The+United+States+1995-2010

** Tell the World Your Story **
** Since you were born, what has happened in the United States? **

**The Presidency of Bill Clinton**
By: Brenda D. The Presidency of Bill Clinton

**The Oklahoma City Bombing of 1995**
By: Desiree T. On April 17, 1995 in Oklahoma City, the Alfred E. Murrah Federal Building was bombed. The attack occurred around 9:03, just as parents dropped off there kids at daycare in the building. The man behind the bombing was Timothy McVeigh. The Oklahoma blast claimed 168 lives- including 19 children under the age of 6- and injured more than 680 people. It caused at least $652 million worth of damage. The official investigation, known as OKBOMB, was the largest criminal investigation case in American history. //Source:// media type="youtube" key="I7bL0mRB8jQ?fs=1" height="265" width="320"

**The Columbine High School Shooting**
By: Steven N. On April 20, 1999, the worse school shooting in history occurred at Columbine High School in Colorado. Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, came to their school with long rifles and started to shoot students and teachers. The supposed reason for this shooting was because they were bullied. This attack was mainly to try to kill their bullies. Near the end of the attack they took their own lives. There were fifteen deaths in the shooting including Eric and Dylan, and twenty-three injuries. //Source: @http://history1900s.about.com/od/famouscrimesscandals/a/columbine.htm//

** The Election of 2000 **
By: Benny On the night of the 2000 Presidential election everybody knew that it would be a close contest between, the Republican Governor of Texas, George W Bush, and the Democrat Vice President Al Gore. Things really started to heat up at 7:00 pm Eastern time because, that was when the polls closed. Vice President Al Gore took Florida, which gave him the first big-state momentum of the night. However, Florida later became an undecided state. By midnight, both NEEDED to win Florida. At 2 am there was a breakthrough. They tallied up the votes to declare that Bush won. When the count for Florida was finished Bush was less than 2,000 votes so the courts decided, that Bush won by less that 2,000 votes. Election ResultsWhat Happened ===media type="youtube" key="nTKotJJ2q68" height="265" width="320" media type="youtube" key="KV5deafKcyI" height="265" width="320" ===

** The 9/11 Hijackings **
By: Marilene S. On September 11, 2001, there was a series of hijacks. Four commercial jet airliners were taken hostage by al-Qaeda. Two jet airliners crashed the twin towers killing everybody on board. Nearly 3,000 victims and 19 hijackers died in the attacks. On the collapsing of the buildings, people were trying to run away. Many of the people died from inhaling the toxic fumes that were in the air. Two of the jet airliners crashed the twin towers. The hijackers crashed the third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington D.C. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania, after some of the passengers tried to take control of the plane.

//**World Trade Center**// media type="youtube" key="eLN6TtYTQCc?fs=1" height="265" width="320" media type="youtube" key="7xomUzh3QOg?fs=1" height="265" width="320" //Additional Sites: 102 Minutes that Changed America //

//**Pentagon**// media type="youtube" key="TAaP4Z3zls8?fs=1" height="265" width="320"

//**Flight 93**// //** By: Anderson B. **//United airlines flight 93 was a United States passenger flight from Newark International Airport in Newark, NJ, to San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, CA, that was hijacked on September 11, 2001. The hijackers took the cockpit, overpowered the pilots, took control of the aircraft, and changed the course toward Washington, D.C. Several passengers and crewmembers made telephone calls aboard the flight and learned about the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. As a result of this, the passengers decided to make an assault against the hijackers in an attempt to retake control of the aircraft. The plane crashed in a field in Stony creek Township, near Shanks Ville, in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh and 150 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., killing all on board including the hijackers. //Source:// media type="youtube" key="JZekosYOmXc?fs=1" height="265" width="320"

** The United States Invades Afghanistan **
By: Tristan The war in Afghanistan began on Oct. 7, 2001, when U.S. and British forces launched military strikes on targets in Afghanistan that were linked to either Al Qaeda or its Taliban host. These attacks were in response to the 9/11 terrorist bombings.

