2002

2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. It was designated:

International Year of Ecotourism and Mountains
National Science Year in the United Kingdom
Autism Awareness Year in the United Kingdom

Years: 1999 2000 2001 - 2002 - 2003 2004 2005
Decades: 1970s 1980s 1990s - 2000s - 2010s 2020s 2030s
Centuries: 20th century - 21st century - 22nd century

Events

January

January 1 -
- Introduction of euro banknotes and coins in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, and Portugal.
- The Open Skies mutual surveillance treaty, initially signed in 1992, officially enters in to force.
January 5 - Charles Bishop, a 15 year-old student pilot, crashes a light aircraft into a Tampa, Florida building, evoking fear of a copycat 9/11 terrorist attack.
January 9 - The United States Department of Justice announces it is going to pursue a criminal investigation of Enron.
January 10 - Enrique Bolaños began his five-year term as President of the Republic of Nicaragua.
January 13 - President George W. Bush faints after choking on a pretzel.
January 16 -
- A student shoots 6 people at the Appalachian School of Law, killing three.
- John Ashcroft announces that American Taliban member John Walker Lindh would be tried in the United States.
- The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaida, and the Taliban.
January 17 - Eruption of Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people.
January 18 - A Canadian Pacific Railway train carrying anhydrous ammonia derails outside of Minot, North Dakota, killing one.
January 22 -
- AOL Time Warner brings a federal suit against Microsoft seeking damages. The suit alleges that the market for AOL's Netscape Navigator Internet browser was harmed when Microsoft started to give away a competing browser.
- Kmart Corp becomes the largest retailer in American history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
January 27 - Several explosions at a military dump in Lagos, Nigeria kill more than 1,000.

February

February 3 - Costa Rica: elections for President and Congress
February 8 through February 24 - 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah
February 12
- The trial of former President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic begins at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague
- Nuclear waste: US Secretary of Energy makes the decision that Yucca Mountain is suitable to be the United States' nuclear repository.
February 13 - Queen Elizabeth II gives former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani an honorary knighthood.
February 19 - NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of using its thermal emission imaging system.
February 20 - In Reqa Al-Gharbiya, Egypt, a fire on a train injures over 65 and kills at least 370
February 22 - Norwegian-facilitated ceasefire begins in Sri Lanka
February 27 - Ethnic conflict in India: 59 Hindu pilgrims die aboard a train burned by a Muslim mob in Godhra, India, sparking a series of riots, leaving hundreds dead.

March

March 1
- U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: In eastern Afghanistan, Operation Anaconda begins.
- 28 people die in continuing violence in Ahmedabad. Police shoot and kill five while attempting to control rioters.
- The Envisat environmental satellite successfully reaches an orbit 800km above the Earth on its 11th launch, carrying the heaviest payload to date at 8500kg.
- Space Shuttle Columbia flies Hubble Space Telescope service mission (STS-109).
- Peseta discontinued as official currency of Spain and is replaced with the euro (€)
March 3 - São Tomé and Príncipe: elections for the legislature
March 6 - France agrees to return the remains of Saartje Baartman to South Africa
March 10 - Colombia: elections for the legislature; Togo: elections for the Parliament
March 12 - In Texas, Andrea Yates is found guilty of drowning her five children on June 20, 2001. She is later sentenced to life in prison
March 17 - Portugal: elections for the Parliament
March 19 - US Attack on Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda ends (started on March 1) after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters with 11 allied troop fatalities
March 21 - In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh along with three other suspects are charged with murder for their part in the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl
March 31 - Ukraine: elections for the Parliament

April

April 2 - Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where Palestinian terrorists are holding around 200 hostages. A siege ensues.
April 15 - An Air China Boeing 767-200 crashes into a hillside during heavy rain and fog near Pusan, South Korea, killing 128.
April 17 - Four Canadian infantrymen are killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire from two U.S. F-16s.
April 18 - New order of insects, Mantophasmatodea, announced.
April 25 - South African Mark Shuttleworth blasts off from the Baikonur cosmodrome; he had paid £15 million for the trip.
April 26 - Robert Steinhauser opens fire on his former teachers and other students in Erfurt, Germany and then kills himself: 16 dead.
April 30 - Pakistan: Pakistani voters approve a referendum granting a five-year term for Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf.

