2004
2004 is a leap year starting on
Thursday (see link to calendar). It is defined as the 2,004th year in the
Gregorian Calendar, and has also been designated the:
Elections are to be held in 73 countries during 2004. See a list of elections.
See The world in 2004 for a description of the state of the
world in this year.
Events
For more details see Jan - Feb - Mar - Apr - May - Jun -
Jul - Aug - Sep - Oct - Nov - Dec
- March 2 -
- March 10 - Five British men released from detention at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay
land at RAF Brize Norton. Four are immediately arrested for
questioning.
- 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 -
- March 15 -
- 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 a corruption investigation due to the scandal over its Iraqi Oil for Food program.
- 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 21 -
- March 22 - Palestinians
protest in the streets after an Israeli helicopter gunship fires a missile at the
entourage of Ahmed Yassin in Gaza City, killing Yassin and 7 others.
- March 25 - British Prime Minister Tony Blair visits
Libyan leader Muammar
al-Qaddafi, in return for the dismantling of Libya's WMD program in December 2003 - the first time a major western leader has visted the nation in
several decades.
- March 28 - In France, the government
of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin suffers a stunning and unprecedented defeat in
regional elections.
- March 29 -
- March 31 - Four American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed and their bodies mutilated after being ambushed in Fallujah, Iraq.
- April 3 - A bomb explosion in a Madrid flat kills a Spanish policeman and five
terrorists suspected of responsibility for the Madrid train bombings on March 11.
- 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 - Queen
Elizabeth II begins a state visit to France to celebrate the 100th anniversary of
the Entente Cordiale
- April 8 -
- April 16 - India defeats Pakistan in their first cricket tour in 14
years
- April 17 - Israeli helicopters fire
missiles at a convoy of vehicles in the Gaza Strip, killing the Gaza leader of
Hamas, Abdel Aziz
al-Rantissi.
- April 20 - Severe thunderstorms strike Chicagoland, USA. An F3 tornado touches down in Utica, Illinois, claiming 8 lives.
- April 21 - Mordechai
Vanunu, who revealed an Israeli nuclear weapons programme in the 1980s, is released from prison in Israel after an 18 year term for treason.
- 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.
- The last coal mine in France closes, ending
nearly 300 years of coal mining.
- 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 Turks vote in favour, the Greeks reject the proposal.
- April 28 - Abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is
revealed on the television show 60 Minutes II.
- May 1 - the largest expansion to date of the European Union takes place, extending 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, drawing an estimated 52 million viewers in North America.
- 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 - An 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.
- May 13 - In India, the Congress Party wins a surprise victory in the elections to the Lok Sabha.
- May 14 - Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, marries Australian Mary Donaldson in Copenhagen.
- May 17 -
- 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 -
- May 23 -
- May 26 - Terry Nichols is
convicted by an Oklahoma state court on murder charges stemming from the 1995 Oklahoma City
bombing.
- 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.
- August 1 - Supermarket fire in Asunción, Paraguay, kills about 400 people and leaves over 100
missing.
- August 3 - Statue
of Liberty reopens after security improvements.
- August 6 - A United
Nations report that blames the government of Sudan for crimes against humanity in
Darfur is released.
- August 12 - Singapore's prime
minister Goh Chok Tong hands over his position to Lee Hsien Loong.
- August 13 - August 29 - The
2004 Summer Olympics takes place in Athens.
- August 13 - Hurricane Charley kills 27 people in Florida after killing four in Cuba and one in Jamaica.
- 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, leaving
no survivors. Authorities suspect suicide attacks by rebels from 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 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.
- 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.
- October 4 - Two car bombs kill
at least 16 people and injure dozens more in Baghdad.
- October 5 - A fire breaks out on the Canadian submarine HMCS Chicoutimi leaving it stranded without power in the North Atlantic ocean, off the north coast
of Ireland. One crewmember is killed.
- October 8 -
- Kenneth Bigley, the British hostage held by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an Iraqi insurgent, is killed after a failed
escape attempt.
