2001 History, Facts, and Trivia

On the morning of September 11, 2001, nineteen hijackers took control of four commercial aircraft. Two flew into the World Trade Center in New York City. One hit the Pentagon. The fourth came down in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers attempted to retake control. By the time the day ended, 2,977 people had been killed in the deadliest terrorist attack in American history. Everything that followed — two wars, a new federal department, the transformation of air travel, sixteen years of military operations — flows from that morning. The year had other things in it. Harry Potter arrived in theaters. The iPod launched. Shrek won an Oscar. But 2001 is the year that split American history into a before and an after, and most of what came before feels very far away.

Quick Facts from 2001

• World-Changing Event: The September 11 terrorist attacks killed 2,977 people and fundamentally altered American foreign policy, domestic security, and daily life
• Top Song: Hanging by a Moment by Lifehouse, the best-performing single of the year on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100; All For You by Janet Jackson spent eleven weeks at number one during the spring and summer
• Must-See Movies: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Shrek, Monsters Inc., Ocean’s Eleven, and Legally Blonde
• Most Famous Fictional Person in America: Harry Potter
• Most Famous Real Person in America: Angelina Jolie
• Price of PlayStation 2: $299.97
• Price of Game Boy Advance: $89.97
• Price of iPod, 1st Generation: $399.00
• The Funny Late Night Host: Jay Leno
• The Controversial Funny Guy: Gilbert Gottfried
• Fun Fact: The 21st century did not begin on January 1, 2000. It began on January 1, 2001. The first year of any century is the year 01, never 00, because there was no year zero
• Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Snake, associated with wisdom, intuition, and a preference for thinking carefully before acting — qualities that were in varying supply throughout the year
• The Habit: Getting an iPod, playing Xbox, and watching SpongeBob SquarePants
• The Conversation: Did you hear what happened? Are you okay? Do you know anyone in New York?

Top Ten Baby Names of 2001

Girls: Emily, Madison, Hannah, Ashley, Alexis
Boys: Jacob, Michael, Matthew, Joshua, Christopher

Emily held the top spot for girls for the fifth consecutive year. Christopher remained a fixture in the boys’ top ten, as it had been for decades. In 2001, 269 newborn boys in the United States were named Keanu, following Keanu Reeves’s appearances in The Matrix the previous year.

Fashion Icons and Sex Symbols of 2001

Jessica Alba, Gisele Bündchen, Amanda Peet, Beyoncé Knowles, Eliza Dushku, Eva Longoria, Britney Spears, Kirsten Dunst, Kate Hudson, Mena Suvari

Britney Spears performed with a live albino Burmese python draped around her shoulders at the MTV Video Music Awards in August 2001, a moment that generated the kind of coverage that suggests the performance worked exactly as intended. Beyoncé was still a member of Destiny’s Child, though the group’s internal dynamics were openly discussed in the press throughout the year.

Leading Men and Hunks of 2001

Russell Crowe, David Beckham, George Clooney, Ryan Reynolds, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise

Russell Crowe had just won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Gladiator and was at the peak of his cultural visibility. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman announced their separation in February 2001, ending one of Hollywood’s most publicly managed marriages.

Time Magazine’s Person of the Year

Rudolph Giuliani, Mayor of New York City, for his leadership in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Giuliani was physically present at the World Trade Center site within minutes of the first impact and remained a visible, stabilizing presence throughout the days that followed. His handling of the crisis temporarily superseded years of controversy over his mayoralty. Time described him as a man who became the mayor of the world.

Miss America and Miss USA

Miss America: Angela Perez Baraquio, Honolulu, Hawaii — the first Filipino American to win Miss America
Miss USA: Kandace Krueger, Texas

We Lost in 2001

Dale Earnhardt, one of the most successful and beloved drivers in NASCAR history, died on the final lap of the Daytona 500 on February 18, 2001, at age 49, from a basilar skull fracture sustained in a last-lap crash at turn four. He had won the Daytona 500 only once in twenty attempts, finally winning in 1998 in one of the most emotionally received victories in the race’s history. He was a seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion. The sport made the HANS device mandatory equipment in the immediate aftermath, a decision that has since saved numerous lives.

