2001

This article is about the year 2001. For information on the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, see 2001: A Space Odyssey.

2001 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. By strict interpretation of the Gregorian Calendar, 2001 is also the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium. Popular culture, however, often views the year 2000 as holding this distinction.

2001 is also the year which marks:

• The International Year of the Volunteer
• The United Nations Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations

Events

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 13 – Major earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale hits all El Salvador.
• January 15 – Wikipedia, a Wiki free content encyclopedia, goes online (Wikipedia Day).
• January 16 – The first comic of Okashina Okashi goes online.
• 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.
• January 23-25 – UN war crimes prosecutor Del Ponte demands that Serbia hand over Slobodan Milosevic.
• January 24 –
  • The last two of the "Texas 7" are taken into custody in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
  • 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.
  • An earthquake hits Gujarat, India. More than 20,000 deaths and most of the historical city is destroyed.
• January 29 – Thousands of student protesters in Indonesia storm parliament and demand that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign due to alleged involvement in corruption scandals.
• 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.

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 measuring 6.6 on the Richter Scale hits El Salvador, killing at least 400
• February 16 – Baghdad suburb bombed by US and UK war planes, 3 people killed.
• 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.
  • 2001 UK foot and mouth crisis begins.
• February 28 – An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter Scale hits the Nisqually Valley area of Washington. There was one reported death, an elderly woman who suffered a heart attack.

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 version 10.0 is released.
• March 31 – Invader Zim premieres.

April

• April 1
  • An American EP-3E spyplane collides with a Chinese F-8 fighter jet and is forced to make an emergency landing in Hainan, China. The U.S. crew was detained for 10 days and the Chinese pilot, Wang Wei, went missing and presumed dead.
  • Former president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic surrenders to police special forces, to be tried on charges of war crimes.
  • 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

May

• May 1 –
  • The Japanese cities of Urawa, Omiya, and Yono merge to form the city of Saitama.
  • Police declare the disappearance of Chandra Levy. Her remains were discovered a year later.
• 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 19 – One child policy: Zhonghua Sun is put to death by the People's Republic of China government officials because she refused to be sterilized.
• May 22 – Large trans-Neptunian object 28978 Ixion found during the Deep Ecliptic Survey.
• May 24 – Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to conquer Mount Everest.

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 three days later
• June 5-June 9 – Houston, Texas is devastated by flooding when Tropical Storm Allison dumps 36 inches (900 mm) of rain on the city. 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 defeat the New Jersey Devils to win the Stanley Cup in the 2001 Stanley Cup Finals.
• June 11 – The United States carries out "the severest sentence for the gravest of crimes," fulfilling "the court order to execute inmate Timothy James McVeigh" for the Oklahoma City Bombing. President George W. Bush later says that McVeigh "met the fate he chose for himself six years ago."
• 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

July

• July 2 – World's first self-contained artificial heart implanted in Robert Tools.
• 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 – G8 meeting takes place in Genoa, Italy. Massive demonstrations against the meeting by anti-globalisation groups. One demonstrator 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.

August

• August 1 – Law goes into effect in Germany legalizing same-sex marriages.
• August 2 – Robert Mueller confirmed as the new FBI director.
• August 7 – Usher released his album 8701
• August 9 – US President George W. Bush announces his support for federal funding of limited research on embryonic stem cells.

September

• September 4 – Google Inc. 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 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 – Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance, is assassinated in Afghanistan
• September 11 – Around 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.

October

• October 2 – Bankruptcy of Swissair.
• October 4 – First case of anthrax in the US (attack) is announced by federal officials.
• 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
  • 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 14 – Ukrainian military missile shoots down an Israeli passenger plane over Black Sea – 76 dead
• October 15 – NASA's Galileo spacecraft passes within 112 miles of Jupiter's moon Io
• 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, 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 25 – Microsoft releases Windows XP

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.
• November 4 – The Arizona Diamondbacks defeat the New York Yankees 4 games to 3 in the World Series.
• November 7 – Bankruptcy of Belgium's SABENA Airlines.
• November 7 – The super-sonic commercial aircraft Concorde resumes flying after a 15-month break.
• November 8 – Microsoft releases the Xbox console gaming system to the public.
• 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 16 – The first Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, is released, grossing US $975.8 million, becoming the second highest grossing film around the world of all time.
• November 18 – Nintendo releases the GameCube console gaming system to the public.
• November 22 – Pope John Paul II sends the first papal email from a laptop in his office.

