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.

Sunday 26:

Super Bowl XXXVII: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeat the Oakland Raiders, 48-21, earning the Buccaneers their first Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Thursday 30:

Belgium legally recognizes same-sex marriage.

February 2003

Saturday 01:

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

Wednesday 05:

U.S. plan to invade Iraq: Colin Powell addresses the UN Security Council on Iraq.

Tuesday 18:

Nearly 200 people die in the Daegu subway fire in South Korea

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 04:

Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn redebuts on Comedy Central

Wednesday 05:

Nature withdraws several papers as a result of the Jan Hendrik Schön scandal.

Tuesday 11:

The International Criminal Court is founded in The Hague.

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.

Sunday 30:

Under cover of darkness, Mayor Richard M. Daley destroys Meigs Field, a general aviation airport in downtown Chicago, Illinois, without giving the required notice to the FAA.

April 2003

Friday 04:

Sammy Sosa becomes the 18th member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Wednesday 09:

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

Sunday 13:

Mike Weir becomes first Canadian and first leftie to win the Masters Tournament

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

Saturday 03:

Funny Cide becomes the first New York-bred horse to win the Kentucky Derby.

Saturday 10:

May 2003 tornado outbreak ends.

Sunday 11:

Benvenuto Cellini's Saliera is stolen from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Friday 30:

The final flight of an Air France Concorde takes place.

Saturday 31:

Bomber Eric Rudolph is captured in Murphy, North Carolina.

June 2003

Sunday 01:

The People's Republic of China begins filling the reservoir behind the massive Three Gorges Dam, raising the water level near the dam over 100 metres.

Wednesday 04:

U.S. lifestyle guru Martha Stewart and her broker are indicted for using privileged investment information and then obstructing a federal investigation. Stewart also resigns as chairperson and chief executive officer of Martha Stewart Living.

Tuesday 10:

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

Monday 16:

The Hatfields and McCoys sign a formal truce.

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.

Sunday 06:

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

Wednesday 23:

Operation Warrior Sweep is the first major military deployment of the Afghan National Army.

Monday 28:

NPR broadcasts the first episode of Day to Day, a one-hour radio newsmagazine

Thursday 31:

WON is shut down.

August 2003

Monday 11:

Jemaah Islamiyah leader Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, is arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.

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.

Wednesday 27:

Mars makes closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing approximately 34,646,416 miles (55,758,006 kilometers) from Earth.

Friday 29:

Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shia Muslim leader in Iraq, is assassinated in a terrorist bombing, along with nearly 100 worshippers as they leave a mosque in Najaf.

September 2003

Thursday 11:

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

Sunday 21:

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

Monday 22:

David Hempleman-Adams becomes the first person to cross the Atlantic Ocean in an open-air, wicker-basket hot air balloon.

Thursday 25:

A magnitude-8.0 earthquake strikes just offshore of Hokkaido, Japan.

Saturday 27:

The Uniterran Church was founded in Victor, NY

October 2003

Saturday 04:

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

Tuesday 07:

California recall: California governor Gray Davis is recalled from office and replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Sunday 12:

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

Wednesday 15:

Ilham Aliyev becomes President of Azerbaijan succeeding his father Heydar Aliyev.

Thursday 23:

George W. Bush addresses a joint sitting of the houses of the Australian Parliament and is shouted down by Green Party senators Kerry Nettle and Bob Brown.

November 2003

Tuesday 04:

The largest-ever solar flare is recorded.

Wednesday 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.

Friday 14:

Planetoid 90377 Sedna is discovered.

Tuesday 18:

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

Wednesday 26:

Last flight of the Concorde.

December 2003

Sunday 07:

The Conservative Party of Canada is officially recognized after the merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.

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.