2002

2002 (MMII) was a Common year that started on a Tuesday. In the Gregorian calendar, it was the 2002nd year of the Common Era, or of Anno Domini; the 2nd year of the 3rd millennium and of the 21st century; and the 3rd of the 2000s decade.

The year 2002 is designated the:
 * International Year of Ecotourism and Mountains
 * Year of the Outback in Australia
 * National Science Year in the United Kingdom
 * Autism Awareness Year in the United Kingdom

January

 * January 1
 * The Open Skies mutual surveillance treaty, initially signed in 1992, officially enters into force.
 * Euro notes and coins are issued in France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Finland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Austria, Ireland and the Netherlands.
 * January 8 – The No Child Left Behind Act is signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush.
 * January 9 The United States Department of Justice announces it will pursue a criminal investigation of Enron.
 * January 10 – Enrique Bolaños begins his 5-year term as President of the Republic of Nicaragua.
 * January 14 – The asylum case of Adelaide Abankwah is heard in New York.
 * January 16 – The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and freezes the assets of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda, and the Taliban.
 * January 17 – The eruption of Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo displaces an estimated 400,000 people.
 * January 23 – Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is kidnapped in Pakistan, accused of being a CIA agent by his captors.
 * January 27 – Several explosions at a military dump in Lagos, Nigeria kill more than 1,000.
 * January 31 – A large section of the Antarctic Larsen Ice Shelf begins disintegrating, consuming about 3,250 km over 35 days.

February

 * February 1 – Kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is murdered in Karachi, Pakistan.
 * February 3 – Costa Rica holds presidential and congressional elections.
 * February 6 - King George VI's 50th Anniversary of his Death. in 1952
 * February 8–February 24 – The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City, Utah.
 * February 9 - The Queen's Sister Princess Margaret Dies in her sleep Aged 71 after suffering Major Stroke's
 * February 12
 * The trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic begins at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
 * The U.S. Secretary of Energy makes the decision that Yucca Mountain is suitable to be the United States' nuclear repository.
 * February 13 – Queen Elizabeth gives former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani an honorary knighthood.
 * February 15 - the Funeral of Princess Margaret takes Place on the 50th Anniversary of her Father's Funeral.
 * February 19 – NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.
 * February 20 – In Reqa Al-Gharbiya, Egypt, a fire on a train injures over 65 and kills at least 370.
 * February 22
 * Angolan political and rebel leader Jonas Savimbi is killed in a military ambush.
 * A Spanish-facilitated ceasefire begins in Sri Lanka.
 * February 23 – FARC kidnaps Ingrid Betancourt in Colombia while she campaigns for the presidency.
 * February 27 – A series of riots leaves hundreds dead, after 59 Hindu pilgrims die aboard a train burned by a Muslim mob in Godhra, India.
 * February 28
 * The ex-currencies of all euro-using nations cease to be legal tender in the European Union.
 * Gujarat communal riots begin, wherein the Gulbarg Society massacre takes place in Ahmedabad, in which 69 people were burnt alive or killed.

March

 * March 1
 * U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: In eastern Afghanistan, Operation Anaconda begins.
 * Continuing violence in Ahmedabad, India kills 28; police shoot and kill 5 rioters.
 * The Envisat environmental satellite successfully reaches an orbit 800 km above the Earth using an Ariane 5 on its 11th launch, carrying the heaviest payload to date at 8,500 kg.
 * STS-109: Space Shuttle Columbia flies the Hubble Space Telescope service mission, its last before STS-107.
 * March 3 – São Tomé and Príncipe hold legislative elections.
 * March 4 – Ansett Australia, one of the oldest airlines in the world and the second largest in Australia, ceases operation after collapsing financially. This event also marks the largest job loss in Australian history.
 * March 6 – France agrees to return the remains of Saartjie Baartman to South Africa.
 * March 12 – In Houston, Texas, Andrea Yates is found guilty of drowning her 5 children on June 20, 2001. She is later sentenced to life in prison.
 * March 14
 * 125 vehicles are involved in a massive pile up on Interstate 75 in Ringgold, Georgia.
 * ECOWAS Parliament established.
 * March 17
 * Portugal holds parliamentary elections.
 * In Islamabad, Pakistan, the International Protestant Church attack occurs.
 * March 19 – US war in Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda ends (started on March 1) after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters, with 11 allied troop fatalities.
 * March 21 – In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and 3 others are charged with the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
 * March 24 – The 74th Academy Awards, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, are held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California with the film A Beautiful Mind winning Best Picture.
 * March 27 – A Palestinian suicide bomber kills 30 Israeli civilians and injures 140 others at the Park Hotel in Netanya, triggering Operation Defensive Shield, a large-scale counter-terrorist Israeli military incursion into the West Bank, two days later.
 * March 30 - Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon the queen mother Dies in her sleep at the age of 101 at Her Home at windsor Castle in London.