- Suicide bombers detonate two bombs at the Red Sea resort of Taba, Egypt, killing 34 people, mainly Israeli tourists and Egyptian
workers.
- October 9 -
- October 10 - Abdullahi Yusuf is chosen as the new transitional president of Somalia.
- October 14 - Prince Norodom Sihamoni is chosen as the new king of Cambodia.
- October 17 - A referendum in Belarus approves the lifting of constitutional term limits for the presidency.
- October 19 - General Khin
Nyunt is replaced by Lieutenant-General Soe Win as Prime Minister of Myanmar.
- October 20 -
- October 21 - The Ministry of Defence approves the deployment of the Black Watch regiment of the British Army to Baghdad, Iraq after a request for assistance by the
U.S. government.
- October 24 -
- The bodies of 49 Iraqi soldiers discovered after being ambushed by insurgents.
- Brazil successfully launches its first rocket into space.
- October 26 - The Cassini probe passes within 1,200km of Titan
- October 27 -
- October 29 - A videotape of Osama Bin Laden speaking airs on Arabic TV, in which he threatens terrorist attacks on the USA, and taunts the president, George W. Bush, over
the September 11 Terrorist
attacks.
- October 29 - European heads of state signed in Rome the Treaty and Final Act establishing the first European Constitution.
- October 31 - Leftist candidate Tabaré Vázquez is
elected President of Uruguay.
- December 3 - The Colombian government extradites Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, one of the most powerful
durg dealers of the world, arrested 1n 1995 and 2003, to the United
States.
- December 6 - Terrorists attack the American consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killing several people.
- December 11 - Tests show that opposition Ukrainian presidential candidate
Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned with a large dose of dioxin.
- December 13 - Software giants Oracle Corporation and PeopleSoft to merge in a $10.3
billion deal, creating the second largest maker of business applications software.
- December 14 - The world's tallest bridge, the Millau bridge over the River
Tarn in the Massif Central mountains, France is opened by President Jacques Chirac.
- December 15 -
- British Home Secretary, David Blunkett resigns following allegations he abused his position by speeding the visa application of his
lover's nanny.
- Albanian terrorists take a bus and its passengers hostage in Athens, Greece and demand 1 million euros in ransom money.
- December 16 -
- December 18 - The murder of a pregnant woman, and the removal of her
unborn child from her womb in Missouri, USA is
reported.
- December 21- Iraqi insurgents attack a US military base in the city of
Mosul, killing 22 people.
- December 22- Armed robbers in Northern Ireland, steal over £22 million from the headquarters of the Northern Bank.
Births
Deaths
For more deaths see: Deaths in 2004
January-March
- January 5 - Tug McGraw,
major league pitcher
- January 13 - Harold
Shipman, the United Kingdom's most prolific serial killer (by suicide)
- January 23 - Bob
Keeshan, famous as Captain Kangaroo
- January 25 - Fanny Blankers-Koen, 4-time Olympic champion athletics
- January 28 - Elroy
Hirsch, football player
- January 28 - George Duffy, American
television pioneer
- January 29 - Joe
Viterelli, American actor
- February 13 - Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, president of Chechnya
- February 14 - Marco
Pantani, Italian cyclist
- February 17 - José López Portillo, former president of Mexico
- February 26 - Boris Trajkovski, president of Macedonia
- March 15 - John Pople,
Nobel Prize winning chemist
- March 18 - Harrison
McCain, Canadian billionaire
- March 20 - Juliana, former queen of the Netherlands
- March 21 - Ahmed Yassin, Hamas founder
- March 28 - Peter
Ustinov, actor
April-July
- April 21 – Karl Hass,
convicted Nazi war criminal
- April 22 - Pat Tillman,
former noted NFL Safety with the Arizona Cardinals. (b. 1976)
- April 24 - Estée Lauder, cosmetics pioneer (b. 1906)
- May 9 - Akhmad Kadyrov,
Chechen president
- May 17 - Tony Randall,
actor
- May 22 - Richard Biggs,
actor
- May 28 - Umberto
Agnelli, chairman of Fiat (b. 1934)
- June 3- Frances Shand
Kydd, the mother of Diana, Princess of
Wales
- June 5 - Ronald Reagan,
40th President of the United States (b.
