January 12, 2005: The White House announces that the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is over and that no such weapons were found.

January 26, 2005: U.S. Senate votes to confirm Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state. She’s the first black woman to hold the position.

February 3, 2005: U.S. Senate approves Alberto Gonzales as the country’s first Hispanic attorney general.

August 29, 2005: Hurricane Katrina strikes the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coastal areas. Levees separating Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans are breached by the storm surge, ultimately flooding roughly 80 percent of the city. Roughly 1600 perished as a result of the storm.

2005: In Boston: Blizzard in Boston (Jan. 22-23); Boston Workers Alliance established

January 30, 2006: Coretta Scott King, American civil rights activist and wife of Martin Luther King, Jr. dies.

February 4, 2006: Throughout the Muslim world, angry demonstrators smash windows, set fires, and burn flags, protesting cartoons that depict Muhammad in a negative light.

April 12, 2006: Massachusetts enacts universal health coverage. Legislation signed by Gov. Mitt Romney requires all residents who can afford health insurance to obtain it by July 1, 2007. Those who cannot afford insurance will have it subsidized by the state.