White House Millennium Council

The White House Millennium Council was an American organization established by Executive Order 13072 in 1998 by President Bill Clinton as part of the then-upcoming celebrations of the start of the year 2000.

The council was headed by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton,[2] and during a two-year period it engaged in numerous activities surrounding the millennium; for example, a time capsule was created,[3] which included various recordings, a state flag, a photo of Rosa Parks, a piece of the Berlin Wall, a film of Neil Armstrong's walk on the Moon and other items.

[5] The President and the First Lady hosted Millennium Evenings, a series of lectures and cultural showcases designed to highlight contributions of Americans in arts, sciences and other areas.

He reminded his audience that, "despite all the differences that separate our world from the eighteenth century, we are contemporaries of [John] Adams in venerating government but fearing power, and in protecting rights that can never be finally defined or limited in number.

But we are contemporaries of our deeper past in an even more complex and profound way...The gap between the real and the ideal remains, far narrower than in Adams' and [Thomas] Jefferson's time, but still achingly wide.