1998: Difference between revisions

1998 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar	1998; MCMXCVIII
Ab urbe condita	2751
Armenian calendar	1447; ԹՎ ՌՆԽԷ
Assyrian calendar	6748
Baháʼí calendar	154–155
Balinese saka calendar	1919–1920
Bengali calendar	1405
Berber calendar	2948
British Regnal year	46 Eliz. 2 – 47 Eliz. 2
Buddhist calendar	2542
Burmese calendar	1360
Byzantine calendar	7506–7507
Chinese calendar	丁丑年 (Fire Ox); 4695 or 4488; — to —; 戊寅年 (Earth Tiger); 4696 or 4489
Coptic calendar	1714–1715
Discordian calendar	3164
Ethiopian calendar	1990–1991
Hebrew calendar	5758–5759
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	2054–2055
- Shaka Samvat	1919–1920
- Kali Yuga	5098–5099
Holocene calendar	11998
Igbo calendar	998–999
Iranian calendar	1376–1377
Islamic calendar	1418–1419
Japanese calendar	Heisei 10; (平成１０年)
Javanese calendar	1930–1931
Juche calendar	87
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4331
Minguo calendar	ROC 87; 民國87年
Nanakshahi calendar	530
Thai solar calendar	2541
Tibetan calendar	阴火牛年; (female Fire-Ox); 2124 or 1743 or 971; — to —; 阳土虎年; (male Earth-Tiger); 2125 or 1744 or 972
Unix time	883612800 – 915148799

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century; 20th century ; 21st century;
Decades:	1970s; 1980s; 1990s ; 2000s; 2010s;
Years:	1995; 1996; 1997; 1998 ; 1999; 2000; 2001;

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Template:C20YearInTopicX 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year that started on a Thursday. In the Gregorian calendar, it was the 1998th year of the Common Era, or of Anno Domini; the 998th year of the 2nd millennium; the 98th year of the 20th century; and the 9th of the 1990s. Template:C20YearTOCawards

The year 1998 was designated: International Year of the Ocean by UNESCO.^[1]

Events

January

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Coated in ice, power and telephone lines sag and often break, resulting in power outages.

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 4 – Wilaya of Relizane massacres of 4 January 1998 in Algeria: Over 170 are killed in 3 remote villages.
January 4 – January 10 – A massive winter storm, partly caused by El Niño, strikes New England, southern Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick, resulting in widespread power failures, severe damage to forests, and numerous deaths.
January 6 – The Lunar Prospector spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently shadowed craters near the Moon's poles.
January 8 – Ramzi Yousef is sentenced to life in prison for planning the first World Trade Center bombing.
January 8 – Cosmologists announce that the universe's expansion rate is increasing.
January 11 – Over 100 people are killed in the Sidi-Hamed massacre in Algeria.
January 12 – Nineteen European nations agree to forbid human cloning.
January 14 – Researchers in Dallas, Texas present findings about an enzyme that slows aging and cell death (apoptosis).
January 17 – Paula Jones accuses U.S. President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment.
January 20 – Nepalese police intercept a shipment of 272 human Skulls in Kathmandu.
January 22 – Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski pleads guilty, and accepts a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
January 25 – The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suicide attack Sri Lanka's Temple of the Tooth, killing 8 people, injuring 25 others.
January 26 – Lewinsky scandal: On American television, President Bill Clinton denies he had "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
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.

