Since I’m writing a book on this decade, or more correctly I’m writing a book about watching the world undergo massive change during this decade, I did a search on world events in the decade. For morbidity’s sake, check out this chronology of the trauma that caused us all so much drama. (And I didn’t even dig that heavily for this stuff, wasn’t hurting for material.)

2000 – After years of preparation for Y2K, only minor computer-related problems were reported (a problem with Hotmail, with a nuclear power plant in Japan and with apartment heating in Korea)  – Kenya Airways flight 431 crashes near Cote d’Ivoire, killing 170, likely cause was a mechanical problem  – Alaska Airlines flight 261 crashes off coast of southern California, killing 88, crash caused by a bad stabilizer  – At least 700 died in flooding in Mozambique  – Wary investors bring stock plunge; beginning of the end of the Internet stock boom  – Elian Gonzalez is snatched by a SWAT team from his Florida relatives to return him to his father in Cuba  – Air Philippines flight 541 crashes into a hill near Davao, killing 131  – Gulf Air flight 72 crashes near Bahrain, killing 143  – A Concorde jet crashes outside of Paris after takeoff killing 113 passengers  – Two onboard torpedoes explode on the Russian submarine Kursk in the Barents Sea, which eventually killed all onboard, despite a rescue operation  – USS Cole bombed in the port of Aden, Yemen, killing 17 sailors  – Al Gore wins the popular vote but loses the electoral vote to George W. Bush  – Supreme Court halts Florida vote recount, Al Gore concedes presidential election, George W. Bush named president

2001 – Earthquake and landslides kill 850 in El Salvador  – Earthquake kills 20,000 in Bhuj, India  – Police tear gas unruly soccer fans, ensuing panic kills over 100 in Ghana  – Bush signs new tax-cut law, the largest in 20 years  – Budget surplus dwindles. The Congressional Budget Office attributes this rapid change in the nation’s fortunes to the slowing economy and the Bush tax cut  – Timothy McVeigh executed for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed at least 168  – U.S. spy plane and Chinese jet collide (April 2); Sino-American relations deteriorate during a standoff.  – 19 Islamist terrorists hijack four commercial jets, killing nearly 3,000 in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania  – U.S. launches strikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan, in retaliation for the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US.  – SAS flight 686 crashes near Milano-Linate, killing 114, crash caused by flight crew and tower confusion- American Airlines flight 587 crashes in Belle Harbor, New York, killing 265, vertical stabilizer failure  – Anthrax scare rivets nation, as anthrax-laced letters are sent to various media and government officials.  – Israel condemns the Palestinian Authority as a “terror-supporting entity” and severs ties with leader Yasir Arafat  – Terrorists break into parliament building in New Delhi, murder at least 12

2002  – The Euro becomes the official currency for most of Europe  – Enron under federal investigation for hiding debt and misrepresenting earnings  – In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush likens Iraq, Iran and North Korea to an ‘axis of evil’  – Iran Air Tours flight 956 crashes into a mountain in Iran killing 119  – Earthquake kills at least 150 100 miles north of Kabul, Afghanistan  – U.S. and Afghan troops launch Operation Anaconda against remaining Taliban fighters in Afghanistan  – Air China flight 129 crashes into a mountain near Pusan, South Korea killing 128  – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ousted in coup, then reinstated  – Snipers prey upon DC suburbs, killing ten and wounding others  – UN Security Council passes unanimous resolution calling on Iraq to disarm or else face “serious consequences.”  – Nearly 200 tourists murdered by Islamist terrorist bombs in Bali

2003 – The United Nations reported that there is no link between al Queda and Iraq  – In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush stated that Saddam Hussein had tried to acquire ‘significant quantities of uranium from Africa’  – Space Shuttle Columbia destroyed over Texas when returning to Earth, 7 crew members are killed  – Arsonist set a fire in a trian station in Daegu, South Korea kills nearly 200  – Fire at the Station rock club in Rhode Island kills nearly 100  – United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix said there is no evidence that Iraq has any weapons of mass destruction  – International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) discovers Iran’s concealed nuclear activities, calls for inspections  – Air Algrie flight 6289 crashes at Tamanrasset Airport in Alegeria, killing 103  – United States, Briain, Australia and Poland invade Iraq without United Nations sanction  – President George W. Bush declares that ‘major combat operations’ in Iraq are over  – Earthquake kills at least 2,266 in northern Algeria  – After an Ohio FirstEnergy power plants shut down unexpectedly, a power outtage occurs for over ten hours all over northeastern North America  – American forces capture Sadam Hussen outside of Tikrit  – Earthquake kills more than 30,000 in Bam, Iran

2004  – Flash Airlines flight 604 crashes near Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, killing 14  – At least 250 Muslim pilgrims crushed to death during the annual stoning of Satan ritual in the Mena Valley, Saudi Arabia  – At least 170 die in train bombings in Madrid  – Train fire and explosion in Ryongchon, North Korea kills at least 160 and levels several buildings  – After a 2-day standoff, Islamist terrorists murder about 340 held inside a school in Beslan, Russia  – Hurricane Frances hits Florida, causing $40 billion in damage.   – American military deaths in the Iraq War reach 1,000  – Hurricane Ivan hits Alabama and Florida killing nearly 30  – Tropical Storm Jeanne kills more than 550 during flooding in Haiti  – Yemeni judge sentences two Islamists death for the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, that killed 17 sailors  – U.S. troops launch offensive on Falluja  – U.S. media release photos of American soldiers abusing and sexually humiliating prisoners at Abu Ghraib.  – President Bush signs the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Act of 2004 which reorganizes intelligence agencies and creates position of national security director  – Earthquake, greatest in over 40 years, strikes the Pacific Ocean near Sumatra, triggering a massive Indian Ocean tsunami, killing as many as 266,000 in coastal regions of Asia and Africa

