2000s

1850

In December 2009, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that the 2000s may have been the warmest decade since records began in 1850, with four of the five warmest years since 1850 having occurred in this decade.

In December 2009, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that the 2000s might have been the warmest decade since records began in 1850, with four of the five warmest years since 1850 having occurred in this decade.

1881

On December 26, 2009, Saint Petersburg, Russia, was covered by 35 cm of snow, the largest December snowfall recorded in the city since 1881. September 25–26, 2009 – Typhoon Ketsana (known in the Philippines as Tropical Storm Ondoy) caused flooding in the Philippines, mostly in the Manila Metropolitan area, killing nearly 700 people in total.

1904

This consequently solved in the affirmative the Poincaré conjecture, posed in 1904, which before its solution was viewed as one of the most important and difficult open problems in topology.

1907

All 115 passengers and six crew on board the aircraft were killed. On August 16, 2005, West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 crashed in a remote region of Venezuela, killing 160. On September 29, 2006, Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 collided with a new Embraer Legacy 600 business jet over the Brazilian Amazon and crashed, killing all 154 people on board.

1923

It opened in 2007 and was built on the site of the previous 1923 Wembley Stadium.

1955

Titled 'Head of a Muse' by Raphael; costing £29,200,000 ($47,788,400), at Christie's, London, UK. ===Literature=== Carol Ann Duffy, CBE, FRSL (born December 23, 1955) is a British poet and playwright.

1959

With the creation of the ALBA, Fidel Castro—leader of Cuba between 1959 and 2008—and Hugo Chávez reaffirmed their opposition to the aggressive militarism and imperialism of the United States. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected (2002) and reelected (2006) President of Brazil. In 2003, Néstor Kirchner was elected as President of Argentina.

1964

Beginning in 1964, the FARC and ELN narcoterrorist groups were taking control of rural areas of the country by the beginning of the decade, while terrorist paramilitaries grew in other places as businesspeople and politicians thought the State would lose the war against guerrillas.

1971

E-mail continued to be popular throughout the decade and began to replace "snail mail" as the primary way of sending letters and other messages to people in distant locations, though it had existed since 1971. The War on Terror and War in Afghanistan began after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

It began to replace "snail mail" (also known, more neutrally, as paper mail, postal mail, land mail, or simply mail or post) as the primary way of sending letters and other messages to people in faraway locations, though it has been available since 1971. Social networking sites arose as a new way for people to stay in touch no matter where they are, as long as they have an internet connection.

1975

Portugal granted independence to East Timor in 1975, but it was soon after invaded by Indonesia, which only recognized East Timorese independence in 2002. Montenegro gains independence from Serbia in 2006, ending the 88-year-old Yugoslavia.

1990

Although Mexican drug cartels, or drug trafficking organizations, have existed for quite some time, they have become more powerful since the demise of Colombia's Cali and Medellín cartels in the 1990s.

Myspace was the most popular social networking website until June 2009 when Facebook overtook Myspace in the number of American users. Smartphones, which combine mobile phones with the features of personal digital assistants and portable media players, first emerged in the 1990s but did not become very popular until the late 2000s.

1993

MRSA is thought to have caused 1,652 deaths in 2006 in UK up from 51 in 1993. The 2009 H1N1 (swine flu) flu pandemic was also considered a natural disaster.

1996

The use of antidepressants in the United States doubled over one decade, from 1996 to 2005. Antidepressant drugs were prescribed to 13 million in 1996 and to 27 million people by 2005.

1997

Rowling is concluded in July 2007 (having been first published in 1997), although the film franchise continues until 2011; several spin-off productions are announced in the early 2010s.

American recording artist Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009, creating the global largest public mourning since the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997.

1999

Both Russia and Georgia were condemned internationally for their actions. The Second Chechen War (1999–2000) – the war was launched by the Russian Federation on August 26, 1999, in response to the invasion of Dagestan and the Russian apartment bombings, which were blamed on the Chechens.

It is estimated that more than 12,700 people were killed during the course of the conflict. Second Liberian Civil War (1999–2003) – The conflict began in 1999 when a rebel group Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), with support from the Government of Guinea, took over northern Liberia through a coup.

While there have been many phases to the conflict, the most recent armed clashes ran from 1999 to 2003, with a low-level conflict continuing until 2007.

These governments include those of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela since 1999, Fernando Lugo in Paraguay, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, and Evo Morales in Bolivia.

The three richest people possess more financial assets than the lowest 48 nations combined. The combined wealth of the "10 million dollar millionaires" grew to nearly $41 trillion in 2008. The sale of UK gold reserves, 1999–2002 was a policy pursued by HM Treasury when gold prices were at their lowest in 20 years, following an extended bear market.

The index closed 2007 at 13,264.82, a level it would not surpass for nearly five years. ===Economic growth in the world=== Between 1999 and 2009, according to the World Bank statistics for GDP: The world economy by nominal GDP almost doubled in size from U.S.

$30.21 trillion in 1999 to U.S.

$4.98 trillion) went from being the sixth largest to the third largest economy, and in 2009 contributed to 8.6% of the world's economy, up from 3.3% in 1999 by nominal price or a rise from 6.9% to 12.6% adjusted for purchasing power. Germany (U.S.

It partially caused the 2007 food price crisis, which seriously affected the world's poorer nations with an even more severe shortage of food. ===The rise of the euro=== A common currency for most EU member states, the euro, was established electronically in 1999, officially tying all the currencies of each participating nation to each other.

According to United Nations estimates, world population reached six billion in late 1999, and continued to climb to 6.8 billion in late 2009.

In 2009, 39.1 million prescriptions for drugs to tackle depression were issued in England, compared with 20.1 million issued in 1999. In the United States a 2005 independent report stated that 11% of women and 5% of men in the non-institutionalized population (2002) take antidepressants.

2000

Wars that began included the conflict in the Niger Delta, the Houthi insurgency in Yemen, and the Mexican Drug War. Climate change and global warming became common concerns in the 2000s.

In December 2009, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that the 2000s may have been the warmest decade since records began in 1850, with four of the five warmest years since 1850 having occurred in this decade.

The WMO's findings were later echoed by the NASA and the NOAA. Usage of computer-generated imagery became more widespread in films produced during the 2000s, especially with the success of 2001's Shrek.

Documentary and mockumentary films, such as March of the Penguins, Super Size Me, Borat and Surf's Up, were popular in the 2000s.

During the decade of the 2000s, it was more common to hear years referred to starting with "two-thousand (and)" rather than "twenty-oh".

Starting in the early-to-mid 2010s, it became more common to refer to the individual years of the previous decade as "twenty-oh-seven" or "twenty-oh-eight" than it had been during the 2000s, although the "two thousand (and)" pattern is still far more common. ==Politics and wars== The War on Terror and War in Afghanistan began after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

It proved largely unsuccessful, as the Taliban continued to make gains and eliminated much of the Alliance's leadership. ===Coups=== The most prominent coups d'état of the decade include: 2000 overthrow of Slobodan Milošević in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia – after Slobodan Milošević was accused by opposition figures of winning the 2000 election through electoral fraud, mass protests led by the opposition movement Otpor! pressure Slobodan Milošević to resign.

In all, 104,684 passed through when Reagan lay in state. Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States in 2009, becoming the nation's first African American president. ====South America==== November 19, 2000 – Peruvian dictator/president Alberto Fujimori resigns via fax.

