Important Historical Events of the year 2004, Year 2004 in History
List of 2004 Major News Events in History, Most Important Historical Events in 2004
What happened in the year 2004?
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| January 1, 2004 | In a vote of confidence, General Pervez Musharraf wins 658 out of 1,170 votes in the Electoral College of Pakistan, and according to Article 41(8) of the Constitution of Pakistan, is "deemed to be elected" to the office of President until October 2007. |
| January 2, 2004 | Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that are returned to Earth. |
| January 3, 2004 | Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashes into the Red Sea, resulting in 148 deaths, making it one of the deadliest aviation accidents in Egyptian history. |
| January 4, 2004 | Spirit, a NASA Mars rover, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC. |
| January 4, 2004 | Mikheil Saakashvili is elected President of Georgia following the November 2003 Rose Revolution. |
| January 8, 2004 | The RMS Queen Mary 2, then the largest ocean liner ever built, is christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II. |
| January 9, 2004 | An inflatable boat carrying illegal Albanian emigrants stalls near the Karaburun Peninsula en route to Brindisi, Italy; exposure to the elements kills 28. This is the second deadliest marine disaster in Albanian history. |
| January 12, 2004 | The world's largest ocean liner, RMS Queen Mary 2, makes its maiden voyage. |
| January 14, 2004 | The national flag of the Republic of Georgia, the so-called "five cross flag", is restored to official use after a hiatus of some 500 years. |
| January 21, 2004 | NASA's MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies in the management of its flash memory and is fixed remotely from Earth on February 6. |
| February 1, 2004 | Hajj pilgrimage stampede: In a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, 251 people are trampled to death and 244 injured. |
| February 2, 2004 | Swiss tennis player Roger Federer becomes the No. 1 ranked men's singles player, a position he will hold for a record 237 weeks. |
| February 4, 2004 | Facebook, a mainstream online social networking site, is founded by Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin. |
| February 5, 2004 | Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaïves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion. |
| February 10, 2004 | Forty-three people are killed and three are injured when a Fokker 50 crashes near Sharjah International Airport. |
| February 12, 2004 | The city of San Francisco begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom. |
| February 13, 2004 | The Harvard |
| February 14, 2004 | In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 28 people, and wounding 193 others. |
| February 18, 2004 | Up to 295 people, including nearly 200 rescue workers, die near Nishapur, Iran, when a runaway freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertilizer catches fire and explodes. |
| February 24, 2004 | The 6.3 Mw Al Hoceima earthquake strikes northern Morocco with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). At least 628 people are killed, 926 are injured, and up to 15,000 are displaced. |
| February 27, 2004 | A bombing of a Superferry by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines' worst terrorist attack kills 116. |
| February 27, 2004 | Shoko Asahara, the leader of the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, is sentenced to death for masterminding the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack. |
| February 28, 2004 | Over one million Taiwanese participate in the 228 Hand-in-Hand rally form a 500-kilometre (310 mi) long human chain to commemorate the February 28 Incident in 1947. |
| February 29, 2004 | Jean-Bertrand Aristide is removed as president of Haiti following a coup. |
| March 2, 2004 | War in Iraq: Al-Qaeda carries out the Ashoura Massacre in Iraq, killing 170 and wounding over 500. |
| March 8, 2004 | A new constitution is signed by Iraq's Governing Council. |
| March 11, 2004 | Madrid train bombings: Simultaneous explosions on rush hour trains in Madrid, Spain kill 191 people. |
| March 12, 2004 | The President of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun, is impeached by its National Assembly: the first such impeachment in the nation's history. |
| March 17, 2004 | Unrest in Kosovo: More than 22 are killed and 200 wounded. Thirty-five Serbian Orthodox shrines in Kosovo and two mosques in Serbia are destroyed. |
