- 1978
| Jul 15 | President Carter, in West Germany for an economic summit, presides over a "town meeting" during which he fields questions from about 1000 Berliners. (XDG, p 4A, 7/15/2003) | Ref: 83 |
- 1993
| May 29 | President Clinton taps Republican David Gergen to assume responsibility for White House communications and press operations. (XDG, p 4A, 5/29/2003) | Ref: 83 |
- 1998
| Dec 26 | In his weekly radio address, President Clinton urges Congress to lower blood-alcohol limits to .08%. (XDG, p 4A, 12/26/2003) | Ref: 83 |
- 1999
| Mar 19 | During a White House news conference, President Clinton prepares the nation for airstrikes against Serbian targets following the collapse of Kosovo peace talks in Paris. (XDG, p 4A, 3/19/2004) | Ref: 83 |
- 2000
| Jan 07 | INS Commissioner Doris Meissner ruled that 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez "belongs with his father" and must be returned to Cuba. | Ref: 70 |
| Jan 21 | The grandmothers of Elian Gonzalez traveled to the United States to plead for the boy's return to Cuba. | Ref: 70 |
| Mar 23 | In a first, Speaker Dennis Hastert named a Catholic priest, the Reverend Daniel Coughlin, as the new House chaplain. | Ref: 6 |
| Mar 29 | A federal judge ruled that President Clinton "committed a criminal violation of the Privacy Act" by releasing personal letters to undermine the credibility of Kathleen Willey, one of his accusers. | Ref: 64 |
| Mar 29 | President Clinton told a news conference he was appalled when he first learned his campaign had taken illegal foreign donations in 1996 - contributions he called both wrong and unneeded. | Ref: 64 |
| Mar 29 | For the fourth time since 1989, the U.S. Senate defeated a constitutional amendment that would ban desecration of the U.S. flag -- falling four votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for passage. (CNN, 03/30/2000) | |
| Apr 02 | More than 600 people set out on a five-day, 120-mile protest march to Columbia, S.C., to urge state lawmakers to move the Confederate flag from the Statehouse dome. | Ref: 64 |
| Apr 05 | Ending a two-year investigation, an independent counsel cleared Labor Secretary Alexis Herman of allegations that she'd solicited $250,000 in illegal campaign contributions. | Ref: 64 |
| Apr 06 | The father of Elian Gonzalez, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, arrived in the United States to press for the return of his 6-year-old son to Cuba. | Ref: 70 |
| Apr 08 | The Central Intelligence Agency confirmed that personnel action had been taken following the mistaken bombing of the Chinese embassy during the NATO war against Yugoslavia; one employee was reportedly fired. | Ref: 6 |
| Apr 12 | Attorney General Janet Reno met in Miami with the US relatives of Elian Gonzalez, after which she ordered them to bring the six-year-old boy to an airport the next day so he could be taken to a reunion with his father in Washington. (Elian was seized by federal agents ten days after Reno's order to turn him over.). | Ref: 6 |
| Apr 22 | Five-year-old Elian Gonzalez is seized by the INS in an early morning raid. He returned to Cuba with his father on June 28. | Ref: 4 |
| Apr 23 | In a pre-dawn raid, armed immigration agents seized Elian Gonzalez from his relatives' home in Miami; the 6-year-old boy was reunited with his father at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington. | Ref: 70 |
| Apr 26 | Vermont Gov. Howard Dean signed the nation's first bill allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions. | Ref: 70 |
| Apr 29 | Tens of thousands of angry Cuban-Americans marched peacefully through Miami's Little Havana, protesting the raid in which armed federal agents yanked 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez from the home of relatives. | Ref: 64 |
| May 05 | The Labor Department reported the nation's unemployment rate had hit a 30-year low of three-point-nine percent in April 2000, with blacks and Hispanics recording the lowest jobless rates in history. | Ref: 6 |
| May 10 | A fire, set deliberately to clear brush from the path of a wildfire, was driven by high winds into a New Mexico canyon, forcing the evacuation of the 11,000 residents of Los Alamos. | Ref: 70 |
| May 12 | During visits to Ohio and Minnesota, President Clinton called for open trade with China, saying it would help the communist nation move closer to democracy. | Ref: 6 |
| May 15 | United Press International was sold to the parent company of The Washington Times. | Ref: 6 |
| Jun 03 | President Clinton held talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin on topics including missile defense. | Ref: 6 |
| Jun 04 | President Clinton and Russian President Putin ended their summit by conceding differences on missile defense, agreeing to dispose of weapons-grade plutonium and pledging early warning of missile and space launches. | Ref: 6 |
| Jun 16 | Federal regulators approved the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE Corp., creating the nation's largest local phone company. | Ref: 70 |
