1999
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
- For the album by Prince, see 1999 (album)
This is a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar)
International Year of Older Persons
See also:
Events
- Teletubbies Tinky Winky is outed starting controversy for the BBC, PBS and Jerry Falwell.
- Kosovo War
- Former child star Gary Coleman files for bankruptcy
- Y2K preparation was a major event in 1999 both in actual events and in media over-reporting.
January
- January 1 - Euro currency introduced.
- January 1 - An avalanche destroys a school gymnasium during New Years' celebrations in Kangiqsualujjuaq in far northern Quebec, killing 9.
- January 4 - Gunmen open fire on Shiite Muslims worshipping in an Islamabad mosque killing 16 people injuring 25.
- January 6 - Bob Newhart receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- January 20 - The China News Service announces new government restrictions on Internet use aimed especially at Internet bars.
- January 21 - War on Drugs: In one of the 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. The ship was headed to Houston, Texas.
- January 25 - A 6.0 Richter scale earthquake hits western Colombia killing at least 1,000
February
- February 1 - North Dakota Public Radio is launched.
- February 4 - Hugo Chavez Frias, Venezuelan military and politician, is elected President of Venezuela.
- February 4 - Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot dead by four plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, enflaming race-relations in the city.
- February 5 - Mike Tyson is sentenced to a year's imprisonment, fined $5,000, and ordered to serve 2 years probation and perform 200 hours of community service for the August 31, 1998 assault on two people after a car accident.
- February 10 - Avalanches in the French Alps near Geneva kill at least 10.
- February 12 - President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial
- February 16 - In Uzbekistan a bomb explodes and gunfire is heard at the government headquarters in an apparent assassination attempt against President Islam Karimov
- February 16 - Across Europe, Kurdish rebels take over embassies and hold hostages after Turkey arrested one of their rebel leaders, Abdullah Ocalan.
- February 16 - In Jasper, Texas, testimony begins in the trial of John William King who is 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 19 - Dennis Franz receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- February 22 - Moderate Iraqi Shiite cleric Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr is assassinated.
- February 23 - Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah OEcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.
- February 23 - White supremacist John William King is found guilty of kidnapping and killing African American James Byrd Jr by dragging him behind a truck for two miles.
- February 24 - LaGrand Case: The State of Arizona executes Karl LaGrand, a German national involved in an armed robbery that led to a death. Karl's brother Walter is executed a week later, in spite of Germany's legal action in the International Court of Justice to attempt to save him.
- 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.
- February 27 - Olusegun Obasanjo becomes Nigeria's first elected president since mid-1983.
March
- March 1 - One of four bombs detonated in Lusaka, Zambia, destroys the Angolan Embassy.
- March 1 - Hutu rebels kill eight tourists in Uganda.
- March 3 - LaGrand case: The State of Arizona executes Walter LaGrand, a German national involved in an armed robbery that led to a death. Walter's brother Karl had been executed a week earlier; Germany had initiated legal action in the International Court of Justice to attempt to save Walter.
- March 3 - Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones begin their attempt to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon without stopping. Their journey ended in success on March 20.
- March 4 - Monica Lewinsky's book detailing her affair with Bill Clinton goes on sale in the United States
- March 4 - In a military court, Captain Richard Ashby of the United States Marines 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.
- March 8 - Oklahoma City bombing: The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the murder convictions of Timothy McVeigh.
- March 12 - Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic join NATO.
- March 21 - Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon
- March 23 - Gunmen assassinate Paraguay's Vice President Luis Maria Argana.
- March 24 - NATO launches air strikes in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which was refusing to sign a peace treaty. This marks the first time NATO attacked a sovereign country.
- March 26 - The Melissa worm attacks the Internet.
- March 26 - A jury in Michigan finds Dr. Jack Kevorkian guilty of second-degree murder for administering a lethal injection to a terminally ill man (the incident was videotaped and aired on September 17, 1998 edition of 60 Minutes).
- March 29 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 10006.78 which is the first time the indice closed above the 10,000 mark.
April
- April 1 - Nunavut, an Inuit homeland, part of the Northwest Territories becomes Canada's third territory.
- April 5 - Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 are handed over for eventual trial in the Netherlands.
