On September 27, 1997, some 1,200 students converge for the first time on the permanent campus for the University of Washington Tacoma, which opened seven years earlier in a temporary location. Leavin...
On September 29, 1997, members of the Makah Nation join a delegation of nearly 100 citizens from the town of Mihama, Japan, in ceremonies commemorating the lives of three young Japanese sailors who ra...
On October 1, 1997, a theater troupe from Nagoya, Japan, and members of the Makah Nation of Neah Bay present The Tale of Otokichi, a musical based loosely on the life of one of three young Japanese sa...
On November 4, 1997, Seattle voters approve Initiative 41, which calls for development of an expanded Monorail system, by a 53-percent majority. The initiative is the brainchild of Dick Falkenbury, a ...
On November 4, 1997, voters elect Paul Schell (1937-2014) as mayor of the city of Seattle.
On November 18, 1997, the restaurant commonly known as The Blob is torn down in Seattle. Located on lower Queen Anne Hill at the corner of 1st Avenue N and Roy Street, the structure -- which resembles...
On December 12, 1997, the U.S. Navy ends years of wrangling among Seattle-area jurisdictions by issuing a formal "Record of Decision" that conveys remaining property at the former Sand Point Naval Air...
On January 21, 1998, Tacoma attorney Ralph L. Seeley (1948-1998) succumbs to a cancer that has tormented him for more than a decade. Diagnosed in 1986 with chordoma, a rare bone cancer that starts in ...
On February 5, 1998, Washington's Supreme Court ends a six-year effort by dissatisfied rural residents to create a new Cedar County out of 1,585 square miles of eastern King County. Cedar County propo...
On February 17, 1998, State and Seattle City Government officials create a 12-member citizens board for the Elevated Transportation Company (ETC), a public development authority company created by Ini...
On February 28, 1998, Marie Svoboda (1920-2012), Seattle's pioneering grande dame of yoga, closes her Queen Anne yoga studio after teaching roughly 15 classes per week there for 30 years. The narrow, ...
On April 6, 1998, Hollywood arrives in Washington as filming for the movie Practical Magic begins on Whidbey Island. The Warner Bros. production calls for shooting on both Whidbey Island and San Juan ...
On Sunday, May 3, 1998, some 200 people -- most of them Washington State University (WSU) students -- riot during the early morning hours in an area known as College Hill, just west of the WSU campus....
On May 18, 1998, after a three-year investigation, the Department of Justice and the attorneys general of 20 states (later dropped to 19) sue the Microsoft Corporation for violating the Sherman Antitr...
On Saturday afternoon, May 23, 1998, tugboats carefully guide the USS Missouri (BB-63) away from the Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, mark...
On June 12, 1998, the Tacoma Municipal Belt Line Railway becomes Tacoma Rail, a division of Tacoma Public Utilities. The renaming applies to the electrical and water utilities as well and drops the go...
On June 17, 1998, the SuperSonics elect not to renew George Karl's contract, thereby terminating the relationship between Karl and the team. Karl's replacement is former Phoenix Suns coach Paul Westph...
On August 31, 1998, Kenmore, located between Lake Forest Park and Bothell at the north end of Lake Washington (in King County), incorporates. The move to incorporate was in response to the need to man...
On September 12, 1998, Benaroya Hall opens as the new home of the Seattle Symphony. Designed by LMN Architects (Seattle), with acoustics designed by Dr. Cyril Harris, it is named after the Benaroya fa...
In October 1998, Richard Hugo House, an urban writer's retreat, officially opens in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. The center for writers is named for Pacific Northwest poet Richard Hugo (1...
On October 27, 1998, the luxury sailing vessel Fantome was caught off the coast of Honduras by Hurricane Mitch and perished with her crew of 31, having previously disembarked her passengers. Originall...
On November 3, 1998, Democratic Senator Patty Murray (b. 1950) wins re-election to the U.S. Senate and state voters approve a ballot measure permitting the use of marijuana for medical purposes. An in...
On November 6, 1998, the rusting but still modernistic hulk of the ferry Kalakala makes a triumphant return to Elliott Bay, where it once shuttled cross-sound commuters and awed out-of-town visitors. ...
On November 11, 1998, on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War I, the sculpture Doughboy, created by Alonzo Victor Lewis (1886-1946), is re-dedicated at Veterans Memorial Cemetery at Evergreen ...