WHAT ALL HAPPENED MAY TO DECEMBER 2002
Find out what all happened May to December 2002

The first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox ("Phoenix 0.1") is released. (23. September 2002)

Near-Earth asteroid 2002 MN misses the Earth by 75,000 miles (121,000 km), about one-third of the distance between the Earth and the Moon. (14. June 2002)

Soham murders: 10-year-old school girls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells go missing from the town of Soham, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom. (4. August 2002)

Moscow Theatre Siege begins: Chechen terrorists seize the House of Culture theater in Moscow and take approximately 700 theater-goers hostage. (23. October 2002)

The tugboat Robert Y. Love collides with a support pier of Interstate 40 on the Arkansas River near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, resulting in 14 deaths and 11 others injured. (26. May 2002)

Veteran's Day weekend tornado outbreak; a tornado outbreak stretching from Northern Ohio to the Gulf Coast, one of the largest outbreaks recorded in November. The strongest tornado, an F4, hits Van Wert, Ohio during the early to mid afternoon and destroys a movie theater but the theater is evacuated prior to the hit. (10. November 2002)

European Union enlargement: The EU announces that Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia will become members from May 1, 2004. (13. December 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)

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

The Beltway sniper attacks begin, extending over three weeks. (2. October 2002)

The Greek oil tanker Prestige splits in half and sinks off the coast of Galicia, releasing over 20 million US gallons (76,000 m³) of oil in the largest environmental disaster in Spanish and Portuguese history. (19. November 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)

French President Jacques Chirac escapes an assassination attempt unscathed during Bastille Day celebrations. (14. July 2002)

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

Nine coal miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, are rescued after 77 hours underground. (28. July 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)

Democrat James Traficant is expelled from the United States House of Representatives on a vote of 420 to 1. (24. July 2002)

A bomb attack in a shopping mall in Vantaa, Finland kills seven. (11. October 2002)

Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria that was lost in antiquity, is officially inaugurated. (16. October 2002)

Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq agrees to the terms of the UN Security Council Resolution 1441. (13. November 2002)