2003

**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

### January

- 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

- 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

- 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

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

### May

- 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

- 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

- 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

- 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

- 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

- 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

- 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

- 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)