Events, Verisoph

2000 The Dakar Framework renews Education for All 0 cit. The World Education Forum in Dakar reaffirmed the Education for All goals and pledged that no serious plan would fail for lack of funds. It linked national systems to a shared global agenda. politics / society ●●●

c. 2000 North Korea runs a closed national intranet 0 cit. North Korea operates a walled intranet called Kwangmyong instead of the open internet, with global access limited to a small elite. It is among the most tightly controlled information environments in the world. politics / technology ●●●

c. 2000 to c. 2020 The term enters the mainstream culture war 0 cit. Through the 2000s and 2010s cultural Marxism spreads from the fringe into mainstream conservative commentary and then into the broader fight over political correctness and, later, wokeness. It becomes a catch-all label for progressive cultural change rather than a description of any actual Marxist program. culture / society ●●

2000 Earth Charter completed and published ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The Earth Charter, called for at the 1992 Rio conference by Secretary General Boutros-Ghali, was completed and published on June 29, 2000. ●●

2000 Gatto's estimate of the cost of a schooled child in 2000 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Gatto estimates that in the year 2000 the cost of producing a well-schooled child in New York State was $200,000 per body once lost interest is counted. ●●

2000 Ohio state motto ruled unconstitutional ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In 2000 the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Ohio's state motto 'With God, all things are possible' unconstitutional. Gatto lists it among decisions removing religious expression from public life. ●●

2000 First Predator flight over Afghanistan ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The pilotless Predator, equipped with cameras and sensors, was declared ready for use over Afghanistan and made its first flight. The agency and the air force later worked out how to arm it with missiles. ●●

2000 Bombing of the USS Cole ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Two men in a speedboat blew a huge hole in the American warship USS Cole in the harbor of Aden, Yemen, killing seventeen sailors. Al Qaeda was the obvious suspect. ●●

2000 CIA obtains Khalid al-Mihdhar's US visa copy ai_extracted 1 cit. no story By January 5, 2000, the CIA obtains a copy of Khalid al-Mihdhar's passport showing a valid US B1/B2 visa issued in Jeddah that would not expire until April 6, 2000. ●●

2000 USS Cole attacked by al Qaeda suicide bombers in Aden, Yemen ai_extracted 2 cit. On October 12, 2000, a small boat packed with explosives attacked the USS Cole, an American guided-missile destroyer docked in Aden, Yemen. The explosion killed 17 American sailors and wounded 30 more. ●●

2000 Clinton approves Predator missions over Afghanistan ai_extracted 1 cit. no story President Clinton approved a limited proof-of-concept mission in September 2000 to launch Predator drones. ●●

2000 Tonga sells its gene pool to Autogen ai_extracted 1 cit. no story anies that want to find disease genes common to most Europeans.”33 The tiny Polynesian nation of Tonga sold the information on its unique gene pool to Autogen, an Australian genetic research firm, in 2000. Tonga’s 170 islands host a group of some 108,000 natives isolated for more than three millenni ●●

2000 Argentina abandons dollar peg amid economic crisis ai_extracted 1 cit. no story But then Argentina succumbed to a major economic crisis in 2000–2001 as the dollar peg was abandoned, and the country fell into a huge depression. ●●

2000 Nupedia publishes its first article ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Nupedia, the free encyclopedia project that preceded Wikipedia, published its first peer-reviewed article. ●●

March 2000 Fowler Report details sanctions-busting diamond networks 0 cit. A UN Security Council panel chaired by Canadian ambassador Robert Fowler published a report naming specific governments, arms dealers, and diamond buyers involved in evading sanctions to keep UNITA supplied with weapons in exchange for diamonds. The report increased international pressure for an industry-wide certification system for rough diamonds. diplomacy ●●

