2000
31/01 Harold Shipman is found guilty of murdering 15 of his patients and sentenced to life imprisonment. He hangs himself four years later, at Wakefield prison.

07/11 George W. Bush elected 43rd President of the United States of America after a controversial 537-vote victory over his rival Al Gore in Florida.

2001
15/01 Wikipedia is launched and rapidly becomes the most-visited as well as the largest (it now contains 13 million articles) reference site on the internet.

07/06 Tony Blair’s Labour Government wins a second term, with a massive 167-seat majority, leading William Hague to resign as leader of the Conservative Party.

11/09 Two commercial jets are flown into the World Trade Centre, destroying its twin towers. A third strikes the Pentagon. There is a death toll of nearly 3,000 people.

2002
01/01 The first coins and notes of the European single currency are introduced into circulation.

14/02 The UK’s foot-and-mouth crisis ends, after 11 months, at an estimated cost of £8 billion.

15/06 Near Earth Asteroid 2002 MN becomes the largest known rock to penetrate the moon’s orbit.

04/08 Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman are murdered by the caretaker of their local school, Ian Huntley.

2003
01/02 The Space Shuttle Columbia, launched just a week beforehand, disintegrates on re-entry to earth’s orbit killing all seven crewmembers.

01/05 George W Bush announces the end of major combat in Iraq standing in front of a banner that reads “Mission Accomplished”. This is later felt to have been rather premature.

24/10 Concorde takes its last commercial flight almost 30 years after first taking off.

22/11 Jonny Wilkinson’s drop kick in the dying seconds of the rugby World Cup final brings England victory over Australia.

2004
04/02 The social networking site Facebook is launched from the bedroom of Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard University student. It now boasts more than 300 million active members, and last month announced that it was “cashflow positive” for the first time.

26/12 A giant tsunami, one of the worst natural disasters on record, hits Southeast Asia, killing nearly 200,000 people with 40,000 still unaccounted for.

2005
12/02 YouTube is launched, allowing users to upload and share video content.

02/04 Pope John Paul II dies.

22/07 Police shoot dead Jean Charles de Menezes at a London Underground station.

27/11 A team of surgeons carry out the first human face transplant in France.

2006 12/07 Israeli troops invade Lebanon after Hezbollah launches rocket attacks on Israel and kills or kidnaps several soldiers. Hundreds of civilians die during the 34-day conflict.

09/10 North Korea’s announcement that it has tested its first nuclear weapon is met with worldwide condemnation.

2007
21/07 Harry Potter’s final outing in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (below right) becomes the fastest-selling book, with more than 11 million copies bought in the first 24 hours.

07/08 A group of Russian scientists navigate the sea floor under the North Pole for the first time and cause political panic when they place a Russian flag on the sea bed.

07/09 The US Government starts to nationalise financial giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, heralding the start of a worldwide economic crisis.

2008
02/01 The price of oil hits $100 a barrel for the first time.

02/02 The former model Carla Bruni marries Nicolas Sarkozy (right). It is the French president’s third marriage.

02/07 Colombian Security Servi ces rescue a French politician, Ingrid Betancourt, is rescued along with 14 other hostages from FARC rebels.

08/08 The Olympics begin in Beijing, China. The American swimmer Michael Phelps wins 8 gold medals setting a new world record; meanwhile the Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt shatters the 100m and 200m world records.

10/09 The Large Hadron Collider circulates its first proton beam, but soon grinds to a halt with teething problems.

04/11 Barack Obama is elected as the first black President of the United states of America under the slogan “Hope”.

18/11 Somali pirates capture the oil tanker Sirius Star, worth $100 million, after a string of similar attacks in the area.

2009
11/06 H1N1, or swine flu, is declared a global pandemic by the WHO.

25/06 Michael Jackson dies at home aged 50.

20/08 Presidential elections in Afghanistan are marred by violence and fraud. 02/10 A 4.4 million-year-old hominid skeleton is found in Ethiopia.

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