| 2003-11-15
The first day of the 2003 Istanbul Bombings, in which two car bombs, targeting two synagogues, explode, killing 25 people and wounding about 300. Additional bombings follow on November 20.
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| 2003-02-01
Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
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| 2003-07-15
AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape Communications Corporation. The Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day.
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| 2003-05-16
In Casablanca, Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.
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| 2003-09-12
The United Nations lifts sanctions against Libya after that country agreed to accept responsibility and recompense the families of victims in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
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| 2003-01-05
Police arrest seven suspects in connection with Wood Green ricin plot.
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| 2003-04-07
U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein's regime falls two days later.
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| 2003-09-21
Galileo mission is terminated by sending the probe into Jupiter's atmosphere, where it is crushed by the pressure at the lower altitudes.
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| 2003-10-03
Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy is attacked by one of the show's tigers, canceling the show until 2009, when they rejoined the tiger that mauled Roy just six years earlier.
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| 2003-04-14
The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%.
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| 2003-10-04
Maxim restaurant suicide bombing in Haifa, Israel: 21 Israelis, Jews and Arabs, are killed, and 51 others wounded.
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| 2003-07-22
Members of 101st Airborne of the United States, aided by Special Forces, attack a compound in Iraq, killing Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay, along with Mustapha Hussein, Qusay's 14-year old son, and a bodyguard.
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| 2003-11-08
The Harris Theater opens, commencing a renaissance in the Chicago performing arts community.
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| 2003-01-24
The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.
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| 2003-08-26
The Columbia Accident Investigation Board releases its final reports on Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.
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| 2003-04-23
Beijing closes all schools for two weeks because of the SARS virus.
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| 2003-03-01
The International Criminal Court holds its inaugural session in The Hague.
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| 2003-05-02
From the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, US President George W. Bush announced in a nationally televised address in front of a "Mission Accomplished" banner that major combat operations in Iraq had ended.
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| 2003-03-19
United States President George W. Bush orders the start of war against Iraq.
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| 2003-03-18
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.
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| 2003-05-03
New Hampshire's famous Old Man of the Mountain collapses.
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| 2003-09-10
Anna Lindh, the foreign minister of Sweden, is fatally stabbed while shopping, and dies the following day.
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| 2003-07-14
The United States Government admits to the existence of "Area 51".
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| 2003-03-12
Zoran Đinđić, Prime Minister of Serbia, is assassinated in Belgrade.
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| 2003-10-31
A bankruptcy court approves MCI's reorganization plans, essentially clearing the telecommunications company to exit bankruptcy.
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| 2003-03-28
In a "friendly fire" incident, two A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft from the United States Idaho Air National Guard's 190th Fighter Squadron attack British tanks participating in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, killing British soldier Matty Hull.
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| 2003-04-14
U.S. troops in Baghdad capture Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner the MS Achille Lauro in 1985.
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| 2003-07-06
The 70-metre Eupatoria Planetary Radar sends a METI message (Cosmic Call 2) to 5 stars: Hip 4872, HD 245409, 55 Cancri (HD 75732), HD 10307 and 47 Ursae Majoris (HD 95128). The messages will arrive to these stars in 2036, 2040, 2044 and 2049 respectively.
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| 2003-02-18
Comet C/2002 V1 (NEAT) makes perihelion, seen by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.
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| 2003-07-01
Over 500,000 people protested against efforts to pass anti-sedition legislation in Hong Kong.
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| 2003-08-27
Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing 34,646,418 miles (55,758,005 km) distant.
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| 2003-11-12
Iraq war: In Nasiriya, Iraq, at least 23 people, among them the first Italian casualties of the 2003 Iraq war, are killed in a suicide bomb attack on an Italian police base.
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| 2003-06-10
The Spirit Rover is launched, beginning NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission.
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| 2003-05-22
In Fort Worth, Texas, Annika Sörenstam becomes the first woman to play the PGA Tour in 58 years.
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| 2003-02-15
Protests against the Iraq war occur in over 600 cities worldwide. It is estimated that between 8 million to 30 million people took part, making this the largest peace demonstration in the history of the world.
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| 2003-10-24
Concorde makes its last commercial flight.
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| 2003-10-07
Gray Davis is recalled as Governor of California, three years before the official end of his office term. Arnold Schwarzenegger is elected Governor.
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| 2003-11-12
Shanghai Transrapid sets up a new world speed record (501 kilometres per hour (311 mph)) for commercial railway systems.
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| 2003-12-07
The Conservative Party of Canada is officially recognized after the merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
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| 2003-08-19
A car-bomb attack on United Nations headquarters in Iraq kills the agency's top envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 other employees.
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| 2003-12-17
The Soham murder trial ends at the Old Bailey in London, with Ian Huntley found guilty of two counts of murder. His girlfriend Maxine Carr is found guilty of perverting the course of justice.
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| 2003-08-11
Jemaah Islamiyah leader Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, is arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.
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| 2003-09-27
Smart 1 satellite is launched.
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| 2003-12-13
Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his home town of Tikrit (see Operation Red Dawn).
