1998 Nation/World
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A scandal few wanted and no one could avoid
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CHRONOLOGY
1998 in a nutshell
By the Associated Press
A month-by-month look at notable news in 1998:
JANUARY
Jan. 2 - Russia circulates new rubles in effort to check inflation and promote confidence. Military says 2 million lost jobs in Indonesia's financial crisis.
Jan. 3 - China says it will spend $27.7 billion to fight erosion, pollution in Yangtze and Yellow river valleys.
Jan. 4 - Israel's foreign minister David Levy resigns, denouncing government of Benjamin Netanyahu for abandoning peace process with Arabs.
Jan. 5 - U.S. Rep. Sonny Bono, former husband and singing partner of Cher, dies in skiing mishap.
Jan. 8 - Ice storm knocks out power to millions in the Northeast and Canada; rain floods the South and 16 die. Air traffic control over the Pacific breaks down for 16 hours. Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of World Trade Center bombing, sentenced to life imprisonment.
Jan. 8 - Scientists announce discovery that cosmos' galaxies are accelerating, flying apart at ever faster speeds.
Jan. 12 - Nineteen European nations agree to prohibit human cloning. Tyson Foods Inc. pleads guilty, pays $6 million for allegedly giving $12,000 to former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy.
Jan. 14 - Dallas researchers report enzyme "cellular fountain of youth'' to slow aging process and cell death. Memos disclose R.J. Reynolds' 1970s cigarette ads targeted consumers as young as 13. NBC agrees to pay $13 million per episode to Warner Bros. to retain top-rated TV show, "ER.''
Jan. 16 - Researchers report altered gene helps defend against HIV, allowing some AIDS sufferers to remain healthier. First woman to enroll at Virginia Military Institute withdraws from school.Texas will receive $15.3 billion over next quarter-century in tobacco industry settlement, with first payouts helping children.
Jan. 20 - American researchers say they have cloned calves that may produce medicinal milk. Chilean judge agrees to hear lawsuit accusing former dictator Augusto Pinochet with genocide.
Jan. 21 - Zimbabwe faces civil unrest over rising food costs. Former White House intern says on tape she had affair with President Clinton, which he denies. Pope John Paul II begins historic visit to Cuba. Activists observe 25th anniversary of Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion.
Jan. 22 - Former top finance official at Christian Coalition is sentenced to repay $40,000 embezzled. Theodore Kaczynski, who admitted his role in Unabomber attacks, pleads guilty to federal charges covering five bombings; agrees to life in prison without parole.
Jan. 25 - Britain doubles troop strength in Persian Gulf as America confronts Iraq.
Jan. 26 - Northwest and Continental airlines merge routes. Compaq Computer Corp. will buy Digital Equipment Corp. for $9.6 billion.
Jan. 27 - Britain speeds program to destroy stockpile of 1 million land mines.
Jan. 29 - Bomb at abortion clinic in Birmingham, Ala., kills off-duty police officer and injures counselor.
Jan. 30 - Scientists say gene causing rare kind of hair loss may remedy common types of baldness.
FEBRUARY
Feb. 2 - President Clinton's proposed budget predicts $9.5 billion surplus in 1999 - first federal fiscal year without deficit since 1969. Treasury Department announces plan to pay off $75 billion to $85 billion of national debt, the quarterly payoff.
Feb. 3 - Texas executes first woman since Civil War, Karla Faye Tucker. U.S. military plane slices cable in Italy, killing 20 skiers on lift.
Feb. 4 - Afghanistan earthquake kills at least 4,000.
Feb. 5 - Charles Keating, symbol of 1980s savings and loan crisis, wins federal court reversal of state conviction for defrauding investors through American Continental Corp.
Feb. 6 - Washington National Airport renamed for Ronald Reagan.
Feb. 9 - North Koreans working in former Soviet Union defect to South Korea. America Online announces fee rise.
Feb. 10 - Dr. David Satcher, head of Atlanta's Centers for Disease Control, confirmed as surgeon general. Voters in Maine become first to repeal state gay rights law. College dropout who e-mailed threats to Asian students is first convicted of committing hate crime in cyberspace.
Feb. 12 - Federal judge declares presidential line-item veto unconstitutional.
Feb. 13 - Cuba begins releasing some of more than 200 prisoners, says an activist.
Feb. 18 - Money shortages in Russia shut three plants that produce nuclear weapons. Two white separatists arrested in Nevada, accused of plotting bacterial attack on New York City subways.
Feb. 20 - Brown & Williamson executive says tobacco giant adds genetically altered, high-nicotine tobacco to export cigarettes. Two charged with attempting to sell transplant organs harvested from prisoners executed in China. Tara Lipinski wins world women's figure skating title, youngest gold medalist in Winter Olympics history.
Feb. 23 - Florida's deadliest tornadoes in 50 years kill at least 38 people near Orlando. CIA investigation cites agency incompetence, arrogance and ignorance for 1961 Bay of Pigs debacle. Federal judge orders $9.7 million for whistle-blowers fired after exposing Medicare fraud.
Feb. 25 - Supreme Court rules for bankers, saying credit union enrollment went beyond federal law. Bob Dylan wins three Grammy Awards, and son Jakob wins one.
Feb. 26 - Jury rejects $11 million lawsuit by Texas cattlemen who blamed Oprah Winfrey for price fall after on-air comment about mad-cow disease. Pan Am gets $15 million bankruptcy bailout. Health panel rules taxpayers must help pay for doctor-assisted suicides in Oregon. Michael Milken agrees to pay $47 million to settle civil charges he violated lifelong ban from Wall Street.
MARCH
March 2 - U.N. Security Council endorses U.N. chief Kofi Annan's deal to open Iraq's presidential palaces to arms inspectors.
March 3 - FTC blocks merger of nation's four largest drug wholesale companies, predicting price increases. Supreme Court rules local lawmaker votes are immune to lawsuits even if based on illegal or discriminatory motives. Supreme Court says bankruptcy filers can avoid damages if they did not intend injury.
March 4 - Microsoft repairs software that apparently allowed hackers to shut down computers in government and university offices nationwide. Supreme Court says federal law bans on-the-job sexual harassment even when both parties are the same sex. Pittsburgh police department, under federal orders, tracks complaints of beatings and false arrests against cops.
March 5 - NASA says an orbiting craft finds enough water on the moon to support a human colony and rocket fueling station.
March 6 - Connecticut state lottery accountant guns down three supervisors and the lottery chief before killing himself.
March 8 - Serbian police crack down on Albanian "terrorists'' in sweep through Kosovo province.
March 9 -National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says first two months of 1998 were warmest and wettest on record in continental United States. Falling crude oil prices and price war among refiners and distributors send gasoline prices to all-time low of $15 per barrel.
March 10 - U.S. troops in Persian Gulf get first vaccinations against anthrax. Indonesia's President Suharto re-elected to seventh term.
March 11 - Florida appeals court restores Joe Carollo as mayor of Miami after charges of voter fraud on absentee ballots.
March 12 - Astronomers debunk warning that mile-wide asteroid might collide with Earth, calling calculations off by 600,000 miles.
March 13 - U.S. sends $1.7 billion aid package to Thailand, including jet fighters. U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II says he will not seek a seventh term. Sgt. Maj. Gene McKinney, once Army's top enlisted man, is acquitted of pressuring military women for sex, but convicted of trying to persuade chief accuser to lie.
March 14 - Quake leaves 10,000 homeless in southeastern Iran.
March 15 - More than 15,000 ethnic Albanians march in Yugoslavia to press demands for Kosovo independence. Dr. Benjamin Spock, whose child care guidance spanned half-century, dies at 94.
March 16 - Rwanda, with 125,000 suspects for 500,000 murders, begins mass trials for 1994 genocide.
March 17 - Washington Mutual to buy H.F. Ahmanson & Co. for $9.9 billion, creating nation's seventh-largest banking company.
March 19 - World Health Organization warns of tuberculosis epidemic that could kill 70 million people in next two decades.
March 20 - Democracy activist appeals to Chinese government to set up independent monitor of human rights in China. India's new Hindu nationalist-led government pledges to "exercise the option to induct nuclear weapons.''
March 23 - President Clinton begins historic six-nation tour of Africa. Germany's biggest bank pledges $3.1 million to Jewish foundations as restitution for Nazi looting. Supreme Court allows term limits for state lawmakers. Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires his Cabinet. Random House is sold to Bertelsmann AG, world's third-largest media and entertainment company, in $1.6 billion deal. "Titanic'' ties record with 11 Oscars, including best picture, director, song.
March 24 - A former FBI agent says papers found in James Earl Ray's car support conspiracy theory in the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s death.
March 25 - Cancer patient is first known to die under Oregon's pioneering doctor-assisted suicide law. FCC nets $578.6 million at auction for licenses for new wireless technology. .
March 26 - Federal government endorses new HIV test that yields instant results. Unisys Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. pay $3.15 million fine for selling spare parts at inflated prices to government.
March 27- FDA approves the prescription drug Viagra, saying it helps about two-thirds of impotent men. Top civilian aircraft makers of France, Spain, Germany and Britain agree to create single European aerospace and defense company. Ax-wielders kill at least 52 people in southern Algeria, the majority toddlers.
March 30 - Electronic stamps approved for tests that may allow PCs and Internet links to print postage.
March 31- U.N. Security Council imposes arms embargo on Yugoslavia. In historic first, Clinton administration releases federal government's detailed financial statement.
APRIL
April 1 - Federal judge throws out Paula Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit against President Clinton.
April 3 - U.N. arms experts search, and find empty, 1,058 buildings inside Saddam Hussein's presidential compounds in Iraq.
April 5 - Environment chiefs from top eight industrialized nations announce curbs to smuggling hazardous waste, endangered species and substances that damage ozone layer.
April 6 - Federal researchers say daily tamoxifen pills may cut breast cancer risk among high-risk women. Pakistan successfully tests medium-range missile capable of attacking neighboring India.
April 7 - Justice Department wins $110 million antitrust case, largest to date, from worldwide cartel setting prices for key steel-making component.
April 8 - Widow of Martin Luther King Jr. presents new evidence in appeal for new federal investigation of assassination. Four of nation's major cigarette manufacturers say they will fight anti-tobacco legislation in Congress.
April 9 - National Prisoner of War Museum opens in Andersonville, Ga., site of infamous Civil War camp. More than 150 Muslims die in stampede in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on last day of haj pilgrimage.
April 10 - Negotiators reach peace accord on governing British-ruled Northern Ireland.
April 11 - Northern Ireland's biggest political party, the Ulster Unionists, backs historic peace deal.
April 14 - Virginia ignores requests from World Court and executes Paraguayan for murder of U.S. woman.
April 15 - Pol Pot, leader of Khmer Rouge regime, dies at 73, evading prosecution for deaths of 2 million Cambodians.
April 16 - Tornadoes and storms kill more than 100 people in nine southern states.
April 17 - Scientists report loss of 75-square-mile chunk of Larsen Ice Shelf on Antarctic Peninsula.
April 19 - Wang Dan, a leader of 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, freed by China.
April 20 - Applying racketeering law, federal jury in Chicago rules that anti-abortion organizers used threats and violence amounting to extortion to shut down clinics.
April 23 - James Earl Ray, serving life sentence for assassinating Martin Luther King Jr., dies at 70.
April 29 - Brazil announces plan to protect an area of Amazon forest the size of Colorado. United States, Canada and Mexico end tariffs on $1 billion in NAFTA trade. Israel marks 50th anniversary.
April 30 - United and Delta airlines form alliance that would control one-third of all U.S. passenger seats. Federal regulators fine contractor $2.25 million for improper handling of oxygen canisters on ValuJet that crashed in Florida Everglades in 1996. Researchers say abortion pill RU-486 successfully ends pregnancies in 92 percent of women tested.
MAY
May 1 - Arrow Air fined $5 million for using spare parts that lacked federal approval.
May 3 - "The Sevres Road,'' by 18-century landscape painter Camille Corot, stolen from Louvre.
May 7 - Parent company of Mercedes-Benz agrees to buy Chrysler Corp. for more than $37 billion.
May 8 - Burst pipe leaves million residents without water in Malaysia's capital area, adding four days to shortages that 2 million already face.
May 11 - India conducts first nuclear tests in 24 years. French mint produces first coins of Europe's single currency, the euro.
May 14 - The Associated Press marks 150th anniversary. Crooner Frank Sinatra, 82, dies after heart attack. Hit TV series "Seinfeld'' signs off after nine years on NBC.
May 18 -Federal government files sweeping antitrust case against Microsoft Corp., saying computer software company's "choke hold'' on competitors denies consumers' choices. Federal officials arrest more than 130 people and seize $35 million, ending investigation of money-laundering by a dozen Mexican banks and two drug-smuggling cartels.
May 19 - Strikes over unpaid wages break out across Russia. Bandits steal three of Rome's most important paintings from National Gallery of Modern Art.
May 21- Succumbing to protests, Indonesia's President Suharto says he will step down after 32 years of authoritarian rule. Student suspended from Springfield, Ore., school opens fire in cafeteria killing one and wounding 23 others. Five abortion clinics in Miami area are hit by butyric acid-attacker.
May 22 - Rejecting special privilege, federal judge says Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before grand jury in Monica Lewinsky investigation.
