President George W. Bush declared the countries of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as the "Axis of Evil".

In delivering his State of the Union message on this day in 2002, President George W. Bush branded three countries - North Korea, Iran and Iraq - as rogue states that he said harbored, financed and aided terrorists.

Speaking less than five months after al-Qaida-linked terrorists - none of them citizens of the states Bush named - attacked New York and Washington, the president said these three countries constituted an "axis of evil" - a phrase that became a hallmark of his administration's foreign policy. As he put in in his 3,900-word address: "States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred. They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States. In any of these cases, the price of indifference would be catastrophic."