1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday in the Gregorian calendar, the 999th year of the 2nd millennium, the 99th year of the 20th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1990s decade.

Events

January

• January 1 – Euro is established.
• January 2 – A snowstorm leaves 14 inches (359 mm) of snow in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and 21 inches (533.4 mm) in Chicago, Illinois, killing 68.
• January 4 – Gunmen open fire on Shia Muslims worshiping in a mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing 16 and injuring 25.
• January 6 – Dennis Hastert becomes Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
• January 8 – 3.4 million copies of the movie The Rescuers is recalled after a photo of a topless woman was discovered in two of the 110,000 slides in that scene of the movie.
• January 10 – A large piece of the chalk cliff at Beachy Head collapses into the sea.
• January 11 – Bülent Ecevit, of DSP forms the new government of Turkey (56th government, an interim government )
• January 20 – The China News Service announces new government restrictions on Internet use aimed especially at Internet cafes.
• January 21 – In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 9,500 pounds (4.3 tons) of cocaine aboard, headed for Houston, Texas.
• January 25 – A 6.1 Richter scale earthquake hits western Colombia, killing at least 1,000.

February

• February 2 – Hugo Chávez becomes President of Venezuela.^[1]
• February 4 – Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot dead by NYC police officers on an unrelated stake-out, inflaming race relations in the city.^[2]
• February 7 – King Hussein of Jordan dies from cancer, and his son Abdullah II inherits the throne.
• February 10 – Avalanches in the French Alps near Geneva kill at least 10.
• February 11 – Pluto moves along its eccentric orbit further from the Sun than Neptune. It had been nearer than Neptune since 1979, and will become again in 2231.
• February 16 – In Uzbekistan, an apparent assassination attempt against President Islom Karimov takes place at government headquarters.^[3]
• February 16 – Across Europe, Kurdish rebels take over embassies and hold hostages after Turkey arrests one of their rebel leaders.
• February 21 – The Albertinkatu shootings in Helsinki, Finland: Three men are killed and 1 wounded at a shooting range.
• February 22 – Moderate Iraqi Shiite cleric Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr is assassinated.
• February 23 – Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.
• February 23 – White supremacist John William King is found guilty of kidnapping and killing African American James Byrd Jr. by dragging him behind a truck for 2 miles (3 km).
• February 23 – An avalanche destroys the village of Galtür, Austria, killing 31.
• February 24 – LaGrand Case: The State of Arizona executes Karl LaGrand, a German national involved in an armed robbery that led to a death. Karl's brother Walter is executed a week later, in spite of Germany's legal action in the International Court of Justice to attempt to save him.
• February 27 – While trying to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon, Colin Prescot and Andy Elson set a new endurance record after being aloft for 233 hours and 55 minutes.

March

• March 1 – One of 4 bombs detonated in Lusaka, Zambia, destroys the Angolan Embassy.
• March 1 – Rwandan Hutu rebels kill and dismember 8 foreign tourists at the Buhoma homestead, Uganda.
• March 1 – The Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines comes into force.
• March 2 – The brand new Mandalay Bay hotel and casino opens in Las Vegas.
• March 3 – Walter LaGrand is executed in the gas chamber in Arizona.
• March 4 – In a military court, United States Marine Corps Captain Richard J. Ashby is acquitted of the charge of reckless flying which resulted in the deaths of 20 skiers in the Italian Alps, when his low-flying jet hit a gondola cable.
• March 12 – Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic join NATO.
• March 15 – In Brussels, Belgium, the Santer Commission resigns over allegations of corruption.
• March 17 – The Roth IRA is introduced by U.S. Senator William V. Roth, Jr.
• March 21 – Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.
• March 21 – The 71st Academy Awards are held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California with Shakespeare in Love winning Best Picture.
• March 23 – Gunmen assassinate Paraguay's Vice President Luis María Argaña.
• March 24 – NATO launches air strikes against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which refused to sign a peace treaty. This marks the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.
• March 24 – Fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel kills 39 people, closing the tunnel for nearly 3 years.
• March 25 – Enron energy traders allegedly route 2,900 megawatts of electricity destined for California to the town of Silver Peak, Nevada, population 200.
• March 26 – The Melissa worm attacks the Internet.
• March 26 – A Michigan jury finds Dr. Jack Kevorkian guilty of second-degree murder for administering a lethal injection to a terminally ill man.
• March 27 – Kosovo War: A U.S. F-117 Nighthawk is shot down by Serbian forces.
• March 29 – For the first time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 10,000 mark, at 10,006.78.

April

• April 1 – Nunavut, an Inuit homeland, is created from the eastern portion of the Northwest Territories to become Canada's third territory.
• April 5 – Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 are handed over to Scottish authorities for eventual trial in the Netherlands. The United Nations suspends sanctions against Libya.
• April 5 – In Laramie, Wyoming, Russell Henderson pleads guilty to kidnapping and felony murder, in order to avoid a possible death penalty conviction for the apparent hate crime killing of Matthew Shepard.
• April 7 – Kosovo War: Kosovo's main border crossings are closed by Serbian forces to prevent ethnic Albanians from leaving.
• April 7 – A bomb explodes at the Valley of the Fallen Church in Spain; GRAPO claims responsibility.
• April 8 Bill Gates personal fortune exceeds $100 Billion dollars, due to the increased value of Microsoft stock.
• April 9 – Ibrahim Baré Maînassara, president of Niger, is assassinated.
• April 13 – Tercentenary celebrations of the creation of the Sikh Khalsa are held.
• April 17 – A nail bomb explodes in the middle of a busy market in Brixton, South London.
• April 20 – Columbine High School massacre: Two Littleton, Colorado teenagers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, open fire on their teachers and classmates, killing 12 students and 1 teacher, and then themselves.
• April 25 – The term of Tuanku Jaafar ibni Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman as the 10th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia ends.
• April 26 – Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah Al-Haj, Sultan of Selangor, becomes the 11th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
• April 26 – British T.V presenter Jill Dando, 37, is shot dead on the doorstep of her home in Fulham, London.
• April 30 – Cambodia joins the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), bringing the total members to 10.
• April 30 – A third nail bomb (see April 17) explodes in the Admiral Duncan pub in Old Compton Street, Soho, London, killing a pregnant woman and two friends and injuring 70 others, including her husband. This is part of a hate campaign against ethnic minorities and gay people by David Copeland.^[4]

May

• May 1 – Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC).
• May 1 – SpongeBob SquarePants made its debut on Nickelodeon (TV Channel) on this day with its first episode is Help Wanted/Reef Blower/Tea at the Treedome.
• May 2 – Norman J. Sirnic and Karen Sirnic are murdered by serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz in Weimar, Texas.
• May 3 – 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak: An F5 tornado slams into Moore, Oklahoma, killing 38 people (the strongest tornado ever recorded in world history).
• May 3 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 11,000 for the first time, at 11,014.70.
• May 5 – Microsoft releases Windows 98 (Second Edition) (from 1998).
• May 6 – Elections are held in Scotland and Wales for the new Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales.
• May 7 – A jury finds The Jenny Jones Show and Warner Bros. liable in the shooting death of Scott Amedure, after the show deceived Jonathan Schmitz into appearing on a secret same-sex crush episode.
• May 7 – Kosovo War: In the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, 3 Chinese embassy workers are killed and 20 wounded, when a NATO aircraft mistakenly bombs the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.
• May 7 – In Guinea-Bissau, President João Bernardo Vieira is ousted in a military coup.
• May 8 – Nancy Mace becomes the first female cadet to graduate from The Military College of South Carolina.
• May 12 – David Steel becomes the first Presiding Officer (Speaker) of the modern Scottish Parliament.
• May 13 – Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is elected President of Italy.
• May 17 – Ehud Barak is elected prime minister of Israel.
• May 19 – Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is released in theaters. It becomes the highest grossing Star Wars movie.
• May 26 – The Indian Air Force launches an attack on intruding Pakistan Army troops and mujahadeen militants in Kashmir.
• May 26 – The first Welsh Assembly in over 600 years opens in Cardiff.
• May 26 – Manchester United wins the UEFA Champions League at the Nou Camp stadium, Barcelona, beating Bayern Munich.
• May 27 – The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.
• May 28 – Bülent Ecevit, of DSP forms the new government of Turkey (57th government, coalition partners MHP and ANAP) This is Ecevit's fifth and last term.
• May 28 – Swedish police officers Robert Karlström and Olov Borén are wounded by three bank robbers armed with automatic weapons, and later executed with their own service pistols in Malexander.
• May 28 – After 22 years of restoration work, Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper is placed back on display in Milan, Italy.
• May 29 – Cathy O'Dowd, a South African mountaineer, becomes the first woman to summit Mount Everest from both the north and south sides.
• May 29 – Nigeria terminates military rule, and the Nigerian Fourth Republic is established with Olusegun Obasanjo as president.
• May 30 – Travel Midland Metro enters public service.
• May 31 – Sean Elliott of the San Antonio Spurs hits the Memorial Day Miracle against the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1999 NBA Playoffs.

