1998 Pop Culture History

In 1998, Google was founded in a garage, Titanic was still making money on its 58th day in theaters, Bill Clinton told the world what the definition of “is” is, and Elton John spent the first two weeks of January at number one with a song about Princess Diana that he had released the previous September. Mark McGwire hit 70 home runs, the entire country watched, and the asterisk would come later. It was a year that moved fast, felt significant, and left a few things to sort out afterward.

Quick Facts from 1998

• World-Changing Event: Google.com was founded in Menlo Park, California, by Larry Page and Sergey Brin on September 4, 1998, and incorporated as a company after beginning as a Stanford research project
• Top Song: Too Close by Next was the best-performing single of the year on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100; Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls was the defining cultural song of the year, spending 18 weeks at number one on the Hot 100 Airplay chart
• Influential Songs: The Cup of Life by Ricky Martin, Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger, Are You That Somebody? by Aaliyah, Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) by Green Day
• Must-See Movies: Saving Private Ryan, The Truman Show, There’s Something About Mary, A Bug’s Life, Mulan, The Prince of Egypt, and Wag the Dog
• People’s Sexiest Man Alive: Harrison Ford
• Notable Books: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling and Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson
• Price of Titleist Golf Balls: $20.00 per 48-pack
• Panasonic Camcorder: $489.00
• The Funny Guy: Eddie Izzard
• Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Tiger, associated with courage, competitiveness, and a tendency to act first and think second — a reasonable description of several major events of 1998
• The Habit: Reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
• The Conversation: Did you hear what Clinton said? And have you seen Saving Private Ryan yet?

Top Ten Baby Names of 1998

Girls: Emily, Hannah, Samantha, Sarah, Ashley
Boys: Michael, Jacob, Matthew, Joshua, Christopher

Emily held the top spot for girls for the second consecutive year. Jacob had been climbing steadily and was approaching its long run at the top of the boys’ list. Michael, which had been number one for boys through most of the 1950s through 1990s, was beginning its gradual descent.

Fashion Icons and Sex Symbols of 1998

Heidi Klum, Rebecca Romijn, Sarah Jessica Parker, Claudia Schiffer, Victoria Silvstedt, Niki Taylor

Sarah Jessica Parker’s visibility in 1998 was driven largely by Sex and the City, which premiered on HBO in June and immediately sparked a cultural conversation about New York, relationships, and shoes. Heidi Klum had arrived in the United States from Germany and was becoming one of the most recognizable faces in the modeling industry.

Hollywood Hunks and Leading Men of 1998

David Beckham, Johnny Depp, George Clooney

The Quotes

“I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” / “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” — President Bill Clinton, in two separate statements that became the most-discussed presidential utterances since “I am not a crook,” and that demonstrated a legal precision applied to circumstances where legal precision was probably not the most reassuring response

“Think different.” — Apple Computer, in the advertising campaign that signaled the beginning of the company’s revival under Steve Jobs, who had returned as CEO the previous year

“Think outside the bun.” — Taco Bell, in a campaign that had significantly lower stakes but was nonetheless memorable

Time Magazine’s Men of the Year

Bill Clinton and Kenneth Starr, jointly — the president and the independent counsel whose investigation of him consumed American political life for most of the year. Time’s selection acknowledged that the story required both figures to make sense and that neither could be understood without the other. It was the first time since 1975 that Time had named more than one person to the distinction in a non-group context.

Miss America and Miss USA

Miss America: Kate Shindle, Evanston, Illinois
Miss USA: Shawnae Jebbia, Massachusetts

We Lost in 1998

Frank Sinatra, whose voice had defined American popular music for five decades and whose recordings of My Way, New York, New York, Fly Me to the Moon, and hundreds of others had become permanent fixtures of the cultural landscape, died May 14, 1998, at age 82, of a heart attack. He had been recording and performing since the early 1940s. His final studio album, Duets II, had been released in 1994. He was buried in Palm Springs with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s, a pack of Camel cigarettes, a Zippo lighter, and ten dimes — items he had reportedly requested. Sinatra’s place in American music is so established that it requires no further argument.

Phil Hartman, the comedian, actor, and writer who had been one of the most versatile and valued cast members in Saturday Night Live history and who had built a second career as the voice of Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz on The Simpsons, was shot and killed by his wife, Brynn, on May 28, 1998, at age 49, in their home in Encino, California. His death was a shock to the entertainment industry and to the SNL community, which had considered him one of its finest alumni. His Simpsons characters were retired out of respect, though the show continued.

Tammy Wynette, the country music singer whose recording of Stand By Your Man had become one of the most recognizable — and most debated — songs in American music history, died April 6, 1998, at age 55, of a blood clot in her lung. She had been in poor health for years. Stand By Your Man had been criticized as a retrograde message and defended as an honest expression of devotion, a debate that generated far more heat than Wynette herself had intended.

Roy Rogers, the singing cowboy whose film and television career had made him one of the most beloved figures in American entertainment for four decades, died July 6, 1998, at age 86, of congestive heart failure. His horse, Trigger, had been stuffed and mounted and was on display at the Roy Rogers Museum. His dog Bullet had been similarly preserved. Rogers himself was buried, conventionally.

Sonny Bono, the singer and entertainer who had built an entertainment career with Cher in the 1960s and 1970s and had subsequently been elected to Congress as a Republican representative from California, died January 5, 1998, at age 62, in a skiing accident at Lake Tahoe. He was replaced in his congressional seat by his widow, Mary Bono Mack, who won a special election to fill the seat.

America in 1998 — The Context

The Monica Lewinsky scandal dominated American political life from January through December. The story had broken publicly on January 17, 1998, when the Drudge Report published what mainstream outlets had been reporting for months. Clinton denied the relationship in a memorable January 26 press conference. He admitted it in a nationally televised address on August 17. The House of Representatives impeached him on December 19 on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. The Senate trial would begin in January 1999. His approval ratings remained high throughout. The year demonstrated, among other things, that the public and the political establishment could hold simultaneously different views on the same set of facts.

The independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s investigation, which had begun as an inquiry into the Clintons’ involvement in the Whitewater real estate transaction, expanded over four years to include Lewinsky, producing a 445-page report released to the public in September 1998. The Starr Report was the most-downloaded document on the early internet at the time of its release.

The economy in 1998 was strong. The stock market was rising, the federal budget was producing a surplus for the first time in decades, and unemployment was at its lowest level in 28 years. The paradox of a popular president being impeached during a period of prosperity was noted at the time and has been noted frequently since.

India and Pakistan both conducted nuclear weapons tests in May 1998 — India on May 11 and 13, Pakistan on May 28 — becoming the first nations to openly test nuclear weapons since China in 1964. The tests prompted international condemnation, sanctions from the United States, and a significant upward adjustment of global nuclear anxiety. The Doomsday Clock was moved from 14 minutes to midnight to 9 minutes to the minute in response.

The Clinton Impeachment

The sequence of events in 1998 was, by any measure, extraordinary. In January, Clinton denied having had an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In August, after DNA evidence made denial untenable, he admitted it in a nationally televised address, telling the country he had misled his family and the public. In September, the Starr Report was released, containing details that many Americans found excessive. In December, the House voted along largely party lines to impeach him on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, making Clinton only the second president in American history to be impeached, after Andrew Johnson in 1868. The Senate acquittal came in February 1999. Clinton served out the remainder of his term, left office with approval ratings above 60 percent, and is still answering questions about it.

The Scandals

Monica Lewinsky and President Clinton have their own section above. The year’s additional scandals were less geopolitically significant but were equally well covered.

George Michael was arrested on April 7, 1998, for engaging in a lewd act in a public restroom in Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills. The officer who arrested him was a plainclothes policeman. Michael responded by releasing a music video for his song Outside set in a public restroom, featuring disco-dancing police officers. The song reached number two in the United Kingdom. The response was considered, by most observers, unusually well-executed.

Sony released the Nightshot Handycam camcorder with infrared night-vision capability. The same infrared technology, it was quickly discovered, also allowed the camera to see through certain clothing when used in bright sunlight. Approximately 700,000 units had been sold before Sony issued a software patch and a recall. The cameras had been on sale for several months.

Carmen Electra and Dennis Rodman were married on November 14, 1998, in Las Vegas. The marriage lasted nine days before Rodman filed for annulment, citing intoxication. The marriage was annulled. They later reconciled briefly before separating permanently.

Noel Godin, a Belgian performance artist and self-described “anarcho-surrealist pie-ist” who had previously hit the French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard and others in the face with cream pies, hit Bill Gates in the face with a pie in Brussels on February 4, 1998. Gates reportedly did not find this funny. Godin found it very funny. A tape of the incident circulated widely, in the era’s tradition.

