January 1: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva takes office as president of Brazil. His cabinet includes Celso Amorim as foreign minister; Antônio Waldez Góes da Silva becomes Governor of Amapá, Carlos Eduardo de Souza Braga becomes governor of Amazonas, Paulo César Hartung Gomes becomes governor of Espírito Santo, Blairo Borges Maggi becomes governor of Mato Grosso, Simão Robison Oliveira Jatene becomes governor of Pará, Cássio Rodrigues da Cunha Lima becomes governor of Paraíba, Roberto Requião de Mello e Silva becomes governor of Paraná, José Wellington Barroso de Araújo Dias becomes governor of Piauí, Wilma Maria de Faria becomes governor of Rio Grande do Norte, Germano Antônio Rigotto becomes governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Ivo Narciso Cassol becomes governor of Rondônia, and Marcelo de Carvalho Miranda becomes governor of Tocantins.
January 1: Pavel Chernov takes office as prime minister of Karelia.
January 1: Pascal Couchepin takes office as President of the Confederation and Interior Minister of Switzerland; Ruth Metzler-Arnold becomes vice president; Claude Lässer becomes president of the Council of State of Fribourg, Stefan Engler president of the government of Graubünden, Gérald Schaller president of the government of Canton of Jura, Margrit Fischer-Willimann Schultheiss of Luzern, Christian Wanner Landammann of Solothurn, and Jean-Claude Mermoud president of the Council of State of Vaud, and Walter Suter Landammann of Zug.
January 4: Democrat Ed Case is elected in a Hawaii special Congressional election, replacing Patsy Mink, who had been elected to Congress posthumously in November 2002.
February 5: The head of the pro-Moscow administration of Chechnya, announces the dismissal of their Prime Minister, who is later replaced by Anatoly Popov.
June 3: Republican Randy Neugebauer defeats fellow Republican Mike Conaway in a Texas Congressional special runoff election to succeed Larry Combest , who resigned in November 2002. Both men had advanced to the runoff in a May 2003 primary.
September 9: Indiana lieutenant governor Joe Kernan becomes acting governor when governor Frank O'Bannon suffers a stroke, and is officially sworn in as governor when O'Bannon dies a few days later. Both are Democrats.
