2004

Millennium:	3rd millennium
Centuries:	20th century 21st century 22nd century
Decades:	1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
Years:	2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

2004 by topic:

Arts

Architecture – Comics – Film – Home video – Literature (Poetry) – Music (Country, Metal, UK) – Radio – Television – Video gaming

Politics

Elections – Int'l leaders – Sovereign states Sovereign state leaders – Territorial governors

Science and technology

Archaeology – Aviation – Birding/Ornithology – Meteorology – Palaeontology – Rail transport – Spaceflight

Sports

Association football (soccer) – Athletics (track and field) – Badminton – Baseball – Basketball – Boxing – Cricket – Golf – Horse racing – Ice hockey – Motorsport – Road cycling – Rugby league – Rugby union – Table tennis – Tennis – Volleyball

By place

Afghanistan – Algeria – Antarctica – Argentina – Armenia – Australia – Austria – Azerbaijan – Bangladesh – Belgium – Brazil – Canada – Chile – China – Costa Rica – Croatia – Cuba – Denmark – El Salvador – Egypt – Estonia – Ethiopia – European Union – Finland – France – Georgia – Germany – Ghana – Greece – Hungary – Iceland – India – Indonesia – Iraq – Iran – Ireland – Israel – Italy – Japan – Kenya – Latvia – Lithuania – Luxembourg – Malaysia – Mexico – Moldova – Netherlands – New Zealand – Norway – Pakistan – Palestinian territories – Philippines – Poland – Romania – Russia – Rwanda – Serbia – Singapore – South Africa – South Korea – Spain – Sri Lanka – Sweden – Taiwan – Thailand – Turkey – United Arab Emirates – United Kingdom – United States – Venezuela – Vietnam – Yemen

Other topics

Awards – Law – Religious leaders

Birth and death categories

Births – Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments – Disestablishments

Works and introductions categories

Works – Introductions Works entering the public domain

2004 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	2004 MMIV
Ab urbe condita	2757
Armenian calendar	1453 ԹՎ ՌՆԾԳ
Assyrian calendar	6754
Bahá'í calendar	160–161
Balinese saka calendar	1925–1926
Bengali calendar	1411
Berber calendar	2954
British Regnal year	52 Eliz. 2 – 53 Eliz. 2
Buddhist calendar	2548
Burmese calendar	1366
Byzantine calendar	7512–7513
Chinese calendar	癸未年 (Water Goat) 4700 or 4640     — to — 甲申年 (Wood Monkey) 4701 or 4641
Coptic calendar	1720–1721
Discordian calendar	3170
Ethiopian calendar	1996–1997
Hebrew calendar	5764–5765
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	2060–2061
- Shaka Samvat	1925–1926
- Kali Yuga	5104–5105
Holocene calendar	12004
Igbo calendar	1004–1005
Iranian calendar	1382–1383
Islamic calendar	1424–1425
Japanese calendar	Heisei 16 (平成１６年)
Javanese calendar	1936–1937
Juche calendar	93
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4337
Minguo calendar	ROC 93 民國93年
Nanakshahi calendar	536
Thai solar calendar	2547
Tibetan calendar	阴水羊年 (female Water-Goat) 2130 or 1749 or 977     — to — 阳木猴年 (male Wood-Monkey) 2131 or 1750 or 978
Unix time	1072915200 – 1104537599

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2004.

2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2004th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 4th year of the 3rd millennium, the 4th year of the 21st century, and the 5th year of the 2000s decade.

