2000

history

,

2000 (MM) was a leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar.

2000 was designated as:

  • International Year for the Culture of Peace.
  • World Mathematical Year.

The year 2000 was the target of Y2K concerns, fearing computers could not shift from 2-digit "99" to "2000"; however, many companies had already converted their software, even obtaining Y2K certification, and relatively few problems occurred.

Popular culture also holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the third millennium. In the Gregorian Calendar, however, this distinction falls to the year 2001, because the first century began with year AD 1 (there was no year zero), and the thousand years spanned to years 2-1001 (see more at: millennium).

Events

January

February

March

April

  • April 1 - Japanese prime minister Keizo Obuchi suffers a stroke, falls into a coma, and dies.
  • April 3 - United States v. Microsoft: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors.
  • April 5 - Yoshiro Mori replaces Keizo Obuchi as prime minister of Japan.
  • April 16 - Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah, Sultan of Selangor, dies after a reign of 55 years. He was the longest-reigning monarch in the world since the death of Prince Franz Joseph II of Liechtenstein.
  • April 17 - Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin becomes Raja of Perlis.
  • April 22 - Brazil officially celebrates its 500th anniversary, not without protests, especially from native and black populations.
  • April 22 - In a predawn raid, federal agents seize six-year old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami, Florida and fly him to his Cuban father in Washington, DC, ending one of the most publicized custody battles in US history.
  • April 25 - The State of Vermont passes HB847, legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples.
  • April 28 - Richard Baumhammers begins a two-hour, racially-motivated shooting spree in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, leaving five dead and one paralyzed.

May

  • May 3 - A rare conjunction of seven celestial bodies (Sun, Moon, planets Mercury-Saturn) occurs on the New Moon.
  • May 3 - In San Antonio, Texas, computer pioneer Datapoint files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
  • May 11 - The billionth living person in India is born.
  • May 12 - The Tate Modern Gallery opens in London.
  • May 13 - Fireworks factory disaster in Enschede Netherlands, killing 23 people.
  • May 17 - A bomb in Glorietta Mall in Makati City, Philippines injures 13.
  • May 20 - Chinese president Chen Shui-bian makes the Four Noes and One Without pledge to Taiwan.
  • May 25 - Israel withdraws IDF forces from southern Lebanon after 22 years.

June

  • June 5 - 405 The Movie, the first short film widely distributed on the Internet, is released.
  • June 13 - South Korean President Kim Dae Jung visits North Korea to participate in the first North-South presidential summit.
  • June 17 - A centennial earthquake measuring 6.5 on Richter scale in Iceland. The 17th of June is Iceland's national day.
  • June 21 - Section 28, a law preventing the promotion of homosexuality, is repealed by the Scottish Parliament.
  • June 26 - A preliminary draft of genomes, as part of the Human Genome Project, is finished.
  • June 28 - Elian Gonzalez returns to Cuba with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, ending a protracted custody battle.
  • June 30 - At the Roskilde Festival near Copenhagen, Denmark, 9 die and 26 are injured on a set while the rock group Pearl Jam performs.

July

  • July 2 - France beats Italy 2-1 to win Euro 2000 with a golden goal.
  • July 2 - Vicente Fox is elected President of Mexico, as candidate of the rightist PAN (National Action Party), ending 71 years of PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) rule.
  • July 10 - In southern Nigeria, a leaking petroleum pipeline explodes, killing about 250 villagers who were scavenging gasoline.
  • July 10 - Bashar al-Assad is confirmed as Syria's leader in a national referendum.
  • July 11–25 - Israel's prime minister Ehud Barak and PLO head Yasser Arafat meet at Camp David, but fail to reach an agreement.
  • July 18 - Alex Salmond resigns as the leader of the Scottish National Party.
  • July 18 - Sussex police launch a murder investigation after the body of a girl found near Pulborough is confirmed to be that of Sarah Payne, who was reported missing on July 1.
  • July 21–23 - G-8 Nations hold their 26th Annual Summit. Issues include AIDS, the 'digital divide', and halving world poverty by 2015.
  • July 22 - News of the World urges its readers to sign a petition for Sarah's Law - new legislation in response to the murder of Sarah Payne, which would give parents the right to know whether a convicted paedophile was living in their area.
  • July 25 - Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde aircraft, crashes into a hotel in Gonesse just after takeoff from Paris, killing all 109 aboard and 4 in the hotel.
  • July 30 - Venezuela's president Hugo Chávez is reelected with 59% of the vote.
  • July 31 – August 3 - The Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania nominates George W. Bush for U.S. President and Dick Cheney for Vice President.

