01|Scientists announce that the thickness of sea ice that covers much of the Arctic Ocean has decreased by about 40 percent. The finding was based on two sets of measurements. The first set, taken from 1958 to 1976, shows that the average thickness of the ice then was about 10 feet (3.1 meters). The second set, taken from 1993 to 1997, shows an average thickness of about 6 feet (1.8 meters).|
02|Researchers in the Human Genome Project that they have determined the exact sequence of approximately 33.5 million chemical units--called bases--in the human chromosome 22. It is the first human chromosome whose entire sequence of bases has ever been determined.|
02|The British Parliament hands substantial power over Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Assembly. A leader of the Protestant Ulster Unionist Party, David Trimble, becomes First Minister. A Roman Catholic moderate, Seamus Mallon, is made Deputy First Minister. Two representatives from Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Irish Republican Army, hold seats in the Assembly. The United Kingdom had assumed control of the government of Northern Ireland in 1972 in an effort to end the centuries-old violence between Protestants and Roman Catholics.|
03|U.S. and Mexican officials announce a joint investigation of a mass grave near Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, where six bodies have been unearthed so far. Officials believe the victims were murdered by drug traffickers.|
04|Military officials in Moscow announce that Russian troops have surrounded Grozny, capital of the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya.|
05|Bangkok's long-awaited elevated railway opens, attracting 400,000 passengers. The railway, known as "skytrain," is the city's first modern mass transit system.|
06|Russia's military warns residents of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, that they have five days to leave the city or be killed. Authorities estimate that at least 40,000 Chechens remain in the capital, including both rebel forces and civilians. The warning is distributed in leaflets dropped by airplanes.|
07|The National Aeronautics and Space Administration announces that the Mars Polar Lander is probably lost. The spacecraft, which was due to make a soft landing about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) from the planet's south pole on December 3, failed to make radio contact with Earth. The vehicle carried probes to analyze the Martian soil and a microphone to detect sounds on the planet's surface.|
08|In a civil trial, a jury in Memphis, Tennessee, concludes that slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., was not the victim of a lone racist gunman but of a conspiracy. The jury awards King's family a symbolic $100 in damages, the amount the family sought in the wrongful-death suit against Loyd Jowers, a former Memphis restaurant owner who had once claimed on national television to have hired King's assassin.|
08|Pakistani prosecutors formally charge deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif with hijacking, kidnapping, attempted murder, and plotting to wage war against the state. If convicted, Sharif may face a death sentence. Sharif is accused of trying to prevent the safe landing of a commercial jet that was carrying general Pervez Musharraf on October 12. Later that day, Musharraf led a military coup (overthrow) against Sharif and took charge of Pakistan's government.|
09|The U.S. Department of State orders the expulsion from the United States of a Russian diplomat who was discovered monitoring a listening device hidden in a conference room at State Department headquarters in Washington, D.C. U.S. officials claimed that a foreign intelligence service had never before penetrated State Department headquarters with such a device.|
10|A team of scientists announces that a vast ocean once covered lowlands that spread out around the North Pole of Mars. The scientists reached this conclusion by analyzing data collected by the Mars Global Surveyor, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) spacecraft that has been orbiting Mars since 1997. Photographs and altitude measurements taken by the spacecraft reveal land features characteristic of a former sea, according to the scientists.|
11|Pope John Paul II presides over a ceremony marking the completion of a 20-year project to restore the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican in Rome. The chapel contains Michelangelo's murals on the ceiling vault and his "The Last Judgment" on the altar wall.|
12|More than 20 percent of people in the United States experience a mental disorder in any given year, according to a comprehensive report by the U.S. surgeon general. The report also discloses that approximately half of all Americans experience mental disorders at some point in their lives.|
13|In Albuquerque, New Mexico, former U.S. weapons scientist Wen Ho Lee pleads not guilty to a charge of illegally downloading classified nuclear arms data onto a non-classified workstation. The Chinese-born scientist was fired from his job at the Los Alamos weapons laboratory in March during an investigation into spying by the government of China.|
14|Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter joins Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso in Panama City, Panama, for the ceremonial transfer of the Panama Canal. Carter had signed a treaty in 1977 promising to give Panama official control over the canal on Dec. 31, 1999. The ceremony was held before the actual transfer in order to avoid conflicts with New Year's celebrations commemorating the millennium.|
15|Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian foreign minister Farouk al-Shara meet in Washington, D.C., to renew peace talks. Representatives of Israel and Syria last met to discuss peace between the two countries in 1996.|
