1998

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1960s 1970s 1980s – 1990s – 2000s 2010s 2020s
Years:	1995 1996 1997 – 1998 – 1999 2000 2001

1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. It was the 9th year of the 1990s decade, the 98th year of the 20th century and the 998th year of the 2nd millennium.

Events[change | change source]

January[change | change source]

New rubles

Frozen trees during the winter storm

January 1 – Smoking is banned in all California bars and restaurants.^[1]
January 2 - Russia begins to circulate new rubles to stem inflation and promote confidence.
January 2 - A gunman shoots Antario Teodoro Filho, Brazilian politician and radio presenter, in the middle of his broadcast.
January 4-10 - A massive ice storm, caused by El Nino, strikes New England, southern Ontario and Quebec, resulting in widespread power failures, severe damage to forests, and a number of deaths.
January 4 – Wilaya of Relizane massacres of 4 January 1998 in Algeria; over 170 killed in three remote villages.
January 6 – The Lunar Prospector spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon and later found evidence for frozen water on the moon's surface.
January 8 - Ramzi Yousef is sentenced to life in prison for planning the World Trade Center bombing.
January 8 - Cosmologists announce that the expansion rate of the universe is increasing.
January 11 – Sidi-Hamed massacre in Algeria; over 100 people killed.
January 12 – 19 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 2 1/2 years for threatening to kill Stern and his family.
January 16 – NASA announces that John Glenn will return to space when Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off in October 1998.
January 17 – Paula Jones accuses President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment.
January 22 – Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski pleads guilty and accepts a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
January 26 - Lewinsky scandal: On American television, Bill Clinton denies he had "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
January 26 - Compaq buys Digital Equipment Corporation.
January 27 – American 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.
January 28 - 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 one and severely wounding another. Serial bomber Eric Rudolph is suspected as the culprit.

February[change | change source]

February 3 - A low-flying US military airplane cuts the cable of a cable car near Trento, Italy, killing 20 people.
February 3 - President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosian resigns.
February 4 - A magnitude 6.1 earthquake kills more than 5,000 people in Northeastern Afghanistan.
February 7-22 - The 1998 Winter Olympics are held in Nagano, Japan.
February 16 - China Airlines Flight 676 crashes into a residential area near Chiang Kai-shek Airport in Taipei, killing 202 people, including 6 on the ground.
February 20 - Saddam Hussein negotiates a deal with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, allowing weapons inspectors to return to Baghdad, preventing military action by the US and the UK.
February 26 - A solar eclipse is seen over the Caribbean Sea.

March[change | change source]

March 2 - Data sent from the Galileo probe indicates that Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.
March 2 - In Austria, Natascha Kampusch is kidnapped by Wolfgang Priklopil, being held in captivity until August 2006.
March 11 - Prime Minister of Denmark Poul Nyrup Rasmussen is re-elected.
March 24 - A cyclone hits Bangladesh.
March 26 - In Algeria, 52 people are killed in the Oued Bouaicha massacre.

April[change | change source]

The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge

April 5 - The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge is opened to traffic in Japan, connecting Honshu and Shikoku.
April 6 - Pakistan tests a medium-range missile.
April 10 - In Northern Ireland the Good Friday Agreement is signed by the British and Irish governments and most political parties in Northern Ireland.
April 29 - The Kyoto Protocol is signed.

May[change | change source]

May 11 - India conducts 3 underground nuclear tests.
May 21 - Suharto resigns as President of Indonesia, with Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie succeeding him.
May 26 - Bear Grylls becomes the youngest British person to climb Mount Everest.
May 28 – Pakistan explodes 5 nuclear devices.
May 30 - A magnitude 6.6 earthquake kills up to 5,000 people in Afghanistan.

June[change | change source]

June 3 - An ICE high speed train derails at Eschede between Hanover and Hamburg, killing 101 people.
June 7 - The Guinea-Bissau Civil War begins.
June 30 - Joseph Estrada becomes the 13th President of the Philippines.

July[change | change source]

July 5 - Japan launches a probe to Mars.
July 6 - Hong Kong International Airport opens.
July 12 - The France national football team wins the FIFA World Cup on home soil against the Brazil national football team, 3-0.

The US Embassy in Kenya after the bombing

July 17 - At a conference in Rome 120 countries vote to create an International Criminal Court.
July 17 - A tsunami is triggered by an undersea earthquake off Papua New Guinea, destroying 10 villages and killing thousands of people.
July 17 - 80 years after being executed Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family are buried at the St. Catherine chapel in Saint Petersburg.

August[change | change source]

August 2 - The Second Congo War begins.
August 7 - Andres Pastrana Arango becomes President of Colombia.
August 7 - During major flooding the Yangtze River breaks through the main bank, with the death toll exceeding 12,000 people.
August 7 - The US Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania are bombed, killing 224 people. Al-Qaeda is believed to be responsible.
August 10 - Jamil Mahuad becomes President of Ecuador.
August 15 - The Omagh bombing is carried out by the IRA in Northern Ireland.
August 17 - Bill Clinton admits having an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
August 24 - The first RFID human implantation is tested in the United Kingdom.
August 28 - Said Musa becomes Prime Minister of Belize.

September[change | change source]

Vessels searching for Swissair Flight 111 off Nova Scotia

Flooding in Nicaragua caused by Hurricane Mitch

September 2 - Swissair Flight 111, travelling from New York City to Geneva, crashes off the coast of Peggys Cove, Nova Scotia, Canada, killing all 229 people on board.
September 4 - Google Inc. is founded in California by Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
September 27 - After 16 years as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Helmut Kohl of the CDU is voted out, with the SPD's Gerhard Schroeder being elected to succeed him.