2004 was designated as:

• International Year of Rice (by the United Nations)
• International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO)

Events

January

• January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashes into the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt, killing all 148 aboard.^[1]

February

• February 26 – Macedonian president Boris Trajkovski is killed in a plane crash near Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[2]
• February 29 – Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide is overthrown in a coup d'état.^[3]

March

• March 2 – A series of bombings occur in Karbala, Iraq, killing over 140 Shia Muslims commemorating the Day of Ashura.^[4]
• March 11 – Coordinated bombs explode at a Cercanías train station in Madrid, Spain, killing at least 192 people.^[5][6]
• March 28 – Hurricane Catarina, the first ever recorded South Atlantic tropical cyclone, makes landfall in Santa Catarina, Brazil.^[7]
• March 29 – Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia are admitted to NATO, the largest expansion of the organization.^[8]

April

• April 8 – The Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement is signed by the Sudanese government and two rebel groups, in order to put a pause on the War in Darfur.
• April 17 – Israeli helicopters fire missiles at a convoy of vehicles in the Gaza Strip, killing Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi.^[9]
• April 24 – Referendums on the Annan Plan for Cyprus, which proposes to reunite the island, take place in both the Greek-controlled and the Turkish-controlled parts. Although the Turkish Cypriots vote in favour, the Greek Cypriots reject the proposal.^[10]

May

• May 1 – The largest expansion to date of the European Union takes place, extending the Union by 10 member states: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Malta and Cyprus.^[11]

June

• June 21 – In Mojave, California, SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.^[12]
• June 28 – The U.S.-led coalition occupying Iraq transfers sovereignty to the Iraqi Interim Government.^[13]
• June 30 – Preliminary hearings begin in Iraq in the trial of former president Saddam Hussein, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

July

• July 1 – The Cassini–Huygens spacecraft arrives at Saturn.^[14]

August

• August 3 – NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is launched, with its primary mission being the study of Mercury.^[15]
• August 13–29 – The 2004 Summer Olympics are held in Athens, Greece.^[16]
• August 22 – Armed robbers steal Edvard Munch's The Scream, Madonna, and other paintings from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway.^[17]

September

• September 1 – Chechen rebels take 1,128 people hostage, mostly children, at a school in Beslan, Russia. The crisis ends when Russian security forces storm the building, resulting in more than 330 people being killed.^[18]
• September 2 – The United Nations Security Council adopts Resolution 1559, calling for the removal of all foreign troops from Lebanon and for all militias to disarm.^[19]

October

• October 8 – Suicide bombers detonate two bombs at the Red Sea resort of Taba, Egypt, killing over 30 people, mostly Israeli tourists.^[20]
• October 19 – A team of explorers reach the bottom of Krubera Cave, the world's deepest cave, with a depth of 2,080 meters (6,824 feet).^[21]
• October 29 – European heads of state sign in Rome the Treaty and Final Act, establishing the first European Constitution.^[22]

November

• November 13 – The European Space Agency probe SMART-1 arrives at the Moon, becoming the first European satellite to travel to and orbit it.^[23]
• November 16 – NASA's hypersonic Scramjet breaks a record by reaching a velocity of about 7,000 mph in an unmanned experimental flight. It obtains a speed of Mach 9.6, almost 10 times the speed of sound.
• November 22 – The Orange Revolution begins following a disputed presidential election in Ukraine where Viktor Yanukovych won against Viktor Yushchenko amid accusations of electoral fraud. A revote results in Yushchenko being declared the winner.^[24]

December

• December 14 – The world's tallest bridge, the Millau Viaduct over the River Tarn in the Massif Central mountains, France, is officially opened.^[25]
• December 21 – Iraqi insurgents attack a U.S. military base in the city of Mosul, killing at least 22 people.^[26]
• December 26 – The 9.1–9.3 M_w Indian Ocean earthquake shakes northern Sumatra with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). One of the largest observed tsunamis follows, affecting coastal areas of Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, killing over 200,000 people.^[27]
• December 27 – Astrophysicists from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching near Munich measure the strongest burst from a magnetar. At 21:30:26 UT Earth is hit by a huge wave front of gamma and X-rays. It is the strongest flux of high-energetic gamma radiation measured so far.
• December 31 – Taipei 101, at the time the tallest skyscraper in the world, standing at a height of 1,670 feet (509 metres), officially opens.^[28]

Date unknown

• The Russian Federation stops recognizing Soviet Union passports as legal identification.^[29]

