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Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar.
Year 2003 has been designated the:
Also see: the almanac of events for this year.
Events of 2003
January
- January 1 - Pascal Couchepin becomes President of the Confederation in Switzerland.
- January 3 - The Ohio State University defeats the University of Miami in double-overtime in the Fiesta Bowl, 31-24, for the national Bowl Championship Series (BCS) title.
- January 3 - The 108th United States Congress is sworn in, including incoming freshmen Senators Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Sununu (R-NH), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), Norm Coleman (R-MN), and Mark Pryor (D-AR).
- January 8 - US Airways Express Flight 5481 crashes at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, killing all 21 people aboard.
- January 15 - Eldred v. Ashcroft: The Supreme Court of the United States allows the extension of copyright terms in the U.S.
- January 18 - The Canberra Bushfires occur in Canberra, Australia, killing 4 people.
- January 24 - The new United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.
- January 25 - A Central Line train crashes into the tunnel wall at Chancery Lane tube station in London, injuring 34 people.
- January 25 - An international group of volunteers leaves London for Baghdad to act as voluntary human shields, hoping to avert a U.S. invasion.
- January 26 - Super Bowl XXXVII: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeat the Oakland Raiders 48-21.
- January 29 - Riots in Phnom Penh, Cambodia where the Thai Embassy was burned and commercial properties of Thai businesses were vandalized.
- January 30 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The leaders of Britain, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania and the Spain release a statement, The Letter of the Eight, demonstrating support for the United States' plans to invade Iraq.
February
March
- March 1 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The United Arab Emirates calls for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to step down to avoid war, a sentiment later echoed by Bahrain and Kuwait.
- March 1 - The Turkish parliament vetoes U.S. troop access to airbases in Turkey in order to attack Iraq from the north. The Bush administration starts working on Plan B, namely attacking Iraq from the south, through the Persian Gulf.
- March 1 - The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, the United States Customs Service, and the United States Secret Service move to the United States Department of Homeland Security.
- March 1 - War on Terrorism: Pakistani authorities capture Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks, along with money man Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi.
- March 5 - The Supreme Court of the United States, by a 5-4 margin, upholds California's "three strikes and you're out" law.
- March 11 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi fighters threaten 2 U.S. U-2 surveillance planes, on missions for U.N. weapons inspectors, forcing them to abort their mission and return to base.
- March 12 - Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Ðindic is assassinated in Belgrade.
A SARS hospital in Taiwan.
- March 12 - The WHO issues a global alert on SARS.
- March 12 - Iraq disarmament crisis: British prime minister Tony Blair proposes an amendment to the possible 18th U.N. resolution, which would call for Iraq to meet certain benchmarks to prove that it was disarming. The amendment is immediately rejected by France, who promises to veto any new resolution.
- March 13 - Human evolution: The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old upright-walking human footprints had been found in Italy.
- March 15 - Hu Jintao becomes president of the People's Republic of China, replacing Jiang Zemin.
- March 16 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The leaders of the United States, Britain, Portugal, and Spain meet at a summit in the Azores Islands. U.S. President Bush calls March 17 the "moment of truth", meaning that the "coalition of the willing" will make its final effort to extract a resolution from the U.N. Security Council, giving Iraq an ultimatum to disarm immediately or be disarmed by force.
- March 17 - Iraq disarmament crisis: U.S. President George W. Bush gives an ultimatum: Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his sons must either leave Iraq, or face military action at a time of the U.S.'s choosing.
- March 18 - The UK government recognises British Sign Language as an official British language.
- March 18 - The Parliament of the United Kingdom votes in favour of a motion understood as giving the government final authority to join the invasion of Iraq.
- March 18 - About $1 billion was taken from Iraq's Central Bank by Saddam Hussein and his family, just hours before the United States began bombing Iraq, biggest bank robbery in history.
- March 18 - FBI agents raid the corporate headquarters of HealthSouth Corporation in Birmingham, Alabama on suspicion of massive corporate fraud led by the company's top executives.
- March 19 - The first American bombs drop on Baghdad, Iraq. President Saddam Hussein and his sons do not comply with President Bush's 48-hour mandate demanding their exit from Iraq.
- March 20 - 2003 invasion of Iraq: Land troops from United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invade Iraq.
- March 22 - The United States and the United Kingdom begin their shock and awe campaign, with a massive air strike on military targets in Baghdad.
- March 23 - The 2003 Cricket World Cup ends as Australia wins over India by 125 runs in Johannesburg, South Africa.
- March 29 - WHO doctor Carlo Urbani, who first identified SARS, dies of the disease.
- March 30 - Meigs Field Airport in Chicago, Illinois is demolished overnight.
April
May
- May 1 - George W. Bush lands on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, in a Lockheed S-3 Viking, where he gives a speech announcing the end of major combat in the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. A banner behind him declares "Mission Accomplished."
- May 2 - The Monkeyman superhero hoax begins in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, UK.
- May 3 - The Old Man of the Mountain, a rock formation in New Hampshire, crumbles after heavy rain.
- May 4–May 10 - A major severe weather outbreak spawns more tornadoes than any week in U.S. history; 393 tornadoes are reported in 19 states.
- May 4 - Top Thrill Dragster opens in Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio as the world's tallest, fastest roller coaster.
- May 11 - Benvenuto Cellini's Saliera is stolen from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
- May 12 - A suicide truck-bomb attack kills at least 60 at a government compound in northern Chechnya.
- May 12 - In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 26 people are killed in the Riyadh Compound Bombings.
- May 14 - A female suicide bomber blows up explosives strapped to her waist in a crowd of thousands of Muslim pilgrims, killing at least 18 people in Chechnya.
- May 15 - The date predicted by Pana-Wave Laboratory, a Japanese cult, on which a close encounter with an unknown planet would result in the extinction of most of humankind.
- May 16 - In Casablanca, Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.
- May 17 - Arsenal beats Southampton 1-0 to win the FA Cup.
- May 19 - Pen Hadow becomes the first man to walk alone, without any outside help, from Canada to the North Pole.
- May 21 - F.C. Porto defeats Celtic 3-2 (AET) in the UEFA Cup Final in Seville, Spain.
- May 21 - An earthquake in the Boumerdès region of northern Algeria kills 2,200.
- May 22 - The Sheffield Winter Gardens are officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
- May 23 - Dewey, the first deer cloned by scientists at Texas A&M University, is born.
- May 24 - Sertab Erener wins the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 for Turkey with the song Every Way That I Can, in Riga, Latvia.
- May 26 - A draft
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