01|A strain of mice that is significantly more intelligent than normal mice was created by Neurobiologist Joe Z. Tsien of Princeton University, reports the journal <I>Nature</I>. Tsien, who engineered the strain by manipulating a gene involved in memory formation, believes his work may provide a foundation for counteracting memory loss in the elderly.|
02|Former Israeli General Ariel Sharon is elected head of Israel's conservative Likud Party, replacing former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who resigned as party leader after losing his premiership in May to Ehud Barak. While serving as defense minister, General Sharon masterminded Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon.|
03|The unemployment rate in the United States dropped in August to 4.2 percent, a 29-year low, reports the U.S. Labor Department. Average hourly earnings, considered a key measure of inflation, rose to $13.30, an increase from July of only two cents. The U.S. economy generated 124,000 new jobs in August, a figure considerably short of the 220,000 jobs predicted by economists.|
04|United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan announces that the people of East Timor voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence in the August 30 referendum. The referendum offered voters independence or autonomy within Indonesia. Annan asks Indonesian forces in East Timor to end the violence sparked by the referendum. Anti-independence militias, which human rights advocates claim are backed by the Indonesian army, continue to rampage through East Timor, randomly killing civilians and driving people from their houses. Indonesia has held East Timor through force since invading the former Portuguese colony in 1975.|
04|Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat sign a new peace accord. A revision to a 1998 agreement, the accord deals with long-standing disputes regarding Palestinian refugees and water rights and specifies that Israel will turn over to the Palestinians, between Sept. 13, 1999, and Jan, 20, 2000, partial or full control of 40 percent of the West Bank lands. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who helped broker the deal, predicts it could lead to a lasting peace in the Middle East.|
05|Islamic militants from Chechnya, intent on establishing an Islamic republic in the Caucasus region of southern Russia, cross into Dagestan and seize three villages and the district center town of Novolakskoye. Hundreds of residents, particularly from the town of Khasavyurt, flee into the countryside to avoid the intense fighting between the rebels and Russian and Dagestani troops. On September 4, in the Dagestani city of Buinaksk, a bomb exploded outside an apartment complex housing Russian officers and their families, killing 64 of the residents. Russian Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Kolesnikov described the bombing and seizure of the Dagestani villages as "links in the same chain."|
06|Islamic militants overrun six more villages in western Dagestan. Military experts in Moscow fear that Russian forces in Dagestan may be unable to defend the capital, Makhachkala, from attack. The current crisis in the Caucasus region of southern Russia began in August when militants led by a Chechen commander crossed into the southern Russian republic and began seizing border villages in an effort to establish an Islamic state.|
07|Athens, Greece, is shaken by a 5.9 magnitude earthquake, the strongest to hit the city in nearly a century. Toppled buildings kill 135 people and leave 60,000 homeless.|
07|The German parliament, marking the government's return to Berlin, Germany's historic capital, meets in the newly restored Reichstag. Germany's legislature was driven from the building in 1933 by a fire, which many historians believe was ordered by Chancellor Adolf Hitler to increase his hold on the government.|
08|Bill Bradley, a one-time professional basketball star and a former U.S. senator from New Jersey, announces in his hometown, Crystal City, Missouri, that he is challenging Vice President Al Gore for the Democratic presidential nomination.|
09|U.S. President Bill Clinton demands that Indonesia either bring an end to the current violence in East Timor or allow an international peacekeeping force into the territory. Since the East Timorese voted on August 30 to secede from Indonesia, anti-independent militias, backed by the Indonesian army, have murdered thousands of people. Roman Catholic priests and nuns are particular targets of the gangs. East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, is predominantly Christian while the population of Indonesia is more than 85 percent Muslim.|
09|A bomb shatters a nine-story apartment building in Moscow, destroying 108 apartments and killing 94 of the residents.|
10|Afghanistan more than doubled its production of opium in the last year, making it the world's largest producer of the drug, reports the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention. Between 1998 and 1999, production jumped from 2,310 short tons (2,095 metric tons) to 5,060 short tons (4,589 metric tons), which accounts for more than three-quarters of the world's opium crop. The opium poppy is raised in 18 of Afghanistan's 31 provinces, all of the 18 provinces are controlled by a fundamentalist Islamic militia known as the Taliban.|