May 23 - British Protestants and Irish Catholics of Northern Ireland approve peace accord.
May 25 - Georgia and breakaway province Abkhazia agree to cease-fire after fighting kills hundreds in former Soviet republic.
May 26 - Supreme Court says police officers in high-speed chases are liable for bystander injuries only if "actions shock the conscience.''
May 28 - Pakistan claims five nuclear tests were emergency for "external aggression.''
May 30 - Powerful earthquake rocks northern Afghanistan, up to 5,000 believed dead.
JUNE
June 1 - FDA approves urine-only test for AIDS virus. Black workers, alleging discrimination at Goodyear Tire & Rubber, sue for more than $124 million. Refugees from Serbia's Kosovo province stream into Albania.
June 2 - Royal Caribbean Cruises agrees to pay $9 million to settle charges of dumping oily waste at sea.
June 4 - Terry Nichols gets a life sentence for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.
June 5 - A strike at General Motors Corp. parts factory near Detroit closes five assembly plants and idles workers nationwide for seven weeks. Volkswagen AG wins approval to buy Rolls-Royce Motor Cars for $700 million, outbidding BMW's $554 million offer.
June 8 - Rail regulators approve $10 billion proposal to dismantle Conrail and restore competition in Northeast markets. FTC brings antitrust complaint against Intel Corp., alleging its policies punish other developers of microprocessor chips. Honda agrees to pay $17.1 million for disconnecting anti-pollution devices in 1.6 million cars. Space shuttle Discovery pulls away from Mir, ending America's three-year partnership with Russia.
June 9 - Three white men face murder charges in the Texas dragging death of African-American James Byrd Jr.
June 10 - Boosting school choice, Wisconsin Supreme Court rules poor children in Milwaukee can attend religious schools at taxpayer expense.
June 11 - Scientists decipher last of genetic material of bacterium that causes tuberculosis. Pakistan announces moratorium on nuclear testing and offers to talk with India over disputed Kashmir.
June 12 - In biggest high-tech acquisition, Compaq Computer to pay $9 billion for Digital Equipment Corp.
June 15 - Two U.S. fighter jets join NATO show of power to persuade Yugoslav leaders to back down in Kosovo.
June 17 - Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto welcomes rare U.S. intervention in currency markets to support Japan's sinking yen.
June 18 - Diplomatic troubleshooter Richard Holbrooke named Bill Richardson's successor as U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
June 19 - Gateway fined more than $400,000 for illegally shipping personal computers to 16 countries subject to U.S. export controls. Study says smoking more than doubles risks of developing dementia and Alzheimer's.
June 20 - Atlantic Richfield agrees to pay $215 million to settle 1983 lawsuit over environmental damage from century of copper mining in Montana. Civilian lawyer Kelly Theriot accepts $500,000 settlement for claims an Army colonel sexually harassed her.
June 22 - Supreme Court rules key anti-bias law applies to student litigants only if school administrators aware of sexual harassment. Supreme Court says evidence illegally obtained by authorities can be used at revocation hearings for convicted criminal's parole.
June 24 - Nation's hospitals agree to eliminate highly toxic mercury from their waste streams over the next seven years. AT&T Corp. strikes a deal to buy cable TV giant Tele-Communications for $31.7 billion. Twelve thousand farmers lose $80 million in crops in the worst Florida wildfires in half century.
June 25 - Supreme Court rejects line-item veto, striking down presidential power to cancel specific items in tax and spending legislation; also says HIV-infected people, with or without AIDS symptoms, are protected by federal ban on discrimination against disabled.President Clinton begins 9-day trip to China.
June 26 - U.S. and Peru open school to train commandos to patrol Peru's rivers for drug traffickers. Supreme Court rules employers always potentially liable for supervisor's sexual misconduct toward an employee.
June 27 - Englishwoman impregnated with dead husband's sperm after two-year legal battle over her right to the sperm. June 28 -Poland, citing shortage of funds, allowed to lease, not buy, U.S. aircraft to bring military force up to NATO standards. Cincinnati Enquirer apologizes to Chiquita banana company; retracts stories questioning business practices; agrees to pay more than $10 million to settle legal claims.
June 30 - American Automobile Association says one in four Americans admits to aggressive driving.
JULY
July 2 - CNN retracts, and apologizes for, report that U.S. forces may have used nerve gas on American defectors in Vietnam.
July 5 - Japan joins U.S. and Russia in space exploration, launching Planet-B probe to Mars. NEA rejects merger with American Federation of Teachers.
July 10 - World Bank approves $700 million in loans to Thailand.
July 12 - France beats Brazil for its first World Cup soccer championship.
July 14 - Los Angeles sues 15 tobacco companies for $2.5 billion over dangers of secondhand smoke.
July 15 - Congressional Budget Office estimates federal surpluses to $1.55 trillion in next decade.
July 16 - Researchers map genetic pattern of syphilis bacterium; may lead to vaccine, eradication.
July 17 - Nicholas II, last of Romanov czars, buried in Russia 80 years after he and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks.
July 19 - Twenty-three-foot tidal wave kills nearly 3,000 along coast of Papua New Guinea.
July 20 - Russia wins $11.2 billion loan from International Monetary Fund to help avert the devaluation of its currency.
July 22 - Iran tests medium-range missile, capable of reaching Israel or Saudi Arabia.
July 23 - Pope John Paul II tightens Vatican control over national bishops' conferences, making it harder to speak out. U.S. scientists turn out more than 50 carbon-copy mice, with cloning technique more reliable than Dolly's.
July 24 - Gunman bursts into U.S. Capitol, opens fire, killing two police officers. South Carolina jury awards $37.8 million to church in trial of Ku Klux Klan charged with inciting to burn the rural black church in 1995. Federal aid of $100 million goes to 11 states coping with heat and drought; Texas gets a third.
July 28 - Bell Atlantic and GTE announce $52 billion deal to create second-biggest phone company. Monica Lewinsky receives immunity from prosecution; to testify before grand jury.
July 30 - Parliament declares Keizo Obuchi as Japan's next prime minister.
July 31- More than 50 people die in Kashmir crossfire between India and Pakistan. IBM Corp. subsidiary to pay $8.5 million for selling computers destined to Russian nuclear weapons lab.
AUGUST
Aug. 5 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein pulls welcome mat from U.N. weapons inspectors.
Aug. 7 - A Los Angeles jury awards $760.6 million in punitive damages to 38 Lockheed workers who claim they were exposed to toxic chemicals at the plant in the 1960s; DuPont and four oil companies
Aug. 7 - Terrorist bombs at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania kill 224, including 12 Americans, injure thousands. FAA, in follow-up to probe of TWA Flight 800's 1996 explosion, orders inspection of Boeing 747 fuel tanks.
Aug. 9 - Engineers dynamite levees along Yangtze River to ease worst floods in 44 years - disasters that killed more than 2,000 Chinese.
Aug. 11 - British Petroleum becomes No. 3 among oil companies with $49 billion purchase of Amoco; biggest foreign takeover of U.S. company.
Aug. 12 - Swiss banks agree to pay $1.25 billion as restitution to Holocaust victims.
Aug. 13 - Puerto Rico's legislature approves referendum on whether Caribbean island should become 51st U.S. state.
Aug. 17 - $57 billion merger of NationsBank and BankAmerica creates largest U.S. bank; wins Federal Reserve Board approval. Russia devalues currency. President Clinton undergoes grand jury questioning.
Aug. 19 - Federal appeals court says Internet companies don't have to pay fees to support nation's telephone system.
Aug. 20 - U.S. launches missile strikes, targeting terrorist camps in Afghanistan, chemical plant in Sudan. Canada's Supreme Court says Quebec cannot secede without federal government consent. U.N. Security Council extends trade sanctions against Iraq for blocking arms inspections.
Aug. 21 - Former president P.W. Botha fined for failing to testify about apartheid atrocities in South Africa.
Aug. 24 - Federal court panel says 2000 census cannot use statistical sampling. U.S. and Britain agree on Netherlands as site for trial for 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
Aug. 25 - Seven Cuban-Americans indicted by federal grand jury in Puerto Rico on charges of conspiracy to murder Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Aug. 26 - Suspect in U.S. embassy bombing in Kenya brought to U.S. for trial.
Aug. 28 - Pakistan prime minister creates new Islamic order and legal system based on Koran.
Aug. 31 - Dow plummets near-record 512 points.
SEPTEMBER
Sept. 1 - Vietnam releases 5,000 prisoners, including political dissidents, on National Day.
Sept. 2 - Pilots for Canada's largest airline launch first strike in Air Canada's history. Swissair jetliner crashes off Nova Scotia, killing all 229 aboard.
Sept. 4 - Mexico's bankers stop approving personal loans and mortgages. International Monetary Fund approves $257 million loan for the Ukraine. Makers of Norplant contraceptive, facing lawsuits claiming failure to warn of potential side effects, win first jury challenge, in Harlingen, Texas.
