| List of years in science (Table) |
|---|
| … 1989 • 1990 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998 – 1999 – 2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • 2009 … |
| Related time period or subjects |
| … 1996 • 1997 • 1998 – 1999 – 2000 • 2001 • 2002 … … 1960s • 1970s • 1980s – 1990s – 2000s • 2010s • 2020s … … 19th century – 20th century – 21st century … |
| Art Archaeology Architecture Literature Music Science more |
The year 1999 in science and technology involved some significant events.
Contents |
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 launched 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.
- The Cetus Dwarf galaxy is discovered.
Biology
- The bacterium Thiomargarita namibiensis is discovered off the coast of Namibia. At 0.3mm in diameter, it is largest bacteria yet[update] discovered.
Chemistry
- Ununoctium is made for the first time.
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.
Telecommunications
- The first BlackBerry is released, using the same hardware as the Inter@ctive pager 950, and running on the Mobitex network.
Awards
Births
Deaths
- February 25 - Glenn T. Seaborg (b. 1912), physical chemist, Nobel laureate in Chemistry
- May 26 - Waldo Semon (b. 1898), inventor.
- November 11 - Vivian Ernest Fuchs (d. 1908), geologist and explorer.