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Voice of America, 00-01-01
CONTENTS
[01] EUROPE / MILLENNIUM (L ONLY) BY RON PEMSTEIN (LONDON)
[01] EUROPE / MILLENNIUM (L ONLY) BY RON PEMSTEIN (LONDON)
DATE=12/31/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
NUMBER=2-257682
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Europeans have welcomed the new century with
firework displays and the popping of champagne corks.
From the home of time, Ron Pemstein reports from
London.
TEXT: In the center of Greenwich Mean Time it is
officially a new century. The chimes of Big Ben
announced the year 2000 and 15 minutes of fireworks
set the River Thames ablaze.
/// BIG BEN CHIMES ACT //
Just minutes before, Britain's Queen Elizabeth pulled
a yellow curtain that unveiled the world's largest
dome, called the "Millennium Dome". A few snowflakes
did not dampen the spirits of the hundreds of
thousands of people who lined the banks of the Thames
to watch the fireworks display along the river. The
display was said to have been visible from space.
London's other center of New Year's activity was
supposed to be the world's largest Ferris wheel, known
as the "London Eye". Unfortunately, when the wheel
began to spin on New Year's eve, it was without any
passengers. Engineers determined earlier in the week
that the capsules are not yet safe to give passengers
a 40-kilometer view over London.
Greenwich Mean Time is still the prime meridian of
longitude but Europeans elsewhere had a good time an
hour earlier when they celebrated the new millennium.
In Paris, 20 thousand red lights on the Eiffel Tower
and fireworks illuminated drizzly skies in Paris. The
main boulevard, the Champs-Elysee, exploded in lights.
At the same time a half million homes in France have
been forced to celebrate the millennium by
candlelight.
Storms over the last week have crippled electricity
towers and killed 86 people in France. It was the
storms; not the Y-2K comthe Eiffel Tower that had worked without problems
since 1997.
In his New Year's address, President Jacques Chirac
praised the French people for their solidarity in
helping each other as they pass the gates of the year
2000.
In Rome, Pope John Paul has given his first blessing
of the new century to the crowds in Saint Peter's
Square. He asked God to bless the new millennium to be
filled with joy and peace.
Fireworks exploded over Rome as they did over the
Acropolis in Athens and the Brandenburg Gate in
Berlin.
Making all the festivities even more enjoyable is that
the much-feared computer problem, the Y-2K bug did not
materialize in Europe. (Signed)
NEB/RP/KL
31-Dec-1999 21:07 PM EDT (01-Jan-2000 0207 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
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