Sept. 5 - Filled with rhetoric against whites and Jews, the Million Youth March in New York City ends with clash between police and crowd..
Sept. 8 - Mark McGwire's 62nd home run of the season breaks Roger Maris' 37-year-old record.
Sept. 9 - Tourists to Titanic emerge, after paying $32,500 each for escort to wreck off Newfoundland. U.N. researchers say 16.5 percent of Americans live in poverty.
Sept. 11 - Independent counsel Kenneth Starr sends report to Congress, including explicit testimony of President Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky; accuses him of 11 possible impeachable offenses.
Sept. 12 - Leaders of striking pilots at Northwest Airlines approve new contract.
Sept. 13 - New York Times closes Web site after hackers add offensive material. NBC's "Frazier'' wins fifth consecutive Emmy, a record, as best comedy series.
Sept. 14 - Prosecutors charge 10 people in what they call largest Cuban spy ring uncovered in United States.
Sept. 18 - House Judiciary Committee votes to release videotape of President Clinton's grand jury testimony, plus 2,800 pages. House and Senate negotiators back defense budget that supports President Clinton's decision to keep U.S. forces in Bosnia. AIDS patients get easier-to-swallow drug as FDA approves once-a-day medication.
Sept. 21 -Track star Florence Griffith Joyner, triple gold medalist at 1988 Olympics, dies at 38.
Sept. 22 - Pentagon approves $5 billion in warplanes for Israel. U.S. and Russia agree to help Russia privatize its nuclear program and stop export of scientists and plutonium.
Sept. 23 - Federal regulators approve merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group Inc., a go-ahead for nation's largest financial services company. U.N. Security Council demands cease-fire in Kosovo.
Sept. 24 - Hurricane Georges charges toward Florida Keys, after killing at least 250 in Caribbean, with damage to state eventually topping $400 million. Federal Reserve puts into circulation $2 billion in harder-to-counterfeit $20 bills. Ugandan authorities hold 20 suspects in plot to blow up U.S. Embassy in Kampala.
Sept. 26 - In one of federal government's largest bias settlements, Justice Department agrees to pay $4.1 million to U.S. Immigration workers who claimed race discrimination.
Sept. 27 - Germany's Gerhard Schroeder, as chancellor, and his Social Democrats win German elections, after 16 years of conservative rule. Research shows experimental nasal spray vaccine performed well for children in 1997 flu season.
Sept. 29 - More than 3,800 National Guard forces are on duty in aftermath of Hurricane Georges. Federal Reserve lowers prime rate to 5.25 percent, first cut in nearly three years. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat accepts proposal in which Israel cedes additional West Bank land. A 10-mile-long, two-mile-wide oil spill threatens California coast.
Sept. 30 - Cost of Starr Report tops $40 million. Federal government posts budget surplus of some $70 billion, the first since 1969.
OCTOBER
Oct. 1 - Boeing agrees to pay $10 million to settle allegations it disclosed secrets to foreign companies on a rocket project. Federal judge allows libel case by Richard Jewell, once a suspect in Olympic Park bombing, to proceed against New York Post.
Oct. 2 - Hawaii sues petroleum companies, claiming state drivers overcharged by some $73 million a year in price-fixing. About 10,000 Turkish soldiers cross into northern Iraq; attack Kurdish rebels.
Oct. 5 - U.S. pays $60 million for Russia's research time on international space station to keep cash-strapped Russian space agency afloat.
Oct. 7 - Government files antitrust suit, alleging Visa and MasterCard inhibit competition by preventing banks from offering other cards.
Oct. 8 - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban army faces off against 200,000 Iranians at tense border. Delegates vote Canada and Netherlands into U.N. Security Council. Finance officials from 182 nations offer plan to end worst global economic crisis in a half-century. Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago wins Nobel Literature Prize.
Oct. 10 - New York judge fines Tawana Brawley $185,000, noting grief caused by black woman's false claims of raped by whites.
Oct. 11 - Pope canonizes first Jewish-born saint of modern era: Edith Stein, Catholic nun killed at Auschwitz.
Oct. 12 - Matthew Shepard, lured from University of Wyoming hangout for gays, dies; two men charged with murder in hate crime. Three Americans win Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for blood vessel research.
Oct. 13 - NBA cancels regular season games because of work stoppage, for first time in its 51-year history. Two Americans win Nobel Prize in chemistry for ways to analyze molecules in chemical reactions. Nobel Prize for physics goes to American, German and Chinese researchers for discovering how electrons change behavior.
