1999 - What happened in 1999 ?

January 1999

Friday 01:

The Euro currency is introduced.

Friday 08:

Cosmologists announce that the expansion rate of the universe is increasing.

Wednesday 13:

Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls basketball team announces his retirement (for the second time -- he has since rescinded his retirement).

Wednesday 20:

The China News Service announces new government restrictions on Internet use aimed especially at Internet bars.

Sunday 31:

Super Bowl XXXIII: The Denver Broncos defeat the Atlanta Falcons, 34-19. After the game, the TV show Family Guy airs its pilot episode.

February 1999

Monday 01:

North Dakota Public Radio is launched.

Thursday 04:

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.

Friday 05:

Mike Tyson is sentenced to a year's imprisonment for the August 31, 1998 assault on two people.

Friday 12:

President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.

Tuesday 23:

An avalanche destroys the Austrian village of Galtür, killing 31.

March 1999

Wednesday 03:

Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones begin their successful attempt to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon without stopping.

Thursday 04:

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.

Friday 05:

Paul Okalik is elected first Premier of Nunavut.

Thursday 11:

Infosys becomes the first Indian company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

Friday 26:

A jury in Michigan finds Dr. Jack Kevorkian guilty of second-degree murder for administering a lethal injection to a terminally ill man.

April 1999

Wednesday 07:

Kosovo War: Kosovo's main border crossings are closed by Serbian forces to prevent ethnic Albanians from leaving.

Friday 09:

Nigerian President Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara is assassinated.

Monday 19:

The German Bundestag returns to Berlin.

Tuesday 20:

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 12 students and a teacher before turning their guns on themselves in the Columbine High School massacre.

Friday 30:

Chandra Levy, a former intern to California Congressman Gary Condit, is last seen in Washington, D.C.

May 1999

Monday 03:

1999 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 11,000 for the first time in its history at 11,014.70.

Thursday 06:

In New York, a parole board votes to release Amy Fisher, in prison for the last 7 years for shooting her lover's wife.

Friday 07:

In Guinea-Bissau, President João Bernardo Vieira is ousted in a military coup.

Saturday 08:

Nancy Mace becomes the first female cadet to graduate from The Citadel military college.

Monday 17:

Ehud Barak is elected prime minister of Israel.

June 1999

Wednesday 02:

The Bhutan Broadcasting Service finally brings television transmissions to the Kingdom for the first time.

Sunday 06:

At the Putim maximum security prison in Brazil, 345 prisoners run from the main gate in the largest jailbreak in Brazilian history, marking the 10th escape for the three-year-old facility. In the ensuing manhunt, two fugitives are killed and five innocent bystanders are accidentally jailed.

Tuesday 08:

War on Drugs: 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.

Saturday 19:

Author Stephen King is struck by a minivan in a hit-and-run accident.

Thursday 24:

The guitar with which Eric Clapton recorded Layla is sold at auction for $497,500.

July 1999

Thursday 01:

The Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth on the day powers are officially transferred from the old Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh.

Friday 09:

Days of student protests begins after Iranian police and hardliners attack a student dormitory of University of Tehran

Thursday 15:

Safeco Field opens in Seattle, Washington.

Friday 16:

First game at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium in Newark, New Jersey.

Tuesday 27:

21 die in a canyoning disaster near Interlaken, Switzerland.

August 1999

Wednesday 11:

A total solar eclipse visible from Europe and Asia.

Sunday 15:

Beni Ounif massacre in Algeria; some 29 people killed at a false roadblock near the Moroccan border, leading to temporary tensions with Morocco.

Tuesday 17:

A 7.4-magnitude earthquake strikes northwestern Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000.

Thursday 19:

In Belgrade, tens of thousands of Serbians rally to demand the resignation of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milo?evi?.

Monday 30:

East Timorese vote for independence in a referendum.

September 1999

Wednesday 08:

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third book in J.K. Rowling's hugely popular Harry Potter series, is published in the United States.

Saturday 11:

Tennis: Serena Williams, 2 weeks short of her 18th birthday, wins her first Grand Slam tournament when she became US Open champion, becoming the first African American woman to win a Grand Slam tournament since Althea Gibson in 1958.

Monday 13:

Bomb explodes in Moscow, Russia. At least 119 people are killed.

Tuesday 14:

Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga join the United Nations.

Thursday 30:

Japan's worst nuclear accident at a uranium reprocessing facility in Tokai-mura, northeast of Tokyo. Workers overload a container with uranium, exposing workers and local residents to very high radiation levels.

October 1999

Friday 08:

U.S. President George W. Bush announces the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security, which will be headed by Tom Ridge.

Monday 11:

The Lord of the Rings movies begin principal photography.

Wednesday 13:

The United States Senate rejects ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Thursday 14:

1999 - The South Carolina Supreme Court rules that the video poker machines in the state must be unplugged by June 30, 2000.

Sunday 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 1999

Friday 05:

United States v. Microsoft: US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson issues a preliminary ruling that software maker Microsoft had "monopoly power".

Saturday 06:

Australians vote to keep the British queen as their head of state.

Thursday 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..

Friday 19:

In Istanbul, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe ends a two-day summit by calling for a political settlement in Chechnya and adopting a Charter for European Security.

Saturday 27:

A new era in government begins in New Zealand as the left-wing Labour Party takes control with leader Helen Clark, the first elected female Prime Minster in New Zealand's history.

December 1999

Thursday 02:

The United Kingdom devolves political power in Northern Ireland to a the Northern Ireland Executive.

Friday 03:

NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.

Tuesday 14:

Charles M. Schulz, creator of the comic strip Peanuts, announced his retirement.

Monday 20:

Macau is handed over to the People's Republic of China by Portugal.

Friday 31:

The Panama Canal comes completely under Panama's jurisdiction.