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The Hot News channel put a short, plainly written news item in front of students every weekday, on the theory that the habit matters more than any individual story.
Looking back at them in bulk, what stands out is the restraint. The items are short, they name the parties to a dispute without editorialising, and they assume the reader is capable of holding two positions in mind at once.
The news items preserved in the archive below are a genuine snapshot of what a school-age audience was being told about the world in 1999.
Unable to reach a compromise before Wednesday's midnight deadline, Northern Ireland rivals in the Protestant Ulster Unionist Party and the Catholic IRA-linked Sinn Fein Party thwarted further progress toward establishing a Protestant-Catholic government.
A new public opinion poll reveals that while U.S. citizens have become increasingly protective of their flag, they only slimly endorse a Constitutional amendment to ban flag burning and are even less supportive today of freedom of the press than in 1977.
Gathering Sunday in Philadelphia for the "Photo of the Century" 112 people celebrated birthdays they share in common with each other and the nation; each one is an Independence Day baby, born on the Fourth of July between 1900 and 1999.
Time is running out for rival parties in Northern Ireland who have only 10 days to make good on last year's Good Friday peace accord and realize their goal of self-government.
While corporate America concentrates on setting up suburban shops, it may be missing out on the chance to cash in on inner cities where residents have more money to spend than local stores in which to spend it.
As the World Wide Web swells, search engines are lagging behind -- indexing a decreasing amount of sites and taking longer to list new sites -- which means that even the most comprehensive search engine covers only one-sixth of the pages on the Web.
Today, as the Senate deliberates over a patient's bill of rights, it will wrestle with the issue of who determines what treatment is "medically necessary," a question central to current debates over managed-care medicine.
When sworn in to the Supreme Court, justices promise to uphold justice, democracy, and freedom, but they do not pledge to produce great literature -- or even good writing -- in the process, as critics of the Court's dense prose point out.
Poised to revolutionize the health care industry, the Web is emerging as a major source of medical information for patients, 22 million of whom searched the Internet last year to find answers to their questions about illnesses and treatment options.
NASA officials deny that their new project, Deep Impact, is named after last year's movie, but the plan to explore the inside of a comet by smashing it and then studying the left-over debris sounds like science-fiction fantasy.
Eileen Collins, the first female spacecraft pilot, will soon make history again as the first woman to command a space mission when she takes control of the Columbia space shuttle mission scheduled to begin Tuesday.
Continuing a decline that began 7 years ago, U.S. citizens reported a 7% drop in violent crime and an 11.4% drop in property crime, indicating that both of these crime rates are at their lowest levels since 1973.
With just 6.5 seconds remaining in the countdown, NASA engineers aborted the space shuttle Columbia's launch yesterday because of an abnormally high and potentially dangerous concentration of hydrogen gas in the engine compartment.
Alarming the world community, Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui looks poised to spark war with China if he moves on his plan to declare Taiwan an independent country free from Chinese rule.
Though rarely thought of as such, the Internet is a tool of social revolution, one that shifts power from institutions to individuals by giving people the freedom to control what they experience. But can all this democracy and autonomy backfire?
Of the 10,000 Kosovo refugees who fled their war-torn homeland for safety in the U.S., nearly one-third want to go home when free government flights to Kosovo begin on Monday.
According to NASA officials, the Columbia space shuttle fell 7 miles short of reaching its intended orbit because of a hydrogen fuel leak in the main engine which, if more serious, could have forced an unprecedented emergency landing.
By winning cycling's prestigious Tour de France race on Sunday, Lance Armstrong proved that it is possible to beat cancer with medical treatment, spiritual strength, and perseverance.
Instead of suffering through a shot, people will be able protect themselves from getting the flu this winter by using a special breath inhaler.
Laws already on the books to regulate political campaigning may soon be used to govern Web politicking, a move some opponents warn will unfairly constrain free speech on the Internet.
