Around the world...
-Iran Says It Will Resume Nuclear Research (Jan. 3): In a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran states that it plans to restart work on its “peaceful nuclear energy program.”
-Spacecraft Heads to Pluto (Jan. 19): New Horizons craft will travel three billion miles over nine years to study Pluto's atmosphere and surface.
-Protests Over Cartoons Turn Violent (Feb. 4): Throughout the Muslim world, angry demonstrators smash windows, set fires, and burn flags, protesting cartoons that depict Muhammad in a negative light. The cartoons have appeared in newspapers in several European countries. In Syria, mobs burn the Danish and Norwegian embassies.
-Scientists Find Evidence of Water on a Saturn Moon (March 10): Journal Science reports that the spacecraft Cassini has taken pictures of what look like water geysers on Enceladus.
-Scientists Discover Important Fossil (April 6): A group of scientists report finding the fossil of a 375-million-year-old fish that has early signs of limbs.
-Thousands Die in Indonesian Earthquake (May 27): About 5,750 people are killed in a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on Java Island. Nearly 500,000 are left homeless.
-Mid-Atlantic Region Endures Worst Flooding in Decades (June 28): After days of drenching rain, rivers overflow their banks from Virginia to central New York. About 200,000 residents are evacuated from the Wilkes-Barre, Pa., area, and thousands more elsewhere in the region.
-North Korea Test Fires Missiles (July 4): Country launches at least six missiles over the Sea of Japan. One of them, an intercontinental ballistic missile, fails.
-Bombs Kill Hundreds on Trains in India (July 11): More than 200 people die and hundreds more are wounded when a series of bombs explode on commuter trains in Mumbai during the evening rush hour.
-Italy Wins Its Fourth World Cup (July 9): Defeats France, 5–3, in a penalty shootout. France's -star, midfielder
Zinédine Zidane, is ejected for head-butting Italian defender Marco Materazzi.
-Hundreds Die in Tsunami (July 18): More than 800 people die when an undersea earthquake hits off the coast of Java, Indonesia.
-Pluto Is Demoted (Aug. 24): The International Astronomical Union votes to redefine the solar system, and Pluto loses its status as a planet. It is reclassified as a dwarf planet.
-Thai Military Seizes Power (Sept. 20): Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratkalin stages a bloodless coup and declares martial law while Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is at the meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York.
-North Korea Tests a Nuclear Missile (Oct. 9): International outrage and condemnation follows the explosion of a nuclear device in the mountains of North Korea. President Bush calls the test a “threat to international peace and security.” The United Nations Security Council meets to consider sanctions on the country.
-Earthquake Strikes Hawaii (Oct. 15): Quake with a magnitude of 6.6 hits the Island of Hawaii. It is the largest earthquake since 1983.
-Deadly Storm Ravages Southeast (Nov. 16): A dozen people are killed in wind storms and tornadoes that sweep through six states. Dozens others are injured.
