From Microsoft's site

Thu Jan 25 04:43:34 UTC 2001

> At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday (PST), a Microsoft technician made a 
> configuration
> change to the routers on the edge of Microsoft's Domain Name Server
> network. The DNS servers are used to connect domain names with numeric
> IP addresses (e.g. 207.46.230.219) of the various servers and networks
> that make up Microsoft's Web presence.

Connect 22.5 hours worth of dots between these two events.

> At approximately 5 p.m. Wednesday (PST), Microsoft removed the changes
> to the router configuration and immediately saw a massive 
> improvement in the DNS network.

Their management should be real embarrassed to take so long to back out the
last-change.