List of events
Events from the year 2002 in the United States .
Incumbents
Federal government
Events
January
January 8 : President George W. Bush signs the No Child Left Behind Act into law
January 11: Camp X-Ray (Guantanamo)
January 5 – Charles Bishop , a 15-year-old student pilot, crashes a light aircraft into a building in Tampa, Florida , evoking fear of a copycat 9/11 terrorist attack .
January 6 – The Boston Globe publishes a story detailing the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston sex abuse scandal .
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 11 – The first detainees arrive at Camp X-Ray (Guantanamo) .
January 13 – President Bush chokes on a pretzel and faints briefly.[ 2]
January 14 – The asylum case of Adelaide Abankwah is heard in New York .
January 16
January 18 – A Canadian Pacific Railway train carrying anhydrous ammonia derails outside of Minot, North Dakota , killing one.
January 21 – Cyberchase premieres on PBS Kids .
January 23 – The Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is kidnapped in Pakistan , accused of being a CIA agent by his captors.
January 29 – In his State of the Union Address , President Bush describes North Korea , Iran and Iraq as an "axis of evil ".[ 3]
January 31 – U.S. special forces are deployed in the Philippines in Operation Enduring Freedom – Philippines , part of the War on Terror .[ 3]
February
February 8 – February 24: The Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City
March
March 1
March 12 – In Houston , Texas , Andrea Yates is found guilty of drowning her five children on June 20, 2001. She is later sentenced to life in prison.
March 14 – 125 vehicles are involved in a massive pile up on Interstate 75 in Ringgold, Georgia .
March 15 – Ice Age is released in theaters.
March 19 – US war in 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 and three others are charged with the kidnapping and killing of The Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl .
March 24 – The 74th Academy Awards , hosted by Whoopi Goldberg , are held at Kodak Theatre in Hollywood , with Ron Howard 's A Beautiful Mind winning four awards, including Best Picture and Best Director . The film ties with Peter Jackson 's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in award wins, while the latter leads the nominations with 13. The telecast garners over 41.8 million viewers.
March – Layalina Productions, Inc. non-profit public diplomacy initiative is inaugurated.[ 4]
April
May
May 26: I-40 bridge disaster
May 1 – Nicktoons TV (renamed Nicktoons in 2003, then in 2009) launches in the United States.
May 3 – Spider-Man is released in theaters as the first film in the Spider-Man trilogy.
May 10 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for selling American secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.
May 12 – Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro , becoming the first U.S. president, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro's 1959 revolution .
May 16 – Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones is released in theaters.
May 21 – The State Department releases a report naming seven state sponsors of terrorism: Iran , Iraq , Cuba , Libya , North Korea , Sudan and Syria .
May 22
May 26 – I-40 bridge disaster : A barge collides with the Interstate 40 bridge across the Arkansas River in eastern Oklahoma, killing 14.
June
July
August
September
September 2 – Liberty's Kids premieres on PBS Kids .
September 4 – Kelly Clarkson wins the first American Idol competition.
September 5 – The Sour Biscuit Fire in Oregon and northern California , which burned 499,570 acres (2,022 km2 ), is contained.
September 7 – The Fox Network's Fox Kids block (which had been on the air since 1990) airs for the final time. It was replaced the following week (on September 14) by the 4Kids-programmed FoxBox .[ 5]
September 11 – Thousands of people in New York City and across the nation attend ceremonies as the United States commemorates the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks .
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.[ 3]
September 14 – Major upheavals take place on Saturday mornings, as the four major networks change their programming on this day. Fox , having sold Fox Kids Worldwide to The Walt Disney Company the previous year, ends Fox Kids and sells its airtime to 4Kids Entertainment , who begin programming a new children's programming block as the Fox Box . Disney, meanwhile, having acquired the Fox Kids brand, ends Disney's One Saturday Morning on ABC and renamed ABC Kids . CBS , whose then-corporate sibling Nickelodeon programs its lineup, rebrands its Nick Jr. on CBS block as Nick on CBS and refocuses it on children 2–11 years old, while NBC signs a contract with Discovery Networks to air a programming strand called Discovery Kids on NBC (a spinoff of a former digital cable channel Discovery Kids ), which replaces the teen-oriented block TNBC .[ 5] [ 6]
October
November
November 25: The Department of Homeland Security is established
November 2 – The Godless Americans March on Washington brings together 2,000 atheists, freethinkers, agnostics, and humanists in a mile-long parade down the National Mall .
November 3 – The 7.9 Mw Denali earthquake shakes the Alaska Interior with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent ), causing one injury and $20–56 million in losses.
November 5 – Republicans gain a majority in the Senate and a larger majority in the House of Representatives following congressional elections .[ 3]
November 6 – The U.S. Federal Reserve System drops its primary discount rate by 25 basis points to 0.75%, putting the real interest rate solidly below the inflation rate .
November 7 – Iran bans the advertising of United States products.
November 8 – The United Nations passes Resolution 1441 giving Iraqi President Saddam Hussein a final opportunity to cooperate with international weapons inspectors.[ 3]
November 12 – Toxicologist Kristin Rossum is convicted of the 2000 murder of her husband Gregory de Viller in San Diego . Rossum had poisoned her victim using fentanyl , passing off the crime as a suicide.[ 7]
November 16 – A Campaign against Climate Change march takes place in London from Lincoln's Inn Fields , past Esso offices to the United States Embassy.
November 25 – U.S. President George W. Bush signs the Homeland Security Act into law, establishing the Department of Homeland Security . It was the largest U.S. government reorganization since the creation of the Department of Defense in 1947.
November 27 – Walt Disney Pictures ' 43rd feature film, Treasure Planet , is released to positive reception, but turns outs to be a rare box office bomb from the studio.
December
Ongoing
Births
January
Lil Mosey
Caitlin Clark
February
March
April
Skai Jackson
Sadie Sink
May
Cree Cicchino
Trinity Rodman
June
Chandler Smith
July
August
September
Asher Angel
Gaten Matarazzo
Jenna Ortega
Maddie Ziegler
October
Jacob Sartorius
November
NLE Choppa
Madisyn Shipman
Giovanni Reyna
December
Full date unknown
Deaths
January
Cyrus Vance
Peggy Lee
January 1
January 3 – Miki Dora , surfer (b. 1934 )
January 4 – Nathan Chapman , soldier (b. 1970 )
January 6 – John W. Reynolds Jr. , politician and jurist (b. 1921 )
January 7
January 8 – Dave Thomas , businessman (b. 1932 )
January 9 – K. William Stinson , politician (b. 1930 )
January 10 – John Buscema , comic book artist (b. 1927 )
January 12
January 13 – Ted Demme , film and television director and producer (b. 1963 )
January 14 – Edith Bouvier Beale , socialite (b. 1917 )[ 16]
January 15 – Michael Bilandic , politician, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1923 )
January 16
January 18 – Marilyn Harris , writer (b. 1931 )
January 20 – Carrie Hamilton , actress and daughter of Carol Burnett (b. 1963 )
January 21 – Peggy Lee , singer, songwriter, and actress (b. 1920 )
January 22 –Stanley Marcus , businessman and author (b. 1905 )
January 23 – Robert Nozick , philosopher (b. 1938 )
January 25 – Rudolph B. Davila , Army officer (b. 1916 )
January 28 – Dick "Night Train" Lane , American football player (b. 1928 )
February
Waylon Jennings
Chuck Jones
February 1
February 2 – Paul Baloff , singer (b. 1960 )
February 4 – Helen Dodson Prince , astronomer (b. 1905 )
February 6 – Guy Stockwell , actor (b. 1933 )
February 7
February 8 – Nick Brignola , jazz musician (b. 1936 )
February 9 – Fred Gehrke , football player (b. 1918 )
February 10
February 11 – George Kasem , politician (b. 1919 )
February 13 – Waylon Jennings , American country singer (b. 1937 )
February 15 – Howard K. Smith , television journalist (b. 1914 )
February 18 – Jack Lambert , actor (b. 1920 )