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| 2003-11-18
In a 50-page, 4–3 decision, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules that the state may not "deny the protections, benefits and obligations conferred by civil marriage to two individuals of the same sex who wish to marry."
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| 2003-10-26
The Cedar Fire, the second-largest fire in California history, kills 15 people, consumes 250,000 acres (1,000 km²), and destroys 2,200 homes around San Diego.
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| 2003-08-11
NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.
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| 2003-02-26
Generally said to be the starting date of the War in Darfur.
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| 2003-01-10
Illinois Governor George Ryan commutes the death sentences of 167 prisoners on Illinois' death row based on the Jon Burge scandal.
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| 2003-12-09
A blast in the center of Moscow kills six people and wounds several more.
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| 2003-10-15
China launches Shenzhou 5, its first manned space mission.
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| 2003-02-20
During a Great White concert in West Warwick, Rhode Island, a pyrotechnics display sets the club ablaze, killing 100 and injuring over 200 others.
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| 2003-12-30
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft recuses himself and his office from the Plame affair.
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| 2003-07-05
SARS is declared to be contained by the WHO.
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| 2003-11-26
Concorde makes its final flight, over Bristol, England.
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| 2003-01-27
The first selections for the National Recording Registry are announced by the Library of Congress.
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| 2003-01-23
Final communication between Earth and Pioneer 10
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| 2003-08-05
A car bomb explodes in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta outside the Marriott Hotel killing 12 and injuring 150.
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| 2003-08-22
Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is suspended after refusing to comply with a federal court order to remove a rock inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court building.
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| 2003-03-24
The Arab League votes 21-1 in favor of a resolution demanding the immediate and unconditional removal of U.S. and British soldiers from Iraq.
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| 2003-03-13
Human evolution: The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old footprints of an upright-walking human have been found in Italy.
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| 2003-12-26
A magnitude 6.6 earthquake devastates southeast Iranian city of Bam, killing tens of thousands and destroying the citadel of Arg-é Bam.
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| 2003-08-25
The Tli Cho land claims agreement is signed between the Dogrib First Nations and the Canadian federal government in Rae-Edzo (now called Behchoko).
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| 2003-04-25
The Human Genome Project comes to an end 2.5 years before first anticipated.
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| 2003-07-02
Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of Italy, insults German MP Martin Schulz by calling him a "kapo" during a session of the European Parliament.
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| 2003-12-24
The Spanish police thwart an attempt by ETA to detonate 50 kg of explosives at 3:55 p.m. inside Madrid's busy Chamartín Station.
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| 2003-07-20
France: Sixteen people are injured after two bombs explode outside a tax office in Nice.
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| 2003-12-14
President of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.
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| 2003-09-12
In Fallujah, US forces mistakenly shoot and kill eight Iraqi police officers.
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| 2003-05-01
2003 invasion of Iraq: In what becomes known as the "Mission Accomplished" speech, on board the USS Abraham Lincoln (off the coast of California), U.S. President George W. Bush declares that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended".
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| 2003-12-29
The last known speaker of Akkala Sami dies, rendering the language extinct.
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| 2003-06-26
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Lawrence v. Texas that gender-based sodomy laws are unconstitutional.
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| 2003-08-11
A heat wave in Paris results in temperatures rising to 112°F (44° C), leaving about 144 people dead.
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| 2003-08-16
U.S. Representative from South Dakota Bill Janklow hits and kills a motorcyclist with his car at a rural intersection near Trent, South Dakota; he will eventually be convicted of manslaughter and will resign from Congress.
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| 2003-12-16
President George W. Bush signs the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 into law. The law establishes the United States' first national standards for the sending of commercial e-mail and requires the Federal Trade Commission to enforce its provisions.
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| 2003-12-25
The ill-fated Beagle 2 probe, released from the Mars Express Spacecraft on December 19, disappears shortly before its scheduled landing.
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| 2003-08-10
The highest temperature ever recorded in the UK – 38.5°C (101.3°F) in Kent. It is the first time the UK has recorded a temperature over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
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| 2003-03-05
In Haifa, 17 Israeli civilians are killed by a Hamas suicide bomb in the Haifa bus 37 massacre.
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| 2003-10-15
The Staten Island Ferry boat Andrew J. Barberi runs into a pier at the St. George Ferry Terminal in Staten Island, killing 11 people and injuring 43.
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| 2003-03-20
2003 invasion of Iraq: In the early hours of the morning, the United States and three other countries begin military operations in Iraq.
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| 2003-01-31
The Waterfall rail accident occurs near Waterfall, New South Wales, Australia.
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| 2003-10-21
Images of the dwarf planet Eris are taken and subsequently used in its discovery by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz.
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| 2003-12-23
PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field explosion, Guoqiao, Kai County, Chongqing, China, killing at least 234.
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| 2003-06-20
The WikiMedia Foundation is founded in St. Petersburg, Florida.
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| 2003-03-23
In Nasiriyah, Iraq, 11 soldiers of the 507th Maintenance Company as well as 18 U.S. Marines are killed during the first major conflict of Operation Iraqi Freedom. 654 Iraqi combatants are also killed.
