This year the speed at which late 20th-century events are disappearing in the rear view mirror seems to be accelerating. That might be because of the ease of calculating the elapsed number of years between them and 2010. The calculation was also simple for the first couple of years of the new century, but back then the 20th century was only, like, you know, a couple of years ago. Now it’s been 10 years since we were worried about the millennium meltdown.
A quick clarification: I side with the group who say the new century started January 1, 2000. Purists might argue instead for January 1, 2001, but they are in the minority. Anyone who remembers the partying on New Year’s Eve in 1999 knows that. Thus President George W. Bush was elected in the 21st century not the 20th, even if his electoral-college victory was aided by the Supreme Court.
Back to the elapsed-years calculation. I use a a two-step process: subtract the year of the event in question from 2000 and add 10. For example, the Oklahoma City bombing was in 1995—5 years before 2000 and thus 15 (5 + 10) years ago. For simplicity I round up for partial years even if an event happened later in the year (like Princess Diana’s death on August 31, 1997—13 years ago by my quick calculation). I think that’s OK given that we are a decade into the new century.
Last week I read about a convicted killer in Utah who was executed by a firing squad for a murder he committed in 1985. The first thing that popped into my head other than questions about how a firing squad works was “wow, the crime was 25 years ago”—a long time to carry out a sentence even for a capital offense.
Here’s a quick list of events that might have happened more years ago than you care to remember:
- Columbine shooting (1999): 11 years
- Last Seinfeld episode (1998): 12 years
- Clarence Thomas appointed to Supreme Court (1991): 19 years
- Challenger explodes (1986): 24 years
- Vietnam Memorial (1982): 28 years
- “Who Shot JR?” episode on Dallas (1980): 30 years
- Jonestown massacre (1978): 32 years
- Patty Hearst kidnapping (1974): 36 years
- Billie Jean King/Bobby Riggs “battle of the sexes” tennis match (1973): 37 years
To find the year of additional events see the Timeline web site.
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