01|Egyptian men cannot divorce their wives by announcing their intentions via an e-mail message, rules a court in Alexandria, Egypt. While Egyptian men may divorce their wives by saying "I divorce you" three times, the pronouncement must be delivered in person, not via an electronic document. The court notes that electronic documents do not constitute evidence under Islamic law, which forms the basis of family law in Egypt. The case involved a woman who remarried after receiving an e-mail divorce message from her first husband, who subsequently changed his mind.|
02|The United Nations war crimes tribunal refuses to launch a formal investigation into whether NATO committed war crimes during a 1999 bombing campaign in Yugoslavia. The tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, acknowledges that mistakes were made by NATO but notes that she is "very satisfied that there were no deliberate targeting of civilians." Various human rights groups, including Amnesty International, the Yugoslav government, and a Russian parliamentary commission have all alleged that NATO committed war crimes during the 11-week bombing campaign.|
03|Presidents Bill Clinton of the United States and Vladimir Putin of Russia meet in the Kremlin in Moscow to discuss the state of the Russian economy, on-going conflicts in the Balkans and the Caucasus, and antimissile defense strategies. |
04|Storms blowing across north Texas drop as much as 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain in 12 hours. In Parker and Tarrant counties near Forth Worth, flooding results in the deaths of at least three people.|
05|An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9 hits the island of Sumatra, leaving at least 100 people dead and thousands homeless. The epicenter of the quake, which is one of the strongest to hit Indonesia in recent years, is approximately 20 miles (32 kilometers) beneath the floor of the Indian Ocean.|
05|Ukraine agrees to shut down the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in mid-December, announces Leonid Kuchma, president of Ukraine, during a six-hour meeting in Kiev, the capital, with U.S. President Bill Clinton. A nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl station exploded in April 1986, spewing radioactive debris that was eventually measurable throughout the Northern Hemisphere.|
05|Rebels demand the resignation of Solomon Islands Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa 'alu after seizing control of the capital, Honiara. Ulufa 'alu was detained at his residence. The rebels, known as the Malaita Eagles militia, are involved in fierce ethnic disputes involving native residents of Guadalcanal and residents originally from Malaita Island. The disputes date to World War II (1939-1945), when Malaita islanders began migrating to Guadalcanal, where many hold important jobs. In recent years, militias purporting to represent Guadalcanal natives have forced as many as 20,000 Malaitans off the property they owned on Guadalcanal.|
05|More than 30 giant black holes have been discovered at the centers of distant galaxies, astronomers announce at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Rochester, New York. The scientists note that studying the black holes has enabled them to relate the size of a black hole to the shape of its galaxy. Massive black holes typically develop in galaxies with large center bulges. A galaxy with a small bulge, such as the Milky Way, contains smaller black holes. The astronomers also discovered that the mass of a typical black hole appears to always equal two-tenths of 1 percent of the mass of its galaxy's bulge.|
06|Approximately 10,000 veterans of World War II (1939-1945) attend the opening of the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana. U.S. author and historian Stephen E. Ambrose founded the museum, which honors Allied forces, especially those who landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944.|
07|Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, the federal judge presiding over the Microsoft antitrust case, rules that the Microsoft Corporation is to be split into two separate companies. One will be dedicated to Microsoft's Windows operating system. The second company will be dedicated to such applications as Microsoft Office and the Internet Explorer Web browser. Both the chairman of Microsoft, Bill Gates, and the chief executive officer, Steve Ballmer, announce that Microsoft will appeal the ruling.|
08|Nearly two years of war in Congo (Kinshasa) has resulted in the deaths of 1.7 million people in five eastern provinces, reveals a report commissioned by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) of New York City. Of the 1.7 million casualties, 200,000 people were killed in combat or other war-related violence. The rest died as a result of the breakdown of home and village life and the lack of food supplies and health services. United Nations and U.S. relief assistance officials describe the IRC statistics as conservative. The war began in August 1998 when Rwanda and Uganda dispatched troops into Congo (Kinshasa) to support a rebel upraising against President Laurent Kabila. |
09|The Leaning Tower of Pisa leans 5.2 inches (13 centimeters) less than it did in January 1999, announces a spokesperson for the project to save the 189-foot (57.6-meter) tower, which dates from the 1300's. Work to stabilize the monument, which has been closed to the public for 10 years, is expected to continue into 2001, when the tower is scheduled to reopen.|
10|Hafez al-Assad, president of Syria for nearly 30 years, dies at age 69 in Damascus, the capital. Assad was an Arab nationalist who ruled Syria like an absolute monarch and steadfastly refused to compromise his demand that Israel return every inch of territory that Syria lost in the 1967 Syrian-Israeli War. Experts on international affairs suggest that his death may open doors to a possible Syrian-Israeli peace treaty. |
10|The New Jersey Devils beat hockey's defending champion, the Dallas Stars, 2-1 to win the Stanley Cup in a six-game series.|
