2002

Events in 2002 98

• 1860 – 2002 The Finnish Markka National Currency Finland was granted its own currency by Tsar Alexander II, a major step toward economic independence.
• 1900 – 2002 Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) Died 13 March 2002, aged 102 The German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer founded philosophical hermeneutics with his 1960 work Truth and Method, which argued that all understanding is shaped by tradition and prior expectation. He taught for decades, latterly at Heidelberg, and remained active past his hundredth year. His exchanges with thinkers such as Jurgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida framed much of late-century Continental philosophy.
• 1900 – 2002 Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (1900-2002) Died 30 March 2002, aged 101 Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon married the future King George VI in 1923 and became queen consort on his unexpected accession in 1936. Her decision to stay in London during the Blitz made her a symbol of wartime resolve. After the King's death in 1952 she remained a popular public figure for another half-century as the Queen Mother.
• 1905 – 2002 Simo Häyhä The White Death A sniper during the Winter War credited with over 500 kills; a symbol of the "Sisu" spirit.
• 1906 – 2002 Billy Wilder (1906-2002) Died 27 March 2002, aged 95 Billy Wilder was an Austrian-born writer-director who fled Nazi Germany and became one of Hollywood's sharpest talents. His films spanned film noir, drama and comedy, including Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot and The Apartment. He won six Academy Awards and was known for acid wit on screen and off.
• 1907 – 2002 Astrid Lindgren (1907-2002) Died 28 January 2002, aged 94 The Swedish author Astrid Lindgren created Pippi Longstocking, the super-strong, unruly girl who first appeared in 1945, along with Emil, the Bullerby children and many other characters. Her books have sold well over 150 million copies and been translated into around 100 languages. She was also a forceful campaigner for children's rights and animal welfare.
• 1908 – 2002 Milton Berle (1908-2002) Died 27 March 2002, aged 93 Milton Berle was a vaudeville and radio comedian who became American television's first major star as host of the Texaco Star Theater from 1948. His broad, costume-heavy slapstick drew such large audiences that he was nicknamed Mr. Television and credited with helping sell sets. His career on stage and screen spanned some eight decades.
• 1908 – 2002 Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) Died 13 July 2002, aged 93 Yousuf Karsh was an Armenian-Canadian photographer who became the leading portraitist of the mid-20th century. His 1941 portrait of a scowling Winston Churchill, taken just after he plucked away the statesman's cigar, became one of the most reproduced photographs ever. He photographed scores of world figures from his Ottawa studio over five decades.
• 1912 – 2002 Sam Snead (1912-2002) Died 23 May 2002, aged 89 Sam Snead won a record 82 official PGA Tour titles and seven major championships between the 1930s and 1950s, celebrated for a smooth, powerful swing. The US Open was the one major that always eluded him. He kept playing competitively into his late sixties and remained a fixture at the Masters for decades.
• 1912 – 2002 Chuck Jones (1912-2002) Died 22 February 2002, aged 89 Chuck Jones was an animation director at Warner Bros. who shaped the personalities of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd and created Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Pepe Le Pew and Marvin the Martian. His shorts included What's Opera, Doc and the much-praised Duck Amuck. He later directed the television version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
• 1914 – 2002 Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002) Died 18 April 2002, aged 87 The Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl sailed the balsa raft Kon-Tiki from Peru to Polynesia in 1947 to argue that ancient South Americans could have settled the Pacific islands. His book and film about the voyage were worldwide successes. He led later reed-boat expeditions with the Ra and Tigris, though most scholars rejected his migration theories.
• 1915 – 2002 Abba Eban (1915-2002) Died 17 November 2002, aged 87 Abba Eban was Israel's ambassador to the United Nations and the United States in its early years and later its foreign minister during the wars of 1967 and 1973. Celebrated as an orator in several languages, he presented Israel's case to the world with unusual polish. In his last decades he wrote and presented histories of the Jewish people and of diplomacy.
• 1915 – 2002 Eddie Bracken (1915-2002) American actor, the everyman hero of Preston Sturges's wartime comedies.
