T.L. Winslow's 2000 C.E. Historyscope

The Twenty-First (21st) Century C.E. (2000-2099)

The Gospel of Matthew Century?

"As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?" And Jesus answered them, "Take heed that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ', and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: all this is but the beginning of the sufferings. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation, and put you to death; and you will be hated by all nations for my name's skae. And then many will fall away, and betray one another, and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead you astray. And because wickedness is multiplied, most men's love will grow cold. But he who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all all nations; and then the end will come." - Matthew 24:3-14

"For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been shortened, no human being would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. Then if any one says to you, 'Lo, here is the Christ' or "There the Christ is', do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect." - Matthew 24:21-4

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days the Sun will be darkened, and the Moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the Earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." - Matthew 24:32

"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they did not know until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man." - Matthew 24:36-9

"Rejoice then, O heaven and you that dwell therein. But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short." - Revelation 12:12

Dead people don't read history, they are history, and living people don't read history, they make history? There are more people alive than ever before, history speeds up, and there is a history explosion? One day history will happen far faster than anybody can study it?

Having a little trouble falling asleep these days? Are your debts becoming nightmares? With your degree you can go places, but there's nowhere to go but here? Is life all just a test? Is fact fiction and fiction fact? Do you get the personal attention you deserve? Do your crime scenes get investigated in time? What are the closing costs and fees? Way, or no way? Don't get it? You just did? Call what toll-free number? You can build a deck, go to Bora Bora, and the rate is? Is there only One Mortgage? Will civilization flower, wax, wane, flounder, flip-flop, belly flop, or end just like that, poof? Is the West getting overrun with gays, lesbians, race-mixers, neo-pagans, barbarians, and going the way of Roam Rome Rome? Is the last cent. where humans are their own boss? Is this cent. the End of Time, or just the beginning? The end of time for the world, or just the old world of churches, priesthoods, Bible believers and/or Millennium Fever (MF) itself, after a 2K-year mind-lock? How can we all go on like this for another millennium?

The seven-layer-crunch-wrap knowledge economy is born, but does it remain a lawless frontier, get tamed, become the tool of Big Brother, or think outside the bun? World government is inevitable, as is a single world language? But just when when when and how how how?

Genetic engineering comes to a gut-check time? Humans will not be able to move off the Earth for tens, hundreds or thousand of years? Do we learn to get along or die, mutate, get saved, or stay unrepentant sinners and turn into bird food in Jehovah's long-promised black is black I want my baby back Armageddon while only a tiny remnant survive to go back to Eden and be with Christ? Will man make himself obsolete with his creations or become the master of creation? Will artificial intelligence find its limit, break out of its box, or kills its father and marry its mudder? Will computer virtual reality technology permit the line between fact and fiction to be blurred so completely that news and even history can be manufactured by the govt.? Or what what what? Will equality finally arrive, racial, sexual, social, or anything else, or egalitarianism be considered tried and failed, and discarded in favor of alpha, beta, gamma and delta classes of people in a Brave New World with No Whining signs posted? Will robots that relieve us of the need for manual work ever arrive, and what will their arrival do for or to us? Will the future pop. be monoracial, multiracial, or amalgamated into an earthrace that gets along with everybody and views the former "races" on Internet history sites? Will political power continue to remain concentrated in a few hands? Will electronic democracy arrive, and, if so, will republics be replaced by mobocracies, and politicians become day traders priding themselves on great speed and quality service? If there is global cannibalism, who will get eaten first, and who will have real shoes and who have trick shoes and who will call goodbye shoes? I'm scared of the whole thing? You know how hard the whole airport thing is for me? Stay tuned by staying alive?

The First Decade of the 21st Century (20-Zeds) (2000-2009 C.E.)

Country	Leader	From	To
United States of America	William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (1946-)	Jan. 20, 1993	Jan. 20, 2001
United Kingdom	Tony Blair (1953-)	May 2, 1997	June 27, 2007
United Kingdom	Queen Elizabeth II (1926-)	Feb. 6, 1952
Russia	Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (1952-)	Dec. 31, 1999	May 7, 2008
People's Republic of China	Jiang Zemin (1926-)	1989	2002
Canada	Jean Chrétien (1934-)	Nov. 4, 1993	Dec. 12, 2003
France	Jacques Chirac (1932-)	May 17, 1995	May 16, 2007
Germany	Gerhard Schroeder (Schröder) (1944-)	Oct. 27, 1998	Nov. 22, 2005
Spain	King Juan Carlos I (1938-)	Nov. 22, 1975	June 19, 2014
Mexico	Ernesto Zedillo (1951-)	Dec. 1, 1994	Nov. 30, 2000
Israel	Ehud Barak (1942-)	July 6, 1999	Mar. 7, 2001
Egypt	Hosni Mubarak (1928-)	Oct. 14, 1981
Iraq	Saddam Hussein (1937-2006)	July 16, 1979	Apr. 9, 2003
Papacy	John Paul II (1920-2005)	Oct. 16, 1978	Apr. 2, 2005
U.N.	Kofi Atta Annan of Ghana (1938-)	Jan. 1, 1997	Dec. 31, 2006

