In 1999, "Believe" topped the charts, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace packed theaters, a stamp cost 33¢, the average home went for about $161,000.
🎵 Top songs of 1999
"Believe" — Cher
"No Scrubs" — TLC
"Angel of Mine" — Monica
🎬 In theaters
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
The Sixth Sense
Toy Story 2
What things cost in 1999
$1.17
Gallon of gas
33¢
Postage stamp
$5.06
Movie ticket
$2.85
Gallon of milk
$161,000
Average home
$20,686
New car
$40,700
Household income
A $1.17 gallon of gas in 1999 has the buying power of roughly $2.20 in 2024 dollars. A 33¢ stamp is around 62¢ today, and a $5.06 movie ticket is about $9.55.
The biggest moments of 1999
Fans camped outside theaters for weeks to see Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, the first Star Wars film in 16 years.
The world prepared for the Y2K computer bug, stocking up on supplies as the year 2000 approached.
Boy bands and pop stars like Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, and Britney Spears ruled MTV's Total Request Live.
The U.S. women won the 1999 World Cup on Brandi Chastain's penalty kick before 90,000 fans at the Rose Bowl, a landmark for women's sports.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire premiered in August 1999, and "Is that your final answer?" swept the country.
A total solar eclipse crossed Europe in August 1999, watched by an estimated 350 million people — the last of the millennium.
Toys, TV & trends of 1999
Pokémania went into overdrive as Pokémon trading cards were traded, banned from schools, and treasured, while the first Pokémon movie hit theaters.
The Sega Dreamcast launched on 9/9/99, one of the biggest video game release days ever.
Ty announced Beanie Babies would "retire" at the end of 1999, sending collectors into a frenzy.
A college kid's file-sharing program called Napster appeared in June 1999 and began quietly upending the entire music business.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater hit the PlayStation, and suddenly everyone knew what a 900 was.
Disney Channel Original Movies like Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century became sleepover essentials — zetus lapetus!
The music scene
1999 was the year of the Latin pop explosion: Ricky Martin's "Livin' la Vida Loca" kicked open the door, and Jennifer Lopez and Enrique Iglesias charged through it. Carlos Santana completed one of music's great comebacks with Supernatural, which would tie the record with eight Grammy wins in a single night. On the teen-pop front, Backstreet Boys' Millennium sold a record-shattering 1.1 million copies in its first week — numbers the industry had never seen.
At the movies
The Matrix's "bullet time" froze audiences mid-gasp in March 1999 and changed action filmmaking overnight. That summer, The Blair Witch Project — shot for around $60,000 — used a spooky website and word of mouth to gross nearly $250 million, inventing viral movie marketing. When Oscar night came, American Beauty took Best Picture, capping a year many critics still call one of the best in film history.
Cartoons kids loved
SpongeBob SquarePants
Ed, Edd n Eddy
Pokémon
Nickelodeon closed the decade by finding its next icon: a relentlessly cheerful sea sponge who premiered in July 1999 and would soon outgrow every cartoon that came before him. The creator-driven revolution the Nicktoons started in 1991 was now the industry standard, while the anime boom — Pokémon at the box office, Dragon Ball Z after school — meant American kids ended the 1990s watching cartoons from both sides of the Pacific.
The world in 1999
World population: about 6.0 billion
U.S. President: Bill Clinton
The euro was introduced on January 1, 1999 as the new shared currency for 11 European nations.
Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones completed the first nonstop balloon flight around the world in March 1999, after nearly 20 days aloft.
The United States handed the Panama Canal over to Panama on December 31, 1999, ending nearly a century of American control.
Portugal returned Macau to China in December, closing the final chapter of European colonial rule in Asia.
1999 birthday questions
How old is someone born in 1999?
Someone born in 1999 turns 27 in 2026 (26 if their birthday has not come round yet).
What was the number one song in 1999?
"Believe" by Cher was among the biggest hits of 1999.
What movie came out in 1999?
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace was one of the films packing theaters in 1999.
How much did gas cost in 1999?
A gallon of gas ran about $1.17 in 1999, and a postage stamp cost 33¢.
How much did a house cost in 1999?
The average home went for roughly $161,000 in 1999, against a typical household income of about $40,700.