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Leap Year Starting On Thursday

Leap year starting on Thursday

This is the calendar for any leap year starting on Thursday (dominical letter DC), e.g. 2004. Previous year | Next year This kind of year has 53 weeks in the ISO 8601 week - day format. Furthermore, ISO week 10 (which begins March 1) and all subsequent ISO weeks occur earlier than in any other kind of year. Category:Thursday Category:Weeks ko:목요일로 시작하는 윤년 th:ปีอธิกสุรทินที่วันแรกเป็นวันพฤหัสบดี

Calendar

A calendar is a system for naming periods of time, typically days. These names are known as calendar dates. The dates may be based on the perceived motion of astronomical objects. A calendar is also a physical device (often paper) that illustrates the system (for example, a desktop calendar) — this is the most common usage of the word. As a subset, 'calendar' is also used to denote a list of particular set of planned events (for example, court calendar).

Calendar systems

Calendars in use on Earth are lunar, solar, lunisolar or arbitrary. A lunar calendar is synchronized to the motion of the Moon (moon phases); an example is the Islamic calendar. A solar calendar is based on perceived seasonal changes synchronized to the apparent motion of the Sun; an example is the Persian calendar. A lunisolar calendar is synchronized both to the motion of the Moon and to the apparent motion of the Sun; an example is the Jewish calendar. An arbitrary calendar is not synchronized to either the Moon or the Sun; examples are the week and the Julian day used by astronomers. There are some calendars that appear to be synchronized to the motion of Venus, such as some of the ancient Egyptian calendars; synchronization to Venus appears to occur primarily in civilizations near the Equator.

Solar calendars

Main article: Solar calendar

Days used by solar calendars

Solar calendars assign a date to each solar day. A day may consist of the period between sunrise and sunset, with a following period of night, or it may be a period between successive events such as two sunsets. The length of the interval between two such successive events may be allowed to vary slightly during the year, or it may be averaged into a mean solar day. Other types of calendar may also use a solar day.

Future reform

There have been a number of proposals for reform of the calendar, such as the World calendar and International Fixed Calendar. The United Nations considered adopting such a reformed calendar for a while in the 1950s, but these proposals have lost most of their popularity.

Lunar calendars

Main article: Lunar calendar Not all calendars use the solar year as a unit. A lunar calendar is one in which days are numbered within each moon phase cycle. Because the length of the lunar month is not an even fraction of the length of the tropical year, a purely lunar calendar quickly drifts against the seasons. It does, however, stay constant with respect to other phenomena, notably tides. A lunisolar calendar is a lunar calendar that compensates by adding an extra month as needed to realign the months with the seasons. An example is the Jewish calendar which uses a 19 year cycle. Lunar calendars are believed to be the oldest calendars invented by mankind. Cro-Magnon people are claimed to have invented one around 32,000 BC.

Fiscal calendars

Main article: Fiscal calendar A fiscal calendar (such as a 5/4/4 calendar) fixes each month at a specific number of weeks to facilitate comparisons from month to month and year to year. January always has exactly 5 weeks (Sunday through Saturday), February has 4 weeks, March has 4 weeks, etc. Note that this calendar will normally need to add a 53rd week to every 5th or 6th year, which might be added to December or might not be, depending on how the organization uses those dates. There exists an international standard way to do this (the ISO week). The ISO week runs Monday through Sunday and Week 1 is always the week that contains January 4 Gregorian.

Calendar subdivisions

Nearly all calendar systems group consecutive days into "months" and also into "years". In a solar calendar a year approximates Earth's tropical year (that is, the time it takes for a complete cycle of seasons), traditionally used to facilitate the planning of agricultural activities. In a lunar calendar, the month approximates the cycle of the moon phase. Consecutive days may be grouped into other periods such as the week. Because the number of days in the tropical year is not a whole number, a solar calendar must have a different number of days in different years. This may be done with leap years. The same applies to months in a lunar calendar and also the number of months in a year in a lunisolar calendar. This is generally known as intercalation. Even if a calendar is solar, but not lunar, the year cannot be divided entirely into months that never vary in length. Cultures may define other units of time, such as the week, for the purpose of scheduling regular activities that do not easily coincide with months or years.

Other calendar types

Complete and incomplete calendars

Calendars may be either complete or incomplete. Complete calendars provide a way of naming each consecutive day, while incomplete calendars do not. The early Roman calendar, which had no way of designating the days of the winter months other than to lump them together as "winter", is an example of an incomplete calendar, while the Gregorian calendar is an example of a complete calendar.