It was the beginning of the end for Concorde as an airliner; the type was retired three years later. On August 12, 2000, the Russian submarine K-141 Kursk sank in the Barents Sea, killing all 118 men on board. On November 11, 2000, the Kaprun disaster occurred.

Of the 153 people on board, only 12-year-old Bahia Bakari survived. ====Stampedes==== The 2005 Baghdad bridge stampede occurred on August 31, 2005, when 953 people died following a stampede on Al-Aaimmah bridge, which crosses the Tigris river in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. ==Economics== The most significant evolution of the early 2000s in the economic landscape was the long-time predicted breakthrough of economic giant China, which had double-digit growth during nearly the whole decade.

The outbreak of this global financial crisis sparked a global recession, beginning in the United States and affecting most of the industrialized world. A study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research at United Nations University reports that the richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000.

Roughly on par with the 2000 record when adjusted for inflation, this represented the final high of the cyclical bull.

If researchers can wire these circuits into intricate computer chip architectures, this new generation of molecular electronics will undoubtedly provide computing power to launch scientific breakthroughs for decades. 2008 – CERN's Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator ever made, was completed in 2008. =====Space===== 2000 – Beginning on November 2, 2000, the International Space Station has remained continuously inhabited.

In addition, more safety features were implemented in vehicles throughout the decade such as: advanced pre-collision safety systems, Backup cameras, Blind spot monitor, Adaptive cruise control, Adaptive headlamps, Automatic parking, Lane departure warning systems and the Advanced Automatic Collision Notification system Onstar (on all GM models). The sale of Crossovers (CUVs), a type of car-based unibody sports utility vehicle, increased in the 2000s.

====Communications==== The popularity of mobile phones and text messaging surged in the 2000s in the Western world.

Myspace was the most popular social networking website until June 2009 when Facebook overtook Myspace in the number of American users. Smartphones, which combine mobile phones with the features of personal digital assistants and portable media players, first emerged in the 1990s but did not become very popular until the late 2000s.

internet users in June 2000 to what one mid-decade study predicted would be 62% by 2010.

On January 29, 2007, PC World stated that only 2% of the computers they sold contained built-in floppy disk drives; once present stocks were exhausted, no more standard floppies would be sold. During the decade, Windows 2000, XP, Microsoft Office 2003, Vista and Office 2007 (and later Windows 7) become the ubiquitous industry standards in personal computer software until the end of the decade, when Apple began to slowly gain market share.

Games that utilized the system, such as geocaching, emerged and became popular. Green laser pointers appeared on the market circa 2000, and are the most common type of DPSS lasers (also called DPSSFD for "diode pumped solid state frequency-doubled"). In late 2004 and early 2005, came a significant increase in reported incidents linked to laser pointers – see Lasers and aviation safety.

Gangs are turning to Bluetooth wireless technology to transmit card and personal identification number (PIN) details to nearby laptops and using increasingly sophisticated techniques to skim cards. Portable laptops became popular during the late 2000s. More conventional smash-and-grab attacks are also on the rise, says Enisa, the European Network and Information Security Agency.

Swine flu was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in 2009. ==Environment and climate change== Climate change and global warming became household words in the 2000s.

In December 2009, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that the 2000s might have been the warmest decade since records began in 1850, with four of the five warmest years since 1850 having occurred in this decade.

One of the deadliest heat waves in human history happened during the 2000s, mostly in Europe, with the 2003 European heat wave killing 37,451 people over the summer months.

Known chiefly for his thickly impastoed portrait and figure paintings, he was widely considered the pre-eminent British artist of his time. *During a period from May 2000 to December 2001, Freud painted Queen Elizabeth II.

The film franchise is also currently the third highest-grossing film franchise in history, with eight films (all but the final two of which were released in the 2000s) and $8,539,253,704 in sales. ==Popular culture== ===Film=== The usage of computer-generated imagery became more widespread in films during the 2000s.

Documentary and mockumentary films, such as March of the Penguins and Super Size Me, were popular in the 2000s.

The film is tied for largest number of awards won with Ben-Hur (1959) and Titanic (1997). The Passion of the Christ, a 2004 American film directed by Mel Gibson and starring Jim Caviezel as Jesus Christ, was highly controversial and received mixed reviews; however, it was a major commercial hit, grossing in excess of $600 million worldwide during its theatrical release. The superhero film genre experienced renewed and intense interest throughout the 2000s.

Music sales began to decline following the year 2000, a state of affairs generally attributed to unlicensed uploading and downloading of sound files to the Internet, a practice which became more widely prevalent during this time.

1 being the 2nd best selling Spanish album of all-time and the best selling Spanish album of the 2000s being 11x platinum to date. Billboard magazine named Eminem as the artist with the best performance on the Billboard charts and named Beyoncé as the female artist of the decade.

2001

File:2000s decade montage3.png|From left, clockwise: The World Trade Center on fire and the Statue of Liberty during the 9/11 attacks in 2001; the euro enters into European currency in 2002; a statue of Saddam Hussein being toppled during the Iraq War in 2003, and in 2006, Hussein would be executed for crimes against humanity; U.S.

E-mail continued to be popular throughout the decade and began to replace "snail mail" as the primary way of sending letters and other messages to people in distant locations, though it had existed since 1971. The War on Terror and War in Afghanistan began after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

The WMO's findings were later echoed by the NASA and the NOAA. Usage of computer-generated imagery became more widespread in films produced during the 2000s, especially with the success of 2001's Shrek.

Starting in the early-to-mid 2010s, it became more common to refer to the individual years of the previous decade as "twenty-oh-seven" or "twenty-oh-eight" than it had been during the 2000s, although the "two thousand (and)" pattern is still far more common. ==Politics and wars== The War on Terror and War in Afghanistan began after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

Today the term has become mostly associated with Bush administration-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. *War in Afghanistan (2001–present) – In 2001, the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Canada, and Australia invaded Afghanistan seeking to oust the Taliban and find al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Milošević was later arrested in 2001 and sent to the Hague to face war crimes charges for his alleged involvement in war crimes of the Yugoslav Wars. 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt – a failed military coup d'état on April 11, 2002, which aimed to overthrow the president of Venezuela Hugo Chávez.

Bush was sworn in succeeding Bill Clinton as the 43rd President of the United States on January 20, 2001, following a sharply contested election. On October 26, 2001, U.S.

Arafat turned down the offer without making a counter-offer. January 20, 2001 – June 30, 2010 – Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was the 14th President of the Republic of the Philippines. 2002 – Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected as Prime Minister of Turkey.

In Austria, Italy and Switzerland, the Freedom Party of Austria, Lega Nord and Swiss People's Party, respectively, were at times also part of the national governments, and in Denmark, the Danish People's Party tolerated a right-liberal minority government from 2001 throughout the decade.

As a result, many customer service jobs as well as jobs in the information technology sectors (data processing, computer programming, and technical support) in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom have been or are potentially affected. While global trade rose in the decade (partially driven by China's entry into the WTO in 2001), there was little progress in the multilateral trading system.

The Doha Round of negotiations, launched in 2001 by the WTO to promote development, failed to be completed because of growing tensions between regional areas.

In 2001, the Dot-com bubble burst, causing turmoil in financial markets and a decline in economic activity in the developed economies, in particular in the United States.

The end of the decade was characterized by a Keynesian resurgence, while the influence and media popularity of left-wing economists Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman (Nobel Prize recipients in 2001 and 2008, respectively) did not stop growing during the decade.

The Netherlands was the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage in 2001.

Known chiefly for his thickly impastoed portrait and figure paintings, he was widely considered the pre-eminent British artist of his time. *During a period from May 2000 to December 2001, Freud painted Queen Elizabeth II.

In a 2001 book, Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, Hockney analyzed the work of the Old Masters and argued that the level of accuracy represented in their work is impossible to create by "eyeballing it".

On August 25, 2001, Aaliyah Haughton – an American recording artist, dancer, actress and model and eight others, were killed in an airplane crash in The Bahamas after filming the music video for the single "Rock the Boat".

2002

File:2000s decade montage3.png|From left, clockwise: The World Trade Center on fire and the Statue of Liberty during the 9/11 attacks in 2001; the euro enters into European currency in 2002; a statue of Saddam Hussein being toppled during the Iraq War in 2003, and in 2006, Hussein would be executed for crimes against humanity; U.S.

The first social networking sites were Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter, established in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2006, respectively.

The International Criminal Court was formed in 2002.

As a result of the significant increase of suicide bombing attacks within Israeli population centers during the first years of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, in June 2002 Israel began the construction of the West Bank Fence along the Green Line border arguing that the barrier is necessary to protect Israeli civilians from Palestinian terrorism.

The significantly reduced number of incidents of suicide bombings from 2002 to 2005 has been partly attributed to the barrier.

However, after the failure of the peace process and the activation of Plan Colombia, Álvaro Uribe Vélez was elected president in 2002, starting a massive attack on terrorist groups, with cooperation from civil population, foreign aid and legal armed forces.

The competition for oil wealth has led to an endless violence cycle between innumerable ethnic groups, causing the militarization of nearly the entire region that was occupied by militia groups as well as Nigerian military and the forces of the Nigerian Police. Algerian Civil War (1991–2002) – the conflict effectively ended with a government victory, following the surrender of the Islamic Salvation Army and the 2002 defeat of the Armed Islamic Group.

Thousands of people were displaced from their homes as a result of the conflict. Insurgency in the Maghreb (2002–present) – Algeria has been the subject of an Islamic insurgency since 2002 waged by the Sunni Islamic Jihadist militant group Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).

Milošević was later arrested in 2001 and sent to the Hague to face war crimes charges for his alleged involvement in war crimes of the Yugoslav Wars. 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt – a failed military coup d'état on April 11, 2002, which aimed to overthrow the president of Venezuela Hugo Chávez.

The White House and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) later declared that American intelligence indicated the site was a nuclear facility with a military purpose, though Syria denies this. The Doomsday Clock, the symbolic representation of the threat of nuclear annihilation, moved four minutes closer to midnight: two minutes in 2002 and two minutes in 2007 to 5 minutes to midnight. ===Decolonization and independence=== East Timor regains independence from Indonesia in 2002.

Portugal granted independence to East Timor in 1975, but it was soon after invaded by Indonesia, which only recognized East Timorese independence in 2002. Montenegro gains independence from Serbia in 2006, ending the 88-year-old Yugoslavia.

Valentín Paniagua is named Temporary President. Álvaro Uribe is elected President of Colombia in 2002, the first political independent to do so in more than a century and a half, creating the right-wing political movement known as uribism.

Over 10 million sheep and cattle were killed. Between November 2002 and July 2003, an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) occurred in Hong Kong, with 8,273 cases and 775 deaths worldwide (9.6% fatality) according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The new currency was put into circulation in 2002 and the old currencies were phased out.

The first social networking sites were Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2006, respectively.

It was reopened in 2002. 30 St Mary Axe (informally also known as "the Gherkin" and previously the Swiss Re Building) is a skyscraper in London's financial district, the City of London, completed in December 2003 and opened at the end of May 2004.

On April 25, 2002, Lisa Lopes an American: rapper, dancer, and singer-songwriter, best known as a member of the R&B/[girl group

2003

File:2000s decade montage3.png|From left, clockwise: The World Trade Center on fire and the Statue of Liberty during the 9/11 attacks in 2001; the euro enters into European currency in 2002; a statue of Saddam Hussein being toppled during the Iraq War in 2003, and in 2006, Hussein would be executed for crimes against humanity; U.S.

The first social networking sites were Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter, established in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2006, respectively.

In 2003, a United States-led coalition invaded Iraq, and the Iraq War led to the end of Saddam Hussein's rule as Iraqi President and the Ba'ath Party in Iraq.

The Second Congo War, the deadliest conflict since World War II, ended in July 2003.

In 2003 a United States-led coalition invaded Iraq, and the Iraq War led to the end of Saddam Hussein's rule as Iraqi President and the Ba'ath Party in Iraq.

Fatalities of coalition troops: 1,553 (2001 to 2009). *Iraq War (2003–2011) – In 2003, the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Australia, and Poland invaded and occupied Iraq.

Casualties of the Iraq War: Approximately 110,600 between March 2003 to April 2009.

In early 2003, a different rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia, emerged in the south.

As a result, by June–July 2003, president Charles Taylor's government controlled only a third of the country.

While there have been many phases to the conflict, the most recent armed clashes ran from 1999 to 2003, with a low-level conflict continuing until 2007.

More than 50,000 people have been killed in the conflict and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes. Central African Republic Bush War (2004–2007) – began with the rebellion by the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR) rebels, after the current president of the Central African Republic, François Bozizé, seized power in a 2003 coup.

Director of National Intelligence said in February 2009 that Iran would not realistically be able to a get a nuclear weapon until 2013, if it chose to develop one. In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq over allegations that its leader Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction including chemical and biological weapons or was in the process of creating them.

(See below.) ===Prominent political events=== The prominent political events of the decade include: ====North America==== =====Canada===== Paul Martin replaces Jean Chrétien as Prime Minister of Canada in 2003 by becoming the new leader of the Liberal Party.

Bush signed the USA PATRIOT Act into law. On February 15, 2003, anti-war protests broke out around the world in opposition to the U.S.

With the creation of the ALBA, Fidel Castro—leader of Cuba between 1959 and 2008—and Hugo Chávez reaffirmed their opposition to the aggressive militarism and imperialism of the United States. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected (2002) and reelected (2006) President of Brazil. In 2003, Néstor Kirchner was elected as President of Argentina.

Over 10 million sheep and cattle were killed. Between November 2002 and July 2003, an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) occurred in Hong Kong, with 8,273 cases and 775 deaths worldwide (9.6% fatality) according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Nor did the Cancún Conference in 2003 find a consensus on services trade and agricultural subsidies. The comparative rise of China, India, and other developing countries also contributed to their growing clout in international fora.

The G-20 became in 2008 and 2009 a major organization, as leaders of the member countries held two major summits in Washington in November 2008 and in London in April 2009 to regulate the banking and financial sectors, and also succeeding in coordinating their economic action and in avoiding protectionist reactions. ===Energy crisis=== From the mid-1980s to September 2003, the inflation-adjusted price of a barrel of crude oil on NYMEX was generally under $25/barrel.

During 2003, the price rose above $30, reached $60 by August 11, 2005, and peaked at $147.30 in July 2008.

