2004 World Events

January 8: The U.S. Navy nuclear submarine USS San Francisco runs aground off the coast of Guam.

January 10: With 62.3 percent of the votes cast, Mahmoud Abbas is declared the official winner of the Palestinian presidential election.

January 12: NASA successfully launches the Deep Impact probe on a Delta 2 rocket. The intended mission of Deep Impact to study the internal composition of comet Temple 1.

January 14: The Huygens probe which was part of the Cassinni-Huygens mission successfully lands on Saturn's largest moon Titan. Data from Huygens is relayed back to Earth by the Cassini orbiter.

January 18: The Airbus A300 is officially launched at a ceremony in Toulouse, France as the largest passenger airliner in the world. It has a capacity of between 550 and 840 passengers.

January 20: Mars rover Opportunity determines that the rock dubbed Heat Shield Rock is actually a meteorite on the Martian surface..

January 20: United States President George W. Bush is sworn into office for his second term.

January 26: Condoleezza Rice is confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the first African-American woman to hold the office of Secretary of State..

January 30: The first multi-party elections are held in Iraq for the first time in 50 years. Estimates of voter turnout ranged from 50 to 70 percent.

February 4: Alberto Gonzales is confirmed in a vote by the U.S. Senate to become the first Hispanic U.S. Attorney General.

February 6: The New England Patriots defeat the Philadelphia Eagles 24-21 to win Superbowl XXXIX.

February 13: Sister Lucia de Jesus dos Santos dies. She was the last surviving member of three children to whom the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared at Fatimah Portugal in 1917.

February 16: Commissioner Gary Bettman formally cancels the National Hockey League season as players and owners fail to reach agreement on a salary cap for players.

February 22: Images from European space probe Mars Express reveal evidence of a sea of ice near the equator of Mars.

February 26: Police in Wichita, Kansas announce the arrest Dennis Lynn Rader who accused of being the BTK serial killer.

February 28: Adventurer Pilot Steve Fossett takes off from Salina, Kansas in the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer aircraft. His intent is to become the first person to fly non stop solo around the world

March 1: For the first time in its country's history, the left is in control of the government in Uruguay when socialist Tabaré Vázquez takes office as President.

March 3: Martha Stewart is released from Alderson Federal Prison Camp after serving 5 months for involvement in a stock market insider trading scandal.

March 3: Adventurer Steve Fossett touches down in Salina, Kansas after having circled the globe nonstop in the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer aircraft.

March 5: Bowing to world wide pressure, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad announce Syria's intent to withdrawal all 14,000 troops in Lebanon to the Bekka Valley area on the Syrian-Lebanese border.

March 8: Russian troops kill Chechnyan separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov in a village near Grozny.

April 2: The beloved leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II dies.

April 13: Eric Rudolph pleads guilty to the bombings at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. He is sentenced to 4 consecutive life terms.

April 19: German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected Pope on the second day of the Papal conclave. Ratzinger chooses to be called Pope Bendedict XVI.

April 25: More than 100 people are killed near Osaka, Japan when a high speed commuter train derails.

April 27: The Airbus A300 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.

May 10: A live hand grenade is thrown within 100 feet of U.S. President W. Bush during a speech in Tbilisi, Georgia. The device malfunctions and does not explode.

May 11: North Korea announces that it has extracted enough nuclear material to build up to three nuclear weapons.

May 19: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith opens in theaters shattering box office records.

May 31: William Mark Felt, Sr. is revealed to have been the informant known as Deep Throat during the Watergate Scandal which eventually resulted in the resignation of U.S. President Richard M. Nixon.

June 13: After a lengthy trial, singer Michael Jackson is acquitted of all charges of harming children.

June 21: 83 seconds after launch, a Volna rocket carrying the first light sail spacecraft fails and the spacecraft is destroyed.

July 4: The penetrator from NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft collides with Comet Temple 1 to produce a wealth of scientific information on the composition of the comet.

July 7: Four suicide bombs rock the London mass transit system striking 3 subways and 1 bus. Over 50 deaths are reported.