May

The Flag of East Timor

May 4 - In Germany, BV Borussia Dortmund wins the Bundesliga title after a 2-1 victory over SV Werder Bremen.
May 6 - In the Netherlands, politician Pim Fortuyn is killed by Volkert van der Graaf.
May 7 - Gay Canadian teenager Marc Hall is granted a court injunction ordering that he be allowed to attend his high school prom with his boyfriend.
May 9 -
- The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem comes to an end when the Palestinians inside agreed to have 13 suspected militants among them deported to several different countries. The standoff started April 2.
- In Kaspiysk, Russia, a remote-control bomb explodes during a holiday parade, killing 43 and injuring at least 130.
May 10 - FBI agent Robert Hanssen is sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for selling American secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.
May 12 - Former President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro becoming the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro's 1959 revolution.
May 15 - The Netherlands: elections for the Lower House
May 20 - Restoration of East Timor independence
May 22 -
- In Washington, DC, Chandra Levy's remains are found in Rock Creek Park.
- American civil rights movement: 16th Street Baptist Church bombing: A jury in Birmingham, Alabama convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls.
May 23 - First Eurovision Song Contest in a former Soviet country: Estonia
May 25 - A China Airlines Boeing 747-200 breaks apart in mid-air and plunges into the Taiwan Strait, killing 225.
May 26 - The Mars Odyssey finds signs of huge water ice deposits on the planet Mars.
May 28 - Washington DC's medical examiner declares that Chandra Levy's death was the result of homicide.
May 31 through June 30 - 17th Football World Cup in south korea and japan

June

June 3 - The "Party in the Palace" takes place at Buckingham Palace, London for Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee celebrations.
June 4 -
- Quaoar is discovered.
- Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh ride in the gold state coach from Buckingham Palace to St Paul's Cathedral for a special service marking the Queen's 50 years on the throne. In New York, the Empire State Building is lit in purple for her honour.
June 5 -
- Elizabeth Smart is kidnapped from her Salt Lake City, Utah home.
- Mozilla 1.0, the first 'official' version, is released.
June 6 - The United States House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee announces it is probing Martha Stewart's ImClone stock sales.
June 10 - Annular solar eclipse.
June 11 - Antonio Meucci was recognised as the first inventor of the telephone by the United States Congress
June 13 - The Detroit Red Wings def the Carolina Hurricanes 4 games to 1 in the 2002 Stanley Cup Finals
June 14 - In Karachi, Pakistan, a car bomb in front of the U.S. consulate kills twelve Pakistanis and injures fifty.
June 18 - Arizona experiences its worst forest fire, burning 462,606 acres (1,872 km²) near the Mogollon Rim.
June 30 - Brazil defeats Germany to win the Football World Cup 2002.

July

July 1 - Russian passenger jet and a cargo plane collide over the town of Uberlingen in Southern Germany - 72 dead
July 5 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq once again rejects new U.N. weapons inspections proposals
July 10 - At a Sotheby's auction, Peter Paul Rubens' painting "The Massacre of the Innocents" is sold for £49.5million (US$76.2 million) to Lord Thomson
July 13 - A lighting strike sets off the Sour Biscuit Fire in Oregon and northern California, which is left to burn 499,570 acres (2,022 km²) when finally contained on September 5.
July 14 - During Bastille Day celebrations, Jacques Chirac escapes an assassination attempt unscathed.
July 15 - So-called "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh pleads guilty to supplying aid to the enemy and for the possession of explosives during the commission of a felony. Lindh agrees to serve 10 years in prison for each of the charges
July 19 - K-19: The Widowmaker starring Harrison Ford is released.
July 21 - Telecommunications giant WorldCom files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the largest such filing in United States history
July 27 - A Sukhoi Su-27 fighter crashes at an air show in Ukraine killing 78 and injuring more than 100 others, the largest air show disaster in history.

