* In 1998, Benoît Lecomte was the first man to swim across the northern Atlantic Ocean without a kick board, stopping for only one week in the Azores.

A paper published at the same time as the 2009 classification proposed seven subfamilies for the families recognized in the very first APG classification of 1998.

* 1998 – North Korea reportedly launches Kwangmyŏngsŏng-1, its first satellite.

In April 1998, American photographer John S Callahan organized the first surfing project in the Andamans, starting from Phuket in Thailand with the assistance of Southeast Asia Liveaboards ( SEAL ), a UK owned dive charter company.

The Diamondbacks ' first major league game was played against the Colorado Rockies on March 31, 1998, at Bank One Ballpark before a standing-room only crowd of 50, 179.

In 1984, the first official representative matches of International Rules were played, and these were played annually each October between the AFL and the Gaelic Athletic Association, also known as the GAA, between 1998 and 2006.

The firm made no U. S. buys in 1998, but doubled its employee base with purchases including Spain's largest retail insurance broker, Gil y Carvajal, and the formation of Aon Korea, the first non-Korean firm of its kind to be licensed there.

In 1998, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison called Clinton " the first Black president ", saying, " Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas ".

In 1998 the first six kilometers of an often-interrupted 52-kilometer standard gauge subway project ( Sofia Metro ) opened in Sofia.

In 1981, a split-season format forced the first ever divisional playoff series, in which the New York Yankees won the Eastern Division series over the Milwaukee Brewers ( who were in the American League until 1998 ) in five games while the Oakland Athletics swept the Kansas City Royals in three games in the Western Division.

The Orioles finished the first half of the 2012 season with a winning record for only the second time since 1998, with a record of 45-40 before the All-Star break.

Lara captained the West Indies from 1998 to 1999, when West Indies suffered their first whitewash at the hands of South Africa.

The passenger-miles figure, after being flat from 1965 – 1995, surpassed the 1947 figure for the first time in 1998 and continues to rise steeply.

In 1998, CDR Patrick Driscoll made the first " Blue Jet " landing on a " haze gray and underway " aircraft carrier, USS Harry S. Truman ( CVN-75 ).

The Big Lebowski ( 1998 ) was a flop on its initial release, yet became a cult classic and has been called " the first cult film of the Internet era.

On 10 March 2009 the CIRA claimed responsibility for the fatal shooting of a PSNI officer in Craigavon, County Armagh — the first police fatality in Northern Ireland since 1998.

The most comprehensive history is still Hubert Jedin's The History of the Council of Trent ( Geschichte des Konzils von Trient ) with about 2500 pages in four volumes: The History of the Council of Trent, The fight for a Council ( Vol I, 1951 ); The History of the Council of Trent The first Sessions in Trent ( 1545 – 1547 ) ( Vol II, 1957 ); The History of the Council of Trent Sessions in Bologna 1547 – 1548 and Trent 1551 – 1552 ( Vol III, 1970, 1998 ); The History of the Council of Trent Third Period and Conclusion ( Vol IV, 1976 ).

Prints of their photographs of the fairies, along with a few other items including a first edition of Conan Doyle's book The Coming of the Fairies, were sold at auction in London for £ 21, 620 in 1998.

Park quit in 1998, after deciding that he had done what he intended to do ; he maintained that his biggest achievement was the introduction of Hayley Patterson ( Julie Hesmondhalgh ), the first transsexual character in a British soap.

Gullit was replaced by Gianluca Vialli, who led the team to victory in the League Cup Final and the Cup Winners ' Cup Final in 1998, the FA Cup in 2000 and their first appearance in the UEFA Champions League.

In 1998, the Eritrean Church gained its autocephelacy from the Coptic Orthodox Church when its first Patriarch was enthroned by Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria.

The Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church obtained autocephaly on 7 May 1998, and Abune Phillipos was subsequently consecrated as first Patriarch of Eritrea.

The first such CODATA set was published in 1973, later in 1986, 1998, 2002 and the fifth in 2006.

Among the first desktop LCD computer monitors was the Eizo L66 in the mid-1990s, the Apple Studio Display in 1998, and the Apple Cinema Display in 1999.

ClearType was first announced at the November 1998 COMDEX exhibition.

