Talk:Barney Live! in New York City (battybarney2014's version)/@comment-2604:2000:1343:C444:C4C4:3375:1A0F:7335-20190316141855/@comment-2604:2000:1343:C444:C4C4:3375:1A0F:7335-20190316143334

2000 was designated as:
 * International Year for the Culture of Peace
 * World Mathematical Year

Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium due to a tendency of grouping the years according to decimal values, as if year zero were counted. According to the Gregorian Calendar, these distinctions fall to the year 2001, because the 1st century was retroactively said to start with year AD 1. Since the calendar does not have year zero, its first millennium spanned from years 1 to 1000 inclusively and its second millennium from years 1001 to 2000. (See more at Century  and Millennium.)

The year 2000 is sometimes abbreviated as "Y2K" (the "Y" stands for "year", and the "K" stands for "kilo" which means "thousand"). The year 2000 was the subject of Y2K concerns, which were fears that computers would not shift from 1999 to 2000 correctly. However, by the end of 1999, many companies had already converted to new, or upgraded, existing software. Some even obtained Y2K certification. As a result of massive effort, relatively few problems occurred.

January

 * January 2 – Massacre of twenty Copts by Muslim villagers in Kosheh, Egypt.
 * January 6 – The last natural Pyrenean ibex is found dead, apparently killed by a falling tree.
 * January 10 – America Online announces an agreement to purchase Time Warner for $162 billion (the largest-ever corporate merger).
 * January 14
 * The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 11,722.98 (at the peak of the Dot-com bubble).
 * A United Nations tribunal sentences five Bosnian Croats to up to 25 years in prison for the 1993 killing of more than 100 Bosnian Muslims.
 * January 18 – The Tagish Lake meteorite impacts the Earth.
 * January 30 – Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes off the coast of Ivory Coast into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 169.
 * January 31
 * Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashes off the California coast into the Pacific Ocean, killing 88.
 * Dr. Harold Shipman is found guilty of murdering 15 patients between 1995 and 1998 at Hyde, Greater Manchester, and sentenced to life imprisonment.

February

 * February 4 – German extortionist Klaus-Peter Sabotta is jailed for life for attempted murder and extortion, in connection with the sabotage of German railway lines.
 * February 9 – Torrential rains in Africa lead to the worst flooding in Mozambique in 50 years, which lasts until March and kills 800 people.
 * February 13 – The final original Peanuts comic strip is published, following the death of its creator, Charles M. Schulz.
 * February 21 – UNESCO holds the inaugural celebration of International Mother Language Day.
 * February 29 – A rare century leap year date occurs. Usually, century years are common years due to not being exactly divisible by 400. 2000 is the first such year to have a February 29 since the year 1600, making it only the second such occasion since the Lilian rule was introduced in the late 16th century. The next such leap year will occur in 2400.

March

 * March 4 – The PlayStation 2 is released in Japan.
 * March 8 – Tokyo train disaster: A sideswipe collision of two Tokyo Metro trains kills five people.
 * March 10 – The NASDAQ Composite Index reaches an all-time high of 5,048. Two weeks later, the NASDAQ-100, S&P 500, and Wilshire 5000 reach their peaks prior to the Dot-com bubble, ending a bull market run that lasted over 17 years.
 * March 12
 * Pope John Paul II apologizes for the wrongdoings by members of the Roman Catholic Church throughout the ages.
 * A Zenit-3SL launch fails due to a software bug.
 * March 13 – The United States dollar becomes the official currency of Ecuador, replacing the Ecuadorian sucre.

April

 * April 3 – United States v. Microsoft Corp.: Microsoft is ruled to have violated United States antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors.
 * April 22 – In a predawn raid, federal agents seize 6-year-old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami and fly him to his Cuban father in Washington, D.C., ending one of the most publicized custody battles in U.S. history.
 * April 30 – Canonization of Faustina Kowalska in the presence of 200,000 people and the first Divine Mercy Sunday celebrated worldwide.

May

 * May 1 – A new class of composite material is fabricated, which has a combination of physical properties never before seen in a natural or man-made material.
 * May 3 – In San Antonio, Texas, computer pioneer Datapoint files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
 * May 4 – The 7.6 Central Sulawesi earthquake affects Banggai, Indonesia, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong), leaving 46 dead and 264 injured.
 * May 5
 * After originating in the Philippines, the ILOVEYOU computer virus spreads quickly throughout the world.
 * A rare conjunction of seven celestial bodies (Sun, Moon, planets Mercury–Saturn) occurs during the new moon.
 * May 11 – The billionth living person in India is born.
 * May 13
 * A fireworks factory disaster in Enschede, Netherlands, kills 23.
 * Millennium Force opens at Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio as the world's tallest and fastest roller coaster.
 * May 24 – Real Madrid C.F. defeats Valencia CF 3–0 in the UEFA Champions League Final at Stade de France to win their second title between 1998 and 2002, and their eighth overall.

June

 * June 4 – The 7.9 Enggano earthquake shakes southwestern Sumatra with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VI (Strong), killing 103 people and injuring 2,174–2,585.
 * June 5 – 405 The Movie, the first short film widely distributed on the Internet, is released.
 * June 10 – July 2 – Belgium and the Netherlands jointly host the UEFA Euro 2000 football tournament, which is won by France.
 * June 17 – A centennial earthquake (6.5 on the Richter scale) hits Iceland on its national day.
 * June 26 – A preliminary draft of genomes, as part of the Human Genome Project, is finished. It is announced at the White House by President Clinton.
 * June 28 – Elián González returns to Cuba with his father, Juan Miguel González, ending a protracted custody battle.
 * June 30 – At the Roskilde Festival near Copenhagen, Denmark, nine die and 26 are injured on a set while the rock group Pearl Jam performs.

July

 * July 1 – The Øresund Bridge between Denmark and Sweden is officially opened for traffic.
 * July 2 – France defeats Italy 2–1 after extra time in the final of the European Championship, becoming the first team to win the World Cup and European Championship consecutively.
 * July 7 – The draft assembly of Human Genome Project announced at the White House by President Bill Clinton, Francis Collins, and Craig Venter.
 * July 10 – In southern Nigeria, a leaking petroleum pipeline explodes, killing about 250 villagers who were scavenging gasoline.
 * July 14 – A powerful solar flare, later named the Bastille Day event, causes a geomagnetic storm on Earth.
 * July 25 – Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde aircraft, crashes into a hotel in Gonesse just after takeoff from Paris, killing all 109 aboard and 4 in the hotel.

August

 * August 3 – Rioting erupts on the Paulsgrove estate in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, after more than 100 people besiege the home of a block of flats allegedly housing a convicted paedophile. This is the latest vigilante violence against suspected sex offenders since the beginning of the "naming and shaming" anti-paedophile campaign by the tabloid newspaper News of the World.
 * August 7 – DeviantART is launched.
 * August 8 – The Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor.
 * August 12 – The Russian submarine Kursk sinks in the Barents Sea during one of the largest Russian naval exercises since the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, resulting in the deaths of all 118 men on board.
 * August 14
 * Tsar Nicholas II and his family are canonized by the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.
 * Dora the Explorer, one of Nickelodeon's most popular shows, debuts.
 * August 23 – John Anthony Kaiser, a Roman Catholic priest, is murdered in Morendat, Kenya.
 * August 24 – The Nintendo GameCube is revealed.

September

 * September 6 – The last wholly Swedish-owned arms manufacturer, Bofors, is sold to American arms manufacturer United Defense.
 * September 6–8 – World leaders attend the Millennium Summit at U.N. Headquarters.
 * September 7–14 – Fuel protests take place in the United Kingdom, with refineries blockaded, and supply to the country's network of petrol stations halted.
 * September 10 – Operation Barras: A British military operation to free five soldiers from the Royal Irish Regiment that were held captive for over two weeks during the Sierra Leone Civil War, all of which were rescued.
 * September 13 – Steve Jobs introduces the public beta of Mac OS X for US$29.95.
 * September 15 – October 1 – The 2000 Summer Olympics, held in Sydney, Australia, is the last Olympic Games of the 20th century.
 * September 16 – Ukrainian journalist Georgiy Gongadze is last seen alive; this day is taken as the commemoration date of his death.
 * September 26 – The Greek ferry Express Samina sinks off the coast of the island of Paros; 80 out of a total of over 500 passengers perish in one of Greece's worst sea disasters.
 * September 29 – The HM Prison Maze in Northern Ireland is closed.

October

 * October 5 – Mass demonstrations in Belgrade lead to resignation of Yugoslavia's president Slobodan Milošević.
 * October 6 – The last Mini is produced in Longbridge.
 * October 11 – 250 e6USgal of coal sludge spill in Martin County, Kentucky (considered a greater environmental disaster than the Exxon Valdez oil spill).
 * October 12 – In Aden, Yemen, USS Cole is badly damaged by two Al-Qaeda suicide bombers, who place a small boat laden with explosives alongside the United States Navy destroyer, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least 39.
 * October 22 – The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper exposes Japanese archeologist Shinichi Fujimura as a fraud; Japanese archaeologists had based their treatises on his findings.
 * October 26
 * Pakistani authorities announce that their police have found an apparently ancient mummy of a Persian Princess in the province of Balochistan. Iran, Pakistan and the Taliban all claim the mummy until Pakistan announces it is a modern-day fake on April 17, 2001.
 * The New York Yankees defeat the New York Mets 4-2 in the fifth game of the World Series to win the first "Subway Series" since 1956 by 4 games to 1. The series win was the Yankees third in a row and 26th overall.
 * October 30 – This is the final date during which there is no human presence in space; on October 31, Soyuz TM-31 launches, carrying the first resident crew to the International Space Station. The ISS has been continuously crewed since.
 * October 31 – Singapore Airlines Flight 006 collides with construction equipment in the Chiang Kai Shek International Airport, resulting in 83 deaths.

November

 * November 2 – The first resident crew enters the International Space Station.
 * November 3 – Widespread flooding occurs throughout England and Wales after days of heavy rain.
 * November 7 – In London, a criminal gang raids the Millennium Dome to steal the Millennium Star diamond, but police surveillance catches them in the act.
 * November 11 – Kaprun disaster, Austria: A funicular fire in an Alpine tunnel kills 155 skiers and snowboarders.
 * November 17 – A catastrophic landslide in Log pod Mangartom, Slovenia, kills 7, and causes millions of SIT of damage. It is one of the worst catastrophes in Slovenia in the past 100 years.

December

 * December 7 – Kadisoka temple is discovered in Sleman, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
 * December 15 – The third and final reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is shut down and the station is shut down completely.
 * December 25 – The Luoyang Christmas fire at a shopping center in China kills 309 people.

