20 fun facts from 20 years ago
In honor of ALMACO’s 20th anniversary, let’s take a look at 20 fun facts of 1998.
Business & Technology
1. Google was founded – Larry Page and Sergey Brin misspelled ‘googol’ when they started their little search engine experiment. A googol is a big number – a 1 followed by 100 zeros.
2. Microsoft becomes biggest Company in the World valued at $261bn on the New York Stock Exchange
3. One of the famous quotes was “Think different”, by Apple Computer
4. Our mobile phones looked like this:
5. The first Apple iMac was introduced
6. The first portable MP3 player is released
7. ALMACO was founded! Here are the founders from left to right: Ulf Hedberg, Mikael Hedberg, Antti Kaskinen and Lars Pellas
8. In Japan, the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshū, at a cost of about US$3.8 billion, opens to traffic, becoming the longest-span suspension bridge in the world.
Science
9. Data sent from the Galileo probe indicates that Jupiter’s moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice
10. The crew of space shuttle mission STS-88 began construction of the International Space Station, attaching the U.S.-built Unity node and the Russian-built Zarya module together in orbit
11. Nobel Prize winners:
- Physics– Robert B. Laughlin, Horst L. Störmer, Daniel C. Tsui
- Chemistry– Walter Kohn, John Pople
- Medicine– Robert F. Furchgott, Louis J. Ignarro, Ferid Murad
Entertainment:
12. Some of the big movies included Saving Private Ryan, Armageddon, Godzilla, There’s Something About Mary
13. Frank Sinatra died 🙁
14. Best Film Oscar Winner was Titanic – Titanic won 11 Oscars at the 70th Academy Awards
15. Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or goes to: “Mia aioniotita kai mia mera” by Theo Angelopoulos
16. Dingo made their second comeback…this one is for you, Finland!
17. We were reading Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone and got started with Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
World:
18. The world population was ~ 5,988,000,000 … we’re at 7,550,262,101!
Sports:
19. Highlights from around the world:
- World Cup (Soccer): France…and again this year!
- Wimbledon (Men/Women): Pete Sampras/Jana Novotna
- World Series Champions: New York Yankees
- Superbowl XXXII Champions: Denver Broncos
- Stanley Cup Champs: Detroit Red Wings
- Tour de France: Marco Pantani
- Rally World Championship: Tommi Mäkinen won his 3rd
- F1 World Championship: Mika Häkkinen
- UEFA Champions League: Real Madrid 1 – Juventus 0
Politics:
20. United States Presidential scandal… just google Monica and Bill – let’s leave it at that 🙂
