AS YOU MAY have heard, there’s a solar eclipse happening later. Up to 90 per cent of sunlight will be blocked out across Ireland between 8.20am and 10.30am.
The phenomenon happens when the Moon passses between the Earth and the Sun – obscuring the Sun’s image for Earth-bound viewers.
It’s the first time people across Europe, North Africa parts of the Middle East will have seen a solar eclipse since 1999.
If you can cast your mind back 16 years or so, you may recall that there was quite a bit of hoopla around that eclipse – the last one of the millennium.
Here’s a section of the BBC’s coverage from 11 August 1999 – presented by Michael Buerk…
Remember it now?
Statistically, it’s bound to be the case that some readers weren’t quite born at the time. However, if you were around – and you can’t quite remember what you were up to on the day itself, the following might jog your memory a little….
This was the number 1 single – both in Ireland AND the UK…
That very week, the rest of the UK top ten chart looked like this:
2. Better Off Alone – Alice Deejay
3. Livin’ La Vida Loca – Ricky Martin
4. Rendez-Vu – Basement Jaxx
5. Guilty Conscience – Eminem feat Dr Dre
6. If Ya Gettin’ Down – Five
7. Feel Good – Phats & Small
8. Wild Wild West – Will Smith
9. Let Forever Be – Chemical Brothers
10. Why Does it Always Rain on Me – Travis
These were the films of the summer, back in 1999 (US box office number 1s, from the start of May)
Meanwhile, on TV – in 1999, you may well have been watching the first season of The Sopranos or The West Wing.
While here at home, this man was presenting The Den…
Finally, this was the New York Times Best Seller List, for the week of 8 August 1999…
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