A Year in History: 1998 Timeline

1998 was filled with very interesting events, from sporting achievements to political scandals. This year saw US President Bill Clinton become caught up in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, resulting in his impeachment by the United States House of Representatives. The 1997 Titanic movie became the first film to gross a billion US dollars, and France won the FIFA World Cup.

To read original headlines from this eventful year for yourself, you can explore our archives to find a 1998 newspaper from your chosen date. 

1998 Timeline

Turn the page to:

• January
• February
• March
• April
• May
• June
• July
• August
• September
• October
• November
• December
• 1998 Sporting Events
• The Monica Lewinsky Scandal

January

January 1: From this day onwards in California, all card rooms, clubs and bars must be smoke-free. 

January 1: In Mongolia, the work week is changed from 46 hours to 40 hours. 

January 1: The United States Census Bureau reports that the US population estimates at 268,921,733.

January 1: In Russia, new rubles begin to circulate to stem inflation, and to promote confidence in the economy. 

January 1: American tennis player Helen Wills Moody passes away from natural causes at the age of 92. 

January 2: Following the autopsy of American actor Chris Farley, it is revealed that he died from an overdose of cocaine and opiates. 

January 3: Grandpa Jones, American “old time” country and gospel singer, banjo player and Country Music Hall of Fame Member, suffers a stroke. 

January 3: Bill Fitch, coach for the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, coaches his 2000th NBA game when the team defeats the Dallas Mavericks 97-88 at LA Memorial Sports Arena. 

January 4: In Algeria, the Wilaya of Relizane massacres take place, with more than 170 people killed in three villages. 

January 4: In eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, a massive ice storm hits the area. The storm continues until January 10, resulting in widespread destruction. 

January 5: In Quebec and Ontario, the ice storm cuts off electricity. 

January 5: In Copenhagen, vandals decapitate the Little Mermaid statue by Edvard Eriksen, which is displayed at the Langelinie promenade on a rock. 

January 6: Coach for the NFL team Dallas Cowboys, Barry Switzer, resigns. 

January 6: American baseball player Don Sutton is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. 

January 6: Later finding evidence for frozen water in soil in craters close to the Moon’s poles, the spacecraft Lunar Prospector launches into orbit around the Moon.

January 7: Monica Lewinsky, former White House intern, signs an affidavit which denies her alleged affair with President Bill Clinton.

January 7: Basketball player and centre for the Los Angeles Lakers, Shaquille O’Neal, brings his career total to 1,002 shots when he blocks 3 shots in a win over Milwaukee by 114-102.

January 8: General manager for the New York Giants, George Young, resigns in order to accept an NFL position.  

January 8: Ted Kaczynski, the suspected “Unabomber,” requests to act as his own lawyer. On January 22, he will plead guilty and accept a life sentence without any possibility of parole. 

January 8: The man who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, is sentenced to life.

January 9: Viswanathan Anand is defeated by Anatoly Karpov, allowing Karpov to retain the chess title. 

January 9: Cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyov & Pavel Vinogradov achieve the world record for the most spacewalks, totalling a time of 3 hours and 8 minutes. 

January 9: Mo Vaughn, baseball player for the Boston Red Sox, pleads not guilty to drink driving. 

January 9: Ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky is selected by Hockey News as the best ever NHL player.

January 10: Jerry Sloan, head coach for the Utah Jazz basketball team, wins his 600th NBA game in a 111-84 win against the Houston Rockets. 

January 10: Mark Messier, Vancouver Canucks veteran centre, is the 6th player in the history of the NHL to record 1000 assists. He reaches this record in a 2-2 draw against the Florida Panthers at General Motors Place. 

January 11: In the AFC Championship game, the Pittsburgh Steelers are defeated by the Denver Broncos 24-21.

January 11: In the NFC Championship game, the San Francisco 49ers are defeated by the Green Bay Packers 23-10. 

January 11: In Algeria, over 100 children and adults are killed in the Sidi-Hamed massacre. A cafe where films were being watched was bombed, as well as a mosque, and an estimated 50 gunmen took part. 

January 11: In the 24th People’s Choice Awards, Julia Roberts wins Favourite Motion Picture Actress, Harrison Ford wins Favourite Motion Picture Actor, Tim Allen wins Favourite Male TV Performer and Oprah Winfrey wins Favourite Female TV Performer. 

January 12: In Europe, nineteen nations agree on forbidding human cloning.

January 13: American Television broadcasting company CBS pay 4 billion dollars to broadcast AFC games on television for the next 8 years. 

January 14: In response to an assault charge, Charles Barkley pleads not guilty. 

January 14: In Dallas, Texas, researchers reveal findings about an enzyme that can slow ageing and the death of cells. 

January 15: It is announced by NASA that John Glenn, ages 76, may fly in space again. 

January 15: Ice hockey player Dino Ciccarelli becomes part of his fifth NHL club, moving from Tampa Bay Lightning to Florida Panthers.

January 15: At the age of 15, Ian Thorpe, a schoolboy from Australia, is the youngest male ever to become a world swimming champion. He wins the 400m freestyle, and later wins events at the 2001 and 2003 World Championships. 

January 17: From American civil servant, Paula Jones, US President Bill Clinton faces sexual harassment charges. On the same day, the Drudge Report reveals the affair story about the president and intern Monica Lewinsky.

January 18: At the 48th NHL All-Star Game, North America defeats World, 8-7 in Vancouver, Canada. 

January 18: At the 55th Golden Globes, Judi Dench and Peter Fonda win Best Performance In a Motion Picture. 

January 19: Mama & Papa & Eagles are induced into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. 

January 20: Tuesday night programming by Warner Bros TV Network begins. 

January 20: The popular TV show Dawson’s Creek premieres on Warner Bros. in the United States. 

January 21: Pope John Paul II pays a visit to Cuba. 

January 22: The World League of American Football is renamed to become the NFL Europe.

January 23: Against Cuba, Pope John Paul II condemns a US embargo. 

January 23: In a 100-98 overtime win against New Jersey, basketball player Michael Jordan scores in double figures for his 800th consecutive game. 

