December 2002 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December - → Look up December in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2002 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December A timeline of events in the news for January, 2002. ... 2002 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December February 27, 2002 Alicia Keys wins five Grammys. ... 2002 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December A timeline of events in the news for March, 2002. ... 2002 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December A timeline of events in the news for April, 2002. ... 2002 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December A timeline of events in the news for May, 2002. ... 2002 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December A timeline of events in the news for June, 2002. ... July 2002 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December // Events See also: Afghanistan timeline July 2002 July 31, 2002 The Foreign Relations Committee of the United States Senate begins hearings on the proposed invasion of Iraq The Stock Market continues its recovery from the Stock... 2002 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December A timeline of events in the news for August, 2002. ... 2002 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December A timeline of events in the news for September, 2002. ... October 2002 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December // Events October 31, 2002 The Russian Health Minister Yuri Shevchenko has now stated that the incapacitating agent used in the storming of the Moscow theatre siege was a fentanyl derivative. ... 2002 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December A timeline of events in the news for November, 2002. ... 2003: January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December A timeline of events in the news for January, 2003. ...

Events

Afghanistan timeline December 29, 2002 A Pakistani border guard shot and wounded a Afghanistans Paktika province, just a few hundred yards from Pakistans border. ...

December 31, 2002

• United States troops get into a brief gun battle with paramilitary forces of the Warzirstan Scouts of Pakistan, in a remote tribal area along the undefined Afghan/Pakistani border, in Paktia Province, Afghanistan. One US soldier is wounded by gunfire, and several Pakistani soldiers are killed when US air support arrives. The border in this region is poorly demarcated. [1]. Three missiles from US helicopter gunships strike a madrassa owned by former Taliban official Maulana Muhammad Hassan, according to the ANI news agency.
• The first trial of a member of the Russian military for human rights violations in Chechnya concludes controversially, with Col. Yuri Budanov found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a psychiatric hospital for further evaluation and treatment. Budanov was charged with murder and abduction after being accused of raping and strangling Heda Kungayeva, an 18 year old Chechen girl whom Budanov contends was a rebel sniper. [2]

December 31 is the 365th day of the year (366th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Paktia province is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. ... A Madrasah complex in Gambia Ulugh Beg Madrasa, Samarkand, ca. ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... Capital Grozny Area - total - % water 78th - 15,500 km² - negligible Population - Total - Density 49th - est. ... Psychiatry is the branch of medicine that studies, diagnoses and treats mental illness and behavioral disorders. ... The traditional definition of a sniper is an infantry soldier especially skilled in field craft and marksmanship, who kills selected enemies from concealment with a rifle at long distances. ...

December 30, 2002

• The Israeli Supreme Court rules that reservists may not refuse to serve in the West Bank or Gaza because of their objection to Israeli government policies. The Court ruled "the recognition of selective conscientious objection might loosen the links that hold us together as a people."
• Four Americans (the director, a doctor, the administrator and the pharmacist) at the Baptist hospital in Jibla, Yemen, were killed by Abed Abdul-Razzak Kamal. Kamal was captured and claims he was linked to the extremist Islamic Reform Party. Another member of his alleged cell, Ali al-Jarallah, was arrested for shooting a Yemeni left-wing politician on Sunday.
• The United Nations Security Council voted 13-0, with two abstentions, to revise the list of goods Iraq is allowed to purchase under the "food-for-oil" program. The list includes flight simulators, communications equipment, high-speed motorboats, and rocket cases, which the United States noted are dual-use technologies. The Security Council also agreed to ask the UN for standards to evaluate the quantities of medicine and antibiotics Iraq is allowed to import under this program.
• A tanker, the Amazonian Explorer, arrived in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, 200 kilometers east of Caracas, the capital. President Hugo Chávez traveled to the port to supervise the unloading of 525,000 barrels (83,000 m³) of gasoline. Gasoline is restricted due to a strike at Petroleos de Venezuela, SA (PdVSA), the state-owned oil company, which is aimed at forcing President Chávez to call early elections.
• Crude oil futures on the New York market rose to $33 per barrel (208 $/m³) because of the Venezuelan oil strike and fears of war with Iraq.

December 30 is the 364th day of the year (365th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 1 day remaining. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Image:Gazaseal. ... Minaret and town buildings in Jibla. ... Interior Cockpit of a modern Flight Simulator A flight simulator is a system that tries to replicate, or simulate, the experience of flying an aircraft as closely and realistically as possible. ... A 1962 Rebel. A wooden speedboat with an outboard engine. ... A Redstone rocket, part of the Mercury program A rocket is a vehicle, missile or aircraft which obtains thrust by the reaction to the ejection of fast moving exhaust gas from within a rocket engine. ... Dual-use is a term often used in politics and diplomacy to refer to technology which can be used for both peaceful and military aims, usually in regard to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. ... Medicine is the branch of health science and the sector of public life concerned with maintaining human health or restoring it through the treatment of disease and injury. ... An antibiotic is a drug that kills or slows the growth of bacteria. ... Barcelona is the capital of Anzoátegui State, Venezuela. ... City motto: Ave María Santísima, sin pecado concebida, en el primer instante de su ser natural. ... Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (English pron. ... The barrel is the name of several units of measurement. ...

