2002

This article is about the year 2002. For other uses, see 2002 (disambiguation).

Millennium:	3rd millennium
Centuries:	20th century 21st century 22nd century
Decades:	1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
Years:	1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

2002 by topic:

Arts

Architecture – Comics – Film – Home video – Literature (Poetry) – Music (Country, Metal, UK) – Radio – Television – Video gaming

Politics

Elections – Int'l leaders – Sovereign states Sovereign state leaders – Territorial governors

Science and technology

Archaeology – Aviation – Birding/Ornithology – Meteorology – Palaeontology – Rail transport – Spaceflight

Sports

Association football (soccer) – Athletics (track and field) – Baseball – Basketball – Boxing – Cricket – Golf – Horse racing – Ice hockey – Motorsport – Road cycling – Rugby league – Rugby union – Tennis

By place

Afghanistan – Algeria – Antarctica – Argentina – Armenia – Australia – Austria – Azerbaijan – Bangladesh – Belgium – Brazil – Canada – Chile – China – Costa Rica – Croatia – Cuba – Denmark – El Salvador – Egypt – Estonia – Ethiopia – European Union – Finland – France – Georgia – Germany – Ghana – Greece – Hungary – Iceland – India – Indonesia – Iraq – Iran – Ireland – Israel – Italy – Japan – Kenya – Latvia – Lithuania – Luxembourg – Malaysia – Mexico – Moldova – Netherlands – New Zealand – Norway – Pakistan – Palestinian territories – Philippines – Poland – Romania – Russia – Rwanda – Serbia – Singapore – South Africa – South Korea – Spain – Sri Lanka – Sweden – Taiwan – Thailand – Turkey – United Arab Emirates – United Kingdom – United States – Vietnam

Other topics

Awards – Law – Religious leaders

Birth and death categories

Births – Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments – Disestablishments

Works and introductions categories

Works – Introductions Works entering the public domain

2002 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	2002 MMII
Ab urbe condita	2755
Armenian calendar	1451 ԹՎ ՌՆԾԱ
Assyrian calendar	6752
Bahá'í calendar	158–159
Bengali calendar	1409
Berber calendar	2952
British Regnal year	50 Eliz. 2 – 51 Eliz. 2
Buddhist calendar	2546
Burmese calendar	1364
Byzantine calendar	7510–7511
Chinese calendar	辛巳年 (Metal Snake) 4698 or 4638     — to — 壬午年 (Water Horse) 4699 or 4639
Coptic calendar	1718–1719
Discordian calendar	3168
Ethiopian calendar	1994–1995
Hebrew calendar	5762–5763
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	2058–2059
- Shaka Samvat	1923–1924
- Kali Yuga	5102–5103
Holocene calendar	12002
Igbo calendar	1002–1003
Iranian calendar	1380–1381
Islamic calendar	1422–1423
Japanese calendar	Heisei 14 (平成１４年)
Javanese calendar	1934–1935
Juche calendar	91
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4335
Minguo calendar	ROC 91 民國91年
Nanakshahi calendar	534
Thai solar calendar	2545
Unix time	1009843200 – 1041379199

2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (dominical letter F) of the Gregorian calendar, the 2002nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 2nd year of the 3rd millennium, the 2nd year of the 21st century, and the 3rd year of the 2000s decade.

2002 was designated as:

• International Year of Ecotourism
• International Year of Mountains

Events

January

• January 1
  • The Open Skies mutual surveillance treaty, initially signed in 1992, officially enters into force.
  • The Euro is officially introduced in the Eurozone countries. The former currencies of all the countries that use the Euro ceased to be legal tender on February 28.
• January 3 – The Israeli Navy seizes a cargo ship trafficking 50 tons of weapons to the Palestinian National Authority.
• January 18 – The Sierra Leone Civil War comes to a conclusion with the defeat of the Revolutionary United Front by government forces.

February

• February 6 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom celebrates her Golden Jubilee, marking 50 years since her accession to the British throne.
• February 8–24 – The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City, Utah.
• 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.

• February 19 – NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.
• February 22 – UNITA guerilla leader Jonas Savimbi is killed in clashes against government troops led by Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos in Moxico Province, Angola. His death leads to the end of the Angolan Civil War on April 4.

