2 weeks ago
15
1. Michael Jordan coming out of retirement.
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"Michael Jordan coming out of retirement. Rumors have been swirling for awhile now and on the actual morning on 9/11 before the first plane hit, it was one of the top stories on the morning news shows." — Kevin-W
2. The first iPod.
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"Apple came out with the iPod, and we carried our entire music collection in our pockets." — YELLOW_TOAD
3. The Andrea Yates trial.
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"Michael Jordan's return to basketball was the biggest story of the day, but stations were also reporting on jury selection for the Andrea Yates trial, New York Fashion Week (which featured a maternity line for the first time), and the New York mayoral primary. Not a peep was heard about them after the north tower was hit." — DoFlwrsExistAtNight
4. The NYC mayoral primary.
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“Here in NYC there was the Democratic primary for mayor with Mark Green and Fernando Ferrer running for the nomination on the 11th. The election was postponed and later Green would win the runoff only to lose to Bloomberg in November. Ferrer would go on to win the 2005 Democratic nomination only to lose to Bloomberg that November." — Blue387
5. The Amazing Race premiering six days earlier.
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"From a pop culture standpoint we were fully in reality TV hysteria with Survivor getting crazy ratings and Amazing Race debuted I think the week before 9/11." — BraveFalcon
6. Aaliyah's death.
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"I was a teenager so Aaliyah dying was a huge deal. I only recently saw something about it just being a couple weeks before 9/11 and even though I remember both events clearly I cannot make my brain believe they were so close." — Foxenfre
7. Chandra Levy.
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"The disappearance of Chandra Levy. Once 9/11 happened, I don't recall any other news story for a week or so." — mermaidpaint
8. American Airlines Flight 587.
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"Kind of an odd answer since it happened after 9/11, but the crash of American Airlines Flight 587. In November 2001, the plane crashed into a neighborhood in Queens, New York, killing all 260 people on board and 5 people on the ground." — r0cket-skates
9. The coughing Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? scandal.
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"An ex army major cheated his way to a million on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, by getting his wife and a friend who were sat in the audience to cough to indicate the correct answer. It happened right before 9/11." — Ok-Noise2538
10. Zoolander opening in the immediate aftermath.
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"Zoolander still decided to release only a few weeks later amid a decent amount of controversy that I have no memory of even happening despite loving the movie." —emerynlove
11. The McDonald's Monopoly fraud.
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"It was discovered that the McDonald's Monopoly game had been rigged by an insider for years." — JimyLamisters
12. Yellow Ranger actor Thuy Trang's death.
Everett Collection
"Not sure how big the story was in the first place, but actress Thuy Trang, who played the yellow ranger in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers died in a car crash a week before 9/11." — Ethereal-Zenith
13. Big Brother 2.
John Li / Getty Images
"It took me about 10 days to remember that Big Brother 2 was in production, with three contestants left." — mermaidpaint
14. The "Summer of the Shark."
Star Tribune via Getty Images / Getty Images
"That summer, the news was ripe with reports of shark attacks in Florida. I remember thinking the Florida board of tourism was struggling to quiet the news coverage and then…blam." — Daxl
15. Dale Earnhardt's death.
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"Yeah, this is one that is easy to overlook, but it caused a lot of reviews to NASCAR safety standards, and kinda transformed the sport, because at first glance it wasn't even that bad of a crash." — ShaunTrek
18. Mariah Carey's Glitter.
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"My first thought was the Mariah Carey Glitter album. There's a decently known photo of a glitter billboard taken in NYC with the towers burning in the background. Which is a pretty good analogy as to how successful that album was." — Detatchamo
19. George Harrison's death.
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"George Harrison's death occurred 11-29-2001...it should have been huge news but ended as a footnote for 2001." — whathuhmeh10k
20. Enron.
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"The complete collapse of Enron as a company. It destroyed countless lives of the employees, and shareholders." — Doctor_Mothman
21. Wikipedia launching.
Orjan F. Ellingvag / Getty Images
"Wikipedia launched. Low-key the beginning of the end for encyclopedia salesmen everywhere. We were too busy worrying about terrorism to notice we were entering the age of citation needed." — Street_Tuff
22. Donnie Darko.
Gregg DeGuire / Getty Images
"The release of Donnie Darko. It came out in theaters a few weeks after 9/11 and only grossed $517,375 domestically but then went on to be probably the number 1 cult classic." — ListenOk2972
23. Timothy McVeigh's execution.
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"Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was executed not too long before 9/11." —UnderwhelmingAF
24. Jay-Z releasing The Blueprint.
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"The Blueprint by Jay-Z dropped. A classic IMO but it released the same day." —oldveteranknees
25. Band of Brothers premiering.
HBO
"Band of Brothers was released on September 9th, 2001 Awful timing but also kind of perfect, ya know." — VGK9Logan
26. And lastly, Britney Spears iconic snake VMA performance.
Kevin Kane / Getty Images
It happened just five days before 9/11.
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