We didn't cover everything about the first seven years (1998 - 2005) of the time Mary Stu's Tavern was on Geocities in our first exhibit in the Mary Stu's Tavern Museum. This section of the sub-site will cover some of the events in the United States and the world during those years, including some of the more popular movies, television shows, and songs that were out during those years. There will also be some pages under this section of the museum, particularly how the Internet noticed the advent of the Spanish-American War Centennial in 1998, the year the Tavern appeared on Geocities. A consortium of Spanish and American contributors built a site to commemorate that conflict which is actually still on the Web today. There will also be a page saluting Geocities itself as it prepares to pass into Internet History sometime later in 2009.
This exhibit in the museum has its own page, which is filled with samples of Geocities' graphics and some vital statistics about the place, including a thumbnail history of Geocities from its founding as "Beverly Hills Internet" in 1995, through the sale to Yahoo, to its pending end. In its day, Geocities was one of the best known Web page hosting services in the United States.
The Internet was still young when a group of historians and military researchers in both the United States and Spain worked together to pull together a very attractive Web site dealing with the 1898 Spanish-American War. The site appeared in early 1998 with its own URL, www.spanamwar.com. Contributors from both countries scanned original documents of family members who participated in the conflict, along with various period photographs, lithographs, posters, and paintings. The site is still expanding after eleven years, the same age as the Tavern. To get an idea of what the site was like to visit in 1998, click on their banner below. If you like what they are doing, make a contribution, or find something you like in the on-line store.
There were many significant news events in the years 1998 - 2005, the first seven years during which Mary Stu's Tavern was continuously updated. From a scandal involving a President and a White House intern, that cost hundreds of millions of dollars and went nowhere, to the tragedy of September 11, 2001, to the false panic of the Y2K hype that helped spur the "Dot Com Bubble" and cause a recession by 2000, the media was right there to make sure you felt like you couldn't sit through one more crisis. Some of the crises were real, such as 9/11, the Columbine mass murders, and the invasion of Iraq. Some weren't real at all, such as Y2K, but all the stories together helped make the era the way it was.
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The White House scandal surrounding President Clinton's alleged affair with Intern Monica Lewinsky dominates the headlines and network news. The government and media hype the "threat" of computer systems going awry in the Y2K crisis. From the electric grid going down, to food never reaching the supermarket, regulators dunned banks and public utilities to get "Y2K OKAY." |
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Two students who comprise a group of outcasts known as "The Trenchcoat Mafia" enter Columbine High School near Denver, Colorado and start shooting fellow students in cold blood before killing themselves. The Euro enters the money markets of the world. Boris Yeltsin retires as President of the Russian Federation. |
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The Presidential Election between George W. Bush, Governor of Texas (R) and Vice President Al Gore (D) ends with the disputed Florida results going to the Supreme Court. Gore won the popular vote while Bush takes the White House with a majority in the Electoral College. The first waves of a recession start to hit the country as the Dot Com Bubble bursts. Between ISPs going public and the massive Y2K expenditures in the tech area, the bid up of tech stocks ends with a mini-crash and a recession that goes into 2001.
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The nation is shocked and immediately in a state of mourning after the surprise terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Thousands perish as jet liners are crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City, the Pentagon, and near Somerset, Pennsylvania. The attack is blamed on Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist group, then rumored to be holed up in caves in Afghanistan, protected by the country's Taliban faction. Bush signs the "No Child Left Behind" education bill into law.
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The United States invades Afghanistan in March using primarily Special Operations forces and air power at first. The Taliban is routed, but Osama bin Laden is neither captured or killed. As more conventional forces move into Afghanistan, the Bush Administration begins arguing for an invasion of Iraq. The debate about Iraq dominates the off-year Congressional elections, a success for President Bush's party.
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Arguing that Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein was trying to obtain weapons of mass destruction that could be given to terrorist groups, and was aiding Al Qaeda, perhaps even in the 9/11 attacks, Bush gets Congressional backing to launch an invasion of Iraq that captures Baghdad after three or four weeks of fighting. An orgy of looting and general anarchy grips Iraq for days after the fall of Baghdad. The Human Genome Project is completed.
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Four commuter trains are attacked in simultaneous terrorist bombings in Madrid, Spain. Iraqi factions begin resisting the occupation by the United States and its coalition allies with a combination of detonations of Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), guerrilla ambushes, beheadings of hostages, and set-piece battles in cities like Fallujah. Iraq is devolving into a quagmire. Despite set backs in Iraq, and muffed televised debates, George W. Bush defeats John Kerry in the Presidential Election, but the Republicans lose seats in the Congress. Hurricane Ivan devastates the Southern U.S., then tracks north and causes heavy rains and flooding in Pennsylvania. Suburban and rural development is found to have changed flood patterns. |
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You Tube is launched on the Internet as high speed and wireless delivery channels begin to expand, making the access to video tracks possible through the Internet. Pope John Paul II dies. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita wreak havoc on New Orleans and the Gulf Coasts of Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas. New Orleans is innundated when the levees break, killing hundreds and rendering many thousands homeless. The city is depopulated over large areas. Federal, State, and Local Government response to the disasters is roundly condemned. |
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Sonny Bono, Member of Congress Lloyd Bridges, American Actor Gene Autry, Owner of California Angels, Actor, Singer
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Susan Strasberg, Actress Stanley Kubrick, Director John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr., Publisher: George Magazine
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Hedy Lamar, Actress Tom Landry, Head Coach of the Dallas Cowboys Walter Matthau, Actor (Reported contemporaneously in the Tavern's FYI page).
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Perry Como, Singer Jack Lemmon, Actor George Harrison, Musician |
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Harold Russell, Actor Robert Urich, Actor Rosemary Clooney, Singer |
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Fred Rogers, Childrens' Television Host in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Gregory Peck, Actor Bob Hope, Comedian
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Jerry Goldsmith, Composer Julia Child, World War II OSS Operative, Chef Pierre Salinger, Journalist, President Kennedy's Press Secretary |
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Johnny Carson, "Tonight Show" host Hunter S. Thompson, Journalist, Author Rosa Parks, Civil Rights Activist |
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