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Read moreSix Degrees was founded 20 years ago today. Let’s take a short stroll back to 1999 and remember what else was happening around us back then.
In March, when Six Degrees opened its doors in executive suites in Scottsdale with a fax machine and a handful of personal computers, the Dow Jones Industrial Average passed 10,000 for the first time ever.
On the political front, President Bill Clinton was under impeachment and was subsequently acquitted. Dennis Hastert became Speaker of the House and would serve in that role longer than anyone before him. However, his legacy was characterized by the fact that he was to be the highest-ranking US political leader ever to go to prison. Speaking of long-serving politicians, Vladimir Putin succeeded Boris Yeltsin as President of Russia in 1999.
Interest rates stood at a whopping (compared to today) 8.5%. A gallon of gasoline cost $1.22, and the federal government had a balanced budget with a surplus of $124 billion. 1999 was also the year the Euro was established, while the Susan B. Anthony dollar was re-released and promptly re-retired.
In the tech world, Bluetooth was launched, USB flash drives were developed and MySpace (remember that?) made its debut.
The Columbine High School shooting left 14 teenagers and one teacher dead…little did we know it was going to be a harbinger of more school shootings to come.
On the lighter side, SpongeBob SquarePants, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and The Matrix all premiered that year. It was hard not to hear Cher’s “Believe” and Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ La Vida Loca” on the airwaves. On TV, we were watching “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire”, “ER” and “Friends”.
The biggest systemic fear people had was Y2K, when most of the world’s computers were thought to stop working because, until then, most software only used a two-digit representation of the year. The media coverage seemed to imply a return to dark ages when, in fact, the world never skipped a beat.
Similarly, Six Degrees took off and never looked back.
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