Aaliyah, the R&B singer and actress whose voice and style had been among the most distinctive in contemporary music, died August 25, 2001, at age 22, in a plane crash shortly after takeoff from Marsh Harbour Airport in the Bahamas. She had been filming the music video for Rock the Boat. The aircraft was overloaded. She had released three albums and appeared in two films. Her influence on R&B production and performance continues to be cited by artists working decades after her death.

Joey Ramone, born Jeffrey Hyman, the vocalist of the Ramones whose stage persona — leather jacket, torn jeans, long hair over his face — had helped define the visual vocabulary of punk rock, died April 15, 2001, at age 49, of lymphoma.

John Lee Hooker, the blues guitarist and singer whose influence on rock music was incalculable and whose work had shaped the Rolling Stones, the Animals, and Van Morrison, among others, died June 21, 2001, at age 83.

Perry Como, whose smooth baritone and television presence had made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 1940s and 1950s, died May 12, 2001, at age 88.

Carroll O’Connor, the actor whose portrayal of Archie Bunker in All in the Family had been one of the most culturally significant performances in American television history, died June 21, 2001, at age 76.

Anthony Quinn, the actor whose career had spanned six decades and included Zorba the Greek and La Strada, and who remains one of the most widely traveled and culturally varied leading men in Hollywood history, died June 3, 2001, at age 86.

America in 2001 — The Context

George W. Bush was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States on January 20, 2001, after winning the most contested election in modern American history. The Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Bush v. Gore on December 12, 2000, had halted the Florida recount and effectively determined the outcome. Bush lost the popular vote to Al Gore by approximately 543,000 votes.

The economic expansion of the 1990s had ended. The dot-com bubble had burst in March 2000, and technology stocks had been declining for over a year. The economy entered recession in March 2001. The tax cut package signed by Bush in June 2001 was its first major legislative response.

Then September 11 happened, and everything else became secondary.

September 11, 2001

At 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. At 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower. At 9:37 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. At 10:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers who had learned via cell phone calls what had happened at the World Trade Center and Pentagon attempted to retake the aircraft from the hijackers. The South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m. The North Tower collapsed at 10:28 a.m.

The total death toll was 2,977 victims, not including the 19 hijackers. At the World Trade Center, 2,606 people died, including 341 firefighters, 60 police officers, and 10 paramedics and emergency medical technicians. At the Pentagon, 125 employees were killed. On the four aircraft, 246 passengers and crew members died.

The attacks were planned and executed by al-Qaeda, the terrorist network led by Osama bin Laden, who was located in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban government. The United States launched military operations in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001. The war that began that day continued for twenty years.

President Bush signed the USA PATRIOT Act on October 26, 2001, dramatically expanding domestic surveillance authorities. The Department of Homeland Security was proposed in November and formally established the following year. Airport security was federalized, and the Transportation Security Administration was created. The physical experience of American travel was permanently altered.

On the evening of September 11, a Polish immigrant named Henryk Siwiak was murdered in New York City. With the entire police department focused on the attacks, almost no investigation took place. His death is the only homicide recorded in New York City on that date and remains unsolved.

The Scandals

Enron, the Houston-based energy company that had been named Fortune’s Most Innovative Company for six consecutive years, filed for bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, in what was then the largest corporate bankruptcy in American history. The collapse revealed that the company had used complex off-balance-sheet partnerships to hide billions in debt and inflate reported earnings, with the knowledge and participation of its accounting firm Arthur Andersen. Employees who had invested their retirement savings in Enron stock lost everything. Executives had sold their shares while encouraging employees to hold theirs.

Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs in 2001, breaking the single-season record of 70 set by Mark McGwire in 1998. The achievement was accompanied by widespread allegations of performance-enhancing drug use, which Bonds denied. The record stands in the official books but carries an asterisk in the minds of many observers, a situation that the baseball establishment has never formally resolved.

Angelina Jolie kissed her brother James Haven on the mouth at the Academy Awards in March 2001, while accepting her Best Supporting Actress award for Girl, Interrupted. The moment generated enormous commentary and was discussed for months, which Jolie later attributed to the audience’s misunderstanding of a close sibling relationship.

