A Month-by-Month History of the Past Decade: 2008-2009
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The decade of the 2000s has been a tumultuous turn of events that will be remembered far into the future. We have had many accomplishments, including the mapping of the human genome, the discovery of water on the moon, and movements towards peace on the planet. Unfortunately, negative events accompany us on our march of progress, such as the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history. We’ve also suffered through terrorist attacks such as 9/11, 7/7, and tragically, countless many others which have led to the greater tragedy of a population living in constant fear. So, we have a long way to go for humanity to become as great as it can be, but I believe this decade was a definitive step in the right direction. As such, I have collected one event from each of the last 120 months so that we don’t forget where we came from. Enjoy this month-by-month history of the first decade of the third millennium.
2008
January: The price of oil hits $100 per barrel for the first time in history.
February: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia delivers a formal apology to the Stolen Generations. From 1869 to the 1970s, the Australian government would remove Aboriginal children from their families in an effort to “civilize” them.
March: A 160 square mile chunk of Antarctica’s Wilkins Ice Shelf disintegrates, leaving the entire shelf at risk.
April: Surgeons at London’s Moorfields Eye Hospital perform the first operations using bionic eyes, implanting them into two blind patients.
May: An earthquake in China and a tropical cylcone in Burma (Myanmar) kill over 200,000 people within 10 days of each other.
June: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologizes to Canada’s First Nations for the Canadian residential school system, which was intended to force the assimilation of Canada’s native peoples.
July: Radovan Karadžić, the first president of the Republika Srpska, is arrested in Belgrade, Serbia on allegations of war crimes, following a 12-year long manhunt.
August: Michael Phelps wins eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, passing Mark Spitz for most gold medals won in a single Olympics.
September: The proton beam is circulated for the first time in the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator.
October: Following a major banking and financial crisis in Iceland, the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority takes control of the three largest banks in the country: Kaupthing Bank, Landsbanki, and Glitnir. Relative to its size, Iceland suffered the worst banking collapse in economic history.
November: Barack Obama is elected the 44th President of the United States, becoming the country’s first African-American president.
December: The Channel Island of Sark, a British crown dependency, holds its first fully democratic elections under a new constitutional arrangement, becoming the last European territory to abolish feudalism.
2009
January: For the third time in four years, Russia is involved in a natural gas dispute that shuts down supplies to Europe.
February: An American satellite and a Russian satellite collide over Siberia, becoming the first in orbit collision of two man-made objects.
March: The International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for crimes against humanity in Darfur becoming the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC.
April: The World Health Organization first acknowledges the potential for a swine flu epidemic in North America.
May: The Sri Lankan Civil War finally ended after 25 years of conflict. The surrender of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was precipitated by the death of their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran.
June: Thousands of people took to the streets in the aftermath of Iran’s presidential election, in which Mahmoud Ahmadenijad won a second term amid charges of election fraud.
July: The longest solar eclipse of the 21st century was visible in much of Southeast Asia. The eclipse lasted six minutes and 39 seconds, a duration not expected to be matched until 2132. In addition, the eclipse was broadcast live over the Internet, leading some experts to claim that it was the most viewed solar eclipse in history.
August: American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee are released from North Korean custody after former President Bill Clinton visits Kim Jong-Il to negotiate their release.
September: Filmmaker Roman Polanski was finally arrested on charges of rape after 32 years on the run.
October: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced new regulations for bloggers, requiring the disclosure of any material relationships. It is the FTC’s first major attempt to curb false advertising and false testimonials on the Internet.
November: NASA announces the discovery of water on the Cabeus crater of the moon.
December: Five women were awarded Nobel prizes this year, the most in any given year since the Nobels were first awarded in 1901. In addition, Elinor Ostrom became the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics.
Collage of the 2009 Iran Election Protest
A big thanks to Wikipedia, without whom this timeline would have taken months. Also, I realize that according to the Gregorian calendar the decade doesn’t actually end until December 31, 2010, but I didn’t want to wait a year to do this. Besides, I will never consider the year 2000 to be a part of the 1990s, so there’s my logic. If you enjoyed this post, you should follow EiH on Twitter or subscribe to the RSS feed.
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