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Former French president François Mitterand dies January 8 at age 79 of prostate cancer, which was diagnosed before he took office in 1981 but has never interfered with his duties. President Jacques Chirac brings France back into NATO, and the nation pays homage to the 55,000 who died in 8 years of war in Indochina with a modest memorial unveiled at Fréjus, near Toulon, December 19, the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of hostilities in Indochina.
The Irish Republican Army ends a 17-month self-imposed cease-fire February 9 by exploding a bomb in East London, killing two people, injuring 140, and causing $100 million in property damage. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams says he is saddened by the blast but declines to condemn it, calling on Prime Minister Major to help him consolidate the sectarian peace process. Another bomb explodes June 15, this time in downtown Manchester, injuring more than 200, and further violence follows (see 1997; Good Friday accord, 1998).
Italian economist Romano Prodi, 56, heads a new government that takes office May 18 and will continue until October 1998 (see 1995).
Russia's voters reelect Boris N. Yeltsin, now 65, in a July 3 runoff race against Communist Party leader Gennadi A. Zyuganov, 51, despite falling industrial production, a growing poverty rate, soaring death rates, and anxieties about Yeltsin's health. Retired general Aleksandr I. Lebed, 46, has opposed the war in Chechnya but swings his support to Yeltsin, who wins 55 percent of the popular vote to Zyuganov's 40 percent, becoming the first democratically elected head of state in Russia's 1,000-year history. Chechen separatist Shamil Basayev leads 1,500 men and boys into Grozny from three directions before dawn August 6 and in less than 2 weeks has routed the Russians from the capital, which they have held since January of last year. While numerically far superior, the Russian Army is ill-trained, rarely paid, poorly equipped, and commanded by corrupt officers. Gen. Lebed negotiates a peace accord in August, he says September 3 that about 85,000 have been killed and some 240,000 wounded in the 21-month Chechnya conflict, Yeltsin dismisses Lebed October 17 following reports that the national security chief is plotting a coup, Yeltsin survives open-heart surgery a few weeks later, announces in November that all Russian troops will be withdrawn from Chechnya, and resumes his presidential duties December 24.
Greek premier Andreas Papindreau dies at Ekéli, near Athens, June 23 at age 77.
Bulgaria has her first major political assassination since before World War II: longtime communist leader Andrei Lukanov, 58, is gunned down outside his Sofia apartment house at midday October 2.
Bosnia's uneasy peace holds, elections conducted under NATO supervision do nothing to change the status quo, and President Clinton announces November 15 that the United States is prepared to keep thousands of troops in Bosnia for 18 months beyond the December deadline originally projected (see 1995). Croatia's president Franjo Tudjman comes to Washington, D.C., for treatment of cancer, raising fears that hard-liners hostile to the Muslim-Croat federation in Bosnia will come to power. Serbia's president Slobodan Milosovic comes under sharp criticism from pro-democracy demonstrators, who pour into the streets of Belgrade in late November and all through December; as many as 200,000 use non-violent means to defy authorities and protest the actions of Milosovic, who has nullified local election results and whose military aggression has brought economic sanctions resulting in a 70 percent unemployment rate. The demonstrators carry their protests beyond Belgrade and attract growing support (see 1998).
Romanian voters oust Ion Iliescu November 17 after 7 years in power and elect geology professor-reformer Emile Constaninescu, 55, the nation's first noncommunist president.
Israel's secret service kills Palestinian Hamas terrorist Yahya Ayyash, 32, January 5 in the Gaza Strip. Known as the Engineer, Ayyash has allegedly masterminded numerous suicide bombings that have killed more than 50 and wounded hundreds. Yasir Arafat calls Ayyash a "martyr" and Hamas retaliates February 25, destroying a Jerusalem bus with a bomb that kills 26 and injures more than 100. More suicide bombings follow in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, killing dozens, and Prime Minister Peres declares "war" against Hamas.
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) votes April 24 to revoke clauses in its 32-year-old charter calling for an armed struggle to destroy the Jewish state, but Israeli voters oust Shimon Peres May 31 and replace him with U.S.-educated, right-wing Likkud Party leader Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, 46, who has preyed on voters' fears, promising to secure peace without giving up land, and emphasizing a market economy to "loose the genius of our nation." He wins 55 percent of the popular vote (the first prime minister elected directly rather than by the Knesset [parliament]), Arab neighbors fret that his victory means a setback for the peace process, but although he reviled PLO leader Yasir Arafat during his campaign Netanyahu shakes hands with Arafat September 4, reopens talks, and expresses a commitment to peace. Violence erupts a few weeks later, President Clinton enlists Jordan's King Hussein in an effort to get the peace process back on track, but intransigence increases on both sides (see 1997).
Sudan expels Islamic terrorist Osama bin Laden to Afghanistan May 18. Sudanese authorities have offered to turn him over to Saudi Arabia, but U.S. diplomats have been unable to persuade the Saudis to accept him and the FBI has opposed bringing him in on grounds that it did not have enough evidence to indict him.
A truck bomb explodes June 25 outside the Khobar Towers U.S. military barracks Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 19 U.S. servicemen and injuring some 500. "The cowards who committed this murderous act must not go unpunished," says President Clinton. The Saudis pledge full cooperation, but they soon stop their support under threat from Islamic terrorists. While suspicion falls initially on a Saudi faction of the Iranian-backed, Lebanon-based Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah, it will later shift to Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, who calls for the removal of U.S. forces from the "sacred soil" of Arabia (see embassy bombings, 1998).
Turkey's Parliament gives narrow approval July 8 to a coalition government led by the Welfare Party, headed by Necmettin Erbakan, 70, that has campaigned to restore the nation's Muslim identity (see 1995). Erbakan visits with Iran and Libya, seeming to turn his back on the West to curry favor with other Islamist regimes (but see 1997).
Iraq's Saddam Hussein sends troops in late August to destroy an Iranian-supported Kurdish faction in the north, Washington calls it a violation of the "no-fly" zone, the U.S. Navy launches Cruise missiles on Iraqi military targets September 2 and 3, Saddam expresses defiance, but he pulls back.
Japan's prime minister Tomiichi Murayama resigns January 5; now 71 and the nation's first socialist prime minister in 5 decades, he is succeeded January 11 by Liberal Democrat trade minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, 58, who resists demands for speedy elections that would challenge rule by the party which has dominated Japanese politics since 1946. The Liberal Democratic Party regains power in elections held October 20, but the voter turnout at 59 percent is the lowest since before World War II.
Former South Korean president Kim Young Sam admits in a televised annual policy address January 9 that he accepted political funds from business firms but denies that they were bribes and insists that he received them only before becoming president in 1993 (see Roh Tae Woo, 1995). Police arrest a top aide to Kim Young Sam for alleged influence peddling March 23, Kim apologizes for Chang Hak Ro's "shameless misconduct," but Chang is charged March 30 with having accepted the equivalent of $797,000 in illegal contributions in exchange for favors since 1993. Kim's ruling New Korea Party loses its one-seat majority in the National Assembly in the April 11 elections, but Kim remains in office as the nation's first democratically elected president (see 1997).
Former Burmese president San Yu dies of a heart ailment at Rangoon (Yangon) January 28 at age 78.
Taiwanese voters give President Lee Teng-hui a resounding 54 percent victory March 24 in China's first democratic election. Beijing regards Taiwan as Chinese territory and has conducted naval war games in the Taiwan Strait in an apparent effort to discourage talk of independence; President Clinton has sent two carrier units into the strait in a move to discourage any escalation of hostilities.
A truck loaded with explosives rams into Sri Lanka's central bank at Colombo January 31, killing scores of people and injuring 1,400, many critically, as Tamil "Tiger" rebels continue the 12-year-old civil war that has taken nearly 40,000 lives. The Tamils are mostly Hindu, number about 2 million, and have rejected plans by the Buddhist-controlled government to grant more autonomy to the Tamil-dominated northern and eastern provinces.
India's voters oust Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao, 74, who has begun economic reforms intended to roll back 50 years of socialism but is tainted with charges of corruption. A Hindu nationalist government rules for 13 days in May but is itself ousted as political and religious turmoil engulfs the country (see 1997).
The Cambodian government announces in August that the Khmer Rouge has broken up (see 1993); Pol Pot's brother-in-law Ieng Sary leads a defection by 10,000 guerrillas (see 1997).
Karachi police kill Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto's brother Mir Murtaza Bhutto September 20. President Farooq Leghari dismisses the unpopular Benazir Bhutto November 4 on charges of corruption, appoints a caretaker government led by Malik Meraj Khalid, 80, and sets new elections for February 1997. Murtaza Bhutto's widow accuses Benazir Bhutto and her husband, Asif Ali Zardara (who has been imprisoned) of involvement in Murtaza Bhutto's death. The caretaker government concedes in December that its efforts to root out corruption have accomplished little (see 1997).
Fundamentalist militia in Afghanistan overrun Kabul September 26 almost without opposition and issue rigid Islamic decrees that shock even the Taliban's Pakistani backers (see 1992). Welcomed in some rural areas because they have pledged to end banditry and reunite the country, the young militiamen hang the former communist president Najibullah along with his brother and former security chief Shahpur Ahmadzai. Middle- and professional-class residents flee the city following imposition of rules that forbid women to appear in the streets, close girls' schools, authorize stoning to death anyone convicted of adultery or drug offenses, and lashing anyone found drinking alcohol.
Sierra Leone has another coup d'état March 29 (see 1992), but the new military government bows to international pressure and agrees to hold elections. Former lawyer Ahmed Tejan Kahbah becomes president, having won 59.5 percent of the popular vote (but see 1997).
Former Burundi president Pierre Buyoya seizes power July 25, deposing President Sylvestre Ntibantunganya in a military coup following a July 20 massacre of 330 Tutsi civilians and several years of massacres that have taken some 150,000 lives. Maj. Buyoya, who headed the country from 1987 to 1993, reasserts Tutsi control, raising fears of genocidal civil strife of the sort that swept neighboring Rwanda in 1994. Burundi's neighbors close their borders to force Buyoya's resignation.
Some 500,000 Rwandan refugees return from Zaire and Tanzania in November and December after 2½ years of exile. Rebel Zairian forces separate them from Hutu militants, who have virtually held them hostage. Zairian revolutionist Laurent Desiré Kabila, 55, has been trying for nearly 30 years to unseat the corrupt and now-ailing president Mobuto Sese Seko; he has proclaimed himself head of a rebel alliance. Tribal conflicts continue to roil Zaire, and the international community struggles to find ways to relieve hunger among Rwanda's returning refugees, thousands of whom are arrested upon their return. The arrestees join the 85,000 people jammed into facilities intended to hold no more than 20,000.
Former Central African emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa dies of a heart attack at Bangui November 3 at age 75.
Cuban MiGs shoot down two unarmed Cessna planes flown by Americans February 24, charging that they have violated Cuban air space. Washington responds with new, stricter sanctions, which opponents say are motivated by a desire to please Florida's Cuban-American voters.
The Helms-Burton Act signed into law by President Clinton March 12 tightens economic sanctions against Cuba by instituting a boycott of any foreign company doing business with Cuba. Canada, Mexico, and European nations protest, but the State Department takes action July 10 against a Canadian mining company, barring entrance of its executives or their families to the United States. Canadians threaten to boycott Florida winter resorts in retaliation. In July, Clinton waives implementation of a provision that would allow U.S. citizens or corporations to sue any foreign company using confiscated U.S. property in Cuba.
Dominican voters elect New York-raised lawyer Leonel Fernández Reyna, 42, to succeed the retiring Joaquin Balaguer, now 89, who has run the country for 35 years. Fernández's opponent in the run-off race June 30, José Francisco Peña Gomez, 59, would have been the nation's first black president in this century, and the election was bitterly fought along racial lines. The youngest person ever elected to the office, Fernández Reyna is sworn in August 16, determines to address the economic problems that have forced roughly a million Dominicans to emigrate to the United States (sometimes illegally), and says, "Countries can be governed democratically."
Leftist Guatemalan rebels sign a peace accord with the government at Mexico City September 20 after a 36-year insurgency that has killed more than 100,000 people (another 40,000 have disappeared and are presumed dead). Rebel chief Ricardo Ramírez, 65, has helped to broker the agreement, which includes measures intended to safeguard the rights and culture of the nation's poor Mayan majority and bring them into national life (but peons continue to receive roughly the same wages as in 1980). Nobelist Rigoberta Menchu extends her hand to aides from the army that killed three members of her family, but Guatemala's Congress has approved a sweeping amnesty law making it virtually impossible to prosecute those responsible for so many murders, rapes, and tortures, and some military dissidents threaten to kill 19 civilian leaders and 57 army officers whom they accuse of "discrediting our great victory and trampling our national dignity" (see 1998).
A Peruvian military judge sentences U.S. political activist Lori Helene Berenson, 26, to life imprisonment January 11. Arrested in November of last year on charges of being an active member of the pro-Cuban Marxist rebel group Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), Berenson has denied that her efforts against poverty and injustice were "treasonous" but has rejected offers from U.S. diplomats to help her leave the country and stay out of the notorious Yanamayo Prison in Puno. Tupac Amaru rebels at Lima seize control of the Japanese ambassador's residence during a reception December 17, gradually let some of their 490 hostages go, but still hold 81 by year's end, many of them high-ranking officials, demanding release of their comrades from prison. President Alberto K. Fujimori's government has detained more than 500,000 suspects in 18 months of political violence that has left an estimated 500 dead.
Former Bolivian president Hernan Siles Zuazo dies at Montevideo August 6 at age 83.
Former chief of naval operations Admiral Arleigh Burke (ret.) dies at Bethesda, Md., January 1 at age 94; former CIA director William E. Colby, 76, disappears April 27. His body is discovered May 6 in Maryland's Wicomico River, and he has apparently drowned; former national security adviser McGeorge Bundy dies at his native Boston September 16 at age 77.
President Clinton addresses the UN General Assembly September 25 and signs a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty designed to stop all nuclear testing. Now 50, Clinton has said in his State of the Union Message that "the era of big government is over"; he has adopted some Republican "Contract with America" ideas.
President Clinton easily wins reelection, defeating former Senate Majority Leader Robert Joseph "Bob" Dole, 73, of Kansas, who wins 13 states with 159 electoral votes as compared to Clinton's 37 states with 379 electoral votes (Clinton gets 49 percent of the popular vote, Dole 41, Ross Perot 8), but the Republicans retain control of Congress, which has passed legislation in April giving presidents line-item veto power to cancel individual appropriations and tax benefits in laws that Congress has enacted (see 1997). The Department of Justice opens an investigation into possible criminal violations of campaign finance laws by both major political parties (see 1997).
A three-part series in the San Jose Mercury News alleges in November that Nicaraguan drug traffickers sold and distributed crack cocaine at Los Angeles in the 1980s and that drug profits were used to finance the Nicaraguan Contras supported by the CIA. California-born journalist Gary Webb, 41, has written the 20,000-word "Dark Alliance" stories, saying that the proliferation of crack cocaine in the United States can be traced to two Nicaraguan dealers who worked with the contra rebels 15 years ago to raise money for their cause in California and received help—or, at any rate, no objections—from the CIA. While Webb does not accuse the CIA of having directly aided drug dealers to raise money for the Contras, he does imply that the agency was aware of the transactions; the CIA denies the drug trafficking charges, Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Arlen Specter (R. Pa.) convenes a hearing, the allegations raise suspicions, especially in the black community, but witnesses produce no evidence to substantiate the reports. A retraction published in May of next year will claim that Webb's stories fell short of the newspaper's standards, but further evidence will substantiate Webb's charges.
Onetime Soviet spy Alger Hiss dies at New York November 15 at age 92, his guilt having been established by papers found in former Soviet archives.
UN secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali steps down December 17 and is succeeded by Kofi Annan, 58, of Ghana—the first person from sub-Sahara Africa to head the world body and the first career United Nations official to hold the post. The United States has opposed Boutros-Ghali's reelection and withheld dues in an effort to force reforms on the organization's wasteful bureaucracy; the dignified and businesslike Annan will be more effective than his recent predecessors (see 1998).
The New York-based Human Rights Watch asserts January 5 that China's state-run orphanages have killed thousands of children, mostly girls, by deliberate starvation, medical malpractice, and staff abuse. It bases the accusation on testimony from physician Zhang Shuyun, who fled China last year after trying to expose abuses at the Shanghai Children's Welfare Institute, bringing with her medical records and shocking photographs. Beijing denies the accusations.
A Beijing court sentences former student leader Wang Dan, now 27, to 11 years in prison after a show trial in a sealed courthouse, silencing the last of the communist regime's prominent domestic critics. Wang played a major role in the Tiananmen Square democracy movement 7 years ago.
The first Feminist Expo opens at Washington, D.C., February 4. Sponsored by the nonprofit Feminist Majority Foundation and 299 other organizations, it rallies 3,000 attendees in support of efforts to reverse sexual discrimination laws in California and some other states, to preserve affirmative action wherever it is threatened, double voter registration among 18- to 24-year-olds, and generally reinvigorate the feminist movement. Younger women interact with old guard feminists such as Gloria Steinem, Eleanor Smeal, and former NOW president Molly Yard, now in her 80s.
Swiss banks announce February 7 that assets in unclaimed accounts total $32 million (see 1995), most of it was probably deposited by Jews who were killed in the Holocaust, but U.S. Senate hearings on the subject open in April and a class-action suit filed at New York October 3 seeks $20 billion for survivors of Holocaust victims, and a Swiss law passed December 13 makes it illegal to destroy wartime documents, suspending temporarily bank secrecy regulations, establishing an independent historical commission to help the investigators, and imposing prison terms or fines up to $36,000 for destruction of records; the government has ordered banks to preserve any remaining records of their dealings with Nazi Germany (see 1997).
Brazilian state military police open fire April 17 on 19 landless farm workers alongside a highway at Eldorado dos Carajas some 350 miles upriver from Belém. More than 1,500 people witness the shooting, which is filmed and shown hundreds of times on Brazilian television. A local judge is quoted as saying that she "prays every night that the policemen will be absolved," a special prosecutor is then appointed to pursue the case against the 147 police officers involved. The federal government will find that the owner of the disputed land has not paid his taxes for more than 10 years, the government will seize his 42,000-acre property and distribute it among 690 peasant families, but the nation's minister of agrarian reform will acknowledge that state police officers are often at the service of large landowners, and a court at Belém will acquit the three police commanders in October 1999, creating a furor.
The New York Times reports March 17 that at least 21 states are under court supervision because they failed to take proper care of children who had been abused or neglected. It quotes an Illinois judge as saying that the record of child welfare is "a bleak and Dickensian picture." Surveys by the Department of Health and Human Services show that 2.9 million U.S. children are abused or neglected, as compared with 1.4 million a decade ago, and 572,000 are seriously injured, up from 143,000.
The International Labor Organization releases a report June 10 that estimates that 13 percent of the world's 10- to 14-year-olds (73 million children) are working, and that if children under 10 and girls engaged in domestic work are included the number of working children is in the hundreds of millions worldwide, but it concedes that no firm statistics on child labor are available. The number of working children has continued to rise in Africa and Latin America, the ILO says, despite its 80-year effort to combat the problem, and in Africa more than one out of four people aged 10 to 14 are workers. And while the situation has improved in Asia, especially in Southeast Asia, that continent still has about 45 million child workers, many of them engaged in slave labor, prostitution, and work with toxic substances.
The highest U.S. immigration tribunal grants political asylum June 13 to Fauziya Kasinga, 19, who fled her native Togo to avoid ritual genital mutilation and was confined for more than a year in New Jersey and Pennsylvania detention centers and prisons before being released April 24.
The UN's war crimes tribunal at The Hague announces the indictment June 27 of eight Bosnian Serb military and police officers in connection with rapes of Muslim women and for the first time defines organized rape and other sexual offenses as crimes against humanity. Previous postwar courts have treated rape as part of soldiers' abusive behavior. The tribunal begins public hearings against its two most wanted suspects, Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic, now 51, and Gen. Ratko Mladic, who remain at large. The tribunal issues international arrest warrants for them July 11, charging them with genocide and other crimes, but Western powers have been unwilling to let their peacekeeping forces seek out the two. One indicted war criminal is convicted in late November and sentenced to a long prison term, but he insists that he was merely acting on orders and appeals the sentence.
The world's first international conference on the sexual exploitation of children opens August 27 at Stockholm, where delegates from more than 100 countries hear reports of 10-year-old Manila girls who have sex with motorcycle-taxi drivers in return for 2 hours' worth of fares (about $6) (see Ecpat, 1990). Thousands of Bombay (Mumbai) girls are held prisoner in brothels where many are confined to cages, girls kidnapped or purchased from their families in rural villages in Burma, India, Nepal, and Thailand are taken to Bangkok or Bombay and forced to work as prostitutes until their debt is repaid or they die of AIDS; parents, pimps (who are sometimes their parents or older brothers), and poverty force at least 1 million children worldwide into prostitution, the problem is growing as clients seek out younger girls (and boys) who are more likely to be free of the AIDS virus, organized gangs and corrupt police enforce child prostitution, and the conference tries to increase awareness of the multibillion dollar industry and seek remedies.
The U.S. Army investigates charges of sexual harassment, mainly by drill sergeants, at Maryland's Aberdeen Proving Ground and 16 other training bases. In a survey sent last year to 90,000 female soldiers, sailors, and fliers, one in 10 reported having been sexually molested and six in 10 said they experienced some form of what they considered sexual harassment (see 1997).
The Defense of Marriage Act signed into law by President Clinton September 21 denies federal recognition to same-sex marriages and denies federal benefits to partners in such marriages. Rep. Robert "Bob" Barr, 48, (R. Ga.) has introduced the measure in anticipation of a court ruling that would legalize same-sex marriages in Hawaii, Congress has approved it over the objections of homosexuals (the House has voted 342 to 67 in July, the Senate has voted 85 to 14), and Clinton signs it despite having characterized it as unnecessary and divisive (he calls September 30 for legislation barring discrimination against homosexuals in the workplace). The leader of a gay-rights group calls Clinton's action in signing the law an "unheroic move," Clinton says the issue should be up to the individual states (see 2003).