August

August 2 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq invites chief weapons inspector Hans Blix to Iraq for discussions on remaining disarmament issues.
August 6 - Marquis de la Fayette is made Honorary Citizen of the United States.
August 13 - Human Rights Campaign released the first Corporate Equality Index.
August 19 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The U.N. Secretary General rejects Iraq's August 2 proposal as the "wrong work program", and instead recommends that Iraq allow weapons inspectors to return to the country, in accordance with previous U.N. resolutions.

September

September 2 - The opening of the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development, successor of the 1972 Conference on the Human Environment, 1983 World Commission on Environment and Development, and the 1992 Conference on Environment and Development.
September 5 -
- A car bomb kills at least 30 people in Afghanistan, and an apparent assassination attempt on Afghan President Hamid Karzai fails the same day.
- The Sour Biscuit Fire in Oregon and northern California, which burned 499,570 acres (2,022 km²), is finally contained.
September 11 - The World Summit on Sustainable Development comes to a close.
September 12 - Iraq disarmament crisis: U.S. President George W. Bush, addresses the U.N. and challenges its members to confront the "grave and gathering danger" of Iraq or stand aside as the United States and likeminded nations act.
September 15 - The Swedish parliamentary election leaves Prime Minister Göran Persson and the Social Democrats in power.
September 22 - The German federal election leaves Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, his Social Democrats and the the Greens in power

October

October 2 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The U.S. Congress passes a joint resolution which explicitly authorizes the President to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate.
October 7 - Discovery of Quaoar is announced.
October 11 - Lone bomber explodes a home-made bomb in the Myyrmanni shopping mall north of Helsinki, Finland - casualties include himself. See Myyrmanni bombing.
October 12 - Bali bombing: Terrorists detonate massive bombs in two nightclubs in Kuta, Bali, killing 202 and injuring over 300.
October 16 - Iraq disarmament crisis: George W. Bush signs the Iraq war resolution.
October 24 - The Beltway snipers are arrested.
October 25 - U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, his family and staff, are killed by a plane accident at Eveleth, Minnesota.

November

November 5 - U.S. Elections: The Republican Party maintains control of the House of Representatives and regains control of the Senate.
November 7 - Iran bans advertising of US products.
November 8 - Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council Resolution 1441 – The United Nations Security Council unanimously approves a resolution on Iraq, forcing Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences".
November 9 - In Los Angeles, California, television and film actor Merlin Santana is shot to death while sitting in the passenger seat of a friend's car parked on the 3800 block of Victoria Avenue.
November 13
- Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq agrees to the terms of the UN Security Council Resolution 1441.
- The oil tanker Prestige sinks off the Galician coast and causes a huge oil spill.
November 14 - Argentina defaults on a US$805 million World Bank payment
November 15 - Hu Jintao becomes general secretary of the Communist Party of China.
November 16 - A Campaign Against Climate Change march takes place in London from Lincoln's Inn Fields, past Esso offices to the United States Embassy.
November 18 - Iraq disarmament crisis: United Nations weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq.
November 21 - NATO invites Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to become members.
November 22 - In Nigeria, more than 100 people are killed at an attack aimed at the contestants of the Miss World contest.
November 25 - US President George W. Bush signs the Homeland Security Act into law, establishing the Department of Homeland Security in the largest US government reorganization since the creation of the Department of Defense in 1947 (the Senate passed the bill 90-9 on November 19).

December

December 4 - Total solar eclipse
December 7 - Iraq disarmament crisis: As required by the recently passed U.N. resolution, Iraq files a 12,000 page weapons declaration with the U.N. Security Council. Although it is supposed to be a complete declaration, it is seen as incomplete by the Security Council and weapons inspectors.
December 10 - High Court of Australia hands down its judgement in the Internet defamation dispute in the case of Gutnick v. Dow Jones.
December 27 - Suicide truck-bomb attack destroys headquarters of Chechnya's Moscow-backed government, killing 72 people.
December 29 – Communist New People's Army blows up a bust of Ferdinand Marcos in Benguet, Philippines.

