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2004 (MMIV) was a leap year that started on a Thursday. In the Gregorian calendar, the year 2004 was the 2004th year of Anno Domini or the Common Era designation, the 4th year in the 3rd millennium and of the 21st century, and the 5th in the 2000s decade.

The year 2004 was designated the:

• International Year of Rice (by the United Nations)
• International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO)
• 2004 World Health Day topic was Road Safety (by World Health Organization)

Events[link]

January[link]

• January 1 – Pervez Musharraf wins a vote of confidence from an electoral college consisting of Parliament and the provincial assemblies, confirming him as President of Pakistan and de facto dictator until 2007.
• January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashes into the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt, killing all 148 aboard.
• January 4
  • Mikhail Saakashvili wins the presidential elections in Georgia.
  • NASA's MER-A (Spirit) lands on Mars at 04:35 UTC.
• January 8 – Queen Elizabeth II christens the RMS Queen Mary 2 cruise liner, the largest passenger ship afloat. The ship sets sail on her maiden voyage four days later.
• January 13 – Serial killer Harold Shipman is found hanged in his cell at Wakefield Prison, four years after being convicted of murdering 15 patients in Cheshire, England.
• January 24 – NASA's MER-B (Opportunity) lands on Mars at 05:05 UTC.
• January 26 – A whale explodes in Tainan City, Taiwan, while being transported through the town to a university for a necropsy.^[1]
• January 28 – The findings of the Hutton Inquiry are published in London. The British Government is found not to have falsified information in the "sexed up dossier." The report criticizes the BBC's role in the death of David Kelly, a weapons expert on Iraq.

February[link]

• February 1
  • A hajj stampede in Mina, Saudi Arabia, kills 251 pilgrims.
  • The New England Patriots win Super Bowl XXXVIII.
• February 2 – An 11-story apartment building collapses in Konya, Turkey, killing more than 90 residents.
• February 3
  • The CIA admits that there was no imminent threat from weapons of mass destruction before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
  • Jóannes Eidesgaard becomes prime minister of the Faroe Islands.
• February 6 – A suicide bomber kills 41 people on a metro car in Moscow.
• February 7 – Several leaders of Abnaa el-Balad are arrested in Israel.
• February 10
  • At least 50 people are killed in a car bomb attack on a police recruitment centre south of Baghdad.
  • The French National Assembly votes to pass a law banning religious items and clothing from schools.
• February 12 – San Francisco, California, begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in an act of civil disobedience.
• February 13
  • Athens gets hit by a major blizzard which blankets the entire city for days, causing widespread havoc.
  • Scientists in South Korea announce the cloning of 30 human embryos.
• February 14
  • Riots break out between New South Wales Police and Aboriginal residents of Redfern, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia.
  • The roof of the Transvaal water park in Moscow collapses, killing 25 and injuring more than 100.
• February 17–February 20 – A nor'easter blizzard devastates Atlantic Canada, dumping more than 37.4 in. (95 cm.) on some areas.
• February 18 – A train carrying a convoy of petrol, fertiliser, and sulphur derails and explodes in Iran, killing 320 people.
• February 20 – Conservatives win a majority in the Iranian parliament election.
• February 24 – A 6.5 Richter scale earthquake in Northern Morocco hits in the Rif mountains near the city of Al Hoceima, killing 400. Ait Kamara is destroyed; 517 are killed.
• February 26
  • The United States lifts a 23-year travel ban against Libya.
  • Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski is killed in a plane crash near Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• February 27 – 2004 SuperFerry 14 bombing: The Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group is blamed for the deadliest terrorist attack at sea in world history, which kills 116 in the Philippines.
• February 28 – Over 1 million Taiwanese participating in the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally form a 500-kilometre (310 mi) long human chain to commemorate the 228 Incident in 1947.
• February 29 – 2004 Haiti rebellion: Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns as president of Haiti. The chief justice of the Haitian Supreme Court, Boniface Alexandre, is sworn in as interim president.

March[link]

Cyclone Gafilo

• March 2 – NASA announces that the Mars rover MER-B (Opportunity) has confirmed that its landing area was once drenched in water.
• March 10 – Five British men are released from detention at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay. After they land at RAF Brize Norton, 4 of them are immediately arrested for questioning.
• March 11 – Terrorists execute simultaneous attacks, with bombs in 4 rush-hour trains in Madrid, killing 191 people.
• March 12 – Following the terrorist attacks in Madrid the previous day, millions of protesters against terrorism take to the streets of Spanish cities.
• March 14
  • Two suicide bombers kill 11 Israeli civilians in Ashdod, Israel.
  • Spanish legislative election, 2004: The incumbent government led by José María Aznar is defeated by the Socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
  • Russian presidential election, 2004: Vladimir Putin easily wins a second term.
• March 15 – The new Spanish Government announces that it will withdraw Spain's 1,300 troops in Iraq.
• March 16 - Fifteen-year-old Scottish boy Kriss Donald abducted, tortured and murdered by Pakistani gang in racially motivated attack in Glasgow.
• March 17 – A pogrom-like organized violence breaks out over 2 days in Kosovo; 19 people are killed, 8000 Serbian homes burned, schools and businesses vandalized, and over 300 Orthodox monasteries and churches burned and destroyed.
• March 19 – The United Nations launches a political corruption investigation due to the scandal over its Iraqi Oil for Food program.
• March 20 – President Chen Shui-bian wins the Taiwanese presidential election by 0.2% of the vote. The day before, he and Vice President Annette Lu were shot. Lien Chan refuses to concede and demands a recount. A controversial peace referendum opposed by the People's Republic of China is invalidated.
• March 21 – Salvadoran presidential election, 2004: Antonio Saca is elected President of El Salvador.
• March 22 – Palestinians protest in the streets after an Israeli helicopter gunship fires a missile at the entourage of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in Gaza City, killing him and 7 others.
• March 25 – British prime minister Tony Blair visits Libyan leader Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi, in return for the dismantling of Libya's weapons of mass destruction programme in December 2003 (the first time a major western leader had visited the nation in several decades).
• March 28
  • In France, the government of prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin suffers a stunning and unprecedented defeat in regional elections.
  • The first ever reported South Atlantic hurricane makes landfall in South Brazil in the state of Santa Catarina – the hurricane is dubbed Hurricane Catarina.
• March 29
  • The Republic of Ireland bans smoking in all enclosed work places, including restaurants, pubs and bars.
  • The largest expansion of NATO to date takes place, allowing Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia into the organization.
• March 31 – Four American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA are killed, and their bodies mutilated, after being ambushed in Fallujah, Iraq.

