Youtube Playlist (click top right icon for songtitles)
January
- January 1
- The Open Skies mutual surveillance treaty, initially signed in 1992, officially enters into force.
- The Euro is officially introduced in the Eurozone countries. The former currencies of all the countries that use the Euro ceased to be legal tender on February 28.
- January 17 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people.
- January 18 – The Sierra Leone Civil War comes to a conclusion with the defeat of the Revolutionary United Front by government forces.
- Last confirmed Baiji sightings also known as the Yangtze river dolphin.
February
- February 6 – Queen Elizabeth II of the Commonwealth realms celebrates her Golden Jubilee, marking 50 years since her accession to the thrones of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
- February 8–24 – The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City, Utah.
- February 12 – The trial of Slobodan Milošević, the former president of Yugoslavia, begins at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
- February 19 – NASA‘s 2001 Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.
- February 22 – UNITA guerrilla leader Jonas Savimbi is killed in clashes against government troops led by Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos in Moxico Province, Angola. His death leads to the end of the Angolan Civil War on April 4.
March
- March 1 – The Envisat environmental satellite is launched, with its purpose being the recording of information on environmental change.
- March 27 – A Palestinian suicide bomber kills 30 people and injures 140 others at a hotel in Netanya, Israel, triggering Operation Defensive Shield, a large-scale counter-terrorism operation in the West Bank, two days later.
- March 30 – Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, the former Queen Consort of the United Kingdom (1936-1952), the last Empress of India(1936-1947), widow of George VI and mother of Elizabeth II, dies at age 101 at Royal Lodge, Windsor.
April
- April 2 – Siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem: Israeli forces besiege the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem when militants take shelter there. The siege will last for 38 days.
- April 9 – The Ceremonial Funeral of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, takes place at Westminster Abbey in London. She is then buried with her late husband, George VI in a private ceremony at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle
- April 11 – Llaguno Overpass events: a shootout takes place between the Caracas Metropolitan Police and pro-government Bolivarian Circles in central Caracas, Venezuela, near the presidential Miraflores Palace, causing 19 deaths and 127 injured people. The military high command has refused Chávez’s order to implement the Plan Ávila as a response to the protests and demands his resignation. President Chávez is subsequently arrested by the military. Chávez’s request for asylum in Cuba is denied, and he is ordered to be tried in a Venezuelan court.
- April 15 – Air China Flight 129 crashes into a hillside during heavy rain and fog near Busan, South Korea, killing 129 people.
- April 25 – South African Mark Shuttleworth blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on the Soyuz TM-34, becoming the first African space tourist.
May
- May 12 – Buran, the Russian equivalent to the Space Shuttle, is destroyed in a storm at Baikonur.
- May 20 – East Timor regains its independence after 2-and-a-half years of United Nations administration and 26 years of occupation by Indonesia since 1975.
- May 24 – In Moscow, United States President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin sign the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty to replace the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972 and the START II Treaty of 1993.
- May 25 – A Boeing 747 operating as China Airlines Flight 611 breaks up and crashes in the Taiwan Strait, killing all 225 passengers and crew on board.
- May 31–June 30 – The 2002 FIFA World Cup takes place in South Korea and Japan; which is ultimately won by Brazil.
June
- June 4 – 2002 FIFA World Cup: The South Koreans achieve their first ever FIFA World Cup match victory (not the whole tournament). South Korea has never won a World Cup match before.
- June 6 – An object with an estimated diameter of 10 meters enters the Earth’s atmosphere over the Mediterranean and detonates in mid-air.
- June 10
- Solar eclipse of June 10, 2002: A large annular solar eclipse covers over 99% of the Sun, creating a dramatic spectacle for observers in a narrow path at most 13 km wide; it lasts just 23 seconds at the point of maximum eclipse. It is seen from Australasia, across the Pacific and the Mexico coast, and is the 35th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 137.
- The first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans is carried out by Kevin Warwick in the United Kingdom.
- June 13 – Afghanistan changes its official longform name to the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan.
