Return to TimeLine Index
| Date | Location | Item | Source |
| 1998-02-28 | Oxford | Tiger man Nigel Wesson yesterday pledged to carry on working at the circus. After recovering from a second operation at John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, he said: "Maybe I could go to work in the box office if I can learn to write with my right hand, now the left one has gone." | Mirror |
| 1998-02-27 | Oxford | Rajah, the tiger who bit off Nigel Wesson’s arm, will not be put down. Chipperfield director Mark Tunnicliffe said Rajah had never before "put a foot wrong." | Mirror |
| 1998-02-27 | London | Media mogul Rupert Murdoch was accused last night of trying to distort a book by ex-Hong Kong governor Chris Patten to appease the Beijing regime to protect his business interests in China. | Mirror |
| 1998-02-27 | Malibu | Pammy’s hubby Tommy Lee was yesterday charged with injuring his eight-week old son Dylan who was being held by Pamela when Tommy attacked her. | Mirror |
| 1998-02-26 | Oxford | Chipperfield circus worker Nigel Wesson, 32, had his arm bitten off by a tiger at a training centre near Oxford. He was feeding the 225kg Bengal tiger when it bit off his arm, swallowing it whole. As he was wheeled in to hospital Nigel was asked if he was allergic to anything. "Only tigers," he replied. | Mirror |
| 1998-02-26 | Britain | A third of girls aged 13-19 have taken drugs, according to a survey of 1,000 girls by Sugar magazine. Most of those had tried cannabis but six per cent had dabbled with heroin and crack. | Mirror |
| 1998-02-26 | Malibu | Pamela Anderson’s husband Tommy Lee is facing three years in jail after attacking her during a row. She called police to their Malibu home, saying: "Please help, my husband has attacked me." Motley Crue drummer Tommy is already on probation after breaking a photographer’s hip. | Mirror |
| 1998-02-25 | Mustique | Princess Margaret was undergoing tests in a Caribbean hospital last night after suffering a stroke on the holiday island of Mustique. | Daily Mail |
| 1998-02-25 | London | The following timetable for the completion of the Millennium Dome was released yesterday: March 1998: Roof fabric will begin to be put in place. April: Plans for the layout of exhibits finalised. July: Ticket prices set. September: Dome structure completed. October: First exhibits installed. December: Businesses able to reserve first tickets. Jan 1999: Operations staff recruited. June: Pier completed. July: Tickets go on sale to public. November: Installation of contents completed. December: River transport services begin. Three days of free previews for Greenwich residents. December 31: Dome opens. | Mirror |
| 1998-02-25 | London | The MCC cricket club voted by 6,969 to 5,538 to overturn its ban on women members-but that fell short of the 2-3 majority needed. Former England women’s captain Rachael Heyhoe-Flint said: "It seems hypocritical as they are happy to promote cricket at every level." | Mirror |
| 1998-02-24 | East Sussex | Obsessed Albert Hipgrave, 24, was jailed for two years under a new anti-stalking law after tracking ex lover Emma-Jane Keyte across the country and bombarding her with calls. Keyte, 20,fled jobless Hipgarve-father of her daughter Lena, three-because he was violent. She moved from Bedfordshire to Hastings, East, Sussex but he eventually found her new phone number. | Daily Mail |
| 1998-02-24 | Florida | At least 38 people died-including a baby sucked from its father’s arms-when 12 separate tornadoes tore through central Florida yesterday at speeds up to 330 km/h. It is the biggest loss of life from twisters in the state’s history. | Daily Mail |
| 1998-02-24 | London | Princess Diana had come to rely on acupuncture to relieve stress in the last years of her life, according to Dr Lily Hua Yu who treated her. She had four needles inserted in her left ear last May. | Daily Mail |
| 1998-02-23 | Gulf | Saddam Hussein backed down yesterday in the Iraq weapons crisis and agreed a deal with United Nations boss Kofi Annan. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-23 | UK | Mum Joanne Davies spent three hours with her hand superglued to her husband’s willy. Joanne, 25, grabbed John Jeffrey’s manhood for a romp on the sofa, unaware she had accidentally got adhesive on her fingers while mending son Luke’s toy guitar. The embarrassed couple went to hospital by ambulance in Kempston, Beds, with Joanne’s hand down her hubby’s trousers. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-23 | London | Dome Secretary Peter Mandelson last night unveiled plans for a new Baby Dome to take the strain off the £758 million main millennium structure. It will provide rock, opera and other live shows for 6,000 people. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-22 | Austria | A new law is to be passed in Austria which means husbands have to do half the household chores. It is designed curb the country’s rising divorce rate. Wife Rita, from Burgenland, is quoted as saying she doesn’t care what laws they pass, she isn’t letting her husband into the kitchen. | Sunday Telegraph |