Next week, NASA researchers will go full speed ahead, literally, with their plan to search for water on the moon by smashing a crater with a spacecraft traveling 3,800 mph in the hopes of releasing water vapor from ice locked in the frozen soil.
Despite Democratic opposition and President Clinton's vow to veto the bill, Republican congressmen are working hard this week on a tax-cut plan that would use anticipated budget surpluses to finance tax reductions.
On Monday, the Senate passed legislation that will make it harder for sweepstakes companies to lure in sales by sending phony "you may have already won" announcements and other such promises of purchase-related cash and prizes.
To evade the bureaucracy that divides a leader from his people, young King Abdullah II of Jordan has twice adopted the unorthodox practice of playing "king-in-disguise," masking himself as a cab driver and a TV reporter in order to hear what his citizens have to say.
Starting Sunday, the entertainment industry will celebrate Alfred Hitchcock's 100th birthday by rebroadcasting his classic suspense films and TV series, as well as airing commemorative made-for-television biographies.
Battling against an estimated 78 fires sparked Wednesday by extensive lightning, firefighters will work through the weekend to douse the blazes burning across 500 miles of Nevada range, an area one-third the size of Rhode Island.
On August 9, 1974 Richard Nixon resigned as president, concluding the "long national nightmare" known as Watergate. However, the end of his presidency marked the beginning of reforms aimed to keep government clean, some of which are still operational 25 years later.
Political analysts trying to explain why Russian President Boris Yeltsin replaced his prime minister for the fourth time yesterday speculate that Yeltsin is trying to ensure that he, his family, and his political associates will be protected when his time in office ends.
Though many eclipse chasers across Northern Europe had an obscured view, millions strained to see the solar eclipse, some going to such extreme lengths as boarding the Concorde airplane to get above the heavy clouds for a clear view.
Though details are still fuzzy, organizers of Net Aid are clear about their goal for the multimedia event: they hope the experience, a mix of stadium concerts, TV and radio broadcasts, and Webcasts, will reach so many millions of viewers that it will spark a movement to end world hunger.
In videotaped remarks, President Clinton assigned parents responsibility for keeping students safe in school, but did promise to help by offering policy initiatives and advice on how to decrease school violence and avoid tragedies like the Littleton, Colorado shootings last April.
After a summer of healing, Columbine High School students return to classes today in refurbished buildings equipped with new security measures and counselors on hand to help faculty and students cope with the haunting memories of last year's tragedy.
People in western Turkey's largest cities are trying to recover from a devastating earthquake that injured more than 2,500 citizens, collapsed buildings, and shut off telephone and electric service Monday night.
Educators are pleased by high school students' scores on this year's ACT college-entrance exam because 1999 results, though the same on average as the 1998 and 1997 composites, confirm a decade-long trend toward higher scores.
On average returning college students will spend half their waking hours on the Web researching coursework, emailing friends, or ordering food, clothes or other products off the Internet. All this time online has some asking, "How wired is too wired?"
After taking Iowa's straw poll last weekend, voters are ready to narrow down the field of Republican presidential candidates by ousting all but three or four of the GOP forerunners.
Outscoring other major metropolitan areas, Seattle ranked top of the class earning an A+ in the 1999 Kid-Friendly Cities Report Card, which will be released nationally on Tuesday.
Although decisions won't be made until after Labor Day, the fate of the Selective Service System, a half-century old agency that requires men to register for military service when they turn eighteen, is being battled on Capital Hill.
Psychologists report that forgiveness may be good for your health, citing studies that show that people who forgive others reap physical and mental benefits not enjoyed by those who bear the burdens of unresolved grudges.
Forecasts for an above-average number of hurricanes this season have sent researchers hunting for answers about why low-grade hurricanes intensify into strong storms just before reaching land.
To study climatic changes in the planet's history, NASA will set down its Mars Polar Lander on a frozen ice plane about 500 miles from the south pole of Mars.
