2003

Centuries: 20th century - 21st century - 22nd century

Decades: 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s - 2000s - 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s 2050s

Years: 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 - 2003 - 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

2003 news by month: January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December

This is a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar)

See also:

The International Year of Freshwater
The European Disability Year

Table of contents

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 Nobel Prizes
5 External Links

Events

January 1 - Luíz Inácio Lula Da Silva becomes the 37th President of Brazil.
January 1 - Pascal Couchepin becomes President of the Confederation in Switzerland
January 15 - The Supreme Court hands down its decision in Eldred v. Ashcroft allowing the extension of copyright terms.
January 21 - Kevin Mitnick is allowed to use a computer again.
January 24 - The new United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.
January - Iraq disarmament crisis: Facing worldwide criticism and against the wishes of the majorities of their own electorates, leaders of Britain, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, Poland, Denmark and the Czech Republic release a statement showing support for the U.S.'s position on Iraq, saying that Saddam Hussein should not be allowed to violate U.N. resolutions.
February 1 - The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates over Texas upon reentry, killing all seven astronauts onboard.
February 5 - Iraq disarmament crisis: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell addresses the UN Security Council on Iraq.
February 15 - Global protests against war on Iraq - more than six million people protest in over 600 cities worldwide, the largest war protest to take place before the war occurred.
February 23 - New York City is the site of the 2003 Grammy Awards, with Nickelback, No Doubt, Foo Fighters, Britney Spears and some other bands and performers.
February 26 - An American businessman is admitted to the Vietnam France Hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam. WHO doctor Carlo Urbani report the unusual highly contagious disease to WHO. Both the businessman and Carlo Urbani die of SARS in March.
February 26 - Iraq disarmament crisis: U.S. President George W. Bush talks publicly about his vision of a post-invasion democracy in Iraq. Bush says it will be "an example" to other nations in Arabia.
March 1 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The United Arab Emirates calls for Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to step down to avoid war. The sentiment is later echoed by Kuwait.
March 2 - War on Terrorism: Authorities in Pakistan capture Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks along with money man Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi.
March 2 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Bahrain becomes the third Arab country to call for Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to step down.
March 5 - The Supreme Court of the United States by a 5-4 margin upholds California's "three strikes and you're out" law.
March 6 - U.S. President George W. Bush holds a live, televised press conference on the latest developments in the War on Terrorism, the situation with North Korea and the disarmament standoff with Iraq.
March 11 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi fighters threaten two U.S. U-2 surveillance planes, flying missions for U.N. weapons inspectors, forcing them to abort their mission and return to base. Iraqi officials described the incident as a "technical mistake" by the U.N. inspectors. Ewen Buchanan, spokesman for UNMOVIC, said that Iraqi officials had been notified about the flight beforehand.
March 11 - Iraq disarmament crisis: According to Arab media, Saddam Hussein opens terrorist training camps in Iraq for Arab volunteers willing to carry out suicide bombings against U.S. forces if a U.S.-led attack took place.
March 12 - WHO issues a global alert on SARS.
March 12 - Iraq disarmament crisis: 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.
March 13 - Human evolution: The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old upright-walking human footprints had been found in Italy.
March 14 - U.S. Rep. James P. Moran Jr steps down as a regional Whip for the House Democrats for making what he called "insensitive" remarks about Jews pushing the nation into war with Iraq. At a March 3 anti-war rally in Reston, Virginia, Moran said, "If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this."
March 15 - Hu Jintao becomes president of the People's Republic of China, replacing Jiang Zemin.
March 16 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The leaders of the United States, Britain, Portugal and Spain meet at a summit in the Azores Islands. U.S. President Bush calls Monday, March 17th, the "moment of Truth", meaning that the "coalition of the willing" would make its final effort to extract a resolution from the U.N. Security Council that would give Iraq an ultimatum to disarm immediately or to be disarmed by force.
March 16 - Largest co-ordinated worldwide vigil as part of the global protests against war on Iraq.
March 17 - Iraq disarmament crisis: U.S. President George W. Bush gives an ultimatium: Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his sons must either leave Iraq, or face military action at a time of the U.S.'s choosing.
March 19 - Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W. Va.) gives a speech in the Senate, saying "I weep for my country" as he attests that America is discarding its image of a strong, benevolent peacekeeper.
March 20 - 2003 Iraq war: Land troops from United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invade Iraq, preceded by a air strike on the suspected bunker of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad.
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 using cruise missiles fired from US Navy warships, Royal Navy submarines and B-52 bombers; and laser guided missiles fired by Stealth Bombers.
March 29 - WHO doctor Carlo Urbani, who first identified SARS, dies of the disease.
April 9 - US forces seize control of Baghdad, apparently ending the regime of Saddam Hussein.
April 21 - Retired US General Jay Garner becomes Interim Civil Administrator of Iraq.
May 1 - George W. Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, in a Lockheed S-3 Viking, where he gave a speech announcing end of major combat in the Iraq war. Clearly visible in the background was a banner stating "Mission Accomplished". Bush's landing was criticized by opponents as overly theatrical and expensive. The banner, made by White House personnel (according to a CNN story: [1]) and placed there by the U.S. Navy, was criticized as premature.
May 24 - Eurovision song contest in Riga, Latvia. Winner was Turkey and Sertab Erener performed the song, Everyway That I Can.
