When the 20th century was about to conclude, many were preparing to celebrate "like it was 1999." Others, meanwhile, were forecasting a catastrophic new year, all stemming from a simple oversight that occurred when early computers were being programmed.
The Year 2000 problem, also known as the Y2K problem or the Y2K glitch originated from a fear that computers would collapse when their clocks were projected to modernize to January 1, 2000. The public worried that when the date changed from December 31, 1999, to January 1, 2000, computers – which had only been programmed with two digits for the date – would be confounded would hence the shut down.
The Digital Age
Computers were already part of our standard routine by then end of 1999, so the new year glitch was a major concern.
Aside from warnings of the end of civilization, other people feared the consequences a widespread tech glitch might have for banks, the power grid, and airports as these relied on computers. As such, many people set up emergency kits that included food supplies and extra cash.
Preparations for the Bug
Back in 1997, the British Standards Institute (BSI) created DISC PD2000-1, a new computer standard for the Year 2000 with the following rules:
Rule 1: No value for current date will cause any interruption in operation.
Rule 2: Date-based functionality must behave consistently for dates prior to, during, and after the year 2000.
Rule 3: In all interfaces and data storage, the century in any date must be specified either explicitly or by unambiguous algorithms or rules of inference.
Rule 4: The year 2000 must be recognized as a leap year.
Basically, the standard determined the bug to depend on two major issues: the two-digit representation of dates would cause a glitch in data processing, and a misinterpretation of calculations for leap years in the Gregorian Calendar would result in the year 2000 not being coded as a leap year.
