Portal:Current events/2004 January 1

Arts and culture

Disasters and accidents

International relations

Law and crime

Politics and elections
  • The Republic of Ireland takes over the presidency of the European Union, succeeding Italy, whose presidency is widely criticised as having been a failure due to the collapse of efforts to adopt a European constitution. (RTE News)

Religion

Science and technology
  • No leap second is added this year. This is the fifth year in a row without a leap-second after 28 years of adding leap-seconds to compensate for the slowing of the Earth's rotation. (CNN)