1999

history

1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year that started on a Friday (link will display full calendar). In the Gregorian calendar, it was the 1999th year of the Common Era, or of Anno Domini; the 999th year of the 2nd millennium; and the 99th year of the 20th century. It was also the 10th and last year of the 1990s.

The year 1999 was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations.

Events of 1999

January

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  • January 1 – Euro is established.
  • January 2 – A snowstorm leaves 14 inches (359 mm) of snow in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and 21 inches (533.4 mm) in Chicago, Illinois, killing 68.
  • January 4 – Gunmen open fire on Shia Muslims worshiping in a mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing 16 and injuring 25.
  • January 6 – Dennis Hastert becomes Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
  • January 8 – 3.4 million copies of the film The Rescuers are recalled after a photo of a topless woman was discovered in two of the 110,000 slides in that scene of the movie.
  • January 10 – A large piece of the chalk cliff at Beachy Head collapses into the sea.
  • January 11 – Bülent Ecevit, of DSP forms the new government of Turkey (56th government, an interim government )
  • January 20 – The China News Service announces new government restrictions on Internet use aimed especially at Internet cafes.
  • January 21 – In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 9,500 pounds (4.3 tons) of cocaine aboard, headed for Houston, Texas.
  • January 25 – A 6.1 Richter scale earthquake hits western Colombia, killing at least 1,000.

February

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March

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  • March 29 – For the first time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 10,000 mark, at 10,006.78.

April

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May

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June

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July

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  • 1 July – The Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth on the day that legislative powers are officially transferred from the old Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh.
  • July 2 – Benjamin Nathaniel Smith begins a 3-day killing spree targeting racial and ethnic minorities in Illinois and Indiana.
  • July 5 – U.S. Army Pfc. Barry Winchell is bludgeoned in his sleep at Fort Campbell, Kentucky by fellow soldiers; he dies the next day from his injuries.
  • July 7 – In Rome, Hicham El Guerrouj runs the fastest mile ever recorded, at 3:43.13.
  • July 8 – A major flash flood in Las Vegas swamps hundreds of cars, smashes mobile homes and kills 2 people.
  • July 10- USA soccer player Brandi Chastain scores the game winning penalty kick against China in the FIFA Women's World Cup.
  • July 11 – India recaptures Kargil, forcing the Pakistan Army to retreat. India announces victory, ending the 2-month conflict.
  • July 16 – Off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, a plane piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr. crashes, killing him and his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister Lauren Bessette.
  • July 20 – Mercury program: Liberty Bell 7 is raised from the Atlantic Ocean.
  • July 20 – Falun Gong is banned in the People's Republic of China under Jiang Zemin.
  • July 22 – The first version of MSN Messenger is released by Microsoft.
  • July 23 – ANA Flight 61 is hijacked in Tokyo.
  • July 23 – Mohammed VI of Morocco becomes king upon the death of his father Hassan II.
  • July 23–25 – The Woodstock 99 festival is held in New York.
  • July 25 – Lance Armstrong wins his first Tour de France.
  • July 26 – The last Checker taxi cab is retired in New York City and auctioned off for approximately $135,000.
  • July 27 – Twenty-one people die in a canyoning disaster near Interlaken, Switzerland.
  • 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 lunar surface.

August

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September

  • September 7 – A magnitude 5.9 earthquake hits Athens, killing 143 and injuring more than 2,000.
  • September 7 – Viacom and CBS merge.
  • September 8 – The first of a series of Russian apartment bombings occurs. Subsequent bombings occur on September 13 and 16, while a bombing on September 22 fails.
  • September 9 – Sega releases the Dreamcast.
  • September 12 – Under international pressure to allow an international peacekeeping force, Indonesian president BJ Habibie announced on 12 September that he would do so.
  • September 14 – Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga join the United Nations.
  • September 21 – The 921 earthquake, also known as the Jiji earthquake,(magnitude 7.6 on the Richter scale) kills about 2,400 people in Taiwan.

October

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  • October – NASA loses one of its probes, the Mars Climate Orbiter.
  • October 1 – Pudong International Airport opens in Shanghai, China, taking over all international flights to Hongqiao.
  • October 5 – Thirty-one people die in the Ladbroke Grove rail crash, west of London, England.
  • October 10 – Elections are held in Portugal.
  • October 12 – Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attempts to dismiss Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf and install ISI director Ziauddin Butt in his place. Senior Army generals refuse to accept the dismissal. Musharraf, who is out of the country, attempts to return in a commercial airliner. Sharif orders the Karachi airport to not allow the plane to land. The generals lead a coup d'état, ousting Sharif's administration and taking over the airport. The plane lands with only a few minutes of fuel to spare, and Musharraf takes control of the government.
  • October 12 – World population reaches 6 billion people, as the 6 billionth person (according to the UN) is born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
  • October 13 – The United States Senate rejects ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
  • October 15 – A National Geographic Society press conference reveals the fossil of Archaeoraptor (which is later found to be a forgery).
  • October 27 – Gunmen open fire in the Armenian Parliament, killing Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, Parliament Chairman Karen Demirchyan, and 6 other members.
  • October 31 – EgyptAir Flight 990, travelling from New York City to Cairo, crashes off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, killing all 217 on board. When the pilot leaves the cockpit, the co-pilot causes the Boeing 767 to enter a steep dive, resulting in impact with the Atlantic Ocean.
  • 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

