| 2002-12-23
A MQ-1 Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25, making it the first time in history that an aircraft and an unmanned drone had engaged in combat.
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| 2002-06-24
The Igandu train disaster in Tanzania kills 281, the worst train accident in African history.
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| 2002-11-04
Chinese authorities arrest cyber-dissident He Depu for signing a pro-democracy letter to the 16th Communist Party Congress.
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| 2002-01-21
The Canadian Dollar sets all-time low against the US Dollar (US$0.6179).
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| 2002-07-10
At a Sotheby's auction, Peter Paul Rubens' painting The Massacre of the Innocents is sold for £49.5million (US$76.2 million) to Lord Thomson.
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| 2002-01-22
Kmart becomes the largest retailer in United States history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
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| 2002-11-08
Iraq disarmament crisis: UN Security Council Resolution 1441 – The United Nations Security Council unanimously approves a resolution on Iraq, forcing Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences".
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| 2002-09-26
The overcrowded Senegalese ferry MV Joola capsizes off the coast of Gambia killing more than 1,000.
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| 2002-08-04
Soham murders: 10 year old school girls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells go missing from the town of Soham, Cambridgeshire in the United Kingdom.
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| 2002-01-25
Wikipedia switches to the new version of its software ("Phase II"), aka Magnus Manske Day.
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| 2002-02-12
The trial of former President of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević begins at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague. He dies four years later before its conclusion.
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| 2002-10-12
Terrorists detonate bombs in Paddy's Pub and the Sari Club in Kuta, Bali, killing 202 and wounding over 300.
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| 2002-01-01
Euro banknotes and coins become legal tender in twelve of the European Union's member states.
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| 2002-01-23
"American Taliban" John Walker Lindh returns to the United States in FBI custody.
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| 2002-08-20
A group of Iraqis opposed to the regime of Saddam Hussein take over the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin for five hours before releasing their hostages and surrendering.
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| 2002-04-14
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez returns to office two days after being ousted and arrested by the country's military.
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| 2002-07-01
The International Criminal Court is established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
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| 2002-11-14
The United States House of Representatives votes not to create an independent commission to investigate the September 11 attacks.
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| 2002-05-04
An EAS Airlines BAC 1-11-500 crashes in a suburb of Kano, Nigeria shortly after takeoff killing more than 148 people.
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| 2002-12-27
Two truck bombs kill 72 and wound 200 at the pro-Moscow headquarters of the Chechen government in Grozny, Chechnya.
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| 2002-10-16
Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria that was lost in antiquity, is officially inaugurated.
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| 2002-06-22
An earthquake measuring 6.5 Mw strikes a region of northwestern Iran killing at least 261 people and injuring 1,300 others and eventually causing widespread public anger due to the slowness of the victims receiving aid and supplies.
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| 2002-08-19
A Russian Mi-26 helicopter carrying troops is hit by a Chechen missile outside of Grozny, killing 118 soldiers.
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| 2002-11-06
12 people are killed in a fire on board a train bound for Vienna from Paris.
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| 2002-05-25
China Airlines Flight 611: A Boeing 747-200 breaks apart in mid-air and plunges into the Taiwan Strait killing 225 people.
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| 2002-01-17
Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people.
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| 2002-10-30
British Digital terrestrial television (DTT) Service Freeview begins transmitting in parts of the United Kingdom.
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| 2002-07-27
Ukraine airshow disaster: A Sukhoi Su-27 fighter crashes during an air show at Lviv, Ukraine killing 85 and injuring more than 100 others, the largest air show disaster in history.
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| 2002-06-11
Antonio Meucci is acknowledged as the first inventor of the telephone by the United States Congress.
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| 2002-09-10
Switzerland, traditionally a neutral country, joins the United Nations.
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| 2002-03-03
Citizens of Switzerland narrowly vote in favor of their country becoming a member of the United Nations.
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| 2002-12-20
US Senator Trent Lott resigns as majority leader.
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| 2002-01-08
President George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act.
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| 2002-10-06
The French oil tanker Limburg is bombed off Yemen.
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| 2002-04-12
A female suicide bomber detonated at the entrance to Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open-air market, killing 7 and wounding 104.
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| 2002-03-18
U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda ends (started on March 2) after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters with 11 allied troop fatalities.
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| 2002-04-02
Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into which armed Palestinians had retreated. A siege ensues.
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| 2002-11-14
Argentina defaults on an $805 million World Bank payment.
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| 2002-05-20
The independence of East Timor is recognized by Portugal, formally ending 23 years of Indonesian rule and 3 years of provisional UN administration (Portugal itself is the former colonizer of East Timor until 1976).
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| 2002-05-22
American civil rights movement: a jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.
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| 2002-02-12
An Iran Air Tours Tupolev Tu-154 crashes in the mountains outside Khorramabad, Iran while descending for a landing at Khorramabad Airport, killing 119.
