2000

This page is about the year 2000. See 2000 AD for the UK comic book, Number 2000 for other uses.

2000 is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. Popular culture also holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium. By strict interpretation of the Gregorian Calendar, however, this distinction falls to the year 2001.

The year 2000 is also marked as:

• The International Year for a Culture of Peace.
• The World Mathematical Year.

Events

January

• January 1
  • Millennium celebrations take place throughout the world. Y2K passes without the serious, widespread computer failures and malfunctions that had been predicted.
• January 5-January 8 – The 2000 al-Qaida Summit
• January 6 – The last remaining Pyrenean Ibex is found dead.
• January 10 – America On-line announces an agreement to buy Time Warner for $162 billion. This is the largest-ever corporate merger.
• January 11 – AIS, the armed wing of FIS, concludes its negotiations with the government for an amnesty and disbands in Algeria.
• January 11 – The trawler Solway Harvester sinks off the Isle of Man.
• January 14 – A United Nations tribunal sentences five Bosnian Croats up to 25 years for the 1993 killing of over 100 Muslims in a Bosnian village.
• January 16 – In Sacramento, California a commercial truck carrying evaporated milk is driven into the state capitol building killing the driver.
• January 31 – Dr Harold Shipman in sentenced to life in prison for murder of at least 15 of his patients out of 365 suspected victims.

February

• February 6 – Tarja Halonen is elected the first Finnish female president.
• February 13 – Final original Peanuts comic strip is published.
• February 14 – The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker entered orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.
• February 29 – This leap year day is the last in a turn of the century year until February 29, 2400.

March

• March 1
  • The Constitution of Finland is rewritten.
  • Hans Blix assumes the position of Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC.
• March 9 – FBI arrests suspected purveyor of art forgeries, Ely Sakhai, in New York City.
• March 10 – The NASDAQ Composite Index reaches an all-time high of 5048. ([1])
• March 18 – 2000 Taiwanese presidential election: Chen Shui-bian is elected President of the Republic of China.
• March 20 – Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a former Black Panther, is captured after gun battle that left a sheriff's deputy dead.
• March 26 – Presidential elections in Russia: Vladimir Putin elected President.
• March 30 – America's Cup 2000 retained by Team New Zealand near Auckland. Prada Challenge 2000 lost 0–5 in a "best-of-9".

April

• April 1 – Japanese prime minister Obuchi Keizo suffers a stroke and falls into a coma.
• April 3 – United States v. Microsoft: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors.
• April 5 – Mori Yoshiro replaces Obuchi as prime minister of Japan.
• April 7 – Attack submarine ex-Trepang completes being recycled.
• April 16 – Tuanku Syed Putra ibni Almarhum Syed Hassan Jamalullail, Raja of Perlis dies after a reign of 55 years. He was the longest reigning monarch in the world since the death of Prince Franz Joseph II of Liechtenstein.
• April 17 – Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin becomes Raja of Perlis.
• April 22 – In a predawn raid, federal agents seize six-year old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami, Florida and fly him to his Cuban father in Washington, DC ending one of the most publicized custody battles in US history.
• April 25 – The State of Vermont passes HB847, legalizing Civil Unions for same-sex couples.

May

• May 3 – A rare conjunction occurs on the New Moon including all seven of the traditional celestial bodies known from ancient times up until 1781 with the discovery or Uranus. The May 2000 conjunction consisted of: the Sun and Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
• May 3 – Computer pioneer Datapoint Corporation files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
• May 12 – The Tate Modern opens in London.
• May 13 – In Enschede a heavy fireworks explosion kills 20 and leaves a builded area in ruins.
• May 18 – Boo.com collapses due to lack of funds after six months.
• May 25 – Israel withdraws IDF troops from southern Lebanon after 22 years.
• May 28 – The volcano Mount Cameroon erupts.

June

• June 10
  • The New Jersey Devils defeat the Dallas Stars 4 games to 2 to win the 2000 Stanley Cup Finals.
  • The 2000 European Football Championship begins, hosted jointly by Belgium and the Netherlands.
• June 21 – Section 28, a law preventing the promotion of homosexuality is repealed by the Scottish Parliament.
• June 23 – Palace Backpackers Hostel fire in Childers, Queensland, Australia, kills 15 people.
• June 30 – During a set of the band Pearl Jam at the Roskilde Festival near Copenhagen, 9 die and 26 are injured in the crowd.

July

• July 2 – France beat Italy 2–1 at the final of the 2000 European Football Championship.
• July 2 – Presidential election of Mexico. Vicente Fox wins the Presidency as candidate of the rightist PAN (National Action Party).
• July 10 – In southern Nigeria, a leaking petroleum pipeline explodes killing about 250 villagers who were scavenging gasoline
• July 18 – Alex Salmond resigns as the leader of the Scottish National Party
• July 25 – A Concorde supersonic passenger jet crashes just after takeoff from Paris killing all 109 aboard and 5 on the ground.

