AMERICA TODAY (1992-2010) 1992: President Bush and Yeltsin announce formal end to cold war (Feb. 1).

Four police officers were acquitted in Los Angeles beating of Rodney King; rioting erupts in South-Central Los Angeles (April 29) and are indicted on federal civil rights charges (Aug. 5) Supreme Court reaffirmed The right to abortion (June 29). Democrats nominated Bill Clinton and Al Gore (July 1). Republicans re-nominated Bush and Quayle (Aug. 20). Senate ratified the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (Oct. 1). Bill Clinton elected president, Al Gore vice president (Nov. 3). Russian Parliament supports the START treaty (Nov. 4). U.S. forces leave Philippines, which ends almost a century of American military presence (Nov. 24). Bush pardoned former Reagan administration officials that were involved in the Iran-Contra affair (Dec. 24). 1993: U.S. began airlift of supplies to besieged Bosnia towns (Feb. 28). Twenty-two United Nations troops killed in Somalia (June 5). Iraq accepted United Nations weapons monitoring (July 19). Israeli-Palestinian accord reached (Aug. 28) Europe's Maastricht Treaty took effect, which created the European Union (Nov. 1). Clinton signed Brady bill regulating firearms purchases (Nov. 30). 1994: Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan attacked (Jan. 6); three were arrested in the attack (Jan. 13). Major earthquake shook Los Angeles; 51 dead (Jan. 17) President CLINTON ended trade embargo on Vietnam (Feb. 9). Aldrich ames, C.I.A. official, charged with spying for the Soviets (Feb. 22). Four convicted in World Trade Center bombing (March 4). South Africa held its first interracial national election (April 29); Nelson Mandela was elected president. Supreme Court approves limit on abortion protests (June 30). Israel and Jordan sign peace treaty (Oct. 17). 1995 Nerve gas attack in Tokyo subway killed eight and injured thousands (March 20). U.S. shuttle docks with Russian space station (June 27). France exploded nuclear device in Pacific; wide protests ensued (Sept. 5). Israelis and Palestinians agreed on transferring the West Bank to the Arabs (Sept. 24) 1996 Senate ratified major arms reduction treaty (Jan. 26). France announced Its end to nuclear tests (Jan. 29). Clinton signed line-item veto bill (April 9). China agreed to world ban on atomic testing (June 6). Leaders in Balkans signed accord on arms limits (June 14). Bomb exploded at Summer Olympic games in Atlanta (July 25). Clinton signed bill to raise minimum wage (Aug. 2). Clinton-Gore ticket wins national election; Republicans retain control of Congress (Nov. 5). FBI agent charged with spying for Moscow (Dec. 18). 1997 U.S. shuttle joined Russian space station (Jan. 17). President Clinton started second term (Jan. 20). Hale-Bopp comet was the closest it will be to Earth until 4397 (March 22). U.S. Appealed Court upheld California ban on affirmative action (April 8). U.S. judge upheld California marijuana law (April 11). Congress voted major tax cuts (June 26). U.S. spacecraft began the exploration of Mars (July 4). U.S. company launched first commercial spy satellite (Dec. 24). 1998 U.S. court ruled line-item veto unconstitutional (Feb. 12). FDA approved Viagra, a male impotence drug (March 27). Europeans agreed on single currency, the euro (May 3). India conducted 3 atomic tests with worldwide disapproval (May 11, 13); Pakistan did 5 nuclear tests in response (May 29, 30). Matthew Shepard, a gay Wyoming student, beaten in hate crime (Oct. 6). House impeaches President Clinton along party lines on two charges, perjury and obstruction of justice (Dec. 19). 1999 U.S. accused China of stealing nuclear secrets (March 5). Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary join NATO (March 12). Two Columbine students went on a shooting spree in Columbine High School, killing 15, including themselves (April 20). NATO bombs accidently hit Chinese embassy in Belgrade (May 7). Dozens of people were exposed to radiation in Japan's worst nuclear accident (Sept. 30). Tobacco companies admit to harm caused by cigarette smoking (Oct. 13). Senate rejected 1996 nuclear test-ban treaty; international leaders were upset by U.S.'s choice (Oct. 13). U.S. and China reach landmark trade agreement (Nov. 15). Five-year-old Cuban refugee Elin Gonzlez got caught in politically charged custody battle (Nov. 25). 2000 "NEAR" became the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid (Feb. 14). Presidents of North and South Korea signed peace accord, ending half-century of antagonism (June 15). the Human genome was deciphered; it was expected to revolutionize the practice of medicine (June 26). Abortion pill, RU-486, was approved by the U.S. (Sept. 28). 2001 George W. Bush was sworn in as 43rd president (Jan. 20). Bush abandoned global-warming treaty (Kyoto Protocol), which upset European leaders (March 30). Bush allowed stem cell research, approving federal funds for studies using existing strains of stem cells (Aug. 9). Terrorists attacked United States. Hijackers rammed jetliners into the twin towers of New York City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A fourth hijacked plane crashed outside of Pittsburgh. the amount of casualties was more than 3,000. Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda terrorist network was behind the attacks (Sept. 11). the Anthrax scare spread throughout the nation, as anthrax-laced letters were sent to various media and government officials. (October 5). 2002

