| |
|
1999 |
| January 1st |
 |
The
new single European currency, the Euro (€), was introduced
to the world's financial markets. It was launched as a currency
for 12 of the member states on January 1st 2002. |
|
| January 4th |
|
In
Pakistan, gunmen opened fire on Shi'ite Muslims worshipping
in an mosque in Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan. The
attack killed 16 and injured 25 people. |
|
| January 20th |
|
The
China News Service announced new government restrictions on
Internet use in China, aimed especially at Internet cafes. |
|
| January 25th |
|
A
6.0 earthquake hit western Colombia and killed at least 1,000
people. |
|
| February
7th |
|
King
Hussein of Jordan died from cancer. His son Abdullah II inherited
the throne and became the new King of Jordan. |
|
| February
11th |
|
Pluto,
a planet with an irregular orbit, changed from being the eighth
to ninth planet furthest from the Sun. It had been the eighth
furthest since 1979, and will become again in 2231. |
|
| February
12th |
|
President
Bill Clinton was acquitted by the United States Senate in his
impeachment trial. President Clinton became the first President
since Andrew Johnson to be impeached. |
|
| February
16th |
|
In
Jasper, Texas, testimony began in the trial of John William
King who was accused of dragging African American James Byrd
Jr. to death in an apparent hate crime. King was later convicted
and sentenced to the death penalty. |
|
| February
22nd |
|
Moderate
Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr was assassinated. |
|
| February
23rd |
|
White
supremacist John William King was found guilty of kidnapping
and killing African American James Byrd Jr. by dragging him
behind a truck for two miles (3 km). |
|
| March 4th |
|
A
military court acquitted Captain Richard Ashby (United States
Marines) of reckless flying that killed 20 people in the 'Cavalese
cable-car disaster' near Trento, Italy on February 3rd 1998. |
|
| March 7th |
|
American
film director and producer Stanley Kubrick died. Kubrick was
famous for such films as '2001: A Space Odyssey' , 'Clockwork
Orange' and the black comdey about the Cold War, 'Dr. Strangelove'. |
|
| March 8th |
|
American
baseball player Joe DiMaggio died. DiMaggio played his entire
career (1936-1951) for the New York Yankees. He was also married
to Hollywood starlet Marilyn Monroe, which lasted 274 days. |
|
| March 12th |
|
Former
'Warsaw Pact' countires, Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic
joined NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation). |
|
| March 20th |
|
In
the Balkans, the Serbs launched an offensive in Kosovo, in Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia. |
|
| March 21st |
|
Bertrand
Piccard and Brian Jones became the first to circumnavigate the
Earth in a hot air balloon. They landed in Egypt after a 45,755
kilometre flight lasting 19 days, 21 hours and 47 minutes. |
|
| March 24th |
|
NATO
launched 11 weeks of air strikes in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
which had refused to sign a peace treaty. In Kosovo 800,000
people were displaced because of ethnic fighting. This marked
the first time that NATO attacked a sovereign country. |
|
| March 24th |
|
A
fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel killed 39 people and closed the
tunnel for nearly three years. Mont Blanc is a 7.25 mile road
tunnel linking France and Italy, near the Mont Blanc mountain
in the Alps. |
|
| April 5th |
|
Two
Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am flight 103 in 1988
were handed over to Scottish authorities for eventual trial
in the Netherlands. The United Nations suspended sanctions against
Libya. |
|
| April 7th |
|
In
the Blakans, Kosovo's main border crossings were closed by Serbian
forces to prevent ethnic Albanians from leaving. |
|
| April 17th |
|
In
London, neo-Nazi David Copeland, the 'London nailbomber' struck
for the first time. A nail bomb was exploded in the middle of
a busy market in Electric Avenue, Brixton in South London. 50
people were injured. This was a hate campaign against black,
Asian and gay people. This bomb was aimed at the black community
of Brixton. |
|
| April 20th |
|
Columbine
High School, Colorado, USA, where Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
opened fire in their school. Twelve students were killed and
one teacher. The two attackers killed themselves. |
|
| April 24th |
|
In
London, neo-Nazi David Copeland, the 'London nailbomber' struck
again. A second nail bomb was exploded and injured 13 people
at Brick Lane, the centre of the Bangladeshi area in the east
end of London. This was a hate campaign against black, Asian
and gay people. This bomb was aimed at the Asian community. |
|
| April 26th |
|
In
Britain, the BBC television presenter and journalist, Jill Dando
was murdered on the doorstep of her Fulham home in London. |
|
| April 30th |
|
In
London, neo-Nazi David Copeland, the 'London nailbomber' struck
for the third time. A nail bomb exploded in the Admiral Duncan
pub in Old Compton Street, Soho, London. The blast killed a
pregnant woman and two friends and injured 70 people. This was
part of a hate campaign against ethnic minorities and gay people.
