Timeline 1998 October - December
Return to home
1998 Oct 1,
The US Dept. of Defense said that it would spend an estimated $50
million this year to provide Viagra to soldiers, sailors, fliers,
retirees and their dependents.
(SFC, 10/2/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 1, Gordon and Betty
Moore, announced a $35 million contribution to Conservation Int’l.,
an environmental group for biodiversity. The funds would be used for
a new Washington DC Center for Applied Biodiversity Science. Moore
was a co-founder and former chairman of Intel Corp. He donated $12.5
million to Cambridge Univ. for the most advanced science and
technology library in Europe.
(SFC, 10/2/98, p.B6,D1)
1998 Oct 1, The Makah Indian
gray whale hunting season opened. The tribe had recently won the
right to kill up to 5 whales a year over the next 4 years. In 2000 a
federal appeals court overturned the ruling that allowed whale
hunting.
(SFC, 10/2/98, p.A6)(SFC, 6/10/00, p.A3)
1998 Oct 1, CollaGenex
Pharmaceuticals announced FDA approval of Periostat, a pill to help
fight gum disease. The drug suppresses the enzyme responsible for
gum and tooth breakdown during inflammation.
(SFC, 10/2/98, p.A2)
1998 Oct 1, The IMF and the
World Bank were negotiating an emergency loan package for Brazil of
some $30 billion. Since the collapse of the ruble, edgy investors
have taken $30 billion out of Brazil. The government in the mean
time pushed up the interest rate to 40%.
(SFC, 10/2/98, p.A16)(WSJ, 10/2/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 1, Guatemala sold 95%
of its phone monopoly for $700 million to Luca, a consortium of
Guatemalan and Central American financial institutions.
(WSJ, 10/2/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 1, In central Mexico a
flooded irrigation canal killed 12 people when it washed away tin
and cardboard homes along its banks.
(SFC, 10/2/98, p.B3)
1998 Oct 1, The UN sent a new
warning to Pres. Milosevic of Serbia over the atrocities in Kosovo.
Seeking to head off threatened NATO attacks, Yugoslavia's Serb
leadership invited foreign experts to investigate massacres in
Kosovo.
(SFC, 10/2/98, p.A1)(AP, 10/1/99)
1998 Oct 2, The US House
released 4,600 pages of evidence that detailed President Clinton's
efforts to contain the Monica Lewinsky scandal as it erupted.
(AP, 10/2/99)
1998 Oct 2, Gene Autry
(b.1907), America’s first singing cowboy and former owner of the
Anaheim Angels, died at age 91 in Studio City, CA. He made 96 films
and cut 635 records including "Back in the Saddle Again." His comic
sidekick was Smiley Burnette and his horse was named Champion. His
career spanned some 60 years. Autry is the only entertainer to have
earned five stars on the commemorative sidewalk for his work in
radio, records, film, television, and live theatrical performance.
(SFC, 10/3/98, p.A1)(SFC, 10/5/98, p.A18)(SFEC,
12/20/98, Z1 p.5)(HNQ, 7/26/01)
1998 Oct 2, In Europe the new
"Swatchmobile," a 2-seater plastic car by Daimler-Benz, made its
debut. The Smart car was to sell for $8,500 and was rated at 59
miles per gallon.
(WSJ, 10/2/98, p.B1)
1998 Oct 2, In Japan the
parliament passed bills to provide $74 billion in taxpayer money to
help banks recover from bad loans.
(SFC, 10/3/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 2, In Mongolia
Sanjaasurangiin Zorig (36), who helped oust the Communist regime in
1990, was assassinated. He was stabbed and hacked with a knife and
an ax. It was seen as a move to silence pro-democracy officials.
(WSJ, 10/5/98, p.A1)(SFC, 10/6/98, p.A14)(WSJ,
10/22/98, p.A17)
1998 Oct 3, Actor Roddy
McDowall died at age 70. His films included "Lassie Come Home," and
"Cleopatra."
(SFEC, 10/4/98, p.B10)
1998 Oct 3, The G-7 finance
ministers agreed to explore Pres. Clinton’s proposed strategy for
early IMF intervention to support weak economies. Masaru Hayami,
governor of the Bank of Japan, said that capital supporting 19 major
banks had dwindled to dangerously low levels. The Finance Ministers
and Central Bank Governors commissioned Dr Hans Tietmeyer, President
of the Deutsche Bundesbank, to recommend new structures for
enhancing co-operation among the various national and international
supervisory bodies and international financial institutions so as to
promote stability in the international financial system. This led to
the formation of the Financial Stability Forum on Apr 14, 1999.
(SFEC, 10/4/98, p.A1)(SFC, 10/5/98,
p.A3)(www.fsforum.org/about/genesis_of_the_fsf.html)
1998 Oct 3, In Australia
parliamentary elections were scheduled. The conservative coalition
of Jowh Howard won re-election by a narrow margin.
(WSJ, 10/1/98, p.A1)(SFEC, 10/4/98, p.A17)
1998 Oct 3, In Chechnya 4 men
working to install a cellular phone system were kidnapped by 20 men.
The severed heads Darren Hickey, Rudolf Petschi, Stanley Shaw
and Peter Kennedy were found Dec 8. Their bodies were found Dec 26
in Chernorechiye.
(SFC, 10/5/98, p.A9)(SFC, 12/9/98, p.A9)(SFC,
12/28/98, p.B1)
1998 Oct 3, In Croatia Pope
John Paul II beatified Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac, the World War II
archbishop of Zagreb and a controversial figure because many Serbs
and Jews accused him of sympathizing with the Nazis.
(SFEC, 10/4/98, p.A22)(AP, 10/3/99)
1998 Oct 3, In Italy Communists
voted to reject Prime Minister Prodi’s budget.
(WSJ, 10/5/98, p.A1,22)
1998 Oct 3, In Latvia voters
approved a referendum to ease citizenship requirements for Russians
left there following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Voters also
selected members for the 100 seat unicameral parliament.
(WSJ, 10/5/98, p.A1)(BN, 10/98, p.1)
1998 Oct 3, Turkey sent some
10,000 troops into northern Iraq to attack Kurdish rebels.
(SFEC, 10/4/98, p.A11)
1998 Oct 4, US and Algerian
navies conducted a small joint search-and-rescue exercise in the
Mediterranean.
(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A17)
1998 Oct 4, In Argentina
Marcelo Cattaneo, the younger brother of Pres. Menem’s former deputy
chief of staff, was found hanging by the neck outside Buenos Aires.
He had been named 2 months earlier as the man who tried to bribe
former directors of the Banco de la Nacion. A newspaper article on
the 1994-1995 IBM-Banco de la Nacion bribery scheme was stuffed in
his mouth.
(SFEC, 10/25/98, p.A24)
1998 Oct 4, In Brazil national
elections Fernando Henrique Cardoso won with 50.3% of the vote in
early returns vs. 35.6% for Luiz Inacio da Silva of the Workers
Party.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, p.A21)(SFC, 10/5/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 4, In Iraq a
Palestinian burst into a Baghdad synagogue and sprayed the crowd
with gunfire. 2 Jews and 2 Muslims were killed.
(SFC, 10/5/98, p.A9)
1998 Oct 4, In Mexico the
Indians of San Juan Chamula in Chiapas boycotted the elections in
protest for the jailing of 5 men accused of murder. They were jailed
a year ago during a dispute between Catholic and Protestant
converts.
(SFC, 10/5/98, p.a10)(SFC, 10/6/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 4, In Mexico Hector
Teran, governor of Baja California and leader of the opposition
National Action Party, died at age 67.
(SFC, 10/5/98, p.A17)
1998 Oct 4, Russian envoys
warned Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic that NATO might launch
air-strikes unless he took "decisive measures" to end the
humanitarian crisis in the southern province of Kosovo.
(AP, 10/4/99)
1998 Oct 4, Former Swiss Pres.
Jean-Pascal Delamuraz died at age 62. He served his one year
rotating term in 1996 and made headlines that Dec. when he described
Jewish demands for compensation for Holocaust victims as blackmail.
(SFC, 10/5/98, p.A17)
1998 Oct 5, A US House
committee voted along hardened partisan lines 21-16 to begin an
open-ended impeachment inquiry into 15 possible charges against
Pres. Clinton.
(WSJ, 10/5/98, p.A1)(AP, 10/5/99)
1998 Oct 5, The US House of
Representatives directed the Pentagon to channel $97 million in
overt military aid to Iraqi rebel groups seeking to bring down Pres.
Saddam Hussein. The Clinton administration committed to the transfer
of military surplus equipment May 14, 1999.
(SFC, 10/6/98, p.A8)(SFC, 5/25/99, p.A6)
1998 Oct 5, Michael Carneal
pleaded guilty but mentally ill to shooting to death three fellow
students and wounding five other people at Heath High School in West
Paducah, Ky. Carneal was later sentenced to life in prison without
the chance of parole for 25 years.
(AP, 10/5/99)
1998 Oct 5, The US federal
government agreed to pay SF $176.6 million for 59 Italian-made Breda
streetcars.
(SFC, 10/6/98, p.A15)
1998 Oct 5, From Belize it was
reported that Orange Walk, a town of 14,000, was overrun by crack
cocaine addicts known as "sprungheads."
(SFC, 10/5/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 5, China signed the
1976 Int’l. Covenant on Civil and Political Rights bringing the
number of signatories to 140. The signing still required
parliamentary approval.
(SFC, 10/6/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 5, In Congo rebels
under Arthur Mulunda said they were within 12 miles of Kindu. The
rebels were backed by troops and equipment from Rwanda and Uganda.
(SFC, 10/6/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 5, In Iran the Islamic
authorities told a group of writers to give up efforts to reactivate
an independent association of authors.
(SFC, 10/6/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 5, Federico Zeri,
Italy’s leading art critic and historian, died at age 77. He had
cataloged in 4 volumes the Italian paintings in New York’s
Metropolitan Museum.
(SFC, 10/6/98, p.A22)
1998 Oct 5, In Kenya teachers
went on a nationwide strike over failed pay raises. 7 million
students were idled.
(SFC, 10/6/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 5, In south Lebanon
pro-Iranian Hezbollah guerrillas killed 2 Israeli soldiers with a
roadside bomb.
(SFC, 10/6/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 5, Libyan leader
Moammar Khadafy was reported to have turned his face to Africa
rather than a pan-Arab unity: ""I would like Libya to become a black
country. Hence, I recommend to Libyan men to marry only black women,
and to Libyan women to marry black men."
(SFC, 10/6/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 5, In Russia some
1,000 mail cars with up to 18 tons of letters were sidetracked due
to the inability of the post office to pay the country’s 17
railways.
(SFC, 10/6/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 5, In Sweden Prime
Minister Goran Persson of the Social Democrats reached a 3-party
agreement with the Left and the Greens.
(SFC, 10/6/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 6, The Walton Family
Charitable Trust Foundation made a $50 million donation to the Univ.
of Arkansas business school.
(WSJ, 10/8/98, p.B10)
1998 Oct 6, With a House vote
set on launching an open-ended impeachment inquiry, Democrats rushed
to counter Republican plans while still underscoring their
disapproval of President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky.
(AP, 10/6/99)
1998 Oct 6, Eddie DeBartolo Jr.
pleaded guilty in federal court in Louisiana for failing to report
that former governor Edwin Edwards extorted $400,000 from him for a
casino license. He agreed to pay $1 million in penalties, serve 2
years of probation and testify in future trials against Edwards.
(SFC, 10/7/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 6, In Riverside, Ca.,
a former parks employee burst into City Hall and opened fire. Joseph
Neale Jr. (48) wounded the mayor and 2 Council members and was
himself wounded by police along with 2 others.
(SFC, 10/7/98, p.A3)
1998 Oct 6, In Colombia Norbert
Reinhart (49), owner of the Canadian Terramundo drilling Co.,
exchanged himself for his employee, foreman Ed Leonard, who was
being held for ransom by rebels.
(SFC, 11/7/98, p.C1)
1998 Oct 6, In Congo rebel
commander Richard Mondo told reporters that artillery rounds had
been fired into Kindu and that advance units had crossed the Lualaba
River. At least 18 government soldiers were reported killed.
(AP, 10/7/98)
1998 Oct 6, In Germany the
Christian Democrats named Wolfgang Schaeuble as party leader.
(WSJ, 10/7/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 6, In Nigeria attacks
by Niger Delta protesters shut down the Shell and ENI pipelines.
Anger over pollution of cropland and fishing grounds was growing.
(WSJ, 10/7/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 6, In Pakistan 6
people were killed in Karachi in sectarian violence.
(WSJ, 10/8/98, p.A13)
1998 Oct 6, Syria anointed army
chief Emile Lahoud as Lebanon’s president.
(WSJ, 10/7/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 6, In Russia a
nationwide demonstration against overdue wages, inflation and lost
jobs was scheduled.
(AP, 10/7/98)
1998 Oct 7, Robert McDonough
(76) donated $30 million to Georgetown Univ. He made his fortune in
the temporary employment business.
(SFC, 10/8/98, p.A3)
1998 Oct 7, The US Justice
Department filed a lawsuit against Visa and MasterCard, the nation's
largest credit card networks, alleging that they stifled competition
in the credit card industry. A judge later ruled that the Visa and
MasterCard associations had to allow their member banks to issue
other credit cards.
(SFC, 10/8/98, p.A1)(AP,
10/7/03)
1998 Oct 7, In Laramie, Wyo.,
Matthew Shepard (22), a gay student at the University of Wyoming,
was found beaten, burned and tied to a wooden ranch fence. Police
arrested Russel Arthur Henderson (21) and Aaron McKinney for
attempted murder, kidnapping and robbery. Also picked up as
accessories to the charges were Chastity Vera Pasley (20) and
Kristen Leann Price (18). Shepard died Oct 12. Pasley was sentenced
in 1999 to 15-24 months in jail for lying to police and destroying
evidence. [See Oct 12]
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A3)(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A1)(SFC,
5/22/99, p.A11)(AP, 10/7/99)
1998 Oct 7, Ted Hughes, poet
laureate of England, won the $16,930 Forward Prize for best poetry
collection for his "Birthday Letters."
(SFC, 10/8/98, p.E3)
1998 Oct 7, In Israel at the
Gaza border Arafat and Netanyahu met with US Sec. Albright and
agreed to an Oct 15 summit meeting with Pres. Clinton.
(WSJ, 10/8/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 7, In Japan Pres. Kim
Dae Jung of South Korea urged the 2 countries to work together.
(SFC, 10/8/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 7, Gen’l. Jehangir
Karamat resigned 2 days after advocating a direct political role for
the military.
(WSJ, 10/8/98, p.A13)
1998 Oct 7, In Serbia
Milosevic’s government began preparing for a NATO attack.
(SFC, 10/8/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 7, In Russia the
anti-Yeltsin protests turned out only some 600,000 people. Zyuganov
said secret police records indicated that 36 million people turned
out for the anti-Yeltsin demonstrations.
(SFC, 10/8/98, p.A12)(SFC, 1/27/99, p.A7)
1998 Oct 8, The Nobel Prize for
Literature was awarded to Jose Saramago (75) of Portugal. His work
included "The History of the Siege of Lisbon" (1989), "Blindness,"
"Memorial do Convento" (Baltasar and Blimunda, 1982), "The Year of
the Death of Ricardo Reis" (1984), "The Stone Raft" and "Journey to
Portugal."
(USAT, 10/9/98, p.16A)(SFC, 10/9/98, p.A2)
1998 Oct 8, The House triggered
an open-ended impeachment inquiry against President Clinton in a
momentous 258-176 vote; 31 Democrats joined the Republican majority
in opening the way for nationally televised impeachment hearings.
(AP, 10/8/99)
1998 Oct 8, On Wall Street, the
Dow Jones Industrial Average continued falling and was down 275
points at one time but rallied to close down only 10 points at
7731.91. The market turned on news that interest rates would come
down.
(http://tinyurl.com/r9vh7)(http://tinyurl.com/la2wq)
1998 Oct 8, In Port Arthur,
Texas, an incinerating plant operated by Waste Management began
burning a diluted batch of napalm.
(USAT, 10/9/98, p.20A)
1998 Oct 8, Astronomers
reported sighting galaxies 12 billion light-years away using the
Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) on the
Hubble Space Telescope.
(USAT, 10/9/98, p.10A)
1998 Oct 8, In France a wildcat
transportation strike went into its 3rd day.
(USAT, 10/9/98, p.13A)
1998 Oct 8, Iran border troops
claimed a victory and said it inflicted heavy casualties over
Taliban militia. The Taliban denied any fighting.
(USAT, 10/9/98, p.14A)
1998 Oct 8, In Israel one man
was killed during a clash in Hebron where Palestinians observed a
general strike against Israel’s 8-day blockade of the town.
(USAT, 10/9/98, p.13A)
1998 Oct 8, In Japan Prime
Minister Obuchi issued an apology to the people of South Korea for
35 years of brutal colonial rule. Pres. Kim Dae-jung of South Korea
accepted the written apology, the first ever issued by Japan to an
individual country for its actions during WW II.
(USAT, 10/9/98, p.13A)
1998 Oct 8, In Kosovo, Serbia,
ethnic Albanian rebels declared a unilateral cease-fire.
(SFC, 10/9/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 8, In northeastern
Spain and excursion boat capsized and sank on Lake Banyoles and 20
French tourists were drowned.
(WSJ, 10/8/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 9, US diplomats met
twice with Yugoslav Pres. Milosevic to resolve the crises in Kosovo
and avert a NATO attack.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 9, Ricky Shetler, a
Louisiana casino consultant, pleaded guilty in federal court to
conspiring to funnel $500,000 in cash and material goods to former
Gov. Edwin Edwards and his son Stephen beginning in 1993.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A7)
1998 Oct 9, In Colombia tens of
thousands of public employees continued their 3-day-old strike after
the government declared the walkout illegal. The strike was called
against cuts in public spending and a wage increase cap of 14% for
next year.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 9, The weekly Der
Spiegel reported that spinach grown near the nuclear reprocessing
plant in Sellafield, England, had doses of technetium-99 that was 7
times above EU food standards. Greenpeace in April had demonstrated
that game pigeons in the area were irradiated.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A9)
1998 Oct 9, In Israel Prime
Minister Netanyahu appointed Ariel Sharon (70) as foreign minister.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A8)(AP, 10/9/99)
1998 Oct 9, In Italy the
center-left coalition of Premier Romano Prodi lost a vote of
confidence by one vote. Pres. Oscar Luigi Scalfaro asked Prodi to
continue leading a temporary government.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A11)
1998 Oct 9, Russia appealed to
the EU for relief aid in the face of its worst harvest in 45 years.
The US and Canada were also asked for help.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 10, David Sheldon
Boone (46), a former Pentagon analyst, was arrested for selling top
defense secrets to the former Soviet Union. He was lured back to the
US from Germany.
(WSJ, 10/14/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 10, Clark Clifford
(91), former Defense Secretary and presidential counselor, died.
(SFEC, 10/11/98, p.A2)(AP, 10/10/99)
1998 Oct 10, In Congo rebels
shot down a Boeing 727 following takeoff from Kindu. Airline
officials said there were 38 passengers, mostly women and children.
Rebels claimed the passengers were soldiers.
(SFEC, 10/11/98, p.A15)
1998 Oct 10, In Mexico Gustavo
Petricioli Iturbe, a former treasury secretary and ambassador to the
US, died at age 70.
(SFEC, 10/11/98, p.D10)
1998 Oct 11, Pope John Paul II
bestowed sainthood on Edith Stein, a Jewish-born woman who became a
Catholic nun and was executed by Nazis in the gas chambers of
Auschwitz in 1942.
(SFC, 10/12/98, p.A1)(AP, 10/11/99)
1998 Oct 11, Richard Holbrooke
met again with Pres. Milosevic in an effort to avoid NATO attacks on
Serbia due to the Serb stand on Kosovo.
(SFC, 10/12/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 11, In Afghanistan the
Taliban battled opposition forces for the 2nd day in the northeast
Takhar province.
(SFC, 10/12/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 11, In Azerbaijan
Pres. Heydar Aliyev (75) was re-elected for another 5 year term with
76% of the vote. His nearest rival, Etibar Mamedov, won 12%.
(SFC, 10/12/98, p.A12)(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 11, In Bosnia forensic
experts began exhuming 274 bodies in the village of Donja Glumina.
They were believed to be Bosnian Muslims killed in Srebrenica by
Serbs in Jul 1995.
(SFC, 10/12/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 11, In Congo Kindu
fell to the rebels supported by Rwanda and Uganda.
(SFC, 10/14/98, p.C2)
1998 Oct 11, In Greece populist
Athens Mayor Dimitris Avramopoulos was expected to win a 2nd four
year term. The Socialists were expected to maintain their grip on
Parliament.
(SFC, 10/12/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 12, A record 974-pound
pumpkin won the Great Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, Ca. It was
raised from an Atlantic Giant seed by Lincoln Mettler of Eatonville,
Wa.
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A16)
1998 Oct 12, The Nobel Prize in
medicine was awarded to 3 Americans, Robert F. Furchgott (82), Louis
Ignarro (57) and Ferid Murad (62), for their work on nitric oxide
gas in biochemical functions in the human body.
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A1,13)
1998 Oct 12, An American law
protecting sea turtles was overturned by an appeals panel of the
World Trade Organization (WTO).
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 12, In Santa Monica,
Ca., Horst Fietze, a German tourist, was killed by robbers as he
strolled with his wife on an ocean promenade. In 2009 Paul Carpenter
(31), a suspect in the murder, was arrested in Jamaica. Three others
had already been convicted and sentenced for their roles in the
killing.
(SFC, 2/13/09, p.B6)
1998 Oct 12, Matthew Shepard
(21), a gay student at the University of Wyoming, died in fort
Collins, Colorado, five days after he was beaten and lashed to a
fence; two men were charged with his murder. Russell Henderson later
pleaded guilty to murder and kidnapping; a second suspect, Aaron
McKinney, was convicted of felony murder, kidnapping and aggravated
robbery. McKinney was sentenced to 2 life terms.
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A1)(AP, 10/12/99)(SFC, 11/4/99,
p.A1)(SFC, 11/5/99, p.A1)
1998 Oct 12, Canada planned to
begin discussion with Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Liechtenstein for
the first trans-Atlantic free-trade pact.
(WSJ, 10/12/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 12, In France
thousands of high-school students demonstrated for more teachers and
school equipment.
(WSJ, 10/13/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 12, In Iran the
Khordad Foundation raised its reward for the killing of Salman
Rushdie to $2.8 million.
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A11)
1998 Oct 12, In Japan the
parliament approved banking legislation that would allow the
government to nationalize failing banks.
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 12, A protest was
planned at the Mexican border against plans to put low-level
radioactive waste at Sierra Blanca in Texas, 16 miles from the
border. This appeared to be in violation of the 1983 La Paz Treaty
in which the US and Mexico agreed to reduce pollution within 60
miles of their common frontier.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 12, In Sierra Leone a
military court condemned 34 officers to death for their
participation in a 1997 coup.
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A11)
1998 Oct 12, Yugoslav Pres.
Milosevic agreed to withdraw troops from Kosovo and allow int’l.
verification as NATO prepared to authorize air strikes if he does
not comply.
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 13, In Conyers, Ga.,
Nancy Fowler (47) spoke her message from Mary, the mother of Jesus,
to a crowd of over 100,000 pilgrims. It was the last of seven years
of messages that Fowler said she received from the Virgin Mary.
(SFC, 10/14/98, p.A3)
1998 Oct 13, The Nobel Prize in
physics was awarded to Robert B. Laughlin and Douglas Osheroff of
Stanford, Horst L. Stormer of Columbia Univ. and Daniel C. Tsui of
Princeton for their work on the fractional quantum Hall effect where
groups of electrons act as if they are quarks.
(SFC, 10/14/98, p.A1,6)(SFC, 10/8/01, p.A17)
1998 Oct 13, The Nobel Prize in
chemistry went to Walter Kohn of UC Santa Barbara and John Pople
(d.2004) of Northwestern Univ. for their work in computational
chemistry.
(SFC, 10/14/98, p.A1)(SFC, 2/19/04, p.B7)
1998 Oct 13, The NBA suspended
the first two weeks of the 1998-99 pro basketball season after
collective bargaining talks broke off.
(WSJ, 10/14/98, p.A1)(AP, 10/13/99)
1998 Oct 13, The New York
Yankees won the American League pennant with a 9-5 victory over the
Cleveland Indians in Game 6 of their championship series.
(AP, 10/13/99)
1998 Oct 13, White House and
congressional budget bargainers continued to seek agreement on
issues snarling a $500 billion bill for the new fiscal year.
(AP, 10/13/99)
1998 Oct 13, Eric Robert
Rudolph, a suspect in the bombing of a Birmingham, Ala. abortion
clinic, was reported to be linked to the 1996 Olympics bombing and
would be charged for that and 2 other bombings in Atlanta.
(SFC, 10/14/98, p.A3)
1998 Oct 13, It was reported
that Dutch auditors chastised the prime minister and other officials
for spending $40 million to acquire the Piet Mondrian painting:
"Victory Boogie Woogie."
(WSJ, 10/13/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 13, In the West Bank
an Israeli man, Itamar Doron (24) was killed and another wounded by
suspected terrorists. The slaying prompted Prime Minister
Netanyahu to declare that there was no chance of signing
a new peace deal with the Palestinians.
(SFC, 10/14/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 13, In Mexico a gas
explosion in Tultepec killed at least 16 people and wounded dozens.
The blast was related to the manufacture of illegal fireworks.
(SFC, 10/14/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 13, Serbian
authorities announced that elections will be held in Kosovo under
int’l. supervision next year. NATO authorized air strikes if
Milosevic does no comply with UN demands.
(SFC, 10/14/98, p.A1)(SFC, 10/16/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 14, Amartya K. Sen
(64), a philosophy and economics researcher from India, won the
Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in exploring the causes of
poverty and famine. He had just left Harvard Univ. to take over
Trinity College in Cambridge, England.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A2)(WSJ, 10/15/98, p.B1)
1998 Oct 14, The San Diego
Padres won the National League championship over the Atlanta Braves,
5-0, in Game 6 of their championship series.
(WSJ, 10/15/98, p.A1)(AP, 10/14/99)
1998 Oct 14, The UN for a 7th
year called for an end to the US economic embargo against Cuba. Only
the US and Israel cast negative votes.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.C4)
1998 Oct 14, Cleveland Amory,
author and animal rights pioneer, died at age 81 in Manhattan. His
work included the trilogy on social history: "The Proper
Bostonians," "The Last Resorts," and "Who Killed Society."
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.D4)(AP, 10/14/99)
1998 Oct 14, Frankie Yankovic
(83), the Polka King from Cleveland, died in Tampa, Fla. He played a
Slovenian-style polka on the accordion with clarinet and saxophone
as opposed to the Polish style which uses the accordion with
trumpets and has a faster beat. His hits included "In Heaven There
Is No Beer."
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.C6)(AP, 10/14/99)
1998 Oct 14, In Canada the
finance minister said that the first budget surplus in 28 years
would be used to pay down debt, reduce taxes, and invest in health
care.
(WSJ, 10/15/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 14, China and Taiwan
held their first talks since 1993 and said they were working toward
reunification.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 14, In Colombia Saul
Albaraz (29), a journalist, was shot to death in Medellin.
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.D3)
1998 Oct 14, Germany’s new
government proposed to scrap the 1913 citizenship law based on blood
ties. The coalition agreed to promote controlled distribution of
heroin to long-term addicts and to work for expanded rights for gay
couples.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A13)
1998 Oct 14, In the Philippines
Typhoon Zeb killed 21 people and forced some 31,000 from their
homes. The death toll went up to 70. It moved on to Taiwan where 20
people were killed and Japan where 12 died.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.C4)(WSJ, 10/19/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 14, In Russia Premier
Primakov said that the government has created a $600 million
emergency food reserve.
(WSJ, 10/15/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 14, In Serbia police
shut down the Danas newspaper, as well as the independent Dvevni
Telegraph in Belgrade. NATO positioned warplanes in Italy for a
possible attack.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 14, In Turkey the
draft budget was unveiled and it was admitted that IMF targets would
not be reached. Inflation for 1999 was targeted to 35% after
reaching 100% in early 1998. 1998 growth was measured at 4.5%.
(WSJ, 10/15/98, p.A20)
1998 Oct 14, In Zimbabwe Pres.
Robert Mugabe that he will meet with Kabila to discuss support
against the rebels in Congo.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A15)
1998 Oct 15, Pres. Clinton
opened the Mideast summit talks in Maryland between Arafat and
Netanyahu in Washington that resulted in the Wye River
land-for-peace agreement..
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A1)(AP, 10/15/99)
1998 Oct 15, The US Congress
and Pres. Clinton agreed to a $500 billion budget that included
funds for 100,000 new teachers and emergency funds for farmers and
$18 billion for the IMF. This ending a week of election-season
budget brinkmanship.
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.A3)(AP, 10/15/99)
1998 Oct 15, The Federal
Reserve made surprise cuts in the discount rate and the overnight
loan rate of banks by .25%. The move pushed the Dow Jones up 331
points.