California voters approve Proposition 209 November 5: "The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting." The vote abolishes affirmative action in the state (see 1997).
The People's Republic of China launches a $126 million Intelstat satellite February 14 but guidance system problems cause its CZ-3B booster rocket to fail, six people are killed, and the satellite is lost.
Shanghai-born Oklahoma-raised biochemist Shannon Lucid, 53, transfers from the Atlantis space shuttle to Russia's Mir space station March 24, joining Mir's Russian crew to begin a 5-month stint (see 1995). The Priroda module that arrives at Mir April 26 carries spectrometers for measuring ozone and aerosol concentrations in the atmosphere, completing the space station, whose weight is now 125 tons. Lucid does not return to earth until September 27, setting a new record for a U.S. astronaut (see 1997).
A stopgap spending bill signed by President Clinton January 6 authorizes the federal government to resume full operations, ending a 21-day shutdown that has been the longest in U.S. history (see 1995). Republicans note that Clinton has offered a plan approved by the Congressional Budget Office, but House Minority Whip Thomas Dale "Tom" DeLay, 48, (R. Tex.) says January 7 that the plan authorizes hundreds of billions more in spending and calls Clinton "a liberal Democrat who wants to continue spending." Americans generally support Clinton's refusal to back down from Republican demands, and the shutdown has left House Speaker Newt Gingrich in a weakened position (see politics, 1997).
AT&T chairman Robert E. Allen, 61, announces in January that his company will eliminate up to 50,000 of its 300,000 jobs in the next 3 years as it implements a "force management program" aimed at reducing an "imbalance of forces or skills." Corporate downsizing continues at many other large companies as they try to maximize profits, and while some economists insist that U.S. public perception inflates the size of layoffs, especially among white-collar workers, when layoffs as a percentage of employment (measured by initial claims for unemployment insurance) are actually near a 50-year low. They concede that anxiety about job security has increased, that women have replaced older men in many jobs, and that living standards have shown painfully slow growth.
The Federal Reserve System begins March 25 to issue $100 bills designed to make them more difficult to counterfeit. Up to $140 billion in old $100 notes circulate inside the United States and about $250 billion abroad, where they are used for legal and illegal transactions (much of the international drug trade is done in $100 bills). Counterfeiters in the Middle East have been producing bills of exceptionally high quality in recent years, and although Treasury Department officials reassure traders that the old notes will not immediately be demonitized, the new ones employ technological advances designed to frustrate counterfeiters: each has an off-center portrait, a watermark, and a color-shifting ink in the most sweeping design change in U.S. paper currency since 1929. Similar notes in $50 denominations will be issued next year (see 1998).
The U.S. Supreme Court rules June 3 that credit-card issuers may charge credit-card borrowers "late fees" for each monthly period in which the cardholder has failed to make his or her minimum monthly payment (Smiley v. Citibank [S.D.], N.A.) (seeMarquette National Bank ruling, 1978). Late fees have been subject until now to state regulation, they have averaged $16, and they have generated $1.7 billion in revenues, but by 2004 they will be collecting $14.8 billion in revenues; total fees including other penalties will be generating more than $25 billion.
President Clinton signs legislation August 20 raising the minimum wage from $4.25 to $4.75 beginning October 1 and—11 months thereafter—to $5.15.
The Welfare Reform Act signed into law August 22 ends the federal Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) provision (Title IV A) of the 1935 Social Security Act, leaves it up to the states to provide for needy families, limits the amount of time that anyone can receive welfare checks without working, and bans most forms of public assistance and social services for legal immigrants who have not become citizens. President Clinton campaigned in 1992 with a promise to "end welfare as we know it," but he vetoed a Republican welfare bill in January, saying that it would undermine efforts to bring people out of poverty. The new Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act goes beyond what the Republicans called for in their 1994 Contract with America, Sen. Dole says Clinton has signed the "Dole welfare bill," critics warn that it will still put 1 million children into poverty, and two White House aides resign in protest September 11. Sixty-six percent of single-mother families with one child under age 6 live in poverty as compared with 9 percent in which parents are married and living together. If two children are under age 6, the comparative figures are 88 percent and 16 percent. The reform act will cut the nation's welfare roll in half but will be amended to soften its impact.
The richest 5 percent of U.S. families receive 20.3 percent of all household incomes, up from 15.3 percent in 1980; each shift of 1 percent represents about $38 billion, and critics call the redistribution of resources from poor to rich unprecedented.
Russian coal miners end a 2-day strike February 3 after Moscow rushes money to them, agrees to pay $133 million in back wages (the miners had demanded $200 million, mostly from power stations and other large coal users), and agrees to allocate $2.2 billion to the nation's crumbling coal industry. The World Bank has promised a $500 million loan on condition that economic reforms proceed.
Japanese reformers begin efforts in January to overhaul the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and give the Bank of Japan autonomy comparable to that of the U.S. Federal Reserve System, but MOF bureaucrats beat back attempts to strip them of powers that in America are divided among the Congress, Internal Revenue Service, Securities & Exchange Commission, presidential cabinet, Federal Reserve, Treasury Department, U.S. Trade Representative, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., state regulators, and other bodies (fiscal policy and interest-rate policy, kept separate in advanced countries, are decided together by the MOF). Japan has a financial scandal that dwarfs the U.S. S&L brouhaha of the 1980s. Seven jusen (housing-loan companies), created in the 1970s to finance home purchases, reveal that more than 75 percent of their portfolios now consist of bad loans that total at least $77 billion. The overall Japanese financial system has bad debts totaling $349 billion by MOF accounting but may actually total as much as $1 trillion. Major banks write off $106 billion in bad debts in early April, but public opposition to any government bailout shakes the Hashimoto government and has an impact on Wall Street.
Beijing and Washington reach broad agreement June 17 on how to crack down more effectively on the piracy of computer software, films, and music after the United States has threatened to impose trade sanctions involving $2 billion.
A landmark pact reached at the World Trade Organization in Geneva December 13 calls on 102 countries to open their banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions to foreigners. Included are many in Asia that have been resisting such action.
European markets soar as low inflation, low interest rates, and slow growth spur increases in share prices: the Amsterdam Stock Exchange rises 33.6 percent, Germany's DAX index 28.2 percent, France's CAC 40 index 23.7 percent, but the London Stock Exchange Index only 11.6 percent. Japan's Nikkei average dips 2.6 percent.
Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 6010 October 14, breaking through the 6000 mark less than 11 months after closing above 5000 as the economy continues to thrive and inflation remains low. Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan gives a speech on monetary policy at Washington, D.C., December 5 and characterizes the upward surge in U.S. equity markets as an instance of "irrational exuberance." The Dow falls more than 100 points December 31 on news indicating a strong economy, but it ends the year at 6448.27—up 26 percent from its 1995 close of 5117.12.
AuctionWeb (later eBay) shows a profit for the first time at the end of March after just 7 months in business (see 1995). Charging 25¢ to $2 for would-be sellers to list whatever it is they want to auction and taking a cut of the final price that begins at 5 percent of the first $25 and ends at 1.25 percent of any price over $1,000, the company averages only 6¢ per dollar's worth of goods exchanged, but since the system is completely automated about 5¢ of that 6¢ is gross profit. Users suggest to founder Pierre Omidyar that he set up a system for buyers and sellers to rate each other in order to minimize fraud, and by mid-year some 5,000 people are using AuctionWeb (see 1997).
Iraq and the UN reach an agreement May 20 to permit limited export of Iraqi crude oil in exchange for $1 billion in hard currency needed to buy food and medicine, but economic sanctions remain in place pending return of looted Kuwaiti property and proof that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction have been eliminated. The United States has accused Saddam Hussein of building new palaces and enjoying other luxuries while letting his people suffer as a means of generating international sympathy; the oil-for-food program will be widely abused, further enriching Saddam and feathering the nests of many European officials.
The Russian government privatizes its 3-year-old Yukos petroleum giant, selling it to private investors through a series of tender offers and auctions. Its first CEO resigns May 23 and is succeeded by former Menatep bank chairman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose bank bought control in December of last year through a "loans-for-share" auction, loaning the government $159 million in exchange for 45 percent of Yukos shares (Menatep has bought another 33 percent for $150 million in an investment tender). Now 33, Khodorkovsky has gambled that President Yeltsin would win reelection, since a new Communist Party regime would mean the loss of every kopeck his bank has loaned; he brings in engineer Yuri Beilin, also 33, and other experts, Yukos makes a deal with Schlumberger to improve its technology, and it will soon repay the company's debts to the regional Russian governments as it increases production capacity by opening new oil fields and making heavy investments in drilling and capital construction. Within a few years Yukos will be one of the world's lowest-cost producers outside the Middle East, exporting most of its oil (see 1998).
The U.S. Surface Transportation Board created January 1 replaces the Interstate Commerce Commission and votes 3 to 0 July 3 to approve the $5.4 billion takeover of Southern Pacific Railroad by Union Pacific, overriding objections by the Department of Transportation (its parent), the Department of Agriculture, the antitrust division of the Justice Department (which has no jurisdiction over railroads), the state of Texas, and many farmers and industries that the deal creates a duopoly, putting 90 percent of rail freight capacity west of the Mississippi in the hands of just two large companies. Union Pacific promises to upgrade track and equipment; it projects annual savings of about $750 million and says the takeover will give shippers better service, lower prices, or both (see 1997).
Taipei's Muzha Line subway opens March 28 to begin a metro network that will grow to have eight other lines by September 2004, giving Taiwan's capital city one of the world's most modern rapid transit system.
A fire on a British-bound train in the 2-year-old Eurotunnel under the English Channel November 18 damages 1,500 feet of track, forcing suspension of service until December 3. The Chunnel had been operating at close to full capacity, but when service resumes the closing of one of its tubes produces congestion; many potential passengers opt for air or ferry travel, despite rough weather on the channel.
A Turkish-owned Boeing 757 charter jet leased to a Dominican airline crashes February 6 after takeoff from Puerto Plata, killing all 189 aboard, most of them German tourists bound for home; a Faucett Airlines Boeing 737 bound for Arequipa crashes and burns in an Andean canyon February 29, killing all 123 aboard; a U.S. military plane en route to Dubrovnik hits a Croatian mountain in foul weather April 3, killing all 35 aboard, including Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown, 54, a New York Times reporter, and 10 U.S. business leaders; a Valujet DC-9 takes off from Miami and crashes into the Everglades May 11, killing all 110 aboard and casting doubt on the safety of low-cost airlines. The Federal Aviation Authority shuts Valujet down June 17 pending improvements in maintenance procedures, but the company resumes flights on a limited basis September 30; a TWA Boeing 747 takes off for Paris from New York's JFK Airport July 17, explodes in flight off Long Island, and plunges in flames into 20 fathoms of water in the Atlantic, killing all 230 aboard, including 21 members of the Montoursville, Penna., High School French club; a Saudi Arabian Boeing 747 leaves New Delhi November 12 and collides shortly after takeoff with a Kazak Airlines Ilyushin cargo jet, killing all 351 aboard in the third-worst air disaster ever; a hijacked Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 with 175 passengers and crew runs out of fuel November 23 and goes down in the Indian Ocean near the Comoro Islands, killing 130.