January

 * January 1 – Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya, Russian-Australian pair skater
 * January 7 – Marcus Scribner, American actor
 * January 8 – Noah Cyrus, American actress and singer
 * January 11
 * Shareef O'Neal, American basketball player
 * Marrit Steenbergen, Dutch swimmer
 * January 19 – Choi Da-bin, South Korean figure skater
 * January 27 – Morgan Gibbs-White, English footballer

February

 * February 1 – Paris Smith, American actress and singer
 * February 5 – Jordan Nagai, American actor
 * February 10 – Yara Shahidi, American actress
 * February 20 – Josh Sargent, American footballer
 * February 21
 * Cho I-hsuan, Taiwanese professional tennis player
 * Yuto Miyazawa, Japanese singer
 * February 28 – Moise Kean, Italian footballer

March

 * March 1 – Ava Allan, American actress
 * March 2
 * Nahida Akter, Bangladeshi cricketer
 * Julia Kedhammar, Swedish singer
 * Bianca Umali, Filipino actress and dancer
 * March 5 – Jack Aitchison, Scottish footballer
 * March 6 – Jacob Bertrand, American actor
 * March 10 – Norah Flatley, American artistic gymnast
 * March 15 – Kristian Kostov, Russian/Bulgarian singer-songwriter
 * March 21 – Jace Norman, American actor
 * March 25
 * Camden Pulkinen, American figure skater
 * Christian Traeumer, American actor
 * Jadon Sancho, English footballer
 * March 27 – Sophie Nélisse, Canadian actress
 * March 30 – Regan Mizrahi, American child actor
 * March 31 – Anu Anand, Indian actress

April

 * April 1 – Barbora Seemanová, Czech swimmer
 * April 6 – Shaheen Afridi, Pakistani cricketer
 * April 7 – Ivan Ivanov, Bulgarian singer and songwriter
 * April 9 – Jackie Evancho, American soprano
 * April 11
 * Morgan Lily, American actress
 * Alexei Krasnozhon, Russian-American figure skater
 * April 13 – Rasmus Dahlin, Swedish ice hockey player
 * April 28 – Ellie Carpenter, Australian footballer

May

 * May 7 – Maxwell Perry Cotton, American actor
 * May 15 – Jacob Bragg, Australian runner
 * May 18
 * Addison Holley, Canadian actress
 * Ryan Sessegnon, English footballer
 * May 23 – Evan Bird, Canadian actor
 * May 24 – Anja Crevar, Serbian swimmer
 * May 28 – Taylor Ruck, Canadian swimmer
 * May 30 – Jared S. Gilmore, American actor

June

 * June 1 – Willow Shields, American actress and dancer
 * June 2 – Lilimar Hernandez, Venezuelan actress
 * June 5 – Eliias, Swedish singer
 * June 9 – Laurie Hernandez, American artistic gymnast
 * June 13 – Penny Oleksiak, Canadian swimmer
 * June 16 – Bianca Andreescu, Canadian tennis player
 * June 23
 * Kim Hyun-soo, South Korean actress
 * Caitlin Blackwood, English actress
 * June 29 – Kia Pegg, English actress

July

 * July 1 – Lalu Muhammad Zohri, Indonesian sprinter
 * July 4 – Rikako Ikee, Japanese swimmer
 * July 6
 * Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Finnish ice hockey player
 * Zion Williamson, American basketball player
 * July 12 – Vinícius Júnior, Brazilian footballer
 * July 16 – Jonathan Morgan Heit, American actor
 * July 18 – Angelina Melnikova, Russian artistic gymnast
 * July 24 – Marko Čalasan, Macedonian computer systems prodigy
 * July 25 – Ellie Soutter, British snowboarder (d. 2018)
 * July 28
 * Kaitlin De Guzman, Filipino artistic gymnast
 * Emile Smith Rowe, English footballer

August

 * August 2 – Sandeep Lamichhane, Nepalese cricketer
 * August 3 – Landry Bender, American actress
 * August 8 – Félix Auger-Aliassime, Canadian tennis player
 * August 11 – James Cartmell, British actor
 * August 17 – Lil Pump, American rapper and songwriter
 * August 20 – Fátima Ptacek, American actress
 * August 21 – Kate Valdez, Filipino model and actress
 * August 24 – Griffin Gluck, American actor
 * August 25 – Vincenzo Cantiello, Italian singer
 * August 26 – Noah Ryan Scott, Canadian actor
 * August 27 – Tatsuomi Hamada, Japanese actor and model
 * August 29 – Julia Grosso, Canadian soccer player

September

 * September 1 – Jacob Ewaniuk, Canadian teen actor
 * September 5 – Ceren Akkaya, Turkish footballer
 * September 28
 * Frankie Jonas, American actor
 * Ahn Do-gyu, South Korean actor

October

 * October 6 – Isobelle Molloy, British actress
 * October 10 – Aedin Mincks, American actor
 * October 11 – Hayden Byerly, American actor
 * October 16 – David Rawle, Irish actor
 * October 25
 * Vincent Zhou, American figure skater
 * Mizuki Itagaki, Japanese actor, model, and singer
 * October 26 – Ellery Sprayberry, American actress
 * October 31 – Willow Smith, American actress and singer

November

 * November 2 – Alphonso Davies, Canadian football player
 * November 8
 * Jade Pettyjohn, American actress
 * Anastasia Skoptsova, Russian ice dancer
 * Jasmine Thompson, English singer and songwriter
 * November 10 – Mackenzie Foy, American model and actress
 * November 20 – Connie Talbot, British singer
 * November 21 – Megan Roberts, Canadian artistic gymnast
 * November 22 – Auliʻi Cravalho, American actress

December

 * December 12 – Lucas Jade Zumann, American actor
 * December 24 – Ethan Bortnick, American musician
 * December 29 – Eliot Vassamillet, Belgian singer

January

 * January 2
 * Nat Adderley, American jazz musician (b. 1931)
 * Patrick O'Brian, British writer (b. 1914)
 * Princess María de las Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, mother of King Juan Carlos I (b. 1910)
 * January 4
 * Diether Krebs, German actor, cabaret artist and comedian. (b. 1947)
 * Spyros Markezinis, Greek politician, 169th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1909)
 * January 7
 * Gary Albright, American professional wrestler (b. 1963)
 * Makhmud Esambayev, Soviet and Russian actor and dancer (b. 1924)
 * January 8 – Fritz Thiedemann, German equestrian and show jumper (b. 1918)
 * January 10 – Sam Jaffe, American film producer (b. 1901)
 * January 11
 * Dan Kemp, American actor (b. 1927)
 * Bob Lemon, American baseball player and manager (b. 1920)
 * January 12 – Bobby Phills, American professional basketball player (b. 1969)
 * January 13 – Antti Hyvärinen, Finnish Olympic ski jumper (b. 1932)
 * January 15 – Željko Ražnatović, Serbian mobster and paramilitary leader (b. 1952)
 * January 18 – Frances Drake, American actress (b. 1912)
 * January 19
 * Bettino Craxi, Italian politician, 45th Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1934)
 * Hedy Lamarr, Austrian actress (b. 1914)
 * Alan North, American actor (b. 1920)
 * January 20 – Izabella Yurieva, Russian singer (b. 1899)
 * January 21 – Saeb Salam, Lebanese politician, 20th Prime Minister of Lebanon (b. 1905)
 * January 24 – Rex Nelon, American Southern gospel singer (b. 1932)
 * January 26 – Don Budge, American tennis player (b. 1915)

February

 * February 5
 * Claude Autant-Lara, French film director (b. 1901)
 * Ward Cornell, Canadian radio/TV broadcaster & educator (b. 1924)
 * February 7
 * Doug Henning, Canadian magician (b. 1947)
 * Shiho Niiyama, Japanese voice actress (b. 1970)
 * February 8
 * Sid Abel, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1918)
 * Bob Collins, American broadcaster (b. 1942)
 * Ion Gheorghe Maurer, Romanian lawyer and politician, 49th Prime Minister of Romania (b. 1902)
 * Derrick Thomas, American football player (b. 1967)
 * February 9
 * Beau Jack, American boxer (b. 1921)
 * Buck Young, American actor (b. 1920)
 * February 10 – Jim Varney, American actor (b. 1949)
 * February 11
 * Jacqueline Auriol, French aviator (b. 1917)
 * Roger Vadim, French film director and producer (b. 1928)
 * February 12
 * Tom Landry, American football coach (b. 1924)
 * Charles M. Schulz, American comic strip artist (b. 1922)
 * Oliver, American pop singer (b. 1945)
 * Screamin' Jay Hawkins, American rock singer and performer (b. 1929)
 * February 13 – Anders Aalborg, Canadian politician (b. 1914)
 * February 19
 * Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian artist (b. 1928)
 * Djidingar Dono Ngardoum, 2nd Prime Minister of Chad (b. 1928)
 * February 23
 * Ofra Haza, Israeli singer (b. 1957)
 * Sir Stanley Matthews, English footballer (b. 1915)

March

 * March 2 – Sandra Schmirler, Canadian Olympic curler (b. 1963)
 * March 3 – Toni Ortelli, Italian composer and alpinist (b. 1904)
 * March 5
 * Lolo Ferrari, French actress and dancer (b. 1963)
 * Roma Mitchell, Australia lawyer and Governor of South Australia (b. 1913)
 * March 6
 * John Colicos, Canadian actor (b. 1928)
 * Abraham Waligo, Ugandan politician, 4th Prime Minister of Uganda (b. 1928)
 * March 7
 * Charles Gray, English actor (b. 1928)
 * Masami Yoshida, Japanese athlete (b. 1958)
 * March 9 – Jean Coulthard, Canadian composer and music educator (b. 1908)
 * March 11
 * Will Roberts, British painter (b. 1907)
 * Alfred Schwarzmann, German gymnast (b. 1912)
 * March 20 – Gene Eugene, Canadian actor and singer (b. 1961)
 * March 27 – Ian Dury, British rock musician (b. 1942)
 * March 28 – Anthony Powell, British author (b. 1905)
 * March 30 – Rudolf Kirchschläger, Austrian diplomat and 8th President of Austria (b. 1915)

April

 * April 2 – Tommaso Buscetta, Italian mafioso informant (b. 1928)
 * April 3 – Terence McKenna, American writer, philosopher, writer and entheogen advocate (b. 1946)
 * April 4 – Derek Allhusen, British equestrian (b. 1914)
 * April 5 – Lee Petty, American race-car driver (b. 1914)
 * April 6 – Habib Bourguiba, 1st President of Tunisia (b. 1903)
 * April 8
 * Bernie Grant, British politician (b. 1944)
 * Claire Trevor, American actress (b. 1910)
 * April 10
 * Rabah Bitat, Algerian politician and Interim President of Algeria (b. 1925)
 * Larry Linville, American actor (b. 1939)
 * April 11 – Diana Darvey, British actress, singer and dancer (b. 1945)
 * April 13 – Albert Turner, American civil rights activist (b. 1936)
 * April 14 – Phil Katz, American computer programmer (b. 1962)
 * April 15 – Edward Gorey, American writer and illustrator (b. 1925)
 * April 25 – David Merrick, American stage producer (b. 1911)
 * April 29 – Phạm Văn Đồng, 2nd Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) (b. 1906)
 * April 30 – Poul Hartling, Danish diplomat and politician, 21st Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1914)

May

 * May 1
 * Steve Reeves, American actor and bodybuilder (b. 1926)
 * Jukka Tapanimäki, Finnish game programmer (b. 1961)
 * May 2 – Sundar Popo, Indo-Trinidadian chutney musician (b. 1943)
 * May 3 – Júlia Báthory, Hungarian glass designer (b. 1901)
 * May 7 – Douglas Fairbanks Jr., American actor (b. 1909)
 * May 8 – Hubert Maga, 1st President of Dahomey (b. 1916)
 * May 10
 * Kaneto Shiozawa, Japanese voice actor (b. 1954)
 * Craig Stevens, American actor (b. 1918)
 * May 11 – René Muñoz, Cuban actor and screenwriter (b. 1938)
 * May 12 – Adam Petty, American NASCAR driver (b. 1980)
 * May 13
 * Paul Bartel, American actor, writer and director (b. 1938)
 * Tomomi Tsuruta, Japanese professional wrestler (b. 1951)
 * May 14 – Keizō Obuchi, Japanese politician, 54th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1937)
 * May 19 – Petter Hugsted, Norwegian Olympic ski jumper (b. 1921)
 * May 20
 * Edward Bernds, American director (b. 1905)
 * Malik Sealy, American basketball player (b. 1970)
 * May 21
 * Dame Barbara Cartland, British novelist (b. 1901)
 * Sir John Gielgud, British actor (b. 1904)
 * Mark R. Hughes, American MLM founder (b. 1956)
 * Erich Mielke, German secret police official (b. 1907)
 * May 25 – Francis Lederer, French film and stage actor (b. 1899)
 * May 27
 * Kazimierz Leski, Polish engineer, fighter pilot and counter-intelligence officer (b. 1912)
 * Maurice Richard, Canadian hockey player (b. 1921)
 * May 30 – Doris Hare, British actress (b. 1905)
 * May 31
 * Petar Mladenov, Bulgarian diplomat and politician, 1st President of Bulgaria (b. 1936)
 * Tito Puente, American jazz musician (b. 1923)