International Criminal Court wins UN ratification, but U.S. refused to ratify it (April 11). U.S. and Russia reached a landmark arms agreement to cut both countries' nuclear arsenals by two-thirds over the next ten years (May 13 EPA loosened up on the Clean Air Act (Nov. 22). Bush signed legislation creating cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security (Nov. 25). 2003 In State of the Union address, Bush announced that he will attack Iraq even without a UN mandate (Jan. 28). The United States and Britain started the war against Iraq (March 19). Baghdad falls to U.S. troops (April 9). The United States declared the official end to combat operations in Iraq (May 1). International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) found Iran's secret nuclear activities and called for increased inspections (June 18). The U.S. Supreme Court decisively upheld the use of affirmative action in higher education (June 23). Bush signs bill banning so-called partial-birth abortion procedure (Nov. 5). 2004 Bush proposed an ambitious space program that included flights to the Moon, Mars, and beyond (Jan. 14). In Rasul v. Bush, Supreme Court rules that enemy combatants held at Guantnamo Bay were legally entitled to file petitions for writs of habeas corpus; and in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, court ruled that the detention of a U.S. citizen held as an enemy combatant is invalid, rejecting government's claim that the executive branch has unreviewable authority in the time of war (June 28) Bush was re-elected as president (Nov. 2). Missile test failed; setback for Bush administration's missile defense system (Dec. 15). 2005 South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk announces that he had devised a new procedure to successfully produce human stem cell lines from a cloned human embryo (May 20), but claim is discredited in Dec. 2005. NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft hit comet Tempel 1 in effort to research primordial remnants of our solar system (July 4). President Bush signed the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which will remove trade barriers between the U.S. and Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua (Aug. 2). Hurricane Katrina caused major damage on the Gulf Coast. Americans were shaken by the magnitude of the disaster and by how ill-prepared the government was in its aftermath. (Aug. 2530). The Supreme Court ruled that military tribunals could not be set up to try prisoners in the absence of Congressional authorization and that prisoners were entitled to fair trials under the Geneva Conventions (June 29) The International Astronomical Union reclassified Pluto as a dwarf planet (Aug. 24). 2007 Nancy Pelosi became the first woman speaker of the House of Representatives. (jan. 4) President Bush signed the law that legalized the government eavesdropping of telephone conversations and emails of American citizens and people overseas without a warrant as long as there was a "reasonable belief" that one party was not in the United States (Aug. 5). 2008 The government began to intervene in the U.S. financial system to avoid a crisis. (March 11) The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution protected an individual's right to possess a gun, but that the ruling "is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose." (June 26) Obama became the first African American to be elected president of the United States. (Nov 4) Voters in California narrowly passed a ballot measure, Proposition 8, that overturned the May 15, 2008, California Supreme Court decision that said same-sex couples had a constitutional right to marry. (Nov. 4) 2009 U.S. troops completed their withdrawal from Iraqi cities, including Baghdad, and transfer the responsibility of securing the cities to Iraqi troops. (June 30) President Obama signed executive orders closing all secret prisons and detention camps run by the CIA, including the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, and banning coercive interrogation methods. (Jan. 22) Bernard Madoff, plead guilty to 11 counts of fraud, money laundering, perjury and theft. (March 12) Rod Blagojevich, the former governor of Illinois charged with attempting to sell President Obama's vacated senate seat to the highest bidder. (April 2) The Supreme Court ruled that prisoners have no right to a DNA test to prove their innocence long after they are convicted of a crime. (June 18) President Obama signed an executive order banning federal workers from texting while driving. (Oct. 1) The federal government announced it will no longer prosecute those who use or sell marijuana for medical reasons, if they are complying with state law. (Oct. 19) Jan. 29: President Obama signed his first bill into law: the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, an equal-pay act which expanded workers' rights to sue in pay disputes. 2010 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It was the region's worst earthquake in 200 years. (Jan. 12) The Transportation Security Administration announced stricter screening requirements for passengers traveling by air to the U.S. More advanced screenings will also be necessary at certain airports. (Jan. 3) President Obama presented to Congress his 2011 budget of $3.8 trillion and his 10-year budget plan. The budget included a $1.6 trillion deficit in the next fiscal year, and then steadily declines over the following 10 years (Feb. 1) top officials at the Department of Defense looked for a way to end the law that forhibited openly gay men and women to be in the military. (feb. 2) President Obama announced his plan for a health-care reform bill. The plan follows the senate's version (Feb. 22) The House of Representatives passed a bill that would fix the American health-care system, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which Obama signs into law on March 23rd. (Mar. 21) The Environmental Protection Agency issued formal guidelines for the amount of greenhouse gas emissions cars will be able to produce. (Apr. 1) The United States Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the state of Arizona in protest of its new immigration law, which allows law enforcement professionals to question suspected illegal immigrants of their immigration status. The U.S. government claimed that immigration is a federal issue, not to be enforced by state governments, because of the possibility that their laws would interfere with federal cases and issues. (July 6) Seven years after the war in Iraq began, President Obama announced the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom with a withdrawal of combat troops. (Aug. 31) The House of Representatives passed the child nutrition bill, which expands the scope of the current school lunch program and implements improvements to the overall health of the foods available and provided through that program. (Dec. 2)