What happened in 2000?
2000 was the year of the millennium celebrations, the Y2K rollover, the dot-com crash and the Sydney Olympics. The Nasdaq peaked on 10 March, the Games opened on 15 September, and the first permanent crew arrived at the International Space Station on 2 November, while Bush v. Gore brought the US presidential election to the Supreme Court in December.
Key events of 2000
|
Date |
Event |
Why it mattered |
|
January 1 |
The Y2K rollover passes without the predicted global computer catastrophe. |
Years of preparation had largely prevented the widespread failures feared as the new year began. |
|
March 10 |
The Nasdaq Composite reaches an intraday record of 5,132.52. |
The peak marked the height of the dot-com investment boom before the technology-stock crash. |
|
March 26 |
Vladimir Putin wins Russia's presidential election. |
His victory began a new political era in Russia and shaped the country's relationship with the West. |
|
March 4 |
Sony launches the PlayStation 2 in Japan. |
The console became one of the best-selling and most influential games systems ever made. |
|
June 26 |
Scientists announce the completion of a working draft of the human genome. |
The announcement marked a landmark in modern genetics and the study of human biology. |
|
July 25 |
Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde, crashes near Paris. |
The disaster kills 113 people and severely damages confidence in supersonic passenger travel. |
|
August 12 |
The Russian submarine Kursk sinks in the Barents Sea. |
All 118 people aboard die, making the disaster one of the defining tragedies of Putin's first year as president. |
|
September 15 |
The Sydney Olympic Games open in Australia. |
The Games become one of the year's biggest international sporting and cultural events. |
|
October 12 |
The USS Cole is bombed in Aden, Yemen. |
Seventeen US sailors are killed in an attack that becomes an important precursor to the heightened US focus on terrorism. |
|
November 2 |
The first permanent crew arrives at the International Space Station. |
Expedition 1 begins the era of continuous human habitation aboard the ISS. |
|
November – December |
The US presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore is disputed and ultimately resolved by the Supreme Court. |
Bush v. Gore ends the Florida recount and effectively settles one of the most contested US elections in modern history. |
2000 Timeline
Turn the page to: January · February · March · April · May · June · July · August · September · October · November · December · Major 2000 Political Events
· The US Presidential Election, November 2000 · Bill Clinton Visits Vietnam, November 2000
January
January 1: The new year is welcomed with millennium celebrations around the world, including major events in London and the opening of the Millennium Dome in Greenwich. Strictly speaking, the third millennium and the 21st century began on 1 January 2001 because the calendar has no year zero.
January 1: The Y2K rollover passes without the widespread computer failures that had been feared. Governments, businesses and technology companies had spent years identifying and repairing vulnerable systems, although some minor problems were reported.
January 1: Pope John Paul II opens the Holy Door at St Mary Major in Rome as part of the Catholic Church's Jubilee Year celebrations.
January 2: The Kosheh massacre takes place in Egypt, in which 20 people, predominantly Coptic Christians, are killed.
January 4: Bill Belichick is appointed head coach of the New England Patriots after resigning as head coach of the New York Jets.
January 4: Two trains collide near Åsta in Norway, killing 19 people.
January 4: Mark Cuban buys a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks for approximately $285 million.
January 4: Fiona Thornewill and Catherine Hartley become the first British women to reach the South Pole.
January 6: The last known Pyrenean ibex is found dead after being crushed by a falling tree, bringing the subspecies to extinction.
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January 10: America Online announces an agreement to acquire Time Warner in a deal valued at approximately $164 billion, creating AOL Time Warner in what was then the largest corporate merger in history.
January 13: Bill Gates steps down as chief executive of Microsoft and is succeeded by Steve Ballmer.
January 18: The Tagish Lake meteorite falls in northern British Columbia, Canada.
January 19: Michael Jordan announces his return to the NBA as part-owner and president of basketball operations of the Washington Wizards. He returned as a player the following year.
January 23: At the 57th Golden Globe Awards, American Beauty wins Best Motion Picture – Drama, while Toy Story 2wins Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
January 29: Lindsay Davenport wins the Australian Open women's singles title, defeating Martina Hingis and securing her third Grand Slam singles title.
January 29: Karl Malone becomes only the third NBA player to score 30,000 career points.
January 30: The St Louis Rams defeat the Tennessee Titans 23 – 16 in Super Bowl XXXIV.