16|The United States agrees to pay China $28 million for damages caused by an accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia. In return, China will pay the United States $2.87 million to cover damages to a U.S. embassy caused by Chinese protesters who were angered by the bombing. The May 7 bombing was part of NATO's campaign against Serbian forces in response to Serbian attacks on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. U.S. and NATO officials said that the bombing occurred because the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had used an outdated map of Belgrade while planning the attack.|
17|The German government and some 70 German corporations that used Nazi prisoners as slave laborers during World War II (1939-1945) agree to compensate some surviving victims of the Holocaust. The agreement ends months of negotiations between Holocaust victims, various Jewish groups, Germany, Israel, and the United States.|
17|An Algerian-born man is charged in a federal U.S. court in Seattle for allegedly attempting to smuggle bomb-making materials into the United States from Canada. He is also charged with possessing false identification and making false statements to U.S. Customs officials.|
18|A bombing attack wounds President Chandrika Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka and kills at least 15 people attending a rally in Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital city. The rally was held as part of Kumaratunga's reelection campaign.|
19|In a mission delayed nine times since October, the space shuttle Discovery lifts off to replace failed parts on the Hubble Space Telescope.|
20|The Supreme Court of Vermont rules that gay and lesbian couples in Vermont are entitled, according to the state's constitution, to the same protections and benefits as heterosexual married couples. The court leaves it to the Vermont legislature to decide between granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples or setting up a broad domestic partnership system.|
21|Scientists report that mad cow disease, which affects cattle, and a new form of a human brain disorder called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) may be the same disease. The finding is based on lab experiments conducted on mice. Researchers injected diseased material from people who had died from the new type of CJD--called new variant CJD--into one group of mice. Into another group of mice, the researchers injected diseased material from cattle who had died from mad cow disease. Both groups of mice developed spongelike holes in their brains and died in 250 days.|
21|The government of Canada launches a $1-billion lawsuit against the R.J. Reynolds tobacco companies, charging that they conspired to smuggle tobacco products into Canada and avoid millions of dollars in taxes. Canadian officials claim that the tobacco companies hired smugglers to carry untaxed cigarettes into Canada through the U.S.-Canadian border in upstate New York. The suit charges tobacco companies with undermining a Canadian policy that placed a high tax on cigarettes in order to discourage smoking among young people.|
22|An earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale strikes northwest Algeria, killing at least 25 people.|
23|A ferry carrying more than 650 passengers and crew sinks off the central Philippines. At least nine people are killed in the accident.|
24|Hijackers seize an Indian Airlines jet after it takes off from Kathmandu, Nepal. After stops in India, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates, the five hijackers force the crew to land in Af-ghanistan. The hijackers, who are holding 153 passengers and crew members aboard the plane, demand that India give them $200 million and release imprisoned Kashmiri militants.|
25|General Robert Guei, a former army chief, takes control of the government of the Ivory Coast after ousting President Henri Konan Bedie|
26|A Chinese court convicts four organizers of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement. The Falun Gong leaders receive sentences ranging from 7 to 18 years in prison. The defendants, all members of China's Communist Party, were charged with leaking government secrets and organizing protests of Falun Gong practitioners against the government of China.|
27|The space shuttle Discovery returns to Kennedy Space Center in Florida after a successful eight-day mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. During three spacewalks, all of which lasted at least eight hours, mission astronauts installed six new gyroscopes, a faster main computer, and other essential equipment.|
27|The editors of <I>Time</I> magazine name Albert Einstein, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest scientists of all time, as "person of the century." The editors also chose two runners-up for the honor--Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who served as president of the United States from 1933 to 1945, and Mohandas Gandhi, a spiritual and political leader who is considered the father of independent India.|
28|Seattle's mayor Paul Schell cancels the city's New Year's Eve party, which was to be held below the landmark Space Needle. The cancellation was prompted by concern over a possible terrorist attack.|
29|The composite index of Nasdaq, an electronic stock market, closes above 4,000 points for the first time in history. According to market analysts, technology stocks helped boost the index.|
30|Former Beatles guitarist George Harrison is stabbed by an intruder in his house in Henley-on-Thames, England. The alleged attacker, believed to be an obsessed fan, stabs Harrison in the chest before Harrison's wife Olivia strikes the intruder with a heavy table lamp. Harrison survives the attack, but suffers a collapsed right lung.|
31|Boris Yeltsin announces his immediate resignation as president of Russia and names Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin as acting president|
31|Hijackers free more than 150 passengers and crew members from an Indian Airlines jet in Kandahar, Afghanistan, after India releases three Kashmiri militants. The hijackers, who took control of the aircraft on December 24 and killed one passenger, had originally demanded $200 million and the release of a larger number of militants.|
31|The dawn of a new Millennium is celebrated peacefully around the world as clocks in all the world's various time zones strike midnight.|
