SBS50: Biggest Stories

In 2001 the world changed forever with the 9-11 attacks in the United States. Domestic airliners were hijacked and flown into both towers of New York’s World Trade Centre, the Pentagon in Washington and a field in Pennsylvania.

In 2002, the Euro became the official currency of the European Union as it went into circulation on the 1st of January. Gone were francs, marks, pounds, schillings, pesetas, lira and guilders, among many others. There are now 19 countries that use the Euro.

On the 19th of March, 2003, U-S president George W. Bush announced the beginning of the invasion of Iraq. Australia was the third contributing member of the U-S led 'Coalition of the Willing', but many opposed what the Americans called – ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom. ‘

2004 ended with one of history’s deadliest natural disasters - the Boxing Day Tsunami - where an estimated 225 thousand people were killed. The 9-magnitude earthquake struck 160 kilometres off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia.

In 2005 events in an Australian beachside suburb made headlines around the world. Three off-duty, out-of-uniform lifeguards, had a confrontation with four men of Middle-Eastern appearance, two of the lifeguards hospitalised a reports of community reaction spiralled. Five thousand people showed up at Cronulla beach the following Sunday, December the 11th.

2006 was the year that Cyclone Larry rung up a 250-million-dollar insurance claim for the people of Northern Queensland. Beginning as a low-pressure system over the Coral Sea, this severe tropical cyclone made landfall on Monday March 20 in Innisfail, Northern NSW.

Despite the unfolding Global Financial Crisis, 2007 was a prominent year for technology buffs. In his trademark presentation style, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced to the world, their newest product at the annual Macworld conference

2008 was the year that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered a national apology to the Stolen Generation.

In 2009 Barack Obama was elected as America’s first African-American President. The election of the charismatic Democrat Senator was highly symbolic in a country with a history of slavery and civil rights struggles.

On January 12, 2010, one of the world’s poorest countries, Haiti, was hit by a devastating natural disaster. A 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the near the island’s capital Port-Au-Prince.

After almost ten years searching for Al Queada frontman Osama Bin Laden, in May Barack Obama announced that Bin Laden had been killed during a secret U-S military raid on an Al Qaeda safehouse in Pakistan.

2012 was the year Australian Julian Assange, founder of internet whistle-blower site WikiLeaks, sought asylum in the Ecuador’s Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning over sexual assault allegations.

A tragedy made the headlines in April 2013 when more than 1100 people were killed and 2500 injured as an eight-story garment-factory in the Savar district of Bangladesh collapsed.

On the 8th of March 2014, Australians woke to the news that a Malaysian Airlines flight bound for Beijing had gone missing. MH-370, carrying 239 people, had disappeared off the radar.

On the 14th of September in 2015 – Malcolm Turnbull wrestled the prime ministership of Australia away from Tony Abbott in a Liberal party room spill – winning 54 votes to 44.

In 2016 one of the biggest stories was Brexit. The referendum on whether Britain should leave membership of the European Union, was promised in 2015 by then Conservative Party Prime Minister David Cameron as a re-election commitment.

In 2017 one of the biggest stories in Australia was the legalisation of same-sex marriage. Up until this year, same-sex unions were treated as de-facto unions, with having some, but not all legal rights as marriages.

In 2018, the world held their collective breath when twelve boys and their football coach become stranded several kilometres inside a cave in Thailand’s Chiang Rai province.

We are celebrating 50 years at SBS by bringing you some of the biggest stories from the past five decades. The Black Summer bushfires in late 2019 was one of the worst on record. A long and dry weather spell created a catastrophic condition.

As SBS turns 50, we're looking back at our biggest stories. In 2020 the Coronavirus pandemic struck across the globe.

In February 2021, Facebook banned Australians from posting or sharing news content on their site. The move was in response to the Federal Government’s proposed news Media Bargaining Code, which would require technology companies to negotiate with media outlets to carry their news content online.

In February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in a significant escalation of conflict which commenced in 2014. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation to support the breakaway Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, with claims Ukraine was led by neo-Nazis and Russia was under threat from NATO expansion.

When Anthony Albanese was elected prime minister in 2022, he committed to implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full, which includes a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous Voice to Parliament. The referendum was held on the 14th of October 2023.

In 2024 the American people have handed Donald Trump a resounding mandate to re-take the White House, beating Democrat Kamala Harris for the top job.