On November 13, 1998, Congress authorizes the Northwest Straits Marine Conservation Initiative, an innovative grassroots and voluntary approach to marine conservation for northern Puget Sound and the ...
On November 17, 1998, Governing Magazine names Seattle Public Utilities director Diana Gale one of America's Public Officials of the Year at a Washington, D. C. banquet attended by President Bill Clin...
On Wednesday afternoon, November 25, 1998, an explosion and fire erupts in the coking plant at the Equilon Puget Sound Refinery in Anacortes, killing six refinery workers who were attempting to restar...
On November 27, 1998, in the worst bus accident of Metro's 25-year history, the driver of a southbound Route 359 express bus is shot twice as the bus begins crossing the Aurora Bridge, which crosses t...
On December 15, 1998, after a decade of planning and a year of construction, Sammamish's first library opens. Part of the King County Library System (KCLS), it is located at 825 228th Avenue NE in the...
On January 11, 1999, state representatives elect both Republican Clyde Ballard and Democrat Frank Chopp to be Speaker of the House of Representatives. The designation of two co-Speakers, instead of th...
On January 15, 1999, the HistoryLink.org website is launched. HistoryLink.org is a free, evolving online encyclopedia of Seattle and King County history, which will soon expand to cover the entire sta...
In December 1999, Comite Pro-Amnistia General Y Justicia Social is organized as a grassroots organization in Seattle to draw attention to the plight of immigrant laborers in Western Washington. The gr...
In 1999, science-fiction writer Octavia Butler (1947-2006) moves to Seattle. Butler, one of the few African American women to achieve significant success as a science-fiction writer, has already had a...
On March 16, 1999, the Department of the Interior lists nine salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest as endangered species. They join 15 other population groups of salmon already so listed. The listing c...
On March 17, 1999, the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties (MBA) approves a mission statement for Built Green, a residential building program designed to help home buyers and ow...
On March 17, 1999, Seattle's Town Hall is launched with a free celebration of "Seattle's Favorite Poems," hosted by Robert Pinsky (b. 1940), poet laureate of the United States. As a warm-up for the ev...