1998

January

• January 1 – Smoking is banned in all California bars and restaurants.
• January 2 - Russia begins to circulate new rubles to stem inflation and promote confidence.
• January 2 - A gunman shoots Antario Teodoro Filho, Brazilian politician and radio presenter, in the middle of his broadcast.
• January 4-10 - A massive ice storm, caused by El Nino, strikes New England, southern Ontario and Quebec, resulting in widespread power failures, severe damage to forests, and a number of deaths.
• January 4 – Wilaya of Relizane massacres of 4 January 1998 in Algeria; over 170 killed in three remote villages.
• January 6 – The Lunar Prospector spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon and later found evidence for frozen water on the moon's surface.
• January 8 - Ramzi Yousef is sentenced to life in prison for planning the World Trade Center bombing.
• January 8 - Cosmologists announce that the expansion rate of the universe is increasing.
• January 11 – Sidi-Hamed massacre in Algeria; over 100 people killed.
• January 12 – 19 European nations agree to forbid 1998 like a 1999 one human cloning.
• January 14 – Researchers in Dallas, Texas present findings about an enzyme that slows aging and cell death (apoptosis).
• January 15 – The stalker of Howard Stern, Lance Carvin, is sentenced to ​2 ¹⁄₂ years for threatening to kill Stern and his family.
• January 16 – NASA announces that John Glenn will return to space when Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off in October 1998.
• January 17 – Paula Jones accuses President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment.
• January 22 – Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski pleads guilty and accepts a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
• January 26 - Lewinsky scandal: On American television, Bill Clinton denies he had "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
• January 26 - Compaq buys Digital Equipment Corporation.
• January 27 – American First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton appears on the Today show calling the attacks against her husband part of a "vast right-wing conspiracy."
• January 28 - Ford Motor Company announces the buyout of Volvo Cars for $6.45 billion.
• January 28 - Gunmen hold at least 400 children and teachers hostage for several hours at an elementary school in Manila, Philippines.
• January 29 – In Birmingham, Alabama a bomb explodes at an abortion clinic killing one and severely wounding another. Serial bomber Eric Rudolph is suspected as the culprit.

February

• February 3 - A low-flying US military airplane cuts the cable of a cable car near Trento, Italy, killing 20 people.
• February 3 - President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosian resigns.
• February 4 - A magnitude 6.1 earthquake kills more than 5,000 people in Northeastern Afghanistan.
• February 7-22 - The 1998 Winter Olympics are held in 1998 like a 2000 one for Nagano, Japan.
• February 16 - China Airlines Flight 676 crashes into a residential area near Chiang Kai-shek Airport in Taipei, killing 202 people, including 6 on the ground.
• February 20 - Saddam Hussein negotiates a deal with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, allowing weapons inspectors to return to Baghdad, preventing military action by the US and the UK.
• February 20-March 27 - The 1998 Auckland power crisis lasts five weeks.
• February 22-23 - The 1998 Kissimmee tornado outbreak strikes central Florida, including Orlando. Forty-two people are killed.
• February 26 - A solar eclipse is seen over the Caribbean Sea.

March

• March 2 - Data sent from the Galileo probe indicates that Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.
• March 2 - In Austria, Natascha Kampusch is kidnapped by Wolfgang Priklopil, being held in captivity until August 2006.
• March 11 - Prime Minister of Denmark Poul Nyrup Rasmussen is re-elected.
• March 24 - A cyclone hits Bangladesh.
• March 26 - In Algeria, 52 people are killed in the Oued Bouaicha massacre.

April

• April 5 - The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge is opened to traffic in Japan, connecting Honshu and Shikoku.
• April 6 - Pakistan tests a medium-range missile.
• April 10 - In Northern Ireland the Good Friday Agreement is signed by the British and Irish governments and most political parties in Northern Ireland.
• April 29 - The Kyoto Protocol is signed.

May

• May 11 - India conducts 3 underground nuclear tests.
• May 21 - Suharto resigns as President of Indonesia, with Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie succeeding him.
• May 26 - Bear Grylls becomes the youngest British person to climb Mount Everest.
• May 28 – Pakistan explodes 5 nuclear devices.
• May 30 - A magnitude 6.6 earthquake kills up to 5,000 people in Afghanistan.

June

• June 3 - An ICE high speed train derails at Eschede between Hanover and Hamburg, killing 101 people.
• June 7 - The Guinea-Bissau Civil War begins.
• June 30 - Joseph Estrada becomes the 13th President of the Philippines.

July

• July 5 - Japan launches a probe to Mars.
• July 6 - Hong Kong International Airport opens.
• July 12 - The France national football team wins the FIFA World Cup on home soil against the Brazil national football team, 3-0.

• July 17 - At a conference in Rome 120 countries vote to create an International Criminal Court.
• July 17 - A tsunami is triggered by an undersea earthquake off Papua New Guinea, destroying 10 villages and killing thousands of people.
• July 17 - 80 years after being executed Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family are buried at the St. Catherine chapel in Saint Petersburg.

August

• August 2 - The Second Congo War begins.
• August 7 - Andres Pastrana Arango becomes President of Colombia.
• August 7 - During major flooding the Yangtze River breaks through the main bank, with the death toll exceeding 12,000 people.
• August 7 - The US Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania are bombed, killing 224 people. Al-Qaeda is believed to be responsible.
• August 10 - Jamil Mahuad becomes President of Ecuador.
• August 15 - The Omagh bombing is carried out by the IRA in Northern Ireland.
• August 17 - Bill Clinton admits having an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
• August 24 - The first RFID human implantation is tested in the United Kingdom.
• August 28 - Said Musa becomes Prime Minister of Belize.

September

• September 2 - Swissair Flight 111, travelling from New York City to Geneva, crashes off the coast of Peggys Cove, Nova Scotia, Canada, killing all 229 people on board.
• September 4 - Google Inc. is founded in California by Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
• September 27 - After 16 years as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Helmut Kohl of the CDU is voted out, with the SPD's Gerhard Schroeder being elected to succeed him.

October

• October 3 - John Howard is elected to a second term as Prime Minister of Australia.
• October 8 - Oslo Gardermoen Airport opens.
• October 14 - Eric Robert Rudolph is charged with four bombings in Atlanta, Georgia in 1996.
• October 16 - While receiving medical treatment in the UK, Augusto Pinochet is put under house arrest under an arrest warrant from Spain.
• October 17 - 1,082 people are killed when an oil pipeline in Nigeria explodes.
• October 27 - Gerhard Schroeder becomes Chancellor of Germany, officially succeeding Helmut Kohl.
• October 29 - Hurricane Mitch makes landfall in Central America, causing a large amount of destruction and killing over 18,000 people across Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador.

November

• November 3 - Hurricane Mitch weakens after leaving a trail of destruction across Central America.
• November 20 - A Russian Proton rocket is launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
• November 26 - Tony Blair becomes the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to speak at the Irish Parliament.

December

• December 6 - Hugo Chávez is elected President of Venezuela, taking office in February 1999.
• December 16 - Bill Clinton orders air strikes on Iraq.
• December 29 - Khmer Rouge leaders apologise for the genocide committed in Cambodia under Pol Pot's rule.
• December 31 - An extra leap second is added onto the end of the year.

January

• January 1 - Helen Wills Moody, American tennis player (born 1905)
• January 5 - Sonny Bono, American singer, actor and politician (born 1935)
• January 7 - Vladimir Prelog, Croatian chemist (born 1906)
• January 8 - Michael Tippett, English composer (born 1905)
• January 9 - Kenichi Fukui, Japanese chemist (born 1918)
• January 11 - Klaus Tennstedt, German conductor (born 1926)
• January 19 - Carl Perkins, American guitarist (born 1932)
• January 21 - Jack Lord, American actor (born 1920)
• January 23 - Alfredo Ormando, Italian writer (born 1958)
• January 28 - Shotari Ishinomari, Japanese manga artist (born 1938)

February

• February 6 - Falco, Austrian singer and musician (born 1957)
• February 6 - Carl Wilson, American musician (born 1946)
• February 8 - Halldor Laxness, Icelandic writer (born 1902)
• February 8 - Julian Lincoln Simon, American economist and writer (born 1932)
• February 8 - Enoch Powell, British politician (born 1912)
• February 17 - Ernst Juenger, German writer (born 1895)
• February 26 - Theodore Schultz, American economist (born 1902)
• February 27 - George H. Hitchings, American scientist (born 1905)
• February 28 - Dermot Morgan, Irish actor and comedian (born 1952)

March

• March 3 - Fred W. Friendly, American television journalist and executive (born 1915)
• March 10 - Lloyd Bridges, American actor (born 1913)
• March 12 - Judge Dread, English musician (born 1945)
• March 12 - Beatrice Wood, American artist and ceramicist (born 1893)
• March 12 - Jozef Kroner, Slovakian actor (born 1924)
• March 15 - Benjamin Spock, American athlete, pediatrician and writer (born 1903)
• March 16 - Derek Harold Richard Barton, British chemist (born 1918)
• March 21 - Galina Ulanova, Russian ballerina (born 1910)
• March 25 - Daniel Massey, British actor (born 1933)
• March 27 - Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche, Austrian automobile designer and businessman (born 1909)
• March 31 - Bella Abzug, American politician (born 1920)