| March 19, 2004 | Catalina affair: A Swedish DC-3 shot down by a Soviet MiG-15 in 1952 over the Baltic Sea is finally recovered after years of work. |
| March 19, 2004 | March 19 Shooting Incident: The Republic of China (Taiwan) president Chen Shui-bian is shot just before the country's presidential election on March 20. |
| March 22, 2004 | Ahmed Yassin, co-founder and leader of the Palestinian Sunni Islamist group Hamas, two bodyguards, and nine civilian bystanders are killed in the Gaza Strip when hit by Israeli Air Force Hellfire missiles. |
| March 27, 2004 | HMS Scylla, a decommissioned Leander-class frigate, is sunk as an artificial reef off Cornwall, the first of its kind in Europe. |
| March 29, 2004 | Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia join NATO as full members. |
| March 31, 2004 | Iraq War in Anbar Province: In Fallujah, Iraq, four American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed after being ambushed. |
| April 1, 2004 | Google launches its Email service Gmail. |
| April 2, 2004 | Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks attempt to bomb the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid; the attack is thwarted. |
| April 3, 2004 | Islamic terrorists involved in the 2004 Madrid train bombings are trapped by the police in their apartment and kill themselves. |
| April 6, 2004 | Rolandas Paksas becomes the first president of Lithuania to be peacefully removed from office by impeachment. |
| April 8, 2004 | War in Darfur: The Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement is signed by the Sudanese government, the Justice and Equality Movement, and the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army. |
| April 21, 2004 | Five suicide car bombers target police stations in and around Basra, killing 74 people and wounding 160. |
| April 24, 2004 | The United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction. |
| April 25, 2004 | The March for Women's Lives brings between 500,000 and 800,000 protesters, mostly pro-choice, to Washington D.C. to protest the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, and other restrictions on abortion. |
| April 28, 2004 | CBS News released evidence of the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse. The photographs show rape and abuse from the American troops over Iraqi detainees. |
| April 29, 2004 | The final Oldsmobile is built in Lansing, Michigan, ending 107 years of vehicle production. |
| April 30, 2004 | U.S. media release graphic photos of American soldiers committing war crimes against Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. |
| May 1, 2004 | Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union, celebrated at the residence of the Irish President in Dublin. |
| May 2, 2004 | The Yelwa massacre concludes. It began on 4 February 2004 when armed Muslims killed 78 Christians at Yelwa. In response, about 630 Muslims were killed by Christians on May 2nd. |
| May 7, 2004 | American businessman Nick Berg is beheaded by Islamic militants. The act is recorded on videotape and released on the Internet. |
| May 14, 2004 | The Constitutional Court of South Korea overturns the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun. |
| May 14, 2004 | Rico Linhas Aéreas Flight 4815 crashes into the Amazon rainforest during approach to Eduardo Gomes International Airport in Manaus, Brazil, killing 33 people. |
| May 15, 2004 | Arsenal F.C. go an entire league campaign unbeaten in the English Premier League, joining Preston North End F.C. with the right to claim the title "The Invincibles". |
| May 17, 2004 | The first legal same-sex marriages in the U.S. are performed in the state of Massachusetts. |
| May 26, 2004 | United States Army veteran Terry Nichols is found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the Oklahoma City bombing. |
| May 28, 2004 | The Iraqi Governing Council chooses Ayad Allawi, a longtime anti-Saddam Hussein exile, as prime minister of Iraq's interim government. |
| May 29, 2004 | The National World War II Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. |
| June 1, 2004 | Oklahoma City bombing co-conspirator Terry Nichols is sentenced to 161 consecutive life terms without the possibility of a parole, breaking a Guinness World Record. |
| June 5, 2004 | Noël Mamère, Mayor of Bègles, celebrates marriage for two men for the first time in France. |
| June 8, 2004 | The first Venus Transit in well over a century takes place, the previous one being in 1882. |
| June 11, 2004 | Cassini–Huygens makes its closest flyby of the Saturn moon Phoebe. |
