Year retrospective · 2000s

2003

2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2003rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 3rd year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 4th year of the 2000s decade.

Recorded events

10

top entries

Notable births

30

Notable deaths

30

Decade

2000s

Defining moment · 2003

The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%.

The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA, and of identifying, mapping and sequencing all of the genes of the human genome from both a physical and a functional standpoint. It started in 1990 and was completed in 2003. It was the world's largest collaborative biological project.

See april 14 in detail

Timeline

Defining events of 2003

  1. 2003 The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%.

    International scientific research project (1990–2003)

    The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA, and of identifying, mapping and sequencing all of the genes of the human genome from both a physical and a functional standpoint. It started in 1990 and was completed in 2003. It was the world's largest collaborative biological project.

  2. 2003 U.S. troops in Baghdad capture Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner MS Achille Lauro in 1985.

    Capital of Iraq

    Baghdad is the capital and largest city in Iraq. It is located on the banks of the Tigris in central Iraq. The city has an estimated population of 8 million.

  3. 2003 The Treaty of Accession is signed in Athens admitting ten new member states to the European Union.

    Expansion of the European Union

    The Treaty of Accession 2003 was the agreement between the member states of the European Union and ten countries, concerning these countries' accession into the EU. At the same time it changed a number of points which were originally laid down in the Treaty of Nice. The treaty was signed on 16 April 2003 in Athens, Greece and it entered into force on 1 May 2004, resulting in enlargement of the European Union with 10 states.

  4. 2003 Anneli Jäätteenmäki takes office as the first female prime minister of Finland.

    Prime minister of Finland in 2003

    Anneli Tuulikki Jäätteenmäki is a Finnish politician who was the first female and 39th prime minister of Finland from 17 April 2003 to 24 June 2003. From 2004 until 2019, she served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Finland.

  5. 2003 Iraq War: U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime falls two days later.

    2003–2011 conflict in Iraq

    The Iraq War, also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a protracted armed conflict in Iraq from 2003 to 2011. It began with the invasion by a United States–led coalition, which resulted in the overthrow of the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein. During the US occupation of Iraq, the conflict persisted as an insurgency that arose against coalition forces and the newly established Iraqi government.

  6. 2003 Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide demands reparations of $21 billion from France for the Haitian independence debt.

    Former president of Haiti (born 1953)

    Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a Haitian former Salesian priest and politician who served as president of Haiti in 1991, from 1993 to 1994, from 1994 to 1996, and from 2001 to 2004. He was in exile after the 1991 military coup until 1994 and again after his overthrow in 2004 until 2011. Aristide was a member of the Lavalas Political Organization before he founded the party Fanmi Lavalas in 1996.

  7. 2003 Iraq War: Baghdad falls to American forces.
  8. 2003 The Okinawa Urban Monorail is opened in Naha, Okinawa.
  9. 2003 NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.
  10. 2003 Jemaah Islamiyah leader Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, is arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.

Arrivals

Born in 2003

Jackson Merrill 2003– American baseball player (born 2003)
Xavi Simons 2003– Dutch footballer (born 2003)
Xavier Worthy 2003– American football player (born 2003)
Emily Carey 2003– English actor (born 2003)
Jung Yun-seok 2003– South Korean actor (born 2003)
Harvey Elliott 2003– English footballer (born 2003)
Tetairoa McMillan 2003– American football player (born 2003)
Hwang Do-yun 2003– South Korean footballer (born 2003)
Joseph Sua'ali'i 2003– Australian rugby union & former Samoan international rugby league footballer
Juanlu Sánchez 2003– Spanish footballer (born 2003)
Nastasja Schunk 2003– German tennis player
The Kid Laroi 2003– Australian singer (born 2003)

Farewells

Died in 2003

Leslie Cheung Hong Kong singer and actor (1956–2003)
Little Eva American singer (1943–2003)
Cecil Howard Green British-born American geophysicist, engineer and electronics executive
Jyrki Otila Finnish quiz show judge and Member of the European Parliament
Graham Jarvis Canadian actor (1930–2003)
Graham Stuart Thomas English horticulturalist and garden designer
Robert Atkins American physician (1930–2003)
H. B. Bailey American race car driver (1936–2003)
John Paul Getty Jr. British-American businessman and philanthropist (1932–2003)
Earl King American blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter (1934–2003)
Yiannis Latsis Greek shipping multi-billionaire business magnate (1910–2003)
Edwin Starr American musician (1942–2003)

On the charts

Culture of 2003

By month

Across the calendar of 2003

0 on record January 0 on record February 0 on record March 7 on record April 0 on record May 0 on record June 0 on record July 3 on record August 0 on record September 0 on record October 0 on record November 0 on record December

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