The new millennium was supposed to start in darkness. As the final hours of 1999 ticked away, fears of a global technological meltdown called Y2K had everyone wondering if their money would be there once the calendar flipped.

Nothing happened and we all woke up on Jan. 1, 2000, the same as the day before. It turned out that Y2K would be the least important thing in a decade that changed America like no other in history.

There have been so many moments in the past 10 years that it’s hard to pick out which ones stand out the most. I could probably list a few dozen events this decade that have shaped not only us as people but the country we live in, but lets keep it to a select few.

It didn’t take long for the decade to develop it first major story. In the fall of 2000, George Bush and Al Gore engaged in a very tight race for the presidency that went to the wire and beyond. Hanging chads and dimple ballots put Florida at the forefront of a presidential vote than eventually winded up in the Supreme Court. Bush was declared the winner in what would be the first of three critical elections over the next eight years.

Four years later, Bush won re-election, defeating Massachusetts senator John Kerry by a pretty wide margin. As it turned out, a 2004 speech from a little-known Illinois politician would change our country forever. That man was Barack Obama, who last year became the first African-American president of the United States.

Perhaps no single event will define this decade more than Sept. 11, 2001. In a span of a few hours, everything we thought about the world changed. Nearly 3,000 people died in front of our very eyes as four planes crashed through the heart of America, leaving a shattered, distraught country violated and confused. Wars followed, both in Iraq and Afghanistan, resulting in thousands of young men and women sacrificing their lives to protect freedoms suddenly treasured by that fateful fall Tuesday. It was one of those days you remember where you were at when you saw the TV or heard the news of the World Trade Center crumbling to the ground.

Terrorism and the name Osama Bin Laden would become common in the days after Sept. 11. World capitals such as London and Madrid shared our fate as terrorist attacks continued across the globe.

Mother Nature made her mark on the last 10 years, as well. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina nearly wiped out the entire Gulf Coast. New Orleans and Mississippi were left underwater for weeks as the government waffled about in getting aid to the millions of people affected by this epic storm.

If this decade had anything it was technology. Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace exploded, Youtube turned ordinary people into national celebrities and cell phones developed into small, portable computers, complete with Internet service and touch screens. To think, a friend of mine had a phone the size of a typewriter in the mid-90s that he used to carry around in a bag.

Some very famous people passed away in the past decade. Ronald Reagan, Michael Jackson, Ted Kennedy, Gerald Ford and Pope John Paul are just a few names whose death warranted national attention. Personally, I lost my best friend and my uncle to sudden deaths. I also have gained two nephews and will be welcoming my third child some time in August. Life always finds a way of balancing out.

Steroids in baseball, Virginia Tech, Michael Phelps, swine flu, bailouts, stimulus packages, American Idol, the Miracle on the Hudson, space shuttle Colombia and Saddam Hussein all found time at the top of a newspaper or online in some form.

The first decade of the millennium had its ups and down and was anything but boring. There were stories of heroism and moments we would all like to forget. Who knows what will happen in the next 10 years. I guess the only thing any of us can do is try and be the best person we can and treat others how we want to be treated. Everything else will take care of itself.

Staff Writer Eliot Duke can be reached at 888-3578, or duke@tvilletimes.com.