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 (technically 2001), see the links below.

Millennia: 2nd millennium - 3rd millennium - 4th millennium
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

Contents

1 The decade as a whole

2 Events and trends

2.1 Technology
2.2 War, peace and politics
2.3 Economics
2.4 Culture and religion
2.5 Other

3 People

3.1 World leaders
3.2 Entertainers
3.3 Sports figures

4 See also

The decade as a whole

In keeping with naming decades (cf. 1990s "the Nineties", 1980s "the Eighties", etc.), the decade of the 2000s lacks an accepted name. The most common name is "the Os", pronounced as "the ohs" (though "the 2000s" (pronounced "the two-thousands") has become equally as common, see below). A widely accepted term may not come about until the decade has ended. However no such term exists for the decades of the 1900s and 1910s. Some other suggestions for the 2000s decade are:
- "the Twenty-O's" (pronounced; twenty-ohs) or "the Oh's". For example, the year 2005 would be pronounced as "twenty-oh-five," instead of "two-thousand and five."
- "the 0-0s", usually pronounced as "the oh-ohs". This pronunciation sounds like "uh oh", an expression of dismay; this similarity is no doubt intentional.
- "the 2Ks", a term that is rooted in the slang of the times. K is shorthand for the Greek prefix kilo meaning 1000; hence, 2K means 2000. In popular culture, the years of the decade are already being named according to this slang. For example, the year 2003 is referred to as 2K3. The "2K" term probably has its popular origins in the heavily-hyped Y2K bug that began in 1999, and lasted into this decade.
- "the Aughts" (or "Oughts"), keeping with the practice of the twentieth century.
- "the Nillies", derived from the term "nil", meaning nothing or zero.
- "the Noughties" (or "Naughties"), referring to the nought, or zero, as the decade indicator; the word-play on "naughty" is intentional.
- "the Twenty Hundreds", though this could be confused with a name for the century.
- "the zeroes",
- "the double-O's"
- "the 0-Hundreds"
- "the Zips" ("zip" is an American slang for zero.)
- "the two thousands", simply 2000s instead of stressing the last two numbers of the first year of the decade e.g. 2000s instead of just 00's. Currently this is the most popular term used to describe the decade
- "the New 90's", used by mostly young people who believe that the 2000s is little different from the 1990s, considering the strong holdover of many 1990s cultural icons and few noticeable changes in fashion, hairstyles, or musical tastes.
The United Nations General Assembly declared the (mostly overlapping) decade of 2001-2010 as the "International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World".

Events and trends

Technology

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.
Liquid crystal displays begin displacing cathode ray tubes.
Future energy development
Blogs, portals, and wikis become common electronic dissemination methods for businesses to conduct knowledge management
DVDs replace VCR technology as the common standard at video stores.
Wireless networks become commonplace in homes, education institutes and urban public spaces

War, peace and politics

Missing image
WTC1_on_fire.jpg

The World Trade Center ablaze after two airplanes crash into the towers in a terrorist attack

Major controversy over U.S. presidential election, 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.
2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan to depose the Taliban regime in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks
December 2001 – July 18, 2003: The Convention on the Future of Europe proposing first European constitution (i.e., of the EU)
East Timor gains official independence from Indonesia on May 20, 2002
International Criminal Court exists as of 1 July 2002, used for judging war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide
2003 invasion of Iraq as a controversial step in the American war on terrorism
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 took a school in Beslan, Russia hostage and subsequently killed 344 people including children
United States expands international influence, in particular in the Middle East, as well as continuing to expand its military might. 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

Economics

Globalization
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, which began in the late 1980s with the collapse of the Eastern bloc, begins to falter. Economically rising nations like China, along with the expansion of the EU, 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)

Culture and religion

The decline of newspapers and 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 utilized as an alternative, making people irritated.
Europe 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.

Other

November 2002: SARS virus outbreak, most notably in Hong Kong and Toronto
Major earthquake rocks the ancient city of Bam, in Iran. Cost over 50,000 lives.
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
Bird flu spreads through South East Asia
April 2, 2005: Pope John Paul II dies at age 84.
Criticism of Vladimir Putin's governmental policies and reforms mount and a backlash of Soviet-nostalgia occurs in Russia.

