United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
as the International Year of
Freshwater
Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include non-salty mi ...
Iraq War
The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...
.
Demographics
The
world population
In demographics of the world, world demographics, the world population is the total number of humans currently alive. It was estimated by the United Nations to have exceeded eight billion in mid-November 2022. It took around 300,000 years of h ...
on January 1, 2003, was estimated to be 6.272 billion people and increased to 6.353 billion people by January 1, 2004. An estimated 134.0 million births and 52.5 million deaths took place in 2003. The average global
life expectancy
Human life expectancy is a statistical measure of the estimate of the average remaining years of life at a given age. The most commonly used measure is ''life expectancy at birth'' (LEB, or in demographic notation ''e''0, where '' ...
was 67.1 years, an increase of 0.3 years from 2002. The rate of
child mortality
Child mortality is the death of children under the age of five. The child mortality rate (also under-five mortality rate) refers to the probability of dying between birth and exactly five years of age expressed per 1,000 live births.
It encompa ...
was 6.85%, a decrease of 0.27 pp from 2002. 25.54% of people were living in
extreme poverty
Extreme poverty is the most severe type of poverty, defined by the United Nations (UN) as "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, ...
, a decrease of 1.31pp from 2002.
There were approximately 10.6 million global refugees at the beginning of 2003, and the number was reduced to 9.7 million refugees by the end of the year. Afghanistan was the largest source of refugees, with a total of 2.1 million at the end of the year.
Conflicts
There were 29 armed conflicts affecting 22 countries in 2003. This was a net decrease from 31 conflicts in 2002. The deadliest conflicts were in Iraq,
Kashmir
Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...
, Liberia, Nepal, and Sudan.
Internal conflicts
The
Colombian conflict
The Colombian conflict () began on May 27, 1964, and is a low-intensity asymmetric war between the government of Colombia, far-right paramilitary groups, crime syndicates and far-left guerrilla groups fighting each other to increase their i ...
against two Marxist militant groups—the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army (, FARC–EP or FARC) was a Marxist–Leninist Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian conflict starting in 1964. The FARC-EP was officially founded in ...
and the National Liberation Army—escalated in 2003. The government negotiated an agreement for the right-wing militant group
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia
The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (''Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia'', or AUC, in Spanish) were a Colombian far-right paramilitary and drug trafficking group which was an active belligerent in the Colombian armed conflict during the ...
to disband as a means to deescalate the conflict.
The
First Ivorian Civil War
The First Ivorian Civil War was a Civil war, civil conflict in the Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) that began with a Armed Forces of the Republic of Ivory Coast, military rebellion on 19 September 2002 and ended with a peace agreement on 4 March 20 ...
was halted in 2003 amid a ceasefire while France and the states of
ECOWAS
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS; also known as CEDEAO in French and Portuguese) is a regional political and economic union of twelve countries of West Africa. Collectively, the present and former members comprise an area ...
intervened. Peace talks fell apart on March 7 until the ceasefire was restored on May 3, only to be broken again on September 23. The war was left in a frozen state at the end of 2003 with rebels controlling parts of the country. The
Second Liberian Civil War
The Second Liberian Civil War was a civil war in the West African nation of Liberia that lasted from 1999 to 2003. The war was mainly caused by transition failures after the First Civil War, especially the peace-building process which would res ...
insurgency in Aceh
The insurgency in Aceh, officially designated the Rebellion in Aceh () by the Government of Indonesia, Indonesian government, was a conflict fought by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) between 1976 and 2005, with the goal of making the province of ...
escalated when a demilitarization agreement failed and the government renewed its offensive in May. The
Moro conflict
The Moro conflictFernandez, Maria. (2017). Implementing Peace and Development in the Bangsamoro: Potentials and Constraints of Socio-Economic Programs for Conflict-Affected Areas in Southern Philippines (1913-2015). 10.13140/RG.2.2.14829.3376 ...
in the Philippines deescalated when the Philippine government agreed to peace talks with the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF; ) is an Islamist group based in Mindanao, Philippines, which sought an autonomous region of the Moro people from the central government. The group has a presence in the Bangsamoro region of Mindanao, t ...
in July, though conflicts with other groups continued.
The Sri Lankan Civil War continued in 2003 as peace talks failed, and long-running civil wars in Burundi and in Uganda both escalated. The
Second Sudanese Civil War
The Second Sudanese Civil War was a conflict from 1983 to 2005 between the central Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement, Sudan People's Liberation Army. It was largely a continuation of the First Sudanese Civil Wa ...
escalated as new militant groups joined the conflict, though a security agreement was reached between the
National Islamic Front
The National Islamic Front (NIF; ; transliterated: ''al-Jabhah al-Islamiyah al-Qawmiyah'') was an Islamist political organization founded in 1976 and led by Dr. Hassan al-Turabi that influenced the Sudanese government starting in 1979, and d ...
and the
Sudan People's Liberation Movement
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM; , ''Al-Ḥarakat ash-Shaʿbiyyat liTaḥrīr as-Sūdān'') is a political party in South Sudan. It was initially founded as the political wing of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA; a key belli ...
on September 25. The
Second Chechen War
Names
The Second Chechen War is also known as the Second Chechen Campaign () or the Second Russian Invasion of Chechnya from the Chechens, Chechen insurgents' point of view.Федеральный закон № 5-ФЗ от 12 января 19 ...
continued in Russia: the Russian government held a referendum for a new Chechen constitution and offered amnesty for Chechen rebels, but terror attacks continued.
International conflicts
Only two inter-state conflicts took place in 2003: the
Iraq War
The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...
and the
Kashmir conflict
The Kashmir conflict is a territorial conflict over the Kashmir region, primarily between India and Pakistan, and also between China and India in the northeastern portion of the region. The conflict started after the partition of India in 1 ...
. The Kashmir conflict saw progress toward resolution in 2003 as negotiations began and a ceasefire took effect on November 23. A coalition of countries led by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia led an
invasion of Iraq
An invasion is a military offensive of combatants of one geopolitical entity, usually in large numbers, entering territory controlled by another similar entity, often involving acts of aggression.
Generally, invasions have objectives ...
beginning on March 20, warning that Iraq had been operating a program to develop
weapons of mass destruction
A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a Biological agent, biological, chemical weapon, chemical, Radiological weapon, radiological, nuclear weapon, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill or significantly harm many people or cause great dam ...
. The subsequent Iraq War became the most publicized conflict in 2003. The coalition quickly defeated the
Iraqi Armed Forces
The Iraqi Armed Forces are the military forces of the Iraq, Republic of Iraq. They consist of the Iraqi Army, Ground forces, the Iraqi Army Aviation Command, Army Aviation Command, the Iraqi Air Force, the Iraqi Air Defence Command, Air Defence ...
, and American president
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
gave a speech on May 1 declaring victory in the war. The subsequent Iraqi insurgency proved more deadly than the invasion by the end of the year. By this time, doubts were raised about whether Iraq had been developing the weapons of which it was accused.
Al-Qaeda
, image = Flag of Jihad.svg
, caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions
, founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden
, leaders = {{Plainlist,
* Osama bin Lad ...
remained active, launching suicide bombings in Afghanistan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. On September 10, its leaders
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden (10 March 19572 May 2011) was a militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, Bin Laden participated in the Afghan ''mujahideen'' against the Soviet Union, and support ...
and
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri (; 19 June 195131 July 2022) was an Egyptian-born pan-Islamism, pan-Islamist militant and physician who served as the second general emir of al-Qaeda from June 2011 until Killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri, his dea ...
released their first video statement since 2001, celebrating the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
. Al-Qaeda figures
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (sometimes also spelled Shaykh; also known by at least 50 pseudonyms; born 14 April 1965), often known by his initials KSM, is a terrorist, and the former head of propaganda for the pan-Islamist militant group al-Qaeda. He ...
and Riduan Isamuddin were captured in March and August, respectively.
The
Second Intifada
The Second Intifada (; ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a major uprising by Palestinians against Israel and its Israeli-occupied territories, occupation from 2000. Starting as a civilian uprising in Jerusalem and October 2000 prot ...
continued into 2003 as conflict between Israel and Palestine killed 400 people in suicide bombings by Palestinians and military strikes by the
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...
. Israel constructed the West Bank barrier, which it described as a measure to prevent suicide bombings and Palestine described as a measure to impose segregation.
Culture
Art and architecture
The most widely publicized art exhibition in 2003 was the 50th
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...
. The most popular exhibitions were for
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
where they attracted thousands of visitors each day. The "Rembrandt's Journey" collected various
Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...
works, including etchings and drawings, at the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...
National Museum of Iran
The National Museum of Iran ( ) in Tehran hosts some of the world's most important monuments dating back through preserved ancient and medieval Iranian antiquities. It is an institution formed of two museums; the Museum of Ancient Iran and the ...
Andrea Mantegna
Andrea Mantegna (, ; ; September 13, 1506) was an Italian Renaissance painter, a student of Ancient Rome, Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini.
Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with Perspective (graphical), pe ...
artwork to be sold in 2003, going for US$28.6 million.
Street photography
Street photography is photography conducted for art or inquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within Public space, public places. It usually has the aim of capturing images at a decisive or poignant moment by caref ...
made a return in the art community, and the
International Center of Photography
The International Center of Photography (ICP) is a photography museum and school at 84 Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. ICP's photographic collection, reading room, and archives are at Mana Contemporary in Jer ...
held an exhibition on the subject.
The Amber Room of
Catherine Palace
The Catherine Palace (, ) is a Rococo palace in Tsarskoye Selo ( Pushkin), located south of St. Petersburg, Russia. It was the summer residence of the Russian tsars. The palace is part of the World Heritage Site Saint Petersburg and Re ...
