Family member Robert Irwin

Events in 2003 and 1-12

Events in the world in the birth year of Robert Irwin

• North Korea withdraws from treaty on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons (Jan. 10).
• In State of the Union address, Bush announces that he is ready to attack Iraq even without a UN mandate (Jan. 28). (For an account of the U.S. build-up to war in Iraq, see News of the Nation, 2003.)
• Ariel Sharon elected Israeli prime minister (Jan. 29).
• Nine-week general strike in Venezuela calling for President Chavez's resignation ends in defeat (Feb. 2).
• U.S. Secretary of State Powell presents Iraq war rationale to UN, citing its WMD as imminent threat to world security (Feb. 5).
• U.S. and Britain launch war against Iraq (March 19). See also Iraq war timeline.
• Baghdad falls to U.S. troops (April 9).
• First Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, sworn in (April 29).
• U.S.-backed "road map" for peace proposed for Middle East (April 30). Background
• The U.S. declares official end to combat operations in Iraq (May 1).
• Terrorists strike in Saudi Arabia, killing 34 at Western compound; Al-Qaeda suspected (May 12).
• Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi again placed under house arrest by military regime (May 30).
• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) discovers Iran's concealed nuclear activities and calls for intensified inspections (June 18).
• Palestinian militant groups announce ceasefire toward Israel (June 29).
• Liberia's autocratic president Charles Taylor forced to leave civil-war ravaged country (Aug. 11). Background
• NATO assumes control of peacekeeping force in Afghanistan (Aug. 11). Background
• Libya accepts blame for 1988 bombing of flight over Lockerbie, Scotland; agrees to pay $2.7 billion to the families of the 270 victims (Aug. 15).
• Suicide bombing destroys UN headquarters in Baghdad, killing 24, including top envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello (Aug. 19).
• Palestinian suicide bombing in Jerusalem kills 20 Israelis, including 6 children (Aug. 19).
• After Israel retaliates for suicide bombing by killing top member of Hamas, militant Palestinian groups formally withdraw from cease-fire in effect since June 29 (Aug. 24).
• Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas resigns; "road map" to peace effectively collapses (Sept. 6). Background
• The Bush administration reverses policy, agreeing to transfer power to an interim Iraqi government in early 2004 (Nov. 14).
• Suicide bombers attack two synagogues in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 25 (Nov. 15).
• Another terrorist attack in Istanbul kills 26 (Nov. 20). Al-Qaeda suspected in both. See suspected al-Qaeda terrorist attacks.
• Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze resigns after weeks of protests (Nov. 23).
• Paul Martin succeeds Jean Chretien as Canadian prime minister (Dec. 12).
• Saddam Hussein is captured by American troops (Dec. 13).
• Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi announces he will give up weapons program (Dec. 19).

Birthday Robert Irwin (1-12) in history

• Day 1-12 year 1824: The presidential election between John Q. Adams, Andrew Jackson, William Crawford, and Henry Clay was turned over to the House of Representatives due to the lack of an electoral-vote majority.
• Day 1-12 year 1887: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes appeared for the first time in print in the story "A Study in Scarlet."
• Day 1-12 year 1955: Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her front-section bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala.
• Day 1-12 year 1959: Twelve nations, including the United States, signed a treaty setting aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve free from military activity.
• Day 1-12 year 1997: Representatives from more than 150 countries gathered at a global warming summit in Kyoto, Japan, and over the course of ten days forged an agreement to control the emission of greenhouse gases. President Bush pulled the U.S. out of the Kyoto Protocol in 2001.
• Day 1-12 year 1998: Exxon and Mobil agreed to merge, creating the world's largest corporation.