Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
Jan
27
Jan
29
On January 29, 2002, in his first State of the Union address since the September 11 attacks, President George W. Bush describes Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an "axis of evil."
Douglas Graham/Roll Call/Getty Images
Feb
07
Feb
12
On February 12, 2002, former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic goes on trial at The Hague, Netherlands, on charges of genocide and war crimes in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. Milosevic served as his own attorney for much of the prolonged trial, which ended without a verdict when the so-called “Butcher of the Balkans” was found dead at age 64 from an apparent heart attack in his prison cell on March 11, 2006.
Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic addresses journalists on March 11, 1993 in the courtyard of the Elysee Palace in Paris.
JACKY NAEGELEN/AFP via Getty Images
Apr
17
May
04
Aug
05
On August 5, 2002, the rusty iron gun turret of the U.S.S. Monitor broke from the water and into the daylight for the first time in 140 years. The ironclad warship was raised from the floor of the Atlantic, where it had rested since it went down in a storm off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, during the Civil War. Divers had been working for six weeks to bring it to the surface.
On this day in 2002, the rusty iron gun turret of the U.S.S. Monitor broke from the water and into the daylight for the first time in 140 years. The ironclad warship was raised from the floor of the Atlantic, where it had rested since it went down in a storm off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, during the Civil War. Divers had been working for six weeks to bring it to the surface.
Sep
09
On September 9, 2002, astronaut Buzz Aldrin—the second human to set foot on the moon—is walking outside a Beverly Hills hotel when a conspiracy theorist starts harassing him and accusing Aldrin of lying about the Apollo 11 moon landing. Incensed, Aldrin punches his heckler in the face.
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin inside the Apollo 11 prior to the lunar landing on July 20, 1969.
NASA
Sep
20
Oct
11
On October 11, 2002, former President Jimmy Carter wins the Nobel Peace Prize “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”
Nobel laureate and former US President Jimmy Carter arrives 08 December 2002 in Oslo, where he will receive the Nobel Peace Prize 10 December. (Photo by NTB / AFP) (Photo by -/NTB/AFP via Getty Images)
NTB/AFP via Getty Images
Oct
23
On October 23, 2002, about 50 Chechen rebels storm a Moscow theater, taking up to 800 people hostage during a sold-out performance of a popular musical.
MOSCOW - OCTOBER 24: A general view of the theatre that was seized by armed men early on October 24, 2002 in Moscow. Armed men entered the crowded Moscow theatre on Wednesday and took the audience hostage; the Federal Security Service said 'A Soviet-era House of Culture that belonged to a ball-bearing plant was staging a performance of the musical "Nord-Ost"'. The poster on the theatre reads: "Nord-Ost". (Photo by Getty Images).
Getty Images
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