My fondest memory of Peter Jennings is from December 31, 1999. The anchorman led a whirlwind whip around the world that began at 4:50am Friday and stretched to 4am Saturday, "following New Year's celebrations from the South Pacific around the world to Hawaii."

I'll never forget the 21 hours I spent with Jennings, glued to the television, watching the year 2000 arrive. (I went to bed at 2am.) Before that day, I wasn't a frequent ABC News viewer. After that day, I turned to Jennings when a major news story was unfolding.

I wasn't alone. An estimated 175 million people watched a portion of ABC 2000, making it "the largest audience enjoyed by a single network on the day the world passed from 1999 to 2000."