In 1998, Lomborg published four essays about the state of the environment in the leading Danish newspaper Politiken, which according to him " resulted in a firestorm debate spanning over 400 articles in major metropolitan newspapers.

Daily strips have suffered as well, in 1910 the strips had an unlimited amount of panels, covering the entire width page, while by 1930 most " dailies " had four or five panels covering six of the eight columns occupied by a traditional broadsheet paper, by 1958 those four panels would be narrower, and those would have half of the space a 1910 daily strip had, and around 1998 most strips would have three panels only ( with a few exceptions ), or even two or one on an occasional basis, apart from strips being smaller, as most papers became slightly narrower.

After the Panthers ' success in 1996, Capers led the Panthers through two disappointing seasons: a 7 – 9 season in 1997, and a 4 – 12 season in 1998 which resulted in Capers being fired after four seasons with the team.

There have been eight series sweeps since interleague play began: four by the Cubs in 1998, 2004, 2007, and 2008, and four by the White Sox in 1995, 2008, and 2012.

Since then they have had four separate periods in the top flight of English football: between 1936 – 1957, 1986 – 1990, 1998 – 1999 and 2000 – 2007.

This may even lead to an institutional variability, as in North Korea, where, after the presidency of party leader Kim Il-Sung, the office was vacant for years, the late president being granted the posthumous title ( akin to some ancient Far Eastern traditions to give posthumous names and titles to royalty ) of " Eternal President " ( while all substantive power, as party leader, itself not formally created for four years, was inherited by his son Kim Jong Il, initially without any formal office ) until it was formally replaced on 5 September 1998, for ceremonial purposes, by the office of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, while the party leader's post as Chairman of the National Defense Commission was simultaneously declared " the highest post of the state ", not unlike Deng Xiaoping earlier in the People's Republic of China.

In 1977, Rau became Chairman of the North Rhine-Westphalia SPD, and in 1978 Minister President of the state, were he remained until 1998, with four successful elections for the SPD, which became strongest party in the Landtag each time and gained an absolute majority three times, in 1980, 1985, 1990 and finally 1995.

JPL has been recognized four times by the Space Foundation: with the Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award, which is given annually to an individual or organization that has made significant contributions to public awareness of space programs, in 1998 ; and with the John L. " Jack " Swigert, Jr., Award for Space Exploration on three occasions – in 2009 ( as part of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander Team ), 2006 and 2005.

In 1998, the first four books of the series held the top four slots in the New York Times best-seller list simultaneously, despite the fact that the New York Times ' best-seller list does not take Protestant bookstore sales into account.

Initially successful with annualized returns of over 40 % ( after fees ) in its first years, in 1998 it lost $ 4. 6 billion in less than four months following the Russian financial crisis requiring financial intervention by the Federal Reserve, with the fund liquidating and dissolving in early 2000.

* 1998 – A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives " Unabomber " Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.

After losing in the first round to the Vikings in 1997, the Giants needed to close out the season with four wins to finish 8 – 8 in 1998.

Following 1996, Sakamoto simultaneously delved into the classical and " post-techno " genres with Discord ( 1998 ), an hour-long orchestral work in four parts.

He took four wickets in a Second Test in Lahore that sealed the series 2-0, the last time Australia would win a Test in Pakistan until Mark Taylor's men in 1998, 37 years later.

The Triple Crown has twice been won on four consecutive occasions, once by Wales in 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1979 and once by England in 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998.

* Summer Solstice: Bee Stings, 1998 experimental music album, part 2 of the four part Seasons collective created by Coil

Note: during 1998, the exchange rate splintered into four distinct rates ; in January 1999 the government floated the guilder, but subsequently fixed it when the black-market rate plunged ; the government then allowed trading within a band of SRG 500 around the official rate

* Boogeyman ( 1998, Dark Horse Comics ), a four issue mini-series of humorous horror stories ( with Mark Evanier ).

This line-up recorded four albums: Stranglers In the Night ( 1992 ), About Time ( 1995 ), Written in Red ( 1997 ) and Coup de Grace ( 1998 ).

The first of four scheduled rendezvous burns was attempted on December 20, 1998 at 22: 00 UT.

A four stage Athena II using Castor 120s as both first and second stages became the first commercially developed launch vehicle to launch a lunar probe ( Lunar Prospector ) in 1998.