President Clinton's bill to provide health insurance for all US citizens is defeated in Congress

A massive bomb destroys federal buildings in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people

Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam organizes a Million Man March into Washington

US poet Philip Levine wins a Pulitzer Prize with his volume of poems Simple Truth

The jury acquits O.J. Simpson of the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, after a trial lasting almost a year

An atmospheric probe, released from the US spacecraft Galileo, enters the atmosphere of the planet Jupiter

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, with a fortune of $20 billion, is calculated to be the richest man in the world

American painter Julian Schnabel turns his hand to film-making with Basquiat, a tribute to graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat

Bill Clinton wins re-election as US president, defeating Republican candidate Bob Dole

Sojourner, a robot roving vehicle, detaches from Mars Pathfinder to analyse the surface of the planet

In his first year as a professional, US golfer Tiger Woods wins both the British Open and the US Masters

Bob Dylan produces one of his finest albums, Time out of Mind

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both Ph.D. students at Stanford University, register the domain name google.com

President Clinton is emphatic: 'I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms Lewinsky.'

Two boys aged 11 and 13 fire on a school group in Jonesboro, Arkansas, killing four girls and a teacher

The drug Viagra wins government approval in the USA as a treatment for male impotence

President Clinton admits to having had an inappropriate relationship with Monica Lewinsky

The US Senate begins an impeachment trial of President Clinton for perjury and obstruction

President Clinton escapes impeachment when the Senate divides 55-45 and 50-50 on the two charges, well short of the required two thirds majority

Two teenage boys in Littleton, Colorado, open fire on their fellow students in Columbine High School, killing twelve and one teacher

Rap artist Eminem's album The Marshall Mathers LP enters the US charts at no. 1

A White House ceremony celebrates a full draft of the human genome completed by two rival projects

The US Supreme Court gives victory to Republican George W. Bush rather than Democrat Al Gore after electoral irregularities in Florida

Wikipedia, the 'Free Encyclopedia', is put online by Jimmy Wales as an empty shell which members of the public are invited to fill with content

Four hijacked planes are used in a massive September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington