Events Date 1998 February | History by KabAstro

Ciccarelli's 600th Goal

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

Princess of Wales Stamp

Feb 3 Stamps commemorating Diana, Princess of Wales, go on sale in Britain

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

Gates Hit by Pie

Feb 4 Bill Gates gets a pie thrown in his face in Brussels, Belgium

Founder of Microsoft and Computer Scientist Bill Gates

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

Kerrigan, Harding Interview

Feb 5 Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding talk on FOX (Taped Dec 22nd)

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

Washington National Airport

Feb 6 Washington National Airport is renamed Ronald Reagan National Airport

Feb 7 NHL's Dallas Stars retire Neal Broten's #7
Feb 7 XVIII Winter Olympic Games open in Nagano, Japan

48th NBA All-Star Game

Feb 8 48th NBA All-Star Game, Madison Square Garden, NYC: East beats West, 135-114; MVP: Michael Jordan, Chicago Bulls, F

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

6th ESPY Awards

Feb 9 6th ESPY Awards: Ken Griffey Jr, Mia Hamm win

Baseball Hall of Fame Outfielder Ken Griffey Jr.

Georgian President Survives

Feb 9 Failed assassination attempt on Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze

President of Georgia and Soviet Diplomat Eduard Shevardnadze

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 48th Berlin International Film Festival: "Central Station" wins the Golden Bear

Radio Station Dangles $5m

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

Event of Interest

Feb 12 Intel unveils its 1st graphics chip i740

Semiconductor Pioneer and CEO of Intel Andrew Grove

Feb 12 US district judge T Hogan declares line-item veto law unconstitutional
Feb 14 29th NAACP Image Awards: "Soul Food" wins Outstanding Motion Picture
Feb 14 Authorities in the United States announce that Eric Robert Rudolph is a suspect in an Alabama abortion clinic bombing.

Daytona 500

Feb 15 40th Daytona 500: Dale Earnhardt's only Daytona win in his 20th start; snaps a 59-race winless streak

Angel of the North

Feb 15 The Angel of the North, a large-scale steel sculpture 20 m (66 ft) tall by Antony Gormley is installed at Gateshead, northern England

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

Music History

Feb 18 Andrea Bocelli makes his operatic debut as Rodolfo in "La bohème" at the Teatro Comunale in Cagliari

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

Event of Interest

Feb 20 UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan lands in Baghdad, for peace negotiations

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

Olympic Games

Feb 20 Vancouver Canucks' right wing Pavel Bure scores 5 goals for Russia in a 7-4 semi-final win over Finland at the Nagano Winter Olympics

Feb 22 "King & I" closes at Neil Simon Theater NYC after 781 performances
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

Bin Laden's Fatwa

Feb 23 Osama bin Laden publishes a fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and Crusaders

Islamic Militant and Terrorist Osama bin Laden

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

Knighthood

Feb 24 Elton John is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in London

Queen of the United Kingdom Elizabeth II

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

Music History

Feb 25 Pamela Lee has husband Tommy Lee arrested on battery charges

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

Film & TV History

Feb 26 Oprah Winfrey found not guilty in beef defamation trial brought by Texas cattlemen

Feb 26 Steven M Gluckstern completes sale of NY Islanders
Feb 26 Total solar eclipse in Venezuela-Pacific Ocean (4m09)

Soul Train Music Awards

Feb 27 12th Soul Train Music Awards: Puff Daddy, Whitney Houston win

Feb 27 14th Soap Opera Digest Awards - General Hospital wins
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.