01|Two Palestinian suicide bombers blow themselves up at opposite ends of a crowded pedestrian mall in Jerusalem moments before a car bomb explodes a block away. The blasts kill 11 Israelis and wound at least 150 others.|
01|Crown Princess Masako of Japan gives birth to her first child, a daughter, in Tokyo. Masako is the wife of Crown Prince Naruhito, heir to the throne of Japan. By tradition, the emperor, Naruhito's father, Akihito, will name the baby in seven days.|
02|A suicide bomber in Haifa, Israel, detonates a bomb in a city bus, killing himself and 15 Israelis. The bombing prompts Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat to order his security police to arrest possible suspects.|
02|U.S. President George W. Bush tells Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at a meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., that Yasir Arafat, chairman of the Palestinian Authority, must be forced to dissolve Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. According to U.S. and Israeli intelligence officials, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad are responsible for training the suicide bombers who killed 26 Israelis in four different bombings in just over 12 hours.|
03|Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel declares war on Palestinian terrorism minutes after Israeli helicopter gunships attack Yasir Arafat's Gaza headquarters, destroying part of the compound, including the helicopter pad and two of the Palestinian leader's personal helicopters. In a televised address, Sharon announces that he holds Arafat directly responsible for the series of bombings since December 1.|
04|The U.S. Department of the Treasury freezes the assets of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, one of the largest Islamic charities in the United States. Federal agents also raid the organization's national headquarters in Richardson, Texas, and its branch offices in Chicago, San Diego, and Paterson, New Jersey. According to Federal Bureau of Investigation reports, the Holy Land Foundation has raised millions of dollars in the United States to fund Hamas, the organization that claimed responsibility for the bombings that killed 26 Israelis on December 1 and 2.|
04|Israel launches wide-ranging attacks on Palestinian targets on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israeli helicopters fire missiles into the personal compound of Yasir Arafat, leader of the Palestinian Authority, punching a hole in a stone wall less than 300 feet (91 meters) from Arafat's office.|
05|U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft refuses to allow officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) access to background checks on people who have purchased guns in the United States. The FBI requested the records to determine if any of the 1,200 people who have been detained in connection with the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11 had legally acquired guns in recent years. A spokesperson for the Justice Department notes that Attorney General Ashcroft had determined that the law creating the background-check system does not permit government use of such records.|
06|Leaders of the Taliban militia agree to surrender Qandahar (Kandahar), the last Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan. U.S. military officers in Afghanistan, however, are uncertain as to the whereabouts of the Taliban regime's spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld insists that Omar must be turned over to the United States for trial as an accomplice in global terrorism for harboring Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorist network.|
07|The rate of unemployment in the United States jumped from 5.4 percent in October to 5.7 percent in November, a six-year high, report officials with the U.S. Department of Labor. U.S. companies cut more than 300,000 jobs in November, bringing the total number of jobs lost in the United States in September, October, and November to nearly 1 million.|
08|Authorities in Wexford, Ireland, discover the bodies of eight refugees, including two children and an infant, hidden in a shipping container supposedly filled with office furniture. Five other people in the container remain alive but in serious condition. Traffickers in illegal immigrants apparently attempted to smuggle the refugees out of Eastern Europe by sealing them in the container, which was shipped to Ireland. Immigrants, legal and illegal, are attracted to Ireland because of its economy, which until recently was the fastest growing in Europe.|
09|Health officials have diagnosed Ebola, one of the most virulent of viral diseases, in Gabon in West Africa, announce officials with the World Health Organization, a United Nations agency that helps build better health systems in developing countries. Ebola, which is passed through contact with bodily fluids, causes severe internal bleeding and is fatal in 50 percent to 90 percent of all cases.|