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  • November 6 – Australians defeat a referendum proposing the replacement of The Queen and The Governor General with a President to make Australia a republic.
  • November 9 – TAESA Flight 725, covering the route Tijuana–Guadalajara–Uruapan–Mexico City, crashes a few minutes after takeoff from Uruapan International Airport, killing 18 people on board. This event causes the bankruptcy of the Mexican airline a few months later.
  • November 12 – A 7.2-magnitude earthquake strikes Duzce and northwestern Turkey, killing 845 and injuring 4,948.
  • November 18 – The Aggie Bonfire collapses in College Station, TX, killing 12.
  • November 19 – Mikhail Gorbachev proposes that the UN create an International Men's Day, which is now commemorated every year on this same date.
  • November 19 – Every digit in this date is an odd number (19/11/1999). This hitherto common event will not happen again until the year 3111.
  • November 20 – The People's Republic of China launches the first Shenzhou spacecraft.
  • November 26 – An earthquake and tsunami strike Vanuatu.
  • November 27 – The left-wing Labour Party takes control of the New Zealand government, with leader Helen Clark becoming the second female Prime Minister in New Zealand's history.
  • November 30 – The ExxonMobil Corporation merger is completed, forming the largest company in the world.

December

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Births

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Deaths

January

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  • January 4 – Iron Eyes Cody, American actor (b. 1904)
  • January 11 – Fabrizio De André, Italian singer and songwriter (b. 1940)
  • January 11 – Brian Moore, Irish-born writer (b. 1921)
  • January 14 – Jerzy Grotowski, Polish theatre director (b. 1933)
  • January 21 – Susan Strasberg, American actress (b. 1938)
  • January 22 – Graham Staines, Australian missionary (b. 1941)
  • January 25 – Ted Mallie, American radio and television announcer (b. 1924)
  • January 25 – Robert Shaw, American conductor (b. 1916)
  • January 28 – Markey Robinson, Irish painter (b. 1918)
  • January 30 – Huntz Hall, American actor (b. 1919)
  • January 31 – Norm Zauchin, American baseball player (b. 1929)

February

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March

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  • March 1 – Ann Corio, American dancer and actress (b. 1914)
  • March 2 – Dusty Springfield, English singer (b. 1939)
  • March 3 – Gerhard Herzberg, German-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
  • March 4 – Harry Blackmun, American judge (b. 1908)
  • March 4 – Del Close, American actor, writer, and teacher (b. 1934)
  • March 5 – Richard Kiley, American actor (b. 1922)
  • March 7 – Sidney Gottlieb, American Central Intelligence Agency official (b. 1918)
  • March 7 – Stanley Kubrick, American film director and producer (b. 1928)
  • March 8 – Peggy Cass, American actress (b. 1924)
  • March 8 – Joe DiMaggio, American baseball player (b. 1914)
  • March 12 – Yehudi Menuhin, American-born violinist (b. 1916)
  • March 13 – Garson Kanin, American playwright and screenwriter (b. 1912)
  • March 17 – Ernest Gold, Austrian-born composer (b. 1921)
  • March 18 – Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentine writer (b. 1914)
  • March 18 – Rod Hull, British entertainer (b. 1935)
  • March 21 – Ernie Wise, British comedian (b. 1925)
  • March 24 – Birdie Tebbetts, American baseball player and manager (b. 1912)
  • March 25 – Cal Ripken, Sr., American baseball player and manager (b. 1935)
  • March 29 – Joe Williams, American singer (b. 1918)
  • March 31 – Yuri Knorozov, Russian linguist and epigrapher (b. 1922)

April

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  • April 3 – Lionel Bart, English composer (b. 1930)
  • April 4 – Faith Domergue, American actress (b. 1924)
  • April 10 – Jean Vander Pyl, American television actress (b. 1919)
  • April 12 – Boxcar Willie, American country music singer (b. 1931)
  • April 14 – Ellen Corby, American actress (b. 1911)
  • April 14 – Anthony Newley, English actor, singer and songwriter (b. 1931)
  • April 20 – Rick Rude, American professional wrestler (b. 1958)
  • April 20 – Señor Wences, Spanish ventriloquist (b. 1896)
  • April 21 – Charles Rogers, American actor (b. 1904)
  • April 25 – Lord Killanin, Irish journalist and Olympic official (b. 1914)
  • April 25 – Herman Miller, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1919)
  • April 27 – Al Hirt, American trumpeter and bandleader (b. 1922)
  • April 27 – Cyril Washbrook, English cricketer (b. 1914)
  • April 28 – Rory Calhoun, American television and film actor (b. 1922)
  • April 28 – Arthur Leonard Schawlow, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1921)
  • April 30 – Alf Ramsey, English football manager (b. 1920)

