2001

Events in 2001 108

• 1906 – 2001 Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906-2001) Died 20 December 2001, aged 95 Senghor was a poet and the first president of independent Senegal, governing from 1960 to 1980, when he voluntarily stepped down. A leading theorist of Négritude, he was the first African elected to the Académie française. His verse and essays shaped francophone African literature.
• 1906 – 2001 R. K. Narayan (1906-2001) Died 13 May 2001, aged 94 Narayan was one of the first Indian writers in English to reach a global readership, setting his gentle, ironic novels and stories in the fictional town of Malgudi. Works such as The Guide and Swami and Friends drew admirers including Graham Greene. He wrote steadily for more than sixty years.
• 1908 – 2001 Balthus (1908-2001) Died 18 February 2001, aged 92 Balthus, born Balthasar Kłossowski de Rola, was a figurative painter who worked against the grain of twentieth-century abstraction. His canvases of interiors and adolescent girls were admired for their composition and unsettling for their subject matter. He directed the French Academy in Rome for many years.
• 1909 – 2001 Ann Sothern (1909-2001) American actress, MGM's Maisie and star of TV's Private Secretary.
• 1910 – 2001 William Hanna (1910-2001) Died 22 March 2001, aged 90 With Joseph Barbera, Hanna created Tom and Jerry at MGM and then co-founded Hanna-Barbera, the studio behind The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear and The Jetsons. Their assembly-line methods made television animation affordable. He worked with Barbera for more than sixty years.
• 1912 – 2001 Perry Como (1912-2001) Died 12 May 2001, aged 88 Como was a singer and television host whose relaxed baritone sold millions of records from the 1940s onward, including Catch a Falling Star and Magic Moments. A former barber, he presented long-running variety and Christmas specials. His easy manner made him a fixture of American living rooms.
• 1912 – 2001 Jorge Amado (1912-2001) Died 6 August 2001, aged 88 Amado was Brazil's most widely translated novelist, chronicling life in his native Bahia in books such as Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon and Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands. His early work was politically committed; his later novels were sensual and comic. His books were adapted into films and television series.
• 1912 – 2001 John Lee Hooker Blues singer and guitarist Mississippi-born bluesman whose hypnotic, one-chord boogie from Detroit made him a hero to British rock bands and a star again in his seventies.
• 1913 – 2001 Stanley Kramer (1913-2001) Died 19 February 2001, aged 87 Kramer was a producer and director known for message films on racism, nuclear war and the Holocaust, including The Defiant Ones, Judgment at Nuremberg and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Critics were divided on his earnestness, but his films reached wide audiences. He received the Irving G. Thalberg award.
• 1914 – 2001 Tove Jansson Creator of Moomins Author and artist who created the Moomins, a globally recognized Finnish cultural icon.
• 1915 – 2001 Anthony Quinn (1915-2001) Died 3 June 2001, aged 86 Quinn was a Mexican-American actor with a career of more than sixty years, winning two supporting Oscars and best known for the title role in Zorba the Greek. He also appeared in La Strada, Lawrence of Arabia and Lust for Life. He was a sculptor and painter as well.
• 1915 – 2001 Fred Hoyle (1915-2001) Died 20 August 2001, aged 86 Hoyle was an astronomer who explained how stars forge the chemical elements, work for which a Nobel Prize later went to a collaborator. He championed the steady-state theory of the universe and coined the term Big Bang for the rival model he rejected. He also wrote science fiction.
• 1915 – 2001 Chung Ju-yung (1915-2001) Died 21 March 2001, aged 85 Chung founded the Hyundai group, building it from a car-repair shop into one of South Korea's largest conglomerates, spanning construction, shipbuilding and cars. Born to a poor farming family in what is now North Korea, he became a symbol of the country's rapid industrialisation. In 1998 he drove herds of cattle across the border in a gesture of reconciliation.
