1998

From Encyclopedia Jr, free information reference for Kids

1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. In astrology, it was considered being as the year of Gemini, the Twins.

Events

January

Coated in ice, power and telephone lines sag and often break, resulting in power outages.

• January 1998 - A massive ice storm, caused by El Niño, strikes New England, southern Ontario and Quebec, resulting in widespread power failures, severe damage to forests, and a number of deaths.
• January 1 - Smoking is banned in all California bars and restaurants.
• January 2
  • Russia begins to circulate new rubles to stem inflation and promote confidence.
  • A gunman shoots Antario Teodoro Filho, Brazilian politician and radio presenter, during a broadcast.
• January 4 - Wilaya of Relizane massacres of 4 January 1998 in Algeria: Over 170 are killed in 3 remote villages.
• January 6 - The Lunar Prospector spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently shadowed craters near the Moon's poles.
• January 8
  • Ramzi Yousef is sentenced to life in prison for planning the World Trade Center bombing.
  • Cosmologists announce that the expansion rate of the universe is increasing.
• January 11 - Sidi-Hamed massacre in Algeria: over 100 people are killed.
• January 12 - Nineteen European nations agree to forbid human cloning.
• January 14 - Researchers in Dallas, Texas present findings about an enzyme that slows aging and cell death (apoptosis).
• January 15 - The stalker of Howard Stern, Lance Carvin, is sentenced to 2½ years for threatening to kill Stern and his family.
• January 16 - NASA announces that John Glenn will return to space when the Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off in October.
• January 17 - Paula Jones accuses U.S. President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment.
• January 20 - Nepalese police intercept a shipment of 272 human skulls in Kathmandu.
• January 22 - Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski pleads guilty, and accepts a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
• January 25
  • The Denver Broncos become the first AFC team in 14 years to win the Super Bowl, as they defeat the Green Bay Packers, 31-24 in Super Bowl XXXII.
  • Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suicide attack on Sri Lanka's Temple of the Tooth, killing 8 people injuring 25 others.
• January 26
  • Lewinsky scandal: On American television, President Bill Clinton denies he had "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
  • Compaq buys Digital Equipment Corporation.
  • Monkeys attack people in Ito, Japan.
• January 27 - U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton appears on the Today Show, calling the attacks against her husband part of a "vast right-wing conspiracy."
• January 28
  • Ford Motor Company announces the buyout of Volvo Cars for $6.45 billion.
  • Gunmen hold at least 400 children and teachers hostage for several hours, at an elementary school in Manila, Philippines.
• January 29 - In Birmingham, Alabama, 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 United States Senate passes Resolution 71, urging U.S. President Bill Clinton to "take all necessary and appropriate actions to respond to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs."
• February 3
  • Cavalese cable-car disaster: a United States Military pilot causes the deaths of 20 people near Trento, Italy, when his low-flying plane severs the cable of a cable-car.
  • Karla Faye Tucker is executed in Texas, becoming the first woman executed in the United States since 1984 and the first to be executed in Texas since the American Civil War.
• February 4 - An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale in northeast Afghanistan kills more than 5,000.
• February 6
  • Washington National Airport is renamed Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
  • The French prefect Claude Erignac is assassinated in the streets of Ajaccio, (Corse), by a commando of Corsican insurgents, among them Yvan Colonna.
• February 7
  • Roger Nicholas Angleton commits suicide in a prison cell in Houston, Texas by cutting himself with razor blades. He admits to murdering socialite Doris Angleton in her River Oaks home in his suicide note.
  • The 1998 Winter Olympics start in Nagano, Japan (end February 22).
• February 10
  • A college dropout becomes the first person to be convicted of a hate crime committed in cyberspace.
  • Voters in Maine repeal a gay rights law passed in 1997, becoming the first U.S. state to abandon such a law.
• February 12 - The presidential line-item veto is declared unconstitutional by a United States federal judge.
• February 14 - United States authorities announce that Eric Rudolph is a suspect in an Alabama abortion clinic bombing.
• February 15 - Dale Earnhardt wins the Daytona 500 in his 20th try, after many unsuccessful attempts.
• February 16 - China Airlines Flight 676 crashes into a residential area near Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, killing 202 people (all 196 on board and 6 on the ground).
• February 18 - Two white separatists are arrested in Nevada, accused of plotting a biological attack on New York City subways.
• February 19
  • A 66-day blackout begins in Auckland, New Zealand.
  • Larry Wayne Harris of the Aryan Nations and William Leavitt are arrested in Henderson, New York, for possession of military grade anthrax.
• February 20 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein negotiates a deal with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, allowing weapons inspectors to return to Baghdad, preventing military action by the U.S. and Britain.
• February 22 - One third of the Tower block "Palace II" collapses in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• February 23
  • Tornadoes in central Florida destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42 (see Florida El Niño Outbreak).
  • Osama bin Laden publishes a fatwa, declaring jihad against all Jews and Crusaders.
• February 24
  • Hustler publisher Larry Flynt is acquitted on charges of defaming Jerry Falwell.
  • A man tries to hijack a Turkish Airlines passenger plane, claiming that he has a bomb in his teddy bear; passengers disapprove and apprehend him.
• February 28 - Serbian police begin to wipe out so-called "terrorist gangs" in Kosovo.