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.A1)(AP, 10/15/99)
1998 Oct 15, Pope John Paul
marked his 20th anniversary with a new encyclical "Fides et Ratio,"
or Faith and Reason with the basic message of: Be not afraid of
human reason. The 40,000 word treatisse emphasizes spiritual truth
over technology.
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.A17) (WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A13)
1998 Oct 15, In Colombia some
200,000 people marched on the 8th day of a strike against the
government’s planned austerity program.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 15, In France over
200,000 high-school students protested overcrowded classes, a
shortage of teachers, over-loaded schedules, and ill-equipped,
unsafe schools.
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.D2)
1998 Oct 15, In Germany the
coalition parties agreed to open talks next year on a timetable for
closing the country’s 19 nuclear power plants.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 15, From Indonesia it
was reported that machete-wielding gangs have killed at least 153
people in Banyuwangi in recent months. The dead were accused of
dabbling in black magic and denounced as evil sorcerers. The
killings were reported to be spreading to the neighboring districts
of Jember, Pasuruan, Situbondo, and the island of Madura.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A12)(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A13)
1998 Oct 15, In Lebanon the
parliament approved Gen’l. Emile Lahoud as president.
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.D2)
1998 Oct 15, In Norway up to 1
1/2 million workers were expected to strike for 2 hours to protest a
government proposal to cut the annual vacation allowance by one day
to 4 weeks.
(SFC, 10/15/98, p.A17)
1998 Oct 15, The Contact Group
in Paris approved the Kosovo agreement. In Vienna the 54-nation
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe agreed to
oversee the 2,000-member ground verification mission. Serbian
authorities suspended the Nasa Borba newspaper.
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 15, Sudanese Foreign
Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said that Sudan will allow the UN to
investigate any site alleged to be making chemical weapons.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A13)
1998 Oct 16, The Nobel Peace
Prize was awarded to John Hume, head of the Irish Catholic Social
Democratic and Labor Party, and to David Trimble, leader of the
Protestant Ulster Unionist Party.
(SFEC, 10/18/98, p.D1)(AP, 10/16/99)
1998 Oct 16, US Congress passed
legislation to extend copyrights for corporations to 95 years from
75, and for individuals to 70 years after death, rather than 50. It
became known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. In 2003
the Supreme Court upheld the extension.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.A1)(NW, 10/21/02, p.40)(SFC,
1/16/03, p.A1)
1998 Oct 16, It was reported
that a growing number of lobsters in Maine were being found sick and
dying from undetermined causes.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.C1)
1998 Oct 16, In Brazil imports
exceeded exports by over 4% of the economy and the inflation rate
exceeded that of the US. This indicated that the real was overpriced
and that devaluation was needed.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 16, After receiving a
Spanish extradition warrant, British police arrested former Chilean
dictator Augusto Pinochet in London for questioning about
allegations that he had murdered Spanish citizens during his years
in power. Pinochet was held for 16 months as courts decided whether
he could be extradited to Spain; he was allowed in 2000 to return to
Chile, where a court later held that he could not face charges
because of his deteriorating health and mental condition.
(AP, 10/16/03)
1998 Oct 16, In Colombia red
ants, called "crazy ants" by farmers in the Santander and Boyaca
provinces, had destroyed some 10,000 acres of crops and threatened
an additional 100,000 acres.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.C1)
1998 Oct 16, It was reported
that Bobi Ladawa Mobutu, wife of Mobutu Sese Seko, and son, Nazanga,
had established a Mobutu Family Foundation to carry out charitable
programs in the US and Africa for young Africans. The former
dictator was believed to have taken $10 billion from the Congo.
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 16, In Haiti a former
judge, Luckner Pierrex, was arrested for the 1982 slaying of
journalist Richard Brisson.
(SFC, 10/20/98, p.C12)
1998 Oct 16, In Italy Massimo
D’Alema, head of the Democratic Left Party, was asked by Pres.
Scalfaro to form a new government.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.A13)
1998 Oct 16, It was reported
that fires in Russia were burning in the Sikhote-Alin wildlife
reserve and threatened Siberian tigers of which only an estimated
450 remained.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.C1)
1998 Oct 16, Serbian Pres.
Milosevic was given an additional 10 days to withdraw forces from
Kosovo and comply with UN demands.
(SFC, 10/17/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 17, The New York
Yankees beat the San Diego Padres in the first game of the Baseball
World Series 9 to 6.
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.D1)
1998 Oct 17, Jon Postel (55),
an influential Internet pioneer, died. Since 1968 he had directed
the network’s Internet assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) that
allowed computers to be matched with web addresses. Two weeks before
he died he submitted the framework for a new organization to succeed
the IANA, a non-profit entity (ICANN) with an internationally
diverse board of directors.
(WSJ, 10/19/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/22/98, p.A22)(Econ,
11/19/05, p.68)
1998 Oct 17, Chilean officials
lodged a formal complaint to Britain over the arrest of former
Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who arrested in a London medical
clinic following a request from Spain for his extradition.
(SFEC, 10/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 17, In Malaysia Azizah
Ismail, wife of Anwar Ibrahim, joined some ten thousand protestors
demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Mohamad.
(SFEC, 10/18/98, p.A20)
1998 Oct 17, In Nigeria a
pipeline explosion near the town of Jesse killed some 700 people.
Authorities believed that scavenger’s tools sparked the explosion.
(SFC, 10/19/98, p.a1)(SFC, 10/20/98, p.A8)(SFC,
10/21/98, p.C2)(AP, 10/17/08)
1998 Oct 18, The New York
Yankees beat the San Diego Padres in the 2nd game of the Baseball
World Series 9 to 3.
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.D1)
1998 Oct 18, The new Steve Wynn
$1.6 billion, 3,000 room Bellagio Casino opened in Las Vegas. It was
built over the site of the old Dunes casino. It was named after the
Italian town of Bellagio whose name means place of relaxation.
(SFC, 10/19/98, p.A1)(SFEM, 11/29/98, p.13)
1998 Oct 18, A weekend storm in
Texas killed at least 14 people after 12 inches of rain fell. The
death toll increased to 22 and later 28.
(SFC, 10/19/98, p.A2)(SFC, 10/21/98, p.A3)(WSJ,
10/23/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 18, In Colombia the
Ocensa pipeline in Antioquia province near the village of Machuca
exploded. The attack was attributed to the National Liberation Army
and at least 25 people were killed.
(SFC, 10/19/98, p.A13)
1998 Oct 18, In Egypt a train
jumped its tracks in the town of Kafr el-Dawar and at least 47
people were killed.
(SFC, 10/19/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 18, In Macedonia
elections were held and the opposition coalition later claimed
victory by winning 44 seats of the 120-seat Assembly.
(SFC, 10/20/98, p.C12)
1998 Oct 18, In Mexico the
Zapatista rebels called for talks with the Cocopa group, a
multi-party peace commission set up in 1994.
(SFC, 10/19/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 18, In Oporto,
Portugal, 21 member nations met for the Ibero-American summit. 19
Latin American countries were represented along with Spain and
Portugal. A document was prepared urging the industrialized nations
to help stave off economic recession.
(SFEC, 10/18/98, p.A23)
1998 Oct 18, Pope John Paul II
celebrated Mass at the Vatican marking the 20th anniversary of his
election to the papacy.
(AP, 10/18/99)
1998 Oct 19, The New York
Yankees beat the San Diego Padres in the 3rd game of the Baseball
World Series 5 to 4.
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.D1)
1998 Oct 19, The trial of
Microsoft Corp. began in Washington on antitrust charges of stifling
competition.
(SFC, 10/19/98, p.A1)(AP, 10/19/99)
1998 Oct 19, In Miami, the
first class-action lawsuit brought by smokers against the tobacco
industry went to trial. Jurors later found the nation's largest
cigarette makers and industry groups had produced a defective and
deadly product.
(AP, 10/19/99)
1998 Oct 19, In Colorado a
series of arson fires were set at Vail. The Earth Liberation Front
later claimed responsibility for the fires that caused $12 million
in damage. In 2006 4 people were indicted for the Vail blaze. The
same 4 had already been indicted for sabotage attacks in California,
Oregon and Wyoming. 2 of the 4 were still at large.
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.A3)(SFC, 5/19/06, p.A4)
1998 Oct 19, In Tennessee Tommy
Burks, the state incumbent Democrat Senator, was shot and killed at
his 1,000 acre hog farm near Monterey. His rival, Byron (Low Tax)
Looper, was arrested a week later for the killing.
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 19, In Israel an
assailant threw 2 hand grenades into the central bus station of
Beersheba and injured at least 30 people. 67 people were wounded and
the incident cast a pall over the peace negotiations in Washington.
A Palestinian from the West Bank, Salem Rajab al-Sarsour (29), was
caught and confessed. Israel suspended negotiations with the
Palestinians on issues other than security after a bloody attack at
an Israeli bus stop.
(SFC, 10/19/98, p.A14)(SFC, 10/20/98, p.A8)(AP,
10/19/99)
1998 Oct 19, In Congo 16
Zimbabwean soldiers were captured by the rebels.
(SFC, 10/21/98, p.C2)
1998 Oct 19, In Georgia an army
mutiny failed after 200 troops opposed to Pres. Shevardnadze
surrendered. 4 rebels and one government soldier were killed.
(WSJ, 10/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 19, In Sierra Leone a
firing squad executed 24 soldiers for taking part in the May, 1997,
coup.
(SFC, 10/20/98, p.C12)
1998 Oct 19, A Spanish judge
filed a motion for the extradition of Gen’l. Pinochet from England
that encompassed 94 cases of genocide, as well as the deaths of 79
Spaniards who were killed in Chile after being abducted by an
alliance of south American intelligence services.
(SFC, 10/20/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 20, President Clinton
named John Podesta as his chief of staff, replacing Erskine Bowles.
(AP, 10/20/99)
1998 Oct 20, King Hussein of
Jordan, at the invitation of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright,
joined Pres. Clinton to press for the Israeli-Palestinian compromise
in Maryland.
(WSJ, 10/21/98, p.A1)(AP, 10/20/99)
1998 Oct 20, In Colombia Jose
Ortega, vice president of the Unitary Workers’ Federation, was shot
and killed. The killing prompted a wildcat strike by thousands of
private-sector workers.
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.C5)
1998 Oct 20, In France over
300,000 high-school students demonstrated for smaller classes and
more teachers. There was scattered violence.
(WSJ, 10/21/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 20, In Germany the new
government announced a coalition agreement with a plan to reform
taxes, increase employment, and raise gasoline taxes.
(SFC, 10/21/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 20, In Guatemala the
former rebels of the National Revolutionary Unity (URVG) asked to be
recognized as a political party.
(SFC, 10/21/98, p.C2)
1998 Oct 20, In Switzerland
officials announced that they seized over $90 million from Raul
Salinas after an investigations revealed that the money was received
for protecting drug shipments. Swiss authorities requested that
Britain seize an additional $23.4 million deposited in England.
(SFC, 10/21/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 21, The New York
Yankees swept the World Series in the 4th game over the San Diego
Padres 3 to 0.
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.D1)
1998 Oct 21, Pres. Clinton
signed a $520 billion spending bill that provided $17.9 billion for
the IMF and $1.1 billion as a down payment for new teachers. It was
shipped to him just before the 105th Congress recessed. The CIA
received a supplemental $1.8 billion.
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.A3)(SFC, 10/22/98, p.A9)(AP,
10/21/99)
1998 Oct 21, Dr. Jane Henney
was confirmed as US FDA commissioner.
(AP, 10/21/99)
1998 Oct 21, A report outlined
why Pierre Sane, head of Amnesty Int’l., targeted the US this year
for human rights abuses.
(SFC, 10/21/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 21, A radical
environmental group, the Earth Liberation Front, claimed
responsibility for fires that caused $12 million in damage at the
nation's busiest ski resort in Vail, Colo.
(AP, 10/21/99)
1998 Oct 21, In France the
government announced emergency plans to improve conditions in the
high schools.
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.C3)
1998 Oct 21, In Guinea-Bissau
heavy artillery fire rocked the capital and rebels claimed to have
captured Bafata, the 2nd largest town.
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.C5)
1998 Oct 21, Typhoon Babs
killed 4 people in the central Philippines. Another 11 were killed
on the southern tip of Luzon. A total of 156 people were killed
including 71 from landslides on Catanduanes Island.
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.C5)(WSJ, 10/23/98, p.A1)(SFC,
10/24/98, p.A12)(SFEC, 10/25/98, p.A20)(SFC, 10/26/98, p.A7)
1998 Oct 21, The European
Commission approved a $180 million aid package for Turkey.
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.C5)
1998 Oct 21, In French Guiana
the 3rd European Ariana 5 test rocket was launched at Kourou. It
successfully simulated the launch of a mockup satellite.
(WSJ, 10/22/98, p.B2)
1998 Oct 21, Turkey and Syria
signed an accord whereby Syria agreed to brand the Kurdish Workers
Party (PKK) as a terrorist group.
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.C5)
1998 Oct 22, The US government
announced one of the biggest toys recalls ever, advising parents to
remove batteries from Fisher-Price Power Wheels cars and trucks
because of faulty wiring.
(AP, 10/22/99)
1998 Oct 22, The US government
announced a $1 billion settlement with diesel engine manufacturers
for violations of environmental laws.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.A11)
1998 Oct 22, At Cape Canaveral
Orbital Sciences launched a Brazilian satellite from a Pegasus
rocket aboard a modified jumbo jet. The satellite will monitor
environmental devices throughout Brazil.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 22, In Texas the
Natural Resource Conservation Commission voted against issuing a
license for a radioactive waste dump at Sierra Blanca, 16 miles from
the Mexican border.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 22, The US National
Academy of Sciences released a report that called for forcefully
reducing fish catches due to dwindling fish populations.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.A13)
1998 Oct 22, Scientists at
Columbia Univ. announced research that showed monkeys can count.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.A9)
1998 Oct 22-1998 Nov 9,
Hurricane Mitch was one of the Caribbean's deadliest storms ever
causing at least at least 9,000 deaths in Central America. The storm
hit Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama,
Jamaica, and Costa Rica.
(AP, 9/11/04)(www.wunderground.com)
1998 Oct 22, In Guyana police
and US anti-drug agents seized 3 tons of cocaine aboard a cargo ship
bound for Europe. It was a record bust for Guyana.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.A19)
1998 Oct 22, In Indonesia Astra
Int’l., the nation’s biggest auto assembler, told creditors that it
must stop paying interest on $1.4 billion in loans due to the
economic downturn.
(WSJ, 10/23/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 22, In Croatia a 2nd
clerk revealed that Pres. Franco Tudjman’s wife, Ankica Tudjman, had
deposited nearly $300,000 into her bank account over the last 2
years. Robert Horvat and Ankica Lepej were to be indicted for
violating bank secrecy laws. Mrs. Tudjman was a pensioner who ran a
children’s charity.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.D3)
1998 Oct 22, In Kosovo 4
refugees, that included 3 children, were killed trying to cross the
Albanian border. Pres. Milosevic claimed that he had met NATO
demands to pull Serb forces out of Kosovo.
(WSJ, 10/23/98, p.A1)(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 22, In Nigeria 6
people died in clashes between the ethnic Ijaw and Itshekiri youths
in the oil town of Warri.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.A19)
1998 Oct 23, The "BookTalk"
telephone hotline to various authors, founded by David Knight, was
described. Dial 818-788-9722 to listen to a variety of authors speak
their mind.
(WSJ, 10/23/98, p.W12)
1998 Oct 23, An American
brokered peace deal was reached at the Wye Plantation in Maryland
between Yasser Arafat and Benjamin Netanyahu. Israeli and
Palestinian extremists denounced the deal. Land for the Palestinians
was exchanged for security guarantees to the Israelis backed by the
American CIA. Pres. Clinton agreed to release Jonathan Pollard, who
was jailed 11 years ago on charges of spying for Israel.
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A1,10,13)(SFEC, 10/25/98,
p.A17)
1998 Oct 23, Researchers
reported the complete genetic sequence of the bacteria chlamydia
trachomatis.
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A3)
1998 Oct 23, Dr. Barnett
Slepian, an obstetrician, gynecologist and abortion practitioner,
was gunned down in his kitchen in Amherst, N.Y. James Charles Kopp
(44), aka "Atomic Dog," was later sought in relation to the killing.
In 1999 a warrant was issued for Kopp's arrest. Kopp was arrested in
France in 2001. Kopp was returned to the US in 2002 and pleaded not
guilty. In 2003 Kopp was found guilty of 2nd degree murder.
(SFEC, 10/25/98, p.A1)(SFC, 11/5/98, p.A7)(SFC,
5/6/99, p.A9)(SFC, 3/30/01, p.A3)(SFC, 6/6/02, p.A5)(SFC, 1/19/02,
p.A1)
1998 Oct 23, Typhoon Babs
pummeled the northern Philippines, killing at least 189.
(AP, 10/23/99)
1998 Oct 23, In Colombia Jesus
Fernandez, alleged ringleader of the Norte del Valle drug cartel,
was arrested in Medellin. He was also wanted by the US.
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 23, In Iran voters
selected the 86-member Assembly of Experts, who in turn will
select the supreme leader of the country. Candidates for the
Assembly were tested and graded on Islamic law by the 12-member
Council of Guardians, who were in turn appointed by the supreme
leader. The turnout was low and Conservatives won at least 54 of the
86 seats.
(WSJ, 10/22/98, p.A1)(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A14)(SFC,
10/26/98, p.A7)
1998 Oct 23, Peru and Ecuador
settled their border dispute with a line along the Cordellera de
Condor mountain range. Contiguous national parks were to be created
in the disputed area. Tiwintza Hill, allocated to Peru, was to be
granted as private property to Ecuador.
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 23, In Kosovo, Serbia,
4 people were killed trying to cross into Albania when they stepped
on mines.
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 23, In Turkey 5
Kurdish rebels burned themselves to death in loyalty to their leader
Abdullah Ocalan, who was expelled from Syria.
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 24, Officials from the
US, China and North and South Korea seeking a permanent peace for
the divided Korean peninsula announced in Geneva they had removed
the last obstacles to full-blown talks.
(AP, 10/24/03)
1998 Oct 24, A natural gas well
exploded in Bryceland, La., and killed 7 workers.
(SFC, 10/26/98, p.A4)
1998 Oct 24-25, Weekend storms
struck Britain and at least 11 people were killed.
(SFC, 10/31/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 25, Thousands came to
Oklahoma City for the ground-breaking ceremony of a memorial to the
1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building. Vice President Al Gore
participated.
(SFC, 10/26/98, p.A3)(AP, 10/25/99)
1998 Oct 25, In Chechnya Shadid
Bargishev (27), the top anti-kidnapping official, was killed in a
remote-controlled car bombing. He was about as to begin a major
offensive on hostage takers.
(SFC, 10/26/98, p.A7)
1998 Oct 25, In Israel West
Bank settlers formally broke ties with Prime Minister Netanyahu over
the new peace accord. In Ramallah Wasim Tarifi (17) was killed
during a Fatah youth protest.
(SFC, 10/26/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 25, NATO generals left
Belgrade with more assurances from Pres. Milosevic that enough
forces will be withdrawn by the 27th deadline to avoid air strikes.
(SFC, 10/26/98, p.A6)
1998 Oct 25-1998 Oct 31,
Hurricane Mitch hit the western Caribbean. Later reports put the
death toll in Honduras to 7,000. In Nicaragua the deaths reached
1,950, in Guatemala it was157, and in El Salvador it was 222. The
storm parked over Honduras and rain poured for 6 days straight. A
Windjammer yacht with 31 people onboard was also reported lost in
the storm.
(SFC, 10/28/98, p.A11)(SFC, 10/29/98, p.A13)(SFC,
10/30/98, p.A14)(SFC, 11/3/98, p.A1)(SFC, 11/4/98, p.A9)(WSJ,
11/6/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 26, The Education
Department reported that the default rate on student loans had
fallen into single digits for the first time.
(AP, 10/26/99)
1998 Oct 26, Nutrient pollution
known as eutrophication, the overabundance of nitrogen and
phosphorus, was noted on the Chesapeake Bay and estuaries around the
world. A 7,000 sq. mile dead zone was reported to spread every
summer across the Gulf of Mexico from the mouth of the Mississippi.
In 2007 Louisiana crabbers complained of buckets of dead crabs and
the condition in the Gulf of Mexico was expected to get worse due to
rising demand for ethanol and increased corn production in Corn Belt
states, which called for more nitrogen use.
(SFC, 10/25/98, p.A3)(SFC, 12/20/07, p.A26)
1998 Oct 26, Hurricane Mitch
turned category 5 with 180-mph winds and threatened the coast of
Honduras.
(SFC, 10/27/98, p.B1)
1998 Oct 26, In Afghanistan the
Taliban ordered an investigation of Osama bin Laden.
(SFC, 10/27/98, p.B2)
1998 Oct 26, In Croatia a jury
reversed itself after 2 weeks and crowned a new Miss Croatia, a
member of the Catholic majority. Lejla Sehovic, the original winner,
was a Muslim.
(SFC, 10/27/98, p.B5)
1998 Oct 26, Cyprus announced
that it had begun building a naval base, apparently destined for use
by Greek warships.
(WSJ, 10/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 26, Ecuador and Peru
signed a peace treaty in Brazil and settled their land dispute. The
agreement defined a 49-mile border left undrawn in a 1942 treaty.
(SFC, 10/27/98, p.B5)(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.A22)
1998 Oct 26, A UN panel
reported that the Iraqi government lied to UN weapons inspectors
about its nerve gas arsenal and had loaded the VX nerve agent on at
least 2 warheads during the Persian Gulf War.
(SFC, 10/27/98, p.B6)
1998 Oct 26, In Israel 2
Palestinian gunmen killed Danny Vargas (28) in Hebron. In
retaliation a 69-year-old Palestinian man was killed outside the
Jewish settlement of Itamar.
(SFC, 10/27/98, p.B1)
1998 Oct 26, Russian President
Boris Yeltsin was ordered by his doctors to cancel a one-day trip to
Austria so he could recuperate from high blood pressure and extreme
fatigue.
(AP, 10/26/99)
1998 Oct 26, In Kosovo Serb
forces appeared to be withdrawing under the threat of NATO air
strikes.
(SFC, 10/27/98, p.B1)
1998 Oct 27, Pres. Clinton
signed the Curt Flood Act to override the 1922 Supreme Court ruling
that exempted baseball from antitrust laws. The new act revoked the
exemption only for labor relations.
(SFC, 10/28/98, p.A2)
1998 Oct 27, Hurricane Mitch
cut through the western Caribbean, pummeling coastal Honduras and
Belize; the storm caused several thousand deaths in Central America
in the days that followed.
(AP, 10/27/99)
1998 Oct 27, In Brazil Pres.
Cardoso pledged to cut $7 billion from the federal budget next year.
The debt roll over was expected to be $333 billion.
(SFC, 10/28/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 27, In Canada the
National Post began operations as a new national daily under the
control of media tycoon Conrad Black.
(WSJ, 10/26/98, p.A15)
1998 Oct 27, In England Ian
McEwan was awarded the $34,000 Booker prize for his novel
"Amsterdam." A funeral brings together the former lovers of a dead
woman, two of whom gang up on a third. The work includes a detailed
look at the workings of professional music and journalism.
(SFC, 10/28/98, p.E3)(WSJ, 10/23/98, p.W12)
1998 Oct 27, In Germany Gerhard
Schroeder was confirmed as chancellor.
(WSJ, 10/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 27, Palestinian
security forces arrested 2 gunmen in the West Bank who reportedly
confessed to the killing of Danny Vargas as well as the murder of
another Israeli on Oct 13.
(SFC, 10/28/98, p.A11)
1998 Oct 27, Serb forces drew
back from former Kosovo battlefronts, holding off the immediate
threat of NATO airstrikes.
(AP, 10/27/99)
1998 Oct 28, Ted Hughes,
British poet, died at age 68. His work included 35 books of poems, 3
works of prose, 2 opera libretti, and 4 stage plays. In 2007
Christopher Reid edited “Letters of Ted Hughes.”
(SFC, 10/30/98, p.A17)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.90)
1998 Oct 28, In Botswana the
life expectancy was reported to have dropped from 61 in 1993 to 47
to the AIDS epidemic.
(SFC, 10/28/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 28, Brazil unveiled an
$84 million austerity package that included a tax on government
pensions.
(SFC, 10/29/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 28, Britain’s High
Court ruled that Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet could not be
tried in England for anything he did in Chile. Pinochet was still
held pending an appeal. The House of Lords later overturned the
decision, saying Pinochet's arrest could stand. Pinochet was
eventually allowed to return to Chile, where a court later held that
he could not face charges because of his deteriorating health and
mental condition. Pinochet died in 2006.
(SFC, 10/29/98, p.A1)(AP, 10/28/08)
1998 Oct 28, In Burundi 34
people were killed south of the capital.
(SFC, 10/29/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 28, In China the new
$400 million Wanjiazhai dam on the Yellow River was to begin
producing hydroelectric power.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.D5)
1998 Oct 28, Colombian Pres.
Pastrana met with Pres. Clinton in Washington and agreed to expand
the fight against drugs.
(SFC, 10/29/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 28, In Indonesia some
8,000 students staged a sit-in in Jakarta and demanded the B.J.
Habibie step down.
(SFC, 10/29/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 28, In Israel a bomb
aimed at a busload of school children exploded in the Gaza Strip and
2 people were killed.
(SFC, 10/29/98, p.A15)
1998 Oct 28, Four Slovak
opposition parties formed a centre-right coalition government under
Mikulas Dzurinda.
(SFC, 10/29/98, p.A14)(Econ, 3/27/04, p.52)
1998 Oct 28, In South Africa
the 3,500 page report of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee was
formally handed over from Desmond Tutu to Pres. Mandela. It was
based on years of testimony from the people who ran the 1960-1994
white-government and their victims.
(SFC, 10/29/98, p.A13)(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 28, The Inter-American
Development Bank approved a $400 million loan to help Venezuela
adopt economic reforms while battling the effects of low oil
revenues.
(WSJ, 10/29/98, p.A13)
1998 Oct 28, In Zimbabwe it was
reported that 1 in 5 adults was infected with the AIDS virus.
(SFC, 10/28/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 29, The US government
cleared the powerful drug tamoxifen as a way for healthy women at
very high risk of breast cancer to cut their odds of getting a
tumor.
(AP, 10/29/99)
1998 Oct 29, The shuttle
Discovery blasted off with 6 crew mates including John Glenn (77),
the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962.
(SFC, 10/30/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 29, An Oscar Mayer
meat packing plant in Michigan sliced and packaged products that
later killed 9 people and caused 3 stillbirths due to listeria
contamination.
(SFC, 1/16/99, p.A4)
1998 Oct 29, Five nations
endorsed the oil pipeline from the Caspian to the Mediterranean Sea.
Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakstan and Uzbekistan committed to
the 1,080 mile conduit with a push from the US.
(SFC, 10/30/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 29, In Ireland the
deadline for the creation of a new North-South Ministerial Council
faced delay due to a despite over disarmament. An estimated 100 ton
arsenal including several tons of Semtex was still hidden on both
sides of the border.
(SFC, 10/26/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 29, Palestinian
authorities arrested the leader of Hamas, Sheik Yassin, following a
suicide bombing aimed at a busload of Jewish settler children.
(SFC, 10/30/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 29, South Africa's
Truth and Reconciliation Commission condemned both apartheid and
violence committed by the African National Congress.
(AP, 10/29/99)
1998 Oct 29, In Goteberg,
Sweden, a fire burned a discotheque with hundreds of teenagers and
63 people were killed. In 2000 four young men were sentenced to
prison terms of 3-8 years.
(SFC, 10/30/98, p.A15)(WSJ, 11/4/98, p.A1)(SFC,
6/9/00, p.A15)
1998 Oct 30, The Group of Seven
industrial nations endorsed Pres. Clinton’s plan to protect healthy
nations from currency and stock market upheavals with a new IMF
strategy.
(SFC, 10/31/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 30, Four abortion
clinics in 3 states, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee, received
letters claiming to contain deadly anthrax bacteria. The letters
were tested and found to be free of anthrax.
(SFC, 10/31/98, p.A3)(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.A11)
1998 Oct 30, David Bower (86)
of the US and Mikhail Budyko of Russia won the $427,600 Blue Planet
Prize, awarded by the Asahi Glass Foundation of Japan for their work
in solving environmental problems.
(SFC, 10/31/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 30, The UN extended
its 460-member peacekeeping force in the Western Sahara over land
contested between Morocco and the Algerian-based Polisario Front.
(SFC, 10/31/98, p.A15)
1998 Oct 30-1998 Nov 1,
Hurricane Mitch caused a major mud slide in Nicaragua when the
Casita Volcano crater lake in Posoltega overflowed. The death toll
was estimated in the thousands. In Honduras Mayor Cesar Castellanos
of Tegucigalpa and 3 others were killed in a helicopter crash while
surveying the flood damage where hundreds were estimated killed.
(SFC, 11/2/98, p.A1,17)(AP, 10/30/99)
1998 Oct 30, In Pakistan Prime
Minister Sharif dismissed the Sindh provincial government and
imposed federal rule following a fallout between the Pakistan Muslim
League and the Muttaheda Qami Movement over the recent killing of
Hakim Said, a critic of the MQM and a leading physician.