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 mb (32.06 inches Hg) was set at Tosontsengel, Hövsgöl Aymag, Mongolia.
• 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.

Births

• February 28 – Smarty Jones, winner of the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness
• June 13 – Scott & Zachary Benes, child actors

Deaths

For more deaths see: Deaths in 2001

January-February

• January 3 – José Greco, flamenco dancer (b. 1918)
• January 12 – William Hewlett, cofounder of Hewlett-Packard (b. 1913)
• January 16 – Laurent-Desire Kabila, president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (assassinated; death officially confirmed on January 18)
• January 28 – Curt Blefary, Major League Baseball player (b. 1943)
• January 30, Jean-Pierre Aumont, French actor (b. 1911)
• January 30 – Johnnie Johnson, top British and Commonwealth ace during WW2 (b. 1915)
• January 31, Gordon R. Dickson, Canadian science fiction writer (b. 1923)
• February 4 – Iannis Xenakis, Greek composer (b. 1922)
• February 7:
  • Dale Evans, American actress, singer
  • Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American author, aviator (b. 1906)
• February 12 – Kristina Söderbaum, German actress and photographer
• February 16 – Bob Buhl, Major League Baseball player (b. 1928)
• February 18:
  • Balthus, French painter
  • Dale Earnhardt, American NASCAR race car driver (b. 1951)
• February 19:
  • Priscilla Davis, Fort Worth, Texas socialite (b. 1942)
  • Stanley Kramer, American movie director (b. 1913)
  • Charles Trenet, popular French singer
• February 24 – Claude Elwood Shannon, mathematician (b. 1916)
• February 25 – Sir Donald Bradman, cricketer (b. 1908)

March-May

• March 4 – Glenn Hughes — leather dude Popular Music group The Village People
• March 4 – Harold Stassen, American politician (b. 1907)
• March 11 – Russ Hass – American professional wrestler (coronary heart disease)
• March 12:
  • Morton Downey Jr., American television personality (b. 1933)
  • Robert Ludlum, author of spy novels (b. 1927)
  • Ann Sothern, actress
• March 18 – John Phillips, American singer, co-founder of popular music group The Mamas and the Papas (b. 1935)
• March 21 – Norma Macmillan, cartoon voice actress (b. 1921)
• March 22 – William Hanna, cofounder (with Joseph Barbera) of the Hanna-Barbera animation studio
• April 7 – Beatrice Straight, Academy Award-winning actress (b. 1914)
• April 10 – Willie Stargell – baseball player, member of the Baseball Hall of Fame (b. 1940)
• April 11 – Harry Secombe, actor, comedian, member of The Goon Show (b. 1921)
• April 12 – Harvey Ball, American inventor (b. 1921)
• April 14 – Hiroshi Teshigahara, director (b. 1927)
• April 15 – Joey Ramone (Jeffrey Hyman), American musician, singer with The Ramones (b. May 19, 1951)
• April 20 – Giuseppe Sinopoli, Italian conductor, composer (b. 1946)
• May 5 – Cliff Hillegass, creator of Cliff Notes (stroke)
• May 9 – James E. Myers (a.k.a. Jimmy DeKnight), songwriter ("Rock Around the Clock")
• May 11 – Douglas Adams, author (heart attack) (b. 1952)
• May 12 – Perry Como, American singer (b. 1912)
• May 13 – R.K. Narayan, Indian novelist (b. 1906)
• May 20 – Renato Carosone, Italian musician and singer
• May 28 – Francisco Varela, biologist and philosopher (b. 1946)