February

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February – Iraq disarmament crisis: The United States Senate passes Resolution 71, urging U.S. President Bill Clinton to "take all necessary and appropriate actions to respond to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs."
February 2 – The Standard & Poor's 500 index closes above 1,000 for the first time, rising 20.99 points, or 2.14%, closing at 1,001.27.
February 3 – Cavalese cable-car disaster: a United States Military pilot causes the deaths of 20 people near Trento, Italy, when his low-flying plane severs the cable of a cable-car.
February 4 – An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale in northeast Afghanistan kills more than 5,000 people.
February 6 – The French prefect Claude Erignac is assassinated in the streets of Ajaccio, Corse.
February 7–22 – The 1998 Winter Olympics are held in Nagano, Japan.
February 9 – Eduard Shevardnadze, the Georgian head of state, survives an assassination attempt in Tbilisi.
February 10 – Voters in Maine repeal a gay rights law passed in 1997, becoming the first U.S. state to abandon such a law.
February 10 – The first XML specification is released.^[2]
February 15 – Dale Earnhardt wins the Daytona 500 on his 20th attempt.
February 16 – China Airlines Flight 676 crashes into a residential area near Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, killing 202 people (all 196 on board and 6 on the ground).
February 18 – Two white separatists are arrested in Nevada, accused of plotting biological warfare on New York City subways.
February 19 – 1998 Auckland power crisis: A 66-day blackout begins in Auckland, New Zealand.
February 19 – Larry Wayne Harris of the Aryan Nations and William Leavitt are arrested in Henderson, New York, for possession of military grade anthrax.
February 20 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein negotiates a deal with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, allowing weapons inspectors to return to Baghdad, preventing military action by the United States and Britain.
February 22 – One third of the Tower block "Palace II" collapses in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.^[3]
February 23 – Florida El Niño Outbreak: Tornadoes in central Florida destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42.
February 23 – Osama bin Laden publishes a fatwa, declaring jihad against all Jews and Crusaders.
February 24 – A man tries to hijack a Turkish Airlines passenger plane, claiming that he has a bomb in his teddy bear; passengers disapprove and apprehend him.
February 28 – Serbian police begin to wipe out terrorist gangs in Kosovo.

March

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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 – Natascha Kampusch is abducted by Wolfgang Priklopil (she will remain in his captivity until August 2006).
March 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.
March 5 – NASA announces that the Clementine probe orbiting the Moon has found enough water in polar craters to support a human colony and rocket fueling station.
March 5 – NASA announces the choice of United States Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins as commander of a future Space Shuttle Columbia mission to launch an X-ray telescope, making Collins the first woman to command a space shuttle mission.
March 10 – United States troops stationed in the Persian Gulf begin to receive the first anthrax vaccine.
March 11 – Danish parliamentary election, 1998: Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen is unexpectedly re-elected.
March 14 – An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale hits southeastern Iran.
March 23 – The 70th Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal, are held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California with the film Titanic winning a record 11 Oscars.
March 24 – Jonesboro massacre: 2 young boys (aged 11 and 13 years) fire upon students at Westside Middle School while hidden in woodlands near the school. 4 students and 1 teacher are killed, and 10 are injured.
March 26 – Oued Bouaicha massacre in Algeria: 52 people are killed with axes and knives, 32 of them babies under the age of 2.
March 27 – The Food and Drug Administration approves Viagra for use as a treatment for male impotence, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States.

April

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April 1 – Ukrainian serial killer Anatoly Onoprienko is sentenced to death for 52 murders.
April 1 – The MS Elation sets sail.
April 5 – In Japan, the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshū and costing about US$3.8 billion, opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.
April 6 – Pakistan tests medium-range missiles capable of hitting India.
April 7 – Citicorp and Travelers Group announce plans to merge, creating the largest financial-services conglomerate in the world, Citigroup.
April 8 – Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM reports to the UN Security Council that Iraq's declaration on its biological weapons program is incomplete and inadequate.
April 8 – April 1998 Birmingham tornado: An F5 tornado strikes the western portion of the Birmingham, Alabama area, killing 32 people.
April 10 – Good Friday: 18 hours after the end of the talks deadline, the Belfast Agreement is signed between the Irish and British governments and most Northern Ireland political parties, with the notable exception of the Democratic Unionist Party.
April 16 – An F3 tornado passes through downtown Nashville, Tennessee, the first significant tornado in 11 years to directly hit a major city. An F5 tornado travels through rural portions south of Nashville (see 1998 Nashville tornado outbreak).
April 22 – The Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park at Walt Disney World opens to the public for the first time.
April 25 – A waste reservoir at the Los Frailes mine in Andalusia, Spain ruptures, discharging heavy metal waste into the Guadiamar River. The pollution threatens the sensitive ecosystem and endangered species of Doñana National Park, Spain's largest nature reserve, but is diverted into the Guadalquivir River. Up to 100 km² of farmland are ruined by the spill. [1]

