text: AD 2 - Vonones I, who had been installed as king of the Parthian Empire after a period of exile in Rome, was deposed by the Mahestan, the Parthian noble council. His Romanized policies and mannerisms were unpopular among the Parthian aristocracy, prompting the council to replace him with Artabanus III, a more traditional Parthian ruler.

source_section: Events › Persia


year_label: 2 CE

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: AD 2 – Maison Carrée, Nîmes, France, is built.

source_section: Events › Roman Empire


section: Science & Discovery

text: AD 2 – The first census is concluded in China after having begun the year before: final numbers show a population of nearly 60 million (59,594,978 people in slightly more than 12 million households). The census is one of the most accurate surveys in Chinese history.

source_section: Events › China


section: Culture & Society

text: AD 2 – Wang Mang begins a program of personal aggrandizement, restoring marquess titles to past imperial princes and introducing a pension system for retired officials. Restrictions are placed on the Emperor's mother, Consort Wei and members of the Wei Clan.


section: Births

text: AD 2 – Deng Yu, Chinese general and statesman (d. AD 58)

source_section: Births


section: Deaths

text: AD 2 – Gaius Marcius Censorinus, Roman consul (approximate date)

source_section: Deaths


text: AD 2 – Following the death of Lucius Caesar, Augustus allows his stepson Tiberius back into Rome as a private citizen, after six years of enforced retirement on Rhodes.


year_label: 20 CE

section: Crime & Justice

text: Emperor Tiberius is forced to order an investigation and a public trial in the Roman Senate, for the murder of Germanicus. Fearing he will be found guilty, Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso commits suicide.

source_section: Events › 20 AD › Roman Empire


text: Galba, the future emperor, is a Roman praetor.


text: Amanitore, Nubian Queen Regnant of the Kushitic Kingdom of Meroë

source_section: Deaths › 20 AD


text: Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, Roman statesman and governor of Syria (b. 44 BC)


text: Vipsania Agrippina, wife of Gaius Asinius Gallus and former wife of Tiberius (b. 36 BC)


section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: The province of Numidia is taken from the African proconsul, and made an Imperial province.

source_section: Events › By place › Roman Empire


text: Rudrasena I, Saka ruler of the Western Satrap dynasty, becomes king of Malwa in Classical India.

source_section: Events › By place › India


date: September

section: Conflict & Security

text: September-November - Battle of Guandu: Chinese warlord Cao Cao defeats his rival Yuan Shao.

source_section: Events › By place › China


text: In Jiaozhi (present-day northern Vietnam), a rebellion broke out among the locals, who killed Inspector Zhu Fu due to his corruption.


section: Exploration & Expansion

text: Emperor Septimius Severus visits the provinces of Syria, Palestine, and Arabia.


section: Religion & Belief

text: Brahmanism evolves into Hinduism (approximate date).

source_section: Events › By topic › Religion


section: Health & Medicine

text: Human population reaches about 257 million.

source_section: Events › By place › World


text: In Japan, Himiko, whose capital is situated in Yamatai, extends her authority over a number of clans.

source_section: Events › By place › Japan


text: The Severan Tondo, depicting Septimius Severus, Julia Domna and their children Geta and Caracalla, from Fayum, Egypt, is made. It is now kept at Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Antikensammlung.

source_section: Events › By topic › Art


text: Clement of Alexandria denounces the use of musical instruments instead of human voices in Christian music.


section: Climate & Environment

text: The Paracas culture in the Andes ends (around this year).

source_section: Events › By place › America


text: The Classic Age of Maya civilization begins (around this year).


text: Novatian, Roman antipope and theologian (d. 258)


text: Valerian I, Roman emperor (d. 260/264)


text: Diophantus, Greek mathematician and writer


text: Marcus Claudius Tacitus, Roman emperor (d. 276)


text: Cyprian, Roman bishop and writer (d. 258)


text: Zhang Changpu, Chinese concubine (d. 257)


text: Tian Feng, Chinese official, adviser and politician


text: Quintus Aemilius Saturninus, Roman prefect


text: Emperor Chūai of Japan, according to legend


text: Zheng Xuan, Chinese philosopher and writer (b. 127)


text: Sun Ce, Chinese general and warlord (b. 175)


text: Ju Shou, Chinese adviser and politician


text: Gan Ji, Chinese Taoist priest and writer


text: Xu Gong, Chinese official, administrator and warlord


date: March 26

text: March 26 – 2000 Russian presidential election: Vladimir Putin is elected President of Russia.

source_section: Events › March


date: June 10

text: June 10–July 2 – Belgium and the Netherlands jointly host the UEFA Euro 2000 football tournament, which is won by France.

source_section: Events › June


date: July 2

text: July 2 – Vicente Fox of the National Action Party (PAN) is elected President of Mexico, becoming the first president not from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) since 1929.

source_section: Events › July


date: August 23

text: August 23 – The state funeral of Abulfaz Elchibey, the second President of Azerbaijan, takes place in Baku.

source_section: Events › August


date: October 22

text: October 22 – Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong formally negotiate a Japan-Singapore Economic Agreement for a New Age Partnership (JSEPA).

source_section: Events › October


date: November 7

text: November 7 – 2000 United States presidential election: No winner can be declared, prompting a controversial recount in Florida.

source_section: Events › November


date: November 12

text: November 12 – The United States recognizes the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Alberto Fujimori, President of Peru, faxes his resignation from a hotel room in Japan, having fled Peru after facing corruption charges. Fujimori would be officially removed from office by Congress on the 22nd.


date: December 12

text: December 12 – Bush v. Gore: The United States Supreme Court rules that the recount of the 2000 presidential election in Florida should be halted and the original results be certified, thus making George W. Bush the winner of the U.S. presidential election.

source_section: Events › December


date: February 5

text: February 5 – Second Chechen War: Novye Aldi massacre – Russian forces summarily execute 56–60 civilians in a suburb of Grozny.

source_section: Events › February


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Second Chechen War: Battle of Grozny (1999–2000) ends as Russian forces conclude capture of the Chechen capital Grozny.


date: May 24

text: May 24 – Real Madrid C.F. defeats Valencia CF 3–0 in the UEFA Champions League Final at Stade de France to win their second title between 1998 and 2002, and their eighth overall.

source_section: Events › May


date: July 11

text: July 11–25 – A summit meeting takes place at Camp David between United States president Bill Clinton, Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat, ending without an agreement.


date: September 6

text: September 6 – The last wholly Swedish-owned arms manufacturer, Bofors, is sold to American arms manufacturer United Defense.

source_section: Events › September


date: September 7

text: September 7–14 – Fuel protests in the United Kingdom, with refineries blockaded and supply to the country's network of petrol stations halted.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon visits the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem, sparking an uprising that becomes the Second Intifada.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Mass demonstrations in Belgrade lead to resignation of Yugoslavia's president Slobodan Milošević.


date: November 2

text: November 2 – Expedition 1 to the International Space Station begins.


date: March 12

text: March 12 – Pope John Paul II apologizes for the wrongdoings by members of the Roman Catholic Church throughout the ages.


date: April 30

text: April 30 – Canonization of Polish Catholic sister Faustina Kowalska in the presence of 200,000 people and the first Divine Mercy Sunday is celebrated worldwide.

source_section: Events › April


date: August 14

text: August 14 – Tsar Nicholas II and his family are canonized by the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.


date: December 7

text: December 7 – Kadisoka temple is discovered in Sleman, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.


date: January 10

section: Economy & Finance

text: January 10 – America Online announces an agreement to purchase Time Warner for $162 billion (the largest-ever corporate merger).

source_section: Events › January


date: January 14

text: January 14 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 11,722.98 (at the peak of the Dot-com bubble).


date: March 10

text: March 10 – The NASDAQ Composite Index reaches an all-time high of 5,048. Two weeks later, the NASDAQ-100, S&P 500, and Wilshire 5000 reach their peaks prior to the Dot-com bubble, ending a bull market run that had lasted over 17 years.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – The United States dollar becomes the official currency of Ecuador, replacing the Ecuadorian sucre.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Bihar is divided into two parts (by the Bihar Reorganisation Act, 2000) and Jharkhand, the 28th state of India, is created. Hence, this day is celebrated as Jharkhand Foundation Day.


date: February 17

text: February 17 – Microsoft releases Windows 2000.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The Øresund Bridge between Denmark and Sweden is officially opened for traffic.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – In southern Nigeria, a leaking petroleum pipeline explodes, killing about 250 villagers who were scavenging gasoline.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – The Nokia 3310 mobile phone is released.


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Kaprun disaster, Austria: A funicular fire in an Alpine tunnel kills 155 skiers and snowboarders.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – In Soria (Spain) a large chunk of ice is reported to have fallen from the sky. Over the following months, a social panic about this phenomenon is unleashed, with reports of a multitude of similar cases of falling ice chunks (incorrectly named as aerolites) all over Spain, attracting great attention from the Spanish media.


