The2000s (pronounced "two-thousands"; shortened to "the '00s" and also known as "the aughts" or "the noughties") was thedecade that began on January 1, 2000, and ended on December 31, 2009.
The early part of the decade saw the long-predicted breakthrough of economic giants in Asia, likeIndia andChina, which had double-digit growth during nearly the whole decade. It is also benefited from an economic boom, which saw the two most populous countries becoming an increasingly dominant economic force. The rapid catching-up of emerging economies with developed countries sparked someprotectionist tensions during the period and was partly responsible for an increase in energy andfood prices at the end of the decade. The economic developments in the latter third of the decade were dominated by a worldwide economic downturn, which started with thecrisis in housing and credit in the United States in late 2007 and led to the bankruptcy of major banks and other financial institutions. The outbreak of thisglobal financial crisis sparked aglobal recession, beginning in the United States and affecting most of the industrialized world.
The decade saw the rise of theInternet, which grew from covering 6.7% to 25.7% of the world population. This contributed toglobalization during the decade, which allowed faster communication among people around the world;[1][2][3][4][5]social networking sites arose as a new way for people to stay in touch from distant locations, as long as they hadinternet access.Myspace was the most popular social networking website until June 2009, when Facebook overtook it in number of American users.Email continued to be popular throughout the decade and began to replace "snail mail" as the primary way of sending letters and other messages to people in distant locations.Google,YouTube,Ask.com andWikipedia emerged to become among the top 10 most popular websites.Amazon overtookeBay as the most-visited e-commerce site in 2008.AOL significantly declined in popularity throughout the decade, falling from being the most popular website to no longer being within the top 10.Excite andLycos fell outside the top 10, andMSN fell from the second to sixth most popular site, though it quadrupled its monthly visits.Yahoo! maintained relatively stable popularity, remaining the most popular website for most of the decade.
Climate change andglobal warming became common concerns in the 2000s. Prediction tools made significant progress during the decade,UN-sponsored organizations such as theIPCC gained influence, and studies such as theStern Review influenced public support for paying the political and economic costs of countering climate change. The global temperature kept climbing during the decade. In December 2009, theWorld Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that the 2000s may have been the warmest decade since records began in 1850, with four of the five warmest years since 1850 having occurred in this decade. The WMO's findings were later echoed by theNASA and theNOAA. Major natural disasters includedCyclone Nargis in 2008 and earthquakes inPakistan andChina in 2005 and 2008, respectively. The deadliest natural disaster[a] and most powerful earthquake of the 21st century occurred in 2004 when a 9.1–9.3Mwearthquake and its subsequent tsunami struck multiple nations in the Indian Ocean, killing 230,000 people.[6]
During this decade, the world population grew from 6.1 to 6.9 billion people. Approximately 1.35 billion people were born, and 550 million people died.[8]
Orthographically, the decade can be written as the "2000s" or the"'00s". In the English-speaking world, a name for the decade wasn't immediately accepted as it had been for other decades such as the1980s and1990s ('80s, '90s).[9][10][11][12][13]
Although use of the wordaught to refer to zero is not widespread in the United States, the use ofaughts to identify the decade became common there.[26][27][28]
Other spoken-word possibilities included "two-thousands", "twenty hundreds", "ohs", "oh ohs", "double ohs", "zeros", and "double zeros".[29][30][31] The years of the decade can be referred to as '01, '02, '03, etc., pronounced oh-one, oh-two, oh-three, etc.[citation needed]
The war on terror generatedextreme controversy around the world, with questions regarding the justification for certain U.S. actions leading to a loss of support for the American government, both in and outside the United States.[39] The additional armed conflict occurred in theMiddle East, including betweenIsrael andHezbollah, then with Israel andHamas. The most significant loss of life due tonatural disasters came from the2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, which caused atsunami that killed around one quarter-million people and displaced well over a million others.
War on terror (2001–present) – refers to severalideological, military, and diplomatic campaigns aimed at putting an end tointernational terrorism by preventing groups defined by the U.S. and its allies asterrorist (mostlyIslamist groups such asal-Qaeda,Hezbollah, andHamas) from posing a threat to the U.S. and its allies, and by putting an end tostate sponsorship of terrorism. The campaigns were launched by the United States, with support fromNATO and other allies, following theSeptember 11 attacks that were carried out by al-Qaeda. Today the term has become mostly associated with Bush administration-led wars inAfghanistan andIraq.
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) – In 2001, the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Canada, and AustraliainvadedAfghanistan seeking to oust theTaliban and find al-Qaeda mastermindOsama bin Laden. In 2011, the US government claimedNavy Seals had killed Bin Laden and buried his body at sea. Fatalities of coalition troops: 1,553 (2001 to 2009).[40]
Iraq War (2003–2011) – In 2003, the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Australia, and Polandinvaded and occupied Iraq. Claims that Iraq hadweapons of mass destruction at its disposal were later found to be unproven.[41] The war, which ended the rule ofSaddam Hussein'sBa'ath Party, also led to violence against the coalition forces and between manySunni andShia Iraqi groups and al-Qaedaoperations in Iraq.Casualties of the Iraq War: Approximately 110,600 between March 2003 to April 2009. Hussein was eventually sentenced to death and hanged on December 30, 2006.
2006 Lebanon War (summer 2006) – took place in southernLebanon and northernIsrael. The principal parties wereHezbollah paramilitary forces and theIsraeli military. The war that began as a military operation in response to the abduction of two Israeli reserve soldiers by the Hezbollah gradually strengthened and became a wider confrontation.
Second Intifada (2000–2005) – After the signing of theOslo Accords failed to bring about aPalestinian state, in September 2000, theSecond Intifada (uprising) broke out, a period of intensified Palestinian-Israeli violence, which has been taking place until the present day. As a result of the significant increase of suicide bombing attacks within Israeli population centers during the first years of theAl-Aqsa Intifada,[42] in June 2002 Israel began the construction of theWest Bank Fence along theGreen Line border arguing that the barrier is necessary to protect Israeli civilians fromPalestinian terrorism. The significantly reduced number of incidents of suicide bombings from 2002 to 2005 has been partly attributed to the barrier.[43] The barrier's construction, which has been highly controversial, became a significant issue of contention between the two sides. The Second Intifada has caused thousands of victims on both sides, both among combatants and among civilians – The death toll, including both military and civilian, is estimated to be 5,500 Palestinians and over 1,000 Israelis, as well as 64 foreign citizens.[44] Many Palestinians consider the Second Intifada to be a legitimate war of national liberation against foreign occupation, whereas many Israelis consider it to be a terrorist campaign.[45]
Gaza War (2008–2009) – the frequentHamasQassam rocket andmortar fire launched from within civilian population centers inGaza towards the Israeli southern civilian communities led to an Israelimilitary operation in Gaza, which had the stated aim of reducing the Hamas rocket attacks and stopping the arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip. Throughout the conflict, Hamas further intensified its rocket and mortar attacks against Israel, hitting civilian targets and reaching major Israeli citiesBeersheba andAshdod, for the first time. The intenseurban warfare in densely populatedGaza combined with the use of massive firepower by the Israeli side[46] and the intensified Hamas rocket attacks towards populated Israeli civilian targets led to a high toll on the Palestinian side and among civilians.[47]
TheSecond Congo War (1998–2003) – took place mainly in theDemocratic Republic of the Congo. The widest interstate war inmodern African history[broken anchor], it directly involved nine African nations, as well as about twenty armed groups. It earned theepithet of "Africa's World War" and the "Great War of Africa." An estimated 3.8 million people died, mostly from starvation and disease brought about by the deadliest conflict since World War II. Millions more weredisplaced from their homes or soughtasylum in neighboring countries.
Russo-Georgian War (2008) – Russia invadedGeorgia in response to Georgian aggression towards civilians and attack on South Ossetia. Both Russia and Georgia were condemned internationally for their actions.
Mexican drug war (2006–present) – an armed conflict fought between rivaldrug cartels and theMexican Armed Forces. Although Mexican drug cartels, or drug trafficking organizations, have existed for quite some time, they have become more powerful since the demise of Colombia'sCali andMedellín cartels in the 1990s. Mexican drug cartels now dominate the wholesaleillicit drug market in the United States.[60] Arrests of key cartel leaders, particularly in the Tijuana and Gulf cartels, have led to increasing drug violence as cartels fight for control of the trafficking routes into the United States.[61][62][63] Roughly more than 16,851 people in total were killed between December 2006 until November 2009.[64]
Map showing the districts where theNaxalite movement is active (2007) In India,Naxalite–Maoist insurgency (1967–present) has grown alarmingly with attacks such asApril 2010 Maoist attack in Dantewada,Jnaneswari Express train derailment, andRafiganj train disaster. Naxalites are a group of far-left radical communists, supportive of Maoist political sentiment and ideology. It is presently thelongest continuously active conflict worldwide. In 2006 Prime MinisterManmohan Singh called the Naxalites "The single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country."[65] In 2009, he said the country was "losing the battle against Maoist rebels".[66] According to standard definitions theNaxalite–Maoist insurgency is an ongoing conflict[67] between Maoist groups, known as Naxalites or Naxals, and the Indian government.[65] On April 6, 2010, Maoist rebels killed 75 security forcesin a jungle ambush in central India in the worst-ever massacre of security forces by the insurgents. On the same day, Gopal, a top Maoist leader, said the attack was a "direct consequence" of the government'sOperation Green Hunt offensive. This raised some voices of use of Indian Air Force against Naxalites, which were, however, declined, citing "We can't use oppressive force against our own people".[68]
TheColombian conflict continues causing deaths and terror inColombia. Beginning in 1964, theFARC andELN narcoterrorist groups were taking control of rural areas of the country by the beginning of the decade, while terrorist paramilitaries grew in other places as businesspeople and politicians thought the State would lose the war against guerrillas. However, after the failure of the peace process and the activation ofPlan Colombia,Álvaro Uribe was elected president in 2002, starting a massive attack on terrorist groups, with cooperation from civil population, foreign aid and legal armed forces. TheAUC paramilitary organization disbanded in 2006, while ELN guerrillas have been weakened. ThePopular Liberation Army demobilized while the country's biggest terrorist group,FARC has been weakened and most of their top commanders have been killed or died during the decade. During the second half of the decade, a new criminal band has been formed by former members of AUC who did not demobilize, calling themselves "Aguilas Negras". Although the Colombian State has taken back control over most of the country, narcoterrorism still causes pain in the country. Since 2008, the Internet has become a new field of battle. Facebook has gained nationwide popularity and has become the birthplace of many civil movements against narcoterrorism such as "Colombia Soy Yo" (I am Colombia) or "Fundación Un Millón de Voces" (One Million Voices Foundation), responsible for the international protests against illegal groups during the last years.
TheSierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002) came to an end when theRevolutionary United Front (RUF) finally laid down their arms. More than two million people were displaced from their homes because of the conflict (well over one-third of the population) many of whom became refugees in neighboring countries. Tens of thousands were killed during the conflict.[69]
TheAngolan Civil War (1975–2002), once a major proxy conflict of theCold War, the conflict ended after the anti-Communist organizationUNITA disbanded to become a political party. By the time the 27-year conflict was formally brought to an end, an estimated 500,000 people had been killed.[73]
Shia insurgency in Yemen (2004–present) – a civil war in the Sada'a Governorate ofYemen. It began after theShiaZaidiyyah sect launched an uprising against the Yemeni government. The Yemeni government has accusedIran of directing and financing the insurgency.[74] Thousands of rebels and civilians have been killed during the conflict.[75][76]
War in Somalia (2006–2009) – involved largelyEthiopian andSomaliTransitional Federal Government (TFG) forces who fought against the SomaliIslamistumbrella group, theIslamic Court Union (ICU), and other affiliated militias for control of the country. The war spawned pirates who hijacked hundreds of ships off the coast of Somalia, holding ships and crew for ransom often for months (see alsoPiracy in Somalia). 1.9 million people were displaced from their homes during the conflict[77] and the number of civilian casualties during the conflict is estimated at 16,724.[78]
Somali civil war (2009–present) – involved largely the forces of the SomaliSomaliTransitional Federal Government (TFG) assisted byAfrican Union peacekeeping troops, whom fought against various militant Islamist factions for control of the country. The violence has displaced thousands of people residing inMogadishu, the nation's capital. 1,739 people in total were killed between January 1, 2009, and January 1, 2010.[79]
Conflict in the Niger Delta (2004–present) – an ongoing conflict in theNiger Delta region ofNigeria. The conflict was caused due to the tensions between theforeignoil corporations and a number of theNiger Delta's minority ethnic groups who felt they were being exploited, particularly theOgoni and theIjaw. The competition for oil wealth has led to an endless violence cycle between innumerableethnic groups, causing themilitarization of nearly the entire region that was occupied by militia groups as well asNigerian military and the forces of the Nigerian Police.
Algerian Civil War (1991–2002) – the conflict effectively ended with a government victory, following the surrender of theIslamic Salvation Army and the 2002 defeat of theArmed Islamic Group. It is estimated that more than 100,000 people were killed during the course of the conflict.
Chadian Civil War (2005–2010) – involvedChadian government forces and several Chadian rebel groups. The Government of Chad estimated in January 2006 that 614 Chadian citizens had been killed in cross-border raids.[80] The fighting still continues despite several attempts to reach agreements.
Nepalese Civil War (1996–2006) – the conflict ended with apeace agreement was reached between the government and the Maoist party in which it was set that the Maoists would take part in the new government in return for surrendering their weapons to the UN. It is estimated that more than 12,700 people were killed during the course of the conflict.[81]
Ituri conflict (1999–2007) – a conflict fought between theLendu andHema ethnic groups in theIturi region of northeasternDemocratic Republic of Congo (DRC). While there have been many phases to the conflict, the most recent armed clashes ran from 1999 to 2003, with a low-level conflict continuing until 2007. More than 50,000 people have been killed in the conflict and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes.[82]
Afghan Civil War (1996–2001) – an armed conflict that continued after the capture ofKabul by theTaliban, in which the formation of theAfghan Northern Alliance attempted to oust the Taliban. It proved largely unsuccessful, as the Taliban continued to make gains and eliminated much of the Alliance's leadership.
2002 Venezuelan coup attempt – a failed military coup d'état on April 11, 2002, which aimed to overthrow the president of VenezuelaHugo Chávez. During the coup Hugo Chávez was arrested andPedro Carmona became the interim President for 47 hours. The coup led to a pro-Chávez uprising that the Metropolitan Police attempted to suppress. The pro-Chávez Presidential Guard eventually retook theMiraflores presidential palace without firing a shot, leading to the collapse of the Carmona government.
Fatah–Hamas conflict (2006–present) – an armed conflict fought between the two main Palestinian factions,Fatah andHamas with each vying to assume political control of thePalestinian territories. In June 2007,Hamas took control of the entire Gaza Strip, and established a separate government while Fatah remained in control of the West Bank. This in practice divided thePalestinian Authority into two. Various forces affiliated with Fatah engaged in combat with Hamas, in numerous gun battles. Most Fatah leaders eventually escaped to Egypt and the West Bank, while some were captured and killed.
