July 2002 in History

Events in History

Jul 9 The African Union is established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The first chairman is Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa.

Jul 10 At a Sotheby's auction, Peter Paul Rubens' painting The Massacre of the Innocents is sold for £49.5million (US$76.2 million) to Kenneth, Lord Thomson

Jul 14 French President Jacques Chirac escapes an assassination attempt unscathed during Bastille Day celebrations

Jul 15 A. P. J. Abdul Kalam is elected 11th President of India (results announced 18th July)
Jul 15 "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh pleads guilty to supplying aid to the enemy and to possession of explosives during the commission of a felony
Jul 15 Anti-Terrorism Court of Pakistan hands down the death sentence to British born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and life terms to three others suspected of murdering Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl
Jul 20 Bartenders doing tricks with fire start a major fire in a night club in Lima, Peru that kills 25 and injures 100
Jul 21 Telecom giant WorldCom files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the then largest such filing in United States history
Jul 22 Israel assassinates Salah Shahade, the Commander-in-Chief of Hamas's military arm, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, along with 14 civilians
Jul 24 James Traficant is expelled from the United States House of Representatives on a vote of 420 to 1
Jul 25 17th Commonwealth Games open in Manchester, England
Jul 27 Ukraine airshow disaster: A Sukhoi Su-27 fighter crashes during an air show at Lviv, Ukraine killing 85, injuring more than 100, largest air show disaster in history
Jul 28 Nine coal miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, are rescued after 77 hours underground.
Jul 28 British Senior Open Men's Golf, Royal County Down: Noboru Sugai of Japan wins by 2 shots from John irwin of Canada

Jul 30 The accounting law referred to as "The Sarbanes Oxley Act" signed into law by President George W. Bush

Jul 31 Polaroid Corporation is purchased by One Equity Partners, continuing to operate under the Polaroid Corporation name

Jul 4 Benjamin O. Davis Jr., American general (b. 1912)
Jul 4 Mansoor Hekmat, Iranian politician (b. 1951)
Jul 4 Winnifred Quick, American Titanic survivor (b. 1904)
Jul 6 Dhirubhai Ambani, Indian businessman (b. 1932)
Jul 7 Dhirubhai Ambani, Indian business tycoon (b. 1933)
Jul 9 Laurence Janifer, American writer (b. 1933)
Jul 9 Kenneth Snowman, British jeweller and antiquarian, dies at 82
Jul 10 Jean-Pierre Côté, French Canadian politician and Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (b. 1926)

Jul 12 Edward Lee Howard, CIA Case Officer and alleged Soviet spy, dies at 50 after breaking his neck during a fall

Jul 13 Yousuf Karsh, Turkish-born Armenian photographer (b. 1908)
Jul 14 Joaquín Balaguer, President of the Dominican Republic (b. 1906)
Jul 16 John Cocke, American computer scientist (b. 1925)
Jul 18 Victor Emery, British theoretical physicist (b. 1933)
Jul 19 Alan Lomax, American folksong collector (b. 1915)
Jul 21 John Cunningham, British Royal Air Force night fighter ace (WW II), dies at 84
Jul 23 William Luther Pierce, American author and activist, dies at 68
Jul 23 Chaim Potok, American novelist and rabbi (b. 1929)
Jul 25 Abdur Rahman Badawi, Egyptian existentialist philosopher (b. 1917)
Jul 26 Jutta Hecker, German writer, dies at 97

Jul 31 Jerome Beatty Jr., American author of children's literature (Matthew and Maria Looney books), dies at 85