01|A Palestinian suicide bomber detonates an explosive device outside a crowded beachfront disco in Tel Aviv, Israel, killing himself and 20 young Israelis. The bombing is the single deadliest attack since the current Palestinian uprising began in late September 2000.|
01|King Birendra Bir Birkram Shah Dev of Nepal is shot to death at the royal palace at Katmandu, the capital. According to witnesses, the king and eight members of his family--including his wife, Queen Aiswarya, and a son and daughter--are murdered by Crown Prince Dipendra, who quarreled with his family about his choice of a bride.|
02|Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat condemns the suicide bombing that killed 20 young Israelis on June 1 and promises for the first time to do his utmost to achieve an immediate and unconditional cease-fire.|
03|Alejandro Toledo defeats former president Alan Garcia to become president of Peru. Toledo initially ran for president in 2000 but refused to participate in a runoff, claiming that the incumbent, Alberto Fujimori, had compromised the election. Fujimori later fled to Japan to avoid prosecution for official corruption.|
04|Gyanendra, brother of the late King Birendra, is crowned king of Nepal in the capital, Katmandu. He is Nepal's third reigning monarch in four days. His immediate predecessor, King Dipendra, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound some 40 hours after murdering his father, mother, and seven members of his family.|
05|The Democratic Party regains control of the U.S. Senate for the first time since 1995. Tom Daschle (D., South Dakota) replaces Trent Lott (R., Mississippi) as Senate majority leader, and Democrats move into the chairmanships of key committees. The power shift is the first in Senate history to take place because of a party switch instead of an election. It was triggered by Vermont Senator James Jeffords's May 24 resignation from the Republican Party, which reduced the number of Republican seats from 50 to 49.|
05|U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld meets with U.S. commanders in Kosovo to discuss strategies to stop the flow of ethnic Albanian rebels and weapons across the border into Macedonia.|
05|The founder and spiritual leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, makes a rare public appearance to announce that Hamas will not honor the cease-fire that Yasir Arafat declared in the wake of the suicide bombing that killed 20 young Israelis on June 1. Hamas claims responsibility for the attack, which took place outside a crowded Tel Aviv night club. Two other radical Palestinian groups, the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, also reject the cease-fire, which Arafat announced on June 2.|
06|A panel of leading atmospheric scientists representing the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) conclude that the Earth's atmosphere is getting warmer and that human activity is largely responsible. In a report prepared for the Bush administration, the scientists state: "Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise."|
07|British voters give Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party a resounding victory in parliamentary elections. Labour enjoys the biggest parliamentary majority that any British party has ever held going into a second term. The size of the victory guarantees that the Labour government will complete two full terms in office for the first time in the party's 100-year history. Blair campaigned on a promise to fix Britain's ailing social services, particularly the health and education systems. The opposing Conservatives, led by William Hague, campaigned on a platform opposing immigration and the adoption of the euro, the European Union single currency. The Conservative Party also promised to cut taxes.|
07|U.S. President George W. Bush signs a $1.35-trillion tax cut into law at a White House ceremony attended by Republican Congressional leaders.|
08|A man armed with a kitchen knife attacks students in an elementary school in Ikeda, Japan, killing 8 children and wounding 15 others. In 1999, the same man was dismissed as a school janitor after he attempted to poison teachers with tranquilizers that had been prescribed to treat his mental condition.|
09|Iranian President Mohammad Khatami is declared the winner in Iran's June 8 presidential election with 75 percent of the vote. His nearest challenger receives 16.6 percent. Experts on Iranian politics describe the election as a referendum on Khatami's attempts to reform the government, which is a constitutional theocracy largely controlled by fundamentalist Islamic clergy.|
10|Officials in Texas and Louisiana announce that 16 people have died as a result of Tropical Storm Allison, which has caused at least $1 billion in damages since coming ashore on June 5. The slow-moving storm inundated southeast Texas with as much as 28 inches (71 centimeters) of rain, causing widespread flooding in Houston and in 28 Texas counties that have been declared federal disaster areas.|
11|Timothy McVeigh is executed at the Federal Penitentiary at Terre Haute, Indiana, for the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, which killed 168 people. The execution is the first to be carried out by the federal government since 1963.|
