15 June 2002

US president George W. Bush designated 140,000 square miles (360,000 km2) around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, now one of the world's largest protected areas.

The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a truck bomb in the commercial centre of Manchester, England, injuring more than 200 people and causing widespread damage to buildings.

An eruption of Mount Pinatubo (pictured) in the Philippines deposited large amounts of particulate matter into the atmosphere, enough to briefly lower global temperatures by about 0.5 °C (0.9 °F).

King Hussein of Jordan married American Lisa Halaby, who became known as Queen Noor of Jordan (pictured).

World War II: The United States Army Air Forces began the first air raid of its strategic bombing campaign against the Japanese archipelago, although little damage was caused.

Bessie Coleman (pictured) became the first Black person to earn an international pilot's license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

Three African-American circus workers were lynched by a mob in Duluth, Minnesota, a crime that shocked the country for having taken place in the Northern United States.

A magnitude-8.5 earthquake and a subsequent tsunami struck Japan, killing at least 22,000 people and destroying about 9,000 homes.

Eadweard Muybridge took a series of photographs to prove that all four feet of a horse leave the ground when it gallops (animation pictured), which became the basis of motion pictures

The shooting of a pig in the San Juan Islands led to the so-called Pig War over the border between the United States and British North America.

War of the Second Coalition: The signing of the Convention of Alessandria brought temporary peace between France and Austria.

Leo X issued the papal bull Exsurge Domine, censuring 41 propositions from Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses and subsequent writings, and threatening him with excommunication unless he recanted.

King John of England and a group of rebel barons agreed on the text of Magna Carta, an influential charter of rights.

The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonates a powerful truck bomb in the middle of Manchester, England, devastating the city centre and injuring 200 people.

The United States Supreme Court rules in United States v. Álvarez-Machaín that it is permissible for the United States to forcibly extradite suspects in foreign countries and bring them to the United States for trial, without approval from those other countries.

In the Philippines, Mount Pinatubo erupts in the second largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century, killing over 800 people.

The Ariane 4 rocket is launched on its maiden flight.

After the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, the first democratic elections take place in Spain.

Cathay Pacific Flight 700Z is destroyed by a bomb over Pleiku, Vietnam (then South Vietnam) and kills 81 people.

World War II: The United States invades Saipan, capital of Japan's South Seas Mandate.

World War II: Operation Aerial begins: Allied troops start to evacuate France, following Germany's takeover of Paris and most of the nation.

John Alcock and Arthur Brown complete the first nonstop transatlantic flight when they reach Clifden, County Galway, Ireland.

A fire aboard the steamboat SS General Slocum in New York City's East River kills 1,000.

One of the deadliest tsunamis in Japan's history kills more than 22,000 people.