Pragmatic, theoretical and mixed calendars

Calendars may be pragmatic, theoretical, or mixed. A pragmatic calendar is one that is based on observation; examples are the religious Islamic calendar and the old religious Jewish calendar in the time of the Second Temple. Such a calendar is also referred to as an observation-based or astronomical calendar. The advantage of such a calendar is that it is perfectly and perpetually accurate. The disadvantage is that working out when a particular date would occur is difficult. A theoretical calendar is one that is based on a strict set of rules; an example is the current Jewish calendar. Such a calendar is also referred to a rule-based or arithmetical calendar. The advantage of such a calendar is the ease of working out when a particular date occurs. The disadvantage is imperfect accuracy. Furthermore if the calendar is very accurate, its accuracy perishes slowly over time owing to changes in Earth's rotation. This limits the lifetime of an accurate theoretical calendar to a few thousand years. After then, the rules would need to be modified from observations made since the invention of the calendar, resulting in a mixed calendar. A mixed calendar combines the features of both pragmatic and theoretical calendars. Mixed calendars usually begin as theoretical calendars, but are adjusted pragmatically when some type of asynchrony becomes apparent; the shift from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar is such an example. The Gregorian calendar, as a final example, is complete, solar, and mixed.

Uses

The primary practical use of a calendar is to identify days: to be informed about and/or to agree on a future event and to record an event that has happened. Days may be significant for civil, religious or social reasons. For example, a calendar provides a way to determine which days are religious or civil holidays, which days mark the beginning and end of business accounting periods, and which days have legal significance, such as the day taxes are due or a contract expires. Also a calendar may, by identifying a day, provide other useful information about the day such as its season. Calendars are also used as part of a complete timekeeping system: date and time of day together specify a moment in time. In the modern world, written calendars are no longer an essential part of such systems, as the advent of accurate clocks has made it possible to record time independently of astronomical events.

Currently used calendars

Calendars in widespread use today include the Gregorian calendar, which is the de facto international standard, and is used almost everywhere in the world for civil purposes, including in China and India (along with the Indian national calendar). The Hebrew calendar is the official calendar of Israel's government, but the Gregorian calendar is much more widely used in Israel's business and day-to-day affairs. The Persian calendar is used in Iran and Afghanistan. The Islamic calendar is used by Muslims the world over. The Chinese, Hebrew, Hindu, and Julian calendars are widely used for religious and/or social purposes. Even where there is a commonly used calendar such as the Gregorian calendar, alternate calendars may also be used, such as a fiscal calendar.

Sources

- Calendrical Calculations; Nachum Dershowitz and Edward M. Reingold; Cambridge University Press, 1997; ISBN 0-521-56474-3; [http://emr.cs.iit.edu/home/reingold/calendar-book/second-edition/ Book Info]; [http://emr.cs.iit.edu/home/reingold/calendar-book/Calendrica.html Online Calculator]
- Mapping Time, the calendar and its history; E G Richards; Oxford University Press, 1998; ISBN 0-19-850413-6
- A comparative Calendar of the Iranian, Muslim Lunar,and Christian Eras for Three Thousand Years; Ahmad Birashk; Mazda Publishers, 1993; ISBN 0-939214-95-4
- The Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar; Arthur Spier; Feldheim Publishers, 1986; ISBN 0-87306-398-8
- High Days and Holidays in Iceland; Árni Björnsson; Mál og menning, 1995; ISBN 9979-3-0802-8
- Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac; P. Kenneth Seidelmann, ed.; University Science Books, 1992; ISBN 0-935702-68-7; [http://astro.nmsu.edu/~lhuber/leaphist.html Chapter 12: Calendars by L. E. Doggett]
- Sun, Moon, and Sothis; Lynn E. Rose; Kronos Press, 1999; ISBN 0-917994-15-9
- Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Tibetischen Kalenderrechnung; Dieter Schuh; Franz Steiner Verlag GMBH, 1973

External links

- [http://www.tondering.dk/claus/calendar.html Frequently Asked Questions about Calendars]
- [http://88.1911encyclopedia.org/C/CA/CALENDAR.htm 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica entry]
- [http://www.abcalendar.com Event Calendar] based on Wikipedia Content
- [http://kalender-365.de/calendar.php Perpetual Calendar 1800 - 2400]
- [http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/~accent/calendar/index.htm Perpetual Calendar]
- [http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/ Current calendar].
- [http://www.datedex.com/results.asp DateDex: Selected events on selected dates]
- ja:暦 th:ปฏิทิน

Leap year

A leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing an extra day or month in order to keep the calendar year in sync with an astronomical or seasonal year. Seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of days, so a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would over time drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. Leap years (which keep the calendar in sync with the year) should not be confused with leap seconds (which keep clock time in sync with the day).

Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar, the current standard calendar in most of the world, adds a 29th day to February in all years evenly divisible by 4, except for century years (those ending in -00), which receive the extra day only if they are evenly divisible by 400. Thus 1996 was a leap year whereas 1999 was not, and 1600, 2000 and 2400 are leap years but 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2100 are not. The reasoning behind this rule is as follows:
- The Gregorian calendar is designed to keep the vernal equinox on or close to March 21, so that the date of Easter (celebrated on the Sunday after the 14th day of the Moon that falls on or after 21 March) remains correct with respect to the vernal equinox.
- The vernal equinox year is currently about 365.242375 days long.
- The Gregorian leap year rule gives an average year length of 365.2425 days. This difference of a little over 0.0001 days means that in around 8,000 years, the calendar will be about one day behind where it should be. But in 8,000 years' time the length of the vernal equinox year will have changed by an amount we can't accurately predict (see below). So the Gregorian leap year rule does a good enough job. Image:Gregoriancalendarleap.png

Which day is the leap day?

