June 2002 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December

Events

See also:

• Timeline of the War in Afghanistan (June 2002)

June 5, 2002

• Sweden passes a law that allows homosexual couples to apply for both the national and the international adoption of children.

June 6, 2002

• Singer and Grammy Award winner Robert Kelly (aka R. Kelly) was arrested and charged with having sex with an underaged girl.
• A 32-foot meteor explodes in the airspace west of Kashmir, raising fears that misidentifited meteor explosions could spark a nuclear war.

June 8, 2002

• Lennox Lewis knocks out Mike Tyson in an IBF and WBC championship boxing match in Memphis.

June 10, 2002

• Terrorism: The U.S. government announced that it had prevented an al-Qaida attempt to construct and detonate a radiological weapon (sometimes called a "dirty bomb") in the United States.
• Kashmir crisis: Pakistan and India appear to have stepped down their rhetoric over the Kashmir crisis, reducing the threat of nuclear war in the subcontinent slightly.
• Recent celebrity deaths: Former mob boss John "Teflon Don" Gotti dies of cancer.

June 11, 2002

• Mohammed Zahir Shah opened a loya jirga in Afghanistan.
• Technology - Microsoft's .Net service is being examined by the European Union for possible breaking of data privacy laws.
• Nanotech - IBM creates punch cards with a diameter of just 10 nanometers.
• Hit reality show, American Idol premiered its first episode on Fox Network.

June 14, 2002

• Astrophysics - An asteroid (2002 MN), the size of a soccer field, barely misses hitting the Earth. (Closest approach 0.3 LD or less than 200 000 km )

It was the second closest asteroid approach to Earth in recorded history. The asteroid was first observed three days after its close approach, on June 17, 2002.

• A new terrorist organisation, Al Qanoon, claimed responsibility for an earlier suicide bomb attack aimed at the US consulate in Karachi in Pakistan. 11 people were killed in the bomb attack, and approximately 45 injured. The US has subsequently closed all diplomatic missions in Pakistan. (See also 2002 Karachi consulate attack.)

June 15, 2002

• Accountancy scandals - Accountants Arthur Andersen convicted of obstruction of justice for shredding documents related to the Enron inquiry.

June 17, 2002

• A federal forester ignited the massive wildfire that has charred more than 100,000 acres (400 km²) near Denver as she attempted to burn a letter from her estranged husband. Forestry technician Terry Barton, 38, acknowledged that she started the so-called Hayman fire while patrolling the Pike National Forest to enforce the campfire ban. Barton had earlier reported "discovering" a wildfire. See Hayman fire.
• The Watergate scandal, which led to the resignation of American President Richard Nixon, started 30 years ago today

June 20, 2002

• Law - The United States Supreme Court is asked about requiring Internet filters.
• Law - Go Daddy Software pursues VeriSign for damages.
• Technology - Toshiba clones Apple Computer's iPod.

June 22, 2002

• Medicine - Europe is declared polio-free by the World Health Organization.
• Natural disaster - a major earthquake hit Iran, with its epicentre at Bou'in-Zahra, measuring at least 6.0 on the Richter scale.
• Recent celebrity deaths: Columnist Ann Landers dies of myeloma at age 83.

June 26, 2002

• Law - A federal court in San Francisco, California ruled that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional, because of its "under God" clause.
• Accountancy scandals - There are reports of alleged fraud at WorldCom, one of the world's largest telcos and internet service providers.