2004 - What happened in 2004 ?

January 2004

Friday 02:

Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that it will return to Earth two years later.

Saturday 03:

Flight 604, a Boeing 737 owned by Flash Airlines, an Egyptian airliner, plunges into the Red Sea, killing all 148 aboard.

Thursday 08:

Queen Elizabeth names the Queen Mary II cruise liner, the largest passenger ship ever built.

Wednesday 21:

NASA's MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceased communication with mission control. The problem was with Flash Memory management and fixed remotely from Earth on Feb 6th.

Saturday 31:

Mystery Science Theater 3000 ends its run on the Sci-Fi Channel.

February 2004

Sunday 01:

Janet Jackson exposes her breast on American television.

Friday 13:

Travis Metcalfe from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics discovers the universe's largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093.

Wednesday 25:

On Ash Wednesday, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ is released in movie theaters across the United States, grossing approximately $370 million domestically.

Friday 27:

A bombing of a Superferry by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines kills 116, its worst terrorist attack.

Saturday 28:

Over 1 million Taiwanese participating in the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally form a 500-kilometre (300-mile) long human chain to commemorate the 228 Incident in 1947

March 2004

Tuesday 09:

A terrorist attack on a restaurant in Istanbul kills one and injures 5.

Friday 12:

Roh Moo-hyun, President of South Korea is impeached by its national assembly for the first time in the nation's history.

Sunday 14:

Vladimir Putin is re-elected president of Russia, while the PSOE wins elections in Spain just days after terrorist attacks in Madrid.

Friday 19:

Taiwanese president Chen Shui-ban is shot just before the country's presidential election on March 20. See 3-19 Shooting Incident.

Thursday 25:

Air Holland files for bankruptcy in response to unproven allegations of marijuana abuse by their pilots.

April 2004

Friday 02:

Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks attempt a thwarted bombing of the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid.

Tuesday 20:

2004 - In Iraq, 12 mortars were fired on Abu Ghraib Prision by insurgents. 22 detainees were killed and 92 wounded. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-04-20-iraq_x.htm

Thursday 22:

Two fuel trains collide in Ryongchon, North Korea, killing up to 150 people.

Saturday 24:

US lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction.

Thursday 29:

Richard Cheney and George W. Bush testify before the 9/11 Commission in a closed, unrecorded hearing in the Oval Office.

May 2004

Saturday 01:

Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union.

Tuesday 11:

The Stockline Plastics factory explosion in Glasgow kills nine people.

Monday 17:

Same-sex marriage becomes legal in Massachusetts.

Saturday 22:

The U.S. town of Hallam, Nebraska, is wiped out by a powerful F4 tornado that broke a width record at an astounding 2.5 miles wide. It also killed one local resident.

Monday 31:

A foul-up during routine software update at the Royal Bank of Canada leads to a three-day misplacement of 10 million account balances.

June 2004

Tuesday 08:

First Transit of Venus in this millennium.

Friday 11:

Ronald Reagan's funeral held at Washington National Cathedral

Saturday 12:

A 1.3 kg chondrite type meteorite strikes a house in Ellerslie, New Zealand causing serious damage but no injuries.

Sunday 20:

Ken Griffey, Jr. becomes the 20th member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri.

Thursday 24:

Habib Dodo, the general secretary of the Communist Youth of Côte d'Ivoire is assassinated by pro-government forces.

July 2004

Thursday 01:

Saturn Orbit Insertion of Cassini-Huygens begins at 01:12 UT and ends at 02:48 UT.

Saturday 03:

Official opening of Bangkok's subway system.

Monday 05:

Éric Gagné's consecutive baseball saves streak comes to an end at 84 games.

Friday 16:

A fire at a private school in Kumbakonam, India kills over 80 people.

Friday 30:

A gas explosion kills 16 people in Belgium.

August 2004

Friday 13:

156 Congolese Tutsi refugees massacred at the Gatumba refugee camp, in Burundi.

Saturday 14:

Sales tax holiday in Massachusetts. All sales taxes are suspended on purchases of $2500 or less.

Friday 20:

Talk show host Regis Philbin breaks the record for Most Hours on Camera, with 15,188.

Sunday 22:

The Scream, the painting by Edvard Munch, is stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo, Norway.

Tuesday 31:

Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ is released on DVD and VHS in stores across the United States, selling approximately 4.1 million copies by the end of the day.

September 2004

Friday 03:

The Beslan school massacre results in the deaths of approximately 344 teachers and children.

Tuesday 07:

The Serbian government backs a decision by Minister of Education and Sport Ljiljana ?oli? to require the teaching of both creationism and evolution in schools.

Wednesday 08:

The NASA unmanned spacecraft Genesis crash-lands when its parachute fails to open.

Thursday 09:

Friends spin off Joey premieres.

Wednesday 15:

Davíð Oddsson the longest serving Prime Minister of Iceland, steps down after serving in office from 1991, and becomes minister for foreign affairs. At the time he was the longest serving PM in Europe

October 2004

Saturday 02:

American Samoa joins the North American Numbering Plan.

Thursday 07:

King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia abdicates.

Friday 08:

Schapelle Corby is arrested for drugs smuggling in Bali.

Wednesday 27:

Matti Nykänen, once a very successful Finnish ski-jumper, is found guilty of attempt of manslaughter and sentenced to a two year and two month jail term for stabbing a family friend.

Saturday 30:

A 163-metre high radio mast in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK collapses in a fire.

November 2004

Sunday 07:

War in Iraq: The interim government of Iraq calls for a 60-day "state of emergency" as U.S. forces storm the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.

Monday 08:

War in Iraq: More than 10,000 U.S. troops and a small number of Iraqi army units participate in a siege on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.

Tuesday 09:

The Xbox game Halo 2 is released, bringing in US$75 million from pre-orders alone.

Thursday 11:

Mary McAleese inaugurated for a second term as President of Ireland.

Tuesday 16:

X-43A scramjet becomes the fastest air-breathing jet flying at nearly Mach 10 at approx. 11,200 km/h or 3.11 km/s

December 2004

Sunday 12:

Portuguese football team FC Porto wins the last-held Intercontinental Cup against Colombia's Once Caldas in an 8-7 penalty shoot-out.

Monday 13:

Scott Peterson is sentenced to death for murder of his wife, Laci Peterson, and unborn son, Connor.

Tuesday 14:

The Millau viaduct, the highest bridge in the world, is officially opened.

Friday 24:

The 2004 Christmas Eve Snowstorm delivers an extremely unusual snowfall to the southern United States.

Sunday 26:

A massive earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter magnitude scale creates a tsunami causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, The Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean. The death toll is currently estimated at more than 300,000. Officials say the true toll may never be known, due to rapid burials. Indonesia was worst affected with as many as 219,000 people killed.