11|The Supreme Court, in a 6-to-3 vote, rules that all public schools, including elementary schools, must treat after-school religious activities on the same basis as any other after-school activity. The majority opinion was based on the argument that religious expression is a form of free speech protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The case involved an evangelical Christian organization, the Good News Club, that sued the Milford, New York, school district because the school board refused to allow the club to meet after hours in an elementary classroom. The district barred the meetings because of an established policy of not allowing religious subjects to be taught in school. The Supreme Court's ruling overturns a federal appeals court ruling.|
11|Ethnic Albanian rebels push out of Macedonia's northern hills into the suburbs of Skopje, the capital, where they battle government forces 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the center of the city. Leaders of the Slav-dominated government try to set up negotiations with two ethnic Albanian political parties in an attempt to address their grievances. The insurgents primarily demand that the preamble to the Macedonian constitution be amended to grant the ethnic Albanian minority equal status with the Slav majority.|
12|Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat agree to a formal cease-fire agreement brokered by the director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, George Tenet. However, both Sharon and Arafat publicly express skepticism that the plan to formalize the current 11-day cease-fire can hold the peace. As Arafat concluded negotiations with Tenet, hundreds of Palestinian youths gathered outside Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah, in the West Bank, to proclaim their determination to continue fighting. More than 550 people have been killed in the more than eight months of nearly continuous violence since the uprising began in late September 2000.|
13|Days of heavy rains in Ecuador's Andes Mountains trigger a landslide of mud and rock that buries 30 people huddled around a campfire some 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Quito, the capital. The victims were motorists stranded in the mountains when an earlier avalanche blocked the highway. Another landslide, near Papallacta, a village 31 miles (49 kilometers) east of Quito, ruptures gas and oil pipelines, causing flames to shoot high into the air and some 10,000 barrels of crude oil to spill into a mountain forest.|
13|The rate of violent crime in the United States declined by 15 percent during 2000, report officials with the U.S. Department of Justice. The drop was the greatest for any single year on record. According to the Justice Department, both violent and property crime rates in 2000 were at their lowest levels since the department started keeping crime statistics in 1973. The Justice Department report contradicts the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Uniform Crime Report for 2000, which was issued in late May 2001. The FBI reported that the drop in serious crime rates leveled off in 2000 after declining for eight straight years.|
14|Thousands of protesters, primarily Berbers joined by Algerian Arabs, riot in Algiers, Algeria's capital, when police attempt to stop the crowd from marching on the presidential palace. At least 6 people are killed and more than 900 are injured in the melee, which began as a peaceful demonstration for better economic conditions and for recognition of the Berber language. The Berbers make up about 20 percent of Algeria's largely Arab population of 29 million people.|
14|U.S. President George W. Bush tells European leaders and representatives of the European Union (EU), meeting in Goteborg, Sweden, that the United States agrees that global warming is a serious issue and that the United States will work with Europe to find a solution. However, Bush and the Europeans disagreed on how to best accomplish that goal. The Europeans criticized the president for not supporting a global warming pact known as the Kyoto Protocol and said that they would continue the ratification process despite the withdrawal of the United States. The president described the Kyoto Protocol as flawed, because the agreement exempts such developing nations as India and China from limits on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.|
15|NATO officials meeting in Brussels, Belgium, authorize NATO officers to begin planning a military mission into Macedonia to disarm ethnic Albanian insurgents currently battling government forces. The Macedonian government formally requested NATO intervention in the conflict, which began in March. At a meeting convened by the British government in London on June 14, U.S. officials informed representatives of major NATO countries that while the Bush administration did not object to such an operation, U.S. troops would not participate.|
16|The leaders of the 15 member nations of the European Union, attending a summit meeting in Goteborg, Sweden, confirm their commitment to opening the EU to new members, including former Communist countries of Eastern Europe, by 2004. EU officials opened discussions concerning membership qualification with Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia in 1998 and with Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, and Slovakia in 2000. To join the European Union, candidate countries must bring their economies into line with EU standards, which usually necessitates instituting major reforms.|
17|Syria begins pulling troops out of Lebanon's capital, Beirut, after 25 years of occupation. According to security officials, the withdrawal is to be complete within 48 hours. The pullback, which began in the Lebanese countryside on June 14, came in response to a massive campaign by Lebanese Christians against Syria's military and political domination of Lebanon. Syria initially marched into Lebanon in 1976 during a civil war between Christians and the Muslim-Palestinian Liberation Organization alliance. Experts on Middle Eastern affairs were uncertain whether the redeployment would result in a complete withdrawal of all 35,000 Syrian soldiers stationed in Lebanon.|
