A Look Back at Y2K

9 artifacts in this set

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The turn of the calendar from 1999 into the year 2000 was cause for celebration but also cause for concern--at least the media made sure it was hyped that way! Would the Y2K computer bug at the turn of the millennium cause the end of the world as we knew it? Most of us didn't want to believe it was possible, but we stocked up on cases of water and partied like no one's business on New Year's Eve just to make sure!

Detailed Description

Y2K Bug, circa 1999

Stuffed toy

As the millennium approached, the Y2K bug made many people nervous! Early computer programs often used two-digit dates to designate the year to save memory and storage, which were expensive. Would this "bug" trigger computer system errors--causing crucial infrastructure like utilities to fail as midnight hit? This friendly-looking bug was out to protect computers from nasty Y2K ones. It must have worked--very few computer failures were reported.