25 Things Turning 25 in 2025

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Happy 25th birthday to the below things.
Happy 25th birthday to the below things. | GMVozd/GettyImages

Even though we’re only a quarter of the way through the 21st century, we’ve seen major advances in everything from pop culture to technology. Here are 25 of the best things the year 2000 gave us, from the birth of iconic franchises to scientific advancements that we may take for granted. Get ready for a blast from the past—Y2K style.

  1. Camera Phone
  2. USB Flash Drive
  3. How The Grinch Stole Christmas
  4. Heelys, Inc.
  5. The Segway
  6. The First-Ever International Space Station Crew
  7. Parachutes 
  8. 405: The Movie
  9. PlayStation 2
  10. The Duke and I 
  11. Millennium Force
  12. The E-Book
  13. Hollister Co.
  14. The Sims
  15. Scary Movie
  16. The Podcast
  17. Big Brother
  18. Razor Scooters
  19. Google AdWords
  20. Oops!... I Did It Again
  21. The First Draft of the Human Genome
  22. ASOS
  23. iStock
  24. Bring It On
  25. Charles Schulz’s Last Peanuts Comic Strip

Camera Phone

Nowadays, it might be difficult to picture a world where you can’t instantly whip out your phone to take photos with friends or capture your cat doing something silly. But that simply wouldn’t have been possible before 2000.

The Sharp J-SH04, released in November 2000, was the first true integrated camera phone. It integrated a camera with messaging to let users easily share photos over their cellular network. It was branded as “Sha-Mail” from the Japanese word Shashin, meaning “photograph.” 

Samsung’s SCH-V200 is sometimes credited as the first camera phone, but it wasn’t fully integrated. Before you could actually see the pictures, you had to transfer them to a PC, leaving out the “phone” element of instant sharing.

USB Flash Drive

Thumb drive, flash drive, memory stick—no matter what you call it, this product was a revolutionary way to store and transfer information. It was introduced by Trek 2000 at a trade fair in Germany in 2000; the novel USB-powered device combined flash memory with a user-friendly design. Branded the ThumbDrive, it quickly replaced floppy disks and became a global standard.

Unfortunately, this story has a bit of a downer ending. Despite its success, Trek faced huge amounts of competition—and rampant copying. Companies like IBM and Netac claimed similar inventions; Trek’s legal battles to protect its patents had limited results. By 2021, global thumb drive sales exceeded $7 billion, yet Trek still struggled financially.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas

This iconic film, which has touched the three-sizes-too-small hearts of millions, first debuted in 2000. It was an indisputable box-office hit, grossing $345,141,403.

The film wasn’t exactly a breeze to film: The process of transforming Carrey into the Grinch was physically painful and took more than two and a half hours every day. “I went back to my trailer and put my leg through the wall and I told Ron Howard I couldn’t do the movie,” the actor once said. He ultimately underwent torture endurance training to prepare for the grueling hair and makeup process.

Heelys, Inc.

You might find them cringe now, but back in the day, having a set of Heelys was about as cool as a kid could get. It all began in 1999, when Roger Adams had a bold idea: What if sneakers had wheels? Inspired by his love of roller sports and the skate culture of Huntington Beach, he cut open a sneaker, inserted a skateboard wheel, and created Heelys. Heeling Sports Limited—which later became Heelys, Inc.—was founded in May 2000, the same year the first Heelys shoes hit the market.

Unfortunately, the popularity and excitement around the shoe faded by the end of the aughts. The company ultimately filed for bankruptcy, and while they’re still on the market today, the popularity of Heelys never climbed back up to its initial numbers. 

The Segway

Speaking of wheels, you have to hand it to humanity—we certainly have an affinity for creating unconventional ways to get around. Another new mode of transport was invented in 2000: the Segway human transporter.

“Excited” is an understatement when discussing the hype surrounding this invention. Steve Jobs claimed it would be “As big a deal as the PC,” and there was even a South Park episode later released to poke fun at the hype. But this product was not without risks: One study found that injuries are not uncommon among Segway users—so much so that the rate of people admitted to a particular emergency room for riding Segways was higher than that of pedestrians who were hit by a car. Even the company’s owner ultimately passed away from injuries he sustained in a Segway-related accident. Those who do ride a Segway should always be sure to wear a helmet.