2000 Doomsday Clock: 9 min. to midnight. Chinese Year: Golden Dragon (Feb. 5) (lunar year 4698) (Jewish year 5760) - the Century of the Dragon? Time Man of the Year: George W. Bush (1946-); next time 2004. This is the U.N. Internat. Year for the Culture of Peace, also the World Mathematical Year. Generation Alpha consists of people born in 2000-2025. Up to 262M were killed by govts. in the 20th cent., usually after gun confiscation. World pop.: 6.2B (vs. 1.65B in 1900), with 800M in the Americas (13%) (South Am. 520M, North Am. 316M), 700M in Europe (12%), 800M in Africa (13%), 31M in Oceania, and 3.67B in Asia (60%) (twice as much as the others put together); that's approx. 100M * (8 + 7 + 8 + 37) = 100M * 60; approx. 150K people die each day; approx. 100B people have been born since Creation - people are so fickle? Rural pop. in the U.S. is 16% of total pop. (vs. 72% in 1910); the percentage of the U.S. labor force engaged in agriculture (farms) drops to a new low of 2.1% this year. The Earth enters the Anthropocene epoch of geological history, the first period of geological time shaped by a single species, characterized by the 6th largest mass extinction in Earth's history?; a moose hockey concept? The Earth's spin abruptly turns E and speeds up 2x to 17cm (17 in.) a year, moving toward the British Isles instead of Hudson Bay; in 2016 it is traced to lost water in Eurasia from climate change. U.S. utilities begin a new push to build coal-fired electric power plants, with 150 projects under planning or construction by spring 2007; meanwhile the U.N. IPCC-led global warming lobby plots the total shutdown of all plants around the world. In 2000-3 the Federal Reserve lowers the federal fund rate from 6.5% to 1%, causing an easy credit financial boom. In this decade U.S. pop. grows 9.7%; the Twenty-Second (22nd) (2000) U.S. Census reports the U.S. pop. as 281,421,906 (13.2% increase) (79.6 per sq. mi.) (13.2% increase since 1990); white pop. is 75.1%, the lowest in history since the first Census in 1790 (80.7%); birth/death rate per thousand 14.4/8.5; Detroit and Philadelphia are the only top-10 U.S. cities in pop. to lose pop. since 1990. Avg. life expectancy in developed countries has increased from 47 years in 1900 to 76 years (U.S.: 74.3 males, 79.7 females); in undeveloped countries almost 6M children die every year from starvation (James T. Morris, exec dir. World Food Programme). Pop. of China: 1.285B (official); 1.3B-1.5B (actual)? Pop. of India: 1B, incl. 220M vegetarians, most of any country. Pop.: Indonesia: 214M; Brazil: 182M; Russia: 145M; Bangladesh: 140M; Japan: 127M; Nigeria: 117M; Germany: 82M; Vietnam: 81M; Egypt: 74M; Iran: 68M; Turkey: 67M; Britain: 60M; France: 59M; Italy: 57M: South Korea: 47M; Spain: 40M; Poland: 38M; Canada: 31.5M; Iraq: 24M; Saudi Arabia: 24M; North Korea: 22M; Taiwan: 22M; Singapore: 4.5M. Pop. of Africa: 800M, but avg. per-capita income exceeds $1.5K in only six of the 48 sub-Saharan countries - don't say it? Pop. of Mexico: 97.5M; since 1991 11.3M immigrants entered the U.S. legally, but they are accompanied by 8.4M illegal immigrants, after which the number of new illegal immigrants average 800K a year in 2000-2004 and 500K a year in 2005-2008; after 9/11 (2001) the destination changes away from Calif., N.Y. and N.Y. to Ga., Ore., Colo., N.C. and Iowa.; many inner city libraries switch to books in Spanish; the U.S. spends $90B by 2010 for border security. Pop. of Israel: 6.5M, incl. 5.4M Jews - and the whole world's fate depends on this tiny elite's Bermuda shorts? Over 80% of world long distance voice and data traffic is carried by 25M km (15M mi.) of fiber optics cable. The first decade in which the U.S. employs more govt. workers than manufacturing workers; industrial production declines during this decade for the first time since the 1930s, along with GDP and number of jobs, while a $6.2T deficit in traded goods is compiled ($3.8T in manufactured goods). This is the warmest decade on record (until ?), according to NASA; 2009 is the 2nd warmest year since 1880, when modern temp measurements began to be taken, and 2005 is the warmest year, with the other hottest recorded years occurring since 1998. This is the safest decade so far in U.S. aviation (until ?), with 153 fatalities, 1 death per 50M commercial flight passengers. Between this Dec. and Dec. 2010 Mich. loses 48% of its manufacturing jobs. Late in the year the U.K. begins a stealth mass immigration policy to promote multi-culturalism; too bad, the Labour govt. foists it on the pop. to "rub the Right's nose in diversity", which is not revealed until Oct. 2009 after a points-based system is introduced in Feb. 2008. Since its advent, the wonderful doctrine of Marxism (powered by the pseudo-science of Darwinian evolution) has spawned states (Soviet Union, Red China, etc.) that have killed over 130M of its own people in peacetime? This year global overnutrition exceeds undernutrition for the first time in history (by 200M people), according to the U.N. Global sea levels have risen 8 in. in the past cent.; Mexico City is sinking 6-8 in. a year; Iceland grows wider by 1.5 acres a year. The U.S. illegal drug market is estimated at $150B a year, with 40M Americans believed to use drugs, and 6M addicts. The U.S. produces 6M barrels of petroleum a day, with proven reserves of 21B barrels, down from 39B in 1970, while Saudi Arabia has 262B and Venezuela has 73B. By this year automation has caused the number of coal miners to plummet in the U.K. to about 13K from 1.2M in 1978, and in the U.S. from 700K in 1924 to 82K; coal accounts for 43% of annual global carbon emissions (2.7B tons), and supplies 26% of the world's energy needs (40% oil, 24% natural gas); China gets 75% of its electricity from coal-fired plants, India 60%, U.S. and Germany 50%; Australia is the world's largest coal exporter, supplying almost one-third. The U.S. consumes 93 kilowatt-hours of power per capita per year, equal to 2K gal. of oil; declining energy quality leads to a U.S. recession by the end of the decade? By this year about 125K tons of gold have been mined worldwide, 90% during the last 150 years; South Africa produces 50% (2K tons a year); the U.S. is #2, and Australia is #3 (300 tons); 80% of it is used for jewelry, and 200 tons goes into electronics manufacture; 25% of all gold ever mined is held in ingot forms; the U.S. has the most gold in its banks, but India has the most total gold (counting jewelry); a solid cube 15 in. on a side weighs one ton. By this year the Ganges (Ganga) River in N India, fed by the Himalaya Mts. flows through 29 cities with a pop. over 100K, 23 with a pop. of 50K-100K, and 48 more towns. The Shadow Banking System, incl. hedge funds, money market funds, and structured investment vehicles begins growing dramatically until the 2008 recession. A poll of seniors at 56 top U.S. colleges by the Am. Council of Trustees and Alumni reveals a woeful ignorance of U.S. history, with only 25% being familiar with Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, 29% knowing what Reconstruction was, 52% familiar with Washington's 1796 Farewell Address, and only 22% knowing where the phrase "Government of the people, by the people, and for the people" comes from (Lincoln's 1863 Gettsbyurg Address); meanwhile 99% can identify Beavis and Butthead, and 98% recognize Snoop Doggy Dog; this causes U.S. Sen. (D-W. Va.) Robert Byrd to slip an amendment into Title X providing $50M for the Teaching Am. History Program of the U.S. Dept. of Education; too bad, it turns into an $800M a year boondoggle by 2009 for supporting high school and college level history teachers, and college students till don't know U.S. history, not to mention world history - enter TLW to the rescue, I wish? This year once-starving India goes from an example for U.S. kids made to finish their plates in the 1960s to a net exporter of grain, and soon Americans become worried as their jobs are outsourced to their highly educated English-speaking dirt-cheap workforce. The Earth has warmed about 1.4 deg. F in the last cent., accelerating during the last four decades. Global CO2 levels measured at Niwot Ridge, Colo. reach 375 ppm, up over 30% from pre-industrial levels of 275; the levels continue to rise by 1 ppm per year. Despite vaunted advances in medicine, there are 2M yearly deaths from diarrhea (4B cases), 1M deaths from malaria (300M cases), 500K deaths from measles (30M cases), 2M deaths of children under age 5 from pneumonia, 1.5M deaths from TB, not to mention, ahem, HIV/AIDS. By this year 1.1K famous or semi-famous people have claimed to be Christ since 1900. The century starts out with the major issue of Ecapitalism vs. Ecommunism up for grabs, as massive capital is infused into Web dot com companies, while the unpoliceable structure of the Internet makes it hard for owners of any type of intellectual property to protect their rights and earn money for their work; meanwhile others initiate massive eprojects where anonymous or nearly anonymous people literally give their work away for free, incl. OpenSource and Wikipedia, threatening the traditional publishing market, incl. books, newspapers, music, TV, movies and software; will the result be a reinvention of capitalism in the E-world, or will Ecommunism win, and if so, will the result be good, bad, or indifferent? - stay tuned? On Jan. 1 Wisconsin defeats Stanford by 17-9 to win the 2000 Rose Bowl. On Jan. 1 (Sat.) (4:00 a.m.) the Millennium is first celebrated by the Chatham Islands 800 km E of New Zealand with a major internat. ceremony linking all nations on Earth. On Jan. 1 global fears of the Y2K Computer Bug, date-wraparound glitches that could immobilize or destroy the world prove groundless after many software firms rake in big bucks supposedly programming preventatives; as much as $100B was spent in the U.S. to fix it; meanwhile the millennium celebrations go on as scheduled worldwide. On Jan. 3-10 Israel and Syria hold inconclusive peace talks. On Jan. 3 elections in Croatia unseat the ruling HDZ party with an alliance of Social Dems. and the Social Liberal Party, and Social Dem. Party leader Ivica Racan (1944-2007) becomes PM #7 on Jan. 31 (until Dec. 23, 2003), going on to soften nationalism and ease human rights restrictions; on Feb. 7 moderate Stjepan "Stipe" Mesic (1934-) defeats Vlatko Pavletic in a runoff election for pres., and Mesic succeeds the late Franko Tudman, immediately inviting the 300K exiled Serbs to return to Croatia. On Jan. 5-8 the Kuala Lumpur Al-Qaida Summit is held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, attended by several high-level al-Qaida members (Soviet Afghan war veterans) incl. Walid (Waleed) Muhammad Salih bin Roshayed bin Attash (1979-) (Osama bin Laden's errand boy), Khalid Muhammad Abdallah al-Mihdhar (1975-2001), Nawaf Muhammed Salim al-Hazmi (1976-2001), and Ramzi bin al-Shibh (al-Shaibah) (1972-), hosted in his hotel room by U.S.-educated Malaysian microbiologist (anthrax researcher) Yazid Sufaat (1964-) (member of Jemaah Islamiyah), where they plan the Oct. 12 attack on the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen along with the 9/11 attacks; al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi go on to hijack Am. Airlines Flight 77 and crash it into the Pentagon; Kuala Lumpur is home to the twin Petronas towers; Fahd Mohammed Ahmed al-Quso (1974-2012) misses the meeting and meets with some of them later in Bangkok, Thailand; meanwhile U.S. intel informs Pres. Clinton of an airplane hijack plot scheduled for Mar.-Aug., but it "was disregarded because nobody believed that Osama bin Laden or the Taliban could carry out such an operation." On Jan. 9 Malcolm in the Middle debuts on Fox Network for 151 episodes (until May 14, 2006), showing that white is still pretty much right in the U.S., starring Francisco Frankie Muniz (Muñiz) IV (1985-) as genius boy Malcolm, who hates taking classes for Krelboynes (gifted children), and Jane Frances Kaczmarek (1955-) and Bryan Lee Cranston (1956-) as his parents Lois and Hal, who are always catching him with his hand in the cookie jar, with the catchy theme song Boss of Me by They Might Be Giants. On Jan. 10 America Online (AOL) announces an agreement to buy Time Warner for (say again?) $162B, becoming the largest corporate merger so far (until ?). On Jan. 11 the armed wing of Islamic Salvation Front concludes its negotiations with the Algerian govt. for an amnesty and disbands. On Jan. 11 the trawler Solway Harvester sinks off the Isle of Man. On Jan. 12 after New York City-born Israeli rep Ronald Steven Lauder (1944-) (son of cosmetics magnate Estee Lauder) (appointed by outgoing PM Benjamin Netanyahu) and Syrian pres. (since Mar. 12, 1971) Hafez al-Assad (1930-2000) produce the draft "Treaty of Peace Between Israel and Syria" based on land (the Golan Heights) for peace, peace negotiations between Israeli PM Ehud Barak and Syrian foreign minister Farouk al-Shara are held in Shepherdstown, W. Va.; too bad, they fall through when al-Assad dies on June 10. On Jan. 12 Britain announces that its military will conform with the practice of other Euro countries and end the ban on openly gay men and women serving in the armed forces - blew it and licked it jokes here, now let's talk bathrooms? Police power vs. fleeing people, the New Millennium Look for the U.S.? On Jan. 12 the increasingly something U.S. Supreme Court rules 5-4 in Illinois v. Wardlow that police are justified in conducting a stop-and-frisk search on anyone who arouses their suspicion merely by fleeing from them, reversing the Ill. Supreme Court - would make sense if they are black not white like me, moo, moo? Make that police power federal while we're at it? On Jan. 12 after a Fla. judge rules that 6-y.-o. Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez (1994-) may stay, U.S. atty.-gen. Janet Reno announces that the case is a federal not state matter and intervenes, saying that the INS may return him to his father Juan Miguel Gonzales in Cuba, causing the latter to come to Washington, D.C., while a U.S. district court orders the kid to remain pending a hearing; on Apr. 22 after his great uncle in Miami promises to turn Elian over to his father but reneges, the saga culminates in his forcible armed seizure from a home in Miami's Little Havana on TV by assault rifle-toting feds, who take 3 min. in a predawn raid, but split the nation, at least diverting minds from Millennium Fever for awhile; future atty.-gen. Eric Holder is involved with the seizure; on June 28 Elian returns to Cuba with his father after the lame comparisons with Waco and Ruby Ridge, plus a demonstration in Miami on May 6 in favor of Reno's actions cause opinion to swing against the Castro-hating Little Havana refugees, weakening their clout and causing talk of normalizing U.S.-Cuban relations; Elian's daddy goes on to get a seat in the Cuban nat. assembly, and Fidel Castro gives the family a spacious house - leave the U.S. to go to a Latin country, whom are they kidding? On Jan. 13 Serbian paramilitary leader Zeljko Raznatovic (AKA Arkan) (b. 1952) (wanted on war crimes charges) is shot in the left eye by masked gunman Dobrosav Gavric (b. 1976) in the lobby of Belgrade's Intercontinental Hotel and killed along with his business mgr. Milenko Mandic and police inspector Dragan Garic; his wife and children are unharmed; Gavric is wounded by bodyguard Zvonko Mateovic. On Jan. 14 a U.N. tribunal sentences five Bosnian Croats to up to 25 years for the 1993 killing of 100+ Bosnian Muslims in a Bosnian village. On Jan. 16 in Sacramento, Calif., a commercial truck carrying evaporated milk is driven into the State Capitol bldg., killing the driver - is his name Harvey Milk? On Jan. 16 a runoff in Chile results in Socialist Party candidate Ricardo Froilan (Froilán) Lagos Escobar (1938-) defeatig right-wing candidate Joaquin Jose Lavin (José Lavín) Santiago (1953-), becoming Chile's first Socialist pres. since Allende in 1973; he is sworn-in on Mar. 11 (until Mar. 11, 2006); meanwhile on May 24 Chile ends Augusto Pinochet's immunity, clearing the way for trial on murder and torture charges. On Jan. 16 Muhammad (Mohammed) Badie (1943-) becomes supreme leader (gen. guide) (chmn.) #8 of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (until ?); on Apr. 28, 2014 he is sentenced along with 682 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to death, which is reduced on Sept. 15, 2014 to life, then changed to death on Apr. 11, 2015 along with 13 other senior members; on Aug. 22, 2015 he receives a 6th life sentence, followed by a 7th on May 8, 2017. On Jan. 18 former German chancellor Helmut Kohl resigns as honorary chmn. of the opposition Christian Dem. Party after being accused by the party leadership of "violating his duties" in refusing to reveal who gave him $1M+ while in office. On Jan. 18 Russian forces enter the Chechnyan capital of Grozny, kicking out rebel forces, who continue guerrilla raids; on Feb. 14 the Russian authorities order Grozny residents to leave and seal off the city; too bad, both sides have nuclear weapons and threaten to use them, creating worlwide anxiety. On Jan. 18 (9:48 a.m.) the strange 15-ft. Tagish Lake Meteorite impacts the Earth in Canada between Yukon Territory and British Columbia; in Aug. 2001 the first opal-like crystals from space are found in it. On Jan. 18 TLW celebrates his 47th birthday with the usual T-bone steak, cabernet wine, and chocolate cake. On Jan. 20 the Dot-Com Bubble causes the Dow to reach an all-time high of 11,722.98 before losing nearly 1K points in two weeks. On Jan. 20 Turkish foreign minister Isma'il Cem and Greek foreign minister George Papandreou meet in Ankara, becoming the first visit by a Greek foreign minister to Turkey in 38 years; the talks end with an accord for economic cooperation and promises of peace in Cyprus; on Feb. 8 pres. (since Mar. 10, 1995) Constantinos "Kostis" Stephanopoulos (1926-2016) is reelected for a 2nd 5-year term as pres. of Greece (until Mar. 12, 2005). On Jan. 22 George W. Bush and Al Gore (whom Bush calls "Ozone Man") win the Iowa caucuses to take the lead in the U.S. pres. race. On Jan. 24 fundamentalist Christian Burmese Karen guerrillas of "God's Army", led by cigar-smoking 12-y.-o. twins Johnny and Luther Htoo (1988-) seize a Thai hospital in Ratchaburi 75 mi. W of Bangkok near the Burmese border, taking about 700-800 patients and staff hostage; Thai security forces rescue the hostages after a 22-hour standoff, but dozens of insurgent groups in Burma fight on. On Jan. 25-30 the First World Social Forum is held in Porto Alegre, Brazil to promote the alternative globalization movement AKA global justice movement, AKA anti-Capitalist Communism-Socialism. On Jan. 26 Japan's Education Ministry announces the formation of a panel of experts to devise measures for improving English teaching methods after PM Keizo Obuchi proposes making English Japan's official second language to keep up with the Internet age. On Jan. 27 Pres. Clinton gives his last 2000 State of the Union Address - his private or his public one? On Jan. 27 Hany Mawla (1973-) becomes the first Muslim on the superior court in N.J., also the youngest. On Jan. 29 delegates from more than 130 countries in Montreal sign an Internat. Biosafety Treaty, regulating internat. trade in genetically modified "Frankenfood" products, incl. grains; meanwhile on Apr. 5 the U.S. Nat. Academy of Sciences issues a report urging caution concerning growing and using genetically engineered food, but concluding that nothing being sold currently poses any actual threat - jack up my corn? On Jan. 30 Super Bowl XXXIV (34) is held in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Ga.; the St. Louis Rams (formerly L.A. Rams) (NFC) (coach Dick Vermeil) defeat the Tennessee Titans (formerly Houston Oilers) (AFC) 23-16 after "The Tackle", where Titans QB (#9) Steve LaTreal "Air" McNair (1973-2009) throws a complete pass to wide receiver Kevin Tyree Dyson (1975-) (#87), and Rams linebacker (#52) Michael Anthony "Mike" Jones (1969-) tackles him 1 yard short of the goal line (despite Dyson stretching out his right arm in vain), stopping a game-tying score as time expires, causing Vermeil to weep; former grocery bagger Rams QB (#13) Kurtis Eugene "Kurt" Warner (1971-) (who led the NFL in passing in the regular season) is the MVP. On Jan. 30 a Kenya Airways Flight 431 (Airbus A310) crashes en route from Abidjan, Ivory Coast into the Atlantic, killing 169 of 179. On Jan. 31 Alaska Airlines Flight 261 carrying 88 passengers and crew crashes mysteriously into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Point Mugu, Calif. NW of Los Angeles, killing all aboard - at least they got to watch the Super Bowl first? On Jan. 31 Ill. Repub. gov. (1999-2003) George Homer Ryan (1934-) announces a moratorium on executions in his state after 13 wrongfully condemned inmates have been exonerated since 1977 after 12 were executed, and half of the 260 capital cases in the state had been reversed on appeal; in Feb. a Gallup poll finds that 66% of Americans support capital punishment, down from 80% in 1994; too bad, on Apr. 17, 2006 a federal jury in Chicago finds him guilty of racketeering conspiracy, fraud, and tax charges, making him the 3rd Ill. gov. in three decades to be convicted of federal felony charges in Al Capone Town. On Jan. 31 British physician (gen. practitioner) Dr. Harold Frederick Shipman (1946-2004) AKA "Doctor Death", "the Angel of Death" is convicted of 15 counts of murder and given a "whole life tariff", becoming the first British physician convicted of murdering his patents; he is suspected of killing as many as 297 people, all patients, in 1995-8; on Jan. 13, 2004 he hang himself in his cell in HM Prison Wakefield in West Yorkshire; on Jan. 27, 2005 the £21M Shipman Inquiry Report is pub., concluding that he probably murdered 250+, 80% of them women, usually by injecting diamorphine into them then falsifying their medical records. In Jan. a Tokyo conference downplays the atrocities committed by Japanese troops during their occupation of China, and declares that the Nanjing Massacre of 1937 is a "myth", causing an internat. outcry joined by Japanese historians and the Chinese govt. - coverups only work for the winners' side? In Jan. a new subway opens in Athens after seven years of construction under the scrutiny of 50 Greek govt. archeologists, who have bee sifting debris for artifacts - pass them stone penii? On Feb. 1 rebels flee the Chechen capital of Grozny after weeks of intense bombardment, later regrouping in the mountains for a multi-year guerrilla campaign against the Russians. On Feb. 1 Al Gore wins the N.H. Dem. primary, and Vietnam war hero John Sidney McCain III (1936-) of Ariz. wins the Repub. primary, causing Gary Bauer to withdraw from the race on Feb. 4, followed by Steve Forbes on Feb. 10. On Feb. 2-13 violence breaks out between Serbs and ethnic Albanians in "model Yugoslavian city" Mitrovica, Kosovo, only this time it's the minority Christian Serb pop. that flees from Muslim Albanian attacks in the midst of U.N. peacekeeping forces. On Feb. 3 in Austria the center-right People's Party forms a coalition with the far-right Freedom Party, led by xenophobe Joerg (Jörg) Haider (1950-2008) (known for pro-Nazi statements since 1990), sparking internat. protest, beginning right, er, in Vienna, and causing talk of ousting Austria from the EU; in late Feb. after hundreds of thousands of Austrians march in protest against him, Haider resigns as head of the Freedom Party, but retains his post as gov. of the S province of Carinthia (until Oct. 11, 2008), causing most member nations of the EU to lift sanctions on Sept. 12, and the 14 nations (incl. Israel and the U.S.) that had cut off bilateral diplomatic relations to restore contact; the problem of Croatians, Bosnians, and other E Europeans immigrating since the early 1990s and taking jobs away from Austrians keeps his party afloat. On Feb. 6 after purchasing a $1.7M 5-bedroom colonial home in Chappaqua, N.Y. in Sept. 1999 to qualify, ballsy U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton officially enters the N.Y. Senate race as a Dem. On Feb. 6 hijackers seize an Afghan plane, releasing the hostages in Stansted, England on Feb. 12. On Feb. 6 Tarja Halonen (1943-) is elected as the first female pres. of Finland, taking office on Mar. 1 (until Mar. 1, 2012); U.S. TV host Conan O'Brien (1963-) later makes hay of his resemblance to her. On Feb. 7 Yugoslav defense minister (since 1993) Pavle Bulatovic (1948-) is shot dead by unidentified gunmen while dining at a Zagreb soccer club. On Feb. 11 the IRA misses a disarmament deadline, causing the British on Feb. 15 to suspend the new North Ireland Assembly, created in 1999 as part of the U.K.'s historic devolution program; it is reinstated on June 4 after Sinn Fein agrees to disarm. On Feb. 11 Russia's commercial creditors agree in Frankfurt to restructure $31.8B of its external debt after effectively writing off about half of it, exchanging $22.2B in Soviet-era debt and $6.8B in Russian state debt for new 30-year Russian Federation Eurobonds, clearing the way for Moscow to reenter internat. money markets for the first time since Aug. 1998. On Feb. 11 a bomb explodes in front of a Barclay's Bank across from the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street, injuring dozens. On Feb. 11 JetBlue Airways Corp. of Queens, Long Island, N.Y., founded by Sao Paulo, Brazil-born Salt Lake City Southwest Airlines exec (Mormon) David G. Neeleman (1959-), who obtains slots at Kennedy Airport for his 162-seat A320 planes begins operation, operating 12 hours per day on routes averaging 1K mi. (San Juan, Puerto Rico, Long Beach, Calif., etc.), and showing a profit almost immediately. On Feb. 13 the comic strip "Peanuts" makes its final appearance after 50 years (begun 1950) after cartoonist Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz (b. 1922) dies of colon cancer in his Santa Rosa, Calif. home on Feb. 12, having decided it should die with him. On Feb. 14 the worst tornadoes to hit SW Ga. since 1936 hit early in the morning, killing 22, injuring hundreds, destroying several poultry farms. Let's start the Black Century with the Ultimate White Handouts? On Feb. 15 crocodile-like Zimbabwe dictator-pres. (since Dec. 22, 1987) Robert Gabriel Mugape, er, Mugabe (1924-), who claims he was told as a child that God picked him to be a great leader holds a referendum on a draft constitution to increase his power and give his govt. a mandate to seize white-owned land without compensation; since whites number only about 70K out of a total pop. of 12.5M, yet dominate the nation's agriculture, this vote is a no-brainer, but Mugabe's opponents win nearly 55% of the vote; on June 25 Mugabe wins a narrow V in the pres. election, and the opposition Movement for Dem. Change (MDC) wins 25 seats in parliament to Mugabe's 62, despite his strong-arm tactics; mandate or not, Mugabe begins seizing white-owned farms and giving them to black political allies with no background in farming, causing the entire country's farming economy to collapse and the country, once Africa's breadbasket, to begin starving and need handouts, which is compounded by the U.S. Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 (Dec. 21, 2001), which enacts a credit freeze, reducing the country's trade surplus from $322M in 2001 to -$18M in 2002, with inflation reaching 12,875% in 2007; meanwhile anybody who tries to protest is savagely beaten, incl. chief opposition leader Morgan Richard Tsvangirai (1952-), who ends up with a fractured skull; the other African leaders keep a code of silence about the Mugging Ape's regime, and by 2013 all white-owned farms in Zimbabwe are kaput, but the country's large reserves of platinum and uranium along with the Marange Diamond Field (largest in the world) help stay Mugabe in power. On Feb. 17 meat cutters at Wal-Mart's in Jacksonville, Tex. vote to join an independent labor union, causing Wal-mart to fire them all and switch to a supplier of pre-packaged meat, resulting in awful meat? On Feb. 17 the U.N. Security Council votes 14-0-1 (China) for Resolution 1290 to admit Tuvalu; on Oct. 31 it adopts Resolution 1326 without vote to admit the Federal Repub. of Yugoslavia, which in 2003 becomes Serbia and Montenegro, which become separate in 2006. On Feb. 24 after Iraq refuses him entry, Pope John Paul II makes a "virtual pilgrimage" of Old Testament prophet Abraham's city of Ur, using props and videotape, then travels for real to Egypt, where he visits the place believed by many to be the Biblical Mount Sinai, then goes to Bethlehem and Jerusalem in an effort to reconcile all three Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam); too bad, when he visits a Palestinian refugee camp on the West Bank to deplore the plight of the residents, and expresses empathy in English for the hardships of refugee life, his remarks are not translated into Arabic. On Feb. 25 investors wise up about the software-only trick mirror Internet dot.com cos., causing a stock plunge, and signalling the end of the Internet stock boom; in Apr. the U.S. stock market experiences a minor (25-30%) crash. On Feb. 26 reformists win control of the Iranian parliament for the first time since the 1979 Islamic Rev., and Iranian pro-reform pres. Mohammad Khatami wins overwhelming support for his programs, even though supreme asahollah leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has kept many moderate and reform candidates from running on grounds that they are not Islamic enough; meanwhile Iranian youth rebel against the theocratic regime by going American, surfing the Net and learning how to do Western infidel sex, drugs, and rock & roll. On Feb. 26 Pope John Paul II vists Mount Sinai in Egypt - to look for the rest of the 70 Commandments? On Feb. 29 a 6-y.-o. boy shoots and kills his 6-y.-o. classmate Kayla Renee Rolland at Theo J. Buell Elementary School in Mount Morris Township, Mich. using a Smith and Wesson .32-cal. handgun; he is too young to be charged, but gun control advocates take up the case, and on Mar. 17 Smith and Wesson (now owned by an English co.) agrees to limit the manufacture and distribution of handguns for fear of more lawsuits, and promises to install smart gun technology within three years to allow only authorized users to fire them. On Feb. 29 (night) Tenterfield, N.S.W., Australia-born woman Katherine Mary Knight (1955-) stabs to death her partner John Charles Thomas Price in Aberdeen, N.S.W. then hangs his skin on a meat hook and cooks his head and other body parts with the intention of feeding them to his children; on Nov. 8, 2001 she receives the first life sentence for a woman in Australian history. In Feb. cybervandals stage a massive denial of service campaign on the Internet, blocking access to Amazon.com, eBay, Yahoo! et al. In Feb. world oil prices reach $30 a barrel as OPEC countries restrict output, rising to $34 in early Mar., up from $11 at the end of 1998; on Mar. 27 OPEC ministers (except Iran) agree to increase production by 1.2M barrels a day, then Iran caves in too, and by May the price has fallen back to $30, double the 1999 price; too bad, on Aug. 25 it's back up to $35 per barrel, causing commercial users to force the French govt. to reduce taxes on gasoline, while PM Tony Blair refuses to lower British taxes, causing protesters to blockade refineries, bringing Britain to a near standstill by Sept.; Spanish truckdrivers join the protest in mid-Sept. In Feb. U.S. FDA guidelines take effect permitting dietary supplements to make gen. "structure/function" claims (e.g., "supports the immune system"), but barring claims or implications that a product will cure a specific malady. On Mar. 1 Egyptian pres. Hosni Mubarak repeals an Ottoman-era law making it a crime for a woman to run away from an abusive husband, and gives women equal rights to divorce, becoming the only country except Tunisia where they can divorce without the husband's consent, while the hubbys get auto-divorces at will under the Muslim Sharia. On Mar. 1 Finland proclaims a new constitution. On Mar. 2 former Swedish foreign affairs minister (1978-9) Hans Martin Blix (1928-) becomes exec chmn. of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) (until June 2003), going on in 2002 to search Iraq unsuccessfully for WMDs. On Mar. 7 the Panel on U.N. Peace Operations is convened under chmn. Lakhdar Brahimi (1934-) of Algeria, going on to pub. the Brahimi Report on Aug. 21, noting that there is still no standing U.N. army or police force, calling on the U.N. to focus more on intel, with the soundbytes: "Tell the Security Council what it needs to know, not what it wants to hear", and not to send peacekeepers where there is no peace to keep; on Nov. 13 the U.N. Security Council votes 15-0-0 for Resolution 1327, recalling Resolution 1318 and attempting to implement the Brahimi Report. On Mar. 8 Danish politician Geert Wilders gives a Speech to the British House of Lords warning in vain that the entire continent of Europe is about to be swallowed by Islam, and quoting Turkish PM Erbakan and Libyan dictator Daffy Gaddafi in support. On Mar. 8 two Tokyo Metro trains have a sideswipe collision, killing five. On Mar. 9 the FBI arrests Iranian-born U.S. art dealer and art forgery suspect Ely Sakhai (1952-) in New York City; in 2005 he gets 41 mo. in priz and a $12.5M fine. On Mar. 9 the Center-Liberal coalition govt. in Norway loses a confidence vote called by the Labor Party over its opposition to gas-powered electrical plants; on Sept. 4-14 motorists blockade oil terminals in an effort to cut gasoline taxes, which at 70% cause Norwegian gasoline to be among the highest priced in the world. On Mar. 10 Pres. Clinton writes a message to Bassam Estwani, chmn. of Dar al-Hijrah Mosque, toying with the idea of a visit, but later declining; it soon becomes home to Anwar al-Awlaki. On Mar. 10 the NASDAQ Composite Index reaches an all-time high of 5,133 after having doubled in a year, becoming the peak of the Dot.Com Mania as it falls by 9% within a week and dips below 2K within a year. On Mar. 12 Pope John Paul II apologizes for the Church's past sins, incl. mistreatment of Jews, heretics, women, and aborigines - are they entitled to reparations? On Mar. 14 the Fowler Report is presented to to the U.N. by a team of investigators led by Canadian U.N. ambassador (since Jan. 1995) Robert R. Fowler (1944-), detailing the financing of UNITA blood or conflict diamonds via sale on the internat. market, causing the U.N. Gen. Assembly in Dec. to adopt U.N. Gen. Assembly Resolution 55/56, AKA the Kimblerley Process Certification Scheme to certify rough diamonds as not financing a rebel or other violent group, requiring a special certificate. On Mar. 14 Stephen King becomes the first best-selling author to offer a novel, Riding the Bullet in ebook form on the Web; it is downloaded 400K in the first 24 hours, free on some Web sites, $2.50 on others, and he pulls the plug at 500K; in July he offers the thriller The Plant on the Web, but one chapter at a time at $1 per on his Web site StephenKing.com. On Mar. 17 over 500 members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments, a local religious cult founded by Joseph Kibwetere (Kibweteere) (b. 1932) are burnt to death in a church in Kanungu, Uganda (200 mi. SW of Kampala); hundreds more corpses are discovered later, and by late Mar. the body count reaches 914, becoming the largest religious mass suicide-murder since the 1978 Jonestown Massacre in Guyana. On Mar. 18 Chen Shui-bian (1951-) is elected pres. of the Repub. of China (ROC) (Taiwan) with 39% of the vote in a 3-way race, ousting the Nationalist govt. in power since 1949; he is sworn in on May 20, saying he won't "let Taiwan become another Hong Kong or Macao", but stopping short of declaring independence, making the U.S. itchy. On Mar. 19 U.S. pres. Clinton arrives in New Delhi for a state visit. On Mar. 20 former Black Panther H. Rap Brown, now known as Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (1943-) is captured after a gun battle in Atlanta, Ga. which kills a sheriff's deputy. On Mar. 20-July 16 the Philippines govt. battles the rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front; on Sept. 16 the govt. begins an assault on the Muslim Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group after it takes 21 internat. tourists hostage on Jolo Island and demands recognition as fighting for an independent Islamic state, plus fishing rights and money; too bad, Pres. Joseph Estrada fails to rescue the hostages, causing his public support to tank. On Mar. 21 Pope John Paul II begins the first official visit by a Roman Catholic pontiff to Israel. On Mar. 21 the U.S. Supreme Court rules 5-4 in FDA v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. that the FDA has never received authority from Congress to regulate tobacco products, and rejects 1995 FDA rules to restrict marketing of cigarettes to children and teenagers along with the Clinton admin. anti-smoking initiative. On Mar. 23 Pasteur Bizimungu resigns, and on Mar. 24 vice-pres. Paul Kagame (1957) becomes pres. #6 of Rwanda (until ?), the first Tutsi pres. On Mar. 25 Muslim economist Rustam Nurgaliyevich Minnikhanov (1957-) becomes pres. #2 of Tatarstan (until ?). On Mar. 26 former KGB lt. col. (judo expert) (raised in a crowded apt.) Vladimir Putin (1952-) is elected pres. of Russia (until ?) with 53% of the vote vs. 30% for Communist Party leader Gennadi A. Zyuganov; he increases oil and gas prices to boost the Russian economy, enabling the govt. to resume payment of salaries and pensions, making him look good to the people. On Mar. 26 the Kingdome in Seattle is demolished to make way for Qwest Field. On Mar. 26 the 72nd Academy Awards in Los Angeles awards the best picture Oscar for 1999 to American Beauty, along with best dir. to Sam Mendes, and best actor to Kevin Spacey; best actress goes to Hilary Swank for Boys Don't Cry, best supporting actor to Michael Caine for The Cider House Rules, and best supporting actress to Angelina Jolie for Girl Interrupted. On Mar. 27 nat. assembly elections are held in Iraq, and surprise, the Ba'th (Nat. Progressive Front) candidates all win, since only they are allowed to run; Saddam Hussein decides to switch from the U.S. dollar to the Euro, pissing-off U.S. vice-pres. Dick Cheney and leading to the opinion that it's time for a regime change in Iraq? On Mar. 27 French PM Lionel Jospin replaces four of his Socialist cabinet ministers to quiet criticism; on Sept. 4 protests begin over rising fuel prices, with truckers and motorists blockading refineries and service stations; the protests spread throughout Europe; on Sept. 24 a nat. referendum in which only 30% of the electorate particiates reduces the term of the pres. from 7 to 5 years. On Mar. 28 a school bus in Murray County, Ga. on the Tenn.-Ga. state line gets hit by a CSX freight train, killing three children. In Mar. South Korea holds peace talks in Geneva along with secret meetings with several Western powers. In Mar. CIA agent (1982-2005) Gary Berntsen is sent to Afghanistan to capture a senior al-Qaida leader; too bad, the mission is called off, pissing-off Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, who says that the U.S. is "not serious"; after 9/11 he returns with a new mission to eliminate al-Qaida completely, only to be backstabbed by the Pakistan ISI. In Mar. the Dow Jones Industrial Avg. reaches a record 10,923.55, then plummets 617.78 points (5.7%) to 10,305.77 on Apr. 14, its largest point drop so far, after news of a 0.7% increase in the U.S. Consumer Price Index for Mar.; meanwhile the NASDAQ tops 5K on Mar. 10 then plunges 355.49 points (9.7%) to 3,321.29 on Apr. 14, another record drop; the Dow closes on Dec. 31 at 10,786.84, down 6.2% from its Dec. 31, 1999 value of 11,497.12; the NASDAQ closes on Dec. 31 at 2,470.52, down 54% from its peak and 39.3% for the year - what's good for Microsoft is good for the country, I hope not? In Mar. Ford Motor Co. agrees to buy Land Rover from BMW for $2.7B, and Jaguar for another $2.5B, and on Apr. 14 announces that it will pay its shareholders a record $10B special dividend; on May 11 Ford chmn. William Clay Ford Jr. (1958-) admits that the SUVs on which his co. has made so much money cause serious safety and environmental problems, but vows to reduce tailpipe emissions, boost fuel economy, and make them less dangerous in crashes with ordinary cars; Ford sells both divs. off in Mar. 2008 to Tata for $2B. On Apr. 1 Japanese PM Keizo Obuchi (b. 1937) suffers a stroke and falls into a coma, and on Apr. 5 gaffe-prone Liberal Dem. Party secy.