| 2001-09-20
In an address to a joint session of Congress and the American people, U.S. President George W. Bush declares a "war on terror".
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| 2001-09-29
The Syracuse Herald-Journal, a U.S. newspaper dating back to 1839, ceases publication.
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| 2001-12-06
The Canadian province of Newfoundland is renamed Newfoundland and Labrador.
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| 2001-10-19
SIEV-X, an Indonesian fishing boat en-route to Christmas Island, carrying over 400 asylum seekers, sinks in international waters with the loss of 353 people.
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| 2001-01-15
Wikipedia, a free Wiki content encyclopedia, goes online.
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| 2001-07-28
Australian Ian Thorpe becomes the first swimmer to win six gold medals at a single World Championships.
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| 2001-10-23
The Provisional IRA begins disarmament after peace talks.
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| 2001-03-23
The Russian Mir space station is disposed of, breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji.
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| 2001-08-21
The Red Cross announces that a famine is striking Tajikistan, and calls for international financial aid for Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
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| 2001-01-31
In the Netherlands a Scottish court convicts Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi and acquits another Libyan citizen for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.
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| 2001-02-26
The Taliban destroys two giant statues of Buddha in Bamyan, Afghanistan.
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| 2001-01-16
US President Bill Clinton awards former President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service in the Spanish-American War.
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| 2001-10-26
The United States passes the USA PATRIOT Act into law.
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| 2001-10-15
NASA's Galileo spacecraft passes within 112 miles of Jupiter's moon Io.
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| 2001-07-20
Italy: The 27th Annual G8 summit opens in Genoa. An Italian protester in Genoa, Carlo Giuliani, is shot by police.
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| 2001-12-29
A fire at the Mesa Redonda shopping center in Lima, Peru, kills at least 291.
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| 2001-09-21
AZF chemical plant explodes in Toulouse, France, killing 31 people
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| 2001-10-08
U.S. President George W. Bush announces the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security.
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| 2001-10-02
Swissair liquidates and the airline is replaced by SWISS.
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| 2001-12-11
The People's Republic of China joins the World Trade Organization.
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| 2001-01-16
The First surviving wikipedia edit is made: UuU
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| 2001-01-26
An earthquake hits Gujarat, India, causing more than 20,000 deaths.
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| 2001-09-14
Historic National Prayer Service held at Washington National Cathedral for victims of the September 11 attacks. A similar service is held in Canada on Parliament Hill, the largest vigil ever held in the nation's capital.
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| 2001-10-05
Robert Stevens becomes the first victim in the 2001 anthrax attacks.
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| 2001-05-01
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declares the existence of "a state of rebellion", hours after thousands of supporters of her arrested predecessor, Joseph Estrada, storm towards the presidential palace at the height of the EDSA III rebellion.
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| 2001-06-10
Pope John Paul II canonizes Lebanon's first female saint, Saint Rafqa.
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| 2001-11-29
George Harrison dies of lung cancer. He was smoking for a long time.
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| 2001-06-05
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.
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| 2001-05-06
During a trip to Syria, Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque.
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| 2001-06-21
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.
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| 2001-10-04
Siberia Airlines Flight 1812: a Sibir Airlines Tupolev TU-154 crashes into the Black Sea after being struck by an errant Ukrainian S-200 missile. 78 people are killed.
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| 2001-10-07
The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan starts with an air assault and covert operations on the ground.
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| 2001-03-04
4 March 2001 BBC bombing: a massive car bomb explodes in front of the BBC Television Centre in London, seriously injuring 1 person. The attack was attributed to the Real IRA.
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| 2001-12-13
the Indian Parliament Sansad is attacked by terrorists. 15 people are killed, including all the terrorists.
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| 2001-04-28
Millionaire Dennis Tito becomes the world's first space tourist.
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| 2001-01-20
Philippine president Joseph Estrada is ousted in a nonviolent 4-day revolution, and is succeeded by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
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| 2001-03-04
Hintze Ribeiro disaster, a bridge collapses in northern Portugal, killing up to 70 people.
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| 2001-07-02
The AbioCor self contained artificial heart is first implanted.
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| 2001-04-01
Same-sex marriage becomes legal in the Netherlands, the first country to allow it.