The First-Ever International Space Station Crew

On November 2, 2000, scientific history was made when the Expedition 1 crew became the first residents of the International Space Station. Two days after launching from Kazakhstan, they docked their Soyuz spacecraft and brought the station to life, turning it into a functioning orbital outpost. This mission lasted 141 days and truly put to the test whether or not a continuous human presence in space was actually attainable. (Spoiler alert: It was.)

Parachutes 

Coldplay released their first album, Parachutes, in 2000. Parachutes came at a time when music was either drowning in nu-metal aggression or overrun with polished pop. Coldplay offered something different: vulnerability. It wasn’t too flashy—and it didn’t need to be. This is why it resonated so heavily with their audience. Over two decades later, you’re almost guaranteed to still catch “Yellow” being played in a department store or on your dad’s radio.

405: The Movie

There are certainly other videos from 2000 that could claim the “first viral video” status, but 405: The Movie is a marker in digital history: It showed that independent filmmakers could use the internet to execute their ideas entirely on their own. Bruce Branit and Jeremy Hunt used their self-taught skills to create and release the film, working with a budget of $300. Their video amassed millions of views five years before YouTube even existed.

PlayStation 2

The PlayStation 2 release was nothing short of revolutionary. When it launched on October 26, 2000, it went on to become the best-selling gaming console of all time. The inclusion of a DVD drive made it a Trojan horse for the then-booming home video market, giving millions of households their first taste of digital media. Its internet connectivity also hinted at a future of online gaming.

The Duke and I 

The Duke and I, which hit bookstore shelves in 2000, introduced the world to the Bridgerton family. The historical romance novel follows the courtship of Daphne Bridgerton and Simon Basset and was the first installment of Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series. And thanks to the hit Netflix show that debuted in December 2020, the story of Daphne and the Duke remains as popular than ever.

Millennium Force

If you’ve ever been to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, then you know firsthand just how big of a deal the Millennium Force is. When the rollercoaster opened in 2000, it broke five world records. The ride was so tall (over 300 feet in height) that they needed to come up with a new name to classify it, ultimately settling on giga coaster.

Millennium Force has a top speed of 93 mph and has been voted the number one steel roller coaster 10 times. Although the coaster has been surpassed in speed and height since its opening, it still remains one of the tallest, fastest coasters out there.

The E-Book

E-books are both accessible and quite popular nowadays. But this wasn’t always the case. In fact, Simon & Schuester believed they were taking a major risk by agreeing to develop Stephen King’s novella Riding The Bullet into the world’s first mass-market e-book.

The novella’s success was far from certain—the publisher priced it at just $2.50 and waited to see what would happen. But it was downloaded more than 400,000 times within 24 hours; the demand actually wound up crashing SoftLock’s servers, leaving die-hard King readers wanting more. Despite the tech hiccups (and some computers flat-out failing due to encryption issues), Riding the Bullet amassed over half a million downloads, proving digital books had even more potential than first thought.

Hollister Co.

Danielle Savre shopping at Hollister Co
The vibe has evolved over the decades. | Jaimie Trueblood/GettyImages

One of the unquestionable founders of Y2K fashion was Hollister Co., which opened the doors of its first store in 2000. Though the evidence irrefutably points to 2000 being the first year of Hollister’s existence, according to the BBC, the company has actually peddled a fictitious backstory since its conception, claiming that the true birth of Hollister was in 1922. Among other things, the narrative claims the company was founded by a non-existent John Hollister senior.

The Sims

On February 4, 2000, a video game created by SimCity designer Will Wright called The Sims hit the market. The game introduced players to a “sandbox” experience where they could control every aspect of their Sims’ lives. The Sims was initially thought up as a virtual dollhouse, but then evolved into a deeper exploration of human relationships and consumer culture. Despite low expectations from Electronic Arts, The Sims became the best-selling PC game of 2000 and 2001, spawning a ton of popular expansions and sequels.

Scary Movie

There are some pretty mixed opinions about the Scary Movie franchise. But there’s no denying that the first installment, which hit theaters in 2000, spawned an entirely new genre. The slasher parody Scary Movie sought to combine two things most people would never organically group together: Horror and comedy. The movie was a success, and the filmmakers went on to create four sequels. 

