July 9, 2000

A Big Mac cost $2.51 that summer of 2000, and the Dow Jones sat at 10,787 — the U.S. Senate had just approved landmark legislation allowing legally binding contracts to be signed online, a shift that would quietly reshape American commerce for decades to come. On television, audiences were tuning in to "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and debating the film "Scary Movie," which had just topped the box office with its sharp parody of the slasher genre. On July 25, Air France Flight 4590 — a Concorde supersonic aircraft — crashed shortly after takeoff from Paris, killing all 113 people aboard and marking the first fatal accident in the Concorde's 31-year commercial history, effectively beginning the end of the supersonic passenger era.