Chronopin: upcoming release dates, events and other important dates

Norah Jones, 23, won five Grammys at the 45th ceremony at Madison Square Garden, including Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Best New Artist, and Simon and Garfunkel reunited to open the show.

The DVD-exclusive special Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting! - Boxer’s Fist premieres, a Madhouse-animated side story revealing how brash heavyweight Takamura first took up boxing.

Sora, a young girl from Japan, comes to America in search of her dream. She wants, with all her heart, to be a member of the Kaleido Stage, a world famous circus, with a combination of musicals, acrobatics and magical effects.

The one-off special Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting! - Champion Road finds newly crowned featherweight champion Ippo Makunouchi defending his title against Kazuki Sanada, a former junior featherweight champ turned medical student.

Built by Chantiers de l'Atlantique in Saint-Nazaire, France, the 68,870-ton Crystal Serenity was christened by Julie Andrews on 3 July 2003 and entered commercial service four days later.

Europe had its hottest summer since at least 1540, with night temperatures staying above 30C and eight consecutive days over 40C in Auxerre. The death toll has been estimated at more than 70,000.

Madhouse's Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting! - Mashiba vs Kimura premieres, an OVA following boxer Ippo Makunouchi's stablemate Kimura as he finally gets his shot at reigning Junior Lightweight champion Mashiba.

The European Marine Energy Centre completed its Billia Croo wave energy test site off Orkney, becoming the world’s first grid-connected facility for testing wave and tidal energy converters at sea.

Bones' Fullmetal Alchemist begins broadcast, following brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric, alchemists searching for the Philosopher's Stone to restore the bodies they lost attempting to resurrect their mother.

Satoshi Kon's Tokyo Godfathers opens in Japanese theaters, a Christmas Eve dramedy following three homeless Tokyo residents who discover an abandoned baby and set out to find her parents.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a 2003 epic fantasy film directed by Peter Jackson from a screenplay he wrote with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. It is based on 1955's The Return of the King, the third volume of the novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. The sequel to 2002's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, the film is the final instalment in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Seiji Yamamoto opened RyuGin in Roppongi in 2003 and used it to argue that kaiseki could be taken apart and rebuilt with modern technique without ceasing to be kaiseki - a position that made it the Japanese restaurant most often named on international lists. It has since moved to Hibiya, where it holds three Michelin stars.

In a futuristic world where the internet and cybernetics has blurred the borders between societies; the members of Public Security Section 9 are reinstated to assist in solving numerous cases of cyber crime.

Studio Pierrot airs Hikaru no Go: Hokuto Hai e no Michi, a one-episode television special following Hikaru Shindo through the preliminary rounds to select Japan's team for the Hokuto Cup junior tournament.

At Lillian Girls’ Academy, a renowned all-girls Catholic school, pairs of girls become soeurs, or “sisters”, in order to support and guide each other during their time at school.

Bones releases the direct-to-video Wolf's Rain OVA, a four-episode epilogue completing the wolves' search for the paradise Rakuen after the TV series' broadcast was cut short.

The direct-to-video Hunter x Hunter: Greed Island Final continues the Greed Island story arc, with Gon Freecss and Killua Zoldyck sharpening their Nen abilities under Biscuit Krueger's guidance as the deadly video-game world's Player Killers close in.

Madhouse's Monster begins airing, a psychological thriller adapting Naoki Urasawa's manga about Dr. Kenzo Tenma's pursuit of Johan Liebert, the child he once saved who becomes a serial killer.

TMS Entertainment broadcasts a Detective Conan TV special previewing that summer's eighth film, in which Professor Agasa's new identity-matching program is turned on the phantom thief Kaitou Kid, only for Kid to hijack the broadcast himself.

The $265M Sands Macao opened as the city's first Las Vegas-style resort, ending Stanley Ho's 42-year gambling monopoly and starting Macau's transformation into the world's densest gaming hub.

Shrek 2 is a 2004 American animated fantasy comedy film directed by Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, and Conrad Vernon from a screenplay by Adamson, Joe Stillman, and the writing team of J. David Stem and David N. Weiss. Loosely based on the 1990 children's picture book Shrek! by William Steig, it is a direct sequel to Shrek (2001) and the second installment in the Shrek film series.

Manglobe's Samurai Champloo begins airing, a hip-hop-infused samurai adventure directed by Shinichiro Watanabe that follows wanderers Mugen and Jin escorting waitress Fuu as she searches for a mysterious 'sunflower samurai.'

Ojamajo Doremi Na-i-sho premieres, a 13-episode OVA continuing the Ojamajo Doremi magical-girl franchise with a more mature, romance-tinged coda for the five witch apprentices.

The spring term is beginning for the students at Lillian Girls' Academy. Friends are reunited, but for the Yamayuri Council, it's a bittersweet time.

The action-horror TV anime Elfen Lied begins broadcast, following the psychotic, telekinetic Diclonius Lucy after two teenagers take in her amnesiac alter-ego "Nyuu".

