| Spycraft | |
| World History 2000 - Current | |
| Year 2000 | |
| Jan 01 | Y2K Easter seaboard Blacked out, A terrorist plot although partially foiled was carried out against the US, no one has claimed responsibility. Anonymous sources point their finger at USSR. |
| Jan 10 | Elections in Chile saved by CIA! CIA suspected in Cop killing in Santiago, Chile. |
| Jan 16 |
Socialist president, Ricardo Lagos, elected in Chile |
| January 17 | A cruise ship called the "Empress of the Sea" lost 2 life boats while underway. There is no explanation for the loss and no one was reported missing from the cruise ship when it docked. |
| Jan 22 | George W. Bush and Al Gore take Iowa caucuses in U.S. presidential race |
| Feb 03 | Austria at center of European dispute after conservative People's Party forms coalition with the far-right Freedom Party, headed by xenophobe Jörg Haider |
| Feb 06 | First Lady Hillary Clinton officially enters N.Y. Senate race |
| Feb 6-12 | Hijackers seize Afghan plane; release hostages in Stansted, England |
| Feb 11 | Britain ends self-rule in Northern Ireland after Irish Republican Army misses disarmament deadline. The Mysterious Michael O'Shanesey has been called in to patch up the deal. |
| Feb 14 | NEAR spacecraft becomes first to orbit an asteroid |
| Feb 18 | Yesterday A small country off the West Coast of Africa reported an accident with one of their Helicopters. Reports say it crashed into a command center on their small naval base, killing a dozen men and women and wound 9 others. 1 casualty was a US consultant. |
| Feb 25 | Wary investors cause stock plunge; beginning of the end of the Internet stock boom |
| Feb 26 | Reformists win control of Iranian parliament for first time since 1979 Islamic revolution |
| Mar 01 |
Calish Lab in London was burnt to the ground yesterday arson is suspected. 3 Brave security officers died getting everyone out. Calish lab does research into the improvement of farm animal breeding. |
| Mar 17 | Gun maker Smith & Wesson limits the manufacture and distribution of handguns in light of lawsuits |
| Mar 17 | Major Train crash in Czech Republic, Investigators rule out terrorism even though our sources say the computer system controlling the train was tampered with just 5 minutes before the crash. No terrorist group has of yet claimed responsibility. 14 Dead and several more un-accounted for. Survivors say there was a disturbance at the station just before it left Austria. A crazy man ran through a crowd yelling terrorist just before the train boarded. Others thought they heard gun shots but now one was reported hurt. |
| Mar 18 | Mass murder or suicide of hundreds in Ugandan doomsday cult |
| Mar 19 | Dr. Jozef Krivosova a Czech Scientist was believed to be on that train and it is believed that he was captured and is being forced to work for a terrorist group headed by Rene Stojkovic of the Czech Republic has vowed to track down Dr. Krivosova and bring those responsible for his abduction to justice. |
| Mar 25 | Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin formally chosen for post |
| Apr 03 | Microsoft loses antitrust suit; appeal expected |
| Apr 08 | Controversial Osprey plane crash kills 19 marines |
| Apr 22 | Cuban boy Elián González reunited with father after federal raid of Miami relatives' home |
| Apr 25 | Vermont approves same-sex unions |
| May 04 | “I love you” virus disrupts computers worldwide |
| May 18 | South Carolina removes Confederate battle flag from capitol dome |
| May 24 | Chile ends Augusto Pinochet's immunity, clearing way for trial on murder and torture charges during years as dictator |
| May 24 | Israeli troops withdraw from Lebanese security zone after 22 years of occupation |
| May 29 | Former Indonesian president Suharto under house arrest, charged with corruption and abuse of power |
| Jun 04 | Britain restores parliamentary powers to Northern Ireland after Sinn Fein agrees to disarm |
| Jun 15 | Presidents of North and South Korea peace accord, ending half-century of antagonism |
| Jun 20 | British find 58 bodies of illegal Asian immigrants suffocated in Dutch truck that transported them |
| Jun 23 | Elián González returns to Cuba with father |
| Jun 25 | U.S. navy resumes shelling exercises of Puerto Rico's Vieques Island, used as a training site |
| Jun 26 | Human genome deciphered; expected to revolutionize the practice of medicine |
| Jun 30 | Iraq to resume missile program |
| Jul 02 | Vicente Fox Quesada elected president of Mexico |
| Jul 10 | Bashar al-Assad succeeds late father, Hafez al-Assad, as Syrian president |
| July 25 | Concorde crash kills 113 near Paris |
| Aug 02 | Republican convention picks Texas governor George W. Bush as presidential candidate; Dick Cheney for vice presidential spot |
| Aug 14 | Democratic convention selects Vice President Al Gore and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman to head ticket |
| Sep 13 | Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee, accused of stealing sensitive nuclear weapons data, freed after serving nine months in prison |
| Sep 15 | Olympic Games open in Australia |
| Sep 20 | Six-year Whitewater investigation of the Clintons ends without indictments |
| Sep 25 | Yugoslav opposition claims victory; incumbent Slobodan Milosevic denies results |
| Sep 26 | Danish voters reject euro |
| Sep 28 | Abortion pill, RU-486, wins U.S. approval |
| Sep 30 | Palestinians and Israelis clash, spurred by visit of right-wing Israeli leader Ariel Sharon to a joint Jewish/Muslim holy site; “Al Aksa intifada” continues unabated |
| Oct 05 | Nationwide uprising overthrows Yugoslavian president Milosevic |
| Oct 07 | Vojislav Kostunica sworn in as Yugoslav president |
| Oct 12 | 17 U.S. sailors on navy destroyer Cole die in Yemen terrorist explosion, UN and US vow to investigate |
| Nov 7-8 | U.S. presidential election closest in decades; Bush's slim lead in Florida leads to automatic recount in that state |
| Nov 11 | Republicans file federal suit to block manual recount of Florida presidential election ballots sought by Democrats |
| Nov 13 | Philippine president Joseph Estrada impeached after receiving gambling payoffs |
| Nov 21 | Florida Supreme Court rules hand count of presidential ballots may continue |
| Nov 25 | Global warming talks collapse at Hague conference |
| Nov 26 | Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris certifies Bush as winner by 537 votes |
| Nov 30 | Mad Cow disease alarms Europe |
| Dec 09 | Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak resigns |
| Dec 09 | U.S. Supreme Court orders halt to manual recount of presidential votes in Florida |
| Dec 12 | Supreme Court seals Bush victory by 5–4; rules there can be no further recounting |
| Year 2001 | |
| Jan 16 | Congo president Laurent Kabila assassinated by bodyguard |
| Jan 20 | In final days of presidency, Bill Clinton issues controversial pardons, including one for Marc Rich, billionaire fugitive financier |
| Jan 20 | George W. Bush is sworn in as 43rd president |
| Jan 26 | Earthquake kills thousands in India |
| Jan 31 | Libyan convicted in Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland |
| Feb 06 | Right-winger Ariel Sharon wins election in Israel |
| Feb 09 | U.S. submarine Greeneville sinks Japanese fishing boat, killing 9 |
| Feb 20 | FBI agent Robert Hanssen is charged with spying for Russia for 15 years |
| Mar 15 | The long-simmering resentment of Macedonia's ethnic Albanians erupts into violence |
| Mar 23 | British livestock epidemic, foot-and-mouth disease, mysteriously cured |
| Mar 30 | Bush abandons global-warming treaty (Kyoto Protocol), angering European leaders |
| Apr 02 | U.S. spy plane and Chinese jet collide. The 24 crew members of the U.S. plane are detained for 11 days; U.S. issues a formal statement of regret |
| Apr 07 | Race riots in Cincinnati continue for several days following a shooting of an unarmed black man by a white police officer |
| Apr 28 | U.S. millionaire Dennis Tito becomes first space tourist, visiting the International Space Station aboard a Russian booster |
| May 01 | Former Klansman Thomas E. Blanton convicted of 1963 murder of four black girls in Birmingham, Ala. |
| May 18 | After a Palestinian suicide bomber kills 5 and wounds more than 100 in a Netanya shopping mall, Israeli warplanes retaliate by bombing West Bank and Gaza strip |
| May 29 | Four are declared guilty in 1998 terrorist bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania |
| Jun 05 | Balance of the Senate shifts after Jim Jeffords of Vermont changes his party affiliation from Republican to Independent. The move strips Republicans of control of the Senate and gives Democrats the narrowest of majorities (50–49–1) |
| Jun 07 | Bush signs new tax-cut law, cutting taxes by $1.35 trillion over 11 years, the largest tax cut in 2 decades |
| Jun 09 | Mohammad Khatami, Iran's moderate president, is reelected in a landslide |
| Jun 11 | Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh executed |
| Jun 19 | Syrian forces evacuate Beirut area after decades of occupation |
| Jun 29 | Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic is delivered to UN tribunal in The Hague to await war-crimes trial |
| Jul 23 | Without U.S., 178 nations reach agreement on climate accord, which rescues, though dilutes, 1997 Kyoto Protocol |
| Aug 09 | Bush allows stem cell research, approving federal funds for studies using existing strains of stem cells |
| Aug 13 | After six months of fighting, a peace agreement is signed between rebels and the Macedonian government |
| Aug 22 | Budget surplus dwindles; some blame the slowing economy and the Bush tax cut |
| Sep 11 | Terrorists attack United States. Hijackers ram jetliners into twin towers of New York City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A fourth hijacked plane crashes 80 mi outside of Pittsburgh. Toll of dead is more than 3,000. Within days, Islamic militant Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda terrorist network are identified as the parties behind the attacks |
| Oct 05 | Anthrax scare rivets nation, as anthrax-laced letters are sent to various media and government officials. Several die after handling the letters |
| Oct 07 | In response to Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, U.S. and British forces launch bombing campaign against Taliban government and al-Qaeda terrorist camps in Afghanistan. Bombings continue on a daily basis |
| Oct 23 | Irish Republican Army announces that it has begun to dismantle its weapons arsenal, marking a dramatic leap forward in Northern Ireland peace process |
| Nov 12 | Plane crash kills 260 in Queens, N.Y. |
| Nov 27 | Afghani factions create a post-Taliban government |
| Dec 02 | Enron Corp., one of world's largest energy companies, files for bankruptcy |
| Dec 04 | Israel condemns the Palestinian Authority as a “terror-supporting entity” and severs ties with leader Yasir Arafat following mounting violence against Israelis. The Israeli Army begins bombing Palestinian areas |
| Dec 09 | Taliban regime in Afghanistan collapses after two months of bombing by American warplanes and fighting by Northern Alliance ground troops |
| Dec 22 | Hamid Karzai, new interim Afghan leader, is sworn in |
| Year 2002 | |
| Jan 02 | The euro currency debuts in 12 European countries |
| Jan 20 | U.S. takes Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners to Guantanamo Bay |
| Jan 18 | Defrocked priest John Geoghan convicted of child molestation; church's role in cover-up sparks national outrage |
| Jan 23 | U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl kidnapped in Pakistan |
| Jan 24 | Kenneth L. Lay, chairman of bankrupt energy trader Enron, resigns; company under federal investigation for hiding debt and misrepresenting earnings |
| Jan 29 | President Bush's first State of Union address labels Iran, Iraq, and North Korea “an axis of evil” |
| Feb 06 | Queen Elizabeth II of England marks 50 years as monarch |
| Feb 12 | The trial of Slobodan Milosevic on charges of crimes against humanity opens at The Hague |
| Feb 13 | American Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh charged with supporting terrorism |
| Feb 21 | Reporter Pearl confirmed dead in Pakistan |
| Feb 22 | Angolan UNITA rebel leader Jonas Savimbi killed in battle |
| Mar 02 | Tamil Tigers and Sri Lankan government sign a cease-fire agreement (Feb. 22). Hundreds in India die in Hindu-Muslim clashes |
| Mar 02 | U.S. and Afghan troops launch Operation Anaconda against remaining al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan |
| Mar 28 | Saudi peace proposal—offering Israel normal relations with all Arab nations in return for withdrawal from occupied territories—approved at Arab League summit |
| Mar 29-Apr 21 | Israeli tanks and warplanes attack West Bank towns of Nablus, Jenin, Bethlehem, and others in response to string of Palestinian suicide attacks. In the first three months of 2002, 14 suicide bombers killed dozens of Israeli civilians and wounded hundreds |
| Apr 02 | Israeli prime minister Sharon calls for exile of Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat |
| Apr 04 | UNITA Rebels and Angolan government sign a cease-fire ending 30 years of civil war |
| Apr 11 | International Criminal Court wins UN ratification, but U.S. refuses to ratify |
| Apr 12,14 | Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez ousted in coup, then reinstated |
| May 13 | U.S. and Russia reach landmark arms agreement to cut both countries' nuclear arsenals by up to two-thirds over the next ten years |
| May 20 | East Timor becomes a new nation |
| May 21 | In letter to Director, FBI lawyer Coleen Rowley criticizes FBI for thwarting terrorist efforts |
| Jun 10 | Dirty bomb plot foiled with arrest of Jose Padilla |
| Jun 13 | U.S. abandons 31-year-old Antiballistic Missile treaty |
| Jun 14 | At national conference, U.S. bishops recommend zero tolerance policy for priests who abuse children |
| Jun 15 | Arthur Andersen firm convicted of destroying documents relating to former client Enron Corp. |
| Jun 24 | Bush announces U.S. will not recognize an independent Palestinian state until Yasir Arafat is replaced |
| Jul 21 | WorldCom, after admitting to misstating profits, files for bankruptcy—largest claim in U.S. history |
| Jul 28 | Pennsylvania miners rescued after spending 77 hours in a dark, flooded mine shaft |
| Jul 30 | Bush signs corporate reform bill in response to spate of corporate scandals |
| Sep 12 | Bush addresses United Nations, calls for a “regime change” in Iraq |
| Sep 12 | Tyco executives L. Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swartz indicted in stock-fraud scheme |
| Oct 12 | Terrorist bomb in Bali kills hundreds |
| Oct 14 | Government suspended in Northern Ireland in protest of suspected IRA spy ring |
| Oct 15 | Former ImClone Executive Sam Waksal pleads guilty to charges including fraud and perjury |
| Oct 16 | North Korea admits to developing nuclear arms in defiance of treaty |
| Oct 18 | Vatican calls for softening of U.S. bishops' abuse policy |
| Oct 23-26 | Chechen rebels take 763 hostages in Moscow theater; Russian authorities release a gas into theater, killing 116 hostages and freeing remaining survivors |
| Oct 2-24 | Snipers prey upon DC suburbs, killing ten and wounding others |
| Oct 24 | Police arrest two sniper suspects, John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo |
| Nov 04 | CIA kills six al-Qaeda members in Yemen |
| Nov 05 | Republicans retake the Senate in midterm elections; gain additional House seats |
| Nov 08 | UN Security Council passes unanimous resolution calling on Iraq to disarm or else face “serious consequences” |
| Nov 14 | China's Jiang Zemin officially retires as general secretary; Hu Jintao named as his successor |
| Nov 22 | UN arms inspectors return to Iraq (Nov. 18). EPA relaxes Clean Air Act |
| Nov 25 | Bush signs legislation creating cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security |
| Dec 13 | Boston archbishop Cardinal Bernard Law resigns over growing child sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church |
| Dec 20 | Trent Lott steps down as Republican leader after furor over pro-segregationist remark |
| Dec 23 | Sen. Bill Frist unanimously elected Republican leader of the Senate |
| Year 2003 | |
| Jan 10 | North Korea withdraws from treaty on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons |
| Jan 11 | Illinois governor George Ryan commutes 167 death row sentences, calling capital punishment flawed |
| Jan 15 | White House announces huge deficits expected to top $200 billion in 2003 |
| Jan 27 | The UN's report on Iraqi weapons inspections is highly critical, but not damning |
| Jan 28 | In State of the Union address, Bush announces that he is ready to attack Iraq even without a UN mandate |
| Jan 29 | Ariel Sharon elected Israeli prime minister |
| Feb 01 | Space shuttle Columbia explodes, killing all seven astronauts |
| Feb 02 | Nine-week general strike in Venezuela calling for President Chavez's resignation ends in defeat |
| Feb 05 | U.S. Secretary of State Powell presents Iraq war rationale to UN, citing Iraqi weapons as imminent threat to world security |
| Feb 15 | Massive peace demonstrations take place around the world, protesting potential invasion of Iraq |
| Feb 24 | UN Security Council members France, Germany, and Russia insist that “the military option should only be a last resort” concerning Iraq |
| Mar 12 | Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic assassinated |
| Mar 15 | Hu Jintao succeeds Chinese president Jiang Zemin |
| Mar 19 | The United States and Britain launch war against Iraq |
| Apr 09 | Baghdad falls to U.S. troops |
| Apr 16 | European Union expands by ten nations |
| Apr 29 | First Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, sworn in |
| Apr 30 | U.S.-backed “road map” for peace proposed for Middle East |
| May 01 | The United States declares official end to combat operations in Iraq |
| May 12 | U.S. diplomat Paul Bremer becomes civil administrator of occupied Iraq |
| May 12 | Terrorists strike in Saudi Arabia, killing 34 at Western compound; al-Qaeda suspected |
| May 28 | Bush signs ten-year, $350-billion tax-cut package, the third-largest tax cut in U.S. history |
| May 30 | Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi again placed under house arrest by military regime |
| May 31 | Eric Rudolph, Olympic bombing suspect, arrested |
| Jun 18 | International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) discovers Iran's concealed nuclear activities and calls for intensified inspections |
| Jun 23 | The U.S. Supreme Court decisively upholds the use of affirmative action in higher education |
| Jun 29 | Palestinian militant groups announce cease-fire toward Israel |
| Jul 09 | Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announces price of Iraq war is about $3.9 billion a month, nearly double the April estimate |
| Jul 13 | Iraq's interim governing council is inaugurated |
| Jul 22 | Saddam Hussein's sons killed in firefight |
| Jul 27 | Mutinous troops attempt unsuccessful coup in Philippines |
| Aug 06 | Terrorist bombing at Indonesian hotel kills ten |
| Aug 11 | Liberia's autocratic president Charles Taylor forced to leave civil war–ravaged country |
| Aug 11 | NATO assumes control of peacekeeping force in Afghanistan |
| Aug 15 | Libya accepts blame for 1988 bombing of flight over Lockerbie, Scotland; agrees to pay $2.7 billion to the families of the 270 victims |
| Aug 19 | Suicide bombing destroys UN headquarters in Baghdad, killing 24, including top envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello |
| Aug 19 | Palestinian suicide bombing in Jerusalem kills 20 Israelis, including 6 children |
| Aug 20 | Venezuelan opposition files petition for referendum to recall President Hugo Chavez |
| Aug 24 | After Israel retaliates for suicide bombing by killing top member of Hamas, militant Palestinian groups formally withdraw from cease-fire in effect since June 29 |
| Aug 25 | Investigation into the loss of space shuttle Columbia cites egregious organizational problems at NASA |
| Sep 06 | Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas resigns; “road map” to peace effectively collapses |
| Oct 07 | California governor Gray Davis ousted in recall vote; actor Arnold Schwarzenegger elected in his place |
| Oct 24 | UN votes in favor of a resolution ordering Israel to end construction of security barrier dividing Israeli and Palestinian areas |
| Nov 05 | Bush signs bill banning so-called partial-birth abortion procedure |
| Nov 05 | President Bush signs $87.5 billion emergency package for post-war Iraq reconstruction; this supplements $79 billion approved in April |
| Nov 12 | New Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qurei takes office |
| Nov 13 | Alabama chief justice Roy S. Moore forced from office after his refusal to remove monument of the Ten Commandments |
| Nov 14 | The Bush administration reverses policy, agrees to transfer power to an interim Iraqi government sooner than originally planned |
| Nov 15 | Suicide bombers attack two synagogues in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 25 |
| Nov 18 | Massachusetts Supreme Court rules in favor of gay marriage |
| Nov 20 | Another terrorist attack in Istanbul kills 26; al-Qaeda suspected in both |
| Nov 23 | Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze resigns after weeks of protests |
| Nov 24 | John A. Muhammad, convicted in the 2002 Washington, DC, area shootings, receives death sentence |
| Dec 04 | President Bush eliminates steel tariffs after WTO says U.S. violated trade laws |
| Dec 12 | Paul Martin succeeds Jean Chretien as Canadian prime minister |
| Dec 13 | Saddam Hussein is captured by American troops |
| Dec 19 | Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi announces he will give up weapons program |
| Year 2004 | |
| Jan 13 | Former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow pleads guilty to defrauding Enron |
| Jan 14 | Bush proposes ambitious space program that includes flights to the Moon, Mars, and beyond |
| Jan 23 | Iraq weapons investigator David Kay resigns, says there’s no evidence of weapons of mass destruction, one of the Bush administration’s chief reasons for launching war in Iraq |
| Feb 01 | About one third of Iran's Parliament steps down to protest hard-line Guardian Council’s banning of more than 2,000 reformists from running in parliamentary elections |
| Feb 04 | A.Q. Khan, founder of Pakistan's nuclear program, admits he sold nuclear-weapons designs to other countries, including North Korea, Iran, and Libya |
| Feb 29 | Armed rebels in Haiti force President Aristide to resign and flee the country |
| Mar 02 | John Kerry secures Democratic nomination after winning nine out of ten primaries and caucuses |
| Mar 11 | Spain is rocked by terrorist attacks, killing more than 200. Al-Qaeda takes responsibility |
| Mar 14 | Spain's governing Popular Party loses election to opposition Socialists. Outcome seen as a reaction to terrorist attacks days before and Popular Party's support of the U.S.-led war in Iraq |
| Mar 29 | North Atlantic Treaty Organization formally admits seven new countries: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia |
| Apr 5 - May 1 | U.S. troops launch offensive in Falluja in response to killing and mutilation on March 31 of four U.S. civilian contractors |
| Apr 12 | Israeli prime minister Sharon announces plan to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza Strip |
| Apr 24 | Greek Cypriots reject UN reunification plan with Turkish Cypriots |
| Arp 30 | U.S. media release graphic photos of American soldiers abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. Images spark outrage around the world |
| May 17 | Gay marriages begin in Massachusetts, the first state in the country to legalize such unions |
| May 26 | Sudan rebels (SPLA) and government reach accord to end 21-year civil war. However, separate war in western Darfur region between Arab militias and black Africans continues unabated |
| Jun 28 | U.S. hands over power to Iraqi interim government; Iyad Allawi becomes prime minister |
| Jun 28 | In Rasul v. Bush, Supreme Court rules that “enemy combatants” held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, are legally entitled to file petitions for writs of habeas corpus; and in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, court rules that the detention of a U.S. citizen held as an enemy combatant is invalid, rejecting government's claim that the executive branch has unreviewable authority in time of war |
| Jun 30 | Israeli Supreme Court orders removal of part of security barrier dividing Israeli and Palestinian lands |
| Jul 05 | Senate Intelligence Committee reports that intelligence on Iraq's weapons programs was “overstated” and flawed Sept. 11 |
| Jul 22 | commission harshly criticizes government’s handling of terrorist attacks |
| Jul 26-29 | Democratic National Convention in Boston nominates John Kerry for president |
| Jul 30 | Security Council demands Sudanese government disarm militias in Darfur that are massacring civilians |
| Aug 12 | Florida hit by hurricanes Bonnie |
| Aug 13 | and Charley |
| Aug 13-29 | Summer Olympics take place in Athens, Greece |
| Aug 16 | Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez survives recall referendum |
| Aug 24 | Pentagon-sponsored Schlesinger report rejects idea that Abu Ghraib prison abuse was work of a few aberrant soldiers, and asserts there were “fundamental failures throughout all levels of command” |
| Aug 30 Sep 02 | Republican Convention in New York renominates President Bush |
| Sep 1-3 | Chechen terrorists take about 1,200 schoolchildren and others hostage in Beslan, Russia; 340 people die when militants detonate explosives |
| Sep 15 | Hurricane Ivan ravages U.S. south |
| Spe 16 | U.S.’s final report on Iraq’s weapons finds no WMDs |
| Sep 18 | UN Atomic Energy Agency tells Iran to stop enriching uranium; a nascent nuclear weapons program suspected |
| Spe 20 | Bush eases trade restrictions on Libya |
| Sep 23 | Congress extends tax cuts due to expire at the end of 2005 |
| Sep 26 | Hurricane Jeanne hits Florida |
| Oct 25 | 380 tons of explosives reported missing in Iraq |
| Nov 08 | Bush reelected president (Nov. 2). U.S. troops launch attack on Falluja, stronghold of the Iraqi insurgency |
| Nov 11 | Yasir Arafat dies in Paris |
| Nov 21 | Ukraine presidential election declared fraudulent |
| Nov 30 | Red Cross alleges abuse at U.S.-run Guantánamo prison |
| Dec 07 | Hamid Karzai inaugurated as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president |
| Dec 15 | Missile test fails; setback for Bush administration's missile defense system |
| Dec 26 | Massive protests by supporters of opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko's lead to a new Ukrainian election; Yushchenko eventually declared prime minister |
| Dec 26 | Enormous tsunami devastates Asia; at least 225,000 killed |
| Year 2005 | |
| January | Worldwide aid pours in to help the 11 Asian countries devastated by the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami |
| Jan 09 | Mahmoud Abbas wins presidency of the Palestinian Authority in a landslide |
| Jan 09 | The Sudanese government and rebels from southern Sudan sign a peace agreement to end a 20-year conflict that has claimed about 2 million people |
| Jan 20 | George W. Bush is officially sworn in for his second term as president |
| Jan 30 | Iraqi elections to select a 275-seat National Assembly take place despite threats of violence. A total of 8.5 million people voted, representing about 58% of those Iraqis eligible to vote |
| Feb 02 | In State of the Union address, President Bush announces his plan to reform Social Security; despite months of campaigning, his plan receives only a lukewarm reception |
| Feb 10 | Saudis (men only) are allowed to vote for the first time in municipal elections |
| Feb 14 | Former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri > a nationalist who had called for Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon—is assassinated |
| Mar 20 | The Terry Schiavo case becomes the focus of an emotionally charged battle in Congress |
| Mar 31 | Schiavo dies 13 days after a federal judge refuses to order the reinsertion of her feeding tube |
| Apr 02 | Pope John Paul II dies |
| Apr 04 | Violent protests follow March elections in Kyrgyzstan, which international monitors deem severely flawed. President Askar Akayev flees the country and then resigns |
| Apr 24 | Benedict XVI becomes the next pope |
| Apr 26 | The Syrian military, stationed in Lebanon for 29 years, withdraws |
| May 05 | Tony Blair becomes first Labour Party prime minister to win three successive terms, but his party loses a large number of seats in the elections |
| May 20 | South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk announces that he has devised a new procedure to successfully produce human stem cell lines from a cloned human embryo |
| Jun 16 | but claim is discredited in Dec. 2005. The European Union abandons plans to ratify the proposed European constitution by 2006 after both France and the Netherlands vote against it |
| Jun 24 | Former Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a hard-line conservative, wins Iran's presidential election with 62% of the vote. He defiantly pursues Iran's nuclear ambitions over the course of his first year |
| Jul 01 | Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announces her retirement |
| Jul 04 | NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft hits comet Tempel 1 in effort to research primordial remnants of our solar system |
| Jul 07 | London hit by Islamic terrorist bombings, killing 52 and wounding about 700. It is Britain's worst attack since World War II |
| Jul 08 | Group of Eight industrial nations pledge to double aid to Africa to $50 billion a year by 2010, cancel the debt of many poor countries, and open trade |
| Jul 08 | Federal appeals court upholds lower court decision that so-called Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act is unlawful because it fails to make an exception to the law for women whose health would be in jeopardy without the late-term procedure |
| Jul 20 | Pentagon assessment finds Iraq's police force is, at best, “partially capable” of fighting the country's insurgency. The U.S.'s eventual withdrawal plan hinges upon Iraqi security forces replacing U.S. soldiers: “As Iraqis stand up, Americans will stand down,” President Bush had stated |
| Jul 27 | The Irish Republican Army announces it is officially ending its violent campaign for a united Ireland and will instead pursue its goals politically |
| Aug 02 | President Bush signs the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which will remove trade barriers between the U.S. and Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua |
| Aug 15 | The Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) sign a peace accord to end their nearly 30-year-long civil war |
| Aug 15 | Israel begins evacuating about 8,000 Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip, which has been occupied by Israel for the last 38 years |
| Aug 25-30 | Hurricane Katrina wreaks catastrophic damage on the Gulf Coast; more than 1,000 die and millions are left homeless. Americans are shaken not simply by the magnitude of the disaster but by how ill-prepared all levels of government were in its aftermath. |
| Sep 03 | Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who served on the U.S. Supreme Court for 33 years, dies |
| Sep 22 | John Roberts, Jr., becomes 17th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court |
| Sep 23 | Another major hurricane, Rita, ravages the Gulf Coast |
| Sept 28 | House majority leader Tom DeLay is accused of conspiring to violate Texas's election laws. He steps aside from his House leadership position |
| Oct 02 | A 7.6 earthquake centered in the Pakistani-controlled part of the Kashmir region kills more than 80,000 and leaves an estimated 4 million homeless ( |
| Oct 03 | President Bush selects Harriet Miers, White House counsel, to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor |
| Oct 10 | Angela Merkel, leader of the Christian Democratic Union, which narrowly prevailed over Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Social Democratic Party in September elections, becomes the country's first female chancellor |
| Oct 15 | Millions of Iraqi voters ratify a new constitution |
| Oct 19 | Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein goes on trial for the killing of 143 people in the town of Dujail, Iraq, in 1982 |
| Oct 25 | Number of deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq reaches 2,000 |
| Oct 27 | Harriet Miers withdraws her Supreme Court nomination after strong criticism from the president's conservative base |
| Oct 27 | Several weeks of violent rioting begins in the impoverished French-Arab and French-African suburbs of Paris after two boys are accidentally killed while hiding from police |
| Oct 28 | A federal grand jury indicts I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, with obstruction of justice and perjury in connection with a White House investigation |
| Nov 11 | Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf defeats soccer star George Weah in Liberia's presidential election. She becomes Africa's first woman head of state |
| Nov 21 | Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon quits as head of the Likud Party, which he founded, to start a new, more centrist organization, called Kadima |
| Nov 28 | California Republican congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham resigns after pleading guilty to taking at least $2.4 million in bribes |
| Dec 05 | The Sept. 11 Public Discourse Project reports that the country is “alarmingly vulnerable to terrorist strikes” |
| D | The New York Times reports that in 2002, Bush signed a presidential order to allow the National Security Agency to spy on Americans suspected of being connected to terrorist activity without warrants |