1999

1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons.

Events

January

• January 1 – The euro currency is established, and the European Central Bank assumes full powers.^[1]
• January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launched by NASA.^[2]
• January 10 – The crime drama series The Sopranos premieres on HBO.
• January 25 – The 6.2 Colombia earthquake strikes western Colombia, killing at least 1,900 people.^[3]

February

• February 7 – Abdullah II inherits the throne of Jordan, following the death of his father King Hussein.^[4]
• February 11 – Pluto moves along its eccentric orbit further from the Sun than Neptune. It had been nearer than Neptune since 1979, and will become again in 2231.^[5]
• February 12 – U.S. President Bill Clinton is acquitted in impeachment proceedings in the United States Senate.^[6]
• February 16
  • In Uzbekistan, an apparent assassination attempt against President Islam Karimov takes place at government headquarters.^[7]
  • Across Europe, Kurdish protestors take over embassies and hold hostages after Turkey arrests one of their rebel leaders, Abdullah Öcalan.
• February 23
  • Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.
  • 1999 Galtür avalanche: An avalanche destroys the village of Galtür, Austria, killing 31.^[8]
• February 27 – While trying to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon, Colin Prescot and Andy Elson set a new endurance record after being aloft for 233 hours and 55 minutes.

March

• March 1
  • One of four bombs detonated in Lusaka, Zambia, destroys the Angolan Embassy.
  • Rwandan Hutu rebels kill and dismember eight foreign tourists at the Buhoma homestead, Uganda.
  • The Ottawa Treaty comes into force.
• March 12 – Former Warsaw Pact members Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic join NATO.
• March 15 – The Santer Commission of the EU resigns over allegations of corruption.
• March 21
  • Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.
  • The 71st Academy Awards are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles with Shakespeare in Love winning Best Picture.
• March 24
  • NATO launches air strikes against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign state.
  • A fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel kills 39 people, closing the tunnel for nearly three years.
• March 26 – The Melissa virus attacks the Internet.
• March 27 – Kosovo War: A U.S. Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is shot down by Yugoslav forces.
• March 28 – The adult animated sitcom Futurama premiered on Fox.
• March 29 – For the first time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 10,000 mark, at 10,006.78.

April

• April 1 – Nunavut, an Inuit homeland, is created from the eastern portion of the Northwest Territories to become Canada's third territory.
• April 5
  • Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 are handed over to Scottish authorities for eventual trial in the Netherlands. The United Nations suspends sanctions against Libya.
  • In Laramie, Wyoming, Russell Henderson pleads guilty to kidnapping and felony murder, in order to avoid a possible death penalty conviction for the apparent hate crime killing of Matthew Shepard.
• April 7 – Kosovo War: Kosovo's main border crossings are closed by Yugoslav forces to prevent Kosovo Albanians from leaving.
• April 9 – Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara, president of Niger, is assassinated.
• April 14 – Kosovo War: NATO warplanes repeatedly bomb ethnic Albanian refugee convoys for 2 hours over a 12-mile stretch of road, after mistaking them for Yugoslav military trucks, between Đakovica and Dečani in western Kosovo, killing at least 73 refugees.
• April 20 – Columbine High School massacre: Two Littleton, Colorado, teenagers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, open fire on their teachers and classmates, killing 13 students and 1 teacher, and then themselves.
• April 21 Explosions were heard in Belgrade, Niš, Novi Sad, and Subotica. Thousands of people were killed.
• April 24 – The Namibian Economic Society is founded.
• April 26
  • Sultan Salahuddin of Selangor becomes the 11th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
  • British TV presenter Jill Dando, 37, is shot dead on the doorstep of her home in Fulham, London.^[9]
• April 30 – Cambodia joins the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), bringing the total members to 10.

