continue to grow faster than the rest...
, New ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori named New Zealand Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud...
.
- February 19 – Larry Wayne Harris of the Aryan Nations
Aryan Nations is a white nationalist neo-Nazi organization founded in the 1970s by Richard Girnt Butler as an arm of the Christian Identity group Church of Jesus Christ-Christian. As of December 2007 there were two main factions that claimed descent from Butler's group...
and William Leavitt are arrested in Henderson, New YorkHenderson is a town in Jefferson County, New York, United States. The population was 1,377 at the 2000 census. The town is named after William Henderson, the original land owner....
, for possession of military grade anthraxAnthrax is an acute disease caused by Bacillus anthracis. It affects both humans and animals. Most forms of the disease are highly lethal...
.
- February 20 – Iraq disarmament crisis
The issue of Iraq's disarmament reached a crisis in 2002-2003, when U.S. President George W. Bush demanded a complete end to what he alleged was Iraqi production of weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq comply with UN Resolutions requiring UN inspectors unfettered access to areas those...
: Iraqi President Saddam HusseinSaddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the President of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
negotiates a deal with U.N. Secretary General Kofi AnnanKofi Atta Annan, Honorary GCMG is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1 January 1997 to 1 January 2007. Annan and the United Nations were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize.-Early years and family:Kofi Annan was born in the...
, allowing weapons inspectors to return to BaghdadBaghdad is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is coterminous. Having a municipal population estimated at 6.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq and the second largest in the Arab World....
, preventing military action by the United States and BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
.
- February 22 – One third of the Tower block
A Tower block, Apartment tower, or Apartment block, Block of flats, is a multi-unit high-rise Apartment building. In some areas they may be referred to as "MDU" standing for "Multi Dwelling Unit". Apartment blocks have technical and economic advantages in areas with high population density...
"Palace II" collapses in Rio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America. The city was the capital of Brazil for nearly two centuries, from 1763 to 1822 during the Portuguese colonial era, and...
, BrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the fifth largest country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the fifth most populous country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean...
.
- February 23 – Florida El Niño Outbreak: Tornado
A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air which is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud...
es in central FloridaFlorida is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the north. It was the 27th state admitted to the United States...
destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42.
- February 23 – Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden is a member of the prominent Saudi bin Laden family and one of the founders of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda, best known for the September 11 attacks on the United States and its associations with numerous other mass-casualty attacks against...
publishes a fatwaA fatwā , in the Islamic faith is a religious opinion concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwa is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be binding, depending on the status of the scholar...
, declaring jihadJihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād is a noun meaning "struggle." Jihad appears frequently in the Qur'an and common usage as the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of Allah "...
against all JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
s and CrusadersThe Tenth Crusade is a rhetorical device that builds an analogy between the U.S.-led War on Terrorism and the historical Crusades.-Crusade:...
.
- February 24 – A man tries to hijack a Turkish Airlines
THY - Turkish Airlines, Inc. is the national airline of Turkey, headquartered in Istanbul. It operates a network of scheduled services to 120 international and 37 domestic cities , serving a total of 158 airports, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas...
passenger plane, claiming that he has a bombA bomb is any of a range of explosive devices that typically rely on the exothermic chemical reaction of an explosive material to produce an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. The word comes from the Greek word βόμβος , an onomatopoetic term with approximately the same meaning as...
in his teddy bearThe teddy bear is a stuffed toy bear. It is an enduring, traditional form of a stuffed animal, often serving the purpose of entertaining children. In recent times, some teddy bears have become collector's items.- History :...
; passengers disapprove and apprehend him.
- February 28 – Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans...
n police begin to wipe out "terrorist gangs" in KosovoKosovo is a disputed territory in the Balkans. Its majority is governed by the partially-recognised Republic of Kosovo , a self-declared independent state which has de facto control over the territory; the exceptions are some Serb enclaves...
.
March
- March 2 – Data sent from the Galileo probe indicates that Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass slightly less than one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all of the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas...
's moon EuropaEuropa is the sixth moon of the planet Jupiter. Europa was discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei , and named after a mythical Phoenician noblewoman, Europa, who was courted by Zeus and became the queen of Crete...
has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.
- March 2 – Natascha Kampusch
Natascha Kampusch is an Austrian television host mostly known for her abduction at the age of 10 on 2 March 1998. Natascha was held in a secret cellar by her kidnapper Wolfgang Priklopil for more than eight years, until she escaped on 23 August 2006. The media attention later led to her signing a...
is abducted by Wolfgang Priklopil (she will remain in his captivity until August 2006).
- March 4 – Gay rights: Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services
Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, , was a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. The case arose out of a suit for sex discrimination by a male oil-rig worker, who claimed that he was repeatedly subjected to sexual harassment by his male coworkers with the acquiescence of his...
: The Supreme Court of the United StatesThe Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States, and leads the federal judiciary. It consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justices, who are nominated by the President and confirmed with the "advice and consent" of the Senate...
rules that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassmentSexual harassment is intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. In some contexts or circumstances, sexual harassment may be illegal. It includes a range of behavior from seemingly mild transgressions and...
also apply when both parties are the same sex.
- March 5 – NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
announces that the ClementineClementine was a joint space project between the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and NASA...
probe orbiting the Moon has found enough water in polar craters to support a human colony and rocket fueling station.
- March 5 – NASA announces the choice of United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the U.S. armed forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947 - 80 P.L....
Lt. Col. Eileen CollinsEileen Marie Collins is a retired American astronaut and a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel. A former military instructor and test pilot, Collins was the first female pilot and first female commander of a Space Shuttle. She was awarded several medals for her work. Col. Collins has logged 38 days 8...
as commander of a future Space Shuttle ColumbiaSpace Shuttle Columbia was the first spaceworthy Space Shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet. First launched on the STS-1 mission, the first of the Space Shuttle program, it flew a total of 27 times before being destroyed during re-entry on February 1, 2003 on the STS-107 mission , killing all seven...
mission to launch an X-rayX-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 10 to 0.01 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays...
telescope, making Collins the first woman to command a space shuttleThe Space Shuttle, part of the Space Transportation System , is a spacecraft operated by NASA for orbital human spaceflight missions. It began operations in the 1980s and is scheduled to be retired from service in 2010 after 134 launches...
mission.
- March 7 – The Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan , informally known as The Klan, is the name of several past and present hate group organizations in the United States whose avowed purpose was to protect the rights of and further the interests of white Americans by violence and intimidation. The first such organizations originated in...
is fined for burning a cross in his garden and infringing air regulations in CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
.
- March 10 – United States troops stationed in the Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in the Southwest Asian region, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. Historically and commonly known as the Persian Gulf, this body of water is sometimes controversially referred to as the Arabian Gulf by most Arab states or simply The...
begin to receive the first anthraxAnthrax is an acute disease caused by Bacillus anthracis. It affects both humans and animals. Most forms of the disease are highly lethal...
vaccineA vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains a small amount of an agent that resembles a microorganism...
.
- March 11 – Danish parliamentary election, 1998
The Danish Parliamentary Election of 1998 was held on 11 March 1998. The Social Democrat government of Poul Nyrup Rasmussen remained in power in a very close vote that required several recounts. The right-wing parties led by the Liberal Venstre had been expected to win. Venstre leader Uffe...
: Prime Minister Poul Nyrup RasmussenPoul Nyrup Rasmussen , informally Poul Nyrup , born 15 June 1943), was Prime Minister of Denmark from 25 January 1993 to 27 November 2001 and is currently President of the Party of European Socialists . He was the leader of the governing Social Democrats from 1992 to 2002...
is unexpectedly re-elected.
- March 14 – An earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes are recorded with a seismometer, also known as a seismograph...
measuring 6.9 on the Richter scaleThe Richter magnitude scale, also known as the local magnitude scale, assigns a single number to quantify the amount of seismic energy released by an earthquake. It is a base-10 logarithmic scale obtained by calculating the logarithm of the combined horizontal amplitude of the largest displacement...
hits southeastern IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
.
- March 23 – The 70th Academy Awards
The 70th Academy Awards were noted for their high ratings and the 11 wins racked up by the Best Picture, Titanic. Billy Crystal hosted the ceremony for the sixth time, and received an Emmy award for his performance....
, hosted by Billy CrystalWilliam Edward "Billy" Crystal is an American actor, writer, producer, comedian, and film director. He gained prominence in the 1970s for playing Jodie Dallas on the ABC sitcom Soap and became a Hollywood film star during the late 1980s and 1990s, appearing in the box office successes When Harry...
, are held at the Shrine AuditoriumThe Shrine Auditorium is a landmark large-event venue in Los Angeles, California, USA. It is also the headquarters of the Al Malaikah Temple, a division of the Shriners.-History:...
in Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California...
with the film TitanicTitanic is a 1997 American romantic drama film directed, written, co-produced and co-edited by James Cameron about the sinking of the RMS Titanic. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson and Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater, two members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the...
winning a record 11 Oscars.
- March 24 – Jonesboro massacre: 2 young boys (aged 11 and 13 years) fire upon students at Westside Middle School while hidden in woodlands near the school. 4 students and 1 teacher are killed, and 10 are injured.
- March 26 – Oued Bouaicha massacre
The Oued Bouaïcha massacre took place about 150 miles south of Algiers, near Djelfa, on March 26, 1998. 52 people, including 32 children under the age of two, were killed at Oued Bouaïcha in the municipality of Bouiret Lahdab by about fifteen men carrying axes and knives, who also kidnapped...
in AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country on the Mediterranean sea, the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area.It is bordered by Tunisia in...
: 52 people are killed with axes and knives, 32 of them babies under the age of 2.
- March 27 – The Food and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration is a Government agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is responsible for regulating and supervising the safety of foods, tobacco products, dietary supplements, Medication drugs, vaccines, Biopharmaceutical, blood transfusion,...
approves Viagra for use as a treatment for male impotence, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States.
- March 29 – A series of 3 tornadoes in southern Minnesota
Minnesota is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.2 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the...
kills 3 people.
April
- April 1 – Ukrainian
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
serial killerA serial killer is a person who murders three or more people over a period of more than 30 days, with a "cooling off" period between each murder, and whose motivation for killing is largely based on psychological gratification. Often, a sexual element is involved with the killings...
Anatoly OnoprienkoAnatoliy Onoprienko is a Ukrainian serial killer. He is also known by the nicknames "The Beast of Ukraine", "The Terminator" and "Citizen O"...
is sentenced to death for 52 murders.
- April 1 – The MS Elation
MS Elation is a Fantasy class cruise ship owned by Carnival Cruise Lines. She sails on four and five day itineraries to Baja, Mexico from San Diego, California. Beginning in February 2009, the Elation will begin making stops at Avalon on Catalina Island with her first visit on February 16, 2009....
sets sail.
- April 5 – In Japan
is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, the Akashi-Kaikyo BridgeThe , also known as the Pearl Bridge, is the world's longest suspension bridge . It is located in Japan and was completed in 1998. The bridge links the city of Kobe on the mainland of Honshū to Iwaya on Awaji Island by crossing the busy Akashi Strait...
linking Shikokuis the smallest and least populous of the four main islands of Japan, located south of Honshū and east of the island of Kyūshū. Its ancient names include Iyo-no-futana-shima , Iyo-shima , and Futana-shima...
with Honshūor Honshu is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Strait...
and costing about US$3.8 billion, opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridgeA suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. While modern bridges of this type date from the early 19th century, earlier bridges without vertical suspenders date from the 7th Century in Central America.This type of bridge has...
in the world.
- April 6 – Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
tests medium-range missiles capable of hitting IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
.
- April 7 – Citicorp and Travelers Group announce plans to merge, creating the largest financial-services conglomerate in the world, Citigroup
Citigroup Inc. , is a major American financial services company based in New York, NY. Citigroup was formed from one of the world's largest mergers in history by combining the banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomerate Travelers Group on April 7, 1998.Citigroup Inc...
.
- April 7 – George Michael
Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou , best known as George Michael, is a two-time Grammy Award winning, English singer-songwriter, who has had a career as frontman of the duo Wham! as well as a soul-influenced, solo pop musician...
is arrested in a restroom at Will Rogers Memorial Park for committing a lewd act in front of a police officer. This incident leads to him coming outComing out of the closet, or simply coming out, is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people disclosing their sexual orientation and gender identity...
as gay.
- April 8 – Iraq disarmament crisis
The issue of Iraq's disarmament reached a crisis in 2002-2003, when U.S. President George W. Bush demanded a complete end to what he alleged was Iraqi production of weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq comply with UN Resolutions requiring UN inspectors unfettered access to areas those...
: UNSCOM reports to the UN Security Council that Iraq's declaration on its biological weapons program is incomplete and inadequate.
- April 8 – April 1998 Birmingham tornado: An F5 tornado
A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air which is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud...
strikes the western portion of the Birmingham, AlabamaBirmingham is the largest city in the state of Alabama in the United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County and includes part of Shelby County. According to a 2007 estimate, the city had a population of 229,800 The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, as of the 2008 census estimates,...
area, killing 32 people.
- April 10 – Good Friday
Good Friday, also called Holy Friday, Black Friday, or Great Friday, is a holiday observed primarily by adherents to Christianity commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary...
: 18 hours after the end of the talks deadline, the Belfast AgreementThe Agreement, also known as the Belfast Agreement or the Good Friday Agreement , and occasionally as the Stormont Agreement, was a major political development in the Northern Ireland peace process. It was signed in Belfast on 10 April 1998 by the British and Irish governments and endorsed by...
is signed between the Irish and British governments and most Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
political parties, with the notable exception of the Democratic Unionist PartyThe Democratic Unionist Party is the larger of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Founded by Ian Paisley and currently led by Peter Robinson, it is currently the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons of the...
.
- April 16 – An F3 tornado passes through downtown Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is the second most populous city in the state after Memphis. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state...
, the first significant tornado in 11 years to directly hit a major city. An F5 tornado travels through rural portions south of Nashville (see 1998 Nashville tornado outbreak).
- April 22 – The Disney's Animal Kingdom
Disney's Animal Kingdom is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort. The fourth park built at the resort, it opened on April 22, 1998, and it is the largest single Disney theme park in the world, covering more than 500 acres . It is also the first Disney theme park to be themed entirely around...
theme park at Walt Disney World opens to the public for the first time.
- April 25 – A waste reservoir at the Los Frailes mine in Andalusia
Andalusia Andalusia Andalusia ' onMouseout='HidePop("69997")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Spain">Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
ruptures, discharging heavy metal waste into the Guadiamar River. The pollution threatens the sensitive ecosystem and endangered species of
Doñana National ParkDoñana National Park , also called Coto de Doñana, is a national park and wildlife refuge in southwestern Spain.-Description:Doñana National Park is located in Andalusia, in the provinces of Huelva and Seville, and covers 543 km², of which 135 km² are a protected area...
,
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
's largest nature reserve, but is diverted into the Guadalquivir River. Up to 100 km² of farmland are ruined by the spill.
http://edition.cnn.com/EARTH/9804/25/spain.disaster.reut/
- April 27 – The Aladdin Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas
The Las Vegas Strip is an approximately stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada. A small portion of the Strip lies in Las Vegas, but most of it is in the unincorporated areas of Paradise and Winchester...
is imploded to make way for the brand new Aladdin Hotel & Casino
May
- May 1 – The Socialist Party of Malaysia
Parti Sosialis Malaysia , is a socialist political party in Malaysia and an offshoot of Parti Rakyat Malaysia, which originally upheld the same ideology...
is founded.
- May 9 – Dana International
Sharon Cohen , professionally known as Dana International is an Israeli pop singer of a Yemenite Jewish origin....
, a transsexual singer from IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
, wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1998The Eurovision Song Contest 1998 was the 43rd Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 9 May 1998 at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, United Kingdom. The presenters were Terry Wogan and Ulrika Jonsson. Despite being one of the presenters, Terry Wogan still managed to provide commentary to...
in BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the second-most populous British city, with a population of 1,006,500 ....
, UK.
