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 and the 21st century, and the 5th year of the 2000s decade.

2004

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Clockwise from top-left: Facebook, originally called TheFacebook, is launched by Mark Zuckerberg; the 2004 transit of Venus, the first such occurrence since 1882; NASA lands the Opportunity and Spirit rovers on Mars; the 2004 Summer Olympics are held in Athens; Al-Qaeda bombs multiple trains in Madrid, killing 193 people; the European Union adds 10 new member-states; 333 people are killed in the Beslan school siege, carried out by Chechen terrorists; a massive 9.1-9.3 megathrust earthquake off the coast of Sumatra and the resultant tsunami kill over 227,000 people—one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history.

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

2004 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	2004 MMIV
Ab urbe condita	2757
Armenian calendar	1453 ԹՎ ՌՆԾԳ
Assyrian calendar	6754
Baháʼí calendar	160–161
Balinese saka calendar	1925–1926
Bengali calendar	1410–1411
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) 4701 or 4494     — to — 甲申年 (Wood Monkey) 4702 or 4495
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

2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations,^[1] and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO).^[2]

Events

January

• January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashes into the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt, killing all 148 aboard, making it one of the deadliest aviation accidents in Egyptian history at the time.^[3]
• January 4 – NASA's MER-A (Spirit) spacecraft lands on the surface of Mars.^[4]
• January 6 – Construction on the tallest human-made structure to date, the Burj Khalifa begins in Dubai UAE.
• January 8 – The RMS Queen Mary 2, at the time the largest ocean liner ever built, is christened by its namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.^[5]
• January 25 – NASA's MER-B (Opportunity) spacecraft lands on the surface of Mars.^[6]
• January 26 – The MyDoom virus is first identified.^[7]

February

• February 4 – Mark Zuckerberg launches "TheFacebook", later renamed to Facebook, a social networking website for Harvard University students.^[8]
• February 13 – First EuroMillions transnational lottery drawn, in Paris.^[9]
• February 26 – Macedonian president Boris Trajkovski is killed in a plane crash near Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[10]
• February 29 – Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide is overthrown in a coup d'état.^[11]

March

• March 2 – A series of bombings occur in Karbala, Iraq, killing over 140 Shia Muslims commemorating the Day of Ashura.^[12]
• March 7 – The 2004 Greek legislative election is held to elect all 300 members of the Hellenic Parliament and the New Democracy party, led by Kostas Karamanlis, won 165 out of 300 seats, ending over 11 years of rule by the PASOK party.^[13]
• March 11 – Al-Qaeda bombings on Cercanías trains in Madrid, Spain, kill at least 192 people.^[14][15]
• March 14 – The PSOE wins the election in Spain; José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is elected Prime Minister of Spain, replacing José María Aznar.^[16]
• March 28 – Hurricane Catarina, the first ever recorded South Atlantic hurricane, makes landfall in Santa Catarina, Brazil.^[17]
• March 29 – Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia are admitted to NATO, the largest expansion of the organization.^[18]

April

• April 4 – The First Battle of Fallujah starts.
• 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.^[19]
• 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.^[20]

May

• May 1
  • The European Union expands by 10 new member states: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.^[21]
  • The First Battle of Fallujah ends.

• May 9 – A stadium bombing in Grozny, Chechnya, Russia kills ten people, including regional governor Akhmad Kadyrov.^[22]
• May 10 – 2004 Philippine presidential election: Incumbent president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo won a full six-year term as Philippine President.
• May 12–15 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2004 takes place in Istanbul, Turkey, and is won by Ukrainian entrant Ruslana with the song "Wild Dances".^[23]

June

• June 1 – A United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti begins, the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).
• June 4 – Marvin Heemeyer takes his modified and armoured Komatsu D355A bulldozer (killdozer) on a rampage through the town of Granby, Colorado, causing approximately 7 million dollars worth of damage.^[24]
• June 8 – 2004 transit of Venus.^[25]
• June 12–July 4 – Portugal hosts the UEFA Euro 2004 football tournament, which is won by Greece.
• June 21 – In Mojave, California, United States, SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.^[26]
• June 28 – The U.S.-led coalition occupying Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), transfers sovereignty to the Iraqi Interim Government.^[27]
• June 30 – Preliminary hearings begin in Iraq in the trial of president Saddam Hussein, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

July

• July 1 – The unpiloted Cassini–Huygens spacecraft arrives at Saturn.^[28]
• July 11 – The Russian Federation stops recognizing Soviet Union passports as legal identification.^[29]

August

• August 1 – A fire in the "Ycua Bolaños-Botánico" supermarket in Asunción, Paraguay kills around 400 people.^[30]
• August 3 – NASA's unpiloted MESSENGER spacecraft is launched, with its primary mission being the study of Mercury.^[31]
• August 12 – Lee Hsien Loong is sworn in as the third Prime Minister of Singapore.^[32]
• August 13–29 – The 2004 Summer Olympics are held in Athens, Greece.^[33]
• August 18 – Broadband internet connections surpass dial-up for the first time in the United States.^[34]
• August 22 – Armed robbers steal Edvard Munch's The Scream, Madonna, and other paintings from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway.^[35]
• August 24 – After departing Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow, Volga-AviaExpress Flight 1303, a Tupolev Tu-134, explodes over Russia's Tula Oblast and crashes, killing all 43 people on board; minutes later, Siberia Airlines Flight 1047, a Tupolev Tu-154 departing the same airport, explodes over Rostov Oblast and crashes, killing all 46 on board. The Government of Russia declares the explosions to have been caused by female Chechen suicide bombers.