Since 2005,Iran's nuclear program has become the subject of contention with the Western world due to suspicions that Iran could divert the civilian nuclear technology to a weapons program. This has led theUN Security Council to imposesanctions against Iran on select companies linked to this program, thus furthering its economic isolation on the international scene. TheU.S. Director of National Intelligence said in February 2009 that Iran would not realistically be able to a get a nuclear weapon until 2013, if it chose to develop one.[83]
In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq over allegations that its leaderSaddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction including chemical and biological weapons or was in the process of creating them. None were found,spawning multiple theories.
Operation Orchard – during the operation, Israel bombed what was believed to be a Syrian nuclear reactor on September 6, 2007, which was thought to be built with the aid ofNorth Korea.[84] TheWhite House andCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) later declared that American intelligence indicated the site was a nuclear facility with a military purpose, though Syria denies this.[85]
TheDoomsday Clock, the symbolic representation of the threat of nuclear annihilation, moved four minutes closer to midnight: two minutes in 2002 and two minutes in 2007 to 5 minutes to midnight.
East Timor regains independence fromIndonesia in 2002. Portugal granted independence to East Timor in 1975, but it was soon after invaded by Indonesia, which only recognized East Timorese independence in 2002.
During the 2000s, the expectations and unspoken rules for acceptable conduct among American politicians affiliated with theRepublican orDemocratic Parties changed due to the decline ofpolitical bosses in the previous 4 decades and the momentous events in America that happened during the decade.[87]
Generally, American presidential candidates abided by and respected the established procedures of both major parties'presidential nomination process.[87]
During this decade, thepeaceful transfer of power through elections first occurred in Mexico, Indonesia,Taiwan, Colombia, and several other countries. (See below.)
George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States, 2001–2009Barack Obama, the first African American president of the United States, wasinaugurated in 2009
The prominent political events of the decade include:
On October 26, 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush signed theUSA PATRIOT Act into law.
On February 15, 2003, anti-war protests broke out around the world in opposition to the U.S. Invasion of Iraq, in what theGuinness Book of World Records called the largest anti-war rally in human history.[90] In reaction,The New York Times writer Patrick Tyler wrote in a February 17 article that:...the huge anti-war demonstrations around the world this weekend are reminders that there may still be two superpowers on the planet: the United States and world public opinion.[91]
On June 5, 2004,Ronald Reagan, the 40thPresident of the United States, died after having suffered fromAlzheimer's disease for nearly a decade. His seven-day state funeral followed, spanning June 5–11. The general public stood in long lines waiting for a turn to view the casket. People passed by the casket at a rate of about 5,000 per hour (83.3 per minute, or 1.4 per second) and the wait time was about three hours. In all, 104,684 passed through when Reagan lay in state.[92][93]
Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States in 2009, becoming the nation's first African American president.
Álvaro Uribe is elected President of Colombia in 2002, the first political independent to do so in more than a century and a half, creating the right-wing political movement known asuribism. Uribe was re-elected in 2006.
Pink tide: Left-wing governments emerge in South American countries. These governments include those ofHugo Chávez in Venezuela since 1999,Fernando Lugo in Paraguay,Rafael Correa in Ecuador, andEvo Morales in Bolivia. With the creation of theALBA, Fidel Castro—leader ofCuba between 1959 and 2008—and Hugo Chávez reaffirmed their opposition to the aggressive militarism andimperialism of the United States.
On May 18, 2000,Chen Shui-bian waselected as the president ofTaiwan, ending the half-century rule of theKMT on the island, and became the first president of theDPP.
In July 2000 theCamp David 2000 Summit was held which was aimed at reaching a "final status" agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis. The summit collapsed after Yasser Arafat would not accept a proposal drafted by American and Israeli negotiators. Barak was prepared to offer the entire Gaza Strip, a Palestinian capital in a part of East Jerusalem, 73% of the West Bank (excluding eastern Jerusalem) raising to 90–94% after 10–25 years, and financial reparations for Palestinian refugees for peace. Arafat turned down the offer without making a counter-offer.[96]
March 15–16, 2003 – CPC General Secretary, PresidentHu Jintao and PremierWen Jiabao, replaced former People's Republic of China leadersJiang Zemin andZhu Rongji.
2003 – the 12-year self-government inIraqiKurdistan ends, developed under the protection of the UN "No-fly zone" during the now-oustedSaddam Hussein regime.
August 1, 2005 –Fahd, the King of Saudi Arabia from 1982 to 2005, died and is replaced by KingAbdullah.
January 4, 2006 – Powers are transferred from Israeli Prime MinisterAriel Sharon to his deputy, Vice Prime MinisterEhud Olmert, after Sharon suffers a massivehemorrhagic stroke.
2009 Iranian election protests – The2009 Iranian presidential election sparked massive protests in Iran and around the world against alleged electoral fraud and in support of defeated candidateMir-Hossein Mousavi. During the protests the Iranian authorities closed universities in Tehran, blocked web sites, blocked cell phone transmissions and text messaging,[99] and banned rallies.[100] Several demonstrators in Iran were killed or imprisoned during the protests. Dozens of human casualties were reported or confirmed.[101][102][103]
The Netherlands becomes the first country in the world to fully legalizesame-sex marriage on April 1, 2001.
Silvio Berlusconi becomesPrime Minister of Italy in 2001 and again in 2008, after two years of a government held byRomano Prodi, dominating the political scene for more than a decade and becoming the longest-serving post-war Prime Minister.
European integration makes progress with the definitive circulation of the euro in twelve countries in 2002 and the widening ofEuropean Union to 27 countries in 2007. AEuropean Constitution bill is rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005, but a similar text, theTreaty of Lisbon, is drafted in 2007 andfinally adopted by the 27 members countries.
June 1–4, 2002 – TheGolden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II was the international celebration marking the 50th anniversary of the accession of Elizabeth II to the thrones of seven countries.[104][105]
Parties broadly characterised by political scientists as beingright-wing populist soar throughout the 2000s, in the wake of increasing anti-Islam and anti-immigration sentiment in most Western European countries.[106] By 2010, such parties (albeit often significant differences between them) were present in the national parliaments of Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Greece.[106] In Austria, Italy and Switzerland, theFreedom Party of Austria,Lega Nord andSwiss People's Party, respectively, were at times also part of the national governments, and in Denmark, theDanish People's Party tolerated a right-liberal minority government from 2001 throughout the decade.[106] While not being present in the national parliaments of France and the United Kingdom,Jean-Marie Le Pen of theNational Front came second in the first round of the2002 French presidential elections, and in the2009 European Parliament election, theUK Independence Party came second, beating even the Labour Party, while theBritish National Party managed to win two seats for the first time.
KingBirendra ofNepal, along with eight other royals, arekilled by Nepal's crown princeDiprendra who then shoots himself. Nepal's laws regarding succession allows the comatose Dipendra to rule for three days before he succumbs to his injuries.[108]
Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani prime minister, wasassassinated at an election rally inRawalpindi by a bomb blast. The assassination attempt also killed at least 80 other people.[116]
On January 13, 2001, a7.6-magnitude earthquake strikes El Salvador, killing 944 people and injuring 5,565 people.
On January 26, 2001, anearthquake hitsGujarat, India, killing more than 12,000.
On February 28, 2001, theNisqually earthquake hits the Seattle metro area. It caused major damage to theold highway standing in the urban center of Seattle.
On May 21, 2003, an earthquake in theBoumerdès region of northernAlgeria kills 2,200.
On December 26, 2003, the massive2003 Bam earthquake devastates southeasternIran; over 40,000 people are reported killed in the city ofBam.
On December 26, 2004, one of the worstnatural disasters in recorded history hits southeast Asia, whenthe largest earthquake in 40 years hits the entire Indian Ocean region. The massive 9.3 magnitude earthquake, epicentered just off the west coast of theIndonesian island ofSumatra, generates enormoustsunami waves that crash into the coastal areas of a number of nations includingThailand, India,Sri Lanka, theMaldives, Malaysia,Myanmar, Bangladesh, andIndonesia. The official death toll from theBoxing Day tsunami in the affected countries with over 230,000 people dead.
On May 12, 2008, over 69,000 are killed in central south-west China by theWenchuan quake, an earthquake measuring 7.9 on themoment magnitude scale. The epicenter was 90 kilometers (56 mi) west-northwest of the provincial capitalChengdu, Sichuan province.
July 7–11, 2005 –Hurricane Dennis caused damage in the Caribbean and southeastern United States. Dennis killed a total of 88 people and caused $3.71 billion in damages.
August 28–29, 2005 –Hurricane Katrina made landfall inLouisiana andMississippi, devastating the city ofNew Orleans and nearby coastal areas. Katrina was recognized as the costliest natural disaster in the United States at the time, after causing a record $108 billion in damages (a record later surpassed byHurricane Harvey in2017). Katrina caused over 1,200 deaths.
September 25, 2006 –Typhoon Xangsane (known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Milenyo) struck the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand, killing over 300 and caused $747 million in damage.
November 30, 2006 –Typhoon Durian (known in the Philippines as Typhoon Reming) affected the Philippines'Bicol Region, and together with a concurrent eruption ofMayon Volcano, caused mudflows and killed more than 1,200 people.
August 30, 2007 – Group ofCroatian firefighters who were flown in on the islandKornat as part of the2007 coast fires firefighting efforts perished. Twelve out of thirteen men who found themselves surrounded by fire were killed in the event which was the biggest loss of lives in the history of Croatian firefighting.[citation needed]
May 3, 2008 –Cyclone Nargis had an extreme impact inMyanmar, causing nearly 140,000 deaths and $10 billion in damages.
June 21, 2008 –Typhoon Fengshen (called Typhoon Frank in the Philippines) struck the centralPhilippines, causing over 1,400 deaths and $480 million in damage. The cyclone also caused the sinking of the ferryMV Princess of the Stars, killing more than 800 on Board.
February 7 – March 14, 2009 – TheBlack Saturday bushfires, the deadliestbushfires in Australian history, took place across the Australian state ofVictoria during extreme bushfire-weather conditions, killing 173 people, injuring more than 500, and leaving around 7,500 homeless. The fires came afterMelbourne recorded thehighest-ever temperature (46.4 °C or 115.5 °F) of any capital city in Australia. The majority of the fires were caused by either fallen or clashing power lines, orarson.
September-October 2009 –Typhoon Ketsana (known in the Philippines as Tropical Storm Ondoy) caused flooding inLuzon,Philippines, mostly inMetro Manila, killing nearly 700 people in total. Flood levels reached a record of 20 ft (6.1 m) in rural areas. Days after Ketsana left the Philippines,Typhoon Parma (known as Typhoon Pepeng in the Philippines) made landfall three times, causing widespread flooding in northern Luzon; 500 were killed and damage totaled $560 million.
Winter of 2009–2010 – The winter of 2009–2010 saw abnormally cold temperatures inEurope, Asia, andAmerica. A total of 21 people were reported to have died as a result of the cold in theBritish Isles. On December 26, 2009,Saint Petersburg, Russia, was covered by 35 cm of snow, the largest December snowfall recorded in the city since 1881.
Antibiotic resistance is a serious and growing phenomenon in contemporary medicine and has emerged as one of the eminent public health concerns of the 21st century, particularly as it pertains to pathogenic organisms (the term is not especially relevant to organisms which don't cause disease in humans).
The outbreak offoot-and-mouth disease in theUnited Kingdom in 2001 caused a crisis in British agriculture and tourism. Thisepizootic saw 2,000 cases of the disease in farms across most of the British countryside. Over 6 million sheep and cattle were killed.[119]
Between November 2002 and July 2003, anoutbreak ofsevere acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) occurred in Hong Kong, with 8,273 cases and 775 deaths worldwide (9.6% fatality) according to theWorld Health Organization (WHO). Within weeks, SARS spread from Hong Kong to infect individuals in 37 countries in early 2003.
Methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus: theOffice for National Statistics reported 1,629MRSA-related deaths inEngland and Wales during 2005, indicating a MRSA-related mortality rate half the rate of that in the United States for 2005, even though the figures from the British source were explained to be high because of "improved levels of reporting, possibly brought about by the continued high public profile of the disease" during the time of the2005 United Kingdom General Election. MRSA is thought to have caused 1,652 deaths in 2006 in UK up from 51 in 1993.
People in Mexico City wear masks on a train due to theswine flu outbreak, April 2009
The 2009H1N1 (swine flu)flu pandemic was also considered a natural disaster. On October 25, 2009, U.S. PresidentBarack Obama officially declared H1N1 anational emergency.[120] Despite President Obama's concern, aFairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll found in October 2009 that an overwhelming majority of New Jerseyans (74%) were not very worried or not at all worried about contracting the H1N1 flu virus.[121]
A study conducted in coordination with the University of Michigan Health Service is scheduled for publication in the December 2009American Journal ofRoentgenology warning that H1N1 flu can causepulmonary embolism, surmised as a leading cause of death in this current pandemic. The study authors suggest physician evaluation via contrast enhanced CT scans for the presence of pulmonary emboli when caring for patients diagnosed with respiratory complications from a "severe" case of the H1N1 flu.[122]
As of May 30, 2010, as stated by the World Health Organization, more than 214 countries and overseas territories or communities have reported laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including over 18,138 deaths.[123]
On July 25, 2000,Air France Flight 4590, aConcorde aircraft, crashed into a hotel inGonesse just after takeoff from Paris, killing all 109 aboard and 4 in the hotel. This was the only Concorde accident in which fatalities occurred. It was the beginning of the end for Concorde as an airliner; the type was retired three years later.
On July 27, 2002, aSukhoi Su-27 fighter jetcrashed at anair show inUkraine, killing 77 and injuring 543, making it the worst air show disaster in history.
On September 26, 2002, the ferryMVLe Joola sank off the coast ofGambia, killing at least 1,863 people.
On September 29, 2006,Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 collided with a newEmbraer Legacy 600 business jet over theBrazilianAmazon and crashed, killing all 154 people on board. The Embraer aircraft made an emergency landing at a nearby military outpost with no harm to its seven occupants.
On December 30, 2006, the ferryMVSenopati Nusantara sank in a storm in theJava Sea, killing between 400 and 500 of the 628 people aboard. Three days later,Adam Air Flight 574 crashed in the same storm, killing all 102 people on board.
On June 1, 2009,Air France Flight 447 crashed into the southernAtlantic Ocean after instrument failure disoriented the crew. All 228 people on board perished.
The most significant evolution of the 2000s in the economic landscape was the long-time predicted breakthrough of economic giantChina, whose GDP grew from 1.21 trillion to 5.1 trillion (in 2022 USD).[124] To a lesser extent, India also benefited from an economic boom (growing from 438.39 billion to 1.34 trillion)[125] which saw the two most populous countries becoming an increasingly dominant economic force.[126] The rapid catching-up of emerging economies with developed countries sparked some protectionist tensions during the period and was partly responsible for an increase in energy and food prices at the end of the decade. The economic developments in the latter third of the decade were dominated by a worldwide economic downturn, which started with thecrisis in housing and credit in the United States in late 2007, and led to the bankruptcy of major banks and other financial institutions.[127] The outbreak of thisglobal financial crisis sparked a global recession, beginning in the United States and affecting most of the industrialized world.
The period takes its name fromGordon Brown, the then UKChancellor of the Exchequer (who later becamePrime Minister), who decided to sell approximately half of the UK'sgold reserves in a series of auctions. At the time, the UK's gold reserves were worth about US$6.5 billion, accounting for about half of the UK's US$13 billionforeign currency net reserves.[135]
The 2001AOL merger withTime Warner (a deal valued at $350 billion; which was the largest merger in American business history)[136] was 'the biggest mistake in corporate history', believesTime Warner chiefJeff Bewkes[137]
February 7, 2004 –EuroMillions transnational lottery, launched by France'sFrançaise des Jeux, Spain's Loterías y Apuestas del Estado, and the United Kingdom's Camelot.
In 2007, it was reported that in the UK, one pound in every seven spent went to theTesco grocery and general merchandise retailer.[138]
On October 9, 2007, theDow Jones Industrial Average closed at the record level of14,164.53. Two days later on October 11, the Dow would trade at its highest intra-day level ever, at the14,198.10 mark.[139] In what would normally take many years to accomplish; numerous reasons were cited for the Dow's extremely rapid rise from the 11,000 level in early 2006, to the 14,000 level in late 2007. They included future possibletakeovers andmergers, healthy earnings reports particularly in the tech sector, and moderateinflationary numbers; fueling speculation the Federal Reserve would not raiseinterest rates. Roughlyon par with the 2000 record when adjusted for inflation, this represented the final high of the cyclical bull. The index closed 2007 at 13,264.82, a level it would not surpass for nearly five years.
Theworld economy bynominal GDP almost doubled in size from U.S. $30.21 trillion in 1999 to U.S. $58.23 trillion in 2009. This figure is not adjusted for inflation. ByPPP, world GDP rose 78%, according to the IMF. But inflation adjusted nominal GDP rose only 42%, according to IMF constant price growth rates.[142] The following figures are not inflation adjusted nominal GDP and should be interpreted with extreme caution:
The United States (U.S. $14.26 trillion) retained its position of possessing the world's largest economy. However, the size of its contribution to the total global economy dropped from 28.8% to 24.5% by nominal price or a fall from 23.8% to 20.4% adjusted for purchasing power.
Japan (U.S. $5.07 trillion) retained its position of possessing the second largest economy in the world, but its contribution to the world economy also shrank significantly from 14.5% to 8.7% by nominal price or a fall from 7.8% to 6.0% adjusted for purchasing power.
China (U.S. $4.98 trillion) went from being the sixth largest to the third largest economy, and in 2009 contributed to 8.6% of the world's economy, up from 3.3% in 1999 by nominal price or a rise from 6.9% to 12.6% adjusted for purchasing power.
Germany (U.S. $3.35 trillion), France (U.S. $2.65 trillion), United Kingdom (U.S. $2.17 trillion) and Italy (U.S. $2.11 trillion) followed as the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th largest economies, respectively in 2009.
Brazil (U.S. $1.57 trillion) retained its position as the 8th largest economy, followed by Spain (U.S. $1.46 trillion), which remained at 10th.
Other major economies included Canada (U.S. $1.34 trillion; 10th, down from 9th), India (U.S. $1.31 trillion; remaining at 11th from 12th), Russia (U.S. $1.23 trillion; from 16th to 12th) Mexico (U.S. $875 billion; 14th, down from 11th), Australia (U.S. $925 billion; from 14th to 13th) and South Korea (U.S. $832 billion; 15th, down from 13th).
In terms ofpurchasing power parity in 2009, the ten largest economies were the United States (U.S. $14.26 trillion), China (U.S. $9.10 trillion), Japan (U.S. $4.14 trillion), India (U.S. $3.75 trillion), Germany (U.S. $2.98 trillion), Russia (U.S. $2.69 trillion), United Kingdom (U.S. $2.26 trillion), France (U.S. $2.17 trillion), Brazil (U.S. $2.02 trillion), and Italy (U.S. $1.92 trillion).[143][144]
The average house price in the UK, increased by 132% between the fourth quarter of 2000, and 91% during the decade; but the average salary increased only by 40%.[145]
The removal oftrade and investment barriers, the growth ofdomestic markets,artificially low currencies, theproliferation of education, the rapid development ofhigh tech andinformation systems industries and the growth of theworld economy lead to a significant growth ofoffshore outsourcing during the decade as manymultinational corporations significantly increasedsubcontracting ofmanufacturing (and increasingly,services) across national boundaries indeveloping countries and particularly in China and India, due tomany benefits and mainly because the two countries which are the two most populous countries in the world provide huge pools from which to find talent and as because both countries are low cost sourcing countries. As a result of this growth, many of these developing countries accumulatedcapital and started investing abroad. Other countries, including theUnited Arab Emirates, Australia, Brazil and Russia, benefited from increased demand for their mineral and energy resources that global growth generated. The hollowing out of manufacturing was felt in Japan and parts of the United States and Europe which had not been able to develop successful innovative industries. Opponents point out that the practice of offshore outsourcing by countries with higher wages leads to the reduction of their own domestic employment and domestic investment. As a result, many customer service jobs as well as jobs in the information technology sectors (data processing,computer programming, andtechnical support) in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom have been or are potentially affected.
Whileglobal trade rose in the decade (partially driven by China's entry into theWTO in 2001), there was little progress in the multilateral trading system.International trade continued to expand during the decade as emerging economies and developing countries, in particular China and South-Asian countries, benefited low wages costs and most often undervalued currencies. However, global negotiations to reduce tariffs did not make much progress, as member countries of theWorld Trade Organization did not succeed in finding agreements to stretch the extent offree trade.[146] TheDoha Round of negotiations, launched in 2001 by the WTO to promote development, failed to be completed because of growing tensions between regional areas. Nor did theCancún Conference in 2003 find a consensus onservices trade[147] andagricultural subsidies.[148]
The comparative rise of China, India, and other developing countries also contributed to their growing clout ininternational forums. In 2009, it was determined that theG20, originally a forum of finance ministers and central bank governors, would replace theG8 as the main economic council.
Events in the confidence crisis included recalls on consumer goods such aspet food,toys,toothpaste,lipstick, and a ban on certain types ofseafood. Also included are reports on the poor crash safety of Chinese automobiles, slated to enter the American and European markets in 2008. This created adverse consequences for the confidence in the safety and quality of mainland Chinese manufactured goods in the global economy.
The decade was marked by two financial and economic crises. In 2001, theDot-com bubble burst, causing turmoil in financial markets and adecline in economic activity in the developed economies, in particular in the United States.[149] However, the impact of the crisis on the activity was limited thanks to the intervention of the central banks, notably the U.S.Federal Reserve System. Indeed,Alan Greenspan, leader of the Federal Reserve until 2006, cut the interest rates several times to avoid a severe recession,[150] allowing an economic revival in the U.S.[151]
As the Federal Reserve maintained low interest rates to favor economic growth,a housing bubble began to appear in the United States. In 2007, the rise in interest rates and the collapse of the housing market caused a wave ofloan payment failures in the U.S. The subsequentmortgage crisis caused aglobal financial crisis, because the subprime mortgages had beensecuritized and sold to international banks and investment funds. Despite the extensive intervention of central banks, including partial and total nationalization of major European banks,[152][153] the crisis of sovereign debt became particularly acute, first inIceland, though as events of the early 2010s would show, it was not an isolated European example. Economic activity wasseverely affected around the world in 2008 and 2009,[154] withdisastrous consequences for carmakers.[155]
In 2007, the UK'sChancellor of the ExchequerGordon Brown, delivered his final Mansion House speech as Chancellor before he moved into Number 10. Addressing financiers: "A new world order has been created", Everyone needed to follow the city's "great example", "an era that history will record as the beginning of a new Golden Age".[156]
Reactions of governments in all developed and developing countries against the economic slowdown were largely inspired bykeynesian economics. The end of the decade was characterized by aKeynesian resurgence,[157] while the influence and media popularity of left-wing economists[158]Joseph Stiglitz andPaul Krugman (Nobel Prize recipients in 2001 and 2008, respectively) did not stop growing during the decade.[159] Several international summits were organized to find solutions against the economic crisis and to impose greater control on the financial markets. TheG20 became in 2008 and 2009 a major organization, as leaders of the member countries held two major summits inWashington in November 2008 and inLondon in April 2009 to regulate the banking and financial sectors,[160] and also succeeding in coordinating their economic action and in avoiding protectionist reactions.
From the mid-1980s to September 2003, the inflation-adjusted price of a barrel of crude oil on NYMEX was generally under $25/barrel. During 2003, the price rose above $30, reached $60 by August 11, 2005, and peaked at $147.30 in July 2008.[161] Commentators attributed these price increases to many factors, including reports from the United States Department of Energy and others showing a decline in petroleum reserves, worries overpeak oil, Middle East tension, and oil price speculation.[162]
For a time, geopolitical events and natural disasters indirectly related to the global oil market had strong short-term effects on oil prices. These events and disasters includedNorth Korean missile tests, the 2006 conflict between Israel and Lebanon, worries overIranian nuclear plants in 2006 andHurricane Katrina. By 2008, such pressures appeared to have an insignificant impact on oil prices given the onset of the global recession. The recession caused demand for energy to shrink in late 2008 and early 2009 and the price plunged as well. However, it surged back in May 2009, bringing it back to November 2008 levels.[163]
Many fast-growing economies throughout the world, especially in Asia, also were a major factor in the rapidly increasing demand forfossil fuels, which—along with fewer new petroleum finds, greater extraction costs, and political turmoil—forced two other trends: a soar in theprice of petroleum products and a push by governments and businesses to promote the development ofenvironmentally friendly technology (known informally as "green" technology). However, a side-effect of the push by some industrial nations to "go green" and utilizebiofuels was a decrease in the supply of food and a subsequent increase in the price of the same. It partially caused the2007 food price crisis, which seriously affected the world's poorer nations with an even more severe shortage of food.[164]
The euro became the currency of members of theEurozone.
A common currency for most EU member states, theeuro, was established electronically in 1999, officially tying all the currencies of each participating nation to each other. The new currency was put into circulation in 2002 and the old currencies were phased out. Only three countries of the then 15 member states decided not to join the euro (the United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden). In 2004 the EU undertook a major eastward enlargement, admitting 10 new member states (eight of which were former communist states). Two more, Bulgaria andRomania, joined in 2007, establishing a union of 27 nations.
The euro has since become the second largestreserve currency and the second most traded currency in the world after the US$.[165]As of October 2009[update], with more than €790 billion in circulation, the euro was the currency with the highest combined value of banknotes and coins incirculation in the world, having surpassed the US$.[note 1]
2003 – Fossils of a new dwarf species of human,Homo floresiensis, were discovered on the island ofFlores,Indonesia. (report published initially October 2004).
2005 – Surgeons in France carried out the first successful partial humanface transplant.
2005 – Equipped with genome data and field observations of organisms from microbes to mammals, biologists made huge strides toward understanding the mechanisms by which living creaturesevolve.
2007 –RNA, long upstaged by its more glamorous sibling, DNA, is turning out to have star qualities of its own. Science hails these electrifying discoveries, which are prompting biologists to overhaul their vision of the cell and its evolution.
2008 – By inserting genes that turn back acell's developmental clock, researchers are gaining insights into disease and the biology of how a cell decides its fate.
2009 – Launch of theHuman Connectome Project to build anetwork map that will shed light on the anatomical and functional connectivity within the healthyhuman brain, as well as to produce a body of data that will facilitate research intobrain disorders.
2022 – Scientists successfully sequenced the last 8% of the human genome. The fully sequenced standard reference gene is called GRCh38.p14, and it contains 3.1 billion base pairs.[167][168]
2006 –Grigori Perelman is a Russianmathematician who has made landmark contributions toRiemannian geometry andgeometric topology. In 2003, he provedThurston's geometrization conjecture. This consequently solved in the affirmative thePoincaré conjecture, posed in 1904, which before its solution was viewed as one of the most important and difficult open problems intopology. In August 2006, Perelman was awarded theFields Medal[169] for "his contributions to geometry and his revolutionary insights into the analytical and geometric structure of theRicci flow." Perelman declined to accept the award or to appear at thecongress, stating: "I'm not interested in money or fame, I don't want to be on display like an animal in a zoo."[170] On December 22, 2006, the journalScience recognized Perelman's proof of the Poincaré conjecture as the scientific "Breakthrough of the Year", the first such recognition in the area of mathematics.[171] The Poincaré conjecture is one of the sevenMillennium Problems and the first to be solved.
2001 – Scientists assembled molecules into basiccircuits, raising hopes for a new world ofnanoelectronics. If researchers can wire these circuits into intricate computer chip architectures, this new generation of molecular electronics will undoubtedly provide computing power to launch scientific breakthroughs for decades.
Artist Concept of aNASAMars Exploration Rover onMarsThese images show water in a very young lunar crater on the side of the Moon that faces away from Earth.
2004 – TheMars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission successfully reached the surface ofMars in 2004, and sent detailed data and images of the landscape there back to Earth.Opportunity discovers evidence that an area ofMars was once covered in water. Both rovers were each expected to last only 90 days, however both completely exceeded expectations and continued to explore through the end of the decade and beyond.
2006 – As a result of the discovery ofEris, aKuiper Belt object larger thanPluto, Pluto is demoted to a "dwarf planet" after being considered a planet for 76 years, redefining the solar system to have eight planets and three dwarf planets.
2009 – After having analyzed the data from theLCROSS lunar impact, in 2009NASA announced that the discovery of a "significant" quantity ofwater in theMoon'sCabeus crater.[175][176]
Automotive navigation systems become widely popular making it possible to direct vehicles to any destination in real-time as well as detect traffic and suggest alternate routes with the use ofGPS navigation devices.
TheHybrid vehicles market, which became somewhat popular towards the middle of the decade, underwent major advances notably typified by such cars as theToyota Prius,Ford Escape, and theHonda Insight though by December 2010 they accounted for less than 0.5% of the world cars.
The sale ofCrossovers (CUVs), a type of car-basedunibodysports utility vehicle, increased in the 2000s.[178] By 2006, the segment came into strong visibility in the U.S., when crossover sales "made up more than 50% of the overall SUV market".[179]
GPS devices for automobiles gained massive popularity during the decade
The popularity of mobile phones andtext messaging surged in the 2000s in the Western world.
The popularity of mobile phones andtext messaging surged in the 2000s in the Western world. The advent of text messaging made possible new forms of interaction that were not possible before, leading to positive implications such as having the ability to receive information on the move. Nevertheless, it also led to negative social implications such as "cyberbullying" and the rise of traffic collisions caused by drivers who were distracted as they weretexting while driving.
Mobile internet, first launched in Japan with thei-mode in 1999, became increasingly popular with people in developed countries throughout the decade, thanks to improving cell phone capabilities and advances in mobile telecommunications technology, such asGPRS and3G.
E-mail continued to be popular throughout the decade. It began to replace "snail mail" (also known, more neutrally, aspaper mail,postal mail,land mail, or simplymail orpost) as the primary way of sending letters and other messages to people in faraway locations, though it has been available since 1971.
Social networking sites arose as a new way for people to stay in touch no matter where they are, as long as they have aninternet connection. The earliest social networking sites wereFriendster,Myspace,Facebook, andTwitter in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2006, respectively. Myspace was the most popular social networking website until June 2009 when Facebook overtook Myspace in the number of American users.[180]
Smartphones, which combine mobile phones with the features ofpersonal digital assistants andportable media players, first emerged in the 1990s but did not become popular until the late 2000s. Smartphones are rich in features and often have high resolutiontouchscreens andweb browsers. The first modern smartphone was theiPhone 2G, one of the earliest smartphones to not include a physical keyboard, solely utilizing a touch screen and a home button, which would later become standard across the industry. It was released in June 2007 in theUnited States, and in November 2007 in a number of territories in Western Europe.