May

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June

July

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August

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  • August 1 – Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Bengali writer (b. 1897)
  • August 3 – Leroy Vinnegar, American musician (b. 1928)
  • August 4 – Victor Mature, American actor (b. 1913)
  • August 13 – Jaime Garzón, Colombian journalist and comedian (b. 1960)
  • August 14 – Lane Kirkland, American union leader (b. 1922)
  • August 14 – Pee Wee Reese, American baseball player (b. 1918)
  • August 23 – Norman Wexler, American screenwriter (b. 1926)
  • August 23 – James White, Irish writer (b. 1928)
  • August 24 – Mary Jane Croft, American actress (b. 1916)

September

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  • September 5 – Allen Funt, American television personality (b. 1914)
  • September 5 – Alan Clark, English politician and diarist (b. 1928)
  • September 6 – Lagumot Harris, Nauruan politician and former President (b. 1938)
  • September 9 – Ruth Roman, American actress (b. 1922)
  • September 10 – Alfredo Kraus, Spanish tenor (b. 1927)
  • September 11 – Gonzalo Rodriguez, Uruguyan race car driver (b. 1972)
  • September 12 – Allen Stack, American Olympic swimmer (b. 1928)
  • September 14 – Charles Crichton, English film director (b. 1910)
  • September 20 – Raisa Gorbachyova, Soviet first lady (b. 1932)
  • September 22 – George C. Scott, American actor (b. 1927)
  • September 23 – Ivan Goff, Australian screenwriter (b. 1910)

October

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November

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December

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Templeton Prize

  • Ian Barbour

Nobel Prizes

Fictional

The year 1999 in fiction and popular culture:
  • Computer/video games:
    • (Castlevania series, 2003): is finally able to defeat Dracula for good and seal away his Castle.
    • Chrono Trigger (1995): The apocalyptic Day of Lavos takes place on April 24
    • (1990) is set on December 24, 1999.
    • (2000): The first stage takes place in 1999. The remainder of the game is set in 2000.
    • Smash TV (1990) is set in 1999.
  • Film:
    • Released after 1999 and set in the historical year:
    • Released in 1999 and stated to take place in that year:
      • Entrapment (1999): The film takes place during the week leading up to December 31.
      • End of Days (1999): The film involves Satan's plot to conquer the earth on New Year's Eve of '99
      • The Matrix (1999): The year within the Matrix is said to be 1999.
      • Fight Club (1999) The year within Fight Club is said to be 1999, just before the beginning of the Millennium.
    • Released before 1999 and set in the "future" year:
      • Strange Days (1995): The film takes place leading up to New Year's Eve, 1999.
      • (1994)
      • Until the End of the World (1991)
      • Class of 1999 (1990)
      • Prophecies of Nostradamus (1974)
      • Destroy All Monsters (1968)
      • (1968): The first scenes of the future take place in the year 1999.
  • Music:
    • Prince's 1982 song "1999" is about "party like it's 1999."
    • The Megadeth song "Set the World Afire", from their album So Far, So Good... So What!, contains the line "Distorted figures walk the earth, it's 1999". The song, which is a protest song against nuclear weapons, was written in 1987, implying that the Earth could be nearly completely devastated by nuclear weapons in 12 years without any action taken against them.
  • Television:
    • Futurama: The series' protagonist, Fry, is accidentally cryogenicly frozen on December 31, 1999.
    • (1975–1977): A huge explosion sends the Moon hurtling out of Earth's orbit on September 13 (a Friday in the series, but not in reality).
    • The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982–1983): A huge spaceship appears high above Earth and crashes into an island in the Pacific, triggering a world war.
    • Three Super Sentai series — Choujin Sentai Jetman (1991–1992), Chouriki Sentai Ohranger (1995–1996), and Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGo-V (1999–2000) — take place in 1999.
    • In Kamen Rider Kabuto (2006–2007), 1999 is the year in which a meteor struck the city of shibuya and also spawned the Worm, an alien race that forms the main antagonist in the series. In the movie based on the show, the meteor was much bigger and also dried up the oceans, resulting in a post-apocalyptic world
    • Family Guy the episode Da Boom is set on the 31st of December 1999
    • In the TV series of Quantum Leap (1988–1993) project Quantum Leap is said to be launched in New Mexico, 1999.
    • The 1996 Doctor Who TV movie takes place from December 30, 1999 to January 1, 2000.

See also

Notes

External links

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