Someone on a social media site recently challenged me to produce a short list of the biggest historical events since 2000. I took her to mean "since 2000 inclusive." And to keep the list respectably short, I've limited myself to one Big Event from each year. After a little thought, I came up with the following, which as you can see I'm reproducing here. I considered invoking an event in the world of baseball for the Big Event of 2004, but thought better of it. (New Englanders will know what I had in mind.) 2000: The world is devastated on January 1st by the consequences of the Y2K bug ... uh, never mind. The refutation "ambulando" of the Y2K doomsayers serves as evidence that the digital world is more resilient than it had been in the fears of some and the (semi-secret) hopes of other. 2001: Al Qaeda attacks US targets in Virginia and New York, kills thousands. 2002: The new “euro” notes and coins are introduced as circulating currency in m...
