01|President Vicente Fox of Mexico defends the pace at which his administration is attempting to reform the government in his first state of the nation address. Speaking before Congress in Mexico City, the capital, Fox downplays recent economic stagnation and promises that better economic times are ahead, noting that salaries are higher and interest rates lower since he took office in 2000. Fox's proposal to levy a 15 percent sales tax on food meets with loud opposition, particularly from members critical of Fox's failure to resolve a Zapatista Indian uprising in the southern state of Chiapas.|
02|A 10-year-old boy dies of wounds after being attacked by a shark in about 4 feet (1.2 meters) of water at Virginia Beach, Virginia. The incident is the first fatal shark attack in the United States in 2001 and the first shark attack in the Virginia Beach area in 30 years.|
03|St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bud Smith throws a no-hitter as the Cardinals defeat the San Diego Padres 4-0 in San Diego. Smith, a 21-year-old rookie, becomes the 16th rookie in modern baseball history to allow no hits during a nine-inning game.|
03|U.S. and Israeli delegates walk out of the United Nations World Conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa, after representatives of various Arab nations refuse to redraft a document condemning Israel and the "racist practices of Zionism." Zionism was a movement that began in the 1800's to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine, an area of the Middle East that was then under the control of the Ottoman Turks. The Zionist movement ultimately led to the founding of Israel in 1948.|
04|Former Attorney General Janet Reno, the longest serving U.S. attorney general in U.S. history, announces her intention to seek the Democratic nomination for the office of governor of Florida. Reno served in the Clinton administration for eight years.|
04|Phil Gramm, the senior U.S. senator from Texas and a vocal advocate for less government and lower taxes, announces that he will leave office when his current term expires in 2002. Two other senior Republican senators, Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and Jesse Helms of North Carolina, also have announced their intention to retire at the end of their current terms.|
05|Protestant extremists in Belfast, Northern Ireland, hurl a homemade fire bomb at girls crossing into a Protestant area on their way to a Roman Catholic grammar school. The explosion seriously injures four police officers escorting the children. The school is located 750 feet (230 meters) across the boundary that divides Catholic and Protestant sections of the same Belfast neighborhood.|
06|The government of the United States drops its claim that Microsoft Corp., of Redmond, Washington, "tied" its Web browser to its Windows operating system illegally, announce officials of the U.S. Department of Justice. Although the government continues to regard Microsoft as a monopoly, the Justice Department no longer intends to break the company apart.|
07|Businesses in the United States eliminated more than 100,000 jobs in August, driving the U.S. employment rate up to 4.9 percent from 4.5 percent in July, announce officials with the Bureau of Labor Statistics.|
08|The president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, calls out the army in an attempt to stop fighting between Muslims and Christians in Jos, a city of approximately 4 million people in northern Nigeria. Authorities in Lagos, the capital, report that at least 70 people have been killed since the latest outbreak of violence began on September 7, when a Christian woman angered a group of Muslim men by attempting to cross a street where they were praying.|
08|Venus Williams retains her United States Open women's tennis championship for the second straight year by defeating her sister Serena, 6-2, 6-4.|
09|Aleksandr Lukashenko claims victory with more than 75 percent of the vote in his bid for reelection as president of Belarus. Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and Lukashenko's opponent, Vladimir Goncharik, accuse Lukashenko and his followers of rigging the vote in the country's first presidential election in seven years.|
09|Barry Bonds, a left fielder with the San Francisco Giants, slugs his 63rd home run during the 2001 season, breaking Roger Maris's once-golden 61-home-run record made in 1961. The current record for the most home runs in a single season is held by Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals, who completed 70 home runs in 1998. Bond's 63rd homer in 2001, his third of the day, lifts the Giants to a 9-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies in Denver.|
09|Australian tennis player Lleyton Hewitt defeats four-time U.S. Open champion Pete Sampras, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1, 6-1, to take the 2001 U.S. Open title.|
09|A suicide bomber, disguised as a journalist carrying a television camera that is packed with explosives, assassinates Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of Afghanistan's last remaining group opposing the ruling Taliban. The murder takes place in Massoud's headquarters in Afghanistan's northeastern Takhar region.|
10|Two Turkish policemen are killed and 13 officers are injured when a suicide bomber approaches a security detail in Taksim Square in Istanbul and detonates explosives wrapped around his body. Turkish officials suggest that the bomber was a member of the left-wing Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, which supports the 10-month hunger strike staged by hundreds of inmates in Turkish prisons.|
11|Terrorists crash two hijacked commercial airliners into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, causing both of the 110-story buildings to collapse. A third hijacked airline dives into the Pentagon, the Arlington, Virginia, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, triggering a massive fire and the collapse of a section of the huge five-sided structure. A fourth hijacked airliner crashes into a field in western Pennsylvania. Officials in New York City and Washington, D.C., estimate that as many as 6,000 people are killed in the attacks.|