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Final Peanuts comic is printed in newspapers, preceded by author Charles M. Schulz's death the night before. It is the most popular comic strip in history, running for 50 years.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – Sony releases the PlayStation 2 in Japan to compete with the Dreamcast. It launches in other countries later in the year.


date: March 12

text: March 12 – A Zenit-3SL sea launch fails due to a software bug.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – A new class of composite material is fabricated, which has a combination of physical properties never before seen in a natural or human-made material.


date: May 2

text: May 2 — The Selective Availability limiter is removed from the Global Positioning System, allowing for practical general-purpose use. The date is sometimes known as "Blue Switch Day".


date: May 5

text: May 5 – A rare conjunction of seven celestial bodies (Sun, Moon, planets Mercury–Saturn) occurs during the new moon.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Millennium Force opens at Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, as the world's tallest and fastest roller coaster.


date: June 26

text: June 26 – A first draft of the Human Genome Project is finished. It is announced at the White House by U.S. President Clinton with Francis Collins and Craig Venter jointly with the UK Prime Minister in London.


date: August 8

text: August 8 – The US Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor.


date: September 13

text: September 13 – Steve Jobs introduces the Mac OS X Public Beta for US$29.95.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Microsoft releases Windows Me.


date: October 22

text: October 22 – The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper exposes Japanese archaeologist Shinichi Fujimura as a fraud; Japanese archaeologists had based their treatises on his findings.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Soyuz TM-31 is launched, carrying the first resident crew to the International Space Station. The ISS has been continuously crewed since.


text: May 5 – After originating in the Philippines, the ILOVEYOU computer virus spreads quickly throughout the world.


date: May 11

text: May 11 – India's population reaches 1 billion.


date: January 6

text: January 6 – The last naturally conceived Pyrenean ibex is found dead, presumed to have been killed by a falling tree.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – The United Nations' International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sentences five Bosnian Croats to up to 25 years in prison for the 1993 killing of more than 100 Bosnian Muslims.


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Ukrainian journalist Georgiy Gongadze is last seen alive; this day is taken as the commemoration date of his death.


date: January 30

section: Disasters & Accidents

text: January 30 – Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes off the Ivory Coast into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 169 people.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashes off the California coast into the Pacific Ocean, killing all 88 passengers and crew.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – Uganda mass suicide: 778 members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God die in Uganda.


date: April 19

text: April 19 – Air Philippines Flight 541, a Boeing 737-200, crashes during approach at Davao City, Philippines, killing 131 people, making it the deadliest air disaster in the Philippines.


text: May 13 – A fireworks factory disaster in Enschede, Netherlands, kills 23.


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde aircraft, crashes into a hotel in Gonesse just after takeoff from Paris, killing all 109 aboard and 4 in the hotel.


date: September 26

text: September 26 – The Greek ferry Express Samina sinks off the coast of the island of Paros; 80 out of a total of over 500 passengers perish in one of Greece's worst sea disasters.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – 250 e6USgal m3 of coal sludge spill in Martin County, Kentucky, United States (considered a greater environmental disaster than the Exxon Valdez oil spill).


date: October 12

text: October 12 – In Aden, Yemen, USS Cole is badly damaged by two Al-Qaeda suicide bombers, who place a small boat laden with explosives alongside the United States Navy destroyer, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least 39.


date: October 17

text: October 17 – Hatfield rail crash: A Great North Eastern Railway Intercity 225 express train is derailed, killing four people and injuring many others, in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England.


text: October 31 – Singapore Airlines Flight 006 collides with construction equipment in the Chiang Kai Shek International Airport, resulting in 83 deaths.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – The third and final reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is shut down and the station is shut down completely.


date: December 24

text: December 24 – The Christmas Eve bombings in several churches in Indonesia kill 18 people.


date: December 25

text: December 25 – The Luoyang Christmas fire at a shopping center in China kills 309 people.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – The year 2000 problem, a time formatting and storage bug, takes effect, but is successfully mitigated in many cases.


date: February 9

text: February 9 – Torrential rains in Africa led to the worst flooding in Mozambique in 50 years, which lasts until March and kills 800 people.


date: May 4

text: May 4 – The 7.6 Central Sulawesi earthquake affects Banggai, Indonesia, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong), leaving 46 dead and 264 injured.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – The 7.9 Enggano earthquake shakes southwestern Sumatra, killing 103 people and injuring at least 2,174.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – A centennial earthquake (6.5 on the Richter scale) hits Iceland on its national day.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Another earthquake hits Iceland further west than the previous quake.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – A powerful solar flare, later named the Bastille Day event, causes a geomagnetic storm on Earth.


date: September 6

text: September 6–8 – World leaders attend the Millennium Summit at U.N. Headquarters.


date: September 20

text: September 20 – The 2000 Xenia Tornado leaves 100 people injured, one person dead and 321+ houses destroyed.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – Approximate start of Autumn 2000 Western Europe floods (particularly affecting the UK), precipitated by days of heavy rain.


date: December 23

text: December 23 - In the 2000 Serbian parliamentary election an alliance of reformist parties achieves a landslide victory over the nationalists, paving the way for a government under Zoran Đinđić.


text: January 1 – Millennium celebrations are held around the world to celebrate the beginning of the 3rd millennium.


date: February 5

text: February 5 – 2000 Six Nations Championship in rugby union opens, the first year in which Italy takes part.


date: February 21

text: February 21 – UNESCO holds the inaugural celebration of International Mother Language Day.


date: February 29

text: February 29 – A rare century leap year date occurs. Usually, century years are common years due to not being exactly divisible by 400. 2000 is the first such year to have a February 29 since the year 1600, making it only the second such occasion since the Gregorian Calendar was introduced in 1582. The next such leap year will occur in 2400.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – France defeats Italy 2–1 after extra time in the final of the UEFA Euro 2000 Championship in Association football, becoming the first team to win the World Cup and European Championship consecutively.


date: September 15

text: September 15–October 1 – The 2000 Summer Olympics, held in Sydney, Australia, is the first Olympic Games of the 2000s.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – Pakistani authorities announce that their police have found an apparent mummy of an alleged Persian Princess in the province of Balochistan, Pakistan. The governments of Iran, Pakistan as well as the Taliban of Afghanistan all claim the mummy until Pakistan announces it is a modern-day forgery in April 2001.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – The Russian submarine Kursk sinks in the Barents Sea during one of the largest Russian naval exercises since the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, resulting in the deaths of all 118 men on board.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Ghana undergoes its first peaceful transfer of power since 1979 when John Kufuor is sworn in as President of Ghana.


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Impeachment proceedings against Philippine President Joseph Estrada end prematurely as he is peacefully overthrown in the Second EDSA Revolution. Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo succeeds him as president.


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Taba Summit: Talks between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority begin in Egypt.


date: February 6

text: February 6 – 2001 Israeli prime ministerial election: Ariel Sharon of the Likud party is elected Prime Minister of Israel.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – 2001 Liechtenstein general election: The Progressive Citizens' Party led by Otmar Hasler wins a majority of 13 seats in the Landtag.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Nông Đức Mạnh is chosen as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – Junichiro Koizumi becomes the 86th Prime Minister of Japan.


text: April 26 – The Parliament of Ukraine votes to dismiss Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – The House of Freedoms coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi wins the Italian general election.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Declaration to establish the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is signed.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – Germany enacts a program to compensate Holocaust survivors that were subject to slave labor.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – Agra Summit: India and Pakistan begin talks to improve relations. The summit ends inconclusively on July 16.


date: July 23

text: July 23 – Megawati Sukarnoputri is inaugurated as the first female president of Indonesia.


date: July 24

text: July 24 – Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, deposed as the last Tsar of Bulgaria when a child, is sworn in as the democratically elected 48th Prime Minister of Bulgaria.


date: July 28

text: July 28 – Alejandro Toledo becomes the President of Peru.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – To avoid connotations with the Rwandan genocide, the government of Rwanda adopts a new national flag for the country.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – An interim government in Burundi begins the peace process for the Burundian Civil War.


date: November 10

text: November 10 – 2001 Australian federal election: The Coalition government, led by John Howard, is re-elected with a slightly increased majority, defeating the Labor Party led by Kim Beazley.


date: November 19

text: November 19 - President George W. Bush signs the Aviation and Transportation Security Act into law, shifting airport security from private contractors to a federal workforce.


date: November 23

text: November 23 – The Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, the first international treaty to address cybercrime, is signed in Budapest, Hungary.


date: December 13

text: December 13 – U.S. President George W. Bush announces the American withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.


text: December 13 – Sirajuddin of Perlis becomes the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the constitutional monarch and head of state of Malaysia.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – Burhanuddin Rabbani, political leader of the Northern Alliance, hands over power in Afghanistan to the interim government headed by President Hamid Karzai.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – China is granted permanent normal trade status with the United States.


date: January 22

text: January 22 – The 2001 insurgency in Macedonia begins when a police station is shelled by the National Liberation Army in Tearce, near the border with Kosovo.


date: January 23

text: January 23 – A self-immolation incident takes place in Tiananmen Square in central Beijing, China. Five members of the Falun Gong are alleged to have set themselves on fire, but details surrounding the incident are disputed by Falun Gong sources.


date: January 29

text: January 29 – Corruption scandals surrounding Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid prompt thousands of protesters to storm the Indonesian parliament building.


date: February 22

text: February 22 – The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sentences three Bosnian Serb soldiers to prison for wartime sexual violence, recognizing it as a war crime for the first time.


date: May 7

text: May 7 – In Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, an attempt is made to reconstruct the historic 16th-century Ferhadija Mosque. Serbian nationalists respond with riots and mass violence against Bosnian Muslims.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – 2001 Bradford riots: Ethnic violence is provoked in Bradford, England, by the far-right National Front and far-left Anti-Nazi League.