- May 9 – The musical Aladdin
Aladdin is one of the tales of medieval Arabian origin in the The Book of One Thousand and One Nights , and one of the most famous, although it was actually added to the collection by Antoine Galland .-Synopsis:The original story of...
is performed at Balver HöhleBalver Höhle is the biggest cultural cave in Europe. It is located in Balve, Germany.-History:The Balver Höhle was mentioned in the Thidrekssaga. Since 160 years the annual Schützenfest is a part of the culture. In 1985 the Festspiele Balver Höhle were founded with the mystery play Katharina von...
.
- May 11 – India conducts 3 underground nuclear tests in Pokhran
Pokhran is a city and a municipality located in Jaisalmer district in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is a remote location in the Thar Desert region and served as the test site for India's first underground nuclear weapon detonation.-Geography:Pokhran is located at...
, including 1 thermonuclear device.
- May 11 – The first euro
The euro is the official currency of 16 of the 27 Member States of the European Union . The states, known collectively as the Eurozone, are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain...
coins are minted in PessacPessac is a commune in the Gironde department in Aquitaine in south-western France.It is the second-largest suburb of the city of Bordeaux, and is adjacent to it on the southwest. It is a member of the metropolitan Urban Community of Bordeaux...
, France. Because the final specifications for the coins were not finished in 1998, they will have to be melted and minted again in 1999.
- May 13 – India carries out 2 more nuclear tests at Pokhran
Pokhran is a city and a municipality located in Jaisalmer district in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is a remote location in the Thar Desert region and served as the test site for India's first underground nuclear weapon detonation.-Geography:Pokhran is located at...
. The United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on India.
- May 13–14 – Riots directed against Chinese Indonesians break out in Indonesia. Indonesian natives destroy and burn Chinese Indonesian-owned properties and kill and rape more than 1,000 Chinese Indonesians.
- May 15 – Iraq disarmament crisis
The issue of Iraq's disarmament reached a crisis in 2002-2003, when U.S. President George W. Bush demanded a complete end to what he alleged was Iraqi production of weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq comply with UN Resolutions requiring UN inspectors unfettered access to areas those...
: UNSCOM learns that an Iraqi delegation has travelled to BucharestBucharest is the capital city, industrial and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmboviţa River....
, to meet with scientists who can provide the country with missile guidance systems.
- May 18 – United States v. Microsoft
United States v. Microsoft was a set of consolidated civil actions filed against Microsoft Corporation on May 18, 1998 by the United States Department of Justice and 20 U.S. states. Joel I. Klein was the lead prosecutor. The plaintiffs alleged that Microsoft abused monopoly power on Intel-based...
: The United States Department of JusticeThe United States Department of Justice is a Cabinet department in the United States government designed to enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans...
and 20 U.S. stateA U.S. state is any one of 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government . Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile...
s file an antitrust case against MicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is a multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices...
.
- May 18 – The New Republic
The New Republic is an American magazine of politics and the arts. It is published semimonthly and has a circulation of approximately 60,000. The editor-in-chief is Martin Peretz and the current editor is Franklin Foer...
publishes Hack Heaven, a fabricated story by Stephen Glass. Glass is later fired from TNR and the events are depicted in the 2003 film Shattered GlassShattered Glass is a 2003 American drama film written and directed by Billy Ray. The screenplay is based on a September 1998 Vanity Fair article by H.G. Bissinger. In it he chronicled the rapid rise of Stephen Glass's journalistic career at the The New Republic during the mid-1990s and his steep...
.
- May 19 – The Galaxy IV
Galaxy IV was a model HS-601 satellite built by Hughes Space and Communications Company . The satellite, which carried a payload of both C band and Ku band transponders, was launched on June 24, 1993 and operated by PanAmSat Corporation....
communications satellite fails, leaving 80–90% of the world's pagers without service.
- May 21 – At Thurston High School
Thurston High School is a public high school located in the Thurston area of Springfield, Oregon, United States.-Academics:In 2008, 80% of the school's seniors received their high school diploma...
in Springfield, OregonSpringfield is a city in Lane County, Oregon, United States, separated from Eugene, Oregon primarily by the I-5 highway. Springfield was named after a natural spring located in a field or prairie within the current city boundaries. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 52,864...
, Kipland Kinkel (who was suspended for bringing a gunIn military parlance, a gun is a muzzle or breech-loaded projectile-firing weapon. There are various definitions depending on the nation and branch of service. A "gun" may be distinguished from other firearms in being a crew served weapon such as a howitzer or mortar, as opposed to a small arm...
to school) shoots a semi-automatic rifleA semi-automatic rifle is a type of rifle that fires a single bullet each time the trigger is pulled, automatically ejects the spent cartridge, chambers a fresh cartridge from its magazine, and is immediately ready to fire another shot...
into a room filled with students, killing 2 and wounding 25 others, after killing his parents at home.
- May 21 – In Miami, Florida
Miami is a major coastal city in southeastern Florida, in the United States. Miami is the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida. With an estimated population of 424,662 in 2007, Miami is the largest city within the Miami metropolitan area, which is the...
, 5 abortion clinicAn abortion clinic is a medical facility that performs or specializes in abortions. Such clinics may be public medical centers or private medical practices...
s are hit by a butyric acidButyric acid , also known under the systematic name butanoic acid, is a carboxylic acid with the structural formula CH3CH2CH2-COOH. Salts and esters of butyric acid are known as butyrates or butanoates...
attacker.
- May 21 – Suharto resigns, after 32 years as President of Indonesia
The President of the Republic of Indonesia is the Head of State as well as the Head of the Government of the Republic of Indonesia.The first president was Sukarno and the current president is Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.-History of the office:...
and his 7th consecutive re-election by the Indonesian Parliament (MPR). Suharto's hand-picked Vice President, B. J. Habibie, also known B. J. Habibie, was the third President of Indonesia, holding office from 1998 to 1999.-Early life:Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie was born in Pare-Pare, South Sulawesi, to Alwi Abdul Jalil Habibie and R. A. Tuti Marini Puspowardojo...
, becomes Indonesia's third president.
- May 21 – September 30 – Expo '98
Expo '98 was an official specialised World's Fair held in Lisbon, Portugal from May 22 to September 30 1998. The theme of the fair was "The Oceans, a Heritage for the Future," chosen in part to commemorate 500 years of Portuguese discoveries. The Expo received around 11 million visitors in 132 days...
is held in LisbonLisbon is the capital and largest city of Portugal. It is also the seat of the district of Lisbon and the main city of the Lisbon region...
, PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
, with the title "Oceans, an Heritage for the Future". UNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945...
had previously declared 1998 to be the International Year of the Oceans due to the Expo, which 12 million people attend.
- May 22 – Lewinsky scandal
The Lewinsky scandal was a political sex scandal emerging from a sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The news of this extra-marital affair and the resulting investigation eventually led to the impeachment of...
: A federal judge rules that United States Secret ServiceThe United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that falls under the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...
agents can be compelled to testify before a grand juryIn the common law, a grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether there is enough evidence for a trial. Grand juries carry out this duty by examining evidence presented to them by a prosecutor and issuing indictments, or by investigating alleged crimes and issuing presentments...
concerning the scandal.
- May 22 – Murray Gleeson
Anthony Murray Gleeson AC QC is a former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy.-Biography:Gleeson was born in Wingham, New South Wales, the eldest of four children...
is appointed Chief Justice of AustraliaThe Chief Justice of Australia is the senior justice of the High Court of Australia and the highest-ranking judicial officer in the Commonwealth of Australia...
, succeeding Sir Gerard BrennanSir Francis Gerard Brennan, AC, KBE, QC , is an Australian lawyer, judge and 10th Chief Justice of Australia. He is father to Jesuit priest and lawyer Frank Brennan....
.
- May 26 – Bear Grylls
Edward Michael Grylls, nicknamed Bear, is a British adventurer, writer and television presenter. He is best known for his television series Born Survivor, known as Man vs. Wild in the United States,Canada and Australia. He is one of the youngest Britons to climb Mount Everest, doing so at age 23...
, 23, becomes the youngest British climber to scale Mount EverestMount Everest – also called Sagarmāthā , Chomolungma or Qomolangma or Zhumulangma – is the highest mountain on Earth, and the highest point on the Earth's crust, as measured by the height above sea level of its summit,...
.
- May 27 – Oklahoma City bombing
The Oklahoma City bombing occurred on April 19, 1995 when American militia movement sympathizer Timothy McVeigh, with the assistance of Terry Nichols, destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma...
: Michael FortierMichael M. Fortier, PC is a former Canadian Minister of International Trade and a former Conservative senator from Quebec...
is sentenced to 14 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.
- May 28 – Nuclear testing
Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Throughout the twentieth century, most nations that have developed nuclear weapons have tested them...
: In response to a series of Indian nuclear tests, Pakistan explodes 5 nuclear devices of its own in the Chaghai hills of Baluchistan, prompting the United States, Japan and other nations to impose economic sanctions.
- May 30 – Nuclear testing
Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Throughout the twentieth century, most nations that have developed nuclear weapons have tested them...
: Pakistan conducts 1 more nuclear explosion following its first test.
- May 30 – A 6.6 magnitude earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes are recorded with a seismometer, also known as a seismograph...
hits northern AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
, killing up to 5,000.
June
- June 2 – The CIH virus is discovered in Taiwan
Taiwan , also known as Formosa , is the largest island of the Republic of China in East Asia. Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, off the southeastern coast of mainland China...
.
- June 2 – California
California is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
voters approve Proposition 227, abolishing the state's bilingual education program.
- June 3 – Eschede train disaster
The Eschede train disaster was the world's deadliest high-speed train accident. It occurred on 3 June 1998, near the village of Eschede in the Celle district of Lower Saxony, Germany. The toll of 101 dead and 88 injured surpassed the 1971 Dahlerau train disaster as the deadliest accident in the...
: An InterCityExpressThe Intercity-Express — in Austria, Denmark and Switzerland: InterCityExpress ; abbreviation: ICE — is a system of high-speed trains predominantly running in Germany and neighbouring countries. It is the highest service category offered by DB Fernverkehr and is the flagship of Deutsche Bahn...
high speed train derails between Hannover and HamburgHamburg is the second-largest city in Germany and the sixth-largest city in the European Union...
, GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, causing 101 deaths.
- June 4 – Terry Nichols
Terry Lynn Nichols is a U.S. Army veteran who conspired with Timothy McVeigh in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on April 19, 1995...
is sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Oklahoma City bombingThe Oklahoma City bombing occurred on April 19, 1995 when American militia movement sympathizer Timothy McVeigh, with the assistance of Terry Nichols, destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma...
.
- June 5 – A strike
Strike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to perform work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became important in factories and mines...
begins at the General Motors Corporation parts factory in Flint, MichiganFlint is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and is located along the Flint River, 66 miles northwest of Detroit. As of the 2000 census, the city had a population of 124,943, making it the fifth largest city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Genesee County which lies in the Flint/Tri-Cities...
, quickly spreading to 5 other assembly plants and lasting 7 weeks.
- June 7 – Three white supremacists murder James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas
Jasper is a city in Jasper County, Texas, United States, on U.S. highways 96 and 190, State Highway 63, and Sandy Creek in north central Jasper County. The population was 8,247 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Jasper County and is situated in East Texas, specifically the Deep East Texas...
.
- June 7 – Former Brigadier-General Ansumane Mané
Ansumane Mané was a Guinea-Bissau soldier who led a 1998 uprising against the government of President João Bernardo Vieira, which caused a brief, but bloody Civil War....
seizes control over military barracks in BissauBissau is the capital city of Guinea-Bissau. The city's borders are conterminous with the Bissau Autonomous Sector. In 2007, the city had an estimated population of 407,424 according to the Instituto Nacional de Estatística e Censos...
, marking the beginning of the Guinea-Bissau Civil WarThe Guinea-Bissau Civil War was triggered by an attempted coup d'état against the government of President João Bernardo Vieira led by Brigadier-General Ansumane Mané in June 1998...
(1998–1999).
- June 8 – Actor Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television.Heston is known for having played heroic roles, such as Moses in The Ten Commandments, Colonel George Taylor in Planet of the Apes, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar in El Cid, and Judah Ben-Hur in Ben-Hur, for which he won the Academy...
becomes president of the National Rifle AssociationThe National Rifle Association of America, or NRA, is an American non-partisan, non-profit organization which lists as its goals the protection of the Second Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights and the promotion of firearm ownership rights as well as marksmanship, firearm safety, and the...
.
- June 10 – The 1998 FIFA World Cup
The 1998 FIFA World Cup, the 16th FIFA World Cup, was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. France was chosen as hosts by FIFA on 1 July 1992. The tournament was won by France, who beat Brazil 3-0 in the final...
begins in France.
- June 12 – A jury in Hattiesburg, MS, convicts 17-year-old Luke Woodham of killing 2 students and wounding 7 others at Pearl High School.http://www.cnn.com/US/9806/12/school.shooting.verdict/
- June 12 – Christina Marie Williams
Christina Marie Williams was a 13-year-old girl who was kidnapped in Seaside, California, on June 12, 1998, while taking her dog out for a walk. The case gained widespread national media attention. Her remains were found on the former Fort Ord Army Base about three miles from her home on January...
, 13, is kidnapped in Seaside, CaliforniaSeaside is a city in Monterey County, California, USA, with a total population of 31,696 as of the 2000 census. Seaside is located east-northeast of Monterey, at an elevation of 33 feet . Seaside is the home of California State University, Monterey Bay , on the site of the former Fort Ord...
while walking her dog.
- June 14 – The Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago, Illinois, playing in the Central Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was founded in 1966. They play their home games at the United Center...
win their 6th NBAThe National Basketball Association is a professional basketball league, composed of thirty teams in North America . It is an active member of USA Basketball , which is recognized by the International Basketball Federation as the National Governing Body for basketball in the United States...
title in 8 years when they beat the Utah JazzThe Utah Jazz are a professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City, Utah. They are currently members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association...
, 87–86 in Game 6. This is also Michael JordanMichael Jeffrey Jordan is a retired American professional basketball player and active businessman. His biography on the National Basketball Association website states, "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time." Jordan was one of the most effectively marketed...
's last game as a Bull, clinching the game in the final seconds on a fadeaway jumperThe Shot is a game-winning shot made by Michael Jordan in Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz with 5.2 seconds left that would help the Chicago Bulls win their 6th NBA title....
.
- June 16 – The Detroit Red Wings
The Detroit Red Wings is a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League , and are one of the Original Six teams of the NHL....
sweep the Washington CapitalsThe Washington Capitals are a professional ice hockey team based in Washington, D.C. They are members of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...
in 4 games in the 1998 Stanley Cup FinalsThe 1998 Stanley Cup Final NHL championship series was contested by the Western Conference champion and defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings and the Eastern Conference champion Washington Capitals. It was the 105th year of the Stanley Cup being contested. The Red Wings won the series...
.
- June 25 – Clinton v. City of New York
Clinton v. City of New York, , is a legal case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the line-item veto as granted in the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 violated the Presentment Clause of the United States Constitution because it impermissibly gave the President of the United...
: The United States Supreme Court rules that the Line Item Veto Act of 1996The Line Item Veto Act of 1996 enacted a line-item veto for the Federal government of the United States, but its effect was brief due to judicial review....
is unconstitutional.
- June 25 – Microsoft releases Windows 98
Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It was released on June 25, 1998, and is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid 16-bit/32-bit monolithic product based on MS-DOS...
(First Edition).
- June 30 – Philippine
The Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
Vice President Joseph EstradaJoseph Ejercito Estrada was the 13th President of the Philippines, serving from 1998 until his ouster in the 2001 EDSA Revolution....
was sworn in as the 13th President of The PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
.
July
- July – The Yangtze River
The Yangtze River, or Chang Jiang , Tibetan: Bri-chu, is the longest river in China and Asia, and the third-longest in the world, after the Nile in Africa and the Amazon....
experiences massive flooding as the government of the People's Republic of ChinaThe People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...
sends in the Army for flood relief efforts.
- July 5 – Japan launches a probe to Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. It is also referred to as the "Red Planet" because of its reddish appearance, due to iron oxide prevalent on its surface....
, joining the United States and Russia as an outer spaceOuter space comprises the relatively empty regions of the universe outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies. Outer space is used to distinguish it from airspace and terrestrial locations....
-exploring nation.
