- January 14
- Health Canada announces non-approval of rBST (bovine growth hormone) for sale in Canada. [719.162]
- January 20
- The China News Service announces new government restrictions on Internet use aimed especially at Internet cafes. [20]
- January 21
- In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 9,500 pounds (4.3 t) of cocaine aboard, headed for Houston, Texas. [20]
- January 25
- In Colombia, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake occurs. At least 1,185 people killed, over 4,750 injured and about 250,000 homeless. 50-60 percent of buildings destroyed in Armenia, Calarca, and Pereira. [20] [53]
- February 7
- King Hussein of Jordan dies from cancer (born 1935), and his son Abdullah II inherits the throne. [20] [626.221]
- February 10
- Avalanches in the French Alps near Geneva kill at least 10. [20]
- February 11
- Square releases the Final Fantasy VIII video game for the PlayStation in Japan. Opening day sales: 2.21 million copies for 17.2 billion yen (about US$145 million). Total worldwide sales over its lifetime: 7.4 million. [9]
- In Afghanistan, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake occurs. Seventy people killed, 500 injured, at least 14,000 homeless and 7,000 houses destroyed. [53]
- February 16
- In Uzbekistan, an apparent assassination attempt against President Islom Karimov takes place at government headquarters. [20]
- Across Europe, Kurdish rebels take over embassies and hold hostages after Turkey arrests one of their rebel leaders. [20]
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- February 22
- Moderate Iraqi Shiite cleric Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr is assassinated. [20]
- February 23
- Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey. [20]
- An avalanche destroys the village of Galtür, Austria, killing 31. [20]
- February 26
- Intel announces the 500 MHz Pentium III processor. The processor introduces 70 new Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE). [4]
- February 27
- While trying to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon, Colin Prescot and Andy Elson set a new endurance record after being in a hot air balloon for 233 hours and 55 minutes. [20]
- March 1
- One of four bombs detonated in Lusaka, Zambia, destroys the Angolan Embassy. [20]
- Rwandan Hutu rebels kill and hack to pieces eight foreign tourists at the Buhoma homestead, Uganda. [20]
- The Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines comes into force. [20]
- March 3
- Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones begin their attempt to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon without stopping. [20]
- March 4
- In a military court, United States Marine Corps Captain Richard Ashby is acquitted of the charge of reckless flying which resulted in the deaths of 20 skiers in the Italian Alps, when his low-flying jet hit a gondola cable. [20]
- March 11
- Infosys becomes the first Indian company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange. [5]
- March 12
- Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic join NATO. [20]
- March 15
- In Brussels, Belgium, the Santer Commission resigns over allegations of corruption. [20]
- March 16
- Sony Online Entertainment releases the EverQuest game for personal computers in the USA. [4]
- March 17
- In Germany, the Krupp and Thyssen Companies (steel) complete their merger. [37]
- March 20
- Serbs launch an offensive in Kosovo. [20]
- March 21
- Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon. [5] [20]
- March 23
- Gunmen assassinate Paraguay's Vice President Luis María Argaña. [20]
- March 24
- NATO launches air strikes against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which refused to sign a peace treaty. This marks the first time NATO attacked a sovereign country. [20]
- Fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel kills 39 people, closing the tunnel for nearly three years. [20]
- March 26
- A Michigan jury finds Dr. Jack Kevorkian guilty of second-degree murder for administering a lethal injection to a terminally ill man. [5] [20]
- The computer virus "Melissa" attacks about 250,000 PCs worldwide in about three days, using Microsoft Outlook to mail the virus to email addresses in the address book. This is the first virus capable of jumping from computer to computer on its own. [4]
- March 27
- Kosovo War: A U.S. F-117 Nighthawk is shot down by Serbian forces. [20]
- March 29
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 10,000 (10,006.78) for the first time. [20] [227]
- In the Xizang-India border region, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake occurs. At least 100 people killed and 394 injured, over 21,100 houses destroyed. [53]
- April 1
- Nunavut, an Inuit homeland, is created from the eastern portion of the Northwest Territories to become Canada's third territory. [20] [961.23]
- April 5
- Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 are handed over to Scottish authorities for eventual trial in the Netherlands. The United Nations suspends sanctions against Libya. [20]
- April 7
- Kosovo's main border crossings are closed by Serbian forces to prevent ethnic Albanians from leaving. [20]
- A bomb explodes at the Valley of the Fallen Church in Spain; GRAPO claims responsibility. [20]
- April 8
- In China, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake occurs. Also felt in southern Hokkaido, northern Honshu and at Tokyo, Japan. [53]
- April 9
- Ibrahim Baré Maînassara, president of Niger, is assassinated. [20]
- April 14
- The official move of the German federal government begins as the first trucks with documents from the ministries of the interior and economics leave Bonn on the way to the new seat of government in Berlin. [37]
- April
- Unilever, Nestle, and Cadbury announce they are phasing out genetically-modified products globally because of customer resistance. [719.xi]
- April 17
- A nail bomb explodes in the middle of a busy market in Brixton, South London. [20]
- April 19
