This is a list of events relating to

politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

in 1 998.

Events

January

* January 17 - U.S. President Bill Clinton's alleged affair with Monica Lewinsky exposed by the ''

Drudge Report The Drudge Report (stylized in all caps as DRUDGE REPORT) is an American-based news aggregator, news aggregation website founded by Matt Drudge, and run with the help of Charles Hurt and Daniel Halper. The site prior to the 2020 United States p ...

February

* February 28 - British physician

Andrew Wakefield Andrew Jeremy Wakefield (born 3 September 1956) is a British fraudster, anti-vaccine activist, and disgraced former physician. He was struck off the medical register for "serious professional misconduct" due to his involvement in the fraudu ...

publishes a later-discredited study, suggesting a link between the

MMR vaccine The MMR vaccine is a vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella (German measles), abbreviated as ''MMR''. The first dose is generally given to children around 9 months to 15 months of age, with a second dose at 15 months to 6 years of age, w ...

and

autism Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by differences or difficulties in social communication and interaction, a preference for predictability and routine, sensory processing d ...

, leading to the growth of the anti-vaccine movement and the resurgence of

measles Measles (probably from Middle Dutch or Middle High German ''masel(e)'', meaning "blemish, blood blister") is a highly contagious, Vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccine-preventable infectious disease caused by Measles morbillivirus, measles v ...

in several countries

March

* March 11 - 1998 Danish general election:

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Poul Nyrup Rasmussen is re-elected in a very close vote requiring multiple recounts

April

* April 10 - The

Good Friday Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement ( or ; or ) is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April (Good Friday) 1998 that ended most of the violence of the Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland since the la ...

in signed between most of Northern Ireland's parties and the Irish and British governments, ending most of the violence of the Troubles and outlining

devolution Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territori ...

for

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

December

* December 6 -

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; ; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician, Bolivarian Revolution, revolutionary, and Officer (armed forces), military officer who served as the 52nd president of Venezuela from 1999 until De ...

is elected

President of Venezuela The president of Venezuela (), officially known as the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (), is the executive head of state and head of government of Venezuela. The president leads the National Executive of the Venezuelan go ...

{{Cite web , last=Archives , first=L. A. Times , date=1998-12-07 , title=Chavez Wins Venezuela Election Convincingly , url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-dec-07-mn-51505-story.html , access-date=2025-06-21 , website=Los Angeles Times , language=en-US

References

Politics by year 1990s in politics 20th century in politics 1998 1998-related lists