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.
Enron files for bankruptcy.
Osiris became the first discovered exoplanet with an atmosphere.
"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" released.
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.
Patriot Act comes into effect in the US.
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).
U.S.‑led attack on Afghanistan begins.
143 people were killed in a Siberian Airlines plane crash that was shot down by Ukrainian Missiles over the Black Sea.
American President, George W. Bush Declares War on Terror.
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.
An attack on a train during the Angolan Civi War kills about 250 people.
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.
World's First Self-Contained Artificial Heart Transplant.
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.
24 die in the Jerusalem wedding hall disaster.
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.
Mercy killings become legal in the Netherlands.
NASA launched the 2001 Mars Odyssey space probe from Cape Canaveral.
Slobodan Milošević is arrested.
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.