18|Russian President Vladimir Putin announces that Russia will begin upgrading its strategic nuclear arsenal if the United States proceeds with its plans to construct a missile defense shield. An increase in the nuclear arsenal would reverse years of arms control between the world's nuclear powers. Putin's announcement was made two days after he met with U.S. President George W. Bush in Moscow and one day after Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, told reporters that the United States would proceed with the missile defense system "with or without Russia."|
18|The discovery of the fossilized bones of two previously unknown species of dinosaur is announced by paleontologists with the Zuni Basin Paleontological Project in New Mexico. The paleontologists estimate that the fossils are 90 million years old. The dinosaurs lived in a swampy, forested area near what is now the border between New Mexico and Arizona. One dinosaur, named Nothronychus, was a herbivore (plant eater) with a small head and scrawny neck atop an upright body supported by broad legs. It stood up to 20 feet (6 meters) tall and was likely covered in soft downy feathers. The scientists said that Nothronychus was part of the teropaud family, which includes the Tyrannosaurus rex. A second newly discovered dinosaur, which the scientists had not yet named, was about 7 feet (2 meters) tall from head to tail and looked somewhat like a miniature Tyrannosaurus rex. It fed on small lizards and primitive mammals.|
19|Republican candidate J. Randy Forbes takes 52 percent of the vote against the Democratic candidate, Louise Lucas, in a special election to fill a vacant House seat representing Virginia's fourth Congressional district. The seat was held by a Democrat, Norman Sisisky, who died in March. Forbes's victory gives House Republicans a 12-seat margin over Democrats.|
20|Pakistan's military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, declares himself president and head of state after dismissing the former figurehead president, Rafiq Tara. The new president announces that he has scheduled an election for October 2002 that will return Pakistan to civilian rule. The date meets a deadline set by Pakistan's supreme court when it endorsed Musharraf's bloodless military coup (take-over) in October 1999. The endorsement included the stipulation that Musharraf must return the country to civilian rule within three years. Political experts suggest that Musharraf appointed himself president in anticipation of meeting Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in New Delhi in July 2001. Their three-day summit is to include negotiations over Kashmir and other issues that have led Pakistan and India into three wars and a nuclear arms race.|
21|The government of China imposes retaliatory 100 percent tariffs on 60 categories of Japanese imports, including vehicles and mobile phones. In 2000, China purchased approximately 47,000 Japanese cars and trucks. Japan triggered the trade war by placing quotas and tariffs on certain onions and Shiitake mushrooms from China. According to the Japanese government, China flooded Japan with cheap foodstuffs in 1999 and 2000, ruining thousands of Japanese farmers and fishermen.|
22|At least 57 people are killed and 300 others wounded when the Mangalore-Chennai Mail Train derails on a bridge spanning the Kadalundi River in the state of Kerala in southern India. The three last cars on the train plunge 100 feet (30 meters) into the river where it flows into the Arabian Sea. An estimated 400 passengers were aboard the train, which was en route from Mangalore to Chennai.|
23|An earthquake of 8.1 magnitude rocks southern Peru, killing at least 95 people, injuring 500 others, and leaving more than 45,000 people homeless. The epicenter is under the Pacific Ocean, about 120 miles (190 kilometers) west of the coastal city of Arequipa, where more than 70 percent of all houses are damaged.|
24|One of the Philippines' most active volcanoes, Mayon, erupts after rumbling for more than five months. Boulders the size of automobiles rain down the side of the volcano, which spewed ash more than 9 miles (14 kilometers) into the atmosphere. Philippine authorities ordered the evacuation of at least 7,000 people living within a 5-mile (8-kilometer) radius of the volcano before the eruption began. Scientists believe that the lava flow from Mayon could continue for several days or even weeks. The volcano is located about 200 miles (320 kilometers) south of Manila, the capital.|
24|Typhoon Chebi leaves at least 70 people dead and more than 80 people missing in the province of Fujian in southeastern China. Most of the victims lived in Fuzhou, the provincial capital. Before hitting mainland China, the typhoon crossed southern Taiwan with heavy rains and winds of 75 miles (120 kilometers) per hour, killing nine people.|
24|The British Army sends an additional 1,600 men into Northern Ireland to quell riots between Roman Catholics and Protestants in Belfast. The latest outbreak of violence, which began during the week of June 17, has left dozens of people, Catholic and Protestant, injured. Both sides claim the riots were organized by paramilitary groups.|