The Gregorian calendar is a modification of the Julian calendar first used by the Romans. The Roman calendar originated as a lunar calendar (though from the 5th century BC it no longer followed the real moon) and named its days after three of the phases of the moon: the new moon (calends, hence "calendar"), the first quarter (nones) and the full moon (ides). Days were counted down (inclusively) to the next named day, so 24 February was ante diem sextum calendas martii ("the sixth day before the calends of March"). Since 45 BC, February in a leap year had two days called "the sixth day before the calends of March". The extra day was originally the second of these, but since the third century it was the first. Hence the term bissextile day for 24 February in a bissextile year. Where this custom is followed, anniversaries after the inserted day are moved in leap years. For example, the former feast day of Saint Matthias, 24 February in ordinary years, would be 25 February in leap years. This historical nicety is, however, in the process of being discarded: The European Union declared that, starting in 2000, 29 February rather than 24 February would be leap day, and the Roman Catholic Church also now uses 29 February as leap day. The only tangible difference is felt in countries that celebrate feast days.

Julian calendar

The Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4. This rule gives an average year length of 365.25 days. The excess of about 0.0076 days with respect to the vernal equinox year means that the vernal equinox moves a day earlier in the calendar every 130 years or so.

Revised Julian Calendar

The Revised Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4, except for years divisible by 100 that do not leave a remainder of 200 or 600 when divided by 900. This rule agrees with the rule for the Gregorian calendar until 2799. The first year that dates in the Revised Julian calendar will not agree with the those in the Gregorian calendar will be 2800, because it will be a leap year in the Gregorian calendar but not in the Revised Julian calendar. This rule gives an average year length of 365.242222… days. This is a very good approximation to the meantropical year, but because the vernal equinox tropical year is slightly longer, the Revised Julian calendar does not do as good a job as the Gregorian calendar of keeping the vernal equinox on or close to 21 March.

Chinese calendar

The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, so a leap year has an extra month, often called an embolismic month after the Greek word for it. In the Chinese calendar the leap month is added according to a complicated rule, which ensures that month 11 is always the month that contains the northern winter solstice. The intercalary month takes the same number as the preceding month; for example, if it follows the second month then it is simply called "leap second month".

Hebrew calendar

The Hebrew calendar is also lunisolar with an embolistic month. In the Hebrew calendar the extra month is called Adar Alef (first Adar) and is added before Adar, which then becomes Adar Sheni (second Adar). According to the Metonic cycle, this is done seven times every nineteen years, specifically, in years, 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19. In addition, the Hebrew calendar has postponement rules that postpone the start of the year by one or two days. The year before the postponement gets one or two extra days, and the year whose start is postponed loses one or two days. These postponement rules reduce the number of different combinations of year length and starting day of the week from 28 to 14, and regulate the location of certain religious holidays in relation to the Sabbath.

Hindu Calendar

In the Hindu calendar, which is a lunisolar calendar, the embolismic month is called adhika maas (extra month). It is the month in which the sun is in the same sign of the stellar zodiac on two consecutive dark moons.

Iranian calendar

The Iranian calendar also has a single intercalated day once in every four years, but every 33 years or so the leap years will be five years apart instead of four years apart. The system used is more accurate and more complicated, and is based on the time of the March equinox as observed from Teheran. The 33-year period is not completely regular; every so often the 33-year cycle will be broken by a cycle of 29 or 37 years.

Long term leap year rules

The accumulated difference between the Gregorian calendar and the vernal equinoctial year amounts to 1 day in about 8,000 years. This suggests that the calendar needs to be improved by another refinement to the leap year rule: perhaps by avoiding leap years in years divisible by 8,000. (The most common such proposal is to avoid leap years in years divisible by 4,000 [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22gregorian+calendar%22+error+%22leap+year%22+4000]. This is based on the difference between the Gregorian calendar and the mean tropical year. Others claim, erroneously, that the Gregorian calendar itself already contains a refinement of this kind [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mleapyr.html].) However, there is little point in planning a calendar so far ahead because over a timescale of tens of thousands of years the number of days in a year will change for a number of reasons, most notably: #Precession of the equinoxes moves the position of the vernal equinox with respect to perihelion and so changes the length of the vernal equinoctial year. #Tidal acceleration from the sun and moon slows the rotation of the earth, making the day longer. In particular, the second component of change depends on such things as post-glacial rebound and sea level rise due to climate change. We can't predict these changes accurately enough to be able to make a calendar that will be accurate to a day in tens of thousands of years.

Marriage proposal

There is a tradition, said to go back to Saint Patrick and Saint Bridget in 5th century Ireland, whereby women may only make marriage proposals in leap years.

