Title: 1998 Content: 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was . == Events == === January === * 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. * 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 1998 like a 1999 one 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 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 === * 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 1998 like a 2000 one for 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 20-March 27 - The 1998 Auckland power crisis lasts five weeks. * February 22-23 - The 1998 Kissimmee tornado outbreak strikes central Florida, including Orlando. Forty-two people are killed. * February 26 - A solar eclipse is seen over the Caribbean Sea. === March === * 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 === thumb|150px|right|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 === * 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 === * 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 === * 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. * 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 === * 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 === * 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 === * 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 === * November 3 - Hurricane Mitch weakens after leaving a trail of destruction across Central America. * November 20 - A Russian Proton rocket is launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. * November 26 - Tony Blair becomes the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to speak at the Irish Parliament. === December === * December 6 - Hugo Chávez 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 == * 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 * July 24 - Bindi Irwin, Australian-American conservationist, singer & actress * 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 * December 2 - Gabbi Garcia, Filipina actress * December 9 - Mika Dela Cruz, Filipina actress == Deaths == === January === * 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 === * 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 === * 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 === * 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 - Konstantinos 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 === * May 1 - Eldridge Cleaver, American activist (born 1935) * May 2 - Hide, Japanese musician (born 1964) * May 2 - Justin Fashanu, English footballer (born 1961) * May 2 - Kevin Lloyd, British actor (born 1949) * May 7 - Allan McLeod Cormack, South African-born physicist (born 1924) * May 14 - Frank Sinatra, American singer and entertainer (born 1915) * May 19 - Sōsuke 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) === June === * June 2 - Junkyard Dog, American professional wrestler (born 1952) * June 8 - Sani Abacha, President of Nigeria (born 1943) * June 11 - Catherine Cookson, British writer (born 1906) * June 13 - Birger Ruud, Norwegian athlete (born 1911) * June 23 - Maureen O'Sullivan, Irish actress (born 1911) === July === * July 3 - Danielle Bunten Berry, American software developer (born 1949) * July 19 - Elmer Valo, Slovakian baseball player (born 1921) * July 21 - Alan Shepard, American astronaut (born 1923) * July 30 - Buffalo Bob Smith, American children's TV host (born 1917) === August === * August 1 - Eva Bartok, Hungarian actress (born 1927) * August 3 - Alfred Schnittke, Russian-born composer (born 1934) * August 4 - Yuri Artyukhin, Soviet cosmonaut (born 1930) * August 5 - Todor Zivkov, Bulgarian Communist leader (born 1911) * August 6 - André Weil, French mathematician (born 1906) * August 9 - Frankie Ruiz, Puerto-Rican singer (born 1958) * August 26 - Frederick Reines, American physicist (born 1918) === September === * September 2 - Allen Drury, American writer (born 1918) * September 5 - Leo Penn, American actor and director (born 1921) * September 6 - Akira Kurosawa, Japanese screenwriter, producer and director (born 1910) * September 13 - George Wallace, American politician (born 1919) * September 14 - Yang Shangkun, Chinese politician (born 1907) * September 21 - Florence Griffith-Joyner, American athlete (born 1959) * September 26 - Betty Carter, American singer (born 1929) * September 29 - Tom Bradley, American politician, Mayor of Los Angeles, California (born 1917) === October === * October 3 - Roddy McDowall, British actor (born 1928) * October 14 - Frankie Yankovic, American polka musician (born 1915) * October 17 - Joan Hickson, British actress (born 1906) * October 28 - Ted Hughes, British poet (born 1930) === November === * November 3 - Bob Kane, American cartoonist (born 1915) * November 8 - Jean Marais, French actor (born 1913) * November 10 - Mary Millar, British actress (born 1917) * November 25 - Nelson Goodman, American philosopher (born 1906) === December === * December 2 - Brian Stonehouse, British painter and World War II secret agent (born 1918) * December 7 - Martin Rodbell, American scientist (born 1925) * December 8 - Aaron Hopa, New Zealand rugby player (b. 1971) * December 16 - William Gaddis, American writer (born 1922) * December 17 - Claudia Benton, Peruvian-born child psychologist (born 1959) * December 20 - Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, British scientist (born 1914) * December 28 - Robert Rosen, American biologist (born 1934) * December 30 - Keisuke Kinoshita, Japanese movie director (born 1912) * December 30 - George Webb, British actor (born 1911) == Nobel Prizes == * Physics - Robert B. Laughlin, Horst L. Stroemer, Daniel Chee Tsui * Chemistry - Walter Kohn, John Pople * Physiology or Medicine - Robert F. Furchgott, Louis J. Ignarro, Ferid Murad * Literature - Jose Saramago * Nobel Peace Prize - John Hume, David Trimble * Economics - Amartya Sen == Movies released == * Saving Private Ryan * Armageddon * There's Something About Mary * A Bug's Life * Doctor Dolittle * Rush Hour * Deep Impact * Godzilla * Patch Adams * Antz * The Big Lebowski * Blade * Chairman of the Board * Dark City * Elizabeth * Enemy of the State * Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas * Human Remains * Hurlyburly * Lethal Weapon 4 * Lost in Space * The Mask of Zorro * Mulan * The Negotiator * Pi * Pleasantville * Rushmore * Shakespeare in Love * Six Days Seven Nights * Small Soldiers * The Thin Red Line * Very Bad Things * The Waterboy * The Wedding Singer * The Parent Trap == Hit songs == * "Never Ever" - All Saints * "Ray Of Light" – Madonna * "Cruel Summer" – Ace of Base * "Gettin' Jiggy Wit' It"- Will Smith * "The Boy Is Mine" - Brandy Norwood and Monica (entertainer) * "My Heart Will Go On" – Céline Dion * "Goodbye (song)" - Spice Girls * "Crush" – Jennifer Paige * "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)" – The Offspring * "The Dope Show"-Marilyn Manson * "Dragula" - Rob Zombie * "Time of Your Life (Good Riddance)" – Green Day * "Iris" – Goo Goo Dolls * "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" – Aerosmith * "One Week"-Barenaked Ladies * "The Way" – Fastball * "Uninvited" – Alanis Morissette * "You're Still The One" – Shania Twain * "This Kiss" - Faith Hill * "Nothin' But The Tailights" - Clint Black == New books == * QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter