Top News Stories from 1998

World Events

World Statistics

Population: 4.378 billion
population by decade
Nobel Peace Prize: John Hume and David Trimble (Northern Ireland)
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U.S. Events

U.S. Statistics

President: William J. Clinton
Vice President: Albert Gore, Jr.
Population: 270,298,524
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Economics

Federal spending: $1675.88 billion
Federal debt $5750.4 billion
Consumer Price Index: $163
Unemployment: 4.5%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.32

Sports

Super Bowl
Denver d. Green Bay
World Series
New York Yankees d. San Diego
NBA Championship
Chicago d. Utah
Stanley Cup
Detroit d. Washington
Wimbledon
Women: Jana Novotna d. N. Tauziat (6-4 7-6)
Men: Pete Sampras d. G. Ivanisevic (6-7 7-6 6-4 3-6 6-2)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Real Quiet
NCAA Basketball Championship
Kentucky d. Utah
World Cup
France d. Brazil

Entertainment

Entertainment Awards

Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: American Pastoral, Philip Roth
Music: String Quartet No. 2, Musica Instrumentalis, Aaron Jay Kernis
Drama: How I Learned to Drive, Paula Vogel
Academy Award, Best Picture: Titanic, James Cameron and Jon Landau, producers (Paramount and 20th Century Fox)
Nobel Prize for Literature: José Saramago (Portugal)
Album of the Year: Time Out of Mind, Bob Dylan (Columbia Records)
Song of the Year: "Sunny Came Home," Shawn Colvin
Song of the Year: "Sunny Came Home," Shawn Colvin and John Leventhal, songwriters
Miss America: Katherine Shindle (IL)
More Entertainment Awards...

Events

  • Titanic becomes the highest-grossing film of all time, raking in more than $580 million domestically.
  • An estimated 76 million viewers watch the last episode of Seinfeld.
  • Legendary crooner Frank Sinatra dies of a heart attack at age 82.
  • NBC agrees to fork over $13 million an episode for the next three years for broadcast rights to the top-rated series ER. The total dollar figure, $850 million, eclipses any price ever paid for a television show.
  • Titanic captures a record-tying 11 Academy Awards, including those for Best Picture and Best Director (James Cameron).
  • The American Film Institute announces its list of the top 100 films of all time. Citizen Kane tops the list.
  • Tina Brown, editor of The New Yorker sends shockwaves through the publishing world with her resignation from the venerable weekly. David Remnick is hired to replace her.

Movies

  • Affliction, American History X, Elizabeth, Shakespeare in Love, There's Something about Mary

Books

Science

Nobel Prizes in Science

Chemistry: Walter Kohn (US) and John A. Pople (UK), for their developments in the study of the properties of molecules and the chemical processes in which they are involved
Physics: Robert B. Laughlin (US), Horst L. Störmer (Germany), and Daniel C. Tsui (US), for their discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations
Physiology or Medicine: Robert F. Furchgott, Louis J. Ignarro, and Ferid Murad (all US), for discovering that nitric oxide acts as a signal in the cardiovascular system
More Nobel Prizes in 1998...
  • The Athena probe finds frozen water on moon. Scientists say ice crystals mixed with soil could provide fuel for rockets exploring solar system (Mar. 5). Background: US Unstaffed Planetary and Lunar Programs
  • The FDA approves the male impotence drug Viagra (Mar. 27). Background: New Medicines
  • Astronomers detect giant explosion, second in force only to the "Big Bang," in deep space (May 6). Background: Astronomy
  • Dow Corning Corporation agrees on $3.2 billion settlement for tens of thousands of women claiming injury from manufacturer's silicone breast implants (July 8). Background: Health & Nutrition
  • 77-year-old Senator John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth, returns to orbit in the space shuttle Discovery (Oct. 29). Background: US Staffed Space Flights
  • The crew of the space shuttle Endeavour connects first two modules of the international space station (Dec. 6). Background: Space Exploration

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