2002
International Year of Ecotourism and Mountains
January 1 – Euro notes and coins are issued in France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Finland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Austria, Ireland and the Netherlands.
March 14 – 125 vehicles are involved in a massive pile up on Interstate 75 in Ringgold, Georgia.
April 18 – The discovery of a new insect order, Mantophasmatodea, is announced.
May 26 – The Mars Odyssey finds signs of large water ice deposits on the planet Mars.
June 15 – Near Earth Asteroid 2002 MN misses the planet by 75,000 miles (120,000 km), about 1/3 the distance to the moon.
July 19 – Hail kills 25 and injures hundreds in the Chinese province of Henan.
August 7 – Tama-chan, a bearded seal native to the Arctic, is discovered in Tama River in Tokyo.
October 7 – The discovery of Quaoar is announced.
Nov 10 - According to the Guardian newspaper, Gauthier Hulot of the Paris Geophysical Institute has discovered evidence of a reduction of the Earth's magnetic field over the last two hundred years. It is possible that this may be a prelude to a reversal of polarity of the Earth's magenetic field over the next few hundred years.
Dec 6 - Pi has been calculated to 1.24 trillion digits. Professor Yasumasa Kanada and nine other researchers at the Information Technology Center at the University of Tokyo have set the new world record.