June

 * June 3 – Merton Miller, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1923)
 * June 10
 * Hafez al-Assad, Syrian politician and general, 18th President of Syria (b. 1930)
 * Frank Patterson, Irish tenor (b. 1938)
 * June 12 – Logan Ramsey, American actor (b. 1921)
 * June 14 – Robert Trent Jones, English-born golf course designer (b. 1906)
 * June 16 – Empress Kōjun of Japan (b. 1903)
 * June 17 – Ismail Mahomed, South African and Namibian Chief Justice (b. 1931)
 * June 18 – Nancy Marchand, American actress (b. 1928)
 * June 19 – Noboru Takeshita, Japanese politician, 46th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1924)
 * June 21 – Alan Hovhaness, American composer (b. 1911)
 * June 24 – David Tomlinson, English actor (b. 1917)
 * June 27 – Pierre Pflimlin, French politician, 97th Prime Minister of France (b. 1907)
 * June 29 – Vittorio Gassman, Italian actor (b. 1922)

July

 * July 1 – Walter Matthau, American actor (b. 1920)
 * July 2 – Joey Dunlop, Northern Irish motorcyclist (b. 1952)
 * July 6 – Lazar Koliševski, 2nd President of Yugoslavia (b. 1914)
 * July 7
 * Kenny Irwin Jr., NASCAR Driver (b. 1969)
 * James C. Quayle, American newspaper publisher (b. 1921)
 * July 8 – FM-2030, Transhumanist philosopher (b. 1930)
 * July 10
 * Vakkom Majeed, Indian freedom fighter and Legislative member (b. 1909)
 * Denis O'Conor Don, hereditary chief of the O'Conor Don sept of Ireland (b. 1912)
 * July 11 – Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1921)
 * July 12 – Charles Merritt, Canadian Army officer (b. 1908)
 * July 15 – Kalle Svensson, Swedish footballer (b. 1925)
 * July 21 – Yosef Qafih, Israeli rabbi (b. 1917)
 * July 27 – Virginia Admiral, American painter and poet (b. 1915)
 * July 28 – Abraham Pais, American physicist (b. 1918)
 * July 29 – René Favaloro, Argentinian cardiologist (b. 1923)

August

 * August 3 – Isolina Ferre, Puerto Rican Roman Catholic nun (b. 1914)
 * August 5
 * Otto Buchsbaum, German writer and ecological activist (b. 1920)
 * Sir Alec Guinness, British actor and writer (b. 1914)
 * August 6
 * Sir Robin Day, British political broadcaster (b. 1923)
 * Don A. Jones, American admiral and civil engineer (b. 1912)
 * August 8 – K. Kailasanatha Kurukkal, Sri Lankan researcher, writer and professor (b. 1921)
 * August 9 – John Harsanyi, Hungarian-born economist (b. 1920)
 * August 12
 * Dave Edwards, American musician (b. 1941)
 * Loretta Young, American actress (b. 1913)
 * August 13 – Nazia Hassan, Pakistani singer (b. 1964)
 * August 19 – Bineshwar Brahma, Bodo activist and leader (b. 1946)
 * August 20 – Bunny Austin, English tennis player (b. 1906)
 * August 21 – Daniel Lisulo, Zambian politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Zambia (b. 1930)
 * August 22 – Abulfaz Elchibey, Azerbaijani political figure, 2nd President of Azerbaijan (b. 1938)
 * August 24 – Andy Hug, Swiss Seidokaikan karateka and kickboxer (b. 1964)
 * August 25
 * Carl Barks, American cartoonist and screenwriter (b. 1901)
 * Ivan Stambolić, Serbian politician (b. 1936)
 * August 30 – David Haskell, American actor (b. 1948)

September

 * September 2
 * Elvera Sanchez, American dancer (b. 1905)
 * Curt Siodmak, American novelist and screenwriter (b. 1902)
 * Jean Speegle Howard, American actress (b. 1927)
 * September 5 – Abdul Haris Nasution, Indonesian general (b. 1918)
 * September 14 – Beah Richards, American actress (b. 1920)
 * September 16 – Georgiy Gongadze, Ukrainian journalist (b. 1969)
 * September 17
 * Bakht Singh, Indian evangelist (b. 1903)
 * Paula Yates, British television presenter (b. 1959)
 * September 19
 * Ann Doran, American actress (b. 1911)
 * Anthony Robert Klitz, British artist (b. 1917)
 * September 22 – Saburō Sakai, Japanese fighter ace (b. 1916)
 * September 25 – R. S. Thomas, Welsh poet (b. 1913)
 * September 26 – Richard Mulligan, American actor (b. 1932)
 * September 27 – Sammy Luftspring, Canadian boxer (b. 1916)
 * September 28
 * Peter Gennaro, American dancer and choreographer (b. 1919)
 * Pote Sarasin, Thai diplomat and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1905)
 * Pierre Trudeau, 15th Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1919)

October

 * October 1 – Rosie Douglas, 5th Prime Minister of Dominica (b. 1941)
 * October 3 – Benjamin Orr, American singer-songwriter (b. 1947)
 * October 4 – Michael Smith, English-born chemist (b. 1932)
 * October 6 – Richard Farnsworth, American actor (b. 1920)
 * October 7 – Walter Krupinski, German fighter ace and general (b. 1920)
 * October 8 – Sheila Holland, English writer (b. 1937)
 * October 9 – Patrick Anthony Porteous, British recipient of the Victoria Cross (b. 1918)
 * October 10 – Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Sri Lankan politician, 2-time Prime Minister of Ceylon and 2-time Prime Minister of Sri Lanka (b. 1916)
 * October 11 – Donald Dewar, First Minister of Scotland (b. 1937)
 * October 13 – Jean Peters, American actress (b. 1926)
 * October 14 – Tony Roper, American NASCAR driver (b. 1964)
 * October 15 – Konrad Emil Bloch, German-born biochemist (b. 1912)
 * October 16
 * Mel Carnahan, American politician (b. 1934)
 * Rick Jason, American actor (b. 1923)
 * October 18 – Julie London, American singer and actress (b. 1926)
 * October 19 – Charles Perkins, Australian aboriginal activist and soccer player (b. 1936)
 * October 21 – Reginald Kray, British criminal (b. 1933)
 * October 22
 * Fred Pratt Green, British Methodist minister and hymn writer (b. 1903)
 * Jean-Luc Mandaba, 11th Prime Minister of Central African Republic (b. 1943)
 * October 23
 * Rodney Anoa'i, American wrestler (b. 1966)
 * Nils Tapp, Swedish Olympic cross-country skier (b. 1917)
 * October 27 – Walter Berry, Austrian bass-baritone (b. 1929)
 * October 28 – Andújar Cedeño, Dominican baseball player (b. 1969)
 * October 30 – Steve Allen, American comedian and author (b. 1921)
 * October 31 – Ring Lardner, Jr., American screenwriter (b. 1915)

November

 * November 5
 * David Brower, American environmental activist (b. 1912)
 * Jimmie Davis, American singer (b. 1899)
 * Roger Peyrefitte, French writer and diplomat (b. 1907)
 * November 6 – L. Sprague de Camp, American writer (b. 1907)
 * November 7
 * C Subramaniam, Indian politician (b. 1910)
 * Ingrid of Sweden, Queen consort of Frederick IX of Denmark (b. 1910)
 * November 8 – Józef Pińkowski, Polish politician, 50th Prime Minister of Poland (b. 1929)
 * November 10
 * Adamantios Androutsopoulos, Greek lawyer and professor, 168th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1919)
 * Jacques Chaban-Delmas, French politician, 102nd Prime Minister of France (b. 1915)
 * November 11 – Hugh Paddick, British actor (b. 1915)
 * November 16
 * DJ Screw, American hip hop DJ (b. 1971)
 * Hosea Williams, American civil rights leader, activist, minister, businessman, philanthropist, scientist, and politician (b. 1926)
 * November 17 – Louis Néel, French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
 * November 19 – George Cosmas Adyebo, 6th Prime Minister of Uganda (b. 1947)
 * November 22
 * Sir Cyril Astley Clarke, British physician, geneticist and entomologist (b. 1907)
 * Christian Marquand, French actor and director (b. 1927)
 * Emil Zátopek, Czechoslovakian Olympic athlete (b. 1922)
 * November 28 – Liane Haid, Austrian actress (b. 1895)

December

 * December 2 – Gail Fisher, American actress (b. 1935)
 * December 3 – Gwendolyn Brooks, American writer (b. 1917)
 * December 6 – Werner Klemperer, American actor (b. 1920)
 * December 8 – Ionatana Ionatana, 5th Prime Minister of Tuvalu (b. 1938)
 * December 10
 * Paul Avery, American journalist (b. 1934)
 * Marie Windsor, American actress (b. 1919)
 * December 11 – Johannes Virolainen, Finnish politician, 30th Prime Minister of Finland (b. 1914)
 * December 17 – Blaise Rabetafika, Malagasy diplomat (b. 1932)
 * December 18 – Kirsty MacColl, English singer (b. 1959)
 * December 19
 * John Lindsay, American politician and lawyer, Mayor of New York City (b. 1921)
 * Roebuck "Pops" Staples, American musician (b. 1914)
 * Son Sann, Cambodian politician, 24th Prime Minister of Cambodia (b. 1911)
 * December 23
 * Billy Barty, American actor (b. 1924)
 * Victor Borge, Danish-born American actor and comedian (b. 1909)
 * December 26 – Jason Robards, American actor (b. 1922)
 * December 30 – Julius J. Epstein, American screenwriter (b. 1909)
 * December 31 – Rabbi Binyamin Ze'ev Kahane, Israeli settler leader (b. 1966)

Nobel Prizes

 * Chemistry – Alan J. Heeger, Alan MacDiarmid, and Hideki Shirakawa
 * Economics – James Heckman and Daniel McFadden
 * Literature – Gao Xingjian
 * Peace – Kim Dae-jung
 * Physics – Zhores Alferov, Herbert Kroemer, and Jack Kilby
 * Physiology or Medicine – Arvid Carlsson, Paul Greengard, and Eric Kandel

January

 * January 11 – Illinois Governor George Ryan commutes the death sentences of 167 prisoners on Illinois's death row based on the Jon Burge scandal.
 * January 22 – The last signal from NASA's Pioneer 10 spacecraft is received, some 12.2 billion kilometers (7.6 billion mi) from Earth.
 * January 30 – Belgium legally recognizes same-sex marriage, becoming the second country in the world to do so.

February

 * February 1 – At the conclusion of the STS-107 mission, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry over Texas, killing all seven astronauts on board.
 * February 4 – The leaders of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia reconstitute the country into a loose state-union between Montenegro and Serbia, marking an end to the decades-long use of the name "Yugoslavia" by a sovereign state.
 * February 15–16 – Antwerp diamond heist: An Italian gang steals loose diamonds, gold and jewellery valued at more than $100 million from a Belgian vault, one of the largest robberies in history.
 * February 15 – Millions of people worldwide take part in massive anti-war protests in anticipation of the United States and its allies invading Iraq.
 * February 26 – The War in Darfur begins after rebel groups rise up against the Sudanese government.
 * February 27 – Former Bosnian Serb leader Biljana Plavšić is sentenced by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to 11 years in prison for war crimes committed during the Bosnian War.

