Y2K, short for “Year 2000,” was a potential computer bug caused by how dates were formatted in older software. To save memory space, early computers used two-digit years—like “97” for 1997—which in the new millennium risked misreading “00” as 1900 instead of 2000, potentially disrupting systems that depended on accurate dates.
Hours of research by our editors, distilled into minutes of clarity.
In January 1999, Time published a dramatic Y2K cover with apocalyptic imagery and dire headlines. The portrayal likely exacerbated public fear and magnified the crisis in the popular imagination, turning a technical issue into a cultural panic.
This oral history brings together programmers, engineers, and officials who first identified the date flaw and then spent years alerting the public to the danger and racing to repair millions of lines of code.
The video unboxes and tests a range of Y2K-era products—including PC Magazine guides, novelty bug toys, VHS tutorials, diagnostic and patch CDs, McAfee’s survival kit, and a BIOS update card—offering a tour of the gadgets people once bought to prepare for 2000.
Early computer programmers used a two-digit code to record years rather than four. With the switch in the year 2000 from '99 to '00, analysts feared databases might fail and prompt outages and financial catastrophe. To prepare, governments and businesses spent an estimated $300B to $600B to mitigate the glitch.
At a video store in upstate New York, a date rollover error marked a customer’s 1999 rental as 100 years overdue, resulting in a $91,250 bill. The store quickly fixed the bug and gave him a free rental as consolation.
Concerns over the military’s tech-dependent infrastructure and Russia’s aging nuclear weapons system prompted the US to set up a command center solely focused on Y2K in the weeks leading up to the event. Read this contemporary account capturing military anxiety at the time.
Many older systems store time as a signed 32-bit integer counting seconds since Jan. 1, 1970. That counter maxes out on Jan. 19, 2038—overflowing into negative time and sending clocks back to 1901, potentially crashing any older software that depends on accurate dates.
This guide from the American Academy of Family Physicians illustrates that Y2K planning wasn’t limited to fringe voices—mainstream medical organizations drafted contingency plans, stocked supplies, and braced for potential disruptions in patient care as the year 2000 approached.
This multi-episode series follows host Dan Taberski as he interviews coders, survivalists, conspiracy believers, and others who lived the Y2K scare firsthand—while weaving in his own personal story from 1999, providing a more intimate view of the crisis.
In the late 1990s, bookstores and infomercials were flooded with Y2K survival manuals promising to prepare families for blackouts, banking failures, and supply shortages. Look back at some of the biggest hits that reinforced fears about the Y2K bug.
Art, music, sports, entertainment, movies, and many other subjects—these elements define who we are as a society and how we express ourselves as a culture. Take a deep dive into the topics shaping our shared norms, values, institutions, and more.