2000s

This article is about the decade starting at the beginning of 2000 and ending at the end of 2009. For the century or millennium starting in 2000 (or 2001 depending on the calendar system in use), see the links below.

Centuries: 20th century - 21st century - 22nd century
Decades: 1970s 1980s 1990s - 2000s - 2010s 2020s 2030s
Years: 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

The decade as a whole

Thus far, the 2000s has been marked with generally an escalation of the social issues the world inherited from the 1990s and the post-Cold War era which included the rise of Terrorism, the rapid expansion of Communications and telecommunications with cell phones and the Internet, international pop culture, and the expansion of globalization. Politically, the 2000s has been almost entirely dominated by a War on Terrorism, with major terrorist attacks including the World Trade Center attack, the Moscow Theatre Siege, the Madrid train bombings, the Beslan school hostage crisis, the 2005 London bombings, and the October 2005 New Delhi bombings. In the news almost daily, especially in the West, the war on terrorism and the rise of American global influence has helped fuel the development of a politically and socially divided world. The 2000s have also witnessed the incredible economic growth of the world's two most populous nations, India and China, and the ramifications their growth has had on the western world.

Names of the Decade

In contrast to the decades from 1920 to 1999, which are called "The Twenties", "The Nineties", and the like; the 2000s has had no generally-accepted name, although it is usually referred to as "The Two-Thousands". The term "The Ohs," referring to the sense of wonder that the then-new decade would bring, was suggested in a Newsday editorial in the late Nineties.

It is also occasionally termed, in historical contexts, the "turn of the millennium" or "turn of the century" (or "turn of the new century," since the idea of 1900 being the "turn of the century" is still fresh in people's minds). This terminology would probably seem silly, however, if used in an informal context.

Other possible names include the "Zeroes", the "Zero Decade", the "Double-Ohs", the "Twenty-Hundreds", the "Aughts" and in a joking context the "New 90s" or "The Noughties" as many people think the 2000s are nothing more than an extension of the 1990s in a pop cultural aspect.

The United Nations General Assembly declared the decade of 2000-2009 as the "International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World."

Events and trends

Technology

A huge jump in broadband internet usage, from 6% of U.S. internet users in June, 2000 to what one study predicts will be 62% by 2010.
Boom in music downloading and MP3 audio Data compression; rise of portable digital audio players, typified by Apple Computer's IPod
Digital cameras become very popular due to rapid decreases in size and cost while photo resolution steadily increases.
Google search engine increases trafficability of the internet and "to Google" becomes a verb.
Due to an increase in ability to store data, USB flash drives begin to replace zip disks and 3.5-inch diskettes.
Graphic cards become powerful enough to render nearly photo-realistic scenes in real time.
Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003 become the ubiquitous industry standard in personal computer software. Open source and Free software continues to be a notable but minority interest, with versions of GNU/Linux gaining in popularity, as well as the Mozilla Firefox web browser.
Liquid crystal displays begin displacing cathode ray tubes.
Major advances in Hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius, Escape, and the Honda Insight.
Future energy development
Blogs, portals, and wikis become common electronic dissemination methods for professional amateurs and businesses to conduct Knowledge management
Wikipedia began, and grew rapidly.
DVDs replace VCR technology as the common standard at video stores.
Wireless networks become commonplace in homes, education institutes and urban public spaces.
LASIK eye surgery becomes popular as costs and potential risk decreases and results further improve.
OLED (Organic light-emitting diode) technology revolutionizes display technology, making it possible to "print" screens on everyday objects.
Home automation and home robotics become popular in North America, mainly typified by Irobots' "Roomba".
GPS (Global Positioning System) becomes very popular especially in the tracking of items or people, and the use in cars.
RFID (Radio Frequency ID) becomes widely used in retail giants such as Wal-Mart, as a way to track items and automate stocking and keeping track of items.
DVRs (Digital Video Recorders), typified by TiVo, allow consumers to modify content they watch on TV, and to record TV programs and watch them later, leading to problems as consumers can fast-forward through commercials, making them useless.
Self-Serve Kiosks become very widely available, used for all kinds of shopping, airplane boarding passes, hotel check-ins, fast food, and car rental.
Internet usage surpasses TV viewing in 2004.
Emerging use of robotics in the medical field. Particularly in surgery.
Large increase of computers and other technologies incorporated into vehicles such as Xenon HID headlights, GPS, DVD players, self-diagnosing systems, advanced pre-collision safety systems, memory systems for car settings, back-up sensors and cameras, in-car media systems, mp3 player compatibility, USB drive compatibility, keyless start and entry, satellite radio, voice-activation, cellphone connectivity, adaptive headlights, HUD (Heads-Up-Display), infrared cameras, and Onstar (on GM models).
Peer-to-peer technology use: internet telephony (Skype), file-sharing.