May 2000 Kimberley Process talks begin in South Africa 0 cit. Southern African diamond-producing states, industry representatives, and NGOs met in Kimberley to negotiate a certification scheme that would keep conflict diamonds out of the legitimate trade. The talks, named after the town, led to a series of negotiations completed over the following two years. diplomacy / economy ●●

c. 2000 De Beers ends the Central Selling Organisation single-channel model 0 cit. Facing antitrust pressure and competition from independent producers such as Russia's Alrosa and new Canadian mines, De Beers began dismantling the Central Selling Organisation's stockpile-and-control system in favor of a 'Supplier of Choice' model selling to a smaller set of approved clients at set prices. The change ended De Beers's decades-long role as the buyer of last resort for the entire world diamond supply. economy ●●

March 2000 X.com and Confinity merge 0 cit. X.com and Confinity merged into a single company, combining Musk's online bank with Confinity's PayPal payment product. The merged firm initially operated under the X.com name before rebranding as PayPal. economy / technology ●●

19 September 2000 Musk ousted as CEO in board coup 0 cit. While Elon Musk was on his honeymoon, the company's board voted to remove him as CEO amid disagreements over technical direction, including his skepticism of Max Levchin's anti-fraud tools. Peter Thiel became CEO in his place, and the company was renamed PayPal. economy / technology ●●

2000 A Lockerbie trial witness claims Muammar Gaddafi is a Freemason unproven 0 cit. During the 2000 Lockerbie bombing trial, a Libyan double agent testified that Muammar Gaddafi was a Freemason. This is a single, uncorroborated courtroom claim rather than documented lodge membership, and other accounts of Gaddafi directly dispute it, attributing his distinctive handshakes to personal style rather than Masonic recognition signs. It is presented here as an unverified claim, not a confirmed membership. politics / society ●

26 March 2000 Putin elected president of Russia 0 cit. Vladimir Putin won Russia's presidential election in the first round with roughly 53 percent of the vote, benefiting from his wartime popularity and broad media support, including from Berezovsky's ORT channel. He was inaugurated on May 7, 2000. politics ●●●

28 July 2000 Putin meets business leaders and sets terms of a new arrangement 0 cit. Putin summoned roughly twenty of Russia's leading businessmen to the Kremlin and reportedly told them the state would not revisit the legality of 1990s privatizations so long as they stayed out of politics and paid their taxes. The meeting is widely described, including by Putin himself in public remarks, as establishing an informal bargain: keep your wealth, but do not challenge the Kremlin. economy / politics ●●●

13 June 2000 Gusinsky arrested and pressured to sell Media-Most 0 cit. Vladimir Gusinsky was arrested on embezzlement charges and held briefly in Moscow's Butyrka prison. He was released after signing an agreement, later made public, to sell his Media-Most holdings, including NTV, to the state-controlled gas company Gazprom in exchange for the charges being dropped, a deal his lawyers said amounted to extortion. economy / politics ●●●

c. November 2000 Berezovsky breaks with Putin and leaves Russia 0 cit. After publicly criticizing Putin's handling of the Kursk submarine disaster and proposed changes to regional governance, Boris Berezovsky fell out with the Kremlin and relocated to London. He was later granted political asylum in the United Kingdom and became one of Putin's most vocal exiled critics. politics ●●

c. December 2000 Gusinsky flees Russia into exile 0 cit. Vladimir Gusinsky left Russia and settled abroad, ultimately basing himself in Spain and Israel, after concluding he could not safely return following the pressure campaign against Media-Most. He continued to face Russian extradition requests, which Spanish courts repeatedly rejected as politically motivated. politics ●●

24 December 2000 Abramovich elected governor of Chukotka 0 cit. Roman Abramovich, co-owner of Sibneft, was elected governor of the remote Chukotka region, a move widely read as a demonstration of loyalty to the Kremlin. Unlike Berezovsky and Gusinsky, Abramovich avoided confrontation with Putin and retained both his fortune and his business interests. politics ●

c. January 2000 Two readings of the Putin era, as argued by supporters 0 cit. Supporters of Putin, including many Russian officials and some Western analysts, have argued that his actions against Gusinsky, Berezovsky, and Khodorkovsky ended a period of oligarchic plunder and state weakness, restoring order, tax collection, and stability financed by rising oil revenues through the 2000s. This reading treats the 1990s privatizations as the true theft and Putin's later moves as a correction that reasserted the state's authority. economy / politics ●●