- July 6 – The new Hong Kong International Airport
Hong Kong International Airport is the main airport in Hong Kong, People's Republic of China. It is colloquially known as Chek Lap Kok Airport , because it was built on the island of Chek Lap Kok by land reclamation, and also to distinguish it from its predecessor, the closed Kai Tak Airport.The...
at Chek Lap KokChek Lap Kok is an island in the western waters of Hong Kong.Chek Lap Kok was one of the two islands merged together via land reclamation techniques into to the 12.48 km² platform for the current Hong Kong International Airport...
opens, while the historic Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport closes.
- July 10 – The DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses. The main role of DNA molecules is the long-term storage of information...
-identified remains of United States Air ForceThe United States Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the U.S. armed forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947 - 80 P.L....
1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie arrive home to his family in St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. With an estimated population of 354,361 in 2008, it is the principal municipality of Greater St. Louis, population 2,866,517, the largest urban area in Missouri and sixteenth largest in the United States...
, after being in the Tomb of the UnknownsThe Tomb of the Unknowns is a monument dedicated to American servicemen who have died without their remains being identified. It is located in Arlington National Cemetery in the United States...
since 1984.
- July 10 – Catholic priests' sex abuse scandal: The Diocese of Dallas agrees to pay $23.4 million to 9 former altar boys who claimed they were sexually abused by former priest Rudolph Kos.
- July 11 – The National Distance Running Hall of Fame
The National Distance Running Hall of Fame was established on July 11, 1998 to honor those who have contributed to the sport of distance running...
was established, inducting five members in its initial class.
- July 12 – France
The France national football team represents the nation of France in international football. It is fielded by the French Football Federation and competes as a member of UEFA....
defeats BrazilThe Brazil national football team is the national team of Brazil and is managed by the Brazilian Football Confederation that represents Brazil in international football competitions. They are the most successful national football team in the history of the World Cup, with five championships...
3–0 to win the 1998 FIFA World CupThe 1998 FIFA World Cup, the 16th FIFA World Cup, was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. France was chosen as hosts by FIFA on 1 July 1992. The tournament was won by France, who beat Brazil 3-0 in the final...
.
- July 17 – At a conference in Rome, 120 countries vote to create a permanent International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .The court came into being on 1 July 2002 — the...
to prosecute individuals for genocideGenocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.While precise definition varies among genocide scholars, a legal definition is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of...
, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
- July 17 – In Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city's other names were Petrograd and Leningrad...
, Nicholas II of RussiaNicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Duke of Finland, and claimed the title of King of Poland...
and his family are buried in St. Catherine Chapel, 80 years after he and his family were killed by BolshevikThe Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903...
s.
- July 17 – A tsunami
A is a series of water waves that is caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, such as an ocean. The original Japanese term literally translates as "harbor wave." Tsunamis are a frequent occurrence in Japan; approximately 195 events have been recorded...
triggered by an undersea earthquakeAn earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes are recorded with a seismometer, also known as a seismograph...
destroys 10 villages in Papua New GuineaPapua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
, killing an estimated 1,500, leaving 2,000 more unaccounted for and thousands more homeless.
- July 17 – Biologists report in the journal Science
Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is considered one of the world's most prestigious scientific journals. The peer-reviewed journal, first published in 1880 is circulated weekly and has a print subscriber base of around 130,000...
how they sequenced the genomeIn modern molecular biology the genome refers to all of its hereditary information encoded in DNA .The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA. The term was adapted in 1920 by Hans Winkler, Professor of Botany at the University of Hamburg, Germany...
of the bacterium that causes syphilisSyphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by the spirochetal bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The route of transmission of syphilis is almost always through sexual contact, although there are examples of congenital syphilis via transmission from mother to child in utero.The...
, Treponema pallidumTreponema pallidum is a spirochaete bacterium. It is not seen on a Gram stained smear because the organism is too thin.Habitat: Human genital tract. Transmission by sexual contact and from mother to fetus across placenta.-Subspecies:...
.
- July 24 – Russell Eugene Weston Jr. bursts into the United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the Federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall. Though not in the geographic center of the District of...
and opens fire, killing 2 police officers. He is later ruled incompetent to stand trial.
- July 25 – The United States Navy
The United States Navy is the sea branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. As of 31 December 2008, the U.S. Navy had about 331,682 personnel on active duty and 124,000 in the Navy Reserve. It operates 283 ships in active service and more than...
commissions the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and puts her into service.
- July 25 – Wakayama Arsenic poison case: 63 are sickened and 4 killed by arsenic
Arsenic is the chemical element that has the symbol As, atomic number 33 and atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250. Arsenic is a notoriously poisonous metalloid with many allotropic forms, including a yellow and several black and grey forms...
in a festival in the town in Wakayama Prefectureis a prefecture of Japan located on the Kii Peninsula in the Kansai region on Honshū island. The capital is the city of Wakayama.- History :Present-day Wakayama is mostly the western part of the province of Kii.-Cities:...
in Japan; Masumi Hayashiis a Japanese woman convicted of putting poison in a pot of curry being served at a 1998 summer festival in the Sonobe district of Wakayama, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan.-Summary:...
is arrested for murder.
- July 28 – Monica Lewinsky scandal: Ex-White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it was built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the late Georgian style and has been the residence of every...
intern Monica LewinskyMonica Samille Lewinsky is an American woman with whom then-United States President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an "improper relationship" while Lewinsky worked at the White House in 1995 and 1996...
receives transactional immunity, in exchange for her grand juryIn the common law, a grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether there is enough evidence for a trial. Grand juries carry out this duty by examining evidence presented to them by a prosecutor and issuing indictments, or by investigating alleged crimes and issuing presentments...
testimony concerning her relationship with U.S. President Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
.
- July 31 – The United Kingdom bans the importation of land mine
A land mine is a target triggered explosive weapon. Their non-explosive predecessors have been used on the battlefield since ancient times. Landmines were designed to be used to deter, channel, delay and kill an enemy. They have been used in various formats, for centuries and have featured in all...
s.
August
- August 5 – Iraq disarmament crisis
The issue of Iraq's disarmament reached a crisis in 2002-2003, when U.S. President George W. Bush demanded a complete end to what he alleged was Iraqi production of weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq comply with UN Resolutions requiring UN inspectors unfettered access to areas those...
: Iraq officially suspends all cooperation with UNSCOM teams.
- August 7 – Yangtze River Floods: In China
China is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
the Yangtze RiverThe Yangtze River, or Chang Jiang , Tibetan: Bri-chu, is the longest river in China and Asia, and the third-longest in the world, after the Nile in Africa and the Amazon....
breaks through the main bank; before this, from August 1–5, periphery levees collapsed consecutively in Jiayu County Baizhou Bay. The death toll exceeds 12,000, with many thousands more injured.
- August 7 – 1998 U.S. embassy bombings: The bombings of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam , formerly Mzizima, is the largest city in Tanzania. It is also the country's richest city and a regionally important economic centre...
, TanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in central East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.The United...
, and NairobiNairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi Province. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters"...
, KenyaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
kill 224 people and injure over 4,500; they are linked to terrorist Osama Bin LadenOsama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden is a member of the prominent Saudi bin Laden family and one of the founders of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda, best known for the September 11 attacks on the United States and its associations with numerous other mass-casualty attacks against...
, an exile of Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia , is an Arab country and the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south...
.
- August 14 – Gary C. Evans, infamous in New York's Capital Region
Capital Region, also National Capital Region, is a common term for the region or district surrounding the capital city of a country or any other administrative division...
for killing 5 people, escapes police custody and kills himself by jumping off a bridge.
- August 15 – Omagh bombing
The Omagh bombing was a paramilitary car bomb attack carried out by the Real Irish Republican Army , a splinter group of former Provisional Irish Republican Army members opposed to the Belfast Agreement, on Saturday 15 August 1998, in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Twenty-nine people died...
: The Real IRA detonates a car bomb in OmaghOmagh is the county town of County Tyrone in Ireland, it is on the outskirts of the largest city in Tyrone,Gortin. situated where the rivers Drumragh and Camowen meet to form the Strule. The town, which is the largest in the county, has an estimated population of 22,182...
, County TyroneCounty Tyrone is one of the traditional counties of Ireland. It is located within the province of Ulster and is part of Northern Ireland....
, Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, killing 29 and injuring over 200 (the greatest loss of life in a single incident of The TroublesThe Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...
).
- August 16 – Silk-Miller police murders
The Silk-Miller murders was the name given to the murders of Australian Victoria Police officers Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller in Cochranes Road, Moorabbin, Victoria, Australia on August 16 1998.On the night of the murders, police officers were staking out the Silky Emperor...
: AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
n police officers are murdered in Moorabbin, VictoriaMoorabbin is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 16 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Kingston. At the 2006 Census, Moorabbin had a population of 5170....
.
- August 19 – Monica Lewinsky scandal: On the day of his 52nd birthday, U.S. President Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
admits in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it was built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the late Georgian style and has been the residence of every...
intern Monica LewinskyMonica Samille Lewinsky is an American woman with whom then-United States President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an "improper relationship" while Lewinsky worked at the White House in 1995 and 1996...
. He also admits before the nation that night in a nationally televised address that he "misled people" about his sexual affair with Lewinsky.
- August 19 – 1998 Russian financial crisis: Russia defaults on the state short-term bonds, and devalues the ruble. The ruble loses 70% of its value against U.S. dollar in the next 6 months. Several of the largest Russians banks collapse, and millions of people lose their savings.
- August 20 – The Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeal in the Canadian justice system...
rules QuebecQuebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking identity and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
cannot legally secede from CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
without the federal government's approval.
- August 20 – 1998 U.S. embassy bombings: The United States military launches cruise missile
A cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and uses a lifting wing and a propulsion system, usually a jet engine, to allow sustained flight; it is essentially a flying bomb. Cruise missiles are generally designed to carry a large conventional or nuclear warhead many...
attacks against alleged Al-QaedaAl-Qaeda , alternatively spelled al-Qaida and sometimes al-Qa'ida, is an Islamist group founded sometime between August 1988 and late 1989 and early 1990...
camps in AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
and a suspected chemical plant in SudanSudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest country in Africa and in the Arab World, and tenth largest in the world by area...
in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in KenyaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
and TanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in central East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.The United...
. The al-Shifa pharmaceutical factoryThe Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum North, Sudan was constructed between 1992 and 1996 with components imported from the United States, Sweden, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, India, and Thailand....
in KhartoumKhartoum is the capital of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...
is destroyed in the attack.
- August 24 – The first RFID human implantation is tested in the United Kingdom.
- August 26 – Iraq disarmament crisis
The issue of Iraq's disarmament reached a crisis in 2002-2003, when U.S. President George W. Bush demanded a complete end to what he alleged was Iraqi production of weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq comply with UN Resolutions requiring UN inspectors unfettered access to areas those...
: Scott Ritter resigns from UNSCOM, sharply criticizing the ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
administration and the U.N. Security Council for not being vigorous enough about insisting that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction be destroyed. Ritter tells reporters that "Iraq is not disarming," "Iraq retains the capability to launch a chemical strike."
- August 31 – North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , is a state in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer area between North Korea and South Korea...
reportedly launches KwangmyongsongKwangmyŏngsŏng is a class of experimental satellite developed by North Korea and named after a Chinese-language poem by Kim Il-sung...
, their first satellite. Although North Korea reports that it reached stable orbit, NORADNorth American Aerospace Defense Command is a joint organization of Canada and the United States that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and defense for the two countries. It was founded on May 12, 1958 as a joint command between the governments of Canada and the United States, as the...
has never been able to confirm this assertion.
September
- September 2 – A McDonnell Douglas MD-11
The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is an American three-engine medium to long-range widebody airliner, with two engines mounted on underwing pylons and a third engine at the base of the vertical stabilizer...
airliner (Swissair Flight 111Swissair Flight 111 was a Swissair McDonnell Douglas MD-11 on a scheduled airline flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States to Cointrin International Airport in Geneva, Switzerland...
) crashes near Peggys Cove, Nova ScotiaPeggys Cove , also known as Peggy's Cove from 1961 to 1976, is a small rural community located on the eastern shore of St...
, after taking off from New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
en-route to GenevaGeneva, is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie...
; all 229 people on board are killed.
- September 2 – A United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
court finds Jean-Paul Akayesu, the former mayor of a small town in RwandaThe Republic of Rwanda is a small landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of east-central Africa, bordered by Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. Home to approaching 10 million people, Rwanda supports the densest population in continental Africa, most of whom...
, guilty of 9 counts of genocideGenocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.While precise definition varies among genocide scholars, a legal definition is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of...
, marking the first time that the 1948 law banning genocide is enforced.
- September 3 – In Canada, pilots for Air Canada
Air Canada is Canada's largest airline and flag carrier. The airline, founded in 1936, provides scheduled and charter air transportation for passengers and cargo to 96 destinations worldwide. Its largest hub is Toronto Pearson International Airport in Ontario. Its main base is Montreal-Pierre...
launch the first strike in the company's history.
- September 3 – In Somalia
Somalia , officially the Republic of Somalia and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic, is a country located in the Horn of Africa...
, the southern port of Kismayo is declared the capital of independent JubalandJubaland or Juba Valley , formerly Trans-Juba , is the southwesternmost part of Somalia. On the eastern side of Jubbaland is 40–60 km east of Jubba River from Gedo to the Indian Ocean, while western side of the region, the old days "Trans"-Juba), now Jubbland, borders Kenya.Total population...
under Muhamed Said Hersi.
- September 7 – Google
Google Inc. is an American public corporation, earning revenue from advertising related to its Internet search, e-mail, online mapping, office productivity, social networking, and video sharing services as well as selling advertising-free versions of the same technologies. Google has also...
, Inc. is founded in Menlo Park, CaliforniaMenlo Park is an affluent city in San Mateo County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. It is located at latitude 37°29' North, longitude 122°9' East. Menlo Park had 29,964 inhabitants as of the 2007 U.S. Census.-History:...
, by Stanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university located in Stanford, California, United States...
Ph.D.Ph.D. or PHD may stand for:* Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group* Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip* PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* Parisada Hindu Dharma, an Indonesian organization...
candidates Larry PageLawrence Edward "Larry" Page, is a US computer scientist best known as cofounder of Google Inc. He is ranked 26th on the 2009 Forbes list of the world’s billionaires and is the 6th richest person in America...
and Sergey BrinSergey Brin is a Russian-born American computer scientist best known as the co-founder of Google, Inc., the world’s largest Internet company, based on its search engine and online advertising technology. As of 2009, Forbes ranks Brin as the 26th richest person in the world.Brin immigrated to the...
.
- September 8 – St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are a professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division in the National League of Major League Baseball...
first baseman Mark McGwireMark David McGwire is a former Major League Baseball player who played his major league career with the Oakland Athletics and the St. Louis Cardinals....
breaks baseball's single-season home runIn baseball, a home run is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle all the bases, ending at home plate and scoring runs for himself and each runner who was already on base, with no errors by the defensive team on the play...
record, formerly held by Roger MarisRoger Eugene Maris was an American right fielder in Major League Baseball who is primarily remembered for hitting 61 home runs for the New York Yankees during the 1961 season...
. McGwire hits #62 at Busch Stadium in the 4th inning off of Chicago CubsThe Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago , the Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the...
pitcher Steve TrachselStephen Christopher Trachsel is a Major League Baseball pitcher who is currently a free agent. He most recently played with the Baltimore Orioles. He is known for the long amount of time he takes to deliver the ball to home plate in between pitches...
.
- September 9 – The United Nations General Assembly
For two articles dealing with membership in the General Assembly, see:*General Assembly members*General Assembly observersThe United Nations General Assembly is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation...
elects Didier Opertiri of UruguayUruguay , is a country located in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to 3.46 million people, of whom 1.1 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area. An estimated 88–94% of the population are of mostly European and/or mixed descent.Uruguay's only land border is...
as president for its 53rd session.
- September 9 – A coroner records a verdict of suicide
Suicide is the intentional killing of one's self. Many dictionaries also note the metaphorical sense of "willful destruction of one's self-interest"...
on former footballer Justin FashanuJustinus Soni "Justin" Fashanu was an English footballer, who played for a variety of clubs between 1978 and 1997...
, who was found hanged in a London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
lock-up garage 4 months before.