In 2003, he proved Thurston's geometrization conjecture.

The Space Shuttles helped make it the largest space station in history, despite one of the Shuttles disintegrating upon re-entry in 2003.

The first social networking sites were Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2006, respectively.

On January 29, 2007, PC World stated that only 2% of the computers they sold contained built-in floppy disk drives; once present stocks were exhausted, no more standard floppies would be sold. During the decade, Windows 2000, XP, Microsoft Office 2003, Vista and Office 2007 (and later Windows 7) become the ubiquitous industry standards in personal computer software until the end of the decade, when Apple began to slowly gain market share.

It is not charged at weekends, public holidays or between Christmas Day and New Year's Day (inclusive).[1] The charge, which was introduced on February 17, 2003, remains one of the largest congestion charge zones in the world. On December 3, 2003, New Zealand passed legislation to progressively implement a smoking ban in schools, school grounds, and workplaces by December 2004.

One of the deadliest heat waves in human history happened during the 2000s, mostly in Europe, with the 2003 European heat wave killing 37,451 people over the summer months.

In 2003, the European Union members created an emission trading scheme, and in 2007 they assembled a climate and energy package to reduce further their carbon emission and improve their energy-efficiency.

It was reopened in 2002. 30 St Mary Axe (informally also known as "the Gherkin" and previously the Swiss Re Building) is a skyscraper in London's financial district, the City of London, completed in December 2003 and opened at the end of May 2004.

The earlier Wembley stadium, originally called the Empire Stadium, was often referred to as "The Twin Towers" and was one of the world's most famous football stadia until its demolition in 2003. A major redevelopment of London's Trafalgar Square led by WS Atkins with Foster and Partners as sub-consultants was completed in 2003.

The royal portrait was exhibited at Buckingham Palace, the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, and was exhibited on a tour of public galleries in the UK. In April–June 2003, the English visual artists often known as The Chapman Brothers, held a solo show at Modern Art Oxford entitled The Rape of Creativity in which "the enfants terribles of Britart, bought a mint collection of Goya's most celebrated prints – and set about systematically defacing them".

the ever-widening gap between people who know how to make movies and the people who greenlight the movies." The Return of the King, a 2003 epic fantasy-drama film directed by Peter Jackson based on the second and third volumes of J.

2004

The first social networking sites were Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter, established in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2006, respectively.

These acts included the 2004 Madrid train bombings, 7/7 London bombings in 2005, and the Mumbai attacks related to al-Qaeda in 2008.

It began in 2004 when tensions rooted in the Pakistani Army's search for al-Qaeda members in Pakistan's mountainous Waziristan area (in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas) escalated into armed resistance by local tribesmen.

In reaction, The New York Times writer Patrick Tyler wrote in a February 17 article that: ...the huge anti-war demonstrations around the world this weekend are reminders that there may still be two superpowers on the planet: the United States and world public opinion. On June 5, 2004, Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, died after having suffered from Alzheimer's disease for nearly a decade.

In 2004 the EU undertook a major eastward enlargement, admitting 10 new member states (eight of which were former communist states).

(report published initially October 2004). 2009 – Discovery of Ardipithecus ramidus a species of Hominin classified as an australopithecine of the genus Ardipithecus.

By the end of 2009 the station was supporting 5 long-duration crew members. 2001 – Space tourism/Private spaceflight begins with American Dennis Tito, paying Russia US$20 million for a week-long stay to the International Space Station. 2004 – The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission successfully reached the surface of Mars in 2004, and sent detailed data and images of the landscape there back to Earth.

The first social networking sites were Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2006, respectively.

Games that utilized the system, such as geocaching, emerged and became popular. Green laser pointers appeared on the market circa 2000, and are the most common type of DPSS lasers (also called DPSSFD for "diode pumped solid state frequency-doubled"). In late 2004 and early 2005, came a significant increase in reported incidents linked to laser pointers – see Lasers and aviation safety.

In 2004, the John Jay report tabulated a total of 4,392 priests and deacons in the U.S.

government-operated) primary and secondary schools; and came into effect on September 2, 2004. June 27, 2005, – The Supreme Court of the United States ruled on in a 5–4 decision, that a Ten Commandments display at the McCreary County courthouse in Whitley City, Kentucky and a Ten Commandments display at the Pulaski County courthouse—were unconstitutional: McCreary County v.

It is not charged at weekends, public holidays or between Christmas Day and New Year's Day (inclusive).[1] The charge, which was introduced on February 17, 2003, remains one of the largest congestion charge zones in the world. On December 3, 2003, New Zealand passed legislation to progressively implement a smoking ban in schools, school grounds, and workplaces by December 2004.

On March 29, 2004, Ireland implemented a nationwide ban on smoking in all workplaces.

From 2004 to 2009, the UK's Merseyside police officers, conducted 1,389 section 60 stop and searches (without reasonable suspicion), rising to 23,138 within five years. In 2005 the cost of alcohol dependence and abuse was estimated to cost the US economy approximately 220 billion dollars per year, more than cancer and obesity. The number of antidepressants prescribed by the NHS in the United Kingdom almost doubled during one decade, authorities reported in 2010.

It was reopened in 2002. 30 St Mary Axe (informally also known as "the Gherkin" and previously the Swiss Re Building) is a skyscraper in London's financial district, the City of London, completed in December 2003 and opened at the end of May 2004.

Previously, access between the square and the Gallery was by two crossings at the northeast and northwest corners of the square. Taipei 101 became the tallest building in the world ever built after it officially opened on December 31, 2004, a record it held until the opening of the Burj Khalifa (Formerly known as Burj Dubai) in January 2010, standing at . ===Fine arts=== Lucian Freud was a German-born British painter.

The Washington Post's article on the sale contained the following characterisation of the reaction: On May 24, 2004, more than 100 artworks from the famous collection of art collector and sponsor of the Young British Artists (YBAs) Charles Saatchi's were destroyed in a warehouse fire on an industrial estate in Leyton, east London.

They represent some of the cream of the so-named "Britart" movement of celebrated modern artists. In 2004, during Channel 5 (UK)'s 'Big Art Challenge' television program, despite declaring: "I hold video and photography in profound contempt." English art critic Brian Sewell noted for artistic conservatism and has been described as "Britain's most famous and controversial art critic".

The film is tied for largest number of awards won with Ben-Hur (1959) and Titanic (1997). The Passion of the Christ, a 2004 American film directed by Mel Gibson and starring Jim Caviezel as Jesus Christ, was highly controversial and received mixed reviews; however, it was a major commercial hit, grossing in excess of $600 million worldwide during its theatrical release. The superhero film genre experienced renewed and intense interest throughout the 2000s.

2005

These acts included the 2004 Madrid train bombings, 7/7 London bombings in 2005, and the Mumbai attacks related to al-Qaeda in 2008.

The significantly reduced number of incidents of suicide bombings from 2002 to 2005 has been partly attributed to the barrier.

(see 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis). ===Nuclear threats=== Since 2005, Iran's nuclear program has become the subject of contention with the Western world due to suspicions that Iran could divert the civilian nuclear technology to a weapons program.

Although not an EU member, Montenegro uses the Euro as its national currency. Kosovo declares independence from Serbia in 2008, though its independence still remains unrecognized by many countries. On August 23, 2005, Israel's unilateral disengagement from 25 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and West Bank ends. On August 26, 2008, Russia formally recognises the disputed Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states.

The official death toll from the Boxing Day tsunami in the affected countries with over 230,000 people dead. On October 8, 2005, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake kills about 80,000 people. On May 12, 2008, over 69,000 are killed in central south-west China by the Wenchuan quake, an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the moment magnitude scale.

The epicenter was west-northwest of the provincial capital Chengdu, Sichuan province. ====Tropical cyclones, other weather, and bushfires==== July 7–11, 2005 – Hurricane Dennis caused damage in the Caribbean and southeastern United States.

Dennis killed a total of 88 people and caused $3.71 billion in damages. August 28–29, 2005 – Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Mississippi, devastating the city of New Orleans and nearby coastal areas.

All 115 passengers and six crew on board the aircraft were killed. On August 16, 2005, West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 crashed in a remote region of Venezuela, killing 160. On September 29, 2006, Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 collided with a new Embraer Legacy 600 business jet over the Brazilian Amazon and crashed, killing all 154 people on board.

Of the 153 people on board, only 12-year-old Bahia Bakari survived. ====Stampedes==== The 2005 Baghdad bridge stampede occurred on August 31, 2005, when 953 people died following a stampede on Al-Aaimmah bridge, which crosses the Tigris river in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. ==Economics== The most significant evolution of the early 2000s in the economic landscape was the long-time predicted breakthrough of economic giant China, which had double-digit growth during nearly the whole decade.

During 2003, the price rose above $30, reached $60 by August 11, 2005, and peaked at $147.30 in July 2008.

Games that utilized the system, such as geocaching, emerged and became popular. Green laser pointers appeared on the market circa 2000, and are the most common type of DPSS lasers (also called DPSSFD for "diode pumped solid state frequency-doubled"). In late 2004 and early 2005, came a significant increase in reported incidents linked to laser pointers – see Lasers and aviation safety.

government-operated) primary and secondary schools; and came into effect on September 2, 2004. June 27, 2005, – The Supreme Court of the United States ruled on in a 5–4 decision, that a Ten Commandments display at the McCreary County courthouse in Whitley City, Kentucky and a Ten Commandments display at the Pulaski County courthouse—were unconstitutional: McCreary County v.

From 2004 to 2009, the UK's Merseyside police officers, conducted 1,389 section 60 stop and searches (without reasonable suspicion), rising to 23,138 within five years. In 2005 the cost of alcohol dependence and abuse was estimated to cost the US economy approximately 220 billion dollars per year, more than cancer and obesity. The number of antidepressants prescribed by the NHS in the United Kingdom almost doubled during one decade, authorities reported in 2010.

In 2009, 39.1 million prescriptions for drugs to tackle depression were issued in England, compared with 20.1 million issued in 1999. In the United States a 2005 independent report stated that 11% of women and 5% of men in the non-institutionalized population (2002) take antidepressants.

The use of antidepressants in the United States doubled over one decade, from 1996 to 2005. Antidepressant drugs were prescribed to 13 million in 1996 and to 27 million people by 2005.

Documentary films An Inconvenient Truth and Home may have had a decisive impact. Under the auspices of The UN Convention on Climate Change the Kyoto Protocol (aimed at combating global warming) entered into force on February 16, 2005.

He is a musician, a singer-songwriter, a composer, a painter, and a television personality. *In 2005 he painted an official portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, which was the subject of a special episode of Rolf on Art. *Harris's portrait of The Queen was voted by readers of the Radio Times the third favourite portrait of her.

2006

File:2000s decade montage3.png|From left, clockwise: The World Trade Center on fire and the Statue of Liberty during the 9/11 attacks in 2001; the euro enters into European currency in 2002; a statue of Saddam Hussein being toppled during the Iraq War in 2003, and in 2006, Hussein would be executed for crimes against humanity; U.S.

The first social networking sites were Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter, established in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2006, respectively.

Hussein was eventually sentenced to death and hanged on December 30, 2006. Arab–Israeli conflict (1948 – present) *2006 Lebanon War (summer 2006) – took place in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.

Roughly more than 16,851 people in total were killed between December 2006 until November 2009. In India, Naxalite–Maoist insurgency (1967–present) has grown alarmingly with attacks such as April 2010 Maoist attack in Dantewada, Jnaneswari Express train derailment, and Rafiganj train disaster.

In 2006 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the Naxalites "The single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country." In 2009, he said the country was "losing the battle against Maoist rebels".

The AUC paramilitary organization disbanded in 2006, while ELN guerrillas have been weakened.

The Government of Chad estimated in January 2006 that 614 Chadian citizens had been killed in cross-border raids.

None were found, spawning multiple theories. North Korea successfully performed two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. Operation Orchard – during the operation, Israel bombed what was believed to be a Syrian nuclear reactor on September 6, 2007, which was thought to be built with the aid of North Korea.

Portugal granted independence to East Timor in 1975, but it was soon after invaded by Indonesia, which only recognized East Timorese independence in 2002. Montenegro gains independence from Serbia in 2006, ending the 88-year-old Yugoslavia.

Uribe was re-elected in 2006. In 2006, Michele Bachelet is elected as the first female President of Chile. Left-wing governments emerge in South American countries.

Katrina caused over 1,200 deaths. November 30, 2006 – Typhoon Durian (known in the Philippines as Typhoon Reming) affected the Philippines’ Bicol Region, and together with a concurrent eruption of Mayon Volcano, caused mudflows and killed more than 1,200 people. August 30, 2007 – Group of Croatian firefighters who were flown in on the island Kornat as part of the 2007 coast fires firefighting efforts perished.

MRSA is thought to have caused 1,652 deaths in 2006 in UK up from 51 in 1993. The 2009 H1N1 (swine flu) flu pandemic was also considered a natural disaster.

All 115 passengers and six crew on board the aircraft were killed. On August 16, 2005, West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 crashed in a remote region of Venezuela, killing 160. On September 29, 2006, Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 collided with a new Embraer Legacy 600 business jet over the Brazilian Amazon and crashed, killing all 154 people on board.

The Embraer aircraft made an emergency landing at a nearby military outpost with no harm to its seven occupants. On December 30, 2006, the ferry MV Senopati Nusantara sank in a storm in the Java Sea, killing between 400 and 500 of the 628 people aboard.

In what would normally take many years to accomplish; numerous reasons were cited for the Dow's extremely rapid rise from the 11,000 level in early 2006, to the 14,000 level in late 2007.

Indeed, Alan Greenspan, leader of the Federal Reserve until 2006, cut the interest rates several times to avoid a severe recession, allowing an economic revival in the U.S. As the Federal Reserve maintained low interest rates to favor economic growth, a housing bubble began to appear in the United States.

These events and disasters included North Korean missile tests, the 2006 conflict between Israel and Lebanon, worries over Iranian nuclear plants in 2006 and Hurricane Katrina.

By 2006, the segment came into strong visibility in the U.S., when crossover sales "made up more than 50% of the overall SUV market".

The first social networking sites were Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2006, respectively.

American Civil Liberties Union France created in 2006 the first French parliamentary commission on cult activities which led to a report registering a number of cults considered as dangerous.

