January
01 – Millennium celebrations are held around the world to celebrate the beginning of the 3rd millennium. The fears about the anticipated Y2K bug problems turn out to be largely unfounded, and very few major failures occur.
01 – The Millennium Dome in London is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II.
04 – Two trains collide in Åsta, Norway, resulting in the deaths of 19 people.
04 – Fiona Thornewill and Catherine Hartley become the first British women to reach the South Pole.
06 – Russian chess Grandmaster Alexey Vyzmanavin dies of a heart attack, aged 40.
06 – The last Pyrenean ibex is found dead after being crushed by a tree.
10 – America Online (AOL) announces an agreement to purchase Time Warner for $162 billion in the largest-ever corporate merger.
19 – Actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr dies from heart failure at the age of 86.
30 – Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the Ivory Coast, killing 169 people.
30 – The Tennessee Titans are defeated 23-16 by the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXIV at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta
31 – Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashes off the California coast into the Pacific Ocean. All 88 passengers and crew are killed.
31 – British GP Dr Harold Shipman is jailed for life for the murder of 15 of his patients in Manchester between 1995 and 1998. The incident makes him the most prolific convicted serial killer Britain has ever seen. A later inquiry considers that Shipman killed at least 215 people.
February
04 – Simulation computer game “The Sims” by Maxis is released in North America.
05 – Russian forces summarily execute 60-82 Chechen civilians in Novye Aldi, a suburb of Grozny. The mass murder is accompanied by looting, rape, arson and robbery.
12 – Cartoonist Charles M. Schulz passes away at the age of 77.
13 – The final Peanuts comic is printed in newspapers, following the death of author Charles M. Schulz the previous night. It had been the most popular comic strip in history, running for 50 years.
15 – A steam generator fails at the Indian Point II nuclear power plant in New York State, causing a small amount of radioactive steam to be vented.
17 – Microsoft releases Windows 2000.
18 – Stjepan Mesić becomes the second President of Croatia.
March
02 – Former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet heads home after being told the UK would not extradite him on torture charges.
04 – Sony releases the PlayStation 2 in Japan to compete with the Dreamcast. It launches in other countries later in the year.
08 – Two Tokyo Metro trains collide with each other during a derailment. Five people are killed.
10 – The tech world fractures as the NASDAQ Composite index peaks at 5,048.62, triggering the rapid, multi-billion-dollar crash of the Dot-Com bubble.
17 – 778 members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God die in a mass suicide in Uganda.
18 – England defeats Italy 59-12 at the Stadio Flaminio in Rome in the inaugural Six Nations Rugby Championship. Fly-half for England Jonny Wilkinson kicks 7 goals, with winger Austin Healey scoring 3 tries.
20 – Pope John Paul II visits Jordan, Israel, and Palestine.
24 – The London Eye Ferris wheel officially opens to the public on the South Bank of the Thames, quickly evolving from a temporary structure into an iconic symbol of London.
26 – Vladimir Putin is elected President of Russia.
28 – A school bus in Murray County, Georgia (USA), is hit by a freight train, resulting in the deaths of three children.
30 – Virgin supremo Richard Branson is knighted for his “services to entrepreneurship”.
April
04 – Charlie Kray, brother of the infamous Kray twins, dies in hospital on the Isle of Wight after suffering a heart attack in Parkhurst Prison. He is 73.
08 – A V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft crashes near Marana, Arizona, resulting in the deaths of nineteen US Marines.
14 – In Britain, the so-called ‘M25 killer’ Kenneth Noye is sentenced to life imprisonment.
14 – Heavy metal band Metallica files a lawsuit against Napster, a P2P file-sharing service. The lawsuit paves the way for the movement against online file sharing.
19 – Air Philippines Flight 541 crashes during approach at Davao City, Philippines, killing 131 people.
19 – Tony Martin is sentenced to life imprisonment for shooting dead 16-year-old Fred Barras in the act of burgling his farmhouse in Norfolk, England. He serves three years in prison.
30 – Pope John Paul II canonises Polish nun Sister Faustina (Helena Kowalska) as a Catholic saint.
May
01 – Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli sings for Pope John Paul II in Rome.
03 – The sport of geocaching begins with the first cache placed and the GPS coordinates posted on Usenet.
04 – Ken Livingstone becomes the first Mayor of London, defeating the Conservative Party candidate Steve Norris and the Labour Party candidate Frank Dobson.
04 – The devastating “ILOVEYOU” computer virus spreads rapidly across global networks, infecting millions of Windows PCs and exposing severe international cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
11 – Services on the Croydon Tramlink are introduced, creating the first trams in London since 1952.
