1998 in Michigan


This article reviews 1998 in Michigan, including the state's office holders, performance of sports teams, a chronology of the state's top news and sports stories, and notable Michigan-related births and deaths.

Top stories

Readers of the Detroit Free Press ranked the top 10 Michigan news stories of 1998 as follows:
  1. The 1997–98 Detroit Red Wings won the club's second consecutive Stanley Cup championship, sweeping the Washington Capitols in the 1998 Stanley Cup Finals.
  2. The October 24 demolition of the 87-year-old, 25-story J.L. Hudson building in Detroit.
  3. The 1997 Michigan Wolverines football team's 21–16 victory over Washington State in the 1998 Rose Bowl, capping an undefeated season and national championship.
  4. Chrysler's merger with German auto manufacturer Daimler-Benz.
  5. A sex scandal in Grosse Pointe involving high school seniors having sex with underage girls as young as 14 at drinking parties, leading to criminal prosecutions and a CBS 48 Hours episode focuing on the scandal.
  6. Right to die advocate Jack Kevorkian on September 17 administered a lethal injection to Thomas Youk, a 42-year-old Waterford Township man in the final stages of ALS. Kevorkian videotaped the voluntary euthanasia and delivered the tape to 60 Minutes which aired it on November 21. Kevorkian was charged with first-degree murder on November 25 and was ultimately convicted by a jury in 1999 of second-degree murder and sentenced to 10–15 years in prison.
  7. Strikes at parts plants in Flint caused a 54-day shutdown of General Motors and a loss of $2.8 billion.
  8. The surprise selection of Geoffrey Fieger as the Democratic candidate for governor and his loss to John Engler by a 62–38 margin, despite Fieger spending $5.7 million of his own money on the campaign.
  9. Northwest Airlines pilots went on strike for 15 days from August 29 to September 13, causing travel disruption throughout the state.
  10. Construction started on the temporary MGM Grand Detroit casino.
The newspaper's most frequently viewed item on its website was a story reported in late November and early December about a hunter, Mitch Rompola, killing a potential world-record deer with 12 points, a dressed weight of 263 pounds, and an antler spread of 38 inches. A follow-up story in late December reported on readers who believed that, based on the droopy ears on Rompola's buck, that his record-seeting deer was a fake.

Office holders

State office holders

Baseball

January

February

  • February 5 - Michael Conat, age 16, shot and killed his sister Laura, age 12, at the family home in Rochester Hills. Conat's father was a Southfield police officer, and his mother was a tacher. Under a plea deal reached in May 2001, Conat admitted that he shot his sister. He was setenced in August 2001 to 23–40 years in prison.

    March

April

  • April 4 - The Michigan Wolverines hockey team came from behind to defeate Boston College, 3–2, in the NCAA title game in Boston. It was the school's second national championship in three months, following the football team's success.
  • April 13 - First Chicago NBD Corp of Chicago merged with Banc One, and the new owner decided to cese using the NBD name.
  • April 15 - General Motors agreed to build its new engine plant in Flint in exchange for $107 million in incentives, or $153,000 in public money for eah of the 700 new jobs.
  • April 20 - Gerald Atkins was found guilty by a jury in the 1996 Wixom Assembly Plant shooting.
  • April 23 - General Motors agreed to purchase the Millender Center for $61.5 million.
  • April 29 - Jack Tocco, mob boss of the Detroit Partnership, and three others were convicted for RICO violations. Tocco's brother, Anthony Tocco, was acquitted on all counts.

    May

  • May 6 - Chrysler and Daimler Benz announced they were in discussions for a $35-billion merger.
  • May 11 - Detroit's new WNBA team, the Detroit Shock, introduced the team and its uniforms at an event called ShockFest.
  • May 19 - The Detroit Symphony Orchestra led by Neeme Jarvi performed in Tallinn, Estonia. Jarvi, who emigrated from Estonia 20 years earlier, was greeted with prideful crowds in his home country.
  • May 27 - Michigan Attorney General Frank J. Kelley, age 73, announced that he would not run for reelection. Kelley had served as Attorney General for 37 years.

    June

  • June 4 - Michigan resident Terry Nichols was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing plot.
  • June 5 - Some 3,400 UAW workers at General Motors' Flint stamping plant went on strike. The strike continued until July 29, shutting down production nationwide, and ended up as the costliest strike in the company's history.
  • June 6 - Detroit Grand Prix on Belle Isle
  • June 7 - Jack Kevorkian offered for transplant two kidneys harvested from an assisted suicide patient.
  • June 9 to 16 - The Detroit Red Wings swept the Washington Capitols in four games to win the Stanley Cup championship.
  • June 17 - Six people were killed in the fire-bombing of a house on Detroit's west side. The fire bomb was thrown by a woman in a long-running dispute with one of the residents.
  • June 18 - A million fans crowd downtown Detroit for the parade in honor of the Detroit Red Wings' second consecutive Stanley Cup championship.
  • June 19 - General Motors closed two more assembly plants due to the UAW strike in Flint, bringing the total workers laid off to 115,000.
  • June 26 - "Out of Sight", the first "mostly-made-in-Detroit" film to be released by a major studio since 1992, opened in theaters.