January 30: Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after take-off from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, killing all 169 people aboard.
January 30: Andre Agassi wins the Australian Open men's singles title, defeating Yevgeny Kafelnikov and securing his sixth Grand Slam singles title.
January 31: Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashes into the Pacific Ocean off California. All 88 people aboard are killed.
January 31: Harold Shipman is sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering 15 of his patients. The subsequent Shipman Inquiry concludes that he probably killed at least 215 patients.
Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman
Image: Wikimedia Commons
February
February 5: Russian forces complete their capture of Grozny during the Second Chechen War.
February 9: Severe flooding begins in Mozambique after weeks of torrential rain. The disaster ultimately kills hundreds of people and displaces hundreds of thousands.
February 11: Royal Bank of Scotland wins the battle to acquire NatWest, creating one of Britain's largest banking groups.
February 12: Cartoonist Charles M. Schulz dies aged 77. The final original Peanuts strip is published the following day.
February 14: NASA's NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft enters orbit around the asteroid 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.
February 15: The Waterhouse report into child abuse in north Wales is published, exposing serious failures in the protection of children in care.
February 17: Microsoft releases Windows 2000.
February 21: UNESCO's International Mother Language Day is observed for the first time.
February 23: At the 42nd Grammy Awards, Christina Aguilera wins Best New Artist.
February 25: Victoria Climbié dies in London after months of severe abuse and neglect. Her death leads to a public inquiry that identifies serious failures by the agencies responsible for protecting her.
February 28: The head of British Nuclear Fuels resigns amid controversy surrounding safety at Sellafield.
February 29: 2000 is a leap year. Because it is divisible by 400, it is a leap year under the Gregorian calendar, making 2000 the first century year since 1600 to contain 29 February.
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March
March 10: The Nasdaq Composite reaches an intraday high of 5,132.52, marking the peak of the dot-com stock-market boom before technology shares begin a dramatic decline.
March 26: Vladimir Putin wins Russia's presidential election, securing a new political position from which he would dominate Russian politics for much of the following decades.
March 4: Sony launches the PlayStation 2 in Japan. It later becomes one of the most successful video-game consoles ever produced.
March 12: Pope John Paul II issues a historic apology for sins committed by members of the Catholic Church throughout history.
March 17: More than 500 members of the Ugandan Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God die in a mass killing at Kanungu. The incident is subsequently regarded as a mass murder-suicide.
March 18: England beat Italy 59–12 in the opening match of the inaugural Six Nations Championship.
March 21: NSYNC releases No Strings Attached, which becomes one of the year's biggest-selling albums.
March 26: American Beauty wins Best Picture at the 72nd Academy Awards, while Kevin Spacey and Hilary Swank win the leading acting awards.
March 30: Richard Branson is knighted for services to entrepreneurship.
March 31: Myra Hindley loses her latest legal challenge against the decision that her life sentence should mean life.
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April
April 3: A US federal judge rules that Microsoft violated antitrust law by maintaining an illegal monopoly in the personal-computer operating-system market.
April 8: A V-22 Osprey crashes during a test flight near Marana, Arizona, killing 19 US Marines.
April 9: American Beauty wins Best Film at the BAFTA Awards, while Pedro Almodóvar wins Best Director for All About My Mother.
April 11: Comerica Park in Detroit, Minute Maid Park in Houston and Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco all open.
April 14: Metallica files a lawsuit against Napster, beginning a major legal battle over online music sharing and copyright.
April 14: Kenneth Noye is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Stephen Cameron.
April 22: US federal agents seize six-year-old Elián González from his relatives in Miami after a highly publicised custody dispute. He is subsequently returned to his father in Cuba.
April 22: The UK's Big Number Change alters telephone numbering arrangements across Britain.
April 30: Faustina Kowalska is canonised by Pope John Paul II during the first worldwide celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday.
May
May 5: The ILOVEYOU computer worm begins spreading from the Philippines, infecting millions of computers worldwide and causing billions of dollars in estimated damage.
May 1: Gladiator, starring Russell Crowe and directed by Ridley Scott, premieres in Los Angeles. It goes on to win five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
May 1: Anti-capitalist protests in London turn violent, with damage caused around Parliament Square and Trafalgar Square.
May 2: President Bill Clinton announces that the United States will discontinue the deliberate degradation of civilian GPS signals, greatly improving the accuracy available to civilian users.