March

 * March 8 – Malta approves joining the European Union in a referendum.
 * March 12
 * Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić is assassinated in Belgrade by a sniper.
 * The World Health Organization issues a global alert on severe acute respiratory syndrome when it spreads to Hong Kong and Vietnam after originating in China.
 * March 20 – The Iraq War begins with the invasion of Iraq by the U.S. and allied forces.
 * March 23 – Slovenia approves joining the European Union and NATO in a referendum.

April

 * April 9 – U.S. forces seize control of Baghdad, ending the regime of Saddam Hussein.
 * April 12 – Hungary approves joining the European Union in a referendum.
 * April 14 – The Human Genome Project is completed, with 99% of the human genome sequenced to 99.99% accuracy.
 * April 29 – The United States announces the withdrawal of troops stationed in Saudi Arabia, and the redeployment of some at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

May

 * May 11
 * Benvenuto Cellini's Cellini Salt Cellar table sculpture is stolen from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
 * Lithuania approves joining the European Union in a referendum.
 * May 12 – In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, over 30 people are killed in multiple bombings at a housing compound, mostly foreign expatriates.
 * May 17 – Slovakia approves joining the European Union in a referendum.
 * May 23 – Dewey, the first deer cloned by scientists at Texas A&M University, is born.
 * May 28 – Prometea, the world's first cloned horse, is born.

June

 * June 8 – Poland approves joining the European Union in a referendum.
 * June 14 – The Czech Republic approves joining the European Union in a referendum.
 * June 30 – Warring parties in the Democratic Republic of the Congo sign a peace accord, bringing an end to the Second Congo War, which left millions dead.

July

 * July 5 – Severe acute respiratory syndrome is declared to be contained by the World Health Organization.
 * July 6 – The 70-meter Eupatoria Planetary Radar sends a METI message Cosmic Call 2 to five stars: Hip 4872, HD 245409, 55 Cancri, HD 10307 and 47 Ursae Majoris, that will arrive at these stars in 2036, 2040, May 2044, September 2044 and 2049 respectively.
 * July 18 – The Convention on the Future of Europe finishes its work and proposes the first European Constitution.
 * July 24 – The Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands, led by Australia, begins after ethnic violence engulfs the island country.

August

 * August 5 - The 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing occurred on 5 August 2003 in J.W. Marriott Mega Kuningan, South Jakarta, Indonesia, killing twelve people and injuring 150. The hotel was closed for five weeks and reopened to the public on 8 September.
 * August 11
 * The Second Liberian Civil War comes to an end after President Charles Taylor resigns and flees the country.
 * NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.
 * August 18 – One year old Zachary Turner is murdered by his mother in Conception Bay South, Canada. She had controversially been bailed and granted custody of the toddler despite facing extradition and trial for the murder of Zachary's father. The case inspired the movie Dear Zachary and prompted a change in Canadian law.
 * August 25 – The unmanned Spitzer Space Telescope is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
 * August 27
 * Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in over 60,000 years.
 * The first six-party talks, involving South and North Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, convene to find a peaceful resolution to the security concerns of the North Korean nuclear weapons program.

September

 * September 4 – Europe's busiest shopping centre, the Bull Ring in Birmingham, is officially opened.
 * September 14 – Estonia approves joining the European Union in a referendum.
 * September 15 – ELN rebels kidnap eight foreign tourists at Ciudad Perdida, Colombia, being freed 100 days later following negotiations with the Colombian government.
 * September 20 – Latvia approves joining the European Union in a referendum.
 * September 24 – The Hubble Space Telescope starts the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field, making 800 exposures, until January 16, 2004.
 * September 27 – SMART-1, an unmanned ESA spaceprobe and ESA's first mission to the moon, is launched from Kourou, French Guiana.

October

 * October 5 – Israeli warplanes strike alleged Islamic jihad bases inside Syrian territory, the first Israeli attack on the country since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
 * October 15 – China launches Shenzhou 5, their first manned spaceflight.
 * October 24 – Concorde makes its last commercial flight, bringing the era of airliner supersonic travel to an end.

November

 * November 12 – A suicide bombing at an Italian military police headquarters in Nasiriyah, Iraq, kills 17 Italian military police officers and nine Iraqi civilians.
 * November 23 – Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze resigns after widespread protests engulf the country following a disputed parliamentary election.
 * November 26 – The supersonic passenger jet, Concorde, makes its last ever flight from Heathrow Airport in London to Bristol Filton Airport.

December

 * December 13 – Saddam Hussein, former President of Iraq, is captured in the small town of Ad-Dawr by the U.S. Army.
 * December 19 – Libya agrees to eliminate all of its materials, equipment, and programs aimed at producing weapons of mass destruction.
 * December 23
 * The World Tourism Organization becomes a specialized agency of the United Nations.
 * PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field explosion, Guoqiao, Kai County, Chongqing, China, killing at least 234.
 * December 26 – The 6.6 Bam earthquake shakes southeastern Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing an estimated 30,000 people.
 * December 29 – The last known speaker of the Akkala Sami language dies, rendering it extinct.

Births

 * January 4 – Jaeden Lieberher, American actor
 * January 6 – MattyBRaps, American remixer
 * January 23 – Apollinariia Panfilova, Russian pair skater
 * March 7 – Polina Kostiukovich, Russian pair skater
 * March 26 – Danielle Bregoli, American rapper
 * April 3 – Elsie Fisher, American actress
 * May 1 – Lizzy Greene, American actress
 * May 19 – JoJo Siwa, American dancer
 * June 13 – Anna Cathcart, Canadian actress
 * June 15 – Breanna Yde, American actress
 * July 4 – Polina Bogusevich, Russian singer
 * July 13 – Wyatt Oleff, American actor
 * August 19 – Steele Stebbins, American actor
 * August 20 – Prince Gabriel of Belgium
 * August 24 – Alena Kostornaia, Russian figure skater
 * August 28 – Quvenzhané Wallis, American actress
 * October 8 – Ángela Aguilar, Mexican-American singer
 * November 8 – Lady Louise Windsor, British royalty
 * December 1 – Robert Irwin, Australian television personality
 * December 7 – Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange

January

 * January 11 – Maurice Pialat, French actor and director (b. 1925)
 * January 12
 * Maurice Gibb, British musician (b. 1949)
 * Leopoldo Galtieri, 44th President of Argentina (b. 1926)
 * January 15 – Doris Fisher, American singer and songwriter (b. 1915)
 * January 17 – Richard Crenna, American actor (b. 1926)
 * January 24 – Gianni Agnelli, Italian auto executive (b. 1921)
 * January 26 – Valeriy Brumel, Soviet Olympic athlete (b. 1942)
 * January 27 – Henryk Jabłoński, 5th President of the Polish People's Republic (b. 1909)

February

 * February 1
 * Michael P. Anderson, American astronaut (b. 1959)
 * David M. Brown, American astronaut (b. 1956)
 * Kalpana Chawla, American astronaut (b. 1962)
 * Laurel Clark, American astronaut (b. 1961)
 * Rick Husband, American astronaut (b. 1957)
 * William McCool, American astronaut (b. 1961)
 * Ilan Ramon, Israeli fighter pilot and astronaut (b. 1954)
 * February 2 – Lou Harrison, American composer (b. 1917)
 * February 7 – Luigi Ferrando, Italian racing cyclist (b. 1911)
 * February 10 – Curt Hennig, American professional wrestler (b. 1958)
 * February 15 – Francisque Ravony, 7th Prime Minister of Madagascar (b. 1942)
 * February 19 – Johnny Paycheck, American country singer-songwriter (b. 1938)
 * February 20 – Maurice Blanchot, French philosopher and writer (b. 1907)
 * February 21 – Julie Mitchum, American actress (b. 1914)
 * February 23 – Howie Epstein, American musician and producer (b. 1955)
 * February 27
 * Wolfgang Larrazábal, Venezuelan naval officer and politician, 52nd President of Venezuela (b. 1911)
 * Fred Rogers, American television personality (b. 1928)
 * February 28
 * Yō Inoue, Japanese voice actress (b. 1946)
 * Fidel Sánchez Hernández, 45th President of El Salvador (b. 1917)

March

 * March 9 – Bernard Dowiyogo, 7-Time President of Nauru (b. 1946)
 * March 12
 * Zoran Đinđić, 6th Prime Minister of Serbia (b. 1952)
 * Howard Fast, American novelist (b. 1914)
 * Lynne Thigpen, American actress (b. 1948)
 * March 14 – Amanda Davis, American writer and teacher (b. 1971)
 * March 21 - Umar Wirahadikusumah, 4th Vice President of Indonesia (b. 1924)
 * March 22 – Milton George Henschel, American Jehovah's Witnesses leader (b. 1920)
 * March 29 – Carlo Urbani, Italian physician (b. 1956)
 * March 30 – Michael Jeter, American actor (b. 1952)

April

 * April 1 – Leslie Cheung, Hong Kong singer and actor (b. 1956)
 * April 2 – Edwin Starr, American soul singer (b. 1942)
 * April 8 – Bing Russell, American actor (b. 1926)
 * April 9 – Jorge Oteiza, Spanish painter (b. 1908)
 * April 11 – Cecil Howard Green, British-American geophysicist and businessman (b. 1900)
 * April 20
 * Daijiro Kato, Japanese motorcycle racer (b. 1976)
 * Bernard Katz, German-British Nobel biophysicist (b. 1911)
 * April 21 – Nina Simone, American singer (b. 1933)
 * April 22 – Mike Larrabee, American Olympic athlete (b. 1933)
 * April 30
 * Possum Bourne, New Zealand rally car driver (b. 1956)
 * Lionel Wilson, American voice actor (b. 1924)

May

 * May 1 – Miss Elizabeth, American professional wrestling valet (b. 1960)
 * May 11 – Noel Redding, English musician (b. 1945)
 * May 14
 * Dame Wendy Hiller, English actress (b. 1912)
 * Robert Stack, American actor (b. 1919)
 * May 15
 * June Carter Cash, American singer (b. 1929)
 * Constantin Dăscălescu, Prime Minister of Romania (b. 1923)
 * Rik Van Steenbergen, Belgian cyclist (b. 1924)
 * May 23 – Jean Yanne, French film actor and director (b. 1933)
 * May 24 – Rachel Kempson, English actress (b. 1910)
 * May 27 – Luciano Berio, Italian composer (b. 1925)
 * May 28
 * Ilya Prigogine, Russian-Belgian Nobel physicist and chemist (b. 1917)
 * Oleg Grigoryevich Makarov, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1933)

June

 * June 2 – Dick Cusack, American actor, filmmaker and humorist (b. 1925)
 * June 5 – Jürgen Möllemann, German politician (b. 1945)
 * June 7 – Trevor Goddard, English actor (b. 1962)
 * June 10 – Bernard Williams, English philosopher (b. 1929)
 * June 12 – Gregory Peck, American actor (b. 1916)
 * June 15
 * Hume Cronyn, Canadian-American actor (b. 1911)
 * Kaiser Matanzima, 1st President of Transkei (b. 1915)
 * June 18 – Larry Doby, American baseball player and manager (b. 1923)
 * June 21
 * Leon Uris, American writer (b. 1924)
 * Piet Dankert, Dutch politician (b. 1934)
 * June 22 – Vasil Bykaŭ, Belarusian novelist (b. 1924)
 * June 23 – Maynard Jackson, American politician (b. 1938)
 * June 26
 * Denis Thatcher, British businessman and husband of Margaret Thatcher (b. 1915)
 * Marc-Vivien Foé, Cameroonian footballer (b. 1975)
 * Strom Thurmond, American politician (b. 1902)
 * June 29 – Katharine Hepburn, American actress (b. 1907)
 * June 30 − Buddy Hackett, American actor and comedian (b. 1924)

