Timeline May 2002

Events in May 2002 11

• 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.
• 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.
• 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 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 2002 Champions League final volley Zidane scores an iconic left-foot volley to win the European Cup On 15 May 2002, Zidane scored one of football's most celebrated goals, a dipping left-foot volley from the edge of the box off a Roberto Carlos cross, to give Real Madrid a 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League final at Hampden Park, Glasgow. The goal secured Real Madrid's ninth European Cup and is frequently ranked among the greatest goals in the competition's history. It remains the signature moment of his club career.
• 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.