May

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May 1 – The Socialist Party of Malaysia is founded.
May 9 – Dana International, a transsexual singer from Israel, wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1998 in Birmingham, UK.
May 11 – India conducts 3 underground nuclear tests in Pokhran, including 1 thermonuclear device.
May 11 – The first euro coins are minted in Pessac, France. Because the final specifications for the coins were not finished in 1998, they will have to be melted and minted again in 1999.
May 13 – India carries out 2 more nuclear tests at Pokhran. The United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on India.
May 13–14 – Riots directed against Chinese Indonesians break out in Indonesia. Indonesian natives destroy and burn Chinese Indonesian-owned properties and kill and rape more than 1,000 Chinese Indonesians.
May 15 – Iraq disarmament crisis: UNSCOM learns that an Iraqi delegation has travelled to Bucharest, to meet with scientists who can provide the country with missile guidance systems.
May 18 – United States v. Microsoft: The United States Department of Justice and 20 U.S. states file an antitrust case against Microsoft.
May 19 – The Galaxy IV communications satellite fails, leaving 80–90% of the world's pagers without service.
May 21 – Suharto resigns, after 32 years as President of Indonesia and his 7th consecutive re-election by the Indonesian Parliament (MPR). Suharto's hand-picked Vice President, B. J. Habibie, becomes Indonesia's third president.
May 21 – September 30 – Expo '98 is held in Lisbon, Portugal, with the title "Oceans, an Heritage for the Future". UNESCO had previously declared 1998 to be the International Year of the Oceans due to the Expo, which 12 million people attend.
May 22 – Murray Gleeson is appointed Chief Justice of Australia, succeeding Sir Gerard Brennan.
May 26 – Bear Grylls, 23, becomes the youngest British climber to scale Mount Everest.^[4]
May 27 – Oklahoma City bombing: Michael Fortier is sentenced to 14 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.
May 28 – Nuclear testing: In response to a series of Indian nuclear tests, Pakistan explodes 5 nuclear devices of its own in the Chaghai hills of Baluchistan, prompting the United States, Japan and other nations to impose economic sanctions.
May 30 – Nuclear testing: Pakistan conducts 1 more nuclear explosion following its first test.
May 30 – A 6.6 magnitude earthquake hits northern Afghanistan, killing up to 5,000.

June

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June 2 – The CIH virus is discovered in Taiwan.
June 2 – California voters approve Proposition 227, abolishing the state's bilingual education program.
June 3 – Eschede train disaster: An InterCityExpress high speed train derails between Hannover and Hamburg, Germany, causing 101 deaths.
June 4 – Terry Nichols is sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.
June 5 – A strike begins at the General Motors Corporation parts factory in Flint, Michigan, quickly spreading to 5 other assembly plants and lasting 7 weeks.
June 7 – Former Brigadier-General Ansumane Mané seizes control over military barracks in Bissau, marking the beginning of the Guinea-Bissau Civil War (1998–1999).
June 8 – Actor Charlton Heston becomes president of the National Rifle Association.
June 25 – Clinton v. City of New York: The United States Supreme Court rules that the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 is unconstitutional.
June 25 – Microsoft releases Windows 98 (First Edition).
June 30 – Philippine Vice President Joseph Estrada was sworn in as the 13th President of The Philippines.

July

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July – The Yangtze River experiences massive flooding as the government of the People's Republic of China sends in the Army for flood relief efforts.
July 5 – Japan launches a probe to Mars, joining the United States and Russia as an outer space-exploring nation.
July 6 – The new Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok opens, while the historic Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport closes.
July 10 – The DNA-identified remains of United States Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie arrive home to his family in St. Louis, Missouri, after being in the Tomb of the Unknowns since 1984.
July 10 – Catholic priests' sex abuse scandal: The Diocese of Dallas agrees to pay $23.4 million to 9 former altar boys who claimed they were sexually abused by former priest Rudolph Kos.
July 17 – At a conference in Rome, 120 countries vote to create a permanent International Criminal Court to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
July 17 – In Saint Petersburg, Nicholas II of Russia and his family are buried in St. Catherine Chapel, 80 years after he and his family were killed by Bolsheviks.
July 17 – A tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake destroys 10 villages in Papua New Guinea, killing an estimated 1,500, leaving 2,000 more unaccounted for and thousands more homeless.
July 17 – Biologists report in the journal Science how they sequenced the genome of the bacterium that causes syphilis, Treponema pallidum.
July 24 – Russell Eugene Weston Jr. bursts into the United States Capitol and opens fire, killing 2 police officers. He is later ruled incompetent to stand trial.
July 25 – The United States Navy commissions the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and puts her into service.
July 25 – Wakayama Arsenic poison case: 63 are sickened and 4 killed by arsenic in a festival in the town in Wakayama Prefecture in Japan; Masumi Hayashi is arrested for murder.
July 28 – Monica Lewinsky scandal: Ex-White House intern Monica Lewinsky receives transactional immunity, in exchange for her grand jury testimony concerning her relationship with U.S. President Bill Clinton.
July 31 – The United Kingdom bans the importation of land mines.