2005  – North Korea announces that it has nuclear weapons  – Magnitude 7 earthquake strikes west of Kyushu Island, Japan  – Sumatran earthquake with a magnitude of 8.7, the second largest earthquake since 1965  – Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan suffers a 5.8 magnitude earthquake  – Syria withdraws troops from Lebanon, ending its 29 year military occupation  – London’s transit system is bombed by terrorists, 56 deaths, 700 injured  – Former Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a hard-line conservative, wins Iran’s presidential election  – Hurricane Katrina causes sever damage to the Gulf Coast killing 1836  – John G. Roberts is confirmed as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court  – Earthquake in Kashmir kills approximately 80,000 people  – Saddam Hussein’s trial begins in Iraq

2006  – Ehud Olmert becomes Prime Minister of Israel after Ariel Sharon suffers a stroke  –  United Airlines emerges from bankruptcy  – Egyptian ferry, Al Salam Boccaccio, sinks killing over 1200 people in the Red Sea  – Dick Cheney accidentally shoots friend in a hunting accident  – Al-Askari Mosque is bombed, setting off protests and violence across Iraq  – Slobodan Milosevic found dead in cell in the Hague  – Java, Indonesia suffers a 6.3 magnitue earthquake, killing more than 6,000  – 17 Islamic men are arrested in a plot to bomb targets in Toronto  – Terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is killed by U.S. forces in Iraq  – Israel invades Lebanon in response to Hezbollah’s kidnapping of Israeli soldiers  – Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist with ties to several members of Congress, is sentenced to six years in prison  – Pluto is demoted to a ‘dwarf planet’  – Mexico elects Felipe Calderon President, US and Mexico drug policies escalate drug war  – Pope Benedict XVI quotes a criticism of the Islamic faith leading to mass protests  – North Korea conducts first atomic weapons test  – United States population reaches 300 million people  – Donald Rumsfeld resigns as U.S. Secretary of Defense  – Al Jazeera launches Al Jazeera English  – Hugo Chavez, leftist dictator, is re-elected President of Venezuela  – Ethiopian troops eject the Islamic forces from Mogadishu, Somalia  – Saddam Hussein is hanged in Baghdad

2007  – Nancy Pelosi is elected Speaker of the House, by a vote of 233-202  – 8.1 earthquake triggers tsunami in the Solomon Islands  – Earthquake in Japan damages nuclear power plant releasing 300 gallons of radioactive water  – The U.S. begins its “surge” of some 30,000 troops to Iraq  – Multiple suicide bombings kill over 550 people in Qahtaniya, Iraq  – President Bush signs law that legalizes government eavesdropping of telephone conversations and emails of American citizens  – 8.0 Earthquake in Peru kills over 500 people, injures over 1,500  – Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is found guilty of lying to FBI agents and to a grand jury in the investigation of who leaked to the press the name of a covert CIA agent. The agent, Valerie Plame Wilson, is married to Joseph Wilson, who in 2003 questioned the Bush administration’s claim that Saddam Hussein was pursuing a nuclear weapons program by seeking to obtain uranium from Niger  – 7.7 Earthquake in northern Chile  – Benazir Bhutto is assassinated by a bomb blast in Rawalpindi, Pakistan

2008  – Oil reaches $100 per barrel for the first time  – Kosovo declares independence from Serbia  – Taliban suicide bombing kills 80 in Kandahar, Afghanistan  – 160 square mile part of the Antarctic ice shelf disintegrates  – 8.0 Earthquake in southwest China kills more than 69,000  – Radovan Karadzic arrested on war crimes after a 12 year manhunt  – Ingrid Betancourt and other hostages are rescued from FARC by Colombia  – Pervez Musharraf resigns as President of Pakistan  – Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy  – President George W. Bush signs the 700 billion dollar TARP program into law  – Iceland takes control of 3 banks due to the global financial crisis  – Barack Obama is elected the 44th President of the United States  – Mumbai terrorist attacks kill over 195 people over four days

2009  – Israel launches an invasion of the Gaza strip  – After two years of trying to maintain order, Ethiopian military forces start pulling out of Somalia  – U.S. Airways plane ditches in the Hudson River – all 155 passengers survive  – Israel declares a unilateral ceasefire in the Gaza War, effective January 18, as Hamas declares a ceasefire of its own  – Melbourne, Australia records highest-ever temperature, sparking the deadliest brushfires in Australian history  – An arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is issued for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur  – At least 99 people are killed after flash flooding and the failure of the Situ Gintung dam in Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia  – Nearly 300 people are killed and 1,500 injured near L’Aquila, Italy, after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes  – North Korea announces a successful nuclear test in North Hamgyong, the U.N. Security Council condems the test  – En route from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris, Air France Flight 447 crashes into the Atlantic ocean, killing 228 – Typhoon Morakat approaches southeastern China, over one million people are evacuated  – North Korea claims it has entered the final phase of uranium enrichment  – Two mass graves relating to Columbia’s long fight with the Farc, were found in northwest and south Columbia  – A magnitude 7.0 quake strikes off the coast of Indonesia, setting off a tsunami alert which is then withdrawn  – Pirates from Somalia capture the Maran Centaurus, a Greek-owned oil tanker, off the coast of Somalia  – Italian Prime Minister Silvio Burlusconi is knocked to the ground and hit in the face after a political rally

2010

Sources: http://www.infoplease.com/yearbyyear.html   http://www.history-fiend.com/history-from-2000-AD-thru-2010-AD.html   http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100616145509AAbdOkU