| Jun 20 | After a furious last-minute lobbying blitz by the Clinton administration, the Senate voted 57-to-42 to approve legislation making it easier for federal prosecutors to try hate crimes, attaching the measure to a defense authorization bill. (However, the House stripped the hate crimes provision from the defense bill the following October.) | Ref: 6 |
| Jun 21 | North Korea promised to refrain from long-range missile tests after the United States lifted some economic sanctions against it. | Ref: 64 |
| Jun 25 | Live-fire training resumed on the Vieques, Puerto Rico, range in the largest naval exercises since a fatal accident prompted a yearlong occupation by protesters. | Ref: 6 |
| Jun 27 | House Republicans cut a deal to allow direct sales of US food to Cuba for the first time in four decades. | Ref: 64 |
| Jun 28 | 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez returns to Cuba with his father after a seven-month legal battle by US relatives to keep him in the US. He was rescued off the coast of Ft. Lauderdale on November 25th, 1999. (CNN, 06/29/2000) | Ref: 9 |
| Jul 01 | Vermont's civil unions law went into effect, granting gay couples most of the rights, benefits and responsibilities of marriage. | Ref: 70 |
| Jul 01 | The Confederate flag was removed from atop South Carolina's Statehouse. | Ref: 70 |
| Jul 03 | President Clinton made a congratulatory telephone call to Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox, a day after Fox's election. | Ref: 6 |
| Jul 12 | New Hampshire Chief Justice David Brock was impeached by the Legislature, the first such action against an official in the state since 1790. (He was later acquitted in a state Senate trial.) | Ref: 6 |
| Jul 18 | Shrugging off a veto threat from President Clinton, the Senate voted 61-to-38 in favor of eliminating the so-called "marriage penalty" by cutting taxes for virtually every married couple. | Ref: 6 |
| Jul 19 | President Clinton shuttled between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his own experts during peace talks at Camp David after delaying his departure for an economic summit in Japan. | Ref: 6 |
| Jul 23 | President Clinton rejoined the troubled Middle East talks at Camp David after hurrying back from a four-day trip to Asia. | Ref: 6 |
| Jul 24 | Georgia's Democratic former governor Zell Miller was appointed to the late Republican Paul Coverdell's Senate seat. | Ref: 6 |
| Jul 24 | President Clinton continued to mediate the Camp David Mideast summit, meeting with Israeli, Palestinian and US negotiators. | Ref: 6 |
| Aug 15 | Director Freeh revised the FBI disciplinary system to create a single system for all FBI employees, including those in the Senior Executive Service. | Ref: 14 |
| Aug 24 | The Federal Reserve raised borrowing costs for millions of Americans, increasing its target for the federal funds rate by a quarter point to 5.25 percent, and hiking the discount rate a quarter point to 4.75 percent. | Ref: 6 |
| Aug 26 | Attorney General Janet Reno pledged that a new investigation of the 1993 Waco, TX, siege would "get to the bottom" of how the FBI used potentially flammable tear gas grenades against her wishes and then took six years to admit it. | Ref: 6 |
| Sep 01 | President Clinton deferred a decision on whether to develop a missile defense system to his successor. | Ref: 70 |
| Sep 08 | The head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs apologized for the federal agency's "legacy of racism and inhumanity" that included massacres, forced relocations of tribes and attempts to wipe out Indian cultures. | Ref: 70 |
| Sep 10 | The US government began freeing 14 Puerto Rican nationalists granted clemency by President Clinton. | Ref: 6 |
| Sep 11 | President Clinton, attending a conference of Asia-Pacific leaders in New Zealand, demanded that Indonesia allow an international force to restore peace in East Timor. | Ref: 6 |
| Sep 22 | The Justice Department sued the tobacco industry for billions of dollars. | Ref: 6 |
| Sep 23 | President Clinton vetoed the Republicans' $792 billion tax cut bill, calling it "too big, too bloated." | Ref: 6 |
| Oct 12 | A suicide bomb attack on the U.S. destroyer Cole in Yemen killed 17 sailors. | Ref: 70 |
| Dec 14 | President-elect George W. Bush conferred by phone with congressional leaders of both parties and planned a goodwill tour of Washington, D.C.; he also received a flood of congratulatory calls from world leaders on his first full day as president-elect. U.S. businessman Edward Pope was pardoned and released by Russia after being convicted of espionage. The Federal Trade Commission unanimously approved the $111 billion merger of America Online and Time Warner. | Ref: 64 |
| Dec 16 | President-elect George W. Bush selected Colin Powell to become the first African-American secretary of state. | Ref: 70 |
| Dec 17 | President Bush named Stanford professor Condoleezza Rice his national security adviser and TX Supreme Court Justice Alberto Gonzales to the White House counsel's job. | Ref: 64 |
| Dec 20 | President-elect Bush named businessman Paul O'Neill to be his treasury secretary; Ann Veneman to be the first female secretary of agriculture; Mel Martinez to be secretary of housing and urban development; and Don Evans, secretary of commerce. | Ref: 64 |
