2001 in the United States

• President: Bill Clinton (D-Arkansas) (until January 20), George W. Bush (R-Texas) (starting January 20)
• Vice President: Al Gore (D-Tennessee) (until January 20), Dick Cheney (R-Wyoming) (starting January 20)
• Chief Justice: William Rehnquist (Wisconsin)[1]
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois)
• Senate Majority Leader:
  • until January 3: Trent Lott (R-Mississippi)
  • January 3–January 20: Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota)
  • January 20–June 6: Trent Lott (R-Mississippi)
  • starting June 6: Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota)
• Congress: 106th (until January 3), 107th (starting January 3)

January 20: George W. Bush becomes President

• January 1 – A black monolith measuring 270 cm (8.9 ft) tall appears in Seattle's Magnuson Park, placed by an anonymous artist in reference to the monolith from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
• January 2 – Sila Calderón becomes the first female governor of US territory Puerto Rico.
• January 10 – Nevada County shootings: In Nevada County, California, 40-year-old Scott Harlan Thorpe kills three people in a shooting spree. He is later found incompetent to stand trial and declared not guilty by reason of insanity.
• January 11 – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission approves the merger of America Online and Time Warner to form AOL Time Warner.
• January 16
  • President Bill Clinton awards former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service during the Spanish–American War; 11 of Roosevelt's descendants accept on his behalf.
  • A man drives a semi-trailer truck into the side of the California State Capitol building, killing the driver and damaging the building's interior.[2]
• 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.
• January 22–24 – The "Texas Seven", a group of convicts who escaped from the John B. Connally Unit in Texas, are found in Colorado.
• January 26 – Lacrosse player and coach Diane Whipple is killed by two Presa Canarios named Bane and Hera, owned by her neighbors and attorneys Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel.
• January 28 – Super Bowl XXXV: The Baltimore Ravens defeat the New York Giants 34–7, winning their first Super Bowl title.

• February 9 – The submarine USS Greeneville (SSN-772) accidentally strikes and sinks the Japanese fishing vessel Ehime-Maru near Hawaii.
• February 16 – Iraq disarmament crisis: British and U.S. forces carry out bombing raids, attempting to disable Iraq's air defense network.
• February 18
  • NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt dies in a last lap crash in the 43rd annual Daytona 500.
  • FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested and charged with spying for Russia for 15 years.
• February 19 – An Oklahoma City bombing museum is dedicated at the Oklahoma City National Memorial.
• February 23 – Isla Vista massacre: In Isla Vista, California, David Attias drives a car into five pedestrians, killing four and critically injuring one. He is later convicted of murder and declared legally insane.
• February 28 – The 6.8 M_w Nisqually earthquake shook the Puget Sound region of western Washington with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), causing 1 death, 400 injuries, and 1 to US$4 billion in losses.

• March – The United States enters the early 2000s recession; the unemployment rate rises to 4.4%.
• March 25 – The 73rd Academy Awards, hosted by Steve Martin, are held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, with Gladiator winning Best Picture.
• March 28 – The Bush administration withdraws U.S. support for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on the reduction of greenhouse gases.[3]

• April 1 – A Chinese fighter jet collides with a U.S. EP-3E surveillance aircraft, forcing it to make an emergency landing in Hainan, China. The U.S. crew is detained for 10 days, and the F-8 Chinese pilot goes missing and is presumed dead.
• April 7 – Timothy Thomas, a 19-year-old African-American, is shot by a police officer in Cincinnati, sparking riots in downtown Cincinnati from April 10 to April 12.
• April 21 – The small Kansas town of Hoisington is hit by an F4 tornado destroying one-third of the city and killing one.
• April 28 – Soyuz TM-32 lifts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, carrying the first space tourist, American Dennis Tito.

• May 6 – Space tourist Dennis Tito returns to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-31. (Soyuz TM-32 is left docked at the International Space Station as a new lifeboat.)

