2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. It was designated:

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

Events

January

• January 1 -
  • Introduction of euro banknotes and coins in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, and Portugal.
  • The Open Skies mutual surveillance treaty, initially signed in 1992, officially enters in to force.
• 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 9 - The United States Department of Justice announces it is going to pursue a criminal investigation of Enron.
• January 10 - Enrique Bolaños began his five-year term as President of the Republic of Nicaragua.
• January 13 - President George W. Bush faints after choking on a pretzel.
• January 16 -
  • A student shoots 6 people at the Appalachian School of Law, killing three.
  • John Ashcroft announces that American Taliban member John Walker Lindh would be tried in the United States.
  • The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaida, and the Taliban.
• January 17 - Eruption of Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people.
• January 18 - A Canadian Pacific Railway train carrying anhydrous ammonia derails outside of Minot, North Dakota, killing one.
• January 22 -
  • AOL Time Warner brings a federal suit against Microsoft seeking damages. The suit alleges that the market for AOL's Netscape Navigator Internet browser was harmed when Microsoft started to give away a competing browser.
  • Kmart Corp becomes the largest retailer in American history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
• January 27 - Several explosions at a military dump in Lagos, Nigeria kill more than 1,000.

February

• February 3 - Costa Rica: elections for President and Congress
• February 8 through February 24 - 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah
• February 12
  • The trial of former President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic begins at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague
  • Nuclear waste: US Secretary of Energy makes the decision that Yucca Mountain is suitable to be the United States' nuclear repository.
• February 13 - Queen Elizabeth II gives former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani an honorary knighthood.
• February 19 - NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of using its thermal emission imaging system.
• February 20 - In Reqa Al-Gharbiya, Egypt, a fire on a train injures over 65 and kills at least 370
• February 22 - Norwegian-facilitated ceasefire begins in Sri Lanka
• February 27 - Ethnic conflict in India: 59 Hindu pilgrims die aboard a train burned by a Muslim mob in Godhra, India, sparking a series of riots, leaving hundreds dead.

March

• March 1
  • U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: In eastern Afghanistan, Operation Anaconda begins.
  • 28 people die in continuing violence in Ahmedabad. Police shoot and kill five while attempting to control rioters.
  • The Envisat environmental satellite successfully reaches an orbit 800km above the Earth on its 11th launch, carrying the heaviest payload to date at 8500kg.
  • Space Shuttle Columbia flies Hubble Space Telescope service mission (STS-109).
  • Peseta discontinued as official currency of Spain and is replaced with the euro (€)
• March 3 - São Tomé and Príncipe: elections for the legislature
• March 6 - France agrees to return the remains of Saartje Baartman to South Africa
• March 10 - Colombia: elections for the legislature; Togo: elections for the Parliament
• March 12 - In Texas, Andrea Yates is found guilty of drowning her five children on June 20, 2001. She is later sentenced to life in prison
• March 17 - Portugal: elections for the Parliament
• March 19 - US Attack on Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda ends (started on March 1) after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters with 11 allied troop fatalities
• March 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
• March 31 - Ukraine: elections for the Parliament

April

• April 2 - Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where Palestinian terrorists are holding around 200 hostages. A siege ensues.
• April 15 - An Air China Boeing 767-200 crashes into a hillside during heavy rain and fog near Pusan, South Korea, killing 128.
• April 17 - Four Canadian infantrymen are killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire from two U.S. F-16s.
• April 18 - New order of insects, Mantophasmatodea, announced.
• April 25 - South African Mark Shuttleworth blasts off from the Baikonur cosmodrome; he had paid £15 million for the trip.
• April 26 - Robert Steinhauser opens fire on his former teachers and other students in Erfurt, Germany and then kills himself: 16 dead.
• April 30 - Pakistan: referendum on continuation of military government is approved.

May

• May 4 - In Germany, BV Borussia Dortmund wins the Bundesliga title after a 2-1 victory over SV Werder Bremen.
• May 6 - In the Netherlands, politician Pim Fortuyn is killed by Volkert van der Graaf.
• May 7 - Gay Canadian teenager Marc Hall is granted a court injunction ordering that he be allowed to attend his high school prom with his boyfriend.
• May 9 -
  • The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem comes to an end when the Palestinians inside agreed to have 13 suspected militants among them deported to several different countries. The standoff started April 2.
  • In Kaspiysk, Russia, a remote-control bomb explodes during a holiday parade, killing 43 and injuring at least 130.
• May 10 - FBI agent Robert Hanssen is sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for selling American secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.
• May 12 - Former 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.
• May 15 - The Netherlands: elections for the Lower House
• May 20 - Restoration of East Timor independence
• May 22 -
  • In Washington, DC, Chandra Levy's remains are found in Rock Creek Park.
  • American civil rights movement: 16th Street Baptist Church bombing: A jury in Birmingham, Alabama convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls.
• May 23 - First Eurovision Song Contest in a former Soviet country: Estonia
• May 25 - A China Airlines Boeing 747-200 breaks apart in mid-air and plunges into the Taiwan Strait, killing 225.
• May 26 - The Mars Odyssey finds signs of huge water ice deposits on the planet Mars.
• May 28 - Washington DC's medical examiner declares that Chandra Levy's death was the result of homicide.
• May 31 through June 30 - 17th Football World Cup in Japan and South Korea