Science

The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission successfully reached the surface of Mars, and sent detailed data and images of the landscape there back to Earth.
The Human Genome Project was completed. (2000)
SpaceshipOne made the first privately-funded human spaceflight. (June 21, 2004)
National Geographic and IBM fund a research project which traces every living human down to a "Scientific Adam". Human Geneology Project

War, peace and politics

Major controversy over U. S. presidential election (November 7-December 13, 2000)
September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on New York's World Trade Center and Virginia's Pentagon killing almost 3000 people. A resultant change in stance towards international terrorism (See New Era and War on Terror) has ripple effects on the USA's foreign policy and military strategy.
Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002 against Hugo Chávez
U.S. invasion of Afghanistan to depose the Taliban regime in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks (September 18, 2001 - July 18, 2003).
The Convention on the Future of Europe proposing first European constitution (i.e., of the EU). The Constitution is rejected by French and Dutch electorate in 2005 leading to political crisis in EU.
East Timor gains official independence from Indonesia. (May 20, 2002)
International Criminal Court established, used for judging war crimes, crimes against humanity and Genocide (July 1, 2002)
American 2003 Invasion of Iraq
Darfur conflict in Sudan
"Orange Revolution" in Ukraine leads to election of Viktor Yushchenko as President after initial election victory of incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych is annulled due to vote-rigging
Revolution in Kyrgyzstan overthrows government of President Askar Akayev
Beslan school hostage crisis, in which multinational terrorists take a school in Beslan, Russia hostage and subsequently kill 344 people including children (September 1, 2004)
United States expands international influence, in particular in the Middle East The US also hold a number of war games pertaining to the Strait of Taiwan in preparation for a possible war with the People's Republic of China over a Taiwanese secession. China and Russia display a strategic relationships during a simulated "humanitarian" crisis in the same region during Peace Mission 2005.
Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro and his conservative Liberal Democratic Party are re-elected in a landslide election in September 2005, mainly due to a booming Japanese economy and Junichiro's plans to privatise the Japanese postal service.
In 2005, Early elections in Germany produce the first Grand coalition for the country in almost forty years. After weeks of talks, the center-left Social Democrats and center-right Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union agree to let conservative Angela Merkel become chancellor. She is first chancellor to be from eastern Germany, as well as the country's first female chancellor.

Economics

Globalization: Transnational companies become more pervasive, and Anti-globalization protests occur frequently during meetings of IMF and WTO, especially in the early 2000s.
The Euro becomes legal tender in twelve European Union countries in 2002. It's the largest monetary union in history. The euro eases trade in the Eurozone.
The NASDAQ, the American Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange closed for six days after the September 11th, 2001 attacks the longest close since the Great Depression in 1929.
Major downturn in the value of Dot-com shares, with occasional exceptions (Google's IPO on August 13, 2004)
The US dominance over the world economy continues. Economically rising nations like China, show signs of becoming contending world powers.
China continues to grow rapidly, driving up Commodity prices worldwide
Significant oil price rises. Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline opens on 25 May 2005, potentially removing the dependence of the United States and other Western nations on Middle Eastern oil.
Enron and other major accounting and Corporate governance scandals prompt reviews of corporate government legislation worldwide (eg Sarbanes-Oxley Act)
The 1990s stock market boom ends around the time George W. Bush is elected.

Culture and religion

The vast proliferation of Information technology and digital media leads to many cultural paradigm shifts as people grapple with information overload. Generation Y (Millennials) are said to be adept at these technological developments.
Reality television becomes a well-established sector of the Television programming industry. Nightly news broadcasts continue to lose viewership to 24-hour internet news coverage. Changing television habits that involve increased use of the internet and the preponderance of TiVo make marketers rethink the paradigm of the 30-second TV ad. Viral marketing, and Product placement within reality television shows and movies are some increasingly used alternatives. Spam is used as an alternative, making people irritated.
European society continues to become more secular; in contrast, religious groups increase their political influence in the United States and the Middle East.
The divisive US presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 leads to commentators describing the country as split between Red States and Blue States.
April 2, 2005: Pope John Paul II dies at age 84; succeeded by Pope Benedict XVI on April 24.
Same-sex marriage becomes a major cultural issue in developed countries. In 2001, the Netherlands becomes the first country to allow gay couples to wed. This is followed by Belgium in 2003, and by Canada and Spain in 2005. In 2004, Massachusetts becomes the first U.S. state to permit same-sex marriage.

