2009.html



This article is about the year. For the film, see 2009 Lost Memories.

2009 (MMIX) is the current year of the Anno Domini/Common era in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. It is a common year starting on Thursday.

2009 has been designated as the:

• International Year of Astronomy.¹²
• International Year of Natural Fibres.³
• International Year of Reconciliation.⁴

Events

January

• January 1 - Austria, Japan, Mexico, Turkey, and Uganda assume their seats on the United Nations Security Council.
• January 1 - The Czech Republic takes over the presidency of the Council of the European Union from France.
• January 1 - The European small claims procedure comes into force throughout the European Union, other than Denmark.⁵
• January 1 - At least 61 people are killed in a fire in Bangkok during New Year celebrations.
• January 1 - Vilnius and Linz become the European Capitals of Culture.
• January 1 - Slovakia adopts the euro and becomes the 16th member of the Eurozone.
• January 3 - Israel launches ground invasion of Gaza.
• January 6 - Russia cuts gas supply to parts of Eastern Europe.

Predicted and scheduled events

January

• January 9 - Mahmoud Abbas's term as President of the Palestinian National Authority will end.
• January 15 - International Year of Astronomy Opening Ceremony at UNESCO HQ, Paris, France.⁶
• January 20 - Inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States.
• January 26 - Annular solar eclipse.⁷
• January 26 - Possession of "Extreme pornography" will become illegal in the United Kingdom.⁸

February

• February - NASA's Dawn spacecraft will fly by Mars for data and gravitational assist en route to Vesta and Ceres.⁹
• February 1 - The International Cospas-Sarsat Satellite System will stop monitoring for 121.5 MHz and 243 MHz (Class B) signals from distress radiobeacons.¹⁰
• February 1 - Super Bowl XLIII will take place in Tampa, Florida.¹¹
• February 2–15 - The FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2009 will take place in Val-d'Isère, France.¹²
• February 8 - The 51st Annual Grammy Awards will be held at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
• February 12 - Celebration of Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday in the United States. The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission has scheduled a series of events in Washington, D.C.
• February 12 - Darwin Day, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. Events are already being planned at the London Natural History Museum.
• February 12 - On STS-119, the Space Shuttle Discovery will deliver and install the fourth starboard truss segment on the International Space Station.¹³
• February 13 - The Unix time number reaches 1234567890 seconds at 23:31:30 UTC.
• February 15 - The 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will begin its 61st season with the Daytona 500 in Daytona Beach, FL.
• February 17 - Analog television broadcasts will mostly end in the United States, as the Federal Communications Commission will require all full power stations to send their signals digitally.¹⁴
• February 18–28 - The 2009 Winter Universiade will be held in Harbin, China.¹⁵¹⁶
• February 22 - The 81st Academy Awards will be held at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California.¹⁷
• February 24 - Comet Lulin will peak in brightness as seen from Earth.

March

• March - The United States will begin the first round of negotiations with the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership countries on a possible free trade agreement.¹⁸
• March 5 - The second World Baseball Classic will begin.
• March 5 - NASA's Kepler Mission, a space photometer which will search for extrasolar planets in the Milky Way galaxy, will be launched.¹³
• March 5–7 - The 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens will be hosted by Dubai.
• March 29 - The 60th FIA Formula One World Championship will begin in Melbourne, Australia.

April

• April - Albania and Croatia are expected to join NATO.
• April - The Women's Professional Soccer league will debut.¹⁹
• April 2–5 - The 100 Hours of Astronomy begins. This is a cornerstone project of the International Year of Astronomy.²⁰
• April 4–6 - The 2009 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Final Four will be held at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan.²¹
• April 13 - Citi Field, which will replace Shea Stadium as the home of the New York Mets, will open with a game against the San Diego Padres.
• April 16 - The New York Yankees will open their new Yankee Stadium, located next to the original facility, against the Cleveland Indians.
• April 24 - The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the LCROSS impactor will be launched to the Moon. Part of NASA's Lunar Precursor Robotic Program (LPRP).¹³

May

• May - On STS-125, the Space Shuttle Atlantis will conduct the last servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. It will be one of the most advanced and dangerous missions in space as the International Space Station will not be available for use as a lifeboat due to Hubble's orbit.²²²³²⁴
• May 15 - On STS-127, the Space Shuttle Endeavour will deliver and install the Exposed Facility of Japan's Kibo laboratory on the International Space Station.¹³
• May 16 - The Final of the 54th Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Moscow, Russia.²⁵
• May 20 - The UEFA Cup final will be held in Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey. It will be the second European Final held in Istanbul this decade after the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final.
• May 25 - Conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune, Jupiter 24' south. First of three in a triple conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune.
• May 27 - UEFA Champions League Final will be held at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy.
• May 30 - Rededication of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Titled "Retrospective" the ceremony will recreate the program from the original May 30, 1922 ceremony.

