The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2004

The World Almanac 2004 continues the 135-year tradition of excellence, and provides today’s readers with the information they need, available anytime, anywhere. Highlights include:

- Expanded coverage of the most turned-to sections: noted personalities, education, space, sports, nations of the world, awards, and consumer information
- Enhancements and improvements on every page of the book
- Two color photo sections, with highlights of the years most noteworthy people, places, and events
- Free monthly e-mail updates provided to all readers throughout the year
- Larger type in selected sections and more illustrations throughout the book
- Authoritative, comprehensive and timely information on just about everything: census figures, health, historical anniversaries, presidents, personal finance, religion, sex, statistics, weather, and so much more - all in one book!

Customer Reviews:

The standard in almanacs

By Brian Melendez - November 12, 2003

There are many imitators on the market, some of them quite good, but this almanac has set the standard for more than a century. The New York World newspaper began publishing an almanac in 1868, "a 120-page volume with 12 pages of advertising." The newspaper suspended the almanac's publication in 1876, but publisher Joseph Pulitzer revived it in 1886 as a "compendium of universal knowledge." The almanac has been published annually since, outliving the newspaper whose name it still bears. (The World Almanac is not the oldest almanac in publication, however: that distinction belongs to The Old Farmer's Almanac, which is "North America's oldest continuously published periodical," founded in 1792.)The World Almanac contains much useful information that belongs in any serious basic-reference set. For the world, the almanac presents basic statistics about each nation, and about the world's major religions; and summarizes the world's history, with more... read more

No home should be without one

By James Ferguson - April 15, 2004

This is my favorite almanac. It is compact, easy to use, with well organized information. I think it is more complete than other almanacs, offering extensive coverage of the US Presidents, elections, and a state by state breakdown of Presidential elections since 1952, even going so far as a county by county breakdown in the hotly contested 2000 election. It has excellent sports coverage, as well as arts and entertainment. It presents the US Constitution in its entirety, along with brief synopses of landmark Supreme Court Decisions. This almanac also provides a short history of the National Anthem and the contentious Pledge of Allegiance, which had "under God" amended to it in 1954. It is packed with other vital information such as a breakdown of membership of religious groups in the US, the location of these religious groups headquarters, and a record of Easter Sundays up to 2100, so that you can plan ahead for this ever-shifting holiday. There is a very good section on... read more

By far the best American annual reference book

By C. Catherwood "writer" - December 13, 2003

This is by far the best of the many annual American reference books (and it is better than its equivalents in the UK as well). This is because it is so comprehensive - I have been using it as a writer for years, because it gives all that you could possibly want to know and a lot more besides. It covers politics, business, sport, literature, music, what happened on what day in the year before, science... Well, you can get the picture. Since it is a stand alone publication it does not have any particular ax to grind either, so is as objective as you can expect. I buy it every year and have done so for years - do the same and you will get as hooked as I have these many years past. Christopher Catherwood, author of CHRISTIANS MUSLIMS AND ISLAMIC RAGE (Zondervan, 2003)