January 25: The Queen Mother of Britain, at the age of 97, gets an emergency hip replacement. 

January 25: Victoria Beckham, singer in Spice Girls and fashion designer, gets engaged to football player David Beckham.

January 25: In Super Bowl XXXII, the Green Bay Packers are defeated by the Denver Broncos, 31-24.

January 25: A suicide attack on the Temple of the Tooth, Sri Lanka, is committed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), resulting in the deaths of 8 people and injuring 25. 

January 25: Following his recent visit to Cuba, Pope John Paul II demands that political prisoners are released and condemns US moves to isolate Cuba. 

January 26: At the 25th American Music Awards, the Spice Girls and Babyface win the most awards. 

January 26: The 333 MHz Pentium II chip is launched by Intel. 

January 26: After allegations of an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, US President Bill Clinton claims “I want to say one thing to the American people: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.”

January 28: Christ and the Woman of Samaria, painted by Michelangelo, sells for 7.4 million dollars.

January 29: In Florida, American singer and songwriter Bobby Brown is found guilty of driving while intoxicated.

January 29: In Belgium and the Netherlands, thick fog causes carnage on the highway and 6 people die. 

January 29: In Birmingham, Alabama, a woman’s clinic is bombed, killing one person. 

January 30: In Indianapolis, the Howard Stern Radio Show premieres on WNAP 93.1 FM. 

US President Bill Clinton in 1992
Image: Wikimedia Commons

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February 

February 1: In the United States Navy, Lillian E. Fishburne becomes the first African American woman to be promoted to rear admiral. 

February 2: In New York City, American actor, director and producer Daniel Baldwin is taken to hospital after suffering a cocaine overdose.

February 2: The Philippine DC-9 flight crashes killing all people on board the flight. 

February 3: Dino Ciccarelli, ice hockey player for the Florida Panthers, becomes the ninth NHL player to score 600 goals in their career. 

February 3: The New York Yankees replaces their general manager Bob Watson with Brian Cashman. 

February 3: A stamp to commemorate Diana, Princess of Wales, is put on sale in Britain. 

February 3: As the first woman to be executed in the United States since 1984, Karla Faye Tucker is executed in Texas. 

February 3: After a NATO aircraft severs a cable car line near Trento, Italy, 20 people are killed in what is known as the Cavalese cable car disaster. The disaster was caused by a United States military pilot who was flying too low.

February 4: In Brussels, Belgium, Bill Gates gets a pie thrown in his face. 

February 4: In Northeast Afghanistan, up to 4000 people are killed and 818 are injured when an earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale hits the area. The damage caused by the earthquake is considered extreme. 

February 5: Alberto Acciarito is convicted after harassing his ex-wife, Ingrid Rossellini

February 5: Making an NFL franchise record, Tom Clancy, American novelist, announces he has signed an agreement to buy the Minnesota Vikings for just over 200 million dollars. 

February 5: After her ex-husband instigated an attack on Nancy Kerrigan, resulting in her being banned from figure skating for life in 1994, Tonya Harding speaks to Kerrigan on FOX, which is taped on December 22. 

February 6: A former teacher, Mary Kay LeTourneau violates her probation with the father of her baby, who is 14 years old. As a result, on this day she is sentenced to 7 years. 

February 6: The prefect Claude Erignac in Corsica is assassinated in Ajaccio, allegedly by Yvan Colonna. 

February 6: The Washington National Airport is renamed after Ronald Reagan, becoming from this day onwards the Ronald Reagan National Airport.

February 7: In Nagano, Japan, the XVIII Winter Olympic Games open. 

February 8: At the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, the first ever female ice hockey game in Olympic history is played, with Finland beating Sweden 6-0. 

February 8: British shadow cabinet member and Conservative MP, Enoch Powell, passes away at the age of 85. Powell was remembered for his “Rivers of Blood” speech, which caused a political storm.  

February 9: On Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze, an assassination is attempted but fails. 

February 10: In Maine, voters repeal a gay rights law that was passed just a year earlier, making it the first state in the United States to abandon the law. 

February 12: Chan Gailey is signed as the fourth head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. 

February 14: It is announced by authorities in the United States that Eric Robert Rudolph is a suspect in the bombing of an abortion clinic in Alabama. 

February 15: At Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England, the large-scale steel sculpture by Antony Gormley, The Angel of the North, is installed. 

February 16: Into a residential area near Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, China Airlines Flight 676 crashes and kills 202 people, including all 196 people on board and 6 people on the ground. 

February 17: Diane Zamora, a US Naval Academy cadet, is convicted of capital murder. 

February 18: In Nevada, two white separatists are arrested and are accused of planning a biological attack on the subways of New York City. 

February 20: In Baghdad, Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, lands to begin peace negotiations. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein negotiates a deal with Annan, which allows weapons inspectors to return to Baghdad and prevents military action by Britain and the United States.

February 20: The movie box office in the United States reaches its quickest $1 billion for the year, taking 51 days. 

February 22: At the neighbourhood of Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Palace 2 building collapses, resulting in the deaths of 439 people.

February 23: Megan’s Law, a law regarding information about sex offenders, is allowed to stand by the US Supreme Court. 

February 23: A fatwa that declares jihad against all Jews and Crusaders is published by Osama Bin Laden. 

February 24: At Buckingham Palace in London, Elton John is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his “services to music and charitable services.”

February 25: The first legal brothel opens in Switzerland, in Zurich. 

February 26: In her beef defamation trial brought by Texas cattlemen, Oprah Winfrey is found not guilty. For six weeks, Oprah Winfrey had defended herself in a lawsuit against the beef industry. 

February 27: The FBI arrests suspected serial killer Tony Ray Amati, who was on their ten most wanted suspect list.

February 27: New England Patriots player David Meggett is arrested on account of sexual assault charges in Toronto, Canada.  

February 27: In Britain, the House of Lords decide to give a monarch’s first-born daughter the same claim to the British throne as any first-born son, ending a thousand years of male precedence. 

February 27: At the 12th Soul Train Awards, Whitney Houston and Puff Daddy win special awards. Puff Daddy wins the Sammy Davis Jr. Award for Entertainer of the Year, and Whitney Houston wins the Quincy Jones Award for Career Achievement.

