46 Things About 2001 That Will Take You Straight Back To The Start Of The Millennium

Beyond September, 2001 had already been eventful for George W. Bush, who was inaugurated in January, following one of the most contested elections in American history, with the Florida recount drama still fresh enough to feel unresolved. The UK was in the grip of a foot-and-mouth disease crisis that resulted in the culling of millions of animals and the closure of large parts of the countryside.

The Taliban destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan in March, two ancient statues that had stood for over a millennium. The Enron scandal was beginning to unravel, on its way to becoming one of the largest corporate fraud cases in American history. The year arrived with its own full slate of headlines before it became defined by one day in September that changed all of them.

2001 feels close because so much of what it produced is still present. The iPod became the iPhone. The films are still being quoted, and the music never fully left the rotation. The TV shows are on streaming platforms, watched by people who were not born when they aired.

A quarter century has passed, and the cultural fingerprints of that year are still visible everywhere you look. The nostalgia is not just sentiment. It is recognition, the feeling of seeing where things came from and tracing the line from there to here. The math says 25 years, but we never believed in maths anyway.

What is your favorite memory from 2001? Share it with us in the comments.