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The number of known asteroids has risen to 100,000. There were 10,000 in 1989 and 1,000 in 1921. By 2020, there will be 853,561.

NASA’s Swift Gamma-ray Burst Explorer Space Telescope Launches

Yasser Arafat dies in a Paris hospital; his death is repeatedly announced and denied.

Afghanistan’s first universal suffrage elections: Amid Karzai is elected.

More than 30 people have been killed in a series of attacks (some of which failed) on Egyptian hotels with Israeli tourists in Taba, Sinai; two Italian women on vacation were among the dead.

Researchers from the National Science Museum of Japan and the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association took the first photographs of a live giant squid in its natural habitat, at a depth of 900 meters. They found it by following the path of sperm whales, their main

First of two Ansari Prize flights of SpaceShipOne; piloted by 62-year-old Mike Melvill; the spacecraft ricochets dozens of times before the pilot successfully stabilizes it.

Italian intelligence services captured 12 members of an Al Qaeda cell in Beirut who were planning an attack on the Italian and American embassies. They also confessed to their involvement in the massacre at the Italian base in Nassyria, Iraq.

In one of the many Israeli raids against Palestinian terrorist groups, 9 members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades were killed in Nablus, including Nader Aswad, who was at the top of the wanted list. The same organization had been hit in Jenin the previous

Israel. The Knesset votes to withdraw from the Gaza-Egypt border and to allow the Egyptian Border Police to be deployed along the demilitarized Egyptian side of the border, reversing its previously stated intention to maintain Israeli control of the border. Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza

Iraq. Twelve Nepalese immigrants, Buddhists, cooks, and cleaners at Morning Star Co. are brutally murdered. One is slaughtered, slowly bled to death, and then decapitated. The others have their throats slit and are then machine-gunned in the head while lying in their own blood. The

Michael Schumacher clinched his seventh Formula 1 World Championship well in advance (he won 12 of the first 13 races!), his fifth consecutive with Ferrari; Ferrari had already won the manufacturers’ championship two weeks earlier.

Fierce fighting is underway in Najaf, Iraq: forces loyal to Moqtada Al Sardr are entrenched around and inside the Mausoleum of Ali, in the city center; after nearly a month of fighting between 3,000 Marines and soldiers of the newly formed Iraqi Army and 1,000-2,000

Two Russian planes departing Moscow exploded in mid-flight within a minute of each other, killing 89; the double attack was carried out by a Chechen group linked to Al Qaeda.

Intel releases Dothan processor made with 90nm (the distance between 360 crystalline silicon atoms), 50nm gate-length, 1.2nm (5 atoms) thick technology; has 140 million transistors running at 2GHz; Philips, Motorola and ST follow soon after

Multiple terrorist attacks involving suicide bombers, hand grenades, and mortar shells targeting crowds during celebrations marking the anniversary of Ayatollah Hussein’s death, a Shiite holiday, have left 271 dead and more than 500 injured in Karbala and Baghdad, Iraq; another 40 have been killed and

George W. Bush announces a “new vision” for the American space program that includes a return to the Moon for a base for exploration of Mars and the Solar System.

The galaxy cluster system 1E 0657-56, better known as the Bullet Cluster, in the constellation Carina, is the result of the head-on collision of two clusters of about 40 galaxies. The two dominant mass distributions can be explained by the hypothesis that the main fraction

Al Qaeda attacks two synagogues in Istanbul, killing 26 (6 Jews, 20 Muslims).

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Two major attacks took place in residential complexes in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 12, 2003. Thirty-nine people were killed and over 200 injured when bombs exploded in three complexes in Riyadh: Dorrat Al Jadawel, Al Hamra Oasis Village, and

The never-ending story of missing solar neutrinos has come to an end: the deficit of approximately 50% of solar neutrinos, now confirmed by five experiments (SAGE, GALLEX, Super-Kamiokande, SNO, Davis), is explained by the detection of all three flavors in the SNO experiment using a

After Gaddafi handed over those responsible for the Lockerbie massacre, the Libyan government approved a $3 billion compensation payment to the families of the victims.

Multiple Islamic terrorist attacks in Mumbai; more than 50 dead

NASA launches the Spitzer Infrared Space Telescope

At the Alcantara base in Brazil, a VLS rocket explodes on the launch pad, killing 21 people.

Uday and Qusay, sons of Saddam Hussein, were killed by American soldiers during the assault on their apartment in Mosul.

Al-Qaeda attack on bus carrying German troops east of Kabul: 4 dead

NASA’s Galex space telescope launches to observe galaxies in ultraviolet light to study their evolution.

American forces capture Baghdad International Airport

US special forces in North and West Iraq, regular troops spread into the South of the country

Asteroid 163693 Atira, approximately 4.8 km in size, is discovered in the asteroid belt. It also has a moon. Atira is a NEO (Near-Earth Object) that will give its name to an entire class of NEOs: the Atira or Aphoele asteroids, whose entire orbits lie

The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates upon reentry at 10,000 km/h, 63 km above Texas and Louisiana; seven victims, including an Israeli and two women, one of Indian origin.

Lawyer Giovanni Agnelli dies; in a difficult moment for FIAT, balanced between fragmentation, the acquisition by GM, the relaunch

The Ariane 5 carrier, modified to carry 10 tons (2 satellites in this case) into orbit, explodes shortly after launch.

Kenya: Al Qaeda attacks a hotel owned by an Israeli and launches two missiles at an Israeli civilian plane (failure to hit): 13 dead, including two Israelis.