After it became clear that Al Qaeda was responsible for the September 11 attack, the U.S. and the United Nations demanded (again) that Afghanistan’s Taliban government surrender the Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. This request was denied, so the U.S. sought support from the Northern Alliance. (An anti terrorist group in Afghanistan)

Locals thought that the Afghanistan war wasn’t a war but more an effort to destroy Bin Laden, his network of terrorist, and the government who provides him with a save haven. Once the war began the Northern Alliance got many countries support. After a couple months of fighting the Northern Alliance had pushed the Taliban into an area in the mountains, which had a labyrinth of caves that had been used in other wars.

Currently, the War isn Afghanistan is still being fought, with the goal of bringing troops home beginning in 2011. //Source: -Groliers// //Additonal Sites: [|NY Times], [|Wikipedia], [|Huffingtonpost]//

By: Kayla Operation Iraqi Freedom first began in Baghdad, Iraq on May 19, 2003 9:30 pm EST. The purpose of the war was to remove Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein from power. The reason given for this removal was that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and the United States was fearful that he would use these weapons against the United States, or give them to terrorist organizations.
 * Operation Iraqi Freedom **

Rumors that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction were leaked in order to try and link the Iraqi leader, as a supporter of international terrorism. The United States Government wanted to link him to the September 11 attacks, so they could justify removing him from power. The theory was that if Hussein’s authority was destroyed and Iraq became democratic, then Iraq would act as a “democratic domino”, thereby weakening the appeal of Al Qaeda. //Source: Groliers// //Additonal Sites: WOMD, Frontline Behind Closed Doors//  <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">media type="youtube" key="QWBs3coWcxw?fs=1" height="265" width="320" media type="youtube" key="u09ynldh4dg" width="319" height="266" media type="youtube" key="bkOCIfNQXP0?fs=1" height="265" width="320" media type="youtube" key="wjGr5_a5yBU?fs=1" height="265" width="320"

**Space Shuttle Columbia Tragedy**
By: Aaron S and Michael M  <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Space Shuttle Columbia crashed on re-entry to Earth on February 1st, 2003. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Seven to eight minutes before the failure, gauges started to loose readings in Columbia’s left wing. When Columbia was reentering the Earth’s atmosphere, pieces started to fly off the space shuttle, landing over a wide area of Texas and Louisiana. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">There where several white trails of smoke where the shuttle was split in half, and people from Texas heard a loud boom.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The security where so tight at launch and there was no indication of sabotage. Experts determined that the reason for the break up is that the left wing was hit by a piece of foam from the space shuttle external tank.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Space Shuttle Columbia was launched on January 16th, 2003. Columbia was on it’s 28th mission, and was the oldest space shuttle out of the fleet of four. It was on a 16-day science research mission. Around 82 seconds after it’s launch, a suitcase size piece of thermal insulation foam broke of the External Tank, hitting it’s left wing. A few white trails of smoke were seen coming up from the space shuttle as it was taking off.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This was the first mission of 2003, and it was the second space shuttle disaster. //Sources: Space Shuttle Columbia website////[|Grolier]//

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By: Jacob Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005. Hurricane Katrina was a Category 5 hurricane. Hurricane Katrina did 81.2 billions of dollars worth of damage. Eighty percent of New Orleans was flooded, and 90% of` southeast Louisiana’s residents had to be evacuated. Many evacuees went to the Superdome. Two sections of the Superdome was damage. By October 23, 2005, 700 people were recovered. About 9,200 people died from Hurricane Katrina. When Hurricane Katrina happened, a lot of people went to Colorado and started a new life. The U.S. Guards had to search for survivors after Hurricane Karina hit. New Orleans had a program called HOME AGAIN! One million dollars was donated to build 25 homes. 2 million dollars was for the New Orleans drainage system. //Source:// media type="youtube" key="s76Qn7bpCsQ?fs=1" height="265" width="320"
 * Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans**

