The inauguration ofBarack Obama as thepresident, occurred on January 20. The nation, still recovering from theGreat Recession, received various economic stimuli through theAmerican Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and similar legislation, which most notably gave Americanstax credits. Though the recession officially ended in June of this year, it did not come without this year's share of bankruptcies and dissolutions, most notablyCircuit City and theChicago Cubs.
The year also saw the roots of various movements which would come to define the next ten years, including theTea Party movement, and the beginning of thelegalization of same-sex marriage. TheDemocratic Party gained a filibuster-proof supermajority of seats within theSenate, enabling the passage of theAffordable Care Act the following year. The year's secondG20 summit was also held in the city ofPittsburgh. Culturally, the nation was wracked by thedeath of Michael Jackson, which triggered an immense response around the world and caused some websites to crash due to an overflow of traffic.
January 16: Electronics retailing companyCircuit City closed all of its U.S. stores in the wake of a bankruptcy issue, after nearly 60 years in business.January 20:Barack Obama becomes the 44th U.S. president.January 20:Joe Biden becomes the 47th U.S. vice president.
January – The worst month of the Great Recession sees nearly 800,000 jobs lost; the unemployment rate rises to 7.8%, the highest since June 1992.
January 16 –Circuit City, the number two electronics retailer in the U.S., announces the closing of all 567 of its U.S. stores and the termination of 34,000 jobs.[5]
January 22 – President Obama signs executive orders to close theGuantanamo Bay detention camp within one year and to prohibit torture in terrorism interrogations.[8]
February 5 – PoisonerStacey Castor, known as the Black Widow Killer, is convicted of the murder of her husband David and the attempted murder of her daughter Ashley. She is also suspected to have murdered her ex-husband Michael Wallace.[12]
February 10 – A privately owned U.S. satellite and a Russian military satellitecollide overSiberia, scatteringspace debris in orbits 300 to 800 miles (480 to 1,290 km) above Earth, potentially threatening satellites in nearby orbits.[13]
February 12
To honor the 200th anniversary of the birth of U.S. PresidentAbraham Lincoln, theU.S. Mint launches a series of pennies that commemorate four stages in Lincoln's life.[14]
TheOrbiting Carbon Observatory, a new $278 millionNASA satellite designed to precisely measure atmospheric carbon dioxide levels for global warming research, crashes near Antarctica just after launching.[21]
President Obamadelivers his first address to the111th Congress, defending financial bailouts as necessary to economic recovery, and vowing economic recovery, stricter regulation of financial institutions, and health care reform. He also warns that future bailouts may be necessary.[22]
February 25 –James Nicholson, the manager of an unregistered hedge fund, Westgate Capital Management, is arrested and charged in federal court with defrauding hundreds of investors in aPonzi type scheme.[23]
March 2 – Insurance giantAIG reports nearly $62 billion in losses during the fourth quarter of 2008, and the US government gives it $30 billion more in aid in a new bailout.[24]
President Obama overturns a Bush-era policy that limited federal funding forembryonic stem cell research, while promising that human cloning will be banned.[27]
March 10 –Geneva County shootings: Michael McLendon goes on a killing rampage inGeneva County, Alabama, in which he kills his mother and six other family members. He then kills three random civilians before committing suicide inside a factory where he used to work.[citation needed]
March 13 – A report by theFederal Reserve says that U.S. families lost a record 18% of their wealth in 2008.[28]
March 15 –AIG announces it will pay $450 million in bonuses to top executives despite its central role in the global financial meltdown and despite receiving a $173 billion government bailout. A massive public outcry follows, with Obama calling AIG greedy and reckless.[29]
The unemployment rate hits 9% for the first time since September 1983; it will not drop below 9% again until late 2011.
April 1 – Attorney GeneralEric Holder dismisses the case against former senatorTed Stevens, citing prosecutorial misconduct.
April 3
TheIowa Supreme Court unanimously agrees that denying same-sex couples the right to marry is unconstitutional. Iowa becomes the third state to allow same-sex marriage, and is the first state in theAmerican midwest to allow such unions.[34]
A mass shooting occurs in an immigration center inBinghamton, New York. GunmanJiverly Anteras Wong, a naturalized citizen from Vietnam, shoots and kills 13 people, and injures four others, before committing suicide.[citation needed]
April 4 – Officers Eric Kelly, Steven Mayhle and Paul Scullio are killed ina shootout by Richard Poplawski inPittsburgh. Poplawski is sentenced to death two years later.
April 18 –Roxana Saberi, anIranian-American journalist, is sentenced by an Iranian court to eight years in prison on charges she allegedly engaged inespionage.[36] She is released the following month, after an appeals court reduces and suspends her sentence.
April 24 – TheWorld Health Organization calls the reported cases ofswine flu in Mexico and the U.S. a "public health emergency of international concern".[37]
May 5 – InIllinois,Nicole Abusharif is convicted of the 2007 murder of her domestic partner Rebecca Klein, having suffocated her victim to death. She is later sentenced to serve 50 years imprisonment.[40]
Defense SecretaryRobert Gates removes the top US commander in Afghanistan, Gen.David McKiernan, replacing him with Lt. Gen.Stanley A. McChrystal. Gates states a new approach is needed in Afghanistan. McKiernan is the first general to be dismissed from a combat command sinceDouglas MacArthur during theKorean War.[42]
May 14 – Federal transportation officials reveal that low pay leading to sleep deprivation, and failure to pass flight certification tests were factors leading to the crash ofContinental Connection Flight 3407 near Buffalo that killed 50 people.[44]
May 19 – President Obama announces vehicle emissions and mileage requirements. Under the new federal rules, vehicles will use 30 percent less fuel and emit one third less carbon dioxide by 2016. The changes will add $1,300 to the cost of each new vehicle.[45]
May 21 – The Senate passes a bill to impose new regulations on the credit card industry, curbing some fees and interest hikes and requiring more transparent disclosure of account terms.[46]
June – The Great Recession officially ends, but job losses continue through December, though at a smaller magnitude; The unemployment rate hits 9.5% for the first time since August 1983.
