2009 in Review • Around the World
THE BULLETIN • Thursday, December 31, 2009 A5
Barack Obama is sworn in, and he wins a Nobel Prize. The King of Pop is laid to rest. Swine flu is declared a pandemic. Piracy means what it used to. The Supreme Court seats its first Hispanic justice. These are the stories we will remember from 2009.
Topping off
the decade Jan. 15: Pilot Chesley Sullenberger crashlands a disabled U.S. Airways jet into the Hudson River. All 155 on the plane survive.
NATION & WORLD
Jan. 20: Barack Hussein Obama is sworn in as the first African-American president.
June 8: North Korea sentences two Americans to 12 years’ hard labor. In August, Bill Clinton brings them home.
Jan. 26: A single mother of six gives birth to octuplets.
June 10: A gunman opens fire at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, killing a guard. June 12: The nation’s switch to digital TV is completed.
June 13: Iran’s president wins re-election in a violently disputed vote.
POLITICS ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Jan. 15: Roland Burris, chosen by embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, is sworn in to take Obama’s former Senate seat. Two weeks later, Blagojevich is removed from office.
Jan. 30: Michael Steele is elected the first black Republican National Committee chairman.
Feb. 17: Obama signs the largest economic rescue plan in U.S. history, the $787 billion stimulus.
May 1-June 1: GM and Chrysler collapse into bankruptcy. GM emerges under government control, Chrysler under Italian automaker Fiat.
March 30: Obama asserts unprecedented government control over the auto industry and engineers the ouster of GM’s chief executive.
Feb. 9: Alex Rodriguez admits using steroids with the Texas Rangers from 2001 to 2003.
HEALTH & SCIENCE
March 9: Obama says a ban on federal funds for embryonic stem cell research will be lifted.
May 11: Hubble’s final servicing mission begins, ending 14 days later.
ENTERTAINMENT
SPORTS
Feb. 1: The Steelers win a record sixth Super Bowl, defeating the Cardinals 27-23.
April 11: Susan Boyle wins over viewers on the TV show “Britain’s Got Talent”; in November, her first album sells more than 700,000 copies in its first week to become the top debut of 2009.
Feb. 27: Obama announces plan to pull all U.S. combat brigades out of Iraq by August 2010. In June, troops leave Iraq’s cities.
May 20: Michael Vick is released after serving time on federal dogfighting charges.
July 4: The Statue of Liberty crown reopens to tourists for the first time since 9/11.
July 22: Obama says police “acted stupidly” in arresting a black Harvard scholar; later, the president, the scholar and the arresting officer have beers at the White House.
April 7: Charges against former Sen. Ted Stevens are dropped. April 28: GOP Sen. Arlen Specter defects to the Democratic Party.
July 5: Roger Federer wins a record 15th Grand Slam title.
April 12: U.S. Navy snipers kill three pirates and rescue the captain of a U.S. cargo ship hijacked off Somalia’s coast.
Sept. 9: Steve Jobs survives a liver transplant and returns to lead Apple to its best year ever.
June 12: Congress bans “light” or candy-flavored cigarettes and requires tobacco companies to make bigger warning labels and run fewer ads.
June 22: Chris Brown pleads guilty to felony assault of his ex-girlfriend, fellow singer Rihanna. That same day, Kate Gosselin, star of “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” files for divorce; the show is later canceled.
Oct. 29: The GDP turns positive, a sign the worst economic downturn since the 1930s may be over, though the jobless rate tops 10 percent.
Nov. 10: The D.C. sniper, who killed 10 in 2002, is executed.
Nov 4: The Yankees capture their 27th World Series title, beating the Phillies.
Sept. 18: The last episode of “Guiding Light” airs, ending a 72-year run.
Nov. 24: Two crash Obama’s first state dinner, leading to a Secret Service investigation.
Oct. 1: “Late Show” host David Letterman says he had sex with female employees.
Nov. 30: Serena Williams is fined a record $82,500 for a profane tirade weeks earlier at a U.S. Open line judge.
Dec. 3: Comcast reaches a deal to pay more than $13 billion to gain control of NBC Universal from General Electric.
Dec. 11: Tiger Woods’ affair leads the world’s No. 1 golfer to announce an indefinite hiatus from the sport.
Dec. 7: More than 190 countries meet in Copenhagen for the U.N. climate conference but fail to reach a binding agreement.
Nov. 19: Oprah Winfrey announces her talk show will end in 2011 after 25 seasons.
Dec. 1: Obama orders up 30,000 troops for Afghanistan, but vows to begin withdrawal in 18 months.
Oct. 9: Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize, some say prematurely, for his calls for world cooperation.
Nov. 19: Home foreclosures top 4 million, as more people with fixed-rate loans and good credit lose their homes. Meanwhile, more than 140 banks have failed by the end of the year, as commercial real estate loans sour and consumer loan losses mount.
Nov. 30: CERN’s Large Hadron Collider becomes the world’s highest energy particle accelerator.
Nov. 17: A government task force says most women don’t need mammograms in their 40s — a stunning reversal and a break with the American Cancer Society’s position.
June 4: Obama, in Cairo, addresses the Muslim world, saying America will never be at war with Islam.
May 31: George Tiller, a rare provider of lateterm abortions, is shot dead in a Kansas church.
