WHAT ALL HAPPENED APRIL TO NOVEMBER 2003
Find out what all happened April to November 2003

Astronomers Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz discover 90377 Sedna, a Trans-Neptunian object. (14. November 2003)

Smart 1 satellite is launched. (27. September 2003)

Maldives civil unrest: the death of prisoner Hassan Evan Naseem sparks a day of rioting in Malé. (20. September 2003)

Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing 34,646,418 miles (55,758,005 km) distant. (27. August 2003)

Mission: SPACE opens to the public in the Epcot park at Walt Disney World. The opening ceremony included several astronauts from all eras of space exploration. (9. October 2003)

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. (15. November 2003)

In Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line. (30. July 2003)

A magnitude-8.0 earthquake strikes just offshore Hokkaidō, Japan. (25. September 2003)

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. (13. July 2003)

Concorde makes its final flight, over Bristol, England. (26. November 2003)

A historic recall election takes place in the U.S. State of California in which the sitting Governor Gray Davis, a Democrat, is overwhelmingly voted out of office. Actor, bodybuilder and Republican candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger is elected to be the 38th Governor of California over fellow Republican Tom McClintock and Democrat Cruz Bustamante who at the time was the sitting Lt. Governor of California. This is the first recall election in the history of the State of California in which a sitting Governor has been successfully recalled from office. (7. October 2003)

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". (1. May 2003)

2003 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. (22. November 2003)

AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape. The Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day (15. July 2003)

Over 500,000 people protested against efforts to pass anti-sedition legislation in Hong Kong. (1. July 2003)

The Spirit Rover is launched, beginning NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission. (10. June 2003)

A Hamas planned suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem, Israel kills 23 Israelis, seven of them children, in the Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing. (19. August 2003)

The Tli Cho land claims agreement is signed between the Dogrib First Nations and the Canadian federal government in Rae-Edzo (now called Behchoko). (25. August 2003)

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. (14. April 2003)

A car bomb explodes in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta outside the Marriott Hotel killing 12 and injuring 150. (5. August 2003)