2001
The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror.
The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan after the Taliban government was unable to extradite Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden within 24 hours.
Political challenges or violent conflicts caused changes in leadership in Argentina, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, Nepal, and the Philippines.
A potential health crisis occurred when a major outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease spread among British livestock, bringing about the deaths of millions of animals.
In popular culture, the Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings film franchises were launched, the iPod and iTunes were invented for music, and three major sixth-generation video game systems became available.
[7] Two failed coup attempts took place in 2001: a group of junior officers sought to overthrow President Pierre Buyoya in Burundi while he was out of the country on April 18,[8]: 218 and André Kolingba, a former president of the Central African Republic, led a military coup against his successor Ange-Félix Patassé on May 28, causing several days of violence.
[6]: 56 The September 11 attacks were carried out by Al-Qaeda when 19 terrorists hijacked four commercial airplanes and crashed two of them into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and one near Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania.
[15]: 1 [11]: 8 This was internationally recognized as an armed attack against the United States under the UN charter, and NATO invoked Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty for the first time in its history.
[6]: 39 When the Taliban refused to extradite Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan on 7 October.
[11]: 171 Several iconic works of photojournalism were produced during the September 11 attacks, including The Falling Man and Raising the Flag at Ground Zero.
[22] The inaugural entries in the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings film franchises brought fantasy into mainstream culture, popularizing young adult novels and catering to fandom communities.
Tuscan Skies; 2001) by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, which topped the charts in the Netherlands and Sweden[29] and was the 23rd best-selling album globally.
[40] American tennis players Jennifer Capriati and Venus Williams shared the four Grand Slam tournaments,[11]: 316 whilst France won the Davis Cup for the 9th time.
[43] The "Thunder in Africa" boxing match ended in a major upset after Hasim Rahman defeated champion Lennox Lewis on April 22.
AOL would rapidly shrink thereafter, partly due to the decline of dial-up and rise of broadband, and the deal would fall apart before the end of the decade, which would be regarded as one of the world's greatest business failures.
[50][51] Major businesses that ended operations in 2001 included the American energy company Enron and the national airlines of Belgium and Switzerland (Sabena and Swissair, respectively).
[59] A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck China with an epicenter near Kokoxili, close to the border between Qinghai and Xinjiang, on November 14, but it occurred in a sparsely populated mountainous region and there were no casualties.
[62] The World Health Organization (WHO) began a five-year program to reduce road injury fatalities following a warning of the problem's severity by the Red Cross the previous year.
[67] An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease occurred among livestock in the United Kingdom in 2001, resulting in millions of farm animals being slaughtered to prevent spread.
Other leaders saw reconfirmation, including the reelection of Mohammad Khatami as President of Iran and the victory of the United Kingdom's Labour Party led by Tony Blair in the 2001 election.
[72]: 77 In response to the September 11 attacks, the United States passed the controversial Patriot Act that granted the U.S. government significant surveillance powers.
[72]: 72–73 The Constitution of the Comoros was amended on December 24, creating a federal government with a rotating presidency and granting increased autonomy to the three island administrations.
[85] Diplomatic disputes in 2001 included a diplomatic incident when an American spy plane and a Chinese fighter plane collided over the South China Sea,[72]: 70–71 and a dispute between Japan and North Korea when the North Korean leader's son, Kim Jong-nam, attempted to sneak into Tokyo Disneyland.
[11]: 206 Belgium set precedent when the government prosecuted crimes of the Rwandan genocide, invoking a 1993 law that gave Belgian courts jurisdiction over Geneva Conventions violations that take place anywhere in the world.
[11]: 374 President Slobodan Milošević of Serbia (1997–2000) was arrested on April 1 for his role in the Srebrenica massacre and other crimes against humanity committed during the Bosnian War.
It delivered judgement in a 1991 case of a territorial dispute between Bahrain and Qatar, and it ruled in a German challenge against the United States that the court's own provisional orders are binding.
[90] Several anthropological and archaeological developments were made in 2001, including the extraction of mtDNA from prehistoric skeletons[11]: 158 and the discovery of an arrowhead lodged in the shoulder of Ötzi, a 5,300-year-old mummy, after a CT scan was performed on him.
[11]: 176 3G wireless technology first became available on October 1 when it was adopted by Japanese telecommunications company NTT Docomo with its Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access service.
[95] The NEAR Shoemaker made the first successful landing of a spacecraft on an asteroid on February 12, and the Destiny module was connected to the International Space Station the same month.
Commercial flights in the United States were grounded for three days,[103] and air travel then became subject to significantly increased security measures.
