01|At least 38 people are killed when a Pakistan-based militant group, the Army of the Prophet Muhammad, stages a suicide car bombing at the main gate of the Legislative Assembly building in Srinagar, the summer capital of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmir is claimed by both India and Pakistan, which have fought two wars over the territory.|
01|The U.S.S. Kitty Hawk leaves its home port in Yokosuka, Japan, for the Arabian Sea. The Kitty Hawk is the third U.S. aircraft carrier to be ordered into the Arabian Sea or Persian Gulf. Military experts believe the carriers could be used as secure bases of operations from which American troops could be ferried by helicopter into Afghanistan.|
02|The Federal Reserve, the FED, the central bank of the United States, cuts short-term interest rates for the ninth time in 2001. The FED lowers the federal funds target rate on overnight loans among banks from 3 percent to 2.5 percent, a 39-year low. The interest rate on loans to banks from the Federal Reserve is cut from 2.5 percent to 2 percent.|
02|NATO officials, speaking at the alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, confirm that the United States has presented "clear and compelling" evidence that Osama bin Laden was involved in the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair declares that bin Laden was responsible and warns Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to either give him up or "face the consequences." Taliban leaders have admitted that bin Laden remains in Afghanistan under their protection.|
03|The genome (total amount of genetic information) of the bacterium that causes plague has been decoded, announce biologists at the Sanger Center at Cambridge, England. Scientists believe that decoding the genome of plague will lead to better vaccines. Plague, which killed at least 200 million people in three different worldwide epidemics, reappears regularly in certain areas of the world, including western United States. Military experts believe the plague bacterium could be used as a possible agent of biological warfare because it is almost always fatal when inhaled.|
04|The Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, located on the bank of the Potomac River opposite Washington, D.C., reopens after being closed for three weeks for security reasons in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. A no-fly zone over the area of the capital dominated by such government buildings as the White House and Capitol remains in effect.|
04|A Sibir Airlines jet, on a charter flight from Israel to Novosibirsk in Siberia, explodes over the Black Sea approximately 114 miles (183 meters) from Adler, a Russian coastal city on the Georgian border. All 64 passengers and 12 crew members are killed. U.S. officials in Washington, D.C., believe the plane may have been downed by a surface-to-air missile fired accidentally by the Ukrainian military, which was conducting training exercises.|
05|Ariel Sharon, prime minister of Israel, accuses the government of the United States of attempting to appease the Arab world at Israel's expense. The Bush administration has placed Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat under intense pressure to negotiate peace in the Middle East in the hope of coaxing Arab nations into a coalition against terrorism.|
05|U.S. companies cut 199,000 jobs in September, announce officials with the U.S. Department of Labor. The reduction is the largest in a single month since February 1991, when the United States was last in a recession.|
05|Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants hits his 71st and 72nd home runs of the 2001 baseball season, breaking Mark McGwire's record of 70 home runs in a single season less than 24 hours after tying it. McGwire set the previous single-season home run record in 1998.|
06|Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven nations -- Canada, Italy, Japan, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States -- pledge to work together to fight off a world recession by promoting growth in the global economy. Meeting in Washington, D.C., the group also vows to wipe out "the scourge of terrorism" by tracking down and intercepting terrorist assets.|
07|U.S. and British forces launch air and missile strikes against Afghanistan. The offensive, the first in a campaign that military experts believe will be long and difficult, are aimed specifically at the ruling Taliban and terrorists harbored by the Taliban. U.S. officials believe that terrorists headquartered in Afghanistan are responsible for the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and on the Pentagon, outside Washington, D.C.|
07|Osama bin Laden, who U.S. officials believe masterminded the September 11 terrorists attacks on the United States, appears on television on a popular Arabic satellite channel minutes after the start of the U.S. and British bombing of Afghanistan. In a video-taped speech, bin Laden calls on all Muslims to join a jihad, or holy war, against the United States and the culture of the West.|
08|Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents are investigating anthrax contamination in South Florida, announces U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. The FBI sealed off the offices of American Media Inc., of Boca Raton, Florida -- publisher of supermarket tabloids, such as the National Inquirer and The Star -- after a second American Media employee was found to have been exposed to anthrax spores. Another American Media employee died of the rare disease on October 5.|