December 29, 2002

• The Kenyan electoral commission confirms that the opposition National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) has won landslide victories over the ruling KANU party in Friday's elections, ending 40 years of single party rule and 24 years of rule by Daniel arap Moi. The NARC's presidential candidate, Mwai Kibaki, led by more than 30 percentage points over the KANU's official candidate. [3]
• Brighton's West Pier collapsed. It had served from the Victorian era until it was closed in 1975. [4][5]

December 29 is the 363rd day of the year (364th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 2 days remaining. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Politics of Kenya Categories: Politics stubs | Kenyan political parties ... There are three meanings for Kanu: KANU - the Kenya African National Union Kanu, Nwankwo - Nigerian footballer KANU FM 91. ... President Moi and US President Bush at the UN headquarters in New York on November 10, 2001. ... Mwai Kibaki during an official state visit to the United States Mwai Kibaki (born November 15, 1931) is Kenyas third president, an economist, and a political leader. ... Brighton on the southern Sussex coast is one of the largest and most famous seaside resorts in England. ... Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her Accession to the Throne, 20 June 1837) gave her name to the historic era The Victorian era of Great Britain is considered the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ...

December 27, 2002

• Chechen rebels detonate two car bombs at the Grozny headquarters of Chechnya's Russian-backed government in an apparent suicide attack, killing more than 80 people. [6]
• North Korea expels UN weapons inspectors, and announces plans to reactivate a dormant nuclear fuel processing laboratory. [7]
• Clonaid, the medical arm of a cult called Raelism, who believe that aliens introduced human life on Earth, claims to have successfully cloned a human being. They claim that aliens taught them how to perform cloning, even though the company has no record of having successfully cloned any previous animal. A spokesperson said an independent agency would prove that the baby, named Eve, is in fact an exact copy of her mother. [8]
• Presidential elections in Kenya between Uhuru Kenyatta, candidate for ruling party KANU, and Mwai Kibaki, candidate for opposition party NARC. Early reports say the latter wins a landslide victory.

December 27 is the 361st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Chechen can mean: Chechen people, an ethnic group Chechen language Related to Chechnya This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Grozny (Russian: ) is the capital of the Chechen Republic in Russia. ... Clonaid is a self-described human cloning company. ... Raels first published book, the basis of the Raelian movement Raëlism is the belief system promoted by the Raëlian Movement, a religious organization which believes that scientifically advanced extraterrestrials known as the Elohim (one of the words used to refer to God in the Torah) created life... Cloning is the process of creating an identical copy of an original. ... Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta (born October 26, 1961) is the leader of the Kenya African National Union (KANU), the former ruling party of Kenya. ... There are three meanings for Kanu: KANU - the Kenya African National Union Kanu, Nwankwo - Nigerian footballer KANU FM 91. ... Mwai Kibaki during an official state visit to the United States Mwai Kibaki (born November 15, 1931) is Kenyas third president, an economist, and a political leader. ... Politics of Kenya Categories: Politics stubs | Kenyan political parties ... In politics, a landslide victory (or just a landslide) is the victory of a candidate or political party by an overwhelming majority in an election. ...

December 26, 2002

• North Korea is reactivating a plutonium producing nuclear power plant north of Pyongyang after removing United Nations seals on the reactor and degrading the capability of surveillance cameras. This same reactor is thought by U.S. officials as the source for plutonium for two previously produced atomic bombs. North Korea has been named by the George W. Bush Administration as part of the so-called "axis of evil."[9]
• War on Terrorism: A Washington Post article quotes numerous anonymous CIA agents who confirm that the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States uses so-called "stress and duress" interrogation techniques, which are claimed by human rights activists to be acts of torture. The actions include beatings as a prelude to interrogation in order to break their will, followed by sleep deprivation, denial of pain medication, and enclosure in cramped rooms. The CIA frequently turns suspects over to Middle Eastern intelligence services for what is undisputablely torture and intensive interrogation. The anonymous agents defend the practice as necessary in light of the September 11th terrorist attacks; publicly, US government officials deny the charges, while declining to address specifics. Privately, however, one official justified human rights violations as being a necessary part of the job. [10]
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Israel announces it will begin with temporarily providing social services such as education, healthcare, and licenses in the West Bank. The Israeli government claims the move is necessary to provide badly needed services to the Palestinian people in light of the Palestinian Authority's inability to do so. Palestinian officials claim the move is an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority and tantamount to the reinstatement of the Israeli occupation that existed before the 1993 Oslo Accords.
• A 55-year-old contractor from West Virginia named Andrew "Jack" Whittaker Jr won the $314.9 million Christmas Day Powerball jackpot which is the biggest undivided lottery prize in American history. [11]

