January 20, 2001 - George W. Bush took the oath of office as the 43rd president of the United States.

January 20, 2001 - Colin Powell sworn in as first African American U.S. secretary of state by President-elect George W. Bush.

January 20, 2001 - Hundreds of thousands of protesting Filipinos forced President Joseph Estrada to step down; Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was sworn in as the new president.

January 22, 2001 - President George W. Bush signed a memorandum reinstating full abortion restrictions on U.S. overseas aid.

February 6, 2001 - Ariel Sharon was elected Israeli prime minister in a landslide over Ehud Barak.

March 8, 2001 - The Republican-controlled House voted for an across-the-board tax cut of nearly $1 trillion over the next decade, handed President George W. Bush a major victory only 48 days into his term.

April 1, 2001 - Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was arrested on corruption charges after a standoff with the police in Belgrade.

April 26, 2001 - Junichiro Koizumi was elected prime minister of Japan by the lower house of Japan's parliament.

May 2, 2001 - President George W. Bush appoints a commission to investigate potential changes to the nation’s Social Security system. The commission was charged with examining the feasibility of unprecedented and controversial changes Bush had proposed for a Social Security system that had been largely unchanged since it was created by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935. In an executive order to create the bipartisan commission, Bush wrote that he intended "to preserve Social Security for senior Americans while building wealth for younger Americans." Bush proposed to allow younger workers the voluntary option to invest Social Security funds in a "conservative mix of bond and stock" accounts that would generate a higher return than the rate offered by the old federally managed system. A significant number of critics cited the plan’s potential for abuse. Some Democratic leaders and economic analysts denied that Social Security was about to go bust and assailed the president’s plan as financially risky. Some worried that people would risk their future financial security by making unwise investment choices, similar to "playing the stock market." Opponents pointed out that the plan would be expensive to implement and also feared it would give the government the power to "raid" excess funds in Social Security to spend on controversial projects.

May 3, 2001 - The United States lost its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947.

May 14, 2001 - The Supreme Court ruled that there is no exception in federal law for people to use marijuana to ease their pain from cancer, AIDS or other illnesses.

May 24, 2001 - Democrats gained control of the U.S. Senate for the first time since 1994 when Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont abandoned the Republican Party and declared himself an independent.

June 6, 2001 - Democrats assumed control of the U.S. Senate when Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont left the Republican Party to become an independent.

June 8, 2001 - British Prime Minister Tony Blair was elected to a second term in a landslide.

June 20, 2001 - Billy Collins was named the 11th U.S. poet laureate.

June 28, 2001 - Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic was handed over by Serbia to the U.N. war crimes tribunal.

June 29, 2001 - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was elected to a second term.

July 3, 2001 - Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic refused to enter a plea on war crimes charges in his first appearance before a U.N. tribunal at The Hague.

July 9, 2001 - A court in Chile ruled that Gen. Augusto Pinochet could not be tried on human rights charges because of his deteriorating physical and mental health.

August 9, 2001 - President George W. Bush approved federal funding only for existing lines of embryonic stem cells.

September 11, 2001 - Suicide hijackers crashed two airliners into the World Trade Center in New York, causing the 110-story twin towers to collapse. Another hijacked airliner hit the Pentagon and a fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. The hijacked planes were all en route to California, and therefore gorged with fuel, and their departures were spaced within an hour and 40 minutes. The first, American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 out of Boston for Los Angeles, crashed into the north tower at 8:48 a.m. Eighteen minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175, also headed from Boston to Los Angeles, plowed into the south tower. Then an American Airlines Boeing 757, Flight 77, left Washington's Dulles International Airport bound for Los Angeles, but instead hit the western part of the Pentagon, the military headquarters where 24,000 people work, at 9:40 a.m. Finally, United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757 flying from Newark to San Francisco, crashed near Pittsburgh, raising the possibility that its hijackers had failed in whatever their mission was. 266 people perished in the four planes and several score more were known dead elsewhere. President Bush had been visiting a group of first graders at Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, FL, to promote a new education bill. Bush remained aloft in Air Force One, following a secretive route and making only brief stopovers at Air Force bases in Louisiana and Nebraska before finally setting down in Washington at 7 p.m. His wife and daughters were evacuated to a secure, unidentified location. The repercussions of the attack swiftly spread across the nation. Air traffic across the United States was halted at least until today and international flights were diverted to Canada. Borders with Canada and Mexico were closed. Most federal buildings across the country were shut down. Major skyscrapers and a variety of other sites, ranging from Disney theme parks to the Golden Gate Bridge and United Nations headquarters in New York, were evacuated.

September 12, 2001 - President George W. Bush labeled the previous day's terrorist attacks ''acts of war'' and asked Congress for $20 billion to rebuild and recover.

September 13, 2001 - Secretary of State Colin Powell named Osama bin Laden as the prime suspect in the terror attacks on the United States; limited commercial flights resumed for the first time in two days.

September 15, 2001 - President George W. Bush identified Osama bin Laden as the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and told Americans to prepare for a long, difficult war against terrorism.

September 20, 2001 - President George W. Bush addressed a joint session of Congress regarding the terrorist attacks and named Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge to head the new Office of Homeland Security.

September 21, 2001 - Congress approved $15 billion to help an airline industry reeling from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

September 24, 2001 - President George W. Bush froze the assets of 27 suspected terrorists and terrorist groups.

September 27, 2001 - President George W. Bush announced plans to bolster airline security: expand use of federal marshals on airliners, make cockpits more secure, put federal government in charge of airport security.

October 1, 2001 - The Supreme Court suspended former President Bill Clinton from practicing before the high court.

October 3, 2001 - The Senate approved an agreement normalizing trade between the United States and Vietnam.

October 7, 2001 - The United States and Britain launched air strikes against Taliban positions and Osama bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan; dubbed Operation Enduring Freedom in U.S. military parlance, the invasion of Afghanistan was intended to target terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization as well as the extreme fundamentalist Taliban government that had ruled most of the country since 1996 and supported and protected al-Qaida. The Taliban, which had imposed its extremist version of Islam on the entire country, also perpetrated countless human rights abuses against its people, especially women, girls and ethnic Hazaras. During their rule, large numbers of Afghans lived in utter poverty, and as many as 4 million Afghans are thought to have suffered from starvation. After the air campaign softened Taliban defenses, the coalition began a ground invasion, with Northern Alliance forces providing most of the troops and the U.S. and other nations giving air and ground support.  November 12 - Taliban officials and their forces retreated from the capital of Kabul. By early December, Kandahar, the last Taliban stronghold, had fallen and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar went into hiding rather than surrender. Al-Qaida fighters continued to hide out in Afghanistan's mountainous Tora Bora region, where they were engaged by anti-Taliban Afghan forces, backed by U.S. Special Forces troops. Al-Qaida soon initiated a truce, which is now believed to have been a ploy to allow Osama bin Laden and other key al-Qaida members time to escape into neighboring Pakistan. By mid-December, the bunker and cave complex used by al-Qaida at Tora Bora had been captured, but there was no sign of bin Laden.