- April 5 - In Laramie, Wyoming, Russell Henderson pleads guilty to kidnapping and felony murder in order to avoid a possible death penalty conviction for the apparent hate crime killing of Matthew Shepard.
- April 7 - Kosovo War: Kosovo's main border crossings are closed by Serbian forces to prevent ethnic Albanians from leaving.
- April 20 - Two Littleton, Colorado teenagers named Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold open fire on their teachers and fellow students. The teenagers killed 12 students, 1 teacher and then turned their guns on themselves. See Columbine High School massacre.
- April 25 - End of term for Tuanku Jaafar ibni Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman as the 10th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
- 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.
- April 30 - Cambodia joins the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bringing the total members to 10.
May
- May 2 - Norman J. Sirnic and Karen Sirnic are murdered by Angel Maturino Resendiz in a parsonage in Weimar, Texas. They were his fourth and fifth victims in his fourth incident.
- May 6 - In New York, a parole board votes to release Amy Fisher who had been in prison for 7 years for shooting her lover's wife.
- May 6 - Elections are held in Scotland and Wales for the new Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales
- May 7 - A jury finds The Jenny Jones Show and Warner Bros liable in the shooting death of Scott Amedure after the show purposely deceived Jonathan Schmitz to appear on a secret same-sex crush episode. Shmitz later killed Amedure and the jury awarded Amedure's family US$25 million.
- May 7 - Kosovo War: In Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, three Chinese embassy workers are killed and 20 wounded when a NATO aircraft mistakenly bombs the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
- May 7 - In Guinea-Bissau, President Joao Bernardo Vieira is ousted in a military coup.
- May 8 - Nancy Mace becomes the first female cadet to graduate from The Citadel military college.
- May 12 - David Steel becomes the first Presiding Officer (speaker) of the modern Scottish Parliament.
- May 13 - in Italy Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is elected President of the republic
- May 17 - Ehud Barak is elected prime minister of Israel.
- May 21 - Irish broadcaster, Gay Byrne, retires after 37 years of presenting the longest running chat show in the world - The Late Late Show.
- May 23 - In Kansas City, Missouri, Owen Hart (Blue Blazer) falls 90 feet (30 m) to his death while being lowered into a World Wrestling Federation ring.
- May 27 - The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milosevic and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.
- May 28 - In Milan, Italy, after 22 years of restoration work, Leonardo de Vinci's newly-restored masterpiece "The Last Supper" is put back on display.
June-July
- June 4 - Noemi Dominguez, a Houston, Texas schoolteacher, is murdered by Angel Maturino Resendiz. She was his sixth victim in his fifth incident.
- June 4 - Josephine Konvicka was murdered in a barn in Fayette County, Texas by Angel Maturino Resendiz. The barn is very close to Weimar, where Norman J. Sirnic and Karen Sirnic were murdered by the same serial killer. Josephine was his seventh victim in his sixth incident.
- June 15 - George Morber Senior and his grown daughter Carolyn Frederick are murdered in Gorham, Illinois by Angel Maturino Resendiz. They were his eighth and ninth victims in his seventh and final incident.
- June 18 - Carnival Against Capitalism
- July 16 - Off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, a plane piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr crashes with his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister Lauren Bessette on board. All three are killed in the crash.
- July 20 - Mercury program: Liberty Bell 7 is raised from the Atlantic Ocean.
- July 31 - Mark O. Barton kills 9 in Atlanta, Georgia
- July 31 - NASA intentionally crashes the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface.
August-September
- August 9 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires his Prime Minister, Sergei Stepashin, and for the fourth time fires his entire cabinet.
- August 10 - Buford O. Furrow, Jr attempts a mass murder in Los Angeles
- August 11 - total eclipse in Europe and Asia
- August 17 - A 7.4-magnitude earthquake strikes northwestern Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000.
- August 19 - In Belgrade, tens of thousands of Serbians rally to demand the resignation of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
- September 8 - US Attorney General Janet Reno names former US Senator John Danforth to head an independent investigation of the 1993 fire at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.
- September 9 - Sega Dreamcast is released in the United States.
- Thiomargarita namibiensis largest bacteria ever discovered
October
- October - NASA loses one of its Mars probes, the Climate Orbiter.
- October 5 - Thirty-one people die in the British Ladbroke Grove rail disaster.
