1999
Euro introduced
Eleven European nations adopted a common currency for electronic transactions, the culmination of decades of economic integration; notes and coins would follow three years later. The long postwar project of European economic integration had reached its boldest and most ambitious expression. For the first time in centuries, Germans and Frenchmen paid their bills in the same money.
East Timor votes for independence
East Timorese voters overwhelmingly chose independence from Indonesia in a UN-supervised referendum after twenty-four years of brutal occupation. Indonesian-backed militias responded with a rampage that killed over a thousand and destroyed most of the country's infrastructure in a scorched-earth campaign. An Australian-led peacekeeping force finally intervened. East Timor would become the twenty-first century's first new nation.
Y2K and the millennium
As the last midnight of the century rolled around the time zones, engineers held their breath over the Y2K computer bug. Planes did not fall. Power stayed on. A world that had expected catastrophe found itself celebrating with fireworks on six continents. A new century was beginning, less frightened, perhaps, than it should have been.
Napster upends music
A nineteen-year-old Northeastern University student named Shawn Fanning wrote a program that let users share MP3 files of music directly with each other over the internet. Within a year Napster had tens of millions of users and the record industry was suing in a panic. The twenty-first century would belong to file sharing, streaming, and heartbroken labels.
Macau returned to China
At midnight four centuries of Portuguese rule over the Pearl River estuary enclave of Macau ended and the territory became a special administrative region of the People's Republic. The last European colony in Asia had been handed over. Portugal's global empire, launched in the fifteenth century, was finally and completely wound up.
NATO bombs Yugoslavia
Over seventy-eight days, NATO planes bombed Serbian targets without UN authorization, trying to stop the expulsion of Albanians from Kosovo. Slobodan Milosevic eventually pulled his forces back. Kosovo became a NATO protectorate. It was the first time the alliance had fought an offensive war. A new model of humanitarian intervention had arrived.
Columbine High School shooting
Two teenagers walked into their Colorado high school with shotguns, rifles, and pipe bombs and killed thirteen classmates and teachers before shooting themselves. It was not the first American school shooting, but it entered national consciousness as a template. Mass shootings at American schools would become a recurring feature of the new century.
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Frequently asked
What happened in the year 1999?
Saeculum lists 8 curated events from 1999. The most significant is Euro introduced: Eleven European nations adopted a common currency for electronic transactions, the culmination of decades of economic integration; notes and coins…
What era was 1999 part of?
1999 falls within the Modern Era (1901-2000). World wars, cold war, and the splitting of the atom.
Which regions saw notable events in 1999?
The curated events from 1999 span Europe, Southeast Asia, Oceania, North America and East Asia.