May

• May 1 –The television series SpongeBob SquarePants premiered on Nickelodeon.
• May 3 – 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak: a devastating tornado, rated F5 on the Fujita scale, hits southern and eastern Oklahoma City metropolitan area, killing 36 people (and 5 indirectly) and producing the highest winds recorded on Earth: 301 ± 20 mph (484 ± 32 km/h).^[10]
• May 7
  • Kosovo War: in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, three Chinese embassy workers are killed and 20 others wounded when a NATO B-2 aircraft bombs the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.
  • In Guinea-Bissau, President João Bernardo Vieira is ousted in a military coup.
• May 12 – David Steel becomes the first Presiding Officer (Speaker) of the modern Scottish Parliament.
• May 13 – Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is elected President of Italy.
• May 14–June 20 – The 1999 Cricket World Cup is held in England, (some matches in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the Netherlands), with Australia defeating Pakistan in the final.
• May 17 – Ehud Barak is elected prime minister of Israel.
• May 23 – The WWF pay-per-view event Over the Edge takes place at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri. The event is tragically remembered for the accidental death of wrestler Owen Hart during a stunt.
• May 26
  • Kargil War: The Indian Air Force launches an attack on intruding Pakistan Army troops and mujahideen militants in Kashmir.
  • The 1999 UEFA Champions League final takes place at the Camp Nou Stadium, Barcelona, in which the English side Manchester United defeats the German side Bayern Munich 2–1.
• May 27
  • The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.
  • Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-96, the first shuttle mission to dock with the International Space Station.^[11]
• May 28
  • Two Swedish police officers are wounded by bank robbers armed with automatic firearms, and later executed with their own service pistols in Malexander, Sweden.
  • After 22 years of restoration work, Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper is placed back on display in Milan, Italy.
• May 29 – Nigeria terminates military rule, and the Fourth Nigerian Republic is established with Olusegun Obasanjo as president.

June

• June 1
  • Napster, a music downloading service, is created; it would later inspire other file-sharing sites such as The Pirate Bay, LimeWire, Gnutella, Kazaa, Morpheus, BearShare, and ΜTorrent 1999–2010 period which some called the "Second Golden Age of Piracy".^[12][13]
  • American Airlines Flight 1420 crash lands after overrunning the runway at Little Rock National Airport, killing 11 of the 145 people on board.^[14]: 12
• June 2 – The King of Bhutan allows television transmissions to commence in the Kingdom for the first time, coinciding with the King's Silver Jubilee.
• June 5 – The Islamic Salvation Army, the armed wing of the Islamic Salvation Front, agrees in principle to disband in Algeria.
• June 8 – The government of Colombia announces it will include the estimated value of the country's illegal drug crops, exceeding half a billion US dollars, in its gross national product.
• June 9 – Kosovo War: Yugoslavia and NATO sign a peace treaty to end their hostilities.
• June 10 – Kosovo War: NATO suspends its airstrikes after Slobodan Milošević agrees to withdraw Yugoslav forces from Kosovo.
• June 12 – Kosovo War: Operation Joint Guardian/Operation Agricola begins: NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping forces KFOR enter Kosovo, Yugoslavia.^[15][16][17]
• June 16 – Thabo Mbeki is inaugurated as the second president of South Africa, marking the first peaceful transfer of executive power in the country's post-democratization history.^[18]
• June 18 – The J18 international anti-globalization protests are organized in dozens of cities around the world, some of which led to riots.
• June 19 – Turin, Italy, is awarded the 2006 Winter Olympics.
• June 20 - Australia defeats Pakistan by 8 wickets at Lord's Cricket Ground in London in the 1999 Cricket World Cup Final, securing their second World Cup title.
• June 24 – Kosovo War: NATO marines shoot three gunmen in Kosovo, Yugoslavia after being attacked by the latter, killing one of them and injuring the other two.^[15][19]
• June 25 – Bosnia and Herzegovina gets a new national anthem.^[20]
• June 30 – Twenty-three people die in a fire at the Sealand Youth Training Center in South Korea.