| Dec 22 | President-elect Bush chose John Ashcroft to be his attorney general. President Clinton granted Christmastime clemency to 62 people, including former U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, who had been convicted of misuse of public funds. | Ref: 64 |
| Dec 22 | President Clinton granted Christmastime clemency to 62 people, including former U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, who had been convicted of misuse of public funds. | Ref: 70 |
| Dec 28 | President-elect George W. Bush selected former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to return to the Pentagon and push for a missile defense plan that was central to the Bush campaign. “This is a man who has great judgment,” Bush said. “He has strong vision and he's going to be a great secretary of defense -- again.” Rumsfeld served as defense secretary under President Ford from 1975 to 1977; before that, he was Ford’s chief of staff, U.S. ambassador to NATO under President Nixon and an IL congressman. | Ref: 4 |
- 2001
| Jan 02 | President-elect Bush tapped Democrat Norman Y. Mineta to be his transportation secretary, Spencer Abraham to be energy secretary and Linda Chavez to be secretary of labor. (However, Chavez ended up withdrawing after it was disclosed she had given money and shelter to an illegal immigrant who once did chores around Chavez's house.) Ships made the first legal and direct crossing between China and Taiwan in more than half a century. Former Attorney General and Secretary of State William P. Rogers died in Bethesda, Md., at age 87. | Ref: 64 |
| Jan 05 | In a blizzard of last-minute executive orders, President Clinton curtailed road-building and logging on federal forest land. | Ref: 64 |
| Jan 05 | The FBI publicly announced the National InfraGuard program in the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center. The program centers on securely sharing information about computer intrusions and intrusion threats between business and law enforcement so that the confidentiality of potentially affected businesses is protected. | Ref: 14 |
| Jan 09 | Linda Chavez withdrew her bid to be secretary of labor because of controversy over an illegal immigrant who once lived with her. | Ref: 70 |
| Jan 10 | President-elect Bush moved quickly in search of a new candidate for labor secretary after the abrupt withdrawal of his first choice, Linda Chavez. | Ref: 64 |
| Jan 11 | President-elect George W. Bush chose Elaine Chao to be secretary of labor after Linda Chavez withdrew. | Ref: 70 |
| Jan 11 | State of California runs out of electricity; energy demands from high technology bring major cuts. | Ref: 10 |
| Jan 17 | Faced with an electricity crisis, California uses rolling blackouts to cut off power to hundreds of thousands of people. Gov. Gray Davis signed an emergency order authorizing the state to buy power. | Ref: 70 |
| Jan 22 | President George W. Bush signed a memorandum reinstating full abortion restrictions on U.S. overseas aid. | Ref: 70 |
| Mar 08 | The Republican-controlled House voted for an across-the-board tax cut of nearly $1 trillion over the next decade, handing President Bush a major victory only 48 days into his term. | Ref: 70 |
| Mar 19 | California officials declared a power alert, ordering the first of two days of rolling blackouts. | Ref: 70 |
| Mar 27 | California regulators approved electricity rate hikes of up to 46 percent. | Ref: 70 |
| Mar 28 | A federal appeals court in San Francisco threw out a record $107M verdict against anti-abortion activists, ruling that a Web site and wanted posters branding abortion doctors as "baby butchers" and criminals were protected by the First Amendment. (Xenia Daily Gazette, p.4a, 3/28/2002) | Ref: 4 |
| Apr 25 | Federal regulators ordered limited price controls on CA wholesale electricity markets. | Ref: 70 |
| May 24 | Democrats gain control of the US Senate when Vermont Senator James Jefforts abandons the Republican Party and declares himself independent. (XDG, p 4A, 5/24/2002) | Ref: 83 |
| Jun 02 | Louis J. Freeh retired as Director of the FBI. | Ref: 14 |
| Jun 06 | Democrats assumed control of the U.S. Senate when Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont left the Republican Party to become an independent. | Ref: 70 |
| Jul 05 | President George W. Bush named veteran prosecutor Robert Mueller to head the FBI. | Ref: 70 |
| Jul 24 | The city of Detroit, Michigan celebrates its 300th anniversary with a historical reenactment of city founder Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac landing on the shores of the Detroit River. Included in the tricentennial party, the unveiling of a statue of Cadillac: a gift of the French-American Chamber of Commerce to the city of Detroit. Happy birthday Motor City! | Ref: 4 |
| Sep 04 | Former U. S. Attorney Robert S. Mueller, III, took the oath of office as FBI Director. He had been nominated by President George W. Bush in June 2001 and unanimously confirmed by the Senate on August 2. | Ref: 14 |
| Sep 06 | Mexican President Vicente Fox addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress. | Ref: 70 |
| Sep 12 | President George W. Bush labeled the previous day's terrorist attacks "acts of war" and asked Congress for $20 billion to rebuild and recover. | Ref: 70 |