-gen. Yoshiro Mori (1937-) becomes PM #85 of Japan (until Apr. 26, 2001); Obuchi dies on May 14, and Mori goes on to put his foot in his mouth by calling Japan "a divine country with an emperor at its center", recalling the racist official state Shintoism of the past, and causing his cabinet's approval rating to fall to 19%. On Apr. 1 (U.S. Census Day) most census questions are delivered to U.S. citizens in official envelopes. On Apr. 1 Abdoulaye Wade (1926-) of the Dem. Party of Senegal becomes pres. #3 of Senegal (until ?). Could this be the end of some kind of era? On Apr. 3 U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson (1937-) finds that Microsoft Corp. violated the U.S. Sherman Antitrust Act by its predatory behavior aimed at maintaining a monopoly for its "let's crash again" beautiful-disaster Windoze (Windows) operating system by keeping an "oppressive thumb" on competitors and seeking to tie its almost-as-cruddy Internet Explorer Web browser to it as "part of a larger campaign to quash innovation", urging litigants to appeal directly to the Supreme Court in order to expedite his punishment; on Apr. 28 the U.S. Dept. of Justice and 17 state attys. gen. ask Jackson to break Microsoft into two parts with serious curbs on their activities, although the computer users don't seem to care much either way; Bill Gates calls the proposal "radical" and totally denies wrongdoing, but finally yields a bit on May 10, proposing some minor limitations on its dealings with computer makers, which the Justice Dept. complains on May 16 are not enough, causing Jackson to order the breakup on June 8, and the Supreme Court to refuse to hear the case in Sept.; meanwhile once solid gold Microsoft stocks go on a downhill slide from just over $90 a share to $70 on June 7, adding to the dot com stock bust - time to roll out the baksheesh and buy the govt., start 'er up? On Apr. 3 Haitian broadcast journalist Jean Dominique (b. 1930) is gunned down in Port-au-Prince as he arrives at radio station Haiti-Inter to deliver the 7 a.m. morning news; he recently accused the nat. election board of planning to sabotage upcoming polls, and attacked a local pharmaceutical co. whose cough syrup was blamed for the deaths of 60 kids - hmm, I'll take what's behind curtain #1? On Apr. 4 local elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina give Vs to nationalist parties, causing NATO to continue postponing troop reductions. On Apr. 4 Russia launches Soyuz TM-30, the last human spaceflight to the Mir space station, carrying cosmonauts Sergei Viktorovich Zalyotin (1962-) and Aleksandr (Alexander) Yuriyevich "Sasha" Kaleri (1956-); it returns on June 16; on Oct. 31 Soyuz TM-31 blasts off to the Internat. Space Station, carrying cosmonauts Yuri Pavlovich Gidzenko (1962-), Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalev (Krikalyov) (1958-), and William McMichael Shepherd (1949-) of the U.S.; Soyuz TM-31 returns next May 6 with Talgat Musabayev, Yuri Baturin, and Dennis Tito. On Apr. 6 Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, chief minister of Assam, India releases a statement claiming Pakistan Interservices Intel (ISI) of fostering an Islamist militancy; it proves to be unfounded until ?. On Apr. 8 a controversial U.S. Osprey plane crashes, killing 19 U.S. Marines. On Apr. 9 nat. elections in Greece give the PASOK Party 158 of 300 seats in Parliament, becoming the first Greek party to win a majority in three consecutive elections; its main rival the New Democracy Party wins 125 seats; Costas Simitas remains PM of Greece. On Apr. 9 a new B&W version of Fail Safe debuts on CBS-TV, with intro. by Walter Cronkite, starring Richard Dreyfuss as the U.S. pres., Noah Wyle as his translator, George Clooney as Col. Jack Grady, and Harvey Keitel as Brig. Gen. Warren A. "Blackie" Black. Der Freiheit Der Sprache Still Sucks Egg Yolk in Europe? On Apr. 11 British historian David Irving (1938-) (known for the soundbyte "More women died on the back seat of Edward Kennedy's car at Chappaquiddick than ever died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz") loses his libel suit against Penguin Books and U.S. author Deborah Lipstadt (1947-) over her 1994 work Denying the Holocaust, and his reputation as a Holocaust-denying historian is supposedly trashed, and hers ascendant; on Feb. 20, 2006 he is sentenced to three years in priz in Vienna under a 1992 law for two speeches in 1989 denying the Holy Holocaust, despite a last minute contrite flip-flop "confession" to avoid the full 10-year sentence; in 1992 he had been fined $6K by a judge in Germany; he is released on probation on Dec. 20 after serving 13 mo. and flies back to London to his wife Bente Hogh - shut up, and that settles it? In mid-Apr. world finance ministers gather in Washington, D.C. for meetings of the IMF and World Bank, and demonstrators block traffic to protest their selling out to the multinational cos. On Apr. 16 sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah of Selangor dies after a 55-year reign, longest since prince Franz Joseph II of Liechtenstein, leaving Thai king Rama IX as the longest reigning monarch on Earth (since 1950). On Apr. 17 Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin (1943-), a direct descendant of Muhammad the Prophet becomes raja of Perlis. On Apr. 19 an Air Philippines Boeing 737-200 en route from Manila to Davao City crashes into a coconut grove, killing all 131 aboard. On Apr. 19 Italian PM Massimo D'Alema resigns, and is replaced by former Socialist Party member Giuliano Amato (1938-), who forms a center-left coalition, but it falters, and on Sept. 26 he resigns, and is replaced by Francesco Rutelli (1954-), mayor of Rome, becoming the 58th Italian govt. since WWII. On Apr. 25 Vt. approves civil same-sex unions. On Apr. 25 Pres. Clinton signs Public Law 10-185, which permits police to use a "complaint" to seize private property on a "theory" that it is involved in a criminal offense, with the private owner having the burden of proof of innocence in court to retrieve it; in 2011 the statute is used to seize $1.8B in property, paying police depts. a bounty of $445M; actually this law makes it more difficult to seize private property before criminal trial, but easier after a conviction? On Apr. 26 a strike by the Workers Confederation in Bolivia combined with a plan for water rate increases spark riots in Bolivia, which are quickly suppressed by pres. Hugo Banzaer Suarez. On Apr. 28-30 the Millennium March on Washington in suport of LGBT rights in Washington, D.C. is attended by 200K-1M, and incl. the Equality Rocks Concert, featuring Melissa Etheridge, k.d. lang, George Michael, Pet Shop Boys, and Garth Brooks. In Apr. Jordan becomes a member of the World Trade Org. (WTO), and on Oct. 24 signs a free trade agreement with the U.S., becoming the first ever signed by the U.S. with an Arab nation. In Apr. rebel RUF forces in Sierra Leone under Foday Saybana Sankoh (1937-2003) refuse to demobilize, and kill seven Zambian and Kenyan U.N. peacekeepers on May 3, then take 500 more hostage on May 6; on May 8 demonstrators attack Sankoh's compound in Freetown, losing 19 but causing him to flee, and on May 17 he is ratted out while hiding in his abandoned house, shot in the leg and handed over to the govt. In Apr. British authorities accuse former Sotheby's chmn. Adolph Alfred Taubman (1924-) and former Christie's chmn. Sir Anthony Tennant of conspiring in the early 1990s to limit competition by fixing commissions charged to buyers and sellers; Taubman pleads guilty in Oct. - who do you think you are, Microsoft? In Apr. after U.S. Sen. (R-Minn.) (1995-2001) Rodney Dwight "Rod" Grams (1948-2013) introduces a bill on Oct. 21, 1997, the U.S. Treasury issues its first $100M worth of gold-tinted copper-brass-manganese Sacagawea Dollar Coins, circulating them through Wal-Mart stores and in 5K lucky boxes of Cheerios brand breakfast cereal; Lubbock, Tex.-born sculptor Glenna Maxey Goodacre (1939-) uses Shoshone student Randy'L He-Dow (Bannock "close to ground") Teton (1976-) (pr. "HEE-tho") as a model for the Shoshone guide's face; they tarnish easily, and soon turn into collector's items as nobody wants to circulate the suckers that are too small to seem like dollars? On May 3 New York archbishop John Cardinal O'Connor (b. 1920) dies of brain cancer at his Manhattan residence after a 16-year term in which he defended the poor and working class among the 2.37M Catholics in his archdiocese, while fighting to keep them breeding like rabbits free of abortion and homosexuality; he is succeeded by Bridgeport, Conn., bishop Edward Michael Egan (1932-), who carries on his views. On May 3 a rare 7-way celestial conjunction of the Sun, Moon, and all the planets from Mercury to Jupiter occurs on the New Moon. I'm bringing sexy back, go heavy go with it? On May 4 the U.S. Nat. Park Service begins a "prescribed burn" at the Bandolier Nat. Monument, which is caught by high winds and sweeps past firebreaks on May 11, destroying tens of thousands of acres of woodland and hundreds of homes and threatening Los Alamos Nuclear Labs, freaking environmentalists. On May 5 a rare grand conjunction of the five naked eye planets plus the Sun and Moon occurs. On May 6 the IRA offers to open its secret weapons arsenal to internat. inspection, raising hopes for peace in Ulster; too bad, paramilitary orgs. on both sides continue the violence, drug dealing and protection rackets. On May 8 Mich. swimming-pool installation co. owner Larry Ross (1953-) wins half of a record $363M lottery jackpot, netting $61M after taxes; he bought the ticket with change left after buying a hot dog with a $100 bill in a Detroit suburb at the suggestion of wife Nancy. On May 9 a jury in Baton Rouge, La. 4-term Dem. gov. (1972-80, 1984-8, 1992-6) Edwin Washington Edwards (1927-) guilty on 17 of 26 counts of fraud and conspiracy after a 4-mo. trial, with a possible life sentence; he was tried in 1985 and 1986 but not convicted, but this time U.S. atty. (also a Dem.) Eddie Jack Jordan Jr. (1952-) wins, claiming to end the cynicism in La. politics; in 2002 he is sentenced to 10 years, and begins his sentence in Oct. 2002. On May 16 judge Ahmet Necdet Sezer (1941-) becomes pres. #10 of the Repub. of Turkey (until Aug. 28, 2007), going on to back secularism and ban women wearing veils from official receptions, while pardoning 202 leftist militants. On May 31 Survivor debuts on CBS-TV (until ?), with 16 strangers marooned on a Malaysian island vying to win $1M by being the one to "outwit, outplay, outlast" the other dopes, while suffering horrible primitive living conditions and humiliation under the eye of a camera (good editing though?); after it becomes the top-rated U.S. TV series for the season, it spawns a boom in Reality Shows (until ?); they steal their motto from the 1952 film "Blackbeard the Pirate", which contains the line "When he closes on her, he'll find himself outgunned, outfought, outwitted"?; on Aug. 23 gay white nudist Richard Hatch (1961-) wins in front of 50M viewers despite being the most manipulative and unlikeable, making the show more popular? On May 10 the U.S. FDA approves saline breast implants as long as their high risk of complications are warned of by physicians. On May 11 Russian troops wearing ski masks and carrying machine guns raid the Moscow offices of Media-Most, Russia's biggest media co. and the most outspoken critic of Pres. Putin and his Kremlin cronies; former PM Sergei Kiriyenko calls the raid "a public act of intimidation", and even Communist Party leader Gennadi A. Zyuganov says "it looks disgusting" - Putin on the blitz? On May 16 leftist Dominican Rev. Party opposition leader Hipolito Mejia (1941-), an agronomist and businessman is elected pres. of the Dominican Repub., ousting the ruling pro-privatization Dominican Liberation Party; he is sworn-in on Aug. 16 (until Aug. 16, 2004). On May 16 UPI is acquired by News World Communications Inc., controlled by Unification Church leader Rev. Sun Myung Moon, causing correspondent (since 1943) Helen Thomas to resign on May 17, calling it "a bridge too far"; in July she joins Hearst Newspapers as a columnist, and loses her front row seat at pres. news conferences (since 1961), along with the first question and the ending "Thank you, Mr. President", saying "They don't like me... I ask too many questions". On May 17 the Serbian govt. seizes control of the main opposition TV station in Belgrade, accusing it of advocating an uprising against Slobodan Milosevic, causing 20K demonstrators to take to the streets, chanting "Slobodan, save Serbia, kill yourself" and "To The Hague, Slobodan, to The Hague!" On May 17 the U.S. African Growth and Opportunity Act is signed by Pres. Clinton, becoming the biggest U.S. trade measure since the 1994 World Trade Org.; the U.S. unilaterally lowers tariffs for a number of African goods and eliminates import quotas for African textiles made with native or U.S. material (sweaters woven in Africa from Asian or European yarn are still covered by U.S. quotas) - another white handout to the blacks, hoping they won't want to move in? Your choices just got a whole lot younger? On May 18 after a controversy during the 2000 pres. preimary, the S.C. Legislature passes the South Carolina Heritage Act of 2000, ordering the Confederate Stars and Bars battle flag removed from its Sandlapper capitol dome after 138 years (1862), and after the Johnny Rebs get over their shock it is removed on July 1, becoming the last Confed. state to do it; never fear, a smaller square version is put next to the Confederate Soldiers' Memorial on the N side of the Capitol in front of the main entry, but after yet more NAACP protests it is removed also, er, it is left flying while an African-American History Monument is unveiled on Mar. 26, 2001; meanwhile on Aug. 8 fortune intervenes, as the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, which in 1864 became the first sub to sink an enemy vessel is raised from the ocean off sandlapping Charleston, S.C. after 136 years - 9 years till Pres. Barack Obama? On May 18 Boo.com collapses in London after 6 mo. from lack of funds. On May 18-19 a coup is attempted in Paraguay against the govt. of Gonzalez Macchi. On May 19 permanent occupation of the Internat. Space Station (ISS) begins. On May 19 businessman George Speight (AKA Ilikimi Naitini) (1957-) stages a coup in Fiji. On May 19 South Korean PM Park Tae-joon (1927-) resigns soon after taking office after a financial scandal is revealed. On May 23 Israeli troops unilaterally withdraw from S Lebanon to the border after 22 years of occupation, and PM Ehud Barak announces "The 18-year tragedy is over", referring to the 1982 Israeli invasion that took over the "buffer zone" to protect N Israel from attacks by Hezbollah guerrillas, who now ride through the zone in triumph, claiming that they chased the Israelis out and that their withdrawal was "slinking and servile"; call him smart or dumb, but in 2001 after leaving office Netanyahu visits a home in Ofra in the West Bank to pay condolences to the family of an Israeli man killed by Palestinians, and admits that he was fooling Pres. Clinton by making token withdrawals from the West Bank per the Oslo Accords while actually entrenching the occupation, which doesn't come out until 2010, after he becomes PM again on Mar. 31, 2009. On May 25 the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict is adopted by the U.N. Gen. Assembly by a 263-54 vote, requiring parties to ensure that children under age 18 are not forcefully recruited into their armed forces and do not take part in hostilities; it comes into force on Feb. 12, 2002; by Feb. 2018 180 states sign it, with 13 states signing but not ratifying it; the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography is adopted by the U.N. Gen. Assembly, coming into force on Jan. 18, 2002; by Feb. 2018 183 states sign it, with nine states signing but not ratifying it. On May 26 13-y.-o. honor student Nathaniel Brazill (1987-) kills his English teacher Barry Grunow on the last day of classes in Lake Worth, Fla. for preventing him from talking with two girls in his classroom; he receives a 28-year sentence - preventing him from talking to girls until he's too old to enjoy it, and likes men better anyway? On May 28 volcanic Mt. Cameroon erupts. Fu on you, Fujimori? On May 29 Alberto Fujimori (1938-) wins election to a 3rd pres. term in Peru despite a constitutional prohibition against it after opposition leader Alejandro Toledo (1946-) raises a stink about a rigged election and starts an election boycott; in Sept. opposition leader Luis Fernando Olivera "Popy" Vega (1958-) shows evidence on TV that Fujimori's security chief Vladimiro Montesinos (1945-) bribed a congressman, and on Sept. 16 Fujimori announces that he is firing Montesinos and calling for immediate new elections, then on Sept. 19 stalls and postpones them until summer 2001; Montesinos flees to Panama on Sept. 24, then Fujimori moves the elections up to Mar., while Montesinos sneaks back in; on Nov. 17 Fujimori flees to Japan and sends a letter announcing his resignation, after which congress rules on Nov. 21 that he is "morally unfit" to continue after 10 years of corrupt dictatorship, and selects centrist party leader Valentin Paniagua Corazao (1936-2006) as interim pres.; on Aug. 28, 2003 a govt. report reveals that his govt. troops, peasant milita, and Shining Path Maoist rebels combined have killed more than 69K, 75% of them Quechua-speaking Indians (54% Shining Path, 46% govt.); on Nov. 7, 2005 Fujimori is arrested in Santiago, Chile as he tries to return to Peru to run for re-election after five years of exile in Japan despite an internat. arrest warrant and a congressional ruling barring him from public office until 2011, and is extradited to Peru on 21 charges of abuse of power, corruption and massacres, all because he had 30% support in a 2004 voter poll. On May 29 former Indonesian pres. Suharto is placed under house arrest and charged with corruption and abuse of power. In May New York City mayor Rudolf Giuliani announces that he has prostate cancer and will not be a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, causing Repubs. to nominate Long Island rep. Enrico Anthony "Rick" Lazio (1958-); meanwhile Dems. nominate First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, another women's first; too bad he snubs Gianelli's Sausage Stand at the State Fair in Syracuse, N.Y., saying he is "so-so on the sausage sandwiches", will Bill and Hillary enthusiastically chow down, hurting his campaign, even coming up in his failed 2010 run for N.Y. gov. In May the RateBeer Web site is founded by Bill Buchanan to rate beers, reaching 4.5M ratings of 200K beers from 16K breweries; the #1 beer in the world is Westvleteren 12 from Westvleteren Brewery in Belgium. On June 1 Tex. Gov. George W. Bush finally pardons a 78-y.-o. death row inmate after letting 130 executions go undisturbed. On June 1 Mt. Etna on Sicily erupts. On June 1-Oct. 31 Expo 2000 is held in Hanover, Germany; the official song is Schon (Schön) ist die Welt by Nina Hagen. On June 4 (Sun.) after seeing "Star Wars", a fan mistakenly sits on a 16th. cent. Ming Dynasty chair (1368-1644) purchased in 1996 for $453K, causing it to break in three places; he isn't hurt and they decide not to hold him liable. On June 6 Ferenc Madl (1931-2011) is elected pres. #2 of the Repub. of Hungary by the parliament, and is sworn-in on Aug. 4 (until Aug. 5, 2005). On June 6 the Nat. D-Day Museum in New Orleans, La. opens, expanding into the Nat. WWII Museum in 2008. If you're looking for a noble profession try law? On June 7 U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson in Washington, D.C. orders the breakup of Microsoft Corp., saying that it "has proved untrustworthy in the past" and doesn't appear to accept his ruling that it has broadly violated U.S. antitrust laws, saying "There is credible evidence in the record to suggest that Microsoft, convinced of its innocence, continues to do business as it has in the past and may yet do to other markets what it has already done" to dominate operating systems and Internet software; he breaks Microsoft into two separate competing cos. (for at least 10 years), one for its Windows op. system and the other for its computer application software (Microsoft Office, Access, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.) and Internet businesses (Internet Explorer browser, etc.); Microsoft appeals, calling the ruling "an unwarranted and unjustified intrusion into the software marketplace", while the govt. seeks an immediate review by the U.S. Supreme Court - heavily armed and heading north on Main Street? On June 7 Israeli PM Ehud Barak's govt. is thrown into tumult when the Knesset approves a bill to break up the govt. and stage new elections just as Barak is preparing for final peace talks with the Palestinians for the summer. On June 7 a suicide bomber in Colombo, Sri Lanka ruins the first-ever War Heroes Day, killing cabinet minister C.V. Gooneratne and 20 others. On June 9 the U.S. House of Reps. votes 279-136 (incl. 65 Dems.) to phase out the federal estate (inheritance) tax, even though only 2% of Americans die with estates large enough ($675K for an individual, $1.3M for a family-owned farm); a Dem. proposal to keep it for estates of $4M or more is defeated 222-196; too bad, Pres. Clinton vetoes it on Aug. 31. On June 10 Hafez al-Assad (b. 1930) dies of a heart attack in Damascus after 31 years in power (since 1969), and on July 10 his British-trained opthalmologist son Bashar al-Assad (1965-) succeeds him as pres. (dictator but nice?) of Syria (until ?), being promptly promoted from col. to lt. gen.; the Damascus Spring of intense political-social debate begins until the govt. suppresses it in fall 2001, arresting dissident economist Aref Dalila (1943-) and sentencing him to 10 years for calling for freedom of expression and an end to govt. monopolies; he is released on Aug. 10, 2008. On June 10 eight guards at Corcoran State Prison in Calif. are acquitted of civil rights violations for allegedly staging gladiator-style fights among inmates. On June 11 local elections in Montenegro give a majority of posts to pro-independence candidates. On June 11 New York City's annual Puerto Rican Day parade ends with an ugly incident in Central Park, where 10 amateur videotapes show as many as 50 drunken black, white, and Hispanic youths spraying women with water, ripping off their clothes, and groping and fondling them while police stand by ogling them and shrug off demands to intervene; after a stink is raised, police identify many of the perps from the tapes and make arrests, and try to coverup their inaction by blaming a shortage of radios - they weren't afraid, right? On June 13 attempted papal assassin Mehmet Ali Agca is pardoned. On June 13-15 South Korean pres. Kim Dae-jung meets with North Korean pres. Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang, becoming their first meeting; they hold a banquet, singing "Our Wish Is Unification"; on June 19 the U.S. eases trade sanctions against North Korea; on Oct. 13 Dae-jung is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, although Japan and China don't relish the prospect of a reunited Korea; Jong-il was just having fun? On June 14 after the spot market for energy begins operating in Apr. and prices rise significantly in May, the Calif. Electricity Crisis begins when 97K cusotmers in the San Francisco Bay area suffer a blackout duromg a heat wave, after which San Diego Gas & Electric alleges manipulation of the markets in Aug., followed by several hundred thousand customers blacked-out next Jan. 17-18, 1.5M next Mar. 19-20, and 167K next May 7-8 after Calif. Gov. Gray Davis declares a state of emergency next Jan. 17, and Pacific Gas & Energy Co. files for bankruptcy in Apr.; next Sept. energy prices normalize, after which Enron files for bankruptcy in Dec., and is blamed for manipulating energy prices; Calif. Gov. Gray Davis ends the state of emergency on Nov. 13, 2003. On June 14 the Jehovah's Witnesses relax their automatic disfellowshipping policy on members who receive a blood transfusion - a billion-dollar real estate empire is theirs to lose when the wrongful death lawsuits start rolling in? On June 15 the presidents of North and South Korea sign a historic Korean Peace Accord after 50 years of anything but. On June 15 King Abdullah II of Jordan accuses Israel of trying to block Jordan from developing a peaceful nuclear energy program; Israel denies it. On June 15 the MIR space station is switched off. On June 17 a 6.5 earthquake rocks S Iceland on its nat. day after 88 years of quiescence; another occurs on June 21. On June 19 the U.S. Supreme (Rehnquist) Court rules 6-3 in Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe to declare the practice of student-initiated and student-led prayer at public high school football games unconstitutional because it could be really initiated by the govt. officials behind the scenes; John Paul Stevens for the majority writes "Regardless of whether one considers a sporting event an appropriate occasion for solemnity, the use of an invocation to foster such solemnity is impermissible when, in actuality, it constitutes prayer sponsored by the school"; Rehnquist dissents, stating that the court's opinion "bristles with hostility to all things religious in public life"; Scalia and Thomas also dissent. On June 20 the British find 58 bodies of illegal Asian immigrants suffocated in a Dutch truck. On June 21 the Scottish parliament votes 99-17 to scrap Section 28, a law preventing the promotion of homosexuality - men wearing skirts jokes here? On June 22 17-y.-o. Eric Michael Clark (1983-) shoots Flagstaff, Ariz. police officer Jeff Moritz after being pulled over for playing loud rap music, later claiming he thought he was killing a "space alien"; he is found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life, then appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court. On June 22 a Wuhan Airlines Y7-100 en route from Enshi to Wuhan that is forced to circle for 30 mi. due to thunderstorms crashes near Sitai, China, killing all 40 passengers and four crew plus seven on the ground. On June 24 the Canadian Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act is passed, making Canada the first country to incorporate the Rome Statue of the Internat. Criminal Court into its nat. laws. On June 25 the U.S. Navy resumes shelling exercises at Vieques Island in Puerto Rico. On June 26 Hillary Clinton's "closest friend", political science prof. Diane Divers Blair (b. 1938), wife of futures trader Jim Blair, chief counsel at Tyson Foods Inc. during Cattlegate dies, leaving the Hillary Papers, incl. correspondence, diaries, interviews, strategy memos, and accounts of conversations with the Clintons from the mid-1970s, which are donated to the U. of Ark.; they are closed to the public until Mar. 9, 2010. On June 26 the U.S. Supreme (Rehnquist) Court rules 5-4 in Apprendi v. N.J. that the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial as forced on, er, incorporated against the states via the 14th Amendment prohibits judges from enhancing criminal sentences beyond statutory maximums based on facts other than those decided by the jury beyond a reasonable doubt. On June 28 the U.S. Supreme (Rehnquist) Court rules 6-3 in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale that a private org. is allowed under certain criteria to exclude people from membership based on sexual orientation through their First Amendment right to freedom of association in spite of state anti-discrimination laws. On June 28 the U.S. Supreme (Rehnquist) Court rules 5-4 in Stenberg v. Carhart ito invalidate a Neb. law outlawing partial-birth abortions as violating the Due Process Clause because it didn't allow exception for the health of the woman; Justice Antonin Scalia dissents, with the soundbyte: "I am optimistic enough to believe that, one day, Stenberg v. Carhart will be assigned its rightful place in the history of this Court's jurisprudence beside Korematsu and Dred Scott. The method of killing a human child... proscribed by this statute is so horrible that the most clinical description of it evokes a shudder of revulsion." On June 28 U.S. Supreme (Rehnquist) Court rules 6-3 in Mitchell v. Helms that loans can be made to religious schools for computers and other secular instructional equipment - if Al-Qaida can have it? On June 30 the U.S. claims that Iraq resumed its missile program. On June 30 the Roskilde Tragedy at the Roskilde Festival near Copenhagen, Denmark sees fans riot during a performance by the group Pearl Jam, killing nine and injuring 26. In June Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador sign a free trade agreement with Mexico. In June the World Bank agrees to loan Chad $200M to build a $3.7B oil pipeline to Cameroon, to be paid by estimated oil revenues of $80M a year over the next 30 years; to quiet fears of you know what, the World Bank forces Chad to agree to spend 80% of the revenues on social services, becoming a world first; too bad, by 2005 Transparency Internat. lists Hanging Chad as the world's most corrupt country, and in 2006 dictator Idriss Deby proves it by reneging on his deal and using the money to finance his military to keep his grip, causing the loan to be suspended and Chad's bank accounts to be frozen. In June the Cotonou Agreement is signed in Cotonou, Benin, replacing the Lome IV Convention of 1989-99, and set to run for 20 years as the cornerstone of European trade with the 71 developing ACP (African, Caribbean, and Pacific) nations. In June George Richard "Rick" Wagoner Jr. (1953-) becomes CEO of GM (until Mar. 29, 2009). In June Toronto, Canada-based Naked News debuts on the Internet, featuring naked female reporters. In the summer intense wildfires roast the U.S. West. In the summer the U.S. military intelligence unit Able Danger identifies Mohammed Atta and three other 9/11 hijackers as likely members of an Al-Qaida cell operating in the U.S., and recommends that the info. be shared with the FBI, but the recommendation is rejected; he was an imposter, as proved by his father claiming that he is still alive a year after 9/11? On July 2 6'7" cowboy-boot-loving former Coca-Cola exec Vicente Fox Quesada (1942-) of the Nat. Action Party (PAN) is elected pres. of Mexico, defeating PRI candidate Francisco Labastida Ochoa Magana (AKA Memo) (1942-) by a landslide, becoming the first defeat for the ruling PRI Party since 1929, although PAN fails to win a majority in the chamber of deputies or senate; on Dec. 1 he is sworn-in (until Nov. 30, 2006), becoming the first peaceful transfer of power in Mexico's history, and the largest internal transformation since the 1910 Mexican Rev.; he did it even though PAN's link to the Roman Catholic Church and his 1996 proposal to privatize state oil co. Pemex made him a lot of enemies. On July 6 U.S. gen. Tommy Ray Franks (1945-) succeeds Gen. Anthony Zinny as cmdr. of the U.S. Central Command (until July 7, 2003), overseeing a 25-country region incl. the Middle East, and going on to lead the attack on the Taliban in Afghanistan the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. On July 10 a leaking petroleum pipeline explodes in S Nigeria, killing 250 villagers who were scavenging gasoline. On July 11-25 the 2000 Camp David Summit between Pres. Clinton, Yasir Arafat, and Ehud Barak sees Barak propose turning 92% of the West Bank into a Palestinian state, with Palestinian sovereignty over the Christian and Muslim quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem, but no agreement is reached after Arafat utters the soundbyte that the PLO's demands for sovereignty in East Jerusalem "not only refer to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Temple Mount mosques, and the Armenian quarter, but it is Jerusalem in its entirety, entirety, entirety", incl. the Western Wall, which he calls the Al-Buraq Wall, insisting that there never had been any Jewish temples on the Temple Mount; after the talks fail, Arafat responds by pumping up local violence, since all along all he wanted was the destruction of Israel, not the creation of a Palestinian state?; on Aug. 9, 2001 Robert Malley (1963-), special asst. to Pres. Clinton for Arab-Israeli Affairs, and Hussein Agha pub. Camp David: The Tragedy of Errors, which blames Barak not Arafat for the failure of the summit; Malley later becomes a favorite adviser of Pres. Obama - home depot, you can do it, we can help? On July 14 Palestinian activist Hanan Ashrawi gives an interview to NPR's "Morning Edition", uttering the soundbyte: "The more you maintain settlements in the West Bank, the more areas of friction you have... You are creating not only a situation of volatility, you are creating an apartheid system: two sets of people on the same land subject to two sets of law, with Israeli extraterritoriality in the West Bank." On July 14 a Fla. jury rules that big tobacco cos. are guilty of racketeering and fraud for deliberately deceiving the public about the effects of smoking, and must pay a shocking $145B to settle hundreds of thousands of health claims; their appeal is denied on May 22, 2009, and they must quit using labels such as "light", "mild", or "low tar" on their packaging; the cos. incl. Philip Morris, Altria, R.J. Reynolds, Brown and Williamson, British Am. Tobacco., and Lorillard Tobacco (acquired in 1971 by Loews Corp. of theater fame); Liggett Group was excluded from the ruling because it came clean and fessed up in the 1990s. On July 15 PM Sheikh Hasina completes her 5-year term as PM of Bangladesh, becoming the first leader to do so since independence in 1974, and former chief justice (2000-1) Latifur Rahman (1936-) becomes interim chief adviser of Bangladesh (until Oct. 10, 2001). In mid-July Canadian press lord Kenneth R. Thomson (1923-2006) sells his 49 U.S. newspapers for $2.44B to invest in electronic info. services, acquiring rights to database content so he can charge Internet users - if only surfers paid for info? On July 17 a consortium of corps. in Germany awards 10B DM to victims of the Nazi slave labor program. On July 18 Alex Salmond resigns as leader of the Scottish Nat. Party. On July 18 in England police launch a murder investigation after the body of a girl found near Pulborough, Sussex is confirmed to be that of Sarah Evelyn Isobel Payne (1992-2000), who was reported missing on July 1; on July 22 News of the World urges its readers to sign a petition for Sarah's Law, giving parents the right to know whether a convicted pedophile is living in their area; on Aug. 3 rioting erupts on the Paulsgrove estate in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England in a block of flats allegedly housing a convicted you know what. On July 19 a fire in a nursing home in Costa Rica kills 17 of 14 patients. On July 20 the British Terrorism Act of 2000 is passed, superseding the 1989 Prevention of Terrorism and 1996 North Ireland Emergency Provisions Act with more permanent powers, resulting in 750 arrests and 22 convictions by Oct. 2005. On July 21 Russian pres. Vladimir Putin meets with North Korean pres. Kim Jong-il, and the latter pledges to discontinue his long-range missile program in exchange for help in sending satellites into space - thank you for being stupid? On July 21 former U.S. Sen. (R-Mo.) John C. Danforth, special council for a team of 38 investigators and 16 attys. releases the Danforth Report on Waco, clearing U.S. atty.-gen. Janet Reno and the FBI of any wrongdoing in connection with the deaths of 76 Branch Davidians at Waco, Tex. in Apr. 1993 after a 10-mo. investigation, and claims there was no conspiracy or coverup, concluding "The blame rests squarely on the shoulders of David Koresh" - or, dead men tell no tales? On July 21-23 the 26th Annual G-8 Summit is held, discussing AIDS, the "digital divide", and how to halve world poverty by 2015. On July 25 Air France Flight 4590, a supersonic Concorde crashes into a hotel in Gonesse outside Paris just after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle Airport, killing all 109 aboard and four in the hotel after a titanium strip that fell from a Continental jet that took off earlier slashes a tire and does other damage during takeoff, causing all Concorde flights to be suspended and Air France to sue Continental Airlines; in 2005 France begins prosecuting Henri Perrier, father of the Concorde program for manslaughter and involuntary injury. On July 26 U.S. District judge Marilyn Hall Petel (1938-) rules in A&M Records Inc. v. Napster Inc. that Web-based Napster Inc. (founded 1999) has been violating copyrights of record cos., publishers and artists by distributing their songs free over the Internet; since the order doesn't take effect until July 29, guess what millions of Internet users rush to do, while lucky Napster gets another judge to issue a stay long enough for it to sign a deal on Oct. 31 with German media giant Bertelsmann that will let it charge a fee for its service and distribute part of it as royalties to record cos., inaugurating a new age for music. On July 27 Resolution 1310 is approved by the U.N., confirming that Israel has "withdrawn its forces from Lebanon in accordance with Resolution 425". On July 27 the U.S. Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, protecting prisoners who wish to worship, and giving churches a way to avoid burdensome zoning law restrictions; too bad, when Obama becomes U.S. pres. the Dept. of Justice begins using it to force mosque construction against community wishes. On July 29 Hollywood star Brad Pitt marries Hollywood star Jennifer Joanna Aniston (1969-), becoming known as Branifer; Jeff Buckley's music is used at their wedding; the public thinks they're the ideal married couple and should live happily together forever, but it only lasts until 2005. On July 30 Hugo Chavez is reelected as pres. of Venezuela with 59% of the vote (until ?). On July 31 CanWest Global Communications, founded by Liberal Social Dem. Israel Harold "Izzy" Asper (1932-2003) announces in Montreal that it is buying Hollinger Internat. from Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour (1944-) for $2.36B, giving it control of around 100 newspapers plus the Web site Canada.com; Black retains ownership of the Chicago Sun-Times, London Daily Telegraph and Jerusalem Post plus 50% of the Toronto-based National Post; Asper and his sons Leonard and David are known for making editors of their papers support Israel and PM Chretien, and for running U.S. sitcoms on their TV stations; too bad, Black is convicted in 2007 on U.S. charges of mail and wire fraud and gets 78 mo. - Jewish media conspiracy jokes here? On July 31-Aug. 3 the 2000 Repub. Nat. Convention in Philadelphia, Penn. selects Tex. gov. George Walker Bush for pres. and Dick Cheney for vice-pres.; Bush calls himself a "compassionate conservative", who will be "united, not a divider", and proposes privatizing Social Security; Cheney started out supervising Bush's search for VP, then decided he was the best man for the job; on Aug. 14-17 the 2000 Dem. Nat. Convention in Los Angeles, Calif. selects vice-pres. Al Gore for pres. and Conn. Sen. (since 1989) Joseph Isadore Lieberman (1942-) (who calls himself "Joementum") for vice-pres., becoming the first Jewish candidate for the job; Lieberman was the first U.S. Sen. to speak out against Clinton's immorality in 1998; in debates with Gore, Bush issues the soundbyte "I just don't think it's the role of the United States to walk into a country and say, 'We do it this way, so should you'... If we're an arrogant nation they'll resent us. I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation building." - change your mind later? In July Stockwell Burt Day Jr. (1950-) of the new (Jan.) right-wing Canadian Alliance Party becomes leader of the Canadian opposition, becoming known for his evangelical Bible-thumping Creationist views and opposition to rights for you guessed it and gun registration, and promises to reduce taxes, but is defeated on Nov. 27 after a 36-day "snap election" by Liberal Party PM Jean Chretien in a landslide V for a 3rd 5-year term after he preempts Day by announcing the largest tax cut in Canadian history. In July Yusuf Islam (1948-), the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens is deported back to Britain hours after arriving from Jerusalem, the Israeli govt. claiming that he had donated tens of thousands of dollars to Hamas during a 1988 visit; he denies it, but apparently ends up on the U.S. no-fly list. In July voters in Ivory Coast overwhelmingly approve a draft constitution, which permits only those of "pure Ivoirian" stock (99-44/100 pure?) to run for pres., excluding 40% of the pop., who are illegal immigrants, mainly Muslims from Burkina Faso; in Oct. dictator Gen. Robert Guei is defeated by civilian opposition leader (non-Muslim) Laurent Gbagbo (1945-), but both claim a V, causing a popular rising which causes Guei to flee the country, and on Oct. 26 Gbagbo becomes pres. (until Apr. 11, 2011), although supporters of another opposition leader Alassane Dramane Ouattara (1942-) (a Muslim whose parents illegally immigrated from Burkina Faso) are angry because he was exluded from the election for not having pure Ivory blood, and after bloody protests he is finally granted full citizenship in June, 2002. In July the Four Dan Actresses are coined by the Guangzhou Daily, the four most bankable mainland Chinese actresses, incl. Xu Jinglei (1974-), Zhou Xun (1974-), Zhao Wei (1976-), and Zhang Ziyi (1979). On Aug. 3 notorious 50-something Indian Robin Hood bandit Koose Muniswamy Veerappan (1952-2004), known for slaughtering elephants for their ivory and killing dozens of police kidnaps 72-y.-o. film star Rajkumar (1929-2006) at his country house near the village of Gajanur in Tamil Nadu along with two of his associates, and demands the release of 50 comrades from prison; he releases Rajkumar on Nov. 14 and is finally killed by police in 2004. On Aug. 5 Pres. Clinton vetoes legislation that would have eliminated the "marriage penalty", which in some cases requires married couples to pay higher federal income taxes than single persons earning the same amount, causing Repubs. to vow to use his veto against the candidacy of vice-pres. Al Gore; Clinton explains that the measure favors the rich, who are the bad guys, so that's why he vetoed it, but then explains that they will actually benefit more from lowering the nat. debt, and hence now they're the good guys and that's why he vetoed it. On Aug. 9 the Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. begins a year-long recall of 6.5M radial 15 in. ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tires which were original equipment on Ford Explorers and were linked to sudden tread explosions; all were made at their Decatur, Ill. plant; Ford had previously recalled the tires in Saudi Arabia and Venezuela; on Sept. 28 Ford announces that it will equip its Explorer SUVs with Michelin tires and negotiate with other makers to provide tires for various Ford models. On Aug. 12 the 5-y.-o. Russian sub Kursk (K-141) sinks in the 300-ft.-deep Barents Sea, killing all 118 aboard after the Russians stall in accepting British and Norwegian rescue offers, and blame it on the lack of pressurized escape chambers, hurting the prestige of new Russian pres. Vladimir Putin. On Aug. 12 Hillary holds the Hollywood Farewell Gala Salute to Pres. William Jefferson Clinton in Los Angeles, Calif., featuring performers incl. Cher, raising her over $1M; too bad, she is accused of understating the fundraiser's costs, and accepting donations from convicted felon Peter Franklin Paul (1948-), former partner of "Spider-Man" creator Stan Lee, raising allegations that he is trying to get her hubby Bill Clinton to pardon him; after several years of legal wrangling she slithers out of it snakey clean. On Aug. 14 Tsar Nicholas II and several members of his family are canonized by the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. On Aug. 14 the animated TV series Dora the Explorer debuts on Nickelodeon cable TV network (until ?), about a bilingual Latina, who helps viewers learn both English and Spanish, featuring the voice of Caitlin Sanchez (1996-), who in 2010 sues them, claiming they cheated her out of royalties. On Aug. 14 the quiz show The Weakest Link debuts on BBC-TV for 1,693 episodes (until Mar. 31, 2012), hosted by Anne Josephine Robinson (1944-). On Aug. 15-18 dozens of North and South Korean families are reunited in Seoul. On Aug. 27 1,772-ft. Ostankino Tower in Moscow catches fire, killing three. On Aug. 28 the U.S. Nat. Institutes of Health (NIH) rules issues rules permitting federally financed researchers to work on human embryonic stem cells under strict regulations, pissing-off right-to-lifers, although privately funded stem-cell research has been going on for years. In Aug. U.S. Pres. Clinton delivers $1.3B in aid to help Colombia fight drug traffickers, incl. combat helis and military training - he read "Clear and Present Danger"? In Aug. an investigative commission in Uruguay begins looking into the disappearances of 160 people during the military dictatorship of 1973-84 - get your shovels? In Aug. exiled minister Abdulkassim Salat Hassan (1941-) is elected pres. of Somalia in a peace conference in Djibouti; he returns to Mogadishu in Oct., but Mohammad Farah Aidid's son Hussein doesn't recognize his election, and his power is limited to the city. On Sept. 2 Pres. Clinton gives orders to release 1M barrels a day for 30 days from the U.S. Strategic Oil Reserve to help needy Americans in cold weather; meanwhile OPEC celebrates its 40th anniv. in a meeting in Caracas at the end of Sept., and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela calls for higher oil prices to force developed countries to aid less developed ones like his, but Saudi Arabia counters by offering to increase production to keep prices affordable. On Sept. 3 Pope John Paul II beatifies pope (1958-63) John XXIII (1881-1963); too bad, he also sneaks in pope (1846-78) Pius IX (1792-1878) (the one who started the dogma of Papal Infallibility and worked against democracy), to the outrage of many, incl. the Jewish Anti-Defense League (ADL), who won't let anybody forget that he was responsible for the abduction and forced Catholicization of a 6-y.-o. Jewish child in 1858. On Sept. 4 Iraq violates Saudi airspace with its planes for the first time in 10 years in an obvious attempt to provoke a U.S. response. On Sept. 5 Mark Bailey is sentenced to 10 years of probation and ordered to attend twice-weekly counseling for sending threatening letters to actress Brooke Shields. On Sept. 6 the Taliban captures the Northern Alliance HQ of Taloqan, Afghanistan, and on Sept. 7 requests the U.N. to recognize it as the official Afghan govt.; the U.N. Security Council responds on Dec. 19 by voting 13-0-2 (China, Malaysia) for Resolution 1333 to recall all resolutions on Afghanistan, tighten diplomatic sanctions, and impose an arms embargo, repeating its demands for extradition of Osama bin Laden - french me a fry, bring me a nut, kashmir me, I won't comply? On Sept. 6 Bofors, the last wholly Swedish-owned arms manufacturer is sold to United Defense of the U.S. On Sept. 6-8 the Millennium Summit is held at the U.N. in New York City by 150 world leaders from 188 member states in the largest-ever gathering of heads of states of govt. (until ?); on Sept. 7 the U.N. Security Council votes 15-0-0 for Resolution 1318, endorsing the U.N. Millennium Declaration, which is endorsed by the U.N. Gen. Assembly on Sept. 8, stressing the observance of internat. human rights and humanitarian laws under the U.N. Charter and other treaties, citing the ancient Olympic Truce; - spare seat for JC, or Socrates? On Sept. 7-14 in Britain protests over the cost of gasoline blockade refineries. On Sept. 8 Albania officially joins the World Trade Org. (WTO). On Sept. 10 Cats folds after 7.4K performances. On Sept. 13 Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee, AKA the "Atom Spy" is freed after 9 mo. in priz after he pleads guilty to one of 59 felony charges. On Sept. 15-Oct. 1 the XXVII (27th) Summer Olympic Games ("the Complete Olympics" - NBC-TV) are held in Sydney, Australia on the 200th anniv. of the city's namesake Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney (1733-1800), with 10K athletes from 199 countries, plus 21K journalists; Aussie singer Olivia Newton-John sings in the opening ceremonies; the Peacock Network (NBC) airs 441.5 hours of coverage, incl. 162.5 hours of medal air time; the U.S. wins 97 medals (39 gold), the Russians 88 (32 gold), the Chinese 59 (28 gold); Australian aborigine runner Cathy Freeman (1973-) wins the 400m sprint, pleasing the crowd; Marion Jones (1975-) of the U.S. wins three golds and two bronzes; too bad, on Oct. 8, 2007 she returns them after admitting to steroid use; U.S. wrestler Rulon Gardner (1971-) upsets "Russian Bear" Alexander Karelin (1967-), who had gone undefeated in internat. competition since 1987; Australian swimmer Ian James "Thorpedo" "Thorpey" Thorpe (1982-) wins three gold and two silver medals, becoming the most successful athlete of the games; Anthony Lee "Tony" Ervin (1981-), the first African-Am. to make the U.S. swimming team wins gold in the 50m freestyle, and silver in the 4x100 freestyle relay. On Sept. 16 Ukrainian journalist Georgiy Ruslanovich Gongadze (b. 1969) is last seen alive; on Nov. 28 Ukrainian politician Oleksander Oleksandrovich Moroz (1944-) touches off the Cassette Scandal, publicly accusing pres. Leonid Kuchma of involvement in his murder. On Sept. 19 a Cuban Antonov An-2 is hijacked after takeoff from Pinar del Rio, and crashes into the sea W of Cuba - don't ask don't tell? On Sept. 20 the 6-year Whitewater investigation of the Cleaner than Clorox Clintons ends with no indictments - and a loud flush? On Sept. 22 gay Rutgers U. student Tyler Clementi (b. 1992) jumps to his death from the George Washington Bridge after a sexual encounter with a man in his dorm room is streamed on the Internet by his roommate Dharun Ravi and hallmate Molly Wei. On Sept. 23 Burmese democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is again placed under house arrest by the Burmese govt.; on Dec. 7 U.S. Pres. Clinton awards her the Pres. Medal of Freedom. On Sept. 23 the long-lost villa and love nest of the first cent. Roman poet Ovid (-43 to 17) is discovered on the banks of the Tiber river not far from the Milvian Bridge in Rome. On Sept. 24 Swiss voters reject a plan to limit the number of foreigners in Switzerland to 18% of the pop., becoming the 4th referendum of its kind since 1970 to fail. On Sept. 24 Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein receives a special copy of the Quran written in his own blood, commissioned in 1997 to thank Allah for having escaped unharmed from "a life full of dangers, during which I lost a lot of blood". On Sept. 24-28 after 12 years of rule by Slobodan Milosevic, during which the per capita income has slid by 90% and inflation has gone out of control, elections in Yugoslavia give a V to opposition leader (law prof.) Vojislav Kostunica (1944-), (pr. coast-oo-NEET-suh) but Milosevic denies the results, claiming only a 48% mandate for his opponent, and scheduling an Oct. 8 runoff election, causing a nationwide uprising, with workers going on strike and 1M protesters storming Belgrade, which his pigs fight with tear gas, while stupidly letting them take over the state broadcasting offices and set fire to the parliament bldg.; on Oct. 5 the supreme court declares Kostunica the winner, and after his pigs tell him to stuff it, on Oct. 7 Slobby Dan resigns, and Kostunica is sworn-in as pres., causing the U.S. and EU to begin lifting economic sanctions; on Oct. 28 elections in Kosovo give a V to moderates in municipal posts and to the reformist Dem. League of Kosovo (LDK) in parliament. On Sept. 26 Danish voters reject the Euro by 53.1% as it falls to new lows, despite a vigorous campaign by PM Nyrup Rasmussen, who claims that clinging to the kroner will isolate it from the European Community. On Sept. 26 the "grime bucket" Greek Express Samina Ferry sinks off the coast of the island of Paros, killing 80 of 500 passengers. On Sept. 26 15K protest globalization in Prague, Czech. during the IMF and World Bank summits. On Sept. 28 the U.S. FDA approves the French abortion pill Mifepristone (Mifeprex), AKA RU-486 for use as an abortifacient (goo for up to 49 days after beginning of last menstrual cycle) after giving conditional approval in 1996; in Nov. physicians begin prescribing the pills under strict regs; on Aug. 24, 2006 approval is given to Barr Pharmaceuticals to sell the morning-after-pill (Plan B) (quadruple dose of the birth control pill) to women over 18 without a prescription. On Sept. 28 Israeli hardliner leader Ariel Sharon visits Al-Aqsa Mosque (Sharam al Sharif) (Harem esh-Sharif) (Jewish Temple Mount) with 1K security police in an unannounced political stunt, pissing-off Palestinians, who stone him, then start the Al-Aqsa Intifada (Oslo War), resulting in 5K killed, incl. Israeli soldiers Yossi Avrahami and Vadim Nurzhitz lynched in Ramallah on Oct. 12, after which their bodies are tossed to the crowds, who tear them apart and eat their organs, causing Israeli retaliatory strikes; on Oct. 16-17 Pres. Clinton, Ehud Barak, and Yassir Arafat meet in Sharm El-Sheik seaside resort in Egypt and agree to stop the violence, but Arafat can't deliver, and violence continues; the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades are founded, which is funded by Fatah as they commit dozens of suicide bombings, led by Zakara Muhammad Abdelrahman Zubeidi (Zubaidi) (1976-), who had an affair with Jewish Israeli Tali Fahima (1976-), who was imprisoned in 2005 for her contacts with him, and released in Jan. 2007, after which in mid-2007 he renounced militancy and went into theater, causing her to call him a "whore of the Shin Bet security service", after which she converted to Islam in June 2010. On Sept. 28 Tanya Rider (1933-) is found in her Honda Element near Renton, Wash. after she slid off the road and sat there injured and immobilized for eight days while zillions of cars drive by. On Sept. 28 the video New Trends in Arab Anti-Semitism was presented to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, cataloging the horrible anti-Semitism in the Muslim world. On Sept. 29 the Long Kesh (Maze) Prison in Northern Ireland is closed. On Sept. 30 (3:00 p.m.) (Rosh Hashanah) the Muhammad al-Durrah Incident (Hoax) allegedly happens, after which French TV network France 2 runs a tape dubbed by French Jewish activist Charles Enderlin (1945-) accusing Israeli forces of killing 12-y.-o. Palestinian boy Mohammed al-Dura (1988-) while cowering in his father's arms at the Netzarim Junction S of Gaza City, becoming a cause celebre for Palestinians and helping fuel the Second Intifada; it is later revealed as a staged hoax by French Jewish media analyst Philippe Karsenty (1966-), causing him to be successfully sued for defamation by the network even though the Israeli govt., which initially accepts responsibility reverses its stand in Sept. 2007; the boy was never killed, or was killed by Palestinians by accident or for propaganda purposes? In Sept. Chase Manhattan pays $36B for the 139-y.-o. J.P. Morgan investment banking house, and changes its name to J. P. Morgan Chase. On Oct. 2 demonstrators take over the state-controlled TV station in Belgrade, Serbia. On Oct. 2 Britain finally begins enforcing their 1998 Human Rights Act after Scotland beats them to it earlier in the year. On Oct. 5 beleaguered Serbian pres. Slobodan Milosevic leaves office after the withdrawal of Russian support. On Oct. 5 Amy Sherman-Palladino's comedy-drama series Gilmore Girls debuts on the WB for 153 episodes (until May 15, 2007 after switching to the CW in 2006), set in everybody-loves-it Stars Hollow, Conn. (based on Washington, Conn.) 30 min. from Hartford, Conn., starring Lauren Helen Graham (1967-) as single mother Lorelai Gilmore, and Kimberly Alexis Bledel (1981-) as her daughter Lorelai (Rory); Melissa Ann McCarthy (1970-) plays Sookie St. James. On Oct. 6 the last Mini Cooper is produced in Longbridge, England. On Oct. 6 the procedural forensics crime TV drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation debuts on CBS-TV for 337 episodes (until Sept. 27, 2015), starring William Louis Petersen (1953-) as Gil Grissom, head of a Las Vegas, Nev. police unit that incl. Mary Marg Helgenberger (1958-) (as Catherine Willows), George Coleman Eads III (1967-) (Nick Stokes), Gary Dourdan (Gary Robert Durdin) (1966-) (as Warrick Brown), Jorja-An "Jorja" Fox (1968-) (as Sara Sidle), and Paul Guilfoyle (1949-) (as Capt. James "Jim" Brass), solving crimes from grisly evidence; the series finale is titled "Immortality"; too bad, its violence and sexual content pisses-off the Parents Television Council, and its inaccurate portrayal of CSI work pisses-off real investigators, which doesn't keep the show from building an audience of 73.8M viewers in 2009. On Oct. 7 grand duke (since 1964) Jean retires, and his eldest son Henri (1955-) becomes grand duke of Luxembourg (until ?). On Oct. 7 The District debuts on CBS-TV for 89 episodes (until May 1, 2004), starring Craig T. Nelson as former New York City deputy police commissioner Jack Maple, Lynn Thigpen as Ella Mae Farmer, David O'Hara as detective Danny McGregor, and Roger Aaron Brown as deputy chief Joe Noland. On Oct. 8 That's Life debuts on CBS-TV (until Jan. 26, 2003), starring "Who wants to be a millionaire the old fashioned way?" Ellen Burstyn, Heather Paige Kent, and Paul Sorvino. On Oct. 9 the cable TV Food Network, owned by Shaw Media and Scripps Networks Interactive, based in Toronto, Canada debuts (until ?), replacing Fine Living Network (founded 2002). On Oct. 10 the U.S. Permanent Normalized Trade with China Act is signed by Pres. Clinton, endorsing permanent normalized trade status for the People's Repub. of China (PRC), paving the way for its entry into the World Trade Org. (WTO), pissing-off U.S. labor unions but tickling multinational cos. pink; the Senate approved it on Sept. 9 by 83-15 after adding provisions to safeguard sacred cow Taiwan and protect the low-paid Chinese workers. On Oct. 11 a 250M gal. coal sludge spill by Martin County Coal Co. in W. Va. buries lawns more than 6 ft. deep in black slurry, kills fish, and contaminates drinking water, becoming a greater environmental disaster than the Exxon Valdez oil spill. On Oct. 12 (11:18 a.m.) (Thur.) suicide bombers in an explosives-laden boat ram the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole while refueling in Aden, Yemen, blowing a 40'x60' hole in the port side and killing 17 U.S. sailors and injuring 39; it is later pinned on Al-Qaida; in 2002 UAE arrests suspected Saudi-born mastermind Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri (1965-) and turns him over to the U.S.; in Mar. 2007 Walid bin Attash (1979-) confesses to planning the attack along with the two 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, and claims torture by U.S. interrogators; in 2003 Pat Roberts, chmn. of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee tells the CIA they have no objections to detroying videotapes of brutal interrogations, which only comes out on Feb. 22, 2010; too bad, by late 2009 every man arrested or convicted in connection with the attack is either pardoned or escapes from prison; between now and 2010 the U.S. State Dept. awards 1,011 special "diversity visas" allowing Yemenis to immigrate to the U.S. - did it just get hot in here? On Oct. 21 15 Arab leaders convene in Cairo, Egypt for their first summit in four years; after talk of not breaking ties with Israel, the Libyan delegation walks out. On Oct. 22 The Mainichi Shinbun newspaper exposes Japanese archeologist Shinichi Fujimura (1950-) as a fraud after a smoking gun photo is taken showing him burying artifacts, embarrassing Japanese archeologists who had based their treatises on his findings. On Oct. 23 Madeleine Albright holds talks with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il. On Oct. 23 Sunni Muslim former PM (1992-8) Rafik Baha El Deen Hariri (1944-2005) becomes PM #43 of Lebanon (until Oct. 20, 2004). On Oct. 23 Glasgow-born Michael John Martin (1945-) of the Labour Party becomes speaker of the British House of Commons (until June 21, 2009). On Oct. 26 the New York Yankees (AL) (mgr. Joe Torre) defeat the New York Mets (NL) (mgr. Bobby Valentine) 4-1 to win the Ninety-Sixth (96th) "Subway" World Series, making three straight for the Yankees, four in five years, and their 26th WS title. On Oct. 26 Pakistani authorities announce the finding of an ancient mummy of a Persian princess in the province of Balochistan; Iran, Pakistan, and the Taliban all claim the mummy until Pakistan announces it is a forgery on Apr. 17, 2001. On Oct. 27 the U.S. Drug Addiction Treatment Act, sponsored by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) is signed by Pres. Clinton, treating heroin addiction as a disease, and backing use of methadone alternatives buprenorphine (a partial opiate producing minimum mood alteration) and buprenorphine-naloxone (ditto with an opiate blocker), which go on to win FDA approval in Sept. 2002; now the longtime horrible sin is in the same category as diabetes and hypertension? On Oct. 30 Kyrgyzstan pres. Askar Akayev wins reelection with 75% of the vote in an election marred by allegations of fraud and corruption, and the country's claim to be the "centerpiece of central Asian democracy" is kaput? On Oct. 31 Singapore Airlines Flight 006 collides with construction equipment in the Chiang Kai-Shek Interat. Airport, killing 83. On Oct. 31 the U.N. Security Council unanimously approves Resolution 1325, calling for the adoption of a gender perspective incl. the special needs of women and girls during repatriation, resettlement, rehabilitation, reintegration, and post-conflict reconstruction, becoming their first resolution requiring parties in a conflict to respect women's rights. On Nov. 1 the U.N. Gen. Assembly unanimously approves Yugoslavia's application for U.N. membership. On Nov. 1 New York City MCC prison guard Louis Pepe (1947-) is ambushed in the cell of al-Qaida top aide Mamdouh Mahmud Salim and his cellmate, who stick a sharpened comb in his eye, blinding him and causing brain damage, dig a cross on his chest, then try to rape him before he is rescued. On Nov. 2 Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (1975-) of Russia defeats world champ (since 1985) Garry Kasparov 8.5-6.5 (2-0 wins, 13 draws) to become world chess champ #14 (until 2007) at the Brain Games in London; meanwhile the discredited FIDE org. holds a rival championship. On Nov. 2 a Soyuz spacecraft carrying one U.S. and two Russian astronauts docks at the 80-ton $60 Internat. Space Station (ISS) 240 mi. above Earth to begin a 4-mo. mission to expand the leaky rat trap outpost. On Nov. 2 the pilot of a Singapore Airlines Boeing 747 uses the wrong runway for his takeoff from Taiwan in heavy rain and wind, hits construction materials and crashes, killing 82, although he survives; the runway lights are later blamed. On Nov. 3 widespread flooding occurs throughout England and Wales after days of heavy rain. On Nov. 4 Pres. Clinton vetoes an intelligence authorization bill containing a British Official Secrets Act-like provision making it a felony to leak govt. secrets, with prison terms of up to 3 years and fines of up to $1K, calling the wording "overbroad and may unnecessarily chill legitimate activities that are at the heart of a democracy". On Nov. 6 the U.S. Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act is signed by Pres. Clinton after clearing Congress in record time, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimating in Mar. that more than 380K subcutaneous injuries from contaminated sharps occur each year among U.S. health profs., and up to 800K worldwide, subjecting them to the risk of contracting HIV and hepatitis-C; the real reason is lobbying by Becton Dickinson & Co. of N.J., which has spent $500M developing "safety-engineered needles" that cost over twice as much as ordinary hypos? Can't prove it, but Bush stole the election? "George Bush" is an anagram for "He bugs Gore"? On Nov. 7 after $3B spent over four years on campaigning, the 2000 U.S. Pres. Election is the closest in decades, with the electoral vote so close (Gore 267, Bush 246, with 270 needed to win) on election night that Florida's 25 are fated to decide the winner; Tim Russert of NBC-TV introduces red-blue color-coding to electoral maps, with Repubs. colored red and Dems. blue, reversing the longstanding pattern of red for radicals and leftists and blue for conservative bluebloods; too bad, the use of a "butterfly ballot" confuses many voters, putting the nation on hold as Bush's slim lead in Fla. leads to an automatic recount, while a con game begins with the "hanging chad" problem (see the year 667 C.E.) with its butterfly ballots, and on Nov. 11 the Repubs. file a federal suit to block manual recount which might change Bush's lead to a Gore lead, forcing the election to be decided by the Repub.-controlled courts; Dems. force a manual recount in four counties, but it goes too slow, allowing millionaire Repub. Fla. secy. of state Katherine Harris (1957-) (whose beauty queen makeup becomes the butt of jokes on late-night TV) to set a Nov. 14 deadline for the recount, but she is overruled on Nov. 21 by the Fla. Supreme Court, which extends it to Nov. 26, on which day Harris (in her 15 min. of fame) certifies her boss, er, Bush as the winner by a 537-vote margin out of 6M votes cast, giving Fla.'s 25 electoral votes to Bush, along with the most interesting job in the world; on Nov. 22 Bush appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court to have the Fla. counting stopped in Bush v. Gore, argued by future U.S. solicitor gen. (2001-4) Theodore Bevry "Ted" Olson (1940-), which on Dec. 4 remands the case to the Fla. Supreme Court, headed by chief justice (since 1994) Charles T. Wells (1939-), which on Dec. 8 orders the recount to resume and to be completed by Dec. 10, since an 1887 federal law permits electors to be certified on Dec. 12 in time for the convening of the electoral college on Dec. 18; too bad, on Dec. 9 the U.S. Supreme Court votes 5-4 on partisan lines to order the recount stopped for lack of an objective standard after allowing audio recording of arguments before the justices for the first time ever (still forbidding cameras to see the fat wallets they're sitting on?); on Dec. 12 they rule 5-4 that the recount is unconstitutional, with chief justice Rehnquist sending an unsigned ruling at 10 p.m. to stop, giving Fla.'s electoral votes to Bush; dissenter John Paul Stevens issues the soundbyte: "Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law"; on Dec. 13 Bore, er, Gore, trying to think of the nation and not foul it up with indecision any longer issues the soundbyte: "While I strongly disagree with the court's decision, I accept it"; thanks to the Court, er, People, Texas Gov. George Walker Bush (1946-) and Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney (1941-) win over Dem. candidates Albert Arnold "Al" Gore Jr. (1948-) and Conn. Sen. Joseph Isadore "Joe" Lieberman (1942-); Gore carries the West Coast (Calif., Wash.), the Upper Midwest (Iowa, Ill., Mich., Minn.), the Northeast (N.J., N.Y., Penn., Washington D.C.), and all of New England except N.H.; Bush carries the small-state "heartland"; 19K "unmarked" ballots are discarded in heavily Dem. Palm Beach County, throwing the election to Fla. Gov. Jeb Bush's bro'?; Ralph Nader of the Green Party (who claims that the two main parties are the same, so don't vote for either one, vote for him) gets 97K votes (3%), incl. enough votes to have given Gore N.H. and Fla., making him the winner, and pissing him off, along with many of Nader's own Nader's Raiders, esp. in retrospect; to add insult to injury, Bush officially receives 50,456,062 popular votes (47.9%) and 271 electoral votes to Gore's 50,996,582 popular (48.4%) and 266 electoral votes, becoming the 4th time (1824, 1876, 1888) that the winner of the popular vote loses the election; the voter participation rate is a bored 50.7%; Mo. has now picked the winner in 11 straight pres. elections, Ohio, Tenn. and Ky. in 10, La. and Ark. in 8; like with John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), a competent but uninspiring vice-pres. succeeds a charismatic pres., is defeated after one term by a liberal Southerner, then lives to see his near namesake son become pres. despite losing the popular vote to a populist from Tenn.; shell-shocked loser Abraham, er, AAG (Al A. Gore) begins growing a beard in Valencia, Spain; Hillary Rodham Clinton (1947-) becomes the first First Lady to run for and be elected to office (U.S. Dem. Sen. from N.Y.) (until ?), winning 55% of the vote; the Repubs. gain control of the White House, enjoying their first long run of govt. since the 1920s, and retain their narrow majority in the House of Reps., while Dems. secure 50 of the 100 U.S. Senate seats; meanwhile the slow decline in executive power is reversed bigtime since the Repubs. had the money and the packed judiciary ready to throw behind a Repub. pres. all the time? On Nov. 7 a criminal gang raids the Millennium Dome in London to steal the Millennium Star Diamond, but police surveillance catches them in the act. On Nov. 8 Amani Abeid Karume (1948-), son of former pres. (1964-72) Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume becomes pres. of Zanzibar (until ?). On Nov. 11 a cable car fire in an alpine tunnel in Kaprun, Austria kills 155 skiers and snowboarders. On Nov. 12-14 the 9th Islamic Summit Conference is held in Doha, Qatar, with over 4K participants from 55 member states, with the theme "Al-Aqsa Intifada". On Nov. 13 Philippine pres. (since 1998) Joseph Estrada is impeached for receiving gambling payoffs - a cupcake is a cupcake, right? On Nov. 15 the new state of Jharkhand in India is proclaimed, carving out the S Chhota Nagpur area from Bihar. On Nov. 16 Pres. Clinton becomes the first sitting U.S. pres. to visit Vietnam - where's the pretty boy sushi? On Nov. 17 a catastrophic landslide in Log pod Mangartom in NW Slovenia kills seven, and causes millions in damage, becoming one of Slovenia's worst disasters in a cent. On Nov. 25 the global warming talks at The Hague Conference meltdown over whether there is global warming, and whether it's anthropogenic (human-caused). On Nov. 25 Vienna unveils the Austrian Holocaust Memorial in the Judenplatz, designed by English sculptor Rachel Whiteread (1963-) to look like an inside-out library; Austrian Roman Catholic cardinal-archbishop (of Vienna) Christoph Schoenborn (1945-) acknowledges the Church's "culpability in the persecution of Jews" before and during the Nazi era. On Nov. 26 former Haitian pres. (1991, 1994-6) Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1953-) is relected after his Lavalas Party wins 17 of 18 senate seats at stake and 80% of the house seats in an election boycotted by all major parties and many of the 4M registered voters, with the U.S., EU and Canada refusing to monitor the elections; he takes office next Feb. 7 (until Feb. 29, 2004). On Nov. 27 Jean Chretien is re-elected as PM Canada, and his Liberal Party increases its majority in the House of Commons. On Nov. 28 the Netherlands becomes the first nation to legalize assisted suicide - just nuke the whole country and create some prime beachfront property for Germany? On Nov. 29 Gregory III Laham (1933-) becomes the Melkite Greek patriarch of Antioch (until ?), going on to stink himself up with statements that attacks on Christians in the Levant are part of a Zionist plot to discredit Islam. On Nov. 30 mad cow disease causes a big scare in Europe. In Nov. Neb. passes a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage; a federal judge strikes it down on 5-13-2005. In Nov. Janez Drnovsek is voted out of office after 8 years, and replaced by more conservative Andrej Bajuk (1943-) as PM of Slovenia (until 2004). In Nov. France talks Saddam Hussein of Iraq into defying the U.S. petrodollar hegemony and sell oil for food in euros instead of dollars - the real reason for the Mar. 2003 invasion? In Nov. after 10 years the U.S. govt. finishes chemical weapons disposal on 3.2K-acre Johnston (Kalama) Island (Atoll) 860 mi. SW of Honolulu, Hawaii (claimed by the U.S. since Mar. 19, 1858), turning it into a wildlife preserve. In Nov. the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Admin. (OSHA) issues a rule intended to protect employees from repetitive stress injuries (RSI), and estimates that compliance will cost industry only $4.5B the first year, although industry estimates place the cost as high as $125.8B the first year and $886.6B over 10 years. On Dec. 1 Priyanka Chopra (1982-) of India wins the Miss World Pageant in the Millennium Dome in London, going on to become one of India's top actresses. On Dec. 3 (Sun.) the Church of England adopts Common Worship, replacing the 1980 Alternative Service Book. On Dec. 4 Pres. Clinton issues Executive Order 13178 creating the 99.5K-sq.-mi. Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Reserve, protecting the coral reefs, atolls, submerged lagoons and marine life in an area as large as Fla.; the new reserve contains 70% of U.S. coral reefs; a public comment period begins in 2002, and Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle declares parts of it a state marine refuge in 2005, after which on June 15, 2006 Pres. George W. Bush signs Proclamation 8031, designating it a nat. monument. On Dec. 8 activists defend Operation Payback, which launched "hacktivist" attacks on MasterCArd to defend WikiLeaks. On Dec. 12 the U.N. (Palermo) Convention against Transnational Organized Crime is passed, with three supplementary Palermo Protocols covering trafficking in persons, smuggling of migrants, and trafficking in firearms, effective Sept. 29, 2003; by June 2016 it is adopted by 187 parties incl. 182 U.N. member states, the EU, the Vatican, the State of Palestine, and Cook Islands; members that have not ratified it incl. Iran, Japan, Repub. of Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Palau, and Tuvalu. On Dec. 12 after dating bi porn star Tony Ward in 1990-1, followed by Vanilla Ice, Dennis Rodman, fitness trainer Carlos Leon, and Andy Bird (who tells all to the newspapers in 2000), Kabbalah-practicing Am. #1 female pop star Madonna Louise Ciccone (1958-) marries English "Sherlock Holmes", "Snatch", "Revolver" actor-writer-producer-dir. Guy Stuart Ritchie (1968-) (whose son Rocco she bore in Aug. 2000, then had baptized in a Presbyterian Church) in Skibo Castle in Dornoch, Scotland (until Dec. 2008); her daughter Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon (b. 1996) leads the procession. On Dec. 12 Amtrak's first Acela Express train leaves Union Station in Washington, D.C., arriving in Boston, Mass. in 6 hours 43 min., 12 min. behind schedule; billed as able to go 150 mph and shorten the ride between Washington and New York City by 15 min., it is held to 70-90 mph by the law of N.Y. and Conn., and can only achieve full speed on the 18-mi. stretch in R.I., and is still slower than France's Grande Vitesse, although it weighs half as much. On Dec. 12 GM announces that it will phase-out its Oldsmobile make within five years - not your father's Oldsmobile? On Dec. 13 the Texas Seven (Joseph Christopher Garcia, Randy Ethan Halprin, Larry James Harper, Patrick Henry Murphy Jr., Donald Keith Newbury, George Angel Rivas Jr., and Michael Anthony Rodriguez) escape from prison in Kenedy, Tex., and begin a crime spree, robbing a sports store in Irving, Tex. on Dec. 24 and killing rookie police officer Aubrey Hawkins (b. 1971); they are not apprehended until Jan. 21 in an RV park in Woodland, Colo. posing as Christian missionaries after a segment on the TV show "America's Most Wanted"; Larry James Harper commits suicide to avoid capture; on Apr. 23-24 the last two are apprehended at a Holiday Inn in Colorado Springs, Colo.; all are convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Tex. On Dec. 14 Dante Michael Siou is convicted of stalking actress Gwyneth Paltrow and sent to a high-security mental facility after a judge finds him insane - applesauce for brains? On Dec. 16 Bronx-born "55% Republican" Colin Powell is appointed secy. of state by pres.-elect Bush, becoming the first black to hold the position - good move to quiet all the grumbling by disenfranchised black Fla. Dem. voters? On Dec. 20 Pres. Clinton pocket-vetoes the Bankruptcy Reform Act, a cruel law written by credit card cos. and banks that would have made it far more difficult for debtors to obtain bankruptcy protection; never fear, they have big lobbying bucks available, and go on to get it passed under Pres. Bush. On Dec. 21 Pres. Clinton signs the U.S. Commodities Futures Modernization Act, backed by Alan Greenspan, which relegalizes bucket shops and stock market derivatives (side bets by people not owning stock), setting the Stock Market up for the 2008 Liquidity Crisis; "Basically, that law made pure bets, for the first time in Anglo-Saxon legal history, enforceable in court. I always joke that if Congress decided to legalize murder, they'd call the legislation the Homocide Modernization Act." (Lynn Stout) On Dec. 21 after George W. Bush resigns to become U.S. pres., Haskell, Tex.-born James Richard "Rick" Perry (1950-) becomes Repub. Tex. gov. #47 (until Jan. 20, 2015), becoming the longest-serving Tex. gov. (until ?). On Dec. 26 computer software tester Michael McDermott (1958-) (whose portrait bears a striking resemblance to "Rubeus Hagrid in Harry Potter" actor Robbie Coltrane (1950-)?) goes berserk at a Wakefield, Mass., Internet co. and kills seven co-workers with a semiautomatic rifle and shotgun. On Dec. 28 Montgomery Ward announces it's going out of business after 128 years, filing bankruptcy and closing its 250 stores and dismissing 28K employees. On Dec. 29 Israeli PM (since 1999) Ehud Barak resigns. On Dec. 29 Wichita, Kan.-born, Colo.-raised Gale Ann Norton (1954-), Colo's first female atty.-gen. (1991-9) and failed U.S. Repub. Sen. candidate (1996) is nominated by pres.-elect Bush for U.S. secy. of the interior. On Dec. 30 the Rizal Day Bombings see a series of bombs explode in several places in Manila, Philippines within a span of a few hours, killing 22 and injuring 100. On Dec. 30 the Clintons buy a $2.85M 5-bedroom colonial-style brick home on Whitehaven St. near Embassy Row in Washington, D.C., designating their Chappaqua, N.Y. home as their primary residence. On Dec. 31 the Millennium Dome in London closes its doors one year after opening - too bad, wait till next millennium On Dec. 31 Saddam Hussein presides over a military parade in Baghdad, dressed in a suit, tie and hat, and fires a rifle with one hand like "The Rifleman", which becomes his image-making move to gun-proud Americans? - like challenging cowboy Bush to a gunfight? Motiur Rahman Nazami (1943-) becomes leader of the far-right Islamist Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Party (until ?). U.S. Sen. (D-Hawaii) (1990-2013) Daniel Kahikina Akaka (1924-) (first U.S. Sen of Native Hawaiian ancestry) proposes the retro racial separatist (caca?) Akaka Bill (Native Hawaiian Govt. Reorg. Act), providing for federal recognition of Native Hawaiians similar to an Indian tribe, while prohibiting them from benefits available to federally-recognized Indian tribes incl. gaming, despite setting a precedent that could balkanize the U.S., and lack of support by Hawaiians; it doesn't pass until ?. The Durban AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa brings attention to the high costs of AIDS drugs and the need for whites, er, govts. to treat poor (black) people in Africa and elsewhere, proposing an internat. fund for the triple cocktail, but doctors counter that it would be too difficult to administer in rural Africa because of inaccessibility; meanwhile U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms of N.C. (AKA "Dr. No") battles against AIDS funding, saying, "I've never heard anybody suggest to the homosexuals: Stop what you're doing". Al-Awda (Palestinian Right to Return Coalition) is founded. Oil is discovered in Kazakhstan's portion of the Caspian Sea, where it has 1.2K mi. of coastline, becoming the largest oil find in 30 years. Netherlands legalizes prostitution, allowing hos to own windows in Amsterdam's Red Light District and pay taxes on their earnings; it also legalizes same-sex marriage. Pres. Bush signs a proclamation establishing 328K-acre Giant Sequoia Nat. Monument, home to 38 sequoia groves containing two-thirds of all sequoias, the world's largest trees, which can grow up to 270 ft. tall and 30 ft. in diam. Pierce's Disease is first discovered on grapevines in the U.S. Malaria deaths in the U.S. climb from a low of 1 in 1977 to 423 this year. Ever-increasing bacterial antibiotic resistance is causing concern in the medical community. The U.S. govt. begins providing billions of dollars to Colombia to spray its drug fields; the tactic backfires when growers begin invading nat. parks (Sierra Macarena et al.), which can't be sprayed because of protected plant species. Balding "pompad-over"-coiffed (poofy squirrel-do) Donald Trump considers a pres. bid with the Progressive Party, the switches to the Reform Party, losing to Pat Buchanan. 95-y.-o. Stanley Kunitz (1905-) becomes the 10th poet laureate of the U.S. - safe choice in case he doesn't work out? Louis Farrakhan and Imam W.D. Mohammed reconcile and call for unity among their groups. Colo. voters approve a constitutional amendment (Article XVIII) legalizing medical marijuana. A group of U.S. menswear retailers and manufactures start Dress-Up Thursdays to encourage employees to dump casual for business attire - the Clinton days are over, dudes? Starbucks opens an outlet in China's Forbidden City, causing a movement to get rid of it for messing up its image. The Nature Conservancy buys the uncolonized island of Palmyra, 960 mi. SW of Honolulu for $30M from the Fullard-Leos family. Fertility rates in European nations have been falling since 1970, and now Italy's is the lowest (1.2) in the world, so low that in 30-40 years the pop. could decrease by one-third. Vietnam opens the Vietnam Stock Exchange in Ho Chi Minh City, listing two cos. and two bonds; in 2005 it expands to Hanoi, and by 2006 trades 26 stocks and funds with a total capitalization of $3.5B. Beginning this year "ethnic plastic surgery" becomes popular in the U.S., with Asians getting their eyes fixed to look more Caucasian, blacks getting their noses fixed to look more Caucasian, etc.; a few white women get their booties implanted to look more bootylicious and black? The Millennium Seed Bank Project is begun by the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England to provide an insurance policy against extinction of plants in the wild. The U.S. bison (buffalo) pop. reaches 300K,, up from 20-30 in 1900 as bison ranches proliferate in the Great Plains states. The U.S.-Canada Atlantic salmon pop. falls to 350K, down from 1.5M in 1970; Aqua Bounty Farms applies to the U.S. FDA for permission to market genetically modified salmon that grow to market size in 18 instead of the usual 36 mo., causing critics to call them "Frankenfish" and worry about them escaping into the wild. The homosexual issue causes mass defections in the Episcopal Church, with six parishes leaving for the new homo-free Anglican Mission in the Americas by next year - different Easters, different Easter eggs? After trying since the late 1980s to get it introduced into Congress in vain, Harvey Francis Barnard (1941-2005) releases his NESARA (Nat. Economic Security and Recovery Act) proposal on the Internet, proposing to replace the income tax with a nat. sales tax, abolish compound interest on secured loans, and return to a bimetallic currency to reduce inflation to 0% and stabilize the economy, after which "Dove of Oneness" Shaini Candace Goodwin (1947-2010), former student of the Ramtha School of Enlightenment claims that the bill was passed in a secret Congressional session in Mar. 2000 and signed by Pres. Clinton, set to be implemented at 10 a.m. on 9/11/2001, and that all the computers and data were stored on the 2nd floor of the WTC and destroyed in the 9/11 attacks ordered by Pres. George W. Bush, who starts the Iraq War as a distraction; according to her, the bill actually passed cancels all personal debts, abolishes the IRS, declares world peace, and mandates new pres. and congressional elections, and is being covered-up by the govt. Elizabeth Taylor is made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II; "I have been a broad all my life and dame just automatically came next" (to Larry King). The New York Times carries the headline "Fed Head Not Dead", referring to little-seen Federal Reserve chmn. Alan Greenspan. Penetration of PCs in the U.S. exceeds half of all households. Sun Microsystems founder Bill Joy frets about possible dangers of nanotechnology in the Apr. issue of Wired mag. William Leonard Pickard (1945-) and Clyde Apperson (1955-) are arrested for running an LSD lab in an Atlas-E missile silo near Wamego, Kans., receiving long sentences, after which worldwide availability of LSD allegedly drops 90%. In this decade the Grasseater Gen. of Japanese males, who live with their mothers, wear makeup and tight-fitting clothes, and want no part of the corporate rat race of their fathers flourishes. Los Angeles 5'10" native Tyra Banks (1973-) hits the runways of Europe, becoming the first African-Am. model on the covers of both Sports Illustrated and GQ; she is named by GQ as their woman of the year. "Big Easy", "Sea of Love" actress Ellen Barkin (1954-) marries billionaire Revlon chmn. Ron Perelman (1943-) (ends 2006) - what destoyed her teeth and ruined her style, a marriage made in plastic card heaven? The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) in Palestine are set up by former Fatah member Jamal Abu Samhadana (1963-2006) (famous for the soundbyte "Jews are our enemy - I will pull the trigger whenever required"), with funding from Hezbollah to engage in terrorist and rocket attack; on June 8, 2006 he is assassinated by the Israelis. The U.S. suffers a record 52 shark attacks this year; 30 in 2004, 38 in 2005; world total in 2005 is 58, only four being fatal. Since the British prefer ale to beer, there are only about 500 breweries in the U.K., but thanks to the microbrewing rev. that number grows to 1,285 in 2015. Apollo Carreon Quiboloy (1950-) of the Philippines claims to be Jesus Christ, and busily recruits followers. The Great Gazoo is added to the cast of characters in Flintstones vitamins. SpongeBob SquarePants, created by Steven Hillenburg (1961-) makes his debut on the Nickelodeon cable TV channel, becoming a gay vehicle as rumors fly. The Rock's Backpages online library is founded by British journalist Barney Hoskyns (1959-). The $100K Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize is founded by Scott Griffin (1938-), becoming Canada's most generous poetry award; in 2010 it is doubled to $200K Canadian. Greg Glassman and Lauren Glassman found CrossFit Inc. to promote a gen. fitness exercise program, which is adopted by 6K+ gyms by 2013; in 2007 the first CrossFit Games are held, which is won by Rich Froning Jr. (1987-), who is awarded the title "Fittest Man on Earth". Bill Clinton games the George J. Mitchell Scholarship Fund (founded by Trina Vargo, a broker of the talks leading to the 1998 Good Friday Peace Agreement in Ireland) to get Chelsea Clinton's beau Jeremy Kane into an elite college. The lionfish pop. off the Atlantic coast of Fla. (native to the W Pacific Ocean) (first reported in the mid-1980s) becomes numerous, going on to spread N through the E seaboard, and S through the Gulf of Mexico (until ?). Divine Interventions, a co. offering Jackhammer Jesus and other holy dildos opens on the Web. The 77K-ton 14-story cruise ship Ocean Princess goes into service in Feb. for the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. subsidiary Princess Cruises; it can accommodate 1,950 passengers in style and comfort, and has sonar to detect icebergs. Fortinet Inc. is founded by brothers Ken and Michael Xie to provide security firewalls; too bad, it gets into discrimination against sites based on their political content under the guise of protecting customers from discrimination, not just white supremacist sites but popular smart anti-Islamic sites incl. Bare Naked Islam. Original Gourmet Food Co. in Salem, N.H. is founded to manufacture gourmet lollipops. Sports: On Jan. 4 self-made Jewish-Am. billionaire (founder of Broadcast.com) Mark Cuban (1958-) buys the NBA Dallas Mavericks from H. Ross Perot Jr. for $285M; turning it arund from a 40% to a 69% winning percentage by 2010. On Jan. 9 Orlando, Fla. resident Tiger Woods wins the Mercedes Championship in Kapalua, Hawaii, matching Ben Hogan's 1945 11-streak, then wins the AT&T Pebble Beach Nat. Pro-Am. on Feb. 7, matching Hogan's 1948 record of six straight tour victories; too bad, on Feb. 13 he loses to Philip Albert "Phil" Mickelson (1970-) in La Jolla, Calif., and Mickelson goes on to win the Masters on Apr. 9, with Woods coming in 5th; Woods then wins the 100th U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, Calif. on June 18 by a record 15 strokes (his 12-under-par 272 total is also a record), becoming the first player to win back-to-back PGAs since the 1930s and to win all three major titles in one year since Ben Hogan in 1953. On Feb. 20 the 2000 (42nd) Daytona 500 is won by Dale Jarrett (3rd win); Dave Marcis fails to qualify for the first time since 1968. On Mar. 30 the 2000 America's Cup is retained by Team New Zealand in Black Magic near Auckland after Prada Challenge 2000 loses 0-5. On Apr. 17 Ubaldo Jimenez (1984-) pitches the first-ever no-hitter for the Colorado Rockies against the Atlanta Braves; on Apr. 20 Rockies pres. Keli McGregor (b. 1963) is found dead in a Salt Lake City, Utah hotel room. On May 28 the 2000 (84th) Indianapolis 500 is won by rival CART champion Juan Pablo Montoya Roldan (1975-) of Colombia, becoming the rookie to win since Graham Hill in 1966. On May 29 Randy Velarde (1962-) (2B) of the Oakland A's makes an unassisted triple play against the New York Yankees, becoming the 11th in ML history. On May 30-June 10 the 2000 Stanley Cup Finals see the New Jersey Devils defeat the Dallas Stars 4-2 in double OT, becoming their 2nd win; MVP is Devils defenceman Ronald Scott Stevens (1964-); after the 1999-2000 season the Roger Crozier Saving Grace Award, named for goalie (1960-77) Roger Allan Crozier (1942-96) is established by the NHL for the goaltender with the best save percentage during the regular season after playing 25+ games; the first award goes to Ed Belfour of the Dallas Stars; the last award (2006-7 season) goes to Niklas Backstrom of the Minnesota Wild. On June 7-19 the 2000 NBA Finals sees the Los Angeles Lakers (coach Phil Jackson) defeat the Indiana Pacers (coach Larry Bird) 4-2; on June 14 the Lakers defeat the Pacers 120-118 in OT to win Game 4, with Shaquille O'Neal scoring 36 points and 21 rebounds, and teammate Kobe Bryant scoring 28 points; on June 16 (Game 5) the Pacers rout the Lakers 120-87; on June 19 the Lakers capture their first title since 1988 in Game 6; Shaquille O'Neal of the Lakers is MVP; Bryant misses most of Game 2 and all of Game 3 because of an ailing left ankle. On June 8 undefeated 3-10 favorite Big Brown (2005-) becomes the first Triple Crown hopeful to finish last at the Belmont Stakes after winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes handily (winner 38-to-1 Da' Tara); it is later discovered that one of his shoes became bent soon after the start. On July 2 France defeats Italy 2-1 to win Euro 2000 with a golden goal. On June 26-July 9 the 2000 (114th) Wimbledon Championship sees Pete Sampras defeat Pat Rafter to win his 4th straight (last) Wimbledon single's title and 7th men's singles title; Venus Williams defeats Lindsay Davenport to win the women's singles title, becoming the first of five Wimbledon titles. On July 14-23 the 2000 U.S. Olympics Track & Field Trials in Sacramento, Calif. are the best-attended track trials in U.S. history (until ?); drugstore athletes Marion Jones and Michael Johnson emerge as stars. On July 23 Lance Armstrong wins France's Tour de France for a 2nd straight year. On Aug. 28-Sept. 10 the 2000 U.S. Open of Tennis sees defending champ Andre Agassi upset in the 2nd round by Amaud Clement, and defending champ Serena Williams upset in the quarter-finals by Lindsay Davenport, who loses in the final round to her older sister Venus Williams (1980-) of the U.S.; Marat Safin (1980-) easily defeats Sampras to become the first Russian U.S. Open singles winner. On Oct. 5 Dante Hall of the Kansas City Chiefs scores a 93-yard punt return for a TD against the Denver Broncos at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo. On Oct. 7 the Columbus Blue Jackets of Ohio play their first game as an NHL expansion team, becoming the city's first major league franchise since 1938 (the Columbus Athletic Supply of the Nat. Basketball League, later NBA). Yankees 3rd baseman Alexander Emmanuel "Alex" "A-Rod" Rodriguez (1975-) signs a 10-year, $252M deal, making him ML baseball's highest-paid player; if you add endorsements, Tiger Wood is the best paid athlete of all, making $112M this year. Penn State U. coach (English lit. major) Joe "Mount Joe Pa" Paterno (1927-), winner of two nat. championships begins a decline, ending in a 4-7 2004 season amid off-field incidents On Dec. 16 the day after Shaquille O'Neal's graduation (after he left early in 1992 after three years, then returned to fulfill a vow), LSU retires his jersey #33. The John Mackey Award for college football's most outstanding tight end is established; the first winner is Tim Stratton of Purdue U. The 3-day Weber Cup, named after Dick Weber is established as the 10-pin bowling equivalent of golf's Ryder Cup; the first tournament sees Team USA defeat Team Europe 18-11. The Prof. Bowlers Assoc. (PBA) (founded 1958) is purchased by former Microsoft execs Chris Peters, Rob Glaser, and Mike Slade, who move the co. HQ to Seattle, Wash. Pfizer's Viagra sponsors NASCAR driver Mike Bliss (#27) for Eel River Racing, switching next year to Mark Martin (#6) of Roush Racing, who finishes 2nd in points in 2002 and 4th in 2004 and 2005. Architecture: On May 12 the Tate Modern (Museum) opens in Southark, London across the Thames River from St. Paul's Cathedral in the former Bankside Power Plant after a $200M renovation by Swiss architects Jacques Herzog (1950-) and Pierre de Meuron (1950-); the old Tate Museum upriver is renamed Tate Britain and continues to display Gainsboroughs and Turners, while the 12-story-high lobby of the Tate Modern features modernist crap, er, art incl. the gigantic steel sculptures I Do, I Undo, and I Redo by spider-loving French sculptor Louise Josephine Bourgeois (1911-2010). On June 10 the 1,066-ft. (325m) Millennium Bridge in London, England (begun in 1998) between Southwark Bridge and Blackfiars Bridge near St. Paul's Cathedral and the Tate Modern Gallery opens, designed by modernist sculptor Sir Anthony Alfred Caro (1924-2013), the Arup Group, and Foster and Partners, becoming the first pedestrian crossing over the Thames River in C London for over a cent.; too bad, it soon becomes known as the Wobbly Bridge after it begins shaking under the traffic, and on June 13 it is shut down for almost two years to fix it, reopening in 2002. On July 1 25,738 ft. (7,845m) Oresund Bridge across the Oresund Strait between Sweden and Denmark opens, becoming the longest combo road-rail bridge in Europe, connecting Copenhagen and Malmo; sometimes the drivers get wet. The $4.3B 928-ft.-high 12,828-ft.-long Akashi Kaikyo Bridge opens, connecting Kobe and Awaji-shima Island in Japan, becoming the world's longest spanning suspension bridge (until ?); it is specially built to withstand earthquakes and 180 mph winds. The Charybdis Vortex Fountain by water sculptor William Pye opens in the Seaham Hotel and Spa near Sunderland, Northern England, based on the myth of the siren in Homer's "Odyssey" who was hit by a thunderbolt from Zeus that transformed her into a whirlpool as punishment for stealing oxen from Hercules; he later builds similar sculptors in Oman and Campinas, Brazil. The $800M cyberpunk Sony Center at the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Germany opens, designed by German-Am. architect Helmut Jahn (1940-). The "blobitecture" Experience Music Project in Seattle, Wash., founded by Paul Allen of Microsoft opens, exploring pop music and sci-fi. The colorful Hundertwasser Bldg., AKA the Waldspirale (Wooden Spiral) in Darmstadt (begun 1998) is finished by Austrian architect Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser (1928-2000), with 105 apts. and onion domes. Nobel Prizes: Peace: Kim Dae-jung (1925-2009) (South Korea) [Sunshine Policy]; Lit.: Gao Xingjian (1940-) (China); Physics: Zhores Ivanovich Alferov (1930-) (Russia) and Herbert Kroemer (1928-) (U.S.) [heterostructures], and Jack St. Clair Kilby (1923-2005) (U.S.) [microchip tech.]; Chem: Alan Jay Heeger (1936-) (U.S.), Alan Graham MacDiarmid (1927-2007) (U.S.), and Hideki Shirakawa (1936-) (Japan) [conductive polymers]; Arvid Carlsson (1923-) (Sweden), Paul Greengard (1925-) (U.S.), and Eric Richard Kandel (1929-) (U.S.) [signal transduction in the nervous system]; Economics: James Joseph Heckman (1944-) (U.S.) [statistical analysis of household and individual behavior] and Daniel Little McFadden (1937-) (U.S.) [theory and methods for analyzing discrete choice]. Inventions: On Jan. 1 Baidu search engine is founded in Beijing, China by Robin Li (Li Yanhong) (1968-) and Eric Xu Yong (1964-), going on to become the 2nd largest search engine on Earth, with a 76% market share in the Chinese market; in Dec. 2007 it becomes the first Chinese co. to be listed in the NASDAQ-100. On Feb. 14 the NASA Shoemaker Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft becomes the first to orbit an asteroid, 433 Eros. On May 3 San Antonio, Tex. computer pioneer Datapoint files for bankruptcy. On May 4 young Philippine hackers launch the Love Bug (I Love You) Virus, which by displaying the message "I love you" and invites the recipient to call up an attachment, which sends itself to everyone on their Web mailing list then trashes and shuts down the recipient's computer, spreading to Asia, Europe, and the Americas, paralyzing communications; 70% of Germany's computers are infected; the British House of Commons shuts down its e-mail to stop the virus, and govt. offices in Washington, D.C. are infected; total damage is as high as $10B (e-bucks?). On June 19 the Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Duron low-priced x86-compatible microprocessor is released (until 2004). On Feb. 17 Microsoft releases Windows 2000 (W2K), followed on Sept. 14 by Windows Me (Millennium Ed.) - works like a giant screw going into the ground? In Mar. IBM announces that it will make all of its software and hardware work seamlessly with the free "open source" Linux computer operating system (introduced in 1993) in hopes of undermining the monopoly of Microsoft's Windows and Sun Microsystem's Solaris operating systems. On Apr. 3 IBM announces a polymer-based low-k dielectric for reducing crosstalk in microprocessors, boosting speed and performance by as much as 30%. In early Apr. the 20-vol. Oxford English Dictionary (OED) goes online as part of a 10-year $55M overhaul to add 600K new words and revise older entries; the paper ed. costs $550 and up per year, but the online vers. continues to be free. In 2000 Intel Corp. releases the Pentium 4 chip, which has 42M transistors, compared to 24M in the Pentium III (1999), 7.5M in the Pentium II (1997), and 3.1M in the Pentium chip (1993); it is discontinued in 2008. The Bluetooth Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and Bluetooth General Packet Radio System (GPRS) are developed, launching the wireless era of PCs. The pi4-workerbot is released, featuring finger-tip sensitivity. In Oct. Toppan Printing Co. Ltd. produces a 2x1.5x1 cm 16-page ed. of the book titled The Twelve Horary Signs - Chinese Zodiac, becoming the smallest book yet printed. On Nov. 14 Netscape Navigator 6.0 is launched after two years of open source development, creating a stable Mozilla Web browser; too bad, after being Microsoft-monopolized out of biz, vers. 9 becomes kaput on Feb. 1, 2008 - can I have it like that, you got it like that? Herbert Allen of Tex. invents the Rabbit Corkscrew, with 31 separate parts. Science: On Jan. 14 studies using the Chandra X-Ray Observatory reveal that the pervasive X-ray background of the Universe is caused by black holes near the centers of most galaxies. In spring 2000 the Internat. Hydrographic Org. defines the Southern (Antarctic) (Austral) Ocean (20.327M sq km) as all water below 60 deg. S, making it the 4th biggest of the five oceans after the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian, and bigger than the Arctic. On Mar. 25 the U.S. launches IMAGE (Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration, becoming the first satellite dedicated to completely imaging Earth's magnetosphere. On Apr. 6 a very bright fireball with a magnitude of -17 (brighter than the full Moon) is observed, thought to have been made by a 660 lb. (300 kg) meteor; on July 14 the 3.86 lb. (1.75 kg) Neuschwantstein Meteorite fragment is recovered near and named for the famous German Neuschwanstein Castle. On May 1 the Am. Academy of Pediatrics issues its first guidelines for diagnosing ADD (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder) to prevent overmedication of youngsters who are merely rowdy with Ritalin. On May 9 an internat. team led by Harry Ostrer of NYU pub. an article in Proceedings of the Nat. Academy of Science reporting that Jews and Arabs have been found to be genetically identical. On June 26 (Mon.) at the White House Francis Sellers Collins (1950-), dir. of the Human Genome Project, and John Craig Venter (1946-), pres. of Celera Genomics Corp announce their separate First Drafts of the Human Genome, the epoch-making first sequencing (deciphering) of 95%-97% of the human genome, expected to revolutionize medicine, just in time for the 50th anniv. of the pub. of the double helix work by James D. Watson and Francis Crick, taking only 13 of 15 expected years, declaring that the human genome has 3.1B "letters" (chemical bases); Pres. Clinton calls it "the most wondrous map ever produced", comparing the HGP to the Manhattan and Apollo projects; the program has come in underbudget, and involved 1.6K scientists, and adding the religious soundbyte: "Today, we are learning the language in which God created life. We are gaining ever more awe for the complexity, the beauty and the wonder of God's most divine and sacred gift" after being put up to it be Collins, a theist; Collins and Venter continue their war to be the first to finish the sequencing; by the end of the decade a genome can be sequenced in a week; meanwhile insurance cos. and govt. agencies line up to find ways to get and use genetic makeups, while every Tom, Dick and Harry with a computer rushes to patent genes after roping them off like in the Okla. Land Rush? In June the U.S. Nat. Research Council concludes that Earth's surface temp is rising as a part of global warming, but that the lower atmosphere is not affected at this time. On Sept. 3 the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Cerro Paranal, Chile begins operation, consisting of four 8.2m (323 in.) mirrors, each with its own name (Antu, Kueyen, Melipal, and Yepun); they initially operate independently, but are linked with interferometry in 2001. On Sept. 6 Breanna Lynn Bartlett-Stewart is stillborn to Scott Stewart and Lisa Bartlett in Paragould, Ark., becoming the first stillbirth to be resolved by the Kleihauer-Betke Blood Test; the publicity causes a movement for a Stillbirth Remembrance Day for the 26K stillborns each year in the U.S. On Sept. 12 Miss Waldron's Red Colobus Monkey of West Africa becomes the first primate species to officially become extinct in this millennium as biologists give up their search; it becomes the first large primate to go extinct since 1800; the Pyrenean ibex wild mountain goat is declared extinct; in 2009 it is resurrected via cloning; the 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals and Plants lists 24% of mammals, 12% of birds, 30% of fishes, and 20% of amphibians on Earth as globally threatened with extinction. On Sept. 15 after Am. biologist Steven Austad is quoted in Scientific American as saying: "The first 150-year old person is probably alive right now", he and Am. aging expert Stuart Jay Olshansky (1954-) make their Big Lifespan Bet, putting $150 each into an investment fund, with the money and interest to go to the winner on Jan. 1, 2150 if he is of sound mind; they later stake another $150 each. On Oct. 9 the NASA High Energy Transient Explorer (HETE) II is launched by the U.S. in conjunction with France, Japan, and Italy to observe, report, and help locate gamma-ray bursters while it also surveys X-ray sources across the Universe. The full genome sequence of Drosophila melanogaster is completed; it contains four pairs of chromosomes, incl. a sex-determining X/Y pair, and three autosomes labeled 2, 3, and 4, and has 139.5M base pairs with 15,682 genes, with 60% being functional non-protein-coding DNA involved in gene expression and control. Low-cost (less than $100) DNA testing kits become available to the consumer from Family Tree DNA, causing a fad to discover family ancestry and distant family members; by 2019 the DNA testing cos. have 26M DNA profiles available, half from the U.S. The superheavy synthetic radioactive element Livermorium (Lv) (#116) is discovered by the Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab in Calif.; the name is adopted by IUPAC on May 30, 2012. Indian astrophysicist Abhas Mitra announces Eternally Collapsing Objects (ECOs) as an alternative to Black Holes. Scientists at the Dubna Inst. in Russia create element #116. After being hired by Bell Labs in 1997, German physicist Jan Hendrik Schoen (Schön) (1970-) begins pub. a series of papers proclaiming breakthroughs in semiconductor physics, receiving the Braunschweig Prize and other prizes before being exposed as a fraud in 2002, causing a scandal about the adequacy of peer review. The sunken ancient Egyptian port city of Thonis-Herakleion is discovered 7 km off the Egyptian shore in Aboukir Bay by an internat. mission led by Moroccan-born French archeologist Franck Goddio (1947-). Am. paleontologist John R. "Jack" Horner (1946-) of the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Mont. and his team discover five separate T-Rexes, increasing the world collection by 35% - which makes you wonder about what? Leonid Khriachtchev (1959-), Markku Rasanen et al. of the U. of Helsinki in Finland report the first known stable compound of the inert noble gas argon, Argon Fluorohydride (HArF) by shining UV light on frozen argon containing a small amount of hydrogen fluoride, proving that it's not really so inert. David R. Liu et al. at Harvard U. develop a method for producing specific organic compounds using single-stranded DNA as a catalyst; by 2003 they develop 65 related compounds with 65 different template DNA strands. Michael C. Malin (1950-) and Kenneth S. Edgett (1965-) of the U.S. pub. geologic evidence that liquid water has changed the surface of Mars, creating gullies on steep slopes. Michael R. Rampino et al. of New York U. find evidence that Earth's largest mass extinction, known as the Late Permian, occurred during a period of less than 8K years about 250M ago, killing 95% of all species in the oceans; Luann Becker of the U. of Washington in Seattle analyzes sediments at the Permian-Triassic Boundary and concludes that they had an extraterrestrial source, implying that the extinction was caused by a comet or asteroid impact. The first Molecular Map of the Ribosome (the cell's essential protein factory) is completed by ?. Jorg Richstein of the U. of Giessen in Germany uses a computer to verify to 1 in 400T the 1742 Christian Goldbach Conjecture that every even number greater than 2 is the sum of two primes - two more years I'll be done with school and making history because of you? An internat. team of biologists sequences the genome of a flowering plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, becoming the first flowering plant all of whose genes have been found. J. Craig Venter et al. pub. almost the entire genome of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. The potential first human ancestors to journey out of Africa are found in the Repub. of Georgia by C. Reid Ferring, Carl C. Swisher III et al. - Margaret Mitchell would call that poetic justice? Chemists at the Naval Research Lab. in Washington, D.C. produce samples of Octanitrocubane, a long-sought hydrocarbon derivative expected to be the most powerful non-nuclear explosive. A bigger fungus than the one in Crystal Falls, Mich. (2.2K acres in size) is discovered in E Ore. The first FDA-approved robot surgery, the removal of a gallbladder is performed in Richmond, Va. using the $1M da Vinci Surgical System by Intuitive Surgical; by 2012 3.1K units worldwide conduct 200K surgeries/year. Researchers from the U. of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, report that transplants of insulin-producing cells from cadavers into persons with Type I diabetes free patients from the need for insulin injections, although they must use immunosuppressant drugs for the rest of their lives - hook them up to a lightning machine and they'll turn into Frankensteins? French scientists report success in relieving babies of severe immune disorder (hereditary lack of T cells) through the use of gene therapy that infuses working copies of marrow stem cells into their bones; some recipients later develop a form of leukemia. Prize dairy cow Lauduc Broker Mandy, EX-95 2E, the first clone ever sold at a public auction is purchased for $82K at the 2000 World Dairy Expo. Richard Montgomery of the U. of Calif. Santa Cruz and Alain Chenciner of France produce an exact solution to the Three-Body Problem for Equal Masses, showing that they can orbit each other in a figure-8 pattern where each body in turn passes between the other two. Results from the 1998 BOOMERANG (Balloon Observations of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation and Geophysical) experiment study of cosmic background radiation (CBR) reveal that the Universe is flat, not curved. The 100m x 100m Green Bank Radio Telescope, built to replace one that mysteriously collapsed in 1988 begins operation, becoming the world's largest fully steerable dish radio telescope. AMANDA (Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array) begins a large-scale conceptual test at the South Pole with nine strings of 302 photomultipliers, each buried from 1.3km-2.4km (4265-7875 ft.) deep in the ice to detect Cerenkov light radiation from muons produced by collision with high-energy neutrinos. The Cluster Mission sees Russia launch Cluster II and Salsa/Samba for the European Space Agency (ESA) on July 16, followed by Rumba/Tango on Aug. 9, which on Sept. 1 begin coordinated orbits to maintain stations at the vertices of a pyramid while orbiting in order to study interactions of Earth's magnetic field with the solar wind. Physicists at the DONUT (Direct Observation of NU Tau) detector announce they have obtained the first direct evidence of the elusive Tau Nneutrino, all four of them (the other flavors are electron and muon neutrinos); meanwhile researchers in Japan announce a shortfall in the number of muon neutrinos beamed from their Japanese Accelerator Facility (KEK) at the Super-Kamiokande Neutrino Telescope; 40 muon neutrinos were detected, 13 short of the expected number, with the missing ones presumed to have changed flavor. The Italian Nat. Research Council in Florence and the NEC Research Inst. in Princeton demonstrate that interference patterns can propagate faster than the speed of light. Nonfiction: Peter Ackroyd (1949-), London: The Biography. Fred Adams and Greg Laughlin, The Five Ages of the Universe; claims that we now understand the complete life story of the Universe from beginning to end. Mortimer Adler (1902-2001), How to Think About the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization; ed. Max Weismann. Francesco Alberoni (1929-), The Sources of Dreams (My Theories and My Life) (essays). Stephen Edward Ambrose (1936-2002), Nothing Like It in the World. Jonathan Ames (1964-), What's Not to Love? The Adventures of a Mildly Perverted Writer. Christopher Peter Andersen (1949-), The Day John Died; John F. Kennedy Jr.; George and Laura: Portrait of an American Marriage. Karen Armstrong (1944-), Islam: A Short History; claims it's not violent and backward; The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Lance Armstrong (1971-) (with Sally Jenkins), It's Not About the Bike (autobio.). Judyth Vary Baker, Me & Lee: How I Came to Know, Love and Lose Lee Harvey Oswald (Sept. 16); claims that he was trying to prevent JFK's assassination. Ian Graeme Barbour (1923-), When Science Meets Religion: Enemies, Strangers, or Partners?. John D. Barrow (1952-), The Book of Nothing: Vacuums, Voids, and the Latest Ideas About the Origins of the Universe. Jacques Barzun (1907-2012), From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present; NYT bestseller, covering Western cultural history since 1500; "Arguably the best thinking man's bedside book ever written" (Peter Green, Times Lit. Supplement); his magnum opus - enjoy the ride from sugarland? Brandon Bays 1953-), The Journey: A Road Map to the Soul; bestseller in the U.K. The Beatles, The Beatles Anthology (Oct.) - the closest thing you'll get to a reunion tour? Lerone Bennett Jr. (1928-2018), Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln's White Dream (Feb. 1); claims that the Great Emancipator was a white racist; "[The] basic idea of the book is simple: Everything you think you know about Lincoln and race is wrong. Every schoolchild, for example, knows the story of 'the great emancipator' who freed Negroes with a stroke of the pen out of the goodness of his heart. The real Lincoln... was a conservative politician who said repeatedly that he believed in white supremacy. Not only that: He opposed the basic principle of the Emancipation Proclamation until his death and was literally forced - Count Adam Gurowski said he was literally whipped - 'into the glory of having issued the Emancipation Proclamation,' which Lincoln drafted in such a way that it did not in and of itself free a single slave"; dissed by most historians. Pierre Berton (1920-2004), Welcome to the 21st Century: More Absurdities from Our Time. Herbert P. Bix (1939-), Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan; claims he played an active role in bringing his country into WWII. Harold Bloom (1930-), How to Read and Why; in the new world where kiddies thinking reading means Harry Potter, hard works like Shakespeare are never read, and infinite info. is available free on the Internet, but no knowledge, is the traditional publishing biz doomed, and with it the author who tries to make a living by writing and influencing literate people with written words, and does that mean that we are headed towards a new Paradise or a new kind of Dark Ages? Howard Bloom (1943-), The Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century. Anthony Bourdain (1956-), Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (Aug.); a NYT bestseller, making him a celeb.. Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. James Bradley (1954-) (with Ron Powers), Flags Of Our Fathers; stories of the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima. Michael Brenson, Visionaries and Outcasts: The NEA, Congress, and the Place of Visual Arts in America; the wonderful Nat. Endowment for the Arts, founded 1965. Douglas Brinkley (1960-), Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist, 1968-1976; Rosa Parks. David S. Broder (1929-), Democracy Derailed: Initiative Campaigns and the Power of Money. David Brooks (1961-), Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There; coins the term "bobo" (bourgeois bohemian), the affluent 90s info. age descendants of the yuppies. Harry Browne (1933-2006), The Great Libertarian Offer. Sylvia Browne (with Lindsay Harrison), Life On the Other Side. Zbigniew Brzezinski (1928-), The Geostrategic Triad: Living with China, Europe, and Russia; how the U.S. must balance the Eurasian power triangles of U.S.-Japan-China and U.S.