# 2000s (decade)

From left, clockwise: The World Trade Center on fire and the Statue of Liberty during the **9/11 attacks** in 2001; the **euro** currency starts being used in 2002; a statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled down during the **Iraq War** in 2003; U.S. troops going towards an army helicopter in Afghanistan during the **War on Terror**; **social media** through the Internet starts being used across the world; a Chinese soldier looks at the **2008 Summer Olympics** starting in Beijing; an **economic crisis**, the largest since the Great Depression, hits the world in 2008; **a tsunami from the Indian Ocean earthquake** kills over 230,000 in 2004.
The **2000s** (pronounced "two thousands", also known as the **noughties**), was the decade that began on January 1, 2000 and ended on December 31, 2009. It is distinct from the decade known as the 201st decade which began on January 1, 2001 and ended on December 31, 2010.

## Events

* November 7, 2000 – George W. Bush (R) is elected President of the United States. The results were not known until December 12, 2000 due to the state of Florida being too close to the results.

* January 13, 2001 – A 6.6 magnitude earthquake strikes El Salvador killing at least 400 people.

* February 20, 2001 – An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease occurs in the United Kingdom and over 10 million sheep and cattle were killed.

* July 2, 2001 – The first artificial heart is implanted in a human being.

* September 11, 2001 – Terrorist attacks are carried out on the World Trade Center in New York City and The Pentagon in Washington, D.C. by members of the Islamic extremist group Al Qaeda. The attacks involve the hijacking of four American passenger planes. Almost 3,000 people die. Two of these planes fly directly into the two towers of the World Trade Center, causing both towers to collapse. A third plane flies into a section of the Pentagon. A fourth plane crashes in a field in Pennsylvania after the terrorists are overpowered by passengers.

* September 18, 2001 – Letters containing anthrax spores are mailed to several American media offices and two American senators. Twenty-two people are exposed and 5 people die.

* September 21, 2001 – A chemical factory explodes in Toulouse, France, killing 29 people and seriously wounding over 2,500.

* 2001 – War in Afghanistan (2001–present) begins as the United States, with help from other countries, invades Afghanistan.

* 2002 – May 20: East Timor gains independence from Indonesia
* 2002–2003 – SARS outbreak
* 2003 – Invasion of Iraq
* 2003 – December 26: earthquake in Bam, Iran
* 2004 – March 11: Bomb attacks on Madrid's train network
* 2004 – June 5: President Ronald Reagan dies at 93
* 2004 – September 1: Beslan School hostage crisis in Russia
* 2004 – Orange Revolution in Ukraine
* 2004 – December 26: tsunami in the Indian Ocean
* 2005 – April 2: Death of Pope John Paul II
* 2005 – July 7: Bomb attacks on the London Underground
* 2005 – October 8: earthquake in Kashmir
* 2005 – November 22: Angela Merkel becomes Chancellor of Germany
* 2005 – 2005 Atlantic hurricane season is the worst on record.
* 2006 – January 16: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, in Liberia becomes the first female president on the African continent.
* 2006 – July – August: war between Israel and Lebanon
* 2006 - December 26: President Gerald Ford dies at 93
* 2006 – December 30: Saddam Hussein is executed in Iraq.
* 2007 – May 16: Nicolas Sarkozy becomes President of France.
* 2007 – June 27: Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
* 2008 – February 24: Cuban President Fidel Castro retires. He is succeeded by his brother Raul Castro.
* 2008 – May 3: Burma is hit by Cyclone Nargis.
* 2008 – May 12: China's Sichuan province is hit by a major earthquake.
* 2008 – November: Mumbai terrorist attacks
* 2008–2009 – war in the Gaza Strip
* 2009 – January 20: Barack Obama becomes the 44th President of the United States and the first African-American President.
* 2009-2010 – The flu pandemic turn out to be a global pandemic.
* 2009 – June 12:The end of analog television broadcast all across United States switch off analog transmitter and translation to Digital Television.
* 2009 – June 25: Death of Michael Jackson

## People

* Pope John Paul II, Pope from 1978 to 2005
* Pope Benedict XVI, Pope from 2005 to 2013
* Elizabeth II, Monarch of the United Kingdom and other commonwealth countries since 1952
* Vladimir Putin, President of Russia from 2000 to 2008
* Dmitry Medvedev, President of Russia from 2008 to 2012
* Bill Clinton, President of the United States from 1993 to 2001
* George W. Bush, President of the United States from 2001 to 2009
* Barack Obama, President of the United States from 2009 to 2017
* Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysian Prime Minister from 1981 to 2003
* Joseph Estrada, President of the Philippines from 1998 to 2001
* Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, President of the Philippines from 2001 to 2010
* Fidel Castro, President of Cuba from 1959 to 2008
* Raul Castro, President of Cuba from 2008
* Johannes Rau, President of Germany from 1999 to 2004
* Horst Koehler, President of Germany from 2004 to 2010
* Gerhard Schröder, Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005
* Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany from 2005
* Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007
* Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2010
* Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq from 1979 to 2003
* Jalal Talabani, President of Iraq from 2006 to 2014
* Jacques Chirac, President of France from 1995 to 2007
* Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France from 2007 to 2012
* Hu Jintao, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 2002 to 2012
* Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of Indonesia from 2004
* John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007
* Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010
* Akihito, Emperor of Japan from 1989 to 2019
* Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela from 1999 to 2013
* Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe since 1987 to 2017
* Yoweri Museveni, President of Uganda since 1986
* Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011
* Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, President of Tunisia from 1987 to 2011
* Muammar Gaddafi, Leader of Libya from 1969 to 2011
* Ali Abdullah Saleh, President of Yemen from 1990 to 2012
* Bhumibol Adulyadej, Monarch of Thailand from 1946 to 2016
* Jiang Zemin, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1989 to 2002
* Michel Suleiman, President of Lebanon from 2008 to 2014
* Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa from 1999 to 2008
* Klagema Motlanthe, President of South Africa from 2008 to 2009
* Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa from 2009
* Omar al-Bashir, President of Sudan from 1989
* Hafez al-Assad, President of Syria from 1971 to 2000
* Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria from 2000
* Ezer Weizman, President of Israel from 1993 to 2000
* Moshe Katsav, President of Israel from 2000 to 2007
* Shimon Peres, President of Israel from 2007 to 2014
* Benjamin Netanyehu, Prime Minister of Israel from 2009
* Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel from 1999 to 2001
* Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel from 2001 to 2006
* Ehud Omert, Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009
* Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia from 2006
* Queen Beatrix, Monarch of Netherlands from 1980 to 2013
* King Albert II, Monarch of Belgium from 1993 to 2013
* King Abdullah II, Monarch of Jordan from 1999
* Juan Carlos I, Monarch of Spain from 1975 to 2014