01|The pilot of a U.S. Navy intelligence plane is forced to make an emergency landing on the Chinese island of Hainan after colliding with one of two Chinese fighter jets that were tailing the U.S. aircraft. The aircraft, with a crew of 24 people, was on a surveillance patrol over the South China Sea.|
02|The United States Senate passes by a vote of 59 to 41 the campaign finance reform bill sponsored by Senators John McCain (R., Arizona) and Russell Feingold (D., Wisconsin). Twelve Republicans joined 47 Democrats in passage of the legislation, which was opposed by Republican Senate leaders. The bill calls for banning "soft money" contributions--large, unregulated contributions to national political parties--and regulating the private funding of political advertising.|
02|The prime minister of Yugoslavia, Zoran Djindjic, reveals that there is proof that former President Slobodan Milosevic was behind a pyramid scheme that bilked thousands of Yugoslavians out of as much as $650 million in 1993. Evidence also suggests that Milosevic enriched himself by printing money, which he used to buy U.S. dollars. According to authorities, the practice fueled Yugoslavia's hyperinflation of the early 1990's, which wiped out the savings of most Yugoslavians.|
03|Canadian inspectors order a British military transport ship waiting to dock at the port of Quebec to return to the United Kingdom without unloading its cargo of military transport vehicles. Canadian authorities fear vehicle tires may be contaminated with the virus that causes foot-and-mouth disease in cattle, sheep, and horses. Since mid-February, foot-and-mouth disease has spread from the United Kingdom to France, the Netherlands, and Ireland.|
04|U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell expresses regret for the collision on April 1 of a U.S. Navy electronic surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter jet, but stops short of issuing a public apology. The president of China, Jiang Zemin, insists that the government of the United States must apologize before the 24 crew members of the Navy plane will be released from the Chinese island of Hainan. Bush administration officials claim an apology is unnecessary because the collision occurred over the South China Sea, outside Chinese territory.|
05|A spokesperson for the Japanese government announces that Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori informed his cabinet that he wishes to resign. The prime minister, whose public approval rating has dropped to 4 percent, did not set a definite date for leaving office.|
05|The discovery of 11 planets beyond Earth's solar system is announced this week by an international team of astronomers. The discoveries, which increased to 63 the number of known planets outside the solar system, included one planet in an Earthlike orbit around a sunlike star . The astronomers believe that the planet's orbit lies in a zone that could result in temperatures similar to those on Earth. However, the planet, which is a gaseous giant at least as large as Jupiter, is unlikely to support life. The astronomers theorize that it may be orbited by one or more moons that have environmental conditions similar to those on Earth.|
06|A senior official with the United Nations war crimes tribunal delivers an international warrant to Yugoslavia's minister of justice in Belgrade, the capital, for the arrest of former President Slobodan Milosevic on charges of crimes against humanity. Milosevic is being held in Belgrade's Central Prison for allegedly plundering Yugoslavia's treasury before he was ousted from office in October 2000.|
06|The rate of unemployment in the United States rose from 4.2 percent in February to 4.3 percent in March, announces Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.|
07|A Russian-made MI-17 helicopter crashes into a mountain in central Vietnam, killing the pilot and 16 passengers. The passengers included seven U.S. military personnel and nine Vietnamese who were searching for Americans still missing from the Vietnam War (1957-1975). The flight was part of a major U.S-Vietnamese cooperative search operation for the approximately 2,000 U.S. military service personnel still listed as missing in action in Vietnam.|
08|Tiger Woods wins the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia. The victory makes Woods the first professional golfer to win consecutively the four major championships: the Masters, the Professional Golf Association (PGA) championship, the British Open, and the U.S. Open.|
08|Alejandro Toledo comes in first place in Peru's presidential election but falls short of taking the 50 percent required to avert a runoff election. Toledo will face a former president of Peru, Alan Garcia, in the runoff.|
09|Volunteers work around the clock piling up sandbags to raise levees along the rapidly rising Red River on the Minnesota-North Dakota border. State engineers expect the river, swollen from heavy rains and rapid snow melt, to crest at 22 feet (6.7 meters), 5 feet (1.5 meters) above flood stage.|
09|South Korea recalls its ambassador to Japan in protest of the Japanese education minister's approval of a textbook. South Korea claims the book glosses over Japanese aggression and brutality during World War II (1939-1945). China, Taiwan, and North Korea have also lodged complaints about the book, which was written by academics allied with the highly conservative Society for History Textbook Reform.|
10|The government of the United States declares to the government of China that the United States is "very sorry" for the loss of a Chinese jet pilot at sea on April 1 and for the failure of the crew of a U.S. Navy electronic surveillance plane to request permission before landing on the Chinese island of Hainan.|
10|NATO allows Yugoslav forces into a second area of the demilitarized zone along Serbia's border with Kosovo. The area is adjacent to Medvedja, a Serbian town claimed by ethnic Albanian rebels from Kosovo. To the south, the Macedonian army continues in its campaign to push the ethnic Albanian rebels back across the border into Kosovo. According to NATO officials, the rebels occupied border areas with ethnic Albanian majorities in an attempt to enlarge Kosovo before declaring independence from Serbia.|
11|At least 47 people are crushed to death when a crowd pushing into a stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, stampedes at the start of a professional soccer match. Officials believe that as many as 120,000 people were admitted through the gates of a stadium designed to hold 70,000 spectators.|
