December 28 - Susan Sontag, American writer (b. 1933)
December 29 - Liddy Holloway, New Zealand actress (b. 1947)
December 29 - Ken Burkhart, American baseball player (b. 1915)
Events
January 1 - In a vote of confidence, General Pervez Musharraf wins 658 out of 1,170 votes in the Electoral College of Pakistan, and according to Article 41(8) of the Constitution of Pakistan, was "deemed to be elected" to the office of President until October 2007.
January 2 - Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that it will return to Earth two years later.
January 3 - Flight 604, a Boeing 737 owned by Flash Airlines, an Egyptian airliner, plunges into the Red Sea, killing all 148 people on board.
January 4 - Spirit, a NASA Mars Rover, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC.
January 6 - Costas Simitis announces his resignation as president of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement in Greece.
January 8 - The RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship ever built, is christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
January 12 - The world's largest ocean liner, RMS Queen Mary 2, makes its maiden voyage.
January 14 - The national flag of Georgia, the so-called "five cross flag", was restored to official use after a hiatus of some 500 years.
January 21 - Canada: The residence of reporter Juliet O'Neill is searched by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) investigating leaks concerning the deportation of Maher Arar.
January 21 - NASA's MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies with Flash Memory management and is fixed remotely from Earth on February 6.
January 25 - Opportunity rover (MER-B) lands on surface of Mars.
January 26 - President Hamid Karzai signs the new constitution of Afghanistan.
January 26 - A whale explodes in the town of Tainan, Taiwan. A build-up of gas in the decomposing Sperm whale is suspected of causing the explosion.
February 1 - 251 people are trampled to death and 244 injured in a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
February 1 - Janet Jackson's breast is exposed during the half-time show of Super Bowl XXXVIII, resulting in US broadcasters adopting a stronger adherence to FCC censorship guidelines.
February 5 - Twenty-three Chinese people drown when a group of 35 cockle-pickers are trapped by rising tides in Morecambe Bay, England. Twenty-one bodies are recovered.
February 5 - Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaïves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion.
February 12 - The city of San Francisco, California begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom.
February 13 - The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics discovers the universe's largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093.
February 14 - In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 25 people, and wounding more than 100 others.
February 18 - Up to 295 people, including nearly 200 rescue workers, die near Neyshabur in Iran when a run-away freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertiliser catches fire and explodes.
February 19 - Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal is awarded an honorary knighthood in recognition of a "lifetime of service to humanity."
February 21 - The first European political party organization, the European Greens, is established in Rome.
February 26 - The United States lifts a ban on travel to Libya, ending travel restrictions to the nation that had lasted for 23 years.
February 26 - Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski is killed in a plane crash near Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
February 27 - A bombing of a Superferry by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines worst terrorist attack kills 116.
February 27 - Former BPMC general secretary Ordrick Samuel launches a new party in Barbuda, Barbudans for a Better Barbuda.
February 28 - Over 1 million Taiwanese participating in the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally form a 500-kilometre (300-mile) long human chain to commemorate the 228 Incident in 1947
February 29 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns as President of Haiti following popular rebel uprising.
March 1 - Terry Nichols is convicted of state murder charges and being an accomplice to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
March 1 - Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum becomes President of Iraq.
March 2 - Voters in the U.S. state of Georgia vote on a referendum concerning its Confederacy-derived flag.
March 2 - War in Iraq: Al Qaeda carries out the Ashoura Massacre in Iraq, killing 170 and wounding over 500.
March 3 - Belgian brewer Interbrew and Brazilian rival AmBev agreed to merge in a $11.2 billion deal that formed InBev, the world's largest brewer.
March 7 - New Democracy wins the national elections in Greece.
March 8 - A new constitution is signed by Iraq's Governing Council.
March 11 - Madrid Train Bombings: Simultaneous explosions on rush hour trains in Madrid (Spain) kill 191 people.
March 12 - Roh Moo-hyun, President of South Korea is impeached by its national assembly for the first time in the nation's history.
March 15 - Announcement of the discovery of 90377 Sedna, the farthest natural object in the Solar system so far observed.
March 17 - Unrest in Kosovo results in more than 22 killed, 200 wounded, and the destruction of 35 Serb Orthodox shrines in Kosovo and two mosques in Belgrade and Nis.
