WHAT ALL HAPPENED JUNE TO SEPTEMBER 2003
Find out what all happened June to September 2003

NASA Opportunity rover, MER-B or Mars Exploration Rover – B, was launched into space aboard a Delta II rocket. (7. July 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)

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

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

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

Yuri Malenchenko becomes the first person to marry in space. (10. August 2003)

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. (29. August 2003)

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. (2. June 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)

The Wikimedia Foundation is founded in St. Petersburg, Florida. (20. June 2003)

In an effort to discredit U.S. Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who had written an article critical of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Washington Post columnist Robert Novak reveals that Wilson's wife Valerie Plame is a CIA "operative". (14. July 2003)

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

NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history. (11. August 2003)

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

Galileo mission is terminated by sending the probe into Jupiter's atmosphere, where it is crushed by the pressure at the lower altitudes. (21. September 2003)

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. (22. August 2003)

The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Lawrence v. Texas that gender-based sodomy laws are unconstitutional. (26. June 2003)

Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh assassinated (11. September 2003)

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. (6. July 2003)

While being towed across the Barents Sea, the de-commissioned Russian submarine K-159 sinks, taking 9 of her crew and 800 kg of spent nuclear fuel with her. (30. August 2003)