Births

• January 21 – Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway
• February 19 – Millie Bobby Brown, British Actress
• June 8 – Francesca Capaldi, American child actress

Deaths

January

• January 7 – Ingrid Thulin, Swedish actress (b. 1926)
• January 9 – Norberto Bobbio, Italian philosopher (b. 1909)
• January 13 – Harold Shipman, British serial killer (b. 1946)
• January 14 – Terje Bakken, Norwegian musician (b. 1978)
• January 22 – Ann Miller, American dancer and actress (b. 1923)
• January 25
  • Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch athlete (b. 1918)
  • Miklós Fehér, Hungarian footballer (b. 1979)

February

• February 14 – Marco Pantani, Italian cyclist (b. 1970)
• February 17 – José López Portillo, 51st president of Mexico (b. 1920)
• February 21 – John Charles, Welsh footballer (b. 1931)
• February 26
  • Adolf Ehrnrooth, Finnish general (b. 1905)
  • Boris Trajkovski, 2nd president of the Republic of Macedonia (b. 1956)
• February 27 – Paul Sweezy, American economist and editor (b. 1910)
• February 28 – Daniel J. Boorstin, American historian and Librarian of Congress (b. 1914)

March

• March 2 – Mercedes McCambridge, American actress (b. 1916)
• March 4 – Claude Nougaro, French singer (b. 1929)
• March 7 – Paul Winfield, American actor (b. 1941)
• March 8 – Muhammad Zaidan, founder of the Palestine Liberation Front (b. 1948)
• March 15 – John Pople, English Nobel chemist (b. 1925)
• March 20 – Juliana, Queen regnant of the Netherlands (b. 1909)
• March 22 – Ahmed Yassin, Palestinian co-founder of Hamas (b. 1937)
• March 28 – Peter Ustinov, English actor and director (b. 1921)

April

• April 18 – Kamisese Mara, 1st Prime Minister and 2nd president of Fiji (b. 1920)
• April 19 – John Maynard Smith, English biologist (b. 1920)
• April 24 – Estée Lauder, American cosmetics entrepreneur (b. 1906)
• April 26 – Hubert Selby, Jr., American writer (b. 1928)

May

• May 7 – Nicholas Berg, American businessman (b. 1978)
• May 17 – Tony Randall, American actor (b. 1920)

June

• June 5 – Ronald Reagan, American politician and actor, 40th President of the United States (1981-1989) (b. 1911)
• June 7 – Quorthon, Swedish musician (b. 1966)
• June 10 – Ray Charles, American singer and musician (b. 1930)
• June 11 – Xenophon Zolotas, Greek economist, interim 177th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1904)
• June 16 – Thanom Kittikachorn, Thai military general, 10th Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1912)
• June 26 – Naomi Shemer, Israeli songwriter (b. 1931)

July

• July 1 – Marlon Brando, American actor (b. 1924)
• July 5
  • Hugh Shearer, Jamaican politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Jamaica (b. 1923)
  • Rodger Ward, American race car driver (b. 1921)
• July 6 – Thomas Klestil, Austrian politician and diplomat, 10th president of Austria (b. 1932)
• July 10 – Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo, 108th Prime Minister of Portugal (b. 1930)
• July 13 – Carlos Kleiber, Austrian conductor (b. 1930)
• July 16 – Charles Sweeney, American WWII pilot (b. 1919)
• July 19 – Zenkō Suzuki, Japanese politician, 70th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1911)
• July 21
  • Jerry Goldsmith, American composer (b. 1929)
  • Edward B. Lewis, American Nobel geneticist (b. 1918)
• July 22 – Sacha Distel, French singer (b. 1933)
• July 28 – Francis Crick, English Nobel molecular biologist (b. 1916)

