The Chronicler's Web (TCW)

by DAN CALLOWAY
Published on 22 December 2009 @ 20:15 UCT

WEAVERVILLE, NC – The year 2009 marks the 2009th year of the 3rd Millenium, 9th year of the 21st Century, and 10th year of the 2000s decade according to the Gregorian Calendar.  The year 2010 will be referred to as 2K10.  No one really knows for sure what 2K10 will bring, but let’s take a quick review of some of the more significant and memorable events that occurred in 2009.

This last year was designated as the International Year of Astronomy, which coincides with the 400th year of the first official sighting of the heavens with a telescope by Galileo Galilei and the publication by Johannes Kepler’s Astronomia Nova in the 17th Century.  This last year was also declared the International Year of Natural Fibres by the United Nations General Assembly in recognition of the use of natural fibers, both from animal and vegetable origin, in wearing apparel and non-traditional industrial uses.

Other memorable and significant events that occurred in 2009 include: (1) President Obama was elected the 44th and first African-American President of the United States; (2) Israel completed its withdrawal of the Gaza Strip; (3) The Icelandic government and banking system collapsed; (4) A Russian and American satellite collide over Siberia; (5) The Taliban released a video of its captured Polish geologist, Piotr Stanczak, being beheaded; (6) The International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur; (7) NASA’s Kepler Mission, a space photometer which will search for extrasolar planets in the Milky Way galaxy, is launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida; (8) Albania and Croatia join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); (9) The second G-20 summit, involving state leaders rather than the usual finance ministers, meets in London, where its main focus is an ongoing global financial crisis; (10) The 21st NATO Summit is held, 60 years after the founding of the organization; (11) North Korea launches the Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 rocket, prompting an emergency meeting of—but no official reaction from—the United Nations Security Council; (12) UNESCO launches The World Digital Library; (13) The World Health Organization expresses concern at the spread of influenza from Mexico and the United States to other countries; (14) North Korea announces that it has conducted a second successful nuclear test in the province of North Hamgyong, and the United Nations Security Council condemns the reported test; (15) Air France Flight 447, en route from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris, crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 on board; (16) The outbreak of the H1N1 influenza strain, commonly referred to as “swine flu”, is deemed a global pandemic; (17) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is reelected as the president of Iran; (18) NASA launches the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter/LCROSS probes to the Moon, the first American lunar mission since Lunar Prospector in 1998; (19) The death of the entertainer Michael Jackson triggers an outpouring of worldwide grief whose online reactions to the event cripple several major websites and services, as the abundance of people accessing the web addresses pushes Internet traffic to potentially unprecedented and historic levels; (20) Sweden assumes the presidency of the European Union; (21) The 35th G8 summit is held in L’Aquila, Italy; (22) The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, lasting up to 6 minutes and 38.8 seconds, occurs over parts of Asia and the Pacific Ocean; (23) At the G-20 Pittsburgh summit, world leaders announce that the G-20 will assume greater leverage over the global economy, replacing the role of the G-8, in an effort to prevent another financial crisis like that in 2008; (24) An 8.3-magnitude earthquake triggers a tsunami near the Samoan Islands; (25) The International Olympic Committee awards the 2016 Summer Olympics to Rio de Janeiro; (26) European astronomers discover 32 exoplanets; (27) The Prime Minister of Belgium, Herman Van Rompuy, is designated the first permanent President of the European Council; (28) CERN restarts the Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator in Geneva, Switzerland that they had shut down on September 19, 2008; (29) Dubai requests a debt deferment following its massive renovation and development projects, as well as the late 2000s economic crisis, causing global stock markets to plunge; (30) The UNFCCC’s United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 conference is held in Copenhagen, Denmark; and (31) Astronomers discover GJ1214b, the first-known exoplanet on which water could exist and petition the general public to give this planet a new, non-scientific name.