| Sep 15 | President George W. Bush identified Osama bin Laden as the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and told Americans to prepare for a long, difficult war against terrorism. | Ref: 70 |
| Oct 08 | Former PA Gov. Tom Ridge was sworn in as director of the new Office of Homeland Security. | Ref: 70 |
| Oct 10 | (Afghan Conflict) AF MSG Evander Andrews dies in a heavy equipment accident in Qatar, in support of the Afghan operation. (USA Today, p 7A, 1/21/2002) | Ref: 13 |
| Oct 19 | Two Army Rangers were killed in a helicopter crash in Pakistan in the first combat-related American deaths of the military campaign in Afghanistan. | Ref: 70 |
| Oct 19 | (Afghan Conflict) Two US Army Rangers die when their Blackhawk helicopter crashes in Pakistan. (USA Today, p 7A, 1/21/2002) | Ref: 13 |
| Oct 26 | President Bush signed the USA Patriot Act. This anti-terrorism law provided the FBI with additional resources to hire new agents and critical support personnel, employ court approved wiretaps against potential terrorists more easily, seek additional information about potential terrorists more easily, share criminal investigative information with counterterrorism investigators in other government officials, and work with other government agencies to secure our borders and attack international money laundering. | Ref: 14 |
| Nov 07 | (Afghan Conflict) Fireman apprentice Bryant Davis falls overboard from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk in the Arabian Sea. (USA Today, p 7A, 1/21/2002) | Ref: 13 |
| Nov 14 | (Afghan Conflict) Eight foreign aid workers including two Americans - who were accused of preaching Christianity in Afghanistan were freed by the Taliban. | Ref: 70 |
| Nov 16 | Congress passed an aviation security bill mandating that airport screeners be federal employees. | Ref: 70 |
| Nov 18 | Phillips Petroleum Co. and Conoco Inc. announced they were merging in a deal that created the third-largest U.S. oil and gas company. | Ref: 70 |
| Nov 19 | President Bush signed legislation to put airport baggage screeners on the federal payroll. | Ref: 70 |
| Nov 25 | (Afghan Conflict) CIA officer Johnny "Mike" Spann, 32, of Manassas Park VA, is the first US combat casualty, killed in a prison uprising in Mazar-e-Sharif. (USA Today, p 7A, 1/21/2002) | Ref: 13 |
| Nov 28 | Enron, once the world's largest energy trader, collapses after would be rescuer Dynegy Inc backed out of an $8.4B deal to take it over. (XDG, p 4A, 11/28/2002) | Ref: 83 |
| Nov 30 | (Afghan Conflict) Officials say an Army soldier in Uzbekistan dies of a gunshot that was not enemy fire. (USA Today, p 7A, 1/21/2002) | Ref: 13 |
| Dec 02 | In one of the largest corporate bankruptcies in US history, Enron files for Chapter 11 protection. | Ref: 70 |
| Dec 03 | Director Mueller ordered the reorganization of FBI Headquarters operations to respond to a revised agency mission that emphasized terrorism prevention, internal accountability, and strengthened partnerships with domestic and international law enforcement. This reorganization created a Security Division, a Cyber-Crime Division, and put renewed emphasis on records management and law enforcement services and cooperation. | Ref: 14 |
| Dec 05 | (Afghan Conflict) Three Green Berets are killed and 19 are wounded when a US bomb misses its target near Kandahar. (USA Today, p 7A, 1/21/2002) | Ref: 13 |
| Dec 13 | President George W. Bush served formal notice that the United States was pulling out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia. | Ref: 70 |
| Dec 27 | President George W. Bush extended permanent normal trade status to China. | Ref: 70 |
| Dec 31 | The United States finally agreed to sign a treaty creating the world's first permanent international war crimes tribunal, joining most other countries of the world. | Ref: 6 |
- 2002
| Jan 04 | (Afghan Conflict) SFC Nathan Ross Chapman, 31, of San Antonio TX, dies in an ambush near Khost after a meeting with tribal leaders. (USA Today, p 7A, 1/21/2002) | Ref: 13 |
| Jan 09 | (Afghan Conflict) Seven US Marines dies when their KC-130 aerial tanker crashes into a mountain in southwest Pakistan while landing in Shamsi. (USA Today, p 7A, 1/21/2002) | Ref: 13 |
| Jan 11 | The first planeload of al-Qaida prisoners arrive at the US military detention camp at Guantanamo, Cuba. (XDG, p 4A, 1/11/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Jan 23 | President Bush proposes the largest defense spending increase in 20 years. (XDG, p 4A, 1/23/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Jan 28 | Hamid Karzani becomes the first Afghan leader to visit Washington DC in 39 years. (XDG, p 4A, 1/28/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Jan 28 | (Afghan Conflict) Afghan troops backed by US Special Forces, storm a hospital ward in Kandahar, killing six al-Qaida gunmen who had repeatedly refused to surrender. (XDG, p 4A, 1/28/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Jan 29 | In his first State of the Union address, President GW Bush said terrorists were still threatening America. He warned that an "axis of evil' consisting of North Korea, Iraq and Iran. (XDG, p 4A, 1/29/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Feb 14 | The House votes to ban unregulated contributions to national political parties. (XDG, p 4A, 2/14/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Feb 16 | The operator of a crematory in Noble, Ga., was arrested after dozens of decomposing corpses were found stacked in storage sheds and scattered around the building and surrounding woods. | Ref: 70 |
