2000

January 2000	UK [Christianity]	Michael Scott-Joynt, Bishop of Winchester, announces that the Church of England is preparing to change its law in order to let divorcees marry in church.
January 2000	USA [computing]	Bill Gates, the world's richest man, resigns his position as chief executive of the computer company Microsoft to become the company's chief software architect.
1 January 2000	[everyday life]	The new millennium is celebrated across the world, with fireworks, street parties, ceremonies, and speeches. The millennium bug does not appear to make a large impact, and despite fears of acts of extremism and terrorism, the global celebration passes peacefully.
1 January 2000	UK [other structures]	The Millennium Dome in Greenwich, London, England, opens to the public, and is scheduled to remain open throughout 2000. Some 12,500 people visit it on the opening day.
11 January 2000	UK, Chile [crime and punishment]	British home secretary Jack Straw announces that the British government will not extradite former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to stand trial in Spain for crimes against humanity, because a medical team ruled that he showed signs of senility and was medically unfit to do so.
12 January 2000	UK [gay rights]	Under pressure from the European court of human rights, British defence secretary Geoff Hoon announces the lifting of the ban on homosexuals in the armed forces.
6 February 2000	Finland [elections]	Foreign Minister Tarja Halonen of the Social Democratic Party is elected Finland's first woman president.
11 February 2000	UK, Northern Ireland [political events]	The British government suspends Northern Ireland's new power-sharing government after the Irish Republican Army (IRA) fails to begin decommissioning weapons.
11 February - 22 February 2000	USA [space exploration]	The space shuttle Endeavour carries out a mission in which it scans the Earth's surface with radar signals to create a detailed topographical map of the world.
12 March 2000	Italy [religion]	In a speech unprecedented for its sweeping apology, Pope John Paul II seeks forgiveness for the Catholic Church for 2000 years of violence against and persecution of Jews and other minority groups, and women.
21 April 2000	Russia [treaties]	The Russian parliament ratifies the comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty. The US Senate refused to ratify the treaty in 1999.
27 April 2000	UK [diplomacy]	Talks in London, England, between officials from Zimbabwe and British foreign secretary Robin Cook aimed at restoring peace in Zimbabwe end in a deadlock after the Zimbabwean delegation refuse to make a commitment to end the violence.
4 May 2000	[computing]	A computer virus nicknamed the ‘love bug’, sent as an attachment claiming to be a love letter, strikes computer systems around the world, closing down an estimated one-tenth of the world's servers.
4 May 2000	UK [elections]	Independent candidate Ken Livingstone is elected mayor of London. He wins a total of 776,427 votes against 564,137 for Steven Norris, the Conservative candidate. The other candidates, including Labour's Frank Dobson and Liberal Democrat Susan Kramer, are eliminated after a first round of counting.
5 May 2000	Sierra Leone [United Nations]	Revolutionary United Front rebels in Sierra Leone take UN peacekeepers hostage in their campaign against the government. They seize 208 Zambian peacekeepers, bringing the total number of UN hostages to 318.
6 May 2000	UK [weapons]	The IRA offers to open its hidden arms dumps to inspection as part of a peace agreement to restore self-rule to Northern Ireland. The arsenals would be opened for inspection by Cyril Ramaphosa, the former secretary general of the African National Congress (ANC), and Martti Ahtisaari, the former president of Finland.
7 May 2000	Russia [law and government]	Vladimir Putin is sworn in as the second president of modern Russia. It is the first time that the Russian government has changed hands peacefully and democratically.
12 May 2000	UK [museums and galleries]	The Tate Modern art gallery opens at Bankside, London, England.
29 May 2000	Fiji Islands [law and government]	The military declares martial law in Fiji, while nationalist gunmen continue to hold prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry hostage in parliament in the capital, Suva.
8 June 2000	Greece [terrorism]	Members of Greek guerrilla group November 17 shoot dead British diplomat Stephen Saunders in Athens, Greece. Fellow UN countries condemn the Greek government for failing to act against such terrorist groups.
13 June 2000	North Korea, South Korea [diplomacy]	North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean leader Kim Dae Jung meet for the first time at a peace summit in Pyongyang, North Korea. It is the first time that leaders of the two countries have met in 55 years.
26 June 2000	USA, UK [biology]	Scientists working on the Human Genome Project in London, England, and Washington, DC, announce that they have completed the first draft of the entire structure of human DNA.
27 June 2000	Zimbabwe [elections]	The opposition Movement for Democratic Change party gains 57 seats in Zimbabwe's parliament, just five short of the elected total for the ruling Zanu-PF party. While the opposition and observers condemn the electoral process as corrupt, President Mugabe celebrates his party's narrow victory and vows to continue his policy of seizing and redistributing land.
23 July 2000	Scotland [golf]	Tiger Woods, the 24-year-old US golfer, wins the 2000 British Open at St Andrews, Scotland, with a record score of 19 under par (269) for the four rounds. He is the youngest ever player to win all four of golf's major championships.
25 July 2000	France [transport disasters]	An Air France Concorde jet, chartered to a German tour company, crashes soon after take-off from Paris, France, killing all 109 passengers and crew, and four people on the ground.
4 August 2000	England [social customs]	Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, celebrates her 100th birthday in London, England. She becomes the first centenarian in royal history.
5 August 2000	England [births and deaths]	Alec Guinness, the English Oscar-winning actor and star of dozens of films including Bridge on the River Kwai and Star Wars, dies in Midhurst, England (86).
8 August 2000	Chile [law and government]	The Supreme Court of Chile confirms that Augusto Pinochet no longer has parliamentary immunity, laying the former dictator open to prosecution for human rights offences during his rule.
16 August 2000	UK [health and medicine]	The British government approves its chief medical officer's proposals to allow the cloning of human embryos less than 14 days old for research purposes.
8 September 2000	[ecology]	US scientists announce that the hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic has reached a record size of 28 million sq km/11 million sq mi.
October 2000	England [art]	A drawing by Michelangelo depicting a heavily draped woman is found at Castle Howard, North Yorkshire, England, during a routine insurance valuation by an expert from Sotheby's. It is valued at up to £8 million.
1 October 2000	Australia [Olympic Games]	The 27th Olympic Games close in Sydney, Australia. The USA wins 39 gold medals; Russia, 32; China, 28; Australia, 16; Germany, 14; France and Italy, 13 each; Netherlands, 12; Cuba and Great Britain, 11 each.
2 October 2000	UK [human rights]	In what is widely viewed as a radical legal shake-up, the Human Rights Act comes into force in England and Wales. The act incorporates the 1951 European Convention on Human Rights into UK law.
4 October 2000	UK [motor vehicles]	The classic Mini, the car that symbolised the swinging 1960s, rolls off the Rover production line at Longbridge, Birmingham, for the last time (bringing to an end 41 years of continuous production).
10 October 2000	Sri Lanka [births and deaths]	Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world's first woman prime minister, dies in Sri Lanka (84).
31 October 2000	England [football]	In the wake of Kevin Keegan's resignation as the England team's football manager, the Football Association announces the appointment of the Swedish coach Sven-Goran Eriksson as the long-term replacement from July 2001.
8 November 2000	USA [painting]	Pablo Picasso's painting Femme aux bras croisés/Woman with crossed arms fetches US$39 million at Christie's saleroom in New York. At twice its pre-sale estimate, it is the highest price ever paid at auction for the Spanish artist's work.
5 December 2000	Kenya [anthropology]	French and Kenyan scientists announce that they have unearthed the fossilized remains of humankind's earliest known ancestor dating back 6 million years in Kenya. Christened ‘Millennium Man’, the find predates previous discoveries by more than 1.5 million years.
10 December 2000	Spain [tennis]	Spain's national tennis team claims the Davis Cup for the first time, following their victory in the final against Australia in Barcelona.
11 December 2000	France [international organizations]	At the end of a four-day summit meeting in Nice, France, leaders of the 15 member states of the European Union agree on new voting rules and other institutional changes to pave the way for other countries to join the EU from 2005.
13 December 2000	USA [elections]	Five weeks after the disputed US presidential election, a ruling by the Supreme Court effectively cancels recounts in Florida. This hands the White House to the Republican Party candidate George W Bush.
27 December 2000	[business and economics]	The merger of pharmaceutical giants Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham is completed, creating the world's largest drugs company, GlaxoSmithKline.