This is a timeline of the 21st century.
2000s
2001
January 1: Greece becomes the 12th country to join the Eurozone. January 7: Ghana undergoes its first peaceful transfer of power since 1979 when John Kufuor is sworn in as President of Ghana. January 9: Apple Inc. launches iTunes, a software program that acts as a media player and media library. January 15: Wikipedia is launched. January 16: President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Laurent-Désiré Kabila is assassinated. January 17: OPEC agrees at a meeting of ministers in Vienna, to reduce members' oil production quotas by 1.5 million barrels per day. January 17: President Clinton honors Lewis and Clark Expedition, posthumously raises William Clark's rank from Lieutenant to Captain, makes Honorary Sergeant Shoshone female guide Sacagawea, and York, enslaved by William Clark, who assisted expedition, January 18: New York Rangers Mike Richter picks up his 267th career NHL win to become the winningest goaltender in team history, passing Eddie Giacomin, 2-1 in overtime against the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs, January 19: Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán escapes from a maximum-security prison near Guadalajara by bribing prison guards and hiding in a laundry cart, January 20: George W. Bush is inaugurated as President of the United States. January 20: Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is sworn-in as president of the Philippines, ending the Second EDSA Revolution. January 22: The 2001 insurgency in Macedonia begins. January 25: Armenia and Azerbaijan join the Council of Europe. January 26: The 7.6 Magnitude 2001 Gujarat earthquake kills over 20,000 people. February 12: The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touches down in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros, a near-Earth object, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid. February 12: The Human Genome Project publishes the first draft of its human genome sequence. February 22: The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sentences three Bosnian Serb soldiers to prison for wartime sexual violence, recognizing it as a war crime for the first time. June 1: Eleven members of the royal family of Nepal, including the king and queen, are killed by Crown Prince Dipendra, who dies three days later of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. September 11: 2,977 people are killed in a series of coordinated terror attacks on the United States. September 18: Start of anthrax letter attacks. October 7: The United States invades Afghanistan and topples the Taliban regime, resulting in a long-term war. December 3: Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after a series of scandals. December 11: China becomes a member of the World Trade Organization. December 19–20: December 2001 riots in Argentina leave five presidents in less than a month.
2002
January 1: The Euro enters circulation. January 11: The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is established. January 28: North Korea announces its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. February 8: The Algerian Civil War ends. February 27–March 1: Riots and mass killings in the Indian state of Gujarat leave 1,044 dead. March 14: SpaceX is founded by Elon Musk. March 29: Israel starts Operation Defensive Shield in the West Bank in response to a wave of Palestinian suicide attacks. April 11–13: 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt fails to overthrow president Hugo Chavez. May 20: East Timor gains independence. June 10: The 2001–2002 India–Pakistan standoff ends. July 1: The International Criminal Court is established. July 3: Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world. July 9: The African Union is founded. September 10: Switzerland joins the United Nations as the 190th member. September 19: The First Ivorian Civil War begins. October 12: The 2002 Bali bombings killed 202 people and injured 209 more. October 23–26: Chechen rebels seize a theater in Moscow. Amid this siege, around 200 people died. November 15: Hu Jintao is elected as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. November 16: The 2002-2004 SARS outbreak begins in Guangdong, China. Construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier begins.
2003
February 1: Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates upon reentry, killing all seven astronauts on board. February 26: The War in Darfur and Darfur genocide begin. March 19: The United States invades Iraq and ousts Saddam Hussein, triggering worldwide protests and an 8 year war. April 14: The Human Genome Project is completed. June 1: Belgium legalizes same-sex marriage, becoming the second country to do so after the Netherlands. July 18: The Second Congo War ends in a stalemate. July 30: The last Volkswagen Beetle is made in Mexico after 65 years in production. August: The Second Liberian Civil War ends. August 27–29: The first six-party talks, involving South and North Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia take place. October 15: China launches Shenzhou 5, its first crewed spaceflight mission with astronaut Yang Liwei. November 3–23: The Rose Revolution occurs in Georgia. November 26: Final flight of the Concorde supersonic aircraft. December 13: Capture of Saddam Hussein.
2004
January 4: Spirit lands on Mars. January 8: The RMS Queen Mary 2, at the time the largest ocean liner ever built, is christened by its namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II. January 24: Opportunity land on Mars. February 4: Facebook is launched on the campus of Harvard University. March 11: Madrid train bombings killed 193 people and injured around 2,000, Europe's deadliest attack since Pan Am Flight 103. March 16: War in North-West Pakistan begins. September 1–3: 334 people are killed in the three-day Beslan school siege. October 27: The Boston Red Sox win the World Series for the first time since 1918, ending the Curse of the Bambino. November 7–December 23: The Second Battle of Fallujah occurs. It is the deadliest American battle since the Vietnam War, killing 95 troops. November 18: Massachusetts becomes the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage. November 22: The Orange Revolution in Ukraine begins. December 8: The Union of South American Nations formed. December 26: The Boxing Day Tsunami occurs in the Indian Ocean, leading to the deaths of 230,000. NATO and the European Union incorporates most of the former Eastern Bloc.
