1999

For the album by Prince, see 1999 (album)

1999 is a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar), and was designated the International Year of Older Persons.

Years: 1996 1997 1998 - 1999 - 2000 2001 2002

Decades: 1960s 1970s 1980s - 1990s - 2000s 2010s 2020s

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century 1999 in aviation 1999 in film 1999 in literature 1999 in music 1999 in science 1999 in sports 1999 in television 1999 in Canada

Events

• Kosovo War
• Former child star Gary Coleman files for bankruptcy
• Y2K preparation was a major event in 1999 both in actual events and in media over-reporting.
• The world human population surpassed six billion. The United Nations Population Fund designated October 12 as the approximate date for this event.

January

• January 1 - Euro currency introduced.
• January 1 - An avalanche destroys a school gymnasium during New Years' celebrations in Kangiqsualujjuaq in far northern Quebec, killing 9.
• January 4 - Gunmen open fire on Shiite Muslims worshipping in an Islamabad mosque killing 16 people injuring 25
• January 20 - The China News Service announces new government restrictions on Internet use aimed especially at Internet cafes.
• January 21 - War on Drugs: In one of the one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 9,500 pounds (4.3 t) of cocaine aboard. The ship was headed for Houston, Texas.
• January 25 - A 6.0 Richter scale earthquake hits western Colombia killing at least 1,000
• January 30 - A 7-year old boy is killed of choking on a Pokémon Power Bouncer.

February

• February 1 - North Dakota Public Radio is launched.
• February 4 - Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot dead by four plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, enflaming race-relations in the city.
• February 5 - Mike Tyson is sentenced to a year's imprisonment, fined $5,000, and ordered to serve 2 years probation and perform 200 hours of community service for the August 31, 1998 assault on two people after a car accident
• February 10 - Avalanches in the French Alps near Geneva kill at least 10
• February 12 - President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial
• February 12 - John Myatt and John Drewe are sentenced for art forgery for one and six years, respectively
• February 16 - In Uzbekistan a bomb explodes and gunfire is heard at the government headquarters in an apparent assassination attempt against President Islam Karimov
• February 16 - Across Europe, Kurdish rebels take over embassies and hold hostages after Turkey arrested one of their rebel leaders, Abdullah Öcalan
• February 16 - In Jasper, Texas, testimony begins in the trial of John William King who is accused of dragging African American James Byrd Jr. to death in an apparent hate crime. King was later convicted and sentenced to the death penalty.
• February 19 - Dennis Franz receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• February 22 - Moderate Iraqi Shiite cleric Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr is assassinated.
• February 23 - Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey
• February 23 - White supremacist John William King is found guilty of kidnapping and killing African American James Byrd Jr by dragging him behind a truck for two miles
• February 24 - LaGrand Case: The State of Arizona executes Karl LaGrand, a German national involved in an armed robbery that led to a death. Karl's brother Walter is executed a week later, in spite of Germany's legal action in the International Court of Justice to attempt to save him
• February 27 - While trying to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon, Colin Prescot and Andy Elson set a new endurance record after being in a hot air balloon for 233 hours and 55 minutes.
• February 27 - Olusegun Obasanjo becomes Nigeria's first elected president since mid-1983.

March

• March 1 - One of four bombs detonated in Lusaka, Zambia, destroys the Angolan Embassy.
• March 1 - Hutu rebels kill eight tourists in Uganda.
• March 1 - The Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines comes into force.
• March 1 - Sony Music Distribution raises wholesale prices on audio Compact Discs by 8 cents
• March 3 - LaGrand case: The State of Arizona executes Walter LaGrand, a German national involved in an armed robbery that led to a death. Walter's brother Karl had been executed a week earlier; Germany had initiated legal action in the International Court of Justice to attempt to save Walter
• March 3 - Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones begin their attempt to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon without stopping. Their journey ended in success on March 21.
• March 4 - Monica Lewinsky's book detailing her affair with Bill Clinton goes on sale in the United States
• March 4 - In a military court, Captain Richard Ashby of the United States Marines is acquitted of the charge of reckless flying which resulted in the deaths of 20 skiers in the Italian Alps when his low-flying jet hit a gondola cable.
• March 8 - Oklahoma City bombing: The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the murder convictions of Timothy McVeigh
• March 12 - Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic join NATO.
• March 21 - Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon
• March 22 - US pro-euthanasia doctor Jack Kevorkian goes on trial for murder in Pontiac, Michigan. He is later convicted of second-degree murder
• March 23 - Gunmen assassinate Paraguay's Vice President Luis Maria Argana
• March 24 - NATO launches air strikes in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which was refusing to sign a peace treaty. This marks the first time NATO attacked a sovereign country
• March 24 - Fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel kills 39 people, closing the tunnel for nearly 3 years.
• March 26 - The Melissa worm attacks the Internet.
• March 26 - A jury in Michigan finds Dr. Jack Kevorkian guilty of second-degree murder for administering a lethal injection to a terminally ill man (the incident was videotaped and aired on September 17, 1998 edition of 60 Minutes)
• March 29 - For the first time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 10000 mark at 10006.78.

