On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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Article discusses speculation concerning auction of baseball hit by St Louis Cardinals outfielder Mark McGwire for his record 70th home run of season; ball owned by Philip Ozersky is expected to get price exceeding $1 million at Guernsey's auction house in Manhattan; photo (M)
New York State lawmakers return to Albany for beginning of 1999 legislative session that experts say is likely to yield same sort of partisanship and acrimony that have become synonymous with Albany; major issue facing legislators will be adoption of state budget (M)
Prostitutes in Calcutta, India, have become leading crusaders in city's fight against AIDS, traveling like missionaries from brothel to brothel in Sonagachi red-light district to preach to madams, pimps and other prostitutes about importance of using condoms, most effective shield against HIV infection; has organized more than half of prostitutes in red-light enclave into force with influence to challenge any pimp or madam who would insist on customer's right to sex without condom, operating as kind of labor union for world's oldest profession; Indian Govt will use Sonagachi project as model in large-scale battle against AIDS, hoping that by acting swiftly while overall infection rate is relatively low it can avoid horrific burden of death that afflicts Africa; India has four million people estimated to be infected with virus; photos; map; chart (L)
Major medical centers in New York, where cancer care is becoming essential part of hospitals' business, is vying with prestigious and powerful Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for patients and trying to aggressively nibble away at its market share; experts say even though concentration on cancer patients is nationwide phenomenon, it is particularly fevered in New York where there are already more centers that have official designation of National Cancer Institute, and its financing, than in most other regions; hospitals are building new centers devoted to disease, and poaching some of nation's biggest names in cancer care to run and staff them; are investing in expensive technology, adding variety of consumer-friendly fringe benefits to cancer wards and pouring money into advertising campaigns that hawk cancer treatments in way once reserved for gentle innovations; new focus attributed to fact that cancer care has become big business that may soon overtake cardiovascular disease as No. 1 killer in America as population ages and as cardio-care becomes more advanced; cancer care offers more financial incentives beyond sheer flow of cases since disease is still fairly immune from managed-care penny-pinching and treatment advances have helped to streamline care; photos (L)
PBS's Great Performances will offer reprise of partnership of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart called The Rodgers and Hart Story: Thou Swell, Thou Witty; photo; National Cathedral in Washington will be site of concert by Folger Consort offering Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers; new year of Altogether Different dance series begins at Joyce Theater; New York Library for the Performing Arts will celebrate 100th anniversary of birth of Francis Poulenc with program at Great Hall at Cooper Union; photo (M)
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of December 30, 1998, covering January 4, 1999.
Garth Brooks
*NSYNC
Celine Dion
Jewel
Mystikal
1999Daniel Arzani, Iranian-Australian footballer[†]
Daniel Arzani is a professional soccer player who plays as a winger and attacking midfielder for Nemzeti Bajnokság I club Ferencváros. Born in Iran, he represents the Australia national team.
1999Nico Hischier, Swiss ice hockey player[†]
Nico Hischier is a Swiss professional ice hockey centre and captain of the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League (NHL). Hischier made his professional debut in his native Switzerland in 2015, spending time both in the top-tier National League A (NLA) and the second-tier National League B. He moved to North America for the 2016–17 season to play major junior hockey for the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) in hopes of furthering his hockey career; in his first season in the QMJHL, he was named rookie of the year, along with the award for best rookie in the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), the governing body for major junior hockey in Canada. Internationally Hischier has represented Switzerland at several junior tournaments, including two World Junior Championships. Regarded as a strong two-way forward and a top prospect for the 2017 NHL entry draft, Hischier was selected first overall by the Devils, the first time a Swiss player was selected first overall, and made his NHL debut in 2017. He was named captain of the Devils in 2021.
1999Jaeman Salmon, Australian rugby league player[†]
Jaeman Salmon is a professional rugby league footballer who plays as a lock or second-row forward for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in the National Rugby League (NRL).
1999Collin Sexton, American basketball player[†]
Collin Darnel Sexton is an American professional basketball player for the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Alabama Crimson Tide. In January 2017, Sexton was selected as a McDonald's All-American. Nicknamed the "Young Bull", he was selected with the 8th overall pick in the 2018 NBA draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers. After spending his first 4 seasons with the team, he was traded to the Jazz via sign-and-trade in the 2022 offseason.
1999Iron Eyes Cody, American actor and stuntman (born 1904)[†]
Iron Eyes Cody was an American actor of Italian descent who portrayed Native Americans in Hollywood films, including the role of Chief Iron Eyes in Bob Hope's The Paleface (1948). He also played a Native American shedding a tear about pollution in one of the country's most well-known television public service announcements from the group Keep America Beautiful. Living in Hollywood, he began to insist, even in his private life, that he was Native American, over time claiming membership in several different tribes. In 1996, Cody's half-sister said that he was of Italian ancestry, but he denied it. After his death, it was revealed that he was of Sicilian parentage and not Native American at all.
1999Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is sworn in as governor of Minnesota, United States.[†]
Jesse Ventura is an American politician, political commentator, actor, media personality, and retired professional wrestler. After achieving fame in the World Wrestling Federation, he served as the 38th governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003. He was elected governor with the Reform Party and is the party's only candidate to win a major government office.
In 1999, the world population was approximately 6,089,006,339 people[†]