01|Exxon, the largest oil company in the United States, agrees to purchase Mobil, the second largest U.S. oil company, for 80 billion U.S. dollars in stock. If approved by U.S. government regulators, the newly formed company will be the world's largest corporation.|
02|U.S. troops arrest Radislav Krstic, a Bosnian Serb general, in connection with the massacre of Muslim civilians during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Krstic, who is to be tried for genocide before the United Nations world crimes tribunal in the Netherlands, is the highest-ranking official arrested for war crimes in connection with the conflict that pitted Serbs, Croats, and Muslims against each other.|
03|In the Philippines, 25 children and 5 adults lose their lives in a fire at a Manila orphanage. Media reports suggest that the 85-year-old wooden building had been burning for more than an hour before firefighters arrived.|
03|The central banks of the 11 European nations that will adopt a single currency, the Euro, on January 1, 1999, simultaneously cut their interest rates to a nearly uniform level in an effort to stimulate their economies in the face of the economic crisis in Asia and Russia.|
04|The space shuttle Endeavour carries into orbit the first U.S.-built section of a planned international space station, which is expected to cost more than 100 billion U.S. dollars. During the 12-day mission, astronauts on board Endeavour attach the U.S. module to a Russian-built section of the station already in orbit.|
04|The U.S. government reports that the economy unexpectedly generated more than 250,000 jobs in November. The news eases fears of an economic slowdown and rallies prices on the stock market.|
04|At the Lancaster Opera House, New York, actress Margaret Pelligrini again plays a Munchkin in a stage version of the musical "The Wizard of Oz". The 75-year-old actress was one of the original Munchkins in the 1939 screen version of L. Frank Baum's children's story. It is one of the most popular films in history.|
05|Sixty potential illegal immigrants, most of whom came from Africa, are thrown into the Mediterranean Sea by their smugglers who had panicked at the approach of another vessel. The incident happens about 155 kilometres south of the island of Malta. Fifty people are rescued by a Russian merchant ship but the others are believed drowned.|
06|Venezuelans elect Hugo Chavez president, the first leader in 40 years who is not the nominee of a dominant political party. Chavez attempted to seize power in Venezuela by force in 1992.|
07|In Chechnya, officials searching for four kidnap victims find the severed heads of three Britons and one New Zealander in a remote village west of the capital, Grozny. Peter Kennedy, Darren Hickey, and Rudolf Petschi of the United Kingdom and Stanley Shaw of New Zealand had been restoring telephone services devastated during Chechnya's 1994-1996 war with Russia. The four were abducted in Grozny on October 3 by unidentified gunmen.|
08|Scientists in Japan report that they have cloned eight calves from cells gathered from a single cow. Only four of the calves survived.|
09|Scientists in South Africa announce the discovery of what they describe as the best preserved skeleton yet found of an early member of the human family. The scientists estimated the age of the skeleton at between 3.2 million and 3.6 million years old.|
09|Nearly 30 years after Swiss women won the right to vote, Switzerland elects Interior Minister Ruth Dreifuss as its first female president. Dreifuss is also the country's first Jewish president.|
09|In Algeria, terrorists murder 45 people in a pre-dawn attack on the mountain town of Tadjena, about 190 kilometres west of the capital, Algiers. Later in the day, security forces, acting on information supplied by a member of the radical Armed Islamic Group, retrieve 46 other bodies from a well at a farm in Meftah, about 16 kilometres south of Algiers. They believe the well was used as a mass grave in 1996 or 1997. Many more bodies, some possibly booby-trapped, remain in the well. The murders are a result of the unrest that began in January, 1992, when the government cancelled elections which the fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front expected to win. More than 75,000 people have died in the troubles. (See also December 13.)|
10|In the United States, the House Judiciary Committee debates articles to impeach President Bill Clinton. Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich sets December 17 as the day on which the impeachment vote will take place in the House.|
11|In Italy, heavy rains postpone attempts to secure the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. The structure is famous for leaning 4.4 metres out of line when measured from the seventh storey. It inclines because its foundation was built on unstable soil. Construction of the tower began in 1173 and was completed between 1360 and 1370. The tower was closed to tourists in 1990 for fear it might fall over. Engineers are hoping that two sets thick steel cables will anchor the building when work begins in 1999 to straighten it a little.|
11|The Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives votes along party lines to send to the House three articles recommending impeachment against President Bill Clinton. The Republican-controlled committee charges Clinton of committing perjury (lying under oath) during testimony on August 17, 1998, before a grand jury investigating his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern. In a second article of impeachment, the committee charges Clinton with committing perjury in his deposition in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case in 1997. A third article accuses Clinton of trying to influence witnesses in the Lewinsky matter. The next day, the committee votes a fourth article of impeachment accusing President Clinton of abuse of power.|
11|Biologists announce that they have deciphered the full genetic programming of a multicelled animal. Scientists hope the discovery will pave the way for mapping the entire human genetic code. The genetic code of the animal--a microscopic roundworm--gives scientists their first glimpse of the information needed to develop, operate, and maintain a multicellular animal.|
11|In northwest Australia, about 600 people are evacuated from the Dampier peninsula as Cyclone Thelma, a category five cyclone, moves across the region. Thelma is the most severe cyclone recorded in Australia. Winds at its core reach 296 kilometres per hour.|
12|In the United States, the House Judiciary Committee approves a fourth article of impeachment against President Bill Clinton. The article accuses Clinton of abuse of power. The House of Representatives plan to vote on the four articles of impeachment on December 17. Representative Robert Livingston, the speaker-elect of the House of Representatives, vows to block any effort by the House to censure President Clinton rather than impeach him.|
12|President Bill Clinton flies to Israel to revive a peace accord signed in October by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat. Netanyahu, who lost much of his political support by agreeing to cede more land to the Palestinians, threatens to break the accord.|
12|After four weeks of sub-freezing temperatures, a hundred Polish people are reported to have died as a result of the cold. The death toll is almost double the number of cold-related deaths recorded in Poland last winter.|
13|In Algeria, it is reported that police excavating a mass grave at Meftah, near Algiers, have retrieved about 110 partially decomposed bodies. (See December 9.)|
13|Representative Henry Hyde, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, calls on U.S. President Bill Clinton to resign, saying that it would be a "heroic" gesture. President Clinton, in Jerusalem, responds that he is not guilty of perjury and has no intention of resigning.|
14|The Palestinian National Council, meeting in Gaza, votes to strike from the Palestinian charter any language calling for the destruction of Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel announces that he accepts the vote--carried out before U.S.President Bill Clinton and a worldwide television audience--and considers it an important step toward peace. Netanyahu, however, refuses to meet the December 18 deadline to withdraw from more West Bank land until Palestinians meet other Israeli demands, including exercising control over various terrorists.|
15|Richard Butler, head of the United Nations Special Commission, accuses Iraqi officials of failing to cooperate with UN weapons inspectors. U.S. officials respond to the report with warnings that the United States is prepared to attack Iraq if President Saddam Hussein halts inspections. Iraq averted U.S. attack in November by pledging full cooperation.|
15|The Rwandan government issues a firm rejection of the findings of a French study of the genocide of a half-million people in Rwanda in 1994. After nine months of investigation into Hutu government-organized slaughter of Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus, a committee of French lawmakers yesterday condemned the passivity of the United Nations, and blamed the United States for blocking intervention by the U.N. They concluded that France was not implicated in the affair. A spokesperson for President Pasteur Bizimungu's office claims that France had armed the Hutu militia and then helped them escape into Congo after Tutsi-led rebels took power and ended the killings.|
15|As South Africa suffers its fourth consecutive day of heavy rain and storms, President Mandela and his bodyguards escape unhurt from a tornado that hits Umtata, a town near the southeastern coast. The pharmacy in which they are sheltering is damaged. Eleven people waiting at a bus stop die as the tornado causes a wall to collapse.|
15|The Philippine government orders a cease-fire to allow communist guerrillas to leave their mountain hideouts and join their families to celebrate Christmas. The truce will last from today until January 20, 1999.|
16|United States and British forces launch air and missile strikes against military and industrial sites in Iraq. U.S.President Bill Clinton orders a series of air strikes in response to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's refusal to allow United Nations inspectors access to various centres believed to be used for the manufacture or storage of weapons of mass destruction. The attack begins at about 11 p.m. Baghdad time with a wave of more than 200 Tomahawk missiles, most launched against those centres. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives respond to the attack on Iraq by postponing the impeachment vote against President Bill Clinton, which was scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 17.|
17|The United States launches additional air strikes against Iraq. Iraqi officials report that at least 25 people were killed and 75 injured in U.S. strikes on December 16, which President Bill Clinton ordered after Iraq again blocked United Nations inspections of facilities believed to be used for the manufacture or storage of weapons of mass destruction. U.S. Army officials declare that the mission's aim is to eliminate Iraq's stockpile of biological and chemical weapons.|
