This is a Common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar)
The International Year of the VolunteerThe United Nations Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations
January 1 - A black monolith measuring approximately nine feet tall appears in Seattle's Magnuson Park, placed by an anonymous artist in reference to the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
January 29 - Thousands of student protesters in Indonesia storm parliament and demand that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign due to alleged involvement in corruption scandals.
April 1 - An American EP-3E spyplane collides with a Chinese F-8 fighter jet and is forced to make an emergency landing in Hainan, China. The U.S. crew was detained for 10 days and the Chinese pilot, Wang Wei, went missing and presumed dead.
April 1 - Former Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic surrenders to police special forces, to be tried on charges of war crimes.
May 1 - The Japanese cities of Urawa, Omiya, and Yono merge to form the city of Saitama.
May 25 - Mountain climbing: 64-year old Sherman Bull, of New Canaan, Connecticut, becomes the oldest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
June 5-9 - Houston, Texas is devastated by flooding when Tropical Storm Allison dumps 36 inches of rain on the city. Particularly hard hit are the downtown area and the Texas Medical Center, which lost years of research and data and thousands of lab animals. Twenty-two people die; damage exceeds five billion dollars.
July 18 - In Baltimore, Maryland, a 60-car train derailment occurs in a tunnel sparking a fire that will last days and virtually shut down downtown Baltimore.
July 19 - UK politician and novelist Jeffrey Archer, Lord Archer of Weston-Super-Mare, sentenced to four years in prison for perjury and perverting the course of justice.
July 20 - Vanessa Legget is found in contempt by a Federal Court for refusing to release notes made for her book on the Doris Angleton murder.
September 17 - The Late Show with David Letterman is the first TV talk show to return to the airwaves six days after terrorists attack the United States in New York City and Washington D.C.
October 8 - American radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh announces to his listeners that he is completely deaf in his left ear and only has partial hearing in his right ear.
November 13 - War on Terrorism: In the first such act since World War II, US President George W. Bush signs an executive order allowing military tribunals against any foreigners suspected of having connections to terrorist acts or planned acts on the United States.