June 5–9: Flooding in Houston from Tropical Storm Allison

• June 5 – U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords leaves the Republican Party, an act which changes control of the United States Senate from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party.
• June 5–9 – Tropical Storm Allison produces 36 inches (900 mm) of rain in Houston, Texas, killing 22, damaging the Texas Medical Center, and causing more than US$5 billion of damage.
• June 7 – The Bush tax cuts are signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush.
• June 9 – The Colorado Avalanche wins their second Stanley Cup, and Ray Bourque wins his first Cup after a lengthy career.
• June 11 – In Terre Haute, Indiana, Timothy McVeigh is executed for the Oklahoma City bombing.
• June 19 – A missile hits a soccer field in Tal Afar, Iraq, killing 23 and wounding 11. The Iraqi government claims it was an American-British airstrike; U.S. officials say it was actually an Iraqi missile that malfunctioned.[4]

• July 9 – The Thirty Mile Fire ignites in Okanogan County, Washington. Four firefighters die while battling the blaze.
• July 16 – The FBI arrests Dmitry Sklyarov at a convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, for violating a provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
• July 18 – In Baltimore, Maryland, a 60-car train derailment occurs in a tunnel, sparking a fire that lasts days and virtually shuts down downtown Baltimore.

• August 1 – Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has a 2.5-short-ton (2,300 kg) monument of the Ten Commandments installed in the Rotunda of the Judiciary Building. He is later sued to have it removed, and is eventually removed from office.
• August 2 – The House of Representatives approves oil exploration in the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.[3]
• August 9 – U.S. President George W. Bush announces his limited support for federal funding of research on embryonic stem cells.
• August 25 – U.S. singer Aaliyah dies in a plane crash in the Bahamas.
• 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 11: 9/11 attacks

• September 1 – The libertarian Free State Project is founded at Yale University.
• September 4 – Robert Mueller becomes the FBI's director.
• September 6 – United States v. Microsoft: The United States Justice Department announces that it no longer seeks to break up software maker Microsoft, and will instead seek a lesser antitrust penalty.
• September 11 – 9/11 attacks: Almost 3,000 people are killed in four suicide attacks at the World Trade Center in New York City; the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia; and in rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania.[3] The attack launches the global War on Terrorism.
• September 15 – The Queen Isabella Causeway in Texas collapses after being hit by a tugboat, killing eight.
• September 18 – A series of anthrax attacks commence as anthrax letters are mailed from Princeton, New Jersey to ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, the New York Post, and the National Enquirer.

October 7: The War in Afghanistan begins

• October 3 – 2001 Greyhound bus attack: A passenger slits the throat of the driver, causing the bus to crash near Manchester, Tennessee, killing seven people.
• October 5 – Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants breaks the single season home run record, with his 71st and 72nd home runs of the year.
• October 7 – The United States invades Afghanistan, accompanied by other nations participating in Operation Enduring Freedom.[3]
• October 9 – The 2001 anthrax attacks continue as contaminated letters are mailed from Princeton, New Jersey, to U.S. Senators Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Patrick Leahy of Vermont.
• October 15 – NASA's Galileo spacecraft passes within 112 miles (180 km) of Jupiter's moon Io.
• October 26 – U.S. President George W. Bush signs the USA PATRIOT Act into law.[5]

• November 1 – The New York Yankees defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 4 of the 2001 World Series to tie the series at 2 in the first World Series game to be played in the month of November. Derek Jeter's walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th earns him the nickname "Mr. November".
• November 4 – The Arizona Diamondbacks defeat the New York Yankees in seven games to win their first world series.
• November 5 – Andrew Bagby is murdered in Keystone State Park, Pennsylvania by his former partner Shirley Jane Turner. While awaiting trial and extraction from Canada, she gained custody of the couple's son who she then also murdered. The deaths later became the basis for the 2008 documentary Dear Zachary.[6]
• November 12 – In New York City, American Airlines Flight 587, headed to the Dominican Republic, crashes in Queens just minutes after takeoff from the John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 on board and five on the ground.
• November 13 – War on Terror: In the first such act since World War II, U.S. President George W. Bush signs an executive order allowing military tribunals against any foreigners suspected of having connections to terrorist acts or planned acts against the United States.
• November 18 – Nintendo releases the Nintendo Gamecube in North America.

• December – The unemployment rate rises to 5.7%, the highest since January 1996; the early 2000s recession ends.
• December 2 – Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection five days after Dynegy cancels a US$8.4 billion buyout bid. Enron's bankruptcy becomes the largest in U.S. history.[3]
• December 3 – Officials announce that one of the Taliban prisoners captured after the prison uprising at Mazari Sharif, Afghanistan is John Walker Lindh, an American citizen.
• December 11 – The United States government indicts Zacarias Moussaoui for involvement in the September 11 attacks.
• December 13 – U.S. President George W. Bush announces the United States' withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
• December 22 – A flight from Paris, France to Miami, Florida is diverted to Boston, Massachusetts after passenger Richard Reid attempts to detonate explosives hidden in his shoes.
• December 27 – The People's Republic of China is granted permanent normal trade status with the United States.

