2009

Millennium:	3rd millennium
Centuries:	20th century 21st century 22nd century
Decades:	1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
Years:	2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

2009 (MMIX) is the current year of the Anno Domini/Common Era in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. It is a common year starting on Thursday and the last year of the 2000s decade.

2009 has been designated as the:

• International Year of Astronomy.
• International Year of Natural Fibres.

Events

January

• January 1 – Austria, Japan, Mexico, Turkey, and Uganda assume their seats on the United Nations Security Council.
• January 1 – The Czech Republic takes over the presidency of the Council of the European Union from France.
• January 1 – At least 61 people are killed in a fire in Bangkok during New Year celebrations.
• January 1 – Asunción, the capital of Paraguay, becomes the American Capital of Culture and Vilnius and Linz become the European Capitals of Culture.
• January 1 – Slovakia adopts the Euro as its national currency, replacing the Slovak koruna.
• January 2 – The Sri Lankan Army captures Kilinochchi, de facto administrative capital of the LTTE.
• January 3 – Israel launches a ground invasion of Gaza.

• January 7 – Russia shuts off all gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin publicly endorses the move and urges that international observers be brought into the energy dispute.
• January 12 – The Electronic System for Travel Authorization becomes mandatory for participating travelers from Visa Waiver Program countries in advance of travel to the United States.
• January 13 – Ethiopian military forces begin pulling out of Somalia, where they have tried to maintain order for nearly two years.
• January 15 – US Airways Flight 1549, en route to Charlotte/Douglas International Airport from New York's LaGuardia Airport, ditches in the Hudson River off Manhattan. All 155 passengers and crew are evacuated and taken to safety. The plane is apparently brought down by a flock of Canada Geese.
• January 17 – Israel declares a unilateral cease-fire against Hamas militants and puts an end to attacks after 22 days of violence in Gaza.
• January 20 – Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th, and first African-American, President of the United States.

  

  An explosion caused by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza during the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict

• January 22 – U.S. President Barack Obama signs an order to close Guantanamo Bay detention camp within one year.
• January 22 – Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda is captured by Rwandan forces after crossing over the border into Rwanda.
• January 23 – The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launches the world's first-ever Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite, "Ibuki", from Tanegashima Space Center.
• January 26 – The first-ever trial at the International Criminal Court is held. Former Union of Congolese Patriots leader Thomas Lubanga is accused of training child soldiers to kill, pillage, and rape.
• January 26 – The Icelandic government and banking system collapse; Prime Minister Geir Haarde immediately resigns.
• January 29 – An Israeli Defense Forces air raid injures nine people in the Gaza Strip in response to continued militant rocket fire.

February

• February 1 – Patriarch Kirill I of Moscow is enthroned as the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.
• February 1 – Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir is appointed as the new Prime Minister of Iceland, becoming the world's first openly gay head of government.
• February 2 – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces that Iran has launched its own satellite, "Omid", into orbit on an Iranian-built rocket.
• February 7 – The deadliest bushfires in Australian history begin; they kill 173 people, injure 500 more, and leave 7,500 homeless. The fires come after Melbourne records the highest-ever temperature (46.4°C, 115°F) of any capital city in Australia. The majority of the fires are ignited by either fallen or clashing power lines or deliberately lit.
• February 8 – The Taliban releases a video which shows Polish geologist Piotr Stańczak, whom they had abducted a few months earlier, being beheaded. It is the first killing of a Western hostage in Pakistan since American journalist Daniel Pearl was beheaded in 2002.
• February 10 – A Russian and an American satellite collide over Siberia, creating a large amount of space debris.
• February 11 – Morgan Tsvangirai is sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Zimbabwe following the power-sharing deal with President Robert Mugabe signed in September, 2008.
• February 12 – Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashes into a home in Clarence Center, a suburb of Buffalo, New York, killing 49 on the plane and one on the ground.
• February 16 – The trial of former Khmer Rouge leader Kang Kek Iew begins in Phnom Penh, 30 years after Cambodian leader Pol Pot was overthrown.
• February 17 – The JEM rebel group in Darfur, Sudan sign a pact with the Sudanese government, planning a ceasefire within the next 3 months.
• February 25 – Turkish Airlines Flight 1951, a Boeing 737-800 aircraft with 135 passengers on board, crashes into a field outside Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, killing nine and injuring 84.
• February 25 – Members of the Bangladesh Rifles paramilitary force begin mutinying. Over 80 are killed.
• February 26 – Former Serbian president Milan Milutinović is acquitted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia regarding war crimes during the Kosovo War.