11|Police in the Turkish capital of Ankara use tear gas and water cannons to turn back thousands of demonstrators demanding the resignation of Turkey's government. A political dispute between the president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, and the prime minister, Bulent Ecevit, has resulted in the rapid devaluation of the national currency. The Turkish lira is currently worth one quarter of its February 2000 value. The devaluation wiped out much of the savings of Turkey's middle class and plunged the country into an economic recession.|
12|China ends a tense 11-day standoff with the United States with the release of all 24 crew members of a U.S. Navy intelligence plane that was forced to land on the Chinese island of Hainan on April 1.|
12|The mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, declares a state of emergency and orders an 8 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew for all citizens. The actions follow four days of violent demonstrations, looting, and vandalism in which more than 70 people are injured. The rioting was sparked by the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen-ager by a white policeman. The incident was the fourth shooting of a black man by a white policeman in the city since November 2000. The victim was the 15th young black man to be killed by police in Cincinnati since 1995.|
13|Scientists, using computer models, have linked rising ocean temperatures to an increase in greenhouse gases, report researchers from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Washington, D.C. In their models, the researchers factored in greenhouse gases that have been added to the atmosphere by human activities--primarily carbon dioxide from the use of gasoline and other fossil fuels. When they compared the results with actual increases in ocean temperatures over the past 50 years, they found that each set of computer models matched actual ocean temperature increases. According to the researchers, the studies provide strong evidence that human activities have played a major role in warming Earth's climate.|
14|The price of a gallon of unleaded, regular gasoline tops $2 in Chicago after a 25 percent price increase in less than two weeks. Gas prices in Chicago were the highest in the United States.|
15|A force of more than 600 police and paramilitary troops open fire on the southern Chinese village of Yuntang, killing 2 unarmed farmers and wounding 18 others. The villagers of Yuntang have refused for four years to pay local taxes and fees, which they claim are illegal and impossibly high. Local officials claim the villagers are a criminal gang. Experts on Chinese internal affairs describe the situation in Yuntang as an indication of the economic stagnation of the Chinese countryside, where farm prices continue to decline while the rest of the economy booms.|
16|Israel bombs a Syrian radar station in Lebanon, killing three soldiers. The air strike is made in response to the April 14 death of an Israeli soldier killed during a missile attack by Syrian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas. The Syrian government calls the Israeli raid a "dangerous escalation" of violence. Israel last attacked Syrian targets in Lebanon in 1996.|
16|Lee Bong-Ju of South Korea wins the 105th Boston Marathon, completing the race with a winning time of 2:09.43. Catherine Ndereba of Kenya wins the trophy for the race's fastest woman runner with a time of 2:23.53.|
17|Israeli troops occupy Palestinian-controlled portions of the Gaza Strip after completing a series of attacks on Palestinian security posts. According to Israeli officials, the actions were made in retaliation for a Palestinian mortar attack on southern Israel.|
18|The United States Federal Reserve, the nation's central bank, cuts the interest rate on overnight loans between banks from 5 percent to 4.5 percent. The reduction is the fourth cut in short-term interest rates in 2001.|
18|The United States Supreme Court rules in a 5-to-4 decision that race is a legitimate consideration in the redistricting of a congressional district if race is not the sole or controlling consideration. The court case involved a North Carolina Congressional district with a population that was 47 percent black. The plaintiff in the case claimed that the district had been created through the manipulation of racial divisions in order to increase black political power.|
18|Children who spend long periods of time in child care are three times more likely than other children to be judged "behavior problems" in kindergarten, report researchers who conducted a 10-year study sponsored by the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development. The study, the single most comprehensive examination of child care, tracked more than 1,100 preschool children in various child-care situations in 10 cities. The situations ranged from large day-care centers to individuals cared for by relatives and nannies.|
19|Space shuttle Endeavour blasts off from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, for the International Space Station, which is in orbit approximately 225 miles (360 kilometers) above Earth. The shuttle carries a massive robotic arm, which the shuttle crew will install on the international outpost.|
20|A Peruvian Air Force pilot shoots down a civilian aircraft over the Amazon jungle close to the Peru-Brazil border, killing a U.S. missionary and her infant daughter. According to officials with the U.S. Embassy in Lima, the Peruvian capital, the pilot apparently mistook the small plane for a drug-running aircraft. The missionary, Veronica Bowers of the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism, is survived by her husband and a son, who were also aboard the plane.|
21|Canadian police use tear gas, water cannons, and rubber bullets to drive back thousands of antifree-trade demonstrators, protesting outside the Summit of the Americas, a major free trade conference meeting in Quebec City. The protesters oppose the creation of a free-trade zone covering most of the Western Hemisphere.|
21|A gas explosion in a private coal mine operating illegally in Shaanxi Province in Northern China kills 48 miners.|
22|Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and U.S. astronaut Scott Parazynski install a 58-foot (18-meter), 3,600-pound (1,633-kilogram) robotic arm on the exterior of the International Space Station. The arm, officially the Space Station Remote Manipulator System, is a high-tech construction crane that can move end-over-end on the orbiting complex. The crane is Canada's major contribution to the International Space Station.|
