On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
Portrait 1080 × 1920 PNG · created on your device
Felicia Lee Coping column offers comments from older black women at Elmcor Senior Center in East Elmhurst, Queens, on issues of discrimination, reparations for slavery and interracial marriage; drawing (M)
Novelist David Leavitt article, offering example of story by one of his students at University of Florida about young writer living in Manhattan, revamps story to show how young writers can become cramped by city and might thrive once they move out; photos (M)
Rutgers defeats Notre Dame, 54-53, in women's college basketball; photo (M)
New York City Buildings Department extends hours to ease bureaucratic delays (S)
Crackdown on Falun Gong spiritual movement is focusing new attention on China's practice of imprisoning dissenters in psychiatric hospitals; China's official press has openly suggested believers are mentally disturbed and need treatment and hundreds of followers reportedly have been forcibly hospitalized and medicated; photo (M)
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of February 14, 2001, covering February 18, 2001.
Shaggy
Jennifer Lopez
Soundtrack
The Beatles
Ja Rule
2001Tanguy Coulibaly, French footballer[†]
Tanguy Bemin Coulibaly is a French professional footballer who plays as a winger for Ligue 2 club Montpellier.
2001Jaime Jaquez Jr., American basketball player[†]
Jaime Jaquez Jr. is a Mexican-American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins of the Pac-12 Conference. Jaquez was named a consensus second-team All-American and voted the Pac-12 Player of the Year as a senior in 2023. He earned three All-Pac-12 selections, including first-team honors twice. Jaquez was also a two-time member of the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team. He was selected by the Heat in the first round of the 2023 NBA draft with the 18th overall pick. He is nicknamed "Juan Wick" for his Mexican heritage and perceived resemblance to John Wick.
2001Balthus, Polish-Swiss painter and illustrator (born 1908)[†]
Balthasar Klossowski de Rola, known as Balthus, was a Polish-French modern artist. He is known for his erotically charged images of pubescent girls, but also for the refined, dreamlike quality of his imagery.
2001Dale Earnhardt, American racer and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion (born 1951)[†]
Ralph Dale Earnhardt was an American professional stock car driver and racing team owner, who raced from 1975 to 2001 in the former NASCAR Winston Cup Series, most notably driving the No. 3 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. His aggressive driving style earned him the nicknames "the Intimidator", "the Man in Black" and "Ironhead"; after his son Dale Earnhardt Jr. joined the Cup Series circuit in 1999, Earnhardt was generally known by the retronyms Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Dale Sr. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history and was named as one of the NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers class in 1998.
2001FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.[†]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. An agency of the United States Department of Justice, the FBI is a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and reports to both the attorney general and the director of national intelligence. A leading American counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigative organization, the FBI has jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes.
2001Sampit conflict: Inter-ethnic violence between Dayaks and Madurese breaks out in Sampit, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, ultimately resulting in more than 500 deaths and 100,000 Madurese displaced from their homes.[†]
The Sampit conflict, Sampit war or Sampit riots was an outbreak of inter-ethnic violence in Indonesia, beginning in February 2001 and lasting through the year. The conflict started in the town of Sampit, Central Kalimantan, and spread throughout the province, including the capital Palangka Raya. The conflict took place between the indigenous Dayak people and the migrant Madurese people from the island of Madura off Java. The exact origin of the conflict is disputed, but it eventually culminated in hundreds of deaths, with at least one hundred Madurese being decapitated.
In 2001, the world population was approximately 6,254,936,459 people[†]