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1999 in the United States
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1970s  1980s  – 1990s –  2000s  2010s
Years:	1996 1997 1998 – 1999 – 2000 2001 2002
Flag:	50 stars (1960 – present)

Events from the year 1999 in the United States.

Events

January–March

• 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 6 – Dennis Hastert becomes Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
• 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.
• 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 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.
• 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 17 – The Roth IRA is introduced by U.S. Senator William V. Roth, Jr.
• 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 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 – 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–June

• 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 8 – Bill Gates personal fortune exceeds US$100 billion dollars, due to the increased value of Microsoft stock.
• 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.
• May 2 – Norman J. Sirnic and Karen Sirnic are murdered by serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz in Weimar, Texas.
• May 3 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 11,000 for the first time, at 11,014.70.
• 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 5 – Microsoft releases Windows 98 (Second Edition) (from 1998).
• May 8 – Nancy Mace becomes the first female cadet to graduate from The Military College of South Carolina.
• May 19 – Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is released in theaters. It becomes the highest grossing Star Wars film.
• 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 1 – American Airlines Flight 1420 overruns the runway in Little Rock, Arkansas killing 11 people.
• 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 12 – Texas Governor George W. Bush announces he will seek the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States.
• June 19 – Horror author Stephen King is hit in a car accident on Route 5 in North Lovell, Maine by Bryan Smith.
• June 23 – The Phillips explosion of 1999 kills 2 and injures 3 in Pasadena, Texas.

July–September

• 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 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 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 22 – The first version of MSN Messenger is released by Microsoft.
• 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 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 10 – Buford O. Furrow, Jr. wounds 5 and kills 1 during the August 1999 Los Angeles Jewish Community Center shooting.
• September 7 – Viacom and CBS merge.

October–December

November 18: Aggie Bonfire collapse

• October – NASA loses one of its probes, the Mars Climate Orbiter.
• October 13 – The United States Senate rejects ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
• October 31 – EgyptAir Flight 990, travelling from New York City to Cairo, crashes off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, killing all 217 on board. The NTSB later reports that the co-pilot, Gameel Al-Batouti, deliberately crashed the plane, however Egyptian authorities dispute this claim.
• November 18 – The Aggie Bonfire collapses in College Station, Texas, killing 12.
• 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 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.

External links

• Media related to 1999 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons