Calendar year
Clockwise from top-left:Facebook , originally calledTheFacebook , is launched byMark Zuckerberg ; the2004 transit of Venus , the first such occurrence since1882 ;NASA lands theOpportunity Spirit rovers onMars ; the2004 Summer Olympics are held inAthens ;Al-Qaeda bombs multiple trains inMadrid , killing 193 people; theEuropean Union adds 10 new member-states; 334 people are killed in theBeslan school siege , carried out byChechen terrorists; a massive 9.1-9.3megathrust earthquake off the coast ofSumatra and the resultanttsunami kill over 227,000 people—one of theworst natural disasters in recorded history. Calendar year
2004 by topic By international organization
2004 (MMIV ) was aleap year starting on Thursday of theGregorian calendar , the 2004th year of theCommon Era (CE) andAnno Domini 3rd millennium and the21st century , and the 5th year of the2000s decade.
Calendar year
2004 was designated as anInternational Year of Rice by the United Nations,[ 1] International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (byUNESCO ).[ 2]
March 2 –A series of bombings occur inKarbala , Iraq, killing over 140Shia Muslims commemorating theDay of Ashura .[ 12] March 7 – The2004 Greek legislative election is held to elect all 300 members of theHellenic Parliament and theNew Democracy party, led byKostas Karamanlis , won 165 out of 300 seats, ending over 11 years of rule by thePASOK party.[ 13] March 11 –Al-Qaeda bombings onCercanías trains inMadrid , Spain, kill at least 192 people.[ 14] [ 15] March 14 – ThePSOE wins theelection in Spain;José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is electedPrime Minister of Spain , replacingJosé María Aznar .[ 16] March 28 –Hurricane Catarina , the first ever recorded South Atlantic hurricane, makes landfall inSanta Catarina , Brazil.[ 17] March 29 –Bulgaria ,Estonia ,Latvia ,Lithuania ,Romania ,Slovakia andSlovenia are admitted toNATO , the largest expansion of the organization.[ 18] June 1 – AUnited Nations peacekeeping mission inHaiti begins, theUnited Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).June 4 –Marvin Heemeyer takes his modified and armouredKomatsu D355Abulldozer (killdozer ) on a rampage through the town ofGranby, Colorado , causing approximately 7 million dollars worth of damage.[ 24] June 8 –2004 transit of Venus .[ 25] June 12 –July 4 –Portugal hosts theUEFA Euro 2004 football tournament, which is won byGreece .June 21 – InMojave, California , United States,SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately fundedspaceplane to achievespaceflight .[ 26] June 28 – The U.S.-led coalition occupying Iraq, theCoalition Provisional Authority (CPA), transfers sovereignty to theIraqi Interim Government .[ 27] June 30 – Preliminary hearings begin inIraq in the trial of presidentSaddam Hussein , forwar crimes andcrimes against humanity .August 1 – A fire in the"Ycua Bolaños-Botánico" supermarket inAsunción , Paraguay kills around 400 people.[ 30] August 3 –NASA 's unpilotedMESSENGER Mercury .[ 31] August 12 –Lee Hsien Loong is sworn in as the thirdPrime Minister of Singapore .[ 32] August 13 –29 – The2004 Summer Olympics are held inAthens , Greece.[ 33] August 18 –Broadband internet connections surpassdial-up for the first time in the United States.[ 34] August 22 – Armed robbers stealEdvard Munch 'sThe Scream Madonna Munch Museum inOslo , Norway.[ 35] August 24 – After departingDomodedovo International Airport inMoscow ,Volga-AviaExpress Flight 1303 , aTupolev Tu-134 , explodes overRussia 'sTula Oblast and crashes, killing all 43 people on board; minutes later,Siberia Airlines Flight 1047 , aTupolev Tu-154 departing the same airport, explodes overRostov Oblast and crashes, killing all 46 on board. TheGovernment of Russia declares the explosions to have been caused by femaleChechen suicide bombers .October 8 – Suicide bombersdetonate two bombs at theRed Sea resort ofTaba, Egypt , killing 34 people and injuring 171, mostly Israeli tourists.