text: July 24 – Bandaranaike Airport attack: The Tamil Tigers bomb the Bandaranaike International Airport in Sri Lanka during the Sri Lankan Civil War.


date: August 2

text: August 2 – The ICTY convicts Bosnian Serb general Radislav Krstić on the charge of genocide for his role in the Srebrenica massacre.


date: August 9

text: August 9 – A Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem is bombed by a Palestinian Hamas terrorist, killing 15 civilians and injuring 130 others.


date: August 21

text: August 21 – Operation Essential Harvest: NATO sends a military forces to the Republic of Macedonia in response to the ongoing insurgency.


date: August 28

text: August 28 – A targeted Israeli strike kills PFLP leader Abu Ali Mustafa. Palestinian militants respond by firing on Israeli civilians. Israeli forces occupy Beit Jala, Palestine to combat the militants.


date: August 31

text: August 31 – The World Conference against Racism 2001 begins in Durban, South Africa. Israel and the United States withdraw three days later, alleging antisemitism in the conference.


date: September 9

text: September 9 – A suicide bomber kills Ahmad Shah Massoud, military commander of the Afghan Northern Alliance.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – George W. Bush, president of the United States, delivers remarks at the Islamic Center of Washington praising Muslim Americans and condemning Islamophobia in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.


date: September 20

text: September 20 – In an address to a joint session of Congress, U.S. President George W. Bush declares a war on terror, officially the global war on terrorism.


date: September 27

text: September 27 – Zug massacre: In Zug, Switzerland, a gunman shoots 32 people, killing 14 members of parliament and then himself.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Jaish-e-Mohammed militants attack the state legislature building in Srinagar, Kashmir, killing 38 people.


date: October 7

text: October 7 – United States invasion of Afghanistan: In response to the September 11 attacks, Afghanistan is invaded by a US-led coalition, beginning the War in Afghanistan.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – American planes misidentify and bomb a Red Cross facility in Afghanistan. A similar error occurs again on October 27.


date: October 17

text: October 17 – Assassination of Rehavam Ze'evi: Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi is assassinated by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Fall of Mazar-i-Sharif: American and Northern Alliance forces take Mazar-i-Sharif in the first major offensive of the War in Afghanistan.


date: November 12

text: November 12 – 2001 uprising in Herat: Northern Alliance forces take the city of Herat from the Taliban.


date: December 1

text: December 1 – The International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty produces a report on responsibility to protect.


date: December 13

text: December 13 – 2001 Indian Parliament attack: Nine people and five terrorists are killed in a terrorist attack in New Delhi, leading to the 2001–2002 India–Pakistan standoff.


date: May 24

text: May 24 – Sherpa Temba Tsheri, 15, becomes the youngest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.


date: November

text: November – The World Trade Organization begins the Doha Development Round to negotiate lower trade barriers between countries and integrate developing nations into the global economy.


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Pope John Paul II names 37 cardinals in one day for a total of 128.


date: January 25

text: January 25 – Armenia and Azerbaijan join the Council of Europe.


date: April 15

text: April 15 – Extreme Championship Wrestling files for bankruptcy and ceases operations, is eventually bought by its competitor, the World Wrestling Federation.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Lithuania joins the World Trade Organization.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – Swissair, the national airline of Switzerland, seeks bankruptcy protection and grounds its entire fleet, stranding thousands of people worldwide.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – Sabena, the national airline of Belgium, goes bankrupt.


date: December 2

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


date: December 21

text: December 21 – President Fernando de la Rúa of Argentina resigns in response to the riots against Argentina's economic crisis.


date: January 9

text: January 9 – Apple Inc. launches iTunes, a software program that acts as a media player and media library.


date: March 24

text: March 24 – Apple Inc. released the Mac OS X operating system for Mac computers.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – The world's longest train is run by BHP Iron Ore between Newman and Port Hedland in Western Australia (a distance of 275 km mi); 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 mi long.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – 3G wireless technology first becomes available when it is adopted by Japanese telecommunications company NTT Docomo.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – American scientists create the first successful clone of a human embryo.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – Apple Inc. introduces the iPod, a portable media player and multi-purpose mobile device. The company will sell an estimated 450 million iPod products by May 2022.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – Microsoft releases the Windows XP operating system to retail.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – The Leaning Tower of Pisa is reopened to the public after 12 years of reconstruction.


date: February 12

text: February 12 – The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touches down in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros, a near-Earth object, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.


text: February 12 – The Human Genome Project publishes the first draft of its human genome sequence.


date: March 22

text: March 22 – Kenyanthropus is described as an early hominid after the discovery of remains in Kenya.


text: March 22 – Incheon International Airport opens in Incheon, South Korea.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – The deorbit of Russian space station Mir is processed, with debris falling into the South Pacific Ocean after the station enters the atmosphere and is destroyed.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – The NASA orbiter 2001 Mars Odyssey launches on a Delta II rocket.


date: April 11

text: April 11 – Australia's football team wins against American Samoa in a record 31–0 victory, just two days after setting the record with a 0–22 victory against Tonga.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – The Russian spacecraft Soyuz TM-32 lifts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying the first space tourist, American entrepreneur Dennis Tito, and two Russian cosmonauts.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – 28978 Ixion, a large trans-Neptunian object and a possible dwarf planet, is discovered during the Deep Ecliptic Survey.


text: May 22 – The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants is adopted by 127 countries to limit pollution internationally.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change releases its Third Assessment Report.


date: August 8

text: August 8 – The Genesis probe is launched from Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 17.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – American spacecraft Deep Space 1 flies within 2200 km of Comet Borrelly.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – NASA's Galileo spacecraft passes within 181 km of Jupiter's moon Io.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – The 2001 Mars Odyssey arrives at Mars.


date: October 30

text: October 30 – The Aarhus Convention takes effect, establishing the right to environmental information and environmental justice for European and Central Asian countries.


date: November 27

text: November 27 – A hydrogen atmosphere is discovered on the extrasolar planet HD 209458 b, nicknamed Osiris, by the Hubble Space Telescope. It is the first atmosphere detected on an extrasolar planet.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – The Segway, a self-balancing personal transporter invented by Dean Kamen, is unveiled after months of public speculation and media hype on the ABC News morning program Good Morning America.


date: January 16

text: January 16 – The final documented case of the 2000–2001 Uganda ebola outbreak is diagnosed.


date: February 19

text: February 19 – The 2001 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth outbreak begins.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – Research into Crohn's disease confirms that it is identified with mutation of the NOD2 gene.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – The world's first self-contained artificial heart is implanted in Robert Tools in the United States.


date: July

text: July – The largest ever recorded outbreak of Legionnaires' disease occurs in Murcia, Spain. 449 cases are confirmed, with more than 800 suspected ones.


date: September 18

text: September 18 – The 2001 anthrax attacks begin in the United States, which cause five fatalities and 17 other infections.


date: September 24

text: September 24 – A tornado outbreak tears through the eastern United States, causing two deaths and 57 injuries, and causing damages of $105 million.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Microsoft enters the gaming console market with the release of the Xbox, a sixth-generation gaming console, in the United States.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – An ebola outbreak is confirmed in Gabon.


date: June 7

text: June 7 – Former Argentinian president Carlos Menem is arrested on suspicion of illegal arms sales.


date: July 20

text: July 20–22 – The 27th G8 summit takes place in Genoa, Italy. Massive demonstrations, drawing an estimated 200,000 people, are held against the meeting by members of the anti-globalization movement. One demonstrator, Carlo Giuliani, is killed by a policeman, and several others are injured.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – 2001 Angola train attack: 252 people are killed by UNITA in an attack on a train during the Angolan Civil War.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Haifa bus 16 suicide bombing: A Hamas militant carries out a suicide bombing in Haifa, Israel, killing 15 people.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – 2001 Japan Airlines mid-air incident: Japan Airlines Flight 907 and Flight 958 almost collided with each other in Yaizu, Shizuoka, Japan. Flight 907 safely landed at Narita Airport and Flight 958 continued to Naha Airport. 100 people were injured.


date: February 18

text: February 18 – NASCAR Champion Dale Earnhardt is killed in a crash during the Daytona 500.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – Despite pleas from the international community to spare them, the Taliban government of Afghanistan begins destroying the Buddhas of Bamiyan, having declared that they are idols.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – The Hintze Ribeiro Bridge collapses in northern Portugal, killing 59 people.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Shijiazhuang bombings: 108 people are killed in a series of bombings in Shijiazhuang, China.


date: April 1

text: April 1 – Hainan Island incident: A Chinese fighter jet collides with 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.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Dolphinarium discotheque bombing: A Hamas suicide bomber kills 21 people, mostly teenagers, in the Dolphinarium disco in Tel Aviv, Israel.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Vladivostok Air Flight 352 crashes on approach while landing at Irkutsk Airport, Russia, killing all 145 people aboard.


date: August 25

text: August 25 – 2001 Marsh Harbour Cessna 402 crash: Eight people including singer and actress Aaliyah, and several members of her entourage are killed after their overloaded aircraft crashes shortly after takeoff at Marsh Harbour Airport.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 is accidentally shot down by the Ukrainian Air Force over the Black Sea en route from Tel Aviv, Israel, to Novosibirsk, Russia; all 78 people on board are killed.


date: October 8

text: October 8 – 2001 Linate Airport runway collision: A twin-engine Cessna and Scandinavian Airlines jetliner collide in heavy fog during takeoff from Milan, Italy, killing 118 people.


date: November 12

text: November 12 – American Airlines Flight 587 crashes in Belle Harbor, Queens, on the Rockaway Peninsula shortly after takeoff, killing all 260 people aboard the plane as well as five people on the ground.


date: January 13

text: January 13 – A 7.6-magnitude earthquake hits El Salvador, killing at least 944 people and causing massive landslides, which leaves thousands of those affected homeless.


date: January 26

text: January 26 – A 7.7 Gujarat earthquake shakes Western India with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), leaving thousands of people dead and more than 166,000 others injured.


date: February 13

text: February 13 – A 6.6-magnitude earthquake hits El Salvador, killing at least 315 people.


date: June 5

text: June 5 – Tropical Storm Allison hits the U.S. state of Texas, severely flooding Houston and killing 23 people.


date: June 7

text: June 7 – 2001 United Kingdom general election: Tony Blair and the Labour Party win a second landslide victory.


date: June 23

text: June 23 – An 8.4 southern Peru earthquake shakes coastal Peru with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). A destructive tsunami follows, leaving at least 77 people dead, and 2,687 others injured.


text: October 8 – Hurricane Iris hits Belize, causing $250 million (2001 USD) in damage.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Hurricane Michelle hits Cuba, where the storm is the strongest tropical cyclone to make landfall on the island in more than 49 years. It is the costliest hurricane in Cuban history to this point with an estimated $2 billion in damage.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – A 7.8-magnitude earthquake strikes China with an epicenter near Kokoxili, but it occurs in a sparsely populated mountainous region and there are no casualties.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – A record-high barometric pressure of 1085.6 hPa (32.06 inHg) is recorded at Tosontsengel, Zavkhan, Mongolia.


date: December 27

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


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Creative Commons is founded.


text: January 15 – Wikipedia, which became the world's largest encyclopedia, is launched.


date: March 26

text: March 26 – World Championship Wrestling goes out of business and is purchased by its chief competitor, the World Wrestling Federation, bringing an end to the Monday Night Wars.


date: April 1

text: April 1 – The Act on the Opening up of Marriage goes into effect in the Netherlands, which becomes the first modern country to legalize same-sex marriage.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – The International Olympic Committee chooses Beijing to host the 2008 Summer Olympics.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – Gyanendra ascends the throne of Nepal on the death of his nephew, Dipendra.


date: January 16

text: January 16 – The United Nations and Sierra Leone create a joint Special Court for Sierra Leone to prosecute the Revolutionary United Front.


date: January 29

text: January 29 – American president George W. Bush defines an "axis of evil," consisting of Iran, Iraq, and North Korea in his State of the Union Address.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – The State of Bahrain is declared a constitutional monarchy and becomes the Kingdom of Bahrain.


text: April 1 – The South West State of Somalia is established as an autonomous territory in Somalia by Hasan Muhammad Nur Shatigadud.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – A peace agreement is made to end the Angolan Civil War.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela is restored to power following an attempted coup.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – Timor-Leste independence: East Timor regains its independence as the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste after 2.5 years of United Nations administration and 26 years of Indonesian occupation since 1975.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Nepali Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba asks King Gyanendra to dissolve the parliament amid escalation of the Nepalese Civil War.


date: May 24

text: May 24 – United States President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin sign the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty.


date: May 28

text: May 28 – The NATO-Russia Council is established.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – The United States withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia.


text: June 13 – Afghanistan changes its official longform name to the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The Rome Statute comes into force, thereby establishing the International Criminal Court.


date: July 20

text: July 20 – The Machakos Protocol is signed during the Second Sudanese Civil War, establishing a framework for peace talks and possible independence of South Sudan.


date: September 27

text: September 27 – East Timor is admitted to the United Nations as the 191st member state; it also changes its official longform name from "Democratic Republic of East Timor" to "Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste".


date: October 27

text: October 27 – 2002 Brazilian general election: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is elected President of Brazil.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – A sovereignty referendum is held in Gibraltar. The people reject Spanish sovereignty.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Hu Jintao becomes General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.


date: November 22

text: November 22 – Prague summit: NATO announces seven new countries that intend to join: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.


date: November 25

text: November 25 – U.S. President George W. Bush signs the Homeland Security Act into law, establishing the Department of Homeland Security, in the largest U.S. government reorganization since the creation of the Department of Defense in 1947. Following a several month-long transitional period, it commences operations the following year.


text: November 25 – The Hague Code of Conduct is signed to regulate intercontinental ballistic missiles internationally.


date: December 17

text: December 17 – A peace agreement is made in the Second Congo War, approving the creation of the Transitional Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.


text: December 17 – The International Court of Justice rules in favor of Malaysia in the Ligitan and Sipadan dispute with Indonesia.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – 2002 Kenyan general election: Kenya holds its first free elections, ousting the dominant Kenya African National Union Party following a victory of the National Rainbow Coalition.


date: January 18

text: January 18 – The Sierra Leone Civil War comes to a conclusion with the defeat of the Revolutionary United Front by government forces.


date: January

text: January – Operation Enduring Freedom – Philippines: The Philippines and the United States begin a joint operation to combat Jihadist groups in the Philippines.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Several Muslim-majority nations ban an issue of Newsweek International when it depicts Muhammad.


date: February 12

text: February 12 – The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict comes into effect, establishing an international agreement against the use of child soldiers.


date: February 22

text: February 22 – UNITA guerrilla leader Jonas Savimbi is killed in clashes against government troops led by Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos in Moxico Province, Angola.


date: February 27

text: February 27 – A mob attacks a train near Godhra, India, killing approximately 59 people. The state of Gujarat breaks out into riots, including the Gulbarg Society massacre on February 28 that kills approximately 69 people.


date: March 2

text: March 2–10 – Afghan and coalition troops carry out Operation Anaconda in the Shah-i-Kot Valley, the largest combat operation against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban to that point.


date: March 29

text: March 29 – In response to increasingly common attacks by Palestinian militants, Israeli initiates Operation Defensive Shield, a large-scale counter-terrorism operation in the West Bank.


date: April 1

text: April 1 – Battle of Jenin: Israeli forces attack Palestinian militants in the Jenin refugee camp.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – Siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem: Israeli forces besiege the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem when militants take shelter there. The siege will last for 38 days.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – Erfurt school massacre: An expelled student kills 16 people and commits suicide at a school in Erfurt, Germany.


date: May 2

text: May 2 – Bojayá massacre: A church is struck with a cylinder bomb during a conflict between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, killing an estimated 119 people.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Rebels bombard Arthington, Liberia, with artillery during the Second Liberian Civil War causing panic in the neighboring capital, Monrovia.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – Kaluchak massacre: Militants attack a bus and an Indian army camp in Kaluchak, Jammu and Kashmir, killing 31 people and escalating the India–Pakistan standoff.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – The Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson boxing fight takes place. Following a scuffle prior to the match, Lennox Lewis defeats Mike Tyson.


date: June 29

text: June 29 – Second Battle of Yeonpyeong: During the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan, two North Korean patrol boats cross a contested border in between the two Koreas and attack two South Korean Chamsuri-class patrol boats.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – General Robert Guéï leads an army mutiny in an attempt to overthrow Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, resulting in civil war.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – The United States Congress approves military action in Iraq should it fail to comply with United Nations requirements for weapons of mass destruction.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Jemaah Islamiyah militants detonate multiple bombs in two nightclubs in Kuta, Bali, killing 202 people and injuring over 300 people, making it the worst terrorist act in Indonesia's history.


date: October 23

text: October 23–26 – Chechen rebels take control of the Nord-Ost theatre in Moscow and hold the audience hostage. At least 170 people are killed following a Russian attempt to subdue the militants.


date: October

text: October – Operation Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa: The United States deploys troops to the Horn of Africa to combat Islamist groups and pirates.


date: November 8

text: November 8 – The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopts Resolution 1441, forcing Iraq to either disarm or face "serious consequences". Iraq agrees to the terms of the resolution on November 13.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – 2002 Mombasa attacks: Suicide bombers blow up an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, but their colleagues fail in their attempt to bring down an Arkia Israel Airlines charter flight with surface-to-air-missiles.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – The government of Burundi signs a ceasefire with the CNDD-FDD rebel group to end the Burundian Civil War. It holds until February 2003.


date: February 5

text: February 5 – NASA launches the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager as part of the Explorers Program.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – Archaeologists begin uncovering the Liye Qin Slips in Liye, China.


date: January 6

text: January 6 – The Boston Globe publishes results of an investigation leading to the criminal prosecutions of five Roman Catholic priests and bringing widespread attention to the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – The Catholic Church establishes four new dioceses in Russia, prompting backlash from the Russian Orthodox Church.


date: July 9

text: July 9 – The Church of England allows divorcees to remarry.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – The Somali Reconciliation Conference begins, initiating peace talks between two factions of the Somali Civil War: the Transitional National Government and the government of Puntland.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – The United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina ends.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – The Euro is introduced as the official physical currency in the Eurozone countries. The first physical transactions are carried out on Réunion. The former currencies of all the countries that use the Euro cease to be legal tender on February 28.