, which existed from 1717 to 1945, finished reconstruction in 2003. The Albertina art museum in Vienna reopened, and the
Asian Civilisations Museum
The Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) is an institution which forms a part of the four museums in Singapore, the other three being the Peranakan Museum, the National Museum of Singapore and the Singapore Art Museum.
It is one of the pioneerin ...
was established in Singapore. The government of the Netherlands began returning items from its collection of works it acquired from
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
David Childs
David Magie Childs (April 1, 1941 – March 26, 2025) was an American architect and chairman of the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. He was the architect of record for One World Trade Center in New York City, which became the Wes ...
and
Daniel Libeskind
Daniel Libeskind (born May 12, 1946) is a Polish–American architect, artist, professor and set designer. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and is its principal design architect.
He is known for the design a ...
were placed in charge of the project. An inquiry was opened into the ongoing construction of the
Scottish Parliament Building
The Scottish Parliament Building (; ) is the home of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood, within the World Heritage Site, UNESCO World Heritage Site in central Edinburgh. Construction of the building commenced in June 1999 ...
when its expected cost increased tenfold. The Walt Disney Concert Hall opened in Los Angeles to positive reception after sixteen years of development.The Gherkin finished construction in London and the Silodam housing complex opened in Amsterdam. Construction of the new Olympic Stadium of Athens went slower than expected, causing concern that Athens would not be ready to host the
2004 Summer Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece.
The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...
.
Museums and libraries were looted during riots in
Baghdad
Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...
following the invasion of Iraq. About 10,000 items were taken from the
Iraq Museum
The Iraq Museum () is the national museum of Iraq, located in Baghdad. It is sometimes informally called the National Museum of Iraq. The Iraq Museum contains precious relics from the Mesopotamian, Abbasid, and Persian civilizations. It was loo ...
, though many were returned by the end of the year, and several items were taken from the Mosul Museum. The Iraq National Library and Archive was burned down, destroying 500,000 books and 12 million Ottoman documents. The lost treasure of Tillya Tepe was found in Saddam Hussein's position.
Finding Nemo
''Finding Nemo'' is a 2003 American animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Andrew Stanton, co-directed by Lee Unkrich, and produced by Graham Walters, from ...
'', and ''
The Matrix Reloaded
''The Matrix Reloaded'' is a 2003 American science fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis. It is the sequel to ''The Matrix'' (1999) and the second installment in the ''Matrix'' film series. The film stars Keanu Reeves, L ...
''. The highest-grossing non-English film was '' Bayside Shakedown 2'' (Japanese), the 39th highest-grossing film of the year. Critically acclaimed films from 2003 include ''Finding Nemo'', '' Lost in Translation'', and ''Master and Commander''.
Music sales in 2003 amounted to about 2.7 billion units, a decline of 6.5% from 2002.
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
music video thrived in 2003 at the expense of singles and cassettes. CD sales overall saw a large decline in favor of internet downloads. Globally, the best-selling albums of the year were ''
Come Away with Me
''Come Away with Me'' is the debut studio album by American recording artist Norah Jones, released on February 26, 2002, by Blue Note Records. Recording sessions took place at Sorcerer Sound Studio in New York City and Allaire Studios in Sh ...
'' by
Norah Jones
Norah Jones ( ; born Geethali Shankar; March 30, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She has won several awards for her music and, , has sold more than 53 million records worldwide. '' Billboard'' named her the top jazz artist of ...
, ''
Get Rich or Die Tryin'
''Get Rich or Die Tryin'' is the debut studio album by American rapper 50 Cent. It was released on February 6, 2003, by Interscope Records, Eminem's Shady Records, Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment, and 50 Cent's G-Unit Records. After si ...
'' by
50 Cent
Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, and television producer. Born in Queens, a borough of New York City, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 1996. In 1999–2000, ...
Linkin Park
Linkin Park is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Agoura Hills, California, in 1996. The band's current lineup consists of vocalist/rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Mike Shinoda, lead guitarist Brad Delson, DJ/turntablist Joe Hahn, bass ...
. No non-English albums were among the global top fifty albums sold in 2003.
When decentralized
peer-to-peer file sharing
Peer-to-peer file sharing is the distribution and sharing of digital media using peer-to-peer (P2P) networking technology. P2P file sharing allows users to access media files such as books, music, movies, and games using a P2P software program th ...
replaced the centralized platform
Napster
Napster was an American proprietary peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing application primarily associated with digital audio file distribution. Founded by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, the platform originally launched on June 1, 1999. Audio shared ...
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
began directing legal action against individual users who uploaded pirated songs rather than the platforms themselves, filing a total of 382 lawsuits. The iTunes Store launched on April 28 and was immediately successful, selling over 10 million songs over the next four months. This was touted as a possible solution to music piracy.
The
GameCube
The is a PowerPC-based home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the suc ...
,
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...
, and
Xbox
Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...
remained the most popular video game consoles, although the GameCube faced poor sales.
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...
introduced the N-Gage, which functioned as both a phone and a
handheld game console
A handheld game console, or simply handheld console, is a small, portable self-contained video game console with a built-in screen, game controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are smaller than home video game consoles and contain the con ...
.
The popularity of the ''
Harry Potter
''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven Fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...
'' franchise meant that the publication of '' Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'' was the largest literary event in 2003, with the book itself becoming one of the longest children's books ever published at 768 pages.
Composer
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''. , group=n ( – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who l ...
was honored in many performances throughout the world for the 50th anniversary of his death. Ballet dancer
Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev (17 March 19386 January 1993) was a Soviet-born ballet dancer and choreographer. Nureyev is widely regarded as the preeminent male ballet dancer of his generation as well as one of the greatest ballet dancers of all ...
was similarly honored in Europe for the 10th anniversary of his death. The opera industry was negatively affected by a decline in tourism and other economic factors in Europe and North America, and many productions were canceled.
Through the internet, flash mobs developed as a social trend in 2003.
Sports
The
England national rugby union team
The England national rugby union team represents the Rugby Football Union (RFU) in international rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France national rugby union team, France, Ireland national rugby union team, ...
won the
2003 Rugby World Cup
The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup and was won by England national rugby union team, England. Originally planned to be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispu ...
, making them the first
Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined by humans as being in the same celestial sphere, celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the Solar ...
team to do so. Australia won the 2003 Cricket World Cup, coming out victorious in every match they played, while Kenya had upset victories that took them to the semi-finals. In tennis, players
Roger Federer
Roger Federer ( , ; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 3 ...
,
Andy Roddick
Andrew Stephen Roddick (born August 30, 1982) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 13 weeks, including as the year-end No. 1 in ...
, and
Juan Carlos Ferrero
Juan Carlos Ferrero Donat (; born 12 February 1980) is a Spanish former professional tennis player and current coach. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Pro ...
Martina Navratilova
Martina Navratilova (, ; ; born October18, 1956) is a Czech-American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, singles for 332 weeks (List of WTA number ...
tied with the record of twenty
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* W ...
titles set by
Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King (née Moffitt; born November 22, 1943), also known as BJK, is an American former World number 1 ranked female tennis players, world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in w ...
.
Lennox Lewis
Lennox Claudius Lewis (born 2 September 1965) is a British-Canadian boxing commentator and former professional boxer who competed in the heavyweight division from 1989 to 2003. He was a three-time world champion, a two-time lineal champion, ...
Vitali Klitschko
Vitalii Volodymyrovych Klychko (; ; born 19 July 1971), known as Vitali Klitschko, is a Ukrainian politician and former professional boxer. He serves as mayor of Kyiv,
The transfer of footballer
David Beckham
Sir David Robert Joseph Beckham ( ; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City. Primarily a right winger and known for his range of passing, cross ...
from
Manchester United F.C.
Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. They compete in the Premier League, t ...
to
Real Madrid CF
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...
for £17.25 million was widely publicized. The
UEFA Euro 2004
The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football competition contested by the List of men's national associatio ...
qualifications took place in 2003, where Turkey's defeat in a game against Latvia came as an upset after Turkey had been semi-finalists in the
2002 FIFA World Cup
The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...
. Other major upsets took place in golf when Ben Curtis defeated some of the sport's top players in his first major competition at the 2003 Open Championship, and in
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
when the
Florida Marlins
The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. The team plays its home games at LoanDepot Park.
The ...
defeated the
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...
in the
2003 World Series
The 2003 World Series (also known as the Centennial World Series) was the World Series, championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2003 Major League Baseball season, 2003 season. The 99th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-s ...
.
The
2003 World Championships in Athletics
The 9th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held from 23 August to 31 August 2003 in the streets of Paris and the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, F ...
saw Hicham El Guerrouj become the fourth man to win four successive world track titles and Carolina Klüft become the first woman in seven years to score more than 7,000 points in the
heptathlon
A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek ἑπτά (hepta, meaning "seven") and ἄθλος (áthlos, or ἄθλον, áthlon, meaning "competition"). A competitor in a hep ...
. Athletics was plagued with the discovery of THG steroids, which the United States accused the
Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative
The Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) was an American company that operated from 1983 to 2003 led by founder and owner Victor Conte.
In 2003, journalists Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada investigated the company's role in a drug s ...
of providing to athletes.
Michael Schumacher
Michael Schumacher (; born 3 January 1969) is a German former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to and from to . Schumacher won a record-setting seven Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, tied by Lewis Hamilton in ...
remained the dominant driver in the
2003 Formula One World Championship
The 2003 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 57th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 2003 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 2003 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contes ...
, winning 11 of 17 races and claiming his sixth championship.
Lance Armstrong
Lance Edward Armstrong (''né'' Gunderson; born September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road bicycle racing, road racing cyclist. He achieved international fame for winning the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times fro ...
The global economy was weak in the first half of 2003 as uncertainty arose from Middle Eastern conflict, the spread of
SARS
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory disease of zoonotic origin caused by the virus SARS-CoV-1, the first identified strain of the SARS-related coronavirus. The first known cases occurred in November 2002, and the ...
