WHAT ALL HAPPENED FEBRUARY TO MAY 2002
Find out what all happened February to May 2002

Over two hundred thousand people marched in Caracas towards the Presidential Palace of Miraflores, to demand the resignation of president Hugo Chávez. 19 of the protesters are killed, and the Minister of Defense Gral. Lucas Rincon announces Hugo Chávez resignation on national TV. (11. April 2002)

Russia and the United States sign the Moscow Treaty. (24. May 2002)

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

The Mars Odyssey finds signs of large ice deposits on the planet Mars. (28. May 2002)

Angolan political and rebel leader Jonas Savimbi is killed in a military ambush. (22. February 2002)

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

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)

Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro becoming the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro's 1959 revolution. (12. May 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)

An Iran Airtour Tupolev Tu-154 crashes in the mountains outside Khorramabad, Iran while descending for a landing at Khorramabad Airport, killing 119. (12. February 2002)

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

The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem comes to an end when the Palestinians inside agree to have 13 suspected terrorists among them deported to several different countries. (9. May 2002)

American civil rights movement: a jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. (22. May 2002)

In Washington, D.C., the remains of the missing Chandra Levy are found in Rock Creek Park. (22. May 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)

The independence of East Timor is recognized by Portugal, formally ending 23 years of Indonesian rule and 3 years of provisional UN administration (Portugal itself is the former colonizer of East Timor until 1976). (20. May 2002)

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

An EAS Airlines BAC 1-11-500 crashes in a suburb of Kano, Nigeria shortly after takeoff, killing 149 people. (4. May 2002)

Ryanair Flight 296 catches fire at London Stansted Airport. Subsequent investigations criticize Ryanair's handling of the evacuation. (27. February 2002)