2001: Encyclopedia II - 2001 - Events

2001 - Events

2001 - January

• January 1 - A black monolith measuring approximately nine feet tall appears in Seattle's Magnuson Park, placed by an anonymous artist in reference to the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
• January 6 - The U.S. Congress, presided over by Vice President Al Gore as President of the Senate, certifies George W. Bush's Electoral College victory and thus as the winner of 2000 presidential election.
• January 11 - The Federal Trade Commission approved the merger of AOL and Time Warner to form AOL Time Warner.
• January 13 - Major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 hits all El Salvador.
• January 15 - Wikipedia, a Wiki free content encyclopedia, goes online (Wikipedia Day).
• January 20 - George W. Bush succeeds Bill Clinton as President of the United States after prevailing over Al Gore in the disputed U.S. presidential election, 2000.
• January 22 - Four of the "Texas 7" are caught at a convenience store in Woodland Park, Colorado and a fifth killed himself inside a motor home.^{Confirmation needed}
• January 23-25 - UN war crimes prosecutor Del Ponte demands that Serbia hand over Slobodan Milošević.^{Confirmation needed}
• January 24 - The last two of the "Texas 7" are taken into custody in Colorado Springs, Colorado.^{Confirmation needed}
• January 24 - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Peter Mandelson resigns from the British cabinet for the second time.
• January 26 - A 50-year-old DC-3 crashes near Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela killing 24.^{Confirmation needed}
• January 26 - An earthquake hits Gujarat, India. More than 20,000 deaths and most of the historical city is destroyed.
• January 28 - The Baltimore Ravens defeated the New York Giants, 34-7, in Super Bowl XXXV.
• January 29 - Thousands of student protesters in Indonesia storm parliament and demand that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign due to alleged involvement in corruption scandals.^{Confirmation needed}
• January 31 - The Scottish Court in the Netherlands convicts a Libyan and acquits another for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.

2001 - February

• February - Iraq disarmament crisis: British and U.S. forces carry out bombing raids attempting to disable Iraq's air defense network.
• February 5 - Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman announce that they have separated
• February 6 - Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon wins election as Prime Minister of Israel
• February 9 - American submarine USS Greeneville accidentally strikes and sinks Japanese fishing vessel Ehime-Maru.
• February 12 - NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touchdown in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
• February 13 - An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 hits El Salvador, killing at least 400
• February 16 - Baghdad suburb bombed by US and UK war planes, 3 people killed.
• February 18 - NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt is critically injured on the last lap of the Daytona 500 while blocking for his DEI cars driven by his son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Michael Waltrip, who won the race. He will later pass away from the sustained injuries.
• February 19 - A Oklahoma City bombing museum is dedicated at the Oklahoma City National Memorial.
• February 20 - FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested and charged with spying for Russia for 15 years.
• February 20 - 2001 UK foot and mouth crisis begins.
• February 24-27 - Patient Tony Collins spends 77 hours and 30 minutes on a hospital trolley outside the toilets in the Princess Margaret Hospital, Swindon, United Kingdom
• February 28 - An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 hits the Nisqually Valley area of Washington. There was one reported death, an elderly woman who suffered a heart attack.
• February 28 - The Selby rail crash kills ten people.

2001 - March

• March 23 - Russian space stations Mir re-enters the atmosphere near Nadi, Fiji, and falls into the Pacific Ocean
• March 24 - Apple Computer's Mac OS X v10.0 is released.
• March 26 - WCW is bought out by WWE.
• March 28 - Tornado Dallas Skys rips through downtown Fort Worth killing five and causing more than 500 million dollars in property damage.

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2001 - April

• April 1 - An EP-3E American spyplane collides with a Chinese fighter jet and is forced to make an emergency landing in Hainan, China. The U.S. crew was detained for 10 days and the F-8 Chinese pilot, Wang Wei, went missing and presumed dead.
• April 1 - Former president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević surrenders to police special forces, to be tried on charges of war crimes.
• April 1 - In the Netherlands, the Act on the Opening up of Marriage goes into effect. The Act allows same-sex couples to legally marry for the first time in the world.
• April 27 - Impostor Christopher Rocancourt arrested in Oak Bay, British Columbia
• April 29 - Census of population in the United Kingdom.

2001 - May

• May 1 - The Japanese cities of Urawa, Omiya, and Yono merge to form the city of Saitama.
• May 1 - Police declare the disappearance of Chandra Levy. Her remains were discovered a year later.
• May 7 - In Banja Luka, the second largest city in Bosnia, an attempt is made to reconstruct the Ferhadija mosque. However, the ceremony resulted in mass riots by Serb nationalists that beat and stone three hundred elderly Bosnian Muslims.
• May 10 - In Ghana, a stampede at a soccer game kills over 120.
• May 11 - Comedy sci-fi author Douglas Adams of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame, dies from a heart attack, aged 49.
• May 16 - John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister of United Kingdom, assaults Craig Evans at an election rally in Rhyll, North Wales.
• May 22 - Large trans-Neptunian object 28978 Ixion found during the Deep Ecliptic Survey.
• May 22 and May 23 - Official Opening of the Bahá'í Terraces on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel; site of the Shrine of the Báb and the Bahá'í World Centre.
• May 24 - Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to conquer Mount Everest.