, and major corporate scandals in 2002. It improved in the second half of the year as it recovered from the
early 2000s recession
The early 2000s recession was a major decline in economic activity which mainly occurred in developed countries. The recession affected the European Union during 2000 and 2001 and the United States from March to November 2001. The United King ...
, brought about by low
interest rates
An interest rate is the amount of interest due per period, as a proportion of the amount lent, deposited, or borrowed (called the principal sum). The total interest on an amount lent or borrowed depends on the principal sum, the interest rate, ...
and expansionary fiscal policy. The United States led the recovery, while China and Japan also made significant contributions. The economic situation improved in Latin America and Africa, while Western Europe saw slower recovery. The
Eurozone
The euro area, commonly called the eurozone (EZ), is a Monetary union, currency union of 20 Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (Euro sign, €) as their primary currency ...
had a GDP low growth of 0.5%. Argentina emerged from its economic crisis after four years, reaching the year's highest GDP in the Western Hemisphere with 7% growth.
The
gross world product
The gross world product (GWP), also known as gross world income (GWI), is the combined gross national income (previously, the "gross national product") of all the countries in the world. Because imports and exports balance exactly when consider ...
increased by 2.5% in 2003, and
international trade
International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (See: World economy.)
In most countries, such trade represents a significan ...
increased by 4.75%. The prices of non-fuel commodities, such as metal, minerals, and agricultural materials, increased during the year. The price of gold rose following conflict in the Middle East. The Italian food company
Parmalat
Parmalat S.p.A. is an Italian dairy and food corporation which is a subsidiary of French multinational company Lactalis. It was founded by Calisto Tanzi in 1961.
Having become the leading global company in the production of long-life milk us ...
and the Dutch supermarket company Ahold were the subjects of major corporate scandals in 2003. These were among a series of corporate corruption scandals over the previous years that led the United States and a coalition of European countries to reform their policies on the matter.
Environment and weather
2003 tied with
2002
The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...
as the second hottest year on record, behind only
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...
. The year began during an
El Niño
EL, El or el may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Fictional entities
* El, a character from the manga series ''Shugo Chara!'' by Peach-Pit
* Eleven (''Stranger Things'') (El), a fictional character in the TV series ''Stranger Things''
* El, fami ...
period that continued until April. A major heatwave occurred in Europe during the summer, causing approximately 70,000 deaths, 14,000 in France alone. Severe cold weather affected Asia, North America, and Peru. 2003 saw low precipitation, causing droughts in Australia, the United States, and Zimbabwe. The previous year's droughts in Asia were alleviated by heavy precipitation in the region.
Several reports were published in 2003 forecasting severe negative effects of
global warming
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...
. The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to "provide governments at all levels with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies". The World Met ...
determined that approximately one million species risked extinction if no preventative measures were implemented, and the
World Wide Fund for Nature
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named th ...
determined that the fresh water access of 7 billion people would be at risk by 2050 because of global warming and other causes. Reports also warned about the potential destruction of the
Amazon rainforest
The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...
and provided evidence that widespread destruction of coral was taking place. The 3000-year-old Arctic Ward Hunt Ice Shelf split in September, draining the lake that it had held in place, though global warming was not the primary factor in its destruction. The oil company BP was the subject of scrutiny when one of its well-heads exploded in Alaska. The sinking of Soviet submarine K-159 caused worries about leakage of its spent nuclear fuel, but no such leakage was found.
Major earthquakes in 2003 included a magnitude 6.8 earthquake in Algeria on May 21 that killed over 2,200 people and a magnitude 6.6 earthquake in Iran on December 26 that killed about 50,000 people.
The 2003 Atlantic hurricane season was above average in activity, including sixteen named storms of which seven were hurricanes. The most severe hurricanes were Hurricane Fabian,
Hurricane Isabel
Hurricane Isabel was a Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that struck the east coast of the United States in September 2003. The ninth named storm, fifth hurricane, and second major hurricane of the season, Isabel formed in the eastern Atlantic ...
, and Hurricane Kate. Tropical Storm Ana was the first recorded North Atlantic tropical storm to occur in April, and 2003 was the first year since 1887 to have two tropical storms occur in December. The 2003 Pacific typhoon season was slightly more intense than average, though the overall number of tropical storms was below average with 23 total storms. The most destructive typhoons were Typhoon Dujuan, which made landfall in
Guangdong
) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
designed to prevent the city's perpetual flooding. China began use of the
Three Gorges Dam
The Three Gorges Dam (), officially known as Yangtze River Three Gorges Water Conservancy Project () is a hydroelectric gravity dam that spans the Yangtze River near Sandouping in Yiling District, Yichang, Hubei province, central China, downs ...
along the
Yangtze
The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...
. The overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq ended his project to construct a dam that would have flooded the ruins of
Assur
Aššur (; AN.ŠAR2KI, Assyrian cuneiform: ''Aš-šurKI'', "City of God Aššur"; ''Āšūr''; ''Aθur'', ''Āšūr''; ', ), also known as Ashur and Qal'at Sherqat, was the capital of the Old Assyrian city-state (2025–1364 BC), the Midd ...
.
Health
The
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...
set "shaping the future" as its health focus for 2003, seeking to improve health systems and
primary health care
Primary health care (PHC) is a whole-of-society approach to effectively organise and strengthen national health systems to bring services for health and wellbeing closer to communities.
Primary health care enables health systems to support a pe ...
for the poor. It adopted its first international agreement, the
WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) is a treaty adopted by the 56th World Health Assembly held in Geneva, Switzerland on 21 May 2003. It became the first World Health Organization treaty adopted under ...
. Global food production increased from 2002 but fell short of the amount produced in 2001. Much of southern Africa was dependent on
food aid
Humanitarian aid is material and logistic assistance, usually in the short-term, to people in need. Among the people in need are the homeless, refugees, and victims of natural disasters, wars, and famines. The primary objective of humanitarian ...
early in the year following drought-related crop failures in 2002.
SARS
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory disease of zoonotic origin caused by the virus SARS-CoV-1, the first identified strain of the SARS-related coronavirus. The first known cases occurred in November 2002, and the ...
became a major health concern by April following the spread of
SARS-CoV-1
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 1 (SARS-CoV-1), previously known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), is a strain (biology), strain of coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the ...
. Fearing a pandemic, the
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...
issued a recommendation to avoid non-essential travel to
Guangdong
) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...
and
Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
. The spread ended with fewer than 800 deaths. Cases of
monkeypox
Mpox (, ; formerly known as monkeypox) is an infectious viral disease that can occur in humans and other animals. Symptoms include a rash that forms blisters and then crusts over, fever, and lymphadenopathy, swollen lymph nodes. The illness ...
occurred in the Western Hemisphere for the first time when 28 prairie dogs infected with the monkeypox virus were imported to Wisconsin.
Avian influenza
Avian influenza, also known as avian flu or bird flu, is a disease caused by the influenza A virus, which primarily affects birds but can sometimes affect mammals including humans. Wild aquatic birds are the primary host of the influenza A viru ...
spread to poultry in Europe, and a human case was diagnosed in Hong Kong, leading to the patient's death. Two instances of
bovine spongiform encephalopathy
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is an incurable and always fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle. Symptoms include abnormal behavior, trouble walking, and weight loss. Later in the course of th ...
was diagnosed in cows in Canada and the United States.
Several treatments for cancer were tested or approved in 2003, including
Avastin
Bevacizumab, sold under the brand name Avastin among others, is a monoclonal antibody medication used to treat a number of types of cancers and a specific eye disease. For cancer, it is given by slow injection into a vein (intravenous) and use ...
HIV/AIDS
The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...
prevention included the unsuccessful AIDSVAX vaccine by VaxGen and the beginning of trials for
enfuvirtide
Enfuvirtide (International Nonproprietary Name, INN), sold under the brand name Fuzeon, is an HIV fusion inhibitor, the first of a class of antiretroviral drugs used in combination therapy for the treatment of AIDS/HIV.
Medical uses
Enfuvirti ...
. The RTS,S malaria vaccine began trials for children in Mozambique after it was shown to be safe for adults in several nations, while human trials began in the United States for an Ebola vaccine.
Several studies were published in 2003 warning of health effects for
hormone replacement therapy
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT), also known as menopausal hormone therapy or postmenopausal hormone therapy, is a form of hormone therapy used to treat symptoms associated with female menopause. Effects of menopause can include symptoms such ...
in
postmenopausal
Menopause, also known as the climacteric, is the time when menstrual periods permanently stop, marking the end of the reproductive stage for the female human. It typically occurs between the ages of 45 and 55, although the exact timing can ...
women, causing fear around the procedure. Analysis of retroviral
gene therapy
Gene therapy is Health technology, medical technology that aims to produce a therapeutic effect through the manipulation of gene expression or through altering the biological properties of living cells.
The first attempt at modifying human DNA ...
for
severe combined immunodeficiency
Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), also known as Swiss-type agammaglobulinemia, is a rare genetic disorder characterized by the disturbed development of functional T cells and B cells caused by numerous genetic mutations that result in diff ...
found that its life-threatening side effects were caused by the retrovirus affecting the
LMO2
LIM domain only 2 (rhombotin-like 1), also known as LMO2, RBTNL1, RBTN2, RHOM2, LIM Domain Only Protein 2, TTG2, and T-Cell Translocation Protein 2, is a protein which in humans is encoded by the ''LMO2'' gene.
Structure
LMO2 is characterized ...
gene. Study of
bone marrow
Bone marrow is a semi-solid biological tissue, tissue found within the Spongy bone, spongy (also known as cancellous) portions of bones. In birds and mammals, bone marrow is the primary site of new blood cell production (or haematopoiesis). It i ...
cells cast doubt on
cellular differentiation
Cellular differentiation is the process in which a stem cell changes from one type to a differentiated one. Usually, the cell changes to a more specialized type. Differentiation happens multiple times during the development of a multicellula ...
cell fusion Cell fusion is an important cellular process in which several uninucleate cells (cells with a single nucleus) combine to form a multinucleate cell, known as a syncytium. Cell fusion occurs during differentiation of myoblasts, osteoclasts and ...