March

• March 2 – President of Guinea-Bissau João Bernardo Vieira is assassinated during an armed attack on his residence in Bissau.
• March 3 – Gunmen attack a bus carrying Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore, Pakistan, killing six policemen and two civilians, injuring six team members, and critically injuring reserve umpire Ahsan Raza.
• March 4 – The International Criminal Court (ICC) issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC since its establishment in 2002.
• March 7 – NASA's Kepler Mission, a space photometer which will search for extrasolar planets in the Milky Way galaxy, is launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, USA.
• March 17 – The President of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, is overthrown in a coup d'etat, following a month of rallies in Antananarivo. The military appoints opposition leader Andry Rajoelina as the new President.
• March 19 – Josef Fritzl is sentenced to life imprisonment by an Austrian court for enslaving and raping his daughter for 24 years, and for murdering their infant child.
• March 27 – Flash flooding and the Situ Gintung dam's failure kill at least 99 people in Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia.

April

Train commuters in Mexico City wearing surgical masks due to the outbreak of swine flu

• April 1 – Albania and Croatia join NATO.
• April 2 – The second G-20 summit, involving state leaders rather than the usual finance ministers, meets in London. Its main focus is an ongoing global financial crisis.
• April 3–4 – The 21st NATO Summit is held, 60 years after the founding of the organization. Former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is appointed as the new Secretary General of NATO.
• April 5 – North Korea launches its controversial Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 rocket. The satellite passes over mainland Japan, prompting an immediate reaction from the United Nations Security Council, as well as participating states of Six-party talks.
• April 6 – A 6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes near L'Aquila, Italy, killing at least 293 and injuring more than 1,500.
• April 7 – Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori is sentenced to 25 years in prison for ordering killings and kidnappings by security forces.
• April 10 – Fijian constitutional crisis: Fijian President Ratu Josefa Iloilo suspends the Constitution of Fiji, dismisses all judges and constitutional appointees and assumes all governance in the country after the Court of Appeal rules that the government of Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama is illegal.
• April 11–12 – Thai political crisis: The Fourth East Asia Summit is postponed after Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva declares state of emergency in Bangkok and surrounding areas.
• April 17 – Thirty-four heads of state and government meet in Port of Spain, Trinidad for the 5th Summit of the Americas.
• April 18 – Roxana Saberi, an Iranian-American journalist, is sentenced to eight years in prison for espionage by an Iranian court. She is freed the following month, after an appeals court reduces and suspends her sentence.
• April 21 – UNESCO launches The World Digital Library.
• April 24 – The World Health Organization expresses concern at the spread of influenza from Mexico and the United States to other countries. International cases and resulting deaths are confirmed.
• April 29 – NATO expels two Russian diplomats from NATO headquarters in Brussels over a spy scandal in Estonia.

May

USGS image of the earthquake caused by the North Korean nuclear test.

• May 4 – The President of Niger, Tandja Mamadou, holds peace talks with the Tuareg rebel groups in north Niger.
• May 5 – A military revolt occurs in Georgia, near the capital, Tbilisi.
• May 9 – Chadian forces defeat a large column of advancing rebels.
• May 11 – Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-125, the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.
• May 16 – Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa declares victory over the LTTE.
• May 18 – The third C40 Large Cities Climate Leadership Group meets in Seoul.
• May 18 – The Sri Lankan Civil War ends with the total military defeat of the LTTE.
• May 19 – The Speaker of the British House of Commons Michael Martin announces his resignation in a scandal over expenses of Members of Parliament, becoming the first Commons Speaker since 1695 to be forced from office.
• May 23 – Former President of South Korea Roh Moo-hyun, under investigation for alleged bribery during his presidential term, commits suicide.
• May 25 – North Korea announces that it has conducted a second successful nuclear test at an underground facility near Kilchu, North Korea.
• May 26 – President Barack Obama nominates Judge Sonia Sotomayor for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice David Souter.
• May 29 – Telecom New Zealand's new 3G mobile network is launched nationwide in New Zealand

Predicted and scheduled events

June

• June 1 – Greenland will become a separate country within the Kingdom of Denmark.
• June 4–7 – The European Parliament election will take place, the exact date varying by country.
• June 7 – A referendum on changing the Act of Succession will be held in Denmark.
• June 17 – The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the LCROSS impactor will be launched to the Moon. Part of NASA's Lunar Precursor Robotic Program (LPRP).

