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January
13th |
The musical show ''The Fantasticks'' was performed for the last time, after almost 42 years and more than 17,000 performances. |
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January
22nd |
AOL Time Warner brought forth a lawsuit against Microsoft after the later began giving away its browser which was competing with Netscape navigator. |
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January
22nd |
The Kmart Corp, one of largest retailers in the United States, filed for bankruptcy protection. |
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January
28th |
An Ecuadorian passenger jet crashed in the Andes mountains resulting in the death of 92 people. |
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February
22nd |
American animator and director, Chuck Jones, died at the age of 89. He directed many of the original short animated cartoons of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series. |
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February
24th |
The closing ceremony if the 19th Winter Olympic Games took place in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. |
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February
28th |
Civil unrest in Ahmadabad, India resulted in the death of more than 50 people. |
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March
3rd |
Switzerland voted favourably to becoming a member of the United Nations. Switzerland was one of the last widely recognized nations to be admitted in the United Nations. |
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March
10th |
Israeli attack helicopters destroyed the offices of the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Gaza City. The destruction had come as reprisals for the death of 11 Israelis who were killed in a suicide bombing a few hours earlier. |
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March
12th |
Cypriot politician, Spyros Kyprianou, died at the age of 69. He was twice the president of the Republic of Cyprus. |
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March
14th |
In Ringgold, Georgia, USA, 125 vehicles were involved in one of the largest vehicle mass collisions in history. |
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March
22nd |
A court in Britain, acknowledges the right, of a woman who was paralyzed from the neck down, to have her life support equipment be turned off. |
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March
27th |
British comedy actor, Dudley Moore, died at the age of 66 in Plainfield, New Jersey. He suffered from progressive supranuclear palsy. He is most remembered for his roles in the movies "10" and "Arthur". |
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March
27th |
American director, Billy Wilder, died at the age of 96. He was one of Hollywood's most celebrated directors, having produced such classics as "Sunset Boulevard" and "Some like It Hot". |
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April
1st |
Euthanasia was legalized in the Netherlands. |
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April
11th |
A coup against President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela took place. Chavez, who was restored to power within 48 hours, has often stated that it is his belief that the US administration of President George Bush was behind the coup attempt. |
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April
15th |
An Air China flight to South Korea crashed near Pusan, South Korea, 128 people die in the crash. |
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April
26th |
Robert Steinhauser, a 19 year old student in Erfurt, Germany entered the grounds of his school (from which he had been expelled) and murdered 17 people before turning his gun on himself. |
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May
4th |
A flight of Nigerian based airliner EAS crashed soon after taking off from the airport of Kano, Nigeria. 148 people died in the crash. |
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May
12th |
Former US president, Jimmy Carter, arrived in Cuba for good will visit with Cuban president, Fidel Castro. He was the first US president, in or out of office, to visit Cuba since the 1959 revolution. |
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May
25th |
A China Airlines aircraft broke apart in mid-air and crashed into the Straight of Taiwan. 225 people died in the crash. |
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May
25th |
A train crash in Tenga, Mozambique resulted in the death of approximately 200 people. |
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June
5th |
Web browser, Mozilla version 1.0, was released to the public. |
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June
14th |
A car bomb exploded in front of the US consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, resulting in the death of 12 people and the injuring of 50 more. |
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June
22nd |
An earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale struck the western part of Iran, killing more than 250 people. |
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June
30th |
Brazil won its fifth FIFA World Cup title. |
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July
9th |
The African Union was established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. |
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August
19th |
A Russian army helicopter carrying troops was hit by a Chechen missile outside of Grozny. All 118 soldiers on board were killed. |
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August
26th |
The Earth Summit 2002 began in Johannesburg, South Africa. |
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September
10th |
Switzerland joined the United Nations. |
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September
23th |
The Mozilla Firefox, then known as Phoenix, web browser was born. |
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October
12th |
Terrorists detonated bombs in two nightclubs in Kuta, Bali. The explosions claimed the lives of 202 people and wounded over 300. |
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October
23th |
Chechen terrorists seized the House of Culture theatre in Moscow and took over 900 people hostage. There were 33 terrorists involved, all of whom, were killed when Russian special forces raided the theatre after first dispersing some form of knock-out gas in the building. Unfortunately 128 hostages also died from the inhalation of the gas used. |
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October
25th |
Irish actor, Richard Harris, died at the age of 72. He was one of the most famous and talented Irish actors of all time and a peer of fellow british actors Albert Finney, Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole. |
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November
6th |
Holywood star, Winona Ryder, was found guilty of shoplifting after stealing items worth several thousand dollars from the Saks Fifth Avenue department store in Beverly Hills, California. |
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November
18th |
American actor, James Coburn, died at the age of 74. |
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November
21st |
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) formally invited Slovenia, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Bulgaria to join the alliance. |
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November
22nd |
During the Miss World contest in Nigeria more than 150 people were killed after riots broke out. The riots were sparked after a newspaper article suggested that the Prophet Muhamed would had chosen one of his wives from among the contestants. The event was canceled and was held at a later day in England. |
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December
27th |
Two truck bombs kill 72 and wound 200 at the pro-Moscow headquarters of the Chechen government in Grozny, Chechnya. |
