1998

U. S. district court justice Susan Weber Wright dismisses Paula Corbin Jones’s sexual harassment suit against President Bill Clinton as without merit.

The United Nations creates an international tribunal to investigate war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia.

The U. S. Department of Justice files an antitrust lawsuit against the Microsoft Corporation, contending that the mandatory inclusion of its Internet Explorer program with the Windows 98 operating system amounts to a monopoly.

In National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley, the U. S. Supreme Court upholds a congressional mandate requiring the National Endowment for the Arts to consider “general standards of decency” when deciding which projects receive federal funding.

The federal budget produces the first sustained federal surpluses in two centuries.

On August 7, bombs explode at the U. S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, killing 213 people, and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 11. Over 4,500 people are injured. In response, the United States bombs suspected terrorist strongholds in Afghanistan and the Sudan.

Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr delivers his report to Congress on President Clinton’s intimate relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The report alleges perjury in Clinton’s testimony in the Jones suit.

In a fierce party-line vote, the House of Representatives votes to impeach Clinton for obstruction of justice and perjury related to the Jones lawsuit.

1999

The U. S. Senate acquits President Clinton on both articles of impeachment.

In response to the Serbian government’s campaign of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, U. S. and NATO forces begin air strikes against military targets in Serbia. After 11 weeks of bombing, the Serbians withdraw and agree to peace talks.

On April 20, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, go on a shooting rampage at the school, killing one teacher and 12 students before committing suicide.

Four police officers shoot and kill Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant, near his home in New York City. They fire 41 shots in total, striking Diallo 19 times. All four officers are later acquitted of criminal charges, leading to massive protests in New York and Washington, D. C.

The International Criminal Tribunal indicts Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic? and four of his government officials for “crimes against humanity.”

Justin Volpe, a 27-year-old New York City police officer, pleads guilty to sodomizing Abner Louima in a po-lice precinct bathroom in 1997. He receives a fine and a 30-year prison sentence. A second officer, Charles Schwarz, is found guilty of violating Louima’s civil rights. Three other officers are later found guilty of obstructing justice.

Riots erupt in Seattle, where more than 30,000 activists for consumers, workers, and the environment protest WTO policy.

Control of the Panama Canal is transferred from the United States to Panama on December 31.

In April, the Microsoft Corp. is found to have violated U. S. antitrust laws. Federal appeals court judge Richard Posner recommends the corporation be split into two companies.

U. S. agents return seven-year-old Elian Gonzalez to the custody of his father. The boy had been the sole survivor when a small boat carrying a group of Cuban refugees sank off the coast of Florida. Elian’s repatriation sparks virulent protests within the Cuban-American community.

The U. S. Supreme Court strikes down the Violence against Women Act. The act had been used by female victims of sexual violence to sue their attackers in federal court.

In June, U. S. and U. K. scientists announce that they have decoded the human genome.

The U. S. Supreme Court rules in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale that the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution protects the right of the Boy Scouts to bar gays from serving as adult scout leaders.

The U. S. Supreme Court rules in Stenberg v. Carhart that a Nebraska law prohibiting “late-term” or “partial-birth” abortion is an unconstitutional infringement on a woman’s right to reproductive choice.

The House of Representatives votes in July to ease the 38-year-old embargo on the trade of food and medicines to the island nation of Cuba. The vote also eases existing travel restrictions for U. S. citizens. The embargo had repeatedly been criticized for contributing to Cuba’s lower standard of living in the post-cold war era.

Napster, a website that allows its customers to download popular music for free on-line, is sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for copyright infringement. A U. S. District Court orders Napster to shut down, but the controversy continues over the meaning of copyright laws on the Internet.

President Clinton hosts peace talks at Camp David to attempt to resolve the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Some progress is made as Israel, for the first time, considers sharing limited sovereignty in Jerusalem with Palestine, and Palestine considers, also for the first time, allowing Israel to keep the lands it captured in the 1967 Middle East war. The talks break down before a solution can be reached, however, when both governments refuse to compromise on sovereignty in the eastern section of Jerusalem, an area with sites sacred to both Jews and Arabs.

The United States normalizes trade relations with China.

The U. S. Food and Drug Administration approves the sale of mifepristone, commonly known as RU-486 or the abortion pill, a drug that would enable women to perform safer, non-surgical abortions in the first seven weeks of a pregnancy.

Vermont becomes the only state to legalize same-sex civil unions, which grant gay couples the same legal rights as heterosexual married couples.

On October 12, two Islamic fundamentalists bomb the USS Cole, a U. S. warship stationed in Yemen, killing 17 sailors. Officials believe Saudi billionaire Osama bin Laden is behind the explosions.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is elected U. S. senator of New York. She is the first First Lady to be elected to political office.

More than a month after voters cast their ballots in the closest election in U. S. history, the presidential election of 2000 is decided by the Supreme Court decision Bush v. Gore. The Court finds in favor of Republican candidate George W. Bush, who had successfully sought to prevent a recount of contested Florida ballots called for by Democratic candidate Al Gore.

2001

The 10-year expansion of the U. S. economy ends and a recession begins.

Colin Powell becomes the first African American to be named secretary of state.

A U. S. spy plane makes an emergency landing on Hainan island, China, after colliding with a Chinese fighter jet. Tensions mount between the United States and China as China searches the plane and holds both it and its crew for nearly a week before dismantling the plane and sending it back to the United States.

On January 31, at a trial held in the Netherlands, Abdel Baset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi is found guilty of 270 counts of murder in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. A second Libyan defendant, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, is acquitted.

The state of California begins “rolling blackouts” to deal with an energy crisis brought about by its botched deregulation of the industry and the profiteering of energy companies such as Enron.

In May, Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont withdraws from the Republican Party to become an independent. The Senate, which had been split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, swings to Democratic control.

In June, a U. S. Court of Appeals reverses the ruling made in April 2000 that the Microsoft Corp. be split into two separate companies. By the end of the year both sides are negotiating to settle the case.

President Bush refuses to submit the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty committed to reducing carbon dioxide, for Senate ratification because of fears that ratification could negatively impact the U. S. economy. Most of the rest of the signatories remain committed to the protocol.

President George W. Bush bans the creation of new stem cell lines for medical research.

On September 11, Islamic fundamentalists hijack four commercial airliners. Two hijacked planes crash into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. A third plane is crashed into the Pentagon. The fourth plane crashes in a deserted area of Pennsylvania when passengers foil the terrorists. More than 3,000 die in the attacks, which shock and rally the nation.

The United States accuses Saudi billionaire Osama bin Laden of directing the terrorist attacks of September 11 and demands that Afghanistan’s Taliban regime extradite him for prosecution. The Taliban refuse.

On October 5, Robert Stevens, a photo editor in Boca Raton, Florida, dies of inhalation anthrax. Within days media outlets in New York City announce anthrax exposure by some employees. Letters sent to media figures and politicians, including Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, are also found to contain anthrax. Postal workers in Washington, D. C., and New Jersey contract the disease due to contact with contaminated mail. By December a total of 18 people have been infected and five people have died from inhaling the spores.

On October 7, the United States strikes strongholds of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network in Afghanistan. Two months after the initial strikes the Taliban surrender most of their control of Afghanistan but Taliban leader Mullah Omar and al-Qaeda leaders, including bin Laden, elude capture.

The U. S. unemployment rate for November, 5.7 percent, is the highest in six years.

Enron, a large energy company based in Houston, declares bankruptcy in December. Its stock price has fallen from a high of $83.00 to $0.26 per share. Nearly 4,500 employees lose their jobs.

On December 11, Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan cuts interest rates for the 11th time this year.

On D ecember 13, President George W. Bush announces that the United States will pull out of the AntiBallistic Missile Treaty of 1972.

2002

In May the U. S. State Department declares Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria as sponsors of state terrorism.

In July Iraq refuses the United Nations proposal to continue weapons inspections. President Bush warns on September 12, before the United Nations, that Iraq is a grave threat to the world. On October 2 the U. S. Congress provides President Bush with the authority to use military force against Iraq if it fails to comply with inspections.

On November 8 the United Nations passes Resolution 1441 in a unanimous Security Council vote demanding Iraqi disarmament. It forces Saddam Hussein and Iraq to disarm or face serious consequences.

In November NATO invites an additional seven nations to join the defense alliance: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

2003

On February 1 the space shuttle Columbia explodes upon reentry over Texas, killing all seven astronauts.

The Iraq War begins on March 19. A U. S. coalition drives Saddam Hussein from power by April 9. The U. S. coalition acts without the authority of the United Nations because of a veto by France in the Security Council.

Saddam Hussein, former leader of Iraq, is captured in a small bunker in Tikrit by the U. S. 4th Infantry Division on December 13.

2004

In February the Central Intelligence Agency announces that weapons of mass destruction were not an imminent threat at the initiation of the Iraq War.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the Freedom Tower at Ground Zero is undertaken in New York City on July 4.

President George W. Bush wins reelection over Democratic Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts on November 2. He wins 50.7 percent of the popular vote and 286 votes in the Electoral College.

On December 26 the South Asian tsunami occurs following a 9.3 Richter scale earthquake in the Indian Ocean, killing 290,000 people from Sri Lanka to Indonesia. The United States leads the humanitarian effort.

2005

In July American cyclist Lance Armstrong wins his record 7th straight Tour de France.

On July 26 the first space shuttle flight since the tragedy of 2003 is completed with the Discovery mission.

Hurricane Katrina strikes the Gulf Coast on August 29, flooding New Orleans and the region. More than 1,300 people perish from Alabama to Louisiana in one of the worst natural disasters to strike the United States.

In October Iraq holds its first elections.

2006

The one billionth song is downloaded from the Internet music store Apple iTunes, hurting sales at stores such as Tower Records

By September the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans reopens after repairs of damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.

The population of the United States reaches 300 million, taking only 42 years to gain 100 million people since the 200 millionth person was added in 1964. The nation debates illegal immigration.

In the midterm November elections, Democrats sweep both houses of Congress for the first time since 1994.

2007

On January 4 the first female Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives, Representative Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, California, is sworn into office.

In January President George W. Bush announces a troop surge of 21,500 for the war in Iraq at the request of new commander General David Petraeus. The strategy gradually succeeds.

It is reported in June that a terror plot by four terrorists to blow up JFK International Airport in New York City is thwarted.

In December the Mitchell Report on the steroids scandal in baseball is released. The report shows that leading baseball athletes have used performance-enhancing drugs.

2008

A July report by the U. S. embassy in Iraq shows violence waning in Iraq.

On August 17 American Michael Phelps wins his eighth gold medal of the Beijing Summer Olympic Games. Phelps holds the record for most gold medals (eight) won at a single Olympic games and also the most gold medals overall (14) of any Olympian.

In August Sarah Palin, first-term governor of Alaska, becomes Republican senator John McCain’s running mate. For the first time, a presidential election included both an African-American candidate and a woman as presidential and vice-presidential nominees on both the Democratic and Republican tickets.

On October 3 the United States Congress passes legislation, signed by President Bush, for a $700 billion bailout, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.

On November 4 Barack Obama, Democratic senator from Illinois, wins election to the White House with 365 to 173 electoral votes over John McCain, making him the 44th president of the United States and the first African-American president in the history of the country.

2009

On January 20 Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th president of the United States.

In February 2009 President Obama signs the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a $787 billion economic stimulus bill.

In spring General Motors and Chrysler Motor Company enter bankruptcy.

In June President Obama begins troop withdrawals in Iraq and a troop buildup in Afghanistan.

In June Justice David Souter retires from the Supreme Court. He is succeeded by Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic justice.