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| 2002-03-01
The Envisat environmental satellite successfully reaches an orbit 800 kilometers (500 miles) above the Earth on its 11th launch, carrying the heaviest payload to date at 8500 kilograms (9.5 tons).
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| 2002-01-02
Eduardo Duhalde is appointed interim President of Argentina by the Legislative Assembly.
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| 2002-04-26
Robert Steinhäuser infiltrates and kills 17 at Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot.
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| 2002-07-15
"American Taliban" John Walker Lindh pleads guilty to supplying aid to the enemy and to possession of explosives during the commission of a felony.
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| 2002-09-27
Timor-Leste (East Timor) joins the United Nations.
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| 2002-02-27
Godhra train burning: a Muslim mob kills 59 Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya;
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| 2002-11-13
Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq agrees to the terms of the UN Security Council Resolution 1441.
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| 2002-11-21
NATO invites Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to become members.
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| 2002-09-23
The first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox ("Phoenix 0.1") is released.
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| 2002-10-31
A federal grand jury in Houston, Texas indicts former Enron Corp. chief financial officer Andrew Fastow on 78 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice related to the collapse of his ex-employer.
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| 2002-01-29
In his State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush describes "regimes that sponsor terror" as an Axis of Evil, in which he includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
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| 2002-01-01
Taiwan officially joins the World Trade Organization, as Chinese Taipei.
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| 2002-07-15
Anti-Terrorism Court of Pakistan hands down the death sentence to British born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and life terms to three others suspected of murdering Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
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| 2002-09-20
The Kolka-Karmadon rock/ice slide started.
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| 2002-10-11
A bomb attack in a shopping mall in Vantaa, Finland kills seven.
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| 2002-05-24
Russia and the United States sign the Moscow Treaty.
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| 2002-07-09
The African Union is established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Its first chairman is Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa.
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| 2002-01-23
Reporter Daniel Pearl is kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan and is subsequently murdered .
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| 2002-01-16
The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaida, and the remaining members of the Taliban.
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| 2002-03-04
Canada bans human cloning but permits government-funded scientists to use embryos left over from fertility treatment or abortions.
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| 2002-07-14
French President Jacques Chirac escapes an assassination attempt unscathed during Bastille Day celebrations.
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| 2002-11-13
The oil tanker Prestige sinks off the Galician coast and causes a huge oil spill.
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| 2002-06-06
Eastern Mediterranean Event. A near-Earth asteroid estimated at 10 metres diameter explodes over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya. The resulting explosion is estimated to have a force of 26 kilotons, slightly more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb.
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| 2002-10-23
Moscow Theatre Siege begins: Chechen terrorists seize the House of Culture theater in Moscow and take approximately 700 theater-goers hostage.
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| 2002-06-29
Naval clashes between South Korea and North Korea lead to the death of six South Korean sailors and sinking of a North Korean vessel.
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| 2002-06-10
The first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans is carried out by Kevin Warwick in the United Kingdom.
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| 2002-02-14
Tullaghmurray Lass sinks off the coast of Kilkeel, County Down, Northern Ireland killing three members of the same family on board.
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| 2002-12-15
The Capital Center (formerly US Airways Arena) is demolished.
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| 2002-02-22
Angolan political and rebel leader Jonas Savimbi is killed in a military ambush.
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| 2002-05-12
Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro becoming the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro's 1959 revolution.
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| 2002-05-07
A China Northern Airlines MD-82 plunges into the Yellow Sea, killing 112 people.
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| 2002-04-11
The Ghriba synagogue bombing by Al Qaeda kills 21 in Tunisia.
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| 2002-05-28
NATO declares Russia a limited partner in the Western alliance.
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| 2002-07-20
South America: A fire in a discotheque in Lima, Peru kills over twenty-five.
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| 2002-01-18
Sierra Leone Civil War is finally declared over.
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| 2002-02-27
Ryanair Flight 296 catches fire at London Stansted Airport. Subsequent investigations criticize Ryanair's handling of the evacuation.
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| 2002-04-04
The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign a peace treaty ending the Angolan Civil War.
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| 2002-10-29
Ho Chi Minh City ITC Inferno, a fire destroys a luxurious department store where 1500 people shopping. Over 60 people died and over 100 are missing. It is the deadliest disaster in Vietnam during peacetime.
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| 2002-10-02
The Beltway sniper attacks begin, extending over three weeks.
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| 2002-05-06
Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is assassinated by an animal rights activist.
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| 2002-05-25
A train crash in Tenga, Mozambique kills 197 people.
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| 2002-11-22
In Nigeria, more than 100 people are killed at an attack aimed at the contestants of the Miss World contest.