- September 14 – The GSPC
The al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb, previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat is an Islamist militia which aims to overthrow the Algerian government and institute an Islamic state...
is formed in AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country on the Mediterranean sea, the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area.It is bordered by Tunisia in...
, splitting off from the GIAThe Armed Islamic Group is a Muslim organisation that wants to overthrow the Algerian government and replace it with an Islamic state...
over its policy of massacring civilians.
- September 15 – Telecommunications companies MCI Communications
MCI Communications Corp. was an American telecommunications company that was instrumental in legal and regulatory changes that led to the breakup of the AT&T monopoly of American telephony and ushered in the competitive long distance telephone industry. It was headquartered in Washington,...
and WorldCom complete their $37 billion merger to form MCI WorldCom.
- September 25–28 – Major creditors of Long-Term Capital Management
Long-Term Capital Management was a U.S. hedge fund which used trading strategies such as fixed income arbitrage, statistical arbitrage, and pairs trading, combined with high leverage...
, a Greenwich, ConnecticutGreenwich is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 61,101. It is home to many hedge funds and other financial service companies that have left Manhattan. Greenwich is the southernmost and westernmost municipality in...
-based hedge fundA hedge fund is an investment fund open to a limited range of investors that is permitted by regulators to undertake a wider range of investment and trading activities than other investment funds, and that, in general, pays a performance fee to its investment manager...
, after days of tough bargaining and some informal mediation by Federal Reserve officials, agree on terms of a re-capitalization.
- September 27 – In Germany, SPD's Gerhard Schröder
' is a German politician, and was Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany , he led a coalition government of the SPD and the Greens. Before becoming a full-time politician, he was a lawyer, and before becoming Chancellor he was Minister-president...
defeats 4-term CDUThe Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany....
Chancellor Helmut KohlHelmut Josef Michael Kohl is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998...
.
- September 27 – Google is Launched
- September 29 – Iraq disarmament crisis
The issue of Iraq's disarmament reached a crisis in 2002-2003, when U.S. President George W. Bush demanded a complete end to what he alleged was Iraqi production of weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq comply with UN Resolutions requiring UN inspectors unfettered access to areas those...
: The U.S. Congress passes the "Iraq Liberation Act", which states that the United States wants to remove Saddam HusseinSaddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the President of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
from power and replace the government with a democratic institution.
October
- October 1 – Sky Digital Satellite Television
Sky Digital is the brand name for British Sky Broadcasting's digital satellite television and radio service, transmitted from SES Astra satellites located at 28.2° east and Eutelsat's Eurobird 1 satellite at 28.5°E....
launches in the UK.
- October 3 – In Australia, John Howard
John Winston Howard, AC was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He is the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
's coalition government is re-elected for a second term.
- October 4 – Leafie Mason is murdered in her Hughes Springs, Texas
Hughes Springs is a city in Cass and Morris Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. The population was 1,856 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Hughes Springs is located at ....
house by Angel Maturino ResendizAngel Maturino Reséndiz, aka The Railway Killer/The Railroad Killer, was a convicted serial killer, executed in the U.S. state of Texas. He was an illegal from Mexico, who wandered the United States on trains to commit his 24 murders...
. She is his second victim in his second incident.
- October 6 – College student Matthew Shepard
Matthew Wayne Shepard was a student at the University of Wyoming who was tortured and murdered near Laramie, Wyoming in 1998...
is found tied to a fence near Laramie, WyomingLaramie is a city in and the county seat of Albany County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 27,204 at the 2000 census. Located on the Laramie River in southeastern Wyoming, the city is west of Cheyenne, at the junction of Interstate 80 and U.S...
. He dies October 12, becoming a symbol of gay-bashing victims and sparking public reflection on homophobiaHomophobia is defined as an "irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals", or individuals perceived to be homosexual; it is also defined as "unreasoning fear of or antipathy toward homosexuals and homosexuality", "fear of or contempt for lesbians and gay...
in the U.S.
- October 7 – Oslo's Fornebu
Fornebu is a peninsular area in the suburban municipality of Bærum in Norway, bordering western parts of Oslo.Oslo Airport, Fornebu served as the main airport for Oslo and the country since before WWII and until the evening of October 7 1998, when it was closed down...
Airport closes.
- October 7 – The United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election....
passes the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, which gives copyright holders 20 more years of copyright privilege on work they control. This effectively freezes the public domainThe public domain is a range of abstract materials—commonly referred to as intellectual property—which are not owned or controlled by anyone. The term indicates that these materials are therefore "public property", and available for anyone to use for any purpose...
to works created before 1923 in the United States.
- October 8 – Oslo Airport
Oslo Airport, Gardermoen is the principal airport serving the Norwegian capital city of Oslo. It is also the main international airport serving Norway, with flights to a large number of European airports, and some flights to other continents. It is located at Gardermoen in Ullensaker, north...
(Gardermoen) opens.
- October 8 – Japan and South Korea sign "A New Japan-Republic of Korea Partnership towards the Twenty-first Century".
- October 12 – The Congress of the United States passes the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization . It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to...
.
- October 14 – Eric Robert Rudolph
Eric Robert Rudolph , also known as the Olympic Park Bomber, is an American far-right radical described by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a terrorist who committed a series of bombings across the southern United States which killed two people and injured at least 150 others.Rudolph declared...
is charged with 6 bombings (including the 1996 Olympic bombing) in Atlanta, GeorgiaAtlanta is the capital and most populous city in the state of Georgia, as well as the urban core of one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States....
.
- October 15 – American Airlines
becomes the first airline to offer electronic ticketing in all 44 countries it serves.
- October 15 – The Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas
The Las Vegas Strip is an approximately stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada. A small portion of the Strip lies in Las Vegas, but most of it is in the unincorporated areas of Paradise and Winchester...
opens on the former grounds of the Dunes Hotel
- October 16 – British police place General Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was a Chilean army general and later head of state as president. He was the Commander in Chief of the Chilean army from 1973 to 1998, president of the Government Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981 and President of the Republic from 1974 until the return of...
under house arrestIn justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
during his medical treatment in the UK.
- October 17–18 – severe flooding takes place in south Central Texas.
- October 17 – A pipeline explosion
On October 18, 1998 a pipeline explosion occurred in the community of Jesse, southeast of Lagos, Nigeria. The cause of the blast has been debated...
in Jesse, NigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising thirty-six states and one Federal Capital Territory. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger...
results in 1,082 deaths.
- October 21 – The New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the borough of the Bronx, in New York City, New York and are a member of Major League Baseball's American League East Division...
defeat the San Diego PadresThe San Diego Padres are a Major League Baseball team based in San Diego, California. They play in the National League Western Division. Founded in 1969, the Padres have won the National League Pennant twice, in 1984 and 1998, losing in the World Series both times.The Padres are one of four teams...
to sweep them in the World SeriesThe 1998 World Series matched the New York Yankees against the San Diego Padres . The Yankees swept the Series in four games to capture their second championship in three years, and their 24th overall...
. The Yankees finish with 114 regular-season wins and 11 postseason victories (125 total – the most by any team in 123 years of Major League baseball).
- October 27 – Germany: New Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his liberal SPD
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is Germany's oldest political party. The party governed at the federal level in a grand coalition with the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union until conceding defeat in the federal election of September 2009...
–GreenThe Alliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany which originated from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir...
coalition takes office.
- October 28 – An Air China
Air China Ltd is the People's Republic of China's state-owned and second-largest commercial airline after China Southern Airlines. It is the flag carrier and the only airline in the world to fly the national flag on its entire fleet...
jetliner is hijacked by disgruntled pilot Yuan Bin and flown to TaiwanTaiwan , also known as Formosa , is the largest island of the Republic of China in East Asia. Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, off the southeastern coast of mainland China...
. After landing the plane safely, Yuan Bin is arrested.
- October 29 – Apartheid: In South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities.
- October 29 – STS-95
STS-95 was a Space Shuttle Discovery mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on October 29, 1998. It was the 25th flight of Discovery and the 92nd mission flown since the start of the Space Shuttle program in April 1981. It was a highly publicized mission due to former Project Mercury...
: The Space Shuttle DiscoverySpace Shuttle Discovery is one of the three currently operational orbiters in the Space Shuttle fleet of NASA, the space agency of the United States. When first flown in 1984, Discovery became the third operational orbiter, and is now the oldest orbiter in service...
blasts off with 77-year-old John GlennJohn Herschel Glenn Jr. is a retired United States Marine Corps pilot, a former astronaut and United States Senator who was the first American and third person to orbit the Earth. Glenn was a Marine Corps fighter pilot before joining NASA's Mercury program, NASA's original astronaut group. He...
on board, making him the 2nd oldest person to go into space. (He became the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962).
- October 29 – While en route from Adana
Adana is a city in the Mediterranean Region of Turkey and is the administrative seat of the Adana Province. The city is situated on the Seyhan River, 30 kilometres inland from the Mediterranean Sea, in south-central Anatolia, and has a population of over 1.5 million; making it the fifth most...
to AnkaraAnkara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2007 the city had a population of 4,751,360, which includes eight districts under the city's administration...
, a Turkish AirlinesTHY - Turkish Airlines, Inc. is the national airline of Turkey, headquartered in Istanbul. It operates a network of scheduled services to 120 international and 37 domestic cities , serving a total of 158 airports, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas...
flight with a crew of 6 and 33 passengers is hijacked by a KurdKürd or Kyurd or Kyurt may refer to:*Kürd Eldarbəyli, Azerbaijan*Kürd Mahrızlı, Azerbaijan*Kürd, Goychay, Azerbaijan*Kürd, Jalilabad, Azerbaijan*Kürd, Qabala, Azerbaijan*Qurdbayram, Azerbaijan...
ish militant, who orders the pilot to fly to SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
. The plane instead lands in Ankara after the pilot tricks the hijacker into thinking that he was landing in the BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a country in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north , Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south...
n capital of SofiaSofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city by population in the European Union, with 1.4 million people living in the Capital Municipality...
to refuel.
- October 29 – Hurricane Mitch
Hurricane Mitch was the most powerful hurricane of the 1998 Atlantic hurricane season, with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph . The storm was the thirteenth tropical storm, ninth hurricane, and third major hurricane of the season...
makes landfall in Central America, killing an estimated 18,000 people.
- October 29 – In Freehold Borough, New Jersey
Freehold Borough is a Borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 10,976. It is the county seat of Monmouth County....
, Melissa DrexlerMelissa Drexler , gained infamy for delivering a baby in a restroom stall at her high school prom and putting the body in the trash before returning to the dance. She pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter, and was sentenced to fifteen years of imprisonment...
pleads guilty to aggravated manslaughterManslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder.The law generally differentiates between levels of criminal culpability based on the mens rea, or state of mind...
for killing her baby moments after delivering him in the bathroom at her senior promIn the United States and Canada, a prom, short for promenade, is a formal dance, or gathering of high school students. It is held at the end of senior year. In the United Kingdom, the term is more widely understood to be in reference to a season of classical concerts, or "proms," which have been...
, and is sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.
- October 29 – In Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest amongst the Nordic countries. Situated on the south-west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 502,833 with 622,287 in the urban area and total of 911,406 inhabitants in the metropolitan area.The City of...
, SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
, 2 arsonists burn down a local Macedonian Society disco, killing 63 and injuring 200, most of them children of refugees.
- October 31 – Iraq disarmament crisis
The issue of Iraq's disarmament reached a crisis in 2002-2003, when U.S. President George W. Bush demanded a complete end to what he alleged was Iraqi production of weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq comply with UN Resolutions requiring UN inspectors unfettered access to areas those...
begins: IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
announces it will no longer cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors.
November
- November 1 – The European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is an international judicial body established under the European Convention on Human Rights of 1950 to monitor respect of human rights by states...
is instituted.
- November 3 – Jesse Ventura
Jesse Ventura , also known as "The Body", "The Great", "The Star", "The Mind", and "The Governing Body", is an American politician, retired professional wrestler and color commentator, Navy UDT veteran, actor, and former radio and television talk show host...
, former professional wrestler, is elected Governor of MinnesotaThe Governor of Minnesota is the chief executive of the U.S. state of Minnesota, leading the state's executive branch. Thirty-eight different people have been governors of the state, though historically there were also three governors of Minnesota Territory. Alexander Ramsey, the first...
.
- November 3 – Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta. The city is located on the North Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province, an area with some of the most fertile farmland on the prairies...
, Canada and WonjuWonju is the largest city by population city in Gangwon province, South Korea.Wonju is a city approximately 90 miles east of Seoul. Wonju is home to three major universities which draw many students from Seoul and elsewhere. It was the site of a battle in the Korean War.The city is home to two...
, South KoreaSouth Korea, officially the Republic of Korea and often simply referred to as Korea, is a country in East Asia, located on the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by China to the west, Japan to the east, and North Korea to the north. Its capital is Seoul, the second largest...
are declared as sister cities.
- November 5 – Lewinsky scandal
The Lewinsky scandal was a political sex scandal emerging from a sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The news of this extra-marital affair and the resulting investigation eventually led to the impeachment of...
: As part of the impeachmentImpeachment is the first of two stages in a specific process for a legislative body to consider whether or not to forcibly remove a government official from office. The impeachment itself brings the charges against the official...
inquiry, House Judiciary Committee chairman Henry HydeHenry John Hyde , an American politician, was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 2007, representing the 6th District of Illinois, an area of Chicago's northwestern suburbs which included O'Hare International Airport...
sends a list of 81 questions to U.S. President Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
.
- November 5 – The journal Nature
Nature is a prominent British scientific journal, first published on 4 November 1869. Most scientific journals are now highly specialized, and Nature is among the few journals that still publish original research articles across a wide range of scientific...
publishes a genetic study showing compelling evidence that Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States , the principal author of the Declaration of Independence , and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States...
fathered his slave Sally HemingsSally Hemings was an African-American slave owned by President of the United States Thomas Jefferson. She was said to have been the half-sister of Jefferson's wife Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson...
' son Eston Hemings Jefferson.
- November 5 – Myra Hindley loses her second appeal in 11 months against her whole life tariff
This is a list of prisoners who have received a whole life tariff through some mechanism in jurisdictions the United Kingdom.-Imposed by Home Secretaries :...
.
- November 7 – John Glenn
John Herschel Glenn Jr. is a retired United States Marine Corps pilot, a former astronaut and United States Senator who was the first American and third person to orbit the Earth. Glenn was a Marine Corps fighter pilot before joining NASA's Mercury program, NASA's original astronaut group. He...
returns to EarthEarth is the third planet from the Sun. It is the fifth largest of the eight planets in the solar system, and the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in terms of diameter, mass and density...
aboard the Space Shuttle DiscoverySpace Shuttle Discovery is one of the three currently operational orbiters in the Space Shuttle fleet of NASA, the space agency of the United States. When first flown in 1984, Discovery became the third operational orbiter, and is now the oldest orbiter in service...
.
- November 9 – In the largest civil settlement in United States history, a federal judge approves a US$1.03 billion settlement requiring dozens of brokerage houses (including Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. was a global financial services firm acquired by Bank of America in 2009, today known as Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The firm was acquired by Bank of America under distressed circumstances during the 2008 Financial Crisis. This article describes both the historical...
, Goldman SachsThe Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is a bank holding company that engages in investment banking, securities services and investment management. Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869, and is headquartered in the Lower Manhattan area of New York City at 85 Broad Street and has its secondary office at 30...
, and Salomon Smith Barney) to pay investors who claim they were cheated in a widespread price-fixing scheme on the NASDAQThe National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations, known as NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. It is the largest electronic screen-based equity securities trading market in the United States...
.
- November 9 – The United Kingdom formally abolishes the death penalty
Capital punishment was used in the United Kingdom and its predecessor states of England and Scotland from the earliest times until the punishment was abolished in the twentieth century. The last executions, by hanging, took place in 1964, prior to capital punishment being abolished for murder...
.
- November 12 – Daimler-Benz
Daimler-Benz AG was a German manufacturer of automobiles, motor vehicles, and engines which was founded in 1926. An Agreement of Mutual Interest—which was valid until year 2000—was signed on May 1 1924 between Karl Benz's Benz & Cie. and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, which had been founded by...
completes a merger with Chrysler Corporation to form Daimler-Chrysler.
