JANUARY

BOSSES at East Midlands Airport cause outrage by announcing the airport is changing its name to Nottingham East Midlands Airport. The decision is made because of the city's links with Robin Hood and it is thought nobody outside the region knew where the airport was.

Figures released by Derbyshire Safety Camera Partnership reveal almost 60,000 motorists were fined between October 2002 and October 2003, generating £2.5m, while Home Office statistics show 123 prisoners absconding from Sudbury prison since April 2002.

Lord Hutton's report clears Downing Street over the naming of David Kelly and of "sexing up" an Iraq dossier, while Tony Blair's Government avoids defeat in the Commons vote on university top-up fees.

Pop star Britney Spears marries a childhood friend in a shock Las Vegas ceremony and files for an annulment just hours later, Robert Kilroy-Silk's talk show is suspended and mass murderer Harold Shipman dies.

FEBRUARY

THE Derby Evening Telegraph launches a campaign to secure a bravery award for Derbyshire soldier Corporal Russell Aston, 30, who was one of six Royal Military Police officers killed in Iraq. More than 8,000 readers sign a petition but, despite the bravery of the Red Caps, the MoD tells their families they may not receive a posthumous award.

Carol Croydon is convicted of murdering her Long Eaton businessman husband, Philip, with whom she had lived in Chellaston, by luring him to the Hilton Hotel, near Kegworth, with the promise of sex to revive their marriage. She was jailed for 16 years after killing him to start a new life with her secret lover.

Nineteen Chinese immigrant workers picking cockles in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire, die after being trapped by the rising tide. Singer Kerry McFadden wins ITV's I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!

MARCH

IT is decided that a historic statue of a wild Florentine boar should be reinstated in Arboretum Park following months of public outcry. Controversy came after it was suggested by Derby City Council the statue should be put elsewhere for fear of upsetting Muslims.

Silverhill Primary School, in Mickleover, is closed after contractors disturb asbestos as they replace windows. It is feared 400 pupils and 30 staff may have been exposed for more than three weeks.

Maxine Carr, the former girlfriend of Soham murderer Ian Huntley, is transferred to Derbyshire prison Foston Hall.

A murder inquiry is launched after 26-year-old Tania Moore is found dead in her car in Long Lane, Longford.

Anti-speed-hump campaigner and independent city councillor Ron Allen dies after a battle against cancer and Bombardier announces its Derby train-making depot will remain open, safeguarding 12,000 jobs.

Bomb blasts on Madrid's railway network by Islamic terrorists leave nearly 200 people dead and 1,400 injured.

APRIL

THE favoured design for Quad, Derby's visual and media arts centre in the Market Place, is unveiled following approval by Derby City Council's cabinet. Years of controversy and debate follow before the centre finally opens in September 2008, during the Derby Feste celebrations, at a cost of £11m.

The Derby Evening Telegraph's Magic Million Appeal, which aims to raise £1m for life-saving equipment in Derby's hospitals, reaches £750,000, while thousands back a campaign calling for Derby's historic St Helen's House to be retained as an adult education centre. The centre is later closed.

The last decommissioned British Airways Concorde begins its final journey to Scotland's Museum of Flight, while immigration minister Beverley Hughes resigns after admitting she had been tipped off about a suspected Eastern European visa scam a year ago.

ITV soccer pundit Ron Atkinson quits his job after a racist outburst is accidentally broadcast.

MAY

THE 11th Duke of Devonshire, owner of Chatsworth estate, dies at his home, aged 84. The Duke, born Andrew Robert Buxton Cavendish, was the Queen's second cousin and a Knight of the Garter – the oldest British order of chivalry. His dying wish is that the public continues to enjoy Chatsworth.

Derby city councillor Lonny Wilsoncroft dies after losing her battle with systemic sclerosis, which affects internal organs. Ms Wilsoncroft, 52, a Labour councillor since 1990, dies at the then Derbyshire Royal Infirmary with husband Chris Williamson, the Derby labour group leader, by her side.

Piers Morgan quits as editor of the Daily Mirror, while the newspaper apologies for publishing faked photos of British soldiers abusing an Iraqi prisoner.

Tony Blair is hit by a flour bomb thrown by Fathers 4 Justice protesters during Commons question time.

Muslim cleric Abu Hamza is remanded in custody after being accused of terror offences.

JUNE

CHAOS reigns in Derby as the council is forced to close Albert Street and Victoria Street to traffic after engineers discover an old underground bridge running underneath the streets is crumbling. The road reopens in November.

The first all-postal vote for Derby's local and European elections causes mayhem as the council struggles to process all the forms. No party holds an overall majority, as Labour and the Lib-Tory alliance gain the same amount of seats.

Football fever grips Derby at the start of the Euro 2004 championships in Portugal. The Derby Telegraph names and shames 33 Derby County supporters banned from travelling to the games. Nearly 25 million people nationwide watch England crash out to the hosts.

Former US president Ronald Reagan dies aged 93 and heads of state mark 60 years since Allied forces invaded France to liberate Europe.

