HOMETHE CENTURY IN REVIEW
Y2K
Hey, You In That Bunker, You Can Come Out Now!
INDICATORS
World Population: Six Billion and Counting
Indicators of the Century
WORKSHEET:
Maps and Graphs in Focus
PERSON OF THE CENTURY
Albert Einstein: Person of the Century
Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Runner-Up
Mohandas Gandhi: Runner-Up
WORKSHEET:
Voices of the Century
NATION
CAMPAIGN 2000
Primary Questions
How to Tell Them Apart
WORKSHEET:
Portrait of a Candidate
CONGRESS
Mutually Assured Destruction
PERSON OF THE YEAR
Jeff Bezos: King of the Internet
BUSINESS
AOL and Time Warner: Happily Ever After?
WORLD
GLOBAL ECONOMY
Rage Against the Machine
RUSSIA
No Tears for Boris
MIDDLE EAST
Men At Work
EAST TIMOR
On The Razor's Edge
WORKSHEET:
East Timor's Independence Struggle
JAPAN
The Japan Syndrome
PANAMA
Giving Up the Ship?
CUBA
A Big Battle for a Little Boy
ENVIRONMENT
Greenhouse Effects
WORKSHEET: Current Events in Review
Answers
Almost as interested in world rollovers as the bunkered down were the U.S. and Russian military officers at Peterson Air Force Base, the now permanent Center for Year 2000 Strategic Stability. Officers from both sides of the cold peace, who were there to make sure no nukes accidentally went off, labored to keep busy, channel surfing among cnn and other news shows and showing one another Russian Internet fare. The only old-school touch was the hot-line phones, black for Moscow, white for the U.S. When the clocks changed in Moscow and no bugs were reported, the Russian team applauded and U.S. Major General Thomas Goslin Jr. congratulated Russian group leader Colonel Sergey Kaplin. He may have deserved even more congratulations. Russia spent $4 million on Y2K military preparations while the U.S. spent nearly $4 billion. In fact, Americans spent an estimated $100 billion to be ready on all fronts, from telecommunications to sewage treatment. It is still unclear whether that was money partly wasted or money that saved us from a meltdown."
The FAA confidently sent its chief, Jane Garvey, flying from Washington
to Dallas during the key hour of midnight Greenwich Mean Time. The only
surprising thing about the flight was that the faa chief had to fly coach.
Joining her were 36 passengers, including one brave TIME reporter, Washington
Senator Slade Gorton and Janet Rhodes, 63, whose life's goal was to fly
during midnight of the millennium. Rhodes booked the trip months in advance,
had her flight canceled twice owing to lack of passengers and eventually
got a ticket on the flight Garvey was taking, figuring American couldn't
cancel that one. "This is the most fun I've ever had on a flight," she chirped.
"I just love being part of history.Fear itself was virtually nonexistent on Friday, with almost no one making a last-minute atm run, leaving the $50 billion of extra cash the Federal Reserve had printed for the occasion to be turned into mulch later this month.So as Apocalypse Not struck around the globeÐ and all terrorists were either caught, in bed watching television, or releasing a planeload of hostagesÐpeople everywhere celebrated. Many cultures celebrated despite the fact that most follow completely different calendars, and despite the fact that far too many people were pointing out that the millennium doesn't really start until next year and that our system is all messed up anyway, because Jesus was born 2,004 years ago. They celebrated because the most famous odometer mankind has ever created was displaying three zeroes in a row. It's exciting enough when it happens to your own car; when it happens to the world, it makes you downright giddy.
Questions
1. What is the origin of the Y2K problem? What steps did citizens,
businesses and the federal government take to address this problem? How
much did these efforts cost?
2. When did the "moment of truth" arrive for Y2K watchers? What
happened?
TIME EDUCATION PROGRAM -- Teaching With Time