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

### May 
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* 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 
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* 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 
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* 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 
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* 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 
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* 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 
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* 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 
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* 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 
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* 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)