By. Griffon D. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The NASA phoenix descended on Mars on May 25, 2008. The landing was dubbed the “seven minutes of death” and was a nerve-racking experience for everyone involved. When the NASA space probe landed on Mars scientists saw exactly what they expected, a pattern of brown polygons, which to NASA’s Ed Weiler is compared to getting a hole-in-one with a golf ball from 10,000 miles away. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0.5in;">The entire trip took 90 days on Mars, and the probe collecting dirt and ice for research. The probe was equipped with robotic arms to scoop up dirt and/or ice for organic evidence that maybe life existed once or even now. The mission ended on November 10, 2008 when they shut the Phoenix down. //Sources:[|CNN Article][|Wikipedia]// media type="youtube" key="7ZqT15DoVmM?fs=1" height="265" width="320"
 * NASA Space Probe Lands on Mars**

By: Tommy J. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. Barack is the first African American to hold the office. Before he was president he was an Illinois senator from January 2005 until he resigned after his election to the presidency in November 2008. His Vice President is Joe Biden.
 * Barack Obama Elected President**

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Obama served three terms in the Illinois senate from 1997 to 2004. Following an unsuccessful bid against a Democratic incumbent for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, he ran for United States Senate in 2004. Several events brought him to national attention during the campaign, including his victory in the March 2004 democratic primary and his keynote addresses at the democratic national convention in July 2004. He won [|election to the U.S. Senate] in November 2004. His presidential campaign began in February 2007, and after [|a close campaign] in the [|2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries] against [|Hillary Rodham Clinton], he won his party's nomination. In [|the 2008 general election], he defeated [|Republican] nominee [|John McCain] and was [|inaugurated as president] on January 20, 2009. media type="youtube" key="9dKAKll1bUE?fs=1" height="265" width="320"  media type="youtube" key="HMHpib5ZNCc?fs=1" height="265" width="320"
 * The Great Recession of the 2008**

**The Illegal Immigration Problem** By: Ashley Mo. The number of illegal immigrants in the United States has continued to grow enormously. The Pew Hispanic Center which is a private research group in Washington estimated the number of immigrants without their papers has gone up 50% since 2005. An increase of 50% from the 8.4 million estimated in 2000. On April 23, 2010, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed bill number 1070 into law. The law states that officers have to go up to any one who looks suspiciously like an illegal alien and ask them for their status, or proof of residence in the United States. If the person can’t justify that their not an illegal alien then the police officer has to arrest the person. // Sources: Pew Hispanic Center The Washington Post Arizona Immigration Law Center// By: Jamarr E. Sarah Palin was born (February 11, 1964) and was first woman elected Governor of Alaska and served as governor from 2008-2009. She was chosen by Republican Party presidential candidate John McCain in August 2008 to be his vice presidential running mate in the 2008 election. She was the first Alaskan to ever land a major party, as well as the first female vice-presidential nominee of the Republican Party. On July 3 2009 governor Palin announced that she would not seek, reelection as governor and that she was resigning July 26 2009. In November 2009, her autobiography Going Rouge: An American Life was released and it quickly became a best seller, and she was voted a most formidable force in the republican party. //Source://  media type="youtube" key="xgDApGPzCtA?fs=1" height="265" width="320" <span style="color: #000080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">By:Gina W <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">. In 2009 the H1N1 virus, or Swine Flu, killed about 5,000 people worldwide, including 86 in Canada. The first case appeared to originate from Mexico. The symptoms of 2009 H1N1 flu virus in people included fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Some people may have vomiting and diarrhea. People infected with the flu, including 2009 H1N1, may have had respiratory symptoms without a fever.
 * Sarah Palin **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The H1N1 Flu, Swine Flu **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This Virus caused about 34,000 deaths in the US. The “Hong Kong Flu” went worldwide for two winters in 1968. Those over the age of 65 were most likely to die. The virus came back a year later. This was the mildest pandemic in the 20th century. A vaccine became available one month after the outbreaks peaked in the US. The most common symptoms include high fever, joint pain, runny nose, severe cough, lack of energy, and eye irritation. //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Source: [|CNN] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ee; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;">[|Global Security] //
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The H3N2 Flu, Hong Kong Flu **

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 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Osama Bin Laden Killed **

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