(SFC, 10/31/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 30, Spanish judges
ruled that Spain has the legal right to bring criminal charges
against Augusto Pinochet and to seek his extradition from Britain.
(SFC, 10/31/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 30, In Turkey
anti-terrorist squads shot an airline hijacker to death and freed 38
passengers.
(SFC, 10/30/98, p.A18)
1998 Oct 31, A genetic study
was released suggesting President Thomas Jefferson fathered at least
one child by his slave Sally Hemings.
(AP, 10/31/99)
1998 Oct 31, The US and Israel
signed a strategic cooperation agreement to protect the Jewish state
from ballistic missiles.
(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.A23)
1998 Oct 31, Abe Hirschfeld,
New York real estate magnate, handed Paula Jones a $1 million check
to cash for settlement of the sexual harassment case against Pres.
Clinton.
(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.A4)
1998 Oct 31, Stephanie Condon
(14) vanished while babysitting a cousin's twins in Riddle, Oregon.
Her remains were found in 2009 in Glide, Ore., about 30 miles from
Riddle. Dale Wayne Hill, was arrested in Dayton, Nev., on March 25,
2009, on a charge of failure to register as a felon. He was the last
person known to have seen her alive.
(AP, 3/25/09)
1998 Oct 31, In Congo it was
reported that a lightning bolt killed all 11 members of a soccer
team in eastern Kasai province.
(SFC, 10/31/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 31, Iraq said that it
was suspending all cooperation with int’l. arms inspectors and would
close down their long-term monitoring operations in response to a
Security Council rejection of demands that a review of its relations
with the UN should automatically result in a lifting of sanctions.
The move condemned by the Security Council.
(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.A21)(AP, 10/31/99)
1998 Oct 31, In Northern
Ireland Brian Service (35) was killed in Belfast. Later the Red Hand
Defenders claimed responsibility. A red-colored hand is the
traditional symbol of the province of Ulster.
(SFC, 11/2/98, p.A14)
1998 Oct 31, In Pakistan the
government planned to use direct rule in Karachi, where near daily
violence this year has left 750 people dead.
(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.A16)
1998 Oct 31, In Russia the
government approved an economic plan that centered on tax cuts, bank
rescues, state intervention and printing more rubles.
(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.A21)
1998 Oct, The US Congress
passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in an effort to clamp
down on the free-for-all world of Net music.
(WSJ, 6/20/00, p.B1)
1998 Oct, An 4,000 page US
appropriations bill was passed that included one sentence to allow
anyone to request "all data produced" by a published study paid with
public funds.
(SFC, 7/31/99, p.B1)
1998 Oct, The Deep Space I
mission was launched. It would make a 2-year tour of the outer solar
system propelled by an ion-propulsion system.
(SFC, 8/28/97, p.A2)( www.space.com)
1998 Oct, The board of
directors for ICANN was seated. The Clinton administration created
ICANN, the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers. It had
been run by Jon Postel (d.1998), director of the Computer Networks
Division at Information Sciences Institute at the Univ. of Southern
Calif. ICANN was expected to become independent in 2006.
(WSJ, 11/5/99, p.B5)(SFEC, 7/30/00, p.B6)(Econ,
11/20/04, p.66)
1998 Oct, Austria’s BAWAG bank
lost some $600 million following a disastrous bet on the yen. Losses
were covered by taking money from the strike fund of OGB, the
federation of trade unions that owned the bank. In 2007 Helmut
Elsner, head of BAWAG, went on trial along with 8 others including
Walter Flottl, the former head of BAWAG, and Flottl’s son, and
independent banker who arranged the yen trades.
(Econ, 7/21/07, p.73)
1998 Oct, In Britain the
Jenkins commission on electoral reform proposed an alternative,
proportional system for general elections.
(AP,
5/5/11)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/255179.stm)
1998 Oct, In the Congo the new
constitution was scheduled to be completed.
(SFC, 5/30/97, p.A15)
1998 Oct, US-funded Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty began broadcasting Radio Free Iraq daily from
Prague.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.C1)(AP, 11/30/09)
1998 Oct, The Italian freighter
Pallas caught fire in the North Sea and leaked some 10-15 tons of
oil. Hundreds of birds along the northern coast of Germany were
killed by the resulting oil slick.
(SFC, 11/14/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct, South Korea lifted
its ban on importing Japanese comic books, magazines, and movies. It
was the first phase of a gradual opening to Japanese pop culture.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.A15)
1998 Oct, In South Africa
Parliament approved one of the world’s toughest anti-smoking laws.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.C3)
1998 Oct, A 5-year study by a
Canadian government research group found high levels of dioxin in
the soil, fish and animal tissue, and the blood of people born after
the war in the Aluoi Valley in central Quang Tri province of
Vietnam.
(SFEC, 5/16/99, p.A20)
1998 Nov 1, John Kagwe of Kenya
won the NY Marathon for the second consecutive year in 2:8:45.
Franca Fiacconi of Italy won among the women in 2:25:17.
(WSJ, 11/2/98, p.A1)(AP, 11/1/99)
1998 Nov 1, Weekend rain caused
severe flooding in central Kansas and Oklahoma. The Whitewater and
Walnut Rivers topped a 35-foot levee.
(SFC, 11/3/98, p.A3)
1998 Alfred Mitchell Bingham,
founder of the Depression-era socialist magazine "Common Sense,"
died at age 93.
(WSJ, 11/6/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 1, In Bangladesh the
first Peace Corps volunteers arrived. 17 US college will study
Bangla, the local language, for 3 months and then teach English to
school teachers.
(SFC, 11/2/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 1, In Colombia some
1,000 rebels attacked a police base in Mitu, capital of Vaupes
province with missiles shaped from propane cylinders. As many as 60
officers were believed killed. 80 police officers were reported
killed and 45 taken prisoner by the FARC rebels.
(SFC, 11/2/98, p.A14)(WSJ, 11/2/98, p.A1)(SFC,
11/3/98, p.A9)
1998 Nov 1, In Guatemala 10
Americans were killed when their C-47 cargo plane crashed while on a
mission to distribute medicines and medical care.
(SFC, 11/3/98, p.A11)
1998 Nov 1, In Macedonia a 2nd
round of elections was scheduled. Right-wing parties unseated the
ruling ex-Communists.
(WSJ, 11/2/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 1, The military arm of
the radical Islamic group Hamas made an unprecedented threat against
Yasser Arafat, demanding the Palestinian leader halt a crackdown
against it, or face violent vengeance.
(AP, 11/1/99)
1998 Nov 2, Microsoft chairman
Bill Gates took center stage at his company's antitrust trial,
appearing on videotape inside a federal courtroom in Washington.
(AP, 11/2/99)
1998 Nov 2, The death toll from
Hurricane Mitch continued to rise with 174 killed in El Salvador,
100 in Guatemala, 0ver 1,500 in Nicaragua and over 5,500 in
Honduras. Central American officials estimated more than 7,000
people had died in floods and mudslides triggered by Hurricane
Mitch.
(SFC, 11/3/98, p.A1,11)(AP, 11/2/99)
1998 Nov 2, In Guinea-Bissau
the government and rebels signed an agreement to end the 5-month
civil war.
(SFC, 11/3/98, p.C12)
1998 Nov 2, Israel and
Palestine agreed to delay their interim peace agreement to allow
approval by the Israeli cabinet and parliament.
(SFC, 11/3/98, p.A8)
1998 Nov 2, In Malaysia the
sex-and-politics trial of Anwar Ibrahim began.
(SFC, 11/2/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 2, Mohammed Hashim
Bakhtiari, the brother-in-law of Afghanistan’s former slain
president Najibullah, was shot and killed in northwest Pakistan.
(SFC, 11/3/98, p.C12)
1998 Nov 2, In Thailand 6
Buddhist worshippers were killed and dozens injured when 3 giant
ceremonial incense sticks collapsed at the Phra Pathom Pagoda.
(SFC, 11/2/98, p.A16)
1998 Nov 3, In US national
elections, Democrats gained five House seats, trimming the
Republican majority.
(AP, 11/3/99)
1998 Nov 3, Arkansas Gov. Mike
Huckabee (b.1955) was elected in a landslide.
(Econ, 2/3/07,
p.33)(http://preview.tinyurl.com/2hhsgo)
1998 Nov 3, In California Gray
Davis was elected governor over Dan Lungren and Barbara Boxer
retained her Senate seat from Mat Fong. Prop. 5, the Indian casino
gambling issue, also won.
(SFC, 11/4/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 3, In Minnesota Jesse
"The Body" Ventura, a former wrestler, was elected governor.
(SFC, 11/4/98, p.A3)
1998 Nov 3, The medical
marijuana issue was passed by voters in 4 states. The results from
the District of Columbia were not released.
(SFC, 11/4/98, p.A3)
1998 Nov 3, In Arkansas City,
Kansas, a broken levee on the Walnut River flooded the town and
forced some 2,000 people from their homes.
(SFC, 11/4/98, p.A10)
1998 Nov 3, San Francisco
voters again endorsed the idea of district supervisors. Tom Ammiano
led the Supervisor votes followed by Gavin Newsom, Mabel Teng, Mark
Leno and Amos Brown. Voters approved Prop. E, which called for the
demolition of the Central Freeway east of Market St.
(SFC, 11/4/98, p.A19)(SFC, 11/6/98, p.A21)(SSFC,
2/28/10, p.E3)
1998 Nov 3, The death toll from
Hurricane Mitch grew to 9,000 in Honduras.
(AP, 11/3/99)
1998 Nov 3, In Congo troops
opened fire at a soccer match in Kinshasa and 4 people were killed.
(WSJ, 11/4/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 3, In Spain Prime
Minister Jose Aznar authorized preliminary talks with the Basque
ETA.
(SFC, 11/4/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 4, In the wake of
disappointing election results in which House Republicans saw their
majority trimmed, GOP lawmakers talked of quickly wrapping up
impeachment proceedings against President Clinton and raised the
prospect of challenges to Speaker Newt Gingrich and other party
leaders.
(AP, 11/4/99)
1998 Nov 4, A federal grand
jury in Manhattan returned a 238-count indictment that charged Osama
bin Laden for the US embassy bombings in Africa.
(SFC, 11/5/98, p.C3)
1998 Nov 4, Brazil set a
minimum retirement age of 53 for men and 48 for women.
(SFC, 11/5/98, p.C5)
1998 Nov 4, In Colombia
government forces retook Mitu after refueling in nearby Brazil. 5
guerrillas were reported killed.
(SFC, 11/5/98, p.C3)
1998 Nov 4, Israel announced
that the security issue for the new peace agreement was resolved.
They demanded the arrest of 30 Palestinian fugitives suspected of
violence. Arafat said that 12 of the 30 were already under arrest.
(SFC, 11/5/98, p.C2)
1998 Nov 4, Russia announced
that would ask creditors to extend its foreign debt, scheduled at
$3.5 billion this year and $17.5 billion in 1999. The worst harvest
in 45 years was blamed on a summer drought.
(SFC, 11/5/98, p.C2)
1998 Nov 4, In Russia Ivan
Orlov (65) exploded his car in Red Square in a general protest
against unpaid pensions and the state. Three Kremlin guards were
injured. Orlov was jailed and died in prison on Dec 23 of heart
failure.
(WSJ, 12/29/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 4, In Sierra Leone
former Pres. Joseph Saidu Momoh was convicted of conspiracy to
commit treason in the May 1997 coup.
(SFC, 11/7/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 4, In Zimbabwe riots
broke out in anger over rising prices, unemployment and involvement
in the Congo war.
(WSJ, 11/5/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 5, In Chico, Ca., 2
football players, Dereck Jonathan Phillips (19) and Trevor McDonald
Bird (19) of Butte Comm. College, beat and killed Lloyd Brown (47),
a local homeless man.
(SFC, 11/11/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 5, In Eureka, Ca.,
Wayne Adam Ford (36), a truck driver, surrendered himself to the
sheriff’s office and confessed to killing at least 4 women. He was
finally brought to trial after several legal delays and was found
guilty of four counts of first-degree murder on June 27, 2006, and
was sentenced to death on August 11, 2006.
(SFC, 11/6/98,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Adam_Ford)
1998 Nov 5, The UN Security
Council unanimously demanded that Iraq resume cooperation with UN
weapons inspectors.
(SFC, 11/6/98, p.A14)(AP, 11/5/99)
1998 Nov 5, The death toll from
Hurricane Mitch was reduced to 6,076 in Honduras and increased to
4,000 in Nicaragua. Aid of $66 mil was ordered from the US, $8 mil
from the EU, $11.6 mil from Spain along with pledges from other
countries and private organizations.
(SFC, 11/6/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 6, Pres. Clinton
decided to lift most of the sanctions against India and Pakistan for
their nuclear tests in May, as a reward for steps taken toward
nuclear control agreements.
(SFC, 11/7/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 6, Newt Gingrich told
fellow lawmakers he intended to give up his bid for a third term as
House Speaker, following unforeseen Republican losses in mid-term
elections.
(SFC, 11/7/98, p.A1,4)(AP, 11/6/99)
1998 Nov 6, Sen. Daniel Patrick
Moynihan (d.2008 at 76), D-N.Y., announced he would not run for
re-election in 2000.
(AP, 11/6/08)
1998 Nov 6, Former Louisiana
Gov. Edwin Edwards (71) was charged in a 34-count federal indictment
for trying to steer gambling licenses to associates in exchange for
payoffs after he left office in 1996.
(SFC, 11/7/98, p.A3)
1998 Nov 6, Scientists reported
the successful culture of human stem cells in research financed by
Geron Corp. James Thomson of the Univ. of Wisconsin first isolated
stem cells from human embryos. Science published this research in an
article titled "Embryonic Stem Cell Lines Derived from Human
Blastocysts."
(SFC, 11/6/98,
p.A1,A18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Thomson_%28cell_biologist%29)
(Econ, 1/28/12, p.77)
1998 Nov 6, In Iraq at the
Radwaniya prison west of Baghdad 63 prisoners were executed.
(USAT, 3/24/99, p.18A)
1998 Nov 6, In Jerusalem a car
bomb exploded at an outdoor market and 2 suicide bombers people were
killed and 23 others injured. The peace accord was immediately put
on hold by the Israeli cabinet. The Islamic Jihad claimed
responsibility.
(SFC, 11/6/98, p.D4)(SFC, 11/7/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 6, In Kosovo 5 ethnic
Albanians were killed in a shootout with Serbian police after they
left a meeting with US diplomat Chris Hill at Dragobil. Two others
were killed the day before.
(SFC, 11/7/98, p.A13)(SFC, 12/10/98, p.C9)
1998 Nov 6, In Russia the
government signed a $625 million aid package with the US. Half the
food would be free and the other half paid back under a 20-year
loan. A deal with foreign creditors on debt was reached and an $800
million loan from Japan was accepted.
(SFC, 11/7/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 6, Rwanda’s Vice Pres.
Paul Kagame admitted to helping rebel forces in Congo.
(SFC, 11/7/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 7, A scant four years
after leading Republicans to glory, House Speaker Newt Gingrich
announced he would resign not just his speakership but also his seat
in the House.
(AP, 11/7/08)
1998 Nov 7, The shuttle
Discovery landed in Cape Canaveral, Fla. After 9 days in space.
77-year-old John Glenn returned to Earth aboard the space shuttle
Discovery, visibly weak but elated after the mission.
(SFEC, 11/8/98, p.A2)(AP, 11/7/99)
1998 Nov 7, In Colombia Pres.
Pastrana planned to complete the evacuation of government troops
from a southern guerrilla stronghold for 90 days to facilitate talks
with the rebel FARC. The rebels took control of 5 municipalities
straddling Caqueta and Meta provinces, an area the size of
Switzerland.
(SFC, 11/7/98, p.C1)
1998 Nov 7, Japan offered more
than $9 million in aid to Cuba with most of the money as a direct
donation to buy rice. A 5 month drought followed by Hurricane
Georges caused heavy agricultural losses.
(SFEC, 11/8/98, p.A28)
1998 Nov 8, Rep. Bob
Livingston, R-La., predicted he would succeed Newt Gingrich as House
Speaker. He was elected to the post but resigned before taking
office after admitting to marital infidelities.
(AP, 11/8/99)
1998 Nov 8, Four Navy fliers
were lost at sea and presumed dead after their EA-6B Prowler struck
an S-3 Viking aircraft on the carrier Enterprise during nighttime
landing practice off of Virginia. 2 crewmen landed safely on the
deck.
(SFC, 11/10/98, p.A3)(WSJ, 11/10/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 8, Jean Marais, French
actor, died at age 84. His films included the 1946 "Beauty and the
Beast" by Jean Cocteau (d.1963).
(SFC, 11/10/98, p.A24)
1998 Nov 8, In Angola some 50
gunmen dressed in uniforms of the police, government and rebels,
attacked the DiamondWorks mine at Yetwene. At least 6 workers were
killed and dozens were injured.
(WSJ, 11/11/98, p.A16)
1998 Nov 8, In Bangladesh a
judge convicted and sentenced to death 15 former military commanders
for the 1975 assassination of prime minister Sheik Mujibur Rahman.
Only 5 of the convicted were in immediate custody.
(SFC, 11/9/98, p.A16)
1998 Nov 8, In China it was
reported that over 5,000 acres of marijuana flourished in Yunnan
province and officials vowed to eliminate it by 2000.
(SFEC, 11/8/98, p.A30)
1998 Nov 8, In Mexico the PRI
led gubernatorial elections in Puebla and Sinaloa but lost in
Tlaxcala Alfonso Sanchez Anaya of the leftist Democratic Revolution
Party.
(SFC, 11/10/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 8, In Tibet Ian Baker
and a team sponsored by National Geographic discovered the “Hidden
Falls of Dorge Pagmo.” In 2004 Baker authored “The Heart of the
World: A Journey to the Last Secret Place.”
(SSFC, 11/21/04, p.E1)
1998 Nov 8, In Venezuela a
leftist coalition led by Hugo Chavez, the Patriotic Pole movement,
won a majority in parliament. The Democratic Action and Copei
parties won most of the 23 governorships. Former Pres. Carlos Andres
Perez won a senate seat in Tachira. Corruption charges against Perez
were later dropped due to senatorial immunity.
(SFC, 11/10/98, p.A10)(SFC, 1/8/99, p.A16)
1998 Nov 9, The age of digital
and interactive TV opened with a PBS documentary special, "Chihuly
Over Venice." This was the first high definition digital TV
broadcast.
(SFC, 9/2/98, Z1 p.6) (AP,
11/9/99)
1998 Nov 9, A federal judge in
New York approved the richest antitrust settlement in U.S. history,
a promise by leading brokerage firms to pay $1.03 billion to
investors who had sued over a price-rigging scheme for stocks listed
on the Nasdaq market.
(AP, 11/9/99)
1998 Nov 9, US customs
officials found 1,600 pounds of cocaine on one of Bogota’s C-130 in
Florida. Colombia’s air force chief resigned the next day.
(WSJ, 11/11/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 9, In Bangladesh a
general strike began and police clashed with strikers. An alliance
of 7 opposition parties protested alleged attempts by police to kill
their leader, Khaleda Zia.
(SFC, 11/11/98, p.D4)
1998 Nov 9, The Human Rights
Act 1998, an Act of the Westminster Parliament, made the European
Convention on Human Rights part of the law of all parts of the UK.
It did not come fully into effect until 2 October 2000.
(Econ, 10/16/10,
p.70)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Act_1998)
1998 Nov 10, The US military
moved warships into the Persian Gulf in anticipation of a possible
attack on Iraq over cancellation of weapons inspections.
(SFC, 11/11/98, p.A10)(AP, 11/10/99)
1998 Nov 10, The SF police
arrested Joshua Rudiger (21) of Oakland for the recent
throat-slashing attacks in the city. Rudiger claimed to be a
2,000-year-old vampire.
(SFC, 11/11/98, p.A17)
1998 Nov 10, A heavy snow storm
hit the northern Midwest. Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas
suffered loss of power, heavy snow and violent winds.
(SFC, 11/11/98, p.A3)
1998 Nov 10, In St. Joseph,
Mo., police officer Bradley Thomas Arn (27) was killed and 3 others
were wounded by a gunman who was then killed by other officers. The
gunman was later identified as William Lattin Jr. (33) of St.
Joseph.
(SFC, 11/11/98, p.A3)(SFC, 11/12/98, p.C3)
1998 Nov 10, A 160-nation
conference on global warming met in Argentina.
(WSJ, 11/11/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 10, From Bangladesh it
was reported that an estimated 18 million people were slowly
poisoning themselves by drinking from groundwater contaminated with
trace amounts of arsenic. 85 million people were at risk.
(SFC, 11/10/98, p.A14)(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A10)
1998 Nov 10, Chile announced
the promotion of Brig. Gen’l. Sergio Espinoza Davies to Inspector
Gen’l. of the Chilean Army. This followed his departure as chief of
the UN military observer mission in India and Pakistan due to his
role in human rights abuses during the Pinochet dictatorship.
(SFC, 11/13/98, p.D2)
1998 Nov 10, From Colombia it
was reported that right-wing death squads had killed at least 17
peasants.
(WSJ, 11/11/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 10, India and Pakistan
negotiated disputes as 3 Indian soldiers were killed in border fire
across the Kashmir cease-fire line.
(SFC, 11/13/98, p.D6)
1998 Nov 10, In Indonesia
student protestors demanded that Suharto be brought to trial and
that a probe of human rights abuses be initiated, while rulers
initiated a 4-day meeting to dismantle past laws and plot a
democratic future.
(SFC, 11/11/98, p.A10)
1998 Nov 10, In Nigeria the
family of Gen’l. Sani Abacha was reported to have handed back over
$750 million in state funds illegally amassed by the late dictator.
(SFC, 11/11/98, p.D4)
1998 Nov 10, Serbia took
control of Radio Index, a student-run radio station. Also police
raided the Dnevni Telegraf Daily newspaper and impounded 100,000
copies for failure to pay a $120,000 fine for breaching a
restrictive media law.
(SFC, 11/11/98, p.D4)
1998 Nov 10, From Tajikistan it
was reported that over 200 people died in 5 days of fighting with
rebels and the government claimed that the rebels were driven from
the Aini district north of Dushanbe.
(WSJ, 11/10/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 11, President Clinton
ordered warships, planes and troops to the Persian Gulf as he laid
out his case for a possible attack on Iraq. Iraq, meanwhile, showed
no sign of backing down on its refusal to deal with U.N. weapons
inspectors.
(AP, 11/11/99)
1998 Nov 11, It was reported
that the Packard Foundation planned to dispense $375 million over
the next 5 years to slow population growth.
(SFC, 11/11/98, p.A8)
1998 Nov 11, It was reported
that Pfizer and the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation initiated a $66
million effort to attack trachoma, a disease of the eye caused by
chlamydia. A one-gram dose of zithromax given once a year would
treat the disease. Focus was to be on Ghana, Mali, Morocco, Tanzania
and Vietnam.
(SFC, 11/11/98, p.D6)
1998 Nov 11, Argentina and
Kazakhstan pledged to abide by the treaty to cut emissions of gases
that cause global warming. This put a crack in a united front of
developing nations opposed to cuts before 2012.
(WSJ, 11/12/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 11, Carlos Cabal
Peniche (42), accused of making some $700 million in loans from his
banks to companies he owned, was arrested in Melbourne, Australia.
He had vanished from Mexico in 1994 just days before his Grupo
Financiera Cremi-Union was seized by the government for fraud and
mismanagement.
(SFC, 11/12/98, p.C18)
1998 Nov 11, China and the UN
planned to sign an agreement to turn the Lop Nur nuclear test site
into a sanctuary for Bactrian camels. The barren area is about the
size of Germany.
(SFEC, 11/8/98, p.A13)
1998 Nov 11, Israel’s
government narrowly ratified a land-for-peace agreement with
conditions that included alteration of the PLO charter to strike
calls for Israel’s destruction.
(WSJ, 11/12/98, p.A1)(AP, 11/11/08)
1998 Nov 11, In Turkey a
businessman linked to organized crime said that Prime Minister
Yilmaz rigged the privatization of a state-run bank in his favor.
This led to a no-confidence motion by the Republican People’s Party
of the ruling coalition.
(SFC, 11/13/98, p.A16)
1998 Nov 11, A one-day general
strike was held in Zimbabwe and soldiers killed one protestor.
(WSJ, 11/12/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 12, The 23rd American
Indian Film Festival opened in SF.
(SFC, 11/11/98, p.E1)
1998 Nov 12, Pres. Clinton
signed a UN accord on global warming. It still needed to be ratified
by Congress.
(SFC, 11/13/98, p.A3)
1998 Nov 12, Lewis Merletti,
head of the Secret Service, quit his position to coordinate security
for the Cleveland Browns football team.
(WSJ, 11/12/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 12, Chicago Mayor
Richard M. Daley filed a $433 million lawsuit against the firearms
industry, declaring that it had created a public nuisance by
flooding the streets with weapons deliberately marketed to
criminals. A judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2000; an appeals court
ruled in 2002 that the city of Chicago could proceed; but the
Illinois Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit in 2004.
(SFC, 11/13/98, p.A4)(AP, 11/12/08)
1998 Nov 12, Eight Arab states
declared that Iraq would be held responsible for any consequences
from its stopping the work of UN arms inspectors.
(SFC, 11/13/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 12, In China a Hong
Kong mob boss was sentenced to death for kidnapping and arms
smuggling. Cheung Tze-keung, aka the "big Spender," led a gang that
was convicted of smuggling guns, 7 armed robberies of Hong Kong gold
stores and the theft of 277 tons of steel in Shenzhen. 4 accomplices
were also sentenced to death.
(SFC, 11/13/98, p.D4)
1998 Nov 12, Israel gave the
go-ahead to a housing project on a Jerusalem hilltop called Har
Homa. The area is known as Jabal Abu Ghneim to the Palestinians and
was an area under dispute.
(SFC, 11/13/98, p.A16)
1998 Nov 12, In Indonesia
troops opened fire with rubber bullets on student demonstrators. One
police officer was killed and over 120 people were injured.
(SFC, 11/13/98, p.A16)
1998 Nov 12, In Italy Abdullah
Ocalan, head of the Kurd PKK, was arrested in Rome.
(SFC, 11/14/98, p.A11)
1998 Nov 13, Pres. Clinton,
without admitting guilt, agreed to pay Paula Jones $850,000 to
settle her sexual harassment suit. In 1999 Jones accepted to receive
$200,000 with the rest going for lawyer fees. This ended the
four-year legal battle over her sexual harassment lawsuit that
spurred impeachment proceedings against him.
(SFC, 11/14/98, p.A1)(SFC, 3/5/99, p.A6)(AP,
11/13/99)
1998 Nov 13, Pres. Clinton and
the IMF announced a $41.5 billion loan package for Brazil.
(SFC, 11/14/98, p.A10)
1998 Nov 13, The globe.com,
founded by Tod Krizelman and Stephen Paternot, went public and
leaped from $9 to $97 a share. In 2001 Paternot authored "A Very
Public Offering."
(WSJ, 5/2/01, p.A17)(WSJ, 8/27/01, p.A13)
1998 Nov 13, In Cambodia the
warring political parties agreed to form a coalition government led
by Hun Sen. Opposition leader Prince Norodom Ranariddh will become
president of the National Assembly.
(SFC, 11/14/98, p.A10)
1998 Nov 13, Near Hong Kong 2
oil tankers collided and left a 6-mile oil slick near the Pearl
River delta that threatened the local rare pink dolphins.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A6)
1998 Nov 13, In Indonesia
student protests continued and 12 people were reported killed.
Meanwhile the legislative assembly approved new elections for next
year and an investigation into past corruption. A half dozen were
killed and scores wounded in what soon came to be called Black
Friday.
(SFC, 11/14/98, p.A10)(SFC, 11/16/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 13, In Iran a village
was leveled in Fars province and 5 people were killed after 5 strong
earthquakes hit the area.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A6)
1998 Nov 13, In the Netherlands
the cabinet approved a plan to let homosexuals adopt Dutch children
by Jan 1, 2000.
(SFEC, 11/15/98, p.A20)
1998 Nov 14, The US tobacco
industry agreed to a $260 billion settlement of state’s claims for
public health costs due to smoking. In 2002 W. Kip Viscusi authored
"Smoke-Filled Rooms and Martha Derthick authored "Up In Smoke," an
examination of the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), negotiated
among the tobacco companies, tort lawyers and state attorneys
general.
(SFEC, 11/15/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 6/6/02, p.D7)
1998 Nov 14, In Oceanside,
Ca., Matthew Cecchi (9) was killed in a restroom by a knife
slash to the neck. Brandon Wilson (20), a drifter from Wisconsin,
was picked up within days and admitted to the murder. A jury in 1999
recommended that Wilson be executed. Wilson was sentenced to death
Nov 4. On Nov 17, 2011, Wilson was found hanging in his death row
cell at San Quentin.
(SFC, 11/19/98, p.C6)(SFC, 10/7/99, p.A3)(SFC,
11/5/99, p.A6)(Reuters, 11/17/11)
1998 Nov 14, In Argentina
negotiators from 150 countries agreed to set a 2 year deadline for
adopting operational rules of the Kyoto Protocol for cutting
emissions of industrial waste gases that were believed to cause
global warming.
