WORLD HISTORY · 2003 日本語
Events of 2003Heisei 15 (Japan) · Year of the Goat
What happened in 2003?
In 2003, the Iraq War began in March, and Japan Post was launched as a public corporation in April. In May, Japan launched the asteroid probe Hayabusa, and in July it passed a special law to support Iraq's reconstruction.
- Iraq War beginsMiddle East
- Japan Post launched as public corporationAsia
- Baghdad effectively fallsMiddle East
- Hayabusa probe launchedAsia
- Japan's first postwar emergency defense laws passedAsia
- WHO declares SARS outbreak overWorld
- Iraq reconstruction support law passedAsia
- China launches its first crewed spacecraftAsia
Tap an event to jump to it in the timeline below.
2003 at a glance
| Japanese era | Heisei 15 |
|---|---|
| Chinese zodiac | Year of the Goat |
| Age of people born in 2003 | Turn 23 in 2026 |
| Previous / next year | 2002 (Heisei 14) ／ 2004 (Heisei 16) |
| Events | 126 |
| AP World History | Unit 9 (Globalization) |
| AP U.S. History | Period 9 |
Famous people born in 2003
Our birthday pages list 125 people born in 2003. Here are some of them.
- KazuhaBorn August 9 · turns 23 this year
- Olivia RodrigoBorn February 20 · turns 23 this year
- Jude BellinghamBorn June 29 · turns 23 this year
- Daria TrubnikovaBorn January 1 · turns 23 this year
- CJ Egan-RileyBorn January 2 · turns 23 this year
- Elye WahiBorn January 2 · turns 23 this year
- Alan VirginiusBorn January 3 · turns 23 this year
- Greta ThunbergBorn January 3 · turns 23 this year
- Kyle RittenhouseBorn January 3 · turns 23 this year
- Jaeden MartellBorn January 4 · turns 23 this year
- KevinBorn January 4 · turns 23 this year
- MattyBRapsBorn January 6 · turns 23 this year
Show 28 more
- Ryan DunnBorn January 7 · turns 23 this year
- SangiovanniBorn January 9 · turns 23 this year
- Cesare CasadeiBorn January 10 · turns 23 this year
- Oksana SelekhmetevaBorn January 13 · turns 23 this year
- Robin RoefsBorn January 17 · turns 23 this year
- Wendy ShongweBorn January 18 · turns 23 this year
- Felix Afena-GyanBorn January 19 · turns 23 this year
- Antonia RužićBorn January 20 · turns 23 this year
- J. J. McCarthyBorn January 20 · turns 23 this year
- Hannibal MejbriBorn January 21 · turns 23 this year
- Johnny OrlandoBorn January 24 · turns 23 this year
- Park Seong-hoonBorn January 27 · turns 23 this year
- Carson HocevarBorn January 28 · turns 23 this year
- Whitney PeakBorn January 28 · turns 23 this year
- Jarell QuansahBorn January 29 · turns 23 this year
- Amen ThompsonBorn January 30 · turns 23 this year
- Ausar ThompsonBorn January 30 · turns 23 this year
- Kyla KenedyBorn February 4 · turns 23 this year
- Rasmus HøjlundBorn February 4 · turns 23 this year
- Alessandro FontanarosaBorn February 7 · turns 23 this year
- Cooper DeJeanBorn February 9 · turns 23 this year
- Raúl AsencioBorn February 13 · turns 23 this year
- Honey OsrinBorn February 24 · turns 23 this year
- Brandin PodziemskiBorn February 25 · turns 23 this year
- Jamal MusialaBorn February 26 · turns 23 this year
- Millicent SimmondsBorn March 6 · turns 23 this year
- Montana JordanBorn March 8 · turns 23 this year
- Sunisa LeeBorn March 9 · turns 23 this year
Events of 2003 (timeline · 126)
Tip: the PC view is best for studying
On a computer, each region has its own vertical line, so you can follow the flow of events and see what was happening in different parts of the world at the same time.
A suicide bombing at the Tel Aviv central bus station kills 23 people and injures over 100 more.
Air Midwest Flight 5481 crashes at Charlotte-Douglas Airport, in Charlotte, North Carolina, killing all 21 people on board.
Turkish Airlines Flight 634 crashes near Diyarbakır Airport, Turkey, killing the entire crew and 70 of the 75 passengers.
TANS Perú Flight 222 crashes on approach to Chachapoyas Airport in Chachapoyas, Peru, killing 46 people.
North Korea withdraws from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, making it the first state to withdraw from the treaty.
Illinois Governor George Ryan commutes the death sentences of 167 prisoners on Illinois's death row based on the Jon Burge scandal.