December 26 is the 360th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, 361st in leap years. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... General Name, Symbol, Number plutonium, Pu, 94 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery white Atomic mass (244) g/mol Electron configuration [Rn] 5f6 7s2 Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 24, 8, 2 Physical properties Phase solid Density (near r. ... The neutrality of this article is disputed. ... Pyŏngyang (평양 / 平壤) is the capital city of North Korea, located in the northwest of the country, situated on the Taedong River. ... The United Nations (UN) is an international organization that describes itself as a global association of governments facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, and social equity. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 km (11 mi) above the epicenter. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States. ... World map indicating the countries of the axis of evil. The term “axis of evil” was used by United States President George W. Bush in his State of the Union Address on January 29, 2002 to describe regimes that sponsor terror. Bush named Iraq, Iran, and North Korea in his... The War on Terrorism or War on Terror (in U.S. foreign policy circles, the global war on terrorism or GWOT ) is a controversial campaign by the United States government and some of its allies with the stated goal of ending worldwide terrorism by stopping terrorist groups and ending state... ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Iron Maiden of Nuremberg is an infamous and rarely used torture device. ... The World Trade Center on fire The September 11, 2001 attacks were a series of coordinated terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001. ... This article needs to be updated to deal with the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. ... The West Bank The Palestinian National Authority (PNA or PA) is a semi-autonomous state institution nominally governing the bulk of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (which it calls the Palestinian Territories). It was established as a part of Oslo accords between the PLO and Israel. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII in Roman) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... The Oslo Accords, officially called the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements or Declaration of Principles (DOP), were finalized in Oslo, Norway on August 20, 1993, and subsequently officially signed at a public ceremony in Washington D.C. on September 13, 1993, with Mahmoud Abbas signing for the... Official language(s) English Capital Charleston Largest city Charleston Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 41st 62,809 km² 210 km 385 km 0. ... Powerball is an American lottery operated by the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), a consortium of lottery commissions in 28 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. ... A lottery is a popular form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize. ...

December 25, 2002

• The Christmas holiday is celebrated in Western Christianity.
• Kicker Katie Hnida of the University of New Mexico makes history by becoming the first woman to participate in a NCAA division 1 football game, missing a kick for her team during the Las Vegas Bowl game.

December 25 is the 359th day of the year (360th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 6 days remaining. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Christmas (literally, the Mass of Jesus Christ) is a traditional holiday observed on 25 December. ... The word holiday has related but different meanings in English-speaking countries. ... Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the life, teachings, and actions of Jesus as recounted in the New Testament. ... Katharine Anne Hnida (Katie Hnida) (born May 17, 1981) is a native of Denver, Colorado who, on August 30, 2003 made history by becoming the first woman ever to score in a NCAA Division I football game. ... The University of New Mexico (UNM) is a public university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. ... The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA, often said NC-Double-A) is a voluntary association of about 1200 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletics programs of many colleges and universities in the United States. ... United States simply as football, is a competitive team sport that is both fast-paced and strategic. ...

December 24, 2002

• A number of US Muslim groups have initiated a class action lawsuit against the US Attorney General, John Ashcroft and the US immigration services over the arrest and detention of large numbers (believed to be in the hundreds) of Muslim men.
• A bomb believed planted by a Muslim separatist organisation killed 13 people, including a town mayor, and wounded 12 in a Christmas Eve attack in the southern Philippines town of Datu Piang.
• Iran's state radio reported quoted a statement by airport officials, saying that pilot "carelessness" caused a plane carrying Ukrainian and Russian aerospace scientists to crash in central Iran, killing all 46 people on board.
• Sun Microsystems won a major antitrust victory against Microsoft when a federal judge ordered Microsoft to distribute Sun's Java programming language in its Microsoft Windows operating system.

December 24 is the 358th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (359th in leap years). ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم) (sometimes also spelled Moslem) is an adherent of Islam. ... John David Ashcroft (born May 9, 1942) was the 79th Attorney General of the United States. ... A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم) (sometimes also spelled Moslem) is an adherent of Islam. ... The Christmas Eve (1904-05), watercolor painting by the Swedish painter Carl Larsson (1853-1919) Christmas Eve, December 24, the day before Christmas Day, is treated to a greater or a lesser extent in most Christian societies as part of the Christmas festivities. ... Sun Microsystems, Inc. ... Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKEx: 4338) is the worlds largest software corporation, with 2005 global annual sales of almost $40 billion USD and about 64,000 employees in 85 countries and regions. ... Java is an object-oriented programming language developed by James Gosling and colleagues at Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s. ... Microsoft Windows is a series of operating environments and operating systems created by Microsoft for use on personal computers and servers. ...

December 23, 2002

• Bill Frist was voted to succeed Trent Lott as United States Senate Majority Leader.
• Scientists at California company VaxGen Inc., have finished the first human trial of an AIDS vaccine, a mammoth $200 million, 5,400-patient effort more than a decade in the making. The Food and Drug Administration has granted the vaccine "fast-track" status that would speed it through the approval process, if it proves effective, for public availability. The test results are expected to be made public within approximately three months.
• The British musician Joe Strummer has died of a heart attack, aged 50. His death made the top news story in a number of British news sources.
• Victor Emmanuel, Prince of Naples, the heir of the last King of Italy, visited the country for the first time since the Italian Royal Family was banned. A constitutional amendment passed in November allowed the royal family to return as ordinary citizens.

