This day in history. Read about what happened today. A short and interesting account of historical events and facts about this day as well as any other day of the year. Find historical birthdays, deaths, tragedies, war events, disasters and sports events.

This year in history
In the year 2004

	January 8th	The RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship ever built, was christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
	January 13th	British, Harold Shipman, committed suicide in his prison cell. He was a serial killer, possibly the most active serial killer of all time, who allegedly overdosed approximately 250 of his patients. He had been sentenced to life imprisonment.
	January 14th	Georgia restored the use of its 'five cross flag' which had not been used for almost 500 years.
	February 1st	More than 200 pilgrims were trampled to death during a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
	February 6th	A suicide bomber detonated his/her explosives in the Moscow metro, killing 40 and injuring more than 100 people.
	February 18th	Approximately 300 people died in Neyshabur, Iran when a freight train caught fire and exploded. Most of the dead were rescue workers who responded to the incident.
	February 21st	The European political party, European Greens, was established in Rome.
	February 26th	The United States lifted a travel ban to Libya which had been in effect for 23 years.
	February 29th	During the 76th Annual Academy Awards the movie, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, won Oscar for Best Picture, as well as 10 other awards.
	March 2nd	A series of bombing and attacks by operatives of the Al Qaeda terrorist network took place in Iraq resulting in the death of 170 people.
	March 2nd	The United Nations issued a report which stated that no weapons of mass destruction were under the control of the Iraqi regime prior to the US led invasion of 2003. The existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was the main cause for invasion as it had been stated by US president George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
	March 8th	Palestinian militant, Abu Abbas, died at the age of 51. He was the founder of the Palestine Liberation Front militant group. He died one day after he was captured by American forces in Iraq.
	March 11th	Three simultaneous bomb explosions took place aboard three different trains in the Madrid commuter train station resulting in the death of 192 and the wounding of more than 1700.
	March 22nd	The spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, was killed in Gaza City.
	March 28th	British actor, Peter Ustinov, died at the age of 83 in Switzerland. He was an actor that had participated in some of the classic films of his time, such as Qvo Vadis and Spartacus, he is best remembered though for his portraying of the detective Hercule Poirot.
	March 29th	Smoking was banned in all work areas in the Republic of Ireland, the first time such a measure was implemented anywhere in the world.
	March 31st	Google announced the creation of its Gmail service. This sparked a wave of reform in the sector of free web-based e-mail, especially due to the generous space (1Gb) that was to be available for each gmail account.
	April 1st	Google's webmail service, Gmail, was launched.
	April 17th	Israeli forces fire a missile at the car of Hamas leader, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, resulting in his death.
	April 22nd	Two fuel trains collide in Ryongchon, North Korea. 150 people die as a result of the accident.
	April 24th	The United States lifted the economic sanctions that had been imposed on Libya for 18 years. The sanctions were lifted in response to Libya's cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction.
	April 24th	A referendum on the United Nations plan, with the purpose of re-uniting the island of Cyprus, was rejected by the people of the Republic of Cyprus.
	May 1st	Ten new countries officially become part of the European Union. The countries were Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
	May 29th	In Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia, four Islamist terrorists attacked two oil installations and a foreign workers housing complex, taking more than 50 hostages and killing 22 of them. It was reported that the kidnappers asked the hostages if they were Christians or Muslims, letting the Muslims go.
	June 5th	Former US president, Ronald Reagan, died at the age of 93. At 69 years old he was the oldest person to be elected president of the United States. On March 30th 1980, he survived an assassination attempt, although he was struck by the assailant's bullets.
	June 21st	SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded spacecraft to achieve spaceflight.
	June 24th	The US state of New York, declared the death penalty unconstitutional.
	June 28th	Sovereign power was handed to the interim government of Iraq by the Coalition Provisional Authority, ending the US-led rule.
	July 1st	American actor, Marlon Brando, died at the age of 80. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest film actors of the 20th century as well as one of the most controversial.
	July 25th	American cyclist, Lance Armstrong, won his 6th consecutive Tour de France.
	August 13th	The 28th Summer Olympic Games opened in Athens, Greece.
	August 22nd	The fourth version of the painting, The Scream by Edvard Munch was stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo, Norway.
	August 24th	Two Russian passenger jets exploded within minutes of each other following their take off from Domodedovo International Airport. 89 people died in the explosions, which were the detonated by two suicide bombers.
	September 1st	A group of armed terrorists took approximately 1200 children and adults hostage in a school in the town of Beslan in North Ossetia, Russia. After a 3 day stand off fighting broke out between the terrorists and Russian armed forces, resulting in the death of 344 hostages.
	September 3rd	3 days after a group of terrorists of took approximately 1200 children and adults hostage in a school in the town of Beslan in North Ossetia, Russia the stand off was broken when the terrorists and Russian forces engaged each other. 344 hostages died in the battle.
	September 11th	The Patriarch of Alexandria, Petros VII, along with his company were killed when their helicopter crashed into the sea, outside Mount Athos, Greece.
	September 15th	American guitarist, Johnny Ramone, died from prostate cancer at the age of 56. Along with his brother, Joey, he was one of the founding and lifelong members of the rock and roll group, The Ramones.
	September 23th	Floods caused by Hurricane Jeanne resulted in the death of more than a thousand people on the island nation of Haiti.
	October 3rd	American actress, Janet Leigh, died at the age of 77. She was best known for her role in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho. She was also the mother of actress Jamie Lee Curtis, from her marriage to her third husband, Tony Curtis.
	October 9th	Democratic elections were held for the first time in the history of Afghanistan.
	October 23th	A strong earthquake hit Niigata in northern Japan. The quake caused the death of 35 people and the injuring of several thousands.
	November 9th	The web browser, Mozilla Firefox, was released. It was the first browser to challenge Microsoft Internet Explorer's domination in the market, which had lasted for several years.
	November 9th	Microsoft releases the much anticipated Halo 2 game. It sets a gaming entertainment record by grossing approximately $125 Million on its release day.
	November 11th	Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, died a the age of 73. He was the recipient of the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize alongside Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin. A controversial figure who was considered as a heroic fighter by his supporters and brutal terrorist by his enemies.
	November 17th	The Kmart Corporation announced it was buying Sears, Roebuck and Co. for 11 billion USD.
	November 18th	Russia officially signed the Kyoto Protocol.
	December 14th	The Millau viaduct which the highest bridge in the world was officially opened. It is located in the valley of the River Tarn, France and at one point is 343 metres high.
	December 26th	A massive underwater earthquake measuring 9.3 on the Richter scale produced a tsunami wave which caused devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, The Maldives as well as several other around the Indian Ocean. The disaster, which is considered as one of the worst natural disasters in history, caused the death of more than 300,000 people.

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