2001 - June

• June 1 - Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal kills his father, the king, his mother and other members of the royal family with an assault rifle and then shoots himself. He dies June 4. King Gyanendra acceeds to the throne
• June 5-June 9 - Houston, Texas is devastated by flooding when Tropical Storm Allison produces 36 inches (900 mm) of rain. Particularly hard hit are the downtown area and the Texas Medical Center, which lost years of research and data and thousands of lab animals. Twenty-two people die; damage exceeds five billion American dollars.
• June 5 - Senator Jim Jeffords leaves the Republican party, an act which changes control of the United States Senate from the Republican party to the Democratic party
• June 7 - Tony Blair's Labour Party elected for second term in UK General Election
• June 8 - Popular editorial site suck.com, one of the first original content sites on the internet, publishes its final article, "Gone Fishin'."
• June 9 - The Colorado Avalanche win their second Stanley Cup Championship 3-1 in Game 7 over the New Jersey Devils at the Pepsi Center in Denver. This series was highly anticipated as longtime Boston Bruins star traded to become a Colorado defenseman Ray Bourque wins the Stanley Cup for the first time in his illustrious 22 year NHL career, a few days after the team's victory, Bourque announces his retirement.
• June 11 - The United States executes Timothy James McVeigh for the Oklahoma City Bombing.
• June 19 - 23 people killed and 11 wounded by an American missile hitting a soccer field in northern Iraq, Tel Afr County.
• June 20 - Pervez Musharraf becomes President of Pakistan after the resignation of Rafiq Tarar.
• June 20 - Andrea Yates drowns her children in a bathtub and confesses to her crime. She would get life in prison for it.
• June 21 - Total solar eclipse

2001 - July

• July 2 - World's first self-contained artificial heart implanted in Robert Tools.
• July 3 - A Vladivostokavia Tupolev Tu-154 jetliner crashes on approach to landing at Irkutsk, Russia killing 145
• July 16 - The FBI arrests Dmitry Sklyarov at a convention in Las Vegas for violating a provision of the DMCA.
• July 18 - In Baltimore, Maryland, a 60-car train derailment occurs in a tunnel sparking a fire that will last days and virtually shut down downtown Baltimore
• July 19 - UK politician and novelist Jeffrey Archer, sentenced to four years in prison for perjury and perverting the course of justice.
• July 20 - Vanessa Legget is found in contempt by a Federal Court for refusing to release notes made for her book on the Doris Angleton murder.
• July 20-22 - The 27th G8 summit takes place in Genoa, Italy. Massive demonstrations against the meeting by anti-globalisation groups. One demonstrator, Carlo Giuliani, is shot dead by a carabiniere and several others are badly injured during an attack by the police on a school which the protesters were using as their headquarters.
• July 24 - Tamil Tigers attack Bandaranaika International Airport in Sri Lanka, causing estimated $500 million of damages
• July 28 - Alejandro Toledo is sworn as the new president of Peru, eight months after the vote of no-confidence of former President Alberto Fujimori.

2001 - August

• August 1 - Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has a 2 1/2 ton monument of the Ten Commandments surreptitiously installed in the rotunda of the judiciary building. He would later be sued to have it removed. Later, he would be removed from office.
• August 2 - Robert Mueller confirmed as the new FBI director.
• August 5 - The Cleveland Indians defeat the Seattle Mariners 15-14 in a record-setting game known as the Impossible Return.
• August 6 - : George W. Bush is informed in his President's Daily Brief that Osama bin Laden is determined to strike targets within the United States and that the FBI believed activity consistent with preparations for hijacking US airplanes was underway.
• August 9 - US President George W. Bush announces his support for federal funding of limited research on embryonic stem cells.
• August 9 - In the Comoros, "military committee" of major Mohamad Bacar seizes power in the island of Anjouan, that had declared independence. They plan to rejoin the Comoros

2001 - September

• September 1 - Foundation of the Free State Project.
• September 4 - Google is awarded a patent, number 6,285,999, for the PageRank search algorithm used in the Google search engine
• September 5 - Peru's attorney general files homicide charges against ex-President Alberto Fujimori
• September 5 - Young Left formed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• September 6 - United States v. Microsoft: The United States Justice Department announces that it was no longer seeking to break-up software maker Microsoft and will instead seek a lesser antitrust penalty
• September 9 - Suicide bomber wounds Ahmed Shah Massoud, military commander of Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. He dies September 14
• September 10 - Norwegian parliamentary election, 2001
• September 10 U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld holds a press conference to disclose that over $2,000,000,000,000 in Pentagon funds cannot be accounted for. Rumsfeld states: "According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions."
• September 11 - Almost 3,000 killed in the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
• September 17 - The New York Stock Exchange reopens following the terrorist attacks in New York.
• September 18 - The 2001 anthrax attacks commence as anthrax letters are mailed from Princeton, New Jersey to ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, the New York Post, and the National Enquirer.