Pop Culture Facts and History

Google was founded on September 4, 1998, and incorporated after Larry Page and Sergey Brin had been running it as a Stanford research project under the name BackRub. The company name came from a misspelling of “googol,” the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros. The misspelling was apparently accidental — the domain googol.com was already taken, and when checking whether google.com was available, someone mistyped it. Page and Brin kept it.

Saving Private Ryan, directed by Steven Spielberg and opening on July 24, 1998, was the highest-grossing film of the year and the most-discussed. Its opening 27-minute sequence depicting the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944, was described by veterans as the most accurate film representation of combat they had seen, and prompted many who had never spoken about their wartime experiences to do so. Tom Hanks won his second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Spielberg won Best Director. The film lost Best Picture to Shakespeare in Love, a result that remains one of the more debated outcomes in recent Oscar history.

The Truman Show, directed by Peter Weir and starring Jim Carrey, opened June 5, 1998, and was among the first mainstream films to seriously explore the concept of pervasive media surveillance and the commodification of a human life as entertainment. Carrey’s performance was considered his most dramatically accomplished to that point. The film’s central concept — a man whose entire life is a television show broadcast without his knowledge — was so ahead of its cultural moment that the word “Trumaning” briefly entered academic discussion of reality television.

There’s Something About Mary, directed by the Farrelly Brothers, opened July 15, 1998, and became one of the most commercially successful R-rated comedies in recent history, grossing $369 million worldwide on a $23 million budget. The film pushed the boundaries of what mainstream studio comedies were permitted to do and, like Bridesmaids fourteen years later, was cited as evidence that audiences would support gross-out comedy regardless of critical reservations.

Mulan and The Prince of Egypt both arrived in 1998 as ambitious animated features from Disney and DreamWorks, respectively, during a period when feature animation was still considered a prestige format rather than a default children’s entertainment category.

Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals hit 70 home runs in 1998, breaking Roger Maris’s record of 61 set in 1961. The home run chase between McGwire and Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs, who finished with 66, was the dominant sports story of the year and was credited with reviving interest in baseball following the 1994-95 strike. McGwire subsequently acknowledged using performance-enhancing substances during this period. The record has not been erased from the books but is subject to qualifications.

AOL’s release of version 4.0 of its software required so many CDs that the company consumed the entire global CD manufacturing capacity for several weeks. The resulting distribution of AOL CDs was so pervasive that they became a cultural artifact and a subject of ironic interior design.

When AOL released version 4.0, the free trial CD distribution was so aggressive that the company was estimated to have mailed CDs to half of all US households. CDs showed up in cereal boxes, hotel rooms, and magazine inserts. Some estimates suggest that at the peak, roughly 50 percent of all CDs manufactured worldwide were AOL discs.

Mila Kunis was cast in That ’70s Show on Fox in 1998 at age 14. The casting requirement was that all actors be at least 18 years old. When asked if she was 18, Kunis confirmed that she would be — without specifying when. She appeared in all 200 episodes of the series.

During renovations to the Craven Street house in London, where Benjamin Franklin had lived from 1757 to 1775, workers discovered approximately 1,200 pieces of human bone from at least 10 individuals in the basement. The remains belonged to bodies procured illegally by William Hewson, an anatomist who had rented rooms in the house and conducted dissections as part of his medical research. Franklin is not believed to have known.

The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug was accidentally introduced to the United States in 1998, with the first documented specimen found in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The bug, native to East Asia, has no significant natural predators in North America. Its subsequent spread across the eastern United States has been thorough, making autumn windows an occasion for a kind of resigned philosophical reflection.

Marvel granted Sony Pictures the cinematic rights to almost its entire character catalog for $25 million in 1998. Sony declined, choosing to purchase only Spider-Man for $7 million. The characters Sony passed on included Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and the Avengers concept. The cumulative box office of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, built around those characters, has since exceeded $29 billion.

Porsche’s flagship 911, which had not received a major redesign since its introduction in 1963, was fully re-engineered in 1998 as the 996 series. The redesign was controversial among enthusiasts, particularly for its introduction of water cooling after 35 years of air-cooled engines. The 911 remains in production.

David Bowie launched BowieNet in 1998, one of the first artist-run internet service providers, offering subscribers exclusive content, a BowieNet email address, and early internet connectivity. The service shut down in 2006, by which point the ISP business model had been absorbed by broadband providers, and the idea of getting one’s internet access through a rock musician felt less novel.