August

  • August 3 - Rioting erupts on the Paulsgrove estate in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, after more than 100 people besieged the home of a block of flats allegedly housing a convicted paedophile. This is the latest vigilante violence against suspected sex offenders since the beginning of the "naming and shaming" anti-paedophile campaign by the tabloid newspaper News of the World.
  • August 8 - Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor.
  • August 12 - The Russian submarine K-141 Kursk sinks in the Barents Sea, resulting in the deaths of all 118 men on board.
  • August 14 - Tsar Nicholas II and his family are canonized by the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.
  • August 14–17 - The Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles nominates U.S. Vice President Al Gore for President and Senator Joe Lieberman for Vice President.
  • August 23 - John Anthony Kaiser a Roman Catholic priest was murdered in Morendat, Kenya.
  • August 27 - The Ostankino Tower in Moscow catches fire; three people are killed.

September

October

.]]

  • October 1 - Closing ceremony of 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
  • October 5 - President Slobodan MiloÅ¡ević leaves office after widespread demonstrations throughout Serbia.
  • October 6 - The last Mini is produced in Longbridge.
  • October 11 - 250 million gallons of coal sludge spill in Martin County, Kentucky. Considered a greater environmental disaster than the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
  • October 12 - In Aden, Yemen, the USS Cole is badly damaged by two suicide bombers, who placed a small boat laden with explosives alongside the United States Navy destroyer, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least 39.
  • October 21 - Fifteen Arab leaders convene in Cairo, Egypt, for their first summit in 4 years; the Libyan delegation walks out, angry over signs the summit will stop short of calling for breaking ties with Israel.
  • October 22 - The Mainichi Shinbun newspaper exposes Japanese archeologist Shinichi Fujimura as a fraud; Japanese archaeologists had based their treatises on his findings.
  • October 23 - Madeleine Albright holds talks with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il.
  • October 26 - Pakistani authorities announce that their police have found an apparently ancient mummy of a Persian princess in the province of Balochistan. Iran, Pakistan and the Taliban all claim the mummy until Pakistan announces it is a forgery on April 17, 2001.
  • October 26 - The New York Yankees defeat the New York Mets in Game 5 of the 2000 World Series, 4-1, to win their 26th World Series title (and latest to date). This was the first Subway Series matchup between the two crosstown rivals. It was their 4th World Series win in the last 5 years under Manager Joe Torre.
  • October 30 - The final date during which there was no human presence in space - on October 31, Soyuz TM-31 launched, carrying the the first resident crew to the International Space Station. The ISS has been continuously crewed since.
  • October 31 - Singapore Airlines Flight 006 collides with construction equipment in the Chiang Kai Shek International Airport - 83 dead.

November

  • November - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq rejects new U.N. Security Council weapons inspections proposals.
  • November 2 - First resident crew enters International Space Station.
  • November 3 - Widespread flooding occurs throughout England and Wales after days of heavy rain.
  • November 7 - United States presidential election, 2000: Republican candidate Texas Governor George W. Bush defeats Democratic Vice President Al Gore in the closest election in history, but the final outcome is not known for over a month because of disputed votes in Florida.
  • November 7 - In London, a criminal gang raids the Millennium Dome to steal The Millennium Star diamond, but police surveillance catches them in the act.
  • November 7 - Hillary Rodham Clinton is elected to the United States Senate, becoming the first First Lady of the United States to win public office.
  • November 11 - Kaprun disaster, Austria: A cable car fire in an alpine tunnel kills 155 skiers and snowboarders.
  • November 14 - Netscape Navigator version 6.0 is launched following two years of open source development, creating a stable Mozilla web browser upon which it is based.
  • November 15 - A new Indian state called Jharkhand is formed, carving out the South Chhota Nagpur area from Bihar in India.
  • November 16 - Bill Clinton becomes the first sitting U.S. President to visit Vietnam.
  • November 17 - A catastrophic landslide in Log pod Mangartom, Slovenia, kills 7, and causes millions of SIT of damage. It is one of the worst catastrophes in Slovenia in the past 100 years.
  • November 17 - Alberto Fujimori is removed from office as president of Peru.
  • November 25 - Rugby League world cup in England is ended with Australia winning 40-12 over New Zealand Kiwis.
  • November 26 - The British Columbia Lions win the CFL Championship for the first time since 1994, defeating the Montreal Alouettes 28-26 in the 88th Grey Cup at McMahon Stadium in Calgary, Alberta.
  • November 27 - Jean Chrétien is re-elected as Prime Minister of Canada, as the Liberal Party increases its majority in the House of Commons.
  • November 28 - Ukrainian politician Oleksander Moroz touches off the Cassette Scandal by publicly accusing President Leonid Kuchma of involvement in the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze.