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| 2002-06-15
Near-Earth asteroid 2002 MN misses the Earth by 75,000 miles (121,000 km), about one-third of the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
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| 2002-09-25
The Vitim event, a possible bolide impact in Siberia, Russia.
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| 2002-05-22
In Washington, D.C., the remains of the missing Chandra Levy are found in Rock Creek Park.
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| 2002-02-19
NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.
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| 2002-06-13
The United States of America withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
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| 2002-03-04
Afghanistan: Seven American Special Operations Forces soldiers are killed as they attempt to infiltrate the Shahi Kot Valley on a low-flying helicopter reconnaissance mission.
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| 2002-10-24
Police arrest spree killers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, ending the Beltway sniper attacks in the area around Washington, DC.
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| 2002-05-23
The "55 parties" clause of the Kyoto protocol is reached after its ratification by Iceland.
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| 2002-02-20
In Reqa Al-Gharbiya, Egypt, a fire on a train injures over 65 and kills at least 370.
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| 2002-07-31
Hebrew University of Jerusalem is attacked when a bomb explodes in a cafeteria, killing 9.
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| 2002-03-02
U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda begins, (ending on March 19 after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters, with 11 Western troop fatalities).
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| 2002-02-12
US Secretary of Energy makes the decision that Yucca Mountain is a suitable site for a deep geological repository for the United States.
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| 2002-04-15
An Air China Boeing 767-200, flight CA129 crashes into a hillside during heavy rain and fog near Busan, South Korea, killing 128.
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| 2002-01-01
The Open Skies mutual surveillance treaty, initially signed in 1992, officially comes into force.
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| 2002-11-18
Iraq disarmament crisis: United Nations weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq.
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| 2002-05-03
A military MiG-21 aircraft crashes into the Bank of Rajasthan in India, killing eight.
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| 2002-07-24
Democrat James Traficant is expelled from the United States House of Representatives on a vote of 420 to 1.
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| 2002-12-18
2003 California recall: Then Governor of California Gray Davis announces that the state would face a record budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier.
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| 2002-04-11
An attempted coup d'état in Venezuela against President Hugo Chávez takes place.
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| 2002-05-09
In Kaspiysk, Russia, a remote-controlled bomb explodes during a holiday parade killing 43 and injuring at least 130.
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| 2002-03-21
In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh along with three other suspects are charged with murder for their part in the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
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| 2002-03-01
The peseta is discontinued as official currency of Spain and is replaced by the euro (€).
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| 2002-12-17
Second Congo War: The Congolese parties of the Inter Congolese Dialogue sign a peace accord which makes provision for transitional governance and legislative and presidential elections within two years.
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| 2002-05-28
The Mars Odyssey finds signs of large ice deposits on the planet Mars.
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| 2002-07-22
Israel kills Salah Shahade, the Commander-in-Chief of Hamas's military arm, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
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| 2002-07-28
Nine coal miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, are rescued after 77 hours underground.
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| 2002-05-09
The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem comes to an end when the Palestinians inside agree to have 13 suspected terrorists among them deported to several different countries.
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| 2002-07-01
A Bashkirian Airlines (flight 2937) Tupolev TU-154 and a DHL (German cargo) Boeing 757 collide in mid-air over Ueberlingen, southern Germany, killing 71.
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| 2002-05-10
F.B.I. agent Robert Hanssen is given a life sentence without the possibility of parole for selling United States secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.
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| 2002-07-07
A scandal breaks out in the United Kingdom when news reports accuse MI6 of sheltering Abu Qatada, the supposed European Al Qaeda leader.
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| 2002-11-07
Iran bans advertising of United States products.
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| 2002-01-28
TAME Flight 120, a Boeing 727-100 crashes in the Andes mountains in southern Colombia killing 92.
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| 2002-03-19
Zimbabwe is suspended from the Commonwealth on charges of human rights abuses and of electoral fraud, following a turbulent presidential election.
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| 2002-12-08
The Caribbean Community Heads of Government meet with the Government of Cuba and declare the date to be "CARICOM-Cuba Day"—to celebrate diplomatic ties between the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Cuba.
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| 2002-10-26
Moscow Theatre Siege: Approximately 50 Chechen terrorists and 150 hostages die when Russian Spetsnaz storm a theater building in Moscow, which had been occupied by the terrorists during a musical performance three days before.
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| 2002-03-27
Passover Massacre: A Palestinian suicide bomber kills 29 people partaking of the Passover meal in Netanya, Israel.
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| 2002-12-13
Enlargement of the European Union: The European Union announces that Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia will become members from May 1, 2004.
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| 2002-04-27
The last successful telemetry from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10.
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| 2002-07-02
Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon.
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| 2002-03-01
U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda begins in eastern Afghanistan.
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| 2002-05-02
Marad massacre of eight Hindus near Palakkad in Kerala.
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