The Burger King Left-Handed Whopper advertisement, placed as a full-page ad in USA Today on April 1, 1998, announced a new Whopper with all the same ingredients as the original, but rotated 180 degrees for the comfort of left-handed customers. Thousands of customers visited Burger King locations requesting the left-handed version. Some asked for the right-handed version specifically so they could compare the two.

Karsten Braasch, a German tennis player ranked 203rd in the world in 1998, accepted a challenge from Venus and Serena Williams, who had stated they could beat any male player ranked 200th or lower. Braasch played golf for most of the morning, consumed several beers and a couple of cigarettes before the match, and defeated Serena 6-1 and Venus 6-2 in consecutive sets. He was 30 at the time. Both sisters went on to win a combined 30 Grand Slam singles titles.

Nobel Prize Winners in 1998

Physics was awarded to Robert Laughlin, Horst Störmer, and Daniel Tsui for their discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations — an unexpected behavior observed when electrons are subjected to extreme magnetic fields, with implications for understanding fundamental particle physics.

Chemistry went to Walter Kohn for his development of the density-functional theory and to John Pople for his development of computational methods in quantum chemistry. Both contributions gave scientists practical tools for calculating the electronic structure of molecules, work that now underlies much of computational chemistry and materials science.

Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Robert Furchgott, Louis Ignarro, and Ferid Murad for their discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system. Their work explained how blood vessels relax and dilate — and, as a byproduct of understanding that mechanism, provided the scientific foundation for the development of Viagra, which had been approved by the FDA in March 1998.

Literature went to José Saramago of Portugal, for his parables sustained by imagination, compassion, and irony. His novel Blindness, published in Portuguese in 1995 and widely translated in 1997-98, is his best-known work in English.

Peace was awarded to John Hume and David Trimble, the leaders of the Social Democratic and Labour Party and the Ulster Unionist Party respectively, for their efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement, signed in April 1998, was the most significant step toward peace in Northern Ireland in decades.

Economics went to Amartya Sen for his contributions to welfare economics, including his work on famine, poverty, and gender inequality. Sen’s analysis demonstrated that famines are rarely caused by absolute food shortages but by failures of distribution — a finding with significant policy implications.

1998 Toys Inducted to the National Toy Hall of Fame

No inductees were named for 1998 — the National Toy Hall of Fame had inducted its inaugural class in 1998 but the formal annual induction process was still being established.

1998 Christmas Gifts and First Appearances

Furby, the interactive electronic pet manufactured by Tiger Electronics, was the must-have toy of the 1998 holiday season. Furby spoke its own language, Furbish, and could supposedly learn English over time. Stores sold out immediately. Resellers on the secondary market charged multiples of the $35 retail price. The toy sold 40 million units in its first three years. The Barbie and Ken as the Munsters Gift Set and Betty Spaghetti dolls rounded out the season for collectors.

Broadway in 1998

No major Broadway openings are noted in the source data for 1998, though the year’s Tony Awards recognized The Lion King, which had opened in November 1997, with six awards, including Best Musical. Ragtime, which opened in January 1998, was the major new musical of the season, winning four Tonys, including Best Score and Best Book.

Best Film Oscar Winner

Titanic, directed by James Cameron and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, won Best Picture at the 70th Academy Awards on March 23, 1998, for the 1997 film year. It won 11 Academy Awards, tying Ben-Hur‘s record. The film had cost approximately $200 million to produce — the most expensive film ever made at that time — and earned $2.19 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film in history, a record it held until Cameron’s own Avatar surpassed it in 2010. Its highest single-day gross occurred on February 14, 1998 — Valentine’s Day, its 58th day in release — when it earned $13,048,711. The film had not yet peaked.

1998 Entries to the National Film Registry

42nd Street (1933)
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Don’t Look Back (1967)
Easy Rider (1969)
Gun Crazy (1949)
The Last Picture Show (1971)
The Lost World (1925)
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
Powers of Ten (1978)
The Public Enemy (1931)
Steamboat Willie (1928)
Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse (1940)
Tootsie (1982),
Twelve O’Clock High (1949)

Top Movies of 1998

1. Saving Private Ryan
2. Armageddon
3. There’s Something About Mary
4. A Bug’s Life
5. The Waterboy
6. Doctor Dolittle
7. Rush Hour
8. Deep Impact
9. Godzilla
10. Patch Adams

Saving Private Ryan and Armageddon both arrived in the summer of 1998 and between them captured the extremes of what American audiences wanted from cinema that year — one was an unflinching examination of war’s horror, the other was a movie in which Bruce Willis drills into an asteroid. Both performed extraordinarily. Rush Hour, pairing Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, grossed $244 million on a $33 million budget and launched a franchise that its stars have been negotiating about ever since. Godzilla, Roland Emmerich’s American adaptation of the Japanese franchise, grossed $379 million worldwide but was considered a significant disappointment given the scale of its marketing campaign.

