1998 CE

Bill Clinton is impeached after the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal; the Kosovo War begins as tensions escalate between Yugoslav forces and ethnic Albanian separatists; the 1998 FIFA World Cup is held in France, with the host nation emerging as champions; the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam and Nariobi kill over 200 people and injure 4,000, in retaliation, the United States launched strikes on Afghanistan and Sudan; the Second Congo War in Africa begins, becoming the deadliest conflict since World War II; the Good Friday Agreement is signed, bringing a major step toward peace in Northern Ireland; Google is founded, ushering in a transformative era for internet search; Hurricane Mitch devastates Central America, killing over 11,000 people; and Frank Sinatra dies, marking the loss of one of the 20th century's most iconic entertainers.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

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 United Kingdom.source
March 11 – 1998 Danish general election: Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen is re-elected.source
March 21 – The European Union announces an arms embargo against Serbia and Montenegro.source
March 30 – Hungary begins European Union accession talks.source
March 31 – Quett Masire voluntarily steps down as President of Botswana after 18 years in office.source
April 10 – Good Friday Agreement: An hour 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. This would mostly put an end to the conflict known as The Troubles.source
May 21 – Suharto (elected 1967) resigns after 31 years as President of Indonesia, effectively ending the New Order period. It is his 7th consecutive re-election by the Indonesian Parliament (MPR). Suharto's hand-picked Vice President, B. J. Habibie, becomes Indonesia's third president.source
June 30 – Philippine Vice President Joseph Estrada is sworn in as the 13th President of the Philippines.source
July 17 – Rome Statute: 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.source
August 1 – Puntland State leaders in Somalia declare the territory an autonomous state; the capital is the city of Garoowe in the Nugal region.source
October 1 – Europol is established when the Europol Convention signed by all of its member states comes into force.source
October 3 – 1998 Australian federal election: John Howard's Liberal/National Coalition government is re-elected with a substantially reduced majority, defeating the Labor Party led by Kim Beazley.source
October 20 – Boris Yeltsin announces he will not seek reelection in 2000.source
December 1 – Ireland formally relinquishes its territorial claim over Northern Ireland and recognizes the United Kingdom's sovereignty there.source
December 6 – Hugo Chávez, politician and former officer of the Venezuelan army, is elected President of Venezuela.source
December 19 – The U.S. House of Representatives forwards articles of impeachment against President Clinton to the Senate, making him the second president to be impeached in U.S. history.source