2005
January 9: Second Sudanese Civil War ends with the signing of the Naivasha Agreement. January 14: The Huygens Probe lands on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan. February 14–April 27: Cedar Revolution in Lebanon triggered by the assassination of Rafic Hariri. February 16: The Kyoto Protocol comes into effect. March 22–April 11: Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan. April 2–19: Pope John Paul II dies and is succeeded by Benedict XVI. April 23: The first video is uploaded to YouTube. July 7: A series of coordinated suicide attacks take place on public transport in London, which come to be known as the 7/7 attacks. July 28: The Provisional Irish Republican Army ends its military campaign in Northern Ireland. July 29: Michael E. Brown confirms the discovery of the dwarf planet Eris. August 3: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad becomes President of Iran. August 18: Peace Mission 2005, the first joint China–Russia military exercise, begins its eight-day training on the Shandong Peninsula. August 29–31: Hurricane Katrina kills 1,836 people across the Gulf of Mexico coast. September 12: Israel's withdrawal from Gaza is complete. September 30: Controversial drawings of Muhammad are printed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, sparking outrage and violent riots by Muslims around the world. October 8: 80,000 are killed in an earthquake in Kashmir, Pakistan and Afghanistan. November 22: Angela Merkel becomes Germany's first female Chancellor. November 30: Surgeons in France carry out the first human face transplant with Isabelle Dinoire becoming the first person to undergo it.
2006
January 16: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf becomes President of Liberia, and thus Africa's first elected female head of state. January 25: Hamas wins the 2006 Palestinian legislative election. February 22: The Iraqi Civil War of 2006-2008 breaks out after sectarian violence in Iraq is escalated by the 2006 al-Askari mosque bombing. March 21: Twitter is launched. June 3: Montenegro declares independence following an earlier referendum. June 25: Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is abducted by Hamas. July 11: Islamic terrorists carry out a series of bombings in Mumbai. July 12: The 2006 Lebanon War breaks out following the 2006 Hezbollah cross-border raid. August: The International Astronomical Union creates the first formal definition of a planet, which drops Pluto's classification as a planet. September 19: A coup d'état in Thailand overthrows the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. October 9: North Korea conducts a nuclear test, later estimated at a yield of 0.48 kilotons. October 9: Google acquires YouTube for US$1.65 billion. November 1: Former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko dies from poisoning in the UK. November 19: Nintendo launches the Wii. November 21: Comprehensive Peace Accord ends the Nepalese Civil War. December 11: The Mexican drug war begins with Operation Michoacán. December 20: Full-scale war begins in Somalia following a June 17 invasion by Ethiopia. December 30: Saddam Hussein is executed by hanging after being convicted of crimes against humanity. The Baiji, the Yangtze river dolphin, becomes functionally extinct.
2007
January 1: Bulgaria and Romania join the European Union. January 4: Nancy Pelosi becomes the first female Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. January 9: Apple announces of the iPhone, which goes on sale June 29. March 4: The First Ivorian Civil War ends with the signing of the Ouagadougou Agreement. April 16: 33 people are killed in the Virginia Tech shooting. June 15: The Battle of Gaza (2007) ends, resulting in Hamas taking control of the Gaza strip. August 15: Anti-government protests in Myanmar suppressed by ruling junta. December 13: All 27 EU member states sign the Treaty of Lisbon, with the treaty coming into effect on December 1, 2009. December 27: Assassination of Benazir Bhutto, opposition leader and former prime minister of Pakistan. A Spike in food prices and subprime crisis help trigger global recession. Crisis follows the Kenyan presidential election of 2007, leading to the formation of a coalition government.
2008
February: The Tesla Roadster launched, the first mass production lithium-ion battery electric car. February 17: Kosovo declares independence, though it is not recognised by the United Nations. May 2: Cyclone Nargis kills 133,000 in Myanmar. May 12: The 2008 Sichuan earthquake occurs in Wenchuan, China killing 87,499 people. May 28: The 1st Nepalese Constituent Assembly declares Nepal a republic, ending its monarchy. August 1–16: The Russo-Georgian War takes place, resulting in the occupation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia October 7: Spotify is launched. September 10: The Large Hadron Collider is completed as the world's largest and most powerful particle collider. Semtember 15: The investement bank Lehman brothers files for bankruptcy with over $600 billion in debt. November 4: Barack Obama is elected the first African-American President of the United States. November 26–29: 175 people are killed over the course of 12 coordinated attacks in Mumbai. December 11: Google Chrome is released. December 27: The Gaza War begins. Stock markets plunge during the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession.
2009
January 3: The cryptocurrency Bitcoin is launched. January 15: US Airways Flight 1549 ditches in the Hudson River in an accident that becomes known as the "Miracle on the Hudson", as all 155 people on board are rescued. January 18: The Gaza War ends.