Centuries: Year in Review 21st Century (20th century - 21st century - 22nd century)

Decades: 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s - 2000s - 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s 2050s

Years: 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 - 2001 - 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

The International Year of the Volunteer

Events:

• February 6 - Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon was elected Prime Minister of the State of Israel

• February 16 - Baghdad suburb bombed by US and UK war planes, 3 people killed

• June 19 - 23 people killed and 11 wounded by an american missile hitting a soccer field in northern Iraq, county of Tel Afr

• July 2 - World's first self-contained artificial heart implanted in Robert Tools.

• September 11 - September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack on World Trade Center in New York City and Pentagon

• October 4 - First case of anthrax in the US (attack) is announced by federal officials.

• October 7 - 2001 U.S. Attack on Afghanistan begins

• George W. Bush succeeds Bill Clinton as President of the United States of America in a controversial, close election. See American Political Scandals.

Births

Deaths

• February 4 - Iannis Xenakis, 78, Greek/French composer

• February 18 - Balthus, 92, French painter

• February 18 - Dale Earnhardt - NASCAR race car driver

• February 19 - Stanley Kramer, 87, American movie director

• February 25 - Sir Donald Bradman, cricketer

• March 12 - Morton Downey, Jr. - television personality

• March 12 - Robert Ludlum, author of spy novels

• March 15 - Ann Sothern - actress

• March 21 - Norma Macmillan, voice

• March 18 - John Phillips, cofounder of Popular Music group The Mamas and the Papas

• March 22 - William Hanna, cofounder (with Joseph Barbera) of famous Hanna-Barbera animation studio

• April 10 - Willie Stargell - Baseball Hall of Famer

• April 11 - Harry Secombe, 79, actor, member of The Goon Show (prostate cancer)

• April 15 - Joey Ramone, lead singer for The Ramones

• May 5 - Cliff Hillegass, 83, creator of Cliff Notes (stroke)

• May 11 - Douglas Adams, 49, author (heart attack)

• May 12 - Perry Como, 87, singer

• June 1 - Hank Ketcham, 81, creator of Dennis the Menace

• June 1, King Birendra and Queen Aiswarya of Nepal, (shot, possibly murdererd)

• June 3 - Anthony Quinn, 86, actor

• June 11 - Timothy McVeigh, 33, terrorist (executed by U.S. government)

• June 21 - John Lee Hooker, 83, Blues musician

• June 21 - Carroll O'Connor, 76, actor

• June 28 - Jack Lemmon, 76, actor

• June 28 - Joan Sims, 71, actress

• June 30 - Chet Atkins, 77, country musician

• July 5 - Hannelore Kohl, 68, wife of ex-chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl (suicide)

• July 11 - Herman Brood, 54, Dutch rock musician, painter and publicity freak (suicide)

• July 18 - Fabio Taglioni, automotive engineer

• July 27 - Leon Wilkeson, 49, Bassist for Lynyrd Skynyrd

• July 29 - Henryk Jablonski, president of Poland (1972-1985)

• July 29 - Wau Holland, 49, German hacker, founder of the CCC (heart attack)

• August 1 - Poul Anderson - fantasy / sci-fi author

• August 6 - Jorge Amado, 88, Brazilian writer

• August 20 - Fred Hoyle, Astronomer and science fiction writer

• August 25 - Aaliyah, 22, American singer and actress

• September 2 - Christiaan Barnard, 78, South African heart surgeon, first to perform a human-to-human heart transplant

• September 3 - Pauline Kael, 82, American movie critic

• September 11 - Barbara Olson, 45, American conservative commentator, died in terrorist attack on Pentagon

• September 22 - Isaac Stern, 81, violinist

• November 10 - Ken Kesey, 66, author.

• November 29 - George Harrison, 58, musician and former member of The Beatles.

• November 30 - Robert Tools, first recipient of a self-contained artificial heart, at age 59 after 151 days without a living heart.

Sport

• January 28 - Super Bowl XXXV Baltimore Ravens (34) def. New York Giants (7)

Film

• The annual Academy Awards served out gongs for Best Actor in Gladiator to Russell Crowe.

• Ridley Scotts Gladiator took the Best Picture.

• Best Supporting Actress and Actor were won by *Marcia Gay Harden for Pollock and Benicio del Toro for *Traffic which also won its director, Steven Soderbergh the Directing statue.

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Eric A Cornell, Wolfgang Ketterle, Carl E Wieman

• Chemistry - William S. Knowles, Ryoji Noyori, K. Barry Sharpless

• Medicine Leland H. Hartwell, R. Timothy Hunt, Paul M. Nurse

• Literature - V.S. Naipaul

• Peace - United Nations, Kofi Annan

• Economics- George A. Akerlof, A. Michael Spence, Joseph E. Stiglitz