Conflict & Security

January 11 – Over 100 people are killed in the Sidi-Hamed massacre in Algeria.source
January 15 – U.N. peacekeepers return Eastern Slavonia to Croatian control; 80,000 displaced Croatians begin returning home, while 60,000 Serbs begin vacating the region. The area will remain under UNPSG supervision until October.source
February 21 – King Hussein of Jordan imposes martial law in Ma'an to quell growing pro-Iraqi demonstrations.source
February 28 – A massacre in Likoshane, FR Yugoslavia starts the Kosovo War.source
March 24 – Westside Middle School shooting: Five people are killed in Jonesboro, Arkansas.source
April 17 – 1998 Australian waterfront dispute: Patrick Stevedores fires all 1,400 employees.source
April 23 – The Yugoslav Army ambushes a group of Kosovo Liberation Army fighters attempting to smuggle weapons from Albania into Kosovo, killing 19.source
May 6 – A large Eritrean mechanized force enters Badme in Tigray Region, Ethiopia, resulting in the Eritrean–Ethiopian War.source
May 13–14 – Riots directed against Chinese Indonesians break out in Indonesia, killing around 1,000 people. Maria Catarina Sumarsih holds Prabowo Subianto the responsibility for being involved in a series of human rights abuses during the riot.source
May 15 – Argentina expels seven Iranian diplomats over their connections to the 1994 AMIA bombing.source
May 19 – The wreck of the aircraft carrier , sunk during the Battle of Midway in 1942, is found near Midway Atoll by a team led by former US Navy officer Robert D. Ballard.source
May 28 – Nuclear testing: In response to a series of Indian nuclear tests, Pakistan explodes five nuclear devices of its own in the Chagai hills of Baluchistan, codenamed Chagai-I, prompting the United States, Japan and other nations to impose economic sanctions. Pakistan celebrates Youm-e-Takbir annually.source
June 7 – Former Brigadier-General Ansumane Mané seizes control over military barracks in Bissau, marking the beginning of the Guinea-Bissau Civil War (1998–99).source
July 24 – Russell Eugene Weston Jr. enters the United States Capitol Building and opens fire, killing two members of the United States Capitol Police, Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson.source
August 4 – The Second Congo War begins; 5.4 million people die before it ends in 2003, making it the bloodiest war, to date, since World War II.source
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.source
August 8 – Afghan Civil War: The Taliban takes control of Mazar-i-Sharif.source
August 10 – Voters in Nevis narrowly reject an independence referendum.source
August 15 – The Troubles: The Omagh bombing is carried out in Northern Ireland by the Real Irish Republican Army as a reaction to the Good Friday Agreement. 29 people are killed and 220 are injured. Shortly after these events, the group will call a ceasefire in response, signaling an end to the 30+ year conflict.source
September 2 – A United Nations court finds Jean-Paul Akayesu, the former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, guilty of nine counts of genocide, marking the first time that the 1948 law banning genocide is enforced.source
September 5 – The Government of North Korea adopts a military dictatorship on its 50th anniversary. The constitution is amended, and the late Kim Il Sung is enshrined as the eternal President.source
September 17 – Basque conflict: Basque Homeland and Liberty reaches a ceasefire agreement with the government of Spain, the second such agreement in two years.source
September 24 – Iranian President Mohammad Khatami retracts a fatwa against Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie that was in force since 1989 stating that the Iranian government will "neither support nor hinder assassination operations on Rushdie".source
December 14 – The Yugoslav Army ambushes a column of 140 Kosovo Liberation Army militants attempting to smuggle arms from Albania into Kosovo, killing 36.source

Exploration & Expansion

Bill Clinton makes the first visit to South Africa by a U.S. president.source
June 27 – Kuala Lumpur International Airport officially opens, becoming the new international gateway into Malaysia.source
September 25 – Benoit Lecomte finishes his 72-day swim across the Atlantic Ocean, but uncertainty over the exact route and distance covered prevent him from being recognized as the first person to swim across the Atlantic.source

Religion & Belief

January 21 - Pope John Paul II begins a 5-day visit to Cuba; Fidel Castro releases 300 political prisoners in a gesture of goodwill.source

Economy & Finance

January 17 – The Drudge Report breaks the story about U.S. President Bill Clinton's alleged affair with Monica Lewinsky, which will lead to the House of Representatives' impeachment of him.source
February 25 – Alaska v. Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government: The SCOTUS rules against the Neets'aii Gwich'in Indian nation, who had been levying taxes on non-natives in order to fund a local airstrip; the Court ruled that only the federal and state governments may collect taxes.source
Boris Yeltsin dismisses Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin in "an effort to make economic reforms more energetic and effective."source
May 18 – The Department of Justice files an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, alleging its Windows operating system unfairly takes market share from Netscape's Navigator.source
June 1 – The European Central Bank is established, replacing the European Monetary Institute.source
August 17 – Russia's government devalues the ruble, defaults on domestic debt, and declares a moratorium on repayment of foreign debt. This marks the beginning of 1998 Russian financial crisis.source
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 to avoid a wider collapse in financial markets.source
December 16 – Iraq disarmament crisis: U.S. President Bill Clinton orders airstrikes on Iraq. UNSCOM withdraws all weapons inspectors from Iraq.source
December 31 – In the Eurozone, the currency rates of this day are fixed permanently.source
The European Small Business Alliance organization is formed.source

