Events

January

• January 1 – A black monolith measuring approximately 9 feet tall appears in Seattle, Washington's Magnuson Park, placed by an anonymous artist in reference to the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

• January 8 – Noah, a gaur, is born, the first individual of an endangered species to be cloned.

• January 11 – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission approves the merger of America Online and Time Warner to form AOL Time Warner.

• January 13 – A 7.6 magnitude earthquake hits all of El Salvador, killing at least 800 people and leaving thousands homeless.

• January 15 – Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, launches on the internet.

• January 16 – US President Bill Clinton awards former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service during the Spanish-American War; 11 of Roosevelt's descendants accept on his behalf.

• January 17 – Impeachment proceedings against Philippine President Joseph Estrada, accused of committing plunder, end prematurely and trigger the second EDSA People Power Revolution or People Power II.

• January 20 – Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is sworn in as the 14th President of the Philippines after the Armed Forces of the Philippines and several cabinet members withdraw support for Joseph Estrada.

• January 20 – George W. Bush succeeds Bill Clinton, becoming the 43rd President of the United States.

• January 22 – Four of the "Texas 7" are caught at a convenience store in Woodland Park, Colorado, and a fifth kills himself inside a motor home.

• January 23–25 – United Nations war crimes prosecutor Del Ponte demands that Serbia hand over Slobodan Milošević.

• January 23 – The Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident occurs.

• January 24 – The last 2 of the "Texas 7" are taken into custody in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

• January 24 – Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Peter Mandelson resigns from the British cabinet for the second time.

• January 25 – A 50-year-old Douglas DC-3 crashes near Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela, killing 24.

• January 26 – An earthquake hits Gujarat, India, killing more than 12,000.

• January 28 – Super Bowl XXXV: The Baltimore Ravens defeat the New York Giants 34–7, winning their first Super Bowl title.

• January 29 – Thousands of student protesters in Indonesia storm parliament and demand that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign due to alleged involvement in corruption scandals.

February

• February 6 – Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon wins election as Prime Minister of Israel.

• February 9 – The submarine USS Greeneville accidentally strikes and sinks the Japanese fishing vessel Ehime-Maru near Hawaii.

• February 12 – The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touches down in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.

• February 13 – A 6.6 magnitude earthquake hits El Salvador, killing at least 400.

• February 16 – Iraq disarmament crisis: British and U.S. forces carry out bombing raids, attempting to disable Iraq's air defense network.

• February 18 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested and charged with spying for Russia for 15 years.

• February 20 – The 2001 UK foot and mouth crisis begins.

• February 28 – The Nisqually Earthquake strikes Seattle, Washington.

March

• March 23 – The Russian space station Mir re-enters the atmosphere near Nadi, Fiji, and falls into the Pacific Ocean.

April

• April 1 – Hainan Island incident: A Chinese fighter jet bumps into a U.S. EP-3E surveillance aircraft, which is forced to make an emergency landing in Hainan, China. The U.S. crew is detained for 10 days and the F-8 Chinese pilot, Wang Wei, goes missing and is presumed dead.

• April 1 – Former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milošević surrenders to police special forces, to be tried on charges of war crimes.

• April 1 – In the Netherlands, the Act on the Opening up of Marriage goes into effect. The Act allows same-sex couples to marry legally for the first time in the world since the reign of Nero.

• April 26 – Junichiro Koizumi becomes Prime Minister of Japan.

• April 28 – Soyuz TM-32 lifts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, carrying the first space tourist, American Dennis Tito.

• April 30 – Blanche Barton, High Priestess of the Church of Satan, steps down and gives her position to Peter H. Gilmore and Peggy Nadramia.

May

• May 1 – The Japanese cities of Urawa, Omiya, and Yono merge to form the city of Saitama.

• May 6 – Space tourist Dennis Tito returns to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-31. (Soyuz TM-32 is left docked at the International Space Station as a new lifeboat.)

• May 7 – In Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, an attempt is made to reconstruct the Ferhadija mosque. However, the ceremony results in mass riots by Serb nationalists, who beat and stone 300 elderly Bosnian Muslims.

• May 13 – Silvio Berlusconi and the Italian House of the Liberties coalition win the general elections.

• May 22 – A large trans-Neptunian object (28978 Ixion) is found during the Deep Ecliptic Survey.

• May 22–23 – The Bahá'í Terraces officially open on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel (site of the Shrine of the Báb and the Bahá'í World Centre).

• May 23 – Bayern München wins the UEFA Champions League.

• May 24 – Sherpa Temba Tsheri, 16, becomes the youngest person to summit Mount Everest.