March 19 - Äänekoski bus disaster: A semi-trailer truck and a bus crash head-on in Äänekoski, Finland. 24 people are killed and 13 injured.
March 19 - A Swedish DC-3 shot down by a Russian MiG-15 in the 1950s is finally recovered after years of work. The remains of the crew are left in place, pending further investigations.
March 19 - 3-19 Shooting Incident: Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian is shot just before the country's presidential election on March 20.
March 20 - Stephen Harper wins the leadership of the newly created Conservative Party of Canada, becoming the party's first leader.
March 21 - In Malaysia, the 11th Federal and State elections are held, returning the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional to power with an increased majority.
March 22 - Ahmed Yassin, co-founder and leader of the Palestinian Sunni Islamist militant group Hamas, and bodyguards are killed in the Gaza Strip when hit by Israeli Air Force AH-64 Apache fired Hellfire missiles.
March 23 - Andhra Pradesh Federation of Trade Unions holds its first conference in Hyderabad, India.
March 27 - HMS Scylla, a decommissioned Leander frigate, is sunk as an artificial reef off Cornwall, the first of its kind in Europe.
March 29 - Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia join NATO as full members.
March 29 - The Republic of Ireland becomes the first country in the world to ban smoking in all work places, including bars and restaurants.
March 31 - In Fallujah, Iraq, 4 American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed and their bodies mutilated after being ambushed.
April 1 - Google introduces its Gmail product to the public. The launch is met with scepticism on account of the launch date.
April 2 - Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks attempt to bomb the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid. Their attack is thwarted.
April 3 - Islamic terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks are trapped by the police in their apartment and kill themselves.
April 6 - Rolandas Paksas becomes the first president of Lithuania to be peacefully removed from the post by impeachment.
April 8 - Darfur conflict: The Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement is signed by the Sudanese government and two rebel groups.
April 8 - U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice testifies before the 9/11 Commission.
April 16 - The super liner Queen Mary 2 embarks on her first Trans-Atlantic crossing, linking the golden age of ocean travel to the modern age of ocean travel.
April 20 - In Iraq, 12 mortars are fired on Abu Ghraib Prison by insurgents, killing 22 detainees and wounding 92.
April 22 - Two fuel trains collide in Ryongchon, North Korea, killing up to 150 people.
April 24 - The United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction.
April 29 - Dick Cheney and George W. Bush testify before the 9/11 Commission in a closed, unrecorded hearing in the Oval Office.
April 29 - Oldsmobile builds its final car ending 107 years of production.
April 30 - U.S. media release graphic photos of American soldiers abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.
May 1 - Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union, celebrated at the residence of the Irish President in Dublin.
May 2 - Yelwa massacre of more than 630 nomad Muslims by Christians in Nigeria.
May 9 - Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov is killed in a land mine bomb blast under a VIP stage during a World War II memorial victory parade in Grozny, Chechnya.
May 14 - The Constitutional Court of South Korea overturns the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun.
May 14 - The marriage of Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark and Mary Donaldson takes place in Copenhagen.
May 16 - The Day of Mourning at Bykivnia forest, just outside of Kiev, Ukraine. Here during 1930s and early 1940s communist bolsheviks executed over 100,000 Ukrainian civilians.
May 17 - Massachusetts becomes the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage
May 21 - Sherpa Pemba Dorjie climbs Mount Everest in 8 hours 10 minutes, breaking his rival Sherpa Lakpa Gelu's record from the previous year.
May 21 - Stanislav Petrov is awarded the World Citizen Award for averting a potential World War III in 1983.
May 22 - Felipe, Prince of Asturias, of the Spanish Royal Family marries Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano.
May 22 - The U.S. town of Hallam, Nebraska, is wiped out by a powerful F4 tornado that broke a width record at an astounding 2.5 miles wide. It also kills one local resident.
May 23 - Part of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport's Terminal 2E collapses, killing four people and injuring three others.
May 24 - Communications in North Korea: North Korea bans mobile phones.
May 26 - The New York Times publishes an admission of journalistic failings, claiming that its flawed reporting and lack of skeptism towards sources during the buildup to the 2003 war in Iraq helped promote the belief that Iraq possessed large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.