February 28: In the National Hockey League, Mark Messier, player for the Vancouver Canucks becomes the fourth player in the league’s history to gain 1600 points. 

February 28: The Kosovo War is started by a massacre in Likoshane, FR Yugoslavia. 

February 28: In The Lancet, a study led by Andrew Wakefield is published. The study suggests an apparent link between autism and the MMR vaccine, and despite now being known to be full of data manipulation, the study becomes extremely controversial and leads to the fuelling of the anti-vaccination movement. Although large epidemiological research had not found a link between autism and vaccines, the study contributes to, in the years and decades to follow, a large drop in vaccination rates and in several countries, the resurgence of measles. In 2010, the study would be fully retracted and it was deemed to be “the most damaging medical hoax of the 20th century.” 

The Angel of the North statue in northern England, by Antony Gormley
Image: Wikimedia Commons

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March 

March 1: Pat Riley, coach for the Miami Heat basketball team, becomes the fifth head coach to achieve 900 NBA career wins when the team defeats the New Jersey Nets 85-84.

March 1: The film Titanic becomes the first film to gross 1 billion US dollars. 

March 2: The Galileo spacecraft sends data that reveals that the moon of Jupiter, Europa, has a liquid ocean underneath a thick layer of ice. 

March 3: Microsoft founder Bill Gates testifies about Microsoft’s presiding position in the software industry at the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

March 4: In Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, the Supreme Court of the United States declares that federal laws banning sexual harassment on the job also applies when both people are of the same sex. 

March 5: It is announced by NASA that the Clemetine probe that orbits the Moon has enough water in its polar craters to support a rocket fuelling station, as well as a human colony.

March 6: Following a change of protocol after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, the British Union Jack flag begins to fly full-mast over Buckingham Palace whenever the British monarch is not in residence. 

March 6: An aggressive lottery accountant, Matt Beck, kills four people at the Connecticut state lottery. 

March 8: Gloria Stuart, the actress who plays Old Rose in Titanic, is awarded the Founders Award by the Screen Actors Guild. 

March 8: American football player Ray Nitschke passes away from a heart attack at the age of 61.

March 9: Rapper Eminem, then unknown, is signed by Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment company. 

March 11: Following the Danish general election, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen is re-elected as Prime Minister. 

March 13: The High-Z Supernova Search Team is the first to publish evidence for the expansion of the universe at an accelerating rate.

March 15: Southeastern Iran is hit by an earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale. 

March 15: American writer and paediatrician Benjamin Spock passes away at the age of 94. 

March 16: For the inactivity and silence of some Roman Catholics when the Holocaust was ongoing, Pope John Paul II asks for forgiveness from God. 

March 23: The 70th Academy Awards takes place, with Titanic winning Best Picture. 

March 24: In Jonesboro, Arkansas, two students aged 11 and 13 open fire against teachers and students at Westside Middle School. The event becomes known as the Jonesboro Massacre and five people are killed, with another ten wounded. 

March 24: In Dantan, India, a tornado sweeps through the area, injuring 3000 people and killing 250. 

March 26: In Algeria, the Oued Bouaicha massacre takes place, with axes and knives killing 52 people. 32 of the people killed were babies under the age of 2 years old. 

March 27: At the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, the Chicago Bulls play the Atlanta Hawks at a game with the largest attendance in NBA history. The crowd was made up of 62,046 spectators.

March 29: In Lisbon, Portugal, the Vasco da Gama Road bridge opens, making it the longest bridge in Europe. 

Shooting of the Titanic movie, which would win Best Picture at the Academy Awards this year.
Image: Wikimedia Commons

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April

April 5: In the Nations Rugby Championship, Wales are heavily defeated by France, 51 points to none, at Wembley Stadium in London. 

April 5: In baseball, the San Francisco Giants are defeated by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the team’s first win in their history. They defeat the Giants 3-2 in Phoenix, Arizona in one of the main April 1998 events in sport. 

April 5: The largest suspension bridge in the world opens when the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, linking Honshū with Shikoku in Japan, opens the traffic. The bridge cost around 3.8 billion US dollars to complete. 

April 6: In Pakistan, medium-range missiles are tested which have the capability of hitting India. 

April 6: American country singer Tammy Wynette passes away at the age of 55. She suffered from a lot of health problems but continued to perform, and her doctor claimed she died from a blood clot in her lung. 

April 10: The British and Irish governments sign the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement for Northern Ireland. This agreement ended most of the Troubles violence, a political conflict that had been taking place in Northern Ireland since the late 1960s. The agreement is not signed by the Democratic Unionist Party and is signed by the agreeing parties an hour after the talks deadline had ended.

April 12: In Slovenia, an earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale occurs near Bovec. 

April 15: Cambodian dictator and revolutionary Pol Pot passes away at the age of 72.

April 17: American photographer, musician and wife of Beatles star Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, passes away at the age of 56 from breast cancer. 

April 18: In American football, the NFL draft takes place, with Tennessee quarterback and future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning selected as the first pick by the Indianapolis Colts. 

April 18: At the 51st British Film and Television Awards (BAFTAs), Baz Luhrmann wins Best Director and The Full Monty wins Best Film. 

April 20: After taking off from Bogotá in Colombia, the flight chartered by Air France, the TAME Boeing 727-2000 crashes into mountain Cerro El Cable, resulting in the deaths of 53 people. 

April 20: After 28 years, the Red Army Faction, a German terrorist group, declares their dissolution. 

April 22: In Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida, the Animal Kingdom opens. 

April 23: American assassin and killer of Martin Luther King Jr., James Earl Ray, passes away while he is still under detention from complications related to kidney disease, as well as liver failure brought on by hepatitis C at the age of 70. 

April 23: A group of Kosovo Liberation Army fighters are ambushed by the Yugoslav Army, attempting to smuggle weapons in Kosovo from Albania. 19 people lose their lives in the ambush. 

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May 

May 4: In Sacramento, California, unabomber Ted Kaczynski is given 4 life sentences by a federal judge, plus another 30 years after. Kaczynski accepted a plea agreement which spared him the death penalty. 

