Historical Events in 2001

Events 1 - 200 of 308

• Jan 2 Sila Calderón becomes the first female Governor of Puerto Rico.

• Jan 5 A report reveals that doctor and former GP Harold Shipman has potentially killed hundreds of patients
• Jan 8 The identities of 2 boys who murdered a toddler in 1993 will be kept secret, the High Court rules
• Jan 9 American version of Belgian reality game show "The Mole" premieres on ABC-TV
• Jan 9 Apple announced iTunes at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, for organizing and playing digital music and videos
• Jan 9 Shenzhou 2, an unmanned Chinese spacecraft, is launched.
• Jan 10 A large piece of the chalk cliff at Beachy Head collapses into the sea, near East Sussex, England
• Jan 10 The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will not be designated as a national monument, the White House announces; a move environmentalist groups had been pressing for to prevent oil drilling
• Jan 11 New York Knicks hold an opponent under 100 points for NBA-record 29th straight game in a 76-75 loss to the Houston Rockets; streak snaps 46-year-old NBA record of 28 straight set by the Fort Wayne Pistons in 1954-55

• Jan 12 Downtown Disney opens to the public in Anaheim
• Jan 13 Atlanta Hawks retire Dominique Wilkins' No. 21 in pre-game ceremonies at Philips Arena; joins Bob Pettit and Lou Hudson as the only Hawks to have their numbers retired
• Jan 13 Earthquake measuring magnitude 7.6 strikes El Salvador, killing more than 840 people

• Jan 15 Wikipedia a free Wiki or content encyclopedia is launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger
• Jan 16 A fuel supply tanker runs aground off the island of San Cristobal, causing an 'ecological disaster'

• Jan 16 US President Bill Clinton awards former President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service in the Spanish–American War
• Jan 17 OPEC agrees at a meeting of ministers in Vienna, to reduce members' oil production quotas by 1.5 million barrels per day

• Jan 18 New York's Mike Richter picks up his 267th career NHL win to become the winningest goaltender in team history; passes Ed Giacomin; Rangers beat the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-1 in overtime

• Jan 21 Pittsburgh Penguins beat Chicago Blackhawks, 4-0 in first-ever NHL game featuring 2 European trained coaches; Czech Ivan Hlinka behind the bench for Pittsburgh, and Fin Alpo Suhonen, Chicago
• Jan 22 The British government launches pro-vaccine campaign
• Jan 23 Cave-in at coal mine leads to two methane gas explosions, kills 13 miners in Brookwood, Alabama
• Jan 23 The Chinese Communist Party stages a self-immolation in Tiananmen Square to frame Falun Gong and escalate the persecution.
• Jan 24 Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson resigns
• Jan 25 A 50-year-old Douglas DC-3 crashes near Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela killing 24
• Jan 26 An earthquake hits Gujarat, India, causing more than 20,000 deaths.

• Jan 29 Thousands of student protesters in Indonesia storm parliament and demand that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign due to alleged involvement in corruption scandals

• Feb 9 American submarine USS Greeneville accidentally strikes and sinks the Ehime-Maru, a Japanese training vessel operated by the Uwajima Fishery High School; nine the Ehime-Maru's crew members were killed, including four high school students.
• Feb 12 "Ain't Nothing 'bout You" single released by Brooks & Dunn

• Feb 12 NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft lands in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid
• Feb 13 An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter Scale hits El Salvador, killing at least 400.
• Feb 15 First draft of the complete human genome is published in the journal "Nature"
• Feb 16 Mathieu Schneider of the Los Angeles Kings becomes the first defenseman in history to score a goal against all 30 NHL teams as LA beats Minnesota, 4-0