• Iraqi no-fly zones (1991–2003)
• War in Afghanistan (2001–present)

Virginia O'Brien

• January 1 – Ray Walston, actor (b. 1914)
• January 2 – William P. Rogers, politician (b. 1913)
• January 4 – Les Brown, jazz musician (b. 1912)
• January 5 – Nancy Parsons, actress (b. 1942)
• January 6 – Gene Taylor, media personality (b. 1947)
• January 8 – Edwin Etherington, writer, lawyer, and civil rights advocate (b. 1924)
• January 10 – John Schmitz, politician (b. 1930)
• January 11
  • Dorothy M. Horstmann, virologist who made important discoveries about polio (b. 1911)
  • Louis Krages, German-American racing driver and businessman (b. 1949)
• January 12
  • Affirmed, race horse (b. 1975)
  • William Hewlett, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard (b. 1913)
• January 14 – John S. Hunt, II, politician (b. 1928)
• January 15 – Bob Braun, actor (b. 1929)
• January 16
  • Virginia O'Brien, actress (b. 1919)
  • Leonard Woodcock, trade unionist and diplomat (b. 1911)
• January 17 – Gregory Corso, poet (b. 1930)
• January 19 – Maxine Mesinger, newspaper columnist (b. 1925)
• January 21
  • Sandy Baron, actor (b. 1936)
  • Byron De La Beckwith, white supremacist and murderer (b. 1920)
• January 22 – Roy Brown, clown (b. 1932)
• January 23 – Jack McDuff, jazz organist and bandleader (b. 1926)
• January 26
  • Murray Edelman, political scientist (b. 1919)
  • Diane Whipple, lacrosse player and coach and dog mauling victim (b. 1968)
• January 28
  • Curt Blefary, baseball player (b. 1943)
  • Sally Mansfield, actress (b. 1920)
• January 29 – Frances Bible, American operatic mezzo-soprano (b. 1919)
• January 30 – Joseph Ransohoff, neurosurgeon (b. 1915)
• January 31 – Gordon R. Dickson, science fiction writer (b. 1923)

Dale Earnhardt

Stanley Kramer

• February 4 – J. J. Johnson, jazz musician (b. 1924)
• February 6 – Arthur W. Hummel Jr., diplomat (b. 1920)
• February 7 – Dale Evans, actress, wife of Roy Rogers (b. 1912)
• February 8 – Arlene Eisenberg, author (b. 1934)
• February 9 – Herbert A. Simon, Nobel award-winning economist (b. 1916)
• February 10 – Abraham Beame, Mayor of New York City. (b. 1906)
• February 13 – Victor Veysey, American politician (b. 1915)
• February 15 – Jack McGowan, American professional golfer. (b. 1930)
• February 17 – Debbie Dean, American singer (b. 1928)
• February 18 – Dale Earnhardt, race car driver (b. 1951)
• February 19 – Stanley Kramer, director (b. 1913)
• February 20 – Rosemary DeCamp, actress (b. 1910)
• February 23 – Anthony Giacalone, organized crime figure (b. 1919)
• February 24 – Phil Collier, sports writer (b. 1925)

Ann Sothern

John Phillips

• March 1
  • John Painter, American supercentenarian (b. 1888)
  • Henry Wade, soldier and lawyer (b. 1914)
• March 2 – Lonnie Glosson, musician (b. 1908)
• March 4
  • Glenn Hughes, musician (b. 1950)
  • Jim Rhodes, politician (b. 1909)
  • Harold Stassen, politician (b. 1907)
• March 8 – Edward Winter, actor (b. 1937)
• March 10 – Michael Elkins, broadcaster and journalist (b. 1917)
• March 12 – Robert Ludlum, writer (b. 1927)
• March 12 – John Anderson, canoeist (b. 1915)
• March 13 – Walter Dukes, basketball player (b. 1930)
• March 15
  • Durward Gorham Hall, politician, (b. 1910)
  • Ann Sothern, actress (b. 1909)
• March 18 – John Phillips, American singer, guitarist, songwriter and promoter (b. 1935)
• March 21 – Billy Ray Smith, Sr., football player (b. 1934)
• March 22 – William Hanna, animator (b. 1910)
• March 26 – Brenda Helser, Olympic swimmer (b. 1924)
• March 28
  • Jim Benton, footballer (b. 1916)
  • George Connor, American racecar driver (b. 1906)
• March 31 – Clifford Shull, Nobel physicist (b. 1915)