-Europe-Russia. Peter Burke (1937-), A Social History of Knowledge: From Gutenberg to Diderot, followed in 2012 by A Social History of Knowledge Vol. 2: From the Encyclopedie to Wikipedia (2012). Augusten Burroughs (1965-), Running With Scissors (autobio.). Nicholas Carr, The Shallows: How the Internet Is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember (Sept.). James P. Carroll (1943-), Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews - A History; how the Nazi Holocaust really began with Constantine I the Great in 312; basis of a 2007 film. Stephen L. Carter, God's Name in Vain: How Religion Should and Should Not Be Involved in Politics; disses Pres. G.W. Bush's faith-based initiative - get the biggest selection and best savings? Deepak Chopra (1946-), Life After Death: The Burden of Proof; the "artificial boundary that separates the living from the departed" - but the place smells like rat droppings? Cherie Clark (1945-), After Sorrow Comes Joy: One Woman's Struggle to Bring Hope to Thousands of Children in Vietnam and India (autobio.). Andrei Codrescu (1946-), The Devil Never Sleeps and Other Essays. Richard A. Cohen (1952-), Coming Out Straight; claims to treat the "same-sex attachment disorder" of homosexuality with "bioenergetics", incl. smashing a tennis racket into a pillow while shouting the name of the person eliciting painful childhood memories, and cuddling to establish healthy non-sexual bonding. David Cope (1941-), New Directions in Music, 7th ed.; The Algorithmic Composer. Richard Ben Cramer (1950-), Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life; his image was fiction, but his "Louisville Slugger" ranked only second to the "big schtick" of Milton Berle? John C. Culver and John Hyde, American Dreamer: A Life of Henry A. Wallace; U.S. agriculture secy. (1933-40) and vice-pres. (1941-5) Henry Agard Wallace (1888-1965), founder of Pioneer Hi-Bred Corp. Ram Dass (1931-), Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing and Dying. Samuel R. Delany (1942-), 1984: Selected Letters. Cory Doctorow (1971-) and Karl Schroder (1962-), The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Science Fiction. Earl Doherty (1941-), The Jesus Puzzle; claims that the Apostle Paul never heard of the gospels or the gospel Jesus, who was made-up after his death from his own cloth, explaining the puzzle of why they took so long to write and why nobody outside the movement ever mentions Jesus in secular writings. Dinesh D'Souza (1961-), The Virtue of Prosperity. John Edward (1969-), What If God Were the Sun? Encyclopedia of Folklore of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (12 vols.) (June) (Belgium); financed by your gas purchases, er, Prince Khaled bin Sultan. Dave Eggers (1971-), A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius; a memoir about raising his orphaned brother. Albert Ellis (1913-2007), How to Stubbornly Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable About Anything: Yes, Anything. Albert Ellis (1913-2007) and Ted Crawford, Making Intimate Connections: Seven Guidelines for Great Relationships and Better Communication. Albert Ellis (1913-2007) and Marcia Grad Powers, The Secret of Overcoming Verbal Abuse: Getting Off the Emotional Roller Coaster and Regaining Control of Your Life. Joseph John Ellis (1943-), Founding Fathers: The Revolutionary Generation (Pulitzer Prize); George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron Burr in the decade after the 1787 Constitutional Convention. Pepe Escobar, Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War; globalization is creating "stans" at war with each other, an undeclared global civil war AKA the Liquid War? Susan Estrich (1952-), Sex & Power; women's lib has levelled off without achieving true equality, but they now have enough power to finish the job but won't do it? Khaled Abou El Fadl (1963-), The Place of Tolerance in Islam; Pres. George W. Bush's commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Internat. Religious Freedom. Susan C. Faludi (1959-), Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man; most U.S. men now have little power, hence are unhappy and violence-prone, but shouldn't blame it on feminists, illegal aliens, or affirmative action? Niall Ferguson (1964), The Pity of War (Mar. 3); argues that Britain was as much to blame for the start of WWI as Germany, and that had it sacrificed Belgium and its Belgian waffles to them, the 1917 Bolshevik Rev. could have been prevented, Germany would have created a stable united European state, and Britain could have remained a superpower, ruling the seas while Germany ruled the continent; in other words, the white Euro race would have avoided suicide by working together to rule da world; moreover, there was little enthusiasm for the war in Britain in 1914, while at the end the war was prolonged not by clever manipulation of the media, but by British soldiers' pleasure in combat; he also claims that it wasn't the severity but the leniency of the conditions imposed on Germany at Versailles in 1919 that led inexorably to World War II, and that they should have collected more reparations to keep them from rearming to prevent another mass suicide; on Jan. 29, 1914 he gives an interview to BBC History Mag., in which he claims that Britain could have lived with a German V in WWI, and should have stayed out of it, calling their hasty unprepared intervention "the biggest error in modern history"; "Creating an army more or less from scratch and then sending it into combat against the Germans was a recipe for disastrous losses. And if one asks whether this was the best way for Britain to deal with the challenge posed by imperial Germany, my answer is no"; "Even if Germany had defeated France and Russia, it would have had a pretty massive challenge on its hands trying to run the new German-dominated Europe and would have remained significantly weaker than the British empire in naval and financial terms. Given the resources that Britain had available in 1914, a better strategy would have been to wait and deal with the German challenge later when Britain could respond on its own terms, taking advantage of its much greater naval and financial capability"; "The cost, let me emphasise, of the first world war to Britain was catastrophic, and it left the British empire at the end of it all in a much weakened state... It had accumulated a vast debt, the cost of which really limited Britain's military capability throughout the interwar period. Then there was the manpower loss – not just all those aristocratic officers, but the many, many, many skilled workers who died or were permanently incapacitated in the war"; "Arguments about honour of course resonate today as they resonated in 1914, but you can pay too high a price for upholding the notion of honour, and I think in the end Britain did." James Henry Fetzer (1940-), Murder in Dealey Plaza: What We Know Now That We Didn't Know Then. David Finkel, The Good Soldiers (Sept. 15); the true story of Bush's Iraq surge. Norman G. Finkelstein (1953-), The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering (London); how the U.S. Jewish establishment exploits the Holocause, er, Holocaust for political-financial gain and the promotion of Israel, corrupting history and Jewish culture; too bad, in 2007 Jewish Havard U. prof. Alan Dershowitz gets his tenure at DePaul U. denied, causing him to resign on Sept. 5, 2007; in 2008 he is officially banned from entry into Israel, moving to Sakarya U. in Turkey. Frances FitzGerald (1940-), Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars, and the End of the Cold War; disses the idea of defending the U.S. from ICBMs - with a half-caf decaf from Sonic? Antony Flew (1923-), Merely Mortal? Stephen Fox (1938-), Uncivil Liberties: Italian Americans Under Siege During World War II; America's Invisible Gulag: A Biography of German American Internment and Exclusion in World War II: Memory and History; replaced by "Fear Itself: Inside the FBI Roundup of German Americans During World War II". Jo Freeman (1945-), A Room at a Time: How Women Entered Party Politics. Aaron L. Friedberg, In the Shadow of the Garrison State: America's Anti-Statism and Its Cold War Grand Strategy. Marilyn French (1929-2009), Introduction: Almost Touching the Skies; Women's History of the World. Oded Galor (1956-) and David N. Weil, Population, Technology, and Growth: From the Malthusian Regime to the Demographic Transition and Beyond (Sept.). Jim Garrison (1951-), Civilization and the Transformation of Power. Barbara Garson (1941-), Money Makes the World Go Around: One Investor Tracks Her Cash Through the Global Economy, From Brooklyn to Bangkok and Back. Henry Louis Gates Jr. (1950-), The African American Century: How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Century. Sir Martin Gilbert (1936-2015), Never Again: A History of the Holocaust. Mark Girouard (1931-), Life in the French Country House. Malcolm Gladwell (1963-), The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference; sells 2M copies; coins the term "tipping point" for "the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point", "the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable"; examples incl. the popularity of Hush Puppies in the mid-1990s and the drop in the New York City crime rate in the late 1990s; the Law of the Few attributes the success of a social epidemic to connectors (Paul Revere), mavens (info. specialists), and salesmen (Peter Jennings). Adam Gopnik (1956-), Paris to the Moon; his visit to Paris for "The New Yorker" from 1995-2000, where he finds that Frogs aren't obsessed with physical fitness like North Americans. Mary Catherine Gordon (1949-), Seeing Through Places: Reflections on Geography and Identity. Amit Goswami, Science and Spirituality: A Quantum Integration. David Gould, Q School Confidential: Inside Golf's Cruelest Tournament; the PGA Tournament Training and Qualifying Program (founded 1965). Marshall Govindan, Kriya Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the Siddhas. Robert Ranke Graves (1895-1985), Some Speculations on Literature, History, and Religion (posth.); ed. Patrick Quinn. Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002), The Lying Stones of Marrakech (essays). Ian Green, Print and Protestantism in Early Modern England. Raven Grimassi (1951-), The Encyclopedia of Wicca and Witchcraft. Stanislav Grof (1931-), Psychology of the Future: Lessions from Modern Consciousness Research. Hans Thomas Hakl, Unknown Sources: National Socialism and the Occult; tr. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (1953-2012). Victor Davis Hanson (1953-), The Land Was Everything: Letters from an American Farmer. Andrew Harvey (1952-), The Return of the Mother; The Way of Passion: A Celebration of Rumi. Richie Havens (1941-) (with Steve Davidowitz), They Can't Hide Us Anymore (autobio.). Shirley Hazzard (1931-), Greene on Capri: A Memoir. David Horovitz (1962-), A Little Too Close to God: The Thrills and Panic of a Life in Israel David Joel Horowitz (1939-), The Art of Political War and Other Radical Pursuits; The Politics of Bad Faith: The Radical Assault on America's Future. Michael Ignatieff (1947-), The Rights Revolution and Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond. Maurice Isserman and Michael Kazin, America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s. Molly Ivins (1944-2007) (with Lou Dubose), Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush. Susan Jacoby (1945-), Half-Jew: A Daughter's Search for Her Family's Buried Past. P.D. James (1920-), Time to Be in Earnest (autobio.). Randall Jarrell (1914-65), No Other Book: Selected Essays (posth). Philip Jenkins (1952-), Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History. Chalmers Ashby Johnson (1931-), Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire; the CIA's fear that its 1953 operation to overthrow Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran might cause some blowback back home has come true with 9/11?; rev. in 2004. Dwayne Johnson (1972-) and Joe Layden, The Rock Says... (autobio.); NYT bestseller. Joyce Johnson (1935-), Door Wide Open: A Beat Love Affair in letters, 1957-1958. George Frost Kennan (1904-2005), An American Family: The Kennans, the First Three Generations; his dirt-poor Scottish family that emigrated in the early 18th cent. to Conn. and Mass; "The epitome of the backcountry family of the most remote northern fringes of New England life." Daniel Keyes (1927-), Algernon, Charlie and I: A Writer's Journey. Dean H. King, Patrick O'Brian: A Life Revealed (Mar. 15). Joyce King, Hate Crime: The Story of a Dragging in Jasper, Texas; the 1998 James Byrd Jr. incident. Stephen King (1947-), On Writing; how a job as a high school janitor where he saw tampon dispensers in the girls' bathroom inspired his breakthrough book "Carrie"; a collision with the windshield of a Dodge Caravan while walking down a country road in the summer of 1999 interrupted its composition? Jonathan Kozol (1936-), Ordinary Resurrections: Children in the Years of Hope. Karen V. Kukil (ed.), The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath. Maxine Kumin (1925-), Always Beginning: Essays on a Life in Poetry. Gavin Lambert (1924-2005), Mainly About Lindsay Anderson (autobio.). Bruce B. Lawrence, Shattering the Myth: Islam Beyond Violence (Apr. 10); claims that Islam is not monolithic or violent - if you're a Muslim? Nigella Lawson (1960-), How to Be a Domestic Goddess; bestseller; in 2006 she hosts Nigella Feasts on Food Network, going on to sell 3M cookbooks. Jane Leavy, Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy. Larry Levis (1946-96), The Gazer Within (posth.). David Levering Lewis (1936-), W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963 (Pulitzer Prize); first to win Pulitzer Prizes for back-to-back vols. (1994). Bernard Lewis (1916-), A Middle East Mosaic: Fragments of Life, Letters and History. Robert Jay Lifton (1926-), Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism (Sept. 1). James Lovelock (1919-), Homage to Gaia: The Life of an Independent Scientist (autobio.). Gene Lyons and Joe Conason, The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton. Manning Marable (1950-2011), Let Nobody Turn Us Around. Mark Matousek (1957-), The Boy He Left Behind: A Man's Search for His Lost Father. Malachy McCourt (1931-), Singing My Him Song (autobio.). William S. McFeely (1930-), Proximity to Death; his opinions about the death penalty. A.B. McKillop of Carleton U., The Spinster & the Prophet: Florence Deeks, H.G. Wells, and the Mystery of the Purloined Past; bolsters her claims that H.G. Wells plagiarized her ms. to write "The Outline of History" (1920). Ian McLagan (1945-2014), All the Rage: A Riotous Romp Through Rock & Roll History (autobio.). J.R. McNeill, Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth Century World; "Economic thought did not adjust to the changed conditions it helped to create; thereby it continued to legitimate, and indeed indirectly to cause, massive and rapid ecological change. The overarching priority of economic growth was easily the most important idea of the twentieth century." James Alan McPherson (1943-), A Region No Home (essays). George Monbiot (1963-), Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain. Tim Moore (1964-), Continental Drifter: Taking the Low Road with the First Grand Tourist; retraces the steps of Englishman Thomas Coryat's 1608 tour of Europe, where he discovered the table fork - I'd rather be 1900? Robin Morgan (1941-), Saturday's Child: A Memoir. Sir John Mortimer (1923-2009), The Summer of a Dormouse: A Year of Growing Old Disgracefully (autobio.). George Lachmann Mosse (1918-98), Confronting History (autobio.) (posth.). Albert Murray (1916-), Trading Twelves; correspondence with his friend Ralph Ellison. David Nasaw (1945-), The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst. Mark Nepo (1951-), The Book of Awakening; Opra Winfrey selects it in 2010 as one of her Ultimate Favorite Things, making it a #1 NYT bestseller. Jack Newfield (1938-2004), Somebody's Gotta Tell It (autobio.); "Pick an issue. Study it. Figure out who the decision makers you want to influence are. Name the guilty men. Make alliances with experts. Combine activism with the writing. Create a constituency for reform. And don't stop till you have achieved some progress. This is what I mean by the Joe Frazier method. Keep coming forward. Be relentless. Don't stop moving your hands. Break the other guy's will." John Julius Norwich (1929-), Shakespeare's Kings: The Great Plays and the History of England in the Middle Ages, 1337-1485. Robert D. Novak (1931-2009), Completing the Revolution: A Vision for Victory in 2000 - didn't mention stealing it via the courts? Mancur Olson (1932-98), Power and Prosperity: Outgrowing Communist and Capitalist Dictatorships; the three types of govt. are tyranny, anarchy and democracy, with anarchy creating roving bandits, and tyranny creating stationary bandits who end up fostering some law and order and economic prosperity to get their cut, ending up paving the way for democracy. Stewart O'Nan (1961-), The Circus Fire. Peter S. Onuf (1945-), Jefferson's Empire: The Language of American Nationhood (Mar. 29). Bill O'Reilly (1949-), The O'Reilly Factor: The Good, the Bad, & the Completely Ridiculous in American Life; bestseller; Rush Limbaugh clone admires RFK, opposes the death penalty, and favors gun control and marijuana decriminalization. Stephen O'Shea, The Perfect Heresy: The Revolutionary Life and Death of the Medieval Cathars. Cynthia Ozick (1928-), Quarrel and Quandary (essays). Abraham Pais (1918-2000), The Genius of Science: A Portrait Gallery. Michael Parenti (1933-), To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia. James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer, The Dynamics of Social Change in Latin America. Nathaniel Philbrick (1956-), In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (July); (Pulitzer Prize); the famous 1820 sinking. Walter Clarkson Pitman III (1931-) and William B.F. Ryan, Noah's Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries About the Event that Changed History; did the Great Flood of the shores of the Black Sea in 5600 B.C.E. inspire the Noah's Ark story? Sidney Poitier (1927-), The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography. Kenneth Pomeranz (1958-), The Great Divergence: China, Europe and the Making of the Modern World Economy; attempts to explain the Industrial Rev. in Europe as the product of coal and exports to the New World. Roy Porter (1946-2002), Enlightenment: Britain and the Creation of the Modern World (The Untold Story of the British Enlightenment). Samantha Power (1970-) (ed.), Realizing Human Rights; Moving from Inspiration to Impact. Reynolds Price (1933-), Feasting the Heart (essays); Learning a Trade: A Craftsman's Notebooks, 1955-1997. Robert David Putnam (1941-), Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community; strengthens his 1995 thesis. Diane Ravitch (1938-), City Schools: Lessons from New York; Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform. Andrew Roberts (1963-), The House of Windsor. Gerard Roland (1954-), Transition and Economics: Politics, Markets and Firms (Mar. 1); about Transition Economics, the shift from a centrally-planned to a free market economy. Murray Newton Rothbard (1926-95), Irrepressible Rothbard: The Rothbard-Rockwell Report Essays of Murray N. Rothbard (posth.). Michael Ryan (1946-), A Difficult Grace: On Poet, Poetry, and Writing. Abdul Saleeb, Answering Islam: The Crescent in Light of the Cross. Simon Schama (1945-), A History of Britain (3 vols.) (2000-2); basis of a 15-episode BBC-TV series that debuts on Sept. 30, 2000-June 18, 2002. Paul Scheffer, Multicultural Drama (Jan. 29); claims that multiculturalism has failed in the Netherlands, causing a firestorm of controversy. Orville Hickok Schell (1940-), Virtual Tibet: Searching for Shangri-La from the Himalayas to Hollywood. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (1917-2007), A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950 (autobio.). Chris Matthew Sciabarra, Total Freedom: Toward a Dialectical Libertarianism. Pete Seibert (1924-2002), Vail: Triumph of a Dream. Martin Seligman (1942-) and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934-), Positive Psychology: An Introduction. Robert J. Shiller (1946-), Irrational Exuberance (Mar.); warns that the U.S. stock market had become a bubble, which happens in Mar., making him a hero; 2nd ed. in 2005. Steve Silberger, The Phenomenon of the Jews. Peter Singer (1946-), Writings on an Ethical Life. Huston Smith (with Jeffery Paine), Tales of Wonder: Adventures Chasing the Divine. Robert Sneden, Eye of the Storm: A Civil War Odyssey; the memoirs of Union Pvt. Robert Knox Sneden (d. 1918), found in 1994. Robert Sobel (1931-99), The Pursuit of Wealth: The Incredible Story of Money Throughout the Ages of Wealth; AMEX: A History of the American Stock Exchange; Thomas Watson Sr.: IBM and the Computer Revolution; The Great Boom 1950-2000: How a Generation of Americans Created the World's Most Prosperous Society (posth.). George Soros (1930-) and Mark Amadeus Notturno, Science and the Open Society: The Future of Karl Popper's Philosophy. Victor J. Stenger (1935-), Timeless Reality: Symmetry, Simplicity, and Multiple Universes. Jerry Stiller (1927-) and Anne Meara (1929), Married to Laughter: A Love Story Featuring Anne Meara (autobio.). Robert B. Stinnett, Day of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor. Mark Strand (1934-), The Weather of Words: Poetic Invention. Michael Sturmer (1938-), The German Empire, 1870-1918) (Nov. 14). Cass R. Sunstein (1954-), Behavioral Law and Economics. Kenneth R. Timmerman (1953-), Selling Out America: The American Spectator Investigations. Jeffrey Toobin, A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President; the Clinton sex scandals. Donald Trump (1946-), The America We Deserve (Jan.); a political manifesto in answer to critics who accuse him of running for pres. only for publicity, coming out as a moderate populist and outlining his dream of a country sans "racism, discrimination against women, or discrimination against people based on sexual orientation"; "The greatest threat to the American Dream is the idea that dreamers need close government scrutiny and control. Job one for us is to make sure the public sector does a limited job, and no more"; he predicts 9/11 and theorizes that it will be Osama bin Laden, with the soundbytes: "I am really convinced we're in danger of the sort of terrorist attacks that will make the bombing of the Trade Center look like kids playing with firecrackers. No sensible analyst rejects this possibility, and plenty of them, like me, are not wondering if but when it will happen"; “It’s time to get down to the hard business of preparing for what I believe is the real possibility that somewhere, sometime, a weapon of mass destruction will be carried into a major American city and detonated"; "One day we're told that a shadowy figure with no fixed address named Osama bin-Laden is public enemy number one, and U.S. jetfighters lay waste to this camp in Afghanistan. He escapes back under some rock, and a few news cycles later it's on to a new enemy and new crisis." Max Velmans, Understanding Consciousness; presents his theory of Reflexive Monism, that the Universe is psycho-physical. Doreen Virtue (1958-), Angel Visions; followed by "Angel Visions II" (2001). Rebecca Walker (1969-), Black, White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self; daughter of writer Alice Walker (1944-). Michael Walzer (1935-) et al. (eds.), The Jewish Political Tradition, Vol. I: Authority. Ibn Warraq (1946-), The Quest for the Historical Muhammad. Benjamin J. Wattenberg (1933-), Theodore Caplow, and Louis Hicks, The First Measured Century: An Illustrated Guide to Trends in America 1900-2000. Jonathan Wells (1942-), Icons of Evolution: Why Much of What We Teach About Evolution Is Wrong. Cornel West (1953-) and Henry Louis Gates Jr., The African-American Century: How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Century; W.E.B. Du Bois et al. Stuart Wilde (1946-), Sixth Sense: Including the Secrets of the Etheric Subtle Body. Garry Wills (1934-), Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit; criticizes Pope Pius IX. Fred Alan Wolf (1934-), Mind into Matter: A New Alchemy of Science and Spirit. Howard Zinn (1922-2010), Howard Zinn on History; Howard Zinn on War. Art: Chuck Close (1940-), Self-Portrait (2000-1). Lucian Freud (1922-), Queen Elizabeth II (2000-2001); unflattering and gives her a 5 o'clock shadow? Sam Gilliam (1933-), Journey Home. Tsehai Johnson (1966-), Twelve Dildos on Hooks (ceramic). Brice Marden (1938-),The Propitious Garden of Plane Image Series; "The most profound abstract painter of the past four decades" (Peter Schjeldahl). Roberto Matta (1911-2002), N'ou's Autres. Larry Rivers (1923-2002), Rockwell's Artist on the Run; his interpretation of Norman Rockwell's 1930 "Girl Running with Wet Canvas". James Rosenquist (1933-), The Stowaway Peers Out at the Speed of Light. Music: 98 Degrees, Revelation (album #3) (last album) (Sept. 26) (#2 in the U.S.); incl. Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche). AC/DC, Stiff Upper Lip (album #15) (Feb. 28); incl. Stiff Upper Lip, Safe in New York City, Satellite Blues. Ryan Adams (1974-), Heartbreaker (album). Todo Buenos Aires (ballet); tango variations. Queens of the Stone Age, Rated R (album #2) (June 6) (#54 in the U.K.); Mark Lanegan on vocals; incl. The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret (#31 in the U.K.), Feel Good Hit of the Summer, Monsters in the Parasol, I Think I Lost My Headache (w/Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees). Christina Aguilera (1980-), Mi Reflejo (album #2) (Sept. 12); sells 3.5M copies; incl. Pero Me Acuerdo De Ti, Falsas Esperanzas; My Kind of Christmas (album #3) (Oct. 24); sells 3M copies; incl. Christmas Time. a-ha, Minor Earth Major Sky (album #6) (July 17) (2M copies worldwide); incl. Minor Earth Major Sky. Dead or Alive, Fragile (album #7). Allman Brothers Band, Peakin' at the Beacon (album) (Nov. 14); recorded at the Beacon Theatre in New York City in Mar. America, Highway: 30 Years of America (album) (July). The Presidents of the United States of America, Lump (album) (Jan. 1); Freaked Out and Small (album #3) (Sept. 12); incl. Jupiter, Tiny Explosions, Last Girl on Earth. Apocalyptica, Cult (album #3) (Sept. 28); incl. Path, Romance, Pray! Joseph Arthur (1971-), Come to Where I'm From (album #2) (Apr. 11); incl. In the Sun, Chemical. Erykah Badu (1971-), Mama's Gun (album); incl. Bag Lady. Buju Banton (1973-), Unchained Spirit (album #6) (Aug. 22). Limp Bizkit, Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water (album #3) (Oct. 17); anus and semen?; sells 12M copies; incl. My Generation, Rollin' (Air Raid Vehicle), Take a Look Around (theme song of M:I2), Boiler, My Way. Bjork (1965-), Selmasongs: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack Dancer in the Dark (album) (Sept. 18). Blink-182, The Mark, Tom and Travis Show (The Enema Strikes Back!) (album) (Nov. 7); incl. Man Overboard (#2 in the U.S.). Moody Blues, Hall of Fame (album) (Aug. 8). Joe Bonamassa (1977-), A New Day Yesterday (album) (debut) (Oct. 24); named after the 1969 Jethro Tull classic; incl. Miss You, Hate You, Cradle Rock. Backstreet Boys, For the Fans (album) (Aug. 28); Black & Blue (album #4) (Nov. 21) (#1 in the U.S., #13 in the U.K.) (9M copies); incl. Shape of My Heart, The Call, More Than That. Billy Bragg (1957-), Mermaid Avenue Vol. II (album #2) (May 30); vol. I in 1998. Toni Braxton (1967-), The Heat (album) (Apr. 25); incl. He Wasn't Man Enough, Just Be a Man About It, Spanish Guitar. Neko Case (1970-) and Her Boyfriends, Furnace Room Lullaby (album #2) (Feb. 22). Alice in Chains, Live (album) (Dec. 5). Tracy Chapman (1964-), Telling Stories (album #5) (Feb. 15); incl. Telling Stories. Kenny Chesney (1968-), Greatest Hits (album). Dixie Chicks, Fly (album). Michael Colgrass (1932-), Crossworlds. Judy Collins (1939-), All on a Wintry Night (album #29); Judy Collins Live at Wolf Trap (album #30). Sean "Diddy" Combs (1969-), Last Train to Paris (album #5) (Dec. 13) (#7 in the U.S.); incl. Angels, Hello Good Morning (w/T.l., Rick Ross), Loving You No More, Coming Home. Cracker, Garage d'Or (album #5) (Apr. 4); incl. Euro-Trash Girl. King Crimson, Heavy ConstruKction (album). Black Crowes, Live at the Greek (with Jimmy Page) (album); By Your Side (album); a flop? John LaChinna and George C. Wolfe, The Wild Party (musical) (Apr. 13) (Virginia Theater, New York); stars Mandy Patinkin, Toni Collette, Eartha Kitt. Coldplay, Parachutes (album) (debut) (July 10) (9M copies); from London, England, incl. Christopher Anthony John "Chris" Martin (1977-) (vocals), Guy Berryman (1977-) (bass), Jon Buckland (1977-) (guitar), and Will Champion (1978-) (drums); incl. Don't Panic, Shiver, Trouble, Yellow. Alice Cooper (1948-), Brutal Planet (album #21). Motley Crue, New Tattoo (album #8) (July 11); first with drummer Randy Castillo; incl. Hell on High Heels (#13 in the U.S.). The Cure, Bloodflowers (album # 11) (Feb. 15); incl. Out of This World, Maybe Someday. Death Cab for Cutie, We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes (album #2) (Mar. 21); incl. 405, Company Calls Epilogue; The Forbidden Love EP (Oct. 24). Dagda, Hibernia (album); incl. Criost Liom, Home Again in Eireann, Mise Liom Fein. Steely Dan, Two Against Nature (album) (Feb. 29); first since 1980; incl. Gaslighting Abbie, Cousin Dupree, Janie Runaway. D'Angelo (1974-), Voodoo (album); incl. Left & Right, Untitled (How Does It Feel). Craig Ashley David (1981-), Born To Do It (album) (debut) (Aug. 20); incl. Rewind, Fill Me In, Woman Trouble (with Robbie Craig), 7 Days, Walking Away, Rendezvous. Green Day, Warning (album #6) (Oct. 3) (#4 in the U.S., #4 in the U.K.) (3M copies); incl. Minority, Warning, Waiting, Macy's Day Parade. Grateful Dead, Dick's Picks Vol. 16 (album) (Mar.); recorded on Nov. 8, 1969 in San Francisco; Dick's Picks Vol. 17 (album) (Apr.); recorded on Sept. 15, 1991 in Boston; Dick's Picks Vol. 18 (album) (June); recorded on Feb. 3-5, 1978; View from the Vault, Vol. 1 (album) (June); Dick's Picks Vol. 19 (album) (Oct. 23); recorded on Oct. 19, 1973 in Oklahoma City; Ladies and Gentlemen... the Grateful Dead (4-CD set) (Oct.); recorded on Apr. 25-29, 1971 at the Fillmore East in New York City. Deftones, White Pony (album #3) (June 20) (best-selling; first with Frank Delgado; incl. Digital Bath, Elite, Change (in the House of Flies). Disturbed, The Sickness (album) (debut) (#29 in the U.S., #102 in the U.K.) (4M copies in the U.S.); features a sales-getting Parental advisory label; formerly Brawl; from Chicago, Ill., incl. David Michael Draiman (1973-) (vocals) (bald), Dan Donegan (1968-) (guitar), Steve "Fuzz" Kmak (1970-)/Marty O'Brien/John Moyer (bass), and Mike Wengren (1971-) (drums); incl. Voices, The Game, Stupify, and Down With the Sickness. Snoop Dogg (1971-), The Last Meal (album #5) (Dec. 19) (1M copies); last with No Limit Records. Dokken, Live from the Sun (album) (Apr. 18). Doobie Brothers, Sibling Rivalry (album #12) (Oct. 3). No Doubt, Return of Saturn (album #4) (Apr. 11); incl. Ex-Girlfriend, Simple Kind of Life, Bathwater, New. Duran Duran, Pop Trash (album #10) (June 19). Finger Eleven, The Greyest of Blue Skies (album #3) (July 25); brings them into the mainstream; incl. First Time, Drag You Down, Stay and Drown, Sick of It All. Alton Ellis (1938-2008), Change My Mind (album). Eminem (1972-), The Marshall Mathers LP (album); his real name is Marshall Bruce Mathers III; sells 1.76M copies the first week; incl. The Way I Am, Stan, The Real Slim Shady; implies that Christian Arguilera gave head to Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit and Carson Daly, and says of his discoverer "Dr. Dre's dead, he's locked in my basement"; the success of a Gen-Zed white guy who acts black and spouts their anti-establishment homophobic misogynist pro-violence lyrics to a large white audience makes him the 21st cent. Elvis? Enya (1961-), A Day Without Rain (album #6) (Nov. 21); incl. Wild Child, Only Time; becomes the theme song for the 9/11 victims. Sunny Day Real Estate, The Rising Tide (album #4) (June 20); incl. Rain Song. Gloria Estefan (1957-), Alma Caribena (Caribeña) (album #9) (May 11); incl. No Me Dejes de Querer. Better Than Ezra, Artifakt (album). Faithless, Back to Mine (album) (Oct. 16). Violent Femmes, Freak Magnet (album). Elysian Fields, Queen of the Meadow (album #2); Bend Your Mind (EP). Fishbone, Fishbone and the Familyhood Nextperience Present: The Psychotic Friends Nuttwerx (album #6) (Mar. 21). Carlisle Floyd (1926-), Cold Sassy Tree (opera). Fuel, Something Like Human (album #2) (Sept. 19) (#17 in the U.S.) (2M copies); incl. Hemorrhage (in My Hands) (#30 in the U.S.). Nelly Furtado (1978-), Whoa, Nelly! (album) (debut) (Oct. 24) (#24 in the U.S., #2 in the U.K.) (6M copies); incl. I'm Like a Bird, Turn Off the Light, On the Radio (Remember the Days), Party's Just Begun (Again), Trynna Finda Way, Hey, Man! Secret Garden, Dreamcatcher (album). Billy Gilman (1988-), One Voice (album) (June 20) (debut); Classic Christmas (album); youngest singer to reach #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart (until ?). Indigo Girls, Retrospective (album). Spice Girls, Forever (album #3) (last album) (Nov. 6) (#2 in the U.K.) (5M copies); incl. Goodbye (#1 in the U.K.), Holler (#1 in the U.S.). Lamb of God, New American Gospel (album #2) (Sept. 26); incl. In the Absence of the Sacred. Godsmack, Awake (album #2) (Oct. 31) (#5 in the U.S.) (2M copies in the U.S.); incl. Vampires, Greed, Sick of Life, Awake, (the last two are used by the U.S. Navy in commercials). Guano Apes, Don't Give Me Names (album #2) (May 2) (100K copies); incl. Big in Japan (by Alphaville), No Speech, Living in a Lie, Dodel (Dödel) Up. Merle Haggard (1937-), I I Could Only Fly (album); his comeback. Nina Hagen (1955-), Return of the Mother (album #12) (Mar. 28). Roy Harper (1941-), The Green Man (album #20). Emmylou Harris (1947-), Red Dirt Girl (album). P.J. Harvey (1969-), Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (album #6) (Oct. 23) (#42 in the U.S., #23 in the U.K.); incl. This Is Love, Good Fortune, This Mess We're In (w/Thom Yorke), A Place Called Home, One Line, Beautiful Feeling. Jeff Healey (1966-2008), Get Me Some (album). Her Space Holiday, Home Is Where You Hang Yourelf (album). Janis Ian (1951-), God and the FBI (album); how the feds bugged her Jewish leftist parents. David Ippolito, It's Just Us (album #4). Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), A is for Allah (album). LL Cool J (1968-), G.O.A.T. (album) ("greatest of all time"); incl. Back Where I Belong (featuring Ja Rule). Pearl Jam, Binaural (album #6) (May 16) (#2 in the U.S., #5 in the U.K.), incl. Nothing As It Seems (#49 in the U.S., #22 in the U.K.). Jamelia (1981-), Drama (album) (debut) (June 26); incl. I Do, Money (first top-5 U.K.hit), Boy Next Door. Jay-Z (1969-), The Dynasty: Roc La Familia (album #5) (Oct. 31); sells 2M copies; incl. I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me, Change the Game (with Beanie Sigel and Memphis Bleek). We Were Promised Jetpacks, The Last Place You'll Look (EP); incl. A Far Cry, The Walls Are Wearing Thin. Elton John (1947-), The Round to El Dorado Soundtrack (album) (Mar. 14); Elton John One Night Only - The Greatest Hits (album) (Nov. 21). Bon Jovi, Crush (album #7) (June 13) (#9 in the U.S., #1 in the U.K.) (11M copies worldwide); incl. It's My Life, Say It Isn't So, Thank You for Loving Me. Juanes (1972-), Fijate Bien (album) (debut). R. Kelly (1967-), TP-2.com (album #4) (Nov. 7) (#1 in the U.S.); incl. The Greatest Sex, Strip for You, I Wish, Fiesta (w/Jay-Z), Feelin' On Your Booty. Ghostface Killah, Supreme Clientele (album) (Jan.). Diana Krall (1964-), When I Look in Your Eyes (album). Chiaki Kuriyama (1984-), Meteor's Tears (Ryuusei no Namida). Barenaked Ladies, Maroon (album #5) (Sept. 12) (#5 in the U.S., #1 in Canada); incl. Pinch Me (#15 in the U.S.), Too Little Too Late (#86 in the U.S.), Falling for the First Time. k.d. lang (1961-), Invincible Summer (album #4) (June 20). Ludacris (1977-), Incognegro (album) (debut); sells 50K copies from the trunk of his car; Back for the First Time (album) (Oct. 17) (#4 in the U.S. (3.1M copies); incl. What's Your Fantasy (w/Shawnna), Southern Hospitality (w/Pharrell). Rage Against the Machine, Renegades (album #4) (last) (Dec. 5). Madonna (1958-), Music (album #8) (Sept. 19) (#1 in the U.S. and U.K.) (15M copies); incl. Music, Don't Tell Me, What It Feels Like for Girl. Iron Maiden, Brave New World (album #12) (May 30); lead singer Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith return; incl. The Wicker Man, Out of the Silent Planet. Miriam Makeba (1932-), Homeland (album). Marilyn Manson, Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) (album #4) (Nov. 14); flops initially because it is meant as a reply to being blamed for the Apr. 20, 1999 Columbine H.S. Massacre, then goes on to sell 9M copies; incl. Disposable Teens, The Fight Song, The Nobodies. Bruno Mars (1985-), Doo-Wops & Hooligans (album) (debut) (Oct. 4); incl. Just the Way You Are (#1 in the U.S.), Grenade (#1 in the U.S. and U.K.), The Lazy Song. Ricky Martin (1971-), Sound Loaded (album #6) (Nov. 14) (8M copies); incl. Nobody Wants to Be Lonely, She Bangs; Chinese-Am. college student William Hung (1983-) performs it off-key on Am. Idol's 3rd season in early 2004, and is so bad he's good, becoming a cult hero. Paul McCartney (1942-), Liverpool Sound Collage (album) (Aug. 21); incl. Free Now (w/Super Furry Animals). Tim McGraw (1967-), Greatest Hits (album); sells 6M copies. Baha Men, Who Let the Dogs Out? (July 25) (#40 in the U.S., #2 in the U.K.); becomes popular for sporting events. Kylie Minogue (1968-), Light Years (album #7) (Sept. 25) (#2 in the U.K., #1 in Australia); incl. Spinning Around, On a Night Like This, Please Stay, Your Disco Needs You. Joni Mitchell (1943-), Both Sides Now (album #17) (Feb. 8). Van Morrison (1945-), The Skiffle Sessions - Live in Belfast 1998 (album) (Jan. 18); You Win Again (album #28) (Oct. 3). Motorhead, We Are Motorhead (Motörhead) (album #15) (May 16); incl. God Save the Queen (by the Sex Pistols). Modest Mouse, Building Nothing Out of Something (album) (Jan. 18); The Moon & Antarctica (album #3) (June 13) (#120 in the U.S.); title from the film "Blade Runner"; incl. Third Planet, Gravity Rides Everything, Dark Center of the Universe. Dropkick Murphy and The Business, Mob Mentality (album) (May 9). Anne Murray (1945-), What a Wonderful World. Vomito Negro, Musical Art Conjunct of Sound (album #12). Nelly (1974-), Country Grammar (album) (debut) (June 27) (#3 in the U.S.) (8.5M copies); incl. Country Grammar (Hot Shit) (#7 in the U.S.), E.I., Ride Wit Me (w/St. Lunatics) (#3 in the U.S.), Batter Up (w/St. Lunatics). The New Pornographers, Mass Romantic (album) (debut) (Nov. 21); from Vancouver, B.C., incl. Blaine Thurier, Todd Fancey, Neko Case, Carl Newman, Kurt Dahle, Kahtryn Calder, and John Collins; incl. Mass Romantic, Letter from an Occupant. Nickelback, The State (album #2) (Mar. 7) (1M copies); incl. Leader of Men, Old Enough, Breathe, Worthy to Say. Yannick Noah (1960-), Yannick Noah (album #2). Nonpoint, Statement (album) (debut) (Oct. 10) (#166 in the U.S.) (released by MCA Records); from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., incl. Elias Soriano (vocals), KB (bass), Zach Broderick (guitar), and Robb Rivera (drums); incl. Endure, What A Day. 