• 1916 – 2002 Camilo Jose Cela (1916-2002) Died 17 January 2002, aged 85 The Spanish writer Camilo Jose Cela won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1989. His 1942 novel The Family of Pascual Duarte, a grim tale of rural violence, helped revive the Spanish novel after the civil war, and The Hive portrayed the hunger of postwar Madrid. He was a divisive figure who had worked as a censor under Franco before serving as a senator in the democratic era.
• 1918 – 2002 Spike Milligan (1918-2002) Died 27 February 2002, aged 83 Spike Milligan was the driving creative force behind The Goon Show, the anarchic BBC radio comedy of the 1950s that influenced generations of British humour. Born in India, he wrote surreal scripts, comic verse and a series of war memoirs. He spoke openly about the bipolar disorder that troubled him throughout his life.
• 1918 – 2002 Ted Williams (1918-2002) Died 5 July 2002, aged 83 Ted Williams spent his entire career with the Boston Red Sox and is regarded as one of the greatest hitters in baseball history. In 1941 he batted .406, and no player has reached .400 for a season since. His playing years were twice interrupted by military service as a pilot, in the Second World War and Korea.
• 1920 – 2002 Peggy Lee (1920-2002) Died 21 January 2002, aged 81 Peggy Lee was an American singer and songwriter known for a cool, understated delivery on hits such as 'Fever' and 'Is That All There Is'. She rose to fame with the Benny Goodman orchestra in the early 1940s before a long solo career. She also co-wrote songs for Disney's Lady and the Tramp and voiced several of its characters.
• 1921 – 2002 John Rawls (1921-2002) Died 24 November 2002, aged 81 The American philosopher John Rawls revived political philosophy with A Theory of Justice in 1971, arguing that fair principles are those people would choose behind a 'veil of ignorance' about their own place in society. His idea of justice as fairness became the central reference point for debates on liberalism, equality and rights. He taught at Harvard for most of his career.
• 1921 – 2002 George Roy Hill (1921-2002) Died 27 December 2002, aged 81 George Roy Hill was an American director best known for two hits pairing Paul Newman and Robert Redford, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, the second of which won him the 1974 Academy Award for Best Director. A former Marine pilot, he also filmed Slaughterhouse-Five and The World According to Garp. His output was small but commercially and critically strong.
• 1922 – 2002 Kim Hunter (1922-2002) American actress, the original Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire and Zira in Planet of the Apes.
• 1925 – 2002 Rod Steiger (1925-2002) Died 9 July 2002, aged 77 Rod Steiger was an American actor of the intense, Method school whose roles included the mob-connected brother in On the Waterfront, the title character in The Pawnbroker and the bigoted Southern sheriff in In the Heat of the Night, for which he won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actor. He also played Napoleon and Mussolini. He spoke publicly about his struggles with depression.
• 1926 – 2002 Ivan Illich (1926-2002) Died 2 December 2002, aged 76 Ivan Illich was an Austrian-born priest and social critic whose books of the 1970s, including Deschooling Society and Medical Nemesis, attacked the way large institutions in education, medicine and transport disable the people they claim to serve. Trained across several disciplines, he ran a research centre in Cuernavaca, Mexico. His ideas influenced environmental and anti-industrial thought.
• 1928 – 2002 Rosemary Clooney (1928-2002) Died 29 June 2002, aged 74 Rosemary Clooney was an American pop and jazz singer whose 1951 hit 'Come On-a My House' launched a career of records, radio and film, including a lead role in White Christmas. A breakdown and personal troubles interrupted her career in the late 1960s before a jazz-focused comeback. She was the aunt of the actor George Clooney.
• 1928 – 2002 James Coburn (1928-2002) Died 18 November 2002, aged 74 James Coburn was a lean, grinning American actor who broke through in ensemble westerns and war films such as The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape before leading roles in the 1960s spy spoofs beginning with Our Man Flint. Severe rheumatoid arthritis limited his work for years. He won a supporting-actor Oscar late in life for Affliction in 1999.
• 1930 – 2002 Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) Died 23 January 2002, aged 71 Pierre Bourdieu was among the most influential sociologists of the late 20th century. His concepts of cultural capital and habitus, set out in works such as Distinction, analysed how social hierarchies are reproduced through taste and education. In his later years he became a prominent public critic of neoliberal globalisation.
