20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Mar. 8, 1999 -- Avoid Tax Mistakes; Joe DiMaggio Dies at 84

March 8, 1999: We started out the day with stressed stock-art guy for tax help (as mentioned yesterday), along with text promos for an airline directory and software bargains, though you can see the My News headline: "Baseball Great Joe DiMaggio Dies at 84":

We soon bumped the story up to the top spot ("Remember the Yankee Clipper"):

Then refreshed the spot for the PM update with a photo from his playing days:

[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.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Mar. 7, 1999 -- NCAA Tournament Preview, and a Possible Preview Mistake

March 7, 1999: Sunday's lead was a preview of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, which would begin the following Thursday:

Now, I have a preview screenshot that suggests we did a PM update that featured tax help, though I'm not convinced that it ever went live on Sunday, since it features the same content as the following Monday AM slot:

[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.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Mar. 6, 1999 -- "The Thin Red Line" versus "Saving Private Ryan"

March 6, 1999: We went with Oscar-nominated war movies for Saturday, featuring Sean Penn from The Thin Red Line (and pitting it against Saving Private Ryan in whatever silly Oscars poll we were running). The other text promos were for AIM chat and 40% off Monica's Story:

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[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.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Mar. 5, 1999 -- Oscar Votes, Stocks Soar, "Cruel Intentions," Kick Butt's Butt Kicked

March 5, 1999: We started out the day with a meaningless member (AOL, not Academy) voting poll for the Oscars featuring a Gwyneth Paltrow pic from Shakespeare in Love, along with Local fun and NCAA apparel:

We did a mid-morning switch to feature the soaring Dow (which broke through 9,700); we might have done this even if we weren't overly focused on tech stocks:

For the PM update, we switched to a pic of Sarah Michele Gellar in Cruel Intentions. However, look at the "Kick Butt" headline for Tae-Bo workout tapes and gear...

...which we had to reword not long after to "Kung-Fu Fighting"—apparently, "butt" was too spicy for our audience (or at least our leadership):

[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.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Mar. 4, 1999 -- Travel Bargains, March-ish Madness, and News Snapshots

March 4, 1999: For the morning, we went with Travel, along with Hometown AOL and free online classifieds. In the My News headlines, we see another Lewinsky item, as well as followup to the killing of eight western tourists in Uganda:

For the PM update, we featured college basketball. In the headlines, we also see the acquittal of the Marine EA-6 Prowler pilot who struck a cable car line in Italy, killing 20, as well as the death of ex-Supreme Court justice Harry Blackmun:

[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.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Mar. 3, 1999 -- Top 25 Mutual Funds; Monica Lewinsky and Barbara Walters on 20/20

March 3, 1999: For the AM, we led with a Personal Finance promo for the Top 25 Mutual Funds. (Also note the "Book 'Em, Dan-O" headline for book buying. Not sure why we were referencing Hawaii Five-0 20 years after the show [v1] went off the air.)

For the PM update, we went with Monica Lewinsky's interview with Barbara Walters on 20/20:

[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.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Mar. 2, 1999 -- Warm Weather Wishes and Lewinsky Loves Clinton

March 2, 1999: For the AM, we went with lots of oranges and yellows for a generic weather promo:

For the PM update, we have a Monica Lewinsky promo that reads, "'Soul Mates'? Report says Lewinsky 'was in love with' Clinton." Presumably, this was hype for her upcoming interview with Barbara Walters (see tomorrow's page):

[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.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Mar. 1, 1999 -- Free Tax Advice and Madonna

March 1, 1999: We lead with free tax advice in the morning (and a completely 100% accurate depiction of how we did our taxes back before the turn of the millennium). Also note the reference to the "You must pay the rent!" "But I can't pay the rent!" etc. melodrama:

For the PM update, we went with Madonna leading a celebrity fashion gallery.

[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.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 28, 1999 -- Hometown AOL (Again)

February 28, 1999: We closed out February with yet another purple-and-gold Hometown AOL promo. The text promo featured space stuff in Research & Learn, because kids, weekend, school stuff, etc:

[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.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 27, 1999 -- College Hoops, With Elton Brand

February 27, 1999: We led with college basketball (getting as close as we could to "March Madness" without violating trademark). You may be shocked to learn that we used a photo of a Duke player, Elton Brand (he would leave for the NBA after this, his sophomore season):

[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.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 26, 1999 -- AIM and "200 Cigarettes"

February 26, 1999: We started off with a new AIM graphic that looked even more like a regular ad (including a red "Click Here!" button), along with Local fun and CD-buying online (with a Grammy name-drop):

For the PM update, mentioned the Nicolas Cage movie 8MM and the ensemble movie 200 Cigarettes, which we didn't even bother to name (though it's the "'80s fluff" mentioned in the promo), relying solely on the Christina Ricci photo:

[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.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 25, 1999 -- Lauryn Hill Breaks Grammy Record

February 25, 1999: For the day after the 41st Annual Grammy Awards (held on Wednesday night, which was the style at the time), we kept the same Lauryn Hill photo (as she was the night's big winner), later swapping out for a photo from the event. The My News headline also references the 1999 Galtur (Austria) avalanche:

Then, in the PM update and a reversal in the usual way of things (that is, featuring Entertainment stuff on weeknights), we switched to the standard purple-and-gold Hometown AOL promo.

The My News headline references the death sentence given to one of the killers in the James Byrd dragging death in Texas:

[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.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 24, 1999 -- Why Were the Grammy Awards on a Wednesday?

February 24, 1999: We started the day with AIM, online tax help, and Hometown AOL. It was very orange. Now, jump down to the PM update...

...where we led into the 41st Annual Grammy Awards, which were inexplicably being held on a Wednesday night? (I guess the now-standard Sunday wasn't a thing back then; looks like they were held on Wednesdays until 2003, when they switched.) Anyway, we led with a picture of Lauryn Hill:

[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.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 23, 1999 -- Stress Quiz and Sports

February 23, 1999: We started out with an stress quiz using an amusing retro stock photo, along with Hometown AOL and online apparel shopping:

For the PM update, we went with another Sports item featuring baseball and Big Unit Randy Johnson. In the My News items, we see a conviction in the Texas dragging death of James Byrd, Jr., as well as more on the Kosovo War:

[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.]

20 Years Ago on AOL.com: Feb. 22, 1999 -- Tech Stocks Rocket, Plus a Sampling of Finance News Items (Including a Bernie Madoff Cameo)

February 22, 1999: We started the day with a Personal Finance promo on top stocks and mutual funds (along with computer buying and online auctions), which was a nice transition into...

...the PM update, where tech stocks apparently had a good day.

As mentioned, we focused a lot on tech stocks in our Personal Finance features, because of 1. Dotcom Bubble and 2. Stock Options:

 

Side note: As I was looking at CNN Money stories from 2/22/99, here's a sampling of other items:

• Securitas bought Pinkerton's, creating the world's largest full-service security firm
• A check-in on the Microsoft antitrust trial, where the government used Microsoft internal emails during a cross-examination of firm general manager of new technology Daniel Rosen to show that the company did see Netscape as a competitor. (Rosen admitted to composing the email but not sending it. Yeah.)
• A Nasdaq panel voted against trading halts for the Nasdaq, which were seen as a way to help protect small, individual investors—many of whom were new players thanks to online brokerage firms. Irony alert: Quoted in the article: "Bernard Madoff, head of a trading firm that matches buyers and sellers on Nasdaq who supports the use of halts, predicts they will be approved eventually but says they won't be a cure-all. 'The halts aren't going to cure volatility, they're just going to limit it,' he told CNNfn."

[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.]