|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
2004
From TheBestLinks.com
2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar), and has also been designated:
- International Year of Technology
- International Year of Rice
- International Year of Education by Sports
- International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition
Elections are to be held in 73 countries in 2004.
Events
- January 1 - Joseph Deiss becomes President of the Confederation in Switzerland
- January 1 - Pervez Musharraf gets the vote of confidence from Parliament and provincial assemblies to continue as President of Pakistan.
- January 2 - Several British Airways flights from London Heathrow Airport to Washington D.C. and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia are cancelled due to security fears.
- January 3 - Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashes into the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt, killing all 148 aboard.
- January 3 - NASA's MER-A (Spirit) lands on Mars.
- January 3 - Tony Blair makes an unannounced trip to Basra, Iraq to give a speech to British troops.
- January 4 - Dr. Mikhail Saakashvili won Presidential Elections in the Republic of Georgia.
- January 5 - Britney Spears's surprise 55-hour marriage to childhood sweetheart Jason Allen Alexander is annulled by a Las Vegas court.
- January 5 - Group of Hindu extremists ransack Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune, India and destroy manuscripts and artifacts
- January 6 - An inquest into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales opens in London held by Michael Burgess, the coroner of The Queen's Household.
- January 8 - Queen Elizabeth II officially names the Queen Mary 2 cruise liner.
- January 13 - An Uzbekistan Airways plane crashes in Uzbekistan's capital of Tashkent, killing 37.
- January 14 - The shock site Goatse.cx was placed on registry lock for violating the AUP
- January 14 - Serial poisoner Harold Shipman is found hanging from the bars of his cell in Wakefield Jail
- January 15- The South Korean Foreign Minister, Yoon Young-kwan resigns following his support for American policy towards North Korea.
- January 16 - Goatse.cx is shut down by the Christmas Island Registry
- January 20 - India signs a $1.5 billion deal with Russia to buy the 45,000 tonne aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov along with 28 MiG-29k fighters.
- January 22 - The European Union bans the import of poultry from Thailand, as bird flu spreads throughout Southeast Asia
- January 24 - NASA's MER-B (Opportunity) lands on Mars.
- January 27 - A House of Commons vote on University tuition top-up fees is narrowly won by the British Government. It is however the worst voting result for Tony Blair since he came to power in 1997.
- January 28- The findings of the Hutton Inquiry are published in London. The British Government is found not to have falsified information in the "sexed up dossier". The report criticises the BBC's role in the death of David Kelly, a weapons expert on Iraq.
- January 28 - At a hearing of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, it is revealed that the September 11, 2001 terrorists used Mace (a brand of tear gas) or pepper spray in overpowering the flight crew of American Airlines Flight 11
- January 29 - A whale explodes in Tainan, Taiwan. A build-up of gas in the decomposing 17 m (56 ft) long Sperm whale is what is claimed to have caused the explosion.
- February 1 - Super Bowl XXXVIII: The New England Patriots win their second Super Bowl title in three years, defeating the Carolina Panthers 32-29. Janet Jackson's right breast is exposed during the live Super Bowl half time show, sparking a controversy in the United States.
- February 1 - A hajj stampede in Mina, Saudi Arabia kills 251 pilgrims.
- February 2 - An apartment building collapses in Konya, Turkey, killing 92.
- February 3- The CIA admits that there was no imminent threat from weapons of mass destruction before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
- February 6- A suicide bomber kills 41 people on a subway train in Moscow.
- February 7- The Prince of Wales begins a tour of the Middle East, visiting troops in Iraq, the Iranian earthquake zone at Bam and Saudi Arabia.
- February 7 - 19 Chinese immigrants drown in Morecombe Bay while farming for cockles
- February 10 - At least 50 people killed in a car bomb attack on a police recruitment centre south of Baghdad.
- February 10 - The French National Assembly votes to pass a law banning religious items and clothing from schools.
- February 11 - Up to 47 people are killed in a car bomb attack on an army recruiting centre in Baghdad.
- February 12 - Same sex marriage in the United States: The City and County of San Francisco begins issuing marriage licenses to homosexual couples as an act of civil disobedience.
