- January 8
- US Airways Express Flight 5481 crashes at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, killing all 21 people aboard. [24]
- January 13
- At auction in New York City, a Canadian 1911 silver dollar pattern sells for US$1 million. A 1936 dot 1-cent sells for $353,000, a new record for any North American small cent. [3] [684.192]
- January 15
- The Supreme Court of the United States allows the extension of copyright terms in the U.S. [24]
- Lucio Gutiérrez is sworn in as Ecuador's new president. [162.38]
- January 16
- Sony announces it has shipped over 50 million PlayStation 2 systems worldwide to date. [9]
- January 18
- Bush fires in Australia enter capital of Canberra, killing four, destroying almost 500 houses. [24] [163.43]
- January 19
- Cuban elections, renewing Fidel Castro as president for next five years, as well as other official candidates for the single-chamber parliament. [162.38]
- January 22
- General elections in the Netherlands: Christian Democrats 44, Labour 42, of 150 seats total. [163.50]
- The last successful contact arrives from the spacecraft Pioneer 10, one of the most distant man-made objects. [5]
- The entire German Bundestag visits Elysée Palace in France to re-affirm the German-France friendship treaty of 40 years ago. This is the largest gathering of German dignitaries in the French palace since 1871. [162.51] [163.48]
vvv advertisement vvv
^^^ advertisement ^^^
- January 23
- Communication ends between Earth and Pioneer 10. [5]
- January 24
- In Spain, 200 anti-terrorist policemen raid a dozen apartments in Catalonia, arresting 16 Arabs, with bomb-making devices, false passports, and chemicals. [177.44]
- For the first time in the history of bank lending, rates of the Japanese Yen from a European bank to other banks is negative, paying 0.01 percent to borrowers. [180.68]
- The new United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation. [24]
- January 25
- A Central Line train crashes into the tunnel wall at Chancery Lane tube station in London, injuring 34 people. [24]
- An international group of volunteers leaves London for Baghdad to act as voluntary human shields, hoping to avert a U.S. invasion. [24]
- Government and rebels of Côte d'Ivoire sign a peace accord in Paris, France. [177.41]
- The Slammer worm (also called Sapphire or SQL Hell) begins spreading across the Internet, exploiting a flaw in Microsoft SQL Server 2000, infecting personal computers around the world. Within ten minutes, the worm has reached 90 percent of the Internet, infecting over 75,000 machines. Within another thirty minutes, one-fifth of Internet data packets are infected. [4] [177.56]
- January 26
- The first authorized flight by a Taiwanese aircraft to mainland China since 1949 takes place, though via Hong Kong or Macau. [163.41]
- January 27
- Philip Morris Companies changes its company name to Altria Group, Incorporated. [228]
- January 29
- In Cambodia, Thai-owned hotels, offices, and factories are burned and looted, following a misleading interpretation of a Thai television actress's comments about Angkor Wat temple. [24] [234.43]
- January 30
- The leaders of Britain, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania and the Spain release a statement, The Letter of the Eight, demonstrating support for the United States' plans to invade Iraq. [24]
- February 1
- American Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates over Texas upon re-entry, killing all seven astronauts onboard: Michael P. Anderson (born 1959), David M. Brown (born 1956), Kalpana Chawla (born 1961), Laurel Clark (born 1961), Rick Husband (born 1957), William McCool (born 1961), Ilan Ramon (Israeli, born 1954). [24] [129] [180.79]
- In Northern Ireland, Protestant Ulster Defence Association Belfast leader John Gregg is killed by a loyalist faction. [24]
- The new Congress of Brazil's parliament is sworn in. [180.35]
- February 2
- Vaclac Havel retires as Czech president for ten years, and three more years before that as president of Czechoslovakia. [162.54]
- In Venezuela, a 14-month private-sector strike is lifted. [180.34]
- February 4
- Platinum hits a 23-year high of US$700 per ounce. [180.68]
- Yugoslavia becomes Serbia and Montenegro. [278.1077] [1367.1101]
- February 5
- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell addresses the United Nations Security Council on Iraq, giving evidence of Iraq's efforts to conceal weapons of mass destruction from inspectors. [24] [180.13]
- North Korea announces it had re-activated the Yongbyon reactor, producing fuel-rods for reprocessing into bomb-grade plutonium. [180.37]
- Gold hits US$385 per ounce, highest since September 1996. [180.68]
- February 7
- In Bogotá, Colombia, a car bomb explodes in the parking garage of the El Nogal social club, killing 35, injuring 160. [224.34]
- February 9
- BBC Choice closes for the final time at 12:30 am, replaced by BBC Three at 7 pm. [24]
- February 12
- In La Paz, Bolivia, striking police clash with the army, first with tear gas, then with bullets. The army was trying to protect the presidential palace from stone-throwing youths. 27 are left dead, over 100 seriously injured. This is followed by 24 hours of mobs looting and burning public and foreign business buildings. [225.33]