(SFEC, 11/15/98, p.A21)
1998 Nov 14, In Jakarta
residents of poor neighborhoods attacked shopping malls, banks, car
dealerships and Chinese-owned shops. Troops took action to quell the
rioting and one police officer was reported killed.
(SFEC, 11/15/98, p.A23)
1998 Nov 14, Iraq backed down
and agreed to submit to UN weapons inspections as US forces were
poised for attack.
(SFEC, 11/15/98, p.A1)(AP, 11/13/99)
1998 Nov 14, In Malaysia
thousands gathered to criticize Prime Minister Mahathir as world
leaders gathered for the 6th APEC forum.
(SFEC, 11/15/98, p.A17)
1998 Nov 15, Kwame Ture, the
civil rights activist formerly known as Stokely Carmichael, died in
Guinea at age 57.
(SFC, 11/16/98, p.A7)(AP, 11/15/99)
1998 Nov 15, Nauru and Niue
registered to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There remained 3
years worth of phosphate to be mined on Nauru which grappled with 3
major crises: rising water from world-wide global warming, a 3rd
year of draught, and a $100 million investment fund that was put
into the Asian real-estate market.
(WSJ, 11/16/98, p.B7C)
1998 Nov 15, In Russia Yuri
Luzhkov, mayor of Moscow, said he would form his own political
movement called Fatherland, with free market principles and a strong
state sector in the economy.
(SFC, 11/17/98, p.A7)
1998 Nov 15, In Sierra Leone
rebels attacked a village on the northern border and killed 16
people with guns and machetes. Another 50 were abducted.
(SFC, 11/16/98, p.A13)
1998 Nov 16, Monica Lewinsky
signed a million dollar book deal. Her "Monica’s Story" was to be
written by Andrew Morton and published by St. Martin’s Press in
early 1999.
(SFC, 11/17/98, p.A2)
1998 Nov 16, The US Supreme
Court ruled that union members can file discrimination lawsuits
against employers even when labor contracts require arbitration.
(AP, 11/16/99)
1998 Nov 16, US House Democrats
re-elected Dick Gephardt as their leader.
(AP, 11/16/99)
1998 Nov 16, Congo rebels said
that they captured the port of Moba on Lake Tanganyika. UN officials
said that over 65,000 people had been displaced since Aug 2.
(SFC, 11/17/98, p.B3)
1998 Nov 16, In southern
Lebanon 3 Israeli soldiers were killed when Hezbollah detonated a
road bomb.
(WSJ, 11/17/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 16, Japan announced a
$195 billion economic stimulus package. This was the 17th month in a
row that the number of bankruptcies increased.
(SFC, 11/16/98, p.A10)(SFC, 11/17/98, p.B3)
1998 Nov 16, A UN
tribunal convicted a Bosnian Croat and 2 Muslims for murder, torture
and rape at the Celebici Camp in central Bosnia in 1992. Hazimn
Delic, deputy commander, received a 20 year sentence; Zdravko Mucic,
camp warden received 7 years; and Esad Landzo received 15 years.
(SFC, 11/17/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 17, The US signed the
Tampere Convention, negotiated in Finland in June, to end excessive
import duties and minimize barriers across national borders for
telecommunications under emergency situations.
(SFC, 11/18/98, p.C5)
1998 Nov 17, The US Federal
Reserve cut short-term interest rates to 4.75. Both the federal
funds rate and the discount rate were cut.
(SFC, 11/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 17, The US House
Judiciary Committee released 22 hours of telephone tape recordings
secretly made of Monica Lewinsky by Linda Tripp.
(SFC, 11/18/98, p.A1)(AP, 11/17/99)
1998 Nov 17, The Leonid
meteor storm was expected to peak and damage was feared to the
nearly 500 satellites in orbit. The storm was the result of the
Earth’s intersection with the debris field of the comet
Tempel-Tuttle, last seen 33 years ago.
(SFC, 4/28/98, p.A5)(WSJ, 8/28/98, p.A1)(SFEC,
10/4/98, p.A11)
1998 Nov 17, Actress Esther
Rolle died in Culver City, Calif., at age 78. She was the Emmy
award-winning black matriarch in the 1970s television series "Good
Times."
(AP, 11/17/99)
1998 Nov 17, In Angola renewed
fighting had created some 331,000 refugees since April.
(WSJ, 11/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 17, In Beijing Ma
Yulan (41) was sentenced to death for running a brothel disguised as
a restaurant and sauna. She was the first person to receive the
death penalty for prostitution since new statutes were approved in
March.
(SFC, 11/18/98, p.C5)
1998 Nov 17, China accused
Juergen Kremb of the German magazine Der Spiegel of possessing state
secrets. The next day he was ordered to leave the country within 48
hours.
(www.ifex.org/china/1998/11/18/german_journalist_interrogated/)
1998 Nov 17, In Ethiopia over
650 Eritreans were deported after being detained for 4 months.
(SFC, 11/18/98, p.C5)
1998 Nov 17, Israel's
parliament overwhelmingly approved the Wye River land-for-peace
accord with the Palestinians with a 75 to 19 vote.
(SFC, 11/18/98, p.A12)(AP, 11/17/99)
1998 Nov 17, In Iraq UN weapons
inspectors returned to resume work.
(SFC, 11/18/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 17, In Russia agents
of the Federal Security Service (FSB) reported under cover that they
had received orders to kill billionaire businessman Boris
Berezovsky, and that they were threatened with punishment if they
spoke out.
(SFC, 11/18/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 17, In Turkey a
Kurdish guerrilla killed herself and wounded 6 others in a suicide
bombing in Yuksekova.
(SFC, 11/18/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 18, Alice McDermott
won the National Book Award in fiction for her novel "Charming
Billy." The non-fiction prize went to Edward Ball for his "Slaves in
the Family." Gerald Stern won in the poetry category.
(SFC, 11/19/98, p.E3)
1998 Nov 18, The GOP nominated
Bob Livingston of Louisiana to replace Newt Gingrich as speaker, and
for the 1st time elected an African-American, Oklahoma’s J.C. Watts,
to their leadership. Livingston, however, resigned from the House
before he could take over the speakership after admitting to marital
infidelities.
(SFC, 11/19/98, p.A1)(AP, 11/18/99)
1998 Nov 18, In Jakarta
thousands marched in continuing protests. It was also reported that
students were killed the previous week with live bullets. The
military had insisted that only plastic and blank ammunition was
issued.
(SFC, 11/19/98, p.C3)
1998 Nov 18, Frederick McPhail
(27), a graduate student from NYU, was found dead in a car in Mexico
City. In 1999 13 current and former police officers were arrested as
suspects in a gang that robbed and kidnapped tourists. In 2000 6
former police officers received sentences as long as 98 years for
the death of McPhail, whom they robbed and forced to drink a bottle
of alcohol.
(SFC, 2/1/99, p.A7)
1998 Nov 18, Serbian Pres.
Milan Milutinovic rejected a US blueprint for the future of Kosovo,
saying that it gave too much power to the ethnic Albanians.
(SFC, 11/19/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 18, The Swedish bank
Skandinavska Enskilda acquired a 32% stake in Eesti Uhispank of
Estonia, as well as a 36% stake in Latvia’s Latvijas Unibanka.
Skandinavska Enskilda, controlled by the Wallenberg family, was also
negotiating a deal to acquire interest in Vilnius Bank of Lithuania.
(WSJ, 11/19/98, p.A16)
1998 Nov 19, Pres. Clinton
began a 5-day trip to Asia and in Japan suggested that current
efforts to end an 8-year economic downturn may not be enough.
(SFC, 11/20/98, p.A16)
1998 Nov 19, The US Air Force
tested the Centurion flying wing, a 206-foot battery powered robotic
craft. Solar panels were planned to replace the batteries.
(SFC, 11/20/98, p.A7)
1998 Nov 19, Independent
Counsel Kenneth Starr laid out his evidence for the impeachment
hearings against Pres. Clinton. He defended his investigation under
withering questions from Democrats, during a daylong appearance
before the House Judiciary Committee.
(SFC, 11/20/98, p.A1,3) (AP, 11/19/99)
1998 Nov 19, Alan Pakula (70),
film director, was killed in a car crash on Long Island Expressway
after a metal bar crashed through his windshield causing him to
crash into a fence. He had made 23 movies, 4 as a writer, 18 as a
producer, and 16 as a director.
(SFC, 11/20/98, p.C10)(SFEC, 4/25/99, Par p.18)
1998 Nov 19, A Van Gogh
self-portrait sold at auction for $71.5 million.
(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 19, In Israel the
Cabinet voted 7 to 5 to go ahead with a troop withdrawal from
Palestinian land in the West Bank, and to free 250 Palestinian
prisoners.
(SFC, 11/20/98, p.A16)(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 19, Turkey arrested
the head of the main legal Kurdish party.
(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 20, A $206 billion
tobacco settlement over health costs for treating sick smokers was
endorsed by 46 eligible states. It was the largest settlement of a
civil lawsuit in history.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/99)
1998 Nov 20, President Clinton
wrapped up a visit to Japan and flew to South Korea.
(AP, 11/20/99)
1998 Nov 20, Rolando Alphonso,
tenor saxophonist for the ska group Skatalites, died at age 67. He
was an original member of the Jamaican group that was formed in
1964.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A25)
1998 Nov 20, It was reported
that Kabila was signing away large stakes in Congo’s biggest
enterprises to businessmen from Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia in
return for support against rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda.
(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 20, In Indonesia
thousands of students marched and demanded the resignations of Pres.
Habibie and military chief Wiranto following doctor’s confirmation
that protestors were killed with live ammunition on Nov 13-14. In
Pinrang thousands of villagers rioted after finding that they could
not withdraw savings from an outlawed bank.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A1)(SFEC, 11/22/98, p.A24)
1998 Nov 20, Iraq balked at
handing over documents on chemical and biological weapons and
missile systems.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 20, Israel ceded
control of a 200-sq. mile patchwork area, 2 percent of the West
Bank, to the Palestinian Authority in the 1st of 3 withdrawals. 250
prisoners were released but 150 of them were common criminals rather
than political detainees.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A10)(SFC, 11/30/98, p.A1)(AP,
11/20/99)
1998 Nov 20, Israel carried out
its 100th air raid along with ground attacks in southern Lebanon.
One Amal fighter was reported killed.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 20, In Italy a court
ordered the release of Kurdish rebel Abdullah Ocalan under a law
barring extradition in death penalty cases and planned to grant him
asylum.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A10)
1998 Nov 20, In Kazakhstan a
Russian Proton booster rocket lifted up the first stage of the new
int’l. space station called Zarya (Sunrise).
(SFC, 11/20/98, p.A18)(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A13)
1998 Nov 20, In Pakistan Prime
Minister Sharif ordered soldiers to quell violence in Karachi and
suspended civil rights in Sindh province, which surrounds the city.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 20, Galina
Starovoitova, a member of the State Duma, was shot to death in St.
Petersburg. She had recently formed a coalition called Northern
Capital to push the candidacy of liberals for the Dec. 6 elections
to the regional legislature. In June, 2005, two men were convicted
of the actual killing. Four others charged in the case were
acquitted. In 2006 two more men were convicted on charges relating
to the murder. Vyacheslav Lelyavin was sentenced to 11 years in
prison for being a member of the gang. Pavel Stekhnovsky, guilty of
buying the rifle used to shoot Starovoitova, was freed after
prosecutors failed to prove he knew the gun was intended for the
killing.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A12)(SFEC, 11/22/98, p.A26)(AP,
9/23/06)(AP, 9/29/06)
1998 Nov 20, From Senegal it
was reported that land mines had made 80% of Casamance province
unusable. The mines, laid by separatist rebels, had killed or
wounded close to 500 people in the 1st 8 months of this year.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A15)
1998 Nov 20, UN sponsored
autonomy negotiations on East Timor were suspended after 44 people
were reported killed under a military crackdown by the Indonesian
government. The Red Cross later denied the reports of a massacre.
(WSJ, 11/23/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 21, President Clinton,
visiting South Korea, warned North Korea to forsake nuclear weapons
and urged the North to seize a "historic opportunity" for peace with
the South.
(AP, 11/21/99)
1998 Nov 21, Isao Okawa,
chairman of CSK Corp., and Sega Enterprises, donated $27 million to
MIT for the creation of a center for children founded on the belief
that new digital technology will drive fundamental changes in
education.
(SFC, 11/23/98, p.A5)
1998 Nov 21, Rail workers in
southern France extended their strike for the 12th day. A
Europe-wide rail strike was planned for Nov 27.
(SFEC, 11/22/98, p.A26)
1998 Nov 21, In Indonesia Pres.
Habibie ordered a new corruption inquiry into former autocrat
Suharto.
(SFEC, 11/22/98, p.A24)
1998 Nov 21, Italian officials
released Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the
Kurdistan Workers' Party, the main Kurdish rebel group.
(AP, 11/21/02)
1998 Nov 21, From Mexico it was
reported that hundreds of people had been evacuated from villages
near Volcano de Fuego, which threatened to erupt within days.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A6)
1998 Nov 21, In Russia it was
reported that an icy storm claimed 13 lives in Moscow over the last
week.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A6)
1998 Nov 22, The CBS News
program "60 Minutes" showed videotape of Dr. Jack Kevorkian giving
lethal drugs to Thomas Youk, a terminally ill patient. Kevorkian, an
advocate of assisted suicide, challenged prosecutors to arrest him
and later was sentenced to up to 25 years in prison for
second-degree murder. He was released in 2007 after serving eight
years.
(AP, 11/22/08)
1998 Nov 22, In Albania the
Socialist government claimed to win a referendum on the nation’s
first post-Communist constitution.
(WSJ, 11/23/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 22, In Indonesia
rioting in Jakarta erupted after a gang fight between Muslims and
Christian migrants. At least 14 people were killed and a dozen
churches were burned or damaged.
(SFC, 11/23/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 11/24/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 22, In Iran Dariush
Forouhar and his wife Parvenah were found stabbed to death in their
home in Tehran. He was the leader of the nationalist Iran Nation
Party and they were outspoken critics of the Islamic government. In
2000 former agents of the Intelligence Ministry confessed to playing
roles in the 1998 killings of 4 writers and dissidents.
(SFC, 11/24/98, p.A14)(SFC, 1/3/01, p.A12)
1998 Nov 23, Whitewater figure
Susan McDougal was acquitted in Santa Monica, Calif., of embezzling
from conductor Zubin Mehta and his wife; McDougal said the case was
trumped up to pressure her to testify against President Clinton.
(AP, 11/23/99)
1998 Nov 23, The Georgia state
Supreme Court invalidated Georgia’s anti-sodomy law.
(SFC, 11/24/98, p.A4)
1998 Nov 23, The Dow Jones hit
a new record high at 9,374.27.
(SFC, 11/24/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 23, It was reported
that American Online planned to purchase Netscape Communication for
about $4 billion in stock.
(SFC, 11/23/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 23, Congo reported
that warplanes of its Zimbabwe allies bombed and sank 6 boatloads of
rebels on Lake Tanganyika killing hundreds.
(WSJ, 11/24/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 23, In Europe railroad
workers stopped work and protested plans for deregulation in 6 EU
member states.
(SFC, 11/24/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 23, The European Union
lifted a worldwide export ban on British beef. The ban was imposed
after experts announced a possible link between "mad cow" disease
and a fatal disease in humans.
(AP, 11/23/02)
1998 Nov 23, An Arctic cold
wave was reported to have killed 71 people across Europe over the
last 3 days. 36 deaths were in Poland and 24 in Romania and
Bulgaria.
(SFC, 11/24/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 23, In Mexico City
detectives arrested 44 city officers on charges that included,
murder, rape, extortion and abuse of power under orders by Police
Chief Alejandro Gertz Manero, who took office in August.
(SFC, 11/24/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 23, In Palestine the
$70 million Gaza Int’l. Airport opened and an Egypt Air plane was
the first to land.
(SFC, 11/24/98, p.A14)(WSJ, 11/24/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 24, America Online
confirmed it was buying Netscape Communications in a deal ultimately
worth $10 billion.
(AP, 11/24/99)
1998 Nov 24, Bill Gates,
chairman of Microsoft Corp., donated $20 million to the Seattle
Public Library system.
(SFC, 11/24/98, p.A3)
1998 Nov 24, A UN report on
AIDS said 33 million people were infected, and that two-thirds of
them were in sub-Saharan Africa.
(WSJ, 11/25/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 24, In Britain Queen
Elizabeth announced plans by the Blair government to make the House
of Lords more democratic by stripping aristocrats of their right to
sit in it.
(WSJ, 11/25/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 24, In Lebanon Pres.
Elias Hrawi was scheduled to step down and be replaced by Emile
Lahoud.
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.D2)
1998 Nov 24, The first
Palestine Airlines flight touched down at Gaza International
Airport.
(AP, 11/24/99)
1998 Nov 24, A funeral was held
in St. Petersburg for liberal Russian lawmaker Galina Starovoitova,
who had been assassinated four days earlier.
(AP, 11/24/99)
1998 Nov 24, Russia, Kazakhstan
and a group of major oil companies agreed to build a pipeline to
connect the Tengiz oil field to a Russian port on the Black Sea.
(SFC, 11/25/98, p.A16)
1998 Nov 24, The UN Security
Council voted to allow Iraq an additional $5.2 billion in oil sales
over the next 6 months to cover humanitarian aid.
(SFC, 11/25/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 25, In Michigan a
prosecutor brought charges of first-degree murder against Dr. Jack
Kevorkian for administering a lethal injection last Sept. to a
terminally ill man who wished to die.
(SFC, 11/26/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 25, In Washington
state an explosion at the Equilon Puget Sound Refining Co. at
Anacortes killed 6 people.
(SFC, 11/26/98, p.A3)
1998 Nov 25, Flip Wilson (64),
the fist successful black host of a TV variety show, the Flip Wilson
Show from 1970-1974, died in Malibu, Calif.
(SFC, 11/26/98, p.B9)(AP, 11/25/99)
1998 Nov 25, From Belarus it
was reported that food rationing had been imposed for milk, meat and
other goods due to shortages.
(SFC, 11/26/98, p.B5)
1998 Nov 25, In Britain 5
members of the House of Lords voted 3 to 2 to reject former Chilean
dictator Augusto Pinochet’s claim of immunity from extradition. The
rejection came one day before Pinochet’s 83rd birthday. The final
decision rested with Home Sec. Jack Straw.
(SFC, 11/26/98, p.A1,B2)(SFC, 11/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 25, In India state
elections were held in Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, and
Mizoram. Polls predicted a setback for the ruling BJP.
(SFC, 11/26/98, p.B3)
1998 Nov 25, President Jiang
Zemin arrived in Tokyo for the first visit to Japan by a Chinese
head of state since World War II. Zemin and Prime Minister Keizo
Obuchi decided not to sign a joint declaration on the relationship
between their countries during the Jiang’s 6-day visit, the first
ever by a Chinese head of state. Zemin wanted a written apology from
Japan for WW II atrocities that began with a 1931 Japanese invasion.
Only verbal apologies were made.
(SFC, 11/26/98, p.B3)(AP, 11/25/99)
1998 Nov 25, In Poland the cold
weather left another 8 people dead, mostly middle-aged drinkers who
died outside.
(SFC, 11/26/98, p.B5)
1998 Nov 25, In Turkey the
government of Mesut Yilmaz lost a vote of confidence 314-214. Pres.
Demirel was expected to ask Yilmaz to stay on until an interim
government is formed.
(SFC, 11/26/98, p.B2)
1998 Nov 26, In the first
speech ever by a British prime minister to an Irish parliament, Tony
Blair predicted that Northern Ireland's troubled peace accord would
ultimately work because of a strengthened cooperative spirit uniting
Britain and Ireland.
(AP, 11/26/99)
1998 Nov 26, The Supreme Court
of Canada ruled authorities at elementary and secondary schools have
the right to search a student without first obtaining a search
warrant.
(AP, 11/26/02)
1998 Nov 26, In the Punjab
state of India a passenger train derailed near Khanna in the path of
an express train in the northwest and at least 211 people were
killed.
(SFC, 11/26/98, p.B5)(WSJ, 11/27/98, p.A1)(AP,
11/26/99)
1998 Nov 26, In Indonesia
Suharto signed over control of 7 foundations holding over $530
million.
(WSJ, 11/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 26, In southern
Lebanon 2 Israeli soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb blew up
their armored vehicle.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A10)
1998 Nov 26, In Zimbabwe former
Pres. Canaan Banana was convicted of 11 sex charges that included
sodomy and homosexual assault against aide Jefta Dube. He jumped
bail and fled to Botswana and then South Africa.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.A20)
1998 Nov 27, Answering 81
questions put to him three weeks earlier, President Clinton wrote
the House Judiciary Committee that his testimony in the Monica
Lewinsky affair was "not false and misleading."
(AP, 11/27/99)
1998 Nov 27, Exxon Corp. and
Mobil Corp. confirmed that they were holding merger talks. The value
of the combined company was estimated at $180 billion.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 27, Shoppers on Black
Friday crowded shopping centers and the new Furby toys, a furry
talking toy, was creating a mania. Black Friday was used to describe
the big shopping day following Thanksgiving that put stores into the
black.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 27, In Texas Martin E.
Gurule became the first inmate to escape from Death Row at
Huntsville. He was convicted for a double murder in 1992. He was
found drowned to death on Dec 3.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A1,8)(SFC, 12/4/98, p.A3)
1998 Nov 27, Mark McLaughlin
(44), a Seattle, Wa., bus driver, was shot and killed while driving
his bus across the Aurora Ave. Bridge over Lake Union. A passenger
responsible for the shooting was also killed when the bus crashed.
29 passengers were injured. The bus fell 50 feet from the expressway
where 3 people died. The killer, Silas Cool, committed suicide. In
1999 the event was described by Ann Rule in her book "A Rage to
Kill."
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A3)(WSJ, 11/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 27, A boat of illegal
immigrants from Albania sank off the coast of Italy and at least 3
people were killed including a 1-year-old child. 4 people were
missing from the boat that carried 17.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A10)
1998 Nov 27, Brazilian police
reported that a small cult of the United Pentecostal Church in Acre
state had killed 6 people over the last 2 weeks, including 3
children, to "wipe out the enemies of God." Pastor Francisco Bezerra
de Moraes was one of 6 people arrested for the killings.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A15)
1998 Nov 27, In Germany
Chancellor Schroeder said he would not seek extradition of Abdullah
Ocalan from Italy and called for an int’l. court to try Ocalan on
murder and terrorism charges.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A10)
1998 Nov 27, The World Heritage
bureau of UNESCO began a meeting in Kyoto, Japan.
(SFC, 11/27/98, p.A16)
1998 Nov 27, From the Vatican
Pope John Paul issued a papal bull, "Incarnationis Mysterium" (The
Mystery of the Incarnation) that proclaimed 2000 a special Holy
Year. Special indulgences were offered for making pilgrimages, doing
good deeds or fasting.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A10)
1998 Nov 28, Some Republicans
expressed disappointment and outrage over President Clinton's
written responses to 81 questions from the House Judiciary Committee
concerning the Monica Lewinsky affair, with one accusing the
president of "word games."
(AP, 11/28/99)
1998 Nov 28, Countries fighting
in Congo agreed to a cease-fire during an African summit in Paris.
The deal was brokered by UN Sec. Gen’l. Kofi Annan. Rebel leaders
were not present.
(SFEC, 11/29/98, p.A21)
1998 Nov 28, From India it was
reported that cyclone 07B caused the evacuation of over 100,000
people in West Bengal and that some 100 fisherman were missing.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A4)
1998 Nov 28, In Portugal the
skeleton of a 4-year-old Paleolithic child was found in the Lapedo
Valley. The Lagar Velho child was dated to about 23,000 BC and
possibly represented a mixed Neandertal and early human ancestry.
(AM, 7/00, p.25)
1998 Nov 29, In Dalton, Mich.,
Seth Stephen Privacky (18) and Steven Wallace (18) shot a killed
Privacky’s father (50), mother (49), grandfather (78), brother (19)
and brother’s girlfriend, April A. Boss (19). Seth Privacky pleaded
no contest to the charges and was sentenced to life in prison in
late May, 1999. Privacky confessed that he committed the murders
because his father had threatened to kick him out of the house.
(www.pub.umich.edu/daily/1998/dec/12-02-98/news/news10.html)(SFC,
12/1/98, p.A4)
1998 Nov 29, In Algeria 7
people were killed by suspected Muslim militants on the eve of
Ramadan in 4 separate attacks in the western mountains.
(SFC, 11/30/98, p.B10)
1998 Nov 29, In Congo rebel
leaders said no cease-fire would take place until Pres. Kabila
negotiates directly with them.
(SFC, 11/30/98, p.B10)
1998 Nov 29, In Jakarta the
opposition Muslim Party began a 4-day rally.
(WSJ, 11/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 29, In Indonesia a 7.6
earthquake was centered near Taliabu Island in the Maluku Sea. At
least 25 people were killed on Mangole Island and some 89 were
injured.
(SFC, 11/30/98, p.B10)(SFC, 12/1/98, p.A11)
1998 Nov 29, Five Russian
policemen were killed in Dagestan by gunmen believed to be from
Chechnya.
(WSJ, 11/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 29, The Swiss voted on
whether to legalize drug use. The proposal was defeated by a 3-1
margin.
(SFEC, 11/29/98, p.A21)(WSJ, 11/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 29, In Zimbabwe Pres.
Mugabe imposed a 6-month ban on national strikes and threatened to
suspend unions that defy the ban and imprison organizers.
(WSJ, 11/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 30, Pres. Clinton
pledged an extra $400 million to aid the Palestinians over the next
5 years. This was in addition to the current $100 million per year
for the next 5 years. A total of $3 billion in aid was pledged.
(SFC, 12/1/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 30, The new US
computerized instant-check on gun sales began. After one week 951
sales were disqualified out of a total of 177,391.
(SFC, 12/8/98, p.A10)
1998 Nov 30, In LA 3 people
were left dead following a drive-by shooting, carjacking and police
chase. Officer Brian Brown (27) was killed as was suspect Oscar
Zatarain (23). The victim of the drive-by was unnamed.
(SFC, 12/1/98, A3)
1998 Nov 30, Margaret Walker
Alexander, black author, died at age 83. Her work included the 1942
poem "For My People," and the 1966 novel "Jubilee."
(SFC, 12/1/98, p.B2)
1998 Nov 30, Britain along with
Lesotho, Burkino Faso, the Ivory Coast and Tajikistan signed a
global treaty for an Int’l. Criminal Court to try war crimes. The
accord was approved in July at conference in Rome and 61 countries
had signed on. The court required 60 countries to pass legislation
for ratification.
(SFC, 12/1/98, p.A11)
1998 Nov 30, Quebec's
separatist premier, Lucien Bouchard, was returned to power, but with
only 43 percent of the vote, setting back the Parti Quebecois' goal
of seeking independence from Canada. The party won 42.7% of the vote
vs. 43.7% for the Liberals.
(AP, 11/30/99)(SFC, 12/1/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 12/2/98,
p.A1)
1998 Nov 30, Deutsche Bank AG
announced it was acquiring Bankers Trust Corp. for more than $10
billion.
(AP, 11/30/99)
1998 Nov 30, In Iraq at the
Radwaniya prison west of Baghdad 30 more prisoners were executed.
(USAT, 3/24/99, p.18A)
1998 Nov 30, In Seoul Buddhist
monks clashed for a 3rd time with rival factions in a dispute over
leadership. Some 40 people were injured. The trouble began when Song
Wol Ju, head of the Chogye Buddhist order, sought a 3rd four-year
term. He later offered to resign but his followers refused to give
ground. The order controls an annual budget of some $9.2 million
plus property valued in the millions.
(SFC, 12/1/98, p.A10)(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A16)
1998 Nov, The show "By, Bye
America" began a 2-week run at the Sheherezad Theater in Baghdad.
(SFC, 12/8/98, p.A13)
1998 Nov, The US declared a
policy of "regime change" for Iraq.
(SFC, 5/25/99, p.A6)
1998 Nov, Pentagon officials
revealed a map of the Gulf War battlefield that showed sites where
radioactive and toxic debris from 300 tons of depleted uranium
ammunition was used in 1991.
(SFEC, 1/24/99, p.A1)
1998 Nov, In Alabama Gov. Fob
James was defeated. He had recently signed a law that prohibited
nude dancing in night clubs and banned the sale of sex toys
including vibrators. Women challenged the law in 1999.
(SFC, 2/18/99, p.A4)
1998 Nov, In Washington DC a
measure on medical marijuana was voted upon. Congress held up the
ballot count until Sep 1999, when results showed a 69% approval.
(WSJ, 9/21/99, p.B8)
1998 Nov, The Rotterdam VI, a
62,000 ton, 1,316 passenger cruise ship was scheduled to debut.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, p.T5)
1998 Nov, Phase 2 began in the
construction of the int’l. space station. It was to take 5 years, 43
flights and 16 nations to assemble the outpost.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A3)
1998 Nov, The $59 mil
Tech Museum of Innovations was scheduled to open in San Jose. It was
designed by Ricardo Legoretta.
(SFC, 6/12/96, p.E3)
1998 Nov, DaimlerChrysler began
trading as a the 1st global share in the US, Germany, Japan and 5
other countries.