April

• Ayn Rand is featured on a United States postage stamp.
• April 1 - Nunavut, an Inuit homeland, part of the Northwest Territories becomes Canada's third territory.
• April 5 - Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 are handed over for eventual trial in the Netherlands. The United Nations suspends sanctions against Libya
• April 5 - In Laramie, Wyoming, Russell Henderson pleads guilty to kidnapping and felony murder in order to avoid a possible death penalty conviction for the apparent hate crime killing of Matthew Shepard
• April 7 - Kosovo War: Kosovo's main border crossings are closed by Serbian forces to prevent ethnic Albanians from leaving
• April 7 - Khalid al-Mihdhar, one of five terrorists named by the FBI as hijackers of American Airlines flight 77 in the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack, is issued a US visa through the US Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
• April 17 - A nail bomb explodes in the middle of a busy market in Brixton, South London
• April 20 - Two Littleton, Colorado teenagers named Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold open fire on their teachers and fellow students. The teenagers killed 12 students, 1 teacher and then turned their guns on themselves. See Columbine High School massacre.
• April 25 - End of term for Tuanku Jaafar ibni Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman as the 10th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
• April 26 - Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah Al-Haj, Sultan of Selangor becomes the 11th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
• April 26 - Jill Dando, British journalist and TV presenter, is killed outside her house in Fulham
• April 30 - Cambodia joins the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bringing the total members to 10.

May

• May 2 - Oliver Reed, British actor famous for starring in The Three Musketeers, The Four Musketeers, and The Assassination Bureau, dies of a heart attack in Malta while filming Gladiator.
• May 2 - Norman J. Sirnic and Karen Sirnic are murdered by Angel Maturino Resendiz in a parsonage in Weimar, Texas. They were his fourth and fifth victims in his fourth incident.
• May 6 - In New York, a parole board votes to release Amy Fisher who had been in prison for 7 years for shooting her lover's wife
• May 6 - Elections are held in Scotland and Wales for the new Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales
• May 7 - A jury finds The Jenny Jones Show and Warner Bros liable in the shooting death of Scott Amedure after the show purposely deceived Jonathan Schmitz to appear on a secret same-sex crush episode. Shmitz later killed Amedure and the jury awarded Amedure's family US$25 million
• May 7 - Kosovo War: In Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, three Chinese embassy workers are killed and 20 wounded when a NATO aircraft mistakenly bombs the Chinese embassy in Belgrade
• May 7 - In Guinea-Bissau, President João Bernardo Vieira is ousted in a military coup
• May 8 - Nancy Mace becomes the first female cadet to graduate from The Citadel military college
• May 12 - David Steel becomes the first Presiding Officer (speaker) of the modern Scottish Parliament
• May 13 - in Italy Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is elected President of the republic
• May 17 - Ehud Barak is elected prime minister of Israel.
• May 21 - Irish broadcaster, Gay Byrne, retires after 37 years of presenting the longest running chat show in the world - The Late Late Show
• May 23 - In Kansas City, Missouri, Owen Hart (Blue Blazer) falls 90 feet (30 m) to his death while being lowered into a World Wrestling Federation ring
• May 26 - first Welsh Assembly for over 600 years opens in Cardiff
• May 27 - The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milosevic and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo
• May 28 - In Milan, Italy, after 22 years of restoration work, Leonardo de Vinci's newly-restored masterpiece "The Last Supper" is put back on display.

