Clinton Unlocks GPS: Navigation Transformed for All
The error bars were eighty feet. That's how far off your civilian GPS might land you before May 1, 2000—intentionally scrambled by a Pentagon program called Selective Availability. Clinton flipped the switch on what amounted to peacetime sabotage of a public utility. Within hours, handheld devices that had been glorified compasses became precision instruments. Farmers started GPS-guided tractors. Hikers stopped getting lost. Your phone's blue dot, steady and sure, exists because someone decided accuracy shouldn't be a weapon anymore.
May 2, 2000
26 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on May 2
King Richard I granted Portsmouth its first Royal Charter, transforming a modest settlement into a strategic naval hub. By establishing the town as a protected …
Prince Llywelyn the Great executed the powerful Marcher lord William de Braose by hanging at Aber after discovering him in his wife’s bedchamber. This brutal ac…
Otto the Merry secured the Duchy of Carinthia, expanding the Habsburg reach deep into the Eastern Alps. By consolidating these territories, he transformed his f…
The charges were written before the interrogations began. Anne Boleyn's arrest on May 2nd, 1536, came with accusations so perfectly coordinated—five men, four d…
Knox stepped off the ship at Leith harbor with a death sentence already on his head—French authorities had burned him in effigy two years earlier. He was fifty-…
The getaway boat almost sank twice crossing Loch Leven. Mary Stuart's teenage admirer Willie Douglas had stolen the castle keys during dinner, locking every gat…
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