Portal:Current events/2004 May 17

May 17, 2004 (Monday)

Civilian Space eXploration Team (CSXT) 21-foot GoFast amateur rocket is launched, carrying an amateur radio, and reaches the edge of space at 100 km altitude. (AARL)
Hamas leader Khaled Meshal rejects talk of cease-fire with Israel. Hamas has sent scores of suicide bombers into Israeli towns since the Palestinian uprising began in September 2000, killing hundreds of Israelis. "Our choice is between death and death", he said. "Our people will defend themselves until the last breath. The world left us no other choice." (Haaretz)^{[permanent dead link]}
Ceremonies in Topeka, Kansas, commemorate the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. Both President George W. Bush and presidential candidate John Kerry attend separate ceremonies. (AP)
Iraqi WMD: Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt says that an artillery shell with sarin agent was found after it exploded. Two members of an explosives team are exposed to it, and have been treated. Hans Blix doubts that this was part of a current Iraq WMD, and doubts have been cast as to the accuracy of the field tests.(Reuters) Archived 2005-03-20 at the Wayback Machine (Melbourne HS)
Police in London foil an armed robbery at the Heathrow Cargo Centre, which attempted to steal £40 million (some USD 70 million) in gold and £30-£40 million in cash. Six men are arrested and another is being sought by police. (BBC)
Massachusetts issues the first fully legal same-sex marriage licences in the United States. This follows a November 18, 2003 ruling of the Massachusetts Supreme Court requiring the state to issue same-sex marriage licences. The first licence is issued at Cambridge to Marcia Hams and Susan Shepherd at the stroke of midnight. See Same-sex marriage in the United States.(365Gay)
Ezzedine Salim, head of the Iraqi Governing Council, is killed by a car bomb in Baghdad.(BBC)
Stock markets in India fall sharply following frenetic panic selling minutes after opening business. Owing to uncertainties over the proposed economic policies of the impending Sonia Gandhi government, Bombay Stock Exchange loses 800 points in the first 23 minutes, or almost 15%, in the biggest ever intra-day slippage in its history. Regulators freeze the trading twice, in an attempt to shelve the damage. Markets recover some ground after public assurances by the Indian National Congress party that the fears are unfounded. (BBC)
Over 100 inmates – mostly Mara Salvatrucha gang members – perish in a pre-dawn prison fire in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. (BBC)