WHAT ALL HAPPENED JANUARY TO OCTOBER 2002
Find out what all happened January to October 2002

A group of Iraqis opposed to the regime of Saddam Hussein take over the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin, Germany for five hours before releasing their hostages and surrendering. (20. August 2002)

Two 14-year-old South Korean girls are struck and killed by a United States Army armored vehicle, leading to months of public protests against the US. (13. June 2002)

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

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

Anti-Terrorism Court of Pakistan hands down the death sentence to British born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and life terms to three others suspected of murdering The Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. (15. July 2002)

NATO declares Russia a limited partner in the Western alliance. (28. May 2002)

Passover massacre: A Palestinian suicide bomber kills 29 people partaking of the Passover meal in Netanya, Israel. (27. March 2002)

The first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans is carried out by Kevin Warwick in the United Kingdom. (10. June 2002)

Police arrest spree killers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, ending the Beltway sniper attacks in the area around Washington, DC. (24. October 2002)

NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system. (19. February 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)

Afghanistan: Seven American Special Operations Forces soldiers and 200 Al-Qaeda Fighters are killed as American forces attempt to infiltrate the Shahi Kot Valley on a low-flying helicopter reconnaissance mission. (4. March 2002)

F.B.I. agent Robert Hanssen is sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for selling United States secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds. (10. May 2002)

Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937 and a DHL (German cargo) Boeing 757 collide in mid-air over Überlingen, southern Germany, killing 71. (1. July 2002)

The International Criminal Court is established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. (1. July 2002)

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

Switzerland, traditionally a neutral country, joins the United Nations. (10. September 2002)

Timor-Leste joins the United Nations. (27. September 2002)

Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon. (2. July 2002)

Eastern Mediterranean Event. A near-Earth asteroid estimated at 10 meters in diameter explodes over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya. The resulting explosion is estimated to have a force of 26 kilotons, slightly more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb. (6. June 2002)