2003 - What happened in 2003 ?

January 2003

Wednesday 01:

Luís Inácio Lula da Silva becomes president of the Federative Republic of Brazil.

Wednesday 08:

US Airways flight 5481 crashes at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina killing all 21 people aboard.

Tuesday 21:

The terms of Kevin Mitnick's parole allow him to use a computer again.

Wednesday 22:

2003 - Last successful contact with the spacecraft Pioneer 10, one of the most distant man-made objects.

Friday 24:

The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.

February 2003

Saturday 01:

Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates over Texas upon reentry killing all seven astronauts onboard.

Tuesday 04:

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is officially renamed to Serbia and Montenegro and adopts a new constitution.

Friday 07:

Last contact with Pioneer 10.

Thursday 20:

In Rhode Island, in the USA, The Station nightclub fire kills about 100 and injures over 200.

Friday 21:

Over 100 concert goers die in a fire during a performance of the rock band Great White.

March 2003

Tuesday 11:

The International Criminal Court is founded in The Hague.

Wednesday 12:

Zoran ?in?i?, Prime Minister of Serbia, assassinated in Belgrade.

Thursday 13:

Human evolution: The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old upright-walking human footprints have been found in Italy.

Wednesday 19:

The invasion of Iraq begins (with the time difference, it actually begins on March 20 at 0100 UTC)

Monday 24:

The Arab League votes 21-1 in favor of a resolution demanding the immediate and unconditional removal of US and British soldiers from Iraq.

April 2003

Wednesday 09:

2003 invasion of Iraq: The Ba'ath regime headed by Saddam Hussein in Iraq is deposed.

Monday 14:

Jean Charest's Parti libéral du Québec defeats Bernard Landry and the Parti Québécois in Quebec's general elections.

Wednesday 16:

Makobo Modjadji is crowned the new Rain Queen of Balobedu.

Wednesday 23:

Beijing closes all schools for two weeks due to the SARS virus.

Monday 28:

Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store launches, selling 1 million songs in its first week.

May 2003

Thursday 01:

War in Iraq: U.S. President George W. Bush announces the end of major combat operations in Iraq.

Saturday 10:

May 2003 tornado outbreak ends.

Saturday 17:

Mozilla Firefox. Browser renamed from Phoenix to Firebird.

Thursday 22:

In Fort Worth, Texas, Annika Sörenstam becomes the first woman to play the PGA Tour in 58 years.

Saturday 31:

Bomber Eric Rudolph is captured in Murphy, North Carolina.

June 2003

Monday 02:

Thousands of defeated Iraqi troops march on the U.S. occupation headquarters in Baghdad, demanding pay.

Tuesday 10:

The Spirit Rover is launched, beginning NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission.

Friday 20:

2003 - Formation of Wikimedia Foundation announced.

Sunday 22:

Bill Clinton releases his memoirs, entitled My Life

Thursday 26:

The U.S. Supreme Court rules that sodomy laws are unconstitutional in Lawrence v. Texas.

July 2003

Tuesday 01:

In Hong Kong, 500,000 people march to protest a new anti-subversion law.

Tuesday 15:

AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape Communications Corporation. The Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day.

Wednesday 16:

The Corsicans reject a referendum for increased autonomy from France by a very thin majority: 50.98 percent against, and 49.02 percent for.

Friday 18:

2003 - David Kelly is discovered dead after committing suicide.

Wednesday 30:

In Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line.

August 2003

Tuesday 05:

A car bom explodes in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.

Thursday 14:

Widescale power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada.

Tuesday 19:

A car-bomb attack on UN headquarters in Iraq kills the agency's top envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 other employers.

Sunday 24:

US Spacecraft Voyager 2 is 71 astronomical units distant from Earth and escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.3 AU per year (ca. 15 km/s). It will be approximately 40,000 years before Voyager 2 approaches another planetary system.

Monday 25:

Fifty-two are killed in two Islamic terrorist bomb blasts in Mumbai, India.

September 2003

Thursday 11:

Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh dies after being fatally wounded on September 10.

Saturday 13:

2003 - Rabbi Pete Tobais leads his first Barmitzvah Ceremony in Elstree (TLSE).

Saturday 20:

2003 Maldives civil unrest: the death of prisoner Hassan Evan Naseem sparks a day of rioting in Malé.

Sunday 21:

Galileo mission terminated by sending the probe into Jupiter's atmosphere, where it is crushed by the pressure at the lower altitudes.

Friday 26:

Nupedia, an earlier form of Wikipedia, was shut down. --->

October 2003

Saturday 04:

Maxim restaurant suicide bombing in Haifa, Israel: 21 Israelis, Jews and Arabs, were killed, and 51 others were wounded.

Sunday 05:

Akhmad Kadyrov elected President of Chechnya.

Sunday 12:

Michael Schumacher clinches his 6th Formula One championship, an all-time record

Saturday 25:

The Cedar Fire is reported at 5:37 pm. It becomes the largest wildfire in California history.

Friday 31:

Mahathir bin Mohamad resigns as Prime Minister of Malaysia after 22 years in power.

November 2003

Wednesday 05:

The final installment of the Matrix Trilogy (The Matrix Revolutions) is released in theatres simultaneously around the world at 2:00 pm(GMT).

Sunday 09:

Rebel Youth Network Organizing Committee formed in Toronto.

Tuesday 18:

The congress of the Communist Party of Indian Union (Marxist-Leninist) decides to merge the party into Kanu Sanyal's CPI(ML).

Saturday 22:

2003 - England defeat Australia to win England's first rugby union world cup.

Sunday 23:

Berkeley Breathed begins the comic strip Opus.

December 2003

Friday 12:

Paul Martin, Jr. is sworn-in as the 21st Prime Minister of Canada

Sunday 14:

Celebration of the reopening of the Fenice Theater in Venice, Italy.

Tuesday 16:

Deborah Jin induces the formation of a fermionic condensate among fermionic atoms.

Wednesday 17:

', the third and final film in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, opens in theaters.

Friday 26:

Major earthquake devastates southeast Iranian city of Bam, with up to 43,300 killed, and 90,000 homeless; the citadel of Arg-é Bam destroyed.