June

• June 1 – Napster, a revolutionary music downloading service, debuts.
• June 1 - American Airlines Flight 1420 overruns the runway in Little Rock, Arkansas killing 11 people.
• June 2 – After decades of fighting off outside technological influences like television, the King of Bhutan allows television transmissions to commence in the Kingdom for the first time, coinciding with the King's Silver Jubilee (see Bhutan Broadcasting Service).
• June 5 – The Islamic Salvation Army, the armed wing of the Islamic Salvation Front, agrees in principle to disband in Algeria.
• June 6 – In Brazil, 345 prisoners escape from Putim prison through the front gate.
• June 8 – The government of Colombia announces it will include the estimated value of the country's illegal drug crops, exceeding half a billion US dollars, in its gross national product.
• June 9 – Kosovo War: The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and NATO sign a peace treaty.
• June 10 – Kosovo War: NATO suspends its air strikes after Slobodan Milošević agrees to withdraw Serbian forces from Kosovo.
• June 12 – Kosovo War – Operation Joint Guardian/Operation Agricola begins: NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping forces KFOR enter the province of Kosovo in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
• June 12 – Texas Governor George W. Bush announces he will seek the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States.
• June 14 – Thabo Mbeki is elected President of South Africa.
• June 18 – The J18 international anti-globalization protests are organized in dozens of cities around the world, some of which lead to riots.
• June 19 – Turin, Italy is awarded the 2006 Winter Olympics.
• June 19 – Horror writer Stephen King is hit in a car accident on Route 5 in North Lovell, Maine by Bryan Smith.
• June 21 – Apple Computer releases the first iBook, a Laptop designed specifically for average consumers.^[5]
• June 23 – The Phillips explosion of 1999 kills 2 and injures 3 in Pasadena, Texas.

July

• 1 July – The Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth on the day that legislative powers are officially transferred from the old Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh.
• July 2 – Benjamin Nathaniel Smith begins a 3-day killing spree targeting racial and ethnic minorities in Illinois and Indiana.
• July 5 – U.S. Army Pfc. Barry Winchell is bludgeoned in his sleep at Fort Campbell, Kentucky by fellow soldiers; he dies the next day from his injuries.
• July 7 – In Rome, Hicham El Guerrouj runs the fastest mile ever recorded, at 3:43.13.
• July 8 – A major flash flood in Las Vegas swamps hundreds of cars, smashes mobile homes and kills 2 people.
• July 10- USA soccer player Brandi Chastain scores the game winning penalty kick against China in the FIFA Women's World Cup.
• July 11 – India recaptures Kargil, forcing the Pakistan Army to retreat. India announces victory, ending the 2-month conflict.
• July 16 – Off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, a plane piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr. crashes, killing him and his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister Lauren Bessette.
• July 20 – Mercury program: Liberty Bell 7 is raised from the Atlantic Ocean.
• July 20 – Falun Gong is banned in the People's Republic of China under Jiang Zemin.
• July 22 – The first version of MSN Messenger is released by Microsoft.
• July 23 – ANA Flight 61 is hijacked in Tokyo.
• July 23 – Mohammed VI of Morocco becomes king upon the death of his father Hassan II.
• July 23–25 – The Woodstock 99 festival is held in New York.
• July 25 – Lance Armstrong wins his first Tour de France.
• July 26 – The last Checker taxi cab is retired in New York City and auctioned off for approximately $135,000.
• July 27 – Twenty-one people die in a canyoning disaster near Interlaken, Switzerland.
• July 31 – Mark O. Barton kills 9 in Atlanta, Georgia.
• July 31 – NASA intentionally crashes the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the lunar surface.

August

• August 7 – Hundreds of Chechen guerrillas invade the Russian republic of Dagestan, triggering a short war.
• August 8 – The first Callatis Festival, the largest music & culture festival in Romania, is held.
• August 9 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires his Prime Minister, Sergei Stepashin, and for the fourth time fires his entire cabinet.
• August 10 – Buford O. Furrow, Jr. wounds 5 and kills 1 during the August 1999 Los Angeles Jewish Community Center shooting.
• August 10 – The Atlantique Incident occurs as an intruding Pakistan Navy plane is shot down in India. The incident sparks tensions between the 2 nations, coming just a month after the end of the Kargil War.
• August 11 – A total solar eclipse is seen in Europe and Asia.
• August 11 – Salt Lake City tornado: A very rare F2 tornado strikes Salt Lake City, killing 1.
• August 17 – 1999 İzmit earthquake: A 7.6-magnitude earthquake strikes İzmit and levels much of northwestern Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000. This is the first of a long series of unrelated but frequent earthquakes throughout the world during the years 1999 and 2000.
• August 19 – In Belgrade, tens of thousands of Serbians rally to demand the resignation of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević.
• August 22 – Mandarin Airlines Flight 642 crashes in Hong Kong.
• August 22 – GPS Week Numbers Reset to 0
• August 30 – East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia in a referendum.
• August 31 – Apple Computer releases the Power Macintosh G4.