The number of college graduates certified to be teachers is reaching an historical high. Schools across the U.S., however, are scrambling to find qualified teachers to fill their classrooms this fall.
Despite four recent deaths on roller coasters, the Consumer Product Safety Commission reports the rides are safer than garden hoses, a statistic that may explain why amusement park goers are not too scared to sneak in some pre-Labor Day thrills.
After the worst recruiting year in Army history since 1979, military officials are thinking about changing their Number 2 ranked jingle, "Be all that you can be," to appeal to the Generation-X crowd.
Next week, concerned companies will watch the calendar carefully, fearful that the date 9-9-99 may translate into a stop-command for computers and cause dreaded Y2K-like damage.
Six years after the Branch Davidian fire in Waco, Texas, Attorney General Janet Reno is expected to appoint an outside investigator as early as today who will scrutinize the part the FBI played in the tragedy.
Early Tuesday, Indonesia imposed martial law in East Timor, where violence erupted Saturday after the East Timorese people voted to split from Indonesia.
Just weeks after a devastating earthquake hit Turkey, a powerful earthquake rocked nearby Athens, Greece on Tuesday.
Although to some today -- the ninth day of the ninth month of the 99th year, or 9/9/99 -- is a test case for the feared Y2K bug, most experts believe programmers have already fixed computers so as to avoid the problem.
Beating the Monday deadline set forth in a new Middle Eastern peace agreement, Israel handed over 7% of the West Bank to Palestinian administrative control on Friday, three days before the transfer was expected.
The largest celebration for the big names of the small screen, last night's Emmy Awards looked like a TV rerun because many of last year's winners enjoyed repeat performances and took home their second, third, or even fourth awards.
When it comes to integrating the sexes on submarines the Navy says "no," citing factors such as the lack of privacy and the high cost of building female accommodations on subs as reasons to keep the vessels off-limits to women.
With no time to lose, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to deploy peacekeeping troops to East Timor, where fighting between independent-minded East Timorese and anti-democratic Indonesian militia has destroyed the small province.
Seven Texas teen-agers died last night when an unidentified gunman entered the church where the young people were attending mass and fired at the crowd before he ended the rampage by shooting himself.
While residents of the coastal Southeast were trying hard to get out of the path of Hurricane Floyd Thursday, one USA TODAY reporter was trying even harder to get into the path of the monster storm, aboard a special hurricane research plane.
At the age of 67, Raisa Gorbachev, the outspoken and atypically public wife of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, died today after a battle with leukemia.
Many of Taiwan's 22 million people were rocked out of their sleep last night when a massive earthquake of 7.6 magnitude (about the same force as last month's quake in Turkey) hit the country, leaving over one thousand people dead and even more injured.
U.N. peacekeeping forces managed to quell the violence between Indonesian militia men and pro-democracy citizens in East Timor. However, refugees who returned home to Dili Tuesday found little left of the capital city besides wreckage and rubble.
NASA engineers have lost contact today with the Mars Climate Orbiter, a satellite headed to Mars to search for water. The probe should have re-established radio contact with the U.S. early this morning, but has failed to reconnect.
Once again Bill Gates is at the top of the Forbes 400 Richest Men list, a directory of America's biggest earners whose combined net worth equals $1 trillion, more than the gross domestic product of China.
Former Vice President Dan Quayle is expected to drop out of the Republican presidential race today, citing lack of enough funds to make a strong showing in the primaries.
Chicago's plans to erect a 108-story building could help it reclaim the title of the city with the tallest building in the world, which its Sears Tower lost to Malaysia by 33 feet in 1996.
America's political pundits are speculating over whether actor Warren Beatty will soon announce his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination, from which he'd promote his "Bulworth" platform of reducing poverty and improving schools.
As the 1999 National Education Summit begins today, at least ten states are expected to follow Denver's lead and test a plan in which teacher pay is tied to student achievement rather than career longevity.
Based on a Census Bureau report published today, the problem of providing health insurance worsened between 1997 and 1998, when one million more people were added to a growing number of uninsured Americans.
Children may see lighting up as a way to slim down, according to a new study that found that boys and girls concerned with their weight were more likely to smoke than peers who were not trying to lose weight.
A portion of the money fetched from jumpsuits and jewelry sold in the first-ever auction of Elvis Presley memorabilia will be donated to the Estival Communities homeless shelter, a center similar to the ones of Elvis' youth.
San Francisco and Rochester, Minn. were chosen as the best big and the best small city to live in, respectively, when ranked according to criteria such as housing, health, crime, leisure activities, and weather.
The U.S. Space Command will take charge of defending the U.S. against a uniquely Information Age threat: cyberwarfare. Officials will study how to protect the military's computer networks against hackers and how to build cyberattack capabilities.
In less than 75 years the Earth's population has tripled and on Tuesday, the world will welcome its six billionth baby, a milestone that makes some experts more anxious than eager.
When Harvard president James Bryant Conant created the SAT test, he intended it as a tool to help colleges choose students based only on academic merit. So how has the test, which is now accused of bias, veered so far from its original purpose?
Before Michael, there was Wilt. Wilt "the Stilt" Chamberlain, a basketball legend with a career average of more than 30 points per game, was found dead yesterday from an apparent heart attack.
Twenty teachers have been named to the USA TODAY's All-USA Teacher First Team, a group of educators chosen because they use creative teaching techniques -- ones not found in traditional textbooks -- to encourage students to learn.
Strapped for cash, Russia reports it will not be able to fix the Y2K bug before the millennium, so officials there will switch important processes from automatic to manual control for the turn of the century.
Residents of eastern North Carolina had no sooner begun recovering from last month's Hurricane Floyd when they were visited this weekend by Hurricane Irene, which dumped a half-foot of rain on the area and renewed the threat of flooding rivers.
Senator Jesse Helms is threatening to block former Senator Carol Moseley-Braun's nomination to the New Zealand ambassadorship, possibly due to their clash in 1993 over use of the Confederate battle flag, which Moseley-Braun argued represented slavery.
In the next few years, U.S. elementary school educators will be required to pass tougher teacher licensing exams that will require them to prove their knowledge of specific subjects and creative teaching techniques.
Yesterday, Elizabeth Dole became the fourth republican presidential nominee to drop out of the race. She cited lack of funds, having only $860,000 to George W. Bush's $37.7 million. Click here for the full story.
Celera Genomics announced that it decoded one-third of all human genes in only one month, an accomplishment that should ultimately help researchers discover the secrets behind diseases and aging. Click here for the full story.
A perfectly preserved adult wooly mammoth in Siberia is getting worldwide attention from researchers who want to extract tiny DNA from the giant 11-foot tall animal for use in cloning experiments. Click here for the full story.
The golf community is in shock today over the loss of golf great Payne Stewart, who died yesterday along with at least 4 others when their Learjet reportedly lost cabin pressure and crashed in South Dakota. Click here for the full story.
Looking for an industry with growth potential? Try the Internet. According to a new study, the Internet economy increased 68 percent in the last year, growing faster than the overall U.S. economy. Click here for the full story.
Baseball season ended joyously for New York Yankees' fans who watched their team beat the Atlanta Braves last night to seal up a four-game sweep of the World Series, the second championship title for the Yanks in a row. Click here for the full story.
George W. Bush, front-runner among Republican presidential hopefuls, was notably missing from a New Hampshire debate last night where other candidates criticized his absence and discussed issues such as health care and taxes. Click here for the full story.
This weekend two scientists turned history on its head by proposing that the first people to arrive in North America crossed the Iberian Peninsula -- the area that is now Spain, Portugal, and France -- rather than a land bridge from Asia. Click here for the full story.
Former Chicago Bears football superstar Walter Payton died yesterday, leaving behind a legacy of MVP awards, NFL honors, and even a Super Bowl title. Click here for the full story.
When researchers found this 5-foot long fossil, they thought it was part of a petrified tree. However, it turned out to be a vertebrate from the largest dinosaur found to date, the Sauroposeidon, whose neck extended 40 feet from its shoulders. Click here for the full story.
Time is running short for a House measure to increase minimum wage by $1 because lawmakers cannot agree on when the hike would happen or on a tag-along tax relief package. Click here for the full story.
After ten years in space, the Hubble Telescope continues to change the way we look at the universe by capturing eye-opening pictures of black holes, new stars, and other never-before-seen sights. Click here for the full story.
When Joseph Chebet of Kenya won the New York City Marathon yesterday, he also won the honor of holding two first place marathon titles in one year. Last April, Chebet won the Boston Marathon. Click here for the full story.
More than a source of information, the Internet offers an outlet for self-expression and builds self-esteem say experts studying the connection between children and the Web. Click here for the full story.
This century's most successful recording artists are the Beatles, according to a report issued today that ranks the British band just ahead of Garth Brooks and Barbra Streisand. Click here for the full story.
Today state and federal government offices and most schools are closed for Veterans Day, a holiday to honor the men and women who protected our country in the armed services during time of war. Click here for the full story.
Cities across the U.S. will mark the new millennium in many creative and festive ways, some with banquets and bells, others with photo exhibits and public parties. Click here for the full story.
From toothpaste to cars to software, the greatest business dynasties of the 20th century all played giant roles in shaping the U.S. economy in the last 100 years. Click here for the full story.
Thirty-one years after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, the King family is in court today suing a man who says he hired King's killer -- and that the killer was not James Earl Ray. Click here for the full story. Stay informed of current events in the U.S. and around the world with Hot News.
Stargazers are in for a treat tonight when, astronomers say, the Leonid meteor shower will peak and could produce the best show for decades to come. Click here for the full story. Stay informed of current events in the U.S. and around the world with Hot News.
As the sun moves toward its solar max, the most active stage of its 11-year cycle, it may cause significant effects on Earth, such as power outages or computer problems. Click here for the full story. Stay informed of current events in the U.S. and around the world with Hot News.
Texas A&M students are in shock today after a pyramid of logs intended for the school's annual bonfire collapsed, killing 11 students and injuring 28 others. Click here for the full story. Stay informed of current events in the U.S. and around the world with Hot News.
In the search to find cure-all "miracle drugs" for life-threatening diseases, researchers are discovering that old products already on the market may be just the remedies they need. Click here for the full story. Stay informed of current events in the U.S. and around the world with Hot News.
A new study released yesterday shows that fewer American teens are using drugs, and that fewer teens think drugs are cool. Click here for the full story. Stay informed of current events in the U.S. and around the world with Hot News.
Although it may seem otherwise, officials report that the arrest rate for juveniles accused of committing violent crimes is at its lowest in 10 years and is 30% lower than in 1994. Click here for the full story. Stay informed of current events in the U.S. and around the world with Hot News.
A panel assigned to find ways to make sure the world has enough water for the next century discovered that more than half of the world's rivers are either polluted or going dry. Click here for the full story. Stay informed of current events in the U.S. and around the world with Hot News.
Astronomers have discovered six new planets outside the solar system. Five of the planets are located in the habitable zone, an area where liquid water can exist. Click here for the full story. Stay informed of current events in the U.S. and around the world with Hot News.
The Learning Center was the hands-on channel — activities a class could actually do, as opposed to materi…
Discovery Adventures were multi-week virtual expeditions: a real journey, followed in something close to …
Online Exchange was the collaboration channel: pen pals, sister schools, and joint projects between class…
After the Bell covered everything that happened outside lesson time — clubs, sport, hobbies, holidays and…