• 1930 – 2002 Princess Margaret (1930-2002) Died 9 February 2002, aged 71 Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, was the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II. In the 1950s she gave up plans to marry the divorced Group Captain Peter Townsend, a decision seen as a clash between duty and personal life. Her later years were marked by ill health following several strokes.
• 1930 – 2002 Richard Harris (1930-2002) Died 25 October 2002, aged 72 The Irish actor Richard Harris earned an Oscar nomination for This Sporting Life in 1963 and later for The Field, and had a hit single with the song 'MacArthur Park'. Known for a hard-living reputation, he revived his career with a role in Unforgiven and, at the end of his life, as Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films.
• 1932 – 2002 Dave Thomas (1932-2002) Died 8 January 2002, aged 69 Dave Thomas founded the Wendy's hamburger chain in Columbus, Ohio, in 1969 and built it into one of the largest fast-food companies in the world. A childhood spent partly in foster care led him to campaign for adoption reform. From 1989 he appeared in more than 800 folksy television adverts for the chain, an unusually long run for a company founder.
• 1934 – 2002 Jonas Savimbi (1934-2002) Died 22 February 2002, aged 67 Jonas Savimbi founded UNITA and led it through nearly three decades of civil war against Angola's MPLA government. Backed at various times by the United States and apartheid South Africa, he rejected election results in 1992 and returned to war. He was killed in a firefight with government troops, and a ceasefire followed within weeks.
• 1935 – 2002 Dudley Moore (1935-2002) Died 27 March 2002, aged 66 Dudley Moore rose through the satirical revue Beyond the Fringe and a long comic partnership with Peter Cook before Hollywood stardom in the films 10 and Arthur. A gifted jazz pianist, he often performed music alongside his acting. His final years were affected by the degenerative brain disease progressive supranuclear palsy.
• 1937 – 2002 Waylon Jennings (1937-2002) Died 13 February 2002, aged 64 Waylon Jennings was a central figure in the 'outlaw' country movement that pushed back against the polished Nashville sound of the 1970s. He had played bass for Buddy Holly and gave up his seat on the plane that crashed in 1959. His hits included 'Luckenbach, Texas' and, with Willie Nelson, 'Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys'.
• 1938 – 2002 Robert Nozick (1938-2002) Died 23 January 2002, aged 63 The American philosopher Robert Nozick made his name with Anarchy, State, and Utopia in 1974, a libertarian argument for a minimal state that became the main counterpoint to John Rawls's liberalism. He ranged widely in later books across decision theory, ethics and the meaning of life. He taught at Harvard for more than three decades.
• 1940 – 2002 John Gotti (1940-2002) Died 10 June 2002, aged 61 John Gotti took over the Gambino crime family after ordering the 1985 murder of its boss Paul Castellano outside a Manhattan steakhouse. His expensive suits and repeated acquittals earned him the nicknames the Dapper Don and the Teflon Don. He was convicted of murder and racketeering in 1992 on the testimony of his underboss and died in a prison hospital.
• 1941 – 2002 Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) Died 20 May 2002, aged 60 The American paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould proposed, with Niles Eldredge, the theory of punctuated equilibrium, which holds that species change in rapid bursts rather than gradually. His monthly essays in Natural History magazine, collected in books such as The Panda's Thumb, made him one of the best-known science writers of his time. He taught at Harvard and fought a long battle with cancer.
• 1944 – 2002 John Entwistle (1944-2002) Died 27 June 2002, aged 57 John Entwistle was the bassist of The Who, whose fast, melodic, trebly playing on songs such as 'My Generation' made him one of rock's most admired bass players. Nicknamed the Ox for his stillness on stage amid the band's chaos, he also wrote several of their songs, including 'Boris the Spider'. He died in a Las Vegas hotel on the eve of a US tour.
• 1951 – 2002 Dee Dee Ramone (1951-2002) Died 5 June 2002, aged 50 Dee Dee Ramone was the bassist and chief songwriter of the Ramones, the New York band widely regarded as founders of punk rock. He wrote or co-wrote many of their best-known songs, among them 'Rockaway Beach' and '53rd & 3rd', and shouted the count-in that opened their shows. He left the band in 1989 and died of a drug overdose.
