1998

1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday in the Gregorian calendar.

 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 
 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 24 – Erica Parsons, American murder victim (d. December 17, 2011).
 February 25 – Brendon Baerg, American actor
 April 9 – Elle Fanning, American actress
 April 12 – Diana Quer, Spanish murder victim (d. 2016)
 April 24 – Ryan Whitney, 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 1 – Nahid Kiani, Iranian taekwondo practitioner
 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

 References