After 13 years as a star guard for the Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan announces his retirement from basketball.

United States President Clinton is acquitted of impeachment charges.

After a reign of 46 years, King Hussein of Jordan dies of cancer and is succeeded by his son, King Abdullah.

Joe DiMaggio, the renowned baseball centerfielder for the New York Yankees during their golden years in the 1940s, dies at age 84.

Stanley Kubrick, the director of 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange, dies at age 70.

NATO goes to war against Yugoslavia to protect the ethnic Albanian majority in the province of Kosovo.

Two teenage students kill 15 and wound 23 in Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.

Israel elects its most decorated soldier, Ehud Barak, as prime minister. Barak replaces Benjamin Netanyahu amid allegations of corruption within Netanyahu's administration, as well as criticism for his role in stalling the Middle East peace process.

John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn Bessette, and Carolyn's sister Lauren die when Kennedy's private plane crashes off the coast of Massachusetts.

An earthquake that kills some 17,000 people and leaves thousands of others homeless devastates eastern Turkey. Three months later, another earthquake rocks the northwest part of the country, claiming over 400 lives.

During a United Nations-sponsored referendum, the people of East Timor vote to be independent of Indonesia, sparking an international crisis when pro-Indonesian forces retaliate by wreaking havoc on the new nation.

For the second time in a decade, Russia launches a major offensive against separatist guerillas in the southern region of Chechnya.

In a findings of fact, U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson calls Microsoft a monopoly that has used its power and profits to harm smaller firms producing competing products.

Panama is scheduled to gain control of the Panama Canal from the United States in December.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigns, naming as his successor Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

As the year 2000 approaches, the world prepares itself for the various perceived challenges of Y2K.