11|Serena Williams wins the women's finals of the United States Open tennis championship by defeating Martina Hingis, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4). Hingis had knocked Serena Williams's sister, Venus, from the semifinals on September 10.|
12|Indonesian President B. J. Habibie bows to mounting international pressure and invites a United Nations peacekeeping force to restore order in the Indonesian province of East Timor. Nearly 100,000 East Timorese fled into West Timor in the last week to escape the violence of anti-independence militias, which many human rights groups claim are backed by the Indonesian military.|
12|Half of the babies born in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, announces Peter Piot, executive director of the United Nations AIDS agency. In making the announcement at an international AIDS conference in Lusaka, Zambia, Piot notes that the disease has cut life expectancy to an average of 25 years in the 21 African countries with the highest HIV prevalence in the world.|
12|Andre Agassi defeats Todd Martin, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 6-2, to win the U.S. Open tennis championship, his second Grand Slam title in 1999 and the fifth of his career. Agassi, who in the last two years rose in world tennis rankings from 141st to first, had not won the U.S. Open since 1994.|
13|A bomb explodes in an eight-story Moscow apartment building, killing 78 of some 150 residents. The explosion is the fourth in Russia in two weeks. The first bombing, which killed 1 person and injured 40, occurred on August 31 in a Western-style shopping mall in Moscow. A car bombing in the Dagestan city of Buinaksk, on Saturday, September 4, killed 64 residents of a military housing installation. On September 9, a third bomb leveled a Moscow apartment complex, killing 94 people. Authorities in Moscow linked the violence to the Islamic independence movement in the southern Russian region of Dagestan. They claimed the bombings were organized by Islamic militants and executed by Chechen, Russian, and Ukrainian mercenaries.|
14|United Nations (UN) personnel in East Timor abandon the UN mission in Dili, the territorial capital, after being besieged for 10 days by anti-independent militias. The 110 members of the UN delegation, accompanied by 1,500 East Timorese refugees, move to the Australian embassy, from which they are evacuated by plane to Darwin, Australia. The anti-independence gangs, which include soldiers from the Indonesian army, have killed thousands of people since the East Timorese voted on August 30 to secede from Indonesia.|
14|Interstates and state and county roads in eastern Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina are clogged with bumper-to-bumper traffic as residents attempt to evacuate coastal regions threatened by Hurricane Floyd, a Category 4 storm with winds from 140 to 150 miles (225 to 240 kilometers) per hour. Meteorologists with the National Hurricane Center in Miami estimate that the storm is the size of Texas and one of the strongest ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean.|
15|A man smoking a cigarette and toting a large-caliber handgun enters the sanctuary of the Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, and begins shooting into a crowd attending an evening teen prayer service. Seven worshipers, including three teen-agers, are killed. Seven more are wounded before the man turns the gun on himself.|
16|Hurricane Floyd hits land at Cape Fear on the North Carolina coast and drops 19 inches (48 centimeters) of rain in Wilmington, North Carolina, before moving to the northeast. Losing strength over land, the hurricane is downgraded to a tropical storm but still causes massive flooding as far north as New England. More than 1 million households from North Carolina to Vermont lose electricity. Flights are canceled and airports closed up and down the Eastern Seaboard, disrupting air traffic across the nation. One of the largest hurricanes to ever strike the United States, Floyd prompted the greatest evacuation in U.S. history. More than 2.6 million coastal residents of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas sought safety inland, creating vast traffic jams along the East Coast.|
16|A bomb explodes in an apartment building in Volgodonsk, in southern Russia, killing 18 people and wounding more than 200. The attack is the fifth in Russia since August 31. Security forces in Moscow claim the bombings are the work of Chechen militants intent on establishing an Islamic state in Dagestan in Russia's Caucasus region. They believe the Chechens are backed by Osama bin Laden, a Saudi millionaire accused by the United States of arranging the August 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. Bin Laden, who was exiled by the Saudi government, lives in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban, a fundamentalist Islamic militia that controls much of that country.|