May 26 - A draft of the proposed European constitution is unveiled.
May 27 - Three hundreth anniversary celebration of Saint Petersburg, Russia, begins.
May 31 - Annular solar eclipse (Northern Scotland, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland with partial eclipse covering much of Europe and Russia)
May 31 - Eric Rudolph, the suspected person to have carried out the Centennial Olympic Park bombing is captured in North Carolina behind a Save-A-Lot store.
June 12 - Robert Angleton goes missing while on bond five days before he was to be tried for weapons charges and conspiracy to commit the 1997 murder of wife Doris Angleton. He was arrested at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam for passport fraud, and was sent back to Houston the same day.
June 20 to June 29 - 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games, Dublin, Ireland
June 23 - U.S. Supreme Court upholds affirmative action in university admissions in Grutter v. Bollinger
June 26 - U.S. Supreme Court rules sodomy laws unconstitutional in Lawrence v. Texas
July 1 - 500,000 Hongkongers march to protest Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23, which redefined treason controversially.
July 2 - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is declared the Host City for the XXI Olympic Winter Games in 2010.
July 5 - SARS is declared to be contained by WHO.
July 18 - Convention on the Future of Europe finishes its work and proposes the first European constitution.
July 23 - Operation Warrior Sweep is the first major military deployment of the Afghan National Army.
July 30 - The last old-style Volkswagen Beetle rolls off its production line in Puebla, Mexico.
August 2 - The United Nations authorizes an international peacekeeping force for Liberia.
August 2 - Scientists announce that the ozone layer may be showing signs of recovery due to an international ban on chlorofluorocarbons. [1]
August 11 - NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.
August 11 - Jemaah Islamiah leader Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, is arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.
August 14 - Widespread power outage affects northeast United States and Canada.
August 27 - Perigee of Mars
September 5 - Roller coaster accident at Disneyland injures 10 and kills one.
September 10 - Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh is stabbed in a Stockholm department store and dies the next day.
September 14 - Sweden rejects adopting the Euro in a referendum. (Results.)
September 14 - Estonia approves joining the European Union in a referendum.
September 27 - Smart 1 is launched.
October 7 - California voters recall Democratic Governor Gray Davis and replace him with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.
October 12 - Belarus mental hospital fire: Thirty patients die in a mental hospital fire in Randilovshchina, Belarus.
October 15 - China launches Shenzhou 5, their first crewed space mission.
October 24 - Concorde makes its last commercial flight, bringing the era of airliner supersonic travel to a close, at least for the time being.
October 31 - Mahathir Mohamad resigns as Prime Minister of Malaysia after 22 years in power.
November 9 - Lunar eclipse (the Americas, Europe, Africa, Central Asia)
November 12 - Occupation of Iraq: In Nasiriya, Iraq, at least 23 people, among them the first Italian casualties of the 2003 Iraq war are killed in a suicide bomb attack on an Italian police base.
November 18 - US President George W. Bush makes a state visit to London in the midst of massive protests.
November 18 - Goodridge et al. v. Department of Public Health rules anti-same-sex marriage laws unconstitutional in Massachusetts
November 20 - several bombs explode in Istanbul, Turkey destroying the Turkish head office of HSBC Holdings and the British consulate.
November 20 - Michael Jackson is arrested by police on charges of child molestation, a charge that can carry an 8 year jail term.
November 22 - England wins the Rugby Union World Cup defeating Australia 20-17 after extra time.
November 23 - Beleaguered Georgiann president Eduard Shevardnadze resigns following weeks of mass protests over flawed elections.
November 23 - Total solar eclipse (Antarctica)
November 24 - The High Court in Glasgow imposes a minimum sentence of 27 years for Al Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
November 26 - Last ever flight by Concorde.
December 1 - the use of hand-held mobile phoness while driving is made illegal in England, Wales and Scotland.
December 1 - Boeing chairman and CEO Phil Condit resigns unexpectedly. He is replaced by Lewis Platt as non-executive chairman and Harry Stonecipher as president and CEO.
December 7 - Parliamentary election in Russia.
December 12 - Paul Martin becomes the 21st Prime Minister of Canada.
December 13 - Saddam Hussein, former President of Iraq, is captured in Tikrit by the US Fourth Infantry Division.
December 16 - The United Kingdom announces plans to build a new runway at Stansted Airport in Essex and a short-haul runway at Heathrow Airport sparking anger from environmental groups.
December 18 - The Soham Murder Trial ends at the Old Bailey in London with Ian Huntley found guilty of two counts of murder. His girlfriend, Maxine Carr is found guilty of perverting the course of justice.
December 20 - Libya admits that it was building a nuclear bomb.
December 22 - An earthquake shakes up California, killing two people.
December 22 - Parmalat is first accused of falsifying accounts to the tune of USD $5 billion, later admitted by founder Calisto Tanzi; observers call it "Europe's Enron".
December 23 - A terrier belonging to Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal attacks and kills a corgi belonging to Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal Family gather at Sandringham for Christmas.
December 24 - A BSE outbreak in Washington state is announced. Several countries including Brazil, Australia and Taiwan place a ban on the import of beef from the United States of America.
December 24 - At the request of the US Embassy in Paris, the French Government orders Air France to cancel several flights between France and the US in response to terrorist concerns.
December 25 - Queen Elizabeth II broadcasts a Christmas message to the British Commonwealth paying tribute to British troops in Iraq. Pope John Paul II's Christmas message calls for peace in the Middle East.
December 25 - Beagle_2 is scheduled to land on Mars, but nothing is heard from the lander.
December 25 - The President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, escapes the second assassination attempt in two weeks.
December 26 - A massive earthquake devastates southeastern Iran. Over 30,000 people are reported to have been killed in the city of Bam.
December 31- The world's largest Hogmanay party in the Scottish capital Edinburgh is cancelled twenty minutes before midnight due to bad weather.

