Time: 10:35 UTC   |   Date: Thursday, March 27, 2025

• People's Republic of China put in place new rules for the trading of derivative securities by financial institutions, part of a broader process by which China has in recent years sought to integrate its own economy with finance capitalism around the world. The China Banking Regulatory Commission received praise from New-York based International Swaps & Derivatives Ass'n. [1]
• Aristide claims that his resignation as president of Haiti was forced and that he was kidnapped by American forces and forced to leave the country against his will. United States Secretary of State Colin Powell rejects the accusation. [2]
• The UK Conservative Party withdraws from the Butler Inquiry into intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, claiming the way its terms of reference have been interpreted is too narrow. The Liberal Democrats claim that this was obvious from the beginning. [3] [4] [5]
• Russian president Vladimir Putin names Mikhail Fradkov as his new prime minister. [6]
• Marc Dutroux, alleged Belgian child molester and murderer of four girls, goes into trial. [7]
• Same-sex marriage in the United States: U.S. President Bush urges passage of a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between one man and one woman, as the only way to stop "municipal and judicial activists" from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. "If we are to prevent the meaning of marriage from being changed forever, our nation must enact a constitutional amendment." John Kerry denounces the amendment as "toying" or "tampering" with the Constitution for partisan advantage. [8]
• The controversial yet very popular Grand Theft Auto video game series from Rockstar Games wins five awards at the BAFTA Games Awards. [9] There is to be a further sequel, "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas". [10]
• Several hundred United States, French and Canadian troops are deployed to Haiti. [11]

• Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns as president of Haiti and flees the country for the Central African Republic. The chief justice of the Haitian supreme court, Boniface Alexandre, is sworn in as interim president. [12] [13] [14]
• Occupation of Iraq
  • Iraq's leaders meet deadline for drafting interim constitution. [15]
  • Saddam Hussein's government systematically extorted billions of dollars in illegal payments from companies doing business with Iraq. [16]
  • Kurdistan activists bring petition to the authorities in Baghdad asking for a referendum on whether Kurds will stay within a united Iraq or to form an independent Kurdistan. [17]
• 76th Academy Awards: The Return of the King wins picture and director awards and nine others for a total of 11 Academy Awards, a tie for the most ever won by a single film. Acting honors were as follows: Best Actor: Sean Penn for Mystic River, Best Actress: Charlize Theron for Monster, Best Supporting Actor: Tim Robbins for Mystic River, Best Supporting Actress: Renee Zellweger for Cold Mountain. [18] [19] [20]

• 2004 in film: The 2004 Golden Raspberries are handed out in commemoration of the low points struck last year by the motion picture industry. [21] [22]

• Same-sex marriage in the United States: The California Supreme Court refuses a petition by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer asking for an immediate ruling on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage laws and a cease and desist order against San Francisco's granting of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. [23]
• In an angry public exchange, Yasser Arafat calls Fatah official Nasser Yousef a "traitor" and hurls a microphone at him. [24] [25]
• International Space Station crew Michael Foale and Alexandr Kaleri perform the first ever spacewalk involving the station's entire crew; the spacewalk is cut short by a malfunction in Kaleri's spacesuit. [26] [27]
• Shoko Asahara, the leader of a Japanese cult that gassed the Tokyo subway in 1995, is sentenced to death by hanging.[28]
• The U.S. Justice Department says it will move to block Oracle Corporation's hostile $9.4 billion takeover bid for larger rival PeopleSoft, saying a merger of the two largest accounting and human resources software companies in the U.S. would hurt competition. [29][30]
• Iranian state radio reports Osama bin Laden captured. United States officials discount the reports. [31][32][33]

• The United States lifts a ban on travel to Libya, ending travel restrictions to the nation that had lasted for 23 years. [34]
• Expressions by Disney shareholders of a lack of confidence in its management continue. Five more state pension funds announced that they will not vote for the re-election of chairman (and chief executive) Michael Eisner at next week's meeting. These pension funds – New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Virginia – are following the lead of California – CalPERS made its announcement to the same effect Wednesday. [35]
• Russian President Vladimir Putin opens the 2,165 km (1,345 mile) Chita-to-Khabarovsk Amur Highway connecting the Russian Far East alongside the Pacific to the rest of the country. Construction of the highway was begun in 1978. [36] [37]
• Swiss police are investigating a man in the killing of an air traffic controller. The suspect apparently lost his family in a midair collision in 2002; the murder victim was on duty at the time of the crash. [38]
• Microsoft's Japan headquarters are raided on suspicion of violating anti-monopoly laws by the fair trade watchdog. [39] [40]
• Israel raids four banks in the West Bank seizing currency amounting to over 6 million dollars from accounts which it alleged had been used to fund terrorism. Israel claims it will use the funds for humanitarian projects in Palestinian areas. The U.S. State Department criticized the Israeli raid, and Palestinian Arabs condemned it utterly. [41], [42]
• Clare Short, former British Cabinet Minister, alleges on the BBC Today radio programme that British spies regularly intercept UN communications, including those of Kofi Annan, its Secretary-General. [43] [44] The claim comes the day after Katharine Gun, formerly an employee of British spy agency GCHQ, had a charge of breaching the Official Secrets Act dropped after prosecutors offered no evidence, apparently on the advice of the Attorney-General. Gun had admitted leaking American plans to bug UN delegates to a newspaper. [45]
• Same-sex marriage in the United States:
  • The mayor of New Paltz, a village in New York State, announces that the town will start performing civil marriages for same-sex couples. It will not attempt to issue marriage certificates, but married couples in New York State have six months from the date of their wedding to seek a certificate. [46]
  • Rosie O'Donnell marries her partner Kelli Carpenter at San Francisco City Hall. [47]

• Libya's Foreign Minister, Abdulrahman Shalgam, issues a statement reaffirming its acceptance of culpability for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, after the Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem, in an interview for the BBC, claimed Libya had "bought peace" with the $2.7bn compensation payments, but had not accepted guilt. [48] [49]
• A wolverine, the state animal of Michigan, has been spotted in that state for the first time in 200 years. [50]
• The California Public Employees' Retirement System, CalPERS, a major shareholder in The Walt Disney Company, indicated that it will withhold its votes from Disney chief executive Michael Eisner at next week's shareholders' meeting, a new sign of a growing rebellion against Eisner's leadership, [51]
• The controversial film, The Passion of the Christ opens in theaters in the United States. Jewish leaders fear the film will stoke antisemitism, while some Christians laud the realistic depiction of the last 12 hours of Jesus Christ's life. [52] A woman in Wichita, Kansas collapses and dies of a massive heart attack while viewing the harrowing Crucifixion scene. [53]
• Pakistani leaders pressure Muslim militants in Kashmir to declare a ceasefire with India. Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee tries to gain Muslim votes for his Bharatiya Janata Party with the prospect of peace with Pakistan. [54][55]
• In the northern Uganda city of Lira, protests and riots cause at least nine deaths after the Ugandan army announces it killed 21 members of the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group, in retaliation for an attack on a refugee camp at Barlonyo. [56]
• King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia, who recently made a statement in support of same-sex marriage, responded to an "insulting" e-mail by announcing he is not gay. The king is 81 years old and has 14 children. [57]
• Guantanamo Bay: The Pentagon announces that the first charges are to be filed against two of the six hundred detainees of the detention camp, but human rights groups have had their request to observe the military tribunals turned down. The defendants are named as Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al-Bahlul and Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi, both alleged to be Al-Qaeda members and charged with "conspiracy to commit war crimes". [58] The Pentagon also confirms that even if cleared by the tribunals, the defendants may still not be released. [59]

2004: January February
2003: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2002: January February March April May June July August September October November December

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