• May 24 – The Versailles wedding hall disaster kills 23 in Jerusalem, Israel.

June

• June 1 – Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal kills his father, the king, his mother and other members of the royal family with an assault rifle and then shoots himself in the Nepalese royal massacre. Dipendra dies June 4, as King of Nepal. His uncle Gyanendra accedes to the throne.

• June 1 – A Hamas suicide bomber kills 21, mostly teenagers, in the Dolphinarium disco in Tel Aviv, Israel.

• June 5–9 – Tropical Storm Allison produces 36 inches (900 mm) of rain in Houston, Texas, killing 22, damaging the Texas Medical Center, and causing more than 5 billion American dollars of damage overall.

• June 7 – Tony Blair's Labour Party wins the United Kingdom general election.

• June 11 – In Terre Haute, Indiana, Timothy McVeigh is executed for the Oklahoma City bombing.

• June 19 – An American missile hits a soccer field in northern Iraq (Tel Afr County), killing 23 and wounding 11. According to U.S. officials, it was actually an Iraqi missile that malfunctioned.

• June 20 – Pervez Musharraf becomes President of Pakistan after the resignation of Muhammad Rafiq Tarar.

• June 21 – The world's longest train is set up by BHP Iron Ore and is recorded going between Newman and Port Headland in Western Australia (a distance of 275 km, or 170 miles) and the train consists of 682 loaded iron ore wagons and 8 GE AC6000CW locomotives, giving a gross weight of almost 100,000 tonnes and moves 82,262 tonnes of ore; the train is 7.353 km (4.568 miles) long.

• June 23 – An earthquake (7.9 on the Richter scale) hits the south of Peru.

July

• July 2 – The world's first self-contained artificial heart is implanted in Robert Tools.

• July 3 – A Vladivostokavia Tupolev Tu-154 jetliner crashes on approach to landing at Irkutsk, Russia, killing 145.

• July 13 – Beijing wins the bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics.

• July 16 – The People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation sign the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation.

• July 16 – The FBI arrests Dmitry Sklyarov at a convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, for violating a provision of the DMCA.

• July 17 – The Altamira caves's replica (created by Manuel Franquelo and Sven Nebel) is inaugurated.

• July 18 – In Baltimore, Maryland, a 60-car train derailment occurs in a tunnel, sparking a fire that lasts days and virtually shuts down downtown Baltimore.

• July 19 – UK politician and novelist Jeffrey Archer is sentenced to 4 years in prison for perjury and perverting the course of justice.

• July 20 – Vanessa Legget is found in contempt by a Federal Court for refusing to release notes made for her book on the Doris Angleton murder.

• July 20–22 – The 27th G8 summit takes place in Genoa, Italy. Massive demonstrations are held against the meeting by anti-globalisation groups. One demonstrator, Carlo Giuliani, is shot dead by a carabiniere. Several others are badly injured during a police attack on a school used by the protesters as their headquarters.

• July 24 – Tamil Tigers attack Bandaranaika International Airport in Sri Lanka, causing an estimated $500 million of damages.

• July 28 – Alejandro Toledo is sworn in as the new president of Peru, 8 months after a vote of no-confidence in former President Alberto Fujimori.

August

• August 1 – Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has a 2½ ton monument of the Ten Commandments installed in the Rotunda of the Judiciary Building. He is later sued to have it removed, and eventually removed from office.

• August 9 – U.S. President George W. Bush announces his limited support for federal funding of research on embryonic stem cells.

• August 9 – In the Comoros, the "Military Committee" of Major Mohamad Bacar seizes power in the island of Anjouan, which had declared independence. They plan to rejoin the Comoros.

• August 24 – The Heino murders in Finland: 4 teenagers assassinate businessman Martti Heino and his wife Elise.

September

• September 1 – The libertarian Free State Project is founded at Yale University.

• September 5 – Peru's attorney general files homicide charges against ex-President Alberto Fujimori.

• September 6 – United States v. Microsoft: The United States Justice Department announces that it no longer seeks to break up software maker Microsoft, and will instead seek a lesser antitrust penalty.

• September 9 – 68 people die in Estonia after drinking bootleg alcohol that contains methanol.

• September 9 – A suicide bomber kills Ahmed Shah Massoud, military commander of the Afghan Northern Alliance.

• September 10 – Norwegian parliamentary election, 2001: Kjell Magne Bondevik returns to power as head of a conservative coalition.

September 11, 2001 attacks

• September 11 – Almost 3,000 are killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks at the World Trade Center in New York City; the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia; and in rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania after American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 crash into the World Trade Center's Twin Towers, American Airlines Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon, and United Airlines Flight 93 crashes into a grassland in Shanksville.

