2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2004th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 4th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 5th year of the 2000s decade.
2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations,[1] and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO).[2] The beginning of July 2004 marked the end of support for the Workstation edition of Windows NT 4.0.[3]
2004 was a year marked by many popular and highly grossing film releases such as Shrek 2, Spider Man 2, The Incredibles, and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. 2004 was also the year where Toho Studios would release Godzilla's 50th anniversary movie, Godzilla: Final Wars, the last Japanese Godzilla movie until Shin Godzilla in 2016.
The gaming industry would see the release of many FPS and sequel games in 2004, with some of the most famous being Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas[4] Halo 2,[5] Metroid Prime 2: Echoes,[6] Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door,[7] and Half Life 2.[8] These titles are considered some of the greatest video games of all time.[9][10][11][12]