21st century

Millennium: 3rd millennium
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Categories: Births – Deaths
Establishments – Disestablishments

The 21st century is the current century of the Anno Domini era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. It began on January 1, 2001 and will end on December 31, 2100.[1][2] It is the first century of the 3rd millennium. It is distinct from the time span known as the 2000s, which began on January 1, 2000 and will end on December 31, 2099.

Transitions and changes

Shanghai has become a symbol of the recent economic boom of China.

The first years of the 21st century have thus far been marked by the rise of a global economy and Third World consumerism, mistrust in government, deepening global concern over terrorism and an increase in the power of private enterprise.[3][4][5] The long term effects of increased globalization are not known, but there are many who are concerned about its implications.[6] The Arab Spring of the early 2010s led to mixed outcomes in the Arab world.[7] The Digital Revolution which began around the 1980s also continues into the present.[8] Millennials and Generation Z come of age and rise to prominence in this century.[9]

In contemporary history, the 21st century essentially began in 1991 (the end of Short Twentieth Century) with the United States as the sole superpower in the absence of the Soviet Union, while China began its rise and the BRICS countries aimed to create more balance in the global political and economic spectrum.[10][11]

Religion has been declining worldwide, [12] with an estimated 1.1 billion unaffiliated people in 2010.[13]

The completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 marks the continual rise of life sciences, making mankind's long-held dreams, such as curing cancer, more realistic.[14] By the 2010s, gene therapy, first performed somatically in late 1990 and heritably in 1996, showed promise but remains an experimental and emerging technology.

Assistive reproductive technology developed in the 1980s, such as polar body biopsy and preimplantation genetic diagnosis, has allowed for the selection of genetic traits, and, along with the advent of ultrasound, has increased the number of boys and decreased the number of girls in many countries, most notably in China and India but also in other Asian and eastern Europe countries.[15] This began in the late 1980s in China and India and after the fall of communism in the Balkans and Caucasus regions, concurrent with both the advent of capitalism in those countries and the widespread availability of reproductive technology.[15]

While digital telecommunications technology became widely used by most of the world, concerns about stress from the overuse of mobile phones, the Internet, and related technologies remain controversial.[16]

By 2013, about 80% of the world's population used mobile phones.[17] An estimated 33% owned personal computers in 2010,[18] and 46% used the Internet by 2016, compared to about 1% in 1996.[19]

The distribution of modern technology is not equal – in 2012 it was estimated that 1.5 billion people, or about 20% of the world's population still lacked access to electric power, with many more having only intermittent or poor access.[20]

The International Energy Agency estimates that 83% of the global population has access to electricity as of 2013 with the percentage projected to increase to 88% by 2030.[21][22]

Population

Pronunciation

There is a debate among experts and the general public on how to pronounce specific years of the 21st century in English. Regarding this, academics suggested that since former years such as 1805 and 1905 were commonly pronounced as "eighteen oh" or "nineteen oh" five, the year 2005 should naturally have been pronounced as "twenty oh-five".[24] A less common variation would have been "twenty nought-five". Generally, the early years of the 21st century were pronounced as "two-thousand (and) five", with a change taking place in 2010, where pronunciations often shift between the early-year standard of "two-thousand and ten" and the common approach used in the late 20th century of "twenty-ten".

The Vancouver Olympics, which took place in 2010, was being officially referred to by Vancouver 2010 as "the twenty-ten Olympics". The latest timeframes for change are usually placed at 2020.[24]

According to The Stanley Kubrick Archives, in the press release for his film 2001: A Space Odyssey, film director Stanley Kubrick included specific instructions for journalists to refer to the movie as "two thousand and one" instead of the commonplace pronunciation of "twenty-oh-one". Kubrick said he did this in the hope that if the film became popular, it would influence the pronunciation of that year.[25]

Events

Politics and wars

Genocide still remains a problem in this century with the concern of the war in Darfur and the growing concern in Sri Lanka. Low estimates on the deaths in Darfur stand around 200,000 deaths with 2.5 million in displacement, there has been much outcry against the perpetrators, the Sudanese government, and the very weak international response. Also controversies from past genocides remain commonplace in the minds of victims and average people alike.

Events that changed the course of the century

Protesters try to stop members of the G8 from attending the summit during the 27th G8 summit in Genoa, Italy by burning vehicles on the main route to the summit.
George W. Bush

2000s

In 2009, Barack Obama became the first African-American president of the United States.

