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The text below is taken from the 21st_century article on Wikipedia, and is used under the terms of their licence.

20XX redirects here. For other uses of both "20XX" and "21st century", see 21st century (disambiguation).
Millennium: 3rd millennium
Centuries: 20th century · 21st century · 22nd century
Decades: 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s
2050s 2060s 2070s 2080s 2090s
Categories: Births – Deaths
Establishments – Disestablishments

The 21st century is the current century of the Christian Era or Common Era in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. It began on January 1, 2001 and will end December 31, 2100.

Contents

Turn of the 21st century (2000-present)

The present day governments to be called, or to remain, a potential superpower for the 21st century.      United States (current superpower)[1][2]      China      European Union      European Union Candidates      India      Russia
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Please improve this section if you can. (October 2008)

The 21st century began with the United States as the sole superpower in the absence of the Soviet Union, with China becoming a potential superpower.

The debate over what should be done about global warming, fossil fuel pollution and alternative energy raged in the new century after most of the 20th century was marked by industrial expansion. As the Cold War was over and Islamic fundamentalist-related terrorism on the rise the United States and its allies turned their attention to the Middle East.

Digital technology, in its early stages of mainstream use in the 1980s and 1990s, became widely accepted by most of the world, though concerns about stress and antisociality from the overuse of mobile phones, the Internet and related technologies remains controversial. [3]

In 2008, 3.3 billion people globally, or nearly half the world's population used cell phones, [4] and in 2005, over a billion people worldwide used the Internet. [5]

Pronunciation

Regarding pronunciation of 21st century years, academics suggest 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".[6] A less common variation would have been "twenty nought-five". Many experts agree that majority usage of "two thousand (and) X" is a result of influences from the Y2K hype, as well as the way "2001" was pronounced in the influential 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Many people, ranging from linguistic and academic experts to Internet bloggers, predict that the "twenty X" pronunciation method will eventually prevail, but a time frame as to when this change will occur often differs. The year 2010 is suggested by many,[7][8] and the Vancouver Olympics, taking place in 2010, is being officially referred to by Vancouver 2010 as "the twenty-ten olympics", while 2011[6] and 2013 are popular as well. The latest timeframes for change are usually placed at 2020.[6]

Significant events

Politics and war

Science and technology

Space exploration

Medicine

Personal technology

Laptops are a common example of widely used wireless technologies.

Other

Conflicts and civil unrest

Events during the Iraq War. Clockwise, from top left: a joint patrol in Samarra; the toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue in Firdos Square; an Iraqi Army soldier readies his rifle during an assault; an IED detonates in South Baghdad.

Worldwide deaths from war and terrorist attacks

Natural disasters

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

Sports

Issues and concerns

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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

Pop cultural references to the remaining years of the 21st century

Television and film

Music

Computer and video games

Novels

Decades and years

v • d • e
Decades and years
v • d • e
Centuries and millennia

References

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Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2006)
  1. ^ Country profile: United States of America, BBC News, Accessed July 22, 2008
  2. ^ "Analyzing American Power in the Post-Cold War Era". Retrieved on 2007-02-28.
  3. ^ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3840/is_199910/ai_n8869850
  4. ^ http://www.mobilewhack.com/33-billion-cell-phone-users/
  5. ^ http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=stats/web_worldwide
  6. ^ a b c Experts clash over millennium bugbear — The Times
  7. ^ http://maxspeak.org/mt/archives/002457.html
  8. ^ The Naughty Noughties, or something
  9. ^ "US confirms nuclear claim". New York Times (2006-10-15). Retrieved on 2006-10-16.
  10. ^ Total mobile subscribers top 1.8 billion - MobileTracker
  11. ^ Update on Iraqi Casualty Data by Opinion Research Business, January 2008

External links

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