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WORLD EVENTS AND THE YEAR 2009

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World Events of 2009

The dawning of 2009 sees the entire world in a financial crises. This quickly settles into a worldwide recession which last throughout the year.

World markets collapse as worldwide recession begins.
Israel ends its invasion of the Gaza strip in late January.

Israeli Air attack on Gaza
There is much debate generated when Barack Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize. This is widely recognised as being more of a repudiation of the criminal policies of the Bush administration, rather than an acknowledgement of Obama's accomplishments.

Barack Obama
Russia shuts off all gas to Europe coming through the Ukraine

Russian Pipeline
Les Paul, inventor of the solid body electric guitar and the first practical multitrack tape recorder, dies at the age of 94.

Les Paul (1915-2009)
A series of brushfires in Australia kills 175, injures 500, and leaves 7,500 people homeless.

Australian brush fire
Marilyn Chambers (1952 - 2009), well known porn star from the 1970's, dies of a cerebral haemorrhage

Marilyn Chambers and her famous Ivory Snow ads
A Russian and American satellite collide in space over Siberia. Officially it is declared to be an "accident" by US authorities.

Artist rendition of crippled satellite.
Croatia and Albania join NATO.
Alberto Fujimori, former President of Peru, is sentenced to 25 years in prison for ordering killings and kidnappings by security forces during his tenure.

Former Peruvian President, Alberto Fujimori
Swine flue, (a.k.a. H1N1) spreads from Mexico, through the rest of North America, and on to the rest of the world
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is reelected as the president of Iran. However the election is widely perceived as a stolen election and there is widespread opposition within Iran. Political instability continues through the year.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Michael Jackson dies of a drug overdose. This triggers an unprecedented degree of online activity which cripples servers and delays traffic over large portions of the internet.

Michael Jackson (1958 - 2009)
There is widespread unrest in the Xinjiang region of China as many ethnic Uyghurs seek independence.

Xinjiang region of China
Roman Polanski is arrested and Switzerland and extradited to the US.
CERN restarts the Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator. It has been down for over a year for repairs.

Technician making repairs
The Copenhagen climate change conference is held but ends inconclusively.
Farrah Fawcett (1947 - 2009), iconic American actress from the 1970's, dies from cancer at the age of 62.

Farrah Fawcett (circa 1973)
Yoshito Usui (1958 - 2009), Japanese "Manga" artist, dies in a hiking accident at the age of 51
"Crayon Shinchan", Yoshito Usui's most famous creation