Unix Timestamp: 1044057600
Saturday, February 1. 2003, 12:00:00 AM UTC

The Xinhua news agency reports that 25 Chinese workers held captive in the Sinai region of Egypt have been released. //edition.cnn.com/2012/01/31/world/africa/egyptchinese-workers/index.html (CNN)

At least 73 people are killed as a result of clashes between fans of Egyptian football teams Al-Masry and Al-Ahly in the city of Port Said. //www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16845841 (BBC), //www.news.com.au/world/egypt-football-violence-kills-73-medics/story-e6frfkyi-1226260171443 (AFP via News Limited)//www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Egypt-soccer-fans-rush-field-after-game-74-dead-2918124.php (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

At least 79 people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured after a football match in Port Said, Egypt.ref name=cnn

Kirill I is officially enthroned as Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7863385.stm (BBC)

Palestinian factional violence: Hamas gunmen ambush a convoy carrying weapons to Mahmoud Abbas's presidential guard unit. Six Fatah members are killed, more than 70 people are wounded and 12 others are kidnapped in ensuing battles. //www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3359880,00.html (Ynet)

Iraq: At least 56 are killed and over 200 injured when two suicide bombers hit the offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Arbil, north of Baghdad. Hundreds had gathered at the party offices for the start of Eid al-Adha.

Incidents during the Hajj: 244 Muslim pilgrims are trled to death during the ritual of the stoning of the devil at the Hajj (annual pilgrimage to Mecca).

Abdul Qadeer Khan, founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, is removed from his post as a special science and technology adviser to Prime Minister Pervez Musharraf after Khan, three other scientists and three low-level Pakistan Army officers are investigated in connection with the sharing of Pakistani nuclear technology with Iran, Libya and other countries in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

A hajj stede in Mina, Saudi Arabia, kills 251 pilgrims.

Super Bowl XXXVIII: The New England Patriots defeat the Carolina Panthers 32–29 after Adam Vinatieri kicks a game-winning field goal with seconds remaining.

Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy: During the halftime show performance by Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake, one of Jackson's breasts is exposed and broadcast on the CBS broadcast of the show in what is later described as a wardrobe malfunction. CBS is fined a record $550,000 by the Federal Communications Commission later in the year and the incident precipitates an increase of the FCC fine per indecency violation from $27,500 to $325,000. See also fleeting expletive.

Kidnapped "Wall Street Journal" reporter Daniel Pearl is murdered in Karachi, Pakistan.

Lyricist/guitarist Richey Edwards of the Welshalternative rock band Manic Street Preachers goes missing from a hotel in Bayswater, London on the eve of a planned tour of the United States. His car is found 2 weeks later at Severn View services in Aust.

In Portland, Oregon, Tonya Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly pleads guilty for his role in attacking figure skater Nancy Kerrigan. He accepts a plea bargain, admitting to racketeering charges in exchange for testimony against Harding.

Carlos Andrés Pérez takes office as President of Venezuela.

Soviet war in Afghanistan: The last Soviet Union armored column leaves Kabul, ending 9 years of military occupation.

After a stroke, Pieter Willem Botha resigns his party's leadership and the presidency of South Africa.

Joan Kirner becomes Victoria's first female Deputy Premier, after the resignation of Robert Fordham over the VEDC (Victorian Economic Development Co-operation) Crisis.

Satellite television service Sky Television plc is launched in Europe.

A military coup overthrows Alfredo Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay since 1954.

Medicare comes into effect in Australia.

STS-41-B: Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' is launched on the 10th space shuttle mission.

STS-41-B: Space Shuttle "Challenger" is launched on the 10th space shuttle mission.

Dr. John Buster and the research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer, from one woman to another resulting in a live birth.

Senegal and Gambia form a loose Senegambia Confederation.

The Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation is launched in the Philippines.

A train collision near Buenos Aires, Argentina kills 236.

West Germany procures some 2,600 political prisoners from East Germany.

The Beatles vault to the #1 spot on the U.S. singles charts for the first time, with I Want to Hold Your Hand, forever changing the way popular music sounds to Americans, also starting the British Invasion in America.

The United States launches its first test of the Minuteman I intercontinental ballistic missile.//www.fas.org/spp/military/program/6555th/6555c3-8.htm Fas.org

In Greensboro, North Carolina, four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth\'slunch counter. Although they are refused service, they are allowed to stay at the counter. The event triggers many similar nonviolent protests throughout the Southern United States, and six months later the original four protesters are served lunch at the same counter.

In Greensboro, North Carolina, four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter. Although they are refused service, they are allowed to stay at the counter. The event triggers many similar nonviolent protests throughout the Southern United States, and six months later the original four protesters are served lunch at the same counter.