208996 Achlys was discovered by Chad Trujillo and Michael E. Brown at Palomar Observatory.
The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final one. Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry.
A bushfire kills four people and destroys more than 500 homes in Canberra, Australia.
A 7.6 magnitude earthquake strikes the Mexican state of Colima, killing 29 and leaving approximately 10,000 people homeless.
A very weak signal from Pioneer 10 is detected for the last time, but no usable data can be extracted.
Invasion of Iraq: A group of people leave London, England, for Baghdad, Iraq, to serve as human shields, intending to prevent the U.S.-led coalition troops from bombing certain locations.
The first selections for the National Recording Registry are announced by the Library of Congress.
Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during the reentry of mission STS-107 into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia adopts a new constitution, becoming a loose confederacy between Montenegro and Serbia.
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.
Iraq disarmament crisis: UNMOVIC Executive Chairman Hans Blix reports to the United Nations Security Council that disarmament inspectors have found no weapons of mass destruction in Ba'athist Iraq.
Protests against the Iraq war take place in over 600 cities worldwide. It is estimated that between eight million and 30 million people participate, making this the largest peace demonstration in history.
The last Ariane 4 rocket is launched from the Guiana Space Centre, carrying Intelsat 907.
192 people die when an arsonist sets fire to a subway train in Daegu, South Korea.
During a Great White concert in West Warwick, Rhode Island, a pyrotechnics display sets the Station nightclub ablaze, killing 100 and injuring over 200 others.
Management of the United States Customs Service and the United States Secret Service moves to the United States Department of Homeland Security.
Air Algérie Flight 6289 crashes at the Aguenar – Hadj Bey Akhamok Airport in Tamanrasset, Algeria, killing 102 out of the 103 people on board.
The World Health Organization officially release a global warning of outbreaks of Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
An article in Nature identifies the Ciampate del Diavolo as 350,000-year-old hominid footprints.
American activist Rachel Corrie is killed in Rafah by being run over by an Israel Defense Forces bulldozer while trying to obstruct the demolition of a home.
Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council, Robin Cook, resigns from the British Cabinet in disagreement with government plans for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
United States President George W. Bush addresses the nation, announcing the invasion of Iraq.
Iraq War: The United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Poland begin an invasion of Iraq.
In a friendly fire incident, two American A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft attack British tanks participating in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, killing one soldier.
Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide demands reparations of $21 billion from France for the Haitian independence debt.
Iraq War: U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime falls two days later.
U.S. troops in Baghdad capture Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner MS Achille Lauro in 1985.
The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%.
The Treaty of Accession is signed in Athens admitting ten new member states to the European Union.
Anneli Jäätteenmäki takes office as the first female prime minister of Finland.
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".
The Riyadh compound bombings in Saudi Arabia, carried out by al-Qaeda, kill 39 people.
In Morocco, 33 civilians are killed and more than 100 people are injured in the Casablanca terrorist attacks.
The 6.8 Mw Boumerdès earthquake shakes northern Algeria with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). More than 2,200 people were killed and a moderate tsunami sank boats at the Balearic Islands.
Ukrainian-Mediterranean Airlines Flight 4230 crashes in the Turkish town of Maçka, killing 75.
Peter Hollingworth resigns as Governor-General of Australia following criticism of his handling of child sexual abuse allegations during his tenure as Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane.
Depayin massacre: At least 70 people associated with the National League for Democracy are killed by government-sponsored mob in Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi flees the scene, but is arrested soon afterwards.
Europe launches its first voyage to another planet, Mars. The European Space Agency's Mars Express probe launches from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.
A severe heat wave across Pakistan and India reaches its peak, as temperatures exceed 50 °C (122 °F) in the region.
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Lawrence v. Texas that sex-based sodomy laws are unconstitutional.
Over 500,000 people protest against efforts to pass anti-sedition legislation in Hong Kong.
The World Health Organization announces that the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak has been contained.
The 70-metre Yevpatoria Planetary Radar sends a METI message (Cosmic Call 2) to five 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.
NASA Opportunity rover, MER-B or Mars Exploration Rover–B, was launched into space aboard a Delta II rocket.
Sudan Airways Flight 139 crashes near Port Sudan Airport during an emergency landing attempt, killing 116 of the 117 people on board.
French DGSE personnel abort an operation to rescue Íngrid Betancourt from FARC rebels in Colombia, causing a political scandal when details are leaked to the press.
AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape. The Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day.
Iraq War: 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.
