4 Years in Review
Freshman Year: 2006 – 2007
August 24, 2006: Pluto demoted from planet to “dwarf planet” more than 70 years after its discovery
September 4, 2006: Australian environmentalist and television personality Steve Irwin dies
February 2, 2007: Berkeley High School vice principal denise brown dies of a pulmonary embolism following knee surgery
March 8, 2007: Gene Nakamura retires from his post as coach of the girls’ basketball team after 25 years
May 30, 2007: After the U.S. Secretary of Defense threatens to cut off the school’s federal funding, Berkeley High agrees to turn over student information to military recruiters, giving students the opportunity to “opt out”
July 21, 2007: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is released, marking the end of an era
Sophomore Year: 2007 – 2008
August 28, 2007: “Large school” at BHS disbanded, incorporated into Academic Choice
November 5, 2007: The Writers Guild of America begins a strike which will last for four months, disrupting television programming
November 18, 2007: Representatives from the International Baccalaureate Organization visit BHS in one step towards the school’s accreditation as an IB World School
November 23, 2007: Berkeley High mourns the loss of student Yonas Mehari, who dies after being shot at his Thanksgiving dinner
December 27, 2007: Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated by a bomb blast at an election rally
January 13, 2008: Bill Huyett selected to replace Michelle Lawrence as Berkeley Unified School District superintendent
January 17, 2008: BHS’s “old gym” added to National Register of Historic Places, delaying demolition efforts
January 21, 2008: Global stock markets plunge amid fears of a recession in the U.S. stemming from 2007’s subprime
mortgage crisis
January 22, 2008: Actor Heath Ledger dies of an accidental drug overdose
February 12, 2008: Hundreds of Berkeley High students participate in a protest against the Marine Corp Recruiting Center located on Shattuck Avenue
February 19, 2008: Fidel Castro resigns as President of Cuba after holding power for nearly fifty years
August 1, 2008: A total solar eclipse is visible in Canada, Greenland, central Russia, Mongolia and China
Junior Year:
2008 – 2009
September 8, 2008: Life at BHS in the mid–1990s is depicted in Berkeley Rep’s Yellowjackets by Itamar Moses
September 26, 2008: Legendary actor Paul Newman dies
August 3, 2008: Berkeley International High School teacher Kalpna Mistry passes away while on a Fulbright Grant in the
Phillipines
August 8, 2008: The 2008 Summer Olympics begin in Beijing, China
October 21, 2008: The Large Hadron Colider opens at the CERN laboratory on the border of France and Switzerland
November 4, 2008: Barack Obama is elected the 44th president of the United States
December 31, 2008: An extra leap second is added to the year
January 20, 2009: Barack Obama inaugurated, becoming the first African American president of the United States
March 6, 2009: California Healthy Kids Survey reveals higher than average levels of drug and alcohol use among BHS
students
June 11, 2009: Outbreak of the H1N1 “swine flu” influenza strain
June 25, 2009: “King of Pop” Michael Jackson dies
Senior Year:
2009 – 2010
September 30, 2009: New Berkeley High “energy academy” announced in partnership with PG&E
November 2, 2009: Berkeley High School counselor Susan Werd passes away from pancreatic cancer
December 10, 2009: President Barack Obama accepts Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway
January 12, 2010: A 7.0–magnitude earthquake occurs in Port–au–Prince, Haiti, killing more than 230,000 people
January 27, 2010: J.D. Salinger, author of Catcher in the Rye, dies at the age of 91
February 12, 2010: 2010 Winter Olympic Games begin in Vancouver, Canada
February 27, 2010: An 8.8–magnitude earthquake occurs in Chile, one of the largest in recorded history
March 10, 2010: Principal Jim Slemp announces he will retire at the end of the school year after seven years in BHS’s top job
March 14, 2010: After significant controversy surrounding funding for morning and afternoon science labs, compromise provides optional weekly lab for non–AP science students
March 31, 2010: Berkeley High student Kyle Strang and alumnus Prentice Gray are killed in a head–on collision on the Richmond Parkway
April 10, 2010: A plane crash over western Russia kills Polish President Lech Kaczynski and many of the country’s top government officials
April 14, 2010: Volcanic ash from an eruption below Iceland’s Eykafjallajokull glacier halts air traffic across western Europe
April 20, 2010: The largest oil spill in U.S. history begins with the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explodes
June 11, 2010: FIFA World Cup begins in South Africa
June 18, 2010: Berkeley High School’s Class of 2010 graduates from the Greek Theater
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