• 1952 – 2002 Joe Strummer (1952-2002) Died 22 December 2002, aged 50 Joe Strummer was the singer, guitarist and co-songwriter of The Clash, the London punk band whose politically charged records included London Calling and Sandinista!. After the band split in the mid-1980s he worked on film soundtracks and acting before a late return to touring with the Mescaleros. He died suddenly of an undiagnosed heart defect.
• 1965 – 2002 Jam Master Jay (1965-2002) Died 30 October 2002, aged 37 Jason Mizell, known as Jam Master Jay, was the DJ of Run-DMC, the group from Queens that carried hip-hop into the mainstream in the 1980s with hits such as 'Walk This Way' and a landmark Adidas endorsement. He was shot dead in his recording studio in Queens, a crime that went unsolved for many years. Two men were convicted of the killing in 2024.
• 1967 – 2002 Layne Staley (1967-2002) Died 5 April 2002, aged 34 Layne Staley was the lead singer of Alice in Chains, one of the defining bands of the Seattle grunge scene, known for dark themes and heavy harmonies on albums such as Dirt. His long struggle with heroin addiction halted the band's activity in the mid-1990s. He was found dead in his home about two weeks after his death from an overdose.
• 1971 – 2002 Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes (1971-2002) Died 25 April 2002, aged 30 Lisa Lopes was the rapper of TLC, the American trio whose albums CrazySexyCool and FanMail made them one of the best-selling girl groups ever, with hits including 'Waterfalls' and 'No Scrubs'. Known for a playful style and turbulent headlines, she wrote and performed the group's rap verses. She died in a car crash while on a retreat in Honduras.
• 2002 2002 Commonwealth Games Manchester -- six golds At the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Thorpe wins six gold medals and a silver -- one of the great individual Commonwealth Games performances in history. He is 19-20. His dominance of the 200m and 400m freestyle is now so complete that races in these events are effectively contests for second place. His 10 Commonwealth Games gold medals across his career is the equal-most in Australian history. The Manchester Games also produce one of his most famous individual performances: his 400m freestyle time leaves the field behind.
• 2002 – present Arctic Monkeys Indie Rock Icons The first major band to rise through internet word-of-mouth (MySpace).
• 2002 Chicago Best Picture — 75th Academy Awards Rob Marshall's jazz-age musical with Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones, the first musical to win Best Picture since Oliver! in 1968.
• 2002 – 2014 The physical Thorpedo -- what made him exceptional Thorpe's physical profile is extraordinary even by elite athletic standards: 6 feet 5 inches tall, 230 pounds, with a shoe size of 17 (his custom-made racing fins are famously enormous), an arm span matching his height, and the most powerful leg kick of any swimmer of his era -- eight to ten beats per two arm strokes, compared to the standard six. His signature stroke is a rolling, rhythmic freestyle built around leverage and timing rather than brute force. His coach Doug Frost develops a race strategy in which Thorpe's second 100m of the 400m freestyle is faster than his first -- a negative split that becomes his tactical trademark. The combination of physical advantage and technical refinement is what produces 22 world records across distances from 200m to 800m.
• 2002 Euro coins and notes launched Single currency enters circulation Euro coins and banknotes entered circulation in 12 European countries on January 1, 2002, replacing national currencies including the Deutschmark, French franc and Italian lira.
• 2002 Guantanamo Bay detention camp opens First terrorism suspects flown to Cuba On 11 January 2002 the United States flew its first 20 detainees from the war in Afghanistan to Camp X-Ray at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. The offshore site was chosen to keep captives beyond the reach of US courts, and it became a lasting symbol of the war on terror. Hundreds more men were held there in the following years, many without charge.
• 2002 Mount Nyiragongo eruption Lava flows destroy much of Goma Mount Nyiragongo in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo erupted on 17 January 2002, sending fast-moving lava through the city of Goma to the shore of Lake Kivu. About 400,000 people fled, many crossing into neighbouring Rwanda, and a large part of the city centre was buried. Dozens were killed, some in an explosion at a petrol station engulfed by lava.
• 2002 Kmart files for bankruptcy Largest US retail bankruptcy to that point The discount chain Kmart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on 22 January 2002, then the largest retailer ever to seek court protection from creditors. The company closed hundreds of stores and cut tens of thousands of jobs before emerging from bankruptcy in 2003. It later merged with Sears but never regained its former scale.
• 2002 Murder of Daniel Pearl Wall Street Journal reporter kidnapped and killed in Pakistan Daniel Pearl, the South Asia bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, was abducted in Karachi on 23 January 2002 while researching Islamist militant networks. He was held for a week and then beheaded by his captors, who released a video of the killing in February. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed later admitted carrying out the murder.
• 2002 "Axis of evil" State of the Union address Bush links Iraq, Iran and North Korea In his State of the Union address on 29 January 2002, President George W. Bush described Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an 'axis of evil' seeking weapons of mass destruction. The phrase framed US foreign policy for the following years and signalled the administration's growing focus on Iraq. It was widely criticised abroad, including by allies.
• 2002 Marriage of Willem-Alexander and Máxima Royal wedding in Amsterdam Crown Prince Willem-Alexander married Máxima Zorreguieta.
• 2002 Death of Prince Claus Husband of Queen Beatrix Prince Claus, husband of Queen Beatrix, died after a long illness.
• 2002 Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II Britain marks the Queen's 50 years on the throne Celebrations through 2002 marked the 50th anniversary of Elizabeth II's accession on 6 February 1952, including extensive Commonwealth tours and a weekend of events in June with concerts at Buckingham Palace and a carriage procession. Around a million people gathered on the Mall. The jubilee year was overshadowed by the deaths of the Queen's sister and mother.
• 2002 2002 Winter Olympics XIX Winter Games - Salt Lake City First games held under high security following 9/11. Winner: Germany (Norway had more golds).
• 2002 Kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt Colombian presidential candidate seized by FARC Ingrid Betancourt, a Green Party candidate in Colombia's presidential election, was kidnapped by FARC guerrillas on 23 February 2002 while travelling in a former demilitarised zone. She was held in jungle camps for more than six years. Her captivity drew international attention before she was freed in a military rescue operation in 2008.
• 2002 Godhra train fire and Gujarat riots Communal violence kills more than a thousand in India On 27 February 2002 a fire on a train at Godhra in Gujarat killed 59 Hindu pilgrims, and the cause was widely blamed on a Muslim mob. Over the following weeks retaliatory riots across the state killed more than a thousand people, most of them Muslims, and displaced tens of thousands. The state government led by Narendra Modi was accused of failing to halt the violence.
• 2002 Iditarod 2002 Winner: Martin Buser — 8 days 22h Martin Buser won his fourth Iditarod and set a new course record of 8 days and 22 hours — the first sub-9-day finish on the southern route.
• 2002 Operation Anaconda Major US-led battle in eastern Afghanistan Between 2 and 18 March 2002, US, Afghan and allied forces fought al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters entrenched in the Shahi-Kot Valley south of Gardez. It was the largest set-piece battle of the Afghan war to that point and the first big operation dominated by US ground troops. Eight American soldiers were killed and the militant positions were eventually overrun.
• 2002 Passover massacre and Operation Defensive Shield Israel launches its largest West Bank offensive since 1967 A Hamas suicide bomber killed 30 people at a Passover meal in a Netanya hotel on 27 March 2002, the deadliest attack of the Second Intifada. Two days later Israel began Operation Defensive Shield, reoccupying West Bank cities and besieging Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah. Heavy fighting in the Jenin refugee camp became the subject of lasting dispute.
• 2002 End of the Angolan Civil War Ceasefire signed after 27 years of fighting Angola's government and the UNITA rebel movement signed a ceasefire, the Luena Memorandum, on 4 April 2002, weeks after the death in battle of the rebel leader Jonas Savimbi. The agreement ended a civil war that had run almost continuously since independence in 1975 and killed hundreds of thousands. UNITA disarmed and became a political party.
