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

 Deaths 

 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)