2010January 19, 2010 - Scott Brown, a Republican reformer fromMassachusetts, stuns the nation with an upset win for the special election Senate seat. He is the first Republican elected to the Senate from the state since 1972 and only Republican member of the Massachusetts Democratic congressional delegation. His election puts a halt to the 60 seat Democratic super majority in the Senate and will prevent President Obama and the Democratic leadership from pushing legislation in future votes past a Republican filibuster.
March 25, 2010 - The U.S. House of Representatives finalizes the Health Care legislation approved by the Senate, extending health benefits and insurance to most Americans. The legislation, the Affordable Care Act, passed on a partisan basis by the Democratic Majority, has caused a significant rift within the public, who disapproved of the bill, and is expected to test the Democratic Party's hold on both houses of Congress during the mid-term elections in November.
April 1, 2010 - The U.S. Census of 2010 is conducted, showing a 9.7% increase from the 2000 census for a total of 308,745,538 people. The geographic center of the population is now 2.7 miles northeast of Plato, Missouri.
April 20, 2010 - A British Petroleum deep water oil rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, causing the largest oil spill in the history of the United States, killing eleven workers, and devastating the environment. It also severely damaged the fishing and tourism industries of gulf states.
November 2, 2010 - With an impetus from the Tea Party movement to restore fiscal sanity to Congress and various state houses, Republican candidates win the majority of elections, taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives with a net gain of 63 seats, reducing the majority of Democrats in the Senate, and taking over many governorships and other legislative bodies. This tide was the biggest turnaround in Congressional seats since 1948, and many attribute the election to disfavor of Obama administration spending practices, including the Health Care legislation passed in March.
2011April 14, 2011 - Congress votes to pass the 2010-2011 budget after six months of negotiations, including $38 billion in fiscal year cuts. This vote was one of the first measures that showed the new dynamic of a U.S. House of Representatives in Republican hands that was focused, due to Tea Party member goals, to get the burgeoning federal deficit under control.
May 2, 2011 - Osama Bin Laden, mastermind of the 9/11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and other locations and leader of the terrorist group, Al-Queda, is killed after ten years of pursuit by United States and coalition forces during a raid by U.S. Navy Seals on his hideout location in Pakistan.
July 21, 2011 - The final shuttle flight lands at the Kennedy Space Center, signifying the end of the NASA shuttle space program. The program, which began in 1981 and included 135 missions, was completed when the Shuttle Atlantis flew its final mission to the International Space Station.
September 17, 2011 - The first of many Occupy Wall Street protests begin in New York City, protesting the big money interests on Wall Street and their relationship to the recession and world economy.
December 15, 2011 - The war in Iraq is declared over when President Obama orders the last combat troops to leave the country.
2012May 2, 2012 - At a New York auction house, the highest payment for a work of art, the Scream by Edwin March, is paid, costing $120 million do