Jet aircraft engine inventor Sir Frank Whittle dies at Columbia, Md., August 8 at age 89, having become a research professor at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1977.
Boeing and McDonnell Douglas announce in mid-December that they will merge in a $13 billion takeover by Boeing that creates an aerospace behemoth employing about 200,000 and generating annual revenues of nearly $50 billion.
Shipping magnate-art collector Stavros Spyros Niarchos dies at Zürich April 15 at age 86, having long since sold most of his vast tanker fleet.
The 500-ton Tanzanian ferry Bukoba capsizes eight miles northwest of Mwanza on Lake Victoria May 21 and sinks in 93 feet of water, killing at least 500 passengers, including hundreds of high school students. Survivors say the ship, designed to hold 425 passengers, was overloaded.
The PalmPilot introduced by 3Com's U.S. Robotics division is a computer that fits into the palm of the hand and can connect the user to the Internet (see 3Com, 1979). Developed by 3Com engineers Jeff Hawkins, 39; Ed Colligan; and Donna Dubinsky, 41, the device can be used for a variety of functions.
Hewlett-Packard cofounder David Packard dies at Stanford, Calif., March 26 at age 83; computer disk drive inventor Reynold B. Johnson of malignant melanoma at Palo Alto, Calif., September 15 at age 92; former NEC president and chairman Koji Kobayashi at Tokyo November 30 at age 89, having helped to lead his company into the world of computers and communications.
An international team of scientists announces April 24 that it has sequenced the genome of the single-cell organism Saccharomyces cerevisia—common bakers' yeast. It is the most complex organism to be genetically decoded thus far (see 1995). Scores of laboratories in Europe, Canada, Japan, and the United States have participated in the research on the yeast genome, which has 12 million nucleotide base pairs, with 6,000 genes contained on 16 chromosomes. The human genome has 80,000 to 100,000 genes on 46 chromosomes, but the yeast chromosome is far more complex than bacteria and more similar to human cells, so the achievement with yeast is expected to be of help in research on the human genome (see 1998).
Nuclear physicist Clyde E. Wiegand dies of prostate cancer at his Oakland, Calif., home July 5 at age 81; Nobel chemist Tadeus Reichstein at his Basel home August 1 at age 99; Nobel physicist N. F. Mott at Milton Keyes August 8 at age 90; mathematical genius Paul Erdös of a heart attack at a conference in Warsaw September 20 at age 83, having published more than 1,500 papers; Nobel nuclear physicist Abdus Salam dies of a neurological disorder at Oxford November 21 at age 70; archaeologist Mary Leakey at Nairobi December 9 at age 83; astronomer Carl Sagan of pneumonia related to myelodisplasia at Ithaca, N.Y., December 20 at age 62.
AIDS and HIV-positive patients receive good news: the Food and Drug Administration approved the Roche inhibitor Protease late last year (the fastest approval ever of a new medication) and gives even faster approval in March to Abbott's protease inhibitor Norvir and Merck's Crixivan. Taiwan-born New York virologist David Da-i Ho, 43, tells a conference at Vancouver, B.C., in July that he and his colleagues at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center have devised a strategy for flushing out the HIV virus by using protease inhibitors in combination with standard antiviral compounds (Roxane Laboratories has gained FDA approval for its Viramune in June). The drugs can have nasty side effects that range from liver and kidney damage to pancreatitis and neuropathy in the limbs, but for those who can tolerate them and can afford them, they drop blood levels of HIV to such low amounts that they can no longer be measured, lifting the death sentence that since 1981 has hung over AIDS patients' heads. Scientists warn that drug-resistant strains of the retrovirus may develop, and the good news for affluent patients still leaves most of the world's AIDS patients without much hope.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gives approval to Genentech's heart-attack drug tissue plaminogen activator (T-PA) as a stroke remedy, but stroke victims must be treated within 3 hours of the onset of symptoms (sudden weakness or numbness of the face, arm, or leg; sudden dimming or loss of vision; slurring of speech; severe headache without other cause; or unexplained dizziness), and treatment costs $2,200. Some 750,000 Americans suffer strokes each year, stroke is the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer, but only two-thirds of U.S. emergency-room physicians can accurately read CT scans of the brain, and in the 20 percent of strokes caused by a hemorrhage the blood-thinning action of T-PA can be disastrous.
A Washington State law takes effect making alternative medicine (e.g. acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathy, naturopathy, and nutritional therapy) equal status with traditional medicine for purposes of insurance reimbursement.
A U.S. healthcare bill signed into law by President Clinton August 21 makes medical insurance portable from one job to another, curtails exclusion based on pre-existing medical conditions, but does nothing to help those who cannot afford private medical insurance.
Nobel immunogeneticist George Davis Snell dies at his Bar Harbor, Me., home June 6 at age 92, having coined the term histocompatibility and done work that helped permit organ transplants; Prozac co-inventor Ray W. Fuller dies of lymphocytic leukemia at his Greenwood, Ind., home August 11 at age 60.
The first drug that treats the cause of asthma and not just its symptoms wins FDA approval in October. Harvard professor K. (Karl) Frank Austen and his Nobel chemist colleague E. J. (Elias James) Corey, both 68, have been working since 1959 to understand the biology and chemistry of the substances that cause constriction and swelling of lung and airways tissue, affecting more than 100 million people worldwide. Their leukotrine blocker Accolate represents a collaboration between Harvard Medical School and Harvard's Department of Chemistry, and the British drug firm Zeneca has tested it in Ireland, Japan, Finland, and the United States. Taken twice a day, it has the potential to help 70 to 80 percent of asthma patients (14.6 million in the United States alone), and its success suggests that other leukotrine blockers may be useful in treating bronchitis, inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, and even rheumatoid arthritis.
Science on Trial by New England Journal of Medicine executive editor Marcia Angell, 56, questions the FDA's action in banning silicone breast implants, noting that they have been found to cause no real long-term side effects.
The Nosocomial (hospital-acquired) Pathogens Laboratory Branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control at Atlanta receives an e-mail message December 16 from Juntendo University, Tokyo, bacteriologist Keiichi Hiramatsu, 47, who has isolated a vancomycin-resistant strain of staphylococcus bacteria. Kalamazoo-born branch chief Fred C. (Carron) Tenover, 42, learns that a 4-month old boy who underwent surgery in May developed a staph infection that was resistant to methicillin and even vancomycin; only 16 to 32 times the usual dose of vancomycin was effective, and by mid-1997 other strains of vancomycin-resistant bacteria will be found, raising alarms worldwide.
The Welfare Reform Act signed into law by President Clinton August 22 contains an amendment sponsored by Sen. John (David) Ashcroft, 54 (R. Mo.), permitting federal funds to be used for delivery of social services by some "faith-based" charities (see Supreme Court decision, 1947). Son of a pentecostal minister in the Assemblies of God, Ashcroft served two terms as governor of Missouri before being elected to the U.S. Senate and has developed a reputation for supporting causes favored by the religious right (opposition to legal abortion, opposition to gun control, approval of school prayer, etc.) (see 2001).
When We Talk about God . . . Let's Be Honest by Mercer University president R. (Raleigh) Kirby Godsey, now 60, angers ecumenicals (fundamentalists) by suggesting that salvation may not depend on an individual's acceptance of Jesus Christ as his or her personal savior. Trustees of the Macon, Ga., university reject calls that Godsey be fired for his "heresy."
Joseph Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago dies of cancer November 14 at age 68 after a career in which he has brought the city's Catholics, Jews, and other religious groups closer together.
President Clinton declares in his State of the Union Message January 23 that his administration is working with the telecommunications industry "to connect every classroom in the entire United States [to the Internet] by the year 2000," but critics contend that the money would be better spent on upgrading teacher training and addressing the problem of overcrowded classrooms.
The U.S. Supreme Court rules 7 to 1 June 26 in United States v. Virginia that Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and other state-financed colleges must admit students of both genders. Four women enter the Citadel at Charleston, S.C., August 26 and survive the grueling physical discipline of "hell week" with 1,770 men (6 percent of them blacks).
Children of U.S. baby boomers join with immigrant children to swell school enrollments in the fall. The Department of Education has expected a record 51.7 million students and tries to cope. The National Commission on Teaching and America's Future issues a report, entitled "What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future," which finds that an alarming number of teachers have not studied the subjects they teach or have otherwise failed to meet licensing requirements that are lax to begin with.
The Oakland, Calif., school board adopts a resolution December 18 giving official recognition to "black English," or Ebonics, as a distinct language. The decision will be reversed after nationwide protests that sanctioning incorrect English will put disadvantaged people at a further disadvantage in the workplace.
A school opened at Habani, Chad, by teacher Achta Abakar, 38, breaks ground in a poor sub-Saharan nation in which rural girls are married off at age 12 or 13 to men at least twice their age and where only 18 percent of girls ever go to school. Half of Ms. Abakar's 60 pupils are girls, but her school lacks books, chairs, tables; the World Bank and Unicef begin an effort to raise school enrollment of girls in Chad.
More than 89,000 U.S. students receive credit for study abroad, up from 48,483 in 1986.
BayGen Power of Milnerton, South Africa, begins production in January of a $40 six-pound AM-FM-shortwave crank-up radio that requires no batteries and can play for half an hour with one or two cranks. Devised by British scientist Trevor Bayliss and backed by British and South African philanthropists who want to bring communication to the masses, the Freeplay radio is produced in a factory employing many handicapped workers.
The Telecommunications Reform Act signed into law by President Clinton February 8 deregulates cable television plus local telephone and cable television monopolies, allegedly to spur competition, and it removes the rule that no company can own more than 40 radio stations nationwide, but the new law has been enacted with little public discussion, and critics charge that it bars an auction of the publicly owned air spectrum, effectively giving the air away to media giants that have collectively poured tens of millions of dollars into lobbying efforts designed to maintain their control. Many companies anticipated the new legislation last year and prepare now to invade each other's markets by offering a range of telephone, video, and high-speed data communications. The American Civil Liberties Union cites First Amendment violations and files suit to overturn a provision of the act that blocks transmission on the Internet of "indecent" material and information about abortion (see 1997; FCC ruling, 2003).
Regional Bell telephone companies ("Baby Bells") begin merging as they install 2.5-gigabit fiberoptic equipment, permitting transmission at the rate of 40 billion bits per second, up from 45 million in 1983.
AT&T announces in late May that on September 21 it will close its last New England office employing telephone operators. The company still has 8,000 operators nationwide, down from 40,000 in 1984, and is reducing that number steadily as it switches to automation.
The Canadian computer-software producer Corel Corp. announces January 31 that it will pay Novell Inc. about $124 million in cash and stock for the WordPerfect Corp. that Novell acquired 2 years ago for $1.4 billion. More than 70 percent of Corel's revenues come from its CorelDraw computer-graphics program (it also produces video-conferencing software and the Ventura desktop publishing program). Novell remains the world's second-largest software maker and maintains that the sale of WordPerfect will enable it to concentrate on its computer-network software business, but users of WordPerfect fear that Microsoft Word (considered slower and clumsier) has taken such a dominant position in word processing that their program will no longer be supported.
The PalmPilot shipped in April, which fits into the palm of the hand, can connect the user to the Internet (see 1995). It will soon have imitators and within 3 years more than 5 million people will be using Pilots or similar devices made by Hewlett-Packard, Sharp Electronics, and others as well as 3Com's U.S. Robotics.
