In 2012, President Barack Obama was elected to a second term of office, defeating Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
In 2014, the march toward same-sex marriage across the U.S. hit a roadblock when a federal appeals court upheld laws against the practice in four states: Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee. (A divided U.S. Supreme Court overturned the laws in June 2015.)
In 2016, FBI Director James Comey abruptly announced that Democrat Hillary Clinton should not face criminal charges related to newly discovered emails from her tenure at the State Department.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama opened his 10-day Asia trip on a somber note in Mumbai, India, where he memorialized victims of devastating terror attacks two years earlier, declaring, "We'll never forget." A Yemeni judge ordered police to find Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical U.S.-born cleric, "dead or alive" after the al-Qaida-linked preacher failed to appear at his trial for his role in the killing of foreigners. (Al-Awlaki was killed in a U.S. drone strike in the mountains of Yemen on Sept. 30, 2011.)
Five years ago: President Barack Obama rejected the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, declaring it would undercut U.S. efforts to clinch a global climate change deal at the center of his environmental legacy. (President Donald Trump would reverse the Obama decision.)
One year ago: Democrats announced that they would launch public impeachment hearings the following week; first to testify would be William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine. In its latest step away from a nuclear accord with world powers, Iran said it would start injecting uranium gas at midnight into 1,044 centrifuges at the underground Fordo facility. The Senate gave final congressional approval to a bill making some types of animal cruelty a federal felony.