(WSJ, 8/20/01, p.C1)
1998 Nov, William Matthews,
poet, died at age 55. He was the author of 12 books that included
"Time & Money." In 1999 his collection "After All: Last Poems"
was published.
(SFEC, 2/28/99, BR p.6)
1998 Nov, Tencent, a Chinese
internet company, was founded in Shenzhen.
(Econ, 7/10/10,
p.61)(www.tencent.com/en-us/at/abouttencent.shtml)
1998 Nov, The Hong Kong
freighter ship Cheung Son (Chang Sheng), loaded with iron ore, was
hijacked and all 23 crewmen were lined up on deck and gunned down by
pirates. In 1999 38 defendants went on trial in China on charges of
murder, robbery and possession of firearms and drugs. In 2000 13 of
37 gang members were executed.
(SFC, 7/7/99, p.C12)(SFC, 12/16/99, p.C9)(SFC,
1/29/00, p.C1)
1998 Nov, Zimbabwe announced a
plan to seize 841 farms owned by white farmers. In Jan authorities
announced a reduction of seizures to 118 in order to get a $53
million IMF loan.
(SFC, 1/13/99, p.A11)
1998 Dec 1, Pres. Clinton
marked World Aids Day by announcing an increase in NIH funding for
an AIDS vaccine to $200 million.
(WSJ, 12/2/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 1, A US nation-wide
gun-buyer database was due to go into service.
(WSJ, 11/12/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 1, It was reported
that a US congressional initiative added $165 million in
counter-narcotics funds to Colombia. The 1999 aid package totaled
$289 million.
(SFC, 12/1/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 1, Exxon agreed to buy
Mobil Corp. for $75.3 ($73.7) billion. The combination would form
the world’s largest corporation.
(SFC, 12/2/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/2/98, p.A1)(AP,
12/1/99)
1998 Dec 1, A scientific panel
reported that no links were found between breast implants and
systemic illnesses.
(WSJ, 12/2/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 1, In Chicago a fire
destroyed the historic Pullman building.
(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A3)
1998 Dec 1, In Canada a new gun
control law went into effect that required all 3 million gun owners
to be licensed and every one of an estimated 7 million rifles and
handguns to be registered.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.A22)
1998 Dec 1, A rally of 82
vintage cars entered Cape Town, South Africa, after a 39 day, 18,600
mile journey that began in London.
(SFC, 12/2/98, p.C12)
1998 Dec 1, In Colombia rebels
stormed 2 towns and killed at least 8 people and wounded 30.
(SFC, 12/2/98, p.A6)
1998 Dec 1, Granma, Cuba’s only
daily newspaper, recommended that Christmas be re-established as a
permanent holiday. Cuba's Communist Party recommended that Dec. 25
be re-established as an annual holiday.
(SFC, 12/2/98, p.A10)(AP, 12/1/99)
1998 Dec 1, Dutch and Flemish
lexicographers unveiled a 40-tome dictionary with 45,000 pages that
documented words back to 1500. It took 147 years to complete and
compilers stopped at 1976.
(SFC, 12/2/98, p.C2)
1998 Dec 1, From Egypt it was
reported that construction of the $180 million Bibliotheca
Alexandria was proceeding. Completion was expected in Oct, 1999.
(SFC, 12/1/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 1, In Honduras the
death toll from Hurricane Mitch was lowered to 5,657. Some 8,058
were verified as missing, 12,272 injured and 1.4 million homeless.
(SFC, 12/2/98, p.C12)
1998 Dec 2, Former Agriculture
Secretary Mike Espy was acquitted of all counts in a corruption case
for accepting sports tickets and travel from companies doing
business with his department.
(AP, 12/2/99)
1998 Dec 2, Bill Gates of
Microsoft announced a $100 million gift to deliver vaccines against
4 childhood diseases in developing countries. The Seattle non-profit
Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) would receive
the money over a 10 year period.
(SFC, 12/2/98, p.A3)(WSJ, 12/2/98, p.B6)
1998 Dec 2, In Bosnia US troops
arrested Bosnian Serb Gen’l. Radislav Krstic for genocide in the
1995 takeover of Srebrenica.
(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A16)
1998 Dec 2, Filanbanco,
Ecuador’s largest bank, was turned over to the federal government
with net losses of $661 million US dollars. Owners Roberto and
William Isaias fled to the US owing $661 million to the state
Deposit Guarantee Agency.
(www.ecuador-investing.com/rafael-correa/filanbanco/)(Econ, 7/12/08,
p.48)
1998 Dec 2, In the West Bank an
Israeli soldier was beaten and an Arab man was stabbed to death in
Jerusalem. Israel announced the suspension of further troops
withdrawals.
(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A16)
1998 Dec 2, Macedonia agreed to
provide a base for NATO to get to Kosovo it the need should arise.
(WSJ, 12/3/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 2, New Zealand agreed
to lease a number of F-16 fighter jets from the US that were
originally intended for Pakistan. Some $105 million was to be paid
over 10 years.
(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A18)
1998 Dec 2, In Nigeria the
military government uncovered a $2 billion fraud by members of
Abacha’s family involving overpayment to Russia for a steel project.
(WSJ, 12/3/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 2, In Turkey Bulent
Ecevit was asked to form a new government.
(WSJ, 12/3/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 3, Republicans
jettisoned campaign fund-raising from their inquiry of President
Clinton, clearing the way for a historic House Judiciary Committee
vote on articles of impeachment over President Clinton's
relationship with Monica Lewinsky and his effort to cover it up.
(AP, 12/3/03)
1998 Dec 3, The movie
"Shakespeare in Love" premiered.
(AP, 12/3/08)
1998 Dec 3, Digital MP3
file-squishing technology was reported as a threat to recording
industry. MPEG Layer 3 was a compression technology that allowed CD
quality music to be sent over the internet. The Rio portable player
by Diamond Multimedia was released to stores in the midst of piracy
concerns.
(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A1)(SFEC, 12/20/98, p.B1)
1998 Dec 3, A scientific report
from the Multispecies Monitoring Committee said that the cod fishing
in the Gulf of Maine has collapsed due to overfishing.
(SFC, 12/4/98, p.A3)
1998 Dec 3, A 4-day conference
in Washington, DC, attended by 44 countries, the Vatican and over a
dozen Jewish organizations, produced guidelines for documenting Nazi
plunder to resolve claims on confiscated art.
(SFC, 12/4/98, p.A18)
1998 Dec 3, In Europe the
central banks of 11 countries issued a coordinated interest-rate cut
in response to softening economic conditions.
(WSJ, 12/3/98, p.A16)
1998 Dec 3, In Vienna 33
nations signed the Wassenaar Arrangement limiting arms exports. The
agreement included export controls on the most powerful
data-scrambling technologies. Russia refused to sign and continued
to sell arms.
(SFC, 12/4/98, p.B2)(WSJ, 5/26/00, p.A22)
1998 Dec 3, In Japan it was
reported that the Jul-Sep quarter fell 0.7%. It was the 4th
consecutive decrease in GDP.
(WSJ, 12/3/98, p.A16)
1998 Dec 3, In the Philippines
a fire burned the Catholic Bahay Kalinga orphanage in Manila and at
least 28 people were killed including 23 children.
(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A21)(WSJ, 12/4/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 3, In Romania Brother
Cleopa, an Orthodox monk, died at age 87 at the 14th century
Sihastra Monastery. He was renowned for his lectures and sermons,
some of which were published under the title "Talks with Brother
Cleopa," in Sobornost, an ecumenical Orthodox and Anglican journal
published in Oxford.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A25)
1998 Dec 3, Yugoslav border
guards killed 8 ethnic Albanians as they tried to cross the border
into Kosovo. In Pristina Hizri Talla, a senior guerrilla commander
was killed along with Kosovar journalist Afrim Maliqi and student
Ilir Durmishi.
(WSJ, 12/3/98, p.A1)(SFC, 12/10/98, p.C9)
1998 Dec 4, It was reported
that an informant known as CS-1 confessed that he participated in a
bin Laden-inspired plot to attack American military facilities
around the world.
(SFC, 12/4/98, p.A16)
1998 Dec 4, The first PC for
the car, made by Clarion Co., went on sale for $1,299. It use a
Microsoft operating system and responded to voice commands to change
radio stations and CDs, check e-mail, and use global positioning.
(SFC, 12/5/98, p.D1)
1998 Dec 4, The shuttle
Endeavour was launched with a crew of 6 from Cape Canaveral. It
contained the 2nd component of the new int’l. space station.
(SFC, 12/4/98, p.A2)
1998 Dec 4, The London Guardian
was cited in a report that 3 high security officials in Libya, were
convicted and sentenced to prison for dereliction of duty. Abdullah
Senussi, Musa Koussa and Mohammed al-Misrati were thought to be the
superiors of the men wanted for the 1988Lockerbie Pan Am bombing.
(SFC, 12/4/98, p.A16)
1998 Dec 4, Britain and France
signed an agreement for greater cooperation in crises management and
military operations. At the Anglo-French summit in St Malo, the
leaders of the UK and France decided on the need for a "capacity for
autonomous action, backed up by credible military forces." This led
to the establishment of the European Security and Defense Policy
(ESDP).
(www.heritage.org/Research/Europe/bg2053.cfm)(SFC, 12/5/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 4, In Cambodia the
last Khmer Rouge fighting force surrendered, but 3 leaders refused
to give up.
(WSJ, 12/7/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 4, In China Lin Hai
(30), a software entrepreneur, was arrested for inciting subversion
by providing 30,000 Chinese e-mail addresses to "hostile foreign
organizations.
(SFC, 12/5/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 4, From Egypt it was
reported that a new 3rd party, named "Wasat" or middle party, was
emerging. It was an alternative to the fundamentalist Islamic regime
and the secular state.
(SFC, 12/5/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 4, Honduras declared a
national alert because of epidemics. 20,000 people were reported to
have cholera and 31,000 suffered from malaria. Diarrhea was
affecting some 208,000.
(SFC, 12/5/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 5, James P. Hoffa
claimed the Teamsters presidency after challenger Tom Leedham
conceded defeat in the union's presidential election.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.A9) (AP, 12/5/99)
1998 Dec 5, Former Senator
Albert Gore Senior (90), father of the vice president, died at his
home in Carthage, Tenn.
(AP, 12/5/99)
1998 Dec 5, In Nigeria local
government elections were held.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.A21)
1998 Dec 5, In Paraguay the
ruling Colorado Pary expelled former army chief Lino Oviedo and
accused Pres. Raul Cubas of defying the constitution for failing
obey a Supreme Court ruling to send Oviedo back to prison.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.A28)
1998 Dec 5, In South Korea the
first Japanese film since 1945 was screened. "Hana Bi" (Fireworks)
was the first film shown since a ban on Japanese work was lifted in
Oct.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.A15)
1998 Dec 5, Pakistan's sinking
credit rating and unsuccessful talks with U.S. officials in
Washington caused a major setback to the stock market.
(UPI, 12/6/98)
1998 Dec 6, The astronauts of
the Endeavour space shuttle attached Node 1 of the new space station
to the cargo block Zarya.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A2)
1998 Dec 6, Clayton "Peg Leg"
Bates, a tap dancer who lost a leg in childhood, died at age 91.
(WSJ, 12/8/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 6, In Gabon Pres. Omar
Bongo (63) won the election for a new 7-year term. He received 66%
of the vote with clear ballot stuffing.
(SFC, 12/9/98, p.B8)(SFC, 12/18/98, p.D2)
1998 Dec 6, In Nigeria it was
reported that 14 people died in poll-related violence.
(WSJ, 12/9/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 6, Hundreds of
Palestinian prisoners in Israel started a hunger strike and
demanded to be freed.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A14)
1998 Dec 6, In Sierra Leone at
least 51 rebels were killed in fierce fighting north of Freetown.
(WSJ, 12/9/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 6, In Taiwan the
ruling Nationalists enlarged their legislative majority and captured
the mayoralty in Taipei.
(WSJ, 12/7/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 6, In Venezuela
national presidential elections were scheduled. Hugo Chavez, a
former army officer who staged a bloody coup attempt against the
government six years earlier, won by a landslide. He faced a
$22 billion foreign debt and planned a constitutional assembly to
replace the Congress and to rewrite the constitution.
(WSJ, 12/3/98, p.A1)(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A1)(AP,
12/6/99)
1998 Dec 7, Pres. Clinton
announced the removal of Iran from the list of drug problem
countries due to an energetic campaign to eliminate opium poppies.
(SFC, 12/8/98, p.A12)
1998 Dec 7, On the eve of
historic hearings, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde
said there was a "compelling case" for impeaching President Clinton.
Attorney General Janet Reno declined to seek an independent counsel
investigation of President Clinton over 1996 campaign financing.
(AP, 12/7/99)
1998 Dec 7, South Carolina
ended its participation in the antitrust case against Microsoft.
(SFC, 11/6/99, p.A3)
1998 Dec 7, The UN agreed to
give Cambodia’s UN seat to the new government.
(SFC, 12/8/98, p.A15)
1998 Dec 7, In Chechnya a
rescue attempt was made to free 4 men kidnapped Oct 3. The action
led to the murder of the 4 men whose severed heads were found the
next day.
(SFC, 12/9/98, p.A9)
1998 Dec 7, On the secessionist
Comoros island of Anjouan separatist militias broke a short cease
fire and some 10 people were reported killed.
(SFC, 12/8/98, p.B5)
1998 Dec 7, Congolese rebels
dismissed the tentative truce worked out in Paris by UN Sec. Gen’l.
Kofi Annan.
(SFC, 12/8/98, p.B5)
1998 Dec 7, In Russia Pres.
Yeltsin left the hospital, fired several aides and returned to the
hospital to recover from pneumonia.
(WSJ, 12/8/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 8, The White House
opened its defense against the impeachment of Pres. Clinton. A
184-page defense, written by White House lawyers, held that
Clinton’s actions were "immoral" and "misleading" but did not amount
to impeachable offenses.
(WSJ, 12/8/98, p.A1)(SFC, 12/9/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 8, The US Supreme
Court ruled that police cannot search people and their cars after
merely ticketing them for routine traffic violations.
(SFC, 12/9/98, p.A8)(AP, 12/8/99)
1998 Dec 8, Paul Edward
Hindelang Jr. (51) agreed to forfeit to the US government $50
million that he had acquired dealing drugs in the 1970s. He had
helped pioneer the "mother ship" smuggling technique.
(WSJ, 6/2/99, p.A1)
1998 Dec 8, In the SF Bay Area
an electrician’s error in San Mateo caused a power outage along the
northern peninsula that lasted more than seven hours before
electricity was fully restored.
(SFC, 12/9/98, p.A1)(AP, 12/8/99)
1998 Dec 8, In Greeley, Colo.,
state transportation worker, Robert S. Helfer (50), killed one
person during a disciplinary hearing and wounded another. He was
killed by police while trying to escape.
(SFC, 12/9/98, p.A6)
1998 Dec 8, In Algeria 45
people were killed in Tadjena. Armed groups attacked three villages
in the area and killed a total of 81 people. Security forces dug up
46 bodies from a well at a farm in Meftah, 10 miles from central
Algiers.
(SFC, 12/10/98, p.A12)(SFC, 12/12/98, p.B1)
1998 Dec 8, In Chechnya the
severed heads of Darren Hickey, Rudolf Petschi, Stanley Shaw
and Peter Kennedy were found lines up along a highway outside of
Grozny. The mobile phone workers had been kidnapped Oct 3.
(SFC, 12/10/98, p.C8)
1998 Dec 8, In Estonia the
Parliament approved an amendment to its citizenship law that made it
easier for its Russian-speaking minority to become citizens. It
granted citizenship to some 6,500 children born in Estonia of
Russian parents following the 1991 independence.
(SFC, 12/9/98, p.B8)
1998 Dec 8, From Sierra Leone
it was reported that Chief Samuel Hinga Norman, the deputy minister
of defense, had founded a cult-based militia, the Kamajors, to help
fight the rebels.
(SFC, 12/8/98, p.A12,16)
1998 Dec 8, In Somalia at least
18 people were killed and 30 wounded in clashes between 2 rival
clans in Baidoa.
(SFC, 12/9/98, p.B8)
1998 Dec 9, The Republicans on
the House Judiciary Committee drafted 4 articles of impeachment for
Pres. Clinton, all stemming from his sexual relationship with Monica
Lewinsky and long campaign to cover it up. The Democrats countered
with a censure plan.
(SFC, 12/10/98, p.A1)(AP, 12/9/99)
1998 Dec 9, An appeals court in
Oregon ruled that the state constitution gives gay and lesbian
government employees the right to health and life insurance benefits
for their domestic partners.
(SFC, 12/10/98, p.C11)
1998 Dec 9, It was reported
that scientists in Japan had cloned several calves from an adult
cow. It was the 3rd mammal duplicated after mice and sheep.
(SFC, 12/9/98, p.A8)
1998 Dec 9, The David and
Lucille Packard Foundation announced an additional $200 million for
environmental causes to be spent over the next 5 years.
(SFC, 12/10/98, p.A1)
1998 Archie Moore, former light
heavy-weight boxing champion, died at age 84.
(SFC, 12/10/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 9, In Angola Unita
rebels advanced on Cuito after saying they had routed an attack by
government forces on their southern stronghold.
(WSJ, 12/10/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 9, In Armenia Vagram
Khorkhoruni, deputy defense minister, was shot dead outside his home
in Yerevan.
(SFC, 12/10/98, p.C7)
1998 Dec 9, Britain’s Home
Secretary, Jack Straw, turned down Gen’l. Augusto Pinochet’s plea to
be set free. The decision for extradition moved to the courts.
(SFC, 12/10/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/10/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 9, In Hyde, England,
authorities exhumed a 12th body killed by Dr. Harold Shipman (52).
The family doctor was accused of killing female patients for their
money from 1994 to Jun 1998. [see Jun 1998]
(SFC, 12/10/98, p.C7)
1998 Dec 9, In Cambodia Khmer
Rouge guerrillas kidnapped 48 people, including 3 aid workers, and
demanded ransom.
(WSJ, 12/10/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 9, In France the
National Assembly instituted the Civil Solidarity Pact, a bill to
improve the lot of cohabiting gay and unmarried couples.
(SFC, 12/10/98, p.C7)
1998 Dec 9, In Iran the body of
Mohammed Mokhtari, a prominent writer missing for a week, was found.
It appeared that he was murdered by strangulation. Shortly later
Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh (45), another dissident writer, was
reported missing. Pouyandeh was later found murdered.
(SFC, 12/10/98, p.C2)(SFC, 12/11/98, p.A22)(SFC,
12/15/98, p.A14)
1998 Dec 9, Iraq refused UN
inspectors access to an office of the ruling Baath Party.
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.D2)
1998 Dec 9, In Israel the
Supreme Court ruled that the exemption for rigorously Orthodox
Jewish yeshiva students from army service was illegal.
(SFC, 12/10/98, p.C6)
1998 Dec 9, In Malaysia Azizan
Abu Bakar, the ex-driver of Anwar Ibrahim, repeated in court his
allegation that he was sodomized by Ibrahim in 1992.
(SFC, 12/10/98, p.C7)
1998 Dec 9, A Palestinian
teenager was killed as Israeli forces and Palestinian protestors
clashed.
(SFC, 12/10/98, p.A12)
1998 Dec 10, The House
Judiciary Committee opened debate on 4 articles of impeachment
against Pres. Clinton. Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee
lined up one by one in favor of impeaching President Clinton;
Democrats vowed opposition after lawyers clashed in closing
arguments over alleged "high crimes and misdemeanors."
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.A1)(AP, 12/10/99)
1998 Dec 10, Six astronauts
jubilantly swung open the doors to the new international space
station, becoming the first guests aboard the 250-mile-high outpost.
(AP, 12/10/99)
1998 Dec 10, Scientists
reported that all 97 million genetic "letters" of the worm
"Caenorhabditis elegans" had been precisely mapped. It was the first
complete genetic blueprint of an animal.
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.A1,16)
1998 Dec 10, In Detroit Andrzej
Olbrot (52), a Wayne State Univ. engineering Prof., was shot and
killed while administering final exams. A 48-year-old graduate
student turned himself in the next day.
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.D6)(SFC, 12/12/98, p.A2)
1998 Dec 10, In Algeria the
death toll for the month reached 200.
(WSJ, 12/11/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 10, Mansur Tagirov,
Chechnya’s top prosecutor, disappeared while returning to Grozny.
(SFC, 12/12/98, p.B1)
1998 Dec 10, Zhang Jieying,
Chinese writer and columnist, was reported to have sold 200,000
legal copies and millions of pirated editions of her book "Absolute
Privacy." The book was a collection of people’s private stories on
love and sex in an era of social change.
(WSJ, 12/10/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 10, Nicaragua filed a
large damage suit against all major US tobacco companies. Guatemala
and Panama already had suits on file.
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.D3)
1998 Dec 10, In North Korea it
was reported that a Fall scientific survey found that 62% of the
children under 7 years old suffered from stunted growth due to
malnutrition. An entire generation of children were feared to be
physically and mentally impaired.
(SFC, 12/10/98, p.C5)
1998 Dec 10, Leaders of the PLO
voted to annul passages of their 1964 constitutional charter that
called for Israel’s destruction.
(AP, 12/10/99)(SFC, 12/11/98, p.A18)
1998 Dec 10, In Sudan the death
toll from the 15 year civil war was reported to have reached at
least 1.9 million. A 40 nation African conference on refugees opened
in Khartoum.
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.D3)
1998 Dec 11, Pres. Clinton
appealed for forgiveness but majority Republicans on the House
Judiciary Committee voted 21 to 16 to approve 3 articles of
impeachment.
(SFC, 12/12/98, p.A1)(AP, 12/11/99)
1998 Dec 11, The Mars Climate
Orbiter blasted off on a 9 ½ month journey to the Red Planet.
The probe disappeared in September 1999, apparently destroyed
because scientists had failed to convert English measures to metric
values.
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.D6)(SFC, 12/12/98, p.A10)(AP,
12/11/99)
1998 Dec 11, In Indonesia
Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, Suharto’s youngest son, was charged as
a suspect in a corruption case. Also charged was Beddu Amang, a
former chief of the state-run food distribution agency known as
Bulog.
(SFC, 12/12/98, p.B2)
1998 Dec 11, Israeli troops
fired on hundreds of protesting Palestinians killing 2 and wounding
dozens.
(SFC, 12/12/98, p.A14)
1998 Dec 11, A Thai Airways
Airbus A310-200 jet crashed near the airport at Surat Thani. 45
people survived and 101 died.
(SFC, 12/12/98, p.A15)(WSJ, 12/14/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 12, The House
Judiciary Committee approved a 4th and final article of impeachment
against Pres. Clinton as he flew for a three-day visit to the Middle
East aimed at rescuing the Wye River peace accords.
(SFEC, 12/13/98, p.A1)(AP, 12/12/99)
1998 Dec 12, In Osseo, Mich., a
fireworks explosion at the Independence Professional Fireworks
building killed at least 7 people.
(SFEC, 12/13/98, p.A34)
1998 Dec 12, Florida Gov.
Lawton Chiles died in Tallahassee at age 68. He had acquired wealth
as one of the original investors in Red Lobster restaurants.
(SFEC, 12/13/98, p.C14)
1998 Dec 12, Mo Udall (b.1922),
former US Representative from Arizona, died at age 76. He had served
in the House from 1961-1991.
(SFC, 12/14/98, p.A5)(WSJ, 12/14/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 12, In Afghanistan a
5.4 earthquake hit Kabul and killed at least 5 people.
(SFEC, 12/13/98, p.A36)
1998 Dec 12, Marc Hodler
(1919-2006), Swiss lawyer and International Olympics Committee
official, unleashed a series of corruption allegations that included
systemic buying and selling of votes in Olympic bidding,
particularly for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
(SFC, 10/21/06, p.B6)
1998 Dec 13, With a grave
impeachment threat looming, President Clinton told a news conference
in Jerusalem he would not resign, and insisted he did not commit
perjury.
(AP, 12/13/99)
1998 Dec 13, Kabul,
Afghanistan, was hit by a barrage of rockets that killed 17 and
wounded 80 people. The launch site appeared to come from an area
controlled by an ousted defense chief.
(WSJ, 12/14/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 13, Angola was
reported to be withdrawing tanks and troops from Congo’s civil war.
(WSJ, 12/14/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 13, In Burkina Faso
Norbet Zongo, a prominent journalist and presidential critic, was
found dead in the wreckage of his burned car along with 2 cousins
and a chauffeur in Ouagadougou. His death prompted thousands to take
to the streets accusing Pres. Blaise Compaore’s government of
involvement. Zongo was killed with his brother and 2 others. Zongo
had inquired into the arrest and death of a driver, David Ouedraogo,
to Francois Compaore, the brother of the president and "head of
mission to the presidency." Ouedraogo was accused of stealing
$50,000. [see Jan 1998]
(SFC, 12/15/98, p.C3)(SFC, 2/19/00, p.A10)
1998 Dec 13, In Colombia an
anti-guerrilla raid at Santo Domingo village in Arauca state killed
a number of civilians. Most of the dead were victims of rockets and
strafing by military aircraft. The US oil-company air attack was
coordinated by 3 American civilian airmen. Later reports said the
rockets and warplanes were bought with US anti-drug aid. In 2002 a
government report faulted a Colombian helicopter pilot and crewman
for dropping a bomb that killed 17 civilians in Santo Domingo.
Charges of involuntary manslaughter were levied in 2003. In 2009 a
judge found two Colombian air force pilots guilty of murder and
sentenced them to 31 years in prison each for the cluster-bombing of
Santo Domingo that killed 17 people, including 6 children.
(SFC, 12/15/98, p.C4)(WSJ, 12/15/98, p.A1)(SFC,
12/22/98, p.C4)(SFC, 6/15/01, p.A1)(AP, 10/25/02)(AP, 12/21/03)(AP,
9/27/09)
1998 Dec 13, Indonesia
announced a plan to recruit some 40,000 young people to help
suppress social and religious unrest.
(SFC, 12/14/98, p.C2)
1998 Dec 13, Puerto Rico voters
rejected statehood by a vote of 50.2% to 46.5%. The winning option
was none of the above, but interpreted as a decision to remain as
commonwealth, a US territory with local autonomy.
(SFC, 12/14/98, p.A4)(AP, 12/13/99)
1998 Dec 13, In Sierra Leone as
many as 200 died in weekend battles 35 miles from the capital. The
Nigerian-led military said that a large force of rebels had been cut
off and annihilated.
(WSJ, 12/15/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 14, Researchers
reported that the protein IGF-1, insulin-like growth factor type1,
was found to sustain muscle maintenance and repair when injected
into muscle cells. The protein was packaged in the shell of a virus
that causes no disease.
(SFC, 12/15/98, p.A3)
1998 Dec 14, The peak of the
Geminid meteor shower.
(NH, 12/98, p.73)
1998 Dec 14, In Gaza City Pres.
Clinton watched as hundreds of Palestinian leaders raised their
hands to renounce a call for the destruction of Israel.
(SFC, 12/15/98, p.A1)(AP, 12/14/99)
1998 Dec 14, In Algeria Prime
Minister Ahmed Ouyahia resigned.
(SFC, 12/15/98, p.C2)
1998 Dec 14, In Angola UNITA
rebels launched an offensive at Cuito and Huambo and claimed to have
shot down a government jet.
(WSJ, 12/15/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 14, In Brazil
legislators proposed to give themselves a 59% pay raise as the
economy slipped into recession.
(WSJ, 12/16/98, p.A19)
1998 Dec 14, The British human
rights group, Global Witness, reported that in Angola UNITA was
selling diamonds to finance its battles against government forces.
(SFC, 12/15/98, p.C7)
1998 Dec 14, In China the armed
forces completed the hand over of their commercial holdings to
civilian control.
(SFC, 12/15/98, p.C7)
1998 Dec 14, In Guinea Lansana
Conte was re-elected president to a 7-year term with 54.1% of the
vote. The opposition rejected as flawed.
(SFC, 12/18/98, p.D9)(AP, 9/29/09)
1998 Dec 14, In Iran
authorities arrested several suspects in the recent string of
murders of opposition figures. Pirouz Davani, leader of the United
Left, and Rostami Hamedani, an activist with Davani, were reported
missing.
(SFC, 12/15/98, p.A14)
1998 Dec 14, In Mexico the
Senate approved a new law that ended restrictions limiting foreign
ownership of the nation’s top banks.
(SFC, 12/15/98, p.C2)
1998 Dec 14, In Kosovo Serbian
border guards killed 31 ethnic Albanian guerrillas on the Albanian
border.
(SFC, 12/15/98, p.A14)(WSJ, 12/15/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 14, In Pec masked
Albanian rebels opened fire in the Panda barroom and killed 6 young
Kosovo Serbs.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.C2)(SFC, 12/18/98, p.D4)
1998 Dec 15, Pres. Clinton met
with Yasser Arafat and Benjamin Netanyahu without achieving any
tangible results to move the Peace Talks forward. President Clinton
concluded his three-day Middle East journey on a disappointing note
as Israel refused to resume the West Bank troop withdrawals called
for under the Wye River peace accord; nevertheless, Clinton declared
his trip a success.