| Feb 17 | The new Transportation Security Administration took over supervision of aviation security from the airline industry and the Federal Aviation Administration. | Ref: 70 |
| Mar 05 | President Bush slaps punishing tariffs of 8% to 30% on several types of imported steel in an effort to aid the ailing steel industry. (XDG, p 4A, 3/05/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Mar 07 | The US House of Representatives passed, 417-to-3, a bill cutting taxes and extending unemployment benefits. (XDG, p 4A, 3/07/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Mar 26 | Arthur Anderson CEO, Joseph Berardino resigns, bowing to pressure as a result of the accounting firm's role in the Enron scandal. (XDG, p 4A, 3/26/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Mar 26 | President GW Bush nominates Dr. Richard Carmona to be Surgeon General. (XDG, p 4A, 3/26/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Apr 07 | (Afghan Conflict) Two US pilots drop a bomb in Afghanistan accidentally killing four Canadians. Subsequently, lawyers for the pilots will argue that the pilots were given amphetiamines to help keep them awake before the mission and anti-depressants after the mission. (XDG, p. 14, 1/15/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Apr 09 | Former Arthur Andersen auditor David B. Duncan pleaded guilty in federal court in Houston to ordering the shredding of Enron documents, and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. | Ref: 70 |
| Apr 18 | Four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan were killed when they were mistakenly bombed by an American F-16 pilot. | Ref: 70 |
| Apr 23 | President Bush's top White House aide, Karen Hughes, resigned to go home to Texas with her family. | Ref: 70 |
| May 26 | President Bush visits Paris where he meets with French President Jacques Chriac. (XDG, p 4A, 5/26/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Jun 03 | President Bush, in Little Rock AR, to promote his welfare initiative, said intelligence agencies and the FBI had to do a better job of tracking and catching terrorist, emphasizing pursuit of "this shadowy enemy". (XDG, p 4A, 6/03/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Jun 18 | President GW Bush sends to Congress his detailed proposal for the creation of a new Homeland Security Department. (XDG, p 4A, 6/18/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Jun 18 | Jesse Ventura (Gov-MN-Ind) announces he will not seek a second term. (XDG, p 4A, 6/18/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Jun 30 | Leonard Gregg, a part-time firefighter, was charged with starting one of the two wildfires that merged into a monstrous blaze in eastern Arizona. | Ref: 70 |
| Jul 15 | John Walker Lindh, an American who had fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan, pleaded guilty to two felonies in a deal sparing him life imprisonment. (XDG, p 4A, 7/15/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Jul 18 | Bob Pitman steps down as COO of AOL Time Warner in a shake-up at the world's largest media company. (XDG, p 4A, 7/18/2003) | Ref: 1 |
| Jul 21 | Telecommunications giant WorldCom Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection, about a month after disclosing it had inflated profits by nearly $4 billion through deceptive accounting. | Ref: 70 |
| Jul 24 | Nine coal miners were trapped in a flooded mine in western Pennsylvania; they were rescued three days later. | Ref: 70 |
| Jul 25 | Encouraged by a tiny tapping sound coming up from the depths, rescuers in Somerset PA brought in a huge drill in a race to save nine coal miners trapped 240 feet underground by a flooded shaft. (XDG, p 4A, 7/25/2002) | Ref: 83 |
| Jul 28 | Nine coal miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset, Pa., were rescued after 77 hours underground. | Ref: 70 |
| Aug 07 | Former ImClone Systems chief executive Samuel Waksal was indicted in New York on charges of obstruction of justice and bank fraud in addition to previous securities fraud and perjury charges. | Ref: 70 |
| Aug 23 | New York publicist Lizzie Grubman pleaded guilty in a hit-and-run crash that injured 16 people outside a Hamptons nightclub. | Ref: 70 |
| Sep 03 | The US Senate opened debate on legislation creating a new Homeland Security Department. (XDG, p 4A, 9/03/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Sep 06 | Meeting outside Washington D.C., for only the second time since 1800, Congress convened in New York to pay homage to the victims and heroes of Sept. 11, 2001. | Ref: 70 |
| Sep 10 | Florida's first big test of its new elections system turned into a nightmare as polling stations opened late and problems cropped up with new touchscreen voting machines. | Ref: 70 |
