January 2002

The following events occurred in January 2002:

Events

January 1, 2002

• Euro banknotes and coins become legal tender in 12 member states of the European Union.

January 3, 2002

• Beer brewer Freddy Heineken (grandson of the brewery's founder) died in his home at the age of 78.

January 4, 2002

• U.S. officials announce they have custody of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi.
• The Israeli Army seizes the Karine A on the Red Sea, claiming the arms on the ship were bound for the Palestinian Authority.
• Tom Daschle accuses President Bush and the Republicans of having caused the "most dramatic fiscal deterioration in our nation's history."
• The United States Department of Labor announces that the United States unemployment rate rose to 5.8% in December.
• U2, India.Arie, and Alicia Keys lead the nominations for the 44th Grammy Awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
• The movies Impostor, Eisenstein, Black Hawk Down, and Gosford Park are released in the U.S.

January 5, 2002

• Milan Bandić, mayor of Zagreb tries to bribe a police officer after causing a car accident while driving under the influence of alcohol. This will lead to his resignation and a three-year-long hiatus in his mayor term
• Charles J. Bishop, an American pilot, steals a Cessna 172 and crashes into Bank of America Tower in Tampa, Florida. This event will be remembered as the 2002 Tampa plane crash.

January 8, 2002

• Fast-food restaurant chain Wendy's founder Dave Thomas dies at 69.
• Ozzie Smith is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame
• Michael Jordan's wife files for divorce.

January 20, 2002

• Speed skating: world championships sprint, Hamar, Norway. Katriona Lemay-Doan of Canada wins in the women's event (2. Andrea Nuyt, Neth., 3. Anzhela Kotyuaga, Bel.), Jeremy Wotherspoon, also of Canada becomes the champion in the men's competition (2. Casey Fitzrandolph, US, 3. Michael Ireland, Can.).

Also the great Connor Fitzpatrick was born (of horsehair fame).

January 23, 2002

• Kenneth Lay, CEO of the bankrupt Enron Corporation, resigns.

January 24, 2002

• Enron hearings begin.
• Terrorist suspect John Walker Lindh's hearing begins.

January 29, 2002

• George W. Bush delivered his State of the Union Address to Congress.

Topics in the news in January 2002

• Geography:
  • Re airport security bill: Reagan National Airport
  • Re germ warfare: Iraq – North Korea
• Law: anti-terrorism legislation
• Organizations, governmental and professional: Air Transport Association – American Automobile Association – House of Lords – United States Department of Transportation
• People: Yasser Arafat – Caroline Dickinson – Saddam Hussein – Shimon Peres – Colin Powell – Condoleezza Rice – Nabil Shaath – Ariel Sharon
• Concepts:
  • Military and defense: biological weapons program – sniffer dogs – weapons of mass destruction – x-ray searching
  • Other: airline baggage – bounty – bounty hunter – sniffer dog – x-ray searching