• 2002 Venezuelan coup attempt against Hugo Chavez President removed and restored within 48 hours After a general strike and a Caracas march that ended in deadly shootings, senior Venezuelan officers detained President Hugo Chavez on 11 April 2002 and installed the business leader Pedro Carmona. Carmona dissolved the National Assembly and courts, prompting a backlash, and loyalist troops and street protests returned Chavez to power on 14 April. The episode deepened Venezuela's political polarisation.
• 2002 2002 World Snooker Championship Ebdon Victory Winner: Peter Ebdon; Runner-up: Stephen Hendry. Score: 18–17.
• 2002 Le Pen reaches the French presidential runoff Far-right leader knocks out the sitting prime minister In the first round of France's presidential election on 21 April 2002, the National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen narrowly pushed the Socialist prime minister Lionel Jospin into third place. The result shocked France and brought large street protests. Jacques Chirac won the 5 May runoff with around 82 percent as voters across the spectrum rallied against Le Pen.
• 2002 Assassination of Pim Fortuyn Dutch populist shot dead days before an election Pim Fortuyn, leader of a fast-rising anti-immigration party, was shot dead in a car park in Hilversum on 6 May 2002, nine days before the Dutch general election. The killer was an animal-rights activist, and it was the first political assassination in the Netherlands in centuries. Fortuyn's party still came second in the vote and briefly entered government.
• 2002 Zidane volley wins the Champions League final Real Madrid beat Bayer Leverkusen in Glasgow In the European Cup final at Hampden Park on 15 May 2002, Real Madrid beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 to claim a ninth title in the competition. The match is remembered for a left-foot volley by Zinedine Zidane, often called one of the greatest goals scored in a final. It capped Real Madrid's 'Galacticos' era.
• 2002 Spider-Man #1 film of 2002 — $821m worldwide Directed by Sam Raimi, starring Tobey Maguire. A high school student bitten by a radioactive spider gains superpowers and fights crime.
• 2002 East Timor becomes independent First new sovereign state of the 21st century East Timor formally became the independent Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste at midnight on 20 May 2002, ending a UN transitional administration that followed the violence of the 1999 independence vote. Xanana Gusmao was sworn in as the first president. It was the first country to gain full independence in the new century.
• 2002 2002 FIFA World Cup First in Asia The first co-hosted World Cup; Ronaldo scored twice in the final to secure Brazil’s fifth title. Winner: Brazil.
• 2002 The Wire premieres HBO begins its Baltimore crime drama The Wire, created by David Simon, premiered on HBO on 2 June 2002 with a season tracing a single drug investigation from both sides. Over five seasons it widened to the docks, city hall, schools and the press, building a portrait of institutional decay in Baltimore. Modestly watched at first, it came to be regarded as one of the finest television series ever made.
• 2002 American Idol premieres Fox launches a hit talent contest American Idol first aired on the Fox network on 11 June 2002, adapting the British format Pop Idol with a public vote and a panel that included Simon Cowell. Kelly Clarkson won the first season that September. The show became the most-watched programme on US television for much of the decade and spawned versions worldwide.
• 2002 Loya Jirga elects Hamid Karzai Afghan grand assembly names a transitional government An emergency Loya Jirga of some 1,500 Afghan delegates met in Kabul from 11 to 19 June 2002 and chose Hamid Karzai to lead a transitional administration for the next two years. The assembly followed the Bonn Agreement reached after the fall of the Taliban. It gave Karzai a broader mandate but left real power fragmented among regional commanders.
• 2002 Arthur Andersen convicted over Enron One of the big five accounting firms collapses On 15 June 2002 a Houston jury convicted the accounting firm Arthur Andersen of obstruction of justice for destroying documents related to its client Enron. The firm surrendered its licences and shed tens of thousands of jobs, ceasing to operate as an auditor. The US Supreme Court unanimously overturned the conviction in 2005, but the company never returned.
• 2002 International Criminal Court comes into being Rome Statute enters into force The Rome Statute took effect on 1 July 2002 after the required 60 ratifications, establishing the first permanent court to try individuals for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The court is seated in The Hague and depends on member states to arrest suspects. The United States, China and Russia declined to join.
