From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Events

January

• January 1
  • The Freedom of Information Act 2000 comes into force in the United Kingdom.
  • In Germany, stage IV of the Hartz concept brought together unemployment benefits and social security benefits, despite protests.
  • In Switzerland, Ruth Lüthi becomes president of the Council of State of Fribourg; Heinz Albicker becomes president of the government of Schaffhausen; Anne-Catherine Lyon becomes president of the Council of State of Vaud; Brigitte Profos becomes Landammann of Zug.
• January 2 - Aníbal Acevedo Vilá takes office as governor of Puerto Rico.
• January 4 - Violence in Iraq, assassination of the Governor of Baghdad, Ali al-Haidri.
• January 5 - Adam Daniel Rotfeld is sworn in as Foreign Minister of Poland.
• January 7 - Isidore Mvouba becomes Prime Minister of the Congo Republic.
• January 14 - Sergey Morozov is inaugurated as governor of the Ulyanovsk Oblast.
• 15 January - Mahmoud Abbas is inaugurated as President of the Palestinian Authority.
• 21 January - George W. Bush is sworn in for a second term as President of the United States of America following his 2004 election victory.
• January 24 - Yulia Tymoshenko is named Prime Minister of Ukraine.
• 30 January - The people of Iraq vote in elections to choose 275 members of the inaugural Iraqi National Assembly.

February

• 8 February - In Denmark, the centre-right coalition of Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is returned to power in a General Election, defeating the Social Democrats under Mogens Lykketoft.
• 16 February - In the United States, the school board in Staunton, Virginia voted to continue classes in Weekday Religious Education. This was a milestone in the issue of Separation of church and state in the United States.
• 20 February - Spain approves the European Constitution in a consultative referendum, though with a low turnout of 42%.

April

• 4 April - Askar Akayev resigns as President of Kyrgyzstan following weeks of popular unrest.
• 24 April - Presidential elections in Togo return Faure Gnassingbe to power two months after he was installed by the military following the death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema.

May

• 5 May - A General Election in the United Kingdom sees Tony Blair's Labour government returned to office with a reduced majority of 66.
• 18 May - The Spanish parliament completes the ratification of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.
• 29 May - France rejects the European Constitution by 55% to 45% in a legally binding referendum, pitching the European Union into a crisis and dealing a serious blow to the ratification process.

June

• 1 June
  • The United Kingdom assumes the rotating presidency of the European Union.
  • The Netherlands rejects the European Constitution by 62% to 38% in a consultative referendum. The result, following closely after the French referendum on 29 May, compounds the crisis surrounding the ratification process.

July

• 10 July - Luxembourg approves the ratification of the European Constitution in a consultative referendum by 57% to 43%.

August

• 6 August - The conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is sworn in as president of Iran, succeeding Mohammad Khatami.

September

• 17 September - New Zealand holds a general election, which Helen Clark's left-wing Labour Party wins, in coalition with the Progressives Party, with confidence and supply from New Zealand First and United Future, with further support from the Green and Māori parties.
• 18 September - General Election in Germany produces an inconclusive result, with a narrow majority for the Christian Democratic Union over the governing Social Democratic Party.
• 21 September - José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, says that the European Union will probably not have a Constitution 'for two to three years' [1].

October

• 27 October - The political establishment in France is rocked by the spread of rioting among poor immigrant communities in suburbs of the major cities.

November

• 4 November -British Work and Pensions Secretary David Blunkett resigns from the Cabinet for the second time in a year, this time over allegations of improper business dealings.
• 8 November - French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin declares a state of emergency to allow municipal authorities to cope with the rioting across the country.
• 21 November - Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel, resigns from the governing Likud party and founds his own new movement, Kadima.
• 22 November - After weeks of negotiations, Angela Merkel is sworn in as the eighth Chancellor of Germany - the first woman and the first East German to hold the post - succeeding Gerhard Schröder.
• 23 November - Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki dismisses his entire Cabinet after losing a key referendum on constitutional reform.

December

• 6 December - David Cameron becomes the 26th Leader of the British Conservative Party
• 15 December - Parliamentary elections are held in Iraq.
• 17 December - Evo Morales wins the presidential elections in Bolivia, ousting incumbent Eduardo Rodriguez and becoming the country's first indigenous leader.

Deaths

• January 1- Shirley Chisholm, first black woman elected to the U.S. Congress (b. 1924)
• January 1- Robert Matsui, Member of the U.S. Congress from Sacramento, California (b. 1941)
• January 4 - Ali al-Haidri, Governor of Baghdad
• January 10 - James Forman, American civil rights activist (b. 1928)
• January 17 - Zhao Ziyang, reformist Premier of the People's Republic of China and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (b. 1919)
• February 2 - Zurab Zhvania prime minister of Georgia, is suffocated in a gas leak at a friend's home
• February 6 - Gnassingbe Eyadema President of Togo since 1967, dies of an illness
• February 14 - Former Prime Minister of Lebanon Rafiq Hariri is assassinated in Beirut in a massive car bomb explosion.
• February 24 - Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski, German politician
• March 8 - Aslan Maskhadov rebel President of Chechnya is killed in battle with Russian troops
• March 28 - Howell Heflin former United States senator from Alabama
• April 2 - Pope John Paul II, Head of the Roman Catholic Church and chief of state of the Vatican City dies of heart failure
• April 6 - Rainier III Prince of Monaco since 1948, second longest-reigning head of state in the world at the time of his death
• August 19 - Mo Mowlam, British MP (born 1949)

See also

• List of years in politics