Joey Ramone

• April 1 – Jo-Jo Moore, baseball player (b. 1908)
• April 2 – Jennifer Syme, murder victim (b. 1972)
• April 4 – Ed Roth, artist, cartoonist, illustrator, pinstriper and custom car designer and builder (b. 1932)
• April 6 – Charles Pettigrew, singer (b. 1963)
• April 7
  • David Graf, American actor (b. 1950)
  • Beatrice Straight, American actress (b. 1914)
• April 8
  • Safiya Henderson-Holmes, poet (b. 1950)
  • Van Stephenson, singer-songwriter (b. 1953)
• April 10
  • Richard Evans Schultes, American ethnobotanist (b. 1915)
  • Willie Stargell, American baseball player, member of the Baseball Hall of Fame (b. 1939)
• April 11 – Sandy Bull, folk musician and composer (b. 1941)
• April 15 – Joey Ramone, musician (b. 1951)
• April 19 – Egor Popov, Russian-born American civil engineer. (b. 1912)
• April 21 – Jack Haley Jr., director, producer and writer (b. 1933)
• April 24 – Leon Sullivan, minister and activist (b. 1922)
• April 27 – Charlie Applewhite, singer and radio host (b. 1932)
• April 28 – Precious Doe, murder victim (b. 1997)

• May 5
  • Charles Black, constitutional scholar. (b. 1915)
  • Morris Graves, expressionist painter (b. 1910)
  • Cliff Hillegass, creator of CliffsNotes (b. 1917)
• May 6 – Weldon B. Gibson, economist (b. 1916)
• May 12 – Perry Como, singer (b. 1912)
• May 23 – Harry Townes, American actor. (b. 1914)
• May 26 – Anne Haney, American actress (b. 1934)
• May 31 – Arlene Francis, American actress and game show panelist (b. 1907)

Jack Lemmon

• June 1 – Hank Ketcham, cartoonist, creator of Dennis the Menace (b. 1920)
• June 2 – Imogene Coca, American actress (b. 1908)
• June 3 – Anthony Quinn, actor (b. 1915 in Mexico)
• June 4 – John Hartford, American musician and composer (b. 1937)
• June 11 – Timothy McVeigh, murderer (b. 1968)
• June 17 – Donald J. Cram, Nobel chemist (b. 1919)
• June 21
  • John Lee Hooker, American musician (b. 1917)
  • Carroll O'Connor, American actor (b. 1924)
• June 22 – George Evans, cartoonist and illustrator (d. 1920)
• June 24 – William H. Sewell, sociologist (b. 1909)
• June 27 – Jack Lemmon, actor (b. 1925)
• June 28 – Mortimer J. Adler, American philosopher (b. 1902)
• June 30
  • Chet Atkins, American guitarist and record producer (b. 1924)
  • Joe Henderson, American jazz tenor saxophonist (b. 1937)

• July 3
  • Roy Nichols, guitarist (b. 1932)
  • Johnny Russell, country singer (b. 1940)
• July 4 – Keenan Milton, skateboarder (b. 1974)
• July 22 – Bob Ferguson, American country music songwriter and record producer (b. 1927)
• July 28 – John Easton, American professional baseball player (b. 1933)
• July 31 – Poul Anderson, writer (b. 1926)

• August 8 – Big Ed, rapper (b. 1971)
• August 24 – George Benson (b. 1919)
• August 25
  • Aaliyah, singer and actress, died in Marsh Harbour, Abaco Islands, The Bahamas (b. 1979)
  • John Chambers, American make-up artist (b. 1922)
  • John L. Nelson, American jazz musician (b. 1916)
  • Diana Golden, American disabled ski racer (b. 1963)
• August 30 – Julie Bishop, film and television actress (b. 1914)
• August 31 – Crash Davis, American professional baseball player (b. 1919)

• September 4 – Pete Brown, footballer (b. 1930)
• September 5 – Cawood Ledford, American radio announcer (Kentucky Wildcats) (b. 1926)
• September 7 – Glenn Thompson, American book publisher and activist (b. 1940)
• September 11
  • Alice Stewart Trillin, author and film producer (b. 1938)

At least 3,000 people died in the terrorist attacks of September 11, including but not limited to:

