Timeline May 2003

Events in May 2003 12

• 1929 – 2003 June Carter Cash (1929-2003) Died 15 May 2003, aged 73 June Carter Cash was a singer, songwriter and comedian from the Carter Family country music dynasty. She co-wrote 'Ring of Fire' and performed for decades alongside her husband Johnny Cash, who died four months after her. She won multiple Grammy Awards.
• 2003 2003 World Snooker Championship Mark Williams Title 2 Winner: Mark Williams; Runner-up: Ken Doherty. Score: 18–16.
• 2003 Aron Ralston's self-amputation Trapped climber cuts off his own arm to escape The canyoneer Aron Ralston, trapped for more than five days by a boulder that pinned his arm in a remote Utah canyon, amputated his own forearm with a multi-tool and walked out to rescue. His account was later filmed as '127 Hours'.
• 2003 Mission Accomplished speech Bush declares major combat over in Iraq President George W. Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and announced that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, speaking beneath a banner reading 'Mission Accomplished'. The prolonged insurgency that followed made the moment a lasting symbol of premature triumph.
• 2003 X2: X-Men United #5 film of 2003 — $407m worldwide Directed by Bryan Singer. The X-Men must band together with their nemesis Magneto to battle a common enemy.
• 2003 – present Carlos Alcaraz Carlitos Youngest World No. 1 in history and multi-surface Grand Slam champion.
• 2003 LinkedIn launched Professional networking site goes live LinkedIn launched as a professional networking site built around resumes, job-seeking and business contacts. It grew steadily to hundreds of millions of members and was acquired by Microsoft in 2016.
• 2003 Riyadh compound bombings Suicide attacks on foreign workers' compounds Suicide bombers attacked three residential compounds housing foreign workers in the Saudi capital, killing 39 people. The attacks, attributed to al-Qaeda, prompted a sustained Saudi security crackdown on the group inside the kingdom.
• 2003 Death of June Carter Cash 15 May 2003, aged 73 June Carter Cash died on 15 May 2003, aged 73, from complications following heart surgery — devastating Johnny, who continued to record despite his own declining health and grief, completing his final recordings within months of her death.
• 2003 The Matrix Reloaded #2 film of 2003 — $742m worldwide Directed by the Wachowskis. Neo and the resistance fight to save Zion, the last human city, from a massive machine assault.
• 2003 The Gilligan affair and the Iraq dossier On 29 May 2003 Andrew Gilligan -- hired by Liddle before his departure -- reports on Today that the British government has "sexed up" its intelligence dossier on Iraq. The report triggers a chain of events culminating in the death of weapons inspector David Kelly and the Hutton Inquiry. Liddle, no longer at the BBC, defends Gilligan throughout the controversy. The affair vindicates Liddles instinct for investigative journalism and his suspicion of establishment consensus -- themes that will recur throughout his writing career.
• 2003 Finding Nemo released Pixar's clownfish film becomes the year's biggest Pixar's animated film about a clownfish searching for his lost son became the highest-grossing film of 2003 and, for a time, the best-selling DVD ever made. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.