Henkels & McCoy responds to the nation's thirst for bandwidth as usage of the Internet explodes; engineering and constructing backbone, metropolitan and local plant, both inside and outside, from coast to coast and internationally… H&M plows 100 miles of four nine-inch HDPE conduit for CapRock Communications through rocky, dusty soil in drought-stricken Chickasha, Oklahoma using a ripper plow, which pulled by a tractor, opens a ditch in the ground to a depth of five feet. H&M's portion of the project is part of an optic ring starting in Dallas, Texas extending to Fort Worth, Wichita Falls, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Fort Smith and Little Rock, Arkansas, to Monroe and to Shreveport in Louisiana, and then back to Dallas… The Northwest Division bores 3,000 feet at a depth of 50 feet below the surface of the Willamette River in Oregon in an environmentally-sensitive segment of a 48-mile installation for Williams Communications' Asia-Pacific Cable Network. The company is later praised for its high level of professionalism by both the client, Williams Communications, and the local environmental group, Heritage Research... Long time employee Ray Uccelletti retires from a Henkels & McCoy career which began in 1947. Ray began as a laborer earning 63 cents an hour and over the years since 1949 worked in a variety of capacities as a foreman (laying gas and water pipe, telephone and duct work, corrosion control coating) before becoming Transportation Coordinator… Also retiring this year is the legendary Norris H. Anders, who rose from laborer to Manager to Division Manager to Senior Vice President in a career which started in 1957. Norris' approach to hard work gave him experience in line clearing and landscaping, installing telephones, and gas and electric work as well as administration work. He became a manager of the fledgling Pipeline Division and oversaw many breakthrough projects in that capacity, earning him the admiration and respect of the entire company... A set of two severe ice storms cripples Arkansas and wipes out power supplies to thousands of utility customers. Thousands are also without running water. Damages are estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Henkels & McCoy responds as part of an army of emergency workers from twenty-four states. The crews work through the Christmas holidays to restore power. In a letter sent to Henkels & McCoy, Arkansa Governor Mike Huckabee thanks the company and states, "you are nothing less than a hero in the eyes of all Arkansas." In a similar letter, the president of Entergy Distribution Services thanks H&M "for the response and the great job that was safely done."
 January 1
Happy New Year! Families are reunited. The lights work. ATMs function properly. Airplanes take off and land safely. Computers display the correct date. Utility bills soon arrive (and are mostly correct). Bank accounts are not erased. Everything works just fine. What was all the Y2K fuss about?
January 3
The final original Peanuts comic strip is published. Strip originator Charles Schultz is very ill.
 January 5-8
The 2000 al Qaeda Summit is held at a secret location. Right: Osama bin Ladin.
January 10
America Online announces an agreement to buy Time Warner for $162 billion.
January 14
A UN tribunal sentences five Bosnian Croats up to 25 years for the 1993 killing of over 100 Muslims in a Bosnian village.
January 30
Super Bowl XXXIV: Saint Louis Rams defeat Tennessee Titans 23-16.
 January 22
George W. Bush and Al Gore (left) take Iowa caucuses in US presidential race for their respective parties, helping both candidates solidify their base for the upcoming primaries.
February 6
First Lady Hillary Clinton officially enters N.Y. Senate race.
February 11
Britain ends self-rule in Northern Ireland after Irish Republican Army misses Disarmament deadline.
February 14
NEAR spacecraft becomes first to orbit an asteroid
February 25
Wary investors cause stock plunge. It’s the beginning of the end of the Internet stock boom as tech stocks plummet.
February 26
Reformists win control of Iranian parliament for first time since 1979 Islamic revolution. The country has a moderate as president; Iran’s mullahs still exercise an iron grip over the country, however.
March 17
Gun maker Smith & Wesson limits the manufacture and distribution of handguns in light of lawsuits
 March 26
Following national elections, acting Russian president and ex-KGB head Vladimir Putin (right) is formally elected for the post.
April 3
Microsoft loses its antitrust suit; an appeal is expected.
April 7
Mars Odyssey is launched.
April 8
Controversial Osprey plane crash kills 19 US Marines.
 April 22
Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez is reunited with his father (left) after federal raid of Miami relatives' home.
April 25
Vermont passes a bill legalizing Civil Unions for same-sex couples.
May 4
The "I love you virus" disrupts computers worldwide. Emails containing "I Love You" in the subject line, erases hard drives upon opening.
May 18
Look away! South Carolina removes Confederate battle flag from state capitol dome.
May 24
Chile ends Augusto Pinochet's immunity, clearing the way for a trial on murder and torture charges stemming from his years as dictator.
May 24
Israeli troops withdraw from Lebanese security zone after 22 years of occupation.
May 29
Former Indonesian president Suharto is placed under house arrest, charged with corruption and abuse of power.