April

 * April 2 – Israeli forces besiege the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, when militants take shelter there.
 * April 9 – The funeral of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother takes place in Westminster Abbey, London.and  was Laid to Rest next to Her Husband King George VI with their Daughter Princess Margaret who Died in february 2002.
 * April 11 – April 14 – A military coup d'état against the leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez fails.
 * April 15 – An Air China Boeing 767-200 crashes into a hillside during heavy rain and fog near Pusan, South Korea, killing 128.
 * April 17 – Four Canadian infantrymen are killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire from 2 US F-16s.
 * April 18 – The discovery of a new insect order, Mantophasmatodea, is announced.
 * April 21 – French presidential election, 2002: The first round results in a runoff between Jacques Chirac and the leader of the main French far-right party, Jean-Marie Le Pen.
 * April 22 – At a special session of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Director-General Jose Bustani is fired.
 * April 23 – Day four: Ben drowned.
 * April 25 – Soyuz TM-34: South African Mark Shuttleworth blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; he had paid £15 million for the trip.
 * April 27 – The Laughlin, Nevada River Run Riot kills 3.

May

 * May 5 – In the second round of the French presidential election Jacques Chirac is reelected.
 * May 6 – In the Netherlands, politician Pim Fortuyn is assassinated.
 * May 9
 * A 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem ends, when the Palestinians inside agree to have 13 suspected militants among them deported to several different countries.
 * In Kaspiysk, Russia, a remote-control bomb explodes during a holiday parade, killing 43 and injuring at least 130.
 * May 10 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for selling American secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.
 * May 12
 * Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a 5-day visit with Fidel Castro, becoming the first U.S. President, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro's 1959 revolution.
 * The Russian Shuttle Buran is destroyed in the Buran hangar collapse, killing 8 workers.
 * May 20 – East Timor regains its independence.
 * May 21 – The US State Department releases a report naming 7 state sponsors of terrorism: Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria.
 * May 22 – 16th Street Baptist Church bombing: A jury in Birmingham, Alabama convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of 4 girls.
 * May 25
 * Estonia hosts the first Eurovision Song Contest in a former Soviet republic.
 * China Airlines Flight 611 disintegrates near the Penghu Islands at Taiwan Strait, killing all 225 people on board.
 * May 26
 * The Mars Odyssey finds signs of large water ice deposits on the planet Mars.
 * A barge collides with the Interstate 40 bridge across the Arkansas River in eastern Oklahoma, killing 14.
 * May 31 – June 30 – the 2002 FIFA World Cup is held in South Korea and Japan

June

 * June 3 – The Party in the Palace takes place at Buckingham Palace, London for Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee celebrations.
 * June 4 – The planetoid Quaoar is discovered orbiting the Sun in the Kuiper belt.
 * June 6 – Eastern Mediterranean Event: An object with an estimated diameter of 10 meters collides with Earth, over the Mediterranean Sea, and detonates in mid-air.
 * June 8 – Serena Williams defeats her sister Venus Williams in straight sets to win the 2002 French Open.
 * June 10
 * An annular solar eclipse occurs.
 * The first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of 2 humans, is carried out by Kevin Warwick in the United Kingdom.
 * June 11 – Antonio Meucci is recognized as the first inventor of the telephone by the United States Congress.
 * June 14 – In Karachi, Pakistan, a car bomb in front of the U.S. Consulate kills 12 Pakistanis and injures 50.
 * June 15 – Near Earth Asteroid 2002 MN misses the planet by 75,000 mi, about 1/3 the distance to the moon.
 * June 24 – The Igandu train disaster in Dodoma Region, Tanzania, kills 281 people in the worst rail accident in African history.
 * June 30 – Brazil wins its fifth FIFA World Cup, defeating Germany in the final.

