October 2002
October 2002 :
January -
February -
March -
April -
May -
June -
July -
August -
September -
October -
November -
December*
Bertrand Delanoë, mayor of
Paris stabbed in the abdomen at city hall during the
Nuits Blanches event.
* The
Limburg, a French oil tanker, explodes off the coast of
Yemen, in a
terrorist attack.
*
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: In the
West Bank village of
Akraba, Jewish settlers fire upon Palestinians picking olives, shooting dead 24-year-old
Hani Yusuf and wounding another. Israelis soldiers shoot dead
Samir Nursi, an
Islamic Jihad gunman, in a gun battle in the
Jenin refugee camp.
*
recent celebrity deaths:
Prince Claus of
the Netherlands died aged 76.
*
Josemaria Escriva, founder of
Opus Dei was canonized by
Pope John Paul II*
Stock market downturn of 2002:
Nasdaq falls 1.8% to 1119.40, the
Dow Jones Industrial Average index falls 1.4% to 7422.84, and the S&P falls 1.91% to 785.28, levels not reached since August 1996, mid-1997, and spring of 1997 respectively.
*
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Israeli troops raid
Khan Yunis in the
Gaza Strip, killing 13 (10 from a helicopter missile) and wounding as many as 100, after Palestinians fire a rocket at a Jewish settlement in the area. Later Palestinians kidnap and kill
Rajeh Abu Lehiya, chief of the Palestinian riot police, and two others die in gunfire during a police-
Hamas supporters conflict.
*
Astronomy: Announcement of the discovery of
Quaoar a planetoid object circling the
Sun* The
European Commission of the
European Union has announced that ten countries -
Cyprus, the
Czech Republic,
Estonia,
Hungary,
Latvia,
Lithuania,
Malta,
Poland,
Slovakia, and
Slovenia - have met its criteria for entry, opening the way for an expansion of the EU from 15 member states to 25. The
European Parliament has still to consider each candidate individually and the final decision will require the approval of the current member states.
*
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom is making various ceremonial appearances in
Canada in her role as the
Queen of Canada.
*
Lawrence Lessig argues
Eldred v. Ashcroft in front of the
U.S. Supreme Court. The case challenges retroactive copyright extensions passed by Congress, and potentially affects millions of copyrighted works.
* Public Interest group
Harvardwatch released a
report on
Harken's partnership with
Harvard University*
France confirms that an explosion aboard French
oil tanker Limburg off the coast of
Yemen was, indeed, a
terrorist act.
*
Hungarian Holocaust survivor
Imre Kertész wins the
Nobel Prize for Literature. The Nobel Committee singled out his
1975 novel
Fateless, a semiautobiographical account of a boy sent to
Auschwitz who survives by detaching himself from the everyday gritty reality.
* In the
Journal Nature,
anthropologist Milford Wolpoff and colleagues at the
University of Michigan argued that the
fossil skull discovered in
Chad in July is not that of an early human, but of an ape.
* A suicide bomber killed a 71-year-old woman and injured several other at a bus stop near
Tel Aviv,
Israel.
* A large crowd of
Palestinian police officers and militiamen marched in a funeral procession for a policeman killed by a
Hamas militiaman. Hamas claims that, although they did not authorize the killing, it was justified under
Islamic law.
* The
International Court of Justice grants sovereignty over the
Bakassi peninsula to
Cameroon and not
Nigeria.
*
U.S. plan to invade Iraq: The
United States Senate voted to give war powers to President
George W. Bush as part of the ongoing conflict between the
United States and
Iraq.
*
Jimmy Carter is honored with the
Nobel Peace Prize.
*
Myyrmanni bombing: A
suicide bomber explodes at the Myyrmanni Shopping Mall in
Vantaa,
Finland, killing 7 including the bomber.
*
United States embassy guards in
Tel Aviv,
Israel stopped a suicide bomber from setting off a bomb in a crowded beachfront cafe.
* More than 10,000 supporters of
Palestinian Authority President
Yasser Arafat rallied in
Gaza City to show strength against
Hamas.
* Ethnic rioting in
India results in numerous deaths. The riots are said to be a reaction to recent public comments by
Jerry Falwell, American televangelist, derogatory of the Islamic
prophet,
Muhammad.
*
2002 Bali terrorist bombing: A car-bomb on the
Indonesian island of
Bali explodes outside a nightclub killing at least 182 people, 75% of whom are said to have been foreign holidaymakers. Another 210 people are said to have been injured. The principal suspects for this
terrorist incident are a group seeking to establish an Islamic state in Indonesia,
Jemaah Islamiyah, although it could equally be the work of
al-Qaeda. Another bomb explodes at around the same time in the nearby town of
Denpasar, Bali.
* U.S. President
George W. Bush amongst many others has condemned the perpetrators of the
Bali car bombing of
October 11. The death toll has now risen to at least 187.