11|The current boom economy is driving up housing costs at a rate far higher than the current rate of inflation, according to the Clinton administration's fourth State of the Cities report. In many urban neighborhoods, housing costs are increasing at a annual rate of 20 percent.|
12|President Vladimir Putin of Russia appoints a Chechen Muslim cleric, Mufti Akhmed Kadyrov, governor of Chechnya. While Putin claims Kadyrov enjoys the support of the Chechen people, a former president of Chechnya, Aslan Maskhadov, denounces Kadyrov as a traitor. The new governor supported Russia when the Russian Army entered Chechnya on Oct. 1, 1999, to block Islamic militants from setting up an Islamic state in the Caucasus region of southern Russia.|
13|The president of South Korea, Kim Dae Jung, meets with the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Il, in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, for a three-day summit. The meeting is the first between heads of state of the two countries. The two leaders are expected to discuss the possibility of a peace treaty to officially end the Korean War (1950-1953). Experts on international affairs suggest that North Korea agreed to the summit because of severe internal problems. At least 2 million North Koreans have died since 1995 because of severe food shortages that were the result of flooding in 1995 and 1996 and droughts in the late 1990's.|
14|Hafez al-Assad, the president of Syria who exercised near absolute power over his country for nearly 30 years, is buried in his hometown, Qardaha, 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Damascus, the capital. Assad's eldest son and chief mourner, Bashar, who assumed control of the country before the funeral, accepts condolences from Middle Eastern leaders and various diplomats. After being named commander in chief of the Syrian Army, Bashar al-Assad was nominated by Syria's Baath party as the only candidate for president.|
15|The President of South Korea, Kim Dae Jung, and the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Il, culminate a historical summit with the signing of a five-point declaration aimed at peace and the eventual reunification of the two countries. The summit, held in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, is the first ever to occur between leaders of the two nations, which have never officially concluded the Korean War (1950-1953). The two leaders also agreed that the reclusive Kim Jong Il would visit Seoul, the South Korean capital, at the "earliest appropriate moment."|
15|U.S. Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee for president, announces that Secretary of Commerce William Daley is replacing Tony Coelho as Gore's campaign chairman. Daley, who is scheduled to leave the commerce department on July 1, is the son of the late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley and the brother of the current mayor of Chicago, Richard M. Daley.|
16|The price of regular unleaded gasoline hits $2.11 a gallon in Chicago. The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States is $1.63. Spokespersons for oil companies point to a ruptured pipeline in Michigan and a federal mandate to sell cleaner-burning fuel in certain markets as factors contributing to the jump in fuel prices in the Midwest.|
17|Members of an upper-caste militia, Ranvir Sena, attack a low-caste village in Bihar State in northeast India and gun down 34 people, mostly women, children, and older men. The attack is the eighth incident of caste-related violence in Bihar in the last six months. Indian affairs experts believe that members of Ranvir Sena are in the employ of local landowners attempting to crush labor organizations that claim to represent the interest of the lower-caste peasants.|
18|Tiger Woods wins the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, California, by 15 strokes. The winning margin shatters golf records. The previous record at the U.S. Open was 11 strokes, held by Willie Smith since 1899. The previous record for margin of victory in the history of championship golf was 13 strokes, held by Old Tom Morris since the 1862 British Open.|
19|The European Union (EU) accepts Greece, the union's poorest nation, as the 12th member of the European Monetary Union. Greece will officially join the single currency, the euro, on Jan. 1, 2001. Among EU members, only the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Sweden remain outside the single currency. Since being launched on Jan. 1, 1999, the euro as steadily declined in value in relation to the U.S. dollar and other world currencies.|
19|The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6 to 3 decision, strikes down a Texas school district policy that allowed students to lead public prayers before sporting events, such as football games. The court notes in the majority decision that school-endorsed prayer sends a message that nonbelievers are "outsiders" and that "government may not coerce anyone" to participate in religion.|
20|France and Italy have the best health care systems in the world, according to the World Health Report 2000, which rates national health care systems on overall spending and on how care is distributed among different groups in each of the 191 member nations. Although the United States outspends all other nations on health care, it is ranked 37th overall. According to the report, a large proportion of the U.S. population fails to receive adequate health care.|
21|Both water and electricity are turned off in most areas, including the central business district, of Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, for up to 18 hours a day. The government of President Daniel arap Moi blames the water shortage on a three-year drought. Most residents, however, blame government corruption, which economists point to as a major factor in Kenya's years of economic stagnation.|
22|Liquid water from shallow underground reservoirs may occasionally burst onto the surface of Mars, announces National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officials describing photographs taken from the Mars Global Surveyor. The photographs show features that resemble gullies and channels carved by water flowing down craters and valley walls and appear to have been created recently. While scientists have long believed that water existed on Mars billions of years ago, most researchers insisted that the planet's temperature and atmospheric pressure were currently too low to allow water to exist in a liquid state on the surface.|
