2009
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Categories: Timeline | Event articles timeline
2008 2009 2010 The Future
Timeline
January
January 6
January 9
- 524,000 jobs lost in December 2008, for a total of 2.6 million in 2008.
January 20
January 21
January 22
January 27
- President Obama tells muslims, "Americans are not your enemy" in an interview to Arab TV.
January 29
- Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, an equal-pay act signed into law.
January 31
February
February 3
- Former senator Tom Daschle, withdraws his nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services.
February 4
- President Obama will place a $500,000 cap on executive salaries for those companies receiving bailout money.
- President Obama signs Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act into law.
February 6
- 598,000 U.S. jobs were lost in January 2009.
February 7
- Wildfires in Australia have killed at least 181 people.
February 12
- Republican Senator Judd Gregg withdraws his nomination for Commerce Secretary.
February 14
February 17
- President Obama signs the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a $787 billion stimulus package into law.
February 18
- President Obama announces his $75 billion plan to help homeowners.
February 19
- President Obama meets with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa.
February 24
- President Obama makes his first speech to a joint session of Congress. (transcript & video)
February 26
- President Obama revealed his budget for the 2010 fiscal year.
Febrary 27
- President Obama announces his plan to withdraw most American troops out of Iraq by August 31, 2010.
March
March 2
- The CIA has been accused of destroying 92 tapes with harsh interrogation proceedings with suspected members of Al Qaeda.
- American International Group (AIG) reports a $61.7 billion loss for the fourth quarter of 2008. A.I.G. to recieve an additional $30 billion in bailout monies.
March 3
March 6
- 651,000 reported jobs lost in February.
March 9
- President Obama signed an executive order lifting a previous executive order—signed by President Bush in 2001—that limited federal funding of embryonic stem cell research to stem-cell lines that had been created from embryos destroyed before that time.
March 12
- Bernard Madoff pleads guilty to all charges and is sent to jail to await sentencing. Madoff is charged with 11 counts of fraud, money laundering, perjury and theft.
March 18
- New Mexico abolishes death penalty: lethal injection will be replaced with life in prison without parole.
March 19
- House passed a measure to tax at a rate of 90% bonuses paid since the start of the year to all employees making more than $250,000 a year at firms receiving more than $5 billion from the government's banking rescue program, Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP).
- President Obama announces the distribution of $145 million in new Housing and Urban Development funds to California. The funds, according to Obama, "will be used to buy up and rehabilitate vacant and foreclosed homes, and resell those homes with affordable mortgages, (as well as) to provide mortgage assistance and rehabilitation loans for low-income and middle-income families."
March 20
- Twenty state attorneys general announced investigations into the $165 million bonuses paid by insurance giant AIG.
March 23
- Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner unveiled the new Public-Private Investment Program, in which taxpayer funds will be used to seed partnerships with private investors that will buy up toxic assets backed by mortgages and other loans.
- The Dow Jones industrial average gained 497 points.
- South Africa has refused the Dalai Lama a visa to attend an international peace conference in Johannesburg.
- Rep. Rep. Barney Frank calls Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a 'homophobe' in interview.
March 24
- President Obama holds his second prime-time formal news conference of his presidency, lasting 55-minutes.
March 25
March 26
- President Obama holds "Open for Questions," the first virtual town hall meeting at the White House.
- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls Mexico's drug violence 'intolerable'.
- Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner unveils the Obama administration's aggressive plan for strict scrutiny of hedge funds and other freewheeling investors.
- New claims for unemployment benefits las week rose to a seasonally adjusted 652,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 644,000.
- Senate votes to triple AmeriCorps.
March 27
- President Obama announces a new Afghanistan and Pakistan strategy, including the deployment of 4,000 additional military trainers to Afghanistan.
March 28
- Red River peaks at 40.82 feet in Fargo, [[North Dakota and in Moorhead, Minnesota The flood stage is 18 feet.
March 29
- General Motors chief executive, Rick Wagoner, resigns at the request of the Obama administration.
- Obama: Chrysler must form a partnership with Italian automaker Fiat by April 30 before the federal government will agree to provide more financial aid.
- President announces GM and Chrysler car buyer incentives: government-backed warranties, tax incentives to car buyers, the release of funds to buy cars for the government's fleet and a possible "scrappage incentive" trade-in program for less reliable older cars.
March 30
- President Obama goes to Capitol Hill to make his case for the budget.
