1999 in science

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The year 1999 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Aeronautics

February 27 – While trying to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon, Colin Prescot and Andy Elson set a new endurance record after being in their balloon for 233 hours and 55 minutes.
March 3–20 – Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones successfully complete a non-stop circumnavigation of the world in a hot air balloon.

Total solar eclipse of August 11, viewed from France

January 31 – A total penumbral lunar eclipse
February 7 – Stardust is launched on a mission to collect samples of a comet coma, and return them to Earth.
February 16 – Annular solar eclipse, visible from Australia.
July 20 – Mercury program: Liberty Bell 7 is raised from the Atlantic Ocean.
July 28 – Partial lunar eclipse, visible from Australia, eastern Asia, and western North America.
July 31 – NASA intentionally crashes the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface.
August 11 – Total solar eclipse, visible from Europe, across the Middle East, and ending in India.
December 16 – The Beethoven Burst (GRB 991216) is one of the most powerful detected Gamma-ray bursts.
NASA loses two Mars probes, the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander.
The Subaru 8.3 m and Gemini North 8.1 m reflecting telescopes open at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii.
The Cetus Dwarf galaxy is discovered.

November 1 – Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds comes into force.
Late – Pest-exclusion fence around Zealandia (wildlife sanctuary) in Wellington, New Zealand, completed.
The bacterium Thiomargarita namibiensis is discovered off the coast of Namibia. At 0.3mm in diameter, it is largest bacteria yet discovered.

Elements 118 and 116 are claimed to be made for the first time. Later retracted when results could not be replicated.

March 26 – The Melissa worm attacks the Internet.
June – RFC 2616 defines HTTP/1.1, the version of Hypertext Transfer Protocol in common use.
September 21 – David Bowie's Hours becomes the first complete music album by a major artist available to download over the Internet in advance of the physical release.[1]
First working 3-qubit NMR computer demonstrated at IBM's Almaden Research Center. First execution of Grover's algorithm.
Probable date – First emojis introduced, in Japan.

January 25 – A 6.0 Richter scale hits western Colombia, killing at least 1,000.
August 17 – The 7.6 M_w  İzmit earthquake shakes northwestern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), leaving 17,118–17,127 dead and 43,953–50,000 injured.

Boris Chertok publishes «Ракеты и люди» (Rockets and people), a history of the Soviet rocket program.

Huda Zoghbi demonstrates that Rett syndrome is caused by mutations in the gene MECP2.[3]

The first BlackBerry is released, using the same hardware as the Inter@ctive pager 950, and running on the Mobitex network.

February 21 – Gertrude B. Elion (b. 1918), American pharmacologist, Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine.
February 25 – Glenn T. Seaborg (b. 1912), American physical chemist, Nobel laureate in Chemistry.
March 17 – Herbert E. Grier (b. 1911), American electrical engineer.
April 28 – Arthur Leonard Schawlow (b. 1921), American physicist, Nobel laureate in Physicist.
May 8 – Edward Abraham (b. 1913), English biochemist.
May 26 – Waldo Semon (b. 1898), American inventor.
July 8 – Pete Conrad (b. 1930), American astronaut.
November 11 – Vivian Fuchs (b. 1908), English geologist and explorer.
November 25 – Pierre Bézier (b. 1910), French engineer.

Cummings, Sue (1999-09-22). "The Flux in Pop Music Has a Distinctly Download Beat to It". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-11-01.
Crilly, Tony (2007). 50 Mathematical Ideas you really need to know. London: Quercus. p. 117. ISBN 978-1-84724-008-8.
Amir, Ruthie E.; Van den Veyver, Ignatia; Wan, Mimi; Tran, Charles; Francke, Uta; Zoghbi, Huda Y. (1999). "Rett syndrome is caused by mutations in X-linked MECP2, encoding methyl-CpG-binding protein 2". Nature Genetics. 23 (2): 185–8. doi:10.1038/13810. PMID 10508514.

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