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George W. Bush's first four years WASHINGTON (AFP) Jan 20, 2005 Here is a chronology of some of the most important events during President George W. Bush's first four years as US president as he prepares to take the oath of office for a second four-year term on Thursday.
- Jan 20 : George Walker Bush becomes the 43rd US president after a narrow and controversial election. - March 29 : Bush rejects the Kyoto protocol on global warming, signed in 1998 by then-president Bill Clinton. The protocol is aimed at limiting greenhouse gas emissions. - June 11 : Timothy McVeigh, responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing of a federal building that killed 168 people, is executed. - Sept 11 : Four US jet airliners are hijacked by members of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terrorist network. Two slam into the World Trade Center in New York and one hits the Pentagon outside Washington. Passengers fight hijackers in the fourth plane and it crashes in a field in Pennsylvania. Result: 2,978 killed. - Oct 5 - Nov 21 : Five people killed after opening letters laced with deadly anthrax spores. - Oct 7 : US warplanes bomb Taliban forces in Afghanistan, accused of harboring terror mastermind Bin Laden. Kabul falls to US-supported opposition forces on November 13. - Oct 26 : Congress approves the "Patriot Act," which adds sweeping powers of surveillance to the government in the name of the war against terrorism. - Dec 13 : Washington withdraws from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, allowing US forces to begin to deploy a missile defense shield.
- Jan 29 : In the annual state of the union speech Bush declares that Iran, Iraq and North Korea form an "axis of evil" that threatens world peace. - May 24 : Washington and Moscow agree to reduce their nuclear arsenals by two-thirds by 2012. - June 14 : In a speech Bush announces that pre-emptive action against potential enemies was the new US doctrine. - Sept 12 : Bush tells the United Nations General Assembly that the world must force dictator Saddam Hussein to destroy Iraq's weapons of mass destruction or face "unavoidable" action to depose him. - Oct. 11: The US Congress approves the use of military forces against Iraq.
- Feb 1 : The US space shuttle Columbia disintegrates upon re-entry into the earth's atmosphere. All seven astronauts aboard perish. - March 20 : Bush orders US forces to war against Iraq, despite opposition from France, Germany and Russia. - April 9 : Baghdad falls to US forces. - May 1: "Major combat operations have ended in Iraq," Bush announces from the deck of a navy aircraft carrier. - June 4 : In Bush's presence, Israelis and Palestinians ratify in Jordan the "roadmap" to peace in the Middle East and the creation of a Palestinian state. - Nov 27 : Bush Thanksgiving lightning visit to Baghdad. - Dec 13 : Saddam Hussein captured near the Iraqi town of Tikrit.
- Jan 14 : Bush announces an ambitious space program that includes another manned mission to the moon. - April 14 : For the first time a US president declares that the idea of Israel returning to its 1949 borders was "unrealistic." - April 28 : Global indignation following the publication of photos of US soldiers abusing inmates at Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison. - June 3 : CIA director George Tenet resigns from the job he held since 1997. He is replaced August 10 by Porter Goss. - June 28 : The United States officially transfers power to an interim Iraqi government in Baghdad. - June 29: Washington restores diplomatic ties with Tripoli after 24 years and Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi announces his country is ending its research aimed at building weapons of mass destruction. - July 22: A bipartisan committee looking into the September 11 attacks releases a report indicting the role of US intelligence and air defenses prior and during the attacks. - Aug 16: Bush announces the return of up to 70,000 US soldiers currently deployed in Europe and Asia over the next ten years to the United States. - Sept 7 : The number of US soldiers killed in Iraq hits the 1,000 mark. - Nov 2 : After a bitter presidential campaign Bush is re-elected for a second term in office. Bush's Republican Party keeps its majority in both chambers of Congress. - 17 Dec : Bush announces plans for a sweeping reform of the US social security system.
- Jan 12 : Officials announce US forces are no longer searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. All rights reserved. copyright 2018 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.
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