Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 19:16:36 -0600

From: Dan Goodman dsgood[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]VISI.COM

Subject: Happy tenth anniversary, 2000! (fwd)



---------- Forwarded message ----------

Date: 20 Jan 1998 00:52:05 GMT

From: Keith Lynch kfl[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]clark.net

Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written

Subject: Happy tenth anniversary, 2000!



The first ever mention of the year 2000 problem (i.e. that lots of

software will break that year) that I've been able to find was mailed

to the RISKS Digest by Jeffrey R Kell JEFF%UTCVM.BITNET[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU

ten years ago today, January 19th, 1988. It appeared in RISKS DIGEST

6.11 on January 22nd, 1988.



I maintain a list of when various now common terms and concepts

first appeared on the net, e.g. web pages, spam, Pentium, Netscape,

Windows, MIME, anon servers, the year 2000 problem, and, of course,

the SF-LOVERS e-mail discussion list (September 1979). It's at

http://www.clark.net/pub/kfl/timeline.html



But what about the year 2000 itself? When was it first explicitly

mentioned, anywhere, in any context? The earliest I'm aware of is

Edward Bellamy's utopian novel _Looking Backward_, published in 1888.



Maybe I should have said happy 110th anniversary?



Or does anyone know of a still older reference? Thanks.

--

Keith Lynch, kfl[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]clark.net

http://www.clark.net/pub/kfl/

I boycott all spammers.