• September 12 – Israel sends tanks into Jericho, West Bank, starting a new military operation.

• September 15 – The Queen Isabella Causeway in Texas collapses after being hit by a tugboat, killing 8.

• September 18 – The 2001 anthrax attacks commence as letters containing anthrax spores are mailed from Princeton, New Jersey to ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, the New York Post, and the National Enquirer. 22 in total are exposed; 5 of them die.

• September 21 – The AZote Fertilisant chemical factory in Toulouse, France explodes, killing 29 and seriously wounding over 2,500.

October

• October 4 – Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 crashes over the Black Sea en route from Tel Aviv, Israel to Novosibirsk, Russia; 78 are killed.

• October 7 – War in Afghanistan (2001–present): The United States invades Afghanistan, with participation from other nations.

• October 8 – Flight SK686 of SAS collides first with a private plane and then a building in Milano Airport; 100 are killed.

• October 9 – The 2001 anthrax attacks continue as contaminated letters are mailed from Princeton, New Jersey, to U.S. Senators Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Patrick Leahy of Vermont.

• October 15 – NASA's Galileo spacecraft passes within 112 miles of Jupiter's moon Io.

• October 19 – SIEV-X sinks en route to Christmas Island.

• October 26 – U.S. President George W. Bush signs the USA PATRIOT Act into law.

November

Soldiers board a Chinook helicopter.

• November – The Doha Declaration relaxes the grip of international intellectual property law.

• November 2 – The Glocal Forum, leading international organization in the field of city-to-city cooperation, is established by Ambassador Uri Savir.

• November 4 – Hurricane Michelle hits Cuba, destroying crops and thousands of homes.

• November 4 – The Police Service of Northern Ireland is established, replacing the controversial Royal Ulster Constabulary.

• November 10 – The People's Republic of China is admitted to the World Trade Organization after 15 years of negotiations.

• November 10 – Australian Prime Minister John Howard is elected to a third term.

• November 10 – Heavy rains and mudslides in Algeria kill more than 900.

• November 12 – In New York City, American Airlines Flight 587, headed to the Dominican Republic, crashes in Queens minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 on board.

• November 13 – Doha Round: The World Trade Organization ends a 4-day ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar.

• November 13 – Symbionese Liberation Army member Kathleen Soliah (Sara Jane Olsen) withdraws her previous guilty plea.

• November 13 – In the first such act since World War II, U.S. President George W. Bush signs an executive order allowing military tribunals against any foreigners suspected of having connections to terrorist acts or planned acts against the United States.

December

• December 2 – Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection 5 days after Dynegy cancels a US$8.4 billion buyout bid (to that point, the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history).

• December 3 – Officials announce that one of the Taliban prisoners captured after the prison uprising at Mazari Sharif, Afghanistan is John Walker Lindh, an American citizen.

• December 11 – The United States government indicts Zacarias Moussaoui for involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

• December 11 – Law enforcement raid members of DrinkOrDie in Operation Buccaneer.

• December 12 – Roy Whiting is found guilty of murdering Sarah Payne at Lewes Crown Court. The trial judge recommends that Whiting should never be released.

• December 13 – The Parliament of India is attacked; 14 are killed. This brings India and Pakistan to the brink of war.

• December 13 – U.S. President George W. Bush announces the United States' withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

• December 22 – Hamid Karzai is sworn in as head of the interim government in Afghanistan.

• December 22 – A Paris–Miami, Florida flight is diverted to Boston, Massachusetts after passenger Richard Reid attempts to set his shoe, filled with explosives, on fire.

• December 27 – The People's Republic of China is granted permanent normal trade status with the United States.

• December 27 – Typhoon Vamei forms within 1.5 degrees of the equator. No other tropical cyclone in recorded history has come as close to the equator.

Births

• October 7 – Princess Senate Seeiso, daughter of King Letsie III of Lesotho

• October 25 – Princess Elisabeth of Belgium, daughter of Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant

• December 1 – Aiko, Princess Toshi of Japan

Deaths

January

• January 12 – William Reddington Hewlett, American businessman (b. 1913)

• January 16 – Laurent-Désiré Kabila, president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (b. 1939)

• January 27 – Marie-José of Belgium, last Queen of Italy (b. 1906)

• January 31 – Gordon R. Dickson, Canadian writer (b. 1923)

February

• February 4 – Iannis Xenakis, Greek composer (b. 1922)

• February 9 – Herbert Simon, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1916)

• February 18 – Balthus, French painter (b. 1908)

