If you're like me, it's hard enough to remember what happened last week, much less a few years ago.  Still, I'm glad that someone bothers to keep track of history because it sure is interesting to look back.  Here are a couple of things that were going on in the world the year that we launched our first BEI newsletter.

If you want to read more then just click on the picture to follow a link to the web page.   

The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final one. Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry.

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is officially renamed to Serbia and Montenegro and adopts a new constitution.

The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old footprints of an upright-walking human have been found in Italy.

Invasion of Iraq by an American and British led coalition begins without United Nations support and in defiance of world opinion.

The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%.

Europe launches its first voyage to another planet, Mars.

Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko becomes the first person to marry in space.

A heat wave in Paris results in temperatures rising to 112°F (44° C), leaving about 144 people dead.

Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing 34,646,418 miles (55,758,005 km) distant.

David Hempleman-Adams becomes the first person to cross the Atlantic Ocean in an open-air, wicker-basket hot air balloon.

A magnitude-8.0 earthquake strikes just offshore of Hokkaidō, Japan

Mother Teresa is beatified by Pope John Paul II.

President George W. Bush announces the capture of Saddam Hussein.

Concorde makes its last commercial flight.

How many of you remembered all of these events? In sum, 2003 was an interesting year indeed.