2010s

New countries and territorial changes

Some territories have gained independence during the 21st century. This is a list of sovereign states that have gained independence in the 21st century and have been recognized by the UN.

These territories have declared independence and secured relative autonomy but they have only been recognized by some UN member states:

These territories have declared independence and secured relative autonomy but they have been recognized by no one:

These territories were annexed from a sovereign country, the action have only been recognized by some UN member states:

Science and technology

Space exploration

NASA successfully lands the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars.
Artist's impression of New Horizons' close encounter with the Pluto–Charon system.

Physics

Mathematics

Medicine

Storage and media

The original iPhone, launched in 2007.

Social technology

Society

As the century began, the generations which had experienced the crises of the mid and the late 20th century (the Great Depression, World War II and the Cold War) as adults, were retiring from leadership positions and public life. Taking their places were members of the postwar "Boom" generations, whose formative experiences were the social upheavals (and, in the Western world, relative prosperity) of the 1960s and 1970s.

AIDS which emerged in the 1980s continued to spread yet more treatment of AIDS made the disease less of a deadly threat to those with access to treatment. A cure was still not found in the '00s despite expectations.

Same-sex marriage has slowly become more accepted, and has become legal in some countries. In 2001 the Netherlands became the first nation in the world to legalize this type of marriage. The 2000s decade saw significant change surrounding this social issue and the change has continued into the 2010s.

By 2001 most Western countries had removed the remaining racial language in their laws.

The early 21st century was marked by the Arab Spring, a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began in December 2010. The results of these demonstrations have been mixed in outcome.

Civil unrest

Linguistic diversity

As of 2009, SIL Ethnologue catalogued 6,909 living human languages.[33] The exact number of known living languages will vary from 5,000 to 10,000, depending generally on the precision of one's definition of "language", and in particular on how one classifies dialects.

Estimates vary depending on many factors but the general consensus is that there are between 6,000 and 7,000 languages currently spoken, and that between 50–90% of those will have become extinct by the year 2100.[34] The top 20 languages spoken by more than 50 million speakers each, are spoken by 50% of the world's population, whereas many of the other languages are spoken by small communities, most of them with fewer than 10,000 speakers.[34]

Disasters

Natural disasters

The tsunami striking Ao Nang in Thailand on December 26, 2004.

2000s

2010s

The eye of Hurricane Irene as viewed from the International Space Station on August 24, 2011

Man-made disasters

Economics and industry

Sports

At the start of the 21st century sports are very popular. The IOC's Modern Olympic Games was the most viewed sporting event. Association football is the most popular sport worldwide with the FIFA World Cup the most viewed football event. Other sports such as rugby, cricket, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, tennis, and golf were popular globally. In cricket the emergence of the Twenty20 format as well as the creation of the Indian Premier League led to changes in the nature of the sport. American swimmer Michael Phelps won an Olympic record setting 8 Gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

The Beijing Bird's Nest Stadium during the 2008 Summer Olympics.

International tournaments

Modern Olympic Games

Association Football

Athletics

Aquatics

Cricket

Cycling

Rugby Union

Tennis (Men)

Tennis (Women)

Motorsport

Golf

Boxing

Arts and entertainment

Entertainment during the 21st century had evolved from the same types of entertainment which emerged around the middle of the 20th century. Sports, films, music, TV series' and books remained popular into the early 21st century but new forms of entertainment including social networking and internet accessed videos became popular. Video games had emerged from a childhood pastime in the late 20th century to an fully grown adult pastime by the beginning of the 21st century. The most popular mediums of entertainment in the first decade at least were via televisions, the internet, CDs, DVDs and paper. Digital information begins to complete its succession over analog information and storage techniques.

Mark Zuckerberg co-created Facebook in his Harvard dorm room.

Film/film creation

Music

A. R. Rahman, an Indian composer became the first ever from the sub-continent to have won double Oscars for his Original score and soundtrack in 2009.

Social networking

Issues and concerns

There are several points-of-view pertaining to the following items, all of which should be considered accordingly.

Issues that have been frequently discussed and debated so far in this century include:

The United Nations lists global issues on its agenda and lists a set of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to attempt to address some of these issues.

Astronomical events

List of the long central solar eclipses

Other phenomena

See also

References

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