• 1916 – 2001 Claude Shannon (1916-2001) Died 24 February 2001, aged 84 Shannon was a mathematician and engineer whose 1948 paper founded information theory and introduced the bit as the unit of information. His earlier master's thesis had shown how Boolean algebra could describe electrical circuits. His ideas underpin all modern digital communication.
• 1916 – 2001 Dorothy McGuire (1916-2001) American actress, star of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Disney family films.
• 1916 – 2001 Herbert A. Simon (1916-2001) Died 9 February 2001, aged 84 Simon was a polymath who won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Economics for his theory of bounded rationality in decision-making. He was also a founder of the fields of artificial intelligence and cognitive science. He spent most of his career at Carnegie Mellon University.
• 1919 – 2001 Pauline Kael (1919-2001) Died 3 September 2001, aged 82 Kael was the film critic of The New Yorker for more than two decades, whose vivid, combative reviews made her among the most influential American critics of the century. She championed directors such as Altman and Scorsese and dismissed many acknowledged classics. Her collections included the pointedly titled I Lost It at the Movies.
• 1920 – 2001 Isaac Stern (1920-2001) Died 22 September 2001, aged 81 Stern was one of the leading violinists of the twentieth century and a tireless cultural advocate. He led the campaign that saved Carnegie Hall from demolition in 1960 and chaired it thereafter. His 1979 visit to China was filmed as the documentary From Mao to Mozart.
• 1922 – 2001 Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) Died 4 February 2001, aged 78 Xenakis was a composer and architect who applied mathematical models, game theory and probability to music. Trained as an engineer, he worked with Le Corbusier before turning to composition. Works such as Metastaseis reshaped ideas of orchestral texture.
• 1922 – 2001 Christiaan Barnard (1922-2001) Died 2 September 2001, aged 78 Barnard was the surgeon who performed the first human-to-human heart transplant, in Cape Town in December 1967. The patient lived 18 days, and the operation made Barnard an international celebrity. He continued transplant work until arthritis ended his surgical career.
• 1923 – 2001 Nguyen Van Thieu (1923-2001) Died 29 September 2001, aged 78 Thieu was president of South Vietnam from 1967 until days before the fall of Saigon in 1975, when he resigned and left the country. His government relied heavily on American support and was widely accused of corruption. He spent his last decades in exile in Britain and the United States.
• 1924 – 2001 Chet Atkins (1924-2001) Died 30 June 2001, aged 77 Atkins was a guitarist and record producer whose fingerpicking technique made him one of the most admired players in country music. As an executive at RCA in Nashville he helped shape the smooth Nashville sound. He won 14 Grammy Awards.
• 1924 – 2001 Carroll O'Connor (1924-2001) Died 21 June 2001, aged 76 O'Connor played the bigoted working-class Archie Bunker in the sitcom All in the Family, one of the most watched and debated US television shows of the 1970s. He later starred in the drama In the Heat of the Night. He won four Emmy Awards.
• 1925 – 2001 Jack Lemmon (1925-2001) Died 27 June 2001, aged 76 Lemmon was an actor equally at home in comedy and drama, winning Oscars for Mister Roberts and Save the Tiger. He starred in Some Like It Hot, The Apartment and The Odd Couple, often for the director Billy Wilder and in a long partnership with Walter Matthau. He was known for playing harried everymen.
• 1929 – 2001 Nigel Hawthorne (1929-2001) Died 26 December 2001, aged 72 Hawthorne was a British actor best known as the scheming civil servant Sir Humphrey Appleby in the sitcoms Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister. On stage and screen he played the title role in The Madness of King George, earning an Oscar nomination. He came to leading roles relatively late in life.
• 1931 – 2001 Mordecai Richler (1931-2001) Died 3 July 2001, aged 70 Richler was a novelist and essayist whose satirical books, including The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and Barney's Version, drew on the Jewish working-class Montreal of his youth. His mockery of Quebec nationalism made him a polarising figure at home. He also wrote the children's book Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang.
