January 7 – The Senate trial in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton begins. He had been impeached by the House of Representatives on December 19.
January 21 – In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 9,500 pounds (4,300 kg) of cocaine aboard, headed for Houston, Texas.
Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot dead by four plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, inflaming race-relations in the city.[4]
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.
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 25 – Enron energy traders allegedly route 2,900 megawatts of electricity destined for California to the town of Silver Peak, Nevada, population 200.
March 26 – A Michigan jury finds Dr. Jack Kevorkian guilty of second-degree murder for administering a lethal injection to a terminally ill man.
April 15 – Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz are exonerated of the rape and murder of Debbie Carter and released from prison. Both had spent 11 years in prison, with Williamson on death row, and having come within five days of execution.[7]
April 20 – Columbine High School massacre: Two Littleton, Colorado teenagers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, open fire on their teachers and classmates, killing 12 students and one teacher, and then themselves. It would be the deadliest shooting at a high school in U.S. history at the time. The shooting sparks debate on school bullying, gun control and violence in the media.
Benjamin Nathaniel Smith begins a three-day killing spree targeting racial and ethnic minorities in Illinois and Indiana, which ends in Smith's suicide.
July 5 – July 6 – 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 8 – A major flash flood in Las Vegas swamps hundreds of cars, smashes mobile homes and kills two people.
July 26 – The last Checker taxi cab is retired in New York City and auctioned off for approximately $135,000.
July 29
1999 Atlanta day trading firm shootings: Mark Orrin Barton kills his family. He then goes on a murder spree at the trading firm he worked at, killing a total of 12 people in Atlanta, Georgia. He later committed suicide at a gas station when cornered by police.
NASA intentionally crashes the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the lunar surface.
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 Treaties of 1977.
^"Marion O'Dell McKinney, Jr". Daily Press. August 5, 1999. Archived from the original on 2017-11-07. Retrieved 2012-11-20. Marion O'Dell McKinney Jr. died on Tuesday, Aug. 3, 1999, at Hampton General Hospital after a short illness.
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