July

 * July 1
 * The International Criminal Court is established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. Crimes committed on or after this date may be prosecuted by the court.
 * A Russian passenger jet and a cargo plane collide over the town of Überlingen, Germany; 72 are killed (see Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937).
 * July 9 – The Organization of African Unity is disbanded and replaced by the African Union.
 * July 10
 * At a Sotheby's auction, Peter Paul Rubens' painting "The Massacre of the Innocents" (first version) is sold for £49.5million (US$76.2 million) to Kenneth Thomson, 2nd Baron Thomson of Fleet.
 * A helicopter crash in Cyprus kills the head of the Cyprus National Guard, Lt. General Evangelos Florakis.


 * July 14 – During Bastille Day celebrations, Jacques Chirac escapes an assassination attempt.
 * July 15 – In Washington, D.C., "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh pleads guilty to aiding the enemy and possession of explosives during the commission of a felony; Lindh agrees to serve 10 years in prison for each charge.
 * July 19 – Hail kills 25 and injures hundreds in the Chinese province of Henan.
 * July 21 – Telecommunications giant WorldCom files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection (the largest such filing in United States history).
 * July 27
 * A Sukhoi Su-27 fighter crashes at an air show in Ukraine, killing 77 and injuring more than 100, making it the worst air show disaster in history (see Sknyliv airshow disaster).
 * Helen Clark, leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, is re-elected in a landslide victory.

August

 * August – The 2002 European floods ravage Central Europe.

September

 * September 2 – The United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development, successor of the 1972 Conference on the Human Environment, 1983 World Commission on Environment and Development, and the 1992 Conference on Environment and Development, opens.
 * September 5 – A car bomb kills at least 30 people in Afghanistan, and an apparent assassination attempt on Afghan President Hamid Karzai fails the same day.
 * September 10 – Switzerland joins the United Nations.
 * September 11 – The World Summit on Sustainable Development comes to a close.
 * September 15 – The Swedish parliamentary election, 2002 leaves Prime Minister Göran Persson and the Social Democrats in power.
 * September 19 – Civil war starts in Côte d'Ivoire.
 * September 20 – The Kolka-Karmadon rock ice slide occurs.
 * September 22 – The German federal election leaves Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, his Social Democrats and the Greens in power.
 * September 25 – The Vitim event, a possible bolide impact, occurs in Siberia, Russia.
 * September 26 – The Senegalese passenger ferry Joola capsizes in a storm off the coast of Gambia; 1,863 are killed.

October

 * October 2
 * The Congress of the United States passes a joint resolution, which authorizes the President to use the United States Armed Forces as he deems necessary and appropriate, against Iraq.
 * The Beltway sniper attacks begin with 5 shootings in Montgomery County, Maryland.
 * October 7 – The discovery of Quaoar is announced.
 * October 9 – The Dot-com bubble bear market reaches bottom, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average slips below 7,200.
 * October 11 – Myyrmanni bombing: A lone bomber explodes a home-made bomb in the Myyrmanni shopping mall north of Helsinki, Finland; the casualties include himself.
 * October 12 – Terrorists detonate bombs in 2 nightclubs in Kuta, Bali, killing 202 and injuring over 300.
 * October 16 – Iraq War Resolution is authorized by a majority of the U.S. Congress.
 * October 21 – 9 of 13 DNS root servers are disabled in a DDoS attack.
 * October 22 – 25 – Chechen rebels take control of the theatre Nord-Ost in Moscow and hold the audience hostage.
 * October 24 – The Beltway snipers, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, are arrested.
 * October 25 – U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, his family, and his staff are killed in a plane accident at Eveleth, Minnesota.
 * October 27 – Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is elected President of Brazil.

