Events, Verisoph

17 August 1998 Russia defaults on domestic debt ai_extracted 1 cit. On August 17, 1998, Russia defaulted on its domestic debt as the Asian crisis spread to other emerging markets, with Brazil soon teetering on the verge of collapse. ●●●●

September 1998 Mahathir imposes capital controls in Malaysia ai_extracted 1 cit. In September 1998 Malaysian leader Mohammad Mahathir imposed controls on short-term capital movements, stabilizing the exchange rate while the central bank stepped up credit creation and the government cleaned up bank balance sheets without IMF-style reforms. ●●●

September 1998 New York Fed organizes LTCM bailout ai_extracted 1 cit. At the end of September 1998, New York Fed chairman William McDonough summoned the heads of major Wall Street and European banks and organized a cartel-like bailout of the failing hedge fund LTCM, averting a full-blown default. ●●●

April 1998 Bank of Japan stops publishing sectoral loan data ai_extracted 1 cit. In April 1998, upon gaining legal independence, the Bank of Japan stopped publishing the monthly sectoral bank loan data it had compiled since 1942 as the basis of its window guidance credit allocation. ●●

September 1998 Call rate lowered to near zero ai_extracted 1 cit. In September 1998 the overnight call rate was lowered to about 0.3 percent while ten-year government bond yields dropped to 0.7 percent, sparking debate that interest rate policy had reached its limit. ●●

1998 Bank of Japan granted independence ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1998 the Bank of Japan was granted independence in its operational and policy goals from the elected government, making externally imposed policy targets hard to implement. ●●●

1998 Big Bang financial deregulation begins ai_extracted 1 cit. A sweeping financial sector deregulation program known as the Big Bang began in Japan in 1998 as part of the Hashimoto reforms. ●●●

1998 Japanese suicides peak amid recession ai_extracted 1 cit. Suicides in Japan rose to 31,755 in 1998, a rise linked by observers to the recession. ●●

1998 Hayami becomes BoJ governor after 1998 resignation scandal ai_extracted 1 cit. Masaru Hayami stepped in as Bank of Japan governor in early 1998 after deputy governor Fukui and governor Matsushita resigned over a scandal. ●●●

10 April 1998 Good Friday Agreement 0 cit. Agreement between the British and Irish governments and Northern Ireland parties ending three decades of the Troubles, establishing power-sharing and the principle of consent. It was approved by referendums on both sides of the border. diplomacy / politics / war ●●●

17 July 1998 Rome Statute 0 cit. Treaty establishing the International Criminal Court to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. It created the first permanent international criminal tribunal. diplomacy / politics / society ●●●●

30 September 1998 Founding of ICANN 0 cit. no story The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is incorporated in California to manage the internet's domain name system and address allocation, taking over functions previously run under US government contract. diplomacy / technology ●●●

6 May 1998 to 18 June 2000 Eritrean-Ethiopian War 0 cit. no story Eritrea and Ethiopia fight a trench war over a disputed border town, killing tens of thousands. A cold standoff follows until the 2018 peace agreement. war ●●●

28 February 1998 to 11 June 1999 Kosovo War 0 cit. no story The Kosovo Liberation Army fights Serbian forces whose ethnic cleansing prompts a 78-day NATO bombing campaign. Serbia withdraws and Kosovo comes under UN administration, declaring independence in 2008. politics / war ●●●

1 June 1998 Founding of the European Central Bank 0 cit. The ECB is established in Frankfurt to run monetary policy for the coming single currency, launched in 1999. It becomes the central bank for the euro, the money of some twenty European countries. economy / politics ●●●●●

4 September 1998 Founding of Google 0 cit. Stanford students Larry Page and Sergey Brin incorporate Google in a Menlo Park garage. Its PageRank search engine and advertising model make it the gateway to the web and one of history's most profitable companies. economy / technology ●●●●

11 November 1998 Founding of Tencent 0 cit. Pony Ma and partners found Tencent in Shenzhen, launching the QQ messenger. Its WeChat super-app and games business make it China's most valuable technology company. economy / technology ●●●●

11 May 1998 Pokhran-II tests 0 cit. India detonates five devices at Pokhran, including a claimed thermonuclear design, and declares itself a nuclear weapons state. The tests end 24 years of restraint and provoke sanctions and a Pakistani response within weeks. politics / war ●●●●