c. January 2000 Two readings of the Putin era, as argued by critics 0 cit. Critics, including journalist Masha Gessen, economist Anders Aslund, and Kremlin opponents such as Khodorkovsky and the late Boris Nemtsov, have argued instead that Putin did not eliminate the oligarchy but replaced it, transferring assets from independent businessmen to a narrower circle of loyalists and former security service colleagues, the siloviki, who now control state companies like Gazprom and Rosneft. In this reading, the underlying pattern of insider enrichment continued, only with Putin and his allies as the principal beneficiaries. economy / politics ●●

c. 2000 Party whips and tightening discipline draw criticism in Westminster systems 0 cit. Political scientists and backbench MPs increasingly criticize the strength of party whip systems in Westminster-style parliaments, arguing that career pressure and patronage push members to vote with their party leadership rather than their constituents or conscience. The criticism is aimed at a long-documented feature of party discipline, not a hidden plot, though reformers argue it weakens parliament's independent check on the executive. politics ●●

28 July 2000 Local Government Act 2000 Introduces Statutory Standards Regime 0 cit. The Local Government Act 2000 established a statutory ethical framework for English and Welsh councils, requiring a mandatory model code of conduct, a register of members' interests, and standards committees to investigate complaints. It grew out of the Nolan Committee's recommendations and the long history of local corruption cases since Poulson. It did not require declaration of Masonic or other society membership specifically, leaving that question to individual councils' codes. politics ●●

c. 2000 BBC Southern Eye Investigates Freemasons on Dorset Planning Committees 0 cit. The BBC regional programme Southern Eye broadcast 'Anything to Declare?', a documentary examining Masonic membership among Dorset councillors, identifying 16 Freemasons on local councils, of whom 13 sat on planning committees. The programme presented this as raising a conflict-of-interest concern rather than proving improper decisions, and it was reportedly broadcast only once. It remains a frequently cited example in later discussions of Masonic disclosure in local planning, though its findings on membership numbers were not independently verified by a public inquiry. culture / politics ●

c. 1 January 2000 Indian Student Placement Program formally ends 0 cit. The Church's Indian Student Placement Program concluded, with its last participating student graduating from high school in 2000. Enrollment had declined sharply after 1970 and the program was largely inactive by the mid-1990s, as reservation schools improved and the Church's approach to Native American outreach shifted away from off-reservation placement. religion / society ●●

26 March 2000 Putin elected president 0 cit. Putin won the presidential election in the first round, cementing the power he had held as acting president. His campaign leaned heavily on his tough handling of the second Chechen war and a promise to restore order after the turbulent Yeltsin years. In office he moved quickly to rein in the independent oligarchs and to strengthen central state control. His rise brought former security officers into the heart of government. politics ●●●

c. 1 January 2000 The rise of the siloviki 0 cit. Under Putin, men from the security and military services, known as the siloviki, moved into senior posts across government, state companies, and business. Sociologists such as Olga Kryshtanovskaya documented a sharp rise in the share of the political elite with a security or military background. Figures with FSB and KGB roots took control of major state firms and regulatory bodies. This network became a core support base of the Putin system, though scholars debate how unified the siloviki really are. economy / politics ●●●

13 June 2000 Vladimir Gusinsky and the seizure of NTV 0 cit. Media magnate Vladimir Gusinsky, whose NTV channel had criticised Putin and the Chechen war, was arrested on fraud charges soon after Putin took office. He was released after agreeing to sell his media holdings to the state gas company Gazprom, then left Russia. The state's takeover of NTV was widely seen as the end of Russia's most independent national broadcaster. The case signalled that oligarchs who challenged the Kremlin through the media would face the security and legal apparatus. economy / politics / society ●●

c. 1 November 2000 Boris Berezovsky flees into exile 0 cit. Boris Berezovsky, an oligarch who had helped bring Putin to power, broke with the new president and left Russia under threat of prosecution. He settled in Britain, was granted political asylum, and became a vocal Kremlin opponent from abroad. Russia repeatedly sought his extradition on fraud charges, which Britain refused. His fall showed that even oligarchs close to the Kremlin could be pushed out once they crossed Putin. The month shown is approximate. economy / politics ●●

c. 1 January 2000 The FSB as business protection: krysha 0 cit. Researchers and investigative journalists have documented how FSB officers extended a form of protection, known in Russian as krysha, or roof, over private businesses. Companies gained security and help against rivals and regulators in exchange for loyalty, payments, or a share of the business. This blurred the line between the security service and organised commerce, and gave the FSB deep reach into the economy. The practice built up over the 2000s, so the date is given as an approximate marker. economy / politics / society ●●

