WHAT ALL HAPPENED JANUARY TO APRIL 2002
Find out what all happened January to April 2002

In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush describes "regimes that sponsor terror" as an Axis of evil, in which he includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea. (29. January 2002)

Sierra Leone Civil War is declared over. (18. January 2002)

President George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act. (8. January 2002)

During the religious violence in Gujarat, the 97 people killed in the Naroda Patiya massacre and 69 in Gulbarg Society massacre. (28. February 2002)

U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda begins, (ending on March 19 after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters, with 11 Western troop fatalities). (2. March 2002)

The Envisat environmental satellite successfully reaches an orbit 800 kilometers (500 mi) above the Earth on its 11th launch, carrying the heaviest payload to date at 8500 kilograms (8.5 tons). (1. March 2002)

Israeli forces seize the Palestinian freighter Karine A in the Red Sea, finding 50 tons of weapons. (3. January 2002)

Kmart becomes the largest retailer in United States history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. (22. January 2002)

Zimbabwe is suspended from the Commonwealth on charges of human rights abuses and of electoral fraud, following a turbulent presidential election. (19. March 2002)

The Ghriba synagogue bombing by Al Qaeda kills 21 in Tunisia. (11. April 2002)

Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people. (17. January 2002)

"American Taliban" John Walker Lindh returns to the United States in FBI custody. (23. January 2002)

An explosion at a military storage facility in Lagos, Nigeria, kills at least 1,100 people and displaces over 20,000 others. (27. January 2002)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez returns to office two days after being ousted and arrested by the country's military. (14. April 2002)

The peseta is discontinued as official currency of Spain and is replaced by the euro (€). (1. March 2002)

In reaction to the Passover massacre two days prior, Israel launches Operation Defensive Shield against Palestinian militants, its largest military operation in the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War. (29. March 2002)

Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into which armed Palestinians had retreated. A siege ensues. (2. April 2002)

Daniel Pearl, American journalist and South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, kidnapped January 23, 2002, is beheaded and mutilated by his captors. (1. February 2002)

The last successful telemetry from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10. (27. April 2002)

U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda begins in eastern Afghanistan. (1. March 2002)