January and
January 24:
Spirit and
Opportunity land on Mars •
January 4 –
NASA's
MER-A (
Spirit) lands on
Mars at 04:35 UTC. •
January 11 • The
Philadelphia Eagles defeat the
Green Bay Packers in the Divisional Round of the
2003–04 NFL playoffs at
Lincoln Financial Field in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, known as "
4th and 26". •
Drake & Josh premieres on
Nickelodeon. •
January 19 • U.S. Senator
John Kerry (D-MA) wins the
Iowa Democratic caucus. Former
Vermont Governor
Howard Dean's concession speech ends with a
lively but controversial scream. • British children's television series
Boohbah (made by
Ragdoll Productions who also made
Teletubbies) begins its first ever television premiere in the U.S. on
PBS KIDS. •
January 20 –
State of the Union Address. •
January 24 –
NASA's
MER-B (
Opportunity) lands on
Mars at 05:05 UTC. •
January 25 –
World Wrestling Entertainment holds its
Royal Rumble pay-per-view event from the
Wachovia Center in
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. •
January 28 – At a hearing of the
9/11 Commission, it is revealed that, in the
September 11 attacks, terrorists used
Mace, a brand of
tear gas or
pepper spray, in overpowering the flight crew of
American Airlines Flight 11.
February •
February 1 – The
New England Patriots win
Super Bowl XXXVIII by defeating the
Carolina Panthers 32–29 at
Reliant Stadium in
Houston. The
halftime show becomes one of the most
controversial events in television history, as
Janet Jackson's breast is exposed to an audience of 143.6 million viewers. •
February 3 – The
CIA admits that there was no imminent threat from
weapons of mass destruction before the
2003 invasion of Iraq. •
February 4 –
Mark Zuckerberg launches "TheFacebook", later renamed to
Facebook, a social networking website for
Harvard University students. •
February 9 –
Disappearance of Maura Murray: A 21-year-old nursing student disappears this evening after a car crash on
Route 112 near
Woodsville, New Hampshire, in
Haverhill. Her whereabouts remain unknown. •
February 12 –
Same sex marriage in the United States: The
City and County of San Francisco begins
issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples as an act of
civil disobedience. •
February 14 –
Jetix is introduced on
Toon Disney and
ABC Family, making it the first trade-name to be introduced as an anime-based block. •
February 15 –
World Wrestling Entertainment holds its
No Way Out pay-per-view event from the
Cow Palace in
Daly City, California. •
February 26 – The United States lifts a ban on travel to
Libya, ending travel restrictions to the nation that had lasted for 23 years. •
February 29 – The
76th Academy Awards, hosted by
Billy Crystal, are held at the
Kodak Theatre in
Hollywood, California, with
Peter Jackson's
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King winning a record-tying 11 Oscars (tied with 1959's
Ben-Hur and 1997's
Titanic), including
Best Picture and
Best Director. The film also breaks the record tied by 1958's
Gigi and 1987's
The Last Emperor for the largest sweep for a single film in Oscar history. The telecast garners nearly 43.6 million viewers, making it the most-watched broadcast since 2000.
March •
March 2 •
NASA announces that the
Mars rover
MER-B (
Opportunity) has confirmed that its landing area was once drenched in water. •
John Kerry effectively clinches the
2004 Democratic Party presidential nomination by winning nine out of 10 "
Super Tuesday" primaries and caucuses. •
March 12 –
Marcus Wesson is arrested in
Fresno, California, after killing nine family members. Wesson had built a cult around his family and had molested and "married" several of his daughters. He was sentenced to death in 2005. •
March 14 –
World Wrestling Entertainment holds
WrestleMania XX at
Madison Square Garden in
New York City, New York. •
March 31 – Four American
private military contractors working for
Blackwater USA are killed and their bodies mutilated after being ambushed in
Fallujah,
Iraq.
April :
Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse revealed •
April 2 –
Walt Disney Pictures' 45th feature film,
Home on the Range, is released to mixed reviews and middling box office numbers. It is the studio's last traditionally-animated film until 2009's
The Princess and the Frog (not counting the animation in the 2007 movie
Enchanted). •
April 22 –
Pat Tillman, a former
NFL player who enlisted in the
US Army, is killed by
friendly fire in eastern
Afghanistan. The U.S. military does not reveal this to the public until weeks later, after initially saying he was killed by enemy combatants. •
April 28 –
Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse is revealed on the television show
60 Minutes II. •
April 29 – The last
Oldsmobile rolls off of the assembly line.
