2003
[7]: 101 The government negotiated an agreement for the right-wing militant group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia to disband as a means to deescalate the conflict.
[7]: 107–112 The Second Sudanese Civil War escalated as new militant groups joined the conflict,[6]: 628 though a security agreement was reached between the National Islamic Front and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement on September 25.
[6]: 627–628 The coalition quickly defeated the Iraqi Armed Forces, and American president George W. Bush gave a speech on May 1 declaring victory in the war.
The 7000 Years of Persian Art tour took place as a rare international collaboration from the National Museum of Iran [8]: 525 Descent into Limbo by Andrea Mantegna was the most prominent Old Master artwork to be sold in 2003, going for US$28.6 million.
[8]: 525 The government of the Netherlands began returning items from its collection of works it acquired from Nazi Germany, the Nederlands Kunstbezit-collectie.
[16] Globally, the best-selling albums of the year were Come Away with Me by Norah Jones, Get Rich or Die Tryin' by 50 Cent, and Meteora by Linkin Park.
[8]: 510 The opera industry was negatively affected by a decline in tourism and other economic factors in Europe and North America, and many productions were canceled.
[8]: 535 In tennis, players Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, and Juan Carlos Ferrero won their first Grand Slams in 2003,[18][8]: 538 while Martina Navratilova tied with the record of twenty Wimbledon titles set by Billie Jean King.
[8]: 540 The global economy was weak in the first half of 2003 as uncertainty arose from Middle Eastern conflict, the spread of SARS, and major corporate scandals in 2002.
[8]: 9 It improved in the second half of the year as it recovered from the early 2000s recession, brought about by low interest rates and expansionary fiscal policy.
[8]: 12 These were among a series of corporate corruption scandals over the previous years that led the United States and a coalition of European countries to reform their policies on the matter.
The 3000-year-old Arctic Ward Hunt Ice Shelf split in September, draining the lake that it had held in place, though global warming was not the primary factor in its destruction.
[8]: 493 Construction began on MOSE, a set of sea gates in Venice designed to prevent the city's perpetual flooding.
[26] Fearing a pandemic, the World Health Organization issued a recommendation to avoid non-essential travel to Guangdong and Hong Kong.
[9]: 140 Avian influenza spread to poultry in Europe, and a human case was diagnosed in Hong Kong, leading to the patient's death.
[25]: 147 Several treatments for cancer were tested or approved in 2003, including Avastin, Erbitux, Genasense, and Velcade, with mixed results.
[8]: 480 Several studies were published in 2003 warning of health effects for hormone replacement therapy in postmenopausal women, causing fear around the procedure.
[26] A conference held by the World Trade Organization in September resulted in a dispute between nations that cast doubts on whether the agreements of the Doha Development Round were sustainable.
[8]: 12 Several free trade areas were proposed or negotiated in 2003, including separate zones for the Andean Community, ASEAN, Central America, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Southern Cone Common Market, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation,[8]: 14 and the Western Hemisphere's Free Trade Area of the Americas.
[9]: 81 Iran announced its own nuclear program in violation of its agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, disclosing this as an attempt to avoid sanctions.
The United Nations General Assembly requested an advisory opinion from the ICJ regarding the construction of the West Bank barrier by Israel.
It rejected appeals of a 1992 border dispute between El Salvador and Honduras and a 1996 decision that the ICJ had jurisdiction in Yugoslavia at the time.
[8]: 492 The International Criminal Court was inaugurated in March, and the UN Security Council granted the United States a one-year extension of its exemption for American UN Peacekeepers.
Religious strife occurred in Saudi Arabia where Wahhabi Muslims supported stricter application of Islamic law—some engaging in civil unrest and suicide bombings—while other denominations spoke in favor of tolerance for minority religions and women.
[25]: 151 Other discoveries announced in 2003 include a religious burial site from c. 9000 BC in Kfar HaHoresh, a sanctuary to Zeus in the Greek city Dion, the first Pleistocene cave art to be found in Great Britain at Creswell Crags, Bronze Age weapons and jewelry in Tyrol,[25]: 150 Viking treasure from c. 1020 on the Isle of Man, six 4th-century Roman shoes near Amsterdam, a Spring and Autumn period tomb in Henan, a wall of Mandan defensive fortifications at Double Ditch in North Dakota, a Mississippian building in Illinois, Olmec seals that are among the oldest New World writing, burial sites in Teotihuacan,[25]: 151 and the 1898 wreckage of the Portland off the coast of Massachusetts.
[25]: 152 The Herto Man fossils, first discovered in Ethiopia in 1997, were dated to approximately 160,000 years ago and proposed as a human subspecies Homo sapiens idaltu.
[25]: 151 The first report for the 2000 Census of Marine Life was published in October, announcing that it had catalogued 15,304 species, including 500 newly discovered during the program.
[8]: 476 NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) scheduled several launches toward Mars for 2003 as the planet's orbit brought it its closest to Earth in approximately 60,000 years.
[8]: 476 The ESA's Rosetta mission to the comet 46P/Wirtanen was scheduled for January 12 but set back a year for a safety evaluation of the Ariane 5 rocket following an incident the previous month.
Its effects included the disabling of all 13,000 Bank of America ATMs in the United States and days of internet outage for customers of KT Corporation in South Korea.
