It was the best of times, it was the nerdiest of times. Here are a few notable things that happened.
The first public beta of Counter-Strike was released. This had made many people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move. 25 years later, we are all waiting for some stupid keychains.
Andre Agassi won his first and only Roland Garros title. The American defeated Andrei Medvedev in a five-set thriller of a tennis match that featured one of those super rare comebacks from two sets down: 1-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 A day earlier, Steffi Graf won her final Grand Slam in an interesting bit of sporting symmetry.
In a spectacular display of Gen X’s poor taste in music, ATB’s 9pm (Till I Come) tops the UK singles chart.
Electronic Gaming Monthly’s cover featured Gran Turismo 2, the first shots of Resident Evil: Nemesis, and previews of Crash Team Racing, Soul Calibur, Spyro 2, and, erm, WWF Attitude, whatever that is. Computer Games Strategy Plus went with Age of Empires 2, and reviews of X-Wing Alliance, Heroes 3, and Starsiege.
Stephen King suffered a serious accident. The famous writer was hit by a car and he suffered a collapsed right lung and a broken hip alongside a smorgasbord of other injuries. Bloody hell!
Slobodan Milošević agrees to withdraw Serbian forces from Kosovo. This prompts the ending of NATO’s bombing campaign in Yugoslavia. We’ll leave this one to the historians.
Descent 3, Grandia, and the original Driver were released. They would be, urm, somewhat overshadowed.
May 1999 was removed from life’s Active Duty pool. It can still be played with a time machine.
Elena Rybakina, Kai Havertz, Chandler Riggs, and Justin Jefferson were born. Also, ZywOo. Rumors have it that his first word was “drop.” Or maybe “ez game”? We may never know for sure.
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and Wild Wild West were released in theaters, and so was South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. The latter’s plot synopsis reads “When the four boys see an R-rated movie featuring Canadians Terrance and Philip, they are pronounced “corrupted”, and their parents pressure the United States to wage war against Canada,” which really could have worked with Counter-Strike matches as well.
Per the Infoplease archives, “European Union Plans Military Role,” “Conservatives Gain Ground in Europe,” “China Sentences Former Official,” and “Coalition Government Formed in Israel.” As far as news items go, history certainly has a way of rhyming. Especially if we get a Counter-Strike content drop.