20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 16, 1999 -- AIM, Hometown AOL, Community

February 16, 1999: We started out with AIM in the top spot but bumped it for Hometown AOL shortly after; the My News headline references the death of Nixon adviser John Ehrlichman:

The My News headline captured the opening of the trial in the dragging death of James Byrd; we also rebranded the "Free Products" column as "Community," with a preview of a Community Directory and AIM Web Chat (as I recall, persistent AIM chat rooms accessible via URL):

Apparently, we had too many Try AOL promos in the new Community column; we moved one to the Shortcuts column:

And then the PM update with a color change:

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]