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| The
2000's - The War on Terrorism |
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2000
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April 3, 2000
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The ruling in the case of the United States versus Microsoft states
that the company did violate anti-trust laws by diminishing the
capability of its rivals to compete.
June 1, 2000 - For the first time since 1851, the United States of
America does not participate in a major World's Fair, the Hannover 2000
World Expo, despite a record number, 187, of international
participants. President Bill Clinton had withdrawn U.S.
participation late in 1999 after agreement to participate in
1997. Congressional apathy toward participation in world
events
continues a decline in U.S. involvement after the fall of the Soviet
Union and victory in the Cold War. A consequence of this
policy
has led to a rise, among some experts, of anti-American sentiment, and
a decline of U.S. influence in diplomatic affairs. Less than
half, 18.1 million, of the original attendance estimate, 40 million,
visit Hannover's event.
November 7, 2000 - George W. Bush, son of the former President, and
Vice President Al Gore hold a virtual dead-heat 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 on December 12. This ruling gave
Florida
to the Bush camp by a 527 vote majority, and a victory in the Electoral
College, 271-266, despite gaining less popular votes than
Gore.
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 28, 2000 - Montgomery Ward, the retail giant since its
founding one hundred and twenty-eight years before, announces its
intention to cease business
and close its retail
locations. Competition from newer, low-cost
retail behemoths such as Wal-Mart, an annual deficit,
and the changing personal
budget dynamics of its customers lead to its demise.
The 2000 census enumerates a population of 281,421,906, increasing
13.2% since 1990. As regions, the South and West continued to
pick up the majority of the increase in population, moving the
geographic center of U.S. population to Phelps County, Missouri.
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2001
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January
6, 2001 - Certification of the Electoral College victory of the 2000
United States Presidential election in the U.S. Senate confirms George
W. Bush as the victor, with Dick Cheney as his Vice-President.
April 1, 2001 - China-U.S. incident. An American spy plane
collides with a fighter plane of China and makes an emergency landing
in Hainan, China. The U.S. crew is detained for ten days.
April 8, 2001 - Tiger Woods becomes the first golfer to hold all four
major golf titles simultaneously by winning the Master's tournament in
Augusta, Georgia. This followed a remarkable run in 2000 when
Woods claimed victory at the final three majors of that season; the
U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship.
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 Shanksville,
Pennsylvania cornfield when they learn of the plot, preventing
destruction of another structure in Washington, D.C., supposed to be
the White House or the Capitol building. The plot is
attributed
to the Al-Qaeda organization led by Osama Bin Laden.
September 18, 2001 - Anthrax attacks by mail from Princeton, New Jersey
against news and government targets begin. Federal officials
announce the first case on October 4.
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.
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2002
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February 8, 2002 - Amid tight
security due to terrorism concerns, the Winter Olympic Games are opened
by President George W. Bush in Salt Lake City, Utah. They
would
continue without major incident until the closing ceremony on February
24.
May 21, 2002 - The United States State Department issues its report in
the War on Terror. It states that there are seven nations
that a
State-Sponsors: Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria.
July 5, 2002 - Continuing its pattern of the past several years, 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 Gulf
War. On
September 12, U.S. President George Bush addresses the United Nations
and warns the members that Iraq presents a grave danger to the world
that they must confront, or that the United States and others will act
unitarilly. On October 2, 2002, the United States Congress
passes
a resolution giving the President of the U.S. the authority to use the
military forces of the country as he thinks necessary.
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.
November 21, 2002 - NATO invites additional members of the former
Soviet bloc to join its membership. Seven nations are
included in
the invitation; Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania,
Slovakia, and Slovenia.
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| Site of the former World Trade
Center, Ground Zero, New York City. |
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2003
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February 1, 2003 - A tragedy at NASA occurs when
the Space Shuttle Columbia explodes upon reentry over Texas.
All
seven astronauts inside are killed.
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, upon failure
to
extract authority from the U.N. for action due to the veto power of
France, begin 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.
July 2, 2003 - The International Olympic Committee votes in
Prague that the Winter Olympic Games are coming back to North America,
selecting Vancouver, Canada as host of the XXI Olympic Games in 2010.
December 13, 2003 - Saddam Hussein, former leader of Iraq, is captured
in a small bunker in Tikrit by the U.S. 4th Infantry Division.
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2004
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February 3, 2004 - The Central Intelligence
Agency admits that the imminent threat from weapons of mass destruction
was not present before the 2003 Iraq war began.
March 2, 2004 - Mars rover MER-B (Opportunity) confirms to NASA that
the area of their landing was once covered in water.
July 4, 2004 - The groundbreaking ceremony for the Freedom Tower at
Ground Zero, the former site of the World Trade Center complex
destroyed during the September 11, 2001 attacks, occurs in New York
City.
November 2, 2004 - President George W. Bush wins reelection over
Democratic Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts. He wins
50.7%
of the popular vote and 286 votes in the Electoral College.
December 26, 2004 - The southeast Asian tsunami occurs following a 9.3
Richter scale earthquake in the Indian Ocean. Two hundred and
ninety thousand people die from Sri Lanka to Indonesia, creating one ot
the greatest humanitarian tragedies in history. A worldwide
relief effort, led by the United States and many other nations, is
mobilized to assist.
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2005
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May 31, 2005 - After more than thirty years in
suspense, the identity of Deep Throat, the contact for reporters
Woodward and Bernstein in the uncovering of the Watergate scandal, is
revealed when W. Mark Felt, the second in command at the CIA at the
time, confirms that he was their contact.
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, inundating
the city of New
Orleans
with water from Lake Pontchartrain when the levees that maintain the
below sea level city break. Over one thousand three hundred
people perish from Alabama to Louisiana in one of the worst natural
disasters to strike the United States. (Picture Below: Damage
across the Gulf Coast
of the United States after Hurricane Katrina.)
October 26, 2005 - The War of Terror continues. With
elections in
Iraq to confirm a new constitution vying with internal terrorism amid
the U.S. military presence on October 15, eleven days later a statement
from the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, calls for the
destruction of Israel and condemns the peace process. |
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2006
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February 22, 2006 - In a continuing shift of the
retail industry to new platforms, the one billionth song is downloaded
from the internet music store, Apple iTunes. This shift comes
at
the expense of many brick and mortar chains, including Tower Records.
September 25, 2006 - In New
Orleans,
the Louisiana Superdome reopens after repairs caused by Hurrican
Katrina damage. The repairs included the largest reroofing
project in U.S. history and took thirteen months following the
destruction to the Gulf Coast region.
October 17, 2006 - The population of the United States reaches the
milestone of three hundred million, taking only forty-two years to gain
one hundred million people since the two hundredth million person was
added in 1964. At the same time, a vibrant debate on
immigration
policy, particularly illegal immigration, ensues across the nation.
November 7, 2006 - In the mid-term elections, both houses of Congress
change back to Democratic hands for the first time since
1994.
This is seen as a referendum by many on the Iraq policy of the Bush
administration as well as personal Republican scandals among some House
and Senate members.
December 1, 2006 - United States manufacturing capacity and esteem
wanes, signalled by the sale of the last shares of his General Motors
stock by U.S. billionaire Kirk Kerkorian.
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2007
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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 for the war in Iraq to stem the violence at the request of new
commander General Petreus. This controversial policy begins
to
show positive signs once fully implemented during the summer months,
with a reduction in violent attacks against coalition forces and Iraqi
civilians. Progress on the political front within the Iraqi
national government, however, does not keep pace with positive
developments on the military front.
June 2, 2007 - A terror plot to blow up JFK International Airport in
New York City is thwarted when four terrorists are arrested and charged
with its plan.
July 4, 2007 - The fifty star flag of the United States of America
becomes the longest flying flag in history after flying over
forty-seven 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,
including steroids and human growth hormone. Nearly ninety
players were named, and blame for the scandal was spread among players,
the union, and the commissioner's office. Headed by former
Senator George Mitchell, the report urged enhanced testing to stem the
problem and a look forward attitude to restore the integrity of the
game and its statistics. The report comes after a season when
Barry Bonds broke the home run record of Hank Aaron amid suspicion of
steroid use.
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2008
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July 1, 2008
- A report by
the U.S. embassy in Iraq states that 15 of the 18 goals set for the
Iraqi govermnent 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.
August 29, 2008 - John McCain chooses Sarah Palin, 1st term Governor of
Alaska,
as his running mate, making 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 for president among the Democratic and
Republican tickets.
October 3, 2008 - The United States Congress passes legislation, signed
by President Bush, for a $700 billion bailout, the Emergency Economic
Stabilization Act, giving the Treasury Department authority to assist
distressed Wall Street and banking businesses of the United States due
to the housing, banking, and subprime mortgage crises caused by
excessive greed and speculation among Wall Street firms. This
economic distress, coupled with oil prices above $140 per barrel during
the summer, deepened the world economic crises that had been brewing
all year. The bailout was supported by current President
George
W. Bush and both presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain.
November 4, 2008 - Barack Obama, Democratic Senator from Illinois, the
land of Abraham Lincoln, wins a landslide margin in the Electoral
College, 365 to 173 in the election for the 44th President of the USA
over John McCain, making him the first African-American president in
the history of the United States of America. |
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| 44th President of the United States, Barack
Obama. |
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2009
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January
20, 2009
- Barack Obama takes the oath of office for President of the United
States, becoming the first African-American president in the history of
the nation. The Democratic Senator from Illinois comes into
the
office on a message of Change. The city of Washington, D.C.
hosts
more than one million visitors to the inauguration, covering the
National Mall in a way reminiscent of the Civil Rights March of Martin
Luther King forty-six years earlier.
April 15, 2009 - After a succession of big government spending projects
beginning in the Bush administration and expanded under President
Obama, 750 grass roots Tea Party protests spring up across the nation.
More than one half million citizens concerned with increased
deficits due to such actions such as the bailout of the banking
industry, car industry, potential cap and trade legislation, and other
administation projects that project a ten trillion dollar deficit over
the next decade take part.
June 1, 2009 - The H1N1 virus, named the Swine Flu, is deemed a global
pandemic by the World Health Organization. This is the first
such
designation since the Hong Kong flu in 1967-1968.
October 31, 2009 - The economic recession continues to deepen as
jobless claims climb above 10.0%, reaching 10.2% with October's monthly
figures. This occurs despite efforts by the Obama
administration
to ramp up massive government spending pushed by the $780 billion
economic stimulus package passed earlier in the year.
December 1, 2009 - President Obama announces a surge of 30,000
additional troops to Afghanistan to stem increased efforts by the
Taliban in the country. The surge, which was suggested by
military officers, was not popular with the liberal base of the
Democratic party which had put the President in power on a pledge to
end both Middle Eastern wars. The war in Afghanistan, which
started as a response to the terror attacks on 9/11/2001, and the war
on terror in general, comes into focus again on December 25 when an
airliner headed for Detroit is attacked by a Muslim
extremist, 23-year-old Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, who attempts
to
detonate a bomb, but fails.
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