Emily Brooks
05/07/2013
Ms. Duran

1990's - Present

1990: The Hubble telescope was launched into space during this year; it is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle and remains in operation today. Hubble is one of NASA's most sucessful and long lasting projects; it gives the United States a few that no ground telescope could ever! The Hubble impacted the U.S. greatly because it has discovered so many new things and has allowed scientists to look at the universe in a whole new perspective. It has allowed scientists to calculate that our universe is about 13 to 14 billion years old. Also, it has allowed us to see the life span of galaxies (baby to toddler to grown galaxies).

1992: The official end of the Cold War was this year (many people think the Cold War ended in 1989, but it's official ending was in 92' when President Bush and Yeltsin had a formal declaration). The ending of the Cold War transformed the Alliance completely; NATO's motives changed in a whole new direction and standing military forces were reduced greatly. The ending of the Cold War impacted the United States ginormously. America and the Soviet Union both began building arsenals of atomic weapons and missiles. Also, America became the superpower of the world.

1997: The Pathfinder sends back images of Mars. It was created to safely land on Mars and not only did it do that, but it also lived longer than it's expected life span. The Pathfinder retrieved 2.3 billion bits of information for scientists to look at. This discovery and successful act caused the United States to analyze another planet and it's surface, componets and much more; basically, the Pathfinder improved scientists' knowledge of the outside world.

2001: The attack of September 11th was a terrorist attack by Al-Queda. Four hijacked planes of suicide attacks were flown; two of them hit the Twin Towers, one hit the pentagon a few hours later and the last plane crashed somewhere in some fields in Pennsylvannia (it was originally supposed to hit the Captial Building in Washington, D.C. Many people died on this very tragic day. Firefighters died helping people out of the buildings, people were jumping off high floors and many died who were stuck in the towers. This traumatic day played a huge role in the United States. War started shortly after this attack and extreme security measures were taken in airports until 2011-2012.

2003: The Mars exploration rovers were launched during this year in order to learn more about the water on Mars. The rovers have many different devices within them in order to get the necessary pictures, videos and pieces of soil; the goal was to figure out past history of water on Mars. This was huge for the United States because it allowed our space knowledge advance as well as it let scientists possibly come to more conclusions about life on Mars.

2005: Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005. Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest, costliest and most destructive hurricane; it was the sixth deadliest hurricane in the United States. It did triple the damage of Hurricane Andrew. It was a category 3 hurricane and it's winds did horrendous damage in Louisiana. Many people died and flooding lasted for weeks after the hurricane hit. The United States was greatly affected from this damaging occurence; although it was a rough time for many, as a nation we became closer and had a huge helping hand to the victims of this natural disaster.

2008: The presidential campaign was going on during this year and Obama was elected for his first term. Not only was he the first black president in history, he also was the first