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Y2K Fiasco
At this point in time most people believed that after the year became 2000 all computers would malfunction and quit operating. This scared most because they thought that they'd be thrown back into an older age with no electricity, heat, or running water. However this catastrophe didn't occur, and the computers that were expected to break didn't end up breaking. -
Bush/Gore Race
The election of 2000 was between George W. Bush and Al Gore. Both candidates wanted to focus on domestic issues and set them as their main priority. There was an incident in which the votes had to be recounted in Florida, and this was called the Hanging Chad incident. Eventually Al Gore dropped out because the process was taking so long, even though he would have ultimately won Florida and even the entire election. -
Timothy Mcveigh put to death
Timothy Mcveigh is the man who committed the Oklahoma City bombing. His motive was to seek revenge for the Waco siege in which 87 people had died. He spent his time making bombs and filled the back of a rental truck up with them, he then drove in front of the federal building and blew up the truck. He was helped by 2 other individuals as well. He was guilty of all charges of murder and was sent to death. -
9-11 Terror Attacks
On September 11, 2001, terrorists had seized control of 4 airplanes that were carrying people for the airline. 2 of the planes had hit the twin towers in New York, and they had caused for both to collapse. Another plane had hit the Pentagon, and the fourth had been crash landed after the passengers had overthrown the terrorists that were on board. 2,996 people were killed in total due to the terrorist attacks. -
Patriot Act is Passed
The patriot act was passed so that we could prevent terrorist attacks from happening again. The act itself stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism. This made airports very secure and to be able to get on the flight you had to be checked thoroughly so that any threat of terrorism could be stopped. -
Enron Scandal
Enron was a very large audit company that was started by Kenneth Lay in 1985. As the company grew a man named Jefferey Skilling had formed a group of executives that were able to use loopholes in order to hide billions of dollars in debt due to failed projects. They were eventually caught because the shareholders caught on quick to the amount of money they were losing and decided to press charges. -
The Hunt for Osama in Afghanistan
Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11 the leader of the Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, took credit for the attack so we set out to put him in the dirt. The war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq were apart of our hunt for him while we also took out the Al Qaeda themselves. He stayed in hiding so it took us 10 years to find him and kill him. -
North Korea Admits to Testing Nuclear Weapons
North Korea had reportedly been testing nuclear weapons for quite some time but there wasn't official confirmation. However, in a meeting with a U.S. official, representatives had told the official that they were in fact testing nuclear weapons. This did violate treaties and agreements but this was overlooked. -
North Korea Admits to Testing Nuclear Weapons
North Korea had reportedly been testing nuclear for quite some time but there had been no proof to confirm the theory. Eventually there was a meeting between a high ranking U.S. official and representatives from North Korea and in the meeting they had confirmed that they were in fact testing nuclear weaponry. And in turn nothing major was done to stop this. -
Shuttle Colombia Explodes
The shuttle exploded over Texas and Louisiana upon reentry of the shuttle. Debris from the foam shielding had hit the left wing and created a hole in the area. While re-entering the atmosphere the hot gases from entry entered through the weak spot and continued to tear the plane into pieces killing all members on board. -
Capture of Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein spent 9 months on the run while the US actively sought to capture him. Eventually we did capture him after operation red dawn, in which we invaded Iraq and toppled his the government. Saddam was then being held by Iraqi forces while awaiting trial. -
Death of Ronald Reagan
On June 5th, 2004 Ronald Reagan, our 40th president, had died after suffering from Alzheimer's disease. It was a very sad moment in time because he had been arguably one of the best presidents the nation has seen. His contributions had helped the country tremendously and put us in a better position as a country. -
Red Sox Win the World Series
2004 was a very successful year for the Red Sox. Following a productive season they were able to sweep the Cardinals in 4 games. With their all star lineup the Cards couldn't handle them. It had been the teams first world series title since 1918. -
SE Asian Tsunami
The day after Christmas, a deadly earthquake with a magnitude of 9.3 caused a tsunami that killed 230,000 and caused large amounts of damage to everything in its path. The affected area went from Somalia all the way to Sumatra in southeast Asia. The earthquake that caused the tsunami was powerful enough to trigger other earthquakes in places like Alaska. -
Death of Pope John Paul
On April 2nd, 2005, Pope John Paul had passed away in his home in the Vatican. He had been the first non-italian pope since the 16th century and he was one of the most well traveled popes as well. Following his death nearly 2 million people came to his funeral, making it one of the largest funerals in history. -
Election of Pope Benedict XVI
Following the death of Pope John Paul, Pope Benedict was elected. He was born in Germany, and became a priest in 1951. Since then he had worked his way up the chain and was eventually elected as the new pope. However he did resign in 2013. -
Hurricane Katrina Hits New Orleans
On August 29th, 2005 hurricane Katrina had hit the Gulf of Mexico as a category 3 hurricane. As soon as it made landfall it brought wind speeds if 100-140 miles per hour. Hundreds of thousands of people were affected due to the devastation that the storm had caused.Overall the storm itself caused 100 billion dollars in damage. -
Hurricane Rita Hits Texas
Hurricane Rita was a categoy 5 hurricane as it headed to the Gulf of Mexico with sustained winds reaching 180 miles per hour. It killed around 125 people and caused 18.5 billion dollars in damage. Texas and Louisiana had been hit the hardest by the hurricane itself. -
Saddam Hussein is Executed
Saddam Hussein had been sent to death by hanging due to his actions and all the crimes that he committed. Most if not all people were glad that he was sent to death because of all the terrible things he had done to so many people. He himself had actually requested to be killed by firing squad rather than by hanging but his request was denied by the Iraqi government. -
Steroids Scandal in Baseball
Around 2007 MLB strated to crack down on those who used performance enhancing drugs, however the use of PEDs had been around since the 80s. People like Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds had been accused to, and linked to, PEDs. After so many people had started to hit more home runs and do better offensively the investigation into PEDs became more relevant. Eventually many players were busted for using these drugs. -
Nancy Pelosi First Female Speaker of the House
On January 4th, 2007 Nancy Pelosi became the first female speaker of the house.She started out as Chair of the California Democratic Party in 1981 and continued to move into higher positions as a government official. -
First Bailouts Begin
In 2008 the economy had crashed and in order to save it the government would give banks money to bail them out of what had happened. This was a worst case scenario because the government didn't want a repeat of the great depression. They did everything in their power to ensure that the economy stayed in tact. -
McCain/Obama Race
In 2008 the campaign between McCain and Obama was quite important for many reasons. One of the main ones being that if Obama was elected he'd be the first african american president. Obama was democratic and McCain was republican. In the final vote Obama won the electoralcollege by a vast majority thus making him the first african american president. -
American Recovery and Reinvestment act
The main purpose of this act was to save jobs that already existed, and create new ones that did t already exist. This was meant to cut down unemployement rates, and create jobs for people that werent able to get one. This impacted the U.S. in a major way, cutting unemployement numbers down drastically. It also provided releif for people affected by the recession. This act was signed into congress by President Barack Obama -
Affordable care act
The Affordable care act, also know as obama care provided the United States citizens with affordable health care and insurance. When this act was put into place the amount of people that were uninsured was cut almost in half. Estimated, there were around 20-24 million people who were covered by obamacare. This care act was funded through extra taxes. -
Operation Geronimo
This was the controversy that the operation to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden was named Operation Geronimo. This offended Many Native American people and the opposed the name Geronimo being used. It was later admitted that Geronimo was not the name of the operation was "Operation Neptune Spear", and that geronimo was used when he was either capture or killed. The native Americans thought that Geronimo was a hero, and opposed his name being used in that way.