This bomb was aimed at the gay community of London. |
|
| April 30th |
|
The
Anti-Terrorist Branch of the Metropolitan Police Service identified
neo-Nazi David Copeland, the 'London nailbomber', from CCTV
footage of Brixton. A work colleague of Copeland's recognised
him and alerted the police. He was arrested at his home in Farnborough,
Hampshire. |
|
| May 2th |
|
British
actor and 'hellraiser' Oliver Reed died of a heart attack in
Malta while filming 'Gladiator'. His other films included 'Tommy'
(The Who) and 'The Three Musketeers' among many. |
|
| May 6th |
|
Elections
were held in Scotland and Wales for the new Scottish Parliament
and the National Assembly for Wales. |
|
| May 7th |
|
In
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, three Chinese embassy workers
were killed and 20 wounded when a NATO aircraft mistakenly bombed
the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. |
|
| May 12th |
|
In
Scotland, Liberal MP David Steel became the first Presiding
Officer (speaker) of the modern Scottish Parliament. |
|
| May 17th |
|
In
the Middle-East, Ehud Barak was elected prime minister of the
state of Israel. |
|
| May 26th |
|
The
Indian Air Force launched an attack on intruding militants,
backed Pakistan, in the Kashmir which sparked the 'Kargil War'. |
|
| May 26th |
|
In
Wales, the first Welsh Assembly for over 600 years opened in
Cardiff. |
|
| May 27th |
|
The
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in
The Hague, Netherlands indicted Slobodan Milosevic and
four others for war crimes and 'crimes against humanity' committed
in Kosovo. |
|
| June 9th |
|
The
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and NATO signed a peace treaty. |
|
| June 10th |
|
NATO
suspended its air strikes after Slobodan Milosevic agreed
to withdraw Serbian forces from Kosovo. |
|
| June 12th |
|
A
NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping force named KFOR began
'Operation Joint Guardian' and entered the province of Kosovo
in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. |
|
| June 12th |
|
Texas
Governor George W. Bush Jr. announced his intention to seek
the Republican Party's nomination for President of the United
States. |
|
| June 16th |
|
In
England, David Edward Sutch (Screaming Lord Sutch), English
musician and political personality, committed suicide by hanging
himself. Lord Sutch was founder of the 'Monster Raving Looney
Party' in 1983, and fought many elections as a representative
of the party. |
|
| July 8th |
|
Retired
NASA Astronaut Pete Conrad was killed in a motorcycle
accident in Ojai, California, USA. Conrad was the commander
of the second Moon mission, Apollo 12, between 14th-24th November
1969. |
|
| July 11th |
|
India
recaptured Kargil as Pakistan pulled out its troops and militants
after international condemnation. India claimed victory in the
two-month conflict in the Kashmir called the 'Kargil War'. |
|
| July 16th |
|
A
plane piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr. crashed with his wife Carolyn
Bessette Kennedy and her sister Lauren Bessette on board. All
three were killed in the crash off the coast of Martha's Vineyard,
USA. |
|
| July
20th |
|
The
Liberty Bell 7 capsule part of the Mercury program, originally
piloted by NASA astronaut Gus Grissom in July 1961, was
raised from the Atlantic Ocean. |
|
| July 25th |
|
In
France, American cyclist Lance Armstrong won his first 'Tour
de France' cycle race. |
|
| July
31st |
|
NASA
intentionally crashed the 'Lunar Prospector' spacecraft into
the Moon, its mission was to detect frozen water on the moon's
surface. |
|
| August 9th |
|
Russian
President Boris Yeltsin sacked his Prime Minister, Sergei Stepashin
and dismissed his entire cabinet for the fourth time. |
|
| August 10th |
|
The
'Atlantique Incident' occured as an Pakistan Navy plane was
shot down in India. The incident sparked tensions between the
two nations, just a month after the end of the 'Kargil War'
in the Kashmir. |
|
| August 11th |
|
A
total solar eclipse was seen and experienced from the tip of
Cornwall, in Engalnd, through parts of Europe and Asia. |
|
| August 19th |
|
In
Belgrade, tens of thousands of Serbian protesters demonstrated
to demand the resignation of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. |
|
| September
20th |
|
The
former Soviet first lady Raisa Gorbachev died. Raisa was married
to Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, the former President of the
Soviet Union and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. |
|
| October. |
|
NASA's
'Mars Climate Orbiter' was destroyed when a navigation error
caused the spacecraft to miss its intended 140-150 km altitude
above Mars during orbit insertion. The spacecraft would have
been destroyed by atmospheric stresses and friction at the low
altitude of 57 km. |
|
| October 5th |
|
In
England, 31 people were killed in the Ladbroke Grove rail crash
(also known as the Paddington train crash) west of London, England.
