Also this year 1998

• France win the FIFA World Cup on home soild, beating Brazil 3-0 in the final with the help of two Zinédine Zidane goals.

• American Pete Sampras wins his fifth gentlemen's singles title at Wimbledon in six years.

• The Winter Olympics takes places in Nagano in Japan with Germany topping the medals' table with 12 gold, nine silver and eight bronze.

• American multinational software corporation Microsoft launches operating system Windows 98.