17|U.S. President Bill Clinton eases economic sanctions against North Korea in response to North Korea's promise to halt the testing of long-range missiles. The relaxing of trade restrictions allows North Korea to purchase goods from the United States and to transport cargo and passengers to and from the United States. People in the United States can legally send money to people in North Korea and invest in North Korean enterprises. The U.S. embargo on trade with North Korea went into effect at the beginning of the Korean War (1950-1953).|
18|Rivers in a six-country region of eastern North Carolina flood at levels not seen in 70 years, killing more than 40 people. Hurricane Floyd, which hit land on September 16 at Cape Fear, dropped as much as 19 inches (48 centimeters) of rain in areas of the state, and rain continues to fall. At least 250,000 residents are without electrical power, and sections of North Carolina's two most traveled roads, interstates 95 and 40, are under water, making it difficult to supply food and clean water to the homeless. State agriculture officials estimate that as many as 230,000 hogs, 2.4 million chickens, and 500,000 turkeys have drowned. Waste lagoons on giant hog farms have swollen to overflowing, dumping millions of gallons of sewage into flooded creeks and rivers.|
18|Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs hits his 60th home run of the 1999 season, becoming the first major league baseball player in history to reach that milestone twice in his career. In 1998, the year Mark McGwire hit 70 home runs, Sosa hit 66. Only two other players have broken the 60 run mark--Babe Ruth in 1927 and Roger Maris, who hit 61 home runs in 1961.|
19|China arrests another 300 adherents of the Falun Gong movement on charges of illegal assembly, reports the human rights organization Information Center on Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China. Falun Gong is a quasireligious sect that combines breathing exercises and meditation with elements of Buddhism and Taoism. In July, China banned Falun Gong and arrested 5,000 adherents, including some 1,200 government employees. Observers in Beijing, the capital, believe the mysterious appearance in April of 10,000 silent, Falun Gong protesters outside the compound that houses top Chinese officials greatly disturbed China's president, Jiang Zemin.|
20|Australian and British infantry troops land in East Timor under a United Nations commission to bring an end to the violence in the Indonesian territory. Entering Dili, the capital, the peacekeeping force finds an empty, ruined city. Anti-independence militias, backed by the Indonesian army, rampaged through East Timor, looting, burning, and killing, after an August 30 referendum on East Timorese independence.|
21|An earthquake registering 7.6 rocks Taiwan, killing more than 2,000 people and destroying thousands of buildings, including a 12-story hotel in Taipei, the capital. Approximately 6,500 people are injured and 100,000 left homeless by the quake, which Taiwanese officials describe as the worst on record for the island. The epicenter is near the cities of Taichung and Nantou.|
21|The value of imports into the United States climbed to $104.2 billion in July, pushing the U.S. trade deficit to a new monthly high of $25.5 billion, reports the U.S. Commerce Department. A trade deficit exists when the value of a nation's imports exceeds the value of its exports over a given period.|
22|Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel pays a state visit to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Germany's newly restored capital, Berlin. Barak is the first Israeli leader to make an official visit to a city many Israelis associate with Adolf Hitler and his systematic extermination of millions of Jews during World War II (1939-1945). Experts on diplomatic affairs consider Germany Israel's strongest ally after the United States.|
22|Taiwan is shaken by more than 2,000 aftershocks in the 24 hours since a 7.6-magnitude earthquake rocked the island, collapsing thousands of buildings and killing more than 2,000 people.|
23|The Mars Climate Orbiter, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) probe billed as the first interplanetary weather satellite, is lost while attempting to orbit around Mars. Project manager of the flight Richard Cook announces that he and his colleagues at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, presume the probe approached the Martian surface too closely, perhaps within 37 miles (60 kilometers), and disintegrated or burned. Beyond investigating weather on another world, the Mars Climate Orbiter was designed to gather sufficient information for scientists on Earth to determine if Mars ever harbored life.|
23|Russian warplanes attack the breakaway republic of Chechnya with missiles and bombs, targeting the Grozny airport and Chechnya's only air-worthy plane, as well as radar installations, a power station, and an oil depot. The attack comes only days after officials in Moscow announced that military strikes in Chechnya would be confined to rebel camps on the mountainous border with Dagestan. Since August 31, a wave of terrorist bombings have destroyed five apartment buildings in Russia, killing more than 300 people. Russian security officers believe the bombings are the work of Chechen militants intent on establishing an Islamic state in Dagestan.|