May 6: In baseball, 20 Houston Astros players are striked out by Kerry Wood to reach the major league record held by Roger Clemens. Wood threw a one-hotter and in his 5th career start, he did not walk a batter. 

May 7: The largest industrial merger in history at the time takes place when Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for 40 billion US dollars, forming DaimlerChrysler. 

May 11: In India, three nuclear tests are conducted underground in Pokhran, which includes a thermonuclear device. 

May 11: In Pessac, France, the first euro coins are minted. Since the final specifications for the coins were not finished this year, the coins have to be melted down and minted once again in 1999. 

May 13: In Jakarta, Indonesia, race riots break out and shops that are owned by Indonesians of Chinese descent are looted, and women are raped. Around 1000 people are killed by the riots.

May 13: Two more nuclear tests are carried out at Pokhran in India, following the three tests carried out on May 11.

May 13: Chelsea win the 38th European Cup Winner’s Cup, after defeating German team Stuttgart in Stockholm 1-0. 

May 14: American singer Frank Sinatra passes away at the age of 82. He was one of the most influential and popular music artists of the 20th century.

May 14: The very last episode of Seinfield airs.

May 17: In American football, David Wells, pitcher for the New York Yankees, tosses a perfect game in a 4-0 victory at Yankee Stadium, New York, against the Minnesota Twins. 

May 18: An antitrust case against Microsoft is filed by 20 US states and the United States Department of Justice in United States v. Microsoft. 

May 18: At the 44th British Academy Television Awards, Jonathan Creek wins Best Drama and I’m Alan Partridge wins Best Comedy. 

May 19: Leaving 80-90% of the world’s pagers without services, the Galaxy IV communications satellite fails.

May 19: After being sunk during the Battle of Midway in 1942, the wreck of the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown is discovered near Midway Atoll by a team led by Robert D. Ballard, a former US Navy Officer.

May 21: Five abortion clinics in Miami, Florida, are hit by a butyric acid attacker. 

May 21: After 31 years in power, the president of Indonesia, Suharto, resigns. His resignation ends the New Order period after his 7th consecutive re-election by the Indonesian Parliament, and his hand-picked Vice President B. J. Habibe becomes Indonesia’s third president. 

May 22: In the ongoing Lewinsky scandal, it is ruled by a federal judge that agents of the United States Secret Service can be compelled to testify before a grand jury regarding the scandal involving US President Bill Clinton. 

May 23: 75% of people vote in favour of the Good Friday Agreement in a referendum in Northern Ireland. 

May 26: The Paula Jones sex harassment trial begins against US President Bill Clinton. 

May 26: It is ruled by the United States Supreme Court that the historic gateway for millions of immigrants, Ellis Island, is mostly in the state of New Jersey, rather than New York.

May 27: The Oklahoma bombing takes place with Michael Fortier being sentenced to 12 years in prison, and fined $200,000 for not warning authorities about the plot by terrorists. 

May 28: Pakistan holds five nuclear tests in response to the ones done by India earlier in the month, which prompts Japan, the United States and other nations to impose economic sanctions. 

May 28: Canadian actor and comedian Phil Hartman is killed by his wife in his sleep at the age of 49. 

May 30: Up to 5,000 people are killed in northern Afghanistan when a magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits the area. 

May 30: Conducted and supervised by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, a second nuclear test takes place, codenamed Chagai-II. 

American singer Frank Sinatra in 1947, who would pass away this year
Image: Pixabay

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June 

June 1: In Brussels, the European Central Bank is founded, intended to execute and define the European Union’s monetary policy.

June 1: Susie Maroney from Australia is the first person to swim to Cuba from Mexico, across the shark and jellyfish-infested Yucatan Straits. She swims the 123-mile distance in 38 hours and 33 minutes in a cage. 

June 2: In Taiwan, the computer virus CIH is discovered. 

June 3: In Lower Saxony, Germany, the Eschede train disaster occurs, with an ICE high speed train derailing between Hanover and Hamburg, and killing 101 people.

June 4 : For his role in the Oklahoma City bombing, Terry Nichols is sentenced to life in prison. 

June 5: In Flint, Michigan, a strike begins at the General Motors parts factory, which rapidly spreads to five other assembly plants. The strike would continue for 7 weeks. 

June 5: The popular film starring Jim Carrey, Ed Harris and Laura Linney, The Truman Show, is released.

June 6: The sitcom Sex and The City, featuring Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kim Cattrall, premieres on HBO in the United States. 

June 7: Shawn Allen Berry, John William King and Lawrence Russel Brewer drag James Byrd Jr. to death in a racially-motivated hate crime in Jasper, Texas. 

June 7: Sparking the beginning of the Guinea-Bissau Civil War, former Brigadier-General Ansumane Mané seizes control over military barracks in Bissau.

June 8: The de facto President of Nigeria, Sani Abacha, passes away at the age of 54. 

June 9: As the military President of Nigeria, Abdulsalami Abubakar succeeds Sani Abacha.

June 10: In France, the FIFA World Cup of 1998 begins.

June 10: A resolution is passed by the Organisation of African Unity, stating its members will not comply with punitive sanctions that are applied by the UN Security Council against Libya.

June 14: The NBA finals take place, with Utah Jazz being defeated by the Chicago Bulls for the team’s third consecutive title.

June 15: At the 32nd Music City News Country Awards, Billy Ray Cyrus, Neal McCoy and Lorrie Morgan win awards. 

June 21: Bobby Brown releases his second studio album Don’t Be Cruel.

June 24: The NBA draft takes place with Michael Olowokandi picked first by the Los Angeles Clippers. 

June 25: The United States Supreme Court declares that the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 is unconstitutional in Clinton v. City of New York. The Line Veto Act was a federal law granting the President the power to line-item veto budget bills that had been passed by Congress. 

June 25: Windows 98 is released by Microsoft.

June 27: In Malaysia, the Kuala Lumpur International Airport is opened. 

June 30: The first on-demand video game service, Sega Channels, closes down. 

June 30: Joseph Estrada, previous Vice President, becomes the 13th President of the Philippines.

