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Election of 2000
George W. Bush vs Al Gore. Gov. George W. Bush lost the popular vote to former Vice President Al Gore in 2000 but won the electoral vote for U.S. president. Bush won the presidency after a mandatory recount in Florida, and an additional hand recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court was ruled unconstitutional. -
Terrorist Attack
Attack of the Twin Towers in NYC. Two planes crashed into the North and South Twin Towers, The Pentagon, and an attempt to attack the White House. In total there were 2,819 people killed in the attacks and 20 percent of Americans knew someone hurt or killed in the attacks. -
First iPod
Steve Jobs introduces the first iPod on October 23, 2001. Apple launched its first portable music player. -
Iraq War
The Iraq War was a protracted armed conflict that began in 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition that overthrew the government of Saddam Hussein. The war resulted in at least half a million casualties and several billion dollars’ worth of damages, but no real gains by other side. -
Facebook is launched
Facebook is a social networking service launched on February 4, 2004. It was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommate and fellow Harvard University student Eduardo Saverin. With a peak market capitalization of over $104 billion, the social networking company had one of the largest and most anticipated IPOs in history -
Indian Ocean Disaster
On December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was caused by an earthquake that is thought to have had the energy of 23,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs. The rupture was more than 600 miles long, displacing the seafloor by 10 yards horizontally and several yards vertically. As a result, trillions of tons of rock moved, causing the largest magnitude earthquake in 40 years. -
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States. The storm itself did a great deal of damage, but its aftermath was catastrophic. Hundreds of thousands of people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama were displaced from their homes, and experts estimate that Katrina caused more than $100 billion in damage. -
Pluto classified as dwarf planet
In August 2006 the International Astronomical Union downgraded the status of Pluto to that of "dwarf planet." This means that from now on only the rocky worlds of the inner Solar System and the gas giants of the outer system will be designated as planets. -
Train bomb in Mumbai
The Mumbai train bombings were a series of seven bomb blasts that took place over a period of 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway in Mumbai, the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the nation's financial capital -
Financial Crisis of 2008
In 2008 the world economy faced its most dangerous Crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The casualties in the United States included a) the entire investment banking industry, b) the biggest insurance company, c) the two enterprises chartered by the government to facilitate mortgage lending, d) the largest mortgage lender, e) the largest savings and loan, and f) two of the largest commercial banks. -
Barack Obama wins 2008 election
Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be elected as president of the United States. Also, Joe Biden is the first Roman Catholic ever to serve as vice president. It is estimated that 136.6 million Americans voted for president this election, up from 122.3 million in 2004. That would give 2008 a 64.1 percent voter turnout rate, the highest since 1908. -
Osama Bin Laden is killed
Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, is killed by U.S. forces during a raid on his compound hideout in Pakistan. The 54-year-old leader of Al Qaeda, the terrorist network of Islamic extremists, had been the target of a nearly decade-long international manhunt. -
Black Lives Matter Movement Founded
In 2013, three radical Black organizers—Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi—created a Black-centered political will and movement building project called #BlackLivesMatter. It was in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer, George Zimmerman. -
Ebola Outbreak
On January 14, the organization declared an end to the Ebola outbreak that killed about 11,300 people and infected 28,600 others, mostly in the West African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Flare-ups, though, were anticipated -
Same sex marriage is legal in all 50 states
On June 26, 2015 the Supreme Court ruled that states cannot ban same-sex marriage. More than twenty other countries (and parts of Mexico) also have laws allowing same-sex marriage. Most of these are in Europe and South America. -
Russia Interferes with United States Election
The U.S. intelligence community agrees that Russian operatives hacked email systems belonging to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and John Podesta, the chair of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. They then passed along what they stole to WikiLeaks to release. The hacking was carried out by groups nicknamed “Cozy Bear” and “Fancy Bear,” both of which appear to work for the GRU, Russia’s intelligence agency. -
Orlando Shooting
On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old security guard, killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a terrorist attack inside Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, United States. -
Britain votes to leave to European Union
Britain has voted to leave the European Union, a historic decision sure to reshape the nation’s place in the world, rattle the Continent and rock political establishments throughout the West. -
Donald Trump wins 2017 election
Donald Trump wins election for President of the United States against Hilary Clinton. -
North Korea announces no more missle tests
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, announced early Saturday that his country no longer needed to test nuclear weapons or long-range missiles and would close a nuclear test site. Mr. Kim could also be trying to drive a wedge between the United States and South Korea, since President Moon has put great emphasis on ending more than six decades of conflict on the Korean Peninsula.