*The
San Francisco Giants defeated the
St. Louis Cardinals, 4 games to 1, to win the
National League Championship Series and move on the
World Series. They will play the
Anaheim Angels, who defeated the
Minnesota Twins 4 games to 1 to win the
American League Championship Series.
*The
Washington sniper strikes again at 9:15 p.m. at a
Home Depot in
Falls Church, Virginia, making
Linda Franklin the ninth victim.
*
United Kingdom took back the reins of government in
Northern Ireland amid a crisis in the peace process provoked by a spying scandal, but vowed to try and restore home rule early next year. See also
Good Friday Agreement.
*
Indonesia's defense minister blamed
al-Qaida and its extremist allies for the massive
bomb attack that killed more than 180 people at a nightclub on the resort island of
Bali.
* A
Kyiv judge ordered prosecutors to open a criminal probe of
Ukraine's veteran President
Leonid Kuchma, on charges of corruption and abuse of power.
*
ImClone Systems founder
Sam Waksal pleaded guilty to bank fraud and conspiracy in an insider trading scandal that threatens
Martha Stewart and her home decorating empire.
*
Politics of the Netherlands: the
cabinet of Balkenende resigns. Because of the constant internal fighting in the new party
LPF, the other two governing parties,
CDA and
VVD decided that continuing the
coalition was impossible. It seems almost certain that there will be new elections, possibly as early as December.
* Officials in
Brussels fear that the collapse in the Netherlands will delay the expansion of the
EU. The Netherlands cabinet was already divided on the issue and if new elections are to be held it may take 4-5 months before another cabinet is installed that is willing to make a decision.
*
Politics of Germany:
Gerhard Schröder and
Joschka Fischer sign the
coalition treaty for the second red-green cabinet.
*
Zamboanga bombings: Two bombs exploded in the main shopping district of the mostly
Christian city of
Zamboanga in the southern
Philippines, killing six and wounding about 150. It was the second major evident
terrorist incident in
southeast Asia in less than a week. Suspicion immediately focused on
Jemaah Islamiyah, an
Islamic extremist group also being investigated for the October 11
Bali car bombing, in which more than 180 people died.
*
Astronomy: There is further evidence for the existence of a supermassive
black hole at the center of our
galaxy, the
Milky Way galaxy. The object
Sagittarius A* has now been identified as the black hole at the galactic centre by a team led by
Rainer Schödel of the
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, who observed the behavior of the star
S2 which is near Sagittarius A*.
* U.S. officials announce the existence of a clandestine
North Korea nuclear weapons program, admitted to by North Korean officials.
*
October 18, 2002 Manila bus bombing: A bomb exploded in suburban
Manila, destroying a bus and killing at least three people, while 23 others were wounded. A grenade exploded in the
Philippine capital's financial district hours earlier. The bomb attacks occurred only one day after two deadly
bombings in the southern Philippines.
* An armed individual entered a school in
Stuttgart,
Germany and held five people hostage, demanding a ransom for their release. The hostages were known to be four schoolchildren and one teacher. The 16-year old subsequently released the hostages and surrendered peacefully.
*
Valentin Tsvetkov, governor of the Russian Far East region of
Magadan, was assassinated on the streets in
Moscow, in what authorities claim was probably a contract killing.
*
Computer chess: Chess champion
Vladimir Kramnik and the computer program
Deep Fritz have drawn the
Brains in Bahrain match, a series of eight games, with 4 points each.
* The
German Bundestag made
Gerhard Schröder again
Chancellor. He was elected with 305 votes, one vote out of the 306 red-green coalition missing. After that, the new ministers of the
Bundesregierung were appointed.
*
Canadian author
Yann Martel won the
Booker Prize for his "quirky fable"
Life of Pi. The prize is worth £50,000 ($77,300). Martel's work was picked from 130 novels from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth.
*
Moscow theatre siege: Suspected
Chechen guerrillas took hundreds hostage in a theater in
Moscow, threatening to blow up the building and demanding withdrawal of
Russian troops from Chechnya.
*
Washington sniper: Police reported that a ransom note was left at the scene of the latest shooting by the person believed to have shot 13 people and killed 9. The note apparently demanded $10 million, and it contained a threat to local residents saying, "Your children are not safe anywhere at any time."
*
recent celebrity deaths: Former
CIA chief
Richard Helms dies at 89.
*
Moscow theatre siege: The
Chechen rebels holding hundreds of hostages in a
Moscow theater shot and killed one captive and said they were ready to die for their cause, warning that thousands more of their comrades were "keen on dying."
*
Beltway sniper: Within hours of Police Chief
Charles Moose announcing that
John Allen Muhammed was wanted in connection with the investigation, Muhammed and his 17-year-old stepson
John Lee Malvo were arrested on federal weapons charges, found with the rifle used in the shootings.
