Timeline Monday 20 May 2002

Events on Monday 20 May 2002 2

• 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 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.