• Feb 19 An Oklahoma City bombing museum is dedicated at the Oklahoma City National Memorial
• Feb 20 The United States Supreme Court declines to consider an appeal by five major oil companies against Unocal's patent on production of cleaner "reformulated" gasoline sold in California
• Feb 21 43rd Grammy Awards: "Beautiful Day"; Shelby Lynne win
• Feb 26 The Taliban destroy two giant Buddha statues in Bamyan, Afghanistan.
• Feb 28 Six passengers and four railway staff are killed and a further 82 people suffer serious injuries in the Selby rail crash
• Feb 28 The Nisqually Earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter Scale hits the Nisqually Valley and the Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia area of the U.S. state of Washington.
• Feb 28 The US Environmental Protection Agency announces that it intends to proceed with implementation of tighter restrictions on sulfur content in diesel fuel; the rule is opposed by many in the refining industry
• Mar 1 Carolina center Ron Francis scores a goal on his 38th birthday in Hurricanes' 3-1 win over NY Islanders to become only the 2nd player in NHL history to score 50+ points for 20 straight seasons
• Mar 4 Hintze Ribeiro disaster, a bridge collapses in northern Portugal, killing up to 70 people
• Mar 4 IRA detonates a bomb in front of the BBC Television Centre in London, injuring 11 people
• Mar 4 Tests in recent days confirm the world's largest oil find in three decades in the Kashagan field in the Caspian Sea
• Mar 5 In Mecca, 35 Muslim pilgrims are crushed to death during the annual Hajj pilgrimage.
• Mar 6 US Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham establishes the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve to be used in emergency circumstances
• Mar 15 The world's largest oil rig, located off Brazil and operated by Petrobras, suffers three explosions
• Mar 17 OPEC decides to cut output by 4% or 1 million barrels per day, effective April 1

• Mar 19 The Bank of Japan issued a monetary policy known as quantitative easing, which stimulated the Japanese economy after the burst of the dot-com bubble.
• Mar 20 Petrobras 36 Oil Platform, the world's largest oil rig, sinks with 400,000 US gallons of fuel and crude oil aboard, after suffering three explosions on March 15
• Mar 23 The Russian Mir space station is disposed of, breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji

• Mar 26 Kazakhstan's Prime Minister opens an oil pipeline from the giant Tengiz Field to the Russian port of Novorossiysk on Monday, giving the Central Asian producer its first direct link to international markets

• Apr 1 Netherlands becomes the first country in the world to make same-sex marriage legal

• Apr 7 Mars Odyssey is launched
• Apr 11 Detained crew of a United States EP-3E aircraft that landed in Hainan, People's Republic of China after a collision with an J-8 fighter are released
• Apr 15 The Tradition Senior Men's Golf, GC at Desert Mountain: Doug Tewell wins his second & final Champions Tour major by 9 strokes from Mike McCullough

• Apr 21 NFL Draft: Virginia Tech quarterback Michael Vick first pick by Atlanta Falcons

• Apr 28 Millionaire Dennis Tito becomes the world's first space tourist
• Apr 30 The Mitchell Report on the Arab-Israeli conflict is published

• May 3 The United States loses its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947.
• May 4 The Milwaukee Art Museum addition, the first Santiago Calatrava-designed structure in the United States, opens to the public

• May 9 Accra Sports Stadium Disaster: 129 Ghanaian football fans die in a stampede caused by the firing of teargas by police following a decision by the referee in a crucial match between arch-rivals Accra Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko

• May 17 US President George W. Bush calls for reduced regulations to encourage more oil, gas, and nuclear production
• May 18 101-year-old Harold Stilson becomes oldest golfer to record a hole-in-one when he aces the 108-yard, par-3, 16th hole at Deerfield CC, FL

• May 18 Saudi Arabia selects the eight foreign companies to take part in its "Gas Initiative," three core venture gas projects that have an anticipated worth of $25 billion
• May 19 Manchester United lose 3-1 to Tottenham at White Hart Lane but win English Premier League title for the 3rd consecutive season
• May 21 French Taubira law officially recognizes the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.
• May 21 The Enron Corporation's power generating venture in India, the Dabhol Power Company, serves formal notice that it will terminate its power supply contract and pull out
• May 22 Laureus World Sports Awards, Grimaldi Forum, Monaco: Sportsman: Tiger Woods; Sportswoman: Cathy Freeman; Team: French Men's National Football team
• May 23 Marco Siffredi becomes the first person to snowboard down Mount Everest via the Norton Couloir (some share record accreditation with Stefan Gatt)
• May 24 Mountain climbing: 15-year-old Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest.
• May 24 The Democrats gain control of the US Senate for the first time since 1994 when Senator James Jeffords of Vermont abandons the Republican Party and declares himself an independent
• May 24 The Versailles wedding hall disaster in Jerusalem, Israel, kills 23 and injures over 200 in Israel's worst-ever civil disaster.
• May 25 32-year-old Erik Weihenmayer, of Boulder, Colorado, becomes the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest
• May 25 54th Cannes Film Festival: "The Son's Room" directed by Nanni Moretti wins the Palme d'Or
• May 26 Super Rugby Final, Canberra: Fullback Andrew Walker kicks 5 penalties & 3 conversions as the ACT Brumbies win their first title; beat Coastal Sharks (Durban), 36-6
• May 29 International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers inaugurated.
• May 29 Natural gas futures plunge 6% to a 10-month low on speculation that growing US inventories will help power plants meet summer demand for air-conditioning
• May 29 U.S. Supreme Court rules that disabled golfer Casey Martin can use a cart to ride in tournaments
• Jun 1 Dolphinarium massacre: A Hamas suicide bomber kills 21 at a disco in Tel Aviv
• Jun 1 Nepalese Royal Massacre: Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal slaughters his parents, two siblings, and five other family members during dinner at the Narayanhiti Palace, in Katmandu