April

• April 1 - Gene Evans, American actor (born 1920)
• April 2 - Rob Pilatus, member of the pop group Milli Vanilli (born 1965)
• April 6 - Tammy Wynette, American singer (born 1942)
• April 15 - Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator (born 1925)
• April 16 - Marie-Louise Meilleur, Canadian supercentenarian (born 1880)
• April 17 - Linda McCartney, American photographer and musician (born 1941)
• April 19 - Octavio Paz, Mexican writer (born 1914)
• April 23 - Konstantinos Karamanlis, Greek politician (born 1907)
• April 23 - James Earl Ray, convicted assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr. (born 1928)
• April 25 - Christian Mortensen, Danish-born American supercentenarian (born 1882)
• April 27 - Carlos Castaneda, Peruvian-American anthropologist and writer (born 1925)

May

• May 1 - Eldridge Cleaver, American activist (born 1935)
• May 2 - Hide, Japanese musician (born 1964)
• May 2 - Justin Fashanu, English footballer (born 1961)
• May 2 - Kevin Lloyd, British actor (born 1949)
• May 7 - Allan McLeod Cormack, South African-born physicist (born 1924)
• May 14 - Frank Sinatra, American singer and entertainer (born 1915)
• May 19 - Sōsuke Uno, Prime Minister of Japan (born 1922)
• May 22 - John Derek, American actor and movie director (born 1926)
• May 28 - Phil Hartman, Canadian-born American artist, writer, actor and comedian (born 1948)
• May 29 - Barry Goldwater, American politician (born 1909)

June

• June 2 - Junkyard Dog, American professional wrestler (born 1952)
• June 8 - Sani Abacha, President of Nigeria (born 1943)
• June 11 - Catherine Cookson, British writer (born 1906)
• June 13 - Birger Ruud, Norwegian athlete (born 1911)
• June 23 - Maureen O'Sullivan, Irish actress (born 1911)

July

• July 3 - Danielle Bunten Berry, American software developer (born 1949)
• July 19 - Elmer Valo, Slovakian baseball player (born 1921)
• July 21 - Alan Shepard, American astronaut (born 1923)
• July 30 - Buffalo Bob Smith, American children's TV host (born 1917)

August

• August 1 - Eva Bartok, Hungarian actress (born 1927)
• August 3 - Alfred Schnittke, Russian-born composer (born 1934)
• August 4 - Yuri Artyukhin, Soviet cosmonaut (born 1930)
• August 5 - Todor Zivkov, Bulgarian Communist leader (born 1911)
• August 6 - André Weil, French mathematician (born 1906)
• August 9 - Frankie Ruiz, Puerto-Rican singer (born 1958)
• August 26 - Frederick Reines, American physicist (born 1918)

September

• September 2 - Allen Drury, American writer (born 1918)
• September 5 - Leo Penn, American actor and director (born 1921)
• September 6 - Akira Kurosawa, Japanese screenwriter, producer and director (born 1910)
• September 13 - George Wallace, American politician (born 1919)
• September 14 - Yang Shangkun, Chinese politician (born 1907)
• September 21 - Florence Griffith-Joyner, American athlete (born 1959)
• September 26 - Betty Carter, American singer (born 1929)
• September 29 - Tom Bradley, American politician, Mayor of Los Angeles, California (born 1917)

October

• October 3 - Roddy McDowall, British actor (born 1928)
• October 14 - Frankie Yankovic, American polka musician (born 1915)
• October 17 - Joan Hickson, British actress (born 1906)
• October 28 - Ted Hughes, British poet (born 1930)

November

• November 3 - Bob Kane, American cartoonist (born 1915)
• November 8 - Jean Marais, French actor (born 1913)
• November 10 - Mary Millar, British actress (born 1917)
• November 25 - Nelson Goodman, American philosopher (born 1906)

December

• December 2 - Brian Stonehouse, British painter and World War II secret agent (born 1918)
• December 7 - Martin Rodbell, American scientist (born 1925)
• December 8 - Aaron Hopa, New Zealand rugby player (b. 1971)
• December 16 - William Gaddis, American writer (born 1922)
• December 17 - Claudia Benton, Peruvian-born child psychologist (born 1959)
• December 20 - Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, British scientist (born 1914)
• December 28 - Robert Rosen, American biologist (born 1934)
• December 30 - Keisuke Kinoshita, Japanese movie director (born 1912)
• December 30 - George Webb, British actor (born 1911)