- October 12 - A military coup led by Pakistani Army Chief General Pervaiz Musharraf takes control of Pakistan and ousts the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
- October 13 - The United States Senate rejects ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
- October 27 - Gunmen open fire in the Armenian parliament killing Prime Minister Vazgan Sarkisian, Parliament Chairman Karen Demirchian and 6 other members.
- October 31 - EgyptAir Flight 990 traveling from New York City to Cairo crashes off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, killing all 217 on-board.
- October 31 - Roman Catholic Church and Lutheran Church leaders sign the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, ending a centuries-old doctrinal dispute over the nature of faith and salvation.
November
- November 5 - Microsoft antitrust case: US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson issues a preliminary ruling that softwaremaker Microsoft had "monopoly power" (on April 3, 2000 Jackson found that Microsoft violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act).
- November 6 - Australians vote to keep the British queen as their head of state.
- November 18 - In College Station, Texas, 12 are killed and 28 injured at Texas A&M University when a huge bonfire under construction collapses.
- November 18 - In Jasper, Texas, 24 year old Shawn Allen Berry is sentenced to life in prison, becoming the third person convicted in the racially-motivated dragging death of James Byrd, Jr.
- November 19 - In Istanbul, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) ends a two-day summit by calling for a political settlement in Chechnya and adopting a Charter for European Security.
- November 20 - The People's Republic of China launches the first Shenzhou spacecraft
- November 30 - In Seattle, Washington, the first major mobilization of the anti-globalization movement catches police unprepared and forces the cancellation of opening ceremonies of a World Trade Organization meeting (protests ended on December 3).
December
- December 2 - The United Kingdom devolves political power in Northern Ireland to a the Northern Ireland Executive. [1]
- December 3 - After rowing for 81 days and 2,962 miles, Tori Murden becomes the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by rowboat alone when she reaches Guadeloupe from the Canary Islands.
- December 3 - NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.
- December - The town council of Halfway, Oregon accepts an offer from the dot-com startup half.com to adopt the company name as its own.
- December 12 - President Lt. General Umar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir of Sudan dismisses the National Assembly during an internal power struggle between him and speaker of the Parliament Hasan al-Turabi.
- December 17 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (Unmovic) is created to replace UNSCOM. The U.N. Security council once again orders Iraq to allow inspections teams immediate and unconditional access to any weapons sites and facilities. Iraq rejects the resolution.
- December 24 - Indian Airlines Flight 814, which was enroute from Kathmandu, Nepal to Delhi, India was hijacked and taken to Kandahar, Afghanistan.
- December 29 - Former Beatle George Harrison is stabbed several times in the chest by an unknown assailant, who had broke into Harrison's home. Harrison's wife wrestled the knife out the assailant's hand before the police arrived. The man apparently believed that Harrison was the devil.
- December 31 - Boris Yeltsin resigns as President of Russia, to be replaced by Vladimir Putin
- December 31 - Five hijackers, who had been holding 155 hostages on an Indian Airlines plane, leave the plane with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed.
- December 31 - Start Of Millennium Celebrations and countdown.
- Fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel kills 39 people closing the tunnel for 3 years.
Year in topic
- 1999 in film
- April 7 - Star Wars fans begin lining up at movie theaters in Westwood and Hollywood to buy tickets for Star Wars, Episode I - The Phantom Menace, a film that will not be opening for another six weeks.
- May 3 - A Durham, North Carolina woman named Jennifer Briggs changes her name to Obi-Wan Kenobi Briggs in honor of the Star Wars character. Ms. Briggs wins $1000 from a local radio station for changing her name.
- American Beauty
- The Green Mile
- Wachowski brothers' The Matrix, starring Keanu Reeves
- M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense, starring Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment
- 1999 in literature
- 1999 in music
- 1999 in science
- 1999 in sports
- January 13 - Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls basketball team announces his retirement (for the second time -- he has since rescinded his retirement)
- January 31 - Super Bowl XXXIII Denver Broncos (34) def. Atlanta Falcons (19)
- The U.S. Women's Soccer Team Wins World Cup
- 1999 in television
- The Sopranos premieres on cable television
- Who Wants to Be a Millionaire premieres in the U.S., hosted by Regis Philbin. The show is based on a British show of the same name.
