In the opening lines of “A Tale of Two Cities,” Charles Dickens wrote: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way.” The novel “A Tale of Two Cities” is about politics and war and human nature at its best and worst. The first decade of the 21st century might also be described as a time of great contradictions and extremes.
Technically, of course, December 31, 2009 was not even the last day of the decade. December 31, 2010 is! That’s because there is no year “0.” Therefore, the first day of the first decade on our calendar was January 1st in the year “1.” So the last day of that decade is actually December 31st, year “10.” Just like the last day of the last decade was really December 31, 2000, although everyone was already celebrating the arrival of a New Millennium at midnight, December 31, 1999. Having readied ourselves for the Y2K Bug to cause world chaos (and either feeling a sense of relief or saying “I told you so” when nothing happened), the tragedy that actually did materialize on 9/11 came as a complete shock to everyone. You might even say this has been a “Decade of Disaster,” and yet there were some bright spots amid the gloom and doom as you will see in the following timeline.
2000-2009 Timeline
2000
February 13, 2000 - Final “Peanuts” comic strip runs the day after Charles M. Schulz’s death.
March 10, 2000 - NASDAQ peaks at 5134, before beginning a downwards descent as the dot-com bubble collapses.
April 3, 2000 - The ruling in the case of the United States versus Microsoft states that the company violated anti-trust laws by diminishing the capability of its rivals to compete.
September 14, 2000 - Windows Me becomes the successor to Windows 98 and, just like Windows 98, is targeted specifically at home PC users.
November 2, 2000 - The International Space Station becomes the largest and the longest continuously crewed space station with the docking of the Expedition 1 crew.
November 7, 2000 - Hillary Rodham Clinton wins a seat for the United States Senate from New York. It is the first time a former First Lady wins public office.
December 12, 2000 - George W. Bush, son of the former President, and Vice President Al Gore were virtually tied for the presidency, with a disputed vote in Florida holding off the naming of the winner of the President Election until the Supreme Court of the United States voted in favor of Bush.
2001
January 6, 2001 - Certification of the Electoral College victory of 271-266 in the 2000 United States Presidential election confirms George W. Bush as President, with Dick Cheney as his Vice-President.
April 8, 2001 - Tiger Woods becomes the first golfer to hold all four major golf titles simultaneously.
September 11, 2001 - Islamic fundamentalist terrorists hijack four U.S. airliners and crash them into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in New York City. The attack of two planes levels the World Trade Center and the crash of one plane inflicts serious damage to the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, causing nearly 3,000 deaths. The fourth plane is heroically crashed by passengers into a Pennsylvania cornfield when they learn of the plot, preventing destruction of another structure in Washington, D.C., supposedly the White House or Capitol building. The plot is attributed to the Al-Qaeda organization led by Osama Bin Laden.
October 7, 2001 - In response to the tragedy of September 11, the United States military, with participation from its ally the United Kingdom, commence the first attack in the War on Terrorism on the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. By November 12, the Taliban government leaves the capital, Kabul.
October 23, 2001- Apple launches the iPod.
October 25, 2001 - Windows XP succeeds Windows Me and Windows 2000, successfully merging the professional NT line of desktop operating systems with the home 9x line of operating systems, and leaving Windows Me with a short shelf-life of just over a year.
2002
January 1, 2002 - The Euro replaces the currencies of 12 of the EU’s 15 members.
March 22, 2002 - “The Sims,” originally released by Maxis in 2000, becomes the best-selling PC game in history, surpassing “Myst.”
July 5, 2002 - Iraq refuses new proposals from the United Nations concerning weapons inspections. The inspections were part of the cease-fire agreement and terms of surrender in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. On September 12, President George Bush addresses the United Nations and warns the members that Iraq presents a grave danger to the world.
November 8, 2002 - The United Nations passes Resolution 1441 in a unanimous Security Council vote. It forces Saddam Hussein and Iraq to disarm or face serious consequences.
2003
February 1, 2003 - A tragedy at NASA occurs when the Space Shuttle Columbia explodes upon reentry over Texas, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
February/March 2003 - A major SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak occurs in China, and SARS was verified to have entered Canada and the United States, but no SARS epidemic took place.