date: June 25

text: June 25 – The WorldCom scandal breaks and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission begins its investigation into WorldCom.


date: July 21

text: July 21 – At the height of the WorldCom scandal, WorldCom files the largest bankruptcy in American history.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – Good Morning Afghanistan begins broadcasting over radio in Dari and Pashto, establishing a national news source for Afghanistan.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – The Tribute in Light is installed at the World Trade Center site in New York City.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – The Zeyzoun Dam in Zayzun, Syria, fails.


date: February 19

text: February 19 – NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – The Envisat environmental satellite is launched, with its purpose being the recording of information on environmental change.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – Shenzhou 3 is launched from China.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Romanian mathematician Preda Mihăilescu creates a proof for the Catalan's conjecture, which had gone unsolved for 158 years.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – South African Mark Shuttleworth blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on the Soyuz TM-34, becoming the first African space tourist.


date: May 4

text: May 4 – NASA launches the Aqua satellite as part of the Earth Observing System.


text: June 4 – The ringed dwarf planet Quaoar is discovered by astronomers Chad Trujillo and Michael Brown at the Palomar Observatory.


date: June 10

text: June 10 – British scientist Kevin Warwick carries out first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans.


date: July 3

text: July 3 – NASA launches the CONTOUR satellite but loses contact.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – The discovery of the early hominid Sahelanthropus is announced.


date: August 26

text: August 26–September 4 – Earth Summit 2002 takes places in Johannesburg, South Africa, aimed at discussing sustainable development by the United Nations.


date: August 28

text: August 28 – EUMETSAT launches the Meteosat 8 satellite as part of its Meteosat program.


date: October 17

text: October 17 – The European Space Agency launches the INTEGRAL observatory.


date: October 21

text: October 21 – The discovery of the James Ossuary is announced.


date: December 29

text: December 29 – Shenzhou 4 is launched from China.


text: July 11 – The first synthetic virus is announced after being successfully created and tested at Stony Brook University.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – The genome sequences for malaria carriers anopheles gambiae and plasmodium falciparum are published.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Belarus restricts religious activity outside of the Belarusian Orthodox Church with a new law.


date: November 16

text: November 16 – 2002–2004 SARS outbreak: The first case of the Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic, a zoonosis caused by a coronavirus, is recorded in Guangdong province of south China.


date: February 12

text: February 12 – The trial of Slobodan Milošević, the former president of Yugoslavia, begins at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – The International Court of Justice rules in favor of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the Arrest Warrant of 11 April 2000 case.


date: February 23

text: February 23 – The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia kidnap the presidential candidate Íngrid Betancourt, holding her captive for the next six years.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – Augustin Bizimungu is arrested for his involvement in the Rwandan genocide.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – American FBI agent Robert Hanssen is sentenced to life in prison for espionage.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – The ImClone stock trading case begins when ImClone Systems CEO Samuel D. Waksal is arrested for insider trading.


text: July 11 – Former Argentine junta leader Leopoldo Galtieri is arrested for the kidnap, torture, and murder of 20 leftist guerillas during the Dirty War.


date: July 23

text: July 23 – Salvadoran generals José Guillermo García and Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova are found liable for torture in an American court.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – Yemeni al-Qaeda operative Ramzi bin al-Shibh is arrested in Pakistan for involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks. He will later be found unfit to stand trial.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – Former Republika Srpska president Biljana Plavšić pleads guilty to crimes against humanity for her involvement in the Bosnian genocide.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – The culprits of the D.C. sniper attacks are arrested after they kill ten people in the United States over the previous three weeks.


date: March 27

text: March 27 – A Palestinian suicide bomber kills 30 people and injures 140 others at a hotel in Netanya, Israel.


date: May 30

text: May 30 - The formal nine-month rescue and recovery operation at Ground Zero in New York City officially concluded with a solemn, largely silent ceremony, marking the completion of the removal of approximately 1.8 million tons of debris from the site following the September 11 attacks.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – Russia withdraws from the START II nuclear reduction agreement with the United States.


date: July 27

text: July 27 – The Sknyliv air show disaster takes place, killing 77, becoming the deadliest air show accident of all time.


date: August 19

text: August 19 – 2002 Khankala Mi-26 crash: Chechen separatists shoot down a Russian Mil Mi-26, killing 127 soldiers. It was the worst aviation disaster in the history of the Russian military.


date: September 26

text: September 26 - The Senegalese ferry MV Le Joola sinks off the West African coast with 1,863 people killed according to official reports, making it one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters in history. Only 64 passengers survive.


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Prestige oil spill: Greek oil tanker begins spilling oil off the coast of Galicia. It will continue until November 19, spilling 60,000 tonnes of oil in the worst environmental disaster in the history of the Iberian Peninsula.


date: December 27

text: December 27 – 2002 Grozny truck bombing: Chechen suicide bombers attack the government headquarters in Grozny, Russia, killing over 70 people.


date: January 17

text: January 17 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people.


date: February 3

text: February 3 – 2002 Afyon earthquake: A 6.0 magnitude earthquake strikes Afyonkarahisar Province, Turkey, killing 41 people and damaging thousands of buildings.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – 2002 Hindu Kush earthquakes: A 6.1 magnitude earthquake strikes Nahrin, Afghanistan, killing 800 people and leaving 10,000 homeless.


date: June 22

text: June 22 – 2002 Bou'in-Zahra earthquake: A 6.5 magnitude earthquake strikes north-western Iran, killing over 200 people.


date: August 22

text: August 22–September 4 – Typhoon Rusa, the most powerful typhoon to hit South Korea in 43 years, makes landfall, killing at least 236 people.


date: September 14

text: September 14–27 – Hurricane Isidore crosses Cuba, the Yucatán Peninsula, and Louisiana.


date: September 21

text: September 21–October 4 – Hurricane Lili crosses Cuba and several other Caribbean islands before making landfall in Louisiana.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – 2002 Denali earthquake: A 7.9 magnitude earthquake, one of the strongest North American earthquakes recorded, occurs in Alaska.


date: January 19

text: January 19 – In American football, Tom Brady's victory in the Tuck Rule Game causes a national controversy.


date: February 8

text: February 8–24 – The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City, Utah.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Sofia Gubaidulina's Johannes-Ostern is premiered, together with her earlier Johannes-Passion, at Hamburg's Michaeliskirche, performed by soloists, choir and orchestra from the Mariinsky Theatre combined with NDR choir and orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – The genome sequence for indica rice is published.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – The 2002 FIFA World Cup begins, taking place in South Korea and Japan.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – 2002 FIFA World Cup: Brazil beats Germany 2–0 in the 2002 FIFA World Cup Final with Ronaldo scoring the two goals; Brazil's captain Cafu, who becomes the first player to appear in three successive World Cup finals, accepts the trophy on behalf of the team.


date: July 5

text: July 5 – The Imperial War Museum North opens in Trafford, England.


date: July 25

text: July 25–August 4 – The 2002 Commonwealth Games are held in Manchester, England.


date: August 7

text: August 7 – The AKS primality test is published by Manindra Agrawal, Neeraj Kayal, and Nitin Saxena from the Indian Institutes of Technology.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – The Bibliotheca Alexandrina opens in Alexandria, Egypt, in a ceremony attended by several heads of state.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – The only captive baiji dolphin dies as the species approaches extinction.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is renamed to "Serbia and Montenegro" (after its two constituent states) after its leaders reconstitute the country into a loose state-union between Montenegro and Serbia, marking an end to the 73-year-long use of the name "Yugoslavia" by a sovereign state.


date: March 8

text: March 8 – Malta approves joining the European Union in a referendum.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – U.S. President George W. Bush presents a 48-hour ultimatum for Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to resign.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Slovenia approves joining the European Union and NATO in a referendum.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – Hungary approves joining the European Union in a referendum.


date: April 16

text: April 16 – The Treaty of Accession is signed in Athens between the European Union and ten countries (Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia), concerning these countries' accession into the EU, leading to the 2004 enlargement of the European Union.


date: May 11

text: May 11 – Lithuania approves joining the European Union in a referendum.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – The World Health Organization adopts its first treaty, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – The Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty comes into effect between Russia and the United States.


date: June 6

text: June 6 – An agreement is reached for the United Nations to form a Khmer Rouge Tribunal.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – The Czech Republic approves joining the European Union in a referendum.


date: June 20

text: June 20 – Former President of France Valéry Giscard d'Estaing presents his draft for a Constitution of the European Union.


date: June 30

text: June 30 – Warring parties in the Democratic Republic of the Congo sign a peace accord, bringing an end to the Second Congo War.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The Migrant Workers Convention comes into effect.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – The Iraqi Governing Council is created by the United States as an ethnically diverse provisional government of Iraq.


date: July 18

text: July 18 – The Convention on the Future of Europe finishes its work and proposes the first European Constitution.


date: August 20

text: August 20 – The G21 (later called the G20 developing nations) forms in response to disputes around the upcoming World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 2003.


date: August 27

text: August 27 – The first six-party talks, involving South and North Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, convene to find a peaceful resolution to the security concerns of the North Korean nuclear weapons program.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Estonia approves joining the European Union in a referendum.


date: September 20

text: September 20 – Latvia approves joining the European Union in a referendum.


date: September 25

text: September 25 – Two parties in the Second Sudanese Civil War, the National Islamic Front and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, reach a peace agreement.


