In 2009, 4.6 billion people globally, or nearly half the world's population used cell phones, and in 2005, over a billion people worldwide used the Internet. In contemporary history, the 21st century began with the United States as the sole superpower in the absence of the Soviet Union, with five other entities, China, India, the European Union, Brazil and the Russian Federation as potential superpowers in the coming decades.Īs the Cold War was over and terrorism on the rise exemplified by the Septemattacks at the World Trade Center in New York City the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia followed by the 2001 anthrax attacks that commenced as letters containing anthrax spores were mailed from Princeton, New Jersey to ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, the New York Post, and the National Enquirer the United States and its allies turned their attention to the Middle East.ĭigital technology, in its early stages of mainstream use in the 1980s and 1990s, became widely accepted by most of the world, though concerns about stress and antisociality from the overuse of mobile phones, the Internet and related technologies remains controversial.
5 Astronomical events (passed or to come) in the 21st century.