- February 13 - Scientists in South Korea announce the cloning of 30 human embryos.
- February 18 - A train carrying a convoy of petrol, fertiliser and sulfur derails and explodes in Iran, killing 320 people.
- February 20 - Iranian parliament election was held, with many reformist candidates banned from running, resulting in a win by conservatives.
- February 22 - A suicide bomber kills eight bus passengers in Jerusalem.
- February 22 - Rebels capture Haiti's second-largest city, Cap-Haïtien.
- February 24 - 6.5 Richter scale earthquake in Northern Morocco hits in the Rif mountains near the city of Al Hoceima - over 400 dead. Ait Kamara is destroyed. 517 dead
- February 25 - British trooper Christopher Finney receives the George Cross for risking his life to save his gunner from a blazing vehicle under attack from US aircraft
- February 26- Former British cabinet minister, Clare Short reveals that British Intelligence bugged the phonecalls of United Nations officials, including Kofi Annan.
- February 26 - The United States lifts a ban on travel to Libya, ending travel restrictions to the nation that had lasted for 23 years.
- February 29 - 2004 Haiti Rebellion: Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns as president of Haiti. The chief justice of the Haitian Supreme Court, Boniface Alexandre, is sworn in as interim president. Aristide later announces that his resignation was forced and that he was abducted by U.S. soldiers who forced him to leave the country against his will.
- March 1 - Britney Spears releases In The Zone single, "Toxic"
- March 1 - The Price is Right airs its 6,000th episode
- March 1 - Terry Nichols convicted of state murder charges and accomplice to the Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh has his trial started in McAlester, Oklahoma
- March 1 - Vladimir Putin nominates Mikhail Fradkov for the position of prime minister of Russia.
- March 1 - The Bush Administration officially admits to the implementation of a Continuity of Operations plan following the September 11, 2001 attacks
- March 1 - notorious convicted criminal Marc Dutroux starts trial in Belgium
- March 1 - Tauranga, New Zealand officially becomes a city, for the second time
- March 1 - Gerry Doherty begins office as General Secretary for the trade union the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) of the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland
- March 1 - Yahoo! announces that it will practice paid inclusion for its search service.
- March 1 - SCO Group announces it has reached a license agreement with EV1Servers.net, which allows EV1Servers to use some of SCO's "intellectual property". See also SCO v. IBM.
- March 1 - Punycode adopted by the national registrars of Germany, Austria and Switzerland
- March 1 - Jean Pelletier fired as head of VIA Rail
- March 1 - Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum becomes President of Iraq
- March 1 - the 6 towns on the Japanese island of Tsushima are unified to create Tsushima city
- March 2 - John Kerry effectively clinches the U.S. Democratic Party presidential nomination, 2004 by winning 9 out of 10 "Super Tuesday" primaries and caucuses.
- March 4 - a series of devastating bomb blasts in Iraq threaten to de-stabilise the country.
- March 5 - CBS broadcasts tape recordings of Diana, Princess of Wales as she describes suicide attempts while pregnant with Prince William of Wales.
- March 10 - Five British men released from detention at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay land at RAF Brize Norton. Four are immediately arrested by the Metropolitan Police and taken to Paddington Green high security police station in Central London for questioning.
- March 10 - Tennis athlete Greg Rusedski exonerated of deliberately taking the banned stimulant nandrolone
- March 11 - Simultaneous explosions on rush hour trains in Madrid kill 190 people.
- March 12 - Following the terrorist attacks in Madrid on March 11, millions of protesters take to the streets of Spanish cities against terrorism.
- March 14 - Two suicide bombers kill eleven Israeli civilians in Ashdod, Israel.
- March 14 - The Spanish parliamentary elections of 2004 take place. The incumbent government led by José María Aznar is defeated by the Socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
- March 14 - Presidential elections in Russia are held. Vladimir Putin easily wins a second term.
- March 15 - A trio of astronomers announce they have discovered a large trans-Neptunian object, the largest object found in the solar system since Pluto was discovered in 1930. Initially designated 2003 VB12, it was named 90377 Sedna in late September.
- March 15 - The new Spanish government announces that it will withdraw Spain's 1,300 troops in Iraq.
- March 17 - Organized violence breaks out over two days in Kosovo. Nineteen people are killed, 139 Serbian homes are burned, schools and businesses are vandalized, and over 30 orthodox monasteries and churches are burned and destroyed.
- March 19 - The UN launches an investigation into the corruption of the Oil for Food scandal.
- March 20 - President Chen Shui-bian wins the Taiwanese presidential election by 0.2% of the vote. The day before, he and Vice President Annette Lu were shot. Lien Chan refuses to concede and demands a recount. A controversial 'peace referendum' opposed by the People's Republic of China is invalidated.
- March 20 - Thousands protest at the 1-year anniversary of the start of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
- March 22 - Palestinians protest in the streets after an Israeli helicopter gunship fires a missile at the entourage of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in Gaza City, killing Yassin and 7 others.
- March 25 - British Prime Minister Tony Blair visits Libyan leader Muammar Gadafi, in return for the dismantling of Libya's WMD program in December 2003. He becomes the first PM to visit that country in over half a century.
- March 25 - Rusty Foster closes off new user accounts to Kuro5hin as a result of a particularly offensive troll that attacked his wife by photoshopping her face onto a pornographic image [1] (http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/3/24/0502/96199).
- March 28 - In France, the government of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin suffers a stunning and unprecedented defeat in the regional elections
- March 29 - The Republic of Ireland bans smoking in restaurants, pubs and bars.
- March 31 - Four American contractors are killed and their bodies mutilated after being ambushed in Northern Iraq.
- March 31 - Polish rapist Andrejez Kunowski sentenced to life imprisonment
- April 2 - A bomb found on the Madrid to Seville train line is defused by Spanish police.
- April 3 - A bomb explosion in a Madrid flat kills five suspected terrorists responsible for the Madrid train bombings on March 11, and a Spanish policeman.
- April 4 - Serious fighting breaks out in Najaf, Sadr City and Basra in Iraq as Shia insurgents supporting Muqtada al-Sadr rise against coalition forces.
- April 5 - Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II begins a state visit to France to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale
- April 8 - Three Japanese citizens are taken hostage in Iraq.
- April 16 - India defeats Pakistan in their historic first cricket tour in 14 years
- April 17 - Israeli helicopters fire missiles at a convoy of vechiles in the Gaza Strip, killing the leader of Hamas, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi
- April 20 - Tony Blair announces that the UK will hold a referendum on the European constitution.
- April 21 - Mordechai Vanunu is released from prison in Israel after an 18 year term for treason.
- April 21 - CBS broadcasts pictures of Diana, Princess of Wales as she lay dying moments after the fatal car crash that killed her
- April 22 - Two trains carrying explosives and fuel collide in the North Korean town of Ryongchon, killing 161 people, injuring 1,300 and destroying thousands of homes
- April 22 - The last coal mine in France closes, ending nearly 300 years of coal mining.
- April 24 - The christening of Lady Louise Windsor takes place at Windsor Castle.
- April 25 - Referenda on a United Nations plan, which proposes to re-unite the island of Cyprus, take place in both the Greek and Turkish parts. Although the Turkish vote in favour, the Greeks reject the proposal.
- April 28 - Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse is revealed in 60 Minutes II TV-show.
- May 1 - An enlargement of the European Union takes place, expanding the Union by 10 member-states: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Malta and Cyprus
- May 6 - The final episode of Friends airs on NBC. Advertisers pay $2 million for 30 second ads.
- May 9 - Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov is killed by landmine placed under a VIP stage during a World War II memorial parade in Grozny.
- May 11 - Explosion destroys a plastics factory in Glasgow, UK, killing nine people and injuring over a hundred.
- May 12 - An American civilian contractor in Iraq, Nick Berg, is shown being decapitated by a group allegedly linked to al-Qaida on a web-distributed video. They state it is retaliation for the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison.
- May 13 - In India, the Congress Party wins a surprise victory in the elections to the Lok Sabha.
- May 14 - The editor of the Daily Mirror newspaper in the UK, Piers Morgan, is sacked after the British army proves photographs in the newspaper, allegedly showing British soldiers abusing Iraqi detainees, to be fake.