(SFC, 12/16/98, p.A1)(AP, 12/15/99)
1998 Dec 15, Richard Butler,
chairman of the UN Special Commission overseeing the disarmament of
Iraq, reported that Saddam’s government continued to obstruct
inspections.
(SFC, 12/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 15, The 2-day ASEAN
summit opened in Hanoi. Cambodia was admitted informally.
(WSJ, 12/16/98, p.A19)
1998 Dec 15, A 40-nation
conference on the Dayton accord opened in Madrid.
(WSJ, 12/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 15, US forces in the
Persian Gulf were ordered on high alert following credible
information of an imminent terrorist attack.
(SFC, 12/16/98, p.A18)
1998 Dec 15, Marine scientists
reported that trawling by fishing fleets was causing widespread
disruption of ocean bottom habitats. They said that each year trawl
nets disturb an area twice the size of the contiguous US.
(SFC, 12/16/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 15, The Endeavour
shuttle and crew returned to Cape Canaveral in a night time landing
following NASA’s first space station-building mission.
(SFC, 12/16/98, p.A7)
1998 Dec 15, Congo rebels
claimed to have killed 47 Zimbabwean troops fighting for Kabila at
Kabala.
(WSJ, 12/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 15, In Japan Nawaki
Hashimoto was found dead from cyanide poisoning. He had peddled
cyanide to suicidal Japanese over a web site and one Tokyo woman
died the same day from his cyanide.
(SFC, 1/9/99, p.A11)
1998 Dec 15, The 500 members of
Libya’s General People’s Congress voted for conditional approval for
the trial of Pan Am Flight 103 bombing suspects in a 3rd country.
(SFC, 12/16/98, p.A15)
1998 Dec 15, In South Africa a
tornado killed 13 people in Umtata. Pres. Mandela narrowly escaped
injury while shopping there.
(SFC, 12/16/98, p.C3)
1998 Dec 16, Pres. Clinton
ordered a sustained series of missile strikes against Iraq forces in
response to Saddam Hussein's continued defiance of UN weapons
inspectors. Iraqi envoy Nizar Hamdoon accused UN weapons inspector
Richard Butler of producing a biased report on weapons inspections.
The strike came one before scheduled vote on Clinton’s impeachment
by the House of Representatives and days before the beginning of
Ramadan. Some 200 missiles fell on Iraq in the first 24 hours of the
attack and initial reports indicated two people killed and 30
injured. The House Republicans postponed impeachment by at least 24
hours.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.A1,8)(AP, 12/16/99)
1998 Dec 16, The House delayed
a debate set to begin the next day on four articles of impeachment
against President Clinton.
(AP, 12/16/99)
1998 Dec 16, Federal
prosecutors in NYC charged 5 men in the Aug 7 bombing of the
American Embassy in Tanzania. Mustafa Mohamed Fadhil of Egypt,
Khalfan Khamis Mohamed and Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani of Tanzania, and
Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam and Sheik Ahmed Salim Swedan of Kenya. A
6th man, "Ahmed the German," detonated the explosive device and was
killed.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.C2)
1998 Dec 16, William Gaddis,
American writer, died at age 75. His work included "The
Recognitions" (1955) and "A Frolic of His Own." In 2002 his novel
"Agapé Agape" was published along with his essays: "The Rush
for Second Place."
(WSJ, 12/18/98, p.A1)(SSFC, 10/20/02, p.M2)
1998 Dec 16, In Angola UNITA
rebels advanced on Cuinji and dozens of civilians were killed at the
train station when rebels attacked with automatic weapons and
grenades.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.C10)
1998 Dec 16, In China members
of the "Two Gun, One Ax" gang were executed in Guangdong province.
The group had been found guilty of killing 3 people and about 50
armed robberies and weapons trafficking.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.C10)
1998 Dec 16, In Indonesia in
the Borneo town of Samarinda a strike turned violent and
ethnic-Chinese shops were looted by mobs.
(WSJ, 12/17/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 16, In Northern
Ireland there was a bomb attack on a Catholic-owned country pub in
Crumlin. No one was hurt and 2 pro-British, Protestant extremist
groups claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 12/18/98, p.D9)
1998 Dec 16, In Italy Abdullah
Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party, was freed by an
appeals court in Rome. Turkish officials were outraged and renewed
threats of economic retaliation.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.C4)
1998 Dec 16, Philip True (50),
a reporter for the San Antonio Express-News, was found dead in a
remote mountain range between Jalisco and Nayarit states in Mexico.
He went hiking the area Nov 29 to photograph and write about the
Huichol Indians and apparently fell into a deep ravine. A coroner’s
report later indicated that he had been strangled and dropped into
the ravine. In 2002 an appeals court overturned the acquittal of 2
Huichol Indians, who were arrested with True’s camera and backpack.
In 2005 Robert Rivard authored “Trail of Feathers: Searching for
Philip True.”
(SFC, 12/18/98, p.D6)(SFC, 5/31/02, p.A22)(SSFC,
12/11/05, p.M2)
1998 Dec 16, In Rome an
apartment building collapsed and killed 20 people.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.C5)
1998 Dec 16, Researchers in
South Korea claimed to have cloned a human embryo, but destroyed it
early in its development.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 16, In Russia the
Parliament approved a bill to print $1.2 billion worth of rubles for
the last quarter of 1998. High inflation was feared to result.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.C5)
1998 Dec 16, In Hanoi, Vietnam,
the ASEAN nations approved the "Hanoi Action Plan," a 34-point
declaration that emphasized economic recovery based on free-market
policies.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.C6)
1998 Dec 16, In Zimbabwe former
Pres. Canaan Banana (63) was returned from South Africa and was
placed under house arrest. He had been convicted Nov 26 of 11 sex
charges.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.A20)
1998 Dec 17, Republicans
advanced the impeachment case against President Clinton to the House
floor for a debate the following day.
(AP, 12/17/99)
1998 Dec 17, US House
Speaker-designate Bob Livingston shocked fellow Republicans by
admitting he'd had extramarital affairs.
(AP, 12/17/99)
1998 Dec 17, US and British
forces launched more missiles on the 2nd day of attacks against
Iraq. The strikes included some 100 cruise missiles with 2,000 pound
warheads. At least 25 people were killed and 75 injured over 2 days.
Pres. Boris Yeltsin withdrew the Russian ambassador from Washington
and demanded an immediate end to military action. France and Italy
expressed strong opposition while Germany rallied to support the US
and Britain. A stray US missile hit Khorramshahr, Iran. The US later
apologized.
(SFC, 12/18/98, p.A1,3)(SFC, 12/21/98, p.A20)
1998 Dec 17, In Alagoas state,
Brazil, congresswoman Ceci Cunha was killed with her husband and 2
in-laws in an apparent political assassination. Talvane Albuquerque,
who lost re-election in October, assumed her seat in the Chamber of
Deputies. He was charged with ordering the murder of Cunha, but was
immune from criminal prosecution while in office.
(SFC, 12/18/98, p.D2)(WSJ, 3/16/99, p.A1)
1998 Dec 17, In Britain the
high court set aside its ruling against Gen’l Pinochet because one
member failed to disclose close ties with Amnesty Int’l. A new panel
will rehear Pinochet’s claim of immunity.
(SFC, 12/18/98, p.A18)
1998 Dec 17, In China
dissidents Wang Youcai in Hangzhou and Qin Yongmin in Wuhan,
arrested for subversion, pleaded their cases for forming the China
Democracy Party. Youcai was released in 2004 and sent to the US.
(SFC, 12/18/98, p.D3)(SFC, 2/05/04, p.A3)
1998 Dec 17, A boatload of
Cubans capsized off Elliot Key, Fla., during an immigrant-smuggling
attempt and at least 8 people were drowned.
(SFC, 12/19/98, p.A7)
1998 Dec 17, In Gabon Karen
Phillips (37), a US Peace Corps worker from Philadelphia, was raped
and stabbed to death in Oyem. 3 people were arrested in connection
with her death.
(SFEC, 12/20/98, p.C10)
1998 Dec 17, In Indonesia some
4,000 students attempted to storm the parliament in Jakarta in a 2nd
day of riots. They were stopped by police riot squads.
(SFC, 12/18/98, p.D2)
1998 Dec 17, Serbian police
attacked a suspected rebel-controlled village in Kosovo. Two ethnic
Albanian fighters were killed and 34 were arrested in Glodjane.
(SFC, 12/18/98, p.D4)
1998 Dec 17-18, A Congo
cease-fire was to be signed before a meeting of the Organization of
African Unity.
(SFEC, 11/29/98, p.A21)
1998 Dec 18, US House
Republicans rebuffed calls for a vote on censure and pushed forward
the vote on impeachment against Pres. Clinton.
(SFC, 12/19/98, p.A1)(AP, 12/18/99)
1998 Dec 18, US and British
struck Iraq for a 3rd day with little resistance. The US B-1 bomber
was used to drop bombs. Gen’l. Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, said more cruise missiles were launched in the
first 2 days than the 289 in the 1991 Gulf War.
(SFC, 12/19/98, p.A1)(AP, 12/18/99)
1998 Dec 18, The new electronic
Rocket Book by NuvoMedia weighed 22 ounces and stored 10 books.
(WSJ, 12/18/98, p.W15)
1998 Dec 18, The ICO Challenger
balloon with Richard Branson, Steve Fossett and Per Lindstrand left
Marrakesh, Morocco, in an attempt to circumnavigate the globe.
(SFC, 12/19/98, p.B3)
1998 Dec 18, In South Carolina
the 500th execution took place since capital punishment was resumed
in 1977. Andrew Lavern Smith died by lethal injection for his 1983
murder of an elderly couple.
(SFC, 12/19/98, p.A15)(AP, 12/18/99)
1998 Dec 18, South Korea sank a
half-submarine belonging to North Korea and recovered the body of a
crewman in a wet suit carrying a grenade.
(SFC, 12/18/98, p.D9)
1998 Dec 18, Fifty military
officers marched in Mexico City decrying corruption and injustice
and attempted to present Pres. Zedillo a letter calling for reform.
The officers called themselves the Patriotic Command to Raise the
Consciousness of the People.
(SFC, 1/18/99, p.A11)
1998 Dec 18, In Poland Pres.
Kwasniewski signed a bill that would allow victims of communist-era
repression to see their secret police files.
(SFC, 12/19/98, p.B3)
1998 Dec 18, In Kosovo, Serbia,
Zvonko Bojanic, district mayor of Kosovo Polje, was found severely
beaten and shot between the eyes.
(SFC, 12/19/98, p.A6)
1998 Dec 19, President Clinton
was impeached on 2 counts, Articles 1 and 3, by the
Republican-controlled House for perjury and obstruction of justice.
The 42nd chief executive became only the second in history to be
ordered to stand trial in the Senate, where, like Andrew Johnson
before him, he was acquitted.
(SFEC, 12/20/98, p.A1)(AP, 12/19/99)
1998 Dec 19, Rep. Bob
Livingston of Louisiana resigned as speaker-designate of the House.
He had earlier admitted to being unfaithful to his wife.
(SFEC, 12/20/98, p.A1)(AP, 12/18/99)
1998 Dec 19, The US and Britain
ended their attack on Iraq after 4 days of air and missile strikes
in Operation Desert Fox. An early estimate of US defense expenses
was put at $500 million. Some 62 members of the Republican Guard
were killed.
(SFEC, 12/20/98, p.A1,24)(SFC, 12/22/98,
p.A14)(WSJ, 8/27/99, p.A10)
1998 Dec 19, The Ramadan
holiday began in Saudi Arabia.
(SFC, 12/19/98, p.A21)
1998 Dec 19, In Sierra Leone
rebels overran the eastern diamond city of Koidu and many were
killed.
(WSJ, 12/21/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 19, In Spain Antonio
Ordonez, bullfighter, died at age 66. His career was chronicled in a
Hemingway novel.
(WSJ, 12/21/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 20, In Houston Nken
Chukwu gave birth to 5 girls and 2 boys 12 days after giving birth
to another girl. The tiniest of the babies died a week later.
(SFC, 12/21/98, p.A1)(AP, 12/20/99)
1998 Dec 20, Snow flakes fell
in SF and low temperature records were made around the Bay with 40
degrees in SF and 35 in Fremont.
(SFC, 12/21/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 20, Balloonists
Fossett, Branson and Per Lindstrand successfully ran through a
thunderstorm to avoid traveling over Iraq, Russia and Iran.
(SFC, 12/21/98, p.B4)
1998 Dec 20, In Cambodia there
were riots in Sihanoukville to protests suspected toxic waste
imports from Taiwan. Hundreds of Cambodians fled the city after
reports of deaths from 3,000 tons of toxic waste dumped 2 weeks ago.
The waste was loaded with mercury and a plan was made to move it
away from Sihanoukville. Taiwan ordered Formosa Plastics to take
back the 3,000 tons of waste but the firm said the government used
tests by an environmental group.
(WSJ, 12/21/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/22/98, p.A1)(WSJ,
12/28/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/29/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 20, Germany extradited
Mamdouh Mahmud Salim to the US in relation to the bombing of the US
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
(SFC, 12/21/98, p.B4)
1998 Dec 21, The Winter
Solstice.
(NH, 12/98, p.73)
1998 Dec 21, The World
Association of Newspapers awarded the 1999 Golden Pen of Freedom
award to exiled Iranian writer Faraj Sarkuhi, former editor of the
cultural journal Adineh.
(SFC, 12/22/98, p.C4)
1998 Dec 21, The FDA approved
the first vaccine against Lyme disease.
(WSJ, 12/22/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 21, In China 3
dissidents were sentenced to prison terms of 11-13 years. Xu Wenli
received 13 years, Wang Youcai 11 years and Qin Yongmin 12 years for
subversion, i.e. trying to organize an opposition party. Xu Wenli
was released in Dec, 2002.
(SFC, 12/22/98, p.A14)(AP, 12/21/99)(SFC,
12/25/02, p.A1)
1998 Dec 21, Israel's
parliament voted 81-30 for early elections, signaling the demise of
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ailing hard-line government.
Peace policies were rejected 56-48.
(SFC, 12/22/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/22/98, p.A1) (AP,
12/21/99)
1998 Dec 21, In Kosovo, Serbia,
Milic Jovic (52), a Serbian police officer, was shot and killed in
Podujevo.
(SFC, 12/22/98, p.C2)
1998 Dec 21, In Turkey Prime
Minister-designate Bulent Ecevit abandoned efforts to form a new
government.
(SFC, 12/22/98, p.C4)
1998 Dec 22, The women's
American Basketball League folded in the midst of its 3rd season.
(SFC, 12/23/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 22, The Energy Dept.
for the first time awarded a billion-dollar contract to the
Tennessee Valley Authority to produce tritium at a TVA nuclear
reactor for military use.
(SFC, 12/23/98, p.A3)
1998 Dec 22, US gas stations
faced this day’s deadline to replace or improve their underground
fuel tanks. Thousands of rural gas stations were expected to go out
of business due to the costs.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/22/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 22, The Bil Mar meat
packing plant in Michigan recalled 35 million pounds of hot dogs and
lunch meats following the deaths of 16 people due to the bacteria
Listeria monocytogenes. In Jan. another 30 million pounds were
recalled from the Thorn Apple Valley plant in Arkansas.
(SFC, 2/11/99, p.A7)
1998 Dec 22, In Angola rebels
shelled Kuito and 26 people were reported killed. Some 60,000
refugees had fled there to escape fighting elsewhere.
(WSJ, 12/23/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/24/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 22, A third Chinese
dissident, Qin Yongmin, was sentenced to prison for trying to
organize an opposition party.
(AP, 12/22/99)
1998 Dec 22, In Iraq UN aid
groups returned to Baghdad.
(WSJ, 12/23/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 22, In Lebanon an
Israeli rocket killed woman and her 6 children.
(SFC, 12/23/98, p.C2)
1998 Dec 22, In South Africa
Gugu Dlamini (36), an AIDS activist, died from wounds inflicted by a
mob.
(SFC, 12/28/98, p.A7)
1998 Dec 23, The US and Russia
signed a $625 million food aid pact.
(WSJ, 12/24/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 23, In California two
days of severe cold caused an estimated $591 million in agricultural
damage. Hard hit were the lemon and navel orange crop of the central
San Joaquin Valley. Damage estimates later rose to over $700
million.
(SFC, 12/24/98, p.D1)(SFC, 4/2/99, p.)
1998 Dec 23, Anatoly Rybakov,
Russian writer, died in New York at age 87. His work included
"Children of Arbat," written in 1966 but not published until 1987.
His anti-Stalinist novel, "Leto v Sosnyakakh" (Summer in Sosnyaki)
was published in 1964. His first novel was "Kortik" (The Dagger),
which established him in 1948 as a writer of adventure stories for
children.
(SFC, 12/24/98, p.B2)
1998 Dec 23, In Angola
government forces retook the towns of Vila Nova and Caala.
(SFC, 12/24/98, p.A12)
1998 Dec 23, In Belgium the top
court convicted former NATO chief Willy Claes, French aerospace
tycoon Serge Dessault and 2 ex-aides of corruption. All got
suspended sentences.
(WSJ, 12/24/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 23, An Indonesian
military court charged 11 soldiers with kidnapping dissidents before
the ouster of Suharto. Prabowo Subianto, a son-in-law of Suharto led
the unit and has since fled to Jordan and become a citizen.
(WSJ, 12/24/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 23, In Lebanon
Hezbollah guerrillas retaliated against Israel with Katyusha rockets
at Kiryat Shemona on Israel's northern border in retaliation for an
Israeli air raid a day earlier..
(SFC, 12/23/98, p.A10)(AP, 12/23/99)
1998 Dec 23, Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat freed Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin from
house arrest, a move denounced by Israel.
(SFC, 12/24/98, p.A10) (AP,
12/23/99)
1998 Dec 23, In Turkey Pres.
Demirel asked Yalim Erez, the acting trade minister of Kurdish
origin, to form a new government.
(SFC, 12/24/98, p.A12)
1998 Dec 23, In Sri Lanka at
least 30 insurgents were killed in Oddusuddan in the heaviest
fighting in months.
(USAT, 12/23/98, p.8A)
1998 Dec 24, In New Jersey a
bus carrying New Yorkers to Atlantic City casinos skidded and
flipped on the Garden State Parkway. 8 people were killed and 15
injured.
(SFC, 12/25/98, p.A3)
1998 Dec 24, Most of
California's citrus crop was considered ruined after three
consecutive nights of freezing cold.
(AP, 12/24/99)
1998 Dec 24, In Angola a rebel
attack on Kuito killed 30 people and wounded 37. Nine of the dead,
killed by mortar fire, had sought refuge in a Catholic church.
(SFC, 12/26/98, p.A12)
1998 Dec 24, In Tbilisi,
Georgia, gunmen killed Greek diplomat Anastasius Mizitrasos.
(SFC, 12/25/98, p.A19)
1998 Dec 24, In Israel Gen'l.
Amnon Lipkin-Shahak left the armed forces and said he would help
lead new centrist political party against Prime Minister Netanyahu
in spring elections.
(SFC, 12/25/98, p.B8)
1998 Dec 24, In Podujevo,
Yugoslavia, Serb forces used tanks and armored vehicles against
separatist guerrillas breaking a 2-month cease fire. Ignoring NATO
warnings, Serb tanks and troops struck an ethnic Albanian stronghold
in Kosovo.
(SFC, 12/25/98, p.A15)(AP, 12/24/99)
1998 Dec 25, Seven days into
their journey, American millionaire Steve Fossett, British mogul
Richard Branson and Per Lindstrom of Sweden set down their ICO
Global Challenger balloon in the Pacific near Honolulu. This ended
their latest effort to circumnavigate the world.
(SFC, 12/26/98, p.A1)(AP, 12/25/99)
1998 Dec 25, A storm snapped
power lines in Virginia and left thousands without power as cold
weather hit across the South.
(SFC, 12/28/98, p.A9)
1998 Dec 25, Belarus Pres.
Lukashenko and Russian Pres. Boris Yeltsin declared an agreement to
begin unifying their currencies and economies next year.
(SFC, 12/26/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 25, In Lima, Peru, a
tear gas bomb caused a stampede in a disco and 9 young people,
13-21, were crushed to death. The bomb was said to have been thrown
by members of a youth gang.
(SFC, 12/26/98, p.A14)
1998 Dec 25, In Sierra Leone
Sam Bockarie of the Revolutionary United Front said that his rebels
would march into Freetown on New Year's Day unless the government
agreed to terms that included the release of Foday Sankoh. Rebels
had captured Makeni and were battling for Kenema.
(SFC, 12/26/98, p.A14)
1998 Dec 25, In Serbia US
diplomats in Kosovo persuaded army officers to pull back some of
their forces.
(SFC, 12/26/98, p.A8)
1998 Dec 26, President Clinton,
in his weekly radio address, urged Congress to lower the
blood-alcohol limit for drunken driving nationwide to 0.08 percent
to conform with 17 states and the District of Columbia. The other 33
states have 0.10.
(AP, 12/26/99)
1998 Dec 26, In Angola a
transport plane with 14 people aboard crashed near Vila Nova, an
area of continued fighting. 8 of the passengers were members of a UN
Observer Mission. UNITA rebels reportedly held some of the
survivors. A rescue team reached the site Jan 8 and there were no
survivors.
(SFEC, 12/27/98, p.A22)(SFC, 12/29/98, p.A8)(SFC,
1/2/99, p.A9)(SFC, 1/9/99, p.A10)
1998 Dec 26, In Cambodia 2
aides of the late Pol Pot, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, emerged from
the jungle and expressed in writing their desire to become ordinary
citizens and allegiance to the government. Prime Minister Hun Sen
welcomed them and spoke against a trial and reopening old wounds.
(SFEC, 12/27/98, p.A22)(SFC, 12/29/98, p.A8)
1998 Dec 26, Iraq fired on
Western aircraft patrolling the southern no-fly zone and said it
would shoot at all military aircraft patrolling no-fly zones.
(SFEC, 12/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 26, In Sierra Leone
residents in Freetown burned alive 2 suspected rebel spies. The
rebel United Front reported that it had killed 60 Nigerian soldiers
of ECOMOG. Defenses in Freetown were bolstered by Kamajor militia.
(SFEC, 12/27/98, p.A23)
1998 Dec 26, In Vietnam it was
reported that foreign investment had dropped 46% this year due to
difficult business conditions that included a "nightmarish
bureaucracy," inefficient dual-pricing, and partnerships that placed
total risk on foreign investors.
(SFC, 12/26/98, p.A9)
1998 Dec 27, Six inmates,
including four convicted killers, escaped from Riverbend Maximum
Security Institution in Tennessee. All were recaptured by the end of
next day.
(AP, 12/27/99)
1998 Dec 27, A vaccine for AIDS
by VaxGen Inc. of South San Francisco was reported to be in Phase
III clinical trials. It was derived from g-120, a genetically
engineered protein copied from a protein found in the HIV virus.
Other vaccines were also under development.
(SFEC, 12/27/98, p.A3)
1998 Dec 27, In Michigan 6
children of Femeeka O'Steen (27) died of smoke inhalation in Detroit
as their mother recovered in a hospital after giving birth.
(SFC, 12/28/98, p.A2)
1998 Dec 27, A week after she
was born weighing just 10.3 ounces, the smallest of the Houston
Chukwu octuplets, Chijindu Chidera, died.
(SFC, 12/28/98, p.A1) (AP, 12/27/99)
1998 Dec 27, In Algeria armed
groups attacked 2 villages and killed at least 30 people at Khenis
Miliana and Ain N'Sour.
(SFC, 12/29/98, p.A8)
1998 Dec 27, In China a 4th
dissident for democracy received a 10 year prison sentence for
speaking to a reported by telephone about farmer's protests.
(SFC, 12/28/98, p.A6)
1998 Dec 27, In Colombia a
natural gas pipeline exploded in Arroyo de Piedra and killed 12
people.
(SFC, 12/28/98, p.B1)
1998 Dec 29, In Colombia rebels
claimed to have killed a right-wing paramilitary leader in a weekend
capture of his northern stronghold.
(WSJ, 12/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 27, In the Congo
Republic troops from Angola, allied to Pres. Sassou-Nguesso, killed
dozens of people in a weekend attack on Nkayi.
(WSJ, 12/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 27, Iraq said it would
reject any extension of a UN monitored food program and would
require monitors to leave.
(SFC, 12/28/98, p.A6)
1998 Dec 27, In Mexico 2
Huichol Indians, Juan Chivarrer Lopez and Miguel Hernandez de la
Cruz, were arrested for the murder of reporter Philip True.
(SFC, 12/28/98, p.B1)
1998 Dec 27, In Russia the
first group of 10 solid-fuel Topol-M missiles was to be inaugurated
by Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev. They were designed to replace the
multiple warhead missiles banned by START II.
(SFEC, 12/27/98, p.A20)
1998 Dec 27, In Sierra Leone
Nigerian jets killed some 50 rebels in Makeni and ECOMOG forces took
control following fierce fighting.
(SFC, 12/28/98, p.B1)
1998 Dec 27, In Tonga Cyclone
Cora hit the islands and destroyed all the banana trees.
(SFC, 12/28/98, p.B1)
1998 Dec 28, In Riverside, Ca.,
Tyisha Miller (19) was killed by a hail of police bullets as she sat
in her car with a gun. Her car had some 27 bullet holes. Miller died
from bullets to her head and chest with a total of 12 bullets in her
body. A coroner's report later said that she was legally drunk with
traces of marijuana present. In May, 1999, four police officers were
cleared of criminal charges in the killing. The case remained under
FBI investigation for civil rights violations. In July officers Paul
Bugar (24), Wayne Stewart (26), Daniel Hotard (23) and Michael
Alagna( 27) were fired. Sgt. Gregory Preece (38), supervisor of the
4 officers, was told he would be fired July 27. Riverside agreed to
pay Miller’s family $3 million in 2000.
(SFC, 12/30/98, p.A1)(SFC, 1/1/99, p.A5)(SFC,
1/8/99, p.A12)(SFC, 5/7/99, p.A7)(SFC, 7/14/99, p.A3)(SFC, 7/28/99,
p.A3)(SFC, 7/27/00, p.A5)
1998 Dec 28, American aircraft
patrolling the no-fly zone in Iraq destroyed an air defense site
after the battery opened fire on them. President Clinton said there
would be no letup in American and British pressure on Saddam
Hussein.
(SFC, 12/29/98, p.A1)(AP, 12/28/99)
1998 Dec 28, In the SF Bay
Area fog closed all the major airports and stranded thousands of
travelers.
(WSJ, 12/29/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 28, At least 6 sailors
were feared dead from a gale that struck off Australia during the
Sydney-to-Hobart yacht race. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison skippered the
Sayonara to victory.
(SFC, 12/29/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 28, In Yemen Islamic
militants kidnapped 16 Western tourists. The demanded the release of
Saleh Haidara al-Atwi and another top militant arrested 2 weeks ago.
(SFC, 12/29/98, p.A8)
1998 Dec 29, In Nevada 31 wild
horses were found shot to death by rifle fire at close range at
Devil's Flat near Washoe Valley.
(SFC, 12/30/98, p.A3)
1998 Dec 29, Two top Khmer
Rouge leaders apologized for the deaths of as many as 2 million
people during their regime in the 1970s, and asked Cambodians to
forget the past.
(AP, 12/29/99)
1998 Dec 29, In Colombia rebels
claimed to have killed a right-wing paramilitary leader, Carlos
Castano, in a weekend capture of his northern stronghold. Other
sources denied the report.
(WSJ, 12/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 29, In Cyprus Pres.
Glafcos Clerides decided not to import Russian-made anti-aircraft
missiles in order to reduce tensions with Turkey.
(SFC, 12/30/98, p.A8)
1998 Dec 29, In Kosovo 5
Albanians died in fighting with Serb police as NATO repeated threats
of airstrikes. A group of US senators proposed to offer Milosevic
sanctuary in a 3rd nation if he would step down.
(WSJ, 12/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 29, In Lebanon the
Israeli army assassinated Zahi Naim Hadr Ahmed Mahabi, a top
Hezbollah explosives expert.
(SFC, 1/2/99, p.C12)
1998 Dec 29, In Yemen security
forces attacked the kidnappers of 16 and 4 hostages were killed. The
freed tourists said that government forces initiated the battle that
left 3 Britons and an Australian dead.
(SFC, 12/31/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 12/31/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 30, Weak but radiant,
Nkem Chukwu, mother of the Houston octuplets, was released from the
hospital.
(AP, 12/30/99)
1998 Dec 30, In Angola rebels
bombarded Huambo and killed 5 people.
(SFC, 12/31/98, p.D2)
1998 Dec 28, In Argentina Ruben
Franco, a former Admiral, was arrested on charges of being a central
organizer of the baby kidnappings during the dirty war.
(SFC, 12/31/98, p.D2)
1998 Dec 30, In Colombia
officials found at least 11 burned and dismembered bodies in El
Diamante.
(SFC, 12/31/98, p.D2)
1998 Dec 30-1999 Jan 1, Some 500 people were
massacred in eastern Congo during the 3 day New Year holiday. The
killings were by soldiers aligned with rebels led by Tutsi, but the
victims were not Hutu.
(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A7)
1998 Dec 30, Iraq again fired
at US warplanes the missile site was destroyed in response.
