On this day
Revisit the news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
In 1998, the world population was approximately 6,007,066,690 people[†]
1998Malik Monk, American basketball player[†]
Malik Ahmad Monk is an American professional basketball player for the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played one season of college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats, earning consensus second-team All-American honors in 2017. Monk was selected in the first round of the 2017 NBA draft by the Charlotte Hornets with the 11th overall pick. He has also played for the Los Angeles Lakers.
1998Maximilian Wöber, Austrian footballer[†]
Maximilian Wöber is an Austrian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back or left-back for Premier League club Leeds United and the Austria national team.
1998The 5.9 Mw Afghanistan earthquake shakes the Takhar Province with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). With 2,323 killed, and 818 injured, damage is considered extreme.[†]
Takhar is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northeast of the country next to Tajikistan. It is surrounded by Badakhshan in the east, Panjshir in the south, and Baghlan and Kunduz in the west. The city of Taloqan serves as its capital. The province contains 17 districts, over 1,000 villages, and approximately 1,113,173 people, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a rural society.
Joe and Emil Maresca, who operate S Maresca & Sons Fine Meats in Sergeantsville, NJ, are among dwindling number of butchers who learned their craft through years of apprenticeship; art of butchering has declined into production-line activity over past 20 years, and as America rekindles its love affair with fine meat, absence of highly skilled meat cutters has left markets scrambling; many stores turn to older meat cutters to teach younger workers; photos (M)
Walter Goodman reviews PBS televison program Billy Wilder, profile of famous movie maker (S)
James Anderson (J Flexx) tells how he came to write lyrics for songs recorded by Dr Dre and other rappers from Death Row Records, for which he says he has not received credit or proper payment; is now working on solo album; photo (S)
ABC-TV has asked its affiliated stations to contribute cash or return some commercials to the network to help pay $550 million a year to retain Monday Night Football; CBS and Fox Broadcasting have made or are expected top seek similiar arrangements with their affiliates; deal, would represent first time that networks have sought this kind of sizable contribution from their affiliates to help pay for program costs; ABC affiliates are expected to resist the request, while those of CBS and Fox are more likely to agree; ABC is seeking as much as $50 million a year from its affiliates (L)
Eric Asimov (Critic's Notebook) deplores use of the same recorded music to set the atmosphere at restaurants in New York; drawings (M)
Contributions to The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund rose past the $5.1 million mark yesterday, breaking a record set in 1991-92 and making this the most successful campaign since the fund was established in 1912.
Gtech Holdings Corp chairman Guy B Snowden resigns one day after British jury finds that he committed libel in connection with effort to win contract to operate Britain's national lottery;; Snowden's resignation comes after libel case in London involving Virgin Group PLC head Richard Branson; Branson publicly accused Snowden of trying to bribe him into withdrawing from competition for lucrative contract to operate Britain's lottery; Snowden denied accusation; Branson contended that Snowden committed libel by calling him a liar; jury also awards $164,700 to Branson; Snowden is replaced by William Y O'Connor, who will continue as president and chief executive officer (M)
David Gonzalez About New York column on controversy over proposal by American Marine Rail to build barge-to-rail transfer station in Hunts Point that would receive 5,000 tons, 40 percent of city's waste daily; local groups are alarmed by prospect of becoming municipal garbage can; local community board adopts zero-tolerance policy on new dumps; photo (M)
At least five companies are bidding to buy Inter-Continental Hotels, Japanese-owned company whose portfolio includes some 175 hotels and resorts; winning bid is expected to top $2.5 billion; bidders in auction are Marriott International Inc, Patriot American Hospitality Inc, Meditrust Companies, Bass PLC and Ladbroke Group (L)
Warren E Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway amasses 129.7 million ounces of silver since summer of 1997, more than 20 percent of world supply, now worth over $850 million; buying has helped drive price up over 50 percent, to highest level in nine years; stake seems larger than amount amassed by Nelson Bunker Hunt and his family, who suffered large losses when price eventually collapsed; Berkshire says silver amounts to only 2 percent of its investment portfolio; says it has no plans to 'squeeze' market and will make accomodations with speculators unable to deliver on futures contracts; Commodity Futures Trading Commission says it monitors market closely; graphs (M)
Article profiles German figure skater Ingo Steuer and his partner Mandy Woetzel as they prepare for pairs competition at Nagano Olympics; photo (M)
Mystery shoppers--professional consumers who are paid to visit stores, eat in restaurants and apply for loans and then report back about the experience--have gained an increasingly important role in last few years; that is because more companies, too big to monitor all their branches, are looking for ways to keep tabs on service; business of deploying spies has grown tremendously--there are at least 500 mystery shopping companies nationwide, double the number five years ago; methods of companies use range from inexpensive and modest to costly and sophisticated; graph; photo (L)