Saint Patrick and the leap year

:Saint Patrick, having driven the frogs out of the bogs was walking along the shores of Lough Neagh, when he was accosted by Saint Bridget in tears, and was told that a mutiny had broken out in the nunnery over which she presided, the ladies claiming the right of popping the question. :Saint Patrick said he would concede them the right every seventh year, when Saint Bridget threw her arms round his neck, and exclaimed, "Arrah, Pathrick, jewel, I daurn't go back to the girls wid such a proposal. Make it one year in four." Saint Patrick replied, "Bridget, acushla, squeeze me that way again, an' I'll give ye leap-year, the longest of the lot." Saint Bridget, upon this, popped the question to St Patrick himself, who, of course, could not marry: so he patched up the difficulty as best he could with a kiss and a silk gown. (Source: Evans, Ivor H, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988) According to a 1288 law in Scotland, fines were levied if the proposal was refused by the man; compensation ranged from a kiss to a silk gown to soften the blow. Because men felt that put them at too great a risk, the tradition was in some places tightened to restricting female proposals to 29 February.

Birthdays

A person who was born on 29 February may be called a "leapling". In non-leap years they usually celebrate their birthday on 28 February or 1 March. There are many instances in children's literature where a person's claim to be only a quarter of their actual age turns out be based on counting their leap-year birthdays. A similar device is used in the plot of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettaThe Pirates of Penzance. Category:Calendars Category:Units of time als:Schaltjahr ko:윤년 ja:閏年 simple:Leap year th:ปีอธิกสุรทิน

Thursday

Thursday, by international standard, is the fourth day of the week, falling between Wednesday and Friday. In countries that adopt a Sunday-first convention, it is commonly considered the fifth day of the week. (see Days of the week for more on the different conventions.) The name Thursday comes from the Old English Þunresdæg, meaning the day of Þunor, commonly known in Modern English as Thor, the Norse god of thunder. Thor replaced the Roman god of thunder, Jupiter, as the namesake of the fourth day of the week after the Anglo-Saxon invasions of Roman Britain. By some conventions (see ISO 8601), the Thursdays of a year determine the week numbering: week 1 is defined as the week that contains the first Thursday of the year, and so on.

Astrology

In French, Thursday is "Jeudi", a surviving connection between the day and the astrological energies of Jupiter. This connection links Thursday to business but also to jollity and humour.

Thursday in religion

In the Hindu religion, Thursday is guruvar or the Guru's day. Quakers traditionally refer to Thursday as "Fifth Day" eschewing the "pagan" origin of the name "Thursday". In the Christian tradition, Holy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter - the day on which the Last Supper occurred. In the United States, Thanksgiving Day is an annual holiday celebrated on a Thursday in November, currently the fourth Thursday.

Thursday in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, all general elections since 1935 have been held on a Thursday, and this has become a tradition, although not a requirement of the law – which only states that an election may be held on any day "except Saturdays, Sundays, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, bank holidays in any part of the United Kingdom and any day appointed for public thanksgiving and mourning". An explanation sometimes given for the choice of Thursday as polling day is that it was, in most towns, the traditional market day, although it has also been observed that the choice has practical advantages – with the outcome of the election being known by Friday, the new or continuing administration then has the weekend to organize itself in preparation for the "government shop opening for business" on Monday, the first day of the new week following the election. The Thursday before Easter is also known as Maundy Thursday or Sheer Thursday in the United Kingdom, traditionally a day of cleaning and giving out Maundy money.

Thursday in popular culture

In the popular rhyme, "Thursday's Child has far to go". In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, the character Arthur Dent says "This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays". A few minutes later the planet Earth is destroyed. Thor, for whom the day was named, also appears later in the Hitchhiker's series and in other Adams books.

Named days

Black Thursday refers to October 24, 1929 when stock prices on the New York Stock Exchange fell sharply, with record volume of nearly 13 million shares. Five days later, the market crashed on volume of over 16 million shares - a level not to be surpassed for 39 years. In popular imagery, the crash has come to mark the beginning of the Great Depression. Category:Days of the week als:Donnerstag ko:목요일 ms:Khamis ja:木曜日 th:วันพฤหัสบดี

2004

2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. It was designated the:
- International Year of Rice (by the United Nations)
- International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO)
- 2004 World Health Day topic was Road Safety (by World Health Organization)
- Year of the Monkey (by the Chinese calendar) See the world in 2004 for a description of the state of the world in this year. See also Wikipedia's almanac of events for this year.
Events

January

- January 1 - Pervez Musharraf gets a vote of confidence from an electoral college consisting of Parliament and the provincial assemblies, confirming him as President of Pakistan until 2007.
- January 3 - Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashes into the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt, killing all 148 aboard.
- January 4 - Mikhail Saakashvili wins the presidential elections in Georgia.
- January 4 -NASA's MER-A (Spirit) lands on Mars.
- January 8 - Queen Elizabeth II christens the RMS Queen Mary 2 cruise liner, currently the largest ocean liner in the world.
- January 13 - An Uzbekistan Airways plane crashes in Uzbekistan's capital of Tashkent, killing 37.
- January 22 - The European Union bans the import of poultry from Thailand, as bird flu spreads throughout Southeast Asia.
- January 24 - NASA's MER-B (Opportunity) lands on Mars.
- January 27 - The British government narrowly wins a House of Commons vote on the proposed introduction of tuition top-up fees in British universities.
- January 28 - The findings of the Hutton Inquiry are published in London. The British Government is found not to have falsified information in the "sexed up dossier". The report criticises the BBC's role in the death of David Kelly, a weapons expert on Iraq.
- January 28 - At a hearing of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, it is revealed that the September 11, 2001, terrorists used Mace (a brand of tear gas) or pepper spray in overpowering the flight crew of American Airlines Flight 11.
February

