Important Historical Events of the year 1998, Year 1998 in History

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List of 1998 Major News Events in History, Most Important Historical Events in 1998

What happened in the year 1998?

Date	Event
January 1, 1998	Following a currency reform, Russia begins to circulate new rubles to stem inflation and promote confidence.
January 4, 1998	A massive ice storm hits eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, continuing through January 10 and causing widespread destruction.
January 11, 1998	Over 100 people are killed in the Sidi-Hamed massacre in Algeria.
January 12, 1998	Nineteen European nations agree to forbid human cloning.
January 13, 1998	Alfredo Ormando sets himself on fire in St. Peter's Square, protesting against homophobia.
January 17, 1998	Clinton–Lewinsky scandal: Matt Drudge breaks the story of the Bill Clinton–Monica Lewinsky affair on his Drudge Report website.
January 22, 1998	Space Shuttle program: space shuttle Endeavour launches on STS-89 to dock with the Russian space station Mir.
January 23, 1998	Netscape announces Mozilla, with the intention to release Communicator code as open source.
January 25, 1998	During a historic visit to Cuba, Pope John Paul II demands political reforms and the release of political prisoners while condemning US attempts to isolate the country.
January 25, 1998	A suicide attack by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on Sri Lanka's Temple of the Tooth kills eight and injures 25 others.
January 26, 1998	Lewinsky scandal: On American television, U.S. President Bill Clinton denies having had "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
February 1, 1998	Rear Admiral Lillian E. Fishburne becomes the first female African American to be promoted to rear admiral.
February 2, 1998	Cebu Pacific Flight 387 crashes into Mount Sumagaya in the Philippines, killing all 104 people on board.
February 3, 1998	Cavalese cable car disaster: A United States military pilot causes the death of 20 people when his low-flying plane cuts the cable of a cable-car near Trento, Italy.
February 4, 1998	The 5.9 Mw  Afghanistan earthquake shakes the Takhar Province with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). With 2,323 killed, and 818 injured, damage is considered extreme.
February 6, 1998	Washington National Airport is renamed Ronald Reagan National Airport.
February 14, 1998	An oil tanker train collides with a freight train in Yaoundé, Cameroon, spilling fuel oil. One person scavenging the oil created a massive explosion which killed 120.
February 16, 1998	China Airlines Flight 676 crashes into a road and residential area near Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taiwan, killing all 196 aboard and seven more on the ground.
February 20, 1998	American figure skater Tara Lipinski, at the age of 15, becomes the youngest Olympic figure skating gold-medalist at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
February 23, 1998	In the United States, tornadoes in central Florida destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42 people.
March 1, 1998	Titanic became the first film to gross over $1 billion worldwide.
March 2, 1998	Data sent from the Galileo spacecraft indicates that Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.
March 4, 1998	Gay rights: Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc.: 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.
March 19, 1998	An Ariana Afghan Airlines Boeing 727 crashes on approach to Kabul International Airport, killing all 45 on board.
March 24, 1998	Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden, aged 11 and 13 respectively, fire upon teachers and students at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas; five people are killed and ten are wounded.[66]
March 24, 1998	A tornado sweeps through Dantan in India, killing 250 people and injuring 3,000 others.
March 24, 1998	Dr. Rüdiger Marmulla performed the first computer-assisted Bone Segment Navigation at the University of Regensburg, Germany.[69]
March 26, 1998	During the Algerian Civil War, the Oued Bouaicha massacre sees fifty-two people, mostly infants, killed with axes and knives.
March 27, 1998	The Food and Drug Administration approves Viagra for use as a treatment for erectile dysfunction, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States.
March 31, 1998	Netscape releases Mozilla source code under an open source license.
April 5, 1998	In Japan, the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge opens to traffic, becoming the longest bridge span in the world.
April 6, 1998	Nuclear weapons testing: Pakistan tests medium-range missiles capable of reaching India.
April 10, 1998	The Good Friday Agreement is signed in Northern Ireland.
April 20, 1998	Air France Flight 422 crashes after taking off from El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá, Colombia, killing all 53 people on board.
May 2, 1998	The European Central Bank is founded in Brussels in order to define and execute the European Union's monetary policy.
May 4, 1998	A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.
May 6, 1998	Kerry Wood strikes out 20 Houston Astros to tie the major league record held by Roger Clemens. He threw a one-hitter and did not walk a batter in his fifth career start.
May 6, 1998	Steve Jobs of Apple Inc. unveils the first iMac.
May 7, 1998	Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for US$40 billion and forms DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history.
May 11, 1998	India conducts three underground atomic tests in Pokhran.
May 12, 1998	Four students are shot at Trisakti University, leading to widespread riots and the fall of Suharto.
