Facts and Events That Happened in This Year
Rudy Giuliani was named 'Person of the Year' by Time Magazine.
Richard Reid, infamously known as the 'shoe bomber,' attempted to blow up an airplane with explosives in his shoes.
The Fellowship of the Ring, the first Lord of the Rings film, was released in theaters.
Winona Ryder was arrested.
The first Lord of the Rings film installment, 'The Fellowship of the Ring,' directed by Peter Jackson, premiered in London.
HAL Laboratory's Super Smash Bros. Melee was released by Nintendo for the GameCube.
Osiris became the first discovered exoplanet with an atmosphere.
Microsoft entered the video game market with the launch of its first game console, the Xbox.
American Airlines Flight 587 from New York City to the Dominican Republic crashed during takeoff.
The American action drama series '24,' with Keifer Sutherland, premiered on FOX.
J.K. Rowling's first Harry Potter Movie, 'The Philosopher's Stone,' premiered in Leicester Square, London, UK.
Australia, Canada, and Turkey announced they would send armed forces to Afghanistan.
The American sci-fi movie 'Donnie Darko' with Jake Gyllenhaal was released in the US.
Apple's iPod hit store shelves.
The benefit concert 'United We Stand' led by Michael Jackson took place to stand up against terrorism.
Capcom released Devil May Cry, a game based loosely on Dante's Divine Comedy.
NASA's Galileo spacecraft skimmed by Jupiter's moon, Lo, at just 112 miles (180 km).
143 people were killed in a Siberian Airlines plane crash that was shot down by Ukrainian Missiles over the Black Sea.
The New York Stock Exchange reopened for trading after the September 11 attacks.
Two planes crashed into the World Trade Towers in New York City.
HBO first aired the American war drama miniseries 'Band of Brothers' by Steven Spielberg.
Kylie Minogue's signature song 'Can't Get You Out of My Head' was released.
George W. Bush renewed the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA) for an additional five years.
American coming-of-age teen comedy film 'The Princess Diaries' was released.
Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France for the third time in a row.
Japanese animated fantasy movie 'Spirited Away' was released.
Jurassic Park III premiered in Los Angeles, California.
NASA's Atlantis space shuttle took off from the John F. Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-104.
The British TV series ''The Office” first aired on the BBC.
The science Fiction Drama movie 'A.I. Artificial Intelligence' premiered.
32-year-old Erik Weihenmayer from Boulder, Colorado, became the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
French Taubira law officially recognized the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.
A stampede killed 129 people in Ghana.
Space welcomed its first tourist from Earth.
NASA launched the 2001 Mars Odyssey space probe from Cape Canaveral.
The Netherlands became the first country in the world to allow same-sex marriage.
Swimmer Michael Phelps smashed the world record for the 200-meter butterfly swim at just 15 years old.
Russia's Mir Space Station was deorbited over the South Pacific Ocean.
A Real IRA car bomb exploded in front of the BBC's headquarters in London, injuring one person.
The first draft of the human genome was published in Nature Magazine.
NASA's NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft became the first space probe to land on an asteroid when it touched down on 433 Eros.
A US submarine collided with a Japanese high-school fishing training ship off the coast of Hawaii.
Wikipedia was launched.
Jennifer Lopez scored her first UK No.1 single with 'Love Don't Cost A Thing.'
An earthquake devastates El Salvador.
Apple announced iTunes at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco.
The rapper Vanilla Ice was arrested and spent a night in jail after a row with his wife, which led to ripping out her hair.