- President Obama signs the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act protecting 2 million acres in nine states as wilderness and signs Christopher Reeve bill which provides for funding research on paralysis and rehabilitation.
- U.S. will give the government of Afghanistan $40 million for elections being held in August.
March 31
- President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama arrived in London for G20 summit. This is the start of an eight-day, six country tour of Europe and the Middle East.
April
April 1
- President Obama meets Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and announces negotiations on a new strategic arms-control treaty.
April 2
- G20 summit in London reaches agreement on six-point plan which includes banking reform measures and more than $1 trillion to be spent on restoring credit, growth and jobs, measures clamping down on tax havens and a commitment to a green and sustainable global economy.
April 3
- The March employment numbers: 8.5 percent of Americans officially unemployed, 663,000 more jobs lost.
- Iowa Supreme Court unanimously upheld a lower-court ruling that rejected a state law restricting marriage to a union between a man and woman.
- Former Illinois Govenor Rod Blagojevich indicted: 19-count federal indictment alleges that Blagojevich discussed with aides the getting of a Cabinet post in the Obama administration, substantial fundraising assistance or a high-paying job in exchange for the Senate seat.
- Gunman opened fire on two receptionists a room full of immigrants taking a citizenship class, killing 13 people before apparently committing suicide in Binghamton, NY.
- U.S. government reports unemployment Rate at 8.5% and 663,00 jobs were lost in month of March.
April 4
- President Obama attends NATO summit in Strasbourg, France.
- North Korea defies the world and launches rocket that falls into the Pacific Ocean.
April 6
- Italian earthquake of 6.3 magnitude strikes central Italy killing 92.
April 7
- President Obama visits Iraq, meeting with U.S. troops and Iraqi leaders.
- Vermont's state legislature votes to override Governor Jim Douglas's veto of a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry. Vermont is the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage.
April 9
- Somali pirates take U.S. ship's captain, Richard Phillips, hostage. The ship is the Maersk Alabama.
April 12
- Captain Richard Phillips is free after U.S. seals kill 3 Somali pirates, ending a 5 day hostage ordeal.
April 13
- President Obama announces that Cuban-Americans may visit and send money home to family in Cuba. American companies may also provide telephone services to Cuba. The embargo will remain in effect.
April 14
- New Obama family puppy, Bo, in photo session on the White House lawn.
April 16
- Obama meets with Mexican President Felipe Calderon on his first trip to Mexico and Latin America. The two leaders agree to cooperate on combating drug violence along the U.S.-Mexican border.
April 17
- President Obama releases Bush administration memos authorizing harsh interrogation techniques.
- Cuban President Raul Castro says he is ready to enter into negotiations with the United States.
- President Obama is in Trinidad and Tobago for the 34-nation Summit of the Americas. Declares he, "seeks a new beginning with Cuba."
April 18
- Iranian-American journalist, Roxana Saberi, was convicted of spying by a court in Tehran and sentenced to eight years in prison. She was arrested in February for espionage and charged with espionage on April 8.
- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gives President Obama a book entitled, "The Open Veins of Latin America", by Eduardo Galeano.
April 19
- President Obama concluded the fifth Summit of the Americas. During the summit, he pledged to work closely with Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada on climate change, public security threats, and bottom-up approaches to economic relations, development aid and lending.
April 21
- President Obama calls on Americans to volunteer. President Obama signs the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act that triples the size of the AmeriCorps service program over the next eight years and expands ways for students to earn money for college.
- Senators voted 73-23 to confirm career diplomat Christopher Hill as Washington's new envoy to Baghdad
April 22
April 23
April 24
May
May 5
May 7
- U.S. Treasury stress tests on 19 U.S. banks reveal that an extra $75 billion in capital is needed by November.
May 8
May 11
May 15
May 18
May 19
- President Obama unveils plan to bring the overall fleet gas mileage average to 35.5 mpg by 2016, with passenger cars reaching 39 mpg and light trucks hitting 30 mpg under a system that develops standards for each vehicle class size.
- Budget-related ballot measures fail in California special election. Voters vote against tax increases or borrowing to ease California's budget crisis.
May 20
May 21
- President Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney in separate speeches, spar over plans to close the prison at Guantanamo.