13 November 2000 The Chile Declassification Project releases coup files 0 cit. Under a Clinton administration order, US agencies declassified around twenty-four thousand documents on Chile, covering the 1973 coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power and the repression that followed. The files detailed US knowledge of, and in some cases support for, actions against Salvador Allende's government. They also shed light on the killings of American citizens after the coup. diplomacy / politics ●●●

June 2000 Rwanda and Uganda turn on each other at Kisangani 0 cit. The two allied invaders fell out over control of the diamond city of Kisangani and fought several rounds of battle on Congolese soil. The Six-Day War of June 2000 flattened parts of the city and killed hundreds of civilians caught between their guns. The clash exposed how far the intervention had become a scramble for resources rather than security. economy / war ●●

c. 2000 The coltan boom funds the war 0 cit. A spike in world demand for tantalum, refined from coltan and used in mobile phones and game consoles, sent prices soaring around 2000. Congolese coltan, dug by hand in the Kivus, was flown out through Rwanda and sold to global electronics supply chains. UN investigators estimated Rwanda earned on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars from Congolese coltan during the occupation. economy / technology ●●●

c. 2000 Rwanda's war economy in the Kivus 0 cit. UN investigators described a Rwandan military structure, sometimes called the Congo desk, that channeled revenue from Congolese minerals to fund the army and the war effort. Rwanda, which produces little coltan of its own, became a major exporter of the mineral during the occupation. Kigali denied looting and framed its presence as a matter of national security. economy / war ●●

c. 2000 Zimbabwe and Uganda cash in on the war 0 cit. Zimbabwean generals close to Mugabe secured diamond and timber concessions in exchange for propping up Kabila, through ventures with names like Osleg. On the other side, Uganda exported large quantities of gold and diamonds despite mining almost none itself, evidence of goods siphoned out of Congo. For elites on every side the war paid, which was part of why it dragged on. economy / politics ●●

c. 2000 The FDLR entrenches in the eastern forests 0 cit. The remnants of the ex-FAR and Interahamwe reorganized as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, or FDLR, and dug into the eastern forests. Their continued presence gave Rwanda a lasting reason, or pretext, to keep intervening in Congo. Disarming the FDLR became a central and unmet demand of every peace deal. politics / war ●●

April 2000 Kagame rises to formal power 0 cit. After the victory Paul Kagame served as vice president and defense minister but was widely seen as the country's real ruler, with a Hutu figurehead, Pasteur Bizimungu, as president. When Bizimungu resigned in 2000, Kagame formally took the presidency, and he won later elections by margins near or above ninety percent. Bizimungu was later jailed after trying to start an opposition party, an early sign of how little dissent the new order would tolerate. politics ●●

c. 2000 Modern global finance is overwhelmingly not Jewish contested 0 cit. The world's largest banks, asset managers, central banks, and sovereign wealth funds are run overwhelmingly by non-Jews across America, Europe, and Asia, and Jews are a tiny fraction of the global financial workforce. There is no cabal, no secret Rothschild control of governments, and no hidden Jewish hand behind the economy; these are conspiracy theories, not descriptions of reality. The documented history is of a persecuted minority once pushed into lending, later prominent in a few niches, and never in control of world finance. economy / society ●●●