08|Palestinian security troops that are part of Yasir Arafat's police force open fire on some 2,000 university students rampaging through the streets of Gaza City, chanting "Bin Laden, bin Laden!" as they set fire to buildings and cars. Two Palestinian youths are killed and 40 others are wounded during the demonstration against the allied bombing of Afghanistan. Experts consider the Islamic University in Gaza City a stronghold of the radical Hamas movement and Islamic fundamentalists.|
08|At least 118 people are killed when a Scandinavian Airlines System's MD-87 slams into a baggage terminal at the Linate Airport in Milan, Italy, after colliding with a small private jet that strayed onto the runway during a heavy fog.|
09|U.S. President George W. Bush announces that his administration will no longer make classified information available to all members of Congress. In the future, such information will be shared only with the four majority and minority leaders of the House and Senate and with leading Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. The president accuses various members of Congress of undermining U.S. intelligence and endangering American security by leaking classified information to the media.|
10|U.S. long-range bombers and fighter jets pound barracks, garrisons, and troop encampments across Afghanistan in the heaviest airstrike yet against Taliban ground forces. The U.S. aircraft also target Kabul, the capital, and Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold.|
10|U.S. President George W. Bush announces the creation of a "most wanted" list of terrorists and discloses that the government of the United States is offering rewards of up to $5 million for the capture of Osama bin Laden and 21 other international terrorists believed to have masterminded the September 11 attacks on the United States.|
10|A third employee of American Media Inc., which publishes supermarket tabloids, tests positive for exposure to anthrax, a rare but deadly disease that experts have long feared might be used in biological warfare. According to Guy Lewis, U.S. attorney for the southern district of Florida, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is now conducting a "criminal investigation" into how anthrax spores were introduced into the American Media's office in Boca Raton, Florida.|
10|The five major U.S. television news organizations -- the Cable News Network, ABC News, CBS News, the Fox News Channel, and NBC News -- agree to edit Osama bin Laden's videotaped statements before broadcasting them. The agreement to remove language the government considers inflammatory is made in response to a warning by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice that bin Laden's public statements may include coded messages to incite terrorists to violence against Americans.|
11|The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) alerts all local law enforcement agencies in the United States to be on the highest alert for the possibility of another terrorist attack. Citizens also are asked to be on the alert and to immediately notify the FBI or local law enforcement agencies of any suspicious activity. According to FBI officials, government agents have uncovered evidence suggesting that another attack could take place either in the United States or against U.S. interests overseas over the next few days.|
12|A secretary in the New York City office of NBC network anchor Tom Brokaw has been diagnosed with anthrax, report officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The anthrax spores arrived in a letter addressed to Brokaw, which was delivered to NBC news headquarters at Rockefeller Center in late September.|
12|Thousands of Pakistani protesters, demonstrating against Pakistan's cooperation in current U.S. military attacks on Afghanistan, rampage through the streets of Karachi, chanting "death to America" as they smash windows and set fire to cars.|
13|An additional five employees of American Media Inc., the Boca Raton, Florida-based publisher of newspaper tabloids, have tested positive for exposure to anthrax, report officials with the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia. In New York City, a second NBC employee at the network's news headquarters develops symptoms of the rare disease.|
14|At least 200 people are killed in two days of riots in Kano, a city in northern Nigeria. Government officials in Lagos, the capital, claim that the riots began when Muslims, protesting the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan, started attacking Christians. Approximately half of Nigeria's 120 million people are Muslims, who live primarily live in the north. The other half are Christians, who dominate the south.|
15|A letter mailed to the offices of U.S. Senator Thomas A. Daschle (D., South Dakota), the Senate majority leader, tests positive for anthrax bacteria. Members of Daschle's staff are treated with antibiotics.|
15|The U.S. Department of Defense orders AC-130 Spectre gunships into service over Afghanistan. AC-130's are huge turboprop airplanes designed to carry out air attacks on convoys or large concentrations of troops. Their port sides are equipped with 25-millimeter Gatling guns and computer-controlled 40-millimeter and 105-millimeter cannons that can remain on target even as the planes bank and fly in circles. Experts on military affairs speculate that the introduction of the heavily armed, but slow-moving AC-130's suggests that Taliban air defenses are essentially disabled.|
16|The anthrax bacteria mailed to the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle is a highly potent, airborne strain that government health officials describe as "weapons grade" and so "fine and pure" that it dispersed invisibly through the senator's Washington, D.C. office. Officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reveal that the letter to Daschle containing the anthrax was almost certainly addressed by the same person who mailed an envelope containing anthrax spores to news anchor Tom Brokaw at NBC news headquarters in New York City. Both letters were postmarked Trenton, New Jersey.|
16|AIDS is the leading cause of death in South Africa. South Africa's Medical Research Council reports that AIDS-related illnesses result in more than 40 percent of all deaths in the nation. The rate of death among South African women in their 20's is now higher than the rate of death in women in their 60's.|
17|The United States House of Representatives temporarily adjourns and all Senate and House office buildings are closed after at least 30 people who work in and around the Capitol test positive to exposure to anthrax. Federal health officials fear the potentially deadly bacteria may have spread throughout the Capitol complex. The Senate remains in session.|
17|Anthrax spores are discovered in the New York City offices of New York State Governor George Pataki.|
17|Gunmen assassinate Rehavam Zeevi, an ultranationalist member of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Cabinet, at the entrance of Zeevi's room at the Hyatt Hotel in Jerusalem. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Palestinian terrorist organization, claims responsibility and characterizes the murder as a revenge shooting for the killing of their leader, Mustafa Zibri. Zibri died on August 27 in a targeted Israeli rocket attack.|
18|The government of China welcomes U.S. President George W. Bush to Shanghai by issuing a statement in Beijing, the capital, strongly supporting the United States in its war on terrorism, specifically in its attack on the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Chinese President Jiang Zemin is scheduled to meet with Bush in Shanghai, where the U.S. president is attending an Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting.|
19|More than 350 people drown when a small, wooden ship sinks off the coast of Indonesia. Survivors claim the vessel -- overloaded with at least 420 passengers -- quickly filled with water after the engines stalled. Most of the victims were refugees from Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, the West Bank, or the Gaza Strip who had paid as much as $4,000 apiece to be smuggled into Australia.|
20|Indian government officials report the deaths of at least 73 people in massive flooding in the town of Kurnool, located 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Hyderabad in the southern Indian state of Adhra Pradesh.|
21|U.S. President George W. Bush authorizes the Central Intelligence Agency to do whatever is necessary to eradicate the Al Qaeda terrorist network, including killing its founder, Osama bin Laden. According to a spokesperson for the Bush administration, $1 billion is being allocated to fund the operation.|
21|U.S. war planes attack the front line of the Taliban's ground forces in Afghanistan. The line, consisting of a series of trenches, bunkers, and minefields some 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of the capital, Kabul, separates Taliban forces from the opposing Northern Alliance. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell describes the air raid as an advance action to assist Northern Alliance forces to push forward in an attempt to take Kabul.|
22|Two postal employees at the central mail processing center in Washington, D.C., have died of pulmonary-type anthrax, announce federal health officials. The officials believe the two victims were exposed to the bacterium when a letter carrying the anthrax addressed to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle passed through the main post office. Two additional postal employees were hospitalized after they were found to have inhaled the bacterium. Traces of anthrax have been discovered at a U.S. Post Office sorting center near Capitol Hill and in the U.S. Senate and House mailrooms.|
22|Government troops level four villages in central Nigeria after executing at least 200 of the inhabitants. Local authorities believe the massacre is in response to the October 12 abduction and murder of 19 Nigerian soldiers in what Nigerian officials describe as a continuing ethnic conflict in the region.|
23|Irish Republican Army (IRA) leaders announce that they are dismantling the arsenal of weapons and bombs with which the military organization conducted a 30-year terrorist campaign to unite Northern Ireland with the independent country of Ireland. On October 22, leaders of the political branch of the IRA, Sinn Fein, publicly urged the IRA to begin the disarming in order to rescue the collapsing Northern Ireland peace process. However, experts on the politics of Northern Ireland suggest that Irish-American supporters, a major source of IRA funding, began pushing for disarmament in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.|