March

• March 1 – The Envisat environmental satellite is launched, with its purpose being the recording of information on environmental change.
• March 27 – A Palestinian suicide bomber kills 30 people and injures 140 others at a hotel in Netanya, Israel, triggering Operation Defensive Shield, a large-scale counter-terrorism operation in the West Bank, two days later.

April

• April 2 – Israeli forces besiege the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, when militants took shelter there. The siege would last for 38 days.
• April 15 – Air China Flight 129 crashes into a hillside during heavy rain and fog near Busan, South Korea, killing 129 people.
• April 25 – South African Mark Shuttleworth blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on the Soyuz TM-34, becoming the first African space tourist.

May

• May 9 – A remote-control bomb explodes during a holiday parade in Kaspiysk, Russia, killing 44 people and injuring at least 130 more.
• May 20 – East Timor regains its independence after 26 years of occupation by Indonesia since 1975.
• May 24 – In Moscow, United States President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin sign the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty to replace the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972 and the START II Treaty of 1993.
• May 31–June 30 – The 2002 FIFA World Cup begins in South Korea and Japan; which is won by Brazil.

June

• June 6 – An object with an estimated diameter of 10 meters collides with Earth over the Mediterranean and detonates in mid-air.
• June 10 – The first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans, is carried out by Kevin Warwick in the United Kingdom.
• June 24 – A passenger train collides with a freight train in Dodoma Region, Tanzania, killing 281 people, making it the worst rail accident in African history.

July

• July 1
  • The Rome Statute comes in to force, thereby establishing the International Criminal Court.
  • A Russian passenger jet and cargo plane collide over the town of Überlingen, Germany, killing 71 people.
• July 9 – The Organization of African Unity is disbanded and replaced by the African Union.

August

• August 26 – Earth Summit 2002 begins in Johannesburg, South Africa, aimed at discussing sustainable development by the United Nations.

September

• September 10 – Switzerland joins the United Nations as the 190th member state after rejecting a place in 1986.
• September 19 – General Robert Guéï leads an army mutiny in an attempt to overthrow Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, plunging the country in to civil war.
• September 25 – The Vitim event, a possible bolide impact, occurs in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia.
• September 26 – The Senegalese passenger ferry Joola capsizes in a storm off the coast of the Gambia, killing 1,863 people.
• September 27 – East Timor is admitted to the United Nations as the 191st member state.

October

• October 12 – Jemaah Islamiyah militants detonate multiple bombs in two nightclubs in Kuta, Indonesia, killing 202 people and injuring over 300 in the worst terrorist act in Indonesia's history.
• October 23–25 – 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.

November

• November 7 – A sovereignty referendum is held in Gibraltar. The people reject Spanish sovereignty.
• 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.
• November 19 – The Greek oil tanker Prestige splits in half and sinks off the coast of Galicia, releasing over 20 million US gallons (76,000 m³) of oil in the largest environmental disaster in Spanish and Portuguese history.
• 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.

December

• December 23 – A U.S. MQ-1 Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25 in the first combat engagement between a drone and conventional aircraft.
• December 27 – A suicide truck-bomb attack destroys the headquarters of Chechnya's Moscow-backed government, killing 72 people.

Births

• February 5 – Davis Cleveland, American child actor
• April 8 – Skai Jackson, American actress
• May 6 – Emily Alyn Lind, American child actress
• July 22 – Prince Felix of Denmark, Prince of Denmark
• September 30 – Maddie Ziegler, American dancer
• October 6 – Cleopatra Stratan, Moldovan child singer
• November 19 – Gaia Cauchi, Maltese child singer

Deaths

Main article: Deaths in 2002

January

Cyrus Vance

Peggy Lee

Astrid Lindgren

• January 8 – Alexander Prokhorov, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1916)
• January 12 – Cyrus Vance, American politician, 59th United States Secretary of State (b. 1917)
• January 17 – Camilo José Cela, Spanish writer (b. 1916)
• January 19 – Vavá, Brazilian footballer (b. 1934)
• January 22
  • Jack Shea, American double-Gold medalist in skating speedly (b. 1910)
  • Peggy Lee, American singer and actress (b. 1920)
• January 23
  • Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist (b. 1930)
  • Robert Nozick, American philosopher (b. 1938)
• January 28 – Astrid Lindgren, Swedish children's book author (b. 1907)