- February 1 - A hajj stampede in Mina, Saudi Arabia, kills 251 pilgrims.
- February 3 - The CIA admits that there was no imminent threat from weapons of mass destruction before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
- February 6 - A suicide bomber kills 41 people on a metro car in Moscow.
- February 7 - Several leaders of Abnaa el-Balad arrested in Israel.
- February 10 - At least 50 people killed in a car bomb attack on a police recruitment centre south of Baghdad.
- February 10 - The French National Assembly votes to pass a law banning religious items and clothing from schools.
- February 12 - Same sex marriage in the United States: The City and County of San Francisco begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples as an act of civil disobedience.
- February 13 - Scientists in South Korea announce the cloning of 30 human embryos.
- February 14 - Riots break out between New South Wales Police and Aboriginal residents of Redfern, a suburb of Sydney, Australia.
- February 18 - A train carrying a convoy of petrol, fertiliser, and sulfur derails and explodes in Iran, killing 320 people.
- February 20 - Conservatives win a majority in the Iranian parliament election.
- February 24 - 6.5 Richter scale earthquake in Northern Morocco hits in the Rif mountains near the city of Al Hoceima - over 400 dead. Ait Kamara is destroyed. 517 dead.
- February 25- Ash Wednesday. Also, the religious docudrama, The Passion of the Christ was released.
- 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 29 - 2004 Haiti rebellion: Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns as president of Haiti. The chief justice of the Haitian Supreme Court, Boniface Alexandre, is sworn in as interim president.
- February 29 - The film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King directed by Peter Jackson wins 11 Academy Awards in every category it was nominated.
March

- March 2 - John Kerry effectively clinches the 2004 U.S. Democratic Party presidential nomination by winning nine out of 10 "Super Tuesday" primaries and caucuses.
- March 2 - NASA announces that the Mars rover MER-B (Opportunity), has confirmed that the area of Mars they landed in was once drenched in water.
- March 10 - Five British men released from detention at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay land at RAF Brize Norton. Four are immediately arrested for questioning.
- March 11 - Simultaneous explosions on rush hour trains in Madrid kill 190 people.
- March 12 - Following the terrorist attacks in Madrid on March 11, millions of protesters take to the streets of Spanish cities against terrorism.
- March 14 - Two suicide bombers kill eleven Israeli civilians in Ashdod, Israel.
- March 14 - The Spanish parliamentary elections of 2004 take place. The incumbent government led by José María Aznar is defeated by the Socialist José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
- March 14 - Presidential elections in Russia are held. Vladimir Putin easily wins a second term.
- March 15 - A trio of astronomers announce they have discovered a large trans-Neptunian object, the largest object found in the solar system since Pluto was discovered in 1930. Initially designated 2003 VB₁₂, it was named 90377 Sedna in late September.
- March 15 - The new Spanish government announces that it will withdraw Spain's 1,300 troops in Iraq.
- March 17 - Organized violence breaks out over two days in Kosovo. Nineteen people are killed, 139 Serbian homes are burned, schools and businesses are vandalized, and over 30 orthodox monasteries and churches are burned and destroyed.
- March 19 - The UN launches a corruption investigation due to the scandal over its Iraqi Oil for Food program.
- March 20 - President Chen Shui-bian wins the Taiwanese presidential election by 0.2% of the vote. The day before, he and Vice President Annette Lu were 'shot'. Lien Chan refuses to concede and demands a recount. A controversial 'peace referendum' opposed by the People's Republic of China is invalidated.
- March 21 - The 2004 Malaysian general election takes place. The incumbent Barisan Nasional party wins 198 out of 219 seats in the Malaysian Parliament.
- March 21 - Tony Saca is elected President of El Salvador (inauguration June 1).
- March 22 - Palestinians protest in the streets after an Israeli helicopter gunship fires a missile at the entourage of Ahmed Yassin in Gaza City, killing Yassin and 7 others.
- March 25 - British Prime Minister Tony Blair visits Libyan leader Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi, in return for the dismantling of Libya's WMD programme in December 2003 - the first time a major western leader has visited the nation in several decades.
- March 28 - In France, the government of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin suffers a stunning and unprecedented defeat in regional elections. The first ever South Atlantic Hurricane makes landfall in South Brazil on the state of Santa Catarina, the Hurricane is dubbed Hurricane Catarina.
- March 29 - The Republic of Ireland bans smoking in all enclosed work places including: restaurants, pubs and bars.
- March 29 - Largest expansion of NATO to date, allowing Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia into the organization.
- March 31 - Four American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed and their bodies mutilated after being ambushed in Fallujah, Iraq.
April

