Timeline of United States history (1990-present)

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This section of the Timeline of United States history concerns events from 1990 to present.

1990s

1990 - Hubble Space Telescope placed in orbit
1990 - Iraq invades Kuwait leading to 1991 Gulf War
1991 - Gulf War
1991 - Oakland Hills firestorm kills 25 and destroys 3469 homes and apartments
1992 - 1992 Los Angeles riots kill 50-60 people and cause nearly $1 billion damage
1992 - 27th Amendment ratified
1992 - Hurricane Andrew kills 23 and causes $26.5 billion in damage as it strikes Florida and later Louisiana
1992 - U.S. presidential election, 1992
1993 - Bill Clinton becomes President
1993 - World Trade Center bombing kills 6 and injures at least 1040
1993 - Branch Davidians standoff and fire in Waco, Texas
1994 - Northridge earthquake kills 57 in Los Angeles area
1994 - North American Free Trade Agreement goes into effect
1995 - Following the 1994 elections, Republicans gain control of both the House and Senate for the first time since 1955.
1995 - 168 killed in Oklahoma City bombing
1995 - TWA flight 800 explodes off of Long Island killing all 230 aboard
1996 - Khobar Towers bombing leaves 19 U.S. servicemen dead in Saudi Arabia
1996 - Centennial Olympic Park bombing at Summer Olympics in Atlanta kills 1 and injures 11
1996 - U.S. presidential election, 1996 (Bill Clinton is re-elected)
1997 - President Clinton bars federal funding for any research on human cloning.
1998 - 224 killed in 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya
1999 - EgyptAir Flight 990 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 216 on board.
1999 - President Clinton is acquitted in impeachment trial by U.S. Senate

2000s

2000 - USS Cole bombing in Yemen
2000 - U.S. presidential election, 2000; George W. Bush wins by 537 votes in Florida in contested election.
2001 - Democrats gain narrow control of Senate after James Jeffords defects from the Republican Party.
2001 - September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon
2001 - Invasion of Afghanistan Operation "Enduring Freedom"
2002 - Department of Homeland Security created.
2002 - U.S. withdraws from Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
2003 - Republicans retake narrow control of Senate following 2002 elections.
2003 - Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
2003 - Invasion of Iraq Operation "Iraqi Freedom" commences.
2004 - Occupation of Iraq, 2003-2004
2004 - The 2004 Atlantic hurricane season had numerous unusual occurrences impacting U.S. properties
2004 - U.S. presidential election, 2004 (George W. Bush is re-elected).
2004 - Republicans solidify control in both houses of Congress.
2005 - The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season takes its toll in the Southeast, most notably, Hurricane Katrina became the costliest hurricane of all time.
2006 - Democrats retake control of both houses of Congress.
2007 - Democrat Nancy Pelosi becomes the first female Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
2007 - George W. Bush orders a troop surge which substantially increases the number of troops in that country and ultimately leads to reductions in casualties and major victories for the coalition and Iraqi forces against the insurgency
2007 - A student shoots and kills 32 other students and professors in the Virginia Tech massacre before shooting himself. It is the worst mass-shooting in U.S. history and spurs a series of debates on gun control and journalism ethics.
2007 - The I-35W Mississippi River bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota collapses, killing 13, bringing to attention the need to rehabilitate the aging U.S. infrastructure system.
2007 - Recession officially begins in December.
2008 - The Super Tuesday tornado outbreak kills over 60 people and produces $1 billion in damage across Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama.
2008 - A student kills 5, injures 21, and then kills himself in the Northern Illinois University shooting. After this incident, calls are made for more focus on mental health services and interest grows substantially in the group Students for Concealed Carry on Campus.
2008 - Hurricane Ike kills 100 people along the Texas coast, produces $31 billion in damage, and contributes to rising oil prices.
2008 - U.S. oil prices hit a record $147 per barrel in the wake ofamong other factorsinternational tensions and the falling dollar vs. the euro.
2008 - Global financial crisis in September 2008 begins as the stock market crashes. In response, President Bush signs the revised Emergency Economic Stabilization Act into law to create a 700 billion dollar Treasury fund to purchase failing bank assets.
2008 - U.S. presidential election, 2008; Barack Obama elected 44th President of the United States.
2009 - Barack Obama is inaugurated as the first African-American President of the United States
2009 - The first of a series of Tea Party protests are conducted across the United States, focusing on smaller government, fiscal responsibility, individual freedoms and conservative views of the Constitution.
2009 - President Barack Obama obtains Congressional approval for the $787 billion stimulus package, the largest since President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
2009 - Pop icon Michael Jackson dies, creating the largest public mourning for an entertainer since the death of Elvis Presley.
2009 - Nidal Malik Hasan kills 13 servicemen and injures 30 in the Fort Hood shooting

