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[†]
1998Michael Porter Jr., American basketball player[†]
Michael Lamar Porter Jr., also known as "MPJ", is an American professional basketball player for the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Missouri Tigers. Porter was ranked as one of the top prospects in the class of 2017. He was selected 14th overall by the Nuggets in the 2018 NBA draft, winning his first NBA championship with them in 2023.
1998Horst Jankowski, German pianist and composer (born 1936)[†]
Horst Jankowski was a classically trained German pianist, most famous for his internationally successful easy listening music.
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AT&T Corp chairman C Michael Armstrong defends plan to acquire Tele-Communications Inc, deal that has spurred sharp drop in AT&T stock, interview; photo (M)
Article on Jersey City's public library fighting plan by Mayor Bret Schundler to let private company Library Systems and Services run it, move that could reverberate throughout nation's libraries, especially those facing budget squeezes (M)
CBS News president Andrew Heyward's focus on earning attention, ratings and profits without compromising CBS News's prestige discussed in light of his recent failures and successes; CBS Corp president Mel Karmazin comments, phone interview; photos (M)
How Malone Did So Well On AT&T's Takeover of TCI John C. Malone, the chairman of Tele-Communications, made a lucrative deal for himself when he agreed to sell his cable company to AT&T. The class B shares he owns will receive 9.7 percent more a share in AT&T stock than TCI's class A shares will get. Mr. Malone will also retain control of Liberty Media, TCI's programming company, and can sell a handful of key assets to AT&T, and if Liberty is ever sold, Liberty's shareholders, not AT&T shareholders, will get the profit. [Page D8.]
Large trade publishing houses have cut back on staffs of editors who shape, tighten and polish books and copy editors who detect grammatical gaffes and spelling errors, all this while increasing the number of books published; complaints are mounting about quality of editing as editors spend much of their time acquiring new titles; many authors are hiring independent editors; graphs; photos (M)
Claire Smith Sports of The Times column discusses emotional three game series between New York Yankees and New York Mets at Shea Stadium; Yankees won two of three games (M)
Special report, Epidemic of Silence, finds AIDS epidemic, 17 years after discovery among gay white men in New York and San Francisco, is becoming largely epidemic among black people, quietly devastating families and neighborhoods, yet all but ignored by leading black institutions; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports African-Americans, who make up 13 percent of US population, account for 57 percent of all new HIV infections, and that 63 percent of all new cases are among blacks between ages of 13 and 24; while death rate from AIDS is dropping overall, disease remains leading cause of death among blacks aged 25 to 44; as racial disparities grow, , many worry that disease will become marginalized, like other inner city problems, since AIDS services have failed to keep pace with demographic shifts; virus is being spread by ignorance and lack of education about disease among poor blacks, many whom believe disease only affects gay men; prevailing myth among many is that basketball star Magic Johnson has been cured; Surgeon General Dr David Satcher says disease is becoming increasingly epidemic of color; complains that AIDS has been greeted with deafening silence by civil rights groups and by black ministers, long important force in African-American society; other health officials comment; charts; graph; photo (M)
Whitewater defendant Susan H McDougal will have little time to celebrate or relax after official release from California prison on July 5; must appear in Los Angeles court on July 13 to face charges of bilking orchestra conductor Zubin Mehta and wife of more than $150,000 when she was their personal assistant and bookkeeper from 1989 to 1992; she has denied allegations; photo (M)
Ben Brantley reviews New York Shakespeare Festival's performance of Thornton Wilder's play The Skin of Our Teeth in Central Park; photo (M)
Felix Komarov, Russian who has built multi-million dollar art and jewelry business in New York City, discusses FBI court papers that have linked him to Russian organized crime figures, including Vyacheslav Kirillovich Ivankov, described as Russian godfather; Komarov denies links to organized crime and says that while he has met and talked with Ivankov, the encounters were inconsequential and innocent; photo (M)
A $10 Million Apology The Cincinnati Enquirer apologized for articles critical of Chiquita Brands and agreed to pay it more than $10 million. Page A10.
Pres Clinton delivers broad defense of human and economic liberty in address to students at Beijing University; says personal freedom is mandate of the new century and that certain rights are universal; says liberty is birthright of people everywhere, not just luxury to be enjoyed by wealthy nations; says it is necessary element of human and economic development; acknowledges China's centuries-old fear of internal disintegration, but says personal freedom strengthens nation's security; says its is profoundly in China's interests and world's that young Chinese minds be free to reach fulness of potential; denies US attempts to contain China; hails rapid economic growth that has swept across China in last decade; photos (L)