December 23 is the 357th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (358th in leap years). ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... William Harrison Frist, M.D. (born February 22, 1952 in Nashville, Tennessee) is a Republican U.S. Senator from Tennessee and a cardiac surgeon. ... Chester Trent Lott (born October 9, 1941 in Grenada, Mississippi) is a U.S. Senator from Mississippi and a member of the Republican Party. ... The Senate Majority Leader is a member of the United States Senate who is elected by his or her party conference to serve as the chief Senate spokesman for his or her party and to manage and schedule the legislative and executive business of the Senate. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 3rd 410,000 km² 402. ... Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome (or acronym AIDS or Aids), is a collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). ... A vaccine is an antigenic preparation used to produce active immunity to a disease, in order to prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by any natural or wild strain of the organism. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... John Graham Mellor (August 21, 1952 – December 22, 2002) better known as Joe Strummer, was the co-founder, lyricist and lead singer of punk rock band The Clash, and later The Mescaleros. ... Victor Emmanuel, prince of Naples, or Vittorio Emanuele Alberto Carlo Teodoro Umberto Bonifacio Amedeo Damiano Bernardino Gennaro Maria de Savoie, born February 12, 1937, is the head of the house of Savoy. ...

December 22, 2002

• Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat announced that he has called off presidential and legislative elections scheduled for next month, as he feels that continued Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory will make a free election impossible.
• North Korea announced that it is physically removing monitoring devices placed on the Yongbyon nuclear reactor. The devices were placed by the United Nations following the 1994 nuclear agreement to shut down Yongbyon, which is capable of making weapons-grade material, in exchange for deliveries of oil. In November 2002, Korea admitted that it is working on a weapons of mass destruction program in response to "imperialist threats." The United States states it does not trust the North Koreans.
• Demonstrators estimated in the tens of thousands supported proposed national security laws for Hong Kong, following last week's demonstrations with similar numbers against these proposed laws. The Government Consultation Exercise for the proposed laws received 18,000 comments. Article 23 of the Basic Law of Hong Kong, negotiated by Britain and China before the 1997 handover to China, stated that Hong Kong must enact national security legislation by itself banning treason, turning over state secrets, and urging separation from China.
• A senior member of ETA, Ibon Femandez de Iradi, escaped from French custody yesterday. He and a woman companion was arrested Wednesday after their car was found to have false number plates. Ibon Femandez de Iradi was the logistics chief for ETA, a Basque separatist group which has been implicated in terrorist activities.
• Time Magazine announced that its "Persons of the Year" are three female whistleblowers -- Coleen Rowley, FBI agent who wrote a memorandum to FBI Director Robert Mueller claiming that the Minneapolis, Minnesota office had been remiss in its investigation of suspected terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui; Cynthia Cooper, former WorldCom auditor, who alerted the company's Board of Directors of accounting irregularities; and Sherron Watkins, former Enron Vice President, who reported to the company's former Chairman Kenneth Lay in 2001 that the company was about to collapse as a result of false accounting.
• The city of Baltimore, Maryland passed an ordinance making the giving of a BB gun to a minor a misdemeanor punished by a $500 fine and two months in jail.
• Singer Kristyn Osbourne of the country music group SHeDAISY filed a $3.5 million lawsuit against karaoke companies for failure to pay songwriters.

December 22 is the 356th day of the year (357th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The term Palestinian has other usages, for which see definitions of Palestinian. ... Arafat redirects here; for the hill east of Mecca, see Mount Arafat Yasser Arafat (Arabic: ياسر عرفات‎) (August 4 or August 24, 1929 – November 11, 2004), born Mohammed Abdel-Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini (محمد عبد الرؤوف القدوة الحسيني) and also known by the kunya Abu `Ammar (أبو عمّار), was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) (1969... North Korea has several nuclear facilities with the potential to produce nuclear fuel for weapons. ... Weapons of mass destruction (WMD) generally include nuclear, biological, chemical and, increasingly, radiological weapons. ... The Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the Peoples Republic of China serves as the constitutional document of Hong Kong. ... The neutrality of this introduction is disputed. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... (Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ... A whistleblower is an employee, former employee, or member of an organization who reports misconduct to people or entities that have the power to take corrective action. ... Coleen Rowley Coleen Rowley (born December 20, 1954) was the whistleblower FBI agent who wrote a memorandum to FBI Director Robert Mueller claiming that FBI HQ personnel in Washington, D.C., had mishandled and neglected to take action on information provided by the Minneapolis, Minnesota Field Office regarding its investigation... For other uses of the initials FBI, see FBI (disambiguation). ... Robert Swan Mueller III (born August 7, 1944) is the current Director of the FBI. Mueller was born in New York City and grew up outside of Philadelphia. ... Nickname: City of Lakes Motto: En Avant Official website: http://www. ... Definitions of terrorism include fearmongering for political gain and the unconventional use of violence against civilians. ... Moussaoui mugshot Zacarias Moussaoui (born May 30, 1968) is a French terrorist of Moroccan descent involved in the conspiracy that resulted in the September 11, 2001 attacks. ... Cynthia Cooper was the whistleblower who exposed massive accounting fraud at WorldCom in 2002. ... For a time, WorldCom (WCOM) was the United States second largest long distance phone company (AT&T was the largest). ... An audit is an evaluation of an organization, system, process, or product. ... Sharon Watkins was Vice President of corporate development at Enron and is considered by many the whistleblower who helped to uncover the Enron scandal in 2001/2002. ... Enron Corporation Enron Corporation is an energy trading and communications company based in Houston, Texas that employed around 21,000 people in mid-2001 (before bankruptcy). ... Kenneth Lee Lay (born April 15, 1942) is an American businessman and former CEO of Enron Corporation. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... Motto: The Greatest City in America (formerly The City That Reads; BELIEVE is not the official motto but rather a specific campaign) Nickname: Charm City Mob Town B-more Map Political Statistics Founded 30 July 1729 Incorporated 1797 County Independent city Borough {{{borough}}} Parrish {{{parrish}}} Mayor Martin J. OMalley... Steel BBs It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with air gun. ... Country music, also called country and western music or country-western, is an amalgam of popular musical forms developed in the Southern United States, with roots in traditional folk music, Celtic Music, Blues, Gospel music, and Old-time music. ... SHeDAISY is an American country music group made up of three sisters: Kassidy, Kelsi and Kristyn Osborn. ... A Karaoke machine Karaoke (Japanese: カラオケ, from 空 kara, empty, and オーケストラ ōkesutora, orchestra) is a form of entertainment in which an amateur singer or singers sing along with recorded music on microphone. ...

December 21, 2002

• In the Côte d'Ivoire, units of the French Foreign Legion, based at the city of Duekoue on Sassandra River have come into contact with rebels advancing southward from the city of Man. Colonel Emmanuel Maurin, commander of the French force, states "Between what we have here and the river, they shall not pass."
• South Korean President-elect Roh Mooh-hyun states that he will visit Washington after receiving an invitation from President George W. Bush. During his campaign, Roh stated he would not visit simply for a White House "photo op."

December 21 is the 355th day of the year (356th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Légionnaires in dress uniform. ... Man is a town and department (département) in the west of central Côte dIvoire. ... They shall not pass (French: Ils ne passeront pas), (Spanish ¡No pasarán!) is a propaganda slogan used to express determination to defend a position against an enemy. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States. ...

December 20, 2002

• Barbara Joyce Williams Ferrell, daughter of the late baseball player Ted Williams, has dropped her lawsuit to have the body of her father removed from a cryonics storage facility and cremated.
• Maoist guerrillas ambushed a police van in Jharkhand, a state in eastern India, killing 18 people, mostly police officers. At least 20 policemen were wounded in the ambush and the gunbattle that followed.
• Senator Trent Lott resigned as Senate Majority Leader, concluding that his approving statements of fellow Senator Strom Thurmond's segregationist run for President of the United States in 1948 had limited his effectiveness and that of his fellow Republicans.
• Portland Trail Blazers players, Golden State Warriors players and Warriors' fans get involved in a melee after the Trail Blazers beat the Warriors, 113-111 in Oakland. It might be the first time in NBA history that a home team's fans attack the visiting team during or after a game.
• Speed skater Catriona Le May Doan won the Lou Marsh Trophy, given annually to Canada's outstanding athlete. She edgted out Dallas Mavericks guard Steve Nash.
• The magazine Science chose the discovery of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) as the top science story of the year. The molecular switches have the potential to treat such diseases as HIV and cancer.
• Scientists at California Institute of Technology announced the discovery of clouds of methane on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn.
• Governor Frank H. Murkowski of Alaska announced that he had chosen his daughter, state Representative and House Majority Leader Lisa Murkowski, to succeed him in the United States Senate. The elder Murkowski, in winning the recent election as governor, was forced to leave his Senate position.

December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Baseball is a team sport in which a player on one team (the pitcher) attempts to throw a hard, fist-sized ball past a player on the other team (the batter), who attempts to hit the baseball with a tapered, smooth wooden stick called a bat. ... Theodore Samuel Williams (August 30, 1918 – July 5, 2002), nicknamed The Kid, the Splendid Splinter, Teddy Ballgame and The Thumper, was an American left fielder in Major League Baseball who played 19 seasons, twice interrupted by military service as a Marine Corps pilot, with the Boston Red Sox. ... This bigfoot Dewar flask is custom-designed to contain four wholebody patients and six neuropatients immersed in liquid nitrogen at -196 degrees Celsius. ... Seal of the Senate The United States Senate is one of the two chambers of the Congress of the United States, the other being the House of Representatives. ... Chester Trent Lott (born October 9, 1941 in Grenada, Mississippi) is a U.S. Senator from Mississippi and a member of the Republican Party. ... The Senate Majority Leader is a member of the United States Senate who is elected by his or her party conference to serve as the chief Senate spokesman for his or her party and to manage and schedule the legislative and executive business of the Senate. ... James Strom Thurmond (December 5, 1902 – June 26, 2003) represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from 1954 to April 1956 and November 1956 to 1964 as a Democrat and from 1964 to 2003 as a Republican. ... The Rex Theatre for Colored People, Leland, Mississippi, June 1937 Racial segregation is a kind of formalized or institutionalized discrimination on the basis of race. ... The presidential seal was first used by president Hayes in 1880 and last modified in 1959 by adding the 50th star for Hawaii The President of the United States of America (often abbreviated to POTUS) is the head of state of the United States. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Republican Party, often called the GOP (for Grand Old Party, although one early citation described it as the Gallant Old Party) [1], is one of the two major political parties in the United States. ... The Portland Trail Blazers is a National Basketball Association team based in Portland, Oregon. ... The Golden State Warriors are a National Basketball Association team based in Oakland, California. ... View of downtown Oakland looking west across Lake Merritt. ... The National Basketball Association, more commonly referred to as the NBA, is the worlds premier mens professional basketball league and one of the major professional sports leagues of North America. ... There are several varieties of skating: Figure skating Ice skating Inline skating Roller skating Snow skating Skateboarding Tour skating Speed skating See also: list of skating sports. ... Catriona Ann LeMay Doan (born December 23, 1970), born LeMay, is a Canadian speed skater and a double Olympic champion in the 500 m. ... The Lou Marsh Trophy is awarded annually by a panel of journalists in recognition of Canadas top athlete. ... The Dallas Mavericks are a National Basketball Association team based in Dallas, Texas. ... Stephen John Nash (born February 7, 1974 in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a star Canadian basketball player. ... A collection of magazines A magazine is a periodical publication containing a variety of articles, generally financed by advertising and/or purchase by readers. ... Science is the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). ... Small interfering RNA (siRNA), sometimes known as short interfering RNA, are a class of 20-25 nucleotide-long RNA molecules that interfere with the expression of genes. ... Human immunodeficiency virus, commonly known by the initialism HIV (original names HTLV-III and lymphadenopathy-associated virus), is a retrovirus that primarily infects vital components of the human immune system such as CD4+ T cells, macrophages and dendritic cells. ... The California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech) is a private, coeducational university located in Pasadena, California, in the United States. ... R-phrases S-phrases , , , Flash point −188 °C Autoignition temperature 537 °C Explosive limits 5–15% Supplementary data page Structure and properties Thermodynamic data Spectral data UV, IR, NMR, MS Related compounds Related alkanes Ethane Propane Related compounds Methanol Chloromethane Except where noted otherwise, data are given for materials in... Atmospheric characteristics Pressure 146. ... Moons of solar system scaled to Earths Moon The common noun moon (not capitalized) is used to mean any natural satellite of the other planets. ... Atmospheric characteristics Atmospheric pressure 140 kPa Hydrogen >93% Helium >5% Methane 0. ... This is a list of the governors of the U.S. state of Alaska, of Alaska Territory and of the District of Alaska, and the military commanders of the District of Alaska. ... Frank Hughes Murkowski (born March 28, 1933) is a Polish-American politician who is the current Governor of Alaska and a member of the Republican Party. ... Official language(s) English Capital Juneau Largest city Anchorage Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 1st 663,267 mi² / 1 717 854 km² 808 mi / 1300 km 1,479 mi / 2380 km 13. ... Lisa Ann Murkowski (born May 22, 1957) is an American politician. ... Seal of the Senate The United States Senate is one of the two chambers of the Congress of the United States, the other being the House of Representatives. ...

December 19, 2002

• U.S. plan to invade Iraq: After reviewing a 12,000 page Iraqi weapons declaration document, U.S. officials state that Iraq has failed to account for all its chemical and biological agents and that Iraq is in material breach of a United Nations Security Council resolution.
• Hundreds of Middle Eastern immigrants in Southern California who came to INS officials to register, as per new regulations, are arrested and imprisoned for various INS violations, many of them due to official delays in processing necessary forms. Critics compared the action to the Japanese internment in the same region during World War II. Others claimed that the people are in violation of United States immigration law, and the arrests are valid.
• Ruling party candidate Roh Moo-hyun won South Korea's presidential election, a result that could complicate ties with the United States as the allies grapple with North Korea's nuclear programme.
• Pope John Paul II will approve the miracle needed to beatify Mother Teresa, whose dedication to the destitute earned her a special place in the pontiff's heart. A second miracle then will be needed to declare Mother Teresa a saint.
• AOL Time Warner announced that they had been issued a patent for instant messaging. AOL said that they have no plans to enforce the patent, but it could cause major problems for the purveyors of other instant messaging systems, in particular Microsoft and Yahoo!.
• Rebels in the Côte d'Ivoire seized the key western city of Man from government forces.