In 2008, more than 164 million prescriptions were written. In the UK, the number of weddings in 2006 was the lowest for 110 years. Jamie Oliver, is a British chef, restaurateur, media personality, known for his food-focused television shows and cookbooks.

In 2006, Oliver began a formal campaign to ban unhealthy food in British schools and to get children eating nutritious food instead.

Jamie's efforts brought the subject of school dinners to the political forefront and changed the types of food served in schools. In 2006, nearly 11 million Plastic surgery procedures were performed in the United States alone.

The number of cosmetic procedures performed in the United States has increased over 50 percent since the start of the century. In November 2006, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) announced that it would ban television advertisements for junk food before, during and after television programming aimed at under-16s in the United Kingdom.

Such advertisements broadcast during programmes "aimed at, or which would appeal to," ten to fifteen-year-olds will continue to be phased out over the coming months, with a full ban coming into effect on January 1, 2009. November 10, 2006 – referring to the UK's annual poppy appeal, British journalist and presenter Jon Snow condemned the attitude of those who insist remembrance poppies are worn.

2007

The economic developments in the latter third of the decade were dominated by a worldwide economic downturn, which started with the crisis in housing and credit in the United States in late 2007 and led to the bankruptcy of major banks and other financial institutions.

While there have been many phases to the conflict, the most recent armed clashes ran from 1999 to 2003, with a low-level conflict continuing until 2007.

In June 2007, Hamas took control of the entire Gaza Strip, and established a separate government while Fatah remained in control of the West Bank.

None were found, spawning multiple theories. North Korea successfully performed two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. Operation Orchard – during the operation, Israel bombed what was believed to be a Syrian nuclear reactor on September 6, 2007, which was thought to be built with the aid of North Korea.

The White House and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) later declared that American intelligence indicated the site was a nuclear facility with a military purpose, though Syria denies this. The Doomsday Clock, the symbolic representation of the threat of nuclear annihilation, moved four minutes closer to midnight: two minutes in 2002 and two minutes in 2007 to 5 minutes to midnight. ===Decolonization and independence=== East Timor regains independence from Indonesia in 2002.

The assassination attempt also killed at least 16 other people and injured 120 others. December 27, 2007 – Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani prime minister, was assassinated at an election rally in Rawalpindi by a bomb blast.

Katrina caused over 1,200 deaths. November 30, 2006 – Typhoon Durian (known in the Philippines as Typhoon Reming) affected the Philippines’ Bicol Region, and together with a concurrent eruption of Mayon Volcano, caused mudflows and killed more than 1,200 people. August 30, 2007 – Group of Croatian firefighters who were flown in on the island Kornat as part of the 2007 coast fires firefighting efforts perished.

Three days later, Adam Air Flight 574 crashed in the same storm, killing all 102 people on board. On July 17, 2007, TAM Airlines Flight 3054 skidded off the runway at Congonhas-São Paulo Airport and crashed into a nearby warehouse, leaving 199 people dead. On February 12, 2009, Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed on approach in Buffalo, New York, killing 50. On June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 447 crashed into the southern Atlantic Ocean after instrument failure disoriented the crew.

The economic developments in the latter third of the decade were dominated by a worldwide economic downturn, which started with the crisis in housing and credit in the United States in late 2007, and led to the bankruptcy of major banks and other financial institutions.

In what would normally take many years to accomplish; numerous reasons were cited for the Dow's extremely rapid rise from the 11,000 level in early 2006, to the 14,000 level in late 2007.

The index closed 2007 at 13,264.82, a level it would not surpass for nearly five years. ===Economic growth in the world=== Between 1999 and 2009, according to the World Bank statistics for GDP: The world economy by nominal GDP almost doubled in size from U.S.

In 2007, the rise in interest rates and the collapse of the housing market caused a wave of loan payment failures in the U.S.

Economic activity was severely affected around the world in 2008 and 2009, with disastrous consequences for carmakers. In 2007, the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, delivered his final Mansion House speech as Chancellor before he moved into Number 10.

It partially caused the 2007 food price crisis, which seriously affected the world's poorer nations with an even more severe shortage of food. ===The rise of the euro=== A common currency for most EU member states, the euro, was established electronically in 1999, officially tying all the currencies of each participating nation to each other.

It was released on June 29, 2007, in the United States, and in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland and Austria in November 2007.

By February 2007, over 80% of U.S.

On January 29, 2007, PC World stated that only 2% of the computers they sold contained built-in floppy disk drives; once present stocks were exhausted, no more standard floppies would be sold. During the decade, Windows 2000, XP, Microsoft Office 2003, Vista and Office 2007 (and later Windows 7) become the ubiquitous industry standards in personal computer software until the end of the decade, when Apple began to slowly gain market share.

Since 2007, digital cameras started being manufactured with the face recognition feature built in. Flat panel displays started becoming widely popular in the second half of the decade displacing cathode ray tubes. Handheld projectors enter the market and are then integrated into cellphones.

Smoking was banned in all public places in the whole of the United Kingdom in 2007, when England became the final region to have the legislation come into effect (the age limit for buying tobacco was also raised from 16 to 18 on October 1, 2007).

On April 1, 2007, junk food advertisements were banned from programmes aimed at four to nine-year-olds.

He claimed: there is a rather unpleasant breed of poppy fascism out there. In January 2007, the British Retail Consortium announced that major UK retailers, including Asda, Boots, Co-op, Iceland, Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose intended to cease adding trans fatty acids to their own products by the end of 2007. In October 2008 AFP reported on the further expansion of killings of albinos to the Ruyigi region of Burundi.

New diseases of animal origin appeared for a short time, such as the bird flu in 2007.

Decisive reports such as the Stern Review and the 2007 IPCC Report almost established a climate change consensus.

In addition The UN Convention on Climate Change helped coordinate the efforts of the international community to fight potentially disastrous effects of human activity on the planet and launched negotiations to set an ambitious program of carbon emission reduction that began in 2007 with the Bali Road Map.

In 2003, the European Union members created an emission trading scheme, and in 2007 they assembled a climate and energy package to reduce further their carbon emission and improve their energy-efficiency.

It opened in 2007 and was built on the site of the previous 1923 Wembley Stadium.

Rowling is concluded in July 2007 (having been first published in 1997), although the film franchise continues until 2011; several spin-off productions are announced in the early 2010s.

2008

These acts included the 2004 Madrid train bombings, 7/7 London bombings in 2005, and the Mumbai attacks related to al-Qaeda in 2008.

In 2008, the International Criminal Court charged Omar al-Bashir with genocide for his role in the War in Darfur. Mexican Drug War (2006–present) – an armed conflict fought between rival drug cartels and government forces in Mexico.

Since 2008, the Internet has become a new field of battle.

Although not an EU member, Montenegro uses the Euro as its national currency. Kosovo declares independence from Serbia in 2008, though its independence still remains unrecognized by many countries. On August 23, 2005, Israel's unilateral disengagement from 25 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and West Bank ends. On August 26, 2008, Russia formally recognises the disputed Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states.

With the creation of the ALBA, Fidel Castro—leader of Cuba between 1959 and 2008—and Hugo Chávez reaffirmed their opposition to the aggressive militarism and imperialism of the United States. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected (2002) and reelected (2006) President of Brazil. In 2003, Néstor Kirchner was elected as President of Argentina.

