April 7, 1998

Gas cost $1.06 a gallon in the spring of 1998, and the Dow Jones stood at 9,181 — the nation's economy was running at full strength, with unemployment near a 28-year low and federal budget surpluses replacing the deficits of the previous decade. On the cultural side, "Titanic" had just swept the Oscars with 11 wins including Best Picture, and K-Ci & JoJo's "All My Life" was holding the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. The Chicago Bulls defeated the Utah Jazz to claim their sixth NBA championship of the decade, while scientists made a landmark announcement that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate — the first published evidence of its kind, reshaping a fundamental understanding of cosmology.