- February 13
- In Shanghai, China, a ground-breaking ceremony takes place for the Shanghai World Financial Centre, to be the world's tallest building. [180.59]
- A small airplane crashes in southern Colombia. FARC guerillas kill one American and a Colombian army sergeant, and take three Americans hostage. FARC claims they are CIA agents; the US government claims they are defense contractors. [226.38]
- February 14
- Nintendo releases the Game Boy Advance SP in Japan. New features include rechargeable battery and flip-up 2.9-inch color LCD screen with built-in front lighting. Size is 3.33 x 3.23 x 1 inches; weight is 5 ounces. [9]
- Death of Dolly the sheep at age 6, first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell (born 1996). [129] (February 15 [24])
- February 15
- More than ten million people protest in over 600 cities worldwide, the largest war protest to take place before the war against Iraq occurs. [24]
- February 17
- London, England, introduces a 5 pound (US$8) "congestion charge" to drive within an 8 square-mile patch of central London, to reduce traffic and fund public transport. [224.14,51]
- February 18
- British Airways begins a three-month trial of offering Internet satellite connections on flights between London and New York. [226.57]
- Arsonist fires on an underground train in the city of Daegu, South Korea, kill more than 190 people. [24] [225.37]
- February 19
- In West Warwick, Rhode Island, sparks from a pyrotechnic display being used by the band Great White start a fire, destroying the nightclub The Station, and killing 99 people. [457] (February 20 [24])
- February 24
- Dutch Royal Ahold, world's third-biggest food retailer, announces the resignation of CEO Cees van der Hoeven and the financial director, after finding it had overstated profits by 463 million euros (US$500 million) in the past two years. The company's market value drops during the day by 63 percent, to 3.3 billion euros, ten percent of its worth in late 2001. [226.55]
- February 25
- Roh Moo-hyun is sworn in as new president of South Korea. [226.42]
- February 26
- An American businessman is admitted to the Vietnam France Hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam with the first identified case of SARS. WHO doctor Carlo Urbani reports the unusual highly contagious disease to WHO. (Both the businessman and the doctor later die of the disease.) [24]
- March 1
- The United Arab Emirates calls for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to step down to avoid war, a sentiment later echoed by Bahrain and Kuwait. [24]
- The Turkish parliament votes against U.S. troop access to airbases in Turkey in order to attack Iraq from the north. The Bush administration starts working on Plan B, namely attacking Iraq from the south, through the Persian Gulf. [24] [234.48] [236.21]
- Representatives of 171 countries agree to the text of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control treaty, part of the World Health Organization's plan to reduce deaths and health problems due to smoking. [234.75]
- Pakistani authorities capture Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, along with money-man Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi. [24] [234.42]
- March 5
- The Supreme Court of the United States, by a 5-4 margin, upholds California's "three strikes and you're out" law. [24]
- Beginning of annual two-week session of the National People's Congress in China. [226.39]
- France, Russia, and Germany announce they will not support a United Nations resolution authorizing use of force against Iraq. [234.45]
- March 6
- SCO Group files a lawsuit against IBM, claiming IBM illegally used licensed Unix technology in its Linux software. SCO seeks US$1 billion in damages. [4]
- March 7
- Death of Ilya Pavlov, former champion wrestler, probably Bulgaria's richest man, murdered in Sofia. [235.48]
- March 8
- Malta votes 53.7 percent in favor of joining the European Union. [237.48]
- March 9
- A by-election in Turkey makes Tayyip Erdogan, leader of the Justice and Development Party, the country's new Prime Minister. [235.6]
- March 11
- Iraqi fighter jets threaten two U.S. U-2 surveillance planes, on missions for U.N. weapons inspectors, forcing them to abort their mission and return to base. [24]
- March 12
- Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic is assassinated in Belgrade. [24] [235.45] [236.45]
- The World Health Organization issues a global alert on SARS. [24]
- British prime minister Tony Blair proposes an amendment to the possible 18th U.N. resolution, which would call for Iraq to meet certain benchmarks to prove that it was disarming. The amendment is immediately rejected by France, who promises to veto any new resolution. [24]
- March 13
- The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old upright-walking human footprints had been found in Italy. [24]
- March 15
- Hu Jintao becomes president of the People's Republic of China, replacing Jiang Zemin. [24]
- In Bangui, Central African Republic, ex-chief of army General François Bozizé and 1000 troops stage a military coup against President AngeFélix Patassé. [236.42]
- March 16
- Voters in Liechtenstein agree to adjust constitution to give more powers to ruling prince Hans-Adams II. [236.44]