May 3: The first geocache is placed in Oregon, marking the beginning of modern geocaching.
May 4: Ken Livingstone becomes the first elected Mayor of London.
May 4: An earthquake in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, kills dozens of people.
May 11: India's population officially passes one billion.
May 11: Croydon Tramlink opens, bringing tram services back to London.
May 12: Tate Modern opens to the public in London's former Bankside Power Station.
May 13: A fireworks factory explosion in Enschede, the Netherlands, kills 23 people and injures almost 1,000.
May 13: Denmark wins the Eurovision Song Contest with Fly on the Wings of Love.
May 14: Manchester United win the Premier League title.
May 20: Chelsea defeat Aston Villa 1 – 0 in the FA Cup final, the last FA Cup final played at the old Wembley Stadium.
May 23: Eminem releases The Marshall Mathers LP, which becomes one of the fastest-selling albums in US music history.
May 24: Real Madrid defeat Valencia 3 – 0 in the UEFA Champions League final.
May 25: Israel withdraws its forces from most of southern Lebanon after 18 years of occupation.
May 25: Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark, starring Björk, wins the Palme d'Or at Cannes.
May 26: Science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke is knighted for services to literature.
June
June 10: The Millennium Bridge opens in London. It is closed two days later after developing an unexpected lateral sway caused by the movement of pedestrians.
June 12: Euro 2000 begins in Belgium and the Netherlands.
June 13: The first inter-Korean summit begins in Pyongyang, bringing South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il together.
June 18: Tiger Woods wins the US Open by a record 15 strokes, his third major championship.
June 19: The Los Angeles Lakers defeat the Indiana Pacers to win the NBA championship.
June 21: Scotland votes to repeal Section 28, which restricted the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities. The provision was subsequently removed from the rest of Great Britain in 2003.
June 23: The MV Treasure sinks off South Africa, causing an oil spill that affects thousands of African penguins and triggers one of the world's largest bird-rescue operations.
June 26: An international scientific team announces the completion of a working draft of the human genome sequence, marking a landmark achievement in genetics.
June 30: Nine people die during a Pearl Jam performance at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark when a crowd surge causes people to fall.
July
July 1: The Øresund Bridge opens, linking Denmark and Sweden.
July 2: Vicente Fox wins Mexico's presidential election, ending more than 70 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
July 2: France defeat Italy 2 – 1 in the Euro 2000 final, with David Trezeguet scoring the golden goal in extra time.
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July 8: Venus Williams wins her first Grand Slam singles title at Wimbledon.
July 8: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is published in Britain and the United States, becoming a major publishing phenomenon.
July 9: Pete Sampras wins his seventh Wimbledon men's singles title and his 13th Grand Slam title.
July 10: EADS, one of the world's largest aerospace companies, is established.
July 10: A petroleum-pipeline explosion in southern Nigeria kills hundreds of people who had gathered to collect leaking fuel.
July 10: Coldplay release their debut album, Parachutes.
July 14: The Bastille Day solar storm produces one of the most powerful geomagnetic storms of the modern space age.
July 14: The first UK series of Big Brother begins on Channel 4, helping make reality television a mainstream phenomenon in Britain.
July 17: The body of six-year-old Sarah Payne is found in West Sussex after she disappeared 16 days earlier. The case leads to a major national debate about child protection and sex offenders.
July 20: The Ford Escort, one of Britain's best-known cars, ends production after 32 years.
July 25: Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde, crashes shortly after take-off from Paris. All 109 people aboard and four people on the ground are killed.
July 28: The last prisoners leave the Maze Prison as part of the Northern Ireland peace process.
American tennis player Lindsay Davenport
Image: Wikimedia Commons
August
August 12: The Russian submarine Kursk suffers catastrophic explosions and sinks in the Barents Sea. All 118 people aboard die, and the disaster becomes one of the defining tragedies of Vladimir Putin's first year as president.
August 1: The Jarvik 2000 artificial heart is implanted in a patient, representing a significant advance in artificial-heart technology.
August 4: Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, celebrates her 100th birthday.
August 5: Sir Alec Guinness dies aged 86.
August 8: The Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley is raised from the seabed off South Carolina, 136 years after it sank.
August 16: The US Environmental Protection Agency is found liable for discrimination against Dr Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, a case that later contributes to the passage of the No FEAR Act.
August 23: Gulf Air Flight 072 crashes into the Persian Gulf near Bahrain, killing all 143 people aboard.