• 2002 Uberlingen mid-air collision Passenger jet and cargo plane collide over Germany On the night of 1 July 2002 a Bashkirian Airlines Tupolev Tu-154 and a DHL Boeing 757 collided over Uberlingen in southern Germany, killing all 71 people on both aircraft, most of them Russian schoolchildren. Investigators blamed failings at the Swiss air traffic control service and conflicting instructions from the controller and the onboard collision-avoidance system. In 2004 a bereaved father killed the controller who had been on duty.
• 2002 First solo balloon flight around the world Steve Fossett completes a long-sought aviation feat The American adventurer Steve Fossett landed in Queensland, Australia, on 4 July 2002, having circled the globe alone in a helium and hot-air balloon in under 15 days. It was his sixth attempt and the first time anyone had flown a balloon solo around the world. He routed the flight through the southern hemisphere to use its steadier winds.
• 2002 African Union founded Continental body replaces the Organisation of African Unity The African Union was launched at a summit in Durban, South Africa, on 9 July 2002, succeeding the Organisation of African Unity that had existed since 1963. Modelled partly on the European Union, it created a commission, a pan-African parliament and provisions for intervention in member states. Thabo Mbeki became its first chairperson.
• 2002 WorldCom files for bankruptcy Record US corporate collapse after accounting fraud The telecommunications company WorldCom sought Chapter 11 protection on 21 July 2002 after disclosing that it had hidden about 11 billion dollars in expenses to inflate profits. It was the largest bankruptcy in US history at the time, surpassing Enron. Founder Bernard Ebbers was later sentenced to 25 years in prison, and the company was rebuilt as MCI.
• 2002 Sknyliv air show disaster Lviv, Ukraine A Ukrainian Air Force Su-27 crashes into spectators during an air show near Lviv, killing 77 people — the deadliest air-show accident in history.
• 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act signed US overhauls corporate financial regulation President Bush signed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on 30 July 2002 in response to the Enron and WorldCom scandals. It created the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, required chief executives to certify their accounts, and tightened rules on auditor independence and internal controls. It remains the main framework for US public-company financial reporting.
• 2002 Coach Peter Carter killed in car accident Turning point in Federer's career and character Roger Federer's beloved long-time coach Peter Carter died in a car accident in South Africa in August 2002. The tragedy profoundly affected Federer, who had known Carter since childhood. Many observers noted that after Carter's death, Federer's on-court temperament transformed from volatile to composed — the beginning of the Federer the world came to admire.
• 2002 US Open 2002 Men: Pete Sampras · Women: Serena Williams Sampras' 14th and final Grand Slam in his last professional match.
• 2002 Central European floods Elbe and Vltava inundate Prague and Dresden Days of torrential rain in August 2002 caused the Vltava, Elbe and Danube and their tributaries to burst their banks across central Europe. Historic districts of Prague were evacuated and much of Dresden's old centre was flooded, with damage running into the tens of billions of euros. More than 100 people died across the region.
• 2002 UN Membership Ending Isolation Switzerland was one of the last nations to join the United Nations, maintaining its cautious approach to international bodies.
• 2002 Beltway sniper attacks Three weeks of random shootings around Washington For three weeks in October 2002, John Allen Muhammad and the teenager Lee Boyd Malvo shot people at random around Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia, killing ten and wounding others while firing from a hole cut in the boot of a car. The region was gripped by fear as police pursued misleading leads. The pair were arrested at a highway rest stop on 24 October, and Muhammad was later executed.
• 2002 eBay acquires PayPal Online marketplace buys its dominant payment service eBay completed its purchase of PayPal in a stock deal worth about 1.5 billion dollars on 3 October 2002, having previously promoted its own payment system. PayPal became the default way to pay on the site and grew into a global payments company. Several of its early leaders went on to found or fund firms such as Tesla, YouTube and LinkedIn.
• 2002 Iraq war authorisation and UN Resolution 1441 US and UN raise pressure on Baghdad In mid-October 2002 the US Congress passed a resolution authorising President Bush to use force against Iraq. On 8 November the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1441, declaring Iraq in material breach of earlier resolutions and offering a final chance to disarm under renewed inspections. Disputes over whether the resolution permitted war dominated the following months.