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland that regulates and facilitates international trade. Governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that g ...
in September resulted in a dispute between nations that cast doubts on whether the agreements of the
Doha Development Round
The Doha Development Round or Doha Development Agenda (DDA) is the trade-negotiation round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which commenced in November 2001 under then director-general Mike Moore. Its objective was to lower trade barriers ...
were sustainable. Developing nations alleged that their input was being excluded by Western powers. The use of farming subsidies, particularly by Europe, Japan, and the United States, was challenged here because of their effect on developing nations. This dispute led to the creation of the G-21 (later the
G20 developing nations
The G20 developing nations (and, occasionally, the G21, G23 or G20+) is a trade bloc, bloc of developing country, developing nations established on 20 August 2003. Distinct and separate from the G20 major economies, the group emerged at the 5th ...
).
Ten European countries signed accession agreements in April that would make them members of the European Union in May 2004. Several free trade areas were proposed or negotiated in 2003, including separate zones for the
Andean Community
The Andean Community (, CAN) is a free trade area with the objective of creating a customs union comprising the South American countries (Andean states) of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. The trade bloc was called the Andean Pact until 1 ...
,
ASEAN
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations,
commonly abbreviated as ASEAN, is a regional grouping of 10 states in Southeast Asia "that aims to promote economic and security cooperation among its ten members." Together, its member states r ...
, Central America, the
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional organization, regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an ar ...
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is the regional intergovernmental organization and geopolitical union of states in South Asia. Its member states are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, ...
, and the Western Hemisphere's
Free Trade Area of the Americas
The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA, , ALCA, Portuguese: ''Área de Livre Comércio das Américas'', ALCA, French: Zone de libre-échange des Amériques, ZLEA) was a proposed agreement to eliminate or reduce the trade barriers among all ...
. Some of these were conditional on political reform and democratization.
Liberian president Charles Taylor fled the country on August 1 and was replaced by
Gyude Bryant
Charles Gyude Bryant (17 January 1949 – 16 April 2014) was a Liberian politician and businessman. He served as the Chairman of the Transitional Government of Liberia from 14 October 2003 to 16 January 2006. The installation of the transitional ...
, a compromise between the different factions of the Liberian Civil War, on October 14.
North Korea became the first nation to withdraw from the
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperatio ...
, and on February 6 it announced the restoration of its nuclear weapons program. Several nations engaged in tenuous negotiations with North Korea throughout the year, but no agreements were made. Iran announced its own nuclear program in violation of its agreement with the
International Atomic Energy Agency
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology, nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was ...
, disclosing this as an attempt to avoid sanctions.A series of protests took place in
Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
following the implementation of laws by China that limited the rights of the Hongkongers.
Russian businessman
Mikhail Khodorkovsky
Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky (, ; born 26 June 1963), sometimes known by his initials MBK, is an exiled Russian businessman, Russian oligarchs, oligarch, and Russian opposition, opposition activist, now residing in London. In 2003, Khodork ...
was arrested on October 27 in what was seen internationally as political persecution by the government to exercise control over
Russian oligarchs
Russian oligarchs () are business oligarchs of the former Soviet republics who rapidly accumulated wealth in the 1990s via the Russian privatisation that followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The failing Soviet state left the ownershi ...
.
The leader of Libya,
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi (20 October 2011) was a Libyan military officer, revolutionary, politician and political theorist who ruled Libya from 1969 until Killing of Muammar Gaddafi, his assassination by Libyan Anti-Gaddafi ...
, admitted fault in the 1988 downing of
Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103 (PA103/PAA103) was a regularly scheduled Pan Am transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to Detroit via a stopover in London and another in New York City. Shortly after 19:00 on 21 December 1988, the Boeing 747 "Clipper Maid of th ...
and offered reparations to the victims' family members, prompting the United States to petition for the removal of international sanctions against Libya. He also agreed to end any plans for a nuclear weapons program in Libya as scrutiny of nuclear programs around the world increased.
Serbian prime minister
Zoran Đinđić
Zoran Đinđić ( sr-Cyrl, Зоран Ђинђић, ; 1 August 1952 – 12 March 2003) was a Serbian politician and philosopher who served as the Prime Minister of Serbia, prime minister of Serbia from 2001 until Assassination of Zoran Đinđić, ...
was assassinated on March 12, prompting a crackdown on a criminal organization that supported former dictator
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević ( sr-Cyrl, Слободан Милошевић, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the President of Serbia between 1989 and 1997 and President of the Federal Republic of Yugos ...
, whom Đinđić had ousted.
The secular
Shinui
Shinui () was a Zionist, secular, and anti-clerical free market Liberalism worldwide, liberal party and political movement in Israel. The party twice became the third-largest in the Knesset, but both occasions were followed by a split and collaps ...
party gained influence in Israel following a public debate on the role of Judaism in Israeli politics.
International law
The American-led invasion of Iraq dominated discourse around international law and sparked debate about when such actions are justified. Military intervention was supported by countries such as Australia, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and much of Eastern Europe, while its strongest opponents included China, France, Germany, and Russia. The United States argued that it was legally authorized under
United Nations Security Council Resolution 678
United Nations Security Council Resolution 678 was adopted on 29 November 1990. After reaffirming resolutions 660, 661, 662, 664, 665, 666, 667, 669, 670, 674 and 677 (all 1990), the council noted that despite all the United Nations e ...
(1990), as well as Resolution 687 (1991) and Resolution 1441 (2002). This was challenged on the basis that Resolution 678 could no longer be assumed to apply and that the Security Council had not affirmed Iraq was in violation of its order. The Iraqi president
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...
went into hiding as the invasion took place, but he was discovered and arrested six months later.
The
International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice (ICJ; , CIJ), or colloquially the World Court, is the only international court that Adjudication, adjudicates general disputes between nations, and gives advisory opinions on International law, internation ...
(ICJ) accepted two new cases in 2003: a border dispute case between Malaysia and Singapore and a dispute over the United States' application of the death penalty against Mexican nationals. It declined to impose any provisional measures in an ongoing case regarding France's claim of universal criminal jurisdiction. The
United Nations General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; , AGNU or AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its Seventy-ninth session of th ...
requested an
advisory opinion
An advisory opinion of a court or other government authority, such as an election commission, is a decision or opinion of the body but which is non-binding in law and does not have the effect of adjudicating a specific legal case, but which merely ...
from the ICJ regarding the construction of the West Bank barrier by Israel. A case filed by Libya against the United Kingdom and the United States regarding the 1988 downing of Pan Am Flight 103 was settled outside of court. The ICJ ruled in the ''Oil Platforms'' case that American force was not justified in the 1987 attacks on Iranian oil platforms but that it had not broken the 1955 treaty as Iran alleged. It rejected appeals of a 1992 border dispute between El Salvador and Honduras and a 1996 decision that the ICJ had jurisdiction in Yugoslavia at the time.
The
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an intergovernmental organization and International court, international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute ...
was inaugurated in March, and the UN Security Council granted the United States a one-year extension of its exemption for American UN Peacekeepers.
The UN Security Council determined that two separate prosecutors should be appointed for the criminal tribunals for Rwanda and for Yugoslavia instead of keeping them under a single prosecutor. The tribunal for Rwanda confirmed the conviction of Georges Rutaganda, and it convicted Elizaphan Ntakirutimana as the first of several clerics it was prosecuting. It also sentenced several journalists to prison for their role in the
Rwandan genocide
The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, occurred from 7 April to 19 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. Over a span of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Gre ...
, marking the first conviction of
crimes against humanity
Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as ...
for journalists since the
Nuremberg trials #REDIRECT Nuremberg trials
{{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from move ...
. The tribunal for Yugoslavia sentenced Biljana Plavšić to 11 years in prison and Milomir Stakić to 20 years for crimes against humanity, while
Stanislav Galić Stanislav Galić (Serbian Cyrillic: Станислав Галић; born 12 March 1943) is a Bosnian Serb soldier and former commander of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) during the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina. ...
was convicted of terrorism for attacks on civilians in the Siege of Sarajevo. Terms for the creation of a
Khmer Rouge Tribunal
The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC; ; ), commonly known as the Cambodia Tribunal or Khmer Rouge Tribunal (), was a court established to try the senior leaders and the most responsible members of the Khmer Rouge for alle ...
United Nations Convention Against Corruption
The United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) is the only legally binding international anti-corruption multilateral treaty. Negotiated by UN member states, member states of the United Nations (UN) it was adopted by the UN General Ass ...
opened for signing on December 9.
Religion
A week of celebrations were held in
Vatican City
Vatican City, officially the Vatican City State (; ), is a Landlocked country, landlocked sovereign state and city-state; it is enclaved within Rome, the capital city of Italy and Bishop of Rome, seat of the Catholic Church. It became inde ...
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005.
In his you ...
. The events included the
beatification
Beatification (from Latin , "blessed" and , "to make") is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. ''Beati'' is the p ...
of
Mother Teresa
Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, ; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa or Saint Mother Teresa, was an Albanian-Indian Catholic Church, Roman Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of ...