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July

July 1: After no agreement is made with players about salary issues, the NBA begins a player lockout. This lasts 204 days and the basketball season is cut short by 50 games.

July 2: The second book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, is published in the UK by Bloomsbury. 

July 4: In Wimbledon Women’s Tennis, French player Nathalie Tauziat is defeated by Czech player Jana Novotná 6-4, 7-6, winning Novotná her first and her only Grand Slam singles title. 

July 5: In Wimbledon Men’s Tennis, Goran Ivanišević is defeated by Pete Sampras, who retains his title and wins his 5th out of 7 Wimbledon singles crowns. 

July 5: Joining Russia and the United States as an outer space exploring country, Japan launches a probe to Mars.

July 6: In the US Open Women’s Golf, South Korean player Se Ri Pak wins a 2-hole Monday playoff, defeating American amateur player Jenny Chuasiriporn. 

July 6: The new Hong Kong International Airport begins operations at Chek Lap Kok, replacing the Kai Tak Airport. 

July 6: Robert Croft, England cricket spin bowler, secures England’s victory against South Africa with an unbeaten 37 in 190 minutes on the fifth day of the 2nd test.

July 7: At the 69th Major League Baseball All Star Game, the American League All-Star Team wins 13-8. 

July 10: After nine former altar boys claim they were sexually abused by former priest Rudolph Kos, the Diocese of Dallas agrees to pay 23.4 million dollars to the boys. 

July 12: The FIFA World Cup final takes place, with French player Zinedine Zidane scoring twice and winning France their first World Cup against Brazil. The final score was 3-0. 

July 12: Queen Elizabeth II is accompanied by South African President Nelson Mandela on a coach drive through London’s streets. 

July 14: In Richmond, South Africa, violence breaks out which reflects underlying tensions between supporters of the Inkatha Freedom Party and the ANC. 

July 15: A year after Giovanni Maria Versace was murdered, his sister Donatella Versace launches her first couture collection for his Versace label. 

July 17: 80 years after their death, Russia buries Tsar Nicholas II and his family. The family were killed back in 1918 by the Bolsheviks.

July 17: The film directed by Martin Campbell, The Mask of Zorro, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins is released. 

July 17: 120 nations vote for the creation of a permanent International Criminal Court at a conference in Rome, to prosecute people for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression.

July 17: The region near Aitape is shaken by the 7.0 Papua New Guinea earthquake. The earthquake had a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe) and was a submarine earthquake that triggered a landslide, resulting in an extremely destructive tsunami. More than 2,100 people lost their lives and thousands were injured.

July 18: On his 80th birthday, Nelson Mandela weds his third wife Graça Machel.

July 19: In the British Open Men’s Golf and in a 4-hole aggregate playoff with American golfer Brian Watts, Mark O’Meara achieves his second major championship of the year and his first Open title.

July 20: On orders of the Taliban, members of aid groups, including 200 aid workers from CARE International, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) and others, leave Afghanistan. 

July 21: In Sydney, Australia, the Sydney water crisis begins, lasting until September 5. The crisis involved the suspected contamination by cryptosporidium and giardia, microscopic pathogens, of the water supply. 

July 24: Two officers are killed when Russell Eugene Weston Jr. runs into the United States Capitol and opens fire. Later on, he is deemed to be incompetent to stand trial. 

July 24: The film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks, Matt Damon and Edward Burns, Saving Private Ryan, is released. The film goes on to win Spielberg the Academy Award for Best Director in 1999. 

French football player Zinedine Zidane, who scored two goals in France’s final game against Brazil, winning France the FIFA World Cup 1998.
Image: Wikimedia Commons

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August

August 2: In the Tour de France, Italian Marco Pantani makes it a Tour and Giro d’Italia double, with Erik Zabel from Germany the points winner. 

August 3: Boyzone, Irish boy band, release No Matter What, their best-selling single. The single was composed by Jim Steinman and Andrew Lloyd Webber. 

August 4: 5.4 million people lose their lives before the end of 2003 with the Second Congo War beginning on this day, making it the bloodiest war since World War II to date. 

August 5: On ABC, the American spin-off of the TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway? debuts, starring Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie and Ryan Stiles. 

August 7: The Yangtze river in China floods, with the river breaking through the main bank. 

August 7: One of the major news events 1998 brought us was the bombing of the United States embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. 224 people are killed and over 4500 are injured, and the incidents become linked to Osama Bin Laden.

August 8: Canadian singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes is born in Toronto, Ontario. 

August 10: Becoming the Crown Prince of Brunei, HRH Prince Al-Muhtadee Billah has his Royal Proclamation. 

August 11: Yasser Arafat, the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Palestine National Authority president, arrives in Cape Town for his first South African state visit after being invited by South African president Nelson Mandela. 

August 13: At the San Diego Convention Centre, the 31st San Diego Comic-Con International opens. 

August 14: The South African government sue Winnie Mandela for more than two million rand. She had apparently misused or failed to return government property after she had been dismissed in 1995 as Deputy Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, with the two million rand supposedly being equivalent in value to the property.

August 15: In Northern Ireland, the Omagh bombing results in the deaths of 29 people and injures around 220. This was the worst terrorist event of the Troubles.

August 17: In the Monica Lewinsky scandal, a taped testimony leads US President Bill Clinton to admit to an “improper physical relationship” with the intern. On the same day, he reveals to the public that he had “misled people” about the nature of the relationship. 

August 19: Documents are released by South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission chairperson, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, that reveal a plot to assassinate Swedish UN-Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld by Western countries.

August 20: Canada’s Supreme Court declares that Quebec cannot secede from Canada legally without gaining approval from the federal government.

August 20: In the US embassy bombings, alleged al-Qaida camps and a suspected Sudan chemical plant are attacked by the US military who launch cruise missiles. This was in retaliation for the bombings of August 7, in which American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed. 

August 21: For repeatedly ignoring subpoenas to testify before South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, former President of South Africa, P. W. Botha, is found guilty of contempt. 

August 22: In Sumatra, Borneo and the Pacific, an annular solar eclipse was visible. At this point, the moon was 5.2 days before apogee and 10.6 days past perigee. 

