By Laura Peng and Thalib Razi
<[email protected]> and <[email protected]>

Jan 1, 2000
A new millennium begins. Businesses successfully avoid the effects of Y2K.
fema.gov / source

Sept 11, 2001
On September 11th, American Airlines Flight 11 departs from Boston and crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center at 8:45 a.m. Three additional attacks take place within the next two hours, killing a total of 2,976 individuals
Cnn.com / source

“I was in fourth grade, and my art teacher started talking about terrorists and the World Trade Center, and I had no idea what she was talking about because I didn’t even know what a terrorist was, or where the World Trade Center was even located. So I went about my day, and everyone was gloomy, but I didn’t know why until I came home and turned on the television and saw all the smoke. Now I realize how that moment has impacted us all throughout our lives.”

-Senior Jason Wing

Jan 8, 2002
President George W. Bush signs the No Child Left Behind Act into law.
ed.gov / source

“At the time, it was very controversial, but people were interested, especially because President Bush was working on it with Senator Kennedy, a very liberal Democrat, and people saw that as an indication of a bipartisan period under Bush. Obviously, it wasn’t.

But for us (teachers), our first impression was one of apprehension, because if a school doesn’t meet the standards of No Child Left Behind, for whatever reason, we as teachers could be among those penalized. I think that now, after 8 years, it’s evident that (the No Child Left Behind Act) has its flaws, but I don’t think any of us want to go back to how it was before then.”

-English teacher Tony Willis

Feb 1, 2003
NASA’s space shuttle Columbia disintegrates over Texas during reentry into Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in the death of all seven passengers.
nasa.gov / source

May 17, 2004
Massachusetts becomes the sixth jurisdiction in the world and the first state in the United States to legalize same-sex marriage.
nytimes.com / source

Aug 28, 2005
Hurricane Katrina reaches the southern coast of the United States at over 175 mph and takes the lives of over 1,836 individuals.
Katrina.com / source

“I used to live in Baton Rouge, which is pretty inland compared to New Orleans, so we didn’t have to leave (because of the hurricane), but we got sandbags and put them in front of the door and other places the water could get through, and closed shut the windows, anything to keep the place from flooding. My neighbors actually had their garage door blown out, because in Louisiana, the garage doors aren’t really connected to another wall of the house, it’s just got this open end, and so the wind came in from behind and blew it out. Thankfully, we didn’t get any water inside the house. The worst thing was that we lost power for about two weeks. It gets old after a few days, no hot water, no lights. That was actually our first experience of a hurricane, because we moved to Louisiana that year from Georgia, and so it was a shock, especially with (Hurricane) Rita, which came around like two weeks later. After the roads were reopened and things were getting better, we took a trip down to New Orleans to see the damage, and it was just devastating.”

– Junior Sterling Wilson

Aug 24, 2006
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) revokes Pluto’s planet status and declares it a dwarf planet.
iau.org / source

Feb 4, 2007
The Indianapolis Colts defeat the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI 29-17.
espn.go.com / source

“I was watching it at home with my family. I was a little nervous when the game started, but then, like, by the second half I was pretty confident we were going to win. I was really excited because it was the first time we ever won a Super Bowl.”

-Junior Claire Kittaka

Aug 8, 2008
The United States earns the highest number of medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, with a total of 110.
nytimes.com / source

Jan 20, 2009
The inauguration of Barack Obama as the first African American President of the United States takes place in Washington D.C.
cnn.com / source

“When he first got elected, I was really happy, and a lot of people think it’s just because I’m black, but the main thing was his policies. I really liked the ideas he advocated during the campaign, and he gave a lot of hope to a lot of people with them. But over the years, my opinion of him has changed a lot, because the actions of the Obama administration don’t really reflect his words during the campaign, at his inauguration, or even at the State of the Union Address.”

-Junior Aaron Singer