May 26 - The United States Army veteran Terry Nichols is found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the Oklahoma City bombing.
May 28 - The Iraqi Governing Council chooses Ayad Allawi, a longtime anti-Saddam Hussein exile, to become prime minister of Iraq's interim government.
May 29 - The World War II Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C.
May 29 - The Al-Khobar massacres in Saudi Arabia kill 22.
June 2 - Ken Jennings begins his 74-game winning streak on the syndicated game show Jeopardy!.
June 6 - Tamil is established as a Classical language by the President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in a joint sitting of the two houses of the Indian Parliament.
June 11 - Cassini-Huygens makes its closest flyby of Phoebe.
June 11 - Ronald Reagan's funeral is held at Washington National Cathedral.
June 12 - A 1.3 kilogram chondrite type meteorite strikes a house in Ellerslie, New Zealand causing serious damage but no injuries.
June 21 - SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.
June 24 - In New York, capital punishment is declared unconstitutional.
June 28 - The 17th NATO Summit starts in Istanbul.
June 28 - Sovereign power is handed to the interim government of Iraq by the Coalition Provisional Authority, ending the U.S.-led rule of that nation.
June 28 - Estonia, Lithuania and Slovenia join the European Exchange Rate Mechanism
July 1 - Saturn Orbit insertion of Cassini-Huygens begins at 01:12 UTC and ends at 02:48 UTC.
July 2 - ASEAN Regional Forum accepts Pakistan as its 24th member.¨
July 3 - Official opening of Bangkok's subway system.
July 4 - The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid on the site of the World Trade Center in New York City. (This was largely a symbolic event; actual construction would not start for several weeks)
July 5 - First Indonesian presidential election by the nation.
July 16 - Millennium Park, considered the first and most ambitious architectural project in the early 21st century for Chicago, is opened to the public by Mayor Richard M. Daley.
July 21 - The United Kingdom government publishes Delivering Security in a Changing World, a paper detailing wide-ranging reform of the country's armed forces.
August 1 - A supermarket fire kills 396 people and injures 500 in Asunción, Paraguay.
August 3 - The pedestal of the Statue of Liberty reopens after being closed since the September 11 attacks.
August 12 - New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey comes out publicly as a gay man.
August 13 - Hurricane Charley, a Category 4 storm, strikes Punta Gorda, Florida and devastates the surrounding area.
August 13 - Black Friday crackdown by NSS on a peaceful protest in the capital city of Maldives, Malé.
August 13 - 156 Congolese Tutsi refugees massacred at the Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi.
August 17 - MD5 collision found by Chinese researchers.
August 17 - The National Assembly of Serbia unanimously adopts new state symbols for Serbia: Boze Pravde becomes the new anthem and the coat of arms is adopted for the whole country.
August 22 - A version of The Scream and Madonna, two paintings by Edvard Munch, are stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo, Norway.
August 24 - 89 passengers die after two airliners explode after flying out of Domodedovo International Airport, near Moscow. The explosions were caused by suicide bombers (reportedly female) from the Russian Republic of Chechnya.
September 1 - The Beslan school hostage crisis begins when armed terrorists take hundreds of school children and adults hostage in the Russian town of Beslan in North Ossetia.
September 3 - The Beslan school massacre ends in the deaths of approximately 344 people, mostly teachers and children.
September 7 - Hurricane Ivan, a Category 5 hurricane hitting Grenada, killing 39 and damaging 90% of its buildings.
September 8 - The NASA unmanned spacecraft Genesis crash-lands when its parachute fails to open.
September 9 - 2004 Australian embassy bombing: A bomb explodes outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta, killing 10 people.
September 15 - NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announces a lockout of the players union and cessation of operations by the NHL head office.
September 17 - Tamil is declared the first classical language in India.
September 21 - The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People's War and the Maoist Communist Centre of India merge to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
September 21 - Construction of the Burj Dubai starts.
September 23 - At least 1,070 in Haiti are reported killed by floods due to Hurricane Jeanne
September 29 - The asteroid 4179 Toutatis passes within four lunar distances of Earth.
September 29 - The Burt Rutan Ansari X Prize entry SpaceShipOne performs a successful spaceflight, the first of two required to win the prize.
September 30 - The first images of a live giant squid in its natural habitat are taken 600 miles south of Tokyo.