[ 38] October 9 –2004 Australian federal election :John Howard 'sLiberal /National Coalition government is re-elected with an increased majority, defeating theLabor Party led byMark Latham .[ 39] October 17 –Parque Central Complex fire : A fire that lasted over 15 hours destroyed almost one third of the East Tower of theParque Central Urban Complex inCaracas , Venezuela.[ 40] October 19 – A team of explorers reach the bottom ofKrubera 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 6thPresident of Indonesia , becoming the first directly elected president in Indonesia.[ 42] October 27 – TheBoston Red Sox win theWorld Series for the sixth time after completing a sweep of theSt. Louis Cardinals . It was their first championship since1918 .October 29 – European heads of state sign in Rome the Treaty and Final Act, establishing the firstEuropean Constitution .[ 43] November 2 –2004 United States presidential election :George W. Bush is re-electedPresident of the United States , defeating his Democratic challengerJohn Kerry .November 7 – TheSecond Battle of Fallujah starts.November 13 – TheEuropean Space Agency probeSMART-1 arrives at theMoon , becoming the first European satellite to fly to the Moon and orbit it.[ 44] November 16 –NASA 'shypersonic Scramjet Mach 9.6) in an unpiloted experimental flight.[ 45] [ 46] [ 47] November 21 –Nintendo releases theNintendo DS , the best-selling handheld game console, in North America.November 22 – TheOrange Revolution begins, following adisputed presidential election inUkraine whereViktor Yanukovych won againstViktor Yushchenko amid accusations of electoral fraud. A revote results in Yushchenko being declared the winner.[ 48] November 26 – The last knownPo'ouli dies in captivity at the Maui Bird Conservation Center inMaui ,Hawaii .November 30 – AMcDonnell Douglas MD-82 , operating asLion Air Flight 538 ,overran the runway and crashed on a cemetery nearAdisumarmo Airport ,Surakarta ,Central Java , Indonesia, killing 25 people.[ 49] December 14 – The world's tallest bridge, theMillau Viaduct over theTarn in theMassif Central mountains, France, is officially opened.[ 50] December 21 – Iraqi insurgentsattack a U.S. military base in the city ofMosul , killing 22 people.[ 51] December 23 – TheSecond Battle of Fallujah ends.December 26 – The 9.1–9.3 Mw Indian Ocean earthquake shakes northernSumatra with a maximumMercalli intensity of IX (Violent ). One of the largest observedtsunamis follows, affecting coastal areas ofThailand ,India ,Sri Lanka ,Somalia , theMaldives ,Malaysia ,Myanmar ,Bangladesh , andIndonesia , killing 227,000 people.[ 52] December 27 – Astrophysicists from theMax Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching near Munich measure the strongest burst from amagnetar . 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 – Afire in the República Cromañón nightclub inBuenos Aires , Argentina kills 194.[ 54] December 31 –Taipei 101 , at the time thetallest skyscraper in the world, standing at a height of 1,670 feet (510 m), officially opens.[ 55] 2004 was a year marked by many popular and highly grossing film releases such asShrek 2 Spider Man 2 The Incredibles The Passion of the Christ Howl's Moving Castle Toho Studios would releaseGodzilla 's 50th anniversary movie,Godzilla: Final Wars ,Legendary Entertainment 'sGodzilla in2014 , and the last Japanese Godzilla movie untilShin Godzilla 2016 .
Many shows would debut and end in 2004, withFriends Lost airing its first episode on September 22 of the same year.Tsuburaya Productions would air the highly controversialUltraman Nexus , the 17th entry of theUltra 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 manyFPS and sequel games in 2004, with some of the most famous beingGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas [ 57] Halo 2 [ 58] Metroid Prime 2: Echoes [ 59] Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door [ 60] Half Life 2 [ 61] [ 62] [ 63] [ 64] [ 65] Nintendo DS best-selling handheld console of all time.
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