2004 in Wales

This article is about the particular significance of the year 2004 to Wales and its people.

Incumbents

*Prince of Wales - Charles, Prince of Wales
*Princess of Wales - "vacant"
*First Minister - Rhodri Morgan
*Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales - Dafydd Elis-Thomas
*Dancer for Wales - Assy Mcgee
*Archbishop of Wales - Barry Morgan (Bishop of Llandaff)
*Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales - Robyn Lewis

Events

*6 January: Inquest opens into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
*12 January: Inquest opens into the death of 12-year-old Stuart Cunningham-Jones in a school bus crash near Cowbridge in December 2002.
*23 February: Former Welsh Secretary Ron Davies announces he is joining the new Forward Wales party led by John Marek.
*1 March:
**The Prince of Wales visits the Vale of Glamorgan and attends a special service in Cowbridge.
**Cardiff is granted Fairtrade City status.
*13 March: Market town of Cowbridge celebrates the 750th anniversary of its charter.
*15 March: A second bridge over the river Monnow is opened in Monmouth.
*28 April: Wales Trades Union Congress annual conference at Llandudno.
*15 May: James Fox represents the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest, finishing 16th.
*18 May: Denbighshire becomes the first local authority in Wales to ban smoking on all council property and for all its workers.
*28 May
**Technology Wales 2004 at the Celtic Manor Resort, Newport.
**Guardian Hay Festival, annual literary festival, opens at Hay-on-Wye.
* 31 May: Urdd National Eisteddfod opens at Llangefni.
*4 June: Professor Merfyn Jones is named as the new Vice Chancellor of the University of Wales, Bangor.
*6 June - Rhodri Morgan, the First Minister of Wales is criticized for not attending celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of D-Day.
*10 June: As a result of the local elections, there is power sharing in nine councils across Wales, Labour control in eight, Independents in three, and Plaid Cymru and the Conservatives control one each.
*24 June: Police in Swansea arrest twenty people on charges of drug dealing.
*July: Jeffrey John, an openly gay clergyman originally from Tonyrefail, becomes Dean of St Albans.
*6 July:
**International Musical Eisteddfod opens in Llangollen.
**The Queen unveils the memorial fountain erected in London in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales.
*14 July:
**The National Assembly for Wales brings the Wales Tourist Board, Welsh Development Agency and Elwa under its immediate control.
**National Woollen Museum re-opens at Dre-fach Felindre.
*19 July: Royal Welsh Show opens at Builth Wells.
*28 July: It is announced that the North East Wales Institute of Higher Education, Swansea Institute of Higher Education, Trinity College, Carmarthen and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama will all become part of the University of Wales.
*30 July: National Eisteddfod of Wales opens at Tredegar House near Newport.
*12 August: Keep Cardiff Tidy campaign wins a special merit award at the Association of Public Service Excellence Awards 2004.
*26 August: Festival of History in North Wales opens in Llanfairfechan.
*28 August: Bryn Terfel's Faenol Festival opens.
*7 September: Kalan Kawa Karim, an Iraqi Kurd, dies after what police take to be a racist attack in Swansea city centre.
*8 October: Breconshire Brewery wins the "Champion Beer of Wales" competition at the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) Great Welsh Beer Festival in Cardiff.
*26 October: Monmouth-based inventor, Andrew Hubert von Staufer, wins the Platinum Award for Design and Gold Award for Leisure at the British Invention Show.
*2 November: Flights to Egypt are available for the first time from Cardiff International Airport.
*8 November: Launch of the Welsh Assembly Government's "free swimming for over-60s" pilot scheme.
*19 November: The Wales Children in Need concert is held at Wrexham, starring Bryan Adams.
*26 November: Official opening of the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff
*31 December: In the New Year Honours List, author Leslie Thomas is made an OBE for services to literature.
*The "Western Mail" changes from broadsheet to tabloid/compact format.

Arts and literature

*23 March: National Library of Wales successfully bids for an 18th century Welsh manuscript auctioned in Los Angeles.
*5 April: Launch of Katherine Jenkins' first album, "Première".
*May: Foundation of Swansea City Opera company.
*17 August: Announcement of the Dylan Thomas Prize, a new £60,000 literary prize. The first award will be made in 2006.
*November - Roger Rees is appointed artistic director of the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
*November - Welsh National Opera moves into the Wales Millennium Centre.
*7 December: The Stereophonics introduce their new drummer, Argentinian Javier Weyler.
*Magenta wins the Classic Rock Society award for Best Live Band. Christina Booth wins Best Female Vocalist.

Awards

*National Eisteddfod of Wales: Chair - Huw Meirion Edwards
*National Eisteddfod of Wales: Crown - Jason Walford Davies
*National Eisteddfod of Wales: Prose Medal - Annes Glyn
*National Eisteddfod of Wales: Music Medal - Owain Llwyd
*Wales Book of the Year:
**English language: Niall Griffiths, "Stump"
**Welsh language: Jerry Hunter, "Llwch Cenhedloedd"
*Gwobr Goffa Daniel Owen - Robin Llywelyn, "Un Diwrnod yn yr Eisteddfod"
*John Tripp Award for Spoken Poetry: Clare Potter

New books

*Peter Finch - "Real Cardiff"
*Niall Griffiths - "Stump"
*Bethan Gwanas - "Hi yw fy Ffrind"
*Mererid Hopwood - "Singing in Chains: Listening to Welsh Verse"
*Rhys Hughes - "A New Universal History of Infamy"
*Jon Ronson - "The Men Who Stare at Goats"
*Eirug Wyn - " Dyn yn y Cefn Heb Fwstash"

Music

*Karl Jenkins - "In These Stones Horizons Sing"
*Dill Jones - "Davenport Blues" (posthumous album release)
*Katell Keineg - "July"
*Alun Tan Lan - "Aderyn Papur"
*Lostprophets - "Start Something"
*Manic Street Preachers - "Lifeblood"
*"Tom Jones and Jools Holland" (album)
*Tystion - "Miwsig I'ch Traed A Miwsig I'ch Meddwl"

Film

* Ioan Gruffudd stars as Lancelot in "King Arthur".
*"I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" is filmed partly in Fishguard.

Welsh-language films

*"Dal: Yma/Nawr", with John Cale, Ioan Gruffudd, Guto Harri, Cerys Matthews, Sian Phillips

Broadcasting

* 3 May: New community radio station, WHAM! RADIO 1449, is launched in Blaenavon.
* 16 July: Filming of a new "Doctor Who" series begins in Cardiff.
* 28 July: S4C and the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society sign a deal guaranteeing nation-wide TV coverage of the Royal Welsh Show for the next five years.
* 17 October: "Pobol y Cwm", the Welsh language soap opera, celebrates its thirtieth anniversary by receiving a "Hall of Fame" award from the Royal Television Society.
*November: "Bread of Heaven", a series of six programmes about the history of religion in Wales, presented by Huw Edwards, begins its run on BBC 1 Wales.
*Rob Brydon stars in "The Keith Barret Show".

port

* 4 June: Simon Khan breaks the course record at the Celtic Manor Wales Open golf tournament.
* 24 June: Joe Calzaghe pulls out of scheduled world title fight against Glen Johnson because of injury.
* 30 August (August Bank Holiday Monday): The 19th World Bog Snorkelling Championships are held at Llanwrtyd Wells.
* 15 September: Mark Hughes resigns as manager of the Welsh national football team after being appointed manager of Blackburn Rovers.
* 16 September: Wales Rally GB begins in Cardiff.
* 17 September: Opening of the Paralympics in Athens. Welsh athletes returned home with twelve gold, six silver and nine bronze medals.
* 9 October: The Welsh national football team loses 2-0 to England at Old Trafford in Manchester.
* 12 November: John Toshack becomes the new manager of the Welsh national football team.
* 20 November: Wales Rugby Union side lose 25-26 to New Zealand at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff.
* 6 December: Tanni Grey-Thompson becomes the BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year 2004 (50th anniversary of the award).

Deaths

* 22 January - Islwyn Ffowc Elis, author
* 21 February - John Charles, legendary footballer
* 18 April - Geraint Howells, politician
* 25 April - Eirug Wyn, author
* 2 June - Alun Richards, novelist
* 15 June - J. Gwyn Griffiths, poet, Egyptologist and nationalist political activist
* 17 July - Sir Julian Hodge, banker
* 18 July - Emrys Evans, banker
* 10 September - Glyn Owen, actor
* 15 September - Sue Noake, athletics official
* 13 October - Bernice Rubens, novelist
* 21 October - Brinley Rees, academic
* 28 November - Jonah Jones, author
* 4 December - Sir Anthony Meyer, politician
* 14 December - Harry Bowcott, international rugby player and president of the Welsh Rugby Union