26 March 2000 John Paul II's apology at the Western Wall 0 cit. In March 2000 Pope John Paul II made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and prayed at the Western Wall, leaving a written prayer that asked God's forgiveness for Christian wrongs against the Jews. It followed the Vatican's 1998 document We Remember, which expressed repentance for Catholics who failed to resist the Nazi genocide. Critics found the apology guarded, noting that it distinguished the sins of Church members from the Church itself. diplomacy / religion / society ●●●

c. 2000 Mainstream Judaism holds both strands in tension 0 cit. Modern Judaism carries both strands at once: rigorous halakhic and Talmudic study on one side, and living mystical currents through Hasidism, Chabad, and renewed interest in Kabbalah on the other. Rather than one defeating the other, reason and mysticism remain in a lasting, productive tension at the heart of the tradition. culture / religion ●●

c. 2000 The warrior cop mindset and its training 0 cit. Alongside the gear came a school of training that taught officers to see every encounter as a potential lethal threat, promoted by figures such as former Army officer Dave Grossman and his "Killology" and "Bulletproof Warrior" seminars. Advocates said the training saved officers' lives by keeping them alert to danger. Critics, including many reform-minded police leaders, argued it bred fear and aggression, encouraging officers to shoot first and eroding the guardian role that community policing was meant to restore. culture / society ●●

c. 2000 China's Golden Shield and the Great Firewall 0 cit. China built the Golden Shield Project, a national system to monitor and filter the internet that became known as the Great Firewall. It blocks foreign sites, censors sensitive topics, and lets authorities watch what citizens read and say online. The system showed that the same networks could be turned into tools of control rather than openness. politics / society / technology ●●●

c. 2000 Banditry and the militarisation of cattle raiding 0 cit. The modern pastoralist margins are scarred by banditry and cattle raids fought with automatic rifles that flowed in from regional conflicts, turning old stock competition into deadly, commercialised violence. The state answers mostly with disarmament sweeps and security operations rather than schools, water, or roads, echoing the colonial pattern. Analysts tie the insecurity to a century of neglect, disarmament without protection, and undermined pastoral livelihoods. society / war ●●

c. 2000 The land clause and Zimbabwe's later crisis 0 cit. By 2000, with land still largely in white hands, Mugabe's government launched fast-track land reform and seized commercial farms, often violently. The government blamed the Lancaster House willing buyer, willing seller clause and what it called Britain's failure to fund resettlement for the slow pace of change. Critics blamed government policy, corruption, and the use of land as patronage. The dispute over who caused the crisis remains unsettled. economy / politics ●●

February 2000 The referendum, the invasions, and fast-track seizures 0 cit. Voters reject a draft constitution in February 2000, and soon after, ZANU-PF-aligned war veterans begin occupying white-owned farms, followed by a state Fast Track Land Reform Programme. Over the next years several thousand commercial farmers are pushed off their land, farm output collapses, hyperinflation follows, and many black farm workers are also dispossessed. Whether the Lancaster House clause doomed orderly reform, or whether policy failures and political patronage under Mugabe are more to blame, is debated among scholars. economy / politics / society ●●●

May 2000 Operation Palliser intervenes in Sierra Leone 0 cit. As rebels advanced on the capital of its former colony, Britain launched Operation Palliser and flew in paratroopers and marines. The force secured Freetown and the airport, evacuated foreign nationals, and shored up the government against the Revolutionary United Front. British troops stayed on to help end the civil war, a late example of the former ruler returning in strength. politics / war ●●

c. 2000 The Angolagate scandal exposes arms for oil 0 cit. A French investigation uncovers a network that sold hundreds of millions of dollars of weapons to Angola's government during its civil war in exchange for oil access. Those convicted at the 2008 trial included businessmen and figures tied to French political circles, among them a former president's son. The affair showed how French private interests, arms and African resources were traded together. economy / war ●●

September 2000 The Millennium Summit and the Millennium Development Goals 0 cit. World leaders gathered at UN headquarters and adopted the Millennium Declaration, which set eight Millennium Development Goals to be reached by 2015. The goals covered poverty, hunger, child mortality, disease, and education. They were the first attempt to hold every member state to a shared, dated set of development targets, and they became the direct model for the later Sustainable Development Goals. diplomacy / society ●●●

