2000

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Decades: 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s - 2000s - 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s 2050s

Years: 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 - 2000 - 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

• Y2K does not cause the world's computers to fail.
• Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome sequenced.
• Mexico - Vicente Fox becomes the first opposition President to take power since Francisco I. Madero in 1911. He won the Presidency as candidate of the rightist PAN (National Action Party).
• January 3 - Final original Peanuts comic strip is published
• January 10 - America On-line announces an agreement to buy Time Warner for $162 billion. This is the largest-ever corporate merger.
• January 14 - A United Nations tribunal sentences five Bosnian Croats up to 25 years for the 1993 killing of over 100 Muslims in a Bosnian village.
• January 16 - In Sacramento, California a commercial truck carrying evaporated milk is driven into the state capitol building killing the driver.
• February 21 - David Letterman returns to the Late Show, over a month after having an emergency quintuple heart bypass surgery.
• March 20 - Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin[?], a former Black Panther, is captured after gun battle that left a sheriff's deputy dead.
• March 26 - Presidential elections in Russia, Vladimir Putin elected President.
• April 3 - Microsoft antitrust case: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors.
• April 7 - Mars Odyssey is launched.
• April 22 - In a predawn raid, federal agents seize six-year old Elian Gonzalez 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 23 Easter (very late this year).
• April 25 - The State of Vermont passes HB847, legalizing Civil Unions for same-sex couples.
• May 12 - The Tate Modern opens in London
• June 21 - Section 28 repealed in Scotland with a 99 to 17 vote.
• July 25 - The Concorde airliner crashes.
• September 28 - Ariel Sharon leads several hundred armed Israelis in a visit to the Temple Mount, provoking an increase in Palestinian civil disorder which developed into the Al-Aqsa_Intifada
• November - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq rejects new U.N. Security Council weapons inspections proposals.
• November 7 - US - In a highly controversial election, George W. Bush defeats Al Gore to become the 43rd President of the United States of America.
• November 27 - Canada - Parliamentary elections - Jean Chretien re-elected as Prime Minister as Liberal Party increases majority in House of Commons
• December 30 - Rizal Day Bombings[?]: A series of bombs explode in various places in Metro Manila, Philippines within a span of a few hours killing 22 and injuring about a hundred.
• The last wholly Swedish-owned arms manufacturer, Bofors, is sold to American arms manufacturer United Defence.

Art, Culture & Fashion

• 2000 in film
  • Gladiator
  • The latest Joel and Ethan Coen film, O Brother, Where Art Thou? was released to much criticial acclaim.
  • Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon breaks records for mass-Western popularity of martial arts movies
• 2000 in literature
• 2000 in music
  • The soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a surprise success, consisting of bluegrass and country music
• 2000 in sports
  • 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia
  • January 30 - Super Bowl XXXIV Saint Louis Rams (23) def. Tennessee Titans (16)
  • March 26 - The Seattle Kingdome is imploded to make room for a new stadium.
• 2000 in television
  • Survivor premieres on CBS sparking a brief interest in "reality tv". Many copy-cat programs follow. The show was based on the Swedish game show, Operation Robinson[?].

Births:

Deaths:

• January 4 - Tom Fears[?], American football star
• January 10 - Sam Jaffe[?], actor
• January 19 - Bettino Craxi[?], 65, Italian prime minister (1983-1987)
• January 19 - Hedy Lamarr, actress
• January 26 - A.E. van Vogt, science fiction author
• January 26 - Don Budge, tennis player
• January 31 - Gil Kane[?], comic book writer
• February 7 - Big Pun, singer
• February 7 - Doug Henning[?], magician
• February 11 - Roger Vadim, 72, French movie director
• February 12 - Charles Schulz, 77, creator of the Peanuts comic strip
• February 12 - Screamin' Jay Hawkins, 70, American rock musician
• February 12 - Tom Landry, American football coach
• February 19 - Friedensreich Hundertwasser, 71, Austrian artist
• March 20 - Gene "Eugene" Andrusco, actor, singer
• March 26 - Alex Comfort, author (The Joy of Sex)
• March 27 - Ian Dury, 57, English rock musician
• March 28 - Anthony Powell, British novelist
• April 6 - Habib Bourguiba[?], president of Tunisia (1957-1997)
• April 13 - Giorgio Bassani, 84, Italian writer (The Garden of the Finzi-Continis[?])
• April 25 - David Merrick, producer
• May 7 - Douglas Fairbanks Jr.[?], actor
• May 19 - Yevgeny Khrunov, cosmonaut
• May 20 - Jean Pierre Rampal, flutist
• May 21 - Sir John Gielgud[?], 96, British actor
• May 21 - Barbara Cartland, romance novel[?] author
• May 27 - Maurice Richard, ice hockey player (*1921)
• June 10 - Hafez al-Assad, 69, president of Syria (1971-2000)
• June 29 - Vittorio Gassmann, 78, Italian actor
• July 1 - Walter Matthau, 79, American actor
• August 5 - Sir Alec Guinness, 86, British actor
• August 25 - Carl Barks, 99, illustrator of Donald Duck
• September 20 - Gherman Titov, 65, Cosmonaut
• September 28 - Pierre Trudeau, 80, prime minister of Canada (1968-1979 and 1980-1984)
• October 11 - Donald Dewar, main author of the Scotland Act[?] and initial First Minister of the Scottish Parliament
• October 30 - Steve Allen, comedian, composer, talk show host, author
• November 11 - Hugh Paddick, British actor
• December 23 - Victor Borge, 91, Danish/American humorist and pianist
• December 25 - Willard Van Orman Quine, 92, American philosopher

Computing -

• The New Year, people, companies, countries and much of the world was fearing the worst, planes falling out of the sky, electricity grids and essential services collapsing. What people feared was not the apocalypse but the Y2K bug - a computer problem that many feared would result in many computers not recognising the new year. The more important problem for computer-related companies this year, however, was the dotcom death that started in February and lasted well into 2001.

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Zhores Ivanovich Alferov, Herbert Kroemer[?], Jack S Kilby[?]
• Chemistry - Alan J Heeger[?], Alan G MacDiarmid[?], Hideki Shirakawa[?]
• Medicine - Arvid Carlsson[?], Paul Greengard[?], Eric R Kandel
• Literature -Gao Xingjian
• Peace - Kim Dae Jung
• Economics- James Heckman, Daniel McFadden