On Wednesday it is one year since Barack Obama's inauguration. Here is a timeline of important events in the first year in office of America's 44th president.
2009:
-Jan. 20: Obama is sworn in as the 44th president of the United States.
-Jan. 29: The president signs his first bill into law. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act gives workers more time to take their pay discrimination cases to court.
-Feb. 9: Obama's first prime-time news conference.
-Feb. 17: He signs the $787 billion stimulus package into law and approves sending an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan.
-Feb. 27: The president announces withdrawal of all American combat forces from Iraq by August 2010, but says the U.S. will leave tens of thousands of support troops behind.
-March 9: Obama abolishes Bush-era restraints on federally funded stem-cell research and issues a new memo that encourages more open scientific discussion without political interference.
-March 19: He becomes the first sitting president to appear on "The Tonight Show".
-March 30: Obama asserts unprecedented government control over the auto industry, rejecting turnaround plans by General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC.
-April 2: Obama attends the Group of 20 summit in London, his first European trip as president.
-April 6: The president speaks to Turkey's parliament, declaring that "the United States is not, and will never be, at war with Islam."
-April 7: His first visit to Iraq as president.
-April 14: The first family introduces their new puppy, Bo.
-April 16: Obama absolves CIA officers from prosecution for harsh, painful interrogation of suspected terrorists even as his administration released Bush-era memos graphically detailing – and authorising – grim tactics.
-April 30: Obama announces that Chrysler would head into bankruptcy with the aid of up to an additional $8 billion in taxpayer money.
-May 26: He nominates federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor to become the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice.
-June 4: In a speech at Cairo University in Egypt, Obama declares that America has a common cause with Islam and never will be at war with the faith. "America and Islam are not exclusive," he says, "and need not be in competition."
-June 17: Obama signs a memorandum extending some benefits, such as visitation or dependent-care rights, to the same-sex partners of gay federal employees.
-July 11: On his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa, Obama tells lawmakers in Ghana, "I have the blood of Africa within me."
-July 22: He pledges to abide by agreements to pull all U.S. forces out of Iraq by the end of 2011, after a White House meeting with Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.
-July 30: Obama hosts a "beer summit" in the Rose Garden with Henry Louis Gates junior and Cambridge, Mass. police Sgt. James Crowley – two men engulfed in a national uproar over race.
-Aug. 29: Obama delivers the eulogy at Sen. Edward Kennedy's funeral.
-Sept. 9: In a joint session of Congress, the president summons lawmakers to enact sweeping health care legislation, declaring the "time for bickering is over."
-Sept. 23: He addresses the UN General Assembly for the first time, challenging world leaders to shoulder more of the globe's critical burdens and promising a newly co-operative partner in America.
-Sept. 25: Obama says at the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh that he and other leaders of the world's 20 largest economies took actions that "brought the global economy back from the brink" and saved or created millions of jobs.
-Oct. 2: He travels to Copenhagen to lobby for Chicago's bid to host 2016 Summer Olympic games. The city is eliminated on the first ballot.
-Oct. 9: Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
-Nov. 10: He attends a memorial service at Fort Hood, Texas, to honour the 13 Americans killed in the shooting rampage at the Army post.
-Nov. 14: In Tokyo on his first presidential trip to Asia, Obama declares that an era of American disengagement in the globe's fastest-growing region is over.
-Nov. 24: His first White House state dinner, honouring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
-Dec. 1: Obama orders an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, nearly tripling the force he inherited as commander in chief. He promises to begin bringing units home in 18 months.
-Dec. 10: He accepts the Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway.
-Dec. 18: Obama spends about 15 hours at a climate summit in Copenhagen, where he brokers a limited deal to fight global warming.
-Dec. 24: The Senate passes health care legislation, a triumph for Obama that clears the way for compromise talks with the House.
-Dec. 28: Obama pledges to use "every element of our national power" to keep Americans safe, in his first public remarks since the Christmas plot to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner.
2010
-Jan. 5: Obama says the government had enough information to thwart the airliner plot, but intelligence agencies did not "connect those dots." He suspends the transfer of Guantánamo detainees to Yemen, but reaffirms his plan to close the facility.
-Jan. 7: The president declares "the buck stops with me" on national security as the White House releases a report on the Christmas plot.
-Jan. 12: Powerful earthquake hits Haiti, causing widespread devastation. Obama marshals the U.S. response, committing $100 million in initial aid and pledging a "swift, co-ordinated and aggressive" relief effort.
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