September

• September 7 – A magnitude 5.9 earthquake hits Athens, killing 143 and injuring more than 2,000.
• September 7 – Viacom and CBS merge.
• September 8 – The first of a series of Russian apartment bombings occurs. Subsequent bombings occur on September 13 and 16, while a bombing on September 22 fails.
• September 9 – Sega releases the Dreamcast.
• September 12 – Under international pressure to allow an international peacekeeping force, Indonesian president BJ Habibie announced on 12 September that he would do so.
• September 14 – Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga join the United Nations.
• September 21 – The 921 earthquake, also known as the Jiji earthquake,(magnitude 7.6 on the Richter scale) kills about 2,400 people in Taiwan.

October

• October – NASA loses one of its probes, the Mars Climate Orbiter.
• October 1 – Pudong International Airport opens in Shanghai, China, taking over all international flights to Hongqiao.
• October 5 – Thirty-one people die in the Ladbroke Grove rail crash, west of London, England.
• October 10 – Elections are held in Portugal.
• October 12 – Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attempts to dismiss Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf and install ISI director Ziauddin Butt in his place. Senior Army generals refuse to accept the dismissal. Musharraf, who is out of the country, attempts to return in a commercial airliner. Sharif orders the Karachi airport to not allow the plane to land. The generals lead a coup d'état, ousting Sharif's administration and taking over the airport. The plane lands with only a few minutes of fuel to spare, and Musharraf takes control of the government.
• October 12 – World population reaches 6 billion people, as the 6 billionth person (according to the UN) is born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• October 13 – The United States Senate rejects ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
• October 15 – A National Geographic Society press conference reveals the fossil of Archaeoraptor (which is later found to be a forgery).
• October 27 – Gunmen open fire in the Armenian Parliament, killing Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, Parliament Chairman Karen Demirchyan, and 6 other members.
• October 31 – EgyptAir Flight 990, travelling from New York City to Cairo, crashes off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, killing all 217 on board. When the pilot leaves the cockpit, the co-pilot causes the Boeing 767 to enter a steep dive, resulting in impact with the Atlantic Ocean.
• October 31 – Roman Catholic Church and Lutheran Church leaders sign the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, ending a centuries-old doctrinal dispute over the nature of faith and salvation.

November

• November 6 – Australians defeat a referendum proposing the replacement of The Queen and The Governor General with a President to make Australia a republic.
• November 9 – TAESA Flight 725, covering the route Tijuana–Guadalajara–Uruapan–Mexico City, crashes a few minutes after takeoff from Uruapan International Airport, killing 18 people on board. This event causes the bankruptcy of the Mexican airline a few months later.
• November 12 – A 7.2-magnitude earthquake strikes Duzce and northwestern Turkey, killing 845 and injuring 4,948.
• November 18 – The Aggie Bonfire collapses in College Station, TX, killing 12.
• November 19 – Mikhail Gorbachev proposes that the UN create an International Men's Day, which is now commemorated every year on this same date.
• November 19 – Every digit in this date is an odd number (19/11/1999). This hitherto common event will not happen again until the year 3111.
• November 20 – The People's Republic of China launches the first Shenzhou spacecraft.
• November 26 – An earthquake and tsunami strike Vanuatu.
• November 27 – The left-wing Labour Party takes control of the New Zealand government, with leader Helen Clark becoming the second female Prime Minister in New Zealand's history.
• November 30 – The ExxonMobil Corporation merger is completed, forming the largest company in the world.