. John Paul II became the first pope to enter a mosque when he visited the
Umayyad Mosque
The Umayyad Mosque (; ), also known as the Great Mosque of Damascus, located in the old city of Damascus, the capital of Syria, is one of the largest and oldest mosques in the world. Its religious importance stems from the eschatological reports ...
in
Damascus
Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
Anglican Communion
The Anglican Communion is a Christian Full communion, communion consisting of the Church of England and other autocephalous national and regional churches in full communion. The archbishop of Canterbury in England acts as a focus of unity, ...
was embroiled in debate about its stance on homosexuality when the liberal archbishop
Rowan Williams
Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth (born 14 June 1950) is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet, who served as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012. Previously the Bishop of Monmouth and Archbishop of W ...
was made
Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...
on February 27 and expressed interest in reforming the policy against it. Jeffrey John was nominated as Bishop of Reading in May, but his relationship with a man caused controversy and prompted him to decline. A similar debate took place regarding divorce when the divorced canon
Gene Robinson
Vicky Gene Robinson (born May 29, 1947) is a retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. Robinson was elected Coadjutor bishop, bishop coadjutor in 2003 and succeeded as bishop diocesan in March 2004. Before becoming bishop, he se ...
was made Bishop of New Hampshire on November 2.
Many saw the American-led invasion of Iraq was seen as an attack on Islam. Organized efforts were made by political and religious leaders in the Muslim world to differentiate typical Islam from extremism. Religious strife occurred in Saudi Arabia where
Wahhabi
Wahhabism is an exonym for a Salafi revivalist movement within Sunni Islam named after the 18th-century Hanbali scholar Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. It was initially established in the central Arabian region of Najd and later spread to other ...
Muslims supported stricter application of Islamic law—some engaging in civil unrest and suicide bombings—while other denominations spoke in favor of tolerance for minority religions and women. French society and the French government, especially within the National Front, took a hostile approach toward Muslims in 2003. A proposal was made to ban religious attire in schools, while at the same time the country's first Muslim-run school was opened in
Lille
Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...
.
Controversy erupted in the Hindu world after the reprint of ''Ganesa: Lord of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings'' by Paul Courtright and the publication of ''Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India'' by James Laine. Both of these books were seen as offensive by some Hindu groups, causing the writers and publishers to receive threats and harassment.
Judaism was marked with disputes between different sects, both in Israel and the United Kingdom. Israel debated whether
Haredi Jews
Haredi Judaism (, ) is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that is characterized by its strict interpretation of religious sources and its accepted (Jewish law) and traditions, in opposition to more accommodating values and practices. Its members are ...
should be allowed to retain exemptions to certain laws. The British Masorti Rabbi Louis Jacobs was not permitted in an Orthodox ceremony for his granddaughter's marriage on the orders of the '' beth din'' in London, reigniting the Jacobs Affair of the 1960s.
Science
Archaeology
The 2002 discovery of the
James Ossuary
The James Ossuary is a 1st-century limestone box that was used for containing the bones of the dead. An Aramaic inscription reading "Jacob (James), son of Joseph, brother of Yeshua" in translation is cut into one side of the box. The ossuary attra ...
, the suspected resting place of
James, brother of Jesus
James the Just, or a variation of James, brother of the Lord ( from , and , , can also be Anglicized as "Jacob"), was, according to the New Testament, a brother of Jesus. He was the first Jewish bishop of Jerusalem. Traditionally, it is bel ...
, was challenged by the
Israel Antiquities Authority
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, ; , before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of Antiquities. The IAA regulates excavation and conservatio ...
when it accused Oded Golan of fabricating the discovery. A Liao dynasty coffin was opened during a live televised broadcast in Mongolia, revealing the remains of a nobleman.
Other discoveries announced in 2003 include a religious burial site from in Kfar HaHoresh, a sanctuary to Zeus in the Greek city Dion, the first
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...
cave art to be found in Great Britain at
Creswell Crags
Creswell Crags is an enclosed limestone gorge on the border between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, England, near the villages of Creswell and Whitwell. The cliffs in the ravine contain several caves that were occupied during the last ice age ...
,
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
weapons and jewelry in
Tyrol
Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...
,
Viking
Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...
treasure from c. 1020 on the
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...
, six 4th-century Roman shoes near
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
, a
Spring and Autumn period
The Spring and Autumn period () was a period in History of China, Chinese history corresponding roughly to the first half of the Eastern Zhou (256 BCE), characterized by the gradual erosion of royal power as local lords nominally subject t ...
tomb in
Henan
Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...
, a wall of
Mandan
The Mandan () are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains who have lived for centuries primarily in what is now North Dakota. They are enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. About half of the Mandan still ...
defensive fortifications at
Double Ditch
Double Ditch, also known as the Double Ditch State Historic Site, Burgois Site, 32BL8, Bourgois Site, and Double Ditch Earth Lodge Village Site, is an archaeological site located on the east bank of the Missouri River north of Bismarck, North Dak ...
in North Dakota, a Mississippian building in Illinois,
Olmec
The Olmecs () or Olmec were an early known major Mesoamerican civilization, flourishing in the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco from roughly 1200 to 400 Before the Common Era, BCE during Mesoamerica's Mesoamerican chronolog ...
seals that are among the oldest New World writing, burial sites in
Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Teotihuacán'', ; ) is an ancient Mesoamerican city located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, which is located in the State of Mexico, northeast of modern-day Mexico City.
Teotihuacan is ...
, and the 1898 wreckage of the Portland off the coast of Massachusetts.
Biology and genetics
The Herto Man fossils, first discovered in Ethiopia in 1997, were dated to approximately 160,000 years ago and proposed as a human subspecies ''Homo sapiens idaltu''. The findings provided additional evidence for the theory that humans originated in Africa. A set of skulls, first discovered in Mexico in 1959, were dated to approximately 13,000 years ago.
The first report for the 2000 Census of Marine Life was published in October, announcing that it had catalogued 15,304 species, including 500 newly discovered during the program. A plan to breed the
Iberian lynx
The Iberian lynx (''Lynx pardinus'') is one of the four wikt:extant, extant species within ''Lynx'', a genus of medium-sized wild Felidae, cats. The Iberian lynx is endemic to the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe. It is listed as vulnera ...
was made in April to protect it from extinction. An alternate theory for the
Permian–Triassic extinction event
The Permian–Triassic extinction event (also known as the P–T extinction event, the Late Permian extinction event, the Latest Permian extinction event, the End-Permian extinction event, and colloquially as the Great Dying,) was an extinction ...
was proposed in a study published on November 21, suggesting that it was caused by an asteroid impact instead of the more commonly accepted theory of volcanic activity. Study of ''
Microraptor
''Microraptor'' (Greek language, Greek, μικρός, ''mīkros'': "small"; Latin language, Latin, ''raptor'': "one who seizes") is a genus of small, four-winged dromaeosaurid dinosaurs. Numerous well-preserved fossil specimens have been recovere ...
'' fossils provided support for the hypothesis that dinosaurs evolved from gliding animals. The use of
genetically modified crops
Genetically modified crops (GM crops) are plants used in agriculture, the DNA of which has been modified using genetic engineering methods. Plant genomes can be engineered by physical methods or by use of '' Agrobacterium'' for the delivery of ...
was a controversial issue, particularly in the European Union where a moratorium on
genetically modified food
Genetically modified foods (GM foods), also known as genetically engineered foods (GE foods), or bioengineered foods are foods produced from organisms that have had changes introduced into their DNA using various methods of genetic engineering. G ...
remained in effect. Many other countries expanded their production of genetically modified crops.
Human cloning
Human cloning is the creation of a genetically Cloning, identical copy of a human. The term is generally used to refer to artificial human cloning, which is the reproduction of human Cell (biology), cells and Tissue (biology), tissue. It does ...
was a subject of international scrutiny in 2003, triggered in part by the disputed claims of the Raëlist company Clonaid that they had produced human clones. Several countries supported international bans on human cloning. The cloned sheep Dolly died on February 21 after living for only six years, raising doubts about the viability of cloning. A study of mouse
stem cells
In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can change into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of cell ...
announced the creation of artificial eggs, while another announced that adult cells could be converted into stem cells by combining them with rabbit eggs. A study on chimpanzee DNA indicated that chimpanzees share 99.4 percent of their DNA with humans, instead of the previous estimate of 95 percent.
Space exploration
The American Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' was destroyed in the atmosphere as it returned to Earth on February 1, killing all seven on board. NASA lost contact with the ''
Pioneer 10
''Pioneer 10'' (originally designated Pioneer F) is a NASA space probe launched in 1972 that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter. ''Pioneer 10'' became the first of five artificial objects to achieve the escape velocity needed ...
'' probe (launched in 1972) and ended the mission of the ''Galileo'' probe (launched in 1989) by sending it into Jupiter's atmosphere. The ''
Voyager 1
''Voyager 1'' is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, as part of the Voyager program to study the outer Solar System and the interstellar medium, interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. It was launched 16 days afte ...
'' probe became the first man-made object to reach the termination shock zone at the edge of the Solar System. China became the third country to launch a human into space with the ''
Shenzhou 5
Shenzhou 5 (, see ) was the first human spaceflight mission of the Chinese space program, launched on 15 October 2003. The Shenzhou (spacecraft), Shenzhou spacecraft was launched on a Long March 2F launch vehicle. There had been four previous fl ...
'' mission on October 15, in which taikonaut
Yang Liwei
Yang Liwei (; born 21 June 1965) is a Chinese major general, former military pilot, and former taikonaut of the People's Liberation Army.
In October 2003, Yang became the first person sent into space by the Chinese space program. This missi ...
was in space for 21 hours.
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
and the
European Space Agency
The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...
(ESA) scheduled several launches toward Mars for 2003 as the planet's orbit brought it its closest to Earth in approximately 60,000 years. NASA launched two Mars rovers, the ''Spirit'' on June 10 and the ''Opportunity'' on July 7. The ESA launched the ''
Mars Express
''Mars Express'' is a space exploration mission by the European Space Agency, European Space Agency (ESA) exploring the planet Mars and its moons since 2003, and the first planetary mission attempted by ESA.
''Mars Express'' consisted of two ...