Gary Condit, a California congressman, had an affair with his 24-year-old intern Chandra Levy, who disappeared in May 2001. The investigation and media coverage of Condit’s relationship with Levy dominated the summer news cycle until September 11, effectively ending it. Levy’s remains were found in Rock Creek Park in Washington DC in 2002. Ingmar Guandique, a Salvadoran national, was convicted of her murder in 2010 and later had his conviction vacated. The case was ultimately dismissed.

Pop Culture Facts and History

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone opened on November 16, 2001, and grossed $317 million in the United States, becoming the year’s highest-grossing film domestically. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, released December 19, earned $315 million domestically and launched a trilogy that would eventually sweep the Academy Awards. Both franchises arrived in theaters within five weeks of each other and, between them, defined the direction of fantasy cinema for the following decade.

The iPod was announced by Steve Jobs on October 23, 2001, with the description “1,000 songs in your pocket.” It cost $399, required a Mac, and held 5 gigabytes of music. It was not immediately recognized as the product that would transform the music industry’s relationship with consumers, though that transformation began almost immediately.

The Xbox launched on November 15, 2001, as Microsoft’s entry into the gaming console market. Its launch title, Halo: Combat Evolved, was considered the most technically impressive first-person shooter available on a console at that time and effectively established the Xbox as a competitive platform.

Shrek, DreamWorks Animation’s computer-animated fairy tale subversion, won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, a category created that year. It grossed $484 million worldwide on a $60 million budget. The film’s irreverent approach to fairy-tale conventions, casting of non-traditional voice actors, and pop-music soundtrack established a template that animated films have been following and arguing about ever since.

Pizza Hut paid approximately $1 million in logistics and marketing costs to deliver a pizza to the International Space Station in 2001, making it the first company to achieve a commercial delivery to orbit. The pizza was a six-inch salami pizza, modified to withstand the space environment. The cosmonaut who received it signed a receipt.

The performance of John Cage’s Organ²/ASLSP (As Slow as Possible) began at the Church of St. Burchardi in Halberstadt, Germany, on September 5, 2001. The performance is scheduled to conclude in 2640, making it the longest scheduled musical performance in history. Individual note changes occur years apart and are treated as events.

Stan Lee was commissioned in 2001 to reimagine DC Comics characters for a Marvel imprint called Just Imagine. His versions included a Black Batman, a Hispanic Wonder Woman, and a teenage girl Flash. The series was a commercial curiosity and a creative experiment that demonstrated both the flexibility and the limitations of the exercise.

The 20 people executed during the Salem witch trials of 1692 and 1693 were formally exonerated by the Massachusetts legislature in 2001, clearing the last five names that had not been cleared by previous legislative action. It had taken 309 years.

In the 2001 UK Census, 390,127 people — approximately 0.8 percent of the population — listed their religion as Jedi, making it the fourth most commonly reported religion in the country, ahead of Sikhism, Judaism, and Buddhism. The Office for National Statistics did not include it in the official religious categories.

A ten-year-old girl named Laura Buxton released a helium balloon from her home in Staffordshire, England, with her name and address attached. The balloon traveled 140 miles and was found by another girl, almost exactly ten years old, also named Laura Buxton. Both girls had a rabbit, a guinea pig, and a black Labrador. They became friends.

Christopher Walken had trained as a dancer and tap dancer before beginning his acting career, which is why director Michel Gondry cast him in Fatboy Slim’s Weapon of Choice music video in 2001, in which Walken dances through an empty hotel lobby. The video won six MTV VMAs. Most people who watch it are surprised to learn he had formal training. They shouldn’t be.

Nobel Prize Winners in 2001

Physics was awarded to Eric Cornell, Wolfgang Ketterle, and Carl Wieman for achieving Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms and for early fundamental studies of the properties of the condensates. The work produced a new state of matter, predicted by Einstein in 1924 but not observed until 1995.

Chemistry went to William Knowles, Ryoji Noyori, and Barry Sharpless for their work on chirally catalyzed hydrogenation and oxidation reactions, which enabled the production of pharmaceutical compounds with specific molecular orientations — work with direct applications in drug manufacture, including antibiotics and medications for Parkinson’s disease.

Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Leland Hartwell, Tim Hunt, and Paul Nurse for their discoveries of key regulators of the cell cycle. Their work identified the molecular switches that control cell division, with direct implications for understanding cancer, which is fundamentally a disease of uncontrolled cell division.

Literature went to V.S. Naipaul of Trinidad and Britain for uniting perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories. Naipaul was one of the most celebrated and most controversial literary figures of the postcolonial era.

Peace was awarded jointly to the United Nations and its Secretary-General Kofi Annan, for their work for a better-organized and more peaceful world. Annan had served as Secretary-General since 1997 and had worked to expand the UN’s role in conflict prevention and humanitarian response.

Economics went to George Akerlof, Michael Spence, and Joseph Stiglitz for their analyses of markets with asymmetric information — the study of how markets function when buyers and sellers have different information — a framework that explains everything from used-car markets to health insurance to the structure of financial contracts.

2001 Toys Inducted to the National Toy Hall of Fame

Silly Putty and Tonka Trucks were inducted in 2001. Silly Putty was accidentally invented in 1943 by General Electric engineer James Wright, who was attempting to develop a synthetic rubber substitute during wartime material shortages. It failed as a rubber substitute but succeeded as a toy, which is a more useful outcome in peacetime.

2001 Christmas Gifts and First Appearances

The iPod and the original Xbox were the dominant gifts of the season, competing for the same household electronics budget. Harry Potter merchandise was in every toy store. K’NEX BattleTech sets and Bob the Builder toys rounded out the season for younger children.

Broadway in 2001

The Producers, Mel Brooks’s musical adaptation of his 1967 film about two producers who scheme to make money by staging a guaranteed flop, opened April 19, 2001, at the St. James Theatre and ran until April 22, 2007. It won twelve Tony Awards — the most in Broadway history at that time — including Best Musical, Best Book, Best Original Score, Best Direction, and Best Actor for Nathan Lane. The show’s central joke, that audiences would flock to a musical called Springtime for Hitler, proved to be accurate.

42nd Street, the revival of the 1980 musical about show business on Broadway, opened May 2, 2001, at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts and ran until January 2, 2005.

The Bomb

Glitter, the semi-autobiographical musical drama starring Mariah Carey, opened August 21, 2001, to nearly universal critical contempt and grossed $4.3 million against a $22 million budget. It arrived in the middle of a period of severe personal difficulty for Carey, who had suffered a public breakdown earlier in the summer. The film was subsequently named one of the worst movies ever made by multiple publications. Carey has discussed it with varying degrees of equanimity over the decades since.

Best Film Oscar Winner

Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe as a Roman general enslaved and forced to become a gladiator, won Best Picture at the 73rd Academy Awards on March 25, 2001, for the 2000 film year. Russell Crowe won Best Actor. The film had been a major commercial success, and its historical epic scale was credited with reviving a genre that had been largely dormant since the 1960s.

2001 Entries to the National Film Registry

All That Jazz (1979)
All the King’s Men (1949)
Hoosiers (1986)
It (1927)
Jaws (1975)
Manhattan (1979)
Memphis Belle (1944)
National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
The Sound of Music (1965)
The Thin Blue Line (1988)

Top Movies of 2001

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
3. Shrek
4. Monsters 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

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring arrived within five weeks of each other and, between them, earned over $1.2 billion worldwide. Ocean’s Eleven, Steven Soderbergh’s remake of the 1960 Rat Pack film, was the most effortlessly enjoyable film of the year and assembled a cast — George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Julia Roberts, Elliott Gould, Eddie Jemison, Bernie Mac, Scott Caan, and Casey Affleck — whose combination of star power and apparent personal enjoyment of each other’s company was as much a part of the appeal as the plot.