(SFC, 12/31/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 31, In New Orleans a
truck loaded with fireworks exploded prior to a New Years Eve show.
2 technicians were killed.
(SFC, 1/2/99, p.A12)
1998 Dec 31, In Cambodia Hun
Sen said he would not oppose a trial of the 2 recently emerged Khmer
Rouge defectors. The National Assembly passed a $393.4 million
budget that included $133 million for defense and security.
(SFC, 1/2/99, p.A8)(SFC, 1/2/99, p.C12)
1998 Dec 31, In China the
collected villages of Bujun in Sichuan province cast ballots for
their own magistrate.
(SFC, 1/26/99, p.A13)
1998 Dec 31, Europe's leaders
proclaimed a new era as 11 nations merged currencies to create the
euro, a shared money they said would boost business, underpin unity
and strengthen their role in world affairs.
(AP, 12/31/99)
1998 Dec, The 70,000 ton, 2,040
passenger Paradise cruise ship, a nonsmoking vessel by Carnival
Cruise Lines, was scheduled to debut.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, p.T5)
1998 Dec, The 2nd 85,000 ton
Disney cruise ship Disney Wonder was scheduled to debut.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, p.T5)
1998 Dec, Work on San
Francisco’s Central Freeway was scheduled to begin.
(SFC, 2/21/98, p.A13)
1998 Dec, A Dutch auditor
working for the European Commission charged that commissioners were
awarding contracts to friends and relatives.
(SFC, 1/12/99, p.A8)
1998 Dec, In the Bahamas the
new $750 million Atlantis resort was scheduled to be completed on
Paradise Island. It was developed under Solomon Kerzner, chairman of
Sun Int’l. Hotels.
(WSJ, 7/1/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec, In the Congo a
referendum on the new constitution was scheduled.
(SFC, 5/30/97, p.A16)
1998 Dec, Ununquadium, element
114, was discovered. It was reported in January 1999 by scientists
at Dubna (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research) in Russia. The same
team produced another isotope of Uuq three months later and
confirmed the synthesis in 2004 and 2006. Ununquadium can be
synthesized by bombarding plutonium 244 targets with calcium 48
heavy ion beams.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ununquadium)
1998 Dec, In Sweden a Latvian
team won the first European championships in Fire Sculpture.
(SFC, 1/7/99, p.D5)
1998 Fouad Ajami (b.1945 in
Lebanon) authored "The Dream Palace of the Arabs." It describes the
emergence and collapse of the Arab enlightenment following WW I.
(WSJ, 2/20/98, p.A16)
1998 Elizabeth Aldrich edited
"The Int’l. Encyclopedia of Dance." The 6-volume work began in at a
conference of dance critics in 1974 under founding editor Selma Jean
Cohen.
(WSJ, 4/21/98, p.A21)
1998 Arthur C. Aufderheide and
Conrado Rodriguez-Martin published "The Cambridge Encyclopedia of
Human Paleopathology."
(NH, 9/98, p.12)
1998 In France Eric Baratay and
Elisabeth Hardouin-Fugier authored "Zoo: A History of Zoological
Gardens in the West." An English translation by Oliver Welsh was
published in 2002.
(SSFC, 8/4/02, p.M6)
1998 Harold Bloom published
"Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human."
(WSJ, 10/23/98, p.W8)
1998 David Brin authored “The
Transparent Society.” He suggested that the issue is no longer how
to prevent the spread of surveillance, but how to live in a world in
which surveillance is always a possibility.
(Econ, 12/4/04, TQ p.31)
1998 Douglas Brinkley published
his 628-page work: "American Heritage History of the United States."
(WSJ, 12/31/98, p.A8)
1998 Tom Brokaw, anchorman for
NBC News, authored "The Greatest Generation," a tribute to the
people who came of age during WW II.
(WSJ, 1/25/99, p.A1)
1998 Thomas Cahill published
"The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way
Everyone Thinks and Feels." It was the 2nd of his projected 7-volume
"The Hinges of History" series.
(SFEC, 3/29/98, BR p.7)
1998 Former Pres. Jimmy Carter
published "The Virtues of Ageing."
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.D1)
1998 John L. Casti published
"The Cambridge Quintet: A Work of Scientific Speculation." The
author imagines a 1949 dinner party with Ludwig Wittgenstein, J.B.S.
Haldane, Erwin Schrodinger, Alan Turing and C.P. Snow. A lively
discussion revolves around artificial intelligence and the question:
Can a machine think?
(NH, 10/98, p.14)
1998 K.C. Cole wrote "The
Universe and the Teacup: The Mathematics of Truth and Beauty."
(SFC, 2/5/98, p.E3)
1998 Michael Connelly authored
his novel “Blood Work,” the tale of a retired FBI agent who
investigates the death of a young woman whose heart he received in
surgery. In 2002 the book was turned into a film directed by Clint
Eastwood. Terrell Hansen (d.2007), a heart transplant recipient and
friend of Connelly, inspired the story.
(SFC, 1/8/07, p.B5)
1998 Charles Corn wrote "The
Scents of Eden: A Narrative of the Spice Trade."
(SFC, 3/31/98, p.F4)
1998 Diane Coyle authored
“Weightless World: Strategies for Managing the Digital Economy.” It
was about a future in which bytes are the only currency and the
things that shape our lives have literally no weight.
(Econ, 11/6/10, SR p.15)
1998 Edward Craig, general
editor, steered to completion the "Routledge Encyclopedia of
Philosophy." It had 8,680 pages and cost $2,495.
(WSJ, 12/28/98, p.a12)
1998 David Dary published:
"Red Blood and Black Ink: Journalism in the Old West."
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.6)
1998 L.J. Davis (1940-2011),
journalist and novelist, authored “The Billionaire Shell Game,” a
critical look at the evolution of cable television.
(SSFC, 4/10/11, p.C8)
1998 Thomas M. Disch published
"The Dreams Our Stuff Is made Of," a History of Science Fiction.
(SFEC, 7/5/98, BR p.5)
1998 Carl Djerassi, scientist
and author, published the 4th novel of his sci-fi tetrology: "NO."
It was a story about the development of nitric oxide for sexual
arousal.
(SFEC, 10/25/98, BR p.3)
1998 Tristan Egolf (1972-2005)
authored “Lord of the Barnyard,” a sprawling story of a farm boy’s
misadventures.
(SFC, 5/12/05, p.B6)
1998 Michael Eisner, CEO of
Disney, published his "Work in Progress" with help from Tony
Schwartz.
(WSJ, 10/8/98, p.A16)
1998 Blake Eskin compiled "The
Book of Political Lists" for George Mag. The book was filled with
"delightfully useless factoids."
(WSJ, 6/5/98, p.W14)
1998 Milton Friedman
(1912-2006), American economist, and his wife Rose authored "Two
Lucky People," a memoir.
(WSJ, 5/27/98, p.A20)(Econ, 3/6/04, p.74)
1998 Carlotta Gall and Thomas
de Waal wrote "Chechnya: Calamity in the Caucasus," and Anatol
Lieven wrote "Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power."
(WSJ, 6/9/98, p.A16)(HN, 7/21/98)
1998 Thomas Golz published
"Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue Reporter’s Adventures in an Oil-Rich,
War-Torn, Post-Soviet Republic." It was about his experiences there
during the 1991-1992 political changes.
(WSJ, 7/21/98, p.A12)
1998 John Grisham published
"The Street Lawyer," the best selling, fiction hardback of the year
(2.5 mil copies.)
(WSJ, 5/24/99, p.R25)
1998 Peter Hall, urban planner
and thinker, published "Cities in Civilization."
(WSJ, 12/9/98, p.A20)
1998 William Herrick (83)
published his memoir "Jumping the Line." Included in the work is his
story of the time he spent with the Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish
Civil War (1936-1939). The events were fictionalized in his 1969
novel "Hermanos."
(WSJ, 4/30/98, p.A17)
1998 The book "Into Africa: A
Journey Through Ancient Empires" was written by Sheila Hirtle and
Marq de Villiers.
(SFEC, 7/12/98, p.T7)
1998 Nansook Hong, former
daughter-in-law of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, authored "In the Shadow of
the Moons," a memoir of her turbulent 14-year marriage to Moon’s
eldest son, Hyo Jin Moon.
(SSFC, 2/11/01, p.A15)
1998 Michel Houellebecq
authored “Les Particules Elementaires” (The Elementary Particles), a
nihilist novel that looked at the current era from the year 2079. In
it 2 half brothers served as emblems of 2 self-destructive
tendencies in modern life: radical individual autonomy and
technological perfection. It created a literary scandal in France
and was denounced as racist, fascist, sexist, and homophobic. An
English translation came out in 2000.
(WSJ, 11/15/00, p.A24)(Econ, 9/17/05, p.87)(WSJ,
5/27/06, p.P8)
1998 Robert J. Hutchinson
published "When in Rome: A Journal of Life in Vatican City."
(SFEC, 8/9/98, p.T8)
1998 Paul Johnson, a British
critic, published: "A History of the American People." It was
organized along the traditional succession of presidential
administrations, based on secondary sources and restorationist in
intent.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, BR p.3)
1998 In France Christine
Deviers-Joncour (51) published "The Whore of the Republic." In it
she told how she had been hired in 1989 by state-owned Elf oil
company to use her wiles on foreign minister Roland Dumas to go
along with a sale of 6 French-made warships to Taiwan.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A14)
1998 Tibor Kalman published
"Chairman," a tribute to Swiss chair entrepreneur Rolf Fehlbaum,
head of the Vitra furniture company. It traces the development of
chairs through history.
(SFEM, 5/17/98, p.32)
1998 Richard Katz published
"Japan: The System That Soured." It was about the rise and fall of
Japan’s economics following WW II.
(WSJ, 8/4/98, p.A16)
1998 Gina Kolata published
"Clone: The Road to Dolly, and the Path Ahead."
(NH, 9/98, p.11)
1998 Ray Kurzweil, computer
scientist, published "The Age of Spiritual Machines."
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.D1)
1998 Robert Lacy published a
history of Sotheby’s auction house: "Sotheby’s: Bidding for Class."
It tells mostly about those who rode to the top of the organization.
(WSJ, 6/26/98, p.W9)
1998 David S. Landes published
"The Wealth and Poverty of Nations," an economic world history.
(WSJ, 3/11/98, p.A18)
1998 George L. Lankevich
published "American Metropolis: A History of New York City."
(WSJ, 8/21/98, p.W6)
1998 Edward Lazarus authored
"Closed Chambers: The Rise, Fall and Future of the Modern Supreme
Court."
(SSFC, 12/8/02, p.A3)
1998 Robert Levine published
his book "A Geography of Time" in which he traces out the history of
clocks and cultural values in relation to time.
(SFC, 1/16/98, p.D14)
1998 The period 1901-1969 is
covered in the 1998 book "A Thread of Years" by John Lukacs.
(WSJ, 4/13/98, p.A20)
1998 Alain Mabanckou authored
his first novel “Bleu, Blanc Rouge.” Mabanckou left
Congo-Brazzaville in 1989 to study law in France, but within a
decade quit as a corporate lawyer.
(Econ, 7/9/11, p.81)
1998 Noel Malcolm published
"Kosovo: A Short History," a history of the troubled region and
Albania. Malcolm earlier wrote "Bosnia: A Short History."
(WSJ, 5/5/98, p.A20)(SFEC, 9/6/98, BR p.8)
1998 The French book "The City
of Man," by Pierre Manent was translated to English by Marc A.
LePain. It was a philosophical assault on the principles of
modernity that began with the Enlightenment.
(WSJ, 6/18/98, p.A16)
1998 Sean McPhilemy published
"The Committee: Political Assassination in Northern Ireland." He
outlined a secret alliance of 50-60 individuals who conspired with
police officials to murder political enemies.
(SFEC, 7/19/98, BR p.3)
1998 Jeffrey Meyers published
the biography "Gary Cooper: American Hero."
(SFC, 7/8/98, p.D3)
1998 Daniel Patrick Moynihan,
scholar, statesman and senator, authored "Secrecy," in which he
shows how parts of the US government came to deny vital information
to the public and to lawmakers.
(WSJ, 10/29/98, p.A20)
1998 Robert Fred Mozley
(d.1999), prof. of physics at Stanford, published "Politics and
Technology of Nuclear Proliferation."
(SFC, 5/31/99, p.A17)
1998 Sylvia Nasar authored “A
Beautiful Mind,” the story of mathematician John Nash. In 2002 the
film version by Ron Howard won an Oscar.
(AARP, 11/05, p.85)
1998 Alexander Nehamas authored
"The Art of Living: Socratic Reflections from Plato to Foucault."
(SFEC, 10/4/98, BR p.8)
1998 Timothy O’Brian authored
his book on gambling: "Bad Bet."
(WSJ, 10/15/98, p.A20)
1998 Michael B.A. Oldstone
published Viruses, Plagues and History.
(NH, 9/98, p.9)
1998 Susan Orman published "The
Nine Steps to Financial Freedom," the best selling nonfiction
hardback of the year (1.4 million copies).
(WSJ, 5/24/99, p.R25)
1998 The book "Father India:
How Encounters with an Ancient Culture Transformed the Modern West"
was written by Jeffery Paine.
(SFEC, 12/13/98, p.)
1998 Roy Porter published "The
Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity from
Antiquity to the Present."
(WSJ, 4/3/98, p.W10)
1998 Virginia Postrel published
"The Future and Its Enemies." She argued that if Americans do not
meet the future in the proper spirit, that they would miss its
benefits. She championed a new party of "dynamists," who believe
that society is better off embracing growth and technological
progress that with the status quo and stability.
(WSJ, 11/30/98, p.A20)
1998 In China Ms. He Qinglian
published "The Trap of Modernization." She warned that China was
heading toward joint rule by the government and a Mafia.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A13)
1998 Donald Roberts co-authored
"It’s Not Only Rock and Roll: Popular Music in the Lives of
Adolescents."
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.D1)
1998 Marilynne Robinson
authored "The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought." She asserts
in 10 essays that "the prevailing view of things can be assumed to
be wrong."
(SFEC, 10/4/98, BR p.5)
1998 Wendy Goldman Rohm
published "The Microsoft File: The Secret Case Against Bill Gates."
(SFEC, 10/11/98, BR p.6)
1998 Philip Roth (b.1933)
authored his novel “American Pastoral,” set in Newark, NJ.
(Econ, 4/2/11, p.72)
1998 Sue Savage-Rumbaugh wrote
"Apes, Language, and the Human Mind." It was based on her work with
Kanzi, a bonobo ape, that began in 1980 at the Georgia State Univ.
Language Research Center.
(SFEC, 7/19/98, BR p.8)
1998 Louis Sachar authored
"Holes," a novel about kids in prison in Texas. It was made into a
film in 2003.
(SFC, 5/5/03, p.D1)
1998 Taichi Sakaiya published
his serialized novel "Japan: 2018," that describes a Japanese
economic decline beginning in the 1990s.
(WSJ, 5/4/98, p.A1)
1998 Mandy Sayer of Australia
published her novel "Dreamtime Alice." It was about her years
performing as a tap dancer on the streets of Manhattan and New
Orleans with her father, a drummer, in the 1960s.
(WSJ, 5/20/98, p.A12)
1998 Gunther Schuller,
educator, composer and scholar, authored "The Complete Conductor."
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.B1)
1998 James Seymour and Richard
Anderson (nom de plume of an anonymous researcher) published "New
Ghosts, Old Ghosts," an examination of the "laogai" (reform through
labor) prison camps of China.
(WSJ, 11/9/98, p.A21)
1998 Carl Shapiro and Hal
Varian, economists at UC Berkeley, authored "Information Rules," a
work on how to do business in an economy based on software,
information and other intangible assets.
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.D1)
1998 Lee M. Silver published
"Remaking Eden: Cloning and Beyond in a Brave New World."
(NH, 9/98, p.11)
1998 Sherry Sontag and
Christopher Drew wrote "Blind Man’s Bluff," an account of the
US-Russian secret submarine operations from the beginning of the
Cold War to the present.
(WSJ, 11/11/98, p.A1)
1998 George Soros published
"The Crisis of Global Capitalism." The work was an amalgam of
political philosophy, personal memoir and economic analysis.
(WSJ, 12/8/98, p.A20)
1998 Thomas Sowell published
"Conquests and Cultures," the 3rd of a trilogy that included "Race
and Culture" and "Migrations and Cultures." He concludes, among
other things, that cultures are critical in determining economic
success.
(WSJ, 5/19/98, p.A20)
1998 Tama Starr and Edward
Hayman authored their history of outdoor advertising: "Signs and
Wonders."
(WSJ, 10/15/98, p.A20)
1998 Gloria Steinem edited "The
Reader’s Companion To U.S. Women’s History." Writers included
Steinem, Wilma Mankiller, Gwendolyn Mink, Marysa Navarro and Barbara
Smith.
(SFEC, 4/19/98, BR p.2)
1998 Mitchell Stephens authored
"The Rise of the Image, The Fall of the Word." He defends the use of
quick-cut imagery in film and video and sees it as the birth of a
new communication technology which humans will adjust to, adapt, and
embrace.
(SFEC, 11/8/98, BR p.2)
1998 Charles L. Sullivan
authored “A Companion to California Wine: An Encyclopedia of Wine
and Winemaking from the Mission Period to the Present.”
(www.amazon.com/Companion-California-Wine-Encyclopedia-Winemaking/dp/0520213513)
1998 Liz Tilberis (d.1999 at
51), editor in chief of Harper's Bazaar, authored "No Time to Die,"
a description of her battle with ovarian cancer.
(SFC, 4/22/99, p.D2)
1998 Ben Fong-Torres authored
"The Hits Just Keep Coming: The History of Top 40 Radio."
(SFEC, 12/27/98, BR p.3,11)
1998 Michael Tournier’s book,
"The Mirror of Ideas," was translated into English from the French.
The 58 essays revived the ancient notion that a limited number of
concepts and categories govern all our thoughts, and that their
staying power is owed to our custom of pairing them off.
(SFEC, 4/19/98, BR p.8)
1998 Dmitri Volkogonov
published "Autopsy for an Empire: The Seven Leaders Who Built the
Soviet Regime." He covered Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev,
Andropov, Chernenko and Gorbachev.
(WSJ, 4/15/98, p.A20)
1998 Kurt Vonnegut (77)
published "Timequake." His total output was 19 books that included
14 novels. In 1999 his early short stories were published under the
title "Bagomgo Snuff Box."
(SFEC, 10/24/99, BR p.3)
1998 Sheldon Watts published
"Epidemics and History: Disease, Power and Imperialism."
(NH, 9/98, p.9)
1998 "Eudora Welty: Complete
Novels" and Eudora Welty: Stories, Essays and Memoir" were published
by the Library of America.
(WSJ, 9/8/98, p.A26)
1998 John Wheeler (1911-2008),
former Princeton physicist and member of the Manhattan Project,
authored his autobiography “Geons, Black Holes & Quantum Foam: A
Life in Physics.”
(SFC, 4/16/08, p.B11)
1998 The book "Lisbon" by Julia
Wilkinson was published by Lonely Planet. It covered the cultural
and historical aspects of the city as well as current details.
(SFEC, 7/12/98, p.T7)
1998 Edward O. Wilson published
"Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge."
(WSJ, 3/30/98, p.A16)
1998 James Wynbrandt published
"The Excruciating History of Dentistry: Toothsome Tales & Oral
Oddities From Babylon to Braces."
(SFEC, 8/2/98, BR p.7)
1998 Daniel Yergin and Joseph
Stanislaw authored "Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World
Economy." In 2002 PBS ran a TV version in 3 parts.
(WSJ, 3/29/02, p.W15)
1998 Larry Zuckerman published
"The Potato: How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western World."
(BS, 5/3/98, p.8E)
1998 Helgi Tomassen created the
ballet "Silver Ladders" to music by Joan Tower.
(SFC, 3/11/99, p.B1)
1998 Bob Harris, comedy writer,
won 5 games in a row on Jeopardy, which was the limit at this time.
He was later invited back for several tournament of Champion
competitions. In 2006 he authored “Prisoner of Trebekistan,” an
account of his Jeopardy experiences.
(WSJ, 9/16/06, p.P10)(http://tinyurl.com/nn56e)
1998 Gavin Bryars released his
CD "A Man in a Room Gambling." It was released on the Point Music
label and teaches how to cheat at cards.
(WSJ, 10/1/98, p.A20)
1998 Joni Mitchell (54)
released her CD "Taming the Tiger."
(SFEM, 11/1/98, p.6)
1998 David Del Tredici
premiered "The Spider and the Fly" with the New York Philharmonic.
(WSJ, 4/23/99, W6)
1998 At Fort Meade in Anne
Arundel County, Md., a new $30 million building was constructed for
the Defense Information School. The Pentagon now sends 3,500
military journalists there each year for training following
consolidation of military journalism schools in Colorado, Indiana
and Florida.
(SFC, 10/31/98, p.A7)
1998 Chilean poet Gonzalo Rojas
won the Mexican Octavio Paz Prize for poetry and essay writing.
(SFC, 3/1/99, p.E5)
1998 In Chicago demolition
began on the 28 towers of the Robert Taylor projects. Their
construction had only been completed in 1962. In 2008 Sudhir
Venkatesh authored “Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes
to the Streets,” a description of the author’s seven years
(1989-1996) following J.T., a gang leader in the projects.
(WSJ, 12/19/00, p.A14)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.81)
1998 Ave Montague (d.2009 at
64), arts impresario and publicist, founded the San Francisco Black
film Festival.
(SFC, 1/28/09, p.B10)
1998 Dorothy J. Gaiter and John
Brecher began their Wall Street Journal column on wine. Their first
article was about American Merlot.
(WSJ, 2/20/04, p.W4)(WSJ, 3/21/08, p.W3)
1998 Kathy Giusti and her twin
sister founded the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF), to
raise money and awareness to jumpstart research for treating
multiple myeloma, a form of cancer.
(Econ, 9/17/05, TQp.34)
1998 Margot Magowan and Naomi
Wolf purchased 368 acres in upstate New York and founded the
Woodhull Institute to help women spur each other to success.
(SSFC, 10/11/03, p.E7)
1998 Pres. Clinton signed the
Internet Tax Freedom Act. It mandated a moratorium on any state or
local taxes on Internet access.
(WSJ, 12/8/03, p.B1)
1998 Pres. Clinton signed the
Int’l. Religious Freedom Act.
(WSJ, 5/26/04, p.A8)
1998 US government officials,
charged with mismanaging trust funds for American Indians, shredded
162 boxes of records. This was disclosed by a federal judge in 1999.
(SFC, 12/7/99, p.A6)
1998 The CIA began to send
teams of American officers to northern Afghanistan to convince Ahmed
Shah Masood to capture and perhaps kill Osama bin Laden.
(SSFC, 9/30/01, p.A14)
1998 The US Federal Aviation
Authority (FAA) produced reports about a hijacking threat posed by
al Qaeda, including the possibility of an attempt to use a
commercial jet against a US landmark. This information part of a
Sept. 11 Commission report in 2004 and was made public in 2005.
(SFC, 9/14/05, p.A3)
1998 Arthur Anderson & Co.
agreed to pay $75 million to settle shareholder suits arising from
an accounting scandal at Waste Management.
(WSJ, 6/7/02, p.A6)
1998 Wendy Gramm, former head
of the White House office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
under Ronald Reagan, started a regulatory review group at the
Mercatus think tank. Mercatus, associated with Virginia’s George
Mason Univ., was founded by economist Richard Fink, who joined Koch
Industries in 1990.
(WSJ, 7/16/04, p.A1)
1998 US federal prosecutors in
NY brought charges of fraud against Livent Inc., the Toronto-based
producer of “Phantom of the Opera.” US authorities deferred to their
Canadian counterparts as Canadian police charged founder Garth
Drabinsky and other executives with fraud. A trial was slated to
begin in 2007.
(WSJ, 10/27/05, p.C1)
1998 The US FDA approved Actiq,
a potent narcotic, for cancer patients suffering from pain that
other narcotics did not relieve. By 2006 its use had spread to a
much wider cohort.
(WSJ, 11/3/06, p.A1)
1998 The US began to fortify
grains for bread and cereal with folic acid. By 2009 this led to a
31% decline in cases of spina bifida.
(Econ, 8/29/09, p.70)
1998 Arizona enacted covenant
marriage legislation that was designed to make divorce much more
difficult for couples that choose the option.
(Econ, 2/12/05, p.31)
1998 Michael Block and his wife
Olga founded their first BASIS school in Tucson, Arizona. A 2nd
campus was later added in Scottsdale. Their grade 5-12 charter
schools strived to compete with the best schools in the world.
(Econ, 10/31/09,
p.40)(www.greatschools.net/arizona/tucson/1560-BASIS-Tucson/)
1998 California voters approved
the nation’s first and only law outlawing the killing of horses for
human consumption. In the US 3 firms operated three plants that
slaughtered horses. The 2 plants in Texas and one in Illinois were
owned by French and Belgian firms.
(SFC, 4/3/06, p.A10)
1998 Oakland police began its
"Operation Beat Feet" in which cars used in drug and prostitution
offenses were seized.
(SSFC, 5/20/01, p.A24)
1998 Paul Rice founded
TransFairUSA in Oakland, Ca., in an effort to assist coffee growers
in Nicaragua. The organization, later renamed Fair Trade USA,
certified products as fair trade. Importers and retailers paid a
premium to farmers committed to producing goods in accordance with
standards that guarantee worker rights and environmental
sustainability.
(SFC, 11/20/08, p.A14)(SSFC, 4/15/12, p.D1)
1998 The homes of 7 families at
the abandoned submarine base of Fort Trumbull, Connecticut, were
compulsorily purchased by the New London Development Corporation
(NLDC), a private non-profit body. In 2005 in Kelo vs. New London a
divided US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that local governments may seize
people's homes and businesses against their will for private
development.
(Econ, 2/19/05, p.31)(AP, 6/23/05)(WSJ, 6/24/05,
p.A1)
1998 Colorado voters elected
Tom Tancredo to US Congress.
(www.tancredo.org/info/tom_tancredo_bio.html)
1998 The Nevada nuclear dump
site at Yucca Mountain was originally scheduled to open this year.
In 2006 the US Dept. of Energy announced that it would not open
until 2017.
(SFC, 7/24/06, p.A1)
1998 In Astoria, Or., the 1st
fisherman poet festival was organized.
(WSJ, 3/28/01, p.)
1998 The Nez Pierce tribe
returned to its ancient homeland in Oregon after 121 years of exile.
(SFEC, 2/13/00, BR p.5)
1998 Oregon passed a law that
allowed adult adoptees to access their birth records. The law became
effective in 2000 after the Supreme Court ended an appeals process.
(SFC, 5/31/00, p.A7)
1998 In Oregon 15 terminally
ill people took advantage of the new assisted suicide law.
(SFC, 2/18/99, p.A3)
1998 In Portland, Or., the
18-mile West Side MAX, Metropolitan Area Express, light rail system
began operating.
(WSJ, 12/2/99, p.A1)
1998 An arson fire at US Forest
Industries in Medford, Or., was committed by members of the Earth
Liberation Front. In 2007 Kendall Tankersley was sentenced to 3
years and 5 months in prison for her role.
(SFC, 6/1/07, p.A3)
1998 Long-Term Capital
Management, a hedge fund, failed. In 2004 a federal judge ruled that
it had created meaningless tax shelters and should have paid the IRS
$40 million.
(Econ, 9/4/04, p.69)
1998 Fried candy bars began to
show up at US fairs about this time. They were imported from the
fish-and-chip shops of Scotland.
(WSJ, 10/21/03, p.A1)
1998 Anheuser Busch paid an
estimated $80 million for exclusive alcohol rights to the 2002 and
2006 soccer World Cup tournaments. In 2000 Germany was selected as
the host for the 2006 tournament and German fans became furious over
the prospect of drinking Budweiser at the tournament.
(WSJ, 4/22/06, p.A1)
1998 Michelin first produced a
PAX tire, which allowed a vehicle to travel with a puncture.
(Econ, 9/11/04, p.60)
1998 Amazon.com bought Junglee,
a comparison-shopping website, for $230 million. Junglee was
co-founded by Ashish Gupta. In 2006 Gupta helped found Helion
Venture Partners, an Indian venture capital firm.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.102)
1998 Disney purchased Infoseek
and turned it into Go.com.
(SFC, 2/2/08, p.C1)
1998 Bill Gross pioneered the
pay-per-click Internet advertising model. In 2003 Yahoo acquired his
Overture Services.
(Econ, 7/8/06, p.62)(Econ, 11/25/06, p.66)
1998 Sergey Brin, a Russian
immigrant, and Larry Page of Stanford Univ. raised $1 million and
launched the Google search engine in Menlo Park, Ca. By 2003 over
200 million searches were logged daily. In 2004 Google filed for
IPO. Google's core search technology patent, owned by Stanford, was
set to expire in 2011.
(SSFC, 11/9/03, p.I1)(WSJ, 4/30/04, p.A1)
1998 InnoCentive was conceived
by 3 scientists working for Eli Lilly as a way to solve problems by
using the Internet. In 2001 it was spun off as an independent
start-up.
