2009

2009 (MMIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2009th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 9th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 10th and last year of the 2000s decade.

2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy[1][2] by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Johannes Kepler.

[3] It was also declared as the International Year of Natural Fibres[4] by the United Nations General Assembly, as well as the International Year of Reconciliation and the Year of the Gorilla (UNEP and UNESCO).

[5]

Clockwise from top-left: Air France Flight 447 crashes in the Atlantic Ocean leaving no survivors; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States ; protests erupt over the 2009 Iranian presidential election ; US Airways Flight 1549 crash-lands in the Hudson River with no fatalities, with the event becoming known as the "Miracle on the Hudson"; the "King of Pop" Michael Jackson dies by acute propofol intoxication; Bitcoin is initially launched by the pseudonymous name Satoshi Nakamoto ; an earthquake strikes central Italy , killing 308; the H1N1 virus was responsible for the swine flu pandemic .
The Nobel Prize medallion.
The Nobel Prize medallion.