Technology & Infrastructure

February 20 – The Nashville Banner publishes its last issue; the newspaper ceases operation after 122 years.source
April 5 – In Japan, the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshū and costing about US$3.6 billion, opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.source
May 11 – The first euro coins are minted in Pessac, France. Because the final specifications for the coins are not finished, they will have to be melted and minted again in 1999.source
May 11 – Pokhran-II (Operation Shakti): India conducts three underground nuclear tests in Pokhran, including one thermonuclear device.source
May 15 – The Windows 98 operating system is released to manufacturing.source
June 12 – The 1995 Stock is used on the Northern line in London.source
July 21–September 5 – 1998 Sydney water crisis: suspected contamination by the microscopic pathogens cryptosporidium and giardia of the water supply system of Greater Metropolitan Sydney, Australia.source
October 17 – 1998 Jesse pipeline explosion: An oil pipeline explosion in Jesse, Nigeria results in 1,082 deaths.source
November 19 – Valve Corporation releases their first-person shooter video game Half-Life to critical acclaim. The game would be deemed one of the most influential titles of its genre, and one of the greatest video games of all time.source

Science & Discovery

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.source
February 6 – Washington National Airport is officially renamed Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.source
March 2 – Data sent from the Galileo probe indicates that Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.source
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.source
March 13 – The High-Z Supernova Search Team becomes the first team to publish evidence that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate.source
May 19 – The Galaxy IV communications satellite fails, leaving 80–90% of the US's pagers without service.source
May 30 – A second nuclear test, codenamed Chagai-II, is conducted and supervised by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC).source
July 5 – Japan launches the probe Nozomi to Mars, joining the United States and Russia as an outer space-exploring nation.source
November 17 – Voyager 1 overtakes Pioneer 10 as the most distant man-made object from the Solar System, at a distance of 69.419 AU km.source
November 20 – A Russian Proton rocket is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying the first segment of the International Space Station, the 21-ton Zarya Module.source
December 4 – The Space Shuttle Endeavour launches the first U.S.-built component to the International Space Station, the 25,600 lb kg Unity module on STS-88. It docks with Zarya two days later.source
December 31 – The first leap second since June 30, 1997, occurs.source

Health & Medicine

January 12 – Nineteen European nations agree to forbid human cloning.source
October 4 – The World Bank praises Costa Rica for its remarkable success in raising life expectancy and lowering infant mortality.source

Crime & Justice

January 23 - P.W. Botha appears in front of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to answer for apartheid-era policies; he refers to the hearing as a "circus".source
February 26 – Oprah is cleared of slander in an Amarillo court after a highly publicized court battle with Texas beef moguls.source
April 24 – Rwanda executes 22 Hutus, including Froduald Karamira, for their roles in the 1994 genocide.source
May 27 – The United States requests that El Salvador reopen its probe into the 1980 murders of U.S. missionaries.source
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 the Bolsheviks in 1918.source
September 12 – The Cuban Five intelligence agents are arrested in Miami, and later convicted of espionage. The agents claim they were not spying against the United States Government but against the Cuban exile community in Miami.source
Jean Kambanda is sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Rwandan genocide.source
October 10 – Indictment and arrest of Augusto Pinochet: General Augusto Pinochet, Chilean dictator from 1973 to 1990, is indicted for human rights violations he committed in Chile by Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzón. 6 days later British police place him under house arrest during his medical treatment in the UK. This is a leading case in the law of universal jurisdiction.source

Disasters & Accidents

February 2 - Cebu Pacific Flight 387 crashes into a mountain, this crash marked deadliest aviation accident in Philippines until 2000.source
February 4 – Western Pacific, a low-cost airline with headquarters at Colorado Springs Airport, ceases operations.source
February 16 – China Airlines Flight 676 crashes upon attempted landing at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, killing 203, the second-deadliest air crash in Taiwan.source
June 3 – Eschede train disaster: an Intercity-Express high-speed train derails between Hanover and Hamburg, Germany, causing 101 deaths.source
June 8 - The DeBruce Grain Elevator explosion in Wichita, Kansas kills 7.source
September 2 – A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 airliner (Swissair Flight 111) crashes near Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, after taking off from New York City en route to Geneva; all 229 people on board are killed.source
September 10 – At midnight, a shooting occurs aboard an Akula-class nuclear-powered attack submarine of the Russian Navy docked in the northern Russian port city of Severomorsk.source
December 11 – Thai Airways International Flight 261 crashes upon attempted landing at Surat Thani International Airport, killing 101, the second-deadliest air crash in Thailand.source