June 4
Britain restores parliamentary powers to Northern Ireland after Sinn Fein (translated as "Ourselves Alone"), the political arm of the Irish Republican Army agrees to disarm.
June 15
Presidents of North and South Korea sign peace accord, ending half-century of antagonism and brinkmanship.
June 23
Elian Gonzalez returns to Cuba with his father.
June 26
Human genome deciphered; expected to revolutionize the practice of medicine.
June 30
Iraq is widely believed to resume secret missile program despite ban following first Gulf War in 1991.
July 2
Vicente Fox Quesada is elected president of Mexico in an upset victory for the National Action Party. The ruling party is overturned for the first time since 1911.
 July 25
Concorde crash kills 113 near Paris when the aircraft’s tires pick up metal debris from the tarmac and propel it into the engines, causing a fuel leakage and subsequent explosion as the aircraft attempts takeoff. All 109 passengers and crew are killed, as well as five persons on the ground. The crash destroys the aircraft’s safety reputation. Despite improvements in design to prevent a similar accident in the future, the supersonic airliner is doomed.
August 2
GOP convention formally chooses Texas Governor George W. Bush as its presidential candidate; Dick Cheney for vice presidential spot, in Philadelphia.
 August 14
Democratic Convention selects Vice President Al Gore and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman.
September 6
The UN Millennium Summit hosts more than 180 world leaders in New York City.
September 15
Olympic Games open in Australia.
September 20
Whitewater investigation of Bill and Hillary Clinton ends without indictments after six years of fact finding and over seventy millions of dollars of taxpayer’s money.
 September 30
Following a provocative visit to a joint Jewish-Muslin holy place by Israeli right wing party leader Ariel Sharon and several hundred armed followers, Palestinians and Israelis clash violently and dash the hopes for peace in the region.
October 5
A nationwide uprising overthrows Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic (right).
October 12
Seventeen US sailors aboard the USS Cole are killed and 39 are wounded in a terrorist bombing when a high-explosives laden small craft hits the Cole amidships, as it lays at anchor outside a Yemen port.
 November 7
The US presidential election closest in decades; George Bush's slim lead in Florida leads to an automatic recount in that state. Hillary Clinton wins NY Senate seat. She will be the first former First Lady to hold elective office.
November 11
Republicans file a federal lawsuit to try to block the manual recount of Florida presidential election ballots sought by Democrats.
November 16
Bill Clinton is first sitting US President to visit a reunified Vietnam.
 November 21
Florida Supreme Court rules that the hand count of ballots may continue. "Hanging Chad" enters the lexicon as volunteers meticulously examine each and every punch card in the state. A chad (background, right) is that tiny bit of paper that should be completely missing when the ballot is punched.
November 26
Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris (bottom left) certifies George W. Bush as the winner of the US Presidential contest in Florida by a total 537 votes.
November 30
Mad Cow disease alarms Europe. The disease, which causes brain damage and eventually death, is passed on to humans who eat contaminated beef. There is no known cure.
December 9
Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak resigns.
December 9
US Supreme Court orders halt to manual recount of presidential votes in Florida. Three days later the Court seals Bush victory by 5–4; rules there can be no further recounting.
December 31
It is the last day of the 20th Century. Really.
ALSO IN 2000:
 The USS New Jersey, (right) christened in 1943 and decommissioned in 1999, is delivered to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, the site where the battleship was constructed. Seeing action in the Pacific Theatre in World War II, in the Korean War, during the Vietnam War era and off the coast of Lebanon, "Big J" is the most decorated vessel in US naval history. She will become a floating museum in Camden, NJ, within sight of the city in which she was born.
What's on TV
Survivor debuts on CBS, spawning a rash of so-called reality shows on television.
 That's Show Biz
Multiplex offerings in 2000 include Gladiator, O Brother Where art Thou?, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Deaths
Walter Matthau, 79, (top right) actor (The Fortune Cookie, The Odd Couple, Charade, Grumpy Old Men)
Sam Jaffe, actor (Ben Casey, Ben Hur)
Hedy Lamarr, actress
Charles Schulz, 77, creator of the Peanuts comic strip
Screamin' Jay Hawkins, 70, American rock musician
Tom Landry, former Dallas Cowboys football coach
Ian Dury, 57, English rock musician
Douglas Fairbanks Jr., actor
 Jean Pierre Rampal, classical flutist
Sir John Gielgud, 96, actor
Barbara Cartland, romance novel author
Hafez al-Assad, 69, president of Syria
Vittorio Gassmann, 78, actor
Pierre Trudeau, 80, former prime minister of Canada
Steve Allen, comedian, composer, talk show host, author
Victor Borge, 91, humorist and pianist
Sir Alec Guinness, 86, (right) versatile British actor (Lavender Hill Mob,
Star Wars, Bridge on the River Kwai, Oliver Twist,
The Man in the White Suit)
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