• 1935 – 2001 John Phillips (1935-2001) Died 18 March 2001, aged 65 Phillips was the songwriter and leader of The Mamas & the Papas, writing hits including California Dreamin' and Monday, Monday. He also wrote San Francisco for Scott McKenzie and helped organise the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. Drug addiction derailed much of his later career.
• 1935 – 2001 Ken Kesey (1935-2001) Died 10 November 2001, aged 66 Kesey wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, drawing on his work as an aide in a psychiatric ward, and Sometimes a Great Notion. He then largely abandoned fiction to lead the Merry Pranksters, whose LSD-fuelled bus trip was chronicled by Tom Wolfe. He linked the Beat generation to the 1960s counterculture.
• 1939 – 2001 Laurent-Désiré Kabila (1939-2001) Died 16 January 2001, aged 61 Kabila seized power in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1997 after ousting Mobutu Sese Seko, then fought a war against his former Rwandan and Ugandan backers. He was shot dead by one of his bodyguards in the presidential palace in Kinshasa. His son Joseph Kabila succeeded him.
• 1943 – 2001 George Harrison Guitarist, singer-songwriter Lead guitarist of the Beatles, who brought Indian music to the West and made All Things Must Pass and the first charity rock concert.
• 1944 – 2001 W. G. Sebald (1944-2001) Died 14 December 2001, aged 57 Sebald was a German writer, long resident in England, whose genre-blurring books such as The Rings of Saturn and Austerlitz mixed travelogue, memoir and history around themes of memory and the Holocaust. He was often named as a future Nobel contender. He died in a car crash in Norfolk.
• 1948 – 2001 Peter Blake (1948-2001) Died 6 December 2001, aged 53 Blake was a yachtsman who led New Zealand to consecutive America's Cup victories in 1995 and 2000 and won the Jules Verne Trophy for a record round-the-world sail. He later worked on environmental expeditions. He was shot dead by pirates who boarded his boat on the Amazon in Brazil.
• 1951 – 2001 Dale Earnhardt (1951-2001) Died 18 February 2001, aged 49 Earnhardt was among the most successful and popular drivers in NASCAR, winning seven Winston Cup championships and known as The Intimidator. He was killed in a last-lap crash at the Daytona 500. His death led to mandatory head-and-neck restraints in the sport.
• 1951 – 2001 Joey Ramone (1951-2001) Died 15 April 2001, aged 49 Joey Ramone, born Jeffry Hyman, was the singer of the Ramones, the New York band widely credited with launching punk rock. His deadpan delivery fronted fast, short songs such as Blitzkrieg Bop. He died of lymphoma shortly before the band entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• 1952 – 2001 Douglas Adams (1952-2001) Died 11 May 2001, aged 49 Adams wrote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which began as a BBC radio series in 1978 and became a bestselling series of comic science-fiction novels. He was also an early enthusiast for personal computers and an environmental campaigner. He died suddenly of a heart attack in California.
• 1953 – 2001 Ahmad Shah Massoud (1953-2001) Died 9 September 2001, aged 48 Massoud was a guerrilla commander who fought the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and then led the Northern Alliance against the Taliban through the 1990s. Known as the Lion of Panjshir, he controlled the last significant resistance to Taliban rule. He was killed by suicide bombers posing as journalists two days before the 9/11 attacks.
• 1963 – 2001 35 world records -- the habit of excellence Between 26 May 1984 (5.85m, Bratislava) and 31 July 1994 (6.14m, Sestriere), Bubka sets 35 world records: 17 outdoor, 18 indoor. The frequency and the method are distinctive: he typically raises the record by 1cm at a time, clears the new height on his first or second attempt, then stops -- a practice that maximises the appearance fees and record bonuses attached to each new mark, while preserving energy for competition. Critics call it cynical; supporters call it rational. Either way, the cumulative effect is a decade of continuous record-setting that changes the perceived limits of the event.
