The decade of the 2000s is marked by many indelible images. Among them: black smoke billowing from the World Trade Center's Twin Towers just moments after being struck by airplanes; young people, wearing ear buds, turning the dial on their iPods and listening to their favorite downloaded tunes; traumatized people wandering through scenes of utter devastation on beaches in Thailand and Sri Lanka after a massive tsunami; two robotic rovers crawling along the surface of Mars; and US swimmer Michael Phelps touching the pool wall for his record eighth gold medal in the Beijing Olympics. The Decade of the 2000s series takes a global look back at the many people and events that shaped and defined the decade. A visual chronology highlighting important events of the decade, sidebars on topics of interest as well as opposing perspectives, source notes, a bibliography for further research, and an index provide additional tools for student researchers.