A tragic plane crash and a dramatic mine rescue, a shocking schoolhouse massacre and a breathtaking juvenile justice scandal — not to mention a historic presidential election.

The headlines of the past 10 years were frightening, uplifting and life-changing as Pennsylvanians witnessed lost children found, a landmark evolution debate, and the ka-ching of slot machines throughout the state.

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The decade started with the national spotlight on Philadelphia as George W. Bush accepted the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention. A year later, he was thrown into the greatest crisis of his term when terrorists attacked the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001.

One hijacked plane, United Flight 93, crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pa., after passengers revolted against their captors. Bush later tapped Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge as the first U.S. secretary of homeland security.

Western Pennsylvania again riveted the nation's attention in 2002 as rescuers frantically worked to save nine men trapped in the flooded Quecreek coal mine. After 77 hours, all were hoisted to safety.

The cameras returned to focus on the most private of communities in 2006 after a disturbed milk truck driver burst into an Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines and shot 10 girls, five fatally. Charles Carl Roberts IV then killed himself.

A year earlier, a courtroom in Harrisburg hosted one of the biggest clashes between faith and evolution since the Scopes Monkey Trial decades earlier.

This time, evolution won. A federal judge barred the Dover public schools from teaching "intelligent design" in biology class, saying the concept is creationism in disguise.

And in a still-unfolding scandal in Luzerne County, two judges were charged in a cash-for-kids scam in which authorities said they took kickbacks to place teens in juvenile facilities.

The state's economy was forever changed in 2004 after the Legislature approved slot-machine casinos. The first opened near Wilkes-Barre two years later; lawmakers are now considering adding table games.

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Gov. Ed Rendell and a 2005 legislative pay-raise debacle shaped politics in Pennsylvania like nothing else during the decade.

Rendell became the first Philadelphian to win the governorship in 88 years in a campaign in which he shattered state fundraising records. Two years later, the Legislature's clandestine vote to fatten their salaries became the catalyst for the ouster of two dozen incumbents and an ongoing corruption probe that has resulted in the arrests of 25 people connected to the House of Representatives.

Pennsylvanians supported the election of Barack Obama, the nation's first black president, in 2008. The state went Democratic in all three presidential elections this decade, possibly ending the state's "swing state" status.

Thousands of Pennsylvania troops shipped off to Iraq and Afghanistan in the "war against terror" and al-Qaida. Longtime Democratic Rep. John Murtha, a Vietnam veteran from Johnstown, made waves by calling for soldiers to come home from Iraq in 2005.

Pittsburgh hosted the Group of 20 international economic summit in 2009, highlighting its rebound from a struggling former steel city to an incubator for "green" businesses.

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York Mayor Charlie Robertson and eight other white men were charged in 2001 in the fatal shooting of a black woman during city race riots in 1969. Two men were convicted; Robertson was acquitted. Today, York has its first black mayor.

Authorities have spent years trying untangle a bank robbery plot in Erie that ended with a pizza deliveryman being killed by a bomb locked around his neck. So far, one man has pleaded guilty and the alleged mastermind, Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, awaits trial.

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Philadelphia-based Comcast, the nation's largest cable operator, is poised to become a huge player in the entertainment industry as it announced plans this month to buy a majority stake in NBC Universal. That would give Comcast control of the TV network, an array of cable channels and a major movie studio.

Contrast that with Coudersport-based Adelphia. Once the nation's fifth-biggest cable company, Adelphia collapsed into bankruptcy in 2002 after prosecutors accused its founding family of using it as their personal piggy bank.

Erie got good news in 2007 after an anonymous benefactor donated $100 million to 46 nonprofit groups in the city.

In entertainment news, reality proved more compelling than reality TV for Jon and Kate Gosselin, the stars of "Jon & Kate Plus 8." Their imploding marriage drew more cameras than the TLC show about their eight children — twins and sextuplets — filmed at their home in Wernersville.

Scranton became a Mecca for fans of the quirky NBC hit comedy "The Office." Home to the fictional Dunder Mifflin paper company, the city drew thousands of pilgrims to the inaugural "Office Convention" in 2007.

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Philadelphia mother Luzaida Cuevas thought her days-old infant died in a fire in 1997. But in 2004, she was reunited with her daughter, Delimar Vera, who had been kidnapped and raised by another woman in New Jersey.

Tanya Kach resurfaced in 2006 after a 10-year disappearance. She ran away at 14 to live in McKeesport with Thomas Hose, then a 37-year-old security guard at her school; she said he kept her against her will. Kach eventually revealed her situation to a local deli owner.

Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar mysteriously disappeared in 2005, nine months before he was to retire. Though his car and laptop have been found, Gricar remains missing.

An FBI bug was discovered in Philadelphia Mayor John Street's office in 2003. Street was never charged, but prosecutors later earned a string of City Hall corruption convictions.

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The state witnessed a string of mass killings.

Richard Baumhammers and Ronald Taylor killed several people in a pair of unrelated race-based shooting sprees two months apart in suburban Pittsburgh in 2000.

A gang of masked men fatally shot seven people and wounded three in a Lex Street drug house in Philadelphia because someone burned out the clutch on one man's car.

Jesse Wise killed six relatives and hid their bodies in the basement of the home he shared with them in Leola. He offered no explanation when he was sentenced to life in prison in 2007.

Charles Cullen, a nurse who gave lethal injections to 29 patients in Pennsylvania and New Jersey over several years, was also sentenced to life in prison.

George Sodini, a troubled misogynist, opened fire on an aerobics class at a suburban Pittsburgh health club earlier this year. He killed three women and wounded nine others before committing suicide.