Dozens of human casualties were reported or confirmed. Death and funeral of Corazon Aquino – Former President Corazon Aquino of the Philippines died of cardiorespiratory arrest on August 1, 2009, at the age of 76 after being in hospital from June 2009, and being diagnosed with colorectal cancer in March 2008. ====Europe==== The Mayor of London is an elected politician who, along with the London Assembly of 25 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Greater London.

The official death toll from the Boxing Day tsunami in the affected countries with over 230,000 people dead. On October 8, 2005, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake kills about 80,000 people. On May 12, 2008, over 69,000 are killed in central south-west China by the Wenchuan quake, an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the moment magnitude scale.

The three richest people possess more financial assets than the lowest 48 nations combined. The combined wealth of the "10 million dollar millionaires" grew to nearly $41 trillion in 2008. The sale of UK gold reserves, 1999–2002 was a policy pursued by HM Treasury when gold prices were at their lowest in 20 years, following an extended bear market.

Also included are reports on the poor crash safety of Chinese automobiles, slated to enter the American and European markets in 2008.

Economic activity was severely affected around the world in 2008 and 2009, with disastrous consequences for carmakers. In 2007, the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, delivered his final Mansion House speech as Chancellor before he moved into Number 10.

The end of the decade was characterized by a Keynesian resurgence, while the influence and media popularity of left-wing economists Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman (Nobel Prize recipients in 2001 and 2008, respectively) did not stop growing during the decade.

The G-20 became in 2008 and 2009 a major organization, as leaders of the member countries held two major summits in Washington in November 2008 and in London in April 2009 to regulate the banking and financial sectors, and also succeeding in coordinating their economic action and in avoiding protectionist reactions. ===Energy crisis=== From the mid-1980s to September 2003, the inflation-adjusted price of a barrel of crude oil on NYMEX was generally under $25/barrel.

During 2003, the price rose above $30, reached $60 by August 11, 2005, and peaked at $147.30 in July 2008.

By 2008, such pressures appeared to have an insignificant impact on oil prices given the onset of the global recession.

The recession caused demand for energy to shrink in late 2008 and early 2009 and the price plunged as well.

If researchers can wire these circuits into intricate computer chip architectures, this new generation of molecular electronics will undoubtedly provide computing power to launch scientific breakthroughs for decades. 2008 – CERN's Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator ever made, was completed in 2008. =====Space===== 2000 – Beginning on November 2, 2000, the International Space Station has remained continuously inhabited.

In 2008, more than 164 million prescriptions were written. In the UK, the number of weddings in 2006 was the lowest for 110 years. Jamie Oliver, is a British chef, restaurateur, media personality, known for his food-focused television shows and cookbooks.

He claimed: there is a rather unpleasant breed of poppy fascism out there. In January 2007, the British Retail Consortium announced that major UK retailers, including Asda, Boots, Co-op, Iceland, Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose intended to cease adding trans fatty acids to their own products by the end of 2007. In October 2008 AFP reported on the further expansion of killings of albinos to the Ruyigi region of Burundi.

2009

Myspace was the most popular social networking website until June 2009, when Facebook overtook it in number of American users.

In December 2009, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that the 2000s may have been the warmest decade since records began in 1850, with four of the five warmest years since 1850 having occurred in this decade.

December 2009's Avatar became the highest-grossing film for nearly a decade until 2019.

Fatalities of coalition troops: 1,553 (2001 to 2009). *Iraq War (2003–2011) – In 2003, the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Australia, and Poland invaded and occupied Iraq.

Casualties of the Iraq War: Approximately 110,600 between March 2003 to April 2009.

Roughly more than 16,851 people in total were killed between December 2006 until November 2009. In India, Naxalite–Maoist insurgency (1967–present) has grown alarmingly with attacks such as April 2010 Maoist attack in Dantewada, Jnaneswari Express train derailment, and Rafiganj train disaster.

In 2006 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the Naxalites "The single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country." In 2009, he said the country was "losing the battle against Maoist rebels".

1,739 people in total were killed between January 1, 2009, and January 1, 2010. Conflict in the Niger Delta (2004–present) – an ongoing conflict in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

(see 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis). ===Nuclear threats=== Since 2005, Iran's nuclear program has become the subject of contention with the Western world due to suspicions that Iran could divert the civilian nuclear technology to a weapons program.

Director of National Intelligence said in February 2009 that Iran would not realistically be able to a get a nuclear weapon until 2013, if it chose to develop one. In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq over allegations that its leader Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction including chemical and biological weapons or was in the process of creating them.

None were found, spawning multiple theories. North Korea successfully performed two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. Operation Orchard – during the operation, Israel bombed what was believed to be a Syrian nuclear reactor on September 6, 2007, which was thought to be built with the aid of North Korea.

In all, 104,684 passed through when Reagan lay in state. Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States in 2009, becoming the nation's first African American president. ====South America==== November 19, 2000 – Peruvian dictator/president Alberto Fujimori resigns via fax.

Dozens of human casualties were reported or confirmed. Death and funeral of Corazon Aquino – Former President Corazon Aquino of the Philippines died of cardiorespiratory arrest on August 1, 2009, at the age of 76 after being in hospital from June 2009, and being diagnosed with colorectal cancer in March 2008. ====Europe==== The Mayor of London is an elected politician who, along with the London Assembly of 25 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Greater London.

The majority of the fires were caused by either fallen or clashing power lines, or arson. Winter of 2009–2010 – The winter of 2009–2010 saw abnormally cold temperatures in Europe, Asia, and America.

On December 26, 2009, Saint Petersburg, Russia, was covered by 35 cm of snow, the largest December snowfall recorded in the city since 1881. September 25–26, 2009 – Typhoon Ketsana (known in the Philippines as Tropical Storm Ondoy) caused flooding in the Philippines, mostly in the Manila Metropolitan area, killing nearly 700 people in total.

MRSA is thought to have caused 1,652 deaths in 2006 in UK up from 51 in 1993. The 2009 H1N1 (swine flu) flu pandemic was also considered a natural disaster.

On October 25, 2009, U.S.

Three days later, Adam Air Flight 574 crashed in the same storm, killing all 102 people on board. On July 17, 2007, TAM Airlines Flight 3054 skidded off the runway at Congonhas-São Paulo Airport and crashed into a nearby warehouse, leaving 199 people dead. On February 12, 2009, Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed on approach in Buffalo, New York, killing 50. On June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 447 crashed into the southern Atlantic Ocean after instrument failure disoriented the crew.

All 228 people on board perished. On June 30, 2009, Yemenia Flight 626 crashed into the Indian Ocean near the Comoros islands.

The index closed 2007 at 13,264.82, a level it would not surpass for nearly five years. ===Economic growth in the world=== Between 1999 and 2009, according to the World Bank statistics for GDP: The world economy by nominal GDP almost doubled in size from U.S.

$58.23 trillion in 2009.

$4.98 trillion) went from being the sixth largest to the third largest economy, and in 2009 contributed to 8.6% of the world's economy, up from 3.3% in 1999 by nominal price or a rise from 6.9% to 12.6% adjusted for purchasing power. Germany (U.S.

$2.11 trillion) followed as the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th largest economies, respectively in 2009. Brazil (U.S.

$832 billion; 15th, down from 13th). In terms of purchasing power parity in 2009, the ten largest economies were the United States (U.S.