March 19, 2003 - The War in Iraq begins with the bombing of Baghdad after additional measures and mandates from the United Nations and the United States coalition fail to gain concessions or the removal of Saddam Hussein from power. The U.S. coalition begins land operations one day later with participation from U.S., British, Australian, and Polish troops.
April 9, 2003 - The U.S. coalition seizes control of Baghdad in the Iraq conflict, ending the regime of Saddam Hussein.
December 13, 2003 - Saddam Hussein, former leader of Iraq, is found hiding in a small bunker and captured by the U.S. 4th Infantry Division.
2004
January 4, 2004 - The “Spirit Rover” lands on Mars, transmitting detailed data and images of the Martian landscape back to earth.
July 4, 2004 - The groundbreaking ceremony for the Freedom Tower at Ground Zero, the former site of the World Trade Center complex, occurs in New York City.
November 2, 2004 - President George W. Bush wins reelection over Democratic Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts.
November 16, 2004 - “Half-Life 2” is widely considered to have revolutionized physics in gaming with its Havok engine, allowing for widespread interactivity with objects in the game environment.
November 23, 2004 - “World of Warcraft” established itself as one of the most popular PC games ever, and set what are now the generally-accepted standards for the genre of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs).
December 26, 2004 - Following a 9.3 Richter scale earthquake in the Indian Ocean, a tsunami kills 290,000 Southeast Asian people from Sri Lanka to Indonesia, creating one of the greatest humanitarian tragedies in history. A worldwide relief effort, led by the United States and many other nations, is mobilized to assist.
2005
July 24, 2005 - American cyclist Lance Armstrong wins his record 7th straight Tour de France.
July 26, 2005 - In the first Space Shuttle flight since the tragedy of 2003, Discovery goes into orbit on a mission that returns to Earth safely on August 9.
August 29, 2005 - Hurricane Katrina strikes the Gulf Coast region, causing severe damage and inundating the city of New Orleans with water from Lake Pontchetrain when the levees break. Over 1,800 people perish from Alabama to Louisiana in one of the worst natural disasters to strike the United States.
October 26, 2005 - As elections in Iraq confirm a new constitution, a statement from the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, calls for the destruction of Israel and condemns the peace process.
2006
February 22, 2006 - The one billionth song is downloaded from the internet music store, Apple iTunes. This shift in the music industry to new platforms comes at the expense of many brick and mortar chains, including Tower Records.
June 20, 2006 - The first Blu-ray disc titles are released.
August 24, 2006 - The International Astronomical Union (IAU) demotes Pluto to “dwarf planet” status after it was considered a planet for 76 years.
October 9, 2006 - North Korea performs its first successful nuclear test.
October 17, 2006 - The population of the United States reaches the milestone of three hundred million.
November 7, 2006 - In the mid-term elections, both houses of Congress change back to Democratic hands for the first time since 1994.
November 19, 2006 - Nintendo releases the Wii video game console.
2007
January 4, 2007 - The first female speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Representative Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, California, is sworn into office.
January 10, 2007 - President George W. Bush announces a troop surge of 21,500 to stem the violence in Iraq, a controversial policy which begins to show positive signs once fully implemented during the summer months, with a reduction in violent attacks against coalition forces and Iraqi civilians.
January 30, 2007 - Windows Vista is released more than five years after the introduction of its predecessor, Windows XP, the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft Windows desktop operating systems.
June 29, 2007 - The Apple iPhone first goes on sale.
July 4, 2007 - The fifty star flag of the United States of America becomes the longest flying flag in history after flying for over 47 years.
December 13, 2007 - The Mitchell Report on the Steroids Scandal in baseball is published. It recounted a year long investigation into the use and abuse of performance enhancing drugs over a two decade period, in which nearly ninety players were named.
2008
January 28, 2008 - The LEGO® brick turns 50 years old.
May 12, 2008 - Over 69,000 people are killed in central southwest China by the Wenchuan earthquake.
July 1, 2008 - A report by the U.S. embassy in Iraq states that 15 of the 18 goals set for the Iraqi government have been met, largely due to the surge implemented over the last year. The increase of 21,000 United States troops, commonly known as the surge, reduced violence and restored order to the nation, allowing the government of Iraq to focus more on solving other problems needed to establish a stable nation.