17|Popocatepetl volcano, situated about 80 kilometres southeast of Mexico City, erupts. A 5-kilometre-high column of ash hangs over the volcano, and red-hot rocks are tossed more than 3 kilometres, setting numerous bush and forest fires. Although the fires burned for several hours, there are no immediate reports of injury to any of the 300,000 people living on the slopes of Popocatepetl.|
17|In the United Kingdom, the House of Lords sets aside its own ruling that, under British law, General Augusto Pinochet of Chile does not warrant immunity from arrest through his status as a former foreign head of state. This action is taken because, at the original hearing, Lord Justice Leonard Hoffmann failed to disclose his ties with Amnesty International, before sitting in judgment of Pinochet. (Amnesty International has campaigned to have Pinochet charged with gross abuses of human rights.) Now, a new House of Lords panel of judges must rehear Pinochet's claim that the United Kingdom has no right to accede to Spain's request for his extradition to face charges of murder and torture committed during his 1973-1990 rule.|
17|The World Meteorological Organization, a specialized United Nations agency located in Geneva, Switzerland, reports that average surface temperature on Earth in 1998 is the highest since temperature was first measured by a thermometer in the mid-1800's and that 7 of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 1990.|
18|In Northern Ireland, politicians agree that the new coalition government, promised in the April peace accord, will comprise a cabinet-style administration made up of 10 departments. It will replace the current British government system, which has directly ruled Northern Ireland since 1972. It is also agreed that Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, which won independence from the United Kingdom in 1922, are to cooperate informally on policies concerning agriculture, education, environment, health, tourism, and transport. Following this announcement, members of the Loyalist Volunteer Force surrender a number of illegal firearms and challenge the Irish Republican Army to do the same. It is the first time any paramilitary group in Northern Ireland has surrendered weapons since April's peace accord.|
18|U.S. Army officials estimate that the waves of air U.S. attacks on Iraq, which began on December 16, have severely damaged or destroyed only 18 of 89 specified targets. President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, appearing on television for the first time since the U.S. air strike on Iraq began on December 17, calls the United States "agents of Satan".|
19|In southern Iceland, a volcano beneath the Vatnajokull glacier erupts, sending clouds of steam and ash about 10,000 metres into the air.|
19|The U.S. House of Representatives votes to impeach President Bill Clinton, marking the second time in U.S. history that a president has faced a Senate trial to remove him from office. House members pass two articles of impeachment with a vote of 228 to 206 on a charge of lying under oath and 221 to 212 on a charge of obstructing justice during the investigation of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. House Democrats failed in their efforts to win House approval of a move to censure the president as an alternative to impeachment.|
19|The United States ends its campaign of air strikes on Iraq. President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair of the United Kingdom proclaim they have achieved their goal of degrading Iraq's military machine. Iraqi officials pledge that United Nations arms inspectors will never be allowed to return.|
20|In the U.S.A., Nkem Chukwu, who had taken fertility drugs, gives birth to seven children by Caesarean section. Another child, a girl, was born prematurely on December 8. The only known living set of octuplets, five girls and two boys, are in a critical condition in Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. (See also December 27.)|
21|An overwhelming majority of the Israeli parliament votes to dissolve the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Earlier in the day, members of parliament agreed to withdraw a scheduled vote of no-confidence in Netanyahu's government, which by law would have forced parliament to hold elections within 60 days.|
21|President Hugo Banzer of Bolivia announces that nearly a quarter of the country's coca leaf crop, vital to the cocaine processing industry, has been destroyed. His government has paid compensation to farmers of established coca fields but new, illegal, coca crops have been forcibly destroyed by the police and army. The president is hoping to eradicate the cocaine trade in Bolivia by 2002.|
21|In a hearing broadcast nationwide, Imelda Marcos refuses to identify the sources of her family's wealth. The widow of former president Ferdinand Marcos is facing four hundred court cases as the government attempts to recover the massive fortune it alleges the dictator stole from the country during his 20-year rule.|
22|Chinese officials defend harsh sentences imposed on three government opposition activists. On December 21 and 22, Chinese courts sentenced three dissidents to jail for "plotting to overthrow state power" and "endangering state security." Human-rights officials speculate that the tough sentences suggest that democratic reform is failing in China.|
23|Several hundred Cubans gather in the plaza outside Havana Cathedral for the first concert of Christmas music to be held there since 1969. To mark the visit of Pope John Paul II in January 1997, the government granted a Christmas holiday in December 1996. Last month, the government decided to make the holiday permanent.|