August 24: Nintendo unveils the GameCube prototype at the Nintendo Space World exhibition.
August 26: Australia wins the inaugural Tri-Nations rugby championship.
August 27: A fire breaks out in Moscow's Ostankino Tower, killing three people and severely damaging the television tower.
September
September 15: The Sydney Olympic Games open in Australia. The Games become one of the defining international events of 2000 and run until 1 October.
September 6: World leaders gather at the United Nations for the Millennium Summit.
September 7: Eminem and Aaliyah are among the major winners at the MTV Video Music Awards.
September 10: Marat Safin defeats Pete Sampras to win the US Open men's singles title.
September 10: Operation Barras rescues five British soldiers held hostage by rebels in Sierra Leone.
September 10: Cats closes on Broadway after an 18-year run.
September 12: The Netherlands becomes the first country to legalise same-sex marriage.
September 16: Sammy Sosa becomes the second player, after Mark McGwire, to hit at least 50 home runs in three consecutive seasons.
September 19: Ken Griffey Jr hits his 400th career home run.
September 20: The RSA public-key cryptography patent expires, helping remove a significant legal barrier to widespread use of the technology.
September 26: Anti-globalisation protests in Prague turn violent during meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
September 26: The ferry Express Samina sinks near Paros, Greece, killing 81 people.
September 29: The Maze Prison in Northern Ireland closes permanently.
American rapper Eminem
Image: Wikimedia Commons
October
October 5: Mass demonstrations in Belgrade force Slobodan Milošević from power in the Bulldozer Revolution.
October 7: Germany defeat England 1 – 0 in the final competitive football match played at the old Wembley Stadium.
October 8: Michael Schumacher wins the Japanese Grand Prix and secures his first Formula One World Championship with Ferrari.
October 11: Space Shuttle Discovery launches STS-92, the 100th Space Shuttle mission.
October 12: The USS Cole is attacked by suicide bombers in Aden, Yemen. Seventeen US sailors are killed and dozens more are injured.
October 15: Curb Your Enthusiasm, created by Larry David, premieres on HBO.
October 17: The Hatfield rail crash kills four people and exposes serious problems with Britain's railway infrastructure, contributing to the collapse of Railtrack.
October 23: The New York Jets complete a remarkable comeback against the Miami Dolphins, overcoming a 23-point deficit to win 40–37 in overtime in the 'Monday Night Miracle'.
October 24: Linkin Park release their debut album, Hybrid Theory.
October 26: The New York Yankees defeat the New York Mets in Game 5 of the World Series, taking a 3 – 2 lead in the Subway Series.
October 31: Singapore Airlines Flight 006 crashes on take-off from Taipei after striking construction equipment on the runway, killing 83 people.
November
November 2: The first permanent crew arrives aboard the International Space Station. NASA astronaut William Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev begin Expedition 1, marking the start of continuous human presence aboard the ISS.
November 7: The US presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore is too close to call, with the result depending on the disputed Florida vote.
November 7: Hillary Rodham Clinton is elected to the US Senate, becoming the first former First Lady elected to public office.
November 7: Margaret Atwood wins the Booker Prize for The Blind Assassin.
November 11: A funicular railway catches fire in a tunnel near Kaprun, Austria, killing 155 people.
November 13: The Beatles release 1, a compilation of their UK and US number-one singles.
November 15: The Indian state of Jharkhand is created.
November 16: Bill Clinton becomes the first sitting US president to visit Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War.
November 17: Alberto Fujimori resigns as president of Peru after a corruption scandal and political crisis.
November 28: Ukrainian politician Oleksandr Moroz releases secret recordings that fuel allegations surrounding President Leonid Kuchma and the disappearance of journalist Georgiy Gongadze.
President George W. Bush
Image: Flickr
December
December 12: In Bush v. Gore, the US Supreme Court rules that the Florida recount cannot continue, effectively ending the recount and resolving the 2000 presidential election in George W. Bush's favour.
December 13: Al Gore concedes the presidential election, formally ending the contest.
December 15: The final operating reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is shut down, bringing the station's electricity-generating era to an end.
December 22: Madonna marries film director Guy Ritchie at Skibo Castle in Scotland.
December 24: Coordinated bombings of churches in Indonesia on Christmas Eve kill 19 people and injure many more.