JULY

IRISH terrorist Joseph Magee admits murdering Derby soldier Sergeant Michael Newman, 34, near an Army recruitment office in Derby in 1992. He was arrested in Ulster earlier that year and handed over to Derbyshire police. He is sentenced to 25 years but released in 2006 under the Good Friday Agreement.

Derby City Council's Labour group deputy leader David Roberts is arrested outside his Bournemouth hotel for being "drunk and incapable" – on the eve of a Government campaign to curb binge drinking. He is released without charge.

The widow of Derby suicide bomber Omar Sharif, Tahira Tabassum is cleared of terrorism charges.

Greece cause an upset by defeating hosts Portugal 1-0 to secure the Euro 2004 trophy, as Prince William competes in a mile-run fund-raiser near London's Blackfriars Bridge.

The FA launches a probe into an affairs scandal involving England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson and FA secretary Faria Alam.

AUGUST

DERBY city centre is brought to a standstill by a sudden torrential downpour. Roads flood, causing rush-hour gridlock, and houses and businesses spring leaks after a third of August's normal rainfall falls in little more than half a day.

It is announced bulldozers will flatten Derby's 1930s bus station, to make way for the £100m Riverlights projects, in January 2005. The move sounds the death knell for a campaign by protesters fighting to retain the old Morledge station but demolition does not actually begin until June 2006.

The Post Office reveals 16 branches in Derby have been earmarked for closure as part of plans to safeguard the future of other branches.

FA chief executive Mark Palios resigns over his part in the "sex triangle" involving Sven-Goran Eriksson and Faria Alam.

Portuguese transsexual Nadia Almada wins reality television series Big Brother and Olympic rower Matthew Pinsent and athlete Kelly Holmes triumph at the 2004 Athens Games.

SEPTEMBER

BRIAN Clough, Derby County's most successful manager, dies at the age of 69. He passes away at the then Derby City General Hospital, where he had been receiving treatment for stomach cancer. Fans lay tributes at Pride Park Stadium for the former Rams boss, who took up the role in 1967 and led the club to the First Division championship in 1972.

Derby celebrates after winning the Britain in Bloom competition for the first time after beating Carlisle, Lewisham, Kensington and Chelsea and Londonderry, while private company Highgate Sanctuary wins its bid to take over Elvaston Castle.

Fathers' rights activist Jason Hatch dresses as Batman and breaches security to protest at Buckingham Palace for five hours.

A Russian school siege at Beslan ends with up to 150 dead.

A proposed fox-hunting ban is backed by MPs.

OCTOBER

ABOUT 14,000 people gather at Pride Park Stadium to pay tribute to Brian Clough. Several star names from the sporting world are among the crowd.

Police investigate after the desecration of Gladys Hammond's grave in St Peter's Church, Yoxall.

The 82-year-old was mother-in-law of one of two brothers who ran a guinea pig farm, in Newchurch, near Burton – the target of animal rights extremists.

Four people were later jailed for the hate campaign waged against the farm.

A massive fire destroys eight shops at South Normanton shopping complex McArthur Glen, 73-year-old Kenneth Faulkner is cleared of any wrongdoing after shooting a burglar in the leg at his farmhouse, near Ockbrook, and former Derby schoolgirl Danielle Beccan is killed in a drive-by shooting in Nottingham.

Prime Minister Tony Blair recovers in hospital after undergoing a procedure to correct an irregular heartbeat, tributes are paid to murdered British hostage Ken Bigley and disc jockey John Peel dies, aged 65.

NOVEMBER

ROAD safety campaigners condemn Derbyshire Chief Constable David Coleman after his car is clocked at almost 100mph on the M1. Mr Coleman was being driven by a chauffeur when he was stopped by Hertfordshire officers.

Plans to rename the link road between Derby and Nottingham after Brian Clough move forward when all four councils responsible for the A52 agree in principle, while the region's Korean War veterans say they are prepared to fight with Derby City Council over moving a memorial to make room for Quad, Derby's visual arts centre.

US president George Bush wins a decisive mandate for his second term and the family of aid worker Margaret Hassan are devastated after a video is released showing her execution in Iraq.

Speaker Michael Martin invokes the Parliament Act to force through a ban on fox-hunting with hounds. Six people die when a First Great Western trains ploughs into a car in Berkshire.

DECEMBER

A JURY return a unanimous narrative verdict on the death of 12-year-old Vicci Thomas, of Osmaston Park Road. Cast-iron railings at Osmaston Park, on which she and two friends had been playing, fell on top of the youngster and she died of severe head injuries.

Derby's community of ex-servicemen and women are outraged by ideas to move the cenotaph war memorial in the Market Place because it was becoming a target for vandals. Derby City Council would later back down on the idea.

Derby-based train-maker Bombardier announces it is to axe 561 jobs at its Litchurch Lane site, while the year ends on a positive note for Derby County, who run out 3-0 winners against Nottingham Forest at Pride Park Stadium.

David Blunkett resigns as Home Secretary amid allegations he fast-tracked a visa application for the Filipino nanny of his ex-lover, Kimberley Quinn.