Chronopin: upcoming release dates, events and other important dates

Frank Gehry's titanium-clad Guggenheim Museum Bilbao opened in October 1997, reviving a struggling industrial city and popularizing the aircraft-design software that made its curved form buildable.

MV Solitaire, converted from a 1972 bulk carrier into a 300-metre pipelaying ship, entered service for Allseas in 1998 and became the world's largest and most powerful pipelay vessel.

Water begins flowing from the newly completed Katse Dam through the Lesotho Highlands Water Project to Johannesburg, the first payment on a 1986 treaty that turns Lesotho’s rainfall into its biggest export.

Artland releases the first episode of the Legend of the Galactic Heroes Gaiden OVA, a collection of side stories set before the main series that trace Reinhard von Lohengramm's rise through the Galactic Empire's command.

Perfect Blue releases in Japanese theaters, Satoshi Kon's directorial debut for Madhouse, a psychological thriller about a retiring pop idol whose grip on reality frays as a stalker and an impersonator blur the line between her old and new selves.

Andoni Luis Aduriz opened his Basque restaurant in Gipuzkoa in March 1998. Restaurant Magazine has counted it among the world's best since 2006, ranking it as high as fourth.

Sunrise's Cowboy Bebop begins airing, a genre-blending space-western following bounty hunters Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, and their crew aboard the ship Bebop.

On Monday 6 April 1998 Citicorp and Travelers Group announced a merger valued at about US$70 billion in stock, then the largest in history, creating the world's largest financial services company, Citigroup.

One day, Kinomoto Sakura, a 4th grader stumbles upon the mysterious book of Clow. Upon opening it and reading the name of The Windy aloud, Sakura scatters the cards to the winds.

Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page present Google, a search-engine prototype that ranks pages by the link structure of the web rather than by page text alone. The paper describes PageRank and a prototype indexing 24 million pages.

The 33rd Academy of Country Music Awards were held on 22 April 1998 at the Universal Amphitheatre on CBS; Garth Brooks took Entertainer of the Year and Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's "It's Your Love" won four awards.

Mulan is a 1998 American animated musical coming-of-age action-adventure film based on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, and produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. It reached US theaters on 19 June 1998.

Triangle Staff's Serial Experiments Lain begins airing, a psychological sci-fi series following withdrawn teenager Lain Iwakura as she is drawn into the Wired, a networked reality blurring into the physical world.

Brain's Base begins releasing Getter Robo: Armageddon, a dark direct-sequel OVA in which Ryoma Nagare and his allies must pilot Getter Robo again after a resurrected Dr. Saotome unleashes a catastrophe that nearly wipes out humanity.

Caterpillar unveiled its 797 — at the time the world's largest and most powerful haul truck — at its Decatur, Illinois assembly plant on 29 September 1998.

Taichi Keaton is a half-British half-Japanese archeologist and SAS veteran of the Falklands War. He solves mysteries and investigates insurance fraud for Lloyd's around the world.

Pixar's second feature, A Bug's Life, opened in US theaters on 25 November 1998 after a premiere at the El Capitan Theatre. John Lasseter directed the story of an inventor ant who hires circus bugs to defend his colony from grasshoppers.

Rurouni Kenshin OVA: Trust & Betrayal (Tsuioku-hen) premieres, director Kazuhiro Furuhashi's darker, more graphic prequel OVA telling the origin of Himura Kenshin as the assassin Hitokiri Battousai.

Lauryn Hill won five Grammys at the 41st ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium, including Album of the Year for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, the first hip-hop album to take the prize, and Best New Artist, while Celine Dion won Record and Song of the Year.

On 4 May 1999 Goldman Sachs, the last big Wall Street partnership, began trading on the New York Stock Exchange after selling 69 million shares at US$53 to raise US$3.657 billion.

The 34th Academy of Country Music Awards were held on 5 May 1999 at the Universal Amphitheatre with no host; Garth Brooks was Entertainer of the Year and named Artist of the Decade, and the Dixie Chicks took Album of the Year for Wide Open Spaces.

Tarzan is a 1999 American animated adventure film based on the 1912 story Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It reached US theaters on 18 June 1999.

Studio Pierrot's GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka begins airing, following reformed biker-gang delinquent Eikichi Onizuka as he becomes a wildly unconventional high school teacher, adapted from Tohru Fujisawa's manga.

Excavators breached the 1837 Edwards Dam in Augusta, Maine on 1 July 1999, the first removal of a hydroelectric dam by the federal government over the owner's objection.

