January 8 – 3.4 million copies of the movie The Rescuers is recalled after a photo of a topless woman was discovered in two of the 110,000 slides in that scene of the movie.
January 10 – A large piece of the chalk cliff at Beachy Head collapses into the sea.
February 4 – Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot dead by NYC police officers on an unrelated stake-out, inflaming race relations in the city.[2]
February 11 – Pluto moves along its eccentric orbit further from the Sun than Neptune. It had been nearer than Neptune since 1979, and will become again in 2231.
February 24 – LaGrand Case: The State of Arizona executes Karl LaGrand, a German national involved in an armed robbery that led to a death. Karl's brother Walter is executed a week later, in spite of Germany's legal action in the International Court of Justice to attempt to save him.
February 27 – While trying to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon, Colin Prescot and Andy Elson set a new endurance record after being aloft for 233 hours and 55 minutes.
March 4 – In a military court, United States Marine Corps Captain Richard J. Ashby is acquitted of the charge of reckless flying which resulted in the deaths of 20 skiers in the Italian Alps, when his low-flying jet hit a gondola cable.
March 23 – Gunmen assassinate Paraguay's Vice President Luis María Argaña.
March 24 – NATO launches air strikes against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which refused to sign a peace treaty. This marks the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.
March 24 – Fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel kills 39 people, closing the tunnel for nearly 3 years.
March 25 – Enron energy traders allegedly route 2,900 megawatts of electricity destined for California to the town of Silver Peak, Nevada, population 200.
April 5 – Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 are handed over to Scottish authorities for eventual trial in the Netherlands. The United Nations suspends sanctions against Libya.
April 30 – A third nail bomb (see April 17) explodes in the Admiral Duncan pub in Old Compton Street, Soho, London, killing a pregnant woman and two friends and injuring 70 others, including her husband. This is part of a hate campaign against ethnic minorities and gay people by David Copeland.[4]
May 1 – Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC).
May 1 – SpongeBob SquarePants made its debut on Nickelodeon (TV Channel) on this day with its first episode is Help Wanted/Reef Blower/Tea at the Treedome.
May 2 – Norman J. Sirnic and Karen Sirnic are murdered by serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz in Weimar, Texas.
May 3 – 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak: An F5tornado slams into Moore, Oklahoma, killing 38 people (the strongest tornado ever recorded in world history).
May 7 – A jury finds The Jenny Jones Show and Warner Bros. liable in the shooting death of Scott Amedure, after the show deceived Jonathan Schmitz into appearing on a secret same-sex crush episode.
May 28 – Bülent Ecevit, of DSP forms the new government of Turkey (57th government, coalition partners MHP and ANAP) This is Ecevit's fifth and last term.
May 28 – Swedishpolice officersRobert Karlström and Olov Borén are wounded by three bank robbers armed with automatic weapons, and later executed with their own service pistols in Malexander.
June 2 – After decades of fighting off outside technological influences like television, the King of Bhutan allows television transmissions to commence in the Kingdom for the first time, coinciding with the King's Silver Jubilee (see Bhutan Broadcasting Service).
June 5 – The Islamic Salvation Army, the armed wing of the Islamic Salvation Front, agrees in principle to disband in Algeria.
June 6 – In Brazil, 345 prisoners escape from Putim prison through the front gate.
1 July – The Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth on the day that legislative powers are officially transferred from the old Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh.
July 2 – Benjamin Nathaniel Smith begins a 3-day killing spree targeting racial and ethnic minorities in Illinois and Indiana.
July 5 – U.S. Army Pfc. Barry Winchell is bludgeoned in his sleep at Fort Campbell, Kentucky by fellow soldiers; he dies the next day from his injuries.
July 7 – In Rome, Hicham El Guerrouj runs the fastest mile ever recorded, at 3:43.13.
July 8 – A major flash flood in Las Vegas swamps hundreds of cars, smashes mobile homes and kills 2 people.
July 10- USA soccer player Brandi Chastain scores the game winning penalty kick against China in the FIFA Women's World Cup.
July 11 – India recaptures Kargil, forcing the Pakistan Army to retreat. India announces victory, ending the 2-month conflict.
July 16 – Off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, a plane piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr. crashes, killing him and his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister Lauren Bessette.
July 31 – NASA intentionally crashes the Lunar Prospectorspacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the lunar surface.
August 10 – Buford O. Furrow, Jr. wounds 5 and kills 1 during the August 1999 Los Angeles Jewish Community Center shooting.
August 10 – The Atlantique Incident occurs as an intruding Pakistan Navy plane is shot down in India. The incident sparks tensions between the 2 nations, coming just a month after the end of the Kargil War.
August 11 – A total solar eclipse is seen in Europe and Asia.
August 11 – Salt Lake City tornado: A very rare F2 tornado strikes Salt Lake City, killing 1.
August 17 – 1999 İzmit earthquake: A 7.6-magnitude earthquake strikes İzmit and levels much of northwestern Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000. This is the first of a long series of unrelated but frequent earthquakes throughout the world during the years 1999 and 2000.
September 8 – The first of a series of Russian apartment bombings occurs. Subsequent bombings occur on September 13 and 16, while a bombing on September 22 fails.
September 12 – Under international pressure to allow an international peacekeeping force, Indonesian president BJ Habibie announced on 12 September that he would do so.
October 12 – Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attempts to dismiss Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf and install ISI director Ziauddin Butt in his place. Senior Army generals refuse to accept the dismissal. Musharraf, who is out of the country, attempts to return in a commercial airliner. Sharif orders the Karachi airport to not allow the plane to land. The generals lead a coup d'état, ousting Sharif's administration and taking over the airport. The plane lands with only a few minutes of fuel to spare, and Musharraf takes control of the government.
October 27 – Gunmen open fire in the Armenian Parliament, killing Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, Parliament Chairman Karen Demirchyan, and 6 other members.
November 6 – Australians defeat a referendum proposing the replacement of The Queen and The Governor General with a President to make Australia a republic.
November 9 – TAESA Flight 725, covering the route Tijuana–Guadalajara–Uruapan–Mexico City, crashes a few minutes after takeoff from Uruapan International Airport, killing 18 people on board. This event causes the bankruptcy of the Mexican airline a few months later.
November 12 – A 7.2-magnitude earthquake strikes Duzce and northwestern Turkey, killing 845 and injuring 4,948.
November 18 – The Aggie Bonfire collapses in College Station, TX, killing 12.
November 19 – Mikhail Gorbachev proposes that the UN create an International Men's Day, which is now commemorated every year on this same date.
November 19 – Every digit in this date is an odd number (19/11/1999). This hitherto common event will not happen again until the year 3111.
December 3 – After rowing for 81 days and 2,962 nautical miles (5486km), Tori Murden becomes the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by rowboat alone, when she reaches Guadeloupe from the Canary Islands.
December 3 – NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander, moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.
December 18 – NASA launches into orbit the Terra platform, carrying 5 Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.
December 31 – The U.S. turns over complete administration of the Panama Canal to the Panamanian Government, as stipulated in the Torrijos-Carter Treaty of 1977.
December 31 - To most people, it was the last day of the 20th century and 2nd millennium, however there are some people who argue that both distinctions happened a year later, on December 31, 2000.