- June 24 – A passenger train collides with a freight train in Dodoma Region, Tanzania, killing 281 people, making it the worst rail accident in African history.
- June 29 – Second Battle of Yeonpyeong: During the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan, two North Korean patrol boats cross a contested border in between the two Koreas and attack two South Korean Chamsuri-class patrol boats.
- June 30 – 2002 FIFA World Cup: Brazil beats Germany 2–0 in the 2002 FIFA World Cup Final with Ronaldo scoring the two goals; Brazil’s captain Cafu, who becomes the first player to appear in three successive World Cup finals, accepts the trophy on behalf of the team.
July
- July 1
- The Rome Statute comes into force, thereby establishing the International Criminal Court.
- A Bashkirian Airlines Tupolev Tu-154 passenger jet and a DHL Boeing 757-200F cargo plane collide over the town of Überlingen, Germany, killing 71 people.
- July 9 – The Organisation of African Unity is disbanded and replaced by the African Union.
- July 27 – Sknyliv air show disaster: 77 people are killed and 543 injured when a Ukrainian Air Force Su-27 fighter jet crashes into spectators during an aerobatics presentation at Sknyliv airfield near Lviv, Ukraine. It is the deadliest air show accident in history.
August
- August 26 – Earth Summit 2002 begins in Johannesburg, South Africa, aimed at discussing sustainable development by the United Nations.
- August 22–September 4 – Typhoon Rusa, the most powerful typhoon to hit South Korea in 43 years, made landfall, killing at least 236 people.
September
- September 9 – A riot breaks out at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, protesting a scheduled talk by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien during which a Holocaust survivor and a rabbi are assaulted.
- September 10 – Switzerland joins the United Nations as the 190th member state after rejecting a place in 1986.
- September 19 – General Robert Guéï leads an army mutiny in an attempt to overthrow Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, resulting in civil war.
- September 20 – The Kolka–Karmadon rock ice slide in Northern Ossetia, Russia kills at least 125 people.
- September 25 – The Vitim event, a possible bolide impact, occurs in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia.
- September 26 – The Senegalese passenger ferry MV Le Joola capsizes in a storm off the coast of the Gambia, killing 1,863 people.
- September 27 – East Timor is admitted to the United Nations as the 191st member state;[52] it also changes its official longform name from “Democratic Republic of East Timor” to “Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste”.
October
- October 12 – Jemaah Islamiyah militants detonate multiple bombs in two nightclubs in Kuta, Indonesia, killing 202 people and injuring over 300 in the worst terrorist act in Indonesia’s history.
- October 23–25 – Chechen rebels take control of the Nord-Ost theatre in Moscow and hold the audience hostage. At least 170 people are killed following a Russian attempt to subdue the militants.
November
- November 7 – A sovereignty referendum is held in Gibraltar. The people reject Spanish sovereignty.
- November 8 – The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopts Resolution 1441, forcing Iraq to either disarm or face “serious consequences”. Iraq agrees to the terms of the resolution on November 13.
- November 16 – 2002–2004 SARS outbreak: The first case of the Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic, a zoonosis caused by a coronavirus, is recorded in Guangdong province of south China.
- November 19 – Prestige oil spill: Greek oil tanker MV Prestige splits in half off the coast of Galicia after spilling an estimated 17.8M US gallons (420,000 bbl) in the worst environmental disaster in the history of the Iberian Peninsula.[citation needed]
- November 25 – U.S. President George W. Bush signs the Homeland Security Act into law, establishing the Department of Homeland Security, in the largest U.S. government reorganization since the creation of the Department of Defense in 1947. Following a several month-long transitional period, it commences operations the following year.
- November 28 – 2002 Mombasa attacks: Suicide bombers blow up an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, but their colleagues fail in their attempt to bring down an Arkia Israel Airlines charter flight with surface-to-air-missiles.
December
- December 23 – A U.S. MQ-1 Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25 in the first combat engagement between a drone and conventional aircraft.