May 13, 1998	Race riots break out in Jakarta, Indonesia, where shops owned by Indonesians of Chinese descent are looted and women raped.
May 13, 1998	India carries out two nuclear weapon tests at Pokhran, following the three conducted on May 11. The United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on India.
May 21, 1998	In Miami, five abortion clinics are attacked by a butyric acid attacker.
May 21, 1998	President Suharto of Indonesia resigns following the killing of students from Trisakti University earlier that week by security forces and growing mass protests in Jakarta against his ongoing corrupt rule.
May 22, 1998	A U.S. federal judge rules that U.S. Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the Lewinsky scandal involving President Bill Clinton.
May 23, 1998	The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with roughly 75% voting yes.
May 26, 1998	The Supreme Court of the United States rules in New Jersey v. New York that Ellis Island, the historic gateway for millions of immigrants, is mainly in the state of New Jersey, not New York.
May 26, 1998	The first "National Sorry Day" is held in Australia. Reconciliation events are held nationally, and attended by over a million people.
May 26, 1998	A MIAT Mongolian Airlines Harbin Y-12 crashes near Erdenet, Orkhon Province, Mongolia, resulting in 28 deaths.
May 27, 1998	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, 1998	Nuclear testing: Pakistan responds to a series of nuclear tests by India with five of its own codenamed Chagai-I, prompting the United States, Japan, and other nations to impose economic sanctions. Pakistan celebrates Youm-e-Takbir annually.
May 30, 1998	The 6.5 Mw  Afghanistan earthquake shook the Takhar Province of northern Afghanistan with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong), killing around 4,000–4,500.
May 30, 1998	Nuclear Testing: Pakistan conducts an underground test in the Kharan Desert. It is reported to be a plutonium device with yield of 20kt TNT equivalent.
June 3, 1998	After suffering a mechanical failure, a high speed train derails at Eschede, Germany, killing 101 people.
June 4, 1998	Terry Nichols is sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.
June 5, 1998	A strike begins at the General Motors parts factory in Flint, Michigan, that quickly spreads to five other assembly plants. The strike lasts seven weeks.
June 11, 1998	Compaq Computer pays US$9 billion for Digital Equipment Corporation in the largest high-tech acquisition.
June 18, 1998	Propair Flight 420 crashes near Montréal–Mirabel International Airport in Quebec, Canada, killing 11.
June 25, 1998	In Clinton v. City of New York, the United States Supreme Court decides that the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 is unconstitutional.
July 4, 1998	Japan launches the Nozomi probe to Mars, joining the United States and Russia as a space exploring nation.
July 6, 1998	Hong Kong International Airport opens in Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong, replacing Kai Tak Airport as the city's international airport.
July 10, 1998	Catholic Church sexual abuse cases: The Diocese of Dallas agrees to pay $23.4 million to nine former altar boys who claimed they were sexually abused by Rudolph Kos, a former priest.
July 12, 1998	The Ulster Volunteer Force attacked a house in Ballymoney, County Antrim, Northern Ireland with a petrol bomb, killing the Quinn brothers.
July 15, 1998	Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil MP S. Shanmuganathan is killed by a claymore mine.
July 17, 1998	The 7.0 Mw  Papua New Guinea earthquake triggers a tsunami that destroys ten villages in Papua New Guinea, killing up to 2,700 people, and leaving several thousand injured.
July 17, 1998	A diplomatic conference adopts the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, establishing a permanent international court to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
July 24, 1998	Russell Eugene Weston Jr. bursts into the United States Capitol and opens fire killing two police officers. He is later ruled to be incompetent to stand trial.
August 7, 1998	Bombings at United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya kill approximately 212 people.
August 8, 1998	Iranian consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan is raided by Taliban leading to the deaths of ten Iranian diplomats and a journalist.
August 10, 1998	HRH Prince Al-Muhtadee Billah is proclaimed the crown prince of Brunei with a Royal Proclamation.
August 15, 1998	Northern Ireland: Omagh bombing takes place; 29 people (including a woman pregnant with twins) killed and some 220 others injured.
August 15, 1998	Apple introduces the iMac computer.
August 17, 1998	Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky; later that same day he admits before the nation that he "misled people" about the relationship.
August 20, 1998	The Supreme Court of Canada rules that Quebec cannot legally secede from Canada without the federal government's approval.
August 20, 1998	U.S. embassy bombings: The United States launches cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical weapons plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
August 24, 1998	First radio-frequency identification (RFID) human implantation tested in the United Kingdom.
August 26, 1998	The first flight of the Boeing Delta III ends in disaster 75 seconds after liftoff resulting in the loss of the Galaxy X communications satellite.
August 28, 1998	Pakistan's National Assembly passes a constitutional amendment to make the "Qur'an and Sunnah" the "supreme law" but the bill is defeated in the Senate.
