June 2003
The following events occurred in June 2003:
Events
June 1, 2003
- The Group of Eight summit opens in Évian, France, to tight security and tens of thousands of protestors.
- The sluice-gates on the Three Gorges Dam in China are closed, starting the filling of the reservoir of the world's largest hydroelectric project.
- The Railroad Museum of the Niagara Frontier opens.
June 2, 2003
- President George W. Bush begins his Middle East trip today, beginning with Egypt. He is in talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. He promises to work for the goal of Israel and a Palestinian state being able to live side by side without any bloodshed.
- Thousands of Iraqi soldiers threaten to begin suicide attacks against U.S. troops as leaders of Iraq's tribes tell the Americans that they could face war if they do not leave.
- Israel says it will dismantle only some of the more than 100 West Bank settlement outposts since violence began in that area 32 months ago.
- In Zimbabwe, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is first arrested, then released. This coincides with the start of a week of protests against the government, who have put Tsvangirai on trial for treason. He is due to appear in court later today.
- Europe launches its first voyage to another planet, Mars. The European Space Agency's Mars Express probe launches from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan.[1]
- The U.S. Federal Communications Commission announces sweeping changes to the concentration of media ownership protections in the U.S, allowing a single owner to own up to 45% of media in a given city.
- A US Department of Justice internal audit is released which asserts that the government systematically abused the civil rights of individuals detained after the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack, engaging in "a pattern of physical and verbal abuse".[2]
- Ohio Lawyer J. Anthony Rich began his 2-year stint as an Assistant Prosecutor in Marion County, Ohio.
June 3, 2003
June 4, 2003
June 5, 2003
- German politician Jürgen Möllemann dies while parachuting.
- Computer virus Bugbear.b spreads worldwide on computer systems running Microsoft Windows by infecting email attachments.[4]
- The United States agrees to dismantle its bases and withdraw American forces from positions they have occupied near the DMZ, which separates North and South Korea, for decades.
- Pope John Paul II marks his 100th foreign voyage in a trip to Croatia, where the pontiff is expected to meet with Serbian Orthodox Christians as a sign of goodwill between the centuries-long feuding sister churches.[5]
- For the first time in more than two months, no new deaths were reported yesterday from SARS, the latest indication that the epidemic is subsiding, the World Health Organization said.[6]
- A United Nations war crimes tribunal charges President Charles Taylor of Liberia with war crimes for masterminding atrocities in the Sierra Leone civil war.
- Metallica's St. Anger album was released
June 6, 2003
- NASA investigators cracked a reinforced carbon fiber wing by shooting it with a piece of insulation, providing more evidence that falling insulation may have caused the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.[7]
June 7, 2003
June 8, 2003
- After several days of violence and confusion in Mauritania, Pro-Israeli President Maaouiya Ould Taya appears to have defeated the uprising against him.[8]
- The Polish referendum on EU enlargement entrance finishes today; 78% of the voters voted to join the EU, with approximately 59% turnout.[9]
- The presence of the monkeypox virus in the United States is confirmed with four cases in Wisconsin, sparking the first discovery of the virus in the Western Hemisphere. Dozens of suspected cases have appeared across three Midwest states, where pet enthusiasts came into contact with infected domestic prairie dogs, which caught the disease from the Gambian giant rat.
June 9, 2003
June 10, 2003
June 11, 2003
- Three 160,000 year old human skulls unearthed in Ethiopia bridge an important gap in the human fossil record and lend support to the "out of Africa" single origin theory of human evolution.[13]
- Masquerading as an Orthodox Jew, a suicide bomber blows up a bus in Jerusalem, Israel, killing at least sixteen people. An Israeli helicopter attack in the Gaza Strip kills at least seven.[14]
- Same-sex marriage in Canada: The attorney general of Ontario announces that his government will conform to yesterday's court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in that province.
- US baseball: Six Houston Astros pitchers combine to pitch a no-hitter against the New York Yankees. The game sets several records, including the most pitchers to combine for a no-hitter in Major League Baseball history, and a record for the Yankees for the most sequential games without being no-hit.[15]
June 12, 2003
- Attorney General of Massachusetts Thomas Reilly formally accuses college student Luke Thompson of creating a fake airline, Mainline Airways, and selling bogus tickets.[16]
- Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities, dismisses claim that archaeologists discovered Nefertiti's mummy.[17]
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says 54 people in the US may be infected with monkeypox.