22|The Summit of the Americas meeting in Quebec City, Canada, closes with leaders of 34 Western Hemisphere nations signing the Quebec Declaration calling for the creation by 2005 of a hemisphere-wide free-trade zone. The leaders exclude Cuba by voting to limit membership to democratic countries.|
22|American boxer Hasim Rahman knocks out English boxer Lennox Lewis in the fifth round of a match in Brakpan, South Africa, to claim the World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation heavyweight championships. John Ruiz holds the World Boxing Association heavyweight title.|
23|President George W. Bush approves the sale of a range of sophisticated weapons, including eight diesel submarines, to Taiwan. China has long attempted to block the sale of such weapons to Taiwan, which China claims is a renegade province.|
23|One person is killed and two people seriously injured when a tornado with winds of 200 miles (322 kilometers) per hour levels 500 houses in Hoisington, Kansas, a town of 3,100 people, located 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Wichita.|
24|The Mississippi River crests at 22 feet (6.8 meters) at Davenport, Iowa, some 7 feet (2 meters) above flood stage. Flooding along the Mississippi in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois is the second worst on record. In 1993, the Mississippi River crested at Davenport at just over 22 feet.|
24|Japan's Liberal Democratic Party elects Junichiro Koizumi party president, putting him in line to become Japan's next prime minister.|
25|U.S. President George W. Bush, speaking during a television interview, announces that if China were to attack Taiwan, the United States would do "whatever it took" to help Taiwan defend itself.|
25|Police in the Philippines arrest former President Joseph Estrada and his son, Jinggoy, on charges of corruption. Estrada, who was stripped of the presidency in January, is accused of accepting millions of dollars in kickbacks from the operators of illegal gambling casinos.|
25|U.S. airlines are scheduling more flights at peak hours at the nation's four most crowded airports than the runways can handle announce officials of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). According to an FAA study, the overscheduling makes delays in taking off and landing at peak flying times nearly inevitable at La Guardia in New York City; Newark International in Newark, New Jersey; O'Hare International in Chicago; and Hartsfield International at Atlanta, Georgia.|
25|The discovery of a fossil dinosaur with clear traces of feathers from its head to its tail is reported in the journal Nature by a team of researchers led by Ji Qiang, director of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences in Beijing, and Mark Norell, chairman of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. According to the paleontologists, the well-preserved 130-million-year-old fossil, which resembles a duck with a reptilian tail, offers the best evidence yet that feathers predate the origin of birds and that modern birds are descendants of dinosaurs. The research team identified the fossil as a dromaeosaur--a small, fast-running dinosaur related to the velociraptor.|
26|Japan's new prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, names 17 ministers to his cabinet, including 5 women. Makiko Tanaka, the daughter of former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, is named foreign minister. She is the first woman to serve in that post. Koizumi is Japan's 11th prime minister since 1989.|
26|Ukraine's parliament votes overwhelmingly to dismiss Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko and his cabinet. Foreign affairs specialists see the dismissal as a major setback to economic reform that is likely to jeopardize financial support from such international lending agencies as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.|
27|At least 65 people are arrested after placing themselves in the line of fire to protest the resumption of U.S. Navy bombing practice on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. The U.S. Navy resumed the target practice after a federal judge refused to grant the Puerto Rican government a temporary restraining order to stop such exercises. The governor of Puerto Rico claims that pollution from the bombing has caused higher than normal rates of cancer and other illnesses among the 9,400 residents of Vieques Island.|
27|The U.S. economy grew by 2 percent in the first three months of 2001, report officials with the U.S. Treasury Department. The announcement surprises many economists and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who had predicted that the economy had slowed to near zero growth.|
28|A Russian Soyuz rocket lifts off from Kazakhstan for the International Space Station, in orbit approximately 225 miles (360 kilometers) above Earth. The rocket carries two Russian cosmonauts and U.S. businessman Dennis Tito. Tito, a former NASA engineer, is paying $20 million to the Russian space agency to became the world's first "space tourist..|
29|Uganda withdraws from a United Nations-brokered peace agreement designed to bring the civil war in Congo (Kinshasa) to an end. According to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Ugandan troops may return to Congo if the "chaos in the region" continues. Five African nations besides Congo are involved in the war, which began in 1998. Experts in African affairs believe that the withdrawal is in response to an accusation by UN officials that Uganda used the war as an excuse to plunder Congo's wealth of natural resources.|
30|U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney outlines to members of the Associated Press, meeting in Toronto, Canada, details of the Bush administration's energy policy. Pointing to the current dependency on fossil fuels, the vice president announces that the administration aims to increase the supply of fossil fuels, rather than limit demand through conservation. President Bush will push for the passage of legislation that would provide private companies with incentives to explore for new sources for oil and gas within the United States. Under the policy, protected areas, such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, would be opened to oil and gas exploration. The plan also calls for the construction of new electrical generating plants powered by coal and nuclear energy.|