Economic activity was severely affected around the world in 2008 and 2009, with disastrous consequences for carmakers. In 2007, the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, delivered his final Mansion House speech as Chancellor before he moved into Number 10.

The G-20 became in 2008 and 2009 a major organization, as leaders of the member countries held two major summits in Washington in November 2008 and in London in April 2009 to regulate the banking and financial sectors, and also succeeding in coordinating their economic action and in avoiding protectionist reactions. ===Energy crisis=== From the mid-1980s to September 2003, the inflation-adjusted price of a barrel of crude oil on NYMEX was generally under $25/barrel.

The recession caused demand for energy to shrink in late 2008 and early 2009 and the price plunged as well.

The name was swine flu, which was the 2009 swine flu pandemic. =====Mathematics===== 2006 – Grigori Perelman is a Russian mathematician who has made landmark contributions to Riemannian geometry and geometric topology.

By the end of 2009 the station was supporting 5 long-duration crew members. 2001 – Space tourism/Private spaceflight begins with American Dennis Tito, paying Russia US$20 million for a week-long stay to the International Space Station. 2004 – The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission successfully reached the surface of Mars in 2004, and sent detailed data and images of the landscape there back to Earth.

Myspace was the most popular social networking website until June 2009 when Facebook overtook Myspace in the number of American users. Smartphones, which combine mobile phones with the features of personal digital assistants and portable media players, first emerged in the 1990s but did not become very popular until the late 2000s.

By the end of 2009, same-sex marriage was legal and performed in 10 countries worldwide, although only in some jurisdictions in Mexico and the United States. Population continued to grow in most countries, in particular in developing countries, though overall the rate slowed.

According to United Nations estimates, world population reached six billion in late 1999, and continued to climb to 6.8 billion in late 2009.

From 2004 to 2009, the UK's Merseyside police officers, conducted 1,389 section 60 stop and searches (without reasonable suspicion), rising to 23,138 within five years. In 2005 the cost of alcohol dependence and abuse was estimated to cost the US economy approximately 220 billion dollars per year, more than cancer and obesity. The number of antidepressants prescribed by the NHS in the United Kingdom almost doubled during one decade, authorities reported in 2010.

In 2009, 39.1 million prescriptions for drugs to tackle depression were issued in England, compared with 20.1 million issued in 1999. In the United States a 2005 independent report stated that 11% of women and 5% of men in the non-institutionalized population (2002) take antidepressants.

Such advertisements broadcast during programmes "aimed at, or which would appeal to," ten to fifteen-year-olds will continue to be phased out over the coming months, with a full ban coming into effect on January 1, 2009. November 10, 2006 – referring to the UK's annual poppy appeal, British journalist and presenter Jon Snow condemned the attitude of those who insist remembrance poppies are worn.

Albinos have become "a commercial good", commented Nicodeme Gahimbare in Ruyigi, who established a local safe haven in his fortified house. A 2009 study found a 30% increase in Chinese diabetes over 7 years. AIDS continued to expand during the decade, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Swine flu was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in 2009. ==Environment and climate change== Climate change and global warming became household words in the 2000s.

In December 2009, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that the 2000s might have been the warmest decade since records began in 1850, with four of the five warmest years since 1850 having occurred in this decade.

In February 2009, a series of highly destructive bushfires started in Victoria, Australia, lasting into the next month.

As of November 2009, 187 states have signed and ratified the protocol.

However, the representatives of the then 192 member countries of the United Nations gathered in December 2009 for the Copenhagen Conference failed to reach a binding agreement to reduce carbon emissions because of divisions between regional areas. However, as environmental technologies were to make up a potential market, some countries made large investments in renewable energies, energy conservation and sustainable transport.

The auction exceeded all predictions, raising £111 million ($198 million), breaking the record for a one-artist auction. December 9, 2009 – when the most expensive drawing by an Old Master ever, was sold in an auction.

She is Professor of Contemporary Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Britain's poet laureate in May 2009.

Online films became popular, and conversion to digital cinema started. December 2009's Avatar, an American epic science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron, made extensive use of cutting edge motion capture filming techniques, and was released for traditional viewing, 3D viewing (using the RealD 3D, Dolby 3D, XpanD 3D, and IMAX 3D formats), and for "4D" experiences in select South Korean theaters.

American recording artist Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009, creating the global largest public mourning since the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997.

2010

Starting in the early-to-mid 2010s, it became more common to refer to the individual years of the previous decade as "twenty-oh-seven" or "twenty-oh-eight" than it had been during the 2000s, although the "two thousand (and)" pattern is still far more common. ==Politics and wars== The War on Terror and War in Afghanistan began after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

Roughly more than 16,851 people in total were killed between December 2006 until November 2009. In India, Naxalite–Maoist insurgency (1967–present) has grown alarmingly with attacks such as April 2010 Maoist attack in Dantewada, Jnaneswari Express train derailment, and Rafiganj train disaster.

On April 6, 2010, Maoist rebels killed 75 security forces in a jungle ambush in central India in the worst-ever massacre of security forces by the insurgents.

1,739 people in total were killed between January 1, 2009, and January 1, 2010. Conflict in the Niger Delta (2004–present) – an ongoing conflict in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

Arafat turned down the offer without making a counter-offer. January 20, 2001 – June 30, 2010 – Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was the 14th President of the Republic of the Philippines. 2002 – Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected as Prime Minister of Turkey.

By 2010, such parties (albeit often significant differences between them) were present in the national parliaments of Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Greece.

Despite the extensive intervention of central banks, including partial and total nationalization of major European banks, the crisis of sovereign debt became particularly acute, first in Iceland, though as events of the early 2010s would show, it was not an isolated European example.

internet users in June 2000 to what one mid-decade study predicted would be 62% by 2010.

From 2004 to 2009, the UK's Merseyside police officers, conducted 1,389 section 60 stop and searches (without reasonable suspicion), rising to 23,138 within five years. In 2005 the cost of alcohol dependence and abuse was estimated to cost the US economy approximately 220 billion dollars per year, more than cancer and obesity. The number of antidepressants prescribed by the NHS in the United Kingdom almost doubled during one decade, authorities reported in 2010.

Previously, access between the square and the Gallery was by two crossings at the northeast and northwest corners of the square. Taipei 101 became the tallest building in the world ever built after it officially opened on December 31, 2004, a record it held until the opening of the Burj Khalifa (Formerly known as Burj Dubai) in January 2010, standing at . ===Fine arts=== Lucian Freud was a German-born British painter.

Rowling is concluded in July 2007 (having been first published in 1997), although the film franchise continues until 2011; several spin-off productions are announced in the early 2010s.

2011

In 2011, the US government claimed Navy Seals had killed Bin Laden and buried his body at sea.

Rowling is concluded in July 2007 (having been first published in 1997), although the film franchise continues until 2011; several spin-off productions are announced in the early 2010s.

2013

Director of National Intelligence said in February 2009 that Iran would not realistically be able to a get a nuclear weapon until 2013, if it chose to develop one. In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq over allegations that its leader Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction including chemical and biological weapons or was in the process of creating them.

2017

Katrina was recognized as the costliest natural disaster in the United States at the time, after causing a record $108 billion in damages (a record later surpassed by Hurricane Harvey in 2017).

2019

December 2009's Avatar became the highest-grossing film for nearly a decade until 2019.




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