| Sep 12 | President George W. Bush told skeptical world leaders at the United Nations to confront the "grave and gathering danger" of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, or to stand aside as the United States acted. | Ref: 70 |
| Sep 12 | Three former Tyco International Ltd. executives were charged with looting the conglomerate of hundreds of millions of dollars; all three pleaded innocent at their arraignment in New York. | Ref: 70 |
| Sep 30 | USA Today reports on page 7A that Pat Mink (D-HA) will be on the November 5th ballot seeking her 13th term in Congress even though she is dead. Due to a fluke in the law, officials cannot remove her from the ballot. If she wins, her seat will remain vacant only until January 3rd, 2003, the end of her current term. | Ref: 13 |
| Sep 30 | New Jersey Sen. Robert Torricelli abruptly ended his scandal-tainted re-election campaign just five weeks before the election, leaving Democrats scrambling for a candidate. | Ref: 70 |
| Oct 24 | USA Today reports on page 1A that the air marshall morale is low enough to cause a mass exodus. This is due to the long hours and consecutive days of work assigned to the marshalls. | Ref: 13 |
| Oct 24 | USA Today reports on page 6A that anthrax shots required in the military are either the primary cause or a major cause of an exodus from the National Guard and the Reserves. Eighty-five percent of the innoculants report adverse effects from the controversial medication. | Ref: 13 |
| Nov 05 | (California Recall) Gray Davis wins re-election as California's governor over Republican challenger William Simon. (WSJ, p A4, 8/07/2003) | Ref: 33 |
| Nov 05 | In midterm elections, Republicans win control of both houses and claimed a majority of the governors' races. (XDG, p 4A, 11/05/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Nov 07 | In his first news conference since the midterm elections, President GW Bush said that homeland security came first and an economic recovery with new tax cuts will wait until next year. (XDG, p 4A, 11/07/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Nov 09 | Vice President Al Gore and Ross Perot debate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on CNN's "Larry King Live". (The Greene County Sunday Shopper (AP), p 2, 11/09/2003) | |
| Nov 16 | (and 17th) The FBI raids the National Century Financial Enterprise headquarters in Dublin, OH based on an apparent misuse of $300M of reserve funds. (USA Today, p 1B, 11/19/2002) | Ref: 13 |
| Nov 19 | The US Senate, on a 90-9 vote, approves the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. (XDG, p 4A, 11/19/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Nov 25 | President Bush signs legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security, and appointed Tom Ridge to be its head. (XDG, p 4A, 11/25/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Nov 26 | WorldCom and the government settled a civil lawsuit over the company's $9 billion accounting scandal. | Ref: 70 |
| Nov 27 | The Boy Scouts of America announces it will require criminal background checks for new volunteers beginning in 2003. (XDG, p 11A, 11/29/2002) | Ref: 83 |
| Dec 05 | Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-N.C., the oldest and longest-serving senator in history, celebrated his 100th birthday. At a celebration on Capitol Hill, Senate Republican leader Trent Lott praised Thurmond's pro-segregation 1948 presidential campaign, a gaffe that led to Lott's resignation from his leadership position. | Ref: 70 |
| Dec 06 | President George W. Bush pushed Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and economic adviser Larry Lindsey from their jobs in a Cabinet shake-up. | Ref: 70 |
| Dec 09 | President George W. Bush tapped railroad executive John W. Snow to be his new Treasury secretary, three days after firing Paul O'Neill. | Ref: 70 |
| Dec 11 | The US lets an intercepted shipment of North Korean missles proceed to the Persian Gulf country of Yeman a day after the vessel was detained. (XDG, p 4A, 12/11/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Dec 12 | President GW Bush publicly rebukes Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott for his statement that appeared to embrace the half-century old segregationist politics, calling it "offensive" and "wrong". (XDG, p 4A, 12/12/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Dec 13 | Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger steps down as chairman of a panel investigating the September 11 attacks, citing controversy over potential conflicts of interest with his private sector clients. (XDG, p 4A, 12/13/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Dec 16 | Senate Republican leader, in an interview on Black Entertainment Television, asked black Americans to forgive his seeming nostalgia for segregation. (XDG, p 4A, 12/16/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Dec 16 | President Bush names former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean to replace Henry Kissinger as head of the panel investigating the September 11 attacks. (XDG, p 4A, 12/16/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Dec 18 | Embattled Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott sustained a double-barreled setback as Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee broke ranks to call for a change in party leadership and Secretary of State Colin Powell forcefully criticized Lott's controversial remarks on race. (XDG, p 4A, 12/18/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Dec 20 | Trent Lott resigned as Senate Republican leader two weeks after igniting a political firestorm with racially charged remarks. | Ref: 70 |