June

• June 8 - The government of Colombia announces it will include the estimated value of the country's illegal drug crops, exceeding half a billion US dollars, in its gross national product.
• June 9 - Kosovo War: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and NATO sign a peace treaty.
• June 10 - Kosovo War: NATO suspends its air strikes after Slobodan Milosevic agrees to withdraw Serbian forces from Kosovo.
• June 12 - Kosovo War: Operation Joint Guardian begins - NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping force KFor enter the province of Kosovo in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
• June 15 - George Morber Senior and Carolyn Frederick are murdered by Angel Maturino Resendiz in Gorham, Illinois. They are his eighth and ninth victims, in his seventh and final incident.
• June 18 - Carnival Against Capitalism
• June 19 - Torino is picked as the host city of the 2006 Winter Olympics.

July-August

• July 16 - Off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, a plane piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr. crashes with his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister Lauren Bessette on board. All three are killed in the crash
• July 20 - Mercury program: Liberty Bell 7 is raised from the Atlantic Ocean.
• July 23 - Ashrita Furman becomes the fastest person to go up the CN Tower by Pogo stick.
• July 31 - Mark O. Barton kills 9 in Atlanta, Georgia
• July 31 - NASA intentionally crashes the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface.
• August 9 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires his Prime Minister, Sergei Stepashin, and for the fourth time fires his entire cabinet
• August 10 - Buford O. Furrow, Jr. attempts a mass murder in Los Angeles
• August 11 - Total eclipse in Europe and Asia
• August 17 - A 7.4-magnitude earthquake strikes northwestern Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000
• August 19 - In Belgrade, tens of thousands of Serbians rally to demand the resignation of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic

September

• September 8 - US Attorney General Janet Reno names former US Senator John Danforth to head an independent investigation of the 1993 fire at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas
• September 9 - Sega Dreamcast is released in the United States.
• September 14 - The Oceanian island nations of Kiribati, Tonga and Nauru are member of the UN
  • Thiomargarita namibiensis largest bacteria ever discovered

October

• October - NASA loses one of its Mars probes, the Climate Orbiter
• October 5 - Thirty-one people die in the British Ladbroke Grove rail crash.
• October 12 - A military coup led by Pakistani Army Chief General Pervaiz Musharraf takes control of Pakistan and ousts the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
• October 13 - The United States Senate rejects ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)
• October 15 ? National Geographic Society reveals the fossil of Archaeoraptor in a press conference (the fossil is later found to be a forgery)
• October 27 - Gunmen open fire in the Armenian parliament killing Prime Minister Vazgan Sarkisian, Parliament Chairman Karen Demirchian and 6 other members.
• October 31 - EgyptAir Flight 990 traveling from New York City to Cairo crashes off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, killing all 217 on-board
• October 31 - Roman Catholic Church and Lutheran Church leaders sign the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, ending a centuries-old doctrinal dispute over the nature of faith and salvation.

November

• November 5 - Microsoft antitrust case: US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson issues a preliminary ruling that the software company Microsoft had "monopoly power" (on April 3, 2000 Jackson found that Microsoft violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act).
• November 6 - Australians vote to keep the British queen as their head of state
• November 18 - In College Station, Texas, 12 are killed and 28 injured at Texas A&M University when a huge bonfire under construction collapses.
• November 18 - In Jasper, Texas, 24 year old Shawn Allen Berry is sentenced to life in prison, becoming the third person convicted in the racially-motivated dragging death of James Byrd, Jr.
• November 19 - In Istanbul, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) ends a two-day summit by calling for a political settlement in Chechnya and adopting a Charter for European Security
• November 20 - The People's Republic of China launches the first Shenzhou spacecraft* November 28 - A man wielding a samurai sword enters St Andrews Catholic Church in Thornton Heath and injures 11
• November 30 - In Seattle, Washington, the first major mobilization of the anti-globalization movement catches police unprepared and forces the cancellation of opening ceremonies of a World Trade Organization meeting (protests ends on December 3).