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| 2003-11-18
In the United Kingdom, the Local Government Act 2003, repealing controversial anti-gay amendment Section 28, becomes effective.
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| 2003-10-19
Mother Teresa is beatified by Pope John Paul II.
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| 2003-09-14
In a referendum, Estonia approves joining the European Union.
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| 2003-03-17
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Robin Cook, resigns from the British Cabinet in disagreement with government plans for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
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| 2003-02-04
The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is officially renamed to Serbia and Montenegro and adopts a new constitution.
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| 2003-06-22
The largest hailstone ever recorded falls in Aurora, Nebraska
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| 2003-06-05
A severe heat wave across Pakistan and India reaches its peak, as temperatures exceed 50°C (122°F) in the region.
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| 2003-08-28
An electricity blackout cuts off power to around 500,000 people living in south east England and brings 60% of London's underground rail network to a halt.
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| 2003-10-31
Mahathir bin Mohamad resigns as Prime Minister of Malaysia and is replaced by Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, marking an end to Mahathir's 22 years in power.
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| 2003-02-17
The London Congestion Charge scheme begins.
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| 2003-03-18
British Sign Language is recognised as an official British language.
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| 2003-09-25
A magnitude-8.0 earthquake strikes just offshore Hokkaidō, Japan.
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| 2003-05-21
An earthquake hits northern Algeria killing more than 2,000 people.
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| 2003-04-16
The Treaty of Accession is signed in Athens admitting 10 new member states to the European Union.
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| 2003-04-09
2003 invasion of Iraq: Baghdad falls to American forces;Saddam Hussein statue topples as Iraqis turn on symbols of their former leader, pulling down the statue and tearing it to pieces.
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| 2003-06-01
The People's Republic of China begins filling the reservoir behind the Three Gorges Dam.
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| 2003-11-14
Astronomers Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz discover 90377 Sedna, a Trans-Neptunian object.
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| 2003-09-22
David Hempleman-Adams becomes the first person to cross the Atlantic Ocean in an open-air, wicker-basket hot air balloon.
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| 2003-11-20
After the November 15 bombings, a second day of the 2003 Istanbul Bombings occurs in Istanbul, Turkey, destroying the Turkish head office of HSBC Bank AS and the British consulate.
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| 2003-09-20
Maldives civil unrest: the death of prisoner Hassan Evan Naseem sparks a day of rioting in Malé.
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| 2003-01-16
The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final one. Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry.
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| 2003-08-10
Yuri Malenchenko becomes the first person to marry in space.
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| 2003-02-10
France and Belgium break the NATO procedure of silent approval concerning the timing of protective measures for Turkey in case of a possible war with Iraq.
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| 2003-03-01
Management of the United States Customs Service and the United States Secret Service move to the United States Department of Homeland Security.
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| 2003-08-14
Widescale power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada.
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| 2003-06-02
Europe launches its first voyage to another planet, Mars. The European Space Agency's Mars Express probe launches from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan.
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| 2003-08-19
A Hamas planned suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem kills 23 Israelis, 7 of them children in the Jerusalem bus 2 massacre.
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| 2003-02-18
Nearly 200 people die in the Daegu subway fire in South Korea.
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| 2003-10-18
Bolivian Gas War: President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, is forced to resign and leave Bolivia.
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| 2003-08-29
Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shia Muslim leader in Iraq, is assassinated in a terrorist bombing, along with nearly 100 worshippers as they leave a mosque in Najaf.
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| 2003-05-10
The May 2003 tornado outbreak sequence takes place.
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| 2003-12-17
SpaceShipOne flight 11P, piloted by Brian Binnie, makes its first supersonic flight.
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| 2003-07-30
In Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line.
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| 2003-05-12
The Riyadh compound bombings, carried out by Al Qaeda, kill 26 people.
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| 2003-05-30
Depayin massacre: at least 70 people associated with the National League for Democracy were killed by government-sponsored mob in Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi fled the scene, but was arrested soon afterwards.
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| 2003-10-17
The pinnacle is fitted on the roof of Taipei 101, a 101-floor skyscraper in Taipei, allowing it to surpass the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur by 50 meters (165 feet) and become the World's tallest highrise.
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| 2003-07-10
A Neoplan bus, owned by Kowloon Motor Bus, collides with a truck, falls off a bridge on Tuen Mun Road, Hong Kong, and plunges into the underlying valley, killing 21 people. This is the deadliest traffic accident to date in Hong Kong.
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| 2003-11-23
Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze resigns following weeks of mass protests over flawed elections.
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| 2003-05-12
Fifty-nine Democratic lawmakers bring the Texas Legislature to a standstill by going into hiding in a dispute over a Republican congressional redistricting plan.
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| 2003-05-28
Peter Hollingworth becomes the first Governor-General of Australia to resign his office as a result of criticism of his conduct.
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| 2003-01-18
A bushfire kills 4 people and destroys more than 500 homes in Canberra, Australia.
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