August

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August 5 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq officially suspends all cooperation with UNSCOM teams.
August 7 – Yangtze River Floods: In China the Yangtze River breaks through the main bank; before this, from August 1–5, periphery levees collapsed consecutively in Jiayu County Baizhou Bay. The death toll exceeds 12,000, with many thousands more injured.
August 7 – 1998 U.S. embassy bombings: The bombings of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya kill 224 people and injure over 4,500; they are linked to terrorist Osama Bin Laden, an exile of Saudi Arabia.
August 15 – Omagh bombing: The Real IRA detonates a car bomb in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, killing 29 and injuring over 200 (the greatest loss of life in a single incident of The Troubles).
August 16 – Silk-Miller police murders: Australian police officers are murdered in Moorabbin, Victoria.
August 19 – Monica Lewinsky scandal: On the day of his 52nd birthday, U.S. President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. He also admits before the nation that night in a nationally televised address that he "misled people" about his sexual affair with Lewinsky.
August 19 – 1998 Russian financial crisis: Russia defaults on the state short-term bonds, and devalues the ruble. The ruble loses 70% of its value against U.S. dollar in the next 6 months. Several of the largest Russians banks collapse, and millions of people lose their savings.
August 20 – The Supreme Court of Canada rules Quebec cannot legally secede from Canada without the federal government's approval.
August 20 – 1998 U.S. embassy bombings: The United States military launches cruise missile attacks against alleged Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum is destroyed in the attack.
August 24 – The first RFID human implantation is tested in the United Kingdom.
August 26 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Scott Ritter resigns from UNSCOM, sharply criticizing the Clinton administration and the U.N. Security Council for not being vigorous enough about insisting that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction be destroyed. Ritter tells reporters that "Iraq is not disarming," "Iraq retains the capability to launch a chemical strike."
August 31 – North Korea reportedly launches Kwangmyongsong, their first satellite. Although North Korea reports that it reached stable orbit, NORAD has never been able to confirm this assertion.

September

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Canadian Coast Guard Vessel Henry Hudson searches for Swissair Flight 111 debris

September 2 – A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 airliner (Swissair Flight 111) crashes near Peggys Cove, Nova Scotia, after taking off from New York City en-route to Geneva; all 229 people on board are killed.
September 2 – A United Nations court finds Jean-Paul Akayesu, the former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, guilty of 9 counts of genocide, marking the first time that the 1948 law banning genocide is enforced.
September 3 – In Somalia, the southern port of Kismayo is declared the capital of independent Jubaland under Muhamed Said Hersi.
September 4 – Google, Inc. is founded in Menlo Park, California, by Stanford University Ph.D. candidates Larry Page and Sergey Brin.^[5]
September 9 – The United Nations General Assembly elects Didier Opertiri of Uruguay as president for its 53rd session.
September 14 – The GSPC is formed in Algeria, splitting off from the GIA over its policy of massacring civilians.
September 15 – Telecommunications companies MCI Communications and WorldCom complete their $37 billion merger to form MCI WorldCom.
September 25–28 – Major creditors of Long-Term Capital Management, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based hedge fund, after days of tough bargaining and some informal mediation by Federal Reserve officials, agree on terms of a re-capitalization.
September 27 – In Germany, SPD's Gerhard Schröder defeats 4-term CDU Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
September 29 – Iraq disarmament crisis: The U.S. Congress passes the "Iraq Liberation Act", which states that the United States wants to remove Saddam Hussein from power and replace the government with a democratic institution.