- The US Navy kills a civilian guard in the Naval Base at Vieques, an island east of Puerto Rico which the Navy has used since 1943. The death of the civilian officer sparks off a civil disobedience campaign throughout the island of Puerto Rico to protest the presence of the Navy on the island. [20]
- April 20
- Two Littleton, Colorado teenagers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, open fire on their Columbine High School teachers and classmates, killing 12 students and one teacher, and then themselves. [1] [20]
- April 25
- The term of Tuanku Jaafar ibni Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman as the 10th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia ends. [20]
- April 26
- Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah Al-Haj, Sultan of Selangor, becomes the 11th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia. [20]
- April 30
- Cambodia joins the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), bringing the total members to ten. [20]
- A third nail bomb explodes in the Admiral Duncan pub in Old Compton Street, Soho, London, killing a pregnant woman and two friends and injuring 70 others, including the woman's husband. This is part of a hate campaign against ethnic minorities and gay people by David Copeland. [20]
- May 3
- A Force 5 tornado slams into Moore, Oklahoma, killing 38 people - the second strongest tornado ever recorded in United States history. [20]
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 11,000 (11,014.70) for the first time. [20] [227]
- May 6
- Elections are held in Scotland and Wales for the new Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales. [20]
- In Southern Iran, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake occurs. At least 26 people killed, 100 injured and 800 houses destroyed. [53]
- May 7
- In the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, three Chinese embassy workers are killed and 20 wounded, when a NATO aircraft mistakenly bombs the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. [20]
- In Guinea-Bissau, President João Bernardo Vieira is ousted in a military coup. [20]
- May 8
- Nancy Mace becomes the first female cadet to graduate from The Military College of South Carolina. [5] [20]
- May 10
- Death of Shel Silverstein of a heart attack at age 68 at home in Key West, Florida, USA; children's author and illustrator (The Giving Tree (1964), Where the Sidewalk Ends (1974), A Light in the Attic (1981), Falling Up (1996)). [20] [1462.25]
- May 12
- David Steel becomes the first Presiding Officer (Speaker) of the modern Scottish Parliament. [20]
- May 13
- Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is elected President of Italy. [20]
- May 17
- Ehud Barak is elected prime minister of Israel. [20]
- May 19
- Fox releases the film Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace to theaters. (Total world gross ticket sales: $1.0 billion (1st for 1999).) [936]
- May 23
- In Germany, Johannes Rau is elected Bundespräsident. [37]
- May 26
- The Indian Air Force launches an attack on intruding Pakistan Army troops and mujahadeen militants in Kashmir. [20]
- The first Welsh Assembly in over 600 years opens in Cardiff. [20]
- May 27
- The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan MiloÜevic and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo. [20]
- May 28
- Swedish police officers Robert Karlström and Olov Borén are wounded by three bank robbers armed with automatic weapons and later executed with their own service pistols by shots in the head from close distance on the scene in Malexander. [20]
- After 22 years of restoration work, Leonardo de Vinci's painting The Last Supper is placed back on display in Milan, Italy. [20]
- May 29
- Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station. [5]
- Cathy O'Dowd, a South African mountaineer, conquers the summit of Mount Everest from both the north and south sides. [20]
- Nigeria terminates military rule, and the Nigerian Fourth Republic is established with Olusegun Obasanjo as president. [20]
- June 1
- The Napster peer-to-peer file-sharing network debuts. [20]
- June 2
- After decades of fighting off outside technological influences like television, the King of Bhutan allows television transmissions to commence in the Kingdom for the first time, coinciding with the King's Silver Jubilee. [20]
- June 5
- The Islamic Salvation Army, the armed wing of the Islamic Salvation Front, agrees in principle to disband in Algeria. [20]
- June 6
- In Brazil, 345 prisoners escape from Putim prison through the front gate. [20]
- June 8
- The government of Colombia announces it will include the estimated value of the country's illegal drug crops, exceeding half a billion US dollars, in its gross national product. [20]
- June 9
- The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and NATO sign a peace treaty. [20]
- June 10
- NATO suspends its air strikes after Slobodan MiloÜevic agrees to withdraw Serbian forces from Kosovo. [20]
- June 12
- Operation Joint Guardian begins - NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping forces KFOR enter the province of Kosovo in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. [20]
- June 15
- IBM releases the 37.5 GB Deskstar 37GP hard drive, the world's largest personal computer hard drive. It features 5400-rpm motor, five platters, 2 MB cache buffer, ATA-4 interface. Price is US$350. [4]
- In Central Mexico, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake occurs. 20 people killed, about 275 injured and considerable damage to thousands of buildings and several bridges. [53]
- June 16
- Ira & Larry Goldberg Coins & Collectibles auctions a US 1907 Saint-Gaudens, Ultra-High Relief, Roman Numerals gold double eagle, PR-67 PCGS, for $1.21 million to Tangible Asset Galleries, the first $1 million coin at auction. [525.79]
- June 18
- The Second Global Street Party is held around world including Bangladesh, USA, Uruguay, Spain, Germany, England (10,000 in London), Switzerland, Nigeria (10,000 in Port Harcourt). [20] [287.444]
- June 24
- Eric Clapton sells his "Brownie" 1956 sunburst Fender guitar, upon which he recorded "Layla", for a record price US$497,500. [457]
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