The smoking ban is extended to all children's playgrounds, exercise areas, markets, underground and multi-storey carparks, ferry terminals and jetties, and also non-air conditioned areas in offices, factories, shops, shopping complexes and lift lobbies.
9 January to 7 October – The mass EZ-Link card replacement exercise is initiated.[2] Supposed to end by 30 September, the replacement is extended to 7 October.[3]
28 January – The Social Development Unit and the Social Development Service have merged into SDU-SDS, the change was first announced during the 2008 National Day Rally.[5]
February
11 February – Plans for a River Safari are announced by Wildlife Reserves Singapore, which will be completed by 2011. The attraction will raise awareness of freshwater habitats.[6]
12 February – The Singapore Tourism Board launched a year-round campaign to attract tourists.
8 March – The Upper Paya Lebar underpass is opened to traffic.[9]
23 March – Amendments to the Films Act are passed to allow some political films if the films present a factual and objective picture, and do not dramatise and/or present a distorted picture. This comes after all party political films were banned in 1998.[10][11]
24 March – MediaCorp, along with five Southeast Asian television broadcasting companies have formed the Smart Alliance.[12]
154 people fall victim to the food poisoning involving an Indian rojak stall at the Geylang Serai temporary market, with one miscarriage and two deaths; the incident became one of Singapore's worst mass food poisoning cases until in 2018, when four simultaneous cases occurred.
The Public Order Act is passed to regulate assemblies, and allows for 'move on' orders.[16][17]
30 April to 11 May – Ministry of Health raised the level to orange even though there are no human cases of swine flu in Singapore recorded, before lowering it to yellow.
27 May – Singapore's first H1N1 case was confirmed.[20]
28 May – Three cases were confirmed (total 4).
31 May – One case was confirmed (total 5).
1 June – Two cases were confirmed (total 7).
2 June – One case was confirmed (total 8).
3 June – Three cases were confirmed (total 11).
4 June – One case was confirmed (total 12).
5 June – Two cases were confirmed (total 14).
6 June – One case was confirmed (total 15).
9 June – Three cases were confirmed (total 18).
11 June – Three cases were confirmed (total 21).
12 June – Six cases were confirmed (total 27).
13 June – Seven cases were confirmed (total 34).
14 June – Six cases were confirmed (total 40).
15 June – Seven cases were confirmed (total 47).
16 June – Two cases were confirmed (total 49).
17 June – 17 cases were confirmed (total 66).
18 June – 11 cases were confirmed, with one of the additional cases possibly Singapore's first unlinked local H1N1 flu case (total 77).
19 June – 26 cases were confirmed, including 3 local cases (total 103).
20 June – 23 cases were confirmed, one of which includes an Asian Youth Games athlete from the Philippines (total 126).
21 June – 16 cases were confirmed (total 142).
22 June – 26 cases were confirmed (total 168).
23 June – 26 cases were confirmed (total 194).
24 June – 26 cases were confirmed (total 220).
25 June – 95 cases were confirmed (total 315).
26 June – 50 cases were confirmed (total 365).
27 June – 89 cases were confirmed (total 454).
28 June – 145 cases were confirmed (total 599).
29 June – 30 cases were confirmed (total 629).
30 June – 72 cases were confirmed (total 701).
1 July – MOH announces that it moves on from Containment to Mitigation Phase; with 82 cases confirmed (total 783).
2 July – 95 cases were confirmed (total 878).
3 July – 91 cases were confirmed (total 969).
4 July – 34 cases were confirmed (total 1003).
5 July – 52 cases were confirmed (total 1055).
6 July – 56 cases were confirmed (total 1111).
7 July – 106 cases were confirmed (total 1217).
8 July – MOH announced that they ceased recording the number of cases.
8 May – The authorities reported the capture of Mas Selamat bin Kastari, Singapore's Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leader who escaped from Whitley Road Detention Centre on 27 February 2008. He was arrested in Johor, Malaysia on 1 April 2009.[23]
13 May – SingTel launches inSing.com, a lifestyle portal about things in Singapore.[24]
16 May – The first Pink Dot is held to promote love.[25]
19 May – The Ministry of Education announced the setting up of three new education institutions to allow more students to pursue degrees. They are the Singapore Institute of Applied Technology (now known as Singapore Institute of Technology); which will work with foreign universities, Singapore's fourth university and a third medical school in Nanyang Technological University.[26]
20 May – Lee Li Hui, Esther Tan and Jane Lee successfully conquered Mount Everest, followed by Joanne Soo and Lee Peh Gee on 22 May. A sixth member, Sim Yi Hui did not complete the final climb. This makes it Singapore's first all-female team to conquer Mount Everest.[27]
18 August – The Agency for Integrated Care is formed to handle the care sector.
20 August – Two Continuing Education and Training (CET) campuses will be built in Singapore. To be located in Paya Lebar and Jurong, the two campuses will be completed by 2013.[40]
September
10 to 13 September – Singapore participates in the 2009 Asian Youth Para Games held in Tokyo. The final tally was 4 gold medals and 1 silver medal.
11 September – The film Singapore Rebel is allowed with an M18 rating after being previously banned in 2005. This comes after amendments to the Films Act passed earlier in March.[41]
13 September – The Singapore Cable Car is closed for retrofitting and major upgrading.
19 September – City Square Mall is opened to the public as Singapore's first eco mall.[42]
7 and 14 October – Construction Worker Wu Huixin participated and won the $200,000 in the Singaporean Chinese version of the game show Don't Forget the Lyrics!, making Wu the second-known biggest winner in any Singaporean game show history.[45]
16 October – The SDU-SDS entity is now renamed to the Social Development Network (SDN) to effectively encourage marriages. In addition, SDN programmes will be opened to the public, which are previously open to members only.[47]
22 October – A new SAFRA clubhouse is officially opened in Jurong. Also in, plans are unveiled to redevelop and expand the Toa Payoh clubhouse by 2013, as well as a sixth clubhouse in Punggol by 2016 and seventh clubhouse in Choa Chu Kang in 2022.[48]
26 October – A new Zero-Energy Building (ZEB) is launched at the BCA Academy as part of the first Singapore Green Building Week, costing S$11 million. This project makes it the building in Southeast Asia to be retrofitted with green technologies.[50]