- September 16 - Big Brother premieres in the Netherlands.
Births
- March 4- Brooklyn Beckham, son of David and Victoria Beckham.
Deaths
January-February
- January 2 - Rolf Liebermann, composer, aged 88
- January 4 - Iron Eyes Cody, actor
- January 14 - Aldo van Eyck, architect, aged 80
- January 21 - Susan Strasberg, actress
- January 29 - Lili St. Cyr, exotic dancer
- January 30 - Huntz Hall, actor
- February 5 - Wassily Leontief, economist, aged 93
- February 7 - King Hussein of Jordan, aged 63 (cancer)
- February 8 - Iris Murdoch, writer, aged 79
- February 14 - John Ehrlichman, presidential advisor
- February 20 - Gene Siskel, film critic
- February 20 - Sarah Kane, playwright
- February 22 - William Bronk, poet, aged 80 (or 81?)
- February 24 - Andre Dubus, writer
- February 25 - Glenn Seaborg, atomic scientist
- February 27 - Ken Robinson, major league pitcher (Arizona Diamondbacks), aged 29, from injuries sustained in an automobile accident
March
- March 2 - Dusty Springfield, British singer, aged 59
- March 3 - Walter LaGrand, German national, executed by the State of Arizona
- March 4 - Karel van het Reve, Dutch writer, aged 77
- March 4 - Harry Blackmun, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court
- March 5 - Richard Kiley, actor
- March 7 - Stanley Kubrick, aged 70, American film director and writer
- March 8 - Joe DiMaggio, American baseball player, one of Marilyn Monroe's husbands, aged 84
- March 12 - Yehudi Menuhin, American violinist and musical director, aged 82
- March 13 - Garson Kanin, writer, director
- March 20 - David Strickland, actor, aged 29, suicide via hanging
- March 29 - Joe Williams, jazz singer (b. 1918)
April-May
- April 4 - Early Wynn, Baseball Hall of Famer
- April 12 - Boxcar Willie, country musician, aged 68
- April 18 - Gian-Carlo Rota, Professor of Applied Mathematics and Philosophy at MIT, aged nearly 67
- April 20 - Eric Harris, perpetrator of the Columbine High School massacre
- April 20 - Dylan Klebold, perpetrator of the Columbine High School massacre
- April 20 - Victims of the Columbine High School massacre: Cassie Bernall, Steven Curnow, Corey DePooter, Kelly Fleming, Matthew Kechter, Daniel Mauser, Daniel Rohrbough, Dave Sanders, Rachel Scott, Isaiah Shoels, John Tomlin, Lauren Townsend, and Kyle Velasquez
- April 20 - Señor Wences, ventriloquist (Topo Gigiu), aged 103
- April 25 - Lord Killanin, former chairman of the IOC, aged 84
- April 27 - Al Hirt, jazz musician, aged 76
- April 27 - Mary Rockefeller, widow of Nelson Rockefeller, aged 91?
- May 2 - Norman J. Sirnic, Pastor
- May 2 - Karen Sirnic, Norman Sirnic's wife
- May 8 - Dana Plato, actress, aged 34
- May 8 - Dirk Bogarde, aged 78, English actor (Death in Venice)
- May 10 - Shel Silverstein, children's poet, aged 68
- May 12 - Saul Steinberg, artist (The New Yorker), aged 94
- May 13 - Gene Sarazen, golfer, aged 97
- May 18 - Augustus Pablo, Jamaican reggae singer
- May 18 - Betty Robinson, winner of the first Olympic 100 m for women
- May 19 - James Blades, English percussionist
- May 23 - Owen Hart, professional wrestler, aged 34
- May 26 - Waldo Semon, inventor
June-September
- June 4 - Noemi Dominguez, schoolteacher
- June 4 - Josephine Konvicka, 73-year old senior citizen
- June 5 - Mel Torme, aged 73, American singer
- June 11 - DeForest Kelly, aged 79, actor (Star Trek)
- June 15 - George Morber Sr, 80-year old senior citizen
- June 15 - Carolyn Frederick, George Morber Senior's grown daughter
- June 16 - Screaming Lord Sutch, aged 58, founder of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party
- June 16 - Eddie Stanky, baseball player and manager, aged 82
- June 17 - Basil Hume, archbishop of Westminster, aged 76
- June 27 - Jorgos Papadopoulos, dictator of Greece, aged 80
- June 30 - Forrest Mars, candy maker (M&Ms), aged 95
- July 1 - Joshua Nkomo, Zimbabwian politician, aged 83
- July 2 - Mario Puzo, writer (The Godfather), aged 78
- July 6 - Joaquin Rodrigo, composer
- July 8 - Charles Conrad, astronaut, aged 69, died in motorcycle crash
- July 16 - John F. Kennedy, Jr, publisher, son of John F. Kennedy, aged 38 (airplane crash)
- July 24 - Hassan II, king of Morocco, aged 70 (heart attack)
- August 3 - Leroy Vinnegar, jazz musician, aged 71?
