January 1- Millennium celebrations take place throughout the world. Y2K passes without the serious, widespread computer failures and malfunctions that had been predicted.
March 10 - The NASDAQ Composite Index reaches an all-time high of 5048 ([1]http://dynamic.nasdaq.com/dynamic/IndexChart.asp?symbol=IXIC&desc=NASDAQ+Composi
te&sec=nasdaq&site=nasdaq&months=84 )
April 22 - In a predawn raid, federal agents seize six-year old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami, Florida and fly him to his Cuban father in Washington, DC ending one of the most publicized custody battles in US history.
September 28 - Ariel Sharon leads several hundred armed Israelis in a visit to the Temple Mount, provoking an increase in Palestinian civil disorder which developed into the Al-Aqsa_Intifada.
Limited reintroduction of routinely armed police in the UK for the first time since 1936.
Mexico - Vicente Fox becomes the first opposition President to take power since Francisco I. Madero in 1911. He wins the Presidency as candidate of the rightist PAN (National Action Party).
The New Year, people, companies, countries and much of the world was fearing the worst, planes falling out of the sky, electricity grids and essential services collapsing. What people feared was not the apocalypse but the Y2K bug - a computer problem that many feared would result in many computers not recognising the new year. The more important problem for computer-related companies this year, however, was the dotcom collapse that started in February and lasted well into 2001.