June 1
American Muslim Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammadopens fire outside of a military recruiting office inLittle Rock, Arkansas, killing one soldier and injuring another.
Nebraska's statewidesmoking ban in restaurants, working places, and bars goes into effect.[47]
June 22 – ADC Metro Train collision claims the lives of nine people including the operator in the lead car of the moving train, and injures approximately 80.
June 25 – Thedeath of American entertainerMichael Jackson triggers an outpouring of worldwide grief. Online, reactions to the event cripple several major websites and services, (such as the crashing of Twitter) and the abundance of people accessing theweb addresses pushesinternet traffic to potentially unprecedented levels.[51]
July 3 – Alaska GovernorSarah Palin unexpectedly announces herresignation, effective July 26, 2009, citing the costs and distractions of battling frivolous ethics investigations launched against her,[52] and prompting several media outlets to speculate that she is preparing for apresidential run in 2012.
July 7
Apublic memorial service is held for musician Michael Jackson. It is called one of the most prominent funerals of all time, potentially reaching over 2.5 billion people worldwide.[53]
After an eight-month recount battle,Al Franken is sworn in as the junior senator ofMinnesota, giving Democrats a majority of sixty seats.[citation needed]
September 2: Protesters at a health care reform town hall meeting in West Hartford, ConnecticutSeptember 29: The tsunami from anearthquake is caught on film inPago Pago inAmerican Samoa.
September 2 – The Justice Department announces the largest health care fraud settlement in history, $2.3 billion, involvingPfizer.[59]
September 8 – President Obama gives a speech to students across America encouraging good study habits and stressing the importance of a good education. The speech had been highly criticized by some conservatives who said they feared the president would be indoctrinating schoolchildren with political propaganda.[60]
September 9 – President Obama addresses a joint session of Congress on the importance of healthcare reform. RepresentativeJoe Wilson shouts, "You lie!" as Obama saysillegal immigrants would not be covered under hishealthcare proposal. The heckling received widespread media attention for many days.[61]
September 12 – The first9/12 Project protest event is held inWashington, DC, with attendance being estimated from hundreds of thousands to as many as 2 million people.[62] Numerous othertea party protests occurred nationwide as well.[63]
September 23 – The comedy sitcom television seriesModern Family premieres onABC.
September 27 – Polish-French film directorRoman Polanski isarrested in Switzerland on a United States arrest warrant.[67]
September 28 –Viacom rebrandsNoggin asNick Jr., andThe N asTeenNick, using former Nickelodeon block names to rebrand those channels.[68] All four networks (including theNick@Nite block andNicktoons) are rebranded with a new universal logo, replacing the iconic "orange splat" logo that had been in use since 1984. In addition, BET J is quietly rebranded asCentric.[69]
The unemployment rate peaks at 10.0%, the highest since June 1983.
"Late Show" hostDavid Letterman announces on his television program that he has been the victim of anextortion attempt by someone threatening to reveal that he had sex with his female employees.[70]
October 15 – In theballoon boy hoax, parents claim their young child has been swept away in a large balloon resembling aspacecraft, triggering an extensive rescue effort by authorities. They later admit to the hoax and are fined and given short sentences in jail.[74]
October 24 – A female student at Richmond High School inRichmond, California isgang raped by a group of several young men. As many as 20 witnesses are believed to have been aware of the attack, but for more than two hours no one notified the police.[75]
October 31 –Seattle police officerTimothy Brenton is shot and killed in the city while sitting in his patrol car in a targeted attack against police officers. The murderer is identified as Christopher Monfort.[77]
November 1 – Small business lenderCIT Group files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (reorganization) which likely cancels its obligation to pay back theTroubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) loan of $2.3 billion that it previously received the U.S. government.[78]
November 13 – Having analyzed the data from theLCROSS lunar impact,NASA announces that it has found a "significant" quantity ofwater in theMoon'sCabeus crater.[84]
November 27 – GolferTiger Woods is involved in a car accident the day after Thanksgiving, triggering media coverage that the married father of two has had affairs with about one dozen women, and ultimately the loss of many of Woods' corporate sponsors.[85]
December 18 –Avatar, directed byJames Cameron, is released in theaters and later becomes the highest-grossing film of all time.[citation needed]
December 25
Videos surface of missingGIBowe Bergdahl being held by Taliban forces in Afghanistan since June. The videos are not considered proof he was still living because they appear to be several months old.[88]
^Bulwa, Demian; Charles Burress; Matthew B. Stannard; Matthai Kuruvila (January 8, 2009)."Protests over BART shooting turn violent". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived fromthe original on July 26, 2011. RetrievedJanuary 15, 2010.
^Achenbach, Joel; Juliet Eilperin (February 25, 2009)."Satellite Crashes After Its Launch".The Climate Agenda. Washington Post. RetrievedJanuary 15, 2010.
^Reddy, Sudeep (May 21, 2009)."Credit-Card Fees Curbed". Wall Street Journal.Archived from the original on January 24, 2010. RetrievedJanuary 16, 2010.
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