The first decade of the twenty-first century promised fresh political, economic, and social challenges. Yet few could have predicted that the new millennium would bring deadly terrorist attacks, the first African American president, the rise of China, and global financial collapse. The 2000s witnessed devastating natural disasters in the United States and the Pacific Rim; war in Iraq and Afghanistan; new inventions like the iPod and Facebook; and athletic achievement at the Olympics Games. Marked by great progress and disappointing setbacks, the 2000s proved to be a decade like no other.