May

*A Montreal conference on globalization is halted by a group of people protesting the evils of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI). Operation SalAMI is broken up by police, who arrest 99 activists.

*James Earl Ray, sentenced to 99 years in prison for the 1969 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., dies at age 70 from liver disease. The King family had been petitioning for a new investigation into the murder because they do not believe that Ray was guilty.

*Seinfeld says goodbye. How to end the show about nothing? Badly, as it turns out.

*Prime Minister Jean Chrétien visits Cuba and says he thinks Fidel Castro is changing for the better.

*Auto merger mania hits: BMW buys Rolls-Royce Motor Co. for $813 million and Detroit Chrysler Corp. merges with Germany's Daimler-Benz, a $57-billion deal.

*Canadian child rights' crusader Craig Kielburger, 15, is awarded the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Medal.

*Theodore J. Kaczynski, the Unabomber, is sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years in prison. He refused to apologize for killing three people and injuring 22 with his homemade mail bombs.

*Toronto-based mining company Boliden Inc. denies negligence but agrees to pay for the clean-up after a major toxic spill in southern Spain. The cost: $9.2 million.

*Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer opens. It's the saccharine tale of a young girl and horse who must overcome psychological damage after a near-fatal collision with a truck. Redford stars as the virtuous horse therapist.

*Murder at the Vatican: The newly appointed commander of the Swiss Guards, Alois Estermann, and his wife are shot by a 23-year-old guard, Cedric Tornay, who then kills himself. The Vatican is extremely tight-lipped about the Guards, a 492-year-old force of 100 men that protects the pope.

*Ol' Blue Eyes kicks the bucket. Frank Sinatra dies at age 82 of a heart attack.

*India and Pakistan go nuclear. On the 11th and 13th, India conducts three underground tests near the Pakistan border. In response on the 28th, Pakistan detonates five nuclear explosions.

*After deadly rioting and severe economic turmoil, Indonesian dictator Suharto steps down after 32 years of rule. He is replaced by his vice-president B.J.Habibie.

*Another school shooting takes place, this time in a Springfield, Oregon, cafeteria. Fifteen-year-old Kipland Kinkel kills two teenagers and wounds 26 more, after killing his parents in their home.

*Three impressionist masterpieces are stolen from Rome's National Gallery of Modern Art: a Cézanne landscape and two Van Goghs. Impossible to sell on the open market, it is presumed that the heist was coordinated by a private collector.

*William Johnson wins the leadership of Alliance Quebec, defeating incumbent Constance Middleton-Hope.

*Comedian Phil Hartman is killed by his wife, Brynn Omdahl, who then shot herself. It seems he was diddling behind her back.

*Reports of catnapping in Mile-End emerge. For the rest of the year, investigations into the disappearances reveal increasingly bizarre and gruesome explanations.

*More local releases on the musical front: Tricky Woo's The Enemy Is Real, Grim Skunk's FieldTrip and Gangster Politics' self-titled debut.

*Sonic Youth return to prove that they are the Aerosmith of alternative rock, although they're looking a lot older than Steve and the boys lately.

*Junior Vasquez fakes his set at Swirl, suggesting what Hang the DJ's interview footage would confirm: he's a little prick who needs a helping of humble pie pushed up his tuchus.

*The adorable, elfin Björk plays Metropolis with a DJ and a string octet. Security denies our request to "just pick her up and cuddle her for a minute."