12|The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) responds to the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States by invoking Article 5 of the NATO charter, announces NATO secretary general George Robertson at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Article 5 stipulates that an attack on one member nation is considered to be an attack on the entire organization. The clause has never before been invoked.|
13|Federal authorities announce that they have identified most of the hijackers responsible for the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Investigators believe that some of the suspected hijackers had ties to the organization of Osama bin Laden, an exiled Saudi Arabian millionaire accused of backing many large-scale terrorist activities. Authorities believe bin Laden works out of Afghanistan, where the ruling Taliban has granted him asylum.|
13|More than 5,300 people are missing or are known to be dead from the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, announces New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Pentagon officials estimate that approximately 200 people died in the attack on the Defense Department headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. United Airlines and American Airlines officials believe there were 265 people killed aboard the four planes hijacked on September 11.|
14|The U.S. Justice Department releases the names of 19 men that department officials believe hijacked four commercial airlines on September 11 and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., and in an open field near Pittsburgh. The 19 men are believed to have been operatives in a close-knit terrorist organization directed by Osama bin Laden, a exiled Saudi millionaire who lives in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban.|
15|At least five people are killed when a 160-foot (49-meter) section of the only bridge connecting South Padre Island with Port Isabel, Texas, collapses and falls 85 feet (30 meters) into the Laguna Madre, which is part of the Intracoastal Waterway along the Texas Gulf Coast. The bridge, the Queen Isabella Causeway, collapses after being hit by a tug boat and four barges loaded with steel coils and phosphate.|
16|The president of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, agrees to send a team of high-ranking military officers to Afghanistan to relay an ultimatum from U.S. President George W. Bush. The government of the United States demands that the Taliban, the fundamentalist Islamic organization that controls most of Afghanistan, hand over Osama bin Laden and his top associates or face almost certain U.S. military action. U.S. officials believe bin Laden masterminded and funded the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., which resulted in the deaths of nearly 6,000 people.|
17|The Fed Reserve, the FED, the central bank of the United States, cuts interest rates for the eighth time in 2001. The FED lowers the federal funds target rate on overnight loans from 3.5 percent to 3 percent and the discount rate from 3 percent to 2.5 percent.|
17|The Dow Jones industrial average of 30 companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange closes down 684.81 points on the first day of trading since the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center. The one-day point loss is the greatest in the history of the exchange. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index of 500 companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange finishes the day down 53.77 points. The Nasdaq Composite Index of stocks traded on the technology heavy Nasdaq electronic stock markets ends the day down 115.82 points.|
18|Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta announces that he expects the U.S. Congress and President George W. Bush to approve a major assistance package for U.S. airlines as early as the week of September 24. The announcement comes after executives with U.S. airlines testify before Congressional leaders that the economic impact of the September 11 terrorist attacks left the airline industry on the verge of collapse. The airlines lost between three and four days of revenue when commercial flights in the United States were grounded after terrorists hijacked and crashed four jets. Economists estimate that with many people choosing not to travel by air, airline revenues are running at 40 to 50 percent of normal levels. They suggest that airlines may be forced to layoff as many as 100,000 employees.|
18|Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat orders Palestinian Authority security forces to hold their fire even in self-defense. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon responds by ordering Israeli troops to refrain from any offensive action and to pull out of Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank or Gaza. Arafat describes the cease-fire as a voluntary act of antiterrorism made in response to the attacks that left nearly 6,000 people dead in the United States on September 11.|
19|U.S. President George W. Bush orders American ships, bombers, and other military aircraft to move within striking distance of Afghanistan.|
20|U.S. President George W. Bush, addressing a joint session of Congress, demands that the leaders of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban turn over without further negotiation Osama bin Laden and other members of bin Laden's terrorist organization, Al Qaeda. Warning the people of the United States to expect a long campaign, the president notes that Afghanistan faces certain military attack by the United States if Taliban leaders refuse to cooperate. The president also declares that every nation must chose sides in the conflict against a terrorist network that involves thousands of people in more than 60 countries around the world.|