- The leaders of the United States, Britain, Portugal, and Spain meet at a summit in the Azores Islands. U.S. President Bush calls March 17 the "moment of truth", meaning that the "coalition of the willing" will make its final effort to extract a resolution from the U.N. Security Council, giving Iraq an ultimatum to disarm immediately or be disarmed by force. [24]
- General elections in Finland: Anneli Jaatteenmaki's Centre Party wins 55 seats in the 200-seat parliament. Paavo Lipponen's Social Democrats win 53 seats. [236.44]
- March 17
- U.S. President George W. Bush gives an ultimatum: Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his sons must either leave Iraq, or face military action at a time of the U.S.'s choosing. [24] [457]
- March 18
- The United Kingdom government recognises British Sign Language as an official British language. [5] [24]
- The Parliament of the United Kingdom votes in favour of a motion understood as giving the government final authority to join the invasion of Iraq. [24]
- Serbia's parliament elects Zoran Zivkovic as new prime minister. [236.45]
- Procter & Gamble buys German beauty firm Wella, for 6.5 billion euros (US$6.9 billion). [236.55]
- About US$1 billion is taken from Iraq's Central Bank by Saddam Hussein and his family, just hours before the United States begins bombing Iraq; biggest bank robbery in history. [24]
- A pipeline at the Santos terminal on the Brisbane River in Australia ruptures, spilling up to 1.5 million litres of crude oil. [522]
- FBI agents raid the corporate headquarters of HealthSouth Corporation in Birmingham, Alabama on suspicion of massive corporate fraud led by the company's top executives. [24]
- March 19
- US President George Bush's 48-hour mandate for President Saddam Hussein and his sons to exit from Iraq expires. The first American cruise missiles and stealth bombers strike targets in Baghdad. [24] [129] [236.20]
- March 20
- Land troops from United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invade Iraq. [24]
- Germany's biggest insurance company, Allianz, reports its first annual loss since 1945, of 1.2 billion euros (US$1.1 billion). Its subsidiary company, Dresden Bank, Germany's third-biggest, lost 1.4 billion euros. [236.66]
- A ship carrying 699,000 litres of fuel oil sinks in the river in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, spreading an oil slick for several kilometres away. [522]
- March 22
- The United States and the United Kingdom begin their "shock and awe" campaign, with a massive air strike on military targets in Baghdad, Iraq. [24]
- March 23
- Nintendo releases the Game Boy Advance SP in North America. Price is US$99.95. Sales in the first two weeks: over 800,000 units. In its first year, over 6.5 million units are sold, a record for any video game system in history. [9]
- Slovenia votes 90 percent in favor of joining the European Union. [237.48]
- March 28
- Japan launches two spy satellites into orbit. North Korea calls it "a hostile act". [238.40]
- Japan's Mizuho bank, the world's largest, completes raising a record-breaking 1.1 trillion yen (US$9.2 billion), in under two months. [236.56]
- March 31
- In Hong Kong, police cordon off Block E of the Amoy Gardens housing estate, placing those inside under quarantine, to contain SARS. [238.39]
- The European Union launches its first military mission, taking over peace-keeping duties in Macedonia from NATO. [238.48]
- Japan's Mizuho bank, the world's largest, posts a net loss of 2 trillion yen (US$16.7 billion) in the past twelve months, the largest loss in Japanese corporate history. [236.56]
- April 1
- Air Canada files for bankruptcy protection. [238.56]
- April 2
- The World Health Organization issues its first ever travel alert, due to the SARS outbreak, advising travellers to avoid Hong Kong and Guangdong province of China. [238.56]
- A US B-52 bomber drops two new CBU-105 bombs over Iraq, which each release 10 submunitions, each ejecting four discs, which then use laser and heat-detecting infrared sensors to locate Iraqi armored vehicles. Slugs of copper the size of a tangerine then strike and destroy about 30 vehicles in a column of about 100. [636.88]
- April 3
- A passenger bus hits a remote-controlled land mine in the Chechen capital, killing at least eight. [24]
- U.S. forces seize control of Saddam International Airport, changing the airport's name to Baghdad International Airport. [24] [259.22]
- April 9
- U.S. forces seize control of Baghdad, ending the regime of Saddam Hussein. [5] [24]
- A giant statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad is pulled down by the US military, and broadcast worldwide. [259.22]
- April 14
- The Human Genome Project is successfully completed, with 99 percent of the human genome sequenced to 99.99 percent accuracy. [5] [24]
- April 16
- The Treaty of Accession is signed in Athens, Greece, allowing ten new members into the European Union. [5] [259.6] [605.202]
- April 17
- The Stevens Report concludes that members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and British Army cooperated with the Ulster Defence Association in the killings of Catholics in Northern Ireland. [24]
- April 21
- Retired U.S. Army General Jay Garner becomes Interim Civil Administrator of Iraq. [24]
