December 28, 1999 - news of the day. New Years Eve celebrations called off around The Space Needle in Seattle. Police arrest Algerian Ahmed Ressam for carrying a car loaded with Nitroglycerin, heading across the border. Burger King recalls Pokemon toys. 1999 was a great year at the Box Office.
December 28, 2010

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Ahmed Ressam - sightseeing with a car full of Nitro. It raised eyebrows.


Ironically, December 28, 1999 also fell on a Tuesday - but the similarities stop there. In 1999 everyone was thinking about the fabled Y2K catastrophes just around the corner. Seattle decided celebrating the new millennium wasn't such a hot idea around the Space Needle, brought on largely by fear of a terrorist attack of some kind. And they probably had good reason - only a few days earlier Algerian born Ahmed Rassem tried to pass himself off as Benni Antoine Norris and drive across the border at Vancouver in a car loaded with Nitroglycerine and, it was discovered, a number of plastic bombs. His final destination was supposed to be LAX, but it didn't stop Seattle from breaking out in sweats. So New Years Eve was a no-go at the Space Needle.

Other news was the great recall of Pokemon toys from Burger King. An Indian Airlines jet hi-jacked and sitting on the tarmac in Kanhadar Afghanistan waiting for a $200 million ransom payment. Online drug sales getting out of hand. Shuttle Discovery spends first Christmas in space while trying to repair the Hubble telescope. Domestic box office receipts topped $7.5 Billion, the most in over 40 years, with the latest Star Wars entry taking in nearly $430 million.

Here is the news of the day via the CBS World News Roundup for Tuesday December 28, 1999.

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