01|A U.S. federal judge rules that New York City mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani violated the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States when he cut city financing of a controversial exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. The art exhibit, called "Sensation," includes a painting of the Virgin Mary adorned with elephant dung, which the artist claims is a traditional African symbol of fertility and of connection to the land. The city began withholding funds from the museum in October.|
02|U.S. President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat attend a memorial service for Yitzhak Rabin, former prime minister of Israel. Arafat, Barak, and Clinton vow to meet regularly to continue the Mideast peace process that Rabin helped set in motion.|
03|The U.S. Justice Department sues seven giant electric companies on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency for not complying with anti-pollution regulations required by the Clean Air Act. The utilities are accused of illegally updating old, coal-fired power plants without installing new equipment to reduce emissions. Such equipment is mandatory in modern plants.|
04|Prosecutors in Laramie, Wyoming, agree to a sentence of two life terms for Aaron J. McKinney, who was found guilty of killing gay college student Matthew Shepard in 1998. On November 3, a jury had found McKinney guilty of second-degree murder, robbery, and kidnapping. Although the combination of charges made a death sentence possible, Shepard's parents advocated a merciful punishment.|
05|Lun-Lun (a girl panda) and Yang-Yang (a boy) arrive at Zoo Atlanta to take part in a 10-year research project in which researchers hope to encourage the pair to reproduce. Because captive pandas typically show little interest in mating, zoo officials may use special techniques to assist Lun-Lun and Yang-Yang in producing offspring.|
05|Thomas Penfield Jackson, the presiding judge in the United States government's antitrust suit against software giant Microsoft Corporation, issues a preliminary judgment that Microsoft has a nearly complete monopoly for operating systems. Jackson's preliminary judgment says that Microsoft is guilty of using its dominance in certain types of software to crush competition in new products. It also says that Microsoft's behavior harmed consumers and discouraged technical innovation by the company's competitors.|
06|Australians reject a proposal to change their Constitution so that a president elected by the Australian parliament rather than the British monarch would serve as the country's head of state.|
07|Scientists at Children's Hospital in Boston report growing heart valves from the heart cells of sheep and successfully transplanting the valves into sheep hearts. The valves performed normally when transplanted. Researchers say that their success with sheep transplants may lead to similar transplants for human beings. Currently, patients who need new heart valves must rely on either human or animal donors or on prosthetic valves.|
08|President Bill Clinton becomes the first U.S. president to participate in a live Internet chat. Clinton responds to questions posted online in a virtual town hall meeting. The event attracts 50,000 participants.|
09|Tiger Woods, who set a record for the lowest adjusted golf scoring average (68.43), receives the Vardon Trophy. Each year, the Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA) awards the trophy to the player with the lowest scoring average. Greg Norman set the previous record of 68.81 in 1994. On November 7, Woods defeated Miguel Angel Jimenez on the first hole of a playoff to win the World Golf Championship in Spain.|
10|In an attempt to isolate Chechen rebels, Russia bans the import of all foreign goods to Chechnya and suspends flights between southern Russia and countries in the Caucasus and the Middle East. Russian officials believe that Chechen rebels have used flights on these routes to smuggle weapons into Chechnya.|
11|At the 87th annual meeting of the American Alpine Club, researchers announce a new measurement of Mount Everest's height. Relying on a combination of traditional Sherpa guides and space satellites, a team of climbers determined that the mountain is 29,035 feet (8,850 meters) tall--that is, 7 feet (about 2 meters) higher than the previous measurement of 29,028 feet (8,848 meters). The expedition's data also showed that Mount Everest is moving northeast at a rate of about 6 centimeters (2.4 inches) each year.|
12|An earthquake estimated at magnitude 7.2 on the Richter scale jolts northwest Turkey. The epicenter is located about 105 miles (170 kilometers) northwest of Ankara, with the heaviest damage striking the communities of Duzce and Bolu. Authorities estimate that more than 450 people are killed.|
13|A study of mortgage lending in metropolitan Chicago, titled "Two Steps Back," finds that race is a stronger factor in predicting the pattern of loans than education, household income, real estate debt, home value, age of housing, or location. According to researchers, 9 out of 10 whites in the Chicago area borrow from banks and mortgage companies that make loans at competitive rates. But half of middle-class blacks borrow from lenders that specialize in higher-rate loans for people with poor credit ratings. The study was conducted by the Woodstock Institute, a nonprofit group, and financed by the Ford Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation.|
14|Reverend Jesse Jackson leads more than 2,000 people on a march in Decatur, Illinois, to demand that the Decatur School Board allow six expelled African-American high school students to return to school. The students were expelled for two school years after allegedly taking part in a brawl in the stands at a football game on September 17.|
15|United States trade representative Charlene Barshefsky and Chinese trade minister Shi Guangsheng sign a trade agreement that caps years of sensitive negotiations between the two nations. The United States promises to support China's membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) in return for lower Chinese tariffs on U.S. agricultural products and manufactured goods. China will also provide expanded opportunities for U.S. interests to establish commercial outlets in China and to invest in Chinese businesses and services.|