28 May 1998 Chagai-I, Pakistan's first nuclear tests 0 cit. Pakistan detonates five devices in the Ras Koh Hills two weeks after India's tests, becoming the seventh declared nuclear power. The subcontinent's rivalry is now openly nuclear on both sides. politics / war ●●●●

7 August 1998 1998 US embassy bombing in Nairobi 6 cit. Al-Qaeda detonated a truck bomb outside the United States embassy in Nairobi, killing about 213 people and wounding thousands. The attack brought Osama bin Laden to global prominence and reshaped US counterterrorism policy. politics / war ●●●●

7 August 1998 1998 US embassy bombing in Dar es Salaam 0 cit. Minutes after the Nairobi attack, a coordinated Al-Qaeda truck bomb struck the United States embassy in Dar es Salaam, killing 11 people and injuring dozens. politics / war ●●●

15 August 1998 Omagh bombing 0 cit. A car bomb planted by the Real IRA killed 29 people in the town of Omagh. It was the deadliest single attack of the Northern Ireland conflict and came months after the Good Friday Agreement. politics / war ●●●

1998 Web search 0 cit. Google launched a search engine that ranked pages by their links, making the growing web usefully searchable. Fast, relevant search became the main way people find information online. technology ●●●

4 September 1998 Google founded 0 cit. Larry Page and Sergey Brin incorporated Google on 4 September 1998. Its search engine became the main gateway to online information and a dominant force in digital advertising. economy / technology ●●●●

17 August 1998 1998 Russian Financial Default 0 cit. Russia defaulted on its debt and devalued the ruble amid falling oil prices and fiscal strain. The crisis wiped out savings and deepened public anger at the reforms of the 1990s. economy / politics ●●●

c. 1998 Central bank independence becomes standard 0 cit. Through the late twentieth century many countries gave their central banks legal independence to set interest rates and target inflation without direct political control. The founding of the European Central Bank reflected this widely adopted model. economy / politics ●●●

1998 PayPal and online payments 0 cit. PayPal grew out of a startup founded in 1998 and let people send money by email, which made online commerce practical for individuals and small sellers. It became a leading way to pay on the early internet. economy / technology ●●●

8 October 1998 to 2007 The Nazi War Crimes disclosure opens intelligence files 0 cit. A US law required the declassification of records on Nazi war criminals, leading an interagency group to release millions of previously secret pages. The files revealed postwar recruitment of former Nazis by Western intelligence agencies. politics / war ●●●

c. 1998 Global Cabal and Reptilian Myths contested 0 cit. Some conspiracy theories claim a hidden cabal, sometimes described in fantastical or reptilian terms, secretly runs the world. These claims have no evidence and often repackage older antisemitic secret society tropes. culture / society ●●

17 August 1998 The Russian default 0 cit. Russia devalued the ruble and defaulted on domestic debt despite IMF support, deepening doubts about the Fund's crisis response. The episode also fed criticism that Western-backed shock reforms had fueled corruption and oligarchy. economy / politics ●●●

c. 1998 The one-size-fits-all critique 0 cit. Stiglitz and others charged that the IMF applied a standard austerity and liberalization template regardless of local conditions. Supporters replied that core principles of sound money and open markets apply broadly. economy / politics ●●●

c. 1998 The debate over whether conditionality worked 0 cit. Decades of studies reach mixed conclusions on whether Bank and Fund conditions improved growth and stability or deepened downturns. The evidence supports neither a clean success story nor a simple tale of harm. economy / politics ●●●

20 November 1998 First module of the space station launched 0 cit. The Russian-built Zarya module became the first piece of the International Space Station in orbit. Over the next decade the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada assembled the outpost. politics / science / technology ●●●●

November 1998 Scientology's Flag Service Organization is charged over McPherson's death 0 cit. Florida prosecutors indicted the church's Flag Service Organization on felony charges of abusing or neglecting a disabled adult and practicing medicine without a license. The charges were dropped in 2000 after the cause of death was reclassified. politics ●●●