• • Todd Beamer, American airline passenger, United Airlines Flight 93 (b. 1969)
  • Berry Berenson, actress and photographer. Passenger of American Airlines Flight 11 (b. 1947)
  • Carolyn Beug, American filmmaker and video producer. Passenger of American Airlines Flight 11 (b. 1952)
  • Bill Biggart, photojournalist (b. 1947)
  • Mark Bingham, American airline passenger, United Airlines Flight 93 (b. 1970)
  • Ronald Paul Bucca, American fire marshal (b. 1953)
  • Charles Burlingame, airline pilot, American Airlines Flight 77 (b. 1949)
  • Tom Burnett, American airline passenger, United Airlines Flight 93 (b. 1963)
  • William E. Caswell, American physicist. Passenger of American Airlines Flight 77 (b. 1947)
  • Kevin Cosgrove, business executive (b. 1955)
  • Welles Crowther, investment banker (b. 1977)
  • William M. Feehan, Deputy fire commissioner (b. 1929)
  • Wilson Flagg, Rear Admiral (b. 1938)
  • Peter J. Ganci Jr., Chief of the Fire Department of New York (b. 1946)
  • Barbara Olson, lawyer and murder victim (September 11 attacks) (b. 1955)
  • Christopher Amoroso, police officer and murder victim (September 11 attacks) (b. 1972)
  • David Angell, producer and murder victim (September 11 attacks) (b. 1946)
  • Jeremy Glick, American airline passenger United Airlines Flight 93 (b. 1970)
  • Lauren Grandcolas, American author. Passenger of United Airlines Flight 93 (b. 1962)
  • Nezam Hafiz, American cricketer (b. 1969)
  • Mohammad Salman Hamdani, American research technician (b. 1977)
  • LeRoy Homer Jr., American airline pilot, United Airlines Flight 93 (b. 1965)
  • Charles Edward Jones, American astronaut. Passenger of American Airlines Flight 11 (b. 1953)
  • Mychal Judge, Chaplain of the Fire Department of New York (b. 1933)
  • Neil David Levin, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (b. 1954)
  • Daniel M. Lewin, co-founder of Akamai Technologies. Passenger of American Airlines Flight 11 (b. 1970)
  • Eamon McEneaney, American lacrosse player (b. 1954)
  • Timothy Maude, Lieutenant General, U.S. Army (b. 1947)
  • John Ogonowski, American pilot, American Airlines Flight 11 (b. 1948)
  • John P. O'Neill, Counterterrorism expert (b. 1952)
  • Betty Ong, American flight attendant, American Airlines Flight 11 (b. 1956)
  • Orio Palmer, American firefighter (b. 1956)
  • Dominick Pezzulo, American police officer (b. 1965)
  • Sneha Anne Philip, American physician, presumed to have been a victim of the attacks (b. 1970)
  • Rick Rescorla, World Trade Center security chief for Morgan Stanley and Dean Witter (b. 1939)
  • Michael Richards, Jamaican-born American sculptor (b. 1963)
  • Victor Saracini, American pilot, United Airlines Flight 175 (b. 1978)
  • Abraham Zelmanowitz, American computer programmer (b. 1945)
  • Madeline Amy Sweeney, flight attendant, American Airlines Flight 11 (b. 1965)
• September 15 – Richard Fegley, professional photographer (b. 1936)
• September 25 – John Powers, American professional baseball player (b. 1929)

• October 5 – Mike Mansfield, American politician and diplomat. (b. 1903)
• October 9 – Dagmar, American actress, model and television personality (b. 1921)
• October 14 – Zhang Xueliang, Chinese ruler of Manchuria, died in Honolulu, Hawaii (b. 1901)
• October 19 – Joe Murray, American baseball player (b. 1921)

George Harrison

• November 5 – Milton William Cooper, American author and radio host (b. 1943)
• November 6 – John Simon White, Austrian-born American opera director. (b. 1940)
• November 7 – Bobby Bass, stunt performer (b. 1936)
• November 10 – Ken Kesey, American author (b. 1935)
• November 11 – Frederick Allen, politician (b. 1914)
• November 13 – Panama Francis, American swing jazz drummer (b. 1918)
• November 17
  • John M. Dawson, computational physicist (b. 1930)
  • Harrison A. Williams, politician (b. 1920)
• November 21 – Fritz Herzog, German-born American mathematician (b. 1903)
• November 22 – Mary Kay Ash, American businesswoman (b. 1918)
• November 29 – George Harrison, English guitarist, lead guitarist of the Beatles (b. 1943)

• December 30
  • Ray Patterson, animator, producer, and director (b. 1911)
  • Frankie Gaye, American soul musician (b. 1941)
  • Eileen Heckart, Oscar-winning American actor (b. 1919)