2001 History, Trivia and Fun Facts

• World Changing Event: 9/11 terrorist attack in New York City
• The Top Song was All For You by Janet Jackson
• The Big Movies included Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Shrek
• Price of a postage stamp in 2001: 34 cents
  85% ground beef: 1.49/pound
  iPod (1st Generation): $399.00
• The World Population was ~ 6,174,000,000
• The Segway PT was introduced in 2001.
• In addition to over 100 other songs, the 2001 Clear Channel memorandum recommended banning every single song by Rage Against the Machine from radio airplay in the wake of 9/11.
• And... The iPod was released. It had been designed under the codename 'Dulcimer'.

CC, short for Carbon Copy or Copy Cat (depending on who you ask) was the world's first cloned cat, born December 22, 2001.

Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, received a severance payment of $417 million, the largest severance payment ever made, upon his retirement from GE.

Phoenix is the only city to ever have a complete "sports equinox", when all four major sports teams from a city play on the same day. On November 4th, 2001 the Cardinals (NFL), the Coyotes (NHL), and the Suns (NBA) all lost, while the Diamondbacks (MLB) won game 7 of the World Series.

Stanley Kubrick asked journalists to refer to "2001: A Space Odyssey" as "two thousand and one" instead of "twenty-oh-one" hoping it would influence the pronunciation of that year.

The first song featured on the very first Kidz Bop album was All Star by Smash Mouth

In 1986, nurse Sandra Clarke could not stay with a patient who asked her to stay. When she returned, the patient had died alone. In 2001, she was key in starting No One Dies Alone, a program where volunteers sit with terminal patients who have no one else. The program is now world-wide.

In 2001, Neopets was the fourth most trafficked website on the internet, eight spots ahead of fast-growing search engine giant Google.

The Vatican broadcast its official public approval of Pokémon in April 2001, claiming that the game was based on "intense ties of friendship" and lacked "any harmful moral side effects."

On the 2001 New Zealand census, 53,715 people listed their religion as 'Jedi'.

A ten-year-old named Laura Buxton, released a balloon with her name and address in the hope of finding a pen pal. The balloon traveled 140 miles before coming down and was found by an almost-ten-year old also named Laura Buxton. They share a number of other similarities.

"Tree Lobsters" are giant stick insects thought to have been extinct since 1920. In 2001 a few specimens were found on a single shrub on a magnificent volcanic sea stack between Australia and New Zealand. The insects have since been bred in captivity and now have a stable population.

Bobby Bonilla will receive close to $1.2 million from the Mets once a year until 2035. He hasn't played in the majors since 2001.

After Bill Murray's character in the 2001 film Osmosis Jones mentioned a fictitious "National Chicken Wing Festival" in Buffalo, New York, the city created a real version of the festival, and has held it every year since then.

The voice of Boo from Monsters, Inc., Mary Gibbs, was just a toddler during production. The crew couldn't get her to sit still and read her lines, so they had her play in the studio while following her around with a mic

Tsar Simeon II of Bulgaria, who ruled from 1943 to 1946 as a child, and was overthrown after the WWII, was later elected Prime Minister of Bulgaria in 2001. He is the only monarch to become the head of government through democratic elections in European history.

Cowboy Bebop was the first anime to play on Adult Swim.

Although "Madison" was the second most popular girl's name in 2001, it was virtually unheard of before the 1984 movie Splash, where a mermaid adopts it as her human name after seeing a street sign for Madison Avenue. To this Tom Hanks's character initially protests: "But Madison isn't a name!"

Barry Bond's record breaking 73 Home Run season in 2001 is the only season in his career where he hit over 50.*
* steroid use was allegedly involved

Pizza Hut made a delivery to the International Space Station in 2001. They paid the Russians $1 million to transport the Pizza.

Cost of a Superbowl ad in 2001: $2,100,000

Ben Sliney, the man who ordered the grounding of all aircraft in the US Sept 11 2001 was on his first day of the job.

In the 1999 movie the Matrix, Neo's passport expires on September 11, 2001.

Microsoft Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, iPod, Harry Potter toys, K'NEX BattleTech/MechWarrior, Bob the Builder toys, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec video game

Mental Floss Magazine (2001-2016)

Rosie Magazine (2001-2002)

People StyleWatch began publication

(according to boxofficemojo)
1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
3. Shrek
4. Monster's Inc
5. Rush Hour 2
6. The Mummy Returns
7. Pearl Harbor
8. Ocean's Eleven
9. Jurassic Park III
10. Planet of the Apes

A Beautiful Mind, American Pie 2, Black Hawk Down, Donnie Darko, Dr. Dolittle 2, The Fast and the Furious, Hannibal, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Jurassic Park III, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Legally Blonde, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Monsters Inc., Moulin Rouge!, The Mummy Returns, Ocean's Eleven, The Others, Pearl Harbor, Planet of the Apes, The Princess Diaries, Rat Race, Rush Hour 2, Shrek, Spy Kids, Vanilla Sky