Ask Jeeves, Inc. is founded at Berkeley, Calif., by engineer David Warthen (who has a bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of California, San Diego, and helped found Desktop Software) with backing from Oakland venture capitalist Garrett Gruener with the idea of using technology to let Internet users ask questions in simple, natural language and receive intelligent, intuitive answers in the same simple language (see Alta Vista, 1995). Its business plan calls for generating revenues by offering this technology to companies that want to target, convert, and retain customers online (see Google, 1998).
Microsoft begins shipping its Internet Explorer 3.0 in May (see 1995). The America Online (AOL) Internet system blacks out for nearly 19 hours August 7, disrupting communications for 6 million cyberspace subscribers; human error and a software glitch are blamed.
The Microsoft on-line magazine Slate begins weekly publication in July under the direction of former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, 45.
MSNBC begins airing July 15 in a joint venture between Microsoft (whose Internet service has 1.5 million subscribers) and General Electric's National Broadcasting Co. The new 24-hour cable TV and on-line news program starts with 22.5 million subscribers, having been converted from an NBC-owned channel called America's Talking.
The direct broadcast satellite EchoStar II launched September 10 from Kourou, French Guiana, expands the DISH Network's capacity.
The uncensored Arab-language television news station al-Jazeera begins broadcasting by satellite in November from Doha in the tiny Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar (population 200,000, of whom perhaps 80,000 are adults, plus some 400,000 migrant workers). The emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani was won over by the idea of democracy as a cadet at Sandhurst. His country's natural-gas deposits are the world's third largest, he has loaned al-Jazeera's founders $140 million, and he controls its round-the-clock programming, which can be seen in 22 countries, including many that suppress their news media and forbid open discussion of such issues as genital mutilation, polygamy, repression of women, lack of democracy, Islamic doctrine, and political dissension. Ordinary people are permitted to express their views on the air; however, criticism of Qatar's government is not permitted. Still there is no suppression of anti-American, anti-Zionist, or anti-Islamic terrorist sentiments, and although al-Jazeera will be called variously a tool of the CIA, Israel's Mossad, Iraq's Saddam Hussein, and the Taliban, people in countries such as Iraq (where satellite dishes are forbidden) will trade videos of its broadcasts in the bazaars.
Hearst Corp. puts out the final issue of the Los Angeles Examiner January 7 after 59 years of publication.
Irish investigative reporter Veronica Guerin, 36, of the Sunday Independent is shot to death June 26 in Dublin, bringing to 23 the number of journalists assassinated thus far this year, eight of them in Algeria, six in Russia.
Pravda ceases publication July 30 after losing several million dollars for the two Greek businessmen who bought it in 1992. The paper was launched in 1912, but its circulation has shrunk from 11 million to fewer than 300,000 as its vodka-addled editors hewed to outdated Leninist dogma.
Punch magazine resumes publication after a 4-year suspension following acquisition of its name early in the year by Egyptian-born entrepreneur Mohamed Abdel Al-Fayed, now 67, who will see its subscriber base decline to 6,000 and lose a reported £16 million before shutting it down at the end of May 2002.
Stern magazine founder Henri Nannen dies of cancer at Hanover, Germany, October 13 at age 82.
Nonfiction: Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust by Harvard professor Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, 36; The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts after Communism by New York-born journalist Tina Rosenberg, 37, who joins the New York Times editorial board; Up from Conservatism: Why the Right is Wrong for America by Michael Lind; When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor by William Julius Wilson; Keeping Women and Children Last: America's War on the Poor by Ruth Sidel, who notes that 15.7 million U.S. children—22.7 percent of children—live in the starkest poverty and that nearly 25 percent live below the poverty line; Angela's Ashes by Brooklyn-born New York schoolteacher Frank McCourt, 66. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order by Samuel Huntington; The System: The American Way of Politics at the Breaking Point by Washington Post columnists Haynes Johnson and David S. Broder; The Sibling Society by poet Robert Bly, who argues that Americans are growing up without fathers or even mothers and behave like teenagers left home alone; Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations by New York-born Minneapolis-raised writer and stand-up comedian Al Franken, 44;
Humorist Erma Bombeck dies at Paradise Valley, Ariz., April 22 at age 69; Joseph Mitchell at New York May 24 at age 87; Jane Howard at New York June 27 at age 61; lawyer-author Melvin Belli at San Francisco July 9 at age 88; Jessica Mitford of cancer at her Oakland, Calif., home July 23 at age 78 (her body is cremated at a cost of less than $600); psychedelic drug advocate Timothy Leary dies of cancer at Beverly Hills July 31 at age 75; biographer-poet Charles Norman at Newport, R.I., September 10 at age 92; Diana Trilling at New York October 23 at age 91; Vance Packard on Martha's Vineyard December 12 at age 82; Laurens van der Post at London December 15 at age 90.
Fiction: Last Orders by Graham Swift; The Silver Castle by Clive James; Memoirs of a Geisha by New York-born novelist Arthur Golden, 40, whose bestseller will be translated into 26 languages; Primary Colors by Anonymous (New York-born Newsweek political reporter Joe Klein, 50, initially denies authorship but will be forced by evidence to confess); The Flaming Corsage by William Kennedy; In the Beauty of the Lilies by John Updike; Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood is based on an 1840s Toronto murder case; Slowness (Lenteur) by Milan Kundera; Babel Tower by A. S. Byatt; I Was Amelia Earhart by New York novelist Jane Mendelsohn, 31, whose book has sales of 150,000 copies within months; Infinite Jest by Ithaca, N.Y.-born novelist David Foster Wallace, 33; Every Man for Himself (about the sinking of R.M.S. Titanic in 1912) by Beryl Bainbridge; How Stella Got Her Groove Back by Terry McMillan; The Tailor of Panama by John le Carré.
Novelist Marcia Davenport dies at Monterey, Calif., January 16 at age 92; Eleanor Clark of pneumonia and emphysema at Boston February 16 at age 82; Claude Mauriac at his native Paris March 22 at age 81; Richard Condon of heart and kidney ailments at Dallas April 9 at age 81; Molly Keane at Ardmore, County Waterford, April 22 at age 91; Chiyo Uno at Tokyo June 10 at age 98; Shusaku Endo at his native Tokyo September 29 at age 73; mystery writer Mignon G. Eberhart of a stroke at Greenwich, Conn., October 8 at age 97; mystery writer Harry Kemelman at Marblehead, Mass., December 15 at age 88.
Poetry: Dark Fields of the Republic: Poems 1991-1995 by Adrienne Rich; The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems by Robert Pinsky; Mountains and Rivers Without End by beatnik Gary Snyder, now 66, who began the 40-poem cycle as a young anarchist and radical environmentalist in 1956; Fusewire by Ruth Padel.
Nobel poet Joseph Brodsky dies of a heart attack at his New York home January 28 at age 55; Nobel poet Odysseus Elytis at Athens March 18 at age 84; George Mackay Brown at Kirkwall in his native Orkney Islands April 13 at age 74; Larry Levis of a heart attack at Richmond, Va., May 8 at age 49.
Juvenile: The Golden Compass (in Britain, Northern Lights) by Philip Pullman; The Sin Eater by Massapequa, N.Y.-born Michigan college professor Gary D. Schmidt, 39; The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg, now 65; Golem by David Wisniewski.
Illustrator-author Garth Williams dies at his Guanajuato, Mexico, home May 8 at age 84; author Margaret E. Rey at Cambridge, Mass., December 21 at age 90.
A new Bibliothèque Nationale de France opens at Paris in December (see 1721). Designed by architect Dominique Perrault, the $1.5 billion complex in the city's Tolbiac section consists of four L-shaped glass towers that resemble open books; it contains two auditoriums and a large exhibition area. Its upper-level reference library seats 1,697, and the annual operating budget is the equivalent of $192 million, but its main collection of more than 12 million books will not be moved into the new facility until 1998, when a 2,100-seat research room will open on the ground floor. The 17th-century building in the rue de Richelieu will remain the repository of the government collections of coins, engravings, manuscripts, maps, medals, music, and theatrical items.
Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art opens in a four-story, aluminum-clad building designed by German architect Josef Paul Kleihues.
The Shanghai Museum opens in October in People's Square. Sheathed in pink Spanish granite and built in the shape of an ancient bronze urn, the $70 million structure houses an outstanding collection of bronzes, sculpture, and ceramics.
Thirty-five percent of Americans visit an art museum at least once during the year, up from 22.1 percent in 1982.
Sculpture: Exchange by Richard Serra, whose seven trapezoidal steel slabs tower 65 feet above a highway traffic circle outside Luxembourg City. Hyper-realistic sculptor Duane Hanson dies of lymphatic cancer at Boca Raton, Fla., January 6 at age 70.
Theater: The Beauty Queen of Leenane by London-born playwright Martin McDonagh, 25, 2/1 at Galway's 400-seat Town Hall Theatre, with Mary Mullen, Tom Murphy, Anna Manahan (to London's 586-seat Royal Court Theatre 7/18/1997); A Fair Country by Jon Robin Baitz 2/19 at New York's Mitzi Newhouse Theater, with Judith Ivey, Laurence Luckinbill as Americans living in Durban, South Africa, 153 perfs.; Skylight by David Hare 2/21 at Wyndham's Theatre, London, with Lia Williams, Michael Gambon; Seven Guitars by August Wilson 3/28 at New York's Walter Kerr Theater, with Keith David, Viola Davis, 188 perfs.; Bug by Tracy Letts 9/20 at London's Gate Theatre, with Shannon Cochran, Michael Shannon; Shopping and Fucking by Scottish-born playwright Mark Ravenhill, 31, 9/26 at London's Royal Court Theatre; Art by French playwright Yasmina Reza 10/15 at Wyndham's Theatre, London, with Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay, Ken Stott.
A reconstruction of London's Globe Theatre opens August 21 with a performance of Shakespeare's 1592 comedy Two Gentlemen of Verona (one of the actors literally breaks a leg) (see 1613). An audience of 900 sits on wooden benches in three galleries round the protruding stage. The actor Sam Wanamaker, who died late in 1993, visited the site of the original theater in 1949, found only a plaque to mark the spot, and in 1971 started the Shakespeare Globe Trust to raise funds for a new Globe just like the old one. Actor Mark Rylance (who has doubts as to whether Shakespeare actually wrote all the plays for which he is credited) is artistic director of the Globe, whose first regular season will begin next year.
Actor Martin Balsam dies of a heart attack at Rome February 13 at age 76; playwright Liam O'Brien at Los Angeles March 24 at age 83; actor William Prince at Tarrytown, N.Y., October 8 at age 83; critic-playwright Walter Kerr at Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., October 9 at age 83; actress Beryl Reid of pneumonia following knee surgery at London October 13 at age 76; veteran London Daily Mail drama critic Jack (Samuel) Tinker of a heart attack at London October 28 at age 58 (West End theaters dim their lights).
Television: Third Rock from the Sun 1/9 on NBC with John Lithgow as an alien disguised as a physics professor, Kristen Johnston as his lieutenant (to 5/22/2001); Ace Ventura (animated) 1/20 on CBS; This Life on BBC2 with Jack Davenport, Daniela Nardini, Jason Hughes, Amita Dhiri, Andrew Lincoln; Nash Bridges 3/29 on CBS with Don Johnson as a glib San Francisco police inspector (to 5/4/2001); The Rosie O'Donnell Show 6/7 on WB (ABC in New York) with Commack, N.Y.-born former Oprah Winfrey aide O'Donnell, 34 (to 2002); Seventh Heaven 8/26 on Warner Brothers with Stephen Collins as the easygoing father of five children; Life with Roger 9/8 on WB with Maurice Godin, Mike O'Malley, Hallie Todd (to 3/30/1997); Everybody Loves Raymond 9/13 on CBS with stand-up comedian Ray Romano, Patricia Heaton, Doris Roberts, Peter Boyle, Brad Garrett (to 5/16/2005); Cosby 9/16 on CBS with Bill Cosby as Hilton Lucas, a 60-year-old factory worker laid off by a massive cutback, Phylicia Rashad as his wife (to 9/23/2000); Spin City 9/17 on ABC with Michael J. Fox (as New York City deputy mayor Michael Flaherty), Carla Gugino, Barry Bostwick (to 4/30/2000); The Pretender 9/19 on NBC with Michael T. Weiss as a genius raised by unscrupulous strangers (to 5/13/2000); Suddenly Susan 9/19 on NBC with Brooke Shields, now 31 (to 12/26/2000).
Actor Simon Cadell dies of lymphatic cancer in England March 6 at age 45.
The Museum of Television and Radio opens at Beverly Hills, Calif., in March. A West Coast branch of New York's museum of the same name, it is housed in a gleaming white building designed by architect Richard Meier.
John Kluge's Multimedia is sold at year's end and becomes part of a company that will become USA Network Studios.
Films: Lars Von Trier's Breaking the Waves with Emily Watson; Anthony Minghella's The English Patient with Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Willem Dafoe, Juliette Binoche; Joel Coen's Fargo with Frances McDormand, William H. Macy. Also: Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott's Big Night with Tucci, Tony Shalhoub; Claude Chabrol's La Cérémonie with Jacqueline Bissett, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Sandrine Bonnaire, Isabelle Huppert; Wong Kar-Wai's Chungking Express with Brigitte Lin, Faye Wang; David O. Russell's Flirting with Disaster with Téa Leoni, Ben Stiller; Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet with Branagh, Kate Winslet, Robin Williams, Julie Christie, Billy Crystal, John Gielgud; Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire with Tom Cruise as a sports agent; Takeshi Kitano's Kids Return with Mansanobu Ando, Ken Keneko; Eric Abraham's Kolya with Zdenek Sverak, Andrej Chalimon, Libusa Safrankova; John Sayles's Lone Star with Kansas City-born actor Chris Cooper, 43, Matthew McConaughey, Elizabeth Peña; Al Pacino's documentary Looking for Richard with Pacino; Mike Leigh's Secrets and Lies with Brenda Blethyn; Scott Hicks's Shine with Alex Rafalowicz, Noah Taylor, Geoffrey Rush as Australian concert pianist David Helfgott.
Pioneering film animator Shamus Culhane dies at his New York home February 2 at age 87; actress Audrey Meadows of lung cancer at Los Angeles February 3 at age 69; George Burns at his Beverly Hills home March 9 at age 100; director René Clement in the south of France March 17 at age 72; Greer Garson at Dallas April 6 at age 92; director Peter Glenville at the New York home of a friend June 3 at age 82; Jo Van Fleet at Queens, N.Y., June 10 at age 81; onetime German film star Brigitte Helm at Ascona, Switzerland, June 11 at age 88; Lonnie Elder at Woodland Hills, Calif., June 11 at age 69; producer Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli of heart disease at his Beverly Hills home June 27 at age 87; onetime Hollywood producer Pandro S. Berman at his Beverly Hills home July 13 at age 91; actress Claudette Colbert at her home in the Barbados July 30 at age 92; Joanne Dru of a respiratory illness at her Beverly Hills home September 10 at age 74; Annabella of a heart attack at her Neuilly-sur-Seine home outside Paris September 18 at age 86; Dorothy Lamour at her North Hollywood home September 22 at age 81; Laura La Plante at Los Angeles October 14 at age 92; director Marcel Carné in the Paris suburb of Clamart October 31 at age 90; actor Marcello Mastroianni of pancreatic cancer at his Paris home December 19 at age 72; Lew Ayres at his Beverly Hills home December 30 at age 88.
Hollywood musicals: Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You with Edward Norton, Drew Barrymore, Goldie Hawn, Alan Alda, Woody Allen; Alan Parker's Evita with Madonna; Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise's The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Disney animation, music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Stephen Schwartz in what critics call a "dumbed down" version of the Victor Hugo story that portrays Quasimodo as a lovable fellow, songs that include "Someday."
Fire destroys Venice's La Fenice opera house January 29 after nearly 204 years. It burned down in 1836 but was rebuilt and has been closed for repairs, including installation of a fire-alarm system. Arson is suspected.
Soprano Dorothy Maynor dies at West Chester, Pa., February 19 at age 85.
Ballet producer Lincoln Kirstein dies at his New York home January 5 at age 88; dancer-director Gene Kelly at his Beverly Hills home February 2 at age 83; Russian-born dancer Tamara Toumanova at Santa Monica May 29 at age 77; choreographer Ulysses Dove of AIDS at New York June 11 at age 49; tap dancer Paul Draper of emphysema at his Woodstock, N.Y., home September 20 at age 86.
Stage musicals: Bring in 'Da Noise Bring in 'Da Funk: A Tap/Rap Discourse on the Staying Power of the Beat 4/25 at New York's Ambassador Theater (after a run at the Public Theater), with tap dancers Savion Glover, 22, Baakari Wilder, 19, Dulé Hill, Jimmy Tate, Vincent Bingham, former street musicians Jared Crawford, 20, Raymond King, 21, 1,135 perfs.; Rent 4/29 at New York's Nederlander Theater (after a sold-out run at the 150-seat off-Broadway Theater Workshop) with Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, book derived from the 1896 Puccini opera La Bohème, rock music and AIDS-oriented lyrics by Jonathan Larson (who has died of an aortic aneurism January 25 at age 35), 3,350+ perfs.; Whistle Down the Wind 12/12 at Washington's National Theater, with music by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Jim Steinman.
Dancer Juliet Prowse dies of pancreatic cancer at Holmby Hills, Calif., September 14 at age 59; onetime Broadway musical star Gene Nelson at Los Angeles September 16 at age 76; dancer Paul Draper of emphysema at his Woodstock, N.Y., home September 20 at age 86.
Popular songs: Odelay (CD) by Beck; Falling into You (CD) by Celine Dion, whose recordings enjoy wide sales in a year when other recording artists falter; Blue (CD) by LeAnn Rimes, 14, launches the Jackson, Miss.,-born singer on a major career; New Adventures in Hi-Fi (CD) by R.E.M., which signs an $80 million contract in 1996 with Warner (the largest contract in industry history); "Change the World" by Gordon Kennedy, Wayne Kirkpatrick, Tommy Sims (sung by Eric Clapton); Dilate (CD) by Buffalo, N.Y., singer Ani DiFranco, 26; "Colossal Head" by the Latino rock band Los Lobos; Mercury Falling (CD) by Sting, now 44; No Code (CD) by Pearl Jam; From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah (CD) by Nirvana; It's a Man's World (CD) by Cher, now 50; Go, Cat, Go! (CD) by Carl Perkins in collaboration with George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Johnny Cash, Paul Simon, and others; Secrets (CD) by Toni Braxton includes "Find Me a Man"; Fairweather Johnson (CD) by Hootie and the Blowfish; Down Every Road (CD) by Merle Haggard; Tidal (CD) by New York singer-songwriter Fiona Apple, 18, includes "The First Taste," "Sullen Girl," and "Tidal"; Sheryl Crow (CD) by Sheryl Crow includes "If It Makes You Happy"; The Score (CD) by the Fugees, a New Jersey trio (Haitian-born guitarist [Nelust] Wyclif Jean, 23; his cousin [Samuel] Prakazrel "Pras" Michel, 23; and South Orange-born vocalist Lauryn Hill, 21) whose work combines rap, reggae, rhumba, and jazz; All Eyez on Me (CD) by the late gangsta-rap artist Tupac Shakur, who has died at a Las Vegas hospital September 13 at age 25 after being shot in the street following an incident in which he allegedly "beat and stomped" an unidentified man at the MGM Grand Hotel; Tha Doggfather (CD) by Snoop Doggy Dogg; ATliens (CD) by Atlanta rap duo OutKast (Big Boi [Savannah-born rapper Antwan Andre Patton] and Dre [Andre Lauren Benjamin], both 21).
Jazz innovator Gerry Mulligan dies at his Darien, Conn., home January 20 at age 68 of complications following knee surgery; composer-conductor Morton Gould dies at an Orlando, Fla., hotel February 21 at age 82; Grand Ole Opry veteran Minnie Pearl of complications from a stroke at Nashville March 4 at age 83; mariachi singer Lola Beltrán at Mexico City March 24 at age 64; legendary jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald at her Beverly Hills home June 15 at age 79. A diabetic, she had both of her legs amputated below the knee in 1993 but continued to perform; country singer-songwriter Charlie Rich dies of a pulmonary embolism at a Hammond, La., motel July 25 at age 62; songwriter Evelyn Danzig at Los Angeles July 26 at age 94; bluegrass pioneer mandolinist-songwriter Bill Monroe of a stroke at Springfield, Tenn., September 9 at age 84; songwriter Paul Wexton at Santa Monica, Calif., September 20 at age 89; songwriter Irving Gordon of cancer at Los Angeles November 1 at age 81; songwriter Irving Caesar at New York December 17 at age 101.
Dallas beats Pittsburgh 27 to 17 at Phoenix January 28 in Super Bowl XXX. Former National Football League commissioner Peter Rozelle dies of brain cancer at Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., December 6 at age 70, having doubled the size of the NFL and established the tradition of Monday Night Football on television.
Bullfighter Dominguin (Luis Miguel Gonzales Lucas) dies of heart failure at his home in Sotogrande, Spain, May 8 at age 69.
Richard Krajicek, 24, (Neth.) wins in men's singles at Wimbledon—the first Dutch player to win and the first non-seeded player since seeding (ranking on the basis of past performance) began in 1927, Steffi Graf wins in women's singles (her seventh Wimbledon title); Pete Sampras wins his fourth U.S. Open, Graf her fifth. Onetime tennis champion René "Le Crocodile" Lacoste dies at St.-Jean-de-Luz, France, October October 12 at age 92.
The Centennial Olympic games at Atlanta attract athletes from 197 countries, but the games are marred by a pipe bomb explosion that kills a Georgia woman and injures scores of other people. Winner of the marathon is Josia Thugwane, 25, who becomes the first black South African to win an Olympic gold medal; Ethiopian runner Haile Gebrselassie wins the 10,000 meter in a record 27:07.34; Carl Lewis, now 35, wins his ninth gold medal with a record jump of 27 feet 10 3/4 inches; Dallas runner Michael Johnson, 28, wins the 400-meter dash and then does the 200-meter in a record 19.32 seconds; Idaho athlete Dan O'Brien, 30, wins the decathlon; but the gold-medal victory of the U.S. women's gymnastic team and the heroics of 87-pound gymnast Kerri Strug, 18, revives criticism that training girls from age 6 and even younger amounts to child abuse.