December

  • December 1 - Vicente Fox takes office as President of Mexico.
  • December 13 - Bush v. Gore: The U.S. Supreme Court stops the Florida presidential recount, effectively giving the state, and the Presidency, to George W. Bush.
  • December 13 - The Texas 7 escape from their prison unit in Kenedy, Texas, and start a crime spree.
  • December 24 - The Texas 7 rob a sports store in Irving, Texas; police officer Aubrey Hawkins is shot dead.
  • December 25 - 309 killed shopping center fire at Luoyang, Henan, China.
  • December 28 - U.S. retail giant Montgomery Ward announces it is going out of business after 128 years.
  • December 30 - Rizal Day Bombings: A series of bombs explode in various places in Metro Manila, Philippines, within a span of a few hours, killing 22 and injuring about 100.
  • December 31 - The Millennium Dome closes its doors one year to the day of its opening.

World population

{|class="wikitable" !colspan="7"|World population»World Population Prospects. Retrieved 19 November 2007. |- ! !2000 !colspan="2"|1995 !colspan="2"|2005 |- !World |align="right"|6,070,581,000 |align="right"|5,674,380,000 |align="right"|+396,201,000 |align="right"|6,453,628,000 |align="right"|+383,047,000 |- !Africa |align="right"|795,671,000 |align="right"|707,462,000 |align="right"|+88,209,000 |align="right"|887,964,000 |align="right"|+92,293,000 |- !Asia |align="right"|3,679,737,000 |align="right"|3,430,052,000 |align="right"|+249,685,000 |align="right"|3,917,508,000 |align="right"|+237,771,000 |- !Europe |align="right"|727,986,000 |align="right"|727,405,000 |align="right"|+581,000 |align="right"|724,722,000 |align="right"|-3,264,000 |- !Latin-America |align="right"|520,229,000 |align="right"|481,099,000 |align="right"|+39,130,000 |align="right"|558,281,000 |align="right"|+38,052,000 |- !Northern America |align="right"|315,915,000 |align="right"|299,438,000 |align="right"|+16,477,000 |align="right"|332,156,000 |align="right"|+16,241,000 |- !Oceania |align="right"|31,043,000 |align="right"|28,924,000 |align="right"|+2,119,000 |align="right"|32,998,000 |align="right"|+1,955,000 |}

Births

Deaths

January

February

March

  • March 3 - Toni Ortelli, Italian composer and alpinist (b. 1904)
  • March 28 - Anthony Powell, British author (b. 1905)

April

May

June

July

  • July 1 - Walter Matthau, American actor (b. 1920)
  • July 2 - Joey Dunlop, Northern Irish motorcycle racer (b. 1952)
  • July 7 - James C. Quayle, American newspaper publisher (b. 1921)
  • July 7 - Kenny Irwin, NASCAR driver (b. 1969)
  • July 8 - FM-2030, Transhumanist philosopher (b. 1930)
  • July 10 - Vakkom Majeed, Indian Freedom fighter, Travancore-Cochin Legislative member (b. 1909)
  • July 10 - Denis O'Conor Don, O'Conor Don
  • July 10 - Conrad McRae, Professional Basketball Player (b. 1971)
  • July 10 - Justin Pierce, British skateboarder and actor (b. 1975)
  • July 11 - Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1921)
  • July 12 - Charles Merritt, Canadian Army officer and recipient of the Victoria Cross during World War II (b. 1908)
  • July 14 - Meredith MacRae, American actress (b. 1944)
  • July 27 - Gordon Solie, American wrestling commentator (b. 1929)
  • July 28 - Abraham Pais, Dutch-born American physicist (b. 1918)
  • July 29 - René Favaloro, Argentinian cardiologist who created the technique for coronary bypass surgery (b. 1923)

August

September

October

November

December

  • December 6 - Werner Klemperer, German actor (b. 1920)
  • December 12 - Gangodawila Soma Thero, Sri Lankan Buddhist Monk (b. 1948)
  • December 18 - Kirsty MacColl, British singer-songwriter (b. 1959)
  • December 19 - Roebuck "Pops" Staples, patriarch of The Staple Singers (b. 1914)
  • December 23 - Victor Borge, Danish-born comedian and pianist (b. 1909)
  • December 23 - Noor Jehan, Pakistani actress and singer (b. 1926)
  • December 24 - Nick Massi, bass singer and bass guitarist for The Four Seasons.(b. 1935)
  • December 31 - Rabbi Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane, Israeli settler leader (b. 1966)

Nobel Prizes

Templeton Prize

References

External links


home | This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. See full license termsIt uses material from the Wikipedia article "2000 ". | compliance | November 12th 2008