8 October 1998 CIA Inspector General reports on Contra drug ties 0 cit. The CIA Inspector General's Hitz report found the agency had worked with Contra-related figures tied to drug trafficking and had not cut ties or reported them. It confirmed a pattern of tolerance rather than a single plot to sell drugs. politics / society ●●●●

16 October 1998 Pinochet arrested in London 0 cit. Augusto Pinochet was arrested in London on a Spanish warrant for human rights crimes, a landmark moment for international justice. He was later released on health grounds but faced charges in Chile. politics / society ●●●

c. 1998 China launches the Golden Shield Project 0 cit. China's Ministry of Public Security began the Golden Shield Project in 1998 to build a nationwide system of internet surveillance and filtering. The blocking side of the system became widely known as the Great Firewall. politics / technology ●●●●●

1998 IPv6 internet addressing standard formalized ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The IPv6 internet addressing standard was initially formalized in 1998, vastly expanding the pool of unique device addresses. Wood argues this makes the Internet of Things and remote control of appliances possible. ●●

1998 Zuckerman essay on the American economy in Foreign Affairs ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Gatto analyzes a June 1998 Foreign Affairs essay by Mortimer Zuckerman praising the American economy's structural lead, which Gatto attributes to attitudes trained by schooling. ●●

1998 Daniele Ganser begins researching Operation Gladio ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The book says that in 1998 Daniele Ganser chose Operation Gladio as a PhD topic and uncovered secret CIA- and NATO-linked armies across Europe. It uses his work to support its claims about hidden Western operations. ●●

1998 India tests a nuclear bomb ai_extracted 1 cit. no story India exploded a nuclear bomb, catching the CIA by surprise and remaking the global balance of power. It exposed a systemic breakdown in the agency's espionage and analysis. ●●

1998 East Africa embassy bombings ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Near-simultaneous truck bombs destroyed the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, killing hundreds including a young CIA officer. The attacks marked al Qaeda's escalating war on the United States. ●●

1998 Russia defaults and devalues the ruble ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Russia devalued the ruble and defaulted on its international loans, creating a financial crisis that spread globally and threatened major banks. ●●

1998 Bin Laden announces World Islamic Front for Jihad ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Bin Laden announces the International Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders on February 23, 1998 with Egyptian militant leaders including Ayman al-Zawahiri. ●●

1998 Richard Clarke named White House counterterrorism czar ai_extracted 1 cit. no story On May 22, 1998, President Clinton signs PDD-62 formally appointing Richard Clarke as the White House's new counterterrorism czar with unprecedented Cabinet-level authority. ●●

1998 US embassies bombed in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Al Qaeda suicide bombers attack US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on August 7, 1998, killing 213 people in Nairobi and 11 in Dar es Salaam. ●●

1998 CIA's first secret plan to kidnap bin Laden ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Tarnak Farm had been the target of the CIA's first secret plan to kidnap bin Laden in 1998. ●●

1998 Al Qaeda Bombs U.S. Embassies in East Africa ai_extracted 2 cit. On August 7, 1998, Al Qaeda operatives under Osama bin Laden's direction bombed the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing over 200 people. ●●

November 1998 Russia and America build the space station together 0 cit. The old rivals join to build the International Space Station, with Russian and American modules linked in orbit. The programs born as Cold War weapons became a symbol of post-Cold-War cooperation. diplomacy / science ●●●

1998 NATO intervention in Kosovo ai_extracted 1 cit. no story As diplomatic negotiations at U.N. Security Council over Kosovo crisis unfolded in 1998, Russia refused authorization and American-led NATO intervened ●●

1998 Brin and Page present Google search paper ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Sergey Brin and Larry Page presented their foundational paper on Google's search engine at the World Wide Web Conference. ●●

1998 Iceland creates first national DNA database ai_extracted 1 cit. no story every person’s profile should be added to the databank. Former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani has urged that a DNA fingerprint be recorded for every American at birth.30 That day is coming. In 1998, Iceland created the world’s first national DNA database of its citizens. Almost all of its 275, ●●

1998 Page and Brin present the PageRank paper ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Page and Brin delivered 'The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine' at an Australian conference. ●●

1998 Bechtolsheim writes Google's first check ai_extracted 1 cit. no story After meeting Page and Brin, Bechtolsheim wrote a check that let them incorporate Google. ●●

