Unix Timestamp: 946425600
Wednesday, December 29. 1999, 12:00:00 AM UTC

The Pacific Island nations of Samoa and Tokelau move from east to west of the International Date Line in order to align their time zone better with their main trading partners, meaning that they will not mark December 30 this year. //www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-as-samoa-dateline,0,2803590.story (AP via "Chicago Tribune") //www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=readid=65279 (RNZI)

Samoa and Tokelau move from east to west of the International Date Line, thereby skipping December 30, in order to align their time zones better with their main trading partners.ref name=washi official

Bangladesh holds its general elections after two years of political unrest over the interim government.

Bangladeshis vote in their country's general election. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7802529.stm (BBC)

The Communist New People\\'s Army blows up a bust of Ferdinand Marcos in Benguet, Philippines.

Khmer Rouge leaders apologize for the genocide in Cambodia that claimed over 1 million in the 1970s.

Hong Kong begins to kill all the chickens within its territory (1.25 million) to stop the spread of a potentially deadly influenza strain.

The General Motors EV1, the first production electric car of the modern era is launched and becomes available for lease.

The invasive speciesAsian long-horned beetle is found in New York.

The Hacienda in Las Vegas is imploded to make way for the Mandalay Bay.

In the Indian state of Assam, a passenger train is bombed by Bodo separatists, killing 26.

Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers, who shut down services across Israel.

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway is merged with the Burlington Northern Railroad to form the BNSF Railway, making it one of the largest railroad mergers in U.S. history.

Guatemala and the leaders of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union sign a peace accord that ends a 36-year civil war.

The Congress Party gains a parliamentary majority in India after the defection of 10 Janata Dal party lawmakers.

Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" becomes the longest running book on the bestseller list of "The Sunday Times" ever.

U.S. President Bill Clinton sends 6 American warships to Haiti, to enforce United Nations trade sanctions against the military-led regime in that country.

Argentina passes a measure allowing President Carlos Menem and all future presidents to run for a second term. It also shortens presidential terms to 4 years and removes the requirement for the president to be Roman Catholic.

The Mississippi and Missouri Rivers flood large portions of the American Midwest.

Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations.

Many foreigners are murdered by rebel groups in Algeria.

The Oslo Accords negotiations begin.

The second World Parliament of Religions is held in Chicago.

Wildfires in California destroy over and 700 homes.

The European Exchange Rate Mechanism is put in crisis, mainly from speculation against the French franc.

Over a dozen people are killed by the new Hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome, mainly in the Southwestern United States.

Severe floods hit South Asia, killing over 4,000 people in Bangladesh, India and Nepal.

The Caign for Homosexual Law Reform succeeds in having the Irish sodomy law reformed.

Brazil's president Fernando Collor de Mello is found guilty on charges that he stole more than $32 million from the government, preventing him from holding any elected office for 8 years.

Leopold Kohr, the people of Belau, Amory and Hunter Lovins / Rocky Mountain Institute and Manfred Max-Neef / CEPAUR win the Right Livelihood Award.

Chrysler starts production on the first minivans: the Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager.

Gérard Debreu wins the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

Brunei gains independence from the United Kingdom.

"Flashdance" and "Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi" are box-office hits.

The Reverend Jesse Jackson travels to Syria to secure the release of U.S. Navy Lieutenant Robert Goodman, who has been in Syrian captivity since being shot down over Lebanon during a bombing mission.

Zlatko Ugljen receives the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for Šerefudin's White Mosque, built in Visoko.

McDonald's introduces the "McNugget".

Two bombs explode in France one on the Paris train kills 3 and injures 19. The other at Marseille station kills 2 and injures 34.

The De Lorean Motor Company ceases production.

Kellogg's introduces "Crispix" cereal.

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program is launched in the U.S.

I. M. Pei wins the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

The meteorological El Nino phenomenon brought severe weather worldwide.

Kary Mullis discovers polymerase chain reaction while working for Cetus.

Victoria (Australia) abolishes capital punishment.

The Spanish army quits Spanish (Western) Sahara, the last remnant of Spain's Empire. The Sahrawi Republic (RASD) is created. Morocco invades ex-Spanish Western Sahara.

South Australia becomes the first Australian state to decriminalize homosexual acts between consenting adults.

