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January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashes into the Red Sea off the coast of
Egypt, killing all 148 aboard making it one of the deadliest aviation accidents in
Egyptian history at the time.[1]
January 8 – The RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest ocean liner ever built, is
christened by its namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
February
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March
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March 2 – A series of bombings occur in Karbala, Iraq, killing over 140 Shia
Muslims commemorating the Day of Ashura.[4]
March 11 – Coordinated bombings at a Cercanías train station in Madrid, Spain,
kill at least 192 people.[5][6]
March 28 – Hurricane Catarina, the first ever recorded South Atlantic tropical
cyclone, makes landfall in Santa Catarina, Brazil.[7]
March 29 – Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia
are admitted to NATO, the largest expansion of the organization.[8]
April
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May
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June
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June 12 – July 4 – Portugal hosts the UEFA Euro 2004 football tournament, which
is won by Greece.
June 21 – In Mojave, California, SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately
funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.[12]
June 28 – The U.S.-led coalition occupying Iraq, the Coalition Provisional
Authority (CPA), transfers sovereignty to the Iraqi Interim Government.[13]
June 30 – Preliminary hearings begin in Iraq in the trial of president Saddam
Hussein, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
July
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July 1
The unmanned Cassini–Huygens spacecraft arrives at Saturn.[14]
The Russian Federation stops recognizing Soviet Union passports as legal
identification.[15]
August
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September
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October
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October 8 – Suicide bombers detonate two bombs at the Red Sea resort of Taba,
Egypt, killing 34 people and injuring 171, mostly Israeli tourists.[21]
October 9 – 2004 Australian federal election: John Howard's Liberal/National
Coalition Government is re-elected with an increased majority, defeating the Labor
Party led by Mark Latham.[22]
October 19 – A team of explorers reach the bottom of Krubera Cave, the world's
deepest cave, with a depth of 2,080 meters (6,824 feet).[23]
October 20 – Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is sworn in as the 6th President of
Indonesia, becoming the first directly elected president in Indonesia.[24]
October 29 – European heads of state sign in Rome the Treaty and Final Act,
establishing the first European Constitution.[25]
November
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December
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December 14 – The world's tallest bridge, the Millau Viaduct over the Tarn in
the Massif Central mountains, France, is officially opened.[28]
December 21 – Iraqi insurgents attack a U.S. military base in the city of
Mosul, killing 22 people.[29]
December 26 – The 9.1–9.3 Mw Indian Ocean earthquake shakes northern Sumatra
with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). One of the largest observed
tsunamis follows, affecting coastal areas of Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, the
Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, killing over 200,000
people.[30]
December 27 – Astrophysicists from the Max Planck Institute for
Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching near Munich measure the strongest burst from a
magnetar. At 21:30:26 UT Earth is hit by a huge wave front of gamma and X-rays. It
is the strongest flux of high-energetic gamma radiation measured so far.
December 30 – A fire in the República Cromañón nightclub in Buenos Aires,
Argentina kills 194.
December 31 – Taipei 101, at the time the tallest skyscraper in the world,
standing at a height of 1,670 feet (510 m), officially opens.[31]
Births