25|Thousands of Macedonians march on the Parliament building in Skopje, the capital, to protest the movement of NATO forces into the country. The NATO operation involves removing several hundred armed ethnic Albanian rebels from a village about 6 miles (9 kilometers) northeast of Skopje in an effort to end fighting in the region. The United States contributed vehicles, but no troops, to the mission.|
25|As many as 35,000 people flee their houses in central Nigeria to escape ethnic violence. According to officials with the international Red Cross, fighting between two regional ethnic groups began on June 12 when one group blamed the other for the death of its leader.|
26|U.S. President George W. Bush, meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the White House, urges the prime minister to be more receptive to political steps that might jump-start the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Sharon repeats his demand that Palestinian leaders halt all violence in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza for 10 days if the Palestinians want Israel to return to the bargaining table. "If we [negotiate under fire]," the prime minister informs the president, "we will never reach peace." In response, Palestinian Liberation Organization leaders issue a statement that Sharon's demands are "unattainable" and, therefore, proof that he has no intention of renewing meaningful negotiations.|
27|Officials with the Federal Reserve (the Fed), the central bank of the United States, lower short-term interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point. The reduction is the sixth in 2001, a series of cuts that economists interpret as a continuation of the Fed's policy to keep the U.S. economy from dipping into recession. The Fed reduced the federal funds rate--the interest rate on overnight loans between banks--to 3.75 percent, its lowest level since April 1994. It reduced the discount rate on Federal Reserve loans to banks from 3.50 percent to 3.25 percent.|
27|The United Nations (UN) concludes a three-day summit on AIDS with a declaration renewing the world organization's commitment to battling the disease. The UN acknowledges, for the first time, that AIDS is both a medical issue affecting individuals and a political, human rights, and economic threat capable of destabilizing national governments. During the meeting, held at UN headquarters in New York City, delegates set a goal to reduce the number of people infected with AIDS by 25 percent by 2005.|
28|A U.S. federal appeals court reverses an order to break up Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Washington. In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia concludes that the judge who tried Microsoft in 2000 on antitrust charges appeared to be biased against the software maker. However, the appeals court upholds the decision that Microsoft had violated antitrust laws and ordered that a new judge decide the penalty for the violation. In June 2000, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled that Microsoft Corporation be split into two separate companies--one dedicated to Microsoft's Windows operating system and another company dedicated to such applications as Microsoft Office and the Internet Explorer Web browser.|
28|The Serbian government transfers custody of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to the United Nations (UN) International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. The transfer marks the first time that a sovereign state has turned over a former head of state to an international court. The tribunal indicted Milosevic in 1999 for his role in starting four wars against former Yugoslav republics and the Serbian province of Kosovo. The wars left thousands of people dead and tens of thousands of people homeless. Milosevic has been held under arrest in the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade since April 2001 on charges of abuse of power and corruption while in office.|
28|AIDS will kill between 5 million and 7 million people in South Africa by 2011 if treatment continues to remain unavailable to most patients, estimates South Africa's Medicine Research Council. Only a small minority of the 4.7 million South Africans currently infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, have access to key drugs.|
29|The Yugoslav cabinet, a coalition that combines prodemocracy forces with allies of former President Slobodan Milosevic, collapses when the prime minister, Zoran Zizic, resigns to protest the transfer of Milosevic to the custody of the United Nations International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. Serb officials handed Milosevic over to the tribunal on June 28, a move that was denounced by Yugoslavia's president, Vojislav Kostunica. Political experts speculate that the collapse of the Yugoslav government may provide Montenegro with the excuse that many Montenegrins are looking for to opt out of the federation with Serbia.|
30|Vice President Dick Cheney is implanted with a pacemaker-defibrillator, an electrical device to regulate his heartbeat, during a 90-minute operation at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C. According to his physicians, the paper-thin, battery-powered defibrillator is implanted beneath the skin in the vice president's shoulder with wires leading down to his heart. The defibrillator is designed to send an electric surge that jolts the heart back to a normal rhythm when the heart beats either too slow or too fast for an extended period of time. Vice President Cheney, who is 60, has had four heart attacks. The first occurred in 1978 when he was 37 years old.|