May •
May – Emergence of cicada
Brood X (Brood 10) begins in the eastern United States. •
May 4 – A
WNBC helicopter crashes in the
Flatbush neighborhood of
Brooklyn, New York. This event is covered by rival station
WABC-TV. •
May 6 – The final episode of
Friends airs on
NBC, drawing an estimated 66 million viewers in
North America. Advertisers pay $2 million for 30 second ads. •
May 8 – Would-be "Saudi Princess" Antoinette Millard surfaces in
New York City, claiming that muggers had stolen jewels worth of $262,000 from her (she later proves to be an
impostor). •
May 12 – An American civilian contractor in Iraq,
Nick Berg, is shown being decapitated by a group allegedly linked to
al-Qaeda on an Internet-distributed video. They state it is retaliation for the abuse at
Abu Ghraib prison. •
May 13 – The final episode of
Frasier airs on
NBC. The episode was viewed by 33.7 million people, being the 11th most-watched series finale and the 7th most watched from NBC. •
May 14 –
Lynn Turner is convicted of the 1995 murder of her husband Glenn Turner by poisoning him with anti-freeze. She is also accused of the murder of her second husband, Randy Thompson. •
May 16 –
World Wrestling Entertainment holds its
Judgment Day pay-per-view event from the
Staples Center in
Los Angeles,
California. •
May 17 –
Massachusetts legalizes
same-sex marriage in compliance with a ruling from the state's
Supreme Court ruling in the case of
Goodridge v. Department of Public Health. •
May 26 •
Fantasia Barrino wins season 3 of
American Idol. •
Terry Nichols is convicted by an
Oklahoma state court on murder charges stemming from the 1995
Oklahoma City bombing. •
May 29 – Dedication of the
National World War II Memorial takes place in
Washington, D.C. June : Former president
Ronald Reagan dies at 93. A
six day state funeral follows. •
June 3 –
Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet tenders his resignation, citing "personal reasons".
John E. McLaughlin,
CIA Deputy Director, becomes the acting director until a permanent director is chosen and confirmed by Congress. •
June 4 –
Marvin Heemeyer destroys many local buildings and vehicles with a modified bulldozer in
Granby, Colorado. He takes away his life after the rampage. •
June 5 –
Ronald Reagan, the 40th
president of the United States,
dies at his home in
Bel-Air,
California, at the age of 93. A six-day
state funeral follows after his death. •
June 8–
9 – The
G8 Summit takes place on
Sea Island, in
Georgia, United States. •
June 11 • The national funeral service for Ronald Reagan is held at the
National Cathedral in
Washington, D.C. • Terry Nichols is spared the death penalty by an Oklahoma state court on murder charges stemming from the 1995
Oklahoma City bombing, exactly three years after his co-defendant,
Timothy McVeigh, was executed for his role in the bombing. •
June 13 –
World Wrestling Entertainment holds its
Bad Blood pay-per-view event from the
Nationwide Arena in
Columbus, Ohio. •
June 15 – The
Detroit Pistons defeat the
Los Angeles Lakers in the
2004 NBA Finals in five games to win their third NBA championship. •
June 16 – The
9/11 Commission issues an initial report of its findings. •
June 21 – In
Mojave, California,
SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded
spaceplane to achieve
spaceflight. •
June 27 –
World Wrestling Entertainment holds its
The Great American Bash pay-per-view event from the
Norfolk Scope in
Norfolk, Virginia. •
June 28 • The U.S.-led
coalition occupying Iraq transfers
sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government. •
Union Pacific and
Burlington Northern Santa Fe trains collide in a rural area outside of
San Antonio,
Texas; 40 cars are derailed, including one
chlorine car. Three people die, another 50 people are hospitalized because of exposure to the gas. •
June 30 –
Spider-Man 2 is released in theaters.
July :
John Kerry, Democratic presidential nominee •
July 4 – A symbolic
cornerstone is laid for the re-construction of
One World Trade Center in
New York City. •
July 11 –
World Wrestling Entertainment holds its
Vengeance pay-per-view event from the
Hartford Civic Center in
Hartford, Connecticut. •
July 25 –
Lance Armstrong wins a record 6th consecutive
Tour de France cycling title. •
July 26–
29 – The
Democratic National Convention in
Boston, Massachusetts, nominates
John Kerry for U.S. president and
John Edwards for vice president. Future President
Barack Obama delivers the keynote address. •
July 31 – "
The Last Dispatch" concert is played as a reunion concert with the band
Dispatch on the Hatch Shell in
Boston; 110,000 people attend, making it the single largest gathering in independent
music industry history.
