1998 Fashback

Remember Savage Garden - 'Truly Madly Deeply' ? Or how about Tim McGraw - "Just To See You Smile"? Here are a few statistics from our graduating year. Titanic becomes the highest-grossing film of all time, raking in more than $580 million domestically. The Athena probe finds frozen water on moon. Scientists say ice crystals mixed with soil could provide fuel for rockets exploring solar system (Mar. 5). NBC agrees to fork over $13 million an episode for the next three years for broadcast rights to the top-rated series ER. The total dollar figure, $850 million, eclipses any price ever paid for a television show. Legendary crooner Frank Sinatra dies of a heart attack at age 82. An estimated 76 million viewers watch the last episode of Seinfeld. Super Bowl Denver d. Green Bay (31-24). NBA Championship Chicago d. Utah (4-2). Federal spending: $1675.88 billion. Federal debt: $5750.4 billion. The cost of a first-class stamp: $0.32. President: William J. Clinton Vice President: Albert Gore, Jr. Population: 270,298,524. President accused in White House sex scandal; denies allegations of affair with White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. Life sentence meted out to Terry Nichols, convicted in Oklahoma City bombing fatal to 168 . Iraq ends cooperation with UN arms inspectors (Aug. 5). Clinton orders air strikes (Dec. 16–19). US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania bombed (Aug. 7). US cruise missiles hit suspected terrorist bases in Sudan and Afghanistan. Gasoline in 1998 sold for $1.03 per gallon.

Last year 2006, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) was the top grossing movie at $423,032,628. President: George W. Bush Vice President: Richard Cheney Population: 300 million. Super Bowl Pittsburgh d. Seattle (21–10). NBA Championship Dallas d. Phoenix (4–2). Record of the Year: "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," Green Day. Album of the Year: How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, U2. Song of the Year: "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own," U2. In the first Space Shuttle flight since Columbia's 2003 explosion, Discovery delivers supplies to the International Space Station and conducts three spacewalks. Deaths in 2006 include: Saddam Hussein, Steve Irwin, and James Brown. The cost of a stamp 39 cents, it's now 41 cents. Regular gasoline prices were averaging $3.036/gallon across the U.S. in August, 2006, slightly below the post-Katrina peak of $3.057. The US federal debt exceeds $8 trillion; the value of our entire national output of goods and services (GDP) in 2004 was only $12 trillion.