Sept. 9: Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., shouts “You lie!” during Obama’s speech to Congress on health care. Wilson later apologizes.
Nov. 3: Warren Buffett bets big on the U.S. economy, investing $26.3 billion to cement control of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad.
Oct. 2: Rio de Janeiro wins its bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, the first South American country to be selected.
Sept. 13: Kanye West upstages Taylor Swift’s speech at the MTV Video Music Awards to complain about her accepting the award for Best Female Video.
Nov. 5: A shooting at the Fort Hood, Texas, Army post leaves 13 dead and 29 hurt.
July 3: Sarah Palin announces she will resign as Alaska governor; she steps down July 26.
Oct. 7: The federal deficit triples to a record $1.4 trillion as the costs of war and the financial bailout soar.
Oct. 9: NASA crashlands a spacecraft into the moon. Results later suggest the presence of water on the moon.
May 25: North Korea conducts its second nuclear test.
Oct. 15: A 50-mile balloon chase in Colorado captivates a global audience, though a 6-year-old boy is not found with it as feared.
June 24: South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford admits he flew to Argentina to see his mistress after being AWOL for a week.
Aug. 18: Brett Favre signs a two-year contract with the Minnesota Vikings, coming out of retirement a second time.
Aug. 16: Usain Bolt breaks his 100-meter world record in 9.58 seconds; he sets a record of 19.19 seconds in 200 meters four days later.
May 18: Sri Lanka says it has defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels, ending a 25-year civil war.
April 27: A lowflying plane, later determined to be Air Force One, panics New Yorkers.
Sept. 27: Director Roman Polanski is taken into Swiss custody for a 1977 U.S. sex crime conviction.
May 26: Obama nominates Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. She is confirmed and becomes the court’s first Hispanic justice.
July 29: After at least three years of talks, Yahoo and Microsoft reach a 10-year search deal to challenge Google’s dominance.
June 29: Disgraced investor Bernard Madoff is sentenced to 150 years for masterminding a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme.
June 11: With swine flu reported in more than 70 nations, the World Health Organization declares the outbreak the first global flu pandemic in 41 years. By year’s end, nearly 50 million Americans (about 1 in 6) have had the illness.
May 29: Jay Leno leaves NBC’s “Tonight” show after 17 years; Conan O’Brien takes over in June.
April 3: Iowa’s Supreme Court legalizes gay marriage; later in the year, the D.C. City Council votes to legalize it, while Maine voters ban it. Also, Vermont couples begin tying the knot.
Dec. 24: The Senate passes its health care legislation, paving the way for historic reform of the American health system.
Nov. 20: “New Moon” rakes in $72.7 million to break the single-day domestic box office record held by “The Dark Knight.”
OBITUARIES
Jan.14: Ricardo Montalban, 88, actor in splashy MGM musicals
Jan. 27: John Updike, 76, Pulitzer-winning novelist, essayist
Feb. 28: Paul Harvey, 90, radio news and talk pioneer
March 4: Horton Foote, 92, playwright, screenwriter
March 18: Natasha Richardson, 45, of British acting royalty
March 25: John Hope Franklin, 94, renowned scholar
April 25: Bea Arthur, 86, sharp-tongued “Golden Girl”
May 2: Jack Kemp, 73, quarterback turned GOP statesman
May 4: Dom DeLuise, 75, portly actor with offbeat style
June 3: Koko Taylor, 80, singer, “Queen of the Blues”
June 4: David Carradine, 72, actor (“Kung Fu,” “Kill Bill”)
June 23: Ed McMahon, 86, chipper “Tonight” show sidekick
June 25: Farrah Fawcett, 62, “Charlie’s Angel,” ’70s sex symbol
June 25: Michael Jackson, 50, the troubled King of Pop
June 28: Billy Mays, 50, burly, bearded TV pitchman
July 4: Steve McNair, 36, popular Tennessee Titans QB
July 6: Robert McNamara, 93, Pentagon chief during Vietnam
July 17: Walter Cronkite, 92, anchorman of TV’s golden age
July 19: Frank McCourt, 78, Pulitzer winner for “Angela’s Ashes”
Aug. 1: Corazon Aquino, 76, populist Philippines president
Aug. 11: Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 88, founder of the Special Olympics
Aug. 13: Les Paul, 94, guitar virtuoso and inventor
Aug. 18: Robert Novak, 78, conservative pundit
Aug. 25: Sen. Ted Kennedy, 77, Senate’s liberal lion
Sept. 12: Norman Borlaug 95, Nobel winner who fed the world
Sept. 14: Patrick Swayze, 57, dancer turned movie superstar
Sept. 16: Mary Travers, 72, of folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary
Sept. 18: Irving Kristol, 89, “godfather of neoconservatism”
Sept. 27: William Safire, 79, Pulitzer-winning columnist
Oct. 22: Soupy Sales, 83, comic who perfected pies to the face
Oct. 30: Claude Levi-Strauss, 100, father of anthropology
Dec. 15: Oral Roberts, 91, TV evangelist, university founder
Dec. 16: Roy Disney, 79, Walt’s nephew, animation guru
Dec. 20: Brittany Murphy, 32, actress best known for “Clueless”
David Wray / The Bulletin, The Associated Press