November

 * November 5 – The U.S. Republican Party maintains control of the House of Representatives and gains control of the United States Senate.
 * November 6 – The U.S. Federal Reserve System drops its primary discount rate by 50 basis points to 0.75%, putting the real interest rate solidly below the inflation rate.
 * November 7 – Iran bans the advertising of United States products.
 * November 8 – Iraq disarmament crisis: The United Nations Security Council unanimously approves UN Security Council Resolution 1441, forcing Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences".
 * November 13
 * Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraq agrees to the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 1441.
 * The oil tanker Prestige sinks off the Galician coast, causing a huge oil spill.
 * November 14 – Argentina defaults on a US $805 million World Bank loan payment.
 * November 15 – Hu Jintao becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party of China.
 * November 16 – A Campaign against Climate Change march takes place in London from Lincoln's Inn Fields, past Esso offices to the United States Embassy.
 * November 18 – Iraq disarmament crisis: United Nations weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix arrive in Iraq.
 * November 21 – At the NATO Summit in Prague, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia are invited to join the organization.
 * November 22 – In Nigeria, more than 100 are killed at an attack aimed at the Miss World contestants.
 * November 25 – U.S. President George W. Bush signs the Homeland Security Act into law, establishing the Department of Homeland Security, in the largest U.S. government reorganization since the creation of the Department of Defense in 1947.
 * November 26 – Legislation by the European Court of Human Rights and Law Lords, ruling in favour of convicted murderer Anthony Anderson, ends the right of the Home Secretary to set minimum terms for convicted murderers.

December

 * December 7 – As required by the recently passed U.N. resolution, Iraq files a 12,000 page weapons declaration with the U.N. Security Council.
 * December 9 – United Airlines, the second largest airline in the world, files for bankruptcy.
 * December 10 – The High Court of Australia hands down its judgement in the Internet defamation dispute in the case of Gutnick v Dow Jones.
 * December 12 – Hans Enoksen is elected prime minister of Greenland.
 * December 27 – A suicide truck-bomb attack destroys the headquarters of Chechnya's Moscow-backed government, killing 72.
 * December 29 – The Communist New People's Army blows up a bust of Ferdinand Marcos in Benguet, Philippines.
 * December 30 – An eruption on the volcanic island Stromboli off the coast of Sicily causes a flank failure and tsunami. The island is later evacuated.

Date unknown

 * Population Division of the United Nations calculate that 40 million people around the world are infected with HIV.

Births

 * February 5 – Davis Cleveland, American actor
 * July 22 – Prince Felix of Denmark, Prince of Denmark
 * October 6 – Cleopatra Stratan, Moldovan child singer

January

 * January 3 – Freddy Heineken, Dutch-born beer magnate (b. 1923)
 * January 8
 * Alexander Prokhorov, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1916)
 * Dave Thomas, American fast food entrepreneur (Wendy's) (b. 1932)
 * January 12
 * Stanley Unwin, South African comedian (b. 1911)
 * Cyrus Vance, American politician, 59th United States Secretary of State (b. 1917)
 * January 15 – Eugène Brands, Dutch painter (b. 1913)
 * January 16
 * Michael Anthony Bilandic, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1923)
 * Bobo Olson, American boxer (b. 1928)
 * January 17
 * Queenie Leonard, British singer and actress (b. 1905)
 * Camilo José Cela, Spanish writer (b. 1916)
 * January 22
 * Jack Shea, American double-Gold medalist in skating speedly (b. 1910)
 * Peggy Lee, American singer and actress (b. 1920)
 * January 23
 * Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist (b. 1930)
 * Robert Nozick, American philosopher (b. 1938)
 * January 28 – Astrid Lindgren, Swedish children's book author (b. 1907)

February



 * February 6 – Max Perutz, Austrian-born molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1914)
 * February 8
 * Joachim Hoffmann, German historian (b. 1930)
 * Thomaz Soares da Silva, Brazilian football player (b. 1921)
 * February 9 – Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (b. 1930)
 * February 10 – Traudl Junge, German private secretary of Adolf Hitler (b. 1920)
 * February 12 – John Eriksen, Danish football player (b. 1957)
 * February 13 – Waylon Jennings, American country music singer (b. 1937)
 * February 14 – Nándor Hidegkuti, Hungarian footballer (b. 1922)
 * February 15
 * Howard K. Smith, American television journalist (ABC News) (b. 1914)
 * Kevin Smith, New Zealand actor (b. 1963)
 * February 16 – Walter Winterbottom, English football manager (b. 1913)
 * February 19 – Virginia Hamilton, American writer (b. 1936)
 * February 22
 * Chuck Jones, American animator (b. 1912)
 * Jonas Savimbi, Angolan rebel and political leader (b. 1934)
 * February 24 – Leo Ornstein, American composer and pianist (b. 1892)
 * February 27 – Spike Milligan, British comedian, writer, and poet (b. 1918)
 * February 28 – Helmut Zacharias, German violinist (b. 1920)

