Millennium Evenings at the White House are a series of lectures and cultural showcases hosted by the President and First Lady that highlight the creativity and inventiveness of the American people through our ideas, art and scientific discoveries. The lectures present prominent scholars, creators and visionaries and are acessible to the public via cybercast over the internet and broadcast via satellite. Internet participants are encouraged to email questions before or during the lecture. The broadcasts are usually carried live by cable television and radio outlets though those decisions are often made close to the time of the event. The Millennium Evenings are sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities with support from Sun Microsystems.

Group gatherings at downlink sites (such as community colleges, museums, schools, homes, libraries -- any place with a satellite dish) offer the opportunity to hold local discussions or receptions around the broadcast. Satellite coordinates are posted on the White House web page several days before the event -- satellite time is bought on both the C and KU bands. The cybercast can be accessed via the White House web page or Sun Microsystems web page.

More Millennium Evenings at The White House are being planned for the Year 2000. Please stay tuned for more information on these evenings and check back often for updates to this site.

Previous Millennium Evenings

The First Millennium Evening at The White House February 11, 1998
The Living Past – Commitments for the Future
Featuring honored guest Bernard Bailyn, Professor Emeritus at Harvard University, and winner of the Pulitzer and Bancroft Prizes for his book Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Professor Bailyn discussed the core American ideas that shaped the nation and which we must continue to pursue in the next century and the new millennium.

Remarks by the President

Remarks by Professor Bailyn

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The Second Millennium Evening at The White House March 6, 1998
Information and Change – Science in the Next Millennium
Featuring honored guest Stephen Hawking, the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, UK. Professor Hawking drew on his deep understanding of the laws of science and their effect on human life and led a discussion on how scientific and technological advancements will shape and be shaped by human knowledge.

Remarks by the President, Mrs. Clinton and Honored Guests

Remarks by Stephen Hawking

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The Third Millennium Evening at The White House April 22, 1998
The American Voice in Poetry
Featuring present and past Poets Laureate of the United States: Robert Pinsky, Robert Haas and Rita Dove. The Poets Laureate recited excerpts of famous poems and spoke about the evolution of poetry through the century. The President, Mrs. Clinton and members of the audience read their favorite poems and participated in the discussion.

Remarks by the President, Mrs. Clinton and Honored Guests

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The Fourth Millennium Evening at The White House September 18, 1998
“Jazz: An Expression of Democracy”
Featuring renowned jazz musicians, scholars and a seventeen-piece jazz band. The discussion was led by Grammy Award-Winning Artist Wynton Marsalis and celebrated jazz pianist Marian McPartland, who explained how the development of this unique American art form reflects the make-up of our democracy. Throughout this discussion, musical selections by artists such as Diana Reeves and Billy Taylor, are also included.

Remarks by the President, Mrs. Clinton and Honored Guests

The Fifth Millennium Evening at The White House January 25, 1999
The Meaning of the Millennium
Featuring two distinguished scholars, Professor Natalie Zemon Davis and Professor Martin Marty, who examined the meaning of the millennium from both the historical and religious perspectives. This discussion offered a better understanding of how humankind makes meaning of life through time, and how we shape our future by the acts and commitments we make today.

Remarks by the President, Mrs. Clinton and Honored Guests

The Sixth Millennium Evening at The White House March 16, 1999
Women as Citizen: Vital Voices Through the Century
A discussion on the history of American women in civic life in the 20th Century, with Professor Nancy Cott, Professor Alice Kessler-Harris and Dr. Ruth Simmons. The evening’s discussion focused on three themes: women as volunteers and reformers, women’s struggle for rights, and women in public and civic life.

Remarks by the President, Mrs. Clinton and Honored Guests

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The Seventh Millennium Evening at The White House April 12, 1999
The Perils of Indifference: Lessons Learned from a Violent Century
Featuring Nobel Peace Prizewinner and Boston University Professor Elie Wiesel. Mr. Wiesel, who has used his talents as an author and teacher to promote action against indifference to human atrocities and suffering, led this discussion with President and Mrs. Clinton to help us understand the need for every individual to exercise their moral conscience in the face of injustice.

Remarks by the President, Mrs. Clinton and Honored Guests

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The Eighth Millennium Evening at The White House October, 12, 1999
Informatics Meets Genomics
Featuring Dr. Vinton Cerf, Senior Vice President of Internet Architecture and Technology at MCI WorldCom, and Dr. Eric Lander, Director of the Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research. Together with President and Mrs. Clinton, Dr. Cerf and Dr. Lander led a discussion on the advantages and challenges posed by the increasingly powerful developments of information technology and genetic research, and knowledge about our own natural information system.

Remarks by the President, Mrs. Clinton and Honored Guests

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The Ninth Millennium Evening at the White House June 12, 2000
Exploration Under the Sea, Beyond the Stars
Featuring Dr. Marcia McNutt, President and CEO of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and Astrophysicist Neil de Grasse Tyson, the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. Together with President and Mrs. Clinton Dr. McNutt and Dr. Tyson examine what we are learning from deep sea and deep space research and what these fields have in common. New discoveries in these fields continue to inform each other, push human inquiry to new questions, and alter humanity's perception of our place in the universe.

Remarks by the President, Mrs. Clinton and Honored Guests

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Learn more about the launching of Millennium Evenings at The White House

Remarks by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton on The Millennium Project and Millennium Evenings