July

 * July 1 – Nǃxau ǂToma, Namibian actor (b. 1944)
 * July 4 – Barry White, American singer (b. 1944)
 * July 6 – Buddy Ebsen, American actor and dancer (b. 1908)
 * July 7 – Tomiko Suzuki, Japanese voice actress (b. 1956)
 * July 12 – Benny Carter, American musician (b. 1907)
 * July 13 – Compay Segundo, Cuban musician (b. 1907)
 * July 15
 * Roberto Bolaño, Chilean writer (b. 1953)
 * Tex Schramm, American football executive (b. 1920)
 * July 16
 * Celia Cruz, Cuban-American singer (b. 1925)
 * Carol Shields, American-Canadian writer (b. 1935)
 * July 17 – Rosalyn Tureck, American pianist and harpsichordist (b. 1914)
 * July 22
 * Uday Hussein, Iraqi paramilitary leader (b. 1964)
 * Qusay Hussein, Iraqi politician (b. 1966)
 * July 25
 * Erik Brann, American musician (b. 1950)
 * John Schlesinger, English film director (b. 1926)
 * July 27
 * Bob Hope, English-American comedian and actor (b. 1903)
 * Jean Nguza Karl-i-Bond, Zairian politician (b. 1938)
 * July 28 – Greg Guidry, American singer-songwriter (b. 1954)
 * July 30 – Sam Phillips, American record producer (b. 1923)

August

 * August 1 – Marie Trintignant, French actress (b. 1962)
 * August 3 – Roger Voudouris, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1954)
 * August 4 – Frederick Chapman Robbins, American Nobel pediatrician and virologist (b. 1916)
 * August 6 – Julius Baker, flute player (b. 1915)
 * August 9 – Gregory Hines, American dancer and actor (b. 1946)
 * August 11 – Herb Brooks, American hockey coach (b. 1937)
 * August 14 – Helmut Rahn, German footballer (b. 1929)
 * August 16 – Idi Amin, 3rd President of Uganda (b. c. 1923–28)
 * August 19
 * Sérgio Vieira de Mello, Brazilian diplomat (b. 1948)
 * Carlos Roberto Reina, 60th President of Honduras (b. 1926)
 * August 21 – Wesley Willis, American musician (b. 1963)
 * August 23 – Bobby Bonds, American baseball player and manager (b. 1946)
 * August 29 – Vladimír Vašíček, Czech painter (b. 1919)
 * August 30 – Charles Bronson, American actor (b. 1921)

September

 * September 2 – Ptolemy Reid, 2nd Prime Minister of Guyana (b. 1912)
 * September 7 – Warren Zevon, American singer (b. 1947)
 * September 8
 * Jaclyn Linetsky, Canadian actress and voice actress (b. 1986)
 * Leni Riefenstahl, German film director (b. 1902)
 * September 9 – Edward Teller, Hungarian-American physicist (b. 1908)
 * September 11
 * Anna Lindh, Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1957)
 * John Ritter, American actor (b. 1948)
 * September 12 – Johnny Cash, American singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1932)
 * September 14 - John Serry Sr., Italian-American concert accordionist, organist, composer and arranger (b. 1915)
 * September 17 – Erich Hallhuber, German actor (b. 1951)
 * September 19 – Slim Dusty, Australian country singer (b. 1927)
 * September 22 − Gordon Jump, American actor (b. 1932)
 * September 25
 * Franco Modigliani, Italian-American Nobel economist (b. 1918)
 * Edward Said, Palestinian-American literary critic (b. 1935)
 * Yuri Senkevich, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1937)
 * September 26
 * Shawn Lane, American musician (b. 1963)
 * Robert Palmer, English singer (b. 1949)
 * September 27 – Donald O'Connor, American actor, singer, and dancer (b. 1925)
 * September 28
 * Althea Gibson, American tennis player (b. 1927)
 * Elia Kazan, Greek-American director (b. 1909)
 * September 30 – Robert Kardashian, American attorney and businessman (b. 1944)

October

 * October 2 – Otto Günsche, German adjutant of Adolf Hitler (b. 1917)
 * October 5
 * Dan Snyder, Canadian hockey player (b. 1978)
 * Neil Postman, American educator, media theorist, and cultural critic (b. 1931)
 * Timothy Treadwell, American environmentalist and filmmaker (b. 1957)
 * October 12 – Jim Cairns, Australian politician (b. 1914)
 * October 13 – Bertram Brockhouse, Canadian Nobel physicist (b. 1918)
 * October 14 – Moktar Ould Daddah, 1st President of Mauritania (b. 1924)
 * October 16
 * Stu Hart, Canadian wrestling promoter (b. 1915)
 * László Papp, Hungarian boxer (b. 1926)
 * October 17 – Janice Rule, American actress (b. 1931)
 * October 19
 * Alija Izetbegović, 1st President of Bosnia and Herzegovina (b. 1925)
 * Road Warrior Hawk, American professional wrestler (b. 1957)
 * October 20 – Jack Elam, American actor (b. 1918)
 * October 21 – Elliott Smith, American musician (b. 1969)
 * October 22 – Tony Renna, American race car driver (b. 1976)
 * October 23 – Soong Mei-ling, First Lady of China (b. 1898)
 * October 25 - Robert Strassburg, American composer, educator and musicologist (b. 1915)
 * October 24 – Veikko Hakulinen, Finnish cross-country skier (b. 1925)
 * October 27 – Rod Roddy, American television announcer (b. 1937)
 * October 29
 * Hal Clement, American writer (b. 1922)
 * Franco Corelli, Italian opera tenor (b. 1921)

November

 * November 3 – Rasul Gamzatov, poet (b. 1923)
 * November 5
 * Bobby Hatfield, American singer (b. 1940)
 * Dorothy Fay, American actress (b. 1915)
 * November 6
 * Crash Holly, American wrestler (b. 1971)
 * Eduardo Palomo, Mexican actor (b. 1962)
 * November 9 – Art Carney, American actor (b. 1918)
 * November 10 – Canaan Banana, 1st President of Zimbabwe (b. 1936)
 * November 12
 * Jonathan Brandis, American actor (b. 1976)
 * Cameron Duncan, New Zealand director and writer (b. 1986)
 * Penny Singleton, American actress (b. 1908)
 * November 14 – Gene Anthony Ray, American actor (b. 1962)
 * November 18
 * Patricia Broderick, American playwright and painter (b. 1925)
 * Michael Kamen, American composer (b. 1948)
 * November 20
 * David Dacko, 1st President of the Central African Republic (b. 1930)
 * Jim Siedow, American actor (b. 1920)
 * November 24 – Warren Spahn, American baseball player (b. 1921)
 * November 26 – Soulja Slim, American rapper (b. 1977)
 * November 27 – Marjorie Reeves, British historian, educationalist (b. 1905)
 * November 30 – Gertrude Ederle, American swimmer (b. 1905)

December

 * December 3
 * Sita Ram Goel, Indian historian, publisher and author (b. 1921)
 * David Hemmings, English actor (b. 1941)
 * December 6 – Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio, 30th President of Guatemala (b. 1918)
 * December 8 – Rubén González, Cuban pianist (b. 1919)
 * December 11 – Ahmadou Kourouma, Ivorian writer (b. 1927)
 * December 12 – Heydar Aliyev, 3rd President of Azerbaijan (b. 1923)
 * December 14 – Jeanne Crain, American actress (b. 1925)
 * December 19 – Hope Lange, American actress (b. 1933)
 * December 23 – Kriangsak Chamanan, 15th Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1917)
 * December 27
 * Alan Bates, English actor (b. 1934)
 * Iván Calderón, Puerto Rican-American baseball player (b. 1962)
 * Pete Alvarado, American animator and comic book artist (b. 1920)
 * December 29
 * Earl Hindman, American actor (b. 1942)
 * Bob Monkhouse, English comedian (b.1928)
 * December 30 – Anita Mui, Hong Kong singer (b. 1963)

Nobel Prizes

 * Chemistry – Peter Agre, Roderick MacKinnon
 * Economics – Robert F. Engle, Clive W. J. Granger
 * Literature – John Maxwell Coetzee
 * Peace – Shirin Ebadi
 * Physics – Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov, Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg, Anthony James Leggett
 * Physiology or Medicine – Paul Lauterbur, Peter Mansfield

New English words and terms

 * anti-cultural
 * baby bump
 * Big Rip
 * binge-watch
 * botnet
 * darmstadtium
 * electronic cigarette
 * flash mob
 * iraimbilanja
 * manscaping
 * MERS
 * muffin top
 * net neutrality
 * netroots
 * SARS
 * severe acute respiratory syndrome
 * unfriend

January

 * January 5 – Eris, the most massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System, is discovered by a team led by Michael E. Brown using images originally taken on October 21, 2003, at the Palomar Observatory.
 * January 7 – Crevalcore train crash in Italy: 17 dead and dozens injured.
 * January 12 – Deep Impact is launched from Cape Canaveral with the purpose of studying the comet Tempel 1.
 * January 14 – The Huygens spacecraft lands on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn.
 * January 20 – George W. Bush is inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States.

February

 * February 10 – North Korea announces that it possesses nuclear weapons as a protection against the hostility it says it perceives from the United States.
 * February 14 – Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri is assassinated, along with 21 others, by a suicide bomber in Beirut.
 * February 16 – The Kyoto Protocol officially goes into effect.

March

 * March 14 – The People's Republic of China ratifies an anti-secession law, aimed at preventing Taiwan from declaring independence.
 * March 24 – The President of Kyrgyzstan Askar Akayev is overthrown following mass anti-government demonstrations and flees the country.
 * March 28 – The 8.6 Nias–Simeulue earthquake shakes northern Sumatra with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VI (Strong), leaving 915–1,314 people dead and 340–1,146 injured.

April

 * April 2 – Pope John Paul II dies; over four million people travel to the Vatican to mourn him.  Pope Benedict XVI succeeds him on April 19, becoming the 265th pope.
 * April 9 – Charles, Prince of Wales marries Camilla Parker Bowles in a civil ceremony at Windsor's Guildhall. Camilla receives the title Duchess of Cornwall.
 * April 23 – The first ever YouTube video is uploaded, titled Me at the zoo.
 * April 26 – Syria withdraws the last of its military garrison from Lebanon, ending its 29-year military occupation of the country.
 * April 27 – The Superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse.

May

 * May 13 – Uzbek Interior Ministry and National Security Service troops massacre at least 200 protesters in the city of Andijan.

June

 * June 21 – A Volna booster rocket carrying the first light sail spacecraft fails 83 seconds after its launch, destroying the spacecraft.

July

 * July 2 – Live 8, a set of 10 simultaneous concerts, takes place throughout the world, raising interest in the Make Poverty History campaign.
 * July 6
 * The European Parliament rejects the Proposed directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions in its second reading.
 * The International Olympic Committee awards London the right to host the 2012 Summer Olympics.
 * July 7 – Four coordinated suicide bombings hit central London, killing 52 people and injuring over 700.
 * July 23 – A series of bombings hit the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, killing over 80 people.
 * July 28 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army announces an end to the armed campaign it has pursued since 1969, and orders all its units to drop their arms.

