January 1, 2004

• Ireland's Roman Catholic and Protestant boy scouts organisations merge after nearly a century of division, in spite of efforts by the Roman Catholic bishops to block the merger.
• State papers released under Britain's Thirty Year Rule suggest that the United States considered using force to seize oil fields in the Middle East during an oil embargo by Arab states in 1973. [1] State papers also released reveal that, contrary to what was believed at the time, Princess Margaret of the United Kingdom would not have lost her title and Civil List payments if she had married Group Captain Peter Townsend, a divorced War hero in the 1950s. [2][3]
• 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. [4]
• Montréal/Dorval International Airport is renamed Montréal/Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.
• A British Airways flight from London to Washington, DC is canceled one day after the same flight is delayed for three hours on the tarmac at Dulles International Airport for security screening. [5]
• Comparing planned United States finger-printing and photographic security controls on travelers from Brazil and other nations to Nazi actions, a Brazilian judge orders the fingerprinting of all arriving United States citizens in response. [6]
• 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. [7]
• Haiti's bicentennial celebrations erupt in violence. [8]