- May 14 - Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark marries Australian Mary Donaldson in Copenhagen.
- May 17 - Ezzedine Salim, holder of the rotating leadership of the Iraqi Governing Council, is killed in a bomb blast in Baghdad.
- May 17 - Massachusetts legalizes same-sex marriage in compliance with a ruling from the state's Supreme Judicial Court (Goodridge et al. v. Department of Public Health).
- May 18 - The IOC announces the short list of candidates for the 2012 Summer Olympics: London, Madrid, Moscow, New York, Paris. Unsuccessful cities are Havana, Istanbul, Leipzig and Rio de Janeiro.
- May 19 - UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is hit with a purple flour bomb during a session of Prime Minister's Questions, London, England.
- May 19 - the movie Shrek 2 is released
- May 19 - Jeremy Sivits pleads guilty in a court-martial in connection with alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
- May 23 - A section of the ceiling in Terminal 2E at Paris's Charles de Gaulle International Airport collapses, claiming at least six lives.
- May 23 - Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi visits North Korea to secure the release of the families of the nine abducted Japanese citizens returned earlier, but Charles Robert Jenkins and his daughters refuse to leave.
- May 26 - Terry Nichols is convicted by an Oklahoma state court on murder charges stemming from the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
- May 27- Her Royal Highness Princess Michael of Kent is accused of racism by the New York Post after telling off rowdy diners at a New York restaurant.
- May 29 - Dedication of the National World War II Memorial takes place in Washington, DC.
- May 30 - Thousands of people in Hong Kong take to the streets to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
- July 1 - The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft arrives at Saturn.
- July 4 - Groundbreaking of Freedom Tower in New York City.
- July 4 - The EURO 2004 final between Portugal and Greece takes place in Lisbon, Portugal. Greece win 1:0.
- July 6 - United States Democratic Party presumptive presidential nominee Senator John Kerry chooses Senator John Edwards as his running mate on the Democratic Party ticket in the 2004 U.S. presidential election.
- July 15 - 18 - The Open Championship in golf takes place in Troon, Scotland.
- July 15 - The BBC airs the documentary "The Secret Agent", exposing racism by members of the British National Party.
- July 16 - Millennium Park, considered the first and most ambitious architectural project in the early 21st century for Chicago, is opened to the public by Mayor Daley.
- July 25 - Lance Armstrong makes history, winning his 6th (consecutive) Tour de France.
- July 25 - Over 100,000 opponents to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Disengagement Plan participate in a human chain from Gush Katif, to the Western Wall, Jerusalem (90 kilometers).
- July 26 - The 2004 Democratic National Convention convenes in Boston, Massachusetts.
- July 30 - Gas explosion in Ghislenghien, Belgium kills 21 people, more than 120 are injured.
- August 1 - Supermarket fire in Asuncion, Paraguay, kills about 400 people and leaves over 100 missing.
- August 1 - Department of Homeland Security raises terror alert in Washington, DC, New York City and Newark from yellow to orange.
- August 3 - Statue of Liberty reopens after security improvements.
- August 3 - British police arrest 12 men suspected of plotting terrorist attacks.
- August 4 - Gibraltar celebrates 300 years of British rule.
- August 6 - A United Nations report that blames the government of Sudan for crimes against humanity in Darfur is released.
- August 10 - Bomb explosions kill two and injure nine in Istanbul, Turkey
- August 11 - The South Korean government reveals plans to build a new capital in the central South Chungcheong province.
- August 12 - Singapore's prime minister Goh Chok Tong hands over his position to Lee Hsien Loong.
- August 13 - The 2004 Summer Olympics officially start in Athens.
- August 13 - Hurricane Charley kills 27 people in Florida after killing four in Cuba and one in Jamaica.
- August 14 and 15 - Pope John Paul II visits Lourdes, France.
- August 15 - Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein transfers political powers to his son Alois.
- August 20 - Democratic Party presidential nominee John Kerry files a complaint with the Federal Election Committee, accusing the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth of illegally coordinating their actions with the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign.
- August 21 - A series of blasts rocks a rally of an opposition party in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing at least 13 people.
