Ep. 42 Y2K with Peter de Jager: How an Actual Threat Was Twisted Into a Comical "Hoax"
- Author
- Shea LaFountaine
- Published
- Sun 31 Dec 2023
- Episode Link
- None
As the clocks ticked down to midnight on December 31st, 1999, as each final second of the last millennium slipped away, people all over the world collectively held their breath. If all the hype was to be believed, if the Y2K threats were real, their New Years merrymaking - the fireworks, the champagne, the confetti - might all come crashing down amidst terror and chaos, the apocalypse. Would the power go out? Would planes fall out of the sky? Would there be some giant explosion? What was going to happen? There was only one way to find out. [count down audio]. And then… nothing. Nothing happened. In the decades since, Y2K or the “Millennium Bug” has been dismissed as nothing more than a hoax, media hype gone way too far. But did you know, the threat was more real than many of us realize? Let’s fix that.
Check out Peter's podcast Y2K: An Autobiography for more!
www.historyfixpodcast.com
Sources:
- Y2K: An Autobiography podcast by Peter de Jager
- National Geographic "Y2K Bug"
- National Museum of American History "Y2K"
- Time Magazine "20 Years Later the Y2K Bug Seems Like a Joke - Because Those Behind the Scenes Took It Seriously"
- The Guardian "The Millennium Bug Was Real"
- The Washington Post "Lessons of Y2K, 20 Years Later"
- Forbes "Apocalypse Then: When Y2K Didn't Lead to the End of Civilization"
- The Conversation "If you think the millennium bug was a hoax, here comes a history lesson"
- Computerworld "Some Key Facts and Events in Y2K History"
- Computerworld "Have we learned nothing from Y2K?"
- New York Post "Y2K Bug Was Real..."
- The New York Times "The Town Crier for the Year 2000"
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