On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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Moody's Investors Service upgrades India's foreign currency credit rating from Ba1 to Ba2, highest noninvestment grade, after surge in country's foreign exchange reserves; foreign exchange reserves surpassed $73 billion last week, up from $19 billion in April 2002 (S)
Ron Dittemore, manager of NASA's space shuttle program, has become face of nation's newest shared trauma caused by breakup of space shuttle Columbia in earth's atmosphere killing all seven astronauts on board; has displayed blend of measured grief and steely resolve at news conferences; has assumed personal responsibility for decisions made and actions taken, from first fatal moments after shuttle's liftoff from Cape Canaveral on January 16 (M)
Set against the loss of seven lives, scientific data may seem inconsequential. But the last flight of the shuttle Columbia was a science mission, and it was in the service of experiment and investigation that the astronauts died, so every bit of information lost or gained has great weight.
Senior NASA engineer warned as early as 1997 that hardened foam popping off external fuel tank on space shuttle Columbia had caused significant damage to ceramic tiles protecting vehicle from re-entry temperatures; report by Gregory N Katnik found Columbia sustained damage to more than 300 tiles on recent flight that was 'not normal;' even though damage from falling foam also caused smaller amounts of damage in number of other shuttle flights NASA decided problem did not threaten survival of its spacecraft; agency is reexamining assumption as it investigates breakup of Columbia in earth's atmosphere killing all seven astronauts on board during landing approach to Cape Canaveral on February 1; photos; graphs; diagrams (L)
Serono SA reports $320.8 million in 2002 profit, increase of 1.3 percent from 2001 (S)
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of January 29, 2003, covering February 4, 2003.
Norah Jones
Avril Lavigne
Dixie Chicks
Soundtrack
Jennifer Lopez
2003Kyla Kenedy, American actress[â ]
Kyla Kenedy is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Izzie on the television film Raising Izzie, and Mika Samuels on AMC horror series The Walking Dead. In 2016, she began playing Dylan DiMeo on the ABC sitcom Speechless, which ran for three seasons through 2019. In 2021, Kenedy was cast as Orly Bremer in the NBC sitcom Mr. Mayor.
2003Rasmus Højlund, Danish footballer[â ]
Rasmus Winther Højlund is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Manchester United and the Denmark national team.
2003Benyoucef Benkhedda, Algerian pharmacist and politician (born 1920)[â ]
Benyoucef Benkhedda was an Algerian politician. He headed the third GPRA exile government of the National Liberation Front (FLN), acting as a leader during the Algerian War (1954â62). At the end of the war, he was briefly the de jure leader of the country, however he was quickly sidelined by more conservative figures.
2003The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia adopts a new constitution, becoming a loose confederacy between Montenegro and Serbia.[â ]
The State Union of Serbia and Montenegro or simply Serbia and Montenegro, known until 2003 as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and commonly referred to as FR Yugoslavia (FRY) or simply Yugoslavia, was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The state was founded on 27 April 1992 as a federation comprising the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Montenegro. In February 2003, it was transformed from a federal republic to a political union until Montenegro seceded from the union in June 2006, leading to the full independence of both Serbia and Montenegro.
In 2003, the world population was approximately 6,420,361,634 people[â ]