Iranians launch Persian Spring protests
The Iranian Green Movement, also known as the Persian Spring by the western media, refers to a political movement that arose after the 2009 Iranian presidential election.
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The Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and highest-energy particle collider, goes live in Switzerland
It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research between 1998 and 2008 in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists and hundreds of universities and laboratories, as well as more than 100 countries.
12 nations sign the UNASUR Constitutive Treaty
The UNASUR Constitutive Treaty officially established the Union of South American Nations, an intergovernmental continental union of twelve South American nations.
Apple’s iPhone is released
The original iPhone was described as “revolutionary” and a “game-changer” for the mobile phone industry.
Bhutan convenes its first democratic elections
The first democratic elections in Bhutan began in 2007, and all levels of government had been democratically elected by 2011.
Massachusetts becomes first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that it was unconstitutional under the Massachusetts Constitution to allow only opposite-sex couples to marry.
The Human Genome Project is completed
The Human Genome Project was an international scientific research project to determine the sequence of nucleotide base pairs of human DNA, and of identifying and mapping all of the genes of the human genome.
New Zealand’s prime minister Helen Clark formally apologizes to Samoa
New Zealand’s prime minister Helen Clark formally apologized for two incidents during the period of New Zealand’s administration: a failure in 1918 to quarantine the SS Talune, which carried the ‘Spanish ‘flu’ to Samoa.
Banksy creates “Girl with Balloon” mural in London
Girl with Balloon is a 2002-started London series of stencil murals by the graffiti artist Banksy. A 2017 Samsung poll ranked Girl with Balloon as the United Kingdom’s number one favorite artwork.
Portugal cedes control of Macau to China, ending European colonization of Asia
Although offered control of Macau as early as the 1960s, the Chinese deemed the time “not yet ripe” and preferred to wait until December 1999 — the very end of the millennium, two years after the Hong Kong handover—to close this chapter of history. Upon the handover of Macau European colonization of Asia ended.