February 19 – Virginia Hamilton , writer (b. 1936 )
February 20 – Willie Thrower , American football player (b. 1930 )
February 22 – Chuck Jones , animator (b. 1912 )
February 24
February 26 – Lawrence Tierney , actor (b. 1919 )
February 27 – Mary Stuart , actress (b. 1926 )
March
Milton Berle
March 1 – C. Farris Bryant , politician (b. 1914 )
March 3 – Al Pollard , football player (b. 1928 )
March 5 – Howard Cannon , politician (b. 1912 )
March 7 – Mickey Haslin , baseball player (b. 1909 )
March 9 – Irene Worth , actress (b. 1916 )
March 11 – James Tobin , Nobel economist (b. 1918 )
March 15 – Sylvester Weaver , television executive (b. 1908 )
March 17 – Rosetta LeNoire , actress (b. 1911 )
March 23 – Eileen Farrell , soprano (b. 1920 )
March 26 – Randy Castillo , musician (b. 1950 )
March 27
April
Robert Urich
April 5 – Layne Staley , singer and songwriter (b. 1967 )
April 7 – John Agar , actor (b. 1921 )[ 17]
April 14 – Arthur W. Coats Jr. , California politician (b. 1914 )[ 18]
April 15 – Byron White , athlete and Supreme Court Justice (b. 1917 )
April 16 – Robert Urich , actor (b. 1946 )
April 18 – Wahoo McDaniel , American football player and wrestler (b. 1938 )
April 22 – Linda Lovelace , American pornographic actress (b. 1949 )
April 25 – Lisa Lopes , rapper, died in La Ceiba , Atlántida , Honduras (b. 1971 )
April 27
May
June
Rosemary Clooney
June 5 – Dee Dee Ramone , songwriter and musician (b. 1951 )
June 6 – Robbin Crosby , guitarist (b. 1959 )
June 10
June 11 – Robbin Crosby , musician (b. 1959 )
June 12 – Bill Blass , fashion designer (b. 1922 )[ 20]
June 17 – Willie Davenport , track and field athlete (b. 1943 )
June 22
June 23 – Logan Tucker , murder victim (b. 1996 )
June 26 – Jay Berwanger , American football player (b. 1914 )
June 27 – John Entwistle , English musician (b. 1944 )
June 29 – Rosemary Clooney , singer and actress, and wife of José Ferrer and mother of Miguel Ferrer (b, 1928 )
July
July 2 – Ray Brown , American bassist (b. 1926 )
July 4 – Benjamin O. Davis Jr. , general (b. 1912 )
July 5 – Ted Williams , baseball player (b. 1918 )
July 6 – John Frankenheimer , film director (b. 1930 )
July 8 – Ward Kimball , animator (b. 1913 )
July 9 – Rod Steiger , actor and husband of Claire Bloom (b. 1925 )
July 10 – Laurence Janifer , writer (b. 1933 )
July 16 – John Cocke , computer scientist (b. 1925 )
July 19 – Alan Lomax , folklorist and musicologist (b. 1915 )
July 23 – Chaim Potok , writer and rabbi (b. 1929 )
August
Lionel Hampton
September
Bob Hayes
September 3 – Ted Ross , American actor (b. 1934 )
September 4 – Jerome Biffle , American athlete (b. 1928 )
September 5 – David Todd Wilkinson , American cosmologist (b. 1935 )
September 7 – Erma Franklin , American singer (b. 1938 )
September 11
September 14
September 18 – Bob Hayes , American football player and track and field athlete (b. 1942 )
September 21 – Robert L. Forward , writer, inventor, and physicist (b. 1932 )
September 22 – Mickey Newbury , American singer-songwriter (b. 1940 )
September 24 – Mike Webster , football player (b. 1952 )
September 28 – Whitney Blake , actress and director (b. 1926 )
October
Stephen E. Ambrose
c. October 5 – Jay R. Smith , American actor and comedian (b. 1915 )
October 9 – Aileen Wuornos , American serial killer (b. 1956 )
October 10 – Teresa Graves , American actress and comedian (b. 1948 )
October 12 – Ray Conniff , musician and bandleader (b. 1916 )
October 13 – Stephen Ambrose , American historian and biographer (b. 1936 )