October

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October 1 – Sky Digital Satellite Television launches in the UK.
October 3 – In Australia, John Howard's coalition government is re-elected for a second term.
October 6 – College student Matthew Shepard is beaten and tied to a fence near Laramie, Wyoming. He dies October 12, becoming a symbol of gay-bashing victims and sparking public reflection on homophobia in the U.S.
October 7 – Oslo's Fornebu Airport closes.
October 7 – The United States Congress passes the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, which gives copyright holders 20 more years of copyright privilege on work they control. This effectively freezes the public domain to works created before 1923 in the United States.
October 8 – Oslo Airport (Gardermoen) opens.
October 8 – Japan and South Korea sign "A New Japan-Republic of Korea Partnership towards the Twenty-first Century".
October 12 – The Congress of the United States passes the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
October 14 – Eric Robert Rudolph is charged with 6 bombings (including the 1996 Olympic bombing) in Atlanta, Georgia.
October 15 – American Airlines becomes the first airline to offer electronic ticketing in all 44 countries it serves.
October 16 – British police place General Augusto Pinochet under house arrest during his medical treatment in the UK.
October 17 – A pipeline explosion in Jesse, Nigeria results in 1,082 deaths.
October 27 – Germany: New Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his liberal SPD–Green coalition takes office.
October 28 – An Air China jetliner is hijacked by disgruntled pilot Yuan Bin and flown to Taiwan. After landing the plane safely, Yuan Bin is arrested.
October 29 – Apartheid: In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities.
October 29 – STS-95: The Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off with 77-year-old John Glenn on board, making him the 2nd oldest person to go into space. (He became the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962).
October 29 – While en route from Adana to Ankara, a Turkish Airlines flight with a crew of 6 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 tricks the hijacker into thinking that he was landing in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia to refuel.
October 29 – Hurricane Mitch makes landfall in Central America, killing an estimated 18,000 people.
October 29 – In Gothenburg, Sweden, 2 arsonists burn down a local Macedonian Society disco, killing 63 and injuring 200, most of them children of refugees.
October 31 – Iraq disarmament crisis begins: Iraq announces it will no longer cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors.

November

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November 1 – The European Court of Human Rights is instituted.
November 3 – Jesse Ventura, former professional wrestler, is elected Governor of Minnesota.
November 3 – Edmonton, Canada and Wonju, South Korea are declared as sister cities.
November 5 – Lewinsky scandal: As part of the impeachment inquiry, House Judiciary Committee chairman Henry Hyde sends a list of 81 questions to U.S. President Bill Clinton.
November 5 – The journal Nature publishes a genetic study showing compelling evidence that Thomas Jefferson fathered his slave Sally Hemings' son Eston Hemings Jefferson.
November 5 – Myra Hindley loses her second appeal in 11 months against her whole life tariff.
November 7 – John Glenn returns to Earth aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery.
November 9 – In the largest civil settlement in United States history, a federal judge approves a US$1.03 billion settlement requiring dozens of brokerage houses (including Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and Salomon Smith Barney) to pay investors who claim they were cheated in a widespread price-fixing scheme on the NASDAQ.
November 9 – The United Kingdom formally abolishes the death penalty.
November 12 – Daimler-Benz completes a merger with Chrysler Corporation to form Daimler-Chrysler.
November 13 – Theglobe.com goes public, opening up 1000% and setting a stock market record for highest rising IPO in history. This became one of the first and most widely publicized IPOs of the internet boom.
November 13–14 – Iraq disarmament crisis: U.S. President Bill Clinton orders airstrikes on Iraq, then calls them off at the last minute when Iraq promises once again to "unconditionally" cooperate with UNSCOM.
November 19 – Lewinsky scandal: The United State House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee begins impeachment hearings against U.S. President Bill Clinton.
November 20 – 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 – Galina Starovoitova, Russian legislator and democracy advocate, is assassinated in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
November 20 – At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the first component for the International Space Station (Zarya, or sunrise,) is launched.
November 23–26 – Iraq disarmament crisis: According to UNSCOM, Iraq once again ends cooperation with the United Nations inspectors, alternately intimidating and withholding information from them.
November 24 – America Online announces it will acquire Netscape Communications in a stock-for-stock transaction worth US$4.2 billion.
November 26 – Tony Blair becomes the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to address the Dáil Éireann, the Republic of Ireland's parliament.
November 26 – Japan and China sign the Japan-China Joint Declaration On Building a Partnership of Friendship and Cooperation for Peace and Development.
November 30 – Deutsche Bank announces a US$10 billion deal to buy Bankers Trust, thus creating the largest financial institution in the world.

