On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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Roger Clemens has his first workout as New York Yankee in Tampa, Fla; fans stand three and four deep to get his autograph; photos (M)
Article on circa 1933 Art Deco concourse at NYC's Rockefeller Center, which manager and part owner, Tishman Speyer Properties, despite protests from preservationists, is demolishing and rebuilding; photos (M)
Many of Wisconsin's most troubled mothers have lost their welfare benefits, unwilling or unable to work for public aid, often forcing grandmothers to care for children; beleaguered grandmothers, typically young, ill and overwhelmed, are drawing wide attention from world eager for glimpses of post-welfare future; photos (L)
20 fashion editors were recruited by Sears, Roebuck & Co for program that set them up as personal shoppers for young black teller, Rose Grant, who has been off welfare for a year; Sears found Grant through Dress for Success, nonprofit organization that accepts and distributes donations of professional clothing for low-income women looking for work; besides paying for two outfits for each of 12 women in its own program, Sears is donating $100,000 to Dress for Success; Marin Hopper and Nina Garcia of Elle magazine comment on visit to Sears at Kings Plaza mall; photo (M)
Traditional retailers are arriving on the Internet in droves, but list of the 50 most popular Web shopping sites contains few familiar names; some investors question whether so-called brick-and-mortar retailers will ever catch up in on-line sales with Internet-only retailers like Amazon.com and Etoys Inc; Web consultants and retailing chains themselves are cobbling together a whole new set of rules and standards for success; among them are speedy site navigation, generous return policies and companywide coordination; photos (L)
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of February 17, 1999, covering February 21, 1999.
Britney Spears
Lauryn Hill
The Offspring
Foxy Brown
*NSYNC
1999Metawin Opas-iamkajorn, Thai actor and singer[†]
Metawin Opas-iamkajorn, widely known as Win Metawin, is a Thai actor and entrepreneur. He rose to prominence in 2020 with his acting debut in 2gether: The Series and gained further recognition with his role in F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers. In addition to his work in entertainment, Metawin is a global house ambassador for luxury brands Prada and Tiffany & Co. and was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia class of 2023.
1999Gertrude B. Elion, American biochemist and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1918)[†]
Gertrude "Trudy" Belle Elion was an American biochemist and pharmacologist, who shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with George H. Hitchings and Sir James Black for their use of innovative methods of rational drug design for the development of new drugs. This new method focused on understanding the target of the drug rather than simply using trial-and-error. Her work led to the creation of the anti-retroviral drug AZT, which was the first drug widely used against AIDS. Her well known works also include the development of the first immunosuppressive drug, azathioprine, used to fight rejection in organ transplants, and the first successful antiviral drug, acyclovir (ACV), used in the treatment of herpes infection.
1999Ilmari Juutilainen, Finnish soldier and pilot (born 1914)[†]
Eino Ilmari "Illu" Juutilainen was a fighter pilot of the Ilmavoimat, and the top scoring non-German fighter pilot of all time. The top flying ace of the Finnish Air Force, he led all Finnish pilots in score against Soviet aircraft in World War II, with 94 confirmed aerial combat victories in 437 sorties. He achieved 58 of his victories while flying a Messerschmitt Bf 109G and 34 with a Brewster Buffalo.
1999Wilmer Mizell, American baseball player and politician (born 1930)[†]
Wilmer David "Vinegar Bend" Mizell Sr. was an American baseball player and politician. From 1952 to 1962, he was a left-handed pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Mets of Major League Baseball. Six years after retiring, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives from North Carolina's 5th congressional district. He served three terms as a Republican from 1969 to 1975.
In 1999, the world population was approximately 6,089,006,339 people[†]