June-July

• June 1:
  • Hank Ketcham, cartoonist, creator of Dennis the Menace (b. 1920)
  • King Birendra (b. 1945) and Queen Aiswarya (b. 1949) of Nepal
• June 2:
  • Imogene Coca, actress (b. 1908)
  • Joey Maxim, boxer, world light heavyweight champion (b. 1922)
• June 3 – Anthony Quinn, actor (b. 1915)
• June 4:
  • John Hartford, musician, composer (b. 1937)
  • Dipendra of Nepal (b. 1971)
• June 10 – Princess Leila of Iran (b. 1970)
• June 11 – Timothy McVeigh, Oklahoma City bomber (executed) (b. 1968)
• June 21:
  • John Lee Hooker, Blues musician (b. 1917)
  • Carroll O'Connor, American actor (b. 1924)
• July 26 – Peter von Zahn, German journalist (b. 1913)
• June 27:
  • Tove Jansson, Finnish author of the Moomin books (b. 1914)
  • Jack Lemmon, American actor and director (b. 1925)
• June 28:
  • Mortimer Adler, American philosopher (b. 1902)
  • Joan Sims, British actress (b. 1930)
• June 30 – Chet Atkins, country musician (b. 1924)
• July 5 – Hannelore Kohl, wife of chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl (suicide) (b. 1933)
• July 11 – Herman Brood, Dutch rock musician, painter (suicide)
• July 18 – Fabio Taglioni, automotive engineer
• July 20 – Milt Gabler, record producer ("Rock Around the Clock")
• July 27 – Leon Wilkeson, American bassist
• July 29:
  • Edward Gierek, Polish politician
  • Wau Holland, German hacker

August-October

• August 1:
  • Poul Anderson, American fantasy and science fiction writer
  • Korey Stringer, American football player (b. 1974)
• August 3 – Christopher Hewett, British actor
• August 6 – Jorge Amado de Faria, Brazilian writer
• August 15 – Richard Chelimo, Kenyan athlete, (brain tumour)
• August 20 – Fred Hoyle, British astronomer and science fiction writer
• August 25 – Aaliyah, American singer and actress (plane crash)
• September 2 – Christiaan Barnard, South African heart surgeon
• September 3:
  • Pauline Kael, American movie critic
  • Thuy Trang, American actress
• September 7 – Spede Pasanen, Finnish television star
• September 9  – Ahmed Shah Massoud, Afghani Northern Alliance military commander
• September 11:
  • Barbara K. Olson, American television commentator
  • Casualties of the September 11, 2001 attacks
• September 13 – Victor Wong, American actor, artist
• September 22 – Isaac Stern, Ukrainian violinist (b. 1920)
• October 12 – Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone (Quintin Hogg), British lawyer and politician
• October 15 – Zhang Xueliang, Chinese warlord and military figure

November-December

• November 5 – Roy Boulting, English film director and producer (b. 1913)
• November 10 – Ken Kesey, American author
• November 12 – Tony Miles, English chess player
• November 17  – Michael Karoli, German guitarist Can
• November 24 – Melanie Thornton, singer from Charleston/South Carolina (plane crash)
• November 28 – William Kienzle, author
• November 29:
  • George Harrison, English musician The Beatles
  • John Knowles, author
• November 30  – Robert Tools, first recipient of a self-contained artificial heart
• December 4 – Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah Al-Haj, Sultan of Selangor and Yang di-Pertuan Agong
• December 5:
  • Sir Peter Blake, New Zealand sailor and environmentalist, (shot by pirates on the Amazon River)
  • Franco Rasetti, physicist
• December 8 – Don Tennant, American advertising executive
• December 15 – Rufus Thomas, R&B, soul singer (b. 1917)
• December 20 – Foster Brooks, American actor and comedian (b. 1912)
• December 30 – Eileen Heckart, American actress

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Eric Allin Cornell, Wolfgang Ketterle, Carl Edwin Wieman
• Chemistry – William S. Knowles, Ryoji Noyori, K. Barry Sharpless
• Medicine – Leland H. Hartwell, R. Timothy Hunt, Paul M. Nurse
• Literature – V.S. Naipaul
• Peace – United Nations, Kofi Annan
• Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel – George A. Akerlof, Michael Spence, Joseph E. Stiglitz

Fictional references to the year

• Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick set the 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey in this year, the first year of the 21st century.

• In the japanese anime Neon Genesis Evangelion the Second Impact, which wiped out two-thirds of the planets population occurs.

External links

• 2001 Year-End Google Zeitgeist – Google's Yearly List of Major Events and Top Searches for 2001
• Nisqually Earthquake Clearinghouse – Information on the February 28th earthquake from the University of Washington