Timeline May 2000

Events in May 2000 22

• 1901 – 2000 Dame Barbara Cartland (1901-2000) Died 21 May 2000, aged 98 Barbara Cartland was among the most prolific authors in history, publishing more than 700 books, mostly chaste historical romances, and selling hundreds of millions of copies. A flamboyant figure in pink chiffon, she was step-grandmother to Diana, Princess of Wales. In her last years she dictated a new novel every couple of weeks.
• 1904 – 2000 John Gielgud (1904-2000) English actor and director, one of the great Shakespearean actors of the 20th century, who won an Oscar at 77.
• 1904 – 2000 Sir John Gielgud (1904-2000) Died 21 May 2000, aged 96 John Gielgud was regarded as one of the great classical actors of the twentieth century, celebrated above all for his Hamlet and his verse speaking. His stage career spanned some seventy years, and late in life he won an Academy Award for the film Arthur. With Olivier and Richardson he dominated the British theatre.
• 1909 – 2000 Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (1909-2000) American actor, son of Douglas Fairbanks, a swashbuckling star who became a war hero and an honorary British knight.
• 1914 – 2000 Gino Bartali Gino the Pious Legendary climber who famously helped save Jews during WWII by hiding documents in his bike. Winner: 2x Tour de France.
• 1923 – 2000 Tito Puente (1923-2000) Died 31 May 2000, aged 77 Tito Puente was a New York-born bandleader, timbales player and composer known as the "King of Mambo" and "El Rey" of Latin music. Over more than fifty years he recorded around a hundred albums, and his "Oye Como Va" became a hit for Santana. He did much to carry Latin jazz to mainstream American audiences.
• 2000 2000 World Snooker Championship Mark Williams First Winner: Mark Williams; Runner-up: Matthew Stevens. Score: 18–16.
• 2000 The Allman Brothers Band fire Dickey Betts Founding guitarist out The founding guitarist is dismissed by fax.
• 2000 The ILOVEYOU worm spreads worldwide An email virus infects tens of millions of computers Beginning on 4 May 2000 a computer worm carried in an email attachment titled "ILOVEYOU" spread from the Philippines across the globe, overwriting files and mailing itself to victims' contacts. It reached an estimated 45 million computers and caused billions of dollars in damage and cleanup. Philippine suspects were freed because the country then had no law against writing malware.
• 2000 Mission: Impossible 2 #1 film of 2000 — $546m worldwide Directed by John Woo, starring Tom Cruise. Agent Ethan Hunt must stop a rogue IMF agent from releasing a deadly virus.
• 2000 British military intervention in Sierra Leone Operation Palliser helps turn the civil war In May 2000, as Revolutionary United Front rebels advanced on Freetown and seized hundreds of UN peacekeepers, British forces deployed to Sierra Leone under Operation Palliser. They secured the airport and capital, evacuated foreign nationals and stiffened the government. The intervention is widely credited with breaking the rebellion and hastening the war's end in 2002.
• 2000 Douglas Fairbanks Jr. dies in New York Douglas Fairbanks Jr. dies aged 90.
• 2000 Gladiator Oscar Best Picture 2000 — $460m worldwide Directed by Ridley Scott, starring Russell Crowe. A Roman general is betrayed, enslaved, and becomes a gladiator seeking revenge. Won 5 Academy Awards.
• 2000 Tate Modern opens in London A Bankside power station becomes a museum of modern art Tate Modern opened to the public on 12 May 2000 in the converted Bankside Power Station on the south bank of the Thames. It quickly became one of the most visited modern art museums in the world, drawing more than five million people in its first year. Its Turbine Hall commissions became a fixture of the art calendar.
• 2000 Enschede fireworks disaster An explosion at a fireworks depot destroys a Dutch neighbourhood On 13 May 2000 a fire at the S.E. Fireworks storage depot in a residential district of Enschede, in the eastern Netherlands, set off a chain of massive explosions. Twenty-three people were killed, among them four firefighters, about a thousand were injured, and the Roombeek district was flattened. The disaster led to far stricter Dutch rules on fireworks storage.
• 2000 Prince takes back his name Publishing deal expires Becomes Prince again.
• 2000 Release of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Ang Lee's martial-arts epic becomes a global hit Ang Lee's Mandarin-language wuxia film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2000 and opened widely later that year. It became the highest-grossing foreign-language film in United States history to that point and won four Academy Awards. Its wire-assisted fight choreography influenced action cinema worldwide.
• 2000 George Speight's coup in Fiji Armed nationalists seize Parliament and the prime minister On 19 May 2000 the failed businessman George Speight led armed men into Fiji's Parliament and took Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, the country's first ethnic-Indian leader, and dozens of others hostage. They were held for 56 days before the elected government was dissolved and Chaudhry ousted. Speight was later convicted of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment.
• 2000 John Gielgud dies in Wotton Underwood John Gielgud dies aged 96.
• 2000 Eminem releases The Marshall Mathers LP Then the fastest-selling rap album in United States history Released on 23 May 2000, The Marshall Mathers LP sold over 1.7 million copies in its first week in the United States, a record for a hip-hop album at the time. Its violent and satirical lyrics drew condemnation from politicians and advocacy groups even as critics praised its craft. It later won the Grammy for Best Rap Album.
• 2000 Israel withdraws from southern Lebanon The end of a 22-year occupation of the border security zone In the early hours of 24 May 2000 Israel completed the withdrawal of its forces from the security zone it had held in southern Lebanon since the 1980s, and its allied South Lebanon Army collapsed. The pullout, ordered by Prime Minister Ehud Barak, ended a long and costly campaign against Hezbollah. The United Nations later certified the withdrawal to the Blue Line.
• 2000 Survivor premieres in the United States A reality contest becomes a national phenomenon The American version of Survivor debuted on CBS on 31 May 2000, stranding sixteen contestants on a Borneo island to compete for a million-dollar prize. Its August finale drew more than 50 million viewers and helped make competitive reality television a fixture of network schedules. The format was adapted from a Swedish programme.