June

• June 3 - The "Party in the Palace" takes place at Buckingham Palace, London for Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee celebrations.
• June 4 -
  • Quaoar is discovered.
  • Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh ride in the gold state coach from Buckingham Palace to St Paul's Cathedral for a special service marking the Queen's 50 years on the throne. In New York, the Empire State Building is lit in purple for her honour.
• June 5 -
  • Elizabeth Smart is kidnapped from her Salt Lake City, Utah home.
  • Mozilla 1.0, the first 'official' version, is released.
• June 6 - The United States House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee announces it is probing Martha Stewart's ImClone stock sales.
• June 10 - Annular solar eclipse.
• June 13 - The Detroit Red Wings def the Carolina Hurricanes 4 games to 1 in the 2002 Stanley Cup Finals
• June 14 - Twelve are killed and 50 injured by a car bomb explosion in front of the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan.
• June 18 - Arizona experiences its worst forest fire, burning 462,606 acres (1,872 km²) near the Mogollon Rim.
• June 30 - Brazil defeats Germany to win the Football World Cup 2002.

July

• July 1 - Russian passenger jet and a cargo plane collide over the town of Uberlingen in Southern Germany - 72 dead
• July 5 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq once again rejects new U.N. weapons inspections proposals
• July 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
• July 13 - A lighting strike sets off the Sour Biscuit Fire in Oregon and northern California, which is left to burn 499,570 acres (2,022 km²) when finally contained on September 5.
• July 14 - During Bastille Day celebrations, Jacques Chirac escapes an assassination attempt unscathed.
• July 15 - So-called "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh pleads guilty to supplying aid to the enemy and for the possession of explosives during the commission of a felony. Lindh agrees to serve 10 years in prison for each of the charges
• July 19 - K-19: The Widowmaker starring Harrison Ford is released.
• July 21 - Telecommunications giant WorldCom files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the largest such filing in United States history
• July 27 - A Sukhoi Su-27 fighter crashes at an air show in Ukraine killing 78 and injuring more than 100 others, the largest air show disaster in history.

August

• August 2 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq invites chief weapons inspector Hans Blix to Iraq for discussions on remaining disarmament issues.
• August 6 - Marquis de la Fayette is made Honorary Citizen of the United States.
• August 13 - Human Rights Campaign released the first Corporate Equality Index.
• August 19 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The U.N. Secretary General rejects Iraq's August 2 proposal as the "wrong work program", and instead recommends that Iraq allow weapons inspectors to return to the country, in accordance with previous U.N. resolutions.

September

• September 2 - The opening of the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development, successor of the 1972 Conference on the Human Environment, 1983 World Commission on Environment and Development, and the 1992 Conference on Environment and Development.
• September 5 -
  • A car bomb kills at least 30 people in Afghanistan, and an apparent assassination attempt on Afghan President Hamid Karzai fails the same day.
  • The Sour Biscuit Fire in Oregon and northern California, which burned 499,570 acres (2,022 km²), is finally contained.
• September 11 - The World Summit on Sustainable Development comes to a close.
• September 12 - Iraq disarmament crisis: U.S. President George W. Bush, addresses the U.N. and challenges its members to confront the "grave and gathering danger" of Iraq or stand aside as the United States and likeminded nations act.
• September 15 - The Swedish parliamentary election leaves Prime Minister Göran Persson and the Social Democrats in power.

October

• October 2 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The U.S. Congress passes a joint resolution which explicitly authorizes the President to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate.
• October 7 - Discovery of Quaoar is announced.
• October 11 - Lone bomber explodes a home-made bomb in the Myyrmanni shopping mall north of Helsinki, Finland - casualties include himself. See Myyrmanni bombing.
• October 12 - Bali bombing: Terrorists detonate massive bombs in two nightclubs in Kuta, Bali, killing 202 and injuring over 300.
• October 16 - Iraq disarmament crisis: George W. Bush signs the Iraq war resolution.
• October 24 - The Beltway snipers are arrested.
• October 25 - U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, his family and staff, are killed by a plane accident at Eveleth, Minnesota.