10|The Taliban regime in Afghanistan is defeated, announces Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz at the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. The collapse of the Taliban comes three months after the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11. The U.S.-led bombing campaign on Afghanistan began on October 7. Wolfowitz notes that the war on terrorism is far from over and that it could take months before the United States is able to track down Osama bin Laden and the remaining members of al-Qaida, bin Laden's terrorist organization.|
11|The Federal Reserve (the Fed), an independent government agency that oversees the U.S. banking system, cuts short-term interest rates for the 11th time in 2001 in an effort to boost the U.S. economy, which most economists believe is in recession. The cut reduces the federal funds rate--the interest rate on overnight loans between banks--from 2 percent to 1.75 percent, the lowest level in 40 years.|
11|The forces of the al-Qaida terrorist network in Afghanistan retreat into the mountains of Afghanistan's rugged Tora Bora region, southeast of Jalalabad. U.S. jets bomb mountain tops as opposition fighters and U.S. troops shell cave complexes, where U.S. intelligence officials believe al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden may be hiding.|
12|Anthrax spores (an inactive form of bacterium) mailed in September and October to various news departments in New York City and Boca Raton, Florida, and to the Washington, D.C., offices of two U.S. senators match a strain of anthrax developed by U.S. Army scientists. Officials at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah announce that anthrax microbes were produced at Dugway, and they were produced in recent years. Their statement is the first indication that the U.S. Army continued to produce the lethal bacterium after the U.S. government formally denounced the production of biological weapons in 1969.|
12|The 11th U.S. Circuit Court in Miami, Florida, sentences Gerardo Hernandez, the leader of a Cuban spy ring, to prison for life without parole for conspiracy to commit espionage and conspiracy to commit murder. Hernandez infiltrated U.S. military bases in order to steal military secrets. According to federal prosecutors, he also was involved in a plot that resulted in Cuban MIG's shooting down two U.S. civilian aircraft over international waters in 1996, resulting in the deaths of four Americans.|
13|The government of Israel breaks off communications with Yasir Arafat, leader of the Palestinian Authority, in response to the bombing of a bus on the West Bank on December 12 that killed 10 Israelis. Members of the militant Islamic group Hamas detonated explosives on the underside of the bus and gunned down passengers as they attempted to flee. Experts on foreign relations in the Middle East equate Israel's severance of ties with Arafat as the complete abandonment of the Oslo Accords, the series of peace agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that were brokered in Oslo, Norway, in 1993.|
13|U.S. President George W. Bush announces that the United States will nullify the Antiballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in 2002. The treaty, signed in 1972 by U.S. and Soviet officials, allows testing of ground-based systems but forbids the deployment of airborne laser interceptors and sea-launched missiles that would form the basis of the missile defense shield the Bush administration intends to build.|
13|Five gunmen storm India's Parliament in New Delhi, the capital, and kill nine people before being shot by security guards. No organization claims responsibility for the attack.|
13|The government of the United States releases a videotape, discovered in late November in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, showing Osama bin Laden discussing first-hand details of how the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11 were planned. Bin Laden, whom U.S. government agents believe is the head of the al-Qaida terrorist network that carried out the attacks, boasts that the damage and loss of life exceeded his wildest expectations.|
14|U.S. Department of the Treasury agents freeze the financial assets of two American Islamic charities, the Global Relief Foundation of Bridgeview, Illinois, and the Benevolence International Foundation of Palos Hills, Illinois. According to agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, both organizations channel money to international terrorists. Spokespersons for the two groups deny the accusations, claiming that Global Relief and Benevolence International exist solely to carry out charitable work in the Islamic world.|
15|A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Defense announces the cancellation of the Navy Area Missile Defense program. The system was to consist of interceptors on ships at sea capable of shooting down short-range ballistic missiles. According to the Bush administration, the navy program was canceled because it was more than 50 percent over budget and had fallen two years behind schedule.|