The government of Colombia announces the finding of Ciudad Perdida.

Peter Gabriel departs Genesis, and is replaced on lead vocals by drummer Phil Collins.

Some members of Jehovah\'s Witnesses, based on the group's chronology,"The Watchtower", 15 August 1968, p.494–501 "Awake!", 22 May 1969, p.15 "The Watchtower", 15 March 1980, p.17, para.5–6 believed that Armageddon would occur in 1975 and a few of them sold their houses and businesses to prepare for the new world paradise which they believed would be created when Jesus establishes God's Kingdom on Earth.

The first Monster TruckBigfoot was created by Bob Chandler

Lyme disease first recognised at Lyme, Connecticut.

The term fractal is first used.

A bomb explosion at LaGuardia Airport kills 11.

The "International Year of the Book" is designated by UNESCO.

An extra leap second (23:59:60) is added to end the year.

The last major epidemic of smallpox in Europe breaks out in Yugoslavia.

The US ban on the pesticide DDT takes effect.

Colombian looters find Ciudad Perdida but keep it a secret until the government reveals it in 1975.

The United Kingdom begin to train Special Air Service for anti-terrorist duties.

Roberto Clemente dies in a plane crash off the coast of Puerto Rico while en route to deliver aid to Nicaraguan earthquake victims.

The Yellow River dries up for the first time in known history.

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia bans the cultural organization Matica hrvatska, founded in 1842.

The first women are admitted to Dartmouth College.

The Climatic Research Unit is founded by climatologist Hubert Lamb at the University of East Anglia.

Worship of Norse gods is officially approved in Iceland.

Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 crashes into the Everglades in Florida, killing 101 of 176 on board.

Seychelles International Airport in Victoria, Seychelles (Mahe) is completed.

The United Kingdom gives up its military bases in Malta.

Crude oil production peaks in the continental United States at approximately .

The Center for Science in the Public Interest is established.

Ray Tomlinson sends the first ARPAnet e-mail between host computers.

The Free State of Christiania is founded.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism is established.

In Viscaya, Spain, Basque county, 15,000 go on strike to protest the Burgos trial death sentences.

Francisco Franco commutes the death sentences of the Burgos Trial defendants to 30 years in prison.

U.S. President Richard Nixon signs into law the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

Rebel troops under Che Guevara begin to invade Santa Clara, Cuba. Fulgencio Batista resigns two days later, on the night of the 31st.

"Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck is published.

Jimmie Angel lands his plane on top of Devil's Mountain however, the plane gets damaged and he has to trek through the rainforest for help.

The Vibora Luviminda trades union's sugar plantation strike on Maui island, Hawaii.

Switzerland begins construction of its Border Line defences.

Italian psychiatrist Amarro Fiamberti is the first to document a transorbital approach to the brain, which becomes the basis for the controversial medical procedure of transorbital lobotomy.

The new Constitution of Ireland ("Bunreacht na hÉireann") comes into force. The Irish Free State becomes Ireland, and Éamon de Valera becomes the first Taoiseach (prime minister) of the new state. A Presidential Commission (made up the Chief Justice, the Speaker of Dáil Éireann, and the President of the High Court) assumes the powers of the new presidency, pending the popular election of the first President of Ireland in June 1938. The new constitution prohibits divorce.

Soviet industry produces about four times as much as it had in 1928.

Cocoa production in the Gold Coast reaches 305,000 tons.

The United Auto Workers begins the Flint Sit-Down Strike in Flint, Michigan.

Polaroid sunglasses and Ambre Solaire sunblock both first marketed.

Mordecai Ham begins his radio ministry.

Ipswich Town Football Club turns professional.

Stress is first recognised as a medical condition.

The YMCA Youth and Government program is founded in Albany, New York.

West China Famine: five million die.

Abidjan becomes the capital of the French colony of Côte d'Ivoire.

Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.

The British Committee for Relations with Other Countries, which will become the British Council, is set up to foster cultural relations.

US Congress makes the Philippines a self-governing commonwealth and schedules independence for 1944. Sugar imports are reduced and immigration is limited to 50 Filipino people per year.

This year is the hottest year in the United States on record.//www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/08/1934-and-all-that/

International Union of National Tourist Propaganda Organizations (IUNTPO).

