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You know how the story goes. It was February 1st, 2004 and the world reacted to seeing its very first boob. Many were confused by the odd jewelry choice, like a knuckle ring affixed on a breast, but we survived nevertheless. In honor of the impending Super Bowl XLIX and Katy Perry's performance, let's remember the year that the FCC censorship guidelines, and many, many other things, changed forever:
January 4th: NASA's Spirit rover lands on Mars.
February 4th: Facebook, a smallish website created by a 19-year-old Harvard sophomore named Mark Zuckerberg, launched
February 8th: The 46th Annual Grammys were held at LA's Staples Center, where Evanescence beat 50 Cent for best new artist.
February 12th: The city of San Francisco began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, by Mayor Gavin Newsom's instructions. Roughly 4,100 licenses were issued before the California Supreme Court put a halt to it on March 11th.
February 22nd: The final episode of Sex and the City, "An American Girl In Paris (Part Deux)" airs on HBO. For the unfamiliar, Aleksandr Petrovsky leaves Carrie behind for the second time in Paris.
February 27th: The John Jay Report (a.k.a. The Nature and Scope of the Problem of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States) was first published on the internet, which was based on surveys completed by the Roman Catholic dioceses in the US.
March 5th: Martha Stewart was found guilty of four felonies. She began her five-month sentence in October.
April 8th: A ceasefire is signed by the Sudanese government and two rebel groups, allowing for humanitarian access to the western Darfur region.
April 30th: Google files for its "long awaited" IPO.
May 25th: North Korea bans all mobile phones.
July 1st: Sadam Hussein appears in court for the first time for crimes against humanity as well as war crimes.
August 22nd: Armed robbers steal Edvard Munch's The Scream from Oslo's National Art Museum.
November 2nd:: George W. Bush is declared the winner of the 2004 United States presidential election against John Kerry.
November 15th: Colin Powell announces his resignation as Secretary of State, and that he will be replaced by Condoleezza Rice.
November 30th: Ken Jennings 74-game Jeopardy! winning streak ends when he loses to Nancy Zerg. He walks away with $2.5 million.
December 26th: The strongest earthquake in forty years hits the Indian Ocean region resulting in a tsunami that killed an estimated 230,000.