1) In the late 1990s, the world feared technological catastrophe on January 1, 2000 due to the Y2K bug, but the bug caused no issues and the new millennium was celebrated globally. 2) The 2000 US presidential election between Al Gore and George W. Bush was one of the closest in history and mired in controversy over ballot irregularities in Florida. 3) The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 devastated the United States and sparked major military operations abroad in Afghanistan and Iraq.

1. Y2K Celebration In the waning days of the end of the millennium, the world was wracked with fear of a global technological meltdown due to the Y2K bug. People went to extremes—stockpiling nonperishable goods, buying out every generator in the hardware store and building arsenals for the supposed “day of judgment.” The Y2K bug was supposedly harmful due to the fact that all computer systems only use a 2 digit number to keep the internal date. Experts were afraid the turning over from 99 to 00 would revert all information and basically erase it. The world would be crippled---Utilities, police response systems, and other important means to our survival would be turned off permanently. Fortunately, the bug did none of these things. This allowed the world to throw a party the likes of which has never been seen. This celebration will be etched into history forever.

2. 2000 Election The 2000 election will be studied by American history classes as long as they still exist. This historic election took place between Vice Presidential hopeful Al Gore and the Governor of Texas, George W. Bush. This election marked the melding of old and new technologies—the traditional paper ballots and new computerized voting machines. Unfortunately, in many cases neither seemed to function correctly. Despite winning the popular vote, demanding several recounts in Florida and even being declared the victor by many news stations, Al Gore was defeated by the narrowest of margins, only 5 electoral votes .

3. September 11, 2001 There comes a time every so often where everyone living in America will always remember where they were when they heard a piece of news. The bombing of Pearl Harbor, assassination of JFK, man walking on the moon are just a few examples. No one will ever forget what happened that September morning in 2001. Watching the towers fall was one of the most harrowing events of my lifetime. This event sparked a firestorm. Two wars were eventually accredited to this, along with the largest manhunt the world has ever seen. The US economy plummeted. This was the defining moment in the Bush presidency. This was a time when a nation wept, then came together and united; the US remembered what it meant to be American.

4. . Shortly after the attacks of 9/11 President Bush declared a war on terror. An invasion of Afghanistan shortly followed. The United States entered Afghan territory with one overlying goal: catch Osama Bin Laden. They set out to kill the mastermind of these attacks and to dismantle the radical Islamic group Al Qaeda. Unfortunately, Bin Laden eluded US forces and his whereabouts are unknown to this day. In 2003 the US commenced with Operation Iraqi Freedom, with a goal to oust tyrannical dictator Saddam Hussein due to his lack of cooperation in dealings with UN arms inspectors. The US invaded on a pretense that Iraq was creating weapons of mass destruction and were harboring terrorists involved in the 9/11 attack. No trace of weapons were officially found and the ties to Al Qaeda were later discovered to be greatly exaggerated. The war rages on to this day. The War On Terror

5. . Economic Breakdown This year has marked a sharp decline in America’s economy. The economy had taken a downturn in recent years, leading many experts to believe we are in a recession. But none of this compares with the stock market disasters of the last few months. Two major issues lie at the heart of this, the housing market and price of crude oil. The housing market got into serious trouble when many lending institutions took to buying out subprime mortgages like hot cakes. Unfortunately, the market took a sharp decline and the realization quickly became that these mortgage buyouts were disastrous. The congress passed the most expensive bailout proposal ever—850 billion. Whether or not it will have the desired effect will be seen in upcoming months.

6. . 2008 Election The 2008 election market a landmark in American politics. The first African American president in our history was elected. The primaries were also the likes of which no one had ever seen. President Elect Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton duked it out on one of the longest campaign trails ever. When all said and done the campaign took over two years. After the brutal primaries the two tickets emerged: Obama and Senator Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination and Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin running for the Republicans. The campaign turned very nasty, with the GOP going very negative in some instances using plays right out of the Karl Rove playbook. The Obama campaign wasn’t saintly either, however. In the end Obama won in a near landslide Obama winning with 365 electoral votes and McCain with 173.