People

World leaders

President Hamid Karzai (Afghanistan)
Prime Minister John Howard (Australia)
Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel (Austria)
Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt (Belgium)
President Luís Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil)
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien (Canada)
Prime Minister Paul Martin (Canada)
President Ricardo Lagos (Chile)
President Jiang Zemin (China)
President Hu Jintao (China)
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (Convention on the Future of Europe)
Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen (Denmark)
President Hosni Mubarak (Egypt)
President Tarja Halonen (Finland)
Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen (Finland)
Prime Minister Anneli Jäättenmäki (Finland)
Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Finland)
President Jacques Chirac (France)
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (Germany)
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee (India)
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh (India)
President Megawati Sukarnoputri (Indonesia)
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (Indonesia)
President Mohammad Khatami (Iran)
President Saddam Hussein (Iraq)
President Ghazi al-Yawer (Iraq)
President Jalal Talabani (Iraq)
President Vaira Vike-Freiberga (Latvia)
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern (Ireland)
President Mary McAleese (Ireland)
Prime Minister Ehud Barak (Israel)
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (Israel)
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (Italy)
Emperor Akihito (Japan)
Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro (Japan)
President Vicente Fox Quesada (Mexico)
Queen Beatrix (The Netherlands)
Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende (The Netherlands)
Prime Minister Helen Clark (New Zealand)
President Pervez Musharraf (Pakistan)
President Yasser Arafat (Palestinian Authority)
Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Palestinian Authority)
President Joseph Ejercito Estrada (Philippines)
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (Philippines)
President Vladimir Putin (Russia)
King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz (Saudi Arabia)
Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic (Serbia)
Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong (Singapore)
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (Singapore)
President Thabo Mbeki (South Africa)
Prime Minister Göran Persson (Sweden)
President Joseph Deiss (Switzerland)
President Chen Shui-bian (Republic of China on Taiwan)
Queen Elizabeth II (United Kingdom, et. al.)
Prime Minister Tony Blair (United Kingdom)
President Bill Clinton (United States)
President George W. Bush (United States)
Pope John Paul II (Vatican City) (d. 2005)
Pope Benedict XVI (Vatican City)
President Hugo Chávez (Venezuela)

State leaders by year: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006...

Entertainers

Ben Affleck
Jack Black (High Fidelity, Shark Tale, The School of Rock, Ice Age)
Emily Browning
Kelly Clarkson (American Idol, Thankful, Breakaway)
Ellen DeGeneres (Finding Nemo, The Ellen DeGeneres Show)
Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Finding Neverland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (movie))
Hilary Duff
Evanescence
Eminem
50 Cent
Ricky Gervais (The Office)
Green Day (American Idiot)
Tom Hanks (The Terminal, Castaway, Catch Me If You Can, The Ladykillers)
Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings trilogy)
Samuel L. Jackson
Jay-Z
Angelina Jolie
Nicole Kidman
Linkin Park (Hybrid Theory, Meteora)
Lindsay Lohan (Mean Girls, Freaky Friday)
Marilyn Manson (Holywood, The Golden Age Of Grotesque)
Madonna
Moby
My Chemical Romance
No Doubt (Return of Saturn, Rock Steady)
Nine Inch Nails (With Teeth)
Conan O' Brien
Oasis (Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, Heathen Chemistry, Don't Believe the Truth)
Kelly Osbourne (Shut Up, One word)
Brad Pitt
Natalie Portman
Radiohead
Keanu Reeves (The Matrix series)
Julia Roberts (Erin Brockovich, Ocean's Eleven, The Perfect Storm)
M. Night Shyamalan (Signs, The Village)
Will Smith (I, Robot film adaptation)
Adam Sandler
Britney Spears
Gwen Stefani (Love, Angel, Music, Baby)
Jon Stewart
Ben Stiller
U2 (All That You Can't Leave Behind, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb)
The White Stripes (Elephant, Get behind me satan')
Weezer
Bruce Willis
Reese Witherspoon
Catherine Zeta Jones (Traffic)

Sports figures

Lance Armstrong (U.S. cyclist)
David Beckham (English soccer player)
Barry Bonds (U.S. baseball player)
Tom Brady (U.S. football player)
Kobe Bryant (U.S. basketball player)
Vince Carter (U.S. basketball player)
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (U.S. racing driver)
Brett Favre (U.S. football player)
Roger Federer (Swiss tennis player)
Luis Figo (Portuguese soccer player)
Jeff Gordon (U.S. racing driver)
Tanni Grey-Thompson (Welsh paralympian)
Tim Henman (English tennis player)
Inzamam-ul-Haq (Pakistani cricket player)
Kelly Holmes (English athlete)
Pieter van den Hoogenband (Dutch swimmer)
Allen Iverson (U.S. basketball player)
LeBron James (U.S. basketball player)
Derek Jeter (U.S. baseball player)
Oliver Kahn (German soccer player)
Nikolai Khabibulin (Russian ice hockey player)
Anna Kournikova (Russian tennis player)
Brian Lara (Trinidad & Tobago cricketer)
Ray Lewis (U.S. American football player)
Glenn McGrath (Australian cricketer)
Donovan McNabb (U.S. American football player)
Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombian Formula One driver)
Randy Moss (U.S. American football player)
Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lankan cricketer)
Shaquille O'Neal (U.S. basketball player)
Emeka Okafor (U.S. basketball player)
David Ortiz (U.S. baseball player)
Michael Phelps (U.S. swimmer)
Paula Radcliffe (English athlete)
Andy Roddick (U.S. tennis player)
Alex Rodriguez (U.S. baseball player)
Ronaldo (Brazilian soccer player)
Wayne Rooney (English soccer player)
Curt Schilling (U.S. baseball player)
Michael Schumacher (German Formula One driver)
Sammy Sosa (Dominican baseball player)
Martin St. Louis (Canadian ice hockey player)
Sachin Tendulkar (Indian cricket player)
Ian Thorpe (Australian swimmer)
Dwyane Wade (U.S. basketball player)
Venus and Serena Williams (U.S. tennis players)
Jonny Wilkinson (English rugby union player)
Tiger Woods (U.S. golfer)
Zinedine Zidane (French soccer player)