16|The al-Qaida terrorist network has been destroyed in Afghanistan, announces U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who adds that U.S. intelligence agents in Afghanistan have not been able to find the al-Qaida leader, Osama bin Laden. The commander of the U.S. military operation in Afghanistan, Gen. Tommy R. Franks, notes that the mountainous region of Tora Bora, southeast of Jalalabad, is subdued but not yet fully under U.S. control.|
16|Palestinian Authority leader Yasir Arafat tells the Palestinian people in a nationally televised speech to end all suicide bombings and terrorist attacks against Israel. Arafat vows to hunt down anyone who violates his ceasefire orders.|
17|U.S. Marines hoist the American flag over the newly opened U.S. embassy in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul. American officials abandoned the embassy in 1989 when Afghanistan fell into chaos after the withdrawal of the Soviet invaders left the country in the control of local warlords.|
18|Police in Argentina stand guard around supermarkets in Buenos Aires, the capital, to protect the city's food supply from looters. Provincial governors are appealing to President Fernando de la Rua for emergency food aid because mobs in cities outside the capital have stripped bare grocery stores shelves. The nationwide rioting began as protests over the variety of austerity measures that Rua's government has imposed in an effort to stave off economic collapse.|
19|AT&T agrees to sell its broadband unit, which includes cable-television and cable-Internet businesses, to Comcast Corp., a large cable television firm based in Philadelphia, for approximately $72 billion in stock and assumed debt. The combined company, to be called AT&T Comcast Corporation, will have more than 22 million subscribers, almost twice as many as its nearest competitor, AOL Time Warner of New York City.|
20|The president of Argentina, Fernando de la Rua, resigns two years into a four-year term, in the face of a widening economic crisis. Government-imposed austerity measures to stave off economic collapse triggered days of violent demonstrations and looting in Buenos Aires, the capital, resulting in the deaths of 20 people.|
21|U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld orders additional American soldiers into Afghanistan's rugged Tora Bora region to search the area's many caves for Osama bin Laden and other leaders of the al-Qaida terrorist network. According to an U.S. officer, officials with the U.S.-led coalition against terrorism are screening an estimated 7,000 prisoners, taken in the Tora Boa region, to determine their involvement, if any, with al-Qaida and the Taliban regime that harbored bin Laden.|
21|A government spokesperson in India's capital, New Delhi, announces that India is recalling its ambassador to Pakistan. The spokesperson claims that India has shown the United States and other governments involved in the U.S.-led war on terrorism evidence that proves that two Islamic militant groups based in Pakistan--Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pure) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (Army of Mohammad)--were involved in the December 13 attack on India's Parliament.|
22|A interim government, headed by the Afghan tribal leader Hamid Karzai, assumes power in Afghanistan as chairman of a 30-person Cabinet. Karzai is sworn into office in the capital, Kabul, before an array of Afghan leaders. The inauguration is attended by U.S. government and military officials, including General Tommy R. Franks, who commanded the U.S.-led military campaign that brought down Afghanistan's Taliban regime on December 10. After taking office, Karzai presides over the swearing in of the members of his Cabinet. Under terms brokered by the United Nations (UN), the Cabinet is to administer Afghanistan for six months in what UN officials call the first phase of a political transition. The transition is to culminate in national elections within two and a half years.|
22|The state of Pennsylvania takes over the city of Philadelphia's public school system, which has a long history of problems, including an operating deficit of $200 million for the 2001-2002 school year. A five-person, state-controlled panel is to administer the system, which includes 260 schools with 220,000 students. Philadelphia's board of education, whose members were appointed by the mayor, is suspended for an indefinite period of time.|
22|American Airlines Flight 633, bound from Paris to Miami, Florida, makes an emergency landing in Boston after crew members and passengers subdue a man who attempts to set fire to a fuse attached to his sneaker.|
