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5 things about 1999, when gas was 99 cents

Posted at 3:05 PM, Feb 10, 2016
and last updated 2016-02-10 19:19:58-05

Would you look at that? Gas prices are creeping closer to 99 cents a gallon, which hasn’t happened since March 15, 1999! 

So what was life like back in 1999? Let’s hop in a time machine powered by cheap gas to find out.

1. The Internet: We all remember how much fun it was when you couldn’t be on the phone and the Internet at the same time, right? Dial-up Internet was still widely used in homes during 1999 but it had a very S-L-O-W connection speed (56kbps or lower) compared to today’s standards. Plus, only 280 million people worldwide were on the Internet back in 1999. Now there are more than 3 billion Internet users. And don’t forget, social media still wasn’t really a thing. 

2. Y2K – THE WORLD IS GOING TO END: At least, that’s what a lot of people thought heading into the new millennium. It was feared worldwide that computers would fail once the year 2000 rolled around, because electronics were programmed to automatically begin dates with “19” instead of “20.” 

Nothing catastrophic happened, the world did not come to an end, and we all are still laughing at ourselves years later.

3. Music: So what CDs were bumping through everyone’s car speakers back in 1999? Let’s take a look at the hit singles at the time.

  1. “…Baby One More Time” – Britney Spears
  2. “Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit of…)” – Lou Bega
  3. “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” – Eiffel 65
  4. “No Scrubs” – TLC
  5. “I Want It That Way” – Backstreet Boys

4. Movies: Most films in 1999 were still released on VHS tape. Who doesn’t miss having to wait until the tape was rewound until you could watch it? (EVERYONE) Here are the top grossing movies of 1999:

  1. Star Wars Ep. I: The Phantom Menace
  2. The Sixth Sense
  3. Toy Story 2
  4. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
  5. The Matrix

5. People: The world reached quite the population milestone in 1999 when Earth reached 6 billion people. 17 years later, and the population now is already over 7.3 billion people.

How low will it go? Keep tabs on local gas prices below:

Lowest Gas Prices in Detroit

Detroit Gas Prices provided by GasBuddy.com