September

• September 1 – Beslan school siege: Chechen rebels take 1,128 people, mostly children, hostage at a school in Beslan, Russia. The crisis ends when Russian security forces storm the building, resulting in more than 330 people being killed.^[36]
• September 9 – A car bomb of the Jemaah Islamiyah explodes at the Australian embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, killing 9 people.^[37]
• September 22 – West Sulawesi is established as the 33rd province of Indonesia.

October

• October 8 – Suicide bombers detonate two bombs at the Red Sea resort of Taba, Egypt, killing 34 people and injuring 171, mostly Israeli tourists.^[38]
• October 9 – 2004 Australian federal election: John Howard's Liberal/National Coalition government is re-elected with an increased majority, defeating the Labor Party led by Mark Latham.^[39]
• October 17 – Parque Central Complex fire: A fire that lasted over 15 hours destroyed almost one third of the East Tower of the Parque Central Urban Complex in Caracas, Venezuela.^[40]
• 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).^[41]
• October 20 – Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is sworn in as the 6th President of Indonesia, becoming the first directly elected president in Indonesia.^[42]
• October 27 – The Boston Red Sox win the World Series for the sixth time after completing a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals. It was their first championship since 1918.
• October 29 – European heads of state sign in Rome the Treaty and Final Act, establishing the first European Constitution.^[43]

November

• November 2 – 2004 United States presidential election: George W. Bush is re-elected President of the United States, defeating his Democratic challenger John Kerry.
• November 7 – The Second Battle of Fallujah starts.
• November 13 – The European Space Agency probe SMART-1 arrives at the Moon, becoming the first European satellite to fly to the Moon and orbit it.^[44]
• November 16 – NASA's hypersonic Scramjet breaks a record by reaching a velocity of about 7,000 mph (Mach 9.6) in an unpiloted experimental flight.^[45][46][47]
• November 21 – Nintendo releases the Nintendo DS, the best-selling handheld game console, in North America.
• 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.^[48]
• November 26 – The last known Po'ouli dies in captivity at the Maui Bird Conservation Center in Maui, Hawaii.
• November 30 – A McDonnell Douglas MD-82, operating as Lion Air Flight 538, overran the runway and crashed on a cemetery near Adisumarmo Airport, Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia, killing 25 people.^[49]

December

• December 14 – The world's tallest bridge, the Millau Viaduct over the Tarn in the Massif Central mountains, France, is officially opened.^[50]
• December 21 – Iraqi insurgents attack a U.S. military base in the city of Mosul, killing 22 people.^[51]
• December 23 – The Second Battle of Fallujah ends.
• 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, Somalia, the Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, killing 227,000 people.^[52]
• 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.^[53]
• December 30 – A fire in the República Cromañón nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina kills 194.^[54]
• December 31 – Taipei 101, at the time the tallest skyscraper in the world, standing at a height of 1,670 feet (510 m), officially opens.^[55]

Date unknown

• Metrocable (Medellín) Line K opens, the first modern urban transit cable car.^[56]

Culture

Media

Main articles: 2004 in film, 2004 in television, and 2004 in video games

2004 was a year marked by many popular and highly grossing film releases such as Shrek 2, Spider Man 2, The Incredibles, The Passion of the Christ and Howl's Moving Castle. 2004 was also the year where Toho Studios would release Godzilla's 50th anniversary movie, Godzilla: Final Wars, the last Godzilla movie until Legendary Entertainment's Godzilla in 2014, and the last Japanese Godzilla movie until Shin Godzilla in 2016.

Many shows would debut and end in 2004, with Friends airing its final episode on May 6, 2004 after nearly a decade on air, and Lost airing its first episode on September 22 of the same year. Tsuburaya Productions would air the highly controversial Ultraman Nexus, the 17th entry of the Ultra Series on October 2, 2004. Though the series was poorly received when it first began its broadcast, it is now seen as one of the best entries of the Ultra Series.

The gaming industry would see the release of many FPS and sequel games in 2004, with some of the most famous being Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas^[57] Halo 2,^[58] Metroid Prime 2: Echoes,^[59] Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door,^[60] and Half Life 2.^[61] These titles are considered some of the greatest video games of all time.^{[62][63][64][65]} The Nintendo DS also released this year, which grew to become the best-selling handheld console of all time.

Births and deaths

Main pages: Category:2004 births and Deaths in 2004

Nobel Prizes

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

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