- November 13 – Theglobe.com
theGlobe.com was an internet startup founded in 1994 by Cornell students Stephan Paternot and Todd Krizelman. A social networking service, theGlobe.com made headlines by going public on November 13, 1998 and posting the largest first day gain of any IPO in history up to that date...
goes public, opening up 1000% and setting a stock market record for highest rising IPO in history. This became one of the first and most widely publicized IPOs of the internet boom.
- November 13–14 – Iraq disarmament crisis
The issue of Iraq's disarmament reached a crisis in 2002-2003, when U.S. President George W. Bush demanded a complete end to what he alleged was Iraqi production of weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq comply with UN Resolutions requiring UN inspectors unfettered access to areas those...
: U.S. President Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
orders airstrikes on IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
, then calls them off at the last minute when IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
promises once again to "unconditionally" cooperate with UNSCOM.
- November 19 – Lewinsky scandal
The Lewinsky scandal was a political sex scandal emerging from a sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The news of this extra-marital affair and the resulting investigation eventually led to the impeachment of...
: The United State House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee begins impeachmentImpeachment is the first of two stages in a specific process for a legislative body to consider whether or not to forcibly remove a government official from office. The impeachment itself brings the charges against the official...
hearings against U.S. President Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
.
- November 20 – A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan
The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
declares accused terrorist Osama bin LadenOsama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden is a member of the prominent Saudi bin Laden family and one of the founders of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda, best known for the September 11 attacks on the United States and its associations with numerous other mass-casualty attacks against...
"a man without a sin" in regard to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in KenyaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
and TanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in central East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.The United...
.
- November 20 – Galina Starovoitova
Galina Vasilyevna Starovoitova was a Russian politician and ethnographer known for her work to protect ethnic minorities and promote democratic reforms in Russia...
, Russian legislator and democracy advocate, is assassinated in Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city's other names were Petrograd and Leningrad...
, Russia.
- November 20 – At the Baikonur Cosmodrome
The Baikonur Cosmodrome , also called Tyuratam, is the world's first and largest operational space launch facility. It is located in the desert steppes of Kazakhstan, about east of the Aral Sea, north of the Syr Darya river, near Tyuratam railway station, at 90 metres above sea level...
in KazakhstanKazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a country situated in Eurasia that is ranked as the ninth largest country in the world. It is also the world's largest landlocked country. Its territory of 2,727,300 km² is greater than Western Europe...
, the first component for the International Space StationThe International Space Station is an internationally developed research facility currently being assembled in Low Earth Orbit. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998 and is scheduled to be completed by 2011, with operations continuing until at least 2015...
(Zarya, or sunrise,) is launched.
- November 21 – The "dump site" murder in Hyvinkää
Hyvinkää is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in Uusimaa region, approximately north of the capital Helsinki. The town was chartered in 1960. Hyvinkää belongs to the Province of Southern Finland. The population of Hyvinkää is ....
, FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
: Satanists Jarno ElgJarno Sebastian Elg is a Finnish Devil-worshipper, who was sentenced to life in prison for murdering a 23-year-old man, eating some of the body parts and instigating others to participate in a ritual that included torturing the victim while listening to songs from The Cainian Chronicle album by...
and Terhi Tervashonka murder, cut up, and partly eat a 23-year-old man.
- November 23–26 – Iraq disarmament crisis
The issue of Iraq's disarmament reached a crisis in 2002-2003, when U.S. President George W. Bush demanded a complete end to what he alleged was Iraqi production of weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq comply with UN Resolutions requiring UN inspectors unfettered access to areas those...
: According to UNSCOM, IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
once again ends cooperation with the United Nations inspectors, alternately intimidating and withholding information from them.
- November 24 – America Online announces it will acquire Netscape Communications in a stock-for-stock transaction worth US$4.2 billion.
- November 26 – Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
becomes the first Prime Minister of the United KingdomThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the political leader of the United Kingdom and the Head of Her Majesty's Government...
to address the Dáil Éireannis the principal chamber of the Oireachtas . It is directly elected at least once in every five years under the system of proportional representation by means of the Single Transferable Vote . Its powers are similar to those of lower houses under many other bicameral parliamentary systems and it is...
, the Republic of IrelandIreland is a country in north-western Europe. The modern sovereign state occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned on 3 May 1921. It is a parliamentary democracy and a republic...
's parliament.
- November 26 – Japan and China sign the Japan-China Joint Declaration On Building a Partnership of Friendship and Cooperation for Peace and Development.
- November 27 – The Sega Dreamcast
The Dreamcast is the last video game console made by Sega, and is the successor to the Sega Saturn...
is made first available in Japan.
- November 30 – Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG is an international Universal bank with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. The bank employs more than 81,000 people in 76 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets.Deutsche Bank has offices in major financial centers,...
announces a US$10 billion deal to buy Bankers TrustBankers Trust was an historic American banking organization, acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1998.-History:It was originally set up when banks could not perform trust company services...
, thus creating the largest financial institution in the world.
December
- December – Grade school children in Aurora, Colorado
Aurora is a Home Rule Municipality spanning Arapahoe, Adams, and Douglas Counties in Colorado. The city is the third most populous city in the State of Colorado and the 61st most populous city in the United States. The population was 276,393 at the 2000 census, with an estimated population of...
, collect $35,000 to purchase and free slave children in SudanSudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest country in Africa and in the Arab World, and tenth largest in the world by area...
.
- December 1 – Exxon
Exxon is a brand of motor fuel and related products sold by ExxonMobil. From 1972 to 1999, Exxon was the corporate name of the company previously known as Standard Oil Company of New Jersey or Jersey Standard.- History :...
announces a US$73.7 billion deal to buy MobilMobil was a major American oil company which merged with Exxon in 1999 to form ExxonMobil. Today Mobil continues as a major brand name within the combined company. Its former headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia, are currently used as ExxonMobil's downstream headquarters...
, thus creating Exxon-Mobil, the second-largest company on the planet by revenue.
- December 5 – D.C. United
D.C. United is an American professional soccer club located in Washington, D.C. that participates in Major League Soccer, the United States' top-tier soccer league. The team's home field is the 45,596-seat Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, owned by the District of Columbia and located on the...
defeats Vasco da GamaDom Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the European Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India...
2–1 on aggregate to win the Interamerican Cup (one of the greatest triumphs in the history of U.S. club soccer).
- December 6 – Hugo Chávez Frías, former member of the Venezuelan military and politician, is elected
In the December 6, 1998 Venezuelan presidential election, Hugo Chávez was elected to his first term as President of Venezuela with the largest percentage of the popular vote in four decades...
President of VenezuelaVenezuela , officially titled Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It is a continental mainland with numerous islands located off its coastline in the Caribbean Sea...
.
- December 8 – Tadjena massacre
The Tadjena massacre is a indecent resulting in 81 deaths. Beginning about 9:00 p.m. on December 8 and continuing until early December 9, 1998, 81 villagers were killed by armed groups in the mountain villages of Bouhamed and Ayachiche just north of Tadjena, some 170 km west of Algiers, in the...
in AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country on the Mediterranean sea, the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area.It is bordered by Tunisia in...
: 81 villagers are killed.
- December 11 – Iraq disarmament crisis
The issue of Iraq's disarmament reached a crisis in 2002-2003, when U.S. President George W. Bush demanded a complete end to what he alleged was Iraqi production of weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq comply with UN Resolutions requiring UN inspectors unfettered access to areas those...
: IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
announces that United Nations weapons inspections will no longer take place on Friday, the Muslim day of rest. IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
also refuses to provide test data from the production of missiles and engines.
- December 16–19 – Iraq disarmament crisis
The issue of Iraq's disarmament reached a crisis in 2002-2003, when U.S. President George W. Bush demanded a complete end to what he alleged was Iraqi production of weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq comply with UN Resolutions requiring UN inspectors unfettered access to areas those...
: U.S. President Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
orders American and British airstrikes on IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
. UNSCOM withdraws all weapons inspectors from Iraq.
- December 17 – Claudia Benton, of West University Place, Texas
Texas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
, is murdered in her house by Angel Maturino ResendizAngel Maturino Reséndiz, aka The Railway Killer/The Railroad Killer, was a convicted serial killer, executed in the U.S. state of Texas. He was an illegal from Mexico, who wandered the United States on trains to commit his 24 murders...
(his third victim in his third incident).
- December 19 – Iraq disarmament crisis
The issue of Iraq's disarmament reached a crisis in 2002-2003, when U.S. President George W. Bush demanded a complete end to what he alleged was Iraqi production of weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq comply with UN Resolutions requiring UN inspectors unfettered access to areas those...
: IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
i Vice-President Taha Yassin RamadanTaha Yasin Ramadan al-Jizrawi was the Vice President of Iraq from March 1991 to the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.- Capture, trial and execution :...
announces that IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
will no longer cooperate and declares that UNSCOM's "mission is over."
- December 19 – Lewinsky scandal
The Lewinsky scandal was a political sex scandal emerging from a sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The news of this extra-marital affair and the resulting investigation eventually led to the impeachment of...
: President Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
is impeachedImpeachment is the first of two stages in a specific process for a legislative body to consider whether or not to forcibly remove a government official from office. The impeachment itself brings the charges against the official...
by the United States House of RepresentativesThe United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as the "House," is the lower house of the bicameral United States Congress, the upper house being the United States Senate. The composition and powers of the House and the Senate are established in Article One of the Constitution...
. (He was later acquitted of any wrongdoing.)
- December 21 – Iraq disarmament crisis
The issue of Iraq's disarmament reached a crisis in 2002-2003, when U.S. President George W. Bush demanded a complete end to what he alleged was Iraqi production of weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq comply with UN Resolutions requiring UN inspectors unfettered access to areas those...
: UN Security Council members France, Germany and Russia call for sanctions to end against IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
. The 3 Security Council members also call for UNSCOM to either be disbanded or for its role to be recast. The U.S. says it will veto any such proposal.
- December 26 – Iraq disarmament crisis
The issue of Iraq's disarmament reached a crisis in 2002-2003, when U.S. President George W. Bush demanded a complete end to what he alleged was Iraqi production of weapons of mass destruction and that Iraq comply with UN Resolutions requiring UN inspectors unfettered access to areas those...
: IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
announces its intention to fire upon U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the northern and southern "no-fly zones".
- December 26 – Six sailors die and 5 yachts are lost in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race
The 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race was the 54th annual running of the "blue water classic" Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. It was hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia based in Sydney, New South Wales....
, the biggest disaster in the race's history
- December 29 – Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, the totalitarian ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan....
leaders apologize for the genocideGenocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.While precise definition varies among genocide scholars, a legal definition is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of...
in CambodiaThe Kingdom of Cambodia , formerly known as Kampuchea , is a country in South East Asia with a population of over 14 million people. The kingdom's capital and largest city is Phnom Penh...
that claimed over 1 million in the 1970sThe 1970s was the decade that ran from January 1, 1970, to December 31, 1979.In the Western world, social progressive values that began in the 1960s, such as increasing political awareness and political and economic liberty of women, continued to grow...
.
- December 31 – The first leap second
A leap second is a positive or negative one-second adjustment to the Coordinated Universal Time time scale that keeps it close to mean solar time. UTC, which is used as the basis for official time-of-day radio broadcasts for civil time, is maintained using extremely precise atomic clocks...
since June 30, 1997 occurs. In the eurozoneThe eurozone is an economic and monetary union of 16 European Union member states which have adopted the euro currency as their sole legal tender. It currently consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal,...
, the currency rates of this day are fixed permanently.
Undated
- The fourth generation of VW's Passat
The Volkswagen Passat is a family car built by Volkswagen Passenger Cars through six design generations since 1973. Slotting between the Volkswagen Golf / Volkswagen Jetta, and the Volkswagen Phaeton in the current Volkswagen line-up, the Passat has been badged variously as Dasher, Santana,...
automobileAn automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
goes on sale in North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
.
- Ibrahim Hanna, the last native speaker of Mlahsô
Mlahsô is a Modern West Syriac language, a dialect of Aramaic. It was traditionally spoken in eastern Turkey and north-eastern Syria by members of the Assyrian/Syriac people....
, dies in QamishliQamishli is a city in northeastern Syria on the border with Turkey and close to Iraq...
, SyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
, making the language effectively extinct. In that same year, the last native speaker of related Bijil Neo-Aramaic dies in JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
.
- Karolyn Nunnallee
Karolyn Nunnallee was the seventh president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving , serving 1998-1999. Ms. Nunnallee's ten-year-old daughter, Patty Nunnallee, was killed in the Carrollton bus disaster in 1988...
, whose daughter died 10 years earlier in the Carrollton bus collision, is elected president of Mothers Against Drunk DrivingMothers Against Drunk Driving is a non-profit organization that seeks to stop drunk driving, support those affected by drunk driving, prevent underage drinking, and overall push for stricter alcohol policy...
.
Fictional
The following are references to year 1998 in fiction:
- Comics:
- Set in 1998: V for Vendetta
V for Vendetta is a ten-issue comic-book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated mostly by David Lloyd, set in a dystopian future United Kingdom imagined from the 1980s about the 1990s...
(1982–1988)
- Computer/video games:
- Set in 1998:
- Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is a sandbox-style action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar North and Rockstar Leeds. It is the ninth game in the Grand Theft Auto series. It was released for the PlayStation Portable in North America on October 25, 2005 and in the United Kingdom on...
(2005):
- Resident Evil 0
Resident Evil Zero, known in Japan as , is a survival horror game that was developed and published by Capcom for the Nintendo GameCube and released in...
July 23 to early July 24
- Resident Evil
Resident Evil, known in Japan as , is a survival horror video game by Capcom. The inaugural title and first installment in the Resident Evil series, it was originally released in 1996 for the PlayStation and has subsequently been ported to the Sega Saturn and PC.In 2002, a remake of the game was...
(1996), on July 24
- Resident Evil (film adaptation)
Resident Evil is a 2002 science fiction horror film based on the same titled series of Survival horror games developed by Capcom. Borrowing elements from the Resident Evil 1 and 2 video games, the film follows an amnesiac heroine Alice, and a band of Umbrella Corporation commandos, as they attempt...
(2002) on July 23 to July 24.
- Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 2, known in Japan as , is a survival horror game by Capcom originally released for the PlayStation in 1998. It is the second installment in the Resident Evil series, and was later ported to Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast and GameCube.-Gameplay:Resident Evil 2 follows the...
(1998), from the night of September 29 to early September 30
- Resident Evil 3 (1999), on September 28, then on October 1
- Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Resident Evil: Apocalypse is a 2004 science fiction action horror film. It is the second installment in the series of film adaptations based on the Capcom survival horror game series Resident Evil...
(2004) from September 30 to October 1
- Snake's Revenge
Snake's Revenge is a stealth action game by Konami released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990. The game was produced as a sequel to the original Metal Gear, made specifically for the North American and PAL market following the success of the first NES game...
(1992)
- Max Payne 2 (2003)
- The House Of The Dead
The House of the Dead 2 is a light gun arcade game with a horror theme and the second game in the The House of the Dead series of video games, developed by Sega for video arcades in 1998 and later ported to the Dreamcast and PC, and also found on the Xbox as an unlockable bonus in The House of the...
The Curien Case on December 18
- CarnEvil
CarnEvil is a rail shooter arcade game using a light gun. Released by Midway Games on October 31 , 1998, CarnEvil is noted for its graphic content and strong lifelike violence which was peppered with heavy amounts of black humor. CarnEvil is a portmanteau of "The Carnival of Evil" and was...
: The rising of the Carnival of Evil.
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Film:
- Back to the Future Part II
Back to the Future Part II is a 1989 film and a sequel to the 1985 film Back to the Future. Like the previous film, it was directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale...
(1989): Marty McFlyMartin Seamus "Marty" McFly is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the Back to the Future motion picture trilogy, played by actor Michael J. Fox in the three films and voiced by David Kaufman in the animated series.-Biography:...
, Jr. is born.
- Max Payne
Max Payne is a BAFTA award winning third-person shooter video game developed by Finnish Remedy Entertainment, produced by 3D Realms and published by Gathering of Developers in July 2001 for Windows. Ports later in the year for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and the GameBoy Advance were published by...
(2008):
- Fanboys
A fanboy is a person considered to belong to one or more fandoms to a point of obsession.Fanboy may also refer to:*Fanboys , a 2003 New Zealand short film.*Fanboys , a 2009 American comedy film....