May 22
May 23
May 26
May 31
- Dr. George Tiller, medical director of the Women's Health Care Services and provider of late term abortions, is shot to death at his church. He had been the victim of an anti-abortion campaign for the 36 years that he performed abortions at his Wichita Kansas clinic.
June
June 1
- Former Republican Congressman from Ohio John Kasich kicks off his campaign for the Ohio governorship.
- Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, France, went missing over the Atlantic Ocean with 228 people aboard.
June 2
- Former Vice President Dick Cheney says he supports gays being able to marry but believes states, not the federal government, should make the decision.
- Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty won't seek 3rd term in 2010.
- NJ Gubernatorial primary: Republican Christopher Christie and Democratic incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine win.
June 3
June 4
- President Obama delivers a major speech in Cairo to the Muslim world. Read the transcript of the speech and/or watch a video of the speech here.
- 20th anniversary of the violent military crackdown in Tiananmen Square.
- Actor David Carradine was found dead in his hotel room in Bangkok, Thailand.
June 5
- President Barack Obama visits Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. The President also visits wounded soldiers in a two-hour visit at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.
- U.S. unemployment jumped a half percent in May, to 9.4 percent.
June 7
- North Korea sentences U.S. journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, to 12 years in prison. They are found guilty of "illegal entry".
June 8
- Militants open gunfire on security guards and detonate car bomb at a luxury hotel in Peshawar, Pakistan.
June 9
June 10
June 11
- H1N1 virus strain outbreak is deemed a global pandemic.
June 12
- The UN Security Council adopts resolution condemning a recent nuclear test conducted by North Korea. The resolution expands sanctions against Pyongyang.
- During the past week, the Obama administration transferred 10 detainees out of Guantanamo. Two were sent to Chad and Iraq, one was brought to New York to stand trial in civilian court, four we,re sent to Bermuda and three to Saudi Arabia.
- Television stations across the United States start broadcasting solely in digital form, bringing an end analog TV.
June 13
- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran wins reelection by landslide: Ahmadinejad won 62.63% of the vote and opposition candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi received 33.75% of the vote. Voter turnout surpassed 80 percent.
June 15
- President Obama went before the annual meeting of the American Medical Association and defended his health care plan. The President in his speech president said that health care reform, including covering the almost 50 million Americans who have no insurance, would cost about $1 trillion over 10 years.
- Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei directs the Guardian Council to look into the allegations of vote fraud in the Iranian presidential elections held on June 13.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he would accept a Palestinian state in a nationally broadcast interview.
June 16
- Republican Sen. John Ensign of Nevada apologizes for having an affair with a member of his campaign staff, Cynthia Hampton, more than a year ago.
- In the biggest demonstrations in Iran since the 1979 revolution, at least seven people have died. The Iranian government agrees to recount some of the disputed votes from the election. The Iranian government also clamps down on independent media in an attempt to control images of the post election protests, but pictures, videos and 'tweets' leak out anyway.
June 17
- President Obama proposes rules overhauling the financial system, proposes the rerouting of government duties among agencies and also proposes the creation of a consumer protection office all in an effort to prevent any repeat of the worst financial disaster since the Great Depression.
- President Obama signed a presidential memorandum that extends certain benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. Health insurance, however, was not one of the benefits extended.
- Sen. John Ensign (R) resigns as head of the Republican Policy Committee, a day after revealing an extramarital affair.
- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton fracturs her right elbow during a fall.
- North Korea may launch a long-range ballistic missile toward Hawaii in early July, according to a Japanese news report.
June 18
- Tens of thousands of black-clad protesters filled the streets of Tehran to mourn demonstrators killed in clashes over Iran's disputed election. Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi addressed the crowd.
June 19
- Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned opposition supporters to stay off the streets and raised the prospect of violence if their defiant demonstrations continue. Regarding the partial vote recount, the Ayatollah stated, “The Islamic state would not cheat and would not betray the vote of the people. The legal mechanism for elections would not allow any cheating.” Opposition Web sites called another large rally for July 20th in the afternoon, setting the stage for a confrontation between protesters and security forces.
June 20
- President Obama says the Iranian government must understand that "the world is watching". He called on Iran to "govern through consent, not coercion."
- Graphic video of a dying 16 year old girl, Neda, who had been shot while watching the street demonstrations in Tehran with her music teacher, becomes 'viral' on the internet and her name a rallying cry in demonstrations.
