the Kursk 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 from Paris, France following a fire on the back of the aircraft, killing all 109 people aboard and four on the ground;
the 2000 Mozambique flood, the worst in the country's recorded history, caused by prolonged heavy rainfall and the devastating impact of Cyclone Eline;
the millennium celebrations refer to the worldwide festivities at the end of 1999 and the start of 2000;
the 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 in Russian cities;
the Second Intifada civilian uprising in Jerusalem and Palestine proper. Israeli security responded with extreme violence, killing over 100 Palestinian protesters within the first few weeks.
Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tendency to group the years according to decimal values, as if non-existent year zero was counted. According to the Gregorian calendar, these distinctions fall to the year 2001, because the 1st century was retroactively said to start with the year AD 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, see century and millennium.)
The year 2000 is sometimes abbreviated as "Y2K" (the "Y" stands for "year", and the "K" stands for "kilo" which means "thousand"). The year 2000 was the subject of Y2K 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 conceived Pyrenean ibex is found dead, presumed to have been killed by a falling tree.
January 8 – In Soria (Spain) a large chunk of ice is reported to have fallen from the sky. Over the following months, a social panic about this phenomenon is unleashed, with reports of a multitude of similar cases of falling ice chunks (incorrectly named as aerolites) all over Spain, attracting great attention from the Spanish media.
February 9 – Torrential rains in Africa led to the worst flooding in Mozambique in 50 years, which lasts until March and kills 800 people.
February 13 – Final Peanuts comic is printed in newspapers, preceded by author Charles M. Schulz's death the night before. It is the most popular comic strip in history, running for 50 years.
February 29 – A rare century 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 year 1600, making it only the second such occasion since the Gregorian Calendar was introduced in 1582. The next such leap year will occur in 2400.
March
March 10– The NASDAQ Composite Index reaches an all-time high of 5,048. Two weeks later, the NASDAQ-100, S&P 500, and Wilshire 5000 reach their peaks prior to the Dot-com bubble, ending a bull market run that had lasted over 17 years.
July 2 – France defeats Italy 2–1 after extra time in the final of the UEFA Euro 2000 Championship in Association football, becoming the first team to win the World Cup and European Championship consecutively.
July 2 – Vicente Fox of the National Action Party (PAN) is electedPresident of Mexico, becoming the first president not from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) since 1929.
July 10 – In southern Nigeria, a leaking petroleum pipeline explodes, killing about 250 villagers who were scavenging gasoline.
September 26– The Greek ferry Express Samina sinks off the coast of the island of Paros; 80 out of a total of over 500 passengers perish in one of Greece's worst sea disasters.
October 22 – Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong formally negotiate a Japan-Singapore Economic Agreement for a New Age Partnership (JSEPA).
October 26 – Pakistani authorities announce that their police have found an apparent mummy of an alleged Persian Princess in the province of Balochistan, Pakistan. The governments of Iran, Pakistan as well as the Taliban of Afghanistan all claim the mummy until Pakistan announces it is a modern-day forgery in April 2001.
November 20 – Alberto Fujimori, President of Peru, faxes his resignation from a hotel room in Japan, having fled Peru after facing corruption charges. Fujimori would be officially removed from office by Congress on the 22nd.
December
December 7 – Kadisoka temple is discovered in Sleman, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
↑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. Retrieved July 14, 2020.