October 17 – Aileen Riggin , American swimmer and diver (b. 1906 )
October 18 – Kam Fong Chun , American actor (b. 1918 )
October 23
October 24
October 25 – Paul Wellstone , American politician (b. 1944 )
October 28 – Margaret Booth , American film editor (b. 1898 )
October 30 – Jam Master Jay , American Hip-Hop DJ (b. 1965 )
November
James Coburn
November 3 – Jonathan Harris , actor (b. 1914 )
November 9 – Merlin Santana , actor (b. 1976 )
November 14 – Eddie Bracken , actor (b. 1915 )
November 15 – Roberta Leighton , drag racer
November 18 – James Coburn , actor (b. 1928 )
November 21 – Hadda Brooks , jazz singer, pianist, and composer (b. 1916 )
November 24 – John Rawls , philosopher (b. 1921 )
November 27 – Billie Bird , actress and comedian (b. 1908 )
November 26 – Verne Winchell , businessman (b. 1915 )
December
Full date unknown
See also
References
^ "William Rehnquist Biography" . biography.com . A&E Television Networks. Retrieved 28 February 2016 .
^ "Choking on Pretzel, Bush Faints Briefly" . Los Angeles Times . 2002-01-14. Retrieved 2021-10-03 .
^ a b c d e f g Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History . Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 650–652 . ISBN 9780304357307 .
^ Ali Jafaar, "'Road' to understanding" Variety, March 23, 2007
^ a b Paula Bernstein (January 18, 2002). "4Kids buys 4 hours from Fox Kids" . Variety . Retrieved August 13, 2009 .
^ Paula Bernstein (September 29, 2002). "Kid skeds tread on joint strategy" . Variety . Retrieved March 18, 2017 .
^ "Toxicologist Found Guilty of Killing Husband" . Los Angeles Times . November 13, 2002.
^ "United Airlines files for bankruptcy" . The Guardian . 9 December 2002. Retrieved 24 January 2021 .
^ Stevenson, Richard W.; Stolberg, Sheryl Gay (13 December 2002). "President Bush Announces Smallpox Vaccination Plan" . The New York Times . Retrieved 11 September 2021 .
^ Malveaux, Suzanne (21 December 2002). "Bush gets smallpox vaccine" . CNN . Retrieved 11 September 2021 .
^ Zenko, Micah (3 August 2010). Between Threats and War: U.S. Discrete Military Operations in the Post-Cold War World . Stanford University Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-8047-7190-0 .
^ Bronson, Fred (2024-04-23). "Meet 2024's 'American Idol' Top 10 Contestants" . Billboard . Retrieved 2024-05-27 .
^ "Paolo Banchero | Orlando Magic" . NBA . Retrieved 2022-11-28 .
^ "Giovanni Reyna" (in German). Borussia Dortmund. Retrieved 21 November 2020 .
^ "Madisyn Shipman" . Africa Health Organisation . 9 September 2019. Retrieved 24 April 2020 .
^ Martin, Douglas (2002-01-25). "Edith Bouvier Beale, 84, 'Little Edie,' Dies" . The New York Times . ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-11-28 .
^ Willis, John (2004). Screen World 2003 . Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Hal Leonard Corporation . p. 355. ISBN 9781557835284 . Retrieved 19 July 2017 .
^ "Arthur W. Coats Jr., Candidate Biography" . joincalifornia.com . Alex Vassar & Shane Meyers. Retrieved 29 July 2023 .
^ Fielder, Jim (2003). Slow Death . Kensington Pub. p. 315 . ISBN 9780786011995 . OCLC 51455524 .
^ "Obituary: Bill Blass" . The Guardian . 15 June 2002. Retrieved 7 December 2020 .
^ "Galen H. Schlosser, 90, architect" . Intelligencer Journal Lancaster, PA . December 10, 2002. Archived from the original on 2012-11-05. This newspaper article incorrectly identifies Schlosser as the designer of the Salk Institute
External links