Historical Events in 1998

Events 1 - 200 of 343

• Jan 1 All California bars, clubs & card rooms must be smoke-free
• Jan 1 Mongolia switches from a 46 hour to 40 hour work week
• Jan 1 Russia begins to circulate new rubles to stem inflation and promote confidence.

• Jan 1 US Census Bureau estimates population at 268,921,733

• Jan 3 American "Hee Haw" banjo player Grandpa Jones suffers a stroke
• Jan 3 Los Angeles Clippers Bill Fitch coaches his 2,000th NBA game, a 97-88 win against the Dallas Mavericks at the LA Memorial Sports Arena
• Jan 4 A massive ice storm hits eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, continues through January 10, and causes widespread destruction
• Jan 4 Wilaya of Relizane massacres in Algeria: over 170 are killed in three remote villages
• Jan 5 Ice storm knocks out electricity in Quebec & Ontario
• Jan 5 Vandals decapitate Copenhagen's Little Mermaid statue in Langelinie Park
• Jan 6 Barry Switzer resigns as Dallas Cowboy coach

• Jan 8 NY Giant GM George Young resigns to accept NFL position

• Jan 8 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Ahmed Yousef sentenced to life

• Jan 9 Anatoly Solovyov & Pavel Vinogradov spacewalk record 3 hrs 8 mins
• Jan 9 Boston Red Sox Mo Vaughn pleads not guilty to drunken driving
• Jan 9 Decapitated head of The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, Denmark, is returned

• Jan 11 Sidi-Hamed massacre takes place in Algeria, over 100 people are killed.

• Jan 12 Nineteen European nations agree to forbid human cloning.
• Jan 13 "Patti LaBelle On Broadway" opens at St James Theater NYC
• Jan 13 CBS pays $4 billion to televise AFC games for 8-years
• Jan 14 100th episode of "Ellen" airs

• Jan 14 Researchers in Dallas, Texas present findings about an enzyme that slows aging and cell death (apoptosis)
• Jan 15 Australian schoolboy Ian Thorpe becomes youngest ever male to become a world swimming champion when he wins 400m freestyle aged 15 years, 3 months in Perth; also wins event at 2001 & 2003 World Championships

• Jan 18 ABL All-Star Game at Disney complex in Orlando
• Jan 18 Boston Celtics retire Robert Parrish's #00

• Jan 20 Warner Brothers TV Network begins Tueday night programming

• Jan 22 NHL's Minnesota franchise selects the nickname Wild

• Jan 22 STS 89 (Endeavour 12) launches into orbit
• Jan 22 World League of American Football renamed as NFL Europe
• Jan 23 Denver Nuggets tie the NBA single-season record of 23 consecutive losses set by the Vancouver Grizzlies in 1995-96; streak ends with a 99-81 win the next day against the LA Clippers

• Jan 23 Pope John Paul II condemns US embargo against Cuba
• Jan 25 "Patti LaBelle On Broadway" closes at St James Theater NYC

• Jan 25 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam mount a suicide attack on Sri Lanka's Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, killing 8 people and injuring 25 others
• Jan 25 Pope John Paul II visits Cuba and demands the release of political prisoners; he also condemns US moves to isolate the country

• Jan 27 Crane crashes into Roosevelt Island tram (NYC), injuring 10
• Jan 27 Roland Clarkson discovers 2^3021377-1 (37th known Mersenne prime)
• Jan 27 WNBA begins filling rosters of Washington Mystics & Detroit Shock

• Jan 29 Singer Bobby Brown found guilty of DWI in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
• Jan 29 Soyuz TM-27 launches to MIR
• Jan 29 Thick Fog causes highway carnage in Belgium and Netherlands, 6 die
• Jan 29 Woman's Clinic in Birmingham, Alabama bombed, 1 killed
• Jan 30 All-Star Fla Marlin catcher Darren Daulton, retires
• Jan 30 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Indianapolis IN on WNAP 93.1 FM
• Jan 31 STS 89 (Endeavour 12) lands
• Feb 1 Lillian E. Fishburne became the first female African American to be promoted to rear admiral.
• Feb 2 Daniel Baldwin hospitalized in NYC for cocaine overdose
• Feb 2 Philippine DC-9 crashes apparently killing all 104 on board
• Feb 3 Cavalese cable car disaster: 20 people killed after NATO aircraft severs a cable car line
• Feb 3 Florida Panther Dino Ciccarelli is 9th NHLer to score 600 career goals
• Feb 3 Former teacher Mary Kay LeTourneau (36) violates probation with the 14 year-old father of her baby
• Feb 3 Karla Faye Tucker is executed in Texas, first woman executed in the United States since 1984
• Feb 3 NY Yankees replace general manager Bob Watson with Brian Cashman

• Feb 4 An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale in northeast Afghanistan kills more than 5,000

• Feb 5 Alberto Acciarito convicted of harassing his ex-wife Ingrid Rossellini
• Feb 5 Author Tom Clancy confirms he signed agreement to purchase Minnesota Vikings for slightly more than $200 million, an NFL franchise record

• Feb 6 Former teacher Mary Kay LeTourneau (36) who violated probation by seeing the 14-year-old father of her baby, sentenced to 7 years
• Feb 6 In Corsica, the prefect Claude Erignac is assassinated in Ajaccio, presumably by Yvan Colonna.
• Feb 6 Sierra Leone military junta is removed, and President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah is restored to office after 9 months in exile
• Feb 6 Twins trade Chuck Knoblauch to NY Yankees for $3M & 4 minor leaguers

• Feb 7 NHL's Dallas Stars retire Neal Broten's #7
• Feb 7 XVIII Winter Olympic Games open in Nagano, Japan
• Feb 8 Finland beats Sweden, 6-0 at the Aqua Wing Arena in Nagano, Japan in the first female ice hockey game played in Olympic history
• Feb 8 NHL stops season stops to accommodate the Nagano Winter Olympics; returns February 24

• Feb 10 AOL raises monthly flat rate internet access from $19.95 to $21.95
• Feb 10 Olympic figure skater Peggy Fleming undergoes breast cancer surgery
• Feb 10 Voters in Maine repeal a gay rights law passed in 1997 becoming the first U.S. state to abandon the law
• Feb 11 KVBC-FM (Las Vegas) offers Monica Lewinsky $5m for an exclusive tell-all, she ignores the request
• Feb 11 Lyrics to "Candle in the Wind 1997" auctioned for $442,500
• Feb 12 "Freak" opens at Cort Theater NYC
• Feb 12 250-car Italy pile-up due to fog, 4 die & 50 hurt
• Feb 12 Dallas Cowboys sign Chan Gailey as their 4th head coach
• Feb 12 Intel unveils its 1st graphics chip i740
• Feb 12 US district judge T Hogan declares line-item veto law unconstitutional
• Feb 14 Authorities in the United States announce that Eric Robert Rudolph is a suspect in an Alabama abortion clinic bombing.

• Feb 16 Tellabs Inc acquires Coherent Communications Systems for $670 million
• Feb 17 Larry Wayne Harris & Bill Levitt arrested for possession of anthrax
• Feb 17 NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft overtakes Pioneer 10 to become the farthest object from earth in space
• Feb 17 US Naval Academy cadet Diane Zamora, 20, convicted of capital murder
• Feb 17 USA Women's Ice Hockey Team beats Canada and wins the first Olympic Gold medal

• Feb 18 Two white separatists are arrested in Nevada and accused of plotting a biological attack on New York City subways.
• Feb 19 Soyuz TM-26 lands
• Feb 19 US hockey team destroys their rooms at Olympic village in Japan
• Feb 20 American world champion Tara Lipinski wins Olympic figure skating gold medal ahead of teammate Michelle Kwan at the Nagano Winter Games

• Feb 20 US movie box office hits quickest $1 billion for year (51 days)

• Feb 22 Petr Svoboda scores the winner as the Czech Republic claims its first ever Olympic ice hockey gold medal with a 1-0 victory over Russia in Nagano, Japan
• Feb 22 XVIII Winter Olympic Games close in Nagano Japan
• Feb 23 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Charleston, South Carolina on WAVF 96.1 FM

• Feb 23 Tornadoes in Florida kills at least 31
• Feb 23 US Supreme Court lets Megan's Law (sex offenders information) stand

• Feb 25 40th Grammy Awards: "Sunny Came Home" best song, Paula Cole best new artist

• Feb 25 Switzerland's 1st legal brothel opens in Zurich

• Feb 26 Steven M Gluckstern completes sale of NY Islanders
• Feb 26 Total solar eclipse in Venezuela-Pacific Ocean (4m09)
• Feb 27 Apple discontinues development of the Newton computer
• Feb 27 Britain's House of Lords agrees to end 1,000 years of male precedence by giving a monarch's first-born daughter the same claim to the throne as any first born son
• Feb 27 FBI arrests 10 most wanted suspected serial killer Tony Ray Amati
• Feb 27 NE Patriot David Meggett arrested in Toronto on sex assault charges
• Feb 28 "View From the Bridge" closes at Criterion Theater NYC
• Feb 28 First flight of RQ-4 Global Hawk, the first unmanned aerial vehicle certified to file its own flight plans and fly regularly in U.S. civilian airspace.
• Feb 28 Kosovo War: Serbian police begin the offensive against the Kosovo Liberation Army in Kosovo.
• Feb 28 Vancouver Canucks Mark Messier is 4th NHLer to get 1,600 points
• Mar 1 Mark Martin drives his Ford Taurus to victory in the inaugural NASCAR Winston Cup event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway; Martin finishes 1.6 seconds ahead of teammate Jeff Burton
• Mar 1 Miami's Pat Riley becomes the 5th head coach to record 900 NBA career wins with Heat's 85-84 win over the New Jersey Nets
• Mar 2 Data sent from the Galileo spacecraft indicates that Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice
• Mar 3 Bill Gates testifies at Senate Judiciary Committee about Microsoft's dominant position in the software industry
• Mar 4 Gay rights: Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services: 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.
• Mar 6 British Union Flag begins to be flown full-mast over Buckingham Palace whenever British monarch not in residence, following change of protocol after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales
• Mar 6 Matt Beck, an angry lottery accountant kills 4 at Connecticut state lottery

