Foreign scene:

January 1: The Czech Republic took over the presidency of the Council of the European Union from France.

January 7: Russia shut off all gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine.

January 15: US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River six minutes after departure from LaGuardia Airport. Canadian geese struck both engines, and the engines lost thrust. All 155 passengers on board survive.

January 20: Barack Obama was inducted as the 44th, and first African American, President of the United States.

January 22: President Obama signed an order to close (within a year) the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, where the US had held non-citizens whom it accused of terrorism.

January 26: The first trial at the International Criminal Court was held. Former Union of Congolese Patriots leader, Thomas Lubanga was accused of training child soldiers to kill, pillage, and rape.

February 7: The deadliest bushfires in Australian history began, they killed 173, injured 500 more, and left 7,500 homeless.

February 10: A Russian and an American satellite collided over Siberia,creating a large amount of space debris.

February 12: Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed into a home in Clarence Center, a suburb of Buffalo, New York, killing 49 on the plane and one on the ground.

March 3: Gunmen attacked the bus carrying Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore,Pakistan, killing eight people and injuring several others.

March 4: The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Al-Bashir was the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC since its establishment in 2002.

March 7: NASA's Kepler Mission, a space photometer which will search for extrasolar planets in the Milky Way galaxy, was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, USA.

April 1: Albania and Croatia joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

April 2: The second G-20 summit, involving state leaders rather than the usual finance ministers, met in London. Its main focus was an ongoing global financial crisis.

April 3-4: The 21st NATO Summit was held, 60 years after the founding of the organization. Former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is appointed as the new Secretary General of NATO.

April 5: North Korea launched the Kwangmyongsong-2 rocket, prompting an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

April 6: A 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck L'Aquila, Italy, killing nearly 300 and injuring more than 1,500.

April 21: UNESCO launched The World Digital Library.

April 24: The World Health Organization expressed concern at the spread of influenza from Mexico and the United States to other countries.

May 25: North Korea announced that it has conducted a second successful nuclear test in the Province of North Hamgyong. The United Nations Security Council condemned the reported test.

June 1: Air France Flight 447, en route from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 on board.

June 11: The outbreak of the H1N1 influenza strain, commonly referred to as "Swine flu", is deemed a global pandemic. It became the first condition since the Hong Kong flu of 1967-1968 to receive this designation.

June 18: NASA launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter/LCROSS probes to the Moon, the first American lunar mission since Lunar Prospector in 1998.

June 25: The death of American entertainer Michael Jackson triggered an outpouring of worldwide grief. Online, reactions to the event crippled several major websites and services, as the abundance of people accessing the web addresses pushed Internet traffic to potentially unprecedented and historic levels.

July 1: Sweden assumed the presidency of the European Union.

July 7: A public memorial service was held for musician Michael Jackson. It is regarded as one of the most prominent funerals of all time.

July 22 - The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, lasting up to six minutes and 38.8 seconds, occurred over parts of Asia and the Pacific Ocean; it was figured to be the most widely observed total eclipse in human history.

August 3: Bolivia became the first South American country to declare the right of indigenous people to govern themselves.

August 7: Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan, killing 500 and stranding more than 1,000 via the worst flooding on the island in half a century.

August 11: Death of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, American founder of the Special Olympics (born 1921).

September 26: Typhoon Ketsana caused record amounts of rainfall in Manila, Philippines, leading to the declaration of a "state of calamity" in 25 provinces.

September 29: An 8.3-magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami near the Samoan Islands. Many communities and harbours in Samoa and American Samoa were destroyed, and at least 189 were killed.

September 30: A 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck just off the coast of Sumatra, killing around 1,000 in Indonesia.

October 2: The International Olympic Committee awarded 2016 Summer Olympic to Rio de Janeiro.

October 18: Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed started the world's first under water cabinet meeting for "Against Climate Change".

October 20: European astronomers discover 32 exoplanets. (Astronomers found 32 new planets outside the solar system).

November 13: Having analysed the data from the LCROSS lunar impact, NASA announced that it has found a "significant" quantity of water in the Moon's Cabeus crater.

December 1: The Treaty of Lisbon came into force. (European Union Constitution comes into force).

December 2: The Burj Dubai in Dubai, United Arab Emirates was completed. It is the tallest man-made structure ever built and will be opened shortly.

December 7 - 18: The UNFCCC's United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 was held in Copenhagen, Denmark.

December 10 : BBC reported that the controversial Greek sprinter, Katerina Thanou will not inherit the Olympic gold medal from drug cheat Marion Jones.

December 12: The Oasis of the Seas cruise ship made her maiden voyage. She is the largest passenger ship ever built, carrying 5,400 passengers.

December 14: NASA's WISE mission was launched. It surveyed the entire sky in infrared with far greater sensitivity than any previous mission ever has: Over hundreds of millions of astronomical objects will be catalogued.

December 16: Mount Mayou Volcano in the Philippines recorded three small explosions and scientists claimed the volcano crisis could last for months.

December 18-Newphew of Walt Disney Roy Disney died at the age of 79.He was a long time executive and shearholder of the Disney.

- Rohana Jayalal