Oct. 14 - Federal Reserve approves merger of Wells Fargo and Norwest Corp., creating nation's seventh largest bank. Federal authorities charge Eric Robert Rudolph, one of FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives, with bombing at 1996 Summer Olympics.
Oct. 15 - Congress and White House allocate $17.9 million for IMF to shore up world economy. Angola halts U.N. flights into territories controlled by former rebel movement.
Oct. 16 - Negotiators David Trimble and John Hume receive Nobel Peace Prize for Northern Ireland peace accord. With Spanish extradition warrant, British police arrest former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet for questioning.
Oct. 19 - First class-action suit by smokers against five cigarette manufacturers goes to trial in Miami, seeking $200 billion.Nigerian fire sweeps villages, killing 500. Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson gets boxing license back after he lost it for biting Evander Holyfield's ear.
Oct. 20 - SEC charges 37 brokerages with failure to fully report computer systems' preparedness for conversion to year 2000.
Oct. 21 - New Mexico cancer specialist Dr. Jane Henney becomes FDA's first female commissioner. New York Yankees top record-breaking baseball season by sweeping San Diego Padres in World Series.
Oct. 22 - China ends its first-ever human rights conference, defying Western definitions of civil liberties. President Clinton signs federal law to speed development of high-quality charter schools.
Oct. 23 - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat reach breakthrough land-for-peace West Bank accord. Dr. Barnett Slepian, a doctor who performed abortions, murdered in upstate New York home. Japan nationalizes first bank since World War II.
Oct. 24 - Defying police, democracy campaigners in two Chinese provinces renew efforts to set up opposition party.
Oct. 26 - Default rate on federal college student loans falls into single digits for first time ever. Virginia fair housing group wins $100 million judgment from insurance company accused of discriminating against blacks. French lab finds nerve agent on Iraqi missile warhead.
Oct. 27 - Yugoslav government pulls back Serb forces in Kosovo, but NATO reserves right to carry out airstrikes to protect ethnic Albanians. President signs law barring cutoff of SSI benefits to an estimated 20,000 immigrants, mostly poor and elderly.
Oct. 29 - At 77, John Glenn returns to orbit after 36 years. In landmark report, South Africa's truth commission condemns white apartheid government and black freedom movement violence. Oldest known copy of Archimedes' work sells for $2 million at New York auction.
Oct. 31 - Iraq bars U.N. weapons inspectors from monitoring sites; U.N. Security Council condemns move.
NOVEMBER
Nov. 3 - National elections draw 38 percent of eligible voters. Democrats gain five House seats; Republican governors remain in majority; education trumps crime as state issue. Minnesota elects Jesse "The Body'' Ventura, former pro wrestler, as governor. Hurricane Mitch's toll swells to 9,000 dead in Honduras.
Nov. 5 - U.N. says Taliban militia kills up to 5,000 civilians in takeover of Afghani town. Scientists publish genetic study with strong evidence that Thomas Jefferson fathered at least one child of his slave, Sally Hemings.
Nov. 6 - U.S. loses bid for U.N. budget committee seat, apparently because Washington owes $1.3 billion in dues.
Nov. 7 - House Speaker Newt Gingrich resigns; to leave Washington in January.
Nov. 9 - Digital and interactive TV opens with PBS documentary special.
Nov. 10 - Federal judge in New York approves richest antitrust settlement in U.S. history; leading brokerage firms to pay $1.03 billion to investors who sued over price-rigging of Nasdaq stocks.
Nov. 13 - President Clinton agrees to pay Paula Jones $850,000, without apology or admission of guilt; ends her any appeal of lower court decision to throw out her sexual harassment lawsuit.
Nov. 14 - Iraq allows U.N. weapons inspections to resume, backing down in U.S. face-off.
Nov. 16 - Supreme Court says union members can file discrimination lawsuits against employers even when labor contracts require arbitration.
Nov. 18 - House Republicans endorse U.S. Rep. Bob Livingston as speaker.
Nov. 20 - Afghanistan's Taliban militia offers Osama bin Laden, accused of orchestrating two U.S. embassy bombings, safe haven. Israel withdraws some troops from West Bank.
Nov. 21 - Federal authorities claim end to largest known illegal alien operation in U.S. that smuggled 12,000 foreigners over three years.
Nov. 22 - CBS airs video of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, advocate of assisted suicide, administering lethal drugs to terminally ill patient.
Nov. 23 - Tobacco industry signs biggest U.S. civil settlement, a $206-billion deal to resolve remaining state claims for treating sick smokers. Federal judge rejects as unconstitutional a Virginia county's effort to block pornography on library computer.
