1998

Events

• February 6 - Johnny Paul Koroma is removed as head of state of Sierra Leone by ECOMOG.
• February 23 - Osama bin Laden issues a fatwa calling for global jihad against Jews and Christians.
• February 25 - Beginning of the Kosovo War.
• March 24 - The Jonesboro massacre occurs when Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden, both students at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas, kill four people and injure 10 others.
• April 10 - The Troubles end with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.
• April 24 - Parker Middle School dance shooting
• May 21 - Thurston High School shooting
• May 21 - Suharto resigns as President of Indonesia.
• June 7 - Beginning of the Guinea-Bissau Civil War.
• June 22 - The Khmer Rouge's Provisional Government of National Union and National Salvation of Cambodia (PGNUNSC) collapses.
• June 30 - Joseph Estrada is elected as President of the Philippines
• May 28 - Brynn Hartman kills her husband, actor and comedian Phil Hartman, at their home in Los Angeles, California before committing suicide.
• July 6 - Viktor Orbán is elected Prime Minister of Hungary for the first time.
• August 2 - Beginning of the Second Congo War.
• August 7 – 1998 US Embassy bombings: the bombings of the United States embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, kill 224 people and injure over 4,500; they are linked to Al-Qaeda.
• August 15 - Omagh bombing: The Real IRA detonates a car bomb originally intended for a courthouse in front of a store in Omagh, Northern Ireland, killing 29 (including two Spanish tourists) and injuring at least 220.
• August 22 - The Irish National Liberation Army goes on ceasefire.
• October 12 - Gay college student Matthew Shepard is kidnapped, tortured, and brutally murdered by Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, in what is considered to be the first homophobic hate crime to gain national attention.
• October 16 - Augusto Pinochet is arrested in London after being indicted by a Spanish court for human rights violations committed during his rule of Chile.
• Unknown - The National Congress Party is founded by Omar al-Bashir to serve as the ruling party of Sudan.

Births

Villain births

• January 7 - David Argueta
• January 22 - Silentó
• April 20 - David Sonboly
• April 27 - Samuel Woodward
• July 27 - Patrick Crusius
• August 18 - Nick Fuentes
• September 24 - Nikolas Cruz
• October 31 - Amos Yee
• November 24 - Brooke Houts

Victim births

• Janruary 23 - Jahseh "XXXTentacion" Onfroy
• April 8 - Blaze Bernstein
• May 8- Mollie Tibbetts
• June 23 - David Brandhorst (9/11 Victim)
• July 21 - Dana Falkenberg (9/11 Victim)
• November 20 - Christopher Thomas Jr. (Murder Victim of YNW Melly)

Deaths

Villain deaths

• January 18 - Benjamin Paddock
• March 16 - Theodore Sindikubwabo
• March 23 - Gerald Stano
• March 30 - Judy Buenoano
• April 15 - Pol Pot
• April 23 - James Earl Ray
• April 24 - Froduald Karamira
• April 27 - Nguyễn Văn Linh
• May 19 - Hank Earl Carr
• May 28 - Gary Rowe & Brynn Hartman
• May 29 - Jerry Stone & Orlando Anderson
• May 30 - Michael Stone
• June 8 - Sani Abacha
• August 5 - Todor Zhivkov
• August 7 - Azzam
• September 13 - George Wallace
• October 10 - Marvin Gay Sr.
• October 23 - Winnie Ruth Judd
• November 17 - Kenneth McDuff
• December 14 - Nguyễn Ngọc Loan
• December 16 - Larry Loveless
• Unknown - Rita Zucca

Victim deaths

• May 20 - William & Faith Kinkel (Kip Kinkel's Parents)
• May 21 - Ben Walker & Mikael Nickolauson
• May 28 - Phil Hartman
• June 7 - James Byrd Jr.
• July 14 - Martin Puye
• August 15 - Fernando Blasco Baselga and Rocio Abad Ramos
• October 12 - Matthew Shepard
• October 19 - Tommy Burks
• November 3 - Maddie Clifton