date: October 21

text: October 21 – After acknowledging that it has produced enriched uranium, Iran agrees to suspend its nuclear program.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – The International Court of Justice rules in the Oil Platforms case that the United States was not justified in its 1987 attacks on Iranian oil platforms but that neither party violated a 1955 treaty.


date: December 9

text: December 9 – The United Nations Convention Against Corruption is opened for signing.


date: January 10

text: January 10 – North Korea announces its withdrawal from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.


date: February 5

text: February 5 – U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell gives a speech to the United Nations presenting the case for a military invasion of Iraq. It will later be discovered that the United States Bush administration misled him when preparing his testimony.


date: February 6

text: February 6 – North Korea announces that it has resumed its nuclear weapons program.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Millions of people worldwide take part in massive anti-war protests in anticipation of the United States and its allies invading Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime.


date: February 26

text: February 26 – The War in Darfur begins after rebel groups rise up against the Sudanese government.


date: March 12

text: March 12 – Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić of Serbia is assassinated in Belgrade by a sniper.


date: March 15

text: March 15 – Former General François Bozizé seizes power through a military coup in the Central African Republic.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – The Iraq War begins with the invasion of Iraq by the United States and allied forces.


date: April 9

text: April 9 – U.S. forces seize control of Baghdad, ending the rule of Saddam Hussein.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – U.S. President George W. Bush declares an end to the invasion of Iraq in the Mission Accomplished speech. Hostilities would continue for several years during a period of Iraqi insurgency.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Peace talks break down in the insurgency in Aceh and the Indonesian government launches new attacks against the insurgents.


date: May 24

text: May 24 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2003 takes place in Riga, Latvia, and is won by Turkish entrant Sertab Erener with the song "Everyway That I Can".


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Operation Desert Scorpion: U.S. forces in Iraq facilitate searches for Ba'athist forces, distribution of humanitarian aid, and engineering programs to repair damaged infrastructure.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Lennox Lewis vs. Vitali Klitschko: Boxer Lennox Lewis defends his title as heavyweight boxing champion against Vitali Klitschko.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia agrees to disband.


date: July 24

text: July 24 – The Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands, led by Australia, begins after ethnic violence engulfs the island country.


date: August 11

text: August 11 – NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.


date: August 17

text: August 17 – Peace talks between Maoist rebels and the Nepalese government are interrupted by resumed hostilities in the Nepalese Civil War.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – Maxim restaurant suicide bombing: A Palestinian suicide bomber attacks a restaurant in Haifa, Israel, killing at least 19 people.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Israeli warplanes strike alleged Islamic jihad bases inside Syrian territory, the first Israeli attack on the country since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.


date: October 6

text: October 6 – Hezbollah and the Israel Defense Forces engage in hostilities in the Shebaa Farms.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Suicide bombings occur in Istanbul. Further attacks occur five days later. They kill 63 people between them, making them the two deadliest terror attacks in Turkey, and cause uncertainty in the international economy.


date: November 23

text: November 23 – A ceasefire is reached at the Line of Control in Kashmir.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Libya agrees to eliminate all of its materials, equipment, and programs aimed at producing weapons of mass destruction.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visits Kashmir and expresses support for peace negotiations with Pakistan.


date: September 10

text: September 10 – The four-day World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 2003 begins in Cancún.


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Rowan Williams becomes Archbishop of Canterbury.


date: March 6

text: March 6 – SCO Group files a lawsuit against IBM as part of an ongoing dispute regarding the use of Unix in the development of Linux.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – The Archaeological Survey of India orders that Hindus be allowed to worship in the Kamal Maula Mosque.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – John Paul II visits Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, becoming the first pope ever to enter a mosque.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – The United Nations establishes the United Nations Mission in Liberia with Resolution 1509.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Pope John Paul II holds mass to celebrate his 25th anniversary as pope, becoming the fourth pope to reach the milestone.


date: October 19

text: October 19 – Mother Teresa is beatified by Pope John Paul II.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Sweden rejects joining the Eurozone in a referendum.


date: October 7

text: October 7 – Nokia releases a handheld game console, the N-Gage. It becomes a major critical failure in the gaming industry.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – The first test of the GBU-43/B MOAB bomb takes place.


date: May 28

text: May 28 – Prometea, the world's first cloned horse, is born.


date: June 12

text: June 12 – The opening of a thousand-year-old coffin is broadcast live on Chinese television.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – The Three Gorges Dam in China begins operating when the first of its 34 generators is activated.


date: July 30

text: July 30 – The final Volkswagen Beetle is produced.


date: August 19

text: August 19 – In the Canal Hotel bombing in Baghdad, 22 people are killed, among them United Nations' Special Representative in Iraq Sérgio Vieira de Mello.


date: September 23

text: September 23 – AMD releases the Athlon 64, the first 64-bit processor to be released for consumer use.


date: January 6

text: January 6 – The discovery of OGLE-TR-56b, the first exoplanet to be discovered through transit photometry, is announced.


date: January 22

text: January 22 – The last signal from NASA's Pioneer 10 spacecraft is received, some 12.2 billion kilometers (7.6 billion mi) from Earth.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – The Human Genome Project is completed, with 99% of the human genome sequenced to 99.99% accuracy.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – The iTunes Store launches.


date: June 2

text: June 2 – Mars Express launches, containing the Beagle 2 lander.


date: June 10

text: June 10 – NASA launches the Spirit rover.


text: June 12 – Homo sapiens idaltu is proposed as a new human subspecies based on the Herto Man fossils.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – In a major development in football, English footballer David Beckham is transferred from Manchester United F.C. to Real Madrid CF for £17.25 million.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – NASA launches the Opportunity rover.


text: July 10 – The existence of PSR B1620−26 b, the oldest known exoplanet in the galaxy, is confirmed using observations from the Hubble Space Telescope.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – The discovery of the dinosaur species Rajasaurus narmadensis is announced.


date: August 16

text: August 16 – Element 110 is formally named darmstadtium by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.


date: August 25

text: August 25 – The Spitzer Space Telescope is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in over 60,000 years.


date: September 21

text: September 21 – NASA ends the Galileo probe mission after nearly 14 years by sending it into Jupiter's atmosphere.


date: September 24

text: September 24 – The Hubble Space Telescope starts the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field, making 800 exposures, until January 16, 2004.


date: September 27

text: September 27 – SMART-1, an ESA spaceprobe and ESA's first mission to the moon, is launched from Kourou, French Guiana.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – China launches Shenzhou 5, the country's first human spaceflight.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – A Russian air base opens in Kant, Kyrgyzstan, as Russia's first foreign air base since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.


text: October 23 – The Aarhus Protocol on Persistent Organic Pollutants comes into effect.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Concorde makes its last commercial flight, bringing the era of airliner supersonic travel to an end.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – The dwarf planet Sedna is discovered by a team of astronomers led by Michael E. Brown from the Palomar Observatory.


date: November 26

text: November 26 – The supersonic passenger jet, Concorde, makes its last ever flight from Heathrow Airport in London to Bristol Filton Airport.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – The Beagle 2 Mars lander deploys, but contact is lost.


date: March 12

text: March 12 – The World Health Organization issues a global alert on SARS when it spreads to Hong Kong and Vietnam after originating in Mainland China.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Contact with infected prairie dogs causes the first outbreak of human mpox in the Western Hemisphere. Cases continue until June 11.


date: July 5

text: July 5 – SARS is declared to be contained by the World Health Organization.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety comes into effect.


date: January 23

text: January 23 – The 1492 painting Descent into Limbo by Andrea Mantegna sells for $28.6 million.


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Former Bosnian Serb leader Biljana Plavšić is sentenced by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to 11 years in prison for war crimes committed during the Bosnian War.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Khalid Sheikh Mohammed of al-Qaeda is captured in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – The International Criminal Court begins operations.


date: April 13

text: April 13 - Five college students are murdered in an unsolved arson in Columbus, Ohio.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – The North Korean ship Pong Su is seized by the Royal Australian Navy for smuggling heroin into the country.


date: May 25

text: May 25 — A Boeing 727 aircraft is stolen from an airport in Luanda, Angola triggering an international terrorist investigation by the FBI and CIA. The aircraft and its pilots were never found.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Georges Rutaganda becomes the first person to be convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and his previous charges are upheld.


date: May 30

text: May 30 – Opposition figures and peace activists, including Aung San Suu Kyi, are arrested in Myanmar.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Milomir Stakić receives the first life sentence issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.


date: August 11

text: August 11 – Riduan Isamuddin, head of the Indonesian Islamist group Jemaah Islamiyah, is arrested in Ayutthaya, Thailand.


