TheKaprun disaster was a devastating funicular fire inKaprun, Austria, that killed 155.
TheKursk submarine disaster, a Russian naval accident in the Barents Sea, where its Oscar II-class nuclear submarine, K-141, sank during exercises, killing all 118 crew members.
Air France Flight 4590, a scheduled Concorde supersonic jet flight that crashed shortly after takeoff fromParis, France following a fire on the back of the aircraft, killing all 109 people aboard and four on the ground.
The2000 Mozambique flood, the worst in the country's recorded history, caused by prolonged heavy rainfall and the devastating impact ofCyclone Eline.
Themillennium celebrations refer to the worldwide festivities at the end of 1999 and the start of 2000.
Second Chechen War. Russian counter-insurgency and military conflict with the invasion of Dagestan by Chechen fighters, leading to Russian military incursions into Chechnya after apartment bombings inRussian cities.
TheSecond Intifada civilian uprising inJerusalem andIsrael proper. Israeli security responded with extreme violence, killing over 100Palestinian protesters within the first few weeks.
Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the21st century and the3rd millennium,[3] because of a tendency to group the years according todecimal values, as if non-existentyear zero was counted. According to theGregorian calendar, these distinctions fall to the year2001, because the1st century was retroactively said to start with the yearAD 1. Since the Gregorian calendar does not have year zero, its first millennium spanned from years 1 to 1000 inclusively and its second millennium from years 1001 to 2000. (For further information, seecentury andmillennium.)
The year 2000 is sometimes abbreviated as "Y2K" (the "Y" stands for "year", and the "K" stands for "kilo" which means "thousand").[4][5] The year 2000 was the subject ofY2K concerns, which were fears that computers would not shift from 1999 to 2000 correctly. However, by the end of 1999, many companies had already converted to new, or upgraded existing, software. Some even obtained "Y2K certification". As a result of massive effort, relatively few problems occurred.
January 6 – The last naturally conceivedPyrenean ibex is found dead, apparently killed by a falling tree.[9]
January 8 – InSoria (Spain) a large chunk of ice is reported to have fallen from the sky. Over the following months, asocial panic about this phenomenon is unleashed, with reports of a multitude of similar cases of falling ice chunks (incorrectly named asaerolites) all over Spain, attracting great attention from the Spanish media.[10][11]
February 9 – Torrential rains in Africa led to theworst flooding inMozambique in 50 years, which lasted until March and killed 800 people.
February 13 – FinalPeanuts comic is printed in newspapers, preceded by authorCharles M. Schulz's death the night before. It was the most popular comic strip in history, running for 50 years.[18]
February 29 – A rarecentury leap year date occurs. Usually, century years are common years due to not being exactly divisible by 400. 2000 is the first such year to have a February 29 since the year1600, making it only the second such occasion since theGregorian Calendar was introduced in1582. The next such leap year will occur in 2400.
March 10 – TheNASDAQ Composite Index reaches an all-time high of 5,048.[22] Two weeks later, theNASDAQ-100,S&P 500, andWilshire 5000 reach their peaks prior to the Dot-com bubble, ending a bull market run that had lasted over 17 years.
July 2 –France defeatsItaly 2–1 after extra time in the final of theUEFA Euro 2000 Championship in Association football, becoming the first team to win the World Cup and European Championship consecutively.
September 26 – The Greek ferryExpress Samina sinks off the coast of the island ofParos; 80 out of a total of over 500 passengers perish in one of Greece's worst sea disasters.
TheMainichi Shimbun newspaper exposes Japanese archaeologistShinichi Fujimura as a fraud; Japanese archaeologists had based their treatises on his findings.
Japanese Prime MinisterYoshiro Mori and Singaporean Prime MinisterGoh Chok Tong formally negotiate a Japan-Singapore Economic Agreement for a New Age Partnership (JSEPA).[42]
October 26 – Pakistani authorities announce that their police have found an apparent mummy of an allegedPersian Princess in the province ofBalochistan, Pakistan. The governments of Iran, Pakistan as well as theTaliban of Afghanistan all claim the mummy until Pakistan announces it is a modern-day forgery in April 2001.[43]
^Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute."Kingdom of Serbia/Yugoslavia".A Guide to the United States' History of Recognition, Diplomatic, and Consular Relations, by Country, since 1776. United States Department of State.Archived from the original on February 11, 2010. RetrievedJuly 14, 2020.