March

Poul Rasmussen

• March 2
  • Data sent from the Galileo probe indicates that Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.
  • Natascha Kampusch is abducted by Wolfgang Priklopil. She will remain in his captivity until August 2006.
• March 4 - Gay rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex.
• March 5
  • NASA announces that the Clementine probe orbiting the Moon has found enough water in polar craters to support a human colony and rocket fueling station.
  • NASA announces the choice of United States Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins as commander of a future Space Shuttle Columbia mission to launch an X-ray telescope, making Collins the first woman commander of a space shuttle mission.
• March 6 - The South Crofty Tin Mine is closed.
• March 7 - The Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan is fined for burning a cross in his garden and infringing air regulations in California.
• March 10 - American troops stationed in the Persian Gulf begin to receive the first vaccinations against anthrax.
• March 11 - The Danish parliamentary election is held, unexpectedly returning Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen to power.
• March 14 - An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale hits southeastern Iran.
• March 23 - At the Academy Awards ceremony, the film Titanic wins 11 Oscars.
• March 24 - In Jonesboro, Arkansas, 2 young boys (aged 11 and 13 years) fire upon students at Westside Middle School while hidden in woodlands near the school. Four students and 1 teacher are killed and 10 injured.
• March 26 - Oued Bouaicha massacre in Algeria: 52 people are killed with axes and knives, 32 of them babies under the age of 2.
• March 27 - The Food and Drug Administration approves Viagra for use as a treatment for male impotence, the first pill to be approved to treat this condition in the United States.
• March 29 - A series of tornadoes hits southern Minnesota, killing 3 people.

April

Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge

• April 1
  • Ukrainian serial killer Anatoly Onoprienko is sentenced to death for 52 murders.
  • The MS Elation sets sail.
• April 2 - Rob Pilatus, the famous singer of Milli Vanilli with Fab Morvan, dies in Frankfurt, Germany from a drug overdose at the age of 32.
• April 5 - In Japan, the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshū and costing about US$3.8 billion, opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.
• April 6 - Pakistan tests medium-range missiles capable of hitting India.
• April 7 - Citicorp and Travelers Group announce plans to merge, creating the largest financial-services conglomerate in the world, Citigroup.
• April 8
  • Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM reports to the UN Security Council that Iraq's declaration on its biological weapons program is incomplete and inadequate.
  • Birmingham Tornado of April 1998 : An F5 tornado strikes the western portion of the Birmingham, Alabama area, killing 32.
• April 10 - Good Friday: 18 hours after the end of the talks deadline, the Belfast Agreement is signed between the Irish and British governments and most Northern Ireland political parties, with the notable exception of the Democratic Unionist Party.
• April 16 - An F3 tornado passes through downtown Nashville, Tennessee - the first tornado in 11 years to make a direct hit on a major city. An F5 tornado travels through rural portions south of Nashville (see Nashville Tornado of 1998).
• April 22- The Disney's Animal Kingdom 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, Spain ruptures, discharging heavy metal waste into the Guadiamar River. The pollution threatens the sensitive ecosystem and endangered species of Doñana National Park, Spain's largest nature reserve, but is diverted into the Guadalquivir River. Up to 100 km² of farmland are ruined by the spill. [1]