2010s

2010 - The controversial Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is passed by razor-thin margins in Congress
2010 - The Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico explodes, sending millions of gallons of oil into the sea. The spill becomes the worst oil spill in American history.
2010 - Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
2010 - A surge of suicides among gay, bisexual, and transsexual teenagers occurs across the U.S. The It Gets Better Project is created and dedicated to teens suffering from bullying. Speeches are made by several celebrities including Hillary Clinton, Ellen DeGeneres, Gloria Estefan, Barack Obama, and Nancy Pelosi.
2010 - Republicans regain control of the House of Representatives and reduce the Democratic majority in the Senate.
2010 - A series of measures pass through an historic lame-duck session of Congress including an extension of Bush-era tax cuts for all Americans, the ratification of the New START II treaty with Russia, signing of an agreement to repeal the don't ask don't tell policy concerning gays and lesbians openly serving in the US military, and passage of a 9/11 first responders health-care bill.
2010 - 2010 United States Census: The first data for the census was ceremonially collected.
2010 - 2010 State of the Union Address: Obama addressed fiscal policy and financial regulation in a speech before Congress.
2010 - The Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act was signed into law, reinstating pay-as-you-go budgeting rules (PAYGO) to the federal budget process.
2010 - Obama established the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, a Presidential Commission charged with producing a plan to reduce the federal budget deficit, by executive order.
2010 - The Navy lifted its ban on women in submarines.
2010 - Democrat Neil Abercrombie, Representative of Hawaii's 1st congressional district, resigned, leaving his seat vacant.
2010 - The Travel Promotion Act of 2009, which would charge foreign tourists ten dollars per stay and spend the proceeds on tourism promotion, was signed into law.
2010 - The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act, which provided tax breaks to businesses hiring unemployed workers, was signed into law.
2010 - The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was signed into law.
2010 - The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 was signed into law, amending the PPACA to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the act.
2010 - The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law, reforming and expanding federal regulations of the financial sector.
2010 - Elena Kagan was sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
2010 - United States Senate elections, 2010: The Republican Party gained five seats, to forty-seven, reducing the Democratic presence in the Senate to fifty-one. Two seats remained in the hands of independents.
2010 - The Republican Party gained sixty-two seats, giving them an absolute majority of 242 in the House and reducing the Democratic presence to 193.
2010 - United States diplomatic cables leak: WikiLeaks began to release classified diplomatic documents to the international press.
2010 - The Senate ratified the New START treaty.
2010 - The Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 was signed into law, ending the Don't ask, don't tell policy regarding homosexuals in the United States Armed Forces.
2011 - U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords is targeted in an assassination attempt, when a gunman went on a shooting spree, critically injuring Giffords, killing federal judge John Roll and five other people, and wounding at least 13 others, at a "Congress on Your Corner" event Giffords was hosting in suburban Tucson, Arizona.
2011 - 2011 Tucson shooting: A gunman targeting Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords critically injured Giffords and killed six others, including federal judge John Roll, in Tucson, Arizona.
2011 - Barack Obama Tucson memorial speech: Obama addressed gun control and the civility of political discourse in a speech in Tucson, Arizona.
2011 - Republican National Committee chairmanship election, 2011: Reince Priebus was elected chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC).
2011 - 2011 State of the Union Address: Obama addressed the need to find government efficiencies and improve the national infrastructure in a speech before Congress.
2011 - ATF gunwalking scandal: Senator Chuck Grassley opened an investigation into a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation that sold guns to Mexican gun traffickers.
2011 - The New START treaty came into force.
2011 - Libyan civil war: A civil war began with violent protests in the Libyan city of Benghazi.
2011 - Libyan civil war: The Libyan opposition announced the formation of a rival government, the National Transitional Council (NTC).
2011 - The United Nations Security Council passed United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, authorizing member states to take any action short of occupation to prevent human rights abuses in Libya.
2011 - Operation Odyssey Dawn: The United States began air and cruise missile attacks against Libya.
2011 - Dove World Quran-burning controversy: The pastor of the fifty-member Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida burned a Quran.
2011 - Operation Unified Protector: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) began military operations in Libya, superseding the ongoing operations of several member states.
2011 - 2011 Mazar-i-Sharif attack: Protesters attacked the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, resulting in fourteen deaths.
2011 - Death of Osama bin Laden: Al-Qaeda head Osama bin Laden was killed by United States forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
2011 - Newt Gingrich presidential campaign, 2012: Republican former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Newt Gingrich announced his candidacy for the office of President.
2011 - United States debt-ceiling crisis: The House voted down a bill to raise the legal limit on federal government debt.