• 1968 – 2001 Timothy McVeigh (1968-2001) Died 11 June 2001, aged 33 McVeigh was a former US Army soldier who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people in the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in US history. Driven by anti-government anger after the Waco siege, he was convicted on federal charges. He was executed by lethal injection at Terre Haute, Indiana.
• 1979 – 2001 Aaliyah (1979-2001) Died 25 August 2001, aged 22 Aaliyah Haughton was an American singer and actor whose blend of R&B and hip-hop, on albums such as her self-titled 2001 release, made her a defining figure of the era. She had begun a film career with Romeo Must Die. She was killed with eight others when an overloaded plane crashed after a video shoot in the Bahamas.
• 1993 – 2001 Clinton presidency 42nd President — 1993 to 2001 Bill Clinton served as the 42nd President from January 20, 1993 to January 20, 2001. He presided over budget surpluses and the dot-com boom, brokered peace in Northern Ireland and the Balkans, but was impeached over the Lewinsky scandal.
• 2001 2001 World Championships -- six golds, unprecedented At the 2001 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, Thorpe wins six gold medals: 200m freestyle (world record), 400m freestyle (world record), 800m freestyle (world record), 4×100m freestyle relay, 4×200m freestyle relay (world record), and 4×100m medley relay. Six gold medals in a single World Championships is an achievement without precedent in the history of the sport. He is 18 years old. The performance confirms what Sydney 2000 suggested: Thorpe is not simply the best swimmer of his generation but one of the most dominant individual athletes the sport has ever produced.
• 2001 A Beautiful Mind Best Picture — 74th Academy Awards Ron Howard's drama about mathematician John Nash, played by Russell Crowe, and his struggle with schizophrenia.
• 2001 China joins the World Trade Organization The world's factory enters global trade — reshaping the world economy China's accession to the World Trade Organization on 11 December 2001 was the most consequential event in global trade since World War II. It accelerated China's integration into the global economy, making it the world's manufacturing hub. Within a decade China became the world's second largest economy, overtaking Japan in 2010. Its export-driven growth transformed supply chains, prices and manufacturing employment worldwide.
• 2001 – present Katy Perry The Pop Princess Dominated the early 2010s with a record-tying five number-one singles from one album.
• 2001 – present Miley Cyrus The Shapeshifter From Hannah Montana to rock-influenced rebel; known for her versatile husky voice.
• 2001 – 2025 Oscar Best Picture Winners 2001–2025 The Academy's top film of each year Twenty-five years of Best Picture winners, from A Beautiful Mind to One Battle After Another — blockbusters, silent films, a Korean thriller and a streaming first.
• 2001 Retirement from competition Bubka retires from competitive pole vaulting in 2001, aged 37. He has competed at the elite level for nearly 20 years. His final competitive years (1998-2001) are marked by injuries and declining performances relative to his peak, but he remains a presence in the sport. At retirement he holds both the indoor (6.15m) and outdoor (6.14m) world records -- records that will not be broken for another 19 and 19 years respectively.
• 2001 – present The Killers Las Vegas Rockers Known for "Mr. Brightside," a song that has remained on the UK charts for nearly 20 years.
• 2001 AOL Time Warner merger completed Internet provider absorbs a media giant The merger of America Online and Time Warner, announced in 2000, formally closed on 11 January 2001 in a deal valued at around 165 billion dollars. Promoted as the union of old and new media, it lost most of its value as the dot-com bubble burst. It is often cited as one of the worst corporate mergers in history.
• 2001 El Salvador earthquakes Two major quakes a month apart kill over a thousand A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the coast of El Salvador on 13 January 2001, followed by a magnitude 6.6 quake on 13 February. Landslides buried neighbourhoods, notably in Santa Tecla. More than 1,100 people died and hundreds of thousands were left homeless.
• 2001 Wikipedia launched A free online encyclopedia anyone could edit Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger launched Wikipedia on 15 January 2001 as an offshoot of the earlier Nupedia project. It grew rapidly through open collaboration, reaching tens of thousands of articles within its first year. It went on to become one of the most visited websites in the world.
• 2001 – 2009 G.W. Bush presidency 43rd President — 2001 to 2009 George W. Bush served as the 43rd President from January 20, 2001 to January 20, 2009. He led the War on Terror following 9/11, invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, and responded to Hurricane Katrina.
• 2001 George W. Bush inaugurated 43rd US President takes office George W. Bush was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States on January 20, 2001.
• 2001 Joseph Estrada ousted in the Philippines EDSA II protests install Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Days of mass protests in Manila, triggered by a stalled impeachment trial over corruption, forced President Joseph Estrada from office on 20 January 2001. Vice-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was sworn in as his successor. The Supreme Court later affirmed the transfer of power.
• 2001 Gujarat earthquake 20,000 killed in India A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the Bhuj district of Gujarat, India on January 26, 2001, killing approximately 20,000 people and leaving 600,000 homeless.
• 2001 Ariel Sharon elected Prime Minister of Israel Likud leader defeats Ehud Barak in a landslide Ariel Sharon won a special election for prime minister on 6 February 2001, defeating the incumbent Ehud Barak amid the violence of the Second Intifada. He formed a broad unity government and took a hard line on security. He remained in office until incapacitated by a stroke in 2006.
• 2001 First draft of the human genome published Public and private teams release the sequence In February 2001 the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium and the company Celera published separate draft sequences of the human genome in Nature and Science. The drafts covered roughly 90 percent of the genome. The work opened a new era of genetic medicine and research.
• 2001 NEAR Shoemaker lands on asteroid Eros First spacecraft to touch down on an asteroid On 12 February 2001 NASA's NEAR Shoemaker probe descended onto the near-Earth asteroid 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid. It kept transmitting data from the surface after touchdown. The mission had orbited Eros for a year beforehand.
• 2001 Foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Britain Millions of livestock culled to halt the virus An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease confirmed in February 2001 spread across British farms, leading to the slaughter of more than six million sheep, cattle and pigs. Pyres of burning carcasses became a defining image of the year. Rural tourism suffered heavily and the general election was postponed by a month.
• 2001 Taliban destroy the Buddhas of Bamiyan Sixth-century statues dynamited in Afghanistan In March 2001 the Taliban government demolished the two giant standing Buddha statues carved into cliffs in the Bamiyan valley, declaring them idolatrous. The larger figure stood about 55 metres tall and dated from the sixth century. The destruction drew international condemnation.
• 2001 Space station Mir deorbited Russia guides its station to a Pacific splashdown On 23 March 2001 Russia brought the ageing Mir space station out of orbit, with surviving debris falling into the South Pacific near Fiji. Mir had operated since 1986 and hosted crews from many nations. Its controlled destruction ended a fifteen-year programme.
• 2001 United States rejects the Kyoto Protocol Bush administration abandons the climate treaty In March 2001 President George W. Bush announced that the United States would not implement the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions, citing economic costs and the exemption of developing countries. The decision isolated Washington from many of its allies. The treaty entered force without US participation in 2005.
• 2001 Hainan Island incident US spy plane and Chinese fighter collide On 1 April 2001 a US Navy EP-3 surveillance aircraft collided with a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea, killing the Chinese pilot. The damaged US plane made an emergency landing on Hainan Island, where its 24 crew were detained for eleven days. The standoff strained US-China relations early in the Bush presidency.
• 2001 Netherlands legalises same-sex marriage First country to open civil marriage to same-sex couples On 1 April 2001 a Dutch law took effect allowing same-sex couples to marry with the same rights as opposite-sex couples, including adoption. Four couples wed in Amsterdam city hall at midnight. The Netherlands was the first country in the world to take the step.
• 2001 Slobodan Milošević arrested Former Yugoslav leader detained in Belgrade Serbian police arrested former president Slobodan Milošević at his Belgrade villa on 1 April 2001 after an armed standoff, initially on corruption charges. In June he was transferred to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. He became the first former head of state to face an international court.
• 2001 – present Oscar Piastri The Calm Rookie One of the most successful junior drivers in history who quickly became an F1 race winner for McLaren.
• 2001 Netherlands legalises euthanasia First country to regulate physician-assisted dying On 10 April 2001 the Dutch parliament passed a law formally legalising euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide under strict conditions, with effect from 2002. Doctors had to confirm unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement and obtain a second opinion. The Netherlands was the first country to codify the practice.
• 2001 2001 World Snooker Championship O’Sullivan First Title The first world title for Ronnie O’Sullivan. Winner: Ronnie O’Sullivan; Runner-up: John Higgins. Score: 18–14.
• 2001 Junichiro Koizumi becomes Prime Minister of Japan Reformist takes over a struggling economy Junichiro Koizumi won the leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party and became prime minister on 26 April 2001, promising to privatise the postal system and restructure the banks. His popular style made him one of Japan's longest-serving postwar leaders. He held office until 2006.
• 2001 Dennis Tito becomes the first space tourist US businessman pays to visit the ISS On 28 April 2001 American businessman Dennis Tito launched aboard a Russian Soyuz to the International Space Station, having reportedly paid around 20 million dollars for the trip. He spent about a week in orbit. NASA had objected to the flight, but it opened the way for commercial spaceflight.
• 2001 Silvio Berlusconi returns as Prime Minister of Italy Media magnate's coalition wins the election Silvio Berlusconi's House of Freedoms coalition won the Italian general election of 13 May 2001, returning him to the premiership he had briefly held in 1994. He went on to lead the longest-serving government of the postwar republic. His business interests and legal troubles dominated Italian politics for a decade.
• 2001 Shrek #3 film of 2001 — $484m worldwide Directed by Andrew Adamson at DreamWorks Animation. An ogre sets out to rescue a princess, accompanied by a talking donkey.
• 2001 Apple opens its first retail stores Company enters bricks-and-mortar retail Apple opened its first two retail stores, in Virginia and California, on 19 May 2001, a move many analysts predicted would fail. The stores emphasised hands-on product displays and a help counter later called the Genius Bar. The chain became among the most profitable retail operations by floor area.
• 2001 Nepalese royal massacre Crown prince kills most of the royal family On 1 June 2001 Crown Prince Dipendra shot dead King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya and other relatives at a palace dinner in Kathmandu before turning a gun on himself. He was briefly proclaimed king while comatose, then died. Birendra's brother Gyanendra took the throne amid public disbelief.
• 2001 Labour wins a second landslide in the United Kingdom Tony Blair returned with a large majority The UK general election of 7 June 2001 returned Tony Blair's Labour government with a majority of 167, on the lowest turnout since 1918. The Conservatives under William Hague made almost no gains, and Hague resigned as leader. It was the first time Labour had won two consecutive full terms.
• 2001 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation founded Six states form a regional security bloc China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan founded the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation on 15 June 2001, building on an earlier border-security grouping. It focused on counter-terrorism, security and regional influence. It later expanded to include India and Pakistan.
• 2001 Wimbledon 2001 Men: Goran Ivanišević · Women: Venus Williams Ivanišević, a wildcard entry, won Wimbledon in one of sport's greatest fairy tales. He was ranked 125th and had lost three previous Wimbledon finals.
• 2001 Code Red worm spreads across the internet Self-replicating attack hits web servers In July 2001 the Code Red worm exploited a flaw in Microsoft's IIS web server software, infecting hundreds of thousands of machines within days and defacing pages with the text Hacked by Chinese. It also directed denial-of-service traffic at a White House address. It was among the first worms to draw sustained mainstream coverage.
• 2001 G8 summit protests in Genoa Protester Carlo Giuliani shot dead The G8 summit in Genoa in July 2001 drew around 200,000 anti-globalisation demonstrators and heavy policing. On 20 July the protester Carlo Giuliani was shot dead by a carabiniere, the first fatality at such a protest in Western Europe. A night raid on a school used by activists led to convictions of police years later.