March

 * March 11 – James Tobin, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
 * March 12 – Spyros Kyprianou, former President of Cyprus (b. 1932)
 * March 20 – Ibn Al-Khattab, Saudi guerilla (b. 1969)
 * March 24 – César Milstein, Argentine scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1927)
 * March 27
 * Milton Berle, American comedian and actor (b. 1908)
 * Dudley Moore, British pianist, comedian, and actor (b. 1935)
 * Billy Wilder, Polish-American film screenwriter and director (b. 1906)
 * March 30 – Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, queen consort of George VI of the United Kingdom (b. 1900)

April

 * April 5 – Layne Staley, American singer (b. 1967)
 * April 8 – Maria Felix, Mexican actress (b. 1914)
 * April 9 – Leopold Vietoris, Austrian mathematician (b. 1891)
 * April 15 – Byron White, American athlete and Supreme Court Justice (b. 1917)
 * April 16
 * Franz Krienbühl, Swiss speed skater (b. 1929)
 * Robert Urich, American actor (b. 1946)
 * April 18 – Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer (b. 1914)
 * April 22 – Linda Lovelace, American pornographic actress (b. 1949)
 * April 25 – Lisa Lopes, American rapper; one-third of the multi-platinum girl group TLC (b. 1971)
 * April 27
 * George Alec Effinger, American author (b. 1947)
 * Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, Swiss industrialist and art collector (b. 1921)
 * Ruth Handler, American toy manufacturer (b. 1916)

May

 * May 5 – Hugo Banzer, Bolivian politician, 62nd and 75th President of Bolivia (b. 1926)
 * May 6 – Pim Fortuyn, Dutch politician and professor (b. 1948)
 * May 11 – Joseph Bonanno, Italian-born gangster (b. 1905)
 * May 13 – Valeri Lobanovsky, Ukrainian football manager (b. 1939)
 * May 18 – Davey Boy Smith, British professional wrestler (b. 1962)
 * May 19 – John Gorton, Australian politician, 19th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1911)
 * May 20 – Stephen Jay Gould, American paleontologist and author (b. 1941)
 * May 21 – Niki de Saint Phalle, French artist (b. 1930)
 * May 23 – Sam Snead, American golfer (b. 1912)
 * May 26 – Mamo Wolde, Ethiopian runner (b. 1932)
 * May 28 – Jean Berger, German-American composer (b. 1909)

June

 * June 4 – Fernando Belaúnde Terry, Peruvian politician, 85th and 88th President of Peru (b. 1912)
 * June 5 – Dee Dee Ramone, American bassist (b. 1951)
 * June 6 – Hans Janmaat, Dutch politician (b. 1934)
 * June 7 – Lilian, Princess of Réthy, Belgian princess (b. 1916)
 * June 10 – John Gotti, American gangster (b. 1940)
 * June 17 – Fritz Walter, German footballer (b. 1920)
 * June 24 – Pierre Werner, Luxembourgian politician, 19th and 21st Prime Minister of Luxembourg (b. 1913)
 * June 26 – Arnold Brown, English General of The Salvation Army (b. 1913)
 * June 27 – John Entwistle, English bassist (b. 1944)
 * June 29 – Rosemary Clooney, American singer and actress (b. 1928)
 * June 30 – Chico Xavier, Brazilian medium (b. 1910)

July

 * July 5
 * Benjamin O. Davis Jr., American general (b. 1912)
 * Katy Jurado, Mexican actress (b. 1924)
 * Ted Williams, American baseball player (b. 1918)
 * July 6
 * Dhirubhai Ambani, Indian businessman (b. 1932)
 * John Frankenheimer, American film director (b. 1930)
 * July 9 – Rod Steiger, American actor (b. 1925)
 * July 10 – Evangelos Florakis, Greek military officer (b. 1943)
 * July 13 – Yousuf Karsh, Turkish-born photographer (b. 1908)
 * July 14 – Joaquín Balaguer, Dominican politician, 41st, 45th and 49th President of the Dominican Republic (b. 1906)
 * July 16 – John Cocke, American computer scientist (b. 1925)
 * July 17 – Joseph Luns, Dutch politician and diplomat, 5th Secretary General of NATO (b. 1911)
 * July 19 – Alan Lomax, American folklorist and musicologist (b. 1915)
 * July 23 – Chaim Potok, American author and rabbi (b. 1929)
 * July 25 – Abdur Rahman Badawi, Egyptian philosopher (b. 1917)
 * July 28 – Archer John Porter Martin, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)

