Year retrospective · 1990s

1999

1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1999th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 999th year of the 2nd millennium, the 99th year of the 20th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1990s decade.

Recorded events

10

top entries

Notable births

30

Notable deaths

30

Decade

1990s

Timeline

Defining events of 1999

  1. 1999 Nunavut is established as a Canadian territory carved out of the eastern part of the Northwest Territories.

    Territory of Canada

    Nunavut is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, which provided this territory to the Inuit for self-government. The boundaries had been drawn in 1993.

  2. 1999 United States President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court for giving "intentionally false statements" in a civil lawsuit; he is later fined and disbarred.

    President of the United States from 1993 to 2001

    William Jefferson Clinton is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the attorney general of Arkansas from 1977 to 1979 and as the governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981, and again from 1983 to 1992. His centrist "Third Way" political philosophy became known as Clintonism, which dominated his presidency and the succeeding decades of Democratic Party history.

  3. 1999 During the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, an American McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle shoots a passenger train, killing between 20 and 60 people.

    1999 military operation

    The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) carried out an aerial bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The air strikes lasted from 24 March 1999 to 10 June 1999. The bombings continued until an agreement was reached that led to the withdrawal of the Yugoslav Army from Kosovo, and the establishment of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, a UN peacekeeping mission in Kosovo.

  4. 1999 NATO mistakenly bombs a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees. Yugoslav officials say 75 people were killed.

    Intergovernmental military alliance

    The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an intergovernmental military alliance between 32 member states—30 in Europe and two in North America. Founded in the aftermath of World War II, NATO was established with the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949. The organization serves as a system of collective security and deterrence, whereby its independent members agree to defend each-other from attack by any outside party.

  5. 1999 A severe hailstorm strikes Sydney, Australia causing A$2.3 billion in insured damages, the most costly natural disaster in Australian history.

    Natural disaster in Australia

    The 1999 Sydney hailstorm was the costliest natural disaster in Australian insurance history, causing extensive damage along the east coast of New South Wales. The storm developed south of Sydney on the afternoon of Wednesday, 14 April 1999, and struck the city's eastern suburbs, including the central business district, later that evening.

  6. 1999 The German Bundestag returns to Berlin.

    Federal parliament of Germany

    The Bundestag is the federal parliament of Germany. It is the only constitutional body in the country directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag was established by Title III of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 as one of the legislative bodies of Germany, the other being the Bundesrat.

  7. 1999 Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 14 people and injure 23 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado.
  8. 1999 NATO bombs the headquarters of Radio Television of Serbia, as part of their aerial campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
  9. 1999 Outbreak of CIH computer virus.
  10. 1999 Neo-Nazi David Copeland carries out the last of his three nail bombings in London at the Admiral Duncan gay pub, killing three people and injuring 79 others.

Arrivals

Born in 1999

Gabe Davis 1999– American football player (born 1999)
Alessandro Bastoni 1999– Italian footballer (born 1999)
András Schäfer 1999– Hungarian footballer (born 1999)
Chase Young 1999– American football player (born 1999)
Sebastian Kris 1999– New Zealand international rugby league footballer
Choi Hyun-suk 1999– South Korean rapper and singer (born 1999)
Son Chaeyoung 1999– South Korean singer (born 1999)
Laufey 1999– Icelandic singer (born 1999)
Ziyu He 1999– Chinese violinist (born 1999)
Jerry Jeudy 1999– American football player (born 1999)
Peter Hola 1999– Australian rugby league footballer
Mateo Retegui 1999– Footballer (born 1999)

Farewells

Died in 1999

Jesse Stone American rhythm and blues musician and songwriter
Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat German-American biochemist and physician (born 1910)
Jean Vander Pyl American voice actress (1919–1999)
Boxcar Willie American singer (1931–1999)
Ortvin Sarapu Estonian-New Zealand chess player (1924–1999)
Willi Stoph German politician (1914–1999)
Ellen Corby American actress (1911–1999)
Anthony Newley English actor, singer, songwriter, and filmmaker (1931–1999)
Bill Wendell American television announcer (1924–1999)
Harvey Postlethwaite British engineer and car designer (1944–1999)
Skip Spence Canadian-American musician (1946–1999)
Hermine Braunsteiner Austrian Nazi concentration camp guard (1919–1999)

On the charts

Culture of 1999

By month

Across the calendar of 1999

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