- April 1 - Faroese Prime Minister's Office announces that from then on the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister's Office would use a new version of the Faroese Coat of Arms. The colours were inspired from the Merkið (flag) and yellow/gold was added. The new Coat of Arms depicts a Ram on a blue shield ready to defend. It can be used by the Government Ministries and by Faroese embassies, but some still use older versions of the Coat of Arms. Coat of Arms
- April 3 - A bomb explosion in a Madrid flat kills a Spanish policeman and five terrorists suspected of responsibility for the Madrid train bombings on March 11.
- April 4 - Serious fighting breaks out in Najaf, Sadr City, and Basra in Iraq as Shia insurgents supporting Muqtada al-Sadr rise against coalition forces.
- April 5 - Queen Elizabeth II begins a state visit to France to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale.
- April 8 - Darfur conflict: The Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement is signed by the Sudanese government and two rebel groups.
- April 8 - Three Japanese citizens are taken hostage in Iraq.
- April 8 - Former Japanese famous economist, professor at Waseda University graduate school Kazuhide Uekusa was arrested on the escalator of JR Shinagawa Station because of trying to peep under high school girl's skirt with his hand mirror.
- April 16 - India defeats Pakistan in their first cricket tour in 14 years.
- April 17 - Israeli helicopters fire missiles at a convoy of vehicles in the Gaza Strip, killing the Gaza leader of Hamas, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi.
- April 20 - In Iraq, 12 mortars were fired on Abu Ghraib Prison by insurgents. Twenty two detainees were killed and 92 wounded. [http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-04-20-iraq_x.htm]
- April 21 - Mordechai Vanunu, who revealed an Israeli nuclear weapons programme in the 1980s, is released from prison in Israel after an 18 year term for treason.
- April 22 - Two trains carrying explosives and fuel collide in the North Korean town of Ryongchon, killing 161 people, injuring 1,300 and destroying thousands of homes.
- April 22 - The last coal mine in France closes, ending nearly 300 years of coal mining.
- April 25 - Referenda on a United Nations plan, which proposes to re-unite the island of Cyprus, take place in both the Greek and Turkish parts. Although the Turks vote in favour, the Greeks reject the proposal.
- April 28 - Abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is revealed on the television show 60 Minutes II.
May

- May 1 - the largest expansion to date of the European Union takes place, extending the Union by 10 member-states: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Malta and Cyprus.
- May 6 - The final episode of Friends airs on NBC, drawing an estimated 52 million viewers in North America.
- May 8 - Would-be "Saudi Princess" "Antoinette Millard" surfaces in New York City and claims that muggers had stolen jewels worth of $262.000 from her (she later proves to be an impostor).
- May 9 - Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov is killed by landmine placed under a VIP stage during a World War II memorial parade in Grozny.
- May 9 - Team of Canada won the World Ice Hockey Championship in Prague.
- May 10 - The 2004 Philippine presidential and legislative elections take place. Incumbent president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wins the presidency.
- May 11 - An explosion destroys a plastics factory in Glasgow, UK, killing nine people and injuring over a hundred.
- May 12 - An American civilian contractor in Iraq, Nick Berg, is shown being decapitated by a group allegedly linked to al-Qaida on a web-distributed video.
- May 13 - In India, the Congress Party wins a surprise victory in the elections to the Lok Sabha.
- May 14 - Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, marries Australian Mary Donaldson in Copenhagen.
- May 17 - Ezzedine Salim, holder of the rotating leadership of the Iraqi Governing Council, is killed in a bomb blast in Baghdad.
- May 17 - Massachusetts legalizes same-sex marriage in compliance with a ruling from the state's Supreme Judicial Court (Goodridge v. Department of Public Health).
- May 19 - Tony Blair is hit with a purple flour bomb in the chamber of the House of Commons during a session of Prime Minister's Questions.
- May 19 - Jeremy Sivits pleads guilty in a court-martial in connection with alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
- May 23 - A section of the ceiling in Terminal 2E at Paris's Charles de Gaulle International Airport collapses, claiming at least six lives.
- May 23 - Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi visits North Korea to secure the release of the families of the nine abducted Japanese citizens returned earlier.
- May 26 - Terry Nichols is convicted by an Oklahoma state court on murder charges stemming from the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
- May 29 - Dedication of the National World War II Memorial takes place in Washington, DC.
- May 30 - Thousands of people in Hong Kong take to the streets to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
June