Other

2002-2003: SARS virus outbreak, most notably in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore and Toronto.
February 1, 2003: The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates over Texas upon reentry, killing all seven astronauts onboard, prompting investigation into NASA communication abilities and safety. Space shuttle flight resumes in late 2005, only to be suspended again.
Major Earthquake rocks the ancient city of Bam, in Iran. Cost over 50,000 lives.
On December 26, 2004, a major earthquake and ensuing Tsunami causes devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, The Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean. As of January 2005 the death toll is estimated to be nearly 290,000, prompting the largest humanitarian response for a natural disaster in history.
Methamphetamine use skyrockets while crime rates in the U.S. and use of most other drugs drops.
Bird flu spreads through South East Asia; countries begin preparing for a potential bird flu epidemic, fearing that it could mutate into a form that could transfer easily from person to person and kill millions of people. Bird flu spreads rapidly into Europe in October 2005.
Criticism of Vladimir Putin's governmental policies and reforms mount and a backlash of Soviet-nostalgia occurs in Russia.
On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina strikes southeastern Louisiana, U.S., killing 1,300 people and devastating the city New Orleans and the Mississippi coast. People and life later return to New Orleans, but many analysts expect that New Orleans will never return to the way it was before.
A major earthquake in Kashmir kills close to 80,000 people on October 8, 2005, devastating Kashmir and forcing the mass evacuation of mountain towns as winter approaches.
Arctic sea ice cover reaches record lows; Global warming continues to be a major concern.

Pop Culture

Fashion slowly becomes less grungy and more excessive as the wearing of Flannel by people under 30 declines and acid-washed jeans and shaggy hair become again commonplace.
Wearing baseball caps backwards slowly decreases among the youth, in favor of wearing it sideways.
Rap music, especially of the Post-gangsta and Crunk varieties, reaches new heights of popularity, surpassing even the early 1990s in presence and begins to overtake Rock and roll as the music of the youth. Popular and definitive artists include Eminem, Nelly, 50 Cent, Ja Rule, DMX, OutKast, and Kanye West. The Beastie Boys, who were superstars in the 80s and 90s, begin to lose popularity.
Cell phones become a necessity and an accessory to youth, which in the 1980s were rare Yuppie items and in the 1990s were rising into mainstream use. Most members of Generation Y had one in the 2000s.
MP3 players and iPods become very common.
Generation Y, which came to prominence around 1997-1999, comes of age mostly during this decade, supplanting Gen X as the current generation.
1990s pop culture not actively backlashed in 2000s, with many aspects of the decade going strong even into 2005. Many note the cultural similarites between the two decades as Alternative rock, tattoos, baggy pants, and many slang words of the 90s that continue to be used into the early and middle 2000s.
Basketball dips somewhat in popularity with the loss of Michael Jordan and the Kobe Bryant controversy; Football continues to become more popular, while professional soccer makes inroads into the United States and Canada.
Baseball in the United States undergoes controversy due to steroids; stars such as Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds, ranked #1 and #2 in single-season home runs, are suspected to have used steroids, while others such as Jason Giambi and Rafael Palmeiro are confirmed to have been using the drugs.
Japanimation becomes focus of Cartoon Network and a staple of children's programming, along with more adult-oriented material (see Animatrix and Adult Swim).
Beach volleyball becomes an increasingly popular sport worldwide, establishing its first generation of superstars and branching out into large cities which are not even coastal.
Numetal, popular early in the decade, loses favor around 2003.
Slang words of the 2000s include "Crazy", "Fo Shizzle", "Retarded", and "Crunk".
Pop-punk, pioneered by late 90s band Blink 182, rises in popularity throughout the decade.
Pop R&B continues to be popular, fueled further by combination with Rap.
Crunk becomes a household word in 2003 when Lil' Jon popularizes the genre.
Movie remakes reach all-time high levels.
Very strong 1980s Nostalgia as decade becomes 20 years ago. Examples include the short-lived That 80s Show, the upcoming Miami Vice movie, and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Bands such as The Strokes, The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, and The Bravery are strongly influenced by New Wave and Synthpop, Bowling for Soup make the song 1985 in honor of the decade. 1980s cartoons such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Masters of the Universe often get revived and revamped with a 2000s twist. Nonetheless, the 1980s still hold a negative stigma to many as a "cheesy, synthesized Decade of Greed".
1990s comedians Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler start mixing serious roles in with comedies.
Pop Country begins to slip in popularity in the mid 2000s as singers like Faith Hill and Shania Twain no longer top the charts.
The Lord of the Rings movies of 2001, 2002, and 2003 blockbusters, with Return of the King taking home eleven Oscar, tied for the most in Oscar history with Titanic (1997 film) and Ben-Hur (1959 film). The movies cause a surge in popularity for the already huge franchise. Many parodies abound, including Lord of the Blings, Lords of the Rhymes, and Lord of the Pants.
The "first" Star Wars movie comes out in 1999, the next two in 2002 and 2005, to massive success but somewhat poor critical acceptance.
New cola wars erupt as Coke releases Vanilla Coke (produced 2001-2005), Pepsi soon makes an imitation.
Green Day, a 1990s punk band, reaches what is arguably their peak of success in the mid-2000s with the "punk-rock opera" American Idiot.
PlayStation 2 and Xbox are popular video game consoles of the era.
Television SMS live Chat shows became popular in Finland in the year 2001, from where it has spread to a few other European countries, such as Bulgaria. Since then, in Finland, the concept has received much criticism for taking advantage on children who do not understand how much a single message costs. Finnish television channels have also developed interactive SMS games with usually a prize given for the most successful player. MTV3 has been the pioneer of SMS-using television shows, originally developing the concept.
Reality TV shows, such as The Apprentice, Survivor, and The Amazing Race have become extremely popular, beginning in the year 2000. Big Brother began the craze in Europe a year earlier in the fall of 1999.
Synthesizers begin to come back into rock music.