• Jun 3 Iraq announces that it will halt crude oil exports in response to the UN's resolution that extends the oil-for-food program by only 1 month, instead of the normal 6-month period

• Jun 4 Gyanendra, the last King of Nepal, ascends to the throne after the massacre in the Royal Palace
• Jun 5 OPEC ministers agree to leave the cartel's oil production quotas unchanged for at least a month, until a scheduled emergency meeting July 3
• Jun 5 Tropical Storm Allison makes landfall on the upper-Texas coastline as a strong tropical storm and dumps large amounts of rain over Houston. The storm caused $5.5 billion in damages, making Allison the costliest tropical storm in U.S. history.
• Jun 5 U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords leaves the Republican Party, an act which shifts control of the United States Senate from the Republicans to the Democratic Party
• Jun 7 BP announces that it will build a new $600-million platform offshore Trinidad that is expected to double the company's production of natural gas there by 2004

• Jun 9 Stanley Cup Final, Pepsi Center, Denver, CO: Colorado Avalanche beat defending champion New Jersey Devils, 3-1 for 4-3 series win; Avalanche 2nd title
• Jun 10 Pope John Paul II canonizes Lebanon's first female saint, Saint Rafqa
• Jun 11 Saudi Arabia seizes ownership, effective June 7, of the 1.6-million-barrels-per-day IPSA pipeline that had carried Iraqi crude oil to the Saudi Red Sea port of Mu'jiz prior to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait

• Jun 14 China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan form the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
• Jun 15 ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum sign a letter of intent for a natural gas to liquids (GTL) project that would be the largest in the world

• Jun 18 Protests occur in Manipur over the extension of the ceasefire between Naga insurgents and the government of India
• Jun 21 A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicts 13 Saudis and a Lebanese in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American servicemen

• Jun 21 Total solar eclipse in Madagascar-Indian Ocean (4m56s)
• Jun 27 NBA Draft: Glynn Academy center Kwame Brown first pick by Washington Wizards
• Jun 27 Pope John Paul II beatifies 28 Ukrainian Greek Catholics, including 27 martyrs most of whom were killed by the Soviet secret police. Beatification takes place at the service in Lviv, western Ukraine during his first visit to this country.
• Jun 27 The International Court of Justice finds against the United States in its judgement in the LaGrand Case.

• Jun 30 ENI of Italy signs a $550 million contract to develop Iran's Darquain field, expected to produce 160,000 barrels of petroleum per day
• Jul 2 AbioCor self contained artificial heart created.
• Jul 2 Bush Administration announce that it will seek to let oil companies drill on about 1,500,000 acres of the Gulf of Mexico
• Jul 2 UN Security Council, facing an almost certain Russian veto, agrees to postpone indefinitely a vote on the US-led "smart sanctions" package for Iraq
• Jul 3 A Vladivostok Avia Tupolev TU-154 jetliner crashes on approach to landing at Irkutsk, Russia killing 145 people
• Jul 3 At a meeting of its oil ministers, OPEC agrees to maintain current production quotas; ministers indicate that, if Iraqi oil returns to the market, they may cut production in response to maintain their desired level of prices
• Jul 4 In a world record fee for a soccer goalkeeper, Juventus signed Parma's Gianluigi Buffon in a £32.5m deal including midfielder Jonathan Bachini
• Jul 5 Australia and East Timor sign an agreement to share royalties from oil and natural gas production in the Timor Sea, which separates the two countries
• Jul 7 Australian cricketer Karen Rolton smashes an unbeaten 209 to set a new world record for highest score in a women's Test in Australia's 9 wicket win v England at Headingley
• Jul 7 In his first appearance at Daytona since the death of father Dale Earnhardt Sr., Dale Jr. wins Pepsi 400 coming from 7th with 9 laps remaining to beat teammate Michael Waltrip

