A brief history of the 2000's.

2000 - USS Cole was bombed in Yemen.

          - George W. Bush running for president wins Florida with 537 votes in a contested election.

2001 - Terrorist attack on World Trade Center in New York City September 11, 2001.

          - Invasion of Afghanistan

2002 - Creation of Department of Homeland Security.

          - U.S. withdrawal from Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty

2003 - Space Shutltle Columbia disaster

          - Invasion of Iraq

2004 - U.S. presidential election, George W. Bush is re-elected. 

          - Occupation of Iraq

2005 - Hurrican Katrina hits the Gulf of Mexico, ravaging the United States.

2006 - Democrates Take control of both houses in Congress

2007 -  Democrat Nancy Pelosi becomes the first female Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives 

          - A student shoots and kills 32 other students and professors in the Virginia Tech massacre before shooting himself.

          - The I-35W Mississippi River bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota collapses, killing 13, bringing to attention the need to rehabilitate the aging U.S. infrastructure system.

          - Recession officially begins in December

2008 - The Super Tuesday tornado outbreak kills over 60 people and produces $1 billion in damage across Arkansas, Kentucky,Tennessee, and Alabama.

          - A student kills 5, injures 21, and then kills himself in the Northern Illinois University shooting.

          - Hurricane Ike kills 100 people along the Texas coast, produces $31 billion in damage, and contributes to rising oil prices. 

          - Global financial crisis in September 2008 begins as the stock market crashes.

          - U.S. presidential election, 2008; Barack Obama elected 44th President of the United States

2009 - Barack Obama is inaugurated as the first African-American President of the United States

          - Pop icon Michael Jackson dies.

          - Nidal Malik Hasan kills 13 servicemen and injures 30 in the Fort Hood shooting.