September 30 - The AIM-54 Phoenix, the primary missile for the F-14 Tomcat, is retired from service. Almost two years later, the Tomcat is retired.
October 1 - Baseball: Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki gets his 258th hit of the season, breaking George Sisler's 84-year-old single-season record.
October 2 - American Samoa joins the North American Numbering Plan.
October 4 - SpaceShipOne wins Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight.
October 19 - Myanmar prime minister Khin Nyunt is ousted and placed under house arrest by the SPDC on charges of corruption.
October 19 - Care International aid worker Margaret Hassan is kidnapped in Iraq.
October 23 - A powerful earthquake and its aftershocks hit Niigata prefecture, northern Japan, killing 35 people, injuring 2,200, and leaving 85,000 homeless or evacuated.
October 24 - 10 people, including 4 family members of Rick Hendrick, are killed in a plane crash near Martinsville Speedway. The plane was owned by NASCAR team Hendrick Motorsports.
October 25 - Fidel Castro, Cuba's President, announces that transactions using the American Dollar will be banned by November 8.
October 29 - The Arabic news network Al Jazeera broadcasts an excerpt from a video of Osama bin Laden in which the terrorist leader first admits direct responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks and references the 2004 U.S. presidential election.
October 29 - In Rome, European heads of state sign the Treaty and Final Act establishing the first European Constitution.
November 6 - An express train collides with a stationary car near the village of Ufton Nervet, England, killing 6 and injuring 150.
November 7 - War in Iraq: The interim government of Iraq calls for a 60-day "state of emergency" as U.S. forces storm the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
November 8 - War in Iraq: More than 10,000 U.S. troops and a small number of Iraqi army units participate in a siege on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
November 11 - New Zealand Tomb of the Unknown Warrior dedicated at the National War Memorial, Wellington.
November 11 - Yasser Arafat is confirmed dead by the Palestine Liberation Organization, of unidentified causes. Mahmoud Abbas is elected chairman of the PLO minutes later.
November 17 - Kmart Corp. announces it is buying Sears, Roebuck and Co. for $11 billion USD and naming the newly merged company Sears Holdings Corporation.
November 18 - Russia officially ratifies the Kyoto Protocol.
November 21 - The second round of the Ukrainian presidential election is held, unleashing massive protests and controversy over the election's integrity.
November 21 - The island of Dominica is hit by the most destructive earthquake in its history. The northern half of the island receives the most damage, especially the town of Portsmouth. It is also felt in neighboring Guadeloupe, where one person is killed as a result.
November 21 - The Paris Club agrees to write off 80% (up to $100 billion) of Iraq's external debt.
November 22 - The Orange Revolution begins in Ukraine, resulting from the presidential elections.
November 24 - Male Poʻo-uli dies of Avian malaria in the Maui Bird Conservation Center in Olinda, Hawaii before it could breed, making the species in all probability extinct.
November 26 - Ruzhou School massacre: a man stabs and kills eight people and seriously wounds another four in a school dormitory in Ruzhou, China.
November 30 - Longtime Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings of Salt Lake City, Utah finally loses, leaving him with $2,520,700 USD, television's all-time biggest game show haul.
November 30 - Lion Air Flight 538 crash lands in Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia, killing 26.
November 30 - Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge resigns.
December 8 - The Cuzco Declaration is signed in Cuzco, Peru, establishing the South American Community of Nations.
December 13 - Former Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet is put under house arrest, after being sued under accusations over 9 kidnapping actions and manslaughter. The house arrest is lifted the same day on appeal.
December 14 - The Millau viaduct, the highest bridge in the world, near Millau, France is officially opened.
December 23 - Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean is hit by an 8.1 magnitude earthquake.
December 25 - Cassini orbiter releases Huygens probe which successfully landed on Saturn's moon Titan on January 14, 2005.
December 26 - A 9.0 magnitude earthquake creates a tsunami causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean, killing 230,000 people.
December 27 - Radiation from an explosion on the magnetar SGR 1806-20 reaches Earth. It is the brightest extrasolar event known to have been witnessed on the planet.
December 30 - A fire in the República Cromagnon nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina kills 194.
December 31 - The official opening of Taipei 101, the current tallest skyscraper in the world, standing at a height of 509 metres (1,670 feet).