October 2000 US funding of Otpor and the fall of Milosevic 0 cit. NED, the International Republican Institute, and USAID openly funded the Serbian youth movement Otpor and opposition groups before the 2000 election that ended Slobodan Milosevic's rule. US bodies paid for training, polling, and campaign materials, and NED alone spent several million dollars in Serbia. Supporters call it help for a homegrown democratic revolt; critics call it a US-engineered ouster. politics / society ●●●

2000 William Blum calls NED a 'Trojan horse' 0 cit. In his 2000 book Rogue State, the American writer William Blum argued that NED was a "Trojan horse," an open front doing the political meddling the CIA once ran in secret. He tied it to interventions from Nicaragua to Eastern Europe. His critique became a touchstone for left and anti-interventionist opponents of democracy promotion. politics ●

7 July 2000 The East African Community is revived 0 cit. The Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community, signed by Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda in November 1999, enters into force, reviving a bloc that had collapsed in 1977. It sets a path toward a customs union, common market, monetary union, and eventual political federation. The community is headquartered in Arusha. diplomacy / economy ●●●

18 May 2000 Kenya gains AGOA trade preferences with the United States 0 cit. The United States enacts the African Growth and Opportunity Act, and Kenya is designated eligible, gaining duty-free access to the US market for many goods including apparel. The preferences underpin a large Kenyan garment-export sector and thousands of jobs. Because AGOA is a unilateral US programme granted and reviewed by Washington and subject to periodic renewal, critics note the access can be conditioned or withdrawn at US discretion. diplomacy / economy ●●

18 May 2000 African Growth and Opportunity Act signed into law 0 cit. The United States enacted AGOA, granting eligible sub-Saharan African countries duty-free access to the US market for thousands of products. Eligibility is reviewed each year by the US administration against criteria that include market openness and protection of US commercial interests. Supporters call it a generous trade preference; critics such as dependency scholars argue the annual, unilateral eligibility review turns market access into political leverage over African policy. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●

September 2000 Rebuilding America's Defenses is published 0 cit. PNAC releases a report titled Rebuilding America's Defenses, laying out a plan for sustained high military spending, forward bases, and modernized forces to keep American dominance. It argued for a larger military budget and a global posture built around preventing rivals from rising. The report drew on ideas the group's members had promoted since the early 1990s. politics / war ●●●●

September 2000 The 'new Pearl Harbor' passage and its later readings unproven 0 cit. Rebuilding America's Defenses states that the process of military transformation "is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor." In context the line describes how hard reform is to drive without a galvanizing shock. Whether PNAC wanted or foresaw such an event is disputed and unproven. What the record does show is that after September 11 the group moved within days to use the attacks to press the regime-change agenda it had urged since 1998. The 9/11 Truth movement reads the line as proof of foreknowledge; most historians read it as an observation, not a call for one. politics / war ●●●

September 2000 The "new Pearl Harbor" line 0 cit. A 2000 report by the Project for the New American Century, Rebuilding America's Defenses, said that transforming the military would likely be slow "absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor." Critics of US foreign policy connect this line to 9/11. In context the passage was arguing that change to the armed forces tends to be gradual without a galvanizing shock, not predicting or calling for an attack. politics / war ●●

2000 The NHS Plan turns to overseas recruitment 0 cit. England's NHS Plan set targets for thousands of new doctors and nurses and backed active recruitment from abroad to meet them. It opened a sustained drive to hire staff trained in other countries. Britain has relied on internationally trained health workers ever since. economy / politics / society ●●

c. 2000 Gulf states recruit health workers at scale 0 cit. Wealthy Gulf states built much of their hospital workforce by hiring abroad, drawing nurses and doctors from the Philippines, India and across Africa and the Middle East. The United Arab Emirates alone employs tens of thousands of Filipino nurses. Private recruitment agencies handle much of the hiring. economy / society ●●

