1999 in the United States

Federal Government

President: Bill Clinton (D-Arkansas)

Vice President: Al Gore (D-Tennessee)

Chief Justice: William Rehnquist (Wisconsin)

Speaker of the House of Representatives: Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia) (until January 3), Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois) (starting January 6)

Senate Majority Leader: Trent Lott (R-Mississippi)

Congress: 105th (until January 3), 106th (starting January 3)

January

January 2 – A snowstorm leaves 14 inches (36 cm) of snow in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and 21 inches (53 cm) in Chicago, Illinois, killing 68.

January 6 – Dennis Hastert becomes Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

January 7 – The Senate trial in the impeachment of U.S. President Bill Clinton begins. He had been impeached by the House of Representatives on December 19.

January 21 – In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 9,500 pounds (4,300 kg) of cocaine aboard, headed for Houston, Texas.

February

February 4

Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot dead by four plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, inflaming race-relations in the city.

The New Carissa runs aground near Coos Bay, Oregon.

February 12 – Impeachment of Bill Clinton: President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the Senate.

February 15 – Rapper Big L is shot to death.

February 19 – President Bill Clinton issues a posthumous pardon for U.S. Army Lt. Henry Ossian Flipper.

February 23 – White supremacist John William King is found guilty of kidnapping and killing African American James Byrd Jr. by dragging him behind a truck for 2 miles (3 km).

February 24 – LaGrand case: The State of Arizona executes Karl LaGrand, a German national involved in an armed robbery that led to a death. Karl's brother Walter is executed a week later, in spite of Germany's legal action in the International Court of Justice to attempt to save him.

March

March 2 – The brand new Mandalay Bay hotel and casino opens on the Las Vegas Strip.

March 3 – Walter LaGrand is executed in the gas chamber in Arizona.

March 4 – In a military court, United States Marine Corps Captain Richard J. Ashby is acquitted of the charge of reckless flying which resulted in the deaths of 20 skiers in the Italian Alps, when his low-flying jet hit a gondola cable.

March 8 – The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the murder convictions of Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing.

March 11 – Infosys becomes the first Indian company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

March 17 – The Roth IRA is introduced by U.S. Senator William V. Roth, Jr.

March 20 – Legoland California, the only Legoland outside of Europe, opens in Carlsbad, California.

March 21 – The 71st Academy Awards are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California with Shakespeare in Love winning Best Picture.

March 25 – Enron energy traders allegedly route 2,900 megawatts of electricity destined for California to the town of Silver Peak, Nevada, population 200.

March 26 – A Michigan jury finds Dr. Jack Kevorkian guilty of second-degree murder for administering a lethal injection to a terminally ill man.

March 27 – Kosovo War: A U.S. F-117 Nighthawk is shot down by Serbian forces.

March 29 – For the first time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 10,000 mark, at 10,006.78.

April

April 5 – In Laramie, Wyoming, Russell Henderson pleads guilty to kidnapping and felony murder, in order to avoid a possible death penalty conviction for the hate crime killing of Matthew Shepard.

April 7 – The World Trade Organisation rules in favor of the United States in its long-running trade dispute with the European Union over bananas.

April 8 – Bill Gates personal fortune exceeds US$100 billion, due to the increased value of Microsoft stock.

April 12 – US President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court for giving "intentionally false statements" in a sexual harassment civil lawsuit.

April 20 – Columbine High School massacre: Two Littleton, Colorado teenagers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, open fire on their teachers and classmates, killing 12 students and 1 teacher, and then themselves. It would be the deadliest shooting at a high school in U.S. history. The shooting sparks debate on school bullying, gun control and violence in the media.

May

May 1

The animated children's TV series SpongeBob SquarePants debuts on the cable network Nickelodeon.

May 3

Norman J. Sirnic and Karen Sirnic are murdered by serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz in Weimar, Texas.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 11,000 for the first time, at 11,014.70.

May 3–6 – 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak spawns 140 tornadoes, including an F5 in Moore, Oklahoma that kills 38 people with the highest wind speeds ever recorded.