Deaths

For more deaths see: Deaths in 2002

January

January 3 - Freddy Heineken, beer magnate (b. 1923)
January 8 - Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's International (b. 1932)
January 12:
- Stanley Unwin, comedian
- Cyrus Vance, former United States Secretary of State (1977-1980) (b. 1917)
January 13 - Ted Demme, film and television director (b. 1963)
January 16:
- Michael Bilandic, mayor of Chicago, Illinois (b. 1923)
- Bobo Olson, American boxer
- Ron Taylor, American actor
January 22 - Peggy Lee, American singer, actress
January 23:
- Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist (b. 1930)
- Robert Nozick, philosopher (b. 1938)
January 28:
- Dick "Night Train" Lane, American football, NFL Hall of Famer
- Astrid Lindgren, Swedish children's book author (b. 1907)
January 29 - Harold Russell, actor
January 29 or January 30 - Daniel Pearl, journalist (b. 1963) (beheaded in Pakistan)

February

February 6 - Max Perutz, founder of molecular biology (b. 1914)
February 8 - Joachim Hoffmann, German historian (b. 1930)
February 9 - The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, sister of Queen Elizabeth II of England (b. 1930)
February 10 - Harold Furth, American leader in plasma physics and nuclear fusion
February 11 - Barry Foster , British actor
February 12 - Theresa Ferber Bernstein , artist
February 14 - Nándor Hidegkuti, Hungarian footballer (b. 1922)
February 15:
- Howard K. Smith, American TV journalist (b. 1914)
- Kevin Smith, actor (b. 1963)
February 16 - Walter Winterbottom, the first England football manager (b. 1913)
February 21 - John Thaw, actor (b. 1942)
February 22:
- Sir Raymond Firth , British anthropologist
- Chuck Jones, American animator
- Jonas Savimbi, rebel leader
February 24 - Leo Ornstein, composer and pianist (b. 1912)
February 26 - Lawrence Tierney, actor
February 27:
- Spike Milligan, comedian, writer, poet (b. 1918)
- Mary Stuart, soap opera actress
February 28 - Helmut Zacharias, German violinist (b. 1920)

March

March 1 - Doreen Waddell , vocalist of bands Soul II Soul and KLF
March 14 - Cherry Wilder, author (b. 1930)
March 15 - Sylvester Weaver , television executive
March 18 - Gösta Winbergh , tenor
March 25 - Kenneth Wolstenholme, British football commentator
March 27:
- Milton Berle, comedian, actor (b. 1908)
- Dudley Moore, comedian, actor(b. 1935)
- Billy Wilder, film screenwriter and director (b. 1906)
March 30 - HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother of England (b. 1900)
March 31 - Barry Took, British comedian and writer

April

April 5 - Layne Staley, singer with band Alice in Chains
April 8 - Maria Felix, Mexican actress
April 9 - Leopold Vietoris, Austrian mathematician
April 15 - Byron White, US athlete and Supreme Court justice
April 16:
- Franz Krienbühl, Swiss speed skater
- Robert Urich, actor (cancer)
April 18:
- Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian anthropologist
- Wahoo McDaniel, American football player, wrestler (b. 1938)
April 25:
- Indra Devi, yoga teacher to the stars
- Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, rapper, member TLC
April 27:
- George Alec Effinger, science fiction author (b. 1947)
- Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, Swiss industrialist and art collector
April 28:
- Ruth Handler, inventor of the Barbie doll (b. 1916)
- Alexander Lebed, Russian general and politician (b. 1950)

May

May 5 - Hugo Bánzer Suarez , President of Bolivia
May 6 - Pim Fortuyn, Dutch politician (assassinated)
May 7 - Seattle Slew, American thoroughbred racehorse
May 11 - Joseph Bonanno, Sicilian Mafia boss
May 13 - Valeri Lobanovsky, Ukrainian football manager
May 19 - John Gorton, nineteenth Prime Minister of Australia
May 20 - Stephen Jay Gould, paleontologist and author (b. 1941)
May 21 - Niki de Saint Phalle, French artist (b. 1930)
May 23 - Sam Snead, American golfer
May 26 - Mamo Wolde, Ethiopian marathon runner (b. 1932)
May 28 - Jean Berger, German-born composer (b. 1909)

June

June 1 - Hansie Cronje, South African cricketer (b. 1969)
June 4 - Fernando Belaunde Terry, Peruvian politician, president of Peru (1963-1968) (1980-1985)
June 5 - Dee Dee Ramone, founding member of The Ramones (b. 1952)
June 6 - Hans Janmaat, controversial far-right politician in the Netherlands
June 7 - Mary Lilian Baels, Princess of Rethy, Belgium
June 10 - John Gotti, imprisoned mobster
June 11 - Robbin Crosby, guitarist of rock band Ratt
June 12 - Bill Blass, fashion designer
June 17:
- Willie Davenport, Olympic Games champion
- Fritz Walter, football player, captain of 1954 World Cup winners.
June 18 - Jack Buck, Major League Baseball announcer
June 22:
- Esther Pauline Friedman, author of the Ann Landers column
- Darryl Kile, Major League Baseball player
June 23 - Pedro 'El Rockero' Alcazar, Panamian boxer
June 24 - Pierre Werner, former Prime Minister of Luxembourg, "father of the euro"
June 26 - Jay Berwanger, college football player, first winner of the Heisman Trophy
June 27 - John Entwistle, bassist for The Who
June 29 - Rosemary Clooney, singer, actress

July

July 4 - Benjamin O. Davis Jr., African-American general
July 5:
- Katy Jurado, actress
- Ted Williams, Baseball Hall of Fame member
July 6 - John Frankenheimer, film director
July 8 - Ward Kimball, Disney animator
July 9:
- Laurence Janifer, science fiction writer
- Rod Steiger, actor
July 13 - Yousuf Karsh, celebrity portrait photographer
July 14 - Joaquín Balaguer, Dominican politician, president of Dominican Republic (1960-1962, 1966-1978, 1986-1996)
July 16 - John Cocke, key figure in the development of RISC architecture
July 19 - Alan Lomax, documenter of blues and folk songs
July 23:
- Leo McKern, actor
- William Pierce, rocket scientist, neo-Nazi, author
- Chaim Potok, author

August

August 4 - Carmen Silvera, British actress
August 4 - (approximate date) Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, child-murder victims
August 5:
- Josh Ryan Evans, actor (b. 1982)
- Chick Hearn, pro-basketball announcer
August 6 - Edsger Dijkstra, computer scientist
August 12 - Enos Slaughter, baseball Hall of Famer
August 14 - Dave Williams, the singer of Drowning Pool (found dead on the band's tour bus)
August 16 - Abu Nidal, Palestinian terrorist
August 23 - Hoyt Wilhelm, Baseball Hall of Fame member
August 25 - Dorothy Hewett, Australian poet, playwright and novelist
August 27 - Richard Ricci, Utah handyman and religious fanatic suspected of kidnapping 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart
August 31 - Lionel Hampton, American jazz musician

Nobel Prizes

Peace: Jimmy Carter, 39th US president "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."
Literature: Imre Kertész, Hungarian writer "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history".
Chemistry:
- John B. Fenn (Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, USA) and Koichi Tanaka (Shimadzu Corp. , Kyoto, Japan) "for their development of soft desorption ionisation methods for mass spectrometric analyses of biological macromolecules"
- Kurt Wüthrich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zürich, Switzerland and The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, USA) "for his development of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for determining the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules in solution"
Physics:
- Raymond Davis Jr. (Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA) and Masatoshi Koshiba (International Center for Elementary Particle Physics, University of Tokyo, Japan) "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos"
- Riccardo Giacconi (Associated Universities Inc., Washington DC, USA) "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, which have led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources"
Physiology or Medicine:
- Sydney Brenner, H. Robert Horvitz and John E. Sulston "for their discoveries concerning genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death"
Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
- Daniel Kahneman, Vernon L. Smith