October 8, 2001 - Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge was sworn in as director of the new Office of Homeland Security.

October 19, 2001 - Two Army Rangers were killed in a helicopter crash in Pakistan in the first combat-related American deaths of the military campaign in Afghanistan.

October 24, 2001 - The House passed a $100 billion economic stimulus package in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

October 26, 2001 - President George W. Bush signs the USA PATRIOT Act (acronym for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism"), an anti-terrorism law drawn up in response to the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The act increased intelligence agencies’ ability to share information and lifted restrictions on communications surveillance. Law enforcement officials were given broader mandates to fight financial counterfeiting, smuggling and money laundering schemes that funded terrorists. The Patriot Act’s expanded definition of terrorism also gave the FBI increased powers to access personal information such as medical and financial records. The Patriot Act superseded all state laws. The law faced a torrent of criticism. Civil rights activists worried that the Patriot Act would curtail domestic civil liberties and would give the executive branch too much power to investigate Americans under a veil of secrecy—a fear not felt since the protest era of the 1960s and 1970s when the FBI bugged and infiltrated anti-war and civil rights groups. March 2006 - a Republican-controlled Congress passed and Bush signed a renewal of the controversial Patriot Act. Bush exacerbated the controversy over the renewal of the act by issuing a so-called "signing statement"--an executive exemption from enforcing or abiding by certain clauses within the law--immediately afterward.

October 26, 2001 - The Supreme Court building was closed for anthrax testing, and traces of anthrax were found in the State Department and CIA headquarters.

November 10, 2001 - President George W. Bush addresses the United Nations to ask for the international community’s help in combating terrorism around the world. He also pledged to take the fight against terrorism to any place where terrorists were harbored. Bush cited the U.S.-led military action in Afghanistan against al-Qaida and the Taliban regime that had sponsored them, begun a month earlier, as proof that the U.S. was fully prepared to attack other nations that harbored or financed terrorist groups. Bush went on to promise that the U.S. would stand by its commitment to peace in the Middle East by "working toward a day when two states, Israel and Palestine, live peacefully together within secure and recognized borders as called for" by the United Nations. Bush concluded his speech by saying he expected the United Nations member states to live up to their global obligation to help root out terrorist cells. "The cost of inaction is far greater," he said, and the attacks on September 11 proved that "the only alternative is a nightmare world where every city is a potential killing field." This speech was the first time Bush laid out a policy of pre-emptive action against regimes that sponsored terrorists. He followed up on his threat two years later by sending American troops to overthrow Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, whom he accused of funding terrorist organizations and developing weapons of mass destruction, though no such weapons were ever found.

November 10, 2001 - The World Trade Organization (WTO) approved China's membership.

November 13, 2001 - In the first such act since World War II, US President George W. Bush signs an executive order allowing military tribunals against any foreigners suspected of having connections to terrorist acts or planned acts on the United States.

November 16, 2001 - Congress passed an aviation security bill mandating that airport screeners be federal employees.

November 19, 2001 - President George W. Bush signed legislation to put airport baggage screeners on the federal payroll.

November 20, 2001 -- Federal health officials approved sale of the world's first contraceptive patch, Ortho-Evra.

November 23, 2001 - The U.N. war crimes tribunal said it would try former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for genocide in Bosnia.

December 4, 2001 - The United States froze the financial assets of organizations allegedly linked to the terrorist group Hamas ("Islamic Resistance Movement").

December 13, 2001 - President George W. Bush served formal notice that the United States was pulling out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia.

December 27, 2001 - U.S. officials announced that Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners would be held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

February 7, 2002 - President George W. Bush announces his plan to federally fund "faith-based initiatives"; proposed that faith-based organizations should assume a greater role in providing social-service programs "without breaching the separation of church and state." He suggested that government "should not discriminate against faith-based programs, but it should encourage them to flourish." Under his plan, religious groups could receive federal funding to implement programs usually carried out by secular non-profit organizations.

February 15, 2002 - President George W. Bush approved Nevada's Yucca Mountain as the site for long-term disposal of highly radioactive nuclear waste.

February 17, 2002 - The new Transportation Security Administration took over supervision of aviation security from the airline industry and the Federal Aviation Administration.

March 3, 2002 - Voters in Switzerland approved joining the United Nations, abandoning almost 200 years of formal neutrality.

March 10, 2002 - Israeli helicopters destroyed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's office in Gaza City, hours after 11 Israelis were killed in a suicide bombing in a cafe across the street from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's residence in Jerusalem.

March 12, 2002 - Homeland security chief Tom Ridge unveiled a color-coded system for terror warnings.

March 12, 2002 - The U.N. Security Council approved a U.S.-sponsored resolution endorsing a Palestinian state for the first time.

March 28, 2002 - The Arab League, meeting in Beirut, Lebanon, agreed on a peace plan that offered Israel normal relations in exchange for a full withdrawal from war-won lands and a Palestinian state.

April 11, 2002 - U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., D-Ohio, was convicted of taking bribes and kickbacks from businessmen and his own staff. (He was sentenced to eight years in prison).

April 13, 2002 - Venezuela's interim president, Pedro Carmona, resigned a day after taking office in the face of protests by thousands of supporters of the ousted president, Hugo Chavez. April 14, 2002 - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez returned to office two days after being ousted and arrested by his country's military.

April 29, 2002 - A year after the loss of a seat it had held for over 50 years, the United States won election to the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

May 5, 2002 - French President Jacques Chirac was re-elected in a landslide victory over extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.

May 12, 2002 - Jimmy Carter became the first present or former U.S. president to visit Cuba since Fidel Castro seized power in 1959.

May 20, 2002 - East Timor became an independent nation.

June 20, 2002 - The U.S. Supreme Court declared that executing mentally retarded murderers was unconstitutionally cruel.

June 27, 2002 - The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that tuition vouchers are constitutional.

July 1, 2002 - Chile's Supreme Court ruled that former dictator General Augusto Pinochet was suffering from dementia and dropped all charges against him for human rights violations during his regime.

July 16, 2002 - President George W. Bush announces his plan for strengthening homeland security; included, but was not limited to, a color-coded warning system that identified different levels of threat, assessing which industries and regions were vulnerable to attack. He also proposed changes in laws that would give the president increased executive powers, particularly with regard to anti-terrorism policy. Over the next few years, his administration faced accusations of flagrantly violating the Constitution and creating a political culture of secrecy and cronyism.

July 24, 2002 - The U.S. House expelled Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio, who had been convicted of bribery, racketeering and tax evasion. July 30, 2002 - sentenced to eight years behind bars for corruption.

July 30, 2002 - Expelled from Congress a week earlier, an unrepentant James A. Traficant Jr. was sentenced to eight years behind bars for corruption.

September 6, 2002 - Meeting outside Washington DC, for only the second time since 1800, Congress convened in New York to pay homage to the victims and heroes of September 11, 2001.

September 10, 2002 - Switzerland became the 190th member of the United Nations.

September 12, 2002 - President George W. Bush told skeptical world leaders at the United Nations to confront the ''grave and gathering danger'' of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, or to stand aside as the United States acted.