July

• July 1 – Europol (short for European Police Office) the European Union's criminal intelligence agency becomes fully operational.
• July 7 – In Rome, Hicham El Guerrouj runs the fastest mile ever recorded, at 3:43.13.
• July 10 – American soccer player Brandi Chastain scores the game winning penalty kick against China in the final of the FIFA Women's World Cup.
• July 11 – India recaptures Kargil, forcing the Pakistani army to retreat. India announces victory, ending the 2-month conflict.
• July 14 – the Big Blue crane collapse happened during the construction of Miller Park, killing three iron workers.
• July 15 – T-Mobile Park (formerly known as Safeco Field) opens for the first time.
• July 16 – John F. Kennedy Jr. dies in a plane crash off Martha's Vineyard.
• July 18 – MLB Pitcher David Cone of the New York Yankees, throws the 16th perfect game in Major League Baseball history.
• July 20
  • Mercury program: Liberty Bell 7 – piloted by Gus Grissom in 1961 – is raised from the Atlantic Ocean.
  • Falun Gong is banned in the People's Republic of China under Jiang Zemin.
• July 22–25 – Woodstock '99 was held in Rome, New York at former Griffiss Air Force Base, which was marred with difficult environmental conditions, poor sanitation, overpriced food and water, looting, violence, rapes, riots and several deaths.
• July 23
  • NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is launched.^[21]
  • Mohammed VI of Morocco becomes king upon the death of his father Hassan II.
  • Fourteen Kosovar Serb villagers are killed by ethnic Albanian gunmen in the village of Staro Gračko.
• July 27 – Twenty-one people die in a canyoning disaster at the Saxetenbach Gorge near Interlaken, Switzerland.
• 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

• August 7 – Dagestan incursions: Hundreds of Chechen guerrillas invade the Russian republic of Dagestan, triggering the short war.^[22]
• August 10 – The Atlantique incident occurs as an intruding Pakistan Navy plane is shot down in India, sparking tensions between the two nations, a month after the end of the Kargil War.^[23]
• August 11 – A total solar eclipse is seen in Europe and Asia.
• August 17 – The 7.6 İzmit earthquake shakes northwestern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), leaving more than 17,000 dead and around 50,000 injured.
• August 19 – In Belgrade, tens of thousands of Yugoslavs rally to demand the resignation of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević.
• August 30 – East Timor votes for independence from Indonesia (which had invaded and occupied it since 1975) in a referendum.

September

• September 3 – 1999 Ontario Highway 401 crash occurs, involving 87 vehicles and killing 8.
• September 7 – The 6.0 Athens earthquake hits with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing 143, injuring 800–1,600, and leaving 50,000 homeless.
• 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, in North America.
• September 12 – Under international pressure to allow an international peacekeeping force, Indonesian president BJ Habibie announces that he will do so.
• September 14 – Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga join the United Nations.
• September 20 – Start of the Greek stock market crash of 1999.
• September 21 – The 7.7 921 earthquake (also known as the Jiji earthquake) affects central Taiwan with a maximum Mercali intensity of X (Extreme) leaving 2,400 people dead and more than 11,000 injured.

October

• October
  • Conacami (National Confederation of Peruvian Communities Affected by Mining) is established.^[24]
  • NASA loses one of its probes, the Mars Climate Orbiter.
• October 1 – Shanghai Pudong International Airport opens in China, taking over all international flights from Hongqiao.
• October 1–November 6 – The 1999 Rugby World Cup, the first World Cup in the professional era of rugby is held in Wales and is won by Australia who beat France in the final.^[25]
• October 5 – Thirty-one people die in the Ladbroke Grove rail crash, west of London, England.
• October 12
  • Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attempts to dismiss Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf, who is out of the country. The generals lead a coup d'état, ousting Sharif's administration, and Musharraf takes control of the government.
  • Murder of Björn Söderberg in Stockholm, Sweden by neo-fascists.
• October 25 – Telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea debuts on RCN Televisión in Colombia. It will give rise to Ugly Betty and at least a dozen other versions worldwide.^[26]
• October 27 – Armenian parliament shooting: Gunmen open fire in the Armenian Parliament, killing Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, Parliament Chairman Karen Demirchyan, and six other members.
• October 29 – 1999 Odisha cyclone: A super cyclonic storm impacts Orissa, India, killing approximately 10,000 people.
• October 30 – 1999 Incheon bar fire: A bar catches fire in Incheon, South Korea, killing 56 people.
• October 31
  • EgyptAir Flight 990, travelling from New York City to Cairo, crashes off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts killing all 217 on board.
  • The Catholic Church and several Lutheran Church leaders sign the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, attempting to resolve a centuries-old doctrinal dispute over the nature of faith and salvation.

November

• 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 12 – The 7.2 Düzce earthquake shakes northwestern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). At least 845 people are killed and almost 5,000 are injured.
• November 20 – China launches the first Shenzhou spacecraft.
• November 23 – The National Assembly of Kuwait revokes a 1985 law that granted women's suffrage.
• November 26 – The 7.5 Ambrym earthquake shakes Vanuatu and a destructive tsunami follows, killing 10 and injuring 40.
• November 27 – The centre-left Labour Party takes control of the New Zealand Government, with leader Helen Clark becoming the second female Prime Minister in New Zealand's history.

