The eurozone crisis is without question one of the most critical events to happen in the 21st century so far. But it can be hard to navigate. To begin with, there's no clear start date. Some people go with early 2010, when the scale of Greece's public finance disaster became obvious, while others start in 2008, when the financial crisis kicked off. There's also some dispute over the end date. To some, European Central Bank president Mario Draghi's "whatever it takes speech" marks a rough ending to the crisis. For others, it concludes with the end of the bloc's second recession in 2013. A few think it's still going on. But one thing is certain: Veteran German Chancellor Angela Merkel has the range of facial expressions to accurately guide anyone through the ups and downs of the past six years.JANUARY 2008: In many ways, Europe seemed to be in good shape. Sixteen countries were members of what seemed to be a successful currency union. Europe had seen an extended period of growth, and unemployment was at a modern record low. AUTUMN 2008: The global financial crisis got into full swing. Several European banks, like Belgium's Dexia, had to be bailed out by their national governments. EARLY 2009: By the beginning of the next year, things were not looking so great. Europe was hit by the global financial crisis with everyone else, and economies went into recession in 2009. See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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