23|Anthrax spores are discovered on a letter-slitting machine at a military facility that handles mail addressed to the president of the United States. The facility is located on a military base outside Washington, D.C. Health officials claim that no resident of or employee at the White House has tested positive for exposure to the bacteria.|
24|Two trucks, one loaded with tires, crash head-on in Switzerland's St. Goatherd Tunnel, killing at least 30 people. The crash sparks a fire that reaches 1,800 degrees F (982 degrees C), turning cars and trucks into molten metal and bringing down sections of the ceiling in the 10-mile (16-kilometer) tunnel used by an estimated 19,000 vehicles daily.|
24|An early blizzard piles snow into drifts as high as 2 feet (0.6 meters) in parts of North Dakota, setting a new state record for an October snowfall.|
25|The United States Senate votes 98 to 1 in favor of an antiterrorism bill that expands the ability of the government to conduct electronic surveillance and relaxes the conditions under which judges authorize wiretaps. The bill gives the government the power to jail immigrants for limited periods without charging them with crimes. It also grants federal prosecutors the authority to open the books of banks suspected of money laundering. The House of Representatives passed the bill, 356 to 66, on October 24. Both the Senate and House versions include a four-year expiration date on some provisions of the legislation.|
25|Tom Ridge, the Bush administration's new director of homeland security, acknowledges that the anthrax bacteria mailed to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle was a concentrated, highly lethal strain produced for use as a weapon. Experts on biological warfare note that only three nations -- the United States, Russia, and Iraq -- are known to have the ability to produce such high-grade anthrax.|
26|The U.S. Department of Defense awards the largest defense contract in U.S. history, $200 billion for the production of the Joint Strike Fighter jet, to Lockheed Martin Corp., the Bethesda, Maryland-based manufacturer of aeronautical and space systems.|
27|The Arizona Diamondbacks, beat the New York Yankees 4-0 at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, Arizona, to capture the second game and the team's second victory of the 2001 World Series.|
28|A spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, confirms that a U.S. Post Office employee in West Windsor, New Jersey, has been diagnosed with anthrax. The postal employee is the 15th person in the United States to come down with the disease since the first case was diagnosed on October 4 in Boca, Raton Florida. Authorities believe that the envelopes containing anthrax spores were mailed to Florida, New York City, and Washington, D.C., from various locations in New Jersey.|
28|Islamic extremists, armed with automatic assault rifles, break into a Christian church in Behwalpur, Pakistan, and open fire on the congregation during Sunday services. At least 16 people, including 4 children, are killed.|
29|U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft issues a "terrorist threat advisory" to 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies in the United States and warns the public that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials believe they have credible evidence that new terrorist attacks could be launched during the next week. The FBI cites both an increased number of threats from sources connected to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network and an escalation in the violent nature of the threats. Ashcroft's advisory is issued after government officials in Washington, D.C., reveal that anthrax bacteria had been found in more government buildings, including the Supreme Court, the Department of State, and the Department of Agriculture.|
30|Limited numbers of U.S. and British troops are being deployed in Afghanistan to coordinate air strikes against the Taliban and to serve as communication links between U.S. commanders and leaders of Northern Alliance opposition forces. According to a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Defense, the total number of American ground troops currently in the areas of northern Afghanistan held by the Northern Alliance number "considerably fewer" than 100 soldiers.|
30|The lower house of the Canadian Parliament approves a constitutional amendment changing the name of Canada's easternmost province from Newfoundland to Newfoundland and Labrador. The province consists of the island of Newfoundland and the coast of Labrador, which is part of the Canadian mainland. While the Labrador coast is nearly three times larger than the island of Newfoundland, Labrador but has only 3 percent of the province's total population.|
30|U.S. President George W. Bush throws the first pitch of game 3 of the 2001 World Series after team members and fans at New York City's Yankee Stadium observe a moment of silence in memory of victims of September 11 terrorist attacks. Bush is the first president to throw out the first pitch since Dwight D. Eisenhower attended a World Series game at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York, in 1956.|
31|A 61-year-old New York City woman, who had no connection to a facility where anthrax-laced letters are known to have arrived, dies from inhalation anthrax. The victim worked in a hospital stockroom in Manhattan. She is the fourth person to die of anthrax since the first case was diagnosed in Florida on October 4. Health officials admit to being troubled by the case because they have been unable to learn where the woman was exposed to the bacteria.|