December

• December 3
  • After rowing for 81 days and 5,486 kilometers (2,962 nautical miles), Tori Murden becomes the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by rowboat alone, when she reaches Guadeloupe from the Canary Islands.
  • NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander, moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.
• December 5 – Bolivian municipal elections, the first election contested by Evo Morales' Movimiento al Socialismo.
• December 9 – The hormone Ghrelin is discovered and named.^[27]
• December 18 – NASA launches the Terra platform into orbit, carrying five Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.
• December 20 – Handover of Macau from the Portuguese Republic to the People's Republic of China after 442 years of Portuguese rule in the settlement.
• December 24 – Indian Airlines Flight 814 was hijacked on 24 December 1999 by five members of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen in what was considered to be India's worst and last plane hijacking
• December 26 – Cyclone Lothar kills 140 people as it crosses France, southern Germany, and Switzerland.
• December 27 – A day after Cyclone Lothar, Cyclone Martin causes additional damage throughout France, Spain, Switzerland and Italy, including an emergency due to flooding at the Blayais Nuclear Power Plant.
• December 31 – Boris Yeltsin resigns as president of Russia, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting president.

Births and deaths

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Gerard 't Hooft and Martinus J. G. Veltman
• Chemistry – Ahmed Zewail
• Physiology or Medicine – Günter Blobel
• Literature – Günter Grass
• Peace – Médecins Sans Frontières
• Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel – Robert Mundell

New English words and terms

• blog
• carbon footprint
• dashcam
• epigenomics
• metabolomics
• texting
• vape^[28]

References

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2. ^ Dooling, Dave. "Mars Polar Lander | United States space probe". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived April 27, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
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11. ^ Warnock, Lynda. "STS-96". nasa.gov. NASA. Archived May 6, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2020-06-15.
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14. ^ Aircraft Accident Report – Runway Overrun During Landing, American Airlines Flight 1420, McDonnell Douglas MD-82, N215AA, Little Rock, Arkansas, June 1, 1999. National Transportation Safety Board. October 23, 2001. NTSB/AAR-01/02. Archived July 11, 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved April 7, 2025.
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20. ^ Westendorp, Carlos (June 25, 1999). "Decision imposing the Law on the National Anthem of BiH". Sarajevo: Office of the High Representative. Archived from the original on July 9, 2003. Retrieved July 9, 2003. In accordance with my authority under Annex 10 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article XI of the Bonn Document, I do hereby decide that the Law on the National Anthem of Bosnia and Herzegovina enters into force with immediate effect on an interim basis, until the House of Peoples adopts this law in due form, without amendments and no conditions attached.
21. ^ "Chandra :: About Chandra :: Chandra Mission". chandra.harvard.edu. Archived March 29, 2025 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-03-11.
22. ^ Lieven, Anatol (August 20, 1999). "Why Dagestan Needs the Russians". The New York Times. Archived December 31, 2023 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
23. ^ "The Atlantique Incident – Part 1 of 2". HistoricWings.com : A Magazine for Aviators, Pilots and Adventurers. 2013-08-10. Retrieved 2022-07-03.
24. ^ De Echave, José; Keenan, Karyn; Romero, María Kathia; Tapia, Ángela (2005). Dialogue and Management of Conflicts on Community Lands: The Case of The Tintaya Mine in Peru. CooperAcción. Retrieved 20 February 2026.
25. ^ "1999 Rugby World Cup". Archived April 15, 2025 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved March 2, 2025.
26. ^ Bellos, Alex (2007-01-07). "Telenovelas: the story so far". The Daily Telegraph. Archived April 5, 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved July 2, 2023.
27. ^ Kojima, Masayasu; Hosoda, Hiroshi; Date, Yukari; Nakazato, Masamitsu; Matsuo, Hisayuki; Kangawa, Kenji (December 1999). "Ghrelin is a growth-hormone-releasing acylated peptide from stomach". Nature. 402 (6762): 656–660. doi:10.1038/45230. ISSN 1476-4687. Archived September 25, 2025 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved December 27, 2025.
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