| Dec 20 | The nation's 10 biggest brokerages agreed to pay $1.44 billion and fundamentally change the way they did business to settle allegations they'd misled investors by hyping certain companies' stocks. | Ref: 70 |
| Dec 23 | Senate Republicans unanimously elected Bill Frist to succeed Trent Lott as their leader in the next Congress. | Ref: 70 |
| Dec 26 | A West Virginia man wins $314.9M Powerall lottery jackpot, believed to be the largest single-ticket prize in history. (XDG, p 4A, 12/26/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Dec 29 | Secretary of State Colin Powell, making the rounds of the Sunday television talk shows, said there was still time to find a diplomatic solution to North Korea's development of nuclear weapons, and that the situation had not yet reached the critical stage. (XDG, p 4A, 12/29/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Dec 31 | Emerging from holiday seclusion at his Texas ranch, President Bush tells reporters an attack by Saddam Hussein or a terrorist ally "would cripple our economy". (XDG, p 4A, 12/31/2003) | Ref: 83 |
- 2003
| Jan 02 | President Bush, seeking to counter Democratic criticisms that his economic policies favored the rich, said the economic-stimulus plan he was going to unveil would focus on jobs and the unemployed. (XDG, p 4A, 1/02/2004) | Ref: 83 |
| Jan 08 | A federal appeals court ruled that President Bush could order US citizens captured overseas indefinitely detained as enemy combatants without the rights normally afforded citizens charged in criminal cases. (XDG, p 4A, 1/08/2004) | Ref: 83 |
| Jan 08 | President GW Bush signs hastily passed legislation extending unemployment benefits for 2˝ million victims of a weak economy. (XDG, p 4A, 1/08/2004) | Ref: 83 |
| Jan 15 | A Texas Tech professor is arrested on a complaint of giving false information to the FBI. (Authorities said that Thomas C Butler had reported that vials containing deadly bacteria were missing when, in fact, he had destroyed them. Butler was later acquitted at trial of the most serious charges against him, including lying to the FBI.) (XDG, p 4A, 1/15/2004) | Ref: 83 |
| Jan 16 | AOL Time Warner chief executive was tapped to be the media conglomerate's new chairman, succeeding Steve Case. (XDG, p 4A, 1/16/2004) | Ref: 83 |
| Jan 20 | (Afghan Conflict) Two US marines are killed when their helicopter crashes in the mountains southeast of Kabul. (USA Today, p 7A, 1/21/2002) | Ref: 13 |
| Jan 21 | The Census Bureau announced that Hispanics had surpassed blacks as America's largest minority group. | Ref: 70 |
| Jan 24 | The new Department of Homeland Security officially opened as its head, Tom Ridge, was sworn in. | Ref: 70 |
| Jan 29 | The Congressional Budget Office predicted the current year's federal deficit would soar to $199B even without President Bush's new tax cut plan or war against Iraq. (XDG, p 4A, 1/29/2004) | Ref: 83 |
| Feb 09 | The US Navy ends its last planned bombing exercises on Puerto Rico's Vieques Islands. (XDG, p 4A, 2/09/2004) | Ref: 83 |
| Feb 18 | More than 300 Wright-Patterson AFB reservists assigned to the 445th Airlift Wing have received activation orders in preparation for possible deployment. The initial active duty period is 12 months. More than 150,000 reservists and National Guard have been activated in recent months. (XDG, p 1A, 2/18/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Mar 22 | US forces report seizing a large weapons cache in Afghanistan. (XDG, p 5A, 3/22/2004) | Ref: 83 |
| Mar 25 | The US Senate votes to slash President Bush's proposed $726B tax-cutting package in half, handing the president a defeat on the foundation of his plan to awaken the nation's slumbering economy. (XDG, p 4A, 3/25/2004) | Ref: 83 |
| Mar 26 | (California Recall) Republican mavericks begin a petition drive to recall California Governor Gray Davis amid reports of rising state budget deficits. (WSJ, p A4, 8/07/2003) | Ref: 33 |
| Apr 10 | The House passed a bill creating a national Amber Alert system and strengthening child pornography laws. | Ref: 70 |
| Apr 25 | Georgia lawmakers voted to scrap the Dixie cross from the state's flag. | Ref: 70 |
| Apr 30 | The U.S. Navy withdrew from its disputed Vieques bombing range in Puerto Rico. | Ref: 70 |
| May 06 | (California Recall) Wealthy Republican Rep Darrell Issa offers a cash infusion to recall California Governor Gray Davis, evemtia;;u reaching $1.7M. (WSJ, p A4, 8/07/2003) | Ref: 33 |
| May 10 | The New York Times announced on its Web site that one of its reporters, Jayson Blair, had "committed frequent acts of journalistic fraud," according to an investigation conducted by the paper. | Ref: 70 |
