2000

This article is about the year 2000. For other uses of 2000, see 2000 (number) or 2000 (breakdancing move).

2000 (MM) is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. Popular culture also holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium. By strict interpretation of the Gregorian Calendar, however, this distinction falls to the year 2001. This is due to the fact that the first century began with the year 1, and there does not exist a year zero. The first century (or first 100 years AD) was from January 1, in the year one (1 AD) through December 31, in the year one-hundred (100 AD). The second century began on January 1, in the year one-hundred and one (101 AD).

The year 2000 is also marked as:

• The International Year for a Culture of Peace.
• The World Mathematical Year.

See also Wikipedia's almanac of events for this year.

Events

January

• January 1 - Millennium celebrations take place throughout the world. Y2K passes without the serious, widespread computer failures and malfunctions that had been predicted.
• January 5-January 8 - The 2000 al-Qaida Summit
• January 6 - The last remaining Pyrenean Ibex is found dead.
• January 10 - America On-line announces an agreement to buy Time Warner for $162 billion. This is the largest-ever corporate merger.^{Confirmation needed}
• January 11 - the armed wing of Islamic Salvation Front concludes its negotiations with the government for an amnesty and disbands in Algeria.^{Confirmation needed}
• January 11 - The trawler Solway Harvester sinks off the Isle of Man.^{Confirmation needed}
• January 14 - A United Nations tribunal sentences five Bosnian Croats up to 25 years for the 1993 killing of over 100 Bosnian Muslims in a Bosnian village.^{Confirmation needed}
• January 16 - In Sacramento, California a commercial truck carrying evaporated milk is driven into the state capitol building killing the driver.^{Confirmation needed}
• January 24 - God's Army, Karen militia group led by twins Johnny and Luther Htoo, take 700 hostages at a Thai hospital near the Burmese border. ^{Confirmation needed}
• January 30 - St. Louis Rams 23 defeat the Tennessee Titans 16 to win the Super_Bowl_XXXIV
• January 30 - Off the coast of Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 169. Within a day, Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashes off the California coast into the Pacific Ocean, killing 88.
• January 31 - Dr. Harold Shipman in sentenced to life in prison for murder of at least 15 of his patients out of 365 suspected victims.

February

• February 4 - German extortionist Klaus-Peter Sabotta is jailed for life for attempted murder and extortion in connection with sabotage of German railway lines.
• February 6 - Tarja Halonen is elected the first Finnish female president.
• February 13 - Final original Peanuts comic strip is published.
• February 14 - The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker entered orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.
• February 29 - A six-year-old girl is shot and killed in her Mount Morris Township, Michigan first-grade classroom. The girl's name is Kayla Rolland and her murderer was Dedrick Owens.

March

• March 1 - The Constitution of Finland is rewritten.
• March 2 - Hans Blix assumes the position of Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC.
• March 8 - Tokyo train disaster.
• March 9 - FBI arrests suspected purveyor of art forgeries, Ely Sakhai, in New York City.
• March 10 - The NASDAQ Composite Index reaches an all-time high of 5048. ([1])
• March 18 - 2000 Taiwanese presidential election: Chen Shui-bian is elected President of the Republic of China (Taiwan).
• March 20 - Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a former Black Panther, is captured after gun battle that left a sheriff's deputy dead.
• March 21 - Pope John Paul II began the first office visit by a Roman Catholic pontiff to Israel.
• March 21 - US Supreme Court ruled the government lacked authority to regulate tobacco as an addictive drug, throwing out the Clinton administration's main anti-smoking initiative.
• March 26 - Presidential elections in Russia: Vladimir Putin elected President.
• March 27 - Foundation of Beasts From Middle East by Fady aodesho and Shahin Bahrami
• March 30 - America's Cup 2000 retained by Team New Zealand near Auckland. Prada Challenge 2000 lost 0-5 in a "best-of-9".

April

US Federal Agents seize Elián González in Miami.

• April 1 - Japanese prime minister Keizo Obuchi suffers a stroke and falls into a coma.
• April 3 - United States v. Microsoft: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors.
• April 5 - Yoshiro Mori replaces Obuchi as prime minister of Japan.
• April 7 - Attack submarine ex-Trepang completes being recycled.
• April 16 - Tuanku Syed Putra ibni Almarhum Syed Hassan Jamalullail, Raja of Perlis dies after a reign of 55 years. He was the longest reigning monarch in the world since the death of Prince Franz Joseph II of Liechtenstein.
• April 17 - Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin becomes Raja of Perlis.
• April 22 - In a predawn raid, federal agents seize six-year old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami, Florida and fly him to his Cuban father in Washington, DC ending one of the most publicized custody battles in US history.
• April 25 - The State of Vermont passes HB847, legalizing Civil Unions for same-sex couples.

May

• May 3 - A rare conjunction occurs on the New Moon including all seven of the traditional celestial bodies known from ancient times up until 1781 with the discovery of Uranus. The May 2000 conjunction consisted of: the Sun and Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
• May 3 - Computer pioneer Datapoint Corporation files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
• May 12 - The Tate Modern opens in London.
• May 13 - In Enschede a heavy fireworks explosion kills 20 and leaves an entire neighborhood in ruins.
• May 14 - Keizo Obuchi, the former Prime Minister of Japan dies of a stroke which left in a coma.
• May 18 - Boo.com collapses due to lack of funds after six months.
• May 25 - Israel withdraws IDF troops from southern Lebanon after 22 years.
• May 28 - The volcano Mount Cameroon erupts.

June

• June 1 - Mark Mendlan, professional wrestler known by his ring name "Kid Gorgeous," is killed while wrestling at a show in New Hampshire.
• June 7 - U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson of the 4th circuit ordered the breakup of Microsoft Corp.
• June 10 - The New Jersey Devils defeat the Dallas Stars 4 games to 2 to win the 2000 Stanley Cup Finals.
• June 10 - The 2000 European Football Championship begins, hosted jointly by Belgium and the Netherlands.
• June 21 - Section 28, a law preventing the promotion of homosexuality is repealed by the Scottish Parliament.
• June 23 - Palace Backpackers Hostel fire in Childers, Queensland, Australia, kills 15 people.
• June 30 - During a set of the band Pearl Jam at the Roskilde Festival near Copenhagen, 9 die and 26 are injured in the crowd.
• June 30 - Demolition of the old Bullring Shopping Centre in Birmingham, UK begins.

July

Air France Flight 4590 shortly before the fatal crash on July 25.

• July 2 - France beat Italy 2-1 to win the 2000 European Football Championship with a golden goal.
• July 2 - Presidential election of Mexico. Vicente Fox wins the Presidency as candidate of the rightist PAN (National Action Party).
• July 10 - In southern Nigeria, a leaking petroleum pipeline explodes killing about 250 villagers who were scavenging gasoline
• July 10 - Death of Denis O Conor Donn, died 10th July 2000, aged 88; succeded by his son, Desmond as The O Connor Donn
• July 18 - Alex Salmond resigns as the leader of the Scottish National Party
• July 25 - A Concorde carrying Air France Flight 4590 crashes just after takeoff from Paris killing all 109 aboard and 5 on the ground.

August

• August 1 - The Santa Cruz Operation announced that it will sell its Server Software and Services Divisions, as well as UnixWare and OpenServer technologies, to Caldera Systems,Inc.
• August 8 - Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor.
• August 12 - The Russian submarine Kursk sinks in the Barents Sea, resulting in the deaths of all 118 men on board.
• August 14 - The first comic of Megatokyo goes online. This webcomic will later become one of the most popular comics on the web (in terms of page views) and spawn numerous imitators.
• August 25 - the Emulex hoax - wire services publish fraudulent bad news about Emulex
• August 27 - The Ostankino Tower in Moscow catches fire, three people are killed.

September

• September 5 - Tuvalu joins the United Nations.
• September 6 - In New York City, the United Nations Millennium Summit begins with more than 180 world leaders present.
• September 6 - The last wholly Swedish-owned arms manufacturer, Bofors, is sold to American arms manufacturer United Defense
• September 7–14 - The UK fuel protests take place, with refineries blockaded, and supply to the country's network of petrol stations halted.
• September 8 - Albania officially joins the World Trade Organization.
• September 15 - The 2000 Summer Olympics are opened in Sydney, Australia.
• September 16 - Ukrainian journalist Georgiy Gongadze is last seen alive; this day is taken as the commemoration date of his death.
• September 24 - The American Family Association begins lobbying the U.S. Congress to eradicate the National Endowment for the Arts for funding the controversial book One of the Guys by Robert Clark Young
• September 26 - Anti-globalization protests in Prague (some 15,000 protesters) turned violent during the IMF and World Bank summits.
• September 28 -