Editorial
Front Page - Friday, January 1, 2010
Are We There Yet?
The decade that was
Jay Edwards
The years teach much which the days never know. — Emerson
The decade that began on Jan. 1, 2000, ended last night at midnight. Was Y2K really 10 years ago?
Kathy and I were in Dallas that week, with my brother and his wife, to watch Arkansas play Texas. It was a beautiful cold, clear morning at the 64th Cotton Bowl Classic between two old rivals who hadn’t seen each other since 1991, back in Austin, when the Hogs bid farewell to the Horns and the rest of the Southwest Conference with a 14-13 victory.
Jan. 1, 2000, it was the good guys again winning the game, with a blowout second half orchestrated by the Reverend Nutt, with help from a fast freshman named Cobbs.
We left Dallas the next day, wholly satisfied and optimistic about next year.
Two weeks later the Dow Jones Industrial Average would close at 11,722.98, which some say was the peak of the Dot-com bubble. As I write this a decade later, the index is around a thousand points less.
More from 2000:
After originating in The Philippines, the ILOVEYOU computer virus spread quickly throughout the world.
The billionth living person in India was born.
Elian Gonzalez returned to Cuba with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, ending a protracted custody battle.
Presidential Republican candidate Texas Governor George W. Bush defeated Democratic Vice President Al Gore in the closest election in history, but the final outcome was not known for over a month because of disputed votes in Florida. The U.S. Supreme Court finally stopped the Florida presidential recount, effectively giving the state, and the presidency, to George W. Bush.
U.S. retail giant Montgomery Ward announced it was going out of business after 128 years.
“American Beauty” won best picture.
Notable deaths — Tom Landry and Charles Schultz both died on February 12.
In 2001 Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore had a 2 1/2-ton monument of the Ten Commandments installed in the rotunda of the Judiciary Building in Montgomery. He was later sued to have it removed, and eventually removed from office.
On Sept. 11, 2001, almost 3,000 were killed in attacks at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in rural Shanksville, Penn.
Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Notable deaths — Dale Earnhardt and Joey Ramone.
Barry Bonds and Jennifer Capriati were the Associated Press Athletes of the Year.
In 2002 kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was murdered in Karachi, Pakistan.
In Houston, Texas, Andrea Yates was found guilty of drowning her 5 children on June 20, 2001. She was later sentenced to life in prison.
WorldCom filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
FBI agent Robert Hanssen was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for selling American secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.
The Dot-com bubble bear market reached its bottom, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average slips below 7,200.
United Airlines, the second largest airline in the world, filed for bankruptcy.
Kelly Clarkson won the first season of American Idol.
Notable deaths were Sam Snead, Linda Lovelace and John Gotti.
In 2003 the last signal was received from NASA’s Pioneer 10 spacecraft, some 7.5 billion miles from Earth.
At the conclusion of the STS-107 mission, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry over Texas, killing all seven astronauts on board.
In March 2003, the invasion of Iraq began.
In May scientists cloned a deer named Dewey and a horse named Prometea.
Martha Stewart and her broker were indicted for using privileged investment information and then obstructing a federal investigation.
Sudan Airways Flight 39, with 117 people on board, crashed in Sudan; the only survivor was a 2-year-old child.
Pizza deliveryman turned bank robber Brian Douglas Wells was killed in Pennsylvania when a time bomb around his neck exploded, allegedly in an act of betrayal by his co-conspirators.
Gary Ridgway, the “Green River Killer,” confessed to murdering 48 women.
Tampa Bay beat Oakland in the Super Bowl. What a difference seven years makes.
Notable 2003 deaths – Fred Rogers, Idi Amin, George Fisher, June and Johnny Cash.
In February 2004, Facebook was founded in Cambridge, Massachussetts.
Scientists in South Korea announced the cloning of 30 human embryos.
The last Oldsmobile, an Alero, rolled off of the assembly line in Michigan.
President George W. Bush defeated Senator John Kerry. Republicans gained in both the House and Senate.
Eleven American states banned gay marriage.
The NBA’s Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons engaged in a brawl that involved fans and players. The incident got Pacer Ron Artest suspended for the remainder of the season.
Notable deaths – Ronald Reagan, Ray Charles, Marlon Brando, Fay Wray, Julia Child, Johnny Ramone, Rodney Dangerfield, Yassar Arafat, Reggie White.
To be continued ...
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