50 Fun Facts About 1999

Which planet did Pluto slip back outside of on 11 February, ending 20 years as the nearer one to the Sun?

Neptune had been the more distant of the two since February 1979, because Pluto's stretched 248-year orbit dips inside Neptune's for about 20 years of every circuit.

Which NASA spacecraft was lost on arrival in September because Lockheed Martin used US units where NASA expected metric?

Mars Climate Orbiter was fed thruster figures in pound-seconds where newton-seconds were expected, so on 23 September it reached Mars far too low and was lost in the atmosphere.

Which country, whose king marked his silver jubilee that year, allowed television broadcasts for the first time in June?

Bhutan became the last nation on earth to switch on television when its king lifted a long-standing ban on 2 June, announcing the change to a jubilee crowd in a Thimphu stadium.

Which March email virus, written by David L. Smith, mailed itself to the first 50 names in a victim's Outlook contacts?

Melissa, reportedly named after a Florida stripper, hid in Word documents; its author was arrested within a week and was later sentenced to 20 months in federal prison.

Which author's wife had a lawyer buy the minivan that hit him near his Maine home, to keep it off eBay?

Stephen King was struck when the driver was distracted by a dog loose in the back; King dreamed of smashing the van up himself, but his wife had it quietly destroyed.

Sixteen years after Sally Ride's first flight, who became the first woman to command a Space Shuttle mission?

Eileen Collins commanded Columbia in July 1999 with a crew cut to five to save weight, because the Chandra X-ray Observatory was the heaviest payload a shuttle ever launched.

Which Scot won the Open at Carnoustie after Jean van de Velde threw away a three-shot lead on the final hole?

Paul Lawrie had started the last day ten shots behind, the biggest final-round comeback in major history, before beating Van de Velde and Justin Leonard in a four-hole playoff.

Which film director's spoken-word single, based on a Chicago Tribune column of graduation advice, topped the UK chart?

Baz Luhrmann's 'Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)' used Mary Schmich's 1997 essay, which had circulated online wrongly credited to Kurt Vonnegut.

Which yellow puppet from a run of Levi's adverts headbanged Mr. Oizo's instrumental to UK number one in April?

Flat Eric nodded along to a beat-and-bassline loop that Quentin Dupieux, the film-maker who records as Mr. Oizo, says he made in about two hours on a Korg MS-20 synthesiser.

Which Swiss adventurer made the first non-stop balloon flight around the world with Brian Jones, landing in Egypt?

Bertrand Piccard, a psychiatrist by profession, left the Swiss Alps on 1 March and stayed aloft for 19 days and 21 hours; extra propane tanks added before launch proved just enough to finish.

Which former KGB officer did Boris Yeltsin make prime minister in August, months before resigning in his favour?

Vladimir Putin had spent 16 years in KGB foreign intelligence and then run the FSB, and Yeltsin's surprise New Year's Eve resignation left him acting president.

Which country's King Hussein died in February after a 46-year reign, leaving the throne to his eldest son Abdullah?

Jordan's new king had been named heir only weeks earlier, when Hussein switched the succession away from his own brother Hassan, crown prince since 1965.

Which general seized power in Pakistan in October after Nawaz Sharif tried to sack him and block his flight's landing?

Pervez Musharraf was flying home from Sri Lanka when Sharif's office denied the plane landing rights, and soldiers surrounded the airport control tower to bring it down.

Which waterway passed fully to its host nation at noon on 31 December under treaties Jimmy Carter signed in 1977?

The Panama Canal Zone had been under US control since 1903, and the treaties that ended it only just passed the Senate in 1978, by 68 votes to 32, one more than the two-thirds needed.

Who succeeded Nelson Mandela as South Africa's president in June, after serving five years as his deputy?

Thabo Mbeki had been elected ANC president unopposed in 1997, and Mandela, who had said since 1995 that he would serve only one term, kept his word and stepped down.

Which February report into Stephen Lawrence's 1993 murder called the Metropolitan Police 'institutionally racist'?

The Macpherson Report also urged scrapping the double jeopardy rule for murder, a change that later let Gary Dobson, acquitted in 1996, be tried again and convicted in 2012.

Which party opposed the introduction of Britain's first national minimum wage, set at £3.60 an hour from 1 April?