| 1998-02-22 | London | Stansted Airport will be renamed the Millennium Gateway for the year 2000. The aim is to encourage visitors to fly there and go on to Greenwich to visit the Dome | Sunday Telegraph |
| 1998-02-22 | London | A hotline is being set up for children who are frightened by the crisis in the Gulf. Carolyn Douglas, one of the four psychotherapists who set up the line, said a lot of children are very anxious that the end of the world is coming. The reports about the use of biological weapons such as anthrax were particularly disturbing to youngsters. | Sunday Telegraph |
| 1998-02-21 | Gulf | British forces on Iraq’s border were on germ-warfare alert last night amid fears that Saddam Hussein had moved his Doomsday weapons towards them. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-21 | US | The world’s oldest astronaut has passed a gruelling G-force test to prepare him for a new space flight. John Glenn, 76-who 36 years ago was the first American to orbit the earth-is due on a space shuttle mission in October to study ageing. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-21 | London | A man accused of the IRA bombing at Canary Wharf, London, faced a retrial last night after an Old Bailey jury failed to agree a verdict. James McCardle, 29, of Crossmaglen, Ulster, denied two murders and conspiracy to cause an explosion. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-20 | London | THE BBC is training a blind man to be a TV director. Damon Rose, 27-blind for 14 years-is on a production course costing 28,250. Damon, of Sittingbourne, Kent, has already directed a show for BBC2-and relies on an assistant to tell him what is being filmed. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-20 | US | Two neo-Nazi maniacs plotting to use an anthrax bomb on a city's underground network were being held by the FBI last night. Larry Wayne Harris, 46, and William Leavitt, 47 were charged with "possessing weapons for mass destruction." | The Sun |
| 1998-02-20 | Britain | A firm which supplied thousands of faulty hip replacements last night agreed to pay for emergency ops on patients who suffered. 3M Capital faces a bill of up to 33million, paying 7,000 a time to give pensioners new hip replacements at private hospitals.. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-20 | Malibu | Michael Jackson has kissed and made up with his sister Janet after a chance meeting in a hotel. The couple had not spoken for two years - though singer Janet often rang Michael’s home without getting a reply. They met when Janet was forced to flee her storm-lashed home in Malibu, California-and ended up in the next hotel room to Michael. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-19 | US | President Clinton WILL grant Gerry Adams a visa for his St Patrick’s Day tour - but will not see him. The US leader decided to let Adams in while the IRA ceasefire holds. But he will NOT meet him if Sinn Fein is thrown out of the peace talks after two new IRA murders. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-19 | Dunblane | The husband and sister of murdered Dunblane teacher Gwen Mayor are to marry, they revealed yesterday. Rod Mayor, 54, will wed mum-of-three Joan Bedford in the spring. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-19 | Devon | Jail boss Peter Lake sparked a massive security alert after losing the master key to all 620 cells at Dartmoor prison. Every lock is now being changed at a cost of £250,000. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-19 | London | Relatives of the Hillsborough victims were furious yesterday after Home Secretary Jack Straw ruled out a new enquiry into the 1989 soccer disaster in which 96 Liverpool fans died. He vetoed a fresh probe even though a new report blasted police for LYING in the wake of the tragedy. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-18 | Kent | Radio presenter Salah Sid, 47, reveals he missed out on a 2m slice of Saturday’s rollover lotto jackpot-because he spent his last 2.50 on a Valentine’s Card for wife Zohra. Salah played the same numbers each week - 8, 13, 17, 20, 14 and 28, all based on family birthdays. He has played every week since the lotto began - missing only once before. But Salah, of Orpington, Kent, said: "If God gave me a choice to choose from winning the lottery and my love to you’d choose our love." | The Sun |
| 1998-02-18 | US | President Clinton last night barred Gerry Adams from a St Patrick’s Day tour of America because of the IRA’s new threat of a bloodbath. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-18 | US | X Files beauty Gillian Anderson has finally won her battle to earn the same as screen co-star David Duchovny. Gillian, 29, will get £2.6million for this summer’s X Files movie-double what producers first offered. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-17 | Gulf | Saddam Hussein's elder son Uday helped to run a multi-million pound racket smuggling cocaine into Britain and the rest of Europe, according to lawyers for a high-ranking Iraqi defector. | The Times |
