On this day

December 23, 2002

Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.

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Headlines from December 23, 2002

On Every Street Corner You Hear . . . Silver Sells!

By James Barron

Forget ''Silver Bells.'' The refrain of this holiday shopping season is silver everything: silver cellphones and silver watches, silver cameras snapping silver-trimmed store windows, silver-faced DVD players connected to silver-edged televisions, silver-trimmed dashboards gleaming in silver cars, silver stirrers (battery-powered, of course) whirring in latte lovers' newly installed stainless-steel kitchens. Why has the retail landscape turned so relentlessly metallic?

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Rivalry Turns A Board Game Into a Blood Sport; A Perpetual War Consumes Competing Chess Shop Owners

By Chris Hedges

Ninth article in series Thou Shalt Not, which tells stories of ordinary people and how their lives intersected with one of Ten Commandments; rivalry between owners of Chess Forum and Chess Shop, West Village stores specializing in chess, illustrates stricture not to bear false witness against neighbor and destructive power of perpetual war against competitor; photos (M)

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Music on My Birthday

Billboard 200

The Top 50 albums for the chart week of December 18, 2002, covering December 23, 2002.

  1. 1
    Album cover for Up! by Shania Twain

    Up!

    Shania Twain

    Last week
    1
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    3
  2. 2
    Album cover for Tim McGraw And The Dancehall Doctors by Tim McGraw

    Tim McGraw And The Dancehall Doctors

    Tim McGraw

    Last week
    2
    Peak
    2
    Weeks
    2
  3. 3
    Album cover for Charmbracelet by Mariah Carey

    Charmbracelet

    Mariah Carey

    Last week
    —
    Peak
    3
    Weeks
    1
  4. 4
    Album cover for Now 11 by Various Artists

    Now 11

    Various Artists

    Last week
    4
    Peak
    2
    Weeks
    3
  5. 5
    Album cover for 8 Mile by Soundtrack

    8 Mile

    Soundtrack

    Last week
    3
    Peak
    1
    Weeks
    6

Notable Births

Finn Wolfhard

2002Finn Wolfhard, Canadian actor and musician[†]

Finn Michael Wolfhard is a Canadian actor, musician, and film director. He is known for playing Mike Wheeler on the Netflix series Stranger Things (2016–present). He also played Richie Tozier in the horror film It (2017) and its sequel It Chapter Two (2019), and Trevor Spengler in the supernatural comedy Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) and its sequel Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024).

Historical Events

General Atomics MQ-1 Predator

2002A U.S. MQ-1 Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25 in the first combat engagement between a drone and conventional aircraft.[†]

The General Atomics MQ-1 Predator is an American remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) built by General Atomics that was used primarily by the United States Air Force (USAF) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Conceived in the early 1990s for aerial reconnaissance and forward observation roles, the Predator carries cameras and other sensors. It was modified and upgraded to carry and fire two AGM-114 Hellfire missiles or other munitions. The aircraft entered service in 1995, and saw combat in the war in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the NATO intervention in Bosnia, the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, the Iraq War, Yemen, the 2011 Libyan civil war, the 2014 intervention in Syria, and Somalia.

Historical Context for December 23, 2002

In 2002, the world population was approximately 6,337,730,342 people[†]