20 January: Obama is sworn in as 44th president of the United States. 22 January: He signs executive orders to close the Guantanamo detention centre and ban secret CIA prisons overseas. 17 February: He signs a US$787 billion stimulus package into law and approves sending an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan. 27 February: The president announces the withdrawal of all American combat forces from Iraq by August 2010. 9 March: Obama overturns rules limiting US federal money being used for human embryonic stem cell research. 27 March: Obama announces a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. 6 April: The president speaks to Turkey's parliament, declaring that "the United States is not, and will never be, at war with Islam." 26 May: He nominates federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor as the US's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. 4 June: President Barack Obama gives a speech in Cairo and declares that America has a common cause with Islam and will never be at war with the faith. 18 August: President Hosni Mubarak visits the US and meets with President Obama in the Oval Office, along with VicePresident Biden and Secretary of State Clinton. 23 September: Obama gives his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly. 9 October: Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize. 14 November: Obama delivers a major address regarding Asia's relationship with the United States in Tokyo, Japan. 1 December: Obama orders an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan. 10 December: Obama accepts the Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway. 18 December: Obama attends the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. 5 January 2010: Obama holds a major security meeting in the wake of the attempted attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253. 14 January 2010: Obama commits US$100 million to help Haiti recover from the 2010 earthquake.