December 1998 Global Witness report exposes the diamond trade's role in African wars 0 cit. The advocacy group Global Witness published 'A Rough Trade,' documenting how diamonds mined in rebel-held Angola were being sold through De Beers's buying network and financing UNITA's war effort. The report was widely credited with putting the term 'conflict diamonds' into public use and pressuring the industry toward reform. economy / war ●●

12 June 1998 UN Security Council bans purchase of UNITA diamonds 0 cit. The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1173, prohibiting the direct or indirect import of diamonds from Angola not certified by the government, in an effort to cut off UNITA's main source of funding. It was one of the first international measures explicitly targeting conflict diamonds. diplomacy / war ●●

December 1998 Confinity founded 0 cit. Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek founded Confinity, a company built initially around cryptography for handheld devices. Confinity soon pivoted to a money-transfer product that became PayPal. economy / technology ●●

17 August 1998 Russian financial crisis and sovereign default 0 cit. The Russian government devalued the ruble and defaulted on its domestic debt, triggering a banking collapse and a further collapse in ordinary living standards. The crisis discredited the economic team associated with the 1990s reforms and deepened public disillusionment with the market transition and the businessmen who had prospered from it. economy ●●●

11 September 1998 Primakov appointed prime minister 0 cit. Yevgeny Primakov, a former foreign intelligence chief, became prime minister in the aftermath of the default, forming a government seen as less friendly to the oligarchs. He was dismissed by Yeltsin the following May, reportedly after launching anti-corruption inquiries that touched the president's inner circle. politics ●

25 July 1998 Putin appointed director of the FSB 0 cit. Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer who had worked in East Germany and later in the St. Petersburg mayor's office, was appointed head of the FSB, the Soviet KGB's main successor agency. The post gave him control over Russia's domestic security services and put him firmly inside Yeltsin's trusted circle. politics ●●

December 1998 The Salt Lake City bid bribery scandal breaks 0 cit. Reports reveal that Salt Lake City's bid committee gave IOC members cash, scholarships, medical care, and gifts worth over a million dollars to win the 2002 Winter Games. The scandal led to the expulsion or resignation of ten IOC members and forced the first major reform of Olympic bidding rules. economy / politics ●●●

c. February 1998 Government mandates Masonic membership declaration 0 cit. Following the Committee's recommendation, Home Secretary Jack Straw requires that new appointees to the judiciary, magistracy, police, and legally qualified staff of the Crown Prosecution Service, Probation Service, and Prison Service declare membership of Freemasonry as a condition of appointment. A subsequent government survey identifies at least 247 judges and 1,097 magistrates who declared Masonic membership. politics ●●●

c. February 1998 Government Mandates Masonic Membership Declaration for Judiciary and Police 0 cit. Home Secretary Jack Straw announced that new appointees to the judiciary, magistracy, police, Crown Prosecution Service legal staff, Probation Service, and Prison Service would have to declare Masonic membership as a condition of appointment, implementing the Home Affairs Committee's 1997 recommendation. A government survey later found roughly 5 percent of judges and 7 percent of magistrates had declared membership, while police compliance was markedly lower. Local councillors were not included in this requirement, which fed directly into the later debate about extending disclosure to local government. politics ●●

1998 Special Branch replaced by NSIS 0 cit. Parliament passed the National Security Intelligence Service Act, formally separating intelligence functions from the police and creating the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) as a distinct civilian agency reporting to the president. The reform was intended to professionalize intelligence work, though critics noted it did little on its own to end political surveillance practices inherited from the Special Branch era. politics ●

10 April 1998 Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement signed 0 cit. The British and Irish governments and most of Northern Ireland's political parties signed the Good Friday Agreement, establishing a power-sharing assembly, cross-border institutions, and a framework for policing and human rights reform. The agreement enshrined the principle that Northern Ireland's constitutional status could only change with the consent of a majority of its population. It is generally regarded as the foundational document of the Northern Ireland peace process. diplomacy / politics ●●●

22 May 1998 Good Friday Agreement referendums 0 cit. Voters in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland approved the Good Friday Agreement in simultaneous referendums, with 71 percent support in Northern Ireland and 94 percent in the Republic. The Republic's vote also approved amending its constitution to remove its territorial claim over Northern Ireland. The results gave the agreement a strong democratic mandate on both sides of the border. politics / society ●●

