The 15 Biggest Stories Of The Century So Far

Sure, it’s a little early, but someone has to be the first to put together a list like this.

15) Scooter Libby Put On Trial (2005): Scooter Libby is put on trial for supposedly perjuring himself to cover up a non-existent crime.

14) Corporate Accounting Scandals Including Enron, Arthur Andersen (2002): Crooked accounting scandals rock the business world.

13) Terri Schiavo Was Dehydrated To Death Over The Protests Of Her Parents (2005): America found out that a woman with brain damage has far less legal protection of her life than a convicted murderer on death row.

12) Loss Of Space Shuttle Columbia (2003): An unfortunate reminder of how brave our astronauts are to go up into space.

11) Washington Snipers (2002): Two freelance Muslim jihadis killed 10 people in the Washington D.C. area in random sniper attacks.

10) Abu Ghraib (2004): A page A-8 story about some soldiers mistreating prisoners becomes one of the biggest stories of the century because they were dumb enough to take pictures.

9) The Danish Muhammad Cartoon Controversy (2006): Mostly innocuous pictures of Muhammad are published in a Danish paper and Muslims across the world flip out.

8) Israel Invades Lebanon (2006): Israel fought an indecisive battle with Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon and the ripples of that conflict are still very much in evidence in both Lebanese and Israeli politics.

7) Tsunami Devastates South and Southeast Asia (2004): More than 200,000 people died in a tsunami after a massive earthquake off the coast of Indonesia.

6) Democrats take over Congress. (2006): The GOP implodes and the Democrats swoop in.

5) Bush beats Kerry (2004): 2004 was a referendum on the war on terror. The people who wanted to fight it won.

4) Hurricane Katrina wrecks New Orleans (2005): Large portions of a major city were destroyed in a hurricane and the Bush Administration was largely blamed for the incredible incompetence of the local government in handling the crisis.

3) Invasion of Afghanistan (2001): We did in a few weeks what the Soviets couldn’t do in a decade.

2) Invasion of Iraq (2003): We took out Saddam, put a democratic President in place, and helped the Iraqis write a Constitution. Now, will we finish the job?

1) 9/11 (2001): The New Pearl Harbor.

Update #1: Originally, some events from 2000 were included. Those were dropped.

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