16|Analysis of voice and data recorders aboard EgyptAir Flight 990 leads U.S. investigators to suspect that a relief pilot might have seized the controls and forced the plane to dive into the ocean. The October 31 crash left all 217 passengers and crew members dead.|
17|In Bosnia, thousands of people gather for a funeral for victims unearthed from the largest mass grave discovered there so far. The grave contained 274 bodies believed to be those of Muslims killed during the 1992-1995 war.|
18|Stargazers around the world view the most spectacular Leonid meteor shower in 33 years. The annual shower tends to be especially dramatic around the time that comet Tempel-Tuttle passes through our inner solar system on its 33-year orbit around the sun. The comet reached its most recent closest approach to the sun in February 1998. The prospect of an especially dramatic Leonid shower prompted more than 50 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronomers to set off in two airplanes and follow the path of the falling meteors from England to Israel.|
18|As a crowd of students at Texas A&M build a log pyramid for the school's traditional football bonfire, the 40-foot structure collapses and kills 11 students and one recent graduate. Texas A&M officials later report that underclassmen were working near the top of the structure, a breach of university safety guidelines.|
19|Thomas Penfield Jackson, the presiding judge in the United States government's antitrust suit against Microsoft Corporation, appoints Richard A. Posner, the chief judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, to serve as mediator in the trial. If the two sides cannot work out a settlement under Posner's mediation, Jackson will develop a court-administered solution to the dispute.|
20|San Diego officials sell the last earthly possessions of Heaven's Gate cult members in an auction to raise money for the families of the dead. Items for sale include metal-frame bunk beds, books about UFO's, and a pair of black Nike sneakers. Thirty-nine members of the cult killed themselves in 1997. They believed that they would be transported after death to a space ship that followed the Hale-Bopp comet.|
21|After orbiting Earth 14 times in 21 hours, the first Chinese spacecraft designed to carry human beings returns to China. The unmanned test mission moves China closer to its goal of sending people into outer space.|
22|A team of scholars who study the ancient Near East announce that they have found the oldest writing yet discovered that uses an early form of an alphabet. The writing was found in 1993 on limestone cliffs in Wadi el-Hol, a remote part of Egypt that lies near Thebes and the Valley of the Kings in the desert west of the Nile River. Scholars date the writing to between 1900 and 1800 B.C., during Egypt's Middle Kingdom. This date makes the writing two or three centuries older than what was previously considered the world's oldest alphabetic writing.|
23|The number of people killed this year by AIDS reached 2.6 million, the highest annual number since the start of the AIDS epidemic, according to researchers at the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations (UN). The WHO and UNAIDS--a United Nations agency that works to fight the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS--report 5.6 million new HIV infections in 1999. In total, 33.6 million people worldwide are currently infected.|
24|The Chinese government announces new rules for public gatherings. Under the rules, groups of more than 200 people must obtain approval from local public security authorities. Gatherings larger than 3,000 will require approval from authorities at a higher level. Experts believe the rules are part of an ongoing crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual movement that surprised Chinese officials with a 10,000-member protest in April.|
25|A Chinese ferry burns and breaks apart in violent, frigid seas about 25 miles off China's northeastern coast. Most of the ferry's 318 passengers and crew members are killed.|
26|Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's tallest peak, is about 10 feet shorter than previously thought, according to a new report by German and Tanzanian scientists. The scientists scaled the mountain and interpreted data from satellites to determine that the height of the mountain is 19,443 feet (5,926 meters).|
27|A religious court in Iran sentences Abdullah Nouri, a Muslim cleric, to a five-year jail term and a five-year banishment from political activity. The cleric, a personal friend and political ally of Iran's President Muhammad Khatami, upset Muslim authorities by calling for an end to authoritarian rule by Iran's religious hierarchy.|
28|The giant panda Hsing-Hsing dies at the age of 28 at the National Zoological Park--commonly called the National Zoo--in Washington, D.C. Veterinarians administer a lethal injection to Hsing-Hsing because advanced kidney disease had weakened him to the point that he had difficulty moving around and eating and no longer responded to his caretakers. Hsing-Hsing's death leaves only five pandas in U.S. zoos.|
29|Astronomers have discovered six additional planets orbiting stars beyond Earth's solar system, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announces. The six planets seem to be similar in size, age, and brightness to the sun. They range in distance from 65 to 192 <I>light-years</I> from Earth. One light-year equals about 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers).|
30|Thousands of protestors, including environmentalists and labor union members, disrupt the start of a four-day World Trade Organization (WTO) conference in Seattle. When the protests turn violent, Seattle mayor Paul Schell declares a state of emergency and imposes a 7 p.m. curfew. Washington State Governor Gary Locke calls up National Guard units to assist Seattle police in maintaining order.|
