June 1998 News and Events

Updated July 10, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

1998 News Month-By-Month

World

• Serbs Renew Attack on Albanian Rebels (June 1): Yugoslav President launches major campaign against separatist movement in province of Kosovo.
• Russian Economy Passes Critical Test (June 3): Government sells nearly $1 billion in Treasury bills without paying recent high interest rates for bonds.
• Dictator of Nigeria Dies (June 8): Gen. Sani Abacha had been condemned around world for ruthless suppression of opponents, human rights and democracy. As successor, top military leaders select Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, averting drawn-out power struggle. (June 9): Abubakar says he will turn over power to elected civilian government by Oct. 1.
• Top Moscow Statisticians Arrested (June 9): Yeltsin government begins fight against tax evasion by accusing agency chief and his deputies of manipulating data to help Russian companies avoid paying taxes.
• Serbs Warned to Halt Attacks (June 12): U.S., Russia, and six other major powers bolster NATO alliance's threat of military action to stem attacks on ethnic Albanians in province of Kosovo. (June 15): Nearly 100 NATO jets roam skies near Serbia to reinforce warning. (June 16): Yugoslav President Milosevic promises concessions. (June 29): Serb forces launch massive assault on rebel forces in Kosovo.
• Chinese Use of U.S. Satellites Reported (June 12): U.S. files show that for two years China's military had relied on equipment sold for civilian purposes.
• Poisoned Iraqi Weapons Reported (June 23): Laboratory tests find evidence of nerve gas on missile warheads. Case for U.N. oil embargo strengthened.
• President Clinton Visits China (June 25, et seq.): Welcomed in Xian as first U.S. president to visit China in a decade. (June 27): Summit meeting ends after unusual live TV exchange between leaders on human rights, Tibet, and China's future.
• New Assembly Elected in Ulster (June 26): Parties committed to peace settlement win ballot for new governing body, but candidates opposed are strong.

Nation

• Clinton Drops Executive Privilege Claim (June 1): Moves to avert quick Supreme Court review in Lewinsky investigation by independent counsel. President continues to press claim for lawyer–client privilege.
• Full Testing of HIV Vaccine Approved (June 3): Federal Drug Administration authorizes California company to conduct world's first large-scale study.
• School Prayer Motion Fails in House (June 4): Amendment for organized school prayer rejected, 224–203, after debate on conservatives' measure.
• High Court Rebuffs Special Prosecutor (June 4): Without dissent, two brief orders reject move by Kenneth W. Starr for expedited ruling on disputed claims of privilege for four grand jury witnesses.
• Texas Man Killed in Apparent Hate Crime (June 7): James Byrd Jr., 49-year-old black man, found dead after being beaten and dragged from back of a truck in Jasper, Tex. Three white men are accused in crime believed to be racially motivated.
• U.S. Fines Honda and Ford $1 Million (June 8): Penalizes car makers for designing vehicles to pass emissions tests but that emit pollutants when driven.
• Heart Drug Withdrawn as Dangerous (June 8): F.D.A. asks maker to end sale of Posicor after revelations of dangerous and possibly lethal interactions with other drugs. Thirty-eight countries affected.
• Environmental Agency Upheld in Suit (June 9): Court rules unanimously that a parent company can be held responsible for costs of cleaning up a subsidiary's toxic waste site if the parent company had unusual responsibility for operation of the site.
• Starr Admits Leaks on Inquiry (June 13): Independent counsel investigating President Clinton says information he gave did not involve grand jury testimony or violate Justice Department code.
• Administration Defends Satellite Exports (June 18): Top officials say China's military did not benefit from transfers of sensitive American technology and that there are safeguards against any such use.
• Energy Secretary Appointed (June 19): President names William B. Richardson, veteran diplomat, congressman and Clinton's Chief Delegate to United Nations.
• White House Broadens Medicare Rules (June 22): Requires sweeping protections for beneficiaries.
• White House Revises Minority Contract Policy (June 24): Businesses will get preference in industries where surveys show minorities are under-represented.

Business/Science/Society

• Californians Reject Bilingual Education (June 3): In referendum, voters reject long-standing policy of public schools.
• High-Speed German Train Crashes (June 3): Passenger train going 125 miles an hour rams concrete pillar over road overpass in Northern Germany.(June 7): German police put death toll at 98 after searching wreckage in Germany's worst postwar train crash.
• Life Sentence in Oklahoma Blast (June 4): U.S. judge in Denver orders prison without parole for Terry L. Nichols for conspiring to bomb Oklahoma City Federal building, where 168 persons were killed.
• Earth's Temperature Sets High Record (June 8): White House announces analysis by government scientists shows warming trend in first five months of 1998.
• Church School Vouchers Upheld in Wisconsin (June 10): State's Supreme Court rules, 4–2, that Milwaukee can use public funds to send pupils to parochial or other religious schools. Judges decide policy does not violate church-state separation rule.
• Harassment Suit Settled for $34 Million (June 11): Mitsubishi subsidiary agrees to payment in Federal lawsuit charging sexual mistreatment of hundreds in automobile plant in Illinois. Settlement is the largest ever negotiated by Federal Government.
• Scientists Decode Tuberculosis Germ (June 11): British-French team solve DNA sequence of microbe that yearly kills millions across the world.
• Shuttle Returns After Last Mission to Mir (June 12): Spacecraft Discovery safely brings back seventh and last American after his four-and-a-half months in orbit aboard Russian space station.
• Massachusetts Court Backs Au Pair (June 16): Upholds reduced sentence for Briton Louise Woodward, convicted of killing baby boy in her care.
• AIDS Virus Pictured in Attack on Cell (June 17): Scientists report use of powerful x-ray technique to take snapshots of the virus as it snares two target sites in order to escape body's immune system.
• Storms Rage Across Nation (June 29): At least 21 are dead or missing in East and Midwest.