June 24, 1998

A Big Mac cost $2.56 that summer of 1998, and the Dow Jones sat at 9,181 — the Clinton administration faced a growing constitutional battle over a grand jury subpoena that would test the limits of executive privilege. On screens and speakers that summer, "Seinfeld" was wrapping up its final season as the undisputed top show in America, while Brandy and Monica traded verses on "The Boy Is Mine," which held the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for thirteen weeks. On July 5th, Japan launched the Mars probe "Nozomi," becoming only the third nation in history to send a spacecraft toward another planet, joining the United States and Russia in the small group of countries capable of interplanetary exploration.