June 21
- The moderate reform Iranian presidential candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, in a posting on his web site, called on his own supporters to demonstrate peacefully despite stern warnings from Iran’s top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that no protests of the vote would be allowed.
- Police arrested five relatives of Ali Akbar Heshemi Rafsanjani, a former Iranian president who leads two influential councils and supported Moussavi’s election. The relatives were released after several hours.
June 22
- President Obama says drug companies have pledged to spend $80 billion over the next decade to help reduce the cost of drugs for seniors and pay for a portion of Obama's health care legislation. This pledge by the pharmaceutical industry would help to close a gap in prescription drug coverage under Medicare.
- The Supreme Court ruled narrowly in a challenge to the landmark Voting Rights Act, siding with the Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 in Austin, Texas, saying the district could apply to opt out of the advance approval requirement, reversing a lower federal court that found it could not.
- Iran's highest electoral authority, the Guardian Council, acknowledged that there were voting irregularities in 50 electoral districts.
- A North Korean-flagged ship, the Kang Nam, is believed to be heading toward Yangon, Myanmar carrying small arms cargo banned under a new U.N. resolution, a South Korean intelligence official says.
- President Obama signs the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act into law. The law gives the Food and Drug Administration the authority to reduce nicotine levels in tobacco products. The FDA will also be able to regulate tobacco marketing and advertising.
- In Washington D.C. a Metro commuter train plowed into a train that had stopped ahead of it at the height of the evening rush hour. Nine people were killed and 70 injured.
June 23
- Referring to Iran, President Barack Obama states in a news conference, “The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, the beatings, and imprisonments of the last few days.”
- Iran's General Council claims there is no evidence of fraud in Iran's recent presidential election, despite recently admitting to widespread irregularities in 50 cities.
June 24
- Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, a fiscal conservative seen by many Republicans as a potential candidate in the next presidential campaign, confesses that he had been in Argentina with a woman not his wife, and not hiking the Appalachian Trail as his staff had said. The Governor's whereabouts over the Father's Day weekend and into the following week created a media circus.
June 25
- The Supreme Court ruled, 8 to 1, that the strip search of a 13-year-old Arizona girl by school officials who were looking for prescription-strength drugs violated her constitutional rights.
- Farrah Fawcett, who had been battling anal cancer since 2006, dies. Her illness had been widely publicized.
- Michael Jackson, the "King of Pop", suffers cardiac arrest and dies. Cause of the cardiac arrest is in question.
June 26
- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's demands President Obama apologize for meddling. President Obama meanwhile says, "The violence perpetrated against them (protesters) is outrageous," Obama said. "We see it and we condemn it."
- President Obama meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House.
June 27
- Iran's opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, continues to reject a partial recount of the recent presidential election and insists the disputed results be nullified.
- In his weekly radio address, President Obama urges the Senate to follow the House in passing legislation curbing greenhouse gases.
- 4,318 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
June 28
- The leftist Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is forcibly flown to exile in Costa Rica ahead of an unpopular constitutional referendum to extend the term of the Honduran presidency. The present Honduran constitution limits the president to one term. Opponents of Zelaya call the referendum a power grab.
June 29
- President Barack Obama signs into law a $1 billion program to encourage drivers to buy more fuel-efficient cars and trucks, the 'cash for clunkers' law.
- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that white firefighters in Connecticut were unfairly denied promotion because of their race. The Court threw out a decision that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor had endorsed as an appeals court judge.
- President Obama declares that the United States still considers Manuel Zelaya to be the president of Honduras and assailed the coup that forced Zelaya into exile as illegal.
- Bernard Madoff, is sentenced by a federal judge to the maximum of 150 years in prison, without parole, for an "extraordinarily evil" multibillion-dollar fraud that took a staggering financial toll on thousands of victims.
July
July 2
- The U.S. Labor Department reports that unemployment increases from 9.4% in May to 9.5% in June 2009. There are 467,000 jobs lost in June, approximately 100,000 more jobs than experts expected.
- 4,000 U.S. Marines and 650 Afghan troops begin sweep of Helmand River valley, a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan.
July 3
- Sarah Palin, the first-term Republican governor from Alaska and former vice-presidential candidate, announces her resignation in a rambling speech made from here home in Wasilla, Alaska. She will hand over control to Lt. Gov, Sean Parnell on July 26.
July 4
July 6
- Rioting in Urumqi, China between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese, 156 people die.
