2000s

This article is about the decade starting at the beginning of 2000 and ending at the end of 2009. For the century or millennium starting in 2000 (or 2001 depending on the calendar system in use), see the links below.

Events and trends

Technology

• A huge jump in broadband internet usage, from 6% of U.S. internet users in June, 2000 to what one study predicts will be 62% by 2010.
• Boom in music downloading and MP3 audio data compression; rise of portable digital audio players, typified by Apple Computer's iPod
• Digital cameras become very popular due to rapid decreases in size and cost while photo resolution steadily increases.
• Google search engine increases trafficability of the internet and "to Google" becomes a verb.
• Due to an increase in ability to store data, USB flash drives begin to replace zip disks and 3.5-inch diskettes.
• Graphic cards become powerful enough to render nearly photo-realistic scenes in real time.
• Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003 become the ubiquitous industry standard in personal computer software. Open source and free software continues to be a notable but minority interest, with versions of GNU/Linux gaining in popularity, as well as the Mozilla Firefox web browser.
• Liquid crystal displays begin displacing cathode ray tubes.
• Major advances in Hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius, Escape, and the Honda Insight.
• Future energy development
• Blogs, portals, and wikis become common electronic dissemination methods for professional amateurs and businesses to conduct knowledge management
• Wikipedia began, and grew rapidly.
• DVDs replace VCR technology as the common standard at video stores.
• Wireless networks become commonplace in homes, education institutes and urban public spaces.
• LASIK eye surgery becomes popular as costs and potential risk decreases and results further improve.
• OLED (Organic light-emitting diode) technology revolutionizes display technology, making it possible to "print" screens on everyday objects.
• Home automation and home robotics become popular, mainly typified by Irobots' "Roomba".
• GPS (Global Positioning System) becomes very popular especially in the tracking of items or people, and the use in cars.
• RFID (Radio Frequency ID) becomes widely used in retail giants such as Wal-Mart, as a way to track items and automate stocking and keeping track of items.
• DVRs (Digital Video Recorders), typified by TiVo, allow consumers to modify content they watch on TV, and to record TV programs and watch them later, leading to problems as consumers can fast-forward through commercials, making them useless.
• Self-Serve Kiosks become very widely available, used for all kinds of shopping, airplane boarding passes, hotel check-ins, fast food, and car rental.
• Internet usage surpasses TV viewing in 2004.
• Emerging use of robotics in the medical field. Particularly in surgery.
• Large increase of computers and other technoloiges incorporated into vehicles such as Xenon HID headlights, GPS, DVD players, self-diagnosing systems, advanced pre-collision safety systems, memory systems for car settings, back-up sensors and cameras, in-car media systems, mp3 player compatibility, USB drive compatibility, keyless start and entry, satellite radio, voice-activation, cellphone connectivity, adaptive headlights, HUD (Heads-Up-Display), infared cameras, and Onstar (on GM models).
• Peer-to-peer technology use: internet telephony (Skype), file-sharing.

Science

• The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission successfully reached the surface of Mars, and sent detailed data and images of the landscape there back to Earth.
• The Human Genome Project was completed. (2000)
• SpaceshipOne made the first privately-funded human spaceflight. (June 21, 2004)
• Water vapor was discovered on a tiny moon of Saturn. (2005)