The Conservatives warned the wage would cost jobs and voted against it, but ten months after it began their shadow chancellor, Michael Portillo, announced that they would not repeal it.

Which Labour politician was elected Scotland's first First Minister in May by the new devolved parliament?

Donald Dewar had drawn up the Scotland Act as Scottish Secretary before leading the first devolved government; he died in office the following year, a day after a fall.

Who was elected Liberal Democrat leader in August, succeeding Paddy Ashdown after his retirement from the post?

Charles Kennedy, an MP since he was 23, beat Simon Hughes on the final count and went on to lead the party's opposition to the Iraq war.

Who followed Ted Hughes as Poet Laureate in May, the first holder appointed for a fixed ten-year term?

Andrew Motion later called the post 'very, very damaging' to his own writing, and handed it on to Carol Ann Duffy on the same fixed term in 2009.

Which future director of 12 Years a Slave won the Turner Prize, beating Tracey Emin's unmade bed?

Steve McQueen won with a video remaking a Buster Keaton stunt, while the press fixated on Emin's My Bed and its stained sheets, condoms and empty bottles.

Which Leonardo da Vinci mural went back on view in Milan in May after over two decades of restoration?

The Last Supper had been flaking since Leonardo painted it on dry plaster rather than as a true fresco, and the masons had filled the wall with moisture-holding rubble.

The 11 August total eclipse, Britain's first since 1927, made landfall at the western tip of which county?

Cornwall drew huge crowds to the stretch from St Ives to the Lizard, though fewer than the hotels had banked on, before the shadow raced on across France, Germany and Turkey.

Which England manager was sacked in February over remarks that disabled people were paying for sins in a past life?

Glenn Hoddle insisted his words to The Times had been 'misconstrued, misunderstood and misinterpreted', but the FA ended his contract on 2 February.

Which Moroccan ran the mile in 3:43.13 in Rome in July, a world record that stood for 27 years?

Hicham El Guerrouj dragged Kenya's Noah Ngeny to 3:43.40, also inside the old record, and nobody ran faster than either of them until Britain's Josh Kerr clocked 3:42.66 in July 2026.

Which tennis player retired in August at 30, two months after winning her 22nd major at the French Open?

Steffi Graf reached a ninth Wimbledon final in between, losing to Lindsay Davenport, and bowed out still ranked world number three.

Which team won its first Stanley Cup in June on Brett Hull's disputed triple-overtime goal against the Buffalo Sabres?

The Dallas Stars' winner came with Hull's skate in the crease, but the NHL ruled he had kept possession of the puck and let the goal stand despite Buffalo's protests.

Which quarterback retired in May, three months after being named MVP of his second straight Super Bowl win?

John Elway threw for 336 yards and ran in a touchdown as Denver beat Atlanta 34-19; the Falcons' coach, Dan Reeves, had led Elway's Broncos to three Super Bowl defeats.

Which Finn kept his Formula One world title in a season where Michael Schumacher broke his leg at Silverstone?

Mika Häkkinen's McLaren beat Eddie Irvine's Ferrari to the title by two points; Mika Salo, standing in for Schumacher, had given up a win in Germany on team orders so that Irvine could take it.

Which British boxer became undisputed heavyweight champion in November, eight months after a disputed draw?

Lennox Lewis won the rematch with Evander Holyfield on points to hold the WBC, WBA and IBF belts, but the WBA stripped him within months for skipping its mandatory challenger.

Which competition did holders Manchester United skip to play in FIFA's first Club World Championship in Brazil?

The FA Cup had never before lost its holders, and the decision was sold as a boost to England's bid to host the 2006 World Cup.

Whose injury-time try for Wales at Wembley in April denied England a Grand Slam in the last ever Five Nations match?

Scott Gibbs took a Scott Quinnell pass 20 metres out and beat a string of tacklers, Neil Jenkins converting for a 32–31 win that handed the championship to Scotland.

Which skateboarder landed the first documented 900, two and a half mid-air spins, at the X Games in June?

Tony Hawk had failed attempt after attempt that night and the contest clock had run out, but the organisers let him keep going until he landed the trick.

Which Irish boy band topped the UK chart with April debut 'Swear It Again', then again with 'If I Let You Go'?