Popular and definitive TV shows include Lost (2004-), the short-lived Chappelle's Show (2003-2005), Survivor (2000-), South Park (1997-), Family Guy (1999-2002, 2005-), 24 (2001-), SpongeBob SquarePants (1999-), CSI (1999-), and Desperate Housewives (2004-),
The Daily Show gains popularity on Comedy Central as Jon Stewart becomes host in 1999 and shifts emphasis onto political issues, best seen during the "Indecision" coverage of the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections, as well as the October 2004 incident between Stewart and Tucker Carlson on CNN. The show won multiple Emmy Awards during this period, and also led to a best-selling book, America (The Book).
Medical shows, which rose to popularity in the mid-1990s with ER, are in vogue, along with Crime shows.
Nickelodeon nearly abandons the live action shows it had in the 1980s and 1990s in favor of Nicktoons.
Disney Channel shifts from classic Disney programming to live action shows in late 1990s and early 2000s, while turning towards original cartoons beginning in 2002 with Kim Possible.
Disney abandons traditional 2D animation in 2005, with Home on the Range being the last 2D Disney movie. Chicken Little becomes the first movie of Disney's 3D era.
Underground Rap, led by Atmosphere, Jurassic 5, Sage Francis, Aesop Rock and Eyedea and Abilities, thrives with the expansion of the Internet and gathers a large following in the wake of increasing formulaic mainstream rap.
New Wave music, a genre of rock/electronica associated with the '80s, returns to mild popularity by fusing with kindred genre pop punk.
Napoleon Dynamite becomes a new cult classic among teens.
Paranormal phoenomenon and Conspiracy theories become hot as the world becomes more chaotic and uncertain. New World Order, World War 3, the Mayan Calendar doomsdate of 2012, September 11 conspiracies, and George Bush/right wing speculations are among the more popular and controversial topics.
Talk radio shows such as Al Franken, Coast to Coast AM and Rush Limbaugh keep people on the AM dial.
Sitcoms lose popularity to Reality TV; animated sitcoms are the only major exception.
Boy Bands hit peak around 1999-2000 and decline as quick in 2001-2002. Girl singers have better success. [Girl groups]] such as Spice Girls and B*Witched disappear by 2001.
Internet browsing surpasses TV viewing in the year 2004.
Mariah Carey makes successful comeback in 2005 after losing considerable popularity for several years (see Glitter), Backstreet Boys fail to make such a comeback.
The Simpsons remains incredibly popular after 17 years of existence, but is often critized of being on "only to break records," as many believe that the show "lost its touch" around 2001.
The Click Five and Jesse McCartney revive Power pop in mid 2000s in response to the fall of manufactured boy bands.
Boys start wearing pink, a trend that ended in the early to mid 90s.
Poker becomes a craze, as many Americans are enticed by online poker rooms and games with their friends and neighbors. The World Series of Poker aired on ESPN becomes a huge success.
The Emo trend emerges, worn by people who wear tight pants and listen to bands such as Dashboard Confessional and Thursday, among others. The trend is accused of being inept and void of meaning by some.