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2004 by topic:
Arts
ArchitectureComicsFilmHome videoLiterature (Poetry) – Music (Country, Rock, Metal, UK, US) – RadioPhotoTelevision (UK, US) – Video gaming
Politics and government
ElectionsInternational leadersSovereign states
Sovereign state leadersTerritorial governors
Science and technology
ArchaeologyBiotechnologyComputingPalaeontologyQuantum computing and communicationSpace/AstronomySpaceflight
Environment
Birding/Ornithology
Transportation
AviationRail transport
Sports
American footballAssociation footballAthletics (sport)BadmintonBaseballBasketballChessCombat sportsCricketCyclingGolfHandballIce hockeyRugby unionSwimmingTennisVolleyball
By place
AfghanistanAlbaniaAlgeriaAndorraAngolaAntarcticaArgentinaArmeniaAustraliaAustriaAzerbaijanBangladeshThe BahamasBahrainBarbadosBelarusBelgiumBeninBhutanBoliviaBosnia and HerzegovinaBotswanaBrazilBulgariaBurkina FasoBurundiCambodiaCameroonCanadaCape VerdeCentral African RepublicChadChileChinaColombiaCosta RicaComorosCroatiaCubaCyprusCzechiaDenmarkEcuadorEgyptEl SalvadorEstoniaEthiopiaEuropean UnionFijiFinlandFranceGabonGeorgiaGermanyGhanaGreeceGuatemalaGuineaGuyanaHaitiHondurasHong KongHungaryIcelandIndiaIndonesiaIranIraqIrelandIsraelItalyIvory CoastJapanJordanKazakhstanKenyaKosovoKuwaitKyrgyzstanLaosLatviaLebanonLesothoLiberiaLibyaLithuaniaLuxembourgMacauMadagascarMarshall IslandsMalawiMalaysiaMaliMaltaMauritaniaMexicoMicronesiaMoldovaMongoliaMontenegroMoroccoMozambiqueMyanmarNauruNamibiaNepalNetherlandsNew ZealandNicaraguaNigerNigeriaNorth KoreaNorth MacedoniaNorwayOmanPakistanPalauPalestinePanamaPapua New GuineaParaguayPeruPhilippinesPolandPortugalQatarRomaniaRussiaRwandaSamoaSaudi ArabiaSenegalSerbiaSeychellesSingaporeSlovakiaSloveniaSomaliaSouth AfricaSolomon IslandsSouth KoreaSouth SudanSpainSri LankaSudanSwedenSwitzerlandSyriaTaiwanTajikistanTanzaniaThailandTogoTongaTunisiaTurkeyTurkmenistanTuvaluUgandaUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited KingdomUnited StatesUruguayUzbekistanVanuatuVenezuelaVietnamYemenZambiaZimbabwe
Other topics
Religious leaders
Birth and death categories
BirthsDeaths
Establishments and disestablishments categories
EstablishmentsDisestablishments
Works and introductions categories
WorksIntroductions
Works entering the public domain
2004 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar2004
MMIV
Ab urbe condita2757
Armenian calendar1453
ԹՎ ՌՆԾԳ
Assyrian calendar6754
Bahá'í calendar160–161
Balinese saka calendar1925–1926
Bengali calendar1411
Berber calendar2954
British Regnal year52 Eliz. 2 – 53 Eliz. 2
Buddhist calendar2548
Burmese calendar1366
Byzantine calendar7512–7513
Chinese calendar癸未(Water Goat)
4700 or 4640
    — to —
甲申年 (Wood Monkey)
4701 or 4641
Coptic calendar1720–1721
Discordian calendar3170
Ethiopian calendar1996–1997
Hebrew calendar5764–5765
Hindu calendars
 - Vikram Samvat2060–2061
 - Shaka Samvat1925–1926
 - Kali Yuga5104–5105
Holocene calendar12004
Igbo calendar1004–1005
Iranian calendar1382–1383
Islamic calendar1424–1425
Japanese calendarHeisei 16
(平成16年)
Javanese calendar1936–1937
Juche calendar93
Julian calendarGregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar4337
Minguo calendarROC 93
民國93年
Nanakshahi calendar536
Thai solar calendar2547
Tibetan calendar阴水羊年
(female Water-Goat)
2130 or 1749 or 977
    — to —
阳木猴年
(male Wood-Monkey)
2131 or 1750 or 978
Unix time1072915200 – 1104537599

2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2004th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 4th year of the , the 4th year of the , and the 5th year of the decade.