August •
August 3 • The
Statue of Liberty reopens after security improvements. •
NASA's
MESSENGER is launched (it was captured into Mercury's orbit on March 18, 2011). •
August 12 –
New Jersey Governor
James McGreevey announces that he is "a
gay American" and will resign effective
November 15, 2004. •
August 13 –
Hurricane Charley kills 27 people in
Florida, after killing four in
Cuba and one in
Jamaica. Charley makes landfall near Cayo Costa, Florida as a
Category 4 hurricane. Charley is the most intense hurricane to strike the United States since
Hurricane Andrew in 1992. •
August 13–
29 – The
United States compete at the
Summer Olympics in
Athens,
Greece, and win 36 gold, 39 silver, and 27 bronze medals. •
August 19 –
Google becomes a publicly traded company via
initial public offering. •
August 29 – Around 200,000 protesters demonstrate in
New York City against
President George W. Bush and his government, ahead of the
Republican National Convention. •
August 30–
September 2 – U.S. President
George W. Bush and Vice President
Dick Cheney are re-nominated at the
Republican National Convention in
New York City. • August –
Shadowville Productions business is founded in Brooklyn, New York.
September •
September 3 –
Hurricane Frances makes landfall in
Florida. After killing two people in the
Bahamas, Hurricane Frances kills 10 people in
Florida, two in
Georgia and one in
South Carolina. •
September 4 –
Thomas & Friends comes to
PBS KIDS as a stand-alone program with
Michael Brandon taking over as the narrator. •
September 8 – In the
"Rathergate" affair, the first
Internet posts appear pointing out that documents claimed by
CBS News to be typewritten memos from the early 1970s appear instead to have been produced using modern
word processing systems. •
September 12 –
World Wrestling Entertainment holds its
Unforgiven pay-per-view event from the
Rose Garden in
Portland, Oregon. •
September 13 – The U.S.
Federal Assault Weapons Ban expires. •
September 16 –
Hurricane Ivan strikes
Gulf Shores,
Alabama, as a Category 3 storm, killing 25 in
Alabama and
Florida, becoming the third-costliest hurricane in American history at the time. •
September 23 •
Tropical Storm Ivan, having come around and re-formed in the
Gulf of Mexico, makes its final landfall near
Cameron, Louisiana, to little effect. In total, the storm kills 92 people. •
Mount St. Helens becomes
active again. •
September 24 –
Major League Baseball announces that the
Montreal Expos will move to Washington, D.C., in 2005. •
September 25 –
Hurricane Jeanne makes landfall near
Port Saint Lucie, Florida, near the location
Hurricane Frances hit two weeks earlier. Jeanne kills over 3,030, mostly in
Haiti. •
September 28 – A redesigned
$50 bill is released, containing many of the same security features as its recently released $20 counterpart. •
September 29 – In
Mojave, California, the first
Ansari X-Prize flight takes place of
SpaceShipOne, which is competing with a number of spacecraft (including Canada's
Da Vinci Project, claimed to be its closest rival) and goes on to win the prize on October 4. •
September 30 – First
debate of the
2004 United States presidential election.
October •
October 3 –
World Wrestling Entertainment holds its
No Mercy pay-per-view event from the
Continental Airlines Arena in
East Rutherford, New Jersey. •
October 5 –
Vice presidential debate between candidates
Dick Cheney and
John Edwards. •
October 8 –
Second presidential debate. •
October 11 –
PBS Kids debuts a programming block targeted at children aged 6–10 entitled
PBS Kids Go!, with new shows
Maya & Miguel and an
Arthur spinoff,
Postcards from Buster, debuting on this day with
Cyberchase and
Arthur moving to PBS Kids Go! from PBS Kids. •
October 13 –
Third presidential debate. •
October 16 – The
New York Yankees defeat the
Boston Red Sox by a score of 19–8 in Game 3 of
Major League Baseball's
American League Championship Series. The game, which pushes the Yankees to a 3–0 series lead, sets a record for longest nine-inning major league game. The Red Sox, however, rally to win the series in seven games. •
October 18 –
Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley Starling founds
Fandom, Inc. •
October 19 –
World Wrestling Entertainment holds its
Taboo Tuesday pay-per-view event from the
Bradley Center in
Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. •
October 20 •
Corporate Airlines Flight 5966 crashes in
Missouri, killing 13 people and injuring two. • The
Boston Red Sox defeat the
New York Yankees in Game 7 of the
ALCS to advance to the World Series after being
down 3–0 in the series. •
October 25 –
Martin Luther King Jr. and
Coretta Scott King receive the
Congressional Gold Medal. •
October 27 – The
Boston Red Sox defeat the
St. Louis Cardinals in four games to win the
World Series for the first time since
1918, breaking the
Curse of the Bambino. •
October 29 –
A videotape of
Osama bin Laden speaking airs on Arabic television, in which he threatens terrorist attacks on the United States and taunts
President George W. Bush over the
September 11 terrorist attacks.