September 19, 2002 - President George W. Bush asked Congress for authority to ''use all means,'' including military force if necessary, to disarm and overthrow Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein if he did not quickly meet United Nations demands to abandon all weapons of mass destruction.

September 24, 2002 - British Prime Minister Tony Blair told a special session of Parliament that Iraq had a growing arsenal of chemical and biological weapons and planned to use them.

September 30, 2002 - Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., ended his scandal-tainted re-election campaign just five weeks before the election.

October 10, 2002 - The House voted 296-133 to give President George W. Bush broad authority to use military force against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, with or without U.N. support. October 11, 2002 - The Senate joined the House in approving 77-23 the use of America's military might against Iraq.

October 16, 2002 - U.S. President George W. Bush signed a congressional resolution authorizing war against Iraq.

October 16, 2002 - The White House announced that North Korea had disclosed it had a nuclear weapons program.

October 27, 2002 - Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was elected president of Brazil in a runoff, becoming the country's first elected leftist leader.

November 2, 2002 - The Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act of 2002 provided for the use of copyrighted works by accredited nonprofit educational institutions in distance education.

November 13, 2002 - Saddam Hussein's government agreed to the return of international weapons inspectors to Iraq.

November 14, 2002 - Nancy Pelosi of California was elected to succeed Richard Gephardt, who chose to step down, as leader of the Democratic Party in the U.S. House of Representatives; she was the first woman to be named leader of either party in either house of Congress.

November 15, 2002 - Hu Jintao replaced Jiang Zemin as China's Communist Party leader.

November 18, 2002 - U.N. arms inspectors returned to Iraq after a four-year hiatus, called on Saddam Hussein's government to cooperate with their search for weapons of mass destruction.

November 21, 2002 - NATO sought to expand its membership into the borders of the former Soviet Union as it invited seven former communist countries to join the alliance: Slovenia, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Bulgaria.

November 27, 2002 - U.N. specialists began a new round of weapons inspections in Iraq.

December 5, 2002 - at a 100th birthday celebration for Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-N.C., Senate Republican leader Trent Lott praised Thurmond's pro-segregation 1948 presidential campaign. The ensuing uproar led to Lott's resignation from the Senate leadership.

December 7, 2002 - Iraq denied it had weapons of mass destruction in a declaration to the United Nations.

December 9, 2002 - President George W. Bush tapped railroad executive John W. Snow to be his new Treasury secretary, three days after firing Paul O'Neill.

December 11, 2002 - A congressional report found that intelligence agencies before Sept. 11, 2001, were poorly organized, poorly equipped and slow to pursue clues that might have prevented that day's terrorist attacks.

December 12, 2002 - A defiant North Korea said it would immediately reactivate a nuclear power plant that U.S. officials suspected was being used to develop weapons.

December 20, 2002 - Trent Lott resigned as Senate Republican leader two weeks after igniting a political firestorm with racially charged remarks.

December 23, 2002 - Senate Republicans unanimously elected Bill Frist of Tennessee to succeed Trent Lott of Mississippi as their leader in the next Congress.

December 27, 2002 - North Korea ordered U.N. nuclear inspectors to leave the country and said it would restart a laboratory capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons.

January 20, 2003 - George W. Bush took the oath of office as the 43rd president of the United States.

January 21, 2003 - The Census Bureau announced that Hispanics had surpassed blacks as America's largest minority group.

January 24, 2003 - The new federal Department of Homeland Security officially opened as Tom Ridge (former Governor of Pennsylvania) was sworn in as secretary.

February 1, 2003 - A second space-shuttle disaster (Challenger - January 28, 1986) rocked the United States when Columbia disintegrated upon reentry of the Earth's atmosphere. All aboard were killed. Despite fears that the problems that downed Columbia had not been satisfactorily addressed, space-shuttle flights resumed on July 26, 2005, when Discovery was again put into orbit.

February 4, 2003 - Lawmakers formally dissolved Yugoslavia and replaced it with a loose union of its remaining two republics, Serbia and Montenegro.

February 5, 2003 - Secretary of State Colin Powell urged the U.N. Security Council to move against Saddam Hussein, said Iraq had failed to disarm, was harboring terrorists and was hiding behind a ''web of lies.''

February 10, 2003 - Iraq agreed to allow U-2 surveillance flights over its territory, meeting a key demand by U.N. inspectors searching for banned weapons; President George W. Bush brushed aside Iraqi concessions as too little, too late.

March 17, 2003 - Edging to the brink of war, President George W. Bush gave Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave his country. Iraq rejected the ultimatum.

March 15, 2003 - Hu Jintao was chosen to replace Jiang Zemin as the president of China.

March 19, 2003 - President George W. Bush addresses the nation via live television and announces that Operation Iraqi Freedom has begun; illustrated the Bush administration’s pledge to use unilateral, pre-emptive strikes if necessary against nations believed dangerous to American national security. An American-led coalition launched a war against Iraq, beginning with the launch of U.S. cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs aimed at Saddam Hussein near Baghdad. May 1, 2003 - Bush announced "mission accomplished"; first two years of the war - American casualties stood at 2,223 with approximately 16,150 wounded, while independent tallies of the number of Iraqi casualties numbered from 28,000 to 30,000.

March 19, 2003 - Mahmoud Abbas accepted the new position of Palestinian prime minister.

April 7, 2003 - The Supreme Court voted 6-3 to uphold a 50-year-old Virginia law making it a crime to burn a cross as an act of intimidation.

April 9, 2003 - Jubilant Iraqis celebrated the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime, beheading a toppled statue of their longtime ruler in downtown Baghdad.

April 10, 2003 - The House passed a bill creating a national Amber Alert system and strengthening child pornography laws.

April 15, 2003 - U.S. President George W. Bush declared that the government of Saddam Hussein in Iraq has fallen; the following day he called on the United Nations to lift sanctions against Iraq that had been in place since 1991.

April 25, 2003 - Georgia lawmakers voted to scrap the Dixie cross from the state's flag.

April 29, 2003 - Mahmoud Abbas took office as the first Palestinian prime minister.

May 1, 2003 - President George W. Bush landed in a jet on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off the California coast and, in a speech to the nation, declared major combat in Iraq over. Subsequently - 1600 soldiers killed, no prospect of withdrawal before 2006.

May 20, 2003 - The United States banned beef imports from Canada after a case of mad cow disease was discovered in Canada's cattle country.

May 22, 2003 - The U.N. Security Council gave the U.S. and Britain a mandate to rule Iraq, ending 13 years of economic sanctions.

May 23, 2003 - Congress sent President George W. Bush a $330 billion package of tax cuts - the third of his presidency.

May 28, 2003 - President George W. Bush signed a 10-year, $350 billion package of tax cuts.

June 24, 2003 - President Vladimir Putin arrived in London on the first state visit to Britain by a Russian leader since the 19th century.

June 26, 2003 - The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, struck down state bans on gay sex.

July 13, 2003 - With the blessing of U.S. administrators, Iraqis inaugurated a broadly representative governing council.