- August 13 - Ignaz Bubis, German Jewish community leader, aged 72
- August 14 - Lane Kirkland, former head of AFL-CIO, aged 79
- August 16 - Victor Mature, actor, aged 86
- August 28 - Dom Helder Camera, Brazilian bishop and human rights activist, aged 90
- August 28 - Radovan Stojkovski, interior minister of Macedonia, aged 42, killed in a KFOR automobile accident
- September 6 - Allen Funt, creator of Candid Camera TV series, aged 84 (complications from a stroke suffered in 1993)
- September 9 - Catfish Hunter, major league baseball player, aged 53 (complications from a fall suffered on August 9 due to ALS)
- September 9 - Moondog (Louis Hardin), musician, aged 83
- September 10 - Alfredo Kraus, opera singer, aged 72 (or 73?)
- September 20 - Raisa Gorbachev, wife of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
- September 22 - George C. Scott, film and stage actor, aged 71
- September 23 - Ivan Goff, created Charlie's Angels TV series, aged 89
October-December
- October 3 - Heinz G. Konsalik, writer, aged 78
- October 4 - Art Farmer, jazz musician, aged 69
- October 6 - Amalia Rodrigues, Portuguese singer, aged 79
- October 12 - Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player
- October 14 - Julius Nyerere, Tanzanian leader
- October 19 - Harry Bannink, Dutch songwriter, aged 70
- October 20 - Jack Lynch, former Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, aged 82
- October 24 - John Chaffee, US Senator from Rhode Island, aged 77
- October 25 - Payne Stewart, golfer, aged 42, died in plane crash in South Dakota
- October 26 - Rex Gildo, German singer, aged 63
- November 1 - Walter Payton, football Hall-of-Famer, aged 45
- November 15 - Gene Levitt, creator of Fantasy Island, aged 79
- November 18 - Paul Bowles, American novelist (The Sheltering Sky), aged 88
- November 18 - Doug Sahm, country and rock musician, aged 58
- November 29 - Gene Rayburn, television host, aged 80
- December 3 - Madeline Kahn, actress, aged 57
- December 10 - Rick Danko, rock singer (The Band), aged 56
- December 11 - Franjo Tudjman, president of Croatia, aged 77
- December 12 - Joseph Heller, American novelist (Catch-22), aged 76
- December 17 - Grover Washington, Jr, saxophone player, aged 56
- December 19 - Desmond Llewelyn, British actor, (Q in the James Bond movies), aged 85
- December 20 - Hank Snow, country musician, aged 85
- December 26 - Curtis Mayfield, singer/composer, aged 57
- December 27 - Leonard Goldenson, TV network executive, aged 94
- December 28 - Clayton Moore, actor (The Lone Ranger), aged 85
- December 31 - Elliott Robertson, former US Attorney General, aged 79
Nobel Prizes
- Physics - Gerardus 't Hooft, Martinus J.G. Veltman
- Chemistry - Ahmed H. Zewail
- Medicine - Guenter Blobel
- Literature - Guenter Grass
- Peace - Doctors Without Borders
- Economics - Robert Mundell
1999 fictional references
- Space 1999 was a television series.
- X/1999 was a manga by clamp
- Robotech begins in 1999 with the crash landing of an alien spacecraft on fictional Macross Island in the South Pacific.
- 1999 was a 1982 album by Prince and the Revolution, and "1999" was a #1 hit song from it, about partying through the apocalypse.