2002

Events from the year 2002 in the United States.
==Incumbents==
===Federal Government===
* President: George W. Bush (R-TX)
* Vice President: Dick Cheney (R-WY)
* Chief Justice: William Rehnquist (WI) 
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Dennis Hastert (R-IL)
* Senate Majority Leader: Tom Daschle (D-SD)
* Congress: 107th
==Events==
===January===
* 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 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.
* January 14 – The asylum case of Adelaide Abankwah is heard in New York.
* January 16
** The United Nations Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda and the remaining members of the Taliban.
** A student shoots six at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Virginia, killing 3.
* January 18 – A Canadian Pacific Railway train carrying anhydrous ammonia derails outside of Minot, North Dakota, killing one.
* 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".
* January 31 – U.S. special forces are deployed in the Philippines in Operation Enduring Freedom: Philippines, part of the War on Terror.
===February===
* February 1 – Kidnapped reporter Daniel Pearl of The Wall Street Journal is murdered in Karachi, Pakistan.
* February 3 – Super Bowl XXXVI: The New England Patriots defeat the St. Louis Rams 20–17 at Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.
* February 8 – The Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City, Utah. The U.S. wins 10 gold, 13 silver and 11 bronze medals.
* February 12 – The U.S. Secretary of Energy makes the decision that Yucca Mountain is suitable to be the United States' nuclear repository.
* February 13 – Queen Elizabeth II gives former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani an honorary knighthood.
* February 19 – NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.
===March===
* March 1
** STS-109: Space Shuttle Columbia flies the Hubble Space Telescope service mission, its last before the disastrous STS-107.
** U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: In eastern Afghanistan, Operation Anaconda begins.
* 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 – U.S. 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.
===April===
* April 1 – Maryland defeats Indiana 64–52 to win the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia.
* April 17 – Four Canadian infantrymen are killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire from two US F-16s.
* April 19 – The Senate defeats President Bush's plan to authorize oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
* April 27 – The Laughlin, Nevada River Run Riot kills three.
===May===
* 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
** 16th Street Baptist Church bombing: A jury in Birmingham, Alabama convicts Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls.
** Police in Washington, D.C. announce that the skeletal remains of Federal Bureau of Prisons intern Chandra Levy, who has been missing for a year, have been found in Rock Creek Park.
* May 26 – I-40 bridge disaster: A barge collides with the Interstate 40 bridge across the Arkansas River in eastern Oklahoma, killing 14.
===June===
* June 5 – 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart is kidnapped from her bedroom in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is rescued nine months later.
* June 11 – Antonio Meucci is recognized as the first inventor of the telephone by the United States Congress.
* June 14 – In Karachi, Pakistan, a car bomb in front of the U.S. Consulate kills 12 Pakistanis and injures 50.
* June 21 – Walt Disney Pictures' 42nd feature film, Lilo & Stitch, is released to positive reviews and box-office success.
* June 29 – Vice President Dick Cheney serves as acting president for a few hours while President George W. Bush undergoes a colonoscopy procedure under sedation.
===July===
* July 4 – 2002 Los Angeles International Airport shooting: Egyptian immigrant Hesham Mohamed Hadayet kills two and injures six before being killed by a security officer. The incident is called an act of terrorism.
* July 13 – A lightning strike sets off the Sour Biscuit Fire in Oregon and northern California, which burns 499,570 acres (2,022 km2).
* July 15 – In Washington, D.C., "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh pleads guilty to aiding the enemy and possession of explosives during the commission of a felony; Lindh agrees to serve 10 years in prison for each charge.
* July 21 – Telecommunications giant WorldCom files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the largest such filing in United States history.
===August===
* August 12 – In Arlington, Virginia, U.S. Airways declares bankruptcy.
===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.
* 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.
* 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.
===October===
* October 2
** The Beltway sniper attacks begin with five shootings taking place in Montgomery County, Maryland.
** The Congress of the United States passes a joint resolution, which authorizes the President to use the United States Armed Forces as he deems necessary and appropriate, against Iraq.
* October 9 – The Dot-com bubble bear market reaches bottom, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average slips below 7,200.
* October 10 – Congress passes the Iraq Resolution authorizing the Iraq War.
* October 16 – The Iraq War Resolution is authorized by a majority of the U.S. Congress.
