What Happened in February 2004

Historical Events

  • Feb 1 251 people are trampled to death and 244 injured in a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

Federer's First Australian Title

Feb 1 Australian Open Men's Tennis: Roger Federer wins his first Australian title; beats Marat Safin of Russia 7-6, 6-4, 6-2

Super Bowl XXXVIII

Feb 1 Super Bowl XXXVIII, Reliant Stadium, Houston, TX: New England Patriots beat Carolina Panthers, 32-29; MVP: Tom Brady, New England, QB

Jackson's Wardrobe Malfunction

Feb 1 Wardrobe malfunction: Janet Jackson's breast is exposed during the half-time show of Super Bowl XXXVIII, resulting in US broadcasters adopting a stronger adherence to FCC censorship guidelines.

Facebook Launches

Feb 4 Mark Zuckerberg launches Facebook from his Harvard dormitory room

  • Feb 5 54th Berlin International Film Festival: "Head-On" wins the Golden Bear
  • Feb 5 Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaïves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion
  • Feb 5 Twenty-three Chinese people drown when a group of 35 cockle-pickers are trapped by rising tides in Morecambe Bay, England. Twenty-one bodies are recovered.

46th Grammy Awards

Feb 8 46th Grammy Awards: Coldplay's "Clocks", and Evanescence win

54th NHL All-Star Game

Feb 8 54th NHL All-Star Game, Xcel Energy Centre, Saint Paul, Minnesota: East beats West, 6-4; MVP: Joe Sakic, Colorado Avalanche, C

  • Feb 8 NFL Pro Bowl, Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, Hawaii: NFC beats AFC, 55-52; MVP: Mark Bulger, St. Louis Rams, QB, HI

The College Dropout Released

Feb 10 Kanye West releases his debut album "The College Dropout" (2005 Grammy Best Rap Album)

Event of Interest

Feb 12 The city of San Francisco, California begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom.

  • Feb 13 The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics discovers the universe's largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093.
  • Feb 13 The WB Network announces that 'Angel' would not be brought back for a sixth season
  • Feb 14 In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 25 people, and wounding more than 100 others.
  • Feb 15 46th Daytona 500: Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins exactly 6 years to the day after his father Dale Earnhardt Sr. won his first and only Daytona 500 in 1998

NBA All-Star Game

Feb 15 53rd NBA All-Star Game, Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA: West beats East, 136-132; MVP: Shaquille O'Neal, LA Lakers, C

BAFTA Awards

Feb 15 57th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" Best Film, Peter Weir Best Director

  • Feb 16 The Pittsburgh Penguins lose their 12th consecutive home game, a NHL record

If I Ain't Got You

Feb 17 "If I Ain't Got You" single released by Alicia Keys (Grammy Award Best Female R&B Vocal Performance 2005, Billboard Song of the Year 2004)

Sports History

Feb 18 Greg Maddux signs with the Chicago Cubs, the team he began his career with

  • Feb 18 Up to 295 people, including nearly 200 rescue workers, die near Neyshabur in Iran when a run-away freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertiliser catches fire and explodes.
  • Feb 19 Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal of Austria, is awarded an honorary British knighthood in recognition of a "lifetime of service to humanity."
  • Feb 21 The first European political party organization, the European Greens, is established in Rome
  • Feb 26 Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski is killed in a plane crash near Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
  • Feb 26 The United States lifts a ban on travel to Libya, ending travel restrictions to the nation that had lasted for 23 years.
  • Feb 27 A bombing of a Superferry by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines worst terrorist attack kills 116
  • Feb 27 Former BPMC general secretary Ordrick Samuel launches a new party in Barbuda, Barbudans for a Better Barbuda
  • Feb 28 24th Golden Raspberry Awards: "Gigli" wins
  • Feb 28 Over 1 million Taiwanese participating in the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally form a 500-kilometre (300-mile) long human chain to commemorate the 228 Incident in 1947
  • Feb 29 Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns as President of Haiti following popular rebel uprising.
2004 History

Famous Birthdays

  • Feb 6 Princess Louise of Belgium, born in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, Belgium

Millie Bobby Brown (20 years old)

Feb 19 English actress (Stranger Things) and UNICEF goodwill ambassador, born in Marbella, Spain


Born in 2004

Famous Weddings

Rosie O'Donnell

Feb 26 American actress and comedian Rosie O'Donnell (41) weds American marketing executive Kelli Carpenter (36) in San Francisco, California; voided in August due to state supreme court ruling

  • Feb 27 American singer-songwriter Solange Knowles (17) weds Texas Southern University football player Daniel Smith (19) at Old Bahama Bay Resort in Grand Bahama Island; divorce in 2007

Famous Deaths

  • Feb 1 Ally MacLeod, Scottish soccer manager (Scotland, Ayr United, Aberdeen, Motherwell, Airdrie, Q of the South) and left wing (Blackburn Rovers, Hibernian, Third Lanark), dies of Alzheimer's disease at 72
  • Feb 1 May O'Donnell, American modern dancer and choreographer, dies at 97
  • Feb 2 Alan Bullock, British historian and author (Hitler: A Study in Tyranny), dies at 89
  • Feb 2 Bernard McEveety, American film director, dies at 79
  • Feb 2 Róbert Zimonyi, Hungarian rowing coxswain (Olympic gold USA men's eight 1964; bronze Hungary coxed pair 1948), dies at 85
  • Feb 3 Cornelius Bumpus, American saxophonist and keyboardist (Doobie Brothers; Steely Dan), dies of a heart attack at 58
  • Feb 3 Jason Raize, American musical theatre actor (b. 1975)
  • Feb 5 Harry West, Irish politician, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (1974-79), dies at 86
  • Feb 5 John Hench, American animator (b. 1908)
  • Feb 6 Jørgen Jersild, Danish composer and educator (Royal Danish Academy, 1953-75), dies at 91
  • Feb 7 Scotch Taylor, South African cricket batsman (1 Test; Transvaal) and executive (president South African Hockey Union), dies at 78
  • Feb 8 Julius Schwartz, American comic book and sci-fi editor, dies at 88
  • Feb 9 Claude Ryan, Canadian newspaper director and politician (b. 1925)
  • Feb 10 Guy Provost, Quebec stage and screen actor ( La Famille Plouffe), dies at 79
  • Feb 10 Margaret Stacey, English sociologist who helped shape the distinctively British genre of empirical sociology, dies at 81
  • Feb 11 Ryszard Kukliński, Polish colonel and Cold War spy for NATO, dies at 73
  • Feb 12 Robert A. Bruce, American cardiologist and pioneer (exercise cardiology), dies at 87
  • Feb 13 Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, Chechen leader (b. 1952)
  • Feb 14 Marco Pantani, Italian cyclist (Tour de France 1998), dies of acute cocaine poisoning at 34
  • Feb 15 Jan Miner, American actress (Crime Photographer), dies at 86
  • Feb 15 Jens Evensen, Norwegian minister and jurist (b. 1917)
  • Feb 16 Doris Troy [Higginsen], American R&B singer and songwriter ("Just One Look"), dies from emphysema at 67
  • Feb 17 José López Portillo, President of Mexico (1976-82), dies at 83
  • Feb 17 Shirley Strickland, Australian athlete (Olympic gold 80m hurdles 1952, 56; 4 x 100m relay 1956), dies at 78
  • Feb 18 Jean Rouch, French filmmaker and ethnologist (b. 1917)
  • Feb 20 J. J. Malone, American soul singer ("It's A Shame"), dies of cancer at 68
  • Feb 21 Bart Howard [Howard Joseph Gustafson], American songwriter ("Fly Me to the Moon"), dies at 88
  • Feb 21 Guido Molinari, Canadian painter, dies at 70
  • Feb 21 Irina Press, Soviet 80m hurdles runner and pentathlete (Olympic gold 1960, 64), dies at 64
  • Feb 21 John Charles, Welsh footballer (b. 1931)
  • Feb 21 Les Gray, English vocalist (Mud - "Cat Crept In"), dies at 57
  • Feb 22 Andy Seminick, American baseball player (b. 1920)
  • Feb 22 Roque Máspoli, Uruguayan footballer (b. 1917)
  • Feb 23 Bob Mayo, American session keyboardist (Peter Frampton), dies of a heart attack at 52
  • Feb 23 Carl Anderson, American singer (b. 1945)
  • Feb 23 Carl Liscombe, Canadian hockey player (b. 1915)
  • Feb 23 Don Cornell [Luigi Varlaro], American pop singer (Sammy Kaye Orchestra - "Room Full of Roses; solo - "Hold My Hand"), dies of emphysema and diabetes at 84
  • Feb 23 Sikander Bakht, Indian politician, Governor of Kerala, dies at 85
  • Feb 23 Vijay Anand, Indian film director (b. 1934)
  • Feb 24 Alvino Rey, American orchestra leader (King Family), dies at 95
  • Feb 24 John Randolph [Emanuel Hirsch Cohen], American actor (King Kong, Lucan, Lucas Tanner, Angie), dies at 88
  • Feb 25 Donald Hings, Canadian inventor (b. 1907)
  • Feb 26 Adolf Ehrnrooth, Finnish general (b. 1905)
  • Feb 26 Boris Trajkovski, 2nd President of the Republic of Macedonia, dies at 47
  • Feb 26 Ralph E. Winters, Canadian film editor, dies at 94
  • Feb 26 Shankarrao Chavan, Indian politician (b. 1920)
  • Feb 27 Paul Sweezy, American Marxist economist and editor (Monthly Review), dies at 93
  • Feb 27 Yoshihiko Amino, Japanese historians (b. 1928)
  • Feb 28 Andres Nuiamäe, Estonian soldier (b. 1982)
  • Feb 28 Carmen Laforet, Spanish author, dies at 82
  • Feb 28 Daniel J. Boorstin, American historian, Librarian of Congress (1975-87) and author ("The Americans: The Democratic Experience" - 1974 Pulitzer Prize), dies at 89
  • Feb 28 Gene Allison, American R&B singer ("You Can Make It If You Try"), dies at 69
  • Feb 29 Jerome Lawrence, American playwright (Inherit the Wind), dies at 88