August

• August 1 – Philip Abelson, American Nobel physicist (b. 1913)
• August 3 – Henri Cartier-Bresson, French photographer (b. 1908)
• August 6 – Rick James, American musician (b. 1948)
• August 8 – Fay Wray, Canadian actress (b. 1907)
• August 12 – Godfrey Hounsfield, English Nobel electrical engineer and inventor (b. 1919)
• August 13 – Julia Child, American chef (b. 1912)
• August 14 – Czesław Miłosz, Polish-born Nobel writer (b. 1911)
• August 15 – Sune Bergström, Swedish Nobel biochemist (b. 1916)
• August 18 – Elmer Bernstein, American composer (b. 1922)
• August 24 – Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Swiss-born psychiatrist (b. 1926)
• August 26 – Laura Branigan, American singer (b. 1952)
• August 30 – Fred Lawrence Whipple, American astronomer (b. 1906)

September

• September 11 – Patriarch Peter VII of Alexandria (b. 1949)
• September 13 – Luis E. Miramontes, Mexican chemist (b. 1925)
• September 15 – Johnny Ramone, American guitarist (Ramones) (b. 1948)
• September 18 – Russ Meyer, American director and photographer (b. 1922)
• September 20 – Brian Clough, British football manager of Nottingham Forest and Derby County (b. 1935)
• September 22
  • Winston Cenac, 3rd Prime Minister of Saint Lucia (b. 1925)
  • Ray Traylor Jr., American professional wrestler (b. 1962)
• September 24 – Françoise Sagan, French writer (b. 1935)

October

• October 1 – Richard Avedon, American photographer (b. 1923)
• October 3 – Janet Leigh, American actress (b. 1927)
• October 4 – Gordon Cooper, American astronaut (b. 1927)
• October 5
  • Rodney Dangerfield, American comedian and actor (b. 1921)
  • Maurice Wilkins, New Zealand-born Nobel physicist (b. 1916)
• October 8 – Jacques Derrida, Algerian-born French literary critic (b. 1930)
• October 10 – Christopher Reeve, American actor and activist (b. 1952)
• October 25 – John Peel, British radio disc jockey (b. 1939)
• October 29 – Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester (b. 1901)

November

• November 2
  • Theo van Gogh, Dutch film director (b. 1957)
  • Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, 1st president of the United Arab Emirates (b. 1918)
• November 3 – Sergei Zholtok, Latvian hockey player (b. 1972)
• November 7 – Howard Keel, American singer and actor (b. 1919)
• November 9
  • Iris Chang, American journalist (b. 1968)
  • Emlyn Hughes, English footballer (b. 1947)
  • Stieg Larsson, Swedish writer (b. 1954)
• November 11 – Yasser Arafat, Palestinian Nobel leader (b. 1929)
• November 13 – Ol' Dirty Bastard, American rapper (b. 1968)
• November 19 – John Vane, British Nobel pharmacologist (b. 1927)
• November 23 – Rafael Eitan, Israeli politician (b. 1929)
• November 26 – Hans Schaffner, 69th President of Switzerland (b. 1908)

December

• December 1 – Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, Prince consort of the Netherlands (b. 1911)
• December 8 – Dimebag Darrell, American guitarist (Pantera and Damageplan) (b. 1966)
• December 19
  • Herbert C. Brown, English-born Nobel chemist (b. 1912)
  • Renata Tebaldi, Italian soprano (b. 1922)
• December 23 – P. V. Narasimha Rao, Indian politician, 10th Prime Minister of India (b. 1921)
• December 28
  • Jerry Orbach, American actor (b. 1935)
  • Susan Sontag, American writer and activist (b. 1933)
• December 29 – Julius Axelrod, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1912)
• December 30 – Artie Shaw, American musician (b. 1910)
• December 31 – Gérard Debreu, French-born Nobel economist (b. 1921)

Nobel Prizes

• Chemistry – Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko, Irwin Rose
• Economics – Finn E. Kydland, Edward C. Prescott
• Literature – Elfriede Jelinek
• Peace – Wangari Maathai
• Physics – David J. Gross, H. David Politzer, Frank Wilczek
• Physiology or Medicine – Linda B. Buck, Richard Axel

References