August 17, 2008 - Michael Phelps, the United States swimmer from Baltimore, wins his 8th Gold Medal of the Beijing Summer Olympic Games, surpassing the record of seven won by Mark Spitz in 1972.
August 29, 2008 - John McCain chooses Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, as his running mate. This made the contest between Barack Obama and himself, the first time a presidential election included both an African-American candidate and a woman amongst the Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees.
September 14, 2008 - Lehman Brothers, a global financial services firm, files for bankruptcy and becomes a catalyst for the global financial crisis.
November 4, 2008 - Barack Obama, Democratic Senator from Illinois, won the election for the 44th U.S. President over John McCain, making him the first African-American president in the history of the nation.
2009
January 15, 2009 - After striking a flock of geese immediately after takeoff, resulting in a sudden loss of thrust from both engines, US Airways Flight 1549, en route from La Guardia Airport, New York City, to Charlotte, NC, makes a forced landing in the Hudson River. All 150 passengers and 5 crew members survived. The entire crew of Flight 1549 was later awarded the Master’s Medal of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators. The award citation read, “This emergency ditching and evacuation, with the loss of no lives, is a heroic and unique aviation achievement.”
February 7, 2009 - The deadliest bushfires in Australian history kill 173, injure 500, and leave 7,500 homeless.
April 6, 2009 - A 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Italy kills nearly 300 and injures more than 1,500.
April 8, 2009 - Somali pirates hijack an American ship and take the captain hostage off the Horn of Africa. The ship, Maersk Alabama, was carrying food and other aid products for the World Food Program. On April 12, U.S. Navy SEAL snipers, positioned on the destroyer Bainbridge, kill three pirates and free Captain Phillips, ending the five-day ordeal in the Indian Ocean.
April 15, 2009 - Grassroots Tea Party protests spring up all across the nation to protest President Obama’s big government spending projects such as the bailout of the banking industry, car industry, potential cap and trade legislation, and other administration projects that project a ten trillion dollar deficit over the next decade.
May 31, 2009 - Abortion doctor George Tiller, notorious for performing late-term abortions, is shot and killed at the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas, where he served as an usher. His clinic has been closed permanently.
June 1, 2009 - An assailant opened fire on a United States military recruiting office in Little Rock, Arkansas. Private William Long of Conway, Arkansas was killed. Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, an American previously known as Carlos Bledsoe who converted to Islam, has been indicted on one count of capital murder and 15 counts of terrorist acts.
June 11, 2009 - The H1N1 influenza virus, commonly referred to as “Swine Flu,” is deemed a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. This is the first such designation since the Hong Kong flu of 1967-1968.
June 12, 2009 - Federal law requires that all full-power television stations stop broadcasting in analog format and broadcast only in digital format.
July 3, 2009 - Sarah Palin, the first-term Republican governor of Alaska and former vice-presidential candidate, announces her resignation. Palin cites a desire to spend more time with her family and a lack of interest in running for reelection in 2010. During her time off, she also went on a 24-state book tour and scheduled a number of paid speaking events.
August 25, 2009 - Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy, a fixture in the U.S. Senate for 46 years, died of brain cancer at the age of 77. Kennedy was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts; he filled the vacated seat of his brother, then-president John F. Kennedy.
September 8, 2009 - President Obama’s back-to-school address to millions of American students causes a great deal of controversy over the President’s political agenda in making the speech.
October 22, 2009 - Microsoft launches its new Windows 7 operating system.
November 5, 2009 - A shooting at the Fort Hood army post in Texas left 13 dead and 31 injured. Ten of those killed are military personnel, while two are civilians. The gunman was Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a practicing Muslim, who opened fire while shouting “Allah Akbar!” Hasan has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and will be tried in military court.
November 19, 2009 - Hackers release data indicating that global warming is a fraud. Some 3,000 e-mails, files, and other documents from University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit were covertly released onto the Internet. The ensuing scandal encompasses a 30 year time span and dozens of the world’s top climate scientists.
December 1, 2009 - In a press conference, President Obama announces that the U.S. military will be sending an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, in an attempt to prevent further Taliban insurgencies. The troop surge will begin in January 2010, and will bring the total number of American troops in Afghanistan to 100,000. Obama also outlines his plan for the removal of these troops, which will begin in July 2011.