July 7
- Public memorial for Michael Jackson held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, is viewed by millions around the world.
July 8
- The 35th G8 Summit begins in L'Aquila, Italy.
July 10
- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says the Obama administration's economic stimulus plan is on the "expected path", despite continued high unemployment.
- President Barack Obama met with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican for about 25 minutes.
- U.S. Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill, will not run for a second term.
July 12
- CIA Director Leon Panetta testified to a congressional committee that he was told former Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the intelligence agency to withhold information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress, according to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California as she had told the "FOX News Sunday" program.
July 13
July 14
July 17
- Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani holds Friday prayers in Tehran and calls for the release of political prisoners from the election protests.
July 22
- The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century takes place over parts of Asia and the Pacific Ocean.
July 23
- The FBI arrests 30 officials and rabbis in New Jersey as part of a public corruption and international money laundering probe.
July 25
- Protests in 80 cities worldwide take place in support of Iranian protesters following the disputed presidential election.
July 27
- Hawaii Dept. of Health officials have once again checked and confirmed that President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen, and therefore meets a key constitutional requirement for being president.
July 30
- Iranian police disperse mourners at a Tehranian cemetery for a memorial to those killed in post-election violence, using teargas to disperse crowds from the grave of Neda Soltan.
- President Barack Obama has a beer with Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley, in the Rose Garden of the White House.
- U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison says she will step down this fall to challenge fellow Republican Rick Perry for governor in 2010.
August
August 1
- Iran state TV confirms the detaining of three Americans, two men and one woman, who crossed the border from northern Iraq.
August 3
- The "cash for clunkers" program, nears a quarter-million trade-ins with the initial $1 billion in rebates close to depletion, Senate may approve additional $2 billion.
August 4
- Former president Bill Clinton makes an unannounced visit to Pyongyang. North Korean Leader Kim Jong Il pardons and frees the two journalists who allegedly crossed into the country from China earlier this year. They were serving 12-year prison sentences.
- President Barack Obama meets with Senate Democrats to discuss his priorities, while public support for healthcare reform decreases.
August 5
- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sworn in for a second term as Iran's president.
- Congressional lawmakers on August recess who support health care reform are bracing for protests and demonstrations.
August 6
- Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who has led campaigns of suicide attacks and assassinations against Pakistan's government, was killed in a CIA missile strike.
August 7
- President Barack Obama signs into law a measure tripling the budget of the $1 billion "cash-for-clunkers" incentive program.
- Republican Sen. Mel Martinez announcs he would step down 16 months early. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist to select replacement.
August 8
- Sonia Sotomayor became the Supreme Court's newest justice as she takes oath from Chief Justice John Roberts.
- Midair crash of small plane and tourist helicopter over Hudson River claim 9 lives.
- U.S. lost 247,000 jobs in July, according to the Department of Labor, the least in any month since last August, taking the unemployment rate down to 9.4 percent from June's 9.5 percent.
August 10
- President Barack Obama, Mexico President Felipe Calderon and Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper meet at the annual North American leader's summit in Guadalajara, Mexico.
- House Democratic leaders, under public pressure, say they will not force the Pentagon to buy four passenger jets used to fly senior government officials.
August 20
- Senator Ted Kennedy asks Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Massachusetts legislative leaders to change Massachusetts law to allow the Governor to appoint his replacement upon his death.
- Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the Libyan terrorist convicted of bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988 and killed 270 people, is freed from prison on compassionate grounds. al-Megrahi has prostate cancer and is only months from death.
- Presidential elections held in Afghanistan.
August 25
- Sen. Ted Kennedy, 77, dies of brain cancer at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.
- The federal Office of Management and Budget projects that the budget deficit in 10 years will be $9 trillion.
- Ben Bernanke chairman of the Federal Reserve, is nominated by President Obama for a second term.
August 29
August 30
- Former Vice President Dick Cheney called Attorney General Eric Holder's order last week for a preliminary investigation into whether CIA interrogators illegally abused terror suspects ordered last week "an outrageous political act."
September
September 2
- A 7.1-magnitude earthquake hits the island of Java, 60 people die.
September 3
- The Obama administration made permanent a cut of all nonhumanitarian aid to the Honduran government over President Manuel Zelaya's ouster in June.
- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is offended by reports of lewd behavior and sexual misconduct among the private security contractors guarding the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan.