| 1998-02-17 | Cambodia | The remains of a 10th century city around the legendary temples of Angkor in a jungle in Cambodia have been discovered by researchers using a sophisticated NASA radar system. Dr Elizabeth Moore, an archaeologist from the University of London, is the first Western scholar to have seen them. | The Times |
| 1998-02-17 | Britain | Oral sex can transmit viral infections including HIV, according to a report by Dr Sarah Edwards of West Suffolk Hospital. | The Times |
| 1998-02-16 | London | A huge sculpture of a naked human - bigger than the Statue of Liberty - is to go up INSIDE the Millennium Dome. Its sex has not yet been decided | The Times |
| 1998-02-16 | London | Churchmen have vowed that Enoch Powell will lie in rest in Westminster Abbey before he is buried despite protest from politicians. | The Times |
| 1998-02-15 | London | Tony Blair has refused to back Oscar-winning actress MP Glenda Jackson’s campaign to become Mayor of London. | Sunday Telegraph |
| 1998-02-15 | London | Tony Blair has warned Mohammed Fayed to stop talking about the death of Princess Diana and her relationship with his son Dodi, for the sake of the princes William and Harry. | Sunday Telegraph |
| 1998-02-15 | Britain | Brits flocked to the seaside yesterday to celebrate the warmest Valentine’s Day on record with temperatures soaring to an amazing 19°c (66°f) instead of the average 9°c. | Sunday Telegraph |
| 1998-02-15 | London | There is to be no new inquiry into the Hillsborough disaster. Home Secretary Jack Straw will announce this week that new medical and video evidence could shed no more light on what happened at Sheffield Wednesday football ground. The families of the 96 Liverpool fans who lost their lives have vowed to press on with their campaign for another inquiry. | Sunday T |
| 1998-02-14 | West Sussex | The vicar in charge of Princess Diana’s burial has been charged with drink driving. Rev Victor Malan, 58, will face magistrates in Chichester, West Sussex, on Feb 25. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-14 | London | High Court judge Sir Jeremiah LeRoy Harman, 67 - famous for asking Who is Gazza? during a trial-resigned yesterday after being slammed by three appeal judges. He was accused of an "inordinate and inexcusable delay" in taking 20 months to rule on a case in which a farmer was suing a firm of accountants. Harman had thrown out the farmer’s claim but only after losing his notes and forgetting chunks of evidence. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-14 | Britain | Coronation Street star Liz Dawn, 58 - who plays loudmouth Vera Duckworth - revealed yesterday she really DOES talk through her backside. The actress smashed her face in a fall at the age of seven - and her lips were rebuilt with skin grafted from her behind. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-13 | Paris | Princess Diana’s brother Earl Spencer hit out last night after Harrods boss Mohamed Al Fayed made claims over the death of his sister. Mr Al Fayed insisted that the Paris crash was not an accident and repeated the unproved allegation that Diana had uttered last words to a nurse. He also claimed that she and his son Dodi were about announce their engagement. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-13 | London | Pervert priest Michael Lloyd was behind bars last night after he was convicted of molesting a 13 year old girl minutes after baptising her. The cleric tore off his dog collar as he was sentenced. He was acquitted of the confession box rape of a nine year old, but is to quizzed in jail about nine other incidents which are said to have taken place over the last 26 years. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-13 | London | Women are banned from becoming professional boxers because they suffer from PMT, a tribunal was told yesterday. Boxing officials refused to give female World Welterweight champion Jane Couch a professional licence, saying that PMT made women ‘unstable and prone to injury’. Jane told the hearing that she didn’t suffer from PMT. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-12 | Hampshire | A supergrass who helped jail Mafia drug dealers has been gunned down outside his home in the village of Hook, Hampshire. Peter MacNiel, 40,was tracked down and shot three times. He had been given a new name and a new identity as a car trader. The police said that it bore all the ‘hallmarks of a contract killing’. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-12 | Britain | ONE in five people killed in accidents have taken illegal drugs a new study has revealed. Motorists may soon face random drugs testing after the government announced pilot schemes to test new equipment. Police in Cleveland, Lancashire, Sussex and Strathclyde will begin testing two new devices next month which can detect traces of illicit drugs. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-12 | Gulf | THE allies will be ready to blitz Iraq in seven days, Saddam Hussein was told yesterday. UK and US troops were moving into position last night for the first strike. The target date of Operation Desert Strike is February 18. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-11 | London | The hairdresser sacked last year by the Queen lost his case for unfair dismissal yesterday. Paul Burgess was with the Queen for three years and was sacked suddenly after he returned from a trip abroad with her. A Palace spokesman said she "fancied a change." | The Sun |