December

• December 3 – After rowing for 81 days and 2,962 nautical miles (5486 km), Tori Murden becomes the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by rowboat alone, when she reaches Guadeloupe from the Canary Islands.
• December 3 – NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander, moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.
• December 18 – NASA launches into orbit the Terra platform, carrying 5 Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.
• December 20 – The sovereignty of Macau is transferred from the Portuguese Republic to the People's Republic of China after 422 years of Portuguese rule.
• December 22 – Korean Air Cargo Flight 8509, a Boeing 747-200F crashes shortly after take-off from London Stansted Airport due to pilot error. All 4 crew members were killed.
• December 31 – The U.S. turns over complete administration of the Panama Canal to the Panamanian Government, as stipulated in the Torrijos-Carter Treaty of 1977.
• December 31 – Boris Yeltsin resigns as President of Russia, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting president.
• December 31 - Millennium celebration.
• December 31 - To most people, it was the last day of the 20th century and 2nd millennium, however there are some people who argue that both distinctions happened a year later, on December 31, 2000.

Deaths

January

• January 4 – Iron Eyes Cody, American actor (b. 1904)
• January 11 – Fabrizio De André, Italian singer and songwriter (b. 1940)
• January 11 – Brian Moore, Irish-born writer (b. 1921)
• January 14 – Jerzy Grotowski, Polish theatre director (b. 1933)
• January 21 – Susan Strasberg, American actress (b. 1938)
• January 22 – Graham Staines, Australian missionary (b. 1941)
• January 25 – Ted Mallie, American radio and television announcer (b. 1924)
• January 25 – Robert Shaw, American conductor (b. 1916)
• January 28 – Markey Robinson, Irish painter (b. 1918)
• January 30 – Huntz Hall, American actor (b. 1919)
• January 31 – Norm Zauchin, American baseball player (b. 1929)

February

• February 1 – Paul Mellon, American philanthropist (b. 1907)
• February 1 – Barış Manço, Turkish singer and television personality (b. 1943)
• February 5 – Wassily Leontief, Russian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
• February 6 – Jimmy Roberts, American singer (b. 1924)
• February 6 – Don Dunstan, Australian politician (b. 1926)
• February 6 - Danny Dayton, American actor (b. 1923)
• February 7 – King Hussein of Jordan (b. 1935)
• February 8 – Iris Murdoch, Irish writer (b. 1919)
• February 12 – Toni Fisher, American pop singer (b. 1931)
• February 14 – John Ehrlichman, American Watergate scandal figure (b. 1925)
• February 14 – Buddy Knox, American singer (b. 1933)
• February 15 – Henry Way Kendall, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1926)
• February 15 – Big L, American rapper (b. 1974)
• February 17 – Sunshine Parker, American actor (b. 1927)
• February 18 – Noam Pitlik, American actor and director (b. 1932)
• February 18 – Michael Larson, American game show celebrity (b. 1949)
• February 20 – Sarah Kane, English playwright (b. 1971)
• February 20 – Gene Siskel, American movie critic (b. 1946)
• February 21 – Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1918)
• February 22 – William Bronk, American poet (b. 1918)
• February 24 – Andre Dubus, American short-story writer (b. 1936)
• February 24 – Virginia Foster Durr, American civil rights activist (b. 1903)
• February 24 – Frank Leslie Walcott, Barbadian labour leader (b. 1916)
• February 25 – Glenn Seaborg, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1912)
• February 26 – José Quintero, Panamanian director (b. 1924)
• February 28 – Bill Talbert, American tennis player (b. 1918)

March

• March 1 – Ann Corio, American dancer and actress (b. 1914)
• March 2 – Dusty Springfield, English singer (b. 1939)
• March 3 – Gerhard Herzberg, German-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
• March 4 – Harry Blackmun, American judge (b. 1908)
• March 4 – Del Close, American actor, writer, and teacher (b. 1934)
• March 5 – Richard Kiley, American actor (b. 1922)
• March 6 – Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Emir of Bahrain (b. 1933)
• March 7 – Sidney Gottlieb, American Central Intelligence Agency official (b. 1918)
• March 7 – Stanley Kubrick, American movie director and producer (b. 1928)
• March 8 – Peggy Cass, American actress (b. 1924)
• March 8 – Joe DiMaggio, American baseball player (b. 1914)
• March 12 – Yehudi Menuhin, American-born violinist (b. 1916)
• March 13 – Garson Kanin, American playwright and screenwriter (b. 1912)
• March 17 – Ernest Gold, Austrian-born composer (b. 1921)
• March 18 – Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentine writer (b. 1914)
• March 18 – Rod Hull, British entertainer (b. 1935)
• March 21 – Ernie Wise, British comedian (b. 1925)
• March 24 – Birdie Tebbetts, American baseball player and manager (b. 1912)
• March 25 – Cal Ripken, Sr., American baseball player and manager (b. 1935)
• March 29 – Joe Williams, American singer (b. 1918)
• March 31 – Yuri Knorozov, Russian linguist and epigrapher (b. 1922)