May 5 – Microsoft releases Windows 98 (Second Edition) (from 1998).

May 8 – Nancy Mace becomes the first female cadet to graduate from The Military College of South Carolina.

May 19 – Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace is released in theaters. It becomes the highest grossing Star Wars film.

May 25 – The United States House of Representatives releases the Cox Report which details the People's Republic of China's nuclear espionage against the U.S. over the prior two decades.

May 29 – Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station.

May 31 – Sean Elliott of the San Antonio Spurs hits the Memorial Day Miracle against the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1999 NBA Playoffs.

June

June 1 – American Airlines Flight 1420 overruns the runway in Little Rock, Arkansas killing 11 people.

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 12 – Texas Governor George W. Bush announces he will seek the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States.

June 19 – Horror author Stephen King is hit in a car accident on Route 5 in North Lovell, Maine by Bryan Smith.

June 23 – The Phillips explosion of 1999 kills 2 and injures 3 in Pasadena, Texas.

July

July 2

Benjamin Nathaniel Smith begins a 3-day killing spree targeting racial and ethnic minorities in Illinois and Indiana.

Lawrence Summers is sworn in as the new Secretary of Treasury, succeeding Robert Rubin.

July 5 – July 6 – U.S. Army Pfc. Barry Winchell is bludgeoned in his sleep at Fort Campbell, Kentucky by fellow soldiers; he dies the next day from his injuries.

July 8 – A major flash flood in Las Vegas swamps hundreds of cars, smashes mobile homes and kills 2 people.

July 10 – USA soccer player Brandi Chastain scores the game winning penalty kick against China in the FIFA Women's World Cup.

July 16 – Off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, a plane piloted by John F. Kennedy, Jr. crashes, killing him and his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister Lauren Bessette.

July 20 – Mercury program: Liberty Bell 7 is raised from the Atlantic Ocean.

July 22 – The first version of MSN Messenger is released by Microsoft.

July 23–25 – The Woodstock 99 festival is held in New York

July 25 – Lance Armstrong wins his first Tour de France.

July 26 – The last Checker taxi cab is retired in New York City and auctioned off for approximately $135,000.

July 31

Mark O. Barton kills his family. He then went on a murder spree at the trading firm he worked at, killing a total of 12 people in Atlanta, Georgia. He later committed suicide at a gas station when cornered by police.

NASA intentionally crashes the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the lunar surface.

August

August 10 – Buford O. Furrow, Jr. wounds 5 and kills 1 during the Los Angeles Jewish Community Center shooting.

September

September 7 – Viacom and CBS merge.

September 15 – Larry Gene Ashbrook murders 7 people and then commits suicide at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

September 23 – NASA announces that it has lost contact with the Mars Climate Orbiter.

October

October 9 – The last flight of the SR-71.

October 13 – The United States Senate rejects ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

October 27 – The New York Yankees sweep the Atlanta Braves to win their 25th world championship.

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 NTSB later reports that the co-pilot, Gameel Al-Batouti, deliberately crashed the plane, however Egyptian authorities dispute this claim.

November

November 2 – Byran Uyesugi kills 7 people at a Xerox building in Honolulu, Hawaii.

November 18 – The Aggie Bonfire collapses in College Station, Texas, killing 12.

November 30 – In Seattle, Washington, protests against the WTO meeting by anti-globalization protesters catch police unprepared and force the cancellation of opening ceremonies.

December

December – The Unemployment Rate drops to 4%, the lowest level since January 1970.

December 3 – NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander, moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.

December 7 – The Recording Industry Association of America files a lawsuit against the Napster file-sharing client alleging copyright infringement.

December 18 – NASA launches into orbit the Terra platform, carrying 5 Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.

December 31 – The U.S. turns over complete administration of the Panama Canal to the Panamanian government, as stipulated in the Torrijos–Carter Treaties of 1977.

Ongoing

Iraqi no-fly zones (1991–2003)

Dot-com bubble (c. 1995–c. 2000)

Lewinsky scandal (1998–1999)