A high-ranking al-Qaeda figure, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, is captured.

The Hubble Space Telescope discovered LM60 Quaoar, a Kuiper Belt object that, at 1300 km in diameter, is half the size of Pluto, and orbits about 7 billion km from the Sun (about 2 billion km outside of Pluto).

Ramzi Binalshibh, believed to be one of the main organizers of the September 11, 2001 attacks on America, was arrested after a bloody shootout that left some dead and some wounded.

NASA launches the Aqua satellite to study Earth’s surface, atmosphere, and life at all electromagnetic frequencies.

At Pratica di Mare, the extension of part of NATO to include Russia was signed. This was perhaps the highest point in relations between Russia and NATO, a situation that would not be repeated in the following two decades. The Pratica di Mare agreement also

Moscow Treaty between the USA and Russia for the reduction of nuclear warheads from 6000 to 1600-2200 and for cooperation in the fight against terrorism, particularly against NBC threats

Independence of East Timor from Indonesia

General Motors acquires control of Korean carmaker Daewoo

Israeli tanks and troops invade the autonomous Palestinian territories and isolate Arafat in his building in Ramallah for 5 weeks; a bloody battle takes place in Jenin with hundreds of deaths, mostly Palestinians.

NASA scientists, bombarding dirty ice typical of deep space, prove the presence of amino acids

At least a thousand people die in an ammunition depot explosion in Lagos, Nigeria.

The United States has 10,455 nuclear weapons; Russia has 8,579.

War on Terrorism: Afghanistan, Iraq

The Euro comes into force in 12 states of the European Union: more than 300 million citizens (Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, Finland, Austria, Ireland)

NASA-CNES’s Jason satellite, manufactured by Thales Alenia, studies sea level in correlation with glacier dynamics. It will be the first of a series of Jason missions.

Israel. A series of 23 bombings on Israeli buses by Palestinian terrorists resulted in a total of 236 deaths. During the same period, traffic deaths in Israel remained higher than those from terrorist attacks. Our System 1 (automatic and intuitive) risk perception, as well explained

China joins the WTO (World Trade Organization) by invitation. This is perhaps the final act of what some have called the postmodern empire of the United States, using evocative neologisms such as “empire by invitation” (precisely), “consensual hegemony,” or “liberal leviathan.” In exchange, the members

Mullah Omar surrenders the last Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan: Kandahar

Heavy B-52 bombing of Taliban lines in Afghanistan

The U.S. Senate votes 98-0 and the House 420-1 to give the president the authority to “use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons” responsible for the September 11 attacks.

4:28 PM Italian time: The North Tower collapses, killing approximately 1,400 people.

Hewlett Packard acquired Compaq (64% HP, 36% Compaq), creating a giant with a turnover of $87 billion; the merger was actually approved only in April 2002.

Violence erupts at the G8 summit in Genoa, killing an anti-globalization protester.

“Pearl Harbor” is released in theaters

The Segway Personal Transporter is introduced to the market

The STS100 mission carries into orbit the Italian-American Raffaello module and the Canadian robotic arm of the ISS

United States. Claude Shannon, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, dies. He laid the foundations of modern computer science theory. For example, he established that information is measured in quantities of reduction in ignorance, called bits; a bit is the amount of information needed to halve the

Right-wing leader Sharon wins Israeli elections by a landslide, with double the votes of his opponent Barack.

George W. Bush presents Congress with a tax reform bill that will result in overall savings for taxpayers of $1.6 trillion over the next 10 years. The core of this plan is a significant reduction in tax rates, starting with the lowest, and a significant

Steve Jobs launches the iPod, a portable mini-device for listening to music downloaded from the Internet (sold by Apple for $0.99)

Argentina declares financial default (bankruptcy)

The Russian RD-180 rocket engine, a descendant of the Soviet NK-33 “lunar” rocket, launches its first American Atlas rocket into orbit.

Peruvian President Fujimori resigns, announcing his resignation via fax from Japan, where he has taken refuge after a trip to Asia.

The SAGE and GALLEX experiments, which have been harvesting nearly all the gallium produced on the planet for decades, measure about a hundred events in ten years. The deficit compared to predictions is about 50%. It will later be discovered that this is due to

Massacre of former white British settlers in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)

On September 28, 2000, a new Palestinian Intifada, the second, began. It was sparked by Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon’s twenty-minute walk through the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The outbreak of violence was extremely violent and immediately led to armed clashes. This second intifada followed

Sydney Olympics

The Russian Zvezda module docks with the other two modules of the International Space Station. The Zvezda module is a remnant of the Mir program.

The Codex Tchacos, containing the Gospel of Judas, is acquired by the Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art

Svante Paabo publishes an article in Nature Genetics in which he highlights that Neanderthals, based on the DNA sequencing of some specimens, probably had little genetic variation, as did Homo sapiens, indicating that they were the product of a time when there were very few

The NASDAQ, after having gained 2000% in the last 10 years, lost 30% in the first two weeks of April (9% on April 14th alone) returning to the values of the end of 1999

The U.S. Antitrust Authority condemns Microsoft for monopolistic behavior; the stock loses 15% on the NASDAQ (15 trillion ITL)

NASA’s NEAR spacecraft enters orbit around the near-Earth asteroid “Eros.”

The GlobalStar satellite constellation with 48 mobile telephone communications satellites becomes operational.

China systematically holds down its exchange rate by selling renminbi and buying foreign currency, especially dollars. It already had $3.4 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, and so it adds $360 billion annually. This naturally facilitates exports.