Name: The 26 Biggest World-Stopping Moments Each Year (2000–2026)
Uploaded: 2026-03-30T17:04:44.000Z
Duration: 31 min 29 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

today we're looking at the most chilling news stories of each year since the start of the new millennium.

WHO has been in full response mode since we were notified of the first cases, and

we have called every day for countries to take urgent and aggressive action.

If you have investments, check with your broker and agents to find out their Y2K progress.

Look for informed and proactive responses, not just an "oh yes, we've got that under control." As the clock ticked toward midnight on December 31, 1999, the world braced for digital chaos.

Thanks to a programming shortcut, it seemed possible that the world was on the brink of Armageddon.

On computers across the world, years were recorded with just two digits.

When the year turned over, people feared they would read 1900 rather than 2000.

One simple date change for man, one major screw-up for computer.

The glitch could theoretically crash planes or wipe bank accounts.

Humanity feared being thrust back into the Stone Age.

Governments spent billions preparing for the worst.

People stocked up on water, batteries, and canned goods.

But when the clock struck midnight, the lights stayed on.

Nothing major failed, but for one terrifying moment, the entire planet held its breath.

All day and night, more than 150 workers from 20 agencies were monitoring Y2K problems, but

Just about everyone who's old enough to remember it can tell you where they were when they heard about the September 11 attacks in 2001.

And we saw the plane on the other side of the building, and

there was smoke everywhere, and people were jumping out the windows.

For New York, it was morning when two hijacked passenger jets crashed into and ultimately demolished the Twin Towers as part of a coordinated attack.

I just was in the lobby trying to get a cup of coffee, heard the bang, and

now I'm just going around the corner to see if my friends are awake.

After news of a fourth crash came to light that day, it became apparent that the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 took back their flight and downed the weaponized aircraft before it reached Washington, D.C.

You could hear him yelling, "In the cockpit, the cockpit!" The event claimed close to 3,000 lives, and

2002, the Spotlight investigation publishes.

A lot of it is drudgery and shoe-leather reporting.

You're in an office, and you're going through boxes and boxes of documents.

And then marbled in with that, you're developing sources.

You're trying to get people to tell you things that they don't want to tell you.

In January 2002, the Boston Globe dropped a bombshell report outlining patterns of abuse of minors by priests in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.

In the wake of the report, five high-ranking figures within the local church were sentenced to prison time for their roles in the crimes.

This led to discussions around similar abuse claims in Roman Catholic Archdioceses around the world, exposing a pattern of cover-ups and allegations dating back decades prior to the 2002 exposé.

The Boston Archdiocese is the most Catholic of all the major archdioceses in the country.

So the stakes for the Globe were a good bit higher, perhaps, because of the enormous influence of the church here in Boston.

A year later, in 2003, the Boston Globe Spotlight team was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, ensuring the story would go down as one of the most important works of journalism of the 21st century.

They knew, and they let it happen to kids, okay?

After quickly unseating the Taliban after the 9/11 attack, much of the world assumed that America's thirst for vengeance was slaked.

But as 2002 progressed, it was clear that the U.S.

government was laying the groundwork for invading Iraq as well.

The Americans called the massive air raids with which they opened the war shock and awe.

They claimed, wrongly, that this was the way to make the Middle East safer for everyone.

In March 2003, the United States and its allies launched a shock-and-awe campaign, beginning the invasion of Iraq.

It was framed as a mission to disarm Saddam Hussein of weapons of mass destruction.

After the swift removal of Saddam's Ba'athist Party, the war quickly spiraled into a protracted conflict.

Despite the lack of WMD, American forces remained.

a humanitarian crisis took the lives of tens of thousands and completely unsettled the region.

It was interventional on a dramatic scale, and

while it destroyed Saddam's Ba'athist state, the struggle to define a new Iraq continues.

2004, the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

Ten years on, ceremonies will be held across the region to remember all those who died on that day.

On December 26, 2004, the most powerful earthquake of the 21st century to date struck off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia.

The earthquake and resulting tsunami left over 227,000 people dead.

I go over the roofs and over the edge, and

with the fence, tall fence, and then to the streets.

Particularly hard hit were Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand.

The disaster prompted an international humanitarian response, with the World Food Program donating provisions and various countries providing $14 billion in aid.

Various fundraising events were also held across the globe, including the World Cricket Tsunami Appeal, the charity concert Tsunami Relief Cardiff, and

These are some of the 140,000 homes built by the international community since the tsunami.

This Category 5 hurricane was devastating not only due to its intensity but also a failure of flood control systems and slow government response.

On August 29, 2005, the hurricane made landfall in Louisiana.

It was quickly predicted to become a catastrophic event.

My fear is absolutely that the models are correct.

It rapidly doubled in size and intensified into a Category 5 hurricane.

The storm surge breached New Orleans' levees and flooded the city.

Tens of thousands of residents had not evacuated.

TV and radio audiences could feel the distress and panic in the air.

Critics argued that race and class were factors in the slow local and federal response.

This story ends up being the roadmap, the instruction booklet, the how-to story of dealing with disaster.

The hurricane left an estimated 1,392 dead in its wake, making it one of the deadliest in U.S.

We have just received word that the former president of Iraq has been executed.

invasion of Iraq or not, there are few defenders out there for Saddam Hussein's legacy.

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The 26 Biggest World-Stopping Moments Each Year (2000–2026)

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