War, peace and politics

• Major controversy over U. S. presidential election (November 7-December 13, 2000)
• September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on New York's World Trade Center and Virginia's Pentagon killing almost 3000 people. A resultant change in stance towards international terrorism (See New Era and War on Terror) has ripple effects on the USA's foreign policy and military strategy.
• U.S. invasion of Afghanistan to depose the Taliban regime in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks (September 18, 2001 – July 18, 2003).
• The Convention on the Future of Europe proposing first European constitution (i.e., of the EU). The Constitution is rejected by French and Dutch electorate in 2005 leading to political crisis in EU.
• East Timor gains official independence from Indonesia. (May 20, 2002)
• International Criminal Court established, used for judging war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide (July 1, 2002)
• American 2003 invasion of Iraq
• Darfur conflict in Sudan
• "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine leads to election of Viktor Yushchenko as President after initial election victory of incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych is annulled due to vote-rigging
• Revolution in Kyrgyzstan overthrows government of President Askar Akayev
• Beslan school hostage crisis, in which multinational terrorists take a school in Beslan, Russia hostage and subsequently kill 344 people including children (September 1, 2004)
• United States expands international influence, in particular in the Middle East The US also hold a number of war games pertaining to the Strait of Taiwan in preparation for a possible war with the People's Republic of China over a Taiwanese secession. China and Russia display a strategic relationships during a simulated "humanitarian" crisis in the same region during Peace Mission 2005.

Economics

• Globalization: Transnational companies become more pervasive, and anti-globalization protests occur frequently during meetings of IMF and WTO, especially in the early 2000s.
• The NASDAQ, the American Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange closed for six days after the September 11th, 2001 attacks the longest close since the Great Depression in 1929.
• Major downturn in the value of dot-com shares, with occasional exceptions (Google's IPO on August 13, 2004)
• The US dominance over the world economy continues. Economically rising nations like China, show signs of becoming contending world powers.
• China continues to grow rapidly, driving up commodity prices worldwide
• Significant oil price rises. Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline opens on 25 May 2005, potentially removing the dependence of the United States and other Western nations on Middle Eastern oil.
• Enron and other major accounting and corporate governance scandals prompt reviews of corporate government legislation worldwide (eg Sarbanes-Oxley Act)

Culture and religion

• The vast proliferation of information technology and digital media leads to many cultural paradigm shifts as people grapple with information overload. Generation Y (Millennials) are said to be adept at these technological developments.
• Reality television becomes a well-established sector of the television programming industry. Nightly news broadcasts continue to lose viewership to 24-hour internet news coverage. Changing television habits that involve increased use of the internet and the preponderance of TiVo make marketers rethink the paradigm of the 30-second TV ad. Viral marketing, and product placement within reality television shows and movies are some increasingly used alternatives. Spam is used as an alternative, making people irritated.
• European society continues to become more secular; in contrast, religious groups increase their political influence in the United States and the Middle East.
• The divisive US presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 leads to commentators describing the country as split between Red States and Blue States.
• April 2, 2005: Pope John Paul II dies at age 84; succeeded by Pope Benedict XVI on April 24.
• Same-sex marriage becomes a major cultural issue in developed countries. In 2001, the Netherlands becomes the first country to allow gay couples to wed. This is followed by Belgium in 2003, and by Canada and Spain in 2005. In 2004, Massachusetts becomes the first U.S. state to permit same-sex marriage.

Other

• 2002~2003: SARS virus outbreak, most notably in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore and Toronto.
• February 1, 2003: The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates over Texas upon reentry, killing all seven astronauts onboard.
• Major earthquake rocks the ancient city of Bam, in Iran. Cost over 50,000 lives.
• December 26, 2004, a major earthquake and ensuing tsunami causes devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, The Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean. As of January 2005 the death toll is estimated to be nearly 290,000, prompting the largest humanitarian response for a natural disaster in history.
• Methamphetamine use sky rockets.
• Bird flu spreads through South East Asia
• Criticism of Vladimir Putin's governmental policies and reforms mount and a backlash of Soviet-nostalgia occurs in Russia.
• On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina, a major hurricane (category 4/5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale) with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph, makes landfall on the gulf coast of the United States with sustained winds of 140 mph. The states of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama all sustain severe damage from the storm. The city of New Orleans, Louisiana sustains catastrophic damage with 80% of the city underwater as a result of breaches in the levee system. Most citizens of the city are forced to evacuate; significant delays in the arrival of aid to the city result in numerous deaths and breakdown of civil order in among those remaining in the city. On the gulf coast of Mississippi, the towns of Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, and Biloxi all sustain catastrophic damage from a 20-30 foot storm surge; over 300 people are killed.