- June 1 - Twelve-year-old Satomi Mitarai, a Japanese schoolgirl attending Okubo Elementary School in Sasebo, Japan is murdered. Her killer, an 11-year-old classmate identified by Japanese authorities as "Girl A", becomes the basis for the Nevada-tan Internet meme.
- June 4 - Marvin Heemeyer destroys many local buildings with a home-made tank in Grancby, Colorado
- June 5 - Former President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, dies at age 93.
- June 6 - The 60th anniversary of D-Day is remembered by world leaders.
- June 7 - Tampa Bay Lightning defeat Calgary Flames in 2004 Stanley Cup Finals.
- June 8 - The first transit of Venus since 1882 occurs; the next one will occur in 2012.
- June 8 - The G8 Summit takes place over the next 2 days on Sea Island, in Georgia, USA.
- June 8 - The pickled heart of Louis XVII of France is buried in the royal crypt at Saint-Denis.
- June 11 - Terry Nichols is spared the death penalty by an Oklahoma state court on murder charges stemming from the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. The decision came on the third anniversary of the execution of his co-defendant, Timothy James McVeigh, in Terre Haute, Indiana.
- June 11 - After the first presidential state funeral since 1973, President Ronald Wilson Reagan is laid to rest at Simi Valley, California, at the site of the Reagan Presidential Library.
- June 12 - A 1.3 kg chondrite type meteorite struck a house in Ellerslie, New Zealand causing serious damage but no injuries.Ellerslie, New Zealand
- June 15 - The Detroit Pistons upset the heavily favored Los Angeles Lakers to win the 2004 NBA Finals, four games to one.
- June 16 - The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (or "9/11 Commission") issues an initial report of its findings.
- June 21 - SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately-funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.
- June 28 - Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe trains collided in a rural area outside of San Antonio, Texas. Forty cars were derailed, including one chlorine car, and three people died, another 50 people were hospitalized because of exposure to the gas.
- June 28 - The U.S.-led coalition occupying Iraq transfers sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government.
- June 28 - Canadian election: The Liberal Party, led by Paul Martin, is reduced to a minority government, after holding a majority since November 1993.
- June 30 - The preliminary hearings begin in Iraq in the trial of former president Saddam Hussein, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
July

- July 1 - The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft arrives at Saturn.
- July 4 - Groundbreaking of Freedom Tower at Ground Zero in New York City.
- July 4 - The Euro 2004 final between Portugal and Greece takes place in Lisbon, Portugal. Greece wins the match 1:0.
- July 22 - The Old Bridge of Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina is reconstructed and reopened after being destroyed by Bosnian Croat forces on November 9, 1993.
- July 25 - Over 100,000 opponents to Israel's unilateral disengagement plan of 2004 participate in a human chain from Gush Katif, to the Western Wall, Jerusalem (90 kilometers).
- July 25 - Lance Armstrong of Austin, Texas wins an unprecedented 6th consecutive Tour de France cycling title.
August

- August 1 - Supermarket fire in Asunción, Paraguay, kills about 400 people and leaves over 100 missing.
- August 3 - Statue of Liberty reopens after security improvements.
- August 6 - A United Nations report that blames the government of Sudan for crimes against humanity in Darfur is released.
- August 12 - Singapore's prime minister Goh Chok Tong hands over his position to Lee Hsien Loong.
- August 13 - The 2004 Summer Olympics begin in Athens. They end on August 29.
- August 13 - Hurricane Charley kills 27 people in Florida after killing four in Cuba and one in Jamaica. Charley made landfall near Cayo Costa, FL as a Category 4 hurricane. Charley was the most intense hurricane to strike the United States since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
- August 16 - Severe flooding in the village of Boscastle in Cornwall.
- August 18 - In Dublin, Ireland the Dublin Port Tunnel excavation works were completed and the final tunnel boring machine breakthrough ceremony took place.
- August 21 - A series of blasts rocks a rally of an opposition party in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing at least 13 people.
- August 22 - Armed robbers steal Edvard Munch's The Scream, Madonna and other paintings from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway.
- August 24 - Two airliners in Russia, carrying a total of 89 passengers, crash within minutes of each other after flying out of Domodedovo International Airport, leaving no survivors. Authorities suspect suicide attacks by rebels from Chechnya to be the cause of the crashes.
- August 29 - Around 200,000 protesters demonstrate in New York City against President George W. Bush and his government, ahead of the 2004 Republican National Convention.
- August 31 - Two suicide attacks on buses in Beer Sheva, Israel, kill at least 16 people and injure at least 60. Hamas claims responsibility for the attacks.
- August 31 - A woman commits a suicide attack near a subway station in northern Moscow, Russia, killing at least 10 people and injuring at least 50. Authorities hold Chechen rebels responsible.
September

- September 1 - Chechen rebels take between 1,000 and 1,500 people hostage, mostly children, in a school in Beslan, Northern Ossetia. The hostage-takers demand the release of Chechen rebels imprisoned in neighbouring Ingushetia and the independence of Chechnya from Russia.
- September 2 - The United Nations Security Council adopts Resolution 1559 calling for the removal of all foreign troops from Lebanon. This measure is largely aimed at Syrian troops.
- September 3 - Russian forces end the siege at a school in Beslan, Northern Ossetia. At least 335 people (among which at least 32 of the approximately 40 hostage-takers) have been killed and at least 700 people have been injured.
- September 3 - Hurricane Frances makes landfall in Florida. After killing two people in the Bahamas, Hurricane Frances killed ten people in Florida, two in Georgia and one in South Carolina.
- September 7 - The Scottish Parliament meets in the new Scottish Parliament Building for the first time.
- September 7 - Hurricane Ivan passes directly over Grenada, killing 37 people. It passes over other Caribbean islands over the next two days, killing 5 people in Venezuela, 4 in the Dominican Republic, 1 in Tobago and 20 in Jamaica.
- September 8 - In the "Rathergate" affair, the first Internet posts appear pointing out that documents claimed by CBS News to be typewritten memos from the early 1970s appear instead to have been produced using modern word processing systems.
- September 9 - A bomb blast outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, kills eleven people and injures up to 100 people.
- September 13 - The Assault Weapons Ban expires.
- September 15 - Davíð Oddsson prime minister of Iceland steps down after serving as prime minister since April 30 1991. Oddson becomes foreign minister as his foreign minister Halldór Ásgrímsson becomes prime minister.
- September 15 - Security at the Palace of Westminster is compromised when the House of Commons is stormed by a small group of protestors during a debate about fox hunting.
- September 15 - "Girl A" is sentenced to be institutionalized due to the murder of classmate Satomi Mitarai.
- September 16 - Hurricane Ivan strikes Gulf Shores, Alabama, as a Category 3 storm, killing 25 in Alabama and Florida.
- September 17 - 2004 Summer Paralympics commences in Athens, Greece.
- September 17 - Mexico and Japan finish the two year long negotiations and sign a Free Trade Agreement in Mexico City.
- September 23 - Mount St. Helens becomes active again.
- September 23 - Tropical Storm Ivan, having come around and reformed in the Gulf of Mexico, makes its final landfall near Cameron, Louisiana, to little effect. In total, the storm killed 92 people.
- September 25 - Hurricane Jeanne makes landfall near Hutchinson Island, FL. In all, Jeanne killed over 3,000, most in Haiti.
- September 29 - First Ansari X-Prize flight of SpaceShipOne.
October