12 – The Tate Modern art gallery opens in the redesigned Bankside Power Station in London.
13 – A fireworks factory explodes in Enschede, Netherlands, killing 23 and injuring another 950. The explosion causes around €450 million in damage.
14 – Manchester United win their sixth Premiership title.
20 – Chelsea defeat Aston Villa 1-0 in the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium in the last game at the old stadium before it is rebuilt.
21 – British stage and screen actor and director, Sir John Gielgud, passes away at the age of 96.
22 – The historic Rover Group is broken up as BMW sells the struggling British car manufacturer to the Phoenix Consortium for a token sum of £10.
25 – After 22 years of occupation following the country’s first invasion in 1978, Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon. The day becomes known as Liberation Day in Lebanon.
31 – The TV show Survivor debuts in the US. A huge success, it popularises the reality TV genre.
June
01 – Section 28, the controversial legislation banning the promotion of homosexuality in schools, is successfully repealed by the Scottish Parliament, sparking national debate.
07 – British Prime Minister Tony Blair is heckled and slow-hand clapped while giving a speech at the Women’s Institute.
10 – The Millennium Bridge in London opens to the public. It later has to close after it starts swaying.
13 – South Korean President Kim Dae-jung meets North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang, launching the historic first-ever inter-Korean leaders’ summit since the peninsula’s division.
18 – The bodies of 58 Chinese immigrants are tragically discovered in the back of a refrigerated truck at the English port of Dover, exposing severe cross-border human trafficking networks.
19 – American golfer Tiger Woods wins at the British Open and becomes the youngest player to win the sport’s four major championships.
23 – Bulk ore carrier MV Treasure sinks off the western coast of South Africa. 19,000 penguins are soiled in the process, resulting in the world’s largest bird rescue from an oiling event.
26 – International scientists announce the completion of the first draft of the Human Genome Project, marking a historic milestone in genetic mapping and medical science.
30 – J.K. Rowling publishes Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with record-breaking print numbers, triggering massive midnight queues outside British bookshops.
July
01 – The Øresund Bridge between Denmark and Sweden officially opens to traffic.
02 – Vicente Fox wins the Mexican presidential election, ending 71 consecutive years of absolute political rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
02 – France defeats Italy 2–1 after extra time in the final of the UEFA Euro 2000 Championship, becoming the first team to win the World Cup and European Championship consecutively.
08 – American tennis player Venus Williams defeats fellow American player Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 7-6 at Wimbledon to win the first Grand Slam singles title of her career.
10 – A leaking petroleum pipeline explodes in southern Nigeria, killing about 250 villagers who are scavenging gasoline.
14 – The reality TV show Big Brother airs in the UK for the first time.
11 – 25 – A summit meeting takes place at Camp David between US President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat, but ends without an agreement.
17 – Six-year-old Sarah Payne is found dead in West Sussex, England, after disappearing sixteen days earlier.
18 – The sensationalised tabloid campaign by The News of the World to name and shame alleged sex offenders sparks widespread public vigilantism and rioting on British housing estates.
20 – Riots break out in Brixton, London, following the shooting of 29-year-old black man Derek Bennett by armed police. Three police officers are injured, and 27 people are arrested.
20 – The Ford Escort, one of Britain’s most iconic and successful cars, finishes production after 32 years.
25 – The Air France Concorde of Flight 4590 crashes into a hotel in Gonesse just after takeoff from Paris, killing all 109 aboard and 4 in the hotel.
28 – As part of the Northern Ireland peace process, the last eighty prisoners leave Maze Prison in Northern Ireland.
29 – Actor and producer Brad Pitt marries actress Jennifer Aniston in a private ceremony in Malibu, California.
August
04 – Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, celebrates her 100th birthday.
05 – British actor Alec Guinness dies from liver cancer at the age of 86.
08 – The US Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor.
12 – The Russian submarine Kursk sinks in the Barents Sea during one of the largest Russian naval exercises since the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, resulting in the deaths of all 118 men on board.
12 – American actress Loretta Young passes away from ovarian cancer at the age of 87.
23 – 143 people are killed when a Gulf Air Airbus A320 crashes near Manama, Bahrain, into the Persian Gulf.
26 – Former British gangster Reggie Kray is released from prison on compassionate grounds due to having bladder cancer, which is expected to end his life in a matter of weeks. He has served 32 years of his life sentence at Broadmoor Hospital.
September
01 – The iconic Nokia 3310 mobile phone is released, goes on to sell over 126 million units globally, and popularises mobile text messaging culture.
09 – Tennis player Venus Williams defeats Lindsay Davenport at the US Open, winning her first US title.
10 – ‘Operation Barras’ is successfully executed with the British military freeing five soldiers who were held captive for over two weeks during the Sierra Leone Civil War. All men are safely rescued.
12 – A law is passed in the Netherlands allowing same-sex marriage, divorce and adoption.
13 – Steve Jobs introduces the Mac OS X Public Beta.
14 – Microsoft releases Windows ME.
15 – The 2000 Summer Olympics open in Sydney, Australia, showcasing unforgettable athletic performances, including Cathy Freeman lighting the cauldron and winning gold.
20 – The MI6 Secret Intelligence Service building in London is attacked by a Russian-built Mark 22 anti-tank missile.
26 – The Greek ferry M/S Express Samina sinks off the coast of the island of Paros. 80 of over 500 passengers perish in one of Greece’s worst sea disasters.
28 – The 15th Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Trudeau, passes away at the age of 80 from prostate cancer and Parkinson’s disease.
28 – Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon visits the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem, sparking an uprising that becomes the Second Intifada.
29 – The controversial HM Prison Maze in Northern Ireland is closed.
October
05 – Mass demonstrations in Belgrade lead to the resignation of Yugoslavia’s president, Slobodan Milošević.
07 – Wembley Stadium in London closes after 77 years and is set to reopen in 2003. The stadium will undergo a complete reconstruction, increasing its seating capacity to 90,000 all-seated. The last competitive football match at the Stadium sees England defeated 1-0 by Germany.
10 – Sirimavo Bandaranaike – the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and the world’s very first female head of state- dies from a heart attack. She is 84.
11 – 250 million US gallons of coal sludge spill in Martin County, Kentucky. It is considered a greater environmental disaster than the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989.
12 – The American destroyer USS Cole is badly damaged in Aden, Yemen, by two Al-Qaeda suicide bombers, who place a small boat laden with explosives alongside the ship, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least 39.
17 – A Great North Eastern Railway express train is derailed in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Four people are killed, and many others are injured. The crash leads to Railtrack’s downfall.
26 – The New York Mets are defeated 4-2 by the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the baseball World Series at Shea Stadium.
31 – Soyuz TM-31 is launched, carrying the first resident crew to the International Space Station (ISS).
31 – Singapore Airlines Flight 006 collides with construction equipment at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, resulting in 83 deaths.
31 – 50 people lose their lives in Northern Angola when a chartered Antonov An-26 explodes after take-off.
November
02 – The International Space Station (ISS) becomes fully operational with the arrival of its first resident crew – American astronaut William Shepherd and Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev.
04 – 25 years after his death, Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie is laid to rest following a funeral procession through Addis Ababa.
07 – No winner can be declared in the US presidential election, prompting a controversial recount in Florida.
07 – Hillary Clinton is elected to the US Senate, becoming the first US First Lady to win public office while still serving as First Lady.
07 – Police in London catch a criminal gang who raid the Millennium Dome to steal the Millennium Star diamond.
07 – The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) discovers one of the country’s largest LSD labs inside a converted military missile silo in Wamego, Kansas.
11 – A funicular fire in an Alpine tunnel near Kaprun, Austria, kills 155 skiers and snowboarders.
12 – The US recognises the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
16 – Bill Clinton is the first US President to visit Vietnam since the Vietnam War ended.
27 – Ten-year-old Nigerian schoolboy Damilola Taylor is tragically killed in North Peckham, London, shocking the British public and sparking deep national conversations regarding youth knife crime and urban safety.
December
01 – Vicente Fox is officially sworn in as President of Mexico, structurally executing the nation’s peaceful democratic transition of political power.
01 – The British government officially introduces the Freedom of Information Act 2000, creating a structural framework for public access to state authority data files.
12 – The US Supreme Court rules that the recount of the presidential election in Florida should be halted and the original results certified, making George W. Bush the winner.
15 – The third and final reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is shut down, and the station is shut down completely.
22 – Madonna marries English film director Guy Ritchie at Skibo Castle in Scotland.
23 – Danish-American comedian and pianist, Victor Borge, passes away at the age of 91.
25 – 390 people are killed in Luoyang, China, when fire breaks out at a shopping centre.
28 – American retail giant Montgomery Ward declares it’s going out of business after 128 years.
30 – A series of bombs explode within a few hours in Metro Manila (Philippines), injuring around a hundred people and killing 22.
31 – The 20th century and 2nd millennium conclude.
Also this year . . .
- Lara Dutta (India) is crowned Miss Universe.
- ‘Brew’ wins the Melbourne Cup.