(2009):
- Literature
- The Beast-Jewel of Mars by Leigh Brackett
Leigh Douglass Brackett was an American author, particularly of science fiction. She was also a screenwriter, known for her work on famous films such as The Big Sleep , Rio Bravo , The Long Goodbye and The Empire Strikes Back .-Life:Leigh Brackett was born and grew up in Los Angeles, California...
(1948)
- Television:
- Defenders of the Earth
Defenders of the Earth is an animated television series produced in 1986, featuring characters from three comic strips distributed by King Features Syndicate—Flash Gordon, the Phantom, and Mandrake the Magician—battling the Flash Gordon villain Ming the Merciless in the year 2015...
(1986): Jedda Walker is born.
Births
- January 1 – Marlene Lawston
Marlene Lawston is an American child actress. Her acting debut was in the 2005 movie Flightplan, where she played Julia, the six year old daughter of Jodie Foster who was kidnapped on board a plane...
, American actress
- January 12 – Nathan Gamble
Nathan Gamble is an American child actor who made his feature film debut in Babel , for which he was nominated for a 2007 Young Artist Award....
, American actor
- February 25 – Brendon Baerg
Brendon Baerg is a child actor best known for playing "Logan Hughes" on the CBS show Yes, Dear. He voiced Thumper in Bambi II .-External links:...
, American actor
- April 9 – Elle Fanning
Mary Elle Fanning , credited as Elle Fanning, is an American actress. She is the younger sister of actress Dakota Fanning.-Personal life:...
, American actress
- April 15 – Sharlene san Pedro
Sharlene San Pedro or Sharlene Santos San Pedro is a Filipina child actress born on April 15, 1998. She is popularly known for playing the role of Gigi in Mga Anghel na Walang Langit...
, Filipino actress
- April 24 – Ryan Newman
Ryan Whitney Newman is an American child actress.-Life and career:Newman was born in Manhattan Beach, California. At age three, Newman entered the entertainment industry as she began auditioning for print and television commercials...
, American actress
- July 8 – Jaden Smith
Jaden Christopher Syre Smith is an American actor and dancer. He is the son of actor/rapper Will Smith and classical actress/singer Jada Pinkett Smith.-Career:...
, American actor
- July 17 – Felipe Juan Froilán de Marichalar y de Borbón
Don Felipe Juan Froilán de Todos los Santos de Marichalar y de Borbón , Madrid) is the eldest son of the Duchess and Duke of Lugo, Infanta Elena of Spain and Don Jaime de Marichalar...
, grandson of Juan Carlos I of Spain
- July 18 – Nixzmary Brown
Nixzmary Brown was a seven-year-old abused child and murder victim from the Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn section of New York City, New York...
, American child abuse victim (d. 2006)
- July 24 – Bindi Irwin
Bindi Sue Irwin is the daughter of Terri Irwin and Steve Irwin. Bindi is a child celebrity, who has tried her hand at acting, singing, dancing, and rapping...
, daughter of wildlife icon Steve IrwinStephen Robert Irwin , known simply as Steve Irwin and nicknamed "The Crocodile Hunter", was an iconic Australian television personality, wildlife expert, and conservationist...
- August 1- Khamani Griffin
Khamani Griffin is an American child actor.He starred as Ben Hinton in Daddy Day Care and had a role in Norbit . He has also appeared in ER, My Name Is Earl, and played the role of Bobby in the television series All Of Us. He has been nominated with 3 Young Artist Awards...
, American child actor
- August 19 – Ella Guevara
Janella Denise Yuson Guevara is a Filipina child actress. She rose to fame through her appearance on a talent search on television called StarStruck Kids that aired on the Filipino television channel GMA 7...
, Filipino actress
- September 21 – Brino quadruplets
Lorenzo, Nikolas, Myrinda and Zachary Brino are the quadruplets born to Tony and Shawna Brino. They have an older half-brother, their father's son from another marriage, named Antonio, who is in the U.S...
, American actor/actresses
- October 6 – Mia-Sophie Wellenbrink
Mia-Sophie Wellenbrink is a German child actress and singer. Since early 2005 she is the star of a series of TV commercials for the dairy Müllermilch....
, German actress and singer
- October 18 – Julia Wróblewska
Julia Wróblewska , is now one of the most recognizable child actresses in her native Poland.She debuted at the age of eight with the role of little Michalina in Tylko mnie kochaj...
, Polish actress
- November 4 – Darcy Rose Byrnes
Darcy Rose Byrnes is an American child actress, and singer, who played Abby Carlton on the CBS soap operas The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful...
, American actress
- December 29 – Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick
Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick is an American child actor. His first film role was as Damien Thornin the 2006 remake of the thriller The Omen.-Life and work:...
, American actor
January–June
- January 1 – Helen Wills Moody
Helen Newington Wills Roark , also known as Helen Wills Moody, was an American tennis player. She has been described as "the first American born woman to achieve international celebrity as an athlete."...
, American tennis player (b. 1905)
- January 4 – Mae Questel
Mae Questel was an American actress and vocal artist. Her surname was pronounced "ques-TELL".Originating from vaudeville, Questel provided the voice for the animated characters, Betty Boop and Olive Oyl...
, American actress (b. 1908)
- January 5 – Sonny Bono
Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono was an American record producer, singer, actor, and politician whose career spanned over three decades.-Personal life:...
, American singer, actor, and politician (b. 1935)
- January 7 – Vladimir Prelog
Vladimir Prelog was a renowned Swiss-Croatian chemist and Nobel Prize winner in chemistry. Prelog lived and worked in Prague, Zagreb and Zürich during his lifetime.-Biography:...
, Croatian chemist, Nobel PrizeThe Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature,...
laureate (b. 1906)
- January 8 – Michael Tippett
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE was one of the foremost English composers of the 20th century. -Early years:Tippett was born in London of English and Cornish stock...
, English composer (b. 1905)
- January 9 – Kenichi Fukui
Kenichi Fukui was a Japanese chemist.Kenichi Fukui was co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1981 with Roald Hoffman, for their independent investigations into the mechanisms of chemical reactions...
, Japanese chemist, Nobel PrizeThe Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature,...
laureate (b. 1918)
- January 9 – Charito Solis
Charito Solis was a FAMAS and Gawad Urian award-winning Filipino film actress. Acknowledged as one of the leading dramatic actresses of post-war Philippine cinema, she was tagged either as the "Anna Magnani of the Philippines" or as "the Meryl Streep of the Philippines."-Profile:Rosario Violeta...
, Filipino actress (b. 1935)
- January 11 – Klaus Tennstedt
Klaus Tennstedt was a German conductor from Merseburg. He studied violin and piano at the Leipzig Conservatory. He became concertmaster of the orchestra at the Halle Municipal Theatre in 1948. However, a finger injury stopped his career as a violinist, and afterwards he worked as a coach to...
, German conductor (b. 1926)
- January 15 – Junior Wells
Junior Wells , born Amos Wells Blakemore Jr., was a blues vocalist and harmonica player based in Chicago, who was famous for playing with Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt, The Rolling Stones and Van Morrison....
, American harmonica player (b. 1934)
- January 16 – Hermann Wedekind
Hermann Wedekind was an artistic director at Festspiele Balver Höhle in the years 1985 - 1996.-Vita:Formerly he was a theatre director in Saarbrücken where he met Oskar Lafontaine...
, artistic director Festspiele Balver HöhleFestspiele Balver Höhle is an arts festival, featuring musical and theatrical performances, in Balve, Germany. The festival is centered around the cave of Balve...
(b. 1910)
- January 18 – Monica Edwards
Monica Edwards , was an English children's writer of the rural, middle-class school which dominated mainstream British children's literature of the mid-20th century.-Biography:...
, British writer (b. 1912)
- January 19 – Carl Perkins
Carl Lee Perkins was an American "rockabilly" musician who recorded most notably at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee beginning during 1954...
, American guitarist (b. 1932)
- January 21 – Jack Lord
John Joseph Patrick Ryan , best known by his stage name Jack Lord, was an American television, film, and Broadway actor. He was best known for his starring role as Steve McGarrett in the American television program Hawaii Five-O from 1968 to 1980...
, American actor (b. 1920)
- January 23 – Alfredo Ormando
Alfredo Ormando was a gay Italian writer.On 13 January 1998 he set himself on fire in Piazza San Pietro to protest the attitudes and policies of the Roman Catholic Church regarding homosexual Christians. After two policemen put out the flames, he was brought to Sant'Eugenio hospital in critical...
, Italian writer (b. 1958)
- January 28 – Shotaro Ishinomori
was an influential figure in manga, anime and tokusatsu who created several immensely popular long-running series such as Cyborg 009 and the Kamen Rider Series. He was twice awarded by the Shogakukan Manga Award, in 1968 for Sabu to Ichi Torimono Hikae and in 1988 for Hotel and Manga Nihon Keizai...
, Japanese Manga artist, "Father of Henshinis the Japanese word for "transformation," literally meaning, "to change or transform the body." This word is primarily used in manga, anime, and tokusatsu dramas for when a character transforms into a superhero. usually have a "henshin call", a catchphrase which they recite when they transform...
heroes" (b. 1938)
- February 3 – Karla Faye Tucker
Karla Faye Tucker was convicted of murder in Texas in 1984 and put to death in 1998. She was the first woman to be executed in the United States since 1984, and the first in Texas since 1863...
, Texas murderer (b. 1959)
- February 6 – Falco
Johann Hölzel , better known by his stage name Falco, was an Austrian, pop and rock musician and had four #1 Hits - "Der Kommissar", "Rock Me Amadeus", "Jeanny", and "Coming Home ". With "Rock Me Amadeus" he is the first and so far only artist to score a #1 Hit in the U.S. with a German language...
, Austrian musician (b. 1957)
- February 6 – Carl Wilson
Carl Dean Wilson was an American rock and roll singer and guitarist, best known as a founding member, lead guitarist and sometime lead vocalist of The Beach Boys. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.-Beach Boys career:Wilson played the Chuck Berry-esque guitar parts on...
, American musician (b. 1946)
- February 7 – Lawrence Sanders
Lawrence Sanders was an American novelist.Lawrence Sanders was born in Brooklyn. After public school he went to Wabash College where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree. He returned to New York and started to work at Macy's Department Store. In 1943 he joined the United States Marine Corps and...
, American author (b. 1920)
- February 7 – Roger Nicholas Angleton, American murderer (b. 1942)
- February 8 – Halldór Laxness
Halldór Kiljan Laxness was a twentieth-century Icelandic novelist and author of Independent People, The Atom Station, and Iceland's Bell...
, Icelandic writer, Nobel PrizeThe Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
laureate (b. 1902)
- February 8 – Julian Lincoln Simon
Julian Lincoln Simon was a professor of business administration at the University of Maryland and a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute at the time of his death, after previously serving as a longtime business professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Simon wrote many books and...
, American economist and author (b. 1932)
- February 18 – Harry Caray
Harry Caray Harry Caray Harry Caray (born Harry Christopher Carabina, (March 1, 1914 – February 18, 1998) was an American baseball broadcaster on radio and television. He covered four Major League Baseball teams, beginning with a long tenure calling the games of the St...
, American television and radio broadcaster (b. 1917)
- February 22 – Red Reeder, U.S. Army officer and author (b. 1902)
- February 22 – Abraham Alexander Ribicoff, American Democratic Party
The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world. In the U.S...
politician (b. 1910)
- February 22 – Athol Rowan
Athol Matthew Burchell Rowan was a South African cricketer who played in fifteen Tests from 1947 to 1951. His older brother, Eric, also played Test cricket for South Africa....
, South African cricketer (b. 1921)
- February 23 – Raman Lamba
Raman Lamba was an Indian cricket player. The former Indian Test player died in a Dhaka hospital, aged 38. Three days earlier he had been hit on the temple while fielding, without a helmet, at short leg in front of a substantial crowd during a match between Lamba's club Abahani and Mohammedan...
, Indian cricketer (b. 1960)
- February 23 – Sean A. Moore
Sean A. Moore was an American fantasy and science fiction writer, and computer programmer. His primary significance as a writer is for his three pastiche novels featuring Robert E...
, American writer (b. 1965)
- February 24 – Henny Youngman
Henry "Henny" Youngman was a British-born comedian and violinist famous for "one-liners," short, simple jokes usually delivered rapid-fire...
, English-born comedian (b. 1906)
- February 26 – Theodore Schultz
Theodore William Schultz was the 1979 winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences....
, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
- February 27 – George H. Hitchings
George Herbert Hitchings was an American doctor who shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Sir James Black and Gertrude Elion "for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment," Hitchings specifically for his work on chemotherapy.Hitchings was born in Hoquiam,...
, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineThe Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded once a year by the Swedish Karolinska Institute. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace, and Physiology or Medicine...
(b. 1905)
- February 27 – J. T. Walsh
James Thomas Patrick Walsh , more commonly known as "J.T.," was an American character actor known for his roles as "quietly sinister white-collar sleazeballs" in numerous feature films and "everybody's favorite scumbag" from Playboy magazine.-Early life:Walsh was born in San Francisco, California...
, American actor (b. 1943)
- February 28 – Dermot Morgan
Dermot John Morgan was an Irish comedian, actor and former schoolteacher, who achieved international renown as Father Ted Crilly in the Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted.-Father Trendy and The Live Mike:...
, Irish actor and comedian (b. 1952)
- March 2 – Darcy O'Brien
Darcy O'Brien was an award-winning author of fiction and literary criticism, most well-known for his work in the genre of true crime. His first novel, A Way of Life, Like Any Other, was a fictionalized account of his childhood in Hollywood...
, American author (b. 1939)
- March 7 – Bernarr Rainbow
Bernarr Joseph George Rainbow was a historian of music education, organist, and choir master from the United Kingdom.-Biography:...
, historian of music education, organist, and choir master, (b. 1914)
- March 8 – Ray Nitschke
Raymond Ernest "Ray" Nitschke was a professional football player who played middle linebacker for the Green Bay Packers of the NFL. Wearing #66, he played fifteen seasons, from 1958-72.-Early life:...
, American football player (b. 1936)
- March 10 – Lloyd Bridges
Lloyd Vernet Bridges, Jr. was an American actor. Bridges starred in television series, and appeared in more than 150 films.-Early life:...
, American actor (b. 1913)
- March 12
- Judge Dread
Alexander Minto Hughes , better known as Judge Dread, was an English reggae and ska musician. He was the first white recording artist to have a reggae hit in Jamaica, and has the most banned songs of all time.-Career:...
, English musician (b. 1945)
- Beatrice Wood
Beatrice Wood was an American artist and studio potter, who late in life was dubbed the "Mama of Dada," and served as a partial inspiration for the character of Rose DeWitt Bukater in James Cameron's 1997 film, Titanic...
, American artist and ceramicist (b. 1893)
- Jozef Kroner
Jozef Kroner was a Slovak actor. His brother Ľudovít Kroner, daughter Zuzana Kronerová, and wife Terézia Hurbanová-Kronerová were actors, too. He starred in the Oscar-winning film The Shop on Main Street, and in more than 50 other Slovak films, as well as in several Czech, Bulgarian and Hungarian...
, Slovak actor (The Shop on Main StreetThe Shop on Main Street is a 1965 Czechoslovak film about the Aryanization programme during World War II in the Slovak State....
) (b. 1924)
- March 13 – Bill Reid
William Ronald Reid, OBC was a Canadian artist whose works included jewelry, sculpture and painting. He was born to a father of European descent and a mother from the Haida in Victoria, British Columbia...
, Canadian artist (b. 1920)
- March 13 – Risen Star
Risen Star, , was a champion thoroughbred race horse.The dark bay colt was the son of the great Triple Crown winner Secretariat out of the mare Ribbon. Bred by Arthur B. Hancock III and Leone J. Peters, Risen Star was bought by Louisianans Ronnie Lamarque and Louie Roussel III at the 1987 Calder...
, American racehorse (b. 1985)
- March 15 – Benjamin Spock
Benjamin McLane Spock was an American pediatrician whose book Baby and Child Care, published in 1946, is one of the biggest best-sellers of all time...
