Politics: UN sets agenda for new millennium at NY meeting
Science: DNA sequencing completed - "working draft" International space station
Common ancestor for humans suggested based on Y chromosome studies estimated 150,000 years ago (see 1987)
McBearty and Brooks show evidence that modern thought and culture is older than the 40kya suggestion
NEAR spacecraft orbits asteroid
Technology: "I love you" virus
Deaths: Charles Schultz, Steve Allen, Hafez al-Assad of Syria,
Victor Borge, Mel Carnahan US politician, Alec Guinness, Hedy Lamarr,
Walter Matthau, Keizo Obuchi of Japan, Tito Puente, Leah Rabin,
Charles Schulz, Pierre Trudeau of Canada
Africa
General: Cyclone Leon-Eline strikes Central Africa
Americas
Canada: F3 tornado kills 11 in Alberta
Central America: Dengue Fever outbreak
Cuba: young boy Elian Gonzales taken back to Cuba after immigration raid
Mexico: Vincente Fox becomes president and end of single party
Asia
China: Writer Gao Xingjian wins Nobel Prize
Indonesia: FOrmer president Suharto arrested for abuse of power
Korea: North and South sign peace accord
Europe
General: Mad Cow Disease outbreak
Austria: Far-right Freedom Party started
France: Concorde crash kills 113 near Paris
Great Britain: Concorde grounded Northern Ireland given joint control from British and North Irish parliaments
Physician Harold Frederick Shipman charged with killing 250 and commits suicide four years later
Russia: Submarine sinks
Yugoslavia: Milosevic ousted in nationwide uprising and Kostunica sworn in
Middle East
Afghanistan: US gives $245 million in aid
Iran: Reformists win control of government
Israel: Palestinians and Israelis clash after Sharon visits holy site
Yemen: terrorists kill US sailors aboard the Cole naval destroyer
Pres: William J. Clinton Pres: George W. Bush elected over Albert Gore
General
Culture: Start of reality tv Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine debuts Friends stars get $750,000 per episode Breakup of Elen DeGeneres and girlfriend Anne Heche
Finance: Stock market plunges signaling economic slowdown Dow reaches “Clinton bull” high of 11723
Medicine: abortion pill RU-486 wins US approval
Politics: Highly disputed election results when Gore wins popular vote, but Bush the electoral vote
Religion: Clinton helps sign legislation banning discrimination against Churches in zoning laws
Technology: America Online buys Time Warner – also serves to validate the Internet
Stephen King releases all e-book Microsoft found guilty of monopoly
East
Midwest
Ohio: F4 tornado hits Xenia State motto "With God, all things are possible" ruled unconstitutional
Wisconsin: Tornado forms over Milwaukee airport
South
Mississippi: Charges filed in 1963 church bombing
West and Pacific
California: Lockheed Martin pays 100 people $1000 to eat a dose of perchlorate
New Mexico: Worst wildfire starts with controlled burn
Utah: Airline passenger Jonathan Burtan storms cockpit of Southwest Airlines flight to Salt Lake – pinned by eight passengers and dies of asphyxiation