| June 21, 2004 | SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight. |
| June 24, 2004 | In New York, capital punishment is declared unconstitutional. |
| June 28, 2004 | Iraq War: Sovereign power is handed to the interim government of Iraq by the Coalition Provisional Authority, ending the U.S.-led rule of that nation. |
| July 1, 2004 | Saturn orbit insertion of Cassini–Huygens begins at 01:12 UTC and ends at 02:48 UTC. |
| July 4, 2004 | The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid on the World Trade Center site in New York City. |
| July 4, 2004 | Greece beats Portugal in the UEFA Euro 2004 Final and becomes European Champion for first time in its history. |
| July 5, 2004 | The first direct Indonesian presidential election is held. |
| July 16, 2004 | Millennium Park, considered Chicago's first and most ambitious early 21st-century architectural project, is opened to the public by Mayor Richard M. Daley. |
| August 1, 2004 | A supermarket fire kills 396 people and injures 500 others in Asunción, Paraguay. |
| August 3, 2004 | The pedestal of the Statue of Liberty reopens after being closed since the September 11 attacks. |
| August 8, 2004 | A tour bus belonging to the Dave Matthews Band dumps approximately 800 pounds of human waste onto a boat full of passengers. |
| August 13, 2004 | One hundred fifty-six Congolese Tutsi refugees are massacred at the Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi. |
| August 17, 2004 | The National Assembly of Serbia unanimously adopts new state symbols for Serbia: Bože pravde becomes the new anthem and the coat of arms is adopted for the whole country. |
| August 19, 2004 | Google Inc. has its initial public offering on Nasdaq. |
| August 22, 2004 | Versions of The Scream and Madonna, two paintings by Edvard Munch, are stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo, Norway. |
| August 24, 2004 | Ninety passengers die after two airliners explode after flying out of Domodedovo International Airport, near Moscow. The explosions are caused by suicide bombers from Chechnya. |
| September 1, 2004 | The Beslan school siege begins when armed terrorists take schoolchildren and school staff hostage in North Ossetia, Russia; by the end of the siege, three days later, more than 385 people are dead (including hostages, other civilians, security personnel and terrorists). |
| September 3, 2004 | Beslan school siege results in over 330 fatalities, including 186 children. |
| September 8, 2004 | NASA's unmanned spacecraft Genesis crash-lands when its parachute fails to open. |
| September 15, 2004 | National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman announces lockout of the players' union and cessation of operations by the NHL head office. |
| September 16, 2004 | Hurricane Ivan makes landfall in Gulf Shores, Alabama as a Category 3 hurricane. |
| September 23, 2004 | Over 3,000 people die in Haiti after Hurricane Jeanne produces massive flooding and mudslides. |
| September 29, 2004 | The asteroid 4179 Toutatis passes within four lunar distances of Earth. |
| September 29, 2004 | Burt Rutan's Ansari SpaceShipOne performs a successful spaceflight, the first of two required to win the Ansari X Prize. |
| October 2, 2004 | The first parkrun, then known as the Bushy Park Time Trial, takes place in Bushy Park, London, UK. |
| October 4, 2004 | SpaceShipOne wins the Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight. |
| October 14, 2004 | MK Airlines Flight 1602 crashes during takeoff from Halifax Stanfield International Airport, killing all seven people on board. |
| October 14, 2004 | Pinnacle Airlines Flight 3701 crashes in Jefferson City, Missouri. The two pilots (the aircraft's only occupants) are killed. |
| October 19, 2004 | Thirteen people are killed when Corporate Airlines Flight 5966 crashes in Adair County, Missouri, whilst on approach to Kirksville Regional Airport. |
| October 23, 2004 | A powerful earthquake and its aftershocks hit Niigata Prefecture in northern Japan, killing 35 people, injuring 2,200, and leaving 85,000 homeless or evacuated. |
| October 24, 2004 | Arsenal Football Club loses to Manchester United, ending a row of unbeaten matches at 49 matches, which is the record in the Premier League. |
| October 26, 2004 | Rockstar Games releases Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the PlayStation 2 in North America, which sold 12 million units for the PS2, becoming the console's best-selling video game. |