'' orbiter with the '' Beagle 2'' lander on June 2, but contact was lost with the ''Beagle 2'' when it landed on December 25. The ESA's ''Rosetta'' mission to the comet 46P/Wirtanen was scheduled for January 12 but set back a year for a safety evaluation of the
Ariane 5
Ariane 5 is a retired European heavy-lift space launch vehicle operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It was launched from the Guiana Space Centre (CSG) in French Guiana. It was used to deliver payloads into geostationar ...
rocket following an incident the previous month. NASA launched the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (later renamed the Spitzer Space Telescope) on August 2, and the ESA launched the
SMART-1
SMART-1 was a European Space Agency satellite that orbited the Moon. It was launched on 27 September 2003 at 23:14 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana. "SMART-1" stands for Small Missions for Ad ...
satellite on September 27 to study the Moon.
The first results from the
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), originally known as the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP and Explorer 80), was a NASA spacecraft operating from 2001 to 2010 which measured temperature differences across the sky in the cosmic mic ...
were published in 2003. Its measurements of cosmic background radiation indicated that the universe is 13.7 billion years old and the first stars formed 200 million years after the Big Bang. This provided evidence of the existence of
dark matter
In astronomy, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is implied by gravity, gravitational effects that cannot be explained by general relat ...
and
dark energy
In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is a proposed form of energy that affects the universe on the largest scales. Its primary effect is to drive the accelerating expansion of the universe. It also slows the rate of structure format ...
.
Technology
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...
and
AMD
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California and maintains significant operations in Austin, Texas. AMD is a hardware and fabless company that de ...
released
64-bit
In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit central processing units (CPU) and arithmetic logic units (ALU) are those that are based on processor registers, a ...
processors in 2003, popularizing what was previously a niche hardware amid the more common
32-bit
In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in a maximum of 32- bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform la ...
systems.
Broadband
In telecommunications, broadband or high speed is the wide-bandwidth (signal processing), bandwidth data transmission that exploits signals at a wide spread of frequencies or several different simultaneous frequencies, and is used in fast Inter ...
internet and cable modems gained popularity at the expense of
dial-up
Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses the facilities of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to establish a connection to an Internet service provider (ISP) by dialing a telephone number on a conventional telepho ...
and DSL modems. Wi-Fi hotspots became more common, and they were increasingly found in businesses for customers' use.
Computing was the subject of multiple legal and philosophical disputes in 2003. The
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
considered legalizing
software patents
A software patent is a patent on a piece of software, such as a computer program, library, user interface, or algorithm. The validity of these patents can be difficult to evaluate, as software is often at once a product of engineering, something ...
, triggering strong
backlash
Backlash may refer to:
Literature
* '' Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women'', a 1991 book by Susan Faludi
* ''Backlash'' (Star Wars novel), a 2010 novel by Aaron Allston
* Backlash (Marc Slayton), a comic book character from ...
SCO Group
The SCO Group (often referred to SCO and later called The TSG Group) was an American software company in existence from 2002 to 2012 that became known for owning Unix operating system assets that had belonged to the Santa Cruz Operation (the or ...
and
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
over the
open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...
status of
UNIX
Unix (, ; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, a ...
State Council of China
The State Council of the People's Republic of China, also known as the Central People's Government, is the chief administrative authority and national cabinet. It is constitutionally the highest administrative organ of the country and the e ...
required that government ministries move away from software developed by
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
World Summit on the Information Society
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was a two-phase United Nations-sponsored summit on information, communication and, in broad terms, the information society that took place in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis. WSIS Forums hav ...
took place in December to organize the expansion of internet access throughout the world.
The SQL Slammer worm was among several major malware programs to spread during the year through vulnerabilities in Microsoft operating systems. Its effects included the disabling of all 13,000
Bank of America
The Bank of America Corporation (Bank of America) (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in ...
ATMs in the United States and days of internet outage for customers of
KT Corporation
KT Corporation (Hangul: 주식회사 케이티), formerly Korea Telecom, is a South Korean telecommunications company, mobile network operator (MNO) and List of mobile virtual network operators in South Korea, mobile virtual network operator (M ...
in South Korea. The Welchia worm was created to download a patch that countered the malicious Blaster worm but caused its own inadvertent system issues. The Sobig virus, transmitted through email, became the world's fastest spreading virus.
Camera phones
A camera phone is a mobile phone that is able to capture photographs and often record video using one or more built-in digital cameras. It can also send the resulting image wirelessly and conveniently. The first commercial phone with a color c ...
became widespread in 2003 as millions were sold. The original
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Beetle, officially the Volkswagen Type 1, is a small family car produced by the German company Volkswagen from 1938 to 2003. One of the most iconic cars in automotive history, the Beetle is noted for its distinctive shape. Its pr ...
, the most widely produced car ever designed, ended production with a final run of 3,000 cars for collectors. The
Concorde
Concorde () is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC).
Studies started in 1954, and France and the United Kingdom signed a treaty establishin ...
supersonic airliner ended services on October 24 after operating for 27 years. The United Kingdom installed the first rotating underwater turbine in June to generate tidal power.
Events
January
*
January 5
Events Pre-1600
* 1477 – Battle of Nancy: Charles the Bold is defeated and killed in a conflict with René II, Duke of Lorraine; Burgundy subsequently becomes part of France.
1601–1900
* 1675 – Battle of Colmar: The French ...
– Tel Aviv central bus station: Two Palestinian suicide bombers attack a neighborhood in Tel Aviv, killing at least 23 people and injuring 103.
*
January 8
Events Pre-1600
* 307 – Emperor Huai of Jin, Sima Chi becomes emperor of the Jin dynasty (266–420), Jin dynasty in succession to his brother, Emperor Hui of Jin, Sima Zhong, despite a challenge from his other brother, Sima Ying.
* 871 ...
– Air Midwest Flight 5481 crashed into a hangar upon takeoff in Charlotte, North Carolina, killing all 21 passengers and crew.
*
January 10
Events Pre-1600
*49 BC – Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signalling the start of civil war.
* 9 – The Western Han dynasty ends when Wang Mang claims that the divine Mandate of Heaven called for the end of the dynasty and th ...
– North Korea announces its withdrawal from the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperatio ...
.
*
January 22
Events Pre-1600
* 613 – Eight-month-old Heraclius Constantine is crowned as co-emperor ('' Caesar'') by his father Heraclius at Constantinople.
* 871 – Battle of Basing: The West Saxons led by King Æthelred I are defeated b ...
– The last signal from NASA's ''
Pioneer 10
''Pioneer 10'' (originally designated Pioneer F) is a NASA space probe launched in 1972 that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter. ''Pioneer 10'' became the first of five artificial objects to achieve the escape velocity needed ...
'' spacecraft is received, some 12.2 billion kilometers (7.6 billion mi) from
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
.
*
January 29
Events
Pre-1600
* 904 – Sergius III is elected pope, after coming out of retirement to take over the papacy from the deposed antipope Christopher.
* 946 – Caliph al-Mustakfi is blinded and deposed by Mu'izz al-Dawla, ruler ...
– Riots break out in
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Cambodia, most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since 1865 and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its political, economic, industr ...
, Cambodia targeting Thai nationals after false reports that a Thai actress made comments about a temple. Thailand severs diplomatic relations with Cambodia in response.
February
*
February 1
Events Pre-1600
* 1327 – The teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.
* 1411 – The First Peace of Thorn is signed in Thorn (Toruń), ...
– At the conclusion of the
STS-107
STS-107 was the 113th flight of the Space Shuttle program, and the 28th(twenty eigth) and final flight of Space Shuttle ''Columbia''. The mission ended on the 1st of February 2003, with the Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disaster which killed al ...
Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
, killing all seven astronauts on board.
*
February 4
Events Pre–1600
* 211 – Following the death of the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus at Eboracum (modern York, England) while preparing to lead a campaign against the Caledonians, the empire is left in the control of his two quarrellin ...
– The
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The State Union of Serbia and Montenegro or simply Serbia and Montenegro, known until 2003 as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and commonly referred to as FR Yugoslavia (FRY) or simply Yugoslavia, was a country in Southeast Europe locate ...
is renamed to "Serbia and Montenegro" (after its two constituent states) after its leaders reconstitute the country into a loose state-union between
Montenegro
, image_flag = Flag of Montenegro.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Montenegro.svg
, coa_size = 80
, national_motto =
, national_anthem = ()
, image_map = Europe-Mont ...
and
Serbia
, image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg
, national_motto =
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg
, national_anthem = ()
, image_map =
, map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...
, marking an end to the 73-year-long use of the name "Yugoslavia" by a sovereign state.
*
February 5
Events Pre-1600
*
*2 BC – Caesar Augustus is granted the title ''pater patriae'' by the Roman Senate.
*AD 62, 62 – AD 62 Pompeii earthquake, Earthquake in Pompeii, Italy.
*756 – Chinese New Year; An Lushan proclaims himself E ...
– U.S. Secretary of State
Colin Powell
Colin Luther Powell ( ; – ) was an Americans, American diplomat, and army officer who was the 65th United States secretary of state from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African-American to hold the office. He was the 15th National Security ...
speaks to the United Nations presenting the case for a military invasion of
Iraq
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
. It will later be discovered that the Bush administration misled him when preparing his testimony.
*
February 7
Events Pre-1600
* 457 – Leo I becomes the Eastern Roman emperor.
* 987 – Bardas Phokas the Younger and Bardas Skleros, Byzantine generals of the military elite, begin a wide-scale rebellion against Emperor Basil II.
* 1301 & ...
Bogotá
Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...
, Colombia, killing 36 people and injuring hundreds.
*
February 9
Events Pre-1600
* 474 – Zeno (emperor), Zeno is crowned as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire
*1003 – Boleslaus III, Duke of Bohemia, Boleslaus III is restored to authority with armed support from Bolesław I ...