May

• May 2 - Japanese rock star hide (Hideto Matsumoto) mysteriously dies of asphyxiation.
• May 3
  • British actor Kevin Lloyd, best known for playing Tosh Lines in The Bill, dies aged 49 from an alcoholism-related illness.
  • Footballer Justin Fashanu, 37, is found dead in a lock-up garage in East London.
• May 7 - Apple Computer unveils the iMac.
• May 9 - Dana International, a transsexual singer from Israel, wins the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest in Birmingham,UK.
• May 11
  • India conducts 3 underground nuclear tests in Pokhran, including 1 thermonuclear device.
  • The first euro coins are minted in Pessac, 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. The United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on India.
• May 14 - The popular American sitcom Seinfeld airs its final episode.
• May 15 - Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM learns that an Iraqi delegation has travelled to Bucharest, to meet with scientists who can provide the country with missile guidance systems.
• May 18
  • United States v. Microsoft: The United States Department of Justice and 20 U.S. states file an antitrust case against Microsoft.
  • The New Republic 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 Glass.
• May 19 - The Galaxy IV communications satellite fails, leaving 80-90% of the world's pagers without service.
• May 21
  • School shooting: At Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, Kipland Kinkel (who was suspended for bringing a gun to school) shoots a semi-automatic rifle into a room filled with students, killing 2 and wounding 25 others, after killing his parents at home.
  • Reproductive rights: In Miami, Florida, 5 abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker.
  • Suharto resigns, after 32 years as Indonesian President and his 7th consecutive re-election by the Indonesian Parliament (MPR). Suharto's hand-picked Vice President, B. J. Habibie, became Indonesia's third president.
• May 21 to September 30 - Expo '98 is held in Lisbon, Portugal, with the title "Oceans, an Heritage for the Future". UNESCO 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: A federal judge rules that United States Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the scandal.
• May 27 - Oklahoma City bombing: Michael Fortier is sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.
• May 28
  • Nuclear testing: 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.
  • In Encino, California, the wife of Saturday Night Live comedian Phil Hartman kills him and commits suicide afterwards.
• May 30
  • Nuclear testing: Pakistan conducts 1 more nuclear explosion following its first test.
  • A 6.6 magnitude earthquake hits northern Afghanistan, killing up to 5,000.
• May 31 - Geri Halliwell, better known as "Ginger Spice", announces her departure from the biggest selling girl group of all time, the Spice Girls.

June

• June 2
  • The CIH virus is discovered in Taiwan.
  • California voters approve Proposition 227, abolishing that state's bilingual education program.
• June 3 - Eschede train disaster: an ICE high speed train derails between Hannover and Hamburg, Germany, causing 101 deaths.
• June 4 - Terry Nichols is sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.
• June 5 - A strike begins at the General Motors parts factory in Flint, Michigan, quickly spreading to 5 other assembly plants and lasting 7 weeks.
• June 7 - Three white supremacists murder James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas.
• June 8 - Actor Charlton Heston becomes president of the National Rifle Association.
• June 8 - President Sani Abacha of Nigeria dies of apparent heart failure.
• June 10 - The 1998 FIFA World Cup begins in France.
• June 12
  • A jury in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, convicts 17-year-old Luke Woodham of killing 2 students and wounding 7 others at Pearl High School .[2]
  • Thirteen-year old Christina Marie Williams is kidnapped in Seaside, California while walking her dog.
• June 14 - The Chicago Bulls win their 6th NBA title in 8 years when they beat the Utah Jazz, 87-86 in Game Six. This is also Michael Jordan's last game as a Bull.
• June 16 - The Detroit Red Wings sweep the Washington Capitals in 4 games in the 1998 Stanley Cup Finals.
• June 25
  • The United States Supreme Court rules (Clinton v. City of New York) that the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 is unconstitutional.
  • Microsoft releases Windows 98 (First Edition).

July

• July 5 - Japan launches a probe to Mars, joining the United States and Russia as a space-exploring nation.
• July 6 - The new Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok opens.
• July 10
  • The DNA-identified remains of United States Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie arrive home to his family in St. Louis, Missouri, after being in the Tomb of the Unknowns since 1984.
  • 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 12 - France defeat Brazil 3-0 to win the 1998 FIFA World Cup.
• July 17
  • In St. Petersburg, Nicholas II of Russia and his family are buried in St. Catherine Chapel, 80 years after he and his family were killed by Bolsheviks.
  • A tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake destroys 10 villages in Papua New Guinea, killing an estimated 1,500, leaving 2,000 more unaccounted for and thousands more homeless.
  • Biologists report in the journal Science how they sequenced the genome of the bacterium that causes syphilis, Treponema pallidum.
• July 24 - Russel Eugene Weston Jr. bursts into the United States Capitol and opens fire, killing 2 police officers. He is later ruled incompetent to stand trial.
• July 25
  • The United States Navy commissions the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and puts her into service.
  • Wakayama Arsenic poison case: 63 are sickened and 4 killed by arsenic in a festival in the town in Wakayama Prefecture in Japan; Masumi Hayashi is arrested for murder.
• July 28 - Monica Lewinsky scandal: Ex-White House intern Monica Lewinsky receives transactional immunity, in exchange for her grand jury testimony concerning her relationship with U.S. President Bill Clinton.
• July 31 - The UK bans the importation of landmines.