- Singer Michael Jackson is laid to rest at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.
- The U.S. Treasury Department lifted most restrictions on family travel to Cuba. Limitations on how much money families can send to relatives in Cuba were lifted also.
September 4
- President Barack Obama spoke to leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and other liberal-leaning House groups via conference call. The progressives push for the 'public option'.
- An airstrike on a pair of hijacked fuel tankers killed as many as 72 civilians in northern Afghanistan
September 7
- President Barack Obama spoke at an AFL-CIO gathering in Cincinnati, Ohio touting the virtues of unionism.
- The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the construction of hundreds of new homes in the West Bank.
September 8
- President Barack Obama gives a back-to-school speech that touts responsibility after several days of media circus caused by conservatives worried about the President spreading socialist propaganda.
- Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus gives his "Gang of Six" bipartisan Senate negotiators a deadline to endorse a $900 billion "framework plan" presented by Sen. Baucus to the six over the weekend in a last ditch effort at a bipartisan health care bill. The Baucus deadline is on September 9 at 10 a.m. mere hours before President Barack Obama gives his healthcare speech to a joint session of Congress.
- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor took her seat at the Supreme Court in front of a packed courtroom that included President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.
September 9
- Flooding in Turkey kill 30.
September 15
- House Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina was formally rebuked by the House of Representatives by a vote 240–179. Rep. Wilson had yelled, "You lie!" at President Obama during his speech on health care before a joint session of the U.S. Congress.
September 24
- Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts named Paul Kirk, former DNC chairman as Senator Ted Kennedy's temporary replacement in the Senate. A permanent replacement will be voted on in January.
September 25
- The United States, Britain, and France warn Iran over a newly exposed nuclear plant being built near Qom.
September 28
- Tropical Storm Ketsana drops about 17 inches of rain in 12 hours in the northern Philipines. The resulting floods kill approximately 90 people.
September 29
- An underwater 8.0-magnitude earthquake causes a tsunami in Samoa and American Samoa that kills more than 115 people.
- Florida Rep. Alan Grayson gave a floor speech where he said: "If you get sick, America, the Republican health care plan is this: Die quickly. That's right. The Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick." [1]
September 30
- A 7.6-magnitude earthquake hits the island of Sumatra, leaving more than 700 people dead and thousands trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings in the city of Padang.
- Republicans demand an apology from Rep. Alan Grayson for remarks made on the House floor on September 29 (see above). Republicans threaten of the introduction of a resolution of disapproval. Rep. Grayson offered an apology, sort of. His remorse was not for Republicans, rather for the dead, those who have died because of a lack of health insurance, comparing the existing health care system to the Holocaust. [2]
October
October 1
- Iran agrees to send its enriched uranium to Russia and open up the newly discovered nuclear plant to international inspection.
- General Motors announces it will shut down the Saturn line of cars, 350 dealerships around the country will close.
October 2
- Chicago loses bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games to Rio de Janeiro. Chicago came in last after Tokyo and Madrid lost respective rounds of voting to Rio. The 2016 Olympic Games will the first to held in South America. President Obama had gone to Copenhagen in an effort to meet with the IOC and bolster Chicago's bid. Some on the political right cheer Obama's 'failure'.
- An article in the New York Times reported that the Senator John Ensign played an active role in getting a lobbying position for Doug Hampton, whose wife he was sleeping with. Hampton then went on to lobby Ensign on behalf of his clients.
- The U.S. economy lost 263,000 jobs in September. Unemployment reaches 9.8%.
October 8
- Florida Rep. Alan Grayson again (see Sept. 29 and 30 above) spoke on the House floor saying that Democrats should stop worrying about what Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) wants and start thinking about what the American people want. Rep. Grayson, in turn, remarked to Republicans saying that people are dying everyday from the lack of health insurance in this country, and he will not apologize for bringing that grim fact to the attention of the American people, because Americans don’t care about Republicans’ feelings. [3]
October 9
- President Obama awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. According to the new media, the Taliban and many Republicans disagree with the choice.
- The president and his top national security advisers met for three hours to hear top military officials make their case for tens of thousands of additional troops to target al-Qaida. A decision on troop levels will be made in the coming weeks.
October 11
- National Equality March drew about 100,000 LGBT people and their supporters to Washington D.C. Protesting second-class citizenship of gays.