- Intel releases the 3 GHz Pentium 4 processor with 800 MHz front-side bus. [4]
- April 22
- Advanced Micro Devices releases the Opteron processor, with 32-bit and 64-bit instruction operation, without requiring 32-bit code to be re-compiled. [4]
- April 23
- Beijing closes all of its schools for two weeks due to the SARS virus. [5]
- April 29
- The United States announces the withdrawal of troops stationed in Saudi Arabia, and the redeployment of some at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. [24]
- May 1
- George W. Bush lands on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, in a Lockheed S-3 Viking, where he gives a speech announcing the end of major combat in the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. A banner behind him declares "Mission Accomplished." [24]
- May 4
- (to May 10) A severe weather outbreak spawns more tornadoes than any week in U.S. history; 393 tornadoes are reported in 19 states. [24]
- Top Thrill Dragster opens in Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio as the world's tallest, fastest roller coaster. [24]
- May 11
- Benvenuto Cellini's Saliera is stolen from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria. [24]
- May 12
- A suicide truck-bomb attack kills at least 60 at a government compound in northern Chechnya. [24]
- In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 26 people are killed in the Riyadh Compound Bombings. [24]
- May 14
- A female suicide bomber blows up explosives strapped to her waist in a crowd of thousands of Muslim pilgrims, killing at least 18 people in Chechnya. [24]
- May 16
- In Casablanca, Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks. [24]
- May 19
- Pen Hadow becomes the first man to walk alone, without any outside help, from Canada to the North Pole. [24]
- May 21
- An earthquake in the Boumerdès region of northern Algeria kills 2,200. [24]
- May 22
- The Sheffield Winter Gardens are officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II. [24]
- May 23
- US coin dealer Paul Montgomery announces a $1 million bounty for the missing 1913 Liberty Head nickel. [412.84]
- Dewey, the first deer cloned by scientists at Texas A&M University, is born. [24]
- May 24
- Sertab Erener wins the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 for Turkey with the song "Every Way That I Can", in Riga, Latvia. [24]
- May 26
- A draft of the proposed European Constitution is unveiled. [24]
- May 28
- Prometea, the first horse cloned by Italian scientists, is born. [24]
- May 31
- The Chinese Fu Shan Hai bulk carrier collides with a Polish freighter in Danish waters near Bornholm Island sinks near Sweden's coast, leaking over 116,000 litres of oil, washing up on Sweden's southeastern coast. [522]
- June 1
- The Group of Eight (G8) summit opens in Évian-les-Bains, France, to tight security and tens of thousands of protesters. [24]
- The People's Republic of China begins filling the lake behind the massive Three Gorges Dam, raising the water level near the dam over 100 metres. [24]
- In China, a farmer in Sichuan Province discovers a hoard of thousands of ancient coins, stacked 2 metres high, and 1.5 metres diameter, weighing at least 7 tons. The coins mostly date to the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279 C.E.). [326.21]
- June 4
- Martha Stewart and her broker are indicted for using privileged investment information and then obstructing a federal investigation. Stewart also resigns as chairperson and chief executive officer of Martha Stewart Living. [24]
- June 5
- A female suicide bomber detonates a bomb near a bus carrying soldiers and civilians to a military airfield in Mozdok, a major staging point for Russian troops in Chechnya, killing at least 16 people. [24]
- June 10
- NASA begins its Mars Exploration Rover mission by launching Spirit Rover. [5]
- June 12
- The MV APL Emerald container ship runs aground near Horsburgh Lighthouse, in the eastern approaches of the Singapore Straits, spilling about 175,000 litres of fuel oil. [522]
- June 20
- The North East MRT Line, the world's first fully automated and driverless subway opens in Singapore. [24]
- June 22
- The largest hailstone ever recorded falls in Aurora, Nebraska. [24]
- June 27
- In Nashville, Tennessee, General Motors holds the Official Corvette 50th Anniversary Celebration, over two days. About 10,000 Corvettes and 18,000 people attend. Special cars on hand include the Tiger Shark, XP-880 Astro II, 1963 Monza SS, Astro I, 1969 aluminum Reynolds Corvette EXP 040, 1973 Aerovette, CERV III, CERV IV, C5-R #50 Le Mans race car, LT1 Spyder Concept, ASC Sting Ray III, and Corvette SS. Two raffle draws raise US$700,000 for the National Corvette Museum. [8]
- June 28
- In St. Charles, Illinois, the Bloomington Gold Corvettes USA show is held, over four days. Mecum Collector Car Auctioneers conducts the auction of over 300 Corvettes. Roger Judski pays US$640,000 for a 1967 L88 red coupe with only 12 miles on it. This is a world record for any production Corvette. [8]
- June 30
- Intel debuts the Itanium 2 processor. [4]
- (month unknown)
- At the Las Vegas Excalibur casino, a record slot machine jackpot of over US$39 million is won on a dollar bet on a Megabucks machine. [187.480]
|