August

• August 8 – Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor.
• August 12 – Russian submarine Kursk sinks in the Barents Sea. All 118 men aboard die.
• August 14 – The first comic of MegaTokyo goes online. This web comic will later become one of the most popular comics on the web (in terms of page views) and spawn numerous imitators.

September

• September 6 – In New York City, the United Nations Millennium Summit begins with more than 180 world leaders present.
• September 6 – The last wholly Swedish-owned arms manufacturer, Bofors, is sold to American arms manufacturer United Defense
• September 7–14 – The UK fuel protests take place, with refineries blockaded, and supply to the country's network of petrol stations halted.
• September 15 – The 2000 Summer Olympics are opened in Sydney, Australia.
• September 16 – Ukrainian journalist Georgiy Gongadze is last seen alive; this day is taken as the commemoration date of his death.
• September 24 – The American Family Association begins lobbying the U.S. Congress to eradicate the National Endowment for the Arts for funding the controversial book One of the Guys by Robert Clark Young
• September 28 – Ariel Sharon leads several hundred armed Israelis in a visit to the Temple Mount, provoking an increase in Palestinian civil disorder which developed into the Al-Aqsa Intifada.
• September 29 – HM Prison Maze in Northern Ireland is closed.

October

• October 4 – President Slobodan Milosevic leaves office after widespread demonstrations throughout Serbia and the withdrawal of Russian support.
• October 11 – 250 million gallons of coal sludge spill in Martin County, Kentucky. Considered a greater environmental disaster than the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
• October 12 – In Aden, Yemen, the USS Cole is badly damaged by two suicide bombers who placed a small boat laden with explosives along-side the United States Navy destroyer, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least 39.
• October 22 – Mainichi Shinbun exposes Japanese archeologist Shinichi Fujimura as a fraud.
• October 31 – Singapore Airlines Flight 6 collides with construction equipment in the Chiang Kai Shek International Airport – 83 dead.
• October 31 – The last Multics machine is shut down.

November

• November – Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq rejects new U.N. Security Council weapons inspections proposals
• November 3 – Widespread flooding throughout England and Wales after days of heavy rain
• November 7 – U.S. presidential election, 2000: Republican challenger George W. Bush defeats Democrat Vice President Al Gore, but the final outcome is not known for over a month because of disputed votes in Florida.
• November 7 – Criminal gang raids the Millennium Dome to steal The Millennium Star diamond but police surveillance catches them in the act
• November 7 – Hillary Rodham Clinton is elected to the United States Senate, becoming the first First Lady of the United States to win public office
• November 11 – Kaprun disaster, Austria, where 155 skiers and snowboarders die when a cable car catches fire in an alpine tunnel.
• November 13 – Richard C. Duncan presents his paper, "The Peak Of World Oil Production And The Road To The Olduvai Gorge", on the Olduvai theory (about the collapse of the industrial civilization), at the Summit 2000 Pardee Keynote Symposia of the Geological Society of America)
• November 14 – Netscape Navigator version 6.0 is launched following two years of open source development creating a stable Mozilla web browser upon which it is based
• November 16 – Bill Clinton becomes the first sitting US President to visit Vietnam
• November 17 – Alberto Fujimori is removed from office as president of Peru
• November 27 – Canada – Parliamentary elections – Jean Chrétien re-elected as Prime Minister as Liberal Party increases majority in House of Commons
• November 28 – Ukrainian politician Oleksander Moroz touches off the Cassette Scandal by publicly accusing President Leonid Kuchma of involvement in the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze.

December

• December 1 – Mexico – Vicente Fox becomes the first opposition President to take office since Francisco I. Madero in 1911. He wins the Presidency as candidate of the rightist PAN (National Action Party).
• December 13 – The Texas 7 escape from their prison unit in Kenedy, Texas and start a crime spree.
• December 14 – The Texas 7 rob a Radio Shack in Pearland, Texas. They would use in their ensuing heist the police scanners they stole there.
• December 24 – The Texas 7 rob a sports store in Irving, Texas. Police officer Aubrey Hawkins is shot dead.
• December 28 – U.S. retail giant Montgomery Ward announces it is going out of business after 128 years.
• December 30 – Rizal Day Bombings: A series of bombs explode in various places in Metro Manila, Philippines, within a span of a few hours killing 22 and injuring about a hundred.

Unknown Date

• Limited reintroduction of routinely armed police in the UK for the first time since 1936.
• Scientists at University of Szeged's laboratory were first in the world to produce artificial heredity material.

