Every day, news articles appear that mention new, unfamiliar, but (now) important people, places, things, and concepts. Wikipedia can and should become a resource for background information on the topics behind current events.
As topics, new and old, become relevant to understanding today's news, please add links and work on stories about those topics. This will help make Wikipedia even more relevant and useful for visitors. For more information on contributing to this page, see current events article development.
Breaking news--Daily events
British Telecommunications plc starts its US federal court case relating to a controversial patent that it claims gives it a monopoly on the technology of web links.
The opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, which are held in Salt Lake City.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said today that the United States was willing to sign a treaty with Russia on limiting strategic nuclear weapons, indicating a possible shift in administration policy after withdrawing, last December, from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty of 1972. President George W. Bush and President Vladimir V. Putin are to hold a arms reduction summit meeting in Moscow this May. - Background material: nuclear disarmament, nuclear warfare, nuclear proliferation.
American football: Super Bowl XXXVI: New England Patriots 20, Saint Louis Rams 17 -- one of the most astonishing upsets in Super Bowl history.
Prince Willem-Alexander, heir to the Dutch throne, marries Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti in Amsterdam.
Topics in the news
If updated, the list of topics should reflect topics that have recently come to the forefront of recent news events. Older topics, also essential to understanding current events, can be found below.
- Ethnicity: Israeli - Jew - Palestinian
- Geography:
- Re Colin Powell's speech: Gaza - Gaza Strip - Golan Heights - Israel - Judea - Palestine - Syria - West Bank
- Re airport security bill: Reagan National Airport
- Re germ warfare: Iraq - North Korea
- Law: anti-terrorism legislation
- Organizations, governmental and professional: Air Transport Association - American Automobile Association - House of Lords - U.S. Department of Transportation
- People: Yasser Arafat - Caroline Dickinson - Saddam Hussein - Shimon Peres - Colin Powell - Condoleezza Rice - Nabil Shaath - Ariel Sharon
- Religion: Islam - Judaism
- Concepts:
- Military and defense: biological weapons program - sniffer dog (better term for this?) - weapon of mass destruction - x-ray searching
- Other: airline baggage - bounty - bounty hunter - sniffer dog - x-ray searching
Background for ongoing current events
The War in Afghanistan: Background
- Developing stories: 2001 U.S. Attack on Afghanistan - individual cases of anthrax
- Ethnicity: People of Afghanistan - Azerbaijan - Pashtun - Tajik
- Geography: Afghanistan - Baghlan, Afghanistan - Israel - Kabul - Kandahar - Kunduz, Afghanistan - New York City - Pakistan - Palestine - United States of America - Washington, D.C.
- History: September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack/Back history
- People: Osama Bin Laden - Tony Blair - George W. Bush - Abdul Rashid Dostum - Pervez Musharraf - Mullah Mohammed Omar - Burhanuddin Rabbani - Donald H. Rumsfeld - Abdul Sattar
- Organizations: al Qaeda - CDC - Northern Alliance - Taliban - United Nations - United Nations Security Council - U.S. Special Operations
- Concepts
- Geographical: airport - airspace - pipeline
- Military/guerilla/defense technology and strategy: aircraft carrier - airport security - anthrax - antibiotic resistance - baggage screening - biological warfare - biological weapon - car bomb - ciprofloxacin - domestic security - gas mask - germ warfare - aircraft hijacking - smallpox - terrorist cell - vaccine
- Political: anti-Americanism - domestic terrorism - foreign aid - foreign aid worker - humanitarian aid - peace - risk analysis - terrorism - terrorist groups - war
- Religious: Islamism
- Psychological: collective trauma
U.S. Domestic Response to Terrorism: Background
- Geography: New York City - Reno, Nevada - Washington, D.C.
- People: John Ashcroft - George W. Bush - Colin Powell -
- Organizations: Air Transport Association - Central Intelligence Agency - U.S. Department of Defense - Federal Bureau of Investigation - Office of Homeland Security
- Concepts: bipartisanship - electronic surveillance - encryption - wiretap - tax cut
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Background
- Ethnicity: Israeli - Jew - Palestinian
- Geography: Gaza - Gaza Strip - Golan Heights - Israel - Judea - Palestine - Syria - West Bank
- People: Yasser Arafat - Shimon Peres - Colin Powell - Nabil Shaath - Ariel Sharon
- Religion: Islam - Judaism
- October 23 2001 Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein calls for Provisional Irish Republican Army to start disarmament after pressure from America, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
- Other: 2001 crash of American Airlines Flight 587 - Airbus A300 - Queens, New York City - Dominican Republic
- November 3 2001 At 2230 GMT after a late warning that contained a known terrorist code word from a bomb exploded in Birmingham, England on the site of one of the Provisional Irish Republican Army explosions that killed the most people. This comes after the PIRA disarmed a portion of their weapons, David Trimble sought to regain his position as First Minster of the Northern Ireland assembly and as Tony Blair is still involved in the consequences of the "War against Terrorism". This action could open a second front in this war, if only for the United Kingdom.
- The terrorist attack: September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack - World Trade Center - Pentagon - New York City - Washington, D.C. - AA Flight 11 - UA Flight 75 - AA Flight 77 - UA Flight 93 - September 11
Other Conflicts
Science and Technology
- A new genetic mechanism has been found allowing evolution to radically redesign body plans, caused by mutations occurring in the regulatory genes that control embryonic development.
Europe
Business news
- recession - depression
- stock market - stock exchange - Dow Industrial Average - NASDAQ
- Cisco Systems
- United Auto Workers
- Railtrack
Celebrity news
Sports news
Holidays
Topics removed from current events
News pages
External links to news pages that can be used to gather new topics for the above list.
- http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/ts/
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news - Coverage split in to science/health etc... for UK and world news
- http://www.cnn.com