JANUARY 15, 2001

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SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

Terror strikes the USA

The second of two hijacked jet airliners explodes through the World Trade Center towers
in New York. Altogether, 19 al-Qaeda hijackers commandeered four jets, killing nearly
3,000 people. The third jet struck the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., the fourth crashed into a
field in Shanksville, Pa., after being brought down by passengers. President Bush declared
a war on terror in response to the attacks.

OCTOBER 23, 2001

1,000 songs in your pocket

Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveils the Mac-compatible classic iPod, a portable music device
that holds 1,000 digital media files on a 5GB internal hard drive.

MARCH 24, 2002

A first for Oscar

Actress Halle Berry shows off her Oscar for best actress during the 74th annual Academy
Awards in Hollywood. Berry, the first African American to win the coveted award, played
the role of the wife of an executed murderer in the film ﾠ Monster's Ball.

FEBRUARY 1, 2004

'Wardrobe malfunction'

Entertainer Janet Jackson covers her breast after her outfit came undone during a half-
time performance with Justin Timberlake at Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston. Timberlake
described the breast-baring incident as a "wardrobe malfunction," which resulted in an
FCC crackdown on indecent behavior in broadcasting.

FEBRUARY 4, 2004
What's on your mind?

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, delivers the keynote address during the
Facebook f8 developer conference in San Francisco. Zuckerberg and co-founders Dustin
Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin, launched Facebook from their Harvard
dorm room. The social networking website was opened to the public in 2006 and claims to
have more than 350 million members worldwide.

MARCH 11, 2004

Madrid trains targeted

Victims of multiple train bombings receive aid at Madrid's Atocha station. Nearly 200
people died and more than 1,500 were injured in the series of explosions, timed for the
morning rush, aboard several commuter trains as they arrived at three different Madrid
stations. The attacks occurred three days before Spain's general elections.

DECEMBER 26, 2004

Tsunami swamps Indonesia

Sarmadan and his family survived the horrific tsunami that hit Krueng Raya, Indonesia,
but lost their home and belongings. Due to the lack of alarm systems, Indonesian
residents were caught by surprise when the tsunami struck low-lying areas. The tsuanmi,
produced by a magnitude-9.1 earthquake in the Indian Ocean, left nearly 230,000 people
dead or missing in South Asia.

APRIL 23, 2005

You, too, can be on screen

A 19-second video shot at the San Diego Zoo features Jawed Karim, one of three co-
founders of YouTube, and was the first one uploaded to the video-sharing website.

JUNE 13, 2005

Jackson stands trial

Michael Jackson leaves the Santa Barbara County Superior Court in California after being
acquitted on charges of child molestation. The charges were sparked by a British-made TV
documentary, ﾠ Living With Michael Jackson.

AUGUST 29, 2005

Katrina wreaks havoc

Residents wade through flooded streets on their way to New Orleans' Super Dome in the
aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The expansive storm system inflicted damage along most
of the Gulf Coast, from Florida to Texas, and was responsible for nearly 2,00 deaths —
most from the storm surge and a levee system that failed. The hurricane was the third-
most intense hurricane to ever hit the USA and deemed the most costly.

JULY 15, 2006

What are you doing?

Twitter co-founders Jack Dorsey, left, and Biz Stone parody their product in a shoot for
USA TODAY in 2008. Originally sparked by Dorsey's curiousity with what his friends were
doing at the moment, Twitter was launched in 2006 with a limit of 140 characters to
communicate status reports via cellphone, instant messenger, or the Web.

DECEMBER 30, 2006

Saddam's last moment

A cellphone image shows former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's head in the noose just
prior to his hanging in Baghdad after his conviction a month earlier. President Bush said
he was troubled with the circus atmosphere surrounding Saddam's execution. Cellphone
video showed Saddam being taunted as he stood on the gallows.

JANUARY 9, 2007

Apple of his eye

Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveils the Apple iPhone at the MacWorld Conference in San
Francisco, announcing it would go on sale in late June. Thousands of fans camped out at
Apple and AT&T stores nationwide to be the first to purchase the iPhone — a combination
widescreen iPod, cellphone and pocket Internet device.

NOVEMBER 9, 2007

Writers' bloc

Thousands of Writers Guild of America writers and others march down Avenue of the Stars
on the fifth day of their strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television
Producers in Los Angeles. The 14-week strike hampered the production of TV shows and
choked the flow of movie scripts. At issue was payment for the writers' work in new
media, primarily downloads of movies and TV shows over the Internet.
DECEMBER 27, 2007

Suicide attack kills Bhutto

Benazir Bhutto mourns the deaths of his colleagues after a suicide attack in Rawalpindi,
Pakistan. Bhutto, who was seeking a third term and had survived another suicide attempt
two months earlier, was assassinated in the attack that killed at least 20 others during a
campaign rally.

FEBRUARY 19, 2008

Cuba's revolutionary retires

President Fidel Castro announced that he was retiring as Cuba's head of state, 49 years
after he seized power in an armed revolution. The ailing leader, shown here in 2005,
handed the reins of power over to his brother Raul.

MAY 12, 2008

China quake kills 90,000

Parents mourn for their child who died when the Xingjian elementary school collapsed in a
magnitude-7.9 earthquake that struck Sichuan province, China. At least 90,000 people
were killed and 5 million more were left homeless by the quake and aftershocks.

AUGUST 13, 2008

Eight is enough

Michael Phelps swims to a world record and his fourth of a record eight gold medals in the
men's 200-meter butterfly at the Beijing Olympic Games.

NOVEMBER 4, 2008

An historic election

President-elect Sen. Barack Obama celebrates with his wife Michelle and daughters Sasha
and Malia at an election night victory celebration in Chicago's Grant Park. Obama became
the nation's first African-American president, having previously served in the Illinois
Senate and U.S. Senate.

NOVEMBER 27, 2008

Terrorists strike Mumbai

Policeman respond to an attack in the Colaba area of Mumbai. Ten heavily armed
Pakistani militants, who arrived in India's financial capital by boat, pulled off coordinated
attacks on multiple sites, including luxury hotels and a railway station, that killed 166
people and wounded hundreds more over a two-day period.

JUNE 25, 2009

King of Pop dies

Pop singing icon Michael Jackson died a month before embarking on a sold-out tour of 50
shows and after a legendary four-decade career in show business. The Los Angeles
County coroner ruled that the 50-year-old Jackson, shown in Bangkok during his
Dangerous tour in 1993, died from a combination of the anesthetic propofol and other
drugs.

NOVEMBER 20, 2009

'25 years feels right'

Holding back tears, Oprah Winfrey tells her studio audience that she will end her show in
2011 after a quarter-century on the air. She says "prayer and careful thought" led to her
decision. "Twenty-five years feels right in my bones and it feels right in my spirit. It's the
perfect number — the exact right time," the host explains.

NOVEMBER 27, 2009

Tiger's world collapses

Starting with a car wreck in the early hours after Thanksgiving, Tiger Woods' storied
career began to unravel at a startling pace. One after another, women claiming to be
current or former mistresses emerged after an expose in the National Enquirer. Within a
few weeks, his $100 million a year endorsement empire started to crumble and the
world's best golfer took an indefinite hiatus from the sport. Shown here six days earlier at
a college football game with his daughter Sam and wife Elin.

Looking back at the past 10 years

Updated 12/21/2009 9:07 AM | Comments 134 | Recommend 42

Time magazine called it the Decade from Hell. The Boston Red Sox know it as the decade the Curse of the Bambino came to an end.
And all Americans know the past decade as the one when terrorism struck home.

The decade began with a sigh of relief when the feared computer Y2K bug failed to materialize as companies adjusted their systems in time.

And optimism prevailed when AOLand Time Warner decided to merge in a deal that epitomized the dot-com era's belief in seemingly unlimited growth.

But tensions grew quickly in the 2000s: There was the crash of the Concorde, the beginning of the second Intifada, the attack on the USS Cole,

and a hotly disputed presidential election that wasn't officially decided until the Supreme Court halted the recount of ballots in Florida.

The rest of the decade bore witness to:

• Violence. The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were the worst of a series of terrorist attacks, followed several years later by a train bombing in Spain and a

subway blast in London. After 9/11, theUnited States led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Russia and Georgia tangled in later year, each side blaming

the other for the conflict.

• Natural disasters. Nearly 230,000 people spread over several South Asia countries died in a tsunami spawned by an Indian Ocean earthquake.

Tens of thousands were killed by earthquakes in Pakistan and China. Hurricane Katrina tore through New Orleans.

• Economic malaise. The collapse of the dot-com and housing bubbles fostered two financial crises:

The second one resulted in the worst economic climate since the Great Depression.

News wasn't bad for everyone. Apple unveiled the iPod, and later, the iPhone.The Boston Red Sox broke an 86-year drought in

winning the World Series. Michael Phelps swam into the record books with eight Olympic gold medals. An airline pilot saved more than

150 lives by landing on the Hudson River.

COUNTDOWN TO '10: Top sports meltdowns since 2000

There were plenty of firsts. First Austrian bodybuilder to become the governor of California. First woman to win an Indy race.

First female speaker of the House. First Hispanic member of the Supreme Court. First African-American president.

The final year of the decade saw the death of the biggest musical star of his generation; political rancor ("You lie!") over proposals to

change U.S. health care, which could result in the most far-reaching government program since the Great Society; and a sex scandal

surrounding professional golf's biggest draw.

Click through the above gallery to relive the memorable moments of the past 10 years, and watch short videos with our photo and video

journalists to learn what they recall about bearing witness to the first decade of the 2000s.