The GPU becomes the NKVD.

The Quintette du Hot Club de France is established and produced two of the most famous Jazz instrumental icons Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt.

The house Fallingwater in southwestern Pennsylvania is designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

The U.S. Marines leave Haiti.

The sonoluminescence effect is discovered.

A coup attempt against Franklin Delano Roosevelt fails in the United States ("see" Smedley Butler).

The United States Federal Government outlaws cannabis.

In Australia the Australian Frontier Wars ends after 145 years.

Members of the Iron Guard assassinate Ion Gheorghe Duca, prime minister of Romania.

Jimmie Angel becomes the first foreigner to see the Angel Falls (they are named after him).

The Holodomor famine takes place in Ukraine.

The first doughnut store under the Krispy Kreme name opens in Nashville, Tennessee.

Five coalition cabinets form and fall in France.

15 million unemployed in the USA.

English cricket team in Australia in 1932–33: The England cricket team wins The Ashes using the controversial bodyline tactic.ref name=Cassell's Chronology/

Turkey concludes a treaty with the creditors of the former Ottoman Empire to schedule the payments in Paris. (Turkey succeeds in clearing all the debt in less than twenty years.)

The first dated ISCF group is started in Australia at North Sydney Boys High School, with the group still running today.

US President Roosevelt rejects socialism and government ownership of industry.

The "Adélaïde Concerto", a spurious work attributed to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is published as edited (actually composed) by Marius Casadesus.

Nazi Germany forms the "Expert Committee on Questions of Population and Racial Policy" under Reich Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick.

Sir Muhammad Iqbal's presidential address in Allahabad introduces the Two-Nation Theory, outlining a vision for the creation of Pakistan.

The All India Congress in Lahore demands Indian independence.

The Hoda Cha'arawi Association (formerly The Egyptian Feminist Union) is established in Egypt.

Rainbow trout introduced into the upper Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park, US.

Struggling for a foothold in southern China, Sun Yatsen decides to ally his Nationalist party or Guomindang (Kuomintang) with the CommunistThird International and Chinese Communist Party.

Vladimir K. Zworykin files his first patent (in the United States) for television systems.

The Moderation League of New York becomes part of the movement for the repeal of prohibition in the United States.

At the International Police Conference in Vienna, the International Criminal Police (Interpol) is set up.

The American Law Institute is established.

Police strike in Australia.

Marcel Duch's artwork "The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even" ("La mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même" or "The Large Glass") is completed in the United States.

Sun Yat-sen is elected the Provisional President of the Republic of China.

The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition is published under American management in England by Cambridge University Press.

New Zealand-born British physicist Ernest Rutherford deduces the existence of a compact atomic nucleus from scattering experiments.

Wounded Knee Massacre: At Wounded Knee, South Dakota, a Native American c, the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment tries to disperse the non-violent Ghost-Dance which was promised to usher in a new era of power and freedom to Native Americans but was feared as a potential rallying tool for violent rebellion by some in the U.S. government. Shooting begins, and 153 Lakota Sioux and 25 troops are killed about 150 flee the scene.

William II of Prussia opposes Bismarck's attempt to renew the law outlawing the Social Democratic Party.

"High School Cadets" is written by John Philip Sousa.

Francis Galton announces a statistical demonstration of the uniqueness and classifiability of individual human fingerprints.

AmericangeostrategistAlfred Thayer Mahan publishes his influential book "The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783".

The corrugated cardboard box is invented by Robert Gair, a Brooklyn printer who developed production of paper-board boxes in 1879.

The United States city of Boise, Idaho, drills the first geothermal well.

Blackwall Buildings, Whitechapel, noted philanthropic housing, is built in the East End of London.

English archaeologist Flinders Petrie excavates at Tell el-Hesi, Palestine (mistakenly identified as Lachish), the first scientific excavation of an archaeological site in the Holy Land, during which he discovers how tells are formed.

Brown trout are introduced into the upper Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park.

The Conchological Society of Great Britain Ireland is founded.

Samurai are banned from carrying swords in Japan and their stipends are replaced by one-time grants of income-bearing bonds.

Heinrich Schliemann begins excavation at Mycenae.

Construction of Spandau Prison is completed.

