Year 2000: Fun Facts, Trivia, and History
This quick read presents a mix of fun facts, trivia, and history events from the year 2000.
This quick read presents a mix of fun facts, trivia, and history events from the year 2000. Discover the year’s top news stories, most influential people, sports facts, retail prices, computer and Internet history, entertainment trivia, and much more.
Take a journey through history in just minutes.
Bill Clinton was the president of the United States, and Al Gore was the nation’s vice president.
The U.S. population was 281,421,906. Census.gov tells us that “Population growth varied significantly by region in the 1990s, with higher rates in the West (19.7 percent) and South (17.3 percent) and much lower rates in the Midwest (7.9 percent) and Northeast (5.5 percent).”
The average inflation rate for the year was 3.36%, and the nation’s unemployment rate hovered around 4.0%.
The median price of a new house was $169,000, and the average price was $207,000.
The average annual household income was $40,343.
A gallon of gas cost $1.26, and the price of a first-class stamp was 34 cents.
Gisborne, New Zealand, was the first city in the world to welcome in the new millennium.
Very few computer malfunctions were reported worldwide when the clocks rolled over into the year 2000.
In January, America Online (AOL) bought Time Warner for $165 billion, which was the biggest corporate merger in U.S. history up to that time.
In 2000, the last original Peanuts comic strip was published. The end date was January 3 for daily newspapers and February 13 for the Sunday edition.
On January 13, Bill Gates stepped down as the CEO of Microsoft 25 years after founding the company. He handed over the day-to-day operations of the software giant to Steve Ballmer, his longtime right-hand man.
In February, Charles Schulz, the cartoonist who created Peanuts, passed away. InfoPlease.com tells us that “In a career that spanned nearly 50 years, Schulz drew more than 18,250 Peanuts comic strips, which expressed a droll philosophy through the precocious children. Peanuts debuted in 1950 and went on to be the most widely read comic strip in the world, with an audience of 355 million in 75 countries. It ran in 2,600 newspapers and was published in 21 languages, including Serbo-Croatian, Chinese, and Tlingit.”
In March, Sony released the PlayStation 2 gaming console. ThePeopleHistory.com explains that “The PlayStation 2 went on to become the best-selling gaming console in history, selling over 155 million units worldwide. Part of its success relied on the system’s backward compatibility, allowing users to play games on the console from the previous model.” (Back in 2000, a Sony PlayStation cost $299.00.)
On March 10, the NASDAQ peaked at 5,048 just before the dot-com bubble burst.
On March 10, the 1990s dot-com boom ended, and thousands of dotcoms worldwide went bust, including many shopping sites and communications companies. Casualties included Pets.com, Webvan, Boo.com, Worldcom, North Point Communications, and Global Crossing. Companies that survived the crash included Amazon, Priceline, Adobe Systems, ASML, eBay, and Oracle.
On May 1, Barry Bonds became the first MLB player to hit a home run into the San Francisco Bay.
On May 14, the "I Love You" virus attacked tens of millions of computers worldwide.
On July 24, Tiger Woods became the youngest player to win a Grand Slam in golf. The Associated Press remarks that “Woods not only became the youngest player to win the career Grand Slam, but he also completed it faster than any of the four greats who did it before him.”
In August, the online dating site eHarmony.com was launched.
In September, NASA reported that the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica had increased to a record size of 11 million square miles.
In September, the Broadway musical Cats closed after 7,485 performances. It was the fourth longest-running Broadway show, surpassed only by The Phantom of the Opera, Chicago, and The Lion King.
In October, over 300 million gallons of sludge smothered 110 miles of waterways in Kentucky and West Virginia.
In October, Google launched Google AdWords—the first self-serve online advertising platform.
In November, George W. Bush was elected 43rd president of the United States by defeating Al Gore, who was the incumbent vice president. Although Gore won the popular vote, Bush won 271 electoral votes to Gore's 266.
In November, Hillary Clinton was elected to the U.S. Senate. She became the first “first lady" to win public office while still the nation’s “first lady.”
The outcome of the 2000 presidential race was unknown for several weeks because of a dispute over the vote totals in Florida. In Bush v. Gore, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Bush had won Florida's electoral votes “by a margin of only 537 votes out of almost six million cast.” As a result, George W. Bush became the president-elect.
In December, retailer Montgomery Ward announced that it was closing its 250 remaining stores.
In 2000, popular baby names were Jacob, Aiden, Ethan, Matthew, Emily, Emma, Madison, and Hannah.
Food trends included brown butter pasta, cake pops, creme brûlée, cupcakes, fruit smoothies, giant meat slices, sliders, and sushi.
Hot toys for the year included Barbie as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Celebration Barbie, the Harry Potter Trivia Game, Harry Potter puzzles, Huffy scooters, Pokémon cards, Rocket the Wonder Dog, and the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire board game. Of course, the Sony PlayStation 2 was also popular, but this toy was sometimes unavailable because of a huge consumer demand.
In 2000, the weekday morning circulation for newspapers was 46.8 million and 59.4 million for the Sunday edition.
Consumers bought 943 million CDs.
General Hospital was America’s favorite soap opera, and ER was the country’s most-watched primetime TV show.
Heather French (Kentucky) was crowned Miss America.
Microsoft released Windows 2000, and Internet Explorer and Netscape were both popular web browsers.
Back in 2000, you still relied on a clock radio to wake you up because Google Assistant wasn’t around yet.
References:
https://popculturemadness.com/2000-history-trivia-and-fun-facts/
https://www.foodreference.com/html/html/food-history-1996.html
Disclaimer: In writing and editing this article, Gregory DeVictor has made every effort to ensure historical accuracy and not to mislead his audience. In addition, the contents of this article, including text, graphics, and captions, are for general informational purposes only.
© 2026 Gregory DeVictor
About the Creator
Gregory DeVictor
Gregory DeVictor is a trivia enthusiast who likes to write articles about American history and nostalgia. Each of his articles presents a mix of fun facts, trivia, and historic events about a specific calendar year, decade, or century.
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