December 19 is the 353rd day of the year (354th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The neutrality of this article is disputed. ... The United Nations Security Council is the most powerful organ of the United Nations (UN). ... Southern California Downtown Los Angeles Skyline Southern California, sometimes abbreviated SoCal or colloquially, the Southland, is an informal name for the megalopolis and nearby desert that occupies the southern-most quarter of the state of California. ... The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was a part of the United States Department of Justice which used to handle legal and illegal immigration and naturalization. ... Jerome Relocation Camp The Japanese American internment refers to the exclusion and subsequent removal of approximately 112,000 to 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans, officially described as persons of Japanese ancestry, 62% of whom were United States citizens, from the west coast of the United States during World War... Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 17 million military deaths 7 million military deaths {{{notes}}} World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a military conflict that took place between 1939 and 1945. ... Nationality law is the branch of a countrys legal system wherein legislation, custom and court precendent combine to define the ways in which that countrys nationality and citizenship are transmitted, acquired or lost. ... Roh Moo-Hyun(노무현), born September 1, 1946, has been the President of South Korea since February 25, 2003. ... Pope John Paul II (Latin: ), born Karol Józef WojtyÅ‚a (May 18, 1920 – April 2, 2005) reigned as pope of the Roman Catholic Church for almost 27 years, from October 16, 1978 until his death, making his the second-longest pontificate. ... According to many religions, a miracle, derived from the old Latin word miraculum meaning something wonderful, is a striking interposition of divine intervention by God in the universe by which the operations of the ordinary course of Nature are overruled, suspended, or modified. ... In Catholicism, beatification (from Greek μακαριος, makarios) is a recognition accorded by the church of a dead persons accession to Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name (intercession of saints). ... The neutrality of this article is disputed. ... In general, the term Saint refers to someone who is exceptionally virtuous and holy. ... Time Warner Inc. ... A screenshot of PowWow, one of the first instant messengers with a graphical user interface Instant messaging is the act of instantly communicating between two or more people over a network such as the Internet. ... Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKEx: 4338) is the worlds largest software corporation, with 2005 global annual sales of almost $40 billion USD and about 64,000 employees in 85 countries and regions. ... It has been suggested that Yahoo! Photos be merged into this article or section. ... Image of a man on the Pioneer plaque sent to interstellar space A man is a male human adult, in contrast to an adult female, which is a woman. ...

December 18, 2002

• Insurance and finance company Conseco Inc., deep in debt and facing a federal investigation of its accounting practices, filed for Chapter 11 protection in the third-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
• An Indian court sentenced three men to death for treason, for their assistance in helping five gunmen prepare for the December 13, 2001 attack on the national Parliament which killed nine people and nearly triggered a war with nuclear rival Pakistan. Death sentences, which are carried out by hanging, are rare in India.
• Matsushita and Sony have announced that they are collaborating on the development of a "Linux platform for digital home electronic devices"

December 18 is the 352nd day of the year (353rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Insurance, in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of potential financial loss. ... Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code governs the process of reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. ... Notice of closure stuck on the door of a computer store the day after its parent company, Granville Technology Group Ltd, declared bankruptcy (strictly, administration - see text) in the UK. Bankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay their creditors. ... In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to ones nation. ... December 13 is the 347th day of the year (348th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... Capital punishment, also referred to as the death penalty, is the judicially ordered execution of a prisoner as a punishment for a serious crime, often called a capital offense or a capital crime. ... Hanging is a form of execution or a method for suicide. ... Logo for the Panasonic brand Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Tux is the official Linux mascot. ... A digital system is one that uses numbers, especially binary numbers, for input, processing, transmission, storage, or display, rather than a continuous spectrum of values (an analog system) or non-numeric symbols such as letters or icons. ...

December 17, 2002

• Congo's government, rebels and opposition parties signed a peace accord to end four years of civil war and set up a transitional government to lead Africa's third-largest nation to its first democratic elections since independence in 1960.
• The Bush administration announced it will begin begin deploying a limited system to defend the United States against ballistic missiles by 2004.
• ElcomSoft is found not guilty on 4 counts of DMCA violations, in the first important test case involving the controversial law.

December 17 is the 351st day of the year (352nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A civil war is a war in which the competing parties within the same country or empire struggle for national control of state power. ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States. ... Polish missile wz. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... ElcomSoft is a Russian computer software company specialising in computer security and data recovery applications and spamware. ... The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States copyright law. ...

December 16, 2002

• Former Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic pled guilty to one count of crimes against humanity at the Hague tribunal for her part in persecuting Bosnian Muslims and Croats during the 1992-95 conflict, which left 200,000 dead or missing.
• Protesters blockaded highways in and around Caracas as the opposition, angered by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's resolve to hang on to power, called for an escalation in its campaign to remove him.
• Former US Vice President and 2000 Presidential candidate Al Gore announces on the CBS program 60 Minutes that he will not seek election to the Presidency in 2004.

December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Serbs (in the Serbian language Срби, Srbi) are a south Slavic people living chiefly in Serbia and Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. ... Biljana Plavšić (born July 7, 1930 in Tuzla) is a Bosnian Serb politician, formerly President of Republika Srpska, currently incarcerated for crimes committed during the 1992_1995 war in Bosnia. ... Arms of The Hague The Hague (with capital T; Dutch: Den Haag, formerly also s-Gravenhage) is the administrative capital of the Netherlands, located in the west of the country, in the province South Holland of which it is also the capital. ... Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (English pron. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... Albert Arnold Gore, Jr. ... For other uses, see CBS (disambiguation). ... The ticking TAG Heuer stopwatch from 60 Minutes. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

December 13, 2002

• The Vatican announces that Pope John Paul II has accepted the resignation of Boston's Bernard Cardinal Law due to widespread outcry among Boston Catholics over Law's role in covering up pedophilia-related and other sex crimes among priests in his diocese.
• US Senate majority leader Trent Lott apologizes on television amid growing outcry for his resignation from both ends of the political spectrum for comments made at Senator Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party which seemed to support Thurmond's 1948 segregationist presidential campaign platform.
• The Geminid meteor shower peaks tonight. Best viewing is between midnight and dawn.
• Henry Kissinger stepped down as the chairman of a panel investigating the September 11 attacks, citing conflict of interest with his clients. The choice of Kissinger by President George W. Bush had been severely criticized in some quarters because of claims that Kissinger is a war criminal and a master of covering up past events.
• The European Union invited Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Cyprus and Malta to join. Expansion is scheduled for May of 2004.

December 13 is the 347th day of the year (348th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Pope (from Greek: pappas, father; from Latin: papa, Papa, father) is the successor of St. ... Pope John Paul II (Latin: ), born Karol Józef Wojtyła (May 18, 1920 – April 2, 2005) reigned as pope of the Roman Catholic Church for almost 27 years, from October 16, 1978 until his death, making his the second-longest pontificate. ... As archpriest the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, Bernard Cardinal Law had the honors of presiding over one of nine official masses of mourning after the funeral of Pope John Paul II. He escorts Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in this photo. ... Pedophilia (Am. ... Roman Catholic priest LCDR Allen R. Kuss (USN) aboard USS Enterprise A priest or priestess is a holy man or woman who takes an officiating role in worship of any religion, with the distinguishing characteristic of offering sacrifices. ... Pope Pius XI blesses Bishop Stephen Alencastre as fifth Apostolic Vicar of the Hawaiian Islands in a Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace window. ... Seal of the Senate The United States Senate is one of the two chambers of the Congress of the United States, the other being the House of Representatives. ... Chester Trent Lott (born October 9, 1941 in Grenada, Mississippi) is a U.S. Senator from Mississippi and a member of the Republican Party. ... James Strom Thurmond (December 5, 1902 – June 26, 2003) represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from 1954 to April 1956 and November 1956 to 1964 as a Democrat and from 1964 to 2003 as a Republican. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Rex Theatre for Colored People, Leland, Mississippi, June 1937 Racial segregation is a kind of formalized or institutionalized discrimination on the basis of race. ... The Geminids are a meteor shower caused by an object named 3200 Phaethon. ... Henry Kissinger circa 1970s. ... The World Trade Center on fire The September 11, 2001 attacks were a series of coordinated terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001. ... The presidential seal was first used by president Hayes in 1880 and last modified in 1959 by adding the 50th star for Hawaii The President of the United States of America (often abbreviated to POTUS) is the head of state of the United States. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States. ... A war crime is a punishable offense, under international (criminal) law, for violations of the law of war by any person or persons, military or civilian. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

December 11, 2002

• First flight of the ESC-A variant of the Ariane 5 is a failure, with the rocket and the two communications satellites it was carrying destroyed a few minutes after lift-off from Kourou, French Guiana.
• South African police seize 384kg of explosives found in a truck belonging to Tom Vorster, alleged leader of the right-wing terrorist group the Boeremag.

December 11 is the 345th day (346th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Ariane 5 lifts off from Kourou Ariane 5 is an expendable launch system designed to deliver satellites into geostationary transfer orbit and to send payloads to low earth orbit. ... A Redstone rocket, part of the Mercury program A rocket is a vehicle, missile or aircraft which obtains thrust by the reaction to the ejection of fast moving exhaust gas from within a rocket engine. ... U.S. military MILSTAR communications satellite A communications satellite (sometimes abbreviated to comsat) is an artificial satellite stationed in space for the purposes of telecommunications. ... Kourou Kourou is a town and commune in French Guiana, some 40 km northwest of the capital Cayenne at the mouth of the Kourou river on the Atlantic coast. ... This article is concerned solely with chemical explosives. ... The Boeremag (meaning farmers force in Afrikaans) is an irredentist organization whose goals are the overthrow of the African National Congress/South African Communist/Congress of South African Trade Unions regime in South Africa and a restoration of the erstwhile Boer Republics in order to stem the increasing farm...

December 10, 2002

• The government of Indonesia and rebel leaders from the province of Aceh (in the north of Sumatra) have signed a peace accord which negotiators hope will bring an end to fighting in the province.
• Venezuela's Supreme Court announced it was suspending its services, citing political harassment and condemning deadly violence during a general strike by opponents of President Hugo Chávez.
• The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, located in New York, reversed a lower court ruling that found the federal death penalty unconstitutional because it amounted to the "state-sponsored murder" of innocent people.
• A paper published in The Lancet by a team led by Christos Pantelis from the University of Melbourne suggests that it may be possible to predict the onset of schizophrenia using magnetic resonance imaging of the brain. If so, this will be the first time that brain scans have been used to predict the onset of a mental illness, offering the possibility of preventative treatment before a major psychotic episode.
• Nobel prize awards in Stockholm, Sweden and Oslo, Norway.
• The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools revoked the accreditation of Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia for financial irregularities.
• The UK electricity grid (see National Grid) reports the highest ever demand of 54,430MW between 17:00 and 17:30hrs.

December 10 is the 344th day (345th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...