November :
George W. Bush re-elected president : The release of the
Nintendo DS in the US •
November 2 • The
2004 United States presidential election is held. The United States re-elects
George W. Bush of the
Republican Party to a second term as
President of the United States, defeating
John Kerry. • 11 American states ban
gay marriage. •
November 5 –
Pixar Animation Studios' sixth feature film,
The Incredibles, is released in theaters. •
November 7 –
Second Battle of Fallujah:
U.S. Forces launch a major assault on the
Iraqi town of
Fallujah, in an effort to rid the area of insurgents before the Iraqi elections in January. •
November 14 •
World Wrestling Entertainment holds its
Survivor Series pay-per-view event from the
Gund Arena in
Cleveland,
Ohio. •
United States Secretary of State Colin Powell submits his resignation. He is replaced by
Condoleezza Rice after her confirmation by the
United States Congress. •
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 19 •
Nickelodeon's The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, based on the
cartoon of the same name is released, earning $9,559,752 on its opening day, and then $85,417,988 on the weekend alone only behind
National Treasure. • The NBA's
Indiana Pacers and
Detroit Pistons engage in a
brawl that involves fans and players after the game is called with 45.9 seconds left in the game. The incident gets (then) Pacer
Ron Artest suspended for the remainder of the season. •
November 21 • The
Nintendo DS is released in the United States. •
November 30 • John Green and Charlie Haddad, who were involved in the Pacers-Pistons brawl on November 19, are banned from attending Pistons home games for life. •
Ken Jennings loses to Nancy Zerg, ending his 74-game winning streak on
Jeopardy!.
December •
December 2 –
Brian Williams replaces
Tom Brokaw as weeknight anchor for
NBC Nightly News. •
December 3 – The
Colombian government extradites
Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, one of the most powerful drug dealers in the world, arrested in 1995 and 2003, to the United States. •
December 6 – Terrorists attack the U.S. Consulate in
Jeddah,
Saudi Arabia, killing several people. •
December 8 • The biggest Chinese
PC producer
Lenovo announces its plan to purchase
IBM's global PC business, making it the world's third largest PC producer after
Dell and
Hewlett-Packard. • Former
Pantera guitarist
"Dimebag" Darrell Abbott is murdered on stage by gunman Nathan Gale in
Columbus, Ohio. Gale kills three others before being shot dead by police. •
December 12 –
World Wrestling Entertainment holds its
Armageddon pay-per-view event from the
Gwinnett Center in
Duluth, Georgia. •
December 16 – Twenty-three-year-old pregnant woman
Bobbie Jo Stinnett is found murdered in her home in
Skidmore, Missouri. Her unborn baby has been cut out of her womb and is missing. •
December 21 – Iraqi insurgents attack a U.S. military base in the city of
Mosul, killing 22 people. •
December 23 –
Second Battle of Fallujah: US-UK-Iraqi forces defeat the remaining
Iraqi insurgents in
Fallujah. •
December 26 • Thirty-five
Americans are among the
victims of the
2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in across the region of
South and
Southeast Asia. There were fatalities in 14 countries, including
India,
Sri Lanka, and
Thailand. • U.S. President George W. Bush issues a statement expressing his condolences to those who lost loved ones during the
tsunami. •
December 29 – U.S. President George W. Bush speaks out publicly about the deaths caused by the
9.1 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in
Indian Ocean and answers questions at the
Prairie Chapel Ranch. •
December 31 • U.S. President George W. Bush announces his committing of $350 million to
support relief efforts for the "disaster around the Indian Ocean". •
Simón Trinidad, high-profile
FARC leader, is extradited to the United States.
Ongoing •
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) •
Iraq War (2003–2011)
Undated • "55% of adult internet users have
broadband at home or work." == Births ==