2003 in Brazil

Events in the year 2003 in Brazil.

Federal government

 * President: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
 * Vice President: José Alencar Gomes da Silva

Governors

 * Acre: Jorge Viana
 * Alagoas: Ronaldo Lessa
 * Amapa: Waldez Góes (from 1 January)
 * Amazonas: Eduardo Braga (from 1 January)
 * Bahia:
 * Otto Alencar (until 1 January)
 * Paulo Souto (from 1 January)
 * Ceará:
 * Beni Veras (until 1 January)
 * Lúcio Alcântara (from 1 January)
 * Espírito Santo:
 * José Ignácio Ferreira (until 1 January)
 * Paulo Hartung (from 1 January)
 * Goiás: Marconi Perillo
 * Maranhão: José Reinaldo Tavares
 * Mato Grosso: Blairo Maggi (from 1 January)
 * Mato Grosso do Sul: José Orcírio Miranda dos Santos
 * Minas Gerais:
 * Itamar Franco (until 1 January)
 * Aécio Neves (from 1 January)
 * Pará:
 * Almir Gabriel (until 1 January)
 * Simão Jatene (from 1 January)
 * Paraíba: Cássio Cunha Lima (from 1 January)
 * Paraná:
 * Jaime Lerner (until 1 January)
 * Roberto Requião de Mello e Silva (from 1 January)
 * Pernambuco: Jarbas Vasconcelos
 * Piauí:
 * Hugo Napoleão (until 1 January)
 * Wellington Dias (from 1 January)
 * Rio de Janeiro:
 * Benedita da Silva (until 1 January)
 * Rosinha Garotinho (from 1 January)
 * Rio Grande do Norte:
 * Fernando Antonio Chamber Freire (until 1 January)
 * Wilma Maria de Faria (from 1 January)
 * Rio Grande do Sul:
 * Olívio Dutra (until 1 January)
 * Germano Rigotto (from 1 January)
 * Rondônia: Ivo Narciso Cassol (from 1 January)
 * Roraima: Francisco Flamarion Portela
 * Santa Catarina:
 * Esperidião Amin (until 1 January)
 * Luiz Henrique da Silveira (from 1 January)
 * São Paulo: Geraldo Alckmin
 * Sergipe:
 * Albano Franco (until 1 January)
 * João Filho (from 1 January)
 * Tocantins: Marcelo Miranda (from 1 January)

Vice governors

 * Acre:
 * Edison Simão Cadaxo (until 1 January)
 * Arnóbio Marques de Almeida Júnior (from 1 January)
 * Alagoas:
 * Geraldo Costa Sampaio (until 1 January)
 * Luís Abílio de Sousa Neto (from 1 January)
 * Amapá:
 * Maria Dalva de Souza Figueiredo (until 1 January)
 * Pedro Paulo Dias de Carvalho (from 1 January)
 * Amazonas:
 * Samuel Assayag Hanan (until 1 January)
 * Omar José Abdel Aziz (from 1 January)
 * Bahia: Eraldo Tinoco Melo (from 1 January)
 * Ceará: Francisco de Queiroz Maia Júnior (from 1 January)
 * Espírito Santo:
 * Celso José Vasconcelos (until 1 January)
 * Wellington Coimbra (from 1 January)
 * Goiás: Alcides Rodrigues Filho
 * Maranhão: Jurandir Ferro do Lago Filho (from 1 January)
 * Mato Grosso: Iraci Araújo Moreira (from 1 January)
 * Mato Grosso do Sul:
 * Moacir Kohl (until 1 January)
 * Egon Krakheche (from 1 January)
 * Minas Gerais:
 * Newton Cardoso (until 1 January)
 * Clésio Soares de Andrade (from 1 January)
 * Pará:
 * Hildegardo de Figueiredo Nunes (until 1 January)
 * Valéria Pires Franco (from 1 January)
 * Paraíba: Lauremília Lucena (from 1 January)
 * Paraná:
 * Emília de Sales Belinati (until 1 January)
 * Orlando Pessuti (from 1 January)
 * Pernambuco: José Mendonça Bezerra Filho
 * Piauí:
 * Felipe Mendes de Oliveira (until 1 January)
 * Osmar Ribeiro de Almeida Júnior (from 1 January)
 * Rio de Janeiro: Luiz Paulo Conde (from 1 January)
 * Rio Grande do Norte:
 * Vacant (until 1 January)
 * Antônio Jácome (from 1 January)
 * Rio Grande do Sul:
 * Miguel Soldatelli Rossetto (until 1 January)
 * Antônio Carlos Hohlfeldt (from 1 January)
 * Rondônia:
 * Miguel de Souza (until 1 January)
 * Odaísa Fernandes Ferreira (from 1 January)
 * Roraima:
 * Salomão Afonso de Souza Cruz (1 January-10 November)
 * Erci de Moraes (from 10 November)
 * Santa Catarina: Eduardo Pinho Moreira (from 1 January)
 * São Paulo:
 * Vacant (until 1 January)
 * Claudio Lembo (from 1 January)
 * Sergipe:
 * Benedito de Figueiredo (until 1 January)
 * Marília Mandarino (from 1 January)
 * Tocantins:
 * João Lisboa da Cruz (until 1 January)
 * Raimundo Nonato Pires dos Santos (from 1 January)

January

 * January 1: Syndicalist leader and leader of the Workers' Party, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is inaugurated as President of Brazil.
 * January 28: 18-year-old Edmar Freitas opens fire on students and classmates in a school in Taiúva, wounding eight people before killing himself.
 * January 30: President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva introduces the Fome Zero program, in order to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty in the country.

June

 * June 20: An earthquake that reaches a 7.0 magnitude on the Richter scale, hits the state of Amazonas. It is the biggest tremor recorded in Brazil.

August

 * August 19: A car-bomb attack on United Nations headquarters in Iraq kills the agency's top envoy Sérgio Vieira de Mello and 21 other employees.
 * August 22: An explosion at the Alcântara Launch Center kills 21 scientists. This would become the biggest accident in the history of the Brazilian space program.

September

 * September 2: Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil is awarded the Latin Grammy for Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year.

October

 * October 20: President Lula da Silva introduces Bolsa Família, a unified social welfare program.

Births

 * June 21: Giovana Queiroz, football player

January

 * January 25: Scylla Médici, First Lady of Brazil (1969-1974) (b. 1907)

March

 * March 7: José Márcio Ayres, conservationist and zoologist (b. 1954)

April

 * April 24: Gino Orlando, footballer (b. 1929)

May

 * May 8: Elvira Pagã, vedette (b. 1920)
 * May 25: Almir Chediak, musician and entrepreneur (b. 1950)

June

 * June 12: Itamar Assumpção, songwriter and composer (b. 1949)

July

 * July 28: Noite Ilustrada, singer-songwriter (b. 1928)
 * July 31: Bigode, footballer (b. 1922)

August

 * August 6: Roberto Marinho, founder of Grupo Globo, the largest mass media company in Brazil and Latin America (b. 1904)
 * August 19: Sérgio Vieira de Mello, United Nations diplomat (b. 1948)