2000 It was happy New Millennium as we celebrated this once-in-a-lifetime event. The Millennium Dome represented all that was dynamic and thrusting about Blair's Britain. Unfortunately, the nightmare queues for transport to get out to the big party inside were largely made up of the great and the good. The Dome never got over that bad start.
This was our story on New Year's Day.

THE world has welcomed the new Millennium with the biggest party in the history of mankind. Billions of people from countries across the globe joined together in celebrating the arrival of the year 2000 in a worldwide 24-hour party that began in the South Pacific where the new Millennium dawned at 10am British time yesterday.
Cities and towns on every continent echoed to the sound of celebrations as people of every race and religion hailed the dawn of a new era and said goodbye to both the 20th century and the past 1,000 years.
In Britain, the chimes of Big Ben at midnight were the cue for an all-night party. Millions of people packed into the centre of London for the celebrations, which were centred on the Millennium Dome, where the Queen toasted the arrival of the New Year after performing the official opening ceremony and watching the spectacular inaugural show.
On the way to the Dome, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited homeless people at the Crisis Shelter in Southwark.
As the sun set on the last day of the 20th century, the first of a chain of beacons to be lit across Britain was set alight on the most northerly Shetland island of Unst, marking the start of a spectacular firework display. By midnight, the chain stretched the length of the country.
And, after months of worries that the world would be plunged into chaos by the Millennium Bug, the fears seemed to be unfounded as computers coped with the change from 1999 to 2000. Police and bank officials who had travelled to New Zealand, which is 11 hours ahead of Britain, to report on any problems, sounded the all-clear hours before midnight arrived at home.
The global party to celebrate the arrival of 2000 began as midnight struck on Millennium Island in the South Pacific.
Dancers, singers and drummers from the tiny nation of Kiribati celebrated as flares flickered on the normally uninhabited atoll which had beaten the world into the 21st century by advancing its clocks.
An hour later Auckland in New Zealand became the first big city to celebrate and that was where, moments later, a baby boy became one of the first children born in the new Millennium.
Then, as the minutes ticked by and midnight arrived in Australia, a spectacular firework display lit up Sydney harbour. It was Asia's turn next and in Tokyo, Beijing and Hong Kong breathtaking ceremonies marked the start of the new century.
Britain was not to be outdone when it came to celebrations.
A global television audience of billions watched the Queen open the £750m Millennium Dome at Greenwich in a ceremony attended by the Prime Minister Tony Blair and Archbishop of Canterbury Dr George Carey.

Mass murderer West kills himself
1995 On the first day of the year serial killer Fred West was found hanged. The Gloucestershire builder charged with 12 murders, was found dead in his prison cell. Prison officers discovered the 53-year-old's body hanging from strips of clothing at Winson Green prison near Birmingham at lunch-time.
West, whose home became known as the House of Horrors after police found nine corpses concealed there, had been in custody for nearly a year. He and his wife, Rosemary, who was charged with nine of the killings, were arrested in February the previous year by police investigating the disappearance of the couple's 16-year-old daughter, Heather, who was last seen alive in 1987.
Heather's remains were found at the couple's home, 25 Cromwell Road, Gloucester, shortly afterwards.
Within days, the remains of two more bodies were found buried in the garden and six others in the cellar and bathroom areas. Three further bodies, those of Fred West's first wife Catherine Costello, his first daughter, and the children's nanny, were later found nearby.
Mrs West, 41, was told of her husband's death by her lawyer who visited her in her prison cell at Pucklechurch prison near Bristol that afternoon.
West's death was later confirmed as suicide. Rosemary West was convicted in 1995 at Winchester Crown Court of the murder of nine young women, including her daughter Heather. She was also convicted of the murder of Fred West's stepdaughter, Charmaine West. She was sentenced to 10 life terms.
An appeal against her convictions was rejected by the Lord Chief Justice Lord Taylor in 1996. She launched a second appeal in 2000 but abandoned her plans in September 2001.

Donald Campbell breaks water speed record
1964 On the last day of the year Donald Campbell broke the world water speed record. It was the first, and still the only, time a man has broken the world land and water speed records in the same year. He reached an average speed of 276.33mph (444.71km/h) in his speedboat, Bluebird, in the afternoon on Lake Dumbleyung in Perth, Western Australia.
He broke his own previous world record of 260.35mph (418.99km/h) at Lake Coniston, Cumbria, in 1959 and had spent months at various locations in Australia trying to get the right conditions. Campbell had broken the land speed record in July on Lake Eyre salt flat in central Australia, with a speed of 403.1mph (648.72km/h).
He attempted to break his water speed record a little over two years later, on January 4, 1967.
A split second before his jet-powered boat, the Bluebird K7, broke the record, travelling at more than 300mph (483km/h) on Coniston Water, the boat's nose lifted and it was catapulted 50ft (15m) into the air. Campbell was killed instantly as the boat hit the water and disintegrated. He was 46.
His body was not recovered until 2001 and his remains were buried near Coniston Water. He was the last British man to break the world water speed record.

Force is with Star Wars in box office bonanza
1977 On December 27, vendors of light sabres and the rest of the merchandising rubbed their hands and prepared to make a killing as children flooded out of the first screenings of Star Wars determined to get kitted out like their new heroes.
Star Wars had been released in America seven months before and had outstripped the previous year's blockbuster Jaws to gross $156m (£108m) at the box office. George Lucas directed Carrie Fisher, Sir Alec Guiness and the then little-known Harrison Ford. All the special effects, costing $4m (£2.14m), were put together in Britain.
Among the associated products were T-shirts, sweets, jigsaw puzzle, watches and Star Wars food.
The film eventually took £294.29m worldwide – adjusted for inflation, this is the second-highest after Gone With the Wind.
The first film was followed by The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, both released in quick succession and based on parts 4, 5, and 6 of six books Lucas had written. It was another 20 years before the "prequels" (parts 1, 2 and 3) came out. Lucas had waited to make these films until special effects had become more sophisticated. In 1999, the first, The Phantom Menace, was released, followed three years later by Attack of the Clones.

Law gives women equal rights at work
1975 At the end International Women's Year, on December 29, a new term entered the language: "sexist". New laws came in to even up the imbalance of opportunity between the sexes.
For the first time, women were to have a right to equal pay and status in the workplace.
Under the Sex Discrimination and Equal Pay Acts, it became illegal for employers who employed more than five people, to discriminate against women.
The same applied to landlords, finance companies, schools and restaurants.
The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) was set up to promote equality of the sexes. It was no longer allowed to advertise a job exclusively for males or females.
In everyday language there were changes – "firemen" becoming "fire fighters" for example.
The EOC had already put out guidelines to discourage advertisers showing women in stereotypical roles of domesticity or in submissive work.
But since it had no means of enforcing this, there were criticisms the organisation was toothless.
The Act came as a culture shock to many in a society where some venues still barred women.
Some employers attempted to get round the Equal Pay Act by changing women's job descriptions or employing women for roles in which there was no male equivalent position.
Twenty five years after they came in, a survey showed the Acts had helped to close the pay difference in the gender gap from 40 per cent less than male counterparts, to 20 per cent.

Miners say farewell to the life-saving canaries
1986 At the end of the year more than 200 canaries were being made redundant. The birds were being phased out of Britain's pits because new electronic detectors were cheaper in the long run and more effective in indicating the presence of pollutants in the air otherwise unnoticed by miners.
The new gas detectors were to be hand-held and carried a digital reading which appeared on a screen alerting miners to the extent of the gases.
The canaries' replacements were to be introduced gradually in 1987.
Miners were said to be saddened but did not dispute the decision.
The removal of the canaries ended a mining tradition in Britain dating back to 1911, since when two canaries had been employed by each pit.
They became part of the culture. Miners whistled to the birds and coaxed them as they worked, treating them as pets.
The canary was particularly sensitive to toxic gases such as carbon monoxide which is colourless, odourless and tasteless.
This gas could easily form underground during a mine fire or after an explosion.
Following a mine fire or explosion, mine rescuers would descend into the mine, carrying a canary in a small wooden or metal cage.
Any sign of distress from the canary was a clear signal the conditions underground were unsafe and miners should be evacuated from the pit and the mineshafts made safe.