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing: A Palestinian suicide bomber kills at least 18 people in a bus bombing in Jerusalem.


date: September 10

text: September 10 – Al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri release their first video statement since 2001.


text: September 10 – Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh is murdered.


date: September 29

text: September 29 – The United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime comes into force.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Argentine General Antonio Domingo Bussi is detained for crimes committed in the Dirty War.


date: October 27

text: October 27 – Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky is arrested. Critics allege that this is a political action by the government to control Russian oligarchs.


date: December 5

text: December 5 – Trial of Stanislav Galić: The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sentences Stanislav Galić to 20 years in prison for crimes against humanity.


date: December 13

text: December 13 – Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq, is captured in the small town of Ad-Dawr by the U.S. Army.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – Waterfall rail accident: An Intercity Tangara G set train derails near Waterfall, killing 7 and injuring 40 others. The cause was of a faulty deadman's brake.


date: February 1

text: February 1 – At the conclusion of the STS-107 mission, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry over Texas, killing all seven astronauts on board.


date: February 20

text: February 20 – The Station nightclub fire: A fire broke out at a music venue in West Warwick, Rhode Island, United States, killing 100 people and injuring 230.


date: May 12

text: May 12 – 2003 Znamenskoye suicide bombing: Chechen suicide bombers attack a government office in Znamenskoye, Russia, killing at least 59 people.


date: July 28

text: July 28 – The Tasman Spirit oil spill occurs in Pakistan.


date: August 14

text: August 14 – An overloaded power grid following the failure of FirstEnergy's alarm system in their control room causes the Northeast blackout of 2003, affecting more than 50 million people in the United States and Canada with nearly 100 related deaths.


date: August 15

text: August 15 – Libya formally accepts civil responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988.


date: August 22

text: August 22 – The Brazilian VLS-1 launcher explodes on the launchpad on August 22, killing 21 people.


date: August 25

text: August 25 – Car bombs explode at Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar in Mumbai, claiming 54 lives and injuring 244 others. Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba is blamed for the attack. The attack causes an escalation in the Kashmir conflict.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – Imam Ali mosque bombing: A bomb kills at least 125 people, including Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, at a Shia mosque in Najaf, Iraq.


date: January 23

text: January 23 – NASA loses contact with the Pioneer 10 probe after nearly 31 years.


date: February 24

text: February 24 – 2003 Bachu earthquake: A 6.8 earthquake strikes in Xinjiang, killing 257 people.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – Tropical Storm Ana becomes the first recorded North Atlantic tropical storm to occur in April.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – 2003 Bingöl earthquake: A 6.4 earthquake strikes in Bingöl, Turkey, killing 177 people.


date: May 11

text: May 11 – 2003 Sri Lanka cyclone: A cyclone makes landfall in Sri Lanka, killing 260 people and causing the country's worst natural disaster in 50 years.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – 2003 Boumerdès earthquake: a 6.8 earthquake strikes in Algeria, killing over 2,200 people.


date: July

text: July–August – 2003 European heat wave: Europe experiences its hottest summer in over five centuries.


date: September 2

text: September 2 – Typhoon Dujuan makes landfall in Guangdong as a category 1 typhoon with sustained winds of 90 mph.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Hurricane Fabian strikes Bermuda.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Typhoon Maemi, makes landfall in South Korea as a category 3 typhoon with sustained winds of 125 mph.


date: September 18

text: September 18 – Hurricane Isabel makes landfall in North Carolina.


date: September 26

text: September 26 – The 8.3 Tokachi earthquake occurs off the coast of Hokkaido.


date: September 29

text: September 29 – Hurricane Kate first reaches hurricane status.


date: December 26

text: December 26 – The 6.6 Bam earthquake occurs in Iran.


date: February 9

text: February 9 – The 2003 Cricket World Cup begins. It is held in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Kenya, and it ends on March 23 with Australia defeating India in the final.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – The first set of data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe is published.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – The 50th Venice Biennale begins.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – The release of the novel Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix becomes a worldwide cultural event and boosts the literary industry.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The annual 1 July Marches in Hong Kong see hundreds of thousands of participants in response to the National Security (Legislative Provisions) Bill.


date: September 20

text: September 20–October 12 – The 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup is held in the United States after the tournament is moved from China due to the SARS outbreak. Germany win their first title after they defeated Sweden in the final with a golden goal.


date: October 10

text: October 10–November 22 – The 2003 Rugby World Cup is held in Australia and is won by England who defeated Australia in the final after extra time.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – Dolly the sheep, the clone of a mammal, dies.


date: January 21

text: January 21 – Bartholomew I of Constantinople visits Cuba.


date: February 24

text: February 24 – The Rotterdam Convention comes into force.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – Vladimir Putin is reelected president of Russia with 71.2 percent of the vote.


date: March 29

text: March 29 – Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia are admitted to NATO, the largest expansion of the organization.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – The European Union expands by 10 new member states: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.


date: May 7

text: May 7 – Vladimir Putin is sworn in for a second term as Russia's president.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – The Ralito II Agreement is signed between Colombia and the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia.


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Manmohan Singh, a Sikh, is sworn in as India's first non-Hindu prime minister.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – The International Court of Justice issues an advisory ruling that the construction of the West Bank barrier violates the Palestinian people's right to self-determination.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – The Scottish Parliament Building opens.


date: October 9

text: October 9 – Afghanistan holds its first presidential election. Hamid Karzai wins with 55.4 percent of the vote.


date: October 29

text: October 29 – European heads of state sign in Rome the Treaty and Final Act, establishing the first European Constitution.


date: November 2

text: November 2 – George W. Bush is reelected president of the United States, defeating his challenger John Kerry.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Russia ratifies the Kyoto Protocol.


date: December 30

text: December 30 – A peace agreement is reached between Senegal and the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – An insurgency breaks out in southern Thailand.


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Two suicide bombings are carried out by al-Qaeda in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.


date: February 29

text: February 29 – Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide is overthrown in a coup d'état.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – A series of bombings occur in Karbala, Iraq, killing over 140 Shia Muslims commemorating the Day of Ashura.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – Al-Qaeda bombings on Cercanías trains in Madrid, Spain, kill at least 192 people.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – Ethnic violence breaks out in Kosovo between Albanians and Serbs.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Bombings attributed to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan kill 15 in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. This is the first instance of suicide bombings in the country or the surrounding region of central Asia.


date: March 30

text: March 30 – The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) abducts over 1,000 people from the Bajura District to fight in the Nepalese Civil War.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – Four American security contractors are killed in Fallujah, Iraq, leading to the First Battle of Fallujah.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – The Siege of Sadr City begins when the Mahdi Army ambushes American soldiers in Sadr City, Iraq.


text: April 4 – The United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire begins to maintain a ceasefire in the First Ivorian Civil War.


date: April 8

text: April 8 – The Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement is signed by the Sudanese government and two rebel groups to create a ceasefire in the War in Darfur.


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Newly elected prime minister of Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, announces the withdrawal of all 1,300 Spanish troops from Iraq.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – The United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) peacekeeping mission begins in Haiti.


date: June 23

text: June 23 – The International Criminal Court opens an investigation into crimes against humanity during the Second Congo War.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – The US-led coalition occupying Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), transfers sovereignty to the Iraqi Interim Government.


date: July 24

text: July 24 – The Mexican government files charges against former President of Mexico Luis Echeverría for his role in the 1971 Corpus Christi massacre.


date: July 29

text: July 29 – The International Criminal Court opens an investigation into the actions of the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – Chechen rebels take 1,128 hostages, mostly children, at a school in Beslan, Russia. Russian security forces eventually storm the building, resulting in more than 330 people being killed.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – Israel launches a military offensive in the northern Gaza Strip.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – The Second Battle of Fallujah begins in Fallujah, Iraq.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – A ceasefire is reached between Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army.


date: November 22

text: November 22 – The Orange Revolution begins, following a disputed presidential election in Ukraine where Viktor Yanukovych won against Viktor Yushchenko amid accusations of electoral fraud. A revote results in Yushchenko being declared the winner.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – EUFOR takes over peacekeeping duties in Bosnia and Herzegovina from the United Nations.


date: April 30

text: April 30 – Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople breaks Eucharistic communion with Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – Patriarch Peter VII of Alexandria is killed in a helicopter crash.


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Fijian golfer Vijay Singh unseats Tiger Woods as the top PGA Tour player.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – The RMS Queen Mary 2, at the time the largest ocean liner ever built, is christened by its namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.


date: April 1

text: April 1 – Google launches Gmail.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – The Gherkin opens in London.


date: May 23

text: May 23 – The Seattle Central Library opens in Seattle, Washington.


date: July 30

text: July 30 – The Frauenkirche church finishes reconstruction after its destruction in 1945.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – The Rio–Antirrio Bridge opens in Greece.


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Google makes its initial public offering.


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Mozilla releases the Firefox browser.


date: December 14

text: December 14 – The world's tallest bridge, the Millau Viaduct over the Tarn in the Massif Central mountains, France, is inaugurated.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – NASA's Spirit rover lands on the surface of Mars.


date: January 25

text: January 25 – NASA's Opportunity rover lands on the surface of Mars.


date: March 2

text: March 2 – The European Space Agency launches the Rosetta space probe.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – NASA releases the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field image of early galaxies.


date: April 13

text: April 13 – A newborn western gorilla is observed for the first time in 50 years in the Léfini Faunal Reserve.


date: April 19

text: April 19 – Russia launches the Soyuz TMA-4 mission.


date: May 7

text: May 7 – The discovery of the post-perovskite form of magnesium silicate is reported.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants enters into force.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – A transit of Venus occurs.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – In Mojave, California, United States, SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.


date: June 29

text: June 29 – The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture enters into force.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – The Cassini–Huygens orbiter reaches the orbit of Saturn.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – The use of magnetic resonance imaging to study the spin of a single electron is reported.


date: August 3

text: August 3 – NASA's MESSENGER space probe is launched, with its primary mission being the study of Mercury.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport begins operation in Guangzhou, China.


date: September 8

text: September 8 – The Genesis space probe crash-lands in Utah after a three-year study of the Sun.


date: October 14

text: October 14 – Russia launches the Soyuz TMA-5 mission.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – The prehistoric human species Homo floresiensis is described.


date: November 13

text: November 13 – The European Space Agency probe SMART-1 arrives at the Moon, becoming the first European satellite to fly to the Moon and orbit it.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – The SMART-1 satellite reaches the orbit of the Moon.


date: November 20

text: November 20 – NASA launches the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer telescope.


