The '00s: Top 50 Questions of the Decade

In the biggest corporate deal ever (at that point, anyway), AOL bought Time Warner for $164 billion in January 2000.

President Obama signed off on the $787 billion package in February 2009.

The 9.0-magnitude earthquake was centered off the western coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Huckabee took Iowa in the 2008 primaries but was soon overtaken by John McCain.

Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III saved the lives of his passengers and crew by ditching his plane into the Hudson River shortly after takeoff.

U.S. troops killed Uday and Qusay Hussein during a raid on a home in Mosul, Iraq.

American flight 11 struck the North Tower at 8:46 a.m., and United flight 175 hit the South Tower at 9:03 a.m.

Pelosi represents the 8th District in California.

Bin Laden was most likely hiding in the Tora Bora caves in late 2001, but he eluded U.S. Special Forces.

Before she became governor of Alaska, and then a vice-presidential hopeful, Palin was the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

The Bush Administration later admitted that the claims about yellow cake uranium were false.

GM, Kmart, United Airlines were just three of the record number of corporate bankruptcies.

The hijackers of flight 93 intended to crash the plane in Washington, D.C., but it went down in Shanksville, Pa.

Howard Dean got a bit too enthusiastic when he conceded the Iowa Caucus to John Kerry.

Tony was digging into a plate of onion rings when the screen suddenly went black, interrupting "Don't Stop Believin'" midverse.

Bear Stearns had already collapsed, but it was the failed government buyout and subsequent bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on Sept. 15, 2008, that really made things reach a crisis point.

Operation Anaconda was launched on March 1, 2002, and didn't take long to defeat the Taliban.

Four bombs went off -- three in the subway system and one on a double-decker bus. Fifty-six people were killed.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and raped since 2003 -- and millions displaced -- in the Darfur ethnic conflict.

The order disbanded the Iraqi army, which led to a dramatic increase in sectarian violence and necessitated the troop surge of 2007.

Katrina was a Category 3 storm when it hit Buras, La.

In 2006, Kenneth Lay was found guilty of fraud and conspiracy. He died of a heart attack soon after.

The 40th president of the United States died on June 5, 2004.

The 38th president of the United States died on Dec. 26, 2006.

Pope John Paul II died on April 2, 2005, just before his 86th birthday.

Berry became the first African-American Best Actress winner for her performance in "Monster's Ball."

A suicide bomber with a backpack bomb blew himself up inside Paddy's Pub that night. A more powerful car bomb detonated 15 seconds later across the street. The bombing took place in a popular tourist area and was Indonesia's deadliest act of terrorism.

Yuschenko's doctors said that his face became pockmarked and greenish after he ingested concentrated dioxin. His supporters claim that he was poisoned during a dinner with a political rival.

The earthquake registered at 7.9 on the Richter scale.

The Supreme Court decided to stop the recount in Florida on Dec. 12, 2000, 31 days after the election.

The Columbia had a hole in one of its wings, which was caused by a piece of insulating foam that broke off a fuel tank during launch. All seven crew members were killed.

Army Spc. Lori Piestewa died when her convoy was ambushed in an attack in Nasiriya, Iraq. Other members of the convoy, including Jessica Lynch, were taken hostage.

Believe it or not, Elian Gonzalez -- who was famously embroiled in a custody and immigration struggle between the United States and Cuba in 2000 -- turned 16 on Dec. 6, 2009. He now lives with his family in Cardenas, Cuba.

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" is the full title of the first Harry Potter movie. The book was titled "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in the United States and "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" in the U.K.

The massive Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel was the scene of a tense hostage situation and shootout during the Mumbai attacks.

Caviezel played Christ in the controversial 2004 flick.

Five people died in the anthrax attacks, which were attributed to Bruce Edwards Ivins in 2008. He committed suicide when he heard of the FBI's suspicions.

On Feb. 12, 2004, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon were married in San Francisco, making them the first legally wed gay couple in the country.

Seung-Hui Cho killed 33 people, including himself, on April 16, 2007.

On March 4, 2005, Stewart was released after five months in prison in Alderson, W.V.

According to Newsweek magazine, about 2 million American troops have served in these two arenas.

Schiavo collapsed at home on Feb. 25, 1990, and entered a persistent vegetative state. She was removed from life support 15 years later.

The flight was on its way to the Dominican Republic from John F. Kennedy airport in New York.

On the morning of March 11, 2004, three coordinated bombs exploded on commuter trains in Madrid.

Phelps touched out Cavic by the slimmest of margins to win the 100-meter butterfly.

Eight states and about 50 million people lost power on Aug. 14, 2003.

Three and three. They adopted Maddox, Pax and Zahara, and Angelina gave birth to Shiloh, Vivienne and Knox.

Katherine Harris became a central figure in the presidential election during the Florida recount.

The Patriots beat the Panthers 32-29 in Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004, which is perhaps remembered more for Janet Jackson's embarrassing slip-up.

According to Billboard.com, Kelly Clarkson has sold the most albums around the world (23 million), but Carrie Underwood has her beat in the United States.