–
March 23
Events Pre-1600
* 1400 – The Trần dynasty of Vietnam is deposed, after one hundred and seventy-five years of rule, by Hồ Quý Ly, a court official.
* 1540 – Waltham Abbey is surrendered to King Henry VIII of England; the las ...
– The 2003 Cricket World Cup is held in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Kenya with Australia defeating India in the final.
*
February 15
Events Pre-1600
* 438 – Roman emperor Theodosius II publishes the law codex Codex Theodosianus
* 590 – Khosrau II is crowned king of Persia.
* 706 – Byzantine emperor Justinian II has his predecessors Leontios and Ti ...
– 16 – Antwerp diamond heist: An Italian gang steals loose diamonds, gold and jewellery valued at more than $100 million from a Belgian vault, one of the largest robberies in history.
*
February 15
Events Pre-1600
* 438 – Roman emperor Theodosius II publishes the law codex Codex Theodosianus
* 590 – Khosrau II is crowned king of Persia.
* 706 – Byzantine emperor Justinian II has his predecessors Leontios and Ti ...
– Millions of people worldwide take part in massive anti-war protests in anticipation of the United States and its allies invading
Iraq
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
to overthrow
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...
's regime.
*
February 18
Events Pre-1600
* 3102 BC – Kali Yuga, the fourth and final yuga of Hinduism, starts with the death of Krishna.
* 1229 – The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining J ...
– Daegu subway fire: An arsonist sets fire to a subway train in Daegu, South Korea, killing 192 people.
*
February 19
Events Pre-1600
* 197 – Emperor Septimius Severus defeats Roman usurper, usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum, the bloodiest battle between Roman armies.
* 356 – The anti-paganism policy of Constantius II forbids the w ...
– An
Ilyushin Il-76
The Ilyushin Il-76 (; NATO reporting name: Candid) is a multi-purpose, fixed-wing, four-engine turbofan strategic airlifter designed by the Soviet Union's Ilyushin design bureau as a commercial freighter in 1967, to replace the Antonov An-1 ...
February 20
Events Pre-1600
*1339 – The Milanese army and the St. George's (San Giorgio) Mercenaries of Lodrisio Visconti clash in the Battle of Parabiago; Visconti is defeated.
*1472 – Orkney and Shetland are pawn (law), pawned by Norway to S ...
– A pyrotechnics accident during a Great White concert causes a fire at a nightclub in
West Warwick, Rhode Island
West Warwick is a town in Kent County, Rhode Island, Kent County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 31,012 at the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census.
West Warwick was incorporated in 1913, making it the youngest town in the s ...
, killing 100 people.
*
February 24
Events Pre-1600
* 484 – King Huneric of the Vandals replaces Nicene bishops with Arian ones, and banishes some to Corsica.
* 1303 – The English are defeated at the Battle of Roslin, in the First War of Scottish Independence.
...
Xinjiang
Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...
, killing 257 people.
*
February 26
Events Pre-1600
* 747 BC – According to Ptolemy, the epoch (origin) of the Nabonassar Era began at noon on this date. Historians use this to establish the modern BC chronology for dating historic events.
* 320 – Chandragupta ...
– The
War in Darfur
The War in Darfur, also nicknamed the Land Cruiser War, was a major armed conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan that began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equalit ...
begins after rebel groups rise up against the Sudanese government.
* February 27 – Former Bosnian Serb leader Biljana Plavšić is sentenced by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to 11 years in prison for war crimes committed during the Bosnian War.
March
* March 8 – Malta approves joining the European Union in 2003 Maltese European Union membership referendum, a referendum.
* March 12
**
Serbia
, image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg
, national_motto =
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg
, national_anthem = ()
, image_map =
, map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...
n Prime Minister
Zoran Đinđić
Zoran Đinđić ( sr-Cyrl, Зоран Ђинђић, ; 1 August 1952 – 12 March 2003) was a Serbian politician and philosopher who served as the Prime Minister of Serbia, prime minister of Serbia from 2001 until Assassination of Zoran Đinđić, ...
Assassination of Zoran Đinđić, is assassinated in Belgrade by a sniper.
** The
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...
issues a global alert on severe acute respiratory syndrome when it spreads to
Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
and Vietnam after originating in Mainland China.
* March 15 – Former General François Bozizé seizes power through 2003 Central African Republic coup d'état, a military coup in the Central African Republic.
* March 17 – U.S. President
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
presents a 48-hour ultimatum for Iraqi president
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...
to resign.
* March 20 – The
Iraq War
The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...
begins with the 2003 invasion of Iraq, invasion of
Iraq
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
by the U.S. and allied forces.
* March 21 – The world's largest ocean liner, RMS Queen Mary 2 is launched.
*
March 23
Events Pre-1600
* 1400 – The Trần dynasty of Vietnam is deposed, after one hundred and seventy-five years of rule, by Hồ Quý Ly, a court official.
* 1540 – Waltham Abbey is surrendered to King Henry VIII of England; the las ...
** 2003 Nadimarg massacre: Islamist militants gather and execute citizens of a Hindu village in
Kashmir
Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...
, killing 24 of the 54 residents.
** Slovenia approves joining the European Union and NATO in 2003 Slovenian European Union and NATO membership referendum, a referendum.
April
* April 9 – U.S. forces Battle of Baghdad (2003), seize control of Baghdad, ending the rule of Saddam Hussein.
* April 12 – Hungary approves joining the European Union in 2003 Hungarian European Union membership referendum, a referendum.
* April 14 – The Human Genome Project is completed, with 99% of the human genome sequenced to 99.99% accuracy.
* April 16 – The Treaty of Accession 2003, Treaty of Accession is signed in Athens between the European Union and ten countries (Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia), concerning these countries' accession into the EU, leading to the 2004 enlargement of the European Union.
* April 17 – Anneli Jäätteenmäki takes office as the first female prime minister of Finland.
* April 18 – Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visits Kashmir and expresses support for peace negotiations with Pakistan.
* April 20 – Tropical Storm Ana becomes the first recorded North Atlantic tropical storm to occur in April.
* April 21 – The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam end peace talks in the Sri Lankan Civil War.
* April 24 – Microsoft releases the Windows Server 2003 operating system to retail.
* April 27 – Nicanor Duarte, Nicanor Duarte Frutos is elected president over Julio César Franco (politician), Julio César Franco in the 2003 Paraguayan general election.
* April 29 – The United States announces the withdrawal of its troops stationed in Saudi Arabia, and the redeployment of some at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
May
* May 1
** 2003 Bingöl earthquake: A 6.4 earthquake strikes in Bingöl, Turkey, killing 177 people.
** U.S. President George W. Bush declares an end to the invasion of Iraq in the Mission Accomplished speech. Hostilities would continue for several years during a period of Iraqi insurgency.
* May 11
** Benvenuto Cellini's ''Cellini Salt Cellar'' table sculpture is stolen from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
** Lithuania approves joining the European Union in 2003 Lithuanian European Union membership referendum, a referendum.
** 2003 Sri Lanka cyclone: A cyclone makes landfall in Sri Lanka, killing 260 people and causing the country's worst natural disaster in 50 years.
* May 12
** In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, over 30 people are killed in Riyadh compound bombings, multiple bombings at a housing compound, mostly foreign expatriates.
** 2003 Znamenskoye suicide bombing: Chechen suicide bombers attack a government office in Znamenskoye, Chechen Republic, Znamenskoye, Russia, killing at least 59 people.
* May 15 – 2003 Argentine general election: Néstor Kirchner becomes president-elect of Argentina after Carlos Menem withdraws from the runoff election.
* May 16 – 2003 Casablanca bombings: Islamist militants affiliated with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb carry out a series of suicide bombings in Casablanca, Morocco, killing at least 41 people.
* May 17 – Slovakia approves joining the European Union in 2003 Slovak European Union membership referendum, a referendum.
* May 21 – The 6.8 2003 Boumerdès earthquake, Boumerdès earthquake strikes in Algeria, killing over 2,200 people.
* May 23 – Dewey (deer), Dewey, the world's first Cloning, cloned deer is born, at Texas A&M University.
* May 24 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2003 takes place in Riga, Latvia, and is won by Turkey in the Eurovision Song Contest, Turkish entrant Sertab Erener with the song "Everyway That I Can".
* May 26 – A 2003 Rwandan constitutional referendum, constitutional referendum is held in Rwanda.
* May 28 – Prometea, the world's first cloned horse, is born.
June
* June 2 – ''
Mars Express
''Mars Express'' is a space exploration mission by the European Space Agency, European Space Agency (ESA) exploring the planet Mars and its moons since 2003, and the first planetary mission attempted by ESA.
''Mars Express'' consisted of two ...
'' launches, containing the '' Beagle 2'' lander.
* June 8
** Poland approves joining the European Union in 2003 Polish European Union membership referendum, a referendum.
** Major Saleh Ould Hanenna leads 2003 Mauritanian coup d'état attempt, a failed coup in Mauritania, leading to violence.
* June 14 – The Czech Republic approves joining the European Union in 2003 Czech European Union membership referendum, a referendum.
* June 15 – Operation Desert Scorpion (Iraq 2003), Operation Desert Scorpion: U.S. forces in Iraq facilitate searches for Ba'athism, Ba'athist forces, distribution of humanitarian aid, and engineering programs to repair damaged infrastructure.
* June 21 – Declaration of Thessaloniki: The European Union encourages accession of states of the western Balkans.
* June 26 – With the first pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, the Cleveland Cavaliers selected LeBron James.
* June 30 – Warring parties in the Democratic Republic of the Congo sign a peace accord, bringing an end to the Second Congo War, which left millions dead.
July
* July–August – 2003 European heat wave: Europe experiences its hottest summer in over five centuries.
* July 1 – Tesla Inc., the American electric car company, is founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in San Carlos, California.
* July 2 – The International Olympic Committee awards Vancouver the right to host the 2010 Winter Olympics.
