01|American Airlines Flight 1420, in route from Dallas to Little Rock, Arkansas, skids off a Little Rock National Airport runway while attempting to land during a severe thunderstorm. The jet, a Super MD-80, with 145 passengers and crew members aboard, spins out of control and crashes into a steel beacon tower, splitting apart on impact. Eleven people, including the pilot, die, and nearly 80 more are wounded or severely burned when jet fuel spills into the economy class passenger cabin and catches fire.|
01|Pirates, armed with assault rifles and grenades, attack a Mexican ferry on its return trip from Cozumel, the Mexican resort island in the Caribbean, to Playa del Carmen. The passengers, who are primarily foreign tourists, are robbed of their money and valuables, and two security guards are thrown overboard.|
02|An official with the European Union (EU) announces that the EU has ordered the destruction of all chicken and egg products from Belgian poultry farms that used chicken feed contaminated with dioxin, a cancer-causing chemical. The official also reports the resignation of the EU ministers of health and agriculture, both of whom admit to having been aware of the dioxin contamination weeks before banning the sale of Belgian poultry on May 28.|
03|President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia accepts a NATO peace plan to end the conflict in Kosovo. Milosevic and the Serbian parliament agree to all of NATO's demands, including the introduction in Kosovo of a NATO-led, multinational peacekeeping force consisting of 50,000 soldiers. The plan stipulates that the nearly 1 million ethnic Albanian Kosovars that were forced out of the province by Serbian troops be allowed to return. The NATO air war against Yugoslavia, which began on March 24, remains in affect until Milosevic withdraws all Serbian forces from Kosovo.|
03|The African National Congress (ANC) party takes nearly two-thirds of all seats in the South African Parliament in a landslide election that guarantees that Thabo Mbeki, deputy president of South Africa, will replace Nelson Mandela as president. The 80-year-old Mandela, who stepped down as head of the ANC in 1997, chose Mbeki to succeed him as both party head and president.|
03|Egypt's 4,500-year-old Great Pyramid, or Pyramid of Cheops, reopens after more than a year of repair and restoration. For the first time, the public is allowed into two burial chambers, which are outfitted with devices to protect the ancient spaces from the wear of human feet and hands and the harmful effects of humidity given off by the human body.|
04|President Bill Clinton appoints James Hormel, philanthropist heir to the Hormel meat-packing fortune, ambassador to Luxembourg. Hormel, a former dean of the University of Chicago law school, is the first openly gay man to represent the United States as a diplomatic envoy. Senate Republicans, who objected to Hormel's appointment, have blocked voting on his confirmation since his nomination in 1997. Clinton side-stepped Senate opposition by using a constitutional device, the "recess appointment," that is available to presidents only when Congress is in recess.|
05|Lemon Drop Kid, a 29-to-1 longshot ridden by Jose Santos, wins the Belmont Stakes, denying the Triple Crown to Charismatic, which finishes third with a career-ending leg injury.|
06|NATO steps up its air campaign against Yugoslavia after Serb military leaders walk out of negotiations with NATO commanders. The Serbs refused to order their troops out of Kosovo, claiming they were unable to meet the previously agreed upon schedule for withdrawing 40,000 Serb soldiers from the Yugoslav province. The Serbs also balked at the NATO plan of moving thousands of multinational soldiers into Kosovo as a peacekeeping force.|
07|More than 130 million citizens of Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, vote in free parliamentary elections for the first time in more than 40 years. Many political experts see the election as a test of Indonesia's ability to maintain a democracy in the face of the economic recession and social unrest that toppled the Suharto presidency in 1998.|
08|Taiwan joins Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand in banning a variety of European Union (EU) farm products in the wake of revelations that Belgian-produced chicken, eggs, butter, pork, and beef may be contaminated with dioxin, a cancer-causing chemical. In Belgium, supermarket shelves are cleared of cream, butter, cheese, and processed foods with higher egg contents than 2 percent and higher animal fat contents than 25 percent.|
09|NATO and Serb generals, meeting in a tent at a helicopter base in Macedonia, sign an accord requiring all Serb forces to withdraw from the Yugoslav province of Kosovo over an 11-day period that begins on June 10. The Serbs agree to the introduction into Kosovo of a multinational peacekeeping force consisting of 50,000 NATO-led soldiers. The accord ends the largest allied military action in Europe since the close of World War II (1939-1945). NATO's campaign against Yugoslavia, which began on March 24, was the first military action in history waged entirely from the air and fought in the name of human rights.|
10|NATO suspends its bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in response to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's withdrawal of Serbian troops from Kosovo. NATO dropped more than 23,000 bombs and missiles in the 78 days of the campaign, which was waged to halt Serbian aggression against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.|