Most Popular TV Shows of 2001

1. Friends (NBC)
2. CSI (CBS)
3. ER (NBC)
4. Survivor: Marquesas (CBS)
5. Survivor: Africa (CBS)
6. Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS)
7. Law and Order (NBC)
8. Will and Grace (NBC)
9. The West Wing (NBC)
10. Monday Night Football (ABC)

Friends was in its seventh season and remained the most-watched sitcom in America. CSI had premiered the previous year and was already second in the ratings, beginning a run that would eventually make it the most-watched show in the world. The West Wing won its second consecutive Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series. 24 premiered on Fox on November 6, 2001, introducing the real-time format and beginning a run that would make it one of the defining dramas of the post-9/11 decade.

2001 Billboard Number One Hits

November 18, 2000 – February 2, 2001: Independent Women Part I — Destiny’s Child (carryover from late 2000)
February 3 – February 16: It Wasn’t Me — Shaggy featuring Ricardo “Rikrok” Ducent
February 17 – February 23: Ms. Jackson — OutKast
February 24 – March 23: Stutter — Joe featuring Mystikal
March 24 – April 6: Butterfly — Crazy Town
April 7 – April 13: Angel — Shaggy featuring Rayvon
April 14 – June 1: All For You — Janet Jackson
June 2 – July 6: Lady Marmalade — Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mýa, and Pink
July 7 – August 3: U Remind Me — Usher August 4 – August 17: Bootylicious — Destiny’s Child
August 18 – September 28: Fallin’ — Alicia Keys
September 29 – November 2: I’m Real — Jennifer Lopez featuring Ja Rule
November 3 – December 14: Family Affair — Mary J. Blige
December 15, 2001 – January 25, 2002: U Got It Bad — Usher (carrying into 2002)

” Hanging by a Moment” by Lifehouse was the best-performing single of the year on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100, spending weeks on the chart with a consistency that outpaced more dramatic weekly peaks. Fallin’ by Alicia Keys, from her debut album Songs in A Minor, announced one of the most significant new talents of the decade. Lady Marmalade, the collaboration between Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mýa, and Pink for the Moulin Rouge! soundtrack was one of the most commercially and visually impactful singles of the summer. Destiny’s Child had two separate number ones in the same year from two different albums.

Sports Champions of 2001

World Series: The Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the New York Yankees four games to three in one of the most dramatic World Series ever played. The Yankees, who had won three consecutive championships, were attempting a fourth. Games 4 and 5 were won by the Yankees on walk-off home runs in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, both times within one strike of elimination, both times off the Yankees’ dominant closer, Mariano Rivera. Game 7 went to the bottom of the ninth with Rivera on the mound and the Yankees leading 2-1. Luis Gonzalez’s bloop single scored Jay Bell to win the championship. It was the Diamondbacks’ fourth season of existence.

Super Bowl XXXV: The Baltimore Ravens defeated the New York Giants 34-7 on January 28, 2001, in Tampa. The Ravens’ defense, which had allowed the fewest points in NFL history during the regular season, was dominant throughout. Ray Lewis was named MVP. The Giants managed just one offensive touchdown in the entire game, and it came on a kickoff return.

NBA Champions: The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Philadelphia 76ers four games to one, their second consecutive championship. Shaquille O’Neal was named Finals MVP for the second consecutive year. The series was notable for Allen Iverson’s extraordinary performance in Game 1, in which he scored 48 points as the 76ers won to prevent a sweep, including a step-over of Tyronn Lue after a mid-range jumper that became one of the most memorable images in Finals history.

Stanley Cup: The Colorado Avalanche defeated the New Jersey Devils four games to three, a series widely considered one of the best in recent Cup history. Patrick Roy won the Conn Smythe Trophy. The Avalanche had been assembled specifically to win a championship; the roster included Roy, Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Ray Bourque, and Milan Hejduk, a concentration of talent that would have been implausible in any previous era of the salary cap.

U.S. Open Golf: Retief Goosen of South Africa won in a playoff at Southern Hills in Tulsa, after missing a short putt on the 72nd hole that would have given him the title outright. He made the putt the following day in the playoff with considerably less pressure, which is one of the more unusual ways to win a major championship.

U.S. Open Tennis: Lleyton Hewitt won the men’s title, and Venus Williams won the women’s title, her second consecutive U.S. Open. Hewitt was 20 years old and would be ranked world number one by year’s end.