April

• April 3 – Lionel Bart, English composer (b. 1930)
• April 4 – Faith Domergue, American actress (b. 1924)
• April 10 – Jean Vander Pyl, American television actress (b. 1919)
• April 12 – Boxcar Willie, American country music singer (b. 1931)
• April 14 – Ellen Corby, American actress (b. 1911)
• April 14 – Anthony Newley, English actor, singer and songwriter (b. 1931)
• April 20 – Rick Rude, American professional wrestler (b. 1958)
• April 20 – Señor Wences, Spanish ventriloquist (b. 1896)
• April 21 – Charles Rogers, American actor (b. 1904)
• April 25 – Michael Morris, 3rd Baron Killanin, 6th President of the International Olympic Committee (b. 1914)
• April 25 – Herman Miller, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1919)
• April 27 – Al Hirt, American trumpeter and bandleader (b. 1922)
• April 27 – Cyril Washbrook, English cricketer (b. 1914)
• April 28 – Rory Calhoun, American television and movie actor (b. 1922)
• April 28 – Arthur Leonard Schawlow, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1921)
• April 30 – Alf Ramsey, English football manager (b. 1920)

May

• May 2 – Oliver Reed, English actor (b. 1938)
• May 8 – Dirk Bogarde, English actor (b. 1921)
• May 10 – Shel Silverstein, American writer and poet (b. 1930)
• May 10 – Eric Willis, Australian politician, former Premier of New South Wales (b. 1922)
• May 12 – Saul Steinberg, Romanian-born cartoonist (b. 1914)
• May 13 – Gene Sarazen, American golfer (b. 1902)
• May 17 – Henry Jones, American actor (b. 1912)
• May 18 – Betty Robinson, American athlete (b. 1911)
• May 23 – Owen Hart, Canadian professional wrestler (b. 1965)
• May 26 – Paul Sacher, Swiss conductor (b. 1906)

June

• June 5 – Mel Tormé, American singer (b. 1925)
• June 6 – Anne Haddy, Australian actress (b. 1930)
• June 8 – Christina Foyle, British bookshop owner (b. 1911)
• June 9 – Maurice Journeau, French composer (b. 1898)
• June 11 – DeForest Kelley, American actor (b. 1920)
• June 16 – Screaming Lord Sutch, English politician (b. 1940)
• June 27 – Jorgos Papadopoulos, military ruler of Greece (b. 1919)
• June 29 – Allan Carr, American producer (b. 1937)

July

• July 1 – Edward Dmytryk, Canadian-American movie director (b. 1908)
• July 1 – Guy Mitchell, American singer (b. 1927)
• July 1 – Sylvia Sidney, American actress (b. 1910)
• July 2 – Mario Puzo, American writer (b. 1920)
• July 6 – Carl Gunter Jr, American politician (b. 1938)
• July 6 – Joaquin Rodrigo, Spanish composer (b. 1901)
• July 8 – Charles Conrad, American astronaut (b. 1930)
• July 11 – Helen Forrest, American jazz singer (b. 1917)
• July 12 – Bill Owen, English actor (b. 1914)
• July 16 – John F. Kennedy, Jr., American lawyer and son of John F. Kennedy (b. 1960)
• July 18 – Meir Ariel, Israeli singer (b. 1942)
• July 20 – Sandra Gould, American actress (b. 1916)
• July 23 – King Hassan II of Morocco (b. 1929)
• July 26 – Trygve Haavelmo, Norwegian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
• July 29 – Anita Carter, American singer (b. 1933)
• July 29 – Rajendra Kumar, Indian movie actor, producer and director (b. 1929)

August

• August 1 – Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Bengali writer (b. 1897)
• August 3 – Leroy Vinnegar, American musician (b. 1928)
• August 4 – Victor Mature, American actor (b. 1913)
• August 11 – Hendrick Chin A Sen, 2nd President of Suriname (b. 1934)
• August 13 – Jaime Garzón, Colombian journalist and comedian (b. 1960)
• August 14 – Lane Kirkland, American union leader (b. 1922)
• August 14 – Pee Wee Reese, American baseball player (b. 1918)
• August 23 – Norman Wexler, American screenwriter (b. 1926)
• August 23 – James White, Irish writer (b. 1928)
• August 24 – Mary Jane Croft, American actress (b. 1916)