Most Popular TV Shows of 1998

1. ER (NBC)
2. Friends (NBC)
3. Frasier (NBC)
4. Veronica’s Closet (NBC)
5. Jesse (NBC)
6. 60 Minutes (CBS)
7. Touched by an Angel (CBS)
8. Home Improvement (ABC)
9. Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS)
10. NYPD Blue (ABC)

ER was in its fourth season and remained the most-watched drama on American television. Friends was entering its fifth year and showing no signs of decline. Sex and the City premiered on HBO in June 1998, immediately establishing itself as a cultural phenomenon despite its cable platform and limited initial viewership relative to the broadcast shows. The Sopranos was a year away.

1998 Billboard Number One Hits

October 11, 1997 – January 16, 1998: Candle in the Wind 1997 — Elton John (carryover, honoring Princess Diana)
January 17 – January 30: Truly Madly Deeply — Savage Garden
January 31 – February 13: Together Again — Janet Jackson
February 14 – February 27: Nice and Slow — Usher
February 28 – March 13: My Heart Will Go On — Céline Dion
March 14 – April 3: Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It — Will Smith
April 4 – April 24: All My Life — K-Ci and JoJo
April 25 – May 29: Too Close — Next
May 30 – June 5: My All — Mariah Carey
June 6 – September 4: The Boy Is Mine — Brandy and Monica (13 weeks)
September 5 – October 2: I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing — Aerosmith
October 3 – November 6: The First Night — Monica
November 7 – November 13: One Week — Barenaked Ladies
November 14 – November 27: Doo Wop (That Thing) — Lauryn Hill
November 28 – December 4: Lately — Divine
December 5, 1998 – January 15, 1999: I’m Your Angel — R. Kelly and Céline Dion (carrying into 1999)

Candle in the Wind 1997 opened the year, having spent the final months of 1997 at number one following Princess Diana’s death in August, ultimately selling 33 million copies worldwide — the best-selling single in history at that time. The Boy Is Mine, the duet between Brandy and Monica, spent 13 consecutive weeks at number one, the longest run of the year. Too Close by Next was the best-performing single on the Billboard Year-End chart. Lauryn Hill’s Doo Wop (That Thing) became the first rap single by a female solo artist to debut at number one, and her album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill won five Grammys, including Album of the Year — the first hip-hop album to receive that honor.

Sports Champions of 1998

World Series: The New York Yankees defeated the San Diego Padres four games to none, completing one of the greatest seasons in baseball history. The Yankees finished 114-48 in the regular season, a record at the time. Derek Jeter, Paul O’Neill, Bernie Williams, Mariano Rivera, and a supporting cast that had very few weaknesses dominated the postseason. Scott Brosius was named Series MVP after hitting .471. The 1998 Yankees are regularly included in discussions of the greatest baseball teams ever assembled.

Super Bowl XXXII: The Denver Broncos defeated the Green Bay Packers 31-24 on January 25, 1998, in San Diego, in a game that ended the Packers’ brief dynasty and gave John Elway his first Super Bowl ring in his fourth appearance. Elway, 37, was named MVP. Running back Terrell Davis, who played most of the second half with a migraine, rushed for 157 yards and three touchdowns. Elway retired the following year after winning his second consecutive Super Bowl.

NBA Champions: The Chicago Bulls defeated the Utah Jazz four games to two, winning their sixth championship in eight years and completing their second three-peat. Michael Jordan’s final-second jumper in Game 6, after stripping the ball from Karl Malone, is one of the most replicated moments in basketball history. Jordan scored 45 points in the deciding game. Phil Jackson, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman were also in the final year of their championship run, as the dynasty broke apart in the offseason.

Stanley Cup: The Detroit Red Wings defeated the Washington Capitals, four games to none, to repeat as champions. Steve Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan, Chris Chelios, and Nicklas Lidstrom were the core of a team that many considered the best in the league. Steve Yzerman was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as playoff MVP.