22|Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak saves his coalition government from collapse by cutting a deal with the ultra-Orthodox Shas party that forces members of the left-wing Meretz Party out of the government. The three Meretz Party members in the cabinet were Barak's greatest allies in his attempt to bring about peace in the Middle East.|
23|U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright denies that any of the 37,000 U.S. troops currently stationed in South Korea will be withdrawn any time soon. Speaking with the foreign minister of South Korea in Seoul, the capital, Albright characterizes discussions of troop withdrawals as "premature" regardless of current prospects for reconciliation on the Korean peninsula. On June 15, the leaders of South Korea and North Korea signed a five-point declaration aimed at the eventual reunification of the two countries.|
24|The French parliament issues a report accusing Monaco, a tiny principality on France's southeast border, of fostering money laundering. Calling the Monacan government "hypocritical," the authors of the report suggest that Monaco's banking laws, which guarantee the anonymity of depositors, were specifically created to help the wealthy avoid taxes. The report recommends that France review its relationship with Monaco in order to avoid losing credibility among the 15 member nations of the European Union.|
25|Philip Morris Inc., headquartered in New York City, agrees to buy Nabisco Corp., a Parsippany, New Jersey-based company that markets such brands as Oreo cookies, Ritz crackers, and Planters nuts. Philip Morris plans to fold Nabisco into a Philip Morris subsidiary, Kraft Foods, creating a food company with annual sales of more than $35 billion.|
26|Two groups of researchers announce that they have each completed rough drafts of the human genome (total amount of genetic information). Scientists with the publicly funded Human Genome Project affirm that they had determined the order of approximately 85 percent of the 3 billion chemical building blocks, called nucleotides, that make up the genome. Researchers at Celera Genomics Corporation, a private corporation located in Rockville, Maryland, announce that they have sequenced virtually all of the nucleotides, except for a number of small gaps. Geneticists expect that this knowledge would enable researchers to develop drugs and other therapies to counteract the effects of faulty genes and proteins. Scientists predict that such treatments will revolutionize medicine by allowing physicians to attack the underlying genetic causes of diseases. (AP/Wide World)|
27|The Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), the party of President Robert Mugabe, retains its majority in parliament, according to final results of the June 24 and June 25 election. However, ZANU-PF wins only 62 of the 120 seats up for election. The opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change, takes 57 seats. An independent third party wins one seat. The results are the first serious losses suffered by Mugabe's party in the more than 20 years he has held power. In February, Mugabe failed to convince voters to amend the constitution to give him power to seize white-owned farms without paying compensation.|
27|More than 200 people are reported dead in the latest clashes between Muslims and Christians in Ambon, capital of Indonesia's Molucca islands. At least 2,500 people have died in conflicts between Muslims and Christians in the Moluccas since late 1998. According to political experts, the violence is being fueled by agitators in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, attempting to bring down the government of President Abdurrahman Wahid. The agitators, according to some sources, are allied with various powerful groups, including Indonesian military officials, with connections to former Indonesian President Suharto. Suharto was forced to resign the presidency in May 1998 in the wake of widespread public violence. |
28|The seven-month battle over Elian Gonzalez ends when the six-year-old Cuban shipwreck survivor arrives in Havana, Cuba, with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez. The Gonzalez family left the Untied States from Washington, D.C., only hours after the U.S. Supreme Court ended the interfamily and international conflict by refusing to hear a formal appeal from Elian's Miami relatives for custody of the child.|
29|In a 5-to-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that freedom of association guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution bars a state court from compelling the Boy Scouts of America from accepting gay members because opposition to homosexuality is part of the organization's "expressive message." The decision strikes down a New Jersey Supreme Court ruling that required a boy scout troop to readmit a longtime member and assistant scout leader whom the troop had dismissed after learning he was gay. |
29|Nearly 500 people drown when a ferry, licensed to carry 250 passengers, sinks in heavy seas 40 miles (64 kilometers) off Halmahera, an island in Indonesia's Mulucca chain. Most of the victims were Christians fleeing religion-based violence. As many as 200 Christians were murdered by Muslims on Halmahera during the week of June 23.|
29|U.S. President Bill Clinton nominates Norman Y. Mineta as secretary of commerce for the final six months of the Clinton presidency. Mineta represented the area around San Jose, California, in the U.S. House of Representatives for 21 years and served as chairman of the House Public Works and Transportation Committee. If confirmed by the Senate, he will be the first Asian American to serve in a cabinet position.|
30|U.S. President Bill Clinton signs legislation that gives online signatures the same legal stature as hand-written signatures. Economists suggest that legalizing "e-signatures" will speed many business transactions, including insurance, banking, and brokerage contracts, providing a boon to online commerce.|
