NEW YORK From the legendary Times Square in New York to the Brandenburg Gate of Berliono illuminated by day, passing by the glories of the London Millennium Dome and the glitz of the play of light on the Eiffel Tower, in Paris: so the big cities of the world celebrated the Two thousand. Here is an overview, including fireworks, solemn speeches, and inextricable nightly traffic jams.

Paris. Three minutes before midnight, the Eiffel Tower lit up with all the colors: an exceptional fireworks display that lasted a dozen minutes. Only three quarters of an hour after midnight, the large light panel, which had worked without problems for 999 days and 19 hours, has resumed functioning – after six hours of a panne mockery – showing the inscription Year 2000 that will remain on for all the year. But at that time the great party had already moved on the Champs-Elisees, where over one million 200 thousand people crowded around the big bright wheels prepared for the occasion: 11 structures that take place until dawn shows of dancers, acrobats and tightrope walkers; 10 smaller and all the same wheels that launch flames like fire-eaters; and, in the background, behind the obelisk of the Concorde, the largest wheel of all, which exhibits a brand new illumination.

London. Ten thousand VIPs led by Queen Elizabeth, Prime Minister Tony Blair and Anglican primate George Carey celebrated at the Millennium Dome, the dome for the New Millennium mega-show built in London in the Greenwich area. However, not everything is smooth for Blair. The Labor Prime Minister wanted to make London the lighthouse city for the millennial celebrations, but he started the evening badly: the Great Wheel on the Thames was not set in motion as it should have been because yesterday he did not pass the last test.

Berlin. A grandiose popular festival that had its center between the Victory Column and the Brandenburg Gate and in which over two million people participated. In Berlin
still at five o’clock this morning there were tens of thousands of those who continued to sing and dance in the city center. There were three fatal accidents not directly connected to the outbreak of the countless firecrackers and barrels that illuminated the city’s sky for hours and hours. A 25-year-old boy died overwhelmed by a subway train. In the district of Spandau two people lost their lives in a car accident. In Kreuzberg, the popular high-density district of Turkish immigrants, incidents broke out between a hundred young people and the police. Numerous cars have been burned.

New York. “I am happy for New York: we have shown that it is really the capital of the world,” said Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, before giving the ok to the famous Waterford crystal ball that at midnight fell on the crowd pressed at Times Square, the square symbol of the thousand lights of the Big apple. Despite the fears of Millennium bugs and the anxieties of international terrorism, a 24-hour marathon was held regularly, under the watchful eye of 8,000 policemen.

Washington. The New York party competed with Washington’s solemn party, organized by President Clinton at the White House and on the Mall: Hollywood’s Hollywood – for example, Liz Taylor, Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson – mingled with politicians, industrialists, sportsmen and to ordinary people. “We grow old, but America remains perpetually young and does not fear changes,” Clinton said, greeting the arrival of the Millennium, just before a play of lights and fireworks lit the Mall by day.