| May 12 | Fifty-nine Democratic lawmakers brought the Texas House to a standstill by going into hiding in a dispute over a Republican congressional redistricting plan. | Ref: 70 |
| May 13 | USA Today reports on page 1B that "the IRS is poised to begin using private debt collectors to snag some of the $76B in taxes going uncollected". | Ref: 13 |
| May 15 | Texas Democrats boarded two buses and returned home after a self-imposed four-day exile in Oklahoma that temporarily succeeded in killing a redistricting plan they opposed. | Ref: 70 |
| May 19 | WorldCom Incorporated agreed to pay investors $500 million to settle civil fraud charges. | Ref: 70 |
| May 21 | Christie Whitman resigned as Environmental Protection Agency administrator. | Ref: 70 |
| May 23 | Congress sent President Bush the third tax cut of his presidency -- a $330 billion package of rebates and lower rates for families and new breaks for businesses and investors. | Ref: 70 |
| May 28 | President Bush signed a 10-year, $350 billion package of tax cuts, saying they already were "adding fuel to an economic recovery." | Ref: 70 |
| Jun 04 | Martha Stewart steps down as head of her media empire, hours after federal prosecutors in New York charged her with obstruction of justice, conspiracy, securities fraud and lying to investigators. | Ref: 70 |
| Jun 16 | Twelve people sent to prison as the result of a drug bust in Tulia TX are released on bail by a judge who said they'd been railroaded by an undercover agent. (Texas governor Rick Perry later pardons 35 people.) (XDG, p 4A, 6/16/2004) | Ref: 83 |
| Jul 02 | (California Recall) "Terminator 3" opens as action star Arnold Schwartzenegger hints he may run for California Governor in a recall election as a Republican. (WSJ, p A4, 8/07/2003) | Ref: 33 |
| Jul 13 | The New York Times names Bill Keller as Executive Editor. (WSJ, p B1, 7/15/2003) | Ref: 33 |
| Jul 16 | Charles O. Prince is named CEO of Citicorp, effective January 1, 2004. (WSJ, p C1, 7/17/2003) | Ref: 33 |
| Jul 23 | (California Recall) California election officials declare that California Governor Gray Davis' recall backers have amassed 897,158 signatures needed to force a recall election. (WSJ, p A4, 8/07/2003) | Ref: 33 |
| Jul 31 | The IRS mails out tax credit checks as part of a $350B tax cut package. (XDG, p 1, 7/31/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Aug 06 | (California Recall) Arnold Schwartzenegger declares his candidacy for governer of California. He announces his candidacy on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. | |
| Aug 06 | (California Recall) Dianne Feinstein (Sen-D-CA) helps California Governor Gray Davis by eschewing a recall candidacy. Political pundit Arianna Huffington enters the race as an independent. (WSJ, p A4, 8/07/2003) | Ref: 33 |
| Aug 09 | (California Recall) This is the deadline for candidates to turn in a $3500 filing fee and 65 petition signatures needed to place their names on the recall ballot. (WSJ, p A4, 8/07/2003) | Ref: 33 |
| Sep 01 | The Muscular Dystrophy Telethon raises $60.5M. (XDG, p 3A, 9/22/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Oct 07 | (California Recall) Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger wins the California governorship as Californians recall sitting Governor Gray Davis. (USA Today, p 1A, 10/08/2003) | Ref: 13 |
| Oct 07 | A federal appeals court orders the Federal Trade Commission to begin enforcing the National Do Not Call Registry, a registry that offers citizens protection against unwanted telemarketing calls. (USA Today, p 1B, 10/08/2003) | Ref: 13 |
| Nov 07 | Dick Gephardt steps down as the House Democratic leader in the wake of his party's election losses. (XDG, p 4A, 11/07/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Nov 17 | (California Recall) Actor Arnold Schwartzenegger, 56, is sworn in as the 38th governor of California, following the recall of former Governor Gray Davis. (XDG, p 5A, 11/18/2003) | Ref: 83 |
| Dec 17 | George Ryan (ex-Gov-IL-R), who gained national prominence when he declared a moratorium on Illinois' death penalty, is indicted on federal racketeering, fraud and conspiracy charges. (USA Today, p 3A, 12/18/2003) | Ref: 13 |
| Dec 18 | The US Census Bureau reports that the population grew an estimated 1% or 2.8M to 290.8M in the 12 months that ended July 1, 2003. (USA Today, p 3A, 12/19/2003) | Ref: 13 |
- 2004
| Jan 01 | Charles O. Prince assumes the roll of CEO of Citicorp. (WSJ, p C1, 7/17/2003) | Ref: 33 |
| Jan 01 | US population: 292,287,454, and increase of 1% in the past year, according to the Census Bureau. (USA Today, p 1D, 12/31/2003) | Ref: 13 |
| Jan 11 | Ohio becomes the 46th state to permit concealed weapons to be carried by duly licensed civilians. (XDG, p 1, 1/12/2004) | Ref: 83 |
| Feb 17 | The US Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit deems the National Do Not Call Registry constitutional and said it "directly advances the government's important interests in safeguarding personal privacy and reducing the danger of telemarketing abuse". (USA Today, p B1, 2/18/2004) | Ref: 13 |
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US History from 2000 Chronology