2004 in the United States

2004 in the United States
Decades:	1980s 1990s – 2000s – 2010s 2020s
Years:	2001 2002 2003 – 2004 – 2005 2006 2007
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Events from the year 2004 in the United States.

Incumbents

• President: George W. Bush (Republican)
• Vice President: Dick Cheney (Republican)
• Chief Justice: William Rehnquist
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois)
• Senate Majority Leader: Bill Frist (R-Tennessee)
• Congress: 108th

Events

January

Spirit and Opportunity land on Mars

• January 4 – NASA's MER-A (Spirit) lands on Mars at 04:35 UTC.
• January 19 – U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA) wins the Iowa Democratic caucus. Vermont Governor Howard Dean's concession speech ends with a lively but controversial scream.
• January 24 – NASA's MER-B (Opportunity) lands on Mars at 05:05 UTC.
• 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 – The New England Patriots win Super Bowl XXXVIII.
• February 3 – The CIA admits that there was no imminent threat from weapons of mass destruction before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
• 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 26 – The United States lifts a ban on travel to Libya, ending travel restrictions to the nation that had lasted for 23 years.
• February 29 – The 76th Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal, are held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California, with The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King directed by Peter Jackson, winning a record-tying 11 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.

March

• March 2 – NASA announces that the Mars rover MER-B (Opportunity) has confirmed that its landing area was once drenched in water.
• March 2 – John Kerry effectively clinches the 2004 Democratic Party presidential nomination by winning nine out of 10 "Super Tuesday" primaries and caucuses.
• 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 28: Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse revealed

• April 28 – Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse is revealed on the television show 60 Minutes II.
• April 29 – The last Oldsmobile rolls off of the assembly line.

May

• May 4 – A WNBC helicopter crashes in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York. This event is covered by rival station WABC-TV.
• May 6 – The final episode of Friends airs on NBC, drawing an estimated 52 million viewers in North America. Advertisers pay $2 million for 30 second ads.
• May 8 – Would-be "Saudi Princess" "Antoinette Millard" surfaces in New York City, claiming that muggers had stolen jewels worth of $262,000 from her (she later proves to be an impostor).
• May 12 – An American civilian contractor in Iraq, Nick Berg, is shown being decapitated by a group allegedly linked to al-Qaeda on an Internet-distributed video. They state it is retaliation for the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison.
• May 17 – Massachusetts legalizes same-sex marriage in compliance with a ruling from the state's Supreme Court ruling in the case of Goodridge v. Department of Public Health.
• 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.

June

June 5: Former President Ronald Reagan dies at 93. A six day state funeral follows.

• June 1 – The 2004 Atlantic hurricane season begins.
• June 3 – Central Intelligence Agency director George Tenet tenders his resignation, citing "personal reasons". John E. McLaughlin, CIA Deputy Director, becomes the acting Director until a permanent Director is chosen and confirmed by Congress.
• June 4 – Marvin Heemeyer destroys many local buildings with a home-made tank in Granby, Colorado.
• June 5 – Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, dies at his home in Bel-Air, California at the age of 93. A six-day state funeral follows after his death.
• June 8 – The G8 Summit takes place over the next 2 days on Sea Island, in Georgia, United States.
• June 11 – The national funeral service for former U.S. president Ronald Reagan is held at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
• June 11 – Terry Nichols is spared the death penalty by an Oklahoma state court on murder charges stemming from the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, exactly three years after his co-defendant, Timothy McVeigh, was executed for his role in the bombing.
• 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 – In Mojave, California, SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.
• June 28 – The U.S.-led coalition occupying Iraq transfers sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government.
• June 28 – Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe trains collide in a rural area outside of San Antonio, Texas; 40 cars are derailed, including one chlorine car. Three people die, another 50 people are hospitalized because of exposure to the gas.

July

John Kerry, Democratic Presidential nominee

• July 4 – Groundbreaking of Freedom Tower in New York City.
• July 25 – Lance Armstrong wins an unprecedented 6th consecutive Tour de France cycling title.
• July 26–29 – The Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts nominates John Kerry for U.S. President and John Edwards for Vice President. Future President Barack Obama delivers the keynote address.
• July 31 – "The Last Dispatch" concert is played as a reunion concert with the band Dispatch on the Hatch Shell in Boston; 110,000 people attend, making it the single largest gathering in independent music industry history.

August

• August 3 – The Statue of Liberty reopens after security improvements.
• August 3 – NASA's MESSENGER is launched (it was captured into Mercury's orbit on March 18, 2011).
• August 12 – New Jersey Governor James McGreevey announces that he is "a gay American" and will resign effective November 15, 2004.
• August 13 – Hurricane Charley kills 27 people in Florida, after killing four in Cuba and one in Jamaica. Charley makes landfall near Cayo Costa, Florida as a Category 4 hurricane. Charley is the most intense hurricane to strike the United States since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
• August 13–August 29 – The United States compete at the Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, and win 36 gold, 39 silver and 27 bronze medals.
• August 29 – Around 200,000 protesters demonstrate in New York City against President George W. Bush and his government, ahead of the Republican National Convention.
• August 30 – September 2 – U.S. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are renominated at the Republican National Convention in New York City.