(Econ, 9/19/09, p.75)
1998 Microsoft invented the key
technology for web-based software: Asynchronous Javascript and XML
(AJAX), but failed to exploit it.
(Econ, 11/19/05, p.69)
1998 PayPal was founded as a
way of moving money between Palm Pilots.
(Econ, 5/5/07, p.87)
1998 Yahoo! with 637 employees
matched the market capitalization of Boeing with 230,000 employees.
(Econ, 8/29/09, p.9)
1998 Celera Genomics joined the
race to map all human genes.
(WSJ, 4/5/01, p.B1)
1998 Celgene was founded to
sequence the human genome.
(Econ, 7/10/04, p.72)
1998 The Second Sight company
was founded By Dr. Robert Greenberg and Sam Williams (d.2009) to
develop an implantable device to help blind people see. By 2010 the
company developed a commercial retinal implant.
(SFC, 12/22/10, TQ p.4)
1998 A brain implant let a
paralyzed stroke victim move a cursor on a computer screen to point
out simple phrases. [see Apr 13, 2004]
(SFC, 4/14/04, p.C8)
1998 Cybernetics Prof. Kevin
Warwick had a chip implanted into his arm for 9 days to monitor his
body's electrical signals and transmit results to a computer. He
followed up with a more sophisticated chip in 2000.
(SFC, 4/3/00, p.E16)
1998 Hearst Corp. acquired
Medi-Span Inc., an Indianapolis-based supplier of drug product
information for the health care industry. It was consolidated into
First DataBank.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A9)
1998 Netscape released its
browser code to allow the general community to produce Mozilla, an
open-source browser, later named Firefox.
(NW, 4/21/03, p.E12)(Econ, 12/17/05, p.64)
1998 VMware was founded by
Mendel Rosenblum with assistance by his wife Diane Greene, who later
became chief executive. The company developed computer
virtualization software that allowed multiple servers to be
consolidated into a single machine. It accomplished this be
developing a small program called a hypervisor, which controls how
access to a computer’s processors and memory is shared. In 2004 it
was later acquired by EMC.
(Econ, 1/19/08,
p.74)(www.vmware.com/company/)(Econ, 7/5/08, p.78)
1998 The DOE planned to
transport the first atomic waste to the WIPP site near Carlsbad, New
Mexico, and to make a technical site suitability decision on Yucca
Mountain near Las Vegas.
(Smith., 5/95, p.50)
1998 Michael Mann published a
chart that purported to show average surface temperatures in the
Northern Hemisphere over the past 1,000 years. It showed a sharp and
continuous increase over the last 100 years following a line of
relatively minor fluctuations and came to be called the hockey stick
chart. Other scientists later questioned his data analysis
techniques.
(WSJ, 2/18/05, p.A10)(www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba478/)
1998 Jesse Dirkhissing (13) of
Arkansas was raped for hours by 2 next door homosexuals and left to
die. The story followed the Wyoming Mat Shepard case and was ignored
by the main stream press.
(WSJ, 11/19/01, p.A18)
1998 There were an estimated
49,000 carjackings in the US.
(SFC, 3/8/99, p.A5)
1998 The Roll Back Malaria
Partnership was founded WHO, UNICEF, UNDP and the World Bank, in an
effort to provide a coordinated global response to the disease.
(Econ, 10/22/11,
p.102)(www.rollbackmalaria.org/rbmmandate.html)
1998 Some 2 million Africans
south of the Sahara died of AIDS in this year.
(SFC, 10/20/99, p.A10)
1998 Martha Gellhorn (b.1908),
writer and the 3rd wife of Ernest Hemingway (1940), died at age 89.
Her work included the 1978 memoir "Travels With Myself and Another."
In 2003 Caroline Moorhead authored "Gellhorn: A Twentieth Century
Life."
(SSFC, 8/12/01, p.T4)(SSFC, 11/2/03, p.M1)
1998 Denise Levertov, poet,
died. Her last poems were published in 1999: "This Great Unknowing:
Last Poems."
(SFEC, 8/15/99, BR p.7)
1998 Rev. Lawrence Murphy
(d.1998), who had worked at the former St. John's School for the
Deaf in St. Francis, Wisconsin (1950-1975), died. In July 1996,
Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland sent a letter to the
Vatican seeking advice on how to proceed with charges of sexual
molestation by Murphy on as many as 200 deaf students. Cardinal
Ratzinger, who led the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
from 1981 until 2005, when he was elected pope, did not respond. The
case was made public in 2010.
(AP, 3/25/10)
1998 Lois Orswell (b.1904), art
collector, died. She donated her collection to Harvard’s Fogg Art
Museum.
(WSJ, 1/30/03, p.D8)
1998 Bebe Rebozo, Miami
businessman, died and left a $19 million bequest to Richard Nixon's
presidential library.
(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A3)
1998 The Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ratified an anti-bribery
convention.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.18)
1998 The World Commission on
Dams was set up by the World Bank and World Conservation Union.
(SFC, 11/17/00, p.D3)
1998 The Northern Alliance and
Taliban agreed to set up an Afghanistan Museum in Switzerland to
protect articles of cultural heritage. In 2000 a property in
Bubendorf was renovated.
(AM, 5/01, p.18)
1998 The Algerian
Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC) was created in a split
with the radical Armed Islamic Group, or GIA. The dissidents
reportedly were discontent with civilian massacres carried out by
the GIA.
(AP, 5/15/03)
1998 In Australia’s waterfront
war Chris Corrigan, head of the cargo-handling Patrick Corp., took
on the “wharfies” and smashed their union’s control of the docks.
(Econ, 10/30/04, p.70)
1998 In Austria the Vienna
based Four Paws animal rights group opened a bear sanctuary for
dancing bears and unwanted pet bears.
(SFC, 7/8/02, p.A3)
1998 In Bangladesh monsoon
floods left over a 1000 people dead.
(SFC, 8/13/02, p.A15)
1998 In Bermuda the Progressive
Labor Party took power, promising a better deal for blacks.
(AP, 12/19/07)
1998 Bhutan’s King Druk Gyalpo
Jigme Singye Wangchuck formalized a plan dubbed the Four Pillars of
Happiness: sustainable economic development, conservation of the
environment, the promotion of national culture and good governance.
This was based on his belief in Gross National Happiness (GNH) as
opposed to Gross National Product (GNP).
(WSJ, 10/13/04, p.A14)(Econ, 12/18/04, p.56)
1998 In Botswana Festus Mogae
came to power in sucession to Sir Ketumile Masire.
(AFP, 7/15/07)
1998 In Brazil federal agents
in Alagoas state arrested police Lt. Colonel Manoel Cavalcante for
heading a 50-man police squad known as the "Uniformed Gang." They
were charged with political assassinations, bank robberies, car
theft and arms trafficking. They charged $440 to kill a rural union
leader and $44,000 to kill a prominent politician.
(SFC, 9/20/98, p.A12)
1998 Anthony Garotinho (38), a
football player turned tele-evangelist, was elected Rio de Janeiro
state governor. He quit in 2003 to run for president and Rosinha
Matheus, his wife, was elected governor. After he lost his wife
chose him as Secretary of Public Security. From 199-2006 they
governed the state with startling incompetence.
(AP, 5/23/03)(Econ, 7/19/08, p.46)
1998 David Cannadine authored
"The Rise and Fall of Class in Britain."
(WSJ, 12/29/98, p.A11)
1998 Philip Gould, party
pollster authored “The Unfinished Revolution: How the Modernisers
Saved the Labour Party.”
(Econ, 3/27/10, p.61)
1998 The new British National
Library, designed by Colin St. John Wilson, was scheduled to open in
1997 but was delayed. A partial opening was scheduled for 1998 and
full opening in 1999.
(WSJ, 8/28/97, p.A12)
1998 Britain’s Financial
Services Authority took over bank supervision from the Bank of
England.
(Econ, 2/19/11, p.78)
1998 The BBC under John Birt
launched Internet online operations.
(Econ, 6/18/05, Survey p.52)
1998 A 246 acre site at Sutton
Hoo was donated to Britain’s National Trust. It contained the burial
site of an Anglo-Saxon king believed to be Raedwald (d.625).
(Arch, 7/02, p.61)
1998 Divine Chocolate was
founded in Britain. The chocolate was made in Germany and in 2007
45% of shares were owned by Kuapa Kokoo, Ghana’s largest cocoa bean
cooperative.
(Econ, 4/7/07, p.65)
1998 Research led by Dr Andrew
Wakefield, then a reader in experimental gastroenterology at
London's Royal Free Hospital, became the first to suggest that the
MMR vaccine might be linked to an increased risk of autism and bowel
disorders. Dr Wakefield said he has evidence that children's
behavior changed drastically shortly after they received the MMR
jab. He said: "This is a genuinely new syndrome and urgent further
research is needed to determine whether MMR may give rise to this
complication in a small number of people." Dr Wakefield theorized
that the combination of the three virus strains contained in MMR may
overload the body's immune system and cause the bowel disorder to
develop. The British journal Lancet published a study by Dr. Andrew
Wakefield that linked the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine to autism.
The Lancet later issued a full retraction. The research was later
widely discredited and a report in 2011 said Wakefield and
colleagues had altered facts about patients.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1808956.stm)(SFC, 4/21/10,
p.A12)(SFC, 1/6/11, p.A2)
1998 In Canada the Nisga’a
First Nations tribe signed a treaty after more than a century of
negotiation and litigation. The 6,400 Nisga’a gained ownership of
almost 2,000 square km (770 square miles) in the Nass valley plus
powers of self-government.
(Econ, 12/12/09, p.40)
1998 In Canada Ellesmere Island
National Park Reserve was created. It covered 37,775 sq. km. of the
island, the northernmost part of North America.
(SFEM, 6/11/00, p.24)
1998 In China the world’s
tallest building, the Shanghai Financial Center (1,508 ft, or 460
meters), was scheduled to begin construction.
(Hem., 2/97, p.72)
1998 Caijing, a finance and
business magazine, was founded in China by a group of intellectuals,
notably Wang Boming, the son of a former deputy foreign
minister. Its first issued exposed a case of insider trading
in a property company. It soon established itself as a news
authority and leading voice for business and financial issues in
China.
(Econ, 5/29/04, p.68)(Econ, 10/17/09,
p.74)(http://english.caijing.com.cn/aboutus/)
1998 China formally outlawed
price fixing.
(WSJ, 2/10/06, p.A16)
1998 China began to expand its
influence in Ethiopia when the US evacuated its Peace Corps
volunteers and scaled back military aid due to the border war with
Eritrea.
(WSJ, 3/29/05, p.A1)
1998 In Colombia a group of 52
families acquired the 1,360 acre La Alemania farm in San Onofre. Two
years later illegal right-wing paramilitaries ran the farmers off
the land and set up camp there. In 2006 the peasant farmers
(campesinos) recovered their farm but faced foreclosure and
retaliation from the paramilitaries.
(Econ, 9/18/10, p.51)
1998 Semana, Colombia’s leading
news magazine, named Manuel Marulanda its "Man of the Year."
(SFC, 1/7/99, p.A8)
1998 Shell ceded its oil
exploration rights in Colombia’s Samore block to Occidental Oil,
which then renounced 75% of the original block and planned to drill
on lands outside of official U'wa Indian lands. The Indians
maintained the drill sites still stood on ancestral lands.
(WSJ, 6/7/99, p.A8)
1998 In Colombia there were
2,226 kidnappings during the year.
(SFEC, 3/7/99, p.T14)
1998 The remains of 36 boys
aged 8 through 16 were found in a ravine and overgrown lot in
Pereira, Colombia [see Luis Eduardo Garavito on Oct 29, 1999].
(SFC, 10/30/99, p.A14)
1998 The Latin American School
of Medical Science opened in Cuba. It was created as a regional
initiative after two hurricanes devastated Caribbean and Central
American nations. The first class of 1,500 students graduated in
2005.
(AP, 8/21/05)(Econ, 1/27/07, p.35)
1998 Ecuador adopted a
constitution that gave indigenous communities the right to settle
internal conflicts according to their traditions.
(SFC, 9/3/04, p.W2)
1998 Ecuador passed the Special
Law to enhance protection for the Galapagos Islands.
(SSFC, 12/22/02, p.M6)
1998 Texaco completed a $40
million oil cleanup in Ecuador. The Ecuadoran government,
PetroEcuador and 5 municipalities released the company from all
liabilities and obligations related to its oil operations. A
class-action suit against ChevronTexaco opened in 2003.
(SFC, 10/21/03, p.A3)(Econ, 5/23/09, p.42)
1998 The EU imposed a ban on
genetically modified crops.
(AP, 1/16/04)
1998 Jean-Francois Casenave of
France founded Telecoms San Frontieres (Telecoms Without Borders) to
provide communications services in emergency situations.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.70)
1998 In Germany Social
Democrat Gerhard Schroeder selected Green Party member Joschka
Fischer as foreign minister. In 2007 Paul Hockenos authored “Joschka
Fischer and the Making of the Berlin Republic: An alternative
History of Postwar Germany.”
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.98)
1998 In Germany Angel Merkel
became chairman of the Christian Democrats (CDU). She pushed the
party to accept immigration, a more modern view of the family and a
free-market economy program.
(Econ, 11/25/06, p.52)
1998 Bavaria, Germany, voted to
abolish its Senate.
(Econ, 5/3/08, p.60)
1998 In Germany the Red Army
Faction declared itself disbanded.
(AP, 3/25/07)
1998 In Germany Hartmut Pilch
started his Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) as a Web site. It
grew into an organization dedicated to the idea that basic computer
language should be as free as human speech.
(WSJ, 9/12/06, p.A1)
1998 Wal-Mart purchased the
Wertkauf retailing groups. 21 Wertkauf Gmbh stores were purchased by
Wal-Mart in 1997.
(SFC, 3/30/99, p.F2)(WSJ, 10/6/99, p.A1)
1998 Wal-Mart purchased 74
hypermarkets from Spar Handels AG. [see Mar 1999]
(WSJ, 10/6/99, p.A1)
1998 Hong Kong suffered a slump
in GDP of over 6% as did Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and
Thailand.
(Econ, 11/22/08, p.51)
1998 The India Bollywood film
"Dil Se" opened in the US.
(SFEC, 10/4/98, DB p.54)
1998 The film "The Red Doors"
was written and directed by Indian poet-novelist Buddhadeb Dasgupta.
It was about a Calcutta dentist who rethinks his self-absorbed life
after his marriage collapses.
(SFC, 5/20/98, p.E3)
1998 In India a Supreme court
ruling made MPs immune from prosecution for bribery.
(Econ, 12/9/06, p.48)
1998 The Lakireddy Bali Reddy
College of Engineering in Mylavaram, Andhra Pradesh was accredited
and opened to 420 students with a $50,000 construction and
maintenance donation from Lakireddy Bali Reddy.
(SFEC, 2/6/00, p.A12)(SFC, 2/8/00, p.A26)
1998 In Indonesia the
1,480-foot Kuningan Persada Tower was scheduled for completion in
Jakarta. It would have become the world’s tallest building, but an
economic crises shelved the project.
(www.nottingham.ac.uk/sbe/tallbuildings/Articles_Books/PersadaTop.htm)
1998 In Indonesia the Islamic
Defender’ Front (FPI) was founded. It developed a record of bloodily
intimidating Christians, Ahmadis and those offending its puritanical
morality.
(Econ, 9/12/09, SR p.9)
1998 Indonesia suffered an
economic meltdown in the wake of Suharto’s loss of power. The GDP
contracted 13.2% in this year. The IMF insisted on the dismantling
of monopolies tied to the Suharto regime as a condition of giving
aid.
(WSJ, 5/16/01, p.A1)(Econ, 9/12/09, SR p.9)(Econ,
4/9/11, p.76)
1998 On Indonesia’s Sulawesi
Island a dispute arose in Poso between Muslims and Christians over
control of the local government. Over the next 3 years hundreds were
killed and an estimated 75,000 were forced from their homes.
(SFC, 12/14/01, p.E1)
1998 In Indonesia fires this
year devastated over 5 million hectares of forest.
(Econ, 9/25/10, SR p.6)
1998 Michael Bar-Zohar edited
"Lionhearts: Heroes of Israel," originally published by the Defense
Ministry.
(SFEC, 4/26/98, BR p.6)
1998 Avner Cohen published
"Israel and the Bomb" in NYC.
(SFC, 11/25/99, p.D2)
1998 Robert Litell published
"For the Future of Israel," based on his conversations with former
Prime Minister Shimon Peres.
(SFEC, 4/26/98, BR p.6)
1998 The documentary film
"Fragments * Jerusalem," made over 10 years, was directed by Ron
Havilio and showed at the SF Film Fest.
(SFEC, 4/12/98, DB p.55)
1998 Efraim Halevy became head
of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service.
(Econ, 4/1/06, p.67)
1998 Yossi Vardi (b.1942),
Israeli entrepreneur, sold Mirabilis Ltd., the creator of the ICQ
instant messaging service, to American Online for over $400 million.
(Econ, 1/5/08,
p.56)(www.enewsbuilder.net/viab/e_article000077316.cfm)
1998 The Italian film "The Best
Man" starred Diego Abatanuono and Ines Sastre and was directed
by Pupi Avati. It was about a bride who hates her new husband and
their wedding in Northern Italy at the turn of the century.
(SFC, 8/21/98, p.C5)
1998 The Italian film "Go
Around the World" was directed by Davide Manuli and was about an
orphan raised by a Gypsy.
(SFEC, 10/4/98, DB)(http://tinyurl.com/33mf9m)
1998 The Italian film "Pianese
Nunzio, Fourteen in May" was directed by Antonio Capuano. It was
about an priest’s involvement with an altar boy.
(SFC, 6/18/98, p.E4)
1998 The Italian film "Steam"
starred Alessandro Gassman and Mehmet Gunsur. It was directed by
Ferzan Ozpetek.
(SFEC, 11/29/98, DB p.10)
1998 Toni Dykstra of southern
California was found dead in Rome as she sought to bring her
kidnapped daughter back to the US. Boyfriend Carlo Ventre was
charged with her murder. In 2007 Ventre (59) died of a heart attack
while testifying at his trial.
(AP, 6/26/07)
1998 The Democratic Party of
Japan (DPJ) was created from former LDP members, former socialists
and young liberal newcomers. Yukio Hatoyama (b.1947) was one of the
co-founders of the DPJ.
(www.dpj.or.jp/english/about_us/dpj_profile.html)(Econ, 10/8/05,
Survey p.11)(SFC, 8/31/09, p.A3)
1998 USGS officials agreed to
allow Japan to drill 2 prototype wells on the hydrate-rich north
slope of Alaska.
(NH, 5/97, p.31)
1998 By this year a new
location for Japan’s capital could be determined.
(WSJ, 9/24/96, p.B12)
1998 Researchers in Japan, in
an experiment called SuperKamiokande, showed that muon neutrinos
produced by cosmic rays hitting the upper atmosphere had gone
missing by the time they should have reached an underground
detector. This led them to suspect that the missing muon neutrinos
had changed flavor through a process called oscillation, which
required them to have mass.
(Econ, 4/8/06, p.77)
1998 In Japan workers’ pay
equaled about 73% of corporate earnings.
(Econ, 10/8/05, Survey p.4)
1998 Jordan began a divestiture
program. By 2004 it reaped over $1 billion from the sale of
state-owned companies and expected to raise another $600 million.
(WSJ, 11/10/04, p.A15)
1998 Jordan received ok from
the American CIA to sell 50,000 surplus AK-47 assault rifles to
Peru. Many of the rifles went to leftist guerrillas in Colombia and
Vladimiro Montesinos, Peru’s spy chief, was implicated.
(SFC, 11/6/00, p.A12)
1998 Samih Toukan founded
Maktoob in Amman, Jordan, a software firm dedicated to replacing
English with Arabic in e-mail systems. Maktoob.com was the world’s
1st Arab language Web site. In 2000 the firm received a $2.5 million
cash injection from an Egyptian investment bank.
(SFC, 9/9/00, p.A14)(SSFC, 5/15/05, p.C1)
1998 Alashbayev Abdeyaziovitch,
mayor of Aralsk, began a 2nd attempt to dam the northern portion of
the Aral Sea from the larger southern portion. The sea had shrunk to
half its former size and left behind 13,000 square miles of
wasteland.
(SFC, 11/30/98, p.A12)
1998 Akezhan Kazhegeldin,
former prime minister (1994-1997), set up the Republican People's
Party of Kazakhstan. He was forced into exile in 1999 and in 2001
was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in jail for corruption and
abuse of power.
(Econ, 7/26/03, p.46-7)
1998 In Kazakhstan a law was
passed that barred anyone convicted of a legal infraction from
running for election. Illegal acts included insults to the honor and
dignity of the president.
(WSJ, 9/12/02, p.A8)
1998 Inflation in Kazakhstan
was held to 1.9% for the year.
(WSJ, 1/7/99, p.A16)
1998 In Libya children at
Al-Fateh Children’s Hospital were found diagnosed with HIV. In
all 438 children were found to be infected along with 20 nursing
mothers. By 2007 57 children had died of AIDS.
(SSFC, 4/1/07, p.A17)
1998 Sue's Indian Raja
restaurant started in Vilnius, Lithuania. Despite many challenges by
2008 it was a roaring success.
(www.newkerala.com/one.php?action=fullnews&id=78691)
1998 Major sapphire deposits
were discovered in Madagascar. A seam of high-quality sapphires was
found in the Ilakaka river valley, about 700 km (430 miles) south of
the capital Antananarivo.
(Econ, 7/30/05, p.42)(SSFC, 12/23/07, p.A26)(AFP,
4/3/12)
1998 The 1,482-foot Petronas
Towers were completed in Kuala Lumpur as the world’s tallest
buildings. They were built by Petroliam Nasional, Malaysia’s
national oil company. The twin buildings stood 88-stories with
241-foot spires. They stood 29 feet taller than the Sears Building
in Chicago, and remained the tallest in the world until Taipei 101
was completed in 2004.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petronas_Twin_Towers)(SFC, 12/31/00,
p.B2)(Econ, 10/10/09, p.69)
1998 In Malaysia the government
of PM Mahathir Mohamad pegged the ringgit at 3.80 at to the dollar
in order to bring stability to the economy.
(Econ, 4/10/04, p.64)
1998 In Malaysia pirate attacks
rose to 67 as compared to 51 in 1997.
(SFC, 2/4/99, p.A12)
1998 EU foreign ministers
banned visits by Myanmar officials, withdrew trade privileges and
imposed an arms embargo due to the repression of civil and political
rights.
(SFC, 4/11/00, p.D4)
1998 Puerto Rico’s population
was about 3.7 million.
(SFEC, 2/13/00, p.T5)
1998 In Qatar Abdul-rahman Al
Nuaimi, a religious scholar, was arrested and imprisoned for 3 years
for opposing government modernization programs.
(WSJ, 10/24/02, p.A12)
1998 Aleksandar Georgijevic, a
Serbian national, attempted to collect information on a number of
Russian military projects, including the Iskander tactical missiles
and the R-500, a supersonic cruise missile. But only information on
the "Arena" tank protection system was passed on to a US agent.
Georgijevic was arrested in November 2007 as he tried to leave the
country through a Moscow airport, where his name was already on a
wanted list. In 2009 Georgijevic was jailed for 8 years.
(Reuters, 10/16/09)
1998 Rwanda’s population at
this time was about 7.5-7.8 million.
(SFC, 1/27/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 8/17/98, p.A10)
1998 Saudi Arabia, in response
to a massive outbreak of rift-valley fever, imposed a trade ban to
prevent nomadic herders from selling sheep and goats for sacrifice
during the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. The government opted to buy
more expensive Australian livestock instead.
(Econ, 2/3/07, p.80)
1998 The Saudi population was
about 12 million. In 2006 it reached 23 million. The forecast for
2020 was 33 million.
(SFC, 5/23/98, p.A12)(Econ, 1/7/06, Survey p.12)
1998 A South Africa court
struck down the law against sodomy.
(SSFC, 5/25/03, p.A12)
1998 South African senior
foreign ministry official Robert McBride was arrested on suspicion
of gun running in neighboring Mozambique and held for six months
before being released.
(AFP, 9/9/11)
1998 South Korea began running
a tourist resort at Mount Kumgang, just on the northern side of the
divided Korean peninsula. Hyundai Asan began operating the
4,900-acre compound.
(Econ, 10/28/06, p.49)(WSJ, 5/17/08, p.W7)
1998 In South Korea Chung
Mong-koo, eldest son of founder Chung Ju-yung, took over as head of
Hyundai Motor Co.
(Econ, 5/21/05, p.68)
1998 South Korea began running
a tourist resort at Geumgangsan (Mount Diamond), just on the
northern side of the divided Korean peninsula. Hyundai Asan began
operating the 4,900-acre compound. The collaboration halted in 2008
following the shooting death of a South Korean tourist. In 2001
North Korea told South Korean tourism officials to leave the resort.
(Econ, 10/28/06, p.49)(WSJ, 5/17/08, p.W7)(SFC,
8/23/11, p.A2)
1998 Spain deregulated its
energy market.
(AFP, 10/23/06)
1998 Ramon Sampredro, a Spanish
paraplegic who campaigned for euthanasia and spent 30 years in bed,
died by sipping water laced with cyanide. He did this after crafting
a complex scheme to have friends prepare and deliver the poison in
incremental steps so no single one of them could be charged
criminally. The story was made into the movie "El Mar Adentro" (The
Sea Inside), which won an Oscar for best foreign film in 2005.
(AP, 11/29/06)
1998 Sweden declared
prostitution a form of male violence and changed policies so that
men buying sex were charged with committing a criminal offence.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.86)
1998 IKEA purchased a stake in
Skanska, a large Swedish construction firm.
(http://tinyurl.com/ghmco)
1998 In Tanzania the government
project with Ocelot and TransCanada Pipelines to transport natural
gas from the Indian Ocean island of Songo Songo was scheduled for
completion. It was started in 1993.
(WSJ, 12/10/96, p.A6)
1998 The population of
Tajikistan was about 5.9 million at this time.
(WSJ, 7/2/98, p.A1)
1998 Burmese refugees in
Thailand created the Backpack Health Worker Team to effectively
sneak health into eastern Burma (Myanmar), where the military junta
provides little health care.
(SSFC, 3/22/09, p.A8)
1998 Tuvalu leased the .tv
suffix of its internet address to a Toronto firm, Information CA,
and prime Minister Bikenibeu expected royalties of at least $60
million a year.
(SFC, 8/19/98, p.A12)
1998 In Uganda plant breeder
William Wagoira found stem rust on his crops. The fungal wheat rust
(Puccinia graminis) had not been seen since the Green Revolution. By
2010 the fungus had spread as far as Iran and South Africa and
scientists feared further spread.
(Econ, 7/3/10, p.57)
1998 Uzbek Pres. Karimov vowed
to crack down on the IMU. Namangani and Yuldash were sentenced to
death in absentia.
(AP, 3/30/04)
1998 In Venezuela a 136-mile
power line was scheduled to be completed by Edelca. The line ran
through Canaima National Park, home to Pemon Indians and the world's
highest waterfall Kerepakupai-meru, or Angel Falls (3,200 feet).
Construction was delayed by protests and sabotage.
(SFC, 12/2/99, p.A18)(SSFC, 12/14/03, p.C5)
1998 An Egyptian militant,
believed to be Ahmed Nasrallah, reported to Yemen’s Political
Security Organization on al Qaeda terrorists around the Marib
region. The security service tipped off the terrorists.
(WSJ, 12/20/02, p.A1,6)
1998 Celtel began mobile phone
operations in Zambia. In 2003 it expanded to rural areas and
introduced the Me2U service that allowed callers to use text
messaging to send airtime credit to other mobiles. The service
became a cheap way to transfer money.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.61)
1998 China’s state metals
conglomerate bought a moth-balled copper mine in Chambisi, Zambia,
bringing in jobs and investments. The Chinese owners soon banned
union activity and cut corners on safety.
(WSJ, 2/2/07, p.A1)
1998 Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe,
chairman of the African body “Organ on Politics, Defence and
Security,” joined with Namibia and Angola in a war of plunder in
Congo.
(Econ, 3/13/04, p.48)
1998-1999 America traced a series of computer
break-ins at the Pentagon, NASA and elsewhere to a computer in
Russia, which denied involvement.
(Econ, 5/26/07, p.64)
1998-1999 A copper surplus is expected about this
time with a neg. impact on prices. However some think that growth in
the Asian infrastructure and growing use of micromotors will keep
prices high.
(WSJ, 7/25/95, p.A-1)
1998-2000 An estimated 70,000 people were killed
in the border war between Eritrea and Ethiopia.
(Econ, 8/4/07, p.42)
1998-2001 Religion related scams in the US totaled
some $2 billion during this period.
(SFC, 8/14/06, p.A2)
1998-2001 UNICEF reported that at least 60,000
Vietnamese women were trafficked into China’s Guangxi Zhuong
autonomous region during this period.
(SSFC, 8/21/05, p.B6)
1998-2002 China’s closure of state-owned
enterprises and “collectives” resulted in job losses for some 24
million workers, representing about 10% of the work force.
(Econ, 9/11/04, p.37)
1998-2004 Congo strife over this period killed 3.8
million people, half of them children, mostly due to disease and
famine.
(WSJ, 12/10/04, p.A1)
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