* October 24 – The Beltway sniper attacks end with the arrest of John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo. The pair killed 10 people and wounded three others in the Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan Area in this series of attacks; they had killed seven other people in prior attacks.
* October 25 – U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, his family, and his staff are killed in a plane accident at Eveleth, Minnesota.
* October 27 – The Anaheim Angels defeat the San Francisco Giants in Game 7 of the 2002 World Series to win the title.
===November===
* 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.
* 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.
* 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.
* 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===
* December 9 – United Airlines, the second largest airline in the world, files for bankruptcy.
* December 13 – President George W. Bush announces a smallpox vaccination program for military personnel, as well as for civilian healthcare and emergency workers to protect against bioterrorism risks. He announces that the public will not be called up for shots until 2004 at the earliest.
* December 21 – President Bush receives his smallpox vaccine.
==Memoriam==
===January===
* January 1
** Carol Ohmart, actress (aged 74; Fort Collins, CO, USA)
** Julia Phillips, movie producer (aged 57; West Hollywood, CA, USA)
* January 3 – Miki Dora, surfer (aged 67; Montecito, CA, USA)
* January 4 – Nathan Chapman, soldier (aged 31; Gardez, Afghanistan)
* January 6 – John W. Reynolds Jr., politician and jurist (aged 80; Milwaukee, WI, USA)
* January 7 – Mighty Igor, wrestler (aged 70; Detroit, MI, USA)
* January 8 – Dave Thomas, businessman (aged 69; Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA)
* January 9 – K. William Stinson, politician (aged 71; Cabo San Lucas, Mexico)
* January 10 – John Buscema, comic book artist (aged 74; Port Jefferson, NY, USA)
* January 12
** Ernest Pintoff, animator (aged 70; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
** Cyrus Vance, lawyer and Secretary of State (aged 84; New York City, NY, USA)
* January 13 – Ted Demme, film and television director and producer (aged 38; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
* January 14 – Edith Bouvier Beale, socialite (aged 84; Bal Harbour, FL, USA)
* January 15 – Michael Anthony Bilandic, politician, Mayor of Chicago (aged 78; Chicago, IL, USA)
* January 16
** Bobo Olson, boxer (aged 73; Honolulu, HI, USA)
** Ron Taylor, actor (aged 49; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* January 18 – Marilyn Harris, writer (aged 70; Norman, OK, USA)
* January 20 – Carrie Hamilton, actress and daughter of Carol Burnett (aged 38; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* January 22
** Peggy Lee, singer and actress (aged 81; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
** Stanley Marcus, businessman and author (aged 96; Dallas, TX, USA)
* January 23 – Robert Nozick, philosopher (aged 63; Cambridge, MA, USA)
* January 25 – Rudolph B. Davila, Army officer (aged 85; Vista, CA, USA)
* January 28 – Night Train Lane, American football player (aged 74; Austin, TX, USA)
===February===
* February 1
** Irish McCalla, actress (aged 73; Tucson, AZ, USA)
** Daniel Pearl, journalist and murder victim (aged 38; Karachi, Pakistan)
* February 2 – Paul Baloff, singer (aged 41; Oakland, CA, USA)
* February 4 – Helen Dodson Prince, astronomer (aged 96; Arlington, VA, USA)
* February 6 – Guy Stockwell, actor (aged 68; Prescott, AZ, USA)
* February 7
** Elisa Bridges, actress and model (aged 28; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
** Ellen Demming, actress (aged 79; Springfield, VT, USA)
* February 8 – Nick Brignola, jazz musician (aged 65; Albany, NY, USA)
* February 9 – Fred Gehrke, football player (aged 83; Palm Springs, CA, USA)
* February 10
** Jim Spencer, baseball player (aged 54; Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA)
** Dave Van Ronk, folk musician (aged 65; New York City, NY, USA)
** Vernon A. Walters, Army officer and a diplomat (aged 85; West Palm Beach, FL, USA)
* February 11 – George A. Kasem, politician (aged 82; Carlsbad, CA, USA)
* February 13 – Waylon Jennings, country singer (aged 64; Chandler, AZ, USA)
* February 15 – Howard K. Smith, television journalist (aged 87; Bethesda, MD, USA)
* February 18 – Jack Lambert, actor (aged 81; Carmel, CA, USA)
* February 19 – Virginia Hamilton, writer (aged 65; Dayton, OH, USA)
* February 20 – Willie Thrower, American football player (aged 71; New Kensington, PA, USA)
* February 22 – Chuck Jones, animator (aged 89; Newport Beach, CA, USA)
* February 24 – Leo Ornstein, Russian-born composer and pianist (aged 106; Green Bay, WI, USA)
* February 26 – Lawrence Tierney, actor (aged 82; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* February 27
** Spike Milligan, British-Irish actor, comedian, writer, musician, poet, and playwright (aged 83; Rye, England, UK)
** Mary Stuart, actress (aged 75; New York City, NY, USA)
===March===
* March 1 – C. Farris Bryant, politician (aged 87; Jacksonville, FL, USA)
* March 3 – Al Pollard, football player (aged 73; Devon, PA, USA)
* March 5 – Howard Cannon, politician (aged 90; Las Vegas, NV, USA)
* March 7 – Mickey Haslin, baseball player (aged 92; Wilkes-Barre, PA, USA)
* March 9 – Irene Worth, actress (aged 85; New York City, NY, USA)
* March 11 – James Tobin, Nobel economist (aged 84; New Haven, CT, USA)
* March 15 – Pat Weaver, television executive (aged 93; Santa Barbara, CA, USA)
* March 17 – Rosetta LeNoire, actress (aged 90; Teaneck, NJ, USA)
* March 21 – Herman Talmadge, 71st Governor of Georgia (aged 88; Hampton, GA, USA)
* March 23 – Eileen Farrell, soprano (aged 82; Park Ridge, NJ, USA)
* March 26 – Randy Castillo, musician (aged 51; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* March 27
** Milton Berle, comedian and actor (aged 93; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
** Dudley Moore, actor, comedian, musician, and composer (aged 66; Plainfield, NJ, USA)
** Billy Wilder, Austrian-born director (aged 95; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
===April===
* April 5 – Layne Staley, singer and songwriter (aged 34; Seattle, WA, USA)
* April 15 – Byron White, athlete and Supreme Court Justice (aged 84; Denver, CO, USA)
* April 16 – Robert Urich, actor (aged 55; Thousand Oaks, CA, USA)
* April 18 – Wahoo McDaniel, American football player and wrestler (aged 63; Houston, TX, USA)
* April 22 – Linda Lovelace, American pornographic actress (aged 53; Denver, CO, USA)
* April 25 – Lisa Lopes, rapper (aged 30; La Ceiba, Honduras)
* April 27 – George Alec Effinger, writer (aged 55; New Orleans, LA, USA)
* April 28 – Ruth Handler, businesswoman (aged 85; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
===May===
* May 9 – Dan Devine, American football player and coach (aged 77; Tempe, AZ, USA)
* May 11 – Joseph Bonanno, mafioso (aged 97; Tucson, AZ, USA)
* May 17 – Dave Berg, cartoonist (aged 81; Marina Del Rey, CA, USA)
* May 20 – Stephen Jay Gould, paleontologist and writer (aged 60; Manhattan, NY, USA)
* May 23 – Sam Snead, golfer (aged 89; Hot Springs, VA, USA)
* May 24 – Wallace Markfield, writer (aged 75; Roslyn, NY, USA)
===June===
* June 5 – Dee Dee Ramone, songwriter and musician (aged 50; Hollywood, CA, USA)
* June 10 – John Gotti, murderer and leader of organized crime (aged 61; Springfield, MO, USA)
* June 11 – Robbin Crosby, musician (aged 42; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* June 12 – Bill Blass, fashion designer (aged 79; New Preston, CT, USA)
* June 17 – Willie Davenport, track and field athlete (aged 59; Chicago, IL, USA)
* June 22
** Darryl Kile, baseball player (aged 33; Chicago, IL, USA)
** Eppie Lederer, journalist and radio host (aged 83; Chicago, IL, USA)
* June 23 – Logan Tucker, murder victim (aged 6; Woodward, OK, USA)
* June 26 – Jay Berwanger, American football player (aged 88; Oak Brook, IL, USA)
* June 29 – Rosemary Clooney, singer and actress, and wife of José Ferrer and mother of Miguel Ferrer (aged 74; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
===July===
* July 4 – Benjamin O. Davis Jr., general (aged 89; Washington, DC, USA)
* July 6 – John Frankenheimer, film director (aged 72; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* July 8 – Ward Kimball, animator (aged 88; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* July 9 – Rod Steiger, actor and husband of Claire Bloom (aged 77; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* July 10 – Laurence Janifer, writer (aged 69; Oakland, CA, USA)
* July 16 – John Cocke, computer scientist (aged 77; Valhalla, NY, USA)
* July 19 – Alan Lomax, folklorist and musicologist (aged 87; Safety Harbor, FL, USA)
* July 23 – Chaim Potok, writer and rabbi (aged 73; Merion, PA, USA)
===August===
* August 5
** Josh Ryan Evans, actor (aged 20; San Diego, CA, USA)
** Chick Hearn, basketball announcer (aged 85; Northridge, CA, USA)
* August 11 – Galen Rowell, photographer, writer, and climber (aged 61; Bishop, CA, USA)
* August 14 – Dave Williams, musician (aged 30; Manassas, VA, USA)
* August 15 – Kyle Rote, American football player (aged 73; Baltimore, MD, USA)
* August 16 – Jeff Corey, actor (aged 88; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
* August 31
** Lionel Hampton, musician (aged 94; New York City, NY, USA)
** Martin Kamen, chemist (aged 89; Montecito, CA, USA)
===September===
* September 3 – Ted Ross, actor (aged 68; Dayton, OH, USA)
* September 4 – Jerome Biffle, athlete (aged 74; Denver, CO, USA)
* September 5 – David Todd Wilkinson, cosmologist (aged 67; Princeton, NJ, USA)
* September 7 – Erma Franklin, singer (aged 64; Detroit, MI, USA)
* September 11
** Kim Hunter, actress (aged 79; New York City, NY, USA)
** Johnny Unitas, American football player (aged 69; Baltimore, MD, USA)
* September 14 – LaWanda Page, comedian and actress (aged 81; Hollywood, CA, USA)
* September 18 – Bob Hayes, American football player and track and field athlete (aged 59; Jacksonville, FL, USA)
* September 21 – Robert L. Forward, writer, inventor, and physicist (aged 70; Seattle, WA, USA)
* September 22 – Mickey Newbury, singer-songwriter (aged 62; Springfield, OR, USA)
===October===
* October 9 – Aileen Wuornos, serial killer (aged 46; Raiford, FL, USA)
* October 10 – Teresa Graves, actress and comedian (aged 54; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* October 12 – Ray Conniff, musician and bandleader (aged 85; Escondido, CA, USA)
* October 13 – Stephen E. Ambrose, historian and biographer (aged 66; Bay St. Louis, MS, USA)
* October 17 – Aileen Riggin, swimmer and diver (aged 96; Honolulu, HI, USA)
* October 20 – Mel Harder, baseball player (aged 93; Chardon, OH, USA)
* October 23
** Adolph Green, lyricist and playwright (aged 87; New York City, NY, USA)
** Richard Helms, CIA director (aged 89; Washington, DC, USA)
* October 24 – Harry Hay, British-born activist (aged 90; San Francisco, CA, USA)
* October 25 – Paul Wellstone, politician (aged 58; Eveleth, MN, USA)
* October 28 – Margaret Booth, film editor (aged 104; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* October 30 – Jam Master Jay, Hip-Hop DJ (aged 37; New York City, NY, USA)
===November===
* November 3 – Jonathan Harris, actor (aged 87; Encino, CA, USA)
* November 9 – Merlin Santana, actor (aged 26; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* November 14 – Eddie Bracken, actor (aged 87; Glen Ridge, NJ, USA)
* November 15 – Roberta Leighton, drag racer (aged 70; Ridgecrest, CA, USA)
* November 18 – James Coburn, actor (aged 74; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* November 21 – Hadda Brooks, jazz singer, pianist, and composer (aged 86; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* November 24 – John Rawls, philosopher (aged 81; Lexington, MA, USA)
* November 26 – Verne Winchell, businessman (aged 87; Las Vegas, NV, USA)
===December===
* December 6 – Philip Berrigan, priest, member of the Plowshares Movement and political activist (aged 79; Baltimore, MD, USA)
* December 8
** Charles Rosen, pioneer in artificial intelligence (aged 85; San Francisco, CA, USA)
** Galen Schlosser, architect (aged 90; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* December 9 – Stan Rice, painter and poet (aged 60; New Orleans, LA, USA)
* December 26 – Herb Ritts, photographer (aged 50; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
==External links==
* 2002 in the United States
Category:United States History: Volume 23