March 4, 2002

2002Jacob Hopkins, American actor^[†]

Jacob Turner Hopkins is an American actor who voiced Gumball Watterson in the animated series The Amazing World of Gumball from 2014 to 2017.

2002Velibor Vasović, Serbian footballer and manager (born 1939)^[†]

Velibor Vasović was a Serbian footballer and manager, also one of the legendary players of Partizan Belgrade and Ajax and is regarded one of greatest defenders of his generation. A sweeper who could play in midfield, Vasović was renowned for his defensive positioning, never-say-die attitude and tactical awareness.

2002Afghanistan: Seven American Special Operations Forces soldiers and 200 Al-Qaeda Fighters are killed as American forces attempt to infiltrate the Shah-i-Kot Valley on a low-flying helicopter reconnaissance mission.^[†]

The war in Afghanistan was a prolonged armed conflict lasting from 2001 to 2021. It began with the invasion by a United States-led coalition under the name Operation Enduring Freedom in response to the September 11 attacks carried out by al-Qaeda. The Taliban and its allies were quickly expelled from major population centers by US-led forces supporting the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, thus toppling the Taliban-ruled Islamic Emirate. Three years later the US-sponsored Islamic Republic was established, but by then the Taliban had reorganized under their founder, Mullah Omar, and began a widespread insurgency against the new Afghan government and coalition forces. The conflict finally ended decades later as the 2021 Taliban offensive reestablished the Islamic Emirate. It was the longest war in United States military history, surpassing the Vietnam War by six months.