February

Princess Margaret

Chuck Jones

• February 1 – Hildegard Knef, German actress (b. 1925)
• February 6 – Max Perutz, Austrian-born molecular biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1914)
• February 8 – Thomaz Soares da Silva, Brazilian football player (b. 1921)
• February 9 – Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (b. 1930)
• February 10 – Traudl Junge, German private secretary of Adolf Hitler (b. 1920)
• February 12 – John Eriksen, Danish football player (b. 1957)
• February 13 – Waylon Jennings, American country music singer (b. 1937)
• February 14 – Nándor Hidegkuti, Hungarian footballer (b. 1922)
• February 15 – Kevin Smith, New Zealand actor (b. 1963)
• February 16 – Walter Winterbottom, English football manager (b. 1913)
• February 22
  • Chuck Jones, American animator (b. 1912)
  • Jonas Savimbi, Angolan rebel and political leader (b. 1934)
• February 24 – Leo Ornstein, American composer and pianist (b. 1895)
• February 27 – Spike Milligan, English-Irish comedian, writer, and poet (b. 1918)

March

Dudley Moore

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother

• March 11
  • Marion Dönhoff, German journalist (b. 1909)
  • James Tobin, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
• March 12 – Spyros Kyprianou, 2nd President of Cyprus (b. 1932)
• March 13 – Hans-Georg Gadamer, German philosopher (b. 1900)
• March 20 – Ibn al-Khattab, Saudi guerrilla (b. 1969)
• March 24 – César Milstein, Argentine scientist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1927)
• March 27
  • Milton Berle, American comedian and actor (b. 1908)
  • Dudley Moore, English pianist, comedian, and actor (b. 1935)
  • Billy Wilder, Polish-American film screenwriter and director (b. 1906)
• March 30 – The Queen Mother, consort of George VI of the United Kingdom and mother of Elizabeth II (b. 1900)

April

Thor Heyerdahl

• April 1 – Simo Häyhä, Finnish sniper (b. 1905)
• April 5 – Layne Staley, American singer (Alice in Chains) (b. 1967)
• April 8 – María Félix, Mexican actress (b. 1914)
• April 9 – Leopold Vietoris, Austrian mathematician (b. 1891)
• April 16
  • Robert Urich, American actor (b. 1946)
  • Ramiro de León Carpio, 31st President of Guatemala (b. 1942)
• April 18 – Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer (b. 1914)
• April 22 – Linda Lovelace, American pornographic actress (b. 1949)
• April 25 – Lisa Lopes, American rapper (TLC) (b. 1971)
• April 27
  • George Alec Effinger, American author (b. 1947)
  • Ruth Handler, American toy manufacturer (b. 1916)
• April 28 – Lou Thesz, American professional wrestler (b. 1916)

May

Pim Fortuyn

• May 5 – Hugo Banzer, Bolivian politician, 62nd and 75th President of Bolivia (b. 1926)
• May 6 – Pim Fortuyn, Dutch politician, author and professor (b. 1948)
• May 11 – Joseph Bonanno, Italian-born gangster (b. 1905)
• May 13 – Valeriy Lobanovskyi, Ukrainian football manager (b. 1939)
• May 17 – László Kubala, Hungarian footballer (b. 1927)
• May 18 – Davey Boy Smith, British professional wrestler (b. 1962)
• May 19 – John Gorton, Australian politician, 19th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1911)
• May 20 – Stephen Jay Gould, American paleontologist and author (b. 1941)
• May 21 – Niki de Saint Phalle, French artist (b. 1930)
• May 23 – Sam Snead, American golfer (b. 1912)
• May 26 – Mamo Wolde, Ethiopian runner (b. 1932)

June

Fernando Belaúnde Terry

Dee Dee Ramone

• June 4 – Fernando Belaúnde Terry, Peruvian politician, 85th and 88th President of Peru (b. 1912)
• June 5 – Dee Dee Ramone, American bassist (b. 1951)
• June 7 – Lilian, Princess of Réthy, Belgian princess (b. 1916)
• June 10 – John Gotti, American gangster (b. 1940)
• June 15 - Choi Hong Hi, Korean martial artist (b. 1918)
• June 17 – Fritz Walter, German footballer (b. 1920)
• June 24 – Pierre Werner, Luxembourgian politician, 19th and 21st Prime Minister of Luxembourg (b. 1913)
• June 27 – John Entwistle, English bassist (The Who) (b. 1944)
• June 29 – Rosemary Clooney, American singer and actress (b. 1928)
• June 30 – Chico Xavier, Brazilian medium (b. 1910)

July

Rod Steiger

Joaquín Balaguer

• July 2 – Ray Brown, American bassist (b. 1926)
• July 5
  • Katy Jurado, Mexican actress (b. 1924)
  • Ted Williams, American baseball player (b. 1918)
• July 6
  • Dhirubhai Ambani, Indian businessman (b. 1932)
  • John Frankenheimer, American film director (b. 1930)
• July 8 – Ward Kimball, American cartoonist (b. 1914)
• July 9 – Rod Steiger, American actor (b. 1925)
• July 13 – Yousuf Karsh, Turkish-born photographer (b. 1908)
• July 14 – Joaquín Balaguer, Dominican politician, 41st, 45th and 49th President of the Dominican Republic (b. 1906)
• July 16 – John Cocke, American computer scientist (b. 1925)
• July 17 – Joseph Luns, Dutch politician and diplomat, 5th Secretary General of NATO (b. 1911)
• July 19 – Alan Lomax, American folklorist and musicologist (b. 1915)
• July 23 – Chaim Potok, American author and rabbi (b. 1929)
• July 28 – Archer John Porter Martin, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)

August

Edsger W. Dijkstra

• August 6 – Edsger W. Dijkstra, Dutch computer scientist (b. 1930)
• August 14 – Dave Williams, American singer (b. 1972)
• August 16 – Abu Nidal, Palestinian militant (b. 1937)
• August 31
  • Lionel Hampton, American musician (b. 1908)
  • George Porter, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1920)

September

Bob Hayes

• September 11 – Kim Hunter, American actress (b. 1922)
• September 18 – Bob Hayes, American athlete (b. 1942)
• September 19 – Robert Guéï, Ivorian military ruler (b. 1941)

October

• October 6 – Prince Claus of the Netherlands, German-born Prince Consort of Queen Beatrix (since 1980), father of King Willem-Alexander (b. 1926)
• October 9
  • Aileen Wuornos, American serial killer (b. 1956)
• October 12 – Ray Conniff, American musician and bandleader (b. 1916)
• October 13 – Stephen Ambrose, American historian and biographer (b. 1936)
• October 18 – Nikolay Rukavishnikov, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1932)
• October 25 – Richard Harris, Irish actor (b. 1930)
• October 30 – Jam Master Jay, American Hip-Hop DJ (b. 1965)
• October 31 – Michail Stasinopoulos, 1st President of Greece (b. 1903)

November

James Coburn

• November 7 – Rudolf Augstein, German journalist, founder and part-owner of German magazine Der Spiegel (b. 1923)
• November 12 – Károly Doncsecz, Slovenian potter (b. 1918)
• November 15
  • Myra Hindley, English murderer (b. 1942)
  • Sohn Kee-Chung, Korean Olympic athlete (b. 1912)
• November 17 – Abba Eban, Israeli politician and diplomat, 3rd Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1915)
• November 18 – James Coburn, American actor (b. 1928)
• November 19 – Max Reinhardt, British publisher (b. 1915)
• November 24 – John Rawls, American political theorist (b. 1921)

December

• December 3 – Glenn Quinn, Irish actor (b. 1970)
• December 5 – Ne Win, Burmese military commander, 4th President of Burma (b. 1910)
• December 22
  • Desmond Hoyte, Guyanese politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Guyana and 4th President of Guyana (b. 1929)
  • Joe Strummer, British musician (The Clash) (b. 1952)

Nobel Prizes

• Chemistry – John B. Fenn and Koichi Tanaka, Kurt Wüthrich
• Economics – Daniel Kahneman and Vernon L. Smith
• Literature – Imre Kertész
• Peace – Jimmy Carter
• Physics – Raymond Davis Jr. and Masatoshi Koshiba, Riccardo Giacconi
• Physiology or Medicine – Sydney Brenner, H. Robert Horvitz, and John E. Sulston

External links

• 2002 Year-End Google Zeitgeist – Google's Yearly List of Major Events and Top Searches for 2002
• Top Stories of 2002 - CNN
• Year in Review - Netscape