other: 2002 (disambiguation)

2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar.

The year 2002 was designated the:

• International Year of Ecotourism and Mountains
• Year of the Outback in Australia
• National Science Year in the United Kingdom
• Autism Awareness Year in the United Kingdom

The year number was a palindrome (next palindrome year will be 2112).

January

• January 1 – The Open Skies mutual surveillance treaty, initially signed in 1992, officially enters into force.
• January 1 – Euro notes and coins are issued in France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Finland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Austria, Ireland and the Netherlands.
• January 5 – Charles Bishop, a 15-year-old student pilot, crashes a light aircraft into a Tampa, Florida building, evoking fear of a copycat 9/11 terrorist attack.
• January 8 – The No Child Left Behind Act is signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush.
• January 9 – The United States Department of Justice announces it will pursue a criminal investigation of Enron.
• January 10 – Enrique Bolaños begins his 5-year term as President of the Republic of Nicaragua.
• January 14 – The asylum case of Adelaide Abankwah is heard in New York.
• January 16 – A student shoots 6 at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Virginia, killing 3.
• January 16 – U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announces that American Taliban member John Walker Lindh will be tried in the United States.

• January 16 – The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and freezes the assets of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda, and the Taliban.
• January 17 – The eruption of Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo displaces an estimated 400,000 people.
• January 18 – A Canadian Pacific Railway train carrying anhydrous ammonia derails outside of Minot, North Dakota, killing 1.
• January 23 – Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is kidnapped in Pakistan, accused of being a CIA agent by his captors.
• January 24 – Suspected terrorist John Walker Lindh's hearing begins.
• January 27 – Several explosions at a military dump in Lagos, Nigeria kill more than 1,000.
• January 31 – A large section of the Antarctic Larsen Ice Shelf begins disintegrating, consuming about 3,250 km (1,254 miles) over 35 days.

February

• February 1 – Kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is murdered in Karachi, Pakistan.
• February 2 – Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands marries Máxima, Princess of Orange in Amsterdam.
• February 3 – Costa Rica holds presidential and congressional elections.
• February 3 – Super Bowl XXXVI: The New England Patriots beat the St. Louis Rams 20-17 in New Orleans.
• February 8–24 – The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City, Utah.
• February 9 – Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, Queen Elizabeth's sister dies in hospital after suffering a stroke.
• February 12 – The trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic begins at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
• February 12 – The U.S. Secretary of Energy makes the decision that Yucca Mountain is suitable to be the United States' nuclear repository.
• February 13 – Queen Elizabeth gives former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani an honorary knighthood.