2002

+ 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.

### 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 Miloševic, 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 guerilla 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.

### April

* April 2 – Israeli forces besiege the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, when militants took shelter there. The siege would last for 38 days.
* April 9 – The Funeral of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother takes place at Westminster Abbey, London.
* 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 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 in South Korea and Japan; which is ultimately won by Brazil.

### June

* June 6 – An object with an estimated diameter of 10 meters collides with Earth over the Mediterranean and detonates in mid-air.
* June 10 – The first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans is carried out by Kevin Warwick in the United Kingdom.
* 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.

### July

* July 1
	+ The Rome Statute comes into force, thereby establishing the International Criminal Court.
	+ A Russian passenger jet and 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.

### August

* August 26 – Earth Summit 2002 begins in Johannesburg, South Africa, aimed at discussing sustainable development by the United Nations.

### September

* 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 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.

### 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 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.
* 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.
* November 28 – 2002 Mombasa attacks: Suicide bombers blow up an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, but their colleagues failed 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.