July

• July 1 – Sweden takes over Presidency of the Council of the European Union from the Czech Republic.
• July 11 – NASA will launch Ares I-X, a test flight intended to gather aerodynamic data that will support the development of the Ares I crew launch vehicle. Ares I-X will be the first test flight of a future human orbital launch vehicle by NASA since STS-1 in 1981.

September

• September – The Burj Dubai in Dubai, United Arab Emirates will be completed. It is already the tallest man-made structure ever built.
• September – The Large Hadron Collider will be restarted. The LHC was shut down on 19 september 2008 after problems with a magnet quench.
• September 29 – NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft will make its final flyby of Mercury, decreasing the velocity for orbital insertion.

October

• October – NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory [1] will be launched to study the sun, delivering an unprecedented one terabyte of data to earth each day.
• October – The British House of Lords is replaced by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom as the highest appellate court in the country.
• October – RFSA's Phobos-Grunt, sample return from Phobos.
• October 2 – The host city of the 2016 Summer Olympics will be announced at the 121st Session (which will also be the XIIIth Olympic Congress) of the International Olympic Committee to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark.

November

• November – Singapore will host the 21st Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
• November – NASA's WISE mission will be launched. It will survey the entire sky in the infrared with far greater sensitivity than any previous mission ever has: over hundreds of millions of astronomical objects will be cataloged.

December

• December 7 – December 18 – The UNFCCC's COP15 Copenhagen 2009 conference will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark.
• December 10 – On STS-130, the Space Shuttle Endeavour will deliver and install the Node 3 and the Cupola on the International Space Station.
• December 12 – The Oasis of the Seas cruise ship will make her maiden voyage. When completed she will be the largest passenger ship ever built, carrying 5,400 passengers.

Unknown dates

• Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, and possibly Ukraine and Georgia, will join Membership Action Plan, the last step before full membership in NATO.
• The East African Community will implement a common currency called the East African shilling.
• The first flight of the SpaceX Dragon commercial manned orbital spacecraft will occur.

Deaths

Main article: Deaths in 2009

January

Ingemar Johansson

• January 1 – Nizar Rayan, Palestinian military and political leader (born 1959)
• January 1 – Johannes Mario Simmel, Austrian writer (born 1924)
• January 1 – Helen Suzman, South African activist and politician (born 1917)
• January 3 – Pat Hingle, American actor (born 1924)
• January 11 – Pio Laghi, Italian Roman Catholic Cardinal (born 1922)
• January 12 – Claude Berri, French film director (born 1934)
• January 12 – Arne Næss, Norwegian philosopher (born 1912)
• January 13 – Patrick McGoohan, Irish-American actor (born 1928)
• January 14 – Ricardo Montalbán, Mexican-American actor (born 1920)
• January 15 – Said Seyam, Palestinian politician (born 1957)
• January 16 – Andrew Wyeth, American painter (born 1917)
• January 20 – Stéphanos II Ghattas, Egyptian Patriarch of Alexandria (born 1920)
• January 27 – John Updike, American writer (born 1932)
• January 27 – R. Venkataraman, 8th President of India (born 1910)
• January 30 – Ingemar Johansson, Swedish boxer (born 1932)

February

• February 6 – James Whitmore, American actor (born 1921)
• February 9 – Eluana Englaro, Italian patient in right-to-die case (born 1970)
• February 18 – Kamila Skolimowska, Polish hammer thrower (born 1982)
• February 23 – Sverre Fehn, Norwegian architect (born 1924)
• February 25 – Philip José Farmer, American writer (born 1918)
• February 27 – Manea Mănescu, Romanian Prime Minister (born 1916)

