2003

2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar), and also:

• The International Year of Freshwater
• The European Disability Year

Summary

Perhaps the defining global event of the year 2003 was the Invasion of Iraq launched by the United States, Britain, Spain and other allies. All over the world, many months in 2003 were devoted to the discussion, debate, protest, and organization of this war, making it probably the most discussed (and controversial) war in modern history. The war would ultimately depose longtime Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and begin a period of occupation that continued well into 2004.

2003 was also a landmark year for the European Union with many states form the former Soviet Bloc voting to join. The first wide-scale EU constitution was also drafted and will be either ratified or rejected by member states in 2004.

Over 30 nations held elections in 2003.

Events

January

• 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

• 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 9 - Cricket World Cup begins in South Africa
• 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

• 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 Bahrain and 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 5 - The Supreme Court of the United States by a 5-4 margin upholds California's "three strikes and you're out" law.
• 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 - Zoran Djindjic assassinated in Belgrade
• 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 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.
• 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.
• 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 23 - Cricket World Cup ends as Australia win over India in Centurion, South Africa.
• March 29 - WHO doctor Carlo Urbani, who first identified SARS, dies of the disease.

April

• April 9 - U.S. forces seize control of Baghdad, apparently ending the regime of Saddam Hussein.
• April 21 - Retired U.S. Army General Jay Garner becomes Interim Civil Administrator of Iraq.

May

• 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 22 - Yuichiro Miura becomes the oldest person ever to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
• 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 hundredth 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

• June 1 - The Peoples Republic of China begins filling the reservoir behind the massive Three Gorges Dam, raising the water level near the dam over 100 meters.
• June 4 - Martha Stewart and her broker are indicted for using privileged investment information and then obstructing a federal investigation. Stewart also resigned as chairperson and chief executive officer of Martha Stewart Living.
• 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

• 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 14 - Valerie Plame is "outed" as a CIA Agent by newspaper columnist Robert Novak
• 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

• 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. [2]
• 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 25 - 52 killed in two bomb blasts in Mumbai, India.
• August 27 - Perigee of Mars

September-October

• 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 5 - Akhmad Kadyrov is elected President of the Chechen Republic.
• 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 manned 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

• 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 Georgian 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

• December 1 - the use of hand-held mobile phones 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 12 - Olympic Airlines, Greece's new flag carrier is launched.
• 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 40,000 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

For more deaths see: Deaths in 2003

January

• 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
• January 26 - George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, British politician (b. 1931)

February

• 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-April

• 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 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 of Japan
• 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

• 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 - Oleg Makarov, cosmonaut
• May 28 - Ilya Prigogine, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1977
• May 28 - Martha Scott, American actress

June

• 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 18 - Larry Doby, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1923)
• 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 Foé, Cameroon football player
• June 29 - Katharine Hepburn, American actress

July-August

• 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 9 - 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

• 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 22 - Gordon Jump, actor, "Maytag Repairman"
• 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

• 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 18 - Preston Smith, Governor of Texas (b. 1912)
• 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-December

• 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 13 - Kellie Waymire, actress (Star Trek: Enterprise) (b. 1967)
• November 20 - Roger Short, the British Consulate General in Istanbul, Turkey
• November 24 - Warren Spahn, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1921)
• November 30 - Gertrude Ederle, American swimmer
• 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"

Government, Religious, and Intl. Org. Leaders

• List of state leaders in 2003
• List of religious leaders in 2003
• List of international organization leaders in 2003

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