September

• September 5 – Allen Funt, American television personality (b. 1914)
• September 5 – Alan Clark, English politician and diarist (b. 1928)
• September 6 – Lagumot Harris, Nauruan politician and former President (b. 1938)
• September 9 – Ruth Roman, American actress (b. 1922)
• September 10 – Alfredo Kraus, Spanish tenor (b. 1927)
• September 11 – Gonzalo Rodriguez, Uruguyan race car driver (b. 1972)
• September 12 – Allen Stack, American Olympic swimmer (b. 1928)
• September 14 – Charles Crichton, English movie director (b. 1910)
• September 20 – Raisa Gorbachyova, Soviet first lady (b. 1932)
• September 22 – George C. Scott, American actor (b. 1927)
• September 23 – Ivan Goff, Australian screenwriter (b. 1910)

October

• October 6 – Amália Rodrigues, Portuguese Fado legend (b. 1920)
• October 6 – Gorilla Monsoon, American professional wrestler and announcer (b. 1937)
• October 7 – Helen Vinson, American actress (b. 1907)
• October 8 – John McLendon, American basketball coach (b. 1915)
• October 9 – Akhtar Hameed Khan, Pakistani pioneer in microcredit and microfinance (b. 1914)
• October 9 – Milt Jackson, American musician (b. 1923)
• October 11 – Rafi' Daham Al-Tikriti, Director of the Iraqi Intelligence Service (b. 1937)
• October 12 – Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player (b. 1936)
• October 14 – Julius Nyerere, President of Tanzania (b. 1922)
• October 18 – Paddi Edwards, American actress (b. 1931)
• October 19 – Harry Bannink, Dutch composer and musician (b. 1929)
• October 19 – James C. Murray, American politician (b. 1917)
• October 20 – Jack Lynch, Prime Minister of Ireland (b. 1917)
• October 21 – Lars Bo, Danish artist and writer (b. 1924)
• October 21 – John Bromwich, Australian tennis player (b. 1918)
• October 24 – John Chafee, American politician (b. 1922)
• October 25 – Payne Stewart, American golfer (b. 1957)
• October 26 – Rex Gildo, German singer (b. 1939)
• October 26 – Hoyt Axton, American actor and singer-songwriter (b. 1938)
• October 26 – Abraham Polonsky, American screenwriter and director (b. 1910)
• October 27 – Frank De Vol, American composer (b. 1911)
• October 27 – Robert Mills, American physicist (b. 1927)
• October 27 – Wes Berggren, American musician (b. 1971)
• October 31 – Greg Moore, Canadian race car driver (b. 1975)

November

• November 1 – Theodore Hall, American physicist and spy (b. 1925)
• November 3 – Ian Bannen, Scottish actor (b. 1928)
• November 9 – Mabel King, American actress (b. 1932)
• November 11 – Mary Kay Bergman, American actress (b. 1961)
• November 15 – Gene Levitt, American television writer, producer, and director (b. 1920)
• November 16 – Daniel Nathans, American microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1928)
• November 18 – Paul Bowles, American novelist (b. 1910)
• November 18 – Horst P. Horst, German-American photographer (b. 1906)
• November 18 – Doug Sahm, American musician (b. 1941)
• November 30 – Amintore Fanfani, Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1908)
• November 21 – Quentin Crisp, English writer (b. 1908)
• November 21 – Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd Allah ibn Baaz, Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia. (b. 1910)
• November 24 – Hilary Minster, British Actor (b. 1944)
• November 29 – Gene Rayburn, American television personality (b. 1917)
• November 29 – Iwamoto Kaoru, Japanese professional Go player (b. 1902)
• November 30 – Charlie Byrd, American Jazz musician and classical guitarist (b. 1925)