October[change | change source]

October 3 - John Howard is elected to a second term as Prime Minister of Australia.
October 8 - Oslo Gardermoen Airport opens.
October 14 - Eric Robert Rudolph is charged with four bombings in Atlanta, Georgia in 1996.
October 16 - While receiving medical treatment in the UK, Augusto Pinochet is put under house arrest under an arrest warrant from Spain.
October 17 - 1,082 people are killed when an oil pipeline in Nigeria explodes.
October 27 - Gerhard Schroeder becomes Chancellor of Germany, officially succeeding Helmut Kohl.
October 29 - Hurricane Mitch makes landfall in Central America, causing a large amount of destruction and killing over 18,000 people across Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador.

November[change | change source]

November 3 - Hurricane Mitch weakens after leaving a trail of destruction across Central America.
November 20 - A Russian proton rocket is launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.
November 26 - Tony Blair becomes the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to speak at the Irish Parliament.

December[change | change source]

December 6 - Hugo Chavez is elected President of Venezuela, taking office in February 1999.
December 16 - Bill Clinton orders air strikes on Iraq.
December 29 - Khmer Rouge leaders apologise for the genocide committed in Cambodia under Pol Pot's rule.
December 31 - An extra leap second is added onto the end of the year.

Births[change | change source]

January 28 - Ariel Winter, American actress
February 25 – Brendon Baerg, American actor
April 9 – Elle Fanning, American actress
April 24 - Ryan Newman, American actress
April 28 - Byron Ward, American Basketball Player
June 15 – Rachel Covey, American actress
July 1 - Hollie Steel, English singer
July 8 - Jaden Smith, American actor
August 8 - Ronan Parke, English singer
September 21 – Lorenzo Brino, American actor
September 21 – Myrinda Brino, American actress
September 21 – Nikolas Brino, American actor
September 21 – Zachary Brino, American actor
October 6 - Mia-Sophie Wellenbrink, German actress and singer
November 23 - Bradley Steven Perry, American actor and singer

Deaths[change | change source]

January[change | change source]

Vladimir Prelog 1906-1998

January 1 - Helen Wills Moody, American tennis player (born 1905)
January 5 - Sonny Bono, American singer, actor and politician (born 1935)
January 7 - Vladimir Prelog, Croatian chemist (born 1906)
January 8 - Michael Tippett, English composer (born 1905)
January 9 - Kenichi Fukui, Japanese chemist (born 1918)
January 11 - Klaus Tennstedt, German conductor (born 1926)
January 19 - Carl Perkins, American guitarist (born 1932)
January 21 - Jack Lord, American actor (born 1920)
January 23 - Alfredo Ormando, Italian writer (born 1958)
January 28 - Shotari Ishinomari, Japanese manga artist (born 1938)

February[change | change source]

Enoch Powell 1912-1998

February 6 - Falco, Austrian singer and musician (born 1957)
February 6 - Carl Wilson, American musician (born 1946)
February 8 - Halldor Laxness, Icelandic writer (born 1902)
February 8 - Julian Lincoln Simon, American economist and writer (born 1932)
February 8 - Enoch Powell, British politician (born 1912)
February 17 - Ernst Juenger, German writer (born 1895)
February 26 - Theodore Schultz, American economist (born 1902)
February 27 - George H. Hitchings, American scientist (born 1905)
February 28 - Dermot Morgan, Irish actor and comedian (born 1952)

March[change | change source]

Lloyd Bridges 1913-1998

March 3 - Fred W. Friendly, American television journalist and executive (born 1915)
March 10 - Lloyd Bridges, American actor (born 1913)
March 12 - Judge Dread, English musician (born 1945)
March 12 - Beatrice Wood, American artist and ceramicist (born 1893)
March 12 - Jozef Kroner, Slovakian actor (born 1924)
March 15 - Benjamin Spock, American athlete, pediatrician and writer (born 1903)
March 16 - Derek Harold Richard Barton, British chemist (born 1918)
March 21 - Galina Ulanova, Russian ballerina (born 1910)
March 25 - Daniel Massey, British actor (born 1933)
March 27 - Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche, Austrian automobile designer and businessman (born 1909)
March 31 - Bella Abzug, American politician (born 1920)

April[change | change source]

Octavio Paz 1914-1998

April 1 - Gene Evans, American actor (born 1920)
April 2 - Rob Pilatus, member of the pop group Milli Vanilli (born 1965)
April 6 - Tammy Wynette, American singer (born 1942)
April 15 - Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator (born 1925)
April 16 - Marie-Louise Meilleur, Canadian supercentenarian (born 1880)
April 17 - Linda McCartney, American photographer and musician (born 1941)
April 19 - Octavio Paz, Mexican writer (born 1914)
April 23 - Constantine Karamanlis, Greek politician (born 1907)
April 23 - James Earl Ray, convicted assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr. (born 1928)
April 25 - Christian Mortensen, Danish-born American supercentenarian (born 1882)
April 27 - Carlos Castaneda, Peruvian-American anthropologist and writer (born 1925)

May[change | change source]

Phil Hartman 1948-1998

May 1 - Eldridge Cleaver, American activist (born 1935)
May 2 - Hide, Japanese musician (born 1964)
May 2 - Justin Fashanu, English footballer (born 1961)
May 7 - Allan McLeod Cormack, South African-born physicist (born 1924)
May 14 - Frank Sinatra, American singer and entertainer (born 1915)
May 19 - Sosuke Uno, Prime Minister of Japan (born 1922)
May 22 - John Derek, American actor and movie director (born 1926)
May 28 - Phil Hartman, Canadian-born American artist, writer, actor and comedian (born 1948)
May 29 - Barry Goldwater, American politician (born 1909)