*
Recent celebrity deaths:
Adolph Green, prolific
playwright and
lyricist, dies at 87. With
songwriter Betty Comden, he wrote the hit
Broadway musicals
On the Town,
Wonderful Town, and
Bells Are Ringing and screenplays for
Singin' in the Rain and
The Band Wagon.
*
Recent celebrity deaths:
Harry Hay,
gay rights activist. He founded the
Mattachine Society, the first gay rights group in the US. He also helped found the
Rainbow Coalition and the
Radical Faeries.
*
Recent celebrity deaths:
Richard Harris, Irish
actor, dies at 72 in hospital from
Hodgkin's disease, a form of
lymphoma.
*
Recent celebrity deaths:
Paul Wellstone,
U.S. Senator, is killed in a plane crash with his wife, daughter, and five others.
*
Moscow theatre siege: The
Chechen separatist "suicide squad" released eight children but kept some 700 people hostage in a
Moscow theater rigged with explosives. Diplomats waited for the gunmen to honor a pledge to free about 75 foreigners among their hostages, including Australians, Austrians, Britons, Germans and three Americans.
*
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Hundreds of
Israeli soldiers backed by scores of tanks and other military vehicles took control of the
Palestinian city of
Jenin in response to a
suicide bombing that killed 14 people.
*
Kenyan President
Daniel arap Moi dissolved the country's Parliament, officially starting the campaign for one of the East
African country's most competitive general elections and closing his tenure as one of Africa's longest ruling leaders.
*
IBM has announced that its
Blue Gene petaflop supercomputer architecture will use the
Linux operating system.
*
Sports: The
Anaheim Angels force a decisive 7th game with the
San Francisco Giants in the
2002 World Series with a dramatic late-inning rally from 5-0 to win 6-5
*
Moscow theatre siege:
Special forces of the
Russian army attacked the
Chechen separatists who were holding hostages in a
Moscow theater. 50 of the 53 separatists and 117 of the 800 hostages were killed. Most of hostages were killed by
poison gas used by the special forces, with most of the surviving hostages
hospitalised with gas poisoning.
*
Sports: The
Anaheim Angels win the
2002 World Series by 4 games to 3, with a 4-1 win over the
San Francisco Giants in Game 7.
*
Sports:
Emmitt Smith of the
Dallas Cowboys passes
Walter Payton as the
NFL's leading rusher in a 17-14 loss to the
Seattle Seahawks*
Leftist Luis Inácio Lula da Silva handily wins
Brazil's presidential election
*
Sports: Team Bath become the first university team to qualify for the
FA Cup First Round since
1882. They beat Horsham 4-3 on penalties in the Fourth Qualifying Round replay.
*
Moscow theatre siege: Some medical experts now believe that the Moscow hostages and
terrorists were gassed with a military
incapacitating agent such as
BZ or a similar substance. Others claim that a
fentanyl derivative may have been used. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow stated that it believed that the substance was an
opiate. Other candidates suggested include the Russian incapacitating agent
Kolokol-1 and aerosolized
Valium. Yet another medical expert has stated that the gas used is a common
anaesthetic gas that is commonly used in Europe.
*
Jack the Ripper: The crime novelist
Patricia Cornwell announces
DNA evidence possibly linking the painter
Walter Sickert to one of the many letters claiming to be from the 19th century
serial killer Jack the Ripper.
* The
Canadian ministry of foreign affairs issues an advisory to Canadians born in
Iraq,
Iran,
Syria,
Libya, and
Sudan warning them to "consider carefully" whether to go to the
United States for "any reason." This follows a US law requiring photos and fingerprints of Canadian citizens born in those countries upon entering the US, as well as the deportation to Syria of
Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen. The American ambassador,
Paul Cellucci, later assures the Canadian government that all Canadian passport holders will be treated equally; however, further incidents attributed to
racial profiling take place.
*
Recent deaths:
Run-DMC DJ Jam Master Jay is shot and killed at age 37.
*The
Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chose former
Vice President of the United States Walter Mondale as their candidate for the
United States Senate seat of recently-deceased Senator
Paul Wellstone from
Minnesota.
*The government of
Canada issued a
travel advisory to the
United States for all Canadian citizens born in
Iran,
Iraq,
Libya,
Sudan or
Syria after the United States announced that anyone born in those countries will be photographed and fingerprinted upon arrival in the United States.
*The
European Union accused
tobacco company
R.J. Reynolds of selling
black market cigarettes to drug traffickers and mobsters from
Italy,
Russia,
Colombia and the
Balkans.
* The
Russian Health Minister
Yuri Shevchenko has now stated that the
incapacitating agent used in the storming of the
Moscow theatre siege was a
fentanyl derivative.
* Over a million people gather in
Greenwich Village to celebrate
Halloween.
* Nine bombs exploded in
Soweto,
South Africa and the vicinity and one near
Pretoria. It is believed to be the work of white right-wing soldiers or police.
*
Pat Buchanan denounces
Canada as
Soviet Canuckistan over the warning issued by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs regarding travel to the US (see October 29 below.)