- October 4 - Two car bombs kill at least 16 people and injure dozens more in Baghdad.
- October 5 - A fire breaks out on the Canadian submarine HMCS Chicoutimi leaving it stranded without power in the North Atlantic ocean, off the north coast of Ireland. One crewmember is killed.
- October 8 - Kenneth Bigley, the British hostage held by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an Iraqi insurgent, is killed after a failed escape attempt.
- October 8 - Suicide bombers detonate two bombs at the Red Sea resort of Taba, Egypt, killing 34 people, mainly Israeli tourists and Egyptian workers.
- October 9 - Queen Elizabeth II opens the new Scottish Parliament Building in a ceremony in Edinburgh
- October 9 - Incumbent Prime Minister of Australia John Howard leads the Liberal-National coalition to victory over the Labor Party led by Mark Latham in federal elections.
- October 9 - Direct elections for president held for the first time in Afghanistan. Interim president Hamid Karzai is eventually declared the winner.
- October 10 - Abdullahi Yusuf is chosen as the new transitional president of Somalia.
- October 14 - Prince Norodom Sihamoni is chosen as the new king of Cambodia.
- October 16 - The New York Yankees defeat the Boston Red Sox, 19-8 in Game 3 of Major League Baseball's American League Championship Series. The game, which pushed the Yankees to a 3 games to none series lead, sets a record for longest nine inning baseball game.
- October 17 - A referendum in Belarus approves the lifting of constitutional term limits for the presidency.
- October 18 - Three men attack Greek journalist Philippos Syrigos in Athens and seriously wound him
- October 19 - General Khin Nyunt is replaced by Lieutenant-General Soe Win as Prime Minister of Myanmar.
- October 20 - The Boston Red Sox defeat the New York Yankees in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, completing an unprecedented comeback from three games to none down.
- October 20 - Corporate Airlines Flight 5966 crashes in Missouri, killing 13 people, and injuring 2.
- October 20 - Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono becomes the first directly-elected President of Indonesia.
- October 21 - The Ministry of Defence approves the deployment of the Black Watch regiment of the British Army to Baghdad, Iraq after a request for assistance by the U.S. government.
- October 24 - The bodies of 49 Iraqi soldiers discovered after being ambushed by insurgents.
- October 24 - Brazil successfully launches its first rocket into space.
- October 25 - Reverand Dr Martin Luther King, Jr and Coretta Scott King receive Congressional Gold Medal.
- October 26 - October 26The Cassini probe passes within 1,200km of Titan
- October 27 - Details of the discovery of a new, recent, species of fossil hominid, Homo floresiensis, from the island of Flores, Indonesia are published.
- October 27 - The Boston Red Sox sweep the St. Louis Cardinals to win the World Series championship for the first time since 1918.
- October 29 - A videotape of Osama Bin Laden speaking airs on Arabic TV, in which he threatens terrorist attacks on the United States, and taunts the president, George W. Bush, over the September 11 Terrorist attacks.
- October 29 - European heads of state signed in Rome the Treaty and Final Act establishing the first European Constitution.
- October 30 - A 163 metre high radio mast in Peterborough, UK collapsed at a fire
- October 31 - Leftist candidate Tabaré Vázquez is elected President of Uruguay.
November

- November 1 - a 16 year old Palestinian, a muslim, blew himself up in an outdoor market in Tel Aviv, killing three Israelis.
- November 2 - U.S. presidential election: President George W. Bush defeats Senator John Kerry. Republicans make gains in the dominical letter B) e.g. 2005. (A common year is a year with 365 days -- in other words, not a leap year.)

Century	Year
19th century:	1824	1852	1880
20th century:	1920	1948	1976
21st century:	2004	2032	2060	2088
22nd century:	2128	2156	2184

Millennium	Century	Year
2nd Millennium:	19th century:	1803	1814	1825