Nov. 24 - America Online plans to buy Netscape in $4.21 billion deal.
Nov. 25 - IMF approves $5.5 billion bailout for Pakistan.
Nov. 26 - Hulk Hogan says he's retiring from pro wrestling and will run for president in 2000.
Nov. 30 - Deutsche Bank AG to acquire Bankers Trust Corp.; $10.1 billion deal would create world's largest financial institution.
DECEMBER
Dec. 1 - Exxon agrees to buy Mobil for $73.7 billion in a deal that would create world's largest corporation.Cuban Communists recommend re-establishing Dec. 25 as holiday.
Dec. 2 - Former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy wins acquittal on all 30 corruption charges alleging illegal gifts. Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates donates $100 million to help immunize children in developing countries.
Dec. 4 - Space shuttle Endeavour blasts off from Cape Canaveral on NASA's first space station construction flight.
Dec. 5 - James P. Hoffa to head Teamsters union, 23 years after his father, also Teamsters' president, disappeared and was presumed dead.
Dec. 7 - U.N. evacuates 14 peacekeepers trapped by fighting between army and rebel forces in central Angola. Returning to work from a hospital, Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires most of his top aides and says he is assuming control of two key government agencies.
Dec. 8 - San Francisco blackout cuts power to nearly a million people. Supreme Court rules that police cannot search people and cars after ticketing for routine traffic violations. FBI opens its Frank Sinatra files. AT&T Corp. is buying IBM's data networking business for $5 billion cash.
Dec. 9 - Britain rejects former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet's plea to be set free, and rules that Spain can start extradition proceedings on charges of genocide, torture and kidnapping by his security forces.
Dec. 10 - Army charges retired Maj. Gen. David Hale with improper sexual relationships with wives of four military officers. Five American astronauts and one Russian open the doors to the new international space station, becoming the first guests aboard the 250-mile-high outpost. Senior Palestinians led by Yasser Arafat vote to revoke clauses of PLO charter calling for Israel's destruction.
Dec. 11 - Scientists announce they have deciphered entire genetic blueprint of an animal - a tiny worm. First global conference on "Year 2000 bug'' opens at United Nations.
Dec. 12 - House Judiciary Committee rejects censure, approves final article of impeachment against President Clinton, submitting case to full House for verdict. International Olympic Committee official alleges widespread bribery in Olympic selection.
Dec. 13 - Puerto Ricans reject U.S. statehood.
Dec. 16 - Clinton orders "strong, sustained series of airstrikes'' against Iraq in response to Saddam Hussein's continued defiance of U.N. weapons inspectors. U.S. and British forces unleash a punishing volley of missiles. House of Representatives delays taking up impeachment.
Dec. 17 - U.S. forces trigger second wave of airstrikes, sending cruise missiles deep into Iraq. Incoming House Speaker Bob Livingston acknowledges he was unfaithful to wife.
Dec. 18 - Impeachment debate begins. Anti-aircraft fire shakes central Baghdad for a third straight night. South Carolina stages nation's 500th execution since capital punishment was restored.
Dec. 19 - Clinton is impeached by Republican-controlled House on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Bob Livingston announces he will not become speaker, and will resign from Congress as a result of disclosure of his infidelities. Clinton halts airstrikes, citing "significant damage'' to Iraq's military establishment.
Dec. 20 - A 27-year-old woman gives birth to the only known living set of octuplets in Houston.
Dec. 21 - Israel's parliament rejects Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's peace policies, then gives initial approval to a law calling early elections. Chinese court sentences two dissidents to long prison terms for trying to organize an opposition party.
Dec. 22 - A third Chinese dissident is sentenced to 12 years in prison. A unit of RJR Nabsico pleades guilty to trying to smuggle cigarettes into Canada.
Dec. 23 - Guerrillas in south Lebanon fire dozens of rockets at northern Israel. Palestinians free from house arrest a spiritual leader of Hamas, a radical Islamic group.
Dec. 24 - Ignoring NATO warnings, Serb tanks and troops strike an ethnic Albanian stronghold in Kosovo. Freeze ruins California citrus crop.
Dec. 25 - In Christmas message, Pope John Paul II calls for end to death penalty.
Dec. 26 - Two people are burned alive in Sierra Leone riots, while rebels claim 60 killed.
Dec. 28 - U.S. warplanes fire on Iraqi defenses. Five die, another missing in Australian yacht race.
Dec. 29 - Khmer Rouge leaders apologize for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia.
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