March 2002

The following events occurred in March 2002:

Events

March 1, 2002

• Space Shuttle mission STS-109 is launched at 6:22 a.m.
• The Bush Administration acknowledges the implementation of the Continuity of Operations Plan for the first time.

March 2, 2002

• 2001 U.S. Attack on Afghanistan: Army Chief Warrant Officer Stanley L. Harriman, of the Third Special Forces Group, is killed in an ambush along the road from Gardēz to the Shahi Kot Valley.

March 3, 2002

• Israeli-Palestinian conflict: A Palestinian sniper firing from a hill near Ofra kills seven Israel Defense Forces soldiers and three Israeli settlers, and wounds another six. He is later captured and imprisoned for life.

March 4, 2002

• 2001 U.S. Attack on Afghanistan: Seven American Special Operations Forces soldiers are killed as they attempt to infiltrate the Shahi Kot Valley on a low-flying helicopter reconnaissance mission. Around 3 a.m. local time a Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, causing a soldier to fall out and damaging a hydraulic line. The helicopter made an emergency landing a half-mile away. A second helicopter on the mission picked up the first helicopter's crew and flew to where the crew member had fallen. The soldiers soon came under heavy fire, and six were killed. The remaining soldiers returned fire and retrieved the bodies before returning to base.
• Bubble fusion: Scientific papers for and against the observation of apparent nuclear fusion in imploding bubbles become available online. If this can be repeated, this is an important scientific breakthrough. Other physicists fear that this may be a repeat of the cold fusion fiasco.

March 11, 2002

• Robert Mugabe wins the Zimbabwe elections with 54% of the vote to Morgan Tsvangirai's 40% on a turnout of 55.9%. His victory is controversial and comes amid claims that many have been prevented from voting and there has been a campaign of intimidation. But election observers from South Africa and the Organisation of African Unity state that the outcome is legitimate.
• In Australia, the first edition of the Melbourne edition of Seven News is produced at the station's new Docklands studios.

March 12, 2002

• Israel ground troops invade the West Bank and Gaza Strip in her largest offensive since the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Dozens of tanks occupy Ramallah. Thirty-seven total dead so far, Israeli and Palestinian.
• Coheed and Cambria release their first album, The Second Stage Turbine Blade, on Equal Vision Records.
• Twentieth Century Fox's American television drama series The Shield premieres.

March 19, 2002

• The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions calls a three-day general strike protesting police interference with union meetings, harassment of trade unionists, and general lawlessness following the general elections, which has led to slow-downs in business. In South Korea, 5,600 power plant workers are on the 25th day of their strike, protesting the neoliberal government plans to privatize the state-run electricity plants. A vote among the remaining power plant workers to strike is cancelled due to company interference.

March 20, 2002

• The U.S. Senate passes the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill 60–40.

March 23, 2002

• Two million to three million trade union members rally in Rome in protest both of labor legislation filed by Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi and of the assassination of Marco Biagi, an advisor to the Labor Minister, by the re-formed Red Brigades.^[1] Labor leaders threaten a general strike if the legislation is passed.^[2]

March 24, 2002

• 74th Academy Awards ceremony takes place.

March 27, 2002

• Recent celebrity deaths: Milton Berle, Dudley Moore, and Billy Wilder die.
• President Bush signs the campaign finance reform bill.
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict: At the start of Passover, a suicide bomber kills 30 and injures about 140 in a hotel in Netanya. The event triggers Operation Defensive Shield.

March 28, 2002

• Arab–Israeli conflict: Delegates to the summit of the Arab League endorse the "land for peace" plan proposed by Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
• Pope John Paul II accepts the resignation of Archbishop Juliusz Paetz, who had been accused of sexual abuse.

March 29, 2002

• Filipino actor Rico Yan died while vacationing on Dos Palmas Resort in Puerto Princesa City,Palawan, Philippines at the age of 27 due to acute hemorrhagic pancreatitis.

March 30, 2002

• Recent celebrity deaths: Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother dies at Royal Lodge, Windsor.
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict: A suicide bomber explodes in My Coffee Shop, a Tel Aviv café at around 9:30 p.m. local time, wounding 32 people.

March 31, 2002: Easter

• Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Israeli troops exchange gunfire with guards of Yasir Arafat in Ramallah. A suicide bomber identified as Shadi Tubasi, a resident of the refugee camp Jenin, kills 14 and wounds more than 40 in Haifa. Later, a suicide bomber wounds four members of an intensive-care unit, one critically, in a paramedics' dispatch station in Efrat. In the past 18 months, according to the Associated Press, 1262 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and on 401 on the Israeli side.

References