October 12
- Columbus Day (federal holiday)
October 13
- Senate Finance Committee passes it's version of a health care reform bill with a lone Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine voting for passage out of committee. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., must merge the Finance Committee bill with a more liberal version passed by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in coming days.
November
November 3
- Maine voters overturn a same-sex marriage law which had been enacted in May 2009.
November 5
- Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist at Fort Hood opens fire leaving 13 dead.
- Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas says he doesn't want to run for another term in January.
November 6
- Unemployment reaches the highest rate in 26 years, increasing to 10.2% in October.
November 7
- The U.S. House by a vote of 220 to 215 passes its version of health care reform. Democrats had 39 defections, while Republicans had one lone defection in Rep. Ahn Cao.
November 9
- Iranian officials accuse three Americans arrested while hiking in Iran of spying. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton rebukes the accusation and calls for Iranians to release them.
November 10
- D.C. sniper, John Allen Muhammad, mastermind of the 2002 sniper attacks in the Washington D.C. area that left 10 dead, was put to death by lethal injection.
November 12
- U.S. swine flu death estimate at 4,000.
November 13
- President Barak Obama lands in Tokyo on the first leg of his asian trip.
- NASA says moon has lots of water.
- Former Louisiana congressman William Jefferson is sentenced to thirteen years for bribery.
November 14
- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announces his decision to to bring Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others detained at Guantanamo to trial in a lower Manhattan courthouse.
November 15
- President Obama and Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev expressed losing patience with the Iranian government intransigence at shipping its enriched uranium abroad to be turned into fuel for a Tehran medical reactor.
- U.S officials say that the CIA has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Pakistan's intelligence service since the 9/11 attacks, accounting for as much as one-third of the agency's annual budget.
November 16
- In Shanghai, President Barak Obama said that individual expression is not an American ideal but a universal right that should be available to all.
- The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, recommends that women in their 40's stop having routine mammograms and instead individually discuss whether to get exams with their physicians.
November 18
- Senator Robert C. Byrd became the U.S. capitol's longest-serving lawmaker. Byrd entered the House on January 3, 1953.
November 19
- President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak offer North Korea a deal: dismantle core nuclear programs for security guarantees and economic assistance.
- Defense Secretary Robert Gates a wide-ranging review of the Ft. Hood shooting.
- Belgian Premier Herman Van Rompuy is named full-time president and foreign policy chief of the European Union.
November 20
- Hamid Karzai is sworn in as the President of Afghanistan and begins his second five-year term.
November 21
- By 60 to 39 vote, the U.S. Senate agrees to bring the Senate health care bill to the floor.
November 23
- 57 people are murdered in the Philippines of election-related violence. The victims were en route to file candidacy papers for governor of Maguindanao, a province on the island of Mindanao.
November 28
- Terrorist bomb kills 25 people on Russian train.
December
December 1
- President Barack Obama announced he will send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan but he vowed to start bringing American forces home in the middle of 2011.
- U.S. Rep. John Tanner, a Tennessee Democrat, TN-08, and co-founder of the conservative Blue Dog coalition, announced he will retire in 2010 after 11 terms in Congress.
December 2
- The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, announces that Iran would move to produce uranium of much higher enrichment levels.
- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the nation’s top military officer defend President Barack Obama’s decision to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan on Capitol Hill before a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
- The New York State Senate rejects a bill that would allow same-sex marriages to be licensed in the state.
December 9
December 22
December 24
- The U.S. Senate passed a historic $871 billion health care reform bill by a 60-39 party line vote after months of heated partisan debate. Every member of the Democratic caucus backed the measure; every Republican opposed it.
- President Barack Obama begins his vacation in Hawaii. He returns to Washington D.C. on January 4.
December 25
- A Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, trys to ignite explosives sewn inside his underwear on Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam as it approached Detroit.
December 29
- Republican Rep. George Radanovich, representing California's 19th Congressional District, announced Tuesday that he is stepping down from his strongly Republican district seat in 2010 and has asked state Sen. Jeff Denham, a fellow conservative Republican, to run to replace him. Radanovich says he wants to spend more time with his wife, who is battling ovarian cancer.
December 30
- A suicide bomber kills seven CIA employees at a remote outpost in Afghanistan.
December 31
- The Montana Supreme Court said nothing in state law prevents patients from seeking physician-assisted suicide, making Montana the third state that will allow the procedure.