| 1998-02-11 | London | Tony Blair kissed wife Cherie and gave her red rose outside No10 yesterday to promote National Marriage Week. The couple, who have been married for 18 years, said the secret of a successful partnership is "love and understanding." | The Sun |
| 1998-02-11 | London | Anarchist band Chumbawamba, who attacked Deputy PM John Prescott with a bucket of water at Monday’s Brits, said last night "we hoped that Tony Blair would be there so that we could spit in his champagne". He also said: "Its a metaphor for the underdog pissing on the steps of Downing Street." | The Sun |
| 1998-02-10 | Britain | The tallest sky scraper in Europe is to be built in Britain . The 300 metre building - 4.9 metres higher than the Eiffel tower - is proposed for the banks of the river Mersey. | The Express |
| 1998-02-10 | London | Princess Diana’s mother launched an angry attack yesterday on claims that her daughter could have survived the Paris car crash if she had been taken to hospital earlier. Mrs Frances Shan-Kydd said ''I have full knowledge of Diana’s injuries. I know that without any shadow of doubt that they were unsurvivable’’. | The Express |
| 1998-02-10 | London | The Spice Girls were ousted from their top spot by rival band All Saints at last night’s The Brit awards. Their No1 hit Never, Ever won best British single and they also won best video. The Spice Girls congratulated them on their success and said that there was plenty of room in the business for other girl groups. | The Express |
| 1998-02-09 | Britain | Police are to be given the power to breath test motorists at random. It will mark biggest change in the drink drive law since the breathalyser since it was introduced 31 years ago. | Express |
| 1998-02-09 | US | Comic Robin Williams has been named as America’s richest comedian, with an estimated fortune of £100million. He said: '' bad for a guy who used to be a little alien Mork who said nannoo nanoo, is it.'' | Express |
| 1998-02-09 | Britain | A pill launched today could halve the number of asthma attacks. Just one Singuliar tablet a day in addition to the normal inhaled drugs is all that is needed, the makers claim. | Daily Mail |
| 1998-02-08 | UK | Enoch Powell has died at the age of 85. His death came almost 30 years to the day after his first major speech warning of racial strife on the streets of Britain. His widow Pamela said he had been suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. | Daily Mail |
| 1998-02-08 | LA | Beach Boys founder member Carl Wilson has died from lung cancer in Los Angeles at the age of 51. His wife Gina, daughter of the actor Dean Martin, was by his side. Carl and his three brothers formed the band, that defined the California Surf sound, in 1961. | Daily Mail |
| 1998-02-07 | Australia | INXS singer Michael Hutchenson had been on a massive drink and drug binge hours before he died it was revealed by a coroner yesterday. His body was found to contain quantities of prescription drugs including the anti-depressant Prozac and cocaine washed down with vodka, beer, cocktails and champagne. The Aussie rock star had apparently been depressed over the battle between lover Paula Yates and ex Bob Geldof over the custody of their three daughters. The coroner concluded that Michael’s death was suicide and not the result of a bizarre sex act as had been first suggested. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-07 | Britain | Breast implants have been declared safe after a study of 10,000 women. doctor’s looked at the records of 7,000 women who have had enlargements and compared them to 3,000 who had reductions. Those with implants no increased risk diseases often linked with silicone such as rheumatoid authorities or sclerosis. But the solicitor who represents 450 women who claim the implants made them ill said: ''This study is flawed- there is no proof that they are safe.'' | The Sun |
| 1998-02-07 | Norway | An elderly patient was killed by his electrically-powered bed in an old folks home in Norway yesterday. The bed sprang into action when the remote control unit got stuck between the mattress and a bed side table which then bent him double and crushed his face into his quilt suffocated him. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-06 | London | Unsupervised children under the age of 16 could be ordered off the streets between the hours of 21:00 and 06:00 in a bid to cut crime. The Home Secretary Jack Straw is carrying out a study of how similar curfew systems in America have cut street crime and gang warfare. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-06 | Britain | Teachers should stop giving marks out of ten and instead give pupils helpful hints, say academics. Professor Paul Black and Dr Dylan Williams say children with high marks feel that they have done all that necessary, while those with low marks give up. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-06 | Paris | Police believe the chauffeur who drove Princess Diana and Dodi to their deaths earned extra cash by buying drugs for wealthy guests at the Paris Ritz where he worked. drunken henry Paul had £14000 pounds in cash in his pocket on the night of the crash in Paris, and although modestly paid had managed to stash £100,000 pounds in the bank. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-05 | Belgium | Bill Gates, head of Microsoft and the world’s richest man, has become the latest victim of Belgium’s infamous Custard Pie gang. A group of pranksters whose self appointed task is to debase celebrities deemed guilty of self importance by bombarding the ‘victim’ with custard pies. Claiming responsibility for this latest attack is Belgian Noel Godin who is known for his particularly well planned attacks. | The Times |
| 1998-02-05 | Texas | Karla Faye Tucker became the first woman executed in Texas since 1863. She was finally killed by lethal injection at 18:45 yesterday after her final appeal was rejected 40 minutes earlier. Karla, who hacked a man and a women to death with a pick axe, ate a last meal of a peach, a banana and a salad. The husband of the woman she murdered was one of the witnesses to the execution. As she died he said: "Here she comes, Baby Doll, she’s all yours . . . the world’s a better place." | The Times |
| 1998-02-05 | Britain | Robots may soon be used to analyse cervical smear tests, in order to eliminate the chance of human error that has cost some women their lives. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-04 | Cornwall | EastEnders hardman Steve MacFadden (Phil Mitchell) wept with relief last night as after his parents escaped a fire that gutted his holiday home in Falmouth, Cornwall. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-04 | London | Jaguar-driving Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has ordered all ministers to walk, cycle or take public transport to work in order to cut pollution and save cash. It is not known whether Mr Prescott is giving up his car. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-04 | London | The Treasury will net almost £100 million pounds in fines from tax payers who missed the self assessment deadline. 900,000 self assessment forms have failed to reach the Inland Revenue before the January 31 deadline. Accountants have branded the new scheme a nightmare. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-03 | Britain | Catholic priest Father Michael Lloyd is on trial for the alleged rape of a nine year old girl, said to have happened twenty-five years ago. The girl now aged, 36, didn’t tell any one about the confession box rapes because she feared that no one would believe her word against the priest’s. Father Michael, 57, is also accused of 18 other assaults on boys and girls in his parish. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-03 | Britain | Repeat drink drivers could have compulsory breathalysers fitted into their dashboards in a new bid to cut down road deaths. The device would prevent the car engine from being started unless the driver was under the limit. The breathalysers are already in use in Canada, America and Australia. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-03 | Britain | The Guinness Book of Records has confirmed Farmer Harold Moore has the world’s biggest cock. His monster rooster Big Willy weighs a massive 10.55kg, has a 85cm chest and is 40cm tall. Six-month-old Willy won’t fit into a coop so he lives in a dog kennel. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-02 | Britain | Tory MP Tim Boswell said he and wife Helen were "very sad" over revelations about his daughter. He issued a statement which said: "We love Caroline very much and will support her to get on with her life." | The Sun |
| 1998-02-02 | Britain | The drink drive limit is to be cut to one pint of beer - duty offenders will only be banned for breaking the current two-pint limit. Going over the new limit of 50 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood will earn you a fine. The old limit was 80 milligrammes. | The Sun |
| 1998-02-01 | Gulf | PM Tony Blair has secured cabinet backing for British military force to unleashed against Iraq, if Saddam Hussein refuses to back down in the confrontation over United Nations weapons inspectors. | Sunday Telegraph |
| 1998-02-01 | South Africa | South Africa’s President Nelson Mandela, revisited Robben Island where he spent 18 of his 25 years as political prisoner, it was reported today | Sunday Telegraph |
| 1998-02-01 | Britain | Caroline Boswell, 19 - daughter of shadow Trade and Industry spokesman Tim Boswell - is exposed by the News of the World today as a 500-a-time hooker. She told a reporter she once made love over a dustbin in Chelsea’s King’s Road at 11.20 on a Sunday morning-but not with a client. She said: "Lot’s of people saw us." | News of the World |
Updated 1998-10-10
News gathered by Mike Bull of BB Media
Edited by Garfield Lucas