29 October 1998 TRC hands first five volumes of final report to Mandela 0 cit. Archbishop Tutu handed the first five volumes of the TRC's final report to President Nelson Mandela. The report found the apartheid state, principally through its security forces, was responsible for the great majority of gross human rights violations, and also found the ANC and other liberation movements responsible for abuses, including of detainees in ANC camps. The report described apartheid itself as a crime against humanity. politics / society ●●●

1 July 1998 Akiwumi Commission appointed to inquire into tribal clashes 0 cit. President Daniel arap Moi appointed a judicial commission under Justice Akilano Akiwumi to investigate ethnic clashes in Kenya between 1991 and 1998, particularly the 1997 violence in Coast Province. Over eleven months the commission heard testimony from more than 200 witnesses. politics / society ●●

29 January 1998 Saville Inquiry established into Bloody Sunday 0 cit. Prime Minister Tony Blair established a new public inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville, into the killing of 13 unarmed civilians by British soldiers in Derry on 30 January 1972, an event known as Bloody Sunday. It replaced the earlier 1972 Widgery Tribunal, whose findings were widely regarded as a whitewash that had largely exonerated the army. The Saville Inquiry became the longest and most expensive public inquiry in British history. politics / war ●●

c. 1998 Carabinieri and the rise of stability policing 0 cit. In the late 1990s Italy's Carabinieri pioneered Multinational Specialized Units in the Balkans, armed police formations deployed to fill the gap between soldiers and civilian police in peacekeeping zones. This role, often called stability policing, drew directly on the gendarmerie tradition of a force that can face both crowds and armed threats. It spread to NATO and EU missions and later informed the founding of a joint European Gendarmerie Force in 2004. diplomacy / politics / war ●

August 1998 The Second Congo War, the Great War of Africa 0 cit. When Kabila turned against his Rwandan and Ugandan backers, a wider war erupted that drew in around nine African countries and many armed groups, often fighting over the Congo's minerals. It became the deadliest conflict since the Second World War and is sometimes called the Great War of Africa. A peace deal in 2002 and a transitional government in 2003 formally ended the war, though violence continued in the east. politics / war ●●●

21 May 1998 Suharto resigns amid the Asian crisis 0 cit. After the Asian financial crisis wrecked Indonesia's economy and mass protests filled the streets, Suharto steps down after more than three decades in power. His fall opened the way for democratic reform and, later, independence for East Timor. Investigations put the wealth taken by his family and circle among the largest of any modern ruler. economy / politics ●●

16 October 1998 Pinochet is arrested in London 0 cit. British police detain Augusto Pinochet on a Spanish warrant seeking his extradition for torture and murder. Though he was eventually sent home on health grounds, the arrest established that a former head of state could be pursued abroad for human rights crimes. It marked a turning point in the idea that such rulers might one day face justice. diplomacy / politics ●●

c. 1998 The Jubilee 2000 campaign for debt cancellation 0 cit. A global coalition of churches, charities, and activists demands cancellation of unpayable poor-country debt by the year 2000, drawing on the biblical idea of a jubilee. Mass petitions and a human chain around a G8 summit pushed leaders to widen relief and helped shape the enhanced HIPC scheme. Campaigners argued that much of the debt was odious and had already been repaid many times over in interest. economy / religion ●●

17 July 1998 The Rome Statute creates a permanent international court 0 cit. Nations agreed to create the International Criminal Court to try genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. It marked a step toward global justice reaching above national borders. Major powers including the United States, Russia, and China stayed outside it, showing that even the strongest push for world governance still bends around great-power will. diplomacy / politics ●●

27 July 1998 Kabila breaks with his Rwandan and Ugandan sponsors 0 cit. Resented at home as a puppet of foreigners, Kabila publicly thanked and then expelled the Rwandan and Ugandan troops who had installed him, ordering all foreign forces to leave. The move cut him loose from his patrons but stripped away the military backbone of his new state. Within days his former allies moved to remove him. diplomacy / politics ●●●