, American athlete, pediatrician, and author (b. 1903)
- March 16 – Derek Harold Richard Barton
Sir Derek Harold Richard Barton FRS was a British organic chemist and Nobel Prize laureate.Barton was born to William Thomas and Maude Henrietta Barton. In 1938 he entered Imperial College London, where he graduated in 1940 and obtained his Ph.D. degree in Organic Chemistry in 1942...
, British chemist, Nobel PrizeThe Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature,...
laureate (b. 1918)
- March 20 – George Howard
George Howard was a Jazz-Funk/ Fusion /Smooth Jazz soprano saxophonist.
, American jazz saxophone musician (b. 1956)
- March 25 – Daniel Massey
Daniel Raymond Massey was an English actor and performer. He is possibly best known for his starring role in the British TV drama Roads to Freedom, as Daniel, alongside Michael Bryant. He is also known for his role in the 1968 American film Star! as Noel Coward for which he won a Golden Globe...
, English actor (b. 1933)
- March 27 – Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche
Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche , mainly known as Ferry Porsche, was an Austrian technical automobile designer and automaker-entrepreneur. He operated Porsche AG in Stuttgart, Germany. His father, Ferdinand Porsche Sr was also a renowned automobile engineer. His nephew, Dr...
, Austrian auto designer and businessman (b. 1909)
- March 31 – Bella Abzug
Bella Savitsky Abzug was an American lawyer, Congresswoman, social activist and a leader of the Women's Movement. In 1971 Abzug joined other leading feminists such as Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan to found the National Women's Political Caucus...
, American politician (b. 1920)
- April 1 – Rozz Williams
Rozz Williams was an American musician of several varieties vocalist, most famous for fronting the bands Christian Death and Shadow Project, the latter with musician Eva O though his main project throughout his career was the industrial, Premature Ejaculation...
, American singer (b. 1963)
- April 2 – Rob Pilatus
Robert "Rob" Pilatus was a German-American model, dancer and singer. Pilatus was a former member of the pop music duo Milli Vanilli.-Early life:...
, member of the pop group Milli VanilliMilli Vanilli was a pop/dance music project formed by Frank Farian in Germany in 1988, fronted by Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus. The group's debut album achieved high sales internationally which earned them a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1990. The act became one of the most popular pop acts in...
(b. 1965)
- April 5 – Cozy Powell
Colin Flooks , better known as Cozy Powell, was an English rock drummer who made his name with many major rock bands.- Early history :...
, English rock drummer (b. 1947)
- April 6 – Wendy O. Williams
Wendy Orlean Williams , better known as Wendy O. Williams, was the lead singer for the American punk band the Plasmatics, whose stage theatrics included blowing up equipment, near nudity and chain-sawing guitars....
, American singer (b. 1949)
- April 6 – Tammy Wynette
Virginia Wynette Pugh, known professionally as Tammy Wynette , was an American country music singer-songwriter and one of country music's best-known artists and biggest-selling female vocalists....
, American singer (b. 1942)
- April 13 – Patrick de Gayardon
Patrick de Gayardon was a French skydiver, skysurfer and a BASE jumper.De Gayardon was famous for pushing the boundaries of skydiving. He was one of the first persons to develop the unique style of skysurfing, in which skydivers use a board to make aerobatic maneuvers...
, French skydiver and skysurfing pioneer (b. 1960)
- April 15 – Rose Maddox
Roselea Arbana Brogdon , better known as Rose Maddox, was an American country singer-songwriter and fiddle player...
, American singer (b. 1925)
- April 15 – Pol Pot
Saloth Sar or Minh Hai, , widely known as Pol Pot, , was the leader of the Cambodian communist movement known as the Khmer Rouge and was Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 1976–1979....
, Cambodian Khmer Rouge leader (b. 1925)
- April 16 – Fred Davis, English snooker player (b. 1913)
- April 17 – Muhammad Metwally Al Shaarawy
Sheikh Muhammad Metwally Al Shaarawy was an Egyptian Muslim jurist. Al Shaarawy was born in Dakadous village, Mit Ghamr, Ad Daqahliyah, Egypt on April 15, 1911He graduated from Faculty of Arabic language, Al-Azhar University in 1941....
, Egyptian Muslim juristA Faqīh is an expert in fiqh, or, Islamic jurisprudence.A faqih is an expert in Islamic Law, and, as such, the word Faqih can literally be generally translated as Jurist.- The definition of Fiqh and its relation to the Faqih:...
(b. 1911)
- April 19 – Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz Lozano was a Mexican writer, poet, and diplomat, and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature.-Later life:...
, Mexican diplomat and writer, Nobel PrizeThe Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
laureate (b. 1914)
- April 21 – Irene Vernon
Irene Vernon was an American actress.-Background:Vernon was born as Irene Vergauwen in Mishawaka, Indiana. Her career began with small uncredited roles in 1940s movies...
, American actress (b. 1922)
- April 22 – Kitch Christie
George Moir Christie, better known as Kitch Christie , was a South African rugby union coach best known for coaching the country's national team, the Springboks, to victory at the 1995 Rugby World Cup...
, South African rugby coach (b. 1940)
- April 23 – Constantine Karamanlis
Konstantinos or Constantine Karamanlis was a Prime Minister, President of Greece and a towering figure of Greek politics whose political career spanned much of the latter half of the 20th century.- Early life :...
, Greek politician (b. 1907)
- April 23 – James Earl Ray
James Earl Ray was a habitual criminal convicted of the assassination of American civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which occurred on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.- Early life :...
, American assassin (b. 1928)
- April 25 – Wright Morris
Wright Marion Morris was an award-winning American novelist, photographer, and essayist. He is known for his portrayals of the people and artifacts of the Great Plains in words and pictures, as well as for experimenting with narrative forms.-Early Family Life:His mother, Grace Osborn Morris, died...
, American photographer and writer (b. 1910)
- April 26 – Joan Mary Wayne Brown
Mary Gervaise, Hilary Wayne and Bellamy Brown are the pseudonyms for Joan Mary Wayne Brown. She was born on 21 April 1906 and died on 26 April 1998.As Mary Gervaise, she wrote several books for children...
, British author who the pseudonyms Mary Gervaise, Hilary Wayne and Bellamy Brown (b. 1906)
- May 1 – Eldridge Cleaver
Eldridge Cleaver was an influential writer, social critic and radical intellectual and the author of Soul on Ice, Post-Prison Writings and Speeches and Target Zero...
, American activist (b. 1935)
- May 2 – Kevin Lloyd
Kevin Reardon Lloyd was a British actor, born in Derby, and trained at East 15 Acting School, London. Best known for his part of DC Alfred "Tosh" Lines in Thames Television's The Bill....
, British actor (b. 1949)
- May 2 – Justin Fashanu
Justinus Soni "Justin" Fashanu was an English footballer, who played for a variety of clubs between 1978 and 1997...
, British footballer (b. 1961)
- May 2 – Hide
, was a popular Japanese musician. More commonly known by his mononymous stage name Hide , written in all lowercase letters by the artist, he was primarily known for his work as lead guitarist of the popular heavy metal band X Japan from 1987 to 1997...
, Japanese musician (b. 1964)
- May 7 – Allan McLeod Cormack
Allan MacLeod Cormack was a South African-born American physicist who won the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on x-ray computed tomography ....
, South African–born physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineThe Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded once a year by the Swedish Karolinska Institute. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace, and Physiology or Medicine...
(b. 1924)
- May 7 – Eddie Rabbitt
Edward Thomas "Eddie" Rabbitt was an American country music singer-songwriter who enjoyed much pop success at the height of his career in the 1970s and 80s with 20 #1 country hits including "Drivin' My Life Away" and "I Love a Rainy Night," which also topped the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Adult...
, American musician (b. 1941)
- May 9 – Alice Faye
Alice Faye was an American actress and singer. She is remembered first for her stardom at 20th Century Fox and, later, as the radio comedy partner of her husband, bandleader-comedian Phil Harris...
, American entertainer (b. 1915)
- May 14 – Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers." His professional career had stalled by the...
, American entertainer (b. 1915)
- May 14 – Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Marjory Stoneman Douglas was an American journalist, writer, feminist, and environmentalist known for her staunch defense of the Florida Everglades against draining and development...
, American conservationist and writer (b. 1890)
- May 15 – Earl Manigault
Earl Manigault was an American street basketball player famous under his nickname of "The Goat."-Early life and career:...
, American basketball player (b. 1944)
- May 19 – Sosuke Uno
Sōsuke Uno was a Japanese politician and the 75th Prime Minister of Japan from June 3,1989 to August 10,1989.He was born in Shiga Prefecture and attended the Kobe University of Commerce...
, Prime Minister of JapanThe is the usual English-language term used for the head of government of Japan, although the literal translation of the Japanese name for the office is Minister for the general administration of the Cabinet...
(b. 1922)
- May 22 – José Enrique Moyal
José Enrique Moyal was a mathematical physicist who contributed to aeronautical engineering, electrical engineering and statistics...
, mathematical physicist (b. 1910)
- May 28 – Phil Hartman
Phil Hartman was a Canadian-born American actor, comedian, screenwriter and graphic artist. Born in Brantford, Ontario, Hartman and his family immigrated to the United States when he was ten. After graduating from California State University, Northridge with a degree in graphic arts, he designed...
, Canadian-born artist, writer, actor, and comedian (b. 1948)
- May 29 – Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. He was also a Major General in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. He was known as "Mr...
, American politician (b. 1909)
- June 1 – Darwin Joston
F. Darwin Solomon was an American actor known professionally as Darwin Joston...
, American actor (b. 1937)
- June 2 – Junkyard Dog
Sylvester Ritter was an American professional wrestler and professional football player, best known for his work in Mid-South Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation as The Junkyard Dog...
, American pro wrestler (b. 1952)
- June 3 – Poul Bundgaard
Poul Arne Bundgaard was a Danish actor and singer. He is probably best known for his role as the henpecked Kjeld in the Olsen Banden films....
, Danish actor and singer (b. 1922)
- June 8 – President Sani Abacha
General Sani Abacha was a Nigerian military leader and politician. He was the de facto President of Nigeria from 1993 to 1998.-Political life:...
of NigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising thirty-six states and one Federal Capital Territory. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger...
(b. 1943)
- June 8 – Jackie McGlew
Derrick John "Jackie" McGlew, born on 11 March, 1929, Pietermaritzburg and died at Pretoria on 8 June, 1998 was a cricketer who played for Natal and South Africa...
, South African cricketer (b. 1929)
- June 10 – Hammond Innes
Ralph Hammond Innes was an English author who wrote over 30 novels, as well as children's and travel books....
, English author (b. 1914)
- June 11 – Catherine Cookson
Dame Catherine Cookson, DBE was an English author. She became the United Kingdom's most widely read novelist, while remaining a relatively low-profile figure in the world of celebrity writers...
, English author (b. 1906)
- June 13 – Birger Ruud
Birger Ruud was a Norwegian ski jumper.Born in Kongsberg, Birger Ruud, with his brothers Sigmund and Asbjørn, dominated international jumping in the 1930s, winning three world championships in 1931, 1935 and 1937. Ruud also won the Olympic gold medal in 1932 and 1936...
, Norwegian athlete (b. 1911)
- June 20 – Conrad Schumann
Hans Conrad Schumann was one of the most famous defectors from East Germany.Born in Leutewitz, now a part of Riesa, Saxony, Schumann served as a soldier in the East German Bereitschaftspolizei...
, East German border guard (b. 1942)
- June 22 – Benny Green
Benny Green , born in Leeds, Yorkshire, was a Cockney-accented British jazz saxophonist, who was most well known by the public for his radio shows and books.- Early life :...
, British writer, radio broadcaster and saxophonist (b. 1927)
- June 23 – Maureen O'Sullivan
Maureen Paula O’Sullivan was an Irish actress who was considered Ireland's first film star.-Early life:O'Sullivan was born in Boyle, County Roscommon, Ireland, the daughter of Mary Lovatt and Charles Joseph O'Sullivan, an officer in The Connaught Rangers who served in The Great War...
, Irish actress (b. 1911)
- June 25 – Lounès Matoub
Lounès Matoub was a famous Berber Kabyle singer and mondol player who was a prominent advocate of the Berber cause and secularism in Algeria throughout his life.He is revered as a hero and martyr in Kabylie...
, Berber Kabyle singer (b. 1956)
July–December
- July 3 – Danielle Bunten Berry
Danielle Bunten Berry , born Daniel Paul Bunten, and also known as Dani Bunten, was an American game designer and programmer, known for the 1983 game M.U.L.E. , and 1984's The Seven Cities of Gold...
, American software developer (b. 1949)
- July 6 – Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers , was a singer and cowboy actor, as well as the namesake of the Roy Rogers Restaurants chain. He and his second wife Dale Evans, his golden palomino Trigger, and his German Shepherd Dog, Bullet, were featured in over one hundred movies and The Roy Rogers Show...
, American singer and actor (b. 1911)
- July 19 – Elmer Valo
Elmer William Valo was a Slovak-American right fielder, coach and scout in Major League Baseball, making his debut on September 22,...
, Slovak Major League BaseballMajor League Baseball is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. Specifically, Major League Baseball refers to the organization that operates the National League and the American League, by means of a joint organizational structure that has developed gradually between...
player (b. 1921)
- July 22 – Hermann Prey
Hermann Prey was a German baritone. He is renowned as the foremost Figaro of the third quarter of the 20th century.-Biography:...
, German bass-baritone (b. 1929)
- July 30 – Jorge Russek
Jorge Russek was a Mexican actor, he died of a heart attack on July 30, 1998....
, Mexican actor (b. 1932)
- August 2 – Shari Lewis
Shari Lewis was an American ventriloquist, puppeteer, and children's television show host, most popular during the 1960s and 1990s...
, American ventriloquist (b. 1933)
- August 3 – Alfred Schnittke
Alfred Garyevich Schnittke was a Russian and Soviet composer. Schnittke's early music shows the strong influence of Dmitri Shostakovich. He developed a polystylistic technique in works such as the epic First Symphony and First Concerto Grosso . In the 1980s, Schnittke's music began to become...
, Russian-born composer (b. 1934)
- August 4 – Yuri Artyukhin
Yury Petrovich Artyukhin was a Soviet Russian cosmonaut and engineer who made a single flight into space....
, cosmonaut (b. 1930)
- August 6 – André Weil
André Weil was an influential mathematician of the 20th century, renowned for the breadth and quality of his research output, its influence on future work, and the elegance of his exposition. He is especially known for his foundational work in number theory and algebraic geometry...
, French mathematician (b. 1906)
- August 8 – Mahmoud Saremi
Mahmoud Saremi was an Iranian reporter, working for IRNA, as the news agency's head of office in Mazari Sharif. He was killed by the Taliban when they occupied the Iranian consulate in Mazari Sharif, together with eight Iranian diplomats.Saremi's day of death is named Reporter's Day in Iran...
, Iranian journalist
- August 9 – Frankie Ruiz
Frankie Ruiz was a famous Puerto Rican salsa singer.-Early years:Born Jose Antonio Torresola Ruiz, he was born and raised in Paterson, New Jersey. His parents moved from Puerto Rico to the United States in search of a better way of life. In Paterson, Ruiz received his primary and secondary...
, Puerto Rican singer (b. (1958)
- August 24 – E.G. Marshall, American actor (b. 1910)
- August 26 – Frederick Reines
Frederick Reines was an American physicist. He was awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physics for his co-detection of the neutrino with Clyde Cowan in the neutrino experiment, and may be the only scientist in history "so intimately associated with the discovery of an elementary particle and the...
, American physicist, Nobel PrizeThe Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in chemistry, Nobel Prize in literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
laureate (b. 1918)
- September 2 – Jackie Blanchflower
John "Jackie" Blanchflower was a Northern Irish football player. He graduated from Manchester United's youth system and played for the club on 117 occasions, before his career was cut short due to injuries sustained in the Munich air disaster...
, Irish footballer (b. 1933)
- September 5 – Fernando Balzaretti
Fernando Balzaretti was a late Mexican actor....
, Mexican actor (b. 1946)
- September 6 – Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. In a career that spanned 50 years, Kurosawa directed 30 films. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in film history...