- British Prime Minister Tony Blair reshuffles his Cabinet: the Lord Chancellor is to be replaced by a new Department for Constitutional Affairs, and Peter Hain and John Reid have new jobs, while Alan Milburn unexpectedly resigns. The government also plans to replace the House of Lords' judicial functions with a new Supreme Court.[18][19]
- A mass grave in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, dating back to the Stalinist purges in the 1930s, is discovered containing at least 575 victims. Ninety percent of the dead were found with the remains of yellow and red garments and religious items usually worn by Buddhist monks. The number could top 1,000, investigators said.
June 13, 2003
June 14, 2003
June 15, 2003
- The German Green Party backs Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Agenda 2010 with more than 90% of all votes at an extraordinary party convention.
- The San Antonio Spurs become NBA basketball champions by defeating the New Jersey Nets in game six of the 2003 NBA Finals, 88–77. It is the Spurs second franchise title.
- American and Canadian researchers publish a paper that uses gene linkage techniques to identify a mutation in the GRK3 gene as a possible cause of up to 10% of cases of bipolar disorder, one of the major mental illnesses.
June 16, 2003
June 17, 2003
- United States troops shoot dead two former Iraqi soldiers who were protesting that they had not been paid since their country was occupied.
- Following an international outrcy, the Romanian government retracts an official statement that no holocaust occurred on its territory during the Second World War.
- Linus Torvalds announces that he will take a leave of absence from his job at Transmeta to work full-time at OSDL on the Linux kernel.
- Same-sex marriage in Canada: The Canadian government announces that it will not appeal the Ontario appeals court ruling that permitted same-sex marriage. Instead, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien indicates that his government will introduce legislation to change the definition of marriage but protect the rights of churches to decide which marriages they will solemnize.
- The New York Times reports about allegations of severe child abuse within the Tranquility Bay correctional facility for unruly children, run by the Utah-based World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools.
- Kyodo reports that United States Armed Forces arrest the Japanese journalist Rei Shiba and two Iraqi guides on around June 8 in Ar Ramadi, 100 km west of Baghdad, while covering a university. The American forces reportedly put a bag on their heads during the arrest and gagged them in custody.[22]
June 18, 2003
June 19, 2003
- The widely syndicated comic strip Garfield celebrates its 25th anniversary.
June 20, 2003
June 22, 2003
- Real Madrid clinches the Primera división, the top football league in Spain, beating Real Sociedad by two points. The very next day, Real fires its manager, Vicente del Bosque
- Hundreds of US troops raid Iraqi homes in the town of Ramadi, fired up by the Ride of the Valkyries coming through loudspeakers, in a scene which Reuters reporter Alistair Lyon describes as "a bizarre musical reprise from Vietnam War film Apocalypse Now." Meanwhile a group identifying itself as the Iraqi National Front of Fedayeen announces to increase attacks on US troops if they refuse to leave the occupied country.[25]
- The largest hailstone ever recorded falls in Aurora, Nebraska.
June 23, 2003
- The U.S. Supreme Court issues opinions in Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz and Hamacher v. Bollinger, challenges to the affirmative action admissions policies at the University of Michigan. In Grutter, the Court held that the University of Michigan Law School's admissions policy, which considered race as one of a number of "soft" admissions factors on a case-by-case basis, was constitutional. In Gratz, the Court held that the undergraduate affirmative action admissions policy, which was based on a point system and was more rigid than the Law School's, was unconstitutional.[26]
- In Peekskill, New York, a 10-month-old baby girl survives a seven story fall. Her father, Willie Williams, takes her to the hospital, where she was treated for bruises and cuts, but Mr. Williams is later arrested on charges of attempted murder.[27]
- Human Rights Watch calls for a criminal investigation into Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's alleged role in the massacre of civilians, mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shiites, in Sabra and the Shatila refugee camp.
June 24, 2003
June 26, 2003
June 27, 2003
- The United States Federal Trade Commission opens the National Do Not Call Registry. This registry gives consumers an opportunity to limit the telemarketing calls they receive. On October 1, 2003, when the National Do Not Call Registry became enforced, most telemarketers were required to remove the numbers on the registry from their call lists. See http://donotcall.gov/ or call 1-888 382-1222 for registration.,[32][33]
- The Boston Red Sox establish a new Major League Baseball record by scoring 10 runs before recording their first out of the game against the Florida Marlins in Boston. Marlins pitcher Kevin Olsen was injured by a line-drive hit and taken to a local hospital, where he was admitted in good condition. The Red Sox beat the Marlins, 25–8.
June 28, 2003
June 29, 2003
June 30, 2003
See also
References