• Mar 12 "The Sound of Music" opens at Martin Beck Theater NYC
• Mar 15 An earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale hits southeastern Iran
• Mar 16 Pope John Paul II asks God for forgiveness for the inactivity and silence of some Roman Catholics during the Holocaust

• Mar 24 A tornado sweeps through Dantan in India killing 250 people and injuring 3000 others.
• Mar 24 Jonesboro massacre: Two students, ages 11 and 13, fire upon teachers and students at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas; five people are dead and ten are wounded.
• Mar 26 Oued Bouaicha massacre in Algeria; 52 people killed with axes and knives, 32 of them babies under the age of 2.
• Mar 27 Chicago Bulls - Atlanta Hawks matchup at Georgia Dome in Atlanta, draws a crowd of 62,046, largest in any game in NBA history; Bulls win, 89-74
• Mar 29 Nabisco Dinah Shore Women's Golf, Mission Hills CC: Pat Hurst wins her only major title, 1 stroke ahead of runner-up Helen Dobson after sinking a 5-foot birdie putt at the final green
• Mar 29 Vasco da Gama Road bridge opens in Lisbon, Portugal as the longest bridge in Europe
• Mar 31 Expansion clubs, Tampa Bay and Arizona both suffer bad losses in their MLB debuts; Devil Rays lose, 11-6 to the Detroit Tigers and the Diamondbacks fall, 9-2 to Colorado Rockies
• Mar 31 Milwaukee becomes first team since the inception of the American League in 1901 to switch MLB leagues; Brewers lose first NL game, 2-1 to the Braves in Atlanta
• Apr 4 NFL Europe (Formerly WLAF), kicks off season
• Apr 5 The Arizona Diamondbacks record their first win in team history with a 3-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants in Phoenix, AZ; ends second-worst start ever (0-5) by an expansion team
• Apr 5 The Tradition Senior Men's Golf, GC at Desert Mountain: Defending champion Gil Morgan wins by 2 strokes from Tom Wargo
• Apr 6 Pakistan tests medium-range missiles capable of hitting India.
• Apr 10 The Good Friday Agreement [Belfast Agreement] for Northern Ireland is signed by the British and Irish governments
• Apr 12 An earthquake in Slovenia, measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale occurs near the town of Bovec.

• Apr 20 German terrorist group Red Army Faction announces their dissolution after 28 years.
• Apr 20 TAME Boeing 727-200 chartered by Air France, crashes into Cerro El Cable mountain after takeoff from Bogotá, Colombia, killing 53
• Apr 22 Disney's Animal Kingdom opens at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, United States.

• May 2 Battle of Hogwarts: fictional battle that ended the Second Wizarding War with the death of Lord Voldemort at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
• May 4 A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.
• May 4 The Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre, designed by Renzo Piano to celebrate indigenous Kanak culture, is inaugurated near Nouméa, New Caledonia [1]

• May 7 Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for $US40 billion and forms DaimlerChrysler in the then largest industrial merger in history

• May 11 India conducts three underground nuclear tests in Pokhran, including a thermonuclear device
• May 13 India carries out two nuclear tests at Pokhran, in addition to the three conducted on May 11. The United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on India.
• May 13 Race riots break out in Jakarta, Indonesia, where shops owned by Indonesians of Chinese descent are looted and women raped

• May 17 New York Yankees pitcher David Wells tosses a perfect game in a 4-0 win against the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium, NY
• May 18 United States v. Microsoft: The United States Department of Justice and 20 U.S. states file an antitrust case against Microsoft.

• May 21 In Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker.

• 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, involving President Bill Clinton
• May 23 The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with 75% voting yes
• May 24 51st Cannes Film Festival: "Mia aioniotita kai mia mera / Eternity and a Day" by Theo Angelopoulos wins the Palme d'Or
• May 26 Date for Paula Jones sex harassment trial vs President Clinton
• May 26 The United States Supreme Court rules that Ellis Island, the historic gateway for millions of immigrants, is mainly in the state of New Jersey, not New York
• 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: Pakistan responds to a series of Indian nuclear tests with five of its own, prompting the United States, Japan, and other nations to impose economic sanctions.
• May 30 A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits northern Afghanistan, killing up to 5,000.
• May 30 Super Rugby Final, Eden Park, Auckland: In an all-NZ final, Andrew Mehrtens lands 2 penalties & 2 conversions as the Canterbury Crusaders beat the Blues, 20-13; Crusaders' first title
• Jun 1 Australian Susie Maroney becomes first person to swim from Mexico to Cuba across shark and jellyfish-infested waters of the Yucatan Straits; swims 123-miles in 38 hours 33 minutes in a cage
• Jun 1 European Central Bank is founded in Brussels to define and execute the European Union's monetary policy
• Jun 2 The CIH computer virus is discovered in Taiwan

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