• February 18 – Dale Earnhardt, American auto racing driver (b. 1951)

• February 19 – Stanley Kramer, American film director (b. 1913)

• February 19 – Charles Trenet, French singer (b. 1913)

• February 24 – Claude Elwood Shannon, American mathematician (b. 1916)

• February 25 – Sir Donald Bradman, Australian cricketer (b. 1908)

March

• March 12 – Robert Ludlum, American author (b. 1927)

• March 18 – John Phillips, American singer (b. 1935)

• March 22 – William Hanna, American animation studio executive (b. 1910)

• March 31 – Clifford Shull, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1915)

April

• April 7 – David Graf, American actor (b. 1950)

• April 15 – Joey Ramone, American musician and singer (b. 1951)

• April 20 – Giuseppe Sinopoli, Italian conductor and composer (b. 1946)

• April 29 – Barend Biesheuvel, Dutch politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1971 until 1973 (b. 1920)

May

• May 11 – Douglas Adams, English author (b. 1952)

• May 12 – Perry Como, American singer (b. 1912)

• May 13 – R. K. Narayan, Indian novelist (b. 1906)

• May 24 – Javier Urruticoechea, Spanish footballer (b. 1952)

June

• June 1 – King Birendra of Nepal (b. 1945)

• June 3 – Anthony Quinn, Mexican-American actor (b. 1915)

• June 4 – King Dipendra of Nepal (b. 1971)

• June 7 – Víctor Paz Estenssoro, President of Bolivia (b. 1907)

• June 11 – Timothy McVeigh, American convicted murderer (b. 1968)

• June 17 – Donald J. Cram, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1919)

• June 21 – John Lee Hooker, American musician (b. 1917)

• June 27 – Tove Jansson, Finnish author (b. 1914)

• June 27 – Jack Lemmon, American actor and director (b. 1925)

• June 28 – Joan Sims, English actress (b. 1930)

• June 28 – Mortimer Adler, American philosopher (b. 1902)

• June 30 – Chet Atkins, American guitarist and record producer (b. 1924)

July

• July 1 – Nikolay Basov, Soviet physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1922)

• July 11 – Gaspare di Mercurio, Italian doctor and author (b. 1926)

• July 29 – Edward Gierek, Polish politician (b. 1913)

August

• August 1 – Poul Anderson, American author (b. 1926)

• August 6 – Jorge Amado, Brazilian writer (b. 1912)

• August 20 – Fred Hoyle, British astronomer and writer (b. 1915)

• August 25 – Ken Tyrrell, British auto racing driver (b.1924)

• August 25 – Aaliyah, American singer and actress (b. 1979)

September

• September 2 – Christiaan Barnard, South African surgeon (b. 1922)

• September 9 – Ahmed Shah Massoud, Afghan military commander (b. 1953)

• September 11 – Mohamed Atta, Egyptian-born airline hijacker (b. 1968)

• September 11 – Ziad Jarrah, Lebanese-born airline hijacker (b. 1975)

• September 22 – Isaac Stern, Ukrainian violinist (b. 1920)

October

• October 7 – Herblock, American editorial cartoonist (b. 1909)

• October 15 – Zhang Xueliang, Chinese military figure (b. 1901)

November

• November 10 – Ken Kesey, American author (b. 1935)

• November 24 – Melanie Thornton, American-born singer (b. 1967)

• November 24 – Rachel Gurney, British actress (b. 1920)

• November 25 – Gohar Shahi, Pakistani spiritual leader (b. 1941)

• November 29 – George Harrison, English musician (b. 1943)

December

• December 12 – Josef Bican, Austrian footballer (b. 1913)

• December 13 – Chuck Schuldiner, American singer and guitarist (b. 1967)

• December 20 – Léopold Sédar Senghor, First president of Senegal (b. 1906)

• December 22 – Grzegorz Ciechowski, Polish musician (b. 1957)

• December 23 – Jelle Zijlstra, Dutch politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1966 until 1967 (b. 1918)

• December 26 – Nigel Hawthorne, British actor (b. 1929)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Eric Allin Cornell, Wolfgang Ketterle, Carl Edwin Wieman

• Chemistry – William S. Knowles, Ryoji Noyori, K. Barry Sharpless

• Medicine – Leland H. Hartwell, R. Timothy Hunt, Paul M. Nurse

• Literature – V.S. Naipaul

• Peace – United Nations, Kofi Annan

• Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel – George A. Akerlof, Michael Spence, Joseph E. Stiglitz

Templeton Prize

• Rev. Canon Dr. Arthur Peacocke