To the surprise of many members of the Class of 2003, the world at large has continued as usual while they have lived, worked and played in Hanover. Here is a summary of what happened during their time here:
1999
As the days leading toward the new millennium ticked away, questions loomed about the potential hazards of the Y2K bug, the result of computers programmed to record the year using only two digits. Sources predicted widely varying degrees of damage, ranging from a few airline delays and scattered losses of power to the apocalyptic expectations of doomsday cults such as Heaven's Gate.
In the end, little came of Y2K, and the New Year passed without incident.
2000
Primary season brought presidential prospects Bill Bradley, D-N.J., and John McCain, R-Ariz., head to head with incumbent Vice President Al Gore and president's son George W. Bush.
McCain experienced early successes, taking several primaries (including New Hampshire's) while Bush stirred up controversy by speaking at South Carolina's anti-Catholic Bob Jones University. But by Super Tuesday, both favorites had locked up their respective party nominations.
The campaign's trajectory over the summer months was marked largely by its tightness, and when Americans finally went to the polls in November, no clear victor emerged.
For weeks, politicians and the populace debated "pregnant chads" and the failings of the Electoral College before the Supreme Court decided in favor of Bush, making him the nation's next president.
Conflict erupted with Cuba as young Elin Gonzalez found himself at the center of an international custody battle that ended with his forced removal from the home of Miami relatives.
In August, the world watched helplessly as a Russian submarine Kursk sunk in the Barents Sea, killing all 118 crew members.
2001
In January, George W. Bush was inaugurated amid lingering complaints of unfair vote counts, put to rest later in the spring by full recounts of the ballots that indicated he would have won the state of Florida, upon whose electoral votes the presidency hinged.
California became embroiled in a serious energy crisis, resulting in rolling blackouts and government efforts to curb energy prices.
The ongoing crisis in the Middle East reached numerous flashpoints, as violence between Palestinians and Israelis continued to escalate in the region.
Bush's administration was tested early in April when a U.S. Navy surveillance plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet and made an emergency landing on the island of Hainan. The Chinese government detained some 24 crew members for 11 days following the crash.
In May, Vermont senator Jim Jeffords announced he would leave the Republican Party and become an independent, shifting a tenuous balance of power in the Senate from a Republican majority to a thin Democratic one.
In June, ousted longtime Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic was turned over to a United Nations war-crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. Three indictments charged Milosevic with war crimes in Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia over the past decade.
Convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was put to death by lethal injection on June 11, the first federal prisoner to be executed in 38 years.
The biggest news of the year came on Sept. 11, when terrorists linked with Osama bin Laden's radical Al-Qaida organization hijacked four U.S. passenger airliners, aiming them at key domestic targets. The terrorists flew one plane into each of the World Trade Center's twin towers in Manhattan, and one into the Pentagon. A fourth hijacked flight crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania, causing many to speculate that it was aimed for another Washington target, such as the White House.