21|The leaders of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban refuse to turn Osama bin Laden over to the United States. Bin Laden is the prime suspect behind the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. According to the Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan, the Taliban will not surrender bin Laden and his associates because the United States had not provided any proof of his guilt.|
21|The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives pass a $15-billion package to bail out financially ailing U.S. airlines. The agreement includes $5 billion in direct aid, the amount that airline executives claim their companies lost in September due to the government-ordered grounding of flights following the hijacking and crashing of four U.S. carriers on September 11.|
21|The Dow Jones industrial average of 30 companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange closes the week down nearly 1,370 points, or 14.3 percent. The drop is the biggest percentage loss on the exchange since the bottom of the Great Depression in July 1933.|
22|Pope John Paul II arrives in the predominantly Islamic nation of Kazakhstan for a six-day stay. Speaking at the airport in Astana, the capital, the pope asks that world leaders attempt to settle political controversies through dialogue rather than force.|
22|Elizabeth Dole announces her intention to seek the Republican nomination for a seat in the U.S. Senate representing North Carolina. Dole served as U.S. secretary of transportation in the Reagan administration, secretary of labor in the George H. W. Bush administration, and is a former president of the American Red Cross. She changed her voter registration from Kansas to North Carolina, where she was born, after Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina announced his intention to retire at the end of his term in 2002.|
23|Condoleezza Rice, national security adviser to U.S. President George W. Bush, announces that government investigators have uncovered "very good evidence" linking men associated with Osama bin Laden's organization, Al Qaeda, with the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. Investigators have also connected an Egyptian surgeon, Ayman al-Zawahiri, with Al Qaeda and believe he is bin Laden's chief lieutenant. Al-Zawahiri, who joined in an alliance with bin Laden in 1998, led the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group that experts claim assassinated Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat in 1981.|
24|U.S. President George W. Bush freezes all financial assets in the United States belonging to individuals and groups associated with terrorism. The president authorizes U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill to impose sanctions on non-U.S. banks that offer terrorists access to the international financial systems.|
24|The U.S. House of Representatives votes to release $582 million that the United States owes in back dues to the United Nations. The Senate had passed the same bill in February.|
25|NASA scientists announce that an unmanned space probe, Deep Space 1, traveled within 1,400 miles (2,250 kilometers) of the comet Borrelly, located 136 million miles (219 million kilometers) from Earth. Photographs taken from the probe are providing scientists with their first close-up of the core, or nucleus, of a comet.|
25|Michael Jordan, who led the Chicago Bulls to six National Basketball Association titles, announces that he is coming out of retirement to play with the Washington Wizards. As a player, Jordan will be forced to sell his financial interest in the team.|
26|A mob of several thousand men riot outside the abandoned U.S. embassy in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. Chanting "long live Osama bin Laden," the mob sets fire to the compound, vacated by U.S. officials in 1989, as well as to vehicles parked in the area. Hundreds of thousands of residents of Kabul, fearing an attack by the United States, have fled into the countryside. The United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that as many as 6 million of Afghanistan's 25 million people are currently in need of food or shelter. The ruling Taliban seized control of UN food warehouses in Afghanistan, effectively shutting down all UN humanitarian operations.|
27|Afghanistan's ruling Taliban claims to have located Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, and asked him to leave the country. According to Afghanistan's ambassador to Pakistan, the Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, has endorsed a decision by the council of religious scholars to inform bin Laden that he is no longer welcome and should leave Afghanistan voluntarily.|
28|The newly created Homeland Security Council will be similar to the National Security Council but focused on preventing terrorism within the United States, announces Andrew Card, President George W. Bush's chief of staff. The council is to be headed by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, who will be part of the Cabinet. Ridge will oversee a board that is to include the attorney general, secretaries of agriculture, defense, health and human services, and transportation, and heads of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. President Bush announced the creation of the Homeland Security Council when he addressed a joint session of Congress on September 20 in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.|
29|The observation deck at the Empire State Building, once again New York City's tallest skyscraper, reopens after being closed for security reasons in the wake of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center. All visitors to the observation platform must pass through an X-ray machine before entering an elevator to the 86th floor. The open-air deck will remain closed on weekdays to protect the security of the structure's several thousand daily tenants.|
30|Israeli soldiers shoot at least 10 Palestinians, killing 3 of them, in Ram Allah on the West Bank, during two days of demonstrations marking the beginning of a second year of intifada in the Middle East. Palestinians attack dozens of Israelis during the clashes. At least 650 Palestinians and 170 Israelis have died since the violence began in September 2000.|