July 22, 2003 - Saddam Hussein's sons Odai and Qusai were killed when U.S. forces stormed a villa in Mosul, Iraq. Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s sons, Qusay and Uday Hussein, are killed after a three-hour firefight with U.S. forces in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. It is widely believed that the two men were even more cruel and ruthless than their notorious father, and their death was celebrated among many Iraqis. Uday and Qusay were 39 and 37 years old, respectively, when they died. Both are said to have amassed considerable fortunes through their participation in illegal oil smuggling.

July 25, 2003 - President George W. Bush ordered U.S. troops into position off the coast of Liberia to support the arrival of a West African peacekeeping force.

August 11, 2003 - NATO took command of the 5,000-strong peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.

August 26, 2003 - Investigators concluded that NASA's overconfident management and inattention to safety doomed the space shuttle Columbia as much as damage to the craft did.

September 9, 2003 - The Boston Roman Catholic Archdiocese agreed to pay $85 million to 552 people to settle clergy sex abuse cases.

September 12, 2003 - The U.N. Security Council ended 11 years of sanctions against Libya.

September 23, 2003 - The Republican-controlled Texas Legislature adopted a redistricting plan favoring the GOP after four turbulent months, three special legislative sessions and two Democratic walkouts.

September 30, 2003 - The F.B.I. began a criminal investigation into whether White House officials had illegally leaked the identity of an undercover C.I.A. officer.

October 7, 2003 - California voters recalled Gov. Gray Davis and elected Arnold Schwarzenegger to replace him.

October 15, 2003 - China launched its first manned space mission, becoming the third country to send a person into orbit.

October 21, 2003 - Invoking a hastily-passed law, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ordered a feeding tube reinserted into Terry Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman at the center of a bitter right-to-die battle.

October 21, 2003 - The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution demanding that Israel tear down a barrier jutting into the West Bank.

November 18, 2003 - The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled 4-3 that the state constitution guarantees gay couples the right to marry.

November 23, 2003 - Eduard Shevardnadze resigned as president of Georgia in the face of protests.

November 25, 2003 - Yemen arrested Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal, a top al-Qaida member suspected of masterminding the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and the 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker off Yemen's coast.

December 13, 2003 - 600 American soldiers and Special Operations forces, supported by tanks, artillery and Apache helicopter gunships, surrounded two farmhouses near the banks of the Tigris River in Ad Dwar, a village about nine miles southeast of Tikrit, the tribal seat; on second sweep military forces arrested Saddam Hussein, found lying at he bottom of an eight-foot deep hole under a trap door.

January 4, 2004 - Georgians overwhelmingly elected Mikhail Saakashvili president, two months after he'd led protests that forced Eduard Shevardnadze to step down.

January 19, 2004 - John Kerry won Iowa's Democratic presidential caucuses; Howard Dean, who finished third, delivered a fist-pumping, bellowing concession speech that was viewed as politically damaging.

January 27, 2004 - John Kerry won the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary.

February 4, 2004 - The Massachusetts high court declared that gays were entitled to marriage.

February 12, 2004 - Defying a California law, San Francisco officials began performing weddings for same-sex couples.

February 19, 2004 - After sanctioning more than 2,800 gay marriages, the city of San Francisco sued the state of California, challenging its ban on same-sex marriages.

February 23, 2004 - The Army canceled its Comanche helicopter program after sinking $6.9 billion into it over 21 years.

February 24, 2004 - President George W. Bush urged approval of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriages.

March 14, 2004 - Russian President Vladimir Putin captured more than 70 percent of the vote to win a second term in an election that European observers said fell short of democratic standards.

March 14, 2004 - Opposition Socialists scored a dramatic upset win in Spain's general election, unseating conservatives stung by charges they'd provoked the Madrid terror bombings by supporting the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

March 20, 2004 - The U.S. military charged six soldiers with abusing inmates at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

March 25, 2004 - Congress passed a law making it a separate offense to harm a fetus during a violent federal crime.

April 1, 2004 - President George W. Bush signed into law new protections for the unborn that made it a separate federal crime to harm a fetus during an assault on the mother.

April 23, 2004 - President George W. Bush eased Reagan-era sanctions against Libya in return for Moammar Gadhafi's giving up weapons of mass destruction.

April 28, 2004 - The first photos of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal were shown on CBS' ''60 Minutes II.''

April 29, 2004 - A national monument to the 16 million U.S. men and women who served during World War II opened to the public in Washington DC.

April 29, 2004 - President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney met behind closed doors with the Sept. 11 commission.

May 3, 2004 - The U.S. military said it had reprimanded seven officers in the abuse of inmates at Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison; two of the officers were relieved of their duties.

May 6, 2004 - President George W. Bush apologized for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers, calling it ''a stain on our country's honor.''

May 17, 2004 - Massachusetts became the first state to allow legal same-sex marriages. Marcia Kadish, 56, and Tanya McCloskey, 52, of Malden, Massachusetts, marry at Cambridge City Hall in Massachusetts, becoming the first legally married same-sex partners in the United States. Over the course of the day, 77 other same-sex couples tied the knot across the state, and hundreds more applied for marriage licenses. The day was characterized by much celebration and only a few of the expected protests materialized. November 18, 2003 - Massachusetts Supreme Court found the state’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, ruling that the state could not "deny the protections, benefits and obligations conferred by civil marriage to two individuals of the same sex who wish to marry."

May 19, 2004 - Specialist Jeremy C. Sivits wept and apologized after receiving a year in prison and a bad conduct discharge in the first court-martial stemming from abuse of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison.

May 28, 2004 - The Iraqi Governing Council chose Ayad Allawi, a longtime anti-Saddam Hussein exile, to become prime minister of Iraq's interim government.

May 29, 2004 - America dedicated a memorial to its World War II veterans on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

June 1, 2004 - A federal judge declared the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act unconstitutional, saying the measure infringed on women's right to choose.

June 9, 2004 - The Federal Communications Commission agreed to a record $1.75 million settlement with Clear Channel to resolve indecency complaints against Howard Stern and other radio personalities.

June 16, 2004 - Rebuffing Bush administration claims, the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks said no evidence existed that al-Qaida had strong ties to Saddam Hussein.

June 18, 2004 - European Union leaders agreed on the first constitution for the bloc's 25 members.

June 24, 2004 - Federal investigators questioned President Bush for more than an hour in connection with the news leak of a CIA operative's name.

June 28, 2004 - The U.S.-led coalition transferred sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government two days ahead of schedule.

June 28, 2004 - The United States resumed direct diplomatic ties with Libya after a 24-year break.

July 1, 2004 - Saddam Hussein made a defiant first public appearance in an Iraqi court since being captured seven months earlier, scoffing at charges of war crimes and mass killings.

July 6, 2004 - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry chose former rival John Edwards, a North Carolina senator, to be his running mate.

July 9, 2004 - A Senate Intelligence Committee report concluded the CIA had provided unfounded assessments of the threat posed by Iraq that the Bush administration relied on to justify going to war.