Births

May 23 - Dewey, the first cloned deer.
May 28 - Prometea, the first cloned horse.
October 28 - Beatrice Milly McCartney, daughter of Sir Paul McCartney and his wife, Heather Mills
November 8 - Lady Louise Windsor, daughter of Their Royal Highnesses The Earl and Countess of Wessex.
December 7 - Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands, first daughter of Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands.

Deaths

January 5 - Roy Jenkins, British politician
January 12 - Leopoldo Galtieri, Argentine dictator
January 12 - Maurice Gibb, Anglo-Australian musician, one-third of the Bee Gees
January 15 - Gladys Kamakakuokalani Ainoa Brandt, a pioneering Hawaiian educator, fought for native Hawaiian rights
January 18 - Richard Crenna, actor
January 24 - Gianni Agnelli, Fiat president
January 26 - Valeriy Brumel, Soviet athlete
February 1 - The crew of STS-107; Michael P. Anderson, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Rick D. Husband, Willie McCool, Ilan Ramon
February 14 - Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal
February 16 - Aleksandar Tisma, 79, Serbian author
February 24 - Christopher Hill, 92, historian
February 27 - Fred McFeely Rogers, 74, "Mister Rogers" of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
February 28 - Roger Michael Needham, 68, professor of cryptography at Cambridge University
March 8 - Adam Faith, English singer and actor
March 9 - Stan Brakhage, filmmaker
March 9 - Bernard Dowiyogo, former president of Nauru (born 1946)
March 12 - Zoran Djindjic, Prime Minister of Serbia (assassinated)
March 12 - Ronnie Burk, 47, surrealist and AIDS activist
March 16 - Rachel Corrie, American activist, member of theInternational Solidarity Movement.
March 23 - Fritz Spiegl, journalist
March 26 - Daniel Patrick Moynihan, United States Senator
March 29 - Carlo Urbani, WHO doctor who discovered SARS.
April 1 - Leslie Cheung, 46, Hong Kong singer/actor
April 1 - Hyosuke Kujiraoka, 87, a former vice speaker of the House of Representatives
April 16 - Sarah Marple-Cantrell, American student and suicide victim.
April 17 - Dr. Robert Atkins, 72, developed the Atkins Nutritional Approach
April 18 - Daijiro Kato, MotoGP racer.
April 25 - Samson Kitur, Kenyan athlete
May 5 - Walter Sisulu, anti-apartheid activist
May 14 - Dave DeBusschere, NBA basketball player and team executive, Basketball Hall of Famer
May 15 - Benedict Jablonski, co-creator of The Hugo Award trophy
May 18 - Barb Tarbox, anti-smoking activist
May 28 - Ilya Prigogine, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1977
May 28 - Oleg Makarov, cosmonaut
June 2 - Fred Blassie, former professional wrestler
June 3 - Felix de Weldon, sculptor
June 5 - Jürgen Möllemann, German politician
June 10 - Donald Regan, Chief of Staff and Treasury Secretary during the Reagan administration
June 11 - David Brinkley, broadcast journalist
June 12 - Gregory Peck, actor
June 15 - Hume Cronyn, stage and film actor
June 21 - Roger Neilson, National Hockey League coach
June 26 - Denis Thatcher, husband of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, former UK Prime Minister
June 26 - Strom Thurmond, United States Senator
June 26 - Marc-Vivien Foe, Cameroon football player
June 29 - Katharine Hepburn, American actress
July 1 - N!xau, Namibian actor (The Gods Must Be Crazy)
July 4 - Barry White, singer
July 6 - Buddy Ebsen, American actor
July 16 - Carol Shields, Canadian author
July 22 - Uday Hussein, Iraqi military leader; eldest son of Saddam Hussein
July 22 - Qusay Hussein, Iraqi military leader, younger son of Saddam Hussein
July 25 - John Schlesinger, film director