1911)
- June 7 - Quorthon, musician (b.
1966)
- June 10 - Ray Charles,
musician (b. 1930)
- June 10 - Xenophon
Zolotas, former Prime Minister of Greece (b.
1904)
- June 20 - Jim Bacon, former
Premier of Tasmania (b. 1950)
- July 1 - Marlon Brando,
American actor (b. 1924)
- July 6 - Thomas Klestil,
President of Austria (b. 1932)
- July 21 - Jerry
Goldsmith, Composer
- July 28 - Francis Crick,
co-discoverer of the structure of DNA (b. 1916)
- July 28 - Sam Edwards,
American actor (b. 1915)
August-September
- August 1 - Philip Hauge Abelson, physicist, co-discoverer of
Neptunium (b. 1913)
- August 3 - Henri Cartier-Bresson, French photographer (b. 1908)
- August 6 - Rick James, singer
("Super Freak") (b. 1948)
- August 8 - Fay Wray, actress
("King Kong") (b. 1907)
- August 13 - Julia Child,
cook, author, television personality, (b. 1912)
- August 14 - Czesław Miłosz, Polish poet, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980 (b. 1911)
- August 15 - Amarsinh Chaudhary, Indian politician, Chief Minister of
Gujarat
- August 17 - Gérard
Souzay, French baritone (b. 1918)
- August 22 - Ota Sik, Czech economist and politician, architect of the Prague Spring
- September 11 - Peter VII, Patriarch of Alexandria (b. 1949)
- September 15 - Johnny Ramone, bandmember of The Ramones (b. 1948)
- September 20 - Brian
Clough, English footballer and manager (b. 1935)
October
- October 5 - Rodney Dangerfield, actor, comedian (b. 1921)
- October 8 - Jacques
Derrida, philosopher, founder of deconstruction (b. 1930)
- October 10 - Christopher Reeve, American actor, portrayed
"Superman" (b. 1952)
- October 18 - Veerappan,
Indian forest bandit and sandalwood smuggler (b. 1945)
- October 19 - Greg Shaw,
rock journalist
- October 25 - John Peel,
UK radio broadcaster (b. 1939)
- October 29 - Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, aunt of Queen Elizabeth II
November-December
- November 2 - Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan, president of the United Arab Emirates (b. 1918)
- November 2 - Theo van Gogh, Dutch filmmaker (b. 1957)
- November 3 - Sergei
Zholtok, professional ice hockey player (b. 1972)
- November 9 - Iris Chang,
author (b. 1968)
- November 9 - Emlyn
Hughes, English footballer (b. 1947)
- November 11 - Yasser
Arafat, Palestinian Leader (President of Palestinian National Authority 1996-2004 (b. 1929)
- November 17 - Alexander Ragulin, ice hockey player (b. 1941)
- November 24 - Arthur
Hailey, author (b. 1920)
- November 29 - John Drew Barrymore, actor (b. 1932)
- November 29 - Harry
Danning, MLB All-Star
catcher (b. 1911)
- December 1 - Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (b. 1911)
- December 3 - Shiing-shen Chern, mathematician (b. 1911)
- December 8 - "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, musician, member of Pantera (b. 1966)
- December 13 - Andre
Rodgers, Major League Baseball player (b. 1934)
- December 14 - Fernando Poe Jr., Philippine Presidential Candidate and 'Da King' of Philippine Cinema (b. 1939)
- December 16 - Ted
Abernathy, Major League Baseball player (b. 1933)
- December 19 - Renata Tebaldi, Italian Opera Soprano (b. 1922)
- December 19 - Herbert C. Brown, Nobel Laureate/Chemist (b. 1912)
Nobel Prizes
zh-min-nan:2004
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