War & Peace

• Bush v. Gore (December 12)

• iTunes launched (January 9)
  
• Passage of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, marking the first of several pieces of legislation commonly referred to as the "Bush tax cuts" (June 7)
• Terrorist Attacks in New York City, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania (September 11)
  
• War in Afghanistan (October 7)
  
• USA PATRIOT Act (October 26)

• No Child Left Behind Act (passed in December 2001, signed January 8, 2002)
  
• Bush’s State of the Union labels Iran, North Korea, and Iraq the “Axis of Evil” (January 29)
  
• Homeland Security Act of 2002 establishes the Department of Homeland Security (November 25)

• Iraq War begins (March)
  
• Massachusetts Supreme Court legalizes gay marriage (November)
  
• Hispanics surpass African Americans as the largest minority group in the United States.
• Space Shuttle Columbia explodes

• Facebook launched
  
• President Bush announces support for a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman

• YouTube launched (April 23, 2005)
  
• Hurricane Katrina (late August)

• Twitter launched (March)
  
• An Inconvenient Truth (released May 24)
  
• Secure Fence Act (October 26)

• Nancy Pelosi becomes the first female Speaker of the House
  
• Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 fails (June 7)
  
• iPhone released (June 29)
  
• Live Earth Concerts (July 7)
  
• Onset of the Great Recession (December)

• District of Columbia v. Heller
  
• Housing and Economic Recovery Act (July 30)
  
• Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy (September 15)
  
• Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (“Wall Street Bailout”) [signed Oct. 3]
  
• Barack Obama is elected the first African American president (November 4)

• Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (January)
  
• American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (February)
  
• Obama announces expansion of the War in Afghanistan (December)
  
• Puerto Rican Sonia Sotomayor becomes the first Latinx justice on the Supreme Court

• Affordable Care Act (March 23)
  
• Navy lifts ban on women in submarines (April)
  
• Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (
  
• Wall-Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (July 21)
  
• It Gets Better Project launched (September 21)
  
• Instagram launched (October)

• Navy SEALs raid a compound in Pakistan and kill Osama bin Laden (May 2)
  
• Occupy Wall Street Protests begin (September 17)
  
• Repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” implemented (September 20)

• Trayvon Martin killed by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida (February 26)
  
• President Obama expresses support for marriage equality (May 10)
  
• President Obama announces the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program (June 15)
  
• National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius
  
• Black Lives Matter movement begins (July)
  
• Hurricane Sandy (October 29)
  
• Mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School (December 14)

• American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 extends most of the “Bush tax cuts” except for those on the highest earners
  
• Military lifts ban on women in combat (January 24)
  
• Shelby County v. Holder

• Janet Yellen becomes the first female chair of the Federal Reserve (February 3)
  
• Russia invades Ukraine, leading the United States and its allies to impose economic sanctions (February–April)
  
• President Obama sends 300 military advisers to Iraq to protect diplomats from ISIS (June)
  
• To combat ISIS, US military begins airstrikes in Iraq and Syria and sends 1,500 troops to Iraq (August–November)
  
• President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping announce joint agreement to reduce carbon emissions by 2030 (November 12)
  
• President Obama announces Immigration Accountability Executive Action (November 20)
  
• Riots in Ferguson and St. Louis, Missouri, after a grand jury declined to indict a police officer for shooting and killing Michael Brown, an African American teenager (November 24)
  
• Bill Cosby is accused of sexual assault by dozens of women (November)
  
• Protests in New York City after a grand jury declines to indict police officers for the death of Eric Garner (December 4)
  
• The United States withdraws most troops from Afghanistan, marking the end of the War in Afghanistan

• Supreme Court rules in Obergefell v. Hodges that state-level bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional (June 26)
  
• Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“Iran nuclear deal”) signed (July 14)
  
• Full diplomatic relations restored between the United States and Cuba (July 20)
  
• President Obama announces plans to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees in the United States in 2016

2016

• Protests at Standing Rock Reservation begin (April)
  
• Paris Agreement signed (April 22)
  
• Departments of Justice and Education issue new guidelines to allow students to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identities (May 13)
  
• Mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, kills 49 and wounds 53 in deadliest attack on LGBT community

• Executive Order 13769 (“Muslim Ban”) issued by President Trump (January 27)
  
• President Trump revokes Obama-era guidelines that allowed students to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identities (February)
  
• President Trump announces withdrawal from the Paris Agreement (June 1)
  
• Hurricane Harvey (late August)
  
• #MeToo goes viral after sexual misconduct allegations are made about movie producer Harvey Weinstein (October)
  
• Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed by President Trump (December 22)

• Time’s Up founded (January 1)
  
• President Trump announces withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“Iran nuclear deal”)
  
• President Trump meets with Kim Jong Un of North Korea (June)
  
• Massacre at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh leaves 11 dead (October)
  
• Camp Fire in California kills X (November)

• In a televised address to the nation, President Donald Trump makes the case for his proposed border wall.
• The Supreme Court rules that the Trump administration is allowed to limit military service for transgender people.
• around 50 people are accused of fraud to secure admission to elite colleges, including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin
• President Trump issues a new permit to construct the Keystone Pipeline
• Maine becomes the first state to ban Styrofoam containers
• The U.S. officially withdraws from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty established with Russia in 1987
• Thousands of students across the United States join their counterparts world-wide in demonstrations against climate change led by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and 12-year-old Colorado activist Haven Coleman
• The House of Representatives votes 232–196 in favor of formally proceeding with an impeachment inquiry against President Trump.
• The United States Space Force (USSF) is founded

• Covid-19 pandemic
• Kamala Harris becomes the first woman of color to be elected Vice President.