2004 was designated as:

  • International Year of Rice (by the United Nations)
  • International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO)
  • 2004 World Health Day topic was Road Safety (by World Health Organization)

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Events[]

January[]

  • January 3Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashes into the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt, killing all 148 aboard.
  • January 6 – Construction on the tallest human-made structure to date, the Burj Khalifa begins in Dubai UAE

February[]

  • February 1 – A hajj stampede in Mina, Saudi Arabia, kills 251 pilgrims.
  • February 4Facebook, a mainstream online social networking site, is founded by Mark Zuckerberg.
  • February 7 – Several leaders of Abnaa el-Balad are arrested in Israel.
  • February 24 – The 6.3 Mw Al Hoceima earthquake strikes northern Morocco with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). At least 628 people are killed.
  • February 26
    • The United States lifts a 1981 travel ban upon Libya.
    • Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski is killed in a plane crash near Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
  • February 27
    • 2004 SuperFerry 14 bombing: The Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group is blamed for the deadliest terrorist attack at sea in world history, which kills 116 in the Philippines.
    • The John Jay Report into Catholic sex abuse cases in the United States has its initial release.
  • February 28 – Over 1 million Taiwanese participating in the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally form a 500-kilometre (310 mi) long human chain to commemorate the February 28 Incident in 1947.
  • February 292004 Haitian coup d'état: Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns as president of Haiti. The chief justice of the Haitian Supreme Court, Boniface Alexandre, is sworn in as interim president.

March[]

File:Gafilo 2004-03-06 0655Z.jpg

Cyclone Gafilo

  • March 2
    • NASA announces that the Mars rover MER-B (Opportunity) has confirmed that its landing area was once drenched in water.
    • The Iraq Ashura bombings kill at least 178 and injure at least 500 Iraqi Shi'a Muslims commemorating the Day of Ashura.
  • March 10 – Five British men are released from detention at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay. After they land at RAF Brize Norton, 4 of them are immediately arrested for questioning.
  • March 11 – Terrorists execute simultaneous attacks, with bombs in 4 rush-hour trains in Madrid, March 16 - killing 191 people. FutureSex/LoveSounds by Justin Timberlake
  • March 17 – A pogrom-like organized violence breaks out over 2 days in Kosovo; 19 people are killed, 8,000 Serbian homes burned, schools and businesses vandalized, and over 300 Orthodox monasteries and churches burned and destroyed.
  • March 25 – British prime minister Tony Blair visits Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, in return for the dismantling of Libya's weapons of mass destruction programme in December 2003 (the first time a major Western leader had visited the nation in several decades).
  • March 28 – The first ever reported South Atlantic hurricane makes landfall in southern Brazil in the state of Santa Catarina – the hurricane is dubbed Cyclone Catarina.
  • March 29

April[]

  • April 1Google releases Gmail.
  • April 8Darfur conflict: The Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement is signed by the Sudanese government and 2 rebel groups.
  • April 17Israeli helicopters fire missiles at a convoy of vehicles in the Gaza Strip, killing the Gaza leader of Hamas, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi.
  • April 20 – In Iraq, 12 mortars are fired on Abu Ghraib Prison by insurgents; 22 detainees are killed and 92 wounded.[1]
  • April 22Ryongchon disaster: Two trains carrying explosives and fuel collide in Ryongchon, North Korea, killing 161 people, injuring 1,300 and destroying thousands of homes.
  • April 24Referendums on the Annan Plan for Cyprus, which proposes to re-unite the island, take place in both the Greek-controlled and the Turkish-controlled parts. Although the Turkish Cypriots vote in favour, the Greek Cypriots reject the proposal.

May[]

File:Flag of Europe.svg

European Union flag

  • 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 9Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov is killed by a landmine placed under a VIP stage during a World War II memorial parade in Grozny.
  • May 12 – An American civilian contractor in Iraq, Nick Berg, is shown being decapitated by a group allegedly linked to al-Qaeda on a web-distributed video.
  • May 14Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, marries Australian Mary Donaldson in Copenhagen.
  • May 17Massachusetts legalizes same-sex marriage, in compliance with a ruling from the state's Supreme Judicial Court (Goodridge v. Department of Public Health).
  • May 19Jeremy Sivits pleads guilty in a court-martial in connection with alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
  • May 24North Korea bans mobile phones (see Telecommunications in North Korea).
  • May 26Terry Nichols is convicted by an Oklahoma state court on murder charges stemming from the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

June[]

  • June 8 – The first transit of Venus since 1882 occurs; the following one occurred in 2012.
  • June 11Terry Nichols is spared the death penalty by an Oklahoma state court on murder charges stemming from the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
  • June 12 – A 1.3 kg chondrite type meteorite strikes a house in Ellerslie, New Zealand, causing serious damage but no injuries.
  • June 21 – In Mojave, California, SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.
  • June 28 – The U.S.-led coalition occupying Iraq transfers sovereignty to an Iraqi Interim Government.
  • June 30 – Preliminary hearings begin in Iraq in the trial of former president Saddam Hussein, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

July[]

  • July 1
    • The Cassini–Huygens spacecraft arrives at Saturn.
    • Vatican City gains full membership rights in the United Nations except voting.
  • July 4
    • Groundbreaking for One World Trade Center begins at Ground Zero in New York City.
    • The Greek national football team wins the 2004 UEFA European Championship in Portugal.

August[]

  • August 1
    • A supermarket fire in Asunción, Paraguay, kills about 400 and leaves over 1000 missing.
    • A bomb attack occurs in front of Prague's Casino Royal.
  • August 3
    • The Statue of Liberty reopens after security improvements.
    • NASA's MESSENGER is launched (it is captured into Mercury's orbit on March 18, 2011).
  • August 9 – At the Mihama Nuclear Power Plant, a pipe leaking hot water and steam kills 5 and injures 6 others, in the 2nd worst nuclear disaster in Japan.
  • August 1329 – The 2004 Summer Olympics are held in Athens, Greece.
File:Olympic flame at opening ceremony.jpg

The Olympic flame during the Opening Ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics

  • 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 26 – During the Republican National Convention over 1800 individuals were arrested by the authorities in New York City, USA.[2] However 90% of those charges were eventually dropped.[2]

September[]

  • September 1Chechen terrorists take 1,128 people hostage, mostly children, in a school in the Beslan school hostage crisis. The hostage-takers demand the release of Chechen rebels imprisoned in neighbouring Ingushetia and the independence of Chechnya from Russia.
  • September 2 – The United Nations Security Council adopts Resolution 1559, calling for the removal of all foreign troops from Lebanon. This measure is largely aimed at Syrian troops.
  • September 3 – Russian forces end the siege at a school in Beslan, Northern Ossetia; 334 people are killed and at least 700 people injured.
  • September 9 – A bomb blast outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, kills 11 and injures up to 100 people.
  • September 17
    • The 2004 Summer Paralympics commence in Athens, Greece.
    • Mexico and Japan finish 2-year-long negotiations and sign a Free Trade Agreement in Mexico City.
  • September 21 – Construction of the Burj Khalifa begins.
  • September 29 – In Mojave, California, the first Ansari X Prize flight takes place of SpaceShipOne, which is competing with a number of spacecraft (including Canada's Da Vinci Project, claimed to be its closest rival) and goes on to win the prize on October 4.

October[]

  • October 8 – Suicide bombers detonate 2 bombs at the Red Sea resort of Taba, Egypt, killing 34 people, mainly Israeli tourists and Egyptian workers.
  • October 14 – Prince Norodom Sihamoni is chosen as the new king of Cambodia.
  • October 19 – A team of explorers reaches the bottom of Krubera Cave, world's deepest cave. The depth reached is 2,080 meters (6,824 feet), setting a world record (National Geographic).
  • October 20
    • The Ubuntu operating system is first released.
    • Corporate Airlines Flight 5966 crashes in Missouri, killing 13 people and injuring 2.
  • 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 23 – A magnitude 6.7 earthquake and aftershocks of similar scale occur in the Tokamachi area. A landslide occurs on the outskirts of Nagaoka. According to Japanese officials, 68 people are killed, 4,085 are injured, and 103,000 are rendered homeless.
  • October 24Brazil successfully launches its first rocket into space.
  • October 26 – The Cassini probe passes within 1,200 km of Titan.
  • October 27 – Details of the discovery of a new, recent species of fossil hominid, Homo floresiensis, from the island of Flores, Indonesia, are published.
  • October 29 – European heads of state sign in Rome the Treaty and Final Act, establishing the first European Constitution.

November[]

  • November 6 – In Ivory Coast, National Army bombings kill 9 people, including French U.N. soldiers. French U.N. forces retaliate by destroying the National Army's air force.
  • November 7 – U.S. forces launch a major assault on the Iraqi town of Fallujah, in an effort to rid the area of insurgents before the Iraqi elections in January.
  • November 13 – After six days of intense battles, the Iraqi town of Fallujah is fully occupied by U.S. forces.
  • November 16
    • The European Space Agency probe SMART-1 passes from Earth orbit into the orbit of the Moon.
    • NASA's hypersonic Scramjet breaks a record by reaching a velocity of about 7,000 mph in an unmanned experimental flight. It obtains a speed of Mach 9.6, almost 10 times the speed of sound.
  • November 22 – The Orange Revolution begins when the government of the Ukraine is accused of electoral fraud against presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko.
  • November 23World of Warcraft was released.
  • November 28 – A male Poʻouli dies of avian malaria at the Maui Bird Conservation Center in Olinda before it can breed, making the species in all probability extinct.

December[]

File:2004-tsunami.jpg

The tsunami caused by the December 26, 2004 earthquake strikes Ao Nang, Thailand.