Due to the major success of broadband Internet connections,VoIP starts to gain popularity as a replacement fortraditional telephone lines. VoIP was largely popularized bySkype.[181]
In the 2000s, the Internet became a mainstay, strengthening its grip on Western society while becoming increasingly available in the developing world. The share of the world population using the internet grew from 6.7% to 25.7%.[182]
Google becomes the Internet's most visited website.
A huge jump inbroadband internet usage globally – for example, from 6% of U.S. internet users in June 2000[183] to what one mid-decade study predicted would be 62% by 2010.[184] By February 2007, over 80% of U.S. Internet users were connected via broadband and broadband internet has been almost a required standard for quality internet browsing.[185]
Wireless internet became prominent by the end of the decade, as well as internet access in devices besides computers, such as mobile phones and gaming consoles.
Email became a standard form of interpersonal written communication, with popular addresses available to the public onHotmail (now Outlook.com),Gmail andYahoo! Mail.
Normalisation became increasingly important as massive standardizedcorpora andlexicons of spoken and written language became widely available tolaypeople, just as documents from the paperless office were archived and retrieved with increasing efficiency usingXML-based markup.
Peer-to-peer technology gained massive popularity withfile sharing systems enabling users to share any audio, video and data files or anything in digital format, as well as with applications which share real-time data, such astelephony traffic.
VPNs (virtual private networks) became likewise accessible to the general public, and data encryption remained a major issue for the stability of web commerce.
Boom in music downloading and the use ofdata compression to quickly transfer music over the Internet, with a corresponding rise of portable digital audio players. As a result, theentertainment industry struggled through the decade to find digital delivery systems for music, movies, and other media that reducecopyright infringement and preserve profit.
In February 2003,Dell announced floppy drives would no longer be pre-installed onDell Dimension home computers, although they were still available as a selectable option and purchasable as an aftermarketOEM add-on.[186] On January 29, 2007,PC World stated that only 2% of the computers they sold contained built-infloppy disk drives; once present stocks were exhausted, no more standard floppies would be sold.[187]
With the advent of theWeb 2.0, dynamic technology became widely accessible, and by the mid-2000s,PHP andMySQL became (withApache andnginx) the backbone of many sites, making programming knowledge unnecessary to publish to the web. Blogs,portals, andwikis become common electronic dissemination methods for professionals, amateurs, and businesses to conductknowledge management typified by success of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia which launched on January 15, 2001, grew rapidly and became the largest and most popular general reference work on the Internet[188][189] as well as the best knownwiki in the world and the largest encyclopedia in the world.
Internet commerce became standard for reservations; stock trading; promotion of music, arts, literature, and film; shopping; and other activities.
During this decade certain websites and search engines became prominent worldwide as transmitters of goods, services and information. Some of the most popular and successful online sites or search engines of the 2000s includedGoogle,Yahoo!, Wikipedia,Amazon,eBay, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
More and more businesses began providingpaperless services, clients accessing bills and bank statements directly through aweb interface.
In 2007, the fast food chainMcDonald's announced the introduction of free high speed wireless internet access at most of its 1,200 restaurants by the end of the year in a move which will make it the UK's biggest provider of such a service.[190]
Google,YouTube,Ask.com andWikipedia emerged as popular websites, becoming the 2nd, 3rd, 7th and 9th most popular websites by the end of the decade respectively.Amazon overtookeBay as the most-visited e-commerce site in 2008.AOL significantly declined in popularity throughout the decade, falling from being the most popular website to no longer being within the top 10.Excite andLycos fell outside the top 10, andMSN fell from the second to sixth most popular site, though it quadrupled its monthly visits (going from 325 to 1.2 billion monthly visits).Yahoo! maintained relatively stable popularity, remaining the most popular website for most of the decade.[191]
GPS (Global Positioning System) became very popular especially in the tracking of items or people, and the use in cars (seeAutomotive navigation systems). Games that utilized the system, such asgeocaching, emerged and became popular.
Greenlaser pointers[193] appeared on the market circa 2000, and are the most common type of DPSS lasers (also called DPSSFD for "diode pumped solid state frequency-doubled").
In late 2004 and early 2005, came a significant increase in reported incidents linked tolaser pointers – seeLasers and aviation safety. The wave of incidents may have been triggered in part by "copycats" who read press accounts of laser pointer incidents. In one case, David Banach of New Jersey was charged under federalPatriot Act anti-terrorism laws, after he allegedly shone a laser pointer at aircraft.[194]
Chip and PIN is the brand name adopted by the banking industries in theUnited Kingdom andIreland for the rollout of the EMV smart card payment system for credit, debit andATM cards.
Chip and PIN was trialled inNorthampton,England from May 2003, and as a result was rolled out nationwide in the United Kingdom in 2004 with advertisements in the press and national television touting the "Safety in Numbers" slogan.
In 2009,Tesco (a British multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer) opened its first UK branch at which service robots were the only option at the checkout, in Kingsley,Northampton – its US chain,Fresh & Easy, already operates several branches like this.[195]
September 7, 2009, an EU watchdog warns of an "alarming increase" in cash machine fraud by organised criminal gangs across Europe using sophisticated skimming technology, together with an explosion in ram-raiding attacks onATMs.
ATM crime in Europe jumped to €485m (£423m) in 2008 following a 149% rise in attacks on cash machines. Gangs are turning toBluetooth wireless technology to transmit card andpersonal identification number (PIN) details to nearbylaptops and using increasingly sophisticated techniques to skim cards.
Portable laptops became popular during the late 2000s.
More conventional smash-and-grab attacks are also on the rise, says Enisa, theEuropean Network and Information Security Agency. It reports a 32% rise in physical robberies on ATMs, ranging from ram raids to the use of rotary saws, blowtorches and diamond drills. It blames the increase on criminal gangs from eastern Europe.[196]
Digital audio players, especially theiPod, gained massive popularity during the decade
ADSL modem from the 2000s. During the decade broadband Internet connection gained massive popularity around the world and gradually replaced internet connection via telephone lines.
During the decade theBlu-ray format became dominant successor of to theDVD format
TheMacBook Air also saw popularity in the late 2000s
Production of theBoeing 757, Boeing's largest single-aisle airliner, ended with no replacement.[200]
TheConcorde, a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner or supersonic transport (SST), was retired in 2003 due to a general downturn in the aviation industry after the type's onlycrash in 2000, the9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and a decision byAirbus, the successor firm ofAerospatiale and BAC, to discontinue maintenance support.
High Speed 1, the first true high-speed line in the United Kingdom, opened in stages between 2003 and 2007, cutting travel times between Paris, Brussels and London considerably.[203]
Digital cameras become widely popular due to rapid decreases in size and cost while photo resolution steadily increases. As a result, the digital cameras largely supplanted theanalog cameras and the integration intomobile phones increase greatly. Since 2007, digital cameras started being manufactured with theface recognition feature built in.[206]
DVR devices such asTiVo became popular, making it possible to record television broadcasts to ahard drive-based digital storage medium and allowing many additional features including the option to fast-forward through commercials or to use an automaticCommercial skipping feature. This feature created controversy, with major television networks and movie studios claiming it violates copyright and should be banned. With the commercial skipping feature, many television channels place advertisements on the bottom on the TV screen.[210]
VOD technology became widely available among cable users worldwide, enabling the users to select and watch video content from a large variety of available content stored on a central server, as well as gaining the possibility to freeze the image, as well as fast-forward and rewind the VOD content.
DVDs, and subsequentlyBlu-ray Discs, replaceVCR technology as the common standard in homes and at video stores.[211]
Free Internet video portals like YouTube,Hulu, and Internet TV software solutions likeJoost became new popular alternatives toTV broadcasts.[212]
"High-definition television" becomes very popular towards the second half of the decade, with the increase of HD television channels and the conversion from analog to digital signals.[213]
In 2000, the Italian Supreme Court ruled thatScientology is a religion for legal purposes.[218][219]
In 2001, lawsuits were filed in theUnited States andIreland, alleging that some priests had sexually abused minors and that their superiors had conspired to conceal and otherwise abet their criminal misconduct.[220] In 2004, theJohn Jay report tabulated a total of 4,392 priests and deacons in the U.S. against whom allegations of sexual abuse had been made.
France created in 2006 the firstFrench parliamentary commission on cult activities which led to a report registering a number ofcults considered as dangerous. Supporters of such movements have criticized the report on the grounds ofthe respect of religious freedom. Proponents of the measure contend that only dangerous cults have been listed as such, and state secularism ensures religious freedom in France.
November 2009 –Minaret controversy in Switzerland: A referendum, a constitutional amendment banning the construction of new Mosque minarets was approved, sparking reactions from governments and political parties throughout of the world.
2009 – InPope Benedict XVI's thirdencyclicalCaritas in Veritate, he warns that a purely technocrat mindset where decisions are made only on grounds of efficiency will not deliver true development. Technical decisions must not be divorced from ethics. Benedict discusses bioethics and states that practices such as abortion, eugenics and euthanasia are morally hazardous and that accepting them can lead to greater tolerance for various forms of moral degradation. He turns to another consequence of the technocratic mindset, the viewing of people's personalities in purely psychological terms at the exclusion of the spiritual, which he says can lead to people feeling empty and abandoned even in prosperous societies.
The decade saw further expansion ofLGBTQ+ rights, with many European, Oceanic, and American countries recognizing civil unions and partnerships and a number of countries extending civil marriage to same-sex couples. TheNetherlands was the first country in the world to legalizesame-sex marriage in 2001. By the end of 2009,same-sex marriage was legal and performed in 10 countries worldwide, although only in some jurisdictions inMexico and theUnited States.
Population continued to grow in most countries, in particular in developing countries, though overall the rate slowed. According to United Nations estimates, world population reached six billion in late 1999,[221] and continued to climb to 6.8 billion in late 2009.[222] In 2007 the population of the United States reached 300 million inhabitants, and Japan's population peaked at 127 million before going into decline.[223]
What is wrong with everyone nowadays? Why do they all seem to think they are qualified to do things far beyond their technical capabilities? This is to do with the learning culture in schools as a consequence of a child-centred system that admits no failure. People think they can all be pop stars, high court judges, brilliant TV personalities or infinitely more competent heads of state without ever putting in the necessary work or having natural ability. This is the result of social utopianism which believes humanity can be genetically and socially engineered to contradict the lessons of history ...[224]
Obesity is a leading preventable cause of death worldwide, with increasing prevalence in adults and children, and authorities view it as one of the most serious public health problems of the 21st century.[225]
In 2001, 46.4% of people insub-Saharan Africa were living in extremepoverty.[226] Nearly half of all Indian children are undernourished, however, even among the wealthiest fifth one third of children are malnourished.[227][228]
5 A Day is the name of a number of programs in countries such as the United States, theUnited Kingdom andGermany, to encourage the consumption of at least five portions offruit andvegetables each day, following a recommendation by theWorld Health Organization that individuals consume at least 400 g of vegetables daily.[229]
The programme was introduced by the UK Department of Health in the winter of 2002–2003, and received some adverse media attention because of the high and rising costs of fresh fruit and vegetables. After ten years, research suggested that few people were meeting the target.[230]
TheLondon congestion charge is a fee charged on most motor vehicles operating within the Congestion Charge Zone (CCZ) in central London between 07:00 and 18:00 Monday to Friday. It is not charged at weekends, public holidays or between Christmas Day and New Year's Day (inclusive). The charge, which was introduced on February 17, 2003, remains one of the largest congestion charge zones in the world.
On December 3, 2003,New Zealand passed legislation to progressively implement asmoking ban in schools, school grounds, and workplaces by December 2004.[231] On March 29, 2004,Ireland implemented a nationwide ban on smoking in all workplaces. In Norway, similar legislation was put into force on June 1 the same year. Smoking was banned in all public places in the whole of the United Kingdom in 2007, when England became the final region to have the legislation come into effect (the age limit for buying tobacco was also raised from 16 to 18 on October 1, 2007). From 2004 to 2009, the UK's Merseyside police officers, conducted 1,389 section 60 stop and searches (without reasonable suspicion), rising to 23,138 within five years.[232]
In 2005 the cost of alcohol dependence and abuse was estimated to cost the US economy approximately 220 billion dollars per year, more than cancer and obesity.[233]
The number ofantidepressants prescribed by theNHS in the United Kingdom almost doubled during one decade, authorities reported in 2010. In 2009, 39.1 million prescriptions for drugs to tackle depression were issued in England, compared with 20.1 million issued in 1999.[234]
In the United States a 2005 independent report stated that 11% of women and 5% of men in the non-institutionalized population (2002) takeantidepressants. The use of antidepressants in the United States doubled over one decade, from 1996 to 2005.[235]
Antidepressant drugs were prescribed to 13 million in 1996 and to 27 million people by 2005. In 2008, more than 164 million prescriptions were written.[235]
In the UK, the number of weddings in 2006 was the lowest for 110 years.[236]
Jamie Oliver, is a British chef,restaurateur, media personality, known for his food-focused television shows and cookbooks. In 2006, Oliver began a formal campaign to ban unhealthy food in British schools and to get children eating nutritious food instead. Oliver's efforts to bring radical change to the school meals system, chronicled in the seriesJamie's School Dinners, challenged the junk-food culture by showing schools they could serve healthy, cost-efficient meals that kids enjoyed eating.[237] Jamie's efforts brought the subject of school dinners to the political forefront and changed the types of food served in schools.[238]
In 2006, nearly 11 millionPlastic surgery procedures were performed in the United States alone. The number of cosmetic procedures performed in the United States has increased over 50 percent since the start of the century.[239]
In November 2006, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) announced that it would ban television advertisements for junk food before, during and after television programming aimed at under-16s in the United Kingdom.[240] These regulations were originally outlined in a proposal earlier in the year. This move has been criticized on both ends of the scale; while theFood and Drink Federation labelled the ban "over the top", others have said the restrictions do not go far enough (particularly due to the fact thatsoap operas would be exempt from the ban).[241] On April 1, 2007, junk food advertisements were banned from programmes aimed at four to nine-year-olds.[242] Such advertisements broadcast during programmes "aimed at, or which would appeal to," ten to fifteen-year-olds will continue to be phased out over the coming months,[243] with a full ban coming into effect on January 1, 2009.[242]
November 10, 2006 – referring to the UK's annualpoppy appeal, British journalist and presenterJon Snow condemned the attitude of those who insist remembrance poppies are worn. He claimed:there is a rather unpleasant breed of poppy fascism out there.[244]
In October 2008AFP reported on the further expansion of killings of albinos to theRuyigi region ofBurundi. Body parts of the victims are then smuggled to Tanzania, where they are used for witch doctor rituals and potions.[246] Albinos have become "a commercial good", commented Nicodeme Gahimbare in Ruyigi, who established a local safe haven in his fortified house.[246]
A 2009 study found a 30% increase in Chinesediabetes over 7 years.[247]
Climate change andglobal warming became household words in the 2000s. Predictions tools made significant progress during the decade, UN-sponsored organisations such as theIPCC gained influence, and studies such as theStern report influenced public support for paying the political and economic costs of countering climate change.