23|In the United States, more than a third of California's annual citrus crop is destroyed by a freeze, and growers say that orange prices in supermarkets will triple by the end of the year. The cold spell, which began on December 21, is the worst in California since 1990.|
23|In London, Peter Mandelson resigns as secretary of trade and industry. His action follows revelations by a national newspaper that in 1996 he accepted a loan from Geoffrey Robinson, who resigned yesterday as paymaster general. Mandelson, 45, is a close adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair, and was largely responsible for the Labour Party's landslide victory in the 1997 election.|
24|Serbian forces break a two-month cease-fire with the launch of an assault on separatist guerrillas in Podujevo, Serbia, in northern Kosovo Province. International monitors, who are in Kosovo to encourage talks between the government and the rebels, state that it may be pointless to continue their peace efforts.|
24|Three hot-air balloonists are rescued by helicopter after bad weather forces them to ditch just north of Oahu, in the Pacific Ocean. British industrialist Richard Branson, American millionaire Steve Fossett, and Per Lindstrand of Sweden, were seven days into their eleventh attempt to make the first nonstop around-the-world balloon flight.|
25|Russian officials report that radioactive waste sealed in containers and dumped by the Soviet Union in Arctic waters in the 1960's is leaking. Radiation levels are reported to be 100 times above normal in some areas. The officials also note that chemical weapons dumped by the Soviet Union are also leaking, contaminating the Baltic Sea with heavy metals and arsenic.|
26|Vice President Taha Yassin of Iraq announces that Iraqi anti-aircraft gunners have driven off "enemy" warplanes flying over Iraq and that Iraq will fire on all U.S. and British warplanes patrolling the no-fly zones that were imposed on Iraq in 1991, following the Persian Gulf War. The United States, the United Kingdom, and France set up the no-fly zones to halt Iraqi attacks on Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and Shiite Muslim rebels in the south.|
27|The smallest of the week-old octuplets born to a Texas woman dies after the infant's heart and lungs fail, according to officials of the Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. The surviving seven babies remain in critical condition. (See December 20.)|
28|Gale force winds wreak havoc on the Sydney-to-Hobart yacht race. Two sailors are known to have drowned and five others are missing. About fifty others are winched to safety by helicopter. Of the 115 yachts that entered the race, 59 are forced to seek shelter and several boats are abandoned.|
28|U.S. fighter jets bomb an Iraqi missile site after being fired on while patrolling the no-fly zone over northern Iraq. The United States, the United Kingdom, and France established no-fly zones to end Iraqi attacks on Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and Shiite Muslim rebels in the south.|
29|In Cambodia, reporters are allowed to question two former leaders of the Khmer Rouge, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, about the Communist organization's reign of terror between 1975 and 1979. Khieu Samphan apologizes for the suffering he caused, but urges Cambodians to "let bygones be bygones" in regard to more than a million Cambodians who died under Khmer Rouge rule. Nuon Chea also expresses his regrets. The two men surrendered to Prime Minister Hun Sen who pledged publicly to protect them from charges of genocide. (See also December 30.)|
30|King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia refuses to approve amnesty for two defecting Khmer Rouge leaders, even though his prime minister yesterday publicly assured the men that they will not be tried for crimes against humanity. Although Sihanouk is popular in Cambodia, he has little power. It is unclear whether Hun Sen will go ahead with the amnesty. (See December 29.)|
30|Iraq forces fire missiles at U.S. and British warplanes patrolling the no-fly zone over southern Iraq, from which Iraqi military flights are banned. The United States retaliates by bombing an Iraqi missile launch site. The no-fly zones were set up in 1991 to halt Iraqi attacks on Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and Shiite Muslim rebels in the south.|
31|Champagne corks pop across Europe as 11 European nations merge their currencies to create the "euro". Irrevocable conversion rates between the euro and participating currencies are agreed. After years of preparation, the euro becomes the common currency of Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain at the stroke of midnight in Brussels. Non-cash transactions in euros can then begin, including business deals, credit-card payments, and trading in stocks and bonds. Euro bank notes and coins will not enter circulation until Jan. 1, 2002.|
31|The United States ambassador to Israel orders the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv closed because of the threat of a terrorist attack, which embassy officials describe as "direct and credible." The U.S. State Department has kept a number of its foreign missions under alert since August 7, when car bombs exploded outside the U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, in Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. The explosions killed at least 224 people, including 12 Americans, and wounded more than 5,000.|