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| 2001-05-24
The Versailles wedding hall disaster in Jerusalem, Israel, kills 23 and injures over 200 in Israel's worst-ever civil disaster.
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| 2001-08-21
NATO decides to send a peace-keeping force to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
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| 2001-02-09
The American submarine USS Greeneville accidentally strikes and sinks the Ehime-Maru, a Japanese training vessel operated by the Uwajima Fishery High School.
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| 2001-04-01
An EP-3E United States Navy surveillance aircraft collides with a Chinese People's Liberation Army Shenyang J-8 fighter jet. The Navy crew makes an emergency landing in Hainan, People's Republic of China and is detained.
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| 2001-02-28
Six passengers and four railway staff are killed and a further 82 people suffer serious injuries in the Selby rail crash.
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| 2001-08-24
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.
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| 2001-09-17
The New York Stock Exchange reopens for trading after the September 11 Attacks, the longest closure since the Great Depression.
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| 2001-06-04
Gyanendra, the last King of Nepal, ascends to the throne after the massacre in the Royal Palace.
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| 2001-09-12
Ansett Australia, Australia's first commercial interstate airline, collapses due to increased strain on the international airline industry, leaving 10,000 people unemployed.
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| 2001-07-20
The London Stock Exchange Group plc which owns the London Stock Exchange, goes public.
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| 2001-09-18
First mailing of anthrax letters from Trenton, New Jersey in the 2001 anthrax attacks.
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| 2001-01-25
A 50-year-old Douglas DC-3 crashes near Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela killing 24.
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| 2001-09-09
Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance, is assassinated in Afghanistan by two al Qaeda assassins who claimed to be Arab journalists wanting an interview.
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| 2001-05-24
Mountain climbing: 15-year-old Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest.
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| 2001-10-09
Second mailing of anthrax letters from Trenton, New Jersey in the 2001 anthrax attack.
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| 2001-07-24
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.
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| 2001-05-09
In Ghana 129 football fans die in what became known as the Accra Sports Stadium Disaster. The deaths are caused by a stampede (caused by the firing of teargas by police personnel at the stadium) that followed a controversial decision by the referee.
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| 2001-11-12
In New York City, American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 en route to the Dominican Republic, crashes minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 on board and five on the ground.
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| 2001-09-04
Designated as "Larry Platt Day" by the Georgia General Assembly in honor of General Larry Platt's, "priceless and immeasurable contributions to society", as well as, "his great energy and commitment to equality and the protection of the innocent and for his outstanding service to the Atlanta community and the citizens of Georgia."
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| 2001-04-07
Mars Odyssey is launched.
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| 2001-12-22
Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63.
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| 2001-02-12
NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touchdown in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
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| 2001-02-28
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.
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| 2001-11-23
Convention on Cybercrime is signed in Budapest, Hungary.
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| 2001-07-03
A Vladivostok Avia Tupolev Tu-154 jetliner crashes on approach to landing at Irkutsk, Russia killing 145 people.
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| 2001-12-22
Burhanuddin Rabbani, political leader of the Afghan Northern Alliance, hands over power in Afghanistan to the interim government headed by President Hamid Karzai.
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| 2001-08-09
US President George W. Bush announces his support for federal funding of limited research on embryonic stem cells.
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| 2001-05-25
32-year-old Erik Weihenmayer, of Boulder, Colorado, becomes the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
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| 2001-11-11
Journalists Pierre Billaud, Johanne Sutton and Volker Handloik are killed in Afghanistan during an attack on the convoy they are traveling in.
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| 2001-12-01
Captain Bill Compton brings Trans World Airlines Flight 220, an MD-83, into St. Louis International Airport bringing to an end 76 years of TWA operations following TWA's purchase by American Airlines.
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| 2001-11-27
A hydrogen atmosphere is discovered on the extrasolar planet Osiris by the Hubble Space Telescope, the first atmosphere detected on an extrasolar planet.
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| 2001-10-11
The Polaroid Corporation files for federal bankruptcy protection.
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| 2001-09-21
Deep Space 1 flies within 2,200 km of Comet Borrelly.
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| 2001-05-21
French Taubira law officially recognizes the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.
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| 2001-05-04
The Milwaukee Art Museum addition, the first Santiago Calatrava-designed structure in the United States, opens to the public.