March

João Bernardo Vieira

• March 2 – João Bernardo Vieira, President of Guinea-Bissau (born 1939)
• March 14 – Alain Bashung, French singer, songwriter and actor (born 1947)
• March 15 – Ron Silver, American actor and political activist (born 1946)
• March 18 – Natasha Richardson, English actress (born 1963)
• March 20 – Abdellatif Filali, 13th Prime Minister of Morocco (born 1928)
• March 22 – Jade Goody, English television personality (born 1981)
• March 25 – Yukio Endo, Japanese gymnast (born 1937)
• March 28 – Janet Jagan, American-born President of Guyana (born 1920)
• March 29 – Maurice Jarre, French composer and conductor (born 1924)
• March 31 – Raúl Alfonsín, 49th President of Argentina (born 1927)

April

• April 7 – Dave Arneson, American game designer (born 1947)
• April 14 – Maurice Druon, French novelist (born 1918)
• April 19 – J. G. Ballard, English novelist (born 1930)
• April 22 – Jack Cardiff, English cinematographer (born 1914)
• April 22 – Ken Annakin, English film director (born 1914)
• April 25 – Beatrice Arthur, American actress (born 1922)

May

Roh Moo-hyun

• May 2 – Augusto Boal, Brazilian theatre director (born 1931)
• May 2 – Jack Kemp, American politician and football player (born 1935)
• May 4 – Dom DeLuise, American actor and comedian (born 1933)
• May 9 – Chuck Daly, American basketball coach (born 1930)
• May 13 – Achille Compagnoni, Italian mountaineer (born 1914)
• May 17 – Mario Benedetti, Uruguayan writer (born 1920)
• May 18 – Velupillai Prabhakaran, Sri Lankan militant (born 1954)
• May 23 – Roh Moo-hyun, 16th President of South Korea (born 1946)

Awards

Nobel Prizes

The Nobel Prize medallion.

• Chemistry – to be announced
• Economics – to be announced
• Literature – to be announced
• Peace – to be announced
• Physics – to be announced
• Physiology or Medicine – to be announced

Major Religious holidays

2009 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	2009 MMIX
Ab urbe condita	2762
Armenian calendar	1458 ԹՎ ՌՆԾԸ
Assyrian calendar	6759
Baháʼí calendar	165–166
Balinese saka calendar	1930–1931
Bengali calendar	1416
Berber calendar	2959
British Regnal year	57 Eliz. 2 – 58 Eliz. 2
Buddhist calendar	2553
Burmese calendar	1371
Byzantine calendar	7517–7518
Chinese calendar	戊子年 (Earth Rat) 4706 or 4499     — to — 己丑年 (Earth Ox) 4707 or 4500
Coptic calendar	1725–1726
Discordian calendar	3175
Ethiopian calendar	2001–2002
Hebrew calendar	5769–5770
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	2065–2066
- Shaka Samvat	1930–1931
- Kali Yuga	5109–5110
Holocene calendar	12009
Igbo calendar	1009–1010
Iranian calendar	1387–1388
Islamic calendar	1430–1431
Japanese calendar	Heisei 21 (平成２１年)
Javanese calendar	1941–1942
Juche calendar	98
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4342
Minguo calendar	ROC 98 民國98年
Nanakshahi calendar	541
Thai solar calendar	2552
Tibetan calendar	阳土鼠年 (male Earth-Rat) 2135 or 1754 or 982     — to — 阴土牛年 (female Earth-Ox) 2136 or 1755 or 983
Unix time	1230768000 – 1262303999

• January 6 – Christmas in most Armenian Apostolic Churches of Christianity.
• January 7 – Christmas in the Russian Orthodox Church of Christianity.
• January 14 – Pongal
• January 26 – Lunar New Year
• February 23 – Shivaratri
• February 25 – Ash Wednesday
• March 10 – Mawlid
• March 11 – Holi
• April 3 – Ramanavami
• April 8 – Passover begins
• April 12 – Easter for Western Christians
• April 14 – Vaisakhi for Sikhs
• April 19 – Easter for many Eastern Christians
• May 2 – Buddha's Birthday
• May 8 – Buddha Purnima / Vaisakhi Purnima
• May 28 – Shavuot begins
• August 6 – Raksha Bandhan
• August 14 – Krishna Janmashtami
• August 22 – Ramadan begins
• August 23 – Ganesh Chaturthi
• September 2 – Onam
• September 18 – Rosh Hashannah begins
• September 19 – Navratri begins
• September 20 – Eid al-Fitr
• September 27 – Yom Kippur begins
• September 28 – Dussehra
• October 2 – Sukkot begins
• October 17 – Diwali
• November 1 – All Saints' Day for Roman Catholics
• November 27 – Eid al-Adha
• December 11 – Hanukkah begins
• December 25 – Christmas in Western Christianity and most Eastern Orthodox Churches.

