The first 20 years of the Millennium, that's what they leave us - Lifestyle

What will we remember of the first twenty years of the third millennium? We have chosen 20 news and 20 photos, one per year from 2000 to 2019 among thousands of images from the ANSA archive.

2000 - After the apocalyptic prophecies and the Millennium Bug, we celebrate. The photo of the year is the cow that trembles and collapses affected by bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Mad cow disease causes panic among consumers. The growth of vegetarians and vegans in the world begins like this.

2001 - It is the year of the Twin Towers: on September 11 in New York, in the middle of Manhattan, civilian planes crash against the two skyscrapers, at the same time another is directed against the Pentagon. It is the frontal attack of Al Qaeda's Islamic terrorism on the symbol of the West: 3 thousand dead and the world in shock.

2002 - The single currency arrives for the 12 countries of the European Union: the epoch of the euro begins and the old lire end up among the memories. Eurosceptics immediately criticize the Maastricht parameters on deficit, debt / GDP ratio and inflation.

2003 - The United States of George W. Bush, with the support of the English Labor Tony Blair, invade Iraq after accusations against Saddam Hussein of possessing weapons of mass destruction, never proven. 1 million 200,000 Iraqis, 4,500 American and 200 British soldiers will die. And in Nassiriya on November 12, 2003, 19 Italians died in an attack on the Mistral base (12 carabinieri, 5 soldiers and two civilians).

2004 - The student Mark Zuckerberg realizes a project of connections between people: it is Facebook, the social network phenomenon. But also: the deadly wave of the tsunami on December 26th blows Indonesia away. A devastation with 230 thousand dead and 5 million displaced. The world stunned in the face of crazy nature.

2005 - The first non-Italian Pope, the Polish Karol Wojtyla considered among the architects of the collapse of communism, conservative but in empathy with endless crowds of faithful, dies. At his funeral 600 thousand people. John Paul II will become a saint in 2014.

2006 - In the Berlin final, beating the French, Italy coached by Marcello Lippi wins his fourth World Cup. Before the departure, the Calciopoli scandal: the victory of Buffon, Del Piero, Totti and companions is unexpected.

2007 - Without a physical keyboard, only with a touch screen: Steve Jobs, the techno-philosopher who tells the kids 'stay hungry, stay foolish', presents the first iPhone. It is the smartphone, the object with all our life inside that has already changed the world.

2008 - The 44th President of the United States is also the first African American. Democrat Barack Obama, 48, is elected under the motto of 'Yes We Can!'. With his wife Michelle, he forms one of the most loved couples in the White House. In 2009 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

2009 - At 3.32 on 6 April 2009, a shock of magnitude 6.3 hits L'Aquila and its surroundings: 309 dead and thousands of displaced people. A great pain at the Student House: despite the alarm, it was not declared in danger but 8 university students die under the rubble.

2010 - Greece, crushed by 350 billion debt, plunges into chaos. Europe without the cradle of western civilization is a concrete nightmare. Minister Varoufakis negotiates aid under an unprecedented austerity plan.

2011 - 25 years after Chernobyl, another nuclear tragedy. This time in Japan, in the Fukushima plant, caused by the tsunami after an earthquake. Explosions, release of radioactive material and three nuclear crises are the consequences of a disaster which will later be defined as "foreseeable".

2012 - The Costa Concordia led by Francesco Schettino wrecks in front of the island of Giglio: he will be sentenced to 16 years in Cassation. On the night of January 13 the cruise ship bowed towards the coast, but hit a rock and the hull ripped open: 32 dead and the captain leaving the ship before rescue.

2013 - Pope Benedict XVI announces his resignation. The election of the Argentine Jesuit Jorge Mario Bergoglio determines a historical fact: a new Pontiff being the predecessor alive. The embrace between the theologian Ratzinger and the 'parish priest of all', Pope Francis made history.

2014 - For the tragedy of migrants it is a record year, over 2 thousand dead. The horror on the boats and at the bottom of the sea is an infinite massacre of those who try by any means and at any cost to get to the Fortress Europe.

2015 - On January 7, a jihadist commando in the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris killed 12 people. On November 13 a real attack on the French capital: from the stadium to the Bataclan, a 'concert hall' in the 11th arrondissement, six attacks with 130 deaths. The world shouts 'Je suis Paris'.

2016 - Businessman and TV personality Donald Trump becomes the 45th President of the United States after Obama. He sets his presidency on the idea of ​​an isolationist America, leveraging conservative values ​​as well as populism.

2017 - Powerful Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein is accused of sexual assault. This is the beginning of the #metoo: a neo-feminist movement that promotes equality in addition to denunciation. But the scourge of femicide is of tragic relevance: 115 deaths a year since 2005 only in Italy.

2018 - In Genoa on August 14 at 11.30 the Ponte Morandi highway viaduct collapses. 43 dead, hundreds of displaced people and controversy not to end due to the alarms of wear and tear of the structure not listened to and insufficient maintenance.

2019 - The Swedish girl Greta Thunberg, from the solitary protest in front of the Stockholm Parliament, becomes the leader of a generation of young climate activists who, with the Fridays for Future, bring the green issue to the fore.