Thomas Edison's movie crew filmed the electrocution of an elephant. Topsy was being destroyed by its owners after she killed three men in as many years. The third was a man that fed her a lit cigarette. The event was a public spectacle to a paying audience of 1500 people in Coney Island, where the elephant had been kept on the show. Edison was the consultant chosen to arrange the electrocution death after cyanide-laced carrots had failed. Thereafter, he showed the film around the country as part of his unsuccessful effort to discredit the “dangerous” alternating current of George Westinghouse, and promote Edison's direct current electrical system. Eventually, A.C. was universally adopted, however, as more practical for long-distance transmission.

The EV1 electric car, running on nickel-metal-hydride batteries, was announced by General Motors at the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show. Its limited introduction began later in the year, available only on lease, and only in California and Arizona. Although its wider adoption would have met requirement to move toward zero-emission cars, when California backed down from its stricter air-pollution standards, the GM scrapped the electric model in 2003, citing excessive production and maintenance expenses. Instead, the company fed consumers' whims for sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) and small trucks, rather than downsizing their fleet or developing hybrids in the face of more fuel-efficient imports. The company went bankrupt in 2008, and was bailed out by the U.S. government.«