2001: The year that was

Big steps into the digital age, success in the arts and sport, the Tampa affair and terror attacks that transformed the world.

Best Actress winner Julia Roberts and Best Actor winner Russell Crowe pose for photographers at the Oscars in March 2001 in Los Angeles. Picture: Getty Images

January 1: Australia marks a centenary of Federation

January 9: Apple announces iTunes for organising and playing digital music and videos

January 15: Wikipedia launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger

January 20: George W. Bush inaugurated as US president

January 20: Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo succeeds Joseph Estrada as Philippines president after the second EDSA revolution

January 26: An earthquake in Gujarat, India, kills 20,000 people

January 27-28: Jennifer Capriati and Andre Agassi make it an American singles double at the Australian Open, winning their respective finals

January 29: Thousands of students protesters storm the Indonesian parliament demanding Abdurrahman Wahid stand down as president

February 10: Labor, led by Geoff Gallop, wins the West Australian election, ousting Richard Court’s Liberal-Nationals government

February 15: First draft of the human genome published in the journal Nature

February 27: Peter Beattie’s Queensland Labor government re-elected for second term

March 25: Gladiator and star Russell Crowe win the best picture and best actor categories at the Academy Awards; Julia Roberts takes the best actress prize

April 1: The Netherlands becomes the first country to legalise same-sex marriage

April 1: Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic surrenders to police special forces to be tried on war crimes charges

April 30: A dingo mauls nine-year-old Clinton Gage to death on Fraser Island

May 6: John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque during a trip to Syria

May 18: A 101-year-old American, Harold Stilson, becomes the oldest golfer to hit a hole in one

May 26: The ACT Brumbies win their first Super Rugby title, beating the Coastal Sharks 36-6 in the final

June 7: The Labour Party, led by Tony Blair, below, wins another landslide victory in Britain

June 29: Anglican archbishop of Brisbane Peter Hollingworth sworn in as Australia’s 23rd governor-general

July 5: Australia and East Timor sign an agreement to share royalties from oil and natural gas production in the Timor Sea

July 9: Goran Ivanisevic beats Pat Rafter in a five-set thriller to win the Wimbledon title in an epic “people’s final” played on a Monday because of rain

August 4: Captain Steve Waugh helps Australia secure the Ashes in England with three straight victories in the first three Tests of the five-match series

August 18: Labor, led by Clare Martin, wins the Northern Territory election, ousting Denis Burke’s Country Liberal Party government. It marked the first time the ALP had held power in the Territory since self-determination in 1978

August 24: The Tampa affair begins when the Norwegian-flagged container ship tries to help a boatload of asylum-seekers reach Christmas Island, sparking protests

September 1: The Wallabies, led by John Eales, retain the Tri Nations series with a 29-26 win over the All Blacks in Sydney

September 10: Prime minister John Howard begins a tour of the US

September 11: Terrorists hijack four planes, crashing two into the World Trade Centre in New York and one into the Pentagon outside Washington DC, while the fourth crashes into a Pennsylvania field after passengers overcome the terrorists. A total of 2775 die in the attacks.

September 12: Article V of the NATO agreement is invoked for the only time in the organisation’s history in response to the terror attacks

September 12: Ansett Australia collapses, leaving 15,000 people out of work

September 20: President Bush declares a “war on terror”

October 7: The US invasion of Afghanistan begins

October 19: SIEV X, an Indonesian fishing boat carrying more than 400 asylum-seekers, sinks en route to Christmas Island, killing 353

October 19: South Australian Liberal premier John Olsen resigns after an inquiry finds he was dishonest in his responses to an investigation into how Motorola set up operations in the state. He is replaced by Rob Kerin

October 23: Apple releases the iPod

November 10: Howard’s government wins a third term in office. Labor leader Kim Beazley resigns and is replaced by Simon Crean

December 2: Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US

December 15: The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $US27m being spent to fortify it