1998 in the United States

1998
in
the United States

Decades:
  • 1970s
  • 1980s
  • 1990s
  • 2000s
  • 2010s
See also:

Events from the year 1998 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal government

State governments

Events

January

January 26: President Clinton becomes embroiled in the Lewinsky scandal

February

March

March 27: FDA approves Viagra for erectile dysfunction

April

  • April – The unemployment rate drops to 4.3%, the lowest level since February 1970.
  • April 6 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 9,000 for the first time, and ending a gain of 49.82 points, 9,033.23.
  • April 7 – Citicorp and Travelers Group announce plans to merge, creating the largest financial-services conglomerate in the world, Citigroup.
  • April 8 – April 1998 Birmingham tornado: An F5 tornado strikes the western portion of the Birmingham, Alabama area, killing 32 people.
  • April 16 – An F3 tornado passes through downtown Nashville, Tennessee, the first significant tornado in 11 years to directly hit a major city. An F5 tornado travels through rural portions south of Nashville (see 1998 Nashville tornado outbreak).
  • April 22 – The Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park at Walt Disney World opens to the public for the first time.
  • April 27 – The Aladdin Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas is imploded to make way for the brand new Aladdin Hotel & Casino.
  • April 30 – Daniel V. Jones, a cancer and HIV-positive patient, commits suicide on a Los Angeles freeway after a police standoff. The event was broadcast live on television and caused controversy about airing police chases.

May

May 18: United States v. Microsoft antitrust suit (Bill Gates pictured in his August deposition)

June

July

  • July 5 – Japan launches a probe to Mars, joining the United States and Russia as an outer space-exploring nation.
  • July 10
    • The DNA-identified remains of United States Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie arrive home to his family in St. Louis, Missouri, after being in the Tomb of the Unknowns since 1984.
    • Catholic priests' sex abuse scandal: The Diocese of Dallas agrees to pay $23.4 million to nine former altar boys who claimed they were sexually abused by former priest Rudolph Kos.
  • July 24
  • July 25 – The United States Navy commissions the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and puts her into service.
  • July 28 – Monica Lewinsky scandal: Ex-White House intern Monica Lewinsky receives transactional immunity, in exchange for her grand jury testimony concerning her relationship with U.S. President Bill Clinton.

August

August 7: U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya
  • August 7 – 1998 U.S. embassy bombings: The bombings of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya kill 224 people and injure over 4,500; they are linked to terrorist Osama bin Laden, an exile of Saudi Arabia.
  • August 14 – Gary C. Evans, infamous in New York's Capital Region for killing five people, escapes police custody and kills himself by jumping off a bridge.
  • August 17 – Monica Lewinsky scandal: U.S. President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. He also admits before the nation that night in a nationally televised address that he "misled people" about his sexual affair with Lewinsky.
  • August 20 – 1998 U.S. embassy bombings: The United States military launches cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum is destroyed in the attack.
  • August 26 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Scott Ritter resigns from UNSCOM, sharply criticizing the Clinton administration and the U.N. Security Council for not being vigorous enough about insisting that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction be destroyed. Ritter tells reporters that "Iraq is not disarming," "Iraq retains the capability to launch a chemical strike."[5]

September

September 8: Mark McGwire breaks the single-season home run record

October

October 29: John Glenn returns to space
  • October 4 – Leafie Mason is murdered in her Hughes Springs, Texas house by Angel Maturino Resendiz. She is his second victim in his second incident.
  • October 6 – College student Matthew Shepard is found tied to a fence near Laramie, Wyoming. He dies October 12, becoming a symbol of gay-bashing victims and sparking public reflection on homophobia in the U.S.
  • October 7 – The United States Congress passes the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, which gives copyright holders 20 more years of copyright privilege on work they control. This effectively freezes the public domain to works created before 1923 in the United States.
  • October 12 – The Congress of the United States passes the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
  • October 14 – Eric Robert Rudolph is charged with six bombings (including the 1996 Olympic bombing) in Atlanta, Georgia.
  • October 15
    • American Airlines becomes the first airline to offer electronic ticketing in all 44 countries it serves.
    • The Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas opens on the former grounds of the Dunes Hotel.
  • October 17–18 – Severe flooding takes place in south central Texas.
  • October 21 – The New York Yankees defeat the San Diego Padres to sweep them in the World Series. The Yankees finish with 114 regular-season wins and 11 postseason victories (125 total – the most by any team in 123 years of Major League baseball).
  • October 29
    • STS-95: The Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off with 77-year-old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space. (He became the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962.)
    • In Freehold Borough, New Jersey, Melissa Drexler pleads guilty to aggravated manslaughter for killing her baby moments after delivering him in the bathroom at her senior prom, and is sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.

November

  • November 7 – John Glenn returns to Earth aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery.
  • November 9 – In the largest civil settlement in United States history, a federal judge approves a US$1.03 billion settlement requiring dozens of brokerage houses (including Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and Salomon Smith Barney) to pay investors who claim they were cheated in a widespread price-fixing scheme on the NASDAQ.
  • November 12 – Daimler-Benz completes a merger with Chrysler Corporation to form Daimler-Chrysler.
  • November 13–14 – Iraq disarmament crisis: U.S. President Bill Clinton orders airstrikes on Iraq, then calls them off at the last minute when Iraq promises once again to "unconditionally" cooperate with UNSCOM.
  • November 19 – Lewinsky scandal: The United States House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee begins impeachment hearings against U.S. President Bill Clinton.
  • November 20 – A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declares accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in regard to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
  • November 24 – America Online announces it will acquire Netscape Communications in a stock-for-stock transaction worth US$4.2 billion.
  • November 30 – Deutsche Bank announces a US$10 billion deal to buy Bankers Trust, thus creating the largest financial institution in the world.

December

  • December – Grade school children in Aurora, Colorado, collect $35,000 to purchase and free slave children in Sudan.
  • December 1 – Exxon announces a US$73.7 billion deal to buy Mobil, thus creating Exxon-Mobil, the second-largest company on the planet by revenue.
  • December 5 – D.C. United defeats Vasco da Gama 2–1 on aggregate to win the Interamerican Cup (one of the greatest triumphs in the history of U.S. club soccer).
  • December 16–19 – Iraq disarmament crisis: U.S. President Bill Clinton orders American and British airstrikes on Iraq. UNSCOM withdraws all weapons inspectors from Iraq.
  • December 17 – Claudia Benton, of West University Place, Texas, is murdered in her house by Angel Maturino Resendiz (his third victim in his third incident).
  • December 19 – Lewinsky scandal: President Bill Clinton is impeached by the United States House of Representatives. (He was later acquitted of any wrongdoing.)
  • December 21 – Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council members France, Germany and Russia call for sanctions to end against Iraq. The 3 Security Council members also call for UNSCOM to either be disbanded or for its role to be recast. The U.S. says it will veto any such proposal.
  • December 26 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq announces its intention to fire upon U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the northern and southern "no-fly zones".

Ongoing

Births

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Full date unknown

Deaths

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

See also

References

  1. LeTourneau's prison term seen as unavoidable
  2. "Maine Voters Repeal a Law On Gay Rights". The New York Times. 12 February 1998. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
  3. Getlen, Larry (6 September 2014). "Inside the murder of Phil Hartman".
  4. "Teen guilty in Mississippi school-shooting rampage". CNN.
  5. "Transcript: Fox News Interviews Scott Ritter – Fox News". 13 September 2002. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
  6. "Corporate Information: Google Milestones". Google, Inc. Archived from the original on 28 October 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-29.
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