The Thomas Crown Affair is a 1999 American romantic heist film directed by John McTiernan and written by Leslie Dixon and Kurt Wimmer. It is a remake of the 1968 film of the same title.

A neighborhood favorite for seasonal dishes and relaxed café dining.

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Jiji in Nantou County at 01:47 on 21 September 1999, killing 2,415 people and causing NT$300 billion of damage, the second-deadliest quake in Taiwan's recorded history.

A Hunter is one who travels the world doing all sorts of dangerous tasks. From capturing criminals to searching deep within uncharted lands for any lost treasures.

Toei Animation's TV adaptation of Eiichiro Oda's One Piece begins airing, following Monkey D. Luffy as he sets out to find the treasure One Piece and become King of the Pirates.

UPS began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on 10 November 1999 after pricing 109.4 million class B shares at US$50 each, raising about US$5.5 billion in what was then the biggest initial public offering on record.

Pixar's Toy Story 2 opened in US theaters on 24 November 1999, a sequel in which Woody is stolen by a toy collector and his friends set out to rescue him. John Lasseter directed after the film was upgraded from a planned direct-to-video release.

On 30 November 1999 Exxon and Mobil completed their merger, forming ExxonMobil and reuniting two of the largest fragments of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil trust.

Madhouse begins releasing the Master Keaton OVA, an adaptation of Naoki Urasawa's manga following insurance investigator and former SAS survival instructor Taichi Keaton as he solves cases across Europe.

The deep-level Jubilee line platforms at Westminster Underground opened, completing London's £3.5bn Jubilee Line Extension after engineers dug a 39-metre station box beside the Thames without disturbing Big Ben's foundations.

Artland's Legend of the Galactic Heroes Gaiden: Spiral Labyrinth begins release, a prequel OVA series expanding on a young Yang Wen-li's rise and on events leading into the main Legend of the Galactic Heroes saga.

At noon on 31 December 1999 the Panama Canal and all former Canal Zone land came under Panama's exclusive control, as the Torrijos-Carter Treaties required. The Panama Canal Authority took over running the waterway.

Sunrise's The King of Braves: GaoGaiGar Final begins release, an OVA continuing the super robot franchise as GGG and their French allies in Chasseur battle the BioNet organization and the Eleven Kings of Sol to rescue a captured ally and defend Earth.

Santana won eight Grammys at the 42nd ceremony at Staples Center, tying Michael Jackson's record for one night, including Record of the Year for "Smooth" with Rob Thomas and Album of the Year for Supernatural, while Christina Aguilera won Best New Artist.

The six-episode OVA FLCL begins release, a hyperkinetic coming-of-age comedy from Gainax and Production I.G about a middle schooler whose ordinary town turns upside down after being run over by a scooter-riding, guitar-wielding alien.

The 35th Academy of Country Music Awards, hosted by Dolly Parton on CBS from the Universal Amphitheatre on 3 May 2000, named an absent Shania Twain Entertainer of the Year and gave Tammy Wynette a posthumous Pioneer Award.

Dinosaur is a 2000 American animated adventure film directed by Ralph Zondag and Eric Leighton and written by John Harrison, Robert Nelson Jacobs, and Walon Green. It reached US theaters on 19 May 2000.

Fantasia 2000 is a 1999 American animated musical anthology film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and the sequel to Fantasia (1940). It reached US theaters on 16 June 2000.

Cardcaptor Sakura the Movie 2: The Sealed Card releases in Japanese theaters, a Madhouse-produced finale to the anime in which Sakura faces one last, unnamed card with power to match all of her collected Clow Cards combined.

The inaugural Latin Grammy Awards were held on 13 September 2000 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, the first prime-time US network awards show for Spanish- and Portuguese-language music, with Santana and Maná winning Record of the Year for "Corazón Espinado".

Hajime no Ippo, an underdog boxing drama following bullied high schooler Ippo Makunouchi as he's drawn into the sport by the Kamogawa Gym, begins its TV run.

Public Law 106-286 ended the annual congressional fight over China's trade status and cleared the last American obstacle to its entry into the WTO. It is the single act that opened the United States market to Chinese manufacturing on permanent terms.

Kagome Higurashi, an average ninth grader, gets pulled into an ancient well by a demon, bringing her 500 years in the past to the feudal era.

The Emperor's New Groove is a 2000 American animated comedy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. It reached US theaters on 15 December 2000.