September

• 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 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 13 – The U.S. Assault Weapons Ban expires.
• September 16 – Hurricane Ivan strikes Gulf Shores, Alabama, as a Category 3 storm, killing 25 in Alabama and Florida, becoming the third-costliest hurricane in American history at the time.
• 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 kills 92 people.
• September 23 – Mount St. Helens became active again.
• September 24 – Major League Baseball announces that the Montreal Expos will move to Washington D.C. in 2005.
• September 25 – Hurricane Jeanne makes landfall near Port Saint Lucie, Florida, near the location Hurricane Frances hit two weeks earlier. Jeanne kills over 3,030, mostly in Haiti.
• September 29 – In Mojave, California, the first Ansari X-Prize flight takes place of SpaceShipOne, which is competing with a number of spacecraft (including Canada's Da Vinci Project, claimed to be its closest rival) and goes on to win the prize on October 4.
• September 30 – First debate of the U.S. presidential election, 2004.

October

• October 5 – Vice Presidential debate of the U.S. presidential election, 2004 between the candidates, Dick Cheney and John Edwards.
• October 8 – Second debate of the U.S. presidential election, 2004.
• October 13 – Third debate of the U.S. presidential election, 2004.
• 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 pushes the Yankees to a 3–0 series lead, sets a record for longest nine-inning baseball game.
• October 20 – Corporate Airlines Flight 5966 crashes in Missouri, killing 13 people, and injuring two.
• October 25 – Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King receive the Congressional Gold Medal.
• October 27 – The Boston Red Sox win the World Series for the first time since 1918, breaking the Curse of the Bambino.
• October 29 – A videotape of Osama Bin Laden speaking airs on Arabic TV, in which he threatens terrorist attacks on the USA, and taunts the President, George W. Bush, over the September 11 Terrorist attacks.

November

November 2: George W. Bush re-elected President

• November 2 – The United States re-elects George W. Bush of the Republican Party to a second term as President of the United States, defeating John Kerry.
• November 2 – Eleven American states ban gay marriage.
• November 7 – Second Battle of Fallujah: U.S. Forces launch a major assault on the Iraqi town of Fallujah, in an effort to rid the area of insurgents before the Iraqi elections in January.
• November 14 – United States Secretary of State Colin Powell submits his resignation. He is replaced by Condoleezza Rice after her confirmation by the United States Congress.
• November 16 – NASA's hypersonic Scramjet breaks a record by reaching a velocity of about 7,000 mph in an unmanned experimental flight. It obtains a speed of Mach 9.6, almost 10 times the speed of sound.
• November 19 – The NBA's Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons engage in a brawl that involves fans and players. The incident gets (then) Pacer Ron Artest suspended for the remainder of the season.

December

• December 3 – The Colombian government extradites Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, one of the most powerful drug dealers in the world, arrested in 1995 and 2003, to the United States.
• December 6 – Terrorists attack the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killing several people.
• December 8 – The biggest Chinese PC producer Lenovo announces its plan to purchase IBM's global PC business, making it the third largest world PC maker after Dell and Hewlett-Packard.
• December 21 – Iraqi insurgents attack a U.S. military base in the city of Mosul, killing 22 people.
• December 23 – Second Battle of Fallujah: US-UK-Iraqi forces defeat the remaining Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah.
• December 31 – Simón Trinidad, high-profile FARC leader, is extradited to the United States, following the second extradition of a high drug dealer in a month and in 2004.

Ongoing

• War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
• Iraq War (2003–2011)

Births

• January 10 – Kaitlyn Maher, singer and actress
• January 13 – Ethan Munck, actor
• February 26 – The Hanselman sextuplets
• July 2 – Caitlin Carmichael, actress
• August 1 – Neveah Gallegos, murder victim (died 2007)

Deaths

• January 23 – Bob Keeshan, actor, starred as Captain Kangaroo (b. 1927)
• January 27 – Jack Paar, Tonight Show host (b. 1918)
• April 22 – Pat Tillman, NFL player, Army Ranger (b. 1976)
• April 24 – Estée Lauder, cosmetics products pioneer (b. 1906)
• May 9 – Alan King, comedian, actor (b. 1927)
• May 17 – Tony Randall, television actor (The Odd Couple) (b. 1920)
• May 29 – Archibald Cox, Watergate special prosecutor (b. 1912)
• June 5 – Ronald Reagan, actor, Governor of California, 40th President of the United States (b. 1911)
• June 10 – Ray Charles, musician (b. 1930)
• July 1 – Marlon Brando, actor (b. 1924)
• August 6 – Rick James, funk singer (b. 1948)
• August 8 – Fay Wray, King Kong actress (b. 1907)
• August 26 – Laura Branigan, pop singer (b. 1957)
• August 30 – Fred Lawrence Whipple, astronomer (b. 1906)
• October 4 – Gordon Cooper, one of the Mercury Seven astronauts (b. 1927)
• October 5 – Rodney Dangerfield, comic, actor (b. 1921)
• October 10 – Christopher Reeve, actor, activist (b. 1952)
• October 16 – Pierre Salinger, White House Press Secretary, newsman (b. 1925)
• November 7 – Howard Keel, actor, singer (b. 1919)
• November 13 – Ol' Dirty Bastard (Russell Jones), rapper (b. 1968)
• November 19 – Jesse Koochin (b. 1998)
• November 29 – John Drew Barrymore, actor (b. 1932)
• December 26 – Reggie White, NFL player (b. 1961)
• December 28 – Jerry Orbach, actor (b. 1935)

External links

• Media related to 2004 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons