Here are some notable events that took place in 2007:

• Apple introduced the first iPhone
• Microsoft released the highly anticipated Windows Vista operating system
• Global financial crisis began with the collapse of the US housing market
• Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
• The deadliest shooting in modern US history occurred at Virginia Tech
• Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he would seek to reclaim the presidency
• Nepal became a republic, ending its 240-year-old monarchy
• Saddam Hussein was executed by the government of Iraq.