• 2001 Ohrid Agreement ends the Macedonia conflict Deal grants greater rights to ethnic Albanians Signed on 13 August 2001, the Ohrid Framework Agreement ended months of fighting between Macedonian security forces and an ethnic Albanian insurgency. It expanded the official use of the Albanian language and increased Albanian representation in public institutions. NATO troops oversaw the disarmament of rebel fighters.
• 2001 – present Jannik Sinner The Fox 2024 Australian Open champion and the highest-ranked Italian player in history.
• 2001 9/11 attacks 2,977 killed in worst terrorist attack in history Al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger aircraft on September 11, 2001. Two were flown into the World Trade Center in New York, one into the Pentagon, and one crashed in Pennsylvania. 2,977 people were killed.
• 2001 Nintendo releases the GameCube Nintendo's first disc-based home console Nintendo released the GameCube in Japan in September 2001 and in North America on 18 November, its first home console to use optical discs rather than cartridges. Sales lagged behind the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. It nonetheless produced enduring titles in the Zelda, Metroid and Smash Bros. series.
• 2001 Anthrax letters mailed in the United States Powder-filled envelopes kill five people Beginning in September 2001, letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to news organisations and two US senators, killing five people and infecting seventeen others. The attacks disrupted mail service and Congress and deepened fears after 9/11. The FBI later concluded that a government biodefence researcher was responsible.
• 2001 Star Trek: Enterprise — Season 1 A prequel series set a century before the original series, following Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) aboard the first Warp 5 starship. Created by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, it launches on UPN and struggles in its early seasons with low ratings despite genuine ambitions.
• 2001 Barry Bonds sets the single-season home run record 73 home runs in one Major League season San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds hit his 71st, 72nd and 73rd home runs in early October 2001, breaking Mark McGwire's three-year-old record. The mark still stands. It was later shadowed by evidence of performance-enhancing drug use in the sport.
• 2001 War in Afghanistan begins US invades following 9/11 The United States and NATO allies launched Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001, in response to the 9/11 attacks and the Taliban's refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden.
• 2001 Grand Theft Auto III released Open-world crime game in three dimensions Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto III for the PlayStation 2 in October 2001, moving the series into a fully three-dimensional open world. Players could roam a fictional city freely between missions. It was a commercial phenomenon and drew political criticism over its violence.
• 2001 iPod launched Apple revolutionises music Apple launched the iPod on October 23, 2001, a portable digital music player that could hold 1,000 songs. It transformed the music industry and paved the way for the iPhone.
• 2001 Gotthard Road Tunnel fire Head-on lorry crash kills eleven in Switzerland On 24 October 2001 two lorries collided head-on inside the Gotthard Road Tunnel in Switzerland, igniting a fire that filled the tunnel with toxic smoke. Eleven people died, most from the fumes. The tunnel was closed for two months and safety rules for Alpine tunnels were tightened.
• 2001 Microsoft releases Windows XP Consumer and business Windows lines merge Microsoft launched Windows XP on 25 October 2001, uniting its home and professional operating systems on the Windows NT core. Its stability and interface made it hugely popular, and it stayed widely used for more than a decade. Extended support did not end until 2014.
• 2001 Lockheed Martin wins the JSF contract X-35 over X-32 The Pentagon selects the X-35 over Boeing's X-32 in what was then the largest defence contract ever awarded.
• 2001 USA PATRIOT Act signed into law Sweeping expansion of US surveillance powers President George W. Bush signed the USA PATRIOT Act on 26 October 2001, six weeks after the 9/11 attacks. It broadened the government's authority to conduct wiretaps, access records and detain non-citizens. Several provisions stayed controversial and were revised or allowed to lapse in later years.
• 2001 American Airlines Flight 587 crashes in New York Airbus goes down in Queens, killing 265 On 12 November 2001 an Airbus A300 bound for the Dominican Republic broke apart shortly after take-off from Kennedy Airport and crashed into the Belle Harbor neighbourhood of Queens. All 260 people on board and 5 on the ground were killed. Investigators blamed excessive rudder inputs that snapped off the tail fin.