Climate & Environment

February 4 – The 5.9 Afghanistan earthquake shakes the Takhar Province with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). With up to 4,000 killed, and 818 injured, damage is considered extreme.source
April 20 – The alleged date the German Red Army Faction (created 1970) is dissolved.source
May 5–6 - landslides in Campania, Italy kill 161source
May 30 – A 6.5 magnitude earthquake hits northern Afghanistan, killing up to 5,000.source
July 17 – The 7.0 Papua New Guinea earthquake shakes the region near Aitape with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). This submarine earthquake triggered a landslide that caused a destructive tsunami, leaving more than 2,100 dead and thousands injured.source
August 7 – Yangtze River Floods: in China the Yangtze river breaks through the main bank; before this, from August 1–5, peripheral levees collapsed consecutively in Jiayu County Baizhou Bay. The death toll exceeds 12,000, with many thousands more injured.source
September 9 – Keiko the orca, captured in 1979, is released back into the wild off the coast of Iceland.source
October 29 – Hurricane Mitch makes landfall in Central America, killing an estimated 11,000 people.source

Culture & Society

February 7–22 – The 1998 Winter Olympics are held in Nagano, Japan.source
February 12 - The Flag of the Philippines gets a minor redesign, changing its blue and red shades.source
February 20 – Rudy Giuliani kicks off his "quality of life" campaign in New York City, focused on increasing civility and reducing nuisances like littering and reckless driving.source
March 23 – The 70th Academy Awards ceremony, hosted for the 6th time by Billy Crystal, is held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. Titanic wins 11 Oscars including Best Picture.source
May 26 – Australia holds its first National Sorry Day.source
June 10–July 12 – The 1998 FIFA World Cup in France: France beats Brazil 3–0 in the FIFA World Cup Final.source
September 4 – Google, Inc. is founded in Menlo Park, California, by Stanford University PhD candidates Larry Page and Sergey Brin.source
November 3 – South Carolina voters repeal the state's 103-year-old constitutional ban on interracial marriage, making Alabama the last U.S. state with such a ban in place.source
November 24 – A declassified report by Swiss International Olympic Committee official Marc Hodler reveals that bribes had been used to bring the 2002 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City during bidding process in 1995. The IOC, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, the United States Olympic Committee and the United States Department of Justice immediately launch an investigation into the scandal.source

Births

January 23 – XXXTentacion, American rapper (d. 2018)source
February 15 – George Russell, British racing driversource
March 24 – Ethel Cain, American singer-songwriter, record producer, and modelsource
May 5 – Aryna Sabalenka, Belarusian tennis playersource
May 6 – Luigi Mangione, perpetrator of the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompsonsource
June 14 – Shayne Coplan, American businessman and founder of Polymarketsource
August 12 – Stefanos Tsitsipas, Greek tennis playersource
August 18 – Nick Fuentes, American far-right political commentatorsource
August 18 – Tenshin Nasukawa, Japanese kickboxer and mixed martial artistsource
August 26 – Soyeon, South Korean rapper, singer-songwriter, and record producersource
September 18 – Christian Pulisic, American footballersource
September 21 – Tadej Pogačar, Slovenian cyclistsource
October 7 – Trent Alexander-Arnold, English footballersource
November 5 – Takehiro Tomiyasu, Japanese footballersource

Deaths

February 3 – Cavalese cable car disaster: A United States military pilot causes the deaths of 20 people near Trento, Italy, when his low-flying EA-6B Prowler severs the cable of a cable-car.source
September 14 - Failed coup attempt in Albania following the death of Azem Hajdari, a key leader of the Democratic Party of Albaniasource
Ibrahim Hanna, the last native speaker of Mlahsô, dies in Qamishli, Syria, making the language effectively extinct. Also, the last native speaker of related Bijil Neo-Aramaic, Mrs. Rahel Avraham, dies in Jerusalem.source