2000 Lake cores add a paleoclimate check 0 cit. Dirk Verschuren and colleagues read a thousand-year record of rainfall and drought from the sediments of Lake Naivasha. Layers, pollen, and fossils in a lake bed give a climate history that owes nothing to human memory. Set against oral accounts of famine and movement, such records offer an independent way to test when hard times could have pushed people to migrate. environment / science ●●●

c. 2000 Suba language is classified as endangered 0 cit. By the turn of the century the Suba language survived mainly among older speakers, with younger generations using Luo. UNESCO listed it as endangered and close to extinction. Two dialects remained, Olusuba on Mfangano and Ekisuba around Rusinga, Muhuru Bay and Gwassi. culture / society ●●

c. 2000 Digo face coastal land grievances and marginalisation 0 cit. Like other coastal communities, many Digo carry deep grievances over land, having become squatters or landless as coastal plots passed to outside owners and developers over the colonial and post-independence eras. These grievances fed coastal separatist sentiment and periodic unrest in Kwale. Poverty, weak schooling and marginalisation remain pressing issues. politics / society ●

October 2000 Tugen Hills fossils reveal a very early human ancestor 0 cit. In 2000 palaeontologists Brigitte Senut and Martin Pickford announced fossils from the Tugen Hills of a hominin they named Orrorin tugenensis, dated to about six million years ago. Nicknamed Millennium Man, it is among the oldest known candidates in the human lineage. The find put the Tugen homeland on the map of research into human origins in the Rift Valley. science ●●

16 November 2001 Cape Town Treaty wikidata 0 cit. no story 2001 treaty ●●●

22 May 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants wikidata 0 cit. treaty ●●●

January 2001 Abolition of the Okurasho name ai_extracted 1 cit. In January 2001 Japan's Ministry of Finance lost its historic name Okurasho as part of a government reorganization, ending a long institutional history. ●●●

May 2001 Fukui's failed bid for the BoJ governorship ai_extracted 1 cit. In May 2001 Toshihiko Fukui, then head of the Fujitsu Research Institute, staged an attempt to take over from Governor Hayami as Bank of Japan governor, but Hayami refused to resign. ●●

June 2001 BoJ shifts to expanding the quantity of credit ai_extracted 1 cit. In June 2001 the Bank of Japan changed monetary policy again and sharply increased the quantity of its credit creation, which contributed positively to the economy in 2002 after the slump of 2001. ●●●

January 2001 The Okurasho loses its historic name ai_extracted 1 cit. In January 2001 the Ministry of Finance lost its grand old name, the Okurasho, as part of administrative reform. ●●

19 March 2001 Bank of Japan adopts quantitative easing ai_extracted 1 cit. On March 19, 2001 the Bank of Japan performed a sudden policy U-turn and officially adopted quantitative easing, a policy it had claimed for a decade was impossible to implement. ●●●●

January 2001 Abolition of the Ministry of Finance (Okurasho) ai_extracted 1 cit. In January 2001 the Okurasho was abolished, ending over half a century of the ministry's dominance and leaving only a rump institution. ●●●●

2001 Japan adopts market value accounting ai_extracted 1 cit. Fiscal year 2001 was the first in which Japanese company books were calculated by U.S.-style market value accounting instead of book value, sharply accelerating the dissolution of cross shareholdings and the shift to shareholder capitalism. ●●●

April 2001 Koizumi becomes prime minister ai_extracted 1 cit. Junichiro Koizumi became Japan's prime minister in April 2001, giving prominence to reform plans such as privatizing publicly owned companies, most notably the post office. ●●●

May 2001 Bank of Japan reflates under Koizumi ai_extracted 1 cit. In May 2001 the Bank of Japan's purchases of commercial paper rose over 500 percent year on year and bond purchases increased rapidly, pushing its liquidity injections back toward the levels of March 1998. ●●

March 2001 Bank of Japan announces quantitative easing ai_extracted 1 cit. The Bank of Japan officially announced quantitative easing in March 2001, and in May 2001 significantly boosted its credit creation in a policy rivaling its record 1998 reflation. ●●●

2001 Enron bankruptcy ai_extracted 1 cit. The 2001 bankruptcy of Enron, followed by other accounting and fraud scandals, blurred the distinction between Asian-style and U.S.-style cronyism. ●●●

2001 German economy slows down ai_extracted 1 cit. When the German economy visibly slowed in 2001, politicians including finance minister Hans Eichel wanted stimulatory policies but found monetary policy in the hands of the independent ECB and fiscal policy constrained by the stability and growth pact. ●●

2001 Japan's national debt reaches record high ai_extracted 1 cit. New government borrowing of over 300 trillion yen during the 1990s pushed total outstanding debt to 522.1 trillion yen by end-2000, and with 2001 borrowing the debt reached a record 582.46 trillion yen, about 120 percent of GDP. ●●

19 March 2001 Bank of Japan announces reserve targeting ('quantitative easing') ai_extracted 1 cit. On March 19, 2001 the Bank of Japan announced it would switch from targeting the overnight call rate to targeting the quantity of banks' reserve deposits, a policy commonly called quantitative easing; its actual credit creation nevertheless fell in the following months. ●●●

15 June 2001 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation founding declaration 0 cit. Declaration by China, Russia, and four Central Asian states founding the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation for security and economic cooperation. It has since expanded to include India, Pakistan, and Iran. diplomacy / politics ●●

15 June 2001 Founding of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation 0 cit. China, Russia and four Central Asian states found the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, expanding the Shanghai Five border talks into a permanent body for security and economic cooperation across Eurasia. diplomacy / politics ●●●

7 October 2001 to 30 August 2021 War in Afghanistan (2001-2021) 0 cit. no story The United States and allies topple the Taliban after the September 11 attacks, then fight a twenty-year insurgency. The Taliban retake Kabul in 2021 as the last American forces withdraw, ending America's longest war. politics / war ●●●●

2 December 2001 Collapse of Enron 0 cit. Energy trader Enron files what is then the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history after massive accounting fraud is exposed. The scandal wipes out employee pensions and leads to the Sarbanes-Oxley reforms. economy / politics ●●●●

11 September 2001 September 11 attacks 1 cit. Al-Qaeda hijackers fly airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 people. The attacks reshape global security, trigger the war in Afghanistan, and open two decades of conflict in the Middle East. politics / war ●●●●●

11 December 2001 China joins the WTO 1 cit. China becomes a member of the World Trade Organization after fifteen years of negotiation. Its full entry into world trade accelerates globalization, remakes supply chains, and shifts economic power toward Asia. economy ●●●●

13 December 2001 Indian Parliament attack 0 cit. Gunmen attacked the Indian Parliament complex in New Delhi, killing nine people before being shot dead. The attack brought India and Pakistan close to war. politics / war ●●

15 January 2001 Wikipedia launches 0 cit. Wikipedia went online on 15 January 2001 as a free encyclopedia anyone could edit. It became one of the most-visited reference sources in the world and a model of large-scale collaborative media. society / technology ●●●

23 October 2001 Apple releases the iPod 0 cit. Apple's iPod held a thousand songs in a pocket-sized player. It made carrying a whole music library normal and pointed music toward the digital age. technology ●●●●

18 September 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force 0 cit. Days after the September 11 attacks Congress authorized force against those responsible and those who harbored them. The broad wording became the legal basis for a long global campaign. politics / war ●●●●

c. November 2001 The armed drone program begins 0 cit. The United States began using armed Predator drones for targeted strikes during the war in Afghanistan. Drone warfare grew into a central tool of American military and intelligence power. technology / war ●●●

29 January 2001 White House faith-based initiatives 0 cit. President George W. Bush created a White House office to steer federal funds to religious social programs. The initiative deepened ties between government and faith-based groups. politics / religion ●●

11 September 2001 The Gulf and the September 11 Attacks 0 cit. Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers in the attacks on the United States were Saudi citizens, straining ties with Washington. The event intensified scrutiny of Gulf funding for extremist networks. politics / religion / war ●●●●

January 2001 First World Social Forum 0 cit. Activists and civil society groups held the first World Social Forum in Brazil as a counterpoint to the World Economic Forum in Davos. It became a recurring gathering for movements critical of corporate globalization. economy / society ●●

December 2001 China joins the World Trade Organization 0 cit. China acceded to the World Trade Organization in December 2001. Membership accelerated its integration into the global economy and its rise as a manufacturing power. economy ●●●●●