Daytona Countdown: '04

Junior wins; Red Sox win first World Series title since 1918

Dale Earnhardt Jr. needed just five tries to capture the race that eluded his father for 20 years, holding off Tony Stewart and Scott Wimmer to win the 46th Daytona 500 on Feb. 15, 2004.

NASCAR ACCELERATION •   Know Your NASCAR •   Tickets for Daytona •   2004 Daytona 500 highlights •   Get TrackPass for 2005! ALSO IN 2004 ... •   The CIA admits that there was no imminent threat from weapons of mass destruction before the 2003 invasion of Iraq (Feb. 3)  •   Organized violence breaks out over two days in Kosovo. Nineteen people are killed (March 17)  •   Terry Nichols is spared the death penalty by an Oklahoma state court on murder charges stemming from the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. The decision came on the third anniversary of the execution of his co-defendant, Timothy James McVeigh, in Terre Haute, Ind. (June 11)  •   After the first presidential state funeral since 1973, President Ronald Wilson Reagan is laid to rest at Simi Valley, California, at the site of the Reagan Presidential Library (June 11)  •   Jury finds Scott Peterson guilty of murder of his wife Laci and son, Connor (Nov. 12)  Courtesy: Wikipedia

In front of a crowd that included President George W. Bush, Junior passed Stewart on Lap 181 and led the rest of the way to join Richard Petty and Davey Allison as sons of former winners who also visited Daytona's Victory Lane after 500 miles.

"My Happy Ending" by Avril Lavigne spent four weeks at No. 1 in the Top Hits Online charts in 2004. An estimated 52 million viewers watched the final episode of "Friends" in May. Friendly's Restaurants offer a "Happy Ending" sundae.

A 2004 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS two-door coupe had an original list price of $24,225. With first-place prize money of $1,495,070, Earnhardt could have outfitted 61 of his closest friends with new Chevy Monte Carlos.

The Boston Red Sox won their first World Series title since 1918 by sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals. If Junior had wanted to see the championship parade in Boston, the 826-mile trip from Kannapolis, N.C. would have taken him just under 13 hours at the speed limit -- or five hours and 17 minutes at his race-winning average of 156.345 mph.

Also in November, NASA's hypersonic jet ScramJet reached a velocity of about 7,000 mph in an unmanned experimental flight. It obtained a speed of Mach 9.6, almost 10 times the speed of sound. If the ScramJet had left Boston after the Red Sox won the World Series on Sept. 11, 1918 and returned on Oct. 27, 2004 -- a length of 31,458 days -- it could have traveled approximately 5,517,171,760 miles at Mach 9.6 (without refueling).

In January, NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers landed on Mars after a six-month trip. The minimum distance between Earth and Mars is about 34,639,082 miles, so ScramJet could have made nearly 80 trips to Mars and back between Red Sox championships.

J.R.R. Tolkien published "The Hobbit", also called "There and Back Again", in 1937. "The Lord of the Rings", featuring the battle of Sauron's ring, was published in 1954. The Cassini-Huygens probe arrived at the rings of Saturn on July 1.

Politicians had a busy year in 2004. In addition to George W. Bush winning a second term as President of the United States, Russia's Vladimir Putin easily won re-election, Australia's John Howard led his party to victory and Malaysia's Barisan Nasional party won 198 of 219 seats.

However, incumbents fared poorly in Spain, France and Canada, where Jose Maria Aznar, Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Paul Martin found themselves out of work after elections in those countries.

JoJo had a hit with "Leave (Get Out)" in 2004.

Ukranians voted twice for their president in 2004 after results showing Viktor Yanukovych as the winner were protested and thrown out. Viktor Yushchenko, the opposition candidate, was declared the winner in the re-run, just a month after tests showed he had been poisoned with a large dose of dioxin.

Brittney Spears' "Toxic" spent nine weeks at No. 1 in 2004.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II showed few signs of slowing down in 2004. In January, she christened the RMS Queen Mary 2 cruise liner. In April, she went to France to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale. In October, she opened the Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh.

However, Tony Blair represented the United Kingdom at the G8 Summit at Sea Island, Ga. in June. He also attended President Ronald Reagan's funeral at Simi Valley, Calif.

Florida was hit with four hurricanes in 2004 -- Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne. Hurricane Frances forced the postponement of the Florida State-Miami football game. Charlie Jones was a freshman running back and Francesco Zampogna a sophomore kicker for the 2004 Miami Hurricanes, who had no players named Ivan or Jeanne.

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