| October 29, 2004 | The Arabic-language news network Al Jazeera broadcasts an excerpt from a 2004 Osama bin Laden video in which the terrorist leader first admits direct responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks and references the 2004 U.S. presidential election. |
| November 6, 2004 | An express train collides with a stationary car near the village of Ufton Nervet, England, killing seven and injuring 150. |
| November 7, 2004 | Iraq War: The interim government of Iraq calls for a 60-day state of emergency as U.S. forces storm the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. |
| November 8, 2004 | Iraq War: More than 10,000 U.S. troops and a small number of Iraqi army units participate in a siege on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah. |
| November 9, 2004 | Firefox 1.0 is released. |
| November 11, 2004 | New Zealand Tomb of the Unknown Warrior is dedicated at the National War Memorial, Wellington. |
| November 11, 2004 | The Palestine Liberation Organization confirms the death of Yasser Arafat from unidentified causes. Mahmoud Abbas is elected chairman of the PLO minutes later. |
| November 19, 2004 | The worst brawl in NBA history results in several players being suspended. Several players and fans are charged with assault and battery. |
| November 21, 2004 | The second round of the Ukrainian presidential election is held, giving rise to massive protests and controversy over the election's integrity. |
| November 21, 2004 | Dominica is hit by the most destructive earthquake in its history. The northern half of the island sustains the most damage, especially the town of Portsmouth. In neighboring Guadeloupe, one person is killed. |
| November 21, 2004 | The Paris Club agrees to write off 80% (up to $100 billion) of Iraq's external debt. |
| November 22, 2004 | The Orange Revolution begins in Ukraine, resulting from the presidential elections. |
| November 23, 2004 | The Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi, the largest religious building in Georgia, is consecrated. |
| November 26, 2004 | Ruzhou School massacre: A man stabs and kills eight people and seriously wounds another four in a school dormitory in Ruzhou, China. |
| November 26, 2004 | The last Poʻouli (Black-faced honeycreeper) dies of avian malaria in the Maui Bird Conservation Center in Olinda, Hawaii, before it could breed, making the species in all probability extinct. |
| November 27, 2004 | Pope John Paul II returns the relics of Saint John Chrysostom to the Eastern Orthodox Church. |
| November 30, 2004 | Lion Air Flight 538 overshoots the runway while landing at Adisumarmo International Airport and crashes, killing 25 people. |
| December 8, 2004 | The Cusco Declaration is signed in Cusco, Peru, establishing the South American Community of Nations. |
| December 8, 2004 | Columbus nightclub shooting: Nathan Gale opens fire at the Alrosa Villa nightclub in Columbus, Ohio, killing former Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell and three others before being shot dead by a police officer. |
| December 14, 2004 | The Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, is formally inaugurated near Millau, France. |
| December 20, 2004 | A gang of thieves steal £26.5 million worth of currency from the Donegall Square West headquarters of Northern Bank in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, one of the largest bank robberies in British history. |
| December 21, 2004 | Iraq War: A suicide bomber kills 22 at the forward operating base next to the main U.S. military airfield at Mosul, Iraq, the single deadliest suicide attack on American soldiers. |
| December 25, 2004 | The Cassini orbiter releases Huygens probe which successfully landed on Saturn's moon Titan on January 14, 2005. |
| December 26, 2004 | The 9.1–9.3 Mw Indian Ocean earthquake shakes northern Sumatra with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). One of the largest observed tsunamis, it affected coastal and partially mainland areas of Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Indonesia; death toll is estimated at 227,898. |
| December 26, 2004 | Orange Revolution: The final run-off election in Ukraine is held under heavy international scrutiny. |
| December 27, 2004 | Radiation from an explosion on the magnetar SGR 1806-20 reaches Earth. It is the brightest extrasolar event known to have been witnessed on the planet. |
| December 30, 2004 | A fire in the República Cromagnon nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina, kills 194. |
| December 31, 2004 | The official opening of Taipei 101, the tallest skyscraper at that time in the world, standing at a height of 509 metres (1,670 ft). |