A chartered plane transporting musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper and pilot Roger Peterson goes down in foggy conditions near Clear Lake, Iowa, killing all 4 occupants on board. The tragedy is later termed The Day the Music Died, popularized in Don McLean's 1972 song American Pie.

American Airlines Flight 320, a Lockheed L-188 Electra heading from Chicago to New York City, crashes into the East River, killing 65 of the 73 people on board.

A referendum in Switzerland turns down female suffrage.

Egypt and Syria unite to form the United Arab Republic.

Ray Kroc opens a McDonald'sfast food restaurant (the company's 9th since it was founded in 1940), but Kroc later takes over the company and oversees its worldwide expansion.

The surge of the North Sea Flood continues from the previous day.

The United Nations General Assembly declares that China is an aggressor in the Korean War in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 498.

Chiang Kai-shek is re-elected as a president of the Republic of China.

Rationing of clothes ends in Britain.

The Soviet Union begins to jam Voice of America broadcasts.

WWII: United States troops land in the Marshall Islands.

WWII: The Command staff of the Eighth Air Force reaches England! becomes active in the European Theater of Operations, but won't fly missions until July 4th, 1942 using borrowed British planes//www.taphilo.com/history/8thaf/index.shtml -

WWII: Winter War ndash Russian forces launch a major assault on Finnish troops occupying the Karelian Isthmus.

Adolf Hitler gives his Proclamation to the German People in Berlin.

Land on Broadway and Wall Street in New York City is sold at a record $7 per sq inch.

The United Kingdom recognizes the Soviet Union.

New York City's Grand Central Terminal, having been rebuilt, reopens as the world's largest train station.

The United Kingdom and the United States sign a treaty for the building of a Central American shipping canal across Central America in Nicaragua.

GovernorWilliam Goebel of Kentucky dies of wounds after being shot by several assassins on January 30. Goebel, who had prevailed in a dispute over the winner of the election in November 1899, had been sworn in on his deathbed. The former Secretary of State of KentuckyCaleb Powers is later found guilty in the conspiracy to kill Goebel.

Western Australia announced its refusal to join the Australian Federation unless it is given five more years of fiscal freedom.

Strikers in Aachen, Vienna, and Brussels demand an eight-hour working day and higher wages.

Second Boer War: The British House of Commons' vote of censure over the British government's handling of the war is defeated.

The opera "La bohème" premieres in Turin, Italy.

Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio in West Orange, New Jersey.

The first edition of the "Oxford English Dictionary" is published.

Goodna State School in Goodna, Queensland, Australia is founded.

Danish-Prussian War (Second war of Schleswig): 57,000 Austrian and Prussian troops cross the Eider River into Denmark.

American Civil War: Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic" is published for the first time in the "Atlantic Monthly".

American Civil War: Texas secedes from the Union.

Auburn University is first chartered as the East Alabama Male College.

Anson Jones, President of the Republic of Texas, signs the charter officially creating Baylor University. Baylor is the oldest university in the State of Texas operating under its original name.

Slavery is abolished in Mauritius.

Lord Byron's semi-autobiographical tale in verse "The Corsair" is published by John Murray in London and sells 10,000 copies on this day.

The capital of Upper Canada is moved from Newark to York.

French Revolutionary Wars: France declares war on Great Britain and the Netherlands.

In New York City the Supreme Court of the United States convenes for the first time.

Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet patent a steamboat.

The Royal Colony of North Carolina officially creates Mecklenburg County from the western portion of Anson County. The county is named for Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who married George III of the United Kingdom in 1761.

The Silent Sejm, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, marks the beginning of the Russian Empire's increasing influence and control over the Commonwealth.

The Chinese general Koxinga seizes the Dutch Fort Zealandia on the island of Taiwan after a 9-month siege, then establishes the Kingdom of Tungning. In response, the Kangxi Emperor of the mainland Qing Dynasty migrates all residents along the southern coast by 50 miles.

Queen Elizabeth I of England signs the death warrant of her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, after Mary is implicated in a plot to murder Elizabeth. Seven days later, on the orders of Elizabeth's privy council, Mary is beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle.

Sarsa Dengel succeeds his father Menas as Emperor of Ethiopia.

The First Peace of Thorn is signed in Thorn, Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights

Edward III becomes King of England.

BelgianastronomerJean Meeus (b. 1928) asserts that the orbits of all the planets of the Solar system were within the same 90° arc of the solar system on this date. The next time it is thought this will occur is on May 6, 2492.

King Huneric organises a conference between Catholic and Arian bishops at Carthage. At the request of Byzantine emperor Zeno, he allows the election of a Catholic bishop, named Eugenius.

Baekje, Silla, and Daegaya form an alliance against Goguryeo (Korea).