The Los Angeles Lakers sign seven-foot-one, 320-pound Orlando Magic basketball center Shaquille O'Neal, 24, to a 7-year, $120 million deal (Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls will be paid a reported $25 million per year, and endorsement deals give each player far more than they are paid to play), but a ticket to a Lakers game jumps to an average price of $38.50, and the lowest price rises from $9.50 last season to $21—beyond the reach of the typical middle-class fan.
The Chicago Bulls end their regular season in April with a National Basketball Association record of 72 wins, 10 losses (the previous record, set by the Los Angeles Lakers in 1972-73, was 69 and 13); led by Michael Jordan, the Bulls beat the Knicks in the May playoffs and go on in June to defeat Seattle for their fourth NBA title.
Golfer Tiger Woods wins an unprecedented third consecutive United States Amateur tournament, quits Stanford to turn pro August 28, signs endorsement deals worth $60 million, and by October 20 has won two PGA Tour events.
Former Oakland Athletics owner Charles O. "Charlie" Finley dies of heart and vascular ailments at Chicago February 19 at age 77.
The New York Yankees win the World Series, defeating the Atlanta Braves 4 games to 2.
Evander Holyfield regains the world heavyweight title at age 34, defeating Mike Tyson, now 30, November 9 by a technical knockout in the 11th round at Las Vegas.
Legoland Windsor opens in March just west of London's Heathrow Airport (see 1968). Built at a cost of more than $127 million, it occupies 150 acres of woodland near Windsor palace and appeals mostly to children under age 7 and their parents (see 1999).
Sotheby's auction house puts the estate of the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis up for sale at New York in April; eager buyers pay $34.5 million for commonplace items that include a footstool which fetches $33,350, a cigar humidor ($547,500), a set of MacGregor golf woods and bag ($772,500), a leather desk set ($189,500), and a rocking horse ($85,000).
Rolodex inventor Arnold Neustadter dies at New York April 17 at age 85; Hollywood cosmetician Max Factor Jr. dies of a heart attack at his Los Angeles June 7 at age 91.
Britain's Prince of Wales and his estranged wife agree on divorce terms July 11; Charles will give Princess Diana a reported $26 million in cash, plus $600,000 per year to maintain her private office, but she may no longer be called "Her Royal Highness." The final decree is issued August 28 (see 1997).
Nintendo introduces the video game Pokémon (Pocket Monsters, or Poketto Monstaa) in Japan for its portable Game Boy (see 1989). Game Freak magazine publisher Satoshi Tajiro, 31, has developed the game, which comes in blue, red, and green versions; using Game Boy's link cables, it requires that a player begin in a village and set out to become a certified monster trainer as he tries to collect all of the game's 150 monsters. Elementary-school pupils find the game addictive, and sales will take off next year following release of a Pokémon cartoon series (see Yu-Gi-Oh, 1999).
The Milky Gel Roller introduced in Japan by Tokyo's Pentel Co. is a cross between a roller-ball pen and a ballpoint with a smooth-gliding gel-based ink in phosphorescent colors. The $1.99 gelly pen will enjoy a brief fad in Japan, and when it is introduced in America 2 years hence it will become a must-have item for kids aged 4 to 14, who will use it to turn themselves, their siblings, and their friends into graffiti walls, scrawling easily erasable pictures and notes all over hands, faces, ankles, arms, and legs, raising safety fears and forcing Pentel to announce, "We definitely don't recommend Milkys for use on the skin."
The miniature video game Tamagotchi is introduced in Japan in November by Bandai Co. of Power Rangers fame. A "virtual pet" on a key chain, the game's object is to feed, clean, and otherwise care for a virtual chicken, and Bandai will sell 21 million of them worldwide within a year. Sega Enterprises will acquire Bandai next year.
Crazy Bones plastic figures are introduced under the name GoGos by the Spanish firm Magic Box International, which will sell $300 million worth of the popcorn-size characters in Europe in 30 months; the U.S. firm Toy Craze will buy U.S merchandising rights next year and rename the characters. Tickle Me Elmo is the hottest-selling Christmas toy in America. Produced in four factories in southern China and introduced in July by Tyco Toys, the $30 doll is based on a Children's Television Network Sesame Street character, as was Barney; demand for it quickly outpaces supplies.
Brazil enacts a federal law in July that bans smoking in public buildings and private establishments open to the public (e.g., movie theaters, libraries, restaurants, hospitals) except when separate, well-ventilated smoking sections are provided. The law prohibits smoking on airline flights of less than 1 hour. Enforcement of state regulations has been lax except in São Paulo.
China leads the world in cigarette consumption (1,791 trillion per year), followed by the United States (488 billion), Japan (335 billion), Russia (180 billion), and Indonesia (173 billion). Greeks are the world's heaviest smokers, with an annual per-capita consumption of 139 packs, as compared to 133 packs in Japan, 118 in Poland, 92 in the United States (which ranks 11th). Worldwide sales of cigarettes reach $195.8 billion, and smokers worldwide consume more than 5.5 trillion cigarettes. Philip Morris has 16.2 percent of the world tobacco market (its Marlboro brand has an 8.4 percent world market share), BAT Industries 12.8 percent, R. J. Reynolds 5.9 percent (its Winston brand has 1.6 percent of the world market, Camel has 1.2 percent), Japan Tobacco 5.1 percent (its Mild Seven brand has 2.3 percent of the world market), Rothmans 4.2 percent. Americans spend $46.6 billion per year on tobacco products, 28.2 percent of men still smoke and 23.1 percent of women, smoking-related illness costs the nation $50 billion per year, 70 percent of smokers say they'd like to quit, those who do quit gain an average of three to five pounds, Americans spend $417.7 million per year on products that are supposed to help them quit, but 3,000 children per day become regular smokers, and the average age of kids who start is 13.
Retired air-traffic controller (and former cigarette smoker) Grady Carter, 67, of Jacksonville, Fla., wins a precedent-shattering $750,000 verdict against Brown & Williamson Tobacco August 9 for giving him cancer, which is in remission (Philip Morris stock drops 14 percent on news of the verdict, losing $11 billion of its value). President Clinton signs legislation August 23 placing sharp restrictions on cigarette advertising to keep Joe Camel and the Marlboro Man away from children, 6,000 of whom start smoking each day and 3,000 of whom become addicted; 124 members of the House and 32 senators signed a letter in January objecting to an FDA proposal designed to reduce teenage smoking by 50 percent, Congress has overridden their objections, and the new law softens FDA proposals to ban all vending-machine sales and prohibit sales of tobacco products through the mail. Philip Morris and other companies mount legal challenges to the advertising restrictions. The announcement by FDA head David Kessler in late November that he will resign as soon as a replacement can be found brings cheer to tobacco companies and other industries that the FDA has sought to regulate (but see 1997).
Burmese opium baron Khun Sa, 61, surrenders to authorities in early January on the promise of amnesty. His insurgent army, once thought to number 20,000, has brought Khun Sa billions by taxing opium traders; his network has supplied U.S. heroin addicts with perhaps 60 percent of their opium; the Golden Triangle (parts of Burma, Laos, and Thailand) remains the world's chief source of opium. A federal grand jury indicted Khun Sa in December 1989 on 10 counts of importing or trying to smuggle 3,500 pounds of heroin into New York from 1986 to 1988, but the Burmese government refuses to extradite him.
Mexican authorities arrest reputed drug trafficking lord Juan García Abrego at Monterey January 14; extradited to the United States, he is arraigned on murder charges February 6 at Houston. Following the example of his uncle, Juan N. Guerra, 80, of Matamoros, García has allegedly avoided arrest by paying millions of dollars in bribes to politicians, police commanders and customs officers, maintaining a large private army while he built up a cocaine empire worth an estimated $10 billion.
Mexican billionaire Carlos Peralta Quintero reveals in late January that in April 1994 he gave $50 million to Raul Salinas de Gortari, elder brother of former president Carlos Salinas, to invest in real estate projects. The money evidently wound up in a Swiss bank account opened by Raul under an assumed name; Raul has denied accepting drug money to help Carlos, who has taken refuge abroad to escape prosecution.
William F. Buckley's National Review states February 12 that the war against drugs has been a failure and calls for decriminalization. A National Household Survey on Drug Abuse released August 20 shows that 12.8 million Americans report having used drugs in the past 12 months; while usage has been flat among older people, teenage usage, mostly of marijuana, more than doubled between 1992 and 1995.
President Clinton declares March 1 that Colombia has failed to cooperate in the war against drugs, making that country the first democracy to be placed in the same category as Afghanistan, Burma, Iran, Nigeria, and Syria with respect to narcotics and removing her eligibility for most U.S. economic aid. Colombia's president Ernesto Samper attacks the U.S. decision, having denied charges that he solicited more than $6 million in contributions from the Calí cocaine cartel to finance his 1994 election campaign.
Scottish loner and gun enthusiast Thomas Hamilton enters the gymnasium of the Dunblane Primary School March 13 carrying several licensed handguns, opens fire on a class of 29 children aged 5 and 6, kills 16 of them and their teacher, then shoots himself dead (see 1987; handgun restrictions, 1997).
A fire at Manila's Ozone Disco Pub in suburban Quezon City March 19 kills at least 150 guests and staff. Authorities say 350 to 400 people were packed into premises designed to hold 35 but club and restaurant owners commonly ignore safety laws, bribing inspectors and officials to overlook violations.
FBI agents seize Montana hermit Theodore J. "Ted" Kaczynski, 53, April 3 and hold him on suspicion that he is the "Unabomber" whose mail bombs have killed three and maimed 23 since 1978. Kaczynski's brother has told authorities where to find him, and Ted will be sentenced after a trial to life imprisonment.
A 29-year-old Australian with a history of psychological problems pulls a rifle from a tennis bag at a tourist site outside Port Arthur, Tasmania, April 28, calmly opens fire, and methodically kills 35 people, including two Malaysians and an Indian. He wounds 18, tries to kill another 20, and barricades himself with three hostages inside a guest house; police surround the place for 12 hours, and they capture the gunman after he sets fire to the house.
Trial lawyer Melvin M. Belli dies at San Francisco July 9 at age 88, having made a reputation as "King of Torts."
The U.S. Department of Justice announces September 17 that 9 percent fewer violent crimes were committed in the United States last year than in 1994. Crime in New York City falls even more dramatically, with the fewest number of homicides since 1968.
Arizona and California voters approve a measure that would legalize possession of marijuana, but the White House issues a warning December 30 that federal laws against possession will be enforced.
The parents of 6-year-old Boulder, Colo., girl JonBenét Ramsey tell police December 26 that she is missing from their home, apparently having been kidnapped. Her body is then discovered in a basement storeroom of the house with a garrote around her neck and duct tape over her mouth. Police suspect Patsy and John Ramsey of murder, and they will be indicted, but the widely-publicized case will remain unsolved.
