On May 22, 2003, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson (1945-2005) premieres his autobiographical solo show, How I Learned What I Learned, at the Seattle Repertory Theatre. It is Wilson's on...
On May 28, 2003, the City of Longview, in Cowlitz County, dedicates the Weyerhaeuser Centennial Bridge. Also called the Centennial Garden Pedestrian Bridge, the wooden structure connects a small islan...
On May 31, 2003, The Seattle Public Library's new Capitol Hill Branch opens to the public. The $5 million building replaces the Susan Henry Branch Library, which was built in 1954, at 425 Harvard Aven...
On June 28, 2003, the new Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, home to the Pacific Northwest Ballet and the Seattle Opera, opens for its first performances with a gala party. McCaw Hall is the latest incarnation...
In 2003, Washington State has its driest summer since record keeping began in 1895. A persistent ridge of high pressure stays off the pacific coast all summer, preventing storms from coming ashore. Th...
On August 16, 2003, workers building a graving dock for the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) near Ediz Hook in Port Angeles uncover a shell midden. Discovery of the refuse pile, a...
On August 22, 2003, Sound Transit's Tacoma Link, the state's first modern light rail system, has its inaugural run in downtown Tacoma. The line is 1.6 miles long and runs from South 9th Street in the ...
On Friday afternoon, August 29, 2003, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels (b. 1955) presents the first annual Mayor's Arts Awards at Seattle Center as part of opening ceremonies for the city's largest arts fes...
On September 13, 2003, the ferry Kalakala is auctioned in absentia at James K. Murphy, Co. in Kenmore, after a one-day viewing of the boat at its north Lake Union moorage. The auction is held to pay o...
On November 5, 2003, Gary Leon Ridgway pleads guilty to murdering 48 women in King County between 1982 and 1998, solving the mystery of the Green River Killer. Ridgway admitted killing 42 women whom p...
On December 23, 2003, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announces that a Holstein cow from a dairy herd in Mabton, a small farming town in southeast Yakima County, has tested positive for mad cow dise...
On January 17, 2004, the Rainier Beach Branch, The Seattle Public Library, reopens after a $3 million remodel. The new building is more than half again as large as the 1981 building, and it includes m...
On February 2, 2004, the City Council confirms Jorge Carrasco as the superintendent of Seattle City Light. The former city manager of Austin, Texas, has experience running drinking water utilities, bu...
On February 27, 2004, Sin-Aikst (Colville) Indian artist Lawney Reyes (b. 1931) attends a dedication ceremony at the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center for a sculpture he created called Blue Jay, wh...
On March 6, 2004, the Green Lake Branch, The Seattle Public Library, reopens after renovation at 7364 E Greenlake Drive N. This is the sixth branch to open as part of "Libraries For All," a $196.4 mi...
In March 2004, 34 scientists from the Hope Heart Institute move into quarters at the Benaroya Research Institute (BRI) on Seattle's First Hill. Phillip M. Nudelman, president of Hope Heart, says the a...
On April 3, 2004, the newly renovated West Seattle Branch, The Seattle Public Library, reopens at 2306 42nd Avenue SW. This is the seventh branch opened as part of "Libraries For All," a $196.4 milli...
On May 13, 2004, the television sitcom set in Seattle, "Frasier," airs its last show after an 11-year run. Although the show was set in Seattle, it was filmed in Los Angeles. It began in the fall of 1...
On May 22, 2004, Interaction, a contemporary Coast Salish sculpture by Native artist Susan A. Point (b. 1952), is unveiled at the Port of Friday Harbor's Fairweather Park on San Juan Island. The monum...
On May 23, 2004, The Seattle Public Library opens its new Central Library at 1000 4th Avenue. Some 26,600 people come downtown on a sunny Sunday to celebrate the opening. Designed by Dutch architect R...
On May 23, 2004, the Burke Museum's newly established Bill Holm Center for the Study of Northwest Coast Art stages its founding art auction. The Bill Holm Center is named for the Burke's retired curat...
On May 31, 2004, 150 passengers are evacuated when a fire halts the Seattle Monorail's "blue train." The train, one of two four-car Alweg trains built for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, caught fire wi...
On June 2, 2004, close to half of Shaw Island's 200 or so residents gather at the ferry terminal to bid farewell to the four Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist who until Memorial Day weekend ran the ...
On Saturday, June 5, 2004, the Library Connection @ Southcenter, a storefront library at the Westfield Southcenter Mall in Tukwila, holds its official opening celebration. The innovative 3,168-square-...