, Japanese screenwriter, producer, and director (b. 1910)
- September 9 – Lucio Battisti
Lucio Battisti was an Italian singer-songwriter. He is considered to be one of the best and most influential musicians and authors in Italian pop/rock music history....
, Italian singer (b. 1943)
- September 10 – Carl Forgione
Carl Forgione was a British actor, best known for his television appearances.He appeared in two Doctor Who serials - Planet of the Spiders in 1974 and Ghost Light in 1989....
, British actor (b. 1944)
- September 13 – George Wallace
George Corley Wallace, Jr. , was a governor of Alabama for four terms; 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987. "The most influential loser" in 20th-century U.S. politics, according to biographers Dan T...
, American politician (b. 1919)
- September 14 – Johnny Adams
Johnny Adams was an American blues singer from New Orleans, Louisiana.Adams was known as "The Tan Canary" for the amazing range of his singing voice and his gospel influenced style...
, American musician (b. 1932)
- September 14 – Yang Shangkun
Yang Shangkun was President of the People's Republic of China from 1988 to 1993, and was permanent Vice-chair of the Central Military Commission...
, former President of the People's Republic of ChinaThe President of the People's Republic of China , literally Chairman of the Chinese People's Republic, or abbreviated Guójiā Zhǔxí 国家主席, literally State Chairman) is the head of state of the People's Republic of China. The office was created by the 1982 Constitution...
(b. 1907)
- September 17 – Gustav Nezval
Gustav Nezval , by civil name Augustin Nezval, was a Czech stage and film actor. He was born to a locksmith family of Frantisek Nezval and his wife Aloisia. The parents wanted him to become a priest. However he managed to finish a technical college and for some time he earned his living as a...
, Czech actor (b. 1907)
- September 21 – Florence "Flo-Jo" Griffith-Joyner, American runner (b. 1959)
- September 27 – Narita Bryan, Japanese racehorse (b. 1991)
- September 30 – Dan Quisenberry
Daniel Raymond "Quiz" Quisenberry was an American right-handed relief pitcher in Major League Baseball who played primarily for the Kansas City Royals...
, baseball player (b. 1953)
- September 30 – Bruno Munari
Bruno Munari was an Italian artist and designer, who contributed fundamentals in many fields of visual arts and non visual arts with the research on the game subject, infancy and creativity.-Biography:Bruno Munari was born in Milan but spent his childhood...
, Italian-born industrial designer (b. 1907)
- September 30 – Pavel Štěpán
Prof. Pavel Štěpán , has linked up in his career with his family's musical tradition: He is the grandson of Professor Vilém Kurz, a prominent Czech piano educator, and the son of piano virtuoso and teacher Ilona Štěpánová-Kurzová and musicologist/pianist Václav Štěpán...
, Czech pianist (b. 1925)
- September 30 – Robert Lewis Taylor
Robert Lewis Taylor was an American author and winner of the 1959 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.Taylor was born in Carbondale, Illinois and attended Southern Illinois University for one year, which now houses his papers. He graduated from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Bachelor of...
, American author (b. 1912)
- October 2 – Gene Autry
Orvon Gene Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
, American actor, singer, and sports team owner (b. 1907)
- October 2 – Olivier Gendebien
Olivier Gendebien was a war hero and race car driver. He has been cited as "one of the greatest sportscar racers of all time".-Background:...
, Belgian race car driver (b. 1924)
- October 3 – Roddy McDowall
Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude "Roddy" McDowall was an English-born actor and photographer. He is known for beginning his long career as a child actor. His best known role is in the "Planet of the Apes" films and TV series from 1968-1974.-Early life and career:McDowall was born in Herne Hill,...
, British actor (b. 1928)
- October 6 – Mark Belanger
Mark Henry Belanger was an American shortstop in Major League Baseball who played almost his entire career with the Baltimore Orioles...
, American baseball player (b. 1944)
- October 8 – Zhang Chongren
Zhang Chongren Zhang Chongren Zhang Chongren ( (1907 – 8 October 1998), was a Chinese artist and sculptor best remembered in Europe as the friend of Hergé, the Belgian comics writer and artist and creator of Tintin. The two met when Zhang was an art student in Brussels.-Early life:...
, Chinese artist (b. 1907)
- October 9 – Ian Johnson
Ian William Geddes Johnson
CBE was an Australian cricketer who played 45 Test matches as a slow off-break bowler between 1946 and 1956. Johnson captured 109 Test wickets at an average of 29.19 runs per wicket and as a lower order batsman made 1,000 runs at an...
, Australian cricketer (b. 1917)
- October 10 – Tommy Quaid
Tommy Quaid was an Irish sportsperson. He played hurling at various times with his local clubs Feohanagh-Castlemahon and Effin and was the goalkeeper on the Limerick senior inter-county team from 1976 until 1993. Quaid was regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of his...
, Irish hurlerHurling is an outdoor team sport of ancient Gaelic origin, administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association, and played with sticks called hurleys and a ball called a sliotar. The game, played primarily in Ireland, has prehistoric origins and is thought to be the world's fastest field team sport...
(b. 1957)
- October 12 – Matthew Shepard
Matthew Wayne Shepard was a student at the University of Wyoming who was tortured and murdered near Laramie, Wyoming in 1998...
, American murder victim (b. 1976)
- October 13 – General Gérard Charles Édouard Thériault
General Gérard Charles Édouard Thériault, CMM, CD was Chief of the Defence Staff between 1983 and 1986....
, Canadian Chief of the Defence Staff (b. 1932)
- October 14 – Frankie Yankovic
Frankie Yankovic was a grammy award winning polka musician. Known as "America's Polka King," Yankovic was the premier artist to play in the Slovenian style during a long and successful career....
, American musician (b. 1916)
- October 16 – Jon Postel
Jonathan Bruce Postel made many significant contributions to the development of the Internet, particularly with respect to standards. He is known principally for being the Editor of the Request for Comment document series, and for administering the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority until his...
, American Internet pioneer (b. 1943)
- October 17 – Joan Hickson
Joan Hickson OBE was an English actress of theatre, film and television, who achieved fame in her old age playing Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in the television series Miss Marple.- Biography :...
, British actress (b. 1906)
- October 17 – Hakim Mohammed Said, Pakistani scholar and philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
(b. 1920)
- October 28 – Ghulam Ahmed
Ghulam Ahmed was an off spin bowler, who captained India in Test cricket. After his retirement, he served for many years as the secretary of BCCI....
, Indian former cricket captain (b. 1922)
- October 29 – Ted Hughes
Edward James Hughes OM was an English poet and children's writer, known as Ted Hughes. Critics routinely rank him as one of the best poets of his generation. Hughes was British Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death.Hughes was married to the American poet Sylvia Plath, from 1956 through 1962...
, English poet (b. 1930)
- November 3 – Bob Kane
Bob Kane was an American comic book artist and writer, credited as the creator of the famous DC Comics superhero Batman.-Early life and career:...
, American comic book creator (b. 1915)
- November 10 – Hal Newhouser
Harold "Prince Hal" Newhouser was a professional Major League Baseball pitcher of the 1940s and 1950s.-Early life:...
, baseball player (b. 1921)
- November 10 – Mary Millar
Mary Millar was a British actress best remembered for her role as Rose in BBC sitcom Keeping Up Appearances...
, British actress (b. 1936)
- November 13 – Michel Trudeau
Michel Trudeau was the youngest son of the late Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Margaret Trudeau.Born in Ottawa, Ontario, he studied at Dalhousie University to become a microbiologist....
, Canadian outdoorsman, son of Pierre TrudeauJoseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, PC, CC, CH, QC, MSRC , was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968, to June 4, 1979, and from March 3, 1980, to June 30, 1984.Pierre Trudeau was a charismatic figure who, from the late 1960s until the mid-1980s,...
(b. 1975)
- November 13 – Doug Wright
Douglas Vivian Parson Wright was an English cricketer. He played first-class cricket for Kent for 25 years, from 1932 to 1957, and was their first professional captain from late 1953 to 1956...
, English cricketer (b. 1914)
- November 17 – Kenneth McDuff
Kenneth Allen McDuff was an American serial killer suspected of at least 14 murders. He had previously been on death row from 1968 to 1972.-Crimes:...
, American serial killer (b. 1946)
- November 22 – Stu Unger, professional poker player (b. 1953)
- November 25 – Flip Wilson
Clerow Wilson Jr., known professionally as Flip Wilson, was an American comedian and actor. Time magazine featured his image on their cover and named him "TV's first black superstar".-Early life:...
, American actor and comedian (b. 1933)
- November 28 – Kerry Wendell Thornley, American counterculture figure and writer (b. 1938)
- November 29 – Martin Ruane
Martin Ruane was a British professional wrestler of Irish descent. Best known by his ring name, Giant Haystacks, he wrestled in such places as England, the United States, Canada, India, and Zimbabwe...
, British wrestler best known as Giant Haystacks and later, The Loch Ness Monster (b. 1947)
- November 29 – Frank Latimore
Franklin Latimore was an American actor best known for his character ‘Dr. Ed Coleridge’ on the television soap opera Ryan's Hope....
, American actor (b. 1925)
- December 2 – Mikio Oda
Mikio Oda was a Japanese athlete and the first Japanese Olympic gold medalist. He was the first Asian Olympic champion in an individual event....
, Japanese athlete (b. 1905)
- December 2 – Brian Stonehouse
Brian Julian Stonehouse MBE was a British painter and Special Operations Executive agent during World War II.He was born in Torquay, England. When his family moved to France, he went to school in Wimereux, Pas-de-Calais...
, English painter and World War II secret agent (b. 1918)
- December 6 – César Baldaccini
César Baldaccini , usually called César was a noted French sculptor.César was at the forefront of the Nouveau Réalisme movement with his radical compressions , expansions , and fantastic representations of animals and insects.- Biography :He was...
, French sculptor (b. 1921)
- December 7 – Michael Craze
Michael Craze was a British actor noted for his role of Ben Jackson, a companion of the Doctor, in the long-running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. He played the part from 1966 to 1967 alongside both William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton.Craze was born in Cornwall...
, British actor (b. 1942)
- December 7 – Martin Rodbell
Martin Rodbell was an American biochemist and molecular endocrinologist who is best known for his discovery of G-proteins. He shared the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Alfred G...
, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineThe Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded once a year by the Swedish Karolinska Institute. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace, and Physiology or Medicine...
(b. 1925)
- December 11 – Lynn Strait
James Lynn Strait was the lead singer and lyricist for the rock band Snot until his death in a car accident on December 11, 1998.-Life and work:...
, vocalist for band Snot (b. 1968)
- December 12 – Lawton Chiles
Lawton Mainor Chiles, Jr. was an American politician from the U.S. state of Florida. In a career spanning four decades, Chiles, a Democrat who never lost an election, served in the Florida House of Representatives , the Florida State Senate , the United States Senate , and as the forty-first...
, U.S. Senator from Florida and Governor of Florida (b. 1930)
- December 13 – Lew Grade
Lew Grade, Baron Grade , born Lev Winogradsky, was an influential Ukraine-born English impresario and media mogul.-Early years:...
, British impresario (b. 1906)
- December 14 – Annette Strauss
Annette Strauss was a philanthropist and a former mayor of Dallas. The Annette Strauss Artist Square in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas is named in honor of her...
, American philanthropist and mayor of Dallas, Texas (b. 1924)
- December 16 – William Gaddis
William Gaddis was an American novelist. He wrote five novels, two of which won National Book Awards.-Biography:...
, American writer (b. 1922)
- December 17 – Claudia Benton, Peruvian-born child psychologist (b. 1959)
- December 18 – Lev Demin, cosmonaut (b. 1926)
- December 20 – Irene Hervey
Irene Hervey was an American television and film actress.-Career:Born Beulah Irene Herwick in Venice, California, she began her acting career after being introduced to a casting agent from MGM...
, American actress (b. 1910)
- December 20 – Alan Lloyd Hodgkin
Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, OM, KBE, FRS was a British physiologist and biophysicist, who won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.-Early life:...
, British scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineThe Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded once a year by the Swedish Karolinska Institute. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace, and Physiology or Medicine...
(b. 1914)
- December 21 – Roger Avon
Roger Avon was a British film and television actor.Some of his television appearances include"hancocks half hour" Dad's Army, When the Boat Comes In, Department S, Doctor Who, serials Roger Avon was a British film and television actor.Some of his television appearances include"hancocks half hour"...
, British actor (b. 1914)
- December 22 – Michelle Thomas
Michelle Thomas was an American actress best known for her role as Myra Monkhouse, the girlfriend of Steve Urkel, on the American sitcom Family Matters from 1993 to 1998.-Early life and career:...
, American actress (b. 1969)
- December 25 – John Pulman
John Pulman was an English professional snooker player who dominated the game throughout the 1960s.Pulman first reached the final of the World Matchplay in 1955, losing to Fred Davis. Davis beat him again in the 1956 final, but after Davis retired Pulman won the title in 1957, after which the...
, English snooker player (b. 1923)
- December 28 – Robert Rosen
Robert Rosen was an American theoretical biologist and professor of Biophysics at Dalhousie University.- Biography :...
, American biologist (b. 1934)
- December 30 – Keisuke Kinoshita
was a Japanese film director.Although lesser known internationally than his fellow filmmakers such as Akira Kurosawa , Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujiro Ozu , Keisuke Kinoshita was nonetheless a household figure at home beloved by audience and critics alike, especially in the forties through the sixties...
, Japanese film director (b. 1912)
- December 30 – George Webb
George Webb was an English actor, best known for his role as "Daddy" in the sitcom Keeping Up Appearances. His actual lines were limited to a few nonsensical outbursts, punctuated by occasional lucidity....
, British actor (b. 1911)
Ship events
Nobel Prizes
- Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in chemistry, Nobel Prize in literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
– Robert B. LaughlinRobert Betts Laughlin is a professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Stanford University. Along with Horst L. Störmer of Columbia University and Daniel C. Tsui of Princeton University, he was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in physics for his explanation of the fractional quantum Hall...
, Horst L. Störmer, Daniel Chee Tsui
- Chemistry
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature,...
– Walter KohnWalter Kohn is an Austrian-born American theoretical physicist.He was awarded, with John Pople, the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1998. The award recognized their contributions to the understandings of the electronic properties of materials...
, John PopleSir John Anthony Pople, KBE, FRS, was a theoretical chemist. Born in Burnham on Sea, Somerset, England, he attended Bristol Grammar School. He won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1943. He received his B. A. in 1946. Between 1945 and 1947 he worked at the Bristol Aeroplane Company...
- Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded once a year by the Swedish Karolinska Institute. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace, and Physiology or Medicine...
– Robert F. FurchgottRobert Francis Furchgott was a Nobel Prize-winning American biochemist.Furchgott was born in Charleston, SC, to Arthur Furchgott and Pena Sorentrue Furchgott...
, Louis J. Ignarro, Ferid MuradFerid Murad is an Albanian-American physician and pharmacologist, and a co-winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He was born in Whiting, Indiana to John Murad , an Albanian and Henrietta Bowman, an American...
- Literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
– José SaramagoJosé de Sousa Saramago,
GColSE is a Nobel-laureate Portuguese novelist, playwright and journalist. His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the human factor. Saramago was awarded the Nobel Prize for...
- Peace
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:...
– John HumeJohn Hume is a former Irish politician from Derry, founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party and co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize, with David Trimble....
and David TrimbleWilliam David Trimble, Baron Trimble, PC , is a politician from Northern Ireland who served as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party and was the first First Minister of Northern Ireland. He is currently a life peer for the Conservative Party.He shared the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize with John Hume of...
- Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel – Amartya Sen
Amartya Kumar Sen CH , is an Indian Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics-winning economist, and Thomas W. Lamont University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University. He is also a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge...
Fields Medal
- Richard Ewen Borcherds, William Timothy Gowers
William Timothy Gowers FRS is a British mathematician. He is Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Trinity College...
, Maxim KontsevichMaxim Lvovich Kontsevich is a Russian mathematician. He received a Fields Medal in 1998, at the 23rd International Congress of Mathematicians in Berlin. He also received the Henri Poincaré Prize in 1997 and a Crafoord Prize in 2008....
, Curtis T. McMullenCurtis Tracy McMullen is Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1998 for his work in complex dynamics, hyperbolic geometry and Teichmüller theory....