August 28, 1998	Second Congo War: Loyalist troops backed by Angolan and Zimbabwean forces repulse the RCD and Rwandan offensive on Kinshasa.
August 29, 1998	Eighty people are killed when Cubana de Aviación Flight 389 crashes during a rejected takeoff from the Old Mariscal Sucre International Airport in Quito, Ecuador.
August 30, 1998	Second Congo War: Armed forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and their Angolan and Zimbabwean allies recapture Matadi and the Inga dams in the western DRC from RCD and Rwandan troops.
September 2, 1998	Swissair Flight 111 crashes near Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia; all 229 people onboard are killed.
September 2, 1998	The UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda finds Jean-Paul Akayesu, the former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, guilty of nine counts of genocide.
September 4, 1998	Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University.
September 14, 1998	Telecommunications companies MCI Communications and WorldCom complete their $37 billion merger to form MCI WorldCom.
September 25, 1998	PauknAir Flight 4101, a British Aerospace 146, crashes near Melilla Airport in Melilla, Spain, killing 38 people.
September 27, 1998	The Google internet search engine retroactively claims this date as its birthday.
October 7, 1998	Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, is found tied to a fence after being savagely beaten by two young adults in Laramie, Wyoming. He dies five days later.
October 10, 1998	A Lignes Aériennes Congolaises jetliner is shot down by rebels in Kindu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing 41 people.
October 12, 1998	Matthew Shepard, a gay student at University of Wyoming, dies five days after he was beaten outside of Laramie.
October 14, 1998	Eric Rudolph is charged with six bombings, including the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, Georgia.
October 16, 1998	Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is arrested in London on a murder extradition warrant.
October 23, 1998	Israel and the Palestinian Authority sign the Wye River Memorandum.
October 24, 1998	Deep Space 1 is launched to explore the asteroid belt and test new spacecraft technologies.
October 29, 1998	In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities.
October 29, 1998	Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off on STS-95 with 77-year-old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space at that time.
October 29, 1998	ATSC HDTV broadcasting in the United States is inaugurated with the launch of the STS-95 space shuttle mission.
October 29, 1998	While en route from Adana to Ankara, a Turkish Airlines flight with a crew of six and 33 passengers is hijacked by a Kurdish militant who orders the pilot to fly to Switzerland. The plane instead lands in Ankara after the pilot tricked the hijacker into thinking that he is landing in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia to refuel.
October 29, 1998	Hurricane Mitch, the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history, makes landfall in Honduras.
October 29, 1998	The Gothenburg discothèque fire in Sweden kills 63 and injures 200.
October 31, 1998	Iraq disarmament crisis begins: Iraq announces it would no longer cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors.
November 9, 1998	A U.S. federal judge, in the largest civil settlement in American history, orders 37 U.S. brokerage houses to pay US$1.03 billion to cheated NASDAQ investors to compensate for price fixing.
November 9, 1998	Capital punishment in the United Kingdom, already abolished for murder, is completely abolished for all remaining capital offences.
November 19, 1998	Clinton–Lewinsky scandal: The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee begins impeachment hearings against U.S. President Bill Clinton.
November 20, 1998	A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declares accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in regard to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
November 20, 1998	The first space station module component, Zarya, for the International Space Station is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
November 21, 1998	Finnish satanist Jarno Elg kills a 23-year-old man and performs a ritual-like cutting and eating of body parts in Hyvinkää, Finland.
November 26, 1998	Tony Blair becomes the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to address the Oireachtas, the parliament of the Republic of Ireland.
November 26, 1998	The Khanna rail disaster takes 212 lives in Khanna, Ludhiana, India.
December 4, 1998	The Unity Module, the second module of the International Space Station, is launched.
December 6, 1998	in Venezuela, Hugo Chávez is victorious in presidential elections.
December 8, 1998	Eighty-one people are killed by armed groups in Algeria.
December 11, 1998	Thai Airways Flight 261 crashes near Surat Thani Airport, killing 101. The pilot flying the Airbus A310-200 is thought to have suffered spatial disorientation.
December 14, 1998	Yugoslav Wars: The Yugoslav Army ambushes a group of Kosovo Liberation Army fighters attempting to smuggle weapons from Albania into Kosovo, killing 36.
December 19, 1998	President Bill Clinton is impeached by the United States House of Representatives, becoming the second President of the United States to be impeached.
December 26, 1998	Iraq announces its intention to fire upon U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the northern and southern no-fly zones.
December 29, 1998	Leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologize for the Cambodian genocide that claimed over one million lives.
December 31, 1998	The European Exchange Rate Mechanism freezes the values of the legacy currencies in the Eurozone, and establishes the value of the euro currency.