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| 2001-10-02
NATO backs US military strikes following 9/11.
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| 2001-10-23
Apple releases the iPod.
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| 2001-08-01
An agreement is reached on the position of the minority Albanian language in the Republic of Macedonia.
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| 2001-06-18
Protests occur in Manipur over the extension of the ceasefire between Naga insurgents and the government of India.
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| 2001-01-13
An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800.
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| 2001-11-12
Attack on Afghanistan: Taliban forces abandon Kabul, Afghanistan, ahead of advancing Afghan Northern Alliance troops.
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| 2001-04-11
The 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 is released.
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| 2001-06-11
Timothy McVeigh is executed for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.
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| 2001-02-19
The Oklahoma City bombing museum is dedicated at the Oklahoma City National Memorial.
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| 2001-12-19
A record high barometric pressure of 1085.6 hPa (32.06 inHg) is recorded at Tosontsengel, Khövsgöl Province, Mongolia.
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| 2001-11-14
War in Afghanistan: Afghan Northern Alliance fighters take over the capital Kabul.
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| 2001-06-01
Nepalese royal massacre : Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal shoots and kills several members of his family including his father and mother, King Birendra of Nepal and Queen Aiswarya.
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| 2001-03-24
Inc initial release of the Mac OS X Operating System
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| 2001-02-13
An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter Scale hits El Salvador, killing at least 400.
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| 2001-05-29
U.S. Supreme Court rules that disabled golfer Casey Martin can use a cart to ride in tournaments.
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| 2001-11-20
In Washington, D.C., U.S. President George W. Bush dedicates the United States Department of Justice headquarters building as the Robert F. Kennedy Justice Building, honoring the late Robert F. Kennedy on what would have been his 76th birthday.
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| 2001-10-04
NATO confirms invocation of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.
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| 2001-02-18
FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
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| 2001-01-29
Thousands of student protesters in Indonesia storm parliament and demand that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign due to alleged involvement in corruption scandals.
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| 2001-09-10
Charles Ingram cheats his way into winning one million pounds on a British version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
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| 2001-08-03
The Real IRA detonates a car bomb in Ealing, London, UK injuring seven people.
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| 2001-01-02
Sila Calderón becomes the first female Governor of Puerto Rico
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| 2001-01-10
A large piece of the chalk cliff at Beachy Head collapses into the sea.
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| 2001-12-19
Argentine economic crisis: December 2001 riots – Riots erupt in Buenos Aires.
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| 2001-12-02
Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
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| 2001-02-18
Dale Earnhardt, Sr. is killed when his stock car crashes on the final lap of the Daytona 500.
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| 2001-08-01
Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia join the European Environment Agency.
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| 2001-09-09
Pärnu methanol tragedy occurs in Pärnu County, Estonia.
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| 2001-10-08
A twin engine Cessna and Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) jetliner collide in heavy fog during takeoff from Milan, Italy killing 118.
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| 2001-01-17
President Bill Clinton posthumously raises Meriwether Lewis' rank from Lieutenant to Captain.
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| 2001-03-05
In Mecca, 35 Muslim pilgrims are crushed to death during the annual Hajj pilgrimage.
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| 2001-06-01
Dolphinarium massacre: an Hamas suicide bomber kills 21 at a disco in Tel Aviv.
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| 2001-04-01
Former President of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević surrenders to police special forces, to be tried on war crimes charges.
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| 2001-07-24
Bandaranaike Airport attack is carried out by 14 Tamil Tiger commandos, all died in this attack. They destroyed 11 Aircrafts (mostly military) and damaged 15, there are no civilian casualties. This incident slowed down Sri Lankan economy.
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| 2001-09-13
Civilian aircraft traffic resumes in the U.S. after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
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| 2001-12-15
The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27,000,000 to fortify it, without fixing its famous lean.
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| 2001-11-13
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 foreigners suspected of connections to terrorist acts or planned acts on the United States.
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| 2001-08-01
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.
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| 2001-12-27
The People's Republic of China is granted permanent normal trade relations with the United States.
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| 2001-01-16
Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards.
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| 2001-05-03
The United States loses its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission for the first time since the commission was formed in 1947.
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| 2001-02-15
First draft of the complete Human Genome is published in Nature
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