The Podcast

While it might not have been the evolved product we’re familiar with, the first version of what we know as the “podcast” was developed in 2000. It all began when MP3 player maker i2Go launched MyAudio2Go.com, a service that lets users download news stories to their MP3 players or PCs. Although short-lived—i2Go shut down in 2001—it laid some very important groundwork. By 2004, the term podcast had officially entered the conversation. An article in The Guardian helped popularize the name (though they technically used the term podcasting), marking the beginning of a cultural shift in how we consume audio content.

Big Brother

The early 2000s were big for reality television. There was a massive demand for this style of content—so it’s no surprise someone came up with the idea of taking a group of random adults, stuffing them in a house together, and asking them to engage in a complex game of social chess in exchange for money.

Big Brother originally aired in July of 2000 and lasted 88 days. The American TV show was inspired by a similar Dutch program, which itself was inspired by George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. The U.S. version of Big Brother is still going strong; its 27th season will air in summer 2025.

Razor Scooters

When the first Razor scooters hit the market in 2000, they were an immediate sensation—so much so that the company managed to sell 5 million units of the ankle smashers within just the first six months of the product’s launch. It’s important to clarify that Razor didn’t invent the scooter but rather modernized and popularized an existing design. The actual scooter creator isn’t known, and in the shadow of Razor’s success, perhaps they never will be.

Google AdWords

If you’re an average internet user, the birth of online advertising is likely more of a nuisance than a celebratory feat. But if you’re in marketing, you’re probably quite grateful for the 2000 debut of Google AdWords.

The process was quite simple: advertisers bid for ad placements based on impressions, with the highest bidder earning the top spot. Quality Score and spam regulations weren’t yet discussed, but even in its first year, Google AdWords generated $70 million; it’s still going strong today, though is now known as just Google Ads.

Oops!... I Did It Again

Britney Spears released her second studio album, Oops!… I Did It Again in May 2000. The pop album contained smash hits including a single of the same name, as well as “Lucky” and “Stronger. ” Spears’s album nabbed the top spot on the Billboard 200 the week it came out, selling a whopping 1.3 million copies and breaking a sales record it held onto until Adele’s 25 usurped it in 2015.

The First Draft of the Human Genome

The Human Genome Project is a monumental scientific feat. To boil things down significantly, the goal of the project was to sequence the entire human genome; this would lead to incredible feats in medicine and biotechnology, but it was certainly no easy task. The project launched in 1990. In 2000, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium announced its long-awaited first draft. The draft only accounted for 90 percent of the genome, but this accomplishment was enough to carry the project’s momentum to its true completion years later.

ASOS

ASOS—the online fashion company that’s now popular worldwide—has changed quite a bit since it launched in the UK in 2000. The company was originally known as As Seen on Screen; as the name suggests, it sold imitations of clothing and accessories that celebrities wore in their movies and shows.

iStock

If you’ve ever needed a stock image for anything, you’re probably familiar with iStock. The company was founded in May 2000 as iStockphoto, and though it was acquired by Getty Images six years later, iStock still remains a valuable source for anyone who needs to buy a stock image. 

Bring It On

The team behind 2000’s Bring It On certainly didn’t curse themselves with any dropped Spirit Sticks while working on this hit teen flick. The film, which saw Kirsten Dunst and Gabrielle Union facing off as opposing cheer captains, was a smashing success. It earned the top spot at the box office the week it premiered and grossed more than $90 million—and also launched a franchise that, as of December 2024, includes seven installments. Fun fact: Bring It On was originally meant to be a documentary about the competitive world of national cheer competitions, but a lack of studio interest in that concept forced writer Jessica Bendinger to pivot.

Charles Schulz’s Last Peanuts Comic Strip

Charles Schulz, the cartoonist behind the beloved Peanuts comic strip, announced he would retire in January 2000 due to worsening health issues. He died just over a month later, on February 12. The last Peanuts comic strip he ever created published the very next day; it included a farewell message from the cartoonist alongside his illustrations. “I have been grateful over the years for the loyalty of our editors and the wonderful support and love expressed to me by fans of the comic strip. Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Onus, Lucy … how can I ever forget them …” he wrote.

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