August

 * August 12 – The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is launched from Cape Canaveral, designed to explore Mars.
 * August 14 – Helios Airways Flight 522, en route from Larnaca, Cyprus to Prague, Czech Republic via Athens, crashes in the hills near Grammatiko, Greece, killing 121 passengers and crew.
 * August 16 – West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 crashes into a mountain in Venezuela, killing 160 passengers and crew.
 * August 18 – Peace Mission 2005, the first joint China–Russia military exercise, begins its eight-day training on the Shandong Peninsula.
 * August 29 – Hurricane Katrina makes landfall along the U.S. Gulf Coast, causing severe damage and killing over a thousand people and dealing an estimated $108 billion in damage.
 * August 31 – A stampede at the Al-Aaimmah bridge in Baghdad, Iraq, kills 953 Shia Muslim pilgrims who were celebrating a religious festival.

September

 * September 7 – Egypt holds its first ever multi-party presidential election, which is marred with allegations of fraud.
 * September 12 – Israel demolishes multiple settlements and withdraws its army from the Gaza Strip.
 * September 19 – North Korea agrees to stop building nuclear weapons in exchange for aid and cooperation.
 * September 30 – Controversial drawings of Muhammad are printed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, sparking outrage and violent riots by Muslims around the world.

October

 * October 8 – The 7.6 Kashmir earthquake strikes Azad Kashmir, Pakistan and nearby areas with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing more than 86,000 people and displacing several million more.
 * October 12 – The second manned Chinese spacecraft, Shenzhou 6, is launched.
 * October 15 – The 2005 Iraqi Constitution is approved by Iraqi voters.
 * October 19 – The trial of Saddam Hussein begins.
 * October 24 – Hurricane Wilma made landfall near Cape Romano.

November

 * November 9 – At least 60 people are killed and 115 more are wounded in a series of coordinated suicide bombings in Amman, Jordan.
 * November 11 – In Kazakhstan, Zamanbek Nurkadilov, former mayor of Almaty, government minister and a political opponent of Nursultan Nazarbayev is found dead at his family compound.
 * November 13 – Andrew Stimpson, a 25-year-old Scottish man, is reported as the first person proven to have been 'cured' of HIV.
 * November 22 – Angela Merkel assumes office as the first female Chancellor of Germany.
 * November 23 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf wins the Liberian general election, making her the first democratically elected female head of state in Africa.
 * November 28 – The United Nations Climate Change conference is held in Montreal.
 * November 30 – Surgeons in France carry out the first human face transplant with Isabelle Dinoire becoming the first person to undergo it.

December

 * December 12 – Scientists announce that they have created mice with small amounts of human brain cells in an effort to make realistic models of neurological disorders.
 * December 18 – Chad descends into civil war after various rebel forces, with support from Sudan, attack the capital, N'Djamena.
 * December 31 – Another second is added, 23:59:60, to end the year 2005, the first time since 1998.

Births

 * January 11 – Roksana Węgiel, Polish singer, winner of Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018
 * February – Alma Deutscher, English composer, violinist, pianist and child prodigy
 * February 10 – Rio Suzuki, Japanese actress and tarento
 * February 21 – Hong Hwa-ri, South Korean actress
 * February 25 – Noah Jupe, English actor
 * March 26 – Ella Anderson, American actress
 * April 29 – Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti of Thailand, son of King Maha Vajiralongkorn, Rama X of Thailand and his wife Srirasmi Suwadee
 * June 26 – Princess Alexia of the Netherlands, daughter of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange
 * July 25 – Pierce Gagnon, American actor
 * October 4 – Rina Endō, Japanese actress
 * October 15 – Prince Christian of Denmark, son of Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark and his wife Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark
 * October 31 – Leonor, Princess of Asturias, daughter of Felipe VI of Spain and his wife Letizia
 * December 3 – Prince Sverre Magnus of Norway, grandson of King Harald V of Norway

January

 * January 1
 * Shirley Chisholm, American politician (b. 1924)
 * Eugene J. Martin, American artist (b. 1938)
 * January 4 – Alton Tobey, American artist (b. 1914)
 * January 10
 * Princess Joséphine Charlotte of Belgium, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (b. 1927)
 * James Forman, American civil rights activist (b. 1928)
 * January 12 – Amrish Puri, Indian actor (b. 1932)
 * January 15 – Victoria de los Ángeles, Spanish Catalan soprano (b. 1923)
 * January 17
 * Virginia Mayo, American actress (b. 1920)
 * Zhao Ziyang, 3rd Premier of China (b. 1919)
 * January 20 – Per Borten, 14th Prime Minister of Norway (b. 1913)
 * January 23 – Johnny Carson, American television host (b. 1925)
 * January 25 – Philip Johnson, American architect (b. 1906)

February

 * February 2 – Max Schmeling, German boxer (b. 1905)
 * February 3
 * Ernst Mayr, German-American biologist (b. 1904)
 * Zurab Zhvania, 4th Prime Minister of Georgia (b. 1963)
 * February 4 – Ossie Davis, American actor (b. 1917)
 * February 5 – Gnassingbé Eyadéma, 3rd President of Togo (b. 1935)
 * February 7 – Atli Dam, 3-Time Prime Minister of Faroe Islands (b. 1932)
 * February 10
 * Ben Jones, 7th Prime Minister of Grenada (b. 1924)
 * Arthur Miller, American playwright (b. 1915)
 * February 12 – Rafael Vidal, Venezuelan swimmer and sports commentator (b. 1964)
 * February 13 – Lúcia Santos, Portuguese nun (b. 1907)
 * February 14 – Rafic Hariri, 2-Time Prime Minister of Lebanon (b. 1944)
 * February 17
 * Narriman Sadek, Queen of Egypt (b. 1933)
 * Omar Sívori, Argentinian footballer (b. 1935)
 * February 20
 * Sandra Dee, American actress (b. 1942)
 * Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist (b. 1937)
 * February 22 – Simone Simon, French actress (b. 1910)
 * February 25
 * Peter Benenson, British lawyer and founder of Amnesty International (b. 1921)
 * Atef Sedky, 45th Prime Minister of Egypt (b. 1930)

March

 * March 3 – Rinus Michels, Dutch soccer player and coach (b. 1928)
 * March 6
 * Hans Bethe, German-American physicist (b. 1906)
 * Teresa Wright, American actress (b. 1918)
 * March 15 – Audrey Callaghan, Spouse of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1915)
 * March 17 – George F. Kennan, American diplomat and political advisor (b. 1904)
 * March 19 – John Z. DeLorean, American car maker (b.1925)
 * March 22
 * Clemente Domínguez y Gómez, Spanish spiritual leader (b. 1946)
 * Kenzō Tange, Japanese architect (b. 1913)
 * March 26 – James Callaghan, 70th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1912)
 * March 29 – Johnnie Cochran, American lawyer (b. 1937)
 * March 30
 * Robert Creeley, American poet (b. 1926)
 * Fred Korematsu, Japanese-American civil rights leader (b. 1919)

April

 * April 1 – Miguel Vila Luna, Dominican architect and painter (b. 1964)
 * April 2 – Pope John Paul II (b. 1920)
 * April 5 – Saul Bellow, Canadian-American writer (b. 1915)
 * April 6 – Rainier III, Prince of Monaco (b. 1923)
 * April 13 – Nikola Ljubičić, Serbian general and politician, 10th President of Serbia (b. 1916)
 * April 23 – John Mills, English actor (b. 1908)
 * April 24 – Ezer Weizman, 7th President of Israel (b. 1924)
 * April 26 – Maria Schell, Austrian actress (b. 1926)

May

 * May 2 – Wee Kim Wee, 4th President of Singapore (b. 1915)
 * May 13 – George Dantzig, American mathematician (b. 1914)
 * May 17 – Frank Gorshin, American actor, impressionist, and comedian (b. 1933)
 * May 25 – Ismail Merchant, Indian film producer (b. 1936)
 * May 26
 * Eddie Albert, American actor (b. 1906)
 * Sangoulé Lamizana, 2nd President and 2nd Prime Minister of Burkina Faso (b. 1916)

June

 * June 6
 * Anne Bancroft, American actress (b. 1931)
 * Bolívar Urrutia Parrilla, 21st President of Panama (b. 1918)
 * June 11 – Vasco Gonçalves, 103rd Prime Minister of Portugal (b. 1921)
 * June 13 – Álvaro Cunhal, Portuguese politician (b. 1913)
 * June 20 – Jack Kilby, American engineer (b. 1923)
 * June 21 – Jaime Sin, 30th Archbishop of Manila (b. 1928)
 * June 25 – Domino Harvey, British-American bounty hunter (b. 1969)

July

 * July 1 – Luther Vandross, American singer (b. 1951)
 * July 4 – June Haver, American actress and singer (b. 1926)
 * July 6
 * Evan Hunter, American writer (b. 1926)
 * Claude Simon, Malagasy-French novelist and critic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1913)
 * July 17 – Edward Heath, 68th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1916)
 * July 18 – William Westmoreland, American army general (b. 1914)
 * July 20 – James Doohan, Canadian actor (b. 1920)
 * July 21 – Long John Baldry, British musician (b. 1941)
 * July 31 – Wim Duisenberg, Dutch politician (b. 1935)

August



 * August 1 – King Fahd of Saudi Arabia (b. 1921)
 * August 6 – Robin Cook, British politician (b. 1946)
 * August 7 – Peter Jennings, Canadian-American news anchor (b. 1938)
 * August 8
 * Barbara Bel Geddes, American actress, artist, and children's author (b. 1922)
 * Ahmed Deedat, South African preacher (b. 1918)
 * August 9 – Matthew McGrory, American actor (b. 1973)
 * August 12 – Lakshman Kadirgamar, foreign minister of Sri Lanka (b. 1932)
 * August 13 – David Lange, 32nd Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1942)
 * August 16
 * Joe Ranft, American screenwriter, comedian, animator, storyboard artist, voice actor and magician (b. 1960)
 * Brother Roger, Swiss monastic and founder of the Taizé Community (b. 1915)
 * August 19
 * Faimalaga Luka, 6th Prime Minister of Tuvalu (b. 1940)
 * Mo Mowlam, British politician (b. 1949)
 * August 31 – Joseph Rotblat, Polish-British physicist (b. 1908)

September

 * September 3 – William Rehnquist, American lawyer and 16th Chief Justice of the United States (b. 1924)
 * September 6 – Eugenia Charles, 3rd Prime Minister of Dominica (b. 1919)
 * September 13 – Julio César Turbay Ayala, 25th President of Colombia (b. 1916)
 * September 14 – Robert Wise, American film director (b. 1914)
 * September 18 – Michael Park, English Rally driver (b. 1966)
 * September 20 – Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter (b. 1908)
 * September 23 – Roger Brierley, English actor (b. 1935)
 * September 25 – Don Adams, American actor (b. 1923)

October

 * October 10 – Milton Obote, 2nd President of Uganda (b. 1925)
 * October 17 – Ba Jin, Chinese writer (b. 1904)
 * October 22 – Arman, French-American artist (b. 1928)
 * October 24
 * José Azcona del Hoyo, 61st President of Honduras (b. 1926)
 * Rosa Parks, American civil rights activist (b. 1913)
 * October 28 – Richard Smalley, American chemist and physicist (b. 1943)

November

 * November 1 – Michael Piller, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1948)
 * November 2 – Ferruccio Valcareggi, Italian football player and manager (b. 1919)
 * November 5 – John Fowles, English novelist (b. 1926)
 * November 9 – K. R. Narayanan, 10th President of India (b. 1920)
 * November 11 –
 * Moustapha Akkad, Syrian-American film producer (b. 1930)
 * Zamanbek Nurkadilov, Kazakh politician (b. 1944)
 * November 13 – Eddie Guerrero, Mexican-American professional wrestler (b. 1967)
 * November 16 – Henry Taube, Canadian-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1915)
 * November 19 – Erik Balling, Danish television and film director (b. 1924)
 * November 24 – Pat Morita, American actor (b. 1932)
 * November 25
 * George Best, Northern Irish footballer (b. 1946)
 * Richard Burns, English rally driver (b. 1971)
 * November 28 – Tony Meehan, English drummer (The Shadows) (b. 1943)