Westlife were co-managed by Ronan Keating of Boyzone, a band they had opened for in Dublin, and they ended the year with a fourth number one, the Christmas double A-side 'I Have a Dream' and 'Seasons in the Sun'.

Which veteran singer took 'The Millennium Prayer', the Lord's Prayer sung to 'Auld Lang Syne', to UK number one?

Cliff Richard's own label, EMI, declined to release the single, doubting it would sell, so he took it to a small independent and it spent three weeks at number one.

Which Dutch Eurodance act took 'Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!!' and 'We're Going to Ibiza!' to UK number one in the same year?

Vengaboys built 'We're Going to Ibiza!' on Typically Tropical's 1975 chart-topper 'Barbados', and 'Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!!' later sold a Nissan estate in Japan.

Which group, formed by Simon Fuller after the Spice Girls sacked him, debuted at number one with 'Bring It All Back'?

S Club 7 arrived with their own BBC children's series, Miami 7, which had started on BBC One that April and used the song as its theme tune.

Which former Menudo member's 'Livin' la Vida Loca' spent five weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, his first US number one?

Ricky Martin's hit set off what the press called the Latin explosion of 1999, with Jennifer Lopez and Enrique Iglesias following him to number one within months.

Which singer, at 52, became the oldest woman yet to top the Billboard Hot 100 when 'Believe' hit number one in March?

Cher's hit turned Auto-Tune into an audible vocal effect that was soon widely copied, and its producers at first claimed they had used a vocoder, to keep the trick to themselves.

Which 'Son of a Preacher Man' singer died in March, a fortnight before her Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction?

Dusty Springfield was 59 when breast cancer killed her at Henley-on-Thames, and her brother Tom later scattered some of her ashes at Ireland's Cliffs of Moher.

Which former Beatle survived a knife attack by an intruder at his Friar Park home on 30 December?

George Harrison suffered a punctured lung before Olivia Harrison felled Michael Abram with a fireplace poker and a lamp; Abram was later diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Which Italian climbed over the seats at the March Oscars, where Life Is Beautiful also won him Best Actor?

Roberto Benigni walked across the seat backs when the foreign-language award was read out, then told the room after winning Best Actor that it was a terrible mistake, because he had used up all his English.

Which Bond film was the last for Desmond Llewelyn, who played Q in 17 films and died weeks after its release?

The World Is Not Enough saw Llewelyn hand over to John Cleese's understudy, having served every Bond from Sean Connery to Pierce Brosnan since 1963.

Which British actor died in Valletta during a break from filming Gladiator, his last scenes finished with a double?

Oliver Reed collapsed in a Valletta bar where, by the film-makers' account, he had challenged a group of Royal Navy sailors to a drinking match; his trainer Proximo was finished with a double and digital effects.

Which six-part BBC series cost more per minute than any documentary before it?

Walking with Dinosaurs, narrated by Kenneth Branagh, cost £6.1 million, over £37,000 a minute, and used Framestore's computer-generated creatures filmed like a wildlife programme.

Which stop-motion children's series began on BBC One in April, its theme song later a Christmas number one?

Bob the Builder's theme 'Can We Fix It?', sung by Neil Morrissey as Bob, sold over a million copies and kept a rival act from an eighth straight UK number one.

Which Channel 4 sitcom directed by Edgar Wright had Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson posing as a couple to rent a flat?

Spaced began on 24 September with near-strangers Tim and Daisy faking a relationship; one episode, in which Tim imagines a zombie invasion, later grew into Pegg and Wright's film Shaun of the Dead.

Which South African novelist became the first writer to win the Booker Prize twice, with Disgrace in October?

J. M. Coetzee, who had won for Life & Times of Michael K in 1983, was so publicity-shy that he collected neither prize in person.

Which Julia Donaldson picture book about a mouse who invents a monster to scare off predators did Macmillan publish?

The Gruffalo grew out of a Chinese folk tale involving a tiger; Donaldson has said she invented a monster instead because she could not make 'tiger' work in her rhyming couplets.

Which organisation, founded in 1971 by volunteers back from the Biafran famine, won the Nobel Peace Prize?

Médecins Sans Frontières used the platform at once: its president opened the Nobel lecture by condemning the Russian army's bombing of civilians in Chechnya and asking for it to stop.