U.S. Open Golf: Lee Janzen won his second U.S. Open title at The Olympic Club in San Francisco, defeating Payne Stewart by a stroke. Stewart led by four shots with seven holes to play before Janzen rallied. Stewart won the following year’s U.S. Open, making the 1998 result the penultimate chapter of a rivalry that ended with his death in October 1999.

U.S. Open Tennis: Patrick Rafter of Australia won the men’s title, his second consecutive U.S. Open. Lindsay Davenport won the women’s title, her first Grand Slam. Davenport was the top seed and defeated Martina Hingis in the final.

Wimbledon: Pete Sampras won his fifth Wimbledon title and Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic won the women’s title — a victory that was particularly celebrated because Novotna had famously broken down crying on the Duchess of Kent’s shoulder at the 1993 Wimbledon ceremony after losing the final from a winning position. Her 1998 victory was treated as one of sport’s more satisfying long-deferred conclusions.

NCAA Football: Tennessee won the BCS National Championship in January 1999 for the 1998 season, defeating Florida State 23-16 in the Fiesta Bowl. Quarterback Tee Martin and the Vols finished 13-0. It was Tennessee’s first national title since 1951.

NCAA Basketball: Kentucky defeated Utah 78-69 in the national championship game in San Antonio. Jeff Sheppard was named Most Outstanding Player. It was Kentucky’s seventh national title and second in three years under coach Tubby Smith.

Kentucky Derby: Real Quiet won and then won the Preakness, setting up a potential Triple Crown run at the Belmont. He lost the Belmont by a nose — literally, a nose — to Victory Gallop, in the closest Belmont finish in history. The photograph finish showed the margin was approximately an inch. It was the closest a horse had come to winning the Triple Crown in a generation.

FIFA World Cup: France defeated Brazil 3-0 in the final in Paris, winning their first World Cup on home soil. Zinedine Zidane scored twice with headers in the first half. Ronaldo, Brazil’s star, appeared on the field after a mysterious seizure the night before the match and played poorly. France, led by a multinational squad that reflected the country’s immigrant communities, was celebrated by President Chirac as a model of French integration. The political complexities of that celebration became apparent in subsequent years.

Frequently Asked Questions About 1998

Q: What was the Monica Lewinsky scandal? A: President Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky became public in January 1998. Clinton denied it initially, admitted it in August, and was impeached by the House of Representatives in December on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. He was acquitted by the Senate in February 1999. The year’s political coverage was dominated almost entirely by the investigation, the report, and the impeachment proceedings.

Q: How did Google get its name?
A: Larry Page and Sergey Brin chose the name as a play on “googol” — the mathematical term for 10 to the 100th power — reflecting their ambition to organize a massive amount of information. The name was misspelled when checking domain availability, and the misspelling stuck. Google.com was registered on September 15, 1997, with the company incorporated in September 1998.

Q: What did Mark McGwire’s 70 home runs mean?
A: McGwire’s pursuit of Roger Maris’s record of 61 home runs, conducted in friendly competition with Sammy Sosa, was the most-watched storyline in baseball during a summer when the sport was still recovering from the 1994-95 strike. McGwire finished with 70. His subsequent admission of performance-enhancing drug use during this period has complicated the record’s legacy without officially erasing it.

Q: What happened at the 1998 Wimbledon women’s final?
A: Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic won the women’s title, her first Grand Slam after years of near misses, including the 1993 final, when she had broken down crying on the Duchess of Kent’s shoulder after losing from a winning position. Her 1998 victory was widely received as a long-overdue correction.

Q: What was the Furby phenomenon?
A: Furby was an interactive electronic toy introduced by Tiger Electronics in 1998 that spoke its own language, supposedly learned English over time, and was the most sought-after toy of the holiday season. Stores sold out immediately. It sold 40 million units in its first three years and is credited with creating the modern “must-have holiday toy” retail phenomenon that marketing departments have been attempting to replicate ever since.

Q: What rights did Sony pass on in 1998?
A: Marvel offered Sony the film rights to almost its entire character catalog — including Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and the full Avengers concept — for $25 million. Sony declined, purchasing only Spider-Man for $7 million. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, built around the characters Sony passed on, has since grossed over $30 billion worldwide.

In a year when Google was founded in a garage, a president was impeached while his approval ratings held steady, and a camcorder that could see through clothing sold 700,000 units before anyone noticed, 1998 demonstrated that the gap between what people know and what they do with that knowledge can be considerable. Titanic peaked on Valentine’s Day. Mark McGwire hit 70 home runs. The Furby arrived and the world has never been quite the same.