# 2003

2003 in other calendars| Gregorian calendar | 2003 *MMIII* |
| Ab urbe condita | 2756 |
| Armenian calendar | 1452 ԹՎ ՌՆԾԲ |
| Assyrian calendar | 6753 |
| Bahá'í calendar | 159–160 |
| Balinese saka calendar | 1924–1925 |
| Bengali calendar | 1410 |
| Berber calendar | 2953 |
| British Regnal year | 51 Eliz. 2 – 52 Eliz. 2 |
| Buddhist calendar | 2547 |
| Burmese calendar | 1365 |
| Byzantine calendar | 7511–7512 |
| Chinese calendar | 壬午年 (Water Horse) 4699 or 4639     *— to —* 癸未年 (Water Goat) 4700 or 4640 |
| Coptic calendar | 1719–1720 |
| Discordian calendar | 3169 |
| Ethiopian calendar | 1995–1996 |
| Hebrew calendar | 5763–5764 |
| Hindu calendars |  |
|  - *Vikram Samvat* | 2059–2060 |
|  - *Shaka Samvat* | 1924–1925 |
|  - *Kali Yuga* | 5103–5104 |
| Holocene calendar | 12003 |
| Igbo calendar | 1003–1004 |
| Iranian calendar | 1381–1382 |
| Islamic calendar | 1423–1424 |
| Japanese calendar | Heisei 15 (平成１５年) |
| Javanese calendar | 1935–1936 |
| Juche calendar | 92 |
| Julian calendar | Gregorian minus 13 days |
| Korean calendar | 4336 |
| Minguo calendar | ROC 92 民國92年 |
| Nanakshahi calendar | 535 |
| Thai solar calendar | 2546 |
| Tibetan calendar | ཆུ་ཕོ་རྟ་ལོ་ (male Water-Horse) 2129 or 1748 or 976     *— to —* ཆུ་མོ་ལུག་ལོ་ (female Water-Sheep) 2130 or 1749 or 977 |
| Unix time | 1041379200 – 1072915199 |

**2003** (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday in the Gregorian calendar.

## Births

* January 12 - Farah Jefry, Saudi footballer
* February 20 - Olivia Rodrigo, American singer-songwriter and actress

## Events

* January 1 – Pascal Couchepin becomes President of the Confederation in Switzerland.
* February 1 – Space Shuttle Columbia was destroyed during re-entry. All seven astronauts on board died.
* February 4 the Hindu minority of Bangladesh declare the sovereign state of Bangabhumi, recognised by UNPO.
* March 20 – The US-led invasion of Iraq begins.
* May 1 – US President George W. Bush announced the end of the invasion of Iraq.
* July 10 – Wikibooks, a project of the Wikimedia Foundation, was created.
* October 30 – *Wicked* has its first show at the Gershwin Theatre in Broadway.
* October 31 – Mahathir Mohamad resigns as Prime Minister of Malaysia after 22 years in power.

## Nobel prize winners

* Chemistry – Peter Agre
* Chemistry – Roderick MacKinnon
* Economics – Robert F. Engle III
* Economics – Clive W.J. Granger
* Literature – J. M. Coetzee
* Medicine – Paul C. Lauterbur
* Medicine – Sir Peter Mansfield
* Peace – Shirin Ebadi
* Physics – Alexei A. Abrikosov
* Physics – Vitaly L. Ginzburg
* Physics – Anthony J. Leggett

## Deaths

### January

Leopoldo Galtieri
* January 12 – Maurice Gibb, British musician (Bee Gees) (b. 1949)
* January 12 – Leopoldo Galtieri, 44th President of Argentina (b. 1926)
* January 17 – Richard Crenna, American actor (b. 1926)
* January 20 – Al Hirschfeld, American cartoonist (b. 1903)

### February

Space Shuttle Columbia
Dolly the Sheep
Fred Rogers
* February 1 – Crew of Space Shuttle Columbia: Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, Michael P. Anderson, Ilan Ramon, Kalpana Chawla, David M. Brown, Laurel Clark
* February 14 – Dolly the Sheep, cloned mammal (b. 1996)
* February 27 – Fred Rogers, American children's television host (b. 1928)

### March

Zoran Đinđić
* March 2 – Hank Ballard, American R&B recording artist; singer and songwriter (b. 1927)
* March 8 – Adam Faith, English singer, actor and financial journalist (b. 1940)
* March 12 – Zoran Đinđić, Prime Minister of Serbia (b. 1952)
* March 14 - Recep Tayyip Erdogan is sworn in as prime minsiter of Turkey.

### April

Nina Simone
* April 21 – Nina Simone, American singer, songwriter and pianist (b. 1933)

### May

Wendy Hiller
Robert Stack
June Carter Cash
Ilya Prigogine
* May 14 – Wendy Hiller, British actress (b. 1912)
* May 14 – Robert Stack, American actor (b. 1919)
* May 15 – June Carter Cash, American singer, songwriter and actress (b. 1929)
* January 28 – Ilya Prigogine, Belgian chemist (b. 1917)

### June

Gregory Peck
Strom Thurmond
Katharine Hepburn
* June 12 – Gregory Peck, American actor (b. 1916)
* June 21 – Piet Dankert, 13th President of the European Parliament (b. 1934)
* June 26 – Strom Thurmond, U.S. Senator (b. 1902)
* June 29 – Katharine Hepburn, American actress (b. 1907)

### July

Barry White
Celia Cruz
Bob Hope
* July 4 – Barry White, American singer (b. 1944)
* July 16 – Celia Cruz, Cuban-American singer (b. 1925)
* July 25 – John Schlesinger, English movie director (b. 1926)
* July 27 – Bob Hope, American comedian, actor, singer and dancer (b. 1903)

### August

Idi Amin
Sérgio Vieira de Mello
Charles Bronson
* August 16 – Idi Amin, 3rd President of Uganda (b. 1925)
* August 19 – Sérgio Vieira de Mello, East Timor United Nations diplomat (b. 1948)
* August 30 – Charles Bronson, American actor (b. 1921)

### September

John Ritter
Johnny Cash
Elia Kazan
* September 11 – John Ritter, American actor (b. 1948)
* September 12 – Johnny Cash, American singer and guitarist (b. 1932)
* September 26 – Shawn Lane, American musician (b. 1963)
* September 28 – Elia Kazan, American film and theatre director (b. 1909)

### October

Bertram Brockhouse
Moktar Ould Daddah
Alija Izetbegović
* October 13 – Bertram Brockhouse, Canadian physicist (b. 1918)
* October 14 – Moktar Ould Daddah, 1st President of Mauritania (b. 1924)
* October 19 – Alija Izetbegović, 1st and 4th Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (b. 1925)

### November

Canaan Banana
Jonathan Brandis
Mario Beccaria
* November 10 – Canaan Banana, 1st President of Zimbabwe (b. 1936)
* November 12 – Jonathan Brandis, American actor (b. 1976)
* November 12 – Penny Singleton, American actress (b. 1908)
* November 22 – Mario Beccaria, Italian politician (b. 1920)
* November 24 – Snowflake the Gorilla, Western lowland gorilla (b. 1964)

### December

Heydar Aliyev
* December 12 – Heydar Aliyev, 3rd President of Azerbaijan (b. 1923)
* December 12 – Keiko the Killer Whale, male orca (killer whale) (b. 1976)
* December 23 – Kriangsak Chomanan, Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1917)