To celebrate 15 years of “bringing the light,” we’ve been looking back to the year 1999 and the events that dominated our culture during that time. In November 1999, as Pegasus Lighting was ramping up its first-ever online store, the millennium was quickly drawing to an end. Step back with us while we revisit some of its most memorable moments.
1. President Clinton enters cyberspace when he conducts the first virtual town hall. According to an article published in The New York Times on November 9, 1999, “The president appeared in a tiny video box, and could be seen — albeit sometimes just barely — putting his hand to his chin, sipping from a soda can and looking amused at the entire extravaganza.” (Photo credit: J. Scott Applewhite via SFGate)
2. Just in time for holiday shopping, Amazon announces that it will expand its offering beyond just books. They’ll be adding software, video games, home improvement products and gifts to their online offering.
3. Football hero Walter Payton (a.k.a. “Sweetness”) dies at age 45 from complications of a rare liver disease. (via ESPN.com)
4. China launches its first spacecraft. The Shenzhou orbited earth 14 times before returning less than 24 hours later. (via EDN)
5. November 19, 1999 The Oddest Day – The LA Times noted that 11/19/99 would be the last day of your life in which all digits of the date would be odd. This won’t happen again until 1/1/3111.
6. Tiger Woods wins his fourth consecutive PGA Tour and becomes the first to win $6 million in one year on tour. (via PGA Tour)
7. Woody and Buzz are restored to fame when Toy Story 2 debuts and becomes an even bigger success than the original. (via Teaser Trailer)
8. Wayne Gretzky is inducted into the Hall of Fame. (via Legends of Hockey)
9. Pokemon: The First Movie hits the big screen raking in a whopping $31 million+ during its opening weekend.
10. Encyclopedia Britannica, which once lined the bookshelves of most US households, launches its website … and crashes after two weeks because too many people logged on to its free search. (Photo via Finding Napoleon)
11. Mambo No. 5 by Lou Bega spends a few weeks as the Top Pop song, though Santana’s Smooth still holds the top spot for overall popularity across all the music genres, according to Billboard.
1999 was a year of massive growth in the online world. The internet was here to stay, and it’s no surprise that this was the year that Pegasus Lighting took our business online. In November 1999 , the world’s greatest technology companies gathered in Las Vegas for the 20th Annual Computer Dealers Exhibition (COMDEX) to learn about the latest innovations in computing. Our last four November pop culture items were highlighted or debuted at this event.
12. Microsoft’s Bill Gates is the Keynote speaker at COMDEX and introduces Windows 2000, promising that it will be much more reliable than its predecessor, Windows 98.
13. The QBe (pronounced “Cube”) tablet is exhibited with plans to start shipping in Spring of 2000 at a price of $4,495. (via Imaging Resource)
14. Bluetooth wireless technology is unveiled by Ericsson as a lightweight wireless headset that can work from “up to 10 metres away from phone.”
15. MP3 players get lots of attention at the show. If hashtags existed, they would have totally had one. (via Marc Merlin)
Do you remember how new and exciting the internet was? Did you ever think it would become what it is today?
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