Three years after the death of the last Pyrenean ibex, Celia, a clone of her is born only to subsequently die from lung defects. Within minutes, the Pyrenean ibex becomes the first and so far only species to have ever gone de-extinct as well as go extinct twice.
A car bomb explodes in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta outside the Marriott Hotel killing 12 and injuring 150.
Jemaah Islamiyah leader Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, is arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.
NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.
One-year-old Zachary Turner is murdered in Newfoundland by his mother, who was awarded custody despite facing trial for the murder of Zachary's father. The case was documented in the film Dear Zachary and led to reform of Canada's bail laws.
Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing: A suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem, planned by Hamas, kills 23 Israelis, seven of them children.
A truck-bomb attack on United Nations headquarters in Iraq kills the agency's top envoy Sérgio Vieira de Mello and 21 other employees.
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama 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.
A Beechcraft 1900 operating as Colgan Air Flight 9446 crashes after taking off from Barnstable Municipal Airport in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, killing both pilots on board.
The first six-party talks, involving South and North Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, convene to find a peaceful resolution to the security concerns of the North Korean nuclear weapons program.
Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing 34,646,418 miles (55,758,005 km) distant.
In "one of the most complicated and bizarre crimes in the annals of the FBI", Brian Wells dies after becoming involved in a complex plot involving a bank robbery, a scavenger hunt, and a homemade explosive device.
Sayed Ayatollah 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.
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.
Iraq War: In Fallujah, U.S. forces mistakenly shoot and kill eight Iraqi police officers.
Typhoon Maemi, the strongest recorded typhoon to strike South Korea, made landfall near Busan.
Bissau-Guinean President Kumba Ialá is ousted from power in a bloodless military coup led by General Veríssimo Correia Seabra.
The Maxim restaurant suicide bombing in Israel kills twenty-one Israelis, both Jews and Arabs.
Bolivian gas conflict: Bolivian President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada is forced to resign and leave Bolivia.
The Sloan Great Wall, once the largest cosmic structures known to humanity, is discovered by students at Princeton University.
Images of the dwarf planet Eris are taken and subsequently used in documenting its discovery.
The Cedar Fire, the third-largest wildfire in California history, kills 15 people, consumes 250,000 acres (1,000 km2), and destroys 2,200 homes around San Diego.
Mahathir 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.
Shanghai Transrapid sets a new world speed record of 501 kilometres per hour (311 mph) for commercial railway systems, which remains the fastest for unmodified commercial rail vehicles.
Iraq War: In Nasiriyah, Iraq, at least 23 people, among them the first Italian casualties of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, are killed in a suicide bomb attack on an Italian police base.
The first day of the 2003 Istanbul bombings, in which two car bombs, targeting two synagogues, explode, kill 25 people and wound 300 more.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules 4–3 in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health that the state's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and gives the state legislature 180 days to change the law making Massachusetts the first state in the United States to grant marriage rights to same-sex couples.
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.
Baghdad DHL attempted shootdown incident: Shortly after takeoff, a DHL Express cargo plane is struck on the left wing by a surface-to-air missile and forced to land.
Rose Revolution: Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze resigns following weeks of mass protests over flawed elections.
The Conservative Party of Canada is officially registered, following the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
Iraq War: Operation Red Dawn: Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his home town of Tikrit.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.
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.
Sex work rights activists establish December 17 (or "D17") as International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers to memorialize victims of a serial killer who targeted prostitutes, and highlight State violence against sex workers by police and others.
SpaceShipOne, piloted by Brian Binnie, makes its first powered and first supersonic flight.
An explosion at the PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field in Kai County, Chongqing, China, kills at least 234.
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.
UTA Flight 141, a Boeing 727-223, crashes at the Cotonou Airport in Benin, killing 141 people.
The ill-fated Beagle 2 probe, released from the Mars Express spacecraft on December 19, stops transmitting shortly before its scheduled landing.
The 6.6 Mw Bam earthquake shakes southeastern Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), leaving more than 26,000 dead and 30,000 injured.
Source: Wikipedia date pages ("January 1" … "December 31") / CC BY-SA 4.0. Regions are assigned by the site editors.
FAQ
What year was 2003 in the Japanese calendar?
2003 was Heisei 15 in the Japanese era system.
What Chinese zodiac animal is 2003?
2003 is the Year of the Goat.
How old is someone born in 2003?
They turn 23 on their birthday in 2026.
What happened in 2003?
In 2003, the Iraq War began in March, and Japan Post was launched as a public corporation in April. In May, Japan launched the asteroid probe Hayabusa, and in July it passed a special law to support Iraq's reconstruction.
Dates and events are based on Wikipedia and other references. Summaries and regions are written by the site editors.