December

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December – Grade school children in Aurora, Colorado, collect $35,000 to purchase and free slave children in Sudan.
December 1 – Exxon announces a US$73.7 billion deal to buy Mobil, thus creating Exxon-Mobil, the second-largest company on the planet by revenue.
December 5 – D.C. United defeats Vasco da Gama 2–1 on aggregate to win the Interamerican Cup (one of the greatest triumphs in the history of U.S. club soccer).
December 6 – Hugo Chávez Frías, former member of the Venezuelan military and politician, is elected President of Venezuela.
December 8 – Tadjena massacre in Algeria: 81 villagers are killed.
December 11 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq announces that United Nations weapons inspections will no longer take place on Friday, the Muslim day of rest. Iraq also refuses to provide test data from the production of missiles and engines.
December 16–19 – Iraq disarmament crisis: U.S. President Bill Clinton orders and airstrikes on Iraq. UNSCOM withdraws all weapons inspectors from Iraq.
December 17 – Claudia Benton, of West University Place, Texas, is murdered in her house by Angel Maturino Resendiz (his third victim in his third incident).
December 19 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan announces that Iraq will no longer cooperate and declares that UNSCOM's "mission is over."
December 19 – Lewinsky scandal: Bill Clinton is impeached by the United States House of Representatives. (He was later acquitted of any wrongdoing.)
December 21 – Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council members France, Germany and Russia call for sanctions to end against Iraq. The 3 Security Council members also call for UNSCOM to either be disbanded or for its role to be recast. The U.S. says it will veto any such proposal.
December 26 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq announces its intention to fire upon U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the northern and southern "no-fly zones".
December 26 – Six sailors die and 5 yachts are lost in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, the biggest disaster in the race's history
December 29 – Khmer Rouge leaders apologize for the genocide in Cambodia that claimed over 1 million in the 1970s.
December 31 – The first leap second since June 30, 1997 occurs. In the eurozone, the currency rates of this day are fixed permanently.

Undated

The fourth generation of VW's Passat automobile goes on sale in North America.
Ibrahim Hanna, the last native speaker of Mlahsô, dies in Qamishli, Syria, making the language effectively extinct. In that same year, the last native speaker of related Bijil Neo-Aramaic dies in Jerusalem.
Karolyn Nunnallee, whose daughter died 10 years earlier in the Carrollton bus collision, is elected president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Fictional

The following are references to year 1998 in fiction:

Comics:

Set in 1998: V for Vendetta (1982–1988)

Computer/video games:
Set in 1998:

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (2005):
Resident Evil 0 July 23 to early July 24
Resident Evil (1996), on July 24
Resident Evil (film adaptation) (2002) on July 23 to July 24.
Resident Evil 2 (1998), from the night of September 29 to early September 30
Resident Evil 3 (1999), on September 28, then on October 1
Snake's Revenge (1992)
Max Payne 2 (2003)
The House Of The Dead The Curien Case on December 18
CarnEvil: The rising of the Carnival of Evil.

Film:

Back to the Future Part II (1989): Marty McFly, Jr. is born.
Child's Play 3 (1991):
Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) from September 30 to October 1
Max Payne (2008):
Fanboys (2009):

Literature

The Beast-Jewel of Mars by Leigh Brackett (1948)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone

Television:

Defenders of the Earth (1986): Jedda Walker is born.

Births

January 1 – Marlene Lawston, American actress
January 12 – Nathan Gamble, American actor
February 25 – Brendon Baerg, American actor
April 9 – Elle Fanning, American actress
April 15 – Sharlene san Pedro, Filipino actress
April 24 – Ryan Newman, American actress
July 8 – Jaden Smith, American actor
July 17 – Felipe Juan Froilán de Marichalar y de Borbón, grandson of Juan Carlos I of Spain
July 18 – Nixzmary Brown, American child abuse victim (d. 2006)
July 22 – Madison Pettis, American actress
July 24 – Bindi Irwin, daughter of wildlife icon Steve Irwin
August 19 – Ella Guevara, Filipino actress
September 21 – Brino quadruplets, American actor/actresses
October 6 – Mia-Sophie Wellenbrink, German actress and singer
October 18 – Julia Wróblewska, Polish actress
November 4 – Darcy Rose Byrnes, American actress