Timeline January 1998

Events in January 1998 15

• 1935 – 1998 Sonny Bono (1935-1998) Died 5 January 1998, aged 62 Sonny Bono, singer and later a US Congressman from California, died in a skiing accident at Heavenly Ski Resort in South Lake Tahoe on 5 January 1998. He had risen to fame in the 1960s as half of the duo Sonny & Cher before entering politics.
• 1998 Australian Open 1998 Men: Petr Korda · Women: Martina Hingis
• 1998 1998: Mika Häkkinen McLaren Finnish driver Häkkinen, the Flying Finn, won the first of his two titles with McLaren, ending Schumacher's dominance.
• 1998 Beating Oprah in the Ratings The Jerry Springer Show briefly overtook The Oprah Winfrey Show in daytime ratings, a cultural milestone that shocked the television industry.
• 1998 – 2005 Bronze Sculptures Expanded into bronze sculpture, creating works exhibited at galleries and museums. Also produced a substantial body of drawings and paintings separate from his newspaper work.
• 1998 – 1999 Global Expansion Accelerated Toyota's overseas expansion, opening new manufacturing plants in Europe and the United States while navigating concerns about anti-Japanese sentiment as Toyota's growth threatened the dominance of America's Big Three automakers.
• 1998 Knighted Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to drama, becoming Sir Michael Gambon.
• 1998 – 2000 State Enterprise Reform Closed down tens of thousands of inefficient state-owned enterprises, costing millions of workers their jobs. The painful reforms helped transform China's economy from a bloated state-run system into a more competitive, market-oriented powerhouse.
• 1998 – 2004 The Wild Thornberrys Voiced Nigel Thornberry in the Nickelodeon animated series The Wild Thornberrys, bringing the eccentric British wildlife documentarian to life with his distinctive voice. The role introduced him to a new generation of young fans and became one of the internet's earliest meme sensations.
• 1998 Eagles inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Seven members All seven past and present members play together.
• 1998 Fleetwood Mac inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Hall of Fame Past and present members inducted together.
• 1998 Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Honored alongside longtime bandmates On January 12, 1998, Santana and several longtime bandmates were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, recognizing three decades of genre-blending influence on rock music. The induction cemented his status as one of the defining guitarists of his generation. It came the year before his career-reviving Supernatural album would introduce him to an entirely new audience.
• 1998 Clinton-Lewinsky scandal becomes public Allegations of an affair with a White House intern surface News broke in mid-January 1998 that President Bill Clinton had allegedly had an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky and encouraged her to deny it under oath. The scandal dominated US politics for the rest of the year and led directly to Clinton's impeachment in December.
• 1998 Netscape releases browser source code Move launches the Mozilla open-source project Netscape Communications announced on 22 January 1998 that it would release the source code of its Communicator browser suite free of charge, a landmark moment for the open-source software movement. The move gave rise to the Mozilla project, which later produced the Firefox browser.
• 1998 – 2018 XXXTentacion (1998-2018) Died 18 June 2018, aged 20 American rapper, born Jahseh Onfroy, known for hits including "Sad!" whose album Skins reached number one after his death. He achieved a large following among young listeners despite a controversial legal history. He was shot and killed during a robbery in Florida.