2001 - October

• October 2 - Bankruptcy of Swissair.
• October 4 - First case of anthrax in the US (attack) is announced by federal officials.
• October 4 - Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 crashes over the Black Sea en route from Tel Aviv Israel to Novosibirsk Russia - 78 dead.
• October 5 - Tom Ridge resigns as Governor of Pennsylvania to become the first director of the newly created United States Office of Homeland Security.
• October 7 - The American attack on Afghanistan begins. The United Kingdom participates.
• October 8 - MD-87 of SAS collides first with a private plane and then a building in Milano airport - 100 dead
• October 8 - The first comic of Tsunami Channel goes online. It would later go on to be the #1 comic of Keenspace (in terms of page views) until moving to its own server.
• October 9 - The 2001 anthrax attacks continue as anthrax letters are mailed from Princeton, New Jersey to Senators Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Patrick Leahy of Vermont.
• October 10 - War on Terrorism: US President George W. Bush presents a list of 22 most wanted terrorists
• October 12 - War on Terrorism: Prompted by a request by US President George W. Bush, an episode of America's Most Wanted aired featuring 22 most wanted terrorists
• October 15 - NASA's Galileo spacecraft passes within 112 miles of Jupiter's moon Io
• October 19 - SIEV-X sinks en route to Christmas Island
• October 20 - The Concert for New York City, "a celebration of the strength, resilience, and pride of New York and America" is held featuring performances by The Who, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Backstreet Boys, Billy Joel, Destiny's Child, Eric Clapton, Adam Sandler, Bon Jovi, Elton John and many more.
• October 23 - Apple Computer releases the now famous iPod.
• October 23 - Principal Financial Group files its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange.
• October 25 - Microsoft releases Windows XP

2001 - November

• November - The Doha Declaration relaxes the grip of international intellectual property law by a bit.
• November 4 - Hurricane Michelle hits Cuba destroying crops and thousands of homes.
• November 4 - The Police Service of Northern Ireland is established, replacing the discredited Royal Ulster Constabulary.
• November 6 - Britney Spears makes music history as the only musical artist to have her first 3 albums go to #1 on the Billboard 200.
• November 7 - Bankruptcy of Belgium's SABENA Airlines.
• November 7 - The super-sonic commercial aircraft Concorde resumes flying after a 15-month break.
• November 10 - China is admitted to the World Trade Organization after 15 years of negotiations.
• November 10 - John Howard, prime minister of Australia, is elected to a third term.
• November 11 - Mark McGwire announces his retirement from professional baseball.
• November 12 - In New York City, American Airlines Flight 587 crashes minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 on-board
• November 12 - 2001 Attack on Afghanistan: Taliban forces abandon Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, ahead of advancing Northern Alliance troops (Northern Alliance fighters took Kabul on November 14)
• November 13 - Doha Round: The World Trade Organization ends a four-day ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar.
• November 13 - Symbionese Liberation Army member Kathleen Soliah (Sara Jane Olsen) withdraws her previous guilty plea.
• November 13 - War on Terrorism: In the first such act since World War II, US President George W. Bush signs an executive order allowing military tribunals against any foreigners suspected of having connections to terrorist acts or planned acts on the United States
• November 22 - Pope John Paul II sends the first papal email from a laptop in his office.
• November 29 - Beatle George Harrison dies after a long battle with cancer

2001 - December

• December 2 - Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection five days after Dynegy canceled a US$8.4 billion buyout bid. At the time this was the largest bankruptcy in the history of the United States.
• December 3 - Officials announce that one of the Taliban prisoners captured after the prison uprising at Mazar-e Sharif is John Walker Lindh, an American citizen.
• December 11 - The United States government indicts Zacarias Moussaoui for involvement in the attacks on September 11th.
• December 13 - The Indian Parliament is attacked by terrorists, killing 14 people. This brings India and Pakistan to the brink of war.
• December 13 - U.S. President George W. Bush announces the United States' withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
• December 14 - Annular solar eclipse
• December 19 - A new world-record high barometric pressure of 1085.6 hPa (32.06 inHg) was set at Tosontsengel, Hövsgöl Aymag, Mongolia.
• December 19 - Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was released into theaters.
• December 21 - Japanese television performer Masashi Tashiro got No. 1 temporarily in the Internet vote of Time's Person of the Year.
• December 22 - Hamid Karzai is sworn in as head of the interim government in Afghanistan.
• December 22 - A Paris-Miami flight is diverted to Boston after passenger Richard Reid attempts to light his shoe, filled with explosives, on fire.
• December 27 - The People's Republic of China is granted permanent normal trade status with the United States.
• December 27 - Typhoon Vamei forms within 1.5 degrees of the equator. No other tropical cyclone in recorded history has come as close to the equator.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Events", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki