Early 2000s Fun

The early 2000s brought us blogs on every subject, random thoughts on Facebook and Twitter, over 10,000 songs in our pockets and piano-playing cats on YouTube.

But we also saw the Twin Towers fall, terror alerts, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the disputed 2000 presidential election and Hurricane Katrina. We gaped at reality TV, Paris Hilton, celebrity meltdowns, and balloon boy–but endured bursting economic bubbles and the start and end of the decade, and millions of Americans out of work.

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In the 2000s:

• 2000: 300 gallons of black sludge is released into the Mississippi River causing an environmental disaster
• 2001: The US ( George W Bush ) refuses to sign the Kyoto Agreement on Climate Change
• 2001: Known simply as 9/11. On September 11, 2001 Nineteen hijackers simultaneously took control of four U.S. domestic commercial airliners. The hijackers crashed two planes into the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York City one into each of the two tallest towers. Within two hours, both towers collapsed. The hijackers crashed the third aircraft into the U.S. Department of Defense headquarters, the Pentagon, in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed into a rural field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, following apparent passenger resistance.
• 2002: The Mars Odyssey finds signs of huge water ice deposits on the planet Mars
• 2003: US Interest Rates at 45 year record low of 1% and core inflation rate of 37 year record low 1.3%
• 2003: Human Genome Project successfully completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to 99.99% accuracy.
• 2004: The Boston Red Sox win the World Series in baseball for the first time since 1918.
• 2005: Hurricane Katrina strikes the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coastal areas. Levees separating Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, Louisiana were breached by the surge, ultimately flooding roughly 80% of the city of New Orleans and 1600 perished
• 2005: President George W Bush at the G8 summit tells other leaders he will not support legally binding reductions on carbon emissions
• 2005: Google purchases YouTube for US$1.65 billion in stock.
• 2007: The Apple Computer Company announces the release of the very first iPhone during January of 2007
• 2007: Nancy Pelosi is elected as the first female Speaker of the US Congress
• 2008: President Bush and House leaders agree to a $150 billion stimulus package, including rebates for most tax filers.
• 2008: President Bush signs the $700 billion bailout / Rescue package bill ( Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 ) is signed into law
• 2009: Ongoing financial crisis and recession which began in late 2007 continues with many calling it the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s causing house prices to decline, and unemployment to increase.

The Cost of:

• A car- $25,850
• A house- $136,150
• A gallon of gas- $1.46 ending at $2.73
• A loaf of bread- $1.82
• A dozen eggs- $.90
• Average annual income was $42,350 ending at $39,423