August

The aftermath of the Nairobi Embassy bombing on August 7.

• August 5 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq officially suspends all cooperation with UNSCOM teams.
• August 7
  • Yangtze River Floods: In China the Yangtze River 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.
  • 1998 United States embassy bombings: The bombings of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya kill 224 people and injure over 4,500; they are linked to Osama Bin Laden.
• August 14 - Gary C. Evans, infamous in New York's Capital Region for killing 5 people, escapes police custody and kills himself by jumping off a bridge.
• August 15 - The Real IRA detonates a car bomb in Omagh, County Tyrone, Ireland, killing 29 and injuring over 200 (the greatest loss of life in a single incident of The Troubles).
• August 16 - Silk-Miller police murders: Australian police officers are murdered in Moorabbin, Victoria.
• August 19
  • Monica Lewinsky scandal: U.S. President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. He also admits before the nation that he "misled people" about his relationship.
  • 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 states Quebec can not legally secede from Canada without the federal government's approval.
  • 1998 U.S. embassy bombings: The United States military launches cruise missile attacks against alleged Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum is destroyed in the attack.
• August 26 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Scott Ritter resigns from UNSCOM, sharply criticizing the Clinton 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 reportedly launches Kwangmyongsong, their first satellite. Although North Korea reports that it reached stable orbit, NORAD was never able to confirm this assertion.

September

Canadian Coast Guard Vessel Henry Hudson searches for Swissair Flight 111 debris

• September 1 - MySpace is launched.
• September 2
  • In Canada, pilots for Air Canada launch the first strike in the company's history.
  • A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 airliner carrying Swissair flight 111 crashes near Peggys Cove, Nova Scotia, after taking off from New York City en-route to Geneva. All 229 people on board are killed.
  • A United Nations court finds Jean-Paul Akayesu, the former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, guilty of 9 counts of genocide, marking the first time that the 1948 law banning genocide is enforced.
• September 3 - In Somalia, the southern port of Kismayo is declared the capital of independent Jubaland under Muhamed Said Hersi.
• September 7
  • Google is founded.
  • Pokémon premieres on Kids WB.
• September 8 - St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Mark McGwire breaks baseball's single season home run record, formerly held by Roger Maris. McGwire hits #62 at Busch Stadium in the 4th inning off of Chicago Cubs pitcher Steve Trachsel.
• September 9
  • The United Nations General Assembly elects Didier Opertiri of Uruguay as president for its 53rd session.
  • A coroner records a verdict of suicide on former footballer Justin Fashanu, who was found hanged in a London lock-up garage 4 months ago.
• September 14 - The GSPC is formed in Algeria, splitting off from the GIA over its policy of massacring civilians.
• September 15 - Telecommunications companies MCI Communications and WorldCom complete their $37 billion merger to form MCI WorldCom.
• September 25 - 28 September — Major creditors of Long-Term Capital Management, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based hedge fund, after days of tough bargaining and some informal mediation by Federal Reserve officials, agree on terms of a re-capitalization — i.e., they create a consortium that takes over the fund's failing portfolio.
• September 27
  • In Germany, SPD's Gerhard Schroeder defeats 4-term CDU Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
  • The "Google" search engine is founded.
• September 29 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The U.S. Congress passes the "Iraq Liberation Act", which states that the United States wants to remove Saddam Hussein from power and replace the government with a democratic institution.

October

• October 1 - Sky Digital launches in the UK, changing the face of British televison forever.
• October 3 - In Australia, John Howard's coalition government is re-elected for a second term.
• October 4 - Leafie Mason is murdered in her Hughes Springs, Texas house by Angel Maturino Resendiz. She is his second victim in his second incident.
• October 6 - College student Matthew Shepard is found tied to a fence near Laramie, Wyoming, a gay-bashing victim. He dies October 12, becoming a symbol of gay-bashing victims and sparking public reflection on homophobia.
• October 7
  • Oslo's Fornebu Airport closes.
  • The United States Congress 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 domain to works created before 1923 in the United States.
• October 8
  • Oslo Airport (Gardermoen) opens.
  • Japan-Republic of Korea Joint Declaration A New Japan-Republic of Korea Partnership towards the Twenty-first Century.
• October 12 - The U.S. Congress passes the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
• October 14 - Eric Robert Rudolph is charged with 6 bombings (including the 1996 Olympic bombing) in Atlanta, Georgia.