• 2001 Northern Alliance captures Kabul Taliban abandon the Afghan capital On 13 November 2001, under US air support, Northern Alliance forces entered Kabul as Taliban fighters withdrew south toward Kandahar. The fall of the capital came about a month into the US-led campaign. It cleared the way for an interim Afghan government.
• 2001 Halo: Combat Evolved released Launch title that defined console shooters Bungie's science-fiction shooter Halo: Combat Evolved launched alongside the Xbox on 15 November 2001. Its controls and vehicle combat set a template for first-person shooters on consoles. The franchise became Microsoft's biggest game series.
• 2001 Microsoft releases the Xbox Software maker enters the console market Microsoft launched its first games console, the Xbox, in North America on 15 November 2001, bundled with the shooter Halo: Combat Evolved. It featured a built-in hard drive and, later, the Xbox Live online service. The platform established Microsoft as a lasting rival to Sony and Nintendo.
• 2001 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone #1 film of 2001 — $974m worldwide Directed by Chris Columbus, starring Daniel Radcliffe. A young wizard discovers his magical heritage and attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
• 2001 Harry Potter film debuts Philosopher's Stone breaks records Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone opened in cinemas on November 16, 2001, grossing $974 million worldwide and launching one of the most successful film franchises in history.
• 2001 George Harrison dies Lost to lung cancer — November 29, 2001 George Harrison died of lung cancer on November 29, 2001, aged 58, at a friend's home in Los Angeles. He had been diagnosed in 1997. His final album Brainwashed was completed by his son Dhani and released posthumously in 2002.
• 2001 Enron collapses Largest US bankruptcy at the time Energy giant Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, following a massive accounting fraud scandal. It was the largest corporate bankruptcy in US history at the time.
• 2001 Battle of Tora Bora US and Afghan forces assault a mountain cave complex In December 2001 US special forces, air power and allied Afghan militias attacked the Tora Bora cave complex in eastern Afghanistan, believed to shelter Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda fighters. The defences were overrun by mid-December, but bin Laden escaped, probably into Pakistan. The failure to capture him became a lasting point of criticism.
• 2001 Segway personal transporter unveiled Self-balancing electric scooter revealed The inventor Dean Kamen publicly unveiled the Segway on 3 December 2001 after months of hype under the code name Ginger. The two-wheeled, self-balancing electric vehicle was promoted as a way to reshape cities. It sold far below expectations but became a fixture of tours and security patrols.
• 2001 Bonn Agreement on Afghanistan Hamid Karzai to lead an interim administration Under UN auspices, Afghan factions meeting in Bonn agreed on 5 December 2001 to form an interim administration led by Hamid Karzai, pending a traditional loya jirga. The deal set out steps toward a new constitution and elections. It also authorised an international security force for Kabul.
• 2001 Attack on the Indian Parliament Gunmen storm the complex in New Delhi On 13 December 2001 five armed men drove into the Parliament House complex in New Delhi and opened fire, killing nine people before all the attackers were shot dead. India blamed Pakistan-based militant groups. The attack led to a months-long military standoff between the two nuclear-armed states.
• 2001 Argentine economic crisis and December riots President De la Rúa resigns amid unrest As Argentina's recession deepened, the government froze bank withdrawals in December 2001, triggering nationwide protests and looting in which dozens died. President Fernando de la Rúa resigned on 20 December and left the Casa Rosada by helicopter. The country cycled through several presidents in days and defaulted on its debt.
• 2001 Lord of the Rings premieres Fellowship of the Ring released Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring premiered on December 19, 2001, earning $898 million worldwide and beginning one of cinema's greatest trilogies.
• 2001 Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring #2 film of 2001 — $898m worldwide Directed by Peter Jackson, starring Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen. A hobbit inherits a powerful ring and must destroy it before the Dark Lord can reclaim it.