April[link]

• April 5 – Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom begins a state visit to France to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale.
• April 8 – Darfur conflict: The Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement is signed by the Sudanese government and 2 rebel groups.
• April 17 – Israeli helicopters fire missiles at a convoy of vehicles in the Gaza Strip, killing the Gaza leader of Hamas, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi.
• April 20 – In Iraq, 12 mortars are fired on Abu Ghraib Prison by insurgents; 22 detainees are killed and 92 wounded. [1]
• April 21 – Mordechai Vanunu, who revealed an Israeli nuclear weapons program in the 1980s, is released from prison in Israel after serving 18 years for treason.
• April 22
  • Ryongchon disaster: Two trains carrying explosives and fuel collide in Ryongchon, North Korea, killing 161 people, injuring 1,300 and destroying thousands of homes.
  • The last coal mine in France closes, ending nearly 300 years of coal mining.
• April 24 – Referendums on the Annan Plan for Cyprus, which proposes to re-unite 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.
• April 28 – Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse in Iraq is revealed on the television show 60 Minutes II.
• April 29 – The last Oldsmobile rolls off of the assembly line.

May[link]

European Union flag

• 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.
• May 4 – the Toronto Maple Leafs played their last NHL playoff game.
• May 6 – The series finale of Friends airs on NBC.
• 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 9 – Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov is killed by a landmine placed under a VIP stage during a World War II memorial parade in Grozny.
• May 10 – Philippine general election, 2004: Incumbent president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is elected for a 6-year term.
• May 12 – An American civilian contractor in Iraq, Nick Berg, is shown being decapitated by a group allegedly linked to al-Qaida on a web-distributed video.
• May 14 – Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, marries Australian Mary Donaldson in Copenhagen.
• May 15 – South Africa is awarded the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
• May 16 – A coup d'état in Chad against President Idriss Déby fails.
• May 17
  • Ezzedine Salim, holder of the rotating leadership of the Iraq Interim Governing Council, is killed in a bomb blast in Baghdad.
  • Massachusetts legalizes same-sex marriage, in compliance with a ruling from the state's Supreme Judicial Court (Goodridge v. Department of Public Health).
• May 19 – Jeremy Sivits pleads guilty in a court-martial in connection with alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
• May 22 – Dr. Manmohan Singh assumes office as the 17th and first Sikh Prime Minister of the Republic Of India.
• May 23
  • A section of the ceiling in Terminal 2E at Paris's Charles de Gaulle International Airport collapses, claiming at least 6 lives.
  • Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi visits North Korea, to secure the release of the families of the 9 abducted Japanese citizens returned earlier.
• May 24 – North Korea bans mobile phones (see Communications in North Korea).
• May 26
  • Terry Nichols is convicted by an Oklahoma state court on murder charges stemming from the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
  • F.C. Porto wins the European Champion Clubs Cup, defeating A.S. Monaco 3–0.
• May 29 – The National World War II Memorial is dedicated in Washington, DC.
• May 30 – Thousands of people in Hong Kong take to the streets to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

June[link]

• June 1
  • Sasebo slashing: Satomi Mitarai, a 12-year-old Japanese schoolgirl attending Okubo Elementary School in Sasebo, Japan, is murdered. Her killer is an 11-year-old classmate identified by Japanese authorities as "Girl A".
  • Salvadoran presidential election, 2004: Antonio Saca is inaugurated as the President of El Salvador
• June 3
  • All outgoing flights from the UK are temporarily grounded following an air traffic control computer failure. BBC NEWS
  • Central Intelligence Agency director 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 with a home-made tank in Granby, Colorado.
• June 8
  • The first transit of Venus since 1882 occurs; the next one will occur in 2012.
  • The 30th G8 summit takes place over the next 2 days on Sea Island, in Georgia, USA.
  • The pickled heart of Louis XVII of France is buried in the royal crypt at Saint-Denis.
• June 11 – Terry Nichols is spared the death penalty by an Oklahoma state court on murder charges stemming from the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. The decision comes on the third anniversary of the execution of his co-defendant, Timothy McVeigh, in Terre Haute, Indiana.
• June 12 – A 1.3 kg chondrite type meteorite strikes a house in Ellerslie, New Zealand, causing serious damage but no injuries.
• June 16 – The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (or "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 28–29 – The 2004 Istanbul Summit is held.
• June 28
  • 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.
  • The U.S.-led coalition occupying Iraq transfers sovereignty to an Iraqi Interim Government.
  • Canadian federal election, 2004: The Liberal Party, led by Paul Martin, is reduced to a minority government, after holding a majority since November 1993.
• June 30 – Preliminary hearings begin in Iraq in the trial of former president Saddam Hussein, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.