July 9, 2004 - The International Court of Justice ruled that Israel's planned barrier in the West Bank barrier violated international law.

July 14, 2004 - The Senate voted 50-48 against a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

July 20, 2004 - The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution demanding that Israel tear down the barrier it was building to seal off the West Bank.

July 21, 2004 - The September 11 panel was harshly critical of the U.S. government in its voluminous report released after a 19-month investigation. The report called for sweeping changes in American intelligence agencies; July 22, 2004 - The Sept. 11 commission issued a report saying America's leaders failed to grasp the gravity of terrorist threats before the 9/11 attacks.

July 28, 2004 - The Democratic National Convention in Boston nominated Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry for president.

August 23, 2004 - Israeli forces evicted militant holdouts from two Jewish settlements, completing a historic withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank.

September 2, 2004 - President George W. Bush pledged ''a safer world and a more hopeful America'' as he accepted his party's nomination for a second term at the Republican National Convention in New York.

September 8, 2004 - "60 Minutes Wednesday" aired a report questioning President George W. Bush's National Guard service. CBS News later apologized for a "mistake in judgment" after memos featured in the report were challenged as forgeries.

September 19, 2004 - Hu Jintao became the undisputed leader of China with the departure of former President Jiang Zemin from his top military post.

September 20, 2004 - CBS News apologized for a ''mistake in judgment'' in its story questioning President George W. Bush's National Guard service, saying it could not vouch for the authenticity of documents featured in the report.

September 27, 2004 - President George W. Bush asked Congress for more than $7.1 billion to help Florida and other Southeastern states recover damage inflicted by by four hurricanes.

October 6, 2004 - The top U.S. arms inspector in Iraq, Charles Duelfer, reported finding no evidence Saddam Hussein's regime had produced weapons of mass destruction after 1991.

October 20, 2004 - A U.S. Army staff sergeant, Ivan ''Chip'' Frederick, pleaded guilty to abusing Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison. (Frederick was sentenced to eight years in prison.).

October 26, 2004 - Israel's parliament approved Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.

October 26, 2004 - The final vote count in the Afghan presidential election gave a resounding victory to interim leader Hamid Karzai.

October 29, 2004 - Osama bin Laden, in a videotaped statement, directly admitted for the first time that he'd ordered the Sept. 11 attacks and told America ''the best way to avoid another Manhattan'' was to stop threatening Muslims' security.

October 29, 2004 - European Union leaders signed the EU's first constitution.

November 2, 2004 - President George W. Bush was elected to a second term as Republicans strengthened their grip on Congress.

November 3, 2004 - Hamid Karzai was declared the winner of Afghanistan's first-ever presidential election.

November 10, 2004 - President George W. Bush nominated White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to be attorney general, succeeding John Ashcroft.

November 12, 2004 - Colin Powell resigns as Secretary of State.

November 16, 2004 - President George W. Bush picked National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to be his new secretary of state, succeeding Colin Powell.

November 23, 2004 - Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko declared himself the winner of Ukraine's disputed presidential election and took a symbolic oath of office.

December 2, 2004 - President George W. Bush chose former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik to run the Department of Homeland Security. Kerik withdrew his name days later, citing immigration problems with a former nanny.

December 7, 2004 - Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan's first popularly elected, post-Taliban president.

December 17, 2004 - President George W. Bush signed into law the largest overhaul of U.S. intelligence-gathering in 50 years.

December 27, 2004 - Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko declared victory in Ukraine's fiercely contested presidential election.

December 31, 2004 - Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych resigned, acknowledging that he had little hope of reversing the presidential election victory of his Western-leaning rival, Viktor Yushchenko.

January 7, 2005 - Conservative columnist Armstrong Williams was dropped by a major syndication service because he'd accepted a payment from the Bush administration to promote the No Child Left Behind law.

January 10, 2005 - CBS issued a damning independent review of mistakes related to a "60 Minutes Wednesday" report on President George W. Bush's National Guard service and fired three news executives and a producer for their "myopic zeal" in rushing it to air.

January 15, 2005 - Mahmoud Abbas was sworn in as Palestinian president.

January 23, 2005 - Viktor Yushchenko was sworn in as president of Ukraine.

January 26, 2005 - Condoleezza Rice was sworn in by President George W. Bush as the nation’s second female secretary of state.

January 30, 2005 - Iraqis voted in their country's first free election in a half-century; President George W. Bush called the balloting a resounding success.

February 3, 2005 - Alberto Gonzales won Senate confirmation as attorney general.

February 10, 2005 - North Korea boasted publicly for the first time that it possessed nuclear weapons.

February 13, 2005 - Final results showed clergy-backed Shiites and independence-minded Kurds had swept to victory in Iraq's landmark elections.

February 17, 2005 - President George W. Bush named John Negroponte as the government's first national intelligence director.

February 17, 2005 - Iraq's electoral commission certified the results of the Jan. 30 elections and allocated 140 of 275 National Assembly seats to the United Iraqi Alliance, giving the Shiite-dominated party a majority in the new parliament.

March 1, 2005 - A closely divided Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for juvenile criminals.

March 2, 2005 - The number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq reached 1,500.

March 14, 2005 - A judge in San Francisco ruled that California's ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional.

March 24, 2005 - The U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal from the parents of Terri Schiavo to have a feeding tube reinserted into the severely brain-damaged woman.

April 7, 2005 - Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite, was named Iraq's interim prime minister; Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani was sworn in as interim president.

April 14, 2005 - The Oregon Supreme Court nullified nearly 3,000 marriage licenses issued to gay couples a year earlier by Portland's Multnomah County.

April 20, 2005 - President George W. Bush signed a bill making it harder for debt-ridden people to wipe clean their financial slates by declaring bankruptcy.

April 26, 2005 - Syria's 29-year military presence in Lebanon ended as Syrian soldiers completed a withdrawal brought about by international pressure and Lebanese street protests.

April 27, 2005 - Russian President Vladimir Putin became the first Kremlin leader to visit Israel.

May 3, 2005 - The first democratically elected government in the history of Iraq was sworn in.

May 16, 2005 - Army Specialist Sabrina Harman was convicted at Fort Hood, Texas, of six of the seven charges she faced for her role in the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. (She was later sentenced to six months in prison.).

May 17, 2005 - Los Angeles Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa trounced Mayor James Hahn to be elected the city's first Hispanic mayor in more than a century.

May 29, 2005 - French voters soundly rejected the European Union's proposed constitution.

May 31, 2005 - W. Mark Felt’s family ends 30 years of speculation, identifying Felt, the former FBI assistant director, as "Deep Throat," the secret source who helped unravel the Watergate scandal. The Felt family’s admission, made in an article in Vanity Fair magazine, took legendary reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who had promised to keep their source’s identity a secret until his death, by surprise. Tapes show that Nixon himself had speculated that Felt was the secret informant as early as 1973. Although his name was often mentioned as a possibility, Felt consistently denied being Deep Throat, even writing in his 1979 memoir, "I never leaked information to Woodward and Bernstein or to anyone else!" Even as recently as six years before the admission, he was quoted as saying, "It would be contrary to my responsibility as a loyal employee of the FBI to leak information." After the death of J. Edgar Hoover, then director of the FBI, Felt, who was serving as the bureau’s assistant director, wanted the job and was angry over Nixon’s failure to appoint him. He was also upset over Nixon’s attempts to stall the bureau’s investigation into the Watergate break-ins. So, when Bob Woodward called the veteran FBI employee to request information about the bureau’s Watergate investigation, Felt agreed to talk. But his cooperation came with strict restrictions. Felt refused to be quoted, even anonymously, and agreed only to confirm information already obtained, refusing to provide new information. And, of course, the reporters had to promise to keep his identity a secret. Felt was only contacted on matters of great importance. In the aftermath of Felt’s admission, both Woodward and Bernstein expressed worries that, due to the intense interest in the Deep Throat mystery over the years, Felt’s role in unraveling the complicated web of lies and deceit that was Watergate may be overstated. They reminded Americans that other sources, Nixon’s secret White House tape recordings, the Senate’s Watergate hearings, and the historic action of the U.S. Supreme Court all played an important role in bringing the truth to light.

June 1, 2005 - Dutch voters rejected the European Union constitution.

June 6, 2005 - The Supreme Court ruled 6-to-3 that people who smoke marijuana because their doctors recommend it to ease pain can be prosecuted for violating federal drug laws.

June 23, 2005 - Former Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen was sentenced to 60 years in prison for the 1964 Mississippi slayings of three civil rights workers.

June 25, 2005 - Hardline Tehran Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of Iran's presidential runoff election.

June 30, 2005 - Spain became the third country to legalize gay marriage.

July 1, 2005 - Justice Sandra Day O'Connor unexpectedly announced her retirement from the Supreme Court.

July 6, 2005 - New York Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed after refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating the leak of an undercover CIA operative's name. (Miller was jailed for 85 days before agreeing to testify).

July 12, 2005 - Prince Albert II of Monaco acceded to the throne of the 700-year-old dynasty.

July 17, 2005 - The Iraqi Special Tribunal filed its first criminal case against Saddam Hussein for a 1982 massacre of Shiites.

July 19, 2005 - President George W. Bush announced his choice of federal appeals court judge John Roberts to replace Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. (Roberts succeeded Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who died in September 2005).

July 28, 2005 - The Irish Republican Army renounced the use of violence against British rule in Northern Ireland and said it would disarm.

August 1, 2005 - President George W. Bush used a recess appointment to install John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations, bypassing the Senate after a testy standoff with Democrats.

August 1, 2005 - Saudi Arabia's ruler, King Fahd, died; Crown Prince Abdullah, the king's half brother, became the country's new ruler.

August 6, 2005 - Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, whose soldier-son, Casey, was killed in Iraq, began a weeks-long protest outside President Bush's ranch in Texas.

August 8, 2005 - Iran resumed work at a uranium conversion facility after suspending nuclear work for nine months to avoid U.N. sanctions.

August 8, 2005 - President George W. Bush signed the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005; intended to establish a comprehensive, long-range energy policy; gave incentives for traditional energy production; for newer, more efficient energy technologies; for conservation; in "authorizing" certain programs, no actual "appropriation" of the necessary funding was made; result was too weak to reduce dependence on petroleum; Act extended Daylight Saving Time, effective in 2007, to begin three weeks earlier on the second Sunday of March and end a week later on the first Sunday of November.

August 22, 2005 - The last Jewish settlers left the Gaza Strip, ending decades of Israel's turbulent occupation.

August 29, 2005 - Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the Louisiana coast, overwhelming the levees protecting New Orleans and causing massive flooding. More than 1,500 people died. Category 4 hurricane; worst natural disaster in the history of the United States. After briefly coming ashore in southern Florida on August 25 as a Category 1 hurricane, Katrina gained strength before slamming into the Gulf Coast on August 29. In addition to bringing devastation to the New Orleans area, the hurricane caused damage along the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama, as well as other parts of Louisiana. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city on August 28, when Katrina briefly achieved Category 5 status and the National Weather Service predicted "devastating" damage to the area. But an estimated 150,000 people, who either did not want to or did not have the resources to leave, ignored the order and stayed behind. The storm brought sustained winds of 145 miles per hour, which cut power lines and destroyed homes, even turning cars into projectile missiles. Katrina caused record storm surges all along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The surges overwhelmed the levees that protected New Orleans, located at six feet below sea level, from Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River. Soon, 80 percent of the city was flooded up to the rooftops of many homes and small buildings. In all, it is believed that the hurricane caused more than 1,800 deaths and more than $80 billion in damages to both private property and public infrastructure. One million people were displaced by the disaster, a phenomenon unseen in the United States since the Great Depression. Four hundred thousand people lost their jobs as a result of the disaster. Offers of international aid poured in from around the world, even from poor countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Private donations from U.S. citizens alone approached $600 million.

September 3, 2005 - President George W. Bush ordered more than 7,000 active duty forces to the Gulf Coast as his administration intensified efforts to rescue survivors and send aid to the hurricane-ravaged region in the face of criticism it did not act quickly enough.

September 5, 2005 - President George W. Bush nominated John Roberts for chief justice; September 29, 2005 - John Roberts was sworn in as the 17th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (succeeded William Renquist who had died earlier in the month).

September 6, 2005 - The California Legislature became the first legislative body in the nation to approve same-sex marriages. (Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger later vetoed the bill).

September 9, 2005 - Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown, the principal target of harsh criticism of the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina, was relieved of his onsite command.

September 12, 2005 - Federal Emergency Management Agency director Mike Brown resigned, three days after losing his onsite command of the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.

September 14, 2005 - A federal judge in San Francisco declared the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools unconstitutional.

September 15, 2005 - President George W. Bush, addressing the nation from storm-ravaged New Orleans, acknowledged the government failed to respond adequately to Hurricane Katrina and urged Congress to approve a massive reconstruction program.

September 22, 2005 - John Roberts' nomination as chief justice cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 13-5 vote.

September 26, 2005 - Army Private First Class Lynndie England was convicted by a military jury in Fort Hood, Texas, on six of seven counts stemming from the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal. (England was later sentenced to three years in prison).

September 26, 2005 - International weapons inspectors backed by Protestant and Catholic clergymen announced the Irish Republican Army's full disarmament.

September 28, 2005 - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was indicted by a Texas grand jury on a charge of conspiring to violate political fundraising laws.

September 29, 2005 - John G. Roberts Jr. was sworn in as the nation's 17th chief justice after winning Senate confirmation.

October 3, 2005 - President Bush announces his nomination of Harriet Miers to replace retiring Sandra Day O'Connor as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

October 5, 2005 - Defying the White House, the Senate voted 90-9 to approve an amendment that would prohibit the use of ''cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment'' against anyone in U.S. government custody.

October 10, 2005 - Angela Merkel struck a power-sharing deal that made her the first woman and politician from the ex-communist east to serve as Germany's chancellor.

October 19, 2005 - A defiant Saddam Hussein pleaded innocent to charges of premeditated murder and torture as his trial opened under heavy security in the former headquarters of his Baath Party in Baghdad.

October 20, 2005 - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay turned himself in at the sheriff's office in Travis County, Texas, where he was fingerprinted, photographed and released on $10,000 bail on conspiracy and money-laundering charges.

October 24, 2005 - President George W Bush nominated Ben Bernanke (Princeton University economist,, government's chief economic advisor after being elected chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in June 2005) as the new head of the US Federal Reserve (14th chairman of the Fed); leading advocate of "inflation targeting", an approach widely adopted in Europe in which central banks set a target for inflation and stick to it.

October 25, 2005 - U.S. military deaths in Iraq reached the 2,000 mark.

October 25, 2005 - Iraq's election commission declared that final results from the Oct. 15 referendum showed the new constitution was ratified by a huge margin, paving the way for elections.

October 27, 2005 - Harriet Miers, President George Bush's nominee to the United States Supreme Court, withdrew her nomination in the face of heavy scrutiny of her qualifications by both political parties.

October 28, 2005 - Lewis Libby, vice president Dick Cheney's chief of staff, is indicted in the Valerie Plame case. Libby resigns after he was indicted on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements in the CIA leak investigation.

October 30, 2005 - The body of Rosa Parks arrived at the U.S. Capitol, where the civil rights pioneer became the first woman to lie in honor in the Rotunda.

October 31, 2005 - In a second nomination attempt President George Bush nominated Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. (Third Circuit Court of Appeals) as associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

November 1, 2005 - The U.S. Senate enters a rare closed session to discuss the Plame affair and intelligence in the Iraq disarmament crisis.

November 3, 2005 - Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis ''Scooter'' Libby, pleaded not guilty to a five-count felony indictment in the CIA leak case.

November 17, 2005 - U.S. Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, considered one of Congress' most hawkish Democrats, called for an immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.

November 19, 2005 - For the first time in 58 years, Indians legally walked into Pakistan after a landmark decision to temporarily open divided Kashmir's heavily militarized border.

November 21, 2005 - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon broke away from the hardline Likud with the intention of forming a new party.

November 22, 2005 - Angela Merkel took power as Germany's first female chancellor.

2006 - George Bush has issued more than 800 "signing statements" in just over 5 1/2 years in office (500 in his firts tem); over 212 years 42 presidents issued them a total of 600 times as objections to provisions of new laws. Most used them to get legal objections on the record for judges to consider in future court challenges. For Bush - part of a strategy to expand presidential powers at the expense of Congress and he courts, = notices to Congress that he simply does not intend the follow the law, especially any attempt to hold him accountable for his actions. All signings served the "unitary executive theory (specifically mentioned 82 times) - says that the president (not Congress or courts) has sole power to decide how to carry out his duties. American bar Association called Bush's use of presidential signing statements "contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers", recommended that Congress enact legislation clarifying the issue.

January 3, 2006 - Lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud and tax evasion and agreed to cooperate in investigations of corruption in Congress. In a plea agreement, he admitted he had provided gifts to officials in exchange for favorable treatment.

January 4, 2006 - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke and his powers were transferred to his deputy, Ehud Olmert.

January 8, 2006 - Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, facing corruption charges, stepped down as House majority leader.

January 10, 2006 - Iran resumed nuclear research two years after halting the work to avoid possible U.N. economic sanctions. The move was denounced by the United States and European governments.

January 15, 2006 - Michelle Bachelet was elected Chile's first woman president.

January 16, 2006 - Africa's first elected female head of state, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, was sworn in as Liberia's new president.

January 22, 2006 - Evo Morales, Bolivia's first Indian president, took office.

January 24, 2006 - Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito won a 10-8 party-line approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee. January 31, 2006 - Samuel Alito was confirmed as the 110th justice of the US Supreme Court.

February 2, 2006 - House Republicans elected John Boehner of Ohio as their new majority leader to replace the indicted Tom DeLay.

February 5, 2006 - Iran ended all voluntary cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

February 6, 2006 - Stephen Harper was sworn in as Canada's 22nd prime minister.

February 11, 2006 - Dubai Ports World, a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates, won approval from a secretive U.S. panel for a $6.8 billion deal to take over operations at six American ports.

February 21, 2006 - President George W. Bush endorsed the takeover of shipping operations at six major U.S. seaports by a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates, and pledged to veto any bill Congress might approve to block the agreement.

February 24, 2006 - South Dakota lawmakers approved a ban on nearly all abortions.

March 2, 2006 - President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a landmark civilian nuclear cooperation deal in New Delhi.

March 3, 2006 - Former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham was sentenced by a federal judge in San Diego to more than eight years in prison for corruption.

March 16, 2006 - Iraq's new parliament met briefly for the first time; lawmakers took the oath but did no business and adjourned after just 40 minutes.

March 22, 2006 - The Basque separatist group ETA announced a permanent cease-fire with Spain.

March 29, 2006 - Hamas formally took over the Palestinian government, with Ismail Haniyeh sworn in as the new prime minister.

April 11, 2006 - Israel's Cabinet declared Prime Minister Ariel Sharon permanently incapacitated, officially ending his five-year tenure.

April 11, 2006 - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that his country had succeeded in enriching uranium on a small scale for the first time.

May 15, 2006 - The United States removed Libya from its list of terrorist states and said it would restore normal diplomatic relations.

June 5, 2006 - Serbian lawmakers proclaimed their Balkan republic a sovereign state after Montenegro decided to split from a union and dissolve the remnants of what was once Yugoslavia.

June 7, 2006 - The U.S. Senate rejected a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

June 29, 2006 - The Supreme Court ruled 5-3 that President George W. Bush's plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violated U.S. and international law.

July 5, 2006 - North Korea test-fired seven missiles into the Sea of Japan, including at least one believed capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.

July 19, 2006 - President Bush exercised the first veto of his administration (7 Presidents never vetoed a piece of legislation - all before 1881); rejected legislation to expand federally funded embryonic stem cell research; defied republican controlled Congress.

August 24, 2006 - The International Astronomical Union declared that Pluto was no longer a planet, demoting it to the status of a "dwarf planet."

September 7, 2006 - Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage confirmed he was the source of a leak that had disclosed the identity of CIA employee Valerie Plame, saying he didn't realize Plame's job was covert.

September 8, 2006 - A Senate report faulted intelligence gathering in the lead-up to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, and said Saddam Hussein regarded al-Qaida as a threat rather than a possible ally, contradicting assertions President Bush had used to build support for the war.

September 15, 2006 - Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, agreed to plead guilty to two criminal charges in the congressional corruption probe spawned by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

September 21, 2006 - The White House and rebellious Senate Republicans announced agreement on rules for the interrogation and trial of suspects in the war on terror.

September 29, 2006 - Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., resigned after being confronted with sexually explicit computer messages he'd sent to former House pages.

October 1, 2006 - The Israeli army completed its withdrawal from Lebanon, clearing the way for a U.N. peacekeeping force.

October 9, 2006 - North Korea announced that it had conducted its first nuclear weapons test, drawing condemnation from around the world.

