Terrorists demanding Chechen withdrawal seize School No. 1 in Beslan, North Ossetia, taking over a thousand hostages. The siege ends in chaos and gunfire on the third day; 334 hostages die, 186 of them children.
Why it mattersThe nadir of the terrorism era — used by Moscow to justify centralising power (direct election of governors ended within months) and to close the era's remaining space for a negotiated Chechen settlement.