Real estate developer James W. Rouse dies of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) at his Columbia, Md., home April 9 at age 81, having helped to build affordable urban housing, created the planned community of Columbia, and transformed decaying urban centers into such "festival marketplaces" as Baltimore's Harborplace, Boston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace, and New York's South Street Seaport. He is credited with having coined the term urban renewal.
The Blizzard of '96 that hits the eastern United States January 7 to 8 is the worst since 1947; the Nor'easter is followed 2 weeks later by ruinous floods in much of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and New York. Los Angeles, meanwhile, has record high temperatures, whereas record lows ensue in the Plains states, and Arctic air grips the northeast and southeast. Pennsylvania and the Pacific Northwest have devastating floods in February. Some meterologists, paradoxically, blame the aberrations on global warming (see 1995).
A Chinese earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale rocks Yunnan Province 200 miles northwest of Kunming February 4, killing nearly 300 and injuring 14,000, 3,800 of them seriously. The quake and its aftershocks destroy 186,000 homes, leaving people to face record low overnight temperatures of 10° F.
The tanker Sea Empress runs aground in rough weather February 15 at Milford Haven, Wales, and leaks 65,000 tons of crude oil (the Exxon Valdez in 1989 leaked only 38,000), leaving a 25-mile slick that washes up on islands along the Pembrokeshire coast.
Poland acts to halt logging operations in the nation's dense forest Puszcza Bialowieska. Under communist rule this vast woodland area was preserved as a hunting ground for commissars, but commercial timber interests have been permitted since 1989 to fell trees for lumber.
Mongolia has forest and grass fires that peak in late April, devastating 8.6 million acres of forest and 14.3 million acres of grasslands. The grasslands can regenerate within a year, but livestock herds on the northern steppes will meanwhile be imperiled.
The Huanghe (Yellow River) in northern China crests at its highest level in history, raising fears that it could breach its main dikes and kill up to 3 million people; the Yangzi (Yangtze) floods its banks in July and August, killing more than 2,700 people, ruining crops, and leaving more than 4.4 million homeless (1995 floods killed more than 2,000, 1991 and 1994 floods more than 5,000 each). The Beijing government has put some $27 billion—4 percent of all public spending—on water-control projects since 1949, building 120,000 miles of dikes, but it has not sufficed.
African wildlife champion Mervyn Cowie dies in Suffolk, England, July 19 at age 87; painter-ornithologist Roger Tory Peterson at his Old Lyme, Conn., home July 28 at age 87, having seen his 1934 Field Guide to the Birds enjoy sales of more than 5 million copies (his works have been available on a CD-ROM since May).
Hurricane Fran sweeps through the Caribbean, strikes southeastern states September 6, kills 34 (21 in North Carolina alone), and causes more than $1 billion worth of property damage. Hurricane Hortense follows on Fran's heels, creating havoc in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
A cyclone roars through Andhra Pradesh on India's southeast coast November 6, ravaging more than 800 villages and killing at least 1,000 (and possibly twice that many) (see 1999).
The Freedom to Farm Act signed into law by President Clinton April 4 ends Depression-era subsidy programs and government controls on what farmers can plant and what fields must be left idle. Replacing them is a system that guarantees payments, based on past subsidies, that gradually decline over 7 years (but sugar subsidies remain untouched, albeit with elimination of some loan guarantees). Clinton expresses disappointment that the law "fails to provide an adequate safety net for family farmers" but promises to submit legislation that will strengthen the safety net. Grain prices set record highs as world stocks dwindle, but critics of the new law say it leaves farmers vulnerable when prices or production fall, and within 4 years it will have few supporters.
Drought withers crops in much of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, and while modern tilling methods minimize the possibility of new dust bowls the rainfall in some areas is lower than in the 1930s. Cattle prices plummet as farmers and ranchers sell off their herds because they cannot feed stock when feedstuffs such as corn are so costly.
The Environmental Protection Agency gives approval to so-called Bt corn, which by 1999 will account for up to 25 percent of the U.S. corn crop. DNA from the common soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis has been spliced into the corn's genes, enabling it to produce the same toxin as the bacterium and thereby kill the corn borer without using insecticides, thus saving U.S. farmers more than $1 billion per year.
Honeybees in some states suffer alarming losses as a result partly of severe weather, partly of depredations by the tracheal mite and Varroa mite, first seen in the mid 1980s. Since the bees do 80 percent of the insect pollinating on which so many fruit and vegetable crops depend, the decline in honeybees forces many farmers to rent bee colonies from other states (see 1997).
A report by the American Farmland Trust cites studies by the California Department of Finance projecting a tripling of the Central Valley's population to 12 million by 2080, requiring housing construction that will consume more than 1 million of the 300-by-50-mile valley's 6.7 million acres of irrigated farmland.
Washington decides in February to extend $2 million in food aid to North Korea despite advice from South Korea and Japan that such assistance is not warranted (see 1995; politics, 1994). President Clinton formalizes a plan in June to give even more U.S. food aid to the North Koreans, and this time Tokyo and Seoul make similar pledges; White House officials say they will try to ensure that the UN distributes the food to the neediest, but skeptics say most of it will go to feed North Korea's 1.2-million-man army. South Korean newspapers report June 9 that North Korea received $130 million in insurance compensation for 1994 crop damage but has not used it to import grain for hunger relief (see 1999).
Beijing launches a campaign to eliminate the iodine deficiency that not only causes goiter but has also produced more than 10 million cases of mental retardation, the result of iodine deprivation during infantile brain development among inland Chinese. Distribution of ionized salt in the next 5 years will reduce iodine deficiency from 13 percent to 3 percent in a target group, raising average IQ levels by 10 to 15 percent.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announces February 28 that it will require all enriched foods to be fortified with the B-complex vitamin folic acid to prevent birth defects such as spina bifida, a devastating defect that occurs when the neural tube, which forms the spinal column, fails to close during fetal development. It is the first new fortification order since 1943.
The Food and Drug Administration gives approval November 25 to the antidepressant drug Prozac for treating the eating disorder bulimia; many physicians are already treating such bulimic patients with Eli Lilly's Prozac and other anti-depressants through "off-label" use (see consumer protection, 1997).
European countries ban imports of British beef in March, nations as far distant as New Zealand and Singapore follow suit, and beef consumption plummets following reports that eight people, all under age 42 and all thought to have come into contact with bovine spongiform encephalopathy ("mad cow disease"), have died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (see medicine, 1982; U.S. ban, 1989). The number of infected cows has dropped from 36,000 in 1992 to 14,000 last year, but since the human disease is so devastating and has an incubation period of up to 15 years, there is widespread fear of an epidemic; the European Union demands a wholesale slaughter of British cattle, and the issue threatens to produce a trade war. Prime Minister Major announces September 19 that Britain will scrap a planned slaughter of 147,000 head most at risk and, instead, slaughter only 22,000, but Major's minister of agriculture announces December 16 that up to 100,000 head will be selectively slaughtered to hasten a gradual lifting of the ban and will press for an easing of restrictions against beef from "certified" herds (grass-fed beef from Scotland and northern Ireland). The European Union's ban on British beef exports will continue until November 1998 (see Canada, U.S., 2003).
President Clinton announces July 6 that U.S. meat and poultry inspection methods will be overhauled for the first time, with scientific tests for disease-causing bacteria augmenting traditional subjective "sniff and poke" methods that leave 20 percent of U.S. broiler chickens and 49 percent of turkey products with at least traces of salmonella bacteria (salmonella infections kill more than 4,000 per year and sicken as many as 5 million). Abbatoirs, packing plants, and government inspectors share responsibility under the new system, which builds on standards set for seafood inspection 9 months ago; it sets new limits for contamination, is to take effect in stages, and is expected to save thousands of lives per year along with billions of dollars in health costs (see 1997).
Procter & Gamble's non-caloric fat substitute olestra gains FDA approval January 24 despite opposition from some scientists for use in "certain snack foods," such as potato chips, crackers, and tortilla chips. P&G scientists discovered the sucrose-polyester-based molecule while searching for an easily digestible fat for premature infants. The company spent $500 million to develop the product, and it submitted the sucrose polyester for approval in 1987.
Americans drink on average 11 gallons of bottled water per year, up from 1.5 gallons in 1976 (Europeans average 19 gallons). U.S. consumption has grown by 9 percent annually, and although sales pale by comparison with soft-drink sales (about $30 billion) they reach an impressive $3.4 billion.
A poll taken by the National Restaurant Association suggests that nearly 40 percent of U.S. workers do not take a real lunch break and 45 percent say they have less time for lunch than they once did. The lunch hour is viewed as a luxury that no longer fits into the world of down-sized businesses, heavier work loads, and time-pressed families with two working parents. The trend has created a boom in take-out meals and corporate catering.
President Clinton vetoes a bill April 10 that would have outlawed "partial birth" abortions—a certain type of late-term abortion—even when it was needed to safeguard a woman's health: women, he says, "should not become pawns in a larger debate" (but see 2003).
The World Population Data Sheet released July 2 by the private Population Reference Bureau at Washington shows that populations are shrinking in the Baltic states, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, and Ukraine (European couples average only 1.5 children) but growing fast in the Middle East and Africa (where couples average six children), despite the ravages of AIDS in Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and 14 to 24 other African nations. The data predict that the United States—the fastest growing country in the industrialized world—will double in population in 145 years. World populations can be stabilized only if married couples average two children each, the Bureau says.
China's population continues to grow as rural couples routinely pay substantial fines for violating the one-child rule, and rich businessmen have three, four, and even five children by different women, especially in southern China (see 1988). Fines are higher in Guangdong province, the only province where couples living in the countryside are automatically allowed to have two children. Officials have banned the use of ultrasound and other means to determine the sex of fetuses, and although their use continues illegally the ratio between male and female has fallen to 106.6 males to every 100 females, down from 108.5 in 1930 and 107.6 in 1953.
The FDA rules September 18 that the French abortion pill RU-486 (mifepristone) is safe and effective in ending pregnancies early when used "under close medical supervision" in combination with misoprostol (see 1995). Roussel-Uclaf has donated its U.S. patent rights to the New York-based Population Council, which has hired a U.S. manufacturer to produce the pill and awaits final FDA approval for marketing it, but the would-be distributor becomes embroiled in legal problems, delaying efforts to make RU-486 available in America (see 2000).
An omnibus spending bill signed into law by President Clinton September 30 contains a separate bill that cracks down on illegal immigration with 1,000 new border patrol agents per year, more physical barriers on the Mexican border even if they interfere with endangered-species laws, stricter penalties for smugglers caught trying to bring in aliens, 1,200 new Immigration and Naturalization Service investigators to ferret out immigrants who have committed even minor crimes before passage of the bill, longer prison terms (up to 15 years instead of 5) for document fraud, new financial conditions for sponsors of legal immigrants (but lower minimum income requirements than those recommended by a congressional conference), and fresh restrictions against would-be immigrants seeking political asylum. Deportation of non-citizens for retroactive offenses has been thrown out by a House conference but reinstated by the Republican House and Senate committee leaders in a conference from which Democrats were barred, and while even some proponents of the measure agree that such deportations may often be unfair they will say they expected judges to use their discretion to ignore that part of the measure even though the overall intent of the new law has been to remove such discretion (see 1997).
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