• George W. Bush delivered his State of the Union Address to Congress.

January 24, 2002

• Enron hearings begin.
• Terrorist suspect John Walker Lindh's hearing begins.

January 23, 2002

• Kenneth Lay, CEO of the bankrupt Enron Corporation, resigns.

January 20, 2002

• Speed skating: world championships sprint, Hamar, Norway. Katriona Lemay-Doan of Canada wins in the women's event (2. Andrea Nuyt, Neth., 3. Anzhela Kotyuaga, Bel.), Jeremy Wotherspoon, also of Canada becomes the champion in the men's competition (2. Casey Fitzrandolph, USA, 3. Michael Ireland, Can.).

January 8, 2002

• Fast-food restaurant chain Wendy's founder Dave Thomas dies at 69.
• Ozzie Smith is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame
• Michael Jordan's wife files for divorce.

January 4, 2002

• U.S. officials announce they have custody of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi.

January 4, 2002

• The Israeli Army seizes the Karine A on the Red Sea, claiming the arms on the ship were bound for the Palestinian Authority.
• Tom Daschle accuses President Bush and the Republicans have caused the "most dramatic fiscal deterioration in our nation's history."
• The United States Department of Labor announces that the United States unemployment rate[?] rose to 5.8% in December.
• U2, India Arie[?], and Alicia Keys lead the nominations for the 44th annual Grammy Awards[?] from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences[?].
• The movies Impostor, Eisenstein[?], Black Hawk Down, and Gosford Park are released in the U.S. - several are actually worth seeing.

January 3, 2002

• Beer brewer Freddy Heineken (grandson of the brewery's founder) died in his home at the age of 78.

January 1, 2002

• Euro banknotes and coins become legal tender in 12 member states of the European Union.

Topics in the news in January 2002

• Ethnicity: Israeli - Jew - Palestinian
• Geography:
  • Re Colin Powell's speech: Gaza - Gaza Strip - Golan Heights - Israel - Judea - Palestine - Syria - West Bank
  • Re airport security bill: Reagan National Airport[?]
  • Re germ warfare: Iraq - North Korea
• Law: anti-terrorism legislation[?]
• Organizations, governmental and professional: Air Transport Association[?] - American Automobile Association[?] - House of Lords - United States Department of Transportation
• People: Yasser Arafat - Caroline Dickinson[?] - Saddam Hussein - Shimon Peres - Colin Powell - Condoleezza Rice - Nabil Shaath - Ariel Sharon
• Religion: Islam - Judaism
• Concepts:
  • Military and defense: biological weapons program[?] - sniffer dogs[?] - weapons of mass destruction - x-ray searching[?]
  • Other: airline baggage[?] - bounty[?] - bounty hunter - sniffer dog[?] - x-ray searching[?]

The War in Afghanistan: Background

• Developing stories: 2001 U.S. Attack on Afghanistan - individual cases of anthrax
• Ethnicity: People of Afghanistan[?] - Azerbaijan - Pashtun - Tajik
• Geography: Afghanistan - Baghlan, Afghanistan[?] - Israel - Kabul - Kandahar - Kunduz, Afghanistan - New York City - Pakistan - Palestine - United States of America - Washington, D.C.
• History: September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack/Back history
• People: Osama Bin Laden - Tony Blair - George W. Bush - Abdul Rashid Dostum - Pervez Musharraf - Mullah Mohammed Omar[?] - Burhanuddin Rabbani - Donald H. Rumsfeld - Abdul Sattar[?]
• Organizations: al Qaeda - CDC - Northern Alliance - Taliban - United Nations - United Nations Security Council - U.S. Special Operations[?]
• Concepts
  • Geographical: airport - airspace[?] - pipeline
  • Military/guerilla/defense technology and strategy: aircraft carrier - airport security[?] - anthrax - antibiotic resistance - baggage screening[?] - biological warfare - biological weapon - car bomb - ciprofloxacin - domestic security[?] - gas mask - germ warfare - aircraft hijacking - smallpox - terrorist cell[?] - vaccine
  • Political: anti-Americanism - domestic terrorism - foreign aid[?] - foreign aid worker[?] - humanitarian aid[?] - peace - risk analysis[?] - terrorism - terrorist groups - war
  • Religious: Islamism
  • Psychological: collective trauma

U.S. Domestic Response to Terrorism: Background

• Geography: New York City - Reno, Nevada - Washington, D.C.
• People: John Ashcroft - George W. Bush - Colin Powell -
• Organizations: Air Transport Association[?] - Central Intelligence Agency - U.S. Department of Defense - Federal Bureau of Investigation - Office of Homeland Security
• Concepts: bipartisanship[?] - electronic surveillance[?] - encryption - wiretap - tax cut[?]

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Background

• Ethnicity: Israeli - Jew - Palestinian
• Geography: Gaza - Gaza Strip - Golan Heights - Israel - Judea - Palestine - Syria - West Bank
• People: Yasser Arafat - Shimon Peres - Colin Powell - Nabil Shaath - Ariel Sharon
• Religion: Islam - Judaism
• The terrorist attack: September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack - World Trade Center - The Pentagon - New York City - Washington, D.C. - AA Flight 11 - UA Flight 75 - AA Flight 77 - UA Flight 93 - September 11

• India/Transnational issues
• Kashmir

Other Conflicts

• East Timor

Science and Technology

• Max Perutz, the molecular biologist, has died at the age of 87.
• A new genetic mechanism has been found allowing evolution to radically redesign body plans, caused by mutations occurring in the regulatory genes that control embryonic development.

Europe

• ETA
• Anti-war protests[?]

Business news

• recession
• stock market - stock exchange - Dow Jones Industrial Average - NASDAQ
• Cisco Systems
• United Auto Workers[?]
• Railtrack

Celebrity news

• Jennifer Lopez - Sharon Stone - aneurysm[?]

Sports news

• Basketball: Michael Jordan returns to the NBA, with the Washington Wizards
• American football: Super Bowl XXXVI
• 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah