01|UAL Corp., the parent company of United Airlines of Elk Grove Village, Illinois, lost $1.6 billion in the third quarter of 2001, announces the company's new chairman and chief executive officer, John Creighton. During the same third quarter, UAL received from the federal government an after-tax grant of $248 million in compensation for the shut-down of U.S. air travel following the terrorist attacks on September 11. Creighton predicts that UAL could lose even more money in the fourth quarter if the decline in air travel since the attacks does not turn around through the rest of 2001.|
01|U.S. President George W. Bush signs an executive order granting himself the power to keep presidential papers secret beyond the 12-year limit currently required by the Presidential Records Act of 1978. Citing national security, the Bush administration has postponed three times since January 2001 the release of 68,000 pages of Reagan administration documents.|
02|The rate of unemployment in the United States jumped from 4.9 percent in September to 5.4 percent in October, the largest increase in a single month since 1980, announces a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Labor. According to Labor Department estimates, U.S. businesses cut 415,000 jobs in October.|
03|A native of Nepal living in Chicago is arrested at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport after airline personnel uncover seven knives, a stun gun, and a can of pepper spray in the man's carry-on bag during a final search before allowing the man to board a plane. Earlier, guards at the security checkpoint metal detector confiscated two folding knives from the man's pockets. However, the security guards failed to notice the rest of the contraband in the bag the man was carrying and allowed him to proceed on to the departure gate.|
04|The Arizona Diamondbacks capture the 2001 World Series by beating the New York Yankees 3-2 in game 7 of the series, played in Phoenix, Arizona.|
05|Enrique Bolanos is elected president of Nicaragua, taking 53.7 percent of the vote against Daniel Ortega. Ortega, who led the Sandinista National Liberation Front that overthrew the government of Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979, ruled Nicaragua until 1990. Bolanos, an outspoken opponent of Sandinista rule, expressed doubts throughout the campaign about the sincerity of Ortegas claims that he had moderated his Communist-based political philosophy.|
05|Hurricane Michelle veers off to the Bahamas, sparing South Florida from winds clocked at 135 miles (217 kilometers) per hour, which were prevailing when the storm slammed into Cuba's south coast on November 4. Michelle killed five people on Cuba and caused the collapse of at least 23 houses in Havana, the capital. The storm killed 12 people when it passed over Honduras, Nicaragua, and Jamaica.|
06|Germany is sending nearly 4,000 soldiers to assist in the U.S.-led coalition against terrorism in central Asia, announces German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. French President Jacques Chirac, speaking with U.S. President George Bush at the White House in Washington, D.C., commits 2,000 French soldiers to the war effort.|
06|The Federal Reserve, the Fed, the central bank of the United States, cuts short-term interest rates for the 10th time in 2001. The Fed lowers the federal funds target rate on overnight loans among banks from 2.5 percent to 2 percent, the lowest rate since 1961. The interest rate on loans to banks from the Federal Reserve is cut from 2 percent to 1.5 percent.|
06|Major league baseball owners vote to authorize Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to shut down two major league teams before the beginning of the 2002 season. Baseball experts believe Selig is likely to fold the Minnesota Twins and Montreal Expos, the two lowest revenue generators in their leagues. The last time major league baseball closed down an existing franchise was in 1899. Between 1960 and 1998, the American and National leagues expanded the number of member teams from 16 to 30.|
06|Republican candidate Michael R. Bloomberg is elected mayor of New York City by narrowly defeating the Democratic challenger, Mark Green. Bloomberg, a self-made billionaire who has never held public office, spent a record-breaking $68.9 million of his own money on the campaign.|
07|British Airways and Air France resume Concorde passenger service between London and New York City and Paris and New York City. The supersonic jets were grounded for more than 15 months in the wake of the crash in Paris of an Air France Concorde on July 25, 2000, which resulted in the deaths of 113 people. Engineers claim to have corrected flaws that caused the crash the Concorde's first in 25 years of service. Flying at twice the speed of sound, the Concordes cross the Atlantic Ocean in about half the time of a regular commercial jet.|
08|U.S. President George W. Bush concedes, during a televised speech before a large audience in Atlanta, Georgia, that federal investigators have been unable to discover who sent anthrax spores through the U.S. mail. Earlier in the day, Attorney General John Ashcroft proposed a complete reorganization of the Department of Justice. He suggested that the focus of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Immigration and Naturalization Service should be redirected toward the prevention of terrorist activities. Ashcroft suggested that the FBI should cede authority over drug trafficking to the Drug Enforcement Administration.|
09|Northern Alliance opposition forces claim to have broken through Taliban defenses and entered Mazar-e-Sharif, a key Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan. A spokesperson for the Northern Alliance asserts that rebel forces also are massing for an attack on Kabul, the capital. The commander of U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan, General Tommy R. Franks, noted to reporters on November 8 that Mazar-e-Sharif is important strategically. Control of the city opens a supply route to neighboring Uzbekistan, where the U.S. Army has stationed troops, reconnaissance teams, and search-and-rescue helicopters. General Franks suggested that additional U.S. ground troops soon would be moving into Afghanistan.|
10|U.S. President George W. Bush, speaking before the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, announces that he is committed to a permanent peace settlement in the Middle East. The president notes, "we are working toward a day when two states Israel and Palestine live peacefully together within secure and recognized borders." No previous U.S. president publicly endorsed the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state specifically by name.|
10|More than 24 hours of heavy rainfall and violent winds trigger massive flooding and mudslides in Algeria, killing more than 700 people. In Algiers, the capital, the storm causes the collapse of dozens of ancient buildings.|
10|China joins the World Trade Organization (WTO), ending 15 years of negotiations. The WTO, which is located in Geneva, Switzerland, arbitrates trade disputes among member countries.|
11|A comprehensive review of some 175,000 disqualified Florida ballots from the 2000 presidential election reveals that George W. Bush won the popular vote in Florida by a slim margin over Al Gore, who was then vice president. Bush, who received fewer popular votes nationwide than Gore, won the presidency in the Electoral College, where he tallied 271 votes, including all of Florida's 25 votes. He needed 270 votes to win. The study suggests, however, that more Floridians attempted to vote for Gore than for Bush. The review turned up statistical evidence that supports the claims of many minority and elderly voters that confusing ballots caused them to spoil their ballots by voting for more than one presidential candidate. The bipartisan review was commissioned by a group of eight news organizations and conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.|
11|Officials in Pakistan announce that two nuclear scientists who formerly held senior positions with the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission have admitted to authorities that they had met alleged terrorist Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan at least twice during 2001. The scientists, who retired from the energy commission to set up what they referred to as a relief organization in Afghanistan, were arrested on October 23 and questioned by both Pakistani and U.S. investigators. In a newspaper interview published on November 10, Osama bin Laden claimed to have nuclear and chemical weapons at his disposal, which he threatened to unleash if the United States used similar weapons against Afghanistan or the al-Qaida network.|
11|The war in Afghanistan is costing the United States approximately $1 billion a month, estimates the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a private research group.|
12|American Airlines Flight 587 crashes after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, killing all 260 people on board and 5 people on the ground. The Airbus A300, en route to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, goes down about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the airport, destroying a number of houses in Rockaway, a neighborhood in Queens. Officials with the U.S. Department of Transportation suggest that the crash is more likely the result of a "catastrophic engine event" than a terrorist attack.|
13|Northern Alliance rebels in Afghanistan enter Kabul, the capital, meeting little resistance from Taliban forces, who are abandoning the city in large numbers. Reporters and U.S. soldiers accompanying the rebels describe the city's civilian population as jubilant at being freed from the Taliban's extreme Islamic fundamentalist rule.|
13|U.S. President George W. Bush, meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the White House in Washington, D.C., announces that the United States unilaterally will reduce its nuclear stockpile by approximately two-thirds over the next 10 years. President Putin responds by announcing in a speech given at the Russian embassy in Washington, D.C., that Russia will make "deep cuts" in its nuclear arsenal, which contains some 5,800 weapons.|
13|U.S. President Bush signs an order that gives him the option of trying non-U.S. citizens suspected of committing acts of terrorism before special military tribunals rather than in civilian courts. According to a spokesperson for the Bush administration, a trial before a military tribunal can be held outside the United States, for example, in Afghanistan or Pakistan, and the proceedings can be conducted in secret. Verdicts are determined by a two-thirds majority, instead of by a unanimous verdict as in civil trials.|
13|U.S. President George W. Bush orders that the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserves be replenished to capacity, which is approximately 700 million barrels. The reserves currently stand at about 544 million barrels. The price of a barrel of oil on world markets declined during 2001 from a high of $30 a barrel in early summer to the current price of about $21. Economists attribute the decline to a downturn in the U.S. economy and to the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.|
14|Northern Alliance rebels take control of much of western and northeastern Afghanistan as Taliban forces abandon cities and fortified positions in a retreat south that observers describe as a rout. Outside Kabul, the capital, U.S. warplanes bomb and strafe convoys of trucks loaded with Taliban soldiers moving south. According to U.S. intelligence officials, the collapse of Taliban positions in the north also has forced the leaders of the al-Qaida terrorist network and the Taliban high command out into the open as they attempt to flee south.|
14|Retreating Taliban forces release eight foreign aid workers who had been held by the Islamic fundamentalist regime in Afghanistan for preaching Christianity. U.S. Special Forces pick up the two Americans, two Australians, and four Germans by helicopter approximately 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Kabul, the capital. U.S. officials describe the eight men and women as being in good condition despite their three months of captivity.|
15|The price of oil plunges on international markets in response to an announcement by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that OPEC members will cut production only if non-OPEC countries, like Russia, follow suit. OPEC countries reduced production 13 percent in 2001 in an effort to drive up prices. Russia, however, increased output in 2001 by 8.1 percent. Russia is producing 7.2 million barrels of oil a day, a level of production that is nearly as high as the world's biggest producer, Saudi Arabia. In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin told U.S. President George W. Bush that Russia is capable of becoming an alternate source of oil to the West if Middle East oil were to become unavailable due to political instability in the area. Economists regard the OPEC announcement as an opening shot in an oil price war that could drive the price of gasoline below $1 a gallon.|
16|The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives pass legislation designed to improve airport security in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. The bill creates a new division--the Transportation Safety Administration--within the Department of Transportation (DOT) and requires that DOT hire 28,000 employees to conduct security screening of travelers and baggage at the nation's airports. After three years, airports have the option of requesting that security screening be turned over to private contractors. The measure also requires that cockpit doors be fortified against attack and allows pilots to carry handguns. The legislation is a compromise worked out by House and Senate negotiators to end a long political battle over what role the federal government should play in aviation security. Republican leaders in the House argued that airport security should remain in the hands of private contractors.|
16|A letter addressed to Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont containing anthrax spores (an inactive stage of bacteria) is discovered among more than 250 barrels of unopened congressional mail by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials. According to the FBI, the letter was postmarked October 9 in Trenton, New Jersey, and has the same fictitious return address--"4th Grade, Greendale School, Franklin Park, N.J."--as the letter addressed to Senator Thomas A. Daschle of South Dakota that was discovered on October 15.|
16|Seven people are killed in storms that pummel central Texas, including Austin, the capital, with high winds and as much as 12 inches (305 millimeters) of rain.|
17|Arab, Pakistani, and Chechen soldiers fighting with the Taliban are in control of the city of Kunduz, which is under siege by Afghanistan's Northern Alliance rebels. According to refugees from the city, the foreign soldiers, which number in the thousands, are killing any Afghan soldier who attempts to defect from the Taliban cause. Northern Alliance commanders claim that Kunduz, where much of the surviving Taliban army has gathered, is the government's last stronghold in northern Afghanistan.|
18|Dozens of additional U.S. Special Operations troops have moved into Afghanistan to pursue Osama bin Laden, members of his al-Qaida network, and leaders of the Taliban, report U.S. Defense Department officials in Washington, D.C. U.S. officials in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, estimate that more than 3,000 Taliban and al-Qaida soldiers have slipped across the border into Pakistan since Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, fell to Northern Alliance rebels on November 13.|
18|Phillips Petroleum Co., of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and Conoco Inc., of Houston, Texas, agree to merge. The new $35-billion corporation, named ConocoPhillips, will be the largest single gasoline retailer in the United States and the third largest U.S. oil and gas company, with proven reserves of 8.7 billion barrels of oil.|
18|Ibrahim Rugova, leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo, which won 47 percent of the vote in November 17 elections for the provincial assembly, announces that after taking office he intends to declare Kosovo's independence. Kosovo is a province within Serbia, one of the two republics that make up Yugoslavia. Kosovo has been administered by United Nations officials and peacekeeping troops since NATO bombing forced Serbian troops to withdraw in 1999.|
19|The United States military begins broadcasting radio messages in Afghanistan announcing that the U.S. government is offering a $25-million cash reward for information on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden. U.S. intelligence experts believe that bin Laden and many of his followers in the al-Qaida terrorist network remain in the country. According to Pakistani intelligence officers, hundreds of Arab and Egyptian members of al-Qaida have taken refuge in Kunduz, which is under siege by approximately 30,000 rebels of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance.|
19|U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaking at the University of Louisville, in Kentucky, announces that the United States is sending high-level envoys to the Middle East with the purpose of restarting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The ultimate goal, Powell notes, is the creation of an economically self-sufficient Palestinian state and Palestinian recognition of Israel's right to exist. Powell admonishes both sides in the conflict. He presses Palestinian leaders to end terrorist attacks on Israel and warns Israeli leaders to halt all settlement activity in occupied territories.|
20|Danish voters, in a shift to the right, give the opposition Liberal Party and its supporters control of the government for the first time since 1920. Liberal Party members take 98 of the 179 seats in the Danish parliament. The ruling Social Democrats take 77 seats, down from the 89 the party held in the last parliament. Liberal Party leader Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who is expected to become prime minister, campaigned on a pledge to crack down on immigrants who Rasmussen claims take advantage of Denmark's liberal welfare system.|
20|Illegal immigrants torch several buildings at the Woomera Detention Center in South Australia during a riot over the Australian government's new hard-line policies on asylum seekers. Nearly 10,000 immigrants, mostly from the Middle East and Indonesia, attempted to enter Australia illegally between July 1, 1999, and June 30, 2001. Australia's Liberal National Party Coalition led by Prime Minister John Howard had been reelected in October for a historic third term, campaigning on a platform that many political experts described as "anti-immigration."|
21|A 94-year-old woman dies of anthrax in her house in Oxford, Connecticut. She is the fifth victim of the disease since Anthrax was initially diagnosed in Florida in October. Public health officials are unable to explain how the woman, who neighbors describe as a shut-in, contracted the disease.|
22|The secretary general of NATO, Lord Robertson, proposes that Russia be given equal status with the 19 permanent members of the treaty organization in devising and executing certain policies. Political experts interpret "equal status" to mean that Russia would have veto power over certain NATO decisions. Lord Robertson, speaking at the Kremlin in Moscow, notes that U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, as well as other leaders of NATO member nations, support the proposal. NATO was founded in 1949 specifically to keep the military power of the Soviet Union, now Russia, in check.|
23|A representative of the United Nations war crimes tribunal announces in The Hague, Netherlands, that the former president of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, has been charged with genocide (the systematic murder of a racial group) in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The new indictment includes 29 separate charges covering his responsibility for atrocities carried out by Serb soldiers in the war in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995. Milosevic previously was charged with crimes against humanity in Croatia and Kosovo.|
24|Taliban soldiers pour out of the besieged city of Kunduz, the Taliban's last stronghold in northern Afghanistan, to surrender by the hundreds to Northern Alliance rebels.|
24|Economists at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimate that the global economy has entered a recession, which they define as a period when economic growth falls below the 2.5 percent that the International Monetary Fund has set as the breaking point between economic progress and slippage. The OECD is an association of 30 nations in Europe, North America, and the Pacific area that promotes the economic and social welfare of its members and coordinates their efforts to aid developing countries.|
24|Tornadoes and severe thunderstorms sweep through areas of Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama, killing at least 12 people. Utility company officials estimate that 22,000 households are without electricity in central and eastern Mississippi.|
25|More than 1,000 U.S. Marines land at a makeshift airfield near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan in the first major deployment of American ground troops in the war. Officials with the U.S. Defense Department describe the arrival of the Marines as the first step in a sustained assault on Taliban forces and members of the al-Qaida terrorist network.|
25|Commanders of the Northern Alliance rebels claim to have captured Kunduz, the last city in northern Afghanistan held by the Taliban. A stream of U.S. helicopters are landing at the Kunduz airport, which is definitely under Northern Alliance control, as larger U.S. military aircraft circle above. According to Northern Alliance reports, thousands of Taliban soldiers are retreating to the West, directly into the army of Northern Alliance General Abdul Rashid Dostum.|
26|A panel of economists at the National Bureau of Economic Research--a private nonprofit corporation located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that conducts research on economic issues--announces that the U.S. economy has been in a recession since March.|
26|U.S. President George W. Bush, speaking at a White House ceremony to welcome American aid workers home from Afghanistan, demands that Saddam Hussein allow United Nations weapons inspectors into Iraq to prove that the Iraqi military is not developing weapons of mass destruction. Asked what would happen if Hussein refused to comply, the president responds, "He'll find out."|
27|U.S. law enforcement officials are holding 641 people who have been arrested as a result of the federal investigation into the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft makes public the names of 93 people charged with crimes related to the attacks. He withholds the identities of the remaining 548 people, all of whom have been charged with violating U.S. immigration laws.|
28|Enron Corp., an energy-trading company located in Houston, Texas, collapses when Dynegy, Inc., another Houston-based energy trader, withdraws an offer to buy Enron for $9 billion in stock plus assumption of debts. The merger breaks down after Enron's credit rating was downgraded to junk-bond status. This triggered creditors to demand repayment of $3.9 billion of Enron's $13-billion debt. Because the trading of energy is based on credit, all other energy-trading companies immediately ceased doing business with Enron. According to financial experts, Enron, the seventh largest corporation in the United States, will be the biggest American company ever to go bankrupt.|
28|The number of people in Eastern Europe and central Asia infected with HIV, the virus that cause AIDS, has more than tripled since 1998, announce officials with the United Nations (UN). Researchers with the joint UN program on HIV and AIDS estimate that at least 250,000 Eastern Europeans and central Asians will be infected with HIV in 2001. An estimated 75,000 people will be infected in Russia in 2001, primarily through the sharing of needles by drug addicts. Ukraine has the highest rate of infection of any country in Europe--1 percent of the total population. The director of the UN program, Peter Piot, fears that the actual rate of infection in these areas may, in fact, be four or five times higher than the official estimates.|
29|A Palestinian suicide bomber detonates a bomb on a bus outside Hadera, a city along Israel's Mediterranean coast, killing three Israelis and wounding nine other passengers. The attack is the third suicide bombing in Israel in four days.|
30|Health officials in Japan diagnose a third case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease. Japan's first case was discovered in September. Japan is the only country in Asia with herds affected by the disease, which badly hurt the beef industry in Europe, particularly in Great Britain.|