July 27 - Bob Hope, Anglo-American comedian, actor
August 8 - Gregory Hines, tap dancer, actor
August 15 - Idi Amin, Ugandan dictator
August 19 - Sérgio Vieira de Mello, Brazilian diplomat and statesman
August 30 - Charles Bronson, actor
September 4 - Tibor Varga, violinist, conductor and pedagogue (born 1921)
September 7 - Warren Zevon, American musician-songwriter
September 8 - Leni Riefenstahl, 101, German filmmaker
September 9 - Edward Teller, American physicist, "Father of the H-Bomb"
September 11 - Anna Lindh, Swedish foreign minister (assassinated)
September 12 - Johnny Cash, American musician
September 12 - John Ritter, American actor
September 25 - Edward Said, Palestinian literary theorist and activist (leukemia)
September 25 - George Plimpton, American "Renaissance man"
September 26 - Robert Palmer, British singer
September 28 - Althea Gibson, African-American tennis and golf pioneer
September 28 - Elia Kazan, American movie director
October 5 - Sid McMath, American former Governor of Arkansas
October 5 - Dan Snyder, Atlanta Thrashers NHL hockey player
October 10 - Eugene Istomin, pianist
October 12 - Bill Shoemaker, jockey
October 14 - Patrick Dalzel-Job, inspiration for Ian Fleming's James Bond
October 15 - Bertram N. Brockhouse, Canadian physicist
October 19 - Faith Fancher, television journalist and breast cancer awareness activist, 53 years
October 19 - Alija Izetbegovic, Bosnian politician and president
October 21 - Elliott Smith, American musician-songwriter
October 23 - Soong May-ling, widow of Chiang Kai-shek
October 27 - Rod Roddy, game show announcer (The Price is Right)
October 31 - Richard Neustadt, political historian
November 5 - Bobby Hatfield, American musician, one-half of the Righteous Brothers
November 6 - Rie Mastenbroek, Dutch swimmer
November 9 - Art Carney, American actor
November 12 - Jonathan Brandis, American actor
November 20 - Roger Short, the British Consulate General in Istanbul, Turkey
December 2 - Alan Davidson, author
December 3 - David Hemmings, British actor
December 13 - Keiko, the Killer Whale in the "Free Willy" movies
December 15 - Johnny Cunningham, Scottish musician, member of Silly Wizard
December 19 - Hope Lange, American actress
December 26- Sir Alan Bates, British actor
December 27- Bob Monkhouse
December 28 - Dinsdale Landen, British actor
December 30- Anita Mui, 40, Hong Kong actress

Nobel Prizes

Physics:
- Alexei Alexeevich Abrikosov, Russia and United States
- Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg, Russia
- Anthony James Leggett, United Kingdom and United States, "for pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids"
Chemistry:
- Peter Agre, United States "for discoveries concerning channels in cell membranes", "for the discovery of water channels"
- Roderick MacKinnon, United States "for structural and mechanistic studies of ion channels"
Physiology or Medicine:
- Paul Lauterbur, United States
- Sir Peter Mansfield, United Kingdom "for their discoveries concerning magnetic resonance imaging"
Literature:
- John Maxwell Coetzee, South Africa, "who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider"
Peace:
- Shirin Ebadi, Iran "for her efforts for democracy and human rights"
Economics:
- Robert F. Engle, United States "for methods of analyzing economic time series with time-varying volatility"
- Clive W. J. Granger, United Kingdom "for methods of analyzing economic time series with common trends"

External Links

2003 Year in Review - comprehensive listing of 2003 reviews and lists
2003 Year-End Google Zeitgeist - Google's Yearly List of Major Events and Top Searches for 2003

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