Wikipedia: 1999 in science

1999 in science
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The year 1999 CE in science and technology included many events, including those below.

Aeronautics

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 in a hot air balloon for 233 hours and 55 minutes.
March 3 - Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones begin their attempt to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon without stopping. Their journey ended in success on March 20.

Astronomy and space exploration

February 7 - Stardust is launced on a mission to collect samples of a comet coma, and return them to Earth.
July 20 - Mercury program: Liberty Bell 7 is raised from the Atlantic Ocean.
July 31 - NASA intentionally crashes the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface.
NASA loses two Mars probes, the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander.
The Subaru 8.3-m and Gemini North 8.1-m reflecting telescopes open at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii.

Biology

The bacterium Thiomargarita namibiensis is discovered off the coast of Namibia. At 0.3mm in diamater, it is largest bacteria yet discovered.

Computer science

March 26 - The Melissa worm attacks the Internet.
First working 3-qubit NMR computer demonstrated at IBM's Almaden Research Center. First execution of Grover's algorithm.

Geology

January 25 - A 6.0 Richter scale earthquake hits western Colombia, killing at least 1,000.
August 17 - A 7.4-magnitude earthquake strikes northwestern Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000.

Awards

Nobel Prizes
- Physics - Gerardus 't Hooft, Martinus J.G. Veltman
- Chemistry - Ahmed H. Zewail
- Medicine - Günter Blobel
Wollaston Medal for Geology: John Frederick Dewey

Births

Deaths

May 26 - Waldo Semon, inventor