2 August 1998 The RCD rebellion and the second invasion begins 0 cit. A mutiny in the east gave rise to the Rally for Congolese Democracy, or RCD, a rebel movement backed openly by Rwanda and Uganda. Kigali and Kampala again sent their armies into Congo, this time to overthrow the man they had made president a year earlier. The second war had begun barely fourteen months after the first ended. politics / war ●●●

c. August 1998 The Kitona airlift and the dash for Kinshasa 0 cit. In a bold stroke, Rwanda airlifted troops across the country to the Kitona base near the Atlantic coast, aiming to seize Kinshasa from the west. The force advanced to the city's edge and cut its power, nearly ending the war in weeks. The gamble failed only when other African states intervened to save Kabila. war ●●

August 1998 Angola, Zimbabwe, and Namibia intervene for Kinshasa 0 cit. Angola, Zimbabwe, and Namibia sent troops, aircraft, and armor to rescue Kabila and drive the invaders back from the capital. Angola wanted to deny its UNITA rebels a Congolese sanctuary, while Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe sought influence and mining wealth. Their intervention turned a rebel offensive into a war between states. diplomacy / war ●●●

c. 1998 Chad and Sudan join the pro-Kinshasa coalition 0 cit. Chad sent a contingent to help Kabila in the north, and Sudan lent support against Uganda, its regional rival. The Chadian force performed poorly and withdrew within months amid friction and losses. Their brief involvement showed how the war pulled in states from across the continent, each pursuing its own quarrels. diplomacy / war ●

March 1998 The apologies that came later 0 cit. In 1998 President Bill Clinton stood at Kigali airport and expressed regret for the world's failure to act, and the UN and Belgium later issued their own apologies. In 2021 a French commission led by historian Vincent Duclert found France bore heavy and overwhelming responsibilities but no complicity in the killing, and President Macron acknowledged France's role while stopping short of a formal apology. The reckonings were real but came only after the dead were buried. diplomacy / politics ●●

c. 1998 The Big Eight shrink to the Big Four 0 cit. A wave of mergers cut the world's leading audit firms from eight to five, and the criminal collapse of Arthur Andersen after Enron in 2002 left four. Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG came to audit nearly every large public company on earth, a concentration that regulators warn leaves the system dangerously dependent on a handful of firms. economy ●●●

August 1998 Puntland declares autonomy in the northeast 0 cit. In 1998 leaders of the northeastern regions, mostly of the Darod-Harti clans, set up the autonomous state of Puntland. Unlike Somaliland, Puntland did not seek independence but a federal place within a future Somali state. Its formation carved out another self-governing zone and helped set the pattern for the federal model Somalia later adopted. politics / society ●●

May 1998 The Ethiopian-Eritrean border war 0 cit. A dispute over the small town of Badme flared into a full war between the former allies, fought with trench lines and heavy artillery in a style recalling the First World War. Estimates of the dead on both sides run to roughly 70,000 to 100,000 over two years. A 2000 peace deal and boundary ruling largely favoured Eritrea, but Ethiopia refused to hand over Badme, leaving the two states locked in a frozen standoff for years. diplomacy / war ●●

10 February 1998 The Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement 0 cit. After the Philippine Senate rejected a new bases treaty in 1991 and the United States left Subic Bay and Clark, the two governments sign a Visiting Forces Agreement in 1998 to allow rotating US troops back in. It keeps American personnel under US jurisdiction, which becomes contentious in cases such as the 2005 Subic rape case and the 2014 killing of Jennifer Laude. The agreement lets US forces return without permanent bases. diplomacy / politics ●●

1998 The Akiwumi Commission investigates the clashes 1 cit. President Moi appointed a judicial commission under Justice Akilano Akiwumi to inquire into the tribal clashes of the 1990s. Its report named politicians, administrators, and security officers who should be investigated for their roles and documented how the violence was organized rather than random. Almost none of those named were prosecuted, and the report's call for accountability was largely ignored. The commission and its findings are documented public record. politics / society ●

1998 U.S. launches cruise missile strikes against bin Laden ai_extracted 1 cit. On August 20, 1998, in retaliation for the embassy bombings, the U.S. fired seventy-five Tomahawk cruise missiles at bin Laden's Zawhar Kili camps in Afghanistan and thirteen more at the al Shifa plant in Sudan. At least twenty-one jihadists died, but bin Laden was not among them. ●●●

1998 Abacha's billions surface in foreign banks 0 cit. After Nigerian military ruler Sani Abacha died in 1998, investigators traced an estimated 2 to 5 billion dollars in stolen state funds into accounts in Switzerland, Britain, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Jersey. The exact total remains an estimate, but the trail through named banks is documented. Switzerland and other countries have since returned more than a billion dollars to Nigeria in stages. economy / politics ●●

12 August 1998 Swiss banks settle the dormant-accounts claims 0 cit. After years of pressure over Holocaust-era accounts left dormant and heirs turned away, Switzerland's two largest banks agreed to pay 1.25 billion dollars to settle claims brought by survivors and their families. The scandal exposed how the country's banking secrecy had also buried the assets of the murdered. The settlement was one of the first large financial reckonings with Switzerland's wartime conduct. economy / society ●●●

26 January 1998 PNAC's open letter to President Clinton on Iraq 0 cit. PNAC sends an open letter to President Clinton urging him to remove Saddam Hussein from power, arguing that containment was failing and that Iraq's weapons programs were a growing threat. Signatories included Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Armitage, John Bolton, Zalmay Khalilzad, and Richard Perle. The letter set out the regime-change goal the group would press for years. diplomacy / politics ●●●●

29 May 1998 The 1998 letter to Gingrich and Lott 0 cit. PNAC writes to House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, pressing Congress to make the removal of Saddam Hussein a stated aim of American policy. It asked the leaders to fund and support opposition to the Iraqi government. The push helped shape the Iraq Liberation Act that Congress passed later that year. diplomacy / politics ●●●

c. 1998 Deflation and stagnation define the lost decades 0 cit. From the late 1990s Japan slid into mild but persistent deflation, with falling prices, weak demand, and near-zero growth. What was first called the lost decade stretched into two and then three. Government stimulus and public debt piled up while output barely moved. economy / society ●●●●

1998 Ehret reads East African history out of words 0 cit. In An African Classical Age, Christopher Ehret reconstructed the vocabulary of proto-languages to recover how people lived. Words that can be traced back to an ancestral tongue for cattle, grains, or ironworking show what its speakers knew and did. Loanwords passing between Cushitic, Nilotic, and Bantu speakers mark centuries of contact on the East African highlands. His later survey, The Civilizations of Africa, carried the method to a wider audience. science / society ●●●●

c. 1998 Killing the Vote documents election violence as a state tool 2 cit. Kenya Human Rights Commission's Killing the Vote did not treat the 1991-98 clashes as random tribal rage. It called them state-sponsored violence and a handy election tool: government surrogate agents killed, displaced and terrorized opposition communities in the Rift Valley, Western Kenya and Coast so the state could reassert dominance without admitting direct responsibility. politics / society / war ●●●●●

26 August 1999 to 16 April 2009 Second Chechen War wikidata 0 cit. war in Chechnya ●●●●

1999 Bolivarian Revolution wikidata 0 cit. no story political process in Venezuela led by the late Hugo Chávez ●●●

February 1999 Zero interest rate policy introduced ai_extracted 1 cit. In February 1999 the Bank of Japan guided the overnight call rate down to 0.1 percent, a stance dubbed the zero interest rate policy, after cutting it to a record low 0.33 percent in October 1998. ●●●

1999 to 2001 Short-lived recovery of 1999 and relapse ai_extracted 1 cit. The economy staged a sharp recovery in 1999 with the Tokyo stock market rising more than 50 percent, but the market peaked in the first quarter of 2000 and both market and economy slumped again in mid-2000 and 2001. ●●

1999 BoJ credit withdrawal strengthens the yen despite record interventions ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1999 the Bank of Japan withdrew credit from the economy at a record pace, strengthening the yen to close to 100 per dollar by year-end and oversterilizing new record foreign exchange interventions ordered by MoF. ●●●

1999 Bank of Japan withdraws credit in 1999 ai_extracted 1 cit. The Bank of Japan sharply reduced its credit creation in 1999, actively withdrawing credit for most of the year; the yen returned toward 100 per dollar and the 1999 recovery stalled in 2000. ●●●