August 24: For the trial of the two Libyan suspects of the 1988 Pan Am bombing, the Netherlands is chosen as the site for the trial. 

August 24: In the United Kingdom, the first RFID human implantation is tested. 

August 25: The debut album by Lauryn Hill, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, is released. The album would later win 5 Grammy Awards, such as Album of the Year, as well as Billboard Album of the Year 1998. 

August 31: In North Korea, Kwangmyongsong is reportedly launched, which is the nation’s first satellite. 

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September

September 2: Near Peggy’s Cove in Nova Scotia, Swissair Flight 111 crashes, resulting in the deaths of all 229 people on board. 

September 2: The former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, Jean-Paul Akayesu, is found guilty of nine counts of genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. This is the first time that the law of 1948 banning genocide is enforced.

September 2: Mahathir Mohamad sacks Anwar Ibrahim from the position of Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia. Later, he charged as sodomy trial in court. 

September 4: By two PhD candidate students at Stanford University, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google is formally incorporated. 

September 4: The first ever episode of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? debuts on ITV in Britain, with Chris Tarrant as the host. 

September 4: In baseball, the New York Yankees win their 100th game on the earliest date in the history of Major League Baseball, defeating the Chicago White Sox 11-6.

September 5: On its 50th anniversary, the Government of North Korea adopts a military dictatorship.

September 6: Japanese director and screenwriter Akira Kurosawa, named “Asian of the Century” in the “Arts, Literature, and Culture” category following his death, passes away at the age of 88 from a stroke. 

September 9: First baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, Mark McGwire, hits his 62nd home run of the season. By doing so, he breaks the single season record of 61, which had been achieved and held by Roger Maris since 1961. 

September 10: At the 15th MTV Video Music Awards, Will Smith and Madonna win awards. Madonna wins multiple awards for the video for her single Ray of Light, including Video of the Year and Best Female Video, and Will Smith wins Best Male Video for Just The Two of Us.

September 10: Aboard an Akula-class nuclear-powered attack submarine of the Russian navy, a shooting takes place at midnight. At the time, the submarine was docked in the northern Russian port city of Severomorsk. 

September 11: A report is sent to the US Congress by Ken Starr, Independent counsel, which accuses US President Bill Clinton of 11 potential impeachable offences. 

September 11: In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the 16th Commonwealth Games open, which makes Malaysia the first Asian country to host the games. 

September 12: In the US Open Women’s Tennis, defending champion Martina Hingis is defeated by Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 7-5, winning Davenport her first career Grand Slam title. 

September 12: In Miami, the Cuban Five intelligence agents are arrested and convicted of espionage. The agents claim they were spying against the Cuban exile community in Miami, not against the United States government. 

September 13: In the US Open Men’s Tennis, an all-Australian final takes place, with Mark Philippoussis beaten by Patrick Rafter, who retains his title.

September 13: American politician and presidential candidate George Wallace passes away from septic shock at the age of 79. Back in 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. had called Wallace “perhaps the most dangerous racist in America today,” since Wallace was in support of Jim Crow laws, opposed desegregation and even claimed in his 1963 inaugural address that he supported “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

September 14: Forming MCI WorldCom, two telecommunications companies MCI Communications and WorldCom complete their 37 billion dollar merger.

September 14: The Royle Family, popular British TV show, starring Ricky Tomlinson, Sue Johnston, Caroline Adherne and Craig Cash premieres on BBC Two. 

September 15: Following their merger the previous day, MCI WorldCom officially opens its doors to begin business. 

September 18: The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is established. 

September 18: Jackie Chan makes his Hollywood breakthrough when the film Rush Hour is released, starring Chan and Chris Tucker. 

September 27: In Germany, Helmut Kohl, German Chancellor, and his CDU/CSU party suffer a heavy defeat in the federal elections by the SPD party and Gerard Schroder. 

September 29: Former Mayor of Los Angeles, Tom Bradley, passes away at the age of 80. 

Actor Jackie Chan who got his Hollywood breakthrough this year
Image: Wikimedia Commons

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October 

October 1: Of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin becomes a permanent member. 

October 1: When the Europol Convention being signed by all its members comes into force, the Europol is formed. 

October 2: Australian cricket batsman smashes an astounding 157 to guide the tourists to an innings and 99 run win over Pakistan in the 1st Test in Rawalpindi. This came when the team was struggling at 28 for 3. 

October 4: Ian Healy, Australian wicket keeper, beats Rod Marsh’s world record of 355 Test cricket dismissals during the 1st Test win against Pakistan in Rawalpindi. He catches Wasim Akram off Colin Miller to reach the record. 

October 7: In one of the most devastating 1998 events, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, Matthew Shepard, is discovered tied to a fence after being savagely beaten in Laramie, Wyoming by two young adults. He was beaten, tortured and left to die, and 5 days later he died from severe head injuries. 

October 8: In the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the US House of Representatives decides to start the impeachment hearings against President Bill Clinton on charges of lying about his affair with Lewinsky. 

October 8: Novelist José Saramago wins the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature, making him the first person from Portugal to win the award. 

October 10: Chilean dictator from 1973 to 1990, Augusto Pinochet, is indicted for human rights violations he committed in Chile by Baltasar Garzón, a magistrate in Spain. The British police place him under house arrest 6 days later, during his medical treatment in the UK. The case becomes leading in the law of universal jurisdiction. 

October 11: Rebels in Kindu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, shoot down a Congo Airlines Boeing 727 flight, resulting in the deaths of 40 people. 

October 13: In the MLB American League Championship, the Cleveland Indians are defeated by the New York Yankees, 4 games to 2. 

October 14: In Atlanta, Georgia, Eric Robert Rudolph is charged with 6 bombings, including the bombing of the Centennial Olympic Park in 1996. 

October 14: The MLB National League Championship takes place, with the Atlanta Braves being defeated by the San Diego Padres, 4 games to 2. 

October 16: In London, General Augusto Pinochet, former Chilean dictator, is arrested on a Spanish warrant which requests his extradition on charges of murder. 