23|Federal Bureau of Investigation officials announce that the man who attempted to light a fuse attached to his sneaker aboard American Airlines Flight 633 on December 22 had enough "functional explosives" concealed in his shoes to blow up the plane. A spokesperson from the office of the U.S. attorney general identifies the suspect as a British man named Richard C. Reid. However, officials in Paris, where the man boarded the Boeing 767 with 185 passengers and 12 crew members bound for Miami, Florida, claim the man is a Sri Lankan national named Tariz Raja.|
23|The new interim president of Argentina, Adolfo Rodriquez Saa, suspends payments on $132 billion in debts immediately upon taking office. The default is the largest in history. Saa replaces President Fernando de la Rua, who was driven from office after a week of looting and violence in Buenos Aires, the capital, left at least 25 people dead. Saa is a leader of the Justicialist or Peronist Party.|
24|Emergency airdrops of food and other humanitarian supplies in Afghanistan have been suspended, announce officials with the U.S. Department of Defense, because most of Afghanistan's civilian population can now be reached by truck. Aircrews in C-17 cargo planes began dropping food, winter clothing, and other relief supplies into Afghanistan when the United States-bombing campaign began there in October.|
25|More than 100 brush fires burn out of control across the Australian state of New South Wales, forcing state officials to close highways and railroads and local residents to evacuate burning houses. The fires are being fanned by winds blowing at 55 miles (88 kilometers) per hour. The winds blow dense smoke into Sydney, Australia's largest city. More than 5,000 firefighters battle the fires, which have burned across thousands of acres, killing large numbers of sheep and cattle, since the first broke out on December 20.|
26|The governments of India and Pakistan mass troops along their common border and place their missile systems on full alert. Both countries have nuclear devices among their weapon systems. The escalation of tension between India and Pakistan was triggered by an assault on the India's Parliament in New Delhi, the capital, on December 13. India blames Pakistan for harboring two Islamic groups that India alleges were involved in the attack that left seven Indians dead. The aim of both militant groups is to end Indian rule of Jammu and Kashmir, which Pakistan claims.|
27|A unanimous verdict is required before a sentence of death can be imposed by U.S. military tribunals that may be used to try members of the al-Qaida network of terrorists, according to a set of rules drafted by senior Bush administration officials. However, a two-thirds vote by a panel of military officers can determine a verdict of guilty. The draft regulations specify that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt but that the military tribunal may allow the introduction of hearsay and other kinds of evidence typically excluded from a civil trial.|
28|Buffalo, New York, receives 33.6 inches (85 centimeters) of snow in 24 hours, bringing the total amount of snow that has fallen in the city since December 24 to at least 81.5 inches (207 centimeters) or nearly 7 feet (2 meters), a new record.|
28|Exploding fireworks at dozens of sidewalk stands in Peru's capital, Lima, spark an enormous fire that consumes more than four blocks in the city's historic center. The blaze kills nearly 300 people, primarily holiday shoppers and vendors trapped on narrow streets between walls of flames.|
29|Argentina's interim leader, Afolfo Rodriques Saa, who took office on December 23, resigns in the face of continuing violent public protests at the government's attempts to institute economic reforms.|
30|Authorities in Pakistan arrest Islamic militant Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pure), an organization that India blames for the suicide squad attack on the Indian Parliament in New Delhi on December 13. India also demands that Pakistan shut down a second militant Islamic group--Jaish-e-Muhammad (Army of Muhammad)--whose leader, Maulana Masood Azhar, is already under arrest in connection with the attack. International-affairs experts predict that the arrest of the two Islamic militants will ease tensions between India and Pakistan, whose armed forces are on full alert.|
31|U.S. Marines advance into the mountains of central Afghanistan to join the hunt for Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban spiritual leader who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to December 2001. The Marines join thousands of Afghan soldiers in the search for Omar, who is reported to be protected by a force of up to 3,000 loyalists.|
31|The European Union (EU) distributes to banks and businesses a total of $640 billion in euros, the EU common currency. The currency is to go into general use at midnight in 12 of the 15 EU member nations. Economists describe the change-over as the largest transaction in the history of money.|
