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Top Song(s)
• Kylie Minogue - Can't Get You Out of My Head
• Alicia Keys - Fallin'
• LeAnn Rimes - Can't Fight the Moonlight
• OutKast - Ms Jackson
• Shaggy - Angel
Top Film(s)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• Spirited Away
• Ocean's Eleven
• Monsters, Inc.
• Amélie
Best Selling Book(s)
• The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafón
• American Gods - Neil Gaiman
• Atonement - Ian McEwan
• Life of Pi - Yann Martel
• Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris
Famous Deaths
• January 12 - Bill Hewlett, American engineer and businessman (co-founder Hewlett-Packard)
• February 10 - Abraham Beame, American politician (Mayor of New York City, 1974-44, 1st Jewish mayor)
• March 4 - Harold Stassen, American politician (25th Governor of Minnesota)
• April 5 - Malcolm Shepherd [2nd Baron Shepherd], Politician and Leader of the House of Lords (1974-76)
• May 12 - (Pierino) Perry Como, American singer ("Catch A Falling Star") and TV personality
• June 1 - Queen Aiswarya of Nepal
• July 1 - Nicolay G. Basov, Soviet physicist who specialized in quantum electronics (laser, maser) and 1964 Nobel laureate
• August 5 - Otema Allimadi, Prime Minister of Uganda
• September 5 - Justin Wilson, American Cajun chef (Wise Potato Chips) and humorist
• October 9 - Abolhassan Banisadr, Iranian politician, President of Iran (1980-81)
Medical/Science/Technology
• NASA's Genesis spacecraft is launched.
• The Hubble Space Telescope detects sodium in the atmosphere of HD 209458 b.
• The first animal from an endangered species produced by cloning, a gaur named Noah.
• Linda Partridge and colleagues publish their identification of the role of a specific gene in animal ageing.
• Production of a capsule-based fiber-reinforced polymer composite self-healing material is announced.
• Wikipedia launches on the internet.
• Chatterbot Eugene Goostman is developed.
• The world's first self-contained artificial heart is implanted in Robert Tools in the United States.
• Adult-onset basal ganglia disease caused by Ferritin light chain (FTL) mutations is described.
• The C# programming language specification is released.
Political
• January 16 - President Bill Clinton awards Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service during the Spanish–American War.
• January 18 – President Bill Clinton delivers his farewell address to the nation.
• January 20 – George W. Bush is sworn in as the 43rd president of the United States.
• February 27 – President Bush delivers his first address to the 107th Congress.
• March 28 – The Bush administration withdraws U.S. support for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on the reduction of greenhouse gases.
• June 5 – U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords leaves the Republican Party, an act which changes control of the United States Senate.
• June 7 – The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 is signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush.
• August 2 – The House of Representatives approves oil exploration in the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
• August 9 – President Bush announces his limited support for federal funding of research on embryonic stem cells.
• October 8 – U.S. President George W. Bush announces the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security.
National
• January 11 – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission approves the merger of America Online and Time Warner to form AOL Time Warner.
• January 15 - UK children's stop motion animated series Bob the Builder starts its American debut for the first time on Nick Jr.
• February 18 - NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt dies in a last lap crash in the 43rd annual Daytona 500.
• February 18 - FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested and charged with spying for Russia for 15 years.
• April 21 – The small Kansas town of Hoisington is hit by an F4 tornado, destroying one-third of the city and killing one.
• June 20 – Andrea Yates drowns her five children in a bath tub in Houston, Texas.
• August 28 – The U.S. governors of New England agree with the Quebec and Atlantic Canadian premiers to the Climate Change Action Plan 2001.
• September 4 – Robert Mueller becomes the FBI's director.
• October 8 – U.S. President George W. Bush announces the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security.
• October 26 – U.S. President George W. Bush signs the USA PATRIOT Act into law.
Worldwide
• January 1 – Greece becomes the 12th country to join the Eurozone.
• February 13 – A 6.6-magnitude earthquake hits El Salvador, killing at least 315 people.
• March 16 – Shijiazhuang bombings: 108 people are killed in a series of bombings in Shijiazhuang, China.
• April 26 - Junichiro Koizumi becomes the 86th Prime Minister of Japan.
• May 24 – Sherpa Temba Tsheri, 15, becomes the youngest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
• June 15 – Declaration to establish the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is signed.
• July 13 – The International Olympic Committee chooses Beijing to host the 2008 Summer Olympics.
• September 27 – Zug massacre: In Zug, Switzerland, Friedrich Leibacher shoots 18 people, killing 14 of them and then himself.
• October 25 - To avoid connotations with the Rwandan genocide, the government of Rwanda adopts a new national flag for the country.
• December 8 – An Ebola outbreak is confirmed in Gabon.