2003 in Wales - Events

Events

  • February - Former Conservative Assembly leader Rod Richards is declared bankrupt with debts estimated at over £300,000.
  • 27 February - Rowan Williams is enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury. Dominic Walker is installed as his replacement as Bishop of Monmouth
  • 9 March - Ron Davies announces that he is leaving politics after being asked to stand down by his local party following further revelations by the press about his private life.
  • 29 March - Porthmadog Cob is bought by the Welsh Assembly Government and the road toll is discontinued after 192 years .
  • 1 May - In the National Assembly for Wales election, Labour win 30 seats, enabling them to form a government. Following disappointing results for Plaid Cymru, Ieuan Wyn Jones stands down as party president and leader of the assembly group.
  • 19 June - Prince William of Wales visits Bangor and Anglesey, to mark his 21st birthday (on June 21).
  • August
    • National Eisteddfod of Wales held at Meifod.
    • A memorial to Owain Lawgoch is unveiled at Montague-sur-Gironde, France.
  • October - Dafydd Iwan, newly-elected President of Plaid Cymru, escapes a driving ban for speeding offences on the grounds that he needs to drive to fulfil his musical and political engagements.
  • 12 October - The Friends of the Leinster hold a service at Holyhead to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the sinking of RMS Leinster by a German U-boat.
  • November - Michael Howard becomes leader of the Conservative Party.
  • December - Dafydd Wigley is appointed Pro-Chancellor of the University of Wales.
  • 7 December - The Wales and Borders train operating franchise is awarded for a 15-year period to Arriva Trains Wales.
  • The former Brain's Old Brewery site in Cardiff is redeveloped into the 85,000 sq ft (7,900 m2) "Old Brewery Quarter".
  • Veteran Cardiff politician Stefan Terlezki goes to the European Parliament to press the case for eventual Ukrainian membership of the European Union.
  • In Channel 4's 100 Worst Britons poll (which included only living people), the following entries had Welsh connections:
    • H from Steps - 8
    • Charlotte Church - 21
    • The Prince of Wales - 24
    • Catherine Zeta-Jones - 39
    • Lawrence Llewelyn-Bowen - 42
    • Vinnie Jones - 61
    • Tom Jones - 72

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Famous quotes containing the word events:

    The return of the asymmetrical Saturday was one of those small events that were interior, local, almost civic and which, in tranquil lives and closed societies, create a sort of national bond and become the favorite theme of conversation, of jokes and of stories exaggerated with pleasure: it would have been a ready- made seed for a legendary cycle, had any of us leanings toward the epic.
    Marcel Proust (1871–1922)

    Genius is present in every age, but the men carrying it within them remain benumbed unless extraordinary events occur to heat up and melt the mass so that it flows forth.
    Denis Diderot (1713–1784)

    As I look at the human story I see two stories. They run parallel and never meet. One is of people who live, as they can or must, the events that arrive; the other is of people who live, as they intend, the events they create.
    Margaret Anderson (1886–1973)