In fiction

Computer and video games

Set in 2009:

• Mega Man 2 and Mega Man in Dr. Wily's Revenge
• Abuse (1996)
• Incoming (1998)
• Dino Crisis (1999)
• Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001), the Plant chapter occurs on April 29 and April 30, causing devastation to New York City from its coast, when Arsenal Gear crash lands into Federal Hall.
• Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction (2005): Storyline begins on August 31, 2009.
• Fahrenheit (also known as "Indigo Prophecy" in North America) (2005)
• Shattered Union (2005): U.S. President David Jefferson Adams is elected in a sham election, and becomes the most unpopular president in U.S. history.
• Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 (2006), takes place between April 2009 and March 2010.
• Splinter Cell Double Agent (2006)
• Army of Two-portion of game set in 2009.
• Left 4 Dead (2008) – game set in late 2009 (as evidenced by writings on the walls of safehouses).
• Resident Evil 5 (2009) – game takes place sometime in 2009 (as stated in the players manual).
• Half-Life (1998) – although the date is never explicitly referenced, 2009 is the last year that Half-Life could be set in, as calendars in the game display '200X.'
• MINERVA is set in October 2009.

Film

• Freejack (1992), in November
• 2009 Lost Memories (2002)
• I Am Legend (2007): The events triggering the story begin around Winter of 2009.
• Cloverfield (2008): On May 22, the events of the story take place.
• Eagle Eye (2008): The events of the movie take place between January 26, 2009 and April 12, 2009.
• Knowing (2009): The solar flare that destroys the earth in the movie occurs on October 19, 2009.

Television

• Macross (1982–1983) (adapted outside Japan as the first part of Robotech): The alien Zentradi arrive at Earth on February 7 (February 9 in Robotech), triggering the devastating Space War I or First Robotech War.
• Family Matters: In the 1994 episode "Father of the Bride", Carl Winslow sleeps for fifteen years and wakes up in the year 2009 where main characters Steve Urkel and Laura Winslow are married with four children.
• Charmed ("Morality Bites," 1999) Phoebe Halliwell is executed on February 26 by burning at the stake for murdering a man with her powers.
• Batman Beyond (1999 – 2001): In the episode "Out of the Past," it is revealed that sometime in 2009, Batman fought Ra's al Ghul in an incident they referred to as "The Near-Apocalypse of 09." An incident that Ra's has started.
• Blue Gender (1999–2000): A vicious new disease breaks out forcing Yuji Kaido and other infected humans into cryogenic stasis until a cure can be found.
• Dark Angel (2000–2002): Max Guevara and her "brothers and sisters" escape from Manticore in 2009. America is devastated by an electromagnetic pulse later in the same year.
• Ultraman Nexus (2004–2005) is set in 2009, acting as a sequel to the 2004 film Ultraman: The Next which was set in its production year.
• The West Wing ("The Ticket," 2005): Former President Jed Bartlet opens his presidential library in New Hampshire and chats with some of his former staffers.
• 2007 television series The Sarah Jane Adventures is set in this time, the earliest January following "a year and a half" after Doctor Who episode "School Reunion".
• The Doctor Who episode Last of the Time Lords is set mainly in a parallel year. Also Series 4 is set in 2009 with the episodes Partners In Crime, The Sontaran Strategem/The Poison Sky and The Stolen Earth/Journey's End. The events of the Turn Left a parallel universe also take place here too.
• The Red Dwarf miniseries Back To Earth's scenes on Earth are set in the Easter season of 2009.

Books

• Wilson Tucker, The Year of the Quiet Sun (1970)
• Gregory Benford, Threads of Time (1974)
• David Brin, The Postman (1985)

Anime and Manga

• Death Note (manga) after time skip.