To commemorate our fifteenth year, we are taking a look back at what life was like 15 years ago. Do you remember May 1999? It was a month of ups and downs. We gained Star Wars: The Phantom Menace but lost Shel Silverstein. Natural disasters of epic proportions and new leadership in world powers made the month one that would change the course of history. Legal precedents were established and technologies that we all utilize now were just being announced. Here are fifteen moments in history from fifteen years ago. Next stop: May 1999.

1. Bluetooth Is Announced

Early in the month, for about six days, 152 tornadoes ravaged the mid-west and eastern U.S. It was the worst in Oklahoma, with one F5 tornado – the second strongest recorded in U.S. history – that caused $1 billion in damage.

3. Goodbye, Shel Silverstein

In Milan, Italy, after 22 years of restoration work, Leonardo da Vinci’s newly-restored masterpiece The Last Supper was put back on display. This is an unforgettable moment in art history.

5. The Ancient Operating System

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The Mummy, a horror adventure starring Brendan Frasier, was released in the U.S. in May 1999. Although the film was originally meant to be a low-budget horror series, it turned into a blockbuster hit.

7. Not So Entertaining Anymore

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was released in theaters, and millions of children began having nightmares about red-eyed guys with horns chasing them with two-sided light sabers. And we thought Darth Vader was intimidating…

9. Italian Stallion of Politics

Teenie boppers lost their minds as they excitedly tore open the packaging on their copies of The Backstreet Boys’ newest release, Millennium.

11. Here’s SpongeBob!

Kansas City, Missouri, wrestler Owen Hart (Blue Blazer) fell 78 feet to his death while being lowered into a World Wrestling Federation ring during WWF Over the Edge.

13. So Long, Home Improvement

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 11,000 for the first time in its history at 11,014.70. Many speculate in hindsight that this bump was actually artificially created by overlending and that in retrospect this was a warning sign for the future recession. It was a cause for celebration then: Now, it’s something from which we have hopefully learned a lesson. 

These LED vaporproof light fixtures are only compatible with From top to bottom: fixtures with cool white, natural white, and warm white ballast-bypass LED T8 tube light bulbs

The weatherproof fixture is dust tight as well as water and impact resistant with a shatterproof polycarbonate lens. A water-tight cord connector, quick-connect wiring adapter, T8 sockets, housing clips, and surface-mount brackets are included. The T8 LED vaporproof light fixture operates within a 100-277V AC range and is covered by a lifetime warranty (fixture only).

Entertainment systems have come a long way since the days of televisions with single mono speakers that plugged into a wall and used antennas. Today, you can have an entire home theater experience with digital 2K projection technology, 7.1 discrete audio channels with lossless DTS-Master Audio HD sound, video game consoles, and streaming technology bringing you entertainment from more sources than anyone could have dreamed of only a decade past.

This does mean a far more complex electrical wiring network, however. The old-fashioned TV simply needed to plug into a wall, and that was it. If you want a full home theater set-up, it’s almost essentially a room renovation or new room addition as far as the electrical wiring is concerned. Nowhere else in your home will have as many appliances requiring electrical power at the same time.

One of the reasons to have professional assistance with this task is that you will want as much of the wiring as possible, such as those running to the speakers, to remain hidden within the walls. Electricians can make this task much simpler and take away the need to rip apart your walls to have the wires installed.

Electricians can also help you protect your home from electrical power surges that an entertainment system can cause; we advise our customers to look into whole-house surge protectors as part of a large-scale entertainment add-on: the basic power strips are not sufficient on their own to protect from the problems of major power surges.

Electricians can also help you upgrade outlets and your circuit breaker panel to accommodate the higher electrical demands. If you have older two-prong outlets, you definitely need those replaced with grounded outlets.