11|Russian troops, stationed in Bosnia as part of a peacekeeping force, march into Kosovo, enter Pristina, the provincial capital, before the arrival of NATO forces, and take control of the airport. The Russians are greeted with wild celebration by the Serbs remaining in Pristina. Calling the introduction of Russian troops into Kosovo a "colossal mistake," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov announced that the soldiers will be ordered to leave.|
12|North Korean patrol boats cross a disputed border in the Yellow Sea and threaten to attack South Korean warships. The threat caps a standoff, which began on June 7, when North Korea demanded that South Korean ships leave the area, a rich fishing ground. South Korea responded to the demand by placing 650,000 troops on alert and sending additional warships into the area.|
13|Voters in Belgium turn the Christian Democrat and Socialist coalition government out of office after 12 years of rule. Two conservative groups, the Liberal Party and the anti-immigrant Vlaams Blok party, take the majority of parliamentary seats. Political experts interpret the vote as a stinging rebuke of a government mired in scandals, including the inept handling of a 1996 pedophile and child-murder case and the recent discovery of dioxin, a cancer-causing chemical, in the nation's food supply.|
14|The South African Parliament, meeting in Cape Town, elects Thabo Mbeki the country's next president. The current president, Nelson Mandela, chose Mbeki as his successor. The ruling African National Congress party, founded by Mandela, took 266 of 400 parliamentary seats in a landslide election on June 3.|
14|The median age of U.S. citizens is 35.2 years, the highest in the nation's history, reports the U.S. Census Bureau. West Virginia has the oldest population in the nation, with a median age of 38.6 years. Utah has the youngest population, with a median age of 26.7 years.|
15|South Korean warships fire on North Korean boats in a disputed area of the Yellow Sea, hitting a torpedo boat that catches fire and sinks. All 17 members of the crew are killed. On June 7, North Korea demanded that South Korean ships leave the disputed area, which is a rich fishing ground, and South Korea launched additional warships into the Yellow Sea. The incident is the most violent naval clash between the two countries since the Korean War ended in a truce in 1953.|
15|Tens of thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees return to Kosovo from Macedonia and Albania to find their cities and villages wrecked by Serb forces. In Jakovo, where the population was 99 percent ethnic Albanian before the war, Serbs soldiers torched hundreds of houses and businesses, including the centuries-old mosque, on March 24, the first night of the NATO air campaign. In Djakovica, NATO troops, accompanied by foreign journalists, confirm widely reported refugee accounts of mass killings and other atrocities committed by Serb soldiers.|
15|A powerful earthquake, registering 6.7, rocks central Mexico, and 25 people are killed under falling debris. While the quake's epicenter is near Huajuapan de Leon in Oaxaca, the worst damage is in the neighboring state of Puebla. Destruction is particularly severe in the city of Puebla, where a large number of churches and colonial-era buildings are damaged in the town's center.|
16|The U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI), a statistical measurement of changes in the prices of goods and services, remained unchanged through April and May, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor. The unchanged CPI suggests that there is little or no inflation in the U.S. economy despite strong economic growth.|
16|Thabo Mbeki is inaugurated as president of South Africa.|
17|The U.S. House of Representatives approves a measure by a 218 to 211 vote to regulate the sale of guns at gun shows. The House bill is substantially weaker than the original Senate bill, which was passed in the aftermath of the school shootings in Littleton, Colorado. Political experts see the passage of the House measure as a major victory for the American Rifle Association, which lobbied strongly for a greatly diluted version of the original bill. Earlier in the day, House members passed a measure, 248 to 180, that gives the states the right to permit the display of the Ten Commandments in public places, including schools. The measure is an amendment to a crime bill designed to deter juvenile violence.|
18|The United States and Russia agree that 3,600 Russian troops will be integrated into the NATO peacekeeping force in Kosovo. The agreement ends three days of negotiations, held in Helsinki, Finland, and a diplomatic crisis that began on June 11 when Russian paratroopers, stationed in Bosnia, entered Kosovo and took control of the airport at Pristina, the provincial capital. U.S. Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen characterizes the agreement as "recognizing the stakes that Russia and NATO share in Europe's future."|
19|Prince Edward, third son of Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain, marries Sophie Rhys-Jones, a commoner, at the 500-year-old St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, west of London.|
20|The last of approximately 40,000 Serbian troops leave Kosovo ahead of deadline. As Serbian control of the Yugoslav province of Kosovo ends, NATO Secretary General Javier Solana announces that he has lifted a threat to resume the NATO bombing campaign, bringing an end to the 78-day air war against Yugoslavia.|
21|Moscow authorities report that police fished an average of 13 dead people a day from the city's various bodies of water over the previous long, holiday weekend. In the first 20 days of June, 89 Muscovites drowned. The death rate by drowning across Russia is 8 per 100,000 people, compared with a rate of 1.68 per 100,000 in the United States. Russian pathologists report that 94 percent of all drowning victims, most of whom are male, were legally drunk when they died.|