October 29, 2006 - Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, won re-election in a landslide.

November 7, 2006 - Democrats gained control of the Senate and House of Representatives for the first time in 12 years in midterm elections.

November 16, 2006 - Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was unanimously elected by her Democratic peers as speaker when Congress convenes in January, 2007. First woman ever elected Speaker of the House.

April 16, 2007 - Cho Seung-Hui, a mentally unstable student of Korean descent at Virginia Tech University (Blacksburg, VA), went on a 2-hour shooting spree, killed 32 people (and himself0 in worst massacre in American history.

September 12, 2007 - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe abruptly announced his resignation after less than a year in office. Due to be grilled in parliament over Japan's support for the Afghan mission (Japanese navy is providing refueling support for U.S. warships in the Indian Ocean, which support Western troops in Afghanistan. But the current support will expire on Nov. 1, and there are growing doubts that Japan can gain parliamentary approval before the expiry to extend the mission; opposition Democratic Party of Japan, which won a stunning majority in the upper house election in July, has promised to block the extension of the refueling mission), he suddenly cancelled the question-and-answer session. He seemed emotional and exhausted as he announced his resignation. Abe's support from Japanese voters plummeted from the 60-per-cent level to 30 per cent or less. Plagued by domestic scandals, he suffered a disastrous defeat in an upper house election in July. But none of his potential successors have managed to win much popularity either, and until now he had rejected the growing demands for his resignation.

May 1, 2008 - CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey (poll conducted by telephone from Monday through Wednesday among 1,008 adult Americans, sampling error is plus or minus 3% points) indicates that 71% of the American public disapprove of how Bush is handling his job as president. No president has ever had a higher disapproval rating in any CNN or Gallup Poll; first time that any president's disapproval rating has cracked the 70% mark. He is more unpopular than Richard Nixon was just before he resigned from the presidency in August 1974 (disapproval rating of 66%). Support for the war in Iraq has never been lower. 30% of those questioned favored the war, 68% opposed it. Bush's approval rating (28%) remained better than all-time lows set by Harry Truman (22%) and Richard Nixon (24%), but even those two presidents never got a disapproval rating in the 70s; previous all-time record in CNN or Gallup polling was set by Truman, 67% disapproval in January 1952.

May 1, 2008 - In England the Labour Party suffered its worst defeat at the ballot box in four decades as voters staged a mass local election protest against Gordon Brown’s government and the worsening economic situation (lost 291 seats while the Conservatives had won 233 seats and gained target councils around the country - Tories gained 12 councils, Labour lost 9, Liberal Democrats gained one).

Eric Alterman and Mark Green (2004). The Book on Bush: How George W. Bush (Mis)leads America. (New York, NY: Viking, 419 p.). Bush, George W. (George Walker), 1946- ; Bush, George W. (George Walker), 1946- --Ethics; United States--Politics and government--2001-.

Fred Barnes (2006). Rebel-in-Chief: Inside the Bold and Controversial Presidency of George W. Bush. (New York, NY: Crown Forum, 224 p.). Executive Editor of The Weekly Standard. Bush, George W. (George Walker), 1946- --Political and social views; Bush, George W. (George Walker), 1946- --Influence; Conservatism--United States; United States--Politics and government--2001- ; United States--Foreign relations--2001-. 

Bruce Bartlett (2006). Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy. (New York, NY: Doubleday, 320 p.). Formerly of Reagan White House; Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under George H. W. Bush. Bush, George W. (George Walker), 1946- ; Conservatism--United States; United States--Economic policy--2001- ; United States--Politics and government--2001-. Incompetence and profligacy of Bush’s economic policies.

Paul Begala (2000). Is Our Children Learning?: The Case Against George W. Bush. (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 152 p.). Bush, George W. (George Walker), 1946- ; Bush, George W. (George Walker), 1946- --Political and social views; Governors--Texas--Biography; Presidential candidates--United States--Biography; Presidents--United States--Biography. 

Naftali Bendavid (2007). The Thumpin': How Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats Learned to Be Ruthless and Finally Ended the Republican Revolution. (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 261 p.). Deputy Washington Bureau Chief (Chicago Tribune). Emanuel, Rahm, 1959- ; United States. Congress--Elections, 2006; Democratic National Committee (U.S.); Elections--United States; United States--Politics and government--2001-.  Inside the key races and the national strategy-making that moved the Democrats from forecasted gains of three seats in 2005 to a sweeping gain of thirty seats when the votes were finally counted.

Sidney Blumenthal (2006). How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 420 p.). Former Adviser to President Clinton; Former Political Correspondent (Vanity Fair, New Yorker). Bush, George W. (George Walker), 1946- --Political and social views; Republican Party (U.S. : 1854- ); Radicalism--United States; Conservatism--United States; Executive power--United States; United States--Politics and government--2001- ; United States--Foreign relations--2001- ; United States--Politics and government--Philosophy. Bush, billed by himself and by many others as a conservative, is in fact a radical--more radical than any president in American history. 

James Bovard (2004). The Bush Betrayal. (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 330 p.). Bush, George W. (George Walker), 1946- ; Bush, George W. (George Walker), 1946- --Ethics; Terrorism--Government policy--United States; War on Terrorism, 2001- ; Civil rights--United States; United States--Politics and government--2001- ; United States--Foreign relations--2001-. Campaign promises of 2000 have betrayed the electorate and the Constitution itself.

Frank Bruni (2002). Ambling into History: The Unlikely Odyssey of George W. Bush. (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 278 p.). Bush, George W. (George Walker), 1946- ; Presidents--United States--Biography; United States--Politics and government--2001-; United States--Politics and government--1993-2001.

Robert Bryce (2004). Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America's Superstate. (New York, NY: PublicAffairs, 327 p.). Bush family; Petroleum industry and trade--Political aspects--Texas; Business and politics--Texas; Political culture--Texas; Petroleum industry and trade--Political aspects--United States; Business and politics--United States; Political culture--United States; Texas--Politics and government--1951-; Texas--Biography; United States--Politics and government--1989-.

James Carroll (2004). Crusade: Chronicles of an Unjust War. (New York, NY: Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt, 286 p.). Columnist (Boston Globe). Iraq War, 2003; War on Terrorism, 2001-. 

James W. Ceaser and Andrew E. Busch (2001). The Perfect Tie: The True Story of the 2000 Presidential Election. (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 283 p.). Presidents--United States--Election--2000.

--- (2005). Red over Blue: The 2004 Elections and American Politics. (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 201 p.). United States. Congress--Elections, 2004; Presidents--United States--Election--2004; Elections--United States; United States--Politics and government--2001-. 

Lincoln Chafee (2008). Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President. (New York, NY: Thomas Dunne Books, 256 p.). Republican senator from Rhode Island from 1999 to 2007. Chafee, Lincoln D., 1953- ; Bush, George W. (George Walker), 1946- --Political and social views; United States. Senate--Biography; Republican Party (U.S. : 1854- ); Democratic Party (U.S.); Legislators--United States--Biography; Dissenters--United