Biggest stories of last decade

Earlier i was scanning through the news on planet 3 and came across "So what were the biggest stories of last decade?" and was wondering what they would rank as number 1. I shall type the article here:

International research group The Global Language Monitor, being the boffins they are, recently ran a head-frying algorithm which searched for trends in word usage throughout printed and electronic media. Many cases of Red Bull later, they came back with a list of the most talked and read about events of the last ten years, Here's the top five:

5: Death of Michael Jackson

The King of Pop moonwalks off into the afterlife, forever to be seen with Elvis and Big Foot by loners with out-of-focus cameras.

4: The War On Terror

Dubya's reply to the 9/11 attacks and probably the only reason why a large chunk of western society now knows where Afghanistan is.

3: September 11

As with the shooting of Bambi's mother, everyone remembers where they were when the New York/D.C terrorist attacks went down.

2: War in Iraq

Held our attention right from the blurry satellite photos through to the discovery of Saddam doing his best to look like a wombat. Gave rise to the flak-jacketed menace, the embedded journalist (case in point - google "Geraldo Rivera Iraq")

1: The rise of China

The most populace nation on Earth emerges as an economic powerhouse. Start learning Mandarin now.

I wasn't expecting that to be number 1 :L Also GReeeeN's album Shio, Kosho won Best Album and Album Award at the 51st Japan Record Awards. :D Big Bang won an award for New Artist and became the first Korean group to do so.