01|Exxon, the largest oil company in the United States, agrees to purchase Mobil, the second largest U.S. oil company, for $80 billion in stock. If approved by U.S. government regulators, the newly formed company would be the world's largest corporation.|
02|A federal jury acquits Mike Espy, former U.S. secretary of agriculture, of corruption charges. The verdict ended an independent counsel's four-year investigation into favors Espy allegedly received from companies he was supposed to regulate.|
02|U.S. troops arrest Radislav Krstic, a Bosnian Serb general, in connection with the massacre of Muslim civilians during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Krstic was to be tried for genocide before the United Nations world crimes tribunal in the Netherlands. He was the highest-ranking official arrested for war crimes in connection with the conflict that raged throughout much of the former Yugoslavia among Serbs, Croats, and Muslims.|
03|The central banks of the 11 European nations that will adopt a single currency, the Euro, on Jan. 1, 1999, simultaneously cut their interest rates to a nearly uniform level in an effort to stimulate their economies in the face of the economic crisis in Asia and Russia.|
04|The space shuttle Endeavour carries into orbit the first U.S.-built section of a planned international space station, which is expected to cost more than $100 billion. During the 12-day mission, astronauts on board Endeavour attached the U.S. module to a Russian-built section of the station already in orbit.|
04|The U.S. government reports that the economy unexpectedly generated more than 250,000 jobs in November. The news eased fears of an economic slowdown and rallied prices on the stock market.|
05|James P. Hoffa is elected president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, one of the largest unions in the United States. Hoffa, a labor lawyer from Detroit, was the son of James Hoffa, who led the union from 1957 until his disappearance in 1971.|
06|Venezuelans elect Hugo Chavez president, the first leader in 40 years who is not the nominee of a dominant political party. Chavez, a leftist, attempted to seize power in Venezuela by force in 1992.|
07|Attorney General Janet Reno announces that she will not seek the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate President Bill Clinton's role in a Democratic advertising campaign for the 1996 election.|
08|Scientists in Japan report that they have cloned eight calves from cells gathered from a single cow. Only four of the calves survived.|
09|Scientists in South Africa announce the discovery of what they describe as the best preserved skeleton yet found of an early member of the human family. The scientists estimated the age of the skeleton at between 3.2 million and 3.6 million years old.|
10|The House Judiciary Committee debates articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton. Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich set December 17 as the day on which the impeachment vote will take place in the House.|
11|The Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives votes along party lines to send three articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton to the full House. The Republican-controlled committee charged Clinton with committing perjury (lying under oath) during testimony on Aug., 17, 1998, before a grand jury investigating his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern. In a second article of impeachment, the committee charged Clinton with committing perjury in his deposition in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case in 1997. A third article accused Clinton of trying to influence witnesses in the Lewinsky matter.|
11|Biologists announce that they have deciphered the full genetic programming of a multicelled animal. The genetic code of the animal--a microscopic roundworm--gives scientists their first glimpse of the information needed to develop, operate, and maintain a multicellular animal.|
12|The House Judiciary Committee approves a fourth article of impeachment against President Bill Clinton. The article accused Clinton of abuse of power. The House of Representatives planned to vote on the four articles of impeachment on December 17. Representative Robert L. Livingston, the speaker-elect of the House of Representatives, vowed to block any effort by the House to censure President Clinton rather than impeach him.|
12|President Bill Clinton flies to Israel to revive a peace accord signed in October by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat. Netanyahu, who lost much of his political support by agreeing to cede more land to the Palestinians, had threatened to break the accord.|
13|Representative Henry Hyde, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, calls on President Bill Clinton to resign, saying that it would be a "heroic" gesture. President Clinton, in Jerusalem, responded that he was not guilty of perjury and had no intention of resigning.|
14|The Palestinian National Council, meeting in Gaza, votes to strike any language calling for the destruction of Israel from the Palestinian charter. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel announced that he accepts the vote and considered it an important step toward peace. Netanyahu, however, refused to meet the December 18 deadline to withdraw from more West Bank land until Palestinians met other Israeli demands, including exercising better control over terrorists.|
15|Richard Butler, head of the United Nations (UN) Special Commission, accuses Iraqi officials of failing to cooperate with UN weapons inspectors. U.S. officials responded to the report with warnings that the United States was prepared to attack Iraq if President Saddam Hussein halted UN inspections. Iraq averted a U.S. attack in November by pledging full cooperation with UN weapons inspectors.|
16|President Bill Clinton orders a series of air strikes against Iraq in response to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's refusal to allow United Nations inspectors access to various centers believed to be used for the manufacture or storage of biological or chemical weapons. The attack began at about 11 p.m. Baghdad time with a wave of more than 200 Tomahawk missiles, most launched against suspected weapons centers and other military targets.|
