The European Union is a political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of 4,233,255.3 km² and an estimated total population of about 447 million.

• The trial of Slobodan Milošević, the former president of Yugoslavia, begins at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
• NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.
• UNITA guerrilla leader Jonas Savimbi is killed in clashes against government troops led by Angolan President Jos Eduardo dos Santos in Moxico Province, Angola. His death leads to the end of the Angolan Civil War on April 4.