October 17: In Nigeria, at Jesse in the Niger Delta, 1200 villagers are killed when a petroleum pipeline explodes. Some of those killed were scavenging gasoline. 

October 19: The Vail Mountain ski resort in Colorado is set on fire by the Earth Liberation Front, which leads to 12 million dollars worth of damage. 

October 20: The first ever Mark Twain Prize for American Humour is awarded to comedian Richard Pryor. 

October 21: In the baseball World Series, San Diego Padres are beaten by the New York Yankees 3-0 in Game 4, which wins the Yankees their second title in 3 years. 

October 23: Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decide on a “land for peace” agreement. 

October 23: Baby One More Time, Britney Spears’ debut single, is released. 

October 27: Following a landslide defeat in elections and after 16 years in power, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl resigns.

October 28: An Air China plane is hijacked by pilot Yuan Bin, and is flown to Taiwan. 

October 28: Poet and British Poet Laureate, Ted Hughes, passes away at the age of 68. 

October 29: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South African presents its report condemning both sides for committing atrocities in Apartheid. 

October 29: A Turkish Airlines flight that was being flown from Adana to Ankara with 6 crew members and 33 passengers is hijacked by a Kurdish militant. The militant orders the pilot to fly the plane to Switzerland, but luckily the pilot managed to land in Ankara after tricking the hijacker that he was landing to refuel in Sofia. 

October 29: The second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history, Hurricane Mitch, makes landfall in Honduras. 

October 29: John Glenn becomes the oldest person to travel into space at the age of 77 when he boards the Space Shuttle Discovery.

October 29: In the United States, ATSC HDTV broadcasting is inaugurated when the STS-95 space shuttle mission launches. 

October 31: In Iraq, the disarmament crisis begins, with Iraq declaring that it would no longer cooperate with the United Nations weapon inspectors. 

October 31: The Velvet Underground’s Rock and Roll is performed by American jam band Phish as a musical costume during a show at the Thomas and Mack Centre at the University of Nevada. 

Singer Britney Spears who released her iconic single Baby, One More Time this year
Image: Wikimedia Commons

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November

November 1: The European Court of Human Rights is established. 

November 1: Mika Häkkinen, a Finnish McLaren driver, claims his first Formula 1 World Drivers Championship after he wins the season, bringing the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka to an end. He wins the title by 14 points from Michael Schumacher. 

November 3: Directed by Tom Stoppard, the film Shakespeare in Love, starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes, premieres in New York. It would go on to win the award for Best Picture in 1999. 

November 9: To compensate for price fixing, brokerage houses are ordered to pay 1.03 billion US dollars to NASDAQ in the biggest civil settlement in United States history. 

November 9: While already abolished for murder, capital punishment in the United Kingdom is abolished completely for all capital offences that are remaining. 

November 10: The film directed by and starring Jonathan Frakes alongside Patrick Stewart, Star Trek: Insurrection, premieres. 

November 12: Ending their 10-game losing streak, the New York Islanders hockey team draw with Detroit Red Wings 1-1. 

November 12: Al Gore, Vice President of the United States, symbolically signs the Kyoto Protocol. The protocol is an international treaty extending the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), committing state parties to reduce their greenhouse emissions, based on the idea that global warming is occurring and it’s most likely human-made CO2 emissions that have been causing it. 

November 14: Baywatch actress Carmen Electra marries Dennis Rodman, Chicago Bulls NBA player, in the Little Chapel of the Flowers in  Las Vegas, Nevada.

November 16: White House intern Monica Lewinsky signs a deal to obtain the North American rights to a book regarding her affair with US President Bill Clinton. 

November 17: My Love is Your Love is released by singer Whitney Houston. 

November 17: #1’s is released by singer Mariah Carey. 

November 17: As the most distant man-made object from the Solar System, Voyager 1 overtakes Pioneer 10, at a distance of 69.419 AU (1.03849×1010 km).

November 19: At an auction, Portrait of the Artist Without Beard painted by Vincent Van Gogh sells for 71.5 million dollars. 

November 20: In Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, a court proclaims that accused terrorist Osama Bin Laden is “a man without a sin,” regarding the US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania this year. 

November 20: The first module of Zarya, the International Space Station, is launched. 

November 22: In the 48th NASCAR Sprint Cup, Jeff Gordon emerges victorious. 

November 22: Actress Kate Winslet, who plays Rose in Titanic, marries Jim Threapleton, assistant film director, at All Saints Church in Reading, England. 

November 23: At the WTA Tour Championship final at Madison Square Garden, New York City, Martina Hingis, Swiss tennis star, defeats American tennis player Lindsay Davenport. 

November 23: Between the Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen, and his rival Prince Norodom Ranariddh, an agreement is reached. 

November 24: Marc Hodler, a Swiss International Olympic official, reveals in his declassified report that bribes had been used to bring the Winter Olympic Games to Salt Lake City in the bidding process of 1995. An investigation into the scandal is immediately launched. 

November 26: Tony Blair is the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to address the parliament of the Republic of Ireland. 

November 28: In Albania, the people vote for their new Constitution in a referendum.

November 30: It is announced by Deutsche Bank that a 10 billion US dollar deal has been made to buy Bankers Trust, making it the biggest financial institution in the world. 

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December

December 1: The world’s largest company is created when Exxon proclaims a 73.7 billion dollar deal to buy Mobil, establishing Exxon-Mobil.

December 4: The second module of the International Space Station, the Unity Module, is launched. This is the first American component of the International Space Station, launched by Space Shuttle Endeavour. 

December 6: Politician and previous member of the Venuzuelan military, Hugo Chávez, is elected to be the President of Venezuela.

December 8: In Algeria, armed groups kill 81 people in what is known as the Tadjena massacre. 

December 9: American light-heavyweight boxing champion Archie Moore passes away at the age of 84. 

December 10: For the development of new drugs, James W. Black, Gertrude B. Elton and George H. Hitchings are awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. 

December 10: For his contribution to welfare economics, Amartya Sen, an Indian professor, wins the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics. 

December 11: 101 people lose their lives when Thai Airways Airbus A310-200 crashes close to Surat Thani Airport. 