23|U.S. President Bill Clinton vetoes a $792 billion tax cut passed by the Republican majority in Congress in July. Asking for a bipartisan compromise on tax reform and a solution to the long-term financial problems facing Social Security, the president claims the tax cut, if implemented, would have eaten into projected surpluses, risking future budget deficits. The bill was designed to lower the rates at which personal income and capital gains are taxed and repeal the federal inheritance tax. It also included provisions giving tax breaks to particular corporations and special interest groups.|
24|Thousands of students riot in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta in response to the passage by the parliament of a security law granting sweeping new powers to the military. Six people are killed and more than 100 injured when hundreds of police officers, firing tear gas and rubber-coated bullets, storm the university. The students claim the new law is a ploy by the military to seize control of the government. On September 12, Indonesian President B. J. Habibie caved in to international pressure and invited a United Nations peacekeeping force to restore order in East Timor, which had voted to secede from Indonesia. Indonesia's military began withdrawing from East Timor with the arrival on September 20 of the first UN forces.|
24|More than 25 people are killed and nearly 450 injured when a typhoon hits southern Japan with wind gusts clocked as high as 148 miles (238 kilometers) per hour.|
25|Some 40,000 Serbian protesters fill the downtown streets of Yugoslavia's capital, Belgrade, demanding the resignation of President Slobodan Milosevic. Similar protests, attracting crowds numbering in the thousands, take place in several smaller Serbian cities.|
26|A team of 12 U.S. golfers, led by Ben Crenshaw, moves from four points behind to a 14 1/2-13 1/2 victory over the European team to win the Ryder Cup at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. The triumph returns the cup to a U.S. team for the first time since 1993. The Ryder Cup tournament between U.S. and European golfers is held every two years.|
26|A fireworks warehouse explodes in Celaya, a city in central Mexico 120 miles (193 kilometers) northwest of Mexico City. A series of blasts kills at least 50 people and injures more than 75 in an eight-block area near the bus station and central market.|
27|Thirty-seven cases of encephalitis produced by a rare African strain called West Nile virus are confirmed in New York City and its suburbs by officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a U.S. Public Health Service agency based in Atlanta. West Nile virus has never before been reported in North America. Encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain, typically produces fever and a headache and can produce neurological disorders and even death. Four people have died in the current outbreak. The virus is transferred from human beings by mosquitoes that have bitten infected birds. State conservation officials in New York and Connecticut report finding unusually large numbers of dead crows in areas around Long Island Sound.|
28|Yugoslavia demands full compensation for the damages inflicted by NATO bombings in March, April, May, and June 1999. Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic of Yugoslavia makes the announcement at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. The Yugoslav government in Belgrade claims the damages amount to $100 billion. James P. Rubin, a U.S. State Department official, dismisses the demands, pointing out that the bombing campaign was brought about by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's policy of ethnic cleansing in the province of Kosovo.|
28|An archaeologist with Peru's national cultural institute reports the discovery of 16 Incan tombs that scientists believe hold the remains of Incan royalty. The tombs, which contain skeletons curled in a fetal position surrounded by quantities of cloth, ceramics, and jewelry, were found in a 500-year-old hilltop temple in Cusco in Peru's southern Andes Mountains. Cusco was the capital of the Incan empire in the 1500's.|
29|The city council of Mexico City appoints Rosario Robles Berlanga to succeed Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano as mayor. Ms. Robles becomes the first woman mayor of Mexico's capital, which has an estimated population of more than 26 million people. Cardenas, Mexico City's first popularly elected mayor, left office to campaign for the Mexican presidency.|
30|Workers at a Japanese nuclear fuel plant release 35 pounds (15.9 kilograms) of uranium, seven times the specified amount, into a purification tank containing nitric acid, setting off a chain reaction. Accompanied by a flash of blue light, the out-of-control chain reaction exposes 35 people in the plant to high levels of radioactivity. More than 300,000 residents of the area, which is 85 miles (138 kilograms) north of Tokyo, are ordered to remain indoors. Trains into the region of the accident are rerouted or suspended and highways closed.|