'N Sync (*NSYNC), No Strings Attached (album #2) (Mar. 21); sells a record 1.1M copies in its first day and 2.41M copies in its 1st week, and goes on to sell over 100K copies a week for 26 straight weeks, causing Rolling Stone to call them "the biggest band in the world" next year; another V for boy band impresario Lou Pearlman of Backstreet Boys fame, and the end of the era of the "music hit"?; incl. No Strings Attached. Gary Numan (1958-), Pure (album #15) (Nov. 7). Laura Nyro (1947-97), Time and Love: The Essential Masters (album) (posth.) (Oct. 10); Live at Mountain Stage (album) (posth.) (Oct. 17). Oasis, Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (album #4) (Feb. 28) (#1 in the U.K.); incl. Go Let It Out, Who Feels Love?, Sunday Morning Call, Where Did It All Go Wrong?, Fuckin' in the Bushes. Indian Ocean, Kandisa (album #3) (Mar.); their breakthrough album; incl. Kandisa, Khajuraho, Kaun. Sinead O'Connor (1966-), Faith and Courage (album #5) (June 13). Blue October, Consent to Treatment (album #2) (Aug. 15); incl. Retarded Disfigured Clown. The Offspring, Conspiracy of One (album #6) (Nov. 14); incl. Want You Bad. Midnight Oil, The Real Thing (album) (July 8); incl. The Real Thing. OutKast, Stankonia (album). Pantera, Reinventing the Steel (album #9) (Mar. 14) (#4 ini the U.S.); incl. Revolution Is My Name (#28 in the U.S.), Goddamn Electric, I'll Cast a Shadow. Linkin Park, Hybrid Theory (album) (debut) (Oct. 24) (#2 in the U.S.) (10M copies) (best-selling album of the decade); from Agoura Hills, Calif., incl. Chester Charles Bennington (1976-2017) (vocals), Michael Kenji "Mike" Shinoda (1977-), Bradford Phillip "Brad" Delson (1977-), Joseph "Joe" "Mr." Hahn (1977-) (turntables), Rob Bourson, Dave "Phoenix" Farrell, and Mark Wakefield; incl. Crawling, One Step Closer, Paper Cut, In the End. Black Eyed Peas, Bridging the Gap (album #2) (Sept. 26); incl. Request Line (with Macy gray). Phoenix, United (album) (debut) (June 8); from Versailles, France, incl. Thomas Mars, Deck D'Arcy, Christian Mazzalai, and Laurent Brancowitz; incl. Too Young. Pink (P!ink) (Alecia Beth Moore) (1979-), Can't Take Me Home (album) (debut) (Apr. 4) (#26 in the U.S.) (5M copies); incl. There You Go, Most Girls, You Make Me Sick. Placebo, Black Market Music (album #3) (Oct. 9); incl. Taste in Men, Slave to the Wage, Special K, Black-Eyed, Blue American. The Posies, In Case You Don't Feel Like Plugging In (album); At Least, At Last (album). Insane Clown Posse, Bizzar (album) (Oct. 31); Bizaar (album) (Oct. 31). Manic Street Preachers, The Masses Against the Classes (Jan. 10) (#1 in the U.K.). Dead Prez, Hip Hop. Radiohead, Kid A (album #4) (Oct. 2) (#1 in the U.S.). (Rolling Stone Mag. #1 album of the decade); incl. The National Anthem, Optimistic, Idioteque. Gerry Rafferty (1947-2011), Another World (album #9). Raspberries, Refreshed (album #5); first album since 1974. Ratt, Infestation (Apr. 20) (#30 in the U.S.); first album since 1999; first with guitarist Carlos Cavazo (1957-); incl. Best Of Me, Eat Me Up Alive. Juno Reactor, Shango (album #5) (Oct. 9); incl. Pistolero, Masters of the Universe. Lou Reed (1942-), Ecstasy (album #18) (Apr. 4); incl. Ecstasy; Paranoia Key of E. Lionel Richie (1949-), Renaissance (album #6) (Oct. 16). Kid Rock (1971-), History of Rock (album). Kenny Rogers (1938-2020), Buy Me a Rose; #1 selling country song by a singer over age 60 since 1944. Sade (1959-), Lovers Rock (album #5) (Nov. 14) (#3 in the U.S., #28 in the U.K. (4M copies); incl. By Your Side, King of Sorrow. Pharoah Sanders (1940-), Spirits (album). Scorpions, Moment of Glory (album #12) (Aug. 29); they play with the Berlin Philharmonic; incl. Moment of Glory (official anthem of EXPO 2000). Primal Scream, XTRMNTR (album #6) (Jan. 31); incl. Kill All Hippies, Swastika Eyes. Belle and Sebastian, Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant (album #4) (June 6). Pete Seeger (1919-2014), American Folk, Game and Activity Songs (album). Shaggy (1968-), Hot Shot (album); incl. It Wasn't Me (with RikRok); Angel (with Rayvon). Carly Simon (1945-), The Bedroom Tapes (album) (May 16). Paul Simon (1941-), You're the One. Sissel, All Good Things (album) (Nov.). Lynyrd Skynyrd, Christmas Time Again (album #10). Sleater-Kinney, All Hands on the Bad One (album #5) (May 2); incl. All Hands on the Bad One. Fatboy Slim (1963-), Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars (album #3) (Nov. 6); title from the Oscar Wilde quote "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" by Lady Darlington in "Lady Windemere's Fan"; incl. Weapon of Choice (video stars Christopher Walken), Talking 'bout My Baby, Star 69 ("They know what is what, but they don't know what is what, they just strut, what the fuck?"), Sunset (Bird of Prey), Ya Mama. Patti Smith (1946-), Gung Ho (album #8) (Mar. 21); incl. Glitter in Their Eyes, New Party (official song for the 2000 Ralph Nader pres. campaign). Black Label Society, Stronger Than Death (album #2) (Apr. 18); incl. Counterfeit God. Collective Soul, Blender (album #5) (Oct. 10) (#22 in the U.S.); last with Atlantic Records; incl. Why, Pt. 2. Britney Spears (1981-), Oops!... I Did It Again (album). Jimmie Spheeris (1949-84), Spheeris (album) (posth.); finished hours before he was killed by a drunk driver in Santa Monica, Calif. Lewis Spratlan, Life is a Dream, Opera in Three Acts: Act II, Concert Version (Pulitzer Prize). Status Quo, Under the Influence (album #24) (Apr.). Steps, Buzz (album #3) (Oct. 25) (#4 in the U.K.); incl. Stomp (#1 in the U.K.), It's the Way You Make Me Feel (#2 in the U.K.). Ray Stevens (1939-), Osama - Yo' Mama (album); incl. Osama - Yo' Mama. Al Stewart (1945-), Down in the Cellar (album #16); about wine. Stratovarius, Infinite (album #8) (Feb. 28); incl. Hunting High and Low, A Million Light Years Away; 14 Diamonds (album) Sept. 19). The White Stripes, De Stijl (album #2) (June 20); incl. Hello Operator, Death Letter. Sugarbabes, One Touch (album) (debut) (Nov. 27) (#26 in the U.K.); from England, incl. Siobhan Emma Donaghy (1984-) (leaves in Aug. 2001), Mutya Buena (1985-) (leaves in Dec. 2005), and Keisha Kerreece Fayeanne Buchanan (1984-) (leaves in Sept. 2009); eventually changes to Heidi India Range (1983-), Amelle Berrabah (1984-), and Jade Almarie Louise Ewen (1988-); incl. Overload (#6 in the U.K.), New Year, Run for Cover, Soul Sound. Within Temptation, Mother Earth (album #2) (Dec. 4); incl. Mother Earth, Our Farewell, Ice Queen, Never-Ending Story. Suicidal Tendencies, Free Your Soul and Save My Mind (album #8) (Sept. 12); incl. Pop Songs. Therion, Deggial (album #12) (Jan. 31); incl. Eternal Return; The Early Chapters of Revelation (3-CD set) (Nov. 27). Melanie Thornton (1967-2001), Love How You Love Me (Nov. 6). Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, BTNHResurrection (album #4) (Feb. 29); incl. Resurrection (Paper, Paper), Change the World. TLC, FanMail (album). Randy Travis (1959-), Inspirational Journey (album). Matchbox Twenty, Mad Season (album #2) (May 23) (#3 in the U.S., #31 in the U.K.)); incl. Mad Season, Bent (#1 in the U.S.), If You're Gone (#4 in the U.S.). U2, All That You Can't Leave Behind (album #10) (Oct. 30) (#3 in the U.S., #1 in the U.K.) (12M copies); incl. Beautiful Day, Walk On, Elevation, Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of. Six Feet Under, Graveyard Classics (album) (Oct. 24); incl. TNT (by AC/DC). Various Artists, O Brother, Where Art Thou? Soundtrack (Dec. 5) (#1 country) (#1 in the U.S.) (7.8M copies); produced by T-Bone Burnett; features Harry McClintock, Norman Blake, Emmylou Harris, John Hartford, the Stanley Brothers, the Fairfield Four, Alison Krauss et al., rekindling interest in bluegrass; incl. O Death by Dr. Ralph Stanley, I'll Fly Away by Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch, and Man of Constant Sorrow and Keep on the Sunny Side by The Whites, winning 2001 Grammy album of the year. Wallflowers, Breach (album) (Oct. 10); incl. Sleepwalker, Letters from the Wasteland, Hand Me Down, Babybird. Westlife, Coast to Coast (album #2) (Nov. 6) (#1 in the U.K.) (1.5M copies in the U.K.); incl. Against All Odds (by Phil Collins) (w/Mariah Carey) (#1 in the U.K.), My Love (#1 in the U.K.), What Makes A Man (#2 in the U.K.). Whigfield (1970-), Whigfield III (album #3). Wilco, Mermaid Avenue, Vol. II (album) (May 30). Wisin and Yandel, Los Reyes del Nuevo Milenio (album) (debut) (July 18); from Puerto Rico, incl. Yandel (Llandel Veguilla Malave Salazar) (1977-) and Wisin (Juan Luis Morena Luna) (1978). Wu-Tang Clan, The W (album #3) (Nov. 21) (#5 in the U.S.); incl. Gravel Pit. XTC, Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2) (album #13) (last album) (May 23). Trisha Yearwood (1964-), Real Live Woman (album). Lil' Zane (1982-), Young World: The Future (album) (debut) (Aug. 22); incl. Callin' Me (w/112). Movies: Allan A. Goldstein's 2001: A Space Travesty (Oct. 31) stars Leslie Nielsen as Marshal Richard "Dick" Dixon, who travels to Moon Base Vegan to investigate the cloning of the U.S. pres. Alexander Payne's About Schmidt (Dec. 13), based on the 1996 novel by Louis Begley stars Jack Nicholson as insurance actuary Warren R. Schmidt, in Omaha, Neb., who retires and decides to sponsor foster child Ndugu Umbo in Tanzania while his own life fades to black. Spike Jonze's Adaptation (Dec. 6), based on the 1998 nonfiction book "The Orchid Thief" by Susan Orlean stars Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, and Chris Cooper in a yarn about a S Fla. orchid fanatic who tries to clone the rare orchid Ghost Orchid and write a Hollywood script about it. Des McAnuff's The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (June 30) stars Jason Alexander, Rene Russo, and Robert De Niro lamely attempting to bring back the lame cartoon TV show. Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous (Sept. 13) (Columbia Pictures) stars Patrick Fugit (1982-) as 15-y.-o. William Miller, who gets to accompany rock band Stllwater and write a story for Rolling Stone mag.; also stars Billy Crudup (as Russell Hammond), Frances McDormand (as Elaine Miller), and Kate Hudson (as Penny Lane), who marries almost-famous Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes; f irst drama to have an authorized Led Zeppelin tune on its soundtrack after comedy "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (1982); best film of 2000 according to Roger Ebert; does $47M box office on a $60M budget. Mary Harron's American Psycho (Jan. 21) (Lionsgate Films), based on the Bret Easton Ellis novel stars Welsh-born English actor Christian Bale as New York City investment banking exec and psycho axe murderer Patrick Bateman, and Reese Witherspoon as his babe Evelyn Williams; "I am simply not there"; does $34.3M box office on a $7M budget. Noreaga Productions' The Arrivals is a multi-part flick by Muslims who try to prove that all prophets incl. Jesus (Isa) and especially Muhammad are from God and that Jesus Christ will return to help the Mahdi (Muslim Messiah) save true Muslims from the Antichrist Dajjal, along with evil Zionism and its Illuminati system, while the deceived Christians will call the Mahdi the Antichrist and fight him - can't wait until it happens for real, not? Chris D'Arienzo's Barry Munday (Mar. 13), based on the novel "Life is a Strange Place" by Frank Turner Hollon stars Patrick Wilson, who has his testicles removed after an attack and then finds himself accused of knocking up Jennifer Farley (Chloe Sevigny), whom he can't remember sleeping with; Judy Greer plays Jennifer's polar opposite sister Ginger. Roger Christian's Battlefield Earth (May 12), based on the 1982 L. Ron Hubbard novel is a Dutch angle stinker starring John Travolta as Terl the Psychlo, Barry Pepper as human Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, and Forest Whitaker as Psychlo Ker; grosses $29.7M on a $44M budget; "One of the worst films ever made." Kinji Fukasaku's Battle Royale (Dec. 16) (Toei Co.) debuts, based on the 1996 novel by Koushun Takami is about a future Japan called the Repub. of Greater East Asia where each h.s. class is forced to bloodily fight to the last student, popularizing the term "battle royale"; banned in several countries, making it more popular?; makes a fan of Quentin Tarantino; does $26M box office on a $4.5M budget; followed by "Battle Royale II: Requiem" (2003). Danny Boyle's The Beach (Feb. 11), based on the 1996 novel by Alex Garland stars Leonardo DiCaprio as 24-y.-o. Am. man Richard, who obtains a map of a paradise in the Gulf of Thailand, and finds it, only to discover that it has mucho problems incl. sharks and AK-47-toting native marijuana farmers; Tilda Swinton plays leader Sal; does $144.1M box office on a $50M budget. Julian Schnabel's Before Night Falls (Jan. 26) stars Javier Bardem as Cuban poet Reinaldo Renas (1943-90). Christopher Guest's Best in Show (Sept. 29). is a mockumentary about a top dog show. Ben Younger's Boiler Room stars Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi, Ben Affleck et al. in a flick about high-pressure telephone con artists. Robert Iscove's Boys and Girls (June 16) (Miramax Films) stars Claire Forlani as Jennifer Burrows, and Freddie Prince Jr. as Ryan Walker, who meet at age 12, then again later in life, falling in love; "Opposites attack"; does $25.8M box office on a $35M budget. Robert Zemeckis' Cast Away (Dec. 22) (ImageMovers) (Playtone) (20th Cent. Fox) (DreamWorks Pictures), filmed on Monuriki Island in the Mamanuca Islands of Fiji stars Tom Hanks as marooned FedEx employee Chuck Noland, who plays Robinson Crusoe with a volleyball named Wilson for 1.5K days, then returns to the civilized world to find his wife Kelly Frears (Helen Hunt) married to another man; brings in $429.6M worldwide on a $90M budget; #2 movie of 2000 ($234M U.S. and $429.6M worldwide box office on a $90M budget). Lasse Hallstrom's Chocolat (Jan. 5) (Miramax Films), based on the 1999 Joanne Harris novel stars Juliette Binoche as young single mother Vianna Richer in the French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes, who opens La Chocolaterie Maya during Lent, pissing-off the mayor Comte de Reynaud (Alfred Molina); also stars Victoire Thivisol as Vianne's daughter Anouk, Judi Dench as Armande Voizin, Carrie-Anne Moss as Armande's daughtger Caroline Clairmont, Lena Olin as Josephine, and Johnny Depp as Traveller Roux; does $152.7M box office on a $25M budget. Rod Lurie's The Contender (Oct. 13) (DreamWorks) is a political drama starring Jeff Bridges as Dem. U.S. Pres. jackson Evans, Christian Slater as Dem. Del. Rep. Reginald Webster, Gary Oldman as Repub. Ill. Rep. Sheldon Runyon, Joan Allen as Repub.-turned-Dem. Ohio Sen. Laine Billings Hanson, who's been nominated for vice-pres. to break the glass ceiling; "Sometimes you can assassinate a leader without firing a shot." David McNally's Coyote Ugly (Aug. 4) (Touchstone Pictures), produced by Jerry Bruckheimer based on the 1997 Elizabeth M. Gilbert story stars Piper Perabo as cute innocent struggling songwriter Violet "Jersey" Sanford, who makes ends meet at the Coyote Ugly stripper saloon while trying to fool her daddy Billene (John Goodman) and courting Aussie hunk Kevin O'Donnell (Adam Garcia); Tyra Banks plays Zoe; Maria Bello plays owner Lil; Izabello Miko plays Cammie; does $114M box office on a $45M budget. Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wo Hu Cang Long) (July 6) (Production Asia) (Sony Pictures) stars Yun-Fat Chow (Taiwan) and Michelle Yeoh (Malaysia), and introduces Beijing-born Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi (1979-) on wires; it goes on to become the top-grossing foreign language film to date ($213.5M on a $17M budget); Zhang later approaches Steven Spielberg about starring in his "Memoirs of a Geisha", giving him the only line in English she knew: "Hire me!" Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark (May 17) (Angel Films) stars Icelandic singer Bjork as blind Czech immigrant to Wash. State Selma Jezkova, who is convicted of murder and sings in the gallows, Catherine Deneuve as her friend Kathy Cvalda (Czech. "chubby"), Peter Stormae as her beau Jeff, David Morse as town policeman Bill Houston, and Cara Seymour as his wife Linda; Joel Grey plays Oldrich Novy; Siobhan Fallon plays prison guard Brenda; does $45.6M box office on a $12.5M budget. Steven Soderbergh's Erin Brockovich (Mar. 17) (Universal Pictures) stars Julia Roberts as a govt. whistleblower who "brought a small town to its feet and a huge corporation to its knees" by helping atty. Edward L. Masry (Albert Finney) sue Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) (Poison the Ground and Evade Justice?) in Hinkley, Calif. and win a record judgment; does $256M box office on a $51M budget; her first Oscar nod was for "Steel Magnolias", but who remembers?; "I just went out there and performed sexual favors. Six hundred and thirty-four blow jobs in five days. I'm really quite tired." James Wong's Final Destination (Mar. 17) (Hard Eight Pictures) (New Line Cinema) debuts, starring Devon Sawa as h.s. student Alex Browning, who boards Volee Airlines Flight 180 with his classmates for a senior trip to Paris, and is plagued by premonitions that the plane will explode in mid-air and kill everybody aboard, starting a fight that gets him and several others removed before takeoff, after which the plane explodes on takeoff, killing all remaining passengers, causing the FBI to suspect Alex; meanwhile the survivors all meet their deaths so that Death can even the score; does $112.9M box office on a $23M budget, spawning sequels incl. "Final Destination 2" (2003), "Final Destination 3" (2006), "The Final Destination" (2009), and "Final Destination 5" (2011). Gus Van Sant's Finding Forrester (Dec. 19) stars Sean Connery as William Forrester, a famous writer who takes black writing talent Rob Brown (Jamal Wallace) under his wing to assuage white guilt? Ridley Scott's Gladiator (May 5), based on the 1958 Daniel P. Mannix novel "Those About to Die" stars Russell Crowe as Roman Gen. Maximus Decimus Meridius, who is on the wrong side after Marcus Arelius dies in 180 C.E., ends up a lowly gladiator, and overcomes his chicken limbs to outfight every gladiator in Rome incl. a chained tiger, while emperor Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) quakes in his purple toga, waiting for the inevitable overthrow attempt while doing what emperors do; #2 movie of 2000 ($216M U.S. and $460.5M global box office on a $103M budget); Connie Nielsen plays Commodus' scheming sister Lucilla, whom he has the hots for; animal trainer Randy Miller (1965-) wins the first-ever World Stunt Academy Award for his work with the "ferocious tigers" as Crowe's stunt double; too bad, on Apr. 22, 2008 his cousin Stephan Miller (1969-2008) is mauled to death by 700-lb. grizzly bear Rocky. James Ivory's and Ismail Merchant's The Golden Bowl (Sept. 13) (Lionsgate), based on the 1904 Henry James novel stars Jeremy Northam as Italian Prince Amerigo, who marries Maggie (Kate Beckinsale), daughter of U.S. billionaire Adam Verver (Nick Nolte), even though he really wants poor looker Charlotte Stant (Uma Thurman), but is hooked up by Maggie with her daddy; James Fox plays English col. Bob Assingham, and Anjelica Huston plays Fanny Assingham; does $5.7M box office on a $15M budget - meet Bob and Fanny Assingham? Dominic Sena's Gone in Sixty Seconds (June 9) stars Nicolas Cage as L.A. car thief Memphis Raines, who must steal 50 exotic cars in one night to save his brother Kip (Giovanni Ribisi) from Russian mob boss Raymond Calitri (Christopher Eccleston); also stars T.J. Cross as Mirror Man, and Angelina Jolie as Sara "Sway" Wayland; features the Moby song Flower ("Bring sally up/ And bring sally down/ Lift and squat/ Gotta tear the ground"). Michael Almereyda's Hamlet (Jan. 24), based on the Shakespeare play set in the modern surveillance society stars Ethan Hawke as film student Hamlet, Kyle MacLachlan as Denmark Corp. CEO Claudius, and Julia Stiles as Ophelia; does $2M box office. Stephen Frears' High Fidelity (Mar. 31) stars John Cusack as Rob, a record store owner who recounts his top five breakups. Paul Verhoeven's Hollow Man (Aug. 4) (Columbia Pictures), based on the 1897 H.G. Wells novel "The Invisible Man" stars Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Cane, a scientist who uses his serum to become invisible then slowly goes insane; also stars Elisabeth Shue as Dr. Linda McKay, and Josh Brolin as Dr. Matthew "Matt" Kensington; does $190.2M box office on a $95M budget. Ron Howard's How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Nov. 8) (Imagine Entertainment) (Universal Pictures), based on the 1957 Dr. Seuss children's book and narrated by Anthony Hopkins stars Jim Carrey as the Grinch, Taylor Momsen as Cindy Lou Who, and Jeffrey Tambor as Mayor Augustus May Who; Josh Ryan Evans plays the boy Grinch; does $345.1M box office on a $123M budget (#6 film of 2000). Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha's Ice Age (Mar. 15) is an animated flick set in 16K B.C.E., when animals could talk but humans couldn't; features the voices of John Leguizamo as Sid, Denis Leary as Diego, and Jack Black as Zeke. Hugh Hudson's I Dreamed of Africa (May 5), based on the book by Kuki Gallmann stars Kim Basinger as Kuki Gallmann, who survives a car crash, marries Paolo Gallmann (Vincent Perez), and moves to Kenya to start a cattle ranch, then leaves her alone for long periods to hunt and fish so she can face storms, lions, snakes, poachers and African tribes. Robert Redford's The Legend of Bagger Vance (Nov. 3), based on the 1995 book by Steven Pressfield stars Matt Damon as local Savannah, Ga. golf hero Rannulph Junuh (Matt Damon), who got messed up by WWI and lost his babe Adele Invergorden (Charlize Theron), until the Depression causes her to arrange a 1931 money match with him, Walter Hagen (Bruce Gill), and Bobby Jones (Joel Gretsch); too bad, he's lost his game, until mysterious caddy Bagger Vance (Will Smith) shows up; Jack Lemmon's final film; the whole thing is really about the Bhagavad Gita, with Vance as Bhagavan and Damon as Arunja? Volker Schlondorff's The Legend of Rita (Sept. 14) (Die Stille nach dem Schuss) stars Bibiana Beglau as a radical West German terrorist who tries to quit and settle in East Germany. Steven Brill's Little Nicky (Nov. 10) is an Adam Sandler vehicle, playing one of the three sons of Satan (Harvey Keitel) while accompanied by a talking bulldog and falling for mortal Patricia Arquette - snow's anywhere it's high? Amy Heckerling's Loser (July 21) stars Jason Biggs as a you know what, who gets the girl Dora Diamond (Mena Suvari). Gina Prince-Blythewood's Love & Basketball (Apr. 21), produced by Spike Lee is her dir. debut. Dominic Anciano and Ray Burdis' Love, Honour and Obey (Apr. 7) stars Johnny Lee Miller as a courier who asks his school friend Jude Law to help get him into the North London mob run by his uncle Ray Winstone, and ends up in a war with the South London mob. Sally Potter's The Man Who Cried (Sept. 22) stars Christina Ricci, who travels from Russia to the U.S. in search of her lost father Oleg Yankovsky, and falls for a gypsy on horseback. Robert De Niro's Meet the Parents (Oct. 6) stars Ben Stiller as male nurse Gaylord "Greg" Focker, who has to get through his fiance Dina's (Blythe Danner) nutty parents to marry her, esp. Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro); they get around censors by proving that there are really people named Focker in the phone book?; #7 movie of 2000 ($166M). Christopher Nolan's Memento (Oct. 11), based on the story "Memento Mori" by his brother Jonathan Nolan begins at the end and tells the story of Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) backwards, about a hunt for the man who killed his wife Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss) by a man who can't remember things so he writes them on his skin. The Farrelly Brothers' Me, Myself & Irene (June 23) stars Jim Carrey as nice guy cop Charlie Baileygates with a bad multiple personality disorder that turns him into Hank Evans; Renee Zellweger stars as his babe Irne P. Waters; Tony Cox stars as a hilarious black midget limo driver with a genius IQ. George Tillman Jr.'s Men of Honor (Nov. 10) tells the true story of Carl Brashear, the U.S. Navy's first black master diver in 1949, who has to get through Master Chief Sunday (Robert De Niro), who suprisingly turns into his best friend and advocate in a racist-but-forced-to-reform org. Donald Petrie's Miss Congeniality (Dec. 22) is a Sandra Bullock vehicle, as tomboy FBI agent Gracie Hart, who turns Eliza Doolittle with Michael Caine to go undercover at a beauty pageant, where dir. Candice Bergen and over-the-hill self-parodying TV host William Shatner provide a fakey conspiracy plot while she gets the guy, fellow FBI agent Benjamin Bratt; "Unpolished. Unkempt. Unleashed. Undercover." John Woo's Mission: Impossible II (M:i-2) (May 24) stars Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt again; #3 movie of 2000 ($215M). Brian De Palma's Mission to Mars (Mar. 10) stars Gary Sinise, Tom Robbins, Don Cheadle, Jerry O'Connell, and Connie Nielsen, who have a bad trip there followed by an alien-boosted one back. Joel Coen's and Ethan Coen's O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Dec. 22) (Touchstone Pictures), based on Homer's poem "The Odyssey", set in 1937 Mississippi and satirizing the 1941 Preston Sturges flick "Sullivan's Travels" stars George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson as escaped chained cons Everett Ulysses McGill, Pete Hogwallop, and Delmar O'Donnell, who are looking for a buried $1.2M bank heist loot before a flood washes it away, while singing with the Soggy Bottom Boys; John Goodman plays 1-eyed Bible salesman Daniel "Big Dan" Teague (Polyphemus), and Holly Hunter plays Penny (Penelope). Roland Emmerich's The Patriot (June 28) (Columbia Pictures) stars Mel Gibson as S.C. farmer Benjamin Martin, who votes against S.C. joining the Am. Rev. only to see his son Gabriel (Heath Ledger) join the Am. rebels, bringing mean British Col. William Tavington (Jason Isaacs) down on him hard enough to turn rebel himself, becoming known as the Ghost; Heath Ledger plays Martin's eldest son Gabriel; Joely Richardson plays his sister-in-law Charlotte; Tom Wilkinson plays Lord Cornwallis; Adam plays loyalist Capt. James Wilkins; Rene Auberjonois plays Rev. Oliver; does $215.3M box office on a $110M budget. Wolfgang Petersen's The Perfect Storm (June 30), based on the book by Sebastian Junger about the fall 1991 North Atlantic incident with the Andrea Gail stars George Clooney as Bill Tyne, Mark Wahlberg as Bobby Shatford, Diane Lane as Christina Cotter, and John C. Reilly as Dale "Murph" Murphy; #6 movie of 2000 ($183M). David Twohy's Pitch Black (Feb. 18) (Gramercy Pictures) stars Vin Diesel as dangerous con Richard B. Riddick, whose prison spaceship crashes on a desert planet, allowing him to escape until he sees the survivors attacked by alien creatures, causing him to turn hero; followed by "The Chronicles of Riddick" (2004); does $53.2M box office on a $23M budget. Steve Purcell's The Queens of Comedy (Jan. 27) stars Adele Givens, Laura Hayes, Mo'Nique and Sommore as black comedians playing themselves. Philip Kaufman's Quills (Dec. 15) stars Geoffrey Rush as the Marquis de Sade. Anthony Hoffman's Red Planet (Nov. 10) (Village Roadshow Pictures) (Warner Bros.) stars Carrie-Anne Moss as sex tease astronaut Cmdr. Kate Bowman going to terraforming Mars with Robby Gallagher (Val Kilmer), Lt. Ted Santen (Benjamin Bratt), Dr. Quinn Burchenal (Tom Sizemore), Dr. Bud Chantilas (Terence Stamp), and Chip Pettengil (Simon Baker), where a robot named AMEE goes badass on them and the lunatics take over the asylum; does $33.5M box office on an $80M budget. Howard Deutch's The Replacements (Aug. 11) (Warner Bros.), about replacement players during an NFL strike who only have to win 3 of 4 to go to the playoffs stars Keanu Reeves as QB Shane Falco, Gene Hackman as the coach Jimmy McGinty, and Brooke Langton (real-life cheerleader for the Washington Sentinels) as Falco's cheerleader babe Annabelle Farrell.; does $50.1M box office on a $50M budget. Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream (May 14) (Thousand Words) (Protozoa Pictures) (Artisan Entertainment) , based on the 1978 novel by Hubert Selby Jr. stars Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Marlon Wayans, and Jennifer Connolly in an exploration of addiction; does $7.4M box office on a $4.5M budget; the first film by Thousands Words film co. William Friedkin's Rules of Engagement (Mar. 31) stars Tommy Lee Jones as Col. Hayes "Hodge" Hodges, who has to defend Marine Col. Terry L. Childers (Samuel L. Jackson) for ordering his troops to fire on civilians who stormed a U.S. embassy in some Muslim country, showing even Muslim girls wielding guns against infidels to make him look good. Keenen Ivory Wayans' Scary Movie (July 7) is a parady of 1990s films; #9 movie of 2000 ($157M in the U.S., grossing $278M worldwide on a $19M budget, becoming the highest-grossing film dir. by an African-Am. until ?; spawns sequels "Scary Movie 2" (2001) ("We lied"), "Scary Movie 3" (2003), Scary Movie 4 (2006); "No mercy. No shame. No sequel." Jonathan Glazer's Sexy Beast (Sept. 13) (Film Four) (Fox Searchlight Pictures) star Ray Winstone as safecracker Gary "Gal" Dove, who is released from priz after nine years and moves to Spain with his new ex-ho wife DeeDee Dove (Amanda Redman) to enjoy the retired life, only to be followed by London underworld recruiter Don Logan (Ben Kingsley), who drags him back into the mess along with crime lord Teddy Bass (Ian McShane) and bisexual banker Harry (James Fox); does £31.76M box office on a £4.M budget; Glazer's dir. debut. Tom Dey's Shanhai Noon (May 26) (Touchstone Pictures) stars Jackie Chang as Chinese imperial guard Chon Wang (homophone of John Wayne), and Owen Wilson as Ray O'Bannon (Wyatt Earp) in a spoof of Am. Westerns and buddy cop films; filmed in Alberta, Canada; of does $99.3M box office on a $55M budget; Dey's dir. debut; followed by "Shanghai Knights" (2003), dir. by David Dobkin. Guy Ritchie's Snatch (Aug. 23) (SKA Films) (Columbia Pictures) (Screen Gems) is an attempt to channel Quentin Tarantino with a Cockney accent, complete with an intricate double plot featuring numerous ironic plot twists, starring Benicio del Toro as gambler-thief Franky "Four-Fingers", who steals an 86-carat diamond in Antwerp and goes to London to see fence Doug "the Head" on behalf of New York City gangster Abraham Denovitz (Dennis Farina); meanwhile boxing promoter Turkish talks gangster Brick Top into putting boxer Gorgeous George in a match with One Punch Mickey "Pikey" O'Neill (Brad Pitt), who is paid to throw the fight but KOs his opponent with one punch; also Rade Serbedzija as arms dealer Boris "the Blade" Yurinov, and Vinnie Jones as bounty hunter Bullet-Tooth Tony; "Now, dicks have drive and clarity of vision, but they are not clever. They smell pussy and they want a piece of the action. And you thought you smelled some good old pussy, and have brought your two little mincey faggot balls along for a good old time. But you've got your parties muddled up. There's no pussy here, just a dose that'll make you wish you were born a woman. Like a prick, you are having second thoughts. You are shrinking, and your two little balls are shrinking with you. And the fact that you've got 'Replica' written down the side of your guns"; does $83.6M box office on a $10M budget. Maggie Greenwald's Songcatcher (Jan. 25) (Lionsgate Pictures) stars Janet McTeer as early 1900s Am. musicologist Lily Penleric (based on folklorist Olive Dame Campbell), who visits the Appalachians to collect folk songs, hooking up with stud musician Tom Bledsoe (Aidan Quinn); Steve Sutherland plays English folklorist Cecil Sharp; soundtrack features Fair and Tender Ladies by Rosanne Cash, Pretty Saro by Iris DeMent, Barbara Allen by Emmy Rossum, Barbara Allen by Emmylou Harris, Mary of the Wild Moor by Sara Evans, Wind and Rain by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, and The Cuckoo Bird by Deana Carter, Conversation with Death by Hazel Dickens; does $3M box office on a $1.8M budget. Clint Eastwood's Space Cowboys (Aug. 4) stars Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, and James Garner as old fart NASA engineers called back for one last space mission to rescue an obsolete Russian satellite that only they can understand, after which it is revealed that they really don't but just want an excuse to go into space after their original astronaut hopes as part of Air Force project DAEDALUS were ruined in 1958 by the creation of NASA and its apenauts. Roger Donaldson's Thirteen Days (Dec. 25) (Beacon Pictures) (New Line Cinema), based on "The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis" by Ernest May and Philip Zelikow stars Bruce Greenwood as Pres. Kennedy, Steven Culp as his brother Bobby, Dylan Baker as U.S. defense secy. Robert McNamara, and Kevin Costner as JFK's political adviser Kenneth Patrick "Kenny" O'Donnell; does $66.6M box office on an $80M budget. Corey Yuen's The Transporter (Oct. 11) stars Jason Statham as Frank Martin, a man whose job is to deliver packages without asking questions. Andre van Heerden's Tribulation (Jan. 14) stars Gary Busey as cop Tom Canboro, Margot Kidder as his sister Eileen, Joseph Ziegler and as his brother Calvin, who experience the End of Days complete with Antichrist Franco Maclousso (Nick Mancuso); Howie Mandel plays Tom's crazy brother-in-law Jason Quincy. Anh Hung Tran's The Vertical Ray of Sun (May 24) is a plotless visual feast about the Vietnamese summer. Robert Zemeckis' What Lies Beneath (July 21) stars Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford as a couple with a haunted house on their hands. Nancy Meyers' What Women Want (Dec. 15) stars hunk Mel Gibson as ad agency star Nick Marshall, who has an accident that lets him magically read women's minds, and uses it to steal the ideas of his new boss Darcy McGuire (Helen Hunt) and have perfect sex with Lola (Marisa Tomei); Alan Alda plays Dan Wanamaker; Bette Midler plays Gibson's pot-smoking therapist, who utters the soundbyte "You know, Freud died at age 83 still asking one question: What do women want?"; #5 movie of 2000 ($183M on a $70M budget). Marek Kanievska's Where the Money Is (May 31) stars Paul Newman, Linda Fiorentino, and Dermot Mulroney in a plot about a mobster faking a stroke to get out of priz, being found out by the nurse and her hubby, and planning a heist with them. Kathryn Bigelow's The Weight of Water (Sept. 90 (Lions Gate Films), based on the 1997 Anita Shreve notel stars Catherine McCormack as newspaper photographer Jean Janes, Sean Penn as her poet hubby Thomas, Josh Lucas as his brother Rich, and Elizabeth Hurley as his teasing topless girlfriend Adaline, who take their yacht to Smuttynose Island in the Gulf of Maine to investigate the 1873 Smuttynose murders of two immigrant women by Louis Wagner (Ciaran Hands), and come upon the truth about lone survivor Maren Hontvedt (Sarah Polley); big bomb, doing only $322K box office on a $16M budget. Bryan Singer's X-Men (July 14), based on the Marvel Comics series about a world where there's two kinds of people, normal and mutant, stars Patrick Stewart as X-Men leader Prof. Charles Xavier, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, James Marsden as Cyclops, Halle Berry as Storm, Anna Paquin as Rogue, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, and Ian McKellen and Ray Park as bad guys Magneto and Toad; #8 movie of 2000 ($157M). James Gray's The Yards (Oct. 12) (Miramax Films), about the commuter rail yards in Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn where contractors sabotage each other's work for the Transit Authority stars Mark Wahlberg as new parolee Leo Handler, Ellen Burstyn as his mother Val, Charlize Theron as his cousin Erica, Joaquin Phoenix as her beau Willie Gutierrez, and James Caan as Erica' stepfather Frank Olchin does $889K box office on a $24M budget. Edward Yang's Yi Yi (A One and a Two) (Sept. 20) stars Wu Nienjen and Jonathan Chang as members of a family in Taipei who ask life's hard questions. Kenneth Lonergan's You Can Count on Me (Nov. 16) stars Laura Linney as a single mom living in the Catskills, Matthew Broderick as her beau, and Mark Ruffalo as her wayward half-brother, who helps her son Rudy (Rory Culkin) come to terms. Plays: Peter Ackroyd (1949-), The Mystery of Charles Dickens (first play). David Auburn (1970-), Proof (Walter Kerr Theatre, New York) (Oct. 24) (917 perf.) (Pulitzer Prize); stars Mary-Louise Parker, Ben Shankman, and Larry Bryggman in a play about math whizzes Robert Llewelyn, his daughter Catherine, and his ex-student Harold "Hal" Dobbs at the U. of Chicago chasing a revolutionary new proof about prime numbers; filmed in 2005. Alan Ayckbourn (1939-), Virtual Reality; Whenever. The Pet Shop Boys and Jonathon Harvey, Closer to Heaven (musical) (May 31) (Arts Theatre, London). Howard Brenton (1942-), Kit's Play (Jerwood Theatre). Howard Brenton (1942-) and Tariq Ali (1943-), Snogging Ken (Almeida Theatre). Charles Busch (1954-), The Tale of the Allergist's Wife (Ethel Barrymore Theater, New York) (Nov. 2); stars Linda Lavin, Tony Roberts, and Michele Lee. Caryl Churchill (1938-), Far Away (Nov. 30) (Donmar Theatre, London); Harper, Joan, and Todd. Timothy Findley (1930-2002), Elizabeth Rex (Stratford Festival, Canada); Queen Elizabeth I hooks up with actor Ned Lownscroft, who specializes in women's roles, with Liz uttering the gag-me-with-a-spoon soundbyte "If you will teach me how to be a woman, I'll teach you how to be a man"; stars Diane D'Aquila and Brent Carver. Maria Irene Fornes (1930-), Letters from Cuba. Michael Frayn (1933-), Plays: Three. Christopher Fry (1907-2005), A Ringing of Bells (last play) (Bedford Modern School). Pam Gems (1925-), Garibaldi, Si! Rebecca Gilman, Boy Gets Girl (Goodman Theatre, Chicago); a blind date turns into a nightmare. Simon Gray (1936-2008), Japes (Mercury Theatre, London). John Guare (1938-), Lydie Breeze (May 15) (New York); stars Elizabeth Marvel, Boris McGiver, Bill Camp, Matt Servito, and Joanna P. Adler. Stephen Adly Guirgis, Jesus Hopped The 'A' Train (New York); dir. by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Davie Hare (1947-), My Zinc Bed (Sept. 14) (Royal Court Theatre, London); stars Steven Mackintosh, Tom Wilkinson, and Julia Ormond in a play about drug addiction and the need for love. Beth Henley (1952-), Family Week. Dusty Hughes, Helpless (Donmare Warehouse, London) (Mar. 2); the landslide victory of Tony Blair in 1997. Elton John (1947-), David Henry Hwang (1957-), Tim Rice (1944-), Linda Woolverton, and Robert Falls (1954-), Aida (The Timeless Love Story) (musical) (Mar. 23) (Palace Theatre, New York) (1,852 perf.); based on the 1871 Verdi opera, and a children's storybook version by Leontyne Price, acquired by the Walt Disney Co. in 1994 and originally intended for an animated feature film; stars Heather Headley (1974-) as Aida, Adam Pascal as Radames, and Shere Rene Scott as Amneris; features the song Written in the Stars, sung by Elton John and LeAnn Rimes (#2 in the U.S.). Charlotte Jones, In Flame (Bush Theatre, London). Arthur Kopit (1937-), Y2K. James Lapine (1949-), The Moment When. Torgny Lindgren, Light (Oct. 31) (Almeida Theatre, London). David Lindsay-Abaire, Wonder of the World (Theatre Club, Manhattan); stars Sarah Jessica Parker as a wife who leaves her husband and takes a bus to Niagara Falls. Brian Lipson, A Large Attendance in the Antechamber (Melbourne); about English eugenics founder Francis Galton. David Mamet (1947-), State and Main; S&M? Donald Margulies, Dinner with Friends (Pulitzer Prize). Frank McGuinness (1953-), Greta Garbo Came to Donegal (Tricycle Thetre, London). Mark Medoff (1940-), Tommy J and Sallyh. Charles L. Mee, Big Love (Louisville, Ky.); based on Aeschylus' "The Supplicants". Jason Miller (1939-2001), Barrymore's Ghost. Gary Mitchell, Force of Change (Nov. 8) (Royal Court Theatre, London). Jimmy Murphy, The Kings of the Kilburn High Road (Garter Lane Theatre, Waterford, Ireland). Richard Nelson, Madame Melville (Vaudeville Theatre, London); student Carl (Macaulay Culkin) hooks with with teacher Claudie (Irene Jacob). Nick Nicholas and Andrew Strader, Hamlet Prince of Denmark: The Restored Klingon Version (Feb.); yes, Shakespeare reaches the Klingon Empire ;) Joe Penhall, Blue/Orange (Nat. Theatre, London) (Apr.); stars Bill Nighy, Andrew Lincoln, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Austin Pendleton, Orson's Shadow (Steppenwolf Theate, Chicago) (Jan.); about Orson Welles; runs off-Broadway in 2005 for 349 perf. Harold Pinter (1930-2008), Remembrance of Things Past (Nat. Theatre, London) (Nov. 23); based on the 7-vol. Marcel Proust novel. Yasmina Reza, Conversations after a Burial (Sept. 13) (Almeida Theatre, London); stars Claire Bloom; trans. from the French by Christopher Hampton. Claudia Shear, Dirty Blonde (Helen Hayes Theater, New York) (May 1) (352 perf.); about Mae West. Donald R. Seawell brings the Royal Shakespeare Co.'s 10-hour epic Trojan War cycle Tantalus to Denver, Colo. with $8M of his own money, becoming the largest theater project in history; in 2002 Queen Elizabeth II confers the Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire on him, and RSC pres. Prince Charles congratulates him. Judith Thompson, Perfect Pie (Tarragon Theatre, Toronto). Derek Walcott (1930-), Walker and the Ghost Dance. Wendy Wasserstein (1950-2006), Old Money (Nov. 9) (Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, New York); stars John Cullum, Mary Beth Hurt. Andrew Lloyd Webber (1948-) and Ben Elton, Beautiful Game (musical) (Cambridge Theatre, London) (Sept. 26). Guo Wejing, Diana Liao and Xu Ying, Poet Li Bai (opera) (July 6) (Central City Opera, Colo.); the Tang poet and his muse Poetry tussle with two competing muses who take on the bodily forms of Moon and Wine. Nick Whitby, To the Green Fields Beyond (Sept. 25) (Donmar Theatre, London); a WWI tank crew. Hugh Whitemore (1936-), God Only Knows (Nov.) (Vaudeville Theatre, London); stars Derek Jacobi. Timothy Williams and Andrew Sabiston (1965-), Napoleon the Musical (musical) (Shaftesbury Theatre, London) (Nov. 22). David Williamson (1942-), Up for Grabs; the sex-drenched dot com boomb internat. art market of the 1990s; the London West End version stars Madonna, guaranteeing a flop? August Wilson (1945-2005), Jitney (Sept. 19) (Union Square Theater, New York). David Henry Wilson (1937-), People in Cages. Lanford Wilson (1937-), Book of Days. Robert Wilson (1941-) and Tzimon Barto, Hot Water. Robert Wilson (1941-) and Lou Reed (1942-), POEtry. Poetry: John Ash (1948-), The Anatolikon. Andrei Codrescu (1946-), Selected Poetry. Billy Collins (1941-), Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes. Stephen Dunn (1939-), Different Hours. George Fetherling (1949-), Madagasca. Jorie Graham (1950-), Swarm. Thom Gunn (1929-2004), Boss Cupid. Marilyn Hacker (1942-), Squares and Courtyards. Michael S. Harper (1938-), Songlinesin Michaeltree: New and Collected Poems. Seamus Heaney (1939-), Beowulf: A New Translation; modern retelling. Carolyn Kizer (1925-), Pro Femina. Bill Knott (1940-), Laugh at the End of the World: Collected Comic Poems 1969-1999. Ted Kooser (1939-), Winter Morning Walks: One Hundred Postcards to Jim Harrison. Stanley Jasspon Kunitz (1905-2006), Collected Poems; becomes U.S. poet laureate in Oct. Denise Levertov (1923-97), The Great Unknowing: Last Poems (posth.). Larry Levis (1946-96), The Selected Levis (posth.). Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004), To It. Mary Oliver (1935-), The Leaf and the Cloud: A Poem. Grace Paley (1922-2007), Begin Again: Collected Poems. Robert Pinsky (1940-), Jersey Rain. Stanley Plumly (1939-), Now That My Father Lies Down Beside Me: New and Selected Poems, 1970-2000. Kathleen Raine (1908-2003), Collected Poems. Sonia Sanchez (1934-), Shake Loose My Skin. Peter Dale Scott (1929-), Mending the Darkness: A Poem for the Year 2000. Dave Smith (1942-), The Wick of Memory: New and Selected Poems, 1970-2000. Gerald Stern (1925-), Last Blue. Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012), Moment. Henry S. Taylor (1942-), Brief Candles: 101 Clerihews. Donald Michael Thomas (1935-), Flight and Smoke. Judith Viorst (1931-), Suddenly Sixty; incl. "It's Harder to be Frisky Over Sixty". Derek Walcott (1930-), Tiepolo's Hound. Richard Wilbur (1921-2007), Mayflies: New Poems and Translations (Apr. 4); incl. "A Barred Owl", "At Moorditch"; "Crows' Nest", "The Pleasing, Anxious Being"; "For C." ("A passion joined to courtesy and art/ Which has the quality of something made/ Like a good fiddle, like the rose's scent,/ Like a rows window or the firmament"); Mayflies; "Watching those lifelong dancers of a day/ As night closed, I felt myself alone/ In a life too much my own./ More mortal in my separateness than they - / Unless, I thought, I had been called to be/ Not fly or star/ But one whose task is joyfully to see/ How fair the fiats of the caller are." Charles Kenneth Williams, Misgivings: My Father, My Mother, Myself. Charles Wright (1935-), Negative Blue. Jay Wright (1934-), Transfigurations: Collected Poems. Novels: Alice Adams (1926-99), After the War (posth.); 11th and last novel. Isabel Allende (1942-), Portrait in Sepia. Poul Anderson (1926-2001), Genesis. Kate Atkinson (1951-), Emotionally Weird. Margaret Atwood (1939-), The Blind Assassin (Booker Prize) (Hammett Prize); sisters Iris and Laura Chase of Southern Ont. and their sci-fi novelist friend Alex Thomas. Louis Auchincloss (1917-), Her Infinite Variety; a career woman in the early 20th cent. Trezza Azzopardi, The Hiding Place (first novel. Richard Bach (1936-), Out of My Mind. J.G. Ballard (1930-2009), Super-Cannes; sequel to "Cocaine Night" (1998). Super-Cannes. Melissa Bank, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing; Jane Rosenthal. Russell Banks (1940-), The Angel on the Roof (short stories). Muriel Barbery (1969-), Une Gourmandise (first novel); English trans. "Gourmet Rhapsody" pub. in 2009. Julian Barnes (1946-), Love, Etc. Frederick Barthelme (1943-), The Law of Averages (short stories). Ann Beattie (1947-), Perfect Recall (short stories). Madison Smartt Bell, Master of the Crossroads; Toussaint L'Ouverture. Saul Bellow (1915-2005), Ravelstein; Abe Ravelstein AKA Allan Bloom. Wendell Berry (1934-), Jayber Crow. Maeve Binchy (1940-), Scarlet Feather. Marie-Claire Blais (1939-), The Exile and the Sacred Travellers. T. Coraghessan Boyle (1948-), A Friend of the Earth. Barbara Taylor Bradford (1933-), Where You Belong. David Jay Brown, Virus: The Alien Strain (May 9); a kissing-transmitted hallucinogenic virus unleashed by twisted ETs. Dan Brown (1964-), Angels and Demons; about how the Illuminati are real and out ta getchya, introducing Harvard U. prof. Robert Langdon; filmed in 2009. Rita Mae Brown (1944-), Loose Lips; Outfoxed; Sister Jane Arnold and her fox hunting club in Va. James Lee Burke (1936-), Purple Cane Road. Augusten Burroughs (1965-), Sellevision (first novel). Robert Olen Butler (1945-), Mr. Spaceman. Meg Cabot (1967-), The Princess Diaries (Oct.); first in a series; Mia Thermopolis; filmed in 2001 by Garry Marshall. Paul Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang. John le Carre (1931-), The Constant Gardener. Michael Chabon (1963-), The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (Pulitzer Prize). Tracy Chevalier (1962-), Girl with a Pearl Earring; the 1665 Rembrandt painting. Deepak Chopra (1946-), The Angel is Near. Mary Higgins Clark (1927-), Before I Say Good-Bye. Mary Higgins Clark (1927-) and Carol Higgins Clark (1956-), The Christmas Thief. Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio (1940-), Ghosts in the Street (Fantômes dans la Rue); about Renault. Paul Coelho (1947-), The Devil and Miss Prym. Jackie Collins (1937-), Lethal Seduction; Madison Castelli. Evan S. Connell Jr. (1924-), Deus Lo Volt. Robin Cook (1940-), Abduction. Catherine Cookson (1906-98), A House Divided; Rosie of the River (posth.). Stephen Coonts (1946-), Hong Kong; Rear Adm. Jake Grafton #8. Mitch Cullin (1968-), Branches (verse novel); Tideland. Claire Davis, Winter Range (first novel). Kate DiCamillo (1964-), Because of Winn-Dixie. E.L. Doctorow (1931-), City of God. Roddy Doyle (1958-), The Dead Republic; #3 in the Last Roundup Trilogy (begun 1999). David Ebershoff, The Danish Girl; about Lili Elbe, one of the first to undergo sex reassignment surgery, Danish girl Gerda Wegener, and her wife Greta Waud from Pasadena, Calif. filmed in 2015. Howard Fast (1914-2003), Greenwich. Penelope Fitzgerald (1916-2000), The Means of Escape (short stories). Ken Follett (1949-), Code to Zero. Nicolas Freeling (1927-2003), The Janeites. Esther Freud (1963-), The Wild. Cornelia Funke (1958-), The Thief Lord; NYT bestseller. Alan Furst (1941-), Kingdom of Shadows; Night Soldiers #6. Barry Gifford (1946-), Wyoming. Elizabeth M. Gilbert (1969-), Stern Men. Bee Season. Rebecca Goldstein (1950-), Properties of Light. Joe Gores (1931-), Stakeout on Page Street and Other DKA Files. Lauren Groff (1978-), The Monsters of Templeton (first novel). Jane Hamilton (1957-), Disobedience. Peter Handke (1942-), Crossing the Sierra de Gredos. Everette Lynn Harris (1955-2009), Abide With Me; Not a Day Goes By; Money Can't Buy Me Love. Jim Harrison (1937-), The Beast God Forgot to Invent. Ken Haruf, Where You Once Belonged. Joseph Heller (1923-99), Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man (posth.) (last novel); semi-autobio. novel about old fart writer Eugene Pota, who tries to write a final novel. George V. Higgins (1939-99), At End of Day (posth.). Alice Hoffman (1952-), The River King. Nick Hornby (ed.), Speaking with the Angel (short stories); proceeds donated to TreeHouse for autistic children in London. Michel Houellebecq (1958-), Lanzarote; Platform (Platforme). Josephine Humphreys (1945-), Nowhere Else on Earth. Raj Kamal Jha (1965-), The Blue Bedspread (first novel); brother-sister incest. Ha Jin (1956-), The Bridegroom (short stories). Molly Jong-Fast (1978-), Normal Girl (first novel); daughter of Erica Jong. Denis Johnson (1949-), The Name of the World. Kaylie Jones (1960-), Celeste Ascending (Apr.); Celeste deals with alcoholism. Ismail Kadare (1936-), Spring Flowers, Spring Frost. Thomas Keneally (1935-), Bettany's Book. Elias Khoury (1948-), Ra'ihat al-Sabun. Stephen King (1947-), Riding the Bullet (Mar. 14); The Plant (July). Matthew Kneale (1960-), English Passengers; in 1857 Rev. Geoffrey Wilson sets out for Tasmania to locate the Garden of Eden and prove Darwin's theory of evolution false - did you ever study Blackjack? Milan Kundera (1929-), Ignorance. Anne Lamott (1954-), Blue Shoe. Jeffrey Lent, In the Fall (first novel). Elmore Leonard (1925-2013), Pagan Babies. Jonathan Lethem (1964-), This Shape We're In. Yiyun Li, The Vagrants (first novel); 28-y.-o. counterrevolutionary Gu Shan is set for execution on Mar. 21, 1979. Mario Vargas Llosa (1936-), The Feast of the Goat. Steve Martin (1945-), Shopgirl (first novel) (Oct. 11); Vt.-raised Mirabelle Buttersfield sells expensive evening gloves at Nieman Marcus in Beverly Hill chases Seattle millionaire Ray Porter while being chased by slacker Jeremy; filmed in 2005. Armistead Jones Maupin Jr. (1944-), The Night Listener; roman a clef based about NYC gay radio host Gabriel Noone and an abused 14-y.-o. teenager, based on the real life story of Anthony Godby Johnson, author of the hoax book "A Rock and a Hard Place: One Boy's Triumphant Story"; filmed in 2006 starring Robin Williams. Colleen McCullough (1937-), Morgan's Run (Aug. 31); an English prisoner in an 18th cent. penal colony on Norfolk Island, Australia. Ian McEwan (1948-), Atonement; 13-y.-o. fledgling playwright Briony Tallis gets jealous of her older sister Cecilia and accuses her beau Robbie Turner of a crime he didn't commit, messing up all their lives; filmed in 2007. Larry McMurtry (1936-), Boone's Lick. Stanley Middleton (1919-2009), Small Change. Elsa Morante (1912-85), Forgotten Stories (posth.). David Morrell (1943-), Burnt Sienna. Mary McGarry Morris (1943-), Fiona Range. Joyce Carol Oates (1938-), Blonde; the inner life of Norma Jean Baker AKA Marilyn Monroe (1926-62). Edna O'Brien (1930-), In the Forest; Michen O'Kane. Michael Ondaatje (1943-), Anil's Ghost; Anil Tissera in the the 1980s-90s Sri Lankan war. Robert Brown Parker (1932-2010), Perish Twice; Sunny Randall #2; Hugger Mugger; Spenser #27. James Patterson (1947-), Along Came a Spider. Jayne Anne Phillips (1952-), MotherKind. Jodi Picoult (1966-), Plain Truth. Mark Jude Poirier, Goats; "Girls, ganga and goat-trekking"; filmed in 2011. Stanley Pottinger, A Slow Burning. Richard Powers (1957-), Plowing the Dark. Steven Pressfield (1943-), Tides of War: A Novel of Alcibiades and the Pelopponesian War. Francine Prose (1947-), Blue Angel; satire of PC Puritanism on campus. Philip Pullman (1946-), The Amber Spyglass; #3 of the Dark Materials trilogy. James Purdy (1914-2009), Moe's Villa and Other Stories. Mario Puzo (1920-99), Omerta; #4 and last in the Godfather saga. Anne Rice (1941-), Merrick (Oct. 17); #7 in the Vampire Chronicles (1976); vampires Louis, Lestat, and David meet beautiful witch Merrick Mayfair, asking help to contact Claudia's ghost Angelo Rinaldi (1940-), Tout ce que je Sais de Marie. Harold Robbins (1916-97), The Secret (posth.). Philip Roth (1933-2018), The Human Stain (May); bestseller about 65-y.-o. Nathan Zuckerman observing retired classics prof. Coleman Silk in 1998 during the Monica Lewinsky affair and PC-think in the Academy; filmed in 2003. J.K. Rowling (1965-), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (July 8); record U.S. first printing of 3.8M copies; causes the New York Times Book Review to set up a children's book bestseller list on July 16 to shunt her off? Willy Russell (1947-), The Wrong Boy (first novel); 19-y.-o. Raymond Marks from Manchester writes to his hero Morrissey. Rafael Sabatini (1875-1950), The Outlaws of Falkensteig (short stories) (posth.). Boualem Sansal (1949-), L'Enfant fou de l'Arbre Creux. Karl Schroeder (1962-), Ventus. Jeffrey Shaara (1952-), Gone for Soldiers; the U.S.-Mexican War of 1847-8. Jeffrey Shaara (1952-) and Michael Shaara (1928-88) (posth.), The Last Full Measure David Shannon, The Rain Came Down and How Georgie Radbourn Saved Baseball. Anne Rivers Siddons (1936-), Nora, Nora. Daniel Silva, The Kill Artist; art restoration slash secret agent Gabriel Allon. Dan Simmons (1948-), Darwin's Blade. Mona Simpson (1957-), Off Keck Road; three Midwest women. Jane Smiley (1949-), Horse Heaven. Zadie Smith (1975-), White Teeth (first novel); the racially-mixed new white-isn't-right England. Lemony Snicket (1970-), The Wide Window, The Miserable Mill, and The Austere Academy; illustrations by Bret Helquist. Susan Sontag (1933-2004), In America; 19th cent. Polish actress Helena Modjeska. Gary Soto (1952-), Nickel and Dime; Baseball in April. Muriel Spark (1918-2006), Aiding and Abetting. Nicholas Sparks (1965-), The Rescue (Sept.). Danielle Steel (1947-), The Wedding; The House on Hope Street; Journey. Neal Town Stephenson (1959-), Quicksilver; #1 in the Baroque Cycle. Ronald Sukenick (1932-2004), Narralogue: Truth in Fiction. Manil Suri, The Death of Vishnu. Donald Michael Thomas (1935-), Charlotte. Omar Tyree, For the Love of Money. Gore Vidal (1925-2012), The Golden Age; 7th and last in his Empire series. Richard Vinen, A History in Fragments: Europe in the Twentieth Century. Alan Wall, The School of Night; the Shakespeare authorship controversy. James Welch (1940-2003), The Heartsong of Charging Elk. Fay Weldon (1931-), Rhode Island Blues. Paul West (1930-), Cheops: A Cupboard for the Sun. Edmund White (1940-), The Married Man; gay-themed. T.L. Winslow (TLW) (1953-), Falling Off Point Mugu (how an airplane crash convolves with the crash of the mighty U.S.); Baby Boom Morticians (the ultimate end of U.S. Baby Boomers); Salvation Day: The Immortality Device (the truth about the Shroud of Turin); Rock and Roll Corerunner (the face of war in the 22nd cent.); The Ice Cream Man (an Am. ice cream truck driver's big summer). John Updike (1932-2009), Gertrude and Claudius; a prequel to Shakespeare's "Hamlet". Stuart Woods, L.A. Woods; NYT bestseller about ex-cop atty. Stone Barrington in Sin City L.A. Births: Am. "Make Me (Cry)", "Stay Together" singer-actress Noah Lindsey Cyrus on Jan. 8 in Nashville, Tenn.; daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus (1961-); sister of Trace Cyrus (1989-) and Miley Cyrus (1992-). Am. "Russell in Up" actor Jordan Nagai on Feb. 5 in Los Angeles, Calif. Am. "Zoey in Black-ish" actress (black) Yara Sayeh Shahidi on Feb. 10 in Minneapolis, Minn.; Iranian father, African-Am. mother; sister of Sayeed Shahidi (2003-); grows up in Calif. Indian Miss Universe 2021 Harnaaz Kaur Sandhu on Mar. 3 in Gurdaspur (near Batala), Punjab; Jat Sikh family. English "Bethany Britney Platt" in Coronation Street" actresses Amy and Emily Walton on Mar. 15. Canadian "Liesel Meminger in The Book Thief" actress Sophie Nelisse (Nélisse) on Mar. 27 in Windsor, Ont.; of French-Canadian descent; grows up in Montreal, Quebec. Am. soprano Jacqueline Marie "Jackie" Evancho on Apr. 9 in Pittsburgh, Penn. Am. 5'2" snowboarder Chloe Kim on Apr. 23 in Long Beach, Calif.; grows up in Torrance, Calif. South Korean immigrant parents. Am. environmental activist Xiuhtezcatl (pr. shu-TEZ-caht) Martinez (Roske-Martinez) on May 9. Canadian 5'7" tennis player (first Canadian to win a Grand Slam singles title, 2019) Bianca Vanessa Andreescu on June 16 in Mississauga, Ont. Am. 5'5" Olympic slopestyle snowboarder Redmond "Red Boy" Gerard on June 29 in Westlake, Ohio; first U.S. gold medalist in the 2018 Winter Olympics; first Olympic gold medalist born after 2000. Am. 6'7" basketball forward (New Orleans Pelicans #1, 2019-) Zion Lateef Williamson on July 6 in Salisbury, N.C.; educated at Duke U. Am. singer-songwriter Maya Bond on Aug. 5 in Osaka, Japan. Spanish royal brat (Roman Catholic) Victoria Federica de Todos los Santos de Marichalar y de Borbon (Borbón) on Sept. 9 in Madrid; granddaughter of Juan Carlos I of Spain; sister of Don Felipe de Marichalar y Borbon (1998-) and Pablo Urdangarin y de Borbon (2000-). Am. "Moana" actress-singer (bi) Auli'i Cravalho on Nov. 22 in Kohala, Hawaii; native Hawaiian descent mother. Spanish royal brat Pablo Nicolas Urdangarin y de Borbon on Dec. 6 in Madrid; son of Infanta Cristina (1965-); grandson of Juan Carlos I of Spain. Saudi princess Salma bint Al Abdullah II on Sept. 26 in Amman, Jordan; daughter of Abdullah (1921-) and Queen Rania of Jordan. Am. transgender LGBT rights activist (black) Jazz Jennings on Oct. 6 in ?; born male. Am. "Veronica Duncan in Young Sheldon", "Katie Cooper in Alexa & Katie", "Elsa Dutton in 1883" JennLaw-lookalike actress Isabel May on Nov. 21 in ?. Deaths: Austrian actress ("Austria's first movie star") Liane Haid (b. 1895) on Nov. 28 in Bern, Switzerland. Am. thoroughbred owner-breeder Fred W. Hooper (b. 1897) on Aug. 4 in Ocala, Fla. (heart attack). Am. "You Are My Sunshine" singer-songwriter Jimmie Davis (b. 1899) on Nov. 5 - sunshine really worked? Am. Disney cartoonist Carl Barks (b. 1901) on Aug. 25 in Grants Pass, Ore. Ukrainian-born Am. constitutional scholar Raoul Berger (b. 1901). English romance novelist Dame Barbara Cartland (b. 1901) on May 21 in Hertfordshire; sold 750M-2B copies of 723 books in 36 languages, and leaves 160 unedited mss. at her 400-acre estate Camfield Place. Australian physicist Sir Mark Oliphant (b. 1901) on July 14 in Canberra. French film dir. Claude Autant-Lara (b. 1901) on Feb. 5 in Antibes, Alpes-Maritimes: "If a film does not have venom, it is worthless." French environmentalist Theodore Andre Monod (b. 1902) on Nov. 22 in Versailles. Tunisian pres. #1 (1957-87) Habib Bourguiba (b. 1903) on Apr. 6 in Monastir. Japanese empress Kojun (b. 1903) on June 16 in Fukiage Omiya Palace, Chiyoda, Tokyo. English medieval historian Sir Steven Runciman (b. 1903) on Nov. 1 in Radway, Warwickshire. Am. Washington Post ed. James Russell Wiggins (b. 1903) on Nov. 19 in Brooklin, Maine. English actor-singer Sir John Gielgud (b. 1904) on on May 21-22 in Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire. French physicist Louis Neel (b. 1904) on Nov. 17; 1970 Nobel Physics Prize. Italian composer-alpinist Toni Ortelli (b. 1904) on Mar. 3 in Schio. Am. film dir. Edward Bernds (b. 1905) on May 20 in Van Nuys, Calif. English novelist Anthony Powell (b. 1905) on Mar. 28 in Somerset. Am. dancer Elvera Sanchez Davis (b. 1905) on Sept. 2 in New York City. Lebanese PM (1952, 1953, 1960-1, 1970-3) Saeb Salam (b. 1905) on Jan. 21 in Geneva, Switzerland (exile) (heart attack). Am. celeb John Coolidge (b. 1906) on May 31 in Lebanon, N.H.; son of U.S. pres. Calvin Coolidge. Vietnamese PM (1955-87) Pham Van Dong (b. 1906) on Apr. 29 in Hanoi. Canadian-born Am. nuclear physicist Walter H. Zinn (b. 1906) on Feb. 14 in Clearwater, Fla. Am. writer L. Sprague de Camp (b. 1907) on Nov. 6 in Plano, Tex. English physician-entomologist Sir Cyril Astley Clarke (b. 1907) on Nov. 22. Am. Masters golf course architect Robert Trent Jones (b. 1907) on June 14 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; designed 350 courses in 45 states and 36 countries. East German Stasi spymaster Erich Mielke (b. 1907) on May 21 in Berlin. French novelist-diplomat Roger Peyrefitte (b. 1907) on Nov. 5; dies after copping out and receiving last rites. Austrian actress Paula Wessely (b. 1907) on May 11. U.S. Rep. (D-Okla.) (1947-77) Carl Albert (b. 1908) on Feb. 4 in McAlester, Okla. Romanian-born British WWII spymaster Vera Atkins (b. 1908) on June 24 in Hastings, Sussex. Am. sportswear designer Bonnie Cashin (b. 1908) on Feb. 3 in New York City. German-born French photographer Gisele Freund (b. 1908) on Mar. 31 in Paris. Am. novelist-ed. William Keepers Maxwell Jr. (b. 1908) on July 31 in New York City. Russian-born Am. singer Irra Petina (b. 1908) on Jan. 19 in Austin, Tex. Am. philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908) on Dec. 25 in Boston, Mass. Danish pianist-comedian Victor Borge (b. 1909) on Dec. 23 in Greenwich, Conn. Dutch Casimir Effect physicist Hendrik Casimir (b. 1909) on May 4 in Heeze. English archbishop of Canterbury (1974-) Donald Coggan (b. 1909) on May 17. Am. actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (b. 1909) on May 7 in New York City. Japanese WWII sub cmdr. Mochitsura Hashimoto (b. 1909) on Oct. 25 in Kyoto. Greek PM #70 (1973) Spyros Markezinis (b. 1909) on Jan. 4 in Athens. South African De Beers gold-diamond magnate Harry F. Oppenheimer (b. 1909) on Aug. 19 in Johannesburg. Am. "Love Story" songwriter Carl Sigman (b. 1909) on Sept. 26 in Manhasset, N.Y. Am. actress Claire Trevor (b. 1909) on Apr. 8 in Newport Beach, Calif. Am. journalism pioneer Robert Trout (b. 1909) on Nov. 14 in New York City. Am. Communist Party leader Gus Hall (b. 1910) on Oct. 13 in New York City; ran for U.S. pres. 4x, and served 8 years in priz - no deathbed repentance for moi? Am. entomologist Edward F. Knipling (b. 1910) on Mar. 17 in Arlington, Va. Danish queen consort (1947-72) Ingrid of Sweden (b. 1910) on Nov. 7 in Copenhagen. British children's writer Diana Ross (b. 1910) on May 4. Indian politician Chidambaram Subramaniam (b. 1910) on Nov. 7. Am. Columbia U. "NYT vs. Sullivan" law prof. Herbert Wechsler (b. 1910) on Apr. 26 in New York City. German Auschwitz Camp adjutant Karl-Friedrich Hocker (b. 1911) on Jan. 30 in Lubbecke. Am. composer Alan Hovhaness (b. 1911) on June 21; composed 70+ symphonies and 500+ total works. Am. "hillbilly songwriter" Zeke Manners (b. 1911) on Oct. 14 in Los Angeles, Calif. Am. stage producer David Merrick (b. 1911) on Apr. 25/26 in London. Polish "The Pianist" pianist-composer Wladyslaw Szpilman (b. 1911) on July 6 in Warsaw. Am. anthropologist Sherwood Washburn (b. 1911) on Apr. 16 in Berkeley, Calif. German-born Am. biochemist Konrad Emil Bloch (b. 1912) on Oct. 15 in Lexington, Mass.; 1964 Nobel Med. Prize. Am. environmentalist David Brower (b. 1912) on Nov. 5 in Berkeley, Calif. Am. "Gary Moore Show" TV personality Durward Kirby (b. 1912) on Mar. 15 in Ft. Myers, Fla. German gymnast Albert Schwarzmann (b. 1912) on Mar. 11 in Goslar. Am. playwright Samuel A. Taylor (b. 1912) on May 26 in Blue Hills, Maine (heart failure). Am. mobster Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo (b. 1913) on Aug. 23 in Springfield, Mo.; dies in prison. Am. composer Vivian Fine (b. 1913) on Mar. 20 in Bennington, Vt. Austrian-born Am. "Samson and Delilah" actress-inventor Hedy Lamarr (b. 1913) on Jan. 18-19 in Altamonte Springs (near Orlando), Fla.: "Any girl can be glamorous; all you have to do is stand still and look stupid"; "Films have a certain place in a certain time period; technology is forever"; "It is easier for women to succeed in business, the arts and politics in America than in Europe." Am. "The Rainmaker" playwright N. Richard Nash (b. 1913) on Dec. 11 in Manhattan, N.Y. Am. actress Eugenia Rawls (b. 1913) on Nov. 8 in Denver, Colo. Am. poet Karl Shapiro (b. 1913) on May 14 in New York City. Welsh poet Ronald Stuart Thomas (b. 1913) on Sept. 25. German U-boat capt. Hans-Dietrich von Tiesenhausen (b. 1913) on Aug. 17 in Vancouver, Canada. Am. actress Loretta Young (b. 1913) on Aug. 12 in Los Angeles, Calif. English "Obi-Wan Kenobe" actor Sir Alec Guinness (b. 1914) on Aug. 3 in Midhurst, West Sussex (liver cancer). Am. bandleader Tex Beneke (b. 1914) on May 30 in Costa Mesa, Calif. Am. NBA exec Haskell Cohen (b. 1914) on June 28 in Fort Lee, N.J. Am. psychologist Bertram Forer (b. 1914) on Apr. 6. Polish-Am. WWII hero Jan Karski (b. 1914) on July 13 in Washington, D.C. Am. "The Tennessee Waltz" singer'songwriter Pee Wee King (b. 1914) on Mar. 7 in Louisville, Ky. Am. singer Bob Lido (b. 1914) on Aug. 9 (stroke). English "Master and Commander" novelist Patrick O'Brian (b. 1914) on Jan. 2 in Dublin. Am. auto racer Lee Petty (b. 1914) on Apr. 5. Am. children's writer Beatrice Schenk de Regniers (b. 1914) on Mar. 1 in Washington, D.C. Am. Olympic track and field athlete Mack Robinson (b. 1914) on Mar. 12 in Pasadena, Calif. Am. country musician Cliff Bruner (b. 1915) on Aug. 25 in Texas City, Tex. Am. tennis player Don Budge (b. 1915) on Jan. 26 in Scranton, Penn. (auto accident on Dec. 14). Egyptian Gen. Mohamed Fawzi (b. 1915) on Feb. ? in Heliopolis, Cairo. French archeologist Antoine Guillaumont (b. 1915) on Aug. 25. Am. football end Larry Kelley (b. 1915) on June 27 in Highstown, N.J. (suicide); sold his 1936 Heisman Trophy at auction 6 mo. earlier for $328,100. Am. screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr. (b. 1915) on Nov. 1 in New York City; last surviving member of the 1947 Hollywood Ten. English soccer player Sir Stanley Matthews (b. 1915) on Feb. 23 in Stoke-on-Trent. English actor Hugh Paddick (b. 1915) on Nov. 11 in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. Am. Native Am. activist Helen Peterson (b. 1915) on July 10 in Vancouver, Wash. Am. statistician John Tukey (b. 1915) on July 26 in New Brunswick, N.J. (heart attack). English Mensa co-founder Lancelot Ware (b. 1915) on Aug. 15 in Surrey. Italian writer Giorgio Bassani (b. 1916) on Apr. 13 in Ferrara. English writer Penelope Fitzgerald (b. 1916) on Apr. 28. Am. actor-artist George Montgomery (b. 1916) on Dec. 12 in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Am. CIA spy Kermit Roosevelt Jr. (b. 1916) on June 8. Am. actress Fran Ryan (b. 1916) on Jan. 15 in Burbank, Calif. English meteorologist John Sawyer (b. 1916) on Sept. 19. Spanish playwright Antonio Buero Vallejo (b. 1916) on Apr. 20 in Madrid. Am. children's book illustrator Leonard Weisgard (b. 1916) on Jan. 14 in Glumso, Denmark. Am. poet Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917) on Dec. 3 in Chicago, Ill. Am. foreign affairs adviser (JFK, LBJ) Bill Bundy (b. 1917). U.S. ambassador Arthur Henry Davis Jr. (b. 1917) on Nov. 24 in Vienna, Va. Am. writer Sebastian de Grazia (b. 1917) on Dec. 31 in Princeton, N.J. Canadian Silicon Valley pioneer Richard Hodgson (b. 1917) on Mar. 4 in Barbados (auto accident). Am. gay novelist-activist William Dale Jennings (b. 1917) on May 11. English artist Anthony Robert Klitz (b. 1917) on Sept. 19 in Dublin. Mexican ballet choreographer Amalia Hernandez (b. 1917) on Nov. 5 in Mexico City. Am. painter Jacob Lawrence (b. 1917) on June 9. Am. TV producer John Newland (b. 1917) on Jan. 10 in Los Angeles, Calif. (stroke). English "George Banks in Mary Poppins" actor David Tomlinson (b. 1917) on June 24 in Westminster, London. Am. bandleader Si Zentner (b. 1917) on Jan. 31 in Las Vegas, Nev. Canadian hockey hall-of-fame player Sid Abel (b. 1918) on Feb. 8 in Farmington Hills, Mich. Dutch crystallographer Herman Bijvoet (b. 1918) on Mar. 29 in Niewengen. Italian-born Am. flamenco dancer Jose Greco (b. 1918) on Dec. 31 in Lancaster, Penn. (heart failure). Dutch-born Am. physicist Abraham Pais (b. 1918) on July 28 in Copenhagen. Am. "Peter Gunn" actor Craig Stevens (b. 1918) on May 10 in Los Angeles, Calif. (cancer). English Lava Lamp inventor Edward Craven Walker (b. 1918) on Aug. 15 in London. Am. jazz dancer-choreographer Peter Gennaro (b. 1919) on Sept. 28 in New York City. French writer Jacques Laurent (b. 1919) on Dec. 28 in Paris. Am. folk singer Ed McCurdy (b. 1919) on Mar. 23 Am. physicist William Aaron Nierenberg (b. 1919) on Sept. 10. Am. economist William N. Parker (b. 1919) on Apr. 29. Am. "Joey in Stalag 17" actor Robinson Stone (b. 1919) on May 11 in New York City. Canadian PM (1968-79, 1980-4) Pierre Elliott Trudeau (b. 1919) on Sept. 28. Am. physicist Joseph Weber (b. 1919) on Sept. 30 in Pittsburgh, Penn. (cancer). Am. food critic Craig Claiborne (b. 1920) on Jan. 22 in New York City. English "The Joy of Sex" physician Alex Comfort (b. 1920) on Mar. 26 near London - present company excepted? Hungarian-born Australian-Am. economist John Harsanyi (b. 1920) on Aug. 9 in Berkeley, Calif.; 1994 Nobel Economics Prize. German-born Am. "Col. Klink in Hogan's Heroes" actor Werner Klemperer (b. 1920) on Dec. 6 in New York City (cancer). Am. hall-of-fame baseball player-mgr. Bob Lemon (b. 1920) on Jan. 11 in Long Beach, Calif. Am. actor Walter Matthau (b. 1920) on July 1 in Santa Monica, Calif. (heart attack). Am. New York archbishop-cardinal (1984-2000) John O'Connor (b. 1920) on May 3 in Manhattan, N.Y. (brain cancer). Zimbabwe politician Ndabaningi Sithold (b. 1920) on Dec. 12 in Philadelphia, Penn. Am. adm. Elmo Zumwalt (b. 1920) on Jan. 2 in Durham, N.C. (lung cancer). Am. "Sgt. Whipple in Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." actor Buck Young (b. 1920) on Feb. 9 in Los Angeles, Calif. Am. comedian Steve Allen (b. 1921) on Oct. 30 in Los Angeles, Calif. (heart attack). Am. Broadway producer Alexander H. Cohen (b. 1920) on Apr. 22 in New York City; produced 101 Broadway shows. French "San-Antonio" crime novelist Frederic Dard (b. 1921) on June 6 in Bonnefontaine; pub. almost 300 books. Am. boxer Beau Jack (b. 1921) on Feb. 9. Am. liberal Repub. New York City mayor #103 (1966-73) John Lindsay (b. 1921) on Dec. 19 in Hilton Head Island, S.C. (pneumonia). Am. Nicholas Brothers tap dancer Harold Nicholas (b. 1921) on July 3 in New York (heart). Am. newpaper pub. James Cline Quayle (b. 1921) on July 7 in Sun City West, Ariz.; father of vice-pres. Dan Quayle. Canadian hockey player Maurice Richard (b. 1921) on May 27 in Montreal, Quebec; first non-politician honored with a state funeral in Quebec. English archbishop (of Canterbury) Robert Runcie (b. 1921) on July 11; officiated at the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana. Trinidadian calypsonian Lord Kitchener (b. 1922) on Feb. 11 in Champs Fleur; buried in Arima. French flautist Jean-Pierre Louis Rampal (b. 1922) on May 20 in Paris. Am. actor Jason Robards Jr. (b. 1922) on Dec. 27 in Bridgeport, Conn. (cancer). Am. "Peanuts" cartoonist Charles M. Schulz (b. 1922) on Feb. 12 in Santa Rosa, Calif. (colon cancer): "There is a difference between a philosophy and a bumper sticker." Czech Olympic runner Emil Zatopek (b. 1922) on Nov. 22 in Prague; dies from cancer contracted from working in a uranium mine as punishment for joining the 1968 Prague Spring. Am. sculptor and graphic artist Leonard Baskin (b. 1922) on June 3 in Northampton, Mass. (kidney disease). French screenwriter Leonardo Benvenuti (b. 1923) on Nov. 2 in Rome (heart attack). English Mini Cooper motorcar designer John Cooper (b. 1923) on Dec. 24 in Worthing, West Sussex (cancer). British political broadcaster Sir Robin Day (b. 1923) on Aug. 6. Argentine coronary bypass surgery pioneer Rene Favaloro (b. 1923) on July 29 in Buenos Aires (suicide). Am. "2nd Lt. Gil Hanley in Combat!" actor Rick Jason (b. 1923) on Oct. 16 in Moorpark, Calif. Trinidadian calypso songwriter Lord Kitchener (b. 1923) on Feb. 11 in Port of Spain. U.S. atty.-gen. #68 (1972-3) Richard Gordon Kleindienst (b. 1923) on Feb. 3 in Prescott, Ariz. (lung cancer). Irish-born British mystery writer Patricia Moyes (d. 1923) on Aug. 2 in Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands. Am. "The Mambo Kings" drummer-bandleader Tito Puente (b. 1923) on May 31 in New York City (heart failure); recorded almost 120 albums; the govt. of Puerto Rico declares three days of mourning. Am. physicist John Hamilton Reynolds (b. 1923) on Nov. 4 in Berkeley, Calif. Ukrainian-born Am. historian Adam Bruno Ulam (b. 1923) on Mar. 28 in Cambridge, Mass. (lung cancer). Am. "High Aldwin in Willow", "Gwildor in Masters of the Universe" 3'9" actor Billy Barty (b. 1924) on Dec. 23 in Glendale, Calif. (heart failure); no, he wasn't in "The Wizard of Oz" (1939). Am. poet Edgar Bowers (b. 1924) on Feb. 4 in San Francisco, Calif. Welsh computer scientist (co-inventor of packet switching) Donald Watts Davies (b. 1924) on May 28. Am. football player Lou Groza (b. 1924). Am. Dallas Cowboys football coach Tom Landry (b. 1924) on Feb. 12 in Dallas, Tex. (leukemia). Am. filmmaker Lionel Rogosin (b. 1924) on Dec. 8 in Los Angeles, Calif. French film dir. Claude Sautet (b. 1924) on July 22 in Paris (cancer). Dutch holistic writer Jack Schwarz (b. 1924) on Nov. 26. Am. painter George Segal (b. 1924) on June 9 in South Brunswick, N.J. (cancer). Japanese PM #74 (1987-9) Noboru Takeshita (b. 1924) on June 19 in Tokyo - he tooka his last shita? Am. poet Edgar Bowers (b. 1925) on Feb. 3 in San Francisco, Calif. (non-Hodgkins lymphoma). Am. "The Chocolate War" novelist Robert Cormier (b. 1925) on Nov. 2 in Boston, Mass. Am. E.F. Hutton CEO (1970-87) Robert M. Fomon (b. 1925) on May 31 in Palm Beach, Fla. (heart attack). Am. nuclear physicist Watler Goad (b. 1925). Am. illustrator Edward St. John Gorey (b. 1925) on Apr. 15 in Yarmouth Port, Mass. Am. journalist Carl Thomas Rowan (b. 1925) on Sept. 23 in Washington, D.C. Am. actress-dancer Gwen Verdon (b. 1925) on Oct. 18 in Woodstock, Vt. Pakistani actress-singer Noor Jehan (b. 1926) on Dec. 23 in Karachi. Am. "Dr. Zhivago" singer-actress Julie London (b. 1926) on Oct. 18 in Encino, Calif. (stroke in 1995). Am. actress Jean Peters (b. 1926) on Oct. 13 in Carlsbad, Calif.: "My life with Howard Hughes was and shall remain a matter on which I will have no comment." Am. "Hercules" actor Steve Reeves (b. 1926) on May 1 in Escondido, Calif. (lymphoma). Russian opthalmologist Syavoslav Fyodorov (b. 1927) on June 2 in Moscow. English physics teacher Geoffrey E. Perry (b. 1927) on Jan. 18 in Bude. Canadian "Count Baltar in Battlestar Galactica" actor John Colicos (b. 1928) on Mar. 6 in Toronto, Ont. (heart attack). Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser (b. 1928) on Feb. 19; dies aboard the QEII. Am. "The Coasters" singer Will "Dub" Jones (b. 1928) on Jan. 16 in Long Beach, Calif. (diabetes). Am. "Livia in The Sopranos" actress Nancy Marchand (b. 1928) on June 18 in Stratford, Conn. (lung cancer). Korean-born Japanese-Am. geneticist Susumo Ohno (b. 1928) on Jan. 13. Am. football QB Tobin Rote (b. 1928) on June 27 in Saginaw, Mich. (heart attack). French film dir. Roger Vadim (b. 1928) on Feb. 11 in Paris (cancer). Austrian bass-baritone Walter Berry (b. 1929) on Oct. 27. French food critic Henri Gault (b. 1929) on July 9. Am. singer Jalacy "Screamin' Jay" Hawkins (b. 1929) on Feb. 12. Am. actor John Milford (b. 1929) on Aug. 14 in Santa Monica, Calif. Am. wrestling commentator Gordon Solie (b. 1929) on July 27. Am. radar scientist Peter Swerling (b. 1929) on Aug. 25 in Southern Calif. (cancer). Syrian pres. (1969-2000) Hafez al-Assad (b. 1930) on June 10 in Damascus (heart attack). Belgian-born Am. futurist FM-2030 (b. 1930) on July 8 in Scottsdale, Ariz. (pancreatic cancer); placed in cryonic suspension. Zambian PM (1978-81) Daniel Lisulo (b. 1930) on Aug. 21 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Bahamian PM (1967-92) Lynden O. Pindling (b. 1930) on Aug. 26 in Nassau (prostate cancer). English cricketer Brian Statham (b. 1930) on June 10 in Stockport, Cheshire. Am. jazz musician Nat Adderley (b. 1931) on Jan. 2 in Lakeland, Fla. (diabetes). English writer Sir Malcolm Bradbury (b. 1932) on Nov. 27 in Norwich, Norfolk. Am. actor Richard Mulligan (b. 1932) on Sept. 26 in Los Angeles, Calif. (colon cancer). English-born Canadian biochemist Michael Smith (b. 1932) on Oct. 4 in Vancouver, B.C. (cancer); 1993 Nobel Chem. Prize. Soviet cosmonaut Yevgeny Khrunov (b. 1933) on May 19 in Moscow (heart attack). English crime boss Reginald Kray (b. 1933) on Oct. 1 in Norwich. Italian PM (1983-7) Bettino Craxi (b. 1934) on Jan. 19 in Hammamet, Tunisia (exile) (heart attack). Am. "Peggy Fair in Mannix" actress Gail Fisher (b. 1935) on Dec. 2 in Culver City, Calif.; first black actress to have a speaking part on a nat. U.S. TV ad (for All brand detergent). Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov (b. 1935) on Sept. 20 in Moscow. English evolutionary biologist William Donald Hamilton (b. 1936) on Mar. 7 in Oxford (malaria); fatally bitten by a mosquito in the DRC while seeking evidence to support his theory that the AIDS epidemic can be traced to contaminated polio vaccines; leaves money in his will to have his body taken to Brazil to be eaten by Coprophanaeus beetles, after which "I will buzz in the dusk like a huge bumble bee" (not carried out) - survival of the fittest joke here? Scottish politician Donald Dewar (b. 1937) on Oct. 11. Am. songwriter Jack Nitzsche (b. 1937) on Aug. 25 in Hollywood, Calif. (heart attack). Japanese PM (1998-2000) Keizo Obuchi (b. 1937) on May 14 (stroke). Am. sci-fi novelist John Thomas Sladek (b. 1937) on Mar. 10 in Minn. (pulmonary fibrosis). Am. "Disco Lady" singer Johnnie Taylor (b. 1937) on May 31 in Dallas, Tex. Am. "Maj. Frank Burns in M*A*S*H" actor Larry Linville (b. 1939) on Apr. 10 in New York City (cancer). Am. actor Lawrence Linville (b. 1940) on Apr. 10 in New York City. Am. R&B singer Bobby Sheen (b. 1941) on Nov. 23 in Los Angeles, Calif. (pneumonia). German-born English singer Heinz Burt (b. 1942) on Apr. 7 in Weston, Hampshire. English punk rock vocalist Ian Drury (b. 1942) on Mar. 27 in Hampstead, London (colorectal cancer). Am. rocker David "Lonesome Dave" Peverett (b. 1943) on Feb. 7 (cancer). Am. "Billie Jo in Petticoat Junction" actress Meredith MacRae (b. 1944) on July 14 in Manhattan Beach, Calif. (brain cancer). Am. "Jean", "Good Morning Starshine" singer Oliver (b. 1945) on Feb. 13 (cancer). Am. pychonaut-writer Terence McKenna (b. 1946) on Apr. 3 in San Rafael, Calif. (brain cancer). Japanese smart gell biophysicist Toyoichi Tanaka (b. 1946) on May 20 in Wellesley, Mass. (heart attack while playing tennis). Canadian illusionist Doug Henning (b. 1947) on Feb. 7 in Los Angeles, Calif. (liver cancer). Am. rocker Benjamin Orr (b. 1947) (The Cars) on Oct. 3 Atlanta, Ga. (pancreatic cancer). Am. environmentalist Marc Reisner (b. 1949) on July 21 in San Anselmo, Calif. (cancer). Am. "Ernest P. Worrell" actor Jim Varney (b. 1949) on Feb. 10 in White House, Tenn. (lung cancer). Irish motorcyclist Joey Dunlop (b. 1952) on July 2 in Tallinn, Estonia (motorcycle crash). Serbian crime boss Arkan (Zelijko Raznatovic) (b. 1952) on Jan. 15 in Belgrade (assassinated by Dobrosav Gavric). Am. "Turn the Beat Around" singer-actress Vicki Sue Robinson (b. 1954) on Apr. 27 in Wilton, Conn. (cancer). Am. Herbalife founder Mark R. Hughes (b. 1956) on May 21 in Malibu, Calif. (OD of alcohol and Doxepin). Israeli singer Ofra Haza (b. 1957) on Feb. 23 in Ramat Gan(AIDS) (from her husband?). English singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl (b. 1959) on Dec. 18 off Cozumel, Mexico; killed by a speedboat racing through water reserved for swimmers. Am. musician Dennis Danell (Social Distortion) (b. 1961) on Feb. 29. Am. NASCAR auto racer Tony Roper (b. 1964) on Oct. 13 (racing crash). Israeli rabbi Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane (b. 1966) on Dec. 31 near Ofra (assassinated). Am. wrestler Yokozuna (Rodney Anoa'i) (b. 1966) on Oct. 22. Am. football player Derrick Thomas, American football player (b. 1967) on Feb. 8. Ukrainian journalist Georgiy R. Gongadze (b. 1969) on Sept. 16 (murdered?). Am. NASCAR auto racer Kenny Irwin (b. 1969) on July 7. Am. 700 lb. rapper Big Pun (b. 1971) on Feb. 7 in White Plains, N.Y. (heart attack). Am. cyclist Nicole Reinhart (b. 1976) on Sept. 17 in Arlington, Mass. (bicycle accident). Am. auto racer Adam Petty (b. 1980) on May 12 in N.H. (auto crash).

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