16|Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives respond to the attack on Iraq by postponing the impeachment vote against President Bill Clinton, which had been scheduled for Thursday, December 17.|
17|The United States launches additional air strikes against Iraq. Iraqi officials report that at least 25 people were killed and 75 injured in U.S. strikes on December 16, which President Bill Clinton ordered after Iraq again blocked United Nations inspections of weapons facilities. U.S. Army officials said that the mission's aim was to eliminate Iraq's stockpile of biological and chemical weapons.|
17|The World Meteorological Organization, a specialized United Nations agency located in Geneva, Switzerland, reports that average surface temperature on Earth in 1998 was the highest since temperatures were first measured by a thermometer in the mid-1800's and that 7 of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 1990.|
18|President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, appearing on television for the first time since the U.S. air strike on Iraq began on December 16, calls the United States "agents of Satan."|
18|Debate begins in the U.S. House of Representatives on the possible impeachment of President Bill Clinton.|
19|The U.S. House of Representatives votes to impeach President Bill Clinton, marking the second time in U.S. history that a president has faced a Senate trial to remove him from office. House members passed two articles of impeachment. A charge of lying under oath passed with a vote of 228 to 206, and a charge of obstructing justice passed 221 to 212. Both charges stemmed from Clinton's statements and actions during a grand jury investigation of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a former White house intern. House Democrats failed in their efforts to have the House censure the president as an alternative to impeachment.|
19|Congressman Robert Livingston of Louisiana, whom the Republican majority had nominated for speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, admits to having extramarital affairs and announces that he will not run for speaker. He said that he also intended to resign from the House in mid-1999.|
19|The United States and Great Britain end their campaign of air strikes on Iraq. President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair proclaimed success in their goal of impairing Iraq's military. Iraqi officials pledged that United Nations arms inspectors would never return.|
20|A 27-year-old woman in Houston gives birth to the last of eight infants, the first known surviving set of octuplets. The first child, a girl, was born on December 8.|
21|An overwhelming majority of the Israeli parliament votes to dissolve the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Earlier in the day, members of parliament agreed to withdraw a scheduled vote of no-confidence in Netanyahu's government, which by law would have forced parliament to hold elections within 60 days.|
22|Chinese officials defend harsh sentences imposed on three government opposition activists. On December 21 and 22, Chinese courts sentenced three dissidents to jail for "plotting to overthrow state power" and "endangering state security." Most human-rights officials regarded the tough sentences as a sign that democratic reforms were failing in China.|
23|More than a third of California's annual citrus crop is destroyed by a freeze, and growers say that orange prices in supermarkets would probably triple by the end of the year. The cold spell, which began on December 21, was the worst in California since 1990.|
24|Serbian forces break a two-month cease-fire with the launch of an assault on separatist guerrillas in Podujevo, Serbia, in northern Kosovo Province. International monitors, who were in Kosovo to encourage talks between the government and the rebels, say that it may be pointless to continue their peace efforts.|
25|Russian officials report that radioactive waste sealed in containers and dumped by the Soviet Union in Arctic waters in the 1960's is leaking. Radiation levels were reported to be 100 times above normal in some areas. The officials also note that chemical weapons dumped by the Soviet Union were also leaking, contaminating the Baltic Sea with heavy metals and arsenic.|
26|Vice President Taha Yassin of Iraq announces that Iraqi antiaircraft gunners have driven off enemy warplanes flying over Iraq and that Iraq will fire on all U.S. and British warplanes patrolling the no-fly zones that were imposed on Iraq in 1991 following the Persian Gulf War. The United States, Great Britain, and France set up the no-fly zones to halt Iraqi attacks on Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and Shiite Muslim rebels in the south.|
27|The smallest of the week-old octuplets born to a Texas woman dies after the infant's heart and lungs fail, according to officials at the Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. The surviving seven babies remained in critical condition.|
28|U.S. fighter jets bomb an Iraqi missile site after being fired on while patrolling the no-fly zone over northern Iraq.|
29|Reporters are allowed to question two former leaders of the Khmer Rouge, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, about the Communist organization's reign of terror between 1975 and 1979. Khieu Samphan apologizes for the suffering he caused, but urges Cambodians to "let bygones be bygones" in regard to the 1 million Cambodians who died under Khmer Rouge rule. Nuon Chea also expressed his regrets.|
30|Iraqi forces fire missiles at U.S. and British warplanes patrolling the no-fly zone over southern Iraq, from which Iraqi military flights are banned. The United States retaliated by bombing an Iraqi missile launch site.|
31|The United States ambassador to Israel orders the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv closed because of the threat of a terrorist attack, which embassy officials describe as "direct and credible." The U.S. State Department has kept a number of its foreign missions under alert since August 7, when car bombs exploded outside the U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. The explosions killed at least 224 people, including 12 Americans, and wounded more than 5,000 others.|
