Celebrating Women's History

Timeline - The 21st Century

4000 B.C.-30 A.D. | 1000-1200 | 1300-1718 | 1762-1896 | 1902-1999 | 2000+

2000

Hillary Rodham Clinton is elected to the U.S. Senate representing New York, becoming the first First Lady to be elected to a political office.

Doris "Granny D" Haddock finishes her 3,200-mile walk across the United States to advocate campaign finance and a voice for the people of the nation. Haddock is 90 years old.

2002

Halle Berry becomes the first African-American woman to win an Academy Award for best female actress.

2003

Californian Nancy Pelosi becomes the first woman to serve as Democratic Minority Leader in the U.S. House of Representatives.

2004

Jane Goodall received the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest and was invested as a Dame of the British Empire (DBE) by Prince Charles.

Environmental activist, Wangari Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the first ever given to an African woman.

The musician Pink (Alecia Moore) won a Grammy Award for best female rock vocal performance for "Trouble."

2005

In November of 2005, WNBA player Lisa Leslie married former Air Force basketball player Michael Lockwood in Maui.

2006

California Representative Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Louise Erdrich was awarded the Scott O'Dell Award for historical fiction, 2006, for The Game of Silence.

New York Senator Hillary Clinton was reelected to the Senate, defeating Republican John Spencer.

Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm was reelected, defeating Republican Dick DeVos in the general election.

In December, Sarah Palin was inaugurated as Alaska’s first female governor.

2007

New York Senator Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for President of the United States.

British author J.K. Rowling finished writing the last Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, in January.

2008 

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was chosen as the Republican vice presidential candidate to run alongside Senator John McCain

Michelle Obama was the prime-time speaker on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention.

Jane Goodall was honored with the Leakey Prize in human evolutionary science from the Leakey Foundation.

Chef Alice Waters was inducted into the California Hall of Fame.

Lisa Leslie won a gold medal as a member of the U.S. women's basketball team at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

Maxine Hong Kingston received the Nation Book Award medal for "Distinguished Contribution to American Letters," by the National Book Foundation.

Sources:
Chronology of Women Worldwide, Gale.
Women's Firsts, Gale.
Women's Chronology, Gale.