21|A summer solstice observance at the Stonehenge monument on Salisbury Plain, in England, is canceled when hundreds of people break down barriers in an effort to join a group of Druids celebrating the longest day of the year within the 5,000-year-old stone circle.|
22|The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 7-to-2 decision, rules that people with physical impairments who are able to function normally when properly medicated or when wearing eyeglasses generally are not disabled and do not qualify for protection against employment discrimination under the Americans With Disabilities Act.|
22|An estimated 150,000 to 200,000 people in Zimbabwe are expected to die of AIDS in 1999, report Zimbabwe Ministry of Health officials. Officials with Zimbabwe's National AIDS Coordination Program believe that at least 25 percent of the country's 12.5 million people are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.|
23|The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-to-4 vote, rules that individuals cannot sue states in state courts for the violation of the Fair Labor Standards Law. The 1938 act gives Congress the right to set minimum wage and the length of the standard workweek for most U.S. employees. The court had ruled in 1996 that individuals could not bring such suits in federal courts. The latest decision blocks state employees from redress in state courts when they believe their rights under federal labor laws are being violated. Many constitutional experts believe the decision, one of three involving suits against state governments, diminishes the strength of the federal government in its relation to the states.|
24|Israeli fighter jets bomb bridges, power stations, and guerrilla strongholds in Lebanon in retaliation for a Hezbollah rocket attack on northern Israel. Hezbollah, or Party of God, is a Lebanon-based militant Islamic group dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Six Lebanese and two Israelis are killed in the exchange, which occurs only days after Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak and Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, who also controls much of Lebanon, announce their mutual intentions to reopen peace negotiations. The retaliatory bombing was ordered by Israel's departing prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.|
25|The German parliament, the Bundestag, approves a plan for the creation of a national memorial to victims of the Holocaust (the systematic killing during World War II [1939-1945] of 6 million Jews, Gypsies, and homosexuals by Germany's Nazi government). Prior to giving approval to the plan, the Bundestag voted to dedicate the memorial specifically to Jews. The monument, designed by U.S. architect Peter Eisenman, is planned for a site near the Brandenburg Gate in the heart of Germany's capital, Berlin. It is to consist of 4.9 acres (2 hectares) of tombstonelike columns of varying heights. Describing the project, the speaker of the Bundestag, Wolfgang Thierse, said, "We are not building this monument solely for the Jews . . . It will help us confront a chapter of our history."|
26|The San Antonio Spurs win the NBA championship by defeating the New York Knicks 78-77 in a game lasting early into the morning at New York City's Madison Square Garden. San Antonio's Tim Duncan, who scored 31 points in the game, is named most valuable player in the best-of-seven match series, which the Spurs win four games to one.|
27|The government of Algeria reports that at least 100,000 people have died in the seven-year conflict between the government and Islamic fundamentalist guerrillas. The conflict began in 1992 when Algeria's military-backed government canceled elections that an Islamic fundamentalist party was expected to win. According to government figures, more than 1 million of Algeria's nearly 30 million people have been affected personally by the insurgency, either through injury, the death of a relative, or the destruction of a house or business.|
28|The Yugoslav Red Cross reports that one quarter of the Serbs living in Kosovo, more than 75,000 people, have fled the province for Serbia since the June 10 withdrawal of Serbian forces. NATO commanders in Kosovo suggest that the Serbs fear vengeance from returning Kosovar Albanians. Since June 10, more than 415,000 ethnic Albanians have returned to Kosovo, where 90 percent of the population was ethnic Albanian before the war. The refugees entering Serbia are taxing the resources of Slobodan Milosevic's government, which already supplements the income of more than 500,000 Serbian war refugees who arrived from Croatia and Bosnia in the mid-1990's. Serbia's unemployment rate currently stands at 33 percent.|
29|Abdullah Ocalan, leader of Turkey's rebel Kurds, is found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. Thousands of Armenian and Turkish Kurds living in Europe respond with public protests. While most demonstrations are peaceful, a Kurdish girl in Istanbul sets herself on fire. Ocalan's arrest in February sparked violent protests and a number of public suicides by Europe's Kurdish population. European Union (EU) member nations, where the death penalty has been abolished, warn the Turkish government that sending Ocalan to the gallows could trigger renewed waves of violence and jeopardize Turkey's chance of gaining entry in the EU.|
30|The Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States, raises the prime interest rate, the rate on overnight loans between banks, from 4.75 to 5 percent. Officials couple the announcement with the information that the Federal Reserve board does not anticipate another increase in 1999 in order to slow the nation's economic growth. The news pushes Dow Jones industrial average stocks on the New York Stock Exchange up 210 points in 13 minutes.|