The global temperature kept climbing during the decade. In December 2009, theWorld Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that the 2000s might have been the warmest decade since records began in 1850, with four of the five warmest years since 1850 having occurred in this decade.[250][251] TheNASA and theNOAA later echoed the WMO's findings.[252]
Scientific studies onclimate helped establish a consensus.
Major natural disasters became more frequent and helped change public opinion. One of the deadliest heat waves in human history happened during the 2000s, mostly in Europe, with the2003 European heat wave killing 37,451 people over the summer months.[253] In February 2009,a series of highly destructive bushfires started in Victoria, Australia, lasting into the next month. While the fires are believed to have been caused by arson, they were widely reported as having been fueled by an excessiveheatwave that was due in part to climate change. It has also been alleged that climate change was a cause of increased storms intensity, notably in the case ofHurricane Katrina.
Climate change became a major issue for governments, populations and scientists.Debates on global warming and its causes made significant progress, asclimate change denials were refuted bymost scientific studies. Decisive reports such as theStern Review and the2007 IPCC Report almost established a climate change consensus.[254] NGOs' actions and the commitment of political personalities (such as former U.S. Vice PresidentAl Gore) also urged to international reactions against climate change. Documentary filmsAn Inconvenient Truth andHome may have had a decisive impact.[255]
Under the auspices of TheUN Convention on Climate Change theKyoto Protocol (aimed at combating global warming) entered into force on February 16, 2005. As of November 2009,187 states have signed and ratified the protocol.[256] In addition TheUN Convention on Climate Change helped coordinate the efforts of the international community to fight potentially disastrous effects of human activity on the planet and launched negotiations to set an ambitious program of carbon emission reduction that began in 2007 with theBali Road Map. However, the representatives of the then 192 member countries of the United Nations gathered in December 2009 for theCopenhagen Conference failed to reach a binding agreement to reduce carbon emissions because of divisions between regional areas.
TheHousehold Waste Recycling Act 2003 requires local authorities inEngland to provide every household with a separate collection of at least two types of recyclable materials by 2010.[257]
Commercialization and globalization resulted in mass migration of people from rural areas to urban areas resulting in high-profile skyscrapers in Asia and Europe. In Asia skyscrapers were constructed inIndia, China,Thailand, South Korea, and Japan.
TheMillennium Bridge, London officially known as the London Millennium Footbridge, is a steel suspension bridge for pedestrians crossing theRiver Thames in London,England, linking Bankside with the city. Londoners nicknamed the bridge the "Wobbly Bridge" after participants in a charity walk on behalf of Save the Children to open the bridge felt an unexpected, and, for some, uncomfortable, swaying motion on the first two days after the bridge opened. The bridge was closed later that day, and after two days of limited access the bridge was closed for almost two years while modifications were made to eliminate the wobble entirely. It was reopened in 2002.
30 St Mary Axe (informally also known as "the Gherkin" and previously the Swiss Re Building) is a skyscraper in London's financial district, the City of London, completed in December 2003 and opened at the end of May 2004. The building has become an iconic symbol of London and is one of the city's most widely recognised examples of modern architecture.
Wembley Stadium is a football stadium located inWembley Park, in the Borough of Brent, London,England. It opened in 2007 and was built on the site of the previous 1923 Wembley Stadium. The earlier Wembley stadium, originally called the Empire Stadium, was often referred to as "The Twin Towers" and was one of the world's most famous football stadia until its demolition in 2003.
A major redevelopment of London'sTrafalgar Square led byWS Atkins withFoster and Partners as sub-consultants was completed in 2003. The work involved closing the main eastbound road along the north side, diverting the traffic around the other three sides of the square, demolishing the central section of the northern retaining wall and inserting a wide set of steps leading up to a pedestrianised terrace in front of the National Gallery. The construction includes two lifts for disabled access, public toilets, and a small café. Previously, access between the square and the Gallery was by two crossings at the northeast and northwest corners of the square.[258]
Lucian Freud was a German-born British painter. Known chiefly for his thickly impastoed portrait and figure paintings, he was widely considered the pre-eminent British artist of his time.[259]
During a period from May 2000 to December 2001, Freud painted QueenElizabeth II. There was criticism of this portrayal of the Queen in some sections of the British media. The highest selling tabloid newspaper,The Sun, was particularly condemnatory, describing the portrait as "a travesty".[260]
TheHockney–Falco thesis is a controversial theory ofart history, advanced by artistDavid Hockney and physicistCharles M. Falco, suggesting that advances inrealism and accuracy in the history of Western art since theRenaissance were primarily the result of optical aids such as thecamera obscura,camera lucida, andcurved mirrors, rather than solely due to the development ofartistic technique and skill. In a 2001 book,Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, Hockney analyzed the work of theOld Masters and argued that the level of accuracy represented in their work is impossible to create by "eyeballing it". Since then, Hockney and Falco have produced a number of publications on positive evidence of the use of optical aids, and the historical plausibility of such methods.
Rolf Harris was an Australian entertainer. He was a musician, a singer-songwriter, a composer, a painter, and a television personality.
In 2005 he painted an official portrait ofQueen Elizabeth II, which was the subject of a special episode ofRolf on Art.
Harris's portrait of The Queen was voted by readers of theRadio Times the third favourite portrait of her. The royal portrait was exhibited atBuckingham Palace, thePalace of Holyroodhouse inEdinburgh, and was exhibited on a tour of public galleries in the UK.
In April–June 2003, the English visual artists often known asThe Chapman Brothers, held a solo show atModern Art Oxford entitledThe Rape of Creativity in which "theenfants terribles of Britart, bought a mint collection of Goya's most celebrated prints – and set about systematically defacing them".[261] TheFrancisco Goya prints referred to hisDisasters of War set of 80 etchings.[261] The duo named their newly defaced worksInsult to Injury.[261]BBC described more of the exhibition's art: "Drawings of mutant Ronald McDonalds, a bronze sculpture of a painting showing a sad-faced Hitler in clown make-up and a major installation featuring a knackered old caravan and fake dog turds."[262]The Daily Telegraph commented that the Chapman brothers had "managed to raise the hackles of art historians by violating something much more sacred to the art world than the human body – another work of art"[263]
As a protest against this piece,Aaron Barschak (who later gate-crashedPrince William's 21st birthday party dressed asOsama bin Laden in a frock) threw a pot of red paint over Jake Chapman during a talk he was giving in May 2003.
On May 5, 2004, a 1905 painting titledGarçon à la Pipe (English: Boy with a Pipe) byPablo Picasso was sold for US$104,168,000 atSotheby'sauction in New York City. At the time, it brokethe record for the amount paid for an auctioned painting (when inflation is ignored). The amount, US$104 million, includes the auction price of US$93 million plus the auction house's commission of about US$11 million. Many art critics have stated that the painting's high sale price has much more to do with the artist's name than with the merit or historical importance of the painting.The Washington Post's article[264][265] on the sale contained the following characterisation of the reaction:
Picasso expert Pepe Karmel, reached in New York the morning after the sale, was waxing wroth about the whole affair. "I'm stunned," he said, "that a pleasant, minor painting could command a price appropriate to a real masterwork by Picasso. This just shows how much the marketplace is divorced from the true values of art."
In 2004, duringChannel 5 (UK)'s 'Big Art Challenge' television program, despite declaring: "I hold video and photography in profound contempt." English art criticBrian Sewell, noted for artistic conservatism and having been described as "Britain's most famous and controversial art critic",[267] went on to at least 3 times hail video artist (and ultimately the competition's winner) Chris Boyd (aged 21) a "genius".[268][269]
In June 2007, the English artist, entrepreneur and art collectorDamien Hirst gained the European record for the most expensive work of art by a living artist, when hisLullaby Spring, (a 3-metre-wide steel cabinet with 6,136 pills) sold for 19.2 million dollars.
In September 2008,Damien Hirst took an unprecedented move for a living artist by selling a complete show,Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, atSotheby's by auction and by-passing his long-standing galleries. The auction exceeded all predictions, raising £111 million ($198 million), breaking the record for a one-artist auction.
December 9, 2009 – when the most expensive drawing by anOld Master ever, was sold in an auction. Titled 'Head of a Muse' byRaphael; costing £29,200,000 ($47,788,400), atChristie's,London, UK.[270]
The phenomenally successfulHarry Potter series byJ. K. Rowling is concluded in July 2007 (having been first published in 1997), although the film franchise continues until 2011; several spin-off productions are announced in the early2010s. TheHarry Potter series is to date thebest-selling book series in world history, with only seven main volumes (and three supplemental works) published and four hundred and fifty million[273] copies sold. The film franchise is also currently the thirdhighest-grossing film franchise in history, with eight films (all but the final two of which were released in the 2000s) and $8,539,253,704 in sales.
Stage 24 at Warner Bros. studio, named after the television showFriends. The final episode ofFriends aired in 2004 with over 52 million viewers in the United States, and the character ofJoey remained on television in his own spin-off until 2006.
Flip phones (such as theMotorola Razr V3i pictured here) and keyboard phones were commonplace throughout the 2000s, likeBlackBerry andMotorola phones. By the very late 2000s and mostly 2010s, bar-shaped full-touchscreensmartphones had replaced flip-phones and keyboard phones.
Over 250 millionNokia 1100s were sold since its launch in late 2003 up through 2009, making it theworld's best-selling mobile phone and the best-selling consumer electronics device in the world at the time. Home telephones such asLandlines andCordless telephones were also used in the 2000s.
Wings haircuts and cardigan sweaters were popular during the mid-to-late part of the 2000s (and into the early 2010s), modeled here by singerJustin Bieber in 2009.
Low-rise jeans and crop-tops were popular and worn by women in the 2000s, as shown here by pop starBritney Spears in 2003.
9/11 damaged popular culture in the early 2000s. It caused greater sensitivity in media imagery. Following its use in radio and TV broadcasts after the event,Enya'sOnly Time became a commercial hit; and pictured above is aMs. magazine cover showcasing "9/11 widows".
Mockumentaries grew in the 2000s, with mockumentary films such asBorat in 2006, and the popular documentariesSuper Size Me andFahrenheit 9/11 in 2004.
TheY2K aesthetic was popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, named after theY2K bug scare that caused concern between 1999 and 2000. This period was defined by then-new technology such as the 2001iPod Classic,digital cameras, and fashion such as shiny metallic clothing.
December 2009'sAvatar, an American science fiction film written and directed byJames Cameron, made extensive use of cutting edgemotion capture filming techniques, and was released for traditional viewing,3D viewing (using theRealD 3D,Dolby 3D,XpanD 3D, andIMAX 3D formats). It was also released in "4D" in select South Korean theaters.[274]
3D films became more and more successful throughout the 2000s, culminating in the unprecedented success of 3D presentations ofAvatar.
In August 2004, American horror authorStephen King, in a column, criticized what he saw as a growing trend of leniency towards films from critics. His main criticism was that films, citingSpider-Man 2 as an example, were constantly given four star ratings that they did not deserve: "Formerly reliable critics who seem to have gone remarkably soft – not to say softhearted and sometimes softheaded – in their old age."[277]
The Passion of the Christ, a 2004 American film directed byMel Gibson and starringJim Caviezel asJesus Christ, was highly controversial[279] and received mixed reviews; however, it was a major commercial hit, grossing in excess of $600 million worldwide during its theatrical release.[280]
Thesuperhero film genre experienced renewed and intense interest throughout the 2000s. With high ticket and DVD sales, several new superhero films were released every year. Greatest superhero films includingX-Men,Spider-Man and its sequelSpider-Man 2,Batman Begins and its sequelThe Dark Knight, andIron Man (which started theMarvel Cinematic Universe). Some media commentators attributed the increased popularity of such franchises to the social and political climate in Western society since theSeptember 11th attacks,[281] although others argued advances in special effects technology played a more significant role.[282]
Animated films
Computer animated films became hugely popular following the release ofToy Story in the mid-1990s, as the production of traditional 2D animated films slowly started to decline, with several either underperforming or bombing at the box office.
Dave Grohl ofFoo Fighters performing in 2005. Foo Fighters are widely regarded as one of the most culturally significantrock bands of the 2000s.[327] The decade saw Foo Fighters win theGrammy Award for Best Rock Album a record-breaking three times; in 2001, 2004, and 2008.
In the 2000s, the Internet allowed consumers unprecedented access to music. The Internet also allowed more artists to distribute music relatively inexpensively and independently without the previously necessary financial support of a record label. Music sales began to decline following the year 2000, a state of affairs generally attributed to unlicensed uploading and downloading of sound files to the Internet, a practice which became more widely prevalent during this time. Business relationships called360 deals—an arrangement in which a company provides support for an artist, and, in exchange, the artist pays the company a percentage of revenue earned not only from sales of recorded music, but also live performances and publishing—became a popular response by record labels to the loss of music sales attributed to online copyright infringement.[328][329]
Eminem (left) andBeyoncé were two of the best-selling musical artists and most-culturally significant figures of the decade, pictured here in 2003 and 2007 respectively.
For Latin musicShakira dominated the charts withFijación Oral, Vol. 1 being the 2nd best-selling Spanish album of all-time and the best-selling Spanish album of the 2000s being 11× platinum to date.
Billboard magazine named Eminem as the "artist of the decade" with the best performance on the Billboard charts[339][note 2] andBeyoncé as the "female artist of the decade", withNickelback as the "band of the decade".[341][342] In the UK, the biggest selling artist of the decade wasRobbie Williams and the biggest selling band of the decade wasWestlife.
In 2002,Robbie Williams signed a record-breaking £80 million contract withEMI.[346] So far it is the biggest music deal in British history.
The 2000s gave rise to a new trend in music production with the growing use ofauto-tune. The effect was first popularized in the early 2000s byEiffel 65 with their 1998 hit song "Blue (Da Ba Dee)", which came to global prominence in 2000. It was also used in certain tracks off critically acclaimed 2001 albums fromDaft Punk (withDiscovery) andRadiohead (withAmnesiac).[329] By 2008, auto-tune was part of the music mainstream with artists such asLil Wayne,T-Pain andKanye West utilizing it in their hit albumsTha Carter III,Three Ringz and808s & Heartbreak respectively. Towards the end of the decade, electronic dance music began to dominate western charts (as it would proceed to in the following decade), and in turn helped contribute to a diminishing amount of rock music in the mainstream.[347][348]Hip hop music also saw a decline in the mainstream in the late 2000s because of electronic music's rising popularity.[349]
According toThe Guardian, music styles during the 2000s changed very little from how they were in the latter half of the 1990s.[350] The 2000s had a profound impact on the condition ofmusic distribution. Recent advents in digital technology have fundamentally altered industry and marketing practices as well as players in unusual rapidity.[351][352][353] According to Nielsen Soundscan, by 2009 CDs accounted for 79 percent of album sales, with 20 percent coming from digital, representing both a 10 percent drop and gain for both formats in 2 years.[354]
The general socio-political fallout ofIraq War also extended to popular music. In July 2002, the release of English musicianGeorge Michael's song "Shoot the Dog" proved to be controversial. It was critical ofGeorge W. Bush andTony Blair in the lead up to the2003 invasion of Iraq. The video showed a cartoon version of Michael astride a nuclear missile in the Middle East and Tony andCherie Blair in bed with President Bush. TheDixie Chicks are an American country music band. During aLondon concert ten days before the2003 invasion of Iraq, lead vocalist Maines said, "we don't want this war, this violence, and we're ashamed that the President of the United States [George W. Bush] is from Texas".[357] The positive reaction to this statement from the British audience contrasted with theboycotts that ensued in the U.S., where "the band was assaulted by talk-showconservatives",[358] while their albums were discarded in public protest.[358] The original music video for thetitle song from American pop singerMadonna'sAmerican Life album was banned as music television stations thought that the video, featuring violence and war imagery, would be deemed unpatriotic since America was then atwar with Iraq. She also made her widely considered "comeback" album with her tenth studio albumConfessions on a Dance Floor which topped the charts worldwide in a record 40 countries. As of 2016 the album has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide.Madonna also made history by completing herSticky & Sweet Tour which became the highest-grossing tour by a female artist and thetenth highest-grossing tour by an artist during 2008–2009.[359]
Live 8 was a string ofbenefit concerts that took place on July 2, 2005, in theG8 states and in South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 conference andsummit held at theGleneagles Hotel inAuchterarder, Scotland from July 6 to 8, 2005; they also coincided with the 20th anniversary ofLive Aid. Run in support of the aims of the UK'sMake Poverty History campaign and the Global Call for Action Against Poverty, ten simultaneous concerts were held on July 2 and one on July 6. On July 7, the G8 leaders pledged to double 2004 levels of aid to poor nations from US$25 billion to US$50 billion by the year 2010. Half of the money was to go to Africa. More than 1,000 musicians performed at the concerts, which were broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks.[360]
In November 2006, theRolling Stones' 'A Bigger Bang' tour was declared the highest-grossing tour of all time, earning $437 million.
"...We want to thank everyone that participated in this incredible, organic, grass-roots campaign. It says more about the spontaneous action taken by young people throughout the UK to topple this very sterile pop monopoly."
During the late 2000s, a new wave ofchiptune culture took place. This new culture has much more emphasis on live performances and record releases than the demoscene and tracker culture, of which the new artists are often only distantly aware.[361] Much of 2000s hip hop was characterized as the "bling era", following the success ofB.G.'s 1999 singleBling Bling, referring to forms of opulence and the material commodities that were popular from the early-to-mid part of the decade inhip-hop culture.[362][363][364] However, by the end of the decade, an antecedentemotional rap subgenre gained prominence, with musical projects likeKanye West's fourth studio album808s & Heartbreak (2008),Kid Cudi's debut albumMan on the Moon: The End of Day (2009), andDrake's career catalyzing mixtapeSo Far Gone (2009) garnering significant popularity and ushering in a new era of hip hop.[365]
The original five members of the Englishnew wave bandDuran Duran reunited in the early 2000s.
On February 23, 2003,Simon and Garfunkel reunited to perform in public for the first time in a decade, singing "The Sound of Silence" as the opening act of theGrammy Awards.[366]
On May 9, 2006, British five-piece vocal popTake That returned to the recorded music scene after more than ten years of absence, signing withPolydor Records. The band's comeback album,Beautiful World, entered the UK album chart at no. 1.[367]
On December 10, 2007, English rock bandLed Zeppelin reunited for the one-off Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert atThe O2 Arena in London. According to Guinness World Records 2009, Led Zeppelin set the world record for the "Highest Demand for Tickets for One Music Concert" as 20 million requests for the reunion show were rendered online.[368]
Wisdom of the crowd – during the decade, the benefits of the "Wisdom of the crowd" are pushed into the spotlight by social information sites such asWikipedia,Yahoo! Answers,Reddit and other web resources that rely on human opinion.[369]
In early 2001,Wikipedia was launched, which quickly became the largest and most popular online encyclopedia, and one of the most viewed sites on the web. In 2003, the first beta version of theSkype telephony software was launched. By the end of the decade, Skype will have over 600 million users. In 2004, the social networkFacebook was launched. By the end of the decade, the site will be ranked 7th in its popularity on the web, and will have over 350 million active users worldwide. Co-founderMark Zuckerberg pictured above in the site's infancy.YouTube was launched in 2005 and it quickly became the main site for video sharing,MySpace was one of the most popular social media sites in the 2000s but declined after the popularity of Facebook in 2008. Facebook launched in 2004. In 2008, Facebook surpassed MySpace as the most used social network. Facebook was mostly used by college students.Twitter was founded in 2006, and by 2009, moved up to the third-highest-ranking social networking site.WhatsApp, founded in 2009, rose to success and was eventually purchased by Facebook in the next decade.
Paris Hilton was a fashion icon of the 2000s.Mountain Dew bottles and cans from the 2000s decade, c. 2007
Fashion trends of the decade drew much inspiration from 1960s, 1970s and 1980s styles. Hair styles included the bleached andspiked hair for boys and men andlong and straight hair for girls and women continued, as well as other hairstyles from the mid-late 1990s.Kelly Clarkson made chunky highlights fashionable in 2002 onAmerican Idol and lasted until about 2007.[370] Both women and men highlighted their hair until the late 2000s.[371]
The decade started with the futuristic Y2K fashion which was built on hype surrounding the new millennium. This dark, slinky style remained popular until 9/11 occurred and casual fashions had made a comeback once again.[372]Low rise pants were the go-to for women in the early to mid 2000s. Baggycargo pants were extremely popular among both sexes[373] throughout the early and mid 2000s until about late 2007.Bell-bottoms were the dominant pant style for women until about 2006 when fitted pants began rising in popularity.[374] The late 1990s-stylebaggy pants remained popular throughout the early 2000s, but by 2003 boot-cut pants and jeans became the standard among men[375] until about 2008.
The 2000s saw a revival of 1980s fashion trends such as velourtracksuits in the early 2000s (an early 1980s fashion), and tapered pants in the later years (a late 1980s fashion).Skinny jeans became a staple clothing for young women and men. By 2009 with theJerkin' movement playing a large part in the popularization of skinny jeans. Mass brandsGap andLevi launched their own lines for skinny jeans.[376][377]
Throughout the early and mid 2000s, adults and children woreSkechers shoes.[378] The company used celebrities to their advantage, includingBritney Spears,Christina Aguilera,Carrie Underwood, andAshlee Simpson.[378] By the late 2000s, flatter and more compact shoes came into style as chunky sneakers were no longer the mode.
Emo fashion became popular amongst teenagers for most of the 2000s, associated with the success of bands tied to the subculture (many of whom started at the beginning of the 2000s and rose to fame during the middle part of the decade, such asBrand New,The Used,Hawthorne Heights,My Chemical Romance,Fall Out Boy,Paramore,Panic! at the Disco and more). The style is commonly identified with wearing black/dark coloured skinny jeans, T-shirts bearing the name of emo music groups and long side-swept bangs, often covering one or both eyes.[384] TheScene subculture that emerged in the mid-late 2000s drew much inspiration from Emo style.[385]
In cosmetic applications, a Botox injection, consisting of a small dose ofBotulinum toxin, can be used to prevent development ofwrinkles by paralyzingfacial muscles.[387] As of 2007, it is the most common cosmetic operation, with 4.6 million procedures in the United States, according to theAmerican Society of Plastic Surgeons.
Caps withcrop tops andlow-rise pants were popular as women's wear throughout the early and mid 2000s
"It was, we were soon told, 'the day that changed everything', the 21st century's defining moment, the watershed by which we would forever divide world history: before, and after, 9/11." ~The Guardian[388]
I do think that he and the newspapers he's run have introduced an uglier side, an abusive side, into journalism and life in general in this country.
He says this Murdochisation of national discourse, which was at its height in the UK withThe Sun in the 1980s, has now migrated to the US. "Murdoch encouraged an ugly tone, which he has now imported into the US and which we see every day onFox News, with all its concomitant effects on American public life – that fierce hostility between right and left that never used to be there, not to anything remotely like the same extent."[389]
October 2001, Canadian author and social activist known for her political analysesNaomi Klein's book titledFences and Windows:
On September 11, [2001] watching TV replays of the buildings exploding over and over again in New York and Washington, I couldn't help thinking about all the times media coverage has protected us from similar horrors elsewhere. During theGulf War, for instance, we didn't see real buildings exploding or people fleeing, we saw a sterile Space Invader battlefield, a bomb's-eye view of concrete targets – there and then none. Who was in those abstract polygons? We never found out.[390]
So, Talking Points urges the Pentagon to stop the P.R. dance and impose strict rules of conduct for the Iraqi people to follow. Law-abiding Iraqis want that. It's only the gangsters and the fanatics who don't. Shoot looters to kill, and aim well. And that'sThe Memo.[392]
A poll released in 2004, by thePew Research Center for the People and the Press, found that 21 percent of people aged 18 to 29 citedThe Daily Show (an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday) andSaturday Night Live (an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show) as a place where they regularly learned presidential campaign news. By contrast, 23 percent of the young people mentionedABC,CBS orNBC's nightly news broadcasts as a source. When the same question was asked in 2000, Pew found only 9 percent of young people pointing to the comedy shows, and 39 percent to the network news shows. One newspaper,Newsday, hasThe Daily Show's hostJon Stewart, listed atop a list of the 20 media players who will most influence the upcoming presidential campaign. Random conversations with nine people, aged 19 to 26, waiting to see a taping ofThe Daily Show, revealed two who admitted they learned much about the news from the program. None said they regularly watched the network evening news shows.[393]
The Guardian, is a British national daily newspaper. In August 2004, for theUS presidential election,The Guardian's daily "G2" supplement launched an experimental letter-writing campaign inClark County, Ohio, an average-sized county in aswing state. G2 editorIan Katz bought a voter list from the county for $25 and asked readers to write to people listed as undecided in the election, giving them an impression of the international view and the importance of voting against US PresidentGeorge W. Bush. The paper scrapped "Operation Clark County" on October 21, 2004, after first publishing a column of complaints from Bush supporters about the campaign under the headline "Dear Limey assholes".[394] The public backlash against the campaign likely contributed to Bush's victory in Clark County.[395]
March 2005 – Twenty MPs signed a British House of Commons motion condemning theBBCNewsnight presenterJeremy Paxman for saying that "a sort of Scottish Raj" was running the UK. Mr Paxman likened the dominance of Scots atWestminster to past British rule in India.[396]
August 1, 2007 –News Corp. andDow Jones entered into a definitive merger agreement. The US$5 billion sale added the largest newspaper in the United States, by circulationThe Wall Street Journal toRupert Murdoch's news empire.
August 30, 2008 – three years before the2011 England riots,The Socialist Worker wrote: "Those who have responded to the tragedy of knife crime by calling for police crackdowns ought to take note. The criminalisation of a generation of black youth will undoubtedly lead to explosions of anger in the future, just as it did a generation ago with the riots that swept Britain's inner cities."[397]
I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out that you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I'm... so, kind of at an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards, so I think I'll just conclude here and take your questions.
In December 2008,Time magazine namedBarack Obama as itsPerson of the Year for his historic candidacy and election, which it described as "the steady march of seemingly impossible accomplishments".[400]
The decade saw the steady decline of sales of print media such as books, magazines, and newspapers, as the main conveyors of information and advertisements, in favor of the Internet and other digital forms of information.[401][402][403]
News blogs grew in readership and popularity; cable news and other online media outlets became competitive in attracting advertising revenues and capable journalists and writers are joining online organizations. Books became available online, and electronic devices such asAmazon Kindle threatened the popularity of printed books.[404][405]
According to theNational Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the decade showed a continuous increase in reading, although circulation of newspapers has declined.[406]
The 2000s saw a decrease in the popularity of radio as more listeners starting using MP3 players in their cars to customize driving music.Satellite radio receivers started selling at a much higher rate, which allowed listeners to pay a subscription fee for thousands of ad-free stations.Clear Channel Communications was the largest provider of radio entertainment in the United States with over 900 stations nationwide. Many radio stations beganstreaming their content over the Internet, allowing a market expansion beyond the reaches of aradio transmitter.
During the 2000s,FM radio faced its toughest competition ever forin-car entertainment.iPod, satellite radio, andHD radio were all new options for commuters.CD players had a steady decline in popularity throughout the 2000s but stayed prevalent in most vehicles, whilecassette tapes became virtually obsolete.
August 27, 2001 –Hot 97 shock jock Star (real name Troi Torain) was suspended indefinitely for mocking R&B singerAaliyah's death on the air. by playing a tape of a woman screaming while a crash is heard in the background. Close to 32,000 people signed a "No More Star" online petition.[407]
In a 2008 edition of his (American) radio show,John Gibson commented on Australian actorHeath Ledger's death the day before. He opened the segment with funeral music and played a clip ofJake Gyllenhaal's famous line "I wish I knew how to quit you" from Ledger's filmBrokeback Mountain; he then said "Well, I guess he found out how to quityou." Among other remarks, Gibson called Ledger a "weirdo" with "a serious drug problem".[408] The next day, he addressed outcry over his remarks by saying that they were in the context of jokes he had been making for months aboutBrokeback Mountain, and that "There's no point in passing up a good joke."[409] Gibson later apologized on his television and radio shows.[410][411]
The decade has since seen a steady decline in the number of sitcoms and an increase in reality shows, crime and medical dramas, such asCSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000–2015), it's spinoffsCSI: Miami (2002–2012) andCSI: NY (2004–2013),NCIS (2003–present),Without a Trace (2002–2009),House M.D. (2004–2012), andGrey's Anatomy (2005–present), paranormal/crime shows likeMedium (2005–2011) andGhost Whisperer (2005–2010), and action/drama shows, including24 (2001–2010) andLost (2004–2009). Comedy-dramas became more serious, dealing with such hot button issues, such as drugs, teenage pregnancy, and gay rights. Popular comedy-drama programs includeDesperate Housewives (2004–2012),Ugly Betty (2006–2010), andGlee (2009–2015).
The decade also saw the return of prime time soap operas, a genre that had been popular in the 1980s and early 1990s, includingDawson's Creek (1998–2003),The O.C. (2003–2007) andOne Tree Hill (2003–2012).Desperate Housewives (2004–2012) was perhaps the most popular television series of this genre sinceDallas andDynasty in the 1980s. The medical soap operaGrey's Anatomy was another prime time serial that found immense success, helped by its original time slot followingDesperate Housewives during its first two seasons,ER started in 1994 and ended its run on NBC in 2009, after 15 years, with its ratings sharply declining afterGrey's Anatomy's premiere in 2005.
Animated shows
Adult-oriented animated programming also continued a sharp upturn in popularity with controversial cartoons likeSouth Park (1997–present),Family Guy (1999–2002, 2005–present) andFuturama (1999–2003, 2008–2013, 2023–present) along with the longtime running cartoonThe Simpsons (1989–present), while new animated adult series were also produced in that decade such asAmerican Dad!,Aqua Teen Hunger Force,Robot Chicken,Archer,Drawn Together, andSealab 2021.Adult Swim was launched onCartoon Network in September 2001 and was an immediate success, becoming one of the cornerstone brands of adult animation.
Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy:Super Bowl XXXVIII, which was broadcast live on February 1, 2004, fromHouston, Texas, on theCBS television network in the United States, was noted for a controversial halftime show in which singerJanet Jackson's breast, adorned with a nipple shield, was exposed by singerJustin Timberlake for about half a second, in what was later referred to as a "wardrobe malfunction". The incident, sometimes referred to as Nipplegate, was widely discussed. Along with the rest of the halftime show, it led to an immediate crackdown and widespread debate on perceived indecency in broadcasting.[418]
TheX Factor in the UK has been subject to muchcontroversy and criticism since its launch in September 2004.[419]The Jeremy Kyle Show, which launched a year later on the same network,ITV, was met with similar controversy. Both shows were cancelled in 2019,The X Factor due to low ratings, and in the case ofThe Jeremy Kyle Show due to the suicide of a recent participant on the programme.[420]
January 2005 –Jerry Springer: The Opera was the subject of controversy, when its UK television broadcast onBBC Two elicited 55,000 complaints. It was, at the time, the most complained about television event in the country ever, a record that is now held by ITV'sGood Morning Britain.[421]
In May 2005, UK viewers inundated theAdvertising Standards Authority with complaints regarding the continuous airing of the latestCrazy Frog advertisements. The intensity of the advertising was unprecedented in British television history. According toThe Guardian,Jamster bought 73,716 spots across all TV channels in May alone — an average of nearly 2,378 slots daily — at a cost of about £8 million, just under half of which was spent onITV. 87% of the population saw the Crazy Frog adverts an average of 26 times, 15% of the adverts appeared twice during the same advertising break and 66% were in consecutive ad breaks. An estimated 10% of the population saw the advert more than 60 times. This led to many members of the population finding the crazy frog, as its original name suggests, immensely irritating.[422][423]
Blue Peter (the world's longest-running children's television programme) rigged a phone-in competition supporting theUNICEF "Shoe Biz Appeal" on November 27, 2006. The person who appeared to be calling in the competition was actually aBlue Peter Team Player who was visiting that day. The visitor pretended to be a caller from an outside line who had won the phone-in and the chance to select a prize. The competition was rigged due to a technical error with receiving the calls.[424] In July 2007,Blue Peter was given a £50,000 fine, by theOffice of Communications (OFCOM) as a result of rigging the competition.[425]
I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! is a reality television game show series, originally created in theUnited Kingdom, and licensed globally to other countries.In its 2009 series, celebrity chefGino D'Acampo killed, cooked and ate a rat. The AustralianRSPCA investigated the incident and sought to prosecute D'Acampo and actorStuart Manning foranimal cruelty after this episode of the show was aired.ITV was fined £1,600 and the two celebrities involved were not prosecuted for animal cruelty despite being charged with the offense by theNew South Wales Police.
The PBS seriesMister Rogers' Neighborhood aired its final episode on August 31, 2001. Two years later, its host and creator,Fred Rogers, died from stomach cancer.
Law & Order was a police procedural drama that premiered on NBC on September 13, 1990, and ran for 20 seasons. The show aired its series finale ("Rubber Room") on May 24, 2010, but later returned on February 24, 2022.
Tomorrow's World was a long-runningBBC television series, showcasing new developments in the world of science and technology. First aired on July 7, 1965, on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled in early 2003.
That '70s Show was an American television period sitcom based on the1970s decade. The 1970s retro style permeated the 2000s decade. The show ended on May 18, 2006.
Brookside is a British soap opera set inLiverpool,England, particularly well known for showcasing topics that were considered taboo in English culture at the time, such as being the first television programme in the UK to show a lesbian kiss before the 9pmwatershed. The series began on the launch night ofChannel 4 on November 2, 1982, and ran for 21 years until November 4, 2003.
In January 2004, theBBC cancelled theKilroy show (which had run for 18 years), after an article entitled 'We owe Arabs nothing' written by its hostRobert Kilroy-Silk was published in theSunday Express tabloid newspaper.
Friends is an American sitcom which aired onNBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004. Friends received positive reviews throughout its run, and its series finale ("The Last One") ranked as thefifth most watched overall television series finale as well as the most watched single television episode of the 2000s on U.S. television.
The X-Files was a science fiction television series which aired for nine seasons on Fox that premiered on September 10, 1993. The show aired its series finale ("The Truth") on May 19, 2002.
Frasier, a spin-off TV series ofCheers (that ended in 1993), is an American sitcom that was broadcast onNBC for eleven seasons from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004, (only a week after the broadcast of the final episode ofFriends). It was one of the most successfulspin-off and popular series in television history, as well as one of the most critically acclaimed comedy series.
On June 20, 2006, after 42 years, Britishmusic chart showTop of the Pops was formally cancelled and it was announced that the last edition would be broadcast on July 30, 2006.
Grandstand is a British television sport program. Broadcast between 1958 and 2007, it was one of theBBC's longest running sports shows.
After 30 years, British television drama seriesGrange Hill (originally made by theBBC) was cancelled and the last episode was shown on September 15, 2008.
ER is a medical drama that premiered on NBC on September 19, 1994, and ran for 15 seasons. The show aired its series finale ("And in the End...") on April 2, 2009.
TheFlower Pot Men is a British children's programme, produced by BBC television, first transmitted in 1952, and repeated regularly for more than twenty years, which was produced in a new version in 2000.
Absolutely Fabulous, also known asAb Fab, is a British sitcom.The show has had an extended and sporadic run. The first three series were broadcast on theBBC from 1992 to 1995, followed by a series finale in the form of a two-part television film entitled The Last Shout in 1996. Its creator Jennifer Saunders revived the show for a fourth series in 2001.
Gadget & the Gadgetinis is a spinoff of the classic seriesInspector Gadget (1983–1986), developed by DiC in cooperation with Haim Saban's SIP Animation and produced from 2001 to 2003. There are 52 episodes.
Basil Brush from 1962 to 1984,The Basil Brush Show from 2002 to 2007.Basil Brush is a fictional anthropomorphic red fox, best known for his appearances on daytime British children's television. He is primarily portrayed by a glove puppet.
Shooting Stars is a British television comedy panel game broadcast onBBC Two as a pilot in 1993, then as 3 full series from 1995 to 1997, then onBBC Choice from January to December 2002 with 2 series before returning to BBC Two for another 3 series from 2008 until its cancellation in 2011.
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by theBBC. The show is a significant part of British popular culture.The programme originally ran from 1963 to 1989. After an unsuccessful attempt to revive regular production in 1996 with a backdoor pilot in the form of a television film, the programme was relaunched in 2005.
Family Fortunes is a Britishgame show, based on the American game showFamily Feud. The programme ran onITV from January 6, 1980, to December 6, 2002, before being revived by the same channel in 2006 under the title ofAll Star Family Fortunes. Revived episodes are currently being shown onITV on Sunday evenings and have been presented byVernon Kay since 2006.
Gladiators is aBritish television entertainment series, produced byLWT forITV, and broadcast between October 10, 1992, and January 1, 2000. It is an adaptation of the American formatAmerican Gladiators. The success of the British series spawned further adaptations inAustralia and Sweden. The series was revived in2008, before again being cancelled in 2009.
Rab C. Nesbitt is a British sitcom which began in 1988.The first series began on September 27, 1990, and continued for seven more, ending on June 18, 1999, and returning with a one-off special on December 23, 2008.[426]
Red Dwarf is a Britishcomedyfranchise which primarily comprises ten series (including a ninth mini-series namedBack To Earth) of a televisionscience fictionsitcom that aired onBBC Two between 1988 and 1993 and from 1997 to 1999 and onDave in 2009.
The world of video games reached the6th generation of video game consoles including thePlayStation 2, theXbox, and theGameCube, which started technically in 1998 with the release of Sega'sDreamcast, although some consider the true start in 2000 with the release of Sony's PlayStation 2. The 6th gen remained popular throughout the decade, but decreased somewhat in popularity after its 7th gen successors released technically starting in November 2005 with the release of Microsoft's Xbox 360, however, most people agree that 2006 is a 6th gen year since most games being released still released on 6th gen including the Xbox even though the 360 was already released, and the PlayStation 3 and the Wii didn't release until late 2006 which most people consider to be the true start of the 7th gen. It reached7th Generation in the form ofconsoles like theWii, thePlayStation 3 andXbox 360 by the mid-2000s. The number-one-selling game console of the decade, thePlayStation 2, was released in 2000 and remained popular up to the end of the decade, even after thePlayStation 3 was released. ThePlayStation 2 was discontinued in January 2013. TheNintendo DS launched inJapan in2004 and by2005 was available globally. All Nintendo DS models combined have sold over 154.02 million units, thus making it the best selling handheld of all time and the secondbest selling video game console of all time behind thePlayStation 2.[427][428]
Neo Geo is a family of video game hardware developed bySNK. The brand originated in 1990 with the release of an arcade system, theNeo Geo MVS and its home console counterpart, theNeo Geo AES. The Neo Geo brand was officially discontinued in 2004.
Arcade video games had declined in popularity so much by the late 1990s, that revenues in the United States dropped to $1.33 billion in 1999,[429] and reached a low of $866 million in 2004.[430] Furthermore, by the early 2000s, networked gaming via computers and then consoles across the Internet had also appeared,[431] replacing the venue of head-to-head competition and social atmosphere once provided solely by arcades.[432]
In the late 2000s,motion controlled video games grew in popularity, from the PlayStation 2'sEyeToy to Nintendo's successfulWii console. During the decade 3D video games become the staple of the video-game industry, with 2D games nearly fading from the market. Partially 3D and fully 2D games were still common in the industry early in the decade, but these have now become rare as developers look almost exclusively for fully 3D games to satisfy the increasing demand for them in the market. An exception to this trend is the indie gaming community, which often produces games featuring 'old-school' or retro gaming elements, such asMinecraft andShadow Complex. These games, which are not developed by the industry giants, are often available in the form of downloadable content from services such asMicrosoft'sXbox Live or Apple'sApp Store and usually cost much less than more major releases.
TheGrand Theft Auto series sparked a fad of Mature-rated video games based on including gang warfare, drug use, and perceived "senseless violence" into gameplay. Though violent video games date back to the early 1990s, they became much more common after 2000. Despite the controversy, the 2004 gameGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas became the best sellingPlayStation 2 game of all time, with 17.33 million copies sold for that console alone, from a total of 21.5 million in all formats by 2009;[433] as of 2011, 27.5 million copies ofSan Andreas were sold worldwide.[434]
TheCall of Duty series was extremely popular during the 2000s, the diverse shooter franchise released multiple games throughout the 2000s that were positively critically reviewed and commercially successful.
Gears of War was a critically acclaimed and commercially successfulthird-person shooter franchise that released two games during the mid-late 2000s.Gears of War 1 was released in 2006 and was the first installment to the franchise, it was universally critically acclaimed and went on to sell over 5 million copies. The second installment to the franchiseGears of War 2 was released in 2008 and received widespread critical acclaim and also went on to sell over 5 million copies.
Manhunt 2, a controversial stealth-basedpsychological horrorvideo game published byRockstar Games, was suspended byTake-Two Interactive (Rockstar's parent company) when it was refused classification in the United Kingdom, Italy and Ireland, and given an Adults Only (AO) rating in the United States. As neitherSony,Microsoft orNintendo allow AO titles on their systems, it made Rockstar bring the game down to a Mature (M) game and release in October 2007.
The sixth generation sparked a rise in first person shooter games led byHalo: Combat Evolved, which changed the formula of the first person shooter.Halo 2 startedonline console gaming and was on top of theXbox Live charts until its successor,Halo 3 (for Xbox 360), took over. Some other popular first-person shooters during the 2000s include theMedal of Honor series, withMedal of Honor: Frontline's release in 2002 bringing the first game in the series to 6th generation consoles.
Dance Dance Revolution was released in Japan and later the United States, where it became immensely popular among teenagers. Other dance games likeJust Dance was released in 2009 and went on to be the most popular game from Nintendo all over the world. Another music game,Guitar Hero, was released in North America in late 2005 andhad a huge cultural impact on both the music and video games industries. It became a worldwide billion-dollar franchise within three years, spawning several sequels and leading to the creation of a competing franchise,Rock Band.
Gaming industry
Worldwide, arcade game revenues gradually increased from $1.8 billion in 1998 to $3.2 billion in 2002, rivallingPC game sales of $3.2 billion that same year.[437] In particular, arcade video games are a thrivingindustry in China, where arcades are widespread across the country.[438] The US market has also experienced a slight resurgence, with the number of video game arcades across the nation increasing from 2,500 in 2003 to 3,500 in 2008, though this is significantly less than the 10,000 arcades in the early 1980s. As of 2009, a successful arcade game usually sells around 4000 to 6000 units worldwide.[439]
Japanese media giantNintendo released 9 out of the 10 top selling games of the 2000s, further establishing the company's dominance over the market.[440]
The decade saw the rise of digital media as opposed to the use of print, and the steady decline of printed books in countries wheree-readers had become available.
The deaths ofJohn Updike,Hunter S. Thompson, and other authors marked the end of various major writing careers influential during the late 20th century.
Manga (also known as Japanese comics) became popular among the international audience, mostly in English-speaking countries. Such popular manga works includeLucky Star,Fullmetal Alchemist andNaruto.
On July 19, 2001, English author and former politician,Jeffrey Archer, was found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice at a 1987 libel trial. He was sentenced to four years' imprisonment.
Peter Pan in Scarlet is a novel byGeraldine McCaughrean. It is an official sequel to Scottish author and dramatistJ. M. Barrie'sPeter and Wendy, authorised byGreat Ormond Street Hospital, to whom Barrie granted all rights to the character and original writings in 1929. McCaughrean was selected following a competition launched in 2004, in which novelists were invited to submit a sample chapter and plot outline.[446]
J. K. Rowling was the best-selling author in the decade overall thanks to theHarry Potter book series,[447] although she did not pen the best-selling book (at least in the UK), being second toThe Da Vinci Code,[447] which had 5.2 million in the UK by 2009[447] and 80 million worldwide by 2012.[448]
The Sydney2000 Summer Olympics, followed the centennial anniversary of the modern era Olympic Games, held in Atlanta in 1996. The Athens2004 Summer Olympics, were a strong symbol, for modern Olympic Games were inspired by the competitions organized inAncient Greece. Finally, theBeijing Games saw the emergence of China as a major sports power, with the highest number of titles for the first time. The2002 Salt Lake City and the2006 Turin Winter Olympic Games were also major events, though slightly less popular.
Association football's important events included two World Cups, one organized inSouth Korea and Japan, which saw Brazil win a record fifth title, and the other inGermany, which saw Italy win its fourth title. The regional competitions, theCopa América andUEFA European Championship, saw five nations rising the cup: Colombia (2001) and Brazil (2004, 2007) won the Copa América, while France (2000), Greece (2004) and Spain (2008) won the European Championship.
Rugby increased in size and audience, as theRugby World Cup became the third most watched sporting event in the world with the2007 Rugby World Cup organized in France.
Bloodgate is the nickname for a rugby union scandal involving the English team Harlequins in their Heineken Cup match against the Irish side Leinster on April 12, 2009. It was so called because of the use of fake blood capsules, and has been seen by some as one of the biggest scandals in rugby since professionalization in the mid-1990s, indeed even as an argument against the professional ethos. The name is a pun on Watergate.
One of the most prominent events of the2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing was the achievement ofMichael Phelps the American swimmer, frequently cited as the greatest swimmer and one of the greatest Olympians of all time.[449][450][451] He has won 14 career Olympicgold medals, the most by any Olympian. As of August 2, 2009, Phelps has broken thirty-sevenworld records in swimming. Phelps holds the record for the most gold medals won in a single Olympics, his eight at the2008 Beijing Games surpassed American swimmerMark Spitz's seven-gold performance atMunich in 1972.
Usain Bolt ofJamaica dominated the male sprinting events at the Beijing Olympics, in which he broke three world records, allowing him to be the first man to ever accomplish this at a single Olympic game. He holds the world record for the 100 metres (despite slowing down before the finish line to celebrate), the 200 metres and, along with his teammates, the 4 × 100 metres relay.
In 2003,Michael Jordan retired from the NBA after 2 season with theWashington Wizards, the official NBA website reading in 2006: "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time."[452]
Michael Schumacher, the most titled F1 driver, won fiveF1 World Championships during the decade and finally retired in 2006, yet eventually confirming his come-back to F1 for 2010.Lance Armstrong won all theTour de France between 1999 and 2005, also an all-time record, but was later stripped of all his titles when evidence emerged of his use of performance-enhancing drugs. Swiss tennis playerRoger Federer won 16Grand Slam titles to become the most titled player.
In May 2004,Arsenal became the only top-tier team to go through an entire league season (2003/4) unbeaten when they won the English Premier League and became 'The Invincibles'. This feat had also been achieved in the 19th century, when the league was in its infancy and there were far fewer matches in a season, but not in the modern era. Arsenal's unbeaten run extended to 49 matches in total, and into the subsequent season.
In September 2004,Chelsea footballerAdrian Mutu failed a drugs test for cocaine and was released on October 29, 2004. He also received a seven-month ban and a £20,000 fine fromThe Football Association.
The2006 Italian football scandal, also known as "Calciopoli", involved Italy's top professional football leagues,Serie A andSerie B. The scandal was uncovered in May 2006 by Italian police, implicating league championsJuventus, and other major teams includingA.C. Milan,Fiorentina,Lazio andReggina when a number of telephone interceptions showed a thick network of relations between team managers and referee organisations. Juventus were the champions of Serie A at the time. The teams have been accused of rigging games by selecting favourable referees.
The2006 FIFA World Cup Final in Berlin,Zinedine Zidane widely considered by experts and fans as one of the greatest football players of all time, was sent off in the 110th minute of the game, which was to be the last match of his career. After headbuttingMarco Materazzi in the chest, Zidane did not participate in the penalty shootout, which Italy won 5–3. It was later discovered through interviews that Materazzi had insulted Zidane's mother and sister that last moment which is what led to Zidane's heightened anger and reaction.
January 11, 2007 – When English footballerDavid Beckham joined theMajor League Soccer'sLos Angeles Galaxy, he was given the highest player salary in the league's history; with his playing contract with the Galaxy over the next three years being worth US$6.5 million per year.[454][455][456][457]
October 2007 – US world championtrack and field athleteMarion Jones admitted that she took performance-enhancing drugs as far back as the 2000 Summer Olympics, and that she had lied about it to a grand jury investigating performance-enhancer creations.
November 29, 2007 –Portsmouth football managerHarry Redknapp angrily denied any wrongdoing after being arrested by police investigating alleged corruption in football: "If you are telling me this is how you treat anyone, it is not the society I grew up in."[458]
BritishFormula One racing driverLewis Hamilton, was disqualified from the2009 Australian Grand Prix for providing "misleading evidence" during the stewards' hearing. He later privately apologised to FIA race director Charlie Whiting for having lied to the stewards.
"It's a lot of money, it's crazy really. If you want to be in the race, you have to pay the price, it seems sometimes a little bit vulgar."[463]
Controversies in sports
A number ofconcerns and controversies over the 2008 Summer Olympics surfaced before, during, and after the 2008 Summer Olympics, and which received major media coverage. Leading up to the Olympics, there were concerns about human rights in China, such that many high-profile individuals, such as politicians and celebrities, announced intentions to boycott the games to protest China's role in the Darfur conflict, and Myanmar, its stance towards Tibet, or other aspects of its human rights record. In a 2008Time article entitled "Why Nobody's Boycotting Beijing", Vivienne Walt wrote:'Leaders in power are more mindful of China's colossal clout in an increasingly shaky world economy, and therefore of the importance of keeping good relations with its government.'[464]
Ron Atkinson, is an English former football player and manager. In recent years he has become one of Britain's best-known football pundits.Ron Atkinson's media work came to an abrupt halt on April 21, 2004, when he was urged to resign fromITV by Brian Barwick after he broadcast aracial remark live on air about theblackChelsea playerMarcel Desailly; believing the microphone to be switched off, he said,"...he [Desailly]is what is known in some schools as a lazynigger".[465]
The sport offox hunting is controversial, particularly in the UK, where it was banned inScotland in 2002, and inEngland and Wales in November 2004 (law enforced from February 2005), though shooting foxes as vermin remained legal around the world.
^Pandemics, such as theCOVID-19 pandemic, are typically classified in their own category whilst natural disasters include earthquakes, storms, volcanic eruptions, floods, etc.
^As of October 30, 2009[update]: Total EUR currency (coins and banknotes) in circulation 771.5 (banknotes) + 21.032 (coins) =792.53 billion EUR *1.48 (exchange rate) = 1,080 billion USD Total USD currency (coins and banknotes) in circulation 859 billion USD
"Money Stock Measures".Federal Reserve Statistical Release. Board of Governors of theFederal Reserve System. Archived fromthe original on December 9, 2009. RetrievedDecember 13, 2009.Table 5: Not Seasonally Adjusted Components of M1 (Billions of dollars), not seasonally adjusted, October 2009: Currency: 859.3 (billion USD)
^Haarstad, Håvard; Fløysand, Arnt (March 2007). "Globalization and the power of rescaled narratives: A case of opposition to mining in Tambogrande, Peru".Political Geography.26 (3):289–308.doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2006.10.014.ISSN0962-6298.
^Tremlett, Giles (March 28, 2011)."At-a-glance guide to Spain".The Guardian. London.Archived from the original on 2012-05-29. RetrievedNovember 30, 2011.
^Angus Maddison, 2003,The World Economy: Historical Statistics, Vol. 2, OECD, ParisArchived May 13, 2008, at theWayback MachineISBN92-64-10412-7."Statistical Appendix"Archived January 30, 2021, at theWayback Machine (2008, ggdc.net) "The historical data were originally developed in three books: Monitoring the World Economy 1820–1992, OECD, Paris 1995; The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective, OECD Development Centre, Paris 2001; The World Economy: Historical Statistics, OECD Development Centre, Paris 2003. All these contain detailed source notes. Figures for 1820 onwards are annual, wherever possible. For earlier years, benchmark figures are shown for 1 AD, 1000 AD, 1500, 1600 and 1700." "OECD countries GDP revised and updated 1991–2003 from National Accounts for OECD Countries, vol. I, 2006. Norway 1820–1990 GDP from Ola Grytten (2004), "The Gross Domestic Product for Norway, 1830-2003" in Eitrheim, Klovland and Qvigstad (eds), Historical Monetary Statistics for Norway, 1819–2003, Norges Bank, Oslo. Latin American GDP 2000–2003 revised and updated from ECLAC, Statistical Yearbook 2004 and preliminary version of the 2005 Yearbook supplied by Andre Hofman. For Chile, GDP 1820–2003 from Rolf Lűders (1998), "The Comparative Economic Performance of Chile 1810-1995", Estudios de Economia, vol. 25, no. 2, with revised population estimates from Diaz, J., R. Lűders, and G. Wagner (2005) Chili 1810–2000: la Republica en Cifras, mimeo, Instituto de Economia, Universidad Católica de Chile. For Peru, GDP 1896–1990 and population 1896–1949 from Bruno Seminario and Arlette Beltran, Crecimiento Economico en el Peru 1896–1995, Universidad del Pacifico, 1998. " "For Asia there are amendments to the GDP estimates for South and North Korea, 1911–74, to correct an error in Maddison (2003). Estimates for the Philippines, 1902–1940 were amended in line with Richard Hooley (2005), 'American Economic Policy in the Philippines, 1902–1940', Journal of Asian Economics, 16. 1820 estimates were amended for Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand." "Asian countries GDP revised and updated 1998–2003 from AsianOutlook, April 2005. Population estimates for all countries except China and Indonesia revised and updated 1950–2008 and 2030 from International Data Base, International Programs Center, Population Division, US Bureau of the Census, April 2005 version. China's population 1990–2003 from China Statistical Yearbook 2005, China Statistics Press, Beijing. Indonesian population 1950–2003 kindly supplied by Pierre van der Eng. The figures now include three countries previously omitted: Cook Islands, Nauru and Tuvalu."
^Klein Goldewijk, Kees; Beusen, Arthur; Janssen, Peter (June 2010). "Long-term dynamic modeling of global population and built-up area in a spatially explicit way: HYDE 3.1".The Holocene.20 (4):565–573.Bibcode:2010Holoc..20..565K.doi:10.1177/0959683609356587.S2CID128905931.
^"Security Council Condemns, 'In Strongest Terms', Terrorist Attacks on the United States". United Nations. September 12, 2001.Archived from the original on September 9, 2006. RetrievedSeptember 11, 2006.The Security Council today, following what it called yesterday's "horrifying terrorist attacks" in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, unequivocally condemned those acts, and expressed its deepest sympathy and condolences to the victims and their families and to the people and Government of the United States.
^"Bin Laden claims responsibility for 9/11". CBC News. October 29, 2004.Archived from the original on January 24, 2009. RetrievedJanuary 11, 2009.al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden appeared in a new message aired on an Arabic TV station Friday night, for the first time claiming direct responsibility for the 2001 attacks against the United States.
^"Questions and Answers".Israel's Security Fence. The State of Israel. February 22, 2004. Archived fromthe original on October 3, 2013. RetrievedApril 17, 2007.The Security Fence is being built with the sole purpose of saving the lives of the Israeli citizens who continue to be targeted by the terrorist campaign that began in 2000. The fact that over 800 men, women and children have been killed in horrific suicide bombings and other terror attacks clearly justifies the attempt to place a physical barrier in the path of terrorists.... terrorism has been defined throughout the international community as a crime against humanity. As such, the State of Israel not only has the right but also the obligation to do everything in its power to lessen the impact and scope of terrorism on the citizens of Israel.
^Nissenbaum, Dion (January 10, 2007)."Death toll of Israeli civilians killed by Palestinians hit a low in 2006".Washington Bureau. McClatchy Newspapers. Archived fromthe original on November 20, 2008. RetrievedApril 16, 2007.Fewer Israeli civilians died in Palestinian attacks in 2006 than in any year since the Palestinian uprising began in 2000. Palestinian militants killed 23 Israelis and foreign visitors in 2006, down from a high of 289 in 2002 during the height of the uprising. Most significant, successful suicide bombings in Israel nearly came to a halt. Last year, only two Palestinian suicide bombers managed to sneak into Israel for attacks that killed 11 people and wounded 30 others. Israel has gone nearly nine months without a suicide bombing inside its borders, the longest period without such an attack since 2000[...] An Israeli military spokeswoman said one major factor in that success had been Israel's controversial separation barrier, a still-growing 250-mile (400 km) network of concrete walls, high-tech fencing and other obstacles that cuts through parts of the West Bank. 'The security fence was put up to stop terror, and that's what it's doing,' said Capt. Noa Meir, a spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces. [...] Opponents of the wall grudgingly acknowledge that it has been effective in stopping bombers, though they complain that its route should have followed the border between Israel and the Palestinian territories known as the Green Line. [...] IDF spokeswoman Meir said Israeli military operations that disrupted militants planning attacks from the West Bank also deserved credit for the drop in Israeli fatalities.
^Nkrumah, Gamal (December 6, 2006)."Old dogs, new tricks". Weekly.ahram.org.eg. Archived fromthe original on December 6, 2006. RetrievedFebruary 13, 2012.
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^The attorney general's office says that 9 of 10 victims are members of organized-crime groups.Miller Llana, Sara (August 16, 2009)."Briefing: How Mexico is waging war on drug cartels".The Christian Science Monitor. Archived fromthe original on August 22, 2009. RetrievedNovember 26, 2014.
^Ed Douglas. "Inside Nepal's Revolution..... (just to check..!!!)".National Geographic Magazine, p. 54, November 2005. Douglas lists the following figures: "Nepalis killed by Maoists from 1996 to 2005: 4,500. Nepalis killed by government in same period: 8,200."
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^Bethea, Neil; Williams, Jacob & Yu, Yiwen (June 2003)."Broadband services in the United States"(PDF). Ohio State University. p. 9. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on September 4, 2006. RetrievedNovember 30, 2011.Growth of Broadband Users:June 2000:total:4,367,434
^Woodson, Alex (July 8, 2007)."Wikipedia remains go-to site for online news".Reuters. Archived fromthe original on November 21, 2007. RetrievedDecember 16, 2007.Online encyclopedia Wikipedia has added about 20 million unique monthly visitors in the past year, making it the top online news and information destination, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.
^Monshipouri, Mahmood. "The war on terror and Muslims in the west." InMuslims in the West after 9/11: Religion, Politics and Law, p. 46pp.
^Achcar, Gilbert.The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives, p. 283
^Zine, Jasmin.Canadian Islamic Schools: Unraveling the Politics of Faith, Gender, Knowledge, and Identity, p. 153
^Cowan, Douglas E.;Bromley, David G. (2006). "The Church of Scientology". In Gallagher, Eugene V.; Ashcraft, W. Michael (eds.).Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America. Vol. 5. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. pp. 169–196.ISBN978-0-275-98712-1.
^Hanley, Charles J. (December 8, 2009)."UN: 2000–2009 likely warmest decade on record".Associated Press. Archived fromthe original on May 24, 2024. RetrievedDecember 20, 2009.This decade is on track to become the warmest since records began in 1850, and 2009 could rank among the top-five warmest years, the U.N. weather agency reported Tuesday on the second day of a pivotal 192-nation climate conference.
^Earth-policy.org, Janet Larsen,Record Heat Wave in Europe Takes 35,000 Lives: Far Greater Losses May Lie Ahead. Retrieved December 10, 2009.Archived July 16, 2013, at theWayback Machine
^Hogrefe, Jeffrey (December 14, 1997)."Lucian Freud Bio Killed Amid Much Heavy Breathing".The New York Observer. Archived fromthe original on July 19, 2008. RetrievedJuly 22, 2011. Also see Rimanelli, David (January 2012),"Damien Hirst",Artforum: "With the recent death of Lucían Freud, some might argue that Hirst is now the greatest living British artist". Retrieved October 28, 2012. Also see Kennedy, Maev (December 21, 2001),"Palace unveils Freud's gift to Queen",The Guardian, who calls Freud "the artist regarded as the greatest living British painter". Retrieved October 28, 2012. Darwent, Charles (November 28, 1999),"The 1990s in Review: Visual Arts"Archived September 25, 2015, at theWayback Machine,The Independent, says "Freud becomes the greatest living British artist after his Whitechapel show [of 1993]". Retrieved October 28, 2012.
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^San José Mercury NewsArchived 2012-01-13 at theWayback Machine onThe Da Vinci Code: "That earlier book has sold more than 80 million copies worldwide, was adapted into a movie and made hits out of Brown's previous novels, including "Angels & Demons," whose film version is now in theaters." (5 June 2009)
^Jenkins, Bruce (July 7, 2008)."The Greatest Match Ever".San Francisco Chronicle. Archived fromthe original on March 4, 2012. RetrievedFebruary 14, 2009.
London, Herbert I.The Transformational Decade: Snapshots of a Decade from 9/11 to the Obama Presidency (Lanham: University Press of America, 2012) 177 pp.
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