WHAT ALL HAPPENED MAY TO DECEMBER 1998
Find out what all happened May to December 1998

Compaq Computer pays $9 billion for Digital Equipment Corporation in the largest high-tech acquisition. (11. June 1998)

Lewinsky scandal: a federal judge rules that United States Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the scandal, involving President Bill Clinton. (22. May 1998)

Capital punishment in the United Kingdom, already abolished for murder, is completely abolished for all remaining capital offences. (9. November 1998)

North Korea reportedly launches Kwangmyŏngsŏng-1, its first satellite. (31. August 1998)

The Supreme Court of the United States rules that Ellis Island, the historic gateway for millions of immigrants, is mainly in the state of New Jersey, not New York. (26. May 1998)

Second Congo War: Loyalist troops backed by Angolan and Zimbabwean forces repulse the RCD and Rwandan offensive on Kinshasa. (28. August 1998)

The Google internet search engine retrospectively claims this as its birthday. (27. September 1998)

A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits northern Afghanistan, killing up to 5,000. (30. May 1998)

Apartheid: In South Africa, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presents its report, which condemns both sides for committing atrocities. (29. October 1998)

A US federal judge orders 37 US brokerage houses to pay 1.03 billion USD to cheated NASDAQ investors to compensate for price-fixing. This is the largest civil settlement in United States history. (9. November 1998)

Four students are shot at Trisakti University, leading to widespread riots and the fall of Suharto (12. May 1998)

Eschede train disaster: an ICE high-speed train derails in Lower Saxony, Germany, causing 101 deaths. (3. June 1998)

Race riots break out in Jakarta, Indonesia, where shops owned by Indonesians of Chinese descent are looted and women raped. (13. May 1998)

Omagh bombing in Northern Ireland, the worst terrorist incident of The Troubles (15. August 1998)

ATSC HDTV broadcasting in the United States is inaugurated with the launch of STS-95 space shuttle mission. (29. October 1998)

Launch of Deep Space 1 comet/asteroid mission (24. October 1998)

President Soeharto of Indonesia resigns following the killing of students from Tri Sakti University earlier that week by security forces and growing mass protests in Jakarta against his ongoing corrupt rule. (21. May 1998)

The first "National Sorry Day" was held in Australia, and reconciliation events were held nationally, and attended by over a million people. (26. May 1998)

Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, is found tied to a fence after being savagely beaten by two young adults in Laramie, Wyoming. (7. October 1998)

A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declares accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in regard to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. (20. November 1998)