December 25: A fire at a shopping centre in Luoyang, China, kills 309 people.
December 28: Montgomery Ward, one of America's oldest department-store chains, announces that it will cease operations after 128 years.
December 29: Severe winter weather affects Britain, with heavy snow and very low temperatures causing widespread disruption to roads and railways.
December 30: A series of bombings in Metro Manila on Rizal Day kills 22 people and injures more than 100.
December 31: The Millennium Dome closes after its first year of operation.
The millennium year
2000 was a defining year in the transition from the 20th to the 21st century. Millions of people around the world marked the arrival of the year with millennium celebrations, while Britain opened the Millennium Dome in Greenwich and unveiled the Millennium Bridge in London. The celebrations made 2000 one of the most recognisable years of the modern era.
Although the 21st century and third millennium technically began on 1 January 2001, 2000 was widely treated as the beginning of a new age. The year became associated with futuristic technology, the internet, space exploration and a rapidly changing world, helping explain why images of 2000 still define popular ideas about what "the future" looked like.
The Y2K bug: what actually happened
The Y2K bug was one of the biggest technological fears surrounding the arrival of 2000. Many older computer systems stored years using only two digits, creating the possibility that "00" could be interpreted as 1900 rather than 2000 and cause errors in software, databases and other systems.
Governments, banks, businesses and technology companies spent years identifying vulnerable systems, replacing software and testing critical infrastructure. When midnight arrived on 1 January 2000, the predicted worldwide computer catastrophe did not occur. Some isolated problems were reported, but the largely uneventful rollover was widely regarded as evidence of the effectiveness of the enormous international effort to prepare for it.
2000 in culture
2000 was a major year for popular culture, with The Sims becoming a hugely successful new gaming franchise and Sony's PlayStation 2 launching in Japan before reaching Western markets later that year. Gladiator became one of the year's biggest films, while the first UK series of Big Brother helped turn reality television into a mainstream phenomenon.
Music also captured the sound of the year, with Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP and NSYNC's No Strings Attached among the biggest-selling albums of 2000. At the same time, the dot-com boom gave the internet a powerful cultural presence, with the excitement surrounding new technology helping shape the popular image of the millennium as the beginning of a futuristic age.
Frequently asked questions about 2000
What major events happened in the year 2000?
Six major events of 2000 were the millennium celebrations and opening of the Millennium Dome on 1 January, the PlayStation 2 launch in Japan on 4 March, the Concorde crash on 25 July, the opening of the Sydney Olympics on 15 September, the Hatfield rail crash on 17 October, and the US presidential election on 7 November, which led to the disputed Florida recount and Bush v. Gore.
What was 2000 famous for?
The year 2000 was famous for the millennium celebrations, the worldwide Y2K scare, the Sydney Olympic Games, the launch of the PlayStation 2, the rise of reality television through Big Brother, and the disputed US presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. It was also the year the dot-com boom reached its peak and the first permanent crew arrived at the International Space Station.
How many years ago was 2000?
The year 2000 was 26 years ago in 2026.
Was the year 2000 the start of the new millennium?
The year 2000 was widely celebrated as the start of the new millennium, but technically the third millennium and the 21st century began on 1 January 2001 because the calendar has no year zero. The distinction did not prevent 2000 from becoming synonymous with the millennium in popular culture and public celebrations.
Born in 2000?
If you were born in 2000, you turn 26 in 2026. You were born during the year of the millennium celebrations, the Y2K scare, the launch of the PlayStation 2, the Sydney Olympics and the first UK series of Big Brother. The internet was rapidly becoming part of everyday life, mobile phones were spreading quickly, and the dot-com boom was at its height, making 2000 a particularly memorable year to be born.
Looking back at 2000 also shows how different the world was when you arrived. The first permanent crew had just moved aboard the International Space Station, the PlayStation 2 was new, Gladiator was in cinemas, and the biggest news stories were still being delivered through printed newspapers and television rather than smartphones and social media.
Married in 2000?
Celebrate a 2000 wedding anniversary with a newspaper from the year you began your married life, or surprise a couple with an Anniversary Newspaper Book featuring the headlines from their special year.
Explore our 1999 timeline to see what happened the year before, or continue to our 2001 timeline to discover what followed. You can also browse and own our original newspapers to see the original headlines from the year.
For an even more personal keepsake, discover our birthday newspaper books and find the front page from the exact day you were born and every birthday after.
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