December

 * December 2 – Mohammed Hamza Zubeidi, 59th Prime Minister of Iraq (b. 1938)
 * December 6 – Devan Nair, 3rd President of Singapore (b. 1923)
 * December 10 – Richard Pryor, American comedian (b. 1940)
 * December 13 – Stanley Williams, American gang leader (b. 1953)
 * December 16 – John Spencer, American actor (b. 1946)
 * December 23 – Yao Wenyuan, Chinese politician (b. 1931)
 * December 25 – Birgit Nilsson, Swedish soprano (b. 1918)
 * December 26 – Vincent Schiavelli, American actor (b. 1948)

Nobel Prizes

 * Chemistry – Robert Grubbs, Richard Schrock, and Yves Chauvin
 * Economics – Robert J. Aumann, and Thomas Schelling
 * Literature – Harold Pinter
 * Peace – Mohamed ElBaradei
 * Physics – Roy J. Glauber, John L. Hall, and Theodor W. Hänsch
 * Physiology or Medicine – Robin Warren, and Barry Marshall

New English words and terms

 * didymo
 * functional calculus
 * glamping
 * locavore
 * microblogging
 * pre-exposure prophylaxis
 * ransomware
 * rock snot
 * sexting
 * truther
 * vodcast

January

 * January 1 – Cyprus and Malta adopt the euro.
 * January 14 – At 19:04:39 UTC, the unmanned MESSENGER space probe is at its closest approach during its first flyby of the planet Mercury.
 * January 21 – Stock markets around the world plunge amid growing fears of a U.S. recession, fueled by the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis.


 * January 24 – A peace deal is signed in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, ending the Kivu conflict.

February

 * February 4 – Iran opens its first space center and launches a rocket into space.
 * February 13 – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivers a formal apology to the Stolen Generations.
 * February 17 – Kosovo formally declares independence from Serbia, with a mixed response from the international community.

March

 * March–April – Rising food and fuel prices trigger riots and unrest in the Third World.
 * March 2 – Venezuela and Ecuador move troops to the Colombian border, following a Colombian raid against FARC guerrillas inside Ecuadorian territory, in which senior commander Raúl Reyes is killed.
 * March 9 – The first European Space Agency Automated Transfer Vehicle, a cargo spacecraft for the International Space Station, launches from Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana.
 * March 24 – Bhutan holds its first-ever general elections following the adoption of a new Constitution which changed the country from an absolute monarchy to a multiparty democracy.
 * March 25 – African Union and Comoros forces invade the rebel-held island of Anjouan, returning the island to Comorian control.

April

 * April 22 – Surgeons at London's Moorfields Eye Hospital perform the first successful operations using bionic eyes, implanting them into two blind patients.

May

 * May 2 – The Chaitén volcano in Chile enters a new eruptive phase for the first time since around 1640.
 * May 3 – Cyclone Nargis passes through Myanmar, killing more than 138,000 people.
 * May 12 – An earthquake measuring 7.9 on the moment magnitude scale strikes Sichuan, China, killing an estimated 87,000 people.
 * May 23
 * The Union of South American Nations, an intergovernmental organization between states in South America, is founded.
 * The International Court of Justice awards Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca to Singapore, ending a 29-year territorial dispute between the two countries.
 * May 25 – NASA's unmanned Phoenix spacecraft becomes the first to land on the northern polar region of Mars.
 * May 28 – The Legislature Parliament of Nepal votes overwhelmingly in favor of abolishing the country's 240-year-old monarchy, turning the country into a republic.
 * May 30 – The Convention on Cluster Munitions is adopted in Dublin.

June

 * June 7–29 – Austria and Switzerland jointly host the UEFA Euro 2008 football tournament, which is won by Spain.
 * June 11
 * The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is launched.
 * Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper formally apologizes, on behalf of the Canadian government, to the country's First Nations for the Canadian Indian residential school system.
 * June 14 – Expo 2008 opens in Zaragoza, Spain, lasting to September 14, with the topic "Water and sustainable development".

July

 * July 2 – Íngrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages are rescued from FARC rebels by Colombian security forces.
 * July 21 – Radovan Karadžić, the first president of the Republika Srpska, is arrested in Belgrade, Serbia, on allegations of war crimes, following a 12-year-long manhunt.

August

 * August 1 – Eleven mountaineers from international expeditions die on K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth in the worst single accident in the history of K2 mountaineering.
 * August 6 – President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi of Mauritania is deposed in a military coup d'état.
 * August 7 – Georgia invades the breakaway state of South Ossetia, sparking a war with Russia as the latter intervenes in support of the separatists in both South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
 * August 20 – Spanair Flight 5022 crashes at Madrid–Barajas Airport, killing 154 people on board.
 * August 8–24 – The 2008 Summer Olympics take place in Beijing, China.

September

 * September 10 – The proton beam is circulated for the first time in the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, located at CERN, near Geneva, under the Franco-Swiss border.
 * September 20 – A suicide truck bomb explosion destroys the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing at least 54 and injuring 266.
 * September 13 – Hurricane Ike makes landfall in Galveston, Texas
 * September 28 – SpaceX Falcon 1 becomes the world's first privately developed space launch vehicle to successfully make orbit.
 * September 29 – Following the bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual, The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points, hitherto the largest single-day point loss in its history.

October

 * October 3 – Global financial crisis: U.S. President George W. Bush signs the revised Emergency Economic Stabilization Act into law, creating a 700 billion dollar Treasury fund to purchase failing bank assets.
 * October 7 – Spotify music streaming service is launched in Sweden.
 * October 21 – The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is officially inaugurated at Geneva.
 * October 22 – The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully launches the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft on a lunar exploration mission.

November

 * November 1 – Satoshi Nakamoto publishes "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System".
 * November 4 – Democratic U.S. Senator Barack Obama is elected the 44th President of the United States, becoming the first black President of the United States.
 * November 19 – Claudia Castillo of Spain becomes the first person to have a successful trachea transplant using a tissue-engineered organ.
 * November 26–29 – Members of Lashkar-e-Taiba carry out four days of coordinated bombing and shooting attacks across Mumbai, killing 164 people.

December

 * December 5 – Human remains found in 1991 are identified as Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, using DNA analysis.
 * December 10 – The Channel Island of Sark, a British Crown dependency, holds its first fully democratic elections under a new constitutional arrangement, becoming the last European territory to abolish feudalism.
 * December 18 – The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda finds Théoneste Bagosora and two other senior Rwandan army officers guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes and sentences them to life imprisonment for their role in the Rwandan genocide.
 * December 23 – A military coup d'état deposes the government of Guinea shortly after the death of longtime President Lansana Conté.
 * December 27 – Israel invades the Gaza Strip in response to rockets being fired into Israeli territory by Hamas and due to weapons being smuggled into the area.
 * December 31 – An extra leap second (23:59:60) is added to end the year. The last time this occurred was in 2005.

Births

 * April 16 – Princess Eléonore of Belgium
 * June 3 – Harshaali Malhotra, Indian actress
 * July 15 – Iain Armitage, American actor
 * August 18 – Gordey Kolesov, Russian-Chinese chess player

January

 * January 2 – Galyani Vadhana, Princess of Naradhiwas, Princess of Thailand (b. 1923)
 * January 3 – Choi Yo-sam, Korean boxer (b. 1972)
 * January 10 – Maila Nurmi, Finnish-American actress and television personality (b. 1922)
 * January 11 – Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist (b. 1919)
 * January 15 – Brad Renfro, American actor (b. 1982)
 * January 16 – Nikola Kljusev, 1st Prime Minister of Macedonia (b. 1927)
 * January 17 – Bobby Fischer, American chess grandmaster and former World Chess Champion (b. 1943)
 * January 19 – Suzanne Pleshette, American actress (b. 1937)
 * January 22
 * Heath Ledger, Australian actor (b. 1979)
 * Claude Piron, Swiss linguist and psychologist (b. 1931)
 * January 25 – Aziz Sedky, 36th Prime Minister of Egypt (b. 1920)
 * January 26 – George Habash, Palestinian politician (b. 1926)
 * January 27
 * Gordon B. Hinckley, American Mormon leader (b. 1910)
 * Suharto, 2nd President of Indonesia (b. 1921)
 * January 28 – Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens (b. 1939)
 * January 29 – Margaret Truman, American singer and writer (b. 1924)

February

 * February 2 – Joshua Lederberg, American Nobel molecular biologist (b. 1925)
 * February 5 – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indian spiritual leader (b. 1917)
 * February 7 – Andrew Bertie, 78th Grand Master of the Order of Malta (b. 1929)
 * February 9 – Baba Amte, Indian social activist (b. 1914)
 * February 10 – Roy Scheider, American actor (b. 1932)
 * February 11
 * Tom Lantos, American politician (b. 1928)
 * Alfredo Reinado, East Timorese rebel (b. 1967)
 * February 12
 * Imad Mughniyah, Lebanese militant (b. 1962)
 * Badri Patarkatsishvili, Georgian businessman and politician (b. 1955)
 * February 13
 * Kon Ichikawa, Japanese film director (b. 1915)
 * Henri Salvador, French singer (b. 1917)
 * February 16 – James Orange, American pastor and civil rights activist (b. 1942)
 * February 18 – Alain Robbe-Grillet, French writer and filmmaker (b. 1922)
 * February 19
 * Natalia Bessmertnova, Russian ballerina (b. 1941)
 * Yegor Letov, Russian singer (b. 1964)
 * February 23
 * Janez Drnovšek, 2-Time Prime Minister and 2nd President of Slovenia (b. 1950)
 * Paul Frère, Belgian racing driver (b. 1917)
 * February 25 – Static Major, American musician (b. 1974)
 * February 27
 * William F. Buckley Jr., American author and conservative commentator (b. 1925)
 * Ivan Rebroff, German singer (b. 1931)
 * February 29 – Tommy Glencross, Scottish boxer (b. 1947)

March

 * March 1 – Raúl Reyes, Colombian guerrilla (b. 1948)
 * March 2 – Jeff Healey, Canadian musician (b. 1966)
 * March 3
 * Giuseppe Di Stefano, Italian operatic tenor (b. 1921)
 * Norman Smith, English singer and record producer (b. 1923)
 * March 4 – Gary Gygax, American writer and game designer (b. 1938)
 * March 5 – Joseph Weizenbaum, German-American author and computer scientist (b. 1923)
 * March 6 – Peter Poreku Dery, Ghanaian cardinal (b. 1918)
 * March 12 – Howard Metzenbaum, American politician (b. 1917)
 * March 14 – Chiara Lubich, Italian Catholic activist (b. 1920)
 * March 18 – Anthony Minghella, English film director and screenwriter (b. 1954)
 * March 19
 * Arthur C. Clarke, English author, inventor, and futurist (b. 1917)
 * Hugo Claus, Flemish writer, painter and film director (b. 1929)
 * Paul Scofield, English actor (b. 1922)
 * March 22 – Adolfo Suárez Rivera, Mexican cardinal (b. 1927)
 * March 24
 * Neil Aspinall, British record producer and business executive (b. 1942)
 * Richard Widmark, American actor (b. 1914)
 * March 26 – Manuel Marulanda, Colombian guerrilla (b. 1930)
 * March 27 – Jean-Marie Balestre, French sports executive (b. 1921)
 * March 30 – Dith Pran, Cambodian-American photojournalist (b. 1942)
 * March 31 – Jules Dassin, American film director (b. 1911)