December 16: The United States and the United Kingdom embark on Operation Desert Fox, bombing targets in Iraq. 

December 19: In one of the important events that happened in 1998, and following his impeachment trial, the US House of Representatives votes to impeach US President Bill Clinton. After this decision, they forward the articles of impeachment to the Senate in preparation for a trial. This makes him the second president in the nation’s history to be impeached.

December 20: French forward football player, Kylian Mbappé, is born in Paris, France. 

December 20: Chinese actor and singer Dylan Wang is born in Chengdu, Sichuan. 

December 24: American physicist Raemer Schreiber, who assisted in developing the first atomic bomb during World War II and helped prepare the Fat Man bomb that was used in the bombing of Nagasaki, passes away at the age of 88. 

December 26: Iraq reveals its intention to fire on British and US warplanes that guard the northern and southern no-fly zones. 

December 26: In Ireland, northern England and southern Scotland, severe gales cause widespread disruption and power outages in southern Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

December 29: For the 1970s genocide which claimed more than a million lives in Cambodia, leaders of the Khmer Rough apologise. 

December 30: Attorney Gaynell Floyd marries Clyde Drexler, NBA player. 

December 30: Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, marries quantum chemist Joachim Sauer in Bonn, Germany. 

December 31: For the year, the US movie box office hits a record 6.24 billion dollars.

December 31: Between the euro and legacy currencies in the Eurozone, exchange rates become fixed. 

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1998 Sporting Events

1998 was a particularly eventful year for sport, with many different events taking place across the year. With records broken and competitions won, 1998 was filled with very interesting games, races and tournaments to reminisce about. 

Vive la France

In football, the 16th FIFA World Cup took place this year in France. France had defeated Morocco in the bidding process, and it was the second time in the tournament’s history that France had held it. Up to 2022, it is the longest World Cup tournament, spanning 32 days. France played against Brazil in the final, winning 3-0 with player Zidane scoring two goals to put the team in a great position. The team’s victory made France become the sixth country to win the FIFA World Cup in their own country. 

Chelsea Earn European Silverware

The UEFA Cup Winner’s Cup took place this year as well, with the final kicking off on 13 May. The game was played in Stockholm, Sweden, at the Råsunda Stadium, with Chelsea playing against Stuttgart and winning 1-0 after a number of previous attempts. This was the 38th final of the tournament and was Europe’s second biggest football competition at the time, and it was broadcast in 144 countries across the world, with more than 250 million viewers following the game. 

A Novelist’s Unsuccessful NFL Ownership Bid

There were also lots of interesting events in American football. An NFL franchise record was reached on February 5 when Tom Clancy, the American novelist, signed a deal to purchase the Minnesota Vikings for just over 200 million dollars. However, the deal ended up falling through because Clancy’s divorce proceedings made him believe he wouldn’t be able to afford his share of the price. In the end, Red McCombs, a Texas businessman, purchased the team for $250 million.

Elway Leads Broncos to Super Bowl XXXII

Super Bowl XXXII took place this year, with the Denver Broncos winning 31-24 against the Green Bay Packers on January 25. The game took place in San Diego, California, at the Qualcomm Stadium, making the game the second to be held at the stadium, as well as the only stadium in history to hold both the Super Bowl and the World Series in the same year. The game was close all the way, with the Broncos taking a 17-7 lead after two turnovers in the second quarter, but then the Packers cut the score to 17-14 at half time. It would be Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway’s first of back to back Super Bowls.

Mark McGwire Makes History in Baseball

In baseball, Mark McGwire, the first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, hit his 62nd home run of the season on September 9. This achievement meant he broke the single season home run record of 61, which Roger Maris held since 1961. As well as this outstanding record-break, the 1998 World Series took place between October 17-22, with the final bringing the New York Yankees championship total to 24 when they won against the San Diego Padres. This means they tied with the Montreal Canadiens for the record of the most championships won by a North American professional sports team. They also overtook the Chicago Cubs for the record of the most overall wins in a single season in the history of MLB, with 125 wins, and won their second title in 3 years.

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The Monica Lewinsky Scandal

The Monica Lewinsky scandal was a very controversial American political sex scandal, involving US President Bill Clinton and White House intern at the time Monica Lewsinky, who was in her early twenties. In 1995, Clinton and Lewinsky had begun a sexual relationship, continuing on and off until 1997. Lewinsky began a job at the Pentagon, leaving her position at the White House and spoke about the affair to her coworker, Linda Thripp. 

In secret, Thripp began to tape some of the meetings she had with Lewinsky discussing the relationship, with news of the affair being broadcast in 1998. Thripp had shared the tapes with Lucianne Goldberg, who was an anti-Clinton conservative and literary agent, who had encouraged Thripp to record their conversations despite this going against the taping laws in Thripp’s home state of Maryland. News of their affair had reached Paula Jones, a woman who previously worked for the government and filled a lawsuit against President Clinton for sexual misconduct when he was the governor of Arkansas in 1991. 

When their relationship was made public, and quickly became a national controversy, Clinton denied the relationship, assuring the public that he had not had sexual relations with Lewinsky. He himself stated: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.”

On August 17, Clinton admitted to engaging in “inappropriate intimate physical contact” with the White House intern, despite publicly denying any involvement with Lewinsky. Following this, Clinton took to national television to apologise for his actions and previous denial. Independent counsel Kenenth Starr then put together a 445-page report detailing the sexual encounters between the two, and put forward 11 causes for impeachment. The report, known as the Starr report, was soon made public by Congress and it was published as a book. In turn, the book became a bestseller.

The House of Representatives voted on Clinton’s impeachment, making him only the second President in history to be impeached after Andrew Johnson in 1868. They approved two articles for impeachment, one for perjury, and one for obstruction of justice. Following a five-week trial in the US Senate, Clinton would be acquitted for his actions. Despite the scandal, Clinton managed to finish his second presidential term and even had high approval ratings. He settled the Paula Jones lawsuit but didn’t actually admit he had done anything wrong, agreeing to $850,000. While President Clinton’s reputation was largely unscathed, Lewinsky became a public name and faced extreme public scrutiny. 

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