20 In 2019

                                Things Turning 20 In 2019

1. January 1st: The Euro became an accounting currency. In 2002, 14 countries in Europe switched to the new currency in it's physical form. Today it is used by 18 European countries and their territories and 340 million European.    

  

2.       January 19th: The Blackberry was released.

3.       February 12th: President Bill Clinton was acquitted of two articles of impeachment for having an affair with Monica Lewinsky and then lying to the American people about it.

4.       March 12th: Former Warsaw Pact members Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic join NATO.

5.       March 23rd: Ricky Martin released “Livin La Vida Loca”which peaked at # 1 for 21 weeks.

6.       March 31st: The first movie of the “Matrix” franchise was released.

7.       March 31st:  “Ten Things I Hate About You” was released.

8.       April 1st: Nunavut, an Inuit homeland, is created from the eastern portion of the Northwest Territories to become Canada's third territory.

9.       April 20th: Columbine High School massacre: Two Littleton, Colorado, teenagers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, open fire on their teachers and classmates, killing 12 students and 1 teacher, and then themselves.

10.   May 1st: Nickelodeon introduced audiences to "SpongeBob SquarePants.”

11.   June 1st: The Napster music downloading site was launched.

12.   June 2nd:  the King of Bhutan allows television transmissions to commence in the Kingdom for the first time, coinciding with the King's Silver Jubilee.

13.   July 1st: the Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Elizabeth II on the day that devolved powers are officially transferred from the Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh.

14.   July 16th:  off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, a plane crashes piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr., killing him, his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and her sister Lauren Bessette.

15.   August 6th: “The Sixth Sense” was released and has earned $672 million.

16.    August 16th:  “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” premiered.

17.   BlueTooth:   was invented.

18.    Apple released the first I-Book. It sold for $1,599. It was replaced by the MacBook in 2006.

19.   Yoplait introduced Go-Gurt.

20.   USB flash drives were invented.

21.   December 20th: The sovereignty of Macau is transferred from the Portuguese Republic to the People's Republic of China after 442 years of Portuguese settlement.

22.   December 31st: The U.S. turned over complete administration of the Panama Canal to the Panamanian Government, as stipulated in the Torrijos–Carter Treaties of 1977.

23.   December 31st: Boris Yeltsin resigned as President of Russia, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President.

24.   December 31st: Y2K:  The new millennium brought the fear of computer and network crashes leading to global chaos.