1998

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El Niño, a large-scale periodic warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean, affects the world climate, upsetting normal weather patterns.

Asian currencies and stock markets plunge, creating an economic crisis for the continent.

• As the Russian ruble is devalued, international loans go unpaid and the Russian incomes continue to drop, the republic experiences its most economically difficult year since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

• US President Bill Clinton is accused of having a sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern, in a scandal that damages his presidency.

• On 10 April, the Good Friday Agreement is reached in Northern Ireland. This peace settlement ends 30 years of the Troubles, in which Republican terrorists tried unsuccessfully to reunify Ireland.

• On 18 May, Bill Gates' company, Microsoft, is charged by the US Justice Department and 20 states with allegedly using its dominance in computer software to drive competitors out of business.

• On 21 May, Indonesian dictator General Suharto resigns following weeks of mounting opposition to his 32-year rule. He is succeeded by the vice president B J Habibie.

• On 7 August, 224 people are killed when terrorist bombs explode within moments of each other outside two American embassies – in Kenya and in Tanzania respectively. This action is allegedly orchestrated by the Islamic radical Osama bin Laden. The US retaliates with air strikes against Afghanistan and Sudan. Four of the men involved in the atrocities are sentenced by a US federal judge to life imprisonment in October 2001.

• From 22 October to 4 November, Hurricane Mitch pounds the Caribbean and Central America, killing thousands and wiping out much of the region's infrastructure.

• On 23 October, after a week of heated negotiations at Wye River, Maryland in the United States, Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Yasser Arafat sign a 'land-for-peace' agreement.

• On 27 October, Gerhard Schroeder defeats German chancellor Helmut Kohl, marking a shift in German politics from conservatism to the centre left.

• In December, the United States and Britain launch air strikes on targets in Iraq in retaliation for its failure to cooperate with United Nations weapons inspections.

• Tension mounts in Kosovo as the ethnic Albanian majority demands greater autonomy from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia.

• An estimated 30-60 million people worldwide have Internet access.

• Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan brings World War II heroism back to the big screen.

• In Britain, Ian McEwan's Amsterdam wins the Booker Prize. Not regarded as one of his best, many critics are surprised that the prize isn't won by Beryl Bainbridge for her Master Georgie.

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