• 2002 Bali bombings 202 killed in Indonesia nightclub attack Islamist terrorists detonated bombs in two nightclubs in Kuta, Bali on October 12, 2002, killing 202 people including 88 Australians in the deadliest terrorist attack in Indonesian history.
• 2002 Moscow theatre hostage crisis Chechen militants seize a packed theatre On 23 October 2002 about 40 armed Chechen militants took some 850 people hostage during a musical at the Dubrovka theatre in Moscow, demanding a withdrawal from Chechnya. After a standoff of nearly three days, Russian special forces pumped an undisclosed aerosol anaesthetic into the hall and stormed it. All the attackers and around 130 hostages died, almost all of them from the gas.
• 2002 Lula elected president of Brazil Former union leader wins on his fourth attempt Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party won Brazil's presidential runoff on 27 October 2002 with about 61 percent of the vote, after losing three previous elections. A former metalworker and strike leader, he was the country's first left-wing president in decades. Markets that had feared his victory steadied as he kept orthodox economic policies in his first term.
• 2002 AKP wins Turkish general election Erdogan's party sweeps to power The Justice and Development Party, founded a year earlier by Recep Tayyip Erdogan and allies from a banned Islamist movement, won a large parliamentary majority in Turkey's election on 3 November 2002. Only one other party cleared the 10 percent threshold. The result began an era of AKP dominance that reshaped Turkish politics.
• 2002 8 Mile released Eminem film yields an Oscar-winning song The film 8 Mile, a loosely autobiographical story of a young Detroit rapper played by Eminem, opened on 8 November 2002 to strong reviews and box office. Its song 'Lose Yourself' topped charts worldwide and became the first hip-hop track to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The film helped push rap further into the mainstream.
• 2002 Prestige oil spill Tanker breaks up off the Spanish coast The single-hulled tanker Prestige, carrying about 77,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil, began leaking in a storm off Galicia and was refused refuge by several governments before breaking apart and sinking on 19 November 2002. The spill fouled thousands of kilometres of coastline in Spain, France and Portugal and devastated the Galician fishing industry. It prompted the European Union to accelerate a ban on single-hulled tankers.
• 2002 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets #3 film of 2002 — $879m worldwide Directed by Chris Columbus. Harry's second year at Hogwarts sees students and ghosts petrified by a mysterious monster.
• 2002 Die Another Day — Pierce Brosnan Brosnan's final Bond film. After being captured by North Korea and left for dead, Bond escapes and hunts down a traitor. The film celebrates the franchise's 40th anniversary with cameos and references but is critically divisive — its over-reliance on CGI and an invisible Aston Martin provoke considerable backlash. Budget: $142 million. Box office: $431.9 million.
• 2002 US Department of Homeland Security created Largest federal reorganisation since the 1940s President Bush signed the Homeland Security Act on 25 November 2002, merging 22 agencies and about 170,000 employees into a new Department of Homeland Security. Bodies including the Coast Guard, Secret Service, customs, immigration enforcement and disaster response were brought under one cabinet department. It was the biggest restructuring of the US government since the creation of the Defense Department.
• 2002 Mombasa hotel bombing and airliner attack Coordinated al-Qaeda strikes on Israeli targets in Kenya On 28 November 2002 suicide bombers drove a vehicle into the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel near Mombasa, killing 13 people, while attackers nearby fired two shoulder-launched missiles at an Israeli charter jet taking off with 261 passengers. The missiles missed. Al-Qaeda claimed both attacks, which came just over four years after its bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi.
• 2002 Star Trek: Nemesis The final TNG theatrical film and the nadir of the Next Generation era. Picard faces a clone of himself (Tom Hardy) who leads the Romulan Empire. Director Stuart Baird reportedly had no familiarity with Star Trek. Poor reviews and a catastrophic box office performance ($67 million against a $60 million budget) ends the TNG film series. The franchise enters a five-year dormancy.
• 2002 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers #2 film of 2002 — $926m worldwide Directed by Peter Jackson. The fellowship is broken and its members face new challenges as Sauron's forces grow.