Births

• February 23 – Max & Sam Christy, child actors
• April 4 – Alyssa & Lauren Libby, child actresses
• April 25 – Jacob & Joshua Rips, child actors
• May 20 – Leo Blair, son of the Rt Hon Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Cherie Booth QC.
• October 6 – Amanda & Rachel Pace, child actresses
• October 20 – Cooper Guynes, child actor, nephew of Demi Moore
• October 20 – Oliver Guynes, child actor, nephew of Demi Moore
• November 8 – Madison Poer, child actress
• November 8 – Marissa Poer, child actress

Deaths

January-April

• January 19 – Bettino Craxi, 65, Italian former prime minister (1983-1987)
• January 19 – Hedy Lamarr, 86, A glamourous Austrian actress who married six times
• February 9 – Beau Jack, 78, boxer
• February 7 – Big Pun, 28, rapper
• February 11 – Roger Vadim, 72, French movie director who married Brigitte Bardot and Jane Fonda
• February 12 – Charles M. Schulz, 77, creator of the Peanuts comic strip
• February 12 – Screamin' Jay Hawkins, 70, American rock musician
• February 12 – Tom Landry, American football coach
• February 23 – Sir Stanley Matthews, 85, first footballer to be knighted
• April 6 – Habib Bourguiba, president of Tunisia (1957-1997)
• April 14 – Wilf Mannion, 81, English footballer who graced the Middlesbrough and England teams (b. 1918)
• April 16 – Tuanku Syed Putra ibni Almarhum Syed Hassan Jamalullail, Raja of Perlis and former 3rd Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
• April 25 – David Merrick, 91, American Broadway producer
• April 29 – Phạm Văn Ðồng, Prime Minister of North Vietnam from 1954 through 1976, and was Prime Minister of reunified Vietnam from 1976 until he retired in 1986 (b. 1906)

May-August

• May 11 – Paula Wessely, Austrian actress (b. 1907)
• May 14 – Obuchi Keizo, Japanese prime minister (b. 1937)
• May 17 – Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1909)
• May 19 – Yevgeny Khrunov, cosmonaut {b. 1933)
• May 20 – Edward Bernds, American director (b. 1905)
• May 20 – Jean Pierre Rampal, French flutist (b. 1922)
• May 21 – Sir John Gielgud, British actor (b. 1904)
• May 21 – Dame Barbara Cartland, romance novel author (b. 1901)
• May 27 – Maurice Richard, hockey player (b. 1921)
• June 10 – Hafez al-Assad, president of Syria from 1971 until his death (b. 1930)
• June 14 – Robert Trent Jones, Sr., golf course architect (b. 1906)
• June 17  – Brian Statham, English cricketer (b. 1930)
• June 18 – Nancy Marchand, actress (cancer) (b. 1928)
• July 1 – Walter Matthau, American actor (heart attack) (b. 1920
• July 11 – Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1921)
• July 14 – Meredith MacRae, American actress (b. May 30, 1944)
• July 30 – Bertil Karlberg, Swedish politician
• August 5 – Sir Alec Guinness, British actor and writer (liver cancer) (b. 1914)
• August 25 – Carl Barks, cartoonist (b. 1901).

September-December

• September 2 – Elvera Sanchez, Puerto Rican dancer (b. 1905)
• September 16 – Georgiy Gongadze, Ukrainian journalist (b. 1969)
• September 20 – Gherman Titov, cosmonaut (b. 1935)
• September 23 – Aurelio Rodríguez, Mexican Major League Baseball player (b. 1947)
• September 25 – R. S. Thomas, Welsh poet (b. 1913)
• September 26 – Carl Sigman, American songwriter (b. 1909)
• September 28 – Pierre Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1919)
• October 11 – Donald Dewar, First Minister of the Scottish Parliament (cerebral hemorrhage) (b. 1937)
• October 27 – Walter Berry, Austrian bass-baritone (b. 1929)
• October 30 – Steve Allen, American comedian, composer, talk show host, and author (b. 1921)
• November 11 – Hugh Paddick, British actor (b. 1915)
• November 28 – Liane Haid, Austrian actress (b. 1895)
• December 6 – Werner Klemperer, German actor (b. 1920)
• December 31 – Rabbi Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane, extreme Israeli settler leader (shot) (b. 1966)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Zhores Ivanovich Alferov, Herbert Kroemer, Jack Kilby
• Chemistry – Alan J Heeger, Alan G MacDiarmid, Hideki Shirakawa
• Medicine – Arvid Carlsson, Paul Greengard, Eric R. Kandel
• Literature – Gao Xingjian
• Peace – Kim Dae Jung
• Economics – James Heckman, Daniel McFadden