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2000 (MM) was a leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar.
2000 was designated as:
The year 2000 was the target of Y2K concerns, fearing computers could not shift from 2-digit "99" to "2000"; however, many companies had already converted their software, even obtaining Y2K certification, and relatively few problems occurred.
Popular culture also holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the third millennium. In the Gregorian Calendar, however, this distinction falls to the year 2001, because the first century began with year AD 1 (there was no year zero), and the thousand years spanned to years 2-1001 (see more at: millennium).
Events
January
- January 1 - Y2K passes without serious, widespread computer failures, despite fears to the contrary.
- January 3-10 - Israel and Syria hold inconclusive peace talks.
- January 4 - Alan Greenspan is nominated for a fourth term as U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman.
- January 5-8 - The 2000 al-Qaeda Summit of several high-level al-Qaeda members (including 2 9/11 American Airlines hijackers) is held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
- January 10 - America Online announces an agreement to be bought by Time Warner for $162 billion. This is the largest-ever corporate merger.
- January 11 - The armed wing of Islamic Salvation Front concludes its negotiations with the government for an amnesty and disbands in Algeria. (See Algerian Civil War.)
- January 11 - The trawler Solway Harvester sinks off the Isle of Man.[1]
- January 12 - 9/11 hijackers Mohammed Atta and Ziad Jahrah read their wills in the Martydom video.
- January 14 - United Nations tribunal sentences 5 Bosnian Croats to up to 25 years in prison for the 1993 killing of over 100 Bosnian Muslims in a Bosnian village.[2]
- January 14 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 11,722.98, (the peak of the Dot-com bubble).
- January 16 - In Sacramento, California, a commercial truck carrying evaporated milk is driven into the State Capitol building, killing the driver.
- January 18 - The Tagish Lake meteorite impacts the Earth.
- January 24 - God's Army, a Karen militia group led by twins Johnny and Luther Htoo, take 700 hostages at a Thai hospital near the Burmese border.
- January 26 - Rap-metal band Rage Against the Machine plays in front of Wall Street, prompting an early closing of trading due to the crowds.
- January 30 - The St. Louis Rams win the NFL Championship for the first time since 1951, defeating the Tennessee Titans 23-16 in Super Bowl XXXIV.
- January 30 - Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes off the coast of Côte d'Ivoire into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 169.
- January 31 - Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashes off the California coast into the Pacific Ocean, killing 88.
- January 31 - Dr. Harold Shipman is found guilty of murdering 15 patients between 1995 and 1998 and sentenced to life imprisonment.
February
March
April
- April 1 - Japanese prime minister Keizo Obuchi suffers a stroke, falls into a coma, and dies.
- 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 Keizo Obuchi as prime minister of Japan.
- April 16 - Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah, Sultan of Selangor, 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 - Brazil officially celebrates its 500th anniversary, not without protests, especially from native and black populations.
- 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.
- April 28 - Richard Baumhammers begins a two-hour, racially-motivated shooting spree in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, leaving five dead and one paralyzed.
May
June
- June 5 - 405 The Movie, the first short film widely distributed on the Internet, is released.
- June 13 - South Korean President Kim Dae Jung visits North Korea to participate in the first North-South presidential summit.
- June 17 - A centennial earthquake measuring 6.5 on Richter scale in Iceland. The 17th of June is Iceland's national day.
- June 21 - Section 28, a law preventing the promotion of homosexuality, is repealed by the Scottish Parliament.
- June 26 - A preliminary draft of genomes, as part of the Human Genome Project, is finished.
- June 28 - Elian Gonzalez returns to Cuba with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, ending a protracted custody battle.
- June 30 - At the Roskilde Festival near Copenhagen, Denmark, 9 die and 26 are injured on a set while the rock group Pearl Jam performs.
July
- July 2 - France beats Italy 2-1 to win Euro 2000 with a golden goal.
- July 2 - Vicente Fox is elected President of Mexico, as candidate of the rightist PAN (National Action Party), ending 71 years of PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) rule.
- July 10 - In southern Nigeria, a leaking petroleum pipeline explodes, killing about 250 villagers who were scavenging gasoline.
- July 10 - Bashar al-Assad is confirmed as Syria's leader in a national referendum.
- July 11-25 - Israel's prime minister Ehud Barak and PLO head Yasser Arafat meet at Camp David, but fail to reach an agreement.
- July 18 - Alex Salmond resigns as the leader of the Scottish National Party.
- July 18 - Sussex police launch a murder investigation after the body of a girl found near Pulborough is confirmed to be that of Sarah Payne, who was reported missing on July 1.
- July 21-23 - G-8 Nations hold their 26th Annual Summit. Issues include AIDS, the 'digital divide', and halving world poverty by 2015.
- July 22 - News of the World urges its readers to sign a petition for Sarah's Law - new legislation in response to the murder of Sarah Payne, which would give parents the right to know whether a convicted paedophile was living in their area.
- July 25 - Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde aircraft, crashes into a hotel in Gonesse just after takeoff from Paris, killing all 109 aboard and 4 in the hotel.
- July 30 - Venezuela's president Hugo Chávez is reelected with 59% of the vote.
- July 31 - August 3 - The Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania nominates George W. Bush for U.S. President and Dick Cheney for Vice President.
August
September
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