December

• December 2 – Joey Adams, American comedian (b. 1911)
• December 3 – Scatman John, American musician (b. 1942)
• December 3 – Jarl Wahlström, Salvation Army general (b. 1918)
• December 3 – Madeline Kahn, American actress (b. 1942)
• December 4 – Rose Bird, American judge (b. 1936)
• December 8 – Péter Kuczka, Hungarian writer (b. 1923)
• December 10 – Rick Danko, Canadian musician (b. 1943)
• December 10 – Shirley Hemphill, American actress (b. 1947)
• December 10 – Franjo Tuđman, President of Croatia (b. 1922)
• December 12 – Paul Cadmus, American artist (b. 1904)
• December 12 – Joseph Heller, American novelist (b. 1923)
• December 17 – Rex Allen, American actor, singer, and songwriter (b. 1920)
• December 17 – Grover Washington, Jr., American saxophonist (b. 1943)
• December 18 – Robert Bresson, French movie maker (b. 1901)
• December 19 – Desmond Llewelyn, Welsh actor (b. 1914)
• December 19 – Robert Dougall, British newsreader (b. 1913)
• December 20 – Irving Rapper, American movie director (b. 1898)
• December 20 – Hank Snow, Canadian musician (b. 1914)
• December 23 – John P. Davies, American diplomat (b. 1908)
• December 24 - Maurice Couve de Murville, Prime Minister of France (b. 1907)
• December 24 – João Figueiredo, President of Brazil (b. 1918)
• December 24 – Tito Guízar, Mexican singer and movie actor (b. 1908)
• December 26 – Shankar Dayal Sharma, President of India (b. 1918)
• December 26 – Curtis Mayfield, American musician and composer (b. 1942)
• December 27 – Leonard Goldenson, American television executive (b. 1905)
• December 28 – Clayton Moore, American actor (b. 1914)
• December 30 – Fritz Leonhardt, German structural engineer (b. 1909)
• December 30 – Sarah Knauss, American oldest living person (b. 1880)
• December 31 – Elliot Richardson, American Attorney General under Richard Nixon (b. 1920)

Movies released

• 8mm
• 8 1/2 Women
• End of Days
• Eyes Wide Shut
• Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
• The Green Mile
• The Matrix
• Tarzan
• South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut
• Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
• The World Is Not Enough
• Wild Wild West
• Office Space
• The Sixth Sense
• Notting Hill
• American Beauty
• Toy Story 2

Hit songs

• ...Baby One More Time – Britney Spears
• Genie in a Bottle – Christina Aguilera
• Livin' la Vida Loca – Ricky Martin
• Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of...) – Lou Bega
• I Need To Know – Marc Anthony
• Believe – Cher
• No Scrubs - TLC
• Angel – Sarah McLachlan
• Kiss Me – Sixpence None The Richer
• You'll Be in My Heart – Phil Collins
• Steal My Sunshine - Len
• New – No Doubt
• Smooth – Santana featuring Rob Thomas
• All Star – Smash Mouth
• That Don't Impress Me Much – Shania Twain
• Amazed - Lonestar

New books

• All our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life – Winona LaDuke
• Atomised – Michel Houellebecq
• Battle Royale – Koushun Takami
• Blind Eye – James B. Stewart
• The Century – Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster
• Le Chambre des Officiers (The Officers' Ward) – Marc Dugain
• Charlotte Gray – Sebastian Faulks
• Chocolat – Joanne Harris
• Cunt – Stewart Home
• Darwin's Radio – Greg Bear
• A Deepness in the Sky – Vernor Vinge
• Death du Jour – Kathy Reichs
• Dining with Peggy Guggenheim – Jane Turner Rylands
• Disgrace – J. M. Coetzee
• The Fifth Elephant – Terry Pratchett
• Florence Lawrence, the Biograph Girl: America's First Movie Star – Kelly R. Brown
• The Fortune Catcher – Susanne Pari
• The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon – Stephen King
• Glamorama – Bret Easton Ellis
• Hannibal – Thomas Harris
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – J. K. Rowling
• Hearts in Atlantis – Stephen King
• High Time to Kill – Raymond Benson
• Holes – Louis Sachar
• In America – Susan Sontag
• Invisible Monsters – Chuck Palahniuk
• Irresistible Forces – Danielle Steel
• A Lake Beyond the Wind – Yahya Yakhlif
• The Mark of the Angel – Nancy Huston
• Miss Wyoming – Douglas Coupland
• One of the Guys – Robert Clark Young
• Paradise – Toni Morrison
• Prisoner in a Red-Rose Chain – Jeffrey Moore
• Rulers Of Evil – F. Tupper Saussy
• Sick Puppy – Carl Hiaasen
• Single & Single – John le Carré
• Speak – Laurie Halse Anderson
• Star Wars: Episode 1, The Phantom Menace – Terry Brooks
• Scattered Like Seeds – Shaw J. Dallal
• Soul Harvest – Jerry B. Jenkins & Tim LaHaye
• Survivor – Chuck Palahniuk
• Suzanne Valadon: The Mistress of Montmartre – June Rose
• Syrup – Max Barry
• 'Tis – Frank McCourt
• Tara Road – Maeve Binchy
• Temple – Matthew Reilly
• The Testament – John Grisham
• The World Is Not Enough – Raymond Benson
• Through the Stones – Diana Gabaldon
• Timeline – Michael Crichton

Video games released.

• Final Fantasy VIII
• Silent Hill
• Superman
• System Shock 2