June

• June 4-7 - The European Parliament election 2009 will take place, the exact date varies depending on country.
• June 7 - A referendum on changing the Act of Succession will be held in Denmark.
• June 6–13 - The World Air Games will be held in Turin, Italy.²⁶
• June 14–28 - The FIFA Confederations Cup will be held in South Africa.²⁷

July

• July 1 - Sweden takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from the Czech Republic.
• July 1–12 - The Summer Universiade will take place in Belgrade, Serbia.²⁸
• July 3–5 - The Global Conference on Abraham Lincoln at St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford.
• July 11 - The Ares I-X test flight of the first stage of the Ares I launch vehicle, the crew launch vehicle of NASA's Constellation program.¹³
• July 13 - Conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune, Jupiter 37' south. Second of three in a triple conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune.
• July 22 - Total solar eclipse. The longest lasting total solar eclipse of the 21st century.²⁹³⁰
• July 30 - On STS-128, the Space Shuttle Atlantis will use the MPLM Donatello to deliver experiment and storage racks to the International Space Station.¹³

August

• August 23–30 - The 2009 World Rowing Championships regatta will be held at the Lake Malta in Poznań, Poland.

September

• September - The Burj Dubai in Dubai, UAE will be completed. It is already the tallest man-made structure ever built.³¹³²
• September 12 - TCF Bank Stadium at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities will open against the Air Force Academy.
• September 29 - NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft will make its final flyby of Mercury, decreasing the velocity for orbital insertion.

October

• October - The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom will be opened.³³
• October 1 - Denmark will begin turning off Analogue TV.
• October 2 - The host city of the 2016 Summer Olympics will be announced at the 121st Session (which will also be the XIIIth Olympic Congress) of the International Olympic Committee to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark.
• October 10 - The "Conference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge" (CPAK) will be held at the National Academy of Sciences Beckman Center at the University of California, Irvine.
• October 15 - On STS-129, the Space Shuttle Discovery will deliver integral components including gyroscopes, tank assemblies, an extra tool box, and a spare latching end effector for the station's robotic arm to the International Space Station.¹³

November

• November - Singapore will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
• November - The retail sale of incandescent light bulbs will be banned in Australia.³⁴
• November - NASA's WISE mission will be launched. It will survey the entire sky in the infrared with far greater sensitivity than any previous mission ever has: over hundreds of millions of astronomical objects will be catalogued.¹³
• November 30 - Vancouver, Canada will open the Canada Line rapid transit line connecting Vancouver with Richmond, British Columbia and the Vancouver International Airport.
• November 30 – December 11 - The UNFCCC's COP15 Copenhagen 2009 conference will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark.³⁵

December

• December 10 - On STS-130, the Space Shuttle Endeavour will deliver and install the Node 3 and the Cupola on the International Space Station.¹³
• December 12 - The Oasis of the Seas cruise ship will make her maiden voyage. When completed she will be the largest passenger ship ever built, carrying 5,400 passengers.³⁶³⁷
• December 20 - Conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune, Jupiter 34' south. Last of three in a triple conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune.
• December 31 - The deadline for implementation of the controversial United States legislation REAL ID Act.³⁸³⁹

Unknown dates

• Apple, Inc. will release another update of their operating system, Mac OS X v10.6 "Snow Leopard". ⁴⁰
• Asunción, the capital of Paraguay, will be the American Capital of Culture.
• Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Ukraine and Georgia hope to join NATO program Membership Action Plan, the last step before full membership.
• Completion of the Metro Gold Line (LACMTA) Expansion and the Expo Line in Los Angeles, California.
• Completion of the Three Gorges Dam in China.
• Completion of the Virgin Galactic Spaceport in New Mexico, United States.
• East African Community to implement a common currency called the East African shilling.
• First flight of the SpaceX Dragon commercial manned orbital spacecraft.
• Intel will release as many as five new microprocessor variants of the Nehalem microarchitecture throughout the year. The Beckton variant may have as many as eight cores.
• A restart of the Large Hadron Collider is scheduled for summer 2009. The LHC was shut down on 19 September 2008 after problems with a magnet quench.
• New Zealand will stop the sales of incandescent light bulbs.
• Next award of the Sylvester Medal.
• Opening of Tseung Kwan O South Line, MTR, Hong Kong.
• Possible launch of the KEO satellite time capsule. If it is not launched in 2009, it will be launched in 2010.
• Possible start of construction for a fixed-guideway mass transit system for Honolulu.
• RFSA's Phobos-Grunt, sample return from Phobos.
• Tesla Motors will mass produce the Tesla Model S, its second electric car.
• The completion of the Sound Transit Central Link Light Rail system in Seattle.
• The Boeing 747-8 will achieve entry into service (EIS).
• The Compact of Free Association between the United States and Palau expires.
• Windows 7 will be released (plans for release date are unknown)
• The final phase of the L.A. Live project will be completed, including a 54-story Ritz-Carlton/JW Marriott hotel and the 14-screen West Coast flagship theatre multiplex operated by the Regal Entertainment Group.
• The Dallas Cowboys New Stadium will be inaugurated.
• The Greenville Bridge will open to traffic.
• The United Kingdom will continue a 5-year process to cease analogue television broadcasts region-by-region, with Granada, HTV Wales and Westcountry Television.⁴¹
• The University of Greenland will move into a new research complex called Llimmarfik.
• Western Australia will vote on the controversial topic of daylight saving time.
• World Trade Center Tower 5 will have its groundbreaking ceremony in New York City.
• Australia will begin turning off Analogue TV.

Deaths

Main article: Deaths in 2009

January

• January 1 - Johannes Mario Simmel, Austrian writer (b. 1924)
• January 1 - Helen Suzman, South African activist and politician (b. 1917)

Awards

Nobel Prizes

• Chemistry - to be announced
• Economics - to be announced
• Literature - to be announced
• Peace - to be announced
• Physics - to be announced
• Physiology or Medicine - to be announced

Major religious holidays

• January 6 - Christmas in most Armenian Apostolic Churches of Christianity.
• January 7 - Christmas in most Eastern Orthodox Churches of Christianity.
• January 14 - Pongal
• February 23 - Shivaratri
• April 12 - Easter
• April 19 - Easter for many Eastern Christians
• May 2 - Buddha's Birthday
• August 6 - Raksha Bandhan
• August 14 - Janmashtmi
• August 23 - Ganesh Chaturthi
• September 2 - Onam
• September 19 - Navratri
• September 28 - Dussehra
• October 17 - Diwali
• November 1 - All Saints' Day for Roman Catholics
• November 27 - Eid al-Adha
• December 11 - Hannukah begins
• December 25 - Christmas in Western Christianity and some Eastern Orthodox Churches.

2009 in fiction

Computer and video games

Set in 2009:

• Shattered Union (2005): U.S. President David Jefferson Adams is elected in a sham election, and becomes the most unpopular president in U.S. history.
• Abuse (1996)
• Dino Crisis (1999)
• Indigo Prophecy (also known as Fahrenheit in some regions)
• Incoming (1998)
• Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction (2005): Set in 2009 or 2010.
• Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001), the Plant chapter occurs on April 29 and April 30, causing devastation to New York City from its coast, when Arsenal Gear crash lands into Federal Hall.
• Splinter Cell Double Agent (2006)
• Mega Man 2 and Mega Man in Dr. Wily's Revenge
• Army of Two-portion of game set in 2009.
• Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 (2007), takes place between April 2009 and March 2010.
• Left 4 Dead is set in the fall of 2009.

Film

• Freejack (1992): Set in November 2009.
• 2009 Lost Memories (2002): Set in 2009.
• I Am Legend (2007): The events triggering the story begin in December 10, 2009.
• Cloverfield (2008): On May 22, the events of the story take place.
• Eagle Eye (2008): The surveillance cameras in the film read January 26, 2009.

Television

• Charmed ("Morality Bites," 1999) Phoebe Halliwell is executed on February 12 by burning at the stake for murdering a man with her powers.
• Macross (adapted outside Japan as the first part of Robotech): The alien Zentradi arrive at Earth on February 7 (February 9 in Robotech), triggering the devastating Space War I or First Robotech War.
• The West Wing ("The Ticket," 2005): Former President Jed Bartlet opens his presidential library in New Hampshire and chats with some of his former staffers.
• Dark Angel (2000-2002): Max Guevara and her "brothers and sisters" escape from Manticore in 2009. America is devastated by an electromagnetic pulse later in the same year.
• Family Matters: In the 1994 episode "Father of the Bride," Carl Winslow sleeps for fifteen years and wakes up in the year 2009 where main characters Steve Urkel and Laura Winslow are married with four children.
• 2007 television series The Sarah Jane Adventures is set in this time, the earliest January following "a year and a half" after Doctor Who episode "School Reunion".
• The Doctor Who episode Last of the Time Lords is set mainly in this year. Also Series 4 of the show is set in 2009 with the episode Partners In Crime, The Sontaran Strategem/The Poison Sky and The Stolen Earth/Journey's End. The events of the Turn Left parallel universe takes place partly here too.
• Ultraman Nexus (2004-2005) is set in 2009, acting as a sequel to the 2004 film Ultraman: The Next which was set in it's production year.
• Batman Beyond (1999 - 2001): In the episode "Out of the Past," it is revealed that sometime in 2009, Batman fought Ra's al Ghul in an incident they referred to as "The Near-Apocalypse of 09." An incident that Ra's has started.

Books

• Gregory Benford, Threads
• David Brin, The Postman
• Tracy Hickman, The Immortals
• Wilson Tucker, The Year of the Quiet Sun

References