August

 * August 4 – Carmen Silvera, British actress (b. 1922)
 * August 5
 * Chick Hearn, American SportsCaster (b. 1916)
 * Franco Lucentini, Italian writer (b. 1920)
 * August 6 – Edsger W. Dijkstra, Dutch mad scientist on a comnputer (b. 1930)
 * August 11 – Galen Rowell, American photographer, writer, and climber (b. 1940)
 * August 14 – Dave Williams, American singer (b. 1972)
 * August 16 – Abu Nidal, Paleiostinian militant (b. 1937)
 * August 31
 * Lionel Hampton, American musician (b. 1908)
 * George Porter, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1920)

September

 * September 11 – Kim Hunter, American actress (b. 1922)
 * September 18 – Bob Hayes, American athlete (b. 1942)
 * September 19
 * Robert Guéï, Ivorian military ruler (b. 1941)
 * Duncan Hallas, prominent member of the Trotskyist movement in Great Britain (b. 1925)
 * September 21 – Robert Lull Forward, American author and physicist (b. 1932)

October

 * October 6 – Claus van Amsberg, German born Prince Consort of the Netherlands (b. 1926)
 * October 9
 * Sopubek Begaliev, Soviet-era economist and politician (b. 1931)
 * Aileen Wuornos, American serial killer (b. 1956)
 * October 12 – Ray Conniff, American musician and bandleader (b. 1916)
 * October 13 – Stephen Ambrose, American historian and biographer (b. 1936)
 * October 18 – Nikolai Rukavishnikov, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1932)
 * October 25 – Richard Harris, Irish actor (b. 1930)
 * October 30 – Jam-Master Jay, American Hip-Hop DJ (b. 1965)

November

 * November 2 – Charles Sheffield, English author and physicist (b. 1935)
 * November 9 – Merlin Santana, American actor (b. 1976)
 * November 12 – Károly Doncsecz, Slovenian potter (b. 1918)
 * November 15 – Myra Hindley, English murderer (b. 1942)
 * November 17 – Abba Eban, Israeli politician and diplomat, 3rd Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1915)
 * November 18 – James Coburn, American actor (b. 1928)
 * November 19 – Max Reinhardt, British publisher (b. 1915)
 * November 22 – Parley Baer, American actor (b. 1914)
 * November 24 – John Rawls, American political theorist (b. 1921)

December

 * December 3 – Glenn Quinn, Irish actor (b. 1970)
 * December 5 – Ne Win, Burmese military commander (b. 1911)
 * December 18 – Ray Hnatyshyn, Governor General of Canada (b. 1934)
 * December 22
 * Desmond Hoyte, Guyanese politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Guyana and 4th President of Guyana (b. 1929)
 * Joe Strummer, British musician (b. 1952)

Nobel Prizes

 * Peace – Jimmy Carter
 * Literature – Imre Kertész
 * Chemistry – John B. Fenn and Koichi Tanaka, Kurt Wüthrich
 * Physics – Raymond Davis Jr. and Masatoshi Koshiba, Riccardo Giacconi
 * Physiology or Medicine – Sydney Brenner, H. Robert Horvitz, and John E. Sulston
 * Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel – Daniel Kahneman and Vernon L. Smith

Fields Medalists

 * Laurent Lafforgue, Vladimir Voevodsky

In fiction

 * The events of First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde take place in an alternate-reality 2002
 * In the comic book series Y: The Last Man, on July 12, 2002 a mysterious plague kills all living creatures with a Y chromosome on the planet.
 * The West Wing: On November 5, Democratic President Josiah Bartlet of New Hampshire defeats Republican Governor Robert Ritchie of Florida in his reelection bid following the 2002 US presidential election.
 * The events of Resident Evil: Dead Aim take place on September 23.