December 31, 1999 & January 1, 2000: The Millennium
December 31, 1999: The Millennium arrives. The people of planet Earth made it. At a terrible cost. But we hadn't destroyed ourselves. It felt like a great achievement. January 1, 2000: As time zone after time zone turned over from 11:59 to 12:00, there was great joy -- literally, all over the world. It didn't last. So far, the 21st Century has been a bust. In words that have been attributed to Yankee Legend Yogi Berra, then 74 years old, "The future ain't what it used to be." December 31, 1999 was a Friday. It was the day that Boris Yeltsin resigned as President of Russia, handing the office over to the Prime Minister -- Vladimir Putin. It was the day that Elliot Richardson died. He remains the only person to serve the President of the United States in 4 different Cabinet posts, including Attorney General, an office he resigned rather than follow Richard Nixon's unconstitutional order in "the Saturday Night Massacre" in 1973. It was also the day th