On 19 August 2004 Google began trading on the Nasdaq as GOOG after pricing its IPO at US$85 a share, valuing the company at about US$23 billion and raising US$1.67 billion.

Exorcist: The Beginning is a 2004 American supernatural horror film serving as a prequel to The Exorcist (1973), and the fourth installment in The Exorcist film series. Directed by Renny Harlin, the film stars Stellan Skarsgård, Izabella Scorupco and James D'Arcy.

The television anime Bleach begins airing, a Studio Pierrot adaptation of Tite Kubo's manga about high schooler Ichigo Kurosaki, who inherits a Soul Reaper's powers and takes up the fight against soul-devouring Hollows.

The Royal Danish Navy commissioned HDMS Absalon, lead ship of the Absalon-class flexible support ships built at Odense Steel Shipyard. The 137-meter vessel combines helicopter, troop, and vehicle capacity with modern weapon systems.

Rockstar North's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, set across Los Santos, San Fierro and Las Venturas, went on sale for the PlayStation 2 in North America on 26 October 2004, with Europe following on 29 October.

Honda Shigeharu is a Major League batter on the rise. His son Gorou is a Little League pitcher who one day hopes to follow in his father's footsteps.

Studio Ghibli's Howl's Moving Castle opens in Japan, Hayao Miyazaki's adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones's novel about a young hatmaker cursed into an old woman's body who takes refuge with a wizard in his walking castle.

Norman Foster's Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, opened over southern France's Tarn valley, completing the A75 motorway route between Paris and the Mediterranean.

A former CargoLifter airship hangar in Brandenburg, big enough to enclose the Statue of Liberty, reopened as the Tropical Islands indoor resort on December 19, 2004. Its beaches, lagoons and rainforest now draw about a million visitors a year to the world's largest free-standing hall.

A magnitude 9.1 megathrust rupture off Aceh generated a tsunami that crossed the Indian Ocean and struck coastlines from Indonesia to East Africa. It is the third-largest earthquake ever instrumentally recorded.

Ray Charles, who died in June 2004, was honored eight times at the 47th Grammys at Staples Center, including Album of the Year for Genius Loves Company and Record of the Year for "Here We Go Again" with Norah Jones; Maroon 5 won Best New Artist.

The world's largest pumping station begins lifting water from Lake Nasser into the Sheikh Zayed Canal, launching Egypt's attempt to grow a second Nile valley 310 km into the Sahara.

Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist is a 2005 American supernatural horror film directed by Paul Schrader and written by William Wisher Jr. and Caleb Carr. The film serves as an alternative prequel to The Exorcist (1973) and is the fifth installment in The Exorcist series.

During an excavation at the mysterious ruins in Clow Country, Syaoran discovers his childhood friend Princess Sakura appear on the site with wings that disperse into many feathers.

Shin-Ei Animation and Studio Pierrot relaunch Doraemon as a new weekly TV series, replacing the original 1979 cast and staff for a modern retelling of Fujiko F. Fujio's manga about a robotic cat from the future helping the boy Nobita.

Shin-Ei Animation's hour-long Doraemon TV specials, broadcast alongside the 2005 series for holidays and milestones, began airing with the revival's debut.

F-WWOW, the first of the only full-length double-deck jet airliner ever built, flew from Toulouse–Blagnac with a crew of six under chief test pilot Jacques Rosay, who said handling it was "like handling a bicycle".

Grant Achatz's "maximalist modernist" restaurant opened on a Lincoln Park side street and went on to hold three Michelin stars from 2011 to 2024. It is named after the alinea, the paragraph symbol that is also its logo.

Katrina came ashore near Buras-Triumph at 11:10 UTC as a high-end Category 3 hurricane with 125 mph winds. Flooding from failures in the federally built levee system put 80% of New Orleans under water.

Hurricane Katrina shut in about half of US domestic oil production and knocked out refineries and import terminals, so on 2 September 2005 President Bush found a severe energy supply interruption and ordered a sale. DOE offered 30 million barrels and sold 11 million; the first oil left Bryan Mound on 26 September.

Production I.G's Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex – The Laughing Man releases direct to video. The single-episode OVA recompiles and expands the "Laughing Man" arc from the first Stand Alone Complex season with new footage, as Public Security Section 9's Togusa revisits a six-year-old unsolved case tied to an elusive hacker.

Gintama: Jump Festa 2005 Special premieres, a Sunrise-animated comedy short pitting Gintoki's Yorozuya against the Shinsengumi in a brutal game of rock-paper-scissors over a prime cherry-blossom viewing spot.

Drift peacefully into Neo Venezia, a city on the planet Aqua (formerly known as Mars). By the 24th century, humans have found a way to colonize the previously uninhabitable planet.

Artland's Mushishi begins broadcast, an episodic supernatural series following the wandering Mushi Master Ginko as he investigates the effects of Mushi, primordial lifeforms that blur the line between the natural and supernatural.

Digging for Istanbul's Marmaray rail tunnel at Yenikapı, workers strike the silted-up remains of the Theodosian Harbor, a Byzantine-era port that would go on to yield 37 shipwrecks and roughly 100,000 artifacts.