01 - 11 European countries replace their
national currencies with the newly created Euro, a single European
currency. Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Belgium,
Austria, Portugal, Finland, Ireland and Luxembourg all make the
switch. The actual circulation of Euro coins and notes started on
1 January 2002 when the old currencies became invalid.
25 - 1,000 people are killed when an earthquake measuring
6 on the Richter scale hits Colombia. Many older buildings are
unable to withstand the tremors, which leave 200,000 homeless.
07 - King Hussein of Jordan dies of heart
failure at the age of 63. A stabilising force for peace in the
Middle East during his 46 years of rule, he had been suffering
from lymphatic cancer for some time.
08 - American baseball great Joe DiMaggio
dies. Known as "The Yankee Clipper" and one-time
husband of Marilyn Monroe,
DiMaggio played baseball in the 1940s and 1950s but latterly
became known for his charity work.
24 - NATO launches a bombing campaign against
Belgrade, the Yugoslav capital, in only the second military action
in its history. NATO was acting to end the oppressive treatment of
Albanians in Kosovo by Serbians under President
Slobodan Milošević.
20 - Two American teenagers, Dylan Klebold and
Eric Harris, walk into Columbine
High School in Colorado with their trench coats loaded with
guns, knives and explosives with the intention of killing as many
people as possible before committing suicide. They murder 12
students and one teacher before killing themselves.
30
- A nail bomb explodes in a busy pub in Soho, London's
gay district, killing two people. The bomb is the third in a
series targeting minority groups. David Copeland, a self-confessed
Nazi, is later imprisoned for the attacks.
02 - Notorious actor Oliver Reed dies during a
break in the filming of Ridley Scott's Gladiator.
28 - The Last Supper, one of
Leonardo da Vinci's most famous paintings, is returned to public
display in the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, after
over 20 years of restoration work.
01 - Shawn Fanning creates software that
allows computer users to swap music files across the internet
via a central directory. The service - called Napster - quickly
becomes hugely popular with millions of files shared for free
among users
14 -
Nelson Mandela's successor,
Thabo Mbeki, is sworn in as head of South Africa's second
democratically elected government. The ANC takes two-thirds of the
seats in the parliament
19 - Horror writer
Stephen King is injured when he is hit by a motorist while walking
in Maine, USA. Earlier in the year he had ben working on a novel
in which the protagonist dies after a car accident
23 - Thirty years after the original
Woodstock Festival, an
anniversary event (Woodstock 99) takes place. Over 200,000 people
attend
11 - A total eclipse of the sun is visible
from the UK - a phenomenon which had not occurred since 1927 and
will not do so again until 2090. The eclipse lasted for around 2
minutes and 23 seconds.
30 - Former
Beatle George Harrison
is stabbed when he and his wife Olivia are attacked in their
Henley-on-Thames mansion by an intruder.
31 -
People around the world prepare to celebrate the beginning of a
new millennium with spectacular firework displays and parties
planned all over the globe
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