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Poland bans the use of chlorofluorocarbons.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – Painkiller Vioxx is pulled from the market due to a potential doubling of heart attack risk.


date: November 21

text: November 21 – Nintendo releases the Nintendo DS handheld game console in North America.


date: March 22

text: March 22 – Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin is killed by Israeli missile strikes.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – The International Court of Justice rules in the Avena case that the United States had violated its obligations to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations when prosecuting Mexican nationals.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Israeli helicopters fire missiles at a convoy of vehicles in the Gaza Strip, killing Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – Ukrainian boxer Vitali Klitschko becomes the WBC world heavyweight champion after defeating his opponent Corrie Sanders.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Saddam Hussein appears in court for his charges to be read.


date: August 31

text: August 31 – Former Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milošević stands trial for crimes against humanity.


date: October 29

text: October 29 – Osama bin Laden releases a video taking credit for the September 11 attacks.


date: May 9

text: May 9 – A stadium bombing in Grozny, Chechnya, Russia kills ten people, including regional governor Akhmad Kadyrov.


date: May 24

text: May 24 – A fire at a Momart warehouse destroys numerous works of art.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – Two Russian passenger jets are downed by suicide bombers during the Second Chechen War.


date: September 2

text: September 2 – A fire breaks out at the Duchess Anna Amalia Library.


date: October 8

text: October 8 – Suicide bombers detonate two bombs at the Red Sea resort of Taba, Egypt, killing 34 people and injuring 171, mostly Israeli tourists.


date: August 7

text: August 7–13 – Typhoon Rananim causes widespread destruction as it strikes China.


date: September 4

text: September 4 – In the AFL finals, Essendon defeated Melbourne by five points (15.14.104 - 15.9.99) in the elimination final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The victory would prove to be Essendon's most recent finals win, beginning a finals drought that would extend for more than two decades.


date: November 14

text: November 14–26 – Typhoon Muifa kills 600 people in the Philippines.


date: November 29

text: November 29–December 3 – Typhoon Nanmadol kills 775 people in the Philippines.


date: December 26

text: December 26 – The 9.1–9.3 Indian Ocean earthquake shakes northern Sumatra with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). One of the largest observed tsunamis follows, affecting coastal areas of Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Somalia, the Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, killing 227,000 people.


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Janet Jackson suffers a wardrobe malfunction during the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXVIII.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Garçon à la pipe, painted by Pablo Picasso in 1905, is sold for $104.2 million. This was the highest price a work of art had ever been sold for at auction.


date: May 12

text: May 12–15 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2004 takes place in Istanbul, Turkey, and is won by Ukrainian entrant Ruslana with the song "Wild Dances".


date: August 13

text: August 13–29 – The 2004 Summer Olympics are held in Athens, Greece.


date: August 22

text: August 22 – Armed robbers steal Edvard Munch's The Scream, Madonna, and other paintings from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway.


date: November 20

text: November 20 – The Museum of Modern Art reopens in its new location.


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Palestinian president Yasser Arafat dies. Mahmoud Abbas is appointed as his successor.


date: January 9

text: January 9 – The Comprehensive Peace Agreement is signed, ending the Second Sudanese Civil War in Sudan.


date: February 7

text: February 7 – A presidential decree on redenomination of the Azerbaijani manat is issued, equating 1 new manat to 5000 old manats.


date: February 16

text: February 16 – The Kyoto Protocol officially goes into effect.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – 2005 Liechtenstein general election: The Progressive Citizens' Party remains the largest party and wins a plurality of 12 seats in the Landtag.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – China ratifies an anti-secession law, aimed at preventing Taiwan from declaring independence.


date: March 24

text: March 24 – The President of Kyrgyzstan, Askar Akayev, is deposed following mass anti-government demonstrations and flees the country.


text: May 5 – The 2005 United Kingdom general election is won by Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Labour Party for a third consecutive majority government.


date: July 6

text: July 6 – The European Parliament rejects the proposed directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions in its second reading.


date: August 26

text: August 26 – The Constitution of Chile is heavily amended, eliminating senators for life, reducing the presidential terms from six to four years, giving the president exclusive rights to summon the National Security Council, and removes legal obstacles for the creation of new regions.


date: September 7

text: September 7 – Egypt holds its first ever multi-party presidential election, which is marred with allegations of fraud.


date: September 19

text: September 19 – North Korea agrees to stop building nuclear weapons in exchange for aid and cooperation.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – Croatia and Turkey's accession negotiations to the European Union officially starts.


date: November 22

text: November 22 – Angela Merkel assumes office as the first female Chancellor of Germany.


date: November 23

text: November 23 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf wins the Liberian general election, making her the first democratically elected female head of state in Africa.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – North Korea announces that it possesses nuclear weapons as a protection against the hostility it says it perceives from the United States.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri is assassinated, along with 21 others, by a suicide bomber in Beirut.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – Cedar Revolution: Syria withdraws the last of its military garrison from Lebanon, ending its 29-year military occupation of the country.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Uzbek Interior Ministry and National Security Service troops massacre at least 200 protesters in the city of Andijan.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Four coordinated suicide bombings hit central London, killing 52 people and injuring over 700.


date: July 28

text: July 28 – As a result of the Good Friday Agreement signed in 1998, the Provisional Irish Republican Army ends its armed campaign and decommissions their weapons, by ordering all its units to drop their arms under the supervision of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning.


date: August 18

text: August 18 – Peace Mission 2005, the first joint China–Russia military exercise, begins its eight-day training on the Shandong Peninsula.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – Israel demolishes multiple settlements and withdraws its army from the Gaza Strip.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – Controversial drawings of Muhammad are printed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, sparking outrage and violent riots by Muslims around the world.


date: November 9

text: November 9 – At least 60 people are killed and 115 more are wounded in a series of coordinated suicide bombings in Amman, Jordan.


date: December 18

text: December 18 – Chad descends into civil war after various rebel forces, with support from Sudan, attack the capital, N'Djamena.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – English whisky is re-established in England.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – The United Nations Climate Change Conference is held in Montreal.


date: April 23

text: April 23 – The first ever YouTube video is uploaded, titled Me at the zoo.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – Kingda Ka is opened for the first time to the public at Six Flags Great Adventure, becoming the world's tallest and fastest roller coaster at the time.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Eris, the most massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System, is discovered by a team led by Michael E. Brown using images originally taken on October 21, 2003, at the Palomar Observatory.


date: January 12

text: January 12 – Deep Impact is launched from Cape Canaveral with the purpose of studying the comet Tempel 1.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – The Huygens spacecraft lands on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn.


date: January 20

text: January 20 – The most intense solar particle event in recorded history is observed.


date: March 31

text: March 31 – The dwarf planet Makemake is discovered by a team led by Michael E. Brown at the Palomar Observatory.


date: April 8

text: April 8 – The first solar eclipse of the year was a rare hybrid event, occurring at ascending node in Aries. This was 4.4 days after the Moon reached perigee. Gamma had a value of -0.34733. A hybrid solar eclipse was visible from south Pacific, Panama, Colombia and Venezuela, and was the 51st solar eclipse of Solar Saros 129.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – The first lunar eclipse of the year was a penumbral event, occurring at descending node in Virgo. This was 5 days before the Moon reached perigee. Gamma had a value of -1.08851. A penumbral lunar eclipse was visible in eastern Asia, Australia, Pacific and Americas, and was the 23rd lunar eclipse of Lunar Saros 141.


date: April 27

text: April 27 – The Superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is launched from Cape Canaveral, designed to explore Mars.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – The second solar eclipse of 2005 was an annular event, occurring at descending node in Virgo. This was 4.8 days after the Moon reached apogee. Gamma had a value of 0.33058. An annular solar eclipse was visible in Portugal, Spain, Libya, Sudan and Kenya, and was the 43rd solar eclipse of Solar Saros 134.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – The second crewed Chinese spacecraft, Shenzhou 6, is launched.


date: October 17

text: October 17 – The final eclipse of 2005 was a partial lunar eclipse event, occurring at ascending node in Aries. This was 2.9 days after the Moon reached perigee. Gamma had a value of 0.97960. A partial lunar eclipse was visible in Asia, Australia, Pacific and North America, and was the 10th lunar eclipse of Lunar Saros 146.


date: November 22

text: November 22 – Microsoft releases the Xbox 360.


date: December 12

text: December 12 – Scientists announce that they have created mice with small numbers of human neurons in an effort to make realistic models of neurological disorders.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Another second is added, 23:59:60, to end the year 2005, the first time since 1998.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Jeanna Giese from Wisconsin, United States, comes home from the hospital and officially becomes the first person to ever survive rabies without a vaccination.


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Andrew Stimpson, a 25-year-old Scottish man, is reported as the first person proven to have been 'cured' of HIV.