December

• December 2 - The United Kingdom devolves political power in Northern Ireland to a the Northern Ireland Executive.
• December 3 - After rowing for 81 days and 2,962 miles, Tori Murden becomes the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by rowboat alone when she reaches Guadeloupe from the Canary Islands
• December 3 - NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.
• December - The town council of Halfway, Oregon accepts an offer from the dot-com startup half.com to adopt the company name as its own.
• December 12 - President Lt. General Umar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir of Sudan dismisses the National Assembly during an internal power struggle between him and speaker of the Parliament Hasan al-Turabi.
• December 14 - Algerian Ahmed Ressam was arrested while crossing the United States-Canada border at Port Angeles, Washington when United States Customs found explosives in the trunk of his automobile. The arrest caused fears of a terrorist attack in the United States and was a major factor in the cancellation of a public New Year's celebration in Seattle. Ressam was later convicted in a plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve.
• December 17 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (Unmovic) is created to replace UNSCOM. The U.N. Security council once again orders Iraq to allow inspections teams immediate and unconditional access to any weapons sites and facilities. Iraq rejects the resolution.
• December 21 and December 22 - The Spanish Civil Guard intercepts near Calatayud (Zaragoza) a Madrid-bound van driven by ETA and loaded with 950 kg of explosives. The next day, another van loaded with 750 kg is found not far from there. The incident is known as "la caravana de la muerte" (the caravan of death). Shortly after 9/11, ETA confirmed their plan had been to blow down Torre Picasso.
• December 24 - Indian Airlines Flight 814, which was enroute from Kathmandu, Nepal to Delhi, India was hijacked and taken to Kandahar, Afghanistan
• December 29 - Former Beatle George Harrison is stabbed several times in the chest by Michael Anram, who had broken into his home. Harrison's wife wrestles the knife out the assailant's hand before the police arrives. The man apparently believed that Harrison was the devil. He was later charged with attempted murder
• December 31 - Boris Yeltsin resigns as President of Russia, to be replaced by Vladimir Putin
• December 31 - Five hijackers, who had been holding 155 hostages on an Indian Airlines plane, leave the plane with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed.
• December 31 - Start Of Millennium Celebrations and countdown.

Year in topic

• 1999 in film
  • April 7 - Star Wars fans begin lining up at movie theaters in Westwood and Hollywood to buy tickets for Star Wars, Episode I - The Phantom Menace, a film that will not be opening for another six weeks.
  • May 2 - Oliver Reed, British actor famous for roles in The Assassination Bureau, The Three Musketeers, and The Four Musketeers, dies while filming Gladiator. His part in the movie is finished through computer generated images.
  • May 3 - A Durham, North Carolina woman named Jennifer Briggs changes her name to Obi-Wan Kenobi Briggs in honor of the Star Wars character. Ms. Briggs wins $1000 from a local radio station for changing her name.
  • American Beauty
  • The Green Mile
  • Wachowski brothers' The Matrix, starring Keanu Reeves
  • M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense, starring Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment
• 1999 in literature
• 1999 in music
• 1999 in science
• 1999 in sports
  • January 13 - Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls basketball team announces his retirement (for the second time -- he would "unretire" in September 2001, only to retire for the final time in May 2003.)
  • January 31 - Super Bowl XXXIII Denver Broncos (34) def. Atlanta Falcons (19)
  • The U.S. Women's Soccer Team Wins World Cup
• 1999 in television
  • The Sopranos premieres on cable television
  • Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? premieres in the U.S., hosted by Regis Philbin. The show is based on a British show of the same name.
  • September 16 - Big Brother premieres in the Netherlands.

Births

• March 4- Brooklyn Beckham, son of David and Victoria Beckham.

Deaths

January-February

• January 2 - Rolf Liebermann, composer, aged 88
• January 4 - Iron Eyes Cody, actor
• January 14 - Aldo van Eyck, architect, aged 80
• January 21 - Susan Strasberg, actress
• January 29 - Lili St. Cyr, exotic dancer
• January 30 - Huntz Hall, actor
• February 5 - Wassily Leontief, economist, aged 93
• February 7 - King Hussein of Jordan, aged 63 (cancer)
• February 8 - Iris Murdoch, writer, aged 79
• February 14 - John Ehrlichman, presidential advisor
• February 20 - Gene Siskel, film critic
• February 20 - Sarah Kane, playwright
• February 22 - William Bronk, poet, aged 80 (or 81?)
• February 24 - Andre Dubus, writer
• February 25 - Glenn Seaborg, atomic scientist (b. 1912)
• February 27 - Ken Robinson, major league pitcher (Arizona Diamondbacks), aged 29, from injuries sustained in an automobile accident