The trains collided almost head on at the junction with a combined
closing speed of approximately 130 mph / 205 km/h. |
|
| October 12th |
|
Pakistani
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attempted to dismiss Army Chief
General Pervez Musharraf. Army generals refused to accept Musharraf's
dismissal. Musharraf was out of the country at the time. |
|
| October 12th |
|
General
Pervez Musharraf attempted to return to Pakistan in a commercial
airliner. Sharif ordered Karachi airport to not allow his plane
to land. The generals led a coup, ousted Sharif's administration
and captured the airport. The plane landed with only a few minutes
of fuel to spare, and Musharraf took control of the government. |
|
| October 12th |
|
The
6 billionth person in the world, according to the UN was born
in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. |
|
| October 31st |
|
In
the United States, EgyptAir Flight 990 from JFK airport in New
York City to Cairo in Egypt crashed into the Atlantic Ocean,
60 miles south off the coast of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts.
The disaster killed all passengers and crew on board, 217 people. |
|
| November
6th |
|
In
Australia, Australians voted to keep the Queen Elizabeth II
as their head of state. |
|
| November
19th |
|
The
People's Republic of China launched their first unmanned spacecraft
Project 921/1. It was rechristened Shenzhou, a name reportedly
chosen by Jiang Zemin. |
|
| November
28th |
|
In
Surrey, England, a man wielding a samurai sword entered St.
Andrews Catholic Church in Thornton Heath, the London Borough
of Croydon and injured 11 people. |
|
| December
2nd |
|
The
British government in Westminster devolved political power in
Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Executive. |
|
| December
3rd |
|
NASA
lost radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before
the spacecraft entered the Martian atmosphere. |
|
| December
17th |
|
The
United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission
(Unmovic) was created to replace UNSCOM. The U.N. Security council
once again ordered Iraq to allow inspections teams immediate
and unconditional access to any weapons sites and facilities.
Iraq rejected the resolution. |
|
| December
17th |
|
In
New York City, American musician and saxophonist Grover Washington,
Jr. died. He had suffered a massive heart attack. |
|
| December
24th |
|
Indian
Airlines Flight 814, which was en route from Kathmandu, Nepal
to Delhi in India, was hijacked and taken to Kandahar in Afghanistan. |
|
| December
29th |
|
Former
Beatle George Harrison was stabbed several times in the chest
by Michael Anram, who had broken into his home. The man apparently
believed that Harrison was the devil. He was later charged with
attempted murder. |
|
| December
31st |
|
In
the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, Boris Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned
as President of the Russian Federation. Yeltsin appointed Vladimir
Putin (Chairman of the Government) to replace him as the second
President of the Russian Federation. |
|
| December
31st |
|
The
Five hijackers, who hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814 and
had been holding 155 hostages in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Left
the plane with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded to
be freed. |
|
| December
31st |
|
The
start of the Millennium celebrations and countdown amid serious
concerns of the Y2K problems with computer systems. |
|
| December
31st |
|
In
London, HM Queen Elizabeth II opened the Millennium Dome at
Greenwich, which started the Millennium celebrations in London.
The Dome was opened to the general public the following day,
January 1st 2000. The exhibition would be open for the whole
of 2000. |
|
| December
31st |
|
The
Panama Canal was transferred from US military control to Panamanian
control. Control of the canal was handed over to the Panama
Canal Authority. |
|
| |
|
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