2011 - United States debt-ceiling crisis: The Budget Control Act of 2011 was passed, increasing the legal limit on federal government debt in order to prevent default and establishing the United States Congress Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction.
2011 - United States federal government credit-rating downgrade, 2011: The credit-rating arm of Standard & Poor's reduced the rating of United States federal government debt from AAA to AA+.
2011 - 2011 Chinook shootdown in Afghanistan: A rocket-propelled grenade attack in Maidan Wardak Province, Afghanistan killed thirty United States military personnel and eight Afghans.
2011 - August 2011 stock markets fall: Major United States stock market indices dropped in value by some two and a half trillion dollars.
2011 - Battle of Tripoli (2011): NTC forces captured most of the Libyan capital of Tripoli.
2011 - The populist Occupy Wall Street protest movement made camp in Zuccotti Park in New York City.
2011 - The Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 came into force.
2011 - Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leader Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in Ma'rib Governorate, Yemen by a United States drone strike.
2011 - Death of Muammar Gaddafi: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was captured and shot to death by NTC forces.
2011 - Operation Unified Protector: The operation was declared a success.
2011 - 2011 NATO attack in Pakistan: NATO forces killed twenty-four Pakistani soldiers in Salala, Pakistan.
2011 - Withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq: The last United States troops withdrew from Iraq under the terms of the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement.
2012 - Iran–European Union relations: The European Union adopts an embargo against Iran in protest of that nation's continued effort to enrich uranium.
2012 - At least 79 people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured after a football match in Port Said, Egypt.
2012 - A fire at a prison in Comayagua, Honduras kills 360.
2012 - Iran suspends oil exports to Britain and France following sanctions put in place by the European Union and the United States in January.
2012 - Greek government debt crisis: Eurozone finance ministers reach an agreement on a second, €130-billion Greek bailout.
2012 - Arab Spring: As a result of ongoing protests, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is succeeded by Vice President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Al-Hadi.
2012 - After 244 years since its first publication, the Encyclopædia Britannica discontinues its print edition.
2012 - The President of Mali, Amadou Toumani Touré, is ousted in a coup d'état after mutinous soldiers attack government offices.
2012 - The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad unilaterally declares the independence of Azawad from Mali.
2012 - Mutinous soldiers in Guinea-Bissau stage a coup d'état and take control of the capital city, Bissau. They arrest interim President Raimundo Pereira and leading presidential candidate Carlos Gomes Júnior in the midst of a presidential election campaign.
2012 - Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3, a North Korean Earth observation satellite, explodes shortly after launch. The United States and other countries had called the impending launch a violation of United Nations Security Council demands.
2012 - Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is found guilty on 11 counts of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Sierra Leone Civil War.
2012 - The 2012 World Expo takes place in Yeosu, South Korea.
2012 - CERN announces the discovery of a new particle with properties consistent with the Higgs boson after experiments at the Large Hadron Collider.
2012 - The 2012 Summer Olympics are held in London, England, United Kingdom.
2012 - In the worst power outage in world history, the 2012 India blackouts leave 620 million people without power.
2012 - Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory mission's rover, successfully lands on Mars.
2012 - Canada officially cuts diplomatic ties with Iran by closing its embassy in Tehran and ordered the expulsion of Iranian diplomats from Ottawa, over support for Syria, nuclear plans and human rights abuses.
2012 - Garment factory fires in the Pakistani cities of Karachi and Lahore kill 315 and seriously injure more than 250.
2012 - A series of terrorist attacks are directed against United States diplomatic missions worldwide, as well as diplomatic missions of Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In the US, opinions are divided over whether the attacks are a reaction to a YouTube trailer for the film Innocence of Muslims. In Libya, among the dead is US ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.
2012 - Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner becomes the first person to break the sound barrier without any machine assistance during a record space dive out of the Red Bull Stratos helium-filled balloon from 24 miles (39 kilometers) over Roswell, New Mexico in the United States.
2012 - Hurricane Sandy kills at least 209 people in the Caribbean, Bahamas, United States and Canada. Considerable storm surge damage causes major disruption to the eastern seaboard of the United States.
2012 - Israel launches Operation Pillar of Defense against the Palestinian-governed Gaza Strip, killing Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari. In the following week 140 Palestinians and five Israelis are killed in an ensuing cycle of violence. A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is announced by Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after the week-long escalation in hostilities in Southern Israel and the Gaza Strip.
2012 - Typhoon Bopha, known as "Pablo" in the Philippines, kills at least 1,067 with around 838 people still missing. The typhoon caused considerable damage in the island of Mindanao.
2012 - The UN General Assembly approves a motion granting Palestine non-member observer state status.
2012 - In Qatar, the UN Climate Change Conference agrees to extend the Kyoto Protocol until 2020.

1970-1989	Timeline of United States history 1990 to present	None

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