March

• March 2 - Dusty Springfield, British singer, aged 59
• March 3 - Walter LaGrand, German national, executed by the State of Arizona
• March 4 - Karel van het Reve, Dutch writer, aged 77
• March 4 - Harry Blackmun, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court
• March 5 - Richard Kiley, actor
• March 7 - Stanley Kubrick, aged 70, American film director and writer
• March 8 - Joe DiMaggio, American baseball player, one of Marilyn Monroe's husbands, aged 84
• March 12 - Yehudi Menuhin, American violinist and musical director, aged 82
• March 13 - Garson Kanin, writer, director
• March 20 - David Strickland, actor, aged 29, suicide via hanging
• March 29 - Joe Williams, jazz singer (b. 1918)

April

• April 4 - Early Wynn, Baseball Hall of Famer
• April 4 - Bob Peck, famed British theater and movie actor
• April 12 - Boxcar Willie, country musician, aged 68
• April 18 - Gian-Carlo Rota, Professor of Applied Mathematics and Philosophy at MIT, aged nearly 67
• April 20 - Eric Harris, perpetrator of the Columbine High School massacre
• April 20 - Dylan Klebold, perpetrator of the Columbine High School massacre
• April 20 - Victims of the Columbine High School massacre: Cassie Bernall, Steven Curnow, Corey DePooter, Kelly Fleming, Matthew Kechter, Daniel Mauser, Daniel Rohrbough, Dave Sanders, Rachel Scott, Isaiah Shoels, John Tomlin, Lauren Townsend, and Kyle Velasquez
• April 20 - Bethsabée de Rothschild, philanthropist and patron of dance
• April 20 - Señor Wences, ventriloquist (Topo Gigiu), aged 103
• April 25 - Lord Killanin, former chairman of the IOC, aged 84
• April 27 - Al Hirt, jazz musician, aged 76
• April 27 - Mary Rockefeller, widow of Nelson Rockefeller, aged 91?

May

• May 2- Oliver Reed, British actor, aged 61
• May 2 - Norman J. Sirnic, Pastor
• May 2 - Karen Sirnic, Norman Sirnic's wife
• May 8 - Dana Plato, actress, aged 34
• May 8 - Dirk Bogarde, aged 78, English actor (Death in Venice)
• May 10 - Shel Silverstein, children's poet, aged 68
• May 12 - Saul Steinberg, artist (The New Yorker), aged 94
• May 13 - Gene Sarazen, golfer, aged 97
• May 18 - Augustus Pablo, Jamaican reggae singer
• May 18 - Betty Robinson, winner of the first Olympic 100 m for women
• May 19 - James Blades, English percussionist
• May 23 - Owen Hart, professional wrestler, aged 34
• May 26 - Waldo Semon, inventor

June-July

• June 4 - Noemi Dominguez, schoolteacher
• June 4 - Josephine Konvicka, 73-year old senior citizen
• June 5 - Mel Torme, aged 73, American singer
• June 11 - DeForest Kelly, aged 79, actor (Star Trek)
• June 15 - George Morber Sr., 80-year old senior citizen
• June 15 - Carolyn Frederick, George Morber Senior's grown daughter
• June 16 - Screaming Lord Sutch, aged 58, founder of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party
• June 16 - Eddie Stanky, baseball player and manager, aged 82
• June 17 - Basil Hume, archbishop of Westminster, aged 76
• June 27 - Jorgos Papadopoulos, dictator of Greece, aged 80
• June 30 - Forrest Mars, candy maker (M&Ms), aged 95
• July 1 - Joshua Nkomo, Zimbabwian politician, aged 83
• July 2 - Mario Puzo, writer (The Godfather), aged 78
• July 6 - Joaquin Rodrigo, composer
• July 8 - Charles Conrad, astronaut, aged 69, died in motorcycle crash
• July 14 - Gar Samuelson, musician (Megadeth)
• July 16 - John F. Kennedy, Jr., publisher, son of John F. Kennedy, aged 38 (airplane crash)
• July 24 - Hassan II, king of Morocco, aged 70 (heart attack)

August-September

• August 3 - Leroy Vinnegar, jazz musician, aged 71?