Wimbledon: Goran Ivanisevic won the men’s title and Venus Williams won the women’s. Ivanisevic’s victory was among the most celebrated in the tournament’s history. He had entered as a wild card, ranked 125th in the world, given in part as a gesture of appreciation for his three previous runner-up finishes. He defeated Pat Rafter in a five-set final on a Monday — play had been rained out on Sunday — before a crowd that was entirely on his side and demonstrated it openly. He collapsed on the court upon winning. He has said it was the greatest day of his life.

NCAA Football: Miami won the BCS National Championship in January 2002 for the 2001 season, defeating Nebraska 37-14. The Cornhuskers’ selection was controversial; they had lost their conference championship game. The result was decisive enough that the argument was quickly rendered academic.

NCAA Basketball: Duke defeated Arizona 82-72 in the national championship game in Minneapolis. Shane Battier was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player in what many consider the finest college basketball performance of his career. The Blue Devils, under Mike Krzyzewski, were one of the most discussed teams in college basketball history, generating both devoted admiration and equally devoted antagonism.

Kentucky Derby: Monarchos won in a time of 1:59.97, the second-fastest Derby in history, trailing only Secretariat’s 1:59.40 from 1973. The performance suggested a Triple Crown run was possible. Monarchos finished third in the Preakness, ending the conversation.

Frequently Asked Questions About 2001

Q: How many people died in the September 11 attacks?
A: The total number of victims was 2,977, not including the 19 hijackers. This included 2,606 at the World Trade Center, 125 at the Pentagon, and 246 passengers and crew on the four aircraft. Among those killed at the World Trade Center were 341 firefighters, 60 police officers, and 10 emergency medical workers.

Q: What happened on United Airlines Flight 93?
A: Flight 93 was the fourth hijacked aircraft. After passengers learned via cell phone calls what had happened at the World Trade Center and Pentagon, several attempted to retake the plane. The aircraft crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03 a.m. All 40 passengers and crew were killed, along with the 4 hijackers. The intended target is believed to have been either the Capitol or the White House.

Q: What was the iPod when it launched?
A: The first iPod, announced October 23, 2001, held 1,000 songs in 5 gigabytes of storage, cost $399, and required a Mac to sync. It was initially criticized as overpriced and Mac-only. It became the best-selling music player in history and, through the iTunes Store launched in 2003, fundamentally changed how music was purchased and consumed.

Q: What made the 2001 World Series unusual?
A: The Arizona Diamondbacks, in only their fourth year of existence, defeated the three-time champion New York Yankees in seven games. The Yankees won Games 4 and 5 on walk-off home runs with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, each time within one strike of elimination and each time off the most dominant closer in baseball history. The Diamondbacks won Game 7 with a walk-off single off Mariano Rivera in the bottom of the ninth.

Q: What was the Enron scandal?
A: Enron, which had been named Fortune’s Most Innovative Company for six consecutive years, filed for bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, after it was revealed that the company had used complex accounting arrangements to hide billions in debt and inflate its reported earnings. The collapse destroyed the retirement savings of thousands of employees who had been encouraged to invest in company stock. Its auditor Arthur Andersen was later convicted of obstruction of justice for shredding documents. The scandal contributed directly to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

Q: Why is Goran Ivanisevic’s Wimbledon win considered special?
A: Ivanisevic entered the 2001 Wimbledon tournament as a wild card ranked 125th in the world, having received the wild card partly as a recognition of his three previous runner-up finishes at the tournament. He defeated Pat Rafter in a five-set final played on a Monday after rain delays, before a crowd that was openly and vocally cheering for him. He had been considered one of the most talented players never to win a major; the victory, in his last realistic opportunity, is consistently cited as one of the most emotional in the tournament’s history.

In a year divided permanently in two by a single morning in September 2001, the country asked more than most years do. The things that happened before September 11 feel like they belong to a different era — a PlayStation 2 under the Christmas tree, Shrek in theaters, Harry Potter arriving for the first time. What happened afterward set the terms of the decade that followed. Both halves were real. The distance between them, measured in time, is about eight months. Measured in everything else, it is much farther.