By: HISTORY.com Editors

2002

Journalist Daniel Pearl is murdered

Published: January 27, 2022Last Updated: May 28, 2025

On February 1, 2002, 38-year-old American journalist Daniel Pearl, the Southeast Asia bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal, is murdered by a terror group in Pakistan. Weeks later, a videotape of Pearl’s beheading was released, shocking millions and underscoring the threat of terrorism less than a year after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

On January 23, 2002, Pearl, who was Jewish, was on his way to what he thought was an interview with a Pakistani religious leader in Karachi as part of his research into Islamist militants. But he was kidnapped near a hotel by terrorists, who claimed he was a spy. The group—which called itself the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty—demanded the United States free all Pakistani terror detainees.

The terrorists released photos of a handcuffed Pearl with a gun at his head and holding up a newspaper. The group did not respond to public pleas for his release from his family or others.

A Timeline of the US-Led War on Terror

In the wake of the attacks of 9/11, President George W. Bush launched an ongoing effort to thwart terrorists before they act.

By: HISTORY.com Editors

U.S. intelligence failed to track down the kidnappers of Pearl, whose remains were discovered weeks later in Pakistan. The journalist’s kidnapping and death received widespread media coverage.

In 2002, British national Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh was convicted of Pearl’s murder. (The Pakistani Supreme Court ordered his release in 2021.) In 2007, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed of the al-Qaeda global terror network claimed responsibility for Pearl’s murder. Others have been connected to the journalist’s death, including an Egyptian with ties to al-Qaeda.

Pearl's widow, also a journalist, wrote a book about her husband's life titled A Mighty Heart. In 2007, the movie version of the book was co-produced by Brad Pitt and starred Angelina Jolie.

Timeline

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Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on February 1st

1790

First session of the U.S. Supreme Court

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1884

Oxford Dictionary debuts

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1887

Official registration of Hollywood

On February 1, 1887, Harvey Wilcox officially registers Hollywood with the Los Angeles County recorder’s office. Wilcox and his wife, Daeida, had moved to Southern California four years earlier from Topeka, Kansas, where Harvey had made his fortune in real estate. They bought 160 acres of land in the Cahuenga Valley, located in the foothills […]

1896

Puccini’s “La Bohème” premieres in Turin, Italy

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1913

Multi-sport star Jim Thorpe signs MLB contract with Giants

On February 1, 1913, 25-year-old multi-sport star Jim Thorpe—who won two gold medals at the 1912 Olympics—signs a Major League Baseball contract with the New York Giants. The signing comes on the same day Thorpe returns his Olympic medals to Sweden for a violation of amateur rules. Years earlier, he was paid to play minor league […]

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1917

Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare

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1960

Greensboro sit-in begins

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1961

“The Misfits” opens in theaters

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1968

Nixon announces his candidacy for president

Richard M. Nixon announces his candidacy for the presidency. Most observers had written off Nixon’s political career eight years earlier, when he had lost to John F. Kennedy in the 1960 election. Two years after losing to Kennedy, Nixon ran for governor of California and lost in a bitter campaign against Edmund G. (“Pat”) Brown, […]

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1968

Viet Cong officer is shot in the head; iconic photo taken

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1974

Serial killer Ted Bundy strikes again

On February 1, 1974, University of Washington student Lynda Ann Healy disappears from her apartment and is killed by Ted Bundy. The murder marked Bundy’s entry into the ranks of serial killers as he had recently attacked his first victim, Sharon Clarke, in her Seattle home. By the time he was finally captured on February […]

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1978

Harriet Tubman becomes the first African American woman to appear on a U.S. postage stamp

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1979

Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran

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2003

Columbia Space Shuttle mission ends in disaster

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2004

“Nipplegate” controversy at the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show

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2013

“House of Cards,” Netflix’s first original series, starts streaming

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21st Century

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