June 30, 2003:
June 2003 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December
[edit] Events
- Ioannis F is ordained to Reader by Metropolitan Sotirios of Toronto.
- President George W. Bush starts his Middle East trip today, beginning with Egypt. He is in talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. He promises to work for the goal of Israel and a Palestinian state being able to live side by side without any bloodshed.
- Thousands of Iraqi soldiers threaten to begin suicide attacks against U.S. troops as leaders of Iraq's tribes tell the Americans that they could face war if they don't leave.
- Israel says it will dismantle only some of the more than 100 West Bank settlement outposts since violence began in that area 32 months ago.
- In Zimbabwe, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is first arrested, then released. This coincides with the start of a week of protests against the government, who have put Tsvangirai on trial for treason. He is due to appear in court later today.
- Europe launches its first voyage to another planet, Mars. The European Space Agency's Mars Express probe launches from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan. [1]
- The U.S. Federal Communications Commission announces sweeping changes to the concentration of media ownership protections in the U.S, allowing a single owner to own up to 45% of media in a given city.
- A US Department of Justice internal audit is released which asserts that the government systematically abused the civil rights of individuals detained after the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack, engaging in "a pattern of physical and verbal abuse". [2]
- Stephenie Meyer dreams what would later be the 13th chapter of her first book, Twilight. This dream is what prompts Stephenie to write the book, which is New York Times Editor's Choice on 26 February 2006, first on Amazon.com's "Best of the Decade...So Far" list, nominated to the ALA Best Books for Young Adults, and has been translated into 20 different languages.
- NASA investigators cracked a reinforced carbon fiber wing by shooting it with a piece of insulation, providing more evidence that falling insulation may have caused the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. [7]
- After several days of violence and confusion in Mauritania, Pro-Israeli President Maaouiya Ould Taya appears to have defeated the uprising against him. [8]
- The Polish referendum on EU enlargement entrance finishes today; 78% of the voters voted to join the EU, with approximately 59% turnout.[9]
- The presence of the monkeypox virus in the United States is confirmed with 4 cases in Wisconsin, sparking the first discovery of the virus in the Western Hemisphere. Dozens of suspected cases have appeared across three Midwest states, where pet enthusiasts came into contact with infected domestic prairie dogs, which caught the disease from the Gambian giant rat.
- Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly formally accuses college student Luke Thompson of creating a fake airline, Mainline Airways, and selling bogus tickets. [16]
- Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities, dismisses claim that archaeologists discovered Nefertiti's mummy.[17]
- The CDC says 54 people in the US may be infected with monkeypox.
- British Prime Minister Tony Blair reshuffles his Cabinet: the Lord Chancellor is to be replaced by a new Department for Constitutional Affairs, and Peter Hain and John Reid have new jobs, while Alan Milburn unexpectedly resigns. The government also plans to replace the House of Lords' judicial functions with a new Supreme Court. [18] [19]
- A mass grave in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, dating back to the Stalinist purges in the 1930s, is discovered containing at least 575 victims. 90 percent of the dead were found with the remains of yellow and red garments and religious items usually worn by Buddhist monks. The number could top 1,000, investigators said.
The Widely-Syndicated Comic Strip Garfield celebrates it's 25th anniversary.
- Real Madrid clinches the Primera división, the top football league in Spain, beating Real Sociedad by two points. The very next day, Real fires its manager, Vicente Del Bosque
- Hundreds of US troops raid Iraqi homes in the town of Ramadi, fired up by the Ride of the Valkyries coming through loudspeakers, in a scene which Reuters reporter Alistair Lyon describes as "a bizarre musical reprise from Vietnam war film Apocalypse Now." Meanwhile a group identifying itself as the Iraqi National Front of Fedayeen announces to increase attacks on US troops if they refuse to leave the occupied country. [25]
- The U.S. Supreme Court issues opinions in Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz and Hamacher v. Bollinger, challenges to the affirmative action admissions policies at the University of Michigan. In Grutter, the Court held that the University of Michigan Law School's admissions policy, which considered race as one of a number of "soft" admissions factors on a case-by-case basis, was constitutional. In Gratz, the Court held that the undergraduate affirmative action admissions policy, which was based on a point system and was more rigid than the Law School's, was unconstitutional. [26]
- In Peekskill, New York, a 10 month old baby girl survives a seven story fall. Her father, Willie Williams, takes her to the hospital, where she was treated for bruises and cuts, but Mr. Williams is later arrested on charges of attempted murder. [27]
- Human Rights Watch calls for a criminal investigation into Israeli Prime MinisterAriel Sharon's alleged role in the massacre of civilians in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla.
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