2000 (MM) was a leap year that started on a Saturday, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. It was the 2000th year of the Common Era or the Anno Domini designation, and the last year of the 20th century and the 2nd millennium.

2000 was designated as:

The year 2000 was the first year of the 2000s decade. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, due to a tendencial way to group the years according to decimal values, as if year zero were counted. According to the Gregorian calendar this distinction falls to the year 2001, because the 1st century was retroactively said to start with year AD 1. Since the calendar has no year zero, its first millennium spans from years 1 to 1000, inclusively, and its second millennium from years 1001 to 2000. (See more at Millennium.)

The year 2000 was the subject of Y2K concerns: fears that computers would not shift from 1999 to 2000 correctly. However, by the end of 1999, many companies had already converted to new, or upgraded their existing software. Some even obtained Y2K certification. As a result of massive effort, much of it mis-directed, relatively few problems occurred.

Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks is known for his roles in Philadelphia and as the title character in Forrest Gump, roles which won him two consecutive Academy Awards for Best Actor. Hanks is also known for his Oscar nominated roles in Big, Saving Private Ryan and Cast Away.

Hanks' other acting roles include Apollo 13 as Jim Lovell, The Green Mile as Paul Edgecomb, Toy Story as Woody and Charlie Wilson's War as Charlie Wilson.

Hanks was born in Concord, California. His father, Amos Mefford Hanks (born in Glenn County, California, on March 9, 1924 – died in Alameda, California, on January 31, 1992), was an itinerant cook. His mother, Janet Marylyn (née Frager; born in Alameda County, California, on January 18, 1932), was a hospital worker. Hanks' mother is of Portuguese ancestry, while two of his paternal great-grandparents immigrated from Britain. Hanks's parents divorced in 1960. The family's three oldest children, Sandra (now Sandra Hanks Benoiton, a writer)^{[citation needed]}, Larry (now Lawrence M. Hanks, PhD, an entomology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Tom, went with their father, while the youngest, Jim, now an actor and film maker, remained with his mother in Red Bluff, California.^{[citation needed]}