Y2K Milestones Big moments in the past and future of the Y2K bug

(January 1999) What makes the Year 2000 problem that much more embarrassing for the world's technologists is that it didn't just jump out at us: It has a long and illustrious history, starting in 1890 with an electric census machine that stored information on punch cards. Below is a timeline of the milestones in Y2K history -- and its future as well. Many corporations and governments will be forced to deal with the date rollover long before the ball drops on New Year's Eve, and the coming months will bring a number of watersheds. Mark your calendar now.

• 1890
  Herman Hollerith develops an electrically driven census system that reads punch cards. Six years later, he founds the company that eventually becomes IBM.

• 1945
  John Mauchley and Presper Eckert build ENIAC, the first electronic digital computer, and go on to make UNIVAC, the first computer sold commercially. It runs on Hollerith cards.

• 1957
  Grace Murray Hopper creates Flow-matic, the first computer language written in plain English. Two years later, it forms the basis for COBOL, a compromise lingua franca for business computers. To save precious room on the cards, years are abbreviated to two digits (e.g., 1957 is represented as 57).

• 1960
  Anticipating problems later on, Robert Bemer and 47 other computer scientists begin lobbying for the four-digit year.

• 1964
  IBM introduces the spectacularly successful System/360 mainframe, which retains the two-digit year.

• 1967
  The White House orders the National Bureau of Standards to settle the date debate. Under pressure from the Pentagon, the bureau sticks with the two-digit year.

• 1979
  Bemer makes the first widely published prediction of the Y2K crisis, in the journal Interface Age. The reaction is underwhelming; he retires three years later.

• 1993
  Curious nuke watchers at NORAD turn their computer clocks forward to Jan. 1, 2000 -- and the ICBM alert system crashes.

• 1993
  Peter de Jager's seminal "Doomsday 2000" article appears in Computerworld; he launches himself on the lecture circuit

• 1995
  IBM finally acknowledges the Y2K bug -- and announces plans to help its customers make "timely year 2000 transitions".

• 1996
  At the behest of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the Congressional Research Service writes its first report on Y2K. Moynihan warns Clinton of the "Year 2000 time bomb".

• 1997
  At an industry summit, Bill Gates blames Y2K worries on those who "love to tell tales of fear." A year later, Microsoft admits being "slow" on the Y2K uptake.

• 1998
  Y2K merchandise (mugs, clocks and caps) goes on sale. The White House appoints John Koskinen as its Y2K czar. Most government agencies get a failing grade in Y2K readiness.

• January 31, 1999
  Deadline set by the Office of Management and Budget for all federal agencies to have testing completed on their Y2K fixes

• March 31, 1999
  Deadline set by the Office of Management and Budget for all federal agencies to be Y2K-compliant

• February 4, 1999
  Travel agents can start booking flights into the year 2000

• April 1, 1999
  New York State, Canada and Japan all begin fiscal year (FY) 2000

• April 6, 1999
  The U.K. begins FY 2000

• June 30, 1999
  Date when the FAA says the Air Traffic Control system will be Y2K-ready

• July 1, 1999
  Forty-six U.S. states begin FY 2000

• October, 1999
  Three-month financial projections must incorporate the year 2000

• October 1, 1999
  The federal government must smile and swallow the Y2K bug as it begins FY 2000.