We cast our minds back 15 years to 2003 - three years into the new millennium.
So near, yet so far - our photographs reflect what was going on around the region - and in the UK at large - back then.
Tony Blair, Labour MP for Sedgefield in Co Durham, and Prime Minister to boot, was at the recently opened Baltic modern art gallery on Gateshead Quayside to be grilled by BBC newsman Jeremy Paxman. In the background we see the Sage music centre under construction. It would open two years later.
That other new symbol of modern post-industrial Tyneside - the Millennium Bridge - stands proud in another image, joining the ranks alongside its near older neighbours, the Tyne Bridge, the Swing Bridge, and the High Level Bridge.
Meanwhile, entering the River Tyne was a symbol of the old industrial supremacy the North East once enjoyed. We see HMS Ark Royal in all her glory. Launched at Swan Hunter’s Wallsend yard in 1981, the vessel would serve until decommissioning in 2011.
And then, as ever, there was football. Newcastle United were doing rather well at the time. They would finish the season third in the Premier League, and they competed in the Champions’ League - for a second time - against the likes of Barcelona and Juventus. Imagine that!
In the wider world, early 2003 was a time when the Iraq War loomed large in the headlines.
Nearly two million people turned out to demonstrate in the streets of London as the conflict became imminent.
In March, UK troops joined those from the United States and other nations in the invasion of Iraq.
A month later, a statue of Saddam Hussein in Iraq was toppled as the dictator’s 24 years in power came to an end following the Allies’ successful ‘shock and awe’ campaign.
In football, a teenage Portuguese forward, Cristiano Ronaldo, made his debut for Manchester United, a high-profile move in a burgeoning career that would see him become one of the world’s greatest players.
Meanwhile, American cyclist Lance Armstrong won his fifth Tour de France, but it was a title that would be stripped years later after he was exposed as a long-term sporting doper.
The UK summer was also a scorcher with a record-high British temperature of 38.5C recorded in Faversham, Kent.
In pop, some of the year’s biggest-selling acts were Coldplay, Beyoncé, Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne and David Gray.
And down at the cinema, the biggest-drawing films included The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; Finding Nemo; and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
These were just some of the things happening 15 years ago in 2003.
