The archive / Technology and the internet
1997–2000 · Worldwide
Computers will crash at the millennium!
The millennium bug
Panic meter
The verdict
The world spent hundreds of billions of dollars to stop computers reading 2000 as 1900. Almost nothing happened – but why is still debated.
Reality meter
What was said?
Many older computer systems stored years using two digits. At the turn of the year 2000, "00" could be read as 1900. The media warned that aeroplanes would fall from the sky, power grids would go dark and banks would lose money, and some people stockpiled food and water.
The verdict: what happened next?
The problem was real, and companies and public authorities devoted enormous resources to fixing the code. On New Year's Day 2000 only minor glitches occurred, such as signs displaying the year 1900.
It is still debated whether the alarm was overblown or whether the work averted disaster. Probably both: the doomsday scenarios were exaggerated, but the bugs would have caused trouble if nobody had done anything.
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