There was a lot of hysteria as a result of “experts” testifying to congress.

I remember one “expert” who claimed that all integrated circuits have internal calendars and so everything would break.

Having designed countless circuits over the years, I knew this was total and complete bullshit.

As noted, there were a lot of systems which required fixes to handle the date change. And a lot of hard work went into mitigating the effects.

But the fear mongering didn’t help the situation and when those dire predictions didn’t come true, many people dismissed the whole situation as hype.