  • December 6 – Terrorists attack the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killing several people.
  • December 8Dimebag Darrell, former guitarist for the heavy metal band Pantera, is murdered on stage by a deranged fan while performing with his new band Damageplan.
  • December 10 – New Zealand bans smoking in all public places, including bars.
  • 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 15Albanian terrorists take a bus and its passengers hostage in Athens, Greece, and demand €1 million in ransom money.
  • December 16 – The House of Lords rules that the British Government breaches human rights legislation, by detaining without trial foreign nationals suspected of being terrorists.
  • December 21 – Iraqi insurgents attack a U.S. military base in the city of Mosul, killing 22 people.
  • December 26 – The 9.1–9.3 Mw Indian Ocean earthquake shakes northern Sumatra with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). One of the largest observed tsunamis follows, affecting coastal areas of Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. The death toll across a number of these nations is 230,000–280,000.
  • December 27 – Astrophysicists from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching near Munich measure the strongest burst from a magnetar. At 21:30:26 UT the earth is hit by a huge wave front of gamma and X-rays. It is the strongest flux of high-energetic gamma radiation measured so far.
  • December 30 – A fire in a Buenos Aires night club (República Cromagnon) kills 194 people during a rock concert.
  • December 31
    • Taipei 101, at the time tallest skyscraper in the world, standing at a height of 1,670 feet (509 metres), officially opens.
    • Simón Trinidad, high-profile FARC leader, is extradited to the United States, following the second extradition of a high drug dealer in a month and in 2004.

Date unknown[]

  • The Russian Federation stops recognizing Soviet Union passports as legal identification.[3]

Births[]

  • January 21Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway
  • June 8Francesca Capaldi, American child actress

Deaths[]

Main article: Deaths in 2004

January[]

Main article: Deaths in January 2004
File:JoanAiken.jpg

Joan Aiken

February[]

Main article: Deaths in February 2004
File:Jose Lopez Portillo.jpg

José López Portillo

March[]

Main article: Deaths in March 2004
File:Prinses Juliana 1981.jpg

Juliana of the Netherlands

File:Sir Peter Ustinov 4 Allan Warren.jpg

Peter Ustinov

April[]

Main article: Deaths in April 2004

May[]

Main article: Deaths in May 2004
File:Tonyrandall.jpg

Tony Randall

  • May 7Nicholas Berg, American businessman (executed by decapitation) (b. 1978)
  • May 14Anna Lee, British actress (b. 1913)
  • May 16Marika Rökk, Egyptian-born Austrian singer, dancer and actress (b. 1913)
  • May 17
    • Tony Randall, American actor (b. 1920)
    • Ezzedine Salim, President of the Iraqi Governing Council (b. 1943)
  • May 22Richard Biggs, American actor (b. 1960)

June[]

Main article: Deaths in June 2004
File:Official Portrait of President Reagan 1981.jpg

Ronald Reagan

File:Ray Charles (cropped).jpg

Ray Charles

  • June 5Ronald Reagan, American politician and actor, 40th President of the United States (b. 1911)
  • June 7Quorthon, Swedish musician (b. 1966)
  • June 10Ray Charles, American singer and musician (b. 1930)
  • June 11Xenophon Zolotas, Greek economist, interim 177th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1904)
  • June 16Thanom Kittikachorn, Thai military dictator, 10th Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1912)
  • June 26Naomi Shemer, Israeli songwriter (b. 1931)

July[]

Main article: Deaths in July 2004
File:Marlon Brando.jpg

Marlon Brando

August[]

Main article: Deaths in August 2004
File:Wray, Fay 01.jpg

Fay Wray

September[]

Main article: Deaths in September 2004
File:Johnny Ramone.jpg

Johnny Ramone

October[]

Main article: Deaths in October 2004
File:C Reeve in Marriage of Figaro Opening night 1985.jpg

Christopher Reeve

File:The Naked Spur-Janet Leigh.JPG

Janet Leigh

November[]

Main article: Deaths in November 2004
File:TheoVanGogh.jpg

Theo van Gogh

File:YasserArafat.jpg

Yasser Arafat

December[]

Main article: Deaths in December 2004
File:Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld 1976.jpg

Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld

Nobel Prizes[]

  • PhysicsDavid J. Gross, H. David Politzer, Frank Wilczek
  • ChemistryAaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko, Irwin Rose
  • Physiology or MedicineLinda B. Buck, Richard Axel
  • LiteratureElfriede Jelinek
  • PeaceWangari Maathai
  • Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred NobelFinn E. Kydland, Edward C. Prescott

References[]

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  1. "22 killed in Baghdad mortar attack". Usatoday.Com. April 20, 2004. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
  2. 2.0 2.1 New York Civil Liberties Union Recap – fact is on page 7 of the PDF.
  3. "Some Russians still live in the USSR - PravdaReport". English.pravda.ru. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
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