• Jul 10 Amerada Hess agrees to acquire Triton Energy for $2.7 billion in cash
• Jul 11 Iraq resumes oil exports, ending a 5-week halt in protest of a US and British-sponsored UN Security Council resolution
• Jul 13 International Olympic Committee votes to award Beijing the 2008 Summer Olympic Games

• Jul 18 Chris Sharma completes the first ascent of the route Realization/Biographie in Ceüse, France, the world's first consensus 9a+ (5.15a) route
• Jul 19 Michael Brunet discovers the skull of Sahelanthropus tchadensis in the Djurab Desert, Chad. One of the oldest known species in the human family tree, 6-7 million years ago years old

• Jul 20 Italy: The 27th Annual G8 summit opens in Genoa. An Italian protester in Genoa, Carlo Giuliani, is shot by police.
• Jul 20 The London Stock Exchange goes public.
• Jul 24 An Iranian warship in the Caspian Sea threatens a BP oil exploration ship off the coast of Azerbaijan
• Jul 24 Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the last Tsar of Bulgaria when he was a child, is sworn in as Prime Minister of Bulgaria, becoming the first monarch in history to regain political power through democratic election to a different office.
• Jul 25 Faced with declining oil prices, OPEC ministers agree to cut crude oil production quotas by about 4%, or 1 million barrels per day

• Aug 1 Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has a Ten Commandments monument installed in the judiciary building, leading to a lawsuit to have it removed and his own removal from office
• Aug 1 An agreement is reached on the position of the minority Albanian language in the Republic of Macedonia
• Aug 1 Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia join the European Environment Agency.
• Aug 3 "The Princess Diaries", starring Anne Hathaway in her film debut, is released nationwide
• Aug 3 Olympic champion Gezahegne Abera of Ethiopia becomes first athlete to achieve Olympics-World Championships marathon double; runs 2:12:42 to beat Kenya's Simon Biwott by just 0.1s in Edmonton World Championships
• Aug 3 The Real IRA detonate a car bomb in Ealing, London, injuring 7 people
• Aug 3 US President George W. Bush signs into law the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA) Extension Act of 2001

• Aug 5 Cleveland Indians tie a MLB record in erasing a 12 run Seattle lead to win 15-14, also preventing the Mariners from reaching a record 117 season wins

• Aug 9 US President George W. Bush announces his support for federal funding of limited research on embryonic stem cells.

• Aug 21 "How You Remind Me" single released by Nickelback (Billboard Song of the Year 2002)
• Aug 21 NATO decides to send a peace-keeping force to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
• Aug 21 The Red Cross announces that a famine is striking Tajikistan, and calls for international financial aid for Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
• Aug 24 Air Transat Flight 236 runs out of fuel over the Atlantic Ocean (en route to Lisbon from Toronto) and makes an emergency landing in the Azores.
• Aug 24 Microsoft releases to manufacturing software for Windows XP
• Aug 25 Singer Aaliyah and 8 others killed in an air crash in the Bahamas

• Aug 29 Goodwill Games V opens in Brisbane, Australia; this is the final edition of the event
• Sep 1 Australian Rugby Union team gives all-conquering captain John Eales perfect send off in his final international with a famous last minute, 29-26 win over New Zealand in Sydney; Wallabies retain Tri Nations Series

• Sep 1 Jockey Tim Moccasin caps a streak of 14 consecutive victories, a North American record, at Marquis Downs in Saskatoon, Canada aboard Intricate Stitch in the 5th race
• Sep 2 German Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher wins the Belgian Grand Prix at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps for his record 52nd F1 Grand Prix victory
• Sep 3 In just his 11th start, St. Louis Cardinals' rookie pitcher Bud Smith no-hits the San Diego Padres, 4-0
• Sep 5 John Cage's musical composition "As Slow as Possible", to be played for 639 years, begins at St. Burchardi Church, Halberstadt, Germany
• Sep 7 30th Anniversary Celebration of singer Michael Jackson's solo career held at NYC's Madison Square Garden features an all-star line-up. including a reunion with his brothers for a medley of their hits
• Sep 7 The US Federal Trade Commission approves Chevron's bid to buy Texaco

• Sep 9 At 01:46:40 UTC the time on the Unix clock in milliseconds passes 1 billion since January 1, 1970, which Unix systems recognize as zero-time

• Sep 11 Betty Farmer, American jazz and cabaret singer, killed in World Trade Center attack at 62

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