* July 4 – 2003 Quetta mosque bombing: Islamist militants attack a Shia mosque in Quetta, Pakistan, killing at least 44 people.
* July 5 – Severe acute respiratory syndrome is declared to be contained by the World Health Organization.
* July 6
** The 70-meter Eupatoria Planetary Radar sends a Active SETI, METI message Cosmic Call, Cosmic Call 2 to five stars: Hip 4872, HD 245409, 55 Cancri, HD 10307 and 47 Ursae Majoris, that will arrive at these stars in 2030s, 2036, 2040, May 2044, September 2044 and 2049 respectively.
** Dennis Schmitt discovers the island of 83-42, a candidate for being the northernmost point of land.
* July 10 – The existence of PSR B1620−26 b, the oldest known exoplanet in the galaxy, is confirmed using observations from the Hubble Space Telescope.
* July 13 – The Iraqi Governing Council is created by the United States as an ethnically diverse provisional government of Iraq.
* July 14 – Robert Novak identifies Valerie Plame as a covert CIA agent, initiating a scandal known as the Plame affair.
* July 15 – The
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia
The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (''Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia'', or AUC, in Spanish) were a Colombian far-right paramilitary and drug trafficking group which was an active belligerent in the Colombian armed conflict during the ...
agrees to disband.
* July 16 – Major Fernando Pereira (major), Fernando Pereira leads 2003 São Tomé and Príncipe coup d'état attempt, a failed coup in São Tomé and Príncipe.
* July 18 – The Convention on the Future of Europe finishes its work and proposes the first European Constitution.
* July 24 – The Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands, Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands, led by Australia, begins after ethnic violence engulfs the island country.
* July 27 – Oakwood mutiny: Philippine military officers lead approximately 300 soldiers in a failed Coup d'état, coup.
August
* August 1 – Social networking service Myspace is launched.
* August 2 – President Charles Taylor of Liberia resigns, effectively ending the
Second Liberian Civil War
The Second Liberian Civil War was a civil war in the West African nation of Liberia that lasted from 1999 to 2003. The war was mainly caused by transition failures after the First Civil War, especially the peace-building process which would res ...
.
* August 5 – 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing, A car bomb exploded at the JW Marriott Jakarta, Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, killing 12 people and injuring 150.
* August 11
** The
Second Liberian Civil War
The Second Liberian Civil War was a civil war in the West African nation of Liberia that lasted from 1999 to 2003. The war was mainly caused by transition failures after the First Civil War, especially the peace-building process which would res ...
comes to an end after President Charles Taylor resigns and flees the country.
** NATO takes over command of the International Security Assistance Force, peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.
* August 14 – The Northeast blackout of 2003 cuts electricity to the northeastern United States and parts of Canada.
* August 19
** In the Canal Hotel bombing in Baghdad 22 people are killed, among them United Nations' Special Representative in Iraq Sérgio Vieira de Mello.
** Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing: A Palestinian suicide bomber kills at least 18 people in a bus bombing in Jerusalem.
* August 25
** The Spitzer Space Telescope is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
** August 2003 Mumbai bombings, Car bombs explode at Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar in Mumbai, claiming 54 lives and injuring 244 others. Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba is blamed for the attack.
* August 27
** Mars makes its Opposition (astronomy), closest approach to Earth in over 60,000 years.
** The first six-party talks, involving South and North Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, convene to find a peaceful resolution to the security concerns of the North Korea and weapons of mass destruction, North Korean nuclear weapons program.
* August 29 – Imam Ali mosque bombing: A bomb kills at least 125 people, including Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, at a Shia mosque in Najaf, Iraq.
Guangdong
) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...
as a category 1 typhoon with sustained winds of 90 mph.
* September 5 – Hurricane Fabian strikes Bermuda.
* September 12 – Typhoon Maemi, makes landfall in South Korea as a category 3 typhoon with sustained winds of 125 mph.
* September 14
** General Veríssimo Correia Seabra leads 2003 Guinea-Bissau coup d'état, a bloodless coup in Guinea-Bissau. He steps down to create a new civilian government days later.
** Estonia approves joining the European Union in 2003 Estonian European Union membership referendum, a referendum.
* September 15 – National Liberation Army (Colombia), ELN rebels kidnap eight foreign tourists at Ciudad Perdida, Colombia, being freed 100 days later following negotiations with the Colombian government.
* September 18 –
Hurricane Isabel
Hurricane Isabel was a Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that struck the east coast of the United States in September 2003. The ninth named storm, fifth hurricane, and second major hurricane of the season, Isabel formed in the eastern Atlantic ...
makes landfall in North Carolina.
* September 20 – Latvia approves joining the European Union in 2003 Latvian European Union membership referendum, a referendum.
* September 24 – The Hubble Space Telescope starts the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field, making 800 exposures, until January 16, 2004.
* September 27 –
SMART-1
SMART-1 was a European Space Agency satellite that orbited the Moon. It was launched on 27 September 2003 at 23:14 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana. "SMART-1" stands for Small Missions for Ad ...
, an European Space Agency, ESA spaceprobe and ESA's first mission to the moon, is launched from Kourou, French Guiana.
* September 28 – 2003 Italy blackout: Power goes out across the Italian Peninsula for approximately 12 hours, affecting nearly all of the country's 57 million people.
October
* October 1 – The popular and controversial English-language imageboard 4chan is launched.
* October 4 – Maxim restaurant suicide bombing: A Palestinian suicide bomber attacks a restaurant in Haifa, Israel, killing at least 19 people.
* October 5 – Israeli warplanes Ain es Saheb airstrike, strike alleged Islamic jihad bases inside Syrian territory, the first Israeli attack on the country since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
* October 10–November 22 – The
2003 Rugby World Cup
The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup and was won by England national rugby union team, England. Originally planned to be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispu ...
is held in Australia and is won by England national rugby union team, England who defeated Australia national rugby union team, Australia in 2003 Rugby World Cup final, the final after extra time.
* October 15 – China launches ''
Shenzhou 5
Shenzhou 5 (, see ) was the first human spaceflight mission of the Chinese space program, launched on 15 October 2003. The Shenzhou (spacecraft), Shenzhou spacecraft was launched on a Long March 2F launch vehicle. There had been four previous fl ...
'', their first human spaceflight.
* October 24 –
Concorde
Concorde () is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC).
Studies started in 1954, and France and the United Kingdom signed a treaty establishin ...
makes its last commercial flight, bringing the era of airliner Supersonic transport, supersonic travel to an end.
* October 27 – 27 October 2003 Baghdad bombings: A series of car bombings occur in
Baghdad
Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...
, Iraq, targeting multiple police stations and a Red Cross headquarters. Approximately 40 people are killed.
* October 31 – Mahathir Mohamad steps down as Prime Minister of Malaysia after 22 years in power. He is succeeded by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
November
* November 12 – 2003 Nasiriyah bombing, A suicide bombing at an Italy, Italian military police headquarters in Nasiriyah, Iraq, kills 17 Italian military police officers and nine Iraqi civilians.
* November 14 – The dwarf planet Sedna (dwarf planet), Sedna is discovered by a team of astronomers led by Michael E. Brown from the Palomar Observatory.
* November 22
**2003 Baghdad DHL attempted shootdown incident, Baghdad DHL attempted shootdown incident: Shortly after takeoff, a DHL Express cargo plane is struck on the left wing by a surface-to-air missile fired by the Islamic Army in Iraq and forced to land. All three Crew members survive with injuries.
**England national rugby union team, England became the first team from the northern hemisphere to lift the Webb Ellis Cup, Rugby World Cup after beating Australia 20–17.
* November 23
** President of Georgia, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze resigns after Rose Revolution, widespread protests engulf the country following a disputed 2003 Georgian parliamentary election, parliamentary election.
** A ceasefire takes place at the Line of Control in Kashmir.
* November 26 – The supersonic passenger jet,
Concorde
Concorde () is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC).
Studies started in 1954, and France and the United Kingdom signed a treaty establishin ...
, makes its last ever flight from Heathrow Airport in London to Bristol Filton Airport.
December
* December 5 – 2003 Stavropol train bombing: A suicide bomber attacks a train in Stavropol Krai, killing 46 people.
* December 12 – Paul Martin becomes the 21st Prime Minister of Canada.
* December 13 –
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...
, the former president of Iraq, Capture of Saddam Hussein, is captured in the small town of Ad-Dawr by the U.S. Army.
* December 16 – Google India Private Limited is officially incorporated in India.
* December 19
** Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Libya agrees to eliminate all of its materials, equipment, and programs aimed at Libya and weapons of mass destruction, producing weapons of mass destruction.
** The ''Beagle 2'' Mars lander deploys, but contact is lost.
* December 23
** The World Tourism Organization becomes a specialized agency of the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
.
** PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field explosion, Guoqiao, Kai County, Chongqing, China, killing at least 234.
* December 26 – The 6.6 2003 Bam earthquake, Bam earthquake shakes Iran, killing approximately 50,000 people.
* December 29
** The last known speaker of the Akkala Sámi language dies, rendering it extinct.
** A world-record ground-level UV index of 43.3 is detected at Bolivia's Licancabur volcano.
Births and deaths
Nobel Prizes
* Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemistry – Peter Agre, Roderick MacKinnon
* Nobel Prize in Literature, Literature – J. M. Coetzee
* Nobel Peace Prize, Peace – Shirin Ebadi
* Nobel Prize in Physics, Physics – Alexei Abrikosov (physicist), Alexei Abrikosov, Vitaly Ginzburg, Sir Anthony James Leggett
* Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Physiology or Medicine – Paul Lauterbur, Sir Peter Mansfield
References
External links
*
2003 Year in Review – comprehensive listing of 2003 reviews and lists
– Google's Yearly List of Major Events and Top Searches for 2003
{{DEFAULTSORT:2003
2003,