William Jefferson Clinton is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the attorney general of Arkansas from 1977 to 1979 and as the governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981, and again from 1983 to 1992. Clinton, whose policies reflected a centrist "Third Way" political philosophy, became known as a New Democrat.
Billy Bob Thornton is an American actor, filmmaker, singer and songwriter. He received international attention after writing, directing and starring in the independent drama film Sling Blade (1996), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. For his role in A Simple Plan (1998) he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He is also known for his film roles in One False Move (1992), Tombstone (1993), Dead Man (1995), U Turn (1997), Primary Colors (1998), Armageddon (1998), Monster's Ball (2001), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), Intolerable Cruelty (2003), Bad Santa (2003) and Friday Night Lights (2004).
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the most populous country in the world and the seventh-largest by area. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia.
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as well as an emblem of the era's sexual revolution. She was a top-billed actress for a decade, and her films grossed $200 million by the time of her death in 1962.
Osama bin Laden was a Saudi Arabian–born Islamist dissident and militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda, a militant terrorist organization espousing Islamism, pan-Islamism and jihadism. Bin Laden participated in the Afghan mujahideen's jihad against the Soviet Union during the Soviet–Afghan War, and supported the Bosnian mujahideen during the Yugoslav Wars. Opposed to the United States' foreign policy in the Middle East, Bin Laden declared war on the U.S. in 1996. He supervised international terrorist attacks against Americans, including the September 11 attacks inside the U.S. in 2001.
The Dreamcast is the final home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was released on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, Nintendo's GameCube, and Microsoft's Xbox. The Dreamcast's 2001 discontinuation ended Sega's 18 years in the console market.
World War II or the Second World War was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all the world's countries—including all the great powers—participated, with many investing all available economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities in pursuit of total war, blurring the distinction between military and civilian resources. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, with the latter enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and delivery of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, resulting in 70 to 85 million deaths, more than half being civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust of European Jews, as well as from massacres, starvation, and disease. Following the Allied powers' victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and war crimes tribunals were conducted against German and Japanese leaders.
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Apart from 1922 to 1924, he was a member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies. Ideologically an adherent to economic liberalism and imperialism, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924.
2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2001st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 1st year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 2nd year of the 2000s decade.
Marie Antoinette was the last Queen of France prior to the French Revolution and the establishment of the French First Republic. Marie Antoinette was the wife of Louis XVI. Born Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria, she was the penultimate child and youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I. She married Louis Auguste, Dauphin of France, in May 1770 at the age of 14. She then became the Dauphine of France. On 10 May 1774, her husband ascended the throne as Louis XVI and she became queen.
The Nintendo GameCube is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64. As a sixth-generation console, the GameCube primarily competed with Sony's PlayStation 2, Sega's Dreamcast and Microsoft's Xbox.
Cher is an American singer, actress and television personality. Dubbed the "Goddess of Pop", she is known for her androgynous contralto voice, multifaceted career and bold visual presentation, while cultivating a screen persona that mirrors her public image by often portraying strong-willed, independent and outspoken women. Her adaptability has fueled multiple comebacks, cementing her status as a cultural icon. She is the only solo artist with Billboard number-one singles in seven consecutive decades, from the 1960s to the 2020s. Her accolades include an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, the Billboard Icon Award, the Kennedy Center Honor and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Cher is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with estimated sales of over 100 million records worldwide.
Jeffrey Scott Buckley was an American musician. After a decade as a session guitarist in Los Angeles, Buckley amassed a moderate following in the early 1990s performing at venues in East Village, Manhattan such as Sin-é. After rebuffing interest from record labels and Herb Cohen—the manager of his father, singer Tim Buckley—he signed with Columbia, recruited a band, and released his only studio album, Grace, in 1994.
Kathrin Romany Beckinsale is an English actress. The only child of actors Richard Beckinsale and Judy Loe, she debuted onstage in a 1992 production of Noël Coward's Hay Fever.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is a 2001 fantasy film directed by Chris Columbus and produced by David Heyman from a screenplay by Steve Kloves. It is based on the 1997 novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling. It is the first instalment in the Harry Potter film series. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, with Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, and Emma Watson as Hermione Granger. Its story follows Harry's first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as he discovers that he is a famous wizard and begins his formal wizarding education.
George Walker Bush is an American politician and businessman who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party, he was the 46th governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000.
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and the third into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in a rural Pennsylvania field during a passenger revolt. The September 11 attacks killed 2,977 people, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in history. In response to the attacks, the United States waged the multi-decade global war on terror to eliminate hostile groups deemed terrorist organizations, as well as the foreign governments purported to support them.
John Adams was an American Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of the American Revolution that achieved independence from Great Britain. During the latter part of the Revolutionary War and in the early years of the new nation, he served the U.S. government as a senior diplomat in Europe. Adams was the first person to hold the office of vice president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. He was a dedicated diarist and regularly corresponded with important contemporaries, including his wife and adviser Abigail Adams and his friend and political rival Thomas Jefferson.
Elizabeth II was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She had been queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during her lifetime and was the monarch of 15 realms at her death. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days is the longest of any British monarch, the second-longest of any sovereign state, and the longest of any queen regnant in history.
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay was written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke. Its plot was inspired by several short stories optioned from Clarke, primarily "The Sentinel" (1951) and "Encounter in the Dawn" (1953). The film stars Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, and Douglas Rain. It follows a voyage by astronauts, scientists, and the sentient supercomputer HAL 9000 to Jupiter to investigate an alien monolith.
