<P> Starting in the Winter of 2007, a financial crisis in the United States began which eventually triggered a worldwide recession in the Fall of 2008 . </P> <P> In 2009, Barack Obama was inaugurated as the first African American to be President of the United States . Two years later, Osama Bin Laden, perpetrator of 9 / 11, was found and killed . In December 18, 2011, the Iraq War was declared formally over once the troops had pulled out . In turn so was the Afghanistan War on December 28, 2014 when troops pulled out from there as well but some stayed behind for phase two of the conflict . </P>

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