July 10: Hurricane Dennis a category 3 storm strikes near Navarre Beach, Florida. 10 deaths in the U.S. are reported as a result of this storm after it had already claimed 50 lives in the Caribbean.

July 17: My family and I make a pilgrimage to East Texas visiting the communities where pieces space shuttle Columbia rained down during the STS-107 tragedy in 2003. For photos of the memorials in East Texas follow the 107 Memorials link.

July 21: Two weeks after the first attacks on the London mass transit system a second series of attacks is launched. The bombs in this attack fail to explode.

July 23: At least 90 people die in a series of car bomb explosions at the Red Sea resort Sharm el Sheik.

July 24: Cyclist Lance Armstrong wins his seventh straight Tour de France. Armstrong announced in advance that he would be retiring after the 2005 Tour de France.

July 26: NASA launches space shuttle Discovery on STS-114 the first shuttle mission to launch after the Columbia tragedy. A piece of foam from the external tank is seen to break away during the launch resulting in NASA announcing that the shuttle fleet is once again grounded.

July 29: A team of astronomers from the California Institute of Technology announce the discovery of a possible 10th planet.

August 7: The Israeli cabinet approves the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip. Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resigns in protest.

August 7: 7 Russian sailors who were trapped in a submarine at over 600 feet deep in the Pacific Ocean are saved by British and American rescuers.

August 9: Space Shuttle Discovery lands safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California completing the STS-114 mission after 12 and 1/2 days in space.

August 9: I fly to Pensacola, Florida as a witness for the prosecution in the case of a former museum worker who is accused of stealing museum artifacts from the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. For my account of this event follow the Mercury Boot link.

August 12: NASA launches the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on a 7 month journey to the red planet.

August 18: Dennis Rader, the confessed BTK serial murderer from Wichita, Kansas is sentenced to 10 consecutive life terms.

August 29: Hurricane Katrina a category 4 storm ravages the gulf coast of the US, killing more than 80 people and leaving millions without power.

August 30: Levees which protect New Orleans from flooding break due to rainfall from hurricane Katrina. Thousands are feared dead as 80% of the city is flooded. It is declared the worst natural disaster in US history.

September 3: US Supreme Court Justice William Renquist dies after serving 33 years on the Supreme Court. For 19 of those years he served as Chief Justice. Renquist was 80 years old.

September 5: President Bush nominates John Roberts to succeed Justice Renquist as Chief Justice on the Supreme Court.

September 6: A panel investigating the Iraq oil-for-food program cites UN Secretary General Kohfi Anan for mismanagement and failure to stem corruption.

September 18: Elections are held in Afghanistan. These are the first democratic parliamentary elections held in over 25 years.

September 19: German parliamentary elections result in an inconclusive vote, leaving the shape of the future government in doubt.

September 19: NASA Administrator Michael Griffin announces plans to land astronauts on the Moon by 2018.

September 29: The US Senate votes to confirm John Roberts as the 17th Chief Justice of the Supreme court. The vote was 78-22.

October 3: President Bush nominates Harriet Miers to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Conner for the US Supreme Court..

October 8: At least 54,000 people die in Kashmir when a magnitude 7.6 earthquake strikes the Pakistani controlled portion of Kashmir. Around 800 people also die in the Indian controlled portion of Kashmir. Estimates place around 2.5 million left homeless from the earthquake.

October 11: A deal is reached by German leaders that will form a government in which Angela Merkel will become the first female Chancellor in German history.

October 27: Harriet Miers withdraws herself from consideration for the US Supreme Court after weeks of intense questioning about her qualifications by both Democrat and Republican lawmakers.

October 31: After the withdrawl of Harriet Miers for consideration for the US Supreme Court, President Bush nominates conservative Judge Samuel Alito for the position.

November 28: California Congressmen Randy "Duke" Cunningham resigns after pleading guilty to accepting bribes from defense contractors.

December 6: 20 people protesting the construction of a power plant are killed by Chinese police.

December 14: The US government reports that the US trade deficit hits an all time high at $68.9 billion.