- August 22 - Armed robbers steal Edvard Munch's The Scream, Madonna and other paintings from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway.
- August 24 - Two airliners in Russia, carrying a total of 89 passengers, crash within minutes of each other after flying out of Domodedovo International Airport, near Moscow, leaving no survivors. Authorities suspect suicide attacks by rebels from the breakaway republic of Chechnya to be the cause of the crashes.
- August 29 - Around 200,000 protestors demonstrate in New York City against President George W. Bush and his government, ahead of the Republican National Convention.
- August 29 - Two bombs explode in Afghanistan. A bomb outside a school in the Paktia province in southeastern Afghanistan kills 10 children, while a bomb outside an American security firm in Kabul kills two Americans, two Afghans and three Nepalese.
- August 29 - The 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens come to a close.
- August 31 - Two suicide attacks on buses in Beer Sheva, Israel, kill at least 16 people and injure at least 60. Hamas claims responsibility for the attacks.
- August 31 - A woman commits a suicide attack near a subway station in northern Moscow, Russia, killing at least 10 people and injuring at least 50. Authorities hold Chechen rebels responsible.
- September 1 - Chechen rebels take between 1,000 and 1,500 people hostage in a school in Beslan, Northern Ossetia. The hostage-takers demand the release of Chechen rebels imprisoned in neighbouring Ingushetia and the independence of Chechnya from Russia.
- September 2 - U.S. President George W. Bush formally accepts his nomination for the presidential elections at the 2004 Republican National Convention.
- September 3 - Russian forces end the siege at a school in Beslan, Northern Ossetia. At least 335 people (among which at least 32 of the approximately 40 hostage-takers) have been killed and at least 700 people have been injured.
- September 3 and 4 - Hurricane Frances makes landfall in Florida. After killing two people in the Bahamas, Hurricane Frances killed ten people in Florida, two in Georgia and one in South Carolina.
- September 7 - The Scottish Parliament meets in the new Scottish Parliament Building for the first time.
- September 7 to 9 - Hurricane Ivan passes through the Caribbean islands, killing 5 people in Venezuela, 4 in the Dominican Republic, 1 in Tobago and at least 17 people in Grenada.
- September 9 - A bomb blast outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, kills eleven people and injures up to 100 people.
- September 14 - Volvo recalls 460,000 vehicles due to wiring problems which could cause a fan to overheat and burn.
- September 14 - In London a man dressed as Batman breaches security at Buckingham Palace. Protest for Fathers for justice.
- September 15 - The House of Commons is stormed by a small group of protestors during a debate about fox hunting.
- September 16 - In Denmark, Prince Joachim and Princess Alexandra announce their separation.
- September 16 - Hurricane Ivan wreaks havoc in the United States (particularly in Alabama and Florida), after having crossed the Caribbean in the days before. All in all, Ivan has killed at least 70 people in the Caribbean and 33 people in the United States.
- September 17 to 28 - 2004 Summer Paralympics held in Athens, Greece.
- September 20 - Wikipedia passed 1 million articles in over 100 languages.
- September 25 - Port Adelaide Power win Australian Football League Premiership 2004.
- September 28 - The Federal Reserve begins issuing the colorful Series 2004 U.S. fifty dollar bills to commercial banks.
- September 29 - Asteroid 4179 Toutatis passes within four lunar distances of earth.
- September 29 - First Ansari X-Prize flight of SpaceShipOne.
- September 30 - The first presidential debate between President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry takes place at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. It was moderated by PBS news anchor Jim Lehrer.
Predicted and scheduled events
October-November
December
Births
Deaths
For more deaths see: Deaths in 2004
January
- January 5 - Tug McGraw, major league pitcher, aged 59
- January 7 - Ingrid Thulin, Swedish actress
- January 10 - Spalding Gray, actor, screenwriter, and monologue artist (b. 1941)
- January 13 - Doctor Harold Shipman, the United Kingdom's most prolific serial killer (by suicide)
- January 19 - David Hookes, Australian cricketer
- January 20 - Guinn Smith, American athlete
- January 23 - Bob Keeshan, famous as Captain Kangaroo
- January 24 - Leonidas da Silva, Brazilian football player
- January 25 -
| | |
