On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
Portrait 1080 × 1920 PNG · created on your device
Article on $15 million restoration of the Mount, the Berkshire, Mass, house of Edith Wharton, by Edith Wharton Restoration Inc; photos (L)
I.R.S. Inquiry Planned The Internal Revenue Service plans to investigate the disclosure of a 1993 agreement that had granted a tax-exempt status to the Church of Scientology and that had been kept secret under privacy laws protecting tax payers. Page A13.
Johnny Grant, honorary mayor of Hollywood, Calif, has compiled list of celebrities that US military personnel in Bosnia say they most like to chat with; largest exhibition of art by Winston Churchill is to go on display at Sotheby's in London on Jan 5; show coincides with 50th anniversary of Churchill's election to Royal Academy and publication in book form of his essay Painting as a Pastime; age and infirmity will prevent actress Deborah Kerr and science-fiction writer Arthur C Clarke from traveling to London to accept honors conferred on them in first New Year's Honors List of British Prime Minister Tony Blair; Kerr is to receive Order of British Empire; Clarke is to be named a knight; Export Music Sweden says 1995 export value of Swedish bands was $194 million; publicity department of Lake Superior State University releases suggestions for ridding 1998 vocabulary of cliches, euphemisms and slang; photo (L)
Scheduled execution of woman in Texas prompts unlikely array of sympathizers to lobby to save her life; case offers political quandary for Gov George W Bush and reflects society's reluctance--even in law-and-order state--to execute women; condemned inmate, Karla Faye Tucker, was convicted of pickax slayings of two people 14 years ago in Houston, when she was strung out on drugs; while in prison she converted to Christianity and started prison-based ministry aimed at keeping young people from becoming criminals; Tucker, who opposes death penalty, says she should not be given special consideration because of her sex; nationally, women account for one in every 8 people arrested for murder, but women make up only one of every 70 inmates on death row; queasiness about executing women is particularly striking in Texas, state responsible for half of all executions in country in 1997; photos (L)
Marv Levy, at 72 the oldest head coach in National Football League, retires after 12 seasons of leading Buffalo Bills; Associated Press, citing undisclosed sources, says Bills' owner Ralph Wilson wanted to dismiss several of Levy's offensive assistants, including Tom Bresnahan and Don Lawrence; Levy did not want to make changes; there is no indication when Bills will hire a successor; Levy comments; chart; photo (L)
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of December 31, 1997, covering January 1, 1998.
Garth Brooks
Celine Dion
Barbra Streisand
LeAnn Rimes
Chumbawamba
Cristina Bucșa, Moldovan-Spanish tennis player[†]
Cristina Bucsa Bucsa is a Moldovan-born Spanish professional tennis player. She has career-high rankings of world No. 56 in singles, achieved on 15 January 2024, and No. 19 in doubles, achieved on 10 June 2024. She won a bronze medal in women's doubles at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Edwuin Cetré, Colombian footballer[†]
Edwuin Steven Cetré Angulo, is a Colombian footballer who currently plays as a winger for Estudiantes de La Plata.
Enock Mwepu, Zambian footballer[†]
Enock Mwepu is a Zambian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.
Frank Onyeka, Nigerian footballer[†]
Ogochukwu Frank Onyeka is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Bundesliga club FC Augsburg, on loan from Premier League club Brentford, and the Nigeria national team.
1998Helen Wills, American tennis player and coach (born 1905)[†]
Helen Newington Wills, also known by her married names Helen Wills Moody and Helen Wills Roark, was an American tennis player. She won 31 Grand Slam tournament titles during her career, including 19 singles titles.
1998Following a currency reform, Russia begins to circulate new rubles to stem inflation and promote confidence.[†]
Russia launched a monetary reform on January 1, 1998. Preparation started in August 1997. Replacement of the old banknotes occurred gradually, until 2002.
1998Argentinian physicist Juan Maldacena publishes a landmark paper initiating the study of AdS/CFT correspondence, which links string theory and quantum gravity.[†]
Juan Martín Maldacena is an Argentine theoretical physicist and the Carl P. Feinberg Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. He has made significant contributions to the foundations of string theory and quantum gravity. His most famous discovery is the AdS/CFT correspondence, a realization of the holographic principle in string theory.
In 1998, the world population was approximately 6,007,066,690 people[†]