World history: These are among the most important global events to happen annually since 1920 (PART 8)

2001: 9/11

• Date: Sept. 11

• Location: Multiple

In the worst attack on U.S. soil since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, 19 hijackers inspired by Islamist extremism kill nearly 3,000 people after crashing three passenger-laden commercial aircraft into the World Trade Center towers in lower Manhattan and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. A fourth plane, United Airlines 93, crashes in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew attempt to regain control of the plane headed Washington D.C.

2002: Homeland Security

• Date: Nov. 25

• Location: Washington D.C.

Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the U.S. Congress and President George W. Bush enact the Homeland Security Act, the biggest government reorganization of national security efforts since the Department of Defense was created in 1947. The sweeping legislation creates the massive Department of Homeland Security, which is responsible for everything from protecting infrastructure from cyber-attacks to managing the new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

2003: US Crushes Iraq

• Date: March 19

• Location: Iraq

With the help of British and other allied forces, the United States begins its invasion of Iraq with a rapid bombing "Shock and Awe" campaign with the intention of destroying Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction; the weapons are never found. Coalition forces manage to quickly topple the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, but have to fight insurgent forces for years afterward.

2004: Facebook Founded

• Date: Feb. 4

• Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Mark Zuckerberg, a 23-year-old Harvard University student, creates “The facebook,” a local social networking site named after the orientation materials that profiles students and faculty and given to incoming college freshmen. Sixteen years later, Facebook has become an $843.6 billion digital advertising behemoth so integral to many people’s lives that it has been criticized for helping foreign powers and propagandists influence the U.S. political system.

2005: Katrina Overwhelms New Orleans 

• Date: Aug. 29

• Location: U.S. Gulf Coast

After spending four days in the Gulf of Mexico bulking up to a category 5 hurricane, Katrina slams into New Orleans, inundating the city and creating a humanitarian crisis that lasts for weeks. The catastrophe underscores the precarious situation not only in the Big Easy, but also the surrounding area of the Gulf Coast. At least 1,833 people in the storm's path are killed, and the storm inflicts $161 billion in damages to the region, the costliest storm in U.S. history.

2006: Hussein Executed

• Date: Dec. 30

• Location: Baghdad

Three years after U.S. soldiers pulled him from a hole in the ground where he had been hiding, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is hanged after he was convicted for crimes against humanity, specifically for ordering the massacre of 148 Shiites in 1982 following a failed assassination attempt against him.

2007: The iPhone

• Date: Jan. 9

• Location: San Francisco

Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who died in October 2011, first shows the world one of the most popular branded consumer electronic devices in history, the iPhone. Since the first generation phone that Jobs introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show that year, there have been 18 versions of the mobile device, and more than 1.2 billion units have been sold globally through 2017. Only Samsung's Galaxy smartphone comes close to that volume.

2008: Dow Plunges

• Date: Sept. 29

• Location: New York City

The Dow Jones Industrial Average records an intraday drop of 777.68 points after Congress rejects a massive $700 billion bailout of U.S. banks. The bill would pass days later. The market reacts also to months of global market turmoil amid the 2008 global financial crisis spurred by the U.S. subprime mortgage market crash. The Dow fell by more than half during the 2007-09 Great Recession, tumbling from 14,164 on Oct. 9, 2007 to 6,594 on March 5, 2009.

2009: America’s First African American President

• Date: Jan. 20

• Location: Washington D.C.

After defeating Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona by amassing 365 electoral votes and 53% of the popular vote, Barack Obama is sworn in as the first African American president of the United States. Obama inherits the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, but with his party holding majorities in both houses of Congress at the time, the president is able to pass a stimulus package and his signature Affordable Care Act in March 2010.

2010: Catastrophic Oil Spill

• Date: April 20

• Location: Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana

Eleven workers die and 17 are injured after an explosion and fire erupts on the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig 40 miles from the Louisiana coast. The explosion causes the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history, spewing 3 million barrels of crude over the three months it takes to stop the leak. British oil company BP says costs climbed to $65 billion in claims for the accident, including a $1.7 billion charge it took as recently as the fourth quarter of 2017.

SOURCE: 24/7 Wall Street is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY

Originally Published 7:00 am EDT September 6, 2020

Updated 7:00 am EDT September 6, 2020

PUBLISHED: ANGELO YOUNG AND JOHN HARRINGTON |24/7 WALL STREET | 7:00 am EDT September 6, 2020

POWERED: Omotoso Ibukunoluwa