The Ashtabula River Railroad bridge disaster occurs, leaving 92 dead.

Lars Magnus Ericsson and Carl Johan Andersson start a small mechanical workshop in Stockholm, Sweden, dealing with telegraphy equipment, which grows into the worldwide company "Ericsson".

Heinz Tomato Ketchup introduced.

Adolphus Busch's brewery, Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis, Missouri, first markets Budweiser, a pale lager, as a nationally sold beer.

Japan brings a fleet to Incheon, the port of Seoul. The Japanese force the Korean government to sign an unequal treaty, open 3 ports to Japanese trade and cease considering itself a tributary of China. On China's urging Korea also signs treaties with the European powers in effort to counterbalance Japan.

Tanzimat ends in the Ottoman Empire.

The "Harvard Loon" is founded.

Friends Academy is founded by Gideon Frost.

Dewey Decimal Classification invented by Melvil Dewey

Charles Wells opens his brewery based in Bedford, England.

Stockport Lacrosse Club is founded at Cale Green Cricket Club Davenport, Greater Manchester where they still play to this day. Stockport Lacrosse Club are thought to be the oldest existing lacrosse club in the world.

The Clontarf Cricket Club is established. The 2008 2nd XI calls their assault on all Senior II competitions Operation 1876 in honour of this fantastic year.

Lyford House, by Richardson Bay, Tiburon, California, is constructed.

The Agra canal opens in India.

Bolton Wanderers (as Christ Church F.C.)

The San Diego Natural History Museum is founded.

The following Association football clubs are founded in Great Britain:

General Martínez and Brigadier General Luís Daban stage a "pronunciamento" at Sagunto and proclaim Isabel's son Alfonso as King of Spain. Subsequently the Madrid garrison follows suit and the First Spanish Republic comes to an end.

Charles Taze Russell and the Bible Student movement claim this year marks the invisible return of Jesus Christ to earth.

Heart of Midlothian.

Gold is discovered in the Black Hills.

Aston Villa.

St. Nicholas\\\\\\' Church, Hamburg, designed by EnglisharchitectGeorge Gilbert Scott, is completed. Its -tall spire makes it (briefly, and by 5m) the world\'s tallest building (a title held since 1647 by Strasbourg Cathedral).

Tynwald, the legislature of the Isle of Man, moves its seat from Castletown to Douglas.

Greenock Morton.

Christians and Druzes clash in Damascus, Syria.

Britain produces 20% of the entire world's output of industrial goods.

1860ndash1900 ndash 14 million immigrants come to the USA.

In Buenos Aires, leader Bartolomé Mitre subverts the Argentine Confederation and begins to establish a new centralist government with the help of Uruguayan Colorado party leader Venancio Flores.

China agrees in an unequal treaty imposed on it to allow missionaries to proselytize throughout the country.

The Russian Empire has c. of railroads.

Augustana College is founded in Chicago, Illinois, United States by Scandinavian immigrants.The college moves to Paxton, Illinois, in 1862 and eventually splits into a Swedish college in Rock Island, Illinois, in 1875 and a Norwegian college in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 1918.

Discovery of the chemical elements: Robert Wilhelm Bunsen discovers caesium and rubidium.

The world's first ocean-going (all) iron-hulled and armoured battleship, the (British) "HMS Warrior", is launched.

The American South has c. 4 million slaves.

The semaphore line in France is superseded by the telegraph.

Gef's supposed birth

Justin Perkins, an American Presbyterian missionary, produces the first translation of the Bible in Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, which is published with the parallel text of the SyriacPeshitta by the American Bible Society.

Taiping Rebellion: The Taiping army takes Hankou.

Antioch College is founded, its first president is Horace Mann.

In Hawaii sugar planters bring over the first Chinese laborers on 3 or 5 year contracts, giving them 3 dollars per month plus room and board for working a 12-hour day, 6 days a week.

Germans are encouraged to immigrate to Chile

Loyola College is chartered in Baltimore, Maryland.

Leo Tolstoy's first novel, "Childhood", is published in book form.

Mills College is founded.

The Devil's Island penal colony opens.

Texas is admitted as the 28th U.S. state.

Fort Cass is established, the military headquarters and site of the largest internment cs during the 1838Trail of Tears.

The Cachar Levy, forerunner of the Assam Rifles, is founded in India.

The Treaty of New Echota is signed between the United States Government and members of the Cherokee Nation.

Charles-Louis Havas creates Havas, the first news agency in the world (which later spawns Agence France-Presse).

The French word for their language changes to "français", from "françois".

The British Geological Survey is founded as the world's first national geological survey.

English becomes the official language of India.

Edward Strutt Abdy publishes his "Journal of a Residence and Tour in the United States of North America: From April, 1833, to October 1834".

Civil war erupts in Uruguay between supporters of Blanco and Colorado parties.

Juan Manuel de Rosas becomes Caudillo of Argentina.

The first Bulgarian-language school opens in the Ottoman Empire.

War of 1812: British soldiers burn Buffalo, New York.

Following the death of his father Wossen Seged, Sahle Selassie arrives at the capital Qundi before his other brothers, and is made Meridazmach of Shewa.

George Hamilton-Gordon serves as ambassador extraordinaire in Vienna.

Russian troops reach and take Berlin without a fight after the French garrison evacuates the city.

Mathieu Orfila publishes his groundbreaking "Traité des poisons", formalizing the field of toxicology.

The Philomathean Society of the University of Pennsylvania is founded (the oldest continuously existing literary society in the United States).

Charles Waterton begins the process of turning his estate at Walton Hall, West Yorkshire, England, into what is, in effect, the world's first nature reserve.

War of 1812: The USS "Constitution" defeats the British frigate "Java" off the coast of Brazil.

Arcangelo Corelli publishes his "Concerti Grossi".

Belgrade recaptured by Ottoman Turks from the Austrians.

Arsenije III Carnojevic, Patriarch of Serbia, leads the first of the two Great Serbian Migrations into the Habsburg Empire, following Ottoman atrocities in Kosovo.

Giovanni Domenico Cassini observes differential rotation within Jupiter's atmosphere.

Possible year of the disappearance of the western part of the island of Buise in St. Peter's Flood.

An earthquake hits Anconer in the Papal States of Italy.

French physicist Denis Papin, while in Leipzig and having observed the mechanical power of atmospheric pressure on his 'digester', builds a working model of a reciprocatingsteam engine for pumping water, the first of its kind, though not efficient.

The Hearth Tax is abolished in Scotland, one year after its abolition in England and Wales.

Battle of Garigliano, near Gaeta, Italy: Spanish forces under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba defeat a French–Italianmercenary army under Ludovico II, the Marquis of Saluzzo. The French forces withdraw to Gaeta.

Mariotto Albertinelli paints his masterpiece, "The Visitation of the Virgin".

Vasco da Gama establishes India's first Portuguese fortress at Cochin.

The pocket handkerchief comes into general use in politeEuropean society.

From this year until 1650, sixteen million kilograms of silver and 185,000 kilograms of gold will enter the port of Seville.

Canterbury Cathedral is finished in England after 433 years of construction.

Hieronymus Bosch works on the triptych "The Garden of Earthly Delights".

The book "The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas à Kempis is re-published in an English translation.

Leonardo da Vinci starts work on the "Mona Lisa".

Palace guards massacre the civil officials at the Korean court and place a new king on the throne. The coup leaders abolish the privileges that have kept the aristocrats in power and appoint themselves to senior posts.

Estimation: Fes in the Almohad Empire becomes the largest city of the world, taking the lead from Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire.//geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa011201a.htm Geography at about.com

Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, is assassinated in Canterbury Cathedral.

Earliest dating for the making of Cheddar cheese

According to folklore, the Welsh prince Madoc sailes to North America and founds a colony.

The East Frisian island of Bant is broken up in a North Sea flood.

The city of Dublin is captured by the Normans.

In Cha, in the central region of what is now Vietnam, King Indravarman II founds a new dynasty at Indrapura (Quang Nam) and initiates a building program featuring the Dong Duong Style of Cham art.

Harald Fairhair subdues the rovers on Orkney and Shetland and adds them to his kingdom.

Charles the Bald, king of West Francia, is crowned emperor.

The Danes capture Lindisfarne and arrive in Cambridge.

The construction of Mosque of Uqba, Kairouan, Tunisia, is ended.