April

 * April 3 – Hrvoje Ćustić, Croatian footballer (b. 1983)
 * April 5 – Charlton Heston, American actor (b. 1923)
 * April 8 – Stanley Kamel, American actor (b. 1943)
 * April 10 – Ernesto Corripio y Ahumada, Mexican cardinal (b. 1919)
 * April 12 – Patrick Hillery, 6th President of Ireland (b. 1923)
 * April 13 – John Archibald Wheeler, American theoretical physicist (b. 1911)
 * April 14 – Ollie Johnston, American animator (b. 1912)
 * April 15 – Benoît Lamy, Belgian motion picture writer-director (b. 1945)
 * April 16 – Edward Norton Lorenz, American mathematician and meteorologist (b. 1917)
 * April 17 – Aimé Césaire, French Martinican poet and politician (b. 1913)
 * April 29 – Albert Hofmann, Swiss chemist and writer (b. 1906)

May

 * May 1 – Anthony Mamo, 1st President of Malta (b. 1909)
 * May 2 – Philipp von Boeselager, German military officer (b. 1917)
 * May 3 – Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, Spanish Prime Minister (b. 1926)
 * May 8 – François Sterchele, Belgian footballer (b. 1982)
 * May 10
 * Leyla Gencer, Turkish soprano (b. 1928)
 * Jessica Jacobs, Australian actress and singer (b. 1990)
 * May 12
 * Robert Rauschenberg, American pop artist (b. 1925)
 * Irena Sendler, Polish humanitarian (b. 1910)
 * May 13
 * Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah, 4th Emir of Kuwait (b. 1930)
 * Bernardin Gantin, Beninese cardinal (b. 1922)
 * May 15 – Willis Lamb, American Nobel physicist (b. 1913)
 * May 17 – Roberto García-Calvo Montiel, Spanish judge (b. 1942)
 * May 23 – Cornell Capa, Hungarian-American photographer (b. 1918)
 * May 26
 * Sydney Pollack, American actor, director and producer (b. 1934)
 * Koloa Talake, 7th Prime Minister of Tuvalu (b. 1934)
 * May 28 – Sven Davidson, Swedish tennis player (b. 1928)
 * May 29 – Harvey Korman, American actor and comedian (b. 1927)

June

 * June 1
 * Tommy Lapid, Israeli television presenter, journalist, and politician (b. 1931)
 * Yves Saint Laurent, French fashion designer (b. 1936)
 * June 2
 * Bo Diddley, American musician (b. 1928)
 * Mel Ferrer, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1917)
 * June 5 – Jameson Mbilini Dlamini, 7th Prime Minister of Swaziland (b. 1921)
 * June 4 – Agata Mróz-Olszewska, Polish volleyball player (b. 1982)
 * June 7
 * Mustafa Khalil, 40th Prime Minister of Egypt (b. 1920)
 * Dino Risi, Italian director (b. 1916)
 * June 8 – Šaban Bajramović, Serbian musician (b. 1936)
 * June 9
 * Karen Asrian, Armenian chess grandmaster (b. 1980)
 * Algis Budrys, Lithuanian-American science fiction writer (b. 1931)
 * June 10 – Chinghiz Aitmatov, Kyrgyzstani writer (b. 1928)
 * June 11
 * Ove Andersson, Swedish rally driver (b. 1939)
 * Võ Văn Kiệt, 5th Prime Minister of Vietnam (b. 1922)
 * June 13 – Tim Russert, American journalist (b. 1950)
 * June 15 – Stan Winston, American special effects and makeup artist (b. 1946)
 * June 17 – Cyd Charisse, American actress and dancer (b. 1922)
 * June 18 – Jean Delannoy, French film director (b. 1908)
 * June 22 – George Carlin, American author, actor, and comedian (b. 1937)
 * June 23 – Arthur Chung, 1st President of Guyana (b. 1918)
 * June 24 – Leonid Hurwicz, American Nobel economist and mathematician (b. 1917)
 * June 27 – Sam Manekshaw, Indian Field Marshal (b. 1914)
 * June 28 – Ruslana Korshunova, Kazakhstani model (b. 1987)
 * June 29 – Don S. Davis, American actor (b. 1942)

July

 * July 4
 * Jesse Helms, American politician (b. 1921)
 * Evelyn Keyes, American actress (b. 1916)
 * July 5 – René Harris, 4-Time President of Nauru (b. 1947)
 * July 11 – Michael E. DeBakey, American surgeon and inventor (b. 1908)
 * July 12 – Tony Snow, American political commentator (b. 1955)
 * July 13 – Bronisław Geremek, Polish social historian and politician (b. 1932)
 * July 15 – György Kolonics, Hungarian canoeist (b. 1972)
 * July 16 – Jo Stafford, American singer (b. 1917)
 * July 22 – Estelle Getty, American actress (b. 1923)
 * July 25
 * Johnny Griffin, American saxophonist (b. 1928)
 * Randy Pausch, American author and computer scientist (b. 1960)
 * July 27 – Youssef Chahine, Egyptian film director (b. 1926)
 * July 29 – Mate Parlov, Croatian boxer (b. 1948)

August

 * August 1 – Harkishan Singh Surjeet, Indian politician (b. 1916)
 * August 3 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian Nobel writer (b. 1918)
 * August 4 – Anita Farra, Italian actress (b. 1905)
 * August 9
 * Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet (b. 1941)
 * Bernie Mac, American actor and comedian (b. 1957)
 * August 10 – Isaac Hayes, American musician (b. 1942)
 * August 11 – Fred Sinowatz, Austrian politician (b. 1929)
 * August 13 – Henri Cartan, French mathematician (b. 1904)
 * August 15 – Jerry Wexler, American music producer (b. 1917)
 * August 16
 * Ronnie Drew, Irish singer (b. 1934)
 * Masanobu Fukuoka, Japanese microbiologist (b. 1913)
 * August 19
 * Levy Mwanawasa, 3rd President of Zambia (b. 1948)
 * LeRoi Moore, American saxophonist (b. 1961)
 * August 20 – Hua Guofeng, Chairman of the Communist Party and Chinese premier (b. 1921)
 * August 23 – Thomas Huckle Weller, American Nobel virologist (b. 1915)
 * August 28 – Phil Hill, American race car driver (b. 1927)

September

 * September 1
 * Don LaFontaine, American voice actor (b. 1940)
 * Jerry Reed, American actor and country singer (b. 1937)
 * September 2 – Bill Melendez, Mexican-American character animator, film director, voice artist and producer (b. 1916)
 * September 6
 * Antonio Innocenti, Italian cardinal (b. 1915)
 * Anita Page, American actress (b. 1910)
 * September 9 – Nouhak Phoumsavanh, 3rd President of Laos (b. 1910)
 * September 12 – David Foster Wallace, American writer (b. 1962)
 * September 15 – Richard Wright, English keyboardist (b. 1943)
 * September 18 – Mauricio Kagel, Argentine composer (b. 1931)
 * September 21 – Dingiri Banda Wijetunga, 9th Prime Minister and 4th President of Sri Lanka (b. 1916)
 * September 26 – Paul Newman, American actor (b. 1925)

October

 * October 1 – Boris Yefimov, Russian political cartoonist (b. 1900)
 * October 6 – Paavo Haavikko, Finnish poet (b. 1931)
 * October 8 – George Emil Palade, Romanian Nobel cell biologist (b. 1912)
 * October 10 – Alexey Prokurorov, Russian cross-country skier (b. 1964)
 * October 11 – Jörg Haider, Austrian politician (b. 1950)
 * October 13
 * Alexei Cherepanov, Russian Hockey Player (b. 1989)
 * Guillaume Depardieu, French actor (b. 1971)
 * Antonio José González Zumárraga, Ecuadorian cardinal (b. 1925)
 * October 20 – Sœur Emmanuelle, Belgian-born French nun (b. 1908)
 * October 25 – Muslim Magomayev, Azerbaijani singer (b. 1942)
 * October 26 – Tony Hillerman, American writer (b. 1925)
 * October 29 – William Wharton, American author (b. 1925)
 * October 31 – Studs Terkel, American author and liberal commentator (b. 1912)

November

 * November 1
 * Jacques Piccard, Swiss explorer and engineer (b. 1922)
 * Yma Sumac, Peruvian soprano (b. 1923)
 * November 2 – Joseph Alliluyev, Russian cardiologist (b. 1945)
 * November 4
 * Michael Crichton, American author and producer (b. 1942)
 * Juan Camilo Mouriño, Mexican politician (b. 1971)
 * November 9 – Miriam Makeba, South African singer (b. 1932)
 * November 10 – Kiyoshi Itō, Japanese mathematician (b. 1915)
 * November 12 – Mitch Mitchell, English drummer (b. 1946)
 * November 14 – Tsvetanka Khristova, Bulgarian athlete (b. 1962)
 * November 22 – Ibrahim Nasir, 2nd President of the Maldives (b. 1926)
 * November 27 – V. P. Singh, 7th Prime Minister of India (b. 1931)
 * November 29 – Jørn Utzon, Danish architect (b. 1918)

December

 * December 1 – Mikel Laboa, Basque singer and songwriter (b. 1934)
 * December 2
 * Frank Crean, Australian politician (b. 1916)
 * Odetta, American singer (b. 1930)
 * December 4 – Forrest J Ackerman, American magazine editor, science fiction writer, and literary agent (b. 1916)
 * December 5
 * Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow, Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church (b. 1928)
 * Nina Foch, Dutch-born American actress (b. 1924)
 * December 8 – Robert Prosky, American actor (b. 1930)
 * December 9
 * Yury Glazkov, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1939)
 * Dražan Jerković, Croatian football player and manager (b. 1936)
 * December 11
 * Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, American Nobel physician (b. 1923)
 * Bettie Page, American pin-up model (b. 1923)
 * December 12
 * Avery Dulles, American cardinal (b. 1918)
 * Van Johnson, American actor (b. 1916)
 * Tassos Papadopoulos, 5th President of Cyprus (b. 1934)
 * December 13 – Horst Tappert, German actor (b. 1923)
 * December 15 – León Febres Cordero, 35th President of Ecuador (b. 1931)
 * December 18
 * Majel Barrett, American actress (b. 1932)
 * Mark Felt, American FBI agent (b. 1913)
 * December 19 – James Bevel, American minister and civil rights activist (b. 1936)
 * December 20
 * Joseph Conombo, 3rd Prime Minister of Burkina Faso (b. 1917)
 * Olga Lepeshinskaya, Russian ballerina (b. 1916)
 * Robert Mulligan, American director (b. 1925)
 * December 22 – Lansana Conté, 2nd President of Guinea (b. 1934)
 * December 24
 * Samuel P. Huntington, American political scientist (b. 1927)
 * Harold Pinter, English playwright (b. 1930)
 * December 25 – Eartha Kitt, American singer and actress (b. 1927)
 * December 29 – Freddie Hubbard, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1938)

Nobel Prizes

 * Chemistry – Martin Chalfie, Osamu Shimomura, and Roger Y. Tsien
 * Economics – Paul Krugman
 * Literature – Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
 * Peace – Martti Ahtisaari
 * Physics – Makoto Kobayashi, Toshihide Maskawa, and Yoichiro Nambu
 * Physiology or Medicine – Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Harald zur Hausen, and Luc Montagnier

New English words

 * Bitcoin
 * burner phone
 * dumpster fire
 * exome
 * hate-watch
 * mansplain
 * photobomb