16 Things Turning 16 in 2016
We made it through the Y2K freak-out mostly unscathed, but that didn't mean the year 2000 was uneventful. In the new year, these events will hit their 16th anniversaries, The Dow hit its dotcom-boom peak Jan. 14 The Dow closed at a whopping 11,722.98 on that day, and then it started to go downand down. The tech stocks that had buoyed the market began their decline in early 2000. Only two weeks into the decade and the '90s were really over. Erin Brockovich got us on her side Mar. 14 The film was a hit and won Julia Roberts an Oscar, though some of the actual people involved in the case that made Brockovich famous claimed the movie didn't do justice to their story. The real Brockovich, for her part, continues to work as a consumer advocate. The Vermont legislature approved civil unions for gay couples April 26 Almost exactly 15 years before the Supreme Court extended the right to full marriage to all Americans, the state of Vermont made history by being the first to offer legal unions to gay couples. Scientists announced they've decoded the human genome June 25 We're still figuring out more that we can do with the knowledge, but mapping out our 3 billion chemical base pairs was a start. Read TIME's original coverage of the Human Genome Project, here in the TIME Vault Cracking the Code!, Mifepristone was approved by the FDA Sept. 28 The ability to provide abortion with a pill rather than surgery was meant to change the calculus for American women, but the new option didn't put an end to philosophical debate. Read TIME's original coverage of RU 486, here in the TIME Vault The Abortion Pill, The first crew arrived at the International Space Station Nov. 2 The Space Station had been orbiting the Earth for years when the Russian and American crew arrived on board. In the years since, it has never been unoccupied. Read TIME's original coverage of the space station, here in the TIME Vault Coming Soon to the Skies Near You, Bush v. Gore decided the election Dec. 12 It came at the end of the yearand months after the election results were supposed to be inbut it was perhaps the most influential event of the whole 12 months. In an unprecedented move, the Supreme Court put an end to the recounts and put George W. Bush in the White House. Read TIME's original coverage of the decision, here in the TIME Vault The Supreme Showdown