March 12, 2003

Gas cost $1.59 a gallon in the spring of 2003, and the Dow Jones stood at 10,454 — the United States was several weeks into active combat operations in Iraq, having launched the invasion in March. On the cultural side, "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown was sitting at the top of the fiction bestseller list, and 50 Cent's "In Da Club" had dominated radio airwaves earlier that winter before the season brought a wave of new releases. The San Antonio Spurs defeated the New Jersey Nets to claim the NBA championship, and on April 14, scientists announced the completion of the Human Genome Project, with 99 percent of the human genome sequenced to 99.99 percent accuracy — a landmark achievement in the history of biology that had taken more than a decade and the work of researchers across six countries.