
The 13th Olympic Congress was held between 3–5 October 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark, by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It was held together with the meetings of the Executive Board and the 121st IOC Session.

The 121st International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session was held on October 1–9, 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark, during which Rio de Janeiro was selected as the host city of the 2016 Summer Olympics. The city of Copenhagen was chosen on February 8, 2006 by the 118th IOC Session held in Turin, Italy to stage the 13th Olympic Congress, together with the meetings of the Executive Board and the 121st IOC Session. The other candidates were Athens (Greece), Busan, Cairo (Egypt), Riga (Latvia), Singapore (Singapore), Taipei. Convened on the initiative of President Jacques Rogge, the 13th Olympic Congress brought together all the constituent parties of the Olympic Movement to study and discuss the current functioning of the Movement and define the main development axes for the future.

The 2000 UEFA Cup Final was a football match that took place on 17 May 2000 at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, Denmark to decide the winner of the 1999–2000 UEFA Cup. The game event pitted Galatasaray of Turkey and Arsenal of England, and was the final match of the 1999–2000 season, the 29th final of Europe's second largest club football competition, the UEFA Cup. It was Galatasaray's first appearance in a final of a European tournament and Arsenal's first UEFA Cup final.

The 2002 EHF European Women's Handball Championship was held in Denmark from 6–15 December. It was won by Denmark after beating Norway 25–22 in the final match.

Seven cities submitted bids for 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics on September 13, 2007, aiming to host the Games of the XXXI Olympiad. All of them were recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on September 14, 2007, becoming Applicant cities. Although several cities submitted to be in consideration to host the 2016 Olympics, including New York City and Los Angeles, on June 4, 2008, the IOC Executive Board shortlisted the four strongest bids to become Candidate cities. Those cities were Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo; the decisions were made during a meeting in Athens, Greece. The remaining Applicant cities—Baku, Doha and Prague—were eliminated.

Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions was a conference on Climate Change held at the Bella Center by the University of Copenhagen. The event was organised with the assistance of other universities in the International Alliance of Research Universities. The stated aim of the conference was to provide "a summary of existing scientific knowledge two years after the last IPCC report." The conference took place on 10–12 March 2009.

Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest was a television programme organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to commemorate the Eurovision Song Contest's fiftieth anniversary and to determine the Contest's most popular entrant of its fifty years. Hosted by Katrina Leskanich and Renārs Kaupers, the event took place at Forum, in Copenhagen on 22 October 2005. The host broadcaster was Danmarks Radio (DR). Fourteen songs from the Contest's first half-century, chosen through an internet poll and by a jury, contested the event.
A fan attack occurred at the Euro 2008 qualifying Group F match between the national football teams of Sweden and Denmark, at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen on 2 June 2007. A Danish supporter ran onto the pitch and attacked referee Herbert Fandel, after the referee had awarded Sweden a penalty in the 89th minute of the match and sent off Danish midfielder Christian Poulsen for punching Swedish striker Markus Rosenberg in the stomach.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2001 was the 46th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, following the Olsen Brothers' win at the 2000 contest in Stockholm, Sweden with the song "Fly on the Wings of Love". The hosting marked the second time the contest was held on Danish soil, after the 1964 contest - 37 years earlier. 23 countries took part in the contest, which was held on 12 May 2001. The host venue was the Parken Stadium - the largest venue to ever host the contest as of 2019. A total of 35,000 spectators saw the show live from within the stadium, breaking the record of 16,000 held by the previous year's hosts Sweden.

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2003 was the inaugural edition of the annual Junior Eurovision Song Contest for young singers aged eight to fifteen. It was held on 15 November 2003, in Copenhagen, Denmark. With Camilla Ottesen and Remee as the presenters, the contest was won by the then eleven-year-old Dino Jelušić, who represented Croatia with his song "Ti si moja prva ljubav" while second and third place went to Spain and the United Kingdom respectively. The next time that a country would win on its first attempt was Italy in 2014.

Klimaforum09 - People's Climate Summit, an open and alternative climate conference in December 2009, was attended by about 50,000 people. Environmental activists from regions of the world most affected by climate change convened in Copenhagen at Klimaforum09 with leaders such as Vandana Shiva, founder of Navdanya, Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International, and author Naomi Klein.

The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly known as the Copenhagen Summit, was held at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, between 7 and 18 December. The conference included the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 5th Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. According to the Bali Road Map, a framework for climate change mitigation beyond 2012 was to be agreed there.
The wedding of Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, and Mary Donaldson took place on 14 May 2004 in the Copenhagen Cathedral.