market losses are recouped when, for the first
time, more than one billion shares are traded on
a single day and the Dow Jones Industrial Average
gains a record 337.17 to close at 7,498.32.
Transportation and communications: (Feb. 28)
WFAA, an American Broadcasting Company
(ABC) affiliate serving Dallas and Fort Worth,
Texas, is the nation’s first virtual high frequency
(VHF) television station to start broadcasting
its newscasts using a high-definition television
(HDTV) system. (Aug. 1) The Boeing and Mc-
Donnell Douglas aircraft companies complete
their merger. (Sept. 4) The last Ford Thunder-
bird to be manufactured for three years comes off
an assembly line in Lorain, Ohio. (Nov. 10) The
largest merger in American history is announced
when telecommunications companies WorldCom
and MCI Communications announce a $37 bil-
lion merger to create the new WorldCom.
Science and technology:(Mar. 4) President Clinton
bars federal funding for any research on human
cloning. (Mar. 22) The Hale-Bopp comet makes
its closest approach to Earth. (Jul. 4) NASA’s
Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of
Mars. (Oct. 15) NASA launches the Cassini-
Huygens space probe to explore Saturn.
Environment and health: (May 16) President Clin-
ton formally apologizes to the surviving partici-
pants in the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis
in the Negro Male and their families. The more
than six hundred men who participated in the
study, conducted between 1932 and 1972, were
primarily poor African American sharecroppers
who were denied treatment for syphilis. (July) Al-
though it continues to deny that its Joe Camel ad-
vertising campaign was targeted to children, the
R. J. Reynolds (RJR) Tobacco Company reaches
an out-of-court settlement to resolve a lawsuit al-
leging that the ads caused young people to
smoke. RJR also agrees to stop using Joe Camel
in its advertisements. (Jul. 8) Mayo Clinic re-
searchers issue a warning about the dangers of
fen-phen, maintaining the dieting drug can cause
severe heart and lung damage.
Arts and literature:(Jan. 27) Revelations surface
that French museums lost almost two thousand
pieces of artwork that had been stolen by the Na-
zis. (Jun. 30) An international phenomenon is
launched whenHarr y Potter and the Philosopher’s
Stoneis published in the United Kingdom. The
book is later retitledHarr y Potter and the Sorcerer’s
Stonefor release in the United States. During the
next ten years, the exploits of the young wizard
will attain unprecedented popularity, with seven
best-selling books and a similar series of films.
(Sept. 29) American sculptor Louise Bourgeois
receives the National Medal of the Arts.
Popular culture:(Mar. 9) Rapper the Notorious
B.I.G. is killed in a drive-by shooting. (Apr.) NBC
has seven of the top-ten rated television programs
for the 1996-1997 season, includingER, the top-
rated program, watched in 21.2 percent of Ameri-
can homes, and runner-upSeinfeld, watched in
20.5 percent of American homes. (Oct. 16)The
New York Times, often called the “gray lady of jour-
nalism,” gets a face-lift when it publishes its first
front-page color photograph.
Sports:(Mar. 22) At age fourteen, figure skater Tara
Lipinski becomes the youngest person to win both
the U.S. and world championships. (Oct. 26) The
Florida Marlins are the first “wild card” team to
win the World Series when the team defeats the
Cleveland Indians by a score of 3-2 in the eleventh
inning of game seven.
Crime:(Jan. 16) Ennis Cosby, the only son of actor
Bill Cosby, is shot and killed while he is changing a
flat tire in Los Angeles. (Feb. 4) O. J. Simpson is
found liable in civil court for the death of Ronald
Goldman and the battery of Nicole Brown Simp-
son; he is ordered to pay $35 million in damages
to the families of the two victims. (Jun. 2) Timothy
McVeigh is convicted on fifteen counts of murder
and conspiracy for the 1995 Oklahoma City
bombing. On June 13, a jury sentences him to
the death penalty. (Jul. 15) Serial killer Andrew
Cunanan shoots and kills fashion designer
Gianni Versace outside Versace’s Miami home.
Cunanan commits suicide in Miami on July 23.1998
International events:(Feb. 23) Osama Bin Laden
publishes a fatwa declaring a holy war against all
Jews and Crusaders. (Apr